Category: mini-farm

Long time no post

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, homeschooling, kids, life, mini-farm

Hello! Happy May.

It has been about 2 years since I have posted. I currently have a 4 year old and a 5.5 year old. Both very active and very smart. Life is busy. I am home full time with the kids and we are homeschooling.

Recently we moved to a smaller town about 30 minutes from where we were living and are even outside that small town. We have just over 2 beautiful acres that feels like paradise…..the house, not so much. But you can’t have everything can you?

This is my view while I type.

I am hoping to start blogging regularly again. I will still be mostly a lifestyle blog. I will still talk about health and fitness; especially my fitness journey (nothing new there). After having 2 children less than 18 months apart the weight never really came back off. Currently, I am, deep breath, 185 lbs. and I am only 5’4″. I got really sick during my pregnancies, so it was always more just about eating than worrying about weight gain. Though I did gain weight. Since then it has been survival mode. Since having kids I have run 2 half marathons but have never managed to outrun my diet hahahaha. I am working on that. I did do a chest and triceps workout this morning and even resting my arms on the table to type this is starting to hurt.

Part 2 of the blog will be our life and anything that may encompass; travel, gardening, what I am reading, mom encouragement, and who knows what else.

Last, but by no means least, our homeschool journey! We just finished out first year with Classical Conversations and I love it. I will do a whole blog talking all about it. I will also talk about the homeschool philosophies I sort of adhere too and anything homeschool under the sun. We are done with our co-op for the summer but in the fall I will post about our weeks each week. I am working on a summer rhythm for us right now and once I have that nailed down I will tell you all about it.

If you are still here from before I hope this continuing and new content interests you; and if you stumble upon this blog now HI!

My daughters birthday party this past weekend. We have been reading Little House in the Big Woods and that is the theme she chose.

Crappy Garden update for 2024

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, kids, mini-farm, Uncategorized

One word: E. Coli

Well I guess that’s two words. The neighbor diagonal to our backyard has a pipe that likes to overflow. Apparently. It overflowed when we had a big storm surge and our backyard was flooded. The city took some tests and there was high E coli levels.

Once the sun hits the top layer of soil after a couple hours, the E coli will be killed off by the UV rays, but the underlayer can be contaminated for months! So that takes away half of our backyard for planting food.

Our side yard had no flooding and there’s nowhere near the contamination zone so our raised bed that we do tomatoes in should be fine. Also the little area where we do snap peas should be fine.

My neighbor has a row of grapes that come every year and she lets us eat as much as you want. So for the month of September the kids gorge themselves on grapes and those are still fine

Thankfully our raspberries are fine. They’re on the complete other side of the yard from the contamination

We have this area that’s already 3/4 of the way fenced off from the chickens but it’s solidly in the contaminated area. So what I think I’m going to do is get a couple above bed, just kind of garden planters. The cheapest ones I can find and some cheap trellises to do cucumbers and a few other vining plants, not 100% sure what yet.

Thankfully garlic doesn’t have super long roots so these ones planted in the above bed gardens should be okay.

My husband actually cleaned this area out about 2 years ago. Took all the dirt out and we never refilled it between being pregnant and having newborns and babies. But this year I think I will put more cardboard down and fill it for a raised bed garden again and that should be good to plant in.

We won’t be planting any root vegetables this year just to be extra extra safe.

We are also inquiring about getting a permit to tie into the city storm drain to stop the flooding in our yard but is prolific and happens every winter so hopefully that’s a process that will be happening this summer as well.

I will keep you updated.

July 2023 garden update

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, kids, mini-farm

It has been a very weird late spring/early summer for us here in the Pacific Northwest. Spring stayed cold and wet later than the last few years then once summer hit, boom! We have been in the mid 80s- high 90s since then.

My watermelon is staying alive but barely growing
I finally put chicken netting around this area and it’s not growing. Broccoli, carrots, bell peppers and a lone surviving pumpkin plant.
My pumpkins are the only plants that are thriving. But the chickens have started digging so I might be harvesting them a bit early. We will see.
We have some volunteer cherry tomato plants amid the weeds
Raspberries
My 2 lone survivor garlic
Salsa garden
Beefsteak tomatoes
Version of a Roma tomato
My basil is doing amazing
Jalapenos, with cilantro behind it and cucumbers to the side of it.

We have four chickens and on average we get 2 to 3 eggs a day. One of them was injured last year so I don’t think she lays anymore.

We have a fig tree out front that’s doing well and a small little container of strawberries that we’ve eaten. Maybe two of us because my son picked some early and birds have gotten the others.

my favorite season

by Ariana Peters, posted in baby, kids, mini-farm

Yes, my favorite season in Fall for its beautiful colors and crisp weather.

However, as I now have a baby and and am growing food and raising chickens I find myself looking more and more forward to the end of fall and the beginning of winter.

Don’t get me wrong, I know I am so lucky to be able to grow food and raise chickens and feed my family good, whole food…..but from spring planting through to fall harvesting there aren’t many days where I don’t give up a minimum of 30 minutes to the yard. 30 minutes doesn’t seem like much but when you have a little one 30 minutes out of your day can be a lot.

That 30 minutes doesn’t include the days that I am actually preparing beds, planting, harvesting and preserving; that is just daily maintenance. That takes up a lot more time.

Again, I love pulling out homemade and homegrown food in the middle of winter and early spring when everything in the grocery store is shipped from who knows where and harvested who knows when; so, I am most definitely not complaining, but the slow season of winter is absolutely calling me.

I love watching the rain fall while I drink a cup of coffee before everyone else wakes up. Make it snowfall and I love it even more.

Reality vs. fantasy: Fantasy (or should I say my pre-baby reality) in the slow winter months I read more, slept in more, relaxed more and sort of hibernated. My new reality: I am guessing winter will also have its challenges such as where do I put the baby when it is raining out and I need to change the chickens food and water? What do I do when the baby is grumpy and its raining and this is when we normally go for a walk to settle him down? We live in the Pacific Northwest so rain is a big factor for us in the winter hahahahaha.

We will see how reality and fantasy hammer out this winter.

August Garden Update

by Ariana Peters, posted in baby, food, healthy lifestyle, mini-farm
Jalapenos
Tomatoes
Serrano peppers
Peas not doing so good this year
Thyme
My helper
Chickens eating the last corn that the dog didnt destroy
Cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin and watermelon all torn out by the dog. But volunteer tomatoes are here
Bell peppers are doing great
2nd carrot planting……and somehow tomatoes
1st carrots and leeks. I am pulling these as we need them. I need to devote a day to Dehyrating and freezing them soon
Celery going to seed
Lima beans
Some kind of beans, don’t remember what I planted lol
Cherry tomatoes
Baby eggplants
Sweet potatoes
2nd onion planting
Cabbage and Brussels sprouts totally bug infested so chickens will get them
Aloe
Dill, smells sooooo good
Raspberries
Chives
Eggs from our chickens!!

A productive weekend

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, House/dating/life, mini-farm, school/studying

I needed some energy gels for our long runs so we hit up REI and they were having a sale.

Sports bra for $30! Score!!!!

Stocked up on gels, jelly beans, and chews to get me through to the half marathon.

 

Making pulled pork!!!!!

Also another batch of tomato sauce in the slow cooker. We are running out of room in the freezer. I will have to can the next batch hahahaha.

Making some oven dried tomoatoes

The finished pulled pork. It was soooo good!!!!

Also made tomato and rice soup! Though it is so thick its probably more of a stew.

The finished tomato sauce before i blended it.

The Iron Nun!!!! She is sooo cool!!! No lie i kind of have a girl crush on her.

Finally started watching 13 reasons why and I am in love with it!! Only on episode 6 and i cannot wait to find out who the other 7 people are!!! And where does Clay come into it? With school slowly coming to an end i should hopefully be able to finish it in a reasonable amount of time.

That being said I have 1 essay, 1 discussion paper, 2 quizzes and 1 final left and i will be done for 5 weeks!!!! So stinking excited!!!!!

Garden update 8/1

by Ariana Peters, posted in mini-farm

Happy August 1st!!!!

Traffic was not horrendous today which was nice. Got home, a quick snack and changed into partial workout gear hahaha.

She is impatiently waiting for us to go do out watering in the yard.

Raspberries!!!! Well raspberry plants, they are still growing but not really producing anymore.

One of Brandon’s newly panted areas. The front yard is mostly his domain and he wants it to look presentable.

More newly planted flowers…..that i got free from someone at work woohoo!!!

broccoli!!!!!!

mixture of lettuce, flowers and my herb garden. we have basil, sage, thyme, rosemary, and oregano along with my little fig plant that is very SLOWLY growing.

My pear tree is having a growth spurt

Another area that Brandon has created. He has a good eye for yards actually.

Pea season has definitely come to an end. I am slowly getting one or two peas here and there that are no where near as sweet and wonderful as the ones at the beginning of the season. I have a bag in the freezer that i am slowly adding to, it will be good to throw in soups over the winter.

These tomatoes are finally starting produce a bit. The artichoke plant is still just there lol. The cucumber plant is hanging on, i have gotten one cucumber off it so far. The bell pepper plant is just starting to get its first pepper. and the chive are new and doing pretty well.

She LOVES to roll around in the grass. She never did this before we moved here. I think she likes it a lot.

2nd batch of onions, they are surviving!!!!

Pepper plants!

Summer squash…….do you see it?

My 2 lone pumpkins. I have cut them from the stalks and they are starting their curing process. I don’t need them to last months though, just until classes are over then i will cook with them.

This is our neighbors plum tree, i would say 1/3 is hanging over into our yard and i am watching like a hawk for ripe plumbs i can take from out side!!!!!!

Zucchini is still producing like crazy!!!!

Look how many are starting to turn colors!!!! Just a few more days!!!!

That is a cucumber plant growing in among the tomatoes, snaking its vines wherever it can find space.

The last bit of lettuce is holding on in the heat and letting us get a few leaves here and there as we need them.

That is the garden currently.

Today i made zucchini bread and zucchini pasta salad for lunch tomorrow.

Ran some sprints for run training……..my fastest sprints were in the 8 min mile time frame hahahahahaha this is hilarious because that is a lot of runners normal or slightly pushing it pace……there are people who run marathons doing 5 min miles and i am dying doing 8 min for 45 secs. But you know what………I AM DOING IT!!!! And i am proud of that no matter how slow I am.

I am about 1/2 of the way done with my essay that is due tomorrow at midnight but it is 10pm and that is my bedtime if i don’t want to be a zombie tomorrow. Plus the due date is tomorrow so i can afford to go to sleep.

Thank you for following along!!!

Hope you had a wonderful day!!!!

July 29, 2018

by Ariana Peters, posted in mini-farm, school/studying

I feel like I did so much and yet so little this weekend. Got two great workouts done and spent hours out of the house exploring and also spent a full afternoon/evening doing HW. But I got NO housework done, no meal prep, no canning/food saving. It was a successful and unsuccessful weekend hahaha.

We have been hot here this week, mid to high 90’s the whole time. Today we are supposed to get close to 100 then we start swinging down and are supposed to be in the low 80’s by Thursday.

My drive to work.

Every day a few more tomatoes are starting to turn a light orange-y, pink meaning in just a few more days they will be ready to pick. Zucchini are still going strong, I just pulled 3 HUGE ones from the bottom of the bush that had been forgotten. I need to pick a few peppers and oh man, our cucumber plants are just really starting, i have 5 pint jars of refrigerator pickles in the freezer and 4 cucumbers on the counter i need to can.

Chili for dinner!!

I have 3 weeks left of school, the next 2 are going to be a bit crazy because i have something due every day except Saturdays. With that i can feel the garden gearing up to explode more zucchini and tomato on me and i am just praying it can hold out for 2-3 more weeks when I will be able to devote a lot more time to canning and dehydrating and preserving.

And now i need to get back to school work. I currently have A’s in both my classes and i am keeping it that way!!!!!

When you should do more HW and workout but you are tired so you stop in the middle to watch Chuck, be a dork and go to sleep early.

Good night.

July 26, 2018

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, mini-farm, school/studying, training

Hello!!! So happy it is my Friday!

I have HW to do tomorrow then I think Saturday we are going to go visit his grandparents on their farm. I LOVE where they live. I think they are on about 10 acres and have like 10 cows. I think they got 2 calves this year, I can’t wait to see the baby cows!!!! They also have a million blackberry bushes so i will be bringing homes like 20lbs of blackberries. But i’ll stop before I get carried away, you can see it all when I blog about it hahaha.

Today’s plan:

Try and get some more HW done at work to make tomorrow go a little easier.

1.5 mile run with sprints…….in the 98 degree heat (date night!!! lol)

Taco salad was the plan but instead I ate some cookie dough and homemade guacamole and was way too full. I wanted to puke a little during my run. But I got through it.

Now a movie at home to complete the date night.

And babe made some fried zucchini that was to die for!

July 25, 2018

by Ariana Peters, posted in healthy lifestyle, mini-farm, school/studying, training

Our first handful of tomatoes have arrived!!! Pictures to come.

I have also given away 4 zucchini this week, we still have 1 in the fridge, 3 on the counter and at least 2 more ready to pick. 3 cucumber on the counter. Time to make more pickles!

Our lettuce is also getting ready to flower and we didn’t make salad last night so i cut the tops and brought them to a coworker.

Tried to find motivation to do some HW at work today, I have a relatively easy but time consuming project due on Friday for my writing class.

I had planned to go home last night and do some HW and workout and basically just be productive, but I got hit with a wave of sadness.

10 years ago this last Monday they found a tumor on my dad’s spine and less than 2 months later he was dead. We are rapidly approaching the decade anniversary of his death and that is really hard. My family is also currently planning a memorial for my brother who died in January to have in our home town in September so emotions are running high all around.

Sometimes you just need a night cry and let it all out. I took that last night now its time to get back to it.