Part-time homesteading?

Life is certainly different now that I'm not home every day. I no longer have my finger on the pulse of everything that happens around here. Although I am enjoying my new commitments, I am also frustrated about the things that don't get done around here. When I'm not here, I simply don't think about things that have to be done here. The old adage, "Out of sight, out of mind" is very true. And now, most days, I am leaving shortly after the sun rises and not returning home until the sun sets, so I don't have the opportunity to see much of anything around here on most days.

We had our first freeze this week. I told the girls to pick all the ripe peppers and tomatoes and a large amount of lettuce and mustard greens. They covered two rows of lettuce and mustard greens with floating row covers, and so far, everything is surviving. We are eating the lettuce that was picked prior to the freeze, but for some reason, it is turning brown rapidly. It normally lasts much longer than this. The 10-day forecast only shows a freezing temperature once, so we are hopeful that we'll have plenty of lettuce for quite some time still. There is simply nothing tastier than lettuce fresh from the garden!

Many of our meals now are completely homegrown. A couple weeks ago, we had company for dinner and served goat cheese appetizers with hot pepper jelly, a salad with homegrown lettuce, carrots and tomatoes, an entree of our turkey, potatoes, and mustard greens, and for dessert, apple crisp, using apples from our own trees. Last night, we had salad, pork roast with peppers and tomatoes, and apple crisp for dessert. Tonight we had salad and a chicken casserole made with our own chicken and goat milk. The spaghetti and mushrooms were store bought. For years, spring has been my favorite season because I love the beautiful flowers; however, fall is rapidly becoming a favorite because of all the homegrown food!