Around the Homestead

Well sweet friends, it has been quite some time, hasn't it? I must admit that blogging is not currently at the top of my priority list, though I'd like it to fall back into the rotation.  So today, as I sit in the waiting room while one of my children has a dental appointment, I'll give a photo update of the last few months around the homestead.  Sound good?

My sweet boy turned two.  TWO!

Trampoline bliss has returned!

Our well has failed (again) and been fixed.  Once and for all.... We hope. 

A tiny office/art studio nears completion!

And the new mobile chicken palace approaches completion and its maiden voyage as well!

An enthusiastic and fascinated little guy I know has very much enjoyed all the construction going on around these parts.

Bees are flying!  And collecting!  And pollinating! 

Apple

Magnolia

Elder Berry

Big Leaf Maple

Trees are blooming all over the homestead!

Sun showers are a regular thing these days and make the tulips sparkle like jewels....

The pasture is growing strong!  It's knee-high to some, and chest high to others.

Strawberry blossoms

garlic

keeper onions

snap peas

shelling peas

gooseberries

butterhead lettuce

red huckleberries

kale

asparagus 

rhubarb 

And the gardens are breaking dormancy, sprouting and growing!  Hooray!

I hope that wherever you are life is treating you well, your hearts are full of love and your days full of smiles.  I also hope that you enjoyed this update of life on our little homestead.  Blessings!

Lunch

Ummm, yeah.  I am going to write a post about my lunch today.  Because it was that good.

My midday meal consisted of a scramble that was made, pretty much entirely, of things I grew or raised (the exceptions being the oil, salt and pepper I used in the cooking).  I had a veggie scramble made from: eggs collected from my chickens, milk from my cow, and broccoli, spinach and three types of kale all harvested from the garden moments before being tossed into the pan.  I washed it all down with tea brewed from calendula, lemon balm and mint harvested as the water boiled.  And for dessert... freshly made raw milk yogurt from our cow with raspberries still warm from the sun-drenched thicket.

Oh yes.  This was a lunch for the record books!

A Little Bit of Light

Hello again, friends.  Sorry for the long hiatus.  It has been a very busy few months, what with the putting the greenhouses to bed, putting up food for the winter, homeschooling, work, the ever-growing baby and belly, and the thousands of projects that are always taking place on the old homestead.  There just isn't room in the day for computer time unless it's work-related.

But, you know, I would really like to get back to regular updates.  Really I would.

On an exciting homestead note, we decided a few weeks ago to move ahead with the land clearing project. Clearing is actually not really the right word.  We are heavily thinning the forest on about 1.25 acres of our land.  The long-term goals are to get the remaining trees healthier and stronger (so we stop having so many topped and downed trees every time we have a windstorm), let more sunlight into our land and home, and eventually get a nice healthy pasture seeded and growing strong beneath the remaining trees so that we may graze some livestock.

It is amazing how different the land looks and feels with more open space and light.  I can't stop walking around with my mouth hanging half open and day-dreaming about fence lines, pasture seed, garden beds, loafing sheds, and critters.  I can't wait to raise our own livestock right here, a hop, skip and a jump from my own front door!  The future is looking a little brighter here at Howling Wolf, quite literally, with more visible sky through the dripping rainforest canopy.

Well, as I stated before, time is beyond precious these days, so I'll have to keep this post brief.  But, let's hope I can manage to return regularly to this space for fun updates and info!  For now, I will leave you with some greenhouse images from the later part of the summer season.  It's pouring now and so dark I absolutely need lights on to read by, so a little summer light and brightness seems quite nice....

Wow!  Just looking at those photos made me feel warmer, immensely grateful and deeply nourished!  What a great reminder in the darkness of a winter storm!  Happy New Year everyone!

Around the Homestead

I'm a couple of days late with my "Around the Homestead" post.  But, I figure, better late than never!

I suppose I'll start out with the greenhouses....

The onions, beets and broccoli are doing great!

And so are the cucumbers and radishes.  Soon I hope to get pole beans planted between the cukes.

Eggplants are flowering!?!

The cantaloups are rockin'.  I love their heart-shaped leaves.

The watermelons are also growing strong.
I can't believe we might actually get melons!
An impossibility here without the help of a greenhouse... and a dream come true for the kids!

Hello!  Our tomatoes and basil are out of control!  Italian, anyone?

Our early tomato varieties are already producing lots of fruit.

Carrots are up.

I sowed these dry shelling beans the other day.  They are from seed we saved a couple years ago.

I've been harvesting lots of basil everyday.

This is that area I mentioned a few posts back that we chose to sheet mulch just outside the greenhouses.  Doug, the owner, covered the whole area in thick road-bed cloth and then put about 4 inches of his soil mix on top.  Since that's not the greatest growing environment and Doug is very attached to keeping the cloth down, Steve and I opted to sheet mulch on top and work to build more soil.  We pulled and cut back all the weeds that were growing in the space and left them in place, threw down a thin dusting of blood meal (very high in nitrogen) to burn the weeds and stimulate decomposition,  then a layer of newspaper, then a 2 inch layer of aged cow manure, and then about a 3-4 inch layer of straw on top of that.  On top of the straw, we built big squash mounds using soil amended with minerals.  This will soon be our pumpkin and winter squash patch!  We had hoped to companion corn and beans to create a three sisters garden, but this area gets pretty hammered with wind and, the soil being so thin here, we are worried the corn will blow over.  We might try it anyway!  I'm also thinking about tossing down some cover crop seed in the straw.... gotta clear it with Doug first though!

Now, onto things around the homestead....

The calendula is huge!  Up to my waist and loaded with flowers.  It looks so beautiful with the foxglove growing up through it and a backdrop of peas in bloom.

I love the inside of foxglove!

Chamomile is looking great.  I love growing our own medicinal herbs.

This sunflower blossom is starting to form.

The raspberry thicket is loaded with soon-to-be-ripe berries!  And loaded with bees, too!

Peas are on... finally!

I look forward to the poppy blooms every year.  Currently we have all stages of the flower on our gigantic bushes.  Here's my ode to the amazing poppy in all its forms....

Aren't they incredible?

Blueberries are fully on.  Now they just need to ripen so we can gobble them up!

Lillies popping up among the spinach

The fig is finally leafing out.

Our potato boxes are beyond ready for a few more layers of cedar planks and some straw!

The apples are full of tiny fruit.  I really need to get in there and thin them.

Green strawberries.... Come on sun!!!
It's been a long, cold spring.
We are usually harvesting strawberries by now.
But, these guys are not even showing signs of blushing yet.

The little chickens love to cuddle in the garden cart!

And, last but not least....
The old man who watches carefully over it all!

Happy summer everyone!