Things are looking up!!!!
Mood:  happy

Well, the weather finally turned (90 degrees today) so much for a weekly blog, how about a monthly one......

 Garden- We keep planting-  THe lettuce, spinach, radishes and onions are looking good.   We have planted pretty much each of the last three weekends to maintain a constant supply and variety of vegetables all summer. Our first weekly boxes will be going out in a couple weeks. There are still a couple spots left.......

Apiary-  The girls (all the productive bees in a hive are female) are doing great.  All four hives look strong at this point.  Just added the second brood box to each of the hives. Once the girls fill this up w/ baby bees, we can start putting the honey supers on.  Labor day will be here before you know it.

Poultry-  No change here except we finally got the birds out on grass.  The yolks are getting more orange from eating all that healthy grass.  We lost 2 birds in the flock temporarily.  The rooster (now named Duke William) and one of the hens have been separated from the flock so they can be shown in the Eau Claire County 4-H fair by my older 2 girls. They will be reuinted with the flock after the fair at the end of July.  

Pork-  The pigs keep growing thanx to fresh air, healthy feed and produce scraps from Festival Foods (thanx to Randy, Tony, and all the crew in the produce department at Festival for saving the 'scraps' for the pigs. )

If anyone is reading this, let me know what you think.  It may motivate me to update this more often.........

Here We Go!!!!!!
Mood:  d'oh

Well, May is just about here.  So much for weekly blog entries.  It was a nice try.  Just got back from 2 weeks in GA (work related) and have so much to get going here.  

 Garden-  Weather has not warmed up enough to get anything in the ground yet but we are really itchin to get diggin.    Will need to till up the garden areas one more time before we plant.  Sign ups continue for the CSA.   We did get some plants to put in once weather warms a little.

Apiary-  The bees return from Oklahoma this week.    The 2 packages are in and seem to be doing well, though I haven't had a chance to check them recently.

Poultry-  The birds are doing well.   The "new" chickens keep growing.  Egg production is up in the flock. We are between 6-7 dozen eggs a day.   We are hoping to get the chickens moved to grass in the next week or so. Did get the coop cleaned out a few weeks ago.  Good to get that one done!

Pork-  Wow!!!!  We currently have 12 pigs!  Needless to say, pre-orders went way better than expected. The first five we got were bigger pigs so they should be done early summer.  After much searching and heartache- we did find 7 additional pigs.  They are smaller but should be done by mid September. Had to put up 2 new pen areas to accomodate 12 pigs. 

Thanx for reading-  If there is anyone out there actually reading this-  Have a blessed day.

 

Is Spring on its way????
Mood:  celebratory

Today the weather was in the upper 50's.   Hooray!   That means the GAPP will be getting into full swing in just a few short weeks.   Here's the latest:

Garden-   We are trying to get some composted manure lined up to fertilize the garden areas.  Sign ups are continuing for the CSA.  

Apiary-  We ordered 2 packages of bees. That will bring our total to 4 hives once our bees come back frmo Oklahoma.  Does that mean they will buzz with a twang?   We may add another hive or two, depending on which way the wind blows later this spring. 

Poultry-  We just added 50 new chicks to the flock.   They are soo cute and fuzzy.  Hard to imagine these cute little thing quickly turn into not so cute chickens.  Anyway, I think the "new" birds we added to the flock last week are finally starting to produce some eggs.   Not really looking forward to cleaning out the coop but that is a chore that is pretty high on the necessity list. Cant wait till the ground hardens and we can start moving the chickens onto grass. 

Pork-  We are still in search of feeder pigs.   Not sure why, but my Craig's List post looking for feeder pigs kept getting rejected. Oh Well!  Preorders are still open, but I think we are shooting for 6 pigs this time.   WE are going to open a new pen area and should be able to get that up and going once the ground thaws.  The pigs will go in the old section until the new one is done. 

 Thanx again for reading. Have a blessed day. 

O the weather outside is frightful.......
Mood:  cool

As I write this first "real" blog of my life, We are looking forward to trying to "grow" more than a garden, apiary, poultry and pork, we are trying to grow a small family business.   Even though we are yearning for warmer weather, green grass, etc, we are poised to get another wintery blast .  Forcast is 6-10" of snow.    Since the ground wont be able to be worked for a while, this gives us a chance to let everyone know what is going on at St Fiacre GAPP.

 Garden-   Signups for the introductory year of our CSA are ongoing.  We have had several people express interest, but the commitments are slow coming.   That is certainly to be expected for a first year CSA, especially in the dead of winter.   A special thanx to Carla and everyone at Castle Rock Organic Dairy for allowing us to send out our flyer on their home delivery route.  

 We have purchased a large number of seed to be planted once we can work the ground.   Not sure if we are going to tackle starting plants indoors this year or not.  We will likely buy plants for tomatoes, peppers and the like.    Now if we can just get that tiller going.......

 Apiary-  The bees are still in Oklahoma (as far as we know) .  We will be ordering package bees in the very near future to increase the apiary slightly.   We are still a very small apiary operation (4-8 hives right now).  In addition to outstanding honey, we certainly appreciate their ability to pollinate. 

Poultry-  We have ordered our chicks for this year.   We are on the black cycle.  (we alternate red, black with the chickens so it is easier to separate the older hens when it is time to "cycle" them out of the flock)  This year we ordered 25 Black Australorp and 25 Black Sex Link chicks.   They will be arriving in a couple weeks.   I guess that means we need to get the brooder ready... We also added 25 "new" Black sex Links to our existing flock from some friends of ours who are moving to Virginia (zone 7, I am so envious...) They are beautiful birds and are slowly getting accustomed to their new surroundings. 

Pork-  We havent finalized when we will be getting our pigs this year and how many we will be growing.  If you are interested, certainly let us know so we can make sure we have enough for everyone.  

Thanx for reading,  feel free to respod, critique, give feedback, laugh, criticize, whatever.    The plan at this point is to try to Blog every week or so to let everyone know what is happening at the GAPP.  

 God Bless. 

First Blog
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: First entry
Here is the first entry in the St Fiacre GAPP blog....  Even though the weather outside is not exactly growing weather, we are excited to get this venture up off the ground.