Homestead Happy Snaps

Need some cute today?

Lots of life around here, so much so, it’s just about killing me! 😂

Exhausting but exhilarating.

Our bottle baby lamb, Scrappy, is still doing very well. The only lamb I’ve ever seen running towards man, instead of away. Shadow, our recent addition, has completely settled in, even the bees haven’t bugged him in a couple weeks, so that’s a relief.

The bees love the poppies at dawn, the cilantro flowers at mid-morning, and the clover after that, as digestif I figure.

The kittens have gotten so comfortable they are now happily playing on the dog bed and lining up with their mama and the dogs at feeding time. A friend recently commented it’s like we’ve got a petting zoo. Yes, indeed, it seems we do!

The garden is looking great, the best year so far for flowers, which makes me so very happy.

Our hard pear cider, sourdough dinner rolls, chimichurra, daikon radish, and

Already making delicious ferments from the garden produce and the onions are already getting close to harvest. Stay tuned for that excitement.

Shadow’s favorite thing to do in the morning, sit on my lap as I try to drink coffee and read the news. Not enough hands!

Thanks for stopping by!

(FYI, it took me 2 hours to post this, WP seems to have LOTS of issues, deleting paragraphs, deleting photos, not accepting edits. Super annoying. I looked for somewhere else to park this blog, and found no other platform of greater value. I do believe we are witnessing the Walmarting of the blogosphere.)

Finger On the Pulse

How do I know
I don’t know
How do I feel
More than I show

Tell, Shell
The colors denied me
A red-green dysymetry
Dependency serving you
And me

Last laughs denied
Colors revived
Deep seas contrived
Spotted

And released
Passions deceased
Une femme qui plus rien
Derange

Un amour
Set
A game
Unmatched

So far long
From afield
A fealty
You and me

A higher order
Heart
The last emergent
Art

Lost then found
Then lost again
And then again
The pulse

The finger
The finger on the pulse
The heart on the sleeve
The hat in the hand

Bowing
To universal
Blindness
Willingly

No longer
You and me

Funny Friday

Holy moly the time is flying! Just when we wish it would linger a little longer in our glorious weather. Lots of laughs in this week’s crop!

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Wishing y’all a lovely weekend, thanks for stopping by!

Homestead Happenings

Mostly happy snaps today, plus one wee tale of woe. Life is flourishing around here, but for two middle-aged folk, it’s getting harder to keep up!

We’ve got kittens and lambs and chicks and some rain and decent temps for a change, that’s keeping the critters and crops and me very happy.

I think the old cliche about when life is giving you lemons should be updated for the modern era. Lemons are already a luxury, after all.

I think it should reflect the shitshow the modern era has become and read: When life gives you shit, make more compost.

And we have LOADS of it at the moment, the good kind that makes fantastic strawberries, not the useless kind, that populates DC.

Strawberries making me proud!

Do you care to know how much shit it takes to make carrots and strawberries so good? 😆

Guess what else loves loads of shit?!

And while some homesteading results are obvious— like more shit equals better produce— others remain a mystery.

After three perfect sets of twins, we have a reject. It’s one of those very odd occurrences we have yet to experience and it’s confusing because it’s halfway between cute and sad.

One bad mama has rejected one of its offspring. He’s a sweet, spunky little survivor we’ve come to call ‘Scrappy’ because he’s fighting so hard and it’s wonderful to witness. And also sad, like I said.

Scrappy at the fence as soon as he sees us, not a good sign.

Hubby found Scrappy at the fenceline in the morning not long after birth, already abandoned. But, the sibling lamb and mama were fine and healthy and not too far away.

It’s a mystery because one, he was not just alive, but cleaned off, and very vigorous. And two, because had she cleaned him off, she’d surely recognize him as her other offspring. So, who cleaned him off?

Because she pushes him off immediately at any attempt to nurse. Even still, after 4 days and every attempt we’ve tried. We’ve resorted to holding her down 3 times a day, he at the front end, me at the back end, while poor Scrappy voraciously sucks down whatever he can manage before she out-maneuvers the 3 of us!

Then Hubby goes back to bottle-feed him 3 more times a day.

Of course, he’s not the first critter here to obediently follow Hubby everywhere!

Shadow happily in tow

Scrappy’s getting fed with a combination of powdered milk specially formulated and goat’s milk, thanks to Summer, who I’m still milking from her last freshening, last spring.

Summer, on right, with her offspring, Bluebonnet next to her. Phoebe below, left, so huge already we wonder if she’ll have triplets!

Skittles (below left), looking tough as always, but her kittens are already getting accustomed to an easier life, from the barn to under the porch.

Careful kitties, domestication has its costs, which is probably why Skittles keeps hissing at the hands who feed her. 😆

Thanks for stopping by!

Funny Friday

It’s that time again! Small harvest today I’m afraid, we’ve been busy, and funny memes seem to getting harder to come by. Still, there must be a chuckle in here somewhere.

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Wishing y’all a lovely weekend, thanks for stopping by!

Gardens By Mood

Tis the season to be growing!

I just wanted to share some resources I’m frequenting, more often due to mood, rather than necessity. There is so much of the ‘how to’ out there in cyberland, and that’s great, but even better are the sites out there that inspire, motivate, explore, or feel like an afternoon paseo—like taking a walk around your neighborhood.

Sometimes, I look to YouTube, of course.

Sometimes I need the high energy, no-nonsense, look at me, you can do it too attitude of James Pergioni. Little he does applies to our garden—he’s urban and in a completely different climate, but, no matter, because he does what he does so well, and that gets me goin’!

Other times it’s the Zen, graceful, deeply practical, and peaceful even in the city type of gardener, with a simply lovely channel I’d be prone to emulate if I ever made a gardening channel of my own. She lets the plants do the most of the talking and I can sense how she loves them.

Sometimes I need that super practical advice on something specific, so it’s MI Gardener, mostly because he wastes minimal time on chit-chat, my biggest pet-peeve in how-to sites.

As for the paseo I like to hang out right here on WP, 3 gardeners in particular I follow regularly, and I’d probably frequent more, if I knew of more. I don’t like the big box sites, too much noise. I think of these ladies as cyber-neighbors, while I do sometimes get gardening tips from them, I visit mostly just to see what they’re up to lately.

There’s Empty Nest Homesteading, who offers her keen sense of esthetics to the homesteading scene. Here’s her latest adventure in decorating.

And there’s the Re-farmer, who’s got to be the most ambitious homesteader, especially climate-wise, I’ve ever seen. She offers up daily posts with regular garden reports, which that alone is more than I’ll ever do! She’s got mad gumption!

And there’s Eden Unlocked, a young suburban mother who offers Biblical contemplation with some of her posts, quite a foreign foray for me, which I’ve come to appreciate, mostly because I find her to be a quite a unique lady. She and I share a powerful budding interest in learning herbalism, which brings me to my latest offering.

I have posted the first of my Herbal Explorations, Calendula, which you can find by going to the Main Page of Kensho Homestead, in the menu. Each time I’ve posted on another plant, I’ll link it here in the blog, but it will remain on the main page for easier locating. For those who don’t know already, there’s also pages there on Geoengineering Resources and Garden-to-Table Resources.

Thanks for visiting and hope you enjoy!

Funny Friday

So much to-do around here I nearly forgot! Luckily Hubby had a large harvest to offer, surely a laugh to be found in here somewhere.

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Wishing y’all a lovely weekend!

Spring Sensations

I’m not sure what to make of it, but I’m sharing this quickie just the same.

A gorgeous day of new life, new moves, and what feels like genuinely natural weather for a change.

First rose, first poppy, first lamb and the kittens come out to play. 🤗

Just a few minutes old and already knows the routine

And, I expect Geoengineering/weather modification has hit the popular charts, at last, yay!

I will admit I thought this very popular channel must be shills of some sort, because they seemed to be completely avoiding the obvious weather warfare for years now.

Be that as it may, they’ve been clueing in more and more lately, and now, I consider their cherry popped. It’s about time! I don’t know what to make of it exactly, but I do believe in the gaming world it means we’ve just leveled up.

Funny Friday

It’s that time again! I’m particularly excited today because it’s been raining and it feels like Heaven! Big crop too, surely some good laughs in here somewhere.

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Wishing y’all a lovely weekend, thanks for stopping by!

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