March Around the Homestead
March has been a wild time. The weather has been bi-polar and it's got me flip flopping from spring cleaning with the windows open mode to retreating into the depths of my soul doing shadow work mode. I'm honestly not sure how I'm supposed to feel with this months energy. Maybe the upcoming Lunar and Solar eclipses have something to do with that wonky balance.
Hopefully we are finishing off our last real week of winter. Next week has the temperatures rising and the sun shining and I think I can speak for many when I say yipppee!!
March has been all over the place task wise as well. We helped the neighbours with maple syrup, I started seeds, ordered new chicks and ducks, cleaned up the yard over two amazingly sunny 20°c days! I also started a ginger bug, moved our silkie rooster into his new home, and got a huge headstart on indoor spring cleaning. Despite the weather being so erratic this month I feel like a lot was accomplished inside and out.
We live in Zone5b so I started some seeds at the beginning of March: Peppers, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Tomatoes, Green Onions and Luffa Gourd are all well on their way! Next week I will start Lettuce, Beets and Radishes in my outdoor covered kitchen garden and indoors I will start Marigolds and Calendula. Note* I also start these 2 direct but wanted to see if I could get a head start with some.《Forward thinking to the start of/mid April - weather depending, I have seed potatoes, onion sets, peas and carrots on the docket.》
I also ordered our spring chicks, 12 new layers, 50 meat birds and 2 ducklings. They will be arriving May 7th, which is about a month later than I normally order my chicks for, but with the meat birds I'd like them to be able to go outside sooner and sometimes April weather is a fickle bitch. This also gives us plenty of time to prepare for their arrival and build the chicken tractors for the meat birds. ** I will be documenting that journey and will link to it when complete.
This is our first year for meat birds. We have had laying hens for over 10 years now and I have had ducks previously, but they are also a first for us at this property. I am excited and eager to see how they blend into our homestead and what dynamics they will bring.
March also saw our lone silkie roo, Pepsi move into his new bachelor pad. I am trying to find him a couple lady friends and hopefully sooner than later they will join him. I still want to alter the upcycled bunny hutch to suit him better but for now he sure does love crowing up the sun and his ladies across the yard every morning.
One last thing I dove into this month was starting a Ginger Bug. With some personal gut issues and a 12hr tummy bug running through our house it prompted me to get back into fermenting. I have made Kombucha for years and years but the process takes a bit of time and the kids do not care for it.
Making Ginger Soda seemed simple enough and a win win for everyone. I am on day 5 now of my ginger bug starter and soon I will be able to move to the next step. I followed the recipe linked above however, I didn't measure anything and I used organic cane sugar. Here's the little guy on day 2 already bubbling away!!!
I know April around the homestead will be 100x busier than March but I am so looking forward to long sunny warm days outside in my gardens.
Note* this months format is a little different than the previous "around the homestead" articles, mainly because I am writing it closer to the end of the month so it's more like a journal entry than a guide. #lifegotbusy If you prefer one style over the other please let me know in the comments!!
Happy Spring!
One last thing...I had made the outline for an Ostara/Spring Equinox article but time got away from me and it never got posted. I will save it for next year but I wanted to share the spring cleaning diffuser blends I made for it. Please feel free to adjust the number of drops depending on the size of your diffuser, I double or triple the amount of drops for my large diffusers. Note* Lemongrass and Patchouli can be super overwhelming for some - keep the # of drops for them low. Enjoy! ~ K
