So many changes for State 28 Farm!

There have been so many changes in our life here in Texas since we last updated our blog!

Sadly, our last update on here was almost two years ago. During that time the Rooster and I have sold our land in Tyler, Texas and bought a cute little farmhouse with some land in Canton, Texas! We have been here in Canton for about a year and a half now.

Canton is about 45 minutes West of Tyler and we are about an hour Southeast of Dallas.  We are loving our little town with a population of around 3500. This is a big difference from Tyler that had a population over 100,000 people.  It is all so very different from our original hometown in the Phoenix Metropolitan area back in Arizona.  It is hard to believe that we have now been in Texas for 5 years.

With this move to Canton, we have had to literally start our farming and gardening adventures over again.


It is a long process but will be worth it!  We are slowly adding to our farming adventures and growing more and more fresh, organic goodness.



As always, we love to share the healthy food that we are growing with others!


Not only are we sharing what we grow, but we have also helped others get their gardens set up too.

Overall, it has been a great move for us and helps us to be one step closer to living our dreams of being more self-sufficient than ever before.

Help Please.

There are words that are spoken in every relationship that can raise an eyebrow or cause some concern.  For some it is "We need to talk."  For others it is "You better sit down." Or, possibly worst yet for some "My family is coming to town."  For my relationship, the words my hubs hates to hear are "I need your help."  Dun, dun, duuhhhh...

Those are the infamous words that send my usually helpful hubs running.  Not because he does not want to help me with this or that, but because he knows when I actually stop to ask someone, mainly him, for help it is always a big project.

 For instance, our latest project, building a new dog run for our new rescue dog Goldie, involved digging post holes, building a fence, hanging a gate, running a plumbing line to self water a doggie pool, hanging a shade covering and now adding a mister system.  Did I mention that it is in the dead heat of hot and humid Texas?  

So recently when those words were uttered out of my mouth "I need your help", he immediately replied with "As long as it isn't building a dog run for Goldie."  Doh! He got me.  He knew what I was going to ask before I even said it.  The problem is he usually knows what my big plans are for my projects before I even speak of them.  Maybe it is from the project lists, the detailed drawings or the research I do before I start on said projects. I've really got to learn to start hiding those drawings better.  ;)


 


Of course I cannot just go buy a little pre-built dog run, I have got to build one from scratch.  Better yet, let's make it match the existing fencing that I did for the garden.  Good idea, right?  Right. (Insert the eye roll here from the hubs.)
 

So, after much coercion, begging and bribing, he went out to the farm over several weekends to help complete the dog run for our Goldie girl. I will admit, there were several "conversations" that took place as tools went missing, post holes were dug, concrete was poured, cuss words were muttered, fencing got built, sweat was dripping and the hubs was just plain tired of my project.  


BUT, we finally got it done.

 



Now I can sleep knowing that she is safe and secure. That's saying a lot for this insomniac.

It is Growing! The garden is growing!

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.

Airstream Junky.

OK... I admit it.  

I am an AIRSTREAM JUNKY.  

There, I said it.  The first step to really admitting the problem is publicly admitting it, right?

So the hubs and I were talking recently about possibly moving yet again.  We dream of a warm weather place that I can breathe and he can swim.  I have suggested many times that we sell all of our huge bulky furniture and home decor and "simply buy an Airstream!" and then hit the road.


This suggestion of mine comes up at least 3 times a month.  After all, in the 10 years that we have been together, we have moved 11 times!!!  Yes, 11 times!!!  One of the moves was from AZ to TX (big time move for us).  With that being said, I truly think he has a little gypsy soul in him as well.  I love adventure, change, new scenery.  

I think it is a perfect solution!  He, of course, thinks I am NUTS.  


 
After all, where on earth would he put his beloved Lazy Boy?!  

Trust me.  I can think of a few good places for it.  

Hehehe.


 

Turning Dreams Into Reality.

All of us do it.  

We all dream of something or another...

Some people dream of journeys, adventures and excitement. Some dream of wide open spaces and sitting on the front porch.  Others dream of a true love that has yet to exist in their life...

 
I often dream of creating a simple life that focuses on living and loving each day to the fullest. I dream of tending to a large garden that can feed my family with healthy organic produce.

Perhaps this day shall come soon, but until then, I will continue to dream.

What is your dream?


If you have stopped dreaming, today is a good day to start again.


Here's to converting dreams into reality.

Please grow.

Yay! All of our seeds have arrived for our garden! Here Johnie is educating Biscuit about the wide variety of seeds that we ordered and when they need to be planted.  As you can tell, Biscuit is thrilled to be a part of this project.  In case you were wondering, we bought our seeds from seedsnow.com.

 

 

This is our first garden here in Texas so we are pretty excited to try something new.  We are more excited to be a little more self sufficient and to grow some non GMO, organic veggies and fruits for our family.  Fingers crossed!

For this garden, we decided to build above ground boxes as we are following a square foot gardening technique that we have recently learned about.  Here you can see a few of the 4x4 boxes that we built.  We custom blended a mix of organic soils and compost to fill these boxes with.  I can tell you that so far, this has been a project that has exceeded our budget.  The soil mixture alone was double if not triple what I thought it would be.  Let's not even get into the money spent on this nice wood that we built the custom boxes out of.  Oooh.. and the fencing.. that is another item that exceeded the budget that we put up around the garden.  Why did we put fencing up you ask?

This is why we had to put up fencing: Oink, oink, oink!

This is one of the many farm animals that roam around lately.  We have hound dogs, chickens, goats and pigs that free range from time to time around here.  

Let me clarify, these are not our animals... they are our neighbors!   





So, the next time you want to complain about your local HOA (Homeowners Association) giving you weed or garbage can notices, think about these animals hanging out in your yard (or garden!).
BTW, Johnie is secretly planning a pig roast here soon if this fella doesn't leave us alone. Hahaha.

At the end of the day, it has been a nice place to escape to and watch the many beautiful sunsets that we have grown to love while living out here in the country.  I captured this one the other night while talking on the phone (hellooo Stacey) and while watering the garden.  Talk about multitasking!

Now... let's bow our heads and say a little prayer that it all GROWS!!!

Green & Brown Thumbs.

So it has been awhile since we have posted anything on here.  I guess we, OK, me (Birdie) has been spending too much free time on other forums (hello Insta-post way too many pictures-Gram) and just plain getting used to living somewhere other than the desert.

But, don't fret, we are alive and well in the rolling green hills of East Texas!

 
These days we are currently working on building and planting a raised garden.  To some, this is an easy task- till the ground, throw out some seed, water it, pray it takes... but not for us (one of us is a classic type A personality so nothing is "easy").  I think we have green and brown thumbs.  One of this thinks it will all grow, the other is a little skeptical of the whole project.

So far our project has consisted of buying beautiful wood, agreeing on a design, building six 4ft x 4ft custom raised garden boxes, laying out a fence, building a fence, adding a dog run (of course Biscuit needs his own area to watch from!) and sealing the newly made garden boxes.  Tired yet?

 

Next step:buying organic soil and compost.  We haven't even gotten to the timed watering system or purchasing of hybrid/organic non GMO seeds yet!  I will admit, this is a longer process than I anticipated for our new "hobby".  So far, we are doing good and are moving along. 

Perhaps we will have the basics ready before we miss this planting season! 

Fingers crossed. 

-Birdie