Homestead Update #9

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 soap
3. render lard
4. 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