So this is wild. And fun, and I absolutely love it.
I was scrolling through my Instagram feed on Life on Milo’s Farm and came across a recommendation to follow @farm_sticker_swap. I thought, wait, what is this?
So I followed and soon enough I got a DM from the profile queen Miss Molly who is an absolute dear and sweetheart, inviting me to join in with a sticker swap.
Sticker swap? What a bloody brilliant idea!
Molly said it was a fun way to connect with other farms/homesteads/ranches etc, and when I had a look saw that I was maybe the only Aussie there. Molly mentioned there was one other, so I quickly followed the other Aussie. What came next was a whirlwind of joy and fun, and all from just following an interesting profile.
Next thing you know, Molly has exchanged her details with me, asked for a brief bio on Milo’s Farm, and I have a stack of new followers and other homesteads I love the look of that I started following. And I start getting requests to swap stickers.
So quickly I jumped online to make some with a refresh of the logo because it was a bit dark with the black on navy, so I made it white on navy instead and promised all my new followers and swapees I’d get some stickers out ASAP! I did a merch run for fun stickers and magnets for Homestead Soapery, but I hadn’t gotten around to doing a sticker run or magnets for the farm.
A sticker run. You don’t understand how much I love this idea and how fun it is.
Same as when you see police and military units swapping patches with their overseas counterparts, this is the same same, but BETTER!
So, let me tell you what the basics are:
- You follow @farm_sticker_swap, and Miss Molly will ask you for your bio and it can be as much or as little as you want.
- She then follows you and is engaging and fun and tries her best to make you feel welcome. She is learning Aussie slang for me, and I absolutely love it. No harm in more people learning to say G’Day if you ask me!
- Then, people that follow @farm_sticker_swap can opt to follow you and you can follow them. Miss Molly normally puts a feature post of new followers and then of your profile so people can engage directly with you.
- And after that it’s up to you! You get involved with engaging with folks and start building a little treasure trove OF STICKERS!
You know, as adults we often don’t indulge in the sweetest, most basic and most fun things we used to do as kids. And I think if we did more of that, that simple joy stuff, we’d be less stressed out about stuff overall.
I implore you, if you haven’t gotten involved, do so. I feel like a giddy kid going to the milkbar to get a bag of lollies. I just think it’s such a fantastic way to get involved with your global community and likeminded people and engage with others in a time of our lives where we have had to lose some of our engagement. It gives me a sense of community, of global community, where people are just living their best lives. And I so want to be a part of it.
Initially I thought about displaying the stickers on a cork board or something, but now I think I’m going to get an artist’s notebook or scrapbook of some kind and make a little sticker swap book instead.
If this is something you want to get involved with, make sure to follow @farm_sticker_swap on Instagram. You’ll find me and many others who share in the homesteading ideology and might be able to get involved in some wholesome fun.
In other weekly ventures, I decided to scrap my seedlings. Well, let’s take a step back.
I messed them up because I gave them Seasol way too early, and many of them didn’t even sprout. The batch before that were spindly and small and I think it was as we came out of winter and it started getting warm. That week or two transition just buggered up my seeds. Some survived, and those I put into the garden. Some didn’t make it from that lot, and there are 4 that did make it. So fingers crossed they keep going.
One thing with the garden I noticed was my front section was lower in soil than the back. The deep mulch has done a fantastic job in starting to develop humus and keep the weeds at bay, so it was just a matter of back filling it with some soil. Because we’re making an extension to the garden where the cubby used to be, I don’t want to back fill that front just yet because it’s most likely we’ll get the nursery in town to bring a small truck load of soil in, and I only need about a 7-10cm fill.
What I did instead was use a bag of seed starter, and added it ¾ of the way full on two sides. I then directly sowed some seeds – I think I did year round cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, capsicums and radish maybe? I don’t even remember. Then I added the last ¼ of the bag over the top and watered it.
Surprise surprise, and we have growth!
I am so happy. I have had such little luck with my seeds this winter and I changed a lot so it could have been anything. I used to start seeds inside, but thought a small hot house would be better and bought one at the beginning of winter. But having to learn to adjust to the heat that thing generates is insane. It’s temperamental for sure.
And then I had to invest in little thermometers for the soil and the hot house and it’s just become this whole thing and I AM HERE FOR IT. I absolutely love being outside and being in the garden and nothing gives me more joy than seeing the little sprouties pop up.
And with garden success I also got to schedule in some training and riding with Moose. I missed it last weekend after a bad ankle sprain. We lunged for a good 20-ish minutes and then tacked up and jumped into our bush arena, the one we are halfway through clearing into a proper arena, (which you can read about in the post “Clearing and creating a riding arena”)
It was a fantastic ride. I buggered up the plan, as my intention was to do about 15-20 mins in the bush arena and then ‘trail ride’ him out onto the property but silly me locked the gate and it’s far too short for me to reach in saddle, so instead we did some other things like going around the trees at other end of the arena, the uncleared bit, and practising our ‘whoa’ and ‘back’ in saddle and just lots of straight lines. In lunge, we’ve been practising walk to trot transitions and voice commands and he is responding to them really well.
He was a good boy as always and very well behaved. And then when I decided the lesson was finished, I went to dismount and completely ripped my inner bicep along the knee pads on the saddle. I must admit, this is my first stock saddle so I am still trying to work out the best way to dismount. I always rode in an English in lessons and the like and dismounting off those is much easier – particularly the way I was taught to dismount.
So now I have this fantastic bright red and purple bruise and scratch from basically carpet burning my inner arm from the saddle dismount. It’s not terribly painful but it is a bit annoying when it rubs my t-shirt.
Hopefully I can get back to my weekly round-up posts soon. I’ve had a huge few weeks with another really good business idea that has come to fruition kinda quickly, and a volunteering opportunity through my professional association that could really set this new venture up fantastically in the future. I’ve spent a lot of time revamping social media on the Homestead Soapery Pinterest and fixed some of the branding. We also have a HUGE 30% OFF SALE onsite at the moment until the end of September as I am planning on getting into the next launch which will include a pet soap and after wash spray, a pumpkin soap, a tea infusion soap and a charcoal with exfoliating.
Lots of things to do and get ready for. We still have the tail end of some projects to finish, like the other side of the fencing, backfilling still needs to be done to prep the front fence, finish the garden bed extension and cover and finish off the clearing for the bush arena.
Never a dull moment on Milo’s Farm!!
If you’re interested in seeing what else we do around the farm, make sure to keep reading and link in with our socials. We update regularly on the progress of our projects. You can also subscribe to our blog to make sure you get all the round-ups and updates first!
