Blog Update

 Personal Update

While I have a ton of things that I am wanting to write about, I haven't been able to blog for a number of reasons. The main reason for that is because I am preparing for a major life event that will happen during the next few days. While this will be a very good thing to happen, I don't feel free to put it all "out there" for the whole world to know about...quite yet. If you are a person of faith, I would covet your prayers for my family during the next few days that God's hand of mercy and care would be on all of us. I will update about this as soon as I am able to.

Outdoor Garden Update

 

My outdoor garden did extremely well this summer. We had all fresh veggies we wanted to eat with plenty left over for canning and dehydrating. We are still picking some produce from the garden, but it is starting to wind down. Pictured above is one of the many cucumbers that I picked this morning. The reason why I am blogging about this is I didn't plant cucumbers this year. The place where this was growing at in my garden was a brand new raised bed this spring, and the dirt inside it was sterile dirt purchased from the store. The only thing that we can figure is a bird must of "planted" it for us. I have no idea if this cucumber is a hybrid or an heirloom. None-the- less we have been very much enjoying this surprise this summer.

Indoor Winter Garden

My indoor winter garden is also doing extremely well. All the seeds that I have planted have now sprouted. I still don't have my lettuce and spinach planted, but I will get to that later on. One of the interesting things that I "discovered" this past year is that seeds don't seem to germinate near as well in paper cups with the wax coating (like the bathroom cups that I used this past spring) as opposed to using a plastic container (as pictured above) for starting seeds in. This past spring, I only had 2 out of every 3 seeds germinate, and with the plastic, I had 100% of the seeds germinate. I am not sure the "why" of that, but it was interesting to note.

Thanks  for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Homestead Updates 15 April 2013

My hyacinth (and the weeds) growing my north flower garden this spring.

I thought that I would give some quick updates today on things that have been happening on the ole homestead...Our experiment of being off the grid last week went very well. In fact it was very awesome.

• We found that we ate less food than we thought that we would. Which is good thing.
• We were right on the mark on how much fuel we would use for our alternative cooking and running the generator. Again, an awesome thing.
• We didn't get bored because there was always something that needed to be done.
• Our water usage was right on target. However, it would be nice to have more put back in case other people would be in need of water. We are not to concerned about the water situation though since both our water company and sewer plant are both totally operated from bio-fuels that are generated from, and are processed at, our local sewer plant.

However we did find a few areas that we needed to work on and improve in case the grid ever goes down for an extended period of time. Such as:

• It rained all week so there wasn't enough sun for us to be able to recharge our solar charger. After the first use, the charger was totally useless. We ended up having to charge our cell phones and tablets using the car battery, which might not be an alternative in a grid down situation.
• We did need more light for after sun down than what we had planned for. It was difficult for us to be able to read without straining our eyes in the kerosene and candle light.
• It never was cold enough for us to need to use our kerosene heater, so we were unable to test to see if that would be adequate heat source.
• The big lesson we learned was if one leaves kerosene in their lamp for a long extended period of time, one should light the lamp at least once a month. Other wise it s-t-i-n-k-s when it is lit.

All in all, we are very pleased in how things went. In fact, by the end of the week, we were very rested and ready to go back to our paying work this week.

 

 

Herb, Tomatoes and Green Peppers Update

I am very happy with the growth of my herbs and other seedlings. Since planting time for outdoor planting in my area isn't until next month, I couldn't be happier with how they are doing.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Homestead Happenings

Just a reminder that spring is on its way 

A few flowers from my early 2012 spring flower garden.

I often wonder (maybe it is more like being nosy) what other people are doing on their homesteads. I guess I basically wonder that because I am wanting to know if I should be doing something that I'm not or if I am doing something and I shouldn't be doing it at that time of the year. So, if I am wishing others to tell me that, then I need to be doing it myself. “Do unto others” and all of that. :-)

I have made a new section to my blog called. “Homestead Happenings” which will be a list of some of the things (I hope) that I will be doing around my homestead. For example: for this week (24-30 March 2013) what I will be doing is:

• Make stand for indoor grow lights
• Take garden soil samples to the County Extension Office for testing.
• Fertilize gardens according to soil test results
• Mulch around fruit trees
• Apply 1/4 c. Epsom Salts to each rose bush
• Prune deadwood from shrubs & roses
• Plant lettuce in cold frames
• Finish building and paint new raised garden bed boxes

If you are interested, you will find this list right under my picture on the right hand side of my blog. It, of course, will be updated weekly. However, if you are a subscriber to my blog, you will not be receiving any kind of notification of the changes. And, you will have to visit my blog in order to view the list. (Sorry about that.) A strike mark through the task means the task has been completed.

 I haven't decided yet if I will be archiving the lists or not. If I do, the list will be just amended on this post.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)

Edited on 4/1/2013 to add
Week of 1-6 April
** Clean rain gutters
**Prune raspberry canes
**Wash windows
**Transplant herbs into larger containers
**Burn out fence rows

 Edited on 4/5/2013 to add
Week of 7-13 April
**Do general maintenance on all lawn and garden equipment
**Unwrap and set out yard furniture
**Plant root crops such as potatoes, onions, carrots, and turnips
**Install decorative fencing around yard
**Wash winter clothes and store for summer
**Split and stack wood for firepit
**Clean up debris from winter in yard

Edited on 4/15/2013 to add
Week of 14-20  April
**Begin transplanting cold crops into garden
**Put out peony supports in garden
**Repair fencing
**Do regular maintenance on air conditioning unit and duct work. 

Edited on 4/22/2013 to add:
Week of 21-27 April
**Thin out the onion rows.
**Paint the front entry door
**Build new strawberry planting area using rain gutters
**Pay property taxes YUCK!!

Edited on 4/29/2013 to add:
Week of 29 April -4 May
** Make May Day baskets for neighbors
**Service generators
**Apply tick control to dogs
**Powerwash driveways and sidewalks
**Transplant onions and leeks