Have you checked out our YouTube Channel yet?  I try to post videos at least twice each week, and more often as time allows.  Recently, I have produced videos about things like:

How to plant tomatoes - https://youtu.be/z8Mf9FiIUHY 

Keeping city chickens - https://youtu.be/-RjQoyszEdY

Gardening Updates - https://youtu.be/iXiRlGSApEM

Rabbit Care (a multi-part series):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPVM29FizjvPFwH3B9yuEF_6A6MCpU3Vw

And more!

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So head on over and check out what you've missed!

My goodness, it has been a while since my last post!  I'm so sorry!

"Farm" life has been busy lately.  Most of the garden is coming along nicely.  If you look closely at the photos of the bean arbor, you can see how close the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks are to my garden.  Unfortunately, Norfolk Southern cares absolutely nothing about property lines or gardens, because they sprayed weed killer on the approximately 2-3 foot wide strip of my garden that is closest to the tracks.  One side of my bean arbor lies within that space, so I have lost half of my beans. *insert sobbing sounds here*  I have also lost two tomato plants (I didn't label them when I planted, but I think it was the yellow tomato *sniff*), all of my cabbage, half of my brussels sprouts, all of my yellow squash, and the eggplants are iffy.  After consulting with my grandfather (who admittedly does use chemical pesticides and herbicides on his garden), I have been assured that it has been long enough since the spraying, that plants will still grow in that same soil should I decide to replant.  I may...I'm not super excited about planting my veggies in soil that has been contaminated with weed killer, but I may give it a go anyway.  I'll let you know.  On a happier note, the other side of my bean arbor is growing well.  The beans haven't put out runners yet, so they are not yet climbing the arbor, but the plants are large enough that I expect to see those runners just any day now.  I promise I'll take pictures when they begin to climb!  I do have other tomato plants in various stages of growth.  The earliest plants I put out are sitting full of green tomatoes now.  My cocozelle squashes are monstrous sized plants (and the squash are tasty!), and my purple kohlrabi are excellent both in size and flavor.  I planted it late, but my corn is growing well.  I only hope the almanac was correct in saying it was okay to plant the corn as late as I did.

This year's goat clinics were a huge success.  When I first entertained the idea of having a goat clinic, I expected to have one, single, solitary clinic, and only hoped there would be enough participation to not be embarrassed.  Much to my surprise, the demand was exceptional.  We ended up putting on four clinics, and have had numerous emails from people wanting more.  I'm afraid of the summer heat and humidity being oppressive, and it often gets miserably muggy by mid-morning, so I have decided to take a break for the rest of the summer.  I am trying to organize a meat rabbit clinic for September, so there will be no goat clinics during that month either.  If time and weather permits, we may try to have another goat clinic in October or November, but I won't know if that is possible until closer to that time.

If you are like me, the summer projects you planned in late winter and early summer have turned out to be much more than you actually have time for, but then again I am inadequate at time management.  Maybe you have more skills in that department than I have!  I would love to hear from you! How are your summer projects coming along?

Last weekend (Memorial Day Weekend), I built my bean arbor and planted some blue lake pole beans.  I saw a picture of an arbor similar to this last year and fell in love with the idea.  Now, I cannot find the original pictures I saw, so unfortunately I cannot give credit to the person who built it, nor can I compare mine to theirs.  I built mine based solely on what I remember that one looking like, but by golly, I think mine will work.
I started by driving a short (approximately 12-14 inch long) piece of rebar about halfway into the ground.  I slid one end of the pvc pipe over the end of the rebar and then carefully bent the pipe in an arch to see how tall I could make the arch without putting the pvc in too much of a bind.  I marked the spot on the ground and drove a second piece of rebar in, and slid the other end of the pipe onto that piece of rebar.  Then I measured out how long I wanted the arbor to be (this one happens to be 7 feet, but it's really your choice) and arched a second piece of pvc in the same manner as the first. Next, I used some scrap hay string and lashed a 1 inch square wooden stake (purely because that's what I had on hand) to the top of each pvc arch, near the center (see the bottom right photo below).  Finally, I stretched plastic bird netting across the whole structure to form a tunnel of sorts, and wove more hay string through the netting and around the pvc (again, see the bottom right photo below).  Down the center of the tunnel, I layered empty feed bags and covered them with straw, to help keep the weeds down.  I planted my beans down each side of the arbor, for 14 total feet of planted beans.  
Today I noticed that all of my beans have sprouted!  We have had steady, gentle rain all day today, which I'm sure helped a great deal, because the beans are 2 inches tall already.  Once they begin to climb the arbor, I will take more photos to share with you.  Have you ever grown pole beans on an arbor like this?  What is your favorite trellis design for pole beans and why?

I am so glad for Spring weather.  I think Spring may be my favorite season because I enjoy watching everything turn green and blossom.  The unpredictable weather can make things difficult, but the warmer temperatures are a nice change after the Winter blahs.
I am working on some serious garden improvements this year.  The plans I have in my head may be vastly different from reality, but we'll just have to try it and see what happens.  Our yard at the house is very small, but I am attempting to maximize space using containers, rotational planting, and a little creativity in some cases.  I have always insisted on only planting perennials when I plant flowers because I have no desire to maintain annual flower beds.  That may change slightly however, because I am going to try planting food in the front yard.  I want to choose plants that are visually appealing as well as tasty.  It's all really an experiment and I am constantly learning as I go, but hopefully my big ideas will turn into at least a few successes.  I'll keep you updated as the growing season progresses.

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