Harvest Monday 5.18.15

Good morning, er... afternoon! It's harvest Monday again. This weeks harvest is a throw back to cooler days. I still have quite a few carrots int he garden. It's been rather hot out for a good while so the carrots aren't the sweetest, but they are most certainly edible still. Especially shredded and left int he fridge for a while.

The peach harvest ended this week. The last few were put in the fridge, and the squirrels managed to eliminate the need for harvesting the remaining 1/2 of the crop that were in the top of the tree. Grrr...lucky for them I did get some peaches this year. They aren't falling for the trap any more and I'm not sure what to do about that. I will have to find another way or move the trap. Either way I'll figure something out because now they are knocking down the avocados. 

So a few have been brought inside to see if they will ripen and be edible at any point. The larger ones are the only ones that have a chance, but I will continue to try as long as they continue to knock 'em down. Only good thing here is they are showing no interest in the fruit itself. They seem mostly unharmed if a little bruised.

 



Tomatoes are finally sizing up. I've been getting a small handful of cherry toms each week, but these little beauties are making my mouth water. I'm going to be angry if the dang tree rats mess with these!

I already have their use planned. They will be the first FRESH caprese I've had in a while, and I CAN'T wait! Too bad it will still be a few weeks. (pooh)


We've been working diligently outside the past few weekends and it seems like I'm turning wheels for no reason. We are having our home painted starting today and we needed to remove everything from against the house. It meant cutting the kiwi back to the (almost) ground in order to remove the trellis, cutting back all my flowers, and bushes away from the walls, removing some of the older plants, and putting all my potted plants outside. Along with that I had to take down 2 portions of fence, a gate and had to re-arrange the living situations for all the birds. None of them are thrilled, but they are all safe and moderately happy. They'll live this way until next week sometime (at the earliest!) when I can put their living quarters back in order.

We were planning a trip to Alabama to have a meeting with a builder and discuss our wants with them. We are looking at putting in a basement and a shell. We'll do all the plumbing, electric, cabinetry and flooring as we are able to. I'll keep ya posted on the progress with that. It's exciting, and scary to have another mortgage over our heads. Talk about budgeting!

Unfortunately now that this is all taking place I may have to stay behind in order to care for the critters. I hate to miss out on the meeting, but I know my hubby can take care of things and I will be kept up to speed on the important details.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Uh- Yeah. SO this happened.

Part of why I've been so busy and WANTING to post about it, just not getting around to it?

Because this happened:

Oh so cute and fluffy. They've been around a couple weeks already and they've outgrown the little tub. That happened on week 2.

Week 2 also saw that all of them had wing feathers and the down markings are fading here and there. Still awfully cute though.

Now week 3 and they are beginning to get in their tail feathers and they are FLYING. Not far, but flying none-the-less. Especially to the top of the water canister. They love getting up higher than the other chicks and being the one looking down. Of course the dynamics insist that the chick on top gets knocked down by another occasionally and so on and so forth.


So, introductions....




This is Bunny. The coloration of it's down was all rabbit colored and mottled. Grays, tans, a little peach, BEAUTIFUL little thing. The feathers so far are lavender, grey, white and lightly tinted with gold.

This one is supposed to be an Easter Egger but has no promise for muff or beard development as of yet.

 S/he also tends to hop around a lot. So Bunny will probably stick as a name.

This chick is probably the most independent, but still enjoys a good snuggle. I think it will also be the first to spend the entire day outside by itself. (Safely enclosed in a cage of course)

Speckles, dotty, whatever is on the left.

This is our other Easter Egger, She does have wonderful ear muffs and shows promise of a small beard as well. This ones name started as Speckles, changed to Dotty, then.... well I don't think it's settled just yet.

 


This ones adult coloration is changing rapidly. red/gold with black circles on its feathers. It will be interesting to watch it develop. Just in the few days since I took these pictures the color pattern has changed.

Below are the two Brahmas. A light Brahma (Yellow chick) who's name is Fluffy. This one's name may be changed to Angel as I've caught the kids calling it that a couple times.

 




The black one in the back of the above photo is our dark Brahma. I've nicknamed this one PJ. It never really had a name, but always looks so scraggly, disheveled and the feathers on it's feet remind me of bedroom slippers. I'll have to get a better picture of that though because as soon as I pick it up it sits down. LOL


We are pretty well settled on at least one of these 4 being a roo. It's just a roll of the dice and even though all of them were sold to us a pullets (hens) it's a 10 to 1 chance of a boy from the breeder, and of course then you have the people who let their kids pick up the chicks and if they put it in the wrong box...well lets just say that I've found a 50/50 chance is normal hatch rates so anything better than that and you are lucky!

Only good news there is that if we have any roos it will make deciding who is staying and who is going much easier. No boys here, and I can't keep 4 more chickens...no way I could stay under the radar then!

So these have kept me busy beyond all belief but then this also happened....

Oh Boy...

As if I didn't have enough going on. She's sitting on 5 eggs. I didn't want her to have more than that. 1 has quit developing around day 6 or 7. So we have a chance at 4 ducklings. I'll keep you posted on that. Due date for hatching is around April 15th, So I'm thinking of duckling names like Uncle, Sam, Bill, Dollar, etc. Unfortunately those sound mostly male so maybe I should rethink that.

Anyone need a duckling? These ducks are absolutely gorgeous, and from what I understand good tasting, too. I can tell you this girl of mine laid an egg every single day from 22 weeks until she turned 1 year old, and then she promptly decided to sit. Even as a broody she's sweet as all get out. I can move her off the eggs and while the drake Swayze will come after me, he doesn't hurt me either.  <3 What a lovely breed. But, living on a postage stamp in an HOA means no more ducks for me...unless someone wants to trade a Welsh Harlequin baby or maybe 4 babies for a muscovy hen. Or even muscovy ducklings. I'm also willing to raise the ducklings for meat if you will come pick them up and do the butchering yourself. LOL

Nothing like Spring, huh? Babies everywhere. Good thing it's not contagious!

See you soon.

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 1.26.15

It's Harvest Monday again.

All my harvests this week were greens and broccoli that went to flower. Because it went to flowering I gave it to my feathered friends. They REALLY enjoyed it. Luckily for them there was enough for each of them to have a small head. Unfortunately for me it means I still haven't harvested any for the table.

So I will show you what is left of my sweet potato harvest. I gave a few away to a friend with diabetes, and a few to a neighbor for making slops of her own, ate a couple fresh and now I have set these out for 'curing' in the garage. Of course here the whole curing thing isn't very effective, but it helps me to keep out of the stash a few weeks so at least some of the sugars can be converted. ;-)

Turned out to be close to 20 pounds that are left. I'm happy with that. It's rather exceptional considering I'm robbing the plants throughout the summer as I need them.

Here are Baby and Swayze  after enjoying their treats from the garden... I'm really happy with the decision to keep this hen. She may be a golden but her coloring is fantastic and 50% of the female offspring will be silvers because the drake is a silver. It may be a couple years before we would be able to keep any of the babies, but I will probably let her raise a clutch in late summer if she decides to set. I will try to time it just right and order a few pullets to put under her when the ducklings hatch.

That's it. Sorry - I know my ducks aren't necessarily 'harvest' material, but I am getting an egg a day from this beauty, so I suppose it does count to a degree.

Enjoy your week. I'm counting on company soon so I'll be cleaning up the tall beds and trying to get them back in order.

See you soon!

Barbie~

24 weeks.

Baby turned 24 weeks just the other day.

She's really turned into a stunning Golden Welsh Harlequin.

She's not longer dependent on me, and now prefers the exclusive company of Patrick. I feel somewhat bad that she is the only hen for him, but for now it needs to stay this way. I'm on the look out for a  young Muscovy hen to keep with them, and I"d even consider a Hinny (mix of muscovy hen and mallard derived drake) as they will lay eggs and while they would not be viable, I'm not looking to expand my flock either. 

So low and behold on the day that she turned 24 weeks... Guess what I found?

Her first egg. The next day I found two more! I'm very happy about this new development as the chickens are 3 years old now and the two of them barely scrape up 5 or 6 eggs a week these days. 

I have noticed the texture of the shell is a bit silkier and the bloom is much more - well... uh - lets say thicker. You can see that even after washing these eggs (No, I don't wash them all) that some of it remains. It's kind of an unappetizing color, but that certainly won't stop me.

So, some time this week I'll be posting about their flavor and maybe even a comparison. I've heard that duck eggs are far superior for baking but eating straight it seems is personal preference.

We'll see!

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 8.25.14

Welcome back to Harvest Monday! Once again, I'd like to thank Daphne for sharing her links. Be sure to stop by Daphne's Dandelions to check out what gardeners are harvesting all over the world!

It's the last harvest for August and it's so appropriately timed. 

This week I harvested...Sweet Potatoes! 2 very large specimens. Perfect for a dinner side dish for all 5 of us. It's hard to believe just how big these spuds can get. They were both wonderfully flavored, but then again we were not looking for super sweet. These were sliced and roasted instead of baked and not sweetened. They offered just the right amount of sweetness without any sugar.

Um... and as it turns out I only took a picture of one. LOL. 

Don't let that picture deceive you. This sucker was larger than my hand and over a pound! The stem end there was as fat as a marker. The big news here? NO bug damage. I don't know if it's because I didn't let it store like I did last year or if things are finally evening out in the garden, but either way I'm very glad for it. 

I also harvested a decent sized bell pepper and another gypsy pepper. Those were used in a stir fry and a salad. The guavas are still coming, but most of the fruit now is gathered and eaten then or given to the chickens. They are in full molt mode and in just 3 days times my barred rock went from fully feathered to less than half feathered. She's not happy and hasn't laid in a week now. I don't blame her. All those quills everywhere must be uncomfortable. I might come show you later this week, but don't tell her. I'm pretty sure she'd never lay again if she knew I had shown you her pitiful self right now. ;-)

Kids went back to school last week as well. I can't get over it. They have grown so much over the summer. The difference in them now is astounding. They are actually in different sized clothing which almost never happens. Up until now the only thing I had to buy different for them was socks. Poor Katie got my big feet!

Aw, but isn't it sweet? The first virus of the school year has also been brought home. So much for being excited about going to a bigger school. The pitfalls of more kids is, more germs. Ho-hum. So Kate's home sick today and milking it for all it's worth. LOL. Just hoping Annah or any of the rest of us don't get it. We're supposed to be bringing the ducks up to Alabama this weekend. If we miss this opportunity then they will probably be with us until spring. That means at least one of the males will have to 'disappear' soon. If not 2. I can't have them chasing the girls around and causing a ruckus. The neighbors haven't complained yet, but I've got the girls sectioned off with only 1 of the males. The other 3 boys are in 'The bachelor pad.' So far this has worked pretty well and everyone gets along this way, but I tried putting them all together and it didn't go so well. A few of the boys are overly aggressive with the girl ducks. Now, there would be some advantages to keeping the ducks around for the winter. Eggs for instance. It would be GREAT to have a good supply of eggs over the winter. Oh, how awesome that would be. Besides it wouldn't be so bad to have duck on the menu for Thanksgiving or Christmas, either. 

Making my lists for the great Fall garden cleanup...

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest...no... but busy!

So I've ignored the garden the past few weeks. It's raining daily and my poor fruits and veggies are splitting left and right. This week promises drier weather but now that I am entrenched in this other project, I have put my garden on hold.

Old plastic surround

So what project am I working on this time? Our Master Bathroom. We had an issue with mold/mildew forming on the wall at the junction of our shower stall and the bathtub. At first I moaned, then I groaned, then I got mad. Once I had finally given into the fact that I was going to have to do something, and that this something that had to be done was not only drastic but fairly expensive I set upon the task of selecting the best materials for our re-do at the least expensive places. It required a lot of weekends of window shopping ahead of time and the plan was to finish this portion of the project within 2 weeks...Oh boy. Was I wrong!

The first weekend we took out the old surround. This sounds fairly straightforward and easy in theory but in practice it was a much more difficult task than we expected. We ended up having to take it out in pieces. Once this was accomplished we quickly realized that we were in for a bit more that we expected. There was no wall behind this! WHAT?! That's right. It was plastic glued to the wood supports. Oh, BOY!

It was a good thing that we didn't wait much longer for this overhaul. There was mold growing on the back of the fiberglass in places that water couldn't have possibly gotten to. Because there was no wall behind there was also no barrier and no insulation. This created a space between the walls where condensation was occurring unchecked.

Project easy peasy is now put on hold while we research what our next move would be. We knew we'd have to have a wall of course, but how, what and more importantly how much!?

Turns out not to be a horrible cost, but an unexpected cost is still, unexpected. Another $100 isn't the worst of things so I'm grateful for this.

Here you can see we were foolish enough to leave up the fixtures. These were promptly removed after the picture. I don't know why that wasn't our first step. I mean hello? Not going to use them again. LOL.

So we finally get a water resistant wall up, and unlike the picture dictates also got it taped and mudded. This brings us to the next weekend. I wish we didn't keep trying to do this between work and toting the kids around. I think the next time we take on a project this big we will be taking some time off work!

So during the week I visited my local tile outlet. Um, yeah about that. I had to travel a half hour and go past about 20 different tile place or places that sold time to get there. I began to question my sanity and wondered if it wouldn't have cost less after all to pay more for the tile if it was closer. Immediately after that thought I got lost in the aisles and dreamt up all kinds of other things to do in the house. I mean, just look at all these choices, and that is only in the tumbled stone end pieces. There were decorative accents to choose and I needed to coordinate the stone we picked for the tile with the accent and the corners, I needed a shelf, or really a few of them.

About 3 days later my husband filed a missing persons report and the police found me huddled under a rack drooling on myself. No, don't buy it? Well fine. I picked out all the coordinates and loaded up the truck.

Have I mentioned how much I love this big ole truck? It's so convenient to have a vehicle that doesn't mind getting dirty or hauling thousands of pounds of rocks, dirt or whatever sets my little heart to a pitter patter.

The next step is one that we hemmed and hawed about. We are now into yet another weekend. I have a different opinion that my husband when it comes to the placement of the tiles, and the distance of them from each other. I stand by my original thought that less grout is better, but since we did pick a wonderfully coordinating grout color I no longer have to consider stringing my husband up from his toes. See, he started the tile placement while he sent me on and errand. I should have known better. I really, really should have. But, what's done is done. At first I was still very upset with him and may have thought to shave his goatee while he slept. But, looking back it's all good. I got the accents I wanted, he got the spacing he wanted. Most of all I got the SHOWER I wanted. :-D

So I came home to this....

... and that brings us to the next weekend. LOL

See, that whole- "We'll get it done in 2 weeks" thing? Yeah. That got thrown out the window. We are on week FOUR here already people. Sheesh! And then the next weekend....

Hey, at least it's starting to give us an idea of what it will look like.

The following weekend...   This picture is very deceiving. It looks complete. It looks ready to shower in, it looks ready for...THE PLUMBER.

*EEEK* Another $200 and change for an unexpected encounter. The builders installed a very specific type of plumbing fixture that could only be used on a very specific brand on a very specifically NOT MADE ANYMORE thing. Yes, thing. It's a technical term for I'm too ticked off to think straight let me breathe for a minute here 'thing'. 

UGH. So, plumber out during the week and then the grout has to cure for a week. This was one sticking point I wasn't expecting at all. I figured a day or two sure, but a WEEK!? Oh so disappointing when all one dreams of at night is hopping into the shower in the morning for a nice refreshing wash. Of course hidden is all the hundreds of parts of tiles, the hammers, saws, screwdrivers, mastic, grout buckets, floats and all that jazz all over the place. 

So, then we Finally seal the stone and grout and then install the new fixtures...

 And are now supposed to wait 2-3 days before using it. Well. I waited 45 hours. That was enough for me. I gotta tell you, that may have been the best shower of my life. Wait, no I remember that one. It was the third day after I had the twins. THAT was glorious - but this was a close second and a memory I won't soon forget. It's so wonderful to walk in and see the beautiful shower staring back at me. We increased the area inside the shower by nearly half again of what we had and I couldn't be happier with that. 

Only problem is I now get out of said wonderful shower and have to look straight at the nasty mirror, the rusty light fixture (yup it's that moisture problem again) and the old standard counter top.

So, no we have a new vanity in our garage waiting for a small repair and are waiting on a granite counter top we ordered. This is possibly one of the worst ways to revamp I know of. Living our day to day lives and trying to do all this work is exhausting, but it will be so worth it. Just look at what we already accomplished. It can't be any worse than this, can it? (Maybe I shouldn't ask!) I'll keep you posted on the progress. We begin deconstruction again the weekend after Labor Day. Of course that 3 or 4 day weekend would be ideal for this project, but we need to make a trip to Alabama. The 7 ducks are restless.

Speaking of. If anyone needs a beautiful Show Quality Welsh Harlequin- please send them my way. My boys are great but I have at least 1 too many!

       QUACK!!!   

See you Soon!

Barbie~