Growing


Sometimes I feel like my life is identical to the life I led as an adolescent.  It is difficult to separate yourself from the person that you once were when growing up.  4 to 34, what is the difference in your  mind. You don't feel yourself getting older.  Sure, you realize your changes.  You physically grow older and have gained a year more worth of experience, knowledge.  But, still, you are you.  You are the same person of those memories that fill your adolescences.  You are and feel very much the same.  We do not feel the changes as they are being made.  We sometimes don't ever see them.  Other times, we notice the way we have grown toward this part of our being, and other times how we might grow more toward another.

If I were to look back to the child I was and the woman that I am, I don't think I would have been able to tell you my exact path.  However, as I have grown, I have stuck with my interests.  I have always adored being outdoors, admired my Grandpa and Grandma's garden, enjoyed my Mom's landscaping and loved being surrounded by animals.  I have always enjoyed watching things grow.

Until I moved to my current home, I had only grown one garden in my past.  Like all adventures, it was a learning experience.  My garden  was a very small, but I enjoyed some of my favorite vegetables out of the garden.  I grew carrots, and okra, green beans and tomatoes.  I also realized how such a small space can take so much time to keep weeded and healthy.

After Joshua and I moved down to our current location, we started making plans for a garden.  We moved in to late to start a garden during our first year, but our first spring we planted our first big garden.  We had our flaws.  We over did the vine plants.  We had more pumpkin, zucchini and yellow squash than any one could ask for, lesson learned.  I love squash and zucchini, but not that much.  We did have a great garden.  It was amazing watching the garden grow from small seeds to productive plants.

Second and third year we began to figure out what we wanted in the garden and what grew best in our soil.  It hasn't been until this year, that we have not only designed a wonderful space for growing plants, but we are keeping down on the weeding.  We also have my Mom who has volunteered, to come down and teach us how to can when our green beans fruit.  Very excited.  This will be a huge growing experience for us in our garden.  Not just enjoying and eating as veggies come to fruit, but saving and eating into winter.

I have a great appreciation for our garden.  It is gratifying to watch plants grow from a small seed into a mature plant in a year with the garden annuals and perhaps even more gratifying to watch the blueberries and herbs and mints spread and grow into established plants.  We have some of the largest blueberries I have seen around the county.  Joshua is very active in keeping the proper ph of the soil and maintaining nutrients with all of our plants, via organic fertilizing.  

Did I ever think that I would have such a large garden as a little girl? The answer, I am not really sure.  I always admired my grandparents and their homesteading.  Many of the vegetables on their table during the year was from their garden.  They were and still are very sustainable. Their garden is still quite a bit larger than my own. I may not in my youth have understood the meaning of this as much as I do as an adult, but I still appreciated what they were doing.

Perhaps, it is like aging.  I knew as a youth that I wanted to farm, but didn't quite understand what it meant.  I feel that I was the same little girl with the same interests, but knowledge has led me deeper into my practices. Growing is important.  Not just physically and mentally within ourselves, but it is very healing to grow your own food.  It is pleasurable to watch and delicious to eat.  Growing is natural for us all.  Joshua and I still have a lot to learn to make our little farm productive and profitable, but we will enjoy the trials and tribulations of learning. We still have and look forward to all the growing to come.

Hop Hollow Farm


When Joshua and I met, he told me he never wanted to own his own business.

We changed our minds after disliking our former place of employment. We both worked together and ended our jobs on the same day.  Very scary start.  After a handful of years in business, we are both very happy with our choice to go out on our own.  For instance, today's seizure, I would not have been able to take time off at my past job for my dog.

Besides personal time, the most rewarding part of owning our own business is quality and treating customers as we would like to be treated.  Running an honest small scale business that buys 98% locally (with attempt to be 100 percent).  However, as time goes on, we realize that we will not be able to do the labor part of our business forever. It is taxing on our bodies while we are in our 30's.  Eventually it is going to be very difficult.

So, we have started brainstorming to a retirement plan.  We are attempting to set money back, but realize we will not be able to set enough back for a comfortable retirement.  We decided to start selling as much produce off our property as possible.

We started growing hops for sale, blueberries, rasberries, attempting paw paws, ect.. The once Joshua, who will never own his own business, now owns two.  We started our farm last night and registered the name, Hop Hollow Farm.  We plan on selling hops to local establishment this year and perhaps some of our berries.  We will be small scale at first, but we wanted to start establishing our business name.

Who knows where this adventure may lead us, but hopefully it will be a fun ride.

Bad Morning


Today started off as most mornings.  Lazily forced myself out of bed about 10 minutes after the alarm went off. Showered, and quickly got dressed and ready for work.  I had already wasted enough time by snoozing past my alarm.

Once dressed, I filled the chicken feeders and brought the feeders out to my patient ladies.  They were waiting at the gate entrance for their food.  I placed the feeders in their usual places and headed back in for a cup of coffee and to grab the dogs for our morning walk.

With a full cup of coffee, I leash Noodles and let Cadet and Halle out the door.  We all walk the property for our usual morning routine.  We walk .5 miles in the morning due to lack of time.  Halle ran and sniffed about, but checked back in.  Cadet usually lags behind and never walks the .5 miles.

I finished lap one and started my second round.  Mid way through the lap I find Cadet laying on the ground.  I quickly realized that he had had a seizure.  He was still coming out of the seizure when I reached him.  I sat on the ground for probably 2 minutes until he came too and attempted to stand.  He fell a couple of times.  He finally got the majority of his strength back, so I walked him back to the house.

Cadet is very disorientated after a seizure for about an hour or so.  I guided him to his water and held off from feeding and medicating him until he appeared more aware.    After he returns to normal, he is very clingy (more than normal).  I suppose the even in frightening to him.  We stayed home for the first half of our work day to make sure he was ok.

He appears well now.  This was the first seizure he has had since March of 2011.  Hopefully we do not see another for as long or longer.

Langston

It has been one year today since I was able to pet for the last time.  Langston was euthanized after a long battle with cancer. I battled with the decision of rather it was time.  I know he was suffering and was ready for the pain to end. Decision made, we asked our vet if she could end his life in his favorite spot in the yard.  We had already prepared his grave in the area and knew that his 90 pound frame would be heartbreaking to move once the life had left.

We spent the entire day with him last June 6th. He attended work, had Arby's roast beef (his choice) for lunch and for dinner, I made him hamburger.  I had difficulty getting him to eat for the last few weeks because of a tumor that had developed under his tongue.  However, his last couple meals, where not an issue. 

I sat and cried and caressed what was one of the best companions anyone could ask for, while Halle came over and laid her head against his leg.  She said her goodbyes, I guess.  I suppose everyone knew something bad was going to happen that evening by the enormous amount of sorrow in Joshua and my heart.

Our vet arrived around 9pm.  We had already walked Langston back to the spot we would later bury him.  He was excited to see our vet and gave me one last moment with the happy, go lucky Langston.  He even attempted with what energy he had, to play fetch on the way back.  This made my decision difficult.  I questioned if I was making the right choice.  I knew he was consumed with cancer and it had moved to his lymph nodes.  I realized he had no energy and had detoriated quickly in just a couple weeks. I had to pick him up to get him off the couch to even go to the bathroom. 

We knew it was best, so we went through the process.  It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made.  Watching the life leave my best friend.  A choice, I made.  I know Joshua and I made the responsible choice, but I always wonder if it was his time.  How much more life he had left or if I had waited to long.  Answers I will never be able to answer. 

I will forever miss my "little man."  He was an amazing dog and companion.  It is hard to believe, it has been one year.

Welcome Hermie


A lot of time has passed since my last entry.  The topic of this blog entry is my new chicken.  I guess you could call her a pet chicken.  Her name is Hermie.  She is a hermaphrodite.  She belonged to my neighbor, B.

Hermie's life started as a young fight rooster.  When she was a young pullet/cockerel, she was rescued when the fighting cock ring got busted.   B. rescued, I believe 7 roosters.  After they developed he realized that Hermie was not a fully a rooster nor hen.  She has the large tail feathers of a rooster, but the body and attitude of a hen.  She doesn't lay eggs or crow.

Hermie lived next door for I believe two years.  Her life consisted of being the only "lady" with a bunch of cocks.  This made her quite the tough chicken.  Many of the roosters passed in one fashion or another.  In the end, it was Hermie and two fellow roosters.

One spring day, we were all at work.  The valley seemed quite, still from my prospective when I arrived home. Nothing out of place.  However, across the creek, B's roosters had been murdered. Leaving Hermie alone.   We believe it must have been a stray dog.  The roosters where still on the property, just lifeless. The two roosters, laid their life for their lady.  They allowed her to get to safety in her roost as they attempted to fight off the predator.

When B. called that evening, my husband answered the phone.  After hearing the sad story and the concern about the lonely chicken.  We decided we would attempt to introduce her to our flock and let her live her life on our farm.

B. brought over a dog crate to keep Hermie separated from my chickens.  We first tried putting the crate in the pen and seeing how everyone would react.  Brooda, my golden comet, initially ran to the cage and her and Hermie did not seem happy with situation. They were both attempting to fight, crate or not in their way.  We decided it was best to put the crate on the outside of the pen.  That way, no one could be hurt during the first part of the integration.

A week or so passed.  B. continued to bring Hermie over in the morning and taking her home to his coop at night.  After multiple days, we moved the crate inside the pen, but put up a temporary fence around the crate when we were not home.  When I was home, I took down the fence and allowed the hens access to the area with the crate and Hermie.  After a few days, my hens started ignoring the entire situation.

Hermie initially would crash against the crate to get away from me, if I walked into the area.  As with my hens, she began to adapt and get used to my presence.  This took many days and constant interactions.  We finally decided to try her out of the crate and in the pen with the rest of the hens.  

At first she would run at my hens and attack them.  They all coward as if she was a rooster.  A crazed rooster that was only out for blood.  She attempted to mount, but was obvious that she had no idea what she was doing.  This continued for a few days.  B. still would take her home in the evenings.  We were all unsure how she would treat the ladies in the coop.

The worse interaction times with Hermie and my flock was  during treat time.  She would guard the treats and attack my flock when they attempted to eat.  I was beginning to wonder if this relationship was going to work out.  Hermie didn't seem at first to want to back-off from my flock.  I started having second thoughts, but decided to stay patient.

What I thought would take a few days, ended up taking over three weeks to integrate this chicken into my flock.  After multiple lost feathers and the creation of a new pecking order, Hermie was a part of the flock.  In the beginning, she was still a bit rough with my hens, but she has changed dramatically.

Hermie now runs to the fence when I call my hens.  She has allowed me to pet her and is getting less scared of me.  She is still a wild chicken and not as trusting as some of my flock, but she is improving daily.  I realize she will never lay an egg, most likely will never fertilize any either.  However, she has a safe haven on my farm. I suppose that makes her my pet chicken. Welcome Hermie!