urgent flowers
It is a wonderful morning as I kind this. The mornings are nonetheless cool so a cup of sizzling tea stays my go-to beverage. I mix decaf inexperienced tea and dried herbs. I attempt to drink inexperienced tea each day due to the advantages however I detest the flavour so I’ve to mix it with a mix that may overpower it. Ollie is subsequent to me, taking his first nap of many for the day and Jack is, nicely, being Jack. He is making an attempt to get me to inform him he is naughty. I don’t know why however that appears to make his day. So he’s sliding one of many throw rugs round, working at full pace and making an attempt to knock issues off of the top desk on his approach by, and simply being a loopy man.
Welcome to my “workplace”. I like that that is the place I dwell AND work.
I’ve already gotten the coop ladies up and can quickly be heading out to test on the backyard, conduct a short weeding session, test on the brand new flowers within the entrance yard, after which I am going to get to work with Ollie by my facet.
It does not get a lot better.
Could is formally over. It is one among my favourite months and I believe it is one which all the time zips on by. The climate is all the time a mixture, the busyness of the homestead is at an all-time excessive, the wild birds are nesting and elevating their littles, and there may be the joy of fruit and veggies beginning to produce.
After having a stretch of summer-like climate the place we really turned the a/c on for a bit (in our bed room solely) I turned the pellet range on for a couple of hours over Memorial Day weekend. It was chilly. As a result of each Friday and Saturday had been wet and within the low 40’s I made a decision we wanted somewhat heat. Jay shook his head at me. Oliver and I had been cozy although.
Spring appears the proper time for planning adjustments I wish to make to the rising areas we’ve. I view our homesteading journey as 3 phases. Part 1 was shopping for an previous farmhouse and starting our journey. Part 2 was determining how we could possibly be self-employed and work full-time from our homestead. Each of these phases have been accomplished. The subsequent aim is Part 3 which is establishing our property and life to grow to be as self-reliant as we probably can. We have, in fact, been working towards this aim however have nonetheless bought a methods to go.
As I famous earlier this yr, we got here to a conclusion that we would want to affix a CSA this summer time and fall to supply us with further fruit and veggies due principally to our lack of time to develop what we want and partly resulting from our lack of house. My aim for the subsequent 2 years is to make extra planting areas round our property so (hopefully) we’ll be in a superb place with offering virtually all veggies and fairly a little bit of our fruit.
We do not want to convey any extra animals to our little homestead. There simply is not a necessity for it. Jay is the one one who eats meat & dairy so it does not make sense to us to dedicate any of our restricted house to elevating animals for both. We’re working with lower than an acre which implies we’ve to weigh each resolution. Since we’ve mates who elevate animals for meat we’ll proceed to purchase and barter from them. We do plan to maintain a small flock of laying hens for eggs. They’re additionally nice at consuming scraps, tilling our backyard in fall, and contributing their droppings to our compost.
In The Backyard – We now have pears!! Nicely, they are not near prepared however at the least we’ve them. Our Asian Pear tree and our grafted pear tree (6 differing kinds) are filled with them. How completely satisfied that makes me. And we’ve peas!! The sugar snaps are producing prolifically. The snow peas are very slowly starting to flower. Our garlic isn’t coming alongside in a short time both however we’ve been in a position to pull some onions that had been left from final yr (unintentionally), carrots that I had seeded final fall for a spring harvest, a LOT of asparagus, and greens.
I’ve greens planted in a couple of totally different beds and in one among them some critter has been having fun with my kale begins. However the kale in one other mattress has been left alone. I used to be additionally randomly putting beet seeds within the cruciferous mattress between crops. Nicely, some critter went by way of and pulled each single seed inside 2 days of me putting them. Little divets within the soil the place the seeds had been is what gave it away. It left the remainder of the beets alone, nonetheless, and they’re doing nicely.
Since I pulled out our strawberry crops a couple of years in the past we now not develop our personal however I am hoping they will be exhibiting up on the farmers market within the subsequent couple of weeks. I could develop them once more, I am unsure. The primary downside we had was maintaining the chipmunks from taking one chunk out of every ripe berry earlier than we might decide them. After we netted them, hoping to maintain most of our berries complete, we spent all day pulling very indignant chippies out of the netting. We simply do not have the house to develop sufficient for each us and them so I am unsure. I LOVE strawberries so it is robust. In case you have any concepts I’d love to listen to them!
have you ever ever tried rising celtuce?
Not backyard associated, however yard associated. Our wild ferns have gone, nicely, wild. They’re huge across the woodshop! I am going to must transplant about half of them subsequent spring. I’ve a mattress on the facet of our home that continues to be shaded the place they are going to be excellent. Have any of you transplanted ferns? I am simply curious how they are going to take the transfer. In case you have any ideas or recommendation, I would find it irresistible in case you shared. Our plan is to construct a small deck off of the woodshop, proper the place half of the ferns are, so I wish to try to save them.
Placing Meals Up – nicely, we do not put a lot up within the spring. We eat all of our asparagus contemporary. I’ve tried to place a few of it within the freezer in years previous however it’s simply sooooo good freshly picked that little or no of it makes it to the freezer.
I spent a while gathering dandelions early on within the month. I take advantage of all components contemporary and dried. Dehydrated,the flowers, leaves, and roots to be used in lots of issues together with dandelion salve and tea.
In The Kitchen – a superb portion of the month was heat so I attempted to not run the oven an excessive amount of. We have transitioned, for essentially the most half, over to our summer time menu which incorporates lots of fast meals, together with these made on the stove-top, within the air fryer and for Jay, on the grill.
I do not make a lot bread throughout the hotter months though I do make rolls for burgers, brats, and so forth. and freeze them. We additionally benefit from the occasional selfmade smooth pretzel with honey mustard sauce for lunch.
I whipped up a batch of oil-free granola. It is scrumptious and far decrease fats than conventional. I take advantage of just a bit little bit of honey or maple syrup to sweeten it and retailer it within the freezer to protect it all through summer time. It makes a terrific, fast breakfast.
Oliver & Jackson – each are doing nicely. Jack is Jack and continues appearing like a kitten regardless of being 10 years previous. That is not a foul factor – it is good that he feels wholesome sufficient to behave so immature. You might recall that he now sleeps in his personal room at night time as a result of he could not cease himself from selecting at Oliver all night time. Nicely he appears to find it irresistible. He will get very enthusiastic about his nightly tuck-in and if I am late I hear about it.
Oliver is holding his personal. Some days he is fairly feisty and others he is extra reserved. I am assuming it simply is dependent upon how he feels that day. Sleeping at night time has been difficult from time-to-time as soon as once more. I am unsure what occurs to make evenings robust as a result of it occurs even when he is had a superb day.
In The Coop – the Coop Women are doing nicely. We’re right down to 25 ladies and most of them are laying at the least a couple of days per week giving us about 6 dozen eggs every week. I’d suspect, based mostly on their ages, we’ll lose a couple of extra earlier than the yr is over. Our hope is to maintain a flock of 12 or fewer as soon as they naturally scale back to that quantity. Jay solely goes by way of about 6 eggs per week, and I do not use them in any respect for baking, in order that must be excellent.
lounge radiator
eating room radiator
Round The Home – my husband made radiator covers!!! I have been wanting them and he was in a position to full one for the lounge and one for the eating room earlier than summer time! We designed them collectively and he constructed them – an ideal partnership. 😉 He used a slab of mahogany he had hanging round his woodshop for the lounge cowl and we had been gifted a grey elm desk to make use of for tasks.
Our eating room desk is grey elm so we had been hoping to discover a (moderately priced) slab to make a radiator cowl with. Lo and behold mates of ours had a desk that was simply sitting in storage. The highest was grey elm! Whereas the stain did not match in any respect it was no downside as my handyman sanded it and re-stained it to match.
That is Could across the homestead. Hoping you had a beautiful month as nicely!
