KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013

Tag: spring homestead chores

Cabbage = Yummy Sauerkraut!

This week we transplanted our two cabbage varieties from their pans and into the ground. The great thing about cabbages is that they are cold hardy, which means that during the early spring when there is still a risk of frosty weather they generally do just fine. A true freeze can harm them, of course, but cabbages usually do really well starting their growing journey in the early spring!

cabbages

Cabbages in their pans!

In addition to transplanting the cabbages (we chose the best 50 or 60 plants to put in the beds), we also started some other seeds, like:

  • slicing and paste tomatoes
  • spicy and slicing peppers
  • lettuces
  • herbs like basil, oregano, thyme, and many others
  • tomatillos
  • and more!

This year we haven’t yet gotten behind with planting (like we did last year because of all the wedding planning), which is encouraging news for us. For now, we await the cabbages and the delicious and nutritious sauerkraut this will result!

cabbages

Cabbages transplanted in their beds.

.:.

Spring Cleaning the Basement: Reclaiming the Space!

We recently just DEEP-cleaned the basement. And when I say deep-cleaned, I mean it!

Since the chicks lived down there for far too long and we finally just kicked them out, there was a lot of cleaning to do! They had kicked up so much pine-shaving-and-poop dust that we had to vacuum, spray down, or wipe down EVERY SINGLE THING in the basement, no joke. The Christmas ornaments that were hanging on the tree had to be dusted (it is another story entirely as to why we still had the tree up…), the ceiling had to be swept with brooms to clear it of “floof,” and every single plant was wiped down. Shall I go on…? Ahhh!

This took forever but we feel so great now that it is all sooooo clean down there. We even did some rearranging to get ourselves ready for planting, processing crops, and working in the kitchen down there.

The main hang out spce is now tree-free and ready for the ping pong table whenever we're ready to challenge each other to a duel!

The main hang out space is now tree-free and ready for the ping pong table whenever we’re ready to challenge each other to a duel!

We processed and placed the dried crops that were taking up so much of our work space, and we now have a work table free for crafts and other homestead necessities.

basement

What an open space we have!

I am most excited about the kitchen, which has been super-scrubbed and the counters have been cleared off and made ready for dealing with any meats or food processing we plan to do. The dehydrator now has a permanent home and there is way more table space!

kitchen

Downstairs kitchen!

And now for the big reveal… The bathroom. It was once a hotbed of chicken grossness, and now it is utterly clean and empty! Don’t be shocked by how much it looks like a torture chamber… It can’t help it… It was made that way! Clearly, it is unfinished and might remain so in order to use it for butchery or other activities like rinsing vegetables in bulk (it has a drain in the floor and we have a huge colander).

bathroom

So clean (by dank and dark basement bathroom standards)!

It feels so great to already be ahead of the game on spring cleaning!

.:.

yard work, brush clearing: revealing the barn

last weekend my dad drove up to help us out. jason was working and i often plan father-daughter workdays during these times, mostly because they remind me of working with my dad as a kid or of doing yard work with him as a side job as i got older.

we’ve done a lot so far, and i’m excited to share:

  • as we mentioned in our post about cutting down oak trees to make new space, dad brought the chainsaw and helped us clear an areas that now acts as a small orchard/food forest extension.
  • dad, jason, and i cleared the underbrush and trash from one side of our barn, and it looks so nice! i’ve even picked out a perfect limb in a big oak for a future swing!
  • dad and i cleared out around our corn crib, which really helps keep the shade away from some of our fruit trees and allowed me easy access to my mushroom logs and soaking station.
  • we cleared out under the corn crib and cut brush and briers all the way down to another shed we have. it was fun doing this because we found some valuable items (if funky metal pieces count) in with the trash. we saved some of what we found and we already have some ideas about to use them!
  • and last weekend dad and i cleared around the other side of the barn and half of the area behind the barn. now sunlight can come in back there, and we are already thinking about adding a greenhouse there eventually.
the side of the barn that we cleared last week. see the tires and other junk in the frint? that where we're keeping all things we want to save until we can get into the barn and start organizing!

this is the side of the barn that we cleared last week. see the tires and other “junk” in the front? that is where we’re keeping all things we want to save until we can get into the barn and start organizing!

all i can say is… thanks, dad! we couldn’t have done it without you!

.:.

a day in the homestead life: her day

i just realized that i haven’t yet written a post detailing a typical day in our life from my perspective. so, i’ve decided to do just that! this is certainly a typical spring day, with longer daylight hours and better weather for planting and outdoor chores.

so, here is my typical day in our homestead life:

5:40 am

  • roll out of bed and put on my coveralls. i take the dogs out to pee and open the chicken house and feed the chickens their first of two daily meals. also, since we’ve gotten the geese, i’ve been letting them out of their nighttime enclosure and into their larger pen. they immediately head for the kiddie pool and start drinking and splashing about.
  • luckily, during this time of year the sun is already on the rise (still not sunrise, though) so all of my morning chores are easier and more fun to complete!
  • i load up the car, complete with the chicken bucket that i use to collect my students’ lunch leftovers for feeding to the chickens, my lunch, and my breakfast (which i eat during the 1 hour commute to work).

6:15-7:15 am

  • this is my drive-to-work time, which usually consists of listening to the radio and munching on my breakfast, i would rather be recording podcasts or writing songs, but i still have to get organized for doing things like that.
  • luckily it is easy to enjoy the car ride to work because i slowly get my brain geared up for working with kids and i get to enjoy the lovely country views (which in spring are filled with lots of horses, donkeys, goats, chickens, and flowers!).

3:00 pm

  • i get off of work and begin the drive home, sometimes later than 3:00.

4:00 pm

  • once i get home i let both dogs out, and often have to clean up after bridey who has probably peed inside, pooped inside, or both. i unload the car and start on the everyday afternoon farm/outside chores.

these everyday chores are:

  • dump and refill the “goose pond,” which is their beloved kiddie pool, and their water. i also feed the geese their afternoon grain.
  • feed the chickens the leftover scraps from my students’ lunch and their afternoon grain, refill their water, and collect eggs. collecting eggs can either be simple or not, depending on the mood of rex, our standard rooster, and whether or not he feels territorial and pushy. the hens also sometimes lay eggs under the house (perhaps they’ve wised up and realized that i take their eggs that end up in the nest boxes) and so i have to fish/roll those out with a metal hook.
  • feed the dogs their afternoon/evening meal and feed the cat.
  • wash the eggs, dry them, and put them in the fridge for storage. lately i’ve been washing goose eggs too, which are so amazing!
bolt, hanging out with me during afternoon chore time!

bolt, hanging out with me during afternoon chore time!

5:00 pm

sometimes my daily afternoon chores are completed by 5:00, sometimes not. once they are complete, i move on to other farm chores which don’t necessarily need to happen every day. these other tasks are often a little more creative and less routine. some of these, which i happened to do yesterday and today, are:

  • water our new seedlings that are growing in trays
  • water the flowers i’ve planted in pots, and the new mums that jason brought home from work the other day!
  • stake cages around our newly planted fruit trees and bushes
  • water our fruit trees/bushes
  • tie white tagging tape around the tops of each cage so we can see where not to step (the cages are really hard to see since the metal is so thin and dark)
  • jason and i moved the goose pen yesterday–our plan is to move them to fresh pasture every 2 days
  • i also finally figured out how to plug the holes (where the spill drain used to be) at the top of my 2 cast iron/enamel tubs for soaking my mushroom logs. i used circular cuttings from an old mahogany door and layers of a thin, deflated, old tire. i placed the tire materials over the hole and hammered the wooden plugs into the hole. this pushed both rubber and wood partially into the hole, filling in all gaps and making a nearly-watertight barrier.
  • after determining that my plugs worked yesterday, today i went about soaking 1/4 of my logs, 7 in each tub (batch 1–the batch labeled with orange marking tape). they will soak overnight and i’ll lean them back up against the corn crib tomorrow!
two bathtubs filled with soaking mushroom logs!

two bathtubs filled with soaking mushroom logs!

 

today's batch for soaking was the "orange batch." labeled with flagging tape so i can keep straight the info about when logs  was soaked

today’s batch for soaking was the “orange batch,” labeled with flagging tape so i can keep straight the info about when logs were soaked.

my rigged plug--working well!

my rigged plug–working well!

in addition to these chores, jason spent yesterday digging his hand-dug pond out even more, planting more fruit bushes, watering plants and the seeded garden beds, and beginning to build our newest bed: a raised hugelkulture bed downhill from our others.

8:30 pm

  • sometime around dark we head inside, eat dinner, and try to rest a little.

bedtime and pre-bedtime (anywhere from 10:00 pm to 12:00 am)

  • one of us always writes a post in the evenings (monday–friday)
  • we take the dogs back out to pee
  • lock up the chicken house
  • close the geese into their smaller, fenced enclosure

and that is a general idea of what we do in this spring season to keep the homestead running and fruitful. some days we do more outdoor, farm-related chores, and other days we do less. it just depends, really, on our mood and the homestead necessities!

.:.

planting fruit trees and a crocheted blanket with eggs!

today i planted more fruit trees after work. so far i’ve planted half of what we’ve already received in the mail: 1 pluot, 4 apples, 1 cherry, 1 peach, and 1 european pear.

and because of that, i must go to bed!!!

i leave you with a photo of our eggs laying on a beautiful blanket my mom crocheted for us for christmas last year…

my mother's handmade blanket and our eggs, ready for bedtime!

my mother’s handmade blanket and our eggs, ready for bedtime!

for more of my mother’s handmade items, check out her etsy store!

sweet dreams to you!

.:.

moving logs, digging holes, washing eggs, cleaning the house, and sleeping when possible!

this is a partial post… simply to explain why i don’t have the time to write more today. some of the reasons are listed in the title but there are others as well…

we’ve just been so busy!!! which is, of course, a good thing. but also a tiring thing.

we’ve both worked everyday the last two weeks with weekends filled with volunteering at my school’s garden and inoculating shiitake mushroom logs. after work we do our chicken chores and then this past weekend we moved our chicken pen and dug 16 large holes for planting our fruit trees that just came in the mail (yay!). we’ve also been moving and soaking our inoculated mushroom logs and today after work i stacked and labeled the logs to better layout a future soaking schedule. jason planted cabbage and broccoli.

not to mention, i finally got to clean the house on saturday for the first time in like, a month, and we spent last night cooking for the week.

i hope these don’t sound like complaints, because they’re not. but still, what a list!

exciting, though, because when we’re busy doing these tasks, we’re busy doing what we want to do with our lives.

and so, now… happy sleeping to all!!!

oh yeah, but first… what’s on the to-do list for tomorrow?

.:.

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