Weekly Update: 8.30.25
It was an almost idyllic week in the Ozarks. We enjoyed several sunny, summery days that warmed our skin and lulled us into sleepy afternoons at the creek. We exulted in a couple of damp, cloudy days inside — windows wide open to welcome in the cool air. If we had gotten the promised rain on Thursday, it would have felt pretty much perfect.
We took advantage of the weather to get a lot done around our homestead. As always, we have so much going on in every direction — but the better weather helped us switch between all of our hats more easily.
We’ve continued working hard on the garden. We ripped out our cucumbers and several melon plants, as they were spent. We are working on pruning our tomatoes and removing plants that are finished fruiting (mainly of the Roma variety). We have continued combatting pests with natural sprays and our handheld vacuum.
We have still been harvesting produce daily, though the cool weather has slowed everything down. We did harvest a whole mess of pumpkins and gourds this week, which is always so much fun.
On Thursday, we mixed up a batch of Chow-Chow, which was a favorite of our great-grandma, who hailed from Springfield, Missouri though she spent most of her adult life in California. For those who don’t know, Chow-Chow is a sweet and sour relish, ideal for hotdogs and hamburgers. Our particular recipe helped us use up a bunch of bell peppers and green tomatoes.
Grace has been starting out most of her mornings with weed trimming. Levi did a lot of the weed control around here when he was off work for the summer. Now that he is back at the schools, Grace has been doing more of this homestead chore. One perk of the dry weather — the weeds are not growing back nearly as fast as they were all summer. Hopefully we will be able to get our tractor working soon, as it will be a major benefit to cleaning things up around our build site. Our dad finally found a starter to order, thanks to our mom and her online shopping skills.
On the bunkhouse, we’ve made the exterior siding one of our priorities. Our brother Jeremiah and I have continued to work on it most mornings for about an hour. I can’t believe what beautiful siding the cedar fence pickets are turning out to be.
Jeremiah’s dog, Dagger, has to hang out while we are working, begging for someone to play ball. He gave us a laugh this week. He placed his ball on a ladder rung, nearly tripping Jeremiah.
Grace and I have been dipping our fence pickets in Eco Wood Treatment almost daily to keep up with our progress. We are pretty much in love with this non-toxic, one-step wood treatment.
On the interior side of the bunkhouse, I finished applying spar urethane to one of our doors. We had slowed down on the door project, as the heat wave we had throughout August made spraying urethane a lot more tricky.
Grace and I also selected some boards for interior trim. We never finished installing trim in our living room and halls. Now that fall is just around the corner, we would love to get the main living areas of our home looking more — homey.
When we weren’t building, we have continued working on our storage organization in the bunkhouse. We cleaned out a storage loft and put away some of our keepsakes. We sorted through all of our sewing and craft totes from our storage unit, organizing partially completed quilts, embroidery projects, and notions. We managed to store these supplies in totes that fit perfectly under the beds we built.
With Levi away at work, Erin has kept making progress in their rooms. She has been spending her afternoons hanging siding — efficiently whitewashing them as she goes.
It was a satisfyingly eclectic week. It feels good to see progress, however slow, in so many varying directions. More seasonally normal temperatures are set to return in the coming days, but the cool snap has reminded us all that autumn is approaching. Fall has historically been one of our most productive seasons — as the mild weather doesn’t slow us down with heat or cold. We are all feeling re-energized to make the best use of this time of year. Winter will be here sooner than we are ready for it, and we have so much to accomplish before it arrives.
