After a 2 1/2 year wait, Finally!

This sign at the end of our driveway must mean we're ready to start digging!!

Ground breaking scheduled for April 21, 2014.

Things are happening!

The snow has finally melted and the sun is coming out. We just finished drilling for our geo-thermal wells that will provide ground cooled/heated water to heat and cool our house. It was quite a mess as there's a lot of stone dust and front which pretty much turns into cement when you leave it exposed to the elements. Donut loves it as it's quite messy!

Deadly Snow

This is what happens when you have a metal roof and no snow guards. These blocks were mostly ice and amazingly heavy as I tried to help them on their way without breaking the windows!

Obviously no construction has started yet!

Narnia!

I haven't posted in a while because the moment we got our building permit (yeah!), it's been either snowing or freezing rain. Here are a few pics from the most recent weather!

Shagbars!

Fruit of Richard's labors. Hickory nut bars with our nuts and honey.

These were amazingly delicious!

Loads of hickory nuts!

We have lots of Shagbark Hickory trees on the property and realized this year that they produce tons of amazing nuts…….however getting the nuts is a long hard process. They start out like a small tennis ball like the top pic, you remove the green husk before the squirrels get them, dry them for at least two weeks, then figure out how to get the nuts out without losing your mind! We've found that a hammer and the right size of flat rock works better than a traditional nut cracker. Well worth it!

Carrot Crop

So I've finally harvested my second carrot crop, the first one didn't turn out too well. The bugs seemed to love them and they were a bit crowded. These "atomic reds" are beautiful albeit a bit orange to me but who cares, they taste great and will be perfect for Thanksgiving dinner along with the crop of parsnips!

The first honey crop!

So we had a very productive year with our three hives. I'm not sure how we will fill all the orders for our artisan honey. We had a whopping 5 pounds of honey produced this year! Actually that's quite good considering this is the first year for these hives. If all goes well over the winter we should have approximately 100 pounds of honey next year! Now that's production.

The awesome label designed by Richard!

Finally..............flush.

After waiting for weather and money we're finally installing out new septic "Hoot" system. It looks as if we're building a hotel!

Thanks Septic Mgmt. Group. Great job!

The Dump

Back in the day there was no such thing as garbage pick-up so every good farmer had a "dump". It was usually not too far from the house but not too close as to be unsightly or smelly. Ours was located behind the barn and much of the garbage was in a creek/drainage ditch! Just knowing it was there bugged me so in preparation of our new septic system that will be installed nearby we cleaned it out. 

Heavy machinery required. Here are some of our finds.

bucket-o-nails!

A little bit of demolition!

I was getting impatient for the construction to start so I helped move things along by "removing" this old pump house that was really just full of garbage. It came down amazingly easy considering that it was old cinder block. There were, however, at least three roofs on it. Ugh!

Bye Bye Chicken Coop!

This has been a long time coming! This was a chicken coop from the previous owner and it was filled with an even 4" layer of chicken manure. We estimate it to have been built in the 1940's sometime as we found a Kayo chocolate drink bottle underneath along with other unwanted garbage as is the tradition here at Lucky Dog Farm.

Honey A' comin!

Springtime is time for bees. Richard is an experienced bee keeper going back to his youth in Princeton, NJ. We started with these two hives and recently added another that was  already building its honeycomb. With any luck we'll have honey this fall!

The House? Getting closer!

So we are now working with our third architect and feel a little closer to where we want to be. Here are some drawings from the current plans with Sketchup.

Front

Back

In the pic above the two smaller sections are the existing 1700's and 1800's sections. The larger section to the right is new. 

New members of the family!

We have a momma and 5 baby foxes living on our hillside. We captured tons of video with a motion activated camera last night. Too cute!

Best Husband Ever!

One week before Valentine's Day I received this amazingly beautiful box of macaroons from Laduree in Paris. 

http://www.laduree.fr/en/maisons/monde-details

Amazing!

Our new house?

Oops! nothing happening yet, amazing! that's the chicken coop where some day, apparently far in the future, our house will be. If you look closely you can see where, in a fit of frustration, we put some stakes at the corners so we could "imagine" our new house. Patience..........

Christmas Barn

Our holiday decoration. I almost broke my neck getting this up there but it looks pretty.

Dirty Dog!

Donut is a hound mix and a real hunter! She especially likes digging for mice, of which we apparently have many here on the farm!

dead mouse lower left! Nice.....

Meet Milo!

Milo is our new addition here at Lucky Dog Farm and he sure is lucky. He was a stray down in, get this, Ruin Creek North Carolina. Where do they come up with these names? He's approximately 8 years old and was going to be euthanized because he had all sorts of things wrong with him. We are thrilled to have him and we think Donut is too.

Settling in on Donut's bed!

Enough Already!

November 8, 2012. Need I say more.

Big Bad Sandy

Unless you live under a rock you were aware of the hurricane that hit the east coast this past weekend. Actually Sandy made landfall at the "jersey shore" near Atlantic City. It was most violent storm I've ever been through including Midwestern tornadoes, which don't last nearly as long. The wind howled for 12 hours straight. I've never heard anything like it. We've been without power for 3 1/2 days now and it is said that it may take a week to 10 days to get everyone back online. YIKES!

Here are some pics of our downed trees. There must be at least 20 down, too many to count! We were lucky compared to many.

Log splitting!

Me and my stack, hard work!

With a borrowed log splitter we split some wood from all the downed trees on the farm. This is just a small look at what we have!

Richard getting dirty

Hunterdon County 4-H Fair

Seems like going back in time to go to a 4-H fair but they're still around especially here in rural Hunterdon Co. NJ. There's the usual cows and goats to look at in addition to pig racing, yup you read that correctly, pig races! Four little piglets race a round a track in about 1 minute, absolutely adorable!

The highlight I have to say is the yummy, unhealthy food such as funnel cakes, potato chips on a stick, BBQ, and ice cream floats.

Dairy Cow Judging

pig races!

Twin lambs.

My farmer husband "Rich"