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

Shoveling... Water?

So our first snowstorm of the winter forced my husband and I to pull out our dusty shovels!

~ Our Slushy & Icy Driveway ~

Yes, Shovels. We have a snow blower, but we received ice and rain first, so the snow was so heavy the snow blower wouldn't work. 

Dressed like Eskimos, and armed with shovels, we attacked our very long gravel driveway by hand! I heard on the news earlier in the morning that this is called "Heart Attack Snow", and with the first scoop, I understood why. I also heard that each shovel of snow weighs about 15 lbs. with this moisture filled slush. We have one ergonomically designed shovel, which my husband used. I got stuck with the muck shovel from the chicken coop. Oh joy! 

~ My Muck Shovel ~

I feel like we just stepped onto the set of the television show, The Biggest Loser. Our task is to shovel out the slush filled driveway as quickly as possible before the temperature drops and it turns to ice. With another foot of snow predicted to fall on us, we knew we had our work cut out for us before our whole driveway becomes an ice skating rink!

I had never seen so much water in "snow" before! We were literally shoveling water down the driveway. Chris would shovel scrape the snow off, and I followed behind him shoveling the water underneath. It was crazy! We could watch the water left behind me begin to freeze immediately, which made walking back up the hill drive tricky. 

Our task took two hours, just to dig out the essential driveway areas. As much as this projects was a challenge, we tried to stay positive and have fun! Reminding ourselves that this is the first time we had to shovel snow this year helped. Reminiscing of the hard winter we survived last year really made us feel better! I couldn't help but giggle as Chris "slipped shoveled", it made for great entertainment! 

Working hard on the Homestead with a positive attitude... 

this City Gone Country Girl found muscles she forgot she had!

In the City, there would have been a plow service that would have been called to clean out the driveway in a swoop. But there is something about the fresh air and the happy tiredness of a good job done. Not to mention the exercise Chris and I just clocked in for the day! 

~ Frozen Lilacs and Barn ~ 

As the snow came down around us,we knew that we would have to attack this driveway again. But after two hours of shoveling 15 pound scoopfuls of snow, we were toast!

Time for a break, Chris went in to warm up by the fire, and I went sledding in the back yard with our youngest daughter.

After all that work, it was time for some fun! 

Jenn ~ City Gone Country Girl