homestead update

life around here has been pretty wet lately. i've been kicking myself over not having our rain water collection system in place. our summers are very dry...argh!!! because of our backyard chickens our backyard has been plucked of all grass and has created a giant mud pit. which has been lots of fun for the kids. they have been out there daily taking mud baths and loving life! our shower is never going to be the same!

our dry days have been lovely and full of outdoor work. john has built our raised beds. we made them extra long and skinny this time, but we are still able to practice the square foot method (the beds are 2 ft x 10 ft). i have planted tomatoes (6 seedlings from the farm and 4 varieties from seed), 4 varieties of eggplant, 2 varieties of bush beans (elvie and ozark razorback) with carrots around the perimeters. we have scheduled to build our bean pole teepee soon for the kids out of some bamboo we harvested from a nearby lot. that was an adventure- 1 mama, 2 kids, 5 poles of bamboo = a recipe for success!


in this pic you can see our 2 raised beds, the bed on the outside of the fence is planted in texas natives. we are adding as we find good deals on plants, or find plants we can take cuttings from to root. these will extend to the mailbox. on the opposite side of the fence i'm putting in an annuals flower bed to attract pollinators. up under the tree i have my herb bed planted with oregano, basil, calendula, bee balm, poppies, chamomile and across the path, lavender. in front of the house we have some low water flowering bushes and nasturtium coming up on screens. the large bed on the right is our strawberry patch. i think we've done 'ok' for our first year. i hear they're better every year, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

here is the amazing living area john built for us a few weekends ago out of reclaimed deck wood! i love it! he built the screen to grow my cucumbers up. buddy is crazy about pickles so we are planting 2 varieties of pickling cucumbers this year. this will also cover the attractive phone box in the front yard. when we moved here this whole area was covered in giant bushes. not pretty...

the chickens are as ridiculous as ever. they are roosting in the tree, in obvious need of a wing clipping.

however they are laying lovely, colorful eggs, about 6 a day.

there is also lots of baby wearing going on around here.

baby wearing...

and baby licking...