The White Family Homesteaders

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...

     Homestead life has been keeping us busy for the last month. If you follow us on Facebook  you've been seeing everything we've been up to. Every week there's a list of chores that need to be done, most weeks we are successful in checking all items off.  In the last month we've been working on getting prepared for our bee's arrival, taking care of our seedlings, repairing a camper for camping adventures, along with our everyday chores of life.            Since our wallet isn't too big and papa is quite the handy man we were able to pick up unassembled bee hives at a local mill works Shastina  for a great price.  The guy who assisted us was informative and funny, wish we could hang out with him and learn more. We'll definitely make another stop there if we need more supplies. For the rest of our supplies like our suit and tools we shopped around for the best price, I'm all about making my dollars stretch. Glue, p...

  We came to the hard decision and got rid of our goats. It was a bit sad but the best choice for our family. They were great when we first got them but in the last month they were causing more of a headache then we wanted.  The first couple of months were a breeze after that not so much.   Trying to keep them off the roof was quite the challenge.  We have an awning that meets our hillside and we thought putting a fence up around it would be enough,  they proved us wrong.  It didn't matter how much wire or barriers we put up those pesky goats always found a way up.   The other issue was the fact that they wanted to eat up all the chicken feed. They broke down the door to get into it. The combination of that and them waking me up scampering on our roof was the limit. It was causing unnecessary arguments so they had to go. It's not all sad news though. Since we were able to sell them quickly we were able to put our order in for bees.   ...

     Well we've had Lily and Belle for two weeks now and they are doing wonderful.  I had a bit of a scare when we picked them up from the eccentric goat breeding lady.  The lady picked up one goat and Casey picked up the other one and when he put them in the back of the car Belle let out this horrific scream, the goat not the lady.  Casey says I froze up and my eyes were all bugged out..I don't recall this but he is still getting a kick out of it.  I did stop for a second because I thought she was hurt.  She was just pissed we were taking her away from her family. The car ride home.            When we got them home and let them lose onto the back of our property they dashed for the fence and wanted nothing to do with us.  They relaxed more as the day went by and will come up to us and sniff us.  All the work we put into making them a comfy shelter/bed and they wouldn't sleep in it...they are usin...

     I recently put up two photo collages that had been put away since we moved, going on 4 years now.  I love the idea of them and  there's so many older pictures on them from before the digital camera came along.  My only issue with them is that they don't fit in with our decor, plus we've out grown them...we aren't in our early 20s anymore.  They don't say grown up to me they say dorm room or just starting out. But I love displaying our pictures without having to empty my wallet out for 100s of frames.  I came up with what I have to say was a brilliant idea. This last spring I found an ad on Craigslist for a ton of old windows for free and I was lucky enough to snatch them all up. Some of  the windows were missing their glass or broken so I chose one of them.  It took me most of the summer with five minutes here and there to remove broken glass and clean it up a little.  Here's what window looked like, the BEFORE. ...

     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 homestead made a big decision this week, we put down a deposit on two baby boer goats.  The hubby and I put up hot wire in the back of our house recently but I was dragging my feet about actually making the decision of when to get some goats.  I'm all about planning and making sure we are up for any decision we make before giving the green light.  Homestead papa likes just jumping in and figuring things out as we go.  To be fair though he does a lot of research before hand.  But with me I need to know every possible challenge and that we can overcome it and I need to know that we can financially handle a new responsibility.  If it was up to me though it would take me years before I said yes, I'm just a bit of a scaredy-cat.  Casey's best answer to make me agree is to say that if it doesn't work out we can sell what ever it is...we've yet to sell anything.  I found a great deal on some cross Boer baby goats on Craigslist and sent the link t...