Update on "MAMA DUKE'S FARM"

It has been quite a while since I've updated this blog and I must apologize to those of you who have been checking back on a regular basis.  Where does time go?

OK, the goats are still as stinkin cute as ever!  Guess now you can say all of our "kids" are handsome (little farm humor :-).

Of course if I had to pick a favorite out of all three "kids", this is the winner by far!

As for the Chickens, WOW, never new an animal could grow so fast.  Hard to believe that just a little over two months ago they came in a tiny box in the mail and two of them could fit in one of my hands!  We should have our first eggs in October and we are excited!!

Now, on to the gardens.  The rain seems to never stop.  It floods the plants out, then it's so hot it dries them all out, then it's so wet it floods them out again and right now, I'm just happy that we are getting a few vegetables here and there.  I'm learning a lot this year with where I've located the gardens and do have plans to move the garden to a totally different area this fall, to prepare for next year.  I've done some canning this year, but mostly from farmers market purchased fruits and some from the grocery store.  I'm determined to still do pickles this year and am trying to hold out for my garden (and trying to keep the goats away from the vines).    The peppers are coming a long, so perhaps pepper jelly will be in the near future. 

Garden Location 1

He just had to pick a Pepper, tried to tell him it was HOT!

He didn't want to take "Mama's" word for it.

Maaammmaaa, it's burning!....Really Manny?

Really Mama, it's HOT!


Okay, now that we have that out of the way...here is a little shot of the greenhouse.  Both the garden and greenhouse have been quite a learning experience this year.  Planted many things in the greenhouse that did well before it got to hot and humid...now it's getting down to herbs and seedlings.  Although I will say that some of the cucumbers are still doing very well.

Canning is FUN! Here are some of our recent rewards :-)

We have made our own ketchup, tomato sauce and strawberry lemonade concentrate.  We have made peach butter and Paula Deen's Georgia Peach Honey.  We even made watermelon jelly, although I will tell you that watermelon is much better as well...just plain watermelon :-).

Will post more photo's later....

First Potato Harvest

You say Potato, I say potato..our first potato harvest that is! 

We had fun last night digging up a few red potatoes that we planted almost two months ago.

I must say that I've added potatoes to my "easiest to grow" list!    We planted them in a couple of  large pots (but made a mental note to plant in a larger pot next time) and just kept them watered and fertilized and they did the rest!

I encourage you to get some Five gallon buckets/pots and plant tomatoes, potatoes, squash, zuchinni and peppers!

Cannot wait to harvest some sweet potatoes!  We planted them in an old bath tub outside...you know your a redneck when you send your son outside to get taters from the tub!!

Week 3 and the CHICKS go FREE!

Okay, it's week 3 for our little chicks and I don't know who was gladder that they left the garage today! They are so cute and magnificent, but cooped up in a kiddy pool in the garage was not fun after week two ended. They were just getting to big and needed more room.


Luckily we finished the chicken pen last night and the chicks were able to move into the Chicken Condo today! They do not have all of their feathers yet. They spent most of the day out in the warm sun. It was a lot of fun watching them run around and peck the ground today. You would think when one of them found an insect that they had struck GOLD as all the others would run and chase the miner, not letting her enjoy her treasure on her own!

If you have never seen little chicks sleep you are really missing a good laugh. Or scare, or both! LOL…they sleep like they are in a comma! Today I watched one of them literally fall over on its side as if it died, I got up from the table and ran over to check on it and it got up and took off running! My heart just about stopped beating! Then I laughed of course and realized why chickens really are easy prey, which is why the pen is protected on top and around the bottoms, etc…

Their evenings will be spent inside under the continued use of the heat light until their full feather coat is in (probably another couple of weeks).

Can't wait to go down and let them back out in the morning...they were very very happy today and since my garage no longer smells like a barn...we'll lets just say I AM HAPPY TO! :-)

Love my chicks!

It's been a corny day here on the Farm :-)

Okay, yesterday I canned corn relish.  Today I used some of the extra corn relish I made as a base to my corn chowder soup and canned some of it.

There were still a few pieces of corn on the cob left, so I made corn salsa with it and man is it delicious!

Needless to say...it's been a corny day here at Mama Duke's Farm.

Chickens are two weeks old and growing!

Had to laugh today when I went out into the garage to see the chickees this morning.  One of them was sitting on top of the food container and two were running around in the garage :-)...getting closer to moving outside in another week or two! 

Their feathers are comming in and they are getting anxious!  (or should I say bored in the garage :-).

Canned Corn Relish

Okay, with the corn in season and over flowing at the farmers markets...I took advantage and experimented with making Corn Relish.

It turned out great and was very easy to can. 

Made some extra and used it to make Corn Chowder soup for this rainy day.

Buddy & Clyde have arrived!

Okay, many of you have already heard that we were getting goats. That's right; we are true Wanna Be Farmers!


Today we added two pygmy Nigerian goats to our little farm here in Country Meadows.

Manny named his goat Buddy and Jeffrey named his goat Clyde.

Yeah, Yeah, I know...Buddy and Clyde sounds like trouble, but we figure its better then Cain and Able!

Welcome to our "Backyard" Farm - the chickens have arrived!

Okay, we would have never of thought ten years ago that we'd be doing this here in Middleburg.  We dreamed of moving to Tennessee, but have made the decision to stay where we are.  One of the things we wanted to do when we moved to TN was have chickens.  We felt like we needed more acreage to do so. 

However, after some research, we have plenty of room for chickens!  So with this excitement..we moved forward and have added a hen house and 15 hens!  Now they are just babies at this time, but we look forward to farm fresh eggs in a few months!  We have only pullets (farm talk for female chickens for egg laying :-). 

This will make you laugh, but I thought you had to have roosters for the chickens to lay eggs, so I held off on the chicken adventure.  However, after some research I feel like a dummy...female chickens lay eggs by nature.  The only reason you would need a rooster is if you plan to raise chickens and want more of them.  We do not want our eggs to be fertilized, so no ROOSTERS needed! 

So here is our little backyard farm addition: