It's Raining, It's Pouring

We are having some crazy rain here on the homestead.  It's been raining a couple days a week all month.  Mabel the Marvelous Dancing Jersey Milk Cow has been through the fence twice, and is currently on timeout in her corral.  The roof is leaking all over my closet, that's what I get for a fear of heights.  On the other hand, we have some wonderful green grass coming up all over the place.  Need to fix the fence so we can let the animals out to graze on it.

Princess, the crea, comes to sniff my ears and my tea in the mornings, when the weather is nice enough to sit out in the back yard for a few minutes.

In the sewing room, we're replenishing the winter wardrobe with jeans, jammies and flannels.  In  the kitchen, we're trying new recipes for whole wheat cinnamon rolls - yummy - sourdough starter and hamburger buns.  We've sold out of oatmeal and castille soap, so it's into the workshop to make a couple batches for holiday orders.  We also need to finish getting our wood in for the winter.  There's nothing like a cozy fire in the woodstove to warm your soul on a gray day.

Hope you're getting set for an enjoyable winter, too!

It's Cold!

We're experiencing a cold snap here in Northern Arizona.  Last week it was in the 70's during the day, dipping into the high 30's overnight.  This week, though the rain and snow seems to have passed us by on the homestead, the temps are more like 50's daytime and 20's overnight.  So the woodstove is working hard, we are getting in the last of our firewood on our wood permit, and lots of baking and canning can be done any time of day because heating up the house is now a good thing!

The winter garden is in process.  The greens and broccoli we planted last month are doing nothing.  Either too much straw over the top or too little.  The indoor plantings of mint, garlic, onions and leeks are really taking off.  The lentil sprouts are a little slow, with the cooler weather, but still supplying us with fresh green additions to our meals.  Wheat grass is growing like crazy.  Thinking about transferring some of it outside to see if it will "take".  This week's plan is to put in some peas and celery in the greenhouse.

We are working on our gray water project right now.  The bucket system has already cut down on water hauling tremendously.  Using bath water to flush and water the gardens.  Next is connecting up the hoses to divert the laundry and bath water for irrigation (not to mention cutting down on the labor of carrying the buckets outside!).  We'll see the best results from this effort once the weather warms again and we start with the spring and summer gardens, which really soak up the water.

At any rate, the holidays are upon us again, today's task is to get the pies going for Thanksgiving, which will be at the Homestead this year.  Pumpkin and double crust lemon are on the menu.  So time to put on my apron and get back in the kitchen.