Deer, Coons, Fox and even some Crows!

A variety of night time visitors to our back yard!

Our review of Shelter Logic's 10 x 20 Greenhouse

A video compilation showing some of the wildlife in our backyard, Enjoy!

Putting the garden to bed for the 2018 season

Here is a link to the first steps done prior to this video:
https://youtu.be/_z45tajvIBc

We had to do something with our buckets and buckets of tomatoes!

Time to harvest the Taters!

Today we're harvesting our peaches!

Description

Building new coldframes.
Here is a look at the benefits of cold frames: https://youtu.be/rMnrEUtwesI

Time to harvest the Onions!

Pickles, pickles, pickles......let make some pickles!

Changing the oil in our lawn tractor

Today while examining our potato crop we noticed a Colorado Potato Beetle. Time to spring into action!
We started by adding a little dish detergent to a bucket, then added some water.

These Beetles spend winter in the soil and emerge in May & June. They'll mate, then lay their yellowish eggs on the underside of the potato plant leaves making it difficult to detect without careful observation. The eggs will hatch within a few weeks and you will begin to see larvae eating the your plants.

There are a number of methods to deal with the potato bug.

First, it is important to always rotate your crops. This makes it more difficult for pests from the previous year that over-winter in your soil to find the plants they feed on.

You can lay down a layer of mulch such a seaweed or straw which may make it difficult for the beetles to find your plants thereby reducing their impact on your crop.

You can spread Diatomaceous earth over and around your plants which can help, or even use a bacterial insecticide such as BT which is harmless to the beneficial insects and humans alike.

We just pick them off and throw them into soapy water which seems to work well. The best option is probably some combination of all these options.

Have you found another method for controlling the Colorado Potato Beetle? If so, let us know in the comments.

Garlic harvest starts out ok......but then........Ouch!

Our Beets have done quite well this season. We may have left them too long, as they are quite large.
Today we're harvesting them. This is a relatively easy task as they remain close to the surface and give up their grip without much effort. It didn't take long to fill this container.

Now it's time to give them a quick rinse to remove most of the dirt, then, we cut the greens off and separate them. Just look at how big this one is!

With a basket full of Beets, and another full of greens we're not done yet. We'll eat a few, give a few to the chickens, and use the remainder to mulch our tomatoes.

It's getting close to lunch, so we'll pick some lettuce from one of the cold frames and enjoy a garden fresh salad with our meal....it appears we'll enjoy some ball playing well.

Scarlet runner beans, cabbage, eggplant, spinach, chard, kale, watermelon, winter squash, zucchini, basil and more are growing in this large garden.
In this one we've got tomatoes, beets, carrots, beans, cucumber, potatoes and onions.
This bed is almost entirely garlic.

Today's chores will be devoted to feeding a few of the crops in another garden.

We start with the corn. Last season we had planted beans here which help fix nitrogen in hopes of providing this years corn a great start. As you can see, it appears to have done just that. Corn loves nitrogen so we are fertilizing with a 21-7-7 mix to ensure healthy stocks and hopefully a fantastic yield.

Next we move on to the peppers using a 5-10-10 fertilizer. This will give them a much needed boost after enduring a late season frost which set them back quite a bit. Once applied we loosen up the surface where we've placed the fertilizer and give each plant a good drink.

Although we lost a few to frost this year, we still have about 20 tomato plants. The six in this garden will also be fertilized today. Just like the corn and peppers, we sprinkle the fertilizer, loosen the surface, then give them a good drink.

Now that the tomato's, peppers, and corn have all been fed, someone is telling us that all work and no play is not the way!

Cherry Tree Timber!

Every now and then you can expect the unexpected on the homestead. Today we awoke to this, a large portion of one of our Cherry trees lying on the ground. As you can see it had fallen from high, fortunately we were not under it at the time!

It appears this branch had been rotting, and after a little rain and wind could hold on no more.

Sadly it had an abundance of fruit that would have been ripening soon had this not happened.

Time to clean up. Using a chainsaw made reasonably quick work of dismantling this massive limb. Of course steel toed shoes, hearing and eye protection ensured safety during the process.

Once all the debris had been piled up all that was left was this one large log that we will use to border a new garden something like what we've done here.

In our Province there are strict burning regulations so we check to make sure we're in compliance and then we begin burning. It's a family affair as you can see. All we were missing was a few wieners and a long stick!
It wasn't long before the fire was burning well, and not long after that it was pretty much just embers.

Recently while out for a hike in the woods we were lucky enough to spot what many refer to as the "Mushroom of Immortality"!

The Reishi mushroom, "Ganoderma lucidum" or "Ling Zhi" in Chinese, have been used throughout history and are considered an "adaptogen" known to help with inflammation, hormonal imbalance, energy, and even damaged blood vessels.

These mushrooms are rarely found....out of 10,000 trees only 2 or 3 will have Reishi growth. They can be found in old growth Hemlock forests on fallen trees. They're also found an dead but still standing trees.

Having been used for over 4000 years it is one of the most researched mushrooms around.

With over 400 known bioactive compounds including Beta-Glucans, Polysaccharides, Triterpinoids, and Sterols, some of the researched benefits of the Reishi Mushroom include:

Detoxification
Respiratory support
Reduced inflammation
Immune system support
Antioxidant
Lower blood pressure
Neutralizes free radicals
Cancer prevention - Preclinical studies have established that the Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide (GLPS) fractions have potent anti-tumor activity, which has been associated with the immuno-stimulating effects

You can read the abstract [HERE]( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12916709)

As you can see, today were cutting our Reishi to make a tincture. Once they have been cut and placed on trays we put them into the dehydrator for several hours until completely dried. Whatever we don't use for our tincture will be saved in jars, vacuum sealed and made into tea.

Our tincture is made by breaking the dried slices into smaller pieces, we place them into a large jar and submerge them in Vodka.

This will sit for between 4 and 8 weeks and will then be ready to be made into a dual extraction.
By bringing some water to a boil, placing the mushrooms from the tincture into the boiling water and simmering for about 2 hours and then mixing the alcohol tincture and the water extraction together we will have a nice supp..

An update on our new chicks!

One for the blackbird.....

A weekly update on our Homestead happenings!

Today on Homestead Homebodies we show you how to make an easy DIY garden bed!

Weekly homestead wrap up!