Maple Syrup Making
This is our first year tapping the trees on our “new” property. (While the property has been ours for several years now, it FEELS more like ours now that we’ve actually moved into the house.) My in-laws tapped the trees here for many years, so we just picked up where they left off. I had Hubs’ drag the clothes-dryer-turned-boiler up from the backyard dump, and then he and my BIL found the taps up in our barn. I washed up the tapping stuff and we scrubbed out some paint-y buckets to collect sap in. It’s not a beautiful setup, but Lord willing it will work great! This week is supposed to be great sap-running weather. We’ve already collected some sap and will start boiling it down tomorrow.
At the beginning of this year, I was not so excited about planning my garden. I think I was still burnt-out and “hung over” if you will, from all that happened in 2019. After our trip to Italy, though, I felt like I could really put all that stuff behind me and get ready for a beautiful new season of homesteading.
This year I will be transitioning our garden from a plot way out by the barn, to one that is just behind our house. I am so excited about that. It will mean less walking, fewer hoses, possibly less deer damage, and a lot of other benefits. In 2020 I will be during a basic continuation of last year’s small, “fresh-only” garden, where most of the produce will be eaten fresh and only a little bit canned or frozen for winter. There is still some spinach that overwintered in my greenhouse bed, but I will have to reseed most of that for an early spring harvest. I’m hoping to have a good variety of fresh produce from April to October, with a few selections in November, December and March.
Seed starting: Every year I re-evaluate what to start from seed and what to buy as seedlings. This year I chose to start almost everything from seed (which is actually not that much), as I did a seed inventory and discovered over 50 varieties of seed! Yikes! Nonetheless, I still bought an $8.00 bag of seed starter and two little $0.20 packs of seeds. The cheap seed packets have already provided four marigold seedlings and four basil seedlings, with seeds leftover. In the past I had trouble sprouting basil seeds, so that is something I might re-purchase every year. It is a LOT cheaper than buying a $4.00 basil plant. I am hoping to plant one or more marigolds in each raised bed to help with pest control.
Of the other seeds still sitting around, a few (spinach, lettuce, radishes, chard) will be planted before the last frost, and may will be planted after the last frost. This year, as last, I will continue to evaluate what vegetables and herbs we actually use, and which ones are just a waste of time and energy to grow.
I bought a book this winter called Carrots Love Tomatoes, about companion planting. I am learning SO MUCH about plants and gardening through this book! On area in particular that I find fascinating is about weeds; what helps, what hinders, and what the presence of certain weeds can tell you about the condition of your soil. If you can only have a few gardening books on your shelf, I would recommend this and Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.
Chickens
Right now we have five laying hens and one rooster. As egg production picks up, I plan on incubating some of our own eggs and then raising or selling the chicks. I don’t think this will be a great money-maker so much as a fun project. And it will keep me from buying chicks at the farm supply stores in town. Or, at least I think it will.
Frugality Tidbits
My daughter and I have been spending a little time each week at the library. I pick out four books for her, and one or two books for me. This week for her I got 1) If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, 2) Heads are for Hats, 3) a book whose title I can’t remember, and 4) Blueberries for Sal. For me, I got a very old book (c.1886) about Michigan history.
Related: I started playing a new set of kids' songs on Youtube called "Seeds of Faith". They seem to be basically Bible verses set to music. Our daughter really likes them. One drawback is that they're a "music video" (not just a picture like the other songs we play), but mostly they're just lyric videos or people doing motions to the songs. The other day my husband was working late and she got cranky (and... I got cranky, too) so I put on these songs. I hate using TV as a babysitter, but I really just needed a break. When I came into the living room a few minutes later, she had found stickers somewhere and put them all over her face. So, evidently the videos are not TOO mesmerizing.
Butter was on sale at Kroger this week for $2.00 per pound. So naturally, I took the limit of 5 lbs. We use about one stick of butter per week (more for occasional baking), so my haul will last for at least a couple of months after we use up what is already in the freezer.
You GUYS!!! Another one of my orchids decided to bloom! After years of faithful watering and disappointing bud blast, I’m finally being rewarded with reblooming plants. In our last house, for some reason the plants would bud out at least once a year, but then the buds would shrivel up and die. I think the temperature or humidity in this house is more consistent or something.
I think that's about it! I'm really excited about what this month holds.
Til next time,
-Bethany