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To say we had a crazy week is nothing short of the truth. It was CRAZY!!!

First, This beautiful young lady had her birthday!!! We celebrated with one of her favorite dinners (balsamic glazed chicken skewers, Israeli couscous salad, and homemade ice cream cake), and played one of her favorite games (Castles).

Then, this beautiful young lady got her driving permit!!! Seriously, how is this possible?? Looks like we have another chauffer in the house! LOL

This young man was told that he could earn $5 for each carpenter bee that he killed using a piece of rope…..and Luke had to eat his words…..because Wyatt earned $55!!!! He legit killed 11 carpenter bees WITH A ROPE!!!!

The weather last week was amazing! We were finally able to get the yard mowed! We literally could have baled it. With all the rain we had gotten over the past couple weeks, we had standing water in our yard and had to wait for it to dry out. The cut grass is beneficial to our garden though, so I was grateful for the excessive amount of grass clippings. After cutting the grass, we let it dry out for a couple days, and then we raked it up and moved it into the garden. We put the clippings around the melons and the pumpkins. We have found in previous years that grass clippings prove to be great at retaining moisture underneath, and its also serves as a great weed barrier.

We worked diligently at getting the garden all planted, except for the green beans. The beans will be planted Memorial Day weekend….at least that’s the plan. But, we did get the herb garden done. I’m pleased with how it turned out, and I can’t wait to have fresh herbs.

There was a bit of excitement last Wednesday when a feral cat came onto the property and started attacking the mother cats. We had to go out and break up the fights.

And lastly, spring is about new life……..and there is more on the homestead!!! In addition to the 3 litters of kittens we have on the homestead, we now also have baby ducks!!! Karen had her babies!!! They are super cute!!! She was sitting on 12 eggs, but she won’t let us get close enough to see if they all hatched. And we have another mother duck sitting on a nest of 14 eggs!!!

What a whirlwind… I’m ready for a break…but there is so much more to come 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I’m looking forward to a less crazy week.

This week’s post is a shout out to those who have given of their time and materials for our homestead….and to brag a little on our hard work.

For those who follow us on Facebook and Instagram, you may have seen our post about having had a back breaking weekend last weekend. Luke was on shoveling and dirt hauling duty. We moved a LOT of dirt!!! Praise God that Luke found us a utility trailer (our anniversary present to each other) that we could hook up to the mower. Lily and I were on row-making duty in the garden. We tore apart bales of straw and formed the planting rows, and then Luke covered them with dirt. They look GREAT!

In between dirt loads, I used the time to make some mini-fences to put around my melon and pumpkin areas. I made them out of scrap 4×4 posts and some pallet boards. I think they turned out pretty neat. Then, we did the same thing we did with the rows, we put down a layer of straw and covered it with dirt.

Once we got all the boxes and rows covered, we took some sawdust and put it in the walk ways. Sawdust is a great natural ground cover, and when put on thick enough, will snuff out the weeds and grass.

We made GREAT progress, and the garden is ready to receive plants, with the exception of 4 circular planting areas we need to straw and dirt, and once all this rain stops….. What sloppy mess it is out there….. But with raised row gardening, the plants don’t get flooded out. Just some water laying in a couple low walk way spots.

It was a hard day, and Luke and I were really feeling our ages by the time we were done, but it was great to get outside and be in the dirt and get some projects done.

And now for me to SHOUT OUT!!!! I want to offer a HUGE THANK YOU to all of those who have helped us so far. We have had people donate sawdust, pallets, time, machinery…It is so greatly appreciated, and we thank God for your contribution….even if they are a bi-products or waste product. THANK YOU!!!!

And now a Public Service Announcement: If anyone has any materials they are looking to get rid of, or would like to donate, feel free to reach out to us. We are always looking for materials to use around the homestead. Materials like pavers, bricks, barn wood, old windows, tarps, sawdust, wood chips, branches/limbs, etc. We are also willing to barter for these materials with our homemade goods.

Hope you all have a great week!!!!

Never thought I’d be one of those homesteading gardeners…but here I am killing it! LOL  

In all seriousness though, there is always more to learn, but I am SO EXCITED!!! I have sprouts coming up!!  If you read the back of a seed packet, it will say “This seed takes XX days to germinate”…well I DON’T CARE!  I was out there almost every day checking to see if anything was poking through the dirt yet. And, finally they have! 🙂

All of the seeds that I sewed directly into the garden have started coming up. Like a mom with a new child, here is a bunch of pics of my new “garden babies”…

There is also some new growth visible on the onion starts that were planted.

Here is where the “I still have room to learn” comes in….  I’ve said it before, I have not had a lot of success starting my seeds in the house and then transplanting them outside. I tried again this year, and I will keep trying until I get it right.

Here are some of the seeds that I started in the house. I’ve been trying to strengthen the stems by blowing a fan on them and rubbing my hands across them, and I’ve also positioned a light very close to the sprouts so they aren’t reaching for light…  But we will see what happens. I’m pretty sure that my brussel sprouts are a lost cause, so I may just direct sew them out in the garden. I’ve done this once before and had some success with it, but it takes so much longer for them to be ready in the fall.

I still have a couple other seeds to get started, like corn and green beans, but those will be coming soon.  We need to get the rest of the rows put in our garden addition, and the fear of frost to go away, and then we will be able to plant the rest.

Then, we sit back….relax….tend….and let God do his work, and we should have quite the bounty in fall!!! 

Let me know you stopped by with a message telling of your favorite veggie dish.

**I’ve found that in order to add a comment, you need to click on the title of the blog article on the right side of the screen. At the bottom of the page you will have a place for comments. Thanks for visiting our site!!!

Finally, I think the weather is taking a turn towards spring. Let’s just hope the last of the cold weather is behind us. After our trip to Florida, I’m ready for it to get warm and stay warm!

Luke and I were able to get outside over the past 2 weeks and get the expansion of the garden fenced in, and I was able to get some of my cold-hardy plants in the ground, like onions, cabbages, lettuce, and spinach. With warm weather planting around the corner, I thought I’d chat a bit about some different gardening styles, and maybe inspire others to “get in the dirt”.  I realize that most of what I grow is centered around edible plants, but these same methods can also be used for flower gardens and landscaping, as well. 

I’m going to try not to get too wordy with this blog post, so please bear with me. LOL

In-Ground Garden: 

This is the most common style of garden. This is a plot of ground that is tilled, worked, and planted directly in the dirt. You have many planting options, and you have the ability to change your garden layout from year to year.

Raised Row Garden:

We use this style of garden at our homestead. There is no tilling involved, which is convenient since we don’t have a tiller. The garden is created by layering compostable materials, both green and brown, into rows directly on top of the ground. Dirt is then placed in a layer on the top of the mound. You plant your seeds and plants in these created rows and add more compost around the plants. This method really does a great job of holding onto moisture for your plants, and since the rows are raised, there is less washout if it is a wet year. Once the rows are established, it is not as easy to change up your planting arrangement.

Container Gardening:

I have touched on this before. You can literally plant in anything! This allows you to be creative, unique and resourceful. Use what you have on hand. You can also build a container to plant in as well. Just plan accordingly. Don’t plant a potato in a coffee mug. Make sure that the size container will allow for adequate growth.

Vertical Gardening:

Don’t have ground space??? Health issues prevent you from bending to work a garden? Plant vertically! You can grow vertically on the side of a fence, hanging on a wall, on a door…any vertical space that gets adequate sunlight. And you can be creative with this as well. You can get a wall planter from the store, or you can create one out of a pallet or even a hanging shoe organizer.  Root vegetables would not necessarily be the best plants for this, but lettuces, spinach, herbs, and tomatoes would all do well.

Hydroponic Gardening:

This style of gardening grows plants in a water solution instead of the ground. I have talked to someone who specializes in hydroponics, and while it is super neat….he said that the water needs to be tested on a regular basis and make sure the appropriate nutrients are added to the circulating water. If you have the desire to do this kind of growing, they sell vertical hydroponic planters, or you could get creative and build your own with PVC pipe and a pump.

Edible Landscape:  

Are you part of a housing development that has HOA and doesn’t allow for a garden? Maybe you are in a town/city and have a very small outdoor space and do not have room for a garden. You can plant edible plants in your landscape. Instead of having flowers planted around your house, put in some vegetable plants. Make use of the space you have.

Greenhouse/Cold Frame/High Tunnel:

These structures can take a bit of space. The biggest benefit of growing in one of these structures is it extends your grow time and allows you to get more out of your plants. You can use any of the above forms of gardening in one of these structures, or a combination of several of them.  If you don’t have the room to put up a big structure, you can start small and make mini-greenhouses out of some windows. 

I hope this has inspired you to be creative. To see that the options for gardening are endless. 

Leave a comment…..I want to see other people’s gardens and plants. Share what worked or didn’t work for you. Show me some creative planting containers.  Thanks for visiting the blog!!!

Sorry this post is being done so late. It was quite the eventful week.
Last Friday at 2 am, the family packed up and we drove to Destin, Florida.
It. Was. Beautiful!!!!
We left home with snow coming down, and arrived in Florida at dinner time with temps in the mid-70’s.

The weekend was spent at a family member’s house. It was a great visit! We haven’t seen them since Thanksgiving, so it was nice to talk with them face to face again. We went on a walk around their neighborhood, had a bonfire, hung out by their pool, and celebrated Luke’s 43rd birthday!!! It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Sunday afternoon we left their house to head to the Hilton Sandestin Resort, where Luke had a business conference. It was absolutely amazing! The beach was white powder sand, the water was crystal clear…it was perfect! Naturally, while Luke was doing his work thing, the kids and I had fun!!! We played in the pool, sat in the hot tub, walked the beach, tried some interesting restaurants, and just enjoyed the much needed break and down time.

One of the highlights of the trip happened on Tuesday evening. Ella and I wanted to go take a nighttime walk along the beach to see if the storm brought anything to shore. As we were walking, we were taken aback, and concerned that someone had lost a silicon breast implant on the beach!!! As we walked a little further, we kept finding more and more of them…..JELLYFISH! They were so cool!! Ella even touched one and said it was kinda sticky LOL We also found a shark tooth on our walk, which was pretty awesome. The most comical part was that the boardwalks going down to the beach lock at a certain time, and you need your room key to open the gate. Not thinking anything of it, I gave my room key to Luke to head back to the room while Ella and I went on our walk……we got locked outside the gate! Apparently, we weren’t the only ones, and we followed suit and we had to climb over the gate to get back into our resort LOL There is always an adventure! HAHAHA

The extent of anything “homestead” that we did was watch the maintenance crew do some gardening. Watching them only made me wish that the weather would get warm and stay warm, here in Ohio, so I can plant as well. But, I’m still waiting.

I hope you enjoy a couple of the pics we took on vacation.

Let me know you visited the blog…Leave a message with a topic you would like me to write a post about. Have a great week!!!

Well…..I had this whole blog post planned out to talk about different style of gardening and how you can literally garden anywhere….. and then we got a SURPRISE!!!!

WE HAVE BABIES ON THE HOMESTEAD!!

Peaches is our matriarch cat on the farm. She came to us from Michigan, and she has given us many litters in the past 5 years. She is super friendly and a wonderful mother. Today, she welcomed a new litter to the homestead. Of the 5 kittens, 4 have survived so far. And we are super excited, because if you have ever been to our house, you know we have an over abundance of yellow/orange cats….and this litter has calico and black babies!!!

This is sure to be the beginning of even more new life on the homestead, as our female ducks have started laying and clutching their eggs…so hopefully we will be having baby ducklings soon as well.

Spring is definitely an exciting time on the homestead!

Have a great week!!! Let me know you stopped by the blog by leaving some name suggestions for the new kittens.

Since last week’s post, we have been hard at work around the homestead. We were blessed with some very nice weather a few days this week, which allowed for some much needed chores and work to get done. Luke had been under the weather for a couple days, so I enlisted the help of the kids to get some things done.

Knowing that we had a garden expansion planned, a friend of ours was gracious enough to come over with his tractor and auger the post holes for us. Let me tell you….that auger made short work out of those post holes!  What would have taken us several days of post hole digging, using the auger we were able to get them done in under 30 minutes! We are not quite finished with the garden expansion, as we need to get some nice days when Luke and I can get out there and wrap the new posts with fencing. We have to be able to do it all at one time, otherwise the guinea and the few free range chickens we have will tear up my garden rows. I just cannot have that happen.  But to help further things along, the girls have since started laying the decorative pavers around the new garden area.

The girls were also a huge help with reconfiguring the compost area.  Having two bays for the compost and one for sawdust just wasn’t working. The compost bins were too small, and we needed more space to be able to get in there to turn it. The girls worked hard and took out the center divider of the compost piles and made one big compost bin. If we ever get a tractor with a bucket on it, the wider compost area will make it easier to get in there and stir it. We ended up with some left over cinder blocks, so we decided to lay them across the back of the compost area and we plan to make it look nice by planting some flowers in the holes of the cinder blocks.

While the girls were helping out with the compost piles and the garden pavers, Wyatt and I had a much worse spring chore…cleaning out the chicken coop. Oh, Man….it was gross!  Wyatt and I literally emptied out the whole coop, and put it all back together with fresh bedding.  And it was a blessing that the girls made the compost pile bigger, because we had a lot of dirty coop bedding to compost.  The chickens LOVED getting back into their freshly cleaned coop. They all got in there and were dust bathing in the fresh sawdust.

After the gross job, I let Wyatt have some creative freedom with helping come up with a design for the new herb garden that I’d like to put in.  We took some decorative pavers to designate a space, and then I let him decorate the exterior how he wanted to. I think it came out pretty neat.

To end this post…I have a confession to make. I have a problem….I am a chronic seed buyer. I went to the store this week, and seeds were on sale, and I just couldn’t pass them up! I walked out with 10 more packs!!! I think I have plenty of seeds to get me through this growing season….or do I? Hahaha!

I’d love to know that you stopped by the blog. Leave a message with your favorite herb/spice. Have a great week!!!

Last week I shared my excitement of buying and saving seeds, and the produce I put in the garden as starts. This week’s article is about taking an inventory of the items we currently have stored from last year’s harvest, how much a family should grow to sustain themselves, and planning your garden.

If you are already someone who cans or stores your produce, spring is the time to take an inventory of what you have left from the previous year’s garden. On our homestead, it’s also a time to eat up what’s still on the shelves to make room and empty some jars for the upcoming canning season. The easiest way that we have found to keep track of what we have on hand for canned goods, is to have a dry erase board hanging close by. Every time a jar of green beans, crushed tomatoes, pickles, or any other canned goods are taken off the shelves, we subtract it from the running total on the dry erase board. If I’m being completely honest, there are several times throughout the year when I have to go down and do an inventory because there are a few people (I won’t call anyone out by name) that “forgets” to update the dry erase board. 

Growing any amount of fresh produce for your family is already a step in the right direction, but if you are looking to grow enough to sustain your family for the year, a little more research is needed. The most obvious place to start is the size of your family and the ages. When you’re planning how much you are going to grow, keep in mind that a toddler does not eat as much as a teenager, so the number of plants per person may vary slightly. 

The chart below shows some of the vegetables that we grow here on the homestead, and an estimate of how much is needed to sustain a person through the year. 

Green Beans	12-15 Plants per Person
Cucumbers	4-5 Plants per Person
Carrots	25-35 Plants per Person
Corn	10-15 Plants per Person
Lettuce	4-6 Plants per Person
Melons	1-2 Plants per Person
Onions	12-20 Sets per Person
Peas	15-20 Plants per Person
Potatoes	10-15 Plants per Person
Spinach	5-6 Plants per Person
Squash	1-2 Plants per Person
Tomatoes	2-4 Plants per Person

Our homestead doesn’t quite follow this chart, as we grow enough not only for our family, but also for farmer’s markets/produce stand.  

Lastly, for today, I wanted to share some garden planning ideas. If you don’t have a garden and are looking to start growing some produce, or you have a garden but ran out of ground space and aren’t able to expand, it’s time to get creative! There’s no right or wrong way to have a garden. It doesn’t have to be big enough to be tilled with a tractor, or fenced in, or even in the ground. One option that I have seen people with very small do is planting vegetables in their flower beds. Maybe you have health issues and getting up and down isn’t possible for you, so you could have a raised bed garden, where your plants are in boxes above the ground. Or maybe container gardening is a more realistic option for your living situation. This is where you can be creative. You can plant in anything, from a wooden box, a bucket, an old bathtub, or even an old boot! The possibilities are endless, and this allows you to make your garden special and unique. Have FUN with your garden!! If you enjoy your garden and have fun with it, it is less of a chore to have to take care of.

I hope this post got your creative ideas going, from canning storage, keeping track of what you have on hand, how much to grow to sustain a person for a year, to some creative gardening ideas. I would love to see other people’s gardens and some of the fun things people use as planters!!!  Send me some pics!!!  

Have a great week!!!

I think I can speak for the majority of people in our area, and testify that when we get to about this time of the year, we are ready for some warmer weather. And, after the wet week we just had, I would say some dryer weather. I understand the necessity of the cold winter months, but I’m ready for spring! Like everyone else, the past few months we have been staying inside where it’s warm, with the exception of taking care of the chickens and ducks; but now, with warmer weather ahead, there are some projects that need to be planned to get done.  

Spring is always a busy time on the homestead, but with new additions to our livestock and expansion projects, this year is even busier. For the next several weeks, I’m going to be sharing with you the projects we have planned for this year. Part 1 is going to be focused around seed and plant selection for this year’s garden and stocking up on some garden necessities.

In case you haven’t walked past the garden center in your local stores, SEEDS ARE OUT!!! I am like a kid in a candy store when seed packets become available. I want one of every pack! HAHAHA. While I’m standing in the aisle with my arms full of seed packets, I have to stop and decide what I want to grow from seed, and what I want to plant as a start. Looking from my stash to my cart, I have some decisions to make.  

I do my best to save seeds from the previous year, so I know I will be directly sewing some of those into the garden, like peas, green beans, cucumber and zucchini. From my armfull of seed packets, I can put those back on the display. Other seeds that I sew directly into the garden are lettuce, spinach, squash and my root vegetables. I am also going to plant melons and corn. These two are a first for me. And that’s even more seed packets into my cart!  

Some items I just have better luck planting as starts. I’m going to try to grow some starts myself and plant them into the garden. I am not ashamed to say that I have had a rough go at this in the past, so I have a wonderful place that I get the rest of my vegetable plants from. I usually plant a variety of tomatoes, cabbages, and peppers from starts, and this year I am also going to try brussel sprouts. I have tried several times to grow brussel sprouts, but I have not been successful. I am determined to figure it out, even if my husband says it is a waste of garden real estate. HAHAHA

The last thing I want to touch on for Part 1, is stocking up on garden necessities. I am very supportive of those who farm/garden organically. When it comes down to it, our garden is not at a scale where I feel I can justify growing organically. I want our garden to produce as much as possible for our use and to bless others. While we are very fortunate to have chickens and ducks that provide us with fertilizer, we also like to use fertilizer that we mix in while watering. We also make sure that we are prepared for the unwanted weeds and ever present threat of harmful insects, by having weed and insect killer on hand. More power to those who are brave enough to grab a hornworm and not use any bug killer. Those are some nasty looking pests!! Gives me the creepy-crawlies just thinking about it! 

Come back next week for Part 2.  I’m going to talk about the expansion projects we are doing this year on the homestead, as well as talking about our canned goods supply and planning how much people should plan to put up for a year. 

Welcome to Faithful Friends Homestead and Kennel Blog!

My name is April Burkhart, Owner of Faithful Friends Homestead and Kennel LLC, and I am excited to be starting my first blog! A little bit about me; my husband and I have been married for 17 years, and I am mother of 3 teenagers and 2 dogs. I have a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Findlay, and am the office manager of a plumbing company. I did not grow up as a country girl, but through raising livestock in 4-H, I always had hoped one day I would live on a farm. And now, here I am, on our 2 acre homestead, living the country life.

With this blog, I hope to share what’s going on with our homestead and let others into our homestead experiences.. From planting seeds, pest control, harvesting, raising animals, shoveling poop, preserving our own food, to just having a good time, I want to share it all with my readers. I will share our successes and our failures…..or maybe we will call them “life lessons” 🙂 Readers will get to see our “creative” construction of projects around the homestead, as sometimes we have to be thrifty and use what’s on hand.  More on that in future posts. 

I would like to reach people of all ages and skill levels who are interested in learning with us, from us, and from others about homesteading. I want people to understand that it is ok to try new things and fail at them, that following through with a wacky idea can prove to have a great reward, and anyone can homestead in their own way, even if on a very small scale. 

With this being my first blog, I am planning on a weekly blog post to start out. Updates will be on Thursdays starting on March 10.

I would love to hear from any reader of this blog, but I do ask that everyone be respectful and kind. We are all stewards of this earth, and we are all striving to do our best with what God has blessed and provided to us.

I can also be reached via email at ffhk@bright.net