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Author: DiyGarden

Water glassing eggs

Learning How To Water Glass Eggs

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Chickens and Eggs

You might be wondering why I’m talking about water glassing eggs right now. It’s late fall and most chickens are in the molting stage; where they are losing old feathers and growing new. The sun is going down and there isn’t as much daylight as what we had during the spring and summer. Both are reasons that chickens slow down or stop laying eggs.

What’s A Girl To Do?

Well, at our house the eggs are coming in faster then I can use them. So we have set up a business selling eggs. I also decided to start learning new ways to preserve the eggs.

If you live in the DFW area and are looking for some colorful chicken eggs you can email us or comment below for information about our egg subscription.

Lime and Water

I knew we needed to do something and I had heard about using lime to preserve eggs but hadn’t looked into it very deeply. Then Ron came home one day telling me he had heard about water glassing eggs and how that was suppose to preserve the eggs for up to a couple of years.

So here is a YouTube video showing you how I water glassed some of our over abundance of eggs. Please, take a look and like the video. We would really appreciate it if you would subscribe to our channel as well.

Here is to your homesteading dreams,

Shawn

P.S. By the way here is a video for you if you need some ideas on what to do with your egg shells.

Every One Needs A Job

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Every one needs a job, what a great philosophy! It is especially true for the small scale homesteader which is exactly what we are. Ron and I work hard and we decided that anything that came to Our DIY Homestead had to do that as well. We moved here about a year ago, here is a look at the place in the beginning. A lot was done inside and now we are turning our eyes to the outside and getting ready to move some animals on the homestead. We have had a couple batches of meat chickens and have laying hens now. I really want an emu! I just can’t find a job for him so we all know that we won’t be getting one…

The Beginnings

Ron has set up a beginning composting pen. Nothing like what we had at the other house but it will get build up. We bought a dog kennel and that is where the chickens are now. Ron built a nice coop for them as well. The hens started laying a couple of months ago. It’s so much fun. I ordered a batch of colorful egg layers So, we get green eggs, blue eggs and brown.

Chicken Yard

The chicken yard we have is nice just small and doesn’t give the chickens much room to roam. We are leery about letting them free range outside of the yard they have now because we haven’t fenced in the entire property yet and every neighbor has a dog or two. We have decided to build a large chicken yard that we can split in two when needed one side for the laying hens.

PS If you live in the DFW area and are looking for some colorful chicken eggs you can email us or comment below for information about our egg subscription.

The rest of the new yard will be for our market chickens. They come and go through the year and while they are here they need space, lots and lots of space. We will put up a temporary fence between the market chickens and the laying hens. While we have both this is a great fix!

Market Chickens

PS If you are interested in learning more about how to get on our list to receive Spring market chickens email us or comment below.

Take A Look

We invite you to take a look at our YouTube page. Ron shot a quick video talking about and showing you the back acre and how the yard will be set up. Please like the videos and subscribe so you can watch as we go forward with our homestead work.

Here is to your homesteading dreams,

Shawn

Peppermint bed

Harvesting Peppermint

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Peppermint bed
Peppermint bed

This is the week of our gateway herb, peppermint. In our last blog we talked about the different ways to use peppermint. You can find that blog here.

Today I’m going to share with you a video I did about harvesting that peppermint. How to bring it in and prepare it for dehydrating and then the different things I do with it.

If you aren’t going to use a product from your garden, why grow it? So, I wanted to show you how to prepare and use peppermint.

Here is the video and while you are at our YouTube Channel please subscribe and like the video.

Happy Homesteading!

Ron and Shawn

Peppermint bed

PEPPERMINT: THE GATEWAY HERB

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Peppermint is the gateway herb

It is said that chickens are the gateway animal for people in neighborhoods to homesteaders on acres of land. And I believe that is true and we can also say the same about peppermint and how it is the gateway herb. It is easy to grow and there are many things you can do with this herb from protecting your home and garden from bugs and insects to using it in the kitchen.

Starting Peppermint

New peppermint bed
New peppermint bed

It is easy at the time of this writing to get peppermint seeds and it is also easy to start the seeds and grow them up to nice plants. I start my seeds inside in late winter and by early Spring they are ready to go outside. Now I’ll give you a tip, peppermint will spread and so it you don’t want it to take over you garden plant it in a container. I have it in several containers through out the garden.

TIP: Peppermint will spread and so it you don’t want it to take over you garden plant it in a container.

Peppermint and Chickens

I also plan on putting it out in the chicken coop. Peppermint provides different vitamins and minerals, it is good for their digestion as well.

peppermint and chickens

Peppermint and Pests

To most humans peppermint smells wonderful however bugs and inscents don’t share the same feeling. If you are having problems with pests in your home bring in a peppermint plant. Your unwelcome pest guests will leave. If having a plant in your home doesn’t work you. Peppermint oil on some cotton balls and tuck around your home will work as well. Outside you can spread your peppermint plants around your garden. This is very important if you are trying to run an organic garden and not using chemicals.

Peppermint and the Kitchen

So, we have taken care of the chickens and the garden pests now here is how we can use peppermint in the kitchen.

Fresh Peppermint

Using fresh peppermint in fruit salads and curry dishes is delicious and a great way to use up some of your peppermint. If you do a Google search you will find many great recipes using this delicious herb.

Dry Peppermint

Peppermint Herbal Tea
Peppermint Herbal Tea

I love all peppermint in my opinion it is hard to go wrong with this herb. However, my favorite way to use peppermint from my garden is to dry it and use it in herbal teas. You can make iced teas or hot teas with peppermint. During the summer there is always a quart of iced peppermint tea in the fridge. It is easy to make! I fill a tea bag with dry peppermint tea ingredients put it in the pitcher that is full of hot water. Leave it on the counter overnight. In the morning pull the tea bag out, sweeten if wanted, pour over a glass full of ice and enjoy!

New beginnings

New Beginnings

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New Home

New Beginning

Happy New Year and welcome to new beginnings! Can you believe that 2022 has come to an end and 2023 is finally here. I don’t know if I’m happy or sad about that fact. You see, 2022 was full. I had some major surgery this past summer and I am feeling so much better but it was a two to three month recovery. And during all of that we sold our old home and had to move into a rental which we are still at. It took awhile but we have found a nice little piece of property with a project of a home on it. Believe me, I will be sharing a lot about it!

New Garden

The worst of news is also the best of news when it comes to my garden. It will be a new garden and I’m excited about this but the work this will bring is also overwhelming. Setting up a garden for me means to create an accessible garden which we are building with raised beds using metal water troughs for the most part. All of this means creating new soil, learning the best places to plant things and just creating my garden.

New Animals

new animals
new animals

I can’t have a garden without having my chickens, bunnies and worms. These little buddies of mine are so important to me for building and maintaining my garden. The name of this blog might be Our DIY Garden we will have plenty of animals to take care because they are so important to the garden and building compost. While I won’t get into it to much right now we will talk about how each animal will have dual jobs which I’m excited about.

So, we have talked about the new beginnings of 2023. Right now, I’m not sure if I should be excited about the new home, the new garden and the new animals that 2023 are bringing. But I do know one thing, all of it is coming. So, I’m inviting you to come along with me and see how the changes happen.

Welcome to Our YouTube Channel

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Our New YouTube Channel

It might be half way through January but Happy New Year!

Ron and I have taken on doing a YouTube channel this year and I’d like to share the videos with you weekly here on the blog. Now of course, it if you would like to go and subscribe to our channel here is the link to our YouTube channel.

Rabbit and Compost Set Up at Our DIY Garden

Pebbles the bunny.

The first video I want to share with you is called, “Rabbit and Compost Set Up at Our DIY Garden.” We show how we built our DIY rabbit enclosure and compost area And all made with reclaimed wood that was free. Here is the link to the video.

Hot News for End of Season Peppers

Hot Pepper Power

The next video is named, “Hot News for End of Season Peppers.” Ever wonder what to do with your peppers at the end of the season? You don’t have enough of the same kind of peppers to can them? Here is an excellent way to deal with all the odds and ends. See the entire video here.

Walking on Eggshells

Walking on Eggshells

The last video for this week is called, “Walking on Eggshells.” Here’s the secret to peeling farm fresh eggs plus a couple of other secrets about farm eggs. If you want to learn about those secrets the link is here.

End of Season Tomatoes…Do This

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If you are a gardener you probably have the same issues with end of the season tomatoes that I do. They ripen one by one and the green ones are threatened with frost so you pick them and then they end up sitting on the counter forgotten and go bad.

Click here is how we try to prevent that.

Check out our other YouTube videos to see what else we are up to.

Blessings,

Ron and Shawn at Our DIY Garden

Hydroponics – Our Pet Project

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It might seem as if we were quiet on the blog this past week but I assure you that while you might not have seen much from us we were very busy behind the scenes. We were writing content, shooting videos and if you watch carefully you will even see our little Chihuahua, Chi made a cameo. Here is a look at the video. What were we so busy working on you might ask? Well, we have had a pet project that we have been learning about and working on for the last year. We have enjoyed it so much that we really wanted to share it with you!

Hydroponics – Our Pet Project

Our pet project is hydroponics. There are a couple of systems set up around the house and out on the porches. We have enjoyed homegrown lettuce and herb mixes during dreary winter months and all year long. We planted brassica plants such as broccoli; cauliflower and cabbage late last fall to grow during the winter months and again this spring all using hydroponics. Hydroponics it is a soilless way of growing plants using the nutrients in water to make them grow.

There are many different types of systems for the water and plants to be in. We use mainly the NFT system and then a variation of the Kratky system. If it sounds like a foreign language the hydroponic world does take a little time to crack the code in understanding in what is being said. We have really enjoyed learning about it and would love to share what we have learned with you.

We have a free guide that we wanted to share with you called, “Your First Hydroponic System Set Up Guide with Plans”. It talks about the benefits of a hydroponic system. The different types of systems, nutrients and lighting for your hydroponic system and planting materials for the system. Ron has created plans for how to build a hydroponic system inexpensively and using some material from around the house. It comes with a video that walks you through the process of starting a seed and how to goes through the hydroponic system.

So, if you are interested in hydroponics we would love to share this free guide, plans for the system and a tutorial video with you. Click here to have instant access to it all.

Enjoy,

Ron and Shawn

Transplanting the Wild and Leggy Brassicas

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Sprouting Seeds

I finally got my hands in soil today! It has been a long time since I got my fingers dirty transplanting seedlings so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Last week I did a video that talked about the need to get your garden seeds and sprouting them. The reason I sprout seeds is because it helps with germination success and makes transplanting the seeds easier as well. If you worry about older seeds being viable sprouting is a great way to know that before placing them in soil. Here is the link to that video  https://youtu.be/Tj7bCHFJLXE

brassicas
Transplanting Brassicas

I started my cooler weather seeds planning on transplanting the brassicas first since I know they will be able to be put out in mid-February to early March. These seeds have sprouted, been put into the seedling trays until they got to leggy which is what happened to my broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. I transplanted these into the pots they will stay in until they are put into the grow bags for outside in the garden.  This video I talk about my wild and leggy brassicas. https://youtu.be/W1388X6XVNQ

Appreciating Brassicas

It took a long time for me to appreciate the qualities of brassicas. Like most kids, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage wasn’t on the top of my menu choices. And as most adults and gardeners I have come to appreciate these cool weather crops for what they represent to me and that is the first bite of outdoors. I love being able to go out and harvest them from my garden and bring them in and prepare them for my family.

Dinner with Brassicas

Some easy and nutritious menu ideas using broccoli are just roasting it with some garlic and Parmesan. A beef and broccoli stir fry, and a broccoli cheddar soup. With cauliflower you can make it into a mash that tastes like mashed potatoes, make a pizza crust out of it, and even have cauliflower steaks. The thing I do the most with cabbage is to make coleslaw, I pickle it for kimchi, I also love cabbage rolls.  I believe the more we vary using these ingredients we can find ways that people of all ages enjoy the brassica family.

Comment below with your favorite brassica recipe.

Until next time,

Shawn

A Garden Tour in January?

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old seeds

It’s hard to think that in January there is enough going on in the garden to have a tour. However, you just might be in for a surprise!

Come along for the garden tour.

Inside Tour

To tour my garden we did have to start inside. There are seeds germinating and starting their life.

Deck Tour

We then went out to the deck to see the herbs and the hydroponic garden.

Lower Level Garden Tour

This is the area that I’m the most surprised by and happiest with. Last fall, I started some root veggies. I didn’t have good results with them in the spring so I tried again in the fall and am having great results. We have carrots, beets, peas and onions.

Anyway, check out the video and let me know what you think.