Fishin 2020

Well 2020 provided me with a lot of fishin time.... I spent most of the year huntin for the crappie, but had a ball with the bass fishin. With the Cafe down most of the year and the garden didn't need pickin yet, I went fishin.... A LOT..... I was out on the lake almost every day. 

Lakes were down this year with the lack of rain, so fishin was a little tougher.. Bass and catfish were hungry all year.. Just wanted to drop a line.... and say Hi..share a few pics... no pun intended by the way..lol

 

Garden 2020

So with everything that happened in 2020, I am going to jump around the whole year with my posts. There was such a tremendous amount of things that happened, there is no special place to start.

I am a very active person, with my hands in just about everything. I truly like to keep busy, and have a hard time sitting still. Gardening is a huge passion of mine and I try to do something bigger and better each year. 2020 allowed me to use a spare lot next door to expand, but 2021 is going to change that. The owner is selling the property, so I have to move the garden. So this is the reason for this story. The photos below are of my 2020 garden. I used foldable shipping crates that I purchased from Chip Energy in Goodfield Illinois. they are a refurbished wood facility and very reasonable. I purchase from them every year. These raised beds are easily moved which helps in my circumstance for the 2021 garden.

Everything about raised beds in a garden makes gardening a lot easier to me. I have a back issue, but with these I am able to do more than I would be able to in a standard in ground garden. So part of my garden is in ground, but most is raised beds.

With raised bed gardening, you are able to control the soil content, rotate your beds, easier weed control, easier to move, easier on the back, easier for critter control ( even though I do plant for the critters too..) Companion planting is also easier and helps with pest control. I do not go into all the details specifically, because most gardeners know that you cannot control everything, because Mother Nature is gonna do what Mother Nature wants too...LOL

I have about 50 raised beds in total , and they are all planted with a variety of veggies. I try to plant as many varieties as I can, but plant what I will use in the Cafe and for the markets. The most popular at the markets are the Tomatoes of course and sweet corn. Sweet corn is not something I dabble in too much, because in our state it is so readily available.

So back to the raised beds, as I wandered off a little. That seems to be something I do now in my middle age. LOL... Raised beds are an advantage for a lot of reasons as I noted above. You can have one or two if you have small space or more for bigger areas. You can have a garden that will support your needs no matter where you live. As long as you have plenty of sunshine and a few minutes a day, healthy great veggies are easy to grow. As my grandmother would say : " Don't fuss and worry over them, and they will provide.."

So I am gonna end this little story with Happy Growing in 2021 and don't be afraid to try new things. Live life and love every minute of it.

 

So Hi again,

These photos are from my Cafe. There is a wonderful story behind this beautiful hand crafted counter.

My little Cafe needed a small counter, so during the pandemic I decided to post an add on the for sale site about needing one. I received a response immediately from a wonderful gentleman, whom I will not forget as long as I live. He told me he could do the job, so I told him great we could talk. By the end of the day he messaged me explaining that the job he was going to do was being paid for by more than one person and that there was no charge for me. He stated they wanted to be anonymous. He had the counter built and in place within a week. He would not take any payment, tip, or anything. He told me that our little Cafe had a lot of fans out there and he wished us the best and a Merry Christmas.

This little story is small, but the meaning is large. I have never been so touched and greatful. I have heard of Angle stories, but now I have one of my own. So I wanted to share this with you, and put a smile on your face and warmth in your heart.

So Hi again,

 

 Hi from "The Homestead Honey"

I am sitting in Florida with a little guilt goin on, because back home in Tremont, Illinois its 1 degree with about 5 inches of snow. I think by the time I finish this post the guilty feeling will pass. Ha Ha Ha

So to the left you will find a picture of the North Jetti on Venice Island. Its a beautiful spot to just sit and enjoy your lunch, people watch, bird watch or dolphin watch. This is one of my favorite spots to sit and clear my thoughts.

The weather is beautiful down here and I just want to stay, however I also can't wait to get back to my friends, cafe, and garden. I know the weather is really bad so patience is a virtue...

Vacations are great, but gaining weight is the inevitable. There are so many wonderful places to eat that we can't experience in our home town. I am trying hard to eat healthy, but it is hard. When you have Abbeys Donuts in Northport, Sonneys BBQ in Port Charlotte, Yummies Donuts and Cafe in Venice, Peaches Cafe in Venice, Yoders Buffet in Sarasota and many others to try, eating healthy is rough. If you are ever able to go to Florida, or if you have already been to Florida, these are places that are must try's.

Farmers Markets are everywhere and I try to go to as many as I can to get ideas for mine. I bring back ideas every year for the market and the cafe. The mind never stops, because there is so much to work from down here. I wish I could post every picture I have taken, but I am gonna post as many as I can, to share my experiences with you. Many of my posts are gonna be short and sweet and a variety of things going on in my life.

So enough of this post and on to another..

 Great Morning to everyone.... Been long time.....So where to begin ?????

I have been thru ups and downs with the cafe during covid. We returned from Florida on March 10th 2020 and on March 16th we were shut down by the Governor of Illinois. We were down for indoor dining for about three weeks. We began outdoor dining and carryout along with doing dinners and heat and eats to get us thru. The indoor dining will not return for a few months.

I worked harder than ever on the garden to sell extra produce at farmers market allowing me to keep going for a while. And then........ the fire. We had a fire in kitchen  June 10th 2020 that knocked us down for another month and half. Thank goodness for all those insurance payments I made. I thank God none of our staff was hurt. We opened back up and got to do indoor dining once again for about 3 weeks and they closed it back down again. We then continued on for carryout only. 

So I had a side gig at a year round farmers market to help out. I sell Amish goods, baked goods and produce here. In September of 2020 I was informed there was going to be new owners and that the new owner didn't want my items in there. So here I sat with so much inventory and what to do with it ???  Well I could have no indoor dining , so I turned my little cafe into a store. I sold my inventory and baked goods and did a tremendous amount of sales for the holidays. I was on my last leg at what to do next. I hung my head low and told my staff , we are going to have to close until Spring to save what little money I have to be able to open back up. So shut down we did once more. This lasted about a week and I received the news of a grant. The good Lord was looking after us once again. So we opened the doors once again for carryout, and baking. We received the news we could open back up in mid January of 2021, but only to half capacity. For me this was easy because we are a small cafe. We are down 10 seats, but sales are still down because people are afraid to come in and others are not happy with mask rule. 

I go to Florida in February of every year. I have a brother in law there to stay with or otherwise I wouldn't be able to go as long. My staff at the cafe is very dependable and responsible. They are huge Assets to me. Wonderful staff is an asset to have in any business. They are your business. Without them the garden would also be a loss. So as I sit here in Florida I have come up with ideas for the Cafe and the Garden to get us back on our feet and assure my staff have jobs.

I pray that we make it thru all of the covid, minimum wage increases, and any other thing life wants to throw our way. I am not giving up.......

See ya again soon. 

"The Homestead Honey"

Where Did The Homestead Honey Go ????

Hi,

The Homestead Honey here.... Where have I been, you ask ? I have been busy the last two years. I opened my own Cafe in early 2018. It's a  Mom and Pop type Cafe, serving homemade foods and fresh out of the garden veggies when in season and homemade pies that will melt in your mouth.

I also entered the Master Gardener Program here in Tazewell County, Illinois. I did well in the course, learned many new techniques and utilized them in the garden. I have also expanded my garden and trying new methods. I am loving all my new  raised beds. These have been a tremendous help to me as I have a little trouble with the back. They also are wonderful because you can control the soil, build them high enough so the critters stay out, ( don't forget to plant some for your critters though. they have to eat also.), crop rotation, companion planting and disease control. I found a nearby wood recycling facility that sells collapsible crates dirt cheap. These crates are what I use to build my raised beds. Wonderful.

As my project and Master Gardener hours, I chose the WIC Program. I created a wonderful Garden out of the existing garden space they had. I had many helpers such as the Health Department Staff, Fellow Master Gardeners, The High School AG class, and local residents. In two years the garden has transformed into a beautiful space. Once I figure out how to get the pictures on here to share with you, I will do so. The produce that is produced in this garden is handed out to our WIC participants for their families to have healthy vegetables to eat, at no cost. 

So this is what I have been doing the last two years, and what I am going to do is post different blogs about the past two years and bring everyone up to speed and then go from there.

Have a great day. "The Homestead Honey"

Welcome To My Cosmos World

Good morning to all. Its a beautiful 67 degrees in July !!!! What is up with that??? We will take it. 

Sooo.... I took a hand full of Cosmos seeds and threw them in this flower bed by the garden. This is what happened. Cosmos are my favorite flower because they are beautiful and easy to grow. They are an inexpensive annual to toss in amongst your hardy perrinials.

My true love of flowers came from my Mother. My mother could toss a rock on the ground  and grow a flower from it. Growing up I recall our yard was the most colorful in the neighborhood. My mother would sit at the kitchen table with flower books that had came in the mail and plan her colorful nature escape in the yard.

She would show me what she was going to plant next and explain to me what each and every flower was. I as a kid thought at first, this is something else to mow around, then when the flowers bloomed it was like the fourth of July in our yard. We always had the prettiest yard in the neighborhood. Hundreds of different flowers popping their pretty little heads up at different times of the year. My mother new when to separate and move different flowers and make new floral worlds all over our yard,each bringing different birds and butterflies to watch.

Soo... I came by the love of flowers naturally. My mother taught me a thing or two about growing just about any flower. I continue to plant and experiment and take any free starts off other gardners. The yellow sunflowers in the pictures are starts off my mothers and are perennials.

Sooo... Don't be afraid of flower gardening. Build your Cosmo's world, or whatever flower world you dream. Enjoy them and have fun planning and planting. Remember!!!! Plant hardy perrinials with a splash of annuals and no worrying over them. You will have a beautiful garden in no time.