Welcome to Part 1 of my June 2024 update for the semi homestead life. I have decided that in addition to my typical more informational articles, I’d like 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.
However, one of the main reasons why I want to make these blog posts is so I can post some of my favorite pictures during the month. I take a lot of pictures. I mean A LOT!
Most of the pictures only fill up my camera gallery, but I’d love to share much more of them with you all in a more informal format. (I do post several pictures and updates on Instagram if you want to follow along with me there, too.)
So expect these posts to be picture-heavy. 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 June 2024 Part 1 Update
Since the beginning of June, it has been extremely warm here in Illinois. Normally, temps are only in the low 80s, and we’ve had several days be in the mid-90s so far (eww).
I’ve personally not enjoyed the heat this early, but the garden seems to be happy at least! I’ve just had to stay on top of watering when we go a day or two without rain. Most plants are handling it ok at least.
Growing Plants
The cucumbers are growing well. We planted both the transplants we started indoors in early spring as well as a few seeds. To be honest, the plants that we started with seeds are actually growing much better and seem healthier than the transplants. I’m just glad they are growing since we didn’t have the best of luck with cukes last year!
This year, we planted potatoes both in-ground and in grow bags. They are both filling out nicely and looking mostly pest-free.
As the tomatoes start to grow, I go out every couple of days and spend time removing the tomato suckers. I also try to keep the bottom several stems pruned to keep them off the soil and reduce the chances of diseases and pests having easy access. They are starting to fill out nicely though for the most part.
We aren’t harvesting much right now. A few of the cold weather crops like snap peas but that’s about all. The garlic scapes were harvested in late May and the strawberries have slowed down quite a bit. We’ll be drowning in produce soon enough (hopefully)!
Otherwise, it’s mainly been watching the garden plants grow and keeping an eye on the chickens. Chickens don’t do well in high heat, so mine have been nice and spoiled with lots of fresh, cold water as well as a fan in the coop and one in the run. What can I say, I’m a softy when it comes to animals!
In The Coop For The First Time
June started out by integrating the young chickens into the coop during the night. They had their first night with the big girls, which I was looking forward to since it would make nighttime chores a little easier. Plus, the coop is a lot safer with the automatic door and everything.
Thankfully, the transition went really smoothly!
The first night, I had to individually move each girl from the run and place her on the roost bar inside the coop. The big girls have two roost bars on one side of the coop and the new girls have one on the other side that I recently added. This way they don’t have to share.
After the first night, four out of the six girls went into the coop at bedtime on their own, so that was nice. By the third night, all six went in on their own. Success!
Rhubarb Harvest – June 2024 Part 1 Update
June is the perfect time for harvesting rhubarb, and we were able to get a decent amount from our single plant.
I’ve actually had this rhubarb plant now for several years, but I just moved it to a new location last year so we haven’t been able to harvest as much in the past.
When I first laid out my garden space, I was a pure novice. I unfortunately placed it near a walnut tree, and if you know anything about black walnuts then you know they contain juglone – a substance that can stunt or even kill some plants (rhubarb being one of those!).
Well, we planted the rhubarb fairly close to the tree and it never grew well. In fact, I had three plants and only one survived. Finally, we decided as a last-ditch effort to move the lone survivor to the other side of the garden and see if that helped. Thankfully, it seems to be doing much better in its new location further away from the tree!
Anyway, I made a delicious rhubarb crisp from some of the harvested rhubarb, but the other we sliced it and put it into vacuum sealer bags. Those bags then went into the freezer so we can enjoy some yummy desserts later in the year.
Flowers Blooming
Even though I mainly grow vegetables in my garden, I also like to include flowers as well. Some flowers are included to be companion plants and help repel pests from my vegetables. However, some I just grow because I love seeing their blooms and colors! And thankfully, all of them are perfect for bringing in loads of pollinators.
Those flowers are all starting to bloom out and be oh-so-beautiful! So I’ve spent a lot of my time in the garden right now just walking around and taking photos of the blooming flowers.
I have a lot of the flowers growing in both of my late Grandmas’ galvanized tubs and buckets. I love being able to see the tubs full of life and being put to good use again, even if that wasn’t their intended purpose!
Surprise Harvests – June 2024 Part 1 Update
I grew up snacking on wild gooseberries when I was a kid. My parents farmed and we had some land we rented down this long lane. All along the lane, there were gooseberry plants growing wild. So I loved to walk along and pick the berries to snack on when we went to the fields.
Most people wait to enjoy them when they turn purple and are technically ripe. However, I always ate them bright green and nice and sour!
Anyway, we found a small gooseberry patch in some of the timber we own, so I harvested up what I could. I didn’t have enough to make a pie or anything, but the kids and I enjoyed snacking on them.
Loss of Livestock
Now for one of the negative events that happened this month. Unfortunately, along with the positives of semi homesteading comes the negatives.
We’ve had amazing luck with our flock of girls but that unfortunately changed this month. We aren’t sure what happened, but I went out to do morning chores one day and one of our girls had a pale comb and wattle. In addition, she was not moving around like normal and just looked puny. All red flags when it comes to normal chicken behavior and health.
Unfortunately, there really aren’t vets around that take care of chickens. Especially here in rural areas, chickens aren’t typically considered to be “pets”, so a lot of local vets don’t treat them. The best you can do is make them as comfortable as possible and hope for the best.
Anyway, I made sure to keep her as cool and comfortable as possible, especially in this heat. She pretty much camped out in front of the fan which was good and the other girls left her alone. I checked her for any obvious signs of issues or diseases but I didn’t see anything blatant or telling. (Too bad they can’t tell you what is wrong like a human.)
I went out multiple times that day and got her to drink electrolyte water. She even ate a few bites of scrambled eggs. But by the next day though, she wouldn’t even drink so I knew it wouldn’t be long.
She passed later that night. It was a bit hard on me because this was our first chicken to pass. I have to remember that we tried to give them as good of a life as possible while we could.
Misc Pictures – June 2024 Part 1 Update
Ok, let’s end part 1 of the June 2024 update on a more positive note! Here are just some random pictures from the first part of this month and a bit about them.
Even the roadside weeds (larkspur) are pretty this time of year! 
We now have potatoes growing out of our compost bin. 
Scrambled eggs with chopped garlic chives – YUM! 
I found a leaf with damage from some kind of leaf miner. 
You can see the leaf miner that was inside the leaf (the yellow sticking out of the top of the leaf). 
I made homemade cinnamon roll muffins and they were a hit even if they weren’t the prettiest!
I hope you enjoyed this more blog-like post. Let me know if you want me to keep doing these types of posts in the future!
Until next time, thanks for stopping by!
– Chelsea
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