I’m Jamie—a mom, homesteader, chicken tender, cat lover, and blogger in NW Tennessee. Our family raises Svarthöna chickens, fainting goats, and Maremma Sheepdogs. I write about homestead life, homemaking, budgeting, and baking while offering hatching eggs, chicks, and goat kids to our community.
We've moved! | September Recap | Arda Acres
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Hey Reader, Yep, you read that right. We've moved back to Wyoming. Through an odd and meandering series of events, it worked out for us to come back to Wyoming. We sure have missed it. The goats, dogs, cats, and chickens have come with us too just in time to enter winter, haha. We'll be keeping a close eye on everyone as we're getting nighttime freezing temperatures and the animals are coming off humid heatwaves in Tennessee. Hopefully everyone transitions well and enjoys the cooler weather. I know Juno and Jove are ecstatic. In the Garden in TennesseeI'm so grateful that some of our luffa matured before we left. I started these seeds way back in the beginning of the year in the winter because of their long growing season and because we want to use them more extensively going forward. I saved seeds from the earliest maturing luffas. One luffa yields a ton of seeds when considering that one luffa plant can produce 20-50 luffas! It's been interesting experimenting with the timing of harvest. Luffas that are still soft and won't mature before we leave are fed to the goats (they love them!). The browner luffas are ones that dried on the vine and were the easiest to process. The white luffas were harvest still green and were definitely a bigger investment in time to process. Both will work just fine for kitchen sponges, washcloths, etc. and the only real difference is aesthetics. I'm not really one to want to fight Wyoming's climate and short growing season except on this one plant. We've so enjoyed not having nasty kitchen sponges this past year when luffas are amazing, biodegradable, sponges that work just as well. I'm keeping my earliest maturing luffa's seeds and doing more research on different cultivars to create my own Wyoming variant that will hopefully work well in Wyoming's short growing season and climate. I don't think I'll ever get around having start seeds in the winter, but I'm hoping to reach something better than 120-150 days to fully maturity. I certainly have my work cut out for me and I'm sure it'll take years to get something viable going, but I think it's worth the effort. I'll be happy to share this process and the final product with our community once we reach something satisfactory. Cross your fingers! In the Dog HouseRemember the litter of seven that Juno and Jove had a couple years back? They just turned 2 years old in September. Two years of age for a LGD is considered maturity although some pups mature sooner and some later than that average age. We love hearing about how the pups are doing and we've heard amazing things about all of them. Receiving videos and pictures of them are an absolute highlight! For example, here is Diana who lives in Alabama and guards sheep. What a gorgeous girl! And here is Gabby who lives in Illinois and guards all sorts of poultry. They've not lost a bird since she joined them! I still remember and think of each pup even two years later. Having them was such an amazing experience to learn and connect with others who appreciate the Maremma Sheepdog breed. One Small Beautiful ThingOne last picture from our luscious green Tennessee home: We sure hope you stick around as we transition to a different way of living in Wyoming's climate compared to Tennessee. :) Ciao for now! Jamie |
Arda Acres
I’m Jamie—a mom, homesteader, chicken tender, cat lover, and blogger in NW Tennessee. Our family raises Svarthöna chickens, fainting goats, and Maremma Sheepdogs. I write about homestead life, homemaking, budgeting, and baking while offering hatching eggs, chicks, and goat kids to our community.
Hey Reader, Can I say something without jinxing us? Probably not but... August was a bit calmer than some of our previous months which is always great news. Don't get me wrong, it's been hot as heck here, but at least that's not a deviation from the norm. Along with some updates, I've got something special for you that I worked on over the last couple of months when I had spare time here and there. I enjoy writing, not just for the sake of writing, but to share what I've learned and create...
Hey Reader, Hoo boy, this has been an interesting month. And mostly due to coop happenings. I'll keep all other updates brief because lots happened with the birds this month. So let's get into it. In the Coop Egg Production was pretty abysmal in July. We were down almost 48% from production in June with only 121 eggs collected in the coop. Crazy. I track egg production because it's fun and also because it lets me know if there's an issue with the hens. We buy organic feed because what they...
Hey Reader, I think I need to stop telling you about the weather because whatever I say, the opposite happens next month. We've left mud behind for a heat wave. The dogs are not happy about it, but, to be honest, neither is anyone else around here. And of course, the humidity is mostly to blame. It is amusing seeing the chickens walk around with their wings held out to cool off. And the dogs are enjoying the fan we bought them, but I can't seem to get them to dip their toes in the kiddie...