Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Japan

My heart truly goes out to the people of Japan.  I can't imagine the horror of being there right now and I feel helpless.  New reports are coming in of 140,000 nearby residents are being told to seal themselves in for protection from the radiation.  I hope these human beings had forethought to prepare for such a situation.  Even if there were time to go to the store to purchase necessary supplies such as duct tape, plastic, food, water, medicines, etc., would there even be enough for 140,000 people?

It sounds so calous to say let's use this as a learning experience when so much human suffering is taking place; but let's not let these people suffer in vain.  Learn from someone else's bad experience.  Be prepared.  How many times have we warned our children, but they had to learn for themselves.  Or how many times as youth did we learn our lessons the hard way.  I don't think I will ever look upon this world with the eyes of the innocent again.  I have awakened and I hope you will too.

Don't be a victim, be a survivor.  "Organize yourselves...prepare every needful thing."

http://www.fema.gov/

I don't know what else to say...but our hearts are with you our Japanese brothers and sisters.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Off Grid Living at Maple Valley Farms

I ran across a blog the other day called Maple Valley Farms.  Click here to see their site.  Beautiful website, beautiful home.  Ethen Allen furnishings, luxurious bed and breakfast.  A dream really.  I have enjoyed what I have read and watched on their Youtube channel. 

I think that being able to collaborate and learn from each other makes it easier for all of us, so I hope you will check them out.  Although purchasing a 40 acre farm with high-end furnishings and going off grid would be impossible for most of us who want the lifestyle, there are lessons we can still learn. 

I am not a wealthy person and this set-up is a dream that I would never be able to afford.  I think that most of us are trying to homestead while pinching pennies.  I know I am.  Making ends meet and still  being able to do a little at a time is what it is about for me.  I am thankful that Maple Valley Farms is allowing us to peek inside the dream.  I look forward to following them and learning from them.

Right now, Maple Valley Farms is having a giveaway sponsored by Lehman's.  Lehman's gave them some tattler lids to review and some to give away on their website.  Tattler lids are reusable and from what I have read, they seem to do the job.  So, go check out this dream place and enter to win some tattler lids. 

Spring is in the Air at the Homestead

With a week or two of beautiful 60 degree weather, it certainly makes one feel hopeful that Spring is on the way. We have had our share of snow this past year and even had a white Christmas, which I am thankful for. Hopefully all the cold snow has nourished the ground with moisture and killed a lot of the pests we see in the garden.

I decided to grow a sunflower patch beside the house where it gets lots of morning sun.  Since we don't directly eat the sunflowers, we added lots of organic rabbit poo to fertilize the soil.  Country Boy tilled it in (above).

Main Garden


We also plowed up the main garden and I planted my pea patch.  Nothing is coming up in the pea patch yet, so I have already purchased more seed and plan to replant when the rain lets up and the ground is dry enough.  If plowed too soon after a rain, the only thing that will get it back into shape is the freezing of winter.  So plowing too soon will only ruin the soil until next year and I don't want to take that chance.



My pea patch
















In a portion of the yard, nothing, not even grass grows. So I decided to utilize that area as well. A local siding business gives away the pallets that once contained the siding. The pallets are untreated rough lumber, rectangular and are hollow. I am using these to make small beds in the area were nothing grows.

Poor Soil Area
 
Pallets with Hollow Bottoms
I am going to fill the boxes with a thick layer of newspaper to kill out anything growing.  (Nothing grows there, so that won't be a problem anyway.)  Next we will add soil level to the top of the box.  I plan to plant an asparagus bed, carrots, artichoke, lettuce, and radishes in these beds.  I will update the blog with photos when I get this done. 


Also, we are finally getting eggs.  These are our first eggs.  We get about four a day now. 

We have some new female rabbits or does.  We now have eight does and five of them are expecting.  We will be up to our ears in bunnies before long.  We are working on a "rabbit tractor" and I will update the blog with photos about it as well. 

That's about all that is going on here on Little Lily Acre Farm.  Hope you all are having an early Spring.