Best Nest

I feel so behind on updates and so productive at the homestead.  My husband laughed when I told him before the move that I was going to blog our experience.  He was confident that I would not have time for writing and working.  He was right...I have several blogs and Facebook pages that I intend to maintain and all have fallen to the wayside.

Therefore, this post will be a bit long so I can get all caught up and proceed with more adventures.

For starters, an update on our 'maters.  Yesterday they started to go red, so exciting.  I don't know what kind they are and don't know how big they will get...it is still early in the season so we have to pull out some patience and see what we get.  We only have three plants and that should be enough if all goes well, since we have very few fresh tomato eaters in the house.  I feel way to overwhelmed for canning at this point.

However, we failed to account for hornworms. These buggers are the worst for tomatoes and we had two.  Out of kindness for the eco-system I fed them to the fish in the lake and hope I don't see anymore.  I understand that in hotter climates we can get two hatchings a year, I will just keep an eye on my plants.  As for what I have learned over the years...most plants are likely to be pest free unless they give off weakness.  

My plants are certainly giving off weakness...they are the rejects from my neighbors garden...they came to us frail and thirsty.  After being replanted in less than perfect conditions they have survived and hopefully will continue to thrive.  I am really hopeful now that they are starting to turn.

And then there were two more of us...

We are so excited to finally have grown chickens in the family.  For years we have hatched chicks and enjoyed the early days of poultry caretaking...love those baby chicks too...but now we have chickens with even more purpose.  They are enjoying eating up all the bugs that our yard has to give for them.  

This may sound crazy but we got them from a chicken rental company, what a great idea.  So they live with us through the warm season then when it is cold they go back to there warm coop and let someone else feed them and worry over them until they rejoin us in the springtime. We do have the option to keep them...so we will just have to see how that goes.  But they came with their own organic backup feed, nesting material and this trusty chicken tractor.  

It may be hard to see, but there is nice line in the grass behind the tractor, we move it every day to give them new scratching ground.  Can't wait to move them over to the old garden and let them have a go at cleaning that up for us.

We received our first egg the very next day.  Most of the time they each give an egg a day, but one of them seems to only give an egg when we give treats...we don't know if it is Oreo or Monty that is finicky but time will tell.  

Here are the girls enjoying some very stale bread. They are Barred Rocks and make great pets, they are always happy to see us and are quiet most of the time.  They are only nine months old and will double in size before too long.  This weekend we plan to introduce them to free ranging, we wanted to be home and I understand the best time is the early evening so they are less likely to wander off and get into neighborhood trouble.  As dusk comes they will anxiously seek the comfort of their coop and scraps...will let you know how that goes.

Now for the surprise critters...

Toad sample...we have lots of them and they always surprise us. We were outside as a family for the first time in the dark and these little guys kept startling us.  We have not spent too much time outside in the dark in nature...yes we have done some camping when my kids were younger...which leaves our youngest child with very few memories of outdoor living.  I feel bad about all of her time indoors and hope that slowly she will aclimate to the "safety" of country life.

I put safety in quotes...I know.  

Raising her previously in an environment where we worried about strangers and traffic has filled me with guilt.  Now the challenge of getting her outside in the country...I have spoken to other transplants and they said it took some time and they had some very funny stories to share...but now they can't get their kids to come inside hardly at all.

Both my girls are concerned for their safety...they are confused by all the children running loose in the neighborhood and the constant laughter from the distance of people enjoying the water.

In time they will push through their fears of continuous air bombing insects, creepy crawling bugs and spiders, snakes and for the most part their new discomfort of fish nibbles while swimming.
Hopefully joining the children running loose and the laughter from the water.

Really, why do we need spiders this big?  I don't know what kind it is, but it lives in a funnel web between our deck boards.  Sorry about the shaky picture...I thought it was going to leap on me.

What lives in this?  Crawfish I believe, but we have other holes that don't look like this, no side mounds.

What is this?  Looks like a grasshopper shedding...didn't know they did that.  Found it on the dock so it could be somekind of dragonfly like critter.

This boat was left on the property, we look forward to trying it out one day.  Of course now that day will be far far away.  It is the home of several critters that I do not want to disturb.  We have a turtle that lives on the wooded side that I see nearly every morning out eating the low growing blackberries. 

And we have our trusty black snake that I have failed to capture in a picture, but here is his skin. He is fairly long, but I don't think full size.  It lives directly under the boat protecting us from copperheads.  It is an ideal location for his residence since my kids and dog frequent the nearby path to the get to the beach.

How about some flora?  Lots of stuff growing here, some native...some who knows.

Mullein, very tall medicinal plant.  We want to clear this area, but we are going to try and transplant this guy.

Lunaria, is an Asian plant so someone must have put it here.  We have lots of them.  They were my Nana's favorite so I am going to save the seeds and move them to a more appropriate location.

Your basic hostas and spider grass, this side of the house has very low maintenance...what a relief.

I have no idea what this is...it lives around the water's edge near our dock.

Wild Amaranth?

This is our future garden...previous owner had a dog pen here then a garden for about a year...that was at least three years ago...so the ground here will be perfect for growing.

 Poison Ivy...all around the front door...how appropriate for warding off solicitors.  Unfortunately, it is surrounding our suffering Japanese Maple.

I wish I knew more about trees...some kind of hickory?  Anyone?

Obviously someone planted this.

This is growing in the water near the dock.

 

This is some of our mess that we need to find solutions for as soon as possible.  The left pic is our weed garden against the back of the house with very little access...it appears to be a critter breeding ground and our dog is obsessed with it.  I plan to do some deep mulch gardening here to kill off the weeds and then add some Creeping Jenny (my favorite ground cover).

The barrel pot on the porch will certainly before long rot through and take the deck with it...so I need to empty it out and move it or manage to lift it up on some bricks.  It has lots of volunteer plants, but also shows signs of oregano.  I am thinking it would be a nice place for my succulents that have spent there lives indoors until will moved out here.  They have been neglected on the porch and are flourishing so I am sure they would die if I brought them inside again.

This has been one of our family's favorite reads for generations.  This is my husband's childhood edition.  We love this story and now we love our nest...it has been a long wait, but our nest is certainly best.