Welcome back!
Sorry it took so long to get back into blogging, but it’s been quite the emotional rollercoaster as you can imagine if you read the post from February 18.
On to focus on the positive.
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- I turned 60 at the beginning of March.
- The snow is melting, albeit slowly, south of Ottawa.
- I have ordered at least $125 worth of seeds, as well as another $250 in sprouting equipment. The peppers have been started, as have several flowers.
- Tomatoes and eggplant will be next, likely next weekend.
The YouTube channel is off to a slow, but steady start. To be honest, there’s not a lot to VLOG in the winter, so content trickles in.
My drones arrived in the mail on Thursday last. They are charged up and ready to test out when the winds are not gale force…
Once they get up in the air (or at least one of them does) I’ll start adding that footage in with my VLOGS.
In my mind, Spring has always been a time of hope and rebirth. I look forward to being able to start getting the gardens ready, even if it’s too soon to plant.
The chicken coop needs a good cleaning and the electric fence needs to be set up by the time the chicks arrive in May.
I am still enjoying the chicken I raw packed in the fall/winter, mostly as an addition to dishes I’m cooking. I even used one jar as part of a chicken fajita night.
I experimented with adding some canned chicken drumsticks to a batch of chicken paprikas. Since the chicken was fully cooked already, I added it at the end, and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. This gave the chicken the chance to absorb some of the flavour from the base sauce. I make nokedli (a pasta very similar to spaetzle) and serve the paprikas over it.
This year, one of the peppers I planted are the type from which Szegedi Paprika is made. In all, I think I have roughly 180 individual pepper seedlings in the tray. Peppers are notoriously slow to sprout.
I also started a few seeds that had sprouted from the Ambrosia apples I recently bought. They won’t produce the same type of apple, but apples they will, and I LOVE apples. Worst case, in 5 years when it starts producing, I’ll have the ingredients I need for a wonderful apple sauce.
I’ve been experimenting with regrowing romaine lettuce from the base that I saved after making a salad. So far, they are coming along nicely. I’ll show the progress in an upcoming video #short.
Another thing I’ve signed up for is an Amazon affiliate link that will basically give me a tiny commission on any purchases made by following the links in the description of the videos.
My goal is to reach the magic number of subscribers (1000) so that I can start monetizing the videos. It’s all part of the greater business plan to become self-sufficient and hopefully, allow me to retire (to full-time farming) in the next 5 years.
I am so grateful to those who watch the videos, select the like (thumbs up) button and, share the video link with friends.
I’ve also created my catchphrase:
“Keep your shovel in the ground, the sun at your back, and a smile on your face.” I should probably add “wear sunscreen” but I’m sure you are already hearing that often enough.
In any case, enjoy the season of rebirth.
Until next time.
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I’ve launched a YouTube channel for the homestead that you can find at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYhZ1s_14TaPZvGkd6qiauA
If you could, please stop in, view the video, select ‘Like,’ subscribe, and share the link. These things will really help the channel get off the ground.
Please visit my farm’s Facebook page for more: https://www.facebook.com/BlueGypsyHomestead