November 12, 2011

A homesteading milestone

This weekend I pushed myself to get enough done around the house so that I could have nothing in particular to do and was blessed with a sunny day to enjoy doing my "nothing", which meant having a lot of fun.  We started out with a deep cleaning and winter prep of the coop. While we were there our fussy chicken, which I have only recently decided to call Gertrude, was sitting on a big pile of eggs. She didn't mind us taking the eggs but got a bit frantic when I started cleaning out the old bedding. We soon found out that this was because she needed a nest to lay in. Just after I got the new bedding in place Alex was watching her remake her nest and got to see an egg come out of her!! Of course I'm tremendously jealous of missing such a rare opportunity but so thrilled that we've given Alex this chance to experience things most kids would never see outside of YouTube.

We finished the coop cleaning and after some time hand feeding the chickens autumnberries we made our way down to the garden to see what was left there. In the frost aftermath we found two forgotten mini pumpkins, a couple bunches of beets, broccoli, parsley, cauliflower, and a cabbage.   We also found an orange-sized watermelon that had been buried under the foliage until the hard frost hit.  It was pink inside but a little mushy so it went to the poultry.  Alex ran off to try building up a fire and Penny and I followed the dogs around until it was time for her nap.

Later, we went out to our new property. Yes, we've done something really crazy and bought a farm. It's sorta an investment, sorta a hopefully we'll change gears and move there thing, if, if, if... It's complicated but basically it was just too good to pass up. And it has a barn!! And a spring! And ponds! And a log cabin!  Anyway, see the pictures for more.
Alex in the coop with Gertrude
Gertrude
Garden harvest
Alex with the freshest egg we've seen yet
Penny practicing some ninja moves with a bamboo stake
The spring on our new property
The big willow at one of the ponds
The barn *swoon*
An old wagon in the barn which fascinates me
The log cabin
A project from last week, we pressed some apples from our land into cider.
Milkweed Fuzzy Penny
Dreamy Penny