It's always a good feeling in the late spring to see the garden come together out of the chaos of leaf mulch into neat rows ready for planting. It's a powerful feeling, making a garden, like bringing the world into order. We spent a very rainy day over the weekend mulching the garden paths and tilling up new rows, and I can't wait to get all the seeds in and begin the watching, waiting and ...
Homesteading
Spring in the Garden
It's a good feeling to be all settled in during the spring and starting into the second year with an established garden. It's a real joy seeing all our cultivating, mulching, weeding and composting pay off. This time last year, we were in the thick of moving, with plants being dug up and stuck in the ground wherever there was room, and the garden hastily put in mid-May. Now we have mulched areas ...
Spring Equinox has Arrived!
The seasons are turning with the Spring Equinox today, and everywhere you look, there is no question we are headed out of winter. The sun is shining more often, you can hear the sound of birds chirping in the morning, hummingbirds are having a party in the quince bush, and plants are busy growing. It's a flurry for sure! We took advantage of the warm, sunny weekend and turned our ...
It’s Good to See Your Long Lost Buds!
Looking around the yard, I am seeing buds emerging everywhere. The fruit trees, the berry bushes, the flowering shrubs and the hazelnut orchard are all busting out for spring! I've been enjoying taking a little time to notice how unique they all are, and I won't go into all the botanical details, but it really is an amazing regenerative process going on inside each one. We spent a lot of time ...
Do-It-Yourself Homestead Solar Lanterns
A lack of outdoor lighting and a link posted by a friend on Facebook to these DIY Mason Jar Solar Lights at The Hand Me Down House blog gave me the bright idea to make these easy, inexpensive solar lanterns out of one of my favorite versatile things that I always have in abundance, Mason jars. I had plenty of wide mouthed Mason jars in the cellar, and some wire left from a chicken fencing ...
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
I love having chickens for neighbors. I really do. But honestly, I do not love having them on my front porch. Having spent countless hours in the past trying to fence chickens in, the approach we took with this homestead was to let them completely free range outside of the fenced in yard and garden in the back of the house. This was working out just fine until our friendly, curious chickens ...
The Woodcutter’s Song
Wood heat is a wonderful thing in the wintertime, so wonderful that folks like us are more than happy to do all the work associated with it. If you are reading this and wondering what benefits could possibly make cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking, weekly woodbox replenishing and daily fire building worth all the effort, I would say that it's a lot like the feeling you get from growing your own ...
Fall Garden
Fall gardens are an interesting dichotomy. While many plants are winding down and dying away, keeping time with the happenings of Nature all around them, the cool season crops are just getting started. For whatever reason, fall and winter gardening have always seemed a bit mysterious and tricky to me. With the help of hot-houses I feel like I've gotten early spring gardening down, but things I've ...
Pressing Matters
Fall just wouldn't be complete without a cider pressing, so I managed to finagle it in to the hustle and bustle of life last Friday evening by renting a press from our local homebrew supply shop with some friends. Everyone jumped in and enjoyed turns at different stations. My friend's daughter enjoyed getting in the thick of things and getting sticky with us, taking a break ever so ...
Cut and Dried
During the month of September, I deeply enjoy the routine of drying fruit. Every couple of days, the dehydrator gets re-filled with slices of Asian pears, plums, apples, grapes and any other fruit on hand. The aromas of the fruit as it dries are delightful, and it's fun watching jars fill up with delicious snacks for the coming winter months. With the last of the fruit picked off my trees before ...