In November we got a bit of snow, then by thanksgiving it was pretty much gone.  That is until we got a couple of snowstorms.

This year we cut down a tree from our farm small though it is, we ended up putting only a few ornaments on it.

Christmas has come and gone, and the New Year is upon us in a few days.  We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all did as well.  The animals are all doing well and survived the below zero temperatures we had just before Christmas.  I'm quite happy to see those cold temps gone at least for the time being.  I'm sure we'll be getting some cold temps again come January.  Believe it or not I'm actually starting to think about spring planting already...LOL...It's going to be a long winter for me I guess :)

When these photos were taken, we had snow, but it has since melted just before the Thanksgiving holiday.  The top photo is of Rose Red, she will be one we will breed for meat on our homestead.  Rose is a Milking Shorthorn and Devon cross.  Our black calf #25 is one we will be butchering next year for meat.  The middle photo is Lucy who is a Jersey heifer that was born here on our homestead this past August.  We are not sure our plans for her quite yet, right now she is being weaned from her momma and a new calf has taken her place, one that we purchased from a local dairy farm.  We name the ones that we are keeping.

I have tried to find time to post on the blog, and read blogs, but life has been just so busy for us here.  Thanksgiving was wonderful here spent with family.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

Wow, I think it's time for an update on what's been happening on the homestead.  There is so much going on here.   We are the owners of 2 more cows, a Jersey milk cow and a Fleckvieh calf.  The Jersey and calf are actually at our Amish friends until our milk barn is finished which we are planning to have it done this week.  It's been hard around here to find a Jersey, and when we do find one it's gone and from what we have heard from the sellers they could sell the cows 5 times over.  Our friends milk cow hasn't freshened yet, so they are out of milk and for both of us it's a win-win situation, they house our Jersey and calf and milk her and they get the milk and we take some as well.  Our Jersey actually freshened early before the auction and didn't make it, so we were wanting to have her take an orphan calf and she has accepted the new calf as hers and has turned into a very good protective momma as well as gives some pretty good milk. 

The fencing is almost 100% done, but it's done enough that we can let the animals in the pasture.   The steer is out on pasture and with all the rain we've had he's not been able to keep up with it, so all is good.

While the livestock were being loaded into the trailer, I had to take a photo of all the horses lined up tied to the fence along with all the buggies parked.

The way this spring weather has been I wondered if we were ever going to get anything in the ground, but yay, we finally were able to work the ground and get some onions planted.  It's supposed to be nice and warm this week so what can be planted now will be.

For me it's been a long winter and the warm weather we are having is so nice to enjoy.

So much has been happening here on the homestead.  We are putting up fence and we got a new puppy, an Australian shepherd who we named Suuvi which means, child of the summer.  So far, she's been a good puppy, but as you well know if you have ever owned a puppy, they are a lot of work.  But she's been a joy to have, the cats can't seem to figure her out yet and have been chased up the fence posts a time or two.

It has been very windy here on the ridge lately, and it has not been very warm either.  Seeds are started and I don't usually grow sweet potatoes, but I had bought some from an Amish stand last fall, I was about to throw the last few out and found that they were sprouting leaves.  So, I started some sweet potato slips.  We'll see how they do for me and how they grow, we have never grown sweet potato before, this is our first time trying.

Syrup season started off very slow, and boiling the sap was so different from years past.  We did end up with enough syrup which I use in cooking and baking in place of sugar.

That pretty much says all what we have been up to in 2022, it doesn't sound like much but with that and other things we have definitely been keeping busy.  Winter for me just has been very long, especially when the temps are just staying cooler than I would like and it's almost May and what's the old saying...April showers bring May flowers.  Let's hope that holds true :)

Good afternoon, it's been a busy week here. 

On Monday, I did laundry and made garlic salve. 

I remember when I was a young girl and my dad wasn't feeling well, an older women Edie in our church told him that she has something that would help him and that was garlic.  I'm not sure how the garlic was used at the time, but my dad wasn't interested but thinking back I wish he had taken her up on her offer of help. 

I believe Edie did things naturally.  I remember seeing alfalfa drying in her home that she used to make tea with.  My cousin and I would ride our bikes over to her apartment to visit from time to time and walking into her small apartment you could smell that distinct smell of garlic.  Edie was my cousins grandmother and spoke her mind which I never minded as a young girl, my cousin and I would enjoy our short visits.  Though she wasn't my grandmother I would sometimes think of her as my grandmother too. 

I wish that my cousin and I could sit and visit with her again as adults.  Edie had passed away many years ago and I do think of her often, especially when I get a whiff of garlic I think of her. 

I would love to turn the clock back just for one more visit.

Another month has passed and so much has been happening here on the homestead.  We lost one of the 3 pigs we are raising for meat, she developed pneumonia and we had to put her down.  We could have tried giving her shots but there was no guarantee that she would survive, plus we would not have been able to butcher her for a minimum of 30 days.  We got 3 on the chance of losing one, and even though she was going to be butchered it was still hard to put her down.  I will admit that I cried, she was a sick girl and it was hard to see her so sick like that, so I cried and when I was all done I pulled myself up and told myself it was okay to cry because as we don't want to lose any livestock like that I realize they are here to be butchered and fill our freezer.  So no attachment girlfriend.

When our Amish friends mentioned that they have this Devon/Jersey calf that was a bull but is now a steer and that they really don't want to sell him but just don't have the room to raise him until he's ready to be butchered as they had twins born this past spring, and would we be willing to raise him on our land and split the beef.  We of course said yes, so the day after thanksgiving Jim went and picked him up.  Once our fencing is done around the pasture he’ll be able to roam a bit more, right now he’s kept in a smaller area to help him feel more secure while getting used to his new surroundings.

We definitely did not plan on getting any sort of cow, milk or beef at this time.  Our plans were to get a milk cow this spring and raise a calf with it but the opportunity came for us to jump right in we just couldn’t pass it up.  He’s such a good guy and so far things are going well with him. 

I don't think I will be able to update you on all that's been happening here without having photo overload, so I'll just do the best I can.  Since sugaring we have been so busy here on our homestead.  We got pigs this spring and friends came out to help us put up the fence before they arrived which was a HUGE help and we appreciated it so much.  The pigs are definitely getting big since the day we got them.

Had to get a photo by Jim's old ford tractor which has been such a work horse here for him.

I've been growing herbs and trying to dry them out but it's been so hot and humid lately it may take a bit longer than I would like.  I'm also making some infused herb oils that I will be making into salves when they are ready.

I started incubating eggs from our hens on July 1st and we candled them last night and it looks like all 22 eggs may have something happening.  I'm crossing my fingers that we will have chicks by the 21st or 22nd of July.  Our rooster Rudy is such a good boy and really takes care of this girls.  He has 23 hens to look after and does a tremendous job.

I know some may think that is too many hens for one rooster and we did try out another rooster to see how it would work and maybe have two flocks going but Rudy would  have none of it, so this guy had to go, and he was such a beautiful guy too.

So Rudy in the man around the coop.

This is the first time we have hatched eggs on our own, we have always gotten chicks from the feed store in town.  We'll see how many hens vs roosters we hatch out.  I'm hoping to get some roo's so I can process them in the pressure canner instead of freezing them. 

The gardens are doing great now that we finally have gotten rain.

What's a homestead without barn cats or kittens :)  Meet Smoky and Noki.  Noki is a Finnish word for soot.  Jim started calling the top one Smoky and I thought the black one looked like soot so I looked up the Finnish word for soot and it was Noki (pronounced No-Kee).  They are both girls and just so cute.

There is nothing like taking a break with some coffee, haymakers punch also known as switchel and wild berries that are growing in the back yard.  I add lemon juice and maple syrup in place of the molasses and brown sugar.  I use either Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar or my homemade ACV, just depends on my mood at the time.   Believe it or not the haymakers punch really does refresh you on a hot day, especially when you have been working outside in the hot weather.

My flower garden is blooming so nicely.  I look at this lily and always think of my blogging friend Ann who sent it to me after my dad passed away.  When it blooms I think of them both.

I think I have covered most of the stuff I wanted to share with you, like I said there is just so much that has been happening here I'm not sure I could cover it all in a blog post so I just gave you some highlights.

I hope your days are going good where you live, take care.

I seem to average one blog post a month these days, or even less than that at times. Maybe I did two last month, anyway, has life changed for you at all in the past year?  Well it has for us in many ways.  We are not retired yet, we are still growing and preserving as much of our own food as we can and I’m looking forward to getting my seeds started. I have big ideas and plans for the garden and I can’t wait to get started, tho it’s still a long way off yet.  The hens are laying great and did pretty good this winter even during our very cold snap we had. I think if I’m remembering right we had at least 12 days of below zero temps. I was away at a quilt retreat last month and we woke up to -21 degrees.  That was cold. 

Our electric bill last month was outrageous, even though we heat with wood and our furnace never turned on during the harsh cold, something smells fishy to me about that. So, I decided I’m going to hang clothes out on the line even if there is snow on the ground, plus I’m putting our oil lamps to good use instead of just collecting dust for me to dust later.  It’s actually quite quaint to read by the oil lamp and enjoy a cup of coffee. 

Sugaring has started up.  I’m thinking it’s a bit early this year so we’ll see how long the season will be.  The seasons seem to be just flying by so fast to me and I’m not sure I like that. 
The snow is slowly melting with the warmer temps we have been having, and now you could say it’s officially mud season, our 5th season. 

This morning the temperature was -21 here on the ridge. We are definitely in a winter freeze right now and it’s probably going to last until the end of the week going into the weekend.

We are doing good embracing these cold temps. The animals are doing great and the coop we made is working out wonderfully.  

So far I’m not totally over winter, I embraced winter this year and so far that has worked.  Sugaring will be starting up in no time and life will again get busy.  Seems like we have a lull right now and I’m enjoying it. Our seeds are all bought and soon I’ll be planning out which to start first in the house and which ones can wait to be put in the ground. I’m anxious to see how the garlic is doing, since this was our first year ever planting it. Fingers are crossed. 

We have a rhubarb plant that hasn’t done very well. It was here when we moved here 10 years ago (wow did I just say 10 years) and I keep thinking I should move it to a different spot.  Anyway, I did order rhubarb seeds this year to plant, so we’ll see how those do as well.

There is so much we want to do here on our homestead, I get excited thinking about it. 

Then we got more snow.  I started this post 5 days ago...huh!  I'm finally getting back to it now and a few things have changed a bit. We haven't had much snow up to the end of January, it snowed a little and it did drift some so Jim had to plow the drive so that we could get out of the garage and driveway.  Now the temps are falling and we probably have about 4 inches added to what we just got during our last snowfall.

Our wood pile is starting to go down some, we are heating our home solely with wood this year, our furnace has not kicked on at all and we are contributing it to our new stove.  We are actually burning less wood with the new stove so that is a huge bonus for us.

In December 2020 just before Christmas we didn't have any snow, what snow we did have was pretty scarce. We try to burn our huge burn pile that grows over the year on Winter Solstice, sometimes we are here and sometimes we are gone to Texas, this year we are here.  So burn we did.

Since the temps are dipping down to well below zero here and the birds are going to have to be a bit more confined to the coop.  They don't like going out in the cold, and they don't like the snow, just to name a few things they don't like about winter.  So to keep them warmer and to keep them busy and not going stir crazy pecking each other to death (not literally).  They get bored, just like we do.  So I've been making flock blocks to help with that.

I found a few homemade recipes and this is the one I used from Lisa Steele over at Fresh Eggs Daily.

Heading out to the chicken coop this morning to do our morning routine with the chickens, I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me.  It look like a frozen tundra, the way the frozen snow looked with the sun just coming up through the clouds.  It's a moment that I'll just have to savor in my mind.