Welcome to Homestead Sunday, where we share what we have learned, what we do on a regular basis, and what projects we are building, rebuilding or working on. Who are we? We are a three generation family living on six acres in South Eastern Texas.
And while we have only been in Texas a short time, we have had the homestead mentality and lifestyle for quite a few years. Starting out with our time living in Montana. And, although we are not experts in any way, I hope that what we share with you with this series is helpful, as well as inspirational for you and your own homestead journey. Or even with your own home and yard in the suburbs. Because to homestead is an much an action as it is a lifestyle.
OK, true story, but sometimes it sure seems like I don't get much done, day after day. Maybe it is because now in retirement I do not have an hour commute to get to work. Since, I live where I work! So I made the decision that I would write an end of the month recap from time to time (not every month, I promise!) and take a look back. Yep all of it. The good. The bad. And. The ugly!
Our weather has been extreme! June is often too hot or humid to be outside for long periods of time, I/we usually work for an hour or two and then come in for a meal or to shower and cool off. But this year we have also been getting more than our usual share of rain. And while we can always use the water, the rainfall often adds another reason as to why our time outside has been limited. This is what June looked like...but let's start with my little Tiny House kitchen.
Yep, I work with a 27 inch counter space...needless to say, I have learned to be very organized!
Restocking the pantry, recipes completed:
Rough and Ready Laundry Soap, for our house. Another batch will be needed for my daughter's house in a week or two.
Homemade Dish Soap. We do a lot of dishes! Up to three times a day. More with recipe development.
Whole Wheat and Honey Bread, for our grandson. This is made twice a month.
Brown Rice Quinoa Blend, for the freezer. It turns out, I/we are enjoying this a lot! This will be made on rotation as needed.
Cooked Barley, for the freezer. Another on rotation, recipe.
Slow Cooker Honey Poached Apple Chunks. I make slow cooked apple chunks a couple times a month. They are delicious made with real maple syrup too.
Chocolate Sugar for my husband's morning coffee.
Oh, and a batch of Sweet Onion Beans!
And while I do not have a blog post about soaking and dehydrating the nuts we enjoy, I processed almonds this month. Pecans were processed last month.
New recipe posts shared on the blog:
Loaded Vegetable Lentil Soup. More vegetables than lentils. The perfect soup for those who limit legumes or insist they do not like them...
Let's Talk Quinoa, what's in your pantry? I am probably the last person to jump on the quinoa wagon! And while I would never state it is one of my favorite foods, I do enjoy it mixed with brown rice for a side dish and a couple other recipes.
Quick and Easy Pan Fried Chips. These are so good! Plus it is easy to get these ready for dinner with precooked potatoes in the fridge.
Lemon-y Chicken and Onions. Recipe development done! We really enjoy this dish, my guess it is the onions!
New recipes being developed:
Chicken with Onions, Lemon and Parsley, (see above, this is now posted as Lemon-y Chicken and Onions) I have made this twice for developing and a third time to make sure! It really is good. But getting good photos during recipe development, can be tricky.
Japanese Sweet Potato Rice, using my brown rice/quinoa blend. I have made this a couple of times. And it is a delicious side dish, with my version using the cooked and frozen rice blend. I love how quick it is to heat and eat! And just like the chicken recipe above, good photos are needed of this dish!
Low Histamine Bread. Each month I work on this, and each month I fail, to be perfectly honest.
Other posts shared this month:
The Amish Cook's Anniversary Book, for What Did You Read This Month. I loved the mother/daughter relationship, as well as the deep family ties of this book. Each chapter was gathered from the writings of the mother Elizabeth. And the daughter Lovina. The 20 year span includes the 10 years back, when Elizabeth had passed away, and the next 10 years forward with Lovina taking up the task to honor her mother. Yes there are some recipes, but it was the story that captured my heart and my respect for this family and the life they live.
In My Homestead Kitchen June, looking back on May 2026. I really enjoy this group of bloggers who all share to this monthly project. We then visit each other's blogs to see what has been happening in their kitchen, in their part of the world. The group includes USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France and the UK. And all are welcome! To be honest when I first joined I wasn't sure I would have much to offer. But within this group, it is about our real lives, and I felt at home immediately! Plus for me it has been a good lesson in acknowledging the work I do.
Changes in the garden:
With so many weeds this year, I decided it was time to throw in the towel on weeding! More than one bed became so weedy, that the crop (beets and onions) was lost. Now as each bed is emptied, cleaned of weeds, refilled with dirt, it is also covered in Weed Fabric, then prepped for planting. This is one of two zucchini beds.
I am also trying my hand at growing Japanese Sweet Potatoes. There are a couple of different types, but I am most interested in the purple flesh sweet potatoes.
I did harvest the garlic, and realizing I have more to learn about growing garlic. It did not produce scapes, but was drying in the garden bed.
Pulled the beets due to weeds, but we did enjoy the greens that we were able to salvage. I have since replanted beets, and have a second envelope of seeds for a second bed.
Tomatoes are coming off the vines. I grew them with zinnias this year, and we had fewer pests.
The green beans are finished, we will cut the plants at the ground leaving the roots for the nitrogen. More green beans will be planted. That same bed will then be used for growing stir-fry pea pods later when the weather cools.
The cucumbers are finishing up, but more have been planted. We enjoy fresh cucumbers all season long.
I have always struggled with growing zucchini, but have started more plants hoping to improve my gardening game and be able to harvest enough for both families.
Changes in the chicken yard:
We now have 25 14 chickens! (we sold off 10 hens and a rooster last night) The two oldest were the last survivors of our flock before last springs fox/coyote invasion that took over most of the backyard poultry in this rural community. One family lost a full sized turkey to a hungry invader. But when the mama fox and mama coyote need to get their young, grown up and on their own, all bets are off for good behavior. And no yard is safe from these mamas. They are following their natural ways and heading into the next heat cycle, which means new babies will be coming soon. With such high losses, and the high cost of replacement chicks, we ventured into hatching our own flock.
Our first attempt at hatching our own eggs produced 8 new chickens, we believe 2 roosters and 6 hens. Our neighbor down the road let us borrow the equipment from her. From there we went all in, and purchase our own incubator and warming platform. Our second incubation process produced 15 chickens. We believe 2 roosters and 13 hens. The first batch will begin laying in another month or so. The last batch is another couple of months from laying, but growing fast. They are aggressive eaters! And while I had heard the phrase "pecking order" throughout my own childhood, I did not know it came from the behavior of chickens. Until having my own flock!
With 25 to gather around the feeder at feeding time, I decided to split the food into two eating areas. But honestly having two feeding stations will make it that much easier with only 14 chickens as well. I had asked my husband to make a couple of rough and ready covers to keep the food out of the rain. Another project using what we already have around here with little or nothing purchased. The two feeding areas are a bit easier for the smaller birds to get a bite or two before it is mostly gone and they are left with only crumbs. But they are also learning to peck back!
I do soak their food overnight, they also get table scraps from both our homes (daughter's home as well as ours) and all the bugs they can forage for! A couple days a week, I take out black oil sunflower seeds, and on other days I take out Irish oats. I can usually tell when foraging is almost non existent due to low or no bugs available. On those days they need a bit more food, the seeds and oats help with that. I also make sure I take out 1/4 pound of feed per chicken. With these 14 I take out 3.5 pounds dry weight food, soaked overnight in water. Also the soaked food helps make sure they get enough liquid each day.
We also have this wading pool for the chickens. They can get in when it is too hot or dip a beak for a drink of water. Leftover from the grandson's use of it for a sand box. You will also notice that we have our compost bin/pile in the chicken yard. They love climbing through the weeds and clipping!
Our long range plans are to begin changing over to Plymouth Rock chickens, a heritage breed for both meat and eggs. They produce nice large brown eggs, and are also a good bird for meat production. I recently located a chicken farm close to us, for purchasing the fertile eggs to hatch.
And we are beefing up the fence around the chicken yard, with T-posts! Our wooden posts that we cut from the property have served us well for almost 3 years. But are getting a bit wobbly.
And with that, June is mostly finished! Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate it.
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