End of April Homestead Update

Before I get started on anything about us, I want to share with you something that happened.  As many of you may know, I am co-founder to an organization in Uganda called Aim Born Champions Children Africa.  Several years ago, I met Joseph, the founder (along with his grandfather), and we began working together in a program that helped sponsor children to provide a better education as well as a healthier life.  A few days ago, his family was involved in an accident which left his wife with spinal injuries and chest injuries.  They transported her to the capital city of Kampala to receive care from a specialist, but they will not perform surgery without half of the funds.  I am leaving a link for the Donorsee fundraiser and ask that you please see what you can do to help out.  Donorsee

How does time go by so quickly?  It seems I posted something just a few weeks ago.  Perhaps it was just my imagination - or simply wishing there was more to share. 

It has been a busy month.  I ended up in Kentucky for a week to help my parents pack up their belongings for a move to Arizona.  We were able to get a lot done, and I came home with a full van of smaller things they no longer needed.  I made the trip was made with Caleb, and the girls stayed home and milked the goats, cooked meals, and kept the house running as close to normal as they could.  They did a fabulous job of keeping the goats milked and cared for. 

Since my return, Al and I were able to put up an electric fence in the back yard.  We brought some of the trouble maker goats over to keep them out of the way when we try to get the milkers from the dry lot.  We also brought over two of our first fresheners who do not provide enough milk to put them on the stand.  By putting them in the back, we feed them high quality forage, and we cut back on the area Al needs to mow.  

Last week we were able to begin processing our chickens.  We managed to tackle a dozen of them, leaving another 23.   Since Andrew wasn't here to help out, it meant the younger kids had to do more.  They all did a pretty good job at what they chose.  

This time of year brings a bit of anxiety as we wait for various food "crops" to pop up, shortly after which, providing our family with a little nourishment.  We have been able to get a small handful of asparagus as well as a few nights of roasted radishes.  

I've been able to plant more seeds as well as potatoes, but still I wait to put tomatoes and peppers in the ground.  

The random sowing of sunflowers has proved to be a success.  I just took seed from a few flowers I saved last year, and tossed them all around the old garden area.  Lo and behold, I have several dozen sunflowers up and growing.  Just this afternoon, I noticed some zinnias are also popping up where seed dropped last year.

I want to do the same with sorghum: gently broadcast the few handfuls of Mennonite Sorghum I harvested last year from two plants, so I can keep a perpetual plot of feed for the animals.  

I do want to plant some sweet corn, or pop corn in the old garden area, just to see how it all grows.  I haven't had much past reaping when it comes to corn.  Well, honestly, the last time I had any corn to harvest was about four years ago when I harvested a great amount of dried corn for cornmeal.  Would you believe I still have some in the form of cornmeal?  It is absolutely delicious!

I decided to plant watermelon and cantaloupe in the front perennial bed rather than wildflowers and herbs.  The seed starts for the herbs didn't grow.  I am totally okay with that, too.  There are a few starts to transplant, but not nearly as many as I had hoped I would have.  (I have tried to upload a picture, but just can't get it to send to my drive.)

My sweet potatoes are still growing slips.  Initially, I ordered some purple "seed" potato from a friend, but most of those potatoes rotted.  Then I was super blessed to find I had saved some from last years garden and they were in great condition, especially for sprouting more slips for this year.  (We ended up eating a lot of them, too.)   Now to find a good spot to plant them.

As I mentioned before, potatoes have been planted.  These from the seed I collected from our own garden last year.  I have more seed, but this was potatoes I didn't eat in time.  So, I think I will be planting a second planting this spring/summer.  

Bugs are ever present in the gardens, but not nearly as bad as they can be.   The garlic is huge, perhaps on account of planting it sooner than I should have?  Who knows.  My pole beans are beginning their journey toward the trellis.  Cucumbers are slow to come up, but perhaps because our weather has been off and on, like an oven.  One bed of carrots just doesn't seem to want to do well, but the larger bed is progressing nicely.  My broccoli and cabbage beds are sort of wonky, but considering they are alive - I will count that a blessing.  Peas are producing a small amount and I think tomorrow we may be able to grab a handful or two and snack on them.  As for onions, I can't grow them for the life of me.  

The Green Stalks are looking good, but for some reason, there are certain pockets in which things don't grow, or they die.  I just replant with something else and hope it grows.  

Green Stalk one has a bunch of bush beans.  I replanted the other day, filling in any empty spots.  

The second Green Stalk was where my strawberries were planted, but only three plants survived the winter.  I am starting to wonder if it is because they reached the end of their life cycle and there were no "offspring" to continue.  So I decided to buy 25 more planted from MIGardener, and plant them in a raised bed this week.   At any rate, I pulled out all the old, dead plants, and sowed more things like radishes, peas, Tiny Tim tomatoes, beets, and spinach.  

Tower three has the greens I initially planted with a few spots I replanted.  We have spinach, kale, bok choy, and chard.  The chard this year just does NOT seem to be doing well.  Normally it grows really well, but I am not sure why it stays stunted.  

Finally, tower four has a second planting in the top layer.  I put in Perpetual Spinach Chard.  Then the lower three sections are lettuces.  

The yellow bucket is a planting of loofah gourd.  I am sure these take FOREVER to come up.  I vaguely recall digging in gently the other day and seeing the seedling begin to emerge.  

My perennial garden out front is looking like it will be a "whatever I want to plant" garden.  As I mentioned, I put in some melon.  I plan to put some weed cloth down, perhaps even some wood chips on top.  This will prevent weeds from growing up, but allow an area for the plants to vine out.  I just need to train the vines outward.  

Most of my transplants from last year, died.  My newer fig trees died as well as my black berries: all of which were in pots through the winter.  One mint plant came up, but Caleb and I transplanted more from the old garden.  We also brought some bee balm over and put that in.  I had planted some seeds for flowers, but very few of them seem to have germinated.  This little garden is a work in progress, but I am not sweating it.   

I'm learning things don't need to be beautiful.  Beauty only lasts a few days, then life happens.  Or, in the case of the gardens, nature happens.  

Like finding these little sweethearts in a shallow nest, right next to my raised bed.  Caleb, while weed eating, ripped into the nest, terrifying these sweet little kits.  They screamed and scattered.  We rushed to catch them all and put them back into their nest.  We covered them as best we could.  Unfortunately, momma never came back.  The girls, more specifically Abigail, spent several hours coaxing milk into them, as we waited to get them to a licensed wildlife rehabilitation person (sorry, not sure the term).  The girls wanted to keep them, but it was not going to happen no matter how cute they were. 

I got tired of writing on Saturday, so I picked it up today, Sunday.  I have attempted to get a few photos transferred over, but it didn't work.

We had originally planned to process 11 more chickens this morning, but the weather didn't look too promising and we had to put it off until next Sunday.  

So Al and Andrew went to do some car maintenance, and clean the car up.  Afterwards, they headed out to the woods to get wood chips for me to use in the garden.  Then they returned to chip more branches from the woods.  

Meanwhile, I did loads of laundry, baked bread, cleaned up a bit in the house, planted my strawberries, and worked in the garden a little. I also used a chainsaw to cut a very large branch apart that fell in the last round of storms.  Al had used the tractor to lift it over to the goats so they could eat the leaves.  I wanted to get it out of the pen, so decided to cut it into small pieces and toss them over.  

Well, I guess we will have to wait until the next post to share updated photos of some things.  I am tired and have some driving to do tomorrow. 

Blessings!