Currently On My Homestead

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It seems like often I am moving in so many directions lately.  So I am listing what I have going on in various areas of my homestead right now.


 


In The Barn


Baby goats have been born. We are bottle feeding 2 kids.  The other 4 are being nursed by their mamas.  We are milking 2 does once a day.  The kids are helping with the care of the rest of the goats, which include 2 bucks and another 5 does.  


 


Emily and Leanne are caring for about 70 chickens.  Of the 70, 20 are laying.  The other 40 should be laying by July.  Then it will be time to hopefully expand the customer base.


 


In The Kitchen


I have been reading a lot of Sally Fallon’s Book Nourishing Traditions and I have been trying out some of her recipes.  I have been fermenting veggies, making sourdough bread (and feeding my starter daily), making buttermilk to use to soak grains and flours, sprouting lentils, and basically working to get the hang of doing things a bit differently when I prepare foods. 


 


In The Sewing Room


I have a skirt cut out and ready to go for me.  I have fabric washed and ready to cut out for Sierra to do some sewing.  Emily is about halfway done with a boho type skirt,  Hannah is in-between projects, but wants to work on some summer jammies, and Leanne has fabric but has not started a skirt and would like to do some summer jammies too. 


 


In My Home


Well my desk is still a disaster. I have to make the time to work on getting it cleaned up. 


 


I am working now to instill the habits in my children of following through with our actions (something I need to be reminded of too!  )  You know when you make juice for instance: when you are done, throw the can away, rinse the spoon you stirred it with and put it in the dishwasher, wipe off the counter of any spills and rinse your dish cloth out when you are done, etc..  Now in every area of the house I find the need to follow through with things..  take your shoes and socks off in the living room?  Follow through and put the shoes up in your bedroom and the socks in the dirty clothes basket.  Take your sweater off when you come inside?  Hang it on the hook or put it in your room..  the list goes on and on and if you don’t follow through in this way and you live with a lot of people  you soon find your home is a big mess!   


 


The harder part of this lesson has been to not sound like I am nagging!  So I just will ask everyone if they are following through (I have already discussed with everyone our need to be better attentive to following through with everything we do)..  So I just say,  “SoandSo..  did you follow through?”  and I may point to something or refer to what they were just doing.  That is helping me not to be the big “Nag Mom”.  And my kids are learning good habits… 


 


In The Garden


I am growing bucks this year.. LOL..  I am not having a garden because I am housing my goats in there!  I am sad a little as I love to get my hands in the dirt, but I am also feeling a bit on the overwhelmed side this year and am happy to take a break.  If I get my act together soon I hope to plant some lettuce in container on my deck and I have a few spots around the house that I may put a few tomato plants in.  But that will be it this year!  We will see what next year brings.


 


On The Homestead


In general we need more areas of our property fenced.  My over worked hubby has the fence posts and wire ready to go, but is severely lacking in time to get to the project.  I am (and he is) hopeful that will change soon and he can get to the job and then the goats will have much more room to roam.   


 


 

Comments

  1. homesteadinthemakingMay 16, 2006 at 4:41 AM

    I love hearing about what is going on at your homestead. You have some very large projects going. We haven't gotten so industrious yet. We do have a large garden we are excited about.

    Blessings,

    Trixi

    ReplyDelete
  2. CarolMay 16, 2006 at 1:55 PM

    Wow you do have a lot going on. A couple years ago I took the summer off from gardening. Although we missed the veggies during the long winter months, it was one of the most relaxing summers I had in a long time.

    ~Carol

    ReplyDelete
  3. CathyMay 17, 2006 at 3:48 AM

    Crystal,

    My favorite.....reading about your days on your homestead, thanks for sharing. I love it.

    Love ya friend,

    Cathy

    ReplyDelete

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