Farm . Home

Time Flies When You’re Homesteading

On June 22, 2022 by

The majority of this past month has been spent gardening and tackling other outside projects. My current favorite days are the ones where the kids and I head outside early, and come inside late.

Between all the outside time- and a family vacation thrown in the mix- I haven’t been posting much. Time for a quick update on what’s been happening here at Iveyshire!

We Went On Vacation

Our family went on a big, week-long road trip back to New York!

We hadn’t been back there since last fall, so it was really nice to spend time with both sides of the family. The kids got lots of quality cousin time in.

On this trip we really started to realize how much Tennessee has become “home” for our family. We missed our little homestead, the garden, and the mountains. It felt strange for me to go an entire week without pulling weeds, gathering eggs, or planting anything.

The Garden Has Been An Adventure

I got the straw nightmare under control a couple weeks ago. There are a few random patches that are still growing, but I think I managed to get the majority of the sprouting hay out of the garden. We’ll need to do some brainstorming on better ways to mulch next year.

Right before we left for vacation, I was actually feeling pretty bummed about the garden. Almost every row of squash and cucumbers had suddenly wilted overnight, and the base of their stems looked soggy and terrible. The potatoes looked crispy, and not in a delicious sense. The leaves on the bean plants were turning all shades of yellow and brown as well. I fully expected to come home to a disaster.

But somehow, after being completely neglected for a week, I came home to thriving plants covered in flowers and already growing squash. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I’m thinking too much water was possibly creating some fungal issues at the bases of the plants. Even the beans figured themselves out and their leaves turned a nice dark green again. The potato plants, unfortunately, seem to be on their last leg. I’m crossing my fingers that there’s already a decent number of potatoes under the ground though!

I’m taking note of which plants aren’t doing well so I can do things better next year. Planting in a different state/planting zone is a major learning curve for sure!

For now I’m just trying to keep up with weeding, watering (but not too much!), picking tomatoes, and keeping pests at bay.

The Chickens Are Zombies

The day we got home from NY, the relief of seeing the flourishing garden was countered by the state of the chicken coop. One was dead, clearly pecked to death by the others. Two more were slightly injured. Not the worst thing we could come home to, right?

Well, since then, we’ve steadily been losing another hen every day. It’s pretty gruesome and disgusting, and I’m at a loss at how to stop it. They seem perfectly healthy and happy. Their combs are bright red, their eyes look clear, they’re eating and drinking and acting normally. Plenty of food, water, and shade is available. We’ve been letting them free range to give them some space from each other.

I think they must have just gotten the taste of blood/meat from the first hen they pecked at, and now they can’t stop. They’ve turned into zombies and I think it may be too late to amend the situation.

(You know I’m adding this to my list of things I hate about chickens.)

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Our trip to New York is past, and we have a sunny Tennessee summer ahead of us. We’re all so excited to spend lots of time in the sun, have friends join us for bonfire nights, and cook some of our farm-raised pork on the grill whenever we can.

More posts coming soon. Have a great week, y’all!

Remember you can find me on Instagram if you’d like to follow along with more day-to-day happenings here at Iveyshire!

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