I have not proven to be very good at keeping up on the blog this year… but that is a resolution that I hope to keep for 2024. Bear with me, as this was a very productive year for the homestead. A lot has happened since May, so lets jump into it and I’ll catch you up. I’d love to hear from you, so please leave a comment with any advice, suggestions, or questions. I’m planning to expand on what I plant in the garden, so if there is something you think I should grow, leave a suggestion of that, and I will see what I can do.
My last post included the planting of the garden. Well, as like many others I talked to this year, my garden didn’t do great. I’m very fortunate to have extra tomatoes from last year in my deep freeze that I will be canning this winter. I already got some out and did a first…I made my own tomato paste! It’s awesome!! But for the most part, it was not a good year in the garden. We did have a few things we were able to pass along to others, and in order for people to be able to get our overflow produce, I wanted something that people could pull up to and help themselves. The solution…a lean-to produce stand. It is “Take what you need, give what you can”, and I’ve also included a box for people to be able to leave prayer requests so we can pray for them. Leave as much or as little info on the prayer request as you’re comfortable with, and know that you will be prayed for.
This summer we were blessed with the hatching of ducklings. As usual, not all of them survived, and that is actually a blessing. If all of the ducklings had survived, we would have had well over 50 ducks in our flock, and we definitely don’t have enough room for that! We had 13 that joined the flock, bringing our flock total to 19.
The duck parlor got a facelift this summer, as I painted the exterior. The paint was peeling and it just looked sad. Fortunately, we had some pretty nice summer days, and I was able to get a couple coats of paint on, and it looked like a pretty little barn again.
Our ducklings grew so well over the summer, that this fall we were able to harvest them. We kept 6 ducks to continue to repopulate, but 13 met the chopping block this fall.
For being a first time goose owner, they have really thrived! We are very lucky to have 2 females and 2 males. In the research I’ve done, they mate for life, so I’m glad that we ended up with two of each. And this summer, both of the females started laying eggs! We didn’t allow any of them to try and hatch, but we did eat them….and they are so rich! Just like duck eggs, they are good for baking (and making French toast) 😉 As full grown geese, they definitely needed more room, so we created a run for them to be able to stretch their wings and have some fun in a kiddie pool. The girls used their creativity and even made me a sign for the geese. I love it!
Every year we get meat chickens, and every year we say that we didn’t have enough the year before. So this year, we had 45 meat chickens to butcher. Definitely not something we could get done in one day…so we took a weekend and butchered and processed the birds. I was able to get quite a few jars of canned chicken processed, and I also cooked down the carcasses with some veggies and made broth. It is the BEST broth ever!!! Of course, next year we are talking about getting even more meat birds…
We added to our egg layers this year as well, as we just were not able to keep up with people who wanted eggs. In doing so, we had to expand our coop space and the run. We had to take out a big section of our coop storage and convert it into roosting space for the additional birds. Plus, we had to increase our available nesting boxes. Our run space has more than doubled, which was a huge blessing for them. So much more room for them to run around in and take dust baths and dig for bugs. I’ll spare you the photo of what it looks like to have a staple from a nail gun go thru my hand…. OOOF!!
Earlier in the spring, I transplanted my berry bushes/plants into new boxes we built. But…I got sick of seeing the birds around my berry plants, so we got creative and built covers out of some spare wood we had around the homestead and some bird netting. It was a success, as I got so many blackberries this year!!! The strawberry plants spread like CRAZY this summer, so I am anticipating being able to pick a bunch of strawberries this summer.
One area in the garden that was fruitful for us was our herbs. They were unbelievable this year! Such a blessing!!! I was able to dry and store quite a bit of homegrown herbs to use throughout the winter.
If you have driven past the homestead since this summer, you will have seen my new sign. The previous sign that I had made ended up not fairing so well in the weather, so I made a new one. It’s quite a bit bigger than the last one I made.
The house on the homestead has had a facelift as well. It was long overdue, but we needed to get some work done to the house. We were able to put on a new roof, gutters and am in the process of getting a wrap around porch. Since the porch is being added, that also led to us needing to move the fire ring further from the house. Since it needed to be moved, we modified it a bit as well. We have a large ring for bigger party fires, and a smaller one for the family to cook food over. And my son and I also decided that we needed some fun seating for the fire ring, so we built a pergola to hang some egg chairs.
It is amazing that in our travels and in just talking with people, that the homestead comes up in conversation. So, to help spread the word of our faith and the homestead, and to encourage more conversations, I got some advertising items for the family (sweatshirts, hoodies, jackets) and I also got business cards for the homestead!
And now, here we are at December. The garden has been put to bed, the birds are back to having their heat lights on, heated waterers are plugged back in, and we have to bundle up to do chores again. It was a very blessed year on the homestead, and there is so much to be thankful for. I thank each one of you who take time to read when I do post blogs, and for those who also follow the homestead on facebook/instagram/linkedin. May God bless you all this holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!