Last Month On The Homestead: July 2024

 

August has arrived!  It's been a pretty warm (and humid) summer here.  I believe it has been a pretty warm summer for most of the U.S.  In fact, it's felt more like we live in the south than in the north.  Typically, while we certainly receive our fair share of heat and humidity, we get breaks where the humidity level returns to comfortable.  This year it's been mostly "the air you can wear" weather and there haven't been many breaks.  

jalapeno peppers, poblanos, and bell peppers

In The Garden

We were blessed with some rain a few times this month.  Isn't it amazing how much a garden perks up after a nice rainfall?

The garden is in full swing with the exception of tomatoes.  While we have a plethora of green tomatoes on the vines, we are not receiving much in the way of ripened ones.  We have harvested quite a few sweet and juicy cherry tomatoes, but the chipmunks have also discovered them.  The worst part about their discovering them is that they don't even like them!  They pick them, take one bite, and then leave them.  And do you think they remember that?  No, no they do not.  They pick another one, take a bite or two, realize they don't like it, and the cycle continues.  It's frustrating.

We harvested an abundance of cucumbers, broccoli, kale, the last of the spring sugar snap peas. poblano peppers, and arugula.  A ton of jalapenos have been frozen for later use (primarily stuffed baked jalapenos and jalapeno bread).  A few bell peppers and a decent amount of green beans were picked and eaten fresh.  We also harvested zucchini and yellow summer squash and so far, have eaten them fresh.  Our plants are loaded so there should be enough to put up for later enjoyment soon.

Our potatoes were ready earlier than usual for us.  I harvested them and have stored them in our basement.  I only planted 8 plants this year and was thrilled with how much those few plants produced.  I showed my husband after I'd dug them, and he was less than impressed.  I had to remind him that I didn't plant many (typically I plant more than double of that).

I was able to plant more green beans, sugar snap peas, broccoli, lettuce, kale and herbs as well as carrots and beets for fall harvests. 

chipmunks!

I was not successful with sunflowers this year.  Those darned chipmunks ate every.  single.  one.  So so frustrating.  We won't talk about their newest obsession - stripping the pear tree of the not yet ripe pears.

At the end of the month, we went to a local blueberry farm and picked 20 pounds.  We didn't intend to pick 20 pounds, mind you, but the berries were huge and sweet and well, we just kept picking.  The next thing you know, after about 40 minutes of work we were paying for 20 pounds.  I cleaned them all, put some aside for fresh eating, made a blueberry pie, and then portioned the remainder out into freezer bags for both jam making (at a later date) and future pie/scone/cake making.

zucchini milk for the freezer

In The Kitchen

Because of the ongoing heat and humidity, I stopped baking bread.  I'll pick that back up again in another month or two.  We've eaten a lot of salads and quick-cooking types of meals.  

As far as preservation goes, I've put garlic and potatoes in the basement for storage until we use them.  I made refrigerator pickles (I use this recipe from The Seasonal Homestead), put a few quart bags of jalapeno slices in the freezer as well as 4 quart-sized bags of stuffed jalapeno halves.  I began roasting and freezing poblano peppers for future eating (typically used either in soup or as stuffed poblanos) and was able to get a half of a quart jar of dehydrated kale (powder) plus a dozen kale pucks put up in the freezer for future soups.  And of course, the blueberries noted above.  I'll be making blueberry jam within the next couple of weeks and zucchini milk for the freezer next week.

This is added to nettle powder, dandelion, elderberry and herbs I dehydrated in spring and early summer.  (I also put up fresh elderberry syrup in the freezer).

I took this photo once the first had fledged and two were left

The Robin Family Update

You may remember from June's post that we had a mama robin and her 3 chicks in a nest right outside our back door.  Two weeks after they hatched the trio were ready to leave the nest.  The day that they left, they went one at a time.  It was funny to watch after the first fledged.  The other two stayed in the nest but were definitely ready and waiting for the signal.  They would get up onto the edge of the nest, then go back inside, then back to the edge, and then back in.  

This went on for hours as mama gathered food for the one fledgling up in the tree and the two still in the nest.  Papa robin paced and hollered outside our door.  It didn't seem like this was very productive, but apparently that was his job.  He did it well.  By 4p.m. the third and final one left and they were up in the trees on our property.

Two weeks ago, I was walking out to the chicken coop in the early evening.  I heard a bit of bird communication in a tree and looked up to see mama robin (easily distinguished from papa robin who has almost a mohawk style of feathers on his head) and one of her littles.  

As I rounded the corner, mama flew between the garden shed and the garden and then the little who was with her took off and, unfortunately, did not accurately assess the space he/she was to fly in and flew right into the end wall of the garden shed.  The crash was loud and caused me to stop and look for him/her.  It got up and flew back into the tree where mama also hurried to.  I believe it is ok and hopefully has improved its flying skills. 

We continue to spot them with mama robin around the property hunting for food.  They still have juvenile coloring so it's easy to identify the littles from adults although they are the same size now.

What I'm Reading

In July my goal was to get through 2 books.  I chose "The Great Alone" which was recommended by one of the librarians, and "A Year Without Made In China" which I'd heard about from a friend.  The Made In China book came with disclaimers from said friend.  She thought that the book was just ok but thought the idea of trying to spend a year not buying anything made in China interesting.  She also shared that she'd read some reviews of the book where people seemed to really dislike the author, although that wasn't her experience.  

I decided to read it because I agree with her that the idea is interesting.  While some authors could make this subject a full book, this particular author's story would have been best suited to an article, in my opinion.  In agreement with my friend, I thought the book was an easy light read and, well, just ok.  The most annoying thing was that someone who had checked out the library book prior to me did not like the author or the book and wrote their thoughts throughout.  What's funny is that the last writing was just a few pages before the end.  If you dislike a book and/or author that much, why read the entire book?  

The year-long challenge took place almost 20 years ago.  I can imagine it was very difficult then and would be nearly impossible now when everything from medication to clothing to appliances to toys seems to either be made there or the primary components of any of these items is made there.

What I did get from the book is that in my own personal life, I honestly don't look at the country(ies) of origin much (exception being food) because sadly I just assume pretty much everything is made there.  Going forward, I'm interested in paying more attention to where things I purchase are made if for no other reason than to be informed.

I have just started reading The Great Alone so I can't give my opinion yet.  It takes place in 1974 when a man, Ernt, came home from the Vietnam war a changed (violent) man.  He struggles with keeping a job and his family of three (he, his wife, and their 13-year-old daughter) attempt to find a new beginning by moving to an off-grid cabin in Alaska.  There they deal with living in the wild, getting to know and work with their community, and being cooped up in a small cabin together.  This book does center around domestic violence.

coop girl Frannie

The Coop Girls

The coop girls have slowed down on egg laying.  Otherwise, they are doing well.  They enjoy their coop being opened up for the day but don't stay outside of it much and when they do, are mostly hanging out under trees in the shade.  It's been too hot and humid for them to enjoy it.  I keep assuring them that another month or so and they'll have a reprieve from the high heat.

One of the girls, Frannie, has been making me laugh quite a bit.  When I go to put them back in their coop for the day, usually most of them are already back in.  Any girls who are still out watch me to see if it's time.  Because when it's time to go back in, they always get special snacks.  I've shown before, possibly on instagram or possibly here, that I feel like the pied piper when I walk their way because they all come running and flying from different directions to follow me wherever I'm going, hoping for snacks.  Well, coop time is no different.

So, for the past week, as I walk out to the coop with a bowl full of goodies, every single chicken excitedly runs and/or flies toward me and escorts me into the coop in anticipation of what deliciousness I'll be sharing.  All except for Frannie.  She's learned to stay non-committal about following the rules and stands right outside of the door and waits to see what I'm dishing out.  For our current flock, fruit and veggies are on the bottom of the list of favorites with any carb or protein being at the top.  Bread is always a hit, for instance.  

Frannie waits, watches what I hand out, and then decides if she'd rather stay out or come in based on that day's selection.  Smart girl!  One day I had a bowl full of watermelon rind with quite a bit of flesh still on it (it wasn't super tasty) as well as 2 pieces of somewhat stale bread.  It was, of course, a hot and humid day so I knew that although fruit is not their favorite, cold watermelon would be a nice treat.  

Frannie watched me set down each of the rinds and immediately turned her back to me to continue free ranging.  She was apparently quite disgusted that I only brought fruit.  Then, out of the corner of her eye, as she walked further and further away, she saw me fling the 2 pieces of bread. She whipped around - "BREAD!  BREAD!  SHE'S GOT BREAD!!!" she seemed to be shouting while running at top speed back to the coop.  (although in her language it came out as "mwock mwooooock mwock-mwock!!")  She managed to snatch a big piece right out of the beak of another chicken and merrily sprinted to the indoor coop in order to choke it down before any others could steal it from her.  Which is what all chickens seem to do.

All of their antics are so much fun to watch.  You just never know what the newest thing will be in the coop!

For those of you Jackson fans, he is doing well!  No news is good news, right?  He paces more than ever (old age?  anxiety?  boredom?) but is still up to his old antics and doing just fine.

He has a new obsession - our feral cat friend Felix's food.  We buy cheap food for Felix and Jack is now obsessed with it.  Likely because it's not his (the grass is always greener, right?), so we have a new routine where when Felix comes around and Jack hears me open his food container, he comes running and gets a few morsels as a snack.  This makes him incredibly happy.  

Jackson forgets that while he believes himself to be rather tough, his stomach is quite sensitive.  Because of this he only receives a couple of morsels at a time in an attempt to prevent throwing it up.  So far so good and now he's actually happy to see Felix.

That was July on the homestead.  How is your garden growing?  Have you been preserving any produce or herbs for use later in the year?