Pumpkin seed drying season is in effect!
11/6/2024
Hello everyone! Sorry about the long absence from Tumblr. It was a very busy fall for me and when you add in the fact I got a new phone I have been scrambling to get caught up. That and I have once again started a new relationship. We started to talk in July and things quickly escalated. I now try to split my time 50/50 between the homestead and her place an hour south of home. She's a fancy pants country girl and fits into my crazy lifestyle perfectly. We are so happy together and excited to be building something with each other.
With all that being said I did get some things done this fall. We got a large crop of pumpkins from the plot that I planted. Some of my experimentations with these did not go so well but others did very good. I'm in the process now of gathering what's left over from sales in a few donations plus our own personal use to save seeds for future years. I traded several pumpkins for a few bushels of Indian corn so that will be added in next year as well. Beside that final garden harvesting, gathering grapes off the vine, picking pears to trade with our neighbor for wine like always, and starting to cut firewood for my father and the girlfriend have taken up so much time.
Of course you all know how busy I am over the holiday season with running the Santa house. On top of now having two properties to help decorate LOL.
It's been a very interesting few months but I have missed you all. I'm going to really try hard over the next couple weeks to get caught up on here and say hi to all of you. Hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more post from me and my adventures!
I haven't done much cooking so far this year at the fair. I was hungry so I made a late night snack. 3 eggs, sliced potatoes, shredded squash, and shredded cheddar cheese. Delicious!!! 😋
Fourth generation old English radishes grown from seeds saved from Joey's senior year horticulture project. I'm letting 4 other plants go to seed to continue the landrace.
Trying something different this year and planting some stuff around my yard and using cardboard, mulch, and whatever else I have around for ground cover.
My entire life I've been gifted feathers. I usually find them in my paths but sometimes they show up in the weirdest random places. I was just walking over to the house and this little one was sitting in the middle of my path through the yard. It was directly in front of my chair too. I'd walked through there several times earlier too. No doubt this was put there for me!
Some babies are starting to pop up in my pallet beds!
Three pallet beds built and planted. Starting to get somewhere with this project. With the beds, what I planted beside them and the starts at my place I have corn, a bunch of pumpkins, radishes, peppers, squash, peas, beans, cantaloupe and watermelon going. I feel like I could actually stop now, I'm not going to but I feel like I could. I said I was going to downsize some this year due to lack of time and this is really taking the pressure off of me. Still lits of time to go through!
When I say homemade stock is liquid gold I'm not lying. Look at that color! I got 4 pans like this, each enough to make stuffing, rice, noodles, or just to start another chicken or turkey. Plus the chickens will be eating the meat scraps for the next few days and that always makes them happy!
Working on being mean re creative again...
I'm so far behind that I didn't get my spring batch of stock done before it got hot. Since its going to be cooler the next few days I decided it was time. This is just the beginning of the process, just the remains of Dads birthday chicken and some various spices. I'm also thawing out two rotisserie chicken carcasses, and a small roaster Mom made a couple months back. Oh and my bag of veggie leftovers. I'll let all of that mingle in the crock pot till probably tomorrow night or Monday morning whenever it smells and looks like it's done. Then I'll strain out everything and let it cool. After removing the layer of fat that will form on the top it'll go back in the crock for another 10 hours or so then into the freezer. It's liquid gold!
6-01-24
The belly of the beast!!!!
I figured I best get started on the cook stove so Joey and I hauled it to the garage tonight. The first step is to get the tree remaining legs and the door off. That will put it in 12 pieces. I'm going to go ahead and replace all the hardware just to be safe, it's only going to cost a couple dollars anyway. Then I'll start working on the smaller pieces learning the best way to clean and season them. Then the main body and put it all back together. Hopefully by then I'll have the floors done, if not at least a living room. Get the house arranged and get it installed before the cold weather sets in and I get busy at the Santa house. I know it's going to be a lot of work and a long process but I'm excited to see how it goes and also not to freeze next winter!
I wanted to build several pallet beds this spring over in my yard but I'm way behind so decided to put a few in the family garden so I don't have to haul the dirt over to the house. This took me about 15 minutes all together. Seeds going in now!
kochlandhomestead reblogged
Whitney Furniture Vintage swinging doll cradle $50
A friend of mine picked this up at the local auction for me! He knew I had been looking for a light enough wood stove that me and my son could move out of the living room to save space in the summer. He paid a walking $7! It's going to be a little bit of work to get her cleaned up, but I absolutely cannot wait to install it this fall!
Finally got my mushrooms Mom got me for Christmas out today then moved some stuff around in the Enchanted yard. I love this time of year!