On the Homestead Lately
Hey there friends! How are you? The past week or so has been so busy. I'm hopelessly behind on my blog reading, commenting, and social media-ing. But I wanted to give you an update on what all's going on here on the homestead. And then I'll start to make my way to your respective blogs and social media accounts and catch up with you. I do hope you're well and hanging in there.
The homestead has been busy, busy, busy. Fishing in PA has opened up somewhat. There are a lot of restrictions-one customer in the boat, masks at all time. Most clients are driving their own cars to the 'put ins'. The lodging is slowly opening up too. Most repeat customers are keeping the same room for the foreseeable future. The dining room will not open up for the foreseeable future though. There's no way to keep it cleaned and limit the number of people who go in there. So for now business is back to the usual. Or the new usual.
The chickens are growing like weeds! I'll do a whole separate post on them but just a quick update for you. They are 8 weeks old now. They're roosting at night without any help. I had a crate in the coop and they used that to jump up onto and then onto the roost, but I watched those little buggers last night and they're just using it to stand on to try to get the best spot. So I took it away from them. We still have some work to do on the chicken run and the coop, but I purchased everything that was needed so now all we need to do is just do the work! And then later this summer we'll expand the chicken compound. I'm so happy to have chickens back on the homestead.
And I finally purchased all the wood I need (hopefully) for the big garden expansion. I plan on having 5 raised beds plus the hay wagon raised bed. Four of the raised beds will be 3x10 feet and the other one is 3x13 feet. I can't remember what the footage is on the hay wagon, but it's something like 6x12. So hopefully that will be enough to do the garden that I've planned out. I did lose all the beans that I planted. I didn't get them covered in time and I'm sure either the lack of water or the lower temps got them. But they were part of the experimental garden and were for drying. I'm sad about that but such is the life of a gardener. I just lost track of everything there for a few days and it was just enough time to wipe out the beans. The peas are looking good. And the strawberries are making a comeback from last year. My friend gave me some of her plants that she started. I'll have to get everything planted and see if there are any holes. Then find a local source for filling in the gaps.
We still haven't traveled very far from the homestead. I only go to the tiny grocery store in town when needed which has only been about 3 times in the past two months or so. One of the guides went to a really good grocery store on his way here and I gave him a list! I now have fresh produce. It's not seasonal but that's okay. We've literally been living off meat, potatoes, and eggs for two months now so when someone offers to pick things up from the store, you jump on that chance! I'm not ready to go to the nearest city or town with more population yet so I'll give my order to whomever is coming this way and offers. I also did some major ordering online. I've got some supplies-both for my classes and for the homestead-coming in over the next few weeks. It's nice to be in a spot where we can catch up.
I've been working on getting our stuff from storage. Did I tell you that we have most of our stuff in storage at my mother-in-laws? Some of that stuff has been in storage for 10+ years. I finally got most of the older stuff from there to here. I pick one day per week and load up Anna Lee. She and I make the trek, without stopping, to my MIL's (about an hour and half from here). They sit on the porch while I load the truck (from the barn. If there's anything in the house that I want/need, they have it sitting outside for me). Once the truck is loaded to capacity, I sit on the lawn and we chat for a few minutes. Then Anna and I hop back in the truck, turn the music up, and head home. Once home we unload everything into the house and then go through it. We make a donate pile, a trash pile, and a keep pile. Then over several days we put things up. Then once it's all in its new home I go back and get another load. I'm not sure how much stuff we have left, but I'm thinking one more trip will clean out the barn. Then I'll start on the stuff in the house. It's nice to have my stuff here on the homestead again. And it's nice to be able to clean some stuff out. But I'm to the point that I need to take some stuff to donate because it's starting to take over the house. I've been pretty cut-throat about cleaning stuff out.
I've also added some crafting to my days. I made some pincushions to sell in my shop. They all sold out on pre-order. I'm happy to report that they all shipped out on Monday as I hoped they would. I'll be listing some other fun things like pincushions and some more candles in the shop soon. Hopefully next week. I've got some commissioned work to get done first. That and get the garden planted. But I'm so happy to have some of this more crafty items on my to-do list. I love playing with fabric. So stay tuned!
I'm also happy to report that my Saturday Facebook Live videos seem to be doing well. I enjoy them. I even had one of my viewers make a pie! She posted it over on the pie post on facebook. You can see it here. I LOVE when you guys share these things with me!! I love seeing what you're doing. This week I'm talking about foraging. Someone asked me about fiddleheads and I wasn't sure I was going to find them this week. I was right. I didn't find them but one of the guides was kind enough to find them and bring me some. So we'll do a whole 'foraging in the spring', what to look for, what you can find, and how you can use it. I think I'm going to have ramps (which we already discussed, but I'm going to show another way to prepare them), fiddleheads, dandelions, wild violets, and knotweed. But we'll talk about a lot more than that-morel mushrooms, lilacs, etc.
The pics above are just some quick snaps I took with my phone. But they pretty much show you what we've been doing. I finally got back on the tractor for the season! Actually today is a mowing day so I need to wrap things up soon and get out there! Anna has been my faithful sidekick lately. She'll be 5 this year and she seems to be calming down and settling into being a good partner in crime who listens! Finally! I'm infusing more oils for my salves and balms. They'll be ready in a couple of months. The Mister's mom gave him a 12 inch cast iron skillet from her collection. He's in heaven. I found more wild blueberries growing on the property. I'll have to start marking everything so I can go back and keep an eye on how they progress. They're tiny. The bushes. They're so little but they do produce berries. I just have to beat the wildlife to them! And I don't know if you remember Gertrude the (plastic) Turkey? But she's got her summer wears going one. She has one of my red, white, and blue bandanas on. She also has a homemade sign and a homemade grapevine wreath. So she's all set!
So I've been a little remiss in updating you all on my Spring Bucket List and how I've been doing with it. I haven't accomplished everything and some things are still in progress. Some things have to be taken off the list completely. But, if you recall from the OG post, here's the list:
- Hike the Fingers Lakes Trail
- Trip to NYC
- Pick strawberries
- Plant a garden
- Get chickens
- Finish redecorating upstairs
So, I didn't hike the Finger Lakes Trail, but I have been doing some hiking. For the most part I didn't take pictures, but the last walk we did I took lots of pictures. I am starting to play around with new lens now. I normally use a 35mm, 1.8f but I'm branching out! We found lots of fun things last week on our walk. So much wildlife and nature--both alive and dead.
Obviously the trip to NYC has been postponed indefinitely. That's unfortunate but understandable. I haven't picked strawberries yet because they're not ready yet! But that will stay on my to-do list! I'm not sure how everything will shake out now with social distancing, etc. but we'll figure it out and try to get those strawberries picked! As for the garden, see above. It's almost ready. Chickens are on the homestead so we can definitely check that one off the list! And I didn't finish redecorating upstairs. Mostly because we've been getting our stuff from storage and going through it. The upstairs has taken a major back seat.
Okay. This was an especially long post! My apologies. There was sooo much to catch y'all up on. I'm sure I've forgotten a million things, but I'll get back to posting updates on the regular. Tell me how you're doing! I miss seeing you all.
'til next time
-k
xoxo