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· October 13, 2017

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That’s a lot of prunings! And I’m only half do

That’s a lot of prunings! And I’m only half done. We are busy pruning blackberries, raspberries, roses, and grapes. We always pick up the prunings and burn them to help mitigate disease. I am the most ruthless with the blackberries and they love it!
#blackberries #raspberries #roses #tablegrapes #pruningseason #pruning #tendingthegarden #bluffbottomhomestead #sieversblumenfarm

Cocoa the milk cow is still a little skittish, but

Cocoa the milk cow is still a little skittish, but now she’s starting to eat out of our hand! 🐮 She will also head towards us when we come up to the fence. Small improvements every day before the calf gets here!

We did a thing… ✨🐮 Meet Cocoa, our Brown Sw

We did a thing… ✨🐮 Meet Cocoa, our Brown Swiss/Jersey/Dexter cross heifer. Can you say hello fresh milk?! 🤩🥛
Funny story… We went to the seller’s house planning on buying a 7 year old experienced-with-hand-milking Brown Swiss cow BUT we ended up buying Cocoa because she was younger and less pushy… and then we decided to also buy a small Dexter/Swiss heifer, and a pregnant Dexter cow and her bull calf. Cocoa should be having a calf sometime this Spring/Summer. So with the heifer and bull calf we already have at home that will make 8 cows total by the end of the Summer if all goes well. 😳
But if you know Hayden, you know he can’t pass up “A DEAL”. We’ve got some work to do. Anyone want to help build fence on the new pasture? 😉

🌱Seed-Starting 101 👉🏼 How I start my smal

🌱Seed-Starting 101 👉🏼 How I start my small-seeded flowers and vegetables! Important things to remember are the preferences each plant has for optimal germination, like light/no light and heat/no heat. Small-seeded crops usually prefer to be planted on the surface, while larger ones need to be buried.
I use a clean bucket to moisten my seed-starting mix. I don’t want to introduce any possible plant pathogens by using a dirty bucket.
I use a toothpick moistened with water to pick up small seeds individually. The water attracts the seed and then I can put the seed in a specific cell. This is by far easier than trying to use my fingers.
Place a humidity dome or Saran Wrap on top of your tray until at least 50-80% of your seeds have germinated. Water often after trays are uncovered to prevent the tiny roots from drying out. As seedlings mature, let the tray dry out a little between waterings.
And have fun 🤩
#seedstarting #seeds #gardeningindoors #gardeningtips #cutflowergarden #vegetablegarden #seedstarting101

Shelling out some beans (and a few peas)! 🫘 I

Shelling out some beans (and a few peas)! 🫘
I had to clean off my seed-starting area and I realized I had a bucket of dry bean pods I never went through. On the plate are beans I will use as seed—not for eating. These were a pole bean called asparagus bean. The pods grow to be at least a foot long! In the baggie are sugar snap peas that I will use again as seeds to plant. (I don’t want to plant a ton of peas but I do wish I would have saved more pods.) And in the very back in the glass jar are dry beans. I will use some to eat and some as seed for this season’s crop!
✏️What I learned from growing dry beans this year: You must plant a lot of bean plants to end up with a lot of beans 💁🏻‍♀️ I knew this, but at the same time, I didn’t know this 🤷🏻‍♀️ if that makes sense 🤔. It’s easy to plant a long row of beans and think, “Wow! That’s a lot of beans!”
The asparagus pole beans were so prolific it was ridiculous. I couldn’t keep up and they took up hardly any space because they grew upwards on the trellis instead of out. The kids liked to pick the overripe ones and call them “snakes”. They chased each other around the yard with their “snakes”. Kids are funny 🤭
#greenbeans #drybeans #gardening #homesteading #savingbeanseeds #savingseeds #polebeans #trellisgarden #shellingbeans #bluffbottomhomestead

Happy New Year! 🎊 We rounded out 2022 learning

Happy New Year! 🎊 We rounded out 2022 learning some new skills. We made soap 🧼 from our very own grassfed beef tallow mixed with some other nourishing oils and a tea made from our own lavender, and then with the remaining tallow, we made some hand salve with beeswax and chickweed infused olive oil. We’ve used both already and gifted the rest. As you dive into the world of homesteading, you’ll find that there’s always a new skill to learn! For a life-long learners like us, this is what we find fascinating.
🤔What new skills are you hoping to learn in 2023?

🎄Merry Christmas🎄 from our family to yours!

🎄Merry Christmas🎄 from our family to yours! 🎅🏼✝️ Hope your day was filled with faith, family, friends, and fun!

🎄Struggling to find Christmas gifts for that sp

🎄Struggling to find Christmas gifts for that special someone? Is your loved one interested in cooking, gardening, or the homestead lifestyle? Then check out our 2022 Gift Guide post!
In this latest blog post, we’ve shared some of our favorite books, tools, and more.
👉🏼Click the link below or head to the link in our bio to read!
www.bluffbottom.com/aspiring-homesteader-gifts

2 pie pumpkins 🎃 = 6 cups of pumpkin pie purée

2 pie pumpkins 🎃 = 6 cups of pumpkin pie purée! 1 cup for the pumpkin cookies and 5 cups for the freezer. And it is pretty darn easy to do! 💁🏻‍♀️
Now 😏 let’s see how these pumpkin spice cookies turn out! We may need to make a second batch!

Canning chicken broth today! Y’all, even that SM

Canning chicken broth today! Y’all, even that SMELL of warm broth is filling and delicious. I’m sure when Hayden gets in from weaning pigs this morning he will likely fill up a coffee cup and drink it right from the pot.
I use broth all the time. I replace water for broth in a ton of recipes, and broth is super easy to make! My chicken broth turns out darker than storebought because of all the onions, celery, and other goodies I put in with chicken bones. This mixture sits in a roaster on low for three days before I strain it, let it cool, skim the fat off, and boil to prepare for canning. And then into the pressure canner it goes!
#makingbroth #chickenbroth #broth #canningbroth #smellsdivine #pressurecanning #yum #chickenrecipes

Ray said, “Look, I’m the angry face!” That

Ray said, “Look, I’m the angry face!”
That smile don’t lie buddy. 😂

🌱It’s time to start thinking about your garde

🌱It’s time to start thinking about your garden for next year! Check out this list of our favorite seed and plant companies for our flower farm and homestead!
👉🏼Click the link in our bio or head to www.bluffbottom.com/favorite-seed-and-plant-sources to learn more!
#favoriteseedsources #startingseeds #cutflowergarden #vegetablegarden #seedcatalog #plantingseeds #perennialplants #bulbs #plantingbulbs

Instagram post 17891314988719449

Instagram post 17891314988719449

Anyone know what kind of spider this is? We always

Anyone know what kind of spider this is? We always called the wolf spiders… 🤷🏻‍♂️

Instagram post 17927091986601903

Instagram post 17927091986601903

The night has finally come! We picked up our beeve

The night has finally come! We picked up our beeves from the butcher yesterday and set out some rib steaks for tonight.
These are our very first completely grass fed and finished steaks that we did ourselves so we were not sure what to expect… We weren’t even sure they were completely finished!
Here are our main takeaways:
1. Dexter rib steaks are much smaller (as expected) but actually a more fitting serving size. (See the buzz cup in pic 3 for reference)
2. These were the deepest, darkest, richest red color of beef steak that we’ve ever seen. Very similar to deer or elk. Doing some research on this and seems to be a sign of good myoglobin levels which appears to be a good thing 🤷🏻‍♂️
3. There was a ton of fat and good marbling. We had plenty of nay-sayers tell us they would be too lean and tough. I think we can credit the grazing program and always moving them to fresh high energy grass every day for this.
4. There were some tendons in some of the rib steaks near the bone that were tougher to work around but the meat itself was very tender.
5. We forgot to season them in all our excitement 🤦🏻‍♂️ but the taste was great! We did add a little salt on the plate.
6. The taste really wasn’t as drastically different from conventional grain finished steak as we expected. It was very delicious for sure! Just not as different as we expected.
7. They were surprisingly filling… I’ve heard Gabe Brown @brownsranch and others talk about this with regards to more nutrient dense food and how our bodies get fuller faster because each bite packs more of a punch of micro-nutrients.. could be some truth to this?
Sorry for the long post! 🤪 This probably should have been Hayden’s first blog 🤔😂 We are just excited and trying to document all our immediate thoughts.
This post would not be complete without thanking and honoring BigMac and Muffin. They were great cows for us to learn with. Definitely making us think harder about sticking with the Dexter breed in the future.
Eat well and be well, friends!
#grassfed #grassfinishedbeef #dextercattle #homesteading #beef #steak #homegrown #food

Chicken butchering day on the homestead! 🐓🍗

Chicken butchering day on the homestead! 🐓🍗 40 meat birds, 3 retired hens, and 2 roosters = yum.
Retired hens and roosters will be used to make soups and broth, and the meat birds will be left whole for smoking/roasting or cut up to bake, fry, or grill!
We pull the meat birds around in a “chicken tractor” so they can have access to fresh grass, bugs, and worms every day along with their feed. This batch was extra fatty! Excited to try them.
#homesteadlife #meatbirds #chickenbutchering #chickenbroth #chickentractor #homesteadchickens #chickenprocessingday

I know it put a halt to harvest around here, but w

I know it put a halt to harvest around here, but we were very thankful for the nice steady long rain yesterday. Our pasture and freshly planted wheat are really going to benefit!
These pics were taken on our bottom ground a few weeks BEFORE this rain. These black stick (gumbo) clay soils expand and contract extensively with moisture. We have seen it worse than this but this pic does do a good job illustrating the cracks that are formed from the contraction.
I remember as a kid sometimes being able to stick my entire arm in the cracks!

🥧 Homemade Smoked Chicken Pot Pie My pictures

🥧 Homemade Smoked Chicken Pot Pie
My pictures aren’t picture perfect, but this dish is delish! Head to the link in our bio or www.bluffbottom.com/smoked-chicken-pot-pie for the recipe!
P.S. Homemade crusts are the best 🤤I like to make crackers out of the leftover pie dough! They are eaten in a flash.

Today during our school time Ray got to do a Fall-

Today during our school time Ray got to do a Fall-related activity! I purchased a Fall printable bundle from @stephhathawaydesigns that includes the life cycle of a pumpkin 🎃 activity. The younger kids enjoyed putting the stages in order, too!
This is our first year trying out homeschooling (pre-k). So far so good. We’ve enjoyed all of Stephanie Hathaway’s printables as extra activities! I recommend checking her out. Her illustrations are beautiful.
#homeschool #homeschooling #prek #prekactivities #homeschoolactivities #homeschoolcurriculum #pumpkin #fallactivities #stephaniehathawaydesigns

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