A weekend of homesteading...

Well, we may have been off-homestead (a rare event) on Friday night, but we have certainly made up for that this weekend.

Some people might say that guinea pigs aren't true livestock, but for this homestead, I will say that they are.  Saturday morning was spent procuring  a larger cage for Simone and Rainbow, and we were greeted with much success.  They are now zooming around their cage with great abandon, much to the cat's annoyance.  Since the tiny furred ones are stationed in our living room, I spent the night on the couch, just to insure that our cats wouldn't try to test their climbing abilities.  Happily, they did not.

With the new cage secured, we went on to spend some serious time on our property on the other side of town.  Of 54 acres, we have tons of forested areas, wetlands, half a brook, and now a nearly cleared camp site.   I also have great plans to rent a mulcher to deal with much of the fallen sticks and logs that land have collected over the years....our gardens will be oh-so-pleased!

Before the evening was over and the sun had completely fallen, I ventured out to the gardens for some harvesting.  Zucchini's growing like crazy, and so are kale and rainbow chard.  Broccoli is also looking awesome, and I was able to harvest two full green heads of it.  All of harvest was stored in the garage for the night, and then dragged back out very early this morning.  It is just after 6am, and I have a blanched 3 freezer bags of kale, 2 of rainbow chard, and 2 of broccoli. 

Basil is also proving to be a bumper crop, but I am in a bit of a puzzle on what to do with it.  I would love to make hordes of pesto, but, frankly, pine nuts are extremely expensive.  I have heard that other, less pricy, nuts can be substituted, and I may venture in that direction. 

The rest of the morning will be spent on cleaning, more gardening, and then off to the beach for an event for the kiddos.  Will be a fantastic time, and I am truely looking forward to it!!