Vermicomposting (AKA Worms)

These pics were taken last spring after visiting the NOFA NH winter conference. There we found a vendor selling "red wigglers" as composting worms. After reading of the value of worm castings (ie. poop) as a natural fertilizer in our gardens and how they can turn your kitchen waste into something of value I knew we wanted to try it for ourselves.

First we researched online and watched some You Tube videos about the subject (there are lots!). Then we found a spare storage tote and went to work. Here James is drilling the holes in the bottom of the tote for drainage. The lid also needs to be done for air flow.

Next we shredded lots of newspaper and added that to the bin... or the floor :-)
Emmy is now adding water to moisten the shredded paper.
Next, in go our red wigglers!

On top of that a little more paper some garden soil and some kitchen scraps. The worms like to stay warm so they spent most of the spring in our kitchen then moved to the shed for the summer and now reside in our basement.

So far our worm bin has multiplied into three bins and we have a big bucket of pure vermicompost to use in our gardening this year! We are thinking of selling our excess worms at our farm stand this summer either as composing worms or as fishing worms???

Sheep and a Schoolhouse

We had a fun visit to a nearby farm in Tamworth NH called Schoolhouse Farm. They raise Icelandic sheep, a breed known to be triple purpose, wool, meat, and milk! The seep had been shorn a couple months ago to make way for kidding. There 18 lambs born this season!

This was as close as I could get with my phone camera so you cannot see the curly long wool on these beautiful sheep. Check out the link to the farm above to see more sheep pics. The wool actually gets really long almost touching the ground before being shorn.

We also got a tour of the farms namesake, the old schoolhouse. It was so neat to go inside a schoolhouse untouched and as it was long ago.

This was what you saw as you walked in the front door. So cute!! And the map was so neat!!! It was of Carroll County and some of the old hotels and stores were pictured around it.

The kids, not really ever having sat at a real school desk had lots of fun pretending!

There were only two little desks so the little kids piled their chairs around both sides of this one. No electricity and no lights made this photo with my phone a little dark but fun!

There was also a frog/swimming pond, a barn that was solar powered and the beautiful farm house to check out too. The kids had a great time with their pals as you can see from these sweet pics of friendship.

A Real Tea Party

The girls and Mommy got to enjoy a real tea party at our church last weekend! This is becoming an annual event at our church and is so fun to dress up and play pretend with all the ladies!
Here is Emmy and Mollie with their Mimi.

The girls had a great time sipping tea out of real tea cups and munching on all the goodies!

Especially the sweet ones!!!

Thanks Miss Sherry for planning this event for the ladies!

Mollie is 3!

Our baby is 3!!
Time has flown by so fast since this little one came into our lives! Here is a pic of her at her 1st birthday:

And here she is now enjoying her froggy cupcake on her birthday at home! What a difference!!

Here she is getting ready to devour that pile of frosting! Miss Mollie has a MAJOR sweet tooth! If she is crying and unwilling to stop she is easily bribed into stopping with candy or some other sweet treat!

She also can be oh so sweet in nature too! Here she is with her little chick (fluffy 2), who is the same kind as the one we lost in a dog attack last summer!

Oh Miss Mollie how you have grown! We love you so much and are so glad you are in our family!!

Our New Babies: Update

We took our new spring babies out in the spring grass today! They had such a good time exploring and pecking!!!

Our duckies got a new home in the corner of Pat's shed. They seemed to be enjoying the freedom to move around a little more.

They also got to take a dip in the pool/garbage can top. This gives you a perspective of how small they really are! So cute!!

Grandview Farm Blog

We now have a new blog for our families "farming" project this year. You can check it out in the side bar or by clicking the link below:

http://grandviewfarm.blogspot.com/

A Snowy Spring Day!

We woke up to this sight:

SNOW on baby Maple leaves! A sight I do not think I have ever witnessed before!!

We had a good inch or two by the time it stopped.

Our gardens didn't seem to mind it too much! The Day Lily's still looked fresh and alive!

This little Pansy peeked it's way through the snow!

Hopefully everything will be fine! The snow was gone by the afternoon and I even think I saw a ray of sun!

Tire Swing Fun

Pat surprised the kids the other day by hanging a tire swing in the big oak tree next to their swing set. We had built the frame for a tire swing addition to their swing set a couple of years ago but have never set it up. This year we decided we needed to put in at least two more swings so there wouldn't be any fighting and they could all play on the swings together! Thus the tire swing ended up in the tree.

Here are a few videos he took with his phone. (Yay! We figured out how to get pics from the phone!!! Although they are not as good as the camera :-)

Here is Ethan flying high, you can tell "Mom" is not around for this because I would have been freaking out!

Here is James and "my head is falling off":

Again you can tell "Mom" is not here when Ethan is spinning and screaming "stop me now!"

Here are all the kids on the existing swings, hopfully we will have a couple more by Ethan's B-day!

Earl Family Farm Field Trip

Last Friday we took a field trip with the Little Explorers to the Earl Family Farm and learned all about farming with a Tin Mountain instructor. The class was great and we loved the animals! The chickens were the first thing we visited, the kids all got a turn to go into the hen house and see them sitting on the eggs and even caught some laying in action!
The next creature we got to study up close was this little garden snake. Him and his Mommy (who was much bigger!!!) were hanging out in the sun by the little frog pond.

It is a good thing Daddy was not on this trip (no snakes for him)!!
James and Ethan posing for a pic with their good buddy Caleb and the Ram who was under quarantine (you know...spring time and all).

Here is Emmy coming out of the greenhouse where they they have all of their organic veggies and flowers growing.

Here I tried to focus on the lambs but I got the fence instead! Can someone please give me a lesson on how to focus on the background???

The same happened here but I though it was too cute not to post.

Next we got to see one of the employees feed this little lamb with a bottle! It was so cute!!

Here he is afterward with his little belly full and just hanging out in her lap enjoying all the attention.

Emmy checking out more sheep.

James was giving them little bits of hay they couldn't reach through the fence.

Here are the kids with Maverick posing for one last pic before we headed home. Definitely a fun place to visit and we can't wait to return.

A Sign of Spring!

We saw this Moose near our house the other day! Yay it's spring!!