With the official turning of the seasons toward fall, there is much to enjoy and be thankful for around here. The woodshed is filling up with the last of my firewood I cut and split last year, and a load of wood we had delivered. It is mostly thanks to my hard working mountain man, working diligently to get all our seasoned wood protected from the torrential fall rain in spare hours here ...
Homesteading
Summer’s Bounty
With all the hard work we put in at the end of the spring right after moving in, our little homestead is really starting to produce! We've been spending any open time at home we can get digging potatoes, harvesting fruit, stacking firewood and beginning preparations for winter. It's a busy time indeed, but such a good feeling to be seeing the results of our labors. The garden is coming ...
July on the Homestead
July has been a busy month on the homestead, and we've had our share of long days catching up on work, gardening, projects needing attention and putting up food for the winter in between fun summer adventures, but it's been coming along beautifully. The garden is looking mighty fine thanks to all of Corey's hard work weeding, and things are filling in now that the cats have evicted the chipmunks ...
Reckoning Day for Rodents (Cats is Where it’s At!)
A good friend of a good friend of mine used to have a saying that went "Cats is Where it's At." Having lived very few stretches of my life without a cat around, I had no idea how true this was nor how overrun a cat-less homestead could get with Rodents. I had hoped to get another cat when I settled down on my own homestead one day just for the fine company they provide, but it didn't take ...
Hatchet Haircut
It had been over a year, and those braids were getting a little unruly, so I decided it was high time to get myself a haircut. A trusted axe-throwing friend of mine with straight, true aim (you really wouldn't want a friend with bad aim doing this) sharpened up his hatchet, measured out my braids, and with two thwacks on the chopping round, my hair was cut. I call it the mountain woman haircut. ...
There’s a Party in my Compost and Everyone’s Invited!
As anyone who knows me knows, I get really excited about compost. It's just heaps of fun. So, with a new homestead to set up, I enjoyed spending some quality time with my honey this past weekend working outside and getting the pallet compost bins built to hold the beginnings of an amazing compost pile. We rounded up all the weeds and trimmings from clearing the garden and berry bushes, and layered ...
What’s Happening on the Homestead
Moving to a new homestead in the Spring can make for some busy times, and many rewarding results. The past few weekends have been spent with tools and wheelbarrows in hand, putting our efforts into settling in and getting set up for the oncoming growing season. Blackberries have been pruned to free up grapes, weeds have been pulled, potatoes and onions have been planted, and this weekend the ...
Homestead Security
While pruning blackberries and freeing up rosebushes last weekend, we came across this sign by the driveway. "This Property Protected by an Oregon Farmer." No mention of dogs or guns, it's just that farmer you want to watch out for if you decided to go traipsing across the property. I'm sure it has deterred many a wandering troublemaker in days gone by. Apparently, out here in Oregon, you ...
May Snow!
With the potatoes and onions finally planted and the raised bed moved and ready for the few starts I got going back at the old place, I was feeling very ready for gardening season to get rolling. The days have been hot and sunny with temperatures up in the 70's, and Summer has been on my mind. I even started getting a few comments out and about on the great farmer's tan I've got going on. So, it ...
The Bears and the Bees
I am happy to say that I will never need to worry again about having enough wildlife in my wild life. We discovered a whole colony of wild honeybees inhabiting the wall of our shed, merrily pollinating the hazelnut orchards with a flight path aiming right out over the tops of the trees. Since I have been an aspiring bee keeper for some time, and still working through my discomfort with being ...