Fermented Tea, Culture Capture and Fizzy fruit

I'm sure some of you out there have heard of kombucha, the drink that is fermented into a vinegar/sweet drink. I have tried it and can't say I'm a big fan. It was the vinegar after taste that was hard for me to get around. I loved the health aspects of kombucha but that taste was too much. Perhaps there are flavors that would mask it or I just grabbed a flavor that wasn't very good, either way, I haven't tried it again.

Sometime ago I ventured into brewing mead. I transferred naturally captured yeasts from batch to batch via a bug/mother that I kept fed with honey and filtered water. It bubbled vigorously, enough to make me wonder just how fizzy it really was. I took a few sips, it was a vibrant effervescent soda. It was flavored with organic lemons from my mother in-laws's trees which had me knee deep in lemon meads. This gave me the idea to make a natural soda. (Come to find out there are so many recipes out there for natural sodas but I found out via experimenting)





I had a batch of tea in a sun tea vessel that I ushered into the house after a long warm day of brewing. I sliced lemons and apples into chunks and plopped them in the tea along with a heaping cup of honey and the mead bug. I then covered with a kitchen cloth and let the little yeast go to work. It took about three days to get a healthy bubbly brew. Tea on its own is pretty tasty but adding the fizzy live culture adds a great refreshing kick, especially after working outside in the heat all day.

I also had a terrible soda addiction that seems to be at bay now that I have these ferment/active culture teas. So far its been over a month and I still have the initial culture that has worked many past batches of tea.

Follow me on Instagram for video of the active culture. I tried linking the video here but no such luck!

IG account: rieper_reptilias

I post there fairly frequent as oppose to blogging which is sometimes a week or a week and a half between posts.

Want to make a batch for yourself? Well follow these simple culture capture steps and you will be on your way. I find capturing a mother/bug first would be best instead of brewing a whole quart of tea off the get-go.



The Mother/Bug Recipe:

You will need:

* a large size glass jar (old honey jar or jam jar with lid)

*kitchen towel or paper towel that will cover the opening of jar

*rubber band

*Organic fruit, sliced with peels on (I started with lemons but apples would work just as great. I haven't tried other fruits just yet but I would imagine it would be fine to use pear, peaches and berries.)

*honey or sugar (the quantities will be in steps)

*filtered water (enough to fill your jar half way)

Steps:

1) Fill your jar half way with filtered water. The amount of honey or sugar to use will seem extreme but use 1 cup if honey or half a cup if sugar. If you don't have a large jam jar and had to use something small then 1/2 of sugar or honey would be best.

OPTION: you can warm (not boil) up the water and add your honey or sugar to get even dilution before adding fruit

2)  Add chunks of your fruit into the jar make sure the liquid levels are not at the very top of jar. Give yourself some space to be able to stir and not make a mess plus once active, fizz and fruit can rise.

3) Cover with towel and secure with rubber band. Set somewhere warm and out of direct light.

4) Stir once a day for three days.

You should see some activity around the third day, little bubbles or, if you are lucky, full on bubbling. If not don't sweat it, stir the jar and set aside. Take note that fruit isn't molding, it might brown but should never mold.

Once you see some bubbling, especially after you stir, your bug is ready to start working your batch of tea.

***NOTE***I leave the fruit in the mother so it has a source of sugars to eat while it stores. Also I found it keeps the bug and tea brew fizzy longer. Plus I love flavored teas. Apple and lemon are my favorites but orange and cloves is pretty amazing too. I recommend experimenting with added flavors like cloves, mint, etc...



Tea Brew Items Needed:

*Sun Tea Brew Glass vessel with spigot (just a little over a quart/gallon, small enough to fit in fridge)

* Kitchen towel big enough to cover entire opening of glass vessel

* Rubberband big enough to secure towel to glass vessel

* 1 cup of Honey or 3/4 cup of Sugar

* Organic Fruit chopped with peels on

* Any Tea you like 4-5 bags or half a cup of loose leaf( I use black tea and yunnan tea)

* Filtered water (enough water to boil tea then also to fill vessel)

* Spoon long enough to reach bottom of vessel to stir

* Mother/Bug ( I use about 1/4 of the liquid, avoid dumping the fruit it.)

STEPS:

1) Heat up water to a boil in a medium pot, turn off the heat and add tea.  Let the tea cool down enough where you are able to insert a finger in brew without discomfort. This is to ensure that you don't accidentally boil your culture when it gets added. Strain out tea then add your honey or sugar and stir till incorporated.

2) Fill your glass vessel with the tea brew, add filtered water till your jar is 80% full. Add your fruit and the mother/bug. Give it a good long stir.

3) Covered with kitchen towel and secure with rubber band. Place somewhere warm and out of the way. Next day give it a stir and cover, you will stir once a day for three days.



4) Sample your tea. Is the fizziness noticeable? Is it too sweet? Is it not fizzy?

Troubleshooting:

Not fizzy? Answer: add 1/4 cup of sugar, honey or fruit juice and stir again. Try again in a few hours.

Is it too sweet? Answer: Allow to sit out one more day and sample again. The culture will eventually tone down the sweetness even if you place it in the fridge. I've had batches that the sweetness all but disappeared after two days in the fridge. It had something like a ghost sweetness, it was weird but totally cool :0

5) Place your finished tea in the fridge. It keeps for awhile but if you don't drink tea as often as say once a day, then make sure you are sampling the brew before next use. The sweetness could be gone. Just add more sugar or honey.

NOTE: After you are done with obtaining the small amount from the mother, replenish what you took by adding filtered water, more sugar and stir. Allow the mother to sit out one day then cover with lid and place in fridge. You can keep your original culture going and ensuring a healthy bug with each feeding. I tend to go through my teas every three to four days. (I use two sun tea brew vessels, about a quart size). I feed my mother regularly after I take from her.

Play with different teas, fruits and sweetness levels. It's a bit of an art form but extremely worth it especially if you want to kick your soda addiction. Also it's a healthy thing to do for your gut microbes.  I also encourage you to keep the old fruit from previous batches to help kick start your future brews. I tend to keep them for three batches then replace them with freshly sliced fruit.

Early Seed Starts

I love artichokes and purchasing them requires some life choices in the grocery store which have me shuffling my feet and wondering if I need toothpaste and deodorant that month.

Since acquiring our land, I dreamt of artichokes. Harvesting bucket LOADS and throwing them up in the air like a dream sequence when someone wins money. End shot would be with my hair up in a romantic style, in full day time television drama makeup and adorned in diamonds whilst sipping my wine in a bathtub full of artichokes.

<DREAM SEQUENCE END>

The reality is, I've never grown an artichoke before and so I went to the library of quick knowledge, YouTube. I realize that I go there a lot, and no, I have never picked up a book. Not that I wouldn't pick up a book and read about all the hundreds of things I want to grow and how to do it,  I'm a visual learner. I need to see it in works, real time. So forgive me if I mention it often. I know there are people who scoff at using YouTube to learn homesteading but then again they themselves are putting up videos on 'how to..."

<RANT END>

whew...sorry heh

I watch quite a few videos and some talk about using all these addition to soils and testing soils. Perhaps I should, but right now I have no such things to do so and money is tight in these parts. I HOPE that just enriching the soil with different composts and ensuring it drains well will be ok. You will be going on this journey with me if you stick around.

Seeds I'm using, Purple of Romagna.



I'm starting them indoors in my tiny green house/laundry/pantry/// back porch. Space is tight but my handy hubby made a GREAT seedling shelf with a cedar board taken from our barn.

When I first planted the seeds I used some regular seed start pots. WRONG. Bad. Three days after I had planted the seeds I found out that artichokes need root trainer pots, they have tap roots that go deep. I wasn't going back to the garden center BUT I did have many empty plastic bottles from a free case of water. I went digging in the recycle bin and cut the tops off all the bottles. I used basic potting soil mix and some compost which I sprinkled at the bottom of the bottles.

I then recovered a dozen seeds and placed them in their new homes. A few days later I got three sprouts.





I imagine that germination isn't going to be 100% so I waited a few more days. My curiosity did win out so a couple of days ago I shuffled through the soils and found a couple had rotted and others were too deep. I readjusted a couple and added new seeds to the rotted seed bottles. This morning I discovered a new sprout poking through the soil.



I'm going to give the others another week then I may reuse the soil for other things. Like I said, space is tight. Artichokes should be started indoors 2-3 months before planting outside after threat of frost is gone. In Texas our last frost is usually early maybe late March. Winter here has been rather warm and came really late. I got a feeling that April maybe the true month to plant. Once they have matured in the garden I hear that they will over winter well in Texas, zone 8b.

This weekend I will start tomatoes and peppers along with cucumbers. I will probably change my mind and do it today. I'm so flighty that way. There's a dozen avocado saplings in the green room that need to make their way into our computer room so I have the extra shelf space. I can't wait till we get a real greenhouse!

Our Future Planting Beds

As Winter hits and things are on auto pilot, I was researching all the seeds I would want to plant this coming Spring. I'm still debating on all the varieties I would love to see this season. I also have to face facts that I would be the sole eater of many of the things I grow. My husband has a short bucket list of veggies that make it into his mouth.

One thing is for sure, I want stuff that stores well and that I can harvest seeds from if able. Of course, I have my tomato seeds selected, those are a no brainer along with carrots and potatoes. Greens are a must as well but how much and what varieties? That's is the question across the board with everything else.

I might be in a slight analysis paralysis. So in effort to pull myself out of this I started building beds. I do love a raised bed but that's a costly thing. Building all the uniform raised beds would be VERY labor intensive. Not to mention we just don't have the money, tools and space to build such things. Maybe later down the road we can build pretty raised beds with new materials that will last.

So I decided in-ground planting was best and I will be using hugelkultur methods in two forms, low level and top level. We had success in the single raised bed we built last summer burying logs under the soil. Soil held moisture in the hot summers of south Texas and provided the mycelium to help break things down. That coupled with compost made a good winner in my books.

My daughter helped a great deal! If it wasn't for her I would probably have only gotten one done so far.  Lots of digging, soil shuffling, wood cutting (with axe) and log dragging. 

We started with the tomato bed. This will need to be big because I plan on growing enough to can and to save seeds. Plus I would probably do a lot of grazing.

We dug down deep for this bed because it does stay humid in SA. We don't want to have to water the tomatoes all the time and risk fungus infections. I rather have to water infrequently and have the soil stay nice a moist deep down. We probably dug down a good 2 ft and lined the bottom with big logs and many limbs. We used composted dirt from a large wood and brush pile that is 10 years old, worm casting, regular compost and leaf mold all mixed together. Then I added egg shell dust, banana peels, comfrey clippings and a three gallon jug of failed mead. So basically, wood, dirt, amendments and more dirt. Then we covered it all with straw then watered it down and laid some coverings to keep the soil protected from sun, wash out and scavengers. 

Then we construction small beds the same way a few with above ground hugelkultur method. These will be for greens and maybe squash. One of these beds is home to two goji berries, so crossing fingers that the frost didn't kill them. 

I have some rough plans I sketched out. 

When I get a handle on all the beds and what is going to get placed in them I will blog more on the construction progress. The potato beds and carrots bed locations are picked out. I might bite the bullet and build a large raised bed for the potatoes and utilize large pots. I have three sweet potato varieties purchased and we will be doing some regular potatoes too.

Sourdough Recipe for People Like Me, The Frustrated.

There are tons of sourdough recipes out there for your perusing enjoyment. I have went through many tutorials from blogs, books and videos. Technical recipes that have had all the love and art form removed from it's precise and tedious hands. Sorry, I sound bitter..SOUR even. <ahem>

My whole life as someone who cooks with her heart and her taste buds, using scales and measurements devices all have been a loosely suggested idea. I scoffed and turned my nose up at such things. I am a conductor and flavors are an orchestrated symphony that knows no limits and no measuring spoon or cup. Till I got into baking. Ego deflated....

I could go on and on about all the failures but instead let's get on with what I found that works. Over the long course of time I have managed to make some strong and healthy starters. Nothing compared to the first starter I made when we were living in Okinawa. It was a ravenous thing that seemed to take a life of its own. Looked like it wanted come out of the jar to find its own damn flour to eat. Even though I failed at the breads, the starter has always been an easy thing for me to make.

Ok, sourdough enthusiasts if it's your first time let's begin with the starter. I suggest using an unbleached flour to get things rolling. I used King Arthur brand, white or wheat I've had success with each.

Once you have selected a nice large bag of flour you will need:

* large bowl that is capable of holding OVER 4 cups of frothing liquid. Preferably not plastic. Ceramic is best IMO.

* A source of filtered water.

* kitchen towel and rubber band that can encompass the bowl.

* Space on counter top (in a warm location if possible)

* Dry measuring cup and wet measuring cup. (this is how I measure)

**NOTE: This will take roughly three days, maybe longer since its a fresh culture. Depends on the temperature of the kitchen.

1. Add 2 cups (dry measurement) of flour to the bowl and 2 cups (wet measurement) of filtered water. Stir till flour is evenly incorporated, it will look very soupy.

2. Cover with kitchen towel and secure with rubber band. Place in open space on counter top or somewhere it won't get in the way, some where warm.

NEXT DAY:

1. Add 1 cup flour and 1 cup filtered water. Stir to evenly incorporate and recover.

Repeat for third day.

What to look for with your starter: Bubbles, smells yeasty and looks like it's frothy. If none of the mentioned characteristics are present it could be that the kitchen is too cold or it will take a bit longer for capture of wild yeasts. Ensure warmth and feed with 1:1 ratio each day.

IF bowl is getting too full remove 1 cup. Always ensuring that there is at least 4 cups of starter in the bowl. Then feed 1:1 flour/water. Stir and cover.

Example of a previous starter:



TIP: save a bit of this starter for future bread making. So you have a healthy culture to throw in the mix of new starters. I refrigerate mine and take it out once a week to feed equal parts flour and water. Discard or use half if its getting too full. I keep mine in a mason jar and use in pancakes.

Once starter is nice and healthy it's time for the next fun step, bread making. Its best to start this early in the day to allow it to rise a few hours.

**NOTE: The tutorial I saw, said to leave it all day, from early morning till late afternoon. Granted, it's winter and she heated her home with a wood stove (lives in fairly cold climate) so I'm guessing it took longer to rise. If you live somewhere that is warmer in climate you probably won't need to wait all day. I live in Texas and winters here are NOT cold. In fact, when I made this bread it was mid 70s, my kitchen was around high 70s maybe 80 (I don't have central heat and air, just a green house room attached to kitchen that I use to heat my house to save energy) Took 2-3 hours for a nice rise.

You will need:

* Large mixing bowl

* Salt (I use regular non iodized)

* Flour

* Wet measuring cup

* Dutch oven(deep and medium size) or baking stone (pizza stone, large size)

1. Measure out 4 cups of active starter into large bowl. Add a desired amount of salt. ( I find this is personal preference)

2. Add flour to the starter in the large mixing bowl. This is where you add enough flour to make a sticky, shaggy dough. Careful not to add too much, we don't want this dough dry at all. We want it wet and sticky before we start kneading.

3. Flour surface of counter top very liberally. Scrape sticky dough mixture onto surface and flour top of dough and also your hands. Start kneading with a fold over motion, grabbing dough and folding it toward you. Add flour if it sticks to your hands and to the surface as you knead.

4. You will be kneading for 10 minutes straight. While you are kneading keep in mind we don't want the dough dry and stiff. It will be slightly sticky but shouldn't stick to surface and hands. After 10 minutes of kneading it should have a nice elasticity and hold shape, form the dough into a ball shape.

5. Place the balled dough into either a dutch oven or on a baking stone. I have used dutch ovens but I think it would be better on a baking stone for expansion reasons.

6. Place somewhere warm like in the stove with the light on or on a countertop. I suggest in the stove if possible. You should see a noticeable rise in a few hours. AGAIN, depends on the warmth of kitchen and maybe also humidity. IF your kitchen is cold allow an all day rise, if it stays warm give it 3 hours and check on it.

7. When its time to bake, set the oven to 450 degrees. (remove the rising doughs if they were placed in oven). You can score the tops of the dough before or after the rise, its up to you. Bake for 35-40 minutes. The tops will be brown and it should have risen a bit more while baking. Tap the crust and listen for a nice hollow sound. Remove from oven.

**NOTE: Allow the bread to cool completely before slicing into it.

The crust should be firm and crunchy but not rock hard. The inside soft and light.  See attached pic of my first successful breads. Also why I think a stone is better than dutch oven because my tops popped off.



Here is the link to the YouTube video I watched to make my first successful bread. She gave no mention of temperatures or time so I had to figure that out on my own. But the video is golden with how to get things happening.

An American Homestead YouTube channel. Sourdough video link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKfGupl0Ztc&t=10s

I will be making more soon!

Weekend Fun

Since moving in to the homestead things have been all about cleaning, fixing and organizing. I think the key to being recharged when faced with large tasks that could take a long time to complete is to just let go and save it for another day.

It's hard for sure, I worry over everything from hardly having storage space to the constant fur and dirt in my house. I have two fluff balls and the doors hardly seal correctly. So I try my hardest to just ignore things that are out of my control, like the constant tumblings of debris from under the front and back doors.

I don't have many responsibilities at the moment, no farm animals and nothing growing just yet so I'm able to get away with jumping into hobbies or just zoning out. It's how I recharge and step away from arduous tasks. Not forever, but for a short time.

The homestead is in the slumber of winter and the only big things we can do here is chop down dead trees and trees we don't want. We have currently one huge pile of brush, limbs, vines and logs. I'm just one person, husband works full time, so I try to not be too hard on myself or him when it doesn't get moved or stored in long term locations. If I had my way I would be out there everyday BUT sometimes a healthy break is needed. My husband reminds me when I need to hear those words.

Things I have lost myself in when I need a break:

Brewing was introduced to me by a dear friend. I have successfully brewed 3 out of 4 batches of tasty lemon and apple flavor meads. My last batch I buggered up with some fruit that may have had spores of mold. Expensive mistake that had me bummed out for a couple of days. I will post in another article my novice attempts at brewing.

Sourdough...sourdough. SIGH. OK, I have attempted this monster for a little over a year. I followed recipes from chefs, from bakers and from down home country folk on YouTube. It's an art form that requires the right instructor and after a year and some change I finally found a recipe that clicked. I will be posting that separately as well. Promise!

Also in addition to hobbies which also include yarn spinning and crocheting I have been in research mode for all my seeds. I have each packet filed under dates of when to start indoors and when to plant outdoors. As much as I would absolutely love to plant each thing the winning seeds were decided by heirloom, diversity in the garden and what would be feasible for me to handle alone. I'm a first timer when it comes to creating a large garden and I only ever had one raised bed that I tinkered in late summer and autumn. I have to get my feet wet and slowly grow the garden in size each year.

Perhaps I think too hard on things but I'm sure over the years choices will be made with ease when I know what works well in my area and what I'm able to handle.

As much as I need time off from things I also need a boot to the butt when it comes to getting things started. This blog helps me get my head in the right space to just go out and do the things I have dreamt of.

This rambling was more for me and there maybe more. :)

Building and Hulgelkultur Planting

Since we were about to buy the property (little over a month ago) we decided to try our hand at building a raised bed area. We drew up plans and had big ideas. We've come to realized that we went about it all wrong.

We bought cedar boards and lattice to build the beds, mistake one. Cedar is darn expensive, SUPER darn expensive but it looks great!

We spent maybe a weekend building everything, it was a great learning process for me. We have gopher and moles on our property so we fortified the underside of our beds with chicken wire. The holes are big enough for worms to come in but too small for anything else. Also, I lined the beds with cardboard so there's a temporary form of protection just below the wire lining.


This serves as a barrier so my garden had time to get roots deep before weeds try to take over. The other benefits are water retention and as the cardboard breaks down from being eaten by worms it will provide rich nutrients to the soil. Win-Win in my books. The boxes aren't a 100% weed proof method, the bothersome things found their way into the beds but I'm able to manage the numbers easily.


Mistake two: We built this thing where it gets shade from 1pm and on. We have trees behind the beds that are very tall and throw shade on most of the structure starting early afternoon. My herbs are fine with the shade, mints, purple basil, catnip, purslane and sage. My tomatoes and peppers are not on board with the shade at all, fortunately I planted the tomatoes where the sun hits the beds the most. My peppers I had to just pray they would produce (they did but they don't look very healthy).


Our method for soil preparation was going the hulgelkultur route. We live in Texas and things get dry during the hots days of summer. I like this method for water conservation since we have only city water at the moment. So far this is working like gangbusters and I will be using this throughout future gardens. We have a huge woodpile in the back of our property that has been there for years and been added to over time. We used older logs and branches to place on top of the wire and cardboard bedding. The older the better because the mycelia had begun working at breaking down the logs which make the nutrients readily available to the garden. Also you get mushrooms which I love finding on cool damp mornings.





The soil we used was potting mix from a big home garden store, soil from our aged woodpile and top soil mixed with compost we got down the road from a soil and rock store. I also threw in compost I made. After we planted we mulched with cedar wood chips, minor mistake number three. I say mistake because I would rather native mulch than cedar up near the plants plus it would break down faster than cedar. I think if we were to use cedar again it would be only for walk ways between the garden plots.


I know there's lots of talk about Back to Eden garden method which would be great at water retention as well but we don't have a form of free manure to amend the soil when needed. I have noticed that the wood chips seems to attract a lot of bugs. Nothing that seems to hurt my garden but its a bit concerning when I step on the mulch and tons of these little stinkbug looking things come scurrying out. This maybe just a Texas thing, I don't know.


What we have done to remedy the lack of free manure for the time being is by purchasing a worm farm and many red wigglers. This will take some time for us to reap the benefits of the worm castings but it's helping with all the kitchen waste while my compost bins are tied up with cooking up the last grass cutting of the season, previous kitchen scraps and leaf collection. I would do an open pile but we have so many wild animals that scavenge the property at night I would hate to keep up with the mess.


I also do some chop and drop if my herbs are getting to be too much for me to harvest and use. I just move the wood chips and place the vegetation around the root zone and then cover up again.


We decided to do in ground planting but still utilizing the hugelkultur method with a no till. Just layering the plots and also ensuring a crop rotation in each plot to keep things healthy. The raised beds are beautiful but too costly and the wood boards will eventually need to be replaced over time. We rather just plant in ground and section each plot off with nature barriers or with mulched walk ways.


Here are some pics of the raised beds from beginning to now:

Our First French Drain

Before we moved into the homestead my father in law informed us that the house had a drain that went out into the back field. He said that the washing machine, bathroom sink and tub(oddly not the kitchen sink) all went out there and not into the septic. We've walked the grounds before and inspected the area, looked hidden and no standing water issues that we saw. My husband, Chris, and I thought nothing of it. We SHOULD have thought more on it, I'll explain.


The first week we moved in we took care of regular moving in things and went about our daily lives consuming the normal amount of water as if we still lived in the suburbs on city sewage. Only after a few days we went out into the field and noticed a disgusting pool of water. This was after my husband  ran over the drain with a bobcat and we had the fiasco with the septic. Chris made the hole bigger to help dry it out but it really wasn't drying out. I was nervous to use too much water, I showered in less than 2 minutes on an every other day schedule. Laundry was piling up and I had to rethink how I sorted clothes for washing. Less loads and quick wash cycles helped but the pool was still there.


We have a huge mosquito problem here in San Antonio and this was just a bad breeding ground for them. We discussed that perhaps we need to trench the area and allow it to flow into less saturated areas of the field. I woke up one morning and went to work digging. The mud was sludge like and difficult to remove, I dug a straight line down from the pool and left it at that. The water was moving and I checked on it through out the day between chores. Chris came home and said it looked better but we probably should make some laterals and have it go out more. My sides ached at the thought but I agreed. The first dig:

Next day, there was more water but that's because we had showered and I did one load of laundry. I went out again with the shovel this time I went to the right in the direction of the down slop of our field. The water was finally draining and the pipe was clear of water but I had dug down hill that eventually started sloping up. there was some standing water from god knows where, probably from a rain shower. I stopped there and gave the draining pool time to seep into the soil. It wasn't really draining as fast as I hoped. I gave myself a break for a couple of days and took water usage slow and serious.


My daughter, Hanna, had time off from work and came out to help me dig. We went left of the initial trench which was a gradual up hill, we dug deeper than the right lateral to make up for the slope. The trench ended to be about six feet long and little over a foot down. Thankfully our soil isn't too hard. Took us three hours, after we got it the length we wanted we then chipped away at the dirt holding the water back from filling the new area and everything flowed great. The husband and I gave it a day and deliberated on whether or not we needed to go further but he didn't think we needed to. The water was seeping into the surrounding field and the whole french drain project was slowly drying up.


Last weekend we decided to edge it out a bit more we also decided we needed some plants to help with water control. We got two Meyer lemons, two Alma fig trees, one loquat and some grasses that are suppose to do well in water/ mud. Husband took his dad's truck and got gravel while Hanna and I went to get stuff to make cake since it was granddad's birthday. I made lunch as Chris, Hanna and Grandma filled in the trench with gravel and then we all pitched in and dug holes for the trees. We have more to plant but everyone was hot and sweaty so we stopped at the trees and grasses. The area looks so amazing now, I can only imagine what it will be like in a couple of years. It looks like a little oasis out in the middle of the field.

Here is what I take out of all this; the house basically only had one person living in it for ten years and he was gone most of the time because of work or out hunting so the systems that are in place never had to deal with the loads that a stay at home mom/wife would put on it. Especially one that was too use to just running water at all times for everything. These three weeks that we have been living here really have opened my eyes to how I use cleaning products, how much water we go through and disposal of kitchen waste. I still have my faults and it's definitely an adjustment that will take time but it's not hard. YES, the trenching was the suck but that's part of homesteading. Getting out and doing it. Hopefully we don't have any more issues with the french drain but if we do I will keep you posted. Pic of the homemade chocolate cake:

The recipe was a little odd, grandpa loved it though, so that's all that counts :)