Homestead Update #18

Hey friends! How are you? Here we are another week gone. It was a busy week too. I have lots and lots to update you on even though it's only been a week. hehehe.

chickens

First up, our egg count. From 6/14-6/20/2021, I collected 39 eggs. The girls are doing good. Buddy the Rooster has started crowing! It is so nice to have a rooster on the homestead again. I've missed it. There's nothing like hearing that crow. It's a little bitty crow so far. But Buddy and Baby are still little. They won't be full grown for another couple of months. They hatched at the beginning of March (March 3rd to be exact) which puts them right at 16 weeks old. So maybe another month and we'll start to see how they mature. They still hang by themselves mostly but I hope by the time they are full grown that they will fully integrate.

Now. For some not so good news. There is a business down the road from us that has been feeding the foxes. They even put up fox crossing signs so they won't get ran over! But now the foxes are out in broad daylight. I've had customers tell me that they've seen them in the field (where I mow every week). I haven't been too concerned about it except I turned the game cam back on last night and there was a fox scoping out the chicken run!! That is not okay. That means they know the chickens are there and once they know, they'll come back. We also had a huge hawk fly over very low last night when we were eating outside. We've been having dinner outside almost every night and I let the chickens out to free range while we are out. Needless to say, the chickens had to go back to confinement. I'm sitting out with them now as I'm writing this. UGH!

The other not so good news is that chickens will eat baby birds. Goodness. I had no idea. We lost 3 baby birds last week. Two to chickens and one to something during the night. The two that the chickens got to were fledging and the chickens chased them down and killed them. I got one away from them but the other one was not so lucky. I mean, they both died, but one didn't get eaten. Well, at least not by the chickens. The other bird fell out of the nest and was not able to fly yet. I put him in the tree hoping he would be okay (I did some research first before I moved him. Momma and Daddy bird were aware that I moved him). He freaked out and launched himself out of the tree. I finally got him settled into the tree and left him. Unfortunately he was found the next day, dead. I don't know if my moving him hurt or if he would have met the same fate regardless. One never knows. He was completely exposed before I moved him and I was worried that he was a sitting duck. I guess it doesn't matter now. And I think next time I'll let nature do its thing.

garden

There's not much to report on as far as the garden is concerned. I haven't finished up any other projects with the garden. At this point most things are done with the exception of some cosmetic stuff. And I need to finish tying up the tomatoes. That will happen this week. And hopefully I can get to the stone borders for the sage, currants, hostas, and whatever else needs a border. It shouldn't take too long. I just have a back log of things to work on this week and next. More on that in a minute. So the garden is good. It's growing like crazy. Which makes me happy and very relieved. I always worry that you put all this work into the garden and then plant stuff and it just doesn't grow. That's never really happened before. I mean, it has happened, but not to everything. You lose some things here and there, but not the whole garden. I always worry that I'll lose the whole garden. Anyway, not much to report. HAHA.

business end of things

I'm still just plugging away at the business. I just did a blog post to support the latest edition of the Cidiot podcast. Head on over and show Mat some love. I just love his podcast!! And if you leave a review on Apple Podcast, you will be entered to win a trucker hat. It has a goat on it. Who doesn't want one of those!?!?

I'll have my fall classes released by the end of next week. Then it will be an all out push for them. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I am reorganizing how I'm doing things. I'm really excited about it. There's also an organization that I'm taking some classes through. It's the Pennsylvania Small Business Development Center at Temple University. Most of their classes are targeted to PA small businesses and the workshops are free. I've signed up for things such as using QuickBooks, targeted ads through social media, how to better utilize social media, and things like that. It always helps to have an expert's opinion of how to do things. And if you read my last post, you'll understand what I'mma talking about.

Anyway, I'm still booking off-campus classes and most of those are in person. That makes me happy!! It's nice to be able to go out and about again. I missed seeing my customers in person. Virtual is nice too, don't get me wrong. There's a lot I enjoyed about the virtual programs. It connected me with people it might not have connected me with. But there's something about being in front of people and being able to 'read the room' and talk and just see people. That's nice. So I'll continue to book in-person and virtual classes.

But. The best news? Our house is ours again! The busy season is winding down and the guides have scattered. They'll (mostly) be back and forth now but not for weeks at a time. I've already cleaned up the back room and set my office back up. I still have to move some stuff down, but I'm taking the rest of this week to move everything and clean everything. I'll move the cats to the downstairs bathroom again. Oh boy. I can't wait!

And since there's been some interest in knowing what it's like to live in a guide house. It's mostly fun. We all get along. Really we do. The Mister and I eat early (by 6PM or 7PM at the latest) but the guides all eat together later, after they've gotten off the river. Which can be around 9:30-10PM depending on when it gets dark out and they get back. So the Mister and I are usually in bed by the time they get back, but we sometimes we stay up and sit with them. It's really a lot of fun. But sometimes it's not. Like when coffee gets spilled on your brand new placemats and no one cleans it up. Or you replace the doorknob on the screen door and it gets broken within two weeks. But. It's all okay. Now. Now I have my house back and I can get it cleaned up and organized again. And I don't have to move anything for another year. So. There we are.

You know how I like lists so let's make a one of the things I need to get done in the house this week:
1. Move kitties back downstairs
2. Clean downstairs bathroom before moving kitties
3. Clean our bathroom after moving kitties
4. Set up office space again
5. Move beds to storage (well, this might not get done this week, but it needs to be done)
6. Clean both refrigerators out (defrost one at a time, clean completely, put back together)
7. Sweep and mop kitchen
8. Vacuum downstairs and upstairs
9. Clean our apartment (wash sheets, blankets, dust, vacuum, etc. etc. Reorganize the space)

the rest of the story

The dog days of summer are here friends. It came early this year. We started getting temps in the 80's and 90's way back in May! I don't know how I really feel about having such warm temps so early in the season, but I think I'm okay with it. Peaches and cherries are in at the local (well, kind of local) farm stand. I'll head up there this week to grab a bunch to process for the freezer and other things. I still have the strawberries to deal with. But I'm heading to TN next week so everything will wait until I get back. I'll put it in the freezer and then decide what to do with it all later.

In other news, I bought a new cheese fridge. I'll get it set up this week and try to get some cheddar in it before I head out next week. I need to look for a cheese press, either something I can make myself or something I can buy inexpensively online. Speaking of buying inexpensively, etc. I've been thinking about budgets and how to stretch that budget and how to stockpile and such. I want to share our journey with you all. So I'll work on that for this week. I stopped updating the budget here because I've been on my stockpiling runs lately and don't really have a budget when it comes to that. I think I'll set one up for this fall. But when I do the post on everything I'll add in what I've purchased and where. I'm looking forward to sharing all that with you guys.

And I finally hung up new curtains on the sun porch, finished decorating the front porch (bought those beautiful hanging baskets at a local stand for $10 each!), started a new batch of gin, went antiquing to one of my favorite antique stores! Oh. I bought a new label maker. I love 'old school' things and the label maker is no exception. It's new, but reminds me of my childhood. I'm already starting to label everything. And those pheasant towels above? They're hand stamped from the Camptons in town. I'll turn them into pillows eventually! I love taking tea towels and making pillows out of them. Such a good way to preserve them.

The List

The List:
1. garden: finish putting rocks around sage, hostas, currants, asparagus, and horseradish
2. make soap
3. make mozzarella for the freezer. Set up cheese fridge, 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. do something with cherries
7. process strawberries; now I need to make jam
8. plant more bulbs in the flowerbed along the back porch, define the flower bed
9. finish installing gutters along front flower bed
10. clean and organize the pool house
11. Finish commercial kitchen makeover.
12. clean house as outlined above

I think that's it for this week friends! How are you doing? What are your summer plans?

'til next time
-k
xoxo