Weekly Update: 6.1.24
June. There are certain months of the year that stand out, and June is one of them. It marks the ending of the school year and the closing of a chapter in life -- the feeling of which haunts the month long into adulthood. June is home to the beginning of summer, the season of nostalgic fun and sweaty work. And June is the halfway mark for the year, a moment to take stock of where you are and where you want to go. So, for those who are following our homestead journey, here is a glimpse of where we are right now.
In the bunkhouse, we are working on installing our electric. We unintentionally stalled the last couple of weeks, as we took some time to focus on the garden and our bees. We hope to get back to wiring this week. We also have several other areas of construction needing our attention. We have plumbing ventilation and a few water lines that need wrapping up. We also need to cover our back porch and install a small loft in a bedroom.
Our garden is an actual garden now. On Saturday, the men finished the fence, adding rows of barbed wire above the woven wire. All week, we spent extra time removing sod and rocks. On Thursday, we worked all day to get the tomatoes in before the rain hit on Friday. It was a ton of work, but our poor tomato starts were getting root bound, so we didn't want to wait anymore. Almost everyone helped with the planting -- even the kids. The tomatoes ended up needing all of the garden space we have prepped to date. All told, we had more than 150 tomato starts. We will thin out many of these later on, but we will still have plenty of tomatoes this year. I can already taste the pico de gallo and bruschetta. We still have some cucumbers starts that badly need put into the ground. We plan to work on an area for them this next week. We also plan to direct sow some squash and okra, among other things.
Our bees stayed in their new hives! They seem to be doing well, though we are already discovering challenges to deal with. The bees are not wanting to build comb the right way in their frames (these are the same bees who went rogue in their swarm trap), so we are doing our best to figure out what to do. We also have ants trying to move into one of our hives. There is so much to learn, but we are thankful we still have both swarms. We are about finished building a third hive, and we plan to put our traps back out soon.
Last Saturday, we set our swimming pool up. After the massive project of last year's pool, we loved how easy this one was. Setting up only took us about an hour. We have all enjoyed little dips into it on hot afternoons, and the kids have lived there whenever they have the chance.
Now that summer is nearly here, we purchased a new homemade ice cream maker. The one we used all last summer finally broke in September, and we chose not to replace it. We made a no-sugar-added version of my Memaw's ice cream recipe to kick-off the season. She always used raw eggs in her ice cream, and that's how I ate it growing up. These days, we cook our ice cream base and chill it for a day before freezing it.
We've continued to improve our grounds as well. After putting up the pool on Saturday, we ladies cleaned out all of the watercress from the spring and creek. Levi is off work for the summer, so he has taken the initiative to keep our weeds down. We purchased a new weed trimmer early last month, only to have it quit working a week later. After some thought and research, we returned it and ordered a battery operated trimmer from Ryobi. We can't wait to try it out. We also purchased a small, battery-powered chainsaw for small jobs and small arms -- we sisters can't wait to use it!
For our groceries in June, we are trying something different. We did most of our grocery shopping for the month yesterday. Grace and I portioned out 64 pounds of frozen chicken breast into meal-sized zip bags. We worked with Erin to make up nine different marinades to put on about half of the chicken. The rest of the chicken we left plain for various recipes. With various packages of ground beef and pork chops, our little freezer is filled to the brim. Bonnie-Jean and our mom organized our makeshift kitchen in the bunkhouse, cleaning out the food totes and sorting out all the dry and canned goods. It was a good days work when we finally finished, but it feels good to be so organized for the month.
For me, June sort of crept up. I thought we would be further toward some of our goals by now. But in other ways, I am amazed at how much we have accomplished. A year is always full of surprises, and this one has been no different. 2024 got off to a difficult start, with health issues cropping up at what felt like every turn. But as we have moved through the sicknesses and injuries, it is exciting to see our family persevering, overcoming, and growing. Throughout the hard times, we have received so many unforeseen blessings, from watching snow fall around our tent to capturing wild bees, from out-of-date garden seeds sprouting to watching the northern lights shimmer above our tent.
Looking ahead, I cannot wait to finish the wiring in our bunkhouse, as everything else will be familiar territory -- we've done plenty of cosmetic remodeling in the past. Outside, I am so looking forward to watching the garden grow, even as we are preparing to deal with whatever pests our homestead dishes out. Later this summer, we are are hoping to add chickens and possibly goats to our homestead. Both could forage for most of their food this time of year, helping with weed and bug control and eventually providing milk and eggs. In the hottest parts of the day, I have been researching affordable animal housing. The last time we had animals, we lived in north Idaho, where most of the year is cold. Animal husbandry in the Ozarks is going to be a whole new experience -- and I can't wait to get started. The year is only half over. I am so looking forward to watching the rest of 2024 unfold.
