Category: Rural life

Homestead Happenings

It’s been a challenging month on the wee homestead. We’ve had some successes and I am still hopeful for more positive outcomes, but I focus on them overly, because I’m being a bit avoidant, because really, I’m still concerned.

The determinate tomatoes are long gone already, but Hubby’s made many delicious jars of puttanesca and salsa for our future enjoyment. Must keep up morale!

So I’ll share about that this post, along with some happy snaps and surpluses, to help the medicine go down. I know it’s part of the lifestyle. Life, that is.

Yes, I’ve gotten better at it. That is, the death part of life. But also, we must understand our own limitations, and for that we must first broach them.

So if there are still any rose-colored glasses sort of readers remaining here, armor up.

Bye, bye Bluebonnet.*
(I share more about my observations on her death at the end, for those who choose to go there.)

I’m so sad to say we’ve lost one of our new mamas, and her mama, our herd queen Summer, has also been very ill. Several of the does are too thin and are not producing enough milk. This all happened quite suddenly. I was training them on the milk stand for a month, even getting a bit of milk from one, I had high hopes of daily cheese-making by now.

Instead I’ve turned suddenly nurse-maid/dietician/worry wort.

Summer and her daughter Bluebonnet, who I figured would one day replace her as herd queen.

The learning curve is so very high and I’ve set myself impossible standards. I do understand that, though that understanding changes little.

I want a treatment-free herd, or no herd at all. Like with the bees, which took me years of failures, I simply cannot stand the industry standard. I cannot abide such total reliance on pharmaceuticals and exotic inputs from far-off lands. I cannot trust the science. I refuse to believe the only way to raise healthy pets and livestock is to poison them with vaccines and parasite treatments and feed them full of processed foods.

There has got to be another way! A much better way!

And I aim to find it.

We are not directly poisoning our garden and still have plenty of success despite the manufactured crazy weather.

I truly believe a large part of the problem is the processed foods causing the need for the supplemental treatments. It’s a vicious cycle and I want off, and I want ALL I see around me every day off it also, including the land, the water, and the air and ALL the critters!

Is that so much to ask?!

But I already know the drill, thanks to the bees. Every professional and expert says that’s impossible. Like with the gardening when we first got here. Every farmer, every gardener, every Farm & Ranch professional, repeating—You’ve got to spray. You’ve got to treat.

There’s a swarm up there, can you see it?
It came off this hive and we watched it, amazing! The large pine in front of the tractor is where it stopped. Too high up to catch, but I’m happy to report another totally treatment-free colony repopulating the county.

“Here, follow this quarterly poisoning routine, and all will be well.” NO!

Is it any wonder they all readily accept without objection whatever the hell is being sprayed over our heads at regular intervals?

The latest geoengineered filth-filled skies over our property.

We’re not giving up yet. As long as we have irrigation it will be a jungle out there. But without it we’d be screwed, that’s for sure. It hasn’t rained for nearly 3 weeks.

(Photos below Left to Right) The datura is a blessed monster. The sweet potato vines are prolific and a favorite snack of Summer’s. The melons and green beans are thriving. The indeterminate tomatoes and some of the peppers are doing fairly well under the shade cloth and I’ve been succession planting the cucumbers.

From the front: New cucumbers coming up with purslane to help cool the roots and shading from above, old screens protecting some struggling Romaine lettuce, and a growing grove of well-watered elderberries.

We’ve also been lucky to get some wild grapes, which are now fermenting along with the mead and the blackberry and mulberry wines.

He is literally Hubby’s Shadow!

It’s not an easy life, but it’s a life well-lived. Our first figs of the season, along with our last blackberries.

A Czech classic—so simple—Bublanina, made with blackberries or any number of fresh fruits in season. (Comment below if you want the recipe and I’ll post it. )

*The observation which I’ve found most interesting from Bluebonnet’s death, was that her kids adjusted immediately. She died the evening of the full moon last week. She left the corral with the rest of the herd in the morning, she seemed to be improving, I thought. But then in the afternoon she planted herself under a tree on a hill and wouldn’t leave, even when evening came and the rest of the herd returned to the corral. I went and sat with her there at sunset and stroked her neck and she laid her head on my shoulder. I wanted to be hopeful, but I felt she knew, and I felt horribly helpless. I hope that the feeling of helplessness is the worst feeling in the world. The next morning I woke before dawn and I went back to the tree in the dark, the full moon shining on her corpse.

There was a bit of relief for me that her kids adjusted so quickly. I find it odd really, it was like an immediate weaning. While her mama, Summer, is so ill she stopped producing milk, but her kids are still so attached to her their health is also suffering because they won’t go out and eat with the rest of the herd or accept being bottle fed. I’ve been mixing them special feed dosed with milk replacer and they are doing ok, and Summer today joined the herd again to forage, which I’m praying is a good sign. 🙏

Thanks for stopping by, even in the hard times!

Herbal Explorations: Mimosa Tree

Persian Silk Tree
Albizia julibrissin

The gorgeous Mimosa tree is considered an undesirable and invasive species by many US experts, if you can believe that!

But to herbalists worldwide it’s a treasure. And to butterflies and bees it’s a feast!

In the ditch, in the garden, or rising above the canopy and full of butterflies, it’s a striking specimen.

Another much maligned and misunderstood plant joins our growing list today. Hard to imagine calling this beauty a ‘trash tree’, but a great many experts call it that, and worse.

The Mimosa tree . . .

“Is another dog. Although beautiful when healthy, it never is. The root system is ravenous and destructive, and the tree is highly vulnerable to insects and disease. Shallow, destructive root system. Not even good for fire wood. Destructive roots, short-lived, crowds out good plants. Not a good tree for Texas,” he resolutely concludes.

Texas Gardening the Natural Way: The Complete Handbook by Howard Garrett “The Dirt Doctor”

Garrett is considered the foremost organic gardening expert in these parts, he has a popular radio show, has published several books and he has his own organic product line. He was the first gardener I learned from when I started gardening here.

And worse, he convinced me! I wanted one from the first moment I gazed upon it, but I resisted, for over a decade.

Luckily in recent years I’ve revisited that poor choice and lazy thinking to discover how wrong these experts can be.

Baby Mimosa growing in the ditch near our house. I dug them up and planted them in our garden. The trick to getting them started is lots of water, but they will become drought tolerant with age. The growth habit is similar to Elderberry in our region.

What a (typical) shame to learn how very wrong they can be! Along with Wikipedia and a great many other popular info hubs.

“In the wild, the tree tends to grow in dry plains, sandy valleys, and uplands. It has become an invasive species in the United States, where it has spread from southern New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, west to Missouri and Illinois, and south to Florida and Texas. It is cultivated in California and Oregon. Its seeds are wind-dispersed and numerous, and they are fertile even over long periods of drought. Each pod, which resembles a flattened bean pod made of paper, holds about 8 seeds on average. The pod bursts in strong winds, and the seeds can carry over surprisingly long distances.”

It is certainly for the ‘mess’ they create with their seed pods that some may not find them suitable for their yard or garden. And naturally, farmers and ranchers malign any plants which dare to interfere with their livestock management preferences.

But, venture away from those slanted sources and the light shines on this ancient medicinal treasure.

Mimosa—The ‘night sleeper’ so nicknamed in Persian thanks to its usefulness as a cure for insomnia, among its many other medicinal and practical uses.

“Molecular basis and mechanism of action of Albizia julibrissin in depression treatment and clinical application of its formulae”

A bit of history:
“The stem bark has been used as a sedative for hundreds of years as recorded in the Pharmacopeia of the People’s Republic of China(Nehdi 2011, Zheng 2006, Zheng 2010) and as an anti-inflammatory agent for swelling and pain in the lungs and to treat skin ulcers, wounds, bruises, abscesses, boils, hemorrhoids, and fractures, as well as to remove carbuncles. The dried stem bark is used as a tonic in China and Japan.(Ikeda 1997) Indigenous people living in the southern mountainous region of Korea prepare the root as an infusion for bone diseases.(Kim 2011) In India, a chloroform and methanol seed extract has been used to treat bronchitis, asthma, leprosy, and glands infected by tuberculous.(Gautam 2007) A bark extract to treat insomnia, diuresis, asthenia, and confusion has been used in Asia.(Nehdi 2011) The plant’s flowers have been used to treat symptoms associated with palpitations, anxiety, depression, and insomnia.(Nehdi 2011, Samwald 2010) It’s common name of Shabkhosb (good night’s sleeper) in Iran is indicative of its use to treat insomnia.(Ebrahimzadeh 2017)

Mimosa are used in gardens for ornamental purposes, in sandy areas to prevent erosion, and along roadways.(Chang 2011, Irwin 2003, Nehdi 2011, Pardini 2007)”

A Mimosa tree on a country road in East Texas just after its bloom cycle in late June.

From Science Direct:

“Albizia belongs to Mimosoideae and are native to Asia and Africa. It is a kind of multifunctional trees and they are always planted as ornamental trees. In addition to using it as foliage, green manure and timber for furniture production, the bark of Albizia is herbal medicine and the seeds are a source of oil. There are about 150 species in the genus and 17 of them can be found in the southern regions of China. Albizia julibrissin and Albizia kalkora are two familiar species, which are planted in China from tropic to temperate zones [69]. Although Albizia spp. are of great importance, little was known about the diversity of their microsymbionts. de Lajudie et al. [15] found that two strains isolated from Albizia falcataria grown in Brazil were Bradyrhizobium; Chen and Chen [5] classified five strains isolated from Albizia julibrissinin China as Bradyrhizobium sp. and Rhizobium sp. These results indicated that Albizia trees nodulated with both fast-growing and slow-growing rhizobia.”

The petals make a delicious and refreshing flavoring for tea or Kombucha—
a unique taste reminiscent of nectarines.

Mimosa Uses, Benefits & Dosage – Drugs.com Herbal Database

Gavin Mounsey, author of Recipes for Reciprocity, recently shared some of his knowledge and links about this amazing tree, which he’s cultivating in his food forest designs all the way up in Canada:

“Another interesting fact about this tree is that it is being investigated for it’s potential in Phytoremediation (for both heavy metal soil remediation and for it’s photocatalytic activity for cleaning up toxins humans put in the air) and a more specialized field in what is called “Phytomining” (it is a nasty industrial process used for profit but it hints at more holistic applications of this species for real time remediating/mitigating of geoengineering heavy metals in the air and soil.” (Read more: Regenerative Agriculture: Solutions Watch at Corbett Report)

The pods are plentiful and can be used for animal feed, according to TCPermaculture.

It’s notable umbrella shape when provided with plenty of space has me wondering if it might be the tree represented on some old gravestones in our area.

Mimosa? Are our ancestors trying to tell us something?

Might the Mimosa Tree be our rest in peace?

An Inspiring Herbalist

I’ve been working bit by bit on the Herbal Explorations pages and hope to add several more medicinal plants very soon—including the lovely Mimosa tree and the very popular Chasteberry—both which grow wonderfully here, even in the extreme heat and drought.

The mimosa tree and flower, (on the left) rising above the canopy along the road and full of butterflies, which unfortunately were too far up to catch with my camera. In the middle photo a fine specimen from our neighbor’s garden, where I gathered some blossoms for kombucha. They smell delightful, a bit like honeysuckle.

Also in our neighbor’s garden near the mimosa tree—I just love old hodgepodge structures like this!

It’s not giving up yet!

Also coming soon: Above, the chasteberry in our garden, also commonly called monk’s pepper or Vitek, which has a completely different scent, but one I adore so much I’m hoping to make soap with it some day very soon. And the bees love it, too!

Aspiring herbalists (like me!) must find inspiring teachers!

A big motivator for me to learn herbalism has been our critters. They all have special needs! It’s hard not to worry about them, but I’d rather have faith in nature than in Big Pharma.

I am way out of my depth, but I know one thing for sure: the pharmaceutical model of our modern-day veterinarians is not for me. Not for animals, not for people.

Information that eschews this model is not easy to come by, so when I find something or someone special, I hone in.

I’ve found this book helpful, so I looked to see what else I might find from this author, and wow, is she ever fascinating.

From the foreword: “Such ailments as the now prevalent ones of scrapie in sheep and ‘mad cow’ in cattle are not going to find a place in this Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable, despite the fact that many thousands of cattle in the UK have now been diagnosed as suffering from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). My book teaches natural care of animals and totally shuns their exploitation (wherein they are treated as machines, instead of as living, sensitive and loving creatures).

This book wholly condemns the force-feeding of unnatural foods to any creatures. If a diet is unnatural, disease will keep company with those subjected to it: that is a fixed law. I state force-feeding because, when animals through hunger are driven to eat foods entirely unnatural to their species, such as giving meat offal to cows and sheep, that, to me, is force-feeding. . . As I write this, when visiting England, television is showing cats suspected of having a similar disease to BSE in cattle. I do hope this fear proves to be unfounded. In any case, it is terrible that human acceptance and connivance in forcing the unnatural on our domestic animals bring much misery, pain and fear, all of which could be avoided.”

This book was published in 1952, and she has several others about dogs and cats.

I wonder what she would’ve made of our new bird flu?!

She lead quite the unique life, having been born into wealth, but choosing to live a simple life, exploring nature, living as a nomad among gypsies in many countries, and learning their ways.

There’s a documentary about her life and work, and though I haven’t found a full copy yet, here’s a good clip.

I looked for some of her other books as well, seems they are mostly out of print, so I was so pleased to find this one painstakingly retyped by another WP blogger.

As Gypsies Wander

A sister wanderer, the teacher I seek, here we meet beyond time and space, and thanks to the efforts of a great many who remain unknown.

How grateful I am to find you!

Homestead Happenings

Mostly happy snaps this post, plus a few weather woes.

Hubby’s gorgeous melon patch is starting to produce more than just a feast for the eyes. He’s come up with quite an integrated system there and when I expressed how impressed I was with his companion planting scheme (and wondered whether he’d been taking a permaculture course on the sly) he informed me it was all a matter of frugality.

His penny-pincher logic is: the melon mounds have a lot of water run-off and sometimes erosion, so he added a ring of clover at the base of them. It’s just a bonus they are also good for the soil and the bees. The sunflowers are fodder for the goats and the chickens, plus they help shade the melons. The sea of black-eyed Susan’s just turned up there, apparently as impressed as me with the space.

Hopefully the melons don’t go the way of the onions, which has been our worst year yet. Luckily the garlic still did fine, which is from our saved seed, which previously came from a nearby friend’s saved seed. That has become a theme.

Elephant garlic does much better here than anything else, and I’ve tried many others for many years. I think I’ll give up that practice now and stick with what works, avoiding future costs and frustrations.

The success of the tomatoes and peppers so far has also been thanks to saved seed. I bought several varieties of each from the store, just for more variety, and those are the ones suffering more from the rain and high humidity. Several have already died, a few aren’t growing at all, and several of the others have bad issues.

Ours on the left, theirs on the right.

The purchased squash is already full of pests before giving us even a single fruit.

At least we got a few zucchini off our own saved seed before it too is already beginning to succumb to some kind of mold.

But other saved seed, the Trombetta squash and the mystery squash from last year, have proven to be more resilient than the popular varieties.

The filth-filled skies continue and not even the regular rains clear them up for long. I’m sure the sorry state of the skies has nothing to do with the crazy storms, right? The intense lightening, sudden flooding rain bursts, intolerable humidity, hail, tornadoes, and so on, that folks are experiencing across the country?

Just ‘mother nature’ they tell us. OK.

Well, too much ‘mother nature’ is not so good for the garden. It looks plenty green and lush, so that’s nice. But, look a little closer and we find it’s not so pretty below the surface.

But we’ve been relatively fortunate so far this year, just lots of rain and some wind gusts. Others have had far worse.

The yucca didn’t get lucky, but the blossoms are still lovely, even on the ground.

There’s some long-term requirements that fall on Hubby, which I mentioned last update, an upgraded culvert is required now in order to drive to the back half of our property. He’s already gotten started on that, a huge undertaking for sure. After that he can look forward to tackling the pond that’s now washed out.

In better news, there’s been some amazing growth in just one week.

A side by side comparison of 8 days growth.

We’ve prepared for the swelter season by crafting another shading system where these tomatoes and peppers should be much happier into late summer. It’s recycled from another project and a bit awkward to move through, but it should do the trick just fine for supporting the shade cloth.

The asparagus beans, a first timer here, have really taken off in the last week. I’m excited to try them!

In even better news, the mamas and kids are growing well. We’ve started forcing them out of the corral during the day so I was able to give that space a much needed refreshing.

It seems they sometimes prefer following the chickens instead of their mamas. 😆

I’m getting the first fresheners ready for milking by training them on the milk stand. Soon it will be time to start separating them at night so I can milk them in the mornings before putting them back together again during the days. It’s not a happy time for anyone and I’m not looking forward to it.

But, I am looking forward to making lots of cheese again. We’re getting a bit of milk from Chestnut, who rejected her boy, and her girl is only nursing from one side. So, if I weren’t milking her she’d become even more lopsided than she already is.

It’s not a lot of milk, but enough for a little mozzarella now and then. I’ve found another method from my new favorite YT channel which is completely natural and far more tasty than the vast majority of those found online.

Raw milk mozzarella, mmmmm!

Unfortunately, the 2nd time I tried it was a failure. But, 99.9 % of the time a failed cheese can always become another delicious cheese. Some of my best cheeses have been from failures.

Not necessarily the case with failed wine. This cheese ‘failure’ will be soaked for a couple of days in the leftover must of the now fermenting wine, another tip I learned from my new fav YT channel.

This one was mulberry and I’ve also started a blackberry.

The blackberries seem to very much appreciate the extra rain and our harvest has been great, inspiring me to make blackberry wine for the first time. Last year’s harvest was very disappointing after getting some kind of strange disease right after their flowering period. (Not normal development, despite what several folks claimed at the time.)

I’ve decided to try more natural, traditional methods with the wine-making, like with the cheeses. Modern methods require all kinds of chemically-obtained inputs, which most insist are necessary for a fool-proof product.

Yet, last year we had a major failure using that method and ended up with several cases of vinegar. Very disappointing after all that work. We have had great success in the past or we might be too discouraged to try again.

Blackberries, banana peppers and Nigella seed pods

Traditionally, country wines were not made with all those foreign yeasts and I don’t really want my blackberry wine to taste like merlot anyway. While we may not have a decent cultivated grape harvest this year, the wild grapes look promising again. Also the pears are looking good, could be a bumper crop like we get only every few years.

If so, I’m going to do some side-by-side experiments, traditional methods vs. modern methods, and make a real project of it.

Blackberry wine in the making, hopefully

It’s easy to find lots of instruction using the identical modern method. For that I’ll rely on this book.

The wild grapes are looking promising. Our cultivated grapes still uncertain.

It’s not as easy to find good instruction on traditional methods, no surprise there. But this channel has a lot to offer and she uses nothing but a homemade fruit fermentation starter for her wines.

A teetotaler who makes wine, don’t see that everyday!

She also teaches how to make natural sodas and mead on her channel which I’m also very eager to try.

Blackberries fermenting beautifully after 36 hours.

The elderberry is also liking the extra rain. I might even try to make elderberry wine too. The blossoms are excellent in kombucha and will make an effervescent ‘champagne’ like beverage or flavor a cordial. And the goats love it. It’s just an all-around fantastic plant that is popping up everywhere now, so I’m going to create a big grove of them trailing down the hill.

A couple happy snaps in parting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Homestead Happenings

Some brief updates this post and not as many happy snaps as I’d like. But, it’s been so busy and carting my tablet around everywhere is not usually an option, especially where it’s wet and dirty, which is a lot of places at the moment.

Kidding season is over and it’s been a bit stressful, no surprise there. I’ve been wanting to try something new—which is the greatest lost homestead technique I could think of—making our own rennet.

We’ve only had goats a few years now, all of this still feels very new, but, we do want to keep moving forward on the path to self-reliance, so this one is pretty essential on that list. It was as challenging as I expected it to be!

I am squeamish, so that’s the first of the issues. Hubby does all the slaughtering and butchering and for a while I did help plucking chickens, but then we got a machine, so I don’t even do that anymore. I’m not accustomed to seeing the interiors of the animals, let alone having to identify all the parts.

So, trigger warning for this section for anyone reading more squeamish than me! Move to the next section, if you please.

For the briefest of intro lessons, rennet is made from the 4th stomach of the ruminant animal, the abomasum.

This photo is from a calf, so for us we were dealing with far smaller features. Obviously, this is a precious commodity. The abomasum must come from a nursing animal, as it still has the enzymes required for cheesemaking. It can also come from a stillborn, an unfortunate event turned into a beneficial one with proper immediate attention.

In our case, we’ve had 2 stillborn, one this year and one last year. This year we also had a very small doe, a first freshener, who had fairly large twins. We decided to cull one of her kids as part of our efforts. Of course this is never an easy decision to make, and I lose sleep over stuff like this. I was never meant to be a goat farmer, I just want to make cheese!

Anyway, I am glad for the tough choice and going through the trouble to acquire this precious skill. Hubby and I sat down before the guts together, at the kitchen table. One of the great many sentences I could never have imagined I’d be writing!

It’s not easy to find information on the how-to’s of this process, and I certainly had no one to call or visit for advice. It was not enough information to substantially build my confidence, that’s for sure. Sometimes that just takes doing it.

Luckily, I did find one YouTube video, and one blog, both again working with a calf, for which I’m exceptionally grateful.

Rennet, Home Made, Illustrated

Another brief aside about rennet, if I may bore many readers a bit further! As I’ve written before, most cheese made today, at least in the U.S., is not made from real rennet, it’s made from a lab-grown rennet substitute, made by Pfizer.

While it’s not that expensive for home cheese makers to buy animal rennet online, relatively speaking, considering only a tiny amount is required, I don’t want to have to entirely rely on far-away sources for such an essential item.

Another thing I’ve been experimenting with to overcome this issue is vegetable rennet, again, from a natural, local source, not a GMO lab-purchased source. We have figs, so that’s what I’m using, but nettles are another source.

It’s not possible to set a large hard cheese with this method, but it works for soft cheeses and very small, what I’d call semi-hard cheeses (because they don’t need a press) like the one I just tried after discovery this channel’s excellent demonstration.

This cheese is so easy! I’ve only just made it, so I can’t yet vouch for the taste, but he makes it look delicious. For this cheese you don’t need any special equipment—no molds or cultures, no aging fridge, and no rennet. Instead of the cute baskets he uses I just poked some holes in an old sour cream container. (And can I just add how much I adore his heavy accent and classic Italian hand gestures!)

We did eventually figure it all out, and here is our final product, now drying for 3 months or so, according to processing directions. It will then be sealed and last for many years and make many dozens of cheeses.

A great big thanks to the multi-layered efforts of man and nature for this magical gift!

In weather news, we’ve had a lot of rain. While I mentioned last update how much I love the rain, it is causing problems. We lost most of our onion harvest, for starters. This is a big disappointment because we were so close to harvest, just a couple more weeks. Not anymore, they were rotting in the ground, we had to pull them, lost a great many, and the others are mostly very small still.

So between the pitiful potatoes and the sad state of the onions, we are not starting off too well. The peas are already done as well, because of the heat, but that’s pretty normal here.

What’s not normal is my usual complaint—the manufactured weather. We can’t drive to half our property until Hubby upgrades our culvert, a huge undertaking. But we are very lucky this time around! No hail, or tornadoes, or other immediate disasters to deal with, like a great many.

Yes, more manmade clouds above our head. We’ll learn what NASA calls them next post.

But, I have a future Geoengineering Update in the works, so I’ll save further lecturing and complaining for now!

Instead we’ll end with a snap of one of our favorite dinners, just how we like it, burned to perfection! Not our pepperoni or cheese this time, but some just foraged chanterelles, homemade sourdough crust, and homegrown pork sausage. 😋

Thanks for stopping by!

Homestead Happenings

An interesting week on the wee homestead, worth a quick update with many happy snaps and a couple of video clips.

We’ve had some wonderful days and nights of rain, too much for most, but quite fine for me. Hubby will unfortunately have to repair some fencing, nothing new there.

All the usual erosion issues will fall on him and his little old tractor once again, so I make great efforts to contain my glee. Our water is out and so is the phone, but that’s not unusual either.

The creek overflowing its banks and the pond washing out.

Shadow sniffing around, but not nearly as tuned into the wildlife as our livestock guardian dogs. In fact, he seems to be a bit allergic to the great outdoors, especially in summer!

I think he prefers his time lounging in the hammock with Daddy. 🥰

He does also appreciate chasing the pigs and goats and sheep, as much as we keep hollering at him to knock it off.

If you’re wondering what’s happened to scar up poor Pattie’s back like that, zoom in on the following photo to find the culprit.

The rains have certainly seemed to wake up the wild life—just in the past few days we’ve seen a scorpion, 2 water moccasins, 2 copperheads, and Hubby even thinks he saw a coral snake.

I followed one for a couple of minutes as he made his way back to the pond.

Water moccasin making its way back to the pond

There are some more pleasant sitings as well, like these, wild butterfly weed (Asclepius) and Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia).

And some cute mushrooms that I haven’t been able to identify.

The garden is doing fine, tomatoes are growing very well, all from our saved seed. Beans and cucs just coming in and the peppers are getting their first flowers.

The first datura bloom, the German chamomile flowering by the snap peas and a nasturtium blooming near the wild spiderwort (a medicinal I’ve posted about here).

In closing, a quick view of honeybees bathing in Poppy pollen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Homestead Happenings

It’s raining caterpillars!

And other news this post, including Hubby’s big mistake, lots of garden snaps, critter updates and the new normal weather chaos.

Big ones, small ones, skinny ones, fat ones . . .

Black ones, white ones, green ones, yellow ones . . .

Let’s see, perhaps a bit of 80s pre-conditioning before our current day “You vill eat ze bugs!”?

We’ve never seen so many, and such a variety. They do not look the least bit appetizing and clearly the birds agree, or there couldn’t possibly be so many.

I’m not exaggerating when I say you cannot take a step without seeing one. I’m hoping they turn into gorgeous butterflies and soon we’ll have a garden full of them. But I haven’t looked them up yet and they could easily become some voracious relative of horn worms for all I know, about to attack the tomatoes.

They’ve destroyed my spring cabbages and are working on the fava beans and snap peas now.

Fall cabbages in the back compared to spring cabbages up front

At least the goats appreciated all those Swiss cheese-like leaves.

Snap peas don’t last long here anyway and while those creepy crawlers get the leaves of them, and those of the radishes, at least they leave us the fruits.

I’ve already made a large crock of sauerkraut and a quart of fermented radishes. Plus we’ve been getting loads of mulberries thanks to Hubby who has been destroying the tent worms that have been appearing all spring. Those little buggers love the wild cherries too and can easily destroy all leaves and fruits in a matter of days.

So, big kudos to Hubby for coming to the rescue, and spending a fair amount of tedious time harvesting these little beauties as well.

But, Hubby is also responsible for the misdemeanor crime of killing our potatoes! I should’ve caught it. I know, he was just trying to help. So, he filled our potato buckets with too much compost too fast and now we have potato disaster.

Lesson learned, you can only add a couple inches at a time, even if the greens are much taller than that.

I’ve got lots of herbs companion planted with the tomatoes that are all looking great.

Thyme, cilantro and dill growing between tomatoes

One of the best garden decisions I’ve made is far more flowers in the garden. Not only to attract pollinators, but to attract us too. It’s a far more inviting space than just rows of crops and makes me want to go in and play. 😊

The Peggy Martin rose just one year after planting a cutting from a friend.

And the Burr rose, many years old, huge and seemingly indestructible, even from constant nibbling by the sheep and goats.

And one of my garden favorites, which my photo doesn’t do justice at all: Nigella, a delicious seed and lovely tiny blooms in blue and white.

Their seeds have a grape-like flavor and are delicious in bread and kombucha.

A larger garden view

Another fruit that so far seems successful are the persimmons. We have both Virginia and Asian planted and the flowers on them are so unique, just like their fruits.

I’ve also got the citrus planted at last and I’m so excited! I cannot fail! (Says no one but me and I’ve gotten quite a few discouraging words from others on this venture.)

Meyers lemon, Satsuma orange and Key limes, don’t fail me, please!

Planted along with the new ‘kiss me under the garden gate’ flower which is doing quite well, and the still unfinished wattle fence.

In the best news we have our first kids just born this morning. Milking season approaches too quickly!

The weather madness continues, unfortunately. Big surprise.

Some still think these are contrails! Good grief!

This weekend’s forecast looks like a drop-down menu: 1/16th inch rain possible, or severe storms, or flooding, or hail, or tornadoes. Try planning for those options, peasants! 😩

Hope life is a little more predictable in your neck of the woods!

Thanks for stopping by. 🤗

Homestead Happenings

Almost entirely happy snaps and almost no complaining at all, really! The garden is mostly great, the weather mostly fine, summer in full swing already, ready or not.

It’s been busy around here, as usual. But, busy in the country way, which is very different. Our preservation season has already begun, and it’s fixing to get very busy very soon. I have mixed feelings about that, but here it is anyway.

I’ve been saving the rose petals for drying and kombucha after admiring their scent and beauty in many lights and angles.

The poppies continue to pop up in random places, among the roses and in cracks and crevices, like dandelions.

And the bees love them as much as I do.

Another rose variety, the thornless Peggy Martin, I just planted last year, is now getting its first blooms.

I’m so very pleased with the transition from cool-season coral honeysuckle blooms to the Dortmond rose takeover, lovely! I especially like the short spell they co-habitat.

The wattle fence I began with the best intentions is languishing due to too many other priorities. It has been a sheep deterrent at least, since the mamas and lambs have taken over the front yard. And even Shadow doesn’t dare stand in their way!

This is where the citrus will go, my new big project. I’m even considering throwing an avocado in there too. I know, very ambitious! But, I want to give some of the new methods a try and it seems like a good time. This side of the house is ideal, the house breaking the north wind and the heavy late afternoon sun. Plus, there’s the extra warmth accumulated in the walls of the house to help in cold snaps, along with the extra heating and draping methods that seem to be working for others.

Ooohhh, anticipation!

Just like the tomatoes and cucumbers coming so soon, right around the corner, and I can hardly wait. The last fermented cucumbers we used up a week ago, amazingly, and they were still crispy and flavorful. I plan to continue and expand my fermenting efforts this summer and fall. More herb pastes, more tea blends, more spice mixes.

The lambs are still doing fine, my how fast they grow.

Spring lambs on springs! 😆

My garden mascots, two white rabbits.

And my single complaint—the spray continues to ruin our beautiful days.

Is this why we can so clearly see these colors, because we have an atmosphere saturated with reflective particulate matter?

Cool pic, or chem-filled haze?

“I’m no prophet Lord, I don’t know nature’s ways.”
‘Anticipation’ by Carly Simon

Spectacular!

As much as I complain about the weather—that is mostly, the man-made weather—I feel I must give credit when credit is due.

We’ve been having a spectacular spring. Not one hail storm, flood, tornado to speak of. Perhaps still too light on the rain for my liking, but it’s been enough to keep things growing beautifully around here.

So I just thought I’d share a bit of that splendor here and now, even though I haven’t the time or energy for much else at the moment. I’ve been preparing all week for another basic fermentation workshop, which means a lot of mise en place (that’s a fancy French expression for ‘get your shit together’). 😆

The coral honeysuckle, looking more amazing than ever, with the rose growing in there just about to bloom too. And a hummingbird finally showed up to enjoy it too, but there’s not a chance to catch him on camera without many hours to spare.

I tossed poppy seeds out by the hundreds, everywhere. And they’ve shown up in the most unusual places, one at a time, in the tiny cracks between wood and grass, under the dogwood, under the mulberry, in the garlic patch and the turnip rows, just one each, out of hundreds.

I’m glad, I so love them, but I don’t get it. Why there? And where are the rest of them?

Everybody loves the turnip blossoms, especially the bees and goats!

You can see Chestnut’s abscess has almost completely disappeared, hardly visible anymore. But Walnut behind her has torn her ear something terrible, probably in a fence somewhere, doing just what she’s doing here. We may have to change her name to Van Gogh.

Getting some good kohlrabi and kale and potatoes, and peas, and strawberries and clover, and just about everything, coming in strong.

I’ve been meaning to get some cute lamb vid soon too, really! They are at that adorable stage. Next month come the kids!

More coming very soon, thanks for stopping by!

Homestead Happenings

The exciting season continues! Mostly plant talk this post. And, we’ve got our first lambs, I’m workin’ my first wattle fence, there’s some flower photos and fancy garden plans.

A first-time mama is the first to drop a perfect set of twins!
Dogwoods blooming beneath oaks

Trumpet, or coral, honeysuckle on our front porch usually attracts hummingbirds by now. It’s looking gorgeous and I’m quite proud of it because it’s one I propagated from the wild. But, where are our feathered friends?

Seed saving has definitely upped our game in the garden. Buying seeds is certainly far easier than saving them. Where we once just had to plan one large garden space, now there are three. It feels like juggling! You’ve got to keep all the spaces perfectly coordinated. I had to make a chart. I am not a chart sort of person. I’m the kind of person who instantly glazes over at the mere inclusion of a chart in any piece of literature.

So really my chart was more like a list of do’s and don’ts in a useless graph format. Don’t plant the pumpkins with the zucchini. Don’t plant the luffa with the Trombetta. Do plant different varieties of cucumbers, peppers, melons and watermelons at least 1/2 mile apart. (Is that even possible?) Musk melons and watermelons are safe to plant together, but French cantaloupe most certainly cannot be planted with American varieties or with green melons.

And that’s just the summer season’s produce, there’s a whole different set of charts for the winter veggies.

Luckily, I’ve got some good guidance in a great book and, even better, some bigger minds to follow in the form of Gavin’s Newsletter. He’s just started a book club and his first book up for April just happens to be the one I’m reading.

https://open.substack.com/pub/gavinmounsey/p/the-results-from-the-first-book-club?r=apljy&utm_medium=ios

Why save seed?
From the book we learn a few good reasons:
*selecting for specific traits,
*preserving diversity,
*saving money,
*creating superb plants,
*And, going on an adventure.
“The art of saving seeds may so intrigue you that you’ll branch out to your own plant-breeding adventures with such long-term seed-saving projects as growing oaks from acorns.”

Perhaps that could be me! Or perhaps I should’ve started this about 30 years ago.

But, those do all sound like good reasons to me, plus I’ll add one more. It’s a good way to exercise your body and your brain at the same time.

But, propagating something so slow-growing from seed at this stage of life, I think I’ll need more bang for the buck than an oak. Like, this magnificent magnolia!

(Photos sent by a friend in UK, wow, what a specimen!)

Of course, not all seed saving is complicated. After all, it used to be something every farmer would do, and their children, too. If I’d grown up doing it I’d probably think I’m making much ado about nothing.

In particular, most of the common herbs we love—dill, cilantro, basil, parsley couldn’t be easier—let them go to seed, collect the seed once dry, keep in a paper bag over winter, and sprinkle back out in spring.

Easy-peasy, leaving more time for flowers!

More flowers, herbs and medicinals has been the big goal besides seed saving. I’ve always liked hollyhocks and other traditional ‘cottage garden’ favorites. How fortunate for me to find one I’ve never heard of before, with a really cute name.

Inspiration photo only, real or photoshop, no clue

Flower name: “Kiss me over the garden gate”
Latin name: Persicaria orientalis (formerly Polygonum orientale) is an annual member of the buckwheat family. The tall plants produce pretty pink pendulous blooms.

I’ve just planted it under the bedroom window inside my work-in-progress wattle fence.

What’s a wattle fence?

I had no idea what that was until I read about another blogger, Re-Farmer, building one. It looked like a fun and do-able project perfect for a precision-challenged person like myself.

And it is! There are lots of YouTube videos on the process, but I think this one was the best—a much taller and longer wattle fence than I’ve tried to produce, but who knows, as my skills develop I could step it up a notch. 🤔

The other big garden plan this year are a few citrus trees. We’ve been wanting them for a long time, but all fruit trees are a challenge here with our crazy weather. (And it’s not just us! All kinds of complaints about it from YouTubers and neighbors alike. It didn’t used to be like this.)

Anyway, this guy’s got some great suggestions and solutions and we so love our citrus, so we’re going to make an investment toward our citrus-filled future with Myer’s lemon, Mexican lime and Satsuma orange.

Another small plan is more peppers, specifically seasoning peppers, also called spice peppers (though they aren’t always spicy as in hot), like pimiento’s and such.

As much fermenting as I’ve been doing I see they are an excellent addition to all kinds of dishes. Plus, peppers do pretty well here usually, and they harvest in fall when there’s little else happening, and they are lovely little plants some folks grow just as ornamentals. Four excellent reasons to squeeze them into the rotation. Here’s one variety I’m trying:


Aji Dulce spice pepper from Southern Exposure

Aji Dulce Spice Pepper

“(C. chinense) 99 days. (green > orange-red > red) [Venezuelan heirloom. Seed source from Donna Hudson in TN.] Has the same shape, size, color and aroma as Habanero, but is sweet, spicy, and delicious, with only a trace of heat. Highly aromatic fruits; their flavor is unusual and complex, with overtones of black pepper and coriander, and undertones of other spicy flavors. An excellent choice for sautéed vegetables, rice and bean dishes, paprika, or herbal vinegars. The thin-walled pendant fruits are 1 x 2 in., tapering at both the stem and blossom end. Plants have good foliage cover and bear at 18 in. high. Seedlings grow slowly at first, but grow rapidly later in the season to 48 in. or more.”

Like I said, it’s the exciting season on the wee homestead!

Bubba says “Bye and thanks for stopping by!”