Did I ever tell you about the treehouse? In a big way, I can attribute our lifestyle today to the 3 nights I stayed there in the summer of 2020. Lockdown had been going on for a few months and I was desperate to get out of the city- but safely. So I found an Air Bnb treehouse in upstate NY and I hit the road, bringing a cooler of food, a book, and my journal. Sometime I’ll tell you more about those three days, but maybe it wouldn’t even resonate with you in the deep way it did for me. I remember writing in my journal after hours of sitting and taking in the life of the woods around me, “I found a part of myself I haven’t visited since I was 8 years old.” Now most days you’ll find me out in the garden, absolutely covered in dirt as I weed, prune, plant, and inspect our own patch of nature. My husband has even dubbed me his “garden elf,” which I’d like to think is more like a pixie than a garden gnome. But you’ll have to ask him. I think he’s picking up on that inner 8-year-old who thrives when she’s immersed in dirt and nature. And I am HAPPY.

Now for the updates, because it’s been a minute. Or 4 months. But who’s counting? There’s so much to share but let’s start with the most important topic. EGGS. I was surprised last year when the girls didn’t start laying at 4 or 5 months, as expected. But I was even more surprised when they started laying in February when there were still a few inches of snow on the ground!! Furthermore, those rascals waited until I left town to visit my mother before they decided the time was just right to drop their first one. My husband texted me a photo of an egg on the straw with the word EGG!! below it, but even so it took me a second to realize what had happened. Now of course I’d mapped out in my mind the self-congratulatory social media post I would do when this long-awaited day arrived. But instead, my husband and I shared a 20 minute excited phone call where I had him walk me through each step of the morning and exactly how he’d discovered the prized egg and where. Now, 3 months later, we’re swimming in eggs and are even mildly miffed when we get 4 a day and not 5 (someone’s slacking). But it’s still thrilling and I hope that feeling doesn’t wear off. It’s been especially fun to come up with interesting recipes and to share the results with our dinner guests. (I’m mastering the frittata which is a really handy way of using up leftover vegetables.) And my baked goods have also stepped up a notch because of the richness and size of the duck eggs as opposed to the chicken eggs I used to use. I’ve bartered a dozen eggs here or there with friends for fire cider or canned goods and I just adore this. If it were up to me we’d keep only half of the eggs for ourselves and use the rest as currency for things we need.

Another fun dupdate (see what I did there?), is that the girls got a fancy new pool by way of a vintage bathtub! We got tired of patching up the slow leaks in the blue plastic pools we’d been using, and since replacing them each year would have been an annoying expense, we decided to do something more permanent. So, Craigslist FTW once again, we scored a cast iron tub that was an absolute pain to move but gives the girls a much more spacious (and let’s just say it- adorable), way to bathe. We built a ramp out of an old coop door and made a little wooden platform from scrap lumber and attached it with a wooden shim and a hinge to hook over the edge. Now, the girls are curious but terrified of anything new. They’re still convinced we’re trying to kill them even after a year of feeding and protecting them. So it took them a good hour to get into the bath! And that was only 4 of them. Poor Patty didn’t make it in until a few days later when my husband used an overturned tote and wooden blocks to make some stairs. (You’d think this would be more challenging than a gradual sloping ramp, but what do I know about duck logic?)

In a few weeks, we were also expecting to receive two baby goslings from a hatchery. I’d placed the order back in February as a birthday gift to myself and have been counting down the weeks until they arrived. We got the brooder supplies pulled out of storage and ordered a bag of food so we’d be all ready to go. But then about a month ago I started hearing on homestead podcasts and instagram about the outbreak of avian flu that was spreading across the country. And obviously since birds fly, the cases were slowly creeping from state to state, and both homesteaders and larger commercial farmers were having to cull entire flocks of their chickens, ducks, and geese. There’s no easy or sure way to protect your birds from this virus, but one thing that does lower the chance of infection is bio-security. Meaning, not visiting other farms with birds or letting outside birds integrate with your current flock. So we made the call to cancel our order and wait until next year or whenever it feels safer. Yes, I was really looking forward to being a “mama” again and nurturing some cute, fuzzy little babies. But I’m much more interested in keeping our current girls safe and healthy.

I know I’ve mentioned before that while I love gardens and love this property, there were a few too many gardens when we moved in for me to manage. One in particular got no love from me last year and we let it go wild as we mulled over what to do with it. It’s a long, narrow garden that’s up against a massive hedge and gets direct sunlight from the south for most of the day. So it occurred to me that this would be the ideal spot for our vegetable garden! It was no small feat digging up all the beach rose, weeds, and bushes that were very well-established. Not to mention clearing away the top few inches of soil so we could rip out the landscape cloth beneath. But with some help from a professional gardener, we got it done. Some of the plants were re-homed to other gardens, some were given to friends, and some ended up being composted. Then we cardboarded the entire area (9’x30′!), and covered it with wood chips. We made quite a few trips to the local lumber yard (a new experience for us and a successful experiment- the wood was much better quality than what we’ve found at the big box stores), and built 4 beautiful raised beds! A few garden benches and chairs later and it was complete. And I have to say, it looks better than I’d even hoped. Now that it’s early May, we have a few things growing in there: kale, peas, radishes, spring lettuce, carrots, and beets. I’m not kidding when I say I check on their progress three times a day and swear I can see them getting bigger each time.

For one final non-homestead update: I had a fun career boost. As with so many industries, I can do a lot of my work remotely now. So in our basement I’ve set up a modest studio where I record my auditions for tv shows, movies, and even musicals. And one of those auditions turned into a job! It’s a scene in an upcoming episode of FBI: Most Wanted that airs on CBS on Tuesday May 17. It was so fun to dust off my acting muscles with Dylan McDermott himself and spend the day in beautiful Tarrytown, getting to do what I trained for. And you know what? When the day was over and I took off my costume, I felt grateful for the job but very excited to go home, too. I couldn’t wait to get up the next morning next to my favorite human in our beautiful house and go outside and get absolutely covered in dirt. Because that’s what 8-year-old Joanna would do!