Sarah is back today with more news from Illinois. Like me, she has a long summer to-do list, and she’s made some good progress recently.
Things have been pretty busy around here.
This past weekend Steve and I spent over 4 hours trying to get the garden back in shape. Weeds had really gotten ahead of us.
It’s crazy how a good rain and warm sunny weather for a couple days can turn weeds from “manageable” to “out of control,” because that is exactly what happened. But we do now have a handle on things, and I need to work on it every day, even for just a few minutes, so that we stay on top of things.
The rain and sun has been great for the kale though. I have added it to my salads, and I have made some kale chips. But truthfully I really needed to find a way to use more of it and quickly.
I was listening to Young House Love’s podcast, and John mentioned that he blends his kale with just a little bit of water and freezes it in ice cube trays. Then he uses a cube or two to drop in his smoothies. Wow! That was such a simple idea and I had never thought of that or read that idea anywhere. So I cut a bunch of kale, rinsed it and did exactly what John suggested.
I used a lot of my kale. It only took a few minutes and now I can add it easily to my breakfast.
I will have more to harvest. This is AFTER I made my kale cubes.
The other thing that we worked on over the weekend was the chicken coop.
We had just been using wood that we had laying around, but we got to a point where we had to make a run to the home improvement store and get more supplies.
We are basically making a small room inside one of our barns. The exterior wall and the roof will be insulated.
I am still kind of designing and redesigning things as we go, but I have a pretty good plan in mind. I am hoping we will be ready for chickens by the end of this upcoming weekend.
This summer seems to be flying by so quickly. We have gotten so much done, but I feel like I have so much more that I really want to get finished.
I don’t want another month to go by without checking so much more off of my to-do list!
Oh, I know what you mean, Sarah. Summer is the time to get things done. I’m glad I’m not the only one with an ambitious to-do list. You’re doing a really great job, though! I can’t wait to see the rest of the coop–and its occupants.
Home on 129 Acres 
Your garden is looking shipshape! That’s a good idea for the kale. And the chicken coop is turning out so well. Will they live in the barn but be able to go straight out the little square hole, is that the idea? I can’t wait to see them!
I should have given a better description. I will give a tour once it is finished. The “platform” is the floor of the coop and there will be walls around it with ventilation and a door for me to access eggs and one for cleaning. The small square hole will be the chicken’s door to the outside and it will have a secure door for me to close them in at night.
The large window that you see will be for the coop. It has hardware cloth on it now and in the coldest months it will have a window to close off but still allow light.
Sounds like luxury accommodations for the lucky feathery occupants!