Hey friends! We're settling into life with our newest family member and getting back into all our routines. Funny story, we've had a lot going on around here, not the least humorous of which was an escaped calf wandering about our property. Somehow the neighboring pasture had a week spot on their fence, and this little guy came for a hike through our woods and a taste of our garden! I told my husband he should adopt the title, "Cowboy Extraordinaire ??" He was not nearly as amused as I was. Here's a quick run down of all our current projects! Animals: We are currently preparing for a buck to come to the homestead! We've been praying about a new herd sire for the farm for two years now, and we think we've found him! That means we've got a lot of work to do in building the buck pen and shelter. We're sure Tumnus and the boys will enjoy more space while still having companionship. Our 2nd litter of bunnies are about 30 days away from freezer camp. Litter 1 we let grow out longer than usual, to guage feed costs, and to see if there were any from that litter we'd like to hold on to as breeding stock. As of right now there's one doe in particular who looks really promising, and who may make a great mama. The others we'll be tattooing and listing for sale. Silver fox rabbits are excellent domestic breed to raise for meat, fur, or as pets. We'll be sure to let you know when everyone is listed! We spent Friday afternoon grooming our silver fox foundation bucks. They were relieved to get rid of all their molting excess fur and receive the spa treatment (ear cleaning, cage cleaning, and nail trimming, with snuggles) they're happy, healthy fellas! In addition to a buck, we're praying about potentially adding a livestock guardian to the herd. Our chickens have been suffering raccoon attacks all summer. And those critters, while cute, are vicious, and insanely smart. They keep figuring out all of our attempts. Our next step would be setting out live traps, except that our border collie, Flynn, keeps getting out of the house, and we don't want him getting into the traps. We're still thinking it all through, hopefully with greater wisdom and foresight than the raccoons. Summer Workshop Series 2022: We have episode 3 in the works for you; all about raising low-cost livestock! It will launch the first Saturday in August! I still can't believe we're already into the 2nd week of July! It has flown by! Be sure to listen to our first two episodes of this year's Summer Workshop Series, on Herbalism 101, and Relational Permaculture. You can find all the resources on our SWS2022 page here, and you can also follow the podcast on Spotify, here. We drew our first giveaway winner, and notified them via email. However, they've yet to respond to collect their prize! So, we're going to go ahead and draw 2 more winners this week! Winner #1, of our Herbalism 101 episode, will be receiving an herbal tea and salve bundle, and Winner #2, of our Relational Permaculture giveaway will be receiving the Kindle edition of Growing Food God's Way, by David Devine! We're super excited, so stay tuned, as we'll be drawing those winners this week, and notifying them via email. Don't forget to subscribe to our email list to qualify for the giveaways! We'll also send out an email congratulating the winners, and letting you know how to claim your prizes. Other projects: I've been leaning toward creating my own Christian homeschooling planner! Having been disappointed with the one I purchased this year which had all the inspirational Scriptures removed from it's previous year's format, I found that rather than complain about it, I'd be proactive in putting one out there for you all to enjoy and benefit from. That is still in the works and I have set the goal of publishing it in time for pre-orders for the 2023-24 school year. God willing, I'll have it ready to go by March or April, 2023!! Until then, I recently discovered Gather 'Round Homeschool, and they have an awesome planner available for sale, check it out on their website! https://gatherroundhomeschool.com/products/gather-round-planner?_pos=1&_sid=01314330a&_ss=r We have had 2 opportunities to contribute to "larger -than-us" projects, both of which are coming together with more details available in the coming weeks! I'm super excited to share those with you and it's been difficult to keep quiet about them!! But- both will be excellent resources on homesteading and homeschooling, and I will be sure to share them once they go live! Gardens: My once beautiful back to Eden Gardens have really taken the back burner this year as I spent the majority of my time focusing on the new baby, as well as all the animal babies! I'm excited to get them back into shape for the fall. Our ChipDrop request was fulfilled a couple weeks ago, and we are ready and rearing to go with the B2E woodchipping!... Except that our cart has a flat tire we need to fix first! ??????? Such is life on the homestead. We are foraging and harvesting several herbal teas you should be watching for in the farm store: Raspberry-peach leaf ?? Classic Peppermint?? And Farmstead Floral flowers?????? All are really tasty and we're enjoying them ourselves! Fall is a time for tinctures! I enjoy building our herbal medicine cabinet every year and sharing preparations with friends and family. This week, my goal is to infuse oils with plantain, and to tincture some of the various flowering herbs in bloom right now. More on that later!