Raised Bed Update

This year, we added 3 raised garden beds to the homestead. We have a large garden as well, but decided to change things up a bit. The large garden now grows corn, beans, some of our onions, and our viney plants (cukes, zukes, melons, and winter squash). We hope to add more raised beds as time goes on.

*San Marzano Tomatoes *

In the tomato bed, we have tomato plants staked up down both sides of the bed. We've found that twine we cut off our hay bales is best to staking tomatoes (seen above). In the middle of the beds, we are growing beets, carrots (seen below), and rutabagas. On the ends, we filled the holes of the concrete blocks with soil. They are the current home of mint plants and multiplier onions (seen below).

*Sweet Bell Peppers*

*Green Cabbage*

I think this fall, when we plant more cabbages for canning saur kraut, I will plant them under row cover to help avoid cabbage worms. This wet spring has really prevented Bt from sticking to the plants to keep the worms at bay.

Updates don't grow on trees, ya know!

Alright, we've been a bit busy. Well more than a bit. Having a baby definitely changes routines around here. Needless to say, things take a bit more time and effort, so I spend less time on the computer.

We've gotten quite a bit accomplished. My raised beds are full, and the big garden is full as well. We had to move our blueberry bushes to a new spot, and we've got more trees in our orchard! In the kitchen, I've tried several different bread recipes, made a few types of cheese, and been dehydrating a few things (mostly chamomile and green onions).

Pictures and details soon! If there is anything you're curious about, ask away!

Wearing the thinking cap...

We've been very busy outside, as we've had a break from rain. Any time not spent outside, we've been making cheese, trying to organize the pantry, and doing household chores in between. We're considering our options for another animal shelter on the property as well. The trick--building something with the least amount of cost. Ideas are appreciated and welcome.

In the mean time, I'm going to leave you with our favorite dinner roll recipe. We've been using these to make small sandwiches with chevre and leftover homegrown ham!

Quick and Easy Dinner Rolls
1 pkg dry, active yeast (I buy in bulk so I use 2 1/4 tsps of yeast)
1 cup lukewarm water
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil or melted butter
+/- 3 cups flour, sifted

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. Add egg, sugar, salt, and oil.

Add 1/2 the flour, and beat until smooth. Add flour until you achieve a nice dough (not too sticky), and knead until smooth. Roll into balls (bigger than a golf ball, smaller than a tennis ball) and place in a greased pan. Let rise until doubled. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Brush tops with butter while still warm.

We're still here!

The last few weeks my focus has been on preparing for the baby. The cold weather has made it pretty slow around the homestead for Mr. HH as well. We've been taking the time to read up on things we would like to pursue this year (and years to come). We have a lot plans, but as always, we're trying to make a list in order of their priority, because not everything can be done in a year. I can say, prepare to see a small corn crib being built on our property in the future!

For the time being, the focus has been on preparing our home for the baby, and trying to recover from the holidays! Updates should start picking up around our baby's arrival as we will be preparing for the arrival of some goat kids! 2011 looks to be a promising and exciting year for us here!

For your viewing pleasure, Little Man's incredibly soft, matching, knit wool pants and hat.

Farm Update- We Are Still Around!

A lot has happened since our last post. I'll try to catch you up on the more exciting bits.

Around the time of our last post, we got one of these.

It was very exciting for us to find out. It's even more enjoyable now that the morning sickness phase has passed!

We were even lucky enough to see the little guy!

Not long after this little guy makes his appearance, we'll be enjoying some other new arrivals on the farm! Both of our goats have been taken to be bred for spring kids! We heard news earlier this week that our Alpine doe was bred! Next year, we should have enough milk to experiment more with making our own cheese!

Chessie- Our Alpine Gal

We also took the hogs to the butcher. We miss having them around. They made short work of any food scraps we had in the house. However, we can't complain too much because we enjoyed some FANTASTIC pork chops for dinner tonight.

It's nice going into winter knowing this is here for us.

Additionally, some of our new Welsummer hens have started laying their dark brown eggs! We're still waiting to see some of the green eggs from our Easter Egger girls. I will say though, we are quickly becoming fond of the Easter Eggers. They have great personalities. There are a few that will just walk up to my four year old and invite her to pet them!

Here you can see a Welsummer egg nestled between eggs from some of our other chickens.

Finally, we've sold all our of pine trees! This gave us money to replace some windows in our house before it gets too cold. More importantly, it gives us more space to add on to the small orchard we've started. We will be using part of the cleared space, and space we already had cleared, to put in a small hay field for the goats!

Bye Bye Trees--Hello Spring Projects!

Is there anything you've done lately, or even something you are planning that you are particularly excited about? Feel free to share with us in the comments!