The Weekly Digs #140

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We hosted Thanksgiving this year. It was the first time in a long time we have done that. My Mom and Step Dad came to visit and my sister and her family came too.

As Thanksgiving day approached, I kept having this funny feeling that I should be shopping and get all my supplies. I made a little menu and assigned a few dishes to my sister. But then I looked at everything on my list and we had all the food we needed already.

At that moment, I truly felt gratitude for all we have been blessed with this year. The garden, even with all the pests and weeds, had produced bountifully for our family and for other families gathering with us as well.

We had our own turkeys we butchered on Monday, potatoes, green beans, carrots, cranberry sauce I canned a few weeks ago, and stuffing. The majority came from our land and from a lot of hard work. 

In addition to the food, I feel grateful that we are finally settled in our home this year and the time that I have been able to spend more time with the kids as we have homeschooled. 

I am also grateful to have this blog and each of you reading! My blog, The Seasonal Homestead, started out as a way to manage seasonal depression by writing and thinking about my garden even when it when it was cold out. I am approaching my third year of writing. Hugs and thank you for being here.

In the Garden

We harvested carrots, herbs, and kale for Thanksgiving. The photo below is a different harvest from today. I made stir fry with the veggies below and some leftover turkey.

Keeping cows around

Sometimes we have months of having all our cows stay in their fencing and then all the sudden they break out and look for greener pastures. 

Because we keep them in a smaller area then move them often (every 2-3 days), the grass is getting more and more beautiful. Rotational grazing really is worth it!!!

And yet, when they first move into a new area they are super happy but then once they eat all the delightful plants, they want to move on. The grass really is greener on the other side!

This time of year the fence spark doesn’t work as well because we use solar and daylight is scarce. If one of them breaks loose, usually a few will follow and the run loose all over our property. 

This has been the cadence of the last few weeks and Cam (who manages the cows) has been super frustrated by it. He figured out a way to rig up a larger solar panel to get more volts out so they stay in the fencing but it doesn’t have battery backup for night so he switches back to the old system in the evening.

The larger solar panel with no backup battery still wasn’t working that great so he switched over to the Premier battery I have for the chicken fencing. It seems to be working better but time will tell.

Interestingly enough, we woke up this morning and found our neighbor’s cow in our pasture. Our neighbor has managed cattle for many, many years and is more of an expert. It made me feel a little better that it happens to even more experienced ranchers. We still have a lot to learn but it’s a fun and interesting journey along the way!