May 2024 On The Homestead
Better late than never! After taking the winter off from the homesteading recaps, I was back to share about our month in April, you can read about it here. Below you’ll find May 2024 On The Homestead!
Our spring has been amazing; very busy and a little on the colder side, but still nice! We had a lot of stuff going on outside of the homestead, but things were thriving here too.
FYI these homestead recaps tend to be photo heavy, and may contain affiliate links.
Clean Up & Projects
Not really any projects were completed or even worked on during the month of May. Unless you consider general upkeep to be a project?!
With what time we did have to work on the homestead, was spent with cleaning up and control. Burning, weed/grass control, garden and plant care.
I really love the electric yard equipment, it’s lighter for me to carry, and easier to change out a battery then dealing with gas. With the amount of yard work I have to do, I strongly suggest Echo products though. The Craftsman weedwhacker, and hedge trimmer I bought are junk. The hedge trimmer didn’t even last a season, and the weedwhacker’s handle keeps falling off, so that will be next year’s new purchase.
In The Garden
I’m so amazed with how well the garden spaces are going. Everything is starting to come together. Going on the third year we’ve moved here, and couldn’t be prouder of the work I’ve(with a little help) accomplished.
I didn’t completely start out with a blank canvas; the fruit trees, berries, and a few plants around the house were already here. But all the other stuff I’ve planted, and have been working on for 3 years.
I love creating a beautiful space for pollinators, wildlife, myself, and family.
Someone once told me, don’t be afraid of the vegetables that have been nibbled on by bugs. Those are probably the best tasting ones, because bugs know. Just make sure there’s no bugs still in it, unless you want protein ;)
The spring we bought the property, I started working on getting perennials planted, without breaking the bank. All that effort is paying off, everything is healthy and thriving – except all my rosemary, I don’t know what happened but they all died this winter?! We’ve got lavender, oregano, lemon balm, thyme, sage, mint, anise hyssop, borage, calendula, chives that is either a perennial or will self-seed.
Then I made a no-till garden bed, that my cool season crops have been doing wonderful in. This is my first year being successful with the cool season crops. We picked so many radishes, lettuce, kale, cilantro, parsley, and chives in May. I did have to put a temporary fence up to keep the wild bunnies, and free ranging chickens out of. And not everything did well!
Oh, lovely chickens!!
One thing I’ve learned living here is my appreciation for wild plants. I love identifying them, learning about them, seeing if we can benefit from them medicinally, enjoy the beautiful flowers, what they provide for the wildlife. I recently spotted St. John’s Wort growing wild.
Wild mushroom growing
Fairy Bells plant growing wild in our woods
May was colder, wetter, and more windier than normal. Unfortunately, with one of those stormy days a big tree branch fell on one of the pear trees, and broke a few branches. My food forest is in the woods, with taller trees surrounding it, so it was bound to happen. Sad day! I duck taped, and tied branches to hopefully save them.
Animals On The Homestead
The chickens have been enjoying all the free-ranging time; with the rooster, and us being outside all the time we’ve felt comfortable with them being out so much. And if it’s not raining our big dog spends almost all day outside. With them free-ranging you have to come to terms with them eating your plants, scratching up your garden, using planters, and others areas as dirt baths.
We’ve also been battling chickens being broody, and hiding their nests in the woods. In May, we got lucky and found two hidden broody hens in the woods on their pile of eggs. We didn’t want chicks this year, so we had to remove them. The kids weren’t happy!
Look at what I grew :)
Couple of the chickens will try laying inside the house, Bertha was protecting this egg!
Our cat, just living his best life! We don’t even bother making him stay inside anymore, he is just so happy to sun bathing, and hunting. He’s just too happy being outside to force him indoors.
Spoiled dog!
We live in such a beautiful place, and I’ve really come to love surrounded by wildlife. I can happily say the coyote howls don’t frighten me as much anymore. I appreciate the connection wildlife has with each other, and us.
We love to watch the Barred Owls that live in our woods.
In The Kitchen
Our month was so busy, we often ate our usual’s; tacos, spaghetti, sandwich/soup, stir fry, baked chicken.
We did make some delicious jambalaya, cornbread, and roasted beets one night. And of course used the sourdough discard a couple times a week. Sourdough waffles, focaccia bread, quick sweet breads are some of our favorites! I’ve also been drinking a lot of tea, and using herbs from the garden(sage, lemon balm, stinging nettle, oregano, peppermint, ect).
And our Friday night pizza tradition!
Life & What I’m Loving
It was a very busy month of May in our household outside of the homestead.
We were able to see the beautiful Northern Lights from our place, and got a photo below.
We had a few celebrations for “Mother’s Day” during the month.
Participated in the town’s Ladies Night Out with a great group of friends from the school. We had such an amazing night! Lots of laughing was had.
Then we enjoyed our second annual Tea Party with KeyPenParks. Drank yummy tea, ate delicious foods, with great company. The lemon tarts were amazing!!
What consumed most of our month was school, and school events. Getting school work done before the short, busy and fun June.
There was the school’s fund run which was a lot of fun. Then my daughter got awarded the Kiwansis Terrific Kid Award which was a huge deal. She is such an amazing person, and student. I’m so proud of her! And she received a participation award for the PTA Art Reflections program.
There was also lots of volunteering for popcorn Friday’s at the school, and a new program that the PTA just started, that’s promoting positive adult role models in the school. I was able to volunteer many days with eating lunch with my daughter, and then playing at the recess with all the grades. It was so much fun; playing lava monster, kickball, fly ball, and basketball were highlights. Couldn’t believe how excited all the kids got, they’d ask me every day if I’d be coming in. Made my heart so happy volunteering.
We are so thankful for finding such an amazing school community!
PTA Art Reflections
My school lunch with fresh homegrown lettuce
Alan’s Country Café, has the BEST tartar sauce! Great restaurant in Port Orchard, if you’re interested.
Can you spot the frog? (hint it’s in the center)
Hope you had a wonderful May! I’d love to know in the comments below, what you’re looking forward to or not looking forward to this summer? See you in about two weeks with a June update.
