It's been a beautiful summer here in Tennessee. The weather has been cooler than average, and we've been getting lots of rain which has been great for the garden. Keeping busy has been easy, and I've been trying to balance my time between keeping up with the garden and preparing for our first year of homeschooling.

In the last couple of weeks we dug up enough carrots to fill the 21.5 quart canning pot. I'm not sure how many pounds that translates to, but it was a lot! It was exhausting work because our soil isn't root vegetable friendly yet. We're slowly trying to amend our soil, but it still has a way to go. Right now the soil still has a lot of clay and it makes it difficult for root vegetables to grow. We also have an abundance of rocks! The clay soil makes it even harder to pull root vegetables up, so we have to carefully dig them out. I snagged some of those garden gloves with claws on one hand, and they worked wonderfully for digging around the carrots. My fingers hurt for days afterwards, though.

But once we got them dug up, we rinsed them off in the kiddy pool to get most of the mud and dirt off. Then we brought them inside and started cleaning them up for being canned. The plan was to can as many as possible as just plain sliced carrots, and then can a few jars of pickled carrots. I used about half and canned 12 pints of carrots in the pressure canner. I didn't get to pickling any. It was the first time using the pressure canner, and I was a little afraid. My husband and I watched videos on YouTube, and read both the manual that came with it and the Ball book that came with the water bath canner. Once we triple checked the steps we got started. We succeeded without blowing anything up! And my fears are mostly gone, and I'm looking forward to pressure canning lots more!

The day after we dug up the carrots our neighbor stopped by and asked if we wanted some green beans. We can't turn down free food so she popped her trunk and handed me a full 5 gallon bucket. Much more than I expected! Luckily we had already Christened the pressure canner, so I picked out and cleaned the beans, snapped them, and canned those, too! She had given us a type of green bean that's a beautiful deep purple until cooked called Royal Burgundy. They're a delicious bean fresh or canned. I was so grateful because we had lost our bean plants to Japanese beetles. Once I got the beans ready I had a really awesome helper who really enjoyed snapping the beans and filling the jars, and it was awesome being able to preserve food and teach the little one about canning.

In the last couple of weeks we have also added a few babies to the farm! One of our hens went broody last month and hatched an egg. She had 4 other eggs under her after the one hatched, but one of the other chickens got to them. Addie and I built a temporary Mama and Baby Sanctuary in the middle of the garden and moved Tom (the mama) and baby. Since she lost the other eggs I was hoping if I brought home some chicks that she would adopt them. Well, I was wrong. Our local Tractor Supply had chicks and we brought home 4 Isa Browns, but Tom didn't want them around. So we have 4 adorable chicks living inside for a few weeks until they're big enough to move into another pen outside.

With all this extra dirty work we've had a lot of tough stains on our clothes so I've been using the pure coconut oil soap bars as stain sticks. It works so well I wanted to share the awesomeness with everyone. You can find Niffer's All Natural Laundry Bars in the Bar Soap and Eco Bag Laundry sections in the shop. I use a simple recipe that packs a punch and lifts stubborn stains with pure and natural power. You can dampen the cloth and rub the bar directly onto the stain, or you can grate some of the soap into your laundry as an added booster. So check it out, and keep the summer memories but not the stains!

I've got more updates about our bees soon. So check back often for more updates!
Until next time, have fun and stay natural!

What do you think about when you daydream about your perfect summer? Do you think about spending your days on a quiet beach or maybe endless hours fishing on a quiet lake? For me I imagine simple pleasures of play and relaxation at home. Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE a vacation away from home, but as a mother I've come to the realization there is no such thing as a vacation when you've got a small child. My duties follow me everywhere, there is no rest for a mama.

When we lived in the RV we had visitors and summer parties, but we couldn't accommodate many people, especially for more than a day. So far my favorite part of this summer has been having friends and family visit. We have had so many visitors in the last couple of weeks and it has really helped drive home the fact that we have our own space here. It is ours to share, it is warm and inviting (if you don't mind a little dust and dirt), and we give really good hugs. 

This month we had an especially busy 12 days with my dad visiting. We haven't seen him in a year and a half and his 12 days here weren't nearly enough for me to get my fix, but I won't complain too much! We got a lot accomplished while he was here and I think he got to relax in between projects. I helped him put gutters on the shed that houses the chickens, and they're very grateful! He read a massive pile of books and played dinosaurs with his goofy granddaughter. He spent a couple of days clearing the overgrown banks of the creek in front of the house, and the snake sightings have already decreased! Best of all, he was able to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet of our 16 acres. He met our incredible neighbors who all seemed to enjoy chatting with him. We even had an exciting 24 hours without power the day after he arrived. My childhood was full of camping trips and the time without power was practically stress free as we just worked together like we did on one of our many camping trips. Luckily my mom gifted me a beautiful, large percolator when we first moved in, and we had a wonderful morning sipping coffee in the backyard.

My dad has a "just go and do it" personality, and if something gets in the way of him accomplishing a task he always finds a way around it. His time here helped me motivate and refocus myself towards the goals that I have. His visit paired with a friendly email from a great customer asking if I could find more eco friendly packaging really motivated me to think more about the packing materials I use.

As of right now laundry powder can be purchased in quart jars or plastic bags. The jars can be refilled over and over again, and originally I planned on offering refill bags at a discount. If you've ordered a jar or jumbo can before you know I send you discount codes to use when you order refills. But, I haven't been able to find the right packaging to offer refills the way I first imagined. The plastic bags were working okay, and I started focusing on new products and many other things. Eventually, looking for the right packaging fell to the wayside and now I've picked it back up. Soon I will be offering eco friendly paper bags filled with laundry powder. You can use the bags to refill jars or keep the powder in the bags in your laundry room. Whatever works best for you. The bags are recyclable, too! I'm still working on finding the right kind of labels that won't hinder their ability to be recycled. Once I get this first set of bags ready to go I'll start looking at increasing the line into different sizes to accommodate all your personal needs.

I ask you all to have patience as I attempt to equally divide my time with family and friends, the farm, Niffer's, and just a wee bit of me time. Now with the garden producing beans and tomatoes, and more, I have to balance the time I have with things I want to do and things I need to do. For example, I need to process and can what I am growing before it spoils and the whole process is totally new to me so I am learning as I go.

While my dad was here he helped me can watermelon rind pickles, pickled beets, and sauerkraut! The beets were grown in the garden. It felt so good to dig them up, wash and process, and can them. The feeling of accomplishment was so great. The watermelons and cabbage for the kraut was grown at a local farm. My awesome neighbors loaned me their propane burner so I could can outside and what a wonderful help that was! With the daily temperature in the 90s, canning inside is out of the question!

In other farm news, one of the chicks we raised has started to leave blue eggs in the nesting box. Our Easter Egger "Woody" has been the first of the three chicks we raised to lay eggs. The other two, Peep and Tom haven't started to lay yet, but I doubt it will be much longer. Peep is our other Easter Egger and Tom is a Rhode Island Red. Our other 4 chickens we acquired full grown and they are also Rhode Island Reds. They've been slacking on the egg laying as of late, so a future post might include a recipe for home grown chicken stew! (I'm only kind of kidding... It is why we have chickens!)

That's enough for today, now that we aren't expecting many more visitors I can get back into writing more often. I enjoy writing updates about what is happening around the farm and what I'm working on next for Niffer's. Many times it's all related and intertwined. Do your best to stay cool, relax, and enjoy the sunny days as much as possible!

This week on the farm I rebuilt the chicken's roosting bars, planted beans, squash, and collards, tilled until my hands bled, and created a brand spankin' new product (the first to be born in TN, awwww)!

 Unfortunately, Peep met a sad and unfortunate ending a week later due to a regretful accident between the tiny creature and my daughter's foot. My daughter, who is only four, was heart broken and just sobbed for hours while I called every single co-op/Tractor Supply in the nearby counties, and even looked through Facebook farm groups. Finally, a co-op the next county over had some chicks. We raced down there, and brought home two Easter Egger chicks, Peep II and Woody. My daughter argues they are named Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Peep II.

The chicks are 13 weeks old now and the pen we made for them was next to the big chickens' yard. They watched the big chickens and every day when I brought them out to their yard and back in at night, they would wiggle and escape to run around the big chickens' yard and pretend to be big chickens. After much debate, I let them move in with the big chickens. But, there was a problem. The roosting tree I made only accommodated four chickens. So, instead of cutting down a tree to make another or buying more wood, we made floating roosting bars from what we had on hand.

Now the chickens are happy, the chicks are happy, and I am happy because I like it when their happy. Happy-go-round.

The garden is growing. Imagine that!? But seriously, I was worried for a little bit. Nothing seemed to want to grow, but now that I'm getting a little better at combating the weeds, and the natural passing of time, the garden is starting to look like a garden. Two weeks ago I was in town on my weekly trip and I came home with a small tiller. Some women want jewelry or clothes for gifts, I prefer tools. So I brought home a tiller and told my husband that he bought me a tiller. We're both happy. It's a tiny little thing, only 10 inches wide, but it works. It beats hand tilling the last 30 feet of the garden. We now have 15 beautifully uniform rows, ready for planting, and I have the energy to plant! We also had our first harvests! Radishes, lettuce, and spinach all were ready for our hungry tummies. The first succession of fall squash was planted, as well as two half rows of beans. The next half I will plant next week. In place of the radishes that were harvested I planted collards. Carrots, spinach, celery, beans, and squash have sprouted this week as well.

Niffer's All Natural Fancy Feet is a mentholated foot soak, made with Epsom salt, baking soda, menthol crystals, with a blend of peppermint and tea tree essential oils. The menthol and peppermint give cooling relief, the Epsom salt soothes achy muscles, softens skin, eliminates smells, and helps replenish magnesium, a mood-elevating chemical within the brain that creates a feeling of calm and relaxation. Tea tree essential oil is a natural antibacterial agent, and helps get those feet cleaner. Fancy Feet is designed so you can use it in a traditional foot tub/bucket or in a massaging foot bath wit jets. Since it dissolves it won't clog filters or jets! You can order a 6.5 oz. bag of Fancy Feet here! Also, for a limited time, orders $25.00 or more will receive a free bag of Fancy Feet, no coupon necessary. When I receive your order of $25.00 I will automatically add Fancy Feet to your package.

This coming week I plan on working on a new laundry powder formula that will be specifically for hard water! The water here in TN is extremely hard, and while we plan on getting a water softener eventually we have to make do for now. I have been experimenting with different ratios and new ingredients. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will have the formula perfected and then I can share with you all!

Happy homesteading, my friends. Have fun, be safe, and always be all natural!