After a fairly tough few months, getting the homestead up and running (or at least to a point where there are no longer any CRITICAL tasks!), things are really starting to roll along smoothly now. There are a thousand things that I “want” to do, but very few that I “must” do. That is a really good feeling! This should mean an increased presence on this blog, moving my bee blog to this location and even dipping our toes into some VLogging. In a world that has seemingly gone mad, our little homestead is truly a place of peace and spirituality. We are having good fun!
There are so many updates to give, but I think I will focus on one garden item and one husbandry item. On the garden, we decided to plant sweet potatoes for the first time (I mean, ever!) I had built two raised beds for another purpose and they simply lay empty for much of the Spring. When it was clear that they would get no other use, I ordered some “sweet taters” and planted some slips. Although I was advised to pull them in late September, I simply watched the weather and decided to pull them this last weekend. They could have stayed longer, but now is the time for me to put in the shallots and garlic, which will all go into those beds. So, “taters got to go!”
Interestingly enough, there were a TON of sweet potatoes. They had really gone crazy with the upper growth (in fact, they grew so much that I plan to experiment with them along the base of my sunflower plants IN THE GARDEN next year – to see how well they keep the weeds down,) but I simply didn’t know how they would turn out. I would hazard a guess that I pulled around 60 or 70 pounds of potatoes from 5 plants in that raised bed. Many of the potatoes were very large (at least compared to what we get in the store), so I am not sure what the real results are yet (they need to taste good before I can call this a success!) My plan is to try a couple this weekend and then attempt to cure the rest for longer term storage. Ideally, I will be able to create slips from them next year and have a sustainable source of good, sweet starch.
I have also decided to add two more raised beds, between now and Spring. These 4 x 8 beds really knocked it out of the park for me. They are a foot high, with perhaps 10″ of soil (actually, pretty much all cow manure) in them. It’s a really good way to plant.
The final update is on the cows. We have cleared the last of the fence line that was encumbered with vines and other vegetation. This weekend, the plan is to begin to run the high tensile fencing on the inside of the wooden board fencing. Once I get this run along all of our outer perimeter, I can create paddocks by running lines down the middle of my fairly large pastures. This will allow a better rotational grazing plan. At any rate, that’s the plan for now.
I hope to get this blog going a bit more now, and add some videos. It’s been hard to date, given everything else going on in life.
God bless.