Mavis Mail – Sarah From Prineville, Oregon Sends in Pictures From the Farm

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

Check out the amazing pictures of reader Sarah’s farm in Oregon. So. Much. Fun.

Dear Mavis,

I am attaching some recent pictures from my gardening/chicken coop/honeybee adventures. My name is Sarah and my little family and I live in Prineville, Oregon.

My husband Eric and I were married on his family farm in 2006. It was our intention to eventually move out to the farm and raise children someday. We lived and remodeled a historic home in Redmond the first several years of our marriage and I dabbled in gardening and raising chickens on our small 5000 square foot lot. Eric’s dad passed away in 2011 and the move seemed right. That is where the farm adventure began.

My first farm garden [was in] 2013. As we worked on the remodeling of the house … I tried my best to create the garden space I had always dreamed of.

We’ve been adding to our garden as we can. 20+ blueberry bushes, 75+ raspberries, red wiggler worms and most recently 75+ pumpkin starts down our long gravel driveway.We have a few animals around here too… our sweet elderly Ida Mae and our rambunctious Alice. They are two well loved yellow labs. We also have cattle, three pregnant heifers, a steer, barn cats, 18 hens and our most recent addition is the honey bee hive.

I have long known the benefits of having honeybees in the garden. This winter I enrolled in the OSU Master Beekeeper program to learn how to help these invaluable creatures. I’ve since become a member of a local beekeeping group and added this hive to our farm. Our children are fascinated with the bees and our little three year old boy is quick to point out whether or not he sees a drone flying through the yard or a worker bee.

Our children play a big part in the gardening experience around here. From digging, making seed tape, rototilling, to planting their own “seed babies,” they are involved each day.

I’m the crazy lady that takes pictures of each harvest, journals garden adventures and can’t let a single seedling die. My garden beds are planned out to the last detail with companion planting and crop rotation in mind. My rows are methodically lined up and the harvest dates for each plant are calculated with as much precision as possible.

I am proud to be a farmers wife, a mother of two amazing children and a lover of all things garden related.

~Sarah

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

~Mavis

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go  HERE for the official rules.