Saturday, August 27, 2016

Camping!



Camping!
Our camp site was roughly at 9,000 feet.
However we did take a day trip down to Current Crick.

Just one of the amazing days up in the mountains with the best people!



Our camp site! 

On one of our many nature hikes I stopped to take a great photo and the hubs snapped one of me!
So here is the shot of me, followed by the shot I was taking!



I could have stayed there forever!
(please forgive my disheveled appearance it was day 3 of camping and I really didn't care at all what I looked like.)
I mean really, who needs to look beautiful when everything around you is stunning!?!

I have to say I needed this camping trip!
Its been a stress filled summer and taking a week away to rest, relax and unwind was heavenly!
The stars at night were magical! 
Our site was directly underneath the milky way and at night (the moon NOT up) 
the sky was bright!

There are no words for how amazing the sky is far from the city lights!
I could try to talk about the inky blackness, the dark deep velvet of night, the shimmer and the brightness along with the depth of light.
How it looks so deep you could dive in and swim away to the furthest star in no time at all, yet if you don't have the imagine in your mind its just not the same.

Fall is coming.
Already the trees were turning yellow!


Sorry I haven't been blogging much, I've had a rough summer. 
Then I've two weeks of constant apples (canning, slicing, peeling ect)
Today is prayerfully my last day of apples - next I start on cucumbers!

Saturday, June 4, 2016

A Day with Friends



Today we celebrate a friends birthday!


We headed up the canyon, found an idyllic spot and celebrated another year of friendship.
The cool breeze was a refreshing break from the rising temps in the lower valley!




Good times, good food with great friends!
Happy Birthday!


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Moving Homestead!



Ever since we bought our home five in a half years ago we have been working on adding to it! Changing the weed choked over grown back yard into a multi use space.
As you can see from my first two blogs on our house to be back in 2010 House & House part 2 we have worked hard to create a viable space, one for us, our kids and our mini farm.

Over time this blog has been filled with all my drama! Family, friends, kids, outings, camping, trips, pets, projects, rants, movies, books, recipes and other nonsensical tidbits.
Trying to get any type of sense, or reason for my mash up was impossible. Good news for all, I am moving the main bulk of what I've focused on for the last few years - our growing urban homestead.
My gardens, chickens and rabbits - plus all my future homestead projects to a more focused blog.

So if growing things - animals or plants, composting, green houses, building the items your self or doing it all on a small bit of land on a very tight budget is something you are interested in please follow my new blog over at Our Bit of Dirt.

This blog, Blessed Rain, will focus on family and friends - I will warn you that I won't be posting here as often but its not going completely dormant.
You have been the best and the most amazing people! Thank you so much for your friendship and support over the years.

When we first moved into our home I couldn't imagine raising chickens or rabbits but couldn't wait to get my fingers into the dirt!
Now I can't imagine my life without them! We hope to add many new things to both our yard and our lives - bee keeping, aquaponics, a green house, rain barrels and fingers crossed learning how to distill oils!
See you there!




Sunday, April 17, 2016

Our Urban Farm


We have the very large back garden where we grow the large things, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, corn, peas ect. (The list is varied and changes yearly but those are the basics)

The upper photo of the lettuce is my wonderful and amazing grow box, showing only one of four sections. Its growing fabulous this year and I can't wait until I can start to harvest it sometime next month. We start it in March, replant it in summer and enjoy lettuce until late fall.

The lower large photo is my kitchen garden. The blog to how we made it is here. Last year we planted carrots, onions, dill, radishes and cilantro in it.
This year we've planted two large sections of carrots (raising rabbits has increased my desire for lots of carrots). We moved the garlic from the upper garden into the middle sections and they are growing amazingly!
Last years dill is coming up around the garlic and they seem to be growing well together! By the time the dill needs more room the garlic will be ready to be harvested (normally mid-July). So we will see how well it does when I pull them out.
The lower photo of the plants came as a surprise, this year when tilling our back garden we found wild scallions growing!
I've already chopped up a handful and cooked them up with pork chops! Very yummy!

As I blogged before (here) we have added meat rabbits to our family. These are the breeders so they have been named and will continue to be doted on. The kids have permission to fall in love with them (as we hope and pray they all turn out to be good breeders)
Hubby designed and built the hutch all on his own from mostly reclaimed wood we were given for free!
On top we built a grow box and are currently growing wheat grass for the rabbits! Up next we will be building the grow out boxes for the babies we hope to have later on this year when these four are old enough.
Fun facts about rabbits - the males are the sweet ones! With many species the males are dominant and aggressive - not so with rabbits! If you are looking for a pet rabbit, choose a male! They are the sweetest things ever, I ADORE Zorro! Such a love!




Then come my ladies! I adore my hens! All 9 are well, we are getting 7-9 eggs daily now that its warmed up. We've been getting so many eggs I've started to sell them, 1-2 dozen a week!
Also I've added Mukluks, the latest in Chicken Couture - in spring and fall when the rain pours down (as it did ALL week this week) these are a must! 
My girls are the sweetest, fluffiest nutters! When hubs wanted chickens a few years ago I couldn't fathom raising them (he hadn't even mentioned rabbits!). Gardening, I was good with. I love playing in the dirt! 
Love the feel of earth, love fresh lettuce, carrots and our first harvest of garlic last year might actually last us until we can harvest in July - but I've been milking them along! We love garlic!
Raising chickens scared me! I was worried about the amount of care, time and health of taking care of them in such a mixed climate as Northern Utah has - bitter raging cold in winter and fiery hot summers.
They have been a joy!
I can't even believe it took me so long to get them! I don't know why more people don't have chickens in places its legal to raise them!

Next year (or the year after, life always throws odd things at us) we hope to add honey bees. We are also working on converting our small shed or even building a green house for an aquaponics system. Hopefully in the future we will have lettuce all year round, along with duck weed and fish.

So we have a bit of land, not much at all really, but manage to have a small homestead set up. The key is to take it one step at a time. I'm not overwhelmed with everything because we've slowly added one thing at a time.
Until next time ;) stay safe and healthy!


Saturday, April 16, 2016

A 10th Birthday Party!



Yesterday G'man turned 10! 
Today we celebrated with a fun filled day at the Nickel Cade - a local video arcade place where every game is only five cents to play!


Two amazing hours of games, friends, presents, cake and prizes! Everyone had a blast! I'm just thrilled that it turned out perfect!
All eight kids (6 not including mine) that were invited showed up! Everyone enjoyed the goodie bags, cake and soda. Most of all everyone loved the games!

We did have one down side, today when we got home G'mans friend and next door neighbor stole one of his toys - IN FRONT OF US!
I kid you not, he refuses to give back the small toy and his family's response has been, yeah he's been caught stealing from some of his friends.... That's it.
So while the party was great, we did end up having to ban one child from coming back to our home.
I am very disappointed with how people are raising kids, allowing them to consider this not only okay but normal behavior.

Also one of the funniest bits is his Lego Mine-craft toy came with a treasure chest full of --- a french baguette...?
Not what I picture as treasure but hey G'mans happy with it!

So another year has disappeared, vanishing quickly and we have a fantastic year ahead! Both my kids are in double digits now! Not sure if I should be thrilled or terrified. 

Also I've decided that from now on every year they age, I'm getting younger. I'm done with aging. No more sore muscles, strange aches and grey hairs. So let the good times roll! 


Sunday, March 27, 2016

Easter






First off HAPPY EASTER! 

I had some fun today with Zorro, our adorable sweet male rabbit. He's so large and adorable now! I need to post new photos of him soon!

Gifts this year were different our kids are older now, Prissy is 12 and G'man is turning 10 in a few weeks. They did the Easter Egg hunt at Hubby's work like we do every year - this is where they bagged a ton of candy and a few nice prizes!
We however got them big kid gifts.




G'man got a wood burning kit and will be learning how to use it, while Prissy got a new art box.




For our adult friends and family (that live close by) we made up Easter Omelet baskets!
Highlighting our farm fresh eggs of course!
Each basket had 2 sets of 3 eggs. One set blue/green from our Easter Eggser (Americana's), one set brown from our Rhode Island Reds.
To go with the eggs we added cubed ham, cheese wedges, peppers, tomato, mushrooms and an onion.

We dropped them off yesterday so that they could wake up to an have a wonderful Easter Breakfast! So while we are all still feeling a little under the weather and haven't been very active. I hope to be posting more wonderful photos of our new cute additions soon!

Until next time, Happy Easter!


wink emoticon

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Meet our Meat Rabbits

The top two bays of the rabbit hutch

Yes, the title really did read rabbit. No, its no longer a popular meat here in the USA. However, for many years it was a dietary staple.
After getting chickens last year, my darling hubby decided we were also getting rabbits.

When I say decided I mean he started creating plans, figuring out where he was going to put them and then of course finding us local meat breeders willing to sell us a few young breeders!


Meet Stormy & Misty our Does

Zorro our Buck
My only chore is making sure they are fed, watered and then finding ways to cook them up!
This week we butchered our practice bunny. An adorable white bunny we had named Bonnie, until we realized that Bonnie was indeed Bubba.
I cooked rabbit for the first time! It turned out amazing! Here is a link to the recipe.

Now Zorro is only 13 weeks and the Does are only 7 so it will be several months until we can think about baby bunnies. For now we are going to finish building the bottom two bays of the hutch, Then build out the growing pen.

The wood for the hutch we received from a friend of ours, it used to be fencing but had been damaged. We were able to salvage much of the wood and create a beautiful hutch all at the same time.

For those interested, my husband and daughter are making a video of building the hutch. It will be posted to their blog in a few weeks when the bottom is completed.

As for us, we've been busy. We have several spring projects we are hard at work on and will be planting the cinder block garden this weekend. I already have lettuce growing and raspberries to plant!
Our chickens are all healthy, fine and laying! We got a full 9 eggs the other day so Spring is truly here!

Blessing to all, may your life be full!
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