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.  

 

Another Week with Losses, Plus Some Harvesting

view from the school room

In the "barnyard...

The livestock deaths just keep coming, and somehow, Abba keeps me strong and I don't find myself angry or sad.  

In the last few days, we lost two kids, Hazzard and Song, and just now, Al drove to the "graveyard" with Amber. 

We bought Amber several years ago.  She was our oldest goat, turned nine in January.  Nine is certainly not too old to breed and provide milk, but this year proved to be difficult for her.  She didn't produce enough milk for me to milk her.  Then when parasites hit her, she simply could not recover no matter what.  She had been my trouble child, so-to-speak, for quite some time and I knew her inability fight parasites would essentially end her life.  

A few days ago, I told Al that it was time to put her down because she was not looking good at all.  Her condition was poor, her "saddlebags" had dropped even more than before, and she just could not get over the anemia.  

Al found her laying down on her back, bloated more than anything I have ever seen, and I quickly determined she was done for.  I helped load her up into the tractor so he could take her back to euthanize her, but she died on her own right there in the grapple.  

She will be missed. 

Al and I have been discussing some changes around the homestead and I will share them with you all soon.  

In the garden...

Meanwhile, the first planting of potatoes have been harvested.  The star performer being the red potatoes.  So from this year forward, we will plant red potatoes instead of yellow.  

I also harvested the Canada crookneck squash which I found hidden under some of the Tromboncino vines.  

I was able to harvest a single Tromboncino as a summer squash last night when it broke from a vine that was over the potato bed.  It was probably a five pound squash.  I only used the neck of the squash which was approximately 2 feet long.  

I have given up on my grow towers for now, but will work toward amending the soil for fall planting.  

Meanwhile, the tomatoes and pepper plants are loaded and promising a great harvest. 

In our homeschool...

Al and Andrew made the final trip to Dad and Mom's to get the last of the things we took off their hands.  Many of these items were for the purpose of organizing my schoolroom and the library.  

I was finally able to finish the school room and I absolutely love how it turned out, though the kids struggle with the concept of sitting at the table for work.  

A few weeks ago, I was able to lay out the next four years of school subjects for Alexandra, the next six for Abby, and the next year for Caleb.  You can see the new home school schedule in the home school page at the top of the blog. 

With the four bookshelves from my parents, I worked on alphabetizing all the books (except children's books, which are in Caleb's room).  After the books were all sorted, I labeled the edge of the shelf with the letters that begin the authors on that shelf.  Now it is like a little mini-library, complete with a "Dewey alphabet system" (no numbers here). 

And in other news...

I have also been organizing my room, which includes my craft table/shelf.  I am slowly working on getting all the sewing items to two cabinets downstairs.  I don't do enough sewing to warrant having the things in my room.  

Al and I finally got our Wills, Powers of Attorney, and like documents finalized and notorized.  This is also a huge load off of our backs. 

Well, dinner is on the stove simmering and I need to get it finished up...whatever it is.  Hah!

 

Hardship and Growth

I'm struggling to know what to write or say.  Seems so strange how over the past several years I have gone from enjoying writing about what we do here, to simply staring at a screen pretending anyone cares. 

But seriously, most reading my blogs don't really care one way or the other.  Oddly enough, I have gotten to the point where I don't care either.  It isn't that I have become a pessimist or something, but that Yah has grown me so much in the last year that I simply could care less what others think because it doesn't matter.  I've been through a few rough patches this past year that have knocked me down and beat me as well.  But I used those to grow and I would like to believe I am stronger because of it.  

A year ago, I was on prescription meds for anxiety, and a doctor telling me I couldn't get off of them because it was simply the way it was going to be.  Through Abba, I proved that wrong.  I took myself off of medication and learned to rely on Him and trust He is in control. 

Almost a year ago, my faith in people was shaken.  Yet, Father used that as a means to teach me that what I seek in others is not nearly as important as what I seek in Him.  My relationship with Yahweh is more important than any relationship I could possibly have on this planet, and that loving others despite their failures is another way to love Him.

Over this past year, I have learned to refocus my heart and mind on those things which are truly important - the things of the Kingdom and how to prepare myself for that Kingdom.  I have learned that my walk and my faith is my own, no one else's, and that my concern can not be for anyone else's walk.  Being serious about our walk and the consequences of poor decisions is for each of us to figure out.  

The truth: The Father calls us, but we are responsible for the rest.  Our choices determine the outcome.  

I still struggle with things.  I get frustrated and angry over the way things are around the homestead.  The difference is, the feeling doesn't last long because I am reminded to ask Him what He wants to teach me through such a moment.  I ask myself what I can personally do to fix the situation, and if there is nothing, or my options are exhausted - I just leave it to Him.  There is no problem too little or too large for Him to handle.  

Another great truth I have come to realize is that if Father called me to this walk, then He knows I can do it!  What a wonderful thing to know that I can do this if I choose to.  It all comes down to what I choose to do with the path put before me.  The decisions I make in each situation, the habits I choose to become my life, the influences I allow to pull me away from His will, and the relationships I choose to build or tear down.  

There is one thing we are learning to do differently: how we keep Shabbat.  It has been a personal struggle through the years because there are so many ideas as to what is proper and what isn't.  It all comes down to what the Scripture says and whether or not we want to keep it properly.  A month ago, after much contemplation, study (again), and prayer, I ended up asking myself how hard is it to do "A, B, C"?  It really came down to the same idea that has me pursuing Torah: Would I rather hear Him ask "Why didn't you?"  or would I rather hear Him say, "Well done!"  

There are three voices we hear in our heads all the time.  The trouble is learning to shut our own voice up as well as Satan's, and truly listen to the Father.  However, the biggest issue we all have is thinking that the voice we are listening to is His, when in reality it is our own.  

So in the case of our keeping the Sabbath, setting it apart, keeping it holy, and seeking Him through the day, is really a matter of denying ourselves for 24 hours, giving up the worldly things and allowing Him to give us refuge from all those things which weigh us down through the week, pulling us in every direction away from Him.  

It is because of these personal reflections it was decided that the Shabbat should truly be about Him.  I prepare meals on Friday for the whole day.  I quit focusing so much on the clean house going into the Sabbath, and more on making sure I can cease when the sun goes down.  It isn't about getting everything done - it is about quitting all the work and focusing on Him. So we have started our own tradition of attempting a small Shabbat Sedur on Friday evenings.  We play Bible games as a family, such as Torah Line, Bible Trivia, Bible Outburst, Bible Apple's to Apples (with some cards thrown out), Bibleopoly, and some variations.  We watch sermons, listen to the Livestream for MTOI (Messianic Torah Observant Israel), listen to worship music, and only watch Biblical history movies.  We only do those things necessary for the livelihood of the livestock and animals.  Our goal is to stay focused on Yahweh, and not allow the outside in (as much as possible).  The kids have their moments of bad attitudes about "no pleasure" on the Sabbath, but we are trying to train them up with reverence and respect for the Almighty.  

But all that aside, how about a small update?

We have lost four goats so far this past week, all babies, due to parasites and the effects of anemia on the organs in their bodies.  We will be culling an older goat this afternoon because she just can't seem to recover from the anemia that plagues her and other health issues.  The losses, while they hit hard, don't hurt as badly as they used to.  The frustrating reality that I can't help them any more than I have has given me a new mindset that "it is what it is" and life on the homestead must go on.  Quite frankly, we don't need or want animals that can't handle life without loads of medications and de-wormers.  And I don't want others to have them either.  Chemical dependency is no better for an animal than for a human being.  

The sheep are bouncing back to full health, though they could use some basic maintenance, they look great!  We are working on cutting back on numbers and keeping only a couple ewes and one ram.  

The zebu are doing great!  Lily appears to be getting rounder each week and one day in a few months, we should see a little calf on the ground.  

Our chickens have backed off of egg production and we aren't sure why.  The combination of heat, mites, and less food could be contributing, so I am trying hard to work out the problems.  The six turkey poults are growing and will provide us with meat when they reach full size, hopefully by Sukkot or Thanksgiving.  And our little chicks are ready to move out to the chicken tractor...soon.  We just need a roof on the little tractor to protect them from the sun and rain.

The gardens are doing well!  I am so impressed with the production of the Chinese long bean, a.k.a. the noodle bean.  They are amazing fresh eating beans and the family loves them!  The plants are super productive.  Since I was out of seed, I have several on the vines for more seed for future plantings. 

I decided I was done making pickles, so I cut back all the pickling cucumber vines and thinned out the fresh eating cucumbers.  I have a large Beit Alef cucumber set aside to grow full size for saving seed.  And I have more cucumbers than I need in the refrigerator, most likely to go bad.  I am looking for all the children who claim to love cucumbers so much.  

Tomato vines are growing wild and crazy and that makes me super happy since it has been some time since I have had a good harvest.  It won't be long before I have cherry tomatoes for snacking!  

The peppers are still working on producing, but we are close because I have a few peppers starting and plenty of blooms.  I know if they weren't in so much shade half the day, they might be more productive, but I won't complain. 

Potatoes are not ready for harvest yet since the plants have not died back, but the weeds have encroached upon them and I can't tell where the borders are for weed eating and mowing.  The second planting is doing great as well, but it is in a raised bed.  No weeds sneaking in!  

Sweet potatoes are doing fabulous as well.  I continue to cut back the ends of those vines that want to grow outside of the raised bed in order to encourage the root growth.  

The second planting of green beans is kind of interesting.  One bed is large and healthy, while the other is stunted, more than likely from the shade cast on the bed by the cucumber trellis.  

The squash is insane.  I am pretty sure the insanity is at the "hand" of the tromboncino squash.  In fact, I planted this type in one of my "fire ring" beds and the vine is climbing and sprawling a good 40 feet in diameter.  This type seems to be doing super well despite the squash bugs.  

Our melons are finally growing fruit.  Just yesterday, Caleb and I found some watermelon the size of a human head.  They were hiding in there and never saw them.  These vines are vigorously grown out toward the driveway and only have a few more feet to go.  

The ground cherries have taken off!  The bushes are 2 feet tall and covered with ground cherries.  I am so excited to try them! 

My grow towers are not doing as well as I would like.  I need to figure out how to nourish the soil and allow the plants to flourish.  I have some lettuce starts in the house to put into one, but will probably move a tower to the shade to protect them from heat.  There must be a secret to those grow towers because I have seen them work out for other people.  

When it comes to the garden, I have learned to let it go.  If it grows, tend to it.  If it dies, fill in the spot with something else.  I am learning what does better in our area, and what doesn't.  It is a constant process of planning and watching, growing, harvesting, and determining what the family eats, and what they don't.  

Well, I guess that wraps it up.  I keep getting up and doing other things, so time to sign off and get going.