INTRODUCTION
Homestead Roots Newsletter - 11/1/2024

We made it back safely from Florida and were welcomed back to more nice weather. It has been a perfect fall for projects and work on the homestead. As of the writing of this newsletter the weather has shifted and it is snowing outside my window, though none of it is sticking at our place yet. We officially closed the farmstand for the season yesterday. The farmstand has been a tremendous blessing, providing so much, but also draws a lot of our time and energy. As we move into a quieter season we look forward to some much needed rest and giving our homestead some attention.

HOMESTEAD UPDATE
Getting Busy on Fall Projects

The homestead is definitely a little quieter these days, minus the pigs, meat birds and a handful of ducks. The chore list has shrunk a bit which is a nice relief. With the weather continuing to be so nice we haven’t yet had to do all our winter preparations for the animals. That will mean closing up the hoop house for the chickens, getting their winter water system set up and tightening up some of the other buildings to prepare for winter.

Two big tasks are hanging over me at the present time. The first big one is to make a dent in our wood pile and start getting a bunch of it split. We have a good load from last year that will get us started with our wood heat but we will need more for the second half of winter. The wood shed is looking awfully empty, and needs to be filled! The other big project is just a general clean up around the homestead. We have some piles around that I would like to get tidied up before the snow flies. A bit part of building the woodshed was so we would be able to eliminate some of the other wood piles we have laying around. Consolidating the wood into one area will really make a difference on the aesthetics on our property.

We have started enjoying the beef our friends raised. We’ve tried the ground beef as well as one of the Round Roasts. Both were really good! We’re excited for more. Our pigs are still at the butcher. I am hopefully we will get to pick them up next week and get them distributed to our customers and into our freezer!

We are going to be selling off some laying hens in the next couple of weeks. These will be the last of the commercial birds we had purchased. Going forward we hope to incubate our own and maintain more of a large backyard flock instead of a mini commercial operation. The numbers just don’t add up for us to raise hens and sell the eggs at our farmstand, so there is no sense in keeping a large flock, feeding more and dealing with the hassle. Elias (our duck keeper) sold off the last of his muscovies and is considering modifying his business plan. He currently has 4 breeds but is considering going to just one breed. We will see what he decides.

MARKET GARDENING
Shutting Down The Garden

We temporarily re-opened the farmstand this past week as we had a wealth of produce still around. We walked around and looked at what we had and then made decisions on if we want to preserve all that food or if it would be fed to the animals or thrown out. It became an easy decision to try and sell. So we were open for 2 days and got to see some of our regulars again. Many people did a nice stock up which helped us a ton! We were also able to connect with a local chef and restaurant owner who purchased a bunch of veggies, also super helpful!

Now that the farmstand is closed we need to keep the wheels turning for a couple more days to get everything put to bed. We need harvest or mow down anything left in the garden, spread compost, and tarp our beds. Doing the work now makes a huge difference in the spring when we want to hit the ground running. It is often way too wet in the spring to use the heavy equipment so this just makes sense. As of now the weather looks like it will cooperate for a good work day on Saturday. We will see how much we get done!

We’ve started hauling compost up the hill from where we turn it all summer. I’ve hauled up two loads and we probably have 3-5 left. Late this year we sold off our farm truck which means I am using my smaller pickup to bring up the trailer full of compost. It is pretty light duty so I am only filling the trailer about half full. Compost is heavy stuff! We will use the skidsteer to fill wheelbarrows and dump 4-5 loads per bed. We then rake it smooth and laydown the tarp. We have also started the cycle all over again with our friend the lawncare guy dropping new loads of leaves to start building next years compost.

We knocked a big garden project off the list this last week buy making some adjustments to our high tunnel. When we built our first tunnel we were unsure whether to build the tunnel level or follow the grade of the earth. We choose to do it level which meant we had a large gap on one end between the baseboard and the ground. We were never able to properly seal up that gap and as a result the tunnel wasn’t very air tight. Originally it wasn’t a problem because we were only using the tunnel in the summer but as our business has grown we like to use the tunnels for more season extension which means we want that tunnel to be airtight. To get the job done we had to disconnect 5 hoops from their ground posts, pound the ground posts further into the ground, reattach the hoops to the ground posts and then make adjustments to the end wall to make it all work. It was a challenging project both physically and mentally but we got it done and it looks so much better! It was one of those things I have thought about countless times but just felt overwhelmed by the work involved. Glad to have it done!

Overall it was an excellent season for the garden and farmstand. I will talk in our next newsletter about some of the learnings from this past season. As is typical we learned a lot! 🙂 We are looking forward to getting everything shut down and enjoying some rest from the growing season.

CLOSING
Vacation Recap

We had a wonderful week away from the homestead. Our farm sitter did great and the homestead was in good shape when we returned. The main focus of our trip away was laziness. 🙂 We slept well and napped and watched TV. It was pretty glorious! It took us a little time to get into the lazy groove and then to be honest about 6 days in I was ready to get back to work. We of course also had our 3 older kids and a toddler to manage so it wasn’t all relaxing. We did lots of fun walks, swimming in the ocean and pool and exploring the area. Thankfully the big kids can do their own thing and spend time on the beach and at the pool on their own as well. This gives them a ton of freedom and means that we don’t always need to be present. Our little girl had her first airplane trip and did really good. She slept great in her pack in play in the big closet off our bedroom and with all the fresh air she took 2 solid naps per day. The weather was pretty good, we had a couple days in FL that were cooler than it was in WI, which is always disappointing. HA. But it was still sunny and nice and plenty warm for swimming and fun.