If you’re just tuning in, this is a brand new ongoing series in which I document each month of our lives in our transition to a simple, homemade life on a modern homestead. We ditched town and moved to the country in 2008 and we blog about both our successful and not-so-successful ventures in homesteading, switching to natural products, and embracing a whole foods lifestyle. Check out the entire series here.
March 2018
We are heading into mud season here on the farm. We thought for sure we would have had a couple of feet of mud by now based on the amount of snow stockpiled in the yard, but we were fortunate to have sunshine, little rain, and a slow, steady melting of said snow. The Coop girls had about a week of a muddy outdoor coop (the uncovered one) but now all is well with bits of snow left to slowly continue melting (they love pecking at it) and a lack of mud squishing between their toes.
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| I love the textured top! |
Woo hoo! Not entirely new, mind you, but nicely updated. We are replacing everything except for the cabinets. Why not the cabinets, you may ask? Our home is 155 + years old and it has some interesting sloping going on in the kitchen. The existing kitchen cabinets were built into the kitchen to adjust for the sloping. So, rather than get into fixing the floor, ceiling and walls, we are going to keep the cabinets. J will sand the cabinet doors and drawers, we'll repaint it all, replace the hardware, and call it a day. I'm good with that.
The update all started because we replaced the stove. Darn stove! Our previous one hasn't worked right since a year after we got it. Parts have been replaced and they just couldn't figure out why it wasn't working and I was getting tired of an oven that couldn't keep it's temperature. By January I had had enough. We began looking at them and almost decided on one with double ovens, which I'd never considered until we found this particular one. When I read the reviews, however, people complained that you had to run both ovens at the same temperature. Why have 2 ovens then???? I would have never thought to ask that question so I'm grateful others wrote about that as a problem.
Now I needed to find another and because that one had double ovens, now I had myself convinced that's what I wanted......so that's what I (finally) found. It was a brand new model, however, so it wasn't yet available (go figure). Just over a month later it was finally delivered. And I LOVE it.
We don't have gas, although we had contemplated running a gas stove off of a propane tank, but because it was the middle of winter (too much snow to contend with) I would have to wait until spring. I decided to continue with electric. Really, the thing I like least with electric is the glass tops. But this one has a texture AND the stainless is nicely textured too, so it doesn't have constant fingerprint issues.
Anywhoo, once the new stove was in place, well, it just seemed to need a new countertop. And new flooring. And a new sink and faucet. And a slightly larger window. 😁 So, it's all been ordered, we're just awaiting the arrival.
The Dogs + Jack
All are doing well. Jack is still an instigator (I'm ok except when it happens at 2 a.m......) and the dogs still despise him. Some things will never change. We're hoping spring weather starts soon so we can get them walking in the park again (the dogs, not Jack).
The Garden
We've started planning what will be planted and where. We'll be moving some of the garden beds around (remember that we are planting in raised beds because our soil is riddled with stones) in anticipation of a new shop for J going on the back of the property later this year or early next year.
The Coop Girls
Egg production is up! We have 27 chickens and average 12-16 eggs per day. All but one of the Coop girls is doing well. As you know, there is a pecking order, and the poor girl that appears to be at the bottom has been pecked so much that she has some skin missing near her tail. We've taken care of her wound, put a hen saver on her, and separated her from the others until the wound starts to heal. She isn't too terribly happy about being separated but I think it's best. She should be able to join the others within a few days.
Business Update
The soap & skincare business is going well. I had hoped to have a company build a new online store and blog for us (in fact I'd paid a non-refundable deposit and signed a contract), however, they turned out to be jerks so I ended the agreement. So now I'm trying to figure out how to get the blog moved over to wordpress and set up how I would like it to look on my own. The online store will remain the way it currently is, which I'm perfectly happy with. One challenge after another, isn't it?
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How was March for you?
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