The past couple months have been filled with lots of exciting projects on our homestead, which have kept my hands busy in the dirt instead of on the keyboard. I turned the big 4-0 last month and my sweet sister surprised and blessed us with a fruit grove for my birthday. We planted two apple trees a few years ago and we just added two pear trees, three european plum trees, one cherry tree, and one mulberry tree.
I love seeing the two freshly planted plum trees against the old apple tree, the weathered swing and the worn out well…
We also added a few new beds to our kitchen garden.
We garden in zone 4a and it can sometimes be frustrating to garden in a cold climate but it looks like we will finally be able to harvest some grapes this year.
One of our biggest projects was to rototill our back lawn and add a market style garden.
We only planted the left section so far with cantaloupe, watermelon, green beans, snap peas, winter squash, butternut squash, pumpkins, corn, and lots of zinnias, nasturtiums, and sunflowers. The right section will be planted with asparagus, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, bush cherries, and other small fruits. The middle circular section is dedicated to culinary and medicinal herbs. The planter in the middle of the herb garden was a free Craigslist find. It is beautifully handmade and came with 8 terrocotta pots that still need to be filled with herbs and flowers.
The row garden still has a long way to go but it is now a working garden that will provide produce for our friends and family instead of being a big patch of lawn that has to be mowed every week. I would also love to add a rock wall and an arbor at the entrance of the garden and build a greenhouse on a little area nearby.
My husband fenced in our chicken coop with leftover material found on our homestead. We still need to build a door and attach it to the arbor but it is coming along nicely. We currently get about 12 eggs a day from our 13 hens and we are selling a few dozen eggs every week to our local coop.
Our Maremma sheep dog is trying to keep cool in the heat of the summer and our sheep are scheduled to be sheared this week.
Our boy has been busy learning about ants and is taking good care of his little ant farm.
And of course, the endless watering and weeding chores are keeping me busy everyday but I am making a point to stop daily and take in all of the beauty like the vivid colors of the delphiniums and the daylillies…
The smell of the lavender in bloom…
…and the sound of the Sunday morning church bells.
We are also working hard at restocking our shop and we are making new batches of sheep milk soap, scrubs, fizzies, soaks, and candles. We are also currently planning for the upcoming fall season and we can’t wait to introduce our new autumn scent.
Finally, we are giving the shop a makeover and doing some painting, organizing, and decorating. I will have a few posts about the transformation in the next couple months.
I hope your summer has been enjoyable so far and I would love to hear what you have been up to…
With love and gratitude,
Marie-Hélène