What’s New Around the Ranchette

       Hey guys! So if you’ve been keeping up with me via the RDR blog then you know that last week I mentioned some changes around the Ranchette so I thought that I’d share those changes. Now a lot of these changes aren’t big or drastic but they’re changes and additions I’m excited to share with y’all! 

        One recent change was the we purchased an electric tiller, I mentioned this purchase in the last blog post (here) and went into detail about what our plans are for it and how it’ll be so helpful in growing our garden. Since I already talked about this in my most recent blog post I’m not going to go into more detail and sound like a broken record.

       Another change we recently made was the addition of our mini greenhouse! This was not a planned purchase, we ran to tractor supply for a few things and when my husband saw the greenhouse he said he would buy it if it meant I would get all my shelves and seed trays out of the house, I see that as a win-win! We’ve had the greenhouse for a couple weeks now and we moved it from the original place we set it at to get better sun and because I had different plans for that specific area but so far its been a neat addition. We no longer have shelf after shelf of seed trays around our windows and we were actually able to repurpose the shelves by adding them into the shop for better organization. My little seedlings are THRIVING in their new little greenhouse so everything turned out great!

       Over winter I made some changes to our chicken coop, some changes were more aesthetic like painting the interior walls along with adding a few decorations and others were changes like adding a few more nesting boxes and adding more security around the coop. I will be sharing an in-depth blog post about this particular project along with photos soon. So far I like how everything has turned out but I do need to make some adjustments to make these changes more effective. 

       The most recent addition was I FINALLY build my compost bins! I used wood pallets I picked up last year and scrap hardware cloth from our first chicken run that we ended up tearing down because it wasn’t sturdy enough to prevent dogs from reaching our birds. I’ve been going out almost daily with a bucket full of material to add to the compost bin that I collect throughout the day, like cardboard and kitchen scraps. I already added a ton of chicken coop bedding too, you really don’t know how much waste your family makes until you’re collecting it! If your wanting to get into composting but don’t know where to start than I definitely recommend Pinterest and TikTok. I’m excited to actually have a structure dedicated to my composting that can hold lots of material at one time instead of the small open pile I had on the ground by our shop. I’ll be dedicating a blog post to composting soon, I plan on sharing my set up, how i built it and why I like to compost so if your interested in composting keep an eye out for that! 

       I have a few more things in the works that I won’t share quite yet, just know this year is has definitely been the year of knocking out projects and growing my little Ranchette! I’d love to hear what projects you’re currently working on or what your future plans are for your homestead. I hope we all have a productive and fruitful year! Thanks again for checking in on my crazy life and sharing in my dreams and goals with me, I can’t wait to see how much we accomplish. Like always, follow along on social media for more day-to-day/ behind the scenes activity and check back often! XOXO. 

                                                                                                -Catherine Ray

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