Tuesday, May 26, 2009

I wanna be a homesteader Challenge Day 1

Today was the first day of my homestead challenge. I didn't get a lot of homestead type things done today. I did wash our laundry in cold water and hung it out on the line. We haven't turned our air conditioner on and probably won't until July. Our lights have been off all day and we didn't turn on the ceiling fan until after lunch.

My girls picked four strawberries from our plants. We did a little weeding and watered our plants. We had hoped to finish the garden planting today but my dad didn't make it over. I still need to dig up two spots for our zucchini and more strawberries. I think I'll also plant another raspberry plant.
Next week we'll head to our local orchard to pick tons of strawberries to eat, make jam, and freeze for later.

We had friends over for a play date and all the kids played soccer and then we went to a park just five minutes away. We admired the flowers and caught a tadpole who we now have in a jar on our counter!!

We ate up all our left overs and I made spaghetti for dinner so I didn't heat up the kitchen. I'm researching some crock pot recipes to help keep the heat down.

I'm also planning on having a yard sale soon so I'm focusing on decluttering- I have a bad habit of holding on to things just in case I'll need them again. I find it especially difficult to get rid of our baby things. I would love to have more babies but I don't think my health could handle it.

I also assigned new chores to the kids. I'm hoping to get them trained on their new chores during June. We also have been recycling everything thing we can. I also found a place for compost in the yard.

I'm pretty content with our "urban homestead" once our gardens are producing we won't need to visit the store. The only thing I wish I could do is have a couple chickens in the backyard! I would love to raise our meat too but in a year or so my parents should be at their farm and maybe I'll to raise some at their place. I would love to not use the grocery store!!

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

I would love to have a homestead. Great challenge!