When I started this blog, my goal was to update it weekly in the hope of building a following. But life got messy, and I told myself monthly would be okay. But life got messier, and here I am, not having posted since October.
The truth is, my inspiration has been low. We’ve continued to do the things we set out to do, and I’ll give you a few highlights from foraging, gardening, and general homesteading and sustainability below. But we’ve experienced some losses in the past several months that made opening a window into our lives feel… less than appealing.
My dad had short battle with cancer, beginning over the summer and ending in early December. Without delving too deep into it all, I’ll say that I was so fortunate to be close to him throughout my life, and at the very end as well. He was a wonderful person, and a wonderful father. Then, less than two weeks later, we lost our garden pup, Macy. She was 11 years old, which isn’t young for a big dog, but it still felt like she had so much life left in her. We’ll miss telling her how good she was doing at “guardin’ the garden.”
But life moves on, and we’re figuring out our new reality. My brother and his wife had their second child, a perfect baby girl, the day after we lost Macy. We spent precious time with them, my mom, and other loved ones over the past month. And between my last post and today, we’ve had other new wins and losses, experiences and learning opportunities.
After we thought our harvests were over, we were able to pick some more spinach, lettuce, kale, and mustard greens, and enjoy just a little more homegrown food for the year (hoping to grow enough to preserve for the winter in this upcoming gardening season). We used a kit we bought at a farmer’s market to grow our own oyster mushrooms in our basement, and Mark scattered the remaining debris from that around an oak behind our fence, with the hope that we’ll get lucky and grow some more someday.
We found our own late fall oyster mushrooms in a park nearby, much later than we thought possible, and now we have another spot to check in the summer. Mark started a mead-making journey, and ordered our first nuc of honeybees. We’ll be picking them up in the late spring! We found our first-ever praying mantis on our property, and hope to find many more.
It feels fitting to be planning our spring garden; organizing the seeds, thinking about dates for seed starting, mapping out locations for our plants. While everything is still cold and dark outside, it’s the season of renewal. Time to look toward the future, knowing that everything green is coming. I wish the happiest 2024 to anyone who stumbles across this post. As always, thank you so much for reading ❤
Mark & Beth's Homegrown Adventure 