Given the last blog I wrote and then prior to that, I really am looking at multiple new starts simultaneously for writing. This past year with moving the family and changing lifestyles drastically with the added bonus of losing two close family members and a close friend all to health related issues, two of whom close enough to my age to once again be a reminder that t “I are mortal with only so much sand in the timer.”  With that said, I’m going to take a few minutes to  and delve into one of the lifestyle changes! To be fair with regards to those who passed on, one was living the gift of borrowed time, one was healthy but on medication for a life long condition, one was the model of health and had a genetically passed issue that was previously unknown in her family.

As I’ve previously talked about, one of the changes we enacted in after moving was to create a garden area which we would be putting a variety of plants to yield crops which would sustain our family removing the need to have to visit the store for our groceries, most of which have been either genetically modified or sprayed with pesticides. This is especially helpful as we’ve got 3 growing boys whose appetites grow exponentially with their height.

Not everything we planted did well, nor was well received by the boys. By far the biggest hit seems to have been the Sweet Potato’s that were grown and harvested in the middle of Fall.  All of the boys seem to enjoy eating them until their bellies are stuffed! The flavor is a mix of sweet and earthy undertones that come with having the potato’s grown in the rich red clay. They range in size from fingerlings to almost as big as a varsity football.

The least favorite of the kids but certainly highly abundant was the Okra. Traditionally it is battered and fried in the south. This is how I was raised eating it. It is how I introduced this wonderful little delicacy to my wife not long after we were married. With such abundance I couldn’t help but give it a try in different ways. It was quickly found that slicing it into little medallions or coins then sauteing in olive oil provides a wonderful, quick snack or side dish with virtually anything we chose to make.

Additional vegetables that were grown was squash and zucchini neither of which survived an extended hot period. We also had five or six variety of tomatoes, some did better than others, but none were disappointing to eat. It was truly a joy to watch the boys being able to pick and eat the small cherry tomatoes straight from the plant to mouth knowing full well they have had nothing but the nutrients of the soil, the water from the rain and well and the care and love of those who planted them to help it grow into a mature fruit bearing plant.

Our winter crop has fallen into less than stellar condition. Dryer than normal conditions and small animals (lets read that as new young ducks to replace ours lost to a fox who were my favorite egg layers), have contributed to most of the initial plant sproutlings meeting a demise of one sort or another. It’s not to late, though.. our climate is temperate and the plants we want to grow are mostly tolerable to the temperature changes.

Next blog I’ll delve into the changes in lifestyle with the live side of the homesteading. Backyard chickens, turkeys, rabbits, goats, ducks and more!

Authored by Colin Bulla, www.colinbulla.com

What’s almost ironic is how quickly time flies. I had a blog update that I was going to write about changes on the homestead. Lessons gleaned from our first full summer. The advantages of having some tools to use that make doing the work a whole lot easier once we got them.

Then just like that we lost one of our close family members… a friend.. a valued person in our household.

So the thoughts about what to write suddenly seemed somewhat insignificant as the needs to be a support for my wife, kids, and other members of our beloved family and friends found themselves all coming together to mourn and remember. To find a way to describe that hollow spot that suddenly seems to be where they were.

Feeding the chickens, throwing hay.. chasing a goat.. toasting off a beer at the end of the day. It won’t be the same without my brother in law there..

… time brings changes that effect us all. Never forget the good times and lessons learned.

Carpe Diem!  Seize the day! You never know when your feet will hit the ground for the last time…

Authored by Colin Bulla, www.colinbulla.com

And just like that a few weeks has magically passed by quickly without me writing. I’ve given into accepting that there are things in life which I cannot control. I accept what life is and what comes at me a lot easier than I used to. In short, I go with the flow. Sometimes that means that a some things get pushed to the edge of the plate while other stuff gets full attention right in the middle.

Now that my personal growth thoughts are out, lets roll on! I’m enjoying my second fall here now and getting to share it with my family. We’ve had wonderful new adventures that range from watching the leaves change to taking the kids to the mountains to visit the Apple Orchards to get fresh apple cider and apples!

These adventures leaving the very tame outdoors of Southwest Florida out by the beaches have also brought with it the expansion of our homesteading activities. As previously mentioned, our farming has gone from a few chickens and ducks to include equine, goats, and added turkeys to the bird side. The flip side of that coin is sometimes things happen that create results you’re not used to working with. An example of this was one of the ducks we’ve had for a few years met a quick demise at the accidental kick of a horse who was excited to be getting dinner. We won’t talk about why ducky boy was in the paddock

2012 Fall Color

yet, that’s an entirely different story, but in short, rather than ‘bury’ a pet it was treated as a culling and now he’s becoming dinner one night this week.

Our farming of vegetables has taken on a new level as well. The higher quality of ground to grow plants in allowed the tomatoes to thrive in ways we hadn’t seen in FL and many times production was outrunning consumption. Okra had similar results with growth of the plants and production of the edible (and my favorite) vegetable at a volume that was amazing!  Sweet potatoes are planted, some have already been harvested and been reported as “amazing” by my children who ate them. Given the area of ground covered by their vines, I suspect it will be a bountiful harvest there as well. Winter plants are planted and growing.. Having learned a few lessons from this experience so far,  we are better prepared for pre-planting and harvest times which includes preservation for future use.

Just as Summer is cruising through fall, bringing changes with it not just with the weather and tree’s, but to our family as we create our homestead that minimizes our footprint of needs to survive.

Authored by Colin Bulla, www.colinbulla.com

How quickly a week has gone. Since the last post the Cider Mill has been visited again to get a huge box of apples to process into apple sauce and other apple delights my wife see’s fit.

Since last years blogging spree, a move has happened for us. I’ve moved the family from the beaches of Southwest Florida to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. When I left off left with blogging I was writing a history of Florida, with some interspersed Personal Growth and personal family experiences. What I feel I may have missed out on with my writings is how my wife and I have been on a journey to self sustainability shucking the need of having a store provide our basic food needs, instead opting to grow our own without need of genetic modifications or pesticides. The journey into urban homesteading set a bug loose. We began to realize that we needed more space. We wanted more than a few chickens and ducks.

Sparing the details for now, the opportunity to shift.. move, and take a job in a new location with the opportunity to grow our homestead was presented. Passing up opportunities has become a habit I rarely do anymore. The end result is we are creating abundance in many ways. The shift is allowing us all the opportunity to thrive!

And that brings us to now.. we have our chickens and ducks still despite a local fox’s best effort to do otherwise. We’ve added three goats, two horses and a donkey as well. Our plethora of bunnies has found a much better home at a local petting zoo though we did keep our ultimate favorite, the mini-rex who now has a boyfriend as well.

In the meantime, our first paddock that does not have orange barricade fencing  to keep the goats safe inside has reached completion. There was a mix of re-purposing existing fence on the property and installing new fence and t-posts to create the enclosure. While the task took much longer than it should have, thanks to the ground hornets that stung then were conquered and bushes with thorns that tangled and at times dead heat of the day with mosquitoes in assault mode, the end results are here. We’ve created a tame coexistence of extended living area for our domesticated flocks while minimizing our impact upon the property. Of course, the animals will eventually make their impact, but as is being seen already in what we affectionately refer to Paddock 1, as it is getting a break from the impact of so many animals, signs of new growth are already coming up.

Authored by Colin Bulla, www.colinbulla.com