Homesteading with Jackie Clay

Oh boy, fall is in the air

28
After a week of 80-degree weather, we dropped down to lows of 36 F! Boy, were we worried it would frost. When you have 5 acres in gardens, there's no covering anything, so we...

Our sunny weather is holding one more day

23
We were so glad we had a stretch of warm, sunny weather. Not only did it allow Will to go over and cut a nice field of hay, but we had a special visitor...

Our wild turkeys are back

22
After a very bad, long winter, two years ago, with deep snow and very cold temperatures, we lost a lot of local deer and our wild turkeys. From flocks of 20 or more in...

And how does the garden grow?

23
Pretty darned good, despite the drought, heat, and rain, rain, rain. Some crops, like most of the corn, had to be replanted. But now the earliest is starting to tassel. Most of the squash...

Harvest is starting

8
Although we have just got a few ripe tomatoes, I'm starting in canning in earnest. I already did my batch of rhubarb conserve, then on Friday, I went out and picked all of our...

Today was cooler so I made an apple pie

21
Watching our orchard apples ripening, I got so hungry for an apple pie that I decided to take a few minutes and make one. None of ours were ripe yet so I grabbed five...

With all the fabulous rhubarb, I’m busy canning again

19
This morning, after weeding and tucking in stray tomato branches, I decided I'd better cut the seed heads from our best rhubarb plants. (We sell them through Seed Treasures, our little seed business.) Then...

Ahhh, it’s cooled off finally

22
Will's busy haying as there's a dry week ahead (we hope the forecasters are right), so he's trying to make up for lost time while it rained every couple of days. Busy, busy, busy!...

Well, summer’s cooking us

26
Neither Will nor I like hot weather. Perhaps that's one reason we live in Northern Minnesota! But boy oh boy have we ever had hot weather lately. It makes getting at those dratted weeds...

I didn’t just have a birthday, but a birthweek

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The fun just didn't stop this year. On Wednesday, the dogs barked, and I looked out to the driveway. There was a young woman approaching the door. We get a lot of visitors, fans...