Homesteader Life

Well, its been a while since I’ve posted anything here. Spring has indeed arrived at Mt Hunger. The cows are all out happily eating grass day and night and that really reduces the barn chores. Cherry and pear trees are all in blossom and the wild turkeys are gobbling away early in the day. I’ve been working on an A frame chicken coop made out of scrap lumber as time and scraps permit. The hens down at main farm are laying well now, after a pretty sparse winter. Most all the fences are fixed and back in shape. We are behind in the garden, the carberator on the roto tiller needed rebuilding and the parts finally arrived. Hope to tilling tomorrow, Lord willing. We usually have peas and spinach in the ground by now so I’m getting a little antsy. The tomato seedlings are all looking good as are the rest of the seedlings. We need to get seed potatoes this week or next. I built a nice compost bin the other day with old bread trays and wire, cheap and gets the job done. The boys have been helping every night at milking time. John is getting to be a good cow milker and Noah has been feeding calves. Isaiah loves working around cows. He enjoys warm fresh milk “straight from the tit” in a little cup he keeps at the barn. John skips the cup and squirts directly in the mouth Oh, the simple joys of growing up on the farm. All the boys love to bring the cows down to the barn with grandpa on the golf cart. They know every cow by name and know just about every square inch of these hills. The other day we went to put the cows in and found a cat had caught a weasel. Two days before we found a healthy black giant hen deader than a hammer. Good cat! Today my dad made some dandelion jelly, made the same way you make violet jelly, and it was very good. The boys have been busy catching newts and toads when they get the chance. Little Esther is growing like a weed and growing a quite a bit of hair. She is such a sweet little thing, I’ll post a picture or two soon. Well, I hope to get back to blogging regular again. Till next time…

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 6:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.