Springtime on Our Farm

Spring . . . my personal favorite season of the year. All the green, warm sunshine, the growing garden, harvesting produce, new life born here on our farm, and so much more. It has been a busy spring for us, and here is a glimpse into some of what I have been enjoying . . . .

Our growing garden with the potatoes freshly hilled – that was a lot of dirt to move! And hopefully it will result in a bountiful potato crop.

One of our favorite spring and summer activities is the vegetable garden . . . tending it, harvesting, enjoying the fresh produce, and preserving. So far, we’ve been enjoying fresh garden salads, and zucchini and beets will be ready before long, too. The tomatoes are just beginning to come on the vines, and if they do well, we’ll have a busy time this summer canning them all!

A rose bud nearly ready to break into bloom. Who else loves roses? After wanting a bush for so long, I finally planted one this year!

One of our barns

When Niobrara Farms Bath and Body was first begun, we raised our own dairy goats, though currently the milk used in the soaps comes from a friend who lives a few minutes from us. Like we had raised, she has French Alpines and a few other breeds as well. It’s always fun to go pick up more milk and see her goats!

Though while we no longer have a dairy breed ourselves, we do raise a meat/show breed called Boers. Kidding season is always much looked forward to every year, as the births themselves, the kids’ first gasp for air, the first bleat, are amazing to see, but most of all, goat kids are just so much fun! This year, we had one easy kidding (always so nice!) and one difficult one, yet thankfully, all four kids are doing very well. The last two years have been mostly bucklings born, so we were glad to have three doelings this time! And one lone buckling. : )

Primrose – little miss mischievous

Prairie – love her sweet face!

In the midst of farm life, making goat milk soap and other products fills each week as well. In addition to continually restocking the current 14 soap varieties, it has also been fun to develop two new varieties recently. One is Activated Charcoal which has been well received at the Farmers Market (and will be coming soon to my store), and the other is Cedarwood . . . .

It smells just like its name – fresh cut cedarwood. It is curing now and will also be coming soon!

And there you have a glimpse into springtime on our farm!