Farmer Monroe

Old Monroe....no wait.....Still in her 20s Monroe had a farm.....EEE-IIII-EEE-IIII-OOOOO.....

So, I'm not sure how I got roped into this...oh, wait...yes I am....I have an overly enthusiastic husband and friend.  Anyway, it seems as though we are slowly turning our 9 acres into a farm of sorts. 

Trees
This started with my husband's desire to plant fruit trees.  As many of you know, my hubby doesn't do anything half way.  When he decides to plant fruit trees he goes all out.  This means, intense study of which trees to plant, how to plant them and how to care for them.  And of course, we don't start with one or two trees.  We plant nearly 20 trees.  So, as you saw in my previous post, I'm learning to can in an attempt to prepare myself for the "harvest" next year.  It's actually pretty fun and I'm hoping to make apple butter this weekend. 

Bees
The next venture that the hubby and my friend Kenna decide is a great idea is to raise bees for honey.  Even though she's deathly allergic she's extremely supportive and before you know it we've got a hive in our yard and bees on order.  Keep in mind I don't like honey, but Eric is a honey fanatic and eats it by the spoonful.  So, after a night of excitement when the bees swarmed (with Kenna watching, epi pen in hand) we now have two hives with bees buzzing around pollinating the fruit trees, blackberry bushes and clover.  I have to admit that it's pretty cool to watch them do their thing.

Chickens
And last, but not least, we have the chickens.  As many of you know, I'm not a huge chicken fan.  They're weird, make annoying sounds, and our neighbors flock used to wake me up at dawn in our rental house by standing under our bedroom window and doing their chicken thing. 

So, once again, Eric thinks that getting chickens is a great idea and Kenna immediately jumps onboard.  I'm skeptical, but as usual, cave in to their pressure of "it's going to be fun".  So, Kenna gets an incubator and eggs for Eric for his birthday and we anxiously wait for them to hatch.  I won't go into the messy details, but one hatched, I got too attached, it got sick, and bottom line is we now only have the four hens we purchased as chicks to keep our chick "LB" company. 

After that incident I swore I wasn't getting involved with the chickens anymore.  But, I can't resist and every day after I get home from work I wander out to the chicken pen to say hi to Dalai, Dotty, Laverne and Shirley.  They still make there annoying chicken sounds but they have been a constant source of amusement.  Between their inability to figure out what the roost is for, their insistance on continuing to sleep in a pile o' chicken, their continued facination with chasing the raindrops from the roof, and my excitement over the first egg laid it's been an interesting adventure. 

* Our nephew Jonah likes to help.

So, as the quite reluctant farmer, I've come to realize I'm pretty lucky to have an overly enthusiastic husband and friend because they make me realize that, surprisingly, I am enjoying all of these new experiences.