Farm

Good Fortune Came Our Way

Sometimes life comes at you fast.  One day we were driving a road that my wife bikes regularly just so I could see the area and 10 days later we were making an offer on a larger than we ever imagined property with her brother.  Well one month later we are the proud owners of 85+ acres of beautiful farm land that is only 10 minutes away from our current farm.  There is a lot of work to be done, but also a lot of possibilities.  We are calling this new land the Chestnut Mountain property, because as you can guess, Chestnut Mountain is the dominant feature.  We have already started working with Madison County Soil and Water to create a management plan that includes fencing off all the spring runs and creating alternative watering sources for livestock.  Our goal is to be good stewards of the land and keeping animals out of the water is the first step. 

This summer we will be running our summer camp at the Chestnut Mountain property.  There is so much more space to play, hike, and explore.  Well enough words, here are some pictures of the new place. 

Fall Nature Preschool Program

Registration is underway for our fall Nature Preschool Program.  This will be an all outdoor program for 3-5 year olds based on the Waldkindergarten programs in northern Europe.  If you have any questions please contact us at sunnytruthfarm@gmail.com.  Below is the flyer and feel free to spread the word.

Work is paying off in different ways

So we have been so busy with the summer garden and all the new animals that the website gets forgotten, shame.  One small success is our butterfly garden between the house and the main garden.  Despite the lack of rain it is in full bloom right now and we have been inspired.  More will be popping up around the property.  More post soon on all the other things going on.  Don't forget our outdoor preschool has registration going on right now.  It is going to be a great learning experience for the kids as well as a great fun. 

Busy, Busy, Busy....Chicks, Chicks, and Ducklings (updated)

So busy with chicks hatching (more than expected), chicks being delivered (why did we do this), and ducklings being delivered.  We decided to take two days worth of eggs and put them in the incubator and see what happened.  We never checked for fertility and just thought of it as a test run for the incubator since we had only tried the turkey egg.  Well 19 days later we had 19 chicks hatching out of 25 eggs put in.  We candled the other 6 and 3 were not fertile and the rest just never fully developed.  Not bad.  Good job hens and roosters.  Most of these are muts as the roosters are Marans and there are only 2 Maran hens, the rest are New Hampshire and Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks.  Here are some pictures and a video.  Have also posted pictures of the ducklings and chicks that we just got in today.  Pretty hardy creatures to survive the trip in the mail, a human baby wouldn't. 

It is so wild how quickly they go from weak looking creature to fluffy little chick, in a day!  Below is the video.  We are still registering for summer camp and we have started taking registration for our Nature Preschool. 

 

 

Sometimes you have to stop and enjoy your surroundings

Sometimes we get so busy we forget to look around and take in all the wonderful things that surround us.  Toddlers do help sometimes in seeing the small things that are amazing.  Our kids found this newly emerged Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly yesterday, which I would have totally missed as I was thinking about things that needed to get done while we walked back to the house.  Also there are some lovely spring wildflowers out right now.  So I am going to try to be more in the here and now and take in what is around me, because there is a lot of wonderful things that could be missed otherwise.  Don't forget about our Summer Camp and our Nature Preschool programs.  Registration is going on right now.