The thing about incubators full of fuzzy chicks is they don’t stay that way long! See them hatching here. Our laying hens and turkeys are growing so fast, they left us scrambling to provide larger runs to house so many birds. The young poults outgrew the brooder quite quickly and began the transition to living…
Philip and I both enjoy the water. One of the benefits of living in Florida is lots of different types of water activities. I had no idea that we could go shrimping to harvest shrimp right off the dock of the nearby Saint John River A Weekend Getaway to go Shrimping Philip and I made…
One of the perks of living a homesteading lifestyle is that you often get calls to rehome unwanted farm animals. Roosters are probably the most frequently rehomed animal, sometimes we take them, as Philip rarely passes up a free meal. We have had a few animals that were quite a bargain. A turkey who kept…
The 2019 garden was the most successful garden we’ve had… We used a three sisters approach to planting the corn, green beans and squash. While our garden was amazing, it’s really crowded and hard to get to the plants in the corn. Here at the Florida House we’re still learning and enjoying the journey… heres…
Since our visits to the homestead are limited, we try to get as much done as we possibly can. We do take “some” time for fun as well. My parents, Tom and Betty-Lou Seager joined us for their first trip to Kowalski Mountain. Philip actually did really well taking time this trip to slow down…
In July of 2019 we took another workcation to Kowalski Mountain. The goal of this barn raising trip was to get the roof on the barn. We brought reinforcements this year, my parents Tom and Betty-Lou Seager made their first trip to the homestead to help. My dad is a skilled carpenter and my mom…
The animals on our farm all need a purpose, some are breeding stock and will enjoy a long life on the homestead. Others are raised specifically for food. The faster they mature and reach the desired size, the better, to reduce the costs in raising those animals. Part of the process we are learning at…
It seems that most everyone loves bacon and eats it in excess, but when we made bacon the first time, I was amazed at how much bacon you actually get from a single pig, it’s not near as much as you think. Which is true for all cuts of meat. We live in a society…
Preserving summer’s bounty is an important part of a homesteading lifestyle. Canning is one of the ways we preserve our food. After toiling in the garden, the vision of jars lined on the pantry shelf are a sweet reward for the season’s work. Of course, we don’t grow everything we preserve, some of the bounty…
In the Spring of 2019 we began the frame work of the first permanent structure on Kowalski Mountain. Barn raising part 1 takes the homestead to the next level. Logs Cut and Peeled We cut down a total of 11 trees and began the process of peeling them. They peel kind of like a banana……
