little house on the homestead

[liminal_space]

things are coming together on our as-yet-unnamed little acreage. 

yesterday, we harvested the brussels sprouts from the garden and pulled up all of the squash vines, the empty cabbage nests (i don't even know what to call them), and the scraggly green onions. we need to pull up the last of the tomato vines and then that bed will be ready to prep for next year. 

i'm not 100% certain i'll get a full-on in-ground garden going, but mister is going to make me at least 3 more raised beds for veggies and if he can swing it, i'd like to get an herb bed going as well as a few beds for flowers. oh, and i need a pumpkin mound. and potato patch. o.O i need to remember that it's ok to start smaller and be successful than to do ALL THE THINGS AT ONCE and half-ass the entire process. 

while all this is being planned and plotted, i am keeping my eyes out for canning supply sales. i need quart, pint, and half pint jars. i need lids and rings. and a pressure canner is not necessarily off the table, although i do fear that i will explode things. 

as a frugal little homesteader, i tried my hand at walmart grocery shopping yesterday and bought quite a few marked down things. i got a huge cheese pizza for $4 and dolled it up for dinner — with my extra touches, it tasted like a $9 huge pizza! in other words? probably never buying walmart pizza again. 

i also found carne picada marked down dramatically, so bought both 2lb packages and popped them in the freezer. go me! [note: we don't eat beef all that often, so i usually splurge for butcher shop meat, but i'm willing to try this out.]  

one of my last on-sale purchases was a double bag of fresh stir fry veggies for $1.61. i actually think i'm going to go through and sort the veggies out by type, since we're not big stir fry fans around here. 

[i was also very unfrugal about a few things, but i'm doing better. it was nothing like our costco trip, yo.]

*

we seem to have hit a gold mine for horses here! a lady up here operates a sort of rescue and breeding facility (she breeds american bashkir curly horses). i touched bases before we even got here and COME TO FIND OUT (which is one of my favorite phrases atm), she was a year or two ahead (or behind) mister in HS. so they were all HEY, GO TEAM and she was all YOUR WIFE AND KID CAN RIDE ANYTIME and then she was all YOU WANT YOUR KID TO COME RIDE TODAY? 

....and that's what the kid did. both saturday and sunday she got to ride multiple horses and the curly horse lady (CHL) saw how good of a rider she is and said she can ride any horse any time....with as many ponies as she has, getting them all worked is a challenge, so kid is actually being helpful and we're not having to pay to get her saddle time. WIN. 

apparently, there's a young horse there that kid really likes, so who knows what will happen? AND AND AND...the CHL said she can help us find goats. =D 

so i'm feeling super good about horse opportunities here. there's one dressage trainer that i really liked, but she's $70 for 45 mins if kid uses trainer's horse. not unreasonable, but we're used to much less than that because we always got friends/family discounts. o.O 

with pony club (and their dressage trainer) and CHL, maybe the local dressage trainer will be deemed redundant. 

*

i am going to increase my efforts to make friends with the squirrels. the dogs have pushed them a bit farther from the house than i'd like (mister is happy about it), so i believe peanuts are in order. i have a plan that involves little high-up platforms, go-pro cameras, and squirrel houses. so far we've seen young red squirrels and many adult grey squirrels, but i'm hopeful that i get a black squirrel family soon. they're supposed to be sort of dickish, but....

you know. 

wildlife spotting has been...interesting. deer here are far more skittish and hidden than where i was; mostly because people here want to murder them and in california, we fed them and told them there were lovely. i saw a lynx the other night which was slightly freaky; i was thinking they'd be bobcat size and they're more....creepy chubby toddler sized. o.O there are coyotes around, though i haven't seen them, and we heard that there was a timber wolf nearby. o.O closest neighbor said there's a bear "in the area" but i have no idea what that really means. 

and the bald eagles? all over the place! they are such magical, terrifying beasts. we had a pheasant in our back forest area, which made me happy. and the canadian geese (honkers!) are all around in superior and duluth, which also makes me happy.

i swear, i'm like that little eyeglass wearing medium in /poltergeist/ that says, "aaaallllll are welcome, children." yes. come live with me animals: all are welcome. 

*

i don't know if i mentioned it, but we inherited a  cat when we moved here. the guy who sold the place couldn't take her with him and was in such a state that we said we could take her. 

she's an unfixed little grey tabby and she hates the other cats (who return the sentiment) and loves the dogs. she's also in heat and is making everyone crazy. we couldn't get an appointment to get her spayed until october 31st, so....yeah. 

kid calls her a horn bag like kim in /kath and kim/. she's not wrong. 

*

i'm thinking of doing a little house on the homestead tour (just on the outside for now) and posting it at some point this week. i tend to be super private about where we are located/personal information/etc, but i figure i can keep it relatively non-personal. maybe. i have no idea. 

also, and this is great news, we found the little robot overlord vacuum and he got put to work today! there's so much weird dirt here and with the # of beasts we have and that we go visit, it seems there are always hairballs somewhere. we realized how nice it is to have that and decided to give the old one to kid for downstairs and mister ordered us a new one. o.O it's a fancy SELF EMPTYING ONE with about 3x the amount of charge that will last, so i'm pretty excited. 

by the time it gets here, i should have the bedroom figured out so it can clean in there, too. right now, too much stuff on the floor for it to do an effective job — dog beds, cords, suitcases. it's a zoo. 

*

Comments

[zeecha.livejournal.com]

ack! I would not want to draw squirrels close to the house at all! They are destructive little mother fuckers, and I hope you don't find that out the hard way. Just...admire them from afar! Obviously only a suggestion, but I had some squirrels get into the soffit on one side of the house, and the ensuing infestation was ....UGH. They got into the attic then, and they chewed wires, and wood and...and...they were destructive. Snap out of it! haha

lol to the tastes like a $9 pizza. lmao. I'm sorry.

So, you're harvesting what the guy before you planted...that's cool! Happy eating and canning. Good luck on your quest for supplies! Are there any Amish or Mennonite communities around up there? If so, look for a dry goods/bulk store. They are a shopping experience to say the least. For sure canning supplies.

You're having so many projects happening. I looked up those horses--whoa Nelly! Those are a different looking horse! I had never seen that kind before, how interesting. Looks like your kid has found a niche! I hope the lady pays her, but if she runs partly a rescue, she probably would appreciate the volunteering.

Nice update!

How's your back doing??

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

LOLOL we have squirrels around here, these big sort of pretty gray ones. But they tore up my apples.

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

my back is doing better, but i can tell it's not 100% — i just have to be careful so i don't hurt it again. stupid muscle.

lol on the squirrel stuff....and you're right, i need to just keep them far away. but their tails! so floofy!

yeah. the $9 pizza was a hot mess of bleh. =D

the dude before us planted quite a bit in a single raised garden, so i'm super excited about what we're going to do with a few more! i know there are amish folks down south from here, so i'll look them up! maybe steal a horse or three.

right now, kid is earning her saddle time which can be spendy. until we get horses here, this is the best thing for her! i'm tossing her money for some jobs that need to be done so she's not completely destitute, but she's hoping she can find a summer job with horses around here.

xox

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Glad you're doing okay up there.

Curly Bshkirs! Cool. Glad child did well with the riding.

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

thank you! the curly horses are so cute!

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to the discreet and safe tour! :-)

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

i just need to DO IT. lol

[maju01.livejournal.com]

I would love to see an anonymous view of your homestead.

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

i need to get cracking on that so you can see the pretty colors of the trees. <3

[deepseasiren.livejournal.com]

I want to see pictures.

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

ima hook you up, girl.

[honor-reid.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you are settling in nicely. That was a total score with the horse trainer. I'm so glad that it is all working out for you guys!

[liminal-space.livejournal.com]

it's working itself out slowly (too slowly for my tastes, but still). PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE, right?

[severina2001.livejournal.com]

So you've moved? YOU ARE NOW A LADY FARMER????

This is such exciting news. I'm sorry that I missed all the fun of it!