Homesteading Update: Squash Patch 2.0, A New Animal Friend, & More!

             Hey folks! I have an insane amount of photos to share with you today, so I really will try to keep the chit chat and extra commentary to a minimum for once. I think it will be evident that we have been busy around the farm/yard.. (I actually am starting to feel like we have a farm because of our recent addition, which you'll see a sneak peek of below!) With that being said, I have a lot more homesteading-related posts I would like to share with you, so I will probably be posting two types of these posts per week for a bit. (Including, what I hope to be, informative posts.) Not to worry, though. If gardening and animal keeping are not your thing, I'll still be having my “regular” posts on Monday as well. :) Ok. I'm already talking too much. Let's jump in...

             Let's start with a cute one. Little Farm Girl here loves toads, for some reason, which totally works out because there are always a ton in our herb bed next to the walkway. In fact, I found this guy when I was weeding the chamomile finally.

             Don't be surprised if I post about a million pictures of our new squash patch over the next few weeks. I re-did this at the beginning of July and am very excited about it! Mostly for the...

             Black beans and spaghetti squash! Everything is doing so awesome so far! I think I mentioned it in my last update, but in this area we planted pumpkins, black beans, butternut squash, cucumbers, zucchini, spaghetti squash, and luffa gourds (for the fun of it).

             Oh yah. Here's a lovely view of me clearing the dead grass. I don't do tall grass or piles of dead grass or anything really where snakes like might to hide, so yah. I felt silly for raking grass, but it comes in handy for animal bedding and food.

             We've been slowly chipping away at some brush clearing too. How we haven't had brush trimmers/pruners/whatever you want to call them sooner is beyond me! They've come in so ridiculously handy so far. (As well as our lawn mower cart!)

             It may not look like it since you can only see this area from one angle, but we cut a ton of smaller trees and used the weed eater pretty extensively too. There's still quite a bit to do, but I'm happy with the progress we made in just one afternoon.

             I found this guy hiding in our giant volunteer pumpkin vine recently! We've had tons of flowers, but that's only like the third pumpkin that has grown at all. I'm wondering if some of the flowers aren't getting pollinated?

             Alright, y'all. It's time for the segway into the chickens. ;) John and I keep talking about planting something in the side yard where the chicken coop is because it's kind of a giant waste of space, so might as well do something useful with it, right? Obviously, it will need to be something we don't care if the chickens eat, so John was thinking grain of some sort. We had this stuff in the picture for whatever reason, so I planned on planting it. We finally got around to planting it after I had used the , you guessed it, weed eater to make rows a few days before and lo and behond...We couldn't use it because it was cracked. Well, we couldn't plant it, at least, so this happened...

 Chicken smorgasbord. I'm sure we'll get something else soon to plant there!

             We've also been trying to eat better and actually cook more often, so the chickens have been benefiting too. They're still a little unsure about food scraps, but they seem to really like buttnernut squash and cantaloupe so far!

             This is Gandalf that Little Farm Girl is snuggling with in both pics. Can you tell she's one of our faves? Also, as much time as Myka spends with the chickens, I'm pretty sure she thinks she is a chicken half the time.

             And finally, for the big reveal, I present to you our new farm friend, Bruce. He's an American Guinea Hog (if you're curious) and has learned very quickly that people=treats and gets very excited, like in the video below. We're all still trying to get used to each other and it's been interesting...And it's been less than a week. He received the nickname Lil B@st@rd the evening we brought him home. But I promised to keep this fairly succinct, so that will be a story for my first pig post. ;)

             What have you been up to lately out in the yard? Are you reaping the benefits of your garden yet? Planning fall crops? Tell me in the comments section below!