(VIDEO) December Homestead Hangout
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Welcome to the December Homestead Hangout! It’s part of a series where we update you on all of the highlights that have happened in the last month on our own homestead. We try to keep it real, sharing what’s going well and not so well on the homestead.
Home and Construction
We bought this property in 2018 and knew that the roof would eventually need to be replaced and the siding painted. But after the roofing project it became clear that the siding would need to be completely replaced. That project should have started and completed by Fall, but is still ongoing at the time of this writing. From a distance it looks great, but close inspection has revealed improperly installed siding, and damage to our roof, window screens, and chimney. We've even caught workers smoking pot on the job. They were working on ladders and scaffolds so we feared for their safety just as much as the quality of their work.
The project is ongoing and we are trying to work with our project manager to address the concerns we have identified. We felt like we exercised due diligence in choosing the company to replace our siding. We did our research and thought we made a good choice. So far, the company has failed to live up to their own stated standards. Only time will tell if they make things right.
Have you been wondering what’s happening with our guest room makeover? If so, you aren’t alone! We have received some questions about that recently, so we did a separate video about the guest room project on YouTube. Julie cover's why the room still looks the same, staying true to your values while plans change, and what's in store for this space in 2022.
Grow and Tend
Once the dumpster from our siding project was removed - and Julie was mobile again after surgery - we could get back into the garden. While winter gardening is often our favorite, we found mixed results. Overall plants are not thriving like they did last winter (our first winter in this garden). We think this is due to potentially poisoning our beds with straw mulch. But we are still sorting out this mysterious problem. Once we have better data on what’s working, we will provide more information.
In December we removed plants that were doing poorly, removed pests, and celebrated the plants that are succeeding. Even though our garden isn’t doing as well as we had hoped, we are still grateful. We’ve learned a lot and the plants we removed will go into the compost, providing nutrients for future garden plants.
One of the reasons we moved to the Snoqualmie Valley was to be close to amazing farms and farmers. So even though we can’t eat from our own garden as much as we would like, we can drive down the road just a few miles to get local produce while supporting our community. One of our favorite places is the Carnation Farmstand. They sell items produced on the farm and also by local crafters. Carnation Farms is a non-profit with a very long legacy of supporting the well being of people and animals.
One of the beautiful things about gardening is that there is always a new season in which to learn and grow. Usually we plan our next garden in January, but with the growing popularity of home gardening, seeds are selling out quickly. So this year we started our planning in December. If your are thinking about growing veggies from seed this year, we highly suggest you start soon too!
We got a neighbor question about whether we are going to get livestock, like chickens and goats. The answer is yes! We had hoped to build a chicken coop in 2022, but due to our unexpected (and costly) siding and roofing projects, we’ve had to push those plans out. We’ve learned that it’s best to do a project right the first time. When it comes to livestock that includes planning for predators. And doing things right is usually not cheap! So, since we are committed to limiting our debt, we have decided to wait at least another year.
Outdoors and Wildlife
As you could see in the intro we experienced significant snowfall in December. Snow is rare enough in our area that when it comes, it shuts down everything. Determined not to be snowed in, Julie and I got on driveway clearing duty right away, and her snow shoveling skills were a testament to how well she was recovering from her recent surgery. While she cleared the lower part of the drive I went over the part nearest the house three times before calling it good.
One of our favorite homestead traditions has become getting a living Christmas tree. For Christmas this year Julie and I bought an Alaska Cedar to act as our Christmas tree. This is a live tree that we'll be able to plant on the property after Christmas is over. It spent a little time acclimating in the garage, and then we wheeled it into the house and set it up in the living room so we could enjoy it for the holiday. Emmet took an interest right away. We decorated the tree with simple white lights, and we decided not to hang decorations on it because the tree itself was beautiful enough. There were a few other reasons as well that we decided ornaments might not be the best idea. With Christmas over this tree will be planted on our property and we'll be able to enjoy it for years to come.
We didn't have a lot of wildlife sightings on our property in December in part due to the constant activity from the ongoing siding project, but also because one of our trail cams failed, so we only had one working camera throughout the month. We reviewed the footage from that camera and found a clip from mid-November that we had missed before where a Black-capped Chickadee seems to be attacking the camera. He was likely picking an insect or something else off the top of it before flying off. Before the snowfall, deer continued to be regular visitors to our yard, and we saw them on the one remaining camera coming both day and night. They all looked very healthy in their winter coats, and that was good to see because as the seasons changed it got very cold and wet here on the homestead.
Our most exciting wildlife sighting of December was a Bobcat that we saw move across part of the property during the day. This is video footage from an earlier encounter with what we believe is the same cat. He came and looked in our windows on a summer day. He didn't see me right away but when he did he retreated appropriately. A lot of people are afraid when they see predators like Bobcats on their property, especially if they have chickens or other small livestock, but we are thrilled to have him here. When we do have chickens we're going to make sure that we do everything we can to prevent him from having access to them. That way we'll make sure that we're good neighbors to him, and he'll remain a good neighbor to us as well.
Although some late December snowfall slowed down the number of wildlife encounters we were having on our property, Julie bought me some tools for Christmas that should increase our ability to moinitor the property including three trail cams. One I installed along the main trail down in our woods. The second I installed out on the perimeter of our property in an area that we hadn't been monitoring before, but we suspect is an active wildlife corridor based on the trail and open space here. The third one I installed at the back of our property monitoring a part of the woods where we know animals come and go frequently. This is where we saw the Bobcat earlier in the month as well.
We'll be excited to see what these cameras capture in the upcoming weeks and months, and we'll be even more excited to share it with all of you here at wild homestead living.
Food and Drink
For Christmas Kevin got Julie pasta attachments for our KitchenAid stand mixer. These metal units connect to the mixer and pasta dough is rolled through them. One roller makes flat sheets in a variety of thicknesses. The others cut noodles down to size, such as fettuccini or spaghetti. We love noodle soups nearly year-round, so it’s exciting to have these new tools to make it even easier to create healthy meals at home.
Sew & Craft
We love building our own canvas products, like bags and coats. We recently placed an order and it arrived. The products are all American-made from Big Duck Canvas. We went with 10oz and 12oz fabrics. They are much thicker than previous imported canvas we have purchased. While Julie loves the ruggedness of the cloth, she isn’t sure if they can be sewn with our home-quality heavy duty sewing machines. We will report on that when we have some data.
Planning and Mindset
We got a neighbor question about how Julie’s breast cancer surgery recovery is going. We are happy to report it’s going very well! It will be another 1 -2 months before healing is complete, but so far it seems like the problems she had been experiencing from her last surgery are going to be resolved. That means lots more homestead projects are in our future.
