Homestead Overload

I haven't received anything new in a few days, so this post will definitely be focused on my homestead today. The garden is starting to get ready for phase 2 of the summer season; I have blooms starting on my tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, and watermelon plants.

 Jalapeno; two white blooms with more close to this size.

 Sunflower with a bloom starting to grow.

Watermelon bloom is the white in the middle of the picture.

Not only are the plants with edible fruit or seeds doing well, my herbs are looking nice too. I have large dill plants, quite a few nice looking basil plants, my huge peppermint bush, lavender, tarragon, and chives and stevia below along with a non-edible citronella plant.

 Chives; three total bunches growing.

 Not edible, but citronella keeps the mosquitoes away on the porch.

Stevia, about three feet tall.

Might try brewing teas with these tossed in.

Today at work I scored a large box full of produce (apples and yellow squash). The squash were very edible, so not only did I cook some for myself (after I pan sauteed it I mixed it with some free goat feta I got - great meal for tomorrow) - I used three squash and two apples, diced up together, as chicken food today. They loved it and were so excited!

Starting to really get large amounts of food for these guys.

Got so much today still have more for tomorrow.

Now that I'm really focusing on getting them free things from work, I'm starting to notice more and more things that they'd really enjoy. These squash really were beautiful, and the apples only had a few deep bruises on them, which the chickens of course don't give a hoot about!! If I keep looking for good freebies at work for these guys they will eat in high style for a long time to come.

I started using a free genealogy program (love open source projects), Gramps. It was highly rated on a couple of websites, and it is serving my purposes nicely. After learning the basics of how to use it, I can quickly add on information without too much hassle and can go back later to add events (births, deaths, etc) when I am done with the basic tree. My cousin can be blamed for my sudden vault back into this sort of thing; I love doing it, but I admittedly get burned out after a while. Right now it's full swing ahead! I am doing each grandparents' tree separately as I can.

Keep it freebie folks!