We are Moving!



We are moving.  No, not away from the farm but we are moving this blog to a new website.  We have spent the past couple of months of winter designing a website.  The designing was done by us, no professionals so please be kind as it was a real learning experience for both of us.  You know how they say that if a couple can hang wallpaper together without harm occurring; well, designing a website is very much like that experience.  Now we can say we have done both and are still together.  The reason for the new website is to streamline the social media aspect of this business.  It is also to make all this stuff much easier to view on a phone.  Since everyone including us is using a phone for everything, (computer, entertainment, etc) everything except for making a phone call; we needed to get with the program and update everything.

All our blog history and comments are available in the new website.  In fact searching for past topics is now much easier with  the new site having a much more powerful search capability. 

We will provide a link to the new site below.  We hope you all will take a look at the new site and hopefully connect up with us there.  We have not be able to find the plugin to move everyone over automatically so you will need to check us out and see if you would like to continue on this journey.  If yes, then connect through the email subscription service  or your RSS feed.  Our new website is called baremtnfarm.com.

If you are tired of us, two bozos; we thank you for your support and we wish you well in the future.

So here's the link and we will see you on the flip side.  Thanks!!!

baremtnfarm.com

As We Were



Jane at Small but Charming has posted a photo request of the way we were.  My contribution is this:

I am 9 years old and am at my grandparents' house for a summer vacation.  My grandpa wanted us to have fun goofing around so he modified a riding lawnmower they had so it would not mow.  He put an old metal tractor seat on the back so my brother and I could ride together and no one had to wait.  The fight to who got to drive still occurred a lot.  It was great fun and went pretty fast. You can see I was an outdoor type girl.  Still liked Barbies/dolls but liked the stuff my brother liked too.  Hot wheels, sports, and playing in the dirt. Guess I was destined  to be a farm girl.

My First Little Anemones

I was able to cut my first anemones, well , my first very small anemones.  Eight whole anemone stems to be exact and they are tiny, only about 7 inches tall.  Got to cut them so they will keep on blooming which works out for Jane's first flowers in the house of 2014.  When I saw her post for flowers, I figured I would pass since I didn't have anything. But lo and behold a few miss firing stems of flowers in the greenhouse and a vase of flowers is created.

The vase contains the tiny anemones, some snapdragons and dianthus that bloomed prematurely in the greenhouse, camellia leaves, dried sedum heads, a few stems of helleborus and twigs with moss. 

                                       Here is the rest of what is flowering on my windowsill.

                                              We are awaiting the rest of these anemone beauties.

 

Check out what other folks are offering at Jane's house.flwrjane-smallbutcharming.blogspot.com

Things are changing!

Just when you think it is the dead of winter and nothing is growing, you would be greatly surprised.  Our anemones and ranunculus are growing despite spending two weeks in temperatures between 0 and 10 degrees.  Spring is coming!

Quotable Sunday 01/05/2014

A New Year, A New Focus

Here we are again at the beginning of a new year with all sorts of plans, schemes and ideas.  We are also thinking back to the past year and evaluating what things were great and what needs to be improved.  We chose a word for the year past and it was "healthy". A small review of how we did, trying to be more healthy.  

For our own personal health, we have been on our very low carb eating plan for over a year. With no slip ups, any cheating and falling off the diet wagon; we feel this new way of eating is now a part of our life.  It has been no piece of cake(oops: kale). There have been times of frustration, hunger and temptation but we feel so much better. It is just so worth it to keep going, as we gain more energy, strength and improved health. Weight is coming off, muscles are slowly coming on and flexibility and balance are improving.  

The health of our little farm is an ongoing process.  In many areas the soil is most definitely improving but other areas need more work.  The quality of our soil is dependent on our continuing to work with nature and provide the minerals, and organic matter that the soil needs to produce our beautiful flowers.  It must stay a habit just like our eating patterns have been ingrained.  We are feeding our  soil quality nutrients as we feed our bodies quality foods. In turn our gardens produce good quality food for us to eat and gorgeous flowers that we are proud to offer.

So as we continue on with "healthy" as an important factor, we are choosing a new word for this year.  The word is "FOCUS".  

There are a million things that any small business owner must keep track of in a given year, season and day. Flower farming seems to have a million or more things that we must be aware of, plan for, schedule and execute.  Sometimes (most of the time) it can be very overwhelming to keep it all straight.  Plans are made, budgets are drafted and schedules are made up; only to be dropped, forgotten and you end up crazily running around trying to get things done. So we are going to focus on what is important, what has to get done and what will help us achieve our dreams.   Yeah, I know, it all is important, has to be done and doing everything is the dream.  As much as we want to, should do, could do, would do and try to keep up with others; we have to stay focused.  Focus on what we do well, can accomplish and makes us happy.  There are a hundred opportunities out there that we would love to be apart of but in the end, we need to focus on those that make sense for us, make us smile and leap outta bed in the morning. We are excited by the opportunities that we are going to pursue and it will take our focus to make them successful.  

So our focus this year is to still work on personal health, good farm health, staying on plan and budget and encouraging local and healthy flowers to all that are interested.  We will be avoiding comparisons of others, sinkholes of time and negative thoughts/feelings.  Focus is "trending" in 2014.

Genuine happiness can only be achieved when we transform our way of life from the unthinking pursuit of pleasure to one committed to enriching our inner lives, when we focus on ‘being more’ rather than simply having more.”   -Daisaku Ikeda