Hey there friends! How are you doing on this fine Monday morning? I’m doing well. I woke up super early with a huge to-do list for today so I wanted to start my day off right by letting you know what all has been happening on the homestead this past week. Then it’s off and running and getting things checked off the list! Let’s get to it, shall we?

Chickens

First up, our egg count! I collected 40 eggs from 7/12-7/18/21. I thought Baby laid her first egg, but now I’m not so sure. She and Buddy are only 4 months old so it’s a bit early, but she was ‘squatting’ for me last week. I’ll keep an eye on the nest box and report back once I know for sure she’s laying! I’m hoping she’ll be an olive egger, but she could lay a chocolate egg. She definitely has some Maran in her and they are known for their dark chocolate eggs.

Otherwise the chickens are doing well. It’s time to switch them back to layer feed. I’m not sure if I mentioned it or not, but I put them all on grower feed since feeding the babies (Baby and Buddy) layer feed is not recommended. However, you can switch the layers to grower feed especially since they get supplemental calcium. But it’s time to put everyone back to layer feed. I’ll do that over the next couple of weeks and then we should see Baby start laying!!

Otherwise the chickens are doing great. I’m happy with the flock. Buddy is trying his best to be the head honcho, but it will take some more time. The big girls still give him a run for his money. He crows all the time. It’s super cute. He’s trying so hard to get the flock under his control. But those girls have been so independent, I think he has his work cut out for him. hehe.

Garden

The garden. Oh the garden. How I love it so but it just isn’t growing. And I don’t think it’s the weather either. I think it’s the soil. I really should have amended it this spring before planting, but as you might recall, I had an issue with the guy who was supposed to be doing the garden for me. So time was of the essence and getting all the plants in the ground. So I’ll amend it later this year or before I plant next year. Anyway, the plants seem to be stuck. So I’m adding a fish meal fertilizer (top dressed) to see if that will help. Top dressed just means that I’m adding it to on top of the soil and then watering it in (or rather letting the rain water it in!). I’ll do this weekly for the next few weeks and see if that helps. I’ll also do some more research and see if I can figure anything else out. I really should do a soil test and I might go that route if the fertilizer doesn’t work. I’m hoping the garden wasn’t all for naught this year.

Oh! And I was out and about adventuring this past week and what did I bring home? More plants! It never ends! haha.

Business End of Things

Business is good friends. I have two in-person events this week. I also have my fall ‘on the homestead‘ classes listed in the shop. I’m working on getting them advertised in hopes of filling all the slots! That would be my ultimate goal. So. If you want to learn how to can, make cheese, make a wreath, or make a pie, I’ve got the class for you! And I’m working on a ‘value-added’ product that has me all kinds of excited!! Stay tuned. There’s so much fun happening on the homestead. And that has me really excited too!

The Rest of the Story

So friends. This is where I want to focus this week. There’s so much happening with the rest of the story. Where do I begin? Let’s see…hmm. Well, I signed my puzzling team up for the puzzle competition next week. My local library has a puzzle competition every year and it sounds like too much fun to pass up! So there has been a lot of puzzling happening here. We’re doing a ‘test’ run this weekend to get our game plan figured out. HAHA! I love it.

The meal plan and budget is going well. I outlined everything in this post in case you want to see how we’re doing. It helps when friends ask if you want some clams! Yes please! Dinner last night was delicious! I need to finish processing all our food that we bought for our monthly grocery trip. I’ll get that done today so it will be ready for this week. I’m really excited about this new venture.

We brought the kayak (and the Mister’s canoe) home from storage. I still have a few bigger pieces in storage that I hope to get over the next few weeks. I have my grandparent’s stereo, our upright freezer, a washer and dryer and a couple of other things. It will be nice to have all of our stuff in one place for once. I can’t wait to get the kayak in the water again. I will need to add that to my ‘to-do’ list!

Speaking of boats. I got to go fishing on the reservoir this past week. Our neighbor has been fishing the reservoir a lot lately and she asked if I wanted to go. I jumped at the chance to try something new. In case you don’t know, our reservoirs feed into New York City (NYC) as their drinking water and are maintained by the (NYC) Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). You have to have a permit to fish the reservoirs. It’s a free permit and pretty easy to obtain. Once you have that permit, you’re free to fish any of the reservoirs. I didn’t catch anything but my neighbor did! It was such a fun day. I hope to make it back over there soon. But regardless I think I’ll be fishing the our pond and some of the other local public ponds very soon.

shorts and t-shirt on porch

I’ve included my dress in happiness photos here. I started this project to help make sure I’m getting dressed most days each week. I also started the project as a way to help take my photography skills to the next level. I am practicing using the timer on my camera but also ‘styling’ and posing for photos. Boy is it hard! It’s so awkward too. But I’m doing it. I have to set aside time each day that I want to do the pictures and then I take about 30 photos to get one decent one. I hope in a few months the photos will look drastically different. haha.

Other little things I wanted to mention. I brought home that record/cd/cassette player from TN. It has a radio too. I put it next to my computer in the craft room. I intended to listen to the local public radio station, but I’m not sure where our local one is out of. It doesn’t really matter since nothing comes in except the local country station. I’m happy to listen to it while I work.

I haven’t gotten much done in the way of my overall to-do list (more on that below) and I certainly haven’t finished unpacking everything. YET! But I’m happy to be back in this space and just chugging along getting things done. There’s blueberries to be picked. Classes to be taught. And more things to be planned and executed.

Oh! And! Anna Lee and I have been walking in the woods again. I’ve been hesitant because of all the bear activity this year. This year has been like no other that I can remember. I usually see one bear per year, but this year. Friends. The bears have been getting into the dumpster (which they haven’t done before) and we’ve just seen lots and lots of bears this year. Well. Good reason we’ve been avoiding the woods. We stumbled upon a bear this week! Thankfully it ran away when it heard us but boy was I spooked. I’ll be putting a bell on Anna’s collar to help let all the critters know that we’re there!

And, one final note. I have been trying to get my photos off my ipad (where I download them and then edit and then usually hook it to my computer and off load that way). But, this time I can’t get them off. They’re in the icloud and I can’t get them to download. I lost a photo (at least one that I know of) and it makes me sad. I think I inadvertently deleted it thinking I had downloaded it. So. All you techies out there. What do I do??

The List

1. garden: finish putting rocks around sage, hostas, currants, asparagus, and horseradish
2. make soap
3. make mozzarella for the freezer, make cheese for aging (parmesan, cheddar and then go from there).
4. chicken coop expansion: put metal roof on run; install curtains, cut second window in back of coop, finish barn quilt, install barn quilt, put up barrier around base of run to keep shavings inside.
5. make and dry pasta
6. make strawberry jam
7. plant more bulbs in the flowerbed along the back porch, define the flower bed
8. finish installing gutters along front flower bed
9. Finish commercial kitchen makeover

That’s it for this week friends! Drop me a note letting me know how you’re doing!

’til next time
-k
xoxo