July 30, 2025

Garden Notes: July 2025

 Rainfall
  • 1st: 0.26"
  • 9th: 0.91"
  • 10th: 0.74"
  • 11th: 0.07"
  • 12th: 0.7"
  • 15th: 0.14"
  • 20th: 0.14"
  • 28th: 0.17"
  • 29th: 1.24
  • 31st: 0.03"
  • Total: 4.4 inches

 Temperature

  • range of nighttime lows: 67 to 74°F (19.4 to 23.3°C)
  • range of daytime highs: 85 to 95°F (29.4 to 35°C)
Garden Notes
  • Schedule:
    • mornings picking
    • afternoons processing
  • The garden is pretty much in survival mode because it's so hot and dry. We had a break from these kinds of temps over the past couple of years, but this summer is another hot one. It's making me rethink something I wrote about years ago, that I need to plan my garden more around spring and early summer, and fall and winter.

Harvested

  • slicing tomatoes
  • cherry tomatoes
  • cucumbers
  • blueberries
  • mulberries
  • beets
  • Swiss chard
  • lambs quarter
  • kale
  • buckwheat
  • oregano
  • rosemary
  • thyme
  • sage
  • okra
  • potatoes
  • bell peppers
  • pears
  • asparagus
Preserved
  • blueberries, frozen
  • blueberry jam, canned (from the last of last year's frozen blueberries)
  • mulberries, frozen
  • wheat berries, frozen
  • greens (lambs quarter, kale, & Swiss chard), canned
  • pizza sauce, canned
  • mulberry/fig jam, canned (figs from our neighbor)
  • pear vinegar
Photos

Both slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are doing well with regular watering

Field corn

Blueberries ready to go into the freezer

More blueberry pie!

Okra. In the lower right corner are echinicea, yarrow, and oregano. 

Oven roasted okra and new potatoes. I didn't plant a potato crop, I just
planted sprouted pantry potatoes. We got enough for a couple of meals. 

Honeybee on buckwheat flowers. Buckwheat is very attractive to pollinators. 

I hope everyone is having a more comfortable summer than we are! I hope ya'll are getting enough rain!

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July 25, 2025

New Kid On the Block

Or maybe it's new kid in the barn. We don't usually have a kidding this late in the summer, but here she is.

Minutes old

This is Sky's little doe. I had hoped for a late summer or early fall kidding to lengthen our milk supply, so I'm really happy about this. 

24 hours old

The last time I bred Sky she didn't settle. I knew the mating was successful, but five months later, no kid. So I was a bit unsure this time. Sky is my oldest doe, eight years old, and this time as I watched for signs of pregnancy, I didn't see them. She was always fat, so that wasn't a clue, and her udder remained unchanged. Until the other day.

Wednesday I went to the barn for afternoon chores but Sky didn't come to her feeder like she usually does. I found her lying down behind the hay feeder, unwilling to get up. I coaxed her to stand and it was immediately obvious that her udder was very full. Plus the discharge was a sure-fire clue. I put her in the kidding stall and about an hour later, she had her little doe. 

Sky is a very happy mama! She's always loved having babies. For now, they are in the kidding stall. Newborn kids usually spend the first couple of days sleeping a lot. Once she's steady on her feet and Sky is willing, I'll let them out for a supervised nose-to-nose meeting with the other goats.  


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July 20, 2025

A New Book For My Homestead How-To Series

If you read my Permies Kickstarter post, then you may have caught that I mentioned a surprise. And here it is! A new book for my The Little Series of Homestead How-Tos. This one is volume 15 and is entitled

How To Grow Grain On the Homestead
Growing wheat and other grains on a homestead scale

Here's my official blurb:

When Leigh Tate started homesteading, one of her goals was to grow as much of her family's food as possible. Her previous food growing experience included vegetables, fruits, poultry, and dairy. Grains, however, were more intimidating, especially considering how grain is grown in modern times. Yet grain growing is an ancient art which is found in all civilizations and cultures. Leigh reckoned that if the generations of the past could do it, then so could she.

How To Grow Grain On the Homestead pulls together her years of experiments, experience, and research. She covers selecting grains, planting, growing, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, and storage, all on a small homestead scale, and without expensive modern equipment. If you are interested in growing your own grain, she can will help you get started too.

Chapters:

Introduction
Why Should You Consider Growing Grain?
What Equipment Will You Need?
Harvesting
Threshing
Winnowing
What Grains Can You Grow?
Amaranth
Barley
Buckwheat
Corn (Maize)
Millet
Oats
Quinoa
Rice
Rye
Sorghum
Wheat
Getting Started: Start Small & Experiment
Recommended Resources

List price is $3.99

Available from:

Questions? I'm happy to answer them. And for a complete list of all the titles in The Little Series of Homestead How-Tos (and more!) please visit my book website, Kikobian Books.

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