Rambling Holiday Thoughts

An update of goings on around here will follow at the bottom of this post. Suffice it to say that daily routines have been extremely busy!

Fall is my favorite time of year. I do have some peeves about the season however. I'm all for capitalism, but our world today is so overwhelmed with advertisements that the merchants seem to be bent on sapping the joy out of everything.

We can't get through July 4th before the back-to-school ads begin, harping at us that our children should not be deprived of the latest and best in any and everything from their clothing, backpacks, electronic gadgetry and of course, heat and eat food from the freezer section. All of these things are bent on driving parents to equip their child with nothing but the best - yet published charts explain that despite our personal spending and massive increases in local, state and federal government funding, the children have not significantly altered their academic performance in the last 30 years! (Why More Money Will Not Solve America's Education Crisis: Heritage.org provides examples of such charts, along with their views regarding funding.) Before I digress too far down that bunny trail, suffice it to say that I think too much money is being thrown at anything labeled 'for the children', yet somehow, the children do not benefit.

Then, we can't get the kids on the bus to school before the Halloween ads crank up. Michael Jackson's Thriller is thrown at us in all kinds of versions no matter where you go, accompanied by skeletons, ghosts, witches and a few scarecrows.

Abruptly after October 31, however, an oddity has arisen in our seasonal deluge of media blitzing. Merchants skip right past Thanksgiving to Black Friday. Thanksgiving hardly is mentioned at all, except with the context of PRE-Thanksgiving specials - and we're not talking turkey dinners here. Now I'm all for early shopping to save money and to be prepared to bless family and friends with carefully chosen gifts. I honestly believe that the current generation of children and teens have likely heard much more about Black Friday than the traditional Thanksgiving account of the English settlers' feast.

So, Thanksgiving is basically being erased in favor of the competition for the Christmas shopping dollars. Aisles in the stores are filled to overflowing with every type of merchandise intended to help you create the ideal holiday, complete with indoor/outdoor decor, apparel, and of course gifts in the ideal wrap with the perfectly matched ribbons and bows.

I went out last night in search of candles for our advent wreath and was dismayed to find the carnage in the aisles of the local stores after the ravaging of the fervent shoppers. I also did not find the candles I wanted, but easily settled for an alternate in the desire to escape the chaotic panorama of both the recently plundered and depleted shelves of Black Friday specials and the overflowing bins of cheaply made toys spilling on to the pathways to the checkout counters.

So, in a nutshell, commercialism of holidays seems to effectively drive folks out to mix it up in somewhat of a frenzy to spend money. I think there must be a huge segment of the population that continues to feel deprived and unfulfilled...and in debt!

Time to put the blinders on! Focus on what's most important with each holiday celebration and life in general! We've been working for years to establish traditions for the holidays that have some meaningful purpose for our family. Time will tell whether these things take root within our kids, but I know that for my husband and me, these things help to prevent the distractions from stealing our time, attention and money away.

Enough ranting, the promised update follows:

Chickens: As of yesterday, we put our 23 pullets (or possibly 22 pullets and 1 cockerel) into the coop and run with our 26 laying hens. We were somewhat anxious about this blending, as warnings abound in online resources that advise that re-establishing the pecking order can be brutal and possibly fatal for the younger chickens. We can report that all 49 chickens are alive and well. We will be rehoming a number of the birds so that our remaining flock will not be overcrowded! The laying hens are doing very well and continue to produce an average quantity of 24 eggs per day. We have some loyal customers that purchase our excess, so the hens are paying their way on feed and continue to pay down the mortgage on the coop ;).

Garden: The garden has been reworked to remove as many weeds as possible and lies dormant for winter with nothing but a row of strawberry plants and a few straggling asparagus plants. We're trying a new approach that involves mounds, irrigation, plastic protection and mulch.

Herb Garden: Absolutely nothing happening in this area. Thanksgiving meal preparations stirred my desire to have my own herbs for next year's dinner - planted, harvested and dried. We'll see....I've got a whole year to work on making that happen!

Life in general: School for the kids, meal prep and clean-up, house maintenance (cleaning and repairs), garden tool maintenance, inside/outside chores, church participation and activities, extracurricular kid activities all seem to keep us quite busy!

Thanks for stopping by the blog! Perhaps the coming winter months will afford more opportunity for posting articles of merit!

Spring is BUSY!

The focus this past week has been on outside projects and includes completing a really thorough tilling in the vegetable garden and completing the first mowing of our 'lawn' areas. Sounds simple enough, but the complications arise in getting the equipment up and running after a long winter of dormancy. My husband and I both agreed that we need to sort out how to keep these things in better condition prior to their active season! Along those lines, I found a website to help: Hobby Farms Three regular contributors to their blog area include an experienced individual to discuss equipment, tools, maintenance and repair, etc. This is why I LOVE the internet!

Second Day of Spring

I somehow missed noting that the first official day of spring was on the 20th. Undeniably, spring is all around us and we are discovering new blooms daily in the landscape and trees. We moved in during the fall, so our first spring is truly full of surprises! Not sure, but these blooms look most like a maple from our tree book.
One very brave hyacinth is very showy in the midst of many daffodils...
Daffodils are tucked into several areas around the house and along the driveway...
They are nicely coming out in stages, so we should be able to enjoy them for a more extended season.

Oh, boy...time has come to pull out the garden tiller we purchased from the previous property owner. We were told that it needed new belts and my husband had studied the manual to determine the type. He discovered that it needed belts. Period. Old ones had been removed, so the manual came out again to identify how to place them. After a few hours of fueling, adding oil, placing the belts on and tugging, tugging, tugging the starter cord...success! The almost 30 yr old tiller sputtered and coughed, but still worked.

My husband coaxed it along a few turns in the garden plot. It's extremely cranky, we're hoping due to lack of use. Our soil tests indicate we need fertilizer in the garden as well, so we'll purchase a good quantity and give the cranky tiller an opportunity to earn its keep!

Gardening begins!

First, I must say that I was tremendously disappointed by the seed distributor's seed packaging! BORING! Just look at this!

What happened to those packages with the lovely pictures of the vegetables we hope to have? Sigh....

Well, now you can have a peek at our garden.

Just like the chickens, the garden is getting a head start in the garage with a nice climate controlled setting.

Last week, we started some lettuce seeds and just look at them go...or grow ;)

This week, we add broccoli, cauliflower and peppers...

For those following our chicken tales, this one is most definitely a boy! He's a silver-laced Wyandotte. We've been told that the clues are in his very red comb and early beginnings of wattles below the eye. His legs are also larger and more sturdy than the pullets. Wyandottes are known for excellent large brown eggs - but of course we won't be getting any of those from him! We're watching to see how he gets along with the girls and with us. He has very striking coloring, so hopefully he'll stay a peaceful guy and get to stay!

Seeds! It's planting time!

What is it about seed packets that are so attractive? I've never planted much of anything from seeds - not enough patience! The packet covers are always depict such perfection and promise! Well, we'll test our patience soon as we just placed orders with three different seed companies for a large variety of vegetables for our garden. I should definitely take photos of 'before' and 'after'. First,we must overcome the challenges of growing something from 'scratch'. Going in, we have ignorance and lack of experience as a huge hurdle. Then, the standard gardening issues of digging, planting, weeding, harvesting, watering, weeding...The more advanced concepts of composting, mulching, pollinating make sense to us intellectually, but without the timing or skills, we're a bit overwhelmed. Then, add in the complications of raccoons, deer, rabbits, birds, some type of mole that runs around under the yard, bugs and we're really up against it to come out with something to eat!

Here's the stack of books alongside my perch at the moment:

The Kitchen Garden: a complete practical guide to planting, cultivating and harvesting fruits and vegetables

Garden Planning (a book that is 95% flower beds, 5% vegetable and herb gardens)

The Backyard Homestead (that promises to help you produce all the food you need on just a quarter of an acre)

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide: Banner batches, grow heaps, comforter compost and other Amazing Techniques for Saving Time and Money, and producing the most flavorful, nutritious vegetables Ever!

Armed with all this information, you'd think we'd be all ready to go! We attended a one hour seminar conducted by an experienced gardener in town. She provided a handout with a list of vegetables, including the seed supplier and variety that she personally recommended. We're going with her list as a starting point. Next is getting a spot ready for the early seeds to get a head start as plants by the time the predicted frost has passed us by. We're hoping that window of time allows us to prepare the soil!

I'm so overwhelmed with the overdose of helpful hints that I'm ready to pitch the books aside and start digging! Oh..well, I guess I'll wait until it stops raining and the seeds arrive....

Introduction

Well, here I am at the beginning of a new season in my life. You may have arrived here through our other blog "Yes dear, I'm watching the flare" that documented some of our family's adventures as we toured the country in our RV. Now, we've settled in a new state, purchased a few acres and a 1930's Tennessee farm house. We're basically a bunch of city slickers attempting to pursue a few farming interests. My husband and I wanted to begin this before our kids are entirely grown up so that they can learn along with us.

My history, in brief:

• Born and raised in Texas
• Acquired a BS degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University (whoop!)
• Worked for 13 years at TxDOT as an engineer and manager
• Met the love of my life at work and got married
• Chose to quit working when our oldest son was born
• At the urging of my husband, began home school with our son when he was 5
• Adopted a precious boy from Guatemala about 6 years later
• Upon my husband's retirement, travelled the country for 1 1/2 years, homeschooling the kids along the way

Kind of short and sweet, isn't it? Funny how you can take a few decades (never mind exactly how many)and sum them up like that. Well, now this next chapter involves learning a few things:

• gardening
• caring for livestock (starting with chickens)
• living life as simply as possible

The title of this blog has roots in the history of our house, but I'll save that for another post. We are not likely going to be able to live 'off-grid' as the word homestead implies. I'll document in this blog about our learning experiences and link to sources that help us in our next venture. I'll also share some thoughts as God teaches me. As the 'About Me' paragraph indicates, I am a 'work in progress'. I live my life as a disciple of Christ, completely imperfect in my humanness, completely blessed due to God's faithfulness.