Vine Living

Monday, February 28, 2011

In the Garden...Spring, 2011

orange blossoms, smelling amazing!

green beans

more green beans

blueberries blooming

carrots

onions

mild peppers

parsley

peas

spinach and squashes

wheat and oats

Remember this fun snack? (puffed wheat) It's really called Kamut and I'm going to try and grow some this spring. We shall see. :)

kamut

potted lettuce...buttercrunch and fancy lettuce

kale

leeks, although it's getting too hot too soon for this to actually produce. I've thought about bringing it inside and putting it on the windowsill in the airconditioning. Hmmm...

non GMO corn

Bay tree...love these leaves in stews and such.

apple blossoms

more apple blossoms

Our new Elderberry trees...SO excited about these. Hoping for some blossoms soon. Talk about probiotics! ;)

the garden

Rob's new investment...apple trees, peach trees, pear trees, plum trees and nectarine trees. These types of trees have never been available in a zone (9) like ours before, but agriculturists have been working to make these available. They are not GMO trees, but rather, they've been bred for years to become more and more heat-tolerant to our Florida sun. We did buy two of each for cross-pollination.

Rob built this pond months ago and it's a great constant source of water for our chickens. So nice not having to water them everyday! The fence it to keep our dog, Riley and little ones out. We have a few fish (brim) in it and they help keep the algae levels down.

Norah, helping Daddy collect eggs. We're getting a dozen a day currently.

Of coarse, I had to take some pictures of "the ladies".

laying eggs

nesting

Hope you've enjoyed the tour of our spring garden. Now that everything is planted, it's up to us to water it once a day (Elderberry trees, get watered twice a day because we just transplanted them and they're a little 'wilty' at times still).

Baby chicks come in the 3rd week in March and I'm looking forward to having some 'wee ones' around again. They keep the kids so busy and they make for some great photos. I can't wait to take the kids' spring pictures in their new dresses/clothes with the bunnies and baby chicks on the front lawn. I'm hoping our Rye grass will hold out with the heat until then.

I think I've mentioned before my new favorite blog Reformation Acres. I love THIS idea and might tackle some of her organizational tips as far as seed pack organization and record keeping.

Have a BLESSED Monday!

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Join us as our family is constantly being pruned by our Heavenly Father (John 15) to get rid of that which hinders us from growing closer to Him and replaces that pruning with spiritual fruit. We have six, amazing, little arrows, so far (Psalm 127:4) in which we were given "on loan" by God, privileged to raise, home educate (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Deut. 4:9-10) and make little disciples of (John 1; Mark 1, 3; John 15). We are a tight-knit family, passionate about adoption and foster care, and run a small, 5-acre farm in Florida called Vine Living Farm where we milk cows, raise chickens for meat and eggs as well as ducks, turkeys and rabbits, breed Bernese Mountain dog puppies, and grow fruit, herbs and veggies, stewarding God's creation for His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). Join us on our adventure!

Our Homeschool "Style"

I would describe our homeschool style as "life learners", although some would label it "unschooling". We are constantly learning with each day and situations God gives us and when we are doing more formal learning, we are notebooking or following a natural approach of learning through Charlotte Mason methods. Our largest emphasis is on teaching from the Bible, training our children to love Jesus, modeling how to ABIDE in Him and become His disciples. The best part is that I get to learn alongside my children! I wouldn't trade it for the world, yes, even on the harder days.