We extracted the first honey of the year!

The first honey extraction of the 2019 season took place yesterday, and Glen worked late into the night to bottle up enough to take to Obermiller's Strawberry Farm in Horse Shoe, NC (close to Hendersonville) for sale. Look at the cute  little honey bears he made up! We will deliver it there later this morning. So come out and pick some strawberries and buy some Our Tiny Farm honey!

We Welcome New Donkeys to Our Tiny Farm

This week two new donkeys joined us on Our Tiny Farm. Meet Wilma, on the left, and Clara, on the right.

They are twelve years old and just the sweetest little donkeys. We still have them separated from our two (you can see ours peeking at them from behind the gate), but I think they will settle in quite nicely.

Our Tiny Farm Goes International!

We aren't really doing international sales, but a customer bought a box of jars of our honey yesterday to take to Korea as gifts! Thought that was pretty cool!

Chester (on the left) and Meadow (on the right) are enjoying the mild weather and sunshine we have had lately. Little do they know that in a few short weeks, they will have two more donkey companions. Glen and I are looking forward to having more donkeys on the farm.

Daffodils are blooming on the farm. This is my favorite time of the year with buds bursting, grass turning green, and peepers peeping at night. It's a good time to plant that woodland garden you have been thinking about all winter. My book on how to do just that is available through online and local bookstores.

Donkey Changes on Our Tiny Farm

Last weekend was bittersweet for us on Our Tiny Farm. Our longtime donkey friends, Faith, Hope, and Cory, left our farm. That was the sad part. But the happy part was their owners finally had their own new farm, barn, and paddock all ready and waiting for them.

Their new home is beautiful and the owners love having their ear longears right there with them. We all hope to stay good friends, too!

Initially our two donkeys were confused and kept looking for their herd. Then they were upset and didn't want us to even pet them. That made it interesting when we had to blanket them when it got so bitterly cold for a few days. But yesterday they decided we were all good once again.

If you need a loving home for your horse or donkey, just contact us. We take excellent care of our equines. Just ask these three!

Key fob button protector (so you won't mash a button when you don't mean to)

We have a family member, who will remain nameless, who accidentally bumps buttons on his key fobs with undesirable, and sometimes unknown, consequences. I went searching for key fob covers/protectors and found they were all very large and needed two hands to operate. So today I made one. It works so well that I made several for other family members, too. Here's how to do it.

Gather these supplies:

• A thin plastic flexible cutting board (they are sold in multi packs)
• A ruler.
• Scissors.
• Sharp paring knife.
• Paper clip.
• Self stick Velcro buttons.

I made a prototype first with paper to get the right dimensions and test it out.

Then I just cut a length of the cutting board with the scissors, made a slit with the knife for the ring on the top of the fob, slid a paper clip through the ring, used the paper clip to pull the ring through the slit, folded the plastic around the fob, positioned the Velcro buttons, rubbed the Velcro buttons on firmly (using the handle of the scissors against the table, not the fob), and it was finished! Make it any color you want.

Heading into Fall on Our Tiny Farm

Currently we have five donkeys on Our Tiny Farm. Two of them, Chester and Meadow, are ours. The other three are visitors.  We have Faith, the mother,  Hope,  her yearling daughter,  and Corey Love, her son who was born just a few months ago. They make for a very happy,  and entertaining little herd.

We have Black Angus steer on the farm again. These two aren't ours. They belong to a friend,  but I missed having the big boys on the pasture so we are happy to give them a home.

We grew a small garden this year, mostly for the family. We have enjoyed delicious summer squash, lots of tomatoes, a wide variety of peppers, eggplant, sweet corn, and peas.

In late June,  for the first time, we had hay from our pasture cut and baled. We are very pleased with the quality and it will make for a good savings for us this winter. We plan to do a second cutting in October.

In May we received about 21 inches of rain in a two to three week period. This was bad timing for our garlic crops. We lost all of the elephant garlic. The hard necked garlics survived but the bulbs are small. We cured them and they taste good,  but because their quality is not what we like to provide to others.

We did have a great honey crop this year. Most of it was sold at the Obermiller Strawberry Farm nearby during their strawberry and blueberry seasons.

Thanks for checking in with Our Tiny Farm. And as always, you can buy a copy of my book at local and online book sellers.  Thanks! Jeanine

Demand is High for Our Book on Growing Ginseng, Goldenseal and More!

If you are serious about growing woodland medicinal herbs, whether for a business or your own personal enjoyment, this is the book to have. Written by two well-know authorities, the book is chock full of information and hundreds of pictures on how to grow ginseng, goldenseal, ramps, black cohosh, and many other native herbs.

How to Get a Copy of the Book: We suggest you order the book through the publisher, New Society Publishers, or your favorite local book store; that way the authors can receive their full royalties. It is available in bookstores where native plant gardening is popular. You can order the book through all the big on-line discount book sellers. Many sellers offer the book on Ebay. The book is also available as an ebook through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, New Society Publishers, and elsewhere.

The book is a high-quality soft cover book with 508 pages. It has a center color photo section and black and white photos throughout. Here is detailed information about the book and a link to the table of contents.