Waking up to spring on the Homestead

It was so beautiful out this morning that I had to grab my camera and go for a walk with Emma kitty. Here are a few shots of what spring looks like on the homestead.

I have a busy weekend ahead, but I'm so glad I was able to carve out a little time to be creative. I feel like it is so important to have unstructured "play" time to recharge. And for me, there's no better way to recharge than this. Nature, animals, photography...give me those three things and I'm a happy girl!

~Tammy

Balance

Oh, how I've missed you guys! I didn't get a chance to post last week because I started a new job on Monday that kept me very busy. But it's good busy, because I'm loving it so far (I'm a paralegal in the real estate/finance division of a company). It's much more demanding than my previous job, and I've found it has been a struggle to balance work, homestead demands, and the blog.

We're seeing more and more signs of spring around here lately, and our garden work is in full swing. Lots of seeds planted in the garden already with tons of seedlings growing indoors. Our vineyard is set up and ready to go when our vines arrive, which can't be soon enough! We also recently planted 30 trees (10 pecan, 10 persimmon, and 10 evergreens) as part of our digging in goal for the year since these trees will take many years to grow and produce for us.

Of course there are cats, chickens, guineas, a dog (and a husband) to feed every day, so that keeps me busy as well.

Baby waiting not so patiently for her food.

So with all of that, the blog had to take a back seat this week while I figure things out. My good blogging buddy, Jackie, reminded me that blogging should be fun, not another thing on your to do list. And this week, it was more of a thing on my to do list. She knows a thing or two about balance, so I will listen to her advice.

 This one's for you, Reifyn.

I'm not sure going forward how regular my blogging schedule will be, so if I'm away for longer than normal, things probably just got a little bit hectic around here. With spring and summer coming up and the gardening work getting even more time consuming, I do see that happening.

I had a few people check in on me last week to make sure everything was ok (thank you guys!) so I thought I'd just let you all know what is happening right now. I won't be around to visit you all as often as I did before, but please know that I still care and I do think about you all the time!

~Tammy

Feathered Friend Friday: Happy Girls

Welcome to our "Feathered Friend Friday" series. Each Friday I write a post with facts, photos, or stories about our chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the FFF posts here. 

Now that spring is officially here (woohoo!) I can tell the girls have a little extra pep in their step. It's easy to see that they are thrilled with the warmer weather. They can barely wait to get out of their coop in the morning, and they don't want to go back in at night. We humans are ecstatic with the warmer weather, but our feathered friends are happy as well!

It's still very brown out here, but there are small signs of green popping up around the house. In no time the grass will be back in and the girls will be overjoyed to chomp on fresh greens and catch bugs.

They really are getting back into the groove with their egg laying, and we are collecting around a dozen eggs a day, sometimes as many as 14 eggs from our 16 girls. They are definitely earning their keep!

My favorite thing in the world is sitting outside on a beautiful day while watching my chickens free range and happily scratch through the woods. I am so thrilled that soon I will be able to do just that!

~Tammy

PS - This one goes out to my youngest follower, Grace. Hope you liked this post! :)

Clearing The Camera

Here are some recent photos that I'd like to share. To see more photo posts, click here.

Evening walk through the woods.



Jasper loves to sit on the organ bench.



Goldie making it hard to use the computer.



David at his day job. Directing the band for the movie themed spring concert!



Found our first guinea nest of the season! Guinea toast here we come.



Just before her shave. Sheep or dog? I guess that's the point :)



David's birthday cake - extra tall dark chocolate cake. It was so good!



In my element. For me, it doesn't get any better than this.


Hope you've enjoyed a slice of our homestead.

~Tammy

Shared with Rurality Blog Hop, Tuesday Muse  

Bring The Blooms In

Yesterday when David got home, I was sitting out with the chickens while they enjoyed some supervised free ranging. The weather was absolutely perfect and I couldn't imagine a better day. One of our favorite things to do is walk the property together each evening and make note of all the changes we see, and yesterday the weather was just right for an evening stroll. Spring is such a magical time in the woods and you can seriously see new growth in the matter of a day.

While observing some of the trees, we noticed one had the most gorgeous white blooms. I pulled a branch down close to smell it, and found the scent so intoxicating. David decided to cut off one of the branches that was getting in the way of another tree close by, so he asked if I wanted some blooms to put in the house. He didn't even have to ask, because he knows my affinity for bringing in blooms - our butterfly bush is a favorite of mine to bring inside the house. I gathered up some vases while he started cutting branches to arrange.

The branches and blooms look so lovely in my milk glass vases. I've already placed them in several rooms in the house and I'm really enjoying the scent. The only thing bugging me is that I don't know what kind of tree this is! The scent is somewhat woodsy and oriental, and made me think of jasmine.

Anyone have any guesses as to what this might be? I'm really intrigued!

~Tammy

Shared with Rurality Blog Hop, Home Sweet Home  

Thyme Roasted Red Potatoes

I think mother nature feels bad for keeping us stuck in winter so long, because we had the most gorgeous weather over the weekend! It was sunny and warm (in the 70s!) with a light breeze. We were able to get quite a bit of work done outside and around the house on Sunday, and come lunch time we were getting pretty hungry. We needed something filling, but not too heavy because we had more work to do. We had just cleaned out the herb bed and the woodsy scent of thyme was wafting through the air. This inspired me to to use some of the thyme in our lunch and after brainstorming for a while, I had the perfect idea.

I had a few small red potatoes left over from dinner earlier in the week, so I decided to make thyme roasted potatoes. All I did was cut the potatoes in quarters and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and thyme. Drizzled on some olive oil and roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, shaking the pan once halfway through cooking to make sure the potatoes weren't sticking.

I bought some corn on the cob earlier in the week (a little early in the season for corn, but I couldn't wait) so I thought that would be the perfect accompaniment to the potatoes.

It was so yummy! The potatoes got crispy on the outside and had a wonderful flavor from the thyme. And the corn - how can you go wrong with corn on the cob? We paired the meal with some sweet iced tea with lemon balm from the garden which made everything taste even better. This is my favorite kind of meal.

What did you cook up this weekend? Did it include anything from your garden?

~Tammy

Shared with Eco Kids Tuesday, Healthy Vegan Friday, What I Am Eating   

Feathered Friend Friday

Welcome to our series "Feathered Friend Friday." Every Friday I write a post with interesting facts, photos, or funny stories about our chickens and guineas. If you need to catch up, you'll find all the Feathered Friend Friday posts here. 

One of my favorite things to do is take photos of my chickens while they are free ranging. They are usually totally oblivious of me and just go about their business while I snap away. Up until recently everything had been so brown and dead out here that I wasn't feeling inspired to take photos. But now that things are starting to slowly come back to life, I can't stop taking pictures!

One of their favorite spots lately is this patch of weeds up by the house. When I saw them pecking away, I thought it would make for some good shots so I got down on the ground and rolled around to get on their level and get a different perspective.

I had to laugh at this last shot I got of Ellie, head down in the weeds. Definitely oblivious.

~Tammy

Shared with Old Time Party, Farmgirl Friday, Sunny Simple Sunday, Weekly Top Shot, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Tuesday Muse   

Feathered Friend Friday

I always love this time of year because I can actually spend some time outside when I get home in the evenings. Right now the daylight lasts until about 7:00 pm, so I get in a good bit of time outside before it gets dark. And of course I take this opportunity to hang out with the chickens!

They are so excited to greet me at the fence, waiting for me to let them out for some supervised free ranging time. Some of them head over to check out the creek, others march up towards the house to find some yummy morsels of clover, and the rest search for moss on the trees and visit with the guineas.

After a thrilling evening of scratching and exploring, they reluctantly head back to the coop for bed. One of my favorite rituals of the day is counting them all to make sure they're in the coop and then saying goodnight. Ellie is usually on the roost right by the door, so I tell her a special goodnight and watch my fingers when I shut the door, because she likes to peck my hands whenever I'm near her.

Then it's inside to make dinner and tend to the duties inside the house. I have to say, I enjoy my time outside more :)

~Tammy

Shared with Weekly Top Shot, Sunny Simple Sunday, Tuesday Muse, Rurality Blog Hop, Down Home Blog Hop, Coop Hop, Eco Kids Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection

Seasonal Supper

The first Farmers' Market of the year in our area took place this past Thursday. I heard that one of the farmers was going to have asparagus, so as soon as I saw this recipe I knew that would be our dinner for the night.

The soup was so yummy! The lemon juice stirred in at the end worked really well in combination with all the flavors of the soup. This is definitely going in my rotation of recipes.

On the way home that night, I passed a roadside vendor selling fresh strawberries! I was so excited that I turned my car around and went back to buy some. I saw this post on TheKitchn that called for strawberries with sour cream and brown sugar and it looked amazing. I just subbed my beloved dairy-free cream cheese for the sour cream and went to town.

After making a big pot of the soup, I didn't want to spend forever on a dessert, so this was perfect. I ended up just slicing the strawberries and sprinkling the brown sugar on top, then getting a little bit of cream cheese on my fork before taking a bite of the strawberries. David and I finished off most of them that night in front of the TV!

I'm always so excited when fruits and veggies come back into season each year. Of course you can buy nearly anything you want year round now, but there is something special about waiting to bite into that first sweet, juicy strawberry of the season. I find that when something is in season, I eat so much of it while I can that by the time the season is over, I've had my fill until next year. I think that is ultimately what nature intended!

~Tammy

Be Astonished

I recently discovered the poet Mary Oliver and I'm already obsessed! I saw this quote on a blog I read - "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" and I immediately googled her. That famous quote is from her poem "The Summer Day."

She is inspired by nature and takes daily walks in the woods with a pencil and paper. She started doing this when she was young, about 12 years old, and hasn't stopped yet at the age of 76. She is continually amazed and in awe of the world around her, which totally resonates with me. I have written posts in the past about how I see new things nearly every day living in the woods (here and here) and how it makes me feel like a kid again. That child-like wonder is such a special feeling and I hope that I never lose it.

Every year when spring is about to roll around I think, "There's no way the leaves and blooms will come back this year. Everything is too barren to recover." And every year I am blown away by the fact that color does return. It is the greatest magic trick I've ever witnessed.

No matter how many times I've seen a baby cow running across a field, I always let out a girly squeal when I see it on my way home from work. And jumping baby goats - all bets are off (witness the insanity here and here and try not to squeal).

"Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it."
-Mary Oliver

~Tammy

Catching Up

We've been scarce around these parts lately! With the weather so warm (88 degrees last Sunday!) we spend all our time outside and I don't feel like sitting in front of a computer waiting for my painfully slow satellite internet to upload photos when there's so much change and growth going on outside our back door.

The woods are going crazy right now! The landscape has changed completely in the past couple weeks.

The mayapples are blooming already!

Last week we decided to try letting the chickens free range - supervised - for about an hour before the sun goes down each night. They have a large fenced in area for when we aren't home, but we thought they'd enjoy pecking around the woods and eating some grass and bugs. It's fun for us to watch, too!

Baby hung out in the background.

Cam struttin' his stuff.

As soon as I get home it's into my work boots and out to see what David's up to and enjoy what daylight we have left. I'm usually so excited to get outside and play with the chickens that I don't even change out of my work clothes!

We made preparations for our garden over the past few weeks as well. Borrowed a tiller and made a couple of beds for lettuce and herbs. They're just now starting to sprout so it'll be a few more weeks until we see anything edible. Tomatoes need to be started inside, so we planted our seeds in a makeshift greenhouse in the garage and when they germinate, we will put them under a bright light to help them grow.

The baby chicks are growing like crazy! Haven't been able to get any recent pictures of them, but will try to soon. Spring is so magical out here, we're just trying to soak up every moment.

~Tammy

Let It Strengthen You

After our horrible experience last weekend, we decided to remind ourselves why we chose to move out to the country and chase our dream of becoming self-sufficient. We walked around the property, breathed in the unusually warm March air, and let nature do the talking.

We know without a doubt that this is where we are meant to be. The sad times seem to reinforce our decision to move out here and pursue our goals, rather than have us question it. For that I am thankful! This quote (author unknown) pretty much sums it up - "When something bad happens, you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you." It is a choice to be happy and strong. A choice we all have to make every day.

In moving forward, we decided to keep with our original plan of adding to our egg-laying flock and get some more baby chicks. Several stores around here sell chicks this time of year, so we got the new babies locally.

 

We have eight baby chicks total, so this is just a taste of the cuteness. Lots more to come on these sweeties!

~Tammy