Wow! As I write this it is January 1st, 2021 and it’s hard to believe the New Year is here already!
As we look back on 2020 there is so much to be thankful for, so much to rejoice in, and so much to learn from! Be on the lookout for a special Reflection on 2020 edition coming soon to the blog! I’ll link it here when it’s live.
But, let’s talk about what happened this month on the homestead! It was a crazy month, to say the least. There were so many highs and lows along with so many new adventures. The hardest part about this month was just having patience while we sit in the waiting season. Yet, the Advent season was the perfect time to reflect on this – as we also wait patiently for the return of our Savior, Christ the Lord!
Let’s jump into everything that happened this month…
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Fixing Up The House To Sell
We began December by getting our house ready to put in on the market! Yay!
Our realtor stopped by, told us what to fix up to maximize the value, and Landon got right to work. He did a lot of painting for the most part but we also had to fix gutters, patch holes, clean up scrap material, refinishing the wood floors, and more. I helped with the cleaning and tidying. Let’s just say our house hasn’t looked this good in a long time!
It was definitely exhausting doing all the extra work on the house before and after clocking into our day jobs in just a few weeks but we got it done and are praying for the right buyer now! Once the house sells, we will have a determined move out date after the baby arrives, since we are doing a home birth.
Related Post: Our Homesteading Journey – November 2020 Update
Rabbits Housing
We had to fix up the rabbit’s hutches this month. One of our little guys from the last litter is an escape artist, we swear! And the hutches needed some TLC to make it through the winter.
The rabbits were sitting on the cold concrete ground in our garage, and it was becoming quite a hassle to clean their poop and pee up regularly. Landon built wire bottoms and raised the hutches off the ground so that now the poop and pee falls right through. The rabbits seem much healthier now that they are out of the filth less and we have more time on our hands.
New Litter of Baby Bunnies
Speaking of rabbits, we also have a new litter that was born just before Christmas! Lemon, our Californian female rabbit (pictured above), built a beautiful nest in her nesting box, and right on cue (the 31st day of her pregnancy), she gave birth to 8 healthy and thriving kits.
It was amazing seeing her mother them so well, and we have stayed hands-off the entire time! Only just a few days ago did we remove the kits to count them and make sure they were all growing nicely. They are still in the nesting box but soon will be roaming around the cage with mom snacking on her food.
Lavender, our other female, was bred a day after Lemon and we assumed she would be giving birth right around the same time. Unfortunately, she must have had a false pregnancy because no babies ever came. We are going to wait to rebreed her again after we move up north to our homesteading land.
We also sexed our two surviving kits from the last litter and as far as we can tell they are both females! We are currently planning on keeping them both as breeders. Any suggestions on names for me??
Chickens – One Down For The Count
We have still been getting quite a few eggs this winter despite the lack of daylight and drop in temperatures! Overall, our chickens seem to be doing great in the cold and the snow and we are so thankful we purchased a hardy breed.
We have two chickens that suffered this month, unfortunately. First, we have one that is molting. I have never seen a chicken molting before and at first thought, it was injured or sick! It is still so weird for me to see it missing feathers all over its head and neck, but from everything I have read I know
I want to pick up a book I read in the spring again called “The Homesteader’s Natural Chicken Keeping Handbook: raising a healthy flock from start to finish” to see what I can do to help boost the chicken’s immune system in the winter and coming spring. Keeping the coop clean is hard in the winter and the chickens spend most of their time there on cold days. If you have any tips for me I’d love to hear them in the comments!
Here’s where I first read this book and shared it on Instagram!
We also suffered one chicken loss at the end of the month. The chickens were free-ranging that day and we were expecting a winter storm that night. As I, Kelsey, was doing the nightly chores and closing up the coop for the night I saw Brook, our border collie, being very protective of something in the snow.
As I looked closer, I saw a dead chicken, frozen stiff. I was horrified not knowing what had happened. Our best guess is another neighborhood dog incident. Its neck had been attacked and looked like it had been shaken up.
The positive side is that we were able to de-feather and skin the bird that night and make homemade chicken nuggets for lunch the next day!
We are now down to 24 laying hens and are hoping the molting hen won’t take too long to recover!
Freezer Meals & Baby Prep
In preparation for the baby, I spent the day one Saturday buying all the groceries and making 31 freezer meals. We are now less than a month away from the baby’s arrival and everything is coming together so nicely.
If you want the funny part of this story, well, let’s just say I’m still learning my way around the kitchen! One of the freezer meals from the recipes I was following called for jalapeños to be added. I have honestly never cooked with them before and barely ever eat spicy foods!
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Well, little did I know what damage they could cause. When chopping them, I got them all over my fingers, face, and everything else I was touching. Boy oh, boy did they burn! In fact, my fingers burned so much that night and no home remedy seemed to be working that Landon set up a bed for me in the bathroom. The only thing I could do to endure the pain was to keep my fingers under running cold water.
Since I was so tired, I slept next to the shower that night with my hands in the shower under running water. Looking back it is so funny and now I know that cooking with jalapeños is another level of cooking I still need practice with! LOL
We also finished up our Bradley Method class this month, and honestly, we both feel so prepared and ready for the baby to come. With only a few more weeks to go, all we can think is let’s do this!
Switching To Cast Iron
I am so excited about the new cast iron skillet combo, dutch oven, and grill pan that we have received as baby gifts! Like any true homesteader (I’m kidding…well, partially) you need a good set of cast iron items to get you through all those hearty meals.
Well, I finally decided to pull my gluten-free sourdough starter out of the fridge and try my hand at my first loaf. I had been waiting for the cast iron skillet combo set to cook it in. I made the sourdough starter back in the spring (when everyone was stuck at home and trying their hand at it) and it has been in the fridge ever since.
After a few days of feeding it, it didn’t seem to be very bubbly and I was thinking, I just need to start over with this starter. However, I still wanted to try making the bread none the less and see what happened. The loaf failed, as expected, so I will wait until we are up north to try my hand at making a new starter from scratch.
I can’t wait to start cooking all our bakery items from gluten-free sourdough!
Celebrating Advent
We couldn’t end this month without sharing the joy of the Advent season. I did an Advent Bible Study with friends this month and was so thankful for the constant reminder of what our purpose on this earth truly is – to love of the Lord our God, bring glory to His name, and share the hope and joy that give us with others!
Jesus came to this earth so humbly, to take away the sins of the world. Wow, what a joy it is to serve our Maker and our King!
Now we are ready to jump into the New Year with, Lord-willing, a little baby here soon, and moving to our homesteading land, we can’t wait for the homesteading journey and adventure to continue!
-The Adventuring Alberts
Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma
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