Last year I grew kale for the first time. When the first leaves were big enough to pick I was equal parts thrilled and disappointed. Sure I was eating something I grew myself but it was a small handful. I couldn't imagine that we would be able to freeze any (which had been the plan). I didn't know how quickly kale grows. Or for how long. The rest of my summer was spent trying to keep ahead of the greens.
I planted kale again this year and it's starting to get big enough to pick.
It's hard to believe it but the chicks have outgrown their home in the lawn mower box. Today we moved them out to the coop. And as we moved them I realized that any one of them would be too big to fit in the box that we carried them home in.
Our regular garden spot is pretty well planted and I still had herbs to put in so we worked up a new bed. The bulk of it will get planted with flowers but I claimed the bottom section for herbs. If all goes according to plan we'll have mint, catnip, lemon balm, summer savory, and two kinds of basil.
Here it is, the first harvest from this year's garden:
Last spring we started a compost pile. We've always had a dumping spot for food waste, usually in an unused field, but I wanted to be a little more intentional about it. Until now, it has been a literal pile. It works okay but tends to drift so I thought it was time to fence it in. You can buy all sorts of fancy bins and fence systems but this is the Haphazard Homestead. We're thrifty. And maybe don't put that much thought into things.
So to delineate the edges of our compost I dug a trench around three sides of the pile (which turned up all sorts of lovely earthworms that I tossed under the rabbit pens so we can compost in place!). To make my fence, I cut the dried out stalks from a bunch of last year's cattails out of a section of swamp on our property. I stood them upright, maybe a hands-breadth apart, and packed dirt around them.
When I went to the local farm store to buy feed for my rabbits I found that pullets were on sale. So I bought 6 - 2 each of Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, and Jersey Giants. I'm in the process of naming them now. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
In standard Haphazard Homestead fashion, they are currently housed in a cardboard box (I think this one held a lawn mower). There's a random dowel threaded through the side to hold up the work light that is serving as a heat lamp.
The risk of frost has nearly passed so we are in full garden prep mode here on the homestead. We'd had a small strip of our plot worked up for early crops (radishes, lettuces, and the like) but yesterday a friend came over and tilled the rest of the space so we can get started planting for real in the next week.
