KochLand Homestead (and more adventures)

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!

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.

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!

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!

The other day I found some 5-year-old green bean seeds laying around. I figured they wouldn't be viable anymore but decided to plant one just to see what would happen. Look at this little son of a gun!

It's evenings like this that keep me here. The peppers singing, the whippoorwill crying, the breeze full of lilac and spring. Then I get to walk up the road and say goodnight to the sun. This is home and always will be.

Dandelion has become one of my favorite wildflowers. I actually love the smell which is surprising because my grandmother absolutely hated it lol. The leaves are delicious when cooked in bacon grease. It's also medicine! Plus it can be made into wine and who doesn't like wine? The deep Roots help draw nutrients from within the soil to the surface and also help break up hard clay soil like mine. They are also one of the earliest food sources for bees and you all know that we need to help our bees. So just leave them alone for a little and let them work their magic!

Happy Spring Equinox and a Blessed Ostara to those who celebrate! We are so excited for spring and to get busy with the hundreds of projects we have planned. Hopefully this leads to more activity on this blog. I miss y'all!

A sure sign that spring is on the way, the crocuses have popped up!

Finally getting around and trying to make one of my favorite meals, Haluski. I got a late start because of all of the running around this morning so this isn't going to be done till about 9-10 but my egg noodles are already done and waiting. I've never actually had Haluski cooked with Polish sausage in it always on the side so that will be interesting too. I'm really hoping this will cook down some so that I can throw my Pierogies in at about the halfway point. So excited to see how this comes out!

Really feeling this on a day like today!

1/08/24 6:35am

Our first winter storm of the year came through Saturday and Sunday dropping around 5" on us. It's supposed to get into the mid 40s today so it's short lived. We do have more coming tomorrow followed by heavy rain. Not good weather when it comes to working outside.

Its pumpkin seed drying season again!

10/6/23

Toasted Tomato sandwich for lunch today. Probably one of the last ones this season ☹️

8/30/2023

One of my favorite meals at the Grange was pierogies with haluska from Helen's stand. Last year Helen passed away and Rosie's pierogies took over her spot. Of course I had to try them but was very disappointed. No onion and very little butter on the perogies and the Haluska was very plain and seemed under cooked. So I brought it home and today I tried to doctor it up and was very successful. Started by grilling some onions in bacon grease then added the perogies followed shortly after by the Haluska. The onion and bacon fat gave the noodles a nice flavor and the bit of grilled char on the perogies was a game changer. This was just half so 2nd supper is going to be awesome later tonight!

I spent the last two weeks working at the Lycoming County Fair. My best friend and myself pulled 10-15 hour days in the hot sun but had a blast. Its being able to do such things that lets me know I made the right decision when I embarked on this adventure!

I cant tell you how excited I am to see how these mammoth pumpkin turn out. The person I traded for these saud they regularly produce pumpkins that weight from 75 to 300 pounds!