I know, I know, it is almost July!  We have been so incredibly busy lately that I haven’t had any time to blog.  Spring on the farm is a busy time – the garden is growing!  We have brush to clear, over 150 animals to tend to, and of course the kids need our attention, too!  I’ve been doing a little part time work at a friend’s baby store in Asheville so I can help out while her family goes on a much-needed vacation.  It’s not all work though – we have had several fun visits with family and friends and spent a lot of time playing outdoors with the kids.  These are some photos from May.  I’m sticking to May today because I want to make sure I don’t lose the fun memories of this month.  I’ll get to June later!

This was my table at a natural baby expo I attended in Asheville.  After lots of time spent making everything for the expo, I am mostly on a break from my toy-making!

Our washing machine broke!  TS was able to fix it, but we used this little hand-crank washer while we were waiting on parts to come in.  It was great for doing really small loads very quickly, but not something I’d want to have to use all the time!

A chimney swift visited for a few days, but moved on after we pestered her too much!

The meat chicks grew fast!

HS with his favorite chicken.  Her name is Sadie and she is a silver-laced Polish.

This is where the meat rabbits spend their last few weeks growing.

The tadpoles in the pond finally started growing some legs!

Potato plants

Baby Lettuces and chard

The carrot and radish bed

Our first radish harvest!  I didn’t realize how fast radishes grew.  They went from seed to popping out of the ground in a month!

TS watering the main garden.  This was during its infancy.  Everything is much bigger now!

Baby blueberries

Baby peaches

Pole beans just starting to reach for support

 Our Welsh Harlequin ducks at about a week old

Here they are again at about 2-3 weeks old.  Ducklings grow larger much faster than chicks, but take longer to feather out.

Most of the month of May on the farm consisted of PLANTING and weeding.  Our last frost date was the first week of May, so that’s when we started sowing seeds directly into the garden as well as transplanting the seedlings that we’d started indoors.  TS has also spent a lot of time mowing and clearing brush.  It is ridiculous how fast all the wild vegetation came back.  The rocky hill that the kids could play on during the winter was completely taken over by poison ivy and bramble by the first week of May.  About that same time we lost our line of sight to the top of our ridge as the brush grew and the trees leafed out.  We have a burgeoning forest of Poplar saplings on the hill that TS is cutting down as he finds time.   After a slow winter the rabbits finally started breeding like rabbits and we had several orders of chicks arrive so our animal population really exploded!  I feel like June has been even busier.  Overall we are working really hard, spending a lot of time outdoors, and trying to make time to stop and play/relax when we can.  It’s wonderful though and I definitely don’t miss winter!  More updates soon (I hope!).

***If you’re not already following us on Instagram, please do!  TS is Serendipityfarmnc and I am Farmgirl_Lori***