Hello, from the mountains of Kentucky! How is the weather in your neck of the woods? It’s a bit soggy on the homestead and has been most all spring and now still soggy into the first weeks of summer. This brings me to the purpose of this post, challenged on the homestead.

Rain is one of the biggest challenges we have faced this year. As a result of the continuous rain, we are quite a bit later than usual getting all of our garden planted. We’ve had potatoes out since Good Friday. We have been eating spring onions and have finally planted the cabbage, kohlrabi, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, cantalopes, and cucumbers planted. The zucchini is blooming and the squash is coming along nicely but some of the tomato plants are struggling. We’re taking extra care with them to nurture them through the strange weather patterns to ensure we have tomatoes to eat and preserve.

With the excess rain we’ve also had numerous thunderstorms that have brought straight line winds so fierce they uprooted very large trees. Unfortunately, the largest tree fell across our driveway one tree ended up across the driveway and fell into our potatoes. We were blessed it wasn’t a tree that fell on our house. But, it sure wreaked havoc on the potatoes. Now weeks after the tree fell and the branches and limbs have been cleared away, the potatoes vines have all greened back out. We’ll see how potatoes beneath ground endured the damage when we dig them in the fall.

Rain has also caused quite a bit of flooding, which has resulted in the creek banks washing out. To help anymore erosion, we’ve planted a weeping willow tree, which roots deep, which should help protect the bank from further damage.

With all the rain, ditching to prevent flooding has been more frequent than most years. The mowing has been a challenge this year as well. It feels like a never-ending job of mowing and weeding on days it’s not raining. Dry days are filled with diligent work mowing, weed eating, and weeding in the garden. Rain and wind has created most of the challenges for us this year, but along with the tremendous amount of rain, we have had to baby plants to prevent them from rotting in the ground. It feels strange to not be picking vegetables this time of the year.

The weather has created a challenge with our chickens as well. They do not like to get out to pick in the green grass when it’s raining. With the lower picking and sunning also comes a decrease in eggs. This leads to more laying mash, handpicking greens for them between rain showers, and providing them ground oyster shells to keep them healthy and maintain egg production.

Once the unusual amount of rain subsided, the challenges of heat arrived with a vengeance. We were able to fence the cucumbers, finish the second raised strawberry bed, and plant six long rows of beans and more peppers before the extreme heat arrived. As the heat index rose, we’ve had to decrease the amount of time spent planting, hoeing, and tilling. That work has been replaced by late evening watering the garden by hand. With temperatures up to 96 and the heat index even higher, it’s taking a toll on our beans. But I think they will survive. It has truly been a roller coaster of unusual extreme weather. Finally, the heat index lowered and it looked like rain was in the forecast again. We were able to get twelve rows of corn planted minutes before the rain arrived again. With the late corn, we have hopes that maybe we have missed the majority of the storms that include wind that often damages our corn. We are hopeful we’ve endured the majority of the storms this season and our corn will grow free from wind damage.

We faced the challenge of losing one of our mommy bunnies this season. It was sad as she was a favorite. But, on a happier note another mommy bunny gave birth to ten more baby bunnies with eight of them still thriving. We also lost two of our best laying hens, but gained twenty two doodles. The Lord has a way of easing the loss with the gain and miracle of new life. Just when I was ready to replace our precious barn cat, Harry, who we lost in September, with an adopted cat from the pound, a new feline showed up one evening. He was desperate need of a home. He is now a happy and healthy kitty on our homestead who loved doing his part by catching ground squirrels who quickly can become pests in the garden.

The challenges of homesteading are real, but so are the victories! On the upside, the rain has helped our herbs flourish. I’ve already been drying basil and eating herbs for a few weeks. I will harvest sage, oregano, basil, lavender, a couple variety of mints, and lemon balm this week when the heat decreases. Again the rain has increased the growth in our cucumbers, squash, and zucchini and has been good for our flowers as well.

With homesteading comes both challenges, rewards, failures, and success. But most of all comes the rewards of satisfaction in planting, harvesting, preserving, and eating our own food, loving the land that the Lord has provided, sharing our bounty with others, and caring for the animals that we’ve been blessed to care for are the best rewards. Homesteading rewards far outweigh the challenges, and it’s nice to remember that with challenges comes the rewards of learning and overcoming hardships.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this short post and enjoyed learning more about our life on the homestead. Feel free to subscribe, like, comment and share with others. For now, God bless and happy homesteading from the mountains of Kentucky.