Small House Weekly Homestead Photo Diary

Not that I am complaining….but summer weather came upon us suddenly this week on our homestead in SW Michigan. One night it is freezing and the next day it is sunny and hot. In fact, it was sunny and hot all week-long and no rain. The daffodils are bursting out everywhere and their bright yellow color everywhere makes me happy. Even the daffodils that I had thought were drowned in the 2009-2012 high ground water flooding have returned with many new blooms and are spreading.

The Rhodies love to scratch and peck in the wood ash from the recently burned down fire pit.

While this is a mood boosting strategy we do need rain here and a lot of it. Not only do the plants and trees need life-giving water to get a really good start, we need to fill our water containment totes for the long, dry summer ahead. The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting hotter than usual and less rain that usual in our part of the state. In a 1950’s style home without a/c and a not-currently-working swimming pool, this is not good news. Sigh.

The daffodils are bursting out in the crab apple tree circle garden right now. 

We hope to get the swimming pool up and running again soon but a large chunk of cash is needed to do that and not in the budget right now. The pool needs to be drained, scraped, acid washed, re-painted and the mechanical’s up and running again. It’s going to a big and expensive project.

Circles of daffodils in the fruit tree triangle. 

Gene worked on removing the deer netting from around the hydrangea shrubs and turned the pool pump turned on and got out the hoses. He also worked on repairing the ruts in the meadow this week. The rusts came as a result of the roadside trimmer driving their large, heavy truck to dump the mulch. The ruts were filled with a mix of sandy soil from the woods, well-composed horse manure from a friend’s farm and topped with good composted soil from the compost pile. In the fall, I’ll plant grass seeds. Grass seeds do not germinate well here in the spring time unless we have a very wet year to keep them going. Grass seed simply does better here if I spread it in the fall and let the snow melt germinate it the following spring.

Gene digging composted soil with his Rhodie helpers fishing for worms.

Our bird feeding bed is edged in daffodils and a bloom.

I spent most of my week dispersing straw and then bark chips. I made some good progress but have a l-o-n-g way to go yet.

This Rhode Island Red chicken is certainly strutting her stuff in the leaves.Crystal wants to get away after wiping down her messy butt from a bit too many kitchen scraps.

Bloom where you are planted my friends!

Small House Homesteader, Donna

Foggy Morning at the Small House – Photo Diary

“Sometimes we need the fog to remind us that not all of life is black and white.”            Jonathan Lockwood Hue

 

We are not yet used to daylight saving time on the homestead. It is “spring forward” and hour in SW Michigan. My body gets me up at the same early hour every day. Only now it is dark outside.

This gives me time to start cooing a meal, start a load of laundry, clean up the house and perhaps do a bit of computer work before heading outside to take care of the chickens.

Today though I was treated to a lovely view of an early morning fog that shrouded our property and gave our outbuildings a lovely muted and mysterious look.

In spite of the monochromatic look, it was a beautiful morning, quiet and calm.

Our chicken coop and sun under the majestic White Oak.

“Beyond the fog lies clarity.”     Anonymous

Small House homesteader, Donna

Small House Homesteads Week in Photo’s-Photo Diary

Balmy warm weather, sunshine and spending time outdoors was the best thing about our week on the homestead.                     Look at the shiny hackles on this Heritage Rhode Island Red.

The temperature got up to the 60’s for a few days and we spotted the first Phoebe, Rufus Sided Towee and Robin of the season.

The weather warmed up enough I could remove the protective burlap from the yews.    Sisters, sisters / There were never such devoted sisters /

A Rhodie is drawf-ed by the oak logs target for hatcket practice.

The chickens are interested in our water totes containment center.

Hey baby…what’s happening?
Drying the burlap on the vegetable garden fencing.

Our chickens enjoying the sunshine in the open run near the enclosed Rhodies run.

We put up two more bluebird boxes this week.

Small House homesteader, Donna

Small Houses’ Tiny Role in Preserving the Savanna Forest

We spent as much time outside as possible during our recent February thaw. The sunshine felt wonderful on my skin and the warm weather made a partial clean-up of the yard possible.

Our small parcel of the Oak Savannas forest with compost bins in the distance.

When you live under the shelter of forty-seven White Oak trees you end up with a lot of sticks blown down in the yard that need to be picked up come spring. One record spring I collected twelve garden carts full of sticks and twigs!

One of our Rhodies enjoying her time in the forest edge.

So I am always happy to have the opportunity to get outside during the winter months and do a bit of pre-spring yard clean up.

Snowball the Bantam Cochin like all chickens loves to scratch in the leaves.

Have I recently  mentioned that our land was once part of the Oak Savanna Forest?

This italics piece below was written by the author of the Lillie House Blog. Lillie House is an urban permaculture garden in Kalamazoo, Michigan. You can see the post about the history of the savannah in its entirety at Lillie House : How We Save the Savannas

And most magnificent of all the ecosystems in the new Americas was the savannas. These large parcels of land were once common across the region where the Eastern Woodland receded into western prairie.

Our chickens free ranging along the path into the forest.

Just as we call the prairies “grasslands,” these savannas were “flowerlands,” glorious with a great bounty of broadleaf plants that provide medicine, food and forage. These special ecosystems are the preferred environment of many species, the only place where some can thrive. No doubt it was also home to undiscovered, lost soil communities that we had not yet begun to understand when we brought with us a vast, yet tiny army of invisible conquistadors to colonize the kingdom under foot. 

 Photo credit: Lillie House Blog Spot.

Within ten years of “settlement” by Europeans, these ecosystems were transformed. The open woodlands filled in to thick forest, prairies and savannas turned to cane thickets and old field, and eventually forest. This once open, park-like continent transformed to just another dense European thicket, and the North American miracle was never to be seen again.

One of the remaining stands of native lupines in the State Game Area.

One large 50,000 acre parcel the Allegan State game Area was preserved by officials for its recreational use for campers, snowmobilers, cross-country skiers, horse trail riders and hunters and due to the prevalent native lupines that grow there. These beautiful lupines are the host plant for the protected Karner blue butterflies.

Spring in the forest with native Lupines providing the color.

The chickens had a blast being out of their run. They walked, scratch and pecked for hours every day.  We feel most comfortable supervising the chickens when they free range outside of their fenced in runs.

The forest edge creates a lovely back-drop to our property as well as wind break.

I have tried to preserve the trees on our land and to plant native plantings as well as the many native Lupines as I could plant. I have maintained and played steward on this property as best that I can in the fifteen years we have lived here. We have work hard to preserve and protect this unique ecosystem and add to it as we can.

The weather report indicated that a big storm is headed our way later this week and predicting 5″ to 8″ of fresh snow. So I have been picking up as many sticks as I could and letting the chicken out for several hours a day. Apparently this lovely thaw is about to end!

Oh and the bluebird are coming back…we saw two males looking for their breeding territories earlier this week! I’ll keep you posted!

Small House homesteader, Donna

62 Degrees Sunny and Windy – Photo Diary

  Wow, what a great day on the homestead.

Blue sky and white fluffy clouds overlooking the chicken complex.

Gene by the blacksmith forge while the Rhodies scratch in the bark chips.

We enjoyed a lovely sunny and warm day for our mid-winter February thaw. The morning was full of chores; washing clothes, cleaning the stove, making bone broth and more.

Elsa taking a dust bath.

In spite of the recorded 50+ mile an hour winds our afternoon was spent outside enjoying the chickens.

Dirt flies when a chicken takes a dust bath.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring so gotta make hay today!

Doors open and the sun shines in the covered run.

Chickens follow the snow blown path around the homestead.

Small House Homesteader, Donna

 

A Week in Photos Small House Homestead

We had a bit of the January thaw this week. Our weather rose to around 40’s degrees and the sun shone brightly for a few days. We were happy to be able to get our snowbound chickens out of the chicken run for a stroll and a munch on patches of grass that popped up as the snow melted.

Crystal says, ‘Hey lady where is the food?’

Our winter has been relatively mild this year with small amounts of snow interspersed with a warmish week in-between. This week the animals certainly enjoyed enjoy our old-fashioned January thaw.

A beautiful winter sunrise one day this week on the Small House homestead.

And, I enjoyed a rare opportunity to photographs very pretty sunrise on Saturday morning. I am usually up and at em’ early as our retriever Sassy gets up very early to go outside to the bathroom. My day often begins with the sound of her nails clicking on our linoleum floor and her head pressing down on my arm as her signal, ‘Okay mom its time!’

Miss Sassy the snow dog.

Everyday the sun rises but most days I am preoccupied with animals needs or cooking breakfast to actually walk out and concentrate on taking a good a photograph. But luck was with me that day.

Greeting The Dawn.

Do these feathers make my butt look big?

After the animals are fed and our breakfast eaten we do our yoga stretches. On this day Sassy was determined to get into the act.

Sassy and Gene do their yoga stretches.

The Rhodies circle the wagons.

Crystal scratching for sunflower seeds under the bird bath

Sassy gets a good walk everyday.

The chicken monitor.

I hope your week was a good one too.

Small House homesteader, Donna

The Small House Homestead Winter – Photo Diary

Crystal the Rhode Island Red likes to follow us around the homestead.

Our winter thus far has been spent, cooking new gluten-free recipes, doing some deep cleaning inside our home, letting the chickens out to free range with supervision and shoveling snow. Welcome to winter in Michigan!!

This is our week of January 15, 2016. I hope you enjoy the view!

Rhodies and Cochin’s alike want to get out of the run no matter the weather.

We shoveled snow away from the door to the covered run so the chicks could scratch and peck. Our girls love their dirt!

Elsa found a tiny bit of open ground in front of the pole barn door.

We are challenged to find open areas of dirt or leaves to keep the chickens occupied during the long, cold days and out of trouble. Too much time in the coop means chicken squabbles and the lowest chickens in the pecking order seem to be the one who suffer, especially poor Freckles.

The wondering buddies, Crystal and Elsa.

This was a tiny melted area about the size of a plate near the front of the pole and the girls found it and scratched around satisfying the Rhodies intense drive to dig, scratch and peck.

Crystal and Elsa are wondering buddies. Even when no one else will venture outside in the snow and cold these two avian friends find a way to occupy themselves.

Posing at the pole barn!

Gene and his girls!

Unless there is a terrible snowstorm, we try to get the chickens outside every day, if even for just an hour. Sunlight, fresh air and exercise are good for the girls and helps to keep them busy and occupied too.

When the chicken run gate is open for our morning chores they invariably find their way to the overhand of the forge where there is open dirt and leaves. THIs winter we have stored buckets of bark chips under the forge overhang that we use from time in the chicken coop.

Chickens tracks lead the way to where the girls have been traveling.

I hope you have been having some enjoyable travels too!

Small House homesteader, Donna

Living and Sleeping Under the Sheltering Oaks

The view of the Small House from the back side of our property.

I can’t help but share more of the exquisite fall color we are experiencing here on the homestead. It is simply outstanding this year. The White Oak leaves are now turning brown and dropping. The Maple tree leaves have already turned their bright yellow/orange. The Sassafras leaves are heading towards yellow and the native Dogwood leaves are now a brilliant red. Our local Burning Bushes have sprung into a dazzling pink and the St. John’s Wort’s shrubs are a lovely mix of yellow/green heading towards orange.

A small landscaped bed in the front of the Small House focus’ on fall color!

Our property is now surrounded by the most beautiful color-making-autumn and in my opinion, one of the prettiest times of year here on the Small House Homestead. I just can’t spend enough time out-of-doors now. The cleaning, the cooking and organizing just does not matter enough right now. Time enough for that work later on when the snow is blowing.

I am standing on the road to capture the front of our Ranch-style home.

The past few weeks have been rainy with gray sky period so that meant no blue sky, no sunshine and there no great fall shots! For a while there I had to settle for a vignettes of pumpkins, Halloween flag and the last of the summer flowers.

A woodpile stacked up against the wood lot of oaks and pines to the east of our home. This area features a large cut-back meadow where I had hoped to someday have miniature goats!

This stack of logs is a current favorite of the chickens to free range in the early evening.

But this week the blue sky is back and I am soaking up the sunshine and photographing with a vengeance!

Our pole barn side garden curves back to the chicken coop and run area.

Winter is coming in quickly now and we are due for a heavy frost. This means we are powering our way through the rest of the garden clean up chores; putting away anything that might freeze and cleaning out the dead and the dying.

The Rhodies coop inside their protected run soaks up the afternoon sun.

The cement chickens were stored in the barn, the metal benches safely stored away as well. We quickly planted 12 burning bush starts today hoping to take advantage of the coming rainfall to nestle them in for the long winter ahead. These starts pop up here and there from our other burning bushes and in the spring I dig them up and pot them up for the summer.

I have allowed the overgrown shrubs to stay in order to help buffer our home from the Class AA roadway traffic. Luckily we have the proper large-scale 5-acre property and big open sky that allows this.

I am trying to create a visual barrier and some more fall color by planting them on the dirt side road where Consumer’s Energy cut down our 23, 75-year-old pines because, they said, they were growing too close to their power lines. You may have read this before but quite frankly I am still mad that an owner before us signed an easement that allows them to come 350 feet on our property and no amount of explanation, questioning or even begging would deter them from cutting down our wind block of tree. Lesson learned… NEVER ever sign an easement with a corporation. And when buying property make sure you find out if any easements have ever been signed before you close.

I hope you are not tired of me saying this…our Small House Under a Big Sky!

Please enjoy the autumn wherever you live.

Small House Homesteader, Donna

The Small House in its Autumn Glory-Photo Diary

I apologize for being so out of touch lately. Fall is such a busy time of year for us at The Small House that the outdoor work just takes over our lives. Hopefully I can make up for fewer blog posts of late with some interesting and lively photographs sharing the beauty of our homestead in the autumn.

We’ve had a hard frost already here in SW Michigan. Hard enough that it froze my remaining potted annuals and tender hydrangeas but once again the weather has turned warm. In these parts we call these warm days, our Indian Summer. I am enjoying the warm sunshine as are our animals who love to lay in the warm dirt and dust or nap.

Our small house under the big SW Michigan sky. 

The surrounding woods are taking on new shades of reds, yellow and amber thanks to the cooler nights. There is a vivid beauty about the countryside now that stirs my soul.

This bed, with its ornamental grasses and mum’s really shines in the Autumn.

As those of you who homestead know; this time of is year we call “The Crunch Time” or “The Fall Rush.” I imagine that you are working as hard as we are to gather the last of the vegetable harvest, to close down the gardens and get the animals and their pens ready for winter. These seasonal chores plus my plantar fasciitis, physical therapy and various doctor’s appointments have kept me on the run.

While I honestly prefer a more home-center, slower-paced way of life, I know I must take care of my health right now and that means many appointments in town and twice-weekly working out.

The billowing and blowing grasses are among my favorite native perennials.

The fruits of our labor can be enjoyed in our perennial gardens right now. Native perennial plant, stones hauled home from farmers fields and roadside ditches, mingle with my carefully chosen plantings and projects all lovingly built and maintained, that shine during the Michigan fall. I enjoy every season here but if I had to choose my favorite, I think it would be autumn.

The fenced-in black raspberry patch is one of our chicken’s favorite runs.

Here is a peek at the Small House Homestead this week in all of our lovely fall glory.

Shrubs and feeders provide food and shelter for our beloved songbirds.

Our non-working in-the-ground pool resides nestles up against the forest edge.

Bales of hay will block the winter winds to the chicken run and coop areas. Then next spring these bales will be broken down for mulch in the garden.

The chicken condo complex is nestled under our majestic White Oak trees.

The pool shack, meadow grasses and the wood lot in late October.  

Our 1950’s era ranch-style home. Yes, that is an old-fashioned TV antenna not a UFO!

The pool shack storage shed with our home in the distance.

The pool complex, storage shack and garden.

I hope you enjoyed you enjoyed a taste of fall on our homestead.

Small House homesteader, Donna

A Late Summer Night Stroll with the Rhodies

We’ve started a new homestead tradition this summer and that is letting the chickens out of their run every night for a bit of an evening stroll. It’s been so hot this past week that they pretty much lay under the raspberries during the heat of the day as even walking around in the shade take too much energy. But by early evening when the temperatures cool off a bit they come alive again. I want them to have some exercise and this evening walkabout strategy has seemed to interest them greatly.

                           Chicken pecking on Gene’s shoes. Such funny birds!

I chose to not let them truly free-range, fulltime on our property for several reasons but they have been enjoying a little free time stroll around the vegetable garden and yard each evening.

The Rhodies find an area of moss and enjoy munching it.

Our Cochin’s who have lived within their fence in pastures for the past year are not comfortable coming out with us yet and run right back into their run area for an apparent feeling of security. To bad girls!

    Snowball the Cochin won’t come further out of her pen than the gate.  

But the adventuresome four-month-old Rhodies seem to adore their nightly stroll with us. It is really fun to watch them walk around, explore, looking for and finding bugs and running to catch up with one another.

Sometimes I sit on the grass and they come up to me and peck at my clothing and shoes. This gives me the perfect opportunity to observe their legs and feet looking for mites, to peek at their bottom to make sure we have no pasty butt issues going on. They won’t let me hold them to do a thorough check over but as long as I can “observe” their health every day, I am comfortable.

 The Rhodies like to walk along the fence row of their run looking for bugs.

Two Rhodies boldly venture over towards the pole barn.

I hope you enjoy today’s photo diary!

Small House homesteader and chicken keeper, Donna