Tuesday, January 10, 2012

It's been a long time since the last post.

The big news from Dirty Hippy Homestead is that we're expecting. Due date is August 2nd. We can't wait to meet our new little dirty hippy.

We've been very busy the past month with the holidays, cutting fire wood, brewing beer and making wine. The garden is pretty much done, although we're still picking brussel sprouts,carrots and the collard greens are still going strong.

With the early winter snow storm and a since a friend had a huge tree cut down we should have 1/2 of next years wood cut and split before this winter is over.

Our cherry and grape wine are bottled. Still need to bottle the dandeline wine and the mead. Beer brewing has been going good. Just kegged a dunkle last night and have the ingredients to make a gluten free beer this weekend. Next beer on "tap" will be a stout, so we can use the spent grains to bake breads. Organizing the home brew equipment and building a bar are in the works. First step of cleaning and organizing the basement is going slow, but once I get to the fun part of building it will go a lot faster. We have friends coming from New York for a visit in early March, and the goal is to have the bar finished by then.

The rabbits are doing well, expecting a new litter this Thursday.

We have a lot of plans for this gardening season. We are building a new raised bed so we will have a total of five 4x6 raised beds. We have permission from two of our neighbors to use some of their garden space also. Planning on building a new shed to house the rabbitry, and yard & garden equipment so the existing shed can go back to being the work shop. Also planning on adding another doe possibly two, to the herd.

We have been looking through seed catalogs and making lists. Hopefully in the next week or two we get our orders in. We are looking forward to using the cold frames and hoops to get an early start on some things.

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations! It sounds like you have your work cut out for you. I hope you have a great new gardening season. We're planning to try hoop houses this year too. I'll raise a glass of our homemade wine to a smooth pregnancy and quick delivery this summer!

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  2. New reader here. Looks like you have a lot of projects going on.
    Before you build the bar, are you planning on installing a sump pump or two? I we've had some crazy weather on the east coast lately.
    Good luck!

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  3. Thanks Jody.
    @Dan, Yes I will be installing a sump pump. We had some flooding this year. Neighbors said it was the first time in 30+ years that basements got water in them. Hopefully its another 30 before it happens again.

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  4. Congrats. The world could use another dirty homesteader. ;)

    How many SF are you cultivating this year??

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  5. 150 SF in raised beds, using the square foot method. Around 400 or so for corn and 300 or so for beans.

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