Wow, Friday of labour day weekend already!! It has been such a busy summer here at the homestead. Our first full summer, trying to get everything done at once. So I thought this would be a perfect time for an update on the summer's main projects.
Gary's big goal for this summer was to get the first section of road that will give us access to the back of the property. The first section being from the driveway to the pig yard. So at the end of May the area looked like this
Gary's big goal for this summer was to get the first section of road that will give us access to the back of the property. The first section being from the driveway to the pig yard. So at the end of May the area looked like this
Looking up the hill.
The first week in July the pigs were working their magic
Looking down the hill.
Today the 'road' looks like this.
The change is even more dramatic down by the house where the diveway is being extended to meet up with the 'road'. The changes in the landscape all around the house even suprised us when we started looking at what had been accomplished this summer. Back in May the place looked like a nuclear test area, remember how cold May was?
It is much nicer now. The goats fence has been moved back towards their shelter. The large rocks where the pigs are playing are the start of the rock we will be using to make terraces for the vegetable garden. The guys are currently rebuilding the pig yard at the top of the hill. They are getting a new yard and Patches and KW are getting new shelters. (More pics on that next week.) The pig yard has been highest priority for this weekend as patches is due to farrow a week from today. The wood stacked on the pallet is from the large branch we lost from the apple tree during Arthur. Gary has been saving to use in the smoker when we graduate Wart in a couple of weeks.
My priorities were getting the bee hive up and running, putting in medicinal more herbs and just getting the immediate space around the house cleaned up. I have put in 2 elderberries, a witch hazel, lavender, and lots of comfrey and calendula. The back yard has gone from this
To this...
The pit to the basement entry is only half filled in. The new door we ordered to go in the other side of the house will be here in a week or so. Once we have that in we can fill in the current door with cement block, lay the tile drain and back fill the hole. Finally the new freanch door will go in the back wall of the house. I am hoping the doors will be in by my birthday the first week of October. (hint hint)
We also managed to have one rotation of meat birds. They will be starting to graduate soon, and I have 8 laying birds growing in the chicken area. The chickens have actually ended up doing really well in their little sun-dappled area at the bend in the "road". I am thinking of just beefing up the defenses of this hut and adding a few nest boxes to keep the layers in this winter.
We also managed to have one rotation of meat birds. They will be starting to graduate soon, and I have 8 laying birds growing in the chicken area. The chickens have actually ended up doing really well in their little sun-dappled area at the bend in the "road". I am thinking of just beefing up the defenses of this hut and adding a few nest boxes to keep the layers in this winter.
We have also thinned out the small coppices of trees in the back of the house, and added a swale to deal with water issues above and in front of the bee hive. We have had a couple of so-so rains and it has worked well. We shall see with the rains fall ususally delivers. Gary has the three soild sides up on his wood storage shed and he and Reiley have been working to fill it. As mentioned the new pig yard and huts should be finished tomorrow. There is still about 1/3rd of the truck full of 2X4's to get started on the new permanent goat shed.
Moving the basement door is going to be the real game changer. Once that wall is blocked up Gary can expand the sprouts operation and we will notice a real difference in the power usage this yaer as the old door funneled cold wind directly onto the hot water tank.
There is also going to be time for one larger infrastructure project this fall. We are going to be talking workshops this weekend and I will let you know what we decide on. The infrastructure project will be directly related to which workshops we decide to have next year...so stay tuned.
It has been a busy summer, and will continue to be so until freeze up. But when winter finally hits this year we will be much more secure and settled and ready to take great leaps forward in our plan to teach others the skills we have and in doing so learn from them.
It is not always easy, but is is possible. You have the dream, start taking action that will bring the dream closer. Piece by piece it comes together, but you need to start. Small steps everyday and suddenly you are miles fromwhere you started. IT IS POSSIBLE! Start living your dream today.
I'll be back Monday, have a great weekend everyone!
Moving the basement door is going to be the real game changer. Once that wall is blocked up Gary can expand the sprouts operation and we will notice a real difference in the power usage this yaer as the old door funneled cold wind directly onto the hot water tank.
There is also going to be time for one larger infrastructure project this fall. We are going to be talking workshops this weekend and I will let you know what we decide on. The infrastructure project will be directly related to which workshops we decide to have next year...so stay tuned.
It has been a busy summer, and will continue to be so until freeze up. But when winter finally hits this year we will be much more secure and settled and ready to take great leaps forward in our plan to teach others the skills we have and in doing so learn from them.
It is not always easy, but is is possible. You have the dream, start taking action that will bring the dream closer. Piece by piece it comes together, but you need to start. Small steps everyday and suddenly you are miles fromwhere you started. IT IS POSSIBLE! Start living your dream today.
I'll be back Monday, have a great weekend everyone!
RSS Feed
