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We are out of wood already. The wood we received was green and wet so I have a huge mess in the office to clean up where the creosote leaked on the pipes. Needless to say the woodburner is down.

The plants in my greenhouse, many of which I had babied for years, froze without any heat. That makes me real unhappy. All my tropical plants, gone. I doubt I will replace them with shipping costs being so much. I don’t even want to walk back there. I just feel like crying when I do.

We lost a few chickens this year. It seems some did not go into the chicken house and froze. Every year we seem to lose a few that get out and don’t make it back, but for the most part all the poultry are doing well.

The sheep, goats, rabbits and Beauty the horse are doing just fine. It is warm in the barn, but I am sure, like the rest of us, they can’t wait to get out and run. Our pasture is very soft and muddy so keeping them up right now is the only way to make sure they do not get hurt. Beauty likes to run full force and she has fallen several times in the past due to the pasture being like it is.

I have a few seedlings started in the house, but not many. I am just so heartbroken over the greenhouse plants it is hard to think about growing anything right now. I am sure, in time, this will pass.

I did make some artisan yarn last night. I used a maroon chenille that I bought at a second hand store, a pretty brown wool I spun and some cashmere/silk that I spun. The three different yarns were spun together to make one and I am quite pleased with the outcome.

We are still a long way from being done with the remodeling work we are doing, but we are making headway. I simply cannot convey to you how excited I am. I am just thrilled with Jerry’s carpenter work!

The trim around the inside of the front door is almost done. We have a few more pieces of trim to add, a few nails to cover with wood putty and then it will be time to stain the trim.

We began by choosing large pieces of unfinished wood for the main trim. we cut the trim to size and nailed it into place. We then chose corner pieces with a design we liked.

The next step was to figure out where the cross pieces of trim that would go between the two corner pieces. This was necessary so we could mark the spot where the center blocks would be nailed into place at.

Once the center blocks were nailed into both top corners, it was time to cut the cross pieces of trim. Those are the ones that look like corrugation. They were cut to fit, then nailed into place.

Then we added a piece of smaller trim across the top of the door frame to make it look pretty.

We added the trim that went down both sides as well. We had to measure this and cut it. We did not take it all the way to the floor.

As you can see here, we made a pillar bottom that extended to the floor. We have not finished this pillar bottom yet, but this is what the basics of this idea looks like.

We then added smaller pieces of trim on top of the trim in the center. This was because we liked the way it looked when done like this.

Then we added more trim to the inside of the larger piece of plain wood to make it look nice against the door.

This photo will give you a better idea of how all the trim fit together. Jerry cut the pillars for the top of the door from scrap pieces of wood. We still have some small trim to add to the trim on the sides so it matches the top.

The next goal is to get the marble floor laid. It will go right in front of this door. In the spring we are talking about duplicating this trim on the outside of the door.

For those of you wondering what this project looked like when we began, well, I do not have an interior photo, but I can show you the exterior photo. The juniper bush was removed, some of it saved and replanted. The door is where the double windows used to be.

For the really curious, here is what the exterior of the front of the house looks like right now. Please note, we are still remodeling! Life tends to get in the way of getting things done sometimes, if you know what I mean.

The wood frame on the outside of the house is the outline of the front porch we plan to add on. I am not sure when that will happen, but maybe this coming summer.

Friday night brought a terrible storm into our area. We lost several greenhouses, a roof, had numerous trees come down including some that hit Jerry, had windows broken and more. The yard looks like a tornado hit it. There were numerous people without power for several days. Luckily we were not one of them.

The severity of the storm was quite unexpected. I was preparing homemade noodles when it hit. I spent the majority of the next two days getting packages of food ready for the winter months. With gas prices soaring and rumors of higher electricity costs this winter every little bit of food that can be saved now will really make a big difference then.

I made four pounds of homemade noodles, which will not keep us long but it is a start. There is a good chance we will have the opportunity to glean a potato field later in the year. If so, I will can those potatoes to use throughout the winter.

With the roses being in full bloom and so fragrant I decided to try my hand at making rose petal jelly and rose petal honey. I had five half pints spill in the oven so I had to stop and clean it. However I did end up with six half pints of the jelly and three half pints of the honey, one of which we are going to eat now.

I then made packages of dry ingredients for breads and cookies. Later I will freeze the eggs I need for those packages so I know when the time comes to bake there will be eggs. So far I have four packages of honey wheat bread. Two of them will make two pound loaves and the other two will make pound and a half loaves. I also made five packages of dinner rolls, but we ate one already.

I cooked up the necks and backs of some of the chickens Jerry butchered as well so there would be some chicken broth to can. The recipe that I followed yielded a peppery tasting broth. I am going to mark those cans so I can dilute them later on with more broth. I set the broth in the fridge last night so today I could get the oil off easily and then we will can the broth.

I also made up some packages of cookie mix, dry ingredients only. So far I have a package of orange sugar cookies, four packages of peanut butter and oatmeal cookies with a variety of oatmeal flavors and a package of honey spice cookies.

I am keeping all of the packages of dry mixes in the freezer so there is not a bug problem later on.

I have plans to make up some more cookies, some cakes and brownies. This will make putting them together easier when the time comes and eliminate the chance we are out of one spice or the other. With the hints of upcoming shortages of flour, sugar and rice making this stuff ahead of time will guarantee we will have plenty.

An interesting observation was that our goats are in heat. This should not happen, I am told, until at least September. I do not want to breed now as the babies would be born during the winter and I for one am not thrilled about milking in fridgid weather. I spoke with a friend about it and she said this was quite unusual. She allows her buck to run free with her herd and said he was courting the does. I hope mine come into heat again when they are supposed to as I did not want to breed them until November.

 Sheri

There is a lot in bloom already. Phlox, tulips – some looking taller than ever before, Magnolia, bleeding heart, jack-in-the-pulpit, azalea and other spring blooming beauties. The forsythia and narcissus have long faded. Some of the lilac are already blooming and some are just forming buds. The night air is fragrant and wildlife is stirring.

The farm animals seem to know spring is here too. The chickens are laying a ton of eggs and of course the roosters are constantly going after the hens. Last night we butchered four chickens with the help of a friend. They took two and we put two in our freezer. This time we chose to butcher four Rhode Island Reds. They seem the most agressive of all the breeds we have and also are harder to keep in the chicken area. They want to roam the entire yard which would be fine if they were not inclined to go across the street and eat or dig any flower that was emerging.

The goats escaped the fence the other day and trashed several of my trees. Darn goats! Jerry has to try again to fix the fence so it will hold them. I am hoping the trees survive. At this rate I am never going to have mature plants!

Beauty the horse is much calmer this year. I still cannot get to her tail to brush it but when the vet comes out I am going to ask her to sedate Beauty so I can get those cockerburls out. She is letting me brush her butt some – but only briefly.

Having a cashmere goat is a bit different. Tulip is still quite shy and has to be lifted onto the milking stand. She does not like being brushed but tolerates it. I trimmed all of their hooves this week. Darla was the real pain. First she jumped on the milk stand, then jumped off behind it, tipped a shelf over and finally ended back up in her stall. I did get her hooves trimmed but made her wait until last. She didn’t like watching the other goats get ginger snap cookies when they were done so after I finished all of them I called Darla and she jumped right up on the milk stand!

The vegetable garden is growing too. I have tiny plants of carrots, kale, sugar snap peas, spinach, turnips, brussels sprouts, sugar beets, cabbage and we are already harvesting radish and lettuce. Some of the lettuce we planted the year before has sprouted on its own. I will be digging and moving those plants once we get ready to till that area. Adding the compost has done wonders for the ground! There are still many plants to get into the ground that are in the greenhouse as well as more corn and green beans to plant.

I am debating growing flax this year for fiber. I already have small cotton plants growing.

The bunnies have not had babies and I am wondering if maybe one of them cannot breed. They have been together for several months now but my female has not shown a single sign of being pregnant.

If you are in the area I invite you to come spend some time at our farm and wildlife habitat. Please email or phone ahead for reservations.

Sheri

I cannot believe not one of my does have udders. Not one. I have been running Leonardo the angora buck with them since August. I thought I would have had goat kids (and milk) by now. Alice says the goats are too fat to get pregnant. Who ever heard of a goat being too fat?

I am not expecting lambs until June, if at all this year. Johnny the ram was just born last June so he may have been too young to breed Pearl. Since I don’t intend to do anything other than make a bit of sheep milk soap and some sheep cheese it doesn’t really matter if she kids or not this year.

In the garden, change is abound. I moved lilacs today. I never realized how much they multiply. Wow. Once you have one, you will have some starts to sell before too long. My dad helped me dig them up and replant them. Then he suggested I take some of the privet hedge starts and put them in front of my picket fence for privacy. What a great idea! I am sure thinking about it.

Two days ago strong winds came through the area and trashed one of my coldframes so my dad helped put it back together and put self tapping screws into the metal frame so at least I won’t be searching the farm for pieces of the frame anymore. We did not get the plastic on but hopefully soon.

I bought some conduit at Lowe’s which I intend to use this weekend to make hoops for coldframes. Most of the garden is tilled and I am getting anxious to plant. The greenhosue is filled to overflowing and seedlings are taking over my office, laundry room and kitchen. You would think since this happens every year either I would quit growing so much or end up with a greenhouse large enough to hold all the seedlings I grow.

It has been a busy spring here at Exotic Gardening Farms and Wildlife Habitat. New gardens were tilled to make more room for planting vegetables. The need for Plant-A-Row for the Hungry gardens is great this year and we want to contribute as much food as possible to our local food bank. The goal is still 1,600 pounds from our farm. So far we have been able to donate close to 800 pounds. Hopefully this year we will come closer to the goal.

Cutting gardens were installed this year to help boost the farm income. The Zinnia are just beginning to flower. The Sunflowers are not far behind. In addition to these two mainstays we will offer roses, delphinium, aster, old fashion sweet william and an array of other specialty cut flowers.

The tomatoes I planted in hoop houses the beginning of April are blooming and beginning to set fruit. It will be nice to have early tomatoes this year. Now that we know this method will work we will get busy sooner next year and plan to plant more under hoops.

The roses are doing great this year. I cannot believe how beautiful and fragrant they are. In fact the entire garden looks really great compared to previous years. Currently in bloom is the zinnias, oak leaf hydrangea, pussy toes, buddelia (butterfly bush), poppies, catnip, flax, allium, dame’s rocket, marigold, gaillardia, hosta, roses, geraniums, sweet william, dianthus, lilies, daylilies, clematis, red hot poker, delphinium, daisies, cornflower, salvia, veronica, honeysuckle, coreopsis, verbena, yarrow, petunia, malva, meconopsis, larkspur, hydrangea, milkweed, astrantia, penstemon, heuchera, begonia, St. John’s Wort, alyssum, lobelia, campanula, lamb’s ear, hedyotis, astilbe, foxglove, liatris, Russian sage, grasses, snapdragon, silene, bee balm, cupflower, twinspur, evening primrose (pink and yellow), thailicum, bleeding heart, codonopsis, comfrey, laminum and amorphophallus.

The animals are being born now. Ginger and Gizmo had two baby bunnies in April. I have a black male and a white albino female. The female looks just like Gizmo and they both look like they took the fiber gene. Time will tell.

This morning Jerry went to the chicken coop and found five baby chicks sitting with a momma hen. I had to go out and check. They are doing fine. I moved them to a better nest box and added fresh water and chicken starter. The momma hen had the babies sitting in the feed dish and they were eating. The other eleven baby chicks that I hatched are doing fine. I have one Polish crested, an auraucana, and some unknowns. The two white breasted turkeys are also doing fine so far.

The goats teats are rapidly growing. We should have goat kids any day now. I can’t wait. We have the video up and running so we can see and hear everything that happens.

We put the hummingbird houses up this past weekend and are waiting on new arrivals. I have only seen two Monarch butterflies so far this year. I hope to see more. I did see a Baltimore Oriole at a hummingbird feeder earlier in the year. There seems to be a flurry of bee activity here which is great. I have also seen some grey squirrels with white tails and a few toads.

Life on the farm is one adventure after another – from unexpected wildlife to new arrivals. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, even though it is a lot of hard work! Knowing the produce you grow keeps you supplied in food most of the year is very satisfying. Knowing you can grow enough to share with others who may be less fortunate makes it all worthwhile.

The decision to go back to the land, to do it all yourself is one that you should give careful consideration to. It is the ideal way to live for many people and full of satisfaction. However, there are always two sides to every story.

On one of the groups I belong to someone wrote that they were giving up their dream of homesteading because – gasp! – they found out it was hard work! WOW! Imagine that!

What did they think it was going to be? A romantic, back to land vacation. Hmm, where did that idea come from? Oh yea, Hollywood.

We’ve been working on the dream for five years and let me emphasize the word WORK. There has been fencing to run – and of course, some animals just seem to know where to find the weak spots, stalls to build, land to till, weeds to pull, stalls to clean – shall I go on?

There is nothing quite like chasing an escaped animal through traffic or going into a neighbor’s yard to retrieve your chicken, especially when that neighbor hates animals. We have been lucky that we have only had a couple incidents, early on, of escaping animals. We found that by tying metal conduit to the top and bottom of the chain link fencing the animals would not challenge the fence. This may not work in every case, but in our case, it did.

Is homesteading worth it? Every minute is an adventure. Do I get sick of this life? Yeah, sometimes, a vacation would be really nice, but who would take care of the plants and animals? Finding someone you can trust your livelihood too is not an easy task.

It is time to get Beauty the horses’ hooves trimmed again. That is a task I just do not look forward to. We have a great Ferrier and Beauty, once caught, does well when he trims her, but scheduling can be an issue with so much going on here.

Angora goats are cute but the hair can get tangled or caught easily. I look forward to getting two batches of mohair from Leonardo per year. I am planning to spin it so it will be ready to use when I find a suitable project I wish to use it on.

Come spring I will need to get the Leicester Longwool Sheep, Pearl and Johnny sheared. Their wool is so curly and thick. Underneath it is shiny and oh so soft. This year I am thinking I may hire someone with electric shears. Last year I used scissors and did it by hand. It took several weeks to get everyone sheared, not to mention the fact that I had sores on my fingers from the scissors.

Spring will bring many changes here at the farm as well. Two of the goats, Sugar and Spice, will – hopefully – give birth to babies. I will be so happy to have fresh milk again and be able to make cheese and butter! I did not breed Darla or Tulip this year. I may have baby lambs if Johnny and Pearl breed. We have not had lambs yet, so that will be a new experience.

There are plans underway to put in more raised beds. Some of the herbs and strawberries have already been moved into raised beds. I like growing plants in raised beds because it makes it easier to cultivate the soil. The fruit trees will be another year older and that should mean more fruit.

The goal is to grow all of our own herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables as well as raise some of our own meat. The less money I have to spend at the grocery store, the happier I am.

Soon February will be rolling around again and it will be time to tap the maple trees. We tapped the trees last year but did not get the maple sap boiled down. I really hope this year we accomplish this goal. I would love to have my own maple syrup.

Spring will also bring the birth of new chickens. The hens we have now have figured out how to hide the eggs. They hatched a couple bunches of baby chicks this past year. They were so cute. Not all of them survived, but sometimes that happens.

Would I do this again? YOU BET! Is this the right decision for you? That depends on your outlook on life and how hard you want to work to acheive your dreams.

Life is never slow here on the homestead. There is always an animal needing their hoofs trimmed, needing brushed, sheared or just wanting some attention. This year it seems like there were always new babies being born – goats, chickens or rabbits.

Mornings consist of watering everyone, giving grain to the poulty, does (female goats) and Beauty, while everyone else gets hay. The process begins again every evening, rain, shine, sleet or snow. Even on the days when the barn door freezes shut, we have to get in to take care of the animals.

Right now we are heating our house with wood. We have a wood stove in my office and another one in the greenhouse. Due to Jerry’s chainsaw breaking late in the summer, he is using an axe to chop up the wood then using a sledge hammer to break it into pieces small enough to fit in the wood burner. The average temperature in our house is 60 degrees F, which is much colder than what I like. With wood floors, getting up at night with bare feet can be downright bone chilling.

Many things have changed here over the last few months. For one, I found out I had a granddaughter, Trinity. She came to stay with us for a few days.

Her parents came here for Thanksgiving which was nice, as well as my longtime friend Alice.

We ate in the dining room under the kerosene chandelier.

We had turkey filled with creole butter, two kinds of stuffing – bread and cornbread, turkey gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, biscuits, brussles sprouts, salad, pumpkin pie and cherry pie. It was a feast fit for a king and the best Thanksgiving I have had in several years.

Little Trinity enjoyed stuffing herself until she couldn’t eat another bite. Then it was off to take a bath, get dressed in one of the fleece sleepers Grandma bought her and off to bed where I am sure she spent the night dreaming of her first Thanksgiving and the adventures she had.

We have not put up the Christmas tree yet. Things are changing here again. With Trinity gone life has gone back to normal – no diaper changes, no late night bottle feedings, no baby clothes or blankets to wash. I can come and go as I please now, but something is missing. She is missing. It is funny how a baby can change your life in a short amount of time.

In a way, baby animals change your life too. You watch them be born, you watch them grow, then you watch them go off to their new home. Odd. When we were trimming the baby goat hooves for the last time, I thought I heard them say “mom, mom, mom” as they tried to get back to their mothers. The two mama goats jumped up, looked over the wall at their babies and gave a gentle “nay” as if to say “it is time you went on to your new home, but remember I love you.”

Our granddaughter Trinity came for her first visit yesterday. Of course, no visit to a farm is complete without seeing the animals.

Sarah, my daughter and her mother, had not been home in some time, so her first question was, where’s Beauty? I told her we would go out to the barn in a moment. It was raining so hard today that all of the animals were in the barn. The ground in the pasture gets so soft that Beauty often falls if we let her out after a hard rain, so it is best to keep her in. Goats get pneumonia pretty easily so we keep them in when it is raining as well so they stay dry.

Trinity got lots of hugs and kisses from grandma first, while mom took lots of photos of the first visit. Then we began the journey to the barn. Getting to the barn meant going through the greenhouse. The Thanksgiving cactus was in full bloom and those fuschia colored blooms attracted Trinity’s attention immediately. Being curious, as all babies are, I held her up so she could touch the flowers. Hmmm, I do wonder if we have a budding botantist on our hands?

Then we proceeded on to the barn. Sarah, of course, went to visit Beauty first. She was amazed at how much weight Beauty has gained since the last time she saw her. I took this photo with my smart phone three days ago when Beauty was in the pasture. She has a fairly thick winter coat on as you can see.

I took Trinity in to see the goats first. The baby goats were curious about Trinity. They cautiously came forward, sniffing her. Faith, the baby goat above, looked at her mama Darla as if to say “I have never seen a tiny person like this before. Is it ok mama?” LOL!

Darla, being a cautious mama goat, stretched out her long neck to check Trinity out before gently naying to her babies that they could go up to her and get pets.

The other mama goats, Sugar, Spice and Tulip were not so interested in Trinity. They preferred to stand back and take the situation in as if they did not know what to make of it. Nutmeg, the ever curious baby goat, who loves to nibble on everyone was quite interested in Trinity. While he was checking her out, he reached up to her face and gave her a quick kiss. It was so cute.

The next stop was the sheep stall. Johnny and Pearl did not know what to think. Their fleece this time of year is full of lanolin and Trinity did not seem as interested in them as she did the goats. As you can see, Johnny above, wanted to stand back and look at her while Trinity wanted to look for her mommy.

The last stop in the barn was a visit to Leonardo, our angora buck. He had been jumping up on the side of his stall the entire time looking to see what was going on. We did not go inside the stall this time because he is in rut this time of year. Trinity was interested in him and he allowed her to give him a pet. He is such a gentle boy most of the time, but can get pushy this time of year so being on the outside of the stall was in everyone’s best interest.

From there we came back inside so momma could clean Trinity up. She spent some time playing with Blueberry Muffin, a doll my Grandma King crocheted many years ago when I was a child. It is nice to know that hand made toys, made with love and care, can last three generations of children and still be in great shape.

Trinity seemed to love being here today. Could this be the start of another generation of women homesteaders in our family?

It has been a busy summer here at Exotic Gardening Farms and Wildlife Habitat. The flower garden is not looking good due to lack of rain and my lack of time for weeding. I do see lots of rose hips forming however and am anxious to pick them to make jelly as well as other items once the first frost hits them. I also noticed hops on my vine and am waiting on those to be ready to pick.

Today I will finish dehydrating some grapes for raisins. I still have oranges, grapefruit, apples, tomatoes and pears to can. I will make more applesauce and juice from the apples. The tomaotes will yield more tomato sauce and tomato juice. I have plenty of plain pears so may make some more cinnamon ones or look for a new recipe. The citrus I will juice and use the peel to make zest and candy. I just found out the white part of the citrus has medicinal value and so I will save some of it to dehydrate. Jon said to just add it to any food to gain the medicinal value.

I have some oregano oil that I used a sun distillation method on that looks like it is ready to preserve for winter usage. I am thinking of using it in some of the lye soap I made.

Today the soap will be ready to come out of the first mold, be cut and begin curing. Later, when the canning season settles down, I will hand mill the soap and add herbs, color and fragrance. Once my molds are free again I will make a second batch of lye soap. It should be a nice soap when it is done. At this stage it has lard, olive oil and cocoa butter in it.

Soon it will be time to get Leonardo sheared. I am really looking forward to my first kid mohair. It should spin up into a nice batch of yarn that I can use to make something or the other with. With winter just around the corner I am looking forward to some time off from yard work so I can begin spinning and weaving again. They say for everything there is a season and that is beginning to make sense the longer I live here.

So far here is a list of what is canned and stored for winter. While I would like to see more vegetables such as green beans and corn on the list I don’t think this is a bad start at all. I have 280 packages of food so far. My goal was 1500 packages. The weather has not been real cooperative and the corn and green beans did not do well. I had planned to can 100 pints of corn, 100 pints of green beans and freeze 100 packages of brussell sprouts (which have not come in yet) and 100 packages of sugar snap peas. If I fall short this year, there is always next year.

2 Pints Strawberry Juice

1 Half Pint Strawberry Juice

6 Half Pints Rose Jelly

2 Half Pints Rose Honey

2 packages of 2 pound mix of Honey Wheat Bread

2 packages of 1 1/2 pounds mix Honey Wheat Bread

1 package of Orange Sugar Cookies

4 packages of Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

5 packages of Dinner Rolls

1 package of Honey Spice Cookies

One and a Half Pints 1 Chicken BrothQuarts 3 Chicken BrothPints 14 StrawberriesHalf Pints 1 StrawberriesPints 1 SpinachHalf pound 5 Sugar Snap PeasOne and a Half Pints 3 Grape JuicePints 8 Grape JuicePints 1 CarrotsPints 1 Grape Jelly4 Ounce Jars 14 Grape JellyPints 13 Tomato JuiceOne and a Half Pints 4 Tomato Juice4 Ounce Jars 7 Lemon Balm and Lemon Verbena Jelly6 Ounce Jars 1 Lemon Balm and Lemon Verbena JellyHalf Pints 3 Mixed Herb Vinegar4 Ounce Jars 9 Mixed Herb VinegarPints 1 Black Stem PeppermintPints 2 SageQuarts 1 Lavender Flowers

Quarts 1 Chocolate Mint

Pints 1 Lime BalmQuarts 1 RosemaryQuarts 2 TarragonPints 1 TarragonQuarts 1 RaisinsPints 1 OreganoQuarts 2 CherriesHalf Pints 1 CherriesQuarts 1 Dill WeedQuarts 3 Passion Fruit MojitoHalf Gallons 3 Dehydrated Potatoes12 ounce 2 Roasted Garlic Italian VinaigretteHalf Pints 4 Raspberry Syrup30 ounce 1 Strawberry JamPints 1 Honey Cinnamon Pecan PeachesOne and a Half Pints 2 Honey Cinnamon Pecan PeachesQuarts 1 Honey Cinnamon Pecan Peach Sauce

Orange Marmalade

Berry Preserve

8.5 ounce 1 Pineapple, Banana and Passion Fruit Jam8.5 ounce 1 Pineapple, Banana and Orange JamHalf Pints 2 Cherry JuiceQuarts 7 Green BeansPints 5 Green BeansOne and a Half Pints 1 Tomato Sauce4 ounces 1 Tomato SaucePints 4 Seasoned Tomato SauceQuarts 1 Seasoned Tomato SauceQuarts 38 PotatoesQuarts 1 Apple JuicePints 2 Cinnamon Red Hot ApplesPints 4 Cinnamon Apple SaucePints 11 Apple Pie FillingPints 1 Lemon BalmPints 1 Caraway

Bell PeppersPints 1 Banana PeppersQuarts 2 Raspberry LeavesQuarts 2 SpearmintQuarts 1 Black CuminQuarts 1 Dill SeedQuarts 1 Orange PeelPints 1 Passion Fruit PeelQuarts 1 Ancho Chili PodsQuarts 1 CamomileHalf Pints 6 Raspberry Vinegar4 ounces 1 Raspberry VinegarCup 1 Raspberry and Mulberry VinegarHalf Pints 1 Raspberry and Mulberry VinegarPints 14 PearsPints 9 Cinnamon PearsPints 8 Pear JuiceQuarts 1 Pear JuicePints 8 Cucumber Mix (Dill Pickles)Pints 4 Jon’s Armenian Cucumbers

Liters 6 Pomegranite Juice

Sheri

It has been a busy past few weeks on the homestead. The baby goats are growing like weeds. We are still milking so even though breeding season is here, it isn’t happening just yet.

The goat milk is being turned into cheese, soap, butter, ice cream and of course, some is being frozen for winter use.

The chest freezer finally was moved into the kitchen, a task I had wanted done for several years. The hoops are in place in the garden and seedlings are started. It will simply be a matter of covering the hoops with plastic when the time comes then walking outside to harvest fresh lettuce, carrots, radish, broccoli and cabbage during the winter months.

The past few weeks have been spent dehydrating tomatoes, peppers, garlic, herbs and whatever else I have come across. I have been canning, mostly tomato products such as sauces and soups.

Last year I canned lots of grape juice with the intention of making wine. The year came and went without that happening. However I am happy to report that the grape juice has finally been turned into wine. I have four gallons of grape wine in the carboy fermenting now. It is a beautiful burgundy color.

Speaking of making things to drink, I made four gallons of cola as well. I chose to sweeten it with half clover honey and half regular sugar. Although it was flat when I bottled it, it did taste good. In a few weeks the carbonation will be complete and we will open our first bottles of homemade cola.

Besides making lye soap recently, I have been making hydrosols, essential oils and spinning wool into yarn. Winter is certainly not far off  and whatever is not used up of summers bounty will be lost. I have produced a number of hydrosols and essential oils. To date I have distilled chocolate mint, orange mint, spearmint and black stem peppermint.

I have some new lye soap creations I am excited about. I milled the soap so I could add spearmint hydrosol and goat milk to it. The new scents are Snowman Soap, a rich blend of spearmint, juniper berry and pine; Lavender Bliss, a relaxing and invigorating aroma made up of spearmint and lavender; Nature Soap, a mix of clove bud, spearmint and rose geranium and Peachy Dreams, a cool soap scented with lemongrass, clary sage and vanilla.

If  that were not enough, I am finally finding some time to spin. I started with Johnny’s lamb’s wool. Johnny is white, so on the spinning wheel I have almost a full bobbin of white yarn, single strand. I decided a little color wouldn’t hurt, so tonight I dyed some of his wool neon purple. It is a gorgeous color. Of course I will not know what the finished color will  look like until it dries and I wash it, card it and spin it into yarn. Besides spinning wool alone I have been coming up with other pleasing combinations of fiber. I have rolags made of a black alpaca/llama fiber; rolags of black wool from Pearl, silk noir and white angora from Gizmo; rolags of mohair dyed with walnut shells, silk noir and white angora from Gizmo and rolags of alpaca and cashmere from Tulip. These mixes of fiber should make some pretty interesting yarn.

Other current projects include making homemade noodles to put into the freezer for winter use and making beef jerkey to snack on. I also have plans to make some corn chips to keep on hand for late night snack binges. There are pears on the tree, the last batch, that need picked. Then it will just be a matter of waiting on the first frost to pick the persimmons.

Winter is indeed just around the corner, but our little homestead will be ready.

Welcome to the Experimental Homesteader site! I am so excited about this site finally going live! For the past five years, my husband Jerry and I have lived on a small farm which we named Exotic Gardening Farm & Wildlife Habitat. We have an acre and a half of land. The photo above was of the house when we bought it five years ago.

When we first moved here I was excited that the house was equipped with wood heat. Sometimes that is wonderful and sometimes it can be a real pain! Getting up several times at night to put logs on the fire is not fun, nor is waking up to a cool house in the morning. We are getting used to it however.

Cooking with cast iron on the wood stove is a real blast! Since the wood stove is in my office it makes cooking and working at the same time much easier. We love roasts in the cast iron Dutch oven. I have cooked breads, bacon, chicken, vegetables and potatoes on the wood stove. Learning how to regulate the heat and keep it steady by adding small pieces of wood is the trick.

We moved here in August and the following spring decided to get chickens and ducks. I had raised them before but Jerry was new to having animals. He was taken by how cute the ducks were. Cute and messy, let me assure you.

That summer the chickens and ducks settled in, began laying eggs and of course, produced an abundance. I was selling eggs as fast as I could fill egg cartons at $1.50 a dozen.

When winter came, the chickens and ducks quit laying. It was work going out in the snow to give them food and water. The coop became quit messy. I guess that is what happens when they stay in a confined area.

The next year we decided to get a goat. It was a mistake to get just one goat. Darla did not like being the only goat. We had to get a companion.

That was where Mr. Buck came in. When we brought Mr. Buck home, life was great, that is until he decided to use his horns in an attempt to tear the stall down!

We got a second goat, Sugar. Mr. Buck and Darla decided to gang up on her. After a while she began to fit in, but really, why was I keeping Mr. Buck when he continued to destroy things? So, we put him up for sale.

Before we could sell him, we got a third doe, Spice. She was Sugar’s sister and a great milker. When we introduced her, the other goats ganged up on her. The three does all came from the same breeder and knew each other, but that Mr. Buck was a gang leader if ever there was one! He had to go! So, I gave him away.

Things were going pretty good with the goats. I was getting lots of milk, learning to make cheese, butter, ice cream and a slew of other dairy products.

Then along came Beauty. She was an abused horse that was starving. She was given to us. The story went that a lady had strapped her head to a saddle and was beating her into submission. She was also not feeding her. Beauty broke the straps and stomped the woman. The woman ended up almost dying. The hay man took Beauty and passed her on to another person. She would not eat with his horses, so he asked me if I wanted her. I said yes. She was unnamed, but her beauty showed, even in the condition she was in, so her name became Beauty.

Since I was getting into spinning, I decided I wanted some angora rabbits. That was the next quest. Rabbits are fun indeed, but hand picking the angora can be time consuming. We now have four rabbits.

We also acquired a cashmere doe we named Tulip because of the white Tulip on her forehead.

In between time we have had turkeys, peacocks, pheasants and guinea. We still have the pheasant. Having guineas as close to town as we are was not working well.

Finding someone to breed our goats was a problem. After a year of them not being bred, we decided to do something about it and get a buck. Now, I did not want just any old buck, I wanted an angora.  We searched high and low for one when a friend called with a phone number of a lady a county away that raised them. I called her and went to pick up our buck. We named him Leonardo, or Leo for short.

Last August, for my birthday, we added a pair of Leicester Longwool sheep – Johnny and Pearl. I wanted them for the fiber but more importantly I wanted to help preserve an endangered breed. They are the sweetest of all the animals, very obedient, very loving and very shy.

In early summer we were blessed with seven baby goats – two does, Faith and Victoria.

Five boys whom we wethered – Rembrant – a cashgora, Cyrus, Raphael, Nutmeg and Cinnamon.

We raise most of our own food – fruits, vegetables and herbs. We butcher the extra roosters when necessary. We are working to learn to live off of our own land. I have a greenhouse that allows me to grow tropical plants year round and start seedlings in the spring. We garden outdoors year round with the help of cold frames. We can, dehydrate, ferment and the list goes on.

I hope you will come with us on our journey to self-sufficiency. Hopefully you will pick up some survival skills along the way!