State of the Homestead

During the height of summer, there's not much going on outside. We've been lucky this year. So far we've had only one month of triple digits. The bad news is we've had very little rain.

Garden: Water is always on my mind. Since I can't talk Greg into moving where we get a little more rain, we have to devise ways to water more efficiently.

We've tried it all. Sprinklers. Hand watering. Soaker hoses. Timed watering. Each has pros and cons. Greg is now piping the water directly at the plant roots. It's like a soaker hose but the pipe is more rigid. He punched holes at six inch intervals to spray water at the base of the plants.

We've already tested it out on a couple of beds and it's working beautifully. I can put more water on plants in three minutes than 15 minutes worth of sprinkler water. Less waste and more direct watering. I wish the soaker hoses would've worked but they never last, and those suckers are expensive to replace.

Our project for next summer is to hang shade cloth to see if it will help some of our plants make it through the brutal summer. Pepper and okra do fine, but the rest wilt away under a blistering sun.

I've started a few seeds for a fall garden. It won't be a big garden, just a few veggies for the winter table.

Update on plant fails: All my squash failed. Zucchini, yellow squash, butternut, and spaghetti squash. Lots of flowers but few fruit. When it did fruit, they withered away before they could mature. It could be a calcium deficiency, but it seems unlikely since I crush eggshells around most of my plants. Still researching.

Update on plant successes. The asparagus bed is looking great. I'm hoping to pick asparagus next spring. The sun was killing my blueberry plants so I dug them up and put them in pots. I'm pleased to say they came back to life within weeks and sprouted new leaves.

Isn't he handsome?

Goats: I have one buckling left. I'd like to sell him this year. We'll have only one breedable doe for next year, but that's okay. We want to downsize for a couple of years so we can travel.

Rabbits: The summer is always hard on them. I'm running a fan 24/7 and bring them frozen bottles of ice three times a day. They lay next to the ice bottles and it keeps them cool.

Chickens: We've been hatching chicks left and right. I'm half thinking about raising all of them and selling the hens in the spring. They'll be ready to lay by April and people will be clamoring for laying hens--especially with the price of eggs lately. It won't cost much to feed them for a few months and I should get a pretty good return. We'll see.

We have had some terrible luck with a few older chicks. I had a nice habitat inside an existing chicken coop, but somehow a few always got out. Big mistake. Birds in general, and chickens in particular are ruthless killers of other birds. 

The chicks that escaped were quickly decapitated by the resident hens. I finally moved them to a safer location, but not before I lost four of them.

Indoors...and out: My house has three living areas. Two of them are in the front of the house. The previous owner painted murals in both these rooms. It's not that she didn't do a good job, but it's not to my taste. It's been on my to do list to repaint it for quite a while. 

I finished one room and it looks quite nice. It's a soft neutral. I had planned on painting the other room the same taupe color but now Greg thinks I should repaint it the existing color (sage green). I'm okay with that except for the fact that I already bought the paint.

Generally, poor Greg doesn't get a vote on how I paint/decorate the house, but I'm not opposed to the green. As long as the mural goes bye-bye, I'm open minded. 

Over the weekend we hit a few garage sales (as usual) and found a couple of estate sales in a high end area. The homes were gorgeous and so beautifully decorated. 

Most of my wood furniture came from garage sales and antique auctions. I get a kick out of transforming ratty antiques back to glory. 

Curio cabinet with my boys.

But my one piece of high end furniture came from a store. It's a curio cabinet and I spent an obscene amount of money on it. Still, it's my favorite piece of furniture. (It was also the piece that destroyed my knee when we were moving.) 

Much as I dislike spending big bucks, this is one of those cases where I simply loved the piece too much. Even after all these years, it's still my favorite. That makes it a good buy in my book.

Do you have a favorite piece of furniture? Ever spend a lot of money on something you love to bits? 

The only bad news around the home front is that our water heater went out. (We just replaced the other one this year!) That's another 600 bucks out the window. At least Greg can install it himself. The hard part is getting it up to the attic.

I get so aggravated that things break down after only a few years. It's nothing short of planned obsolescence. I'm old enough to remember when things lasted much longer. Our old water heater at our other house was over 35 years old before we replaced it. This one is only ten.

My mom is coming to visit for an extended stay in October so I've got a lot to get done before then. My house is never cleaner than when company comes over. How about you?