Homesteading with Jackie Clay
We escaped the freeze last night!
After sweating and praying like crazy, plus pulling in six plus crates of tomatoes to seed (just in case), I went to bed, hoping for the best. I didn't even get up at night...
We hope everyone had a happy Labor Day
We laugh because we were laboring harder yesterday than usual. You see we have Arctic cold dropping down on us on Wednesday night. They're even calling for snow. Ugh! I sure hope it doesn't...
Oh boy, fall is in the air
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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!...
