If you want an update on semi homesteading life for August 2024 here in Zone 5, then this article is for you! As summer starts to wind down, August always has me looking toward fall with anticipation as well as sadness.
Late summer and early fall always bring about a sense of urgency, needing to can and preserve as much of the garden as possible before it starts to slow down and die. It’s also a time of busy with the kids heading back to school and trying to get done all those last-minute chores before the cold of winter arrives.
With these updates, I hope to do more of a “journal” type of post at least once a month to keep you updated on life here. Hopefully, it will allow you to get to know the person behind these articles (me!) and how we run our semi homestead a bit more.
This will allow me to share the loads of photos I take on my phone instead of having them collect dust in my camera gallery. (You can also look for updates on Instagram if you want to follow along with me there, too.) I’ll also try to link to posts that might be relevant to what happened during that timeframe.
Hopefully, you enjoy getting to know a bit more about our life here in Illinois and how the homestead is going – Both the good and the bad!
Our August 2024 Update For The Semi Homesteading Life
August and September are both always crazy times in the kitchen as far as canning, freezing, and overall preserving the garden is concerned. While I am so busy in the kitchen, the garden itself starts to get a bit neglected.
Add in the chaos of the kids going back to school, and the days just seem to be over before they even begin! We now have an 8th grader and a sophomore in high school. The sophomore even has his driver’s permit, so that’s been a fun and interesting mix in our adventure.
While this season of life is a lot easier physically than the seasons of little babies, active toddlers, and even grade schoolers, I consider it a lot harder mentally. Nonetheless, I love getting to see what type of people our teens are becoming.
How’s The Garden Going – August 2024 Homesteading Update
By the end of August, parts of the garden are thriving while others are looking a little worse for wear. We’ve gone several days without good soaking rains, and that always starts to take a toll on some of the plants, despite hand watering on my end.
The green beans have about one more harvest left in them, and then they need to be pulled. I can’t complain since I’ve been able to process and put away several batches. The potatoes will soon need to be dug up as well.
If I had planned better, I would’ve done a late summer planting in the row where I harvested the garlic. But like everything, time got away from me and I wasn’t able to get anything new really going in late summer to have a fall garden this year.
When we got back from vacation, the squash bugs and cucumber beetles had taken over my zucchini plants. It took me a few days of battle, but I’ve been able to keep them somewhat under control. It seems like the bugs have been a lot worse this year than in the past. Hopefully, that won’t become a trend!
As you can tell from the photo, some of the walking areas in the garden are starting to get overtaken by weeds. I need to just spend about an hour outside and get my hands dirty. It really doesn’t take me long to get the garden in shape when I dedicate a few minutes to it each day. This is just real-life gardening in late summer!
New Pullet Egg Colors
After we got back from our Florida getaway in July, we were greeted with new pullet eggs from the girls. The first new egg was from our Black Copper Maran. The deep brown eggs are simply stunning! Before long, we were greeted with a light pinkish brown egg from one of the Buff Orpington girls.
We then were happy to see that both of our Easter Eggers were producing light blue eggs. Last was a beautiful army green egg from our Olive Egger.
It’s so fun to see all of the different colors now! We love having cartons full of beautifully colored eggs when we previously only had light brown eggs!
Tomato Harvests
One of the biggest producers in the garden is the tomatoes. Almost all of the plants are doing well. There are a couple that are starting to succumb to late-season blight, but I’ve been able to keep it at bay for the most part.
We have been able to have a ton of BLTs, which are a highlight for us during the summer months. You just can’t beat a garden fresh tomato. There’s something about the flavor and texture that store-bought tomatoes just can’t match.
We grew a new variety this year called Gold Medal. They are supposed to be a beautiful yellow with red accents. However, I don’t think that’s the variety we ended up with. Although they are yellow, there is not one hint of red on the fruit.
Nonetheless, I have enjoyed growing and harvesting whatever the tomato variety. They are hardy producers and the flavor of the fruit is really good. The texture is a bit softer than I’d like, but the sweet flavor makes up for it.
As always, two of my favorite varieties are the pink and red brandywine tomatoes. This is my third year growing them from seeds I’ve saved from my own garden. They have both been excellent producers and the fruit is just the best. I intend on fermenting and saving the seeds once again this year.
Harvesting Marigold Seeds
Another thing I did throughout August was to harvest dying marigold seedheads. I like to dry these out and then save their seeds for next year’s garden. You can get a ton of seeds just from a couple of spent blooms so it’s a great way to save money. (Or use the money saved on marigold seed packets to buy another flower or vegetable for your garden!)
Anyway, I had all the best intentions. I harvested the seedheads and set them all onto separate labeled paper plates. Since it was nice out, I decided to set them on our back deck to dry out a bit more.
Well, unbeknownst to me, the wind picked up and there went all my seeds! Needless to say, I’ll have to start from scratch so I don’t mix up the varieties! Oh well, at least there are plenty more where those came from.
Miscellaneous – August 2024 Homesteading Update
As usual, I’ll leave you with some miscellaneous homesteading pictures. As fall starts to creep into all aspects of life, I always get a feeling of sadness to see the plants and garden dying and the days getting shorter.
At the same time, I look forward to almost all the other parts of fall. The changing colors of the leaves, cooler nights wearing cozy sweatshirts, drinking hot apple cider, eating homemade pumpkin donuts, relaxing at backyard bonfires with the family, lighting pumpkin spice-scented candles, and visiting my parents’ farm during corn and soybean harvests – I just get excited thinking about it all!
So here’s to saying goodbye to Summer and Hello to fall! Thanks as always for seeing how the semi homestead is going here in Zone 5! September and fall, here we come!
Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea
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