Homestead Happenings

 

Welcome back to Homestead Happenings.

Summer is here and are we feeling it!

A lot of the country is experiencing record high temperatures

and we actually went into triple digits this week.

Hoping that we don't see that again.

The watermelon is being gobbled up on a daily basis.

How hot is it?

Dang hot!

A couple of weeks ago,

we finally managed to have our bathroom project done.

We had this tub/shower combination that was

original to the house.

We swapped it out for a walk-in shower instead.

The shower head was also changed out,

and it has been a pleasure taking a shower ever since.

The bonus is that we found a plumber who did a great job

and will be used for future projects.

Outside,

the Cushaw squash is impressing me.

It seems to grow a foot a day,

and so far, has no issues with bugs.

I love the mottled pattern on the ginormous leaves.

The two types of squash (Cushaw and Seminole pumpkin) we are growing intentionally,

are both supposed to be resistant to the infamous squash vine borer.

Time will tell.

native milkweed

canna lily

The garden is doing well,

despite the fact that we haven't had any rain in 3 weeks.

The irrigation has been used,

but does not seem to be doing a thorough job.

I will work on a solution as weather permits,

or wait until autumn.

Until then, I'm hand watering as well.

This year's crop of garlic was cured in the garage,

and then processed for hanging.

The heads are much smaller than I am used to,

but that will be corrected with this year's crop

by being sure to fertilize twice in the 9-month growing season.

The heads were threaded onto stiff wire

and reside near the kitchen.

It's a wonderful feeling knowing that

garlic will not be on our shopping list

for a very long time.

The sweet potato slips were planted,

a little later than usual,

but they should be fine.

Looking forward to using some of the greens

for the chooks to snack on.

I may even keep some for myself.

With the onset of the dreaded heat,

a few new ideas have been tried out 

to keep our girls cooler.

The applesauce jar was filled with water

and frozen overnight.  I then placed it in a plastic pot

(some folks use coolers), and placed it in the run.

This gives the girls a cooling effect just by standing near the pot.

I also used my silicone soup block molds

to freeze larger blocks of ice to give them something super cooling.

A friend gave me a boatload of cucumbers,

so they were sliced in half, frozen and then

added to the runs for the girls to snack on.

It makes me feel better, knowing I can do these little things,

to try to make their lives a bit more comfortable.

The baby girls were integrated this week 

with the older chooks.

I can't say it's going smoothly,

as it seems that the new girls prefer

to sleep on this perch all night,

rather than using the chicken coop.

The older hens are not being as generous as they could be,

but I'm hoping they will get used to each other over time.

It's a time of transition and I'll be glad 

when they are all snuggled up together in the coop at night.

Hopefully, we will get some rain this weekend,

and they will be forced to go inside!

The complicated life of a backyard chook.

As if the joining up of the two separate flocks isn't enough,

we've had a visitor over the last week.

This guinea has been frequenting our run.

I don't mind it hanging around,

as it seems to have lost its flock,

but I don't want it to invite everyone it knows either!

It seems the strays always find us.

What's happening on your homestead this week?