This is the exact summer I wanted, with days on end to work on my projects. There was always a chance that I would get to this point and hate everything about homesteading, even after working towards it for so long. I’m relieved to find it’s quite the opposite; I work myself nearly to physical failure every day in pursuit of my goals, sleep through the night, and then wake up early excited to do it all again.
Food Production
The garden is DONE! The last of the 4 by 18 foot beds are installed and planted. Almost everything I planted last week has germinated, and of course the weeds are emerging as well. I have hesitated to hoe because I scattered herb and marigold seeds with reckless abandon, which means the weeds are starting to take over (and the notoriously slow marigolds are yet to be seen).
The paths are getting away from me as well – field grass stretching four inches high, with thistle and bindweed scattered throughout. Thankfully, the semi-permanent solution to this problem arrived: 20 yards of free wood chips! This isn’t my first ChipDrop, but I suspect this one will spread more quickly.
I use the weed-whacker to roach the grass to nearly nothing, then put down cardboard and a thick layer of wood chips on top. I’ve covered about 10% of the paths and am already running out of cardboard.
I’m putting the wood chips around the fruit trees as well, being careful not to create a mulch volcano. In an ideal world, I would spread wood chips across the entire orchard, but I want to prioritize this pile for the garden paths. If I have the stamina for it, I might place another ChipDrop immediately after finishing this one.
July 4th is traditional time to harvest garlic. Half of the harvest did very poorly – it stayed small and pale, and it barely put up scapes. I harvested those bulbs earlier this week; they’ll be okay, but it’s definitely not the ideal harvest. The second half of the harvest was perfect, and although it could have handled another week in the ground, we are about to enter a series of very rainy days so I went ahead and pulled it. I wish I could tell you which variety did poorly and which did well, but I can’t remember where I planted each variety – so I’ll refrain from slander. All of the garlic is now curing in the hay loft.
Resource Acquisition & Preparedness
A swath of brambles has taken over one of my rock walls; its life has been spared for all this time because I thought it might give me berries. I was right! I harvested two quarts of blackberries, which are now in the freezer for future muffins. The first of the wild black raspberries are also ripening, but those don’t make it inside.
I harvested a basket of herbs from my adopted mom’s garden and hung most of them to dry.
I also had some scapes left over that were threatening to go bad, so I dehydrated them on an internet recommendation. It took several days in the dehydrator at approximately 120 degrees. On the last day, I added some oregano to fill up space in the dehydrator, since it was running anyway. I also purchased a mortar and pestle to grind the herbs (and the scapes), which will make them easier to store and use in the future.
It’s finally curbside foraging season; following a social media post, I drove to an address to hopefully pick up something cool only to find that it had already been taken. On my way back, I found some nice sized logs on the side of the road – easy enough to throw into the back of the Subaru. The firewood task has been hanging over my head; these logs are both a reminder and a paltry start towards stocking the racks.
Aesthetic Utility
I grew up resenting yard work: weeding landscaping beds and trimming bushes always seemed like a useless waste of time, while energy spent in the garden yielded demonstrable benefit.
Now that I am old, I understand why my parents were dragging me through all those chores. Clumps of loosestrife and irregular bushes seem like minor irritants, but they distract from the beauty that surrounds me.
It is clear that my landscaping beds have not been mulched in several years; I’ve been pulling weeds in the landscaping beds since Spring began, but they seem to pop back up before I’m even done with each section. I got seven cubic yards of mulch delivered from a local company – a total guess on quantity, but decent mulch could never go to waste around here. I’m about halfway done spreading it, and the results have been well worth the effort.
I also hired a company to wash the house and deck. It cost $450 and was worth every penny; I tried to pressure wash it myself last year and did a less than stellar job. And I will be able to truly enjoy it because my new patio furniture set was delivered, just in time for a heat wave to eliminate any possibility of comfortably sitting outside.
In about a month, I’ll be able to eat dinner at my patio table with a great view of the chickens in their run… assuming I get my act together enough to complete the project. In between spreading mulch and wood chips, I set two more posts. I’m getting much better and more efficient at this, so I suspect the remaining structure will go up relatively quickly.
Energy Independence
Solar production was high in June, leading to my first net export month. Unfortunately, much of that banked energy has been used in the first few days of July, as the solar panel production dips due to high temperatures and the mini splits work harder to keep the house at a reasonable temperature. I’m hoping for a few mild but sunny weeks.
Moving Forward
I have three major ongoing tasks: chicken run, wood chips, mulch pile. At the very least, I need to finish setting posts for the chicken run, so that I can finalize the rest of it (welded wire, roof, gate). I’m 2-4 weeks from being able to evict them from my second bedroom, but I will not be waiting one day longer than necessary… they smell terrible.
Talk soon,
KC