Fall Foliage Forecast

The predictions are in and the Farmers Almanac predicts that Arkansas will see its fall color from October 19th thru November 5. Experience tells me that the October 19th date will be for the higher elevations with our best color coming perhaps as early as October 26th. It seems we are about a week behind the higher elevations. However, please remember that Mt. Magazine is the highest elevation in the state so the color up there will be a week or more ahead of what we have down here on the farm. We had a great show of colors on Short Mountain for our guests to enjoy while relaxing on our front porch that faces the mountain. It is also an easy drive up the 'Pig Trail' scenic highway into the Ozark mountains so you should be able to find some good color anytime during late October and early November.

Also, this year we are changing our inn policy a bit. We are offering full breakfast only on weekends. For our weekday guests, we have a nice continental breakfast with coffee bar, juices, fresh fruit, cereal, and breakfast breads. In response to our many guests who are staying with us while visiting local family, guests may also request a room rate without any breakfast. Let us know your needs and we will gladly try to accommodate them.

Changing

August has been one for the records! In July, we had two weeks of over 100 degree temperatures only to be followed by nearly two weeks of highs in the 70s and low 80s in August. All of the old timers were making the same comments, "We will pay for it this winter." I think that is based on an old saying that for every fog in August, there will be a snow. Well we are in deep trouble because there have been few, if any, mornings without serious fog!

Something that I have noticed of late is how ratty the birds are looking! They are in full molt and the remaining old feathers are so few that I wonder how they fly. The new ones are unseen as of yet but the process makes me aware that seasons are changing and the crisp days of Fall are not far away. I wonder how this odd weather with plentiful moisture will effect the color change and degree of richness this season.

We just had two rain filled days thanks to the remnants of hurricane Gustav. Having lived in Florida for 10 years, I am accustomed to the squalls and wind driven rain of outer bands around these storms. It almost made me homesick for the Sunshine State but a look out the front windows at the beautiful mountain and pastures reminded me of why I am here. The love of gorgeous countryside, streams and lakes, and varying topography, particularly mountains, inspires me and nourishes my soul. It is part of why I decided to open my old farm as an inn where people can sit on the porch, relax, and enjoy the view. Let the stress of work, business, family and live in general wash away while listening to the birds or watching the horses graze. I consistently call my farm the Garden of Eden. I hope my guests find the peace and relaxation here to be a bit of Eden as well.

Changes

The summer is just flying along and people are already starting to make reservations for Fall travel. If you are interested in visiting our area for Fall color, it generally is the last two weeks of October and the first week or two of November. Of course, there are many facts that go into creating the 'peak week' that are impossible to predict, especially this far in advance.

Also, a bit of explanation about the scrolling banner above. I had a guest make reservations for early November back in late March. On April 9th, we had a horrible storm here and it resulted in some of my computer equipment being destroyed. I lost all of the contact information and exact dates for that reservation and am working from memory. I am hoping the party will revisit my website and contact me after reading the scroll.

There will be some changes for The Farmstead beginning in September. We will be going to offering the full breakfast only on weekends and having a continental breakfast during the week (Monday - Friday mornings). I will be working in my capacity as a licensed professional counselor beginning in September. Initially, I had considered only accepting guests on weekends but I wanted to remain open for my business guests.

Also, with many stores having Christmas in July specials, it reminds us that it is time to think about the Holiday season that is coming up. Remember you can book the entire house for your family. Contact us for details.

On the farm, the goat kids are really growing and so very playful and rambunctious. They love to play a gave of 'king of the hill' where one jumps up on a large rock or stump and then keeps the others from joining her. When they run, they can't just run but instead have to bounce and twist as they go! The calf is really growing and starting to find that she can't always go where the goats are able to go. The goats have a few holes in the fence that they use to go from field to field. The calf was able to follow until recently but she still seems to be able to manage by going the long route around. Nan, the mother goat who adopted the calf, calls to her whenever April is out of sight. April is not twice as tall as Nan so it is a sight to see when she is nursing.

Life if good on the farm and I am truly blessed.

Time Flys.....

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. Everything is in such full swing here on the farm. Here are some updates:
The Angus calf, April, that came to live with me when she was 2 days old is growing and full of herself. I taught her to nurse one of my dairy goats and everyone immediately adopted the routine of me bringing the feed bucket, the goat jumping up on the milk stand, and the calf snuggling up to the "dairy bar" so to speak. Once the calf was six weeks old (around June 1) I started only facilitating this process once a day. I needed to share the goat milk with the lambs that I was bottle raising, born early May. Well, April seemed to adapt, was happily grazing with the goat herd, and continued to do well. The lambs were happy to get the fresh milk over their milk replacer and everyone was happy. Well, two weeks ago I had some major dental surgery so shifted things a bit to no locking up the goats at night. Usually I would walk out in the evenings and open their hut for them to go in but the weather was warm and they were just fine sleeping against the side of the shed rather than inside. Interestingly though, when I went out in the AM to let the lambs nurse, the goat was "empty" which was very odd. I found my answer to this riddle later when I spied Miss April helping herself and the goat not only standing for her to nurse but also fussing over the calf as if she were a goat kid. Now you have to understand that this calf is literally twice the size of the goat - an odd couple. The lambs came out on the short end of the stick but are grazing well and also just about two months old so I knew they would be okay until one of the two goats that are due to deliver kids any day freshened. These dairy goats are like Holstein cows in that their milk production far exceeds the needs of their offspring.
Sure enough, a goat freshened last Saturday but that is a really long story and will be the next blog.

Spring is Bursting forth

Spring is evident everywhere! The two Shetland Sheep ewes lambed in the last two weeks producing four little girls. I hit the jackpot!!! The lambs are half Shetland and half Rambouillet, a type of sheep known for its luxurious fleece that is so soft that you can make underwear from it. They are large sheep so the cross with the much smaller Shetlands will help with size and I hope to retain the wool quality. The girls are just darling and I am bottle raising them. Their moms, as are all Shetland Sheep, are genetically quite feral and I don't want to perpetuate that wild, flighty nature. By bottle raising them, I will make them the tame sheep I need around my farm.

We have had such frequent rains that my garden is still unturned for this year. I have replanted the raised beds that I had started last fall with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and such but there is so much yet to plant. The forecast calls for a good chance of showers every few days for the next ten days so it will be a really late garden this year. In response I am going to plant some things in pots to be transplanted to the garden. This works for cucumbers, squash, and such but won't get my corn started. Gee, I long for a delicious ear of fresh corn!

April, my angus calf that I adopted after her mother rejected her, is growing like a weed. She takes a bottle from me and then nurses two of my goats so she is very well fed. She has come to follow the goats out to the pasture for the day and enjoys life in the outside world beyond the barnyard. The two goats are on the end of their milk production and one is actually due to kid at the end of May or early June. She is a dairy goat bred to a Cashmere-producing buck so I hope to have both good milk and fiber production. Because it will have a use beyond dairy, buck kids are okay in this cross as long as they produce fiber. They will be neutered and join the weed eating bunch.

Then there are the hens! They are really going at it with the egg production. It was so sparce all winter but now it is nearly 100%. They are such good eggs and I love to use then in everything. However, they are so much fresher than the store-bought ones that I can not make anything that requires boiled eggs. They simply are so fresh that they won't peel. About half of the white remains stuck to the peel. I have searched online and tried all of the suggestions to no avail. I have even put aside a dozen and let the "age" for two weeks and they still were too fresh to peel. Sure makes me wonder how old the eggs are that we get at the store.

Spring is truly wonderful on the farm but all the growth is working me to death. There is always something to mow, cut, weed-eat, or trim. Speaking of which, got to run and get the lawn mowed since they are calling for showers yet again tomorrow.

Computer woes

My last post talked about the storm and loss of my computer modem. It was in the shop far longer than I expected given my rushing it down there the very next morning after the storms. My intent was to get it there before the "rush" came in. In my haste I didn't take time to back up my Outlook files but didn't anticipate a problem since it was only for a modem card: remove the case, pull the bad card and snap in the new one. Should have done it myself but I also asked them to install Internet Explorer 7 since I only have dial up at the farm and download times are prohibitive. As I was checking it in, they asked if there was anything critical on the computer. I told them that My Documents was very important and all of the Outlook files were critical since it contained my address book and calendars including my reservation data. I don't know why they asked me what was important and perhaps that should have been a clue to me.

In spite of my efforts to get it there ahead of the crowd, it still wasn't ready until last Friday (over a week). In the meantime, I had had numerous requests for reservations for summer and my reservations are all on the calendar in Outlook so I hooked it up straight away to attend to those. Surprise - it sure didn't look like my computer. Short answer - they reformatted my entire hard drive. I called them and they have zero explanation other than it was a mistake. They had backed up My Documents and reinstalled it after the reformat but they had ignored the Outlook files completely. They offered to attempt to recover the files so I took it back to them. I got it back yesterday but they were unable to recover any of my Outlook files including email, address books, and calendars. I lost all of my reservations and contact information for all of my Bed & Breakfast reservations and inquiries. I lost all of the farm data such as livestock breeding and birthing dates, and I lost my calendar that I have been keeping to record weather, migration, and such that I called Nature. This is a catastrophe and I have no excuse other than I should have backed it up. The shop had no reason to do anything with the hard drive other than install a program. My files should have been safe.

SO, if you have contacted me and not received a response, please call or email again. If you have reservations for June - December, 2008 please contact me ASAP so that I can get your dates recorded. I have a reasonably good memory and have recreated the reservations from memory but have no names and contact information for you. I generally remember which rooms for which weekends but would feel much better if you could contact me to confirm that I am not mistaken.

I apologize sincerely for this problem. I erred in not backing up the data. I have never had a professional make such a mistake so didn't anticipate the problem especially after giving them the information about critical files. I am so sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Wild ride

First, my apologies for it being some time since my last post. The storm of a week ago got my computer modem and it has taken a bit of time to get that resolved.

As this blog's title infers, we have had a wild ride. All the weather forecasts were for extreme storms last Wednesday and we were not disappointed. The severe weather moved in around 7PM just in time to preempt a special I had so very much wanted to watch on ABC, "The Last Lecture." Fortunately, I had strongly encouraged a friend in Memphis to watch it and, because she had plans for the evening, she recorded it so I will get to see it eventually. With Channel 5 and weatherman Garrett Lewis, I settled in to watch the storms. The super cells were marching out of Oklahoma and over Ft. Smith dropping tennis ball size hail, shattering windows on cars and buildings, and obliterating siding on homes. These are the nights you don't go to bed here. Instead, you doze on the couch with one eye on the TV to see where the storms are. Shortly after midnight, it was our turn for the supercell. I watched as it moved steadily straight toward us and when Garret said, "People in Paris should be moving to the interior rooms now" I headed to my chosen spot to ride it out.

Living in a century old home creates a safety issue when it comes to storms. Yes, the house is solid as a rock being made of much larger timber than today's lumber. However, the floorplans of that time didn't include interior rooms. All rooms have windows and an exterior wall. There is hall upstairs but you are told to take cover on ground floors since the roof may depart. The downstairs choices include the space under the stairs and the half bath beside the back door. I opted for the half bath although it does have a 3' exterior wall. With old homes, storage space is even more rare than interior rooms so the space under the stairs is carefully packed full for optimization of all available space. Yes, I could have moved it all out but I also have a little voice in my head that really wanted to go to the bathroom for protection. Somewhere in my heart, I could see the stairs falling on me and, if there were a horrendous tornado to take out the house, I felt I wanted to be closer to the edge so the entire house would not fall on me.

My two little house mates, Prissy and Ruffles, and I gathered up the pillows, blankets, flash light, and cell phone. We were nestled in just in time when the wind started rattling the windows. Within a few minutes, I heard the hail hit but it only lasted a few minutes and it didn't sound like it was very large. I sat there imagining what the horses and other livestock were doing through the storm. I had terrible fears for the horses in the barn in case the storm was severe enough to destroy the barn. I had thought that, if it held up, they were the fortunate ones but was mindful that it could go either way. I was confident that the hens were on their roosts so there was little concern for them. I envisioned the sheep being under the large trees where the customarily spend the nights and, with the massive fleece coats, were the most cushioned from any pounding hail. The goats were in their house and I had locked the new calf up in the big red barn. Everyone was pretty well sheltered other than the horses in the fields and they could go to the woods. I even took time to ponder what it was doing to all the beautiful spring flowers. The daffodils were mostly spent but the tulips were just approaching full bloom along with so many other wonderful plants.

The lightening was almost constant such that the kitchen seemed to have a light on throughout the storm. It also was the best indicator as to when the storm passed. The rains continued most of the night but the relentless lightening was only associated with the heart of the storm. Once it subsided, I ventured from my security nest. Of course I lost my DirecTV signal throughout the storm and it didn't return for quite a while after the severe weather passed. Heavy rain will block the signal which is what we had so I went to bed with a prayer of thanks.

Morning light allowed me to look for damage but there was none to be found. All seemed right with the world other than the enormous waterways racing across the pastures. My farm had become lake front property over night which also told me that I was living on an island once again. I call it an island because, when we have severe rain like we have had twice this spring thus far, the streams that cross Short Mountain Road on each end become flooded and the road is covered with up to several feet of water. My rule of thumb is if I can see water on the Corp land behind me, there is water crossing the road on the east end of Short Mountain Road. If the whole Corp field looks like a lake, there is about 3-4 ft of water. As for the west end of the road, any major rain of several inches over a few hours will produce some flooding but people drive through it. With this rain on such already saturated ground, it too became too deep.

Friends called to check on my and to report that Carbon City Road was closed because of a culvert under the road completely washing away leaving an impassable canyon. Fortunately, it was repaired by Saturday because that is the route I recommend to guest to come to the farm. Now all that remains is to get the county to grade my driveway/road. It technically belongs to the county as an old county road that used to go through but it was all abandoned other than the portion that comes to my front yard. The runoff from Short Mountain Road decided that it needed to meander my driveway and render several large ruts. I will be the squeaky wheel to get that fixed.

At long last we have a weather forecast that is free of storms. With the strong winds of the past few days, the ground is drying and I have high hopes to finally get to order the concrete for the barn. I could not proceed with the building of the tack room and such for the past two months because of the multiple rains per week we have had. I also hope to finally get the new fencing started. Moreover, I also dream of having the ground dry enough to get the garden plowed and planted. It looks like it will be a very busy week.

Changing of the guard

On Tuesday, April 1, I took in an orphan Angus heifer calf. She was born on Friday, March 28th and her mom would have nothing to do with her. The owner of the cow put her in a chute and milked her to get that essential colostrum but had no place or time to keep a bottle calf. She is just too cute but more importanly, she is fat and sassy. They had kept here in a blocked off area of the garage and so when she came home with me, it was her first outing into the outside world and room to run. She quickly discovered her legs and how to run with the occassional jump and buck for joy. Calves, kids, lambs, it is Spring and great to be alive.

On a much sadder note, I had to say good-bye to Angel, a german shepherd I adopted from a rescue 4 years ago. She was always beautiful but in the last 10 days her weight had dropped horribly and yesterday I heard her crying. She has always had either a hip problem or a disc problem. Her passion in life was to fetch sticks and she would go as far as carrying big pieces of firewood around to get you to notice her. She just wanted you to throw a stick all day long. When she would have a lot of exercise, she would become sore and act as if there were some sort of sharp pain that I associated with maybe a disc problem that got inflamed from too much exercise. I assumed that was the case or I should say that I hoped that was the case. I gave her some aspirin, a special helping of supper, and a promise to do what was right if not better. This morning she told me it was time. She was definitely miserable so I helped her into the truck for that last ride that rips your heart out while intellectually knowing you are doing the absolute right thing. She left peacefully with me holding her head and speaking softly to her. She and a great stick now rest on the knoll behind the house where the sheep like to rest. I will miss her dearly but know she is now free to chase sticks to her hearts content with her name sakes, the angels.

Recycling bacon grease

As a bed and breakfast, you can imagine all of the bacon and sausage grease that is generated from cooking big meals. I have been collecting it in jars for sometime now and pondering what to do with it. I wondered if it could be used in lieu of lard to make soap and I considered adding some to the dogs food to help them shed their winter coats but had made no serious effort to do anything with it until this morning.

The bird feeders are empty yet again after only a couple of days. I have a huge following in the bird world and attract almost all of the normal residents of Arkansas as well as the transients. I am documenting the species I see with photographs and dates so that I can publish a list for guests who would like come and bird watch. I need to expand my feeding stations but the quality seed is hard to come by in my rural area and, with fuel at $3.99/gal. for the farm truck, I don't make many local trips much less to Ft. Smith or Russellville, both about 40 miles away.

Over the years, I have purchased suet cakes for my winter residents to provide some extra energy with the fat. I recently stumbled across my suet feeder that was hiding since my move to Arkansas and set it aside to await my next trip to town and the purchase of a new cake. In cleaning the griddle this morning, it occurred to me that I could make my own suet using the grease and the birdseed.

I have lots of random sizes of plastic containers so I selected a square one that is slightly larger than the suet basket. I heated some additional grease from my stash and poured in just enough to cover the bottom of the container. Next, I poured in seed to the approximate depth that would fit in the suet holder and filled in the voids with more grease.

Once it hardened, I cut it to fit the holder and, voila, I had made my own suet cake for pennies worth of seed and about 5 minutes of my time. I do wonder how well these will hold up in warmer weather and if adding a small amount of wax would be reasonable the way we do when making candy. If anyone has any ideas, please email and I will include in a future post.

Plans

Since moving here in June of last year, most of my time was spent getting the house ready to open as a B&B which I did in September. Once that was accomplished, I turned to getting a barn up for the horses and to house guest horses as well. The bulk of it was up by Christmas and it is about 85 % complete now. It is certainly useable but I need to get the concrete poured for the tack room and wash rack. It would be great to get the tack room in and organized. It is so difficult to have to search for everything you need as we all do after any move. I hate disorganization and the shed where my harnesses and other horse related stuff is closer to chaos. To add to the pressure, I have a wonderful weekend planned to introduce guests to carriage driving in late April. I will talk more about this later but for now I am under that deadline to complete the barn.

I also have plans to add divisions to all of my pastures. The farm was only divided into two large fields and two small paddocks. I have enclosed a large flat area for my riding and driving which also serves as turnout for my stallions. It is challenging to plan out a way to enclose an area and yet keep the farm open enough for people to hike/walk/ride/ carriage drive without having to open gates at every turn. It is important to get the most production from the pastures as well as provide the most open arrangement for guests to be able to wander the farm.

I have cut some trails through the woods that are suitable for walking, riding, or an ATV. The goal is to have several nice loops open enough for a carriage to pass. The layout of the trails is nearly complete with one more loop to go. Next will be the more tedious clearing of little stumps, roots, and debris to make the path clear and safe. Eventually I want to add a foot bridge as well. There are several crossings of a stream that is dry in the summer but active the other three seasons. The complication will be to make it high enough to survive storm runoff. I think the benchmark was set last week with the flooding following our 6 inches of rain and will give me a good idea of what to do.

Easter Holidays & Spring Break

It was a full week with Spring Break falling the week before Easter. The house was filled most of the week with a wide range of guests. Combined they sampled much of what both my B&B and the Paris area have to offer.

I had guests who were content to be here and enjoy the farm animals. I had guests who delighted in the wonderful rural roads for morning jogs and walks. I had photographers who captured hundreds of shots of nature and the baby animals. I had people who spent time hiking and biking the wonderful trails of Mt. Magazine State Park.

Everyone seemed to enjoy meeting the other guests and all promised to return soon. It was a busy weekend and I had little time to dedicate to the meaning of Easter but I am every thankful to God for blessing me with this beautiful home and farm, the joy of working for myself, the friendships made with each new guest, and the joy of life. I live in a true heaven and am blessed.

Timing

They say timing is everything in business. I think it has something to do with agriculture as well. I think God may use timing to provide a bit of humor, certainly for him but also for us if we take the time to appreciate how many facets are involved in timing.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I had a nice family with two daughters here who were excited to see the animals and farm. They arrived on Monday and we made a brief tour to introduce them to my staff, i.e. sheep, goat kids, hens, and horses. Tremendous rain storms were in the forecast and nature did not disappoint us. Tuesday dawned to pouring rain and about 2 inches had fallen during the night. After a big breakfast, we headed out with umbrellas to do the chores.

First stop was the hen house where the ladies had out done themselves to be sure both girls had their own handful of eggs. I have three hens from last year and 5 young hens that I bought as chicks in the fall. They are just coming online for production so you never know what you will get. I average is two very large eggs from the three older hens and maybe one or two from the adolescents. The production of six was a record for my girls but very welcome with the B&B being well booked during this spring break/Easter week.

We moved from the hen house to the dairy goats. I have two ladies who are fresh. One had a kid in December so her production is waning but valuable especially now. My little Nan had kids four weeks ago today and it was triples for the second time. She is a small Netherland Dwarf and does not produce enough for her three kids. In fact, last time, she had no milk and they were raised with milk replacer. This year, I kept Bell fresh by milking after her kid was sold. I intended to make some cheese (feta is my favorite) but just haven't had the time so my dogs were enjoying the bounty. When Nan freshened with triples again, I scooped them up and bottle raised these as well. However, instead of milk replacer. she was in full production so I combined her milk with that of Bell to make a sufficient quantity to raise the kids. Having bottle fed kids is really wonderful for my guests who, no matter what their age, giggle when holding a kid and bottle feeding it.

Well back to my story. We were out milking Bell and Nan as I tried to help the girls learn to first clamp the teat before squeezing. With some practice, they were starting to get the hang of it. I had milked the bulk of the milk out so that the bag was more friendly for teaching hand milking. I was watching the girls practice and compare skills when I happen go glance across the field to see that my older ewe had a lamb at side. Now remember we are standing in the rain with umbrellas milking because the milk stand is outside next to the Nanny Nest until a milking area is built.

Being the shepherd that I am, I apologized for what I was about to do but I abandoned my guests to finish milking while I headed to the barn to get a cart to go get the lamb. Fortunately this ewe is quite tame and we have a relationship where she enjoys me scratching her as much of the time I can afford to such comforts. By the time I reached her, she had two lambs and was trying to clean them in the downpour. I scooped them up and we headed to the old barn. It most likely has seen over a hundred years of sheltering new calves and other livestock so I added lambs to its list. I got them in safely and quickly bedded it with some hay. After a moment to catch my breath I examined the lambs to find that I have two boys. I really wanted ewes to build my flock but boys add to the bottom line so that is fine too.

At that point, I rejoined my guests who had followed me to the old barn and were peering in through a window to see the new lambs. We took the bottle of milk to the goat kids and they had a great time feeding them. As the bottle was nearly empty, I could see that there looked like a lump instead of liquid. I popped off the top to find a fist size mass of fresh goat cheese. Apparently they had done some shaking of the bottle along the way from mom to kid. No matter, the dogs enjoyed and the kids still had more than enough to fill their little bellies.

What a morning it was for my guests. I am sure it will be something they talk about and remember for a long time to come.

A focus on green

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all.

Green is not only my favorite color (along with a bit of purple and blue if I have my wish), it is also the color that dominates my world this season as well as somewhat all year.

Today is obviously the day to wear your green in support of whatever aspect of St. Patrick's Day that strikes your fancy. For some, it is a trip to a pub after work. For others, it is a time to reflect on heritage. For most, it is a day to pretend to be Irish or, at least, the stereotypical version of Irish.

Aside from today's green emphasis, green is the color of the season as we transition from the browns, taupes, and greys of Winter into the glorious colors of Spring. It began with the daffodils emerging from the ground along with the crocus the last week of February but more so in first week of March. Now, in mid March, the tulips are promising a show in the near future while the daffodils have no rivals for brilliant yellows against the greening of the grass.

Green is such a beautiful and fills the spirit with the joy of life. It has as many shades as there are types of plants and each leaf shape and texture is a work of art as well as an engineering feat to meet the needs of the plants. Some leaves gather the water for the plant by funneling it toward the stem and center. Others meet the high energy demands through production of sugars during photosynthesis. They are structural and chemical marvels for those who take the time to observe and learn.

Green is a significant portion of our focus here at The Farmstead. We are an environmentally conscious inn and try to be good stewards of our farm as well as globally. We use energy efficient compact florescent bulbs as much as possible throughout the inn. We utilize the "solar dryer" when weather permits but even the electric dryer is as energy efficient as possible. When guests are not here, we keep the thermostat adjusted to decrease energy consumption. Of course, guest comfort is paramount and we certainly adjust to their preferences.

We compost everything possible and as well as recycle. Our garden is as organic as possible. We even use natural predators for fly control in the stable.

I would love to find a way to add solar panels or arrays to produce our electric and I am also looking at wind generated power. We have quite strong seasonal winds that could be quite efficient. This is where I would like to go with respect to being a green inn.

Green is definitely a major part of our lives and no just because of my Irish heritage.

Fickle Spring

What a difference one week makes. Last week we had 5 inches of rain on Monday morning followed by 4 inches of snow Tuesday morning. It melted that afternoon so I was able to get out on Wednesday to do some errands but the weatherman was joking around again. He was saying we would get a major snowfall on Thursday but what the heck does he know. It was warm and sunny. Thursday morning dawned cloudy and you could feel rain in the air but it was still in the forties. Right. My noon that changed to mid thirties with mixed precipitation. By 5 pm it was starting to cover the ground. The power was out by 9pm and I awoke on Friday to nearly 12 inches of snow. I got to practice my survival skills as I stoked up the woodburning stove in the den, got out oil lamps to light up the darker rooms, and started to think of food. Fortunately, I have a gas stove in the kitchen that isn't so modern that it won't let the gas come through when there is no power. I couldn't use the oven but the range top was fine.

The silence of it all was incredible. I took a long walk that morning with my camera in hand. I have some wonderful shots that I plan to use on my websites. The livestock seemed to be taking it in stride. The goats, queens at not getting wet, were huddled in their house. The horses were chasing each other around to get their blood pumping but having fun nonetheless. The dogs were out for adventures along the edge of the woods. They managed to flush a rabbit but it quickly escaped back into the brush. It was a glorious time and more magical because of the isolation. No noices were heard above the gentle falling snow and the occassional crack as the weigh of snow broke a limb. This had to be a sample of some portion of Heaven.

Back to reality. The power came back Saturday. The snow disappeared over the following two days and by Monday, it was warming up again. I was anxious for my garden and wondered how my recently planted lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower would fare. All perked back up as if never weighed down by snow. It was as if they had taken a nap under a gentle blanket but were now back awake and chipper.

This week was warm and sunny; just the type of days you want to be outside doing things but the ground was literally standing in water even on the slopes. It was oozing out and running off everywhere. I was finally able to get a bit of planting done on Friday as well as clean flowerbeds to uncover the tulips that are already about 3 inches tall. I can't wait for their blooms to join the daffodils.

We are now expecting several more inches of rain Monday and Tuesday so I have no idea when I can get the rest of my cool season veggies planted. I guess I will start them in containers for transplant rather than wait any longer. I just have to get my hands in the dirt. It is time and I long for it.

Happy gardening.

New to blogging

As I learn about the world of blogging, I am trying to organize my thoughts as to how to catch up the blog with my new life at The Farmstead. Simultaneously I am easily distracted by the demands of spring on the farm and guest reservations.

For those of you who are pondering or dreaming of following your heart into some venture and abandoning the JOB format of life, I have many tips and suggestions.

For those of you who are contemplating or fantsizing what it would be like to run your own B&B, I will give you the honest scoop.

But for today, let's just say that the pressure is on. With guests once again crossing my threshold, I need to get the place geared back up as well as perked up. It is early yet for most of the perinnials that I planted last fall and the trees have not greened up yet. In short, it is basically still brown but with lots of promising hints of green grass, budding trees, and bulbs emerging through the flower beds.

To add some color, I dashed to the local nursery yesterday and got some blooming pansies and a few others that can manage any future cold snap that my occur. The whites, pinks, and reds will be eye catching among the green foliage of the bulbs that have yet to bloom. These have to be planted this morning. Rains of last night will continue to keep me out of the garden where I so long to plant my cool season veggies. With last week's 5 inches of rain on Monday, 4 inches of snow on Tuesday and another 8-12 inches of snow, depending on where you put the yard stick, on Thursday-Friday, the ground is more than wet. Even the gentle slopes are covered with surface water. Last night we got more storms so the drying that had occurred is lost. Maybe next week?

Welcome Home

This is the initial blog for me. I have so much to say that I really don't know where to begin. Perhaps it is best to outline who may find my blog to be both entertaining and informative.

If you are interested in opening a bed & breakfast, you may find my candid writings about my new B&B helpful.

If you are interested in making a huge change in your life, particularly if you are a single woman, you definitely may find something useful here.

If you are in agriculture and toying with the idea of agritourism, I definitely can share experiences and help you get started.

If you are thinking it is time quit your job, take a chance, and go it on your own, I can share my experiences.

If you want a good laugh, stay tuned.