Well hello there! It’s been a while since we have posted anything, which we are very sorry about but it’s also been pretty crazy!
We welcomed the month of May by talking about all the projects we want to try to accomplish this Summer as well as planning how we want to scale back and simplify the garden and homestead. Some of the things we did include planting some comfrey outback where we have the problem of standing water when we get heavy rains in hopes that their deep root systems will soak up a lot of that water. The comfrey will also aid in being a great food source for our chickens!
In early May we celebrated one birthday and Mother’s Day (Shout out to our Mom who is the best mom ever, knows how to balance wearing multiple hats, isn’t afraid to call us kids out when we need it, loves us beyond measure, and we couldn’t love more!) followed by another birthday in late May.
During May we also started some indoor projects that involved some reorganizing, redecorating, a little bit of new and new to us furniture, and possibly a future thrift store visit (or two… ;)). During this time we found our window AC unit had sprung a leak on the inside. Turns out it was set to low and when the cooler temps came around at night it would freeze and then thaw and leak when the warmer temps hit. Thankfully that was a very easy repair and the unit did get a good deep clean.
Memorial Day Weekend brought the unexpected “pleasure” of taking our youngest dog, Wyatt, to the emergency vet. The Sunday before Memorial Day Wyatt started getting sick to his stomach, refusing to eat his dinner, and not being able to keep anything (including any anti-nausea meds and water) down. When he started to have a little bit of blood in his stool we decided to take him in, especially with his history of seizures.
Thankfully it wasn’t anything serious, just a bad upset GI tract! He received some meds there and after getting home at 1:00 AM Memorial Day he was ready to rest. He did go somewhere between 12 and 24 hours without sleep. Lack of sleep can (and in Wyatt’s case did) trigger a very small seizure but after resting up for a couple of days he was back to his peppy, hungry hungry hippo self!
By the end of May, we had welcomed 30 new short-term additions to the homestead. We received 30 meat bird chicks in the mail on Wednesday, May 22, a day or so later one did pass so we are down to 29. If everything goes according to plan, they will be ready for the freezer by late August!
Late May and early June brought about garden planting. Since we decided to scale back we didn’t plant as much as we have in the past. We still have a good variety of vegetables but our main goal this year is to plant a lot of what we will need for our holiday meals as well as some Spring and Summer favorites, like salad and salsa. So on Memorial Day, we were able to plant our tomatoes and peppers. About a week into June we planted our cucumbers, corn, beets, sweet potatoes, and kale. Here soon we will plant our sunflowers, green beans, zucchini, butternut squash, and pumpkins.
We also welcomed June by going up to visit Mom’s family for the day, and we brought Grandma home with us for a brief visit. While Grandma was here we were able to go thrifting, visit an antique and garden show (where we found some really neat plants and decorations!), and each grandchild got to do a one-on-one project with her!
Bailey and Grandma were able to do their nails together. Bailey even kept her nails on for 8 whole days which impressed all of us!
Bradley and Grandma built a plant stand for her deck. They even burnt it with a torch! It looks super sharp and now Bradley has multiple standing orders with other family members (i.e. his sister)!
Jo Jo and Grandma made some caramel nut grapes. They were just green grapes dipped in caramel with chopped walnuts on them. Not the combo you would expect to be good but most of us would grab at least one anytime we walked through the kitchen, so they were pretty good!
While Grandma was here we also enjoyed good food, which included fried chicken livers for dinner one night, DQ chicken strips another night, and Grandma treated us to chips and queso and coffee almond toffee crunch ice cream bars multiple times! We also enjoyed being outside with her, she even said she would rather weed the garden than dust! In all, it was a great visit!!
Just recently we celebrated Father’s Day (Shout out to our Dad who is the best dad ever, the mastermind behind most of the homestead, who is more knowledgeable than what he leads us to believe, who loves us unconditionally, and we couldn’t love more!).
So now we are entering the end of the month of June but Summer is just getting started! We still have half-completed projects inside and outside that we want to finish, and some projects we have plans to start here in the next month or so. We have many things we are excited about like the first tomato harvest or having the meat birds in the freezer, and we can’t wait to share it all with you!
Take care now,
Jo Jo King
