This and That

Life on the homestead continues to be lots of work and lots of fun!  The heat has affected production, but we aren't giving up!

The girls (our 12 laying hens) have really cut back on their egg production.  We were gathering 10-11 eggs daily, but because of the high temperatures, we are back to gathering 2-3 eggs per day.  After not buying eggs from the store for a while, it is very difficult for me to PAY for eggs, knowing they are not near as healthy as the ones we get here at the farm.  Hopefully soon we will be back up to full production, and will have enough to eat AND some extra to share with friends and family again!  Interested?

In the garden, the heat is taking it's toll as well.  Despite watering, our fruits are simply busting on the vine.  The cantaloupe are not ripening, and the watermelons are cracking open, letting the bugs feast on the insides before we get a chance!  Ugh!  I'm going to do a little research so that maybe next year we won't have this problem.  Since we are organic gardeners, we struggle to create harmony with the bugs.

The okra is still going strong, and is actually ready to be harvested today.  It is sitting out there just waiting for me to come and pick it.  I fear some of them are too large to eat...if the okra gets too big, it doesn't taste well.  Blech!

We are also still getting jalapenos, tomatoes, and squash, though not very many.  It's a good thing this year was our trial year, learning the ropes of gardening in sandy soil.  We were used to brown dirt at our old house, so this year's garden has been different, and a learning experience.  Next year, we will know more what we are doing!  Maybe.  Ha!

As for the kids, we have been enjoying weekly trips to the library.  Our new library is really well laid-out and the kids both LOVE browsing the children's books, finding treasures to check-out and read each week.  It won't be long until once again we will be on a first-name basis with the librarians!  The kids are participating in the summer reading program, and are doing really well.  It's so fun for them to earn Library Bucks to purchase books, as well as tickets for the raffles they have going.  Levi is determined he is going to win the tablet they have...keep reading buddy!

We continue on our journey to healthy living by trying to eat as local and as natural as financially possible, eliminating sugar and grains from our diets.  It isn't easy, and we still don't have it down perfectly, but we continue to try to do our best.  Homemade laundry soap is still something we love, but I am trying to tweak the recipe a bit to make it a bit more effective on our work clothes.  Suggestions?  I am still on the hunt for a natural body lotion that Natalie and I can use (we are allergic to so much! UGH!), and I REALLY want to find a natural deodorant that works for us, too! Let the search continue!

We hope your week is blessed and that you are staying cool!

  

Happy Fourth!

First, Happy Independence Day to all, from Hen Hollow Homestead! 


Our egg production has really slowed in the last week.  We have gone from getting 10 eggs every single day, to getting 3 or 4 eggs at most each day.  We are contributing this to the heat we have been experiencing, but we are also researching to be sure there isn't more we should be doing for our feathered friends.  They all seem healthy and happy otherwise, so we figure that the hens are just not enjoying the heat!  Time for them to get over it, because we need more eggs! :)

In other news, the kids found another horn worm!  This time it had not made it into the garden, so my tomato plants are none the wiser, but the kids caught the worm and again, fed that little booger to the chickens who were happy to enjoy him as a mid-morning snack.  Good thing he hadn't made it to my garden!

In other news, the sunflowers Natalie planted continue to be beautiful!  Here is an early morning picture I took:

To try to beat the heat, and the blues we have been experiencing around here, last Sunday after church we drove up to the Water Gardens to check out the water.  It was incredibly HOT that day, but we forged through the sweat and enjoyed being together.  I took some pictures of the kids climbing and touching the water.  Surprisingly, there weren't many people there, so we were able to enjoy the park without a crowd.  Check us out...

Natalie and Levi leaning into the wall with trickling water...it felt nice and cool on their hands!

 

My beautiful Natalie sitting looking at the shower pool...boy would it have been nice to hop on in! 

 

This is a huge water feature, as you can see, complete with platform steps leading down into the belly of the water.  I was too chicken to walk down there (can you say "not a risk-taker"?), but Nathaniel took each of the kiddos separately, and they enjoyed the challenge.   Natalie and Nathaniel are on the far left of this picture, I think ;)

Nathaniel, Levi, and Natalie at the top of "The Mountain", which is a huge and steep wall of steps to climb.  I stayed safely planted at the bottom, so I could take pictures of course! ;)

And lest you wonder if I was even there, I did attempt a self-portrait of Nathaniel and me.  It's not the best pic, but I have short arms, y'all!

That's all I have for now, but check back soon and I will share more of the fun we are having here at the Homestead!  Be blessed.

An Update in Pictures

Life continues to be busy around the homestead.  Summer heat doesn't slow the workload, so we forge ahead and work through the sweat, ha!

The garden has been producing, though not as much as I had hoped.  I've decided that this year will be simply a year of learning, since it was our first attempt at a garden in sandy soil.  We have already learned lots, and will continue to figure it all out so that next year our harvest will be even bigger.  I am not disappointed, we have been getting plenty, but it hasn't quite been up to my expectations.  It's okay...expectations can rob us of joy if we let them, but I am choosing not to.  I am choosing to see all the blessings, and enjoying the journey!

I harvested our carrots last week...we had only planted one row, and most of them were harvested.  Success!  It's funny how carrots from the garden do not look perfect and uniform in size and shape like the ones you buy at the store.  Our organic gardening techniques work just fine, and the carrots are delicious even if they don't all look exactly the same!

Peeling and slicing...

This colander was full, but I forgot to snap a picture until there were just these few left!  Oops!

We took the peel and fed it to the chickens...they were thrilled.  Even they are enjoying the harvest!

The okra is beautiful so far.  It grows so quickly that I have to check the plants twice a day to make sure none of them are growing into giant okra.  Giant okra looks pretty, but it doesn't taste as good as the smaller ones, so we try to harvest them before they are HUGE!

The tomatoes are finally starting to have buds, and even some tiny green tomatoes are appearing on the vine, but not before we battled the horn worm!  YUK!  He came along and decided he would feast on the tomato plant, stripping every branch he came across.  Thankfully we caught him before too much damage was done.  Don't worry, we taught him a lesson...we fed him to the chickens!  Ha!  It won't be long before we are enjoying fresh tomatoes off the vine, and hopefully enough to can, too!  MMMM, homemade marinara and homemade salsa, here we come!

In other news, I rearranged the furniture and WOW it makes my living room look so much bigger!

The kids and I ventured to the park and had a great time.  Thankfully it wasn't so hot in this day...I am not sure that I see too many park dates in the near future...I sweat enough at home working, I'm not too interested in sweating at the park too!  Ha!

That's a little catch-up on the recent happenings around the homestead.  Check back soon for more of our fun adventures!

Rainbows

One day not long ago, a pretty large rain shower came through our area, giving us a much needed supply of water.  RARELY will you hear Texans, especially farmers from this area of the world, complain about rain.  We love it, and will take whatever we can get!  Soon, once July and August arrive, we will be longing for more rain, as well as a break from the scorching temperatures.

Anyway, on this day, not only did we receive the blessing of rain, we also saw the beauty of a rainbow!  We stepped outside to get a better look, and realized that we could see the whole thing, and it perfectly framed my parents' farm across the road from ours.  Nathaniel was so good to take a quick picture of the reminder that day that God keeps His promises!

Check back soon for pictures from the garden!

Sunflowers

The sun is shining and the flowers are blooming! 

Natalie planted a patch of the garden with sunflowers and she had her first bloom this week.  

Her bloom is stunning, and we can't wait to see the rest of her flowers as they begin blooming as well.  She actually planted her sunflowers in a large rectangular pattern so that once they are tall (which most of them are!) they will create a playhouse that she and Levi can play inside of.  It's working out great so far, and I will be sure to share pictures once the rest of the flowers bloom!

The very same day, as I was driving to get groceries, I came upon a HUGE field of sunflowers all in bloom.  It was breathtaking, as I had never seen an entire field of intentionally planted sunflowers.  On my way home I stopped for a few pictures, and then later after chores, we all went back as a family to admire God's handiwork.  These pictures are great, but they do not adequately portray the absolute BEAUTY that we beheld when we looked at the field.  I am sure I will be going that way a lot in the days to come, just so I can get a glimpse of the flowers again.  Take a look for yourself...

Check out the heart-shaped center on this one...LOVE!

 

If you look closely in the picture above, Nathaniel caught a bee in flight!

 

We couldn't walk out into the sunflowers without trespassing, so we had to stand on the side of the road, but we did get this one shot of Levi (bad angle)...the flowers were over his head!

Sunflowers have always been one of my favorites, and these were no exception.  If only I could have clipped a few small bouquets to put around the house in my old mason jars.  :)

There are many other happenings around the homestead, but they will have to wait.  Chores are waiting this morning, there is always work to be done.  Check back in soon for more Hen Hollow Homestead updates, and if you have a minute, leave us a comment.  We would love to know who is reading here! :)

Blessings from the Homestead!

 

 

This and That

Lots going on here at the homestead.  We are staying busy with the garden and the animals.  Here are some photo highlights from the last couple of weeks.

'The girls' (hens) have been laying for us regularly the last couple of weeks.  We started getting just one or maybe two eggs per day, and now we are up to five or six per day, which means about half of our hens are laying!  Considering that we eat half a dozen eggs per day, they are barely able to keep us in eggs, but we know it won't be long before all of the girls are laying, and we will be set!  Aren't they beautiful?

Official Hen Hollow Homestead Eggs in the pan!

 

Apparently, one of our layers has been laying double yolked eggs, and this particular morning, we enjoyed TWO with double yolks.  Making breakfast has become a treasure hunt, wondering what we will find when we crack the eggs!

 

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Natalie has been trained on the lawn mower and has been enjoying her chores.  She feels so big when we let her mow on the riding mower.  I remember feeling the same way when I first started MANY years ago, but it lost it's luster when I realized that even in the 105 degree heat, it was MY responsibility to mow.  Ha!

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As is typical of farm living, we have been clearing out underbrush and dead trees from the land, trying to keep things tidy.  We have amassed TWO large burn piles, but have been waiting for the perfect day to light them up.  The day finally came when everything was in place...perfect weather, no wind, and a weekend so Nathaniel was actually home to do it!  Here is a picture of the pile...it doesn't look as big in the picture as it was in real life...we made much if the pile using the tractor, if that helps with some perspective.  It was over our heads for sure!

A little fire starter and a spark, and we had flames!

 

The kids were fascinated...they never got to experience a controlled fire when we lived in town!

 

Mostly ashes now, after hours of burning.

 

Not bad for a day's work!

 

Now we are waiting on another perfect day so we can strike a match on pile number 2!

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In other news, the hens LOVE Natalie's muck boots.  They are covered in tiny pink rosebuds and the hens think they are tasty treats...it is funny to watch! 

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I have created a prayer wall in our dining room, where the kids and I can add prayer requests and people we want to pray for.  It is in a central location in our home, so when we walk by it a thousand times a day, we will be reminded to pray for those things.  I simply found an old frame I had in storage (from a garage sale, no doubt) and painted it red.  Then Nathaniel put chicken wire across the back, and we use tiny clothespins to attach the names of those we want to pray for.  This was only a few minutes after I hung it up, but there are more added here now, and the requests continue to grow.  I am hoping this will help all of us to pray more constantly throughout the day.  It is an honor and a privilege to pray for those around us, and I want the kids (and myself) to grow our prayer commitments!  Here is our wall:

Nathaniel made the shelf underneath out of some old barn wood...I am not finished accessorizing it yet, but for now, it holds our paper for prayer requests and a pen in an mason jar, and also our tiny clothespins.  It's a work in progress.

I also hung a few prayer quotes I printed off the internet...just as sweet words to read as we pray for those near and far.

 

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In the garden, we have faced some challenges, but we are working on them, and learning lots about organic gardening along the way.  Here is a picture of the huge horn worm that decided to feast on my tomato plants...all three of them!!  Ugh!

Well, consider that his last meal...we found him, plucked him off of there, and fed him to the chickens!  That will teach him to eat my garden!

The tomato plants seem to be surviving, and are growing some new green.  I am hoping they will pull through and produce a bountiful crop for us.  I have big tomato canning plans!

We also discovered that an animal had trampled a section of my onions, and broken them down.  Out they came, and I spent some time processing them for the freezer.  From the onions I had to harvest, I ended up with 14 bags for the freezer...7 bags of sliced (for fajitas), and 7 bags of chopped.  Not bad for a few hours' work.

 

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The end of last week, we had a little excitement here at the farm.  I had gone out to gather the eggs, and when I pulled open the door to the nesting box, a LARGE rat snake was there to greet me.  I have killed smaller snakes on my own before, no problem, but this one was HUGE, so I called in back-up.  I LOVE having my parents living just across the road...when Nathaniel is at work, I can call on them if I have an emergency.  I considered this an emergency!  Ha!

A quick phone call to my dad, and he grabbed the gun and came on down!

It took some looking to find the snake again, because after he had seen me, he decided to climb up into the rafters of the chicken tractor to hide, hoping we would go away.  Obviously, that snake had never met my dad, and didn't realize that he had met his match in the stubborn department.  My dad looked and then worked hard to irritate the snake making him climb down from the rafters.  Of course my dad won!  Ha!

Once the HUGE rat snake had climbed back down into the nesting box, we flung that crazy thing out onto the ground and it was over.  My dad shot it in the head, and that was the end of life for the slimy thing. 

Of course, once it was dead, we had to examine it and measure it!  We are rednecks :)

From what we could tell, he had not eaten any eggs, which was a good thing for us.  My dad pulled out the tape measure (which he ALWAYS has on his person) and measured the length...he was a little over 5 feet long.  Folks, that is just about as long as I am tall...craziness!!

Here is my dad holding it up...and my dad is TALL!

Once it was dead, though still moving because that is what snakes do, we decided to use it to do a little training with the dogs.  We want them to recognize snakes, and bark to alert us that there is one around so we can decide if it is a danger or not.  We took the snake up into the yard, and let the dogs sniff it and then got them wound up a bit by shaking the snake at them and hissing.  Of course it worked, and they began barking like crazy and alerting on the snake.  They kept getting more and more brave, and eventually were picking it up a little in their mouths and shaking it.  Good dogs!

Giddy-Up checking out the snake.

CowPatti decided to get in on the action, too!

 

Both of them going crazy, barking at the still-moving snake.  They didn't know it was dead!

 

Apparently the training helped because we have since found GiddyUp chewing on a tiny snake that she had killed.  Hooray for snake-catching dogs!  Ah, farm life :)

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Sadly, we live in the middle of lots of tragedy lately.  First there was the West explosion, which we felt all the way here at our home.  We didn't have damage, but we did feel the blast which made the pictures on the walls hang crooked.  And now, over the last week, the spring weather has reared it's powerful head, and tornadoes have been all around.  One evening we spent hunkered down in the hallway with our emergency packs and the dogs.  There ended up being 16 tornadoes in our area that night, but thankfully, none of them hit our home.  Unfortunately, many around us were effected, enduring lots of damage to their homes and property, and even some lost their lives.  Devastating.

Then again yesterday, there was a threat of severe storms, so I placed our emergency 72-hour packs in the hallway again, along with my purse, some extra bottled water, dog leashes and a small supply of dog food,  and other emergency supplies.  I decided it would be good to be prepared, especially since Nathaniel was an hour away at work.  Here is a photo I took of our hallway stash.

Thankfully the storms did not get as bad as they were predicting, and we never had to hunker down in the hallway that day, but it was so good that we were at least a little more prepared for the possibility of something happening.

Please continue to pray for all those affected by the storms...people in Cleburne and Granbury are still trying to recover, and it will be a long road to rebuild all of the homes that were destroyed.  Please also pray for those in Oklahoma who have endured tornadoes as well...those in Moore and surrounding towns, who lost everything.  So many lives forever changed by the human loss that occurred that day.  While so very sad and challenging, losing homes and materiel things does not compare to those who lost children and loved ones in the storms.  God be with them all.

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Well, that just about covers it.  Lots and lots of things going on here at the farm, and this is a snapshot of a few of those things.  We continue to feel blessed to live here, and are taking each new challenge as it comes, learning much all along the way.  We are so very blessed!