Yeah, I woke up far too early. Not sure what the hell is up with my sleep pattern but there is really no method to the madness. So I flip on my laptop and think hmm, open my blog. Well why not at least let my readers know I am still alive and kicking. Well for all you fine folks who read or read my blog, I am still alive and well. Just dont ask me to explain my long hiatus. I guess life got busy and I procrastinated. A LOT!! For a long time it appears.
I guess as we get older it just takes longer to get the same amount of things done thus less time and energy left at the end of the day to do things we want to do in our minds. We have been blessed the past 2 summers to enjoy our little grandsons here for extended visits on the farm. And they have finally moved a bit closer to Virginia instead of Phoenix. Eight hours is not a bad road trip to visit the kids. Sure beats 30 hours driving and 3 days on the road. All the kids and grands are great, healthy, happy and sassy. Hope to get to go see the littles for the Christmas holiday for a few days. We were certainly happy to have Rob, Amoy and the little boys here at our house for Thanksgiving this year for the first time in a long time seems like. Hard to believe Liam is in kindergarten now. Such a smart little boy. Zachy is quite the character. He is so much like Rob at that age. They just melt my heart.
All is well on the homestead. Our garden was not good at all this season. Blight hit the tomatoes and we had none, nada, zip, zero zilch from the garden. Glad I still had lots canned from previous years. Now for sweet corn, good grief, we can grow that stuff. Had more than we needed and as usual you cant give it away. People ask if its shucked. Ugh, hell no it aint, if you cant shuck it you cant have it. I cant tolerate people that lazy. I did locate some seed for white half runner green beans that I have been seeking for several years. These are the old variety that will develope a nice bean in the pod and the pod is still tender. They dont get tough and fibrous like some varieties I have gotten in the past. We now have about a lb of those seed to grow this coming year. Happy camper I am. So many little things to tell you and dang I cant begin to remember them all at one time. So I will fill you in as time progresses.
As for my latest hobby/obsession, its soft cheese making. We are members of a food pantry/coop here and from time to time we get over whelmed with milk products. Like last week when I had 6 half gallon jugs of heavy whipping cream. Turned that into butter. Oh yeah, I have not bought butter in going on 2 years now. We keep a LOT frozen from turning the heavy cream into butter. I also got 9 half gallon jugs of half and half. Well you can make cheese with it. As I learned lots of different cheeses as matter of fact. But it needs added lipase to put back some necessary enzymes that are killed off during the pasteurization process. Yep google is yo fren. I will learn to do this and make a decent cheese. I have made the 30 minute mozzarella and it is ok, just sorta bland. But the method is very simple. Paneer is another one for first time cheese makers to try. Will fill you in as I learn.
We did a bit of remodeling on the house this fall. Took this awful carpet out of the dining room and continued the laminate floors from the kitchen into the dining room. Love it much better. Easier to keep clean. Then I got the vinyl tile to do the small bathroom and the utility room. Folks those tiles are the bombdiggity. So easy to install over existing flooring, and dang they do stick down good. And they look nice. They look and feel like real tile, just not as cold on the bare footz as real tile. And to top off that Rob and Amoy got me a Deebot. Well who'd a thunk it? I love that thing. The one chore that makes my back hurt more than any other is running the vacuum. If you knew me you would know its a huge deal when I say I have not ran the vacuum since before thanksgiving. Yes, that long and the floors are still clean. The Deebot, who Rob named "little dip shit" I call him "dippy" for short, is like the Roomba just a different brand. I could not imagine something so small picking up the amount of dust and dirt this little guy gets. I was genuinely amazed. So dippy keeps the floors nice and sure saves my back a lot of pain. Now I can have some umph left to do other things I enjoy more. Yes I am hooked on technology now. lol Not to mention my new phone has "Bixby" to help me out. I gotta teach that fellow a few things before I let him type text messages for me tho. Yeah, don't ask. Ok I admit , I am techno challenged. Maybe IF I live long enough I will find or take time to learn about all these newfangled toys that I have. Who'd a thunk 20 years ago that a person could have a vacuum that would clean the floors without any help from a person pushing and pulling one of those things. AND you can program it to do the floors while you are away so you alas come home to a neat tidy house. Or in my house you find Dippy stuck on a floor vent. Ah he ain't smart enough to remember where they are I reckon. Talented he is, smart he ain't. Or maybe its operator error. Now if only they made a self emptying dish washer. I know there is a robot in the works that can cook meals. Let you imagination take you about 20 years into the future and think of what could be. Or not. Smart TVs? Got em. Vacuums that clean without manpower? Got em. Robots that can cook? Got em. Oh and don't forget the cars that are in the works that drive themselves. Got em.
Ok, now ya know I am still alive and kicking I will get on with this day and see what kind of mayhem I can create. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella
Showing posts with label heirloom vegetables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heirloom vegetables. Show all posts
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
I hope spring is here, finally.
I sure hope spring has sprung here. I got my seedlings started earlier this year. Had them all growing under flourescent lights in the summer kitchen till this past Saturday. We decided that instead of the added expense of covering our little greenhouse with some type of plastic we would just opt to use a cold frame for the seedlings as I am not starting near as many as I normally do. But still a plenty. So Rodger and Jason took off Friday evening after work and went to Lowes to pick up 1 sheet of the clear poly carbonate panels to cover the cold frame. Less chance of hail damage in the event we have that. And hoping we dont for sure. So they got my cold frame built and put inside the fence in my herb garden to keep the dog out of it. She likes to carry off things she finds with our smell on it. She gave the guys a fit stealing their building material and tools Saturday. Poor Sasha had many new not so nice names that day. But they got er done. Then I got all the seed trays moved in and watered with compost tea. I do have some nice sturdy seedlings this year. yay me.
Monday we had rain off and on all day so I spent my day going in and out of the house to take the top off, put the top on, repeat. This lil cold frame can heat up really quick with very little sunshine. This is so much easier to heat than trying to keep my little greenhouse warm enough for healthy plants. Tomatoes and peppers need warmer soil to sprout and grow than some other seeds. I did invest in a couple heat mats that are made just for the seed trays I use to supply some heat from the bottom to warm the soil and speed up the sprouting process of peppers and tomatoes. They worked just great. I had misplaced some of my bell pepper seeds and could only find the orange heirloom variety when I was starting the seeds. The next day I located the other pepper seeds and decided to start some of those as well. I used a deeper, about 6 inch deep, crate that I had to line with a feed bag, add soil and sow the seeds. The soil being deeper I could not use the heat mats under this crate. So needless to say I have tomatoes and peppers started one day using the heat mats that are several inches tall and a crate with pepper and some Amish paste tomato seeds that are just starting to sprout and come up where I wasn't able to use the heat mats. Heat made all the difference in how quickly the seeds came up. Also this year I have been using all natural fertilizer on my seedlings. I procured some composted goat manure from some friends and am making compost tea to use on the plants. In this compost tea I added some Lactobacilli serum to the bucket in which I have the manure for the tea. I have had no problem what so ever with damping off disease this year starting seeds. That in itself is a big plus for me trying to start seeds really early. Normally I just start my seeds in the greenhouse in early April no later than the second week. When we get cooler nights the soil cools even with the warmth of the sun during the day and I usually end up losing a lot of seedlings from damping off. In the greenhouse I could use about 3 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide to about 1 and half cups water in spray bottle and mist the soil where the seedling are and this will sometimes stop the damping off and save the plants. But dang who needs the extra hassle. Not had to use that this year at all. I am very thankful and happy with my little bit of success with seed starts.
Saturday I got my herb garden weeded and all cleaned out of debris from last season and over the winter. Talk about hard on the damaged back and bad legs and knees. Oh mercy, Sunday was tough. Anyway, that bed is all ready to add more herbs seedlings to when danger of frost is past. Maybe late April or early May will be safe enough to plant them without protection. I still have the strawberry bed to weed and get mulched. I planted 25 new strawberry plants this year to replace some that were spent. I intend to use straw to mulch them in with from now on. I learned the hard way that wood mulch was just too coarse a material to allow the runners to reach the soil and make roots and renew the bed. Some of us just have to learn things the hard way. Was nice to not have to spend much time at all weeding but dang in the long run cost me in having to replace some plants. Chalk that one up to a well learned lesson at the school of hard knocks. I seem to learn a lot of things at that school.
Last week on one of the warmer days I got the fruit trees sprayed for the second time. Most of the stone fruits and pears had already lost their blooms. Not sure if they were lost from the light snow and cold or just that they were done. But the other trees, apples and nut trees are in 1/4 inch green tip stage and time for a spray. Got the neem apray mixed and Jason put the spray tank in the bucket of the little tractor and hooked the pump to the battery and off we went to spray. We had to use the tractor as my 4 wheeler is out of commission for a bit till the guys get a chance to work on it. Got er done tho.. At this point it is just wait and see how much damage the cold snap did to the trees that had already bloomed. Seems most of them were in the "process" of blooming and not in full bloom. I have noticed the pears are still making blooms so I might get a bit of fruit after all. God willing and we dont get any more serious freezes. We will take what we can get and be thankful.
We have been looking around for an "estate rake" to use in the big section of yard and orchard. An estate rake is used to rake up grass clippings to take off the yard. Usually pulled behind a 4 wheeler or mower. My intention is to use the clippings to compost for organic matter to add to the garden and orchard. In reading and researching holistic orchard maintenance a lot of focus is on soil microbes and helping keep healthy soil. One way to do this is using the grass clippings to mulch trees and then encouraging the clippings to decompose to supply nutrients to the trees. Lactobacilli is one culture that aids in this process. I found online a method for making the lactobacilli serum to treat the soil and compost with to speed up the process. A very simple process all in all. It is started rather simply. I will post this info in another post very soon. This serum can also be used to spray chicken and livestock buildings to eliminate odor from manure. It helps to decompose the same manure when put in compost as well. Anyway I have a science lab in my kitchen most days. One of these days I will have a mess when an experiment goes amiss. Till then I keep trying stuff.
In the house I learned to make a new bread that we are now addicted to. It is focaccia bread. Its an artisan Mediterranean bread. The authentic version has olives in it but none of us like olives so I dont use those. It was odd to me at first to make a yeast bread and not use bread flour but recipe uses plain all purpose flour. I will share the version I make for us. I use my Kitchenaid mixer to make this as I cant use my hands long enough to knead bread anymore.
Focaccia Bread
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of hot water in Kitchenaid bowl
2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
In mixer bowl with hot water add in sugar, and 1 cup of bread flour, add yeast on top of this flour. Add remaining flour and then the salt. With dough hook attached mix ingredients a bit, maybe 1 minute. Pour in olive oil and mix well and continue kneading for about 5 minutes. When dough is smooth and elastic, turn off mixer and cover bowl and let dough rise till nearly double in size.
Prep 2 cookie sheets by oiling them with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. When dough is ready turn on mixer and stir down dough. Divide in half. Press each half on the cookie sheets pressing with fingers till it is about 1/4 inch thick. Let sit for about 10 minutes. No need to try to be perfect, this is artisan style bread.
To prepare to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using fingers make indentions all over dough and drizzle with a good olive oil. Sprinkle on about half teaspoon dried rosemary over each pan with dough. A good sprinkle of parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chopped sun dried tomatoes that have been preserved in oil. You can also drizzle a bit of the oil from the dried tomatoes over bread as well. Top with a light layer of shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese. You can add on some chopped olives if you enjoy those as well. Put in oven and bake till light brown. Tear into pieces at serving or cut like bread sticks and serve with a marinara sauce. Enjoy!!
We can make a meal on this and a bowl of marinara sauce. This is a bread that you can top any way you like really . If you love garlic cloves by all means slice some onto dough. A thin layer of pizza sauce would be yummy with your choice of pizza toppings. An easy bread that can be used many ways. Limited only by the imagination.
Not much else happening here on the homestead, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella
Monday we had rain off and on all day so I spent my day going in and out of the house to take the top off, put the top on, repeat. This lil cold frame can heat up really quick with very little sunshine. This is so much easier to heat than trying to keep my little greenhouse warm enough for healthy plants. Tomatoes and peppers need warmer soil to sprout and grow than some other seeds. I did invest in a couple heat mats that are made just for the seed trays I use to supply some heat from the bottom to warm the soil and speed up the sprouting process of peppers and tomatoes. They worked just great. I had misplaced some of my bell pepper seeds and could only find the orange heirloom variety when I was starting the seeds. The next day I located the other pepper seeds and decided to start some of those as well. I used a deeper, about 6 inch deep, crate that I had to line with a feed bag, add soil and sow the seeds. The soil being deeper I could not use the heat mats under this crate. So needless to say I have tomatoes and peppers started one day using the heat mats that are several inches tall and a crate with pepper and some Amish paste tomato seeds that are just starting to sprout and come up where I wasn't able to use the heat mats. Heat made all the difference in how quickly the seeds came up. Also this year I have been using all natural fertilizer on my seedlings. I procured some composted goat manure from some friends and am making compost tea to use on the plants. In this compost tea I added some Lactobacilli serum to the bucket in which I have the manure for the tea. I have had no problem what so ever with damping off disease this year starting seeds. That in itself is a big plus for me trying to start seeds really early. Normally I just start my seeds in the greenhouse in early April no later than the second week. When we get cooler nights the soil cools even with the warmth of the sun during the day and I usually end up losing a lot of seedlings from damping off. In the greenhouse I could use about 3 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide to about 1 and half cups water in spray bottle and mist the soil where the seedling are and this will sometimes stop the damping off and save the plants. But dang who needs the extra hassle. Not had to use that this year at all. I am very thankful and happy with my little bit of success with seed starts.
Saturday I got my herb garden weeded and all cleaned out of debris from last season and over the winter. Talk about hard on the damaged back and bad legs and knees. Oh mercy, Sunday was tough. Anyway, that bed is all ready to add more herbs seedlings to when danger of frost is past. Maybe late April or early May will be safe enough to plant them without protection. I still have the strawberry bed to weed and get mulched. I planted 25 new strawberry plants this year to replace some that were spent. I intend to use straw to mulch them in with from now on. I learned the hard way that wood mulch was just too coarse a material to allow the runners to reach the soil and make roots and renew the bed. Some of us just have to learn things the hard way. Was nice to not have to spend much time at all weeding but dang in the long run cost me in having to replace some plants. Chalk that one up to a well learned lesson at the school of hard knocks. I seem to learn a lot of things at that school.
Last week on one of the warmer days I got the fruit trees sprayed for the second time. Most of the stone fruits and pears had already lost their blooms. Not sure if they were lost from the light snow and cold or just that they were done. But the other trees, apples and nut trees are in 1/4 inch green tip stage and time for a spray. Got the neem apray mixed and Jason put the spray tank in the bucket of the little tractor and hooked the pump to the battery and off we went to spray. We had to use the tractor as my 4 wheeler is out of commission for a bit till the guys get a chance to work on it. Got er done tho.. At this point it is just wait and see how much damage the cold snap did to the trees that had already bloomed. Seems most of them were in the "process" of blooming and not in full bloom. I have noticed the pears are still making blooms so I might get a bit of fruit after all. God willing and we dont get any more serious freezes. We will take what we can get and be thankful.
We have been looking around for an "estate rake" to use in the big section of yard and orchard. An estate rake is used to rake up grass clippings to take off the yard. Usually pulled behind a 4 wheeler or mower. My intention is to use the clippings to compost for organic matter to add to the garden and orchard. In reading and researching holistic orchard maintenance a lot of focus is on soil microbes and helping keep healthy soil. One way to do this is using the grass clippings to mulch trees and then encouraging the clippings to decompose to supply nutrients to the trees. Lactobacilli is one culture that aids in this process. I found online a method for making the lactobacilli serum to treat the soil and compost with to speed up the process. A very simple process all in all. It is started rather simply. I will post this info in another post very soon. This serum can also be used to spray chicken and livestock buildings to eliminate odor from manure. It helps to decompose the same manure when put in compost as well. Anyway I have a science lab in my kitchen most days. One of these days I will have a mess when an experiment goes amiss. Till then I keep trying stuff.
In the house I learned to make a new bread that we are now addicted to. It is focaccia bread. Its an artisan Mediterranean bread. The authentic version has olives in it but none of us like olives so I dont use those. It was odd to me at first to make a yeast bread and not use bread flour but recipe uses plain all purpose flour. I will share the version I make for us. I use my Kitchenaid mixer to make this as I cant use my hands long enough to knead bread anymore.
Focaccia Bread
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of hot water in Kitchenaid bowl
2 tablespoons sugar
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
In mixer bowl with hot water add in sugar, and 1 cup of bread flour, add yeast on top of this flour. Add remaining flour and then the salt. With dough hook attached mix ingredients a bit, maybe 1 minute. Pour in olive oil and mix well and continue kneading for about 5 minutes. When dough is smooth and elastic, turn off mixer and cover bowl and let dough rise till nearly double in size.
Prep 2 cookie sheets by oiling them with olive oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. When dough is ready turn on mixer and stir down dough. Divide in half. Press each half on the cookie sheets pressing with fingers till it is about 1/4 inch thick. Let sit for about 10 minutes. No need to try to be perfect, this is artisan style bread.
To prepare to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using fingers make indentions all over dough and drizzle with a good olive oil. Sprinkle on about half teaspoon dried rosemary over each pan with dough. A good sprinkle of parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and chopped sun dried tomatoes that have been preserved in oil. You can also drizzle a bit of the oil from the dried tomatoes over bread as well. Top with a light layer of shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese. You can add on some chopped olives if you enjoy those as well. Put in oven and bake till light brown. Tear into pieces at serving or cut like bread sticks and serve with a marinara sauce. Enjoy!!
We can make a meal on this and a bowl of marinara sauce. This is a bread that you can top any way you like really . If you love garlic cloves by all means slice some onto dough. A thin layer of pizza sauce would be yummy with your choice of pizza toppings. An easy bread that can be used many ways. Limited only by the imagination.
Not much else happening here on the homestead, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Short summer, early fall
I think our summer has been short, or did I just get busy and miss it? Or maybe a little of both. Even with a later than we liked start our garden did pretty well. As of now the only thing left in it is the sweet potatoes. They will be dug before the first frost. I did can a lot of green beans, the wonderful tasty Ky Wonder pole beans. We are now picking the dried ones to save for seed next season. Now God willing we will be able to always have pure seed to plant from year to year. Our tomatoes did marginally well. We did stake the largest portion of them BUT we didn't pull the suckers off thus the tomatoes were not large in size like they should be. Lesson learned for next year. Sweet corn did really well. I didn't get much of it as the damn crows wrecked havoc in there. We put deer netting over the top after it had tasseled and the crows flew under the net and ate the corn anyway. Evil things I tell ya. We had enough cukes to make enough pickles to last us. Okra went gang busters, got enough in the freezers to last any family for a few year. And I only use it in soup and gumbo. Although I did freeze some after I coated it with a cornmeal/flour, salt, pepper mixture for a quick snack to fry up. I am the only one that will eat it fried. I also froze some green tomato slices in the cornmeal mix as well. I did use a sharp knife to remove the thin green skin from the maters then rolled in the cornmeal mix, froze on cookie sheets then bagged them up for long term freezing. I love me some fried green maters when its cold as crap outside and snowy. Guess thas my hillbilly coming out.
Rodger dug a few sweet taters other evening to see how they were gonna do. Well, I think they did ok.
This bucket (5 gallon) was from about 4 plants. That is my foot and I wear a size 8. Thas a big dang tater. I truly hope there are not many that size to dig. Yeah of course they look cool, but you know how hard it would be to bake that thing and get it done or to peel it to make glazed sweet taters? There were several very large ones in what he dug but this one being the biggest. Impressive, huh?
As it gets late in the year we always find ourselves in a time crunch to get all the things done and prepared for cold fall and winter weather. Rodger and Jason have been working their hinny off trying to get a new corn crib built before time to pick corn. We don't raise a lot of corn, just enough for cornmeal and to have enough to feed the laying flock thru the year. But it does no good to raise and pick it if the dang mice and squirrels are gonna get to it and eat more than us or the chickens get. So this new crib will be mouse and squirrel proof. Guaranteed. It is gonna be lined with rat wire so unless they have tin snips or a cutting torch, sorry about their luck. Get ya free meal else where.
I might get more work done if not for playing with Sasha. That lil girl is growing so fast. She is a big pup for just 5 months old. And she loves her family. Does NOT like strangers at all. My cousin and his wife came to visit for a bit on Monday and she was gonna go pet Sasha and I told her she could let her out of the kennel. Sasha would have no part of that. She was growling and showing her teeth. Needless to say they didn't open her kennel. Even tho I felt bad that they didn't get to pet her, they agreed that is what she should have done. A stock and guard dog should not take kindly to strangers. And sure seems she don't. If I had let her out and introduced them she would have been different I am sure. But her job is to look out for me and take care of the chickens. And she needs to do more growing before she gets to be responsible for the chickens. Just yesterday as I walked by our security camera monitor I saw a critter hop out of the woods into the driveway a lil bit from the house. Upon closer look it was a coyote. Within 75 ft of the house. In the middle of the day. I notice I have not seen as many rabbits as we usually see in the yard. Seems the coyotes may be a lil short on food and keep getting closer to the house looking for a meal. We keep Sasha in her kennel unless we can be outside or at least coming in and out all day. Don't like leaving her alone outside and her being young. It has really be tough cause I can not let my chickens run out at all. We are hoping to get a new chicken house built in a different location this fall so we can have a fenced in pen for the laying hens to be able to be outside and safe from stray dogs and coyotes. Just another chore to do before winter time gets here.
I was gone west to the hunting lodge for 2 weeks, had a good stay there and back home with lots to do and get caught up on. Then of all dang things my back and left hip we out. So I was in bed for nearly 4 days till I could walk. Still not doing the best, but ever so slowly getting better. Not sure what the problem is but hoping to find out results of my xrays tomorrow. But uncle had a pear tree that had lots of pears on them. I did pick some to bring home to can and make pear preserves. Oh my, the preserves are so very good. Beautiful amber color. I think the method I use to make mine is called "pear honey" and it tastes a lot like honey.
Yummy yummy, get in my tummy. So good with butter and a hot biscuit. There really is nothing like good home cooking. You cant get stuff this tasty in a store or restaurant. And I know what is in my home canned stuff.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Rodger dug a few sweet taters other evening to see how they were gonna do. Well, I think they did ok.
This bucket (5 gallon) was from about 4 plants. That is my foot and I wear a size 8. Thas a big dang tater. I truly hope there are not many that size to dig. Yeah of course they look cool, but you know how hard it would be to bake that thing and get it done or to peel it to make glazed sweet taters? There were several very large ones in what he dug but this one being the biggest. Impressive, huh?
As it gets late in the year we always find ourselves in a time crunch to get all the things done and prepared for cold fall and winter weather. Rodger and Jason have been working their hinny off trying to get a new corn crib built before time to pick corn. We don't raise a lot of corn, just enough for cornmeal and to have enough to feed the laying flock thru the year. But it does no good to raise and pick it if the dang mice and squirrels are gonna get to it and eat more than us or the chickens get. So this new crib will be mouse and squirrel proof. Guaranteed. It is gonna be lined with rat wire so unless they have tin snips or a cutting torch, sorry about their luck. Get ya free meal else where.
I might get more work done if not for playing with Sasha. That lil girl is growing so fast. She is a big pup for just 5 months old. And she loves her family. Does NOT like strangers at all. My cousin and his wife came to visit for a bit on Monday and she was gonna go pet Sasha and I told her she could let her out of the kennel. Sasha would have no part of that. She was growling and showing her teeth. Needless to say they didn't open her kennel. Even tho I felt bad that they didn't get to pet her, they agreed that is what she should have done. A stock and guard dog should not take kindly to strangers. And sure seems she don't. If I had let her out and introduced them she would have been different I am sure. But her job is to look out for me and take care of the chickens. And she needs to do more growing before she gets to be responsible for the chickens. Just yesterday as I walked by our security camera monitor I saw a critter hop out of the woods into the driveway a lil bit from the house. Upon closer look it was a coyote. Within 75 ft of the house. In the middle of the day. I notice I have not seen as many rabbits as we usually see in the yard. Seems the coyotes may be a lil short on food and keep getting closer to the house looking for a meal. We keep Sasha in her kennel unless we can be outside or at least coming in and out all day. Don't like leaving her alone outside and her being young. It has really be tough cause I can not let my chickens run out at all. We are hoping to get a new chicken house built in a different location this fall so we can have a fenced in pen for the laying hens to be able to be outside and safe from stray dogs and coyotes. Just another chore to do before winter time gets here.
I was gone west to the hunting lodge for 2 weeks, had a good stay there and back home with lots to do and get caught up on. Then of all dang things my back and left hip we out. So I was in bed for nearly 4 days till I could walk. Still not doing the best, but ever so slowly getting better. Not sure what the problem is but hoping to find out results of my xrays tomorrow. But uncle had a pear tree that had lots of pears on them. I did pick some to bring home to can and make pear preserves. Oh my, the preserves are so very good. Beautiful amber color. I think the method I use to make mine is called "pear honey" and it tastes a lot like honey.
Yummy yummy, get in my tummy. So good with butter and a hot biscuit. There really is nothing like good home cooking. You cant get stuff this tasty in a store or restaurant. And I know what is in my home canned stuff.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
As the garden grows...........
.....so does the weeds. Geez, and seems like the weeds out grow anything you plant and want to grow. Rodger has spent evenings this week doing all the hoe work getting the weeds out from between the plants then when all that is done he runs the tiller. But we can be very thankful this year that he has been able to mostly stay ahead of weeds and bugs. He did inform me that we have several bean bugs and good golly, I cant afford to lose these dang beans. They are the old heirloom variety Ky Wonder Pole Bean from a friend in central Ky. Not to mention I for sure need lots to can. We have had several good showers of rain the past week or so. That fact did delay me getting to spray the tomatoes with a fungicide (copper and wettable sulfur) to prevent blight. I need to can many tomatoes this year as well. Well lets just say the cellar is gettin kinda bare. We still eatin regular but ya know, I just feel better with a fully stocked cellar and pantry. We just pray for the blessing of a good garden this year. I did manage to get the fungicide spray on the fruit trees and all the grape vines last week and it had several days before the rain. I just hope that helped to head off some of the cedar apple rust on a few of the apple trees. The peach trees are just loaded with little peaches this year too. I am just drooling in wait for fresh peaches. And from our own trees. I might have to buy a few bushels of apples for the freezer this year because my apple trees are still a bit too young to produce enough for our needs.
I braved the 95 degree temps Monday and pulled my beets from the bed in the back yard. I had enough to make 10 pints of beet pickles so I was a happy little camper. That will be enough to last me another 2 or 3 years. No one here will eat pickled beets but me and if I eat them I want a whole pint jar and eat em all at once. The carrots that are in the same bed as the beets were look great. The tops are still nice and green on them so that says the carrots are still growing under ground. They have been planted since mid-March the same as the beets were. Some of the beets were the Cylindra beets, more long than big around and dang did they get big.
This is before I pulled the beets, you can see the tops of the carrots on the back side. In front of the beets are leeks and some little tiny celery plants. I am about to give up on raising celery. Just dont grow well here.
The Cylindra beets. This is 3 of em and one Detroit dark red on a standard width counter for size comparison. They did well.
I had a small dish pan full not including the long ones that are on the counter. Total 10 pints canned. I do have some more that will be ready later in the season.
This little girl is growing like a bad weed. Her first visit to the vet at 6 weeks old she weighed a big 6 lb 2 oz. At her 9 week visit she weighed 13 lb 7 oz. I sure hope she is getting enough to eat. She was a lil befuddled here when she wanted to smell of one of my young Buff Orphington pullet and it pecked her nose. I bet she is thinkin, "one day I will grow up and bite you on the nose". She is a good little girl. It amazes me at the natural instinct animals have at a young age. I was giving the chickens some left over bread that was stale and just gave her a roll to see if she might like it. She ate part of it and it broke in 2 pieces. She then proceeded to bury the remaining 2 pieces. In our back year we have a lot of small holes from moles and such. During all the rainy weather one of the holes caved in (not real deep) and she found it. Now every time she is out with me she will go to that hole and sniff and dig it a little deeper. One day she is gonna dig something very unhappy out of there I am sure. Depends on what critter she digs out, she might be on her own. Especially if its a snake of some sort hiding in there. Cause momma dont do snakes.
Always something to keep busy with around here. And time will get away from ya in a hurry. It is long past time to clean out the freezers and get ready to put new stuff in. Not to mention organizing the cellar, taking inventory and emptying out things that are far past their prime. I know I will be emptying out a lot of green beans if we have a good crop this year. I have green beans canned that we just dont care for the taste or texture of. I sure hate doing that due to the waste of lids, time and effort but dang it if they dont taste good they dont do us any good anyway. Maybe I can work on that tomorrow. On second thought, No I cant. I need to tie the tomatoes up again that we got staked a couple weeks ago. They have already out grown the first tie on them. Then maybe while I am at it I can spray the fungicide. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan for tomorrow.
Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella
I braved the 95 degree temps Monday and pulled my beets from the bed in the back yard. I had enough to make 10 pints of beet pickles so I was a happy little camper. That will be enough to last me another 2 or 3 years. No one here will eat pickled beets but me and if I eat them I want a whole pint jar and eat em all at once. The carrots that are in the same bed as the beets were look great. The tops are still nice and green on them so that says the carrots are still growing under ground. They have been planted since mid-March the same as the beets were. Some of the beets were the Cylindra beets, more long than big around and dang did they get big.
The Cylindra beets. This is 3 of em and one Detroit dark red on a standard width counter for size comparison. They did well.
I had a small dish pan full not including the long ones that are on the counter. Total 10 pints canned. I do have some more that will be ready later in the season.
This little girl is growing like a bad weed. Her first visit to the vet at 6 weeks old she weighed a big 6 lb 2 oz. At her 9 week visit she weighed 13 lb 7 oz. I sure hope she is getting enough to eat. She was a lil befuddled here when she wanted to smell of one of my young Buff Orphington pullet and it pecked her nose. I bet she is thinkin, "one day I will grow up and bite you on the nose". She is a good little girl. It amazes me at the natural instinct animals have at a young age. I was giving the chickens some left over bread that was stale and just gave her a roll to see if she might like it. She ate part of it and it broke in 2 pieces. She then proceeded to bury the remaining 2 pieces. In our back year we have a lot of small holes from moles and such. During all the rainy weather one of the holes caved in (not real deep) and she found it. Now every time she is out with me she will go to that hole and sniff and dig it a little deeper. One day she is gonna dig something very unhappy out of there I am sure. Depends on what critter she digs out, she might be on her own. Especially if its a snake of some sort hiding in there. Cause momma dont do snakes.
Always something to keep busy with around here. And time will get away from ya in a hurry. It is long past time to clean out the freezers and get ready to put new stuff in. Not to mention organizing the cellar, taking inventory and emptying out things that are far past their prime. I know I will be emptying out a lot of green beans if we have a good crop this year. I have green beans canned that we just dont care for the taste or texture of. I sure hate doing that due to the waste of lids, time and effort but dang it if they dont taste good they dont do us any good anyway. Maybe I can work on that tomorrow. On second thought, No I cant. I need to tie the tomatoes up again that we got staked a couple weeks ago. They have already out grown the first tie on them. Then maybe while I am at it I can spray the fungicide. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan for tomorrow.
Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella
Saturday, March 14, 2015
We made it thru....
thru the nasty weather of Ky winter. At least we hope that we are past really cold bad weather now. At least we are not covered over with over a foot of snow and below zero temps. Last few days, well most of the week, the weather has been warm-ish, around 50 degrees or so. Although it has rained more than we think we need. The river has been up now for the better part of 2 weeks. It will stop raining and dry some, the river level drops down, then rain again and back up it goes. But it will be spring in a few more days and maybe we can dry out some. several days last week I was able to at least open the doors and air out the house some. Geez, who knew fresh air could be so nice? I should have had my lil greenhouse up and some seeds started already but with the cold and rain that has not been at all possible. It is suppose to be nicer with no rain tomorrow so we might get that done. The early spring frogs have been calling for the past week or so now. Love to hear those in spring. It just reminds us warmer weather is around the corner. Lots of things planned for the spring and summer here too. We have fruit trees to plant. When we stopped in Mississippi in January to see our friends Deb and Danny, Deb had gotten me a mulberry tree and a muscadine grape vine. We will need to buy more apple trees to replace some we lost to deer in the orchard. I still need to move my raspberries and mulch the grape vines we have planted in the vineyard. This ole country gal cant wait to get her hands in the dirt. Got a few new things to try in the garden this year. We plan to plant parsnips this year and try celery again. I also ordered some new varieties of tomatoes to start. We are going to plant Marglobe this year for one of our red tomatoes. This is another old time variety that we use to raise here on the farm that did really well. Too bad I cant remember the name of the other new ones I ordered. I will be planting the blueberry tomatoes again this year in the herb bed for quick snaking out of hand. They do produce profusely for me. Then the usual sweet corn, white corn field beans, cukes, peppers of several colors, might even plant taters again. Ours sure did not do too well last year. But I do still have a few more quarts of them canned so it was not a total loss. It just gripes my azz to buy potatoes from the store. I know the store ones have been sprayed to hell and back and then you may cut one of em and it be black or worse on the inside.
We did get our cornmeal taken to the grist mill and ground today. I had not had a chance to put the corn in the freezer due to lack of freezer space to kill bug eggs in it, so I did put the ground cornmeal in the freezer at Jason's house to freeze for a couple weeks then will vacuum seal it for storage. It makes the bestest cornbread ever. I have tried to talk the fellow at the grist mill into getting a milk cow and selling fresh milk. He said he had thought about it. So I am crossing my fingers. Would so love to have homemade butter and milk. So much healthier for you than the so-called milk you get at the local grocer. Although we have found that some brands of store bought milk are labeled and certified to say they do not use hormones in their dairy practices. We buy the brands without hormones. I guess the lesser of two evils if you will.
After the loss of my sweet Luna last fall, we now have a problem with opossums and skunks here at the house. My whole yard front and back looks like a huge sponge with so many holes dug by skunks. I have had numerous opossums come on the back deck to steal cat food. We have managed to eradicate a couple of em, still we have at least 2 that still come around if we forget to bring the cats bowl in at night. I guess that is just one hazard of living so close to the woods in the country. I also heard a bunch of coyotes howling this evening somewhere close when I went out to close up the chickens for the night. Out here a good dog is almost a necessity to keep critters at bay.
Rob and Amoy are buying a house in Phoenix this summer. I am so happy for them. And Rodger said I am allowed to go help them move if they need me and watch the kids. Imagine that! Hard to believe Liam will be 2 next month and the day after he is 2 Zach will be 4 months old. They are both growing so fast. My beautiful lil boys. Love them to pieces.
Nothing like grand babies. You don't know love till you have grands.
Not much else happening here on the homestead, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
We did get our cornmeal taken to the grist mill and ground today. I had not had a chance to put the corn in the freezer due to lack of freezer space to kill bug eggs in it, so I did put the ground cornmeal in the freezer at Jason's house to freeze for a couple weeks then will vacuum seal it for storage. It makes the bestest cornbread ever. I have tried to talk the fellow at the grist mill into getting a milk cow and selling fresh milk. He said he had thought about it. So I am crossing my fingers. Would so love to have homemade butter and milk. So much healthier for you than the so-called milk you get at the local grocer. Although we have found that some brands of store bought milk are labeled and certified to say they do not use hormones in their dairy practices. We buy the brands without hormones. I guess the lesser of two evils if you will.
After the loss of my sweet Luna last fall, we now have a problem with opossums and skunks here at the house. My whole yard front and back looks like a huge sponge with so many holes dug by skunks. I have had numerous opossums come on the back deck to steal cat food. We have managed to eradicate a couple of em, still we have at least 2 that still come around if we forget to bring the cats bowl in at night. I guess that is just one hazard of living so close to the woods in the country. I also heard a bunch of coyotes howling this evening somewhere close when I went out to close up the chickens for the night. Out here a good dog is almost a necessity to keep critters at bay.
Rob and Amoy are buying a house in Phoenix this summer. I am so happy for them. And Rodger said I am allowed to go help them move if they need me and watch the kids. Imagine that! Hard to believe Liam will be 2 next month and the day after he is 2 Zach will be 4 months old. They are both growing so fast. My beautiful lil boys. Love them to pieces.
Nothing like grand babies. You don't know love till you have grands.
Not much else happening here on the homestead, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Where is our spring?
What the heck happened to spring this year. Here it is mid March and our ice an snow just melted. It sure was nice out today. I even had the patio door open most of the day. So nice to air the house out an let fresh air in after being cooped up all winter. But by this time next week they are giving rain and snow showers again. Crap!! I am so ready for it to be warm and stay that way. Pretty sure things will do better in the greenhouse once it warms to a decent temperature. But I should not complain, my lil cabbages are coming up. I also had a huge flower pot that I filled with soil and sowed some lettuce, kale an spinach in. It has come up rather thick. Really pretty and green. I wanted to get an early start on tomatoes and peppers but I sure don't want to have to keep heat in the greenhouse for the weather we have had. That can get quite expensive after a while. Tomorrow I think I will go ahead an fill my seed starting trays and put them in the summer kitchen so the soil can warm up. Once it gets warm then seed to tomatoes, peppers and a few others things I need to get started early. Most likely those trays will stay in the summer kitchen till it warms a bit more outside and stays that way. Then they can be moved to the greenhouse. Peppers need really warm temps to sprout. My buddy Randy sent me some paprika pepper seeds and I hope to hell I can get them to come up and grow this season. No luck at all last year.
This month has been abnormally cold I think for us. Normally I don't have a problem raising my Cornish cross meat birds in March and April. But dang it, this year has been different. I still have all of em, no losses yet. When our temps dropped down in the teens last week I was just afraid they would chill in their lil building so being the worrisome person I am I moved them into the summer kitchen. Yep you heard me right. I used an old quilt to put on the floor and up the cabinets on both sides of the kitchen, stapled it to the cabinets and pulled up the ends and tacked those down. Imagine a big 4 ft square basket made of a quilt. I put some stray on the quilt to help keep them dry and put them in their temporary home. The had their heat light, food an water and stayed toasty warm without me having to worry about them. Yesterday Rodger and I moved them back to their building where we used an old metal topless picnic table to suspend a quilt to help hold the heat in a smaller area to keep them warmer. All is well. You know chicks are warm enough when they don't huddle under the heat light. It was obvious from the droppings that they were warm enough to be able to move away from the heat. I won that round with mother nature. Depending on how cold it gets next week with the predicted rain and snow, they may be back in the summer kitchen. I don't care if I did spend a couple hours cleaning and sanitizing things in thee. I just cant afford to let those critters get sick or die.
I still don't have any hens setting this season so I finally gave up and loaded the incubator with eggs. So God willing, I should have baby chicks from the standard breeds about April 4th. I thought for a day or so that my incubator was dead. I could not for the life of me get the temperature up to where it needed to be. I kept turning the thermostat up, no luck. Then on closer inspection, being a dummy, I was turning the thermostat the wrong way. Aha! Once I figured that out and turned it up it warmed up to where it needed to be and I put the eggs in on the automatic egg turner. With the still air incubators the temp needs to be about 101 degrees. There are lil indention in the bottom of the incubator that need to always have water in them to keep the humidity up to mimic a setting hen. It is kinda tricky to add water and not pour it on the eggs. I have been using my plant water can that has a long skinny spout on it. Works like a charm. About 3 days before the eggs are due to hatch they get taken off the egg turner and placed directly on the mesh bottom. This is the incubation period where the chicks are turning in the shell and pressing outward with their beak to make a lid they can pop off and get out. Once they turn completely around in the egg they then break thru to the air pocket at the big end of the egg and start pushing till they are free. Once they are out of the shell you have an incubator full of lil critters that very much look like lil dinosaurs. Just another miracle of life.
This weather being first warm then getting cold has made my joints a miserable lot. I has been nice enough for a few days that I probably should have gotten out and finished pruning things in the yard. I got rose bushes that are going wild. Actually both the ones I have are old fashioned varieties and they have the best scent ever. But the smaller one near the cellar is crawling all over the place. I don't think it can be classified as a climbing rose at all. I crawls all over the place. Or maybe I should put up a taller stronger trellis for it. Maybe I can do that. Next nice day we have. I have 2 thornless blackberry plants that my friend Rosie had given me a few years back that are on the other side of the cellar door. They for sure need a trellis to climb on. One has a runner that is about 12 ft long or more. Just lots of lil things that make for a lot of work to care for around here. But I like my roses and blackberries. Thankful only one of em has thorns.
Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
This month has been abnormally cold I think for us. Normally I don't have a problem raising my Cornish cross meat birds in March and April. But dang it, this year has been different. I still have all of em, no losses yet. When our temps dropped down in the teens last week I was just afraid they would chill in their lil building so being the worrisome person I am I moved them into the summer kitchen. Yep you heard me right. I used an old quilt to put on the floor and up the cabinets on both sides of the kitchen, stapled it to the cabinets and pulled up the ends and tacked those down. Imagine a big 4 ft square basket made of a quilt. I put some stray on the quilt to help keep them dry and put them in their temporary home. The had their heat light, food an water and stayed toasty warm without me having to worry about them. Yesterday Rodger and I moved them back to their building where we used an old metal topless picnic table to suspend a quilt to help hold the heat in a smaller area to keep them warmer. All is well. You know chicks are warm enough when they don't huddle under the heat light. It was obvious from the droppings that they were warm enough to be able to move away from the heat. I won that round with mother nature. Depending on how cold it gets next week with the predicted rain and snow, they may be back in the summer kitchen. I don't care if I did spend a couple hours cleaning and sanitizing things in thee. I just cant afford to let those critters get sick or die.
I still don't have any hens setting this season so I finally gave up and loaded the incubator with eggs. So God willing, I should have baby chicks from the standard breeds about April 4th. I thought for a day or so that my incubator was dead. I could not for the life of me get the temperature up to where it needed to be. I kept turning the thermostat up, no luck. Then on closer inspection, being a dummy, I was turning the thermostat the wrong way. Aha! Once I figured that out and turned it up it warmed up to where it needed to be and I put the eggs in on the automatic egg turner. With the still air incubators the temp needs to be about 101 degrees. There are lil indention in the bottom of the incubator that need to always have water in them to keep the humidity up to mimic a setting hen. It is kinda tricky to add water and not pour it on the eggs. I have been using my plant water can that has a long skinny spout on it. Works like a charm. About 3 days before the eggs are due to hatch they get taken off the egg turner and placed directly on the mesh bottom. This is the incubation period where the chicks are turning in the shell and pressing outward with their beak to make a lid they can pop off and get out. Once they turn completely around in the egg they then break thru to the air pocket at the big end of the egg and start pushing till they are free. Once they are out of the shell you have an incubator full of lil critters that very much look like lil dinosaurs. Just another miracle of life.
This weather being first warm then getting cold has made my joints a miserable lot. I has been nice enough for a few days that I probably should have gotten out and finished pruning things in the yard. I got rose bushes that are going wild. Actually both the ones I have are old fashioned varieties and they have the best scent ever. But the smaller one near the cellar is crawling all over the place. I don't think it can be classified as a climbing rose at all. I crawls all over the place. Or maybe I should put up a taller stronger trellis for it. Maybe I can do that. Next nice day we have. I have 2 thornless blackberry plants that my friend Rosie had given me a few years back that are on the other side of the cellar door. They for sure need a trellis to climb on. One has a runner that is about 12 ft long or more. Just lots of lil things that make for a lot of work to care for around here. But I like my roses and blackberries. Thankful only one of em has thorns.
Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Friday, February 28, 2014
Trying to get a jump on spring
And trust me that is a tough thing to do around here right now. Seems as tho winter is wanting to linger longer than we would like, but we don't control the weather. Rodger got my greenhouse set back up a couple weeks ago and I still have not been able to get my cabbage seeds started. Its not like I need a ton of things in the cabbage family but I need what I need. I was hoping our really cold weather would ease up a lil bit before I got the seeds started an they sprout. The cabbage family can do fine in cold weather the biggest problem is damping off in the greenhouse. And that is something you really have to stay on top of or chance losing all your seedlings. I have in the past just used a peroxide water spray to control the disease. I hope to get those seeds in this weekend. But with no more than I will be starting, maybe 3 flats, less than 100 plants of all things cabbage, I am thinkin I will just use my counter in the summer kitchen for those till the super cold weather spell is past. Then hopefully it will be safe to put them in the greenhouse for the remainder of the growing period. Fingers crossed. We are forecast to get snow, ice, rain, sleet and shit and stuff and things this weekend. We will see.
Well we did decide to go ahead and build a smaller addition onto the big chicken house up here on the hill to raise the meat birds. It should be big enough to accommodate the 25 birds I am starting the season with. Rodger and Jason got that task done last weekend. They went from this:
The floor on Saturday morning was the start, and time wise, 3 days later this is what we have:
This is a 6ft addition onto the west end of the hen house. It would be so nice if chickens were not such creatures of habit and the hens would just move in the new residence. But I am sure if I tried that it would mean going out at dark and carrying each bird to the new house. They would sit down at the door of their old house. So I will leave them be and put the new babies in the new building. Then once they are butchered off and the building is empty I can put new young pullets in this section. Hopefully as I hatch chicks this spring and save out the lil pullets I intend to raise them in this new section so it will be home to them. After the young bird get close to laying age we will be butchering off our old flock and that will leave the bigger building empty to raise the fall round of Cornish for our winter meat supply. I will let ya know how my plan works out. OK stop laughing, its not done yet. I got my heat lights, bedding, feed at the ready, vitamins and all set to get my babies first of the week. They will only live here about 6 , no more than 7 weeks till they are in the freezer. When we have several days of warm dry weather forecast I will paint the outside of this building to help protect it even tho it is built with exterior grade plywood. Yep, another paint project.
Speaking of painting, I am still not done on the inside of the house as of right now. I did finally get the closet section painted in the bedroom/walk-in closet off my bedroom. I has nice heavy shelves in there to hold all kinds of stuff that was sitting all over my closet/craft room. Much neater and at least I can safely walk in there and come out with all 10 toes intact. I have had to take it easy the past few days as I have had another round of mild bronchitis I guess. Have not felt good for a few days. I did feel some better today and managed to get another coat of paint on the walls in the master bath. The paint was not old enough to really need to be totally painted but needed touch up where the paint for some reason looked thin. So another project off my list. I actually think there is enough paint left in that can if it remains good to totally repaint the whole bathroom in a few years when it needs it again. I still need to buy the paint to paint the inside of the pantry in the kitchen. Sounds like a good lil project for a crappy weather weekend we are supposed to have this weekend. IF and thas a big IF I feel better. Have to wait till tomorrow to see how that goes. That will leave the living room and master bedroom to paint and I might be done. At least till I get another harebrained idea.
I have at last got my garden seeds out and all sorted to see what all we have and want to plant. Not sure how I did it, but I have managed to let us run out of cucumber seed. Panic time!! Well not really. I did find that Lowe's sells organic and heirloom seeds. So I guess my next trip out of town will include a trip to Lowe's to pick up some cucumber seeds so we have them on hand at planting time. It is still really wet in the garden right now but Rodger thinks he might be able to get in there tomorrow and at least plant our peas. No we did not get them planted on Valentines day like we wanted to. But I think it is still early enough that they will do fine before really hot weather hits. Peas do not do well in heat. The earlier you can plant them the better they will produce and the pods of the Sugar Snap peas will be super tender and crisp. It has been to wet and cold here for us to get in the orchard an prune the fruit trees. That needs to be done really soon before they start to bud. But you do what you can and the rest has to wait.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Well we did decide to go ahead and build a smaller addition onto the big chicken house up here on the hill to raise the meat birds. It should be big enough to accommodate the 25 birds I am starting the season with. Rodger and Jason got that task done last weekend. They went from this:
Speaking of painting, I am still not done on the inside of the house as of right now. I did finally get the closet section painted in the bedroom/walk-in closet off my bedroom. I has nice heavy shelves in there to hold all kinds of stuff that was sitting all over my closet/craft room. Much neater and at least I can safely walk in there and come out with all 10 toes intact. I have had to take it easy the past few days as I have had another round of mild bronchitis I guess. Have not felt good for a few days. I did feel some better today and managed to get another coat of paint on the walls in the master bath. The paint was not old enough to really need to be totally painted but needed touch up where the paint for some reason looked thin. So another project off my list. I actually think there is enough paint left in that can if it remains good to totally repaint the whole bathroom in a few years when it needs it again. I still need to buy the paint to paint the inside of the pantry in the kitchen. Sounds like a good lil project for a crappy weather weekend we are supposed to have this weekend. IF and thas a big IF I feel better. Have to wait till tomorrow to see how that goes. That will leave the living room and master bedroom to paint and I might be done. At least till I get another harebrained idea.
I have at last got my garden seeds out and all sorted to see what all we have and want to plant. Not sure how I did it, but I have managed to let us run out of cucumber seed. Panic time!! Well not really. I did find that Lowe's sells organic and heirloom seeds. So I guess my next trip out of town will include a trip to Lowe's to pick up some cucumber seeds so we have them on hand at planting time. It is still really wet in the garden right now but Rodger thinks he might be able to get in there tomorrow and at least plant our peas. No we did not get them planted on Valentines day like we wanted to. But I think it is still early enough that they will do fine before really hot weather hits. Peas do not do well in heat. The earlier you can plant them the better they will produce and the pods of the Sugar Snap peas will be super tender and crisp. It has been to wet and cold here for us to get in the orchard an prune the fruit trees. That needs to be done really soon before they start to bud. But you do what you can and the rest has to wait.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Friday, July 26, 2013
Its not so bad after all
I thought our poor garden was gonna be a total bust this year, but its not so bad after all. Although we still have plenty grass in there that is covering up some things it is still decent. We have made enough pickles to last a year even if we don't have any more. The vines are nice and green, just no cukes or even bloom on them. Not sure about why that happened. But we good either way. Our taters are not visible for the grass but the vines have already died back and its time to dig those. Most likely we will do that this weekend if no more rain till then. Well probably Rodger, Jason and Miranda will get em out. My pepper plants are short but have lots of lil peppers on them and still growing. The tomatoes are nice size plants, green and have lots of little tomatoes. They will just be a lil later than we are use to because we planted everything later this year. I hope to have sweet corn in a week or so. And I think we will have plenty to last us. Watermelons and cantaloupes are coming along too. Beans are starting to bloom. Not sure why they came up so spotty but we should have enough to last us. The corn we planted for cornmeal is huge and the ears are huge as well.
Rodger is 5'11 and the corn is twice as tall as he is. This is the Reid's yellow dent. An old fashioned open pollinated variety that we save our own seed for. So far we are happy with this variety for stock feed an to make corn meal. The chickens sure do like this stuff shelled. They don't eat much of it in summer but in winter it is a different story. Makes nice dark yellow egg yolks too. Rich and healthy for ya.
I am making progress on the herb bed, finally. I did get my new lavender plants planted in the herb bed and some sage plants that I had started in the greenhouse. They have been in pots for a several weeks to get some growth before transplant. Sure makes a difference in how hearty they are in the ground. I got some mulch put down too around the mature sage plants as well as the new ones.
I plan to try to get the sage cut for drying tomorrow as the weather has been much less humid for a few days. Rodger helped me last evening to get the rest of the weeds pulled so we could lay down black plastic to kill out weeds in the far end of the bed. By time we finished it was too dark to get a good picture, but trust me, it sure looked better.
This section of the herb bed has been established for a few years and has filled in pretty good and it has mulch so not much problem with weeds growing in here. A few strays that are easy to pull out here and there. The section that will have the black plastic on it for a few weeks is gonna be used this fall for a few cabbage, maybe broccoli and brussel sprouts for a fall crop. After I harvest the sage tomorrow I plan to make a spot to sow some parsley seed to cut this fall. I am guessin if I plant it late I can let it come back in the spring an go to seed for a new crop next year without reseeding. Kinda takes care of itself. I have lost my tarragon plants. They got over run by the oregano and mint. Suppose I will have to obtain some new plants next spring. I still have enough dried to last a few more years. Seems like on the farm, its feast or famine. In those "feast" years I can and dry everything I can get my grubby lil paws on so we don't run short in the "famine" years. It has worked well for me so far. My strawberry plants near the driveway are still producing some. I did get the bed weeded, it just needs mulch put down now to keep the weeds out. Same with the bed in back of the house.
My new lil beans that I planted in the bed out back came up rather spotty but the ones that are up look nice and healthy. I will trellis those for extra beans to can and save seed from. I feel better now that we kinda have a handle on the weeding here. That got pretty depressing for a while with all the rain an heat and not being able to get any thing done about the over growth.
The excess rain has sure made nice berries this year. My 1 thornless black berry plant that my friend Rosie gave me a couple years ago had lots of nice big berries on it. I know this because I stood out there a few days ago an picked and ate about 2 big hands full. So sweet and juicy. I still have more than enough berries canned to last a few more years without having to pick any in the awful heat. So I took the lazy way out this year.
I finally got my car in today to get the right seal put on the moon roof to keep it from leaking. It seals nice and tight now. The mechanic also unclogged the drain hole so it don't get water inside anymore even if the seal should leak. He did say this is a rather common problem with these vehicles. Now to get the duck tape residue off the top of the car. Maybe I can get that done tomorrow too if it don't get too hot or rain on me.
I know this subject is touchy with most people but some of us still smoke. Yeah I do, and yeah I know its bad for ya. Now get off my case. With that said, we turn our attention to the ones of us who still do smoke. My friend Anna sent us a cigarette rolling machine. Bless her heart, so kind of her and her hubby. Hubby and I can both smoke for about half what it was costing for cigarettes. The machine is so dang neat. Much improved over the ones of long ago like I have of my dads that you had to lay the paper in, put the tobacco on the paper and dampen the edge, manually roll the lil handle to roll the cigarette up. Hell I would have to stop smoking if I had to do that. I have "NO" experience rolling. Nuff said about that. But when we go to the big city we plan to get our tobacco to start rolling our own smokes. I like menthol so I guess I will be finding the menthol filters to roll with. So if you still smoke it is well worth lookin into purchasing the rolling machine that basically shoves the bakker into the filter cigarette thingys. But if ya wanna really cut down or quit, by all means do so or roll ya own. Anna also sent me a huge bag of lavender that she had dried. I love love love the smell of lavender. So very relaxing to me. My plan is to make some lil sachets or bags and fill them with the dried lavender and store with bed linens. I will likely make a pretty one to just hang on the head of my bed and hope it helps me sleep a lil better. Hell any thing that will help a lil. Maybe if I do enough things that help a "lil" that all those "lil's" will add up to a good nights sleep. One can alas dream, er hope to dream.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Rodger is 5'11 and the corn is twice as tall as he is. This is the Reid's yellow dent. An old fashioned open pollinated variety that we save our own seed for. So far we are happy with this variety for stock feed an to make corn meal. The chickens sure do like this stuff shelled. They don't eat much of it in summer but in winter it is a different story. Makes nice dark yellow egg yolks too. Rich and healthy for ya.
I am making progress on the herb bed, finally. I did get my new lavender plants planted in the herb bed and some sage plants that I had started in the greenhouse. They have been in pots for a several weeks to get some growth before transplant. Sure makes a difference in how hearty they are in the ground. I got some mulch put down too around the mature sage plants as well as the new ones.
I plan to try to get the sage cut for drying tomorrow as the weather has been much less humid for a few days. Rodger helped me last evening to get the rest of the weeds pulled so we could lay down black plastic to kill out weeds in the far end of the bed. By time we finished it was too dark to get a good picture, but trust me, it sure looked better.
This section of the herb bed has been established for a few years and has filled in pretty good and it has mulch so not much problem with weeds growing in here. A few strays that are easy to pull out here and there. The section that will have the black plastic on it for a few weeks is gonna be used this fall for a few cabbage, maybe broccoli and brussel sprouts for a fall crop. After I harvest the sage tomorrow I plan to make a spot to sow some parsley seed to cut this fall. I am guessin if I plant it late I can let it come back in the spring an go to seed for a new crop next year without reseeding. Kinda takes care of itself. I have lost my tarragon plants. They got over run by the oregano and mint. Suppose I will have to obtain some new plants next spring. I still have enough dried to last a few more years. Seems like on the farm, its feast or famine. In those "feast" years I can and dry everything I can get my grubby lil paws on so we don't run short in the "famine" years. It has worked well for me so far. My strawberry plants near the driveway are still producing some. I did get the bed weeded, it just needs mulch put down now to keep the weeds out. Same with the bed in back of the house.
My new lil beans that I planted in the bed out back came up rather spotty but the ones that are up look nice and healthy. I will trellis those for extra beans to can and save seed from. I feel better now that we kinda have a handle on the weeding here. That got pretty depressing for a while with all the rain an heat and not being able to get any thing done about the over growth.
The excess rain has sure made nice berries this year. My 1 thornless black berry plant that my friend Rosie gave me a couple years ago had lots of nice big berries on it. I know this because I stood out there a few days ago an picked and ate about 2 big hands full. So sweet and juicy. I still have more than enough berries canned to last a few more years without having to pick any in the awful heat. So I took the lazy way out this year.
I finally got my car in today to get the right seal put on the moon roof to keep it from leaking. It seals nice and tight now. The mechanic also unclogged the drain hole so it don't get water inside anymore even if the seal should leak. He did say this is a rather common problem with these vehicles. Now to get the duck tape residue off the top of the car. Maybe I can get that done tomorrow too if it don't get too hot or rain on me.
I know this subject is touchy with most people but some of us still smoke. Yeah I do, and yeah I know its bad for ya. Now get off my case. With that said, we turn our attention to the ones of us who still do smoke. My friend Anna sent us a cigarette rolling machine. Bless her heart, so kind of her and her hubby. Hubby and I can both smoke for about half what it was costing for cigarettes. The machine is so dang neat. Much improved over the ones of long ago like I have of my dads that you had to lay the paper in, put the tobacco on the paper and dampen the edge, manually roll the lil handle to roll the cigarette up. Hell I would have to stop smoking if I had to do that. I have "NO" experience rolling. Nuff said about that. But when we go to the big city we plan to get our tobacco to start rolling our own smokes. I like menthol so I guess I will be finding the menthol filters to roll with. So if you still smoke it is well worth lookin into purchasing the rolling machine that basically shoves the bakker into the filter cigarette thingys. But if ya wanna really cut down or quit, by all means do so or roll ya own. Anna also sent me a huge bag of lavender that she had dried. I love love love the smell of lavender. So very relaxing to me. My plan is to make some lil sachets or bags and fill them with the dried lavender and store with bed linens. I will likely make a pretty one to just hang on the head of my bed and hope it helps me sleep a lil better. Hell any thing that will help a lil. Maybe if I do enough things that help a "lil" that all those "lil's" will add up to a good nights sleep. One can alas dream, er hope to dream.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Thursday, June 13, 2013
And we keep moving along, slowly
Slowly is the key here, at least in my world. I did get my injection of OrthoVisc in my left knee last Thursday. Well it was no piece of cake goin in, the medicine is very thick which makes it rather uncomfortable in the joint. Not that much pain tho, I have had worse. It was rather sore for a couple days. The doc said it may take a month or more after the injections are finished to see any noticeable difference in the pain level. So we continue and pray they help some.
We have been having a good deal of rain lately. Enough to keep things growing well I suppose. The garden looks good from here. It is also very hot and I cant do hot no more so I have been grounded to the house by Rodger. I am tryin really hard to be good an not cause undue worry for him. But crap! its tough when ya want to get out an do things in the plants and beds and cant. This stinks!! Not sure if its just me or if I am really falling apart lately. I was making supper tonight an used my big big bowl that my sweet friend Blanche Waterbury had gotten me many years ago when I made bread by hand. It will hold enough dough for about 4 loaves. Ironstone is the material its made of. I made a chicken casserole for supper and mixed it in the big bowl. Well I had to hold it up to pour the last bit of casserole into the baking pan and pulled my left shoulder. And no I did not tell Rodger. Am afraid he might take my big bowls away next. I think I may have to trade them in for some light weight mixing bowls from the boys in the near future if this happens again.
Our garden bed we have out back looks pretty good considering it was just planted a couple weeks ago.
In the picture nearest is Lima beans, the thick row is leaf lettuce and greens for salads, then broccoli. It is a lil late to be planting broccoli in our area but I had plants in the greenhouse an ya know ya cant just toss em. So ya plant em an hope they do OK.
The next bed over has tomato plants in it. They are Gypsy tomatoes that I got as a freebie from Baker creek seeds with my order this year. They originated in Russia. So we shall see if they are good an if so will be able to save the seeds for next year. The far bed has my strawberry plants in it with one lone Egyptian walking onion in with em. They seem to be compatible neighbors so I leave em be.
My holly hocks are blooming and lookin good.
They have just gotten started blooming here and with the last heavy rain we had it knocked a few of them over on the sidewalk to the cellar. Also the momma cat has 3 kittens that love to climb the stalks and pull them over too. My old fashioned rose bush that is planted in this bed was blooming too when we had rain and I think I missed being able to cut the roses for potpourri. Once they get wet with rain fall they tend to rot before they will dry. I learned this last year when I cut some tryin to salvage them after they had been rained on. But these lil roses smell heavenly.
Not sure how long I will leave an flower beds if I keep encountering snakes. I walked past this area on the way to close the greenhouse out back and Luna started barking behind me and she had found a snake. I killed it with a shovel and she was having no part of the snake. Then just a few days ago I was inside an heard her barking an recognized the tone of her bark. I went out the front door an she came around the corner from the driveway end of the house then went back as if to say " mom come here". I went to see what she wanted and she had found another snake. I hit this one on the head with a piece of pipe and she grabbed it an shook it to death. And every time I tried to get close enough to get the piece of pipe under it to toss it out of the yard she would grab it an take it farther from me an shake it some more. I guess she didn't want it near me. She is very protective of me but she hates snakes too. Most dogs will kill snakes but when she had the snake cornered and was barking at it, she backed up an touched a tall plant behind her and jumped out of her skin. So this year that is 2 snakes we have killed here in the yard. Both of them after the heavy rain so probably they got flooded out of their hiding spots. We live so close to the woods its a wonder we don't see more than we do. I just don't like snakes of any kind other than dead ones. Our mower had been out of commission for a couple weeks too an the grass had got pretty big and then we fixed the mower an Rodger had mowed the yard. Don't know where they came from but they need to stay away.
Remember my post a couple weeks back when I had trimmed the grapevines and decided to see if I could get some to start this late in the season? Well it didn't work out so well this time. It might have gotten too hot in the greenhouse for the starts. But even tho it has been hot I have maybe 3 or 4 that have lil green leaves on them. So I will keep them watered and see how they do. I might attempt some more in a few days, maybe this weekend, because I need to whack off some long leggy limbs on the vines again. I was surfing around the Internet last week and found something interesting. Aspirin could in a pinch be used as a rooting hormone. After all it is a derivative of the willow tree of which you can put twigs of in a jar of water to help root cutting. Just more of my useless knowledge to pass on. I also read that spiders don't like mint. So I have the brainy idea to cut some of my mint an toss it in the blender with some water and made a strong solution and trickle it around the house to keep them at bay. I know mice don't like mint either. This summer we have had lots of flys that just buzz around near the ceiling on our porch. They don't come down to pester us but its annoying to see them flying around up there. Lemon mint might do the trick on those. I will let you know. I have some growing all I need to do is cut some an hang it on the porch.
All kinds of things to do and not enough energy to do any of it. But I keep plugging along one day at a time. I get my injection tomorrow and will be off my feet an on my butt for 48 hours then see how much I can accomplish. I know I will have berries to take care of. Maybe get a few herbs harvested to dry to replenish my stock of dried herbs. I let my parsley go to seed again so it will come back up new again this fall and I will have plenty time to harvest lots before frost for our own use. I still need to move my plastic to the herb bed to kill out part of it so I can plant some new plants in there. Another project. And I think I have decided what I want to do with my big bath tub in the herb bed. I want to put in partially down in the ground so it is not so tall and fill it with dirt. I want to make a fairy garden in there and use herbs as the landscape plants in there. I want to plant creeping thyme around the edges to cascade over the sides. Not sure what else I will plant in it but want to do it just for something fun and useful. I have been looking on Pinterest for ideas of how to plant it. Maybe a lil water feature for the fairies. I need "fun".
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
We have been having a good deal of rain lately. Enough to keep things growing well I suppose. The garden looks good from here. It is also very hot and I cant do hot no more so I have been grounded to the house by Rodger. I am tryin really hard to be good an not cause undue worry for him. But crap! its tough when ya want to get out an do things in the plants and beds and cant. This stinks!! Not sure if its just me or if I am really falling apart lately. I was making supper tonight an used my big big bowl that my sweet friend Blanche Waterbury had gotten me many years ago when I made bread by hand. It will hold enough dough for about 4 loaves. Ironstone is the material its made of. I made a chicken casserole for supper and mixed it in the big bowl. Well I had to hold it up to pour the last bit of casserole into the baking pan and pulled my left shoulder. And no I did not tell Rodger. Am afraid he might take my big bowls away next. I think I may have to trade them in for some light weight mixing bowls from the boys in the near future if this happens again.
Our garden bed we have out back looks pretty good considering it was just planted a couple weeks ago.
In the picture nearest is Lima beans, the thick row is leaf lettuce and greens for salads, then broccoli. It is a lil late to be planting broccoli in our area but I had plants in the greenhouse an ya know ya cant just toss em. So ya plant em an hope they do OK.
The next bed over has tomato plants in it. They are Gypsy tomatoes that I got as a freebie from Baker creek seeds with my order this year. They originated in Russia. So we shall see if they are good an if so will be able to save the seeds for next year. The far bed has my strawberry plants in it with one lone Egyptian walking onion in with em. They seem to be compatible neighbors so I leave em be.
My holly hocks are blooming and lookin good.
They have just gotten started blooming here and with the last heavy rain we had it knocked a few of them over on the sidewalk to the cellar. Also the momma cat has 3 kittens that love to climb the stalks and pull them over too. My old fashioned rose bush that is planted in this bed was blooming too when we had rain and I think I missed being able to cut the roses for potpourri. Once they get wet with rain fall they tend to rot before they will dry. I learned this last year when I cut some tryin to salvage them after they had been rained on. But these lil roses smell heavenly.
Not sure how long I will leave an flower beds if I keep encountering snakes. I walked past this area on the way to close the greenhouse out back and Luna started barking behind me and she had found a snake. I killed it with a shovel and she was having no part of the snake. Then just a few days ago I was inside an heard her barking an recognized the tone of her bark. I went out the front door an she came around the corner from the driveway end of the house then went back as if to say " mom come here". I went to see what she wanted and she had found another snake. I hit this one on the head with a piece of pipe and she grabbed it an shook it to death. And every time I tried to get close enough to get the piece of pipe under it to toss it out of the yard she would grab it an take it farther from me an shake it some more. I guess she didn't want it near me. She is very protective of me but she hates snakes too. Most dogs will kill snakes but when she had the snake cornered and was barking at it, she backed up an touched a tall plant behind her and jumped out of her skin. So this year that is 2 snakes we have killed here in the yard. Both of them after the heavy rain so probably they got flooded out of their hiding spots. We live so close to the woods its a wonder we don't see more than we do. I just don't like snakes of any kind other than dead ones. Our mower had been out of commission for a couple weeks too an the grass had got pretty big and then we fixed the mower an Rodger had mowed the yard. Don't know where they came from but they need to stay away.
Remember my post a couple weeks back when I had trimmed the grapevines and decided to see if I could get some to start this late in the season? Well it didn't work out so well this time. It might have gotten too hot in the greenhouse for the starts. But even tho it has been hot I have maybe 3 or 4 that have lil green leaves on them. So I will keep them watered and see how they do. I might attempt some more in a few days, maybe this weekend, because I need to whack off some long leggy limbs on the vines again. I was surfing around the Internet last week and found something interesting. Aspirin could in a pinch be used as a rooting hormone. After all it is a derivative of the willow tree of which you can put twigs of in a jar of water to help root cutting. Just more of my useless knowledge to pass on. I also read that spiders don't like mint. So I have the brainy idea to cut some of my mint an toss it in the blender with some water and made a strong solution and trickle it around the house to keep them at bay. I know mice don't like mint either. This summer we have had lots of flys that just buzz around near the ceiling on our porch. They don't come down to pester us but its annoying to see them flying around up there. Lemon mint might do the trick on those. I will let you know. I have some growing all I need to do is cut some an hang it on the porch.
All kinds of things to do and not enough energy to do any of it. But I keep plugging along one day at a time. I get my injection tomorrow and will be off my feet an on my butt for 48 hours then see how much I can accomplish. I know I will have berries to take care of. Maybe get a few herbs harvested to dry to replenish my stock of dried herbs. I let my parsley go to seed again so it will come back up new again this fall and I will have plenty time to harvest lots before frost for our own use. I still need to move my plastic to the herb bed to kill out part of it so I can plant some new plants in there. Another project. And I think I have decided what I want to do with my big bath tub in the herb bed. I want to put in partially down in the ground so it is not so tall and fill it with dirt. I want to make a fairy garden in there and use herbs as the landscape plants in there. I want to plant creeping thyme around the edges to cascade over the sides. Not sure what else I will plant in it but want to do it just for something fun and useful. I have been looking on Pinterest for ideas of how to plant it. Maybe a lil water feature for the fairies. I need "fun".
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
The garden is finally in.......
Finally , dang it seems we have been all summer getting things finished up around here. We do have out tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and broccoli all transplanted to the big garden. the beans and sweet corn are up and look great. Rodger is going to the garden after work tomorrow to get the grass and weeds out of the corn an beans an get the tiller ran in those. Our potatoes looks really good but we do have several bugs now. I will spray those soon as weather permits. I used the black plastic weed kill method in some of the beds here at the house and have since got those planted as well. When I ordered my few seeds from Baker Creek this year they sent me a free packet of Gypsy tomatoes that originated in Russia. I planted those here near the house in one of the beds so IF they turn out to be good tomatoes I can keep the seeds and if not, no worries. But at least they wont be crossed with anything else. I also had a handful of Lima beans that a gentleman from Rodgers work gave us that his family has raised for many years here in Ky. I planted those along one side of the beds out back. Got some broccoli out there and a strip of lettuce sown.
The one bed outback that has the strawberries in it has out done them selves again this year. You know how scatter brained I am most days. I had forgot to check on them and had lots of berries rot before I remembered to pick them. But they are still producing and doing great. As well as the bed out by the driveway. I will need to pick those again tomorrow evening. Between the 2 beds here at the house we all picked right about 4 gallon of berries last Sunday. Those went home with Tammy (SIL) and Barbara (MIL). Yippee I didn't have to clean those. I still have a good supply of berries in the freezer from last summer. I took my friend Rosie's advice and had Rodger mow the raspberries down last fall so they can come back and produce one big crop this fall instead of working us to death all summer picking them every other day. They have come up and look just beautiful. They look even better since Rodger got the mowing done and you can actually see them now. I do need to get the big weeds out of the row and spread the rotted chicken manure down the sides of the row really soon so it can feed the plants.
You remember last post when I said I was going to give it a shot tryin to start grape vines in mid summer? Well right now they ain't lookin too good. The leaves fell off but that don't mean they are dead. I will leave them be and keep them watered and see what happens later in the season. And so help me I think the grape vines did double time puttin on more grape clusters after I fruit pruned them. May actually have to fruit prune them again to get bigger grapes. I might wait till the yard is mowed to be out there trampling around. The grass is gettin kinda high, not outlandish, but still thick and tall. Our mower needs new blades and we wont get those till we go out of town on Thursday. And needless to say our yard has bloomed again. We have lots of white clover in our yard. More clover and weeds than actual grass. We don't have a lawn, we got a yard. We thankfully don't have an HOA out here in the country or we might be in some trouble. I guess thas why we out here in the country.
Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
The one bed outback that has the strawberries in it has out done them selves again this year. You know how scatter brained I am most days. I had forgot to check on them and had lots of berries rot before I remembered to pick them. But they are still producing and doing great. As well as the bed out by the driveway. I will need to pick those again tomorrow evening. Between the 2 beds here at the house we all picked right about 4 gallon of berries last Sunday. Those went home with Tammy (SIL) and Barbara (MIL). Yippee I didn't have to clean those. I still have a good supply of berries in the freezer from last summer. I took my friend Rosie's advice and had Rodger mow the raspberries down last fall so they can come back and produce one big crop this fall instead of working us to death all summer picking them every other day. They have come up and look just beautiful. They look even better since Rodger got the mowing done and you can actually see them now. I do need to get the big weeds out of the row and spread the rotted chicken manure down the sides of the row really soon so it can feed the plants.
You remember last post when I said I was going to give it a shot tryin to start grape vines in mid summer? Well right now they ain't lookin too good. The leaves fell off but that don't mean they are dead. I will leave them be and keep them watered and see what happens later in the season. And so help me I think the grape vines did double time puttin on more grape clusters after I fruit pruned them. May actually have to fruit prune them again to get bigger grapes. I might wait till the yard is mowed to be out there trampling around. The grass is gettin kinda high, not outlandish, but still thick and tall. Our mower needs new blades and we wont get those till we go out of town on Thursday. And needless to say our yard has bloomed again. We have lots of white clover in our yard. More clover and weeds than actual grass. We don't have a lawn, we got a yard. We thankfully don't have an HOA out here in the country or we might be in some trouble. I guess thas why we out here in the country.
Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Finally got the garden in
The rain has held off for a few days now and we finally got our garden planted this evening after Rodger got home. He had gotten the ground ready a few days ago and it was dry enough and with rain in the forecast tomorrow we had to get er done. We got our sweet corn and green beans planted and the corn for cornmeal also. He filled in the plowed ground with purple hull and long horn peas. Those make excellent cover crops that feed the wild life and replenish the soil too. They add a good deal of nitrogen to the ground that has had corn on it.Our potatoes look good so far, no bugs as of yet. I am sure they are just waiting till it gets too muddy for us to get in there and then they will attack. My peas are blooming. They are really short too. So am not looking to get too many messes of peas off those vines at all. Simple fact we left town at a bad time. But dang it was worth it to see that precious lil grandson. And he gets sweeter every day.
He made a row marker to mount on the front of the tractor to use as a guide to get the rows evenly spaced. It is made with a piece of pipe and a piece of re-bar run thru with bolts to use as pins to hold the marker in place. A neat trick. If you click on the picture you can see the pieces of garden hose extending down on each side of the marker. So its all planted. After I came back to the house I weeded the strawberry bed beside the drive way and got it taken care of for now. All that is left to weed is the herb bed and that will do the weeding for a few weeks.
My friend Anna made these neat lil cowboy boots for Liam. She is so talented when it comes to crafting stuff. They turned out so dang cute. I am sending those off to Amoy and Rob for the baby this week. I am sure they will fit him soon.
Don't ya just love em? I have no talent to even come close to this lady I tell ya.
Not much else happening here on the farm right now, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
I love getting pictures of this lil fellow every day in email or on my phone. I keep some pictures on my phone so when I need a Liam fix I can just check my phone.
Anyway after supper Rodger took the tractor and corn planter to the field to plant corn. He used the tractor to make rows for the sweet corn and green beans and the planter put down the fertilizer and then he used the hand corn dropper to plant the corn and beans. Didn't really take long but was hard on his back.
It does take a lil longer to plant corn this way but it works. Imagine having to plant several acres using this method. The old folks did. My dad said he remembered planting 4 acres like this when he was a young man. The only drawback to this method of planting nowadays is that crows are smarter than they use to be or there is more of em. They can see where the planter leaves a lil hole in the ground and they will walk down the row and dig in each hole and pick our the grains of corn and eat it. Unless it rains like it is supposed to and the dirt fills in the lil holes so they cant see em. Hope we are lucky in that respect. He did use the tractor and corn drill to plant the corn for cornmeal and to plant the purple hull peas and long horn peas. I cant imagine his using this dropper to plant all that amount. The tractor does much better and is much faster.
My friend Anna made these neat lil cowboy boots for Liam. She is so talented when it comes to crafting stuff. They turned out so dang cute. I am sending those off to Amoy and Rob for the baby this week. I am sure they will fit him soon.
Don't ya just love em? I have no talent to even come close to this lady I tell ya.
Not much else happening here on the farm right now, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Monday, April 15, 2013
Working and waiting
Its spring garden season and we stay busy this time of year with all things pertaining to the garden and food crops here on the farm. Rodger spent most of the time getting corn shelled to plant our big field of stock corn. It takes a lot of corn to plant 5 acres. It takes 10 lbs of corn seed to plant 1 acre so he shelled about 75 just in case. We are planning on changing the plates in the corn planter to a smaller size so it don't plant the corn so thick. The Reid's yellow dent that we raise(open pollinated) is a smaller grain than most and we used the plates for bigger grains thus planting thicker. Didn't hurt the corn tho, we had a good crop last year. The price of fertilizer is ridiculous at best. Some places are charging upwards of $800 a ton. Not sure why as natural gas prices are the lowest they have been in years. You have a choice, pay the price or don't raise crops. We have found that there are lots of people going back to the open pollinated corn as it is higher in protein than the hybrid GMO corn raised elsewhere. All I know is stock and chickens eat it much better and thrive better on it.
Not sure I have accomplished much this weekend other than house cleaning and getting the laundry caught up. The usual water stuff in the greenhouse and care for the chickens. My meat birds are growing good. Not sure if they will get butchered on schedule or not. That all depends on when our lil grand son chooses to make his appearance. My plants in the greenhouse are coming up and lookin nice and healthy. My Rutger tomato seeds all sprouted and came up really well. Peppers are a lil slower than I would like so not sure if I want to just go ahead and reseed those yet or not. IF I do reseed I intend to put them on a heat pad for a while to get them sprouted an started faster. Peppers must be warm to sprout or they just rot in the soil.
Last week they were giving some bad storms for our area but thankfully we only got a nice thunderstorm. No damage. But it did bring out the lil frogs in herds or droves, hmm what to ya call a "bunch" of frogs? It was raining and I was in the kitchen and could hear the frogs croaking, sounded like they were in the house. I had 6 stuck on the patio door.
There were more at the top of the door. I don't touch frogs but they were kinda cute. I am pretty sure they ate well that night as we leave the light out side the door on and there were lots of night bugs for them to catch. Neat lil creatures with the suction cups on their toes.
I worked some on the beds I have out back today. The bed has 2 sections one of which has strawberries in it and the other had asparagus in it. For what ever reason the asparagus has not made me happy at all. I think it may be in a bad spot and the soil is likely a lil too acidic. That bed get filtered sun during the day too which I am sure don't help at all. So I dug up the asparagus and am shipping it to a friend in Virginia to plant in her beds. Otherwise I am gonna use black plastic and burn the bed to kill out all the weeds in there and that would have killed the asparagus too. I hope her soil makes the plants happier than mine did. In that area strawberries do great so I will move more plants from the field to the beds and just have a huge strawberry bed here near the house. SO the asparagus crowns are safely packed in a box to ship to my friend Anna. What does a hillbilly use when they don't have clear packing tape? Camo duct tape of course!!
Just hope that tapes stays put for a few days that the box will travel. I got the plastic in place and hope a big wind dont send it sailing off the never never land. We did get some rain this evening just at dark. I guess that will make the yard grow more. Rodger got the mower ready and mowed our yard this afternoon and it looks so much better. My chickens were out and they had a good time catching what ever bugs Rodger scared up mowing.
Speaking of travel, we will be traveling soon we think. Traveling to Nevada that is. After this Thursday we are pretty sure it wont be long till Amoy goes into labor. She has had to have medication a couple times to stop her contractions but when she sees the doc Thursday they prolly wont stop the contractions again. She thinks she will go soon. So we wait till we get a call that she is for sure in labor and we drive off into the sunset........well sort of. Its almost game time and we are all gettin excited to see that lil fellow we have waited 9 months to meet. I think I am gonna like being a Grammy. I will let ya know how it works out for me.
Not much else happening around here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Not sure I have accomplished much this weekend other than house cleaning and getting the laundry caught up. The usual water stuff in the greenhouse and care for the chickens. My meat birds are growing good. Not sure if they will get butchered on schedule or not. That all depends on when our lil grand son chooses to make his appearance. My plants in the greenhouse are coming up and lookin nice and healthy. My Rutger tomato seeds all sprouted and came up really well. Peppers are a lil slower than I would like so not sure if I want to just go ahead and reseed those yet or not. IF I do reseed I intend to put them on a heat pad for a while to get them sprouted an started faster. Peppers must be warm to sprout or they just rot in the soil.
Last week they were giving some bad storms for our area but thankfully we only got a nice thunderstorm. No damage. But it did bring out the lil frogs in herds or droves, hmm what to ya call a "bunch" of frogs? It was raining and I was in the kitchen and could hear the frogs croaking, sounded like they were in the house. I had 6 stuck on the patio door.
I worked some on the beds I have out back today. The bed has 2 sections one of which has strawberries in it and the other had asparagus in it. For what ever reason the asparagus has not made me happy at all. I think it may be in a bad spot and the soil is likely a lil too acidic. That bed get filtered sun during the day too which I am sure don't help at all. So I dug up the asparagus and am shipping it to a friend in Virginia to plant in her beds. Otherwise I am gonna use black plastic and burn the bed to kill out all the weeds in there and that would have killed the asparagus too. I hope her soil makes the plants happier than mine did. In that area strawberries do great so I will move more plants from the field to the beds and just have a huge strawberry bed here near the house. SO the asparagus crowns are safely packed in a box to ship to my friend Anna. What does a hillbilly use when they don't have clear packing tape? Camo duct tape of course!!
Just hope that tapes stays put for a few days that the box will travel. I got the plastic in place and hope a big wind dont send it sailing off the never never land. We did get some rain this evening just at dark. I guess that will make the yard grow more. Rodger got the mower ready and mowed our yard this afternoon and it looks so much better. My chickens were out and they had a good time catching what ever bugs Rodger scared up mowing.
Speaking of travel, we will be traveling soon we think. Traveling to Nevada that is. After this Thursday we are pretty sure it wont be long till Amoy goes into labor. She has had to have medication a couple times to stop her contractions but when she sees the doc Thursday they prolly wont stop the contractions again. She thinks she will go soon. So we wait till we get a call that she is for sure in labor and we drive off into the sunset........well sort of. Its almost game time and we are all gettin excited to see that lil fellow we have waited 9 months to meet. I think I am gonna like being a Grammy. I will let ya know how it works out for me.
Not much else happening around here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Thursday, April 11, 2013
A little progress every day
We seem to make some progress every day here on the farm as far as getting crops in and gardens planted. The plants in the greenhouse are coming up and growing really well. We were supposed to have severe storms this evening but they missed us and I am so thankful. Not sure how much my lil greenhouse can take out there. The rain was nice tho. It was a bit dry for the past week or so. Jason got started on plowing the ground where we will plant corn this year again. He ran the disc thru and next they will turn the ground and get ready to plant. Rodger got the seed corn shelled for planting too. We plant open pollinated stock corn. We have had several people that are more interested in planting open pollinated than hybrid and they prefer to buy open pollinated as well. An older gentleman told us the open pollinated has far more protein content than does round-up ready hybrid. Any time you mess with genetics you will lose another quality in something. Seems to me "big" farmers just grow more worthless corn. But we do intend to plant 5 acres again this year. So says Rodger and Jason.
So far my Cornish cross chicks are growing just like the ones I use to get from Marti poultry farms. This time I had to order from Cackle hatchery as Marti went out of business. I do think I have the right chicks now that will grow well and yield great weight when we butcher at 6 weeks of age like we did with birds we got from Marti. They are 3 weeks old and look at the size of those lil fellows.
They all have lived good and are gaining weight like they should. I guess they will weigh about 2 to 2 1/2 lbs now. All they do is eat, drink, sit and poop. But after all that is what they are supposed to do.
Last weekend I went to west KY to visit my aunt Ann and attend my second cousins wedding. I did have a nice visit with family and Aunt Ann. Please keep her in your prayers as she continues her battle with cancer. It is hard to imagine how sick she is when you talk to her because she is her usual self. I came home on Monday after the wedding. Don't think the family here missed any meals while I was gone. Rodger said he had supper with Jason and Mary Kay on Sunday while I was gone. Jason had made beef stew and he makes the bestest.
Today has been a non stop circus here. First thing this morning I took my car in to the service center with a dummy light that had come on and have to take it back tomorrow so they can put the part on. I sure didn't want to sit there all afternoon with so many lil things on my to-do list. I left there and came back to town and call and got a hair cut then home to feed chickens and Luna and the cats. Off again to the nursing home to see Mom for a bit. Then on to the doc in the next town. Stopped by Mary Kay's work and got a bite of lunch. I got rather angry at the doc. Our state government is so hell bent on stopping drug abuse that they make it near impossible for people like myself who have chronic pain to get help. The doc wrote my script out wrong then tole me to just take the meds like I had been for 2 weeks and come back and see my regular doc. Who is very hard to see these days for some reason. So now if we have to leave in the next week to go to Nevada I will be without my pain meds for almost 2 weeks. The new state law wont allow any docs to write pain meds except pain specialist and those are the ones who contribute most to the abuse problem in this area. When I worked EMS 90% of the over doses we had were pain clinic patients. Hell no I want no part of those things. Not only that when I got hurt at work and went to them they said they could not write my meds unless I allowed them to do steroid injections in my back. Well damn the back is not the only pain I have. The law has made a mess of medical care in the area of chronic pain. And most docs will agree that the steroid injections destroy bone and tissue around the injection site. I got enough problems without "allowing" someone to do more. Pain clinics are nothing more than a money racket. OK I will get off the soap box now. But it makes me mad.
At any rate this has been a long aggravating day for me. I feel like I went in circles all day. I actually kinda did tho. I did end up back at home after 5 this evening. All the critters are fed and in bed and everything was buckled down before the lil storm hit here. We got maybe 10 to 15 minutes of wind, nothing major and some rain. So all is good on the home front.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
So far my Cornish cross chicks are growing just like the ones I use to get from Marti poultry farms. This time I had to order from Cackle hatchery as Marti went out of business. I do think I have the right chicks now that will grow well and yield great weight when we butcher at 6 weeks of age like we did with birds we got from Marti. They are 3 weeks old and look at the size of those lil fellows.
They all have lived good and are gaining weight like they should. I guess they will weigh about 2 to 2 1/2 lbs now. All they do is eat, drink, sit and poop. But after all that is what they are supposed to do.
Last weekend I went to west KY to visit my aunt Ann and attend my second cousins wedding. I did have a nice visit with family and Aunt Ann. Please keep her in your prayers as she continues her battle with cancer. It is hard to imagine how sick she is when you talk to her because she is her usual self. I came home on Monday after the wedding. Don't think the family here missed any meals while I was gone. Rodger said he had supper with Jason and Mary Kay on Sunday while I was gone. Jason had made beef stew and he makes the bestest.
Today has been a non stop circus here. First thing this morning I took my car in to the service center with a dummy light that had come on and have to take it back tomorrow so they can put the part on. I sure didn't want to sit there all afternoon with so many lil things on my to-do list. I left there and came back to town and call and got a hair cut then home to feed chickens and Luna and the cats. Off again to the nursing home to see Mom for a bit. Then on to the doc in the next town. Stopped by Mary Kay's work and got a bite of lunch. I got rather angry at the doc. Our state government is so hell bent on stopping drug abuse that they make it near impossible for people like myself who have chronic pain to get help. The doc wrote my script out wrong then tole me to just take the meds like I had been for 2 weeks and come back and see my regular doc. Who is very hard to see these days for some reason. So now if we have to leave in the next week to go to Nevada I will be without my pain meds for almost 2 weeks. The new state law wont allow any docs to write pain meds except pain specialist and those are the ones who contribute most to the abuse problem in this area. When I worked EMS 90% of the over doses we had were pain clinic patients. Hell no I want no part of those things. Not only that when I got hurt at work and went to them they said they could not write my meds unless I allowed them to do steroid injections in my back. Well damn the back is not the only pain I have. The law has made a mess of medical care in the area of chronic pain. And most docs will agree that the steroid injections destroy bone and tissue around the injection site. I got enough problems without "allowing" someone to do more. Pain clinics are nothing more than a money racket. OK I will get off the soap box now. But it makes me mad.
At any rate this has been a long aggravating day for me. I feel like I went in circles all day. I actually kinda did tho. I did end up back at home after 5 this evening. All the critters are fed and in bed and everything was buckled down before the lil storm hit here. We got maybe 10 to 15 minutes of wind, nothing major and some rain. So all is good on the home front.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Monday, January 7, 2013
A cluster of blank days
I think my life is like a calendar of blank days. Nothing filled in the days, nada, nothing. Or so it seems. Or maybe its just that I don't remember stuff like I used to. Yep I think thas it. I turned 50 and lost my damn mind. After all who in their right mind cleans carpet in winter time. Especially when their back already hurts. Well I know that was a job that needed to get done. Or maybe it was because I had to purchase a new shampoo machine and wanted to try it out. Yep thas it. And how many people move their house around just so they can have a closet/craft/sewing room? All I did was make the sewing projects more obvious and I see them everyday when I go into the closet/craft/sewing room. Now I must work on those. We still need to move the TV and will probably get that done sometime this week when Jason can get the couch out of the living room. BUT the carpet is clean under it.
I received my seed orders in the mail already this week. Now I can dream about gardening in spring. Not sure if we will raise as much of a garden as we did last year but it will feed us. Seems we have not used too much stuff from the cellar this winter, but I do guess it is early yet. In the process of talking to Josh last night and thinkin of how he could raise a small garden in his backyard in the subdivision this summer. We came on the idea of planting in straw bales. Use square bales of straw set on the ground with the strings running parallel to the ground. Water the bales with manure teas or compost tea to start the bale composting. After the bale is wet and warm in the middle, not too hot, then add a layer of compost on top and plant your seeds. I am thinkin this might be the perfect way for even me to raise onions and carrots so the grass and weeds don't take them over. I know I am going to try this with some lettuce in spring and may even plant some onion sets to see what they will do. If I can manage to do it, I will post pics along the way. You are thinkin "yeah right", but all I can do is hope I can remember to take the pics.
Well we have our plane tickets for our trip to Vegas. Rodger has shoes to wear with his existing suit. I got my dress in the mail today AND IT FITS! yippee for me. I am really looking forward to seeing our son marry the love of his life. We love her as much as he does. And wish them a lifetime of love, peace and happiness.
The parts came today for our furnace and we are waiting on our niece's boyfriend to call and install it for us. I am hoping he has time to do it as I sure don't think I want to hear Rodger cuss as he tries to install the heating elements.
Rodger finally got all our corn picked and in the cribs. All the cribs are full and then some I think. We will sell most of it. We have lots of white corn for grinding into cornmeal for sell as well. Not sure I even need cornmeal this year as I still have lots left from last years grind. But maybe we will grind some anyway "just in case". I need to get in the crib and get some of the corn out to send to my homesteading buddy Randy in central Ky so he can get a start of the white corn for his cornmeal every year. It is suppose to be warm this week so maybe I can get that done. Tomorrow I have to see the eye doc and hopefully order my new contacts. I am happy that I can finally read and see at a distance with just contacts and not have to use glasses too so I can read. Thas a pain.
Later in the week I plan to soak some dried beans to make and can some more mixed bean soup. We have used all the first batch that I canned. It was so good. I still have my small sweet taters that I need to can up also. I need to get this done so we can hopefully if weather permitting butcher off some excess roosters this coming weekend.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
I received my seed orders in the mail already this week. Now I can dream about gardening in spring. Not sure if we will raise as much of a garden as we did last year but it will feed us. Seems we have not used too much stuff from the cellar this winter, but I do guess it is early yet. In the process of talking to Josh last night and thinkin of how he could raise a small garden in his backyard in the subdivision this summer. We came on the idea of planting in straw bales. Use square bales of straw set on the ground with the strings running parallel to the ground. Water the bales with manure teas or compost tea to start the bale composting. After the bale is wet and warm in the middle, not too hot, then add a layer of compost on top and plant your seeds. I am thinkin this might be the perfect way for even me to raise onions and carrots so the grass and weeds don't take them over. I know I am going to try this with some lettuce in spring and may even plant some onion sets to see what they will do. If I can manage to do it, I will post pics along the way. You are thinkin "yeah right", but all I can do is hope I can remember to take the pics.
Well we have our plane tickets for our trip to Vegas. Rodger has shoes to wear with his existing suit. I got my dress in the mail today AND IT FITS! yippee for me. I am really looking forward to seeing our son marry the love of his life. We love her as much as he does. And wish them a lifetime of love, peace and happiness.
The parts came today for our furnace and we are waiting on our niece's boyfriend to call and install it for us. I am hoping he has time to do it as I sure don't think I want to hear Rodger cuss as he tries to install the heating elements.
Rodger finally got all our corn picked and in the cribs. All the cribs are full and then some I think. We will sell most of it. We have lots of white corn for grinding into cornmeal for sell as well. Not sure I even need cornmeal this year as I still have lots left from last years grind. But maybe we will grind some anyway "just in case". I need to get in the crib and get some of the corn out to send to my homesteading buddy Randy in central Ky so he can get a start of the white corn for his cornmeal every year. It is suppose to be warm this week so maybe I can get that done. Tomorrow I have to see the eye doc and hopefully order my new contacts. I am happy that I can finally read and see at a distance with just contacts and not have to use glasses too so I can read. Thas a pain.
Later in the week I plan to soak some dried beans to make and can some more mixed bean soup. We have used all the first batch that I canned. It was so good. I still have my small sweet taters that I need to can up also. I need to get this done so we can hopefully if weather permitting butcher off some excess roosters this coming weekend.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Yipee, it was my 50th birthday
Well probably by the time this posts, my birthday will have passed. I can tell you that turning 50 is not for wimps. I got more things that hurt than most people 70 years old. This sucks. But I am amazed that I made it this far and am so very thankful. I got a ton of good wishes on Facebook today, hubby offered to take me to Red Lobster to eat but with our weather forecast I told him maybe we should wait and do it when the weather was better. I didn't want to get iced in out of town on my birthday. So instead we went to the store to get a box of hair color. OK so I color, deny my age, I will. No seafood for dinner but we did make a big kettle of potato soup and fried cornbread with onions. So dang good.
I have got some things done that needed doing today. I got our garden seeds ordered that we are gonna need. I ordered from both Baker creek heirlooms and Seed savers exchange. In the past few years we have tried a few varieties of beans, corn and such and have decided on the varieties that do best for us here and that is what we are gonna stick with so we can save our own seed. Although we are planting 2 varieties of sweet corn, Golden bantam and Stowells Evergreen. The Golden bantam will sprout and come up in cooler ground and can be planted earlier in the season in our area. It is a good old fashioned variety of yellow sweet corn. The Stowells Evergreen is a white sweet corn that can be planted a lil later to extend the harvest. As for green beans, we like the taste of the Kentucky wonder. Neither of us here have a good back so if we can stand up and pick beans all the better. So my friend Randy from central Ky sent me some Ky wonder pole beans, the variety we like only in a climbing variety. So we can save seed from those as well. A gentleman that Rodger works with gave us some white half runners that we love also. So that will be our beans for the coming year. The seed corn I did order so we can have sweet corn that is true to variety and a pure strain. I also replenished our carrot seed supply. All the other seeds we need, we already have from saving them from last year.
In all this online ordering I ordered a dress to wear to Rob and Amoy's wedding in February in Las Vegas. Gosh that is not far off. Rodger bought a new pair of dress shoes for the wedding. I still will need to find shoes to wear. But that is taken care of. The plane tickets, hotel and transportation are all taken care of as well.
My regular readers may remember a few months back when I was fussing about my carpet shampoo machine breaking. Well I found one almost identical on Amazon.com for a really good price plus I had a gift card to apply to the price. Yippee for me, now I have a carpet machine on the way. That should give me something to do this winter.
It is almost time for lots of folks to start making New years resolutions. I don't make resolutions I guess I just try to better "me" every day. Some days I think I succeed, some days, not so much. But in the coming year I do want for Rodger and I to try to take better care of ourselves. That will include cutting way back or stopping smoking. I have already told Rodger that after new years day we cant smoke in the house any more unless its an electronic cigarette. My sweet son Rob bought me one of the electronic cigarettes and I think they help a lot to cut back. Now I need to order cartridge refills for them.
We are hoping that the weather cooperates a lil more tomorrow so we can get our deer skinned out and processed. I really need my summer kitchen. I am out of home canned mixed bean soup and need to make and can more of that. Also still have the small sweet potatoes that I need to can. Rob bought me one of the magnetic knife racks to keep my knives sharp and safely stored in the summer kitchen and I have not been able to get in there to get it mounted on the wall. Maybe after tomorrow. Jason and I are cooking our holiday dinner tomorrow of turkey and he is making the ham. Yummy!! Jason makes ham but putting ham of your choice in roasting pan and adding apple cider about half way up the ham and adding about 1 cup brown sugar making sure to coat the top of the ham well and bake in 200 degree oven over night. Oh my, this ham is sooo very good. You should try this method sometime, it is awesome.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
I have got some things done that needed doing today. I got our garden seeds ordered that we are gonna need. I ordered from both Baker creek heirlooms and Seed savers exchange. In the past few years we have tried a few varieties of beans, corn and such and have decided on the varieties that do best for us here and that is what we are gonna stick with so we can save our own seed. Although we are planting 2 varieties of sweet corn, Golden bantam and Stowells Evergreen. The Golden bantam will sprout and come up in cooler ground and can be planted earlier in the season in our area. It is a good old fashioned variety of yellow sweet corn. The Stowells Evergreen is a white sweet corn that can be planted a lil later to extend the harvest. As for green beans, we like the taste of the Kentucky wonder. Neither of us here have a good back so if we can stand up and pick beans all the better. So my friend Randy from central Ky sent me some Ky wonder pole beans, the variety we like only in a climbing variety. So we can save seed from those as well. A gentleman that Rodger works with gave us some white half runners that we love also. So that will be our beans for the coming year. The seed corn I did order so we can have sweet corn that is true to variety and a pure strain. I also replenished our carrot seed supply. All the other seeds we need, we already have from saving them from last year.
In all this online ordering I ordered a dress to wear to Rob and Amoy's wedding in February in Las Vegas. Gosh that is not far off. Rodger bought a new pair of dress shoes for the wedding. I still will need to find shoes to wear. But that is taken care of. The plane tickets, hotel and transportation are all taken care of as well.
My regular readers may remember a few months back when I was fussing about my carpet shampoo machine breaking. Well I found one almost identical on Amazon.com for a really good price plus I had a gift card to apply to the price. Yippee for me, now I have a carpet machine on the way. That should give me something to do this winter.
It is almost time for lots of folks to start making New years resolutions. I don't make resolutions I guess I just try to better "me" every day. Some days I think I succeed, some days, not so much. But in the coming year I do want for Rodger and I to try to take better care of ourselves. That will include cutting way back or stopping smoking. I have already told Rodger that after new years day we cant smoke in the house any more unless its an electronic cigarette. My sweet son Rob bought me one of the electronic cigarettes and I think they help a lot to cut back. Now I need to order cartridge refills for them.
We are hoping that the weather cooperates a lil more tomorrow so we can get our deer skinned out and processed. I really need my summer kitchen. I am out of home canned mixed bean soup and need to make and can more of that. Also still have the small sweet potatoes that I need to can. Rob bought me one of the magnetic knife racks to keep my knives sharp and safely stored in the summer kitchen and I have not been able to get in there to get it mounted on the wall. Maybe after tomorrow. Jason and I are cooking our holiday dinner tomorrow of turkey and he is making the ham. Yummy!! Jason makes ham but putting ham of your choice in roasting pan and adding apple cider about half way up the ham and adding about 1 cup brown sugar making sure to coat the top of the ham well and bake in 200 degree oven over night. Oh my, this ham is sooo very good. You should try this method sometime, it is awesome.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Its officially time to hibernate
Our forecast is for snow and rain, freezing weather, the whole mess. I don't drive in weather like that. I stay home and hibernate when the weather turns to crap. But on the bright side I will surf the web and get my garden planned and heirloom seeds that I need ordered in. We already have our plane tickets and hotel booked for February in Las Vegas for Rob and Amoys wedding. Dang that is not long off either. This year is almost to its end and then we are on the down hill slide to spring and greenhouse preps and gardens. Kinda hard to imagine that with snow on the ground and corn still in the field.I think the older we get the faster time goes by. I have a birthday on Saturday and with that one I figure my life is half over at best. Kinda scary if ya think about it.
What kind of new years resolutions do you make? I am not big on making so called resolutions. I think I rather try everyday to be a better person. Be more patient with others, take more time for friends and family. Be kinder to my own self. Now that would be a big accomplishment for me to be kinder to me. I tend to over do every thing I start. I guess I have always kept going to finish any thing I start and sometimes my mind writes checks my body cant cash. That makes for a big crash to recover. But such is my nature. So I think I shall try to do better at pacing my self this new year. I will let ya know how that goes.
I do have several sewing projects that I need to work on this winter while I am in hibernation. Nothing big, just a few lil things. I also want to get into making my own body lotions. I know some oils are great for the skin and if I add herbal tinctures to that I should end up with a good healing soothing lotion. I will post recipe and directions when I get this all figured out. So I am off to look up lotion recipes and properties. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
What kind of new years resolutions do you make? I am not big on making so called resolutions. I think I rather try everyday to be a better person. Be more patient with others, take more time for friends and family. Be kinder to my own self. Now that would be a big accomplishment for me to be kinder to me. I tend to over do every thing I start. I guess I have always kept going to finish any thing I start and sometimes my mind writes checks my body cant cash. That makes for a big crash to recover. But such is my nature. So I think I shall try to do better at pacing my self this new year. I will let ya know how that goes.
I do have several sewing projects that I need to work on this winter while I am in hibernation. Nothing big, just a few lil things. I also want to get into making my own body lotions. I know some oils are great for the skin and if I add herbal tinctures to that I should end up with a good healing soothing lotion. I will post recipe and directions when I get this all figured out. So I am off to look up lotion recipes and properties. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
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