Farm Update 2023

Hello World! We are back online again after a few very busy years. I have a lot of exciting changes to share with you. Here goes...

  In the summer of 2020, we were evacuated multiple times due to fires close to our home. The SQF Complex fire came within two miles of our farm and produced dangerous dense smoke for months that left me and a few of my goats with long term lung issues. We made the tough decision to leave our birth state and everyone we love behind and decided to move east.

  We sold the house quickly, put everything in storage and boarded our animals with friends and headed east on Interstate 80. We searched all over Utah where my BFF now lives, but property prices there were higher than those in California for small homesteads. We continued north to Idaho which had little available at that point too, so we kept moving east through Wyoming and into Nebraska and then north to South Dakota. We then traveled east to Virginia, checking properties along the route.  

  My heart was set on The Mt Rushmore state. The plains are beautiful. The Black Hills are majestic. The people of South Dakota are warm and friendly and they helped me win over My Hubby.

  Escrow closed Spring 2021 on our latest small farm and I trailered my goats here myself to begin our journey.  We bought a historic homestead with a farmhouse that was built on this lot in 1909. We have just six acres, but they're all level and tillable. We have two older barns Jerry has been remodeling for maximum comfort for the animals, a large chicken coop and the soil here in The Missouri River Valley is so fertile it is amazing.  

We finally have high speed internet again, after many years stuck in the Sierras with only satellite internet so I plan to start blogging again. I am eager to share some of the things I've been working on. Stay tuned.

Heidi

 

Barn Hop #32

Link up here!

Welcome Barn Hoppers!  I hope ya'll had a great week.  Like you, I look forward to the Barn Hop.  I learn so much from all of you. THANKS!

Well,  this last week I didn't get much done around here, as I was out of town; but I did can another batch of my homemade red sauce. 

 I used a jar of it to make my husband's favorite dinner- corn tamale pie. The recipe can be found right here on the Alber's yellow corn meal website.

I made some cute fabric pumpkins for a swap

(directions to make your own can be found on my Fall Harvest Blog HOP post)

New Hoop houses

A big surprise to me has been the success of those new hoop houses.  I only covered things a few weeks ago, in preparation for a 3 day frost and night time freeze.  Under them, everything has been excelling, better than before.  It has warmed back up again, so I have the ends open on those hoop houses, but they're staying on 24/7.  I am amazed by the results.

They definitely extend harvest and more importantly, bloom time, which means more food.  Also important to note- honeybees and mason bees are getting in just fine to pollinate everything. Because of the hoop houses, I continue to enjoy tomatoes, zucchini, beans, leeks, arugula, eggplant, peppers, and lettuce from my garden.  The tomatoes, eggplants and peppers should have died from the freeze, but inside hoops, they are thriving.

Daikon radish and tomatoes

Eggplant in the hoop house growing and blooming more...

 I am really surprised at how much bigger the cabbage and broccoli transplants are under the hoop houses than the ones planted the same day, from the same batch, uncovered.  The above cabbage are not inside hoops

 The above cabbage and broccoli inside hoops are nearly twice as big. 

 Plants are still putting out lots of peppers under hoops

 beans thriving...

 lettuce growing well inside hoops, but struggling with rabbits and slugs at night.  I don't mind sharing so I just plant more than I need.

Fava beans have the prettiest flowers

Rabbits like zucchini. Who knew?

Scarlet red runner beans are so pretty.  The vines grow 20' tall.

gonna make some fried green tomatoes 

This is what's left of the 3 sisters experiment.  The spent corn is still supporting beans.

Lima beans are still producing

tomatoes too...

I love arugula and arugula loves hoop houses.

This is my Autumn Blaze maple tree.  

Its leaves are turning fire red while every other plant is still green or yellow.  So pretty.

In closing, I want to share with you a little idea I had.  I am enjoying hopping so much that I'd like to HOP more often, so I have just started a NEW BLOG HOP- for Fall, and I'd really like everyone to join by linking up a favorite family recipe, tradition, decorating idea, or ???  You decide.  Enter as many posts as you like.  We'd love to see your ideas.

Please join us and share your special Fall and harvest stories.

GIVEAWAY ALERT!

At the end of the HOP, the posts with the most LIKES will be entered into a drawing for a set of cute fabric pumpkins like the ones in the button above.

FREEDOM GARDENS- help with your garden questions

Head on over to Freedom Gardens for help in your organic garden.

Link:  http://freedomgardens.org/

While there, if you have a question about a problem you are experiencing in YOUR garden, just click on the image "Ask the Aggies" or "Have Questions... Dig HERE!" where you will be prompted to submit your question and wait for a response.

Images from Freedom Gardens website

URBAN HOMESTEAD

Wow!  I was surfing the homestead blog scene on Facebook looking for a Southern California Homesteading group to hopefully join, and I came across the website http://urbanhomestead.org/ .  What a revelation.  This site features a blog, photo gallery, little known facts and know how, and some great advice for everything from gardening sustainability to farm animals in an urban setting.  The site belongs to the Derveas Family of Pasadena, California, a suburb of Los Angeles.  They have been challenging expectations for more than a decade living in the heart of a metropolis while striving to decrease their dependence on others to maintain their lifestyle and are sharing what they've learned with the rest of us.  I just stumbled across the site today, so I have only just begun to investigate the site's diversity, but from what I can see so far, it's a wealth of information for homesteading and basic skills.  Have a look around and report back anything you find that would be valuable to the rest of us.

Happy Saturday!

Start a 1-Acre, Self-Sufficient Homestead

This is a good time to start working toward self sufficiency and sustainable farm practices. The above referenced article by John Seymour, Food Freedom is hosted on the Organic Consumers Association website linked here: Start a 1-Acre, Self-Sufficient Homestead .  It's a quick read with some good points when considering the pros and cons of homesteading.

Have a GREAT weekend!