When The Snow Blows...

We are solidly in the midst of an Arctic blast.  It is cold, icy, snowy and windy.  It is not fit for humans outside.  Luckily for Creek Cottage Homestead (and me) we only have chickens to take care of as far as farm chores. The chickens get fed and watered, eggs collected, and checked on twice a day.  Other than that I get to hunker down inside and keep warm.

Besides schooling the kids and general household chores I've been staying busy by browsing seed catalogs and coming up with a must read list for the remaining months of winter.  The list is long but I've found every book but one through the local library system!  I love libraries!  So tomorrow I going to venture out and have my trusty librarian order me some books.

1. Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte (Companion Planting)
2. Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon (Survival Gardening)
3. Market Farming Success by Lynn Bycznski (Farming Biz)
4. Flower Farming by Lynn Bycznski (Cut Flower Biz)
5. Great Herb Mixes You Can Make by Jim Long (This is the only book I may have to purchase!)
6. Making Bentwood Furniture by Jim Long (Craft)
7. Making Dream Pillows by Jim Long (Herbal Craft)
8. From the Ground Up by Jeanne Nolan (Memoir and Gardening Advice)
9. Backyard Market Gardening by Andrew Lee (Farming Biz)
10. Chicken Tractors by Andrew Lee (Chicken Housing)
11. Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin (Chicken Biz)
12. Dairy Goats by Gregory, Diana (Goat Education)
13. Goats, Rabbits & Chickens by Hollis Lee (Animal Education)
14. How To Raise Dairy Goats by Martha Maeda (Goat Education)
15. Raising Goats: The Backyard Dairy Alternative by David Weems (Goat Education)
16. Gathering: Memoir Of A Seed Saver by Diane Ott Whealy (Memoir & Seed Saving)
17. Homegrown Herbs by Tammi Hartung (Herbs)
18. The Holistic Orchard by Michael Phillips (Fruit Trees)

What do you think?  Think it will keep me busy into spring?

You can see from the list what my priorities are for the coming year: Growing and selling produce, growing and selling flowers and herbs, crafting and selling what we can, increasing our egg laying flock and adding broilers, raising a small milk goat herd (after we get fencing accomplished- the actual animals may have to wait until the spring after this coming one), and starting our fruit orchard.  We plan on adding a couple of Heirloom/Heritage fruit trees per year.  This year will be apple trees.

That's not too much to chew off is it?  We shall see!  What have you all been doing this winter?

Pursuing A Family Economy

The Lewis Family learning to butcher chickens last summer

Farmer John and I went on a lunch date earlier this week and I told him I was serious about earning money from our land this year.  Nothing grand- just keeping on top of the garden so I have excess to sell, adding another dozen laying chickens and trying our hand at some broilers for ourselves and a few to sell to friends.

Then, to my surprise, my husband said he really desires to leave his corporate job and come home to make a living on the land. This is the first time he said it as a definite goal not just a pipe dream.  We both shared our desire for a lifestyle of "needing" less and in the process freeing ourselves from modern consumerism and economics.

I laugh because we are both admittedly middle aged (44) and for our mid-life crisis we don't want to go buy hot rods or take early retirement to a tropical island.  We want to need less and provide healthy food and knowledge to our community.  It is a dream different from most.

Now, I don't think it will be easy.  We will probably have to work harder then we ever have. But I do think (if it is within God's will) that it is obtainable.  If we build our customer base slow without incurring debt and let God open doors then I do believe John could come home in three years or less and we'd be working for ourselves not somebody else.

Herrick Kimball over at The Deliberate Agrarian has been doing a series on Family Economies and his last post really captures our desires.  You can read it here.

We will be writing a proper business plan soon but our plans include: selling eggs, broilers, veges, herbs, flowers, bread, jams, and crafts this year.  Michigan has a great cottage food law that allows us to sell up to $25,000 worth of product from a home kitchen without needing any sort of license and because we don't want to be the next "Tyson" and want to keep things on a micro level we also weed out a lot of other government regulation. 

In the future we want to add animal fiber and goods, goat milk caramels and soaps, bramble fruits, and an orchard.  We aren't sure if we want to CSA or Herbal CSA but we will want to add educational classes and a green house for annual flowers and potted veges/herbs.  (The latter will require at least a $40 yearly micro grower state license.)  We want this to be a venture that our kids can add to with their own ideas and talents and I've always wanted to do a magazine and write agrarian non-fiction. (As well as the fiction I have in the works.)  But we aren't doing any of this with a get rich mentality or desire.  Our desire is to be closer as a family, closer to God, closer to the land and the rich, healthy heritage of agrarianism and be blessed with an opportunity to share it with others.

I'd love to hear the stories of others doing the same!

Homestead What Is It?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Can you all guess what this is a picture of?

It gave me great joy to see.

Here is another shot to help you guess.

Comment with your guess.  Enjoy your day and the new year!

You Might Be A Homesteader If...

Your husband gives you these for Christmas!

To go with this that he got me for my birthday. (Click the comments to find the answer.  Mr. Herrick Kimball of The Deliberate Agrarian guessed correctly.)

You also might be a homesteading/fly fishing/bamboo fly rod building kind of guy if you get these from your wife for Christmas...

And you might have homeschoolers in your household if you purchase things like this for Christmas...

And what celebration would be complete with out cookie decorating! (And eating.)

  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cookie Cheer Up!

Well, we have a snow blower that works but unfortunately I don't have a snow blow operator!

Yesterday after plowing the drive and my wonderful path to the barn, Farmer John started to complain about his wrist hurting. He was in so much pain before work this morning I told him to go get it checked out.

Diagnosis... Tendonitis! Yah... so no nice plowed path to the barn.  We aren't quite ready to give that responsibility to our son with anything more than a shovel at this point in time.

Had another surprise diagnosis today... strep throat for my nine year old!  Keep the good times coming!

So what can you do when it is cold, snowy and you have "patients" to keep happy?  Make Christmas cookies!

Who doesn't feel better after a frosted Christmas sugar cookie? 

Usually we have a traditional recipe we follow but I found a new recipe that includes sour cream in it and it seemed like a good day to give it a try.

We didn't mess with Christmas shapes today since it was just a "test" run.  We stuck with easy-peasy circles.  Plain white frosting and simple sprinkles.

The verdict... Yum! I think this may be my new traditional recipe!  I will definitely need to make lots so that my son has fuel to snow shovel my path to the barn.

You can find the recipe for  Cut-Out Sour Cream Cookies and frosting here!

They certainly boosted spirits at Creek Cottage Homestead.  Happy baking, frosting and eating!!

It Doesn't Look Like Fall Anymore

Hideeho blog people!  I am back after an unannounced break.  Sickness, school and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) took over my life.  Also spent a lot of time chauffeuring my children to and from activities. But now that I'm feeling rested and less overwhelmed I am back to blogging.

When last I left you the homestead looked like this....

Now the homestead looks like this...

 

And this...

 

 

The chickens are less than impressed...

They will occasionally venture out but they prefer me to throw them their "crack" (cracked corn) inside.

We have moved all the chickens (Barred Rocks and R.I. Reds) into the barn together.  We added extra roosts, two heat lamps, a light, a heated water dish, pecking block and the nesting boxes from the chicken tractor.  They seem to like it quite well.

I have to laugh at my hens.  They are sooo... picky as to which nesting boxes they lay their eggs in.  There are plenty available but they only like to use certain ones and if that box is full and the other hen won't share then they just plop the egg out wherever rather then use a different/open box.  Will there ever come a time when I am not surprised by these ladies?

Well, I'm off to the local library for their craft sale. I'm half way done with my shopping so hopefully there will be some good things at the sale and I can support some local micro-businesses! Stay warm!

The Number One Fall Homestead Chore!

For us at least....

LEAVES!

We have a dozen or so trees that drop their leaves in the front "yard" part of our property.  They drop a heck of a lot of compostable material that we use as mulch for the flower beds and fence line (to keep weeds down) as well as compost for garden beds.

This year farmer John blew the leaves away from objects like the house, trees, decking etc. and then took a leaf vacuum to them.  The sad thing is that tomorrow you won't be able to tell that he did anything.  The ground will be covered again.

 

What is your number one fall chore?

Free Foraged Food & Turning 9

I love nothing more than getting something for free.  It gives me great satisfaction.  My husband surprised me on Labor Day.  He was one of a few managers that had to go to the warehouse to "walk" it and make sure everything was okay since it was closed for the day.  He asked me to come along because there was a lone apple tree on the edge of the property and the apples just fall to the ground each year.  We were gonna pick those apples and make use of them. (We had permission.)

We didn't get too many because we didn't bring a ladder (I had to stand on the hood of the car) but we did get enough for a pie.

One our way too and from the warehouse I pointed out to him every "stray" apple tree along side the road that didn't look like anyone did anything with.  They were stand alone trees at the edge of fields and had fruit littering the ground. I told him we should go ask permission from all those landowners to access the apples.  I had been thinking this for a couple of weeks and John was surprised that I was thinking along the same lines as he was.  What can I say... the budget is miniscule and free food is enticing.

I also pointed out an apple tree on the road by our house on an abandoned bank owned property.  Again with no ladder we couldn't get the good apples but we got a bag full of apples that had fallen on the ground and we fed those to the chickens with the intent to get more if needed.  It takes so little to make us happy.

Yesterday was a day of celebration. Reagan turned 9!  We cancelled school and she chose to spend the morning at the mall with her big sisters, trying on clothes and then spent the afternoon with her dad and brother shooting air guns and bows/arrows.  Oh to be nine and have so many interests!  She is currently latch hooking away on her birthday gift.  Happy Birthday #4 child. We love you!!!!!

Fall must be on it's way!

Our first pumpkin (and probably our only).

 

We planted our corn, melons, winter squash and pumpkins in another area of our property then our other gardens.  It is amazing how the soil quality can be so different.  Since it was our first year planting we didn't amend the soil.  Most of our gardens did great but the corn, etc. did poorly.  I'm not surprised that the melons didn't do good as our summer was fairly cool and rainy but I'm very disappointed that I didn't get a lot of pie pumpkins. (My husband is sad not to get a lot of corn.)  We picked the beauty above before the chickens could get to it but I'm not seeing many more thriving.  Good thing for farmer's markets.  I will not partake in store canned pumpkin. Yuck!

 

One thing we were very surprised to get was Okra. I didn't think it would grow in Michigan.

 

 

 

 

We also got some broccoli (spelling?). We have never managed to get any before so small victories right?

 

 

Next year we will be laying on the manure and compost and making sure the soil is well amended so everything does well.

 

What victories and set backs did you all have this summer in your garden?

 

 

The Cow Monolith across the street...

You can't really tell from these pictures but the dairy farmer across the street is building a gargantuan barn.  It will house 300+ head of cattle.  I'm getting a little intimidated by the shear size of this thing.  I really hope they keep on top of the manure situation because I can only imagine how much poo will accumulate in this monolith.  We were relieved at first that it wasn't a manure lagoon but how different will this be?  I wonder if they will leave it silver or neutral like most of their other structures or if they'll paint it red?  If they do paint it red I have already decided to call it, "Clifford, The Big Red Barn". Why can't it be Joel Salatin who lives across the street?  Then I wouldn't have a worry in the world.

 

 

 

On a happier note... while traversing the yard to take these photos I found my barred rocks digging in the shredded leaf mulch on the fence line.  They were having a dandy time.

 

Snowball

 

 Chicken butts all lined up!