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Deer in the Orchard-last summer

I found these pictures that Karen had taken in June 2020, and we never shared them. We have a terraced hillside above our pond which is where a portion of our Apple and Pear Orchard is located. It is very popular with the deer in the summer and its common for us to watch the […]

Chicken Fortress expansion

You may recall a couple years ago we made a significant upgrade to our chicken coop by adding on a fully enclosed chicken run. This was necessary in order to keep our chickens safe from the resident Redtail Hawks. You can read about that project here: Chicken Fortress It’s been wonderful improvement because the birds […]

First baby goats of 2022

Yep, we have baby goats. Rose had 3 kids last Friday, as usual with no problems. She is a remarkable goat, such an attentive mother and all around a joy to watch. Funny, as when we first got her she was routinely referred to as the little PITA, since she was always escaping her pen […]

Pretty Pictures

Here are some pictures I took the other day, when the sun was out and things were blooming. Below is a new arbor/entrance to the Shire Garden. We reused the original arched gate that has been here for years. Here are some of the blooms from the garden. Lots of pictures of the fruit trees […]

Fresh Raw Local Honey

We have quarts, and sometimes pints, available of our local raw honey. These are from our own bee hives, extracted each fall. Never pasteurized or processed, it goes straight from the hive, through a screen and into the jar. Honey can crystallize in the cooler months (the jar on the left), but a short hot […]

Chicken Fortress

We have 24 chickens; 22 hens and a couple of roosters. We used to have more, but unfortunately the Red-tail Hawks that reside on our property have learned our Free-Range Chickens are an easy meal; we have lost 4 hens over the last 3 months. We debated many different options, from bird netting, electric fence […]

Staying Safe, mostly at home

So what crazy times we are living in right now, HUH? I have been on work furlough and the boys have been doing distance-based learning for roughly 5 weeks now. The uncertainty is what makes things so unsettling right now, we have decided to make the best of it. Here are a few pics from […]

First Baby Goats of 2020

Due to a series of delays, distractions, poor timing, etc, it didnt seem like we were ever going to get any babies this year. But, finally, we were able to get a couple of the goats bred, and our wonderful doe Blue had some babies the other day. Better yet, they were both girls! This […]

Fresh veggies, finally!

As many of you that live here in the Pacific Northwest already know, it has been a cooler summer than in the last few years and everything has taken longer to mature. In addition, this year the deer completely demolished more than half of our tomatoes and peppers shortly after we transplanted them into the […]

Honey Harvest 2019

Yesterday we removed the honey supers from the bee hives. Our good friend Nancy helped us remove the honey supers and inspect the hives. So great to have such great help. Thanks Nancy! Once we removed them from the hives we stored the full frames in storage totes.This keeps the bees away from the honey […]

Beautiful day, goats browsing

Our goats have plenty of goodies to browse on, and they get lots of exercise too. Halle Berry always comes to day “hi”. We are all sick, so taking a day to rest, sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds of the farm is the plan. Really something we should do more often anyways. […]