::30 days:: Scrapped!

Ugh!  It seems like anything that could go wrong with this project, can and will go wrong!

First, the internet was down for 11 days.

Then, the power was out.

Now, my pictures won't load. Server invalid or something.

So, I'm just about ready to scrap this whole 30 days project and try it again some other time, perhaps when I'm not so busy running here and there, trying to get school supplies and juggling the booth and kids.

Did I mention that Andrew got a job?  Yes!!  He started working last week and while I am beyond thrilled for him and us that he is working again, I sure do miss those 'do-as-we-please' kind of days. It's back to working around a schedule, but I am *not* complaining!  It's been so long since he was out of work and filling out hundreds of job applications, going on countless interviews, and not getting even a single offer. So many times we've held our breath, hoping that finally, this would be the "one," only to get those hopes dashed on the rocks.  Eventually, I just told Andrew, "don't even tell me what job you've applied for, just let me know when there's an interview."

And of course, as soon as the money starts trickling in, along comes something to take it away. Haven't even got his first paycheck yet, and the roof has started leaking.  All these storms have not been kind to our house and while we knew about 2 small leaks, we now have several big ones.  Big enough to make the ceiling in the sun room fall down and several stains in the dining room.  -sigh-  A call to the insurance co. and a roofer recommended.  If the roofer agrees that it's storm damage, then we'll only have to pay the deductible, but if not, and this is what I am afraid of, then we'll have to foot the whole bill. Fingers crossed that the roofer will find it to be storm damaged. *crossing legs, fingers, toes... my it's going to be hard to walk!*

Counting my blessings, though, it's nothing really major or life-threatening.  We're warm and dry and Andrew was up there with the roofing repair kit trying to slap on some kind of temporary fix for the next round of storms headed our way.

The booth has been doing well.  It's a lot of fun.  It's also a lot of work, cleaning and tagging things, but I'm doing what I love to do, and it's something we have both dreamed of doing for a long time. Today, we passed the lease mark, in other words, after I take out the amount for the rent, the rest is profit!  More than 2 weeks left in the month, so I'm excited to see how much more we'll make!

Peter has just about kicked the pull-ups to the curb!!  He pretty much only uses them at night-time.  Several nights of bed-wetting in a row convinced me to get one last package of night-time pull-ups, but I think it will be the last pack I'll ever have to buy! Yay!!  *happy dance*  It's so weird to go out with all the kids in tow and hear Peter pipe up and say he needs to pee.  I'm so used to just having to take the girls to the restroom, but I am so proud of him.

The garden is going well this year.  We got behind on the weeding after we opened the booth, but the size of the tomatoes this year has me amazed!  That cow manure we spread did wonders!  I've never had such big peppers and tomatoes before!!

The corn on the other hand, still disappoints! foo!  I planted two patches, two different kinds, at different times and both failed.  The first looked like it was doing well, but then there was a dry spell and it seemed to have stunted the growth.  Very few of the corn grew bigger than 2 or 3 inches, so I ended up giving it all to the chickens.  The second patch looked gorgeous, still does!  Lush and green, but a recent check revealed no corn!  It's all stalks and leaves with no cobs?  Wha...?  That does it!  I'm officially giving up on growing corn! I'll just support our local farmers and buy their yummy corn instead.

It's raining again, so I better fetch the buckets and check the leaky spots. Until then.. :o)

::30 Days:: 5

Still working on inventory for our antique booth, but we need something to put them on, so I tackled painting this old, brown, boring shelf. Looked like rain, so I dragged it into the sun room to paint.

Between coats.

I'm amazed the kids managed to keep their fingers off it while drying!

The kids cooked dinner tonight. Spaghetti! Something they can do on their own without me fussing behind them and I can go off and do what needs doing.

The onions have been drying out in the pole barn for more than 2 weeks now, time to start bringing them in. Started on the yellow onions and filled the bag more than halfway and stopped when Gretchen complained the bag was getting too heavy for her to hold any longer. Can't wait to get the final weight on the total onion harvest! I'm hoping to get all the onions trimmed and bagged by the end of the weekend.

Finished! Looks pretty good! Took 3 coats to cover the brown. Normally I don't like when wood furniture is painted, but this is one instance where the shelf looks sooooo much better painted than it did with that dark brown stain! Seeing as how it will be displaying my wares in the booth, I wanted my items to pop out of the white shelves and not disappear into the shadows of the formerly dark shelves.



Bath night and bedtime reading.

Sweet dreams!



Onions!

We harvested the onions yesterday. Seeing all those yellow and white onions just make me feel so pleased with our efforts at keeping the garden weeded. Last year, when we planted onions, we lost the entire crop when weeds completely choked them out.  All that back-breaking work to plant them only to have all our efforts wiped out.  Not this year!

I didn't count, but there are more than enough onions here to last us for quite awhile. I don't think it'll last til next summer, though, so we plan to plant a second batch to make sure there's enough. We eat plenty of onions, just about in every dish we make.

A far cry from the onion-hating person I used to be! I used to plead with my mom not to put onions in meals, and she made onion-less potato salad for my sister and I.  Then I met Andrew, with onion juice in his veins and he often says, "A house is not a home without onions!" I'd begrudgingly add chopped onions into a dish, just for him, only a little! He'd ask for onions in the meatloaf I make, so I obliged, just half of one! Then the amount of onions I used grew, onions were included in more and more meals. We'd give raw onions to the kids when they were babes, and to my surprise, they liked them!

Now, I cannot imagine not having onions! Onions go in practically everything I make these days. Even though our kids have grown up eating onions, it still surprises me each time they willingly put raw onion slices on their sandwiches or hamburgers.

The onions still need a couple weeks of drying time, and they're in the pole barn now. I plan to store some, dehydrate some, and of course, use them as we go.  I've stopped buying store onions quite awhile ago, and there's nothing more satisfying than being able to provide something we need from our own garden.

Crazy Busy

It's been crazy busy around here lately. But it's also been kind of boring. One day it's all outside work, tilling the garden, working in a truck load of composted manure, playing in the dirt. The next it's indoors and the kids are whining "there's nothing to do!" Boy that sounds familiar! I used to drive my mom up the wall when I said that! Then Dad would pipe up and say, "I'll give you something to do!" Which usually meant chores so I'd scoot outside and go find me something to do that didn't involve cleaning the litter box, or doing dishes, or vacuuming.

Spring is in the air and I've got all my seeds and potatoes and strawberries on stand-by, waiting to be planted. We tilled the garden twice and it looks so good! I love freshly-tilled soil, when it's soft and you just want to take off your shoes and sink your toes in there, but wait, we just tilled in cow poo-- eww! The kids ball up the dirt and throw dirt balls at each other and when I catch 'em, I holler, "cow poop!" which makes them drop whatever they got quick. But I guess soft soil is just irresistible and they soon start their dirt ball fights again. Bath night!

I lost a Buff Orpington hen the other day. She was acting funny the evening before and I carried her into the coop. She seemed alright, shook her feathers and hopped into a nesting box.  In the morning, when I opened the coop, she was dead on the floor. She was one of the original 12 chickens I got 3 years ago. Out of 12, I still have 4 left.

I had to play Doctor to Peter last night.  He was jumping from bed to bed and I guess he slipped and landed on the floor on his chin. Split his chin open, but it wasn't obvious at first when he came to me crying. I thought maybe he hurt his chest or something, so I held him and consoled him, scolded him a little bit for jumping on the beds and "see what happens when you do what you're not supposed to do?"  When he pulled away, there was blood on my shirt. Wha..??   So I looked him over and when he lifted his chin up, the cut was wide open and I could see bone. If I didn't have to be doctor I would have played the fainting patient. Cleaned it, used those special bandages that hold wounds shut, swabbed ointment on it, then slapped a big, honking bandage on top of everything to keep him from picking at it. Gave the boy some pain meds and typical kid, he was back to jumping from bed to bed again.

Trying to take it easy today, keeping him occupied with little projects. I changed bandages this morning and it's closed up and healing nicely. I'm surprised he isn't picking at the bandages yet, but I'm glad he's not. I probably jinxed it by saying that and the next time I see him, the bandage is going to be hanging off his chin or something.

We've been doing the Spring Cleaning thing. It's so true, after being cooped up all winter, that as soon as you can open windows and freshen everything up, you get bit by the cleaning bug. Trying to de-clutter and toss out old stuff. I got the kitchen counter cleared and my side of the closet is organized. Papers sorted and put where they belong. Made new curtains for the living room. The yard is picked up of little bits and pieces. Andrew has been burning away old leaves and overgrowth. It's feeling pretty good around here!

Looking forward to Easter. We've invited Andrew's parents to come down, so I'll make dinner and we'll hide eggs for the kids. I don't dye eggs usually, but I think I'll do that this year as part of a science project with the kids-- using food for dyes.  Red cabbage for pink colors, Tea for brown, curry powder for yellow... It'll be fun. Peter got into the plastic eggs a couple weeks ago, and there were colorful eggs all over the house! Waited until after the kids went to bed to pick them up and put them away (read: HIDING THEM!) and the next morning, Peter pitched a fit when he couldn't find the eggs.  He went from room to room, crying "Eggs! My eggs!" over and over before he got distracted with something else.

The Easter Bunny is well-stocked with candy and goodies thanks to couponing. The girls used to ask why I saved the plastic eggs, didn't the Easter Bunny bring new ones every year??  I told them the Bunny couldn't afford to buy new ones every year, so we leave out the basket and the empty eggs at night and while we sleep, he fills them and leaves a little surprise in the baskets.

Evelyn asked me this year if I believed in the Easter Bunny. "Absolutely!" I told her. I remember making little paper baskets and filling them with candy and eggs, leaving them at the door, ringing the doorbell then hiding in the bushes waiting, watching for my friend Mark to discover the basket! I signed the note, 'To Mark, From the Easter Bunny'.   I asked if she thought the Easter Bunny was real and she thought for awhile and replied, "I think so."  I told her if she didn't believe in the Easter Bunny, he wouldn't leave anything for her. Her eyes got wide and she said she did believe! Made me smile.

I can expect another crazy busy week.. Lots going on this weekend and next. I'll try for pictures next post! Til then.. Happy Spring!

Random Tidbits

It's nearly mid-February and I have hardly done any crafting this new year. I'm itching to do something, but haven't figured out what it is yet.  The flower embroidery I haven't finished is calling my name, as is the rag rug I started, um, 2 years ago. But I don't feel like doing them. I'm looking for something quick and easy, the sort of project that, hopefully, will give me a jump-start into crafting again.

Andrew broke out our old nintendo and super nintendo games a couple of weeks ago, while I was out for the day and he stayed home with the kiddos.  What a flashback it's been seeing games I haven't played in years! I remember many days of my youth spent playing Super Mario 3, Donkey Kong Country, and Zelda. I'm surprised at how much I remember and the girls are awed at my mad nintendo skillz. Actually, playing some of those games remind me of the frustrations I had back then, when my best friend could whiz through some of those levels and I failed over and over at the same stinkin' level, unable to move on. I was playing a round of Donkey Kong Country after the kids went to bed, stocked up on 99 lives at an easy level, then, I kid you not, I died 99 times trying to complete ONE lousy stop on the next highest level. I actually wished for my best friend to be by my side and handing over the controls saying, "here, you do it!"

Crazy, freakin' weather here. One day it's a balmy 50 and the next it's 17 degrees and we're freezing our butts off! Now that my little greenhouse is up, I need to set up a thermometer in there and check it daily, recording the temperature, deciding when is a good time to get my seeds started. Andrew and I are determined to make this year's garden the best yet, and we are planning to buy a new tiller with our tax refund money.  Fingers crossed we get back a nice amount.

Our current tiller is the kind that gets hooked up to the back of the tractor and tills 4 foot rows. Nice to start and end the garden soil with, but lousy to till between rows during the growing season. We had a little pipsqueak tiller, but it went kaput and research tells us that to get it repaired, the parts will cost as much as buying a new one. So we are opting for a medium-sized tiller, not too big for me to handle, but big enough to till between rows and keep the weeds down.

Previously, we used an old carpet as weed block between rows, which worked great the first couple of years, but now weed seeds have buried themselves in the rug pile and when pulling up the carpet at the end of the season last fall, it was quite an effort to yank them off the soil.  Weeds grew on top and their roots held fast underneath the carpet. I was sore the next few days from all that yanking. Plus, much of the carpet just deteriorated in my hands, which made it harder to pull up in some places. Going to start saving newspapers for weed block and along with the tiller, should do a good job in keeping weeds at bay.

Couponing has been good for us lately, our pantry is full, the freezer is packed, the bathroom closet is over-flowing with toiletries... Sure came in handy when we got a call from a friend, asking if we could help out a family when their new house burned down yesterday. Lost everything. They needed clothes for their 2 boys, 1 year and 4 years old.  I didn't have very much baby clothes left, but I managed to dig up some 18 month sizes and some clothes for the 4 year old. Some toys our kids no longer played with went to them also.  We also gathered up a box full of shampoo, body washes, toothpaste, and some other things they might need. My heart goes out to them and I count my blessings that we were able to help out just a little bit.

Valentine's day is tomorrow. We don't normally make a big deal about Valentine's Day, but I happened to have some left over valentine's candy after making goody bags for the birthday party last week, so we're going to make a scavenger hunt for the kids tomorrow.  After they go to bed tonight, Andrew and I will make maps and clues and hide little treats around the house.

Have you seen this? I made one for Andrew for Valentine's. Nothing fancy, nice and simple and we could always use matches around the house, so when I saw it, I knew I'd make one. I had enough to make two, so one for him as a surprise, and one I'll keep near the wood stove, for those few times when I have to start my own fire.

Oh look-- it's bedtime for the kids! Time to go!

Greenhouse

Years past, when I tried to start my seeds indoors, something always happens to mess it up--

new puppy got into the trays; toddlers toddling around, knocking the trays over; too cold, too hot, not enough water, too much water.

Ugh! I usually end up buying flats of young plants and transplanting.

This year! I vow to do better! This year, I want to get my garden started earlier! This year, I will build that greenhouse!

Taking advantage of the mild winter, I finally did it-- I built a little greenhouse.

Nothing fancy, just a cattle panel bent between two t-bars and then plastic we saved from a mattress and box-spring set. I backed it against the pole barn and stapled the plastic to the wall, then tied down the plastic in certain spots to keep it tacked down. It got quite warm in there, when I was fastening the ties, so I'm hoping future trays of seeds will thrive in there.

I need another bit of plastic to cover the bottom of the doorway there, and then it's good to go.  If it works out well, I'll tweak it and improve it some more next year and possibly make it a little larger using a second cattle panel. I'm trying to use materials I already have.

The bottom of the plastic will be rolled up if it gets too warm in there, I'll use clothespins to keep the plastic up and to keep the plastic closed, in lieu of a door.  If it works out, I'll spend a little more resources on it, make a door from scrap wood and make it more sturdy. For now, we're using an old shelf and looking for another one to slip in there on the side to hold more flats. I want to get gravel for the floor later, but for now, I'm using those floor mats you find in playrooms.  Just something to keep the weeds down. 

Nothing fancy, but it should do the trick. Wish me luck!

With Or Without Me

 

Despite my complete lack of attention, the chickens noshing on them, and rampant weeds towering above my head, the tomatoes have continued to thrive and produce hundreds of fruit for us to eat and enjoy. I have not even watered the garden except for a few days in the very beginning after planting, and we have had a pretty dry summer where we're at. I didn't do a lot of tomato canning this summer-- I still have many quarts left of whole tomatoes I canned last year. I did manage to can up batches of taco sauce and mild salsa, though. The salsa won me a blue ribbon at the county fair.  We've also eaten plenty of fresh salsa this summer, made with lots of onions, chopped cilantro and lemon juice. And goodness knows how many tomatoes we've eaten in salads, BLTs, sandwiches, burgers and all by their lonesome with a dash of salt! I'll miss eating those fresh tomatoes in the middle of winter when all that's left of summer is in our memories.

Dropping In...

When I said I was going to take a bloggy break, I thought I would need all the way 'til Labor weekend. Turns out I am already itching to come back and I'm trying to decide if I should hold fast to my time-line or say the hell with it and start posting again. Maybe just writing this one post will be the release I need and I can hold off until Labor weekend.

A lot has happened around here-- some good, some bad. Nothing like a death in the family or a major illness, thank God, but definitely something that forces us to change and swallow our pride and to count our blessings even more. I know that things happen for a reason and what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I also know you don't judge a man before you walk a mile in his shoes and don't count your chickens before they hatch. The point is, life happens, and not always the way you want it to. It's the journey, not the destination.

Andrew was let go from his job not too long ago. It's been a blow for us, but we're honestly doing ok. We're already used to living on less and we don't live the high life and keep up with the Joneses. It just means we have to tighten the belt up another notch. Shopping with coupons like I do is a major bonus, our pantry and closets are well-stocked with food and supplies and the only thing we really need to shop for would be milk, meat and diapers (though diapers will soon be dropped from the list!). He's been looking and applying for work and hopefully something will come along soon. We're happy to have him home, though, and we've been enjoying the extra family time together.

We've been blessed with good friends that are passing on their children's clothes to us, so I won't need to worry about that. One family has 2 children, a girl a year ahead of Evelyn and a boy 2 years ahead of Peter. Another has 2 girls, both a year or two ahead of Gretchen and Sylvia. I'm lucky that ever since the kids were born, I've always shopped second-hand clothing for the kids, so they absolutely don't mind getting hand-me-downs and actually, they think it's normal procedure. Pretty much the only things they get brand-new would be shoes and underclothes, but even then, it's clearance prices and sales from the year before. I just bought clearanced flip-flops for the kids for next summer.

What really hurts with not having Andrew's paycheck is the gas money. Living in the country, we have to drive so far to get places, so we do a lot of consolidating with our errands and shop at stores that give us gas discounts. We recently filled up the van on gas that cost us $2.97/gallon thanks to gas points at the food store. That same food store also doubles coupons so it gives me more incentive to shop there.

New friends we've made that live nearby do a lot of volunteer work (they're retirees) and recently let us know that they dropped our name into a hat at the ruritan club that sponsors a few families and pays their way into the county fair. We hadn't planned on going to the county fair this year, because we cannot afford both the entrance fee and the rides for the kids, so it's really nice to know that we'll be able to do both and for once, we don't have to tell the kids "no" when they ask to go on the rides. They are even paying for our meal at the fair which always smells so good, but again, too pricey for a family of six. The kids are really excited about going to the fair and they all want to make something and enter it at the fair. Evelyn and Sylvia both embroidered their own designs and Gretchen wants to bake a cake. I embroidered something as well, and I plan to enter a few jams. Fingers crossed the girls all get blue ribbons for their efforts!

Total neglect of the garden and yet we are drowning in tomatoes!!  I feel so lucky! The kids love walking up and down the rows filling arms and buckets with tomatoes and bringing them into the house. I love that the girls eat tomatoes out of hand and sometimes they make a feast out of tomatoes for a snack. Peter doesn't quite understand just what is so great about tomatoes just yet, but hopefully, in time, he'll grow to love eating them, too. I don't hold much hope for the onions and the peppers-- the weeds have choked them out. I may be able to dig up a few taters, but I'm just not too sure about them.  I'm already imagining next years garden and I'm thinking this is the year I try for a fall planting for a winter garden.  I'd really like to try cold-weather gardening and see what that's like.

I recently lost a Speckled Sussex hen. She was one of the first 15 and I had only 2 left of the 6 Speckled Sussex I started out with. She wasn't looking so good for a day and I had a bad feeling when I shut the coop that night. Sure enough, the next morning, she was dead. Before Andrew was let go, I was thinking about ordering a batch of chicks. I'm tired of the Red hens and roosters and wanted to have some more colors in my flock, but that'll have to wait now. The Reds are not as friendly as the yellow Buffs and the Speckled Sussexs. They run and scatter when I come near and pretty much the only time I can handle them is when they're settled for the night in the coop. The Buffs and the Speckleds are super friendly and the girls love to hold them and enjoy their feathered company. I'll definitely order more of those two breeds next time.

I still have a bit of corn left from last summer's canning sessions. I hoped to plant corn this year, but that never happened. I hoped to score corn cheap from the food store like I did a few times last year, but it's been pretty pricey all summer long. I still have hope, though! Andrew's friend has a neighbor that recently complained he had too much corn-- eek!! Too much corn?!? How can that be??  I'm trying to get Andrew to talk to the nice man and convince him to sell his surplus of corn to us! After we've eaten our fill, I'll can the rest to enjoy during the cold winter months. Oh.. I hope so! I do love corn!

I think I'm done unloading the brain now. My shoulders feel lighter and my head doesn't hurt so much now. I'll stick to my original time-line and be back after Labor weekend.

~jenny

Fits and Starts

The pool is up!! It's just the right size for all of the kids this year. The water comes up to Peter's neck when he stands, so one less child to fret over in the pool. The kids have all improved since last year and they are swimming like fish. Sylvia is still the ever cautious one, though, and she rarely dunks her head underwater.

A cute picture of Lucy the cat. She likes to sleep in this little wooden crate. No idea where it came from, but the kids brought it out one day, didn't bring it back in, and Lucy has claimed it for her own. She caught a small woodpecker the other day. She's the huntress of the outdoor cats. Always voles, mice, chipmunks and, sometimes, birds, left around the food table for us to find. Turned the dead woodpecker into a biology lesson for the kids. It's tongue was hanging out and you could see little "thorns" on the tip of it. Makes it perfect for sticking in holes to skewer a bug and pull out. It was a pretty little bird, don't mind when Lucy catches mice or voles, but I always feel bad when it's a chipmunk or a bird.

This is the garden. ~sigh~ I'm so behind on my weeding! This is my potato patch. I checked and all the potatoes are growing strong, many are over a foot high and thick, just need to weed and hill them.

My solitary row of cabbage and broccoli. Heads are forming nicely, if I hurry and weed, this may be my first year at harvesting some cabbage and broccoli.

This is going to be the tough weeding job-- my onions are buried in there somewhere. I haven't weeded since hurting my back and hip, and then the poison ivy attack that left me in itchy fits. I haven't wanted to go outside much since all that happened. Slowly catching up, now, the tomatoes have been weeded and tied, lots of small green ones, hoping to have some ripe ones by July. Peppers are mostly weeded and I see lots of buds and a few tiny peppers growing. All out of frozen peppers in the freezer, so I'll be keeping an eye out for peppers at the farm stand. Last year, they could be found $1 for 4, if I can score them again for that price this year, I'll be stocking up.

Just about missed most of the mulberries this year. Still some left and I've picked, juiced, and froze 8 cups of mulberry juice so far. I'd like to double that if I can. Wild blackberries are coming in now and I've picked a nice bucketful. A few more bucketfuls would be nice.

Finally started on the chicken fence project. I got the two gate posts in and cemented. Going to work on the gate door next. Hopefully the fencing goes up this week. I'll be sure to wear long pants and long sleeves and then shower with poison ivy oil remover right after to prevent another outbreak of itchy rash. Still on meds, another few days and it's all gone. The rashes are fading, but they're still itchy. Just left with numerous healing little sores from all my scratching fits when I broke skin and where the blisters burst.

Kids are pestering me about going in the pool now. It's a blessing and a curse, keeps the kids amused, but forces me to hang about and supervise when I'd rather be elsewhere doing some other project. At least the blackberries are nearby, I guess now's the time to pick some more.

~Later..

Promising

Despite my lack of attention to the garden and surrounding areas, things still look promising around here. I am feeling much, much better these days, but I did have a little bit of a relapse yesterday after being stuck in the car not being able to stretch my hip out and extra walking around the stores running errands. I paid for that with more hip and back pain.





Half of my rhubarb is doing pretty good. I've had better years, but with the chickens pecking the young shoots as soon as they come out of the ground, I'm happy with what I can get. I hope once the chickens are fenced in, the other half of my rhubarb patch will bounce back.

My cherry tree is so-so. It's over-shadowed by two large dogwoods and they need to be cut down. Previous owners went crazy with the dogwoods and our property has many of them. I can definitely stand to lose a few. I'm out of my cherry-almond jam (so good!) so I'm looking forward to picking cherries at the local orchard down the road from us. I know for a fact that this lone cherry tree won't give us enough for even one pint of jam.

The mulberries!! This was taken last week and since then, I have a tree with ripe mulberries that I can see from my bedroom window! It's a recently discovered tree, with all the branches are high up, so those berries are for the birds. Meanwhile, right around the corner from the ripe mulberry tree, the one closest to the house is a.l.m.o.s.t. there! Maybe in a week or two. Mulberry trees by the driveway and in the garden area are soon ripe, too.

My cousin and a friend both want to learn to make and can mulberry jam, so I'm going to invite them up as soon as they are ripe and plenty of berries come down daily. They bring their own jars and I'll provide the rest. Will be nice to have company in the kitchen when making jam!

Bad Chicken!

We have some naughty chickens! A few days after transplanting all the broccoli and cabbage plants, we had to run into town one evening. When we came back and I checked on the garden, this is what I found:

A few tentative nibbles on the cabbage plants.

But a full-on feast on the poor broccoli plants!

Look at this poor little guy.

We really gotta put up some better fencing. The fencing that is there now is rusted through in some spots and not very high. I've seen the chickens take flying leaps over the fence or they go through the holes and gaps. I have an idea to take down the old fencing and the rotted posts, purchase some t-bars and new fencing and then move the fence closer to the garden area. It'll open up space behind the pole barn and shed area and make it easier to cut the grass back there with the mower. Now to stop talking and start doing!

The kids have been playing with sidewalk chalk lately. After my discovery of chickens eating the poor broccoli pants, I drew this. Made me laugh anyway.

Garden Progress

Beautiful Spring days equals lots of work in the garden-- finally!

Lucky for me, even though we live out in the country, one of the neighbors only a mile down the road has a little greenhouse business. She sells flowers and vegetables out of her two hoop houses for very reasonable prices and everything looks so good! It was hard to choose, but I ended up getting a flat of 6 different types of tomatoes which amounted to 36 tomato plants.

After we set up the fence panels, I dug holes and the girls transplanted all the tomato plants for me. There's room for 12 more tomato plants, so I'll be going back to the neighbor's place and buy some more tomatoes. I'll also get green peppers and a few other vegetables, too.

Andrew and Evelyn took the little tiller and tilled up a section for planting the potatoes. Evelyn was happy to help work the tiller. We have always encouraged the kids to help in the garden, and I am pleased to see how much more helpful they are this year. They used to give up so easily-- dig a hole then walk away; plant a few seeds then hand the bag over and say, "I'm bored"; or just go off in a corner of the garden and dig a hole to play in. This year they have planted all the potatoes and nearly all the tomatoes and they were a big help when we planted the onions.

Speaking of onions.... they are doing very well so far. We had lots of rain and a few washed out, but the majority of them are doing well. Now if we can just keep Peter from trampling them every time we go out to the garden...

I'm looking forward to the progress of the 2011 garden. Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates, that we stay on top of the weeds, squash any hungry bugs that threaten to eat up all my vegetables, keep the chickens out, and everything planted grows and grows and grows.

amen!

~

Finally!

After weeks of itching to get into the garden, we finally tilled the soil the other day. It was too wet to plant, but all the chicken manure and compost and leaves got rolled over and it was looking good. It rained almost continously after that and got cold enough to start a fire one day, too. Yesterday was a lovely day and we tilled again then planted all those onions we bought. Many had sprouted, some went mushy, but I think we planted about 3 lbs each of white and red onions. I think I'll plant another row of each after supper tonight, I hate to see the remaining onions go to waste. Hopefully the ones we did plant do well and we'll have enough to see us through the winter.

Potatoes are next, those will go in the ground tonight. Funny story, while my Aunt and Uncle were house-sitting for us, my Uncle spotted the potatoes and served some up for a meal. He liked them so much he went to see what kind they were and whoops! Found out they were seed potatoes! Good thing there are plenty of potatoes to plant.

While planting onions yesterday, Andrew mentioned trying corn again. I must be a glutton for punishment, because I want to try again, too. I used up all our corn seed last year, so will need to buy more. We have enough space in the garden to try corn again, so hopefully, with the addition of plenty of chicken manure this time around, corn will do better for us.

Everything is in bloom here. Dogwoods, forsythias, redbuds, peaches, apples, cherries, buttercups, phlox(es?), lilacs and more. So pretty to see everything greening up again. We will have to go through the yard and pick up fallen sticks, it will soon be time to mow the grass.

Once again I have failed to start my own seeds this year. Lack of space and a 2-year old that doesn't listen very well had a lot to do with that. A big goal this year is to set up some sort of green house so next year I can do my own seeds. Doesn't need to be a big one, I have seen many ideas on the Internet, just a matter of choosing which one works best for us. If I could, I would get the big hoop-style green house and keep the chickens in the back half and use the front half for the usual green house uses. Maybe someday, but not now.

After seeing plenty of other homesteading bloggers mention this book, I picked up a copy of my own and am in the middle of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This is not a book I can read though at my usual fast pace. I am often reading only a few pages at a time then walk away to think about what I've read. There are things she talks about that I knew of, but not at that level. I am also learning much and sharing my discoveries with Andrew and Mom. Reading this book makes me want to take our homesteading goals further and speed things up a bit to make it happen sooner. If you haven't read this book, I suggest you go and get yourself a copy and read it, it's worth it.

Eating an early supper tonight so we can work in the garden later. I count myself lucky that Andrew has taken over the kitchen and we'll be eating bacon cheeseburgers made by the chef himself! Why does food taste so much better when someone else prepares it? :o) It will be good to take off the chef's hat tonight and just eat.

~later

The Last of Summer 2010

These 3 tomatoes represent the very last of summer's harvest. This is the first time we have eaten fresh tomatoes from my garden all the way into December! Before the first hard frost hit, back in late October, I harvested nearly all the green tomatoes. I left behind quite a few on the vine, and was going to get the rest the next day, but the next morning found them all mushy and limp under Jack Frosts' touch. Oh well, I still had the first harvest, which filled 2 milk crates-- nearly 8 gallons of green tomatoes!
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Our sun room was an add-on by previous owners, and we think there's no insulation, plus the windows are those slat-type windows, which all equals to either a very hot room in the summer, or a very cold room in the winter. Makes it perfect for storing green tomatoes and letting them ripen slowly. The tomatoes that got moldy or mushy went to the chickens and we salvaged some by cutting off the bad parts. I have one lonely tomato left and I am amazed that I've been able to eat fresh this late in the year.
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Andrew and I have long stopped buying taste-less tomatoes at the stores, preferring to wait until either the farm stands have them in the Spring, or from our garden. After the last tomato gets eaten, we'll be relying on all the tomatoes I canned over the summer-- more than 60 quarts worth! We are eating well.
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All in all, I'd say 2010 was a very good year for tomatoes! There are a few changes I want to make for 2011's garden, but I'll probably plant the same amount, tie them up the same way, use the soaker hoses again, and use the same old carpet for weed blocking. I won't be planting the dark purple cherry tomatoes, or the yellow and red striped ones, but then again, I didn't intentionally buy those and I think they were mix-ups from the farm store where I bought the plants. The purple cherry tomatoes were tasty, but the skin was tough and I was pretty much the only one eating them. I ended up mixing them in with the canned tomatoes for extra flavor. The yellow and red striped ones were pretty, but not much in the flavor department and they got mushy fast.
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As every gardener says, I am looking forward to the next garden and am already dreaming of trying new vegetables and new ideas for old planting habits. I hoped to have a winter garden this year, but time got away from me. Maybe next year will be the year!
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My goals for 2011 garden are:

• 2nd compost built
• strawberry patch
• asparagus patch
• grapes
• apple trees
• peach tree
• trim and train blackberry vines
• try onions (again)
• try broccoli (again)
• try cabbage (sigh, again)
• small greenhouse made from recycled materials
• chicken-proof netting around rhubarb
• herb garden

I think it's all do-able, not too costly to implement most of these, and I got some of the materials needed for some of the projects already. As soon as the holidays are over, the January birthdays have been celebrated, it's time to get started on 2011's garden!

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Blah, Blah, Blah

Non-stop go, go, go these days. Part of me enjoys the action, getting out of the house and doing something different; another part of me is ready for staying home and doing nothing-- well, as much nothing as 2, 4, 6 and 8-year olds will let me.

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We had to head into Northern Virginia on Saturday for a family get together and it was nice. Always good to see family and it had been too long between visits, really. The kids got their grandma and granddaddy 'fix' and we're all caught up on family end-of-the-summer activities. We also stopped by to see friends for a quick little visit and wished we could have stayed longer, but we had another stop to make before going home. It was great seeing them, too! :o)

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Our original plan was to stay overnight and then hit the Renaissance Festival the next day, but it turned out that Andrew had to work that day, so we nixed those plans. I'm a little disappointed we didn't go, but it runs all the way through to the end of October, so there's still another chance we can make it. I already made a costume for Peter to wear, and got the materials to make dresses for the girls, but have yet to sew them up. If we end up not going, they can use them for Halloween at least.

*

I have a birthday coming up, so I received some gift cards to Walmart. First thing I thought of was getting one of those Bissell green machines so I can finally clean the poor couch. We picked one up today and paid the difference. Since Peter poured the milk all over the couch, it's sort of been shoved aside, the cushions being used on the floor by the kids (milk was poured on the base of the couch, not the cushions). Then the dog vomited on it last night-- ew. Then today, apparently, there was poop on the couch which Peter then stepped in and smeared onto the couch and tracked little poopy footprints all over the living room floor before I caught a whiff of it and grabbed him so I could clean him up. Meanwhile, the girls are sprawled on the chairs seeing all this go down and not one thought to come and tell me about the poo or Peter tracking it everywhere.

So the Bissell came in handy tonight. I fired it up and cleaned the base of the couch, the arm rests and one of the cushions. Man, that water was dirty! It's still damp, so I'll have to wait until it dries to see how much better it looks, but I'm sure it's an improvement from what it was. I'll probably have to go over it a couple of times but it's a start, and I got the poo and vomit all cleaned up anyway.

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My tomatoes are trickling down now. I haven't canned any in a week. Every time I go out there, there's hardly enough to fill a quart jar, even after a couple days of no picking. The potatoes seem to be doing alright. I can see a few exposed here and there and the tops are starting to wilt and wither. I'll wait a little longer before I dig a few up and see what I find.

*

The wild grapes have been picked and juiced. I got 2 quart jars full of juice that needs to be sweetened and thinned with water. Wild grapes are pretty sour, but that doesn't stop Peter from gobbling them up! Each of the girls tried them, made faces and spit them out, but Peter just eats one after the other, asking for more after he finishes the bunch I gave him. I had to play keep-away so he wouldn't eat up all the grapes! There aren't very many wild grapes this year, lack of rain, I suppose, so every bit I could find, I needed.

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We are in drought conditions here, and there is a burn ban imposed on county residents. Many of the orchards here had to send away truckloads of apples and peaches to be juiced because they weren't good for much else. When there is no rain, the tree steals the sap from the fruits, so the fruits don't get any bigger and end up getting sunburned. Lots of fruits, but they aren't big and juicy as years with plentiful rain. I suspect the price of a bushel of apples will be much higher this year. Guess I should be happy I have plenty of applesauce left from last year and won't need to buy so many apples this year.

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I have unhappy hens. They keep getting sexually assaulted by the 6 roosters every time they step out of the coop, so they have taken to staying in the coop. They are protesting their living and work conditions and have stopped laying eggs for me. 11 hens and if I'm lucky, I get 2 eggs, but usually just one per day. I had every intention of butchering a rooster last week, but then I chickened out and let him go. Lucky feller. I need to kick myself and get it over with. I'm alright with the butchering part, it's the taking of a life part that gets me. I fudged it the last time and the rooster suffered a little bit and I feel so bad for that. I need better killing tools so I don't make that same mistake.

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I signed up for Elsie Marley's Kid Clothes Week. That's that little picture at the top in the right-hand corner. It's a fun little thing, commit to sewing at least an hour every day for a week to sew clothes for your kids. She did it last Spring and seeing some of the outfits people made for their kids was really inspiring. I decided to try and participate this year and make at least a dress for each of the girls, or maybe night gowns for their Christmas gifts. I have some nice corduroy that would make a cute jumper for one of the girls. When I made Peter's costume for the Renaissance Festival, I didn't use a pattern and I was pretty pleased with how well it came out, plus, it fits him nicely. Maybe a simple shirt for him, dresses for the girls and jammies for all of them. A bit ambitious, maybe, but no one said I had to stop at the end of the week!

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Percy is looking so cute, all curled up into a ball, asleep by my feet. I think I'll follow his lead and curl up in my own bed. No more go, go, go for the week, but there's still things to do around here.

*

Peak

This is peak canning season for me right now. The corn I got from the farmer is either in jars or in our bellies. I'm kind of sick of corn. First time ever! After I sliced the kernels off the cob, I'd nibble a little bit of the corn that was left on the cobs before I tossed it in the bucket. Imagine working on 5 dozen corn and nibbling just about every other ear... yeah, that's a lot of corn! I couldn't help it! The corn was just so sweet and tasty! Hopefully I'll crave corn again before the end of corn season around here and we can have a few more meals with fresh corn on the cob.


The tomato plants I got from the farm store were mislabeled, I think. I bought several types; always get big boy, romas, and cherry toms. Then I get whatever else strikes my fancy: early girls, better boys, types like that. The big boys were getting nice and big alright, but they weren't turning ripe. I kept waiting for them to change from the orange color to red, then today I realized they were ripe! I had all these huge orange tomatoes almost too ripe! Must have been a mix-up or the markers got switched somewhere along the way. They're good, but I had to harvest quite a bit of tomatoes after supper, so I am unexpectedly making a batch of roasted tomato sauce tonight. I'll throw it all in the crockpot after I roast them and let the crockpot do the cooking for me overnight.

The big orange ones in the upper left corner are the mystery fruit. Any guesses as to what they are?? The cherry toms are also not what I bought. I bought the regular cherry toms, but these are black cherry toms. Very prolific!! The vines grow taller than me and spread across half the fence and I am harvesting bowls and bowls of these little toms! Quite tasty, they seem to have a more concentrated taste of tomato, I like it. I've been throwing them in with the other tomatoes as I can them, we can't eat them fast enough!

Had a lull in the tomatoes the other day, so I made and canned a batch of wet walnuts or you probably know it as walnut syrup. I grew up calling them wet walnuts. My dad loves this stuff, they sold in little jars and he could easily use the whole bottle on a bowl of ice cream and I remember him grumbling when I used some on mine. I understand now, why he grumbled, they're pretty pricey for a little jar. I used up the last jar I canned last year quite a while ago, and have been craving some lately, so I finally got my ingredients together and made some. I'm thinking I'll make a second batch after I pick up some more maple extract. I have more walnuts I need to use up that have been sitting in the pantry since last Fall.

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The kitchen counters are covered in jars and garden harvests. Very hard to find clear counter space this time of year. One counter has cases of canned jars that need to be moved down stairs. Another is the holding area for canned jars until I have enough to fill a case. I have a pile of empty jars in the sunroom waiting to be filled. The counters by the stove and sink are buried under tomatoes and peppers and even the stove is hidden under the canner and pots. I kind of like seeing the organized chaos, but I admit, I will be happy to have my kitchen back to normal again.

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I'm happy. It's hot and canning is hot work, but I enjoy the whole process. I'm just one of those people that are happiest when they are in the kitchen. After the last couple years of not having enough tomatoes to harvest, you'll hear no complaints from me about being overwhelmed with tomatoes this year! I hope you are having good harvests too!

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Corn Woes

My corn isn't growing so well. I am frustrated about that-- I l.o.v.e. corn. The first year here, they hardly grew past a couple feet tall. Second year, they were growing great and we were just about to harvest the ears when raccoons beat us to it and left very little for us-- maybe a few dozen. Third year, I didn't bother. Last year, I got less than a dozen, and the rest of the corn stayed small. I wasn't going to plant any this year, but I had some seed leftover so I used that up. The corn is iffy-- some of it looks alright, some of it is still puny. I'm ready to throw in the towel on growing corn. Another part of me wants to keep trying, figure out what works and keep at it. Maybe with the chicken poop I'll be cleaning out soon, I can compost that and till it into where I plant the corn next year... I just might give it another try next year. I love corn too much to just give up on it.

Corn at the farm stands around here is pricey-- most sell for $5 a dozen. Ouch! As much as I hate to do it, I get my corn from the big chain stores, they sell for about $3 a dozen or less. We easily eat a dozen for one meal between the 7 of us. I asked around, trying to see if anyone would give me a discount if I ordered a large amount of corn, so that I can put some away for the winter. I'd like to try and not buy any metal canned foods from the store. No one is willing to cut a deal. So when the chain store has their corn on the cob on sale, I am buying a few dozen here and there to freeze and put away for the winter. I feel a little better when I know the chain store I am buying from gets their corn from a farm in Pennsylvania. Not exactly local, but closer to us than Florida or Georgia.

When freezing corn, I recycle the spaghetti jars and use those for the corn kernels. There's a certain brand of sauce that uses mason jars, a little less than one quart size and I buy those when they're on sale. (hopefully I wont have to buy any this winter with all the tomatoes I have about to ripen soon!) I use a mennonite recipe and the corn gets frozen in liquid-- water with salt and sugar added to it. I don't like loose frozen corn kernels, I think they taste tough, but after trying this recipe, the corn tastes as if I just put it in there! Very good and Gretchen, the picky eater prefers this corn over the metal canned ones from the stores.

My Mom gave me an early Christmas gift and bought me my very own pressure canner today! I was lamenting the fact that freezing the corn was taking up precious freezer space and I was going to have to limit it to about 40 jars-- one jar per week until the next corn season. But now, with the pressure canner, I am going to be able to can the corn and keep it in the pantry instead! I have 9 of those less-than-one-quart spaghetti jars in the freezer now, and I'll can the rest, so hopefully I can put away 100 quarts instead of only 40. I look forward to pressure canning my chicken broth and other things I normally freeze and freeing up space for other foods.

First, though, I need to get over my nervousness about using a pressure canner. I have heard enough horror stories about them, so I am a little worried, but I'll be sure to read, read and read again, the instructions on how to use it. I'll be pressure canning my first batch of corn tomorrow, so wish me luck!

Anticipation

I was determined this year to get a bunch of tomato plants in the garden. Previous years proved disappointing-- my starts were destroyed by then-puppy Maisie and a late frost cleared the store shelves from gardeners quicker than I and only luck at a yard sale saved me from zero tomato plants. I scored 10 plants and while I was happy, it was not enough for canning and preserving. One year, I also goofed and planted too many grape tomatoes and not enough canning tomatoes.

My starts this year failed me, but it was still early enough that I had good pickings from the local farm store in town and I bought 42 plants. 2 died, so I have 40 plants in the ground, growing and thriving so far.

Many of my tomato plants are showing young fruit and I am quivering with anticipation of eating home grown tomatoes. We caved a few times and ate store-bought ones and were disappointed by the flavor and only made us more hungry for what will soon come from our garden.

This is what jungle-boy Peter thinks the fence panels are for! I didn't mind when there were no tomato plants there, but now, I shriek and race to get him off, so he doesn't smoosh a tomato plant underfoot.

I use cattle panels for my tomato plants. You can see the panels above behind the pool and I am also using old carpet as a weed blocker. I borrowed the idea of using cattle panels from fellow blogger O'Melays last year and they work great! Much better than the flimsy tomato cages, which I never liked using, and better than stakes, which the tomatoes always grow higher than and end up flopping over. Using cattle panels allow me to plant on both sides and then tie the vines to the panel as they grow. So much more sturdier and cheaper, actually, than using tomato cages.

Here's the math:

40 plants = 40 cages @ $3.50 each = $140.00

VS

40 plants = 4 cattle panels @ $18 each = $72.00

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We had lots of rain this Spring, plus it was rather chilly, so it feels like we got our garden in later than usual and the ground was just too wet for me to plant at times. I never got my peas in, which I'm really disappointed about, but some of the other stuff we got in are doing great. Potatoes are starting to really come up and I need to hill them this week. The peppers got a rough start when the chickens got into the garden and pecked their leaves off, but now they are starting to flower and show fruit. My cabbage and broccoli are been eaten by tiny black beetles and caterpillars-- I can never seem to grow these here. I had not planned to grow corn this year, but I still had seed left from last year, and space in the garden from not planting other things, so I got 12 rows of corn in and they are about 6-8 inches tall now. Hope they grow better this year and I get more ears than I did last year:: 550 seeds planted = 12 ears.

I failed to get onions planted, along with asparagus, strawberries, beans and cukes. I'm aiming for a winter garden, though, my first, so I'll be trying cabbage again and some root crops like carrots and potatoes. Starting small and if it is successful, I'll add more next year.

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Visitor

Look who lives in our garden and came to visit!

Mr. Toad!

I happened to pick something up and he was under there and hopped onto my foot.

Well, hello there!

He hung out on my foot for quite a bit,

while Andrew ran to the house to get the camera.

He's a handsome feller ain't he?

He's welcome to live in the garden for as long as he likes,
provided he eats his weight in bugs!

~

Shoutin' From the Roof Tops

I'm so excited I could just pee my pants! The Mulberries are ripe!! It's been a slow torture watching the berries form and grow slightly bigger week by week and then all of a sudden, they're ready! I have 4 mulberry trees and they ripen at different times, but we are getting tons of berries. yum yum yum!

Seeing "berry faces" is a regular thing around here. We pop berries into our mouths whenever we walk by one of the trees. You don't want to see the "berry feet"!

We even go in our jammies in the morning to munch on berries before breakfast!

I love that we are teaching Peter to pick and eat berries, too. Took a few tries but he understands now which berries to pick. The branches have so many berries on them, they are touching the ground, which makes it easier on me, I don't have to pull branches down for the kids-- they can just pick their own and the ones I pick for the berry bucket stay in there!


Another happy berry face!

The black raspberries and cherries are ripening too, so we are filling up on all kinds of fruit! My cherry tree is still small, so I still want to pick from the local PYO cherry orchard, but it's nice to eat my own cherries! Peter really likes the cherries, too. I eat half of the cherry and pull the seed out, then give him the other half to eat. He makes me stay there and pick more cherries for him and if I try to walk away he blocks me and pushes me back under the cherry branches. Looks like he'll be a cherry lover like me! :o)

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