Homestead Update Fall 2019

It is now the beginning of December, winter is fast approaching. Fall is almost behind us and that marks one full year for us on our new homestead. As we are about to move on to a new year, it is an excellent time to review our 2019 homestead projects and make our plans for the new year.

2019 has been a year full of challenges and changes. My kids turned 1, 5 and 4. Leon officially started homeschool kindergarten, and it feels like a new season of life for us. We experienced our first spring and summer on the new homestead. It was a year of learning and enjoying our new space.

2019 Homestead Projects

The Potager Garden

I think the biggest homestead project we undertook this year was the potager garden. Although small in size, it was a very transformational project for us. Aside from starting the privacy fence, the potager was the first big project we did that changed this place from theirs to ours. We took an empty space just off the kitchen and living room and transformed it into a useable and enjoyable space for us to grow food.

We feasted on strawberries, carrots, onions, potatoes, peas, lettuces, kale and radishes, nasturtiums, calendula and chamomile. Just outside the potager on the patio, we had containers for tomatoes, peppers and jalapeños. I think for a first year garden, we experienced a lot of success.

I wouldn’t consider the potager “complete”. This winter we will work on a fence, trellises and raising the height of the raised beds. Are gardens ever really complete? I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t take long for my imagination to dream bigger once I reach a goal. The beds are in, the rocks are down, but my mind sees so much more potential, potential that will hopefully be realized in 2020.

The Privacy Fence

An admirable goal indeed, however, the privacy fence stands half completed. If fences could be built with sheer willpower and determination, that fence would have been done long ago. The reality is though, wood fences are made of , you guessed it, wood, and wood is expensive. We have had to pace ourselves with this fence to pay for unexpected homestead costs, like water and air.

We are still chipping away at it slowly but surely as we have funds to dedicate to it. All in all I would say it is a little over half way there and I am itching for its completion. Of course completing it just means the start of a new project, but hey, at least it will be one more thing off of our list.

The Chicken Coop

Chicken coops, perhaps the most fundamental homestead project. Although I had not anticipated undertaking a chicken project this year, an unexpected opportunity landed in my lap to acquire a free shed. The only catch was that I had to get it transported to our property via a towing company that cost about $350. Considering the size of the shed, I thought this was a great deal and jumped at the opportunity.

This shed ended up being a huge blessing for our family and was quickly transformed into the new chicken coop. We were able to get a large number of chicks to start our laying flock, which the kids absolutely adored.

Right now we have 18 laying hens and 3 Bielefelder roosters. They are still new to laying and not all have started yet, but I have still been getting about 7-9 eggs a day so far, enough to keep us from needing to buy eggs at the store. I consider that a huge success!

Right now we have a small temporary fenced run for their outside space, but as the privacy fence nears the end, it will be the start of their new larger permanent run. I have big plans for this space and I am eager to get started on it and share the progress with you.

The Orchard

Last spring we ordered some fruit trees from Raintree Nursery. See this post for the varieties we planted. We had some challenges with deer nibbling on the branches, but we were able to stop that with these solar powered deer deterrents.

Unfortunately later that summer, the devices needed a recharge and before I did that some deer came in and did some damage. I am really hoping the trees rebound next year without any lasting damage. I also learned my lesson about maintenance and frequent checking of gadgets.

Adventures

Even though they didn’t take place on the homestead, I consider adventures to be a vital part of our homestead life. I often take the kids on fun day trips around here, we are so lucky to live in such a beautiful area with no shortage of outdoor adventures, but sometimes we like to travel a bit farther away from home.

I think traveling, even if its closer to home, is so important for kids. Growing up, my dad took us on camping trips every year and it was one of my favorite memories of growing up. Seeing different places, expirienceing different things, helps kids think outside of themselves and instills a sense of adventure!

The big trip we took this year was to Cape Kiwanda on the southern Oregon coast. I’ve done a fair bit of traveling and have seen some beautiful places, but I’m telling you, my first trip to Cape Kiwanda left me speechless. It is tucked away like a secret and when you finally get there you see this amazing sweeping view.

There is, of course, a big beautiful beach, but there is also this giant sand dune that you can hike to the top of for an even better view and a whole area of tidal pools to explore. Two nights there was not nearly enough.

Plans For 2020

Ok, back to the homestead projects.

As I said before, we are still working on the privacy fence and that will most definitely be completed next year.

Once the privacy fence is complete, we will start work on the large permanent run for the chickens. I also plan to put in a small garden next to the run called the “chicken garden” to feed to the chickens. Right now I am giving them stuff out of our potager, but ideally that food would be for us and they would eat our scraps and the food out of the chicken garden. We don’t really have the option to free range them here due to a heavy predator presence, but I want them to have plenty of access to fresh greens, fruits and veggies.

Again, we will be putting in a fence around the potager. The gate is already up, but the sides are not. We have started cutting scrap boards for raising the height of the beds, but we need to find a few more boards and then add more compost and soil as soon as they are empty. Even though it is December, we still have quite a bit of veggies in the potager right now. I also want to put in a cattle panel trellis on one of the beds to maximize growing space. I salvaged a cattle panel from my dad’s property before he sold it, and I have been eager to put it to good use in the garden.

As soon as the privacy fence and chicken run are complete, and funds allow, I want to start another fence on the back side of our property to finish enclosing the back yard. Eventually a large garden will share one of its sides with that fence.

I would absolutely love to add the large garden to my plans for 2020, and there is a chance it might come to fruition, but the reality is that we have to finish the projects we have already started before moving on to a new one, even if that means the large garden has to wait another year. To be honest, I’m not very good at waiting to complete a project before starting a new one. Jumping in with both feet and taking on more than I can chew is more my style. However, lucky for me, my husband is more practical and logical and sensible with these kinds of things. He keeps my head on straight.

We will likely add a few more chicks to the homestead too. I have really been liking my blue egg layers, so adding a couple more of those would be good as well as a few other breeds I have had my eye on. We will definitly share with you when that happens.

There will always be miscellaneous things here and there that we add, but for now these are the big homestead projects we will be working on in the new year, the new decade. That’s so crazy to think about. Fence, finishing the potager, chicken run, growing more food.