Island Lake Homestead (2026)

25/08/2025

5 am cinnamon rolls and another 4 loaves of bread cooked. 3 came out a little flatter than I wanted but good thing that doesn’t change taste!!!!

The cinnamon rolls took 5 min to prep last night and then probably 10 min to finish this morning. What a flaky worth getting up early to have ready for school.
❤️

23/03/2025

Sometimes I get really overwhelmed. I froze my honey harvest in October. And I basically killed my entire hive because I didn’t treat for mites before fall and they went into winter with some kind of mild infestation that took over. I got really frustrated with myself for not checking them.

I froze the honey frames to order an extractor later because I didn’t have one Susan my furst harvest. Hand harvesting and separating from the wax with a 5 gallon bucket and strainer was really time consuming over the summer. I have to wait for them to defrost and the water to evaporate before I can spin.

Fun fact I also killed my hive the year prior becausese i didn’t manage it. It grew too fast. I should havee added a box or separated them. They swarmed and Evacuated. So…..bees is a learning curve for real.

A friend of mine who is so special brings me mulberries. I have never cooked or done anything with them and my trees aren’t mature enough for harvest. My plan was to can syrup. I washed them and put them in a bowl to sit overnight to can the next day. And one day turned into two and quite a few molded. I also stained the counter top from the juice sitting. But here i am with hot coffee going to can the good ones today. And It’s OKAY!

Homesteading isn’t for the weak spirited. But I think doing each thing has a lesson to it. How would I change doing this the next time? How would I organize my harvest for next year? If we had to actually survive we might be in trouble……i mean we have eggs and meat chicken in the freezer so we would live. But my hope is in another year or two I have it pretty honed in on the things I grow and preserve. We will see.

Moral of the story. Don’t give up.

Also I always say do one thing at a time but that ain’t realistic either! What mom does one thing at a time. Just have hot coffee and a big thermos of water for the day. Try and get 8 hours of sleep. That’s all you can do. Well…..feed the kids and put them to bed clean. Haha! That’s the basic formula for getting through the day.

17/03/2025

Maybe onions were planted too close but…..let’s just see how this goes. Will fertilize this week. They love water.

Haven’t had the heart to replace my rusty holey wheelbarrow. But after this 2x4 to my hand was placed ….i might be investing in some covered handles till the ol girl goes off the rails in another season or two.

25/01/2025

Yall make your fire cider already? New batch bone broth simmering….and John!

I use 4 carcasses, one bag of feet and heads. Herbs from garden and a bag of old frozen celery onion and carrots. 🔥

20/09/2024

Reishi mushroom found under a damp comfrey plant next to an apple tree! Duplicating them will be my goal. If there’s one that means there’s probably more spores in the earth around it.

There’s been a ton of rain here lately and all different kinds of mushrooms have been popping up. Before you eat or harvest always check what it is. There’s great free classes at libraries that teach you how to do this if you are unsure. When in doubt don’t eat.

We also got our 1/2 meat chicken deliveries of the year. We harvest 60 a year and that’s plenty for our family and some for friends. I’m just now finishing up last of breast and have about 4 whole roasters and wings left. I’ll be canning the last carcasses for broth prior to processing these.

Having a young family and balancing homestead projects is difficult but when you finish one project it’s nice feeling like you trust the ingredients and feel good eating it. 10/10 recommend.

14/07/2024

I got this fig tree for free at an Arbor Day event.
Never had fruit until this year when I started watering religiously.

We now have some good growth! Anyone have any idea what type of fig this is? 🌱

08/07/2024

Something David Westervelt taught me was no tools no problem! Sometimes tools are great to have but if you have limited funds or limited resources to process let the bees do your work for you!

He told me not only are you feeding them honey that is stuck to the wax but then you don’t have such a mess to clean through. so even though I didn’t have the right tools this go around I’m still able to render wax as well as 40 + lbs of honey.

I can use the wax for candles, chapsticks, sunblocks, home repairs, really whatever. So my motto is try to waste nothing!

05/07/2024

Some farm photos of summer so far. The vegetable garden has taken a hit! Between fungus, drought, insufferable heat- didn’t really go as planned this year. Instead of being negative about it…..I decided to take the opportunity to put some nitrogen back into the soil and plant peas and things that feed the soil and do okay during dry heat.

John is growin up fast, has stopped biting chickens and just likes to taste test things in compost now.😂

The sunrises and sun sets in summer are rivaling the winter ones!

My neighbor had a felled tree stump growing some mushrooms and I thought perhaps edible but they are not! I took a mushroom class at my local library and using distinguishing characteristics is easy! I got to the gills and the cap and was able to decipher not safe to eat. Highly recommend looking into library classes.

There is a bee keeping one this month at the next town over. Check out your libraries as they can be huge assets at little to no cost to help your homestead and foraging goals. 🍄 and definitely do not eat ones that look like this ⬆️

31/05/2024

We had a very frustrating morning around the farm. We got a good snake stuck in our fence. Fire ants are it alive so that was something for the kids to learn and see for themselves.

Then whilst under construction- a bird house gourd has decided to plant roots in the new house. Dang plant looks better than the ones in the raised beds. Figures!

Chickens love left over watermelon!

I took down the fence and trying to figure out what to do with the netting so as to not waste it or dispose of it. Probably end up in the plastic island in the pacific if I throw it away. Any ideas on recycle use?

I also decided to drag it instead of moving it in a clump with the golf cart. Got it good and bound up under the wheel around the axle. That was super fun to cut off. 😁

I moved some almond bushes into some better light and going to start throwing mulch in some areas dying for w**d control this summer.

I bought a cool test kit for soil to see what’s going on in my beds. The tomatoes all did absolutely nothing so I’m pretty sure we need an amendment somewhere. If we lack a nutrient replanting isn’t going to go better so I need to get to the bottom of it.

05/05/2024

I was really worried 1.5 years ago after a bad frost in central Florida I had killed this avocado tree. The branches were touching the tarp and it slowly died from the outer branches down. I chopped the main trunk down where the dead bark was and prayed and hoped. My aunt said it was definitely a goner. Told me to pull it up. Well I pruned it and composted it. And lookie here! We’ve got choquette avocados coming in. I counted about 50 baby avocados so far.

I thought it came back under the graft. Guess not. If you can stand the sight of ugly stuff for a few seasons…..might be worth it! Can’t wait for guac. Zone 9B

16/03/2024

Cleaning out some brassica from the beds. Probably wouldn’t do Brussels again we just don’t get the growth and the cold needed. But chickens like em’.

Found a bunch of larva in the broccoli and cauli beds which I gladly served the girls.

Onions harvest was decent. Reds did the worst out of yellow and red. I did not fertilize and didn’t really water regularly. So next winter I’ll do better. But I’m happy with what I got!

Got some stinging nettle babies from a friend Momma G farms in eustis. I’ll put them in a raised bed as they can get wild and I don’t want them spreading on the property. Good thing to have around for sniffles and coughs. And does great in our climate.

Using porch gussets to help dry and cure onions. I think I’ll work on something fancier for next year. 🪴💚

03/01/2024

Todays lesson! When collecting burn pile debris check for these buggers! One almost got torched! Palms down in yard never would have thought it would create one 100ft from garden milkw**d.

So.
1. Palm debris
2. Trash I left in my garden bed a planter box
3. The underside of my kids lawnmower
4. Pull up bars.

So keep your eyes peeled.

I put some protection around the pull up bars bc our chickens free range during the day. Gotta give them 🦋 a fighting chance.

Island Lake Homestead