Homesteading

I've always loved the idea of homesteading and I dream often of having a remote piece of land somewhere, a house I built with my own hands and a life carved out that's tough but satisfying. Elements of this dream are self-centered and isolationist and need some Divine refining, but also some of it is good and pure and set deep with-in me and worth pursuing. Here in Uganda I'm blessed with opportunities to practice some homesteading and I'm really enjoying it.

So here's what going on down on the Kragt family farm:

              
 Though the rains have been inconsistent this season, we have done some planting and the garden is doing well.

Tomatoes are just beginning to flower. I had to build my own cages since they don't use them here.

The maze and beans need to be weeded and we need to lay some ground cover, but they are also doing well.

I've done some container gardening as well. This one has 2 celery plants though one was just put in and is still very small.

We also have some herbs and some fruit tree starts going. The bigger ones are rosemary and basel. Then in the front are 2 lemon trees, 2 pomegranates and a hibiscus in the bucket.  

Pumpkin is growing well under the sugar cane.

We are also so excited about our strawberries, which are doing really well so far!

We also have a number of matoke (like plantain) trees, our avocado tree is producing far more then we can eat, and we'll get a few mangos off of the old tree in front pretty soon. That is so say nothing of the sweet potato vines, elephant grass and other miscellaneous rabbit food we'er growing.  

We have some "livestock" here on the farm too.

 Ellie's rabbit, Princess, is just about ready to find a good man, settle down, and start a family. 

And our ugly little bare-necked hen has proven to be a good mother and is currently raising 11 chicks. Hopefully in about 6 months we'll be producing a bunch of eggs. 

Lastly, what homestead would be complete without a mouser-in-training (Mario), and a trusty guard-dog (Tyson)