Hello my friends. It sure has been a while since my last blog post! We have had quite a bit going on over here and life has a way of getting hectic, especially with two kiddos! I am planning to be much more intentional with making time for blogging as we head into spring and growing season. There have been a lot of homestead projects taking place, so lets go ahead and dive into what the last few months have held for us.
Yearly Goals
Every year, when the new year rolls around, I take some time to reflect on the past year and make some goals for the new year. I don’t think of them as resolutions because it is things I want to accomplish by the end of the year rather than something I’m implementing immediately. This is no different for our homestead. Derek and I took a few hours to look back at all the projects we had undertaken in 2024 and were rather surprised at how much we had forgotten. Fortunately, Derek takes photos to document just about everything we do which is a lot of fun to scroll through at 2 am on NYE ha! I was pleased to come to the realization that I checked almost every homestead goal off my 2024 list! This year, I have a few items that are carried over from last year, but several new ones as well. For me, it is mostly things I want to learn how to do. Some items I’ve included for 2025 are: Learn how to make yogurt, learn how to make kombucha, learn how to make apple cider vinegar, try making my own cheese at least once, buy a grain mill, and begin making our own elderberry syrup.
It’s only March 5th, and I’ve already managed to check a few items off the list! In February I jumped right into yogurt making and realized it is so simple! All you do is heat milk up to 180 degrees in a dutch oven, then cool to 110 degrees and stir in a few tablespoons of plain yogurt as a starter culture, then keep it warm (around 90 degrees) for 12 or so hours and voila, yogurt! I’ve played around with flavoring it strawberry, blueberry, and vanilla and choose to sweeten with maple syrup instead of sugar. After that, I portion it into little 4 oz jars so the kids have an easy, healthy anytime snack. We also acquired a kombucha SCOBY through a local homestead page and were happy to trade a dozen of our eggs for it. Right now, the first batch of kombucha is still brewing, so I haven’t quite checked that one off as complete, but it’s in the works.
One of the most exciting things I’ve done is begin making our own elderberry syrup. I made a massive Amazon order (which included a grain mill, let me know if you have any resources for organic wheat berries!) and purchased all the ingredients I needed to get started on our very first batch. This was spurred by a round of sickness that is still making its way through the house. I’m really excited to make our own elderberry syrup and be able to tweak the ingredients to what best suits our needs, as well as have the ability to take as much of it as we desire. Plus, its absolutely delicious!
Another Go at Hatching Chicks
After last year’s less than impressive hatches, we were reluctant to hatch again. The kids had other plans though and decided we just needed a better incubator. They started saving up and pooling their money and after Christmas, they finally had enough to start looking for a quality incubator. After several days of looking and reading reviews, they finally found one that seemed promising. They settled on the MaticoopX which holds up to twenty eggs. Originally, we had planned to hatch our own eggs, but when we were ready to get some eggs started our ladies had decided that the weather was too cold, and they refused to lay any eggs. Instead, we touched base with another local homesteader and purchased two dozen hatching eggs. Three weeks later, hatch day arrived and we ended up with 14 beautiful little chicks out of twenty that went into the incubator. What is so amazing is that they hatched all day long and we got to enjoy watching them as a family. What an incredible opportunity for a natural learning lesson for the kids. Even though we planned to do other schoolwork, the chicks had their own plans and that’s not the kind of thing you get to see every day.
Since we started with twenty eggs and we knew that roughly half of our hatch would be roosters, we decided to go pick up six more pullets to round out our brooder box. This way, even if we have a lot of roos in the hatched batch, we will still end up with around a dozen new hens to add to our laying flock. We will also keep one of the roosters we hatched since the hen to rooster ratio has to stay balanced. Adding a dozen or so new chickens to our flock also meant we had to increase the size of our chicken run to accommodate. By far the easiest and quickest chicken run option has got to be this one from Amazon. It took us a total of about 3 hours to assemble and wrap the entire thing in chicken wire. Keep in mind, the kids helped us so the building time was slower than it would have been if Derek and I had built it alone. In our family, it is important to us that every family member feels that they are contributing to the homestead which means allowing the kids to help when they are able to. Now we have plenty of space for our growing flock. (Photo below is of the in progress run!)
Springtime Means Planting Time
Where we are in SC the weather has been warming up, which means it’s time to get my spring garden started. While I wanted to add a couple more garden beds this year, we had other things that were higher on the priority list, so that will have to wait. You might remember that I planted carrots in my winter garden, and while I have harvested several throughout the winter, many of the little carrot sprouts seemed to not grow but also not die. It’s like they were in a state of dormancy. Now that it’s warming up, the carrots I planted late last fall are beginning to grow! This means I have a head start on my spring carrots which I call a win. I did plant more seeds in between the existing rows and where I had already harvested. We should see a nice steady harvest over the next several months.
One thing we wanted to have a huge harvest of this year is potatoes. We eat a ton of potatoes, and they keep so well, so it makes sense to try and grow enough to get us through until we can plant them in the fall. Our plan is to plant them wherever we can fit them. Right now we have one and a half garden beds planted, but have also planted in three feed bags that we have recycled and plan to continue planting them as we acquire more feed bags. I also have a couple of larger planters that will get potatoes planted in them as well, I’m just waiting on some more seed potatoes to get some decent sprouts.
The last thing we are growing this spring is peas. Peas grow really easily and prefer cooler weather. The problem we’ve had in years past has always been due to our trellis attempts. We’ve tried tying twine and string between T-posts but the plants end up getting too heavy and the trellis is too wobbly. If a strong enough wind comes through, the plants all snap and of course they die after that. This year we are trying something different. We purchased a cattle panel from Tractor Supply and cut it in half so we have two 8′ pieces. We turned it lengthwise and curved it in one of our oval 8 foot beds and secured it with T-posts. Then we planted peas along each side. They should have plenty of space to vine and the cattle panel is nice and sturdy which should protect the stems. The other piece of cattle panel will be used for our summer cucumber trellis. After planting the peas, we realized there was a lot of unused space along the edges of the bed, so we took that opportunity to go ahead and plant even more carrots. My favorite part of spring planting is the unrealized potential. The garden beds that look unplanted and just full of dirt that will burst to life in just a few weeks’ time, and the wondering just how this harvest is going to be.
The last thing I need to do is get my strawberry plants back out. If you remember, we had strawberries planted in gutters last year. For the winter, we took the gutters down and put them in our shed to protect the roots. We just had a bit of a cold front come through, but I think we are now in the clear to go ahead and hang them back up. I also bought 25 more strawberry plants from Gurneys to replant one gutter which didn’t seem to fare too well and hopefully freshen up the others as well. I’m very hopeful for a great strawberry harvest this year!
Reading a Good Book
Every year, I aim to read at least one book a month. I realize that to avid readers this may seem like an easy feat, but for my hectic life it is quite a task. I tend to choose books that help me improve some area of my life rather than fiction novels. The book I chose to start my year off with is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It was recommended to me by a friend of mine and I am SO GLAD I took her recommendation! The author and her family undertake a challenge to eat only locally produced foods for an entire year. The book chronicles their journey and what lessons they learn along the way. While eating completely local isn’t quite possible for us, the book definitely challenged me to be more considerate of where our food is coming from and the costs associated with shipping. It was such a great read, and I will be implementing several things I learned from reading it. If you are a homesteader, or just interested in where your food comes from, I would highly recommend checking it out!
Next on my list, which I just started today (ok, I’m a little behind my book a month goal) is Old-Fashioned On Purpose by Jill Winger. I’m only one chapter in and I’m already hooked! Books about old-fashioned skills seem to resonate with me in the season of life that I am in. I just can’t get enough of it! Do you have any recommendations of books I might love that go along with my homesteading book theme? If so, please let me know in the comments!
What’s Next
In my next blog post I will be going over what our homeschool has been looking like in the months since my last post. This includes mid-year reports, extracurricular activities and new games! Keep an eye out for that post coming later this week!