Today, I just want to give a bit of an update as to what we have accomplished this year, what we are working on now, and a small glimpse into what we are hoping to do this year.
So what have we done and what are we doing…
This year, we have seen a much different lifestyle than we expected. With me on paternity, we had made big plans to travel to multiple national parks to camp and hike. But those plans were quickly cancelled.
Instead of travelling and hiking, we have focused on learning and fine tuning some homesteading skills. I have started learning how to carve spoons and other kitchen ware. And completely by accident, ended up getting requests for custom order spoons that shipped as far as Texas!
I also took the opportunity to pick up a little work woodworking. I built a raised planter box (or what seems to now be the perfect shelter for a cute little cat’s nap spot) and a custom stool to be used as a plant stand!
I have also have been growing vegetable seedlings for as many people as I had seeding trays!
Kaleigh has been using this opportunity to catch up on some work with her photography business (Kaleigh Betty Photography) as well as hone her canning skills and test various recipes. Her most recent project has been making dandelion jelly – which everyone has agreed is now a pantry must-have!
The family has spent a lot of time working in our gardens since March and we are now enjoying the first round of our harvests. Our radishes came up wonderfully, turnips are popping up every day and many of our greens are growing happily.
The Valkyries (our honey-bees – in case you missed the previous post announcing their name) are also continuing to expand. We should be able to produce a split with the next few weeks. This will give us a second hive to manage and hopefully a larger honey supply to share.
Last week, we were able to transplant everything into the gardens. Our squash and pumpkins have even germinated – which an accomplishment for me as the last few years they haven’t, or didn’t end up yielding much. Despite that success, I still cannot seem to get our bell peppers to sprout, so I bought both cayenne and jalapeno seedlings for the greenhouse. Last year we were able to sprout our bell peppers, but weren’t able to harvest anything. Hopefully both milestones are successes this year.
We are also experimenting this year with growing tomatoes and peppers in grow bags inside the greenhouse.
What’s next? A driveway market stand.
We are not sure what will make it onto the stand but we hope that every week we will be able to stock it with some of our vegetables or other homesteading endeavours.
Our first driveway appearance will happen in the next week or so will feature more vegetable seedlings, some grow bags, a few carved spoons, our dandelion jelly, and whatever else we can come up with!
Come by and say a socially distanced hello! Maybe even get some gardening supplies!
As for the blog, we hope to start sharing some of our kitchen recipes soon and we are wondering what sort of content you are interested in hearing about.
As we continue to explore this adventure, let us know what your favourite experiments have been. Maybe you have a strange canning recipe we could try!
The Red Tree Homestead 