happenings 'round the homestead

October 13, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

Fall is here and it is lovely! Our days have been full of great things, both in and outside, both with friends and family, and a good balance of play and work. We've really been enjoying this fall so far!

Things around our little urban homestead are going well too, for the most part. We are down to 8 chickens, from 11 earlier this year. We lost 2 of our pullets this summer - one to sickness, one to a hawk, and one of our older hens to sickness or egg-binding, as well. And while all of that is not great, we are happy that the 3 remaining pullets are starting to lay and our egg production is slowly increasing - just in time to drop off for winter! Ha! Out of the breeds we got this spring, I'm loving our Golden Sexlink! She is an egg-laying machine! She's been laying for several weeks now and I don't think she's missed a single day. We will definitely be adding more sexlinks to the flock next spring. As for Oak, that boy loves his chickens. Yesterday he played outside for about an hour and a good portion of that he spent sitting on a stump by the chicken coop, just talking to his chickens. They have good talks, he and his ladies.

The garden is slowing down, just as it should be at this time of year. We had our first frost this week, but my sheltered garden seems to have been spared. I think I'll pull the tomatoes and peppers this weekend, though, and try to get a cover crop to sprout before the hard freeze happens. The temps are cool enough now that the remaining green tomatoes are unlikely to ripen. All that will remain, then, will be the green beans, a few carrots, and the cover crops I planted in early September. Not bad, for the middle of October!

We added a few new structures to our little backyard this summer and we've so been enjoying them! Dan built us a shed, a firewood rack, and a fantastic sandbox for Oak! The benches of the sandbox fold in as a lid, in order to keep all of the neighborhood kitties out - as well as any free-ranging chickens. It's so fun to see the backyard become more and more of what we need/want for this season of life. Our backyard may be small, but we're making the most of the space and I love it.

garden notes :: june 2017

July 7, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

Wow! July is here and in full swing! I snapped a few pictures of my garden last week before heading out of town with Dan and Oak to Milwaukee for Summerfest. We're once again spending the whole 11 days of the festival making music and selling merch, all with a toddler at hand. It's going well, but I miss home, I miss my garden, I miss my chickens, and I especially miss my kitty. They are all in good hands, though, thankfully. All of that missing has made me want to share a few of those garden pictures with you as the June garden is now a thing of the past.

This was an interesting June! We had a week or two of really hot weather at the top of the month, which made the radishes bolt and slowed a lot of growth on my beets, turnips, and lettuce, but then that heat was followed by a lovely mixture of rain, sunshine, and temps in the 70's. It was perfect June weather. A few days before leaving town, I was able to harvest the garlic scapes, a handful of red currants, a couple radishes, oregano, and quite a few handfuls of peas.

I think I'll return home to find my Asiatic Lilies blooming, zucchini blossoms, and a few ripened or almost ripened cherry tomatoes! That will be lovely!

garden notes :: may 2017

May 29, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

I can't believe there is so much going on in my garden at the end of May! The garlic is huge, the herbs are going strong, the seeds and seedlings are planted, and the peonies are blooming! I even picked my first radishes!

As I mentioned in my last garden post (which was my last post...life has been busy!), I'm taking a bit of a different approach to the garden this year -- I'm planting a wider variety of vegetables, which means I'm planting a smaller quantity of each. I'm hoping this leads to more food that can fill our table throughout the summer, more of a continuous harvest from the garden, rather than nothing in June/July and everything in August/September, and less waste from too much coming in at once. We'll see! The only thing I'm a bit concerned about not having enough of is green beans. I freeze a lot of green beans and we eat them all winter long. I'm not sure that planting fewer beans was the right decision, but hopefully the cucumbers and acorn squash that will grow in their place will make up for it, especially since I usually buy both at the farmers market on a regular basis. I'll keep you posted.

The creeping thyme that I've been slowly working to grow as a ground cover between the steps in the garden is stronger than ever in some spots this year and completely dead in others. Maybe someday I'll have a carpet of green down that path...maybe someday.

How about you?? What's happening in your garden these days?

garden notes :: april 2017

May 3, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

May has arrived and spring is here in full swing with tulips blooming, perennials returning, and trees leafing out. We've had lots of rain, which has been much needed, but a bit dreary. However, it looks like we're in for quite a few days of sun, which will wake up everything that hasn't already awakened from winter's sleep.

With all of that, I thought I'd take a few moments to share a few garden notes with you from the month of April...mostly because there are actually notes to share! We had very little snow in the Twin Cities this winter and a warmer than average March, which meant that the ground was actually workable 6 weeks before the average last frost! This meant that I was able to plant my first round of peas in the first week of April, and two weeks later, I planted another round of peas, lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, broccoli, turnips, and arugula.

This is the first time I have had more than peas planted before May, partly because of weather, but mostly because of a lack of planning! There are actually quite a few things that can be planted before the last frost, but it means taking advantage of those few dry spring days to prep garden beds and get things in the ground. This year I actually had time to do that! (Toddlerhood is so much more conducive to gardening, if you ask me! And only working outside of the home part time...that helps too.)

I'm taking a little different approach to my garden this year, focusing on planting more variety in order to better fill our table throughout the summer, rather than trying to fill the cupboards. I'll leave the task of filling the cupboards up to my farmers' market hauls. A few new-to-me things I'm going to try this year are beets, turnips, acorn squash, Napa cabbage, and heads of lettuce. I'm also giving a few things another try after unsuccessful attempts such as cucumbers, zucchini, and broccoli.

I'm so excited for the garden this year, as I feel a new sense of motivation. Having a new baby last year and being in my first trimester of pregnancy the year before, meant that the garden didn't get as much attention as I'd hoped over the past two summers. But this year shall be different and I'm so excited! I'm excited for the new mouth at my table to feed our garden's bounty to and I'm excited for long days spent outside playing, planting, and cultivating. It's gonna be good. So good.

How about you? Have you planted anything yet?? What garden dreams do you have for the summer?

our new brood

April 14, 2017 Megan Rodriguez

Chicks! We have new chicks! And let me tell you, watching chicks grow through the eyes of a 13 month-old is absolutely wonderful. He LOVES his chicks! He walks his little push cart past them and stops to say hi and check on them periodically throughout each day. He talks to them and says good morning and goodnight. He feeds them spinach and gives them kisses. He knows to be gentle with them and does a pretty good job carrying that out. And he is very diligent in telling us that the heat lamp is hot. Our experience with our first batch of chicks 4 years ago was so much fun, but this is an entirely different kind of fun and I'm loving it.

We got 5 chicks this time around. One Rhode Island Red, named Rosie the Red. One Golden Sexlink, named Marilyn (Monroe...of course). One Barred Rock, named Fingers II...we lost Fingers I to a raccoon last fall and while they are different breeds, Dan wanted another Fingers. And lastly, two Black Australorps named Dumpling and Noodle Soup. That gives us a total of 11 birds, but we are planning to cull 3 of our older hens by the end of the summer in order to make room for the youngins and hopefully revitalize our egg supply for next year. Our egg supply is up, but definitely not where it was before when our birds were younger. It will be sad to say goodbye to our older hens, our first ladies. I'm not ready yet...but I know it's what is best for us and so I'll be ready when the time comes.

But for now...CHICKS!!!!!! Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate and happy spring to all!