Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

Homestead Update

It seems like it has been a while since I last posted an update on the happenings here so I thought I would go ahead and do that today.

My husband is loving his new job.  Doing landscaping and maintenance is not something he would have thought of doing before, but now that he has this job, he has found that he loves it.  He enjoys being outdoors and his job has him working outdoors doing tasks that are the same as what he does here at home.  The maintenance portion of the job is also enjoyable and is giving him experience in repairing things around the workplace and also the landscaping equipment.

The homestead is making changes.  It seems that each week, there is something new happening.  We now have a Hampshire ram.  He was born last February.  We also have chosen to not raise Dwarf Nubians as our milk goats.  After talking to others, we have decided that a much larger breed of goat would meet our needs much better.  Joe loves the Alpine goats, so we will be buying a couple of them hopefully next spring.

After several tries and twice having the garden flooded due to spring rains, our garden is finally producing vegetables.The beans are flowering, as are the squash.  I have more plants still growing that will give us harvests throughout the fall.  A long growing season is one of the benefits that we have here.  Our last frost occurs in late April and the first hard frost doesn't occur until late November most years, sometimes not until December.  I have started new seed for zucchini and yellow squash, brussel sprouts, and other varieties that will be transplanted in late August or early September.  Those will have just enough time to reach a harvest before the weather starts getting too cold.

We already have plans for next year's garden.  As with this year, the garden will be large in size and palnted in raised rows or mounds.  Raising the height of where the seeds are planted will prevent the seeds from being flooded during the spring rains.  I found a variety of corn that we will try growing for our livestock.  It also is great for cornmeal.  If it works out well, we will plant a larger amount in future years.  We don't expect to grow enough to feed our livestock throughout the winter, but will have enough to give them a good start and help in our feeding costs.

Abigail has a pair of new kittens.  A lady gave us the momma cat and a male & female kitten to have up at our stables as barn cats.  Momma is gone.  We suspect that a coyote may have got her when she was out hunting field mice.  The kittens are old enough that they have been able to eat dry feed for some time now.  They made their way up to the house and now have stayed close to it.  Each time Abigail goes outdoors to play, the kittens are with her.  Even our large orange tomcat hangs around Abigail.  She just seems to draw cats to her.  It is cute to watch as the cats follow her around as she plays.

Micah loves being outdoors also.  I can't wait for the summer heat to lessen a bit so that he can be outdoors more.  I always feel hesitant to take a young baby out in the extremely hot temperatures.  He is growing so fast.  I am looking for patterns to make him some new clothing.  At 3 months of age, he is nearly big enough for size 6 months!  I would love to find a pattern for a broadfall type style pant in infant/toddler sizes but so far have been unable to.  It seems that most pant patterns for infant/toddler boys are either a sweatpant style with the knit cuff at the ankle or a bib overalls style of shorts or pants.  If I don't find a pattern soon, I may just get a pair of pants from a thrift store to cut apart and make a pattern from.

I have been busy as of late.  In addition to caring for the family & home, I have been baking loaves of bread to sell.  Last week, a co-worker of Joe's asked if I would bake cookies for him to buy.  I had not considered baking cookies, but find that it is much easier and less time consuming.  To bake bread, I have to set aside at least 3 hours of my day - longer if I am baking to fill orders.  It is also a process that once started, I am committed to having to finish, no matter what comes up.  With the cookie baking, I will be able to mix the dough anytime, then bake as I have time to do so.  I am setting a side 2 days a week (Monday & Thursday) to bake the cookies.  Surplus cookies will not go to waste since Joe loves taking them to work to snack on.  I also have the option of making dough ahead of time and freezing it to be baked later.  I am enjoying the fact that if the kids are more clingy and wanting extra snuggling on a baking day, I can be more available to them by baking the cookies.  I always felt bad if I was in the middle of mixing & kneading the bread dough and the baby would cry.  Especially when Joe was at work and there was no one else around to pick Micah up to hold him.

We have found a new use for our old storm shelter.  It is a stone structure built in the yard on the north side of the house.  The shelter is below ground with a stonework dome shaped roof.  The shelter has been unsafe to use for many years.  It is full of water most of the spring & summer due to a high water table.  Each spring, the shelter has nearly 3 feet of water standing in it for several months.  By mid-summer, it finally is dried out.  Joe has been considering tearing the shelter down and had even got a start on it.  Yesterday though, he turned it into a burn bin.  Our burnable trash was piled into the shelter and Joe lit the paper on fire.  It was great!  The stone on the outside of the shelter stayed cool, even though a roaring fire was built in the shelter.  Joe then added alot of small tree limbs that were too small to save for firewood.  The best part is that we will be able to burn trash in there even during a burn ban as the fire has no way of escaping the shelter.  In the early spring when the shelter is full of water, we can burn the burnable trash in a burn barrel with a grate covering it to prevent anything from coming out of the barrel and possibly starting a fire on the ground.  A side benefit to his using the shelter as a burn pit is that it destroyed the wasp nests inside the burn pit.  Hopefully the wasps will relocate somewhere away from the house this time.

Untitled Comment

03:01, Monday, July 21, 2008 .. Posted by snowdropcottage

Hi, Gosh you are all very busy. Hope you don't have too many showers so that you're garden doesn't become flooded again. We've been having some really bad rains over here. God Bless. Take care Jan