Im just here to give a little update on the homestead and what we’ve been up to.

The last few weeks we have been working on home improvements. I painted our bathroom a month or so ago, and finally got our entry way trim and wainscoting painted. It’s only been up there, untouched, for 3(?) years? The husband has been working to get plants and mulch in the new flower beds. We are creating a cottage garden up front in our biggest new bed, so we went to the nursery last weekend and picked up the biggest plants. Some of them are: Little Henry Sweetspire,

We also added mulch on top of fabric to all the beds, to keep the weeds down, and the plants more easily damp in the hot summer months.

We’ve got our seeds going under some grow lights, but they didn’t all come up this year. We also direct sowed some cold weather seeds. Yesterday the husband and I went to Sutherland’s and picked up flowers and the vegetables that didn’t come up, during their early bird sale. Those included some peppers, tomatoes, marigolds, petunias, and okra.

We added a new pup to the farm this spring- we re named him Brodie; he’s a super shy golden doodle. Apparently he was used for breeding (maybe?) and was in a kennel the second year of his life. He’s terrified of loud noises, adults, and new people. But he just shies away and tries to hide. He has finally become more comfortable with us, and is now able to hang around the farm without a runner or lead. He loves the other dogs, and they like him pretty well. He’s really enjoying getting all the scraps, and the fat off the top of the bone broth. We were worried he was going to shed a lot, but I think once he blew out his winter coat, and has started getting some good food in his belly, his hair seems to be doing better.

We didnt get the goats bred this year, which I am regretting. but time just got away from me; I really need to work on my goats’ minerals. I am not sure if it’s the hay. or the hard water, but they have symptoms of mineral deficiencies. I do supplement and have given Replamin, but that doesn’t;t fix the underlying issue-which is probably the hard water. So I may look into a hard water filter for their hose.

I think we are going to look into selling one of our cows; we really need to downsize for the space we have. So one mama cow and her calf/calves is about all we need for our acreage that is pasture. We have 2 mamas, 2 steers, and a heifer calf right now. 2 steers will go to process in September, and we will keep Dolly and her heifer calf for breeding again later. Jolene is a nice looking Hereford, we just don’t have space for her.

The goats enjoyed mowing down parts of the front pasture this weekend, and I think we are going to set up a hot wire around the front pasture so they can get out there and help mow it down more often. They’re the best weed control!