Happy Holidays from our homestead to yours!
I don't know about the rest of you but life here on the homestead has been a whirlwind! The garden is in, the chickens are laying, Christmas is over and I am feeling exhausted! It occurred to me the other day that I had not been on here in a VERY LONG TIME! For that I am sorry as I have missed so much excellent content from all of you. I have been going back and enjoying all the interesting things you have all shared over the past few months.
A little bit about what we have going on here:
as most of you know we just moved here to our homestead this June and tried in earnest to get a garden in the ground. We did - but it did not produce any whopping yields. I got enough carrots and potatoes for a meal. The beans and Peas was little more than chicken treats. Overall we had pretty good success with our cucumbers and tomatoes. best part - the tomatoes were FREE!
we tried to get a fall garden in - but were too late. Hoping the garlic will do okay though. I plan to start plants indoors starting in Mid January though for our garden this spring. I have a local farmer coming to till up my 1/4 acre garden along with amending it with some good old fashioned compost too.
with the holidays we did plenty of decorating (starting in November much to my displeasure)! Below is a picture of one of the centerpieces I created for my husband's company holiday party.
With the cooler weather the baking bug has also bit me - so we have all be enjoying fresh baked yeast rolls and bread for a while now. I will make another post all about the bread and how I make it with a little how too recipe. So be on the look out for that in the next couple of days.
I suppose the biggest and best news is that our chickens have finally started laying eggs. We purchased a breading trio of Mottled English Orpingtons back in August. When we bough them we were told they were laying age. I think we were epically lied too! so, we bought some black sex-link layers. Shortly after we bought the them and added them in with our Trio we have been getting a random white/cream colored egg with our brown eggs. I was so beyond excited to see that sad misshapen little white egg as I knew it meant that those big beautiful black mottled orpingtons had finally started laying. 
(I don't normally was my eggs - but these were going to a friend who likes the idea of farm fresh eggs - but likes the look of clean store-bought eggs.
over all we have had an amazing 2017 and we are looking forward to an even better 2018 as we grow and expand our homestead. That being said, we have not forgotten to take a little time and enjoy the season and the company of our children who still find the magic and splendor in this time of year.
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Happy Homesteading my friends - may God grant you with many blessings in the coming year!