Back to My Passion

Back to the Farmette. 

It's a two pot coffee day!

Back to Normalcy. 

Back to my PASSION.

I am glad to be back on the 
Allen Family Homestead!

I am just coming off a 6 month, temporary substitute position at a local school district. Funding our farm projects costs "dough", so I tend to take on jobs/positions that can get us some quick $$ to fund out next project, clean up the next mess, or fix the next struggle. 

I am soaking up the quiet and the simpleness of homestead living. While Brad Paisley is keeping me company on my radio, I begin to tackle the farmhouse projects that were put aside for six months. So much to catch up on!

Determined to attack Mt. Washmore, I climb mountains of laundry that our busy family of four continuously creates. Muddy jeans and chore clothes seem to always fill my laundry basket inbox! The whir of the washer and dryer becomes background noise as I decide what next on the list needs to be checked off. With the smell of fresh baking banana apple bread in the air, I peruse the never ending list of things to do and pick my favorite!

Our husky dog  Sandy "guarding" our sleeping garden

It is that time again to reassess last years garden and plan for the upcoming growing season. Time to flip through the seed catalogs as I sip my coffee and make my wish list. 

Every year we expand our garden, using the knowledge of what we did the year before as a guide. However, last year may not be such a great gauge because we were in such a drought. Our wells struggled to contain enough water for our chickens, crops, and our household. But we had a great crop of onions and potatoes, strawberries, raspberries and beets.  Praying hard for a little more rain this summer for my lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and peaches.

We have several planned additions to the Allen Family Homestead this year: 

Honey! We have a very large honey bee nest in the walls of our barn. It is time to get them into hives, so I won't be teased by the smell of honey in our barn on a hot day. With many bees now listed as endangered species, I am going to take on beekeeping. This will be a win-win experience for our next endeavor...

Apples! We have some very old apple trees here on our acreage, and the work very well to feed our chickens and give us apples for sauce and cooking. We plan on adding an additional apple orchard, well plotted and pruned for picking and selling.

Ready to "tweet" about our love for chicks!

Strawberries! I have to move my ever bearing strawberry patch. It is so large now, and hard to maintain. This is a huge project to tackle because there are so many plants. I have to get them in to better fertilized soil and back into rows again, for now its just one huge muddled mess. Makes it difficult for picking. I dream of creating a u-pick someday!

Chickens! We have to increase our coop size in the barn, because we plan on taking on meat birds this year as well as egg layers. We have a small flock of 35 chickens right now, and we need to make more room. We have had up to seventy five before, but it was a little tight. Getting more chicks is a big deal here at the Homestead. We love these cute little critters!

Want to know what is so crazy? This is just a small portion of our things to do list! I can't wait for spring. 
Keep checking back as I tell of our adventures of the 
Allen Family Homestead expansion!

Here's to Never Having Time to be Bored ~ 

City Gone Country Girl ~ Jenn 

To Blog, Or Not to Blog, That is the Question!

Beautiful Drought Resistant Weeds

Summer 2016 is in full swing, as mid August looks us square into our sweaty faces. A rough summer of drought and heat has caused this City Gone Country Girl some stress that I have not had to endure before. My lack of blogging about our adventures? I am learning that it is difficult to do everything here on the hobby farm and write about it on a consistent basis. There is so much to do!

This summer has been quite challenging on the Allen Family Homestead. The lack of snow from this past winter combined with the lack of rain this summer has caused some interesting issues for us this year. The water table is so low that our wells are running dry. Yet the weeds are blooming beautifully!

Luckily on our little hobby farm we are blessed to have two wells; one for the farmhouse and one for the barn and gardens.  Both of these water sources have been tapped to the bottom this year, our first time experiencing this since we bought the homestead. We hear that others local wells are going dry, so we know that we are not alone. We have been watching the corn fields curl and go brown, and many fields are dying before even having a chance to tassel. My husband and I are grateful that we postponed having any bigger critters this year.

Because of the drought, our crops have been hit or miss this growing season. We haven't had enough of anything to sell, just enough production to feed our family and our 40 chickens. It has been heartbreaking watching crops and plants wither and die because of the lack of water. The animals have to come first with the water source, plants second. Needless to say there won't be much for canning and winter storage this year.

Iron Stained Washtub

It has been an interesting lesson, as a former City Girl, I was used to unlimited water from the local town municipal supply. Never had to think about water rationing or water recycling. I have learned a lot this year about well systems and water conditioning. Problems with our water smelling of sulfur, and yellowing of clothing was a frustrating learning experience. As the water table depletes, we are bringing up the well sediment from the bottom, which for our source has an abundance of iron. The iron build up destroys clothing! All our not-so-white clothing due to staining had to be replaced, and this new to the country girl had to frequent the wash machines of town friends and laundromats to keep from losing anymore. Ugh. And forget taking a shower... the smell is enough to knock your socks off! Double ugh.

This is where living on a Homestead is not about self-sufficiency. Homesteaders need to connect with the community for support. Talking to local friends with similar issues, we learned of a hometown business that specializes in water and well supplies. After listening to these knowledgeable folk, we learned that adding chlorine to our household well will help immensely with much of the problems that were were seeing here. Boy they were right! Following their directions made a complete difference! I am still nervous to put in pure white clothing into the wash machine, but this has helped limit the laundry hopping and replacement shopping trips.

Truly the best!

We have also learned of some cleaning supplies that have helped us clean out the stains on our appliances, sinks, and tubs. After trying many products, I have found "Iron Out" to be the best product to deal with iron stains. I highly recommend it for cleaning and can also be used in your laundry loads to protect from stains as well. Totally worth a few bucks!!

I see that our local weatherman is calling for some rain this week, and oh how I pray that he is right! Our area needs the water, but I wonder for the crops if it may be too little, too late.

But for the well? Let's fill that baby up!!

Please excuse me as this City Gone Country Girl is off to do a rain dance!!!

~Jenn