What's new? Getting ready for winter!
Well...the snow is melted and the mud covers half my wheel well, when I baha and get stuck.
I am land locked for another few days or so. I am grateful that is is not an extremely wet spring.
The look of spring is always so dirty looking to me.
BUT
When you are cleaning up, underneath that beautiful brown blanket, it is teaming with new life.
This one made me scream when he made his appearance. Wish they would let you know they are coming!!!
We have been watching the partridge (I think they are actually a grouse) come in closer. They are now hanging out with the chickens. Here is a partridge hen that is dirtbathing in the chickens spot. We have a rooster that is sweet on her. It is fun to watch him try to wooooo her.
Working on the garden is taking lots of time. I am trying make it goat and chicken proof. I know, I know, I am laughing at the notion too. LOL But I will do my best. It is till too cold to plant anything until the end of the week.
Here are the chickens IN the garden...LOL
We don't have any babies yet, but it is getting closer and closer. We have a hen that is taking all the eggs to hatch them. She even has duck eggs.
I am cutting up all the wood, it is a race against the bugs and the bush filling in. It will be alot harder in a week. I have almost half of my wood ready for next winter. It is my hope to have a 2 year supply at all times. I love that nothing goes to waste! You can see the current bushes already starting to flourish.
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The wolves are moving through. The dogs are very restless and the howling goes all night long. The way that the wind carries the sound through the forest is eerie and magical. They will be back in the fall. :)
There have been some extremely high winds that have sheered the tops off the conifers. I have been working to remove them, so that I can get out when the road is passable. Free firewood, and great homes for the wildlife.
I have been absent from steemit for a little bit now, and I miss you all! I try to upvote so that it doesn't go to waste! Would love to hear how you all are doing! What's new in your world?
Wow!! No doubt you've been off Steemit! There's much to accomplish already in the season it seems for you living in harmony with land and plants. I admire your bravery to live this way @earthmother. And, deeply appreciate this opportunity to connect while you do it!! The partridge & rooster must be so nice to watch! Who needs TV 💚 💜
Much Love & blessings!!
I love that we can sit outside now. There is so much to watch and see! our very own nature channel! Hoping to get the screen tent up the next couple of days..mosquitos are brutal already. Black flies should be out soon. Nature sure does determine alot!! LOL
Thank you so much for dropping by. Are we connected on discord?
It's good to see a little more of what you been up to and what life around you looks like.
We have been working up the yard, cleaning, cutting etc to get ready for growing. It's a tough job. We need a tiller as my plants need to be planted outside 2 weeks ago lol.
All that at the same time as clean up week so it has been major busy for a lot of people.
Make the most of what you can dear friend. It goes by so fast.
Love the pictures that you send me. So much to do, you are so right. I have become OK with what get done, and really work on releasing what doesn't. It was really stressing me out. I figure it will be what it is no matter what I don't get done :) Its nice to be a good tired. Can hardly wait for our next get together! I have plants here for you!
woohoo! Thank you. And guess what, Danny is letting me do the paper/soil thing this year, realizing we can't get it all done. Getting some soil tomorrow!
Woohoooo!!!! I can hardly wait to see it!!!
Such a pretty little spider. And thank u for resteeming my other post 💓🌺 and how do u think they should let u know they are coming lol
Yell out " hey tammy im under here watch out!"
LOL!!! little!?!? that sucker was 2 inches long!!! I live in a place with winter, so that I don't have those kinds of things...or the poisonous things...LOL Love what you do! I will upvote and resteem when I can! :)
We have to work out a system...me and the bugs...snakes make me scream too...when they come out unannounced....definitely need a system LOL
🤣🤣 good luck on that system..lol its hard to tell how big it was lol. I thought it was a little wolf spider.
Lol!! I know! Lol! He should be sleeping until July he is so big! Lol thank you for the smile!! Xoxo
It is so good to see you are getting out there. I really understand about needing to get it all done. That is so great that you have part of your wood done. We need to get going on our wood. However we did learn about wood pellets and have a conversion to be able to burn them as well. This takes the pressure off of getting all the wood for the winter. Wood pellets cost but we figure that we might be able to do both.
Trying to work out side with the bugs and heat is our challenge now. We work outside in the morning and a bit in the evening but some of our days are too hot to be outside. I find I over heat easily and can't go out.
It is great to see your chickens out and about. They are probably loving it. That spider I think you could do without. I am also finding that as we get hotter the bugs are getting bigger (not fun). Thanks so much for sharing.
We have already had 30 degree days. Way too hot for me, always trying to find something to do in the shade. Pretty soon afternoon siestas! Ole! :)
I am pretty lucky that most of the trees I removed from the road this winter, I stacked, so now I just go grab them with the truck every time that I go by. I saw the pellet conversions that you did. Its brilliant, and a great back up plan. I think i might take a look at doing that here.
I am hoping that I can barter services for firewood, so that I can take it easy this winter. It would be really nice!
Its nice that things are waking up here :) Ate my first dandelion greens! I was mowing down on them like the goat! lol
Have an awesome day! we love you!
We are in some pretty hot weather here as well. Not too many cool days anymore. We seem to have gone from winter to summer.
You are amazing to be able to do all your homesteading by yourself. I think it would be so much work to be doing it alone. It can be done but not as much rest time.
I am going to be dehydrating greens pretty soon. Just need to finish getting the gardens in. How is your goat doing? She must be getting quite big now.
You have a fantastic day as well. Hugs
black flies jut came out yesterday with the extreme heat. *sigh They are so much worse than the mosquitos
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I just do what I can do. Take the help when it is offered. I have learned to say no to people with a agenda. That has been the hardest part for me. Discernment. I like to trust everyone.
Oh to have greens. Fresh, real greens!!
Do you have fireweed? Apparently the shoots are like fiddleheads and asparagus. Fabulous steamed. Wil be looking for them this year. We dont have the right kind of ferns for eating here.
Descernment is a hard one. We have had and are still learning that one. Yes there are people that truly want to help and then there are the ones with an agenda. Sometimes we just curl back up for awhile and not have anyone help after having people with an agenda come out.
Learining to navagate the different types of people can be interesting. We are trying to figure out a process that speeds that up. To be able to figure it out quicker and better would save us some valuable time. Also it would be better for everyone.
Oh yeah to have fresh greens would be wonderful. My lettuce is about 2 inches tall and so is my kale. Soon :)
We are beginning to get black flies as well. Yes they are a pest but at least they don't bite. Well I can't say that. We did have some flies that were biting last year. It was horrible. They would bite me especially when I was milking.
I do have loads of fireweed here. I have not gotten around to harvesting it yet. It is always on the list though. I didn't know it was like ferns for eating. So you eat the stems? I thought you could only eat the leaves. I will be harvesting them for sure this year.
We don't have the right type of ferns here either. It is too bad. I wanted to try fiddleheads. I know they sell them in the store but I wanted to to be able to harvest them myself.
Let me know if you figure out that formulae!! ;)
The black flies here bite and we look like small pox victims after only a couple weeks.
The fireweed shoots are what we eat in the spring. We get them when they are a few inches tall. We collect the leaves in the fall for tea, too. :) love that we are collecting the common medicines!
Another formula that I use is Eucalyptus and orange oil. I get a small spray bottle and add about 10 to 15 drops in of each. Usually this works. The reason I was trying the garlic tincture was because I read that garlic keeps the mosquitos away. That is horrible that you have been bitten so much.
I like that we are able to collect common medicines. I don't have these conversations with anyone else usually so I find this nice to be able to talk with you about these things. As well as learn from your experience. Thank you so much.
I have also used lemon grass, geranium, citronella... but as you know... here are just times to wear the suit!! Lol I LOVE my screen tent and coils.
Love our chats too! It's great to bounce off ideas with people that are doing things in a good way. Xoxo huge love to you!