(VIDEO) June Homestead Hangout
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While record temperatures and mysteriously stunted gardens made June our most challenging month yet on this homestead, we did have some fun surprises too.
Watch “June Homestead Hangout” on YouTube >
Our Approach to Homesteading
We break down our homesteading activities into 6 categories and this month we have something to share in every one of them. If you enjoy this video we’d love for you to subscribe to our channel as we regularly put out videos with tips and stories.
If June had a theme it was watering.
During a typical June in the Pacific Northwest you could probably get away with watering once every three days or so. This June, it felt more like we were watering once every three hours just to keep our garden plants alive. I’m hoping we don’t have to have a segment in our July Homestead Hangout that walks you through how Julie and I found second jobs to help pay off our June water bill.
Grow & Tend
June started out like it usually does in the pacific northwest, which is wet and cold Around these parts people often call it June-uary. While we are usually itching for some sunny weather it’s often a great time to harvest cool season crops like spinach, radicchio, and kale.
But this was no typical June. And around the middle of the month temperatures became warmer than usual. The last several days of the month were so hot they broke records for our region.
The heat had us breaking out the hoses and watering the gardens much more than we expected. We lost most of our cabbages on the back patio, but fortunately the greenhouse plants like the heat. We closed up the drains in the stock tanks and kept them fairly full which worked well.
Things did not go so well in the quick beds we put in last month. Between the heat, the rabbits, and another mysterious problem, we were left with far more brown than green.
Outdoors & Wildlife
While most of the garden plants suffered in June, a whole different story was happening with our wild neighbors.
Although the wooded portions of our property are not large, they contain a rich diversity of native plant life. They are also bordered by similar wooded areas on adjacent properties, and since wild animals don’t follow human rules of property or ownership, our small woodlands act as one piece of a greater habitat puzzle that spreads throughout our rural neighborhood.
We monitor these wooded areas using two different trail cams, and about once a week we change out the memory cards and get a glimpse of the wild animals that have been using the areas we are maintaining for their benefit.
We had two new species sighted on the trail cams in June, the first being a Virginia Opossum, North America’s only marsupial.
The second was a raccoon, and it’s kind of surprising that this was the first we captured considering how common these guys are. This individual seemed to have caught the scent of something interesting and… here’s what that was. He had caught the scent of the cat fur we had put out back in early spring for birds to use in their nests. The fur seemed to puzzle the raccoon and I can only imagine he was wondering why so much fur had no meat underneath it. He sampled a few different clumps before losing interest and moving on.
A literal frequent flyer on the trail cam in June was a Northern Flying Squirrel who continued to take an interest in the cat fur. Midway through the month we moved this camera to a spot by the garden and here’s the first animal we captured on it. What do you think? Black-tailed Deer? Yeah… thanks deer.
We’re a little concerned about one of our canine neighbors. A coyote with a visible limp was seen three different times on our trail cams in June. We hope she’s able to recover from her injury.
In addition, we have a cottontail in the backyard with an apparent abscess on their dewlap. We’re not sure what caused the injury, but so far the rabbit has been managing despite this impairment.
We also continue to capture footage of some not so wild neighbors on our trail cams as free roaming cats are frequent visitors. Again, we keep our cats either safely confined or on leash, and try to make them have a positive impact on wildlife by sharing their fur for nesting.
And nesting continued on our property in June. Douglas Squirrel breeding season was in full swing and we caught one of these little red neighbors helping herself to the cat fur and then collecting moss from a branch nearby to line her tree cavity or burrow nest.
Songbirds were still nesting and this American Robin had an impressive beak-ful of worms to take to his young. We also caught a robin feeding a fledgling on our trail cam.
Spotted Towhees are almost done raising their broods on the hill behind our house and we caught a quick glimpse of one of their fledglings.
A Song Sparrow was spotted singing to defend his territory while sitting on one of our property line stakes. Basically the Song Sparrow’s song serves the same purpose as the orange stake. We’re really not that different.
American Crows on our property had their wings full in June taking care of the next generation. We have a family that has been busy caring for three fledglings that seem to enjoy roosting on the rails of our garden fence.
These three have entered the crow equivalent of their teenage years. They’re a little uncoordinated and awkward with their bodies and just starting to learn what it means to be a crow. This includes figuring out what is and is not edible. This one gave a leaf a try, and one of her siblings tried to eat what appeared to be a paper towel but with limited success. Next the trio were testing out some straw before dad arrived with real food and they all rushed him. Hopefully these kids become independent soon. their parents look exhausted.
Many plants were also preparing for the next generation on our homestead in June. The most obvious of these was our Black Cottonwood trees. The entire property was blanketed with the white fluff that both carries the trees seeds on the wind and gives the tree its name. The white blanket was actually very pretty to look at… but also a little hard on the allergies.
Plants that were flowering in April and May like the Salmonberry, saw their fruit ripen in June. As predicted, wildlife like this robin benefitted greatly from this easily obtained food source. Large, two-legged mammals on the property also ate their fair share.
The Osoberry or Indian Plum, also bore it’s fruit in June. The small plum like berries disappeared as soon as they were ripe.
We even discovered a plant we didn’t know we had when a Prickly Currant, also know as Swamp Gooseberry, bore fruit along our nature trail.
Other plants like this Thimbleberry trailed slightly behind and will bear fruit that will benefit wildlife in early July.
The hill behind our home was bursting with color in June as rhododendrons and other flowering shrubs came into bloom. These flowers attracted pollinators like this bumblebee. The bee seemed determined to visit every blossom as quickly as possible but she was eventually slowed down by one that didn’t seem to want to let her go.
Meanwhile, the wetland at the bottom of our property had a pungent smell as Skunk Cabbage flowered and leafed out. This plant really does smell like skunk, and its tender shoots are a good food source for bears in the spring.
Our local vine maples were developing seeds in June that will feed wildlife in the months to come.
And green vegetation all over our property was providing food for a large population of Eastern Cottontail rabbits on our homestead. The rabbits ate some discarded wheat grass and helped themselves to the clover cover crop we planted in multiple new quick beds around our property. Cottontails were also seen eating plants in our main garden’s perimeter bed but our wildlife proof fencing effectively excluded them from having access to any plants we didn’t want them eating. At times they ate so much that they just needed to lay down for awhile to digest.
We had some exciting reptile and amphibian sightings in June starting with this Northern Red-legged Frog seen in our wetlands.
Our back patio garden became home to a Pacific Chorus frog who was seen hanging out among our potato plants. She likely ate many small slugs and snails and was a very welcome garden helper.
We also spotted this lovely garter snake sunning himself in an area where we are removing Japanese Knotweed, which is an invasive plant. Garter Snakes are another welcome neighbor as slugs are one of their favorite foods.
A few years ago we put up two bat boxes on the edge of our woods, but we have been uncertain whether or not they were being used. this is the first box, placed on a tree in a spot that receives a lot of direct sun. Notice the bottom of this box where bats would enter and exit. The second box is in a shadier spot on a tree about 50 yards from the other box. Based on close inspection of the entrance to this box, we’re pretty sure it is not being used. Considering the first box is completely cobweb free it is very likely that we at least have some residents in that box. We hope to catch them on camera for a future video.
As spring gives way to summer wildlife’s annual cycle will continue on our homestead, and we’ll continue to be the best neighbors we can be to the wild animals who choose to live here.
Food & Drink
It was too hot for making meals in the oven with temperatures soaring over 100 degrees for multiple days in a row. So we made a big batch of gazpacho, a cold Italian tomato soup. It was just right for the heat of the day. Hopefully we will have our own tomatoes for this recipe later in the year.
Sew & Craft
We didn’t have enough trellising for beans, so we scrounged around the homestead for extra bits and pieces to use as supports. Stay tuned to see if this setup is strong enough!
Planning & Mindset
The toughest challenge we faced this month was our stunted front garden. After soil testing, observation, and research, we think we figured it out. We believe that the straw we brought in as mulch was tainted with herbicides.
This is really scary for us since we both have serious health issues already. But once we faced it, we began the painful process of pulling out the straw and deformed plants.
Not all hope is lost however. We found a new mulch option, marketed as pet bedding, that is really showing promise. Once we have used it a little longer we will report on the results.
While our spring garden didn’t turn out quite as planned, we did get a great pea harvest after we made these changes. And so our garden continues to be a place of humble learning.
Home & Construction
As we mentioned earlier, we experienced record breaking temperatures during the month of June. Only about 30% of homes in Washington have air conditioning, and ours is not among them. When temperatures soared above 100 degrees we got creative and made our own “Swamp Cooler” using three fans and a lot of ice. It worked better than expected, but when the thermometer hit an insane 111 degrees we went to plan B and literally jumped in the river.
That’s it Folks
Well, June turned out to be a month like none other. We hope you enjoyed this report!
