~ Bluebird Hill Farm / Lavender Harvest ~

~ Bluebird Hill Farm ~

~ Clipping the Lavender ~

~ Lavender bushes after they've been clipped ~

~ Bundling the Lavender ~

~ The Barn were the lavender is hung to dry ~

~ Raised Bed with Herbs ~

~ Tepee Garden ~

~ This raised bed had lambs quarter growing in it ~

~ More Herbs ~

Awhile back I was on the Local Harvest website ~ http://www.localharvest.org/ ~ , looking for local farms in our area , I found an herbal farm that's about 15 miles from me , called " Bluebird Hill Farm ". The farm was having a lavender harvest this past weekend ~ http://www.localharvest.org/event.jsp?id=24074 ~ , so yesterday I packed my bag with clippers , gloves , water and headed out to the farm to learn about lavender. It was a wonderful experience , the farm was beautiful and the owner was friendly.

I arrived at the field before they were ready to start , so I sat by the pond enjoying nature and having some Prayer time. Norma , the owner came out to greet me , then a guy name Kevin showed me how to use their electric clippers and how to bundle the lavender so it could be hung in the barn. I helped clip and bundle lavender for about 3 hours. But before I headed home I went to check-out the gardens and herbs. I was so impressed , I've never seen so many herbs in a garden , there were common herbs , wild herbs , garden veggies , fruit trees , grape vines. As I was looking around the garden , Norma came out with a small jar , she was chasing bugs , said she needed to catch them before they mated (LOL) , ahh ...... the life of an organic farmer. I asked about a herb that was growing near by , she gave me a piece of it and told me to take it home and put it in vinegar , it's called Perilla and makes a great flavored vinegar , she said. She also sent me home with spearmint to plant in my herb garden.

So I came home with a bundle of lavender for helping with the harvest , Perilla to make a herbal vinegar , spearmint for my garden and a small jar of lavender honey I purchased. She sells her herbal products on the local harvest site , you can check-out her store here ~ http://www.localharvest.org/store/M17728 ~. I had a great time and will go back next year for the harvest , or maybe before then.

~ Lavender Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Sunday Blessing ~

May Your Sunday be Beautifully Blessed !

JoyceAnn

~ Garlic Galore ~

We've been busy digging garlic this week , the garden wagon sure came in handy.

The garlic didn't do as well as it did last year , but looking back at my garden journal , we planted it a couple weeks later and had to harvest about 3 weeks earlier , due to the weather. We've had hot summer like weather for the last month or so , and the bottom leaves were dying , so we had to harvest earlier. It's not as large in size , but we have about triple what we had last year.


Yesterday I graded most of the garlic , small , medium and large. I really enjoyed this part of the harvest , being outside under the shed , watching the guineas and listening to the birds singing , so peaceful.

~ Small ~

~ Medium ~

~ Large ~

Bundled and hung to cure !

In about 2 weeks it should be cured , then it will be time to clean it up and store it. I'm considering selling garlic at the local farmer's market later this summer.

~ Garlic Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Literally ....... Up on the Roof ~

Shadow was chasing the guinea yesterday , they took refuge on the new rooftop. I've tried to break him from chasing them , but it's not working. I don't think he means any harm , it's almost like he's trying to herd them .

The photo above shows one of the guinea looking for bugs on the potatoes , they walk down the rows and peck away. Wish they would eat all the weeds (LOL).


Shhhhh ! Sunday afternoon I was walking through the field on my herb walk and I noticed a guinea egg lying near a log , as I bent over to pick

it up I caught a glimpse of a guinea under the log. I watched her all evening , she came out after awhile , so I went to check it out and sure enough , I found ..........


13 eggs in her nest , since Sunday she has laid 2 more , a total of 15 so far. We're trying to figure out how to protect her once she goes broody. I've been reading about how some people move the nest or enclose the area , so predators can't get the guinea hen. We're leaning toward enclosing the area and giving Shadow a night watchman job (LOL) , to let him earn his keep.





~ Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

*** 3 Hens a Laying ...............

Yesterday , there were 3 eggs in the nesting box !

~ ~ Ju Ju had just laid an egg ~ ~


~ Fern is Laying ~


~ June decided the nest needed more fluffing , she spent time adding more straw and shavings before she laid her egg (lol) ~



~ I can tell the hens apart now , spent time watching them this past weekend , June has a dark head , while ...................




Jenny has more light color on her head.



~ Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

~ Up on the Roof ~

Dh worked on the hen house this weekend , he replaced the roof and .............

made an overhang , a place to organize and store the garden tools and .....................

a place to feed the guineas , so their feed tray doesn't get wet when it rains. It looks so much better around the coop , he did a great job. I've been watching the hens closely this weekend and I think I've figured out how to tell the black hens apart. We've got 2 hens laying now , there were 2 eggs yesterday and I found a guinea nest too. I'll post more about the hens tomorrow , need to get off the computer and head to the garden. The hen house needs cleaning and there's always something that needs to be done in the garden. Hope you had a wonderful weekend and accomplished something great.

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Enjoying a Peaceful Sunday Afternoon ~

Hope You are Too !!

~ Peaceful Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Garlic Harvest Time ~

The garlic is ready to harvest , we were planning to dig today , but we had rain yesterday , so it maybe to wet. If the sun comes out early , it may dry up enough to dig , we'll see.

I'm considering starting a garlic farm , we love garlic , it's easy to grow and would provide extra income. I think it would be wonderful to have a family farm. I grew up on a family farm , my Granddaddy raised tobacco. He farmed tobacco , to pay taxes on the farm , but it also provided extra income for most of his kids and grand kids. It was a family business , my grandparents , mom , dad , aunts , uncles , and all the kids helped harvest the tobacco , prepare it to hang in the barns and take it to the market. It was a learning experience for us grand kids , we had to earn our money , it wasn't just handed out. I'm thankful I was raised this way and hope to teach my grand kids the same principles.

Granddaddy raised his tobacco without pesticides , he would give us grands a reused food can to put tobacco worms in. One of our (grand kids) jobs was to go down the rows and pick the cut worms off the plants by hand. He would pay us for each worm we harvested.

.01 ~ small worms

.05 ~ med worms

.10 ~ large worms

We would fly down those rows , trying to out do each other of course. It was fun and we learned so much from the experience. Of course his tobacco farm was small compared to days farming operations , just 2 or maybe 3 acres at the most. We loved working in tobacco , as it was called , it was family time. I would love to provide the same family values for my grand kids , family working , laughing and learning together.

~ Family Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ World Environment Day ~

June 5th is a day reserved by the United Nations to call attention to world awareness of environmental issues and encourage all to protect the planet , it's called ~ World Environment Day ~.

I'd never heard of this day , I read about it in the farmer's almanac newsletter. We've changed many of our ways over the last few years , but there's always room for improvement. So today my pledge is to call attention to ~ World Environment Day ~ to everyone I see or talk with.

~ What are you doing to " Protect the Planet " ? ~

~ Things We're Doing ~

Clean With Natural cleaners mostly

Conserve Household Electric Energy

Conserve Fuel Consumption as much as possible

Grow as much Food as we can ~ Less Food Mileage

Grow Food - Organically

Raising Chickens - For Compost and Food

Recycle everything or Reuse

Use cloth bags for shopping

Use cloth rags for cleaning instead of paper towels

Use cloth napkins

~ Planet Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~~~ And the Mystery Layer is ............

another surprise , it wasn't Fern or the other two whom I thought were older. It was one of the black hens , since I have a hard time telling them apart , I'm not sure which black hen by name laid the golden egg. I'm still watching to see if any of the others are using the nesting box.

The guineas have started to nest I think , I haven't found anymore eggs on the ground. I'm going to try to find their nest , but I will leave their eggs. We would love to have baby keets , if nature takes that course. They have earned their keep by eating ticks and potato beetles.

~ Natural Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Shadow meets a ...............

Ferocious Beast (LOL) !

~ In the Garden ~

~ Yellow Crookneck Squash ~

~ Calico Popcorn ~


~ Tomatoes mulched and caged ~


We got another egg today , Yay !


Wow , June is here already , this year is flying by fast. I had a busy day in the garden , weeding , mulching , and looking for pest. The broccoli and cabbage haven't done well this year , the worms are having a feast. I've tried some organic pest control , but it's not helping very much. I did harvest 1 head of broccoli last week.
The guineas have been a big help with the potato beetle problem , they just go down the rows pecking them off. They seem to like the blooms also , they've eaten most of them , but I don't think it will hurt the potatoes. Today I weeded , then mulched the cucumbers and squash with compost. I also pulled more dirt to the popcorn and weeded the onion row. The garlic is almost ready to harvest , it's going to be early this year due to Spring being so warm.
We were rewarded with another egg today , not sure if it was the same hen. The color was slightly different and it was on the left side of the nesting box this time , yesterday's egg was on the right , but in the same nesting box. I'm going to try and watch the hens tomorrow to see who is laying the eggs.

~ Garden Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

Surprise , Surprise

Late this afternoon , I let the chickens out to free-range for about an hour. I went to check on their food and give them fresh water , I happened to spot a egg in the nesting box. I think Fern the dark red chicken , laid our first egg. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that her comb looked larger than the others , so I figured she was older. I guess I was rewarded for cleaning out the coop , I'm so excited , just had to share.

~ Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

* Happy Hens *

The hens are Happy , I got their hen house cleaned and fresh straw added . The flies were getting bad , so had to make it top priority. I used the straw to mulch my tomatoes , mulching and composting at the same time , love it. The hens have grown so much , their colors are quite beautiful. I tried to get some close-up pics so you could see how beautiful they look.We started them on laying mash and oyster shell about a month ago. I hope to have fresh eggs in June or July. Thought I would share a pic of my kitchen windowsill over the sink , I have quite a collection of chickens in the kitchen.

~~ Be Blessed ~~

JoyceAnn

~ Spiral Herb Garden ~

I started hauling rocks for the herb garden last week , but decided to redo the fire circle first. I took up the slate rocks and added flint rocks.

Then I got to thinking I needed to redo the rocks around the cilantro bed (LOL) , so I took up the rocks around it and replaced them with flint.




I finally got the spiral herb garden started, it's almost finished. I have some flint rocks I gathered in the woods , just need to haul them out and complete the spiral. It's rained almost everyday this week , so they'll have to wait until it dries up some. I planted the herbal seeds , lemon balm in the center , stevia and lemon basil. I'm already planning the next herb garden, want to create a garden with wild herbs.



Do you have a herb garden ?



~ Herbal Blessings ~

JoyceAnn