Stressed

There’s a lot of talk about healthy garden foods on this blog.  However, we do eat cake.  Sometimes we eat it for breakfast.

Did you know that stressed spelled backwards is desserts? That’s a funny coincidence.

My mother came over the other day with the sole purpose of making a cake with her grandchildren.  It wasn’t a holiday or a birthday.  No stress, just taking some time to smell the roses  eat some cake.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

We love our garden food but cake makes us happy too.  We wanted to share that with you.

Come grow with us!

Kids!

I try to post a blog at least three days a week, but some weeks are tough.  It is especially difficult when we have new additions to the family that are this adorable.  

This is Chloe... she was born a few days ago.

This is Mary. She's the older of the two... by a week.

We’re taking turns bottle feeding the kids.  We’re using a nipple that we bought from Tractor Supply made for feeding baby goats.  The nipples easily screw onto a Dasani water bottle that we fill with a powdered formula made for kids.  We’re using KidMilk made by MannaPro and mixing it with cow’s milk.  They’re really easy to feed.  We purchased the doelings from the Alva Island Family Farm.

A couple of people have asked me if I feel bad for taking them away from their mothers.  My answer is that they will be much better pets because we’re raising them.  They’ve been eating, sleeping and playing non-stop with my children.  If they had the choice to go back to their mothers, I think they’d choose to stay with us.

They're sleeping in a playpen.

Chloe... a baby Nigerian dwarf dairy goat.

Mary

Female Nigerian dwarf goats only reach about 17-19″ in height at maturity.  We don’t have a huge yard, but we have three acres and can certainly accommodate two dwarf dairy goats.  We’re really looking forward to learning all about them.  It’s going to be an awesome journey. 

Come grow with us!

Gardening: A Family Affair, Part II

This is my daughter Loring and her favorite chicken “Sweetpea”. It is definitely mutual.  Loring is her person.  She always lets Loring pick her up and wants to be snuggled.  Funny how they are both the smallest and both rule their coops. 

Loring is an avid gardener too.   Three years old and she can identify each plant in our yard and knows whether or not it can be eaten.  She knows to always ask mommy first to make sure it is safe to eat. She holds it up to me and says, “is it okay mommy?”

Come grow with us!

Gardening: A family Affair!

Gardening is fun…so are chickens.  Meet my son Grayson and his favorite hen  “Floofy”.  Most days you’ll find Grayson deep into a new project.  Sometimes it’s a homeschooling project, but most of the time he’s in his garden.  His latest project is researching and planning a huge butterfly, bee and hummingbird garden.  We have removed the sod and will be planting on Wednesday. 

Grayson completed a six-week beekeeping course through the Lee County Agricultural Extension office  .  Now he  is a backyard beekeeper and is a member of the Southwest Florida Bee Association.  We have 2 boxes of bees.  We can’t wait to harvest our honey! Did I mention he is only eight?

Come grow with us!

Hello…we can’t come to the phone right now ’cause we’re outside in the garden.

Hello! My name is Lisa.  Welcome to my blog.  My family lives on 3 acres in Southwest Florida.  About 4 years ago we decided that we were tired of mowing our lawn.   We have gradually been turning our lawn into an outdoor living room with food and animals.  Now we spend much more time outside in our yard.

I realize that I will never know everything there is to know about gardening. We learn so much everyday. Gardening is something we love learning about together as a family.  Our lives are so hectic.  Gardening brings us together to slow down and smell the flowers… and then maybe eat them.  My goal is to inspire you to do the same.  I have so much to share with you.  It is a soulful  journey.

 Come grow with us!