Our Mission

To live a self-sufficient and organic lifestyle for the next half century. With the Grace of God and the power of prayer, we will succeed. Nothing is impossible with His help. It wouldn't be us without laughter and joy at the Cockeyed Homestead.

Find out more about our homestead on these pages

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Self Sustainable: It's a Cyclical Cycle

It's my birthday week and it's time to PAR-TAY! I wish. The truth is my birthday present to me this year is a spinal cord stimulator implant. It will combat my painful post stroke spasticity. It carries a hefty price tag, before insurance of $35K. After the insurance, it'll cost quite literally pennies.

You know you're well into the golden years when the candles cover the top of a 9" cake and then some. Or, the cost of the candles exceed the cost of a store bought cake. I'm past that. I guess I'm old, but I don't feel it. Or, maybe I do with my post surgical pain. Enough about that. Y'all stopped by to read about homesteading, or what going on at the Cockeyed Homestead? Glad you asked.

This week Mel sowed more seeds in the garden. I've been sowing our heat loving seeds indoors. In another month, it'll be time to plant the peppers, tomatoes, and okra inside. It's all about the garden now. Mel also hand sowed about 50 lb of orchard grass down in the orchard. I usually help with this task, but the healing of the implant will restricted my lifting and and bending. Insurance will not cover the replacement of the implant because of me not following the rules post op so I'll be a good girl.

To makes good soil contact, most will tell you to buy a weighted roller. We don't bother. We'll moisten the area before broadcasting the seed, or wait until we've had a good rain shower like we had this week. When we hand broadcast the seed, we do it forward and walk over the seed as we go. Sure, we don't step on every seed, but our plus 100 lb weight does a fairly decent job. We then cover the whole area with a half and half mixture of compost and straw/hay mulch.

We thoroughly expect our chickens and wild birds to help themselves to any exposed seeds. Hand broadcasting heavier combats this issue. It'll give us well defined borders and thin seedling out a bit. We also expect the wild deer to have a go at the orchard area too. They all fertilize the soil and help the seed make good contact with the soil.We'll let Mother Nature water them in. Yes, we keep a watchful eye on the weather when planning the planting days. Why work against Mother Nature? Work with her and take advantage of God's bountiful blessings. It's also an example of working smarter not harder. None of our efforts go to waste. It a cyclical cycle. Whether it's grain in our bellies or meat and eggs for us later on. It's a self sustainable lifestyle.

By working with nature, we have to do less. Less weeding. Less watering. Less general care while reaping the benefits of a full belly. Everything is better with a full belly, isn't it? That doesn't mean we didn't work hard to reach this point, we did. With careful planning and seeing it through with faith and prayer, we've reached this point.

But we aren't resting on our laurels just yet. We've got more in store for our homestead. That's just the way homesteading is. It's thousands of steps to become more  self sustainable. When you reach a goal, there's another one or two to take its place or make it better or more efficient.

Well, I've rattled on enough this fine Sunday.

Y'all have a blessed day!
Jo



2 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday! Glad to hear the surgery went well. I pray your recovery is quick and complete.

    As always, I love reading about your planting. I'm with you on the broadcasting and letting the rain work it to the soil. You and Mel make a good team.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you. It's was spent in three doctors offices :o( Mel and I butt heads a lot but eventually, it all works out.

    ReplyDelete

Agree, Disagree, Indifferent is okay, just let us hear from you. But be warned...evil spirited or threatening comments WILL BE deleted.