August 2023 On The Homestead
Better late than never! Right?! Here’s the latest homesteading series post, August’s recap. FYI, these homesteading recaps are photo heavy.
Summer has come and gone, we are now entering the season of sweaters, scarfs, boots, and pumpkin spice! Beautiful Fall! I’m happy.
Queen Anne’s Lace everywhere!
Clean Up & Projects
August wasn’t a very productive month for completing any projects that we’ve had on our to-do list. What time we did have to work on the property was spent cleaning, yard work, preparing for winter, and working in the garden. The garden kept me very busy; harvesting, starting cool season seeds, pruning and weeding.
My son, patched up a hole in the house and painted the wall.
The one sunflower the bunnies didn’t get to!
How’s the garden doing?
I’m so proud of how well the garden’s done this year. The garden has produced us many green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs this month. Then we’ve picked a few zucchini, kholrabi, and peppers. Nature provided us with a lot of blackberries too.
I was able to dry a jar full of calendula petals, and I’ve started harvesting the seeds. It’s amazing how many flowers bloomed from 3 plants. I was frequently harvesting the flowers though, so that probably helped.
Piper started sprouting some seeds this past spring with her class, and we were able to pick all the bean pods in August. She was so proud. We dried and shelled them, they ended up being pinto beans. It was so awesome to see how proud she was of growing something. Such a great experience!
I’m excited to report, I was able to harvest the seeds from the wild mullein plant in the backyard. It really did produce so many seeds. Now let’s just hope I can start the seedlings this coming spring!
Last thing about the garden, and then you can read the update about the animals. When you are gardening and growing your own food, you are ALWAYS learning! Not only will you have wins, but also fails. And that is okay! I had a few fails this year, but I’m just going to talk about one. I always like to try and find the positive in things. I planted quite a few corn plants, the early seeds didn’t take, and then this patch I started too late. The plants are only about 4 ft, and the corn ears are very tiny. I know we aren’t going to be able to eat the corn, but instead of trashing them I’m going to use the corn stocks for Fall decorations. Next year I’ll try again!
Beans from her plant
Shelled them herself
A days harvest
Mullein seeds
Failed Corn Plant
Animals On The Farm
Animals on the homestead are doing great. They’ve been enjoying the summer sunshine, and spending almost the whole day outdoors. The cat is so cute, he’ll lay on our side of the fence staring at the neighbors piglets and goats. Makes me wonder what he’s thinking. And then he’ll hang out in the backyard where the chickens are.
Chickens are doing good right now, during the month we did have to deal with one of the broody chickens got very weak and we nursed her back to health. It definitely helps to have a poultry first aid kit made up, for when problems arise. One of our babies is broody right now, but she comes out to eat during the day and dust bath once. We just make sure to hand feed/water her in the evening before bed.
The 5 babies are all laying now, the Americana’s produce a beautiful blue egg and green egg. The olive egger produces a brownish color. And one of the golden comets tends to produce double yolkers.
We are done with the deworming process, and getting a good 8-9 eggs a day. We are replenishing our stock for winter.
Looking for a rooster update? Our Gemmy is still as beautiful as ever, but being a stinker right now, and testing us. Sadly, Piper who used to be able to hold him, touch all over his face, and kiss him, has to now hold a rake in front of her when she’s in the chicken yard. We’re working on it with her though. Mason and I learned you have to chase him around, but he still tries testing us each day. But as soon as you start chasing after him, he stops for the day.
Soaking up summer!
Beautiful eggs
Brownie(the green egg color)
Mable, our olive egger
Gemmy, Ducky, Dot, and the tail of Poppy
Their favorite activity, dust bathing
In The Kitchen
We’ve been having a lot of salads; using up our tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and peppers from the garden.
Also on the menu a lot; sandwiches, pasta dishes, rice and stir fry. For the stir fry I usually just add whatever veggies I have available, chicken or ground beef/pork/turkey, and seasonings. We are obsessed with this , have you tried it yet?
We also eat sourdough bread almost daily – this focaccia bread recipe is a family favorite. I do need to find other ways to make it though, lately it’s just been either a loaf in the dutch oven, focaccia style, banana or zucchini quick bread.
Garden salad
Our FAV sourdough focaccia!
My absolute fav way to store sourdough starter, and of course another must have
Coconut Curry Chicken
Life outside of the “Homestead”
The last of summer was packed with playing outside, parks, beaches, and games. And getting ready for back-to-school time. Making sure the kids have everything they’ll need, and all the events. The month passed by in a blur.
We attended Kitsap County’s first annual Farm Tour. It was so much fun, goats will be in our future as Piper was in love with them. Touring other farms gives me inspiration and ideas.
Growing up on a homestead is fun!
Beautiful farm in Poulsbo
Animal lover
Wishing you a great start to Fall…
