Summer 2015

Summer 2015 at Peaceful Forest Homestead

Summers at Peaceful Forest are always nice. Even if the weather is not cooperating with my idea of summer time weather. It has been pretty cool at night. With our temperatures going down to the forties. Not real good for the garden. I made a big mistake and didn't plant as many green and wax beans as usual. I figured I would plant other vegetables, since my shelves are packed with various winter squashes and beans. At least those plants would be producing, even if it is not as much as normal.

Georgie Girl is not crazy about bugs either.

What has been abundant is the bugs! It is hard to even take the laundry down from the clotheslines. My poor husband has chores to do outside most of the day. He is pretty strong to put up with them all day long. I start to do something outside and I chicken out and come back inside. I have found that putting some peppermint essential oil diluted down in a carrier oil, keeps them away from me. I use that when I must be out in the garden. It works every time.

Stairs from root cellar to the pantry.

Since I am not working outside too much, I am getting a lot of work done on my root cellar. It is finally ready to be used again! I have waited something like five years for the foundation to be repaired and back together. You know us, we do our projects little by little, so that we pay for them instead of taking out a loan. Now it is fixed. I worked down there cleaning it out real good last week.

Containers of canned foods, as well as others.

All of my canned foods and empty jars have been in Rubbermaid ™ containers upstairs. That keeps the mice and bugs from getting on them. It might not look as pretty as other homesteaders' pantries, but I like it better that way. I had read about soda cans that were stored, spreading diseases from mice urine being on the tops of the cans. Yuck! I don't want to take that kind of chance, after all the work I do growing and canning it.

Original bin for apple storage built in 1850 in root cellar.

I hope to get the root cellar, pantry, kitchen and upstairs organized before winter. It is a long hard job for me since my knees cause me so much pain. I am doing a Candida cleanse diet and hoping it will take care of some of the health issues I have been having. It does make you feel better, if you can stay off ice cream during the summer!

Copyright © 2015 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2015 Kathleen G. Lupole
Update 2018

My End of the Year Rituals

Snowfall at Peaceful Forest

This time of the year is when I take stock of all I have done through out the year. I make a list of all I accomplished. The many projects my husband worked on and completed. The success or failure of my garden (this year it was a success). Added to that is how much food I was able to can or put away for our winter time meals. Since there is only the two of us here now, we will definitely have enough for a couple more years.

Raised beds hidden in the snow

I keep a notebook on all these things to remember for next year. Constantly, I am adding new goals for our garden, as well as for projects to work on. Homesteading is an on-going thing. It is never completed. That is not something to be sad about. I like it that way. It keeps everything new and moving along. I like to see changes and improvements.

Home Canned Winter Squash

One big success was the addition of many jars of vegetables and apples to our pantry. This year, I will not have to purchase any vegetables at all unless I want to make salads. Every year it is important to me to eliminate a food category if I can grow it. My ultimate goal is to buy in bulk all our ingredients, such as baking supplies and some others that are NON-GMO verified.

Snow covered Pine tree

I will be spending the next couple of months studying my new seed catalogs. I know that all the seeds I buy now, will be heirlooms and NON-GMO seeds. I feel good knowing I can do this for us and then save our seeds for the future. Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy shopping season!

Copyright © 2014 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2014 Kathleen G. Lupole

Flowers In The Homestead Garden

I am winding this blog down a bit, though I probably will continue it, unless Blogger shuts it down for some unknown reason. My main blog is Homesteading On The Internet, same name, better blog. I liked the name and wanted to keep it, but found it wasn't that simple to transfer what I wrote here to the new one. So I have been trying to post on both, but different articles. I will still spend time writing quality posts for my readers here. So if you want to stay on this site, I appreciate it.

I don't usually plant flowers in my garden. This year I did. Not many, just a few. Some marigolds, because I read how good they are for your garden, as well as pretty. Supposedly, they keep rabbits out too. And they keep away the aphids. They are edible too. I planted these marigolds earlier in the summer and they never bloomed until fall. I don't know why or if they were supposed to do that. But they sure are pretty!

I guess the main thing is that they bloomed when the garden was about done. So I had some color in the garden when usually it would have been empty. Now we are putting the beds down for the winter that will be here before long. It is usually here long before this. Last night was the first night for starting our big heating stove yet, we have not had a hard frost yet. Hard to believe!

Update 2019: My blog, Homesteading on the Internet does not exist anymore. That blog has been removed as has, Solar Baby. I only write this one presently.

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole