The White Family Homesteaders

     Well its been well over a year since I last showed my face on here and I'm not sure where the time went. Last year was full of changes some good and some not so great.  But I won't bore you with the specifics, let's just say hello again and see what's new.      The biggest change of all is our new business venture, metal signs and decor. We take sheets of steel and turn them into signs, ornaments, home decor and even brackets using a plasma table.  Deciding on that purchase was life changing and one of the many reasons life was in the fast lane these last 18 months.  I had no idea what we were getting into or what the response would be, but so far we've had positive feedback. Plasma table hard at work, cutting some steel.      We've done some shows, selling our metal art and now we've got an online shop on etsy to check it out click here,  along with selling locally at The Coop de Ville and Forged n Found....

     I can't believe I didn't publish last week's blog until this week, I think we might have a bit too much going on right now.  The days and weeks are flying by and I don't even know what day it is.  I'm hoping last week was the worst of it and now it will be smooth sailing.  It all started with Papa's work schedule changing, so it put the whole week out of whack.  Then lil man had preschool graduation, it was his last week of school, I needed a touch up at the salon, we picked up our bees which were delayed by a week so that was a wrench in our plans and had to finish up more metal art for the market and prep everything for market day.  Oh plus we had to get more tomatoes into the garden, make new cages for the raised beds, sow more seeds because some hungry creature ate my edamame, plus our everyday chores like cooking and cleaning.  The week rushed by and now a new week is starting. One of many tomato holes, epsom salt in.   ...

     So if you haven't heard we've been accepted into our local farmer's market.  It's pretty big news like scream it from the roof tops news.  Someone pinch me, because I'm not sure all this is real...did we really sign up to grow food for others?  Yes we've talked about it before, about maybe having a little stand to sell our extra vegetables but who knew it would be this season. Oh so many strawberries.      After we first put in our application I began to think about what makes a farm or homestead.  I began to feel like maybe we aren't ready for this step or if people will take us seriously.  When I think of a farm or homestead I think of people raising beef or the massively huge vegetable and fruit producers who have workers because there's so much to pick and plant.  But here on our homestead it's quite literally a mom and pop homestead.  We provide food for ourselves and any extras we give to friends and fa...

     Drum roll please...the greenhouse is finished, not just a few more things to do but all the way done.  I've been filling it up with my plants and I look around and I'm still in shock that we built it from some pieces of lumber.  The hubby did most of the work but without an awesome assistant he still might be working on it, just kidding. I never imagined us actually building one, we have what the old owners left behind and I was alright with it.  Now looking at my oh so beautiful barn style greenhouse I can't believe I would have settled for less. The old one was like a quarter of the size, leaking all over, dark and squirrels were constantly sneaking in.  Here's the  link  to the plans we used, thanks  Ana White  for the awesome plans. It's a beauty and filling up fast.      The last few touches were completed this week...spray foam insulation, shelves, door trim, and door threshold.  We bought a ...

     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 wou...

     Growing season has begun and my dining room corner has become our temporary greenhouse.  Trying to start seeds in the rain with the kiddos running around can be somewhat challenging and not very productive.  At times I found myself getting frustrated when every 2 minutes or so I hear "mom watch this, mom watch this", but then I would turn around and see lil man sliding down a muddy hillside with an enormous smile and it made me realize I have to go with the flow.  Sometimes we are constantly trying to check things off our chore list that we forget we need to be flexible and goof off.  On my own I was able to get half a tray of seeds started so I waited for our weekend with Papa to get the rest done. Of course before I could get started I had to clean up chicken poop, thanks ladies.      Planting goes so much faster when there's two people.      Since we don't have a long growing season I try to get ...

     The garden planning is a continuous process and I've made more progress on it.  Remember how I organized my seed album, well at least I thought I had.  We were hanging out in the garage and I found my plastic bin I take to the garden when we plant and I had forgotten that that's where my main stash of seed packets were.  That evening while we caught up on our tv shows on Hulu I laid out all the newly discovered packets and went over my order list.  As it turns out I've got more seeds than I knew so I won't need to shell out as much cash or what will probably happen is I'll find other seeds to spend it on.  My eyes become bigger than our garden capacity when I'm looking at all the pretty pictures of what could be in my garden.  I did place my first order of seeds through Territorial seed company.  I'm a bargain shopper and am always looking for sales or coupons so I've found out that when you place an order they send you a coupon. ...

     It's been way too long and I've missed telling our story so I'm making the commitment of writing every week.  I want to stay connected and let everyone know what we are doing or maybe what we aren't because sometimes life happens and nothing gets done.  This week we got some play time and papa got some garage time in.  With the cold weather and kids getting antsy we hit up one of our local kids museums to let out some steam.  It's a science museum so learning and fun is a win win.  We are wrapping up the holiday season so we put away the Christmas decor with the exception of the tree.  Lil man isn't ready to see it go so we compromised and decided that January 1st it will go out the door.  With a half hour here and there papa was able to get into the garage and fabricate.  The wings are on the splitter and will make splitting firewood a bit smoother. You can check out our Instagram page for pictures  here.    ...

     I was going to do a new year new start post but what do you know it's almost February now.  The days have been flying by and before we know it our weekend is over and it's back to the grind and another week has passed.  Since we didn't get a chance to process the log load last year we've picked up doing that again.  We need to keep our little ones warm so we have to process at least half a cord a week.  Plus now that spring is getting closer, I'm counting down the days until I get to begin my seedlings.       Our hopes for this year is that we get truck loads of vegetables.  Our goal is to provide fresh veggies to our family and friends.  Not everyone has the opportunity to grow their own veggies so we look forward to sharing.  We've been putting in a lot of sweat and time the last few years in the garden and haven't got out of it what we want.  Our plan of attack for this year is a few changes. First o...

     Well our little lady is 3 months old and we've almost got her figured out. It really would be nice if babies came with manuals or maybe a live in nanny.  The homestead hasn't been getting much attention but that should be changing now.  Our honey do list for the property seems endless at the moment. We had to sit and write everything down and organize it into the coming months and weeks.       There is one project that will be ongoing until spring, raised beds.  We have come to the conclusion that we are tired of putting so many hours of work plus so much sweat into a garden that isn't yielding the harvest it should.  It was our hope to improve our soil but at this point it doesn't seem possible.  Plus the fact that we can't keep intruders from eating our plants.  Now we will be able to bring in beautiful soil and build barriers around the beds.      Some other items on our list include fencing...

It's been way too long since our last blog post.  Lately we've been busy with a newborn, yes getting no sleep or showers and just trying to make the little lady happy...that's the baby not wife.  We worked so hard, that's mostly a lie the hubby worked really hard getting in the garden because my big prego belly was in the way and now it's mostly a bust.  When we found out we were pregnant we should have just pressed the pause button on our big homestead projects but we thought we could do it all, boy were we wrong. The only thing still going is our tomato plants, and what's left of our jalapeno plants.  We lost the battle with the wildlife this year, they've been enjoying all of our sweat and hard work we did of planting them a great buffet of vegetables.  We got a little victory last night when we went down to the garden.  There were three squirrels in the squirrelinator, we've had that darn trap for months now and it's finally starting to pay off...

     One day into fall and I'm loving the weather change.  Summer has always been my favorite season since I hate being cold but I think fall might be my new favorite season.  It might have something to do with the fact that we have a homestead and most of our time is spent outside and with the summer heat it's hard to do much for very long.  Plus I've found a new passion this summer, canning.  Our home doesn't have AC so it's quite miserable to have the stove on to boil water, we just about melt while preserving.  This year I have welcomed fall with open arms.      I made a trip to our local farm supply store and picked up eight new chicks to add to our brood.  When I got home lil man got a huge smile on his face when he heard the chicks chirping.  Papa had their new home all ready for them, we just had to get their food, water and grit in the brooder.  Lil farmer boy gave each one a tiny pet as I took them out o...

Our Lil boy shared his cold with us so we were laid up on the couch for about a week. While we were under the weather we didn't get out to the garden like we should have. Some how the pesky deer knew our defenses were down and snuck into the garden. My heart shattered when I saw half eaten zucchini laying on the ground and my tomato plants chomped on.  I'm about to go all World War III on their asses.  Papa put up some more wire where the fencing wasn't as tall. One of our friends also passed on an article about sprinkling Irish spring around the perimeter. So I picked some up and grated some with a potato peeler. I threw it out along the fence line but our oh so helpful boxer decided that it looked delectable and cleaned some of it up. Strong scented Irish Spring My poor defenseless jalapeño plants didn't see those deer coming their way and got a bit of a trim job. I had to barricade everything vulnerable as best as I could with bits and pieces of chicken wir...

We've been enjoying our delicious rewards from our garden.  It's hard to explain the feeling you get when you feed your family food you've grown.  To know we started all of our plants from seed and have taken care of them and they've grown into these beautiful plants and are now providing us with food makes me a bit speechless.  It's pretty awesome to provide our lil farmer boy with food we've grown and he's having a blast helping us.  Going out every day to the garden and finding a new surprise, whether it's finding something new producing or just seeing lil man get so excited about it warms my heart so much. The other night I prepared dinner from a Rachael Ray recipe I've been using and adjusted it by adding more veggies.  Our broccoli was ready and used some our endless supply of zucchini, it was pretty delicious, the boys devoured it.  To use up more of the pile of zucchini we have I spent the day with my sis baking zucchini bread.  We needed s...

I'm trying to catch up on here, we've been so busy lately.  We get going on the homestead with chores for days then we have to go back to the real world of our actual paying jobs and then next thing I know it's a new week.  Last week we did some much needed maintenance on the homestead of trimming up some trees. That was an all week project with a little work on the garden. We have at least a handful of trees that are in need of some desperate trimming. We got to two of them and the process is still continuing. We still need to take what we trimmed off to a local tree limb drop off site. It's amazing how much better and happier the trees look.  Besides trimming them up for landscaping reasons we also did it to discourage the deer from hanging out under them. We don't want them getting comfortable on our property close to our garden. The first tree was pretty simple of just cutting limbs down. The second tree was more challenging, it didn't want to let go...