TexasMadness
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November Homesteading
Been awhile since I started a monthly homesteading thread! But now that I'm back in the swing of things I figured I should! So far this month (during all four days of it...):
On Sunday, we had the horse incident which took up most of the day. But we did manage to get several rows of carrots, beets, spinach, chard and parsnips planted. Oh, and the Brussels sprouts transplants my mom bought. We also got beds dug for peas but haven't planted them yet.
On Monday, I took the kitties to the vet for spaying and neutering. I was having a bad morning sickness day, so I didn't get a ton done, but I made a double batch of cream of winter squash soup to freeze, mixed feed for the goats, doctored an injured chicken and took a long hot bath! 
Tuesday we cleaned up the farmhouse and got back to town. I'm off farming duty until Friday night!
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11/4/2009, 9:53 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: November Homesteading
Rainy lazy weekend on the farm!
Friday, I got here late, just in time to help with evening feeding chores. No projects.
Saturday was mostly business stuff - talking about how to move forward with various things around here (housing for caretakers, etc). But I did manage to plant 40 feet of peas and mulch a bunch of the brassica seedlings I planted 3 weeks ago. Looks like we will have another bumper turnip crop!
Today I got all the morning chores done and it looked like it was going to be a productive day - just me and hubby and no distractions. I came inside to grab the kitchen compost to give to the chickens...and I heard an odd noise - thought it was the washing machine or something. Looked outside and it was pouring rain! Huh?!? When I came in, I had no idea it was about to rain! So the day has been slow. We pulled in a few pumpkins from the garden (didn't want them sitting on waterlogged ground) and I made a big 8 pound batch of edam cheese. But otherwise just being lazy!
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11/8/2009, 10:44 pm
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Firlefanz
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Re: November Homesteading
I suppose that rain is good, isn't it? Of course, it stopped you from doing chores.
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11/9/2009, 8:04 am
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TexasMadness
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First Frost!!!
Well, it was two weeks early. Seems like every year, the first frost is two weeks early. We no longer have a garden caretaker at the farm so when we got the news yesterday evening that it was indeed going to freeze, we sort of went into a panic. No one was at the farm, it was 8 PM, no one had eaten yet and it was already darn cold. Well, we packed up (hubby and I were at my folks house to take them out to dinner) got some quick food and hit the road. I think it was the first meal I've ever eaten in the car with my family!
We got to the farm and started to race around to get ready. Got the row cover out, some bales of hay and pointed the cars headlights at the garden. A quick 30 minutes later we had covered everything but the lima beans which never looked like they were going to make and a row of eggplant that had stopped producing a few weeks ago. The cover was already cut from last year and it was every possible different length you could think of. Pretty frustrating! I had planned this weekend to get it all out and cut it to the appropriate length for the new uniform rows but of course it had to freeze before that!
I wish I'd had my camera...I'm sure we looked pretty ridiculous!
This morning, everything is fine - the basil got some frost damage even under the row cover, but not too bad. All the seedlings made it (whew!) and now I have a week before the next expected frost to actually get ready!
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11/18/2009, 4:54 pm
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Firlefanz
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Re: November Homesteading
Wow, I'm glad you managed to save the gardens!
Best of all is that your family is working together on that farm. I hope it grows even better.
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11/20/2009, 3:52 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: November Homesteading
I love working with my family on the farm. It's a great project that really does bring us all together.
Seemed like another weekend where it was nearly impossible to get things done! I've been missing more work lately so I couldn't take Friday off (I'm still usually working 4 days, 10 hours a day so I can take Friday off). I did get out there that night so I could start first thing on Saturday.
Saturday morning, we had a woman come out to interview for the caretaker position. She seems really great and I'm anxious to hear back from here. But that took a big chunk of the day. It had rained all the night before (over 2") so the rest of the day was spent trying to mitigate the flooding in the garden. We siphon the water downhill to a lower spot on the property. By the next morning, the water ha dried up, but it sure slowed down progress in the garden for the day! I managed to get a few rows weeded (sloshing around ankle deep in between the rows!).
Sunday was a bit more productive though a headache in the middle of the day slowed me down. My midwives say it's a "classic" symptom of pregnancy at this stage...somehow that doesn't make me feel any better! But I got some lettuce and greens transplants started, made colby cheese, pumpkin muffins (I have to post the recipe - they are so good!) and a huge batch of eggplant soup with what I thought were the last of the eggplants - but the garden proved me wrong again and I find 5 or 6 more big ones that will be ready to harvest soon!
So mostly putzing around, but I did get a few things done!
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11/23/2009, 5:47 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: November Homesteading
Another freeze last night. This time my engineer dad was at the farm so he rigged up a temperature sensor in the garden and ran the readout to the house. It got down to 26F! I'm sure you northerners are laughing at my concern, but the coldest I've EVER seen in the city was 25F. Around the house at the farm it stayed right around 36F, so there's a pretty frigid microclimate right where we decided to put the garden! But the row cover was on (good down to 23F...) and everything is fine. Going to freeze again tonight - at least we have fair warning this time!
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11/25/2009, 3:45 pm
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Firlefanz
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Re: November Homesteading
Hope you'll make it fine through this season. Oh, and if you grow kale, let it freeze. It will taste better after that.
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11/26/2009, 5:26 pm
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