Busy as Bees!
Wow guys, I am really slacking at keeping up with this blog along with YouTube and even Instagram! Spring is right around the corner so things here at the homestead have been crazy busy. We put in a dog pen in the backyard to keep the dogs from trying to get the livestock at the nearby neighbors houses. It became one of our top priorities so that we didn't lose our loved pooches Sophie and Maddox. Sophie is still pretty young and hasn't quite begun to explore too far from the house but Maddox is a very curious one and a half year old dog. He would run off and be gone for hours and a few times even all night, keeping us worried we wouldn't have a dog in the morning. Luckily he would come back every time waiting on the front porch for us when we woke up. We knew we could only get lucky so many times so we had to find a way for him to run off the leash without having all the freedom in the world and us risk losing him forever. The pen is not the largest and we actually plan to make it even bigger eventually but it works for now!
After getting the dogs situated in their own special play area we began more work on the garden area. We put in all but six fence posts and attached all except one roll of fencing that we have been collecting. We left the posts down so that we could bring in some mulch. I know I have probably mentioned before possibly doing "raised beds" and then just and "in ground garden" and maybe even a bit of the "back to eden" talk but we have been really searching and discussing our best option to get the best harvest for our lowest price and have landed on a "No Dig" style garden. The rocks we were running into were just an overbearing amount and it was impossible to remove them all. The raised beds were going to run us way more money than we had to spare and going that direction was going to inevitably cause us to not have the garden ready in time to plant for spring. We found that with "no dig" we could bring in just a small amount of mulch and start the majority of our plants in doors or in a greenhouse in potting soil and then just plant them straight into the mulch allowing for no dirt disruption and allowing the roots to dig themselves into that underlying dirt however far they want to reap the benefits the untouched earth provides. In the end the "no dig" option sounded the most logical in our situation. The mulch will be brought in each year to lay atop the existing layer and help build up a nice deep layer or dark super soil or natural compost.
The mulch guy we found was the cheapest around so we assumed it wouldn't be the best mulch and in fact we assumed it was super fresh cut trees and brush. To our surprise the mulch the man brought us was warm dark black gold! This mulch was one hundred percent organic and had been composting for over a year! We ended up needing three loads to cover the entire area we have set out for our garden this year. We have never had a load of anything brought to the house before and we do not own a tractor. In fact we barely own shovels and rakes. Our shovel (if you haven't seen our YouTube video of us bringing in free mulch, watch it here) is tiny and our rock rake is actually duct taped together. I know they probably aren't very expensive but we try to be frugal and if the mini shovel and the duct taped rake does its job why buy new? Raking, shoveling, and hoeing this mulch proved to be an extremely hard job. The week before receiving the mulch we had freezing temperatures so the ground was too hard to load it then we had tons of rain and crazy wind so when the mulch finally made it to the house it was soaked! This mulch was so wet it had giant clumps and it took all the muscle I had to attempt to spread it. I know, I know, I'm a girl so that's not saying much, but Jay also got out there with me the next day and although the next day was sunny and had dried the top layer making it much easier to spread, it was still very wet underneath causing what seemed like more of a stand still than actually getting anywhere. We worked with the kids playing king of the hill atop the mountains of black gold, for about five hours and it looked as if we weren't making any progress. Our neighbor came over with his tractor and spread out the hills to flatten them up some to make the spreading process a bit more manageable once it dried out some. Thank goodness for neighbors because we would have spent at least another week working to get those mounds flattened out and spread around.
We have had plans on converting this three tier shelf/bunk bed we were given from a friend, into a mini greenhouse using the supplies we have around the yard. We removed the plywood they had used for the shelves and stipped it down to just its frame. We have many different types of fencing that we have picked up here and there knowing we could put it to use at some point along our journey. We got started by testing out four types of fencing to see which would be sturdy enough to hold the plants but allow light to penetrate and water to drain. We agreed on a fence similar to cattle panel only about three feet tall and covered in a rubbery green coating. It was almost perfect size hanging over just a bit and sturdy enough for all that we needed. We stretched it out cut it to size for each shelf with some tin snips and stapled it into place. The next step was to add a roof but our plans changed. We found a mini greenhouse for around thirty-five dollars at a nearby store and went ahead and picked it up. Why not? I mean it was very cheap and saved us some time because our plants were begging to be brought outside. We have decided to convert the shelf still but into rabbit cages instead. We had always had plans on eventually converting it into rabbit cages after its life as a greenhouse for this spring but now we are one step closer to getting those rabbits we are wanting! It is very exciting to know we are so close to getting our first livestock animal for our homestead! If any of you have some information about raising meat rabbits you would like to share with us please leave it in the comments. It is much appreciated!
Now we have an outside greenhouse and a pantry/grow room inside! Our plants are very happy to be living inside and out! We have such a large space to be planting in so it is safe to assume that we have an abundance of plants that need to be pre started. Like I mentioned above we are starting the majority of our plants indoors to do the "no dig" planting technique. Our grow room inside you can see here isn't large and is a temporary situation so the lights and fan we got are perfect for our project! It was fast and easy to make our plants happy! We have now separated our tomato plants that we started a few mere weeks ago. Five of each variety will be kept for our garden and the rest will be sold. We also received the last of our seed orders and the mass of them are peppers for jay of course. We even plan to grow the most expensive pepper in the world as well as the hottest! So as you can see this last few weeks has been a very busy time for us so I hope you stay tuned and I will do my best to get on here more regularly to update everyone with what is happening at the homestead! Don't forget to follow me here as well as on YouTube and Instagram to keep up with Good Time Holler! Thanks for reading and as always remember to have a good time! Bye guys!
After getting the dogs situated in their own special play area we began more work on the garden area. We put in all but six fence posts and attached all except one roll of fencing that we have been collecting. We left the posts down so that we could bring in some mulch. I know I have probably mentioned before possibly doing "raised beds" and then just and "in ground garden" and maybe even a bit of the "back to eden" talk but we have been really searching and discussing our best option to get the best harvest for our lowest price and have landed on a "No Dig" style garden. The rocks we were running into were just an overbearing amount and it was impossible to remove them all. The raised beds were going to run us way more money than we had to spare and going that direction was going to inevitably cause us to not have the garden ready in time to plant for spring. We found that with "no dig" we could bring in just a small amount of mulch and start the majority of our plants in doors or in a greenhouse in potting soil and then just plant them straight into the mulch allowing for no dirt disruption and allowing the roots to dig themselves into that underlying dirt however far they want to reap the benefits the untouched earth provides. In the end the "no dig" option sounded the most logical in our situation. The mulch will be brought in each year to lay atop the existing layer and help build up a nice deep layer or dark super soil or natural compost.
The mulch guy we found was the cheapest around so we assumed it wouldn't be the best mulch and in fact we assumed it was super fresh cut trees and brush. To our surprise the mulch the man brought us was warm dark black gold! This mulch was one hundred percent organic and had been composting for over a year! We ended up needing three loads to cover the entire area we have set out for our garden this year. We have never had a load of anything brought to the house before and we do not own a tractor. In fact we barely own shovels and rakes. Our shovel (if you haven't seen our YouTube video of us bringing in free mulch, watch it here) is tiny and our rock rake is actually duct taped together. I know they probably aren't very expensive but we try to be frugal and if the mini shovel and the duct taped rake does its job why buy new? Raking, shoveling, and hoeing this mulch proved to be an extremely hard job. The week before receiving the mulch we had freezing temperatures so the ground was too hard to load it then we had tons of rain and crazy wind so when the mulch finally made it to the house it was soaked! This mulch was so wet it had giant clumps and it took all the muscle I had to attempt to spread it. I know, I know, I'm a girl so that's not saying much, but Jay also got out there with me the next day and although the next day was sunny and had dried the top layer making it much easier to spread, it was still very wet underneath causing what seemed like more of a stand still than actually getting anywhere. We worked with the kids playing king of the hill atop the mountains of black gold, for about five hours and it looked as if we weren't making any progress. Our neighbor came over with his tractor and spread out the hills to flatten them up some to make the spreading process a bit more manageable once it dried out some. Thank goodness for neighbors because we would have spent at least another week working to get those mounds flattened out and spread around.
We have had plans on converting this three tier shelf/bunk bed we were given from a friend, into a mini greenhouse using the supplies we have around the yard. We removed the plywood they had used for the shelves and stipped it down to just its frame. We have many different types of fencing that we have picked up here and there knowing we could put it to use at some point along our journey. We got started by testing out four types of fencing to see which would be sturdy enough to hold the plants but allow light to penetrate and water to drain. We agreed on a fence similar to cattle panel only about three feet tall and covered in a rubbery green coating. It was almost perfect size hanging over just a bit and sturdy enough for all that we needed. We stretched it out cut it to size for each shelf with some tin snips and stapled it into place. The next step was to add a roof but our plans changed. We found a mini greenhouse for around thirty-five dollars at a nearby store and went ahead and picked it up. Why not? I mean it was very cheap and saved us some time because our plants were begging to be brought outside. We have decided to convert the shelf still but into rabbit cages instead. We had always had plans on eventually converting it into rabbit cages after its life as a greenhouse for this spring but now we are one step closer to getting those rabbits we are wanting! It is very exciting to know we are so close to getting our first livestock animal for our homestead! If any of you have some information about raising meat rabbits you would like to share with us please leave it in the comments. It is much appreciated!
Now we have an outside greenhouse and a pantry/grow room inside! Our plants are very happy to be living inside and out! We have such a large space to be planting in so it is safe to assume that we have an abundance of plants that need to be pre started. Like I mentioned above we are starting the majority of our plants indoors to do the "no dig" planting technique. Our grow room inside you can see here isn't large and is a temporary situation so the lights and fan we got are perfect for our project! It was fast and easy to make our plants happy! We have now separated our tomato plants that we started a few mere weeks ago. Five of each variety will be kept for our garden and the rest will be sold. We also received the last of our seed orders and the mass of them are peppers for jay of course. We even plan to grow the most expensive pepper in the world as well as the hottest! So as you can see this last few weeks has been a very busy time for us so I hope you stay tuned and I will do my best to get on here more regularly to update everyone with what is happening at the homestead! Don't forget to follow me here as well as on YouTube and Instagram to keep up with Good Time Holler! Thanks for reading and as always remember to have a good time! Bye guys!
Comments
Post a Comment