As with most Americans, we are watching food prices soar at the grocery store. While we don’t go to the store often (maybe once a month), our kids do eat quite a bit of snacks. They are outside most of the day either working, climbing, riding bikes etc and they eat several snacks a day. We sat down as a family and talked about grocery store prices and how we can challenge ourselves to make our own snacks. The kids learned how to make energy bites in Spanish class recently and they already know how to make muffins. We also made homemade cheez-its; it was easy but time consuming and the kids now cherish each bite of snack because they are the ones making them! When they run out of energy bites or popsicles, they have to make more. It has taken a task off of my plate and made them more conscious of what they are eating it and how much work goes into making it.

We don’t spend time away from the homestead often but sometimes we just need a break. At the beginning of June, on my birthday, was the day the beehives fell over. We had planned to have a date night that evening but Adam was very drowsy from Benadryl by 4pm. The three younger kids still went to stay the night at my in-laws but Kathryn wanted to stay home with us. That evening I had this craving to go kayaking. I texted a friend to see if we could borrow her double kayak and we made plans for the following day. Conveniently, this friend also has a “river camp” near their house so they offered to help transport us as well. We woke up and fed the animals and strapped our kayak to the Subaru along with snacks, drinks etc. We drove to our friends’ house to help load the other kayak and we left our car at their river camp. They drove us back towards our house and we dropped-in on Yellow River near our house. We knew it would be about a three hour trip but we have never kayaked down Yellow River so we didn’t really know what to expect. The river was high because of all the rain we have had and the first two hours were very laid back and relaxing. We didn’t have to paddle much because the current was quite strong. Kathryn, Adam and I talked a little but mostly we just enjoyed the quiet of nature; the lapping of the water against the kayaks, the birds chirping, the fish jumping. It was just what we needed. We stopped for a snack and to stretch and headed out again. We knew it was supposed to rain later in the day but according to the forecast, we had plenty of time. About 45 minutes from the river camp, the sky became very dark and it began to thunder. We paddled hard at that point not really knowing how far we had to go and if there would be a place to pull off. The thunder and lightning continued for the rest of our trip (and we were paddling hard) and as soon as we pulled on to the boat ramp, the rain came down hard. The cloudy weather ended up being a blessing because we didn’t get on the river until 9:30 and about 11, the heat was becoming unbearable. We had a lovely time and I’m pretty sure we have convinced the kids to forego birthday gifts this year so we can save up for kayaks for the family. We live so close to the river and we all enjoy being in nature and on the water, it would be a great way to have a much needed break and to spend time together away from the homestead.

June has been busy with food preservation. Because we homestead on less than an acre, we harvest daily. While we do eat out of the garden every day, we need to preserve a lot of what we harvest for winter. Squash and cucumbers don’t sit well for very long. We have been busy dehydrating squash, canning pickles, shelling peas and making sure that nothing goes to waste. In addition to making cucumbers and dehydrating the squash, we are also eating squash daily and we each have at least one cucumber a day.

My in-laws also have a bountiful garden so we have been receiving okra, peas and corn from them as well.

Last Monday was Memorial Day and we had many things to catch up on after 4 days of rain. Fences needed mending, new garden beds needed to be planted, chicks needed sunshine, dogs needed to be trained and so on. Our week began in catch-up mode and we continued with that for the remainder of the week. The beauty of homeschooling is every day is a school day and we are teaching life skills, not just the core “subjects.” (honestly, “core subjects” are not the focus of our school day, but that is a post for a different day). Kathryn and Graham are learning the metric system in math so we thought to learn in it a more practical way this week: in the kitchen.

Squash gets eaten at every meal in the summer and Monday began with a truly homegrown meal: scrambled eggs with squash and goat milk served with homegrown sausage. Later in the day we made our first small batch of pickles and then on Wednesday and Thursday we spent all day in the kitchen. Wednesday we bottled water Kefir and Kombucha and we made: granola, smoothie for popsicles, energy bites and blueberry scones. Thursday we dehydrated squash for winter, canned pickles, finished baking bread and made blueberry muffins.

We have been growing cucumbers for many years but most of the time, we eat them as soon as they are harvested each day. When I say “we,” I really mean the kids. Adam decided to grow more cucumbers this year so we could make pickles. Dill pickles is one of the kids’ favorite snacks. When you have a smaller homestead like us, our daily harvest is quite small. It is plenty for us but most pickle recipe calls for a large amount. Cucumbers get soft quick and we want crunchy pickles. Adam found a small-batch pickle recipe and it has been perfect for the amount we harvest. He taught Zeb and Madelynn how to can the small batch pickles the first time and I was in awe that Madelynn had the recipe memorized for our second time. Hopefully we can make 2 batches a week during summer and we can enjoy dill pickles all winter.

I, Kathryn, decided to make a flower garden. Daddy (in the picture above) tilled up the garden bed and then we planted some lantana. The next day Grandmommy (Linda Tuggle) came over with some plants; we had lily and amaryllis and pansies and some other flowers. I can’t remember their names. Here are some pictures.

I love my new garden!!!!!!!

I had someone ask me recently, “I’d love to come spend the day with you and see what it’s like.” My first reply was a chuckle. While we do like routine and structure, we never have two days that are alike. We have a routine of what our day should look like but it all depends on the homestead every morning. Yesterday was a typical day on the homestead so I thought I would write it down for you. When I say “typical,” I mean in the sense that we had to adjust our day based on the atmosphere of the homestead in the morning. I’ll add some pictures along the way to keep your attention with my not-so-interesting writing. Maybe one day I’ll convince Adam to write a blog post!

We have a friend out of town and we are helping take care of her animals while she and her husband are away. (Let’s be clear: this is not an inconvenience. Our pigs are on their property and this is a way for us to bless them as they have blessed us). Graham and I headed to her house yesterday morning to go feed the animals. It was storming quite hard so we didn’t check on any of our animals before we left. Kathryn was in charge of delegating Graham’s chores between the other kids; they were expected to feed the animals and make breakfast while we were gone. It took a little longer than expected because I could barely see out of my windshield on the way there; the rain was coming down hard and the wind was blowing. We fed the animals and made a last minute decision to bring their Great Dane to our house for the day; nobody wants to be alone in a storm! We packed up her bed and treats and headed home, thankfully a little easier because the rain had let up a bit.
When we walked in the door, Kathryn informs me that she found LouAnn injured on the carport (she had moved LouAnn to the chicken coop to stay dry) and our Tom, Leroy, was roaming the yard, scared. By this time, the storm had started again and it was lightening. Our only option was to wait for the storm to subside so we came inside to eat breakfast. I had a little work to do on the computer and the kids started on their Wednesday chores. After an hour or so, the rain changed to a drizzle so the kids took a bucket of feed to lure Leroy back on pasture. They moved LouAnn to our large dog crate in the shed and gave her food and water and Kathryn put a heat lamp on her. We couldn’t tell yet how bad the damage was and she wouldn’t stand up.

The girls and I had a live pasta making class we wanted to attend from a homestead we follow. It started at 11 and their Spanish class started at 11:30. The boys cleaned the school room while the girls watched 30 minutes of the pasta class with me and I finished the class while they learned a song in Spanish class. While they finished their class, I prepared lunch and we all sat down at the table to start our school day and eat lunch. We read the Bible with a commentary and discussed the Ten Commandments and why they are still important for us today and we worked through our scripture recitation box. About this time, the glass repairman showed up out front. I was under the impression he would be arriving late afternoon and Obi was out in the yard. Graham ran out to put Obi in the backyard while Zeb opened the gate. (side note: we had a storm last weekend and a large tree limb fell on the windshield of the car Adam drives. It was shattered).

The repairman said it would take about an hour and a half so we headed back inside to start on our next reading in the living room: Letters from Egypt. A few pages in, a friend texted and reminded me that she and her kids were coming over to see the goats today. We set the book aside and went outside to clean up the yard after the storm. The rain had stopped and the sun was actually shining! Welcome to Florida (it rained later in the afternoon and it’s raining again today). We moved the goats to pasture and checked on LouAnn; she seemed to be doing better. Our friends came and we had fun walking them around Milligan Hill. They had a good time cuddling all of the baby animals. After they left, we came inside to make a smoothie and try to straighten up inside before Adam arrived home from work. Another friend came by to pick up the Great Dane and take her home and her kiddos wanted to see the property as well. Our kids had another Spanish class beginning at 4; we don’t always take 2 Spanish classes a day but the afternoon class was cooking and they were excited to do that. We got all of the ingredients out (energy balls!) and I set the class up for them. Adam arrived home a few minutes later so he and I walked outside to discuss both of our days; I checked on the animals and he worked in the garden.

Adam’s parents stopped by to bring their puppy to hang out with us for a few days while they go out of town. We were chatting with them and my Mom stopped by to pick up Madelynn for the evening (the grandparents take turns taking the kids overnight individually) and we all chatted and watched the dogs go crazy over seeing each other. Obi and Cheyenne are best friends and get so excited when they get to spend time together. The kids ran out excited to let everyone taste the energy balls they made (they were the size of my fist). The grandparents left and we were all outside now (minus MJ) helping Adam do afternoon chores. When we walked to the greenhouse, we found that so much rain had fallen that the cover was caving in and the water was so heavy it was close to ruining the frame. We all quickly ran around getting supplies (hoses, pumps etc) to pump out the water into a rain barrel. In the midst of this, it started to rain again so Kathryn and I quickly went to put the goats in the stable (they hate rain!).
Adam finished with the greenhouse so we put Reba on the milking stand to trim her hooves and give her a snack to support her milk production. I went in to start dinner and take a shower. After dinner was cleaned up, Kathryn and I had to prepare bread dough because Thursday is baking day. She helped mill the flour while I prepped the other ingredients. We sat down to watch a few videos from a local homestead who has a type of pig we are interested in breeding at Milligan Hill. Their videos are fun and informative and we had a good time learning together. By this time, we were all wiped out and we each headed off to bed to read a little before lights out.
Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much with what life looks like here on the homestead. We wake up in the morning knowing that we will need to be flexible with our plans for the day and adjust our schedules as necessary. It keeps us on our toes and we can’t complain about ever being bored!

We have a beautiful banded water snake that lives in our pond. We named him Herbert and Madelynn has become quite the snake handler!

Here are a few more pictures. Because who doesn’t love baby animals!!!

Our kids love animals. We love the animals on our property and we also love seeing the animals at the Zoo. We are so blessed to have a lovely Zoo in town and we visit as often as we can. Feeding the birds is one of our favorite things to do! Sometimes you just need a day sitting among the parakeets and having birds perched on your shoulders and head.