The Eggs Hatched!!

The eggs in the wreath on my front door have hatched! These little guys are so ugly they're cute. I will try to get pictures every couple of days so you can watch them grow with us. My kids will be so excited when they get home from their summer classes today.

Busy Days On The Homestead

I realized today it has been over 2 weeks since I have posted on here. I am still here it has just been SO busy around here. The garden is producing so there has been tons of preserving going on.

My in-laws went out of town for a week and asked us to keep an eye in their large garden. We were told that if we would water it and keep an eye on things any produce we picked we could keep. Oh my! I had no idea how much I would be getting. We go over every other day to pick tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers. cantaloupe and blackberries. Hopefully their corn will be ready soon.

I keep telling myself not to complain about the work because we have been given a gift of free food that someone else put the work into growing. I seem to go through this every year about this time. I have about had enough of the garden and the heat. There is produce falling off every counter in my kitchen. I have to constantly remind myself what a blessing this is. There are others who would love to be in my place and would gladly do the work.

I have been canning nearly everyday trying to keep up with the tomatoes before they go bad. This is not an easy feat when you have 4 little ones around needing attention on top of the regular daily chores. I do not know how Ma Ingalls managed. That poor woman must have been exhausted all the time. I know I have never been so tired and I have modern conveniences to help me.

I love my children, but I can hardly wait for school to start in 2 weeks so I can get some things accomplished. I know I will miss them, but for the moment I am ready for them to be busy elsewhere. There are days I can not figure out how I used to do all this and homeschool. I guess I had a different rhythm back then. It seems that ever since I put the kids in public school they no longer know how how to entertain themselves. They seem to need someone to tell them what to do every minute of the day. They are doing better now that summer is almost over.

I have lots of posts planned, so don't go anywhere. I will post as I have time during this busy season. I should have lots of time this winter once the garden is done. Hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to give you our August garden update. 

Delicious Summertime Watermelon Slush!

Watermelon slushies are some of my families favorite summertime treats. I am one of those really weird people who really don't care for watermelon, or any melon for that matter. I know it's not normal to dislike melon, but I LOVE these slushes. They are so nice on a hot summer day. Not to mention they are really quick and easy to make. 

Watermelon Slushes

2 large handfuls of ice

2 -3 cups watermelon

2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

2 tablespoon sugar (or more to taste)

Throw everything in the blender and blend until smooth. Thats it! Now you have a cold summertime treat that your kids will love. Even better no food dyes.

How To Braid Garlic

I have to start this post by apologizing for my less then stellar photos....not that my usual ones are all that great. These just seem to be much worse then usual. One of these days I will be able to invest in a better camera, but or now my camera phone will have to do. Thanks for sticking around     anyway.

I have always been intrigues by beautiful braids of dried garlic so I decided that this year I would have to learn how to do it. It really was not nearly as hard as I had expected it to be.  Basically if  you can braid a simple braid you can do this.

Before you braid your garlic you need to make sure it is completely cured. Mine has been sitting in my garage for about a month now and was nice and dry.

To get started take 3 garlic stalks and lay them next to each other. 

Start braiding them just like a normal braid.

After you have the braid started you will then add a new garlic stalk to each of the 3 you already have in the braid. At this point you should have 6 garlic bulbs.

Keep doing the same thing until you have used up all your garlic or you think the braid is large enough.

Remember to keep adding the garlic bulbs in multiples of 3. My poor garlic is so ugly. I could not get all the dirt off no matter how hard I tried. It was cemented on and I did not want to break any of the bulbs.

After all your garlic has been added to the braid you just keep braiding the rest of the stalk all the way up to finish it off. I used a piece of twine to tie off the top and to use as a loop for hanging.

Hopefully by now you have a nicely braided bundle of garlic to store for later use. I am for sure going to have to grow LOTS more garlic next year now that I know how easy it is to grow, cure and store. Especially since we eat so much garlic around here.

Cucumber Chips

It's cucumber season around here. In the past I have always made pickles with what we did not eat fresh. This year I decided to try something different. I did some research to see if there was another way to preserve them without canning. 

It turns out you can dry them and make chips or dry them to save for soups in winter. I decided to give chips a try. 

This method was really quick and had some tasty results. 

Start by gathering all your cucumbers and give them a good rinse to get the dirt off. 

Next, slice all the cucumbers as evenly as possible. 

 Lay them in a single layer on the tray of your dehydrator. I personally have an excalibur dehydrator which I LOVE. I use it for so many things. It is totally worth the investment.

I decided to use some of my ranch dip mix to sprinkle on top for some flavor. (Recipe at the end of this post.)

After each cucumber was sliced and seasoned they went into the dehydrator to "cook".

I followed my dehydrators recommendation of drying at a temperature of 125 degrees. Temps may vary depending on what kind of  machine you use. I may have to try this in a solar dehydrator sometime.

Allow the cucumbers to dry until they are crispy. Mine took overnight. I was pleasantly surprised at how these turned out. To be honest I wasn't expecting to like them. 

Ranch Dip Mix

5 Tablespoons dried minced onions

7 teaspoon parsley flakes

4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

To make ranch dip mix 2 tablespoons mix with 2 cups sour cream.

This recipe if from Heavenly Homemakers. Check our Laura's. She has so many yummy recipes. 

Bucket Tomatoes VS Ground Tomatoes

              Tomato in the ground. Sorry it's hard to see.                 Tomato in a bucket.

The Challenge:

Which plants will grow the best? The ones planted in the buckets or the ones in the ground?

Early in the spring I started tomatoes from seed. They were SO SLOW to get going. I almost gave up and bought transplants. I am slowly learning the how and why of growing my own food. Apparently my seedlings were not getting enough light. I though they were, but once I got them outside they went crazy.

I decided to put most of them in buckets mostly to save space, but also to do an experiment to see which plants would do better...those planted in buckets or those planted directly into the ground.

May

Back in May I really thought I would lose the ones I put in the ground. They just did not seem to grow and I almost couldn't find them with all the weeds trying to crowd them out.

I kept babying them and keeping them as weed free as possible. I think one thing that made the biggest difference was all the  rain we had in May. It was possibly drowning their roots. There was just more rain then the ground could handle.

At the same time the bucket tomatoes were growing really really fast. My guess would be that they were able to drain most of the excess water off.

June

Through out June the plants in the ground really started to catch up and the bucket plants started to put out blooms, but started to wilt under the intense heat and the lack of rain. The ground plants were able to reach down into the ground for extra water.

July

It is now July and so far the bucket tomatoes are doing the best and have lots of green tomatoes all over them.

The ones in the ground are slowly getting there. I think by the end of the season they will be producing.

The Verdict

I am so excited that I decided to keep trying with my seedlings and that I didn't toss them. The thought of starting plants from seed was a bit overwhelming for me since I have almost always bought starts.

I think the tomatoes in the buckets are going to be the way I go from now on since it saves so much space in my garden and I can move them around.

Conserving Water On The Homestead

Every morning I turn on the sprinkler for about 30 minutes and then again for another 30 in the late afternoon or early evening. The only problem with this is a lot of water either never makes it to the garden and ends up all over the yard, chicken pen, or evaporating and is wasted.

I decided there had to be an easier way. I started researching and found some interesting options. So far we have not had a chance to implement many of them due to budget costs and needing to build other things first. I am hoping to do more with water conservation next summer.

Here are the ideas I am going to try out...

Mulch

I told my husband that I needed to put some mulch in the garden, but did not really want to spend any money on buying it. Our solution was to use the grass from the lawn after it had been mowed.

This solution ended having 2 perks...it helps to keep the weeds down as well as helping to hold in moisture and keep the water from evaporating.

I was a little concerned about using grass, but after talking it over with the owner of our local garden center I feel better about it. He said that it will work as long as we remember to fluff it up every now and then otherwise it will create a mat of grass on the ground.

Intensive Planting

Basically intensive planting is planting your plants in the garden close together so there is less area to water.

Soaker hose and drip irrigation

I went to my local feed store this spring to look at their soaker hoses. I was just about to purchase one when for some reason I decided to turn the package over and read it. I was completely shocked to see a warning printed on it. It said it was not safe to use when watering crops that would be eaten. The hose contained lead and it recommended washing your hands after handling.

I could not believe this was in the section with all the seeds and other garden items. If I had not looked at it I probably would have bought it and been unknowingly poisoning my families food.

I did a little research and there are safe alternatives and soaker hoses made specifically for food crops. Make sure before you purchase one that you check to make sure it is safe.

Here is a nice one I found on amazon.

Element ELSP38075 3/8-Inch by 75-Feet Soakerpro Hose, Black

Next year I think we will invest in a good drip irrigation system such as the Rain Bird Drip Irrigation Gardener's Drip Kit that I found on Amazon. I think we will add a timer to my hose so that I don't have to try and remember to turn off the sprinkler and defeat the purpose of trying to save water. 

One of my favorite ideas that I found are clay pots called an ollas that you can bury in the ground and fill with water. This would be an excellent way to water your garden if you have to be gone for a few days. Plus they make some really cute ones.

If you are interested in a smaller version you could try the Plant Nanny. These would work well in the garden near a plant or in a pot. For the Plant Nanny you have to add a wine bottle filled with water. 

The perk to these is you get to enjoy a bottle of wine before you use it. 

The last idea I was able to find is to conserve water by watering your garden with rain water. Rain water is free and nothing can beat free when it comes to gardening on the cheap. 

The rain barrel kit above can be a bit pricy. There are cheaper alternatives if you are willing to make your own. I have found that sometimes it is so much easier to just buy a pre-made kit and save myself the headache of trying to figure out a DIY.  

What things do you do to conserve water on your homestead?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. When you buy a product I recommend I earn a small commission from the company that sells the item. This does not cost you anything, but helps me to maintain this site. 

July Garden Update

I hope you don't think all I plan to write about is garden updates. That would be very boring if I did. I decided to bump what I had planned for today since it is July 1st and I want to try out a new idea of giving a garden update once a month on or close to the first so I can see the progress of things all year long. 

As you can see I need to do some weeding on this side of the garden. I got the other side caught up last week. I am planning to show you an easy way to keep weeds to a minimum later this week. 

So here is what things look like this month.

This little guy was a fun thing to find. It looks like my cucumber vines have found one of my tomato cages and decided to go vertical.

I have heard of vertical gardening and wondered how well it really works with heavier produce such as cucumbers and squash. I will have to keep an eye on this plant and keep you updated.

If all goes well I am planning to add some vertical growing space next year. I saved my son's crib when he switched to a big boy bed last month. It looks like it might make a sturdy and eye catching thing for squash to grow on. Plus I get to keep the crib a bit longer. I really hated to see it go.

This is either a baby buttercup or table squash. I am not sure which one since they are planted next to each other and the vines have run into each other. It will be fun to see what it turns into.

I didn't take a picture of the jack-o-lantern pumpkins, but they are looking great. The kids are really hopeful they keep growing so they can harvest lots of pumpkins this fall.

The second set of pole beans I planted in the space left behind after pulling the pea vines are starting to come up.

These are the pole beans I planted in the spring in buckets with a teepee of bamboo poles. They are doing ok, but no sign of beans yet.

I love all the color in my yard. There seems to always be something new. Here is a sample of what has been coming up lately. Is this echinacea?