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What’s Happening on the Farm- A 2021 Year in Review

A long time ago I thought that it would be a great idea to share a “What’s been happening on the Farm” post. I sat down to write my first post summarizing how life has been going. Then I had to walk away from it and when I came back to finish the post I realized I had a few more things to add to it. And then another project overtook us. The next thing I knew, I was a few months behind with a few more stories to share. When that post was never written, I decided that I have to share one the following year. But, the same thing happened.

You see, the challenge of living in a busy home/homestead/farm is that life can often get ahead of us. I will never be able to share all those moments and learning experiences with you as I might wish. You can follow me on Instagram or Facebook to see more, but even there it is hard to share it all.

After a few years of attempting to share what is happening on our farm, I have decided to just do it for the year 2021 so far. It’s a biggie, packed with information from the projects we did, life-changing solutions, our garden, preserving, homeschool, and information on who we are as a family. I know that I am missing many things, but this is a synopsis of our life this year.

I hope you get to know us a little better and learn a few things too. If you have any advice to share- please do!!! We are learning to farm, homestead, and homeschool our family right along with you.

Thank you for following along with us on this journey.

Life on the Farm (2021)

The passing of a great man – someone I am happy to call my father

This is the stuff I struggle with the most. Sharing the hard parts of life.

But, I could not do this post without giving credit to my amazing father-in-law whom we sadly lost this year due to a heart attack.  He supported my husband, my family, and me as a wife and daughter. He supported our little farm, and our family will never be the same without him. I would encourage you to watch his funeral ceremony because it tells the love that Russ had for his wife, his family, and his God. He served the Lord and shared his love with all who knew him.

When we moved to the farm, we were privileged to share a special connection with him. He was raised on a farm as a child and teenager. He had fond memories from that time and when we jumped into buying the property he was in full support. We heard many stories from his childhood once we moved here. He helped us fix things around the property and teach us skills we had no clue about. It also helped that he was an electrician by trade. I can remember him up on top of our electrical pole hooking up an emergency generator to power our whole farm. A friend stopped by and asked what he was doing and when Daniel explained how he was disconnecting us from the grid… He said, “You guys know how to do that!?”. He was always here helping us when we needed it.

As a daughter-in-law, Russ was the type of father who came over to our house to drop something off and then would bring in a few wheelbarrows of wood to fill up our wood box. Just because he wanted to help me. He would come in, talk with the kids (even the babies were addressed as “Hey there toughie or little missy”).  Then he would stack that wood better and with more care than anyone I know. It was such a blessing to me and breaks my heart just thinking about it.

We always joked that we bought this farm as a retirement plan for dad. He would always stay busy here.

On January 31st he had a cardiac arrest and on February 1st, we said our earthly goodbyes. The funeral was beautiful and full of hope. I would encourage you to watch it here (service starts at 41:00 minutes or so). Russ loved singing, playing guitar, and sharing the love of Christ. He shared his love of music with each of his children. My husband and all the brothers spoke. Diana sang beautifully.  On this hard but blessed day, all 4 of the children sang an original song Russ had written.  It was beautiful.

“Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

So, the start of our year was hard for us and it continues to be. But we have hope. I encourage you to watch the funeral ceremony here if you are wondering how that is possible.

Puppies

This was a very bittersweet moment for us. The puppies arrived on the same day that my father-in-law Russ had his heart attack.  I came home alone with my kids, since my husband was attempting to be in the hospital with family, and I saw one lone puppy in the middle of the rug and immediately wrote to my husband that the puppies were coming. I tried my best to video the birth of our first litter of puppies. It was hard since our hearts were elsewhere.

Our wonderful dog Charlette gave birth to 4 very healthy puppies. Two black males, one black female, and one yellow female.

We really wanted to keep a yellow female from this first litter if that was possible and to our utmost happiness the last puppy to arrive was a yellow female. We knew we would keep this one and all of the other puppies went to fabulous homes!

Click here to see a cute little video I posted of the puppies on Instagram. Those rolly, poley, little puppies are the cutest.

Here is our puppy Suzzana (Suzy) at 9 months old. She’s a big girl and is in charge of all the cats, chickens, and ducks in the barn. She even herds our sheep. Who says a Labrador is not a good shepherd?

Seed Starting & Very Seriously Considering a Greenhouse

I have almost always started most of my seedlings in any windows that I have had access to. I find great enjoyment in planting those small seeds into 6 packs of fresh new soil. I basically set out tables next to every available window a fill them with seed starting trays.

It’s one of my favorite times of the year. I love getting my hands dirty again after a long cold winter and I love to see the growth of new seedlings.

This passion of mine has become more of a business for me. Each year I plant extra and sell them on Facebook. It’s brought in enough money for me to pay for the seeds I am planting in the garden plus some. We have been seriously considering this as a potential business for our farm.

A local Amish Greenhouse was relocating and since I already had a good relationship with the family, I asked If they would be willing to sell their greenhouse. They thought about it, and a few weeks later gave me a cost. During that time I did a lot of praying. Even though I do this as a hobby, starting a “business” felt very intimidating.

It’s slightly frightening as a homeschooling, small farm mom to think that all Winter/Spring I would be doing this business. At the same time, I know that our community lost a great greenhouse and that the opportunity for a new one is there. It’s also a huge passion of mine and I would love it.

I spoke with the sweet Amish woman who ran it and she gave me several tips, connections, and her phone number to call if I have questions. She told me that I could contact her anytime with any questions (even if we did not purchase the greenhouse from them). She was just that kind of lady. At the same time, my husband studied the details and the logistics of having a working wood-burning stove heated greenhouse.

In the end, we declined the offer. It was a little sad but I know that God will set that opportunity in our hands in the future if it is meant to be. My husband came across a wood-burning stove to put in our future greenhouse. Now we just need to find the perfect greenhouse to fit our needs.

I am now letting the reality set in that someday we could run a small greenhouse business on our property. It might not happen tomorrow or the next year, but it is something that I can do from home and is a passion that would be happy to share with others. This would be just one small step in our farm business venture that scares me but also excites me.

Root Cellar

We live in a 100-year-old farmhouse. Of course, the house had a root cellar back in the day. It just happened to be inaccessible to us. The access door was under our back deck and you had to crawl on your belly, slide out the door, and then shimmy your way in. Easy peasy right?

But, I want to take a step back and tell you that my loving husband wanted to make a root cellar when we lived at our previous house in a subdivision. He researched, purchased books, and dreamed of how we could do it there.

Then we moved to an old house that actually had a root cellar. How exciting! However, the access point was hidden under our deck and not easily accessible. I tell you what, my husband was pretty excited about this and quickly came up with a plan to make this a useable root cellar for us.

Not that it was an easy task. We had a new basement wall and an old basement wall to breakthrough. His cousin, and one of our best friends, is a mason. He and Dan’s brother happily helped us with the project.

 

This project took a ton of work. We attempted to put plastic on all the basement doors to try and stop the dust. The guys chiseled the new concrete wall (that was built in 1990) and then after that we had to work through the original basement floor.

We found an original date slab which said,1914. Unfortunately, it was right where we needed to put the door. We tried to salvage that date but it shatter when the first stones came down.  What a cool historical marker that would have been for the house.

Chiseling through concrete makes a huge mess and I was sweeping up concrete dust for weeks. The door was installed but the root cellar still needed to have a concrete slab put in as an entrance step, along with a bunch of dirt and garbage cleaned out of the space. The old access door also needed to be replaced. The job will continue but we are excited to fill it.

Update: It’s still not perfect down there. We cleaned it out and piled up the dirt. We fit in a few metal shelving units and have filled them with potatoes and apples. Some kind of critter has found the yummy apples and drug them across the dirt floor. We’ll have to set up some traps to catch it and then seal up the outside access door better.

Some Life-Changing Farm Solutions

Otter Trailer for the ATV

My husband saw this Otter Trailer and the second he told me about it, I said, “Get it!” It was a solution to a huge problem.

Barn clean-up and wood hauling are some of the most time-consuming jobs we do around our farmstead. Having a small trailer that could fit into our barn was a life-changing solution for us. This trailer is sturdy, has a hitch that connects to our ATV, and dumps and swivels. It can be used to haul so many different things around the farm.

We took off our barn door so that the 4 Wheeler and Otter Trailer could fit. WOW!!! This made such a difference. Cleaning barn stalls with wheelbarrows took us forever.  And when you have 9 cows living it for the winter the task of cleaning is very daunting. This trailer holds at least 3-4 wheelbarrows of manure in it.

Sometimes you have to think outside the box.

New to Us Tractor

My husband also got a great deal on a larger tractor. He and his friends pulled it out of swampy, overgrown, woods, not knowing how or if it would run. They put it on the trailer and brought it home in hopes that it would be an easy fix. The tractor did not start that night and my husband cleaned out the carburetor and added fuel hoping that he could take a better look at it the next day. To his (and especially my) surprise, he went out and turned the key in the morning and it immediately started up. It was almost like it wasn’t sitting in the woods abandoned for years. WOW! That was a really easy fix and we are enjoying the work that this larger tractor can do.

The tractor helped us clear the land next to our garage to put in a pumpkin patch/corn patch. This area was fenced in for a chicken run and had some large overgrown Christmas trees, a few bushes, and lots of thistles and stinging nettle growing in it. It was not being used for anything useful. So, we decided to turn it into our 2nd garden/pumpkin patch. It’s fenced in and we can easily water it.

Our previous pumpkin patch spot was far from our house and did not have a water source. If the weeds did not overtake the pumpkins then the critters did. This cleared plot would be another good solution for us if it worked.

Keep reading to see how this pumpkin patch faired.

Muscovy Ducks

We have raised ducks on the farm before but these Muscovy Ducks came here for a very specific purpose, to forage. Last year we had problems with parasites in our sheep pastures. Specifically liver flukes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture shared this information on Liver Flukes Disease, “Liver fluke disease caused lower birth rates, inefficient feed conversion and slower growth, poor quality of milk and meat, and rough and brittle hair or wool.” You can read the full article here.  Liver fluke disease can kill sheep, goats, cattle, and other wild animals. They thrive in wet, marshy areas, like the back of our pastures. This was a major problem for me.

After hours of research, I discovered that Muscovy Ducks are great foragers and eat snails, which are hosts of liver flukes. Yes, I needed these ducks on our farm, foraging our pastures, eating snails and other pests.

I LOVE our Muscovy Ducks!!! They sleep in a barn stall at night and forage our property throughout the day.

Some interesting facts about Muscovy Ducks:

• They do not quack but instead make a hissing sound
• They are friendly
• They are foragers
• They have claws
• They can eat mice and snakes.
• They are a good-sized duck for meat
• They can fly and can get away from predators
• They are a wood duck- will sleep in trees
• They are not water ducks and do not make messes as a water duck would

I don’t know about you, but these are my kinda ducks!

Lambing Season

This is our 2nd year breeding our Icelandic Sheep. In 2020, we added 8 new sheep to our herd (2 wethers and 6 ewes). We also have 2 rams for breeding. So this year we had the most breedable females that we have ever had.

One of the lambs caused us some confusion this year. You see, our ewes were separated into 2 groups to give them each a little more space for giving birth. We went down into the barn and discovered a new little black lamb that was born in the night and 2 VERY protective mothers. One white ewe and one black ewe. The white ewe would stomp her feet at you and wouldn’t let you get close to the new baby. She must be the mother, right?

But then there was another mother that was sticking close by the baby too who was black just like the lamb. After an hour of observing and then finally getting to get a good look at each mother, we discovered the black ewe was the real mother. The white sheep, who call Yang, was trying to take the baby from the real mother.

We separated the new mother and lamb. A few days later, Yang gave birth to her own set of white twin ram lambs. Everyone was now happy.

We were blessed that our sheep gave birth to 10 lambs, 6 ram lambs, and 4 ewe lambs.

They sure are cute and we have enjoyed watching them grow all summer.

Icelandic sheep are a tri-purpose breed. They can be used for wool, milking, and meat. We are still learning how to use this breed to its fullest potential. Learning every day. The rams will be sent to the butcher later on in the year and the ewes will all be bred starting this month.

Growing Strawberries in our GreenStalk Planter

For Mother’s Day, my family gifted me the GreenStalk Original planter. This was my solution to not knowing where to put our strawberry patch. We would grow them on our deck in this planter and that planter could be moved around or switched out.

This ended up making me happy all summer long. We filed the top half of the planter with Honeoye Strawberries and then added fun items like borage, elephant kale, and a few tomato plants to the bottom.

It was a great conversation piece, produced a good amount of food, and looked pretty on our deck. I still have friends tell me how funny it was that I was trying to make them eat edible flowers right off my deck.

I LOVE MY GreenStalk Planter! You can get $10 off by using my link: GreenStalk Friend Referral Link.

The strawberries grew so well that we had runners all over the place and which I ended up transplanting into our garden in between our garlic rows. Garlic and strawberries are supposed to be good companion plants. I guess we will see next year.

 

Planning our Garden

This year we really stepped up our gardening game and tried a few new things.

I read The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible from front to back. It was SO good and I learned a ton that I was excited to implement in my garden. Including companion planting and adding flowers to my garden.

We decided to try a new way of propping up our tomato plants. A close friend of ours plants her tomatoes this way and we wanted to give it a try.

The previous year tied up our tomatoes by doing a Florida weave. It worked okay but was a hassle when the tomato plants grew large. This year we grew our tomatoes in between 2 pig panel fences.

It worked out pretty well and was very easy. The problem I saw was that a few of the tomatoes wanted to flop to the side. This is an easy fix. Just tie up a few of the tomato branches. I did have to weave the branches back into the pig panels sometimes. But overall this method was VERY EASY, required little time, and the tomatoes grew well.

Someone asked me how I would weed in between the plants. The pig panel squares have enough room to put your hands through and grab weeds. I did not have any problems weeding between the plants.

Golf Ball Sized Hail Storm

After all that hard work of planning, plotting, planting, and then having a few weeks to admire the hard work, God decides to surprise you.

We went camping with family a few miles from our house. It works out great because we can still “get away” but we are close enough to hop home quick and take care of the animals. Well, this weekend a huge storm came through the campground and had flash flood conditions. Everyone was okay (except for our camper awning). Once the storm passed, we headed to our farm and saw that our house/barn/garden was hit by hail. We did not see any hail at the campground and our house seemed to be the start of the hail storm.

The rhubarb looked like it was shot by shotgun hundreds of times. We found piles of hail around the yard. It looked like someone dumped out coolers of ice all over the yard. Even the hosta plants around the yard were destroyed and you know how hardy those are.

It was pretty devasting to see all the damage around our farm. Luckily, we all were safe, our animals were all safe, and there was no structural damage done.

We had our insurance company come and access our property and they said that we would get our house and barn roof replaced, our window screens replaced, and the barn painted. Those are some major improvements that will be covered by insurance.

Garden Recovery

The hail storm was a big hit to us. It not only destroyed a lot of the garden but also lost some precious time having to deal with insurance and property clean-up.

We were lucky that some garden centers were still open and we could pick up discounted plants to replace the ones we lost and it was early enough in the summer to still try and grow them.

A lot of our plants made a full recovery but were stunted and it took a few extra weeks for us to get a good harvest. The peppers, beans, cucumbers, and ground cherries never fully recovered.

Keep reading to see how our garden faired.

Pink Eye in our cattle

{If your animals have pink eye, please consult your veterinary. You should always contact your vet to give you guidance and come and help if needed. These are just the steps we took to care for our cattle. We are not experts. Please use your own discretion and get second opinions.}

As newbie farmers, we are always learning how to care for our livestock better. One thing I did not expect when we started farming was how hard it is to get a large animal vet to come to your property- not to mention the cost of it. You really can’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and take care of your animals to the best of your ability. Large animal vets can be hard to get a hold of and when an animal has an issue, you need to deal with it promptly.

This year we had our first issues with pink eye in our cattle. I will tell you that it is not a fun one. You need to nip this in the bud quick otherwise the whole herd will get it.

The first sign of pink eye is runny eyes. Then it is loss of vision, and a glossy glass-like looking eye (pictured above). We were not on the lookout for this until our poor cow could hardly see. In the heat of the summer, the flies love our cows and fly from cow to cow spreading the disease.

We were not able to get ahold of our vet right away, so we contacted our neighbor who has a cattle, and asked how he treats the issue. He shared with us that it was a bad year for pink eye because of the heat and the flies and that they were dealing with the same issue also. He gives his cattle a shot of LA 200 in the intramuscular into the neck per the instructions.

An Amish friend and neighbor of ours also shared that he gives his cattle Vitamin A. He has seen his cows recover from just doing that.

So, we did a combination of things. We tried spraying their eyes with Vetericyn Pink Eye Spray in the field. The cows quickly learned that it was not fun to get sprayed in the eyes and would not come close to me when I entered the pasture.  The next step was to bring in our cattle and give them a shot of LA-200. We do not have a squeeze shoot, so we brought them into the barn, haltered them, and then squeezed them in between two gates.  We then gave them a shot of LA-200 and sprayed their eyes with Vetericyn Pink Eye Spray. It was not an easy job but one that had to be done.

We also upped their mineral intake with Purina Wind and Rain Cattle Mineral, which contained a good amount of Vitamin A.  The steers lapped up the new mineral and we ended up buying several bags of it.

It took several weeks of closely watching and then respraying eyes with the pink eye spray (when they would let us) and upping the mineral. Eventually, our herd fully recovered. It’s crazy to see them go from almost blind to clear eyes in a matter of a few weeks.

I think the LA 200 was the most effective method along with being proactive when you see the beginning signs. This is something that we will always be on the lookout for now.

Preserving Fun

Preserving food is a way of life for our family. Each year we try to replace the food items we used and then try a few things as well.

This year we canned more peaches that we purchased in bulk, juices with the fruits in the jars still, canned water (to fill up empty spots in the canner and to keep in case of emergency), a fall crop of green beans, more dehydrating, and root cellaring.

As of November 10th, we have preserved a total of 380 items for the 2021 Preserving Challenge. This list includes canned jars, frozen items, and dehydrated food. I did not include our root cellared items. We still have applesauce to make, canned rooster meat, beans, and hopefully some canned venison too. Last year we preserved 619 items, so hopefully, we can get close to that number again.

This is a personal challenge to help you keep track of your preservation and encourage you to do more. You can sign up for your 2021 Preserving Challenge Forms here or put in your e-mail address down below the article.

Began our 9th Year of Homeschooling

I never thought in a million years that I would homeschool my children. But when the time came to send my first child to school, I just couldn’t do it. It’s crazy to think that my little boy is now in 7th grade and that I have been homeschooling for 9 years. The time has gone by quickly and I do not regret a minute of it.

It’s not always easy, sometimes I think that the school system might be able to give my children certain things that I cannot. But then I remember that raising children is not all about Academics. It’s about raising the whole child and letting them become who God wants them to be.

We kicked off our first day of school with a Roman Feast. This year we are continuing on with My Father’s World Curriculum and doing Rome to Reformation. This curriculum has been a blessing to us. I  am happy to find something that works for my children and also for me. I get to learn right alongside my children.

I have so much more to share but now is not the day. This lends itself to its own post.

If you are curious and have any questions, please send me a message. I would be happy to tell you about our homeschooling experience.

Family Vacation to The Ark Encounter & Creation Museum

Getting away from the farm can be hard!!! Yes, I shared a little about this on Instagram and Facebook. My back went out and I went to the chiropractor for the first time before this vacation. I truly think it was the stress of trying to manage it all, the garden, our animals, the house, kids, etc. It is hard to make sure that everything is in order when you leave your homestead and that you have the instructions and people in place to help if needed. However, it was SO worth it!!! And everything worked out without any problems.

We took a 5-day vacation to Michigan to spend time with our out-of-state family and then headed to Kentucky to visit The Creation Museum and The Ark Encounter with them. Both were must see’s!

These museums are top-notch! The Ark’s size was astonishing and is built just like the Ark from the Bible and shows you how this really could have been done. If you have any questions on creation, you will find an answer here.

Tip: There is so much information in both of the museums that you cannot possibly read it all. They sell books in the museum that share all the signs in the entire museum. It’s called Ark Signs and Creation Museum Signs. You can buy them as a set at The Ark Encounter at a discounted rate.

 

War on Slugs

If it is not a hail storm, it’s slugs. Slugs were the biggest problem in our garden this year. Last year I noticed that our hostas were getting eaten by slugs. It was later in the summer and I decided to let them go and not try and kill them. Bad idea.

It didn’t take them long to find my garden and start to devour it. They were everywhere!!!! In the rhubarb and cabbages, eating out kale leaves, and even eating our tomatoes. It’s war now.

I sprinkled Sluggo around our hastas, cabbages, kale, and rhubarb plants. I put on rubber gloves, went outside at night, and manually picked slugs off our cabbages and hostas, and then dropped them in a jar of water and Dawn dish soap to kill them. Diatomaceous Earth was sprinkled all around the garden (I love this stuff and use it all over the farm for worm/bug repellent). Scattering coffee grounds on the ground is another great way to deter slugs. I will try everything this fall to kill this pest.

Another lesson learned for the year.

A Good Garden Harvest

Despite the hardships, our garden flourished. We were a few weeks behind others in our area but we still were able to produce a lot of garden goodies.

We had a bumper crop of tomatoes. Our first year of growing tomatillos was a success and I made a lot of roasted salsa verde. Our broccoli did amazing. We had a lot to be thankful for and preserved a good amount of our harvest.

I canned a lot of stewed tomatoes and our favorite salsa. I found this recipe for canned salsa from Mel’s Kitchen and fell in love with it. Then my husband fell in love with it too and we now canned enough jars for us to use one jar every two weeks. It’s nice and thick and you can adjust the heat to your liking. Find the recipe here for The Best Homemade Salsa.

Fall Gardening

This is the year that I never stopped gardening. Seriously,  I am still picking lettuce in November in Wisconsin (zone 4B). I planted another batch of green beans at the end of August and had a late harvest of those. I planted fall broccoli, cabbage, bok choy, and winter lettuce around the same time.

Pictured above is Deep Winter Lettuce from Renaissance Seeds. I planted these seeds at the beginning of September. We had several touches of frost in October and the lettuce survived without me covering it or anything. Every day I go outside to check on my lettuce and it is still hanging in there. I hope to cover it with a tote to see if I can keep it going even longer. It’s a good gardening experiment at its finest.

Some other items I am still growing: cilantro, rainbow swiss chard, cabbages, broccoli, bok choy, celery, leeks, kale, and brussel sprouts.

Our 2nd Garden/Pumpkin & Corn Patch

I promised to share with you how our newly tilled pumpkin patch did. Well, it did pretty darn good. Having this closer to our house for watering and weeding, fenced in from deer and raccoons, and just being in a central location so that we could watch the progress was a success. We loved easily being able to peek in and see how things were growing. Everybody got excited when we walked by and saw the first pumpkins forming, then we continued to watch them grow, and change colors.

Next year, we will pick our sweet corn sooner. Because of our late start, and busy life, we let the sweet corn grow a little too long. It was good but next year we will pick it earlier.

We grew more pumpkins than we did last year. We had enough for each of us to carve, decorated our entire house, gave some decorative pumpkins to friends, and then had a bunch leftover for winter storing. I call that a success!

Gearing up for Winter

As winter approaches we are getting those last outdoor home projects taken care of. Door painting and deck painting, harvesting the last of the garden produce and planning out our sheep breeding groups. We also have to put our barn door back on and think about heated waterers. Frozen water is probably the hardest part of winter on the homestead.

Even though I am still holding onto my garden, I am honestly looking forward to winter. It’s a time of peace and relaxation and sitting next to a hot fire. It gives me time to work on other interests and spend more time with my family. It’s a time to enjoy the harvest we have put up and to learn new things.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our farm life throughout the year 2021. I didn’t hit it all but I did a large portion of our life. It sure felt like a biggie to me.

What did you accomplish at your home this year? What would you like to hear more of from us? We are here to cheer you on. No matter how large or small the project was or is. It’s all an accomplishment. We always have something to learn and work at for the following year.

Many Blessings,

-Lindsay from Life on Misty Acres