The cottage kitchen.
This is a post from the archives of the “On Butter Hill” Substack newsletter. In an effort to streamline our online presence, I will be reposting our Substack posts here on our blog while gradually dissolving our posts there.
Since moving here, we have very much had a kitchen remodel on our radar. The thing about us is, we’re gonna do it ourselves. Which means it’s gonna happen during the wee hours, the weekends, the in-between times. It’s rough on the family and the finances, but we are making it work. Here are some snippets so far:
There are so many funny little idiosyncrasies in a house built in the late 1800’s. Shimming the cabinets and countertops was downright comical…from one end on a cabinet to the next, we used four shims, then one. Our floors are speckled with holes that reveal our basement, what will ideally over time be transformed into our cool room/root cellar for preserving the harvest.
As for farm updates…we are continuing to scrape by as a mild winter (so far) hangs over us here in the Midwest. Makeshift tarp shelters have proven to provide absolutely zero contest for the whipping winds here on the prairie. We are quite literally blowing through them, and having to adapt as we go. My latest mission is to craft some type of pen set-up for our sows to remain under the shelter of our garage until spring. Part of expanding our herd meant uncertainty surrounding which of the girls are bred, and for when, so I will have comfort knowing they are all at least sheltered for the time being and easily monitored.
I am thoroughly convinced that the first winter on a new farm is just absolutely brutal. There is no way around this.
I have applied for a farm grant which, if granted, will allow us to purchase some light portable pasture shelters for the pigs, and additional rotational grazing tools; all things that will come in quite handy once we have pasture growing again and lots of piglets on the ground this spring.
The cows are mighty pregnant, but the stretch from now until late February when they are due, will likely feel just as long as if I was pregnant myself. I absolutely cannot wait to have fresh milk again.
Oh! That reminds me. It’s also “on my list” (ha!) to install our commercial sink in our mudroom, just off the kitchen, before the cows give birth. This will allow me to have much easier access for cleaning our milking machine and processing milk in a sanitary way right beside our kitchen and fridge.
I’ve got much more I could share about things on the docket this winter, but to be honest just typing it all out is stressing me! Le sigh. We will get there. Farm life is just…a lot sometimes.
Much love to you all,
