April and May pretty much flew by. It seems every time I start a new post I feel like we’ve been so busy that I don’t even know where to begin. I keep yearning for more time to sit in the hammock by the creek and watch the kids play or read a book, but there is always so much to do – animals to feed, gardens to weed, meals to cook, dishes to wash, and I spend a good bit of time just walking back and forth to the barn. If we ever build a new barn it’s going to be a lot closer to the house!

Rocket Kitty doing what he does best

A single wild turkey hen wandered through our yard. I hope she found her flock!

April started off with Shearing Day at Wellspring Farm, which is just on the other side of the mountain from us. I took spinning lessons from Elke last Summer and I’ve been spending some time there helping out with the young llama training almost weekly since January. I took some of my Angora rabbits for display for Shearing Day. It was a lot of fun getting to meet interesting people and see how sheep get sheared. It looks like a tough job!

We took our first beach vacation as a family since our last trip to Ft. Walton over 2 years ago. My dad and stepmother have a lovely house on Fernandina Beach. The water was icy cold but we had a great time searching for shark teeth and checking out the town and local pool. It was a really fun time with family and a nice way to start off Spring!

As soon as we got home from the beach there were 200+ strawberry starts to plant and meat chickens to butcher. We then had the first Farmers Market meeting and a visit from TS’s sister, brother-in-law, and the most adorable 2-year-old boy I know!

I took a trip to Auburn with SJ for a close friend’s baby shower. It was my first trip back to Auburn since we left. A lot of new buildings had been built, but overall it looked much the same as when we left. It FELT different to me though. I LOVED getting to see old friends, but Burnsville does feel more like home now. I am glad we are here and also glad I hadn’t visited Auburn earlier. I was very homesick for Auburn during our first few months here and it wasn’t until we had been here a full year that I started feeling at home. It’s been long enough now that I can enjoy a trip to Auburn without feeling sad about missing it.

We had many baby bunnies born in April after a long winter with very few babies born. Chicks have been arriving every 6 weeks since March so there are always a lot to take care of and just as we are butchering one batch of meat chicks another batch arrives. I got some new Welsh Harlequin ducklings for Mothers Day! We will be raising them for eggs mainly, but the extra males will end up in the freezer or maybe for sale. I got a new incubator and we are now on our third hatch after already hatching one batch of chicks and a mixed batch of chicks, keets, and ducklings!

The first weekend of May I was excited to take part in the Mother Earth News Fair! The MENF takes place in six cities across the US throughout the year, Asheville being one of them. Here’s the short description from the website:

“At the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR, you’ll discover a dazzling array of workshops and lectures designed to get you further down the path to independence and self-reliance. Whether you want to learn how to grow and raise your own food, build your own root cellar, or create a green dream home, come out and learn everything you need to know — and then some!

Each MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR features:
• More than 150 workshops from the leading authorities on organic gardening, food preservation, homesteading and livestock, green building, and natural health.
• Great deals from more than 200 regional and national exhibitors that feature ustainable products and services.
• Off-Stage Demos – With topics ranging from hands-on seed saving to building mud houses to heritage breed livestock, there is a lot to see!
• Inspirational keynotes, great food, and kids programming.”

(credit http://www.motherearthnewsfair.com)

I exhibited both my heritage breed Creme d’Argent meat rabbits and an assortment of my French and French-mix Angoras. I also did a presentation on Raising Meat Rabbits in Your Backyard. I was extremely nervous and there were a LOT of people there, but everyone said I did well and I’m always excited to help other people get started with meat rabbits. Rabbits really are the perfect homestead meat animal – they are easy to raise and butcher, the meat is tasty and healthy, and they have a low environmental impact. Plus they make great fertilizer! The MENF was really fun! I got to talk to so many awesome people and was able to advertise my Meat Rabbit Workshops that I will begin hosting in August. Details here: Workshops

Last month we had a visit from our post-college-Auburn friends! It was SO wonderful to see them! I can’t believe it had been more than 5 years since the whole group of us had been together. We used to spend just about every weekend together and now we are all in different states – AL, TX, and NC. Being with these friends again was like coming home after a long journey. I miss them so much already!

The garden is doing well! TS has put so much work into it and it shows! We have strawberries fruiting now, tons of lettuce, and TOMATOES!!! TS started our tomato and pepper plants inside the house in January. He built a geodesic greenhouse where the starts lived for another month or so, and now many of them are in the garden already starting to produce fruit. We ate our first ripe orange icicle tomatoes yesterday and they were delicious! TS may never forgive me for taking the first bite after he had done all the work, oops! I’m so sorry, babe! There’s lots more going on with the veggies that I hope TS will write about soon. The Yancey County Farmer’s Market has been going for about a month now and the Erwin, TN market just started. HS is out of school for the Summer, I just canned my first batch of strawberry jam, and the blackberries are starting to ripen! Spring is already almost over!

Early Tomatoes

The main garden in the beginning of May

Front lettuce garden

Kale and “volunteer” Dill

The main strawberry garden, chicken tractor, and geodesic greenhouse

Strawberries waiting to be picked