Update time!

   Well it's been a little over a month now since I've posted anything but I've got a completely reasonable explanation.

   About a year ago I started taking the medication Paxil in 40mg dose. It was for severe chronic depression, and initially it really did help me. However, around August I started to feel nothing. Literally nothing at all. Its the weirdest thing in the world to have absolutely no emotions about anything. I felt like a robot. So I tried going cold turkey. This was a colossal mistake that almost landed me in the emergency room. I went from "ok" to vomitting on myself, shaking, passing out, and having convulsions in the bathroom in a timeline of about 45 minutes. Luckily, my ever level-headed husband was there with me the whole time. From that day forth began the tedious and unpleasant process of weening myself off of the nasty drug. Do you know what helped immensely? Raw milk. I think raw milk actually saved me. Thankfully our dairy goat, Buttermilk, was in full milk and producing about 3/4 gallon a day being milked just once. I've read a few studies about the effects of raw milk on the body and the general conclusion is that even thought here is a miniscule risk (and if handled properly I believe there is none), raw milk can have antidepressant and other positive effects on the body. The only negative side effect was that the Paxil made it impossible to lose weight and the raw milk made it very easy to put it on. Needless to say I gained about 18lbs in 6 months. Getting off of Paxil took me a full two months. I was pretty ill, and miserable during the whole process too. The thing no one had warned me about before taking Paxil is that it can take up to a year to fully leave your system and you can still experience withdrawal symptoms at 6-8 months.  I started having a relapse about two months ago and it got pretty bad. It's been an uphill battle since. 

   Moving on... I also had a minor tragedy and blow to my self esteem and enthusiasm when all of my seedlings I'd started inside damped off and died. I lost every single one. It was a huge thing to me since my seedlings are like babies to me. I'd never even heard of "damping off" before. But if you'd like to find out more or just take preventive measures of your own read up on it here:

https://extension.umass.edu/floriculture/fact-sheets/damping-bedding-plants-and-vegetables


   But as they say live and learn! I've since started all my seeds outside and everything has been going swimmingly. We got all the beds tilled, fenced, and seeded within a few weeks. As you can see to the right we've also had some new additions on the farm in the shape of surprise chicks! I'll try to post again soon since in truth I don't have any updated pictures of the seeds I started (again). It's been so muddy out that my opportunities have been few a far between. 

-Colleen P. & The Little Red Homestead 

Happy Valentine's Day from The Little Red Homestead!

 
   I've been dragging my feet on an updated post for three weeks now. I believe I have a case of the "winter blues" since I've been sleeping 9+ hours a day and eating my weight in food daily. (either that or my husband finally knocked me up). But thanks to the wave of gorgeous weather we're having I've been more active again this week. 

 
Firstly I want to wish anyone who reads this a happy Valentine's Day. I don't typically brag about myself but I went 22 years without a kiss, candy, a date, or a boyfriend on Valentine's Day so I'm going to brag! Kent and I have actually been married exactly 18 months tomorrow too. He took off work and we went to the zoo while it was completely empty and 65 degrees. Which he followed by taking me to my favorite, and only decent, pizza restaurant in Texas- Olivella's in Highland Park. And just when the day couldn't have gotten better we hit Society Bakery on Greenville Ave. I really though that was the end of it but then last night I also got two dozen roses and a brand new tiller! I'm one very excited wife today! 



My husband and I have been tilling our flowerbeds by hand
using a pickaxe, which has been a nightmare to say the least. But the tiller is going to make a world of difference. Instead of just doing the boxes we're also going to till about 1/4 an acre now. More room = more food for us. My seedlings have really started popping up this week too. I don't usually start seeds because A] I'm impatient and B] I've spent $150 on organic heirloom seeds and had maybe a 50% germination rate in the past. This is my first really successful year with seeds but I'm also a lot more educated about cultivation and farming in general than I was even a year ago. My Mortgage Lifter tomatoes were the first to rear their pretty green heads. Which, as an avid tomato enthusiast, is very exciting. Mortgage Lifters are know for their enormous size and flavor. I see a lot of salsa in our future considering my jalapenos, onions, and cilantro have also started poking through.

This is Paprika "tolerating" human attention

   I've also been trying to find homes for the excess roosters we have from last summer. My mother-in-law and I didn't know how to sex chicks last summer and boy has it come back to bite us in the ass. We were up to 14 roosters briefly. I'm attaching a really helpful link about sexing chicks so you don't make the same mistakes we did: 

http://animalsciences.missouri.edu/reprod/ReproTech/Feathersex/sld006.htm

   Starting chicks ourselves has been a really wonderful experience in general however. The chickens I was given are tolerant of human interaction but I'd hardly call them friendly. However, the chicks we raised and handled daily are very friendly. I really spoiled our Mille fleur rooster to a fault. He demands to do morning chores while perched on my shoulder or head. He also coo's while you pet him. The hens have just started laying the last couple weeks which was great news since my New Hampshire Reds have reached 3 1/2 years old and are no longer laying age. 

   I'm most likely going to update again this weekend with a review of the Cub Cadet tiller and some pictures of the garden "in progress."  But for now I hope you have a wonderful weekend and Valentine's Day. 





-Colleen P. & the Little Red Homestead

 

Homesteading Spring preparations and some confessions of an inexperienced home builder

    A majority of the last six months has been spent prepping for this spring. This is our first year seriously homesteading and it's going to be a year of experimentation. 

   Last summer our 11 acres produced enough lavender to stuff several small pillows, 3 red globe peaches, more eggs than we could eat or sell, several dozen gallons of goat's milk, some inedible goat cheese, and a very small portion of our vegetables. It was a fantastic way to dip our toes into farming. But it was definitely not enough to sustain a family throughout the year, let alone the summer. That's what we're hoping to change this spring. 

   My husband and I first discussed the homesteading movement several years ago after watching a series of food related documentaries on Amazon Prime video. We thought it sounded like a great idea to save money on food and eat healthier. We didn't really know what to expect since neither one of us had ever lived or worked on a farm before. So, when we did move out to our land (confession: We lived with my husband's mother for 5 months to save money.) we began putting our plans into action. However, money has been very tight and homesteading is not cheap. No one ever told me that a load of top soil would be upwards of $200! Now imagine buying 6 loads- all at once- unexpectedly! This is what 2014 was filled with. I felt like I was bleeding money. But I have to say I'm a much smarter and heartier woman because of it. (confession: we didn't have a working shower for 4 months and showered outside using a garden hose until we saved enough to put a shower in.) Even though we were extremely lucky that my husband's boss just happened to be getting rid of the steel building we made our home, it still came with a lot of unexpected costs. When we planned the blueprints for the inside of our home we estimated it would run us about $35,000-$40,000 to build. I'm not going to tell you how much it ended up costing- but if you multiple that by three you'll be in the ballpark. We weren't entirely prepared for the costs. Luckily we're both extremely frugal and resourceful. (confession: we had about 1/3 of the total cost saved prior to building and that made a world of difference.)  It all boils down to what my father-in-law told me the day we poured the slab:

 "everything in construction takes twice as long and costs 

at least double what you estimated."

   What can I say, I was an overly optimistic 24 year old and knew nothing about construction. 

   If you're planning on building a home because it looks so easy and fun on HGTV and Pinterest- I say go for it! But expect the unexpected, like showering outside. Also hope for the best but be financially prepared for the worst. All in all I couldn't be happier with how our house turned out and am beyond thankful for the amount of man-hours my husband, Kent, and his father, Jeff, logged into building it themselves. (confession: my mother deserves a mention for listening to my daily construction and financial related meltdowns for an entire nine months. Sorry, Mom.)

Back to homesteading now! 
 

   We've just constructed a series of raised beds. We chose differing sizes and depths for companion planting and a higher yield.  This year we've chosen to grow corn, cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, watermelon, carrots, collard greens, and squash. I've actually just started some of the seedlings this past weekend on account of the 75 degree weather we're having in central Texas. Also a majority of them take about 6-8 weeks to mature large enough to transplant into our raised beds. 

   Earlier today I took a walk around the property and was greeted by about a million buds on our fruit trees. It makes me kind of nervous that they're budding so early. One of two things will probably happen now: A] we're going to have an early and scorching hot summer or B] we're going to get a late freeze this year and lose a majority of our Plum, Peach, and Nectarine crop

   Like I said before, this year we're experimenting. We've planned out how much of each plant to grow to feed us but it's all based of web research and several dozen library books. I'm going to try to update at least once a month on our progress, yield, and some old timey wisdom and experience.


 


 Colleen P. & The Little Red Homestead

To be a housewife in 2015

   Let me begin by saying that I am by no means ashamed of what I do. I work as hard as some women, less than others, and probably harder than a few. But being a housewife always earns me a few sideways glances and a certain level of disrespect. I feel like I am doing the job both God and I have always planned for myself. I am very domestic at heart and have never felt at home in the workplace. So when I met my husband almost four years ago we immediately discussed the possibility of this lifestyle for ourselves and our family. We understood the consequences and the rewards of having a single income for our family.  

Buttermilk

   I ended up going back to work for about eight months at a church well over an hour away from our home. It was a temporary job to help pad our bank account for building our current home and partially fund our wedding. This was the first time I had ever held a job while in a serious relationship and it was just not going well for us. I left before 6:30am every morning and didn't come home until 5pm. I was struggling to keep up with housework, laundry, dishes, cooking, shopping, wedding planning, and gardening.  This is where a lot of people began to assume things about my husband and I's relationship. Yes, we do adhere to traditional gender roles. Yes, I knew that from the beginning and I'm more than okay with it. But with the stress of wedding planning, building our first home, my domestic chores, and my new job- I was drowning. I've struggled with depression since my early teens and it started hitting me hard during this period. My husband finally drew the line when they denied me a full week off for my honeymoon, despite agreeing to it during the hiring process.

Gingersnap

   This is when my life as a housewife really began. I was finally able to finish planning our wedding with two weeks left to go! And after a blissful honeymoon we settled into our roles as husband and wife. Everything is more difficult with one income but it has really taught me how to budget and manage our money with an iron grip. My husband is also very happy to come home and truly be able to relax. Because I'm home all the time I'm able to do all the shopping, run all our errands, pay our bills, manage our money, keep a clean home, prepare breakfast and lunch for my husband, feed our chickens, take care of our garden, do our laundry, etc. We also plan to run a small farm in the near future where we'll grow a majority of our own food, and butcher our own meat. I feel I also need to mention my husband and I planned the home we built accordingly to our lifestyle. We went with a steel building for durability, low taxes, and inexpensive materials

Salt & Pepper

    So why do I still get the sideways glances? I work hard. I take care of my husband and someday, hopefully soon, I'll also be taking care of our children. I'm just sick and tired of the assumptions that I sit on my ass all day and watch soap operas. My husband and I are a team and work together like a well oiled machine. Being a housewife or a stay at home mom does not make you any less successful than a career woman. If that's what you choose to do with your life, and you work your hardest at it, then there is no shame. So, why is it so looked down on? Why do some people assume that gender roles make you weak? I feel that it's up to the individual and couple to decide what your role is in a relationship and it's no one elses business or place to judge that decision. There are women out there who are able to work full time and manage a household (my mother) but I'm not ashamed to admit I'm not that woman, and that's okay.

Colleen  P.