Am I the only one who has a blue ton of work to do upon returning from a trip? Rarely do we do laundry on a trip and, even though we leave a clean home…. as soon as we unpack the van, the house is a disaster area. So, here is a look into the reality of coming home from a trip at our farm…

The entry way is our laundry room. We come into the house from the garage and the counter area catches ‘all’. Laundry gets folded here; seed packets stop here; wheat buckets pause before heading to our basement ‘grocery store’ area; and there is almost certainly a pile of books.

Picking up and putting away- depending on our trip this includes gifts we have received, purchases from souvenir shops, clothing, books, shoes, food we’ve taken, trash that has accumulated in the van… and just the mess we make as we come back and live in our home. But, it sure feels good when things are cleaned up again. Chores must be done, may as well take pleasure in them!

However, doesn’t a sink of clean dishes just make you smile?? Dishes are always on a ‘return home’ list. But, it is a routine chore I tend to enjoy.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I left a gallon of raw milk on the counter to clabber as we left town. By Saturday, it had clabbered beautifully and was ready for some cheese making…

Following Ruthann Zimmermans’ recipe, I heated and strained the milk, making a lovely cottage cheese. This is the cheese I used in our lasagna the following week. I also threw some into a cheeseburger potato casserole and some pancakes.

One thing that is a must when coming back home: cooking! I generally leave something in the fridge or freezer I can quickly make for us if we are to come home in time for a meal (and are hungry). But this time, if someone was hungry, they had oatmeal. The sourdough starter came out of the fridge and was fed, ready to get some things baked.

My dearest friend gifted me two of these adorable cloth jar covers and this sweet cow needed to cover my sourdough starter. After a few days of her wishing me a good morning, the cow told me her name was Gladys. What a sweet addition to my morning and evening routine.

Finally, upon returning from our trip, there was yard and garden work to attend to. One item on the agenda was to clean up these corn stalks. Remember last fall, we cut them down and laid them in place so they would keep the ground covered. Upon moving them, several hundred beetles came out of them/the ground under them. I am assuming they are the beneficial variety. We took the stalks off of the garden and got it ready to amend and till.

What does coming home from a trip look like for you?