Homestead Update

So besides the quarter of grass-fed cow and the ginormous website project, the homestead has been relatively quiet. The garden is great, the animals are finally stable and healthy, and things are hitting their summer stride.
That is, when the cucumbers are not swallowing them.
I was excited to see the first okra on the stalk today.

HUGE okra coming off the stem. The cucumber vines are sending yellow flowers
to squat in the other squares and devour it all.

But wait! There's more!

Sure, All the Beef

So Wife and I thought it would be a great idea to pool in some friends and buy 1/4 of a grass-fed cow. We opted for the bones for Colt to chew on, too.
My, oh my. That's a lot o' cow.

Thing #3 thought stacking steaks was his job.

We crammed as much as we could into the freezer. We got all of the meat, but not the bones......

CatechismClass.com: It's Done!

I finally finished!
Well, nearly almost finished.

The back-end code for CatechismClass.com is DONE!

I've been working on re-coding CatechismClass.com for the last several months. Yesterday was relaunch day, and the flurry activity beforehand was a main driver in the lapse of posts here on Homestead Catholic.

It's finally done.
The family has me back now. :)
Yay!

Fresh Garden Fruits and Veggies

For some reason, veggies grown right in your backyard just taste better. Maybe it's the freshness - picked and eaten the same day, they don't lost nutrients or taste. Maybe it's that they are harvested AT ripeness, instead of picked a few days early to merely soften during the 1500-mile trip ahead of them. Maybe it's the fact that you know exactly were they were grown, and who they were picked by, instead of trying not to think about which part of China they were imported from. :\
Regardless, they just taste better.

Fresh radishes, cucumbers, and zucchini, picked right at home!
Served with sour cream, these made for an excellent dinner smorgasbord.

We've been feasting on veggies from the garden this week. Due the late planting, we're only beginning to get our yield. But it sure has been tasty!

Too Much

&!%^D@&^(!($!O

Oi.

These last two weeks have been insane. From crippling poison ivy on my right hand, to mysteriously dead chickens, to disinfected sheep wounds, to cucumber vines that are TOC, to more green beans than we know what to do with, to pulling late nights finishing up a project, I simply have not had time to update anything.

So when there's too much to do, Homestead Catholic suffers.

The status right now:
The guineas are out of the brooder, and into the dog crate and out by the garden. There's only four now - I think cocci got the best of 2 of them. The rest are being moved daily to prevent a flare-up.
In the span of one week, 5 chickens all departed. Another also nearly went, but I iso'd and nursed her back to health. I have still no idea what happened, but they seem to be isolated incidents of trampling, hypothermia, and a mystery illness with virtually no symptoms.
Sheep are fine. Meatloaf got a big cut on his back from climbing under the chicken coop, so I had to build a quick triangular shelter for them and tape over the coop edges. I stuck him a chain link temporary pen and disinfected the wound with hydrogen peroxide for a few days. It's totally scarred over now.
Donkey is great, and braying happily.
Colt the mastiff is...well...he hasn't drooled on me yet today. :)
Wife and kids are all fine. School year is SOOO close to being done. We're gearing up for unit studies. Yay!
The AC has been out in the van, so it was nice to find out this week that'll it cost way more than we have on hand to get it fixed...right as temps peak 95 outside. Hooray.
And then there's the garden.....

More soon....

Garden Update

It seems our garden has contracted a case of the muffin top.
The green beans keep falling over toward the lettuces. It's not their fault - the cucumbers keep encroaching on the green beans. The cukes are also flopping out of the garden - Wife had to add some bamboo stakes to the grass area outside of the garden to support the extra growth.

The cucumber plants are spilling over the square foot
garden bed edge at every turn.

Field Trip: Stones River Battlefield

Last week, we took a field trip to the Stones River Battlefield.

From top left, clockwise: A  replica cannon from the museum. Things #1 & 2
out of the battlefield site itself. Things #1 & 2 working on the scavenger hunt in
the museum. Thing #3 planning his escape. 

It was incredible. The kids got to learn about the Civil War, and the impact it had on the local communities of Middle TN. Some park rangers took the time out to talk to us, including an absolutely riveting talk by a ranger on the why behind the war and the battle itself. The kids learned a lot from it.

They even had a little project worksheet to fill out. We soaked in the museum at a leisurely pace before heading outside to brave the heat on a half mile tour. Looking at some the intact trenches hand-dug by the soldiers was a sobering experience.

Standing on the site itself put things in perspective for us.

It was a neat experience, and one made all the more educational by doing it in a small homeschooling family setting.