Tag Archives: homestead

Photo tour of the garden

Posted on May 22, 2013 by | 1 Comment

While taking some photos of the tomatoes for this week’s weekly update, I decided to take some additional pictures to show planting progress.  So here is what I have in the garden this week.  I’ve had a couple of people have asked to see more pictures of the garden.  I’ll attempt to do this a bit more often throughout the season.

Tomatoes and peppers

Tomatoes and peppers

Broccoli (left) and Cabbage (right)

Broccoli (left) and Cabbage (right) Garlic behind

Brussels sprouts (right), peppers (center), tomato (left)

Brussels sprouts (right), peppers (center), tomato (left)

Garlic and 2 basil plants

Garlic and 2 basil plants

Peas and onions

Peas and onions

Salad greens

Salad greens

Squash and watermelons

Squash and watermelons

Honeyberry plants

Honeyberry plants

That’s what my garden beds look like right now.

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Homestead weekly update

Posted on March 23, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Welcome to this week’s homestead update.

My new hives

My new hives

I decided that I would go with all 10 frame medium boxes.  This allows me to have just 1 type of frame and everything will be interchangeable.  I looked at what all the big bee catalogs had to offer. Then I found Pristine Valley Farms.  They are a local family business that builds their own wooden ware and I like that they glue and screw everything together.  To me this means they are built very well.  I dealt with each of the owners and they have answered many of my questions.  So I picked my hives today.  For each hive, I got 3 mediums, a screened bottom board with insert, entrance reducers, inner top and telescoping top.  As the season goes on, I’ll get more boxes and a queen excluder. Continue reading →

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Homestead Weekly Update

Posted on February 10, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Welcome to this week’s homestead update.

Cabbage and broccoli seeds sprouted

Cabbage and broccoli seeds sprouted

As mentioned last week, it’s time to start getting my seeds started.  This week, the most hardy seeds are ready to sprout.  So I pulled my seed starting system out of the basement and started my broccoli and cabbage seeds.  Obviously I planted more than 1 seed in each soil cube.  I do that to ensure that I have enough plants come up.  In the next week or so, I’ll look for the strongest sprouts and cull the weaker plants. Continue reading →

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The Scrounged Homestead by Jason Akers, a review

Posted on January 2, 2013 by | Leave a comment

coversh-copy

I was given the honor of receiving an electronic copy of Jason Akers’ book, The Scrounged Homestead.  All I had to do was agree to review it.  So I jumped at the chance.

For those that don’t know Jason, he runs The Self-Sufficient Gardner blog, podcast, forum, etc.  He has a homestead in Kentucky and has been homesteading for quite some time.  I know that he grew up exposed to homesteading or small farms.  So he’s a great one to write about the subject.

Jason is something of an expert on scrounging materials for use on the homestead.  But some people have the wrong view of what scrounging is.  Right up front he spells out exactly what he means by scrounging.  There’s nothing negative about it and I see it as the embodiment of real recycling.  To him, scrounging is locating materials discarded by someone else that can be used on the homestead, and making something useful out of someone else’s trash. Continue reading →

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Homestead Weekly Update

Posted on November 19, 2012 by | 4 Comments

Welcome to the late edition of the weekly homestead update.

The week before last, we were all sick.  This past week we had to play catch up.  There were normal household things to do since we didn’t do them when we were sick. I spent most evenings running the kids to dance or Taekwondo.  I really didn’t have much around the homestead that I accomplished.

Friday, I came home to a long box sitting outside the door.  I forgot that I ordered some cherry trees back in September.  But since they hadn’t gone dormant yet, I had to wait for shipping.  I ordered a North Star pie cherry tree, a Montmorency pie cherry tree, Starkrimson Sweet cherry tree and a Royalton Continue reading →

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Homestead weekly update

Posted on October 12, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Welcome to this week’s update.  Since the season is dying down, this week’s update won’t be all that long.

Work begins on the pad

I started working on the pad for the new shed.  I decided that since my time is limited, I am buying a pre-built shed instead of building it myself.  I’m getting a 12×24 shed with space for a loft.  So first step is to build a stone pad.  I’m making this out of 6×6 treated lumber.  It is taking a lot of digging to get the border level.  Since this area is on a slope, that corner I’m working on will be 3 boards high.  I’ll level out the interior some so I don’t have 18″ of stone some places and far less other places. Continue reading →

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Homestead weekly update

Posted on October 5, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Welcome to this week’s homestead update.

Over the weekend I went shopping for a shed.  When we moved into this house, the lender made the previous owner remove the shed since it was full of termites.  This meant that I had to put my stuff in the carport and the basement.  I’ve been planning on building a shed, but have put it off.  I’m to the point of needing the shed.  Since I don’t have a lot of time right now, I’m seriously thinking of buying one.  The problem is that we don’t have a way to get the truck into the area.  This means that it will cost 30% more.  I guess I could take down a section of fence and take out 2 trees, but I really don’t want to do that.  But it could save over $1000 dollars, so it is something to consider. Continue reading →

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