Start of the Monsoon, Yay!!!

It looks like the monsoon started today, it has been so hot and finally the skies opened and poured. It has been several months since we have had any thing besides sunshine.

Here is a sample of what we are eating and canning from our garden, this fall we are doubling the size of our garden.

A lot going on here at the Homestead

Sorry for my lack of post lately, as you all know we had a well put in, it is now 4 months later since he started and 3 days ago he started drilling us a new well, he had the well finished which turned out to be 260 feet deep, we had water and all was good until he broke the pump off in the well, he failed to install a safety line to the pump. Long story made short, he could not get any of it back after several weeks so the new well is being drillled at his expense.

Now for some good news :) Our turkeys have been hatching out and they are doing great!! The garden is growing like a jungle here in the desert lol, Amy has been canning for the last couple of weeks and is doing it again starting tomorrow. She is also going to be making relish and mulberry jelly, yummmm.

Our goats should be having kids at the end of July and our sheep should be having lambs at the end of August. So far knock on wood i have not seen any rattlesnakes around the house yet. Last year at this time i had already killed several Mojave Rattlers. I did catch a friendly little Arizona Glossy Snake he was in our house!!! We also have the biggest horned lizzard i have seen out here living in our garden, he is huge. Looks like a little dinosaur lol.

Here are some pictures of whats happening around the Homestead

Homestead Update

The well is a little slow going, he hit river sand at 12 feet and it was over 60 feet deep before he got out of it, he had to add alot of benoite to his drill water to shore up the well walls so he could drill. He thinks we will hit water tomorrow he is down to 115 foot and in rock. He is going to take the well down to 250 feet.

We added 3 sheep to our homestead as well the young one is 5 months old and we will be butchering him in about 3 months, The ram and ewe is our pair for breeding.

Also got my water line in and buried, i took it down 3 feet so if it freeze's i can safely assume we are in an ice age lol.

And finally we have part of the garden in and we had a good winter crop as well.

Getting a Well!!

We are finally getting our well here at the homestead, we been hauling water for over a year now.
My neighbor let me use his backhoe so I have been putting in my waterline and dug my holes for my solar panel pole and wind generator pole, been a really busy weekend here.

Meet Casey!!

Today we got a nubian buck for our alpine does, His name is Casey, he is one year old and is super friendly, the other goats don't know what to think of him yet lol.

Today is so windy here we cant do anything outside, over 30 mph with gust of 50 mph and its cold!

1st Year Anniversary Off Grid

Today marks one full year here on the homestead, Mother nature decided we needed another winter storm, The kids loved it and school was let out early yesterday and delayed today. Last night we made snow cream for after dinner dessert.

We are finally getting a well next week YAY!!! We used our tax refund to get that done, what a difference in our lifes that will make here, no more hauling water in 55 gallon barrels. I added 2 more batteries to the battery bank now we have 675 amp hour battery bank, the new xantrex charge controller is working great, it had no problem charging up the bank even with 2 more batteries.

I will post pictures when the well driller is here drilling our well.

Old Timer Wagon Traveler

Meet a really interesting fellow today named Gene, He is traveling the United States from coast to coast in his mule powered covered wagon, there is not hardly a free spot on the cover to sign it lol. I filled up his water for him and gave him 1/2 dozen of eggs and some grapefruit. It was interesting hearing his stories. His mules are really cool also. Wonder how many miles he gets to the gallon lol.

Also is a picture of one of our nosy goats and the new puppies.