Around the Homestead

Storms and No Power…

We had storms with high winds last night. Our power flickered off and on throughout the evening and eventually went off for good some time in the night.  Luckily, we have a weather radio Randy’s Dad and Brenda bought for us that has an alarm on it so we still made it to work on time.

The forecast from here on out is hot and dry with highs in the 100s.  Wheat harvest will be just around the corner with temperatures like that.  I’m going to do a little experiment this year.  I am going to fill a 2 quart jars with wheat and use two different preservation methods and see what works best.  Hopefully by next harvest we will have invested in a grain mill and can swipe a couple buckets of wheat from Dad to grind for bread.  This way I will know what works best and not risk wasting a large quantity of wheat to weavils.  Randy is currently reading Small-Scale Grain Raising so we can use it as a reference this harvest.

I didn’t water last night because there were huge storms coming our way.  Of course, we got more wind than rain so I will be watering heavily tonight (assuming we will have power by then).

Have a great Tuesday!

Around the Homestead

A Weekend with Family…

We had a wonderful weekend spent with family.  My Aunt Debbie and cousins, Tannis and Isabella, were here visiting from the Carolinas.  Friday Tannis and I got to hang out at our home a little bit baking bread and visiting. 

Saturday, we went to my cousin, Kendra’s, home to grill and swim with everyone.  Sunday, was lunch at Grandma’s home just up the road from us.  There was lots of family fun all weekend long.

Family_compressed

Mom, Aunt Debbie (not being camera friendly), Grandma, and Tannis

Kendra&Karlie_01_compressed

Kendra and Karlie

Kendra&Karlie_02_compressed

Kendra and Karlie

Kendra_Karlie&Isabella_02_compressed

Kendra and Isabella

Kendra_Karlie&Isabella_03_compressed

Karlie, Isabella, and Kendra

Rob&Randy_2_compressed

Rob and Randy

My cousin, Tannis, and I could talk forever about homeschooling, parenting, nutrition and health.  We just didn’t have enough time to discuss all the things we would have liked.  Luckily we have what is called the internet and cell phones to keep us in touch.

The weekend went way too fast just as we knew it would.  Now it’s back to our regularly scheduled program.

Around the Homestead

Bikers…

Two of Randy’s friends from work came out on Sunday to swim and have lunch.  They rode their bikes out, so Randy decided to pull his out of the garage to see if they would let him ride with them a little before they headed back.

Bikers_01_edited&compressed

They said, “NO.”

Around the Homestead, Gardening

On the Farm…

We had a really nice and productive weekend.  Friday I spent the day doing laundry, working in the garden, and getting a few greens picked for dinner.

GreensInBasket_compressed

Poke and Spinach collected

GreensInSink_compressed

Spinach ready to cook. 

I also built this handy-dandy trellis for my English Ivy. 

HomemadeTrellis_compressed

It doesn’t look the greatest now, but I’m hoping my ivy will take it over (and cover it up).  Plus it was free, so nothing lost if it doesn’t turn out as I have invisioned.

Friday evening we had a surprise birthday party for a friend of our’s.  So I did chores that afternoon and as soon as Randy got home we loaded up and headed out for an hour and a half drive to her house.  We had such a good time visiting with friends and eating (of course).  We got home fairly late for us that night, but were still up with the roosters at 5:45 that next morning.

We had to finish clipping pasture fence and with a predicted high of 94 we needed to get an early start on it.  I took these pictures while we were out clipping fence: 

SheepOnPasture_01_compressed

SheepOnPasture_02_compressed

This is the north end of Grandma’s pasture.  The sheep love it out there and always head north when they are let out of the lots in the mornings.

SheepOnPasture_03_compressed

This is where my camera was last seen Satuday morning.  Last night Randy and I had to run the fence line to beat an incoming storm looking for my camera.  It was nestled in the grass right about where that first shadow is, safe and sound, thank goodness.

It didn’t take us long at all to get the fence all clipped.  Then we relocated to the garden to pull weeds and stake tomatoes.  Craig stopped by and helped Randy get his engine in his pickup which was really nice.

Sunday morning we were up really early to finish up some of our outside duties before heading to Mom and Dad’s pond to meet Craig to fish.  I had homemade ice cream in the ice cream maker so we couldn’t stay very long and didn’t catch a thing.  Craig ended up with a huge catfish and a bucket full of bullhead, so he was please.  While Randy worked on the grain truck and Grandma’s, I dug up some starts for peonies and lilacs.  I have been reading Tasha Tudor’s books, and have a new desire to add flowers to our homestead.  Her books are wonderful if you ever get the chance to read them.  She also has a children’s line of books with beautiful illustrations she did herself.

Mom and Dad grilled steaks for lunch for all of us.  Afterwards we headed home to vacuum the pool and build a door for our second chicken coop.  We plan to use it for our Banties, so they can hatch out some babies and also to raise our meat birds in the fall.

It was a really hot weekend, but still got a lot done despite the heat.  This weekend will be more of the same heat-wise.  We have to weigh our ram lambs for the sale next weekend.  We want to try and send as many as we can to help stretch our pasture this summer.  We have barely enough acreage with Grandma’s pasture behind our house to sustain the number of sheep we now have.  We plan to sell off some of our ewes next year, but needed just one more year with them.  Hopefully we get enough rain to keep our grass in good shape for them.

Saturday’s dinner:  mahi mahi soaked in lemon juice and sprinkled with lemon pepper along with, sauted spinach and onions fresh from the garden, and garlic bread.

Sunday’s dinner:  homemade chili and potatoes left to cook all day in the solar oven. 

Monday’s dinner:  cream of broccoli soup and garlic bread

Tuesday’s dinner:  leftover taco mix from the freezer to make taco salads with homemade salsa

Tonight’s dinner:  I was given some bok choy from a co-work, so I will be experimenting with it tonight along with ham steak and radishes also given to me by the same co-worker.  The bok choy looks wonderful.

Have a wonderful day!

Around the Homestead, Gardening

A Long Holiday Weekend…

We have had a busy couple of weeks.  My Dad and two other guys have been working to rebuild the roof over our front entry and porch.  It leaked really badly due to it being a more-or-less flat roof.  So the guys built it up so the water will run off better.

PorchRoof_Before_compressed

 Before

PorchRoof_During_compressed

During

RoofingMess_compressed

 Daily messes we got to clean up when we got home from work.

Roof_BuiltUp_01_compressed

You can see here how much the roof was built up over the existing roof.

My order came in from Abundant Acres so I had tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and wolf berries to plant.  I wasn’t all that impressed with my order from them.  The plants were really over grown, and I’ve had to really work to keep them alive.  They yellow when I got them which I related to being shipped in a pitch black box.  Hopefully they will come around.  The rest of my tomatoes from Mom’s store are doing really well.  I also got soaker hoses ran throughout the entire garden on Friday.

OvergrownTomatoes_03_compressed

Here you can see how gangly my heirloom tomatoes were when they arrived.

GardenSupplies_compressed

CompostBin_compressed

Compost Bin

 Randy was so good to help me Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning in the garden.  We mulched the entire thing with leftover hay from the sheep’s pen.  It’s a shame they waste (expensive) hay, but at least it was put to good use in the garden.

 MulchedGarden_01_compressed

We missed the majority of the Memorial Day activities, but our garden looks great, our pool is open for business (once it warms up), and Randy had some time to work on his pickup engine while I did housework and cooked.

We had a really productive weekend!

Around the Homestead

A Weekend Update…

Friday was spent doing the normal chores around the house.  I did get all our bushes and trees mulched.  I also made potato salad (first time) that turned out really well and a strawberry-rhubarb pie (Randy’s favorite) that turned out not-so-well.  Randy was a good sport, thanked me, complemented me, and ate the whole thing.

Randy came home early to go to the doctor.  Still not sure what is wrong with him, so I am going to try to get him in with our Kinesiologist today if at all possible.  He was bitten by a tick right before he traveled to Ohio for classes and hasn’t felt well since. 

Randy worked on putting the engine together for his pickup Saturday morning while I did laundry and some work in the garden.  We sheared at Dad’s and finished up the few who were missed due to rain.  A friend of Randy’s also brought over his nine sheep to shear.

We have decided to make a conscious effort to make our Sundays a day of “rest.”  We will hopefully use this day for relaxation, fun, or at least some of our easier projects.  However, we spent the early part of this Sunday morning rolling barbed-wire balls into the back of the pickup and picking up old wooden hedge posts all around the pasture to take to the dump.  It was not exactly easy or fun or relaxing, but it is done and the pasture looks so much nicer now.  Randy continued working on his engine while I finished up laundry.  I also hilled and mulched our potato plants in hopes we will get a good crop of potatoes this year. 

Sunday afternoon we got cleaned up and headed to town.  We met at our friend’s, Josh and Angie’s, house to meet Angie’s mom, Nancy, so she could notarize the last of our adoption papers.  Her and her husband drove up on their Harley.  She is too cute, and we so appreciated her meeting us and helping us complete our paper work. 

We attended two graduation parties and saw lots of friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.  We had a great time, stayed too late, and had to hurry through chores before getting to bed.  Today I am sleepy and ready for an early night. 

Dinner is baked spaghetti I pulled out of the freezer this morning.  It is one I already made up and is ready to bake.  I also pulled a baggie of homemade mozzarella to sprinkle on top of it.  No garlic bread though.  We at an entire loaf of bread this weekend, and I only made one.  So it will be a bread-less week until I can make more again on Friday.

Hope everyone is having a nice Monday!

Around the Homestead

A Week of Vacation…

We had a wonderful week with Randy’s Dad and Step mom, Brenda.  They are so helpful when they visit.  Grandma’s pasture behind our house that we use for our sheep is now fenced in thanks to Randy and Roger.  We have it divided down the middle to provide for rotational grazing.  The girls couldn’t be happier to have fresh grass to graze.  They have been on the ram’s little pasture and the rams are on hay and will stay there another three weeks for the cycle of worms to end (rotational grazing) before they can go back out on their pasture.  Poor guys are not happy with the situation.  Brenda gave them plenty of weeds she had pulled out of the flowerbeds to eat, and Roger raked our Bermuda in the backyard after Randy mowed and tossed it over for them.  The rams let the Bermuda dry for a day and then pigged out on it.

I have a new flower bed, the garden is underway, our twin bed from the baby’s room is tucked away in a closet until it is needed later on, and our dog house is painted.  Everything looks so green and pretty around our home.

Flowerbed_02_compressed

Flowerbed in the Making

Backyard_GrassClippings_compressed

Grass Clippings to rake and feed to the rams and chickens

I am still waiting on my heirloom seeds and tomatoes from Abundant Acres.  I think I asked they be delivered the second week in May (this week), but I ordered them so long ago I truly can’t remember.  In the meantime I have gotten some plants from Mom’s store (14 of them so far).  The potatoes are up and the onions are growing like crazy.  The spinach and lettuce in the flowerbed next to the house finally came up and the marigolds in the garden are out of control.  Gardening is good!

Dad is supposed to start up again on our roof/re-modeling job we started last fall.  Weather permitting he hopes to start today and have it closed in before the rain hits again Friday night.  Cross your fingers.  I should have taken a “before” shot.  Oh well, maybe I can rummage one up from my archives.

Our chickens are laying about 16-17 eggs on average a day (18 last night).  We are up to our ears in eggs.  I have an 18-pack “aging” in the fridge as we speak in hopes when I boil them they will peel easy so I can make egg salad.  **Fresh eggs don’t peel well at all.  Makes you wonder how old those store-bought eggs are when the shell practically falls off of them in one piece.

Randy is home after being gone since Sunday.  Thankfully his trip was a safe one and his flight home was uneventful although it was questionable at times.  He is off today and taking care of things (after he gets caught up on his sleep).  I had no morning chores at 3:45 and will hopefully not have evening chores or dinner to cook tonight.  Yea for me!

Hope everyone is having a good week!