Here in front she's added to the raised beds they put in last summer where strawberries, onion, garlic, peas, tomatoes, and several other veggies are coming in very nicely...

She also has added this kitchen garden...where else but right outside her kitchen door...and where she can see it from the kitchen window over the kitchen sink...how much more kitchen-y can we get?? : D

And here are the girls rapturously scooping up sweet peas...and also what few plump juicy strawberries are still left!

What a glorious way to spend a sunny afternoon...enjoying Karyn's Gardens! : D

This year the annual Post Farm Party to celebrate Mandy's boys' birthdays came earlier than years past....which means it was actually warmer. See all those short sleeves? And no one's huddling around the bonfire like we usually do! Typically, I look forward to this party as the true introduction to Fall...perhaps even early winter. But yesterday we're still feeling very much like summer time!

We met over where Mandy and Craig will be building their log home. The outhouse is already in place...and built solely by young Eban...who just turned 8! Guess what his favorite birthday present was....you got it...a DeWalt drill set from U. Joe! No doubt it'll definitely be put to good use around here!

All the kiddos are gathering around for the treasure hunt race as Mandy gives the instructions...

While the guys take advantage of the diversion!

And a mix of generations...both great and grand....around the bonfire...

Harlow brought up the horses...now it's time for the hay ride!

Remi's favorite spot....but where did G'pa go? He's yelling at the horses, "Go! Go!" What do think...perfect poster child for Future Farmers of America?? If you want to get little Remi to do ANYthing...just tell him he gets to go to the farm! And if that doesn't work...just tell him he WON'T get to go the farm! They say it works like a charm! : D

 
I'm having a hard time believing that we're actually in September today! And the golden tinges that Claudia Diller captures in her painting above definitely match the golden tinges we're seeing in the leaves of the trees...and the brilliant yellow of the golden rod that's blooming a bit of everywhere! Yellow Black-eyed Susans are still in full swing from Summer's long days, but there's a crispness in the air, a chill at nights, and the sunlight on the hills is looking more mellow lately. Fall with its golden harvest days is upon us!

My computer contracted some sort of weird virus...again....that our friend, Steve, has now remedied for us so I hope to get you caught up on some of our goings on over the past week or so. The children had their second horseback riding lesson last Friday on our land that they're all enjoying immensely. I'm getting some great coaching from Heather on Reno, too...practicing some collection with him and learning how to move his hindquarters on turns...as opposed to just the bending that I'm accustomed to doing. I love how these horses can move...and how we can help them move from the saddle...it's fascinating!

We're also gearing up for the Common Ground Fair that will be taking place around the 25th of this month. My husband will be demonstrating the Power Hearth unit open to the public for the first time here in Maine and will be set up in the Farm and Homestead section of the fairgrounds. There's so much to learn with all of this alternative energy stuff...and so much potential with this particular technology for families, small farms, and homesteads! We're excited...and we'd love for you to come out and see us if you're in the area!

We also cooked up our first 'home grown' broiler chicken this week...and used the leftovers to make the most awesome chicken broth for tortilla soup we've ever had. Seriously! It was a beautiful golden color and the flavor...of both meat and broth...was fantastic! The turkeys are now free-ranging and loving all the starchy wooden stemmed grasses...as well as the bugs!

With all the rain we had this summer, gardens haven't fared so well...including ours. But we do have some lovely squash and zucchini coming in now...straight out of our compost pile....that are really scrumptious! We're also supplementing more of our groceries from the neighboring farms and local venues...rather than from Wal-Mart. So lately, with homemade bread, late summer veggies, and our chickens...all the bounty on our table has come from our raising.  It's a great feeling! We may just make it as farmers yet! : D

Yesterday Heather gave mine and my friend, Jen Yarbrough's kiddos their first 'official' riding lesson. Leah and our little Heather were first...and oh my!...were they EVER excited! And I was excited about that mowed and hayed field of ours! Check it out!! : D

Getting tacked up....


And then ready to ride! Leah chose to ride Reno (below left) with the blaze on his face, and Heather was very pleased to get to ride Babe (the Bay) for her first lesson...

We put out 3 buckets and an orange cone to mark the 4 corners of their 'arena'...and here they are walking and learning some reining...

And to their delight, they got to practice some trotting and posting, too! Leah actually put Reno into a canter...much to her surprise!...but she stayed in the saddle beautifully!!

And Heather found Babe's easy jig trot there!

Later I got on Reno and, with some coaching from Heather, I was able to put him into the most wonderful collected trot...and very briefly...a canter as well. It was like floating on air! Magnificent! Now I know what I've been missing all my life!!

Girls and their horses...what could be more fun! : D

The other day I heard all this clanking and banging going on outside...

Later the children came scrambling into the house...excitedly exclaiming that I must come out and see their new pasture....Okay....

I honestly wasn't expecting this! They did a great job! And that's the tee-pee style barn in the corner there...

And this is how the gate hooks...pretty cool! I now know who will be moving the horses' fences around next time!

This past weekend we ended up getting all of our meat birds 'processed' over at some friends house who were all set up for it...doing their own...and offered to do ours, too. Can't beat an offer like that! The whole experience was really great...and the children were totally into all of it! I've got a slew of photos that I'm still getting loaded and organized...and will be posting all about it here and on our Green Pioneer site very soon! So stay tuned!! : D

It's almost 7:00 yesterday morning...and we've just made the official decision to let our turkeys venture out to try some of this ROAMantic life as well....

We've put the chicken tractor that's been housing the 5 turkeys and 20  meat birds into Babycake's pasture. These young turkeys took their own sweet time daintily stepping out of the cage...but now here they are....checking out the new surroundings...

These turkeys have actually proven to be more elegant birds than I ever imagined! Really! And believe me!...I would never have believed that I would be thinking...much less saying...anything remotely this complimentary concerning the turkey fowl! They really are quite docile and herd easily back into the chicken tractor. As of today, they have meandered beyond the confines of the pasture but are mostly content to hang out in the pasture near the cage. I must admit however, that my favorite thing about the turkeys are the sweetest coo-ing noises they make....

Mmmm...can't exactly say that kinda thing about these guys...or gals! Our broiler birds will be ready for the freezer in another week or two. They could actually go now at 6 weeks...they're averaging about 5 lbs. according to the one we butchered by hand this week...not 'we'...more explicitly hubby took on that chore! But the Jenkins have insisted upon giving us one of their extra freezers  from when Bill had gotten a moose, so we're waiting till we get that in place first...minor details! (Thanks again, Ann!)

Oh! Look who's awake! It's leetle one!

Never one to be left out of the action!

And just like us...and the hens...
they seem to be lovin' this ROAMantic life! : D

Our ROAMantic chickens have been roaming freely over our little acreage the past couple of weeks...and seem to have now fallen into a bit of a roaming routine...

So where do the ROAMantic chickens roam these days???

Well, their first stop is generally over by the bunny cage to say their hello's to Freckles, Gracie, and Truffles...

Both Caitlyn's two, Pom Pom (hen) and Freckles (bunny), bidding each other a friendly good morning!

Then they do the requisite scratching and pecking on their favorite dirt patch...

Next they're off to the spruce tree to find what may be lurking in the tall grass...

And let's not forget the pine trees either...

Another favorite spot...and mine, too...would be near the blooming wild flowers. These are ROAMantic chickens, ya know!

And, of course, there's always home sweet home!

However, I do believe this just might be Maple's favorite spot!
Or not...
but she definitely has a favorite fan! : D

Hello August! And I wanted to share this lovely Maine Summer scene from my Claudia Diller calendar. We're just now beginning to feel like we have a summer this year! We did manage a short excursion to our favorite beach this past week on our way back from Portland. That was a treat! And I'm trying...not always so valiantly....to ignore the trees that are ALREADY turning shades of red, orange, and yellow on their leaves. Yes! ALREADY!!

Needless to say, my blog posting is slowing down while we cram full-tilt summertime activities into what weeks we have left to us. Of course we're praying for an 'Indian Summer' with some long stretches of warm sunshine into the Fall. However, we went up to visit our neighbors at Dilly Dally Organic Farm yesterday and Carol mentioned that an abnormally cold September is being rumored around the countryside. ugh. She graciously loaned me Eliot Coleman's book, Four Season Harvest, as well as the Root Cellaring book that I've been longing to get my hands on. Can't wait to delve into all that wonderful info! : D

I just got a call from Heather that Babycakes got out last night and managed to get the plastic top off and eat up the bucket full of grain that was over there...fortunately it was a small bucket! Then she went back into the pen where Heather found her this morning. The other 2 horses didn't go out. Thank goodness! We know it was most likely Babycakes because Heather said that her horses just weren't smart enough to do something like that...and they wouldn't have gone right back into the pen again! We know it's totally something Babycakes would do! Better fencing is in order for a naughty pony!

One of our broiler chickens mysteriously died last night, so now we're trying to decide if it can actually be butchered or not. And if so...how we go about doing it...since we've never done this sort of thing before! We also need to get the turkeys into a larger pen as well.

My husband's up to his ears in watch repair work right now, too...and trying to fit that all in. He also just signed the contract to become THE rep for all of New England for the residential and small commercial-sized Power Hearth units that are now being manufactured here in Maine. He'll be demonstrating one of the units at the Common Ground Fair coming up this Fall...so there's lots to learn and get ready for with that. This is very exciting for us and I'll be filling you in on a few of those details very soon!

So it's never a dull moment around here...as I'm sure it is for all of you out there enjoying the summer as well! And we LOVE it! Bye for now! : D

Last week our friend, Harlow, from the Post Farm brought a horse trailer down to us so that we could start the tricky business of helping Babycakes learn how to get on that tiny, dark, closed-in, very claustrophobic trailer...all the things that horses don't like at all....to take her to her new horse friends...and lots of nice grass...all things that horses DO like....over on our land.

The last time she was on a trailer was when she was originally delivered to us...in the rain and hail storm...but only 1 mile down the road...that began a rearing problem. She hasn't reared with us in over a year or more. However, she hasn't been forced into a tiny, dark, claustrophobic trailer either. So, yeah, I was very nervous...to say the least. My friend Heather's great advice was to just park the trailer in her pasture and put some grain or clover in there that she loves to munch on...and just see if she'd load into it to get  to that yummy food! So that's we did....

After the trailer had been in her pasture for a day, we decided to give her a go. For the initial round, we put the clover up in the front...she has her halter on with a long lead line so that if she wants to back up she can easily. Right now I'm just talking to her and sort of coaxing her inside to have a look around...

Good girl!! She's really far in with her front legs...but still doesn't want to climb all the way in...but this is great! She just stepped right in...

Now she's just backing up. This is really great, too! She didn't freak out or panic inside once she wanted to get out. She just slowly eased her way back out again....

Of course we're talking to her the whole time...telling her how wonderful she is and giving her lots of pats and love....

We let her sniff the trailer for a few more minutes then brought her around for the other side....

We put some grain up at the front now to see if she'll go ahead and put her back feet in as well...

And she did it!! Thank you, Lord! No bucking, balking, or rearing up...she's just standing there munching away....and getting LOTS of praise!! She's such a brave little girl!

She stayed in the trailer for several minutes...and I let her just sniff or move around where she wanted to move...

She decided to exit head first this time...the trailer rocked some...and she suddenly went flying out of there...

I quickly dropped the rope and just let her run. She collected herself...and then came back over to check things out again...

We gave her a break for 20 minutes or so...and I took her halter and lead rope off. When I noticed her curiosity up again, I went back out to try another round...

She still had some grain up in the front of the trailer...that I knew she would want to get to eventually...and sure enough...she did! Here comes one foot...

And here comes the second foot...

And yes! She's all in again! What a great girl you are, Babycakes!! I told you she'll do anything for food! This time around we also stabilized the back of the trailer better so that it didn't rock back so much and felt much firmer to her as she stepped in and around. We put a couple of tires with a wide flat board across the top of the tires underneath the back end of the trailer...this did the trick...and she was much more confident. She put her front hoof on the tire first to feel it...then she stepped on up into the trailer...

You're awesome, Babycakes!! She's happily munching away. We just continued going through this process for the next 2 or 3 days...and she was getting into the trailer on her own with no coaxing at all...even when we weren't around. I'd look out the window at different times...and she'd be in the trailer...munching on whatever clover she had left! Then she'd turn around and climb out again.

On Sat. we loaded her up for good...to make her 20 mile trek in the trailer. Heather came over to help me get through the final stages of actually closing her into the trailer, tying her up, and locking the doors behind her. She was totally unphased about being shut in there. We didn't tie her at first and she turned all the way around and stuck her head out over the doors. My heart was in my throat...but she was like..."What's the big deal?? Where's that nice yummy grain again??"

She thumped around a bit as the trailer was leaving. They stopped at the Posts to pick up the van and she nickered a couple of times. But she was still fairly calm...and settled right down when they petted her.  Harlow also had to stop in Newport to get gas, but she was fine there, too.  Heather gave her a little more grain and although she was nervous, she was still standing calmly.  Harlow climbed in with her to adjust her rope and was amazed at how well she was doing for having essentially never been hauled. When we finally got over to our land, she didn't bolt out of the trailer. She turned around and came out nice and slow...and was ALL excited to see those two new horses, Babe and Reno!

We went for a trail ride again earlier this week and plan to start bringing Babycakes along very soon. She's doing really well! We're very proud of our little pony!! : D

These stacked tires make great planters for potatoes...they seem to like them anyway!

This is the raised bed gardens with chipped bark between the beds. The neat compost bins in the background are constructed from wooden pallets. On the right, the first raised bed is turnips and herbs (I have Heather at my side at the moment..filling me in!), the second bed is parsley, dill, and cilantro, and the third bed with the red leaves are beet greens and swiss chard. In the far back, are the carrots...

This is the large tilled garden growing various veggies...beets, rutabagas, turnips, beans, broccoli and cauliflower....and a few weeds (she said that, not me!). The greenhouse (otherwise known as the hoop-house) is also now sporting its new cover as of this past weekend...and will soon house tomatoes, watermelons, and possibly a few cucumbers. It will serve double-duty this winter to house Heather's laying hens as well.

Now rounding the corner from the west side of the house, we have Hope, the Jersey milk cow and two Jersey calves picketed out here...

...along with several chicken tractors housing broiler chickens, turkeys, and the laying hens. Heather did have some guinea chicks this Spring as well...unfortunately they disappeared into the woods never to be heard from since. So if you happen to spot some guinea hens that look really lost....

Children, chickens,
turkeys, horses,
gardens, greenhouses,
calves & cows...
You'll find it all...
At the Dows! : D