Garden Preparations

The garden around late June

Slowly every year our garden grows. Our goal is to survive off our garden for the year, freezing and canning what we harvest. This year our garden at "The Coop" is our trial run. I'm testing out different ways to do things like stake vs. cage tomatoes. And what varieties work the best. I've started a garden chart or journal of sorts to help me remember year to year.

A glimpse of what the chart looks like

 This garden is about 20' x 30' and we have some other pumpkins and tomatoes outside of this area.

 

Current state of the garden. Eeeks, this picture doesn't do it justice, it really is a bit more tidy than it looks.

sweet corn left, root veggies, peas, beans, broccoli and cabbage

tomatoes back, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, garlic, brussel sprouts

What we've determined, is our future garden (if we're actually going to survive off of it) needs to be over twice as big. We're starting to plan and prepare for next year's garden at Glory Acres. We are going to try to model the Back to Eden garden philosophy. If you're at all interested in gardening or would like to learn how to create your own garden, I highly recommend watching the documentary. (linked above) We've watched it probably four times and learn something new each time.

Photo courtesy of little O-ster

We have our area mapped out, are working up the soil a bit and plan on mulching it over the winter. There's nothing like maintaining a garden and preparing one at the same time.

And it never fails, every year I feel that I have so much more to learn about gardening. That's the beauty, I suppose.

The Bee's Knees

We recently bought beehives from a friend and are planning on starting our bee family this upcoming spring. Little did we know some honeybee's would come to visit us early. Are they swarming to our hives or just stealing the left over honey? I guess we'll wait and see. Either way, it's neat to have a glimpse of what our hives will bring.

The Journey

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

We are so thankful and amazed at how God provides. He really knows our needs way more than we can comprehend. Our family's goal is to continually seek out His will for our lives, making decisions to honor that. So how did we get here? After meeting in college we got married and settled in central WI. Ryan got a job in forestry, I did freelance graphic design work and shortly after that was pregnant with our twins. We lived there for 2 years, then were led to help with my family's business in South Eastern WI. We lived there for 3 years (had our 3rd son), loved being close to family and help with the business, but realized soon enough Ryan wasn't made to do computer/desk work. We believe God used this time in our lives to grow spiritually, have patience, fully trust in Him, and gain an interest and educate ourselves a bit for what we're "trying" to do now. So after much prayer, Bible reading and messages we felt God again had opened a door and was leading us now to the northwoods. Ryan is back working in the field God gave him a strong passion for, forestry. And our family is able to start our dream of living from what He has created and provided for us.

So, now here we are... at "The Coop". Ryan's parents did the same thing we're doing with Glory Acres 5 years ago, (only they had much more junk to go through). We're BLESSED to be able to stay here while we sold our home and are now fixing up Glory.

view of our cornfield, sunflowers, wheat patch, chicken tractor and garden on the far left

little (well big now) treasures of beauty!

Essentials

Does it look like a mess? Well it is, but the good thing is a lot of essential things have been and are currently being worked on: re-doing some plumbing, new electric, new way of heating the home, adding support poles in the basement (if you look back on our cleaning weekend, the support poles being used were trees).

We have been getting a lot of help from Ryan's dad and uncle with the "guts" of this. They all are very handy and knowledgeable, but there are some things we're better off hiring out, like electrical.

holes in walls = new electrical

Our plan is to heat the home with wood and use a gas furnace as a back-up. We chose a Jack wood furnace for efficiency and space saving. We've always loved wood stoves, but because we don't have a ton of space in our living area, this is the route we chose.

 

 furnace / wood furnace

And another essential thing we did this past weekend was spend time with good friends! We camped and watched our friend compete in the Midwest Kayak Freestyle Championships. Thank you, Warkens, for letting us join you at this fun event!

getting cooled down in the river

So, while the Glory Acres is being transformed "behind the scenes" for the next couple days (maybe, hopefully not weeks), we have things to share from where we're currently staying: Ryan's parent's homestead nicknamed "The Coop". This is where we're "practicing" for homesteading, and boy have some things been a learning experience!

Facelift

Little old Glory got a facelift this weekend. She sure was sagging, someone was bound to fall through at some point. Ryan's parents came and helped us with this project and my parents took the big boys for the weekend. We're thankful for all the helping hands!

Before Facelift

  There was a mound of bricks and concrete under the porch. We took advantage of the excavator while it was still here ;)

White railing needs to be added and we're all set! In a couple years, I picture a full front porch, but this is great for now!

After Facelift

We finishing getting the floors cleaned up. Ryan worked on the kitchen.

I tackled taking out the upstairs carpeting staples and tack strips, with the help of my sister-in-law.

What's next? I'm going to work hard on getting the nasty cat odor out of the house. I researched a bit and am going to try Bac Out. I use it with Tuck's diapers, so I'm thinking it will help (wishful thinking?) Any other suggestions besides bleach?

We're Jammin'

One of the best parts of summer... fresh berries! We have generous friends who live nearby and have amazing, heavenly berry patches. I should've gotten a picture. They're overflowing with berries and invited us to come pick some. We ended up with 3 gallons of raspberries in maybe an hour of picking. Usually I'm a freeze-my-berries kind of girl, but they suggested canning them in a maple syrup/water mixture.

We used a ratio of 1C. maple syrup (that we made) to 2C. water. They also suggested a steam canner. I wish I would've gotten one of these sooner, there's a lot less extra steps than normal hot water bath canning.

The steps I used for canning:

• wash and pick through your berries, wash your jars and lids
• pack the berries into jars
• mix your syrup mixture, put it on the stove to get hot, pour it over the berries
• put lids on and put in steamer (the steamer has a top you put over the jars)
• put your burner on Med. High. Once it starts steaming, set your timer for 20 min. After the time is done, let the jars sit for a couple minutes, then take out.

 

 

 

steamer before

 

steamer after

 

While the berries were steaming I started on the Jam. I LOVE using Pomona's Universal Pectin in replace of other pectin brands. I use honey as the sweetener instead of massive amounts of sugar and it turns out delicious! I follow the recipe on the box.

 

At the end of the day, I ended up with 7 pints of berries in syrup and 12-12 oz. jars, 1 pint and 1-1/2 pint of jam!

 

And while I was working on the raspberries, hubby had this wonderful job... Taking the kitchen floor out which consisted of laminate, plywood screwed every 4 inches, tile, then felt paper on the bottom. But when this is done, most of the demo is done and rebuilding begins!

De-barning

Day 7 was challenging for us. Today is the day the barn is coming down. We know it's the right choice because of the unsafe condition it is in, but knowing the history and hands that have built it and worked in the barn made it difficult to watch.

 

Barn doors, some wood, the basketball hoop and other things were salvaged before the de-barning.

 

And just like that... in a matter of a couple hours it's down.

  

So with an afternoon of heavy feelings. We went from this to being our backyard kitchen view...

   

...to this! Amazing! The space is so much brighter, larger and now we have a view to the back. The land that once was barn now has plans of being filled with gardens, outdoor kitchen, and the kids play area. We're excited about the future here!

Bluegrass

After our first long weekend, we enjoyed a family night...bluegrass music in the park.

O-ster is playing his "stick" banjo.

Cleaning Weekend

We had a productive cleaning and demolition weekend at Glory Acres. Ryan's parents came to help take care of the boys and work... HUGE help, we couldn't have gotten as much done without them. Day 3: We first tackled the barn and garage.

 

 Then the deck. Besides the huge holes, rotted wood, and invitation for critters to make their home below it, it doesn't look that bad, right? We have other plans for this area ;)

 

Day 4: Clean out the nasty, neglected basement. (This is after, I need to get better at taking the "before")

 

Trees cut down. We've got lots of them (thankfully). Ryan's forester instinct knows which ones need to go. 

  

Bathroom toilet & vanity taken out.

  

 Fires, lots of them!

 

Deck fully taken out and ground leveled. Bonus! we uncovered a sidewalk! Looking nice!

 

Day 5: Demolition begins. Kitchen cabinets are taken out, the best ones will go in the workshop.

 Bedroom carpeting taken out. This was given the "worst" room so far. Beyond the basement, garage, and barn. That's pretty bad. We pulled up carpet, pad, 2 layers of vinyl, newspaper from 1937 on the bottom.

 Upstairs carpet out

 

 Kitchen almost finished.

Just a few more hours of clean up and we will get started on fixing this place :)

Haircut

What's one of the first things that happens with all good makeovers? A haircut! And boy did Glory Acres need one! Two cuts to be exact and a good plucking of brush along the wood line. Ahhh... feeling a little lighter now.

The best company to work with. (when everyone's happy and has some snacks)

new chapter / new home / new blog

rear view of home

We have a lot of "news" happening! We're excited about what God has been doing in our lives and excited what He has given us a passion, interest, and yearning to learn more for. We've recently moved to northern WI, starting a new chapter for our family. Yesterday we signed the papers to our new home/project! Super excited about the future of this place. Some may think we're crazy, we feel we found a gem. But the real gem behind this home is what it will offer for our family: the ability for our boys to explore, grow gardens, raise animals, keep bees, make maple syrup, cut firewood and on and on. And so with all the excitement we have for these things, we are excited to share in our adventures.

Our new little home has good bones, character, and possibilities. We feel she just needs some love.

front view

 And the best part... the view!

Something I just learned today was the original owner of this home was Ryan's great uncle's homestead. It was used as a dairy farm.