Hubby was out of town for a week, and I enjoyed my solo flight. Time alone on the farm is not a usual thing, and so it is a special time, in a different way, then our together time on the farm which is special in another way. I tried to do all my granola business before he left so I could make it more of a farm week. I achieved my goal! I did bake one time but the rest of the time I literally did not leave the farm. It was beyond wonderful.
Top this off with 2 days of hanging out with your sister, on said farm? Priceless. We relaxed and did nothing. Well, that is if you call coffee mornings on the deck, cooking good food, and drinking wine on the deck in the evening nothing. It was our kind of nothing and it was perfect. I am often reminded of The Country Mouse and the City Mouse story from long ago, when we are together. She is the city mouse and I am, well, you get it, I’m sure. This city mouse helped slop pigs, toss hay, feed chickens, soaked the wallow and helped move chicken tractors. She even got the last rooster into the coop at night so we could move the chicken tractors. Why is there always one bird who won’t go in? It was great fun. After that I was on my own again. I was also on calf watch, because we are expecting two more calves, for what we have been calling “any day” for the last two weeks. This displays again our greenness with the cattle. We keep learning and they keep throwing more our way to learn. An example being about a month ago one of our newer little one knocked his horn off trying to get between the bars on the gate to reach some hay, he wasn’t supposed to have yet. So much blood, and redder than any red one could imagine it was a Dexter scene I hope to never see again. This is just an example of our learning on the fly, smart phones are great for that in the paddock. Google: our calf knocked his horn off…thankfully Google did not fail us! No matter what I ask, it’s been asked by someone already, and so it is a go to for help!
There are so many fresh delicious veggies right now, and everyday is a surprise in the garden. These are our radishes and our neighbors cukes and onions. Absolutely delicious the radishes made the cukes just a little spicy.
While hubby was gone, I worked in the kitchen, for many happy hours.
This pigs have been loving the kitchen leftovers. Our neighbor sent a box of overripe cukes for them too! Happy, happy pigs!
Our broccoli is beautiful this year!
…blanched and ready for the freezer!
The garlic is drying very nicely, it is almost ready to start using. There will be the yearly debate I wrote about last year. It’s the how much to replant, vs. how much I get to cook with debate. It’s so hard to set some aside when it is such amazingly good garlic!
Another thing I found out while hubby was gone? Although I LOVE cooking, while he was gone there was, no meal planning, no big sit down, and no real clean up from it. I ate simply, when hungry with no schedule! Late afternoons and early evening resulted in large windows of time, I don’t usually have.
This was nice for a change:)
Incrementally Stepping Towards Homesteading 