Two Years, and healthy greens.

First things first, today is the second anniversary of our wedding. It's been a tough couple years, but our partnership is only stronger than it began, and I'm glad for it. Something that may not come across all the time is just how much the Lady of the House does for the homestead, and in terms of thinking and planning. Her beautiful work on her herb garden has done a lot for the beauty of our house, and in terms of what we will have available for cooking.

Really though, I feel fortunate to be with her as whether homesteading or otherwise, she enriches every aspect of my life.

Greening, and resorting to Roundup.

Well, being sick or exhausted for a couple weeks we've missed the easy time to really do ground clearing, now we have a thoroughly greened area. We went from just go yank it up to, I suggest power tools. Given that this slope is a if we have time area, not a focus area I have a sneaking suspicion it isn't going to be gotten to this summer. Ahh well. That said, none of what's over there is something that has to die right now, the only weed we have around that needed to die right now was in our front garden bed, so we did something about it.

Hilltown Seed Saving Network seedling swap from Saturday

The seed swap on Saturday was an amazing event, and unfortunately we didn't get the photos of it we should have. We also made the mistake of not getting photos of all of the plants we brought home with us before we set to planting them. Above is just what we have left after a couple rounds of planting. But I figured I'd just give a whole garden update.

Broad winged distraction

Today's post has no new photos because this morning when we left the house the dog startled out a huge barred owl, and we spent a lot of time trying to get good photos of it. Unfortunately, the best we got was a vague brown blur among brown branches. So instead of new photos, I'll be reusing photos, sorry!

So here's a picture of a baby bunny looking at the world.

Day to day preparation for winter, and a seasonal retrospective.

Day by day there are fewer and fewer leaves on the trees in the back yard, and soon we are going to have to shift to heated water bottles, or crocks for water as it gets too cold every night. But we have been adjusting and getting ready for winter.

The State of the Garden

Michelle in today, Coureton's putting in long hours and couldn't write the post.

We're still waiting on the next two litters of bunnies to be born, both Sunny and Dawn are very large.

In the meantime, the first litters are ever larger by the day (except when the bear visits, which stopped last week out of the blue...hopefully for good?)  here the Himi demonstrates how not to do weight checks.  She actually turned out to be our most out-going and friendly baby so far, surprising as she's out of Sunny's litter who otherwise are quite skittish. She loves to be the center of attention, even over food.

Does this make my butt look big?

We've had our first fight--very minor injuries and some fur fluffs only.  Coureton and I treated them with hydrogen peroxide and neosporin-one rabbit had a bite to the ear which started healing within hours.  Both babies involved were from Sunny's litter, which is a week younger than Dawn's so unexpected.  One was licking the wounds of the other in what seemed to be a gesture of friendship--I'm not sure what happened.

Kits Open Their Eyes, A New Birth, And The First Luna Moth

An eventful last week all around including assisting with graduation at the school the Lady of the House works at. On the homesteading front, the lady of the house has been working on growing herbs, and for the most part they are doing well, though we just can't seem to keep the Dill alive. The babies are growing well though, and Dawn's babies opened their eyes over the weekend. They are getting very active and inquisitive.  As you can see below, even the smallest of the litter is very active, and looking like a baby rabbit now.