Green acres

I am excited to announce that Green Acres and Misty Skies is OFFICIAL!!!
We officially have ACRES!!!
When I started this blog my intention was to document my experience in growing food plants and other useful plants. To share with readers my advise, and what I have researched or learned through experience while gardening in my small urban back yard.  Well, my yard was never really all that small for a city lot, it is over .5 acres....long and narrow, and full of weeds and brush...a real jungle! 
Our new place (Yes, officially ours!) is 12 acres +. It is also long and narrow, full of weeds and brush and worst of all ..... the largest crop of Poison Ivy I have ever encountered.
Typically I tend to lean towards organic....sometimes I will use a fertilizer, mostly just compost, and rarely if ever use herbicides.....well, that has changed too. With the devastating rash my son got from camping at the property, we made the decision to buy a real herbicide to eradicate the invasive plant. And hopefully, not have to rely heavily upon the use of the chemicals after that...we are using a product known as CrossBow.  It is safe for stock animals to eat after a short period, so I feel a little safer about using it, and it does not kill grass, as round up would. It is a mixture of 2 4-D, and Triclopyr, that kills broadleaved plants and perennials, such as poison ivy.
I am not in love with the idea, but we really don't have much choice.


Now we are facing a myriad of projects. Absolutely, never-ending.  In order to afford "the farm" we are forced to repair and renovate an old old farm house in poor condition to rent out, to help cover costs. We are also going to be finishing the building of a home that was left by the previous owners unfinished. With my husband and my willingness to persevere through nearly any hardship or project, I think we will accomplish great things.


As for farming, well it still seems like a distant dream. We now have 3 homes to care for and maintain. We have obligations as landlord, as well as our other obligations.  We have a lot of work ahead, and farming is at the end of the line, it is the prize for all this stress, discomfort and labor.  But it is a good prize, it is my dream, and I will work hard to earn it all. From the house, to the land, to having this opportunity given to us, and driving it home.  This is what we have always wanted. And I will be living my dream.  I feel blessed. I worry only about the money to fund the projects, not about the work. I feel like the work is what makes it all possible, but better still, it is what humbles our character in order to deserve it. And that is our intention. To earn every acre, and to take care of every blade of grass, every last poison ivy plant on that lot is MINE, and I have to care for the land, the way it should be.
I have about 3,000 questions about rural living, farming, and husbandry. I have a billion ideas, and a trillion dreams to realize. I will need luck and faith. Hope, and help!  But I can't wait! 




here are a few pictures of my green acres, I hope that they are as beautiful and serene to you as they are to me. I love this land......I adore it. Sometimes when we are at our empty house at dusk and I see the sun setting through the window of my unfinished bedroom, I think to myself, this is heaven.....I could die right here, right now, and be at peace. The view of the setting sun, over green fields with a backdrop of trees, with cows mooing softly, mocking birds diving off posts and cicadas chirping through the night, I realize:
THIS PLACE IS PERFECT! :)

this is my driveway and barns

                                                                                  Two beautiful walnuts

                                                               6 acre pasture I call "left field"

                                                                Our new house tucked in behind some trees.

                                                     This is the view from the kitchen and the back of the house.
My daughter's bedroom, and the kid's bathroom share this view, along with my deck and dining room.
                                This picture was taken the day the hay was baled, on my husband's birthday!

This odd little nook is from the laundry/mud room. On the left is my garage, the right is the house, and porch.  You can see the front "yard" has been hayed as well.  And (unfortunately) there is a single wide trailer obstructing the view to the barns and my field of poison ivy.  There is a brushy area in the center of this picture, just behind the hay bale, that is a "pond" but really, is more of a trash dump site, and mosquito hatchery. Too bad mosquito breeding isn't big business, we'd be rich! (and farm poison ivy, too!)
We are having the trailer hauled away, and cleaning of the debris left by the previous owners is soon to come. We are going to treat the pond, until we figure out what to do with it, and have time to make a good decision...I am not against having a pond, I just don't think this one is very healthy. If we could clean it up, and landscape it, it could be a sanctuary, but as it is.....it's the pits!