Lessons Learned at GKF....time really does fly when you are having fun!

Hey everyone! It has been a minute since I have had a chunk of time to sit and update everyone on how farm life is going. We have been busy enjoying our life here, adding more new adventures, changing some things and getting rid of some others, having fun while we do it all!

I really can't believe I am writing that we are hitting our one year anniversary in our house. The saying really is true, time really does fly when you are having fun and we are having fun. Life on the farm has far exceeded our expectations. We are enjoying all the new things this life brings. And there have been lots of new things recently here at the farm.

Two of the best new things are a new grand baby and a kindergarten graduate. We welcomed our newest grandchild, Kennedy Gray Otto (betcha can't guess where her middle name came from :). She is healthy, happy and doing well. Big brother Garrett has adjusted well to having her around and he loves his little sister. Mom and dad are doing well too. And Ms. Rylie Jo is our newest kindergarten graduate! We are all so very proud of her and she will be moving on up to first grade in July.

And we do have a sad new thing here at the farm. Nick and I had to have Molly, our dog of thirteen years put to sleep recently. She had a stroke and was not going to recover. We found a very lovely vet who came to the farm and handled everything here so that we didn't have to put Molly in a car. We will definitely miss her.

We decided it was time to add a pasture and more fencing. We spent most of March and April installing the fencing and getting ready for some animals. We still have a lot more fencing to get done but it will have to wait until this heat subsides. We are crazy but not that crazy. The fencing is a necessity for a variety of reason, the most important being keeping predators out. We have a couple of foxes that seem to like hanging around. We also have some deer and rabbits that aren't a threat to the livestock but certain are to the garden!

We have added sheep and goats to our new pasture. It is so nice to look out our windows and see animals grazing in the pasture. We have named these animals in our first flock so they will be around awhile! We have our three goats...Lillie, Jonathon and Laylay. Then we have our six sheep....Dottie and her lamb, Marcia, Sandy and her lamb Steve, Snowflake and Sasha. The oldest grands picked out all the names except the mama ewes. They had already been named when we got them.

We have quickly decided that sheep are much more fun and are easier to take care of than goats. Goats are high maintenanece, however, they are great at clearing underbrush including poison ivy so we will probably always have them around. We have already had to have a goat abortion and a castration. There is always something with the goats!

All of our sheep came from the same shepherd who lives 10 minutes from us. He has been very helpful in teaching us how to care for them and is always available to help with any issues we may have. I have already learned to trim hooves and give a shot! The sheep we have are a breed call Katahdin. They are sheep that have hair so they do not need to be sheared. They are very low maintence and personable. We will probably breed our females so we will have lambs for meat.

The chickens are doing well. We have added to the flock. We now have about 35 laying hens. They are doing well with their egg laying. We also have meat chickens in the chicken tractor. We are trying our hand at raising and processing them. The breed is cornish cross and it is the breed most grocery stores carry. We may have a small business at the farm selling those if all goes well. They are pasture raised.

The garden has done extremely well this year. We are still learning what works and what doesn't. We had a great onion, potatoes, leek, carrot and garlic harvest and all those those have been processed and stored. The green beans, squash, cucumbers, egg plants, peas, tomotoes and peppers are all starting to ripen. I have been processing and storing those as well. We are still waiting on the acorn squash, butter beans, corn and sweet potatoes to be ready. There is nothing like fresh vegetables from the garden and we will have them all winter now!

Our beehive is thriving. We had two but one decided to up and leave. We are hoping to replace it soon. We will be harvesting the honey from the hive that is left sometime in July. It is exciting that we will have GKF honey!

As far as the houses go, not much as changed there. The kids added an above ground pool that everyone has enjoyed. Nick and I have added a patio to our house and will be enclosing the shop so we can make full use of it all year long. Some other projects in the near future will be a new chicken coop that will hold all the chickens, more fencing, another storage building using our C-boxes and three more pastures to hopefully add to our animals. We are wanting to get alpacas and a couple of cows for meat.

We love our life here at the farm. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we wouldn't have it any other way. There are so many positives to living close to one another and they far outweigh any negatives, which we have't found any yet! Time is really flying and we are making the most of this life we have all created here. Come visit us any time!

Please enjoy some pictures of all the things I have described above here at the farm!