June 2023 (Homestead Recap)
I’ve decided to switch the weekly homesteading recaps to an end of the month recap. Our weeks tend to look the same, and I don’t want to bore you. Or sound like a broken record.
Here’s a recap of the last two weeks, if you’re looking for the beginning of the month, check it out here.
The kids have been on summer break for about three weeks now, but feels like one. We’ve kept busy on our property, and out in the community.
We love our !
Yard Maintenance
Over the past couple weeks, many hours have been spent cleaning, mowing, weed-wacking the property. The main lawn I’ve stuck to a pretty good schedule about keeping that mowed and short, but beyond that I’ve let go wild.
Horrible mistake!
There was about a 10×10 area that was knee high grass, my allergies were so bad I thought my throat was going to close up.
Not to mention, last year, in the food forest I kept most of it weed-wacked, except for a section for the pollinators. Well, this year I tried just letting it all go for them. Another big mistake. It’s taken me many hours, and I’m still not done. Some stuff didn’t get as much sunlight, I don’t remember where everything I planted is, and I’ve been poked/stung by so much nettle, and thorn bushes.
Patch of wild daises!
The garden is doing great
We’ve had perfect summer temps lately, 70’s, with a few 80’s thrown in. Although, there were a few nights that got down to the 40’s, and I was worried my peppers/tomatoes wouldn’t make it. They survived.
Most plants are growing so well. Tomatoes are full of flowers, and we’ve picked so many raspberries. Amazing thing about the tomato plant below, when it was a little seedling about an inch tall the stem broke, so I propped it up with a little stick, and hoped for the best. Look at it now, flowers, and twice as big as the others.
I love grow bags!
Gardening is always an experiment, I always like to try growing something new. Three of this year’s were corn, celery and sunflowers. Almost all for sunflowers have been eaten by the rabbits, I’ll need to get them fenced in next year. And if the saying, “knee high by the fourth” for corn is accurate then I’m not sure mine will produce this year, maybe a couple but that’s it. Oh well, always learning. My celery on the other hand is doing amazing!
Another one I’m very surprised about was the strawberries, we got nothing compared to last years harvest. The plants may have been too old, so I’ve been burying every runner. I need to the grapes if I want to harvest any next year, because the birds love them!
One thing I love about this property is all the wild plants, I feel so blessed. Sure, I’ve had to deal with a bunch of poisonous hemlock. But the amount of other wild plants makes up for it. I’ve been able to identify; Yarrow, Queen Anne’s Lace, Daisies, Salmonberries, Elderberries, Foxgloves, Trillium, Stinging Nettle, Purple Dead Nettle, Pineapple Weed, Bleeding Hearts, Morels, Lions Mane, Turkey Tail, and SO much more! Below is a BEAUTIFUL wild mullein plant growing right in my backyard. I will be saving the seeds to hopefully grow more in my food forest. I am so excited!
My borage is so tall! I had to prop it up with a tomato cage.
Gemmy our Lavender Orpington cockerel
Animals on the farm
Our animals are all doing great. Our Gemmy(rooster) has started crowing, and he sounds so cute!
They’re all getting along so well, and have a specific place to roost at night. They sleep right next to our Gloria, which is funny because when we first introduced the babies, Gloria was the most bossy to them. Now, she won’t let any of the other ladies to sleep next to them.
We’ve been dealing with a mild case of bumble foot for one of the chickens, she walks on it fine, I just noticed it was a little more swollen then the other foot. Always learning.
Rose our Ameraucana pullet
I love our homestead, there are a few things I’d change though, one being our next door “neighbors”. Even though they have 20 acres, and we have 4. There fence line is RIGHT next to our house. They’ve got a pig farm, and no one lives on sight. Not going into much detail but I’ve got numerous concerns in regards to us, and the animals health/wellbeing.
We see so much on our property. Of course I don’t want any of our pets to become food for them, it is also very cool to see so many living creatures right outside our front door. We’ve seen so many insects, rabbits, a buck(once), coyotes(hate them though), squirrels, birds, and owls. This year there were three baby owls hanging out for about a week. They were adorable!
Homecooked
We’ve been doing amazing with cooking, and eating from home lately. It always seems to be a little easier to eat from home during the summer though. We have a lot of picnics, bbqing, and eat lighter foods. We’ve been having a lot of smoothies, and using the air fryer a lot too. We make focaccia bread a couple times a week, made our favorite pot roast, and cookies. My youngest has always enjoyed helping in the kitchen, but now even my oldest is showing an interest in learning. It’s so nice.
According to her it was “slop”, but wanted seconds as soon as she tried the mac n cheese!
We’ve been preserving a ton of raspberries, and herbs lately. For the off season. Speaking of which, my freezer really needs to be organized.
What we’ve been up to outside of the “homestead”
Yes, this post is all about the homestead. But, we’re apart of it right? The past couple weeks we’ve been able to have some at-home spa time, explore the town, play, and hang out with friends. We went on a gnome hunt, that a local school’s art department made, and hid them around parks. It was so much fun, and we actually found two. I love fun community activities.
Hope you have a great month ahead!
