INTRODUCTION
Homestead Roots Newsletter - 4/18/2024

A little shorter update today! It has been a busy week with garden work, office work and prepping for a special day today. Today we will finalize the adoption of our daughter! She’s been with us since she was 2 days old and now over a year later it will be official. God is good and we are excited for this next chapter. In the updates from the homestead and garden!

HOMESTEAD UPDATE
Welcome Home to the Pigs

We’ve had a busy week! I will say it takes some time to get the body and mind back in shape after our winter hibernation. Over the weekend the boys and I camped with a friend of theirs and his dad. We had fun exploring a new area, sleeping out and doing some fishing and hiking. We had an hour to unpack from camping before heading out the door to pick up this years pigs. The pigs are about 8 weeks old. We did 5 again this year. They look healthy and happy. We will start them in the barn and then transition them to their outdoor space as the weather warms up a little bit.

We just wrapped up our last goat birth of the year. We ended up with 5 babies from 4 moms. I believe we have 3 boys and 2 girls. The kids have chosen to name this years babies after National Parks . Every year we choose a different theme for their names so we can more easily keep track of who was born when. Two years ago was gem stones (Opal), last year was weather (Stormy, Sky, Nimbus) and this year is National Parks (Acadia, Glacier, King (Kings Canyon), Zion, Denali). The baby goats are all nursing well and bouncing around the farm yard. Our herd has grown and now we will be looking to find some good new homes for a few of them. 🙂 

With good rain coming Tuesday we did a little landscaping (not our specialty) in our backyard and dropped in several loads of dirt, compost and grass seed to kick start our backyard grass. With all the construction and skid steers and everything else it has gotten pretty rough and we would like to have some nice grassy areas to play. The rain arrived on schedule and now we just wait and work to keep chickens from eating all the grass seed.

MARKET GARDENING
Our First Harvest is SOON!

The garden is booming and with the latest rain things are really taking off. The high tunnel greens are ahead of schedule which means we will likely be opening up a few weeks early to start selling. That has us bustling around getting ready for that. We have been greatly enjoying the fresh greens in our house!

We did something a little crazy and planted out our tomatoes. I took a look at the long range forecast and made the call that we should go for it. They are in the high tunnel and we will also protect them with row cover for some of the cool nights. The bottom line is that the plants were just outgrowing their pots. At that point they become difficult to manage. So this seemed like the best option. Nights below freezing are OK. What we need to avoid our nights in the teens and low 20s. If some of those appear in the forecast we will set up some supplemental heat in the tunnel. Still need to figure that out! If all works out having the tomatoes planted out a full month early will hopefully mean earlier tomatoes in the farmstand which is always a good boost.

CLOSING WORDS
Taking Chances - Risk vs. Reward

As I mentioned above we are taking a bit of a risk with our tomatoes! The last time we did this we lost 80% of them to a late freeze in May. It was pretty brutal… and we learned ALOT. That risk a few years ago to plant out tomatoes early didn’t pay off then but it has paid off in future years as we retained that knowledge and now use it to make smarter decisions. In so many ways learning the hard way is no fun, but it can leave an impression and make things more memorable. We consider this often with raising our kids. The other day the kids were playing wild and rough on the trampoline while Ingrid and I worked in the garden. My dad senses were ringing, suggesting maybe it was time to speak up and tell them to chill out. At the same time that probably would have put an end to the fun. 5 minutes later we heard a wail and Bergen came walking over holding her arm. You probably guessed it by the photo. 🙂 Broken wrist in two places and in a cast for 4-6 weeks. The hope of course would be a lesson learned for both Bergen and myself. Time will tell! Weighing the risk and reward of different happenings in our life is important. Living a full life of joy and adventure and success requires taking a few chances and laying out a few risks. Oftentimes the greatest rewards come after the greatest risks.