The White Family Homesteaders

     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 ...

     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 pr...

     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. ...

     Our week went by too fast probably because we were being productive and enjoying being outside.  Some weeks just seem to zoom by and it's back to the work week, boo.  One of our biggest dreams is to be able to be a profitable farm/homestead.  As corny as it may sound we enjoy being together and working on our homestead.  The best day for us is when we are outside making progress on projects.      While being productive we managed to get some logs processed and put away to keep us warm for a couple more weeks.  I worked my homestead mama time management skills and the weather app to work it in between a Costco trip, doctor appts and got it done between two days.  The beauty of it is Papa didn't have to get drenched in the process. The pile is getting smaller believe it or not.       The second day of splitting we all were able to participate and by participate I mean being an audience for P...

     I'm starting to believe the weather is against us.  Everytime we have a chore outside that needs to be done the weather is uncooperative but when we have no plan the weather is fantastic.  We need to get more logs cut and split because this winter is different then most or maybe I've been keeping the house warmer either way our pile is super low.  With the melting snow and heavy rainfall though our firewood processing pad is a shallow lake.  It would be cruel to make Papa cut in those conditions.  So it's been postponed another week but next week it has to be done, the lake is drying up so it looks promising. Where's the plug? I need to drain this water.      The weather here has been unpredictable and surprising to say the least.  I have a weather app on my phone and it's always alerting me to winter advisory warnings or this or that.  The one warning that usually never is correct is the wind warnings. ...

     Our week started off same ole and then some snow was predicted but the only snow we ever see is the pretty dusting of it and by noon it's gone.  So were we concerned, nope.  Our plan for the week consisted of lil man returning to school, cutting up more firewood because it's been colder than normal and making a quick special trip to the coast for a puppy pickup. Firewood stack is looking bare.      New Year's day arrived and so did the snow, not too much so we thought, no big deal.  We threw some snowballs and did some sledding that lasted about two rides before we washed the snow away. The following day we were amazed by the abundance of snow that had fallen while we slept.  The snowsuits, gloves, and hats went back on and we went outside for round two of sledding and now we had enough snow for a snowman.  With the excitement of the mounds of snow it was hard to get the kids inside to do much else.  Plus poor Papa ...