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

Can I hibernate now?

If only I could I surely would hibernate about now. I think winter may have started a little early this year. We had snow on November 1st. It didn't stick at our house but Jason said it covered the car tops out on the ridge. We are blessed to be down in a valley along the river and we get ugly stuff like that later than most every one else. This morning we had planned to get the Cornish cross chickens butchered off and when I got up we had had our first good frost of the season too. It was a tad nippy outside. Rodger already had the water kettle filled and a fire going when I went out with my cup of coffee. We did get the chickens butchered and I got the stock made. I thought I would just wait till tomorrow to can it up so as to hopefully not cause another arthritis flare up. I can hope, right? Most the the birds were so big it took 2 people to zip the bags closed on em. They will make a nice hearty roast chicken and then a wonderful kettle of soup or dumplings the next day. I de-boned the thighs to use in gumbo when I get time to make and can that. Gumbo is a long day process. Takes a good bit of time to brown all the ingredients and to make the roux. Then 90 minutes in the pressure canner. I will get it done soon.

Not long till modern gun hunting for deer around here. Today when we were butchering chickens out back we had 3 nice deer run up in the back yard. Luna barked at them and they took off. She don't chase them once they are out of the yard tho, which is good. She just does not like any kind of critter in the yard. This is her territory and she protects it.

I think all the garden spots have been put to bed for the season now. The trellises are taken down and stacked that we use for beans, the fence to trellis cukes is down and stashed away. The tillers are put away for the season. My herb bed looks like shit and will likely stay that way till spring. Goodness, fall slid past and winter is upon us and dang it, I was not done. It is true, time waits for no one. But we had a pretty good garden this year, got some stuff canned to help out, should have plenty of corn for cornmeal later and some for chicken feed as well. The chickens do like their corn when the temps drop. I will have a few more to butcher off about mid-December when they are big enough. The last hatch is still too small and it would be a waste of life to butcher them right now. And life goes on.....

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

Stella

An early fall

I am convinced we are having an early fall. Or at least seems earlier than usual. Or maybe its just me that has missed summer. I have seen a few trees changing into their beautiful fall colors and some leaves falling too. The garden is done with exception of bell and jalapeno peppers. The field corn is brown but still a ways away from time to pick it. Time to get busy planting fall plants. We plan to get a few grapevines transplanted this weekend as well as get the raspberries and thornless black berries moved to their permanent locations. I have more young roosters that need to be butchered off and out of the feed bucket. I can tell you that 33 chickens of varied sizes can eat a lot of feed. Need to get that chore done before it gets too cool. Our weather is supposed to be high in the 60's this weekend. Perfect weather to work outside. Now if it don't rain maybe we can get that butchering done. My little Cornish chicks are growing like bad weeds. They don't get butchered till late October tho. But they sure are growing fast. I am just glad it is not terribly hot for them. I can keep them warm, its just hard to keep them cool.

This past week I have been making chipotle peppers. It really don't take long to smoke/dry ripe jalapenos. Maybe 4 hours. The biggest thing for me is to remember to keep adding wood chips to the smoker. I do tend to get distracted and forget. After they are dried they are brittle and I run them in the food processor to make chipotle powder. It has a nice smokey pepper smell so the taste will for sure be incredible. Maybe I can get in the garden and pick some more of the ripe peppers tomorrow to smoke. I think I have enough green ones in the freezer for poppers now. Probably far more than I will use as I am the only one who will eat them. Unless Rob is home and he and Amoy will eat jalapenos.

I am hoping tomorrow I can get up with my friend Marcia and see if she wants to go get apples at the you-pick orchard about an hour from us. I am totally out of apples in the freezer and only have about 2 jars of homemade apple pie filling canned right now. I need to check on my big pear tree and see if the pears are ready to pick also. I may can some of those as well. I like to mix canned pears and peaches for a snack or even a late breakfast when I get up late.

I did finally get a start on weeding my herb bed, again. That seems to be a never ending process. It could be done on a weekly basis if I had that much energy to expend. Still in the harvesting mode tho. Have lots more to get cut and dried. Then the whole thing can be mowed down. I have far too many types of mint that is about to take over in there. And I knew better than planting it there. What the hell!! But it serves the bees well when it is in bloom in summer tho. So its not a total loss. I really want to dig some horseradish roots too. I love the flavor of that stuff. And boy will it clean out your sinuses when you cut it up. Still got more grape juice to make into jelly too. Probably should have already had that done but I have been taking a break this week. My poor body needs it. If anyone has Fibro they can relate to the fact your body does not handle stress well at all. And the past month and a half have been very stressful with losing my mom, one of my favorite uncles and this past week and long time family friend past on. But I will survive even tho this fibro flare will set a new normal for me, again. Each time you have a flare up you never fully recover to being as good as you were before the flare so it sets a "new normal" for you. A fibro sufferer has to do their best to not let themselves get sent into a major flare up. But it does happen. But tomorrow will be better.

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

Stella

Back in the saddle again

I am finally home and back at it again. I did get a few days to rest after being away for a couple weeks. Then it was back to the homestead stuff. We had planned to get our older laying flock butchered off over the labor day weekend. Of course it rained and put an end to any thoughts of that. So this morning Rodger got the water kettle fired up and heated the scalding water and we did the deed. Butchered 13 of my older laying hens off. I did the usual of making stock with the bony pieces and canned the legs, thighs and breast halves. I got 19 quarts of canned chicken and 9 quarts of stock canned. That should last us a while for soup, stews, casseroles and of course chicken and dumplings.  I have 2 young pullets and the rooster left. The pullets are laying now so we can have at least 2 eggs per day to maybe hold us over till the younger ones come into production. I actually have 2 younger bunches of chickens and intend to keep the pullets out of both bunches. I should end up with about a dozen laying hens. Which means I will have about 20 standard breed roosters to butcher later as well. I did get my order of Cornish cross babies on Thursday as well. They are all doing great. I moved the rooster and his 2 girls in with the flock of younger birds and gave the Cornish the big chicken house so they will have lots of room to grow.  And grow they do. They will be ready to butcher about October 25th. At the young tasty age of 6 weeks.

After Rodger, Jason, Tasha (our friends daughter) and I finished with the chicken butchering Jason and Tasha went to move a lawn mower to her house and back to Jason's house to mow and weed eat his yard. Rodger went to the garden and dug our taters. Oh my, what a pitiful crop. For all the weeding and work it sure was not worth the effort. So what few we do have I will likely can those. I just hope to hell our sweet potatoes do better. I guess all things considered it was not bad. We had ate from the row of taters for a good while and we only planted 1 row in the garden. Not really many plants to begin with but dang I wanted more than a couple bushel of taters. We certainly hope to have several bushels of sweet taters tho. IF the deer will stop eating the vines off them. I think they have pretty much decimated the purple hull peas and now have a taste for sweet potato plants. But those will be dug soon as well. Rodger also brought a 5 gallon bucket of red bell peppers in for me to freeze as well. We use a lot of sweet bell peppers during the year. And my goodness, are those things expensive to buy in the store. I guess if I had to buy em, we just be doing without em. Next on the garden list is to get the jalapeno peppers picked and frozen. I think I will attempt to make smoked jalapeno peppers. Smoked ripe red jalapenos are called chipotle peppers. A rather easy process as I have read. A matter of picking the ripe red jalapenos, washing them well, They can be split in half if you rather not have the intense heat of the seeds. Then put in the smoker with some good wood chips such as hickory or any desired fruit wood and smoked till dry. My intention is to smoke for several hours then finish off in the dehydrator so they are completely dry. Then they can be stored for later use. Thas my plan thus far. Will post more on how they turn out, or not. Seems to me they should dry well in the smoker as they are thin walled peppers to begin with. We shall see.

I think tomorrow might be a jelly making day here. While I was out of town Rodger had picked and froze a good bit of hog plums for jelly. So maybe I can make the juice and jelly tomorrow. Those are one of those things its either feast or famine, some years you have none and you are best served to make a good supply of jelly in the years when the plums are plentiful. I am also gonna try to find the time to get to the garden again and pick the last of the tomatoes, ripe or green. I do want some green ones in the freezer for fried green tomatoes. Those sure can pick up your spirits in the middle of winter when you have fried green tomatoes and think of summer and the garden fresh tomatoes. I still have lots of herbs to dry also and most of a 50 lb bag of onions that need dehydrated. Lots of things to do to keep me busy till the snow flys I think.

As of right now, not much else happening on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Garden in full production, Moms passing

Our garden is in full production right now. Although I did lose the last of my sweet corn. It was just not important last week. We had other sad things to endure. My mom passed away suddenly August 8th. She had been doing really well after her stroke in April and up till about 2 hours before she passed. I find comfort in the fact that she did not suffer at all. My suspicion is she had another stroke or threw a clot. We buried her beside daddy on Tuesday. The week prior we were planning on Amoy and Liam visiting for a week and were scheduled to pick them up on Saturday at the airport. Rob was not gonna be able to come home with them due to trying to save his vacation time for when our lil Zachary gets here. But as it happened mom passed on Friday night and when we let them know Rob got a flight out of Phoenix for Sunday morning an got home Sunday evening. I was sure happy to get to spend some time with the kids and especially that sweet lil Liam. He just melts our heart.

He just had a hard time getting thru the flowers to get to his momma. He would eventually make a good lil country boy. There is truly nothing greater than grand kids. He did get to walk barefoot in the grass, step in his share of chicken poop, play in a creek, and pick and eat maters right off the vine.

Liam and daddy picking and eating Blueberry tomatoes that I planted in the herb bed. My good friend Deb sent me the seed for the tomatoes. That is the odd thing I grew this year. They are blue to purple in color and get red if they are in the sun. Liam liked em.  Love that precious lil boy. And his momma and daddy too of course.

Our tomatoes in the garden have done great this year. Rob and Rodger picked about 2 1/2 bushels on Sunday and I finally got them worked up on Tuesday. It will be hot for several days then rain for several days and this is hell on tomatoes. It will make them split and crack. Then they rot before they get totally ripe. But we are still having a lot  I made about 15 pints of salsa, and about 8 quarts of mater juice. When I wash and prep the tomatoes to run thru the Squeezo strainer to make juice I squeeze the seed pockets out of them. When they are run thru the strainer the juice comes out almost as thick as tomato sauce. Next project is to make spaghetti sauce to can. Probably this weekend. We had planned on picking green beans and tomatoes this evening but it poured rain till nearly dark. So maybe Rodger can do that tomorrow evening for me. Jason should be able to help him.

 I have to be out of town for visitation Thursday evening and the funeral on Friday for my Uncle Charlie. He was mom's sister Carla(deceased) widower. He had surgery on Monday to remove a tumor in his lung and passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday morning. My cousins are just devastated as to be expected. Two of those cousins were here last week as pall bearers for my mom's funeral. Love them dearly and loved uncle Charlie to pieces. It has sure been a rough couple weeks here on the homestead. Life can change in the blink of an eye. So tell your loved ones you love them today, tomorrow may never come.

In the past month since my last post, I did manage to get all my carrots processed. Some sliced and frozen, chunked and frozen, others shredded and dried. So they are all done. Now if it will just stop raining long enough to get the potatoes dug before they start to sprout with all this rain. I will most likely can most of them this year. We can keep them in the cellar but they do tend to sprout and thus ya lose a lot to sprouting. So if they are in a jar they are good till you decide to use them. So far I have only had time to make one canning of veggie soup and can it. Need to do lots more. Its also time to get the venison we have left out of the freezer and used up before the hunting season starting in October. We don't have much left but its still good and will use it in veggie soup and chili. What ever roast are left I will just can for barbecue or venison and gravy. Nothing goes to waste around here. When I took Rob, Amoy and Liam to the airport Monday I made a run to Sam's club and picked up another 50 lbs of onions to dry and use in soup as I can it. I got more pinto beans too for canning bean soup. We eat lots of soups in winter especially. Just glad Josh was in town that day to go with me to Sam's and help load the car. He is such a good friend to Jason and all of us. It was nice to get to spend some time with him even though it was during moms funeral. Dana and Dalton were taking care of his parents while he was here with us. Just wonderful folks, all of them, that we love like family.

I had planned several weeks ago to get my herbs cut and dried and still don't have it done. They have grown like crazy with all the rain. Maybe next week. God willing it will happen. If not, oh well. We will make do with what we have on hand. We have been more than blessed with our garden this year so I wont complain.

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

Stella

The garden is nice

I have to admit it is more like Rodger's garden this year. He has done all the hoe work and plowing and keeping weeds out this year. It sure does look good so far. Our potatoes are dead so its time to dig those. I told him this evening when we were in the garden I think it best if we just dig maybe a 5 gallon bucket at a time so I can can up the smaller ones so we don't lose them from shriveling over the storage. We picked enough cucumbers to make 8 pints of dill pickles while we were in the garden. And I found 4 small ripe tomatoes.

The green beans are trellised on fence panels. They are full of bloom and beans. Next week will be picking beans.

The sweet corn has tasseled and has ears formed. It should be ready in a week or so. Yummy!!!

I think we planted enough sweet taters to supply a few counties. They look really nice and healthy if the deer will stop eating the leaves. They haven't done a lot of damage but ya know they been in there.

My tomatoes did not get staked and I guess you can say we do them the lazy way. Just them fall over and run all over the ground. They have lots and lots of green tomatoes on the vines. I did find 4 small ripe ones this evening.

We have about 30 ft of cucumber plants trellised on fence wire. This is where we picked enough to make pickles this evening.

If ya look close enough in the vines you can see the green beans hanging in there. At least the bean picking can take place in the shade this year. Either of us can walk under the trellis so at least on hot sunny days it might make life a lil more bearable.

More onions to get sliced and dried tomorrow, and herbs to pick and dry. Another busy day for me.
Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Another lesson learned

I have always thought that everyday you should try to learn at least one new thing, no matter how trivial it seems. Then there are days when we learn big things. I learned something new this past week since my last post. I had my incubator running to try and hatch off more baby chicks with the intention of replacing my laying flock with their off spring. I use one of the square Styrofoam still-air incubators with the automatic egg turner. It is tricky to keep the temp adjusted in those things when the air is not moving to keep it even all around. With this in mind, I decided to set the temp for eggs that would be directly under the heating element. So I put the turner in, placed my thermometer on the egg turner under the element and turned it on. With a few trys I got the temp right at 99.5 degrees for chickens. Then I proceeded to load the incubator by putting eggs just in the holders around the perimeter under the heating element. With water in the lil tray area in the bottom I counted the days till hatch time. This time around I got a 50% hatch rate. The best I have ever had I think. After a couple weeks I did candle the eggs and several were not fertile and some the shell was dark and dense and I could not tell if they were living or not so I left them all in the incubator. Now if I can just get better control of the humidity I think even that rate will increase. In the past I had been placing the thermometer in the center of the machine and set the temp for that area. Looking back I think the eggs near the element was getting too hot and killing the chicks early in the game. So if you are using one of the still air incubators to hatch chicks, only place eggs under the element once you have the temp set for that area of the incubator and you should have a better hatch rate. Or maybe you already knew that. But dummy me did not think about it.

Our weather has been really nice today. The forecast was for storms and rain today but so far we have seen none. I got out early, well early for me, today and weeded most of my herb bed. Then in passing I noticed I had several big weeds in the strawberry bed and got it weeded too. I actually feel like I earned my keep today. Now to deal with the sore legs from squatting down weeding. I also got fertilizer on the strawberries and herbs and some of my ornamental things here in the yard. So far this summer everything is growing really well. Our garden is really nice, the best one we have had in several years even if we did plant later than we wanted to. Although I have had to spray several times for potato beetles. They have really done some damage to the plants but still we do have some nice taters under there. Rodger dug a hill last weekend to see if they had made anything and we were both pleasantly surprised to find some nice ones. Another couple weeks and we will be up to our arm pits in stuff to pick and can. I still need to catch a not so hot day and clean out the cellar and empty things that our long past their prime and search out jars that may be unsealed. We pulled our onions last evening and they didn't do anything. They just did not grow much beyond the size of the sets we planted. I was kinda upset with that. So I guess I will try to buy a 50 lb bag a lil later and dry most of them for onion flakes. I seem to use more of those than fresh onions anyway.

Now provided we don't get too much heavy rain or too hot I plan to try to clean out chicken houses tomorrow. I really need to get the 16 lil babies put in a building. For now they are in a tote in the dining room. I really don't mind cause for now they don't smell and they are so cute and fluffy. I like playing with them during the day.

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

Stella

It's summer and it's hot!!

I think we went straight from winter to summer here. It has been really hot for us this year. Not to mention the rain raises the humidity and makes it worse. I reckon I am getting too old for this heat or something. Dang it drains me of life and energy. If I cant work much outside you would think I could get tons of things done inside. Not sure why but that is not the case. I guess I am gonna have to get up early and work a bit outside and then come in for the rest of the day when the heat sets in. Hope to get started tomorrow drying some herbs. My pantry supply is running pretty low right now. I am totally out of my homemade version of Ms Dash. I did finally get some celery on sale and dried a good bit of it to use in seasonings. So far all the garden looks really good and is growing in spite of all the rain. I know we need rain but seems like it rains enough to keep the ground too wet to work in. And it makes the grass and weeds grow faster too. Its a constantly battle with bugs, disease and weeds when you garden. But that is life on the homestead. I know several friends are having issues with disease in their gardens. I am inclined to think its caused from the wet weather we have been having. So far we have not had that problem, only bugs here.

Over the past weekend we got the 4 young roosters butchered off. Yep I butchered the ones that were my pets. I had one that was getting really mean and beating up on the other 3. One had been hiding in the weeds in self defense. Sadly he came out just in time for the butchering.  But they certainly made some nice stock. I got 10 pints of nice rich stock plus a good bit of meat canned from them. So it was a gain. I have babies due to hatch this coming weekend in the incubator. Just hoping for a good hatch. It will be time soon to place my order for more Cornish cross for the fall butchering. I am hoping to get them delivered around mid September so they can be butchered off by late October. Most likely I will order 50 for the fall butchering to supply our meat for the whole winter. I am hoping to only keep about 12 laying hens and 1 rooster for my laying flock. Provided I hatch off enough pullets to replenish my old ones. Talk about making awesome stock. The old hens will for sure make great stock for soup and dumplings. Also the meat from them canned makes wonderful casseroles. Maybe we will have a cheesy chicken spaghetti casserole tomorrow for supper. I can actually eat that dish with Velveeta in it.

Blackberries should be ripe this weekend. We checked them last weekend and they were starting to ripen then. Might pick some to can for cobblers. I think blackberry cobbler is Rodgers favorite. I personally like peach better but by golly blackberries are free and that in itself makes them good. We have lots of wild blackberries growing here on the farm around the edge of the fields. I remember as a child going with mom to pick blackberries and she would not stop till she had a couple 5 gallon buckets full. Then she canned those for later use. And ya know, back then I don't remember getting tick bites and not really many chiggers. But nowadays you get eaten alive with ticks and chiggers. Oh my, the thoughts of the itching almost makes me not want to go berry picking. Its just part of the country life so we take the good with the bad suppose.

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

Stella

You can tell summer is here!

It has been really hot and humid in our neck of the woods for the past few weeks. The humidity is killer as well. I know, I know, my southern friends are laughing about now with that complaint. Not to mention we have had plenty of rain this spring and early summer as well. For most of last week are temps were in the high 90's with at least 70% humidity daily. Miserable to be outside. So this ole girl stays in if and when possible.

As you well know, my memory is not the best. But with that in mind. Last week I had went out back to let the chickens out to roam. It has been so hot the hens head straight down from their building to the edge of the woods in the undergrowth where it tends to stay pretty cool. My young roosters (mean lil shits) follow me around back to the deck an hang out under there with Luna where its cool. I had taken all the plants out of the greenhouse due to the extreme heat in there and moved a large pot with my friend Mamie's started grape vines to the back near the sidewalk so I could keep them watered till she got time to come get them. On my way to the spigot to water I spied 2 short pieces of hose, nope wait damn it that's not a hose. Yep I was jumping up and down screaming so Luna comes bounding from under the deck to the rescue. Yep it was a snake lying beside the short black hose that connects the spigot to the hose reel. I keep a hoe beside the deck for just such occasions and quickly whacked his head all while Luna is trying to get at him to protect me. Once I mashed the snakes head I let her have at him. She finished him off and shook and dragged him to the far side of the drive way. Bless her heart she spent the rest of the day in the shade of my car watching the snake to make sure it didn't move anymore. I hate snakes of all kinds. I don't scream for just any reason, but a damn snake will make me scream every time. So far that is the only one we have seen near the house this year. Although I know they are around. We live near woods and our grass in the yard had gotten totally out of hand. Last week our yard was so pretty(unless you like grass in your yard) with all the short white clover blooming. It was super thick and with all the rain Rodger had just not been able to get time to mow. Not to mention a pretty well manicured lawn is not even on the list of priorities around here in summer. The garden is really ALL we really worry much about. Rodger has managed between rains to keep it looking good. He got it all hoed out last week and another evening he plowed. All of the garden so far is growing and looks great. I am so very thankful too.

I am hoping that maybe next weekend we can get the young roosters butchered off. They are fast becoming a nuisance especially to the 2 young pullets that are with them. Every time I go out to close them up or let them out one of the roosters wants to peck my feet, flog my pants legs and just make a spectacle of himself. If I pick him up and scold him when I let him down he follows me all over like a lil dog. Along with 2 of his brothers. But they are big enough to make good stock and that is what I need more than little feisty roosters. I have the incubator set with eggs again that will hatch in a couple weeks. I set it and them the power went off and stayed for too long, the eggs got cold and I knew those were dead. So I reloaded with more eggs. I am trying something a lil different this time tho. With still air incubators you have next to no air movement inside. In the past I had been placing my thermometer in the middle. Once the temp was set correctly I loaded the eggs in. With the heating element around the perimeter of the top of the incubator I am thinking most likely the eggs around the outside may get too hot thus lowering my hatch rate. So this time. I only put eggs in the turner around the perimeter and placed the thermometer on top of those eggs and try to keep the temp consistent. I will see if this increases my hatch rate. Will post more when this clutch hatches off. When my friend Mamie came to get her grape vines today she brought me about 18 turkey eggs to put in the incubator as soon as the chicks hatch. I am certainly hoping for a good hatch of them. Be nice to have some turkeys to butcher for the freezer this year. Not sure yet where I will house them but maybe by time they hatch off I will have figured that part out. Ain't that just like me. Get something with no idea where to put it. Rodger always loves when this happens. Not!! Usually ends up being a good deal of work for him and Jason. Another building?

We went out of town yesterday to Dalton's birthday part in Maysville Ky. Dalton is Josh and Dana's lil boy. They are like our adopted kids. Love them dearly. Jason and I had went deer hunting several years ago and we stayed with Josh's parents at their house. Just wonderful folks. At that time I was able to hunt and we spent lots of time in the woods and I didn't get to talk with his parents much that time. Always intended to go back and just hang out with them while Rodger, Josh and Jason hunted. Well that didn't happen as planned because I have been working at the hunting lodge in west KY for several years. So we were invited to Dalton's lil birthday party and we went. I got to spend some time with Larry and Sandy and talk with them. I thoroughly enjoyed that trip and visit with them. I can tell ya it wont be years before we go visit them again.

For me to be able to get much done around here I guess it means I am gonna have to start going to bed really early and getting up early if I need to do things outside. And heaven knows I got lots of things that need doing. For one I need to pull some weeds in the herb bed. Dang it I thought if I put down black plastic and with the heat of the sun it might kill most of the weed seeds. Well that didn't lat as long as I had hoped. I am guessing that some plants produce seeds that need light to sprout. I have lots of weeds but they seem to all be the same variety. I need to get up in the early mornings before the heat hits and spend a couple hours weeding. May take several mornings of work to get it all take care of but a little bit at a time will get the task done. I have several varieties of herbs that are big enough to cut for drying already. I think I still need to sow more parsley. I use lots and lots of that stuff. Both frozen and dried. I will for sure have to plant it where I can reach it with the hose. At least till it gets growing well.

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

Stella

I did it again!!

Yep, I did it again. It has been near a month since I posted here. Dang time flys when ya ain't lookin. And I guess I wasn't. Not sure what happened to spring, and here we are in the summer already.

I am happy to report that my mom is some better. She had a really tough battle with a urinary tract infection and it almost got her I do believe. But finally with the right antibiotics she recovered and as for now is alert, able to use her left side normally and a lil bit on the right that was effected by her stroke. Sadly she is not talking at all or attempting to now. But as long as she is not hurting and is well cared for, I guess we can deal with that. Please keep her in your prayers for comfort.

I guess all the traveling and stress from mom's illness kinda wore me down a good bit. After mom was better I think I crashed. Kinda a normal occurrence for me when I deal with stress tho. I have felt better and more rested today than I have in a good while. Maybe because I went to bed last night about 10 and slept till near 11 today. That alas helps with what ails ya. I just did not plan to do anything today and I am proud to say I accomplished that task. Even managed to take a nap today too.

I was lazy but I sure cant say that for Rodger and Jason today. They went and picked up the 10 cattle panels that we wanted to get to trellis our green beans with, got those up for the beans to climb on and they are big enough to do that already.We do finally have all the garden planted, all crops are in now, so we work and wait till harvest.

This photo was taken about a week ago before we got some good rain on the garden. After the rain the beans put out runners and everything grew quickly. It looks good. So praying for a good harvest this year so I can refill some of my empty jars. I took me till last week to finally get still and have time to make the chicken stock from the bony parts of the chickens we had butchered back in early April before leaving on vacation. So that is done and ready to store. I have grown celery in the past and it can be time consuming and a real pain so I watch sales and pick up a bunch of celery stalks during the year to dry for our seasonings an to use plain in cooking. So that is my task for tomorrow. I do have a few herbs that are ready to start cutting for drying also. I am getting pretty low on my herb stock in the pantry. Parsley is my big thing that I do think I use the most of and it is the very one I am having a harder time than usual getting to grow well this year. But we take what God gives us and be happy with it.

I started my incubator up this evening after getting it disinfected and cleaned so it can heat up. Need to hatch off more chicks. I have confirmed I have only 2 lil pullets from the bunch I hatched in early April. The rest of mean lil roosters. They are so friendly and sweet tho. They can hear my voice and come looking for me. I was sitting at the dining table and talking to Rodger in the house and looked out the dining room window and had 3 lil roosters perched on the rock wall looking it at me. One wants to pick a fight with my shoes and pants legs every time I go out tho. Am thinkin this might cause him to have a short life span. But he is just young and starting to crow and wants to show who is the boss.

They are big enough now that I don't have to fence them in. They run free with the other birds during the day and go back to their house at night to be closed up. I just like my chickens. Entertaining critters they are.

I have all but finished with my greenhouse for the season I think. I got a few more plants in there to get moved. Some will be shipped to my friend Anna in Virginia this coming week and the very few remaining will be transplanted here. I did get my grapevines that are cutting from our vines here into pots , 2 in each pot as I was low on pots, so they can grow till early fall and be planted in the vineyard. In taking cutting I managed to get 2 leave nodes on some of the cutting below the soil surface and they make roots at both nodes. I am sure this will make for a more resilient plant in the long run.

I moved the pots to the herb bed among the mints so the pots get some shade and don't dry out so quickly and the plants will still get lots of sunlight. They should make nice vines to plant this fall. Tomorrow I plan to call my friend Mamie and let her know her cutting are ready to be potted up to plant later. Then we can disassemble the green house and put it back in the box for storage till next spring. Did I tell ya I love my lil greenhouse? I do for sure, so handy for plant starting.

Our kids have moved from Nevada to Arizona so Rob could take a new job and expand his job skills and knowledge. Today they finally got a lease on a rental house till theirs in Nevada sells, hopefully soon. Maybe in a couple more weeks they can be all moved in and settled again. They have said they love the area they are in but the temps in summer range from 105 to 113 average and that is a lil warm. But at least they don't have to deal with 8 months of cold like Nevada. Just hope Liam is able to get outside some in the evenings when it cools a bit so he can enjoy the outdoors. Was kinda hard to do in Nevada because of the weather. Not to mention lack of grass to walk in. Poor lil Abby I am sure wont like the heat any more than Liam. We will for sure be visiting in December this year we are blessed with our second grand baby. Yeas we are getting another lil grand baby. Don't know yet if we are getting a girl or boy but soon we should know. Prayers please for Amoy that she has an easy pregnancy. So proud of those 2 as they are wonderful parents.

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

Stella

This weather is like winter time

Our weather has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride as of late. First we have temps below zero, then like tomorrow it is suppose to be near 60. No wonder we all are sick. A body just cant adjust to temperature swings like that as we get older. Not that I am old. Ahem! We all complain but in reality it is just winter time as usual. We are suppose to have nice weather tomorrow with some sunshine so I hope to talk Rodger into going with me to the orchard an trying to get our trees pruned. They are big enough now to need to start being shaped like we want them to be when they get mature. I just hope the deer have not damaged any more of them. It has been so wet it has been impossible to get in the field an hang the bags of soap scraps to deter the deer. It seemed to have worked last time we used it. I have a stash of Irish Spring soap that no one here likes so I cut the bars in quarters and put a piece in a piece of empty onion bag, tie the top, and suspend it from a nearby tree. The smell seems to keep deer at bay. At least as long as the soap last. I also have a lot of grapevines to get pruned as well. The ones in the big vineyard near our orchard will be big enough to require pruning this year. I also will take more cuttings to root for my friend Anna. I tried a few last year and they made roots and I got them re potted but overlooked them in watering during the hot dry part of summer and they died on me. Shame on me. I hope to get a bunch started this year so I can ship them off to her this fall to transplant in her garden. We try to get vines and trees pruned in February on a nice day when its not so cold we freeze to death but not so warm that the plants bleed. Although I did prune grape vines last year after they had leaves on them and it didn't even slow them down. Still had a huge grape harvest. I am going to be making another raspberry patch this spring too with shoot from the older plants I already have near the orchard. I just need to get the place plowed up and manure on it to set them in after they break dormancy this spring. They are very easy to propagate. All you need to do is dig up the small off shoots near the mother plant and simply replant it in a new location. Big plans I have. Now to see if the body can keep up.

I have sat here at the computer this evening pondering ordering chickens to get here around march 1st. Not sure what kind I will order just yet. I like all the hens I have now, just not sure how to go about ordering more like them. I surely don't want to buy 50 standard heavy breeds to raise and cull to keep a laying flock. Thas a lot of lil birds to feed an deal with. And did I mention how expensive they have gotten? Dang I got sticker shock. But that happens to me real often. Guess I lead a sheltered life or something. I have a young rooster with my hens now. I am thinking I might need to butcher off my old rooster and let the young guy take over the hens and see if I get more fertile eggs and just hatch some of my own. It for sure would be more economical AND I would get to pick the ones I wanted to keep for layers. AND I would still have what ever roosters I raise to butcher for making good stock to can. I am really low on canned chicken stock in the cellar. I guess because it has been a while since I raised standard breeds to use for stock. I have hens that I know will set this summer and I also have an incubator I can use to hatch some eggs. Surely from hens and incubator I can manage to get enough pullets to replace my laying flock by mid summer. So I can have new hens laying come early fall. It just don't seem right to not have laying hens on the farm for eggs and meat. Not to mention bug control in the yard. They will also keep snakes at bay too. Maybe between the chickens, Luna and the cats I wont have snakes come in the yard this year. I hate a damn snake. They always manage to scare the whiz out of me.

Not long now till time for the greenhouse to be put up. Time flys when ya try to take a break and hibernate in winter. I am just glad I can be home to keep things half azz going here. We surely are praying we have a good garden this coming summer. I still have a good bit of stuff canned from years past but I am not sure we can go another year without canning a lot. Last summer was a total bust on the garden. Its time for a good one this year. I am actually looking forward to being able to  work in the garden some this summer. Gosh the past few years my health was so bad I could not get out in the sun and heat to do much of anything. Thank God I could eliminate some meds and end up feeling much better. Still cant do the lifting like I once did but at least maybe I can adjust to the heat a lil better and be able to help Rodger some in the gardens. IF the weather is as good as they say it will be then maybe we can get a few things done here this weekend to keep us ahead of the game. Some crazy weather man is calling for some crazy amount of snow next week so I will be house bound again I reckon. Maybe that's a good time to plan the garden, where to plant what, what to plant, how much of each to plant. Just silly things like that so I don't end up with tons of one things I don't really need a lot of. For sure need to start and plant more herbs this spring too. I somehow let my tarragon get chocked out by weeds or other herbs. Need more parsley, more chives, marjoram and savory for sure. Love the smell of marjoram. But if it snow I can make snow cream and contemplate gardens.

Jennifer ask in comments for a recipe for snow cream. Jennifer like more of my recipes its more a method than really a recipe. It all depends on how much you need to make or how many hungry people who like snow cream you are feeding.  I usually just take maybe 2 cups of whole milk, add a lil sugar to taste, not too sweet, a lil vanilla to taste. Just mix it in and taste it till it is slightly sweet an you can taste the vanilla. Then stir in clean "white" snow" till it is the consistency of soft ice cream. And dish it up and enjoy. Just a nice treat for the kids or the kid in all of us. Like the saying, "we are all adults till someone brings out the bubble wrap". Or in this case snow cream.

If you are home, nice and warm and dry, thank God for your blessings. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A new plan

I think I need to come up with a new plan to get my ducks in a row or at least in the same pond. OK here's the scoop. I have been doing a blog for a few years now. I enjoy it, not good at it, but like it none the less. It gets tricky trying to share your life and methods with others (the world) and not give out every detail of your life and your goings and comings to be used to some criminals advantage. I have had lots of long absences in my post over the past year and with good reason. It was a very busy year with seems like lots of traveling. Early in the year, April a road trip to Nevada for the birth of our lil man Liam and not really wanting to "advertise" that we were away from home, I feel like I short change my readers sometimes when I hesitate to post pics and sights from these type adventures but its to try to have some peace of mind about things back home. I know you all can understand that. Then later in the year several extended trips to west KY when my sweet aunt Ann was sick. Then starting in September with working at the hunting lodge for Snipe Creek Outfitters cooking for the hunters. Then the time away when my aunt passed away. Gone again in October for 3 weeks to house sit, gone most of November for another hunting season, back in December for yet another and home for a while. When I posted last date on here I had comments waiting moderation, comments go to my email box and I then post them to the blog. I had readers that had ask questions and dammit I cant find em now. I did locate one and posted my answer in the comments for my sweet reader. I feel bad when I don't get back to someone who has ask something because it is usually someone who is making a recipe and has a question. Makes ya kinda feel like ya sittin in a room an someone ask you a question an ya ignore em. Well I didn't, I promise. So if someone has posed a question on here in the past few months, please post it again and tell me which post of mine it pertains too and from now on one day per week I will do a post with nothing but answers to readers questions. Maybe I will call it "questions and answers day". Real creative don't ya think.  I think I can do that even if I am not at home. I am so grateful for all the sweet folks who read and comment both here and on facebook, Thank you so much for taking time to read about my life of organized chaos.

Now if I can just get over this stinkin flu, it will be time to be off and running again. I had been trying hard to think where the heck I caught such a nasty bug. And ya know when the old folks use to say, "don't get out in the cold, you will get sick". Well they are right and here is my take on why. I felt bad, just tired, sluggish, like I had a bug or something going on in my body for a week or more. Even when the kids were home. But I never got really sick, I kept going. Then on Tuesday when I got outside and got cold, really cold, I think it lowered my body temp and let the bug attack full force. That is when I knew I was in trouble. Within hours of getting cold I had the fever and chills, aches and all the things flu like. Folks I have not been this sick in many years. I actually do feel somewhat human today. So I guess maybe my immune system is stronger than I thought. I feel hopeful today that I just might survive this thing. So many folks have had the flu and the strain that is going around is keeping people sick for a month to 6 weeks. I have no complaints if I can function after less than a week of it. Our Rob had the flu about 2 or 3 weeks before they came home and he probably had it long before that till it really knocked him down. Down to the point where they did a spinal tap because he had symptoms of meningitis. Thank God that was negative but scary as hell for his momma 2000 miles away from him. Just glad he had a wife that made him get seen at the doctor and taken care of. 

As for how I have treated this bug here at home. And don't laugh. I have antibiotics. I got them at the farm store. Yeas its the same ones ya give animals. And its the same stuff you get at the drug store only not in the neat tidy lil capsules. I have tetracycline and 1/4 teaspoon is about 500 mg of medicine. I mix with a lil juice and down it. I have kicked the sinus infection with it, do don't knock it. I do have prednisone that I take as needed when I have an arthritis flare up so I have taken that for about 4 days now. We also keep Sambucol which is made from elderberries and it works great for the runny nose, burning eyes deal. All natural. Just wish I could beat the dang birds to the wild elderberries here on the farm in fall and save a chunk of change. And lots of chicken noodle soup. I also take extra zinc supplements too because it helps block viruses from multiplying. I had a lot of deep congestion in my lungs yesterday that was not breaking up so last night I made a cup of plantain tea sweetened with honey. My friend Rosie told me long leaf plantain is good for deep congestion and after the tea later in the night I did finally feel the junk breaking up and am not nearly as congested as I was yesterday. I have had a more productive cough today and that sure helps the breathing.  Lots of fluids and rest keeps the body hydrated and is critical in a speedy recovery. This may not work for everyone but it has worked for me thus far.

Do you remember my post from a good many months back on water Kefir? Way back on February 5th, 2013. That is some tough Kefir right there. Mine has been neglected and went unfed for long long periods of time. Until today. After taking antibiotics for this sinus infection I think my belly is gonna be in need of some kefir. My jar of kefir grains were sitting on the counter where they had been for well over a month unattended. My first thought was, I bet its dead! I picked the jar up and it still has lil bubbles rising out of the water. It's alive!!! I strained it and gave it some sugar and molasses and put the grains back in to get then rejuvenated and making kefir water again. I really need to keep these things going for my own well being and in case anyone else here has to take meds and make a mess of their gut flora like I have this past week. So yep, so far, its been a good day.

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

Stella

Making lotion and herbal seasoning blend

It has been so nice outside today but dang it I didn't get out to enjoy it yet. I have been busy with piddly stuff in the house all day. It is getting closer to cold weather and my need for a good lotion for my winter time dry skin. I was all out. I think I gave Amoy the last 2 jars I had to take home with her. So it was time to make more. So that has been my project for today. Not sure why more folks don't make their own lotion so they can avoid all the heavy perfumes and chemicals in the store bought ones. I have tried and made several different lotions with different recipes and this one has to be the best and my favorite. Very rich, nourishing and creamy. It is more like a cream than a lotion I must warn you. But very simple to make. First I make an herbal tea to use in place of the "water" part called for in most recipes for lotion. I like to use soothing healing herbs that I grow or can purchase organically grown.

Make tea with about 2 cups of water and add in round leaf plantain, chamomile, rose petals, comfrey leaf, and golden seal, equal parts of each herb added to the 2 cups of boiling water and let sit about 10 minutes.
Strain the tea and measure out 1 cup and set aside.
In glass bowl or measuring cup measure 1/2 cup oils that are solid at room temp(coconut oil, shea butter, mango butter, avocado butter, cocoa butter) any mix you like, I use a lil of each.
Then measure out 1/2 cup of oil that is liquid at room temp(almond, apricot, castor oils) Measure out 1/3 cup vegetable emulsifier. Heat the oils in the glass bowl with solid butters and vegetable emulsifier till all are melted and smooth. Let oils cool a lil bit, hot but not scalding. Have the tea to about the same temp as the oils and then add the tea to the oils in a steady stream all the time blending with a stick blender. Once all the tea is in let lotion sit for a bit and blend again, repeat this till it has started to get thick. When lotion starts to thicken like gravy add in about 2 tablespoons of liquid germall plus (preservative, natural) and about 2 tablespoons of Hydrovance for stable consistency and also make the lotion feel silky on the skin. Blend well and pour into desired containers. Let cool completely and put lid on. Great stuff. I get most of my lotion making supplies from this place. Not to mention they always send trial size samples of new products with your order. Very reasonable prices too.

I finally remembered to make more of my herbal seasoning blend that we use on everything as well today. I feel like a chemist on days like this. I try not to get too adventurous tho when it comes to the food stuff. But I got out lots of my different dried herbs and used the spice grinder to grind all the ones that I use in the seasoning we use on chicken, venison, most any meats. Its kinda like Ms Dash only my version. You really can make it to suit your own taste buds by adding more or less of the different herbs. Or even leaving some out. But I added a lil more onions flakes to this mix and a bit of brown sugar. I just have to remember that the sugar will make foods brown much quicker whether in a skillet or on the grill. The recipe for the seasoning blend I make is in  this post from the past.

I brought a cast iron skillet home from Jason's house the other day that had some rust in it and was generally a mess. I think it was given to him and not sure at this minute who. Anyway I scrubbed the rust spots really well and used a Brillo pad on em, washed the skillet really good inside and out. Put it on the burner and coated it really good with oil. I let it get really hot but not smoking then turned it off. I will repeat those steps several times each day as long as I think of it and have time, heat up, cool down till it is re-seasoned. It is a nice size skillet and not as heavy as most I own so it might work really good for me. Hope it fixes the skillet but its not like I need another cast iron skillet. But just cant bring myself to see them get destroyed.

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

Stella

Life goes on here on the homestead

Life goes on here whether I am here or not. That's a good thing. I know I promised to post more often, and be dang! here it has been over a month since I posted last. Shame on me.
But maybe I can catch you up on life here. Or there. As for my health I am doing a great deal better managing my pain and RA and Fibro. I feel so much more "alive" now that I am off some of the meds that nearly killed me. I had my annual labs drawn about a month ago and now we find my thyroid is a lil on the low side. According to things I have read if you have fibro and low thyroid the levels need to be a lil bit higher than for normal people to combat the fatigue. So I go back to the family doc tomorrow to see what his plans are to deal with that. I guess there is a fine line between high and low with all labs when you have fibromyalgia.
I went to west Ky in early September to cook for the hunting lodge at the request of my sweet aunt Ann. She normally did not house hunters for bow velvet season but this year we had a full house. I spent almost 2 weeks doing that. Sadly on September 14th my aunt lost her hard fought battle with cancer and passed away. Talk about a hard week. I miss her so bad. I guess I keep waiting for her to call. Still we have carry on the lodge and cook for the hunters just like she would have wanted. So that will be what I do in November and December. It will be a tough few weeks seeing familiar faces as hunters return to hunt that have been hunting with Snipe creek Outfitters for several years and have to tell them that Ann is not with us any more. Not sure how tough I am when it comes to that. I got some big shoes to try an fill. Maybe I be best just trying to walk in her footsteps instead.
While I was gone in September Rodger kept the raspberries an tomatoes picked an taken care of . I still need to make some jam and get that done in the next few days. We got our sweet corn brought in that was left to mature on the stalk for seed. I should have enough Golden Bantam and Stowells Evergreen to plant next year.Also got some of the white corn field beans picked for seed as well. Still more of those to get off the vines as they mature and dry. I think we have a few green tomatoes left in the garden I would like to get picked an chopped an frozen to make fried green tomatoes later on. Maybe I can get those tomorrow evening after Rodger gets in from work to help me. Its getting close to time for us to get light frost. At least not too far off anyway. I picked the pears off our small tree here in the yard the other day and there is enough of them to make some pear preserves or pear honey. Or to just make canned pears. I like to mix canned pears an peaches together to eat in place of fresh fruit in winter time. Beats buying sprays stuff from the store. Hopefully next year we will have some fruit of our own to can. Our young trees should produce some fruits IF we properly care for them. Its time to start picking up black walnuts too for shelling and baking later. I told Rodger we can gather them, hang them in burlap bags in the buildings to dry away from squirrels and then shell the dried shell off with the corn sheller later. Then the hard part of cracking an picking the meats out of the shell. We also have wild butternuts here on the farm too if we can remember where the trees are that have them. They are easier to shell than the black walnuts. And have a lil sweeter taste too. Makes yummy cakes and fudge. The cabbage plants that I planted before I left to go west are looking pretty good. Had a good bit of worm damage but I think I stopped that with DE a few days ago. The mustard an turnip greens are looking really nice too. I guess I need to cut an can some of those this weekend so they can grow back and make even more. I kinda look forward to the turnips a lil later as the weather cools they get sweeter. I had some turnips that were pulled an stored in the fridge for like 2 months an they were like eating an apple, so sweet and crunchy. I still need to do more work on the herb bed. I think my plan is a go to kill back a lot of the mints and stuff an just leave patches of purple coneflower an mint and put down black plastic with mulch so in spring when it comes back out it wont look so scraggly and over grown. If anyone ever plants mint or anything in the mint family it for sure needs to be contained. Better yet, plant in containers so it don't take over. It propagates from roots an seeds and can get out of hand really fast. I started in spring with just a lil tiny sprig of peppermint and now I have a space of 3 ft square covered with it. I do like to dry peppermint for tea tho. Great belly ache remedy and sooths indigestion. I could stay busy for days on end and not get bored with things that need to be done around here.
But this week I don't plan on being too busy doing all this farm stuff. I got a lil grandbaby to play with an spoil this week. At least till Thursday till he an his momma have to go home to Nevada. Yes our sweet daughter in law Amoy an grandson Liam have been here for several days to visit. That lil man is so precious. He is the sweetest lil fellow. I guess when he goes home I will have to stay really busy so I don't go nuts missing him. Thanks for letting Liam and Amoy come home for a visit Rob. I know you miss them terribly but we certainly have enjoyed having them. Maybe we can just keep Liam and let his momma go home to keep his daddy company till Christmas when they come home to visit they can get him back. IF he is not so spoiled by then. But I really doubt they will let that happen.
Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.


Stella

Canning potatoes, late garden work

Not much canning going on here this summer at all. But on Saturday Rodger and I got our potatoes put in crates and in the cellar for storage. We had put them on the floor of an outbuilding at Jason's house to cure and the skins to toughen on them and felt it was time to get those in the cellar while we had spare time. Not like we are all that busy but still lots of things to do on a homestead all the time. We had several that had developed soft spots from laying on the floor and I knew they would not keep stored in the cellar so I separated those and decided to can them so they can be used. So that is what I did. Not hard to do at all. I like to leave peels on my potatoes, especially for frying. I washed them really well and cut of damaged areas, cubed them up so they were uniform in size, packed them in pint jars, added 1/2 teaspoon salt, covered with water, added lids, pressure canned them for 30 minutes at 10 lb pressure. That is what the canning book says to do. They all sealed and needless to say I was a happy lil camper. This batch used the damaged ones, but I still have about 3/4 bushel of small ones that will shrivel over time in storage and be useless so those will be canned tomorrow, hopefully.

I canned a total of 18 pints, these are just ones I HAD planned on using for supper tonight for fried taters but someone changed my plans. They are still nice and white, you can see the brown areas which are the peels. The protein layer on the tater is just under the skin and this is just one reason I don't like to peel taters. Try to preserve more of the nutrition. I actually like to use boiled leftover taters to make fried taters anyway. They are just better. Try it sometime.

Over the weekend I did also get some mustard and turnips sowed to have for greens to can later this fall. I planted some rutabagas as well. I am not sure I have ever had rutabagas but they are kinda a taste between turnip and cabbage so they cant be all bad. Very nutritious as well and tolerate storage in the cellar. At least that is what I have learned about them from reading info online. I found 1 packet of parsley seed today while I was out and will get that sown tomorrow too. I do need lots of parsley dried for use till next spring. Still have some other herbs I need to cut and dry from the herb bed as well. Still need to dry peppermint, lemon mint, thyme and more oregano. Add that to my to-do list. We have picked a few ripe tomatoes in the last week and the raspberries are starting to get ripe too. Not enough tomatoes to can yet, but soon I think. The raspberries I am freezing to make jam later and for smoothies. Gosh so hard to grasp the fact that September is almost here already. Where did summer go?

I had a doctor appointment today and all went well with that. Last week I saw my family doc and had several lil basal cell carcinomas taken off. Those are peeling off and healing well. I cant complain. Life is good. It got even better when I got a call from Rob and Amoy to tell us that Amoy and lil Liam will be flying home in September to see us. That just tickled me to pieces. Cant wait to see them. Wish and still hoping Rob gets to come too, but if not he will be home in December for a visit. I do OK for about 3 or 4 months then I get to really wanting to see him and Amoy, in person, not just on ooVoo. Although I am so happy we have ooVoo so we can see Liam in real time and see him grow. Hard to imagine he will be 4 months old tomorrow. Damn time flys as we get older.

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

Stella

I am still chasing that ever elusive case of fresh nectarines to can. I am thinkin it is time to give up on those. Maybe just get another case of peaches to can and be done with it. Rodger informed me last week we will have some pears this fall, not as many as we normally do but some. So we make do with what we have I reckin.

Oh yeah, we on the rebound

I am not gonna say it no more. I am not gonna promise to update the blog more frequently. I will try tho. At least I can say with some hope that I am on the rebound and making progress toward feeling some better. Dang its been a tough couple years at best. As most know I am diagnosed with rheumatoid and osteo arthritis and fibromyalgia. Plus the damage to my back and arms from a work injury. Some day I am gonna wake up and not feel pain and know for sure I am dead. But until then the battle rages. The long an short is my doctors had me on some meds that are good for fibro and helping manage chronic pain from such but the side effects were killing me. I have always all my life loved being outside, in the garden, having flowers, taking care of different beds of edibles here on the farm, raising our own meat, all things farm related. I have spent the better part of 2 years INside because I could not tolerate heat or cold, the fatigue and brain fog were just awful. Then I had an Ah-ha moment. Yes another one. All this started when I was put on cymbalta and lyrica. So if they cause that many negative effects I did not have before then I think it would behoove me to not take them. I am here to tell you getting off the medications was a nightmare. Literally! I had horrible dreams, violent dreams, pain, headaches. brain zaps,(you cant know unless you have had these), my tummy has been mad at me for a long time. I have not allowed myself to drive now for about 3 weeks because I just did not feel safe riding with ME. I am now at the point where the worst is over. I can walk without appearing to be intoxicated now, I can drive and feel safer in my own abilities. I am making positive progress. Thank God!! I have had some pretty good days this past week. I at least have been able an felt like getting out side to do things. In all this, I guess the message is, if you are sick, no matter what the illness. Be your own advocate. Research your illness or injury, know your options, know your own body and really pay attention to how meds make you feel. Sometimes a bunch of small changes (minor side effects) can be as bad if not worse than big effects. IF you feel your medication is causing more problems than it helps, ask the doc to change it if possible or adjust your lifestyle to make you better. The cymbalta I was taking slowed the chemical signals in the body that tells the brain "pain". It slows the pain signals but along with that everything else in the body as well. I feel like my digestive system has slowed really bad to the point I don't digest my food well thus not getting the nutrition my body needs. Now I have to work on that too from a holistic standpoint. Add more cultured and fermented food to help digestion, fresh pineapple for the digestive enzymes. I kept wondering why I could eat only once a day and feel full and not hungry all day and all night. That is not normal ya know. But tomorrow is gonna be better. Always!!

Today I actually drove me to town and didn't scare me or damage anything or anyone. I went to check on mom, she is doing OK. Had lunch with Rodger at the local DQ(mistake). Ran into some old friends I had not seen in a long time. Stood on the sidewalk and talked to them for well over an hour. Had intended to stop by the store to say hello to Lori, but dang by time I looked at my watch it was past time to for me to start supper so I came on home. I cant remember when I have been out of the house this long. We had fresh green beans, new taters, corn bread an garden maters for supper. I fixed a pan of meatloaf but not much of it was eaten. We all just pigged out on the garden stuff. Rodger got his after supper nap in and then finished installing our cell phone booster. It has helped our cell phone reception a good bit. Not much signal to be had out here in the boonies. But that is a good thing. There are places on our road that has no GPS signal too. We so hid even the satellites cant find us. While Rodger was doing his project I started getting my stuff together to plant my lil cabbage plants that we picked up at Lowe's yesterday while we were in Lexington to the dentist.

There were only 9 of them but that is enough to make a few more jars of kraut and have coleslaw for a while. They should be done before really bad weather. I had the black plastic over this whole section of the herb bed to kill weeds and it did a fine job. I just left the plastic on the area I am not planting to keep the weeds at bay. I did use landscape fabric under the cabbage with mulch on top to keep it in place.

My friend Anna had sent me several lavender plants earlier in the year and I put them in pots so they would get really good strong roots. I got some of them planted here at the west end of the herb bed so they can have plenty of light in summer time and bloom really well. The nearby plant is one of my mature sage plant that has been all but scalped. I have about 10 nice sage plants growing in here now. I really have made some headway on getting the herb bed back in order. Gosh it was about gone with no weeding this summer. Next project is to thin out the mint(s) and purple cone flower. They are so over grown. The oregano is out of control too. I did cut a bunch of it last week to dry for use in cooking. If we don't get rain tomorrow I am gonna try to cut the chives and get those frozen for later use. Chives are best frozen. I got a spot ready to plant some parsley too. Parsley is good frozen or dried. I dry most of mine. Its about time to be thinking about where I can plant some turnips and mustard for greens. I probably need to can more greens so we can take more to Rob and Amoy next spring. I like to just eat the turnips raw like an apple. I had some last fall that got lost in the back of the fridge and stayed in there for a good 3 months. When I found those they were so sweet and good. Love em!
I had my camera in hand (can you imagine?) when I went out back to close up the chickens for the night and check on my beans out back. This jungle looking mess is suppose to be lima beans. Not sure but they have grown up and down the fence wire they are trellised on till it might be near impossible to pick the beans.

The smaller beans to the left of the tall "mess" are a few plants of the Ky wonder pole bean. Those are gonna get trellised this weekend I hope. But the beans on the limas are huge and to me look almost like fava beans.

Well, what do you think, Limas or Favas? I don't know, but if they lima beans they are gonna be huge beans. They are wide and flat and I always thought Lima's looked like large green beans as they grew, just a bit bigger.

These things are a good 1 1/2 inches wide and they are just starting to grow. I better ask someone who knows more about Lima's and Favas than me. I bet my friend Deb will know.

Rodger and I were out of town last weekend to western Ky to visit Aunt Ann and Uncle Tripp for the weekend and pick some green beans. Oh my, that woman, even with her being sick and taking chemo and radiation treatments all spring an summer she has a huge garden. At least she had some friends that came from out of town to help her daughter in law get lots of things canned up. They got green beans done and while we were there I helped Shawna make and can some tomato juice so she can comfortably do it alone now. And Ann had lots of tomatoes that were close to ripe enough to make juice. Please keep this sweet lady in your prayers that she can make a speedy recovery and we can have her for many more years.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Need to get my ducks in a row

But these days seems like I am lucky to just get my ducks in the same pond. I feel lost in my own lil world. I lose track of time lapse. I have been thinkin for a week or more than I need to update my blog and let my readers know I am still kickin. Well finally , here it is. By the way, where the hell did summer go? Just the other day I was starting things in the greenhouse and wishing for summer to get things planted an now here it is mid-August nearly. Actually I have lost a lot of precious time and a lot of my life trying to get better health wise. NOW maybe I can be on the uphill swing. I have stopped a couple meds that I think were making me so fatigued and making me sicker. If I can just get me past the withdrawal of those it will be better. Making progress tho. Maybe in the near future I can do a whole post on what has happened an how I am making positive progress now. So many things to do an so little time before fall and frost, then the snow flys.
Our garden has not produced as much as we are used to but no panic here because when I do have an abundance I can like there is no tomorrow. So in leaner years we still have plenty of canned stuff. We finally got the first round of sweet corn put up late last week and weekend. Will be picking over it again probably mid week. Beans, well those are a whole nuther animal. Not going to be many if any of those this year. But we have enough already canned. Our tomatoes have lots of nice healthy green tomatoes on the vines but they will be a lil later getting ripe. No biggie tho.Our potatoes did really well this year. We got those dug a couple weeks ago and are in the building curing for later storage in the cellar. I plan, but we know how my planning goes, to can some of the smaller taters for quick meals. Not to mention the fact that the very best fried taters are ones that were boiled and left over. I got this idea from my friend Rosie who said in Germany her mother always had boiled potatoes in the kitchen to use in so many ways. And I love Rosie's fried taters. When I make garlicky herbed potatoes here I always make enough to have leftover fried taters the next day. So very good.
I did manage to get the sage cut an dried last week and ended up with a 2 gallon zip top bag nearly full of crushed leaves of sage. I still need to dry some oregano and mint from the herb garden. I should be planting some parsley to chop an freeze. Parsley an chives are much better frozen than dried. Parsley is OK-ish dried but better frozen. Chives definitely better frozen. A few weeks ago when I was making dill pickles I used some dill that I had chopped an frozen last summer. Good stuff.
I had a doctor appointment in Richmond last week an before we left town we had stopped at the local fruit stand an Rodger got me a box of peaches. I think the box holds 3/4 bushel. I ate a lot of em but did manage to can several jars too. This week I am looking to get nectarines. The fellow said he would have them last week and this week. Need to purchase those right now as my lil fruit trees are not big enough to produce yet.

Ended up with 11 pints an 2 quarts. Not bad considering I ate lots of fresh peaches. Love em!! My counters in the summer kitchen are pretty cluttered for it to be the middle of what should be canning season. At this moment I have lots of empty jars out there an a flower pot in which I had started some cabbage for fall cabbage. My cucumbers in the garden ate my cabbage. Covered them up and with all the rain the cabbage rotted from all the water. But not much can be done when ya have so much rain and don't  get the cukes trellised. Plan B, start an try to grow fall cabbage. Need to be thinking about gettin the fall crop of chickens growing too. If I order now they will be big enough to butcher off before the weather gets too cold and we will be done with our late season meat supply. Probably raise about 25 more for the freezer. I still have several from the spring "crop" to last till we get more raised.
The past couple weeks I have felt a bit better with some med changes and stopping some meds. A lil more energy I guess. I even had enough energy to clean the windows outside. I had found a recipe on Pinterest for window cleaner to use outside an you just need to hose off the cleaner, no drying needed an it drys spotless. Yippee!! So I tried it an be dang, it worked. So I will share the recipe with you so maybe it will make your window cleaning life a lil easier.

Outside window cleaner
1/4 cup ammonia
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon Jet dry(like used in the dishwasher)
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon dish soap

Mix well in spray bottle an take hose an rinse window to get the dust off so as to not scratch the glass. Spray the cleaner on the window and with a brush or sponge or even a mop wash the window. Rinse with the hose again and leave it be. The windows will dry spotless. This makes window cleaning so much easier for me. I don't have to climb on a chair or ladder to reach the taller ones, and no streaks from drying either. Now I really need to clean the siding with bleach to get the "green stuff" off. Maybe when I get another burst of energy that I am not forced out of necessity to use for something else I can clean the siding.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella