Tag Archives: homesteading

A Fall Garden, A Fairy Garden, and A Storm That Damaged Our Gardens Week 31

Finally we got some much needed rain! Unfortunately, with that rain came a storm that left us with some damage. Looking at the positive side, everyone is fine, all the animals are fine, and that’s all that matters.

I’ve been busy getting tomatoes canned and have fallen behind on editing and getting videos out. Plus I’m tired so… here’s an update with lots of randomness mixed in.

It’s a busy day… we’re getting our fall crops planted and getting tomatoes canned.

Preparing to plant fall beans, picking tomatoes, weeding, pulling up the plastic… so many things to get done in the garden!

Miley got supplies to make a fairy garden for her birthday. Due to being busy, we’re just now getting it all set up. She’s been having so much fun with it, but the thing she loves the best is creating new things for it.

Just trying to get caught up in the garden from being busy with the fair. The tomatoes are coming on, everything needs to be picked… so much to do and so little time.

We Have New Turkey Poults! Week 30 continued…

We had a second turkey hatch out! We decided to name them Lucky and Chance because we took a chance incubating them and we ended up getting lucky and having 2 turkey poults hatch. 🙂

One of our goals for this year was to hatch out some turkeys. Little did we know it would be quite a challenge. It finally happened though, we have a successful hatching!

Yes, we just might have turkey poults soon! I took the eggs that were left in the nest and put them in the incubator and sure enough, they’re hatching!

After taking a brief break to attend the county fair, we’re back! We have a lot of videos from the fair coming soon. While we were away we were surprised to find a couple of our turkey eggs had hatched! Unfortunately, we have some bad news…

It’s Fair Time! Week 30

Another fair has come to a close… lots learned and great memories made!

It’s day 2 of the fair. All Miley has left to have judged is chickens and garden entries. We show you a few of her entries and then have a little fun on the rides.

The first day of the fair is here! We’re getting our animals and all our stuff packed up and settled in at the fair.

Family, Laughter and Fun… All the Good Stuff of Life! Week 28

The county fair is next week so I’m doing a little work in the garden to hopefully help it coast through until the fair is over and I have more time to get some serious maintenance done.

We had family that we don’t see very often come down so we had a good ole Fourth of July celebration just like we used to have back when we were kids. We had a great time visiting, catching up, reminiscing, laughing… ya know, all the best things in life.

Happy birthday, Miley!!

Just another day on the homestead! The fair is right around the corner so we’ve been looking at our chickens and I’ve been helping Miley figure out what breeds we have.

A Surprise Hatchling, An Answered Prayer, and Attempting to Hatch More Turkey Eggs! Week 26 2017

I was sitting there giving Neville his vitamins… or at least attempting to… when Miley came running in saying there was a little chick outside! She was so excited! We put mamma hen and chick in our chicken tractor so we can watch her raise it.

Our rooster, Neville, hasn’t been doing very good for a while now. Lately he’s gotten worse and one night we were sure he wouldn’t make it to the next morning. Surprisingly he did, thanks to a prayer, and he’s been slowly getting a little better. He’s still got a long ways to go but we’re happy he’s improving.

We have a broody hen so I decided to put some turkey eggs under her to see if she will hatch them. The turkey hen is building a clutch and I’m hoping she will start sitting soon. Maybe the 3rd time is a charm? Unfortunately Neville isn’t doing very well anymore… so sad! My mom has a neat container garden so I decided to give you a little tour of her set up.

Switching Chores, Garden Work, Staking Tomatoes and More! Week 25 2017

There’s a lot of stuff going on today, first we’re getting chores done! Our turkey hen has started a new clutch of eggs, hopefully this time hatching will be successful. There was a broody hen running around so we captured her in hopes she will settle down and sit on some turkey eggs. Miley got to do her favorite chore of all time, which is give the pigs water. She got splattered by the pigs… is it mud or poop? Wanna sniff to find out?

Neither of us felt like doing our chores so Brooke said, “Hey, I’ll do your chores if you do mine.” I took her up on that…. what an awesome deal!

Yep… what the title says… just trying to get a grip on the garden. I started staking my tomatoes by using the Florida weave. What I’ve done so far seems to be working well. I got weeds pulled and mulch laid down. It’s amazing what you can get done when you get up early! 🙂

I decided to try the Florida Weave to stake my tomatoes because the way I was doing it just wasn’t going to work. The kids found a couple baby toads so they decided to make a habitat for them. In the middle of making it, they decided to research what toads need and made some revisions to make the habitat more toad friendly. It was a hot day so we spent the afternoon in the pool.

Our Hay is Baled, Staking Tomatoes, Determined Hen and More! Week 24 2017

They showed up to bale our alfalfa. A storm was threatening to roll through so we scrambled to get it all picked up before it rained.

Oh what a windy day!! I’m starting to let Ollie out so that he can run in the pasture with the goats. I’ve been trying to decide how I want to stake my tomatoes, so I’ve started a few but I don’t like how it’s turning out. I’ve came up with a different idea since I made this video… will show in a new video coming soon.

A hen who insists on laying her egg in the barn, and me, who insists she can find another spot to lay… who will win??

We made it back from our little gambling trip. Didn’t win big… at least money wise… but we won big other ways which are things money can’t buy, like spending time together, relaxing, making memories, and… trying to overcome fears of pool drains. I know… weird… but the fear is real, let me tell ya!

A Camp Out On the Homestead, Berry Pie, Turkey Problems and More! Week 22 2017

So much to do, so little time… then it rains.

We’ve been having bad luck trying to hatch out turkeys this year. Well, that luck just got even worse because one of our turkey hens died. We’re not sure if our eggs will hatch but we’re not giving up yet. On a brighter note, we picked mulberries and strawberries and decided to make a pie. Didn’t have enough of one kind of berry so we made a little bit of this and a little bit of that berry pie!

We decided to try camping out again… only this time we decided to add a few things to make it a little more comfortable. The weather was perfect and it was a calm, relaxing evening… well, at least until the bugs came out.

We decided to have a little fun and pitch a tent and rough it for a night. Wind, possibility of storms, hard ground, coldness…. I wonder if we will tough it out or go to the house?

The turkeys got up from there nest and I couldn’t decide if I should take the eggs and put them in the incubator or leave them. I hope I didn’t make the wrong decision!

How To Milk A Goat, First Strawberry Harvest, Homegrown Meal and More! Week 21 2017

The kids planted flowers and we snacked on strawberries… it was a lovely day until we had an encounter with an angry snake.

We added salt to the pool as it continued to fill. The kids volunteered to get in and stir the water so the salt would dissolve faster… brrr! I finished up planting the garden… well, almost!

It’s that exciting time of the year when the homestead starts producing and little by little we are able to harvest more of our own food. Today we has our first almost completely homegrown meal of the year.

Today I picked strawberries and was surprised to find how many there were! I also got some much needed gardening done.

Miley had to do a project for a 4H meeting, so she did this video to demonstrate how to milk a goat.