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.

HOME Sweet Homestead

Two months in and our homestead is really starting to feel like home. We've accomplished a lot, but still have so much to do. We are trying to find a new rhythm with this new farming life and renovating a house. I admit there are moments when I think what in the world have we gotten ourselves into. Other times I look around and am in amazement for this new adventure. 

Here's a glimpse at what's happened in the last week...

We are putting the finishing touches to the master bedroom.

 It is our one room where we can sneak to if we need a little break from the rest of the house.

 The turkeys are outside and loving it!

 We've begun stocking our shelves with preserved summer goodness.

 The first layer of wallpaper is down in the school room. 

Deer decimated our garden one night this week. 

They ate all of the sweet potatoes, tomatoes, sunflowers, and some of our cucumbers. It was sad. 

But as I was surveying the damage, I saw our beans growing up our corn stalks. That made me smile.

 We cleaned up some fallen trees in the pastures. 

We have a good start to the firewood that we will use this winter.

 

We also now have our swing hanging on our side porch. 

 

It's been a nice place to enjoy the beautiful weather lately!

The Homestead Garden

I wasn’t sure if we were going to have a garden this year.  But, after the whirlwind of events of selling our old house, buying our new one, and moving in (which seemed to happen at warp speed), we knew we still had time for growing a few of our own vegetables. This made me incredibly happy, by the way. With the help of Habegger’s, I was able to buy a variety of transplants. I spent the entire day yesterday planting tomatoes, green beans, peppers, white and sweet potatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, various squashes, corn, and even sorghum. I also picked up an elderberry tree and I almost came home with a chicken. I resisted the chicken though. Now we just have to protect our garden from the numerous deer around here. It will be a new challenge, for sure, but we’re up for it.