Good to know

with the uncertains of the weather it is good to know that our pantry is plentiful. We are snowed in and the schools are closed. The snow is coming down and the wind is blowing but we are warm and comfortable. Its hard to believe that some carrots are still in the ground but good to have plenty food.
They say it could get down to -13 windchill tonight but with a handy kerosine heater the electric could go out and we can still be warm.
With all the snow coming down its hard to think we are garden planning today. We are making lists and preparing the greenhouse with a few last touchs. Our garden will be expanded by 12-15 feet this year also plans for another 6 raised beds going in, in the back this winter also. And again we will be tearing up some of the front yard for other edibles, herbs, trees. So excited.... So what are you preparing for the growing months?

Another year over

and yes, as the song goes, a new one just begun. So here's a run down of what we have done this year. We have come along way in one short year. We have about 90% of our food consumption growing on our land. We now have 3 peach trees, 5 apples, a cherry, and strawberry plants, and a means to get all the pears we need in the fall.
We have the herb garden done. Working on a few more raised beds for the spring. going to bring in a calf for some meat. We are still eating on the pantry goodies we froze, canned, or dehydrated this summer. Carrots are still in the ground and we pick them as we need them.

Planning - greenhouse will have heat from a gas Coleman heater which we recycled.Its brand new and was thrown in the garbage. Jan. is a busy time for me around here with getting everything ready to plant. I also have tons of things to mail, orders to make and compost to gather.
we also are looking into buying an outdoor wood burner for our house to cut the cost of the electric we use.
everyone have a great New Year!!!

September - mid- October update

Well with over a month hiatus I am back. We here on our bit of soil have been going through a great deal of variety of things from sickness to just every day life.

I am happy to report that i am feeling better with some 'ME" time taken. the garden is almost done. Still have carrots in the ground, Still drying walnuts and peanuts. Now we are in the middle of hunting seasons which provides our family with 95% of our yearly meat consumption.
I went to a court days recently ( which is a really big yard sale) and found a juicer like my moms that I borrowed for $5, yes just $5. My mom paid over $50 for hers. I am one happy girl.
With the upcoming holidays arriving rather quickly I am also trying to find ideas for presents. If you all have any please let me know.

August update

With everything going on on our bit of soil we are taking time and praying for all those that are in SoCal that are in danger of losing their homes due to the fires that are still burning.
The gardens are starting to wind down and we were blessed with a lot of veggies for our pantry. The pantry is full and the pears are just now ripening. We have had some rather cool weather here, feeling more like October then Sept.
Now for August our garden totals are awesome, 424 pounds and 12 oz for the month!!! With 311 pounds just in tomatoes. Of course they are not all done yet but We have surpassed our goal of 600 pounds for the year.
The above poundage came from watermelon, cantaloupe, petris squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, peppers, acorn squash, sweet dumpling squash, app;es, and tomatillos.
So far our grand total is 794 pounds.

Our tomatoes per pound selling at the farmers market for 99 cents per pound has saved us $307.89
Our watermelons have saved us $5.99.
our peppers have saved us $4. 78

Saving our family well over $300 dollars just this month. Of course the whole year is not done and I am working on totals for the year to see how much has been saved. But with everything I have ever grown it was always worth the effort instead of buying it. It's always better for you and tastes 100 times better then processed foods.

Homestead happenings - August

With everything growing like crazy my family has really seen how much a mom can juggle at one given time. It gets really hectic and confusing at times but its really amazing how much you can get done in a 24 hour period.
Keeping- Tomato soup ( thanks A for the recipe), hot juice, and tomato juice are the things being processed at this time. With the occasional bushel of green beans thrown in just for good measure. But really With 50+ pounds of tomatoes coming out of the garden in a day the juicer has been working over time! The pantry is full with an added 4 shelves put up which are all full also. The freezer also full. Its a good feeling when you know how well your family will be fed this winter.
Outside - We built a shed for the horses and also a much larger pasture for them to room and eat. It feeds them plus we now have about 40 minutes of mowing gone!! And as if cutting out the grass wasn't a big enough plus we also have no money out of our pocket for all the materials used. The shed was recycled from a bigger shed we took down for someone. We also got a kids playhouse which was recycled. the posts we had from when we first moved here and never got around to building the fence. The fence was given to us by a neighbor, he took it down to put up new, the fence is in great shape. He said it was going to the landfill - NOooooo. Okay he brought it to us. Yippee!!
Inside - still going through things to have a yard sale. this will take some time with the garden flourishing like it is. Our electric company sent us a letter about a program to help the environment and save energy. So we are signing up for that.
Well that's about all for now. I am trying to get the fall planting in the ground and the raised beds ready for the winter months with new horse manure on them for next years planting. You know you are a homesteader when you are thinking and planning for 6 months from the month you are actually in. HAve a great weekend!

Tomatoes - big and small

With 158 tomato plants I plan to have enough to make sauces, salsa, ketchup, and sun dried tomatoes. As it turns out , ablove pictures, show we will probably have plenty of tomatoes to go around. All the plants look like the above photos, they are loaded. Some as big as a small bowl. We have several different colors of tomatoes growing like, pink, yellow, red, black, white, orange, and of course green. I hope to have enough ripe green tomatoes to make up a batch of green tomato sauce for the kids. They variesties of tomatoes are as follows : Uncle Mark Bagby,Verna Orange, Great White, Black Plum, Grace Lahman, Black Krim, Pinapple, Yellow pear, mama leone, rutgers, dads sunset break O'day, Old Virgina, Thessaloniki, and Aunt Ruby's german green tomato.

June harvest total

With this month approaching an end it is time for me to post our harvest for the month.
This month we produced 87 pounds and 4 oz. of good wholesome food from our own land.
I also have 31 jars of pickles canned, 4 bags of fresh green beans in the freezer and zucchini bread in the freezer.

May happenings - update

So this month has been both busy and productive. We are very pleased with the new raised beds growing the veggies at an alarming rate.
- Our brussle sprouts are more then my knee height.
-The carrot greens are lush and plenty. Hopefully the roots will be just as wonderful.
-All the radish's are done for the spring but we hope to get more planted before the winter. Yes I said winter.
-We managed to get about 113 tomato plants in the ground this year and still have around 30 in the greenhouse.
-Our pepper plants are having a rough go of it due to the rains flooding the garden and washing out the plants by the handfuls. We were lucky enough to get more planted and with any luck will produce plenty.
-The onions are doing well although we are having a time with them blooming. This is the first year that has ever happened to me.
- As for the potatoes, they are fixing to bloom. I have had to hand pick the potato beetles off the plants almost every day but they seem to be disappearing.
- The melons are all doing well as well as the squash and cucumbers.
- Peas are coming along well and all the kids love peas now. They can't get enough of the sweet green fresh peas.
We have managed to get over 4 pounds of veggies out of the garden already and we are happy to think we won't have a hard time in getting to our goal this year.

Is it May already?

I can remember just a few short weeks ago begging for Spring to come and shine it's loving sunshine down on our yard. Much to my surprise it has come and come with hot weather and much needed rain. Most of our garden and raised beds are planted and all of the veggies are growing beautifully. The peas are starting to climb the trellis I made for them and the cucumbers are peaking through the ground. I know it seems early to have all this out and planted on the first day of May but I believe, as previously mentioned on my garden journal on FGers site, the last frost is gone. But if the threat comes honking down upon us we are well prepared.

Today is raining and expected to rain on the Derby tomorrow as well. It seems it rains every year on the Derby. The rain is more then welcomed in our yard as our 2 rain barrels are depleted through the 80+ degree tempts earlier this week. They both are about half full now.

Much like all my other month to month updates I try to tell you about how well or poorly the things are growing around here. The carrots finally are showing there green tops and the radishes should be able to pluck out of the ground in a couple of weeks. With any luck they will be ready before the really hot and humid weather comes to stay. We now have 7 rows of potatoes planted and they all are showing off there green tops just above ground level. All the beans have sprouted as well as the squash, cukes and zukes. Lettuce and spinach are growing with leaps and bounds every day. Oh I can't wait for the green salad that we grew on our own land. Most excitingly the peanuts have sprouted and the kiwi have 3 true leaves on them. The kiwi are growing slowly but all the research I have done on growing them, they are a slow growing vine. I need to find a better way to grow the celery as they were doing great until the rain beat the little things in the ground a bit more then they should be. They might come back but like I said this is a year of trials. Cabbage and brussel sprouts are doing great as well as the onions.

Also on another side of the "bit" hubby started his new job today. He was a bit nervous this morning but he is a hard worker and I know he will do fine.

The kids planted there pumpkin patch and they have yet to sprout but I know with the kids' caring hearts they will grow and flourish. So I believe it is 27 days of school left which I will be thankful when they get to have a bit of a summer vacation. Although it will be short I am sure we can have some fun during the break.
Not much more has happened in the month of April, other then the day to day events that keep us busy and content at the same time. Have a great month of May!!!

Jan., Feb., March dollars

How much things cost. I hear about it all around. Wow you plant this much it must cost a fortune. Well this is why I am going to keep updates here on what I spend and what I save through the year to see just what REALLY comes out on top.

This years supplies so far:

seeds - $75

100 strawberry plants - $39

5 fruit trees - $40

utility light for growing seeds - $10

mini greenhouse to start plants early - $40

soil - $40

Total so far - $244

Yes that seems like a lot of money but I bought things gradually and I hope to get it back through harvest. Also most of the things won't need to be bought again next year if I do it right. The soil was a unexpected purchase which we thought our compost would have been ready before we needed it but it didn't get hot enough soon enough to make the compost to the dirt we needed for the many raised beds we built this year.
So when I harvest produce from our garden I will weigh it and go by the "average" price per pound for here in our state. Then I will add it all up and see how much money I have saved by growing our food instead of buying it at the local market.