Before I met Philip, I had tried processing just one leg of venison, my one take away from that experience was… Kiss the butcher, you appreciate what he does more than you know. I have to admit I feel that way still, I get overwhelmed when I look at the starting point. Philip doesn’t seem…
The best part about fall on the homestead is we focus less on work projects and more on enjoy our time there. That’s not to say, there are no work projects, like all farms, the work never ends. Our visit with Eric Kowalski, Jess Tidwell and Weston was extremely special to have three generations of…
We celebrated Thanksgiving early with Eric Kowalski and Jess Tidwell, Philip’s son and daughter-in-law as well as our neighbors the Duvalls. We brought a very special Thanksgiving guest. Westin wasn’t sure of what to think of the turkey. he liked him much better in the cage rather than when Philip held the bird. The whole…
Butchering day finally arrived for our parent’s pigs. We told them what we were up to so they would be prepared to put a pig in their freezers and they wanted to help with butchering. We worked together to load the pigs nto the trailer to give these piggies a wagon ride to the butchering…
On the homestead we have a variety of hunting stands: lock on’s, ladder stands, double stands, and tripods. We have several popup ground blinds and sometimes we make one out of tree branches for cover. Philip wanted a sheltered shoot house to use when weather might make hunting less than desirable. Building the Shoot House…
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…
