Mountain Blessings

27/03/2024

Here you'll find links to selected suppliers of solar viewers and filters that you can be confident are safe when used properly. These include companies and organizations with which members of the AAS Solar Eclipse Task Force have had good experience as well as other companies and organizations that...

06/10/2023

Help a girl out… My presents expire in 14 hrs. I just need 2 new people to Temu just to accept my invitation. Just $4.00 away from getting my free gifts. I can’t pay the $4.00 with money. Have to have people accept my invitation!

I promise not to bother you about something like this ever again! I’m so close!!!!! Thanks in advance! Lori Haga 🥰.

Click the link now and participate in this event.

01/05/2022

Spring is my favorite time of year. Everything is coming back to life. New life is beginning. So excited to see my garden waking up with beauty.

Enjoy a journey through my garden!

01/05/2022

🌱🌱🐥🧅🌱🔨🌱🐓🦌🐣🌱🌱⚒
Been a busy week. Learning about seeds and all the stuff that goes with it to start growing my own plants. I’d been in a garden program for the last 3 years and had been getting my plant from them. But now it’s time to learn to do this on my own.

Worked on my raised beds, adding drip line and planting veggies as we go along. Adding wire on top of beds to keep the chickens from digging up my seeds and adding drip line.
This is temporary, until I can figure out what’s next to keep the chickens from digging up my garden and the deer eating everything.
🌱🌱🐥🧅🌱🔨🌱🐓🦌🐣🌱🌱⚒

01/05/2022

Time to eat and drink🥰
15 hens a 1 rooster.
I like raising 1 baby rooster with my baby hens, then he grows up learning to take care of his own flock of girls. I have 3 adult roosters who each have their own flock of girls to care for. For me this works out the best since my birds like to free range in different areas from each others flock, and that way there is a rooster watching out for them at all time. My roosters don’t always get along, but they do a good job with all the girls !!!!

01/05/2022

Our baby girls have arrived safe and sound 🐥🐣

12/07/2021

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
🌱I’ve been trying to grow my own peas for the last 3 years. This year I have success!! Mind you that I’m a cIty girl learning to grow my own garden and learning old fashion ways.
🌱It was so exciting seeing peas growing in my garden, enough for me to pick them and learn what to do with them next.
🌱My pea harvest filled 1/2 a Lowe’s little 2-gallon bucket. Then it took me about an hour and a half to figure out how to shell them, and try to get the peas out faster.
🌱I ended up with about 2 cups of peas.
🌱Then steamed them for about 15 minutes and then cooked 5 min in butter.
🌱They were so yummy, much better than store canned peas that taste like there’s nothing in the middle. My fresh peas were full of goodness.
🌱Definitely worth the work.
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

17/01/2021

Looking for good food dehydrator brand. Would like built in USA.

What brand dehydrator do you have? Do you like it ? Would you recommend it and why? Reasonably priced?

I've been researching Excalibur...but haven't made the purchase because of reviews and price.

Tell me what you have!

15/11/2020

🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

I'd like you to meet the newest addition to our kitty clan....kitty #8 !
Gunnarr ...a Nordic/Viking name meaning brave and bold warrior. Will be our 1st barn cat.
We went to pick up goat feed at Southern States. My daughter spied this little guy and "had to pet him". Then the employees "had" to tell her that he just showed up one day and they've been feeding him...but getting into some mischeif. He had no home. Of course that puts a "HUGE SMILE" on my daughters lips. Next thing I know...she's back in the car...with this pretty white & grey kitty...who is sweetly meowing. Then I hear "Mom, what we should name him?"

He is handsome and looks a lot like our little Angel girl. He is a nice addition to our growing kitty clan. So far so good, he is liking the barn. ❤❤

🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

26/10/2020

🐤🐔🐣🛠🐤🐔🐔🐤🐣🛠🐥🐤🐣🐥🛠
🐔🐥🛠🐣 Been a' while 🐣🛠🐣🐥

Been a while since I've posted "What's going on." Well...lots!! Main thing I have been focused on, is learning my new job I got in Feb 2020. I love it!! So, so thankful for this awesome opportunity!! 1 huge plus...is I do "occasionally" have to talk on the phone, and no one is cussing me out!!! Like my past job! That is blessing right there!!

I am so thankful for my boss. He is so smart and a very patient person. I'm learning so much, "behind the scenes" so to speak, the guts of the payroll process in spreadsheets. Learning to write formulas to make our tables calculate state taxes for new employees as we hire them from other states. Helping organize and make the process smoother. Getting things ready to help build and create the database. I think this will be fun!!

So....Renegade our chicken who does what she wants...went broody on us in Aug. So we gave her 2 eggs to see if she would hatch them. Well...she is a momma and her chicks are 5 wks old now. Renegade and her babies have been cooped up in the little cat barn I built for my cat Moonshine, before he became a inside cat (against his will, lol) Renegade and her babies were running out of room, till I could build her something bigger.

I was able to finish that project today. Horray!!!! And moved her and her babies in. Feels so good to be outside building something. Watching my chickens. Watching Romeo blend our 24 new hens from spring and the 12 older hens.

This will be our egg hatching broody box and run. So if we have another hen go broody this spring, we'll put her in the egg hatching broody box with some eggs and see if she can raise some more chicks this way.

I whipped this thing together. Everything I used was all scrap wood and leftover tin from other project around here. It turned out well. Certainly not perfect, somehow one side ended up about 1 inch shorter. Oh well, it works!! It's heavy! It won't blow away or move!!! Lol! It's secured, safe, and predator proof with room for them to move and run. 1/2 the bottom is metal wire cloth so they have access to grass, dirt & bugs.

Later when the are older we will add all back to the rest of the flock.

🐤🐔🐣🛠🐤🐔🐔🐤🐣🛠🐥🐤🐣🐥🛠

02/10/2020

🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠🛠
It's hay time again!
Came home from work today to a big load of hay that needed to be put up in the barn. We manually have to throw it to the top of the barn. Tiring work. So, we decided to treat ourselves and I ordered a hay elevator about a month ago Just hadn't gotten around putting it together. Well, my hubby, daughter and a close family friend Mark where busy putting it together.

After 6 hours, Mark making 3 trips home to get tools and a grease gun, and a trip to Walmart for parts to a bike chain, they got it put together and it works!!!! About 30-45 minutes later we are done!! We love this thing!! It's the bomb-diggity❤

27/09/2020

First time mom and her 2 babies ❤

27/09/2020

27/09/2020

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

There is lot of truth in the saying "If we kill off the bees, we will have NO food!!

My garden is a bit sad this year. I grew, had lots of nice green plants, but very small fruit & vegetable harvests. I think it's due to lack of bees in my area. You have to have the bees to pollinate your plants to get your fruits and veggies.

It just seems like I have a few bees here and there. So, next year we are going to raise bees, 1 or 2 hives. My daughter is learning so much about raising bees, from our employer, they have 9 hives. Hoping we will have a more productive garden next year.

I will say that I didn't see as many bad bugs to deal with this year in the garden . I don't know if it's because I didn't have the fruit and veggies like I had last year? Or I had plenty of the plants that attract good bug to get rid of the bad bugs. I didn't have to use any organic pest control sprays or powders this year.

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

19/09/2020

🐥🐤🐣🐥🐤🐔🐣🐥🐤🐣🐔🐥🐤🐣🐔

Ms. Renegade, my white chicken, has always done things her way. Always the opposite of what I want or what Romeo the rooster wants. Always on the wrong side of the fence. She'd lay us her daily egg, as payment to look the other way and let her do what she wanted. But, at the end of the day, she'd always return to the flock, Romeo and the safety of the chicken coop, which we locked up every night.

Well, about a month ago, she wasn't returning to the safety of the flock, Romeo and the locked coop at all. She was staying in the little Cat/boot barn that I originally built for my cat Moonshine when he was a free cat, and now a house cat. So, she moved in to the cat/boot barn...and stayed in there ALL THE TIME. We'd get her out and put her with the flock and she'd fuss. .she'd have fights with the other hens, cause she is now at the bottom of the chicken pecking order...Romeo would chase her around till she ran out of the flocks free range area. At the end of the day she's back in the safety of her new home, the cat/boot barn.

Sad to see her wanting to be all alone...by herself. We continued to get her out of cat/boot barn to eat and walk around. But she'd fuss at us for doing that. So we thought maybe she is trying to be broody. We gave her 2 eggs from our adult flock w/Romeo to see what would happen.

21 days later she is a momma of 2 black baby chicks. Renegade is a good momma..clucking to her babies showing them where the baby crumble feed is. We get close and try to get pictures of the babies...she fusses at us and pecks us... so don't have pics of both babies yet. 1 is "very new" and still a bit damp from the egg....but Renegade is warming her up.

She's doing a good job! Now to research what to do for her now. Will Renegade teach these babies her bad habits?? Will she start her own flock??? Maybe we'll let her have a couple more eggs and see what happens. So sweet!!!!

🐥🐤🐣🐥🐤🐔🐣🐥🐤🐣🐔🐥🐤🐣🐔

18/08/2020

Walking through the garden this evening.
Thank you Lord for your blessings.

27/07/2020

Another busy 3 day weekend @
💜💜💜 MOUNTAIN BLESSINGS 💜💜💜
Thank you Lord for all you give us.
****SORRY LONG READ****

🥕My produce dept. (.a.k.a. my garden)...lol is coming along well! Lots of pretty green plants with fruits & veggies coming along nicely. Harvest a few pickling cucs a couple times a week. Need to make refrigerator pickles....yum. Today, harvested a handful of lavender. Still have a little more lavender coming...probly another handful. That might be it.

🕷So far no real bother with bad bugs. Hoping the companion planting is helping with bringing in the good bugs to get rid of the bad bugs.

☘Weeding you ask ? Well so far I'm weeding ONCE every other week😯...maybe like 50 weeds (I don't count them, but very few)❤ So that pleases me! Weeds....hate'em!!

💦I deep water my Hugelkultur raised beds ONCE a week, usually early Sunday mornings. The logs, branches and twig that are at the bottom of all the beds are doing their job by holding water, then my plants grow long deep roots to get the water and nutrients they need.

🛠With every new bed I build, I'm filling it the hugelkultur method and have been very pleased. And once all that decomposes...I'll have lots of really nice dark healthy dirt. I can then dig some out of the beds and put in more logs, branches & twigs, cover up with dirt and plant.

🍉The stepping stone area/experiment for growing watermelons, cantaloupes & pumpkins is doing good. Again... NO WEEDS to deal with 😁. They are growing and viney... no fruit yet.

🍎Need to do a lot of work at my apple trees. Have not started their Espalier training on the fence yet...maybe this fall. There's a tons of weeds there...I should have put down landscaping material when I planted them...oh well. They are doing better. Deer haven't been eating the leaves off since I put up the 8 ft tall privacy fence. Still monitoring for deer issues though. I'm sure the battle is not over or ever will be...but I can try. I put up windchimes to keep deer away and I love them too. But..they don't ring much...wind is blocked by the tall privacy fence...so added pie pans to the bottoms of the windchimes to try to catch a breeze...still not much help. Moving to Plan B...thinking on that.

🌹Rose garden. We've decided we are going to make it a memorial garden in honor of my mom and Eddie's mom. The Rose's bring butterfly's which my mom loved and all the hummingbird feeders bring hummingbirds which remind me of my mother-in-law and her hummers. Once my Rose's start blooming there are purple Rose's which is my moms favorite color. My friend has a memorial garden in honor of her mother...I loved that idea. Thank you Kari🌹

🐔Our 24 new baby girl hens are maturing. We are getting brown eggs from the Red Star's, our White Leghorn hens started laying white eggs today. And our Whiting True Blue hens should start laying blue eggs soon.

🐔So yesterday was D-Day for 12 hens who stopped laying and where mooching off the system. We feed our hens non-GMO organic soy-free chicken layer feed and they free range. The feed is a little more expensive but better for them and us. We eat there eggs and I don't want GMO in my food. So feeding them this also make their meat good too. If you go to the grocery store to buy non-GMO organic chicken, it's expensive... but way better for you. And the chickens are raised better.

For this city girl, it was my 2nd time culling chickens. 12 chickens = takes a long time plucking feathers😳...thinking about investing in a feather plucker I've seen....since this will be a yearly thing for us. I also want to raise our own meat birds organically. Maybe next year. Enough culling for this city girl this year...lol.
P.S. no pics of the gross stuff. 🤮

🍗What's for supper you ask? One lazy, non-laying hen in the crockpot now....making chicken & dumplings, lavender tea to drink! 😋

Few more projects to do in the garden area ...then I'll switch gears and finish a few unfinished projects in the chicken & goat areas.