Whirlwind

It's been a bit of a whirlwind around here lately.

To say we've been busy is an understatement. All I know is I can NOT wait for the clocks to change...and that is a major change from my norm. I usually can't stand when the clocks change because it throws off my day for weeks afterward. But this time there is so much that I need to do and the extra hour in the evenings will be so very helpful.

This has also been rather helpful:

We are now the proud new owners of  this heavy duty diesel truck. It's shiny and pretty and best of all it has an 18,000 pound towing capacity. This purchase is the third in a (long)  list of purchases that will be more than helpful in the long term. Not only will it make our trips to and from the property in Alabama easier, but once we are living up there permanently it will be indispensable. 

So, not only have we managed to make one more step towards our goal, but along with it we've been speaking with a few contractors and making leeway in that area as well.  

Speaking of whirlwinds, my little whirlwinds are going to be off on Spring Break in less than 2 weeks. That is the start of the real Spring season around here. We'll need to make a trip up to the property as the Division of Forestry was supposed to be out to do a burn of the underbrush this month and we need to make sure that no other damage occurred while they were there.

Between all that is going on and needs to happen so I am also doing my Spring planting, and trying to figure out a simple solution to a rat problem that started this month as well. Once our temps got warm around here the rats decided to move into my chicken coop. This hasn't been a problem the last 2 years, but now suddenly I have to do something fast! I've found a feeder that would work but at $80 after shipping it's kinda pricey. I am not confident enough in my ability to make my own treadle feeder so now I'm seeking other options and considering confining my hens to a much smaller enclosure than can be managed with hardware cloth to prevent this from continuing. 

Ho-Hum... Still trying to keep up.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 2.24.14

WOW! Time is certainly flying around here. I picked up mulch this weekend and didn't even find enough time to get it spread out. It just seems like there are never enough hours in the day right now.

This weeks harvest brought some lovely additions to the lineup. It's definitely not winter any more here and while I'm quite sure we will see a couple more days that cool off I don't think we'll see 40's at night any more and certainly not below 60's in the day.

Why do I think this? Because this weekend while I was trying desperately to beat the clock and get some of my planting done - it was like soup outside. Normally we have a few weeks of warm (OK, hot) weather without the humidity. It's our version of 'Spring' around here. It only lasts for a few weeks, but once the humidity steps up it's officially Summer. I'm thinking we may have bypassed that whole Spring thing instead.

OK- So what did this warm weather bring to my line up?

Why the first tomato of the year. This was the plant that took the few frosts we had and kept kicking! It was the only plant to not succumb to the freezing temps and I only covered it twice - only the nights when it truly froze and not frosted. It thrills me to know end to have it on my table, but... DARN it's not a slicer. I am so ready for some slicing 'maters. This year I'm turning to hybrids mainly for my tomatoes. Burpee's Big Boy and the small salad tomatoes (Fast girl or something to that effect) for me. I'm sure to plant a few others along the way but these are the the plants I"ve chosen for the main crop. I'll need a few sauce tomatoes and cherries for salads when I plant those I might pop in an heirloom just because they are such lovely tomatoes. 

ANYWAY- I also got to harvest the first green beans of the season! WHOOT! I wasn't sure these plants would survive, and indeed and entire crop of flowers was frozen off of them, but the plants managed to make it through with only some of the outer leaves frozen and the fruit drop as well. Now that the warm up has occurred they have flowered over and over. I'm so glad I took the time to figure out the best place to plant these and protect them from the weather. 

Another 6oz of broccoli...again. For whatever reason that seems to be the magic number for these plants. I'm OK with that. 'd rather get 6 oz a week that none! :-)

That's it. Only one picture with a couple harvests.

See you soon!

Barbie~

2/17/14 Harvest Monday

Hey there! It's Harvest Monday again! This weeks harvest includes most of the things you've been seeing here this winter. But this time I threw in something different, just for fun. LOL.

Cabbage made it on the list! Finally something different. I adore broccoli, but it's nice to have something else coming out of the garden, too. 

I got 2 of these bowls of broccoli from side shoots, and my head of cabbage as well. The hens are still giving me a decent supply of eggs. I've only gone 5 or 6 days the whole winter without one or the other of them giving me a little present. Good hens! I'm considering chicks right now, but it's such a catch 22. If I get chicks I have a better chance of being discovered. SO it's get new chicks, get rid of aggressive hen - BONUS... get chicks, get found out - BOOO!!! What's a gal to do? Additionally something has been getting into their pen lately. Food consumption has tripled. I'm thinking it's probably rats, and there isn't much I can do about that. I can't afford a $150 treadle feeder...so I'm not sure what else to do. :-( 

My first set of green beans is due this week. I can't wait to eat them!

Thanks Daphne for hosting, as always! Don't forget to check out her blog for loads of other harvests from around the world.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 2/10/14

It's harvest report time! 

This week the picking have been somewhat meager, but when you can harvest anything in January and early February I consider it a lucky draw. 

This weeks harvest looks much the same as the last few weeks...

Lemons grace my table again. There is one single honeybell orange that is almost ready to pick soon and a couple limes. I keep thinking the citrus fest will end and yet it continues... (I am so not complaining!)

4oz of broccoli this week. I did catch Savannah out there chewing on some. I will never know how much because she wont even admit that her mouth was full when I caught her! 

Another pomegranate graced our table as well. This one was hiding on the wrong side of the fence. These are the best poms because they escape my notice until they are at the bursting point. SOOO juicy and delish!

I lucked out and managed to keep one single tomato plant alive through the several freezes we've had. Turns out it's a roma and I'm now rather anxious to get some of the fruit ripened and on the table! I could use some fresh maters right now.

It's nearly Spring here and our temps lately have been getting into the 80's again. I am hopeful that it means our freezes are over for the year and I really want to get some more goodies in the ground. I did plant out a 3 or 4' section of peas, mostly sugar peas and some snow as well. They should be peeking up above the soil line today or tomorrow and that makes me HAPPY! :-)

See you soon!

Barbie~

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~  

Harvests, Thanksgiving and my heart.

So, it seems I've missed the last several Harvest Mondays. I was in Alabama for 2 of them, but that is not a good excuse.

My harvests have included lemons and limes an orange (last to ripen) all of the citrus totals to about 15 pounds. There is still more on the tree but maybe only another 10 pounds to come. I also harvested the last of my bush sweet potatoes. I left the purple ones out in the garden as they were flowering profusely. Hopefully I'll still manage a few more tubers from them. I also pulled up all the mint in the garden. It was invading the grass and I just decided it's time to start over. While the raised beds are doing fine the other beds are looking run down and shabby. I wasn't able to beat whatever fungus has taken a hold of the dirt and so it sits. I'm sure to replant soon enough and maybe the drier winter weather will help.

In the raised beds I've got cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts growing. It the first time for the sprouts for me. Hubby adores them and the kids and I - well... they are edible I guess. LOL. Then again, I despise cabbage, go figure! There are a few carrots out there as well, but the seed was old so not a ton of the have sprouted. I'll just keep reseeding them until it's too warm. I need to get rid of the old seed before I purchase new anyhow!

A couple of my blueberry bushes are bare now and a few are already forming buds (BAD!) We just got our first frost this morning and it was unexpected. With a temperature of 45* it shouldn't have happened. Strange how fickle Mother Nature is. I hope my tomato plant is still alive tomorrow!

Thanksgiving was interesting. This year we were able to harvest our turkey from the property. It was really something special for us.The hunting season is not normally open for turkey in the fall where the property is, so this was the first opportunity we've had to do this. While we have enough land and no one bothers us, we would never risk losing our hunting capabilities for a turkey dinner taken illegally. I'm so happy that the state opened a 3 day window for turkey just before Thanksgiving. For the first time we were able to put a turkey that we harvested their on our property on the table for Thanksgiving. I can't think of any better way to celebrate a Thanksgiving or anything to be more thankful for. It really opened our hearts and made us feel even closer to the land.

Now, I've heard so many people talk about how wild turkey is virtually inedible. Doesn't taste right, it's tough, it's this or that. Most people that hunt turkey do so more for sport and it sickens me. Other people harvest only the breast meat and they deep fry it. But, I'm here to tell you that it IS worth eating. It IS good food! AN,d it can be cooked like any other turkey. It just takes a little prep time. We harvested our turkey on Monday. On Tuesday I put it in a brine. (LOVELY brine I might add, Thanks Pioneer Woman for the recipe!) On Wednesday I flipped the bird in the brine and on Thursday I put it in the roaster. It didn't fit. SURPRISE! So I hauled out the counter top extra large roaster... it still didn't fit! I put the top on it and then had to weight the top down with pots, making my cooking even more precarious than normal. I'm klutzy enough on my own after all. After about an hour the whole house smelled divine. After 2.5 hours we started picking off done pieces. By the time we actually served the turkey? HA! We had already eaten a third of it. :-) Was it tough and dry? By the standards of saline injected turkeys that never leave a 10'x10' enclosure and are harvested by 6 months of age, yes. It was tougher. BUT it was not so tough as to be any kind of deterrent to doing it again. Besides, the fact that the lid did not fit on the roaster correctly surely contributed to the dryness because the moisture was not contained. It was delicious! It was not the kind of dry that I've had from plenty of other grocery store turkeys.It was not as tough as the first turkey I ever cooked. LOL. And it will definitely be something that we strive to do every Thanksgiving now.

As for pics? Thought you'd never ask! Besides, I wanted to give those squeamish people a chance to read first. My son Troy harvested this bird, and I couldn't have been prouder.

There was only one issue with this harvest. It made my heart sore. Not because we took the life of this beautiful bird. Never that. The bird was fed by us the last few months and we not only enjoy the meat but we are very thankful for the birds sacrifice. 

My heart was sore because after Thanksgiving and this wonderful experience we had to turn around 2 days later and LEAVE. My heart, my soul, does not belong here in the city. Pollution makes me sick - quite literally here. I can't stand the constant push and shove. Rude people, traffic, noise...UGH. 

Please, don't get me wrong. I KNOW the life I want is a hard life. Living off the land is not easy. By no means do I think it's a fairy tale I'm asking for. But, the ability to slow down, breathe fresh air, SEE the stars at night? I'd rather be working outside than in. So I am heart-sore as my children are every time we leave. I always knew I wanted to move there, but right here and now it's more that. I need to. So, we readjust our way of thinking and look again at our timeline, but no matter how we look at it in order to move we must first build, and at least one of us needs a good job there. Building there cannot happen right now, much less not having insurance or an income.

We took on the responsibility so we will stick it out here even though we both want this other life. Now, I just need to find something to focus on here so I can get back in the game.

See you soon,

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 11.18.13

Ah, it's Harvest Monday again. Maybe I should just start doing monthly installments.

I don't have much to share. I didn't take pictures of the last of the black eyed peas, or the single tomato that I got. My purple sweet potatoes are flowering like crazy (but that isn't a harvest, is it?) I got a few sprigs on cilantro as well. Things are super slow right now. I guess I need to really work on that soil problem so I can get the rest of my cauliflower in. It's no longer growing so at the least I need to up pot the little seedlings.

 

My neatest harvest this week? Crawfish!

 

We are heading to Alabama and this catch is coming with me. ALIVE! I also have a tank full of tadpoles to go as well. It will be nice to have these crustaceans in our pond though. I'm hoping for a few more to put in the lake as well. Then in a year or two we should have enough in there to harvest. I do love to eat crustaceans. They (all types, not just these) are some of my favorite food.

 

I am still getting a few eggs, but the laying has slowed considerably now. It's good and bad. I no longer have a large stash of eggs in the fridge waiting to be eaten, but then I also know that the laying will stop soon. Will I end up buying eggs before this is all said and done? That would be bad. I'm also no longer going out to the run as often. I find without my favorite hen out there it's harder to pay attention to the remaining two. Especially when one is aggressive. :-(  I guess it's time to start thinking about what I can do to remedy this situation once and for all.

 

Preparations are in order for our first fall hunt in Alabama. We are hoping for a turkey and quail for Thanksgiving and the first of the deer for the freezer. It's looking a bit shabby in there and it's time to refill! If it's warm enough we'll also harvest some of the fish from the lake. It will be good to get the freezer stocked again. I always worry that we won't have enough meat for the year and until the freezer is completely packed it will be on my mind.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 11.4.2013

It's November already. I can't believe it. The last month has been so incredibly busy that the time just *WOOSHED* right by me.

This weeks harvest is a few lemons and a pound of peanuts. This first harvest of peanuts is 1/3 of the peanut plants.

I have harvested a few times from this patch. A single plant here or there in order to keep a close eye on their development. The excessive rains had some fungal issues going on in the plants for a few weeks, but we got that corrected quickly enough. And though I got a pound of peanuts there is potential for so much more.

This picture shows just how much more. See, each of those things sticking up is a peg and that is what a peanut develops on. And every single plant I pulled up was covered with them.

So the only issue is... do I leave the peanuts to continue to do there thing and harvest the second crop and just hope the first crop hold on, or do I harvest the first crop and take what I can get?

 

Decisions, decisions.

 

This past weekend brought us the twins 7th birthday party. We went old school and had it at a skating rink. The girls had a blast, and even had a friend book their birthday party while we were there. Guess we'll be going back soon! :-)

I've discovered that I can still skate pretty well, and the girls got skates for their birthday so it looks like it's a new obsession 'round here.

 

Well, that was our big week this week. Last week included some Alabama time, and we are looking forward to go back in a few weeks to start restocking our freezer.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~