The White Family Homesteaders

     I'm not sure about everyone else but we are extremely busy right now.  There is so much on our to do list that it seems we may never get everything checked off.  The days seem to fly by and then before you know it our homestead week is over and it's back to the paying job.      With so many chores that need to get accomplished we had to come up with a way to prioritize our to do list a while back. Our solution was what we call a stoplight list.  So first we wrote down all things that need to be completed, not everything is necessarily homestead related, but this way we don't forget anything.  Next we went through the list and determined when each item needed to be completed by.  Then next to each chore we put green, yellow or red.  Green items are no rush, yellow needs to be done within month or so and red needs to be completed within week or two.  This has helped us tremendously because we often forget the small projects like caulking bath tub or planting bulbs and

     Things aren't always smiles and sunshine on the homestead, there are devastations and setbacks.  Being a homesteader is a trial and error game and sometimes things go really well but at other times there are heartbreaks.  I'm hoping that this life we are providing for our kids teaches them to take mistakes as a learning tool.  I've always had a hard time making mistakes or failing as some might put it but the more farming we do I realize that mistakes aren't the end of the world and you can learn from them.      The weather finally warmed up so we were finally able to open up our bee hive and we were heartbroken with what we found.  All our bees were dead, which left us with no bees that was our 2nd hive.  After looking over them, our own bee autopsy...my own version of CSI...we've come to the conclusion that the hive no longer had a queen, which led to their demise.  After the shock wore off we had to decide what we would do next, get more bees or give into

     When you're homesteading or farming your chore and/or project list can be never ending so every minute of the day counts.  For us we try to be prepared when doing projects because we try to make the most of our time.  Sometimes we're fighting the weather, appointments, illnesses or lack of finances which pushes back completion but in the end we always complete what we start.  I'll share some of our tips for getting the most out of your time on your homestead. Greenhouse being covered. 1. Have tools Ready One of our newest tricks is having all needed tools in one spot, the way we do this is by using old dairy crates.  For instance our work on the greenhouse has continued this week and we were ready to go back out there because all our tools were in one spot.  When we start a project Papa puts nails, screws, levels, measuring tapes, plans, drills, basically all that is needed for our project in the crate.  What this does is keeps you from running b

     Spring isn't quite here yet but it's making small appearances with a couple blooms and a few warm days.  Unfortunately I think the groundhog seeing his shadow was correct because we just can't kick this cold blustery weather and our wood pile became bare. We still had some cut logs down under a tarp so off came the auger and on went the splitter again.  It filled most of the truck bed almost half a cord and hoping it gets us through the rest of winter, we'd like to move onto more thrilling chores other than firewood. Last split of the season.      It's now time to prepare for spring and our busy season.  For instance Papa got the lawnmower running again because before you know it the grass will dry out and it will be a jungle that has to be maintained.  Since it's been sitting for a few months the battery needed a jump and that didn't do the trick so onto the charger it went.  While it was running Papa took his little girl on a ride to do a qui