A Glimpse of {January}

It's been a quiet and peaceful month at Little Barn Homestead. 

We are definitely in full winter mode. Chores are easier. We spend more time inside. 

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We have definitely developed rhythms and routines. 

School in the mornings (except Thursdays and school's in the afternoon).

 

(We celebrated our 100th day of school a week and a half ago!! Yay!!)

Market and grocery shopping on Tuesday afternoons. 

Bread making on Wednesdays. 

Thursday is our Library day.

We also spend our Thursday mornings sharing Bible stories

 and teaching English to our Burmese friends.

We gave ourselves a NO Eat Out Challenge starting January 1st. So we ate at home A LOT. We lasted 26 days. It was a fun little challenge. Maybe we'll start over and see if we can go 27 days during February.

We've been reading a lot. 

Some days (ok, most days) I just want to snuggle up with a good book and a cup of tea and read.

We scored a rabbit hutch for FREE on Craigslist this month.

It needs some modifying, but we're turning it into our rabbit maternity ward.

Near the end of the month, we got more than a foot of snow.

We were even snowed in for a few days. 

Thankfully, we had good food and the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy from the library.

 

After things thawed, and during the nice weather this weekend, 

we cleaned up some BIG limbs that fell during the snow storm.

  

We, along with all the animals, were enjoying the warmth and sunshine. 

The bees were out buzzing (thankfully) and we all have a bit of Spring fever. 

We just have to keep reminding ourselves winter is not over yet. 

HOME Sweet Homestead

It definitely feels like fall on the homestead. Things seem to be winding down. Chores do not take as long these days and we are getting all the animals settled for winter. 

The house is decorated with some of the tiny pumpkins/gourds we grew this year.

 We've had quite a year with sheep!

We stopped moving the sheep through the pastures about three weeks ago. They will have access to the barn throughout the winter and we have our hay ready for them to eat. 

The sheep we were hosting left last Friday. We still have an extra dog until December, but then she will go to her new home.

 

 In May, three lambs were born. 

Unfortunately, by October, two of our lambs died (from worms). 

It was hard and sad, but it's a part of this lifestyle.

 Our payment for hosting the extra sheep for the last few months was this new girl. 

Her name is Sylvia. 

She is pure bred Cotswold, has super dark wool,

 and is a lot younger than our other ewes.

 

Sylvia and our other 3 ewes are currently being bred right now at our friends' farm. 

That means that our one little surviving lamb (Opal) and the two dogs have the barn to themselves. 

We also let Opal roam around the house to let her eat the clover which she loves.

 

We thought we would have to process our ducks ourselves, 

but we found a processor who processes ducks, 

so at the end of August we had 8 ducks processed.

Our turkeys were processed with our second round of 29 meat chickens. 

I miss them, but we have 5 turkeys in the freezer along with hopefully enough chickens to last us until next year. 

 

All (15) of our laying hens are laying eggs now. 

So we have an abundance of eggs!

(We are selling our extras for $3 a dozen if you are a local and want some.)  

 

Speaking of eggs, the ducklings born in the Spring that we didn't process have just started laying eggs. 

We are not collecting those, so we'll see what happens. 

 

Shortly after we received a buck and a doe from a friend, our buck died. So our two does (who were not bred like I thought they were) spend their time eating lots of tasty scraps. We've got a new buck coming in the next few weeks.

 

Our mushroom logs have started fruiting! 

 

The fall garden is tiny (so tiny we signed up for the Rough Draft Farmstead fall CSA) 

compared to our spring and summer garden.

 I did plant 100 garlic cloves the other day for next year. 

All of the cloves came from the garlic I harvested from the garden this year

 and we still have lots of garlic to spare. 

Maybe with the shorter days we can focus our time on some indoor projects in the coming weeks. 

There's a to-do list that is a mile long, but then again, we might just rest.

HOME Sweet Homestead

 One day I might try to do a "Day in the Life" post because I wish I could share how what was once just a dream has become a reality that is so rich and full. But, for now I hope I can share enough glimpses that you might see some of what goes on around the homestead. 

Once the garlic cured, I cleaned it up and it turned out beautifully and it tastes delicious.

  

I was a little disappointed in the potato harvest, because I thought I had planted so many. 

I was consoled a little when I heard it was a bad year for potatoes. 

 

I have been canning like crazy around here!!

I canned all my tomatoes

 

 and even bought two boxes at the farmers' market because my tomatoes got blight. 

I have canned tomato halves, salsa, pickles, and chicken broth all within the last week.

  

We have started raising rabbits thanks to a friend generously giving us a buck and a doe. 

We already had one doe (who was supposedly pregnant when we bought her, 

but she actually wasn't). Now, although I'm still in the learning process with this, I think at least one is bred. We'll see in a few more days. 

The boys wanted to read a section from The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit to our newly named Flopsy and Benjamin when they first arrived.

 

Last Monday, we started back to school (more on that soon). 

We only took the month of July off, but the boys were begging to get back to it.

 

Bryan and I celebrated our 12th anniversary Sunday

 

and that evening Bryan sheared our first sheep.

 

 He did an amazing job! 

We still have two to shear,

 so hopefully that will happen soon.

 

Speaking of sheep, at the end of July, eight more sheep and another Great Pyrenees came to our homestead. They will be with our six sheep and our dog until their owners are able to find a new home in Louisville. 

We use managed intensive rotational grazing, 

so every few days we move 14 sheep and two dogs around our pastures. 

I'm sure it's a sight to see, but seems to be getting a bit easier each time. 

 

 Then earlier this week, the boys and I went to pick up a load of feed at the feed mill

 

because 31 baby chicks arrived at the post office for us today. 

This round of meat birds will be processed in October.

 

 My mom asked me the other day, on the phone, if I ever rest, 

and I know it's hard to believe, but I really do. 

Sometimes. :)

HOME Sweet Homestead

 We made the move to the country because we wanted to grow/raise more food. 

Well, food is overflowing at the homestead right now. 

Yesterday, we had our meat birds processed. 

Our pastured rainbow rangers went from this...

 to this.

 Tonight we cooked our first chicken and it was amazing!! All that hard work paid off and we are already preparing for the next round of 25 chickens. Our goal is to raise enough birds to have about a chicken a week.

 Our ducklings are growing by leaps and bounds each day. We lost our mama duck (to a fox, we think) not long ago, so we are keeping two of the females from the flock of ducklings and getting a new drake. The rest we will process ourselves at the end of August.

  

Our bees are thriving! This week we added a super to each hive.

  

 And then, there are the vegetables. 

We have to harvest vegetables every few days and come in with baskets full. This is the first year in three years we didn't sign up for a CSA and our trips to the farmers' market look a lot different these days. Our bags are no longer full of veggies and fruits because we have so much at home.

 

I also harvested the garlic that I had planted last November. I was so proud of this armful of garlic.

 We also found a patch of garlic that the previous owners must have planted. I let the scapes grow in this patch, just because I wanted this photo. The garlic flower is my absolute favorite. The bulbs aren't as big from this patch, but it was a sweet surprise to have this extra garlic anyway.

 

Speaking of favorite flowers, the other morning I caught an okra flower open.

 I just think they are so beautiful.

The passion flowers are also in bloom in the pastures. I love them, too! 

HOME Sweet Homestead

I can't believe it has been a week since our two newest lambs were born, but it has.

 We walked out to the field to move the sheep and there they were. We knew Ruby, their mother, was close to having them, but we thought it would be the next morning. They were born (we are guessing) a little before 7 pm. She had one black ewe (girl) lamb and one white ram (male) lamb. We have named them Opal and Gilbert. Since our flock is entirely black, we were excited to see our first white lamb. We are expecting more lambs any day from one more ewe.

 Our garden is still not entirely planted yet. Last year, I planted the entire space in a day. This year it has taken me weeks. But it is big. We are harvesting spinach, garlic scapes, and lots of radishes these days. The strawberries get picked before they turn completely red by the boys and I ate our first Sun Sugar tomato last night.

 

 It's good to have bees again, and both hives are doing well. 

I really love our new location for them this year. I can see the hives from our front porch.

  

The kittens...well, they are just so cute and playful right now.

The wildflowers in our fields are beautiful right now. The pastures are about to be bush hogged so they will come to an end shortly, but I'll enjoy them while I can.

 

 I am itching to paint our dining room these days and my new piece of furniture given to us by a sweet friend is making me want to even more. Both the walls and it are getting a fresh coat of paint one day. Until then, you get this sneak peek.

Also, if you like to see what's happening, 

I post a lot more to Instagram, so check that out for more pics.