April 2024 On The Homestead
I’m back with our monthly homestead recaps, after taking the winter off. April 2024 on the homestead!
We’ve had a beautiful start to the year, and spring. The beautiful colors nature provides us, so many plants in bloom, switching out the wardrobe, and peeks of sunshine. I just love spring!
Fruit trees blooming
FYI these homestead recaps tend to be photo heavy, and may contain affiliate links.
Clean Up & Projects
I’ve, with a little help, have been very busy cleaning up winter on the property. Burning, mowing, weed control, pruning – it’s a lot of work. Still have a ways to go, but it’s looking better.
The guys worked a little more on the new chicken area, but then life got busy.
I received a woodchip delivery from ChipDrop, and most of it was used to mulch up the food forest. And I worked really hard on making a path in the food forest. I found logs, and sticks around the property to make the border.
Gotta love the chickens when trying to do projects, lol
My dad was over for a bit, and started making a new garden bed. When it’s finished, I’m not sure what I’ll put in it. Probably some perannial herbs, or flowers.
In The Garden
My house may not be perfect, but my garden is!
Over the past couple months, I’ve been busy getting my garden ready. SO much has been going on!
In front of the solar panels, next to the strawberry bed I’ve been working on turning them into no till garden spaces. One side will just hold the containers this year, and the other I was able to prep during winter. Cardboard, compost, and soil. I also added some temporary fencing, may not look pretty but needed to keep the animals out. Most of the cool season plants have been happily growing in the space.
Last year our strawberry bed(which the old owners put in) didn’t produce too many strawberries, but a ton of runners so we got those planted to see if that would work for this year. Well, I’m happy to report the strawberries are flowering like crazy right now.
I’ve got all my seeds started. Tomatoes are doing amazing, and will be going outside this week for our area. Not sure why, but the peppers are growing VERY slowly, so maybe getting them outside in bigger pots will help – I’m hopeful. All my cool season plants are doing so well this year, my best year for them, so proud of myself. I fenced in my sunflowers so the bunnies wouldn’t get them, they’re about an inch tall now.
I didn’t plan on going crazy this year with purchasing plants, although I did buy some dahlia tubers to plant in the food forest.
Everything in the food forest is popping up wonderfully; fruit trees bloomed, perennial herbs getting bigger, and so many wild flowers for the pollinators. The path I made in the food forest makes it look great, and now I can worry less about people trampling on plants.
One of my favorite things the past couple years is learning how to forage, we’ve already found so many edible and medicinal wild plants growing on our property. Just recently found more trillium, skunk cabbage, huckleberry, and miner’s lettuce just to name a few new. I was also already able to harvest, and dry more stinging nettle to use in the off season. Although I need to harvest more before they start to bloom.
1 of 5 trillium I’ve spotted growing on our property this year
I’m really enjoying my food dehydrator
Animals On The Homestead
Animals are all doing great, living their best lives now that spring is here. They’ve got to spend a lot more time free roaming, they’ve been pretty good about staying in a group, and not venturing too far into the woods. It also helps when Annie stays in the yard, and watches over them.
The rooster’s still around, and if he wasn’t good at his job – well. Even though we hand raised him, he test us quite a bit. Piper, and I have to walk around with a rake if he’s near. He leaves men alone though.
Two of the older chickens have also tried claiming the couch, and Piper’s bed as their nesting boxes. If the door’s open, they try getting in. They just know it’s more comfortable, and warm.
They’re happy, and we’re getting about 8-9 eggs a day. A few we have to hunt down every day.
In The Kitchen
We cook, and bake a lot at home. We use our sourdough discard for a lot of things, foccacia bread is a favorite. Check out so many recipes on the blog.
We’ve been trying to switch to more lean meats, and less red meats. Chicken, turkey, and fish. Did you know pork is considered a red meat? I didn’t.
Chicken & Veggie Pasta was very good, I’ll share the recipe here soon
I’ve been using more plants we’ve foraged off of our property. I made some spanakoptia with stinging nettle, and spinach. It turned out great. I also made maple blossom fritters, they were amazing! Can’t wait until next year to do it again.
Stinging nettle & spinach spanakoptia
Maple blossom fritters
Sourdough Banana Bread with coconut flakes & chocolate chips
We got my oldest a pizza oven for his birthday, he’s been making homemade dough and pizza for a while now. The pizza oven is great!
Life & What I’m Loving
We started the month off with spring break for the kids. We lucked out with a couple non-rainy days, we headed to a local state park for two of the days and then took it easy for the rest. My oldest also had a birthday and a party with some friends over. Can’t believe he is now 16!
Manchester State Park
We celebrated a few birthdays in the month, April is packed with birthdays. I also was able to do a mom’s night out, it was so needed – my cheeks hurt the next day from laughing so hard.
We’ve also been enjoying all the kid’s school events; a Zaniac show(science performance), Healthy Minds Fair, and Reptile Man.
Renewed our local zoo membership, and have already gone a couple times.
It’s fire & SMORE season!
The cuban sandwich from Peninsula BevCo is delicious
My youngest has also started gymnastics, which she really enjoys.
I’m also trying to prep, and be ready for summer. Things always sell out so quick here. We missed out in these neck fans last summer, so I quickly grabbed them from the store when I saw them. They’re only $10, and recharable. I’ve seen them at Walmart & Target!
Hope your May is going well! Let me know in the comments below with something you’ve done this spring, I’d love to know. See you next month!
