Lupin Farm's Self Sufficient Journal ~ Time for a fresh start

[lupinfarm]

We moved in end of last June 2008 to an 8.5 acre hobby farm in desperate need of some TLC. Now it is April 2009 and things are going crazy here.

Fencing is going in May

Upstairs bathroom has to be finished

I have an entire vegetable garden to plant and still have to plan for the orchard that is to go in behind it. I did some research and it turns out I can plant corn any time between April 15th and May 10th for best crop... depending on weather and soil conditions obviously. Our soil is warm, and I've been watching the weather forecast religiously so I'll plant out a few ...maybe half a row this weekend and see what happens. If we're expecting any frost I'll insulate the soil if I have to LOL.

We've got another 3-ish acres to fence in, sand out the riding ring, put up the round pen, and fence in the barnyard. Some of that is buck fencing, so lets imagine the time going into that fencing LOL and its the kind that is knotched so they fit together and never fall apart.

Plus end of this season we'll be starting fencing (all buck fence) on the top fields right by the house ready for goats next season. It's official that I have way too much to do, and on top of that some research has to go into miniature cows, pigs, etc.

End of the season I'm extending the vegetable garden to make it about half an acre.

Oh I complain too much.. I really like doing all this stuff.

 

[lupinfarm]

Well Well Spring is here...

Yesterday was a balmy 29 degrees, and much got done. We got a call from Jason of PP and found out we'll be picking up our 3 Buff Ducklings and 5 EE chicks this weekend (yippee!). As well yesterday we went to Canadian Tire (mostly because their trees were the best looking, biggest, healthiest, etc.) and bought two Lapins Cherries for the orchard. We're planning on going back at the end of the week to buy 2 more Lapins Cherries, 4 Pears (not sure what variety yet), and 4 Gala Apples for the orchard. We still need to find 4 Nectarines, even though I know they don't need a mate we love nectarines and they make great smoothies in the winter (we'll freeze most of our nectarines for that purpose...).

The other week we were toying with our fencing plans and received a flyer from the Bridle Path Tack Shop in Belleville which in it had a great 30-60' metal round pen.. They called it the Hobby Round Pen and for a 50' we'd be looking at $1600 ... We've now decided that we're not going to sink posts for a wood roundpen but are instead going to buy that 50' metal hobby round pen instead because we can always sell it on if we don't need it, use the panels for goat panels or pens or whatever, or expand the 50' to make a 60'... the possibilities are endless!

On top of that Peaches our dark apricot miniature poodle girl gave birth to 5 puppies sired by Nacho our mini labradoodle boy... all 5 are dark apricot and are doing great, and Kitty our not-so-into-nacho miniature red party poodle (who we have no idea how she got knocked up LOL) gave birth to 4 puppies sired by Nacho today haha... no one knows how it happened cause she's been pretty clear with us and nacho that she is not interested... so we left it and called her a pet. We also got an update from one of our Doodle puppy owners the other week... Bella who was a dark apricot doodle from Quesa's litter is 4 months old now and 7lbs, the vet is tracking her weight and size and expects her to get to no more than 15lbs, shes already learnt how to sit, stay, lie down, etc. And is cute as a button! I'll have to post photos of Bella later..she was my favorite!