Well, we definitely did get all the rain we were needing and then some! But, now we're struggling with cold temperatures. The last few nights we've gotten below 40 degrees. I usually have my tomatoes out by now but I have two choices: I can complain or I can be thankful! So thank you Lord for the rain! Let's get to what happened this week.

On the homestead, I'm going to start out with an update on the situation from last week. I mentioned that we weaned the triplets from Ebony but were still bottle feeding them. They are still continuing to do great. Ebony's utter is healing well and she has actually increased her milk supply. Next year I definitely plan on, if we have triplets, pulling one after 2 weeks. No matter what I'm doing, no matter what the situation is, I'm pulling 1 after two weeks. As for the iodine situation that we were dealing with last week, we are continuing to iodine morning and night on their tails and in their water. We've had some good results; Lauretta's bump is shrinking and Amber’s and Ebony's milk has flushed even more. So, I'm sure we are solving the problem! I just didn't even realize because milk volume usually is just what you get. It seems like our herd is improving even though they weren't really sick. Next year I have plans to increase their iodine first part of March no matter what to make sure everybody stays healthy.

As for new developments on the homestead, we are getting an additional animal coming this week. So we had to get ready! My dad came out and dug a nice big hole in our pig pen so that we could build a pig dugout house or like my kids call it the “pig bunker”. That was an adventure but I think it's going to make a great house. He also graded our road and flattened our parking lot. Remember I told you we live on a hill! As for all the other animals on the farm everybody is doing great! The meat chickens are getting big and we plan on butchering this week in the evenings. The turkeys and layer chickens are also growing and I can't wait to triple our egg supply!

In the Garden, everything has kind of slowed down because of the cold temperatures outside. They're not dying but they're not really growing because the ground is just too cold. I'm thankful for all the rain but these cold temperatures are just crazy. We do have potatoes coming up though! As a result of these cold temperatures I haven't gotten my tomatoes out and now I'm seeing loss of leaves on one of my trays; I have never experienced this. It is totally something new for me so I, of course, had to go to Mister Google Pants and ask him. You can find the results of what I found out in my weekly tips and tricks newsletter that I send out on Wednesdays.

If you want to receive my newsletter and grab an extra bonus of my Seed Variety Tracker click here.

In the kitchen, we got our first harvest of rhubarb. I have had rhubarb crisp for breakfast multiple times this week, yum! I am still researching dandelion recipes. I found some great articles on using the roots, using the leaves and using the flowers. I can't wait to share them with you!

Lord God, thank you for the rain, thank you for the time with family over this Memorial Day weekend, thank you for my family. How they help me, how they encourage me, how we work together. And I ask you Lord to lay your hands on the sick, the grieving, and on the political people that need your guidance, and need your support! In your name I pray, Jesus Christ, Amen

Till next time,

Pray, Just Plant!