Hi friends! I’m back with another weekly homestead update. This week was a little more lowkey. I needed to take some time to just breath and I’m glad I did. Let’s catch up on what did happen.
Eggs
I collected 36 eggs from 3/6-3/12/21! And spring is definitely here, y’all. The past few days have been beautiful. The girls are enjoying free ranging. I let them out in the morning and then put them back up sometime in the afternoon. I’ll let them back out around 5PM and let them go until time for bed.
The baby chicks are doing great too. They’re only the two of them but they are so cute! I’m pretty sure we have a roo too. The other one I’m on the fence about but my guess is that it’s a she. I borrowed a heater from my friend Diane and I’m totally hooked on the heater versus heat lamp. I think I’ll have to purchase a heater if we’re going to keep hatching out chicks. And I think we are. Shhhh. Don’t tell the Mister. hehe.
Garden
I don’t have much of a garden update for you other than I bought all the ingredients for my seed starting mix based off this recipe. Friends. It makes so much soil! I don’t know what I’m going to do. Funny story. So. I bought everything and a BIG Rubbermaid container. I am planning on using the container for something else, but thought “hmm, I could use it for now for soil mix”. So I started adding the peat moss to the container and that. filled. the. container! I still had bags and bags of things to add! So. I grabbed another huge container, thinking it was bigger. Nope. Same size! What am I going to do with all that soil? What home gardener needs that. much. soil? It’s seed starting mix! Not container soil, not garden soil, not potting mix. Why would they give such a huge recipe? Anyway, we dumped it all out on the concrete and I’ll mix it that way. I don’t know what I’m going to do with once I’m doing starting my 5 trays of seeds. That won’t even make a dent in the mix! Shaking my head.
Tapping Trees
Well! We finally have sap flowing! I’ve collected 10 gallons so far. I collected 5 gallons before, when we first tapped the trees, but I had to dump it since it’s been so long since I collected it. You should really collect and boil within 7 days (fewer if possible). Hopefully the Mister will get the evaporator built this weekend. Wood is being delivered Saturday morning! So we should be all set by the end of the weekend to start cooking.
The List
I have a good update on ‘THE LIST‘! I’m happy to mark some other things off of it! YAY!
1. garden: finish moving to new location, plant garden and flowers (can start working on this as soon as the ground isn’t so soggy from the snow melt, but I still have lots of time!)
2. make soap3. render lard4. restock spices: going tomorrow!!
5. chicken coop expansion: clean out coop and run; move coop and run; expand chicken run; put metal roof on current run; expand roosts in run; fix door between coop and run; add rooster to the flock; install curtains. 6. Do something with blueberries (making blueberry maple jam this weekend)
7. Do something with cherries
I’m sure it’s time to add other projects to the list, but I’m enjoying having it down to the chicken coop, making soap, and the garden. The chicken coop move/reno is rescheduled for next weekend. Fingers crossed that the ground isn’t too soft and we can get the tractor down the hill!
Budgets
So. I keep forgetting to give you an update on how we faired with our grocery spending for January and February. Here it is friends:
January: groceries and supplies: $428.25; eating out: $37.37=$465.62. As for February: groceries and supplies: $550.15; eating out: $58.49=$608.64. So January was better than December, but boy! February was kind of outrageous. Of course I did some stockpiling (some meat and the spices) so maybe that explains it a little. Maybe the winter boredom settled in. It looks like November was our best month. Hopefully we’ll get back on track soon.
The Business End of Things
So, like I said, there hasn’t been much happening with the business this week. I’ve still been working on things behind the scenes, but I took so much needed down time. I did my first guest appearance on a podcast. It should be ready for airing next week. I’ll definitely keep you posted! That was exciting. I also released the beeswax food cover kits again. This time they come with a craft and sip zoom session! I’m pretty excited about it. I’m actually pretty excited about all the things going on with the business lately. I will be adding more and more classes and consultations over the next few weeks. You can see what classes I’m offering on the homestead here.
Oh! Book group is Sunday! I am still reading the book. I actually put it down and read a couple of other books but I’ll get back to it tonight and tomorrow. I’m eager to hear what you all have to say about it.
The Rest of the Story
Since the weather has turned nicer and most of our snow is starting to melt, Anna Lee and I have taken to walking again. I’ve missed it. It’s funny how it seems like such. a. chore until you are done with it. Or in the middle of it. I love walking. I wish I were a runner, but I’m not. I’m a walker. Once I get going. haha. Anna Lee would go for a walk all day, every day!
I’ve also been cleaning up a bit around the homestead. It’s needed it. We’re tackling things in the house soon too. We have a big workday scheduled for next week. Stay tuned for deets. It’s going to be very exciting!
Our meal plan got thrown off a little this past week. We had company on Tuesday so we zagged a little and had chicken rice bowls again. and the we had salmon one night too. We went to the store last Sunday and the salmon was just too good to pass up. We had dinner with friends on Wednesday and will have the birthday dinners tonight and tomorrow. So we’ll pretty much recycle last week’s meal plan for next week. I skipped this week’s misfit box so we can eat all our yummy veggies from the past couple of weeks.
And I made a blueberry lavender cake. All I can say is yum! We’ll keep that one on rotation. That’s it for this week friends. I’ve had a very good week of enjoying the homestead-listening to the little chicks chirp away in the laundry room, watching the big girls free range, working with my hands, making things, and just taking a breath. It was a very good week indeed.
’til next time
-k
xoxo
Tracy
Good morning! So nice to read your update, Kristin!
A lot is going on with you! Wow! But very exciting. So, I’m not the best (at all) at identifying chick breeds. The black and white/cream one reminds me very much of our Australorps as chicks. Do you know what breed he/she is? And, how can you tell the gender? Very curious! 🙂
That cake looks DIVINE! I wish I was more of a baker. I like to cook, but baking must have skipped a generation. My mother is you: a prolific baker, especially pies.
You photo of the meat grinder just reminded me: Mr. Gordon has pork defrosting in the fridge that he MUST make into sausage today. Do you think putting it out on the counter with the mixer in the center will be a big enough hint? 😀
Last week blew by for me, too. First week as “Tracy the self-employed.” A lot of administrative work. But it was a good week. I could breathe. (I do not miss my employer one bit. Not. At. All.) Although I didn’t get “down time,” it still felt great. This week has been a bit crazy with roadblocks and hurdles, but you know how it can be. And you just keep going.
Question on budgets: Do you include more than what you buy in groceries in those figures you provided? Do the numbers include “all spent” (on top of routine house bills) or is it just grocery items – both food and other items, like toilet paper? Curious and glad that you share so others can compare to their own expenses and get ideas. Thank you. 🙂
I’m sure your chickens are enjoying the nicer weather! Ours are as well. We are beginning supervised free-range mini-sessions. I’ll be posting about that on our blog.
Hope you have a GREAT day!
chickenlibrarian
Hi Tracy! So, let’s talk chicks first. The babies are mixed breed so I will probably never really know how mama and daddy are. Although the black and white/yellow one (the girl) was hatched out of an olive egg so she will more than likely lay an olive egg. As for the little guy, I know he’s a roo because he started developing almost immediately, as roos tend to do. He’s about 2 weeks ahead on development of feathers and such than the little girl. I’m still debating what to do with them both, but it seems likely they are headed to the coop to join the girls.
I’m happy to hear that things are going good for you with your new ‘work for yourself from home’ gig. : ) There will always be hurdles to jump over. Or around. Or through. It’s part of the gig, I guess. Sometimes it’s easier than others. I’ve hit a roadblock of sorts this week so I’m just stepping away for a few days to regroup. It’s what we do, right?
As for budgets, unfortunately that’s just my grocery and supply budget. I don’t include anything like chicken feed, pet food, clothes shopping, incidentals. I know our grocery shopping is out of control which is why I wanted to focus on just that. You can see how out of control we are! Oh. We’re canceling our misfits box. I’ll talk more about it in a post, but we’ve decided it was time. I’ll have to be smarter about shopping from now on. Probably doing one trip every week or every other week.
Okay. gotta run. Got a class coming up in a few! xoxo
Tracy
Hi Kristin – just a very quick follow-up note. Thanks for the info re: your budget. I often wonder if Mr. Gordon and I are just bad at grocery shopping (at the grocery store). I do shop with an app so I can calculate the order total as I add to the cart and I almost always have a list. It’s so dang expensive – and we buy our meat direct from the farmer!
Maybe it’s just that I am getting older. I remember the “old days” of $50-$60 weekly grocery bills in my 20s. Maybe it’s just the way it is now. (Sigh.) But I appreciate how forthcoming you are! That’s one of the reasons why you are one of my favorite bloggers. I always feel like we’re all seeing the real deal!
I’m on the fence with Misfits myself. Haven’t cancelled yet, but haven’t placed this week’s order either. I had planned on backing off over the summer because hopefully between our garden and the local farmers markets we’ll be in good shape. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on your MM experience when you post it. Hope you are having a great weekend!
chickenlibrarian
It’s funny how much money we spend on groceries! And I mean as a society. Real food is expensive but I always think it’s situational and that’s the reason I started keeping track. I think when I am really on top of my game-meal plan, budget, and a shopping plan-I do really, really well. But then if things aren’t planned out things go off the rails very quickly. Our local grocery store is not a good store. Produce goes bad quickly. There’s not a good selection. And it’s very expensive. Which is weird to me since a lot of people won’t (or can’t) travel for groceries. So I need to get back on a plan and you’ve motivated me to do that! I’m going to start looking for recipes for things that we have in stock and only going to the grocery store once per week. Of course, the Mister will have to be on board with this. He’s a big reason why we shop so much! But that’s a story for a different day. But he did recently agree to cancel the Misfits box and start shopping at Aldi’s (my fav grocery store!).
Thank you for your kind words. xoxo
Steph - Elder Oaks Farm
Good for you for listening to your mind and body and taking some down time! I know It is much deserved. Just have to say that I absolutely LOVE your on the homestead chicken class idea. I read through the description and it sounds super fun and informative for anyone who is thinking about getting into chicken keeping. Can’t wait to hear about how it goes! Hope you have a great rest of your week, friend! 🙂
chickenlibrarian
Thanks Steph! Now I just need people to sign up for the class. That’s been a big issue for me…getting people to register. I, of course, think the chicken keeping class is a great one and I don’t know why someone wouldn’t want to take it. HAHA. I’ll keep you posted!