A Day At the Homestead

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 shortly.  

Most mornings I just have coffee or cereal for breakfast but some days I have a true farm to table breakfast.  While I may be an urban homesteader I do get  local and fresh meat and eggs from my friend Kitty at Wolfpen Creek foods in Elsmore Kansas.  Here I have   some peppered bacon  and fried eggs to get the day started.  I highly reccoment getting some hens if you can but if not their are plenty of people who sell farm fresh eggs.  

There is always work to be done here.  As you can see I am expanding the back garden and have been collecting bricks to lay out  the edge.  Attached to it is  what will be a new strawberry bed where I will transplant the plants in fall.  I aslso plan to put some flowers in the back corner after  getting rid of the weeds and vines there.  Not seen because it's gross are two composting containers where I put table scraps, leaves, and  dead tree bark to make  a rich compost layer to the garden.  I just used two black trash containers and a philips screwdriver to poke drain holes in it.  If you compost you want it damp but not soaking or it just turns rancid.

One of my favorite things to do is grill in the summer.  Here I have some chicken thighs seasoned with fajita seasoning.  To make it seem more like  days of old you can grill corn ears  just simply peel  most of the green leaves covering the ear off leaving one thin layer.  Lay it on the grill until slightly charred and the silks and remaining leaves come right off.  I also sometimes make campfire potatoes.  You slice the poatoes season with salt and pepper lay them in foil that is shaped like a bowl.  Next add a little chicken broth, some  sliced onion if you like, sprinkle with cheese, then  roll it  all up in the foil making sure the whole packet is covered or juices will run out.

As the day grows hotter in the afternoon both  animals and humans  find a cool place to rest.  Here my two  feline babies are seen resting while I am inside with the A/C watching tv.... and to really get in the homestead mood I am watvhing 1883 currently which is a part of the Yellowstone show.