Another Season Gone

I took a bit of a break from blogging. Sometimes a person feels there is nothing to say and they struggle with whether or not it even matters. 

I hadn't planned to come back to blogging.  I deleted my blog and didn't even miss it. Then yesterday I wondered if blogger had permanently deleted it yet and decided to take a look. It was still there. So I restored it and will try to squeeze in some updates every now and then. 

Meanwhile, we have officially entered winter and despite the expectation of snow and the thrill of its beauty, it isn't my favorite time of year. However, I am learning to embrace the purpose for such a season. It is a time to rest from the toils of the previous seasons that bring a heavier burden of work through gardening, food preservation, and various other tasks that homesteading requires. While the work doesn't end simply because the weather is cold, there is less of it, and in an odd way, the mind and body misses it. The Father created us to work and the absence of it leaves a void that can't be put into words.

The whole family was here for Thanksgiving.  It was a great time to be together despite my not being crazy about the holiday cooking.  The week end prior, Al and Andrew went down to Florida to move Leandra to Arkansas.  Rebekah and her boyfriend, Sterling, drove up a few days before Thanksgiving.  Andrew, who lives a little over an hour from us, came with his girlfriend, Sarah.  

Andrew with Sarah

Sterling, Rebekah, Andrew, and Leandra at the end

Al started his new job this week and that meant I have had to pick up and do those jobs he was doing. Although it takes a bit to get out the door, it leaves me feeling good because I am moving and working for the health and well being of the farm, animals, and the family.  This week we will need to beginning milking the goats, although three of them are not mine, but the girls'.  

So to give a little bit of a summary.  We bred the second round of goats in October and November for spring kids. 

Our fall babies started dropping on December 7th when Mocha and Snickers kidded. Mocha had triplets that morning as we were waking up, 1 boy and two girls. The boy was dead on arrival.  Snickers had a single buckling a few hours later. Then on Monday the 9th, Almond Joy gave birth to a beautiful doeling. We also had a surprise delivery of our zebu calf. A week later, our final goat to deliver was Kit Kat and she also had a single doeling. All of these little babies (except the zebu) were sired by Rainy Day Prince.

Snicker's Prince Doodlebug

Almond Joy's Nutmeg

Mocha's twins: Smores and Kiwi

Mocha didn't really come into milk, which I will blame on her age.  So her two girls are bottle fed as well as eating from mom.  For the first few days, the brown doeling, Kiwi, struggled to keep warm. So we brought her into the house until day 5.  They are now doing very well.  

KitKat's PopTart

And I can't forget to share the pictures of our sweet little bull calf, CheezBurger.  

 

On top of all of these additions, we were able to barter all the sheep for some "lumberjack" work.  We only have the two ram lambs left which will be processed next month.  

The garden is still producing and I am so happy about it!  I pick a few carrots here and there, but for the most part, we just keep it all in the ground.  We pretty much have chard, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and carrots left in the raised beds.  I keep them covered with a double layer of white pest barrier cloth and it works well to keep it warm.  We have had temps pretty close to 20 degrees and there has been very little damage.  

broccoli

cabbages

carrots

And, so here we are looking at the last week or so of both December and 2025.  We will be celebrating the 8 day festival of Chanukah next week beginning the evening of the 25.  For those who would like to know what it is, you can watch a video from MTOI.  ((HERE))  To sum it up, Chanukah is based on the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Greeks, under the rule of Antiochus, defiled the temple in 4th century BC by both sacrificing a pig on the altar and putting up a statue of their god in side.  The revolt led by the Maccabees was successful despite the horrific persecution the Jewish people received during that time.  There is a legend of a miracle of oil which claims there was only one days worth of purified oil for the menorah, but it lasted 8 days.  There has never been found any evidence of this.  Therefore, we do not believe it.  On the other hand, the menorah did require oil, which is why we do not have a problem with consuming fried foods, which is tradition.  We also play the dreidle game and light candles for eight days on the chanukiah, the 9 branch candle stick.  Chanukah is celebrated 8 days because the Jewish people were unable to keep the feast of Sukkot a few months prior to the rededication(for obvious reasons). Many Jewish people have transformed Chanukah into a "Jewish Christmas" of sorts, by giving gifts and even decorating a Chanukah tree (a tradition started in the 20th century).  We do not do this either.  So many people in the Messianic walk will celebrate it and look at ways they can personally rededicate their lives to Yahweh as they walk in obedience as Yeshua did.  

Well, I guess that is all for this time.  May you be blessed with health, happiness, and peace.  Enjoy your holidays and Happy New Year!

A Change of Seasons

Fall is upon us, and while the work slows a bit, there is never a shortage of projects to be done, or completed.  I mentioned a while back that we were working to get our cows to the "back pasture".  For us, the back pasture means the back of the house, not the back of the property.  

A wet weather creek divides our 40+ acre property in half.  All of the buildings are in the northern half of the property, while the southern half is all trees, brush, and grass.  Al and a family friend have been working hard to get this area cleared in order to put up fencing.  It is nearly done!  

the east (back) pasture

the west (back) pasture

The barn will be a shelter for the cows this winter, but before it can be used for such, it will need to have trees cleared from around it in order to protect it from being crushed.  So the majority of what you see will indeed be removed soon. 

 

I had all these photos in order but they ended up reversed, so I will just share with you what they are.  The perennial garden is putting in a lot of fall growth and my cape daisies put on a second bloom.  They are so beautiful with their lavender petals and deep purple centers. 

The fig tree has several figs on them, and the few I have picked have been absolutely delicious!  I could never go back to eating dried figs after fresh figs! 

Here is the perennial garden.  This was supposed to be the first photo, but it ended up being the last of this set.  The mint is taking over the garden, but I am okay with it.  The fig tree is doing quite well there in the center.  Off to the left, the zinnias have rejuvenated as well as planted a second round of flowers for the year.  Next year, it will be a crazy invasion of flowers!  Other plants you can't see in this shot are yarrow, marshmallow, calendula, raspberry, horehound, and chicory. 

The grow towers were pulled from the back deck in order to put them in the shade.  I planted lettuce in them and hope they do better than my first planting.  

And...my volunteer potato patch is insane.  I never would have thought I left that many grape sized potatoes in the ground when I harvested our lame "1st harvest" in the summer. There is also a load of volunteer dill in the same bed.  

This was my experimental potato garden in which I planted the grape sized potatoes.  It is doing quite well now, though not exceptional since they took so long to get started.  

My purple podded pole beans are putting on some bean pods.  It will be nice to get a few fresh beans before winter comes. 

The few raised beds that have food growing in them: carrots, cabbage, kale, broccoli, beans, and chard.  All the pepper plants were pulled out after days of me trying to figure out what to do with all the hot peppers that were growing.  Much to my surprise, the chickens and turkeys ate every single pepper and leaf from the piles of plants I threw over to them.  I wonder if this means we will have some spicy eggs?  

the radish and chard bed, with beans on trellis

And, on an interesting note, our tomatoes have had a second "birth" so to speak.   These plants decided they would put on new growth and are loaded with more tomatoes.  They are taller than I am!  I had heard that they can have a second round of growth at the end of the summer and into fall, and I guess that is true.  I was worried that the cooler temperatures would mean less or no tomatoes, but found out they do their best growing between 70 and 84 degrees (give or take a few degrees).  

In other news, we found out we had another water line leak, so Al got to digging several days ago and found it in no time.  He fixed the leak, but still needs to put in new pipes to the shop. 

And, with the beginning of this season, we open our Biblical calendar to the seventh month, which is full of feasts and holy days.  Ten days ago, we "blew" in the beginning of years, with Yom Teruah (Day of Trumpets).  Yesterday, we kept Yom Kippur (Day of Atonements).  It also fell on the weekly sabbath, but since Yom Kippur is typically a day of fasting, I didn't prepare any meals ahead of time.  The girls were given the option to fast, and they all did a fabulous job in doing so.  Caleb was the only one who ate simple meals like toast and sandwiches.  When the sun went down, we all ate a light supper of crackers, bread, lunch meat, cheese, carrots, grapes, and kefir.  Of course, we replenished our water as well!  

So, all the excitement turns to the final festival and feast, Sukkot: Feast of Tabernacles.  The kids are absolutely excited beyond belief.  We decided this year to allow them to pick their snacks.  They each have a bowl of snacks, but there are also bags to share.  There is more than enough, that is for certain!  We also planned the menu for the week, three meals a day, s'mores for a few nights!  The plan is to sleep on the deck again.  This year, we will spread out a bit more with the dining canopy on the lower deck.  Year before last year, the big tent we got from my parents ended up with a hole in the roof when something fell through.  Then rain caused the tent to leak pretty bad.  Our other tents leak horribly and aren't really any good for sleeping, much less playing.  We will be doing tie dye shirts again and other crafts that didn't get done last year like candle votive holders and yarned pumpkins.

 

Death, Downsizing, and More

If you read the last blog post, you will know that one of the lambs had bottle jaw last month.  Unfortunately, that lamb did die a few days later.  

We have since decided to get out of raising sheep, so we are working on selling the five remaining sheep we have, not including the two ram/lambs we are raising for meat.  

We have struggled for a while with a hen laying bad eggs and we just can't figure out which one it is.  This is very frustrating and has made me extremely "egg shy".  Yes, we know we can candle them and do the float test - but these bad eggs actually pass both tests!  Then, when I proceed to crack them - you get the picture.  There have been a few occasions where I run out the laundry room door with a bad egg and toss it over the deck rail.  No, it is not pleasant.  

This has got me to thinking that perhaps I want to find a breed that lays lighter or white eggs in order to have an easier time candling eggs and seeing problems within the shell.  If this happens, we will get rid of all the chickens we have, and proceed to start fresh next year.  Last year, we were screwed over by some dishonest farmer selling "black Australorp" chicks for cheap (no pun intended).  These birds are quite obviously not that breed.  In fact, aside from the color splashes, and varying types of combs/wattles, there are a few that lay blue eggs which is an "Easter egger" trait.  

We have also decided that we either will not raise chickens for meat any longer, or we will get a breed of laying hen that is large enough to provide a decent size bird should we want to incubate and process birds in the future.  At this point, it hasn't been decided.  

Our turkeys are getting fairly large and we do plan to process a few come November.  Obviously we do not want to feed several turkeys through winter!  We will keep Stonewall, our Tom, as well as any females we might have.  

So far, I can't tell if we have any pregnant goats.  I had planned to have ultrasounds done on the "bred" does at the end of August, but Al lost his job last month and the appointment had to be cancelled.  So, we are left waiting and watching and hoping.  The does we are watching include Yelana, Mocha, Kitkat, Snickers, and Almond Joy.  The current does would kid in November IF they are pregnant.  We don't plan to breed does again until November, which would give us babies in warmer months, rather than the dead of winter.   The does to be bred in November include Maizie, Juniper, Serenade, Sally, and possibly Jersey.  The only remaining goats are either too young, too small, or males.  Photo above is of young does who have not been bred.  

Lilly, our zebu cow, has not calved yet and doesn't look like she is close.  They are pregnant nine months and I will guess she was bred in March, but it is really hard to know for sure since we never saw it take place.  

Fall planting is just around the corner.  I have starts in the milk room which will need to come out and be hardened off this next week.  Before I transplant them, I will need to put down some Sluggo.  The pill bugs are horrible, as are the grubs and worms.  My chard, which I planted in spring and transplanted a week ago, is being chewed up by something.  It is highly aggravating.  

The weather cooled for a bit so tomatoes and peppers slowed down in growing, but this week has been warm and will remain warm for a bit more. So, I am hopeful things will grow well until the temperatures finally drop.  The rain we got, 7 inches, sure brightened up the tomatoes and peppers.  They are looking great!

I did some garden clean up this past week.  This included pulling out tomato plants that I either didn't want, or weren't looking so hot.   I meant to leave one really healthy cherry tomato vine on the trellis, and when I was done trimming, I realized that somehow, I cut the plant from the roots.  I was so upset!  But, I had one cherry tomato plant left, not the greatest looking, and trimmed it up with hope that it would make it. 

Strawberry plants were moved from the perennial garden to a raised bed with the other plants. 

Sweet potatoes were harvested, but the harvest was the lamest harvest EVER!  I probably got a return of exactly what I bought for seed.  I won't grow those potatoes again.  The greens were lush, but the tubers were non-existent.  I guess I will be buying local sweet potatoes this fall. 

I didn't end up with any potatoes either, but the small experiment bed is finally coming up.  I am not sure if I mentioned it a while back, but I planted several small grape sized potatoes to see what happened.  And on a similar note, I guess several potatoes of similar size were left in the ground and I have volunteer potatoes coming up everywhere!  So, I guess all isn't lost.  However, potatoes will definitely need to be purchased from the store this fall/winter.  

I did plant another round of carrots but discovered something dug up a portion of the bed. At first I thought cats until I saw there was no evidence of it.  I think it was a squirrel.  At any rate, I don't have many more weeks to grow carrots unless I can find some that are short grow cycle.  

Finally, the peppers have been prolific and I have found myself stressing over what to do with all the hot peppers!  The problem is, there isn't a large amount at one time, so I have a mixture of peppers, mostly spicy hot.  This morning, I decided to just throw it all together and make a fermented hot sauce.  So I washed what I had and put them in jars with onion and garlic.  I have two half gallon jars sitting on the counter, beginning the fermentation process.  The previous jar I did turned out really good, but it had tomatoes in it.  I hope to get some more tomatoes from the garden soon because I would love to ferment a few jars worth and mix them into the peppers when I am ready to make the hot sauce.  

It's hard to believe fall is upon us!  In just over a week, we will begin celebrating the Fall Feasts: Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot.  The kids are so excited about Sukkot!  We are already discussing what we will do this year.  There were a few crafts we did not do last year, so we will work those this year instead.  The kids want to tie dye shirts again, so I will look into that.  Of course, they can't wait for smores either, so I have already purchased the graham crackers, chocolate, and kosher marshmallows.  We still have a lot of clean up to do out back before then, but the pool has to come down first.  The rain we got created a green swamp from all the garbage falling from the trees.  So, since we don't have many warm days left, we decided to pack it up for the year.  Why?  Because Al wants to level the area better.  It is on a concrete slab, but it isn't as level as we thought it was.  

We have been taking "unemployment" one day at a time, ever thankful for Al's pension.  Al has been selling hay for a little extra money, but obviously it isn't much.  Meanwhile, he is looking for work, and getting projects done around the home.  I created a spreadsheet with the costs of grocery items and which place is cheaper.  It shocked us quite a bit to find that milk is pretty cheap right here at the local gas station!  I also learned that half and half (without chemicals) is cheapest at the local Dollar General Market.  I am thankful for this little market because it has given us a place to go in a pinch.  We can find pretty much anything we might need, from a bag of apples or potatoes, to some cheese or bread.  

Well, Shabbat is almost here.  Time to get the final things done.  I have leftovers in the oven.  Meals for tomorrow are made.  Breakfast is french toast and turkey bacon.  Lunch is just a bunch of snacks like cheese, crackers, hummus, veggies, etc.  Which reminds me, I didn't make cheese slices.  Dinner tomorrow is pasta with Chicken Italian Sausage.  

I have rambled on long enough.  Have a great one!  

Garden Clean-up and Fall Prep

garden, all cleaned up

Monday, August 19...

I'm just going to start off by saying I absolutely detest squash bugs.  I am not talking about squash vine borers, but squash bugs.  They multiply 50 times faster than rabbits and take over your squash plants before you have a chance to blink.  

The other day I noticed that the older vines were covered with thousands of these bugs and there is no way in those numbers I can possibly pick them off by hand.  Sunday Morning, I decided to spray them with a heavy saturation of sudsy liquid.  Unfortunately, it only killed some of the younger nymphs, but not the older ones.  So I got nowhere.  

After pondering my other options for some time, I asked Al if we had a torch.  Before long I was out there with a weapon of mass destruction (for a bug) and torching every squash bug in sight.  I knew I didn't get them all, but I didn't want to pull out the plants and have all of them run over to my cucumbers.  

Later, Al pulled my "fire ring" gardens out and tilled the whole area under.  Of course, this sends any living bugs off in a scurry and it didn't take long for them to start climbing up the tomato trellis.  Al mowed the end of the tomato trellis where I found hundreds more.  Those also headed for the remaining garden area.  We ended up pulling out the torch again to burn up what I could find, but once again, I knew they weren't all dead.  

I also pulled the electric fence up from around the garden because it was making clean up so difficult and the garden looked horrible.  I told myself to take a before picture, but I didn't. 

This morning, I was able to hand pick several and put them into a bucket of soapy water, which is a quick kill if you don't mind touching them.  (Interesting note, squash bugs give off an odor similar to a vanilla perfume.) 

tromboncino squash

After school was finished for the day, I decided to take advantage of the somewhat cooler day and get to work cleaning up the garden.  I pulled off all the burned squash vines, harvested the squash that no longer had vines planted in the ground, and trimmed off any tomato branches that suffered for being too close to the flame.  (It was a risk I was willing to take.)

I then pulled all the bean plants out, removed some of the cherry tomato plants since I have too many, picked what popcorn was in ear, and pulled out the corn plants.  I harvested a very measly second crop of potatoes which probably couldn't feed one person.  Then I worked on removing all the dead vines from the bean trellis.  

watermelon

Finally, I cleaned up all the debris and took it to the chickens for an evening meal.  They had a feast of tomatoes and green beans, as well as two small under ripe watermelons.  Which, by-the-way, I was able to harvest three more watermelons in the last few days, and one final one is in the garden still ripening.  These watermelon have been very good and while the family is not a big melon eating family (because they have seeds), I will be growing this type again.  Once this final melon ripens, I will be able to finish cleaning up the perennial garden. 

Meanwhile, the tomatoes slowly trickle in and ripen completely on the counter before I put them in the freezer.  It isn't as much as I would like to put away, but it is still a blessing after so many years of nothing.  

The pepper plants are abundant and I am pleased despite the fact I have more sugar rush peach hot peppers than I know what to do with, although not ripened yet.  The Jimmy Nardello are growing really well, and they are absolutely sweet! I am excited about trying the cachucha peppers, which I discovered are very slow to grow, but FINALLY are putting on fruit.  

The only thing left other than tomatoes, peppers, and a few cucumber vines, are the sweet potatoes, which aside from beautiful green leaves, don't seem to be producing any tubers.  I will leave them in the ground and hope for a few meals harvested from the many plants in the bed.

So next step is to decide what I want to grow in the fall garden.  I am considering more carrots, beets, peas, green beans, cabbage, broccoli, and greens.  On the other hand, I have considered not growing anything at all!  

Tuesday, August 20...

It isn't so much that I did something today, as I wanted to add to what I was writing.  Sunday, Al and I were able to get round bales to the female goats and the zebu. 

We finally got to moving (cleaning ) the chicken cages.  Initially, we thought these cages would work, but the biggest negative is how hard they are to clean out.  If there is one thing on a homestead that drives me nuts, it is having animals live in squalor.  We raise animals for a few reasons, and one of them is to give them a better life than those animals that are used for supplying the nation with meat.  While we aren't able to feed our birds organic grain, we are able to give them wide open spaces to free range and eat what nature intended. 

Because we took their cages away, I cleaned up the small coop for some of them to roost in.  Al fixed the next box in the same coop so eggs wouldn't roll under the roost.  

The younger birds were finally released from their tractor, but the older birds do not like them. So these birds stay in a small flock and sleep under the canopy of the grapevines.  Meanwhile, their tractor was converted into a nesting house to keep the nest boxes both sheltered and dry.  

The sheep seem to be doing pretty well and don't go through the pastures nearly as quick as we did with twice the number.  No kidding, right?  Unfortunately, I discovered one of the lambs out of Basil has bottle jaw, which is a result of infestation of parasites.  This is disturbing considering they were recently dewormed.  This means I will either need to let nature take its course, or treat them.  I prefer to raise animals with a high resistance to parasites and many homesteaders/farmers out there do the same.  If an animal can't stay healthy, they cull them.   I am still unsure of whether or not we will have any sheep ready to go to butcher this fall, but if not we will definitely do so in spring.  

The does, female goats, which were with a buck last month, will have ultrasounds done next week to see if they are pregnant.  If not, they, along with several others, will be put in with bucks come November.  Any goats which are pregnant now, will be due in December.  Our goal is to have milk year round so we don't have to buy it.  

Well, I guess that is about it.  Not too much news to add to the normal day to day stuff.  

End of July - Where Did It Go?

I've been extremely thankful for the garden this year despite any issues I have faced.  This past week we have begun harvesting thing such as cantaloupe, which have been the best!!  Super sweet and flavorful!  This is seed I saved from some starts I purchased from Azure Standard in 2022.

We have been able to harvest a few winter squash, though most end up having bugs in them.  This one started rotting and I had to process it yesterday.  After all the waste from trimming, I had six quarts.  I am pretty close to saying I won't grow squash any longer, but we shall see.  

The paste tomatoes are loaded, but I have been struggling with blossom end rot.  All of my tomatoes are rotting.  I had to add calcium, but I don't know how many more will be ruined before the soil is corrected.  The tromboncino squash continue to get out of control and I am not sure it is worth allowing them to wreak any more havoc on my tomato plants. 

 

The purple Murasaki sweet potatoes are doing well.  I go out every few days to trim back the excess foliage to encourage the energy to the sweet potatoes. 

Our popcorn has started to tassel and I have some small ears forming.  I will need to spray with BT soon to make sure those pesky worms stay away.

This bed of green beans has shot up since pulling out all of the cucumber vines.  They now have sunlight with no competition.

The other bed has already produced some green beans for us, but not enough to can.  There are a few Chinese long beans planted here as well.  They just started producing beans for us.

The cherry tomatoes are growing so tall!  I know I planted them so close together, but they are at least producing.  So far, our favorite in flavor have been the Barry's Brazen Crazy Cherry.  Unfortunately, the plant is being smothered and the tomatoes are being nibbled by bugs. 

Peppers are doing phenomenally!  I am so thrilled to think I will have plenty of peppers and while it isn't enough to put away for chili pepper, I at least have plenty to snack on or preserve in some way or another.  I tried to ferment some banana peppers, but they just didn't smell right, so I dumped them.  So far, the top producer is the Jimmy Nardello.

And finally!! We harvested our first few watermelon and it was so worth the wait!  These Royal Golden watermelon have taken the difficulty out of knowing just when to harvest!  Wow!  The skin turns gold and the tendril across from the melon dries out and there you have it!  For years, I have had dried tendrils and nasty watermelon. 

In other news:

Dad and Mom have officially sold their house in Kentucky and are on their way to Arizona.  They should arrive tomorrow early in the afternoon.

Andrew was in a car accident last Saturday.  His car was considered "totaled" by the insurance company. We are truly blessed that the timing through the intersection was as it happened.  Yah is good!  

Leandra informed me today she was hired at a "higher end" restaurant in Panama City.  She will be doing either prep work in the kitchen, or be pastry/dessert chef.  

Al made our yearly hay purchase today.  He put 32 large round bales under the awning.