The Homestead: The Chicken Field Expansion Edition
Two Weeks Ago
We finished the Chicken Field expansion and Stewart estimates the new garden area to be around 1/8 of an acre. The pallet garden is about half of that and has peas, lettuce, collards, onions, and potatoes. This area now contains the smallest sprouts of green beans and collards as well as a couple of long rows of potatoes, cucumbers, and cantaloupes. These are just seeds in their infancy so we will see what the Lord has for them.
The area with the large hay bales is the expanded region which needs a lot of work. Those hay bales need to be broken apart and scattered over the soil and other amendments added. If the Lord wills we may plant black-eyed peas there this year.
Last Week
We are eating salads from the Pallet Garden – mostly lettuce thinnings, cilantro, and fava bean leaves. Ruthie planted her little patch of radishes and gave us a few thinnings to add to our salads. Tomato and tomatillo starts were divided between the two garden areas.
The goats are now dried up and we are awaiting the final weeks of their gestation. This period of low to no raw milk is a heavy reminder of the major role that dairy animals can have on a homestead food supply. The goats are most browsing on the growing grass, weeds, and trees now with access to hay as desired.
This Week
We had a significant storm come through this weekend leaving a lot of rain in its wake. We are grateful for the Lord’s mercy in keeping us safe on a Sabbath evening that saw a swift trip to the Siffords to wait out a tornado warning… and a very late, wet, and lightning-lit walk back to a mercifully warm and dry home.
So it doesn’t look like we will need to water early this week and there is now plenty of water to catch up on the muddy laundry.
Our chicken egg supply dried up drastically last week when hens went broody and others decided to lay astray. So last night Stewart and the boys moved hens and we are fluffing the boxes to encourage laying again. We’ve also got some roosters ready for the chopping block and older hens probably too.
There really is always something new to tend to on a homestead.