Last Month On The Homestead: May 2025

 May is in the rearview mirror and summer is almost officially here!

paw paw bloom

We've received a good amount of rain this spring, much of it falling throughout the month of May.  No complaints here - I would much rather have lots of rain rather than drought.  Our well is full, and everything is green and lush.

Flowers are blooming!  We are currently enjoying peonies, irises, and lilacs.  I have another bush that I'm not sure what it is (I planted it a few years ago but can't remember - snowball bush possibly?) and it has exploded into big beautiful white flowers.  The rest of the property will be showing off a plethora of blooms soon.  

Farmcat Jack is doing well.  No crazy antics to report this month - just the same old same old with him.  At 14 years of age, I'll take it.

Per my last homestead journal entry, I've been staying offline.  That is my goal for the summer - to severely limit the number of hours I'm on the computer.  I have to use it, of course, for the business but I'm also trying to be cognizant of my usage for that too.  Less screen time = more time for hobbies, being outside, and enjoying the season!

We've loved watching the wild bunnies as they feast on grass around our property.  There aren't nearly as many as we would have guessed we'd have this year.  This could be partly because of the other wildlife.  We have at least 1 fox that is on our property quite a bit.  I saw him/her in the early evening out by the coop at the end of the month.  We've seen a fisher cat in the past too but haven't spotted him/her recently.  Hopefully, the coop girls will stay safe.

In The Garden

I am growing a condensed version of my garden this year.  Only 2 raised beds plus the perennials - asparagus, a few herbs, and fruit.  My garden was almost completely planted in May and finished the first of June.  Now to keep up on the weeding.  

I've planted tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, peppers (hot & bell), herbs, and lots of greens.  Oh, and potatoes.  I planted the last of our potatoes from last year's crop that I had stored in the basement once they began sprouting.  

The fruit trees are loaded with teeny tiny fruit.  So exciting!  If we can beat the birds and other critters to it, then we should have a nice harvest again this year.  Our asparagus patch is full of tiny spears which is bad for this year's harvest but excellent for future harvests.  Hopefully next year we'll be reaping the benefits of all of the new spears.

Speaking of critters, since we added an additional layer of fencing to our garden, it has remained safe from all critters except chipmunks and squirrels.  Both of which would be impossible to keep out.  The chipmunks usually only bother my sunflower seeds and plants and cherry tomatoes once they begin showing up on the vine.  I think the squirrels have only ever bothered my sunflower seeds and plants.

In The Kitchen

I baked a couple loaves of bread in May, but not much.  Not that we eat a lot of bread anyway, but it decreases significantly during the warmer months.  I keep my sourdough starter in the refrigerator and pour off discard to feed it about every 2 weeks.  Sometimes 3 or 4 weeks.  It's resilient!  Then it goes back into the refrigerator.  I typically use the discard either in sourdough tortillas or skillet bread.

Our freezer is stocked up on homemade ice cream bases for our Ninja Creami ice cream maker.  We very much enjoy this during the warmer months.  I basically make a smoothie base (fruit and dates) for mine and then I make a real ice cream base (cream, milk, cream cheese, sugar) for my husband.  He adds stir-ins to his (chocolate chips, crushed cookies, mini peanut butter cups, jam, etc.).  This allows me to only have to make 2 varieties for him - vanilla and peanut butter (I use the powdered peanut butter to flavor the ice cream base).

We almost used up all of our pantry and freezer stock-up from last growing season.  The only thing we have left is jam.  We have some of the jam I made and then a sweet couple who are customers of ours gifted us some of the jam they made last year.  They made types that I don't usually make so it has been wonderful to have the variety!

What I've Read

I checked out a TON of books at the library, as shown above.  No, I don't plan to read them all.  A few of them are cookbooks, so those aren't for reading, and I'm trying all new authors so I know that there will likely be a few that I decide to not finish.  I've got them checked out until July, so my hope is that I've found some good ones.

I successfully read 4 books in May.  I say successfully because I tried 2 additional books, but I just didn't enjoy them.  I challenged myself to begin reading more books from new-to-me authors - I'm trying to venture out!  So, although I didn't enjoy 2 of the books, I did like the way the authors wrote and will try different books from both of them in the future.  

Here are the books I read in May: (affiliate links follow)

1. I am caught up on the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache series!  I read #19 The Grey Wolf and am happily waiting for #20 to be released this fall.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this series and am happy that she plans to continue writing it.  If you like mystery (yes, there is murder but not in a gory way) I highly recommend it.  Read them in order though as it will make more sense.  

A silly sidenote about this series.  You know how when you read a book you have an image develop in your mind of what the people look like?  So, despite the fact that Louise has said Inspector Gamache is described to look like her husband, I cannot stop thinking of him looking like Lieutenant Joe Kenda from the series Homicide Hunter.  I have no idea why this character immediately developed into Joe in my mind, but he did.  And a sidenote to my sidenote, every single time I picture in my mind what someone is going to look like (irl), when we meet, they never ever look like I'd pictured.  Does this happen to you to?

2. I'm also caught up in the Thursday Murder Club Series by Richard Osman.  I read The Last Devil To Die and loved it.  I have to say that I am so happy I began reading this series and look forward to the next one expected in the fall.  Richard Osman has a gift, in my opinion, for writing true to each character.  And the dialogue!  Hilarious.  

The series centers around 4 friends who reside at Coopers Chase, a retirement community.  Joyce, Ibrahim, Elizabeth, & Ron created the Thursday Murder Club to work on solving old crimes although they tend to solve mostly current crimes instead.  The gang finds themselves in some outlandish predicaments but it's always enjoyable. 

This isn't a gory series at all, more like a cozy mystery.  It does, however, deal with death, aging, relationships, and, of course, crime and murder.  If you haven't read this series, what are you waiting for?  It's important to read it in order as the character development does happen over the course of the entire series.

3. Salmon Fishing In The Yemen by Paul Torday - ok, so yes, I am late to the party.  I'm aware that this book came out quite a few years ago and that there is apparently a movie based off of it, but I just decided to finally read it.  I did not look at any of the reviews prior to reading it but I have since.  I, personally, enjoyed the book.  I wouldn't say it's one I would read again but it was interesting and amusing.  I can understand, however, why many people didn't enjoy it.

The first part of the book unfolds primarily through email correspondence and journal entries.  Dr. Alfred Jones, a fisheries scientist, is approached via email to help make a wealthy sheikh's dream of bringing salmon fishing to the Yemen come to fruition. It is initially determined to be impossible but, through a series of conversations and bullying from his supervisor, Fred begins to look for ideas way outside of the box to figure it out.

About halfway through the book the writing style changes to a flashback style told through a series of interviews of many of the characters. This gives insight that something significant has happened, although you don't yet know what.  The interview responses are ridiculously long and off-subject, and although I found that somewhat silly, I still enjoyed it.  The ending was somewhat unpredictable although the book began hinting at it, and I finished the book happy that I'd read it.

I look forward to reading more of his books.

4. The Lies That Bind by Emily Giffin was the book that I just finished.  I will start by saying I enjoyed her writing style and will seek out additional books.  That being said, this wasn't my favorite book.  

Here's the brief description: 

Twenty-eight-year-old Cecily Gardner, a newspaper reporter in NYC, is alone in a dive bar one night in the spring of 2001, questioning her life after having broken up with a longtime boyfriend.  She meets a man who encourages her not to call her ex, when she's tempted to drunk dial him, and ends up spending a couple of hours and then the night with said stranger (Grant).  The two form a relationship, although they know very little about each other, that is put on hold when Grant travels overseas for the summer with his sick brother to seek out treatment options.

Cecily and her best friend visit Grant and his brother in London, where her friend finds reason to question the honesty in Cecily and Grant's relationship.  A few things clue him into believing that something is off.  Grant returns to NYC on September 10th, spends the night with Cecily, and then leaves in the morning to go to work, at the World Trade Center.  Cecily can't find him after the tragic events of 9/11 and fears the worst.  She begins searching for him only to discover that she's not the only one doing so.  Left with more questions than answers, Cecily seeks to find out who Grant really is and if they had the connection she thought they'd had.

While the book was good, up until the tragedy of 9/11, it was not a book that I couldn't put down and definitely took a nosedive afterward.  I know that we all process things differently and make questionable choices occasionally.  That being said, while the whole relationship between Cecily and Grant was sketchy, the events that unfolded after 9/11 were disappointing.  I would have liked to have had more background of both the main characters.  We get bits about them but not enough in my opinion.  The dialogue is well written, and I enjoy Emily's writing style, but it just wasn't a book that I will remember.  As noted above, I will, however, seek out more of her books to read.

  

In The Coop

The Coop Girls are doing great!  They are back into their late spring/summer routine of assuming that every time I go to the garden, something will be coming out of it for them.  So, they line up, watching my every move, chattering quietly to each other about what goodness I might be picking, and then heckle me when I don't have anything for them.  They even love receiving the weeds I pull from the beds but unfortunately for them, it's the start of the season so not a lot of weeds yet.  That, of course, will change soon.

In The Business

This is where I spend most of my time, especially May through December.  There's so much to do on the back end including the online store that it takes more time than I would like.  It's like when you go out to run errands and you can't believe how much time it took to go to 3 places.  Every time I begin working on the business chores I feel exactly like that.

Our year-round farmers market has been ok.  It was quite a bit slower than normal January through April, and in May we had 2 good Sundays and 2 not so good.  Typically, they would have all been good, so it is confirmed that it will be an unpredictable year for farmers market sales.  As I noted before, I don't believe this is just about the economy, but also about the market itself.

This year we decided to offer a series of "thank you" specials to customers who subscribe to our Cobble Hill Farm Soap email newsletter.  We are offering either a discount or freebie every month.  That has been going great!  In fact, I'm late getting this posted because I spent a couple of hours packing orders today because of our June special.

The email newsletter is an important tool for us because it allows us to showcase and sell our products.  I know that we are all picky about what emails we receive because we receive too many, so we wanted to thank the people who allow us in their inbox every week.  Our newsletter host continues to try and push me to doing text messages as well, but I can't be bothered.  I know there are people who prefer text to email but to me it's just another thing to add to my to-do list.  And so that will not be happening.

There are many challenges to starting and running a small business and marketing is a big one.  And honestly, it's probably the one thing I gave the least amount of thought to prior to starting the business.  There are just SO MANY soap & skincare companies out there, all vying for the attention of customers and potential customers.  I'm glad I hadn't given it much thought in the beginning because I think it would have stopped me from pursuing the business. I guess it shows me to stop second guessing myself all of the time.  Sometimes you just have to leap!

That's May on our homestead!  How about you?  How is your garden growing?  Have you read any good books this spring?