Farm Archives - Our Homestead Adventures

Gardening: In A Coronavirus Crazy World, Control What You Can Control

Why gardening can: calm the soul, ease food security worries and lead to self empowerment even as the world seems to be going crazy during the coronavirus crisis.

Frugal Gardening and Farm Tip: Tomato tie-up wire

Check out this frugal gardening hack. Why pay full price for stuff to tie-up your tomatoes? This is actually Christmas wreath tie I bought at Walmart. I picked it up the day after Christmas for 75% off… they were basically giving it away. This is what we like to use to tie-up our tomatoes. It’s…

Polar Vortex Hits the Homestead

The much talked about “Polar Vortex” made its way into Kentucky Wednesday. While school was called off, farm chores never are. We’re surviving, the animals are doing well and hopefully warm weather will return before too long. We knew that the Polar Vortex was coming for a few days, so we had time to prepare.…

Beauty in the Fade, Fall on the Homestead

Finding meaning in fall. The leaves swirled down from our persimmon tree with a wind rushing up our hill. The chickens have lost quite a few feathers, as a palette of various shades have been wind-blown lining the sides of the chicken run like a tossed feathered boa. Our majestic sunflowers with multiple heads of…

Why We Candle Chicken Eggs

What’s going on inside your chicken eggs? We never needed to know what is going on with the chicken eggs we bring indoors to consume, until recently. In fact, we thought we had it all down-pat. I guess when you have more than a handful of chickens, there is a lot more chicken behavior to…

Pumpkin Planting Experiment

Few things make me smile the way a pumpkin makes me smile. I know, it sounds weird, but I just love pumpkins and have this dream of someday growing a state fair champion pumpkin. In the meantime, we’re doing our best to have a real pumpkin patch this year and are experimenting with a way…

How to Make Honeysuckle Jelly

Honeysuckle jelly, a sweet summer treat You’ll know summer is on the way when the thick, aromatic perfume of the honeysuckles embrace you, sending a stream of warm memories rushing through your mind and sending a joyous smile to your face. The nostalgia of bright yellow honeysuckle vining around old fence posts, causing one to…

Unearthing Farm Artifacts in the Garden

An evening planting digs up questions and farm artifacts. This evening over an hour was spent digging two holes to place a couple of melon plants. Breaking ground was easy. It was when the earth was turned over that remnants, artifacts of moments long forgotten where discovered buried several inches to a foot deep into…

Thanksgiving turkey, Raise or Hunt?

Homegrown Thanksgiving challenge update, Turkey edition “What if our Thanksgiving dinner included only the things that we provided for ourselves?” That question triggered the first Inspired to Try challenge, now we had a big decision to make. The turkey is usually the star of the show so do we hunt a turkey or raise a…

When Your Chicken Gets Frostbite

Roostavo the magnificent Rhode Island Red Chicken had a rough winter. Roostavo, Roostavo… you have filled our mornings with the trill of your Rhode Island Red cocka-doodle-do for a month in the back room of our home. You crazy chicken! Amy has turned into a morning ninja, creeping across the kitchen floor in the dark…