Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Chelsea, and I consider myself a first-year homesteader, along with my fiancé, Mr. L. Our goal is to eventually own a home on several acres, raise much of our own meat, dairy, eggs, fruits and veggies, as well as maintain an active flock of fiber-type animals from which warm-weather gear can be made. We will be wed in June 2019 and hope to start a family sometime soon thereafter.
This year was one of trial and error, with money and lives lost and knowledge gained. We unfortunately have lost 20 chickens to bad weather and predators over the 2 years we’ve been keeping chickens. Our flock totals 13 at the moment. They have a predator-proof run that they stay in when we aren’t home, but we like to allow them free range time when we’re home and doing outdoor chores. Lesson: Free range time MUST be supervised.
We had a queen bee that took off (swarmed out, along with half her workers) during the summer dearth, and when the bees hatched a new queen she must have gotten eaten on a mating flight because we never saw evidence of her laying. I purchased a new queen from White Mountain Apiary and the hive has recovered nicely under her tutelage. She is a Saskatchewan bee, and that is a breed I will stick with. I have taken a class on overwintering bees. Assuming this hive survives the winter, we hope to add a second hive in the spring. Lesson: Feed during the dearth. Also: Be vigilant during each inspection. Watch for swarm cells. The bees will tell you if something is wrong, but only if you watch for them.
We planted Brussel sprouts, kale, cilantro, dill, peas, spinach, beets, 4 kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of cucumbers, and 6 kinds of hot peppers. Our garden was discovered early on by a groundhog, so nothing bore fruit. Lesson: apply rodent repellent liberally under the electric fence, especially early in the season.
I have started an indoor container garden to try my luck growing plants over the winter. Currently there are 4 habanero, 2 jalapeños, 2 hot cherry, 2 poblano, 2 cayenne, 3 tomato, 3 basil, 2 “butter” lettuce, 40 “mesclun” lettuce (in 1 pot), 3 thyme, 1 lemon thyme sharing a pot with some lemongrass, 1 spearmint, and 1 kale plant. Two of the habanero plants and one of the tomato plants have fruit trying to grow in on them. Both of the fruiting habaneros and one hot cherry plant are infested with whiteflies, so we’re battling that. One of the tomato plants had all of its greenery eaten off by a very large green caterpillar which somehow came inside without being noticed. I suspect it was a Luna Moth caterpillar, and I suspect it was much smaller when it moved in than it was when I found it. It was easily 3.5” long and ¾” tall when I noticed it - I had the man of the house remove it to the wooded edge of the lawn where it could hopefully pupate in peace.
In the immediate future, we are retaking the garden (which we let go to seed after the groundhog attacked) and fertilizing it well before putting it to bed with heavy mulch for the winter. Theodore is in active molt, so there is much bunny-brushing and hand-spinning of woolen yarn. We will be harvesting chokecherries to make wine. Late this month we’ll tar paper the beehive to keep the winter winds out.
That summarizes where we are on this 1st day of October, 2018. Hope you enjoyed reading, see you next time!
