I've been doing the preliminary work for the garden. I have purchased my sets, my seeds, fertilizer, and plastic. I am putting in strawberries, two different kinds. One is a June bearing variety, the other is an ever-bearing variety. There are garlic sets, enough for two small beds, and 8 echinacea roots. I'm especially excited about the echinacea, because I have tried for two or three years to start this from seed without success. I don't know if all the roots are alive, but if I can get any plants from these, it will be a victory for me. Yesterday I was able to buy the blueberry bushes I wanted, and if all goes according to plan, I will pick up another raspberry plant today (I planted two last year, but one died)
A few days ago I wrote about making bread. I'm excited because my shipment of wheat will be in tonight. I think I'm going to go ahead with my plans to buy a Bosch kitchen machine. I've wanted one since I lived in Virginia, and believe it or not, I've saved enough in nickels, dimes and quarters to buy one ( I didn't set out saving for this. I just saved my change on a regular basis, and here I am with enough to purchase one. )
The chickens are doing well, getting big fast. Before we know it, they will need to be outside in a coop.
I bought twelve birds; six are reds, two are bantams, and four are an unknown to me variety. I bought them because they were in the tub marked pullets, and pullets are supposed to be hens. The "unknowns" are dark birds, and their feathers are coming in dark. 
I think they will be pretty. I went to the garage to check on them last night and woke them up. My goodness, what a whirl of activity that started. Of course, they started eating, then they perched on top of the feeder. This set up a "king of the hill" scenario. It was fun to watch them spar with each other for position. I told Eric I feel sure that we have more than one rooster in that batch. Maybe it would have been better to order them straight from the hatchery.....So why do all this? I don't know if I can explain it. I think that certain callings are born into families. My grandparents on both sides were connected to the land. My father's dad was a lumberjack, and helped clear the land in northeast Arkansas. The land he helped clear was some of the most fertile land in that part of the country. My mother's dad was a farmer. My parents are not farmers, having moved to the city shortly after marrying. But my mom's green thumb puts mine to shame. There isn't a flower in existence that she cannot grow. So I think I was destined to love the land. You would not have thought it while I still lived at home! I wouldn't even help weed her flower gardens - I might get dirt under my fingernails!!!
I have had this dream of a mini-farm since my days in Virginia Beach. We had a home in a quiet subdivision and a small yard. Each spring I would go out and dig up by hand my garden plots (I had three parts of the yard set aside for gardens.) Eric planted a dwarf peach tree, and I had blueberry bushes, a grape vine and a small strawberry bed. Each spring we would go pick strawberries in the rural part of the county. On a couple of occasions, I would pick green peas, or green beans in the same area. Later on in the season we would go to the blueberry farms and pick berries. The people who owned the farm taught the kids to pick the berries by "tickling them off the bushes". If you had to pull a berry, it wasn't ripe. Summer's were spent putting away food by canning or freezing it. I even tried my hand at dehydrating food. I carried this dream to Maryland, and really loved the rural heritage of St. Mary's county. There we had our first experience with animals (ask the kids about the black snake that would follow them up and down the hill when they went to feed and water the goats - it makes a funny story now, but I'm not sure they saw the humor in it at the time).
When we made the move to Alabama, Eric went before us. He immediately began house hunting, and on the first week-end found the home we currently have. We have just under ten acres, with much of it fenced in. There is a large barn, and a small orchard. It was really almost exactly what we had dreamed about for years. There were several obstacles to buying it, so it took about nine months before we moved into our dream home. We have been slow about building the "mini-farm", but finally it seems as if we can start working on it. I don't know what the end result will be. We may not have the heart or energy needed to make it work, but then again, we might.
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