The end of May already, here's what's been keeping us so busy

~~Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. 1 Corinthians 3:8-9~~

This is the biggest cause of our busyness. Our very large garden. It rained and rained and rained and we were about 2 weeks late even getting our garden planted. Now that it's in the ground, it quit raining. UGHhhhh So for now we are water sprinkling it. It's not coming up great but my tomatoes look really good.
We are doing a lot of this......

My girls are doing their fair share of weeding, as well. Lord willing, we will have a bounty for all of this work. Working in the garden and putting up the harvest is one of my favorite parts of homesteading. Oh and by the way, the outfits below are not something we would ever wear outside of the garden! We like modesty!!

Our newest advenuture is beekeeping. My husband and son took a beekeeping class a few weeks ago. My son is hoping this will be a little side business for himself. He is so excited about it and loves his bees already. He has been in his hives every other day so far.

Here are the girls working hard.

My boys in their bee suits.

Smoking out their bees so that they can release their queen.

Another major project at the Spencer Family Farm is raising 15 Bourbon Red Turkeys. We have had them about 3 weeks and let me tell you, it has not been easy. We did not realize that turkeys are not the smartest of animals. We got them as day olds and thought it would be like the many chickens that we have raised in the past. However, turkeys we soon found out will starve to death standing beside their feed. They have to be taught to eat. Which we did for over a week. It has been tough and we have lost 3 but they are all eating well now and it seems they are doing good.

We plan to keep 3 hens and 1 Tom for future breeding. We are giving 2 to my mom and will process the rest for the freezer. They are so cute but aren't growing as quick as chicks either.

Here's Mrs. Phoebe. We have moved her to the big pasture to free range too. She has lost so much weight since having a bigger area to run around in. We are so crazy about this little missy. She gets two eggs at the end of everyday and now she is in the habit of running when she sees me heading to the chicken house. Who would have known that a pot bellied pig would be so much fun?

The girls are busy laying in their new Hen Pals Nest Box. I have to say I love this thing and the girls do too. We are getting about 20 eggs a day.

They also love the big new area that we have fenced in for their free ranging.

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day and remember those that have given their lives so that we could have freedom!!

Spring Around the House and Camping

Spring has sprung here on the homestead...... With it, has come some terrible storms and some of our family and friends have been effected. I encourage everyone to pray for those affected by the recent tornadoes.
~~ Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. James 5:16~~

Around the homestead, we are seeing everything start to bloom and green up. Here's a swarm of bees who were attempting to make one of my muscadine polls their home. The day after we took pics. of them, they left. I can't wait to have our own bees here on the mini farm.
Here's a beautiful purple Iris. They didn't bloom much last year but are beautiful this year. I hope to dig up some more from my mom's house and plant them.

This is our "new" to us camper. We camped about 20 mins. from our house because we were trying out this new pop up camper. We have always tent camped and even though we had air mattresses, our girls hated the tent. So this is a step up. A friend of mine was wanting to get rid of it for next to nothing. It has some things wrong with it but I am married to a "Mr. Fix It". So for us it's not a big deal. We love to camp. There's nothing like getting out to the woods and having no phone, TV, etc.

Setting up our outdoor table. This is our prep area for meals.

The love of my life walking his little dog. Snicker Snicker. This was supposed to be Katherine's dog but oh, how he loves Ronnie.

The girls had the occasional photo shoot and waded in the water. I love this one.

I loved watching the kids play cards for hours on end. There is some serious family bonding going on over a game of peanut butter and jelly or spit. Roosevelt State Park has a White Tail Deer Research Facility. The sign said not to stick your hand in but you can't keep the deer from sticking their heads out. Haha

We took a long hike to see the goslings swimming with their parents. It's interesting to know that Canadian Geese mate for life. We love cooking over an open fire on this little grill. Then we sit by the fire and eat smores.

The fishing was not great needless to say, but Peyton enjoyed the catching and releasing.

This is a miracle (smiling), considering this sweet girl doesn't really like camping. She took one for the team!

Our friendly visiting duck came by all through out the day to eat bread or peanuts. :)

We hope to have a couple of camping trips this summer in between all of the work of the garden.

Have a great Week!!!

Trixi