Green Hill Farm

That isn't our official name yet but definitely one we have tossed around. We are planning on naming our vineyard and veggie farm but we haven't agreed yet. Suggestions appreciated :-)

Our vineyard endeavor is for sure a family affair. This started as a idea tossed around by my hubby and my dad as something they could do together that would not only beautify our land but having everyone working outside as well as potentially becoming a money making investment. We have all grown to love the vineyard is a real source of pride and accomplishment for us. Not to mention that although it's hard work but a lot of fun too.

Here are just some update pics:

Isaac helping dig holes for the new posts

Dad, Isaac and a family friend all join in. We will let anyone who wants help us. You may just get some free produce out of the deal :-)

Working Hard

Ethan and Steve setting the poles for our 2 new sections of our vineyard

You can just see the new buds on the vines. We get so excited every year to see the vines grow longer and stronger. Every new bud is a potential grape bunch. God's design is so amazing.

Our Fugi Apple Trees starting to bloom

New grapevines planted

Last years trees were apples, pears and plums. We added fig trees as well as blackberry, blueberry, gooseberry, dewberry and raspberry vines to our crop. We would love for this to turn into a business someday.

Steve decided since we have 3 separate areas of grapevines, we should paint the tops of the poles and number each row. We have the white, blue and red vineyards with 18 separate rows.

Our oldest vineyard is the white one. We should see a full crop this year. It takes 3-4 years after planting to produce a full crop. We got some last year but this year we should have an abundance.

2nd group is the blue vineyard

Our third and last vineyard to plant is the red vineyard

All in all we have 120 vines which will translate to a harvest of about 5400 lbs. Anyone up for picking in about 3 years?

Now on to our garden.

Onions and garlic growing like crazy

Our raised bed garden is doing so well. We have some growth and the little veggies are starting to poke their heads through.

Our greenhouse is going up between the farthest bed and the propane tank. As soon as the wind dies down and we can work on it without it breaking the panels or cutting us to ribbons

Taters and beans in a barrel are doing great

We even had some time to make a boat and float it on the pond. The wind has been crazy here and it made for great surface coverage

And this is how we all felt when we were done. Rachel looks plum tuckered but in reality she helped very little :-) It's just hard being a farm dog!!

Updates will follow as spring progresses.

Bring Me Hope Bike-a-Thon

Hi, this is Ethan posting on my Mom's blog. I am writing this because I am going to ride my bike, Saturday, April 9, 50 times around a course at a park as a fundraiser for Bring Me Hope. Bring Me Hope is an organization that helps orphans in China. One way they help is by sending orphans to a week long summer camp. My youth group at church has decided to try and send as many orphans as we can to summer camp this summer. Since it is also my first year to go to summer camp and I am very excited, I am sure they would be even more excited if they knew that they were going to get to go. It only takes $25 to send one child for a whole week. I would like to personally raise enough money to send 5 orphans to camp. You can help by donating as little or as much as you like. My mom has set up a donate button at the top left section of this blog. The deadline for donations is Wednesday, April 6th. If you cannot donate, please pray with me and my family for these orphans.

This is a short movie of one of the girls that was sent to summer camp.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Ethan

Cousin Love

We had a fun weekend with our cousins who came to visit us from the "Big D" this weekend. Really didn't know a back alley could be so fun :)

Obviously I liked playing with Picnik again too......

You know you are getting old when....

Yesterday I had a tumor removed from my leg. Now it's not a serious thing but all surgery is a big deal when you are going through it. About 5 years ago I hit my leg on the corner of chest of drawers. If you know me, you know that I am a huge clutz and am either cutting myself, bruising myself or burning myself. It's kind of annoying but I am embracing it a bit. Anyway, after hitting my left upper thigh on this dresser, I had a huge bruise that went all the way down my leg and a small lump formed. The bruise lasted about 2 weeks but the lump never went away. I didn't think much of it; just thought it was scar tissue that would eventually go away. But it didn't. It started to grow. At first, it grew slowly and I didn't really even notice it. But over about a years time, it started to really stick out from my leg.

Fast forward 4 years and I had a very large lump on my thigh that you could actually see through my clothes. Since my dad is a veterinarian, I had him look at it and he said that he thought is was a lipoma; a benign tumor that develops from too much adipose tissue. Now no one really knows how they form but one theory is trauma to the area in which the tumor grows. I vividly remember the trauma of hitting my thigh so I know that is how it formed. Finally after much trepidation (I hate going to the doctor), I went to my GP and had her take a look. Hoping for "It's no big deal, just an easy office removal" response, she took one look at it and said, "That's really large, you need to go to the surgeon". Long story short, the surgeon said although a lipoma is usually benign, it is a cancer and needs to come out. So, after putting it off for another 3 months, yesterday was the day.

When the surgery was over, the doctor told Steve that the tumor was larger than expected and misshapen. All in all, he removed a tumor the length(not around just the length) of a large orange from my leg. GROSS!!! I had no idea that something like that could even be part of me. I should have never waited that long. I guess I am just in denial that I am getting older and that these types of things start happening.

So here I sit, on the couch, barely able to hobble around. I am also on pain meds, so I hope this post is even coherent :) I would post pics but that would just be a little over the top :)

New Menu Website

I have joined e-mealz and love it. Click the pic above to check out their website. For about $1.25 a week, I get great money saving dinner recipes for all 7 days. This is our 2nd week and so far the recipes are great.

We are trying to live by a strict grocery budget and this is so easy and really helps with maintaining my weekly allowance. There are several plans to choose from and then she gives you the money break down by grocery store. We are trying the Weight Watchers plan in hopes of getting ready for summer.

Just a quick plug. I will share some great recipes later :-)