March arrived and was still pretty chilly here in North Georgia. We were all anxiously looking forward to spring and happy to see the grass starting to turn green.

With the chilly days, we were still keeping the wood stove burning most nights. The kiddos enjoyed riding in the cart while daddy was getting a load of firewood.

Our piglets were kept cozy on the chilly days and nights thanks to a heat lamp, deep bedding and their mama. They’re so little and so cute.

I woke up one morning and found Weston snuggled up asleep next to the woodstove. This boy likes to stay cozy and found the warmest spot in the house!

Laura and I bundled up to do chores. John David’s coat fits perfectly when Laura is snuggled up in the baby carrier.

Weston was bundled up too on this cold March morning to help me with chores. We spent several weeks in March trying to figure out which of our hens were laying and which ones needed culled. He was such a big help and I realized how much he knows about chickens – especially the little details about our chickens – their eggs, laying habits and such.

We slaughtered a second pig on March 14 thanks to the cold nights. This second pig was smaller than the first so it was an easier job. We made a lot of sausage.

We had our first double yolk egg laid here on the homestead!

Cecilia turned 4 years old on the 20th – the first day of spring. She wanted princess everything for her birthday – she had two princess cakes (one from her nana and one that I made) and received a new dress, gloves, shoes and even a crown. She was delighted!

On March 29th, we received our batch of broiler chicks. We started out with 50 and lost a couple within the first few days. It’s fun watching the baby chicks!

Now that spring is here and it’s finally starting to warm up, we’re excited about starting to garden!

—Rachel

February was an exciting month for us! We had nearly a week of wonderful, spring like 60s and 70s weather and the kids were outside for hours a day. It also rained quite a bit which showed us some areas where we need to make improvement in drainage.

We have a low area that’s downhill from the house and the barn that we call our lower garden that drains poorly. It rained fairly heavily throughout the night in early February and we woke up to a lot of standing water and our chicken tractor was in right in the middle of it.

When I went out to move the chicken tractor, I was so worried they were going to be soaked, cold and would get sick. (These 2 hens and rooster are a few months old, our neighbor gave them to Weston and we were keeping them separate from our layer flock.)

They are smart and all 3 were up on the feeder which is where they like to roost so they were dry and healthy. I moved the tractor to dry land and we learned that it may be best to not run the chicken tractor in some areas so this won’t happen again.

These 3 love books and they enjoyed looking through a Christian Book kids catalog one rainy day. They even color coded the things they circled. Cecilia was pink, Weston was blue and Paxton was green. I love the little organizational skills that are emerging.

We spend a lot of time reading both for homeschooling lessons as well as just for fun. It’s one of my favorite ways to pass cold, rainy days!

Two of my agriculture reads for February:

The Good Life by Scott and Helen Nearing. The Nearings were homesteaders who lived a very simple, sustainable and self-sufficient life. It was interesting reading their story about their two different homesteads – the first in Vermont and the second in Maine which still operates as The Good Life Center even thought the Nearings have both passed.

The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman is a wealth of information. It’s like a text book for organic gardening. It’s one of those I may end up purchasing for our home library.

Both of these were checked out from the library thanks to Georgia’s interlibrary loan system. I am so thankful for the public library and that I can easily access so many wonderful books from across the state.

On February 22nd, we bought baby chicks at Tractor Supply’s Chick Days. Weston has been eagerly anticipating chick days. The kids and I picked out various breeds. I have 6 California White, Cecilia has 2 Bantams, Paxton has 3 Production Reds and Weston got 2 Bantams, 3 Golden Comets, 2 Barred Rock and 1 ISA Brown.

One of Weston’s bantams died within hours of bringing him home so I think he was unwell when purchased or was injured while being transported home. It was sad but I had reminded all of them before we bought the chicks that they all may not live because sometimes things happen when raising baby animals. He was sad but not heartbroken.

We spent the last weekend in February outside because it was beautiful. John David plowed a swale for drainage at the end of the lower garden where the water tends to accumulate to help the water drain out of the garden. We have plans to plant flowers and vegetables on the swale.

The kids loved the swale. They pretended it was a half pipe for snowboarding (they were very inspired by the Winter Olympics). Laura had fun playing in the soil. They all were covered in dirt but they had a blast.

Laura took a little afternoon nap in her porch swing after playing in the soil. So sweet!

It rained pretty heavily February 25th so we were able to see how our swale helped the area. There was less standing water in the areas that normally flood. It hasn’t completely solved the problem, we think we need to expand it more on the drainage end but it was a step in the right direction.

February 26th was a very exciting day – we had piglets born. Clover had 5 babies (2 didn’t survive the night) but we’re thrilled with 3 healthy, happy little piglets. She’s a good little mama to these sweet babies.

Mama Clover and her babies. We have 2 boys and 1 girl. The boys names are Deer and Pink Pig and the girl is Twitch. Cecilia named Pink Pig which is why it’s such a girly name for a boy.

We’re looking forward to what March holds – the beginning of spring and gardening especially!

*Disclosure – This post does contain affiliate links to products we use and want to share.

—Rachel

January was a fun and productive yet cozy and relaxing month on the homestead. We started the new year off with planning for 2018, watching a little football and staying warm inside.

Weston’s hen from Draw Write Now Book 1 which teaches kids how to draw simple farm animals – it has quickly become a favorite!

We made a batch of sauerkraut (I’ve made it before but it’s been several years ago) Weston was my kraut making helper. This batch turned out a little salty but I was pleased with it. One of our goals for 2018 is to add in more fermented foods to our diet.

January is a perfect time for getting cozy with a book. I am an avid reader with a wide variety of books I’m reading at any given time! My favorites are the Bible, biographies, parenting books and agriculture related reading.

Here’s a few of the books I read in January:

A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael by Elizabeth Elliot

Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Heartfelt Discipline by Clay Clarkson

The Market Gardener by Jean-Martin Fortier

I’ve been experimenting with second ferments of Kombucha and getting pretty consistent with carbonation! It’s fun, yummy and we’re getting more probiotics in our diet.

I’ve been making elderberry syrup to help keep us healthy through the cold and flu season. So far, we’ve not gotten the flu and the colds the kids have have been very mild, only lasting about 2 days.

The most exciting thing for January was we installed a woodstove! It has been a dream to have a fireplace or woodstove in our home – so we finally made it happen. John David laid the brick hearth and installed the stove. It’s so cozy and quaint.

We had several very cold days in January so we spent quite a bit of time in the living room near the stove.

We had one weekend with spring like weather so we moved the pigs and John David created a separate stall in the barn in anticipation of piglets.

Weston is completely in his element. This is one of his Olive Egger hens that he raised from a baby chicks.

John David smoked one of the hams he had cured and it was absolutely delicious – the kids were all eagerly awaiting their first bite of ham! There’s nothing quite like quality food that you know the source of.

We had a few days of lovely weather and the kids harvested carrots that were planted in early fall. The carrots were very good.

This post is mainly a highlight of the good things that happened in January but there was some sadness. Our baby pig that was born back in September got out of his pen and fell into a watering trough and drowned on January 27. It was a very sad day for us all. Life and death are part of life on a homestead but there is a difference between purposeful slaughter and untimely death.

*Disclosure – This post does contain affiliate links to products we use and want to share.

—Rachel