So it has been a couple weeks since our last post.  We’ve been super busy on the Traditional Catholic Homestead!  With that being said I figured a bit of an on farm update would be appropriate.  The greenhouse is coming into full swing: we’ve got tomatoes coming on, groundnuts vining up, huge borage plants starting to bloom(attracting pollinators), cucumber, pumpkin, watermelon, muskmelon, a new  variety of corn I’m trying out this year (Yukon Supreme),  I’m trying out sweet potatoes (short season varieties for northern growers) this season as well as some random pea, beet, and chard plantings, and finally some carrots.  In the garden proper there is more of the same plus garlic, walking onions, strawberries (the rodents find those especially delicious this year), various herbs, and greens.  I’m doing a bit of an experiment comparing microclimates vs. greenhouse production with some of the longer season/heat loving plants.  I’ll keep you posted on the results come harvest time!

I’ve been working double time paddock shifting the cattle trying to get them finished up nice on the green rapidly growing grass.  Most days they’ve been getting moved at least three times, often up to five times a day!  I’ll do a more in depth post on this latter, along with the results on how the meat turns out.  We’ll be taking them to butcher on Monday.  After that I’ll be heading off to pick up the beginnings of our new heard on Thursday, complete with bull(calve that is!).  We’ll see how that goes.  I won’t be finishing these guys so I won’t be moving them quite so often!  I’ve been working on a new corral/working pen this year as well.  It’s about half done, and I’m Ok with that considering all the other projects we’ve been working on this season.

We’re up to three hogs now, and they are growing nicely.  One is a

4H project and the other two are for eating.  Speaking of 4H we’ve got a lamb going to!  Add to that the meat chickens we’re doing this year (Freedom Rangers I think they’re called… not the morbid Cornish Cross factory birds), then the laying hens, along with the new puppy and you see we’ve got quite the menagerie going on here!

The new pup is about five months old now and not much of a pup anymore.  He’s an Anatolian-Great Pyrenees cross.  Needless to say at five months he already dwarfs the farm mutt, and is starting to overtake the German Shepherd.  We’re figuring he’ll be around

120lbs. or so.  He’s a big lovable dope, but you can already see the guardian instincts at work in him.  He’s really great with the kids, and lets us know if something is out of the ordinary almost immediately.  I think he’s going to be a really good dog!

On the domestic front the most exciting thing was going to a friends Traditional Catholic Wedding!  It was the first we’ve had the pleasure of attending since our own.  There were three priests (the Pastor, Deacon, and Subdeacon) on the alter.  It was truly impressive, and awe inspiring being able to be there for such a beautiful Tridentine service.  That did pull us away from the homestead for a couple of days but it was well worth it.  There was no problems with leaving Grandma in charge (there was a false alarm though… I didn’t end up coming home to chase cattle across the pasture, for which I am very grateful!)

June has been a busy month here at the Traditional Catholic Homestead, but for great reward you must endure great sacrifice.  I enjoy the hard work and look forward to reaping the fruits of my labor for years to come.  I’ll do my best to keep providing content for the site, sometime life just pulls you in too many directions at once and something has to give!