Metaphorically speaking of course. We do have good intentions on our daily to do list. Our goal is to stay on one project until completion, and then move on. But, we all know that good intentions do not always work. Outside forces always seem to challenge us, and we wind up changing directions. Since we arrived here, we have had to switch gears a lot.
After we captured the raccoon and dealt with it, we found another one show up on our cameras twice. An armadillo also made a guest appearance and caused some garden damage. The stray cat also made a few guest appearances. With all of this said, we had to pivot plans from the inside of the cabin to putting in the garden fence. While we are doing that, we are going to take care of the chicken run as well. We are methodically placing the fence, so in the end, our whole inner perimeter will be fenced off. We can then get a dog. We can also keep other people's critters out of our yard as well.
Our first task was to get rid of the piles of wood we had stacked in the way. We offered it awhile ago to our friend Ty. He did make a few trips over to get some, but his life has gotten pretty complicated lately, so the picking up the rest was not going to happen right away. We needed the wood gone now. We did not want to move it just to move it again. We offered it to another neighbor that does not have the wood resources that we do. Ty can just have some of our other stacks if he needs some. It took a few trips, but they got it all hauled out of here and were very appreciative.
Because this fence has always been on the agenda, we had been collecting poles from all the trees that we have dropped to clear the land. With them sitting around awhile, they are easier to debark. We are applying a layer of used motor oil mixed with diesel to treat them before they go into the ground. At this time, we have the corner posts in the chicken run done. We also have the two posts installed at the end by the camper. We are doing the the best we can in this heat without harming ourselves. If it is not the heat then it is raining outside. We welcome the rain. Lately, it comes in and cools everything right down. Other times it jacks the humidity up. That is awful.
Cat had to go to Nashville to go get her hearing tested for the VA. We decided since we were already that way, we would stop in and see Tom and Theresa for the night. As always it was a great visit. We always wish we can stay longer, but we had to cut it short this time because of the heat. We are extra vigilant to keep the cats safe. We ate well as always. Once again, Theresa gifted Cat some seeds...dill, hollyhocks, sunflowers, and mallow. They also gifted us with a screen door, but we did not have the means to get it home with us. We will make arrangements later to get it.
Bertha is the friend we gave to the wood too. She lives just down the road and around the corner from us. We have become really great friends with her and her amazing kids. She is the one that convinced me of starting the Facebook Page specifically for the homestead. She has one too. Please go check her out at Knock it Down Homestead We have done a lot of chit chatting, sharing information, sharing our bounty, sharing plants and sharing seeds. That is Cat's love language. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. Tomorrow Cat is going to start baking lesson's with Bertha's daughter. Both of the ladies are very excited.
Cat has been busy preserving anything she can get her hands on. Lately, she has canned green beans, acorn squash and butternut squash. She has been dehydrating a lot in our sun oven...mugwort, wormwood, purslane, plantain, skull cap, parsley, carrot tops and lastly egg shells. She tries to load in the morning or the night before. She only has to turn the oven a few times in the day. A lesson she had to learn is once it is dry, put it away immediately. The humidity will get it all moist again. Putting it out there, if anyone needs any mugwort or worm wood, please let us know. We have an over abundance. Our friend Tina posted a video on her FB of a hummingbird moth. We have never heard of one. Cat asked her mom about it, and she said that they used to have them at their property in Michigan. We kid you now. A few days later. We found one flitting around our property. We were in the middle of a project and it was all over the place, or else we would have taken pictures or filmed.
We do have some news from around the yard and garden. The hummingbirds that have decided to stick around are constantly fighting. One male even pinned the other male to the ground for a second. There are ruthless, but we still enjoy watching them. We just do not like to be in the path of the war. We have picked a lot of green beans. Our first patch is almost done. Our second patch is already ripening. We are hoping to have a decent amount canned for the off season. We have 1 little zucchini. We have a watermelon that is about softball size. We have a few others as well, but are considerably smaller. We have several pumpkins growing. We have 3 varieties, so we shall see how they go. We do have some corn forming. Honestly, Cat don't think it will amount to much, but it is better to try than not. If we can get enough for a small meal, that would make us happy. Cat has been busy seed saving as well. For right now, it is mostly flowers. She will be offering seeds in the spring in anyone is interested. The rest of our perennials are doing well. He don't have super high hopes for harvest this year. Most were stuck in containers for 2 years. They are glad to be able to spread their wings.
Now some updates...We were going to head to Michigan in August to see the family and the new grandbaby. We are postponing until mid September or so. With this heat and humidity here, we have to worry about our cats that we would leave behind. The weather will change by then, and we will feel better about leaving them. Secondly, Cat's parents had rescheduled to come visit in October. Her mom's back is messed up again, so they had to cancel. It is ok, we will see them in September. They just wanted to see in person all that we have accomplished here. By the time we get to Michigan, it will be a year since we have seen everyone. It may be a bit emotional.
If you did not know. We had a serious problem with our old host for this blog. They kept wanting to charge more for more storage. It also wasn't as user friendly as far a building it and editing it. Cat had to find a new option. So, here we are. Looking all brand spanking new. We are very pleased on how it turned out. We do have some work to do. We plan on uploading a bunch of pictures in the gallery, but Cat needed a little break. She had to manually upload all the old blogs into the new page. Please check out all the pages and leave a comment below. There is a Facebook link in the bottom left hand corner of this page. We would love for you to join us there. We update on the daily with all the little things and photos. We would love for you to follow us there.
Remember Small Steps Get You Miles
Rick & Cat
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