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We learned a lot this month! And we are certainly reassured that homesteading is not easy!

 

I get why so many people give up at the beginning of homesteading. It takes a great deal of time, money, and resources to get started, and then often those investments fail by things out of your control. However, when you keep pushing, keep learning, and keep a positive mindset is when you really reap the rewards.

 

Our Homesteading Journey – July 2020 Update

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Our Land

 

We started the month on vacation! We took the time to spend a week on our new land up in the Keweenaw Peninsula when we found out the Canadian borders were staying closed.

 

While Landon worked from a coffee shop, I took the time to explore the area with the dogs. Monday we explored McLain State Park. There was a dog beach section so I thought it would be perfect to spend the day on the beach. I was completely wrong!

 

The biting flies came out in full swing as we neared the water. It wasn’t so bad for me, but they covered the pups in massive amounts. I tried bug spray, towels, and floating in the cold Lake Superior water and we still could not escape them! So, 10 minutes later we were back in the car. We found a trail in the park that we spent the day walking on which was much better. We also traveled north to another small beach, but the flies were just as bad.

 

I was also able to explore the downtown area and get my library card! Yep, nerd status. At night we camped on our land and stopped at Walmart each day to buy food and water since we had no electricity or water.

 

Tuesday, I decided to try another beach and it actually worked out this time! There were no biting flies at White City Park and we enjoyed walking out to the lighthouse.

 

 

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were waterfall days! Here are the falls that you can find in the Keweenaw Peninsula: Conglomerate Falls, Eagle River Falls, Upper Eagle River Falls, Haven Falls, Hungarian Falls, Jacob’s Falls, Manganese Falls, Montreal River Upper, and Lower Falls, Redridge Dam, Silver Rivers Falls, and Wyandotte Falls.

 

Friday was fun because Landon was off work and we traveled up the whole Peninsula to Copper Harbor. We saw Eagle Harbor, Brockway Mountain Lookout, and all the waterfalls on the way. It was a blast and a jam-packed day (pun intended as we also had to stop at the very popular The Jampot for treats!).

 

Saturday involved seeing more local waterfalls again so Landon could see them and exploring our land a little bit more before we left Sunday morning to go back home. We also met a lot of our neighbors who are kind and willing to help!

 

We love our new hometown and are so excited to become locals before we know it!

 

 

Announcing We’re Pregnant

 

Right before our vacation trip to our land we were able to tell our family that we are pregnant! We are expecting a little one due January 16 and will make the full move after that Lord-willing.

 

Everyone was so excited! We made fun signs for each of our parents and grandparents. Even though we couldn’t travel to Canada to share the news with my family in person, we were thrilled that we could Zoom them and mail them the gift.

 

Our little one will be the first grandchild for my entire side of the family, both my mom and my dad’s family so everyone is very excited about this new chapter. We won’t know the gender until it is born and are anticipating the surprise.

Making Jam

 

We have wild black raspberries growing around our yard in southern Wisconsin. Landon picked a bunch of them and we mixed them with store-bought strawberries.

 

Other than the dandelion jam in our March Update, this was the first time for me making jam with real berries! It was fun and we ate it pretty quickly.

 

Foraging for your own food is such an easy way to enjoy God’s creation! Plus, you get to avoid all the work besides harvesting!

 

Here’s the recipe I followed: Homemade Blackberry Jam

 

 

Garden Growth

 

I harvested my first crop – radishes! Ok, I know they are probably the easiest vegetable to grow ever but it certainly gave me a boost of confidence. I turned those radishes straight into a salad! There’s nothing quite like eating fresh produce straight from your own garden.

 

One day we want to be completely self-sufficient where all our garden produce and meat/fish only comes from what we grow, hunt, and raise ourselves. Having a garden make improvements is very encouraging and helps us stay focused on our future goals!

 

A few crops did not make it due to my lack of taking care of them (pregnancy tiredness won!) but I do have some big tomato and bean plants that are nearly ready to harvest! I can’t wait.

 

I was also able to plant a fall crop of beets, carrots, and kale! These ones were planted from seed outside and some seedlings are starting to show.

 

Another Chicken Became Chicken Nuggets

 

If you’ve been keeping up with the monthly homesteading updates then you know the dogs have been doing great with the chickens!

 

We have been letting the chickens free range the yard during the day and the dogs roam the yard here and there. Well, you might guess where this is going…

 

One Sunday morning I was up early and let both the chickens and the dogs out. I then fell asleep again on the couch until Landon woke up much later before we were supposed to be getting ready for church. To our horror, we looked outside and the dogs were nipping at several chickens.

 

They just wanted to play with them, not intentionally kill them, but in the process injured quite a few. It mostly just ripped out feathers and traumatized birds…and it certainly traumatized me! After examining each chicken and seeing the damage, we marked the injured ones with a zip tie on their foot, about 5 or so I would say.

 

But, unfortunately, one chicken was beyond repair. A large chunk of feathers was ripped out from the neck area and you could see skin and bones. The area would become infected without treatment and it could easily spread disease or infection to the rest of the flock.

 

We decided treatment would be too difficult and with enough birds already, this was going to become an early dinner for us. After church Landon killed and prepared the bird.

 

This almond flour chicken nugget recipe was amazing, and we learned that our fresh chicken meat was much chewier than what you would typically find at the store.

 

While it was so hard to go through that experience, it reminded us that homesteading has its ups and downs but there is always something that can be learned or gained from each experience.

 

With 25 chickens still, we can’t wait for our first egg sometime next month!

 

 

A Rabbit Problem

 

Ok, so I have one more animal problem to report sadly.

 

Alder, our cute black male rabbit who is about 5 months old now, had been losing his balance for a while. I figured it was because he was gaining a lot of weight and growing steadily.

 

However, one Monday when Landon was home from being up north from the weekend, he noticed that it was looking worse. Alder could hardly stand at all! This had been going on for about a month but we never looked into it.

 

Landon looked up what it could be and found that it was probably a parasite called Encephalitozoon cuniculi. We took him to the vet the next day and they confirmed that it was likely that parasite.

 

Unfortunately, there is no real testing and no true treatment for this parasite. There are things that can be done but they have harmful side effects and would be very costly.

 

Alder was unsafe to breed now and he could infect the other rabbits we have. We knew that we could not afford treatment and that it really didn’t make much sense when the solution likely would not even work, so we let him go in the woods. We didn’t want to kill him as we were gaining no meat from him so the most humane thing to do in our opinion was let nature do its thing.

 

We also took our other two white rabbits to the vet to verify the sex. When we purchased them we were told they were two females; however, we weren’t so sure. Rabbits are very hard to sex and even experts can get it wrong.

 

Well, we learned that we had three male rabbits (including Alder) and were nowhere near the breeding stage now that we were so looking forward to.

 

That put us at a fork in the road. Do we keep going with this? Do we sell the rabbits, take the loss of investment and learn from it, or do we keep pushing forward and purchase females?

 

Find out next month what we decided…

 

 

Necessary Purchases

 

With Landon working up north each weekend to create a shed, basically, into a temporary home for after the baby comes we knew that some necessary purchases were approaching.

 

We purchased a used trailer off of the Facebook marketplace so that Landon could haul his lawnmower and other supplies up to our land.

 

Also, lots of wood and other building supplies are on the list!

 

This is definitely a difficult financial time for us, with no money to make these renovations; however, they are certainly necessary so that we have a place to live. We trust God for His provision and are thankful for all the support we have from friends and family during this time.

 

If you could keep us in your prayers we would greatly appreciate it!

 

P.S. The new trailers name is Trusty (;

 

 

 

Landon Creating A Home

 

Speaking of…Landon has been working hard at our land! From cutting all the grass to getting the electrical in and starting all the main structural work, he’s been rocking it!

 

He is so handy and been doing amazing at literally building everything from scratch! Check out some of the pictures below.

 

 

Feel free to leave a comment and check in next month for some more homesteading updates (:

 

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Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma

Hey there, I'm Kelsey! I'm so glad you are here. I'm a 20-something helping you live your most fulfilling life. I hope you'll join me in this old-fashioned & simple lifestyle!
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