Inspiring Creativity
Welcome spring! Warmer temperatures, longer days, baby animals joining the world…..the signs of spring are universal. New birth & renewal of life are all around us. If you’re like me, this time of year also brings a long list of Spring projects! Raised garden beds, trellises, chick brooders, and fencing are just a few of the projects on my Spring list. I’ve had seeds started in trays in my Germination Station for weeks! The ... Read the Post...
What do you think of when you hear the term "Homesteading". Does it bring to mind pioneers racing across the plains to stake their claim? Do you visualize reclusive "preppers" tucked away in mountain hideaways? Modern Homesteading is quite different than you might imagine. Everyone has something they need to be prepared for. Whether it’s the wildfires & earthquakes on the west, the hurricanes & tornados to the south, or the freezing ... Read the Post...
It’s that time of year! Gardeners everywhere are busy planning their gardens, searching out plant varieties, and purchasing seeds. Pick up any seed packet and read the information on it and you can feel like you’re decoding a secret language of seeds. Non-GMO, Heirloom, open-pollenated….these are just some of the words you read and hear about when looking into purchasing seeds. To the new gardener, it can feel confusing. Learning what ... Read the Post...
Germinating seeds to start a garden can seem like an overwhelming task. Look at the back of most seed packets and you’ll find some really great information to help you be successful. One particular recommendation on them that stands out is “When to start inside”. Seeds need soil, sunlight, and water to germinate & grow so how can we mimic that indoors without making a huge mess? Grow lights can be expensive. What benefits do they give ... Read the Post...
With the end of winter fast approaching, gardeners everywhere are already busy at work planning their spring gardens. If you aren’t a seasoned gardener, planting zones, soil amendments, decoding seed packets, and companion planting can all seem like a foreign language. Don’t loose hope! Here are my 5 best gardening tips for beginners! 1. Start Simple Learning something new is fun and exciting, but as a beginning gardener it can be ... Read the Post...
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! For me, holidays are all about the food! I love to cook, to entertain, and to have a house full of family & friends to celebrate, and Thanksgiving checks every box. But even if you love to cook or entertain, Thanksgiving can be a lot of work! I have learned to make Thanksgiving as stress-free and fun for me as it is for my guests. Happy Fall Y'all My Thanksgiving planning actually starts at the ... Read the Post...
Gardening and home improvement projects saw a huge rise in popularity this year. Thanks to the pandemic quarantine, many people turned to these projects as a way to spend their new found time at home. With summer gardens now coming to an end, saving seeds may be the next step you’re looking for. We planted an extensive Victory Garden this spring. At its peak, I was growing over 50 different varieties of fruits and vegetables in our small ... Read the Post...
If you follow my blog or Instagram, then you already know how much I long to be a farmer. Starting a farm has been a long-time dream of ours. My husband’s family on both sides were farmers in the Midwest, and I grew up here in Southern California in an area where farming and ranching is very prevalent. Quarantine Dreams Our family quarantine project was our Farmhouse Style Chicken Coop we dubbed The Fluffy Butt Hut. We all enjoyed working ... Read the Post...
It’s safe to say our whole world changed in March 2020. Entire countries found themselves in lock down in an attempt to keep COVID-19 at bay. Business closed, schools shifted to online learning, grocery store shelves emptied, and producers tried as best they could to help alleviate the demand for basic goods like toilet paper. Homes that were prepared with quarantine food storage even found themselves lacking in many necessities. 2020 The ... Read the Post...
I've been a crafter, baker, quilter, and all-around homesteader for as long as I can remember. Gardening was never something that came naturally to me though. Plants don't cry when they're hungry so I would forget to water them. Once I remembered, I would usually overcompensate by drowning them, and I haven’t even gotten started on the bugs! Gardening in style was never on my radar. It's safe to say I never identified as a gardener. I’ve ... Read the Post...
If you’re going to try raising baby chicks, then you’re going to need a brooder. Brooders are a warm, safe place for your Baby Chicks to live until they’re fully feathered (about 6 weeks), can regulate their own body temperature, and can live outside in a coop. Brooder Set-up We’ve always used an extra-large carboard box for brooding chicks, but some people also use plastic totes, dog kennels, or some even build a special brooder box ... Read the Post...
Hatching Monarch butterflies is something I’ve wanted to do for several years. These beautiful wonders of nature are currently listed on the endangered species list by the Center for Biological Diversity. They could use a little help. There are always Monarch butterflies dancing around in my victory garden. Every day I see anywhere from 2 to 4 of them flittering from flower to flower. Its fun to watch them engaging in a game of ... Read the Post...
The first time we raised chickens, acquiring them was easy! In fact, we weren’t even looking for chickens. Our son Mel’s Kindergarten teacher called me up one day and said the class had hatched a dozen chicken eggs and she was calling the families to see if anyone wanted any baby chicks. It was that easy. Chicken Mania Fast forward to 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic. As I mentioned in my initial Diary of A Chicken Mama post, when we were ... Read the Post...
Designing my Farmhouse Chicken Coop plans was a fun quarantine project for me. When I set out to design our coop, I knew there were a lot of things I wanted to do differently than we had before. For starters, I wanted it to be cute! As I said before in my previous post Building A Better Chicken Coop, we didn’t know what we were doing the first time around and ended up loosing a hen to a predator. I did a lot of research on chicken ... Read the Post...
Raising backyard chickens has peeked in popularity recently. Quarentine times have brought out the inner homesteader in many people. Chickens are a great addition to any household. Besides providing hours of entertainment, they also provide eggs! Egg Foo Young is one of our favorite egg recipes and a great way to use all those fresh eggs you'll now be collecting. Not raising chickens? That's ok! Pick up a dozen at the store and try out this ... Read the Post...
As I mentioned in my last post, we've spent this quarantine time Building a Better Chicken Coop than we had before. I have so much information on chicken coops that I decided it was best to share it over two posts. In the first post, I talked about ventilation and predator proofing. This post will focus on more of the optional features and how I incorporated them into the design of our new chicken coop. We'll start with the most important ... Read the Post...
Search Chicken Coop on Pinterest and a wide array of pins pop up. Coops in a variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and materials are in no short supply. There are pins with directions on how to convert a backyard shed into a chicken coop, and design plans for how to build a chicken tractor (Look it up! It's not what you think it is.). You can even order ready-made coops online from many different farms, hatcheries, and retailers like Amazon and ... Read the Post...
Our journey into chickenhood began long ago when our son Mel's Kindergarten class hatched eggs for a class project. When his teacher asked if any families wanted some of the chickens, we quickly raised our hands. We took 5 hens that time without knowing what to expect. Our first dip into raising chickens lasted less than a year due to an unexpected move. We cherished every minute of it and longed to do it all again. It's been several ... Read the Post...
I hate wearing masks. Let’s be honest, we all do, but in these current times masks have become a necessity. Masks can help keep us well by limiting our exposure to airborne germs allowing us some freedom to shop, drop off orders for those who can’t get out, or volunteering in limited capacities, and an N95 Mask is best to keep our frontline workers safe. Wearing my mask out on a lumber run Surgical Masks Surgical masks are ... Read the Post...
Victory Gardens are popular again thanks to the current pandemic. Our family has made a large garden and I've had fun making cute garden & plant signs for it. We've planted a variety of plants and I've had fun learning about them. Cucumbers evidently like to climb. I've been looking online at different ideas but couldn't find anything I liked. Then last week, I was cleaning up a pile of toss items when I found an old frame I was getting ... Read the Post...
When my friend Joan messaged me and said she’d picked some Loquats to bring me I was so excited! We had a Loquat tree growing up and I used to love to eat them right off the tree. These soft, little fruits resemble a small apple. The sweet flavor of a Loquat is often described as a combination of apricot, cherry, and plum. The trees can grow quite large and make great shade trees because of their long, large leaves. Stone ... Read the Post...
Raccoons, birds, and snails oh my! When you have a garden, no matter how small or large, you will have pesky pests to deal with, but how can you maintain your beautiful garden without calling in the troops to deal with a nocturnal bandit? How do you protect your garden no matter the size? What Works? A quick internet search yields a wide variety of products designed to eliminate pests but let’s face it, while good in theory a lot ... Read the Post...
That’s right! It’s Coronavirus Quarantine with Mel’s Corona Chicken. My hubby is a master on the grill, and he loves finding new, yummy ways to tantalize our taste buds. This easy, slow grilled chicken is something he made for the first time 2 years ago and we all love it, so it seemed fitting to make it again during our Coronavirus quarantine. Mel's Corona Chicken If you’ve browsed Pinterest or the internet for grilled ... Read the Post...
Victory Gardens, simply put, are backyard gardens that Americans planted during times of war. They were a successful means of boosting morale at a time when it was needed most. Sparking patriotism, and helping to safeguard communities against food shortages, History.com reports that Victory gardens produced nearly 8 million tons of food by 1944! Bell Pepper Plant A Long American History During both World War I & II, food ... Read the Post...
Homesteading, preparedness, prepping, whatever you want to call it our world has been thrust into an upheaval of epic proportions that is now bringing preparedness into the minds of everyone. Everyone should learn how to be prepared. As you know from my blog, homesteading is something I love to do! I grew up canning fresh vegetables and fruits with my mom and have taught it to my kids (begrudgingly to them). When I was 11, I took ... Read the Post...
Dealing with depression, stress, and anxiety during the holidays. We've all been there. Spending countless hours racing around to buy gifts, decorating, planning or attending holiday parties, and maybe even scrambling to get the perfect photo for Christmas cards. The list goes on and on. Holiday merriment can easily give way to depression or anxiety when paired with the tremendous pressure we put on ourselves to have a Hallmark movie worthy ... Read the Post...
