Be Ye Separate

Another Day on the Farmstead

Blessings!

   Well, it's official...we have a predator:( We lost two more chickens last night. This now makes 3 chickens and 3 ducks. I seems we might have a coon since there was quite the feather mess out there this morning. The henhouse has to have a door...today! Otherwise I'll be storing the chickens and ducks in rubbermaid containers for the nights until we get the door done. I don't want to have to trap the animal but I might have to if it continues beyond the finished housing for the birds.

   Our goats continue to get fatter as we approach their due dates. We should be seeing kids starting in mid May. Awful late, I know, but I don't like winter babies:P

   My friend asked me this morning how large a herd I desired. I hadn't really thought of it in that way but I don't really want more than we already have:) We just need the milk:) The babies will be sold accordingly and that money will be put away for winter feed when it's time. That's part of becoming self sustaining as it were.

   Our ultimate goal is to be a self sustaining farmstead. Not just living off the land but maintaining the land to keep it productive and healthy as well. It's a necessary balance that one needs to be aware of or things can go awry. For instance, if the ground that we garden isn't amended every year or maintained in a healthy level then our furture gardens will yield less. A smaller yield means less harvest and a loss in the go-down which then means marketing for foods that we are desiring to avoid. Make sense?

   As I have said before, we are only renters here so we aren't able to do all that we would like but we can utilize what we do have and make it all look lovely while we are at it:)

   I am taking a sample of the prospective gardening area to the extension and having them test it to see what it needs. I have a feeling that it's going to need quite a bit done to it. This is river bottom which is normally very good soil, however, the folks that lived here before us, had horses. Not that horses are a bad thing, I have a miniature one myself:), but some folks who own horses aren't necessarily homesteaders. What I mean is, they are into the horses but not into the land itself. I digress.

   The folks that lived here before us covered the area that was originally a garden put here by the second family who owned this place, with tanbark. Anyway, this area was chosen carefully and deer fenced way back when so we know it has the greatest potential. However, the tanbark may have made the soil far too acidic and we may very well have to do raised beds this year and do our best to amend it through the summer and fall. It may not get back to it's productive state while we are living here but at least we will have tried and perhaps will make it better for the next tenant:)

   We are busy weeding out the overgrowth in many places as well. The blackberry vines are out of control and need a lot of pruning for sure. We really enjoy the blackberries so we wouldn't want to get rid of them entirely but when they overwhelm living areas it's a problem. Like the propane tank!

   Speaking of which, we have discovered that there is a lovely flower garden that was planted around this tank that has been suffocated by the vines. Cutting them back we discovered all kinds of pretty blossoms and buds. We have trimmed back most of the vines but there is a healthy clump of them that we are going to train up on a small trellis so we can get to them easily for those little snacks in the yard;P There are also lots of them out near the barn that we have trimmed back and will train over a small fence that is already there. It will make it look more tidy and still be able to have a bountiful harvest when the time comes:)

   The woods are still full of widowmakers and we are going to have to get those down soon. We had several storms come through here including a rather harsh wind storm over the last couple days that has taken down more branches and such. It's the ones that are broken but hanging precariously from the trees that are dangerous and need to come down. Sadly there are also a lot of dead trees still standing which we cannot do anything about because we don't own this place. So we watch them carefully to be sure they are not going to fall on anything important.

   We are still filling in the trenches that were made in the back of the property by the previous tenants teenage boys. It seems they enjoyed bogging in that area and left lots of places that need filling in. For those of you that don't know what bogging is, it's something that is quite the sport out here. Folks put larger tires on their cars, trucks and jeeps. Sometimes they raise them up a little and then tear around in 4wheel drive in the mud, "bogging" themselves in the mud and sometimes needing to be towed out by a fellow bogger or worse...the two trucks!:P Anyway, it gets awful saturated here with the rain and being on the edge of a river. The dirt here quickly becomes a mud bog and has to be carefully navigated so you don't get your car stuck in the driveway! Let alone out back by the barn. The trenches were pretty deep and we have been able to fill them in with the extra piles left from the bogging. It only works when it's a little drier, however, and in this case we are waiting long times in between because it's still very mucky here. Eventually it will all be smoothed out back there and we can then get back there to weed things and clear out the broken things.

   Now the manure pile that was left behind is huge. THAT is taking us a lot of time to get it out of here. We are using some of it on the garden area and have offered our neighbor however much he wants for his garden. Then we'll be advertising on the local radio station that anyone can have it if they load it and haul it. I'm still puzzled as to why this pile would have been started so close to the barn. I won't even go into what we found inside the barn when we moved in:P Needless to say the barn was not meant for what it was being used for:P It's looking terrific now, though and is nice and tidy and smells a whole lot better:)

   We are getting ready to start some herbs out back as well. We have lots of different containers to plant up that will lend to a pretty display. I am excited about it as we are trying to learn more about the medicinal herbs. Although we will be growing medicinal AND cooking herbs:)

   The boxes are slow to disappear and that is annoying but we are making progress. We still have a few on the front porch but we are slowly getting those emptied and either given away, thrown away or put in the storage shed out back. I am so glad that we don't have a ton of stuff to store anymore. It's been a challenge but really the only things I have stored out back is the Christmas things, camping stuff and canning and soap making equipment and supplies.

   We have a portable garage that we used as a haybarn back at the old place that we set up to put the farm/gardening equipment and tools in. These work really well for that. We have always had one for this purpose and find that it's easier to store these types of things in it and it protects them and keeps them readily accessible to us.

   The garage is still getting organized so Brother Craig can get back to his woodworking. He enjoys building things and right now he has two beautiful birchwood bookshelves that he has planned:) He was planning to make them in December but we had to move suddenly so they got put on the back burner. Hopefully, in the next few weeks he will be able to finally get around to that:)

   Well, I suppose I should get back to unpacking more boxes. We are down to only about 20 of them now. So it's quite promising:) I do have a dentist appointment this afternoon so I want to try to get at least a little done before I go. The kitchen is the most important room to me so I am working on getting that one organized and cleared out of the extra things that we don't really need. That will be nice:)

   So off I go. Have a very blessed day and if I don't get back here before Monday...have a terrific weekend!

God be with thee!

Sister Lori

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{ 19:05, Thursday, March 27, 2008 } { Posted by Kitty }

OH my gosh, I can not believe that you are still unpacking, poor heart. I do hope you get done with it all very soon..........Kitty

~~~I know it seems like forever. I would be finished weeks ago if I had the same space to fill. It's figuring out what we can live without and how to make what we need fit in a much smaller space. A challenge for sure! It's all coming together though and this time has helped me to learn how to let go of even more and rely more on the Lord:)
God be with thee!
Sister Lori

Edited by SisterLori on Friday, March 28, 2008 at 09:38

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{ 19:31, Friday, March 28, 2008 } { Posted by meme21713 }

Oh my word, still the unpacking thing...but look at it this away...you have a LOT of fires going....lol this away you can not get bored doing one thing...Have a good weekend, relax if that is possible....Debbie