Little bear/Big bear

My little bear is growing up. It's times like this I have to swallow past the lump in my throat, when I realize it's only a few short years until he could be out on his own. It's hard to believe it's High School dances and no longer birthday parties he's going to. He's turning into a wonderful young man and I'm proud of him. He's not my little bear any more. I guess now he's my big bear... but still my bear.

(selfie with my bear - I mean everyone else selfie's right?)

This is Abby, my bear's girlie friend. Interesting back story - but suffice to say that this was something that her mother and I dreamed of doing when they were little, and then it just happened all on it's own. How perfect could that be? Marie (Abby's Mom pictured here) has been one of my best friends for nearly 30 years. She's a beautiful, strong woman and her daughter is just like her. Complications or hazards along the way? Not with these two - those are just speed bumps. :-)

While we were waiting for Abby to arrive I snapped this shot of him. I <3 This picture. It shows just how serious and intense my boy really is.

I did follow him up to the Hall where the dance was, but restrained my self not to take pictures of them up there. I only took a picture of the entrance to the dance because it was truly a magical feeling they had going on there.

My how the time has flown. 

*Shaking head in disbelief*

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 1/27/2014

Sad as it is to say this is the first Harvest Monday for the year. It's not that I haven't been busy in the garden. It's that I haven't had access to my blog or emails until this past week. It's really amazing how dependent you are on the providers. Even when you think you aren't. I rarely used my Yahoo account or gmail either. But, when they went down simultaneously I discovered that a lot of my other accounts are based on those not only existing but functioning. My email server on my phone, this blog, facebook, my address book....etc. So even though I only used each account minimally it still affected me in a big way.

Now that I have a new gmail account things are looking up again. This harvest report is long overdue. So I will show you what I can!

Woah- turns out the picture uploader has changed since I was here last, too. WOW. That was much faster than the old way. LOVE it! 

So loads of fruit, and a few veggies, too. 

Pomegranates are absolutely beautifully sweet this time of year. Just the right balance of sweet and tart. They are darn good in the summer, but the winter ones are sublime! Lemons continue though the tree is looking bear now and I'm almost ready for it's annual trim-a-thon. The tree is still suffering form greening but the aggressive pruning and fertilizing seems to be keeping it going.  Once this tree succumbs I will not replant citrus outdoors. I have a few indoors (Key lime and red lime) That will have to do for now. Our area is just too infested with this disease. 

Purple sweets were pulled after the first frost took the vines down a notch. The one featured int he photo by itself? Monstrous. That sucker weighed over 2 pounds!

I harvested a head of broccoli at 6.8oz... so deceiving to see something so large be so light weight. Unfortunately my hens harvested 3 heads of broccoli as well as 2 plants of just forming brussel sprouts. They did some damage to the cabbage plants but nothing that will ultimately affect those harvests. (lucky for them!) 

Figs are coming one at a time every 2 or 3 days. It's a small harvest, but a sweet one. I have a new (purchased a few months ago) Celeste fig that will be added to the fruit trees this year. I waited to transfer it as the plant was having some serious issues. Wilting being the most worrisome, even right after watering. Once I decided just to up-pot it I found the problem. The root ball combined with the crappy soil in the pot was shedding the water faster than concrete, so water I might but the roots weren't getting anything to drink or eat. Now that it has had it's first re-pot it hasn't wilted once so I am now quite hopeful. I'll be looking into propagating figs soon, as we really want some in Alabama as well. Oh! Speaking of which, we planted out the first 4 trees into the orchard there. I'm so excited I could pee myself... oh wait.... *nevermind*

;-) 

Believe it or not I still have one tomato plant hanging on. The frost cloth has been wonderful for it - even though the rest of the plants have all succumbed to the cold. It's a toss up on if the cage is helping more (allowing the cloth to barely touch the plant) or if it's the location (in the high beds) of the plant. Either way I'm not complaining! The fruit may be small, but they will be ripening soon and I'm all for home grown tomatoes!

WOW, that's long. Sorry for the length. I guess after being gone for so long I had a bit to tell y'all. I'll be back shortly with pictures of my boy.

See you soon!

Barbie~

HACKED!!!

My yahoo an gmail accounts have gone the way of the dinosaur. I got locked out, hacked and shut down! So, it's been a month and I now have another gmail account - but I've lost my contact list and all that jazz.

While it was at first shocking and worrisome, now I'm just torqued that not only did yahoo allow it to happen but then rather than checking when the changes happened to my account they simply told me - NOPE, it's not yours. WHA>>>??? So yahoo has lost any and all thought from my head. I'm not putting my eggs back into their basket!

A month. Wow. The first 2 weeks I didn't even know I had a problem because I was in and out of town. Our Holidays were absolutely fantastic. We spent Christmas up at the 'cabin' and New Years as well. We had a wonderful harvest of 6 deer this year and we introduced a teenager to hunting. She was very enthusiastic, but learned the hard way that it isn't easy. Due to her level of perseverance I'm quite sure that she will be back at it again with no less vigor.

We brought home 160 pounds of meat for our freezer, and loaded my brothers with the same. He'll have meat for the year, and while it won't be our only source of meat, we will be set with red meat. We will fish in the spring and freeze our catch for the year. This year we hope to put away at least 50 pounds.

The garden is still going pretty strong. I had a major issue with my birds last weekend. I lost 3 heads of broccoli and 3 other entire plants of brussel sprouts to my bird brained friends. Time for a wing clipping, I think. They also dug out all my carrots and small seedlings. It made me sad, but it's also not the first time and I knew they were molting and that means their new wing feathers would allow them to fly again.

Speaking of chickens molting... I have to give my girls some serious praise. They were both laying up until this last week, and now I am still getting an egg most days form Campbells. Praise for molting and laying- but I'm still at my wits end with the red one. Blondie has taken to attacking me when I'm walking. If I'm standing still she's fine, but for some reason when I walk away she runs after me, stomps her little chicken feet, fluffs up her feathers and pecks me. While it doesn't really hurt because I'm always in long pants out there, if she did that to the kids it WOULD hurt. Their feelings of course, but that peck is hard enough to bring a tear to your eye without the clothing barrier. So drama continues to unfold in the hen house. I've found a home for her, but it would leave Campbells alone and that thought makes me sad. I could rehome both, but seriously? I don't want to start over with chicks. What to do?

So- that's what's been going on around here. Hope your month has been better than mine!

See you soon!

Barbie~