Homesteading: Exciting changes happening on the homestead

There are some new and exciting things happening here at Terra Bella. First of all, our name has changed from Terra Bella Farm to Terra Bella Homestead. This change happened just recently and we are excited for some of the new things coming to the homestead! One of the first surprises is that we have purchased three Nigerian Dwarf Goats, and of course they are named. We have one doeling, Graycie (she is what I was told, a feathered gray). She is beautifully marked. Next is Isaac. He is a black and white buckling, and looks like an Oreo cookie, with some spots. The last one we purchased is another little buckling who looks like he went through paint. I was told he was a “splash” goat. So, fittingly, his name is Splash.

We also have four head of cattle coming to the “homestead”. They are American Aberdeen. They have names – however, I don’t think we’ll be using them. Once we get them to the homestead, we’ll watch them and name them according to their looks, or personalities. There are a few other things that will be coming to the homestead soon, but for now, we are in the process of building fence and putting up gates, making paddocks so that we can do rotational grazing with our cattle, hogs, goats and chickens.

One of the other new things that is happening here on the homestead is that good friends of ours are bringing their bees here on our homestead. We are so looking forward to having bees on our property once again. Everything will be in bloom and the bees and hummingbirds will be in full swing here. The pollination that they provide surely helps aid in our production of food. We have raspberries, black berries, black raspberries, strawberries and several fruit trees. The buzzing around the homestead should be in full swing by mid April. Bees are so very important to us! We are forever grateful to Steve and Judy Whiting for sharing their little buddies with us.

If the weather continues as it has, we will be planting potatoes here in the next week. I’ll straw them heavily because we are not out of the frost time frame. I’ll get my onions, lettuce, kale, collards, carrots, turnips and beets by the end of March or the beginning of April. My fingers are itching to be in the dirt.

I’ve been pruning my fruit trees and elderberries this past week and have them finished and am ready to prune back my raspberries and blackberries and mulch them.