Springtime as a Homesteader
Spring is well beloved as a season of new growth. New green grass after the bleakness of bare ground. Flowers splash their bright colors amid the greenery and trees either put on new leaves or delicate blooms–or both. Baby animals begin to bounce around and birdsong fills the morning air once again.
Spring has certainly brought new growth and new life to our homestead! By the date of this article, all of our goats have kidded, making nine new spunky babies. Egg production is back up, jumping from 24 total eggs in March to 69 total eggs in April–assuming my daily tally is correct. With growing children it is amazing to see how fast those eggs can disappear, and where once three or four eggs a day was hard to keep up with, now seven or eight seem to be a more reasonable number. Baby goats means fresh milk again, and soon we will be back to making yogurt and cheese. Here again, however, bigger appetites means that the milk goes quicker, so perhaps it is best that we have taken a daring new step in our homesteading venture: the addition of the iconic cow. Yes, we now have a darling Jersey/Aberdeen cross cow, and her baby was born just a few days ago, which will mean even more milk and hopefully cream enough for butter and sour cream.
Another step down homestead road is the fulfillment of a long held dream for me and the girls: a horse. The girls have begged for a horse for years now, and we at last felt that we were in a position to make their wish (and my childhood dream) come true. They love riding Abby and it tickles me pink to see their joy.
Another change this year is the way that we garden. Last year my poor garden survived only a few weeks. Between the hard clay soil and hungry chickens, it didn’t stand a chance.
This year I am going the container route. We discovered a good layer of sand when we dug our house hole last year, so I mixed clay topsoil with sand for a more homogeneous mix. I also added in some natural fertilizer, donated by our local animals, and then spread leftover straw from our ill-fated winter building project over the top to help conserve water and maybe cut back on weed growth. I also provided each individual container with its very own chicken wire fence, so hopefully my little plants will last long enough to bear fruit. The peas are already a good inch high, and the carrots, beets, and lettuce are growing valiantly!
Our long term plans for our homestead have continued to evolve and develop. During the winter it became clear to us that having an orchard was definitely in those plans, but the start date wasn’t quite clear. Thanks to some dear friends, however, the answer was made clear, and now we have baby peach, apple, plum, pear, persimmon, fig, and paw paw trees in our nursery plot with several berry bushes, some of which are already bearing flowers. In time we intend to create a permaculture food forest where annual and perennials grow in symphony to beautify the land and provide fresh fruit for us and to share.
New Year’s Day may be the beginning of the calendar year, but spring is the real start of the year in so many ways. Ours is off to an energetic start, and we are excited to see how it unfolds. As the school year winds down, we’re looking forward to more time outside—gardening, exploring, and tackling whatever this season brings next.
