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

We went from winter to ......worse

Last time I looked it was still winter, at least till mid march in my mind. But this week our temps have been so nice. It has been 60's to almost 70 today. I have had the patio door open since before noon today. But as is promised with Kentucky weather, it changes often. Tonight we are forecast for thunderstorms and damaging winds. Not what I need about now. But I don't control the weather.

I have been busy for the past several days. Yep I am still painting, taking lots of breaks too. I did finally get my bedroom painted. It does look much nicer. Still working on getting the "stuff" put back on the walls. I like to move art work around just for change and am stuck, cant decide what I really want to hang on the walls. For one I do want my antique quilt back up behind the headboard of the bed. I just liked it there. I don't even really have curtains up yet. The windows are kinda covered but not with drapes like I want. At this point I am not sure I want to paint the closet/craft room at all. I still have the master bedroom to do and the living room yet. Both will be a big job. I had to take several days off because I exhausted my energy reserve big time. Almost sent myself into a fibro flare. And I sure don't need that.

Rodger got my greenhouse put up last weekend. We did find time to get out of town and picked up several bags of seed starting medium. It is time to get all things cabbage related in soil to get started. They need to be grown in the cooler spring weather before the summer heat hits. So this coming weekend the plan is to get my benches back in the greenhouse and hopefully get the cabbage family in some dirt. I think just being able to get my hands in dirt will go a long way toward making me feel better. I have totally cluttered up my summer kitchen this winter with empty canning jars. We certainly have used lots of our canned stuff this year. So a big garden is a must for us. So I have to knuckle down and get busy. I did finally make a decision to order meat chicks this spring. They will arrive about march 3rd. We are thinking of maybe adding on to the existing chicken house up here on the hill, a smaller addition, to accommodate the hens and just use the big chicken house to raise the meat birds closer to the house. It sure would save a lot of worry for me with them closer. I would have a power source and could run out to check on them more often. Just better all around for all of us I think. If we add an extension to the back of the building we use now for the hens and move them, we can build a door on the west end and it is level enough back there and lots of room to put the tractor an bucket up to the door to shovel manure straight into the bucket without having to finagle the tractor to "kinda" get close enough to pitch the manure in the bucket. Then if I have my way I will have another door cut between the rooms so the manure can be pushed into the add on and on out into the tractor bucket. Easy peasy! Or at least easier. Only problem we have a short time to build this add on before the baby chicks arrive. We shall see.

Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Home at last

I am back home at last, at least for a while. Sorry about the long absence and lack of postings and updates. I just made it back home this evening. My uncle Tripp had ask me to house sit for him for the month of October while he was away and I did after talking with Rodger and concluding that there was nothing happening here on the farm that really needed my attention. So I headed to west Ky October 8th and just got back to my house today. It was a lil mini vacation of sorts for me but sad at the same time. I could sit on the porch at their house and felt like I was waiting on Aunt Ann to get home from work. Several times emotion overwhelmed me but at the same time I did find some comfort in being there. That big house sure is empty without her. Yet you can see evidence of her in every inch of the place. It is nice to be in my house again for a while. At least till the deer season starts and its back to the grind.

Back on the farm, Rodger went deer hunting and we have a few deer hanging that will get skinned an processed this coming week. So we have meat for the freezer. I still have some deer roast and burger left from last season in the freezer. I plan to use some of the roast in gumbo this week when I make and can more for Rodger. The burger I plan to use in making chili to can for heat and eat meals. We do eat a lot of soups, stews and chili in winter. Well actually all year round. Most weekends even in summer if we are busy we will have veggie soup or chili or gumbo for lunch or a quick supper. My version of convenience food only homemade. Rodger told me out potatoes are not keeping well in the cellar at all. I plan to go thru those this week and if they are salvageable I guess I will can up more of those. When we first dug them I did can a lot of the small ones. But dang I was so hoping they would keep in the cellar for use this winter. Guess I might invest in a big bag of Jasmine rice as our starch staple. I guess if we don't have our own taters we will just not be eating many taters.

It was too late when I got home to get to see how my cabbage were doing in the herb bed out front. I hope I have a few heads of cabbage to make a lil bit of kraut with. Kraut just makes my tummy feel so much better when I can eat a lil bit on occasion. Some fresh coleslaw would be nice too!! I could see even in the dark that the mustard and turnip greens will need to be picked and canned again this week. I just cut and canned a bunch of those before I left the early part of the month. I guess Rob and Amoy will get more of those delivered to Nevada in the spring when we make out trek out there next year. I am really sad that I have missed getting any apples at all this year to make pie filling or to freeze. But I hope I can dig in the freezer and find enough to make do till next season. Apples are far too expensive in the store to even think of buying any to freeze much less eat fresh. I do still have several jars of pie filling canned so I am good in that area.

While I was away Jason had a catastrophe at his house(the old farm house). They found a leak under the kitchen sink that had been leaking for a long long time. Water had soaked the particle board flooring underneath the linoleum and rotted it really bad. I was so worried that it may have weakened the structure of the house. So when I got home I went to check on Mary Kay, whom they had left to pull nails while Rodger and Jason went to purchase new floor material. And I was so relieved an happy to see the floor joist are as solid as the day they were put in about 100 years ago, and they are REAL 2 by 8 floor joist. Oak at that. Not to mention the sills are probably 10 by 10 inch squared timbers that are still solid as can be.  My grand dad and great grand dad may not have used a square or level to build but by hell they built strong. Some older houses can sometimes, with age, get to the point where you are almost better off to tear down and completely rebuild than to try to remodel, but I do believe this house is a perfect candidate to be remodeled. It does need a few minor repairs such as a couple floors leveled in the kitchen and dining room, the bath needs to be remodeled an expanded farther down the south side to encompass a bit more of the porch and add a utility room on. Jason would be wise to invest in doing those things and will end up with a good sturdy solid house. So the fellows will tackle the floor job tomorrow and get it fixed and as Jason has money he can do things to upgrade now that we know its on solid footing.

Not sure what I will tackle first tomorrow, get taters out of cellar and sort the bad ones out, make an can gumbo, make an can chili, just not sure yet. But I am sure I can find lots to do to keep me busy.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

We keep puttering along

If spring would just get here and stay here I think I would feel better. I hate this feeling rotten for seems like no good reason. If I am gonna hurt like hell I at least want to be able to DO something to have reason. Not sure whas up with my joints and back unless I am in the middle of a big ole flare up. The usual things I do that provide some relief are just not working right now. So me thinks is a flare up. But I will get over this hump too like all the others. I had to spend most of last week inside because my knees hurt so dang bad and bad knees is just not conducive to going up and down the porch steps and walking around in an un level yard. So I just puttered with my toys in here. Mostly the sewing machine. I have been in need of an apron with a wider than normal top section for a while. A normal size apron leaves too much of my shirt exposed to spots of grease and other cooking mis-haps. So I started making one  just fer lil ole me with a wider top section and much longer ties so I can just cross them in the back and tied them in the front. After shoulder surgery on both sides most days it is impossible to tie on anything that requires me to put my arms behind my back. So this is what I came up with.

So now hopefully I can prevent stains on my clothing. Not to mention I am the worst for wiping my hands on the bottom of my tee shirts when I am in the kitchen. So this was one of my projects for late last week. I even added a large pocket to the front so I don't lose my phone when I am in the summer kitchen too. I know most older ladies, my grandmother for one , always wore an apron, even to the garden. An apron tail is good for lots of things. From totin orphan babies of some sort, gathering veggies, drying hand and a multitude of other things. And those ladies alas had pockets too. But us modern day grammies have to keep up with things like cell phones and cameras for blog photos ya know. So I, still in the tinkering mode, made a lil baggy to hang around my neck for the phone and camera if I am away from the house. And both mine will fit in this lil bag.

This was a fabric scrap that was left from upholstering a foot stool for Jason several years ago. Kind heavy fabric for this application but does provide a lil extra cushion if I happen to bump into something. That is where my creativity ended.
We did go pick up my lil greenhouse Saturday and did some other shopping. I picked up several bags of potting mix to start seeds in. That will be getting under way as soon as Rodger gets my benches bu9ilt for the greenhouse. He did manage to get it put together and put up today too. And it is anchored to the railroad ties on both sides.

This is before the cover was totally in place. It was pretty cold outside today and really hard to work with the plastic material. Once it gets warmed up we can maneuver it into better position. But this will be so much more convenient for me. A blessing not trudging up and down the hill several times per day to check on the greenhouse and water and make sure some critter is not in there eatin hearty.

You can see the plastic has a mesh like heavier material inside it. Easy to zip the door closed and you can then un-zip an area over the door and one in the back for better cross ventilation. It is pretty heavy for a portable greenhouse. I will be a happy lil camper to know I don't have to walk so much to care for another one. Now I have to round up all my trays and planters and get busy.

I got baby chicks that should arrive about Wednesday of this week. I think I will keep them in a Rubbermaid tote for a week or so out in the summer kitchen so I can check on them many times per day. It will be much easier to keep the temp steady for the first couple weeks in there than in a large building. By 2 weeks of age they should be much stronger and able to withstand a lil variance of ambient temps. I do think my 3 hens should hatch sometime this week too. They have been really good about staying on their own nest too. Having 3 girls taking up 3 of the 4 nest boxes on the bottom row of the laying box had put a kink in some of the girls laying habits.

The 3 girls in the bottom row are the ones that should be hatching anytime now. The buff in the top laying box inside the fence jumps the fence everyday to lay. She will make a big fuss when she is done so she can get out.The 2 nest boxes on the end are occupied and 1 lady is pacing. After I took this photo she decided she was not waiting anymore and scooted in beside the lil hen on the bottom row. Out of view is 2 more hens waiting on a place to lay. I just put this section of wire up haphazard to try an prevent hens from laying with the setting hens and it has worked pretty good.

It started raining shortly after Rodger got the greenhouse up so we had some home canned veggie soup for lunch and he went to find some scrap lumber to make the benches with while I did inside stuff. I know we need rain, ya know, rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey, but crap cool and damp and me are just not compatible any more. Who the hell came up the idea of "global warming"? They need to move to Ky. Well on second thought , nope they don't. We don't want their kind here.

Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I learn something new almost every day

Ya know I think we get busy with life and don't pay attention to things in our life. Not quite sure how this happens but I am convinced it does. But its little things that amaze me. But I am easily entertained. I have played with my sewing machine for the past couple days to learn how to use it for all the things it is good for. No the machine is not new. I bought it probably in 1981 or 82 when I was a young newly wed. Every home needs a sewing machine of some sort and you should have the ability to use it to do what ever repairs or sewing you need or want to do in your home. I have used my sewing machine a lot over the past 30 plus years. It is still in perfect shape. It does embroidery, yep I knew that. What I did not know is just how many different things it can do. My machine has 30 cams with it. Each cam will do 3 different designs. Who knew? I sure didn't. I knew I had cams, just had no clue how to use em. SO I started looking online to see if I could find a users manual to it and located one. So I downloaded it and had Rodger print it off and put it in a book for me. (Nice book to by the way) I was reading in the book about the different presser feet the machine has. Hell to me up to that point they were just lil odd shaped pieces of metal. I find that 1 attachment can do rolled hems, another can do a blind stitch used for hemming garments. One of the attachments will hold a button in place while you sew it on with the machine. Who knew? Well long story short, I have a sewing machine that is top of the line and I didn't even know. Good thing I have kept it and taken care of it all these years. I am guessing that a new sewing machine that will do all the things that mine will would run about $400 or more. I cant remember what I paid many years ago but I know I would not have paid much for it. So I decided today to get out the cams and see what they would do. What fun, really neat tools. I had some fabric and got some out and proceeded to make myself an apron to suit my personal needs. I wanted an apron that would cover the upper front part of my shirts and the front of my clothes. So when I am cooking or frying especially I don't end up with grease stains on my tops that are impossible to get out. Most aprons I have seen have a really narrow top section and if something pops about the only thing covered is the center part of your shirt. I made my apron wider at the top to cover more (can we say no more grease stains on my boobs) an long enough that I don't spill stuff down the front of my clothes. I just had fun making it and kinda custom designed it to suit me. I like being able to do that. I am happy with my new apron. I will get some pics tomorrow, my camera is charging right now. I was thinking as I worked on the apron that I might like to have some new sweat pants to wear around the house. I have a pair of jammies already cut out somewhere in this house so I need to locate those and finish them. Then I can use the same pattern to make me some sweats in the style that I like. Most sweat pants you see now are low cut or Capri length and I don't like either of those. About the only ones that are to my liking are in the men's department. I think I might make another trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend and get some fabric to sew up a couple pairs. The ones I have right now are just beyond pitiful. I am sure I will think of other cool things to do with my new learned tricks and sewing machine.

I am tickled pink to be able to go get my lil greenhouse this weekend. I have to get our seeds started right away or we are gonna be far behind. Its time to get tomatoes, cabbage and other things started that we usually transplant to the garden. Hard to imagine it being time to start thinking seriously about gardens when we got a good half inch of snow this morning. But it melted by this afternoon tho. Sure didn't hurt my feelings a bit. We surely have had typical March weather here this month. Almost hot one day and snow the next. I worked in the yard on Sunday and today, snow. We have some of our young fruit trees starting to bud, and several of my ornamental things have swollen buds on them. Hope we don't get frost or a hard freeze. Might put an end to the possibility of fruit again this year.

I "thought" I had ordered my baby chicks back in February before we went to Las Vegas and when I called today they said it was obvious that my Internet order had not gone thru. But the nice lady at Cackle hatchery said she could ship some chicks out to me today if I wanted. How nice is that? Good customer service is so hard to find but very much appreciated these days. So I have chicks ordered that will be here next week. About Wednesday. Yippee!!!! So I guess I added another task to our ever growing  list for this weekend. Have to get the building ready for babies.Not a lot to do other than get the old bedding out and put in fresh straw and get feeders and waterers set in place for them. Rodger said we have to run a new extension cord for the heat light cause he hit the other one last year with the lawn mower. Guess I need to remember to pick up some high protein feed when we go out of town to get the greenhouse this weekend.

I had to call the vet today about my Luna. She has some sore spots on her that she keeps scratching at and a couple of them are really raw looking sores now. We are so lucky to have a nice vet that will come out to your house for a dog. Most of em wont. They tell you to being the dog into the clinic when its open. Well if you have a lil small dog you can put in the car or truck and tote off the see the doc thas great. I can not see me getting Luna into the truck at no price. Not no way, not no how. For one thing she weighs far more than I can lift and another is she does not like riding in a vehicle. But I called the vet and tole him what was happening and he said most likely mange. Oh my goodness. I thought only neglected malnourished dogs got mange. But I find that mange is caused by a tiny lil mite that buries under the skin and then the dog scratches till they dig the hair off and get sores. Not sure where she got this crap but I don't like it. He said he has seen more cases of mange this year so far than is normal. But any way he gave me some medicine that she has to take twice a week for a month and it will kill the mites on her body that are causing the intense itching and she will be fine. I was so afraid he was gonna tell me I had to bath her in some kind of solution for every but he said he knows that is not alas possible with big dogs. She does not like even a water hose much less being put in water and soaked. Can you imagine how would get the most dip on them in this process? Pretty sure I would be flea free for a long time. Anyway while he was here he gave her the rabies vaccine and got her up to date on all her other shots. I was very surprised that he only charged $60 for a house call, meds and shots. I was happy with that. He did say that in just a few days she will be much more comfortable when the medicine starts working but it might take a good bit longer before her hair grows back on her leg and ear. She don't look bad but I just hate to see her so miserable constantly scratching. I know what its like to have chiggers and the vet said these mites on dogs that cause the mange are comparable to chiggers on a person.
This is the same vet that fixed lil Abby's leg when she was just a baby and jumped out of Robs hand and hit the floor and broke her lil leg. The vets in Richmond wanted $1000 to fix Abby and do surgery and Rob brought her up here to Joey and he put a cast on her leg an tole Rob to take it off in 6 or 8 weeks and she would be fine. You cant tell she ever had anything wrong with her now. So living in a small town does have some advantages.

Not much else happening here on the farm this week. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

It looked like spring, and felt like spring

I just have to wonder if it was really spring or a false alarm again. We worked out in the yard today. That was my plan for yesterday too but we made a run out of town to see if we could get plastic for our greenhouse as finding it in our town is impossible. We had been to Lowe's last time we were out of town and they didn't have the width we needed so this time we stopped at Tractor Supply. And we didn't make it to the plastic till we spotted some 6 ft by 8 ft prefab greenhouses. The price looked good so we checked it out. They didn't have the one we wanted in stock but will have it this coming week. So we will go get it when they give us a call. So the project for today was to make a place for the smaller greenhouse closer to the power source and water source. The best place would be in the back yard. I had already decided that I was taking the pyramid bed out that was in the back and with doing that it made a perfect place for the greenhouse base.

I had strawberry plants in the pyramid for several years and every time we turned around out back this thing was in the way of some equipment. So out it went and Rodger and Jason used railroad ties for the base of the soon to be greenhouse so we had something too anchor too and it would be level.

This took some leveling and using the tractor to haul rocks and dirt to fill it in so I don't have to trudge in mud when I water. So this is where the new lil greenhouse will do. Much more convenient and it will serve my needs well. Much easier to put up and when I am finished for the season I can take it down, put it in the box and take care of it till next season.

While the fellers were doing this I got all happy with the pruning shears and started on the grapevines here at the house. They did sure look scraggly.

These things sure look ratty before I got in them with the shears. It is a lil late in the season to prune grapevines but they did not bleed at all so all is well. Not as many limbs after I finished.

Now there, don't they look all better now. They say ya cant over prune grape vines so I guess we will see. But I think I helped em some.
I got those done as Rodger and Jason were workin on the base for the greenhouse and I made my way around the house intending to prune the kiwi vines, Too bad I didn't make it that far.
I stopped at the shrubs on the east end of the house and just started clippin the limbs off to trim them up a bit, and after workin my way thru all of em, i had the bright idea to just cut em down and take em out. They are a pain to work in as they make me itch so dang bad. I had Rodger take the chainsaw to the main truck of them and I pulled the rest of the roots out. I should not be pulling on stuff like that. Now I am so dang sore I can hardly walk.But we went from a nice row of big spreading junipers to this.............

Now that I have mud, what to do, oh what to do. Not sure just yet how I will finish this off. The main reason for taking out the shrubs was they grow branches toward the base of the house and they push the under skirting material off. So now I got that fixed and had to hose the house off cause I left muddy glove and hand prints all over the siding. I may just get a load of gravel for the drive way and put it all the way up to the siding. And if want plants there they will be in containers. After all this mess dried out. The shrubs also kept a lot of moisture at this end of the house too. SO they is all goney gone. Rodger used the tractor bucket and he helped get all the mess hauled away in the middle of finishing up the greenhouse base. When I went back around back of the house this is what I have.

I guess now its dig out the grass send in the building and plant some grass in the areas where the pyramid use to be and around the edges of the base before the chickens excavate all the dirt over the hill.

We finally got all the tools picked up and put up and I had to use the hose to spray off the under skirting on the end of the house where I got mud on it so I got the brainy idea to hose off the front porch. I had to get the dirt off the porch that Luna had brought in this winter so we can sit outside and enjoy the nice spring weather that is coming soon. I had too many chairs so I had Jason come get 2 more to take to his house to use so they can sit on the porch in nice weather if they want too. Now to find  a couple smallish tables to sit drinks and such on would be nice. Wonder what I have around here that I can re purpose into small side tables. I will have to look around tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

On Saturday we planted the fruit trees that arrived that I had ordered a month or so ago. I got a replacement for my apricot tree that met  its fate with the weed whacker last year. And we added 7 more apple trees to the orchard too. Most of the new ones are old fashioned standard varieties. We now have Wolf River, Moyers spice,Keepsake, Gold Rush, Smoke House, Stayman Winesap and Granny Smith apples. Just so have it I had my hand pruners with me in the orchard and got most of the trees pruned there. Somehow I got in this pruning and whackin off limbs mood lately. No people limbs tho.
And who knew pear trees had these huge thorns on em?

And trust me these big damn things hurt when ya get poked. I ain't too sure about this tree and how long its gonna live. It is supposed to be a Keifer Pear. My other big pear tree don't have thorns. The deer mangled a couple of my apple trees. I am pretty sure one of em is dead but I paid good money for it an will give it a chance. The deer broke the top off of the tree during the rut when the bucks rubbed their antlers on the tree, Kinda made me mad with all the dang trees and they kill my lil young apple tree in the middle of the field.
Our grape vines we planted last year look pretty good. They will get pruned a lil bit and staked up so they will grow upright as soon as we have time and weather permitting. I still have to tend to the raspberries too. Rodger will mow them off for me and I can spread compost over the area and thas about all they need. Not sure how the strawberries are gonna do over there this spring. But I have plenty planted here at the house if I never see those plants again.

I think that is about all we have accomplished this past week. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Geez its been a while

I didn't realize how fast time had passed till I looked at the date on my last post. It has been over 2 weeks since I posted anything on my blog. No I didn't really fall off planet earth, I did have surgery on February 23rd as planned. The only thing I didn't plan on was having pain like this for this long. Dang it has been a booger. I still am taking lots of pain meds and using Lidoderm patches too to keep the elbow numb so it don't hurt so much. But I went back to the doc on the following Wednesday to get my stitches taken out, all 4 of em. The rest are the ones that dissolve and he also used glue to seal the incision on my elbow. It has healed well. And he told me I had a good tear in the rotator cuff and lots of bursitis so he repaired the tear and cleaned up the bursitis. The elbow he said would hurt for a while because he had to do some digging around to get under the tendon that had a big ole tear in it. Now how that happened I don't know unless I just over used it to compensate for lack of use when the right arm was injured a few years ago. But I think I am fixed now, just have to get all healed up and then the pain will subside. Hopefully!!
Any way we had planned on me being our of commission for a few weeks and of all things Rodger decided that would be the time he was off work to baby sit me and be inside anyway so he decides to take our big garden tub out of the master bathroom and build a closet in that area. He just put the final trim up and did the minor finish work today and it does look great. I love it. Now if I can talk him into doing the other bathroom and maybe putting the laminate floors in the kitchen I would fer sure be a happy camper.

I think the project turned out really nice. In the near future we plan to put the same kind of floor in the kitchen and get rid of the vinyl flooring that is in there now.  I didn't have any part of this project because every time I ask Rodger if there was any thing I needed to do he would say, "yeah go in there and hold the couch down". I really didn't have much problem with that as the pain meds kinda made me want to sleep a lot.
Just last week we had really bad storms here in Kentucky. Nothing at our place but some rain tho. A couple days before the tornado outbreak in our state we got some hail early in the day. Just pea size and no damage from that. And for that I feel blessed. Some nearby counties were nearly wiped out. Those folks still need lots of prayers as they try to bury their loved ones and rebuild. Most of the towns that were hard hit by tornadoes were places I have worked in when I worked in EMS and was doing my paramedic ride time for class.
Do you have your gardens started yet? I don't but Rodger did. He got our peas, onions, carrots an lettuce planted right after I had surgery and he wouldn't even let me go to the garden with him. I did as he instructed an held the couch down and took one of many naps.
I think this is the extent of things that have been happening around here. At least that I can remember. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Nice sunny day, cool nights

The weather today was just beautiful. A nice sunny warm day, then night fall with a full moon and clear sky, cool crisp air, perfect. Not too cold but long sleeves really feel good in this kind of weather. We do need rain badly tho. Everything is dry as a bone.And I think I read today that the whole state is under a burn ban. We have a corn crib that needs to be cleaned out and some junk burned but it is far too dry to start any kind of fire out doors. So am thinking that will just have to wait till after a rain.
I went to the other house this evening with Jason to look at some building and decide where we can keep a hog that is secure from predators. I think we will be using the old log cow barn that is in really good shape. It does need some work on the doors and such but not much else. It still is dry inside and has a good roof. We have a lean-to shed on the back of one big barn that needs to be taken down and the roof re-done. All of these are cool weather projects so we don't get stung by wasp. They do have a tendency to build in vacant buildings around here. We will get to that. But I got a lot of cleaning up still and reorganizing around here at my house. The freezers need to be cleaned out and organized a bit so I can find things with ease and that will also entail organizing the out building. The cellar needs to be tidied up and ready for winter. Now once again I need to clone me to get it all done in the near future.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Sadly the garden is ending

Fall has to be my all time favorite time of year. It brings cooler weather, a much appreciated relief from the dog days of summer. And with fall comes the end of the garden and its bounty. We still have a few things left in the garden that will produce up till frost most likely. The sweet potatoes will grow till closer to time for frost. The tomatoes are pretty much done producing. Some small ones still on the vine will try to ripen. Maybe they can be frozen for fried green tomatoes. I have some green beans that are just now starting to produce. I am going to try to at least pick a mess of those tomorrow. I planted several different kinds of dried beans. Those still need to be picked and shelled. I also still have several pepper plants with peppers on them that will ripen as the weather cools a bit more. The vines have started to die on the cushaws and those need to be harvested and put in the cellar for winter. When the weather is cold is the best time to make cushaw butter to can and for pies. Also have a LOT of butternut squash to put in the cellar. There are probably 20 huge watermelons in the garden that are not ripe yet. If we have more than we can use I think I will freeze some watermelon puree just for fun. I think it would make a nice treat when the snow is falling. A sweet reminder of summer time.
All I have done today is slice a 5 gallon bucket of sweet bell peppers for the freezer. I had 4 gallon zip top bags of those. Still more in the garden to slice to use in gumbo this weekend.
I did order more cornish cross chicks to raise for fryers this morning. They should be here by the end of the month. Then butchered 6 weeks later in really cool weather. I guess I need to save some canning jars for canning venison when the guys go hunting this fall. I do want to make and can some Hungarian Goulash. Some how I don't think I want the canning season to end this year. Maybe it is because I have such a nice place to work in with my summer kitchen. I has been a real pleasure to work out there this year.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Am Thankful

I am so thankful that I can see better today without pain. Gosh I have never had anything like this cornea edema in my life and it hurt more than having a baby. You can bet I wont even go in the bedroom with my contacts in again. Lesson learned.
It has rained a good bit here today and is too wet to get any where near the garden. I still have some things to get planted over there. Everything needs to be fertilized and plowed out before the weeds get a good start. As I get older I don't care much for getting out in the wet grass and messing around like I used to. And we are supposed to get rain thru Tuesday of next week here. The yard is out of hand, prolly need to mow and bale it. Last evening we got the between rain showers we got mulch put around the azaleas, blueberries and grapes. If I get half as many grapes as I have clusters on the vines I will have more than I can use. The herb bed and onion bed out back need to be weeded but I just cant bring myself to get in there as wet and soft as the ground is.
My next little project that I want to do before the garden takes all my time is to build another flower bed somewhere here in the yard for my perennials. Most of the stuff growing here is edible but the pretty things are just good for the soul. We have tossed around the idea of building a retaining wall in back of the house to aid in drainage. If that happens we have to take out the back deck, the rock side walk and my perennial bed. I hat to move all the plants but I know the back side of the house will look nicer for it. We shall see, maybe I can come up with a better idea.
My lil grand dog will be going home on Friday with Amoy. We have had her for over a week and you do get attached to those little critters although they do take a lot of time when they are little ones to keep them from getting injured. I am sure I will miss playing with her. She is entertaining.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The kitchen is done!

I am so happy, my summer kitchen is finally finished. I have already started getting my canning supplies together and getting them put in place in there. Early next week I will be canning greens. It has really turned out nice out there. We still have some landscaping to do, but the kitchen is usable now. I still need to add the small table top refrigerator and microwave and finish moving my canners in there.

I have plenty of counter space here for processing and canning, butchering or what ever needs doing. We have a concrete floor out there so I purchased some of the snap together rubber foam type mats to use on the floor to make it a little easier on my back. (Doin a happy dance)
We are hoping that it is dry enough tomorrow to plow the garden and get the rest of it planted. Hope to empty out the greenhouse too of all the tomatoes and peppers and other things that need to be moved. The garden did survive the heavy rain we had earlier this week. The peas are starting to bloom now, so not long till we have fresh salad peas. The corn has come up well too. The new strawberry plants are blooming too, and the fruit and nut trees we planted in the orchard have leaves on them as well. So as far as gardens it is starting a lot better than last year when it rained all summer.
Good news, Jason has a job interview tomorrow and starts work on Monday in the oil fields where his dad works. It will be nice to have him working here near home and living on the farm.
Rob leaves for Nevada next week to work and do his internship in the Barrick Gold mines in Elco. This momma aint too happy about her cub being that far from home but they do grow up and leave the nest in spite of us. We tried to give them roots and give them wings. We just pray for their safety and that they are happy in what ever they choose to do.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Home again

I have made it home again after being gone for a few days. I feel like I have been in constant motion since last Wednesday. I got my buddy taken to re-hab to recover from his stroke and on my way home I stopped to check on him and he said he is making forward progress and they are letting him eat ice chips now, so thats a plus.
We had storms last night and are posed to have rain for several days now. Guess I will transplant things between rains.
I got to spend a couple days with my aunt Ann and help her out a little bit getting things done on her place. Got a gas range for my summer kitchen as well. Stopped on my way back and spent a couple nights with my friends Rosie and Sam at their place. I always enjoy time at their place. They always have babies of some sort to tend to. The little goats were so cute. One had to be bottle fed because his mom decided she didnt like em and wouldnt feed em.

Sure dont take these little critters long to learn that humans equal food. I think I will have some goats soon.
My friend Rosie and her hubby take such good care of their little ones, the animals really have a good life. This lil boy enjoys the special attention too.
I came home with a clutch of turkey eggs to hatch in the incubator as well. I set some green eggs in there with the turkey eggs so I will have a few chickens to lay colored eggs. They are pretty neat. So all the eggs are in the incubator now and we wait patiently.
I arrived home to find my summer kitchen even closer to completion. The counter tops are in, as well as the stove now. All we need is to hook it all up and get the plumbing in and be done.
I checked my plants in the greenhouse and they have grown a lot in 4 days that I was gone. I have a lot of stuff to transplant this week between rain showers. Rosie gave me a thornless blackberry plant, and some Rugosa roses that will be planted and I have herbs in the greenhouse that will be transplanted as well. Lots to do this time of year.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Another winter

We are having one of the little winters here in Kentucky that we have every spring. Those happen when certain trees bloom. First is dogwood, then redbud, then what the mountain folks all called "sarvis" winter. With sarvis winter you get some cool weather and rain. The rain started late this afternoon and is still raining as of right now.The trees are in full bloom and starting to drop their blossoms at this point which means cool rainy weather for the next several days. The old folks planted gardens between these little winters. I remember dad always saying to plant corn when the leaves on the oak tree were the size of a squirrels ear. Well that was a week or so ago. And the weather was right for planting corn so we did just that. After this cool wet spell we will have a few weeks of dry weather, that is the time to plant beans and such in the garden. Which we will be doing. Then we have what we call blackberry winter. That will be the last of the spring rains for us under normal conditions. Dad was always insistent on getting his garden all planted so they got the spring rains, with exception of things that were transplanted like tomatoes and peppers. You can about be assured of no frost after blackberry winter. But time all this takes place it will be probably the second week of May. Its hard to believe it is almost May. Time flys as you get older they say.
I will be going out of town tomorrow to take my friend that had a stroke to Cardinal Hill rehab facility. He will be there for a couple weeks and I am just praying he will be much better. He has lost a tremendous amount of weight after his stroke due to the fact he cant swallow, therefore he cant eat. He has a feeding tube but that is not working out well for him. Just feel so bad for him knowing how hard he worked and how much he enjoyed good food.
After getting my buddy settled in I am thinking I might go to western Kentucky to visit my aunt and I need to go pick up a gas range for my summer kitchen. This will likely be the last time I will have a chance to get away till probably this fall sometime. I will also be stopping to visit my friend in central Kentucky on my way back. I alas end up spending a couple nights there. I sure do enjoy her company and enjoy visiting her place.All this will take place if I can get my ducks in a row this evening so nothing falls apart while I'm gone.

It was dry enough today for me to finish painting the cabinets that go in the summer kitchen. They look so much better than the baby blue that was on them. Yuck! The counter tops are in the shop waiting to be cut to size and installed. Maybe in a few days when the guys get time to do that. 

The ones on the other side are oak finish, all in good shape for used. The sink will go on the right in the oak sink base.The floor was painted today as well. Much cleaner looking than the bare concrete. I have some of those nice rubber link together mats for the floor that are supposed to make standing easier on your back. And heaven knows I need all the help I can get in that area. My back dont allow for much standing these days after my injury. There will be room for a bar stool in here too.

My baby chicks live next door to my summer kitchen. When we butcher, we have a place set up in back of the chicken house, so it will be close to the summer kitchen as well. But these little fellows look content so they are unaware of where they will end up. Our secret, OK?

I have tomatoes that are big enough to be in the garden, but we still have to wait till the last frost. That is probably about 3 weeks away for us. Then I have some plants that are not near big enough to transplant. I have had a hard time getting peppers to come up this year. I am thinking I should have kept the seed flats in the house and warmer till they got sprouted. They do need heat to sprout and come up.
I am totally disappointed with the peat pellets that I used to start plants in this year. But had I thought about what they were made of I would have realized that once wet they are going to be a little on the acidic side. I have good air circulation in the greenhouse with the fan on but still had green moss starting on the peat pellets with the lil seedlings in them. So when the little plants struggle enough to get heads up out of the peat I have been transplanting them into regular potting mix and then they take off. Ya live and learn I do reckon. So maybe ya can teach old dogs new tricks. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

More painting to do

I have gotten most of the painting done on the summer kitchen. Jason got all the trim up today after lots of cussing and a mashed finger here and there. No blood stains tho. Yay!!! I got the cabinets unloaded out of my truck finally and got the 3 base cabinets painted that were a light blue color, now they are a beige color that will coordinate with the wall board. I wont have blue cabinets in this kitchen no matter what. Tomorrow I need to put on another coat of paint and then start painting the floor. After that the cabinets can be installed and the counter tops put on.
I have spent too much time out side with all the pine tree pollen in the air and now I think I am getting bronchitis. Dang this is the first time in 4 years that I have had it. I think maybe stress has dragged down my immune system a good deal. I did stay out today and finally got the leeks planted also. They just were not growing to suit me in the greenhouse. So far no frost at our house with all the frost warnings that the weather service has issued. The day time temperatures have been perfect for working outside this week so far, in the mid 70's and sunny. Would be nice if I had a small pen so I could let my baby chicks out to enjoy the sun and scratch around. I may go see my friend Rosie this week or this weekend for a few days and I think she has some turkey eggs for me to try and hatch in the incubator. It has been many years since I have raised turkeys so this should be another re-learning experience.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The wall board is going up

The guys got most of the wall board up in the summer kitchen today. It is looking really nice. Rodger has to go back to work tomorrow so the only work will be in the evenings after today. But its almost done except for minor finishing projects now. It has been really nice weather for doing things outside. That is unless you have spring allergies like all of us. But it will pass. I guess the fact that we all were in the kitchen when the fiberglass insulation was being put in didnt help at all. Today we put the plastic vapor barrier over the insulation and then Rodger and Jason got all the wall board up except the last sheet that will need to have several cuts made in it for wall sockets and such. They decided to try out the air conditioner  today and dang it was too cool in there for me. The windows are positioned across from each other and do a fine job of providing cross ventilation as far as I am concerned. I am sure this summer when it is 95 in the shade the AC will be just fine.
I think tomorrow is going to be yard mowing day for us around here. Its mow now or cut hay later. Why does the yard always grow faster when you are really too busy to tend to it? I think I might now have enough extention cord to be able to weed eat with my little electric string trimmer and not have to mess with the big heavy gas powered one. Having a pretty lawn with lots of lovely grass is just not high on our list of priorties around here. If it was left to me, I would build raised beds all over the yard and fill them in with pretty and edible stuff. Am thinkin I best not mention any more projects to these guys around here for a while. I might get evicted. They have worked hard on the kitchen so I think I might need to give em a break.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A good day for painting

Today was a nice warm sunny day for doing outside painting. We had gotten paint to paint the exterior of my summer kitchen at a liquidators store for a really good price. It was Sherman Williams brand for $20 for a 5 gallon bucket of light gray exterior paint. I had bought a gallon of epoxy paint last fall for the front of the root cellar. I decided to try and get the cellar wall outside painted today thinking I would be lucky to get that finished. Then decided not to use epoxy paint on the cellar and used the gray like I was going to use on the kitchen. The paint went on so easy, I was done in nothing flat. Then I decided while I had paint on the roller, the brush and me that I may as well use what was in the paint tray to see how much I could get done on the kitchen. And not being one to stop in the middle of a project I managed to complete the cellar wall and all of the kitchen exterior. Now when Rodger and Jason get the trim work done on the cellar that is all that will need to be painted.I think I will probably trim the kitchen in a gloss white. I love having a fresh coat of paint on outbuilding. It just makes them look so much better.
After I got the paint job done I did take time to transplant some of my herbs to the herb bed from the greenhouse. They are all watered in good with some mulch around them so they should take off and grow really well. I think I planted 16 sage plants, about 10 basil and at least that many chamomile for tea. I repotted some of the last chives that I had started in the greenhouse to a bigger pot so they can just grow there. Jasons buddy Josh was here to spend the night and the guys all went shooting this afternoon. While they were in the field they went to check on the garden. They tell me it is doing good, lazy me, I havent been back over there since we planted the strawberries and cabbage and stuff a week or so ago. I think tomorrow might be a good day to get some mowing done around here before we need to use the tractor and bush hog to mow the yard.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The kitchen is close to done

The summer kitchen is close to done. The wiring is now in, tomorrow we put in insulation and maybe start hanging the inside wallboard. Not really sure yet what is going on the walls but am sure it will be light colored and easy to clean. Maybe bead board panels or tiled hardboard. Here are so pictures up to this point.
And I always put my pictures on the post in the backwards order, but ya git the gist of it.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Still at it

!. Pots with blueberries, rosemary and lavendar
2.Strawberries blooming
3.Stella d'Or lily and hydrangea that I thought was killed by chickens
4. the herb bed is coming back nicely
5.baby chicks
6.pear tree in full bloom
7.basil, chamomile, and sage to be transplanted soon
8.plants in the greenhouse

We are still hard at work trying to get the kitchen done this week. And it got really hot here today as well. The thermometer on the back deck in the shade was on 90. The guys did most of the wiring today and at least it is sealed up with the door on and all if it does rain on Thursday. I just fetched water to the guys and played with the little chickens when I went back there. They are growing really well.
While they were working on the kitchen I cleaned the root cellar out. Yesterday I got all the jars washed off and nice an clean. They had developed some mold on the outside of the jars due to the humidity being so high and we probably dont have enough air movement through there. Then today I cleaned the floor and mopped it out with bleach water to try and keep the mold at bay. It looked really nice when I got finished. I found that I do have a lot of empty jars in there from all the canned stuff we have used over the winter. There is a double door storage cabinet in there that will go to the summer kitchen when it is done to make more room for shelves.
I got out and took some pictures today of the plants here that have budded out and flowered. I am thinking that tomorrow evening I will get some of my herbs transplanted into the herb bed so they can get took off good. If we get some rain on Thursday it will do them a lot of good. I just hope we dont get a late freeze and kill my pears again this year. I can see me out there covering the lil tree up with a sheet or something.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Nice weather and more progress

The weather was really nice today, partly sunny and just enough clouds to keep it from being so unbearable out in the heat. The guys got more done on the summer kitchen today. The roof is on, all the siding is up. I think the plan for tomorrow is to get the door hung and get the wiring done.It is looking nice out there. Rob was here this weekend to help get the siding put up. It takes 2 people to hold it up and one to nail. Rob also finished moving the gravel for me that I was using in back to landscape with. It sure looks better out there than all the mud that was there.
I got in the greenhouse today an potted up more of the tomato plants and some of the herbs. I had got hold of some bad potting mix an had to re-seed some of the pepper plants. The bag of potting mix I had gotten here locally was nothing more than sand and nothing was coming up in it. I held no moisture at all.
I looked at my asparagus bed today an there are bunches of little skinny asparagus spears in there but they are tiny little fellers. I think I was instructed to let them grow this year and maybe I can harvest a few next year.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A busy Easter

We had a busy Easter around here. They guys worked on the summer kitchen and got lots done on it. The windows are in, roof is started, some of the siding is on and these will get finished tomorrow. I am really pleased with my $20 windows, they worked out nicely.The weather was just wonderful today, warm and sunny. Jason started  a big crock pot of venison stew this morning so we could have that for supper. Some of us had strawberry shortcake for dessert. A good way to wind down a day.
I went to the greenhouse and got some of the plants in repotted. Most all my seedling were started in the peat pellets this year because I thought I was going to have to keep them in the house. The pellets are fine for some things I suppose but not to get good hardy seedling started for the garden. The pellets dry out rather quickly and the plants feel confined and dont have enough room to make good healthy roots. I have run out of the 4 and 6 packs that I had been using to start seedlings so I am using good potting soil to fill in around the peat pellets in the flats to give them something to get their roots into and hope they will grow bigger and better. So no more peat pellets for seed starting here. I need to visit my friend at the greenhouse in town and see about purchasing some more of the packs to get the rest of the plants moved into. Maybe I can do that tomorrow as I go to check in on mom at the nursing home.
Earlier this afternoon I did manage to weed the asparagus bed and I have little asparagus spears coming up all over. I think I was instructed to let the just grow this year and maybe next year I will have some to harvest.
So tomorrow we will be building on the kitchen again and I will finish up in the greenhouse and maybe get my landscaping done near the sidewalk in back of the house.So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella