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Well we are busy, busy, busy around our little farm. There is always mowing and weeding to be done. I am trying something new this year and putting the grass clippings down between my vegetable rows. Just a thin layer. It seems to be breaking down quickly and is helping with making walkways less muddy after watering and keeping weeds downs. I think it will make nice hummus for next year. We are weeding on a daily basis until canning starts. We are also still planting. As rows are cleaned up we are planting the ends where the seeds didn't go to the end, adding rows in between items, and re-planting items like lettuce that are already being harvested. The bulk of the garden is planted and coming up. Everything we plant now is like a bonus. Strawberries and spinach will probably be ready to process next weekend. The girls and I weeded the herb garden today and planted a few more herbs. I like finding unusual herbs and adding them to my stash. We also strated putting in a cobblestone walkway through the herb garden to the egg boxes. I have this lovely little fenced herb garden with a gate. It is on th edge of the chicken coop and the nesting boxes open to the outside in the herb garden. This pathway will help me be able to fill in with more plants and keep the kids from trampling my plants. We are hoping Daddy will come home and help us finish, but we have it mostly dug out. Since my DH is a contractor, we have left over materials from projects such as cobblestones. In the house, we did some of our baking yesterday. Today we still have major cleaning to do - bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, etc. We would like to start some seedlings also. We are getting ready for soap making scenting some of our oil with lavendar. It is a little experiment. I am working on overhauling our monthly rotating menu. I am starting from scratch and setting up five weeks of rotating menus that are based on what we raise here on the farm only supplemented with the what we can bake from the staples we do purchase. I can/freeze/dry/store based on 40 weeks of eating from our stores. So I have calculations on how many times we eat things each month - potatoes 13 times, peaches 6 jars, pears 4 jars, etc. I then plug in the items in to a month long menu. I also have my meat consumption of beef, pork, and chicken done the same. All convenience foods are being eliminated and replaced with home baked items all the way down to homeamade corn chips and homemade noodles. I am also researching more inexpensive ways to feed our animals. We had considered planting some corn for them, but space and water are an issue. We did plant additional corn in the garden that we will be able to use to supplment feed. I am considering sprouted wheat for the chickens. I am interested in any ideas anyone has. I want to be free of buying feed. I read about the old days when everyones raised their own feed so it isn't too far fetched. I hope you are finding your homestead productive . . . |
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Posted by Laura of Harvest Lane