New Life For A Vintage Grain Bin,
May & June Recap

May & June Recap

Amazing things are happening at Healing Homestead! Let’s do a quick wrap up for May and June. As with any month, a lot was accomplished like installing a vintage grain bin, planting a summer garden, getting blooms on newly planted fruit bushes and trees. Thou, what was the most fun was sharing the farm the Homesteader’s Alliance of Lawrence County, my sister, and with two of my childhood friends!

Vintage Grain Bin Installation

The grain bin has been one of my father’s goals for over three years. It has had multiple set backs, time delays, and weather delays. Watching it go up piece by piece and bolt by bolt was very satisfying. There is still a lot of work to do before anyone will be staying in the grain bin, like, grading, and entrance, and designing and building the interior for a cheese cave and potential air b&b. Picture the inside of the grain bin like a two story house. It’s been a lot of fun watching this vintage grain bin get a new life. Watch the install and subscribe to my Youtube: Grain Bin Video

Homesteader’s Alliance Lawrence County, Tennessee

If you’re in or near Lawrence County, TN we’d love to have you join us for Homesteader’s Alliance Of Lawrence County! Every month we have a potluck and speaker. All of the info is on our Facebook group. Farmer Katy of Healing Homestead led our foraging event in May. We learned some wild edible plants and fun uses for Tulip Poplar and Sassafras trees. In June, Ilea of Mini Mint Farm & Garden lead our class on growing Microgreens. We loved learning which were her favorite seeds, trays, and microgreens!

It Ain’t Disney

We lost two very special animals. It saddens me to say that Mouser, our barn cat, and Gabby the goose, passed away. Mouser just shy of her first birthday. I wasn’t even a cat person until I had this snuggle bug. She would do morning chores atop my shoulder and forage through the forest with me. I’m pretty sure she thought she was a dog. Gabby the goose passed away just shy of her second birthday. As Mama Sue says, “it ain’t Disney.”
Life ebbs and flows when you have livestock. While some take their last breathe, others take their first. We welcomed 50 more future egg layers. Don’t forget, I didn’t want any more chickens this year and I ended up with 100 chicks! We also welcomed our sixth batch of Muscovy ducklings! These duck are so prolific and hardy. I highly recommend Muscovy ducks.

We’re Growing Food

Finally!!! We are eating fruit from the blueberry bushes that we planted in December of 2023. Unless you’ve eaten food from what you’ve tended, I can’t really describe how rewarding it is other than to say we FINALLY have blueberries! Unfortunately, Copper loves blueberries as well and helped himself to way too many off the blueberry bush. I’m excited to see blooms on the Goji berry bushes and Jujube trees.

Peafowl

The three peahens are bonding nicely with Azure, our peacock. They are calm when I go into their coop and I think they may even know their names when I call them: Penelope, Petunia, and Pineapple. I found that they LOVE kale. Now, it all makes sense why I planted so much kale in my winter garden. I was thinking I was going to have to open a kale chip business but it turns out I was growing treats for my soon to be peahens.
Peahens normally don’t lay eggs until they are two years old. My hens are only one year old. I was blown away to find my first peahen egg! There were a total of six eggs. Sadly, two of the peahens escaped (Petunia and Pineapple). After three days I released Azure and Penelope to free range and collected the six eggs for a broody chicken. Four eggs were not fertile. Two started to hatch but never made it out of the shell. Raising peachicks can be tricky.

Healing Homestead Guest

I can’t tell you how amazing it is to share Healing Homestead with my childhood friends. My sister, Dr. Sarah Druckman of Alpharetta Wellness Collective came for Mother’s Day! It’s so much fun to spend time with her hiking, swimming, and eating at the farm. I had a surprise visit from my friend Heather! Heather and I literally grew up together since we were two years old! I’m always grateful when she makes the trip from Georgia to Tennessee. I was super grateful and excited when my friend Natalie flew in from California! Natalie and I have known each other since we were five! I’m hoping that the grain bin will be completed for our next guests. Everyone was so excited to see the grain bin project and can’t wait to stay inside of the vintage grain bin for a guest room!

In Case That Wasn’t Enough

Thank goodness for photo documentation to help me remember everything that happens here at the farm! We were a bit behind but still got a summer garden planted in May. We are now harvesting the abundance of tomatoes, cucumbers, and more. It’s crazy to think that I just planted seeds for our winter garden (it’s the end of July as I type this).
I truly enjoy being outside in nature, exploring our land, identifying new plants, and finding wild food! I try to make a habit of going out after a rain to look edible mushrooms. I found this bright yellow bolete but I wasn’t able to 100% identify which variety so we did not eat it but we did enjoy wild garlic with our dinner.
The honey bees appear to be doing great! we’ve been extremely hands off this year as our time has been consumed with other projects. My husband, Jason Eagle of Strategic Healing, is a holistic health practitioner. He’s been so busy that I’ve kind of taken over the bees. Just about all I’ve done is pop open the hive and throw on another honey super. My sister, Sarah, wanted to take home a frame of honey. We snapped this photo of me twinning with my beehives before I put my big marshmallow bee suit on!
Jason and I celebrated my 46th birthday in Branson, Missouri. My parents gifted us tickets to Queen Esther. What an amazing show. If you ever get the opportunity to see anything at the Sight & Sound Theaters, go! I’m not a big shopper or indoor person so Branson was the best of both worlds with tons of beautiful things to see out in nature and good food. I even found a Romanian bakery with gluten free and keto friendly sweets. My Romanian sweet tooth was very happy. My birthday culminated atop the ferris wheel watching the sun set over the city of Branson.

Want to see more? Farmer Katy posts a daily video of her adventures at Healing Homestead