The Goings-On.

Hello there. 

I thought I might just do a little homestead update today, kind of rambling on about what we have been working on and so on.

This week has been a busy one so far. On Monday, after making lunch, the children and I went to Brownwood to buy some tomato plants to replace the seedlings that didn't make it during "greenhouse" season. We also ended up buying some peppers and broccoli and eggplant, and I also got a lavender plant as the beginning of my "refreshing" the herb bed. And then we ran to Walmart to pick up some groceries.

After we got home, got those in the ground, did some extra tilling and rabbit mulching, hauled a ton of water from the cistern to fill the garden barrels, and made supper. It doesn't sound like a lot, but we were a tired bunch that night. Our next project is to finish re-covering all of the row covers with fresh plastic to protect the plants from the night cold. You know, it really gets me when my weather app says it is going to be 36 degrees at night and I wake up to 22 degrees. That kind of stuff is important! So I have just started covering things pretty much every night, unless it is just really, really warm. This Texas weather, I tell ya.

I have also been working on trying to get the bunnies all pregnant again. I should be butchering the last litter soon, hopefully early next week. Maybe I will post some pictures on that if I remember. It would be really nice to have a few just weaned litters to take to the local "Funtier Days" in May - our equivalent of a County Fair (I won second place in the pie division a year before last! :) A sky-high meringue took first.). The children and I have been talking about doing a bake sale/handmade stuff/baby bunnies booth there this year. We will see if it happens. Also, I would like to look into getting some more breeding stock, too, preferably Californians. It is so hard to find breeding rabbits in our area, though, so I don't get my hopes up.

Lets see... we have had some calves born in the Longhorn herd, but that happened when I was out of town so I have yet to walk out to see them. It's a long way, you know. I have heard they are very pretty, though.

Oh! We have been overrun in skunks! Is this normal? I have never seen and smelled so many skunks in my life! I see them on the road, alive and dead, Robert shoots them, the Stongers are at war with them, they come up close to the chicken house and they have me worried about my ducks every morning. The ducks have moved themselves down to the pond, and they waddle up to the homestead every now and again to check things out and eat grain, and then they go back to the pond. So I worry about them sleeping down there, but so far they have been okay. I would move them back up here (they would not like that) but I am hoping there might be some ducklings sometime soon since I'm pretty sure they mate best on water. Who knows, but I would really, really be happy to see some ducklings this spring.

The Barley that we planted in early winter is not doing well thanks to a dry spell we seem to be going through right now. It is getting brown and just doesn't look well. I have been praying for rain to revitalize our "beer field" (that's what I call it). The garden wouldn't object to some rain, either.

I am so excited for spring, aren't you?! It's going to be great! We have so many plans and hope to get so much done this year - a good, wet spring would really, really start things off well. All according to His Will, of course.

Today, I am writing most of the day, with the regular chores and meal making sprinkled in. Tomorrow, if the weather allows, I will be doing a ton of laundry that I have let pile up, because I do that sometimes, and random spring cleaning chores. Oh! I have been working on an Off Grid Laundry post recently, look for that soon. Until then, check out this interview I did on Christian Farm and Homestead Radio on the subject of doing laundry off the grid.

Well, I know this blog has been sorely devoid of pictures, but I have just failed in the photography department lately. I am sorry. Perhaps I will get that remedied someday soon. Maybe.

Blessings,

Tracy M.