Ruminations on the Homestead

I wrote this last winter for Helium and I thought I would share it for the benefit of folks who are just finding their way here. I have been writing a lot of firearm and shooting related posts lately but that is really a very small part of the Frugal prepared Christian's lifestyle.

"Reflections of living everyday with a passion"

I watched a wintry sun rise on a clear, crisp morning. As I drank a cup of coffee, I looked back on the circle I have traveled. Having been born seven miles from where I sit. To enjoying all the Rockies have to offer in the west for 25 years.

Now I have returned to my passion, my homestead. This plot of ground has been in the family since 1866. My great-great grandfather built the house I live in. The wood furnace will need to be stoked, the chickens fed and watered. Fresh eggs, white or maybe brown or even green, with bright yellow yokes that really stand up in the pan will be for breakfast, along with homemade bread for toast with butter and homemade jam to top it off. This is real food. They say a city egg is no different from a country egg. I beg to differ, and invite anyone who believes it to come over for breakfast sometime.

The garden is organic and no chemicals have touched it since we returned five years ago. Tomatoes and salsa are canned. Jam is put up if we can keep ourselves from eating all the blackberries and raspberries. We will dry some apples this year from our 100-year-old Grimes Golden apple tree. Put up some pears from an equally old pear tree that no one seems to know the variety of. Maybe we can save enough Green Gage plums from the trees my great grandpa planted to can some this year or maybe make some of my mothers famous plum jam.

We will plant rows of Roma tomatoes for canning. Lots of bell and banana peppers for eating, and put in a large plot of Indian corn for ourselves and the chickens. Rhubarb and elderberries will go in the freezer for cobblers, and just maybe we will find time to put in the large patch of potatoes this year that we always seem to talk about. Cucumbers, peppers and zucchini will go in the little vegetable stand at the end of our lane.
We don't have prices just a donation can. The herb garden will supply our chives, garlic and dill for the pickles. Lemon Balm and Peppermint iced tea will cool us off this summer.

Cutting wood and mowing will keep me in shape. Grass clippings from two acres will go on the garden for mulch, as will the litter from the chicken house. Fall will bring the Hickory nuts from the woods and leaves for the garden. The wood chipper will shred the branches into mulch or litter for the chicken coop. Seeing the fruits of our own hands brings a pleasure that goes beyond mere words.

Still clinging to my God and my guns,
Randy