New growth

We've decided to get a jump start on our garden this year by starting seedlings indoors. I tried this several years ago which ended in disaster. I had a lot of pumpkin and cantelope seedlings just flop over one day due to damping off. I didn't know what I was doing and didn't have a light, so this time, we invested in a light and we are keeping our fingers crossed that things will be successful for us.

We started out Saturday evening by planting broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, jalepenos and tomatoes. By Monday afternoon, several of the cabbage seeds had sprouted! I was shocked! The package said 7-10 days for germination. We had little plants in 3! Now just about everything has a little plant or two growing. We are very excited and so are the kids. My daughter keeps asking if her "mato" has come up or not. Unfortunately, it hasn't poked it's head out of the soil, but she keeps asking everyday.

I'm hoping to start another flat of cherry tomatoes and some head lettuce this weekend. The seed starting medium is fluffy enough, so I'm not going to put them into their own little cells. I think I'm going to just fill the whole flat and direct seed them into rows, then once they are large enough to transplant, I'll just carefully dig well enough out away that they should just lift out. Again, this is just an experiment and if it flops, then so be it. I know lots of people would say that I should just use peat pots or individual cells, but I like a challenge and I like the experimenting.

I'll try and get some pictures posted of our little plants soon! Until next time!

Busy weekend

I'm not your "typical" homesteader. We own 46 acres of crop, pasture and homestead ground. My husband and I work full-time and our oldest is an 8th grader in a public school. My daughter goes to daycare and preschool at a local church. We are busy going to sporting events and other school events in our area. I try to find time in our busy schedules to get things done around the house, but I also try to have time for the kids each night too. I think it's great that there are families out there that are completely immersed into the homesteading lifestyle. They have my utmost respect and I love reading about their lives. I have started to adopt some of their ideas for our family. Everyone has to start somewhere, right!

Well, this past weekend was extremely busy. I didn't get done what I wanted, but I did get several things accomplished. Luckily, some just in time for the snow and cold winds to arrived Sunday evening. Saturday we cut wood for most of the afternoon and now have a couple more weeks of warmth stacked up outside the house. It was very cold cutting, but as long as we kept moving, we were warm enough. I think that is one of the best workouts a person can have. You are constantly bending over, walking and lifting weights. A complete aerobic and weight training workout. I was exhausted by the time evening came. I was barely able to eat dinner and make it a chair before I fell asleep.

Sunday afternoon we spent buying some supplies for our seed starting adventure. I tried starting seeds years ago, but everything died due to Damping Off. I was very discouraged and decided that it wasn't something I could do. I've decided to be brave this year and try it again. Even professionals have that happen to them, so I just need to keep trying and figure out what works for me. I want to have plants to put in the ground this spring, so I can harvest much earlier for our Farmer's Market this year. I've been researching techniques to avoid the fungal disease and think I may have a good plan. My husband has been wanting a shop light for the garage, so we bought one that he felt would work for him and a few weeks out of the year, he's going to let me have it in the basement to keep my seedlings going. What a great guy! I'm very lucky to have a husband that is as interested in gardening as I am. (Sometimes I think he may be more into it than I am!)

Hopefully I'll be able to post more this week of our seed starting! Thanks for stopping by!

As soon as I find some time this week, I'll get my seeds into their new homes and keep my fingers crossed until the first little sprouts start to emerge.

Our babies have arrived!

This weekend was quite a whirlwind of late nights and new additions. Friday night I was up off and on with my daughter who was not feeling well and at 4:00 a.m. I received a phone call. It scared me at first thinking "Who in the world is calling me at this time of night, and whoever it is, are they in trouble?" I was an automated call informing me that my shipment of baby chicks had been mailed. Ok, so this is technically Saturday morning and they are coming from Iowa. There was no way they would make it to my post office by noon on Saturday. They had to be processed at the Kansas City Post Office and then make it to the Wichita Post Office as well. These poor babies would be sitting in the Wichita Post Office for over 24 hours. I was a little concerned for their health and safety at this point. Luckily the Wichita Post Office called me and said they had arrived. The only problem with that was they called me at midnight Saturday night. Again, as the phone rang and registered as Unknown, I was concerned. Luckily a person was on the other end and let me know that the chicks were there and how I could pick them up. I hoped into the car and made it into Wichita by 12:30. We loaded the box of babies into my car and headed home. Back to the house by 1:00 a.m. We got the chicks into the chicken coop and their brooder, dipped their little beaks into the water and feed and let them run to the warm light. They were so cute to watch run and peck at the feed and grit. We spent a good 30 minutes just watching them to make sure the brooder box wasn't too hot or too drafty. The did like to pile up on each other under the light, but after a while, they would venture out and explore. By morning, the were wandering around and not piling up on each other.

The pecking order has already started being established too. It is so funny to watch these chicks try to fight and one-up each other. At one point I saw a chick take hold of another chicks foot and not let go. I did intervene in that one. The little bully wouldn't let go. I normally let nature take it's course, but that poor little chick needed my help this one time. I finally got to bed about 2:30 a.m.

I was up early in the morning for church and to clean the house for a family Super Bowl party. Luckily I did most of the cleaning on Saturday and only had a little picking up to do after church and Sunday School. We watched the Super Bowl and ended up talking to my brother till fairly late, so, three late nights in a row and I'm running on empty. Hopefully some time outside with my family will keep me going.

I'm hoping to work on some of my Farmer's Market projects tonight, since my house is fairly clean. I'll be selling coasters, aprons, up-cycled feed bag shopping bags, hand scrub and some little toadstools made out of old farm disks. It's something I've been wanting to get into and now I have a place to sell them. We will still have vegetables, but will add some other things to bring potential customers to our booth.

Off to see what other adventures await us on our little farm. Until next time, enjoy the Simple Looks at Life!