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I don't think I wrote about last weekend, but it was a really great weekend.
We went to a local State Park to go on a "Wild Edibles" hike where the ranger showed us different forest things that were edible. I had arranged for a meeting there with a Meetup group I am part of, that focuses on permaculture gardening and such. I met some interesting people with whom I'll probably keep in touch. In fact, we are meeting with one of the guys tomorrow and looking forward to it.

Maybe talking to him and having some sort of exchange will be useful for us. I feel like the more we talk about the homestead, the more it gets ingrained into our minds that that is what we are doing and that it's going to work for us.

Last weekend we also went to visit someone that I have grown to love dearly, Seth and Andrew's friend John. Ive mentioned him before, because we made a visit in Feb or March to his place. He has a little homestead set up several hours north of us.

Some people have a really good vibe about them and John is one of those people. I loved being at his place, it truly is an escape from all this other stuff that's going on. His porch is a concrete slab, maybe 1000 sq ft with a long sloping roof that starts at the second story of his house and runs all the way down into his garden where he was growing tomatoes and malabar spinach.
While we were there, a heavy rain broke out and it was amazing to be under that long roof with the rainfall resonating overhead. I love that rich, earthy smell that rises up in a good rain. We were surrounded by it, standing on the porch of his concrete fortress of a home. It felt like a place for people-- a big human cave enveloped in some warm sense of welcome.
I ate plenty of figs from his trees and admired the fruiting pecans and hickories. His ponds were stocked with fish and his gardens were bursting with tomatoes, okra, corn, and some squash.

What we create here in Louisiana doesn't have to be the big concrete cave, but I want to be able to transfer that feeling to some extent.
My little world is more like camping. The wooden porch gets soaked and soggy in any significant downpour-- there's no shelter there. I want to feel like I can sit outside and enjoy our place without being beaten by the rain or by the violent sun.

Seth and I have decided we're going to get rid of the internet. It manages to suck the creativity right out of me. I've kept it because I feel like I need to keep in touch with people, but I end up getting so overwhelmed that I just can't keep up and my mind goes numb and hours disappear.
I've mentioned this before and it still holds true, so we're just going to get rid of it and I'll access it once or twice a week from the library.

Today has been nice because for the most part I've left it alone. It's only now that I am writing because I feel encouraged and somewhat productive. I always feel a lot better when I'm actually doing things instead of obsessively searching the web for things I want to do, or might do, or would do "if only..."

So this wraps it up. Getting online only once a week will make it pretty difficult to keep up. I'll do what I can.
Take care.

Wild and plentiful.

As far as fruit goes, just a bit of seasonal planning around here would have us covered for most of the year. The blackberries are so plentiful that we have to cut them back and mow them over to keep them under control. Good fruit May-June. Some of the bushes have gotten attacked by "rust."
I've also discovered a few patches of muscadines for late summer fruit, though I'm not sure what type of muscadines or whether we'll even get any if we are competing with the wildlife. It will be interesting to see what happens this year, anyway. Perhaps in August I can also try to root a few vines and plant them closer to the house. Most of those that are growing are pretty high up in the trees.

Aside from those, I have the figs and I would like to have mayhaw berries and plums but I'm still working on finding some plants. I've considered growing some citrus. Ronnie's kumquats are delicious and he's able to grow lemons and oranges over there, but they have been overtaken by bamboo and aren't doing so well. My mom thinks I should grow bananas! We will see about that...

There was a solitary pink wild morning glory plant growing by the road and I was waiting for it to make some seeds so that I could spread them around, but the city came and mowed down all of the plants and I finally found its mangled remains. No seeds, but perhaps something ate them.

There is good news for the morning glory, though not that one specifically. Over at Ronnie's he had a big pecan tree fall down during a storm and knocked down his power lines. As a result, all of the wild weeds in his front yard had to be bulldozed and the dirt was scraped bare. It was mostly privet and air potato vines over there anyway so he wasn't too heartbroken about it.
I wandered over there today and in the bare dirt has germinated hundreds and hundreds of little morning glories. There are some wild type as well as some cultivated (that Ronnie claims he planted years ago in another part of the yard). I find it quite amazing just how many seedlings are popping up, so I'm planning on transplanting a little patch of them to my part of the property to see how they do.

Funny all those little seeds must have been waiting there for years-- waiting to get a chance to touch the bare Earth.

Accomplishments.

Things are slow going with a six month old. Especially now, the little guy has taken to crawling and he's just all over the place! Not only that but it's getting up to 90 degrees during the day now and we're sitting in the middle of an open field so it's HOT!

Outside work and exploration is usually reserved for the mornings or the evenings. I was reminded of something very important the other day when I went out to water some plants. I turned the hose on and the water was BOILING hot just from sitting in the sun. Why use a water heater when the sun alone will make your water that hot?
I am going to spend some time reading up on DIY solar water heaters and hopefully this will be a project we will start on soon. Another cool idea is the solar oven. Save money on cooking, and you can keep the house from heating up so if you are using the AC it won't have to work as hard.

Well, I'm not getting out as much as I'd like but here are a few things we have accomplished in the 1.5 months since moving in....

-I haven't had a single plant die on me yet. We've got all sorts of things growing, mostly gifted ornamental plants, but I've got to get my green thumb somehow. There's a rose, a mandevilla, a sword bean, a tub of catnip and spearmint, a tub of wildflowers, scarlet sage, chives, shallots, croton, 3 young figs started from root cuttings earlier this spring, 2 pine trees that really need to be transplanted soon, aloe vera, some cactuses, 2 parsley plants, tomato and pepper seedlings, one little nasturtium, a few four o' clocks, a gardenia, and rosemary seeds (I'm trying but I'm not sure if these will come up.) Also, we went to visit Seth's great grandpa and came home with cuttings of Turk's Cap.
-Also I've planted a red maple and a bald cypress in the field
-We've built new stairs for our porch.
-Raising 4 little hens in a temporary run.
-Harvested some blackberries
-Explored and photographed the property. May not seem like much, but a critical first step!

Wow, is that all? I feel like I'm missing something but I'm probably not. I suppose we're just getting adjusted and I'm trying to find time to do things while looking after the baby.
By the end of the summer I'd like to be growing more veggies, have the pine trees and other potted plants planted somewhere, finish the permanent chicken tractor or coop. For now, I'll keep it at that.

Come Fall, I want to plant the figs, work on getting the tallows under control, get ready for a winter veggie bed and set up better fencing to keep my dog on our land.

Ah yes, I will also be starting school either in June or in September (haven't quite decided on that yet).

Slow and steady work is all I need to focus on, otherwise I will overwhelm myself with all that needs to be done.

Native plants and other things.

I'm growing less and less interested in conventional vegetable growing. I mean organic conventional vegetables too.
The local native plant society has done a lot to its website, and apparently has a new president. This is exciting. I've spent much of the day looking at different options for native plants and perennial vegetables. I'd like to eventually plant A LOT of fruiting trees and things like that. I like the idea of a forest garden, and I'm becoming more interested in open meadow plants as well.
All I'm saying is.. I have too many ideas to sleep.

Thats about it. Everything that is going on seems too huge, too important to explain.
I can hardly form a bullet list.
But here I'll try...

-I think my entire soul has been going through intense cleaning and purging.
-I feel like my life is coming together in one solid piece.
-We are officially moving on Wednesday.
-Big huge obnoxious plans.

The old house

On Friday I cleaned out the living room in the old house so the place is actually starting to feel like a house. It's amazing. My spinach and cabbage plants are coming up, and today I'm replanting my herbs in a big steel washtub that Ronnie gave me. I'm probably going to spend more time doing some work around the house and go jogging to get my mind off of all the things that are coming up this week.

The Beginning

Well, I've moved in and I love it here. Seth and I have been talkng about a lot of things, like getting goats and bees, turkeys, chickens and maybe some other things. Today we finally got some real work done on a garden bed. We only have one row for planting but I'm going to work on some more tomorrow. We might put in some kale or cabbage.

I'm going to go finish reading a book. I think tomorrow I'm going to go work some more out there. Anyway, not much else to say.