mysmallurbanhomestead

The day starts early at the homestead.  Aruond 4 or 5 the dogs wake up and need to be let outside.  "Hey mom I gotta go" is how I interpret their whimpers before the sun is even out.  I hook them on a leash and lead them in the dark to the backyard to take care of  business. Next it is time to feed everyone.  "hope you don't mind mom. but we invited a few friends over".  As you can see everyone knows when it's breakfast time  here.   These are  my two plus two from a neighbor who's names I now know and all  of them love to eat and be petted. When the sun starts to come out and I can see the garden gets watered by the hose and the back garden by bucket.  Things are really growing now and I  have some tomatoes that are forming on the tomato plants and have  picked and  roastaed some hatch chili's for salsa and sauce later on.  Their are other plants that have blossoms on them and I expect I'll have green beans...

At the beginning this was an overgrown neglected bed that has been filled with weeds since I bought my house.  I was doing some research to find plants that are cat friendly when I came across what was called a cat garden.  I started with these catnip plants which they love and knew right away were for them...they've had some nibbling done to them :)  These plants can be calming and make a cat feel a stte of euphoria. In addition to catnip which cats like to eat on the website said to plant stuff that cat's could hid and play in so I planted some sunflower seed and it's now  springing up.  Yes, there are still some weeds lingering that have been hard to erdicate out of there...  on to the next plant in this garden so far.... Tbh...I have no idea what these are.  I planted a wildflower seed packet in my back lawn and these were the only things that grew.  I think they are cosmos which the cats will find fun to bat the tiny leaves and run around in ...

  I visted my friend Suzanne today and she gave me these beautiful snapdragons.  Here they are planted between a surprise feature on my lot that you will see later and the blackberry patch.  These flowers make beautiful cut and put in a vase to make a boquet.  Here is a picture of the one I made today with them.  No sooner than these were planted some small bees showed up to check them out. She also gave me a coneflower whih I planted next to the surprise project.  I am growing some of these form seed as well as bee balm but I heard it takes them along time to be ready to transplant.  I hope this one flowers soon so you can see it's flowers.  This is also a native KS plant and a great pollinator. I also received some hot pepper plants from her today.  Since it was hot and I didn't feel like making more garden space by digging with my shovel I put them in this container I have.  These are gerat if all you have is a small deck or patio to ...

  I'm sure many Chanute residents know about the Katy trail, but it holds some surprises for being a trail that sits on the edge of town.  For the 2nd year there is evidence that bobcats are close by.  Last year a friend and I  tracked prints even to the actual park area.  Parents make sure to supervise your kids if you are near Katy Park or the trail at dusk when the cats could be out lurking. Though the  trail is paved there is dense trees and vegetation on both sides.  Make sure to stay on the pavement unless you are wearing jeans and  regular shoots.  There is poison ivy and oak in some of the areas off to the side as well as snakes.  On a posotive note you can be sure to see some song birds, squirrels, and if you are lucky a few rabbits along the way. This picture was atually from awhile ago but worthy of posting today.  For a long time there has been what appears to be a hobo camp along the train track.  If you are brave ...

  If you live in an apartment you can easily do this.  Here I have mint in the red pot, in the one next to it is what  nurseries call a bug away mix it contains mint, basil, and rosemary.  These three can all be used for other purposes.  In the black pots are flower seed mix coneflower (echinacea) and bee balm. If you are lucky like I was you might have fruit trees already on your lot.  My town one has two pear trees that are starting to make.  It's been a rainy summer here in Kansas so far so the plants/trees are really  blooming.  Can't wait to harvest these and make some delicious pear butter for french taost. If you own your property you can make a small strawberry bed.... use some old brick or whatever you have for edging,  purhcase some garden soil to mix in with what you have, get a bale of straw and your ready to grow some.  Here are some of my starts.  This is a new patch as my old one was about six yrs old and deplete...

 Hi, I'm Whitney the owner of a small urban homestead in kansas.  I'm here to show you even in town there are ways to grow your own food and other neat things that show livnig in town doesn't mean you can't enjoy a semi sustaining/country way of life.  I'm a 47 yr old mother of two young women and a variety of four legged babies.  Let's meet some of them. This is Duke he's going to be two in Nov.  we got him as a puppy from my aunt and uncle.   He's a huge stubborn dog full of energy and knows his job is to alert us to  people or other animals that are not part of our home.   This is Daphne she's 3/4 yrs old and originally belonged to my oldest daughter...she had a hard time being surrounded by lots of children and other pets so she resides w/ me now and is  the only dog allowed  loose in the house and as you can see is very spoiled.   This is Ebony she's 5 or six yrs old and is one of my more agressive felines she hu...