Straw Bale Cabin Update

Posted on December 17, 2015 by | 2 comments
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As you may know, we are building a small straw bale guest cabin as a trial run before building our straw bale house.  The original plan was to get our house weathered in before winter.  Between the weather, other jobs requiring attention on the homestead and life in general, we’re still working on the guest cabin and haven’t started on the house.  We have done enough remodeling and other building projects to know that this is par for the course.  The new goal is to complete the house in 2016! 

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Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

Posted on December 8, 2015 by | 3 comments

 

 

Chocolate Candy Cane CookiesHomestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

 

It’s the time of year when nearly everything has a peppermint twist.  Pair chocolate and peppermint together and you have a winner!   I love chocolate and peppermint together.  Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies fit right into the season of peppermint.  With double chocolate and candy cane pieces sprinkled on top, these cookies are a decadent treat.

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Goats Gone Wild!

Posted on November 13, 2015 by | 5 comments

 

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Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

We have been using electric fencing to keep our Kiko goats in all spring and summer, moving them at least once a week or more often to make sure they have plenty of food to eat.  We don’t have goat proof perimeter fencing, some areas have no fencing at all.  We are working to remedy that problem, but have had pretty good luck so far.

Suddenly it was fall.  The leaves started to change colors into a beautiful world.   A beautiful world where the goat’s favorite foods (brambles and woody plants)  are losing leaves.  The goats suddenly had to be moved every other day, they would eat every edilble thing they could find, and fast!  We were watching the goats and their food supply closely, but one Wednesday afternoon when Travis and I went to move the goats, the goats were gone!

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A Book Review of ‘The Organic Canner’

Posted on October 22, 2015 by | Leave a comment

organic_canner

Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

I love to cook healthy meals from scratch and can fruits and vegetables for my family.  So when I was given the privilege to review Daisy Luther’s book, The Organic Canner, I was excited!  I’m always looking for new canning recipes.  I was not disappointed.

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Straw Bale Building

Posted on October 14, 2015 by | 3 comments

 

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Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
 
 
When we moved to our homestead a year ago, the plan was to build a house sometime in the near future.  After a year full of building infrastructure and adding animals to our homestead, it’s time to focus on the house!  We did a lot of research, reading books, watching videos and talking to people in the area before making our decision on what kind of house to build.  Let’s start on another adventure, and build a straw bale house!  Since this is a new way of building for us and there is a lot to learn, we decided to start small and build a guest house first.  The idea being that we will get all of the kinks worked out before we start on our house.

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It’s Been One Year on the Homestead

Posted on October 8, 2015 by | 2 comments

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Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

It’s been a year since we moved from our hobby farm just outside a city to our beautiful homestead in the holler!  We’ve gotten a lot done, yet the to-do list is still a mile long.  I have a feeling that the to-do list is going to be constantly growing as we think of more things to add and make improvements to what we’ve done.  We’ve learned a lot this past year and will continue to learn as time goes on. So what have we learned?

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We’re still plugging away!

Posted on September 9, 2015 by | Leave a comment

 

Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Busy, busy, busy!  Whew, it has been quite a summer so far.  Sorry for the lack of updates.  We have had our heads down working and writing after a long, hot day hasn’t been our priority, I’m afraid.  So, what have we been up to?  Hmm, let’s see…

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Spring Update

Posted on June 1, 2015 by | 1 comment
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Spring is a busy time of year on the homestead.  It’s time to start the outdoor projects that have been dreamed up all winter long.  This is the first spring on our homestead, which means a long to-do list.   Here’s what we’ve been up to lately.

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Purchasing an Existing Homestead

Posted on April 2, 2015 by | 10 comments

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Homestead in the Holler is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

We purchased an old farm in 2014 and are working on getting things up and running again.  This farm hasn’t been functional for quite a few years. The pastures were rented out for grazing, but the buildings have not been used.

When we were looking for properties, we were looking with our mind on permaculture design.  While any property can benefit from applying permaculture principles, there were certain elements we were particularly interested in.  Having water, pastures and trees all designed carefully is a high priority for us.  While there are advantages to buying an older farm with existing buildings, we are finding there are challenges as well.

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Raising Chickens: A Kid’s Perspective

Posted on March 3, 2015 by | 6 comments

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As a homesteading, homeschooling family, we try to include our kids in what’s going on around the farm.  Our son has been watching all this blog stuff with great interest.  He finally asked us if he could write his own article.  So, here is the kid version of raising chickens.  It is really quite interesting to see what things are perceived as the highlights (by this kiddo anyway).  Just to make things a bit clear, here is some background:

Chick Mobile: several years back, my husband built a brooder in the pole barn in CO.  It was roughly 4’x4′ and when he finished, he set it on a wheeled frame he used for working on arcade games.  It turned out to be handy to be able to easily move the brooder around the barn, so now our son thinks a brooder should be mobile… and hence the “chick-mobile”

Egg Mobile: we can thank Joel Salatin for this.  Joel is always so creative with his naming, so we called our first mobile coop an “eggmobile” as well.  Ever since our son can remember, we have moved our little layer flock around our property.

Scraps: all our plate scrapings and such are shared with the chickens.  Don’t worry, we provide plenty of layer feed as well. 

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