Fall has always been my favorite season and although New Hampshire falls were spectacular in their color and splendor they were also often very short. Ohio fall may lack a bit in the color explosion but the length of it can’t be beat. For the last few weeks, we have had summer like days with cool nights, and our windows have been open to a fresh breeze around the clock. The leaves have been slowly falling from the trees in stages is fun for us and the goats. Turns out goats love newly fallen leaves from trees, so I have started going on daily walks with them. We walk the whole outer yard together and they munch leaves along the way. Everyone wants to get in on the action and now even the cat follows along. I never imagined that this would be my life, but it is a really fantastic way to spend a lunch break.

Lee also built them a goat jungle gym and they love playing king of the mountain.

The chickens are also doing amazing. We are consistently getting an egg per day per chicken and some of them are double yolkers. Those eggs are the size of a goose egg and seem to happen after I give the chickens a bunch of kitchen scraps. Almost every day they get whatever is left over from my cooking and that continues to make me feel great. At this point the goats turn up their noses at everything (picky little girls) so the chickens are reaping the bounty. We also tried something we saw on instagram and gave them a pumpkin with two small holes cut into it and they have cleaned that out.

With all these eggs I have started doing a ton of cooking and so far, most experiments have turned out OK. I bought a Sailnovo Pasta Maker Machine which was a little intimidating at first but works pretty good and I made homemade mushroom ravioli and my great-grandmother’s egg noodles. I also tried making bread (the chickens were happy that day because it was terrible) but we luckily found a used bread machine at an estate sale for $10 and that bread turned out great! And after some trial and error I learned a method to hard boil chicken eggs and made some yummy, deviled eggs with my mom’s recipe.

As a side note fresh chicken eggs are super hard to peel after boiling because age makes the insides shrink a bit for an air pocket next to the shell. I tried lots of ways but finally read in the Prairie Homestead cookbook (love her website too) to steam the eggs for 21 minutes. I thought this was a bit excessive, but it works beautifully, and the eggs are super easy to peel. That’s a big deal because we are swimming in eggs and I am trying all kinds of ways to preserve them. Pickled eggs anyone 🙂

Lee’s been busy too gathering supplies for various projects and organizing his workshop. He built a really cool workbench and a grill station and has kept costs to a minimum by looking for near free items on Facebook marketplace.

He also made me a goat hay holder which is awesome and he is teaching me how to do some things for myself. I hung my own pictures for the first time in years including some signs on the goat stall. It’s nice being handy myself and Lee’s been pretty patient with teaching me stuff.

It’s been fun and our new tradition of estate sale Saturdays have gotten us lots of bargains. I like them because I can get craft supplies which I used to make my own cloth pumpkins. Being crafty is awesome for my mental outlook and sometimes things turn out really great. If they don’t, I don’t worry about it because I am getting all the raw materials really cheap and it takes the pressure off. Lee’s parents are also cleaning out their basement, and we get first pick of what is going to the thrift store. The combination of sustainability, upcycling, and being thrifty makes me incredibly happy.

One last thing I should mention is we are really living in farm country and these folks are super busy. Harvesting trucks are everywhere and they are running round the clock. Anyone who doesn’t think our farmers work hard should hang out at my house for a minute. It’s constant activity on the road and fields around us.

It’s a nice life we are building here and although I would like to meet more people in the area and we are adjusting to living on a budget there are worse ways to slide into retirement. I feel like we are building something here and for me at least it’s nice for our money to go into something that gives me so much joy. I am keenly aware though that we haven’t spent a winter here yet and I think that will really show us if this was the right choice for us. So far though I have loved the fall.

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