Sometime last year my husband decided to put our yard to work for us, something of a homestead, per se. He began with a few tomato plants, which turned out pretty well. Then he became truly inspired and added a few other veggies. So, yes, in the long run we’ve taken up another great attribute of our region, which is farming. (Not to be confused with Texas stereotypes, funny or not. Lol!)
Nonetheless, in January of this year, he began planning an actual garden. Like, an in the ground garden. As with all new beginnings, there were some successes and some failures. We grew a lot of onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and jalapenos. Some of the potato experiments were actually successful, yet some were not. The bell peppers, corn, and a few others never really did anything. But, we learned. And starting to homestead our property has now taken root in our property and our lives.
Here are a few pics of our 2020 gardening/homestead beginnings.
As I mentioned, we started with a trial run in growing potatoes and tomatoes; which we grew in five gallon buckets. Then we expanded with a 4 foot by 12 foot raised garden bed. In the garden bed we planted onions, several types of peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, canteloupe, tomatoes, corn, and a few other things.
Eventually, things sprouted and grew. Yay! And we were finally enjoying the fruits, well vegetables, of our labor. This is the pretty cool part! I was especially excited when we harvested our first okra and canteloupe, both shown below. Yes, only one okra was ready. (Note: To have a real okra crop you need to plant several okra plants at once as they only “mature” one to two okra at a time.)
Then, after some success with plants, we realized to “feed ourselves”, if that ever became a necessity, we would need some meats. We are carnivores after all! Sooo, the hubs decided on raising meat rabbits (raising rabbits solely for a meat source). Well, they’re cute, but I’ve never really eaten rabbit before. Hopefully, I’ll like it. I’ll let you know how that works out later.
Check out our rabbit hutches.
We have two hutches, shown below. This gives us space for two females, one buck, and a space for the kits as they grow.
Then with thoughts of self-sustainability in mind, we jumped to the thought that eggs would be nice. And…. Yep! We now have chickens! (Yeah, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I’d be spending time every evening tending to rabbits and chickens. Lol!)
Now enjoy some pics of our young brood of chickens.
At this point they’re still growing. We’re estimating that they’re now in their “teenager” phase. Soon though we should be able to tell how many hens vs roosters there are in the dozen chickens we have. And we’re hoping we have a good number of hens, since eggs are our main goal. As such, we only really need one rooster to help protect all the girls.
Well, there ya go!
There’s a peek into a little of what is happening on my quirky home-front. Do you have a garden or animals you tend to daily? (Or, have you had them in the past?) Please share any tips or tricks you may have. I’d love to expand my growing knowledge in this area. Thanks!
Now I’m outta here. I’m off to make sure everyone on the homestead is fed and watered for the evening. May you all have a great weekend!
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