I’m really writing this blog for my immediate family, extended family, and for posterity as well. I must confess that I also have a selfish motive. In many ways I am recording this adventure just to aid my own memory. Sadly, I have had to realize that I do not have a very good long term memory at all, and 20 years from now I do not want to hear about all kinds of wonderful things we shared as a family and not have a memory of them for myself!
I was not intending to get so contemplative on this post.
What I am striving for with this entry, is to just give sort of a virtual tour of what types of things we have had going on lately at Pure Water Hollow Homestead. We had a few beautiful days Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so I asked Christina, my 11 year old, to walk around and take pictures of our property and animals with her digital camera. She took some great pictures and I also borrowed her camera and took a few more.
The first animals you are likely to see are our dogs and cats. I don’t have any pictures of the cats right now, but here is our Pyr named Chief:
And this is Mammoo:
We also have Luna, a black mixed Pyr that didn’t make the cameras this time and a Lab named Champ that you will see in a minute.
Christina took several pictures I really liked from an angle that I have not seen much in picture form. I had the truck down in the play field to unload some hog manure over the garden spot. That is our Chocolate Lab named Champ with me(he is always with us even when we do not want him to be):
While we are down here I’ll show where we planted the new fruit trees and bushes this spring. You can see the milk crates behind me. This is where we planted 8 new blueberry bushes.
They are Blue Crop, Blue Ray, Earliblue, and Jersey from left to right and then the pattern is repeated in the next four. So far they are all living, but we never tested the soil there to see if it is a good place for blueberries. I hope they will grow and thrive there.
In front of the house I planted a new nectarine tree next to the peach trees:
We still haven’t gotten everything cleaned up from the ice storm, and these pictures do not show up very well. I’m putting them here mainly for us, but you can at least see the mess we have been facing. We went ahead and planted two plum trees and two new apple trees next to the old apple trees across the lane from the garden. Here are the new plum trees:
And here are the new apple trees:
Across from the apple trees is the garden spot and play field that you saw a minute ago. The geese had come down from the pond to visit. They are in the children’s playfield in the fore-ground. Those poles you see are a grape arbor and the cherry tree in bloom is to the right. You can see the outbuilding we call the tool shed, the side/back of our house, and our white van to the left. In the mid-ground is the children’s play-tree and swing-set:
Let me show you the grape arbor closer up. Once the leaves come out, this is a beautiful spot and we usually have plenty of grapes for jam. The Chery tree next to it always has an abundance of cherries:
This is a shot from further back. Here you can see the flower garden and you get the first glimpse of the creek that flows by the garden:
Come on back a little farther, up on the school house hill. From here you can see the chicken coop and lot, and in the distance the garden spot, the children’s play field, play-tree, the roof of our house and the tool shed:
Since we are here at the chicken coop, let me show you the other side of it. Those rectangles are the nest boxes for the hens. The nests are on the inside of the coop and we can gather the eggs from the outside:
And when Christina opened up the nests to check for eggs she found some hens in the process of depositing their rent money. Both of these are Buff Orpingtons, but they share the coop with Light Brahmas, Partridge Rocks, Black Giants, Australorps, and Dominiques. If you look close you can see the egg from the one on the right as she is getting up to leave:
We also have an area we call "the chicken duplex", because it is a two room compartment. Currently we have a game hen mama raising a brood of chicks in each section. Wingleg has 8 Buff Orpington chicks she hatched as well as 6 from TSC. On the other side is Onefeather who has 6 Black Giant mix chicks that she hatched as well as 6 Rhode Island Reds from TSC. The pictures didn’t come out the greatest through the fence, but you can get an idea.
This first one is of Onefeather and her brood. She is 5 years old and the only one left of our original group of hens and pullets from 2004. She has proven to be a good mama hen many times now:
In this picture you can see the duplex better on Wingleg’s side with Wingleg and her group. Wingleg is from the 2005 generation of pullets, so she is pretty old too. She may have been in one of Onefeather’s early groups of hatchlings.
Let’s go up that dirt road that swings around to the right in the above picture and then down to the left to the ravine lot:
Here is the ravine lot closer up. It is totally enclosed with wire to keep predators out. I originally designed it to keep our pet raccoons in, so we made it pretty tight. This is where we have been separating various hens and roosters in order to get specific eggs. The most recent group to have called it home was the Black Giants, which are the chickens you see in these pictures:
Now we will walk up the hillside via the steep dirt road to the barn areas. In the below picture the path to the ravine lot is in the middle on the left. It goes downward and this other road goes up to the pigs, goats and pond. Behind us is the chicken coop and lot:
Here we approach the old barn. Believe it or not, it is standing up much straighter now than it was a month ago. The pigs had played a number on it the past couple of years, eating out the main poles so that the barn had begun to lean quite a bit. We just had new posts put in and the walls pulled up straight as well as some new roofing where it was leaking very badly. I hired the work out, but I did get to help a few hours one day. The two guys were here a good part of 6 days working on it and only charged $600! I feel that it was well worth it because I think the barn will be able to stand for many more decades now. The alternative was tearing it down and building new. We still have work to do on it to make it a real nice barn, but it is very usable right now:
I like this view that Christina took from a distance. In so many of these pictures you can tell what a rugged terrain our homestead is located in:
Here is part of the new roof. We used remnant pieces of metal that was much cheaper to purchase. To get it cheap, we couldn’t choose the colors we would get. This picture won’t mean anything to you, but I like it, and now we can store things in a dry loft:
Inside the barn, we have moved our two sows. They should be giving birth to piglets very soon. We have now raised several litters of our own piglets born here. We sell most of them and keep some to raise to butchering size. This year we actually butchered and cut up our own pork right here on our property! We hope to keep a couple from these new litters and butcher them before Christmas this winter.
Here is a recent picture of Sally:
I will try to come back later to show you our other sow, Nellie and our boar Rufus. I can’t seem to find the pictures we took of them last weekend.
This past fall we had a new barn built for our goats on the other side of the ravine. It is a 40 x 12 foot building with a 3/4th loft. We still have work we want to do on it, but I am pleased with it overall:
Here is a nice picture of it from a distance, on the upper road to the clearing. You can see the pond in this shot also:
Here are some of the goats inside the new barn:
We have two does that are expecting next month. Here is the one we call Mama Belle. She sure looks pregnant doesn’t she? The smaller one is one of her previous kids, Tiny Tim:
Little Lulu is also expecting, but she doesn’t show as much. This will be her first time kidding. The little face bottom right is the buck we have on loan that provided these pregnancies:
And here are the other wethers, Little Joe and Big Jim:
Here comes the ducks walking by. They like to stay around the goat barn sometimes. We have decided that the dark ducks are Rouens and the whites are Pekins:
There they go off into the water. They spend most of their time in the pond:
The ducks share the pond with our geese. You already saw them visiting us down at the play field by the house, but here they are where they are supposed to be. The gray ones are Toulouse and the white ones ore Chinese. This white one I call Goosy Lucy and the gander I’m calling Sid:
Here is the other gander, Marty:
We have one of the Chinese setting on a nest of goose eggs, so maybe we will get to see some goslings swimming around next month. (I am looking forward to having goose meat for supper some day.) This picture does not show up very good, but that is the nest we made for her and she is spread out in there over 8 or 10 eggs. I’m naming her Mother Goose:
Let me end with some pretty pictures that Christina found as she walked around our homestead this weekend:
We still did not visit the clearing, the maple grove, or the ridge trails, but maybe some time in the future.
I hope you have enjoyed this virtual tour and I also hope you have seen the hand of God here. We feel His presence eveywhere we turn around. He has been so great to all of us!
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8 comments
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HSB Front Porch on April 20, 2009 at 11:04 am
I LOVE the virtual tour! What a great idea. You have an amazing place. Wonderful job you and your family have done…
Thank you so much for sharing with us.
Blessings,
Chasity L. Burrell
Senior Editor Homesteadblogger
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Sarah (Your Cousin) on April 20, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Hello! How are you? I have been doing great! I just wanted to tell Christina she did a wonderful job with the picture's! I Love your ducks! I hope we can come to your house and see them and all of you soon! We Love you all and Please know that we are thinking of you! I hope you have a blessed week! Talk to you really Soon!
~With Lots of Love,
~Sarah~
Ps. The Flower Picture's are really pretty!
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SimpleFolk on April 20, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I just stopped by to congratulate you on being featured, but thank you so much for the amazing tour! You have a beautiful place.
Amy
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Judy on April 22, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Hey KY neighbor, love the photos of everything. Your place is really coming along nicely. The tour was great, makes you feel like your really there. The animals all look happy to be there to. I enjoy your blogs keep up the good work…See ya'll soon. Judy
congrads on being this weeks blogger…!!!!!!!
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Sharon on April 22, 2009 at 10:36 pm
What great pic's! I enjoyed the "tour"!
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karen in MS on April 23, 2009 at 11:28 pm
You are very blessed to have such a wonderful homestead!!
Thanks so much for the pictures. I enjoyed them very much!
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Manna Milling Moms on April 24, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Congratulations on being the Featured Blogger!
You have a beautiful homestead. Blessings and Provisions from the Lord is our sustainability.
In Him, Jill (the big sister)
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Schatzi on April 26, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Congratulations on being featured…what a beautiful place you have. The virtual tour was great. You are truly blessed. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Blessings,
Connie
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