Homestead 2022

[Chicken lady]

So I just stumbled across my homestead thread from last year. I clearly did not have time to remember it after school started. Perhaps I should be less ambitious and call this “homestead summer”

I was reassured to see that I was still trying to get summer crops in on june19 and the garden produced fine.

here is the one year update on last year’s goals:

trying to be more intentional, remember I do not have to do everything at once, and avoid “putting out fires” (by at least not starting them myself.)

- actually started a fire this spring. By accident. It was scary and burned almost 1/4 acre of field, fortunately the wind was blowing toward the ditch full of water and one side was bordered by the pond, so I only had to beat out one side to keep it from getting completely out of control.

KEEP RECORDS

- lost my grip on this. Still have records but they are on random slips of paper instead of in my gardening notebook.

Vegetable garden:

- did well. Stored too much of some things, not enough of others.

by December - clean off the fence line, remove sagging/rusted fence section, have everything inside the fence planted or under mulch/sheet compost

- did not finish this, but made progress.

herb garden (this is new):
Decide what I want to plant in it next year (this year is a few perennials plus “tuck things in randomly”)

- stuck with perennials for now, it looks good.

finish rock border

- done by Dd

fruit garden:
mulch and maintain strawberries and raspberries (both planted this year), elderberry starts (last year) and blueberry bush.

- lost my grip on the strawberries again, raspberries need work, cleaned out around the elderberries and planted more.

learn to make more elderberry starts.

- not yet.

Chickens:
finish chickshaw before current crop of 43 chicks needs it! (My kids are actually building this - it is half done, chicks are three weeks old.)
prep winter quarters for new layer flock (will not keep all 43 - chickshaw sleeps 40, but will probably cut back to 36.)

- chickshaw is done and worked for a while, then a fox ate a lot if the chickens. I’m down to 25. They are living in the barn.

Goats:
new pasture fencing for buck pen and new rotational pasture

- done

sell bucklings

-partly done

Breed all 4 Does (my herd was significantly reduced the last two years by old age - one year I had a lot of pretty doelings and I kept them all.)

- done, 4 girls, 4 boys

buy two goats IF and ONLY IF I find just what I want.

- not yet

so, my goals for this year are to:

get the records back in order

Garden (and herb garden):
better balance of harvest/use/storage
finish the clearing and use the tarps more.

fruit garden:
Recover the strawberries and make cages to keep the birds off.
learn to make elderberry starts
prep space for more blueberries

Chickens:
put up an electric fence
replace some breeds I lost all of.

Goats:
more new fencing
breed three does
sell down males.
keep an eye out for new stock and buy if found.

today my grandson and I are planting pumpkins.

[happystuff]

Sounds like great progress was made. List of to-do's seems reasonable. Wishing you the best of luck in all the varied endeavors!

[early morning]

cl, that sounds really good. I have to say that I admire, and envy, your drive and work ethic. I struggle with LAS (lazy a$$ syndrome) and as a result get little accomplished. I have had "fix chicken pen and get chickens" on my list for like 4 years now. I have settled with buying eggs from the neighbor. I appreciate your updates- I find your posts inspirational. PS: we now seem to have intermittent small goats. They come from the adjacent field when they get bored, I guess. I don't mind them, as long as they don't get into too much stuff, and they are so cute!

[Chicken lady]

The heat index is horrible this week, and so of course this is the week I have to work in the garden or barn. I went out this morning and worked pulling weeds and lifting garlic until I was dripping wet and thought, well, it’s got to be close to 11….

it’s 9:30.

I’m hydrating in the nice cool basement and then I will go back out and lift the second bed of garlic.

i still have a couple of hours to work before the heat index hits body temp (my quitting point) so I can put in short sessions.

time to wreck another shirt….

[Alan]

i still have a couple of hours to work before the heat index hits body temp (my quitting point) so I can put in short sessions.

time to wreck another shirt….

Current temp is 90* with 56% humidity which feels like 98*. Stop by my house and you can cool off in the pool and face off with my wife and grandson in one of their epic water gun fights.

[Teacher Terry]

Alan, that looks like fun!!

[lmerullo]

CL - inspired by your progress in homesteading.

Alan - looks like Granny has good cover, but if it's that hot out, who cares if you get soaked!

[Chicken lady]

Thank you for the kind invitation Alan. They do look like they are having fun.

I’ve got three dirty shirts, a dehydrator full of oregano, a big bag of beets and a little container of peas in my fridge, a stack of onions on the porch, two beds of garlic lying in the sun so the dirt will dry and be easy to clean off the roots this evening, and a mess of beet greens I’m about to chop up for dinner.

[happystuff]

Looks like fun, Alan!

I'm always amazed at all you do, CL. Thanks for sharing.

[Chicken lady]

Lol - I always get to the end of my day and feel like I have done nothing.

planted a few tomatoes and picked the first chamomile of the year this morning - going to try to put in a few more tomatoes before the heat gets too bad.