Farmers Market Co-Op

Our Island started a Farmers Market Co-Op about 3 weeks ago.  They asked all of us who farm or homestead to be a part of it and sell some of our goods.  It’s on Mondays after work hours for 3 hours.

We missed the first week but participated the second week by putting up a table and selling some of our homegrown vegetables, canned goods, baked goods, and the Teen Queen’s handmade clay jewelry, lipsticks and sugar body scrubs.  We had about 50 items and came home with 3.  I’d say it was a success!

This week we have a few more harvested vegetables to add to the table as well as some of our home baked Breads, Peach Skin Jelly, Dilly Beans and more canned peaches!

A farmers market is such an awesome opportunity to support your local farmers and meet people who like to homestead.  I always give out our Facebook site and this page so anyone who wants recipes to try their hand at adding a little of the homestead life into their busy lives can try it.

I am asked over and over again how I fit all of this in with working, kids sports almost every night, barn chores, animal care, and still finding time for boating and spending family time visiting all of the summer happenings in our area.  My answer is always…you just make the time.  Whether it’s baking, canning, or making jewelry, providing anything for your family that is homemade is such a great feeling.

Here’s to hoping today’s market is a success like last week!!!

 

 

 

Turkey Trouble

This mama turkey has been hanging around our cabin. She has a few babies we have seen running on the trails, but lately she has been hanging out closer and closer to the barn.

If you saw my previous post: Camping on the Farm, I shared that we have a cornhole game by the cabin.  This is a game you play using “corn bags” that are tossed.  The “corn bags” are a felt fabric stuffed with whole kernel corn and sewn shut.

We went back to play the game the other night and could not find the bags.  After a few minutes of searching, we found one empty bag of material, then another and another and so on.  Yep, you guessed it, mama turkey had stolen the bags and put a tiny hole in each one and eaten the corn!!

We have had no rain in almost 2 months.  The ground is hard as concrete and most of the wild vegetation has shriveled up. These poor wild animals are having a hard time finding food sources.  I am finding more and more deer in my pastures picking at leftover hay.  The raccoons are around and in the garbage, the birds are eating and drinking at the feeders and bird bath more than ever.

This picture was from yesterday.  She has now made her way up to the chicken and goat pasture and was eating the chicken scratch feed.  Needless to say, I ran to the feed store today and purchased a bag of corn to put out back in our feeder for her and her babies.

For more of our crazy daily farm living adventures, don’t forget to follow our facebook page: ChasenChanceRanch

 

Traditions

Recently someone asked me why we have a family Facebook page and a blog.  The answer was quick to me.  My blog is a place where I can share more in depth my thoughts and feelings of why we work so hard to carry on our lifestyle as well as share a bit about our family history.  Facebook users (myself included) are normally scanning quick in their spare time to possibly learn or see something new, share in the pages they follow, and keep a brief running of their life happenings.

As an example, on our facebook page today I posted a few pictures of things we will have on our Easter table.  All of the items are homegrown, hand picked, or made by our family.  To me they signify a tradition passed down from my family starting from my great grandmother, grandparents, mother and aunts.

Our ancestors were “doers”.  They had no other choice but to provide for themselves.  Today’s world is more about “consumers”.  Not many take the time to even think about where their food comes from much less contribute, except monetarily, to their own existence.  I am not implying this is a wrong way to live, but it’s important to me for my children to know how their ancestors lived and to be able to provide a bit for themselves.  Maybe I was born in the wrong era 🙂

Our Easter lunch table will be filled with food and decor our family has grown or made.

It’s a tradition and one I hope my children will carry on into their futures!

 

 

 

 

Mother Nature

If you look closely you will see this strange situation happening.  This sunflower is growing out of a crack in a dead tree by our garden.  It’s amazing how mother nature works!!

We fill a few of our bird feeders with sunflower seeds so a bird must have had a nest in this tree at some point.  But how it started and found it’s way out of a crack into the sunlight is amazing to me.

Garden update

Things are starting to produce in our little garden.  Now is the time for some tender loving care to keep these plants healthy and productive!

Hopefully nothing happens while I am Toronto bound with the boy for a hockey tournament this weekend.

You can see more of our garden pictures on my Facebook page here:  Garden update

Peaceful morning

It was a peaceful morning on the farm today.  All the animals were eating breakfast and enjoying the warmth of the sun finally!

Let the season begin

Goodbye relaxing nights and those extra 20 minutes of sleep in the morning.  You are being replaced with garden “engineering” which includes layout, planning, planting, weeding, working, and non-stop love and care!

Today’s project was getting some of our late producing vegetables planted.  We did pumpkins, butternut squash, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts and peas.  The kids love to help with this and the tween queen planted a container of Morning Glory, Cosmos and Zinnia.

And of course there’s always a jokester in the group!!  I knew something was up when the giggling was getting out of control.

If you saw my garden tip on Facebook, these are the little cups I save throughout the winter to use as planters.  These are lemon ice and yogurt containers.  Poke a few holes in the bottom and they are perfect for starting plants.

You can store these on a tray with sides and fill with water from the bottom so it hits the roots and nourishes the plant and you don’t have to water each one individually or with a sprayer.  This is a HUGE time saver!

And now they are gently covered with the sunlight hitting them to begin their growing process.  Fingers crossed they all produce.

This is exactly how it starts

I could not stop laughing as this woman hits the nail right on the head in this video.  Very funny and worth watching!

http://onegirlsrant.com/the-hazards-of-backyard-chickens/

It’s a family affair

Loading wood before the storm

Recently I read a fellow bloggers post explaining how to balance working full time and homesteading.  This is a question I hear often also.  How do you do it with work, school, sports, animals, gardening, property to upkeep, etc.?

Teamwork stacking

Homesteading is a choice in this day and age and the definition has changed over the years.  It used to be referred to as Pioneering (finding land, building your home, hunting, gardening, sewing, total self sufficiency).  Unless you live in the remotest areas of the world, that is no longer possible.  Even the remote areas are starting to lose their ability to stay “remote” and you are not able to hunt the food you need to survive because of laws.

So what does it mean today to be pioneering or homesteading?  Basically it’s a lifestyle choice trying to be as self sufficient as is allowed in this world, living simply, passing on the traditions of our ancestors to try and keep the history of our world relevant in today’s world.  This is where I created my tag line “Pioneer Living the New World Way”.

Pioneer living the new world way is actually a time balancing act.  It also includes sacrifice.  Sacrifice in the way of missing out on a friend gathering as the gardens need to be planted, weeded, land worked up, watered, trees moved off trails, fruit plants pruned and so on.  When you work full time these chores may take you into the late hours during the week but you do it because it’s the choice you made when you decided to homestead.  But the rewards of growing your own vegetables to carry you well into the winter months, canning your goods to provide your family food that is clean and simple with no chemicals, making food from scratch because it’s healthier and fresh, make every sacrifice worth it.

Because it’s no longer a necessity to live this way, you have to include the new world into your life.  Our ancestors did not have this fine line to walk to live their life.  Every homesteading family does this in their own way.  There are no books in history to help you figure out an equation of old world versus new world.  So each day you try to factor in what you can accomplish on your own contributing to your self sufficiency while enjoying all the conveniences available today.

Skies before the storm

Another huge factor in homesteading is if you have a spouse, they have to want to live that life also.  When I met the man of the house he was a hard working professional living in the city, driving a state of the art car, traveling, and enjoying the finer things in life.  I also was/am a hard working professional living in a 100+ year old farmhouse.  Together we made the choice to homestead, keeping my childhood house I was fixing up to sell for my parents, and building barns, gardens, trails, and fruit orchards.

Living the homesteading life in the new world way allows us to enjoy boating, traveling, sporting events, County Fairs, fabulous restaurants and many other luxuries while keeping up with farm work using modern machines (tractors, chain saws).

Storm rolling in and dad moving truck to shovel driveway

Today, watching my family work together load wood before a storm hit, I was smiling at them thinking how blessed and thankful I am to be living the life we are living and hoping they will choose this lifestyle when they have families.

All cozy in the house after chores when the storm rolled in

Farm life in the Fall

Martha on top roost and Cherry below all nestled in from the wind and rain

Fall is my favorite season.  But with fall comes cold temperatures, windy days, less daylight and MUD everywhere.  The chickens stop laying eggs consistently, the goats only roam out of their house for short periods and will spend time in their outdoor hut which offers protection from the wind and a full view of the house and yard, and the horses spend many days in their stalls and walkout areas as wet mud is not good for their feet and legs all day.

I like to keep things as natural as possible for our animals.  The goats have a hill and rocks to climb in their pen.  They have grass and trees as well.  The horses have 12×12 stalls and outside the stalls are walkout areas made of stone and rubber matting so they can walk and stretch their legs all day and night.  The chickens free range so get to be in their natural habitat all day.  Some farmers keep a light on in their coops to “trick” their chickens into thinking it’s daylight longer and they will produce more eggs.  I prefer to only use a red heat lamp and let their bodies act naturally during the winter months.

This is our hen Grrr having a drink of water that contains apple cider vinegar to keep her healthy all winter long

This is our hen Catness. She likes to roost on the highest part of the house

Some days I will let the horses out when the ground is slightly frozen in the morning.  However as the day progresses and the ground warms up, this is what you get:

Our paint mare, Mysty decided to enjoy the mud!! Bad horse!

And this week I am dog and chicken sitting for a neighbor.  Her chickens are full of personality.

They are spoiled like our chickens and enjoy hot oatmeal, fresh salad, tomatoes and some nice yogurt during the cold days.  These are all young hens born in the spring and they are still laying eggs.  The perk of this job is the eggs I get to bring home every day!

And while it’s much more work it’s also great to spend some “me” time on a nice ride through the bare trails on my oldest horse Bailey.

Wet and muddy on those trails but worth it!!

Mud, water, and ice spots line the trail

And about now I am ready for the change of season with its snow and frozen ground!!