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

Yep, I been busy goin in big circles

I cant believe it has been so long since I posted last. Goodness, where does time go? I am almost convinced that the older we get the faster it flys by. Or maybe its just that we do things less fast. Not sure, but..

We did get to go see our son and his family and enjoy visiting with them for Liam's first birthday. That lil fellow is growing up way too fast. Hes not a baby anymore. So precious. And you would think this grammy would have tons of pictures to post, but by dang I took mostly videos while I was there. I must do some editing before I can get them to post here. Dang it!! But we enjoyed our trip and visit. Sadly tho mom ended up back in the hospital while we were gone and was treated for pneumonia. She was back at the nursing home before we got home, which was good. Then the staff noticed some bruises on her right leg on Friday last week and sent her to the ER for evaluation suspecting it might be a clot or bleed. Finally today they have decided she has a bleed in her leg from the TPA she got when she had her stroke. She was a very sick lady and still is. They had to give her a unit of blood last night due to the loss. She doesn't recognize me now which is sad because I don't want her to think I am not there. Hopefully in a few days she will improve to the point where she can at least get to come back here to the nursing home for continued care with people she is familiar with. Being an only child stinks in times like this when you have to make all the decisions.So please keep her in your prayers for a continued recovery.

The garden stuff we had planted before we left on vacation is up and looks really good. When we got home Rodger and Jason got our sweet corn, beans and the field corn planted. Now as soon as we get a day or so of no rain we can get the tomatoes and such in the garden too. I think we have got behind again. But we did get the Cornish cross butchered off before leaving as well. Got plenty of meat in the freezer. Now if I can find time between running back and forth to the hospital to make the chicken stock all will be good. I simply had to be home tonight. Must do laundry or tomorrow we be naked. Or at least I would be. So I am workin on that as I type. Hey, I guess I can multitask after all. I am planning to get my incubator started up again really soon, I sure need to hatch off more chicks to replace my laying flock. The ones we hatched before we left are growing and lookin good. I still need to fix a place for them to be able to get out in the grass and still be confined to a small area so they know where to go to roost at night. Have just not had time to get that done since we been back. But it will happen soon, I hope.

My strawberries are loaded with blooms in the bed by the driveway this year. Hopefully we will have plenty of fresh berries soon. My friend Anna had sent me some thorn less blackberry plants right before we left for vacation and I still don't have them planted in a permanent location yet. But they are doing great in the pots in the greenhouse for right now. I got tons of grapevines started too, most of them have leaves so should have roots or at least will soon. Then they get put in individual pots till fall planting time. I get tired just thinkin of all the stuff that needs doing here sometimes. Geez!!!

Has anyone else had a terrible time with allergies this spring or is it just me? I got a snot nose and all that junk when we were in Nevada and it just didn't let up once we got home. I have had a plugged up left ear, left sinus feels stopped up, itchy eyes, cough, the whole nine yards. I guess it don't help a lot to be tired, stressed and run down either. But I must keep pluggin along till the stress eases up. Hope soon, before I crash. We both had dentist appointments today and got teeth cleaned and both got good reports. Thas a plus I reckin. I had a good laugh with Sheila, our hygienist as I got to be her first patient that she cleaned using her new magnifying glasses. It was hilarious. The glasses are designed to make it easier for the hygienist to see without having to lean over so far and strain they neck and back all day. But she said she could see things she could never see before. She chose Rodger and I to be her first patients using the glasses. She almost lost her seat when I told her I would keep my eyes closed in case she mis-judged her distance with her instruments. I do think it took longer than normal to clean my teeth with all the laughing tho. But thas OK, I don't mind being a guinea pig once in a while. I guess that was my bright spot in the day. Being on the road has really worn me out tho.

Some day I hope to get my ducks in a row and post on a regular basis. Until then, bear with me please. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Its spring, stuff is growing, time marches on

I think maybe, just maybe spring is here to stay. I be really ticked if it gets really cold again. But I am not in control of the weather. And God gives us just what we need, no more, no less. But here it is a week and a half into April already. Not long till vacation time and get to see that lil grandson. Well we gonna see his momma and daddy too, but thas a bonus. Cant wait to see Liam. He is growing so fast. I just wish we could let time stand still and be able to enjoy him at this young age for a while longer. It is so true, you never really know what love is until you have a grand child.

 

Hard to believe this lil fellow will be a year old the end of April. Seems like just the other day we were waiting for his to make his appearance. 

So far things are going rather well as far as gardening and getting plants started this year. Although it seems things that are started in the greenhouse are growing slower than I would like. Or maybe its just me. We have had a lot of rain which equates to little sunshine and slow growth of plants. But all in good time I am sure. If nothing else I should have lots and lots of tomato plants this year. My lil project for tomorrow is to get my azz in gear and get some composted chicken manure in a bucket and set it up so I can catch manure or compost tea to water the greenhouse plants with. I am convinced it makes them grow best. My friend Anna sent me some wonderful thornless blackberry starts a couple weeks ago. When they arrived in the mail I was like a kid in a candy store, literally. Cause I knew she had sent me homemade fudge in that package as well. Love that lady and so thankful for her friendship. I put the blackberry starts in individual pots to hold them and let them get started growing a bit before we set them in their permanent place. I think it will be so nice to pick berries without gettin eat up with thorns. In the greenhouse I have many many containers of cutting from grapevines. One container is for my friend Mamie who had ask me to show her how to prune her grape vines and I volunteered to take some cuttings and start them for her some new plants. Then this past weekend Rodger and I went to west Ky so I could prune Uncle Tripp's muscadine grapes for him as I had promised I would do and brought home 4 more containers of cuttings to get started for him and a few for us to keep here. All those in addition to the pot I have in the kitchen that has leaves on them already from our grapes here at home. I am thinkin I will be over run with grape vines pretty soon. Maybe I best dig out all my books on "wine making". I looked at the grape harbor out back today and they have lil buds and will have leaves soon I think. Cant beat homemade grape jelly and wine. I am hoping the ground is dry enough in the field this weekend so we can move my raspberry plants and start a couple new rows of them. We actually want to orient them in a different direction so all the rows in the orchard and vineyard go the same way. Rodger says its hard to mow around things when they go too many directions. But he has been doing well at it. 

We got home Sunday evening kinda late and was working on emptying the incubator that I had used to hatch my baby chicks in. I had one that was still trying to hatch when we left on Friday before and I had ask Lori my friend who was house sitting for us to just unplug the incubator if nothing else had hatched by Saturday evening and she did. Nothing else hatched. I guess my thermometer is bad because the chicks all hatched early at 19 days due to the higher than necessary temperature. But the hatch rate was really low, only hatched 7 babies. But am happy they healthy lil fellers. But when we got home I went to empty the incubator and a baby chick hollered. OMG, was my first thought. I knew the incubator had been off for more than 24 hours and this lil one had been trying since Friday to get out of the shell. I told Rodger, "dang if he is tough enough to survive this long, I just got to help him" and I know all too well if they cant get out of the egg on their own, most likely they wont survive. I helped him out, got him cleaned off, he was severely dehydrated. I gave him a tiny sip of water. He was weak but could still fuss. I turned the incubator back on to keep him warm and dry and let him rest for a bit. Right before I went to bed I picked him up to give him another sip of water in hopes to get him to make it. He took the sip, fussed a bit and died. Dammit!!  But such is life on the farm. I just sure could not make myself just toss the egg with the chick still strong enough to holler. But I had to give it a try and have in the past and had success. It is kinda tough to keep the heat and humidity just right in a still-air incubator. So if you are thinking of getting an incubator to hatch your own birds, just invest in one that has a fan to move the air and a good thermometer. I will make a big difference in the hatch rate.

My meat birds are doing great. They are growing well and not long till they will be in the freezer. Just a lil over 2 weeks to go now. And gosh do they eat a lot. They are funny to watch. When I open the door to feed an water them, they love to stand at the door and look out. But if you set one on the ground they freeze in their tracks. They have no clue what to do. But they like looking around but are scared to move. 

After we got situated at home on Sunday evening I was checking out facebook and email and such. I got a message from a lady whose blog I read and she has 2 books published. She was on her way to Ohio to a writing workshop and said she would like to stop by so we could meet and see the farm. Well needless to say I was beyond excited to get a chance to meet a fellow blogger and published author. You can check out her blog here. I always enjoy reading about her travels and stories of life. So Monday evening I got a phone call from Gianetta and she was in town. I went and picked her up at the hotel and brought her out for dinner and we got to  spend a wonderful evening getting acquainted and I so enjoyed her company. Such a sweet heart. Her books are both available on Amazon here and here. I started reading them last night late after I took her to her hotel. We waited till our only available photographer (Rodger) had went to bed to remember we had not taken a picture together. So imagine the laughs we had just trying to take a selfie. This is the result.

I was using my tablet to take the photo and had to use a mirror on the wall to see the button to push to snap the photo. I had several failures along the way.

I was thrilled to also get signed copies of both her books as well.  What a sweet humbling experience. After reading G's blog for a long time, and meeting her in person the books are just as wonderful. I hope you will grab those and have a read. Looking forward to your next visit G. 

It has started to rain tonight so that means not much gonna happen outside tomorrow. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Pruning, painting puttering

Just not all these in one day tho. This weather we are having this winter is enough to make the best of us go nuts. It was nice enough last weekend that we got out and pruned the grape vines, finally. I really wanted to get our fruit trees pruned too but Rodger said we would just make big ruts getting in the field with the truck so we passed on those for now. It will have to either be frozen or dry before we can tend to the orchard. The yard was wet but nothing we cant handle. So on Saturday we got the grape vines pruned in the back yard. They sure looked scraggly before we got into them.

 Much better after most of the growth was cut away. I did manage to take a lot of the limbs and cut lots of starts for new vines for this fall planting.

The hardest part of getting the cutting started was finding some potting soil that was not froze solid to put the cuttings in. Finally got them in some sandy loose potting soil, put the whole pot, cuttings and all in a large trash bag after I watered them well and took them into the kitchen. With the warmth and moisture I am sure they will make leaves soon, within a couple weeks and then they start making roots. So by time I get my greenhouse up in early April they will go in there till summer and be re potted into bigger individual pots to grow till early fall and get transplanted to their permanent location in the vineyard in the field and some to by friend Anna. That is about the extent of what we got done outside.

As you know from previous post, I like to paint. No am not an artist. Just like to paint the inside of the house. Rodger keeps telling me I am making the house smaller with layers of paint. Doubt we miss the square footage. I decided instead of getting in on painting the rest of the house first I needed to get the utility room painted as well as the storage closet in there and finish up the dining room. These need to be done before we start putting down flooring before long, I hope. So today I got myself in the notion to start painting. Then it dawned on me, "I need a lighter color paint for closets". Well hell !!! Off to town I go and get another gallon of paint in a lighter tone than the golden yellow that goes on the other walls. I got back and fixed supper and started painting. I thought may as well get the closet in the utility room first and get that over with. Toted all the "junk" out of there and scattered it about and set in to painting. Oh my goodness!! It took a half gallon of paint to just do the damn closet. But that did include painting the shelves in there too and adding some more shelving. Done!! I was killed. I just cant work as long or as hard as I used to. I had a fan positioned to speed the paint drying time and got the "junk" all put back. SO that is done. Tomorrow, the utility room. And that means moving the washer and dryer, clean them, clean under them, scared to see what might be living behind them, then wash the walls and finally paint. It should be a lil bit brighter in there once I am done. If I live to see it. I can sure hope.

For the ones of you who read and know me, you know it is rare for me to leave the house more than once every few weeks. Well I been out 2 times this week. First part of the week I got paint. And stopped by the grocery store just to plunder around and see what the rest of the world eats. The prices are out of sight, can we say sticker shock, again. Happens to me real often. Not to mention I have never in my life seen so many packaged single serving foods in my entire life. Single serving sausage biscuits, microwave ready. Sandwiches, micro ready. veggies, micro ready. Do people eat this stuff? I guess they do cause it sure seems a lot of people were buying it. Now we are in the country, not a big city, most people live in a rural setting. How the hell they gonna eat if the power is off from one of these crazy winter storms we are having? The food is already cooked I guess so maybe eat a cold sandwich. This type foodstuffs is pricey too. For a while I had almost decided to just buy chicken breast at the store locally because you can buy 10 lb boxes of chicken breast frozen for about $1.79 a lb. Not a bad price. Well that idea was short lived when my friend Lori came down to visit on Sunday. She works at the local grocery store and informed me chicken was getting ready to go up really high. Short supply due to drought shortening food supply for the birds I think is the reason. IF it stayed at the above price I would consider just buying chicken breast but if it is going higher than that, I am gonna raise my own chickens. Initially I had planned on just buying chicken breast and hatching and raising some standard breeds to butcher for stock and such. Well now I think I best order meat chickens and hatch and raise some too. There is no easy way out. But at least I am blessed with a way out of the high prices. She also told me vegetables will be going up in price also due to the short fall in production in California with farmers having no water to water their crops with. Not sure about the politics of that whole situation but it sure seems to me food production would trump having a pretty lawn any day. But I reckon not to the powers that be out there. I say let them eat their lawns, we can raise ours here. We have options here, we can raise our food, supplement with game meat and meat we raise. But what about folks on fixed income, folks who have no space to raise any food. They are at the mercy of the grocery store. If a family budget allows $100 a week for groceries and you pay 20% more for groceries, either you add another $20 to the budget or buy and eat less. Scary as hell these times we live in.

I am ready for spring myself and ready to start seeds and dig in dirt, somewhere. Whether it be in the greenhouse, a flower pot or in the big garden. Not likely be doing any playing in dirt this weekend or coming week as we have snow forecast for almost every day, in some amount. But dad was right, it thaws a lil bit every day in February. It might snow tonight and melt off tomorrow. I can live with it, for now. Cause I know spring is not too far off.

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

Stella

Comments, questions, and answers

I have had several sweet comments on my last several blog post. It is nice to know people still read the nonsense.
Jennifer has posed a few questions on my soap making post asking about molds and such. I use really just what ever looks like it will hold the amount of soap I am making at the time. It may be a Velveeta cheese box or a soup box I have cut an taped to reshape into the size I want at the moment. A nice wooden mold would certainly be nice. Maybe I can ask hubby to make me one when he gets in the shop this winter to finish Liam's toy box. I am gonna plunder around some yard sales and such too and try to find a cheap miter box with a back saw to cut soap. I know at some hardware stores you can buy the cheap inaccurate ones that are not good for precision wood work and that is kinda what I am lookin for. It would make for cutting nice even slices of soap. Not that I mind if my soap is funky shaped. Also in soap making I do not keep an extra set or special set of pans dedicated just to soap making. After all it is just soap and most of us use soap of some sort to wash our dishes so does it matter that you have had soap in your pan. Although to make soap you do need to steer clear of anything aluminum. I use stainless steel stock pots to make soap. I think my small one holds about 3 or 4 quarts. Just need enough room to hold all the soap volume when it is mixed together. I need to buy another stick blender for soap and lotion makin tho. I gave Amoy my other one to use to make food for lil Liam at home. That lil man is growing way too fast. Cant wait to see him again in April for his birthday. And yes Jenny we think that lil fellow is pretty special too. I sure have missed you as well and all our long fone calls till the fone battery dies. I will call you someday when I can get time to stay home for more than a few busy days at a time. Geez, I ain't even home right now. House sitting again.
Deja I am glad the pina colada jam turned out good for ya. I am not sure about cutting the sugar in jam and jelly recipes. It has something to do with the pectin/sugar ratio that makes it set nicely without being tough and rubbery. Also when buying sugar for jam and jelly making, make sure it is "cane" sugar. You can get both cane and beet sugar. They differ in molecular structure and beet sugar will not set in jams and jellies. I know at one time I noticed 25 lb bags of sugar at a Kroger store and thought about getting it as the price was much cheaper. But after I got to looking closely, no where on the bag did it say cane sugar so I was suspicious that it was beet sugar and decided it was not worth the money not to mention a product that would be for the most part useless to me. So be aware when purchasing sugar.

Here it is winter time. Not to mention near the end of January already. Its about time to get started pruning grape vines and fruit trees. Maybe we can manage to get those chores behind us in a couple weeks. Weather permitting of course. This chick don't do well in really cold weather. I know what happened to me last time I got cold. I got this damn flu, sinus infection and bronchitis. I am better but no where near well from it. It seems this congestion just keeps hanging on. I don't sleep really well anyway and sure as heck don't when I wake myself up coughing. My ribs feel like someone took a ball bat to them. But trees and vines need pruned. I am not by any means a pro at tree pruning but will take advice from someone who has cared for fruit trees successfully. Our buddy Butch in west KY has many wonderful trees and his advice it to make sure there is good air circulation inside the trees. He highly recommends taking the center out of most fruit trees as that allows sunlight and air to get into the foliage and keeps down diseases. So when I prune ours that is my goal. Hopefully when we get this process started I can post some pictures. OK I know you are laughing because I always forget the camera when we do these kind of things. Maybe I can remember this time. Just maybe. When I prune grape vines I intend to start more cuttings from the Concords. I have a friend in Virginia that wants some starts and hopefully I can manage to get them going for her. Grape vines are pretty easy to start from cutting in spring. As soon as the cuts are in soil and in a warmer place they will start making leaves and thus make roots. Its winter time and I am getting itchy to get in dirt. Might be while getting in dirt tho as the weather forecast is for extreme cold and more snow for us in East Ky. I think Rodger said they have about 2 inches at home right now. In west Ky it is cold, not unbearable, just cold but no snow. I should be hibernating by now. Such is life..

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

Stella

And we keep moving along, slowly

Slowly is the key here, at least in my world. I did get my injection of OrthoVisc in my left knee last Thursday. Well it was no piece of cake goin in, the medicine is very thick which makes it rather uncomfortable in the joint. Not that much pain tho, I have had worse. It was rather sore for a couple days. The doc said it may take a month or more after the injections are finished to see any noticeable difference in the pain level. So we continue and pray they help some.

We have been having a good deal of rain lately. Enough to keep things growing well I suppose. The garden looks good from here. It is also very hot and I cant do hot no more so I have been grounded to the house by Rodger. I am tryin really hard to be good an not cause undue worry for him. But crap! its tough when ya want to get out an do things in the plants and beds and cant. This stinks!! Not sure if its just me or if I am really falling apart lately. I was making supper tonight an used my big big bowl that my sweet friend Blanche Waterbury had gotten me many years ago when I made bread by hand. It will hold enough dough for about 4 loaves. Ironstone is the material its made of. I made a chicken casserole for supper and mixed it in the big bowl. Well I had to hold it up to pour the last bit of casserole into the baking pan and pulled my left shoulder. And no I did not tell Rodger. Am afraid he might take my big bowls away next. I think I may have to trade them in for some light weight mixing bowls from the boys in the near future if this happens again.

Our garden bed we have out back looks pretty good considering it was just planted a couple weeks ago.

In the picture nearest is Lima beans, the thick row is leaf lettuce and greens for salads, then broccoli. It is a lil late to be planting broccoli in our area but I had plants in the greenhouse an ya know ya cant just toss em. So ya plant em an hope they do OK.

The next bed over has tomato plants in it. They are Gypsy tomatoes that I got as a freebie from Baker creek seeds with my order this year. They originated in Russia. So we shall see if they are good an if so will be able to save the seeds for next year. The far bed has my strawberry plants in it with one lone Egyptian walking onion in with em. They seem to be compatible neighbors so I leave em be.

My holly hocks are blooming and lookin good.

They have just gotten started blooming here and with the last heavy rain we had it knocked a few of them over on the sidewalk to the cellar. Also the momma cat has 3 kittens that love to climb the stalks and pull them over too. My old fashioned rose bush that is planted in this bed was blooming too when we had rain and I think I missed being able to cut the roses for potpourri. Once they get wet with rain fall they tend to rot before they will dry. I learned this last year when I cut some tryin to salvage them after they had been rained on. But these lil roses smell heavenly.

Not sure how long I will leave an flower beds if I keep encountering snakes. I walked past this area on the way to close the greenhouse out back and Luna started barking behind me and she had found a snake. I killed it with a shovel and she was having no part of the snake. Then just a few days ago I was inside an heard her barking an recognized the tone of her bark. I went out the front door an she came around the corner from the driveway end of the house then went back as if to say " mom come here". I went to see what she wanted and she had found another snake. I hit this one on the head with a piece of pipe and she grabbed it an shook it to death.  And every time I tried to get close enough to get the piece of pipe under it to toss it out of the yard she would grab it an take it farther from me an shake it some more. I guess she didn't want it near me. She is very protective of me but she hates snakes too. Most dogs will kill snakes but when she had the snake cornered and was barking at it, she backed up an touched a tall plant behind her and jumped out of her skin. So this year that is 2 snakes we have killed here in the yard. Both of them after the heavy rain so probably they got flooded out of their hiding spots. We live so close to the woods its a wonder we don't see more than we do. I just don't like snakes of any kind other than dead ones. Our mower had been out of commission for a couple weeks too an the grass had got pretty big and then we fixed the mower an Rodger had mowed the yard. Don't know where they came from but they need to stay away.

Remember my post a couple weeks back when I had trimmed the grapevines and decided to see if I could get some to start this late in the season? Well it didn't work out so well this time. It might have gotten too hot in the greenhouse for the starts. But even tho it has been hot I have maybe 3 or 4 that have lil green leaves on them. So I will keep them watered and see how they do. I might attempt some more in a few days, maybe this weekend, because I need to whack off some long leggy limbs on the vines again. I was surfing around the Internet last week and found something interesting. Aspirin could in a pinch be used as a rooting hormone. After all it is a derivative of the willow tree of which you can put twigs of in a jar of water to help root cutting. Just more of my useless knowledge to pass on. I also read that spiders don't like mint. So I have the brainy idea to cut some of my mint an toss it in the blender with some water and made a strong solution and trickle it around the house to keep them at bay. I know mice don't like mint either. This summer we have had lots of flys that just buzz around near the ceiling on our porch. They don't come down to pester us but its annoying to see them flying around up there. Lemon mint might do the trick on those. I will let you know. I have some growing all I need to do is cut some an hang it on the porch.

All kinds of things to do and not enough energy to do any of it. But I keep plugging along one day at a time. I get my injection tomorrow and will be off my feet an on my butt for 48 hours then see how much I can accomplish. I know I will have berries to take care of. Maybe get a few herbs harvested to dry to replenish my stock of dried herbs. I let my parsley go to seed again so it will come back up new again this fall and I will have plenty time to harvest lots before frost for our own use. I still need to move my plastic to the herb bed to kill out part of it so I can plant some new plants in there. Another project. And I think I have decided what I want to do with my big bath tub in the herb bed. I want to put in partially down in the ground so it is not so tall and fill it with dirt. I want to make a fairy garden in there and use herbs as the landscape plants in there. I want to plant creeping thyme around the edges to cascade over the sides. Not sure what else I will plant in it but want to do it just for something fun and useful. I have been looking on Pinterest for ideas of how to plant it. Maybe a lil water feature for the fairies. I need "fun".

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

Stella

The garden is finally in.......

Finally , dang it seems we have been all summer getting things finished up around here. We do have out tomatoes, peppers, cabbage and broccoli all transplanted to the big garden. the beans and sweet corn are up and look great. Rodger is going to the garden after work tomorrow to get the grass and weeds out of the corn an beans an get the tiller ran in those. Our potatoes looks really good but we do have several bugs now. I will spray those soon as weather permits. I used the black plastic weed kill method in some of the beds here at the house and have since got those planted as well. When I ordered my few seeds from Baker Creek this year they sent me a free packet of Gypsy tomatoes that originated in Russia. I planted those here near the house in one of the beds so IF they turn out to be good tomatoes I can keep the seeds and if not, no worries. But at least they wont be crossed with anything else. I also had a handful of Lima beans that a gentleman from Rodgers work gave us that his family has raised for many years here in Ky. I planted those along one side of the beds out back. Got some broccoli out there and a strip of lettuce sown.

The one bed outback that has the strawberries in it has out done them selves again this year. You know how scatter brained I am most days. I had forgot to check on them and had lots of berries rot before I remembered to pick them. But they are still producing and doing great. As well as the bed out by the driveway. I will need to pick those again tomorrow evening. Between the 2 beds here at the house we all picked right about 4 gallon of berries last Sunday. Those went home with Tammy (SIL) and Barbara (MIL). Yippee I didn't have to clean those. I still have a good supply of berries in the freezer from last summer. I took my friend Rosie's advice and had Rodger mow the raspberries down last fall so they can come back and produce one big crop this fall instead of working us to death all summer picking them every other day. They have come up and look just beautiful. They look even better since Rodger got the mowing done and you can actually see them now. I do need to get the big weeds out of the row and spread the rotted chicken manure down the sides of the row really soon so it can feed the plants.

You remember last post when I said I was going to give it a shot tryin to start grape vines in mid summer? Well right now they ain't lookin too good. The leaves fell off but that don't mean they are dead. I will leave them be and keep them watered and see what happens later in the season. And so help me I think the grape vines did double time puttin on more grape clusters after I fruit pruned them. May actually have to fruit prune them again to get bigger grapes. I might wait till the yard is mowed to be out there trampling around. The grass is gettin kinda high, not outlandish, but still thick and tall. Our mower needs new blades and we wont get those till we go out of town on Thursday. And needless to say our yard has bloomed again. We have lots of white clover in our yard. More clover and weeds than actual grass. We don't have a lawn, we got a yard. We thankfully don't have an HOA out here in the country or we might be in some trouble. I guess thas why we out here in the country.

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

Stella

I know, I know, leave it to me

I know, I have been MIA for a while, again. No I been right here, not gone, just at home tryin to keep my oars in the water. You already know that I don't play by the rules. I am in the process of trying to get my meds adjusted as far as times that I take them so they can work better for me and not make me a zombie during the day. Its OK to be sleepy at night but dang being in a brain fog all day. Makes for some real unproductive days. But I am making progress. So on to the next project.

We got the garden planted and all the stuff is up and looks good. We still need to plant tomatoes and peppers, cabbage and broccoli, melons and squash. We have been having some rather cold nights with temps in the 40's which is not normal for us and I didn't want to plant tender crops in the garden just yet and let them get frost bit. I do think now the danger of frost is past so we will try to get those in the ground in the next few days. We had to make a trip out of town today to the bigger city to pick up some supplies and we got a roll of 6 ft wide landscape fabric which we will put in the garden, bury the edges of it to keep it in place, make crosses in the fabric and set the cantaloupes and watermelons in the holes so they can grow without competing with the weeds later in the summer. Hopefully we can take the fabric up and use it again next year. If this new roll last as long as the stuff we used up here in the yard when we first moved it will probably last us a lifetime. Good sturdy stuff. The plants in the greenhouse look good. Now to get them in the garden.

My new lil greenhouse sure has been handy this year. I finally got enough energy get in the yard and do a few more chores this past week. Our grape vines were in bad need of fruit pruning. As you can tell from this picture.

You can click on the picture to enlarge it and better see the many lil grape clusters on the plants. I did fruit prune them and take about 50% of the lil clusters off to give the ones left a chance to get bigger. Then I got another idea. I know, I know, you should not prune plants in the middle of summer when the sap is up. But prune I did. The grapevines were pretty scraggly with limbs goin ever direction. Makes it really hard to mow when you are getting stabbed and scrapped by grape limbs. So I clipped them back.
Before:

After:  

 Mission accomplished:

 I got all the wild limbs clipped and you can actually mow under the vines and this should greatly improve air circulation and prevent fungus on the grapes. There are lots of nice young growth on the ground after I finished. So I have a friend who is wanting some grapevines. I know, I know, THEY say you cant take cutting and start plants in summer time. But dang it, you know I had to try. So I took the cutting to the picnic table, trimmed em up, fixed a pot of potting soil, got out the rooting hormone, a pan of water, dipped the cutting in the water and then the hormone and stuck em in the dirt. We shall see IF they makes roots or not. I will let you know on this one.

 So once they were in the pot I put them in the greenhouse so I could take care of them till (hopefully) they make roots.

OK I was all done playing in the dirt so I moved on to the strawberry bed out back. OH my!!!!!

 I did not know there were that many berries ripe out there. So this required a trip back to the summer kitchen to get a container to pick berries.

I know, I know, the bowl will not be big enough but it is what was handy. Ended up I picked about a gallon of berries off this lil 8ft by 8ft bed. Yeah I know, I know, there are berries in the field ripe and the bed beside the driveway has a lot of ripe berries in it too. Yeah I picked the ones here at the house. Still have not got to the field to pick those. Maybe tomorrow.

After I finished picking berries Rodger came out and I suggested we go to the field and drive the post to support the new grapevines we planted the past couple years. So off we went. We got the supports put up and Rodger is way far behind on the mowing with all the rain we have had. Can ya tell?

There are about 30 grapevines in this lil vineyard once they get big enough to make grapes. There is a grapevine at every metal rod that you see. This clover we planted creeps and mats on the ground and gets rather tall It is pretty tough stuff but we had hoped it would be shorter to cut down on mowing and help keeps weeds from growing. The orchard has grass that is almost as tall as some of the young trees we have planted this year. It will look pretty tho if Rodger ever gets it mowed.

A pretty heavy thunderstorm blew in just as we got finished driving stakes and it was getting dark so I did not get to pick the strawberries that are in the field near this vineyard. Just not enough hours in the day.

We went out of town to get a pressure switch for our water pump today and to pick up a few supplies and as I already told you we got landscape fabric to keep weeds out of the melons. We went to Lowe's and I picked up 3 - 8oz containers of Valspar paint for free. I had coupons that I had saved for a free 8oz sample of paint so I took advantage of that lil deal. Got a couple colors and 1 white. I wanted the white to re-paint the base of our dining table. We made a stop at Walmart for a few other things we needed and Rodger had some gift cards that he had gotten from cashing in his reward points from one of our credit cards. Needless to say it is not safe to allow him in Walmart "lil boys" clothing section. He picked out several lil outfits for Liam. Who am I kidding? I picked out a few myself for that lil man. I cant believe how much this lil fellow has grown in just the few weeks since we have been back home. Although his daddy did tell me he is a lil colicky. Bless his lil heart, I hate this so bad. Sure is hard to see those lil ones hurting and not be able to fix em. They tole me today they are gonna change his formula to a soy based one to see if that will help some. I know Rob was on soy formula when he was a baby. I just pray this don't last long for him. I know it is hard for Rob and Amoy being so far from family and not having anyone close to help out so they can rest a lil bit. But this sweet lil boy will be worth all this and I am sure they would tell you the same things. Just precious.

                                           He looks like he is just itchin to get hold of something.

                                               Lookin all gangsta!! and cute.

 And just look at that sweet lil smile. Not long till he will be able to interact with his mommy and daddy more. I know they cant wait for those days. This Grammy sure misses that lil fellow.

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

Hope you have a safe and happy memorial day weekend. Thanks to all our service men and women, past and present for your service to our country. God bless you all and keep you.

Stella

No frost yet!

In our neck of the woods we still have not had a killing frost. On the mountains they have had a few light frost. We still have raspberries blooming an producing, peppers still hanging on. Not like I need any more but will give them to someone if they will come get em. Rodger mowed the field of purple hull peas down about a month or so ago an they are coming back up from the stubble and look pretty. We wont likely pick any more of them but the deer sure do like em. They are in there most every evening just at dark. I kinda see that as an investment in our meat supply. I am still in the process of drying herbs for cooking and medicinal herbs as well. Never know when those might come in handy. I like finding our about the wild plants that grow here on the farm and learning which ones are edible. Last evening when Rodger and I went to look about the pears on the big pear tree I saw a vine growing nearby that I identified as "groundnut". They are not peanuts as peanuts are sometimes called. They are indigenous to the area and when the country was first settled the colonist used the groundnuts as a protein source. They are very common near old Indian digs. The Indians dug the nuts an replanted the small ones to ensure another crop and food source. You can read more about the groundnut here and here. So if a person were lost or stranded in the mountains of east Kentucky and starved it might be their own fault. Because there is food to be had growing wild.

We finally got our new grapevines planted this week as well. We now have a total of 36 grapevines in the new vineyard. So hopefully someday in the near future we will have lots of grapes an I can make a good bit of homemade wine to enjoy. The raspberries are still producing and soon they need to be weeded an some small runners transplanted off them to make a new row of berry plants. The variety my friend gave me produce all summer but if we mow them down this fall they will come up in spring an only produce a good fall crop next year. Not sure if I want one big crop or pick smaller amounts over the whole summer. I think it easier to pick an put up small amounts than to be overwhelmed with tons of berries at one time that need picked. And if I have something more pressing I might not get the berries before they are a lose. I need to get in gear an pick the pears to let them ripen so I can get some canned up. I do like my canned pears as a snack. But my idea of a snack is to eat a whole quart of canned peaches or pears.

Our meet up last weekend in central Kentucky was a hit. We all had a great time, good food, new friends made and a relaxing event. I did a demo of chicken butchering and processing and the ladies that were interested I think came away with enough skill to be able to butcher their own birds if they choose. On Saturday evening I did a soap making demo and a bachelor learned to make his own citronella soap for summer time use to keep the bugs off him. He swears by the soap. A friend of his had given him a bar and he said he never had a tick, chigger or mosquito bite all summer as long as he had the soap to shower with. So now he can make his very own soap from the skills he learned in the demo. I do enjoy showing someone a new self sufficiency skill because I know that is one less thing they must depend on someone else to do for them.  At the meet up our friend Rosie showed us how to make tinctures and infusions with medicinal herbs. We walked around here place and she showed us several plants that grow in most every ones yard that can be eaten or used for medicine. One plant that I always thought was some type of clover is actually Oxalis or pickle plant. You can see pics an read about it here. Heck I pull these lil things out of my herb bed as weeds till Rosie showed us the lil "pickles" on the plants. If you can safely identify them have a taste of the lil pickles. Tart lil things they are. Back at home the other day I found a sassafras tree that Rodger had pushed over an there is a root exposed. I want to chop the root up for tea. I have always liked sassafras tea since I remember dad digging the roots when I was a child an mom boiled them in spring to make a spring tonic.Anyone on blood thinners must use caution when drinking sassafras tea as it is a blood thinner as well. Mostly used to purify the blood. Another thing that was common when I was growing up was picking wild greens in early spring. Some of the women that lived out on the hill an mom would go up the road an in the edge of the field an pick greens. I remember them picking round leaf or mouse ear plantain, young poke leaves, dandelion greens and others I can not remember at this minute. I have since learned that dandelion is a great plant to consume to cleanse the liver and kidneys. You can also dig the dandelion root to make tea in winter for the same purpose. My friend Rosie is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to edible plants an herbal uses of those plants. I just wish I knew half of what she knew.

So I had my lil mini vacation and back at home it was back to work. I am still working on canning some things out of the freezer to make room for deer meat when the guys go hunting. I guess thas kinda like counting your chicks before they hatch. I got the raspberries out and made raspberry jam last evening. Ended up with 14 an 1/2 pints. Now if I can just remember to thaw the stuff I have frozen for gumbo an get that made an canned up I should have a good bit of room in the big freezer. We are suppose to get rain this week so that will be a good project for a rainy day. I did find some clear gel when I was in central Kentucky last weekend so I may take some of the strawberries out of the freezer an make an can some strawberry pie filling.I sure don't need any more strawberry jam at this time. We have too many jars as it is. I have sliced an dried 2 half gallon jars of onion flakes in the past week as well. I use a lot of those things in cooking. I still have about 15 lb left that I might dry as well if they start to deteriorate. Our onion crop was a bust this year. Not sure it is worth all the work and expense to get sets an plant, weed and care for onions to still have to buy onions to supply our needs. Seems to me we might need to skip the work an just purchase a 50 lb bag in the fall to use an be done with it. But work is work, my body don't tolerate doing much of it these days. Even tho I have taken a B-12 shot for the past couple months I still battle fatigue, and some nights insomnia, not to mention pain all the time, the more I do the worse the pain gets. But I keep plugging along and doing all the things I love just less of those things now days. I am actually looking forward to winter and the long days of rest and not having to worry about being out in the garden and all those things. I still have my chickens to care for but thas a minor detail. I am not sure what the hell I was thinking but I have too many chickens right now. I have 15 laying hens and a rooster. Plus 8 very young chicks and another hen setting on a nest of eggs. I think when the smaller chicks are ready to butcher off I will cull out a few of the older layers to cut the feed bill a bit. I probably could cut the feed bill now if I shelled some corn to feed the hens. With the cooler weather they like corn more than laying pellets. I saw the young chicks out today and they were gorging themselves on the grass seed in the yard. I am sure they will make wonderful stock when they are grown. I just hate the thought of butchering chickens in cold weather but seems thas what I will be doing this year.
Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

We are still alive here

I thought I might should post and let my regular readers know that we are still kicking here. All is well on the home front, feeling like we might be getting somewhat caught up with stuff for now. For a few days anyway.
I think the strawberries are done with their major crop for spring and will give me a lil rest. I am so thankful for the bountiful harvest tho. Got about 10 gallon in the freezer and 20 pints of strawberry jam made so that should do us till the next season of berries. Friday night we picked the first of the English peas. I sure hope to have enough of those to can some. I cooked the ones we picked on Saturday and they were so dang good. Put some taters in with em and made fried corn bread and I had green onions. I am convinced heaven is right here. A country meal fit for a king. Or queen.
Mothers day weekend we finally got the rest of our garden in. The sweet corn, green beans, maters, peppers (3 types), sweet taters , cukes, eggplant, and squash are all planted. Rodger was in the field mowing earlier today and said the sweet corn is starting to come up. This weekend Rodger hoed and plowed out all the stuff that was planted earlier in spring to keep the weeds at bay. It all looks real nice now. I still might plant 2 more rows of green beans in our garden. We use lots of green beans here. That is the only green veggie Jason will eat so we have them a couple times a week. I noticed other day when I was in the garden that the tater bugs are not so bad on the taters. If they don't get any worse than they are now I don't think I need to worry much. I am happy about that. I did end up planting about 200 tomato plants again this year tho. And about 100 peppers total. I didn't have enough peppers last year so maybe I will this time around. We are supposed to get rain tonight or tomorrow so that will help things spring up faster. I did get my herb out of the green house and planted into the herb bed this evening too. I have about 15 nice sage plants now that hopefully will provide enough sage for our use. It takes a lot when ya start making homemade sausage in fall. I kept a few tomatoes here to put in the herb bed too for quick slicing tomatoes and to save the seed from. I am pleasantly surprised that I don't have more weeds in the herb bed than I do. I know I weed it a few times a year but seems like last year there were far more weed problems. But then again the herbs are bigger and can shade some of the weeds out. I need to get my lil Mexican cukes planted in the bed too. They are fast maturing and will do fine starting later. Maybe tomorrow if it don't rain too much.
A couple weeks ago on one of our strawberry picking trips to the field, Rodger with a lil help from me got the raspberries weeded. They have lots of lil berries setting on them now. Am hoping for a good crop. I love the flavor of fresh raspberries.
As of now my greenhouse is empty. I got all the pots out this evening and set them on the borders of the herb bed near the house so I can water them without having to leave the hose lay out in the sun all the time all the way to the end of the yard. The grapevine cutting that I attempted to root did great. I got 34 out of 40 and they sure look healthy and hearty. I took cutting off the kiwi vines when I pruned them too this spring and most of them have roots now. I am not sure if the rooting hormone that I used to dip them in made a difference or the fact that the sap had already risen when they were pruned. But seems I had more take root this year than last. I really have had a good season starting odd stuff this year. I planted some asparagus seeds that I gathered last fall and had in the fridge all winter and most of them have come up too. I just took them out of the greenhouse and set them out so I can keep them watered till they get bigger. I think maybe my next task will be to weed the asparagus bed and strawberry bed again and maybe get mulch put down. Once the garden comes in I just don't have time not ability to keep all the beds weeded. My knees and back just don't allow that anymore. So I am gonna have to think of ways to cut the work back because Rodger and Jason don't have time to do it either. Jason will have his own things to care for soon. He and Rodger took the lil tractor and bucket and built raised beds near the rock wall at his house and a bed in front of the front porch. I gave him some maters, peppers, herbs and flowers to plant there. I will be much easier to keep neat and he wont have to go near the top of the rock wall to mow now. Much safer too.
I had a brain storm last night and decided today that I would start picking flowers and stuff to dry to make homemade potpourri. I love the smell of potpourri. Not to mention it can look pretty too. Up the road from our house near an old house site that are lil tiny old fashioned roses blooming now and they smell heavenly. With Rodgers help I picked about 2 gallon of those roses to dry and some lavender from my yard, lemon mint, and fever few blooms. It does look pretty right now but will fade as it dries. I do need to get the fixative oil to put in it after it all gets real dry and store it away for later. I have stayed kinda busy today but nothing strenuous hopefully that will make me hurt tomorrow. Guess we shall see in the morning.
Not much else happening here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Outside in the fresh air

We have both spent most of the day outside in the fresh air doing lil chores in the yard. Good grief somebody gonna have to mow soon or we gonna be living in knee deep weeds. Our yard is mostly lil weeds, if not for them I think it would be just dirt. We have some lil tuffs of grass here and there, just not your typical "lawn". But do we care,, hell now! The chickens like the weeds so we all good. I am sure the chickens are really happy tonight. Rodger got the chicken house cleaned out and the manure piled for compost. I scattered fresh straw in the building. When I went out to close the door after dark the chickens were sitting in the fresh straw for the night instead of sitting on the roost. After he finished that we did finally get the grape vines pruned today, and they did bleed a good deal. It is a lil late in the season but it had to be done.  So we can only hope it don't kill em. I did also take cutting to root for new vines. Got those in soil after dipping the tips in rooting hormone. Now they will sit in damp soil surrounded by a large trash bag till they get leaves and then for several weeks longer to establish good roots. After they have nice roots they will get transplanted into individual pots till this fall and then be moved to the field near the orchard where last years starts are planted. I started 45 cutting and out of those only about 10 or so of em will take root and grow.
I got a good start on weeding the big herb bed too. But I sure didn't make much progress seems to me. Maybe 1/4 of it is weed free. If weather permits(and it is supposed to b nice) tomorrow I will work on it some more. My body just cant take the bending and using my arm to keep at that task too long. But I am better than I was. I think I actually got a lil sun today too. I alas have a farmers tan in summer. Not the all over tan ya get from a tanning bed by any means. I fit the title of redneck farm girl.
It seems kinda early in the season to have the AC on but dang its hot for mid March. The forecast was for rain today but it didn't rain here at our place. And if we don't get rain tomorrow I will probably watch the fellers put the plastic on my greenhouse so I can play in dirt in there and get all my seedlings started so they be ready for the big garden. I should have already had the cabbage family started but such is life in my world. Had to let my arm get back to some sort of usefulness before tackling planting. So maybe tomorrow is the day.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

You can sure tell it is spring

If you look around it is not hard to tell that spring has sprung here on the McGuire homestead. You will see lots of plowed ground getting ready for planting and lots of clean-up work being done. The county has spring clean up in spring and fall for folks to haul off junk that is not normally picked up on regular garbage routes. So I think I will have a load of junk to haul off this coming weekend.
As for the plowing and gardening, well Rodger has the ground plowed where the garden is started already. I have beets coming up, as well as onions that are growing rather well. If it dont rain tonight I am going to try to transplant some cabbage tomorrow night. This evening I went to the field and dug up probably 400 strawberry plants so they didnt get plowed under. After Jason got done with work at his house he came over to help me dig he plants out. Those will be re-planted in a new place as soon as the ground drys a lil more. For now they are in 4 big rubbermaid totes in the back of Jasons truck. I put a layer of shredded paper in the bottom of each tote then scooped the plants up and set them on top of some  soil and watered them in well. I can only hope that the weather is nice tomorrow and we can transplant the strawberries, raspberries and cabbage. The strawberries that I dug up for transplant were in a row in the river bottom on the edge of the old garden spot from last year. They are green and some of them starting to bloom. The berry plants here at the house have not gotten any green leaves on them yet. Guess it just shows the difference in temperature from being close to the river. After supper Rodger helped me plant the currant bushes that my friend Rosie had given me. Those are here near the house and close to the woods so they can have some shade and maybe stay a lil cooler as they grow in cooler climates. Now if I can just save them from the lawn mower all will end well. 
I checked the grape vines that I had left in the starting medium and they have roots now so those will need to be potted up soon. But soon is gonna be when I have more room in the green house.
I got my baby chicks yesterday morning. I got the call from the post office about 6:45 to come pick them up. So now I have 26 healthy happy lil cornish cross chicks in the brooder house. And yeas I finally got it cleaned out and all the stuff moved that we had stored in there and bedding put in for them. All that was done on Tuesday beings I had forgotten to do that over the weekend.  Talk aboiut waiting to the last minute to get things done.
Its hard to believe that we have had to mow the yard already this year. It seems a bit early to me. I love the look of a newly mowed yard. Just seems to make the whole place look neater no matter how much stuff you have around. Jason mowed his yard an trimmed  it this evening as well. Now we wait and see what the weather does tomorrow to decide what we will be doing then.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Its time...............

It is finally time and its not raining or windy. Time that is to put the plastic on the green house and get started with the seed starting. The wind was calm today so we got the plastic on the greenhouse. It really didn't take long this time with 3 of us working on it. The guys were looking online yesterday to see if they could find a pre-made greenhouse with the plexi glass panels and when they tole me the price I tole them maybe we can do that later in the season when those are maybe on sale. I am perfectly happy with the one I have for now, it does what I need in the spring to start seeds. The solid material ones would likely be a lil easier to heat and could be used to extend the growing season for lots of frost sensitive veggies. Anyway for now I have the greenhouse up and spent several hours cleaning and disinfecting pots and seed trays to get ready to use. I moved the tray of leeks, onions, and cabbage to the greenhouse. The cabbage were sown in a pot and while I was in there I got those into cell packs so they can get some growth on them. I also moved my grape vine cuttings to the greenhouse and now maybe the heat in there will help them root better. They have lil leaves on them already and some are starting to get some length on the shoots. I spotted the pots those will go in as soon as they have lil roots. Now I need to get more potting soil and hopefully I will be in business.
They are forecasting rain all this coming week for us. Tomorrow I am sowing lettuce in some containers for early leaf lettuce. Its far too wet to get in the big garden to plow or plant anything. Rodger did get the lime spread today tho. He went to start the tractor to disc the lime in all to find it had less than an inch of fuel in the tank and that would have just gotten him stranded in the field. Such is life on the farm. All of a sudden I get the feeling we are getting behind again. Still got a fence to put up for hogs and fence to put up so the laying hens can be turned out during the day to forage. I got the fence material last spring and still don't have the fence up. But that is one of the things that can be done when the ground is too wet to garden.
My next project will be to get the brooder house ready for chicks. I got those ordered Friday and they should be here around April 1st. Then we will be butchering about mid May. Then later in the season I will order more to butcher in the fall for freezer. Its a never ending cycle. I still have enough chicken in the freezer to supply our needs till we have more big enough to butcher. The biggest challenge in raising birds for meat is that we have to stock up on chicken feed when we are in the big city because we have no source for high protein feed in our area. So I have my list started for when we are in the big city again. Just hope it is before the chicks arrive.
There was a change of plans on getting pigs. We decided to wait till around June and get a couple that weigh about 200 lb each and finish them out till November. They should be about 450 or more by then. The price of feeder pigs is far too high right now to consider. A 40 lb pig will cost $90 and a 200 lb hog about $120. No way I can put 160 lb of weight on them for $30. So let someone else feed them till June and by then we should also have plenty of garden scraps for them as well. Still want to get set up to raise a few sows and keep a boar and then sell the excess pigs. Thas for a lil later tho.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Little things I learn along the way............

Just thought today I would share a few things I have learned along the way. Well for one, OK Sheri you can laugh, I don't know shit about growing onions and they don't do well with being neglected. But my friend Sheri gave me really good planting tips and I did most of em with one small exception. I didn't put drain holes in the bottom of the seed trays. The seeds sprouted and came up fine, I moved them to the summer kitchen in front of a sunny window and it was about 65 degrees in there. I think the onions are damping off. The soil is cool and damp, and the lil onion plants are kinda limp. So yesterday I went to the store and got a spray bottle to mix peroxide and water in to spray for the damping off which is a fungus. I mix about 1/8 cup of hydrogen peroxide with about 1 quart of water and mist the soil well with this. I have had excellent results in past years with this treatment. The trays now also have drain holes in them to drain out excess water so I am hopeful this will save them. Although we know onions will grow in cooler weather they don't do well with wet feet. Just to be on the safe side I am gonna start another flat of onion seeds to make sure I have enough onions. It really don't matter if they are big or small, I do dehydrate most of my onions any way. So lesson learned.
The grape vine cutting I took when we pruned the grape vines a few weeks ago look good. The buds have opened up and to me that is a good sign. It means they are taking up water so they should make roots pretty soon. If so I should have about 50 new grape vines to plant this summer. Also the creeping and spreading juniper that I did cutting from are still green and pliable so it seems they are getting water thru the stem also. Hopefully they will root and we will have some new plants to use for erosion control. These plants will all get moved to the greenhouse as soon as the weather drys again so we can get the plastic cover on it. Maybe this will provide a lil more climate control for them and give them a better chance. It will be several days till we are past the rain here. We are forecast to have rain till mid week and then warmer and dry. So I guess next weekend will be my window of opportunity to get the greenhouse set up and start sowing all my seeds. I really am looking forward to being able to get outside and get started on that. Dang I am tired of being in the house.
Not much else happening on the homestead this weekend, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The spring storm season

Here it is almost March and the start of the spring storm season for us. I woke this morning to thunder and a good deal of wind and rain. I got up to see what the weather might be like outside. It should have been very light out but instead it was quite dark still with all the cloud cover and the incoming storm. We had some wind, nothing bad, a lot of rain with some pea size hail for about 5 minutes. Not that I would remember to take pictures or anything. Te temp did drop as the day wore on but the rain is over for the most part I think. The next several days are supposed to be rather nice. We have lots to do here as soon as it dries a little bit. We will be putting the plastic on the greenhouse this week some time and getting it ready. Need to be starting more plants real soon.
I was busy last week helping my aunt get her store organized and some what cleaned out so she can be a lil more efficient. Also got to visit some with my friend Jackie even tho she was in the hospital. Then great news last night, I got a text from her and she is home out of the hospital. Thank God she is doing better and has gotten past this Lupus flare up.  Also got to spend some time with my good friend Rosie and her family. Love going to her place, just like being at home. She sent me home with a bunch of raspberry plants, some stinging nettle and rugosa roses. I hope I can get those in the ground this week.
My seedlings all look really good but I do think they need to be in the greenhouse so they can get more light. As of now they are still in the summer kitchen. I love spring and the newness of things coming up and the grass starting to green up, the renewal of life at its best.
A few weeks ago when we pruned the grapevines I had cut a bunch into starts to try an root them. They were here in the kitchen inside sealed up trash bags to maintain humidity. I opened those this past weekend to find the buds on the cuttings are starting to open up. So thas a good sign they might just take root and grow for us. I think I started 65 or so for new plants. Wonder what all I can make with grapes from that many vines. Lots of jelly and wine for starts.
Not much else happening around here so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Outdoor chores have started

The weather was rather nice today, sunny but no rain or snow. We got out an got busy pruning our grapevines. They have been in 3 years now and we have never pruned them. Just for the record, this is a really bad idea. They get over grown and make the job harder.

They should have been trained to make tall trunks for the first 2 years then the third year leave 4 long branches with 6 buds each and below each of those a renewal cane with at least 2 buds on it. The following year this years producing branches should be pruned away and the renewal growth trained to the trellis. Again leave a renewal cane nearby for the following year. Google grape pruning and it is very simple with pictures.

 
My vines never got trained to make a large trunk and now they have branched out near the bottom so we had to cut them back rather drastically. The canes that were cut off can be used to start new grape vines. So I took about 65 cuttings to try an start those for new vines. Again simple instructions, cut canes and leave 3 or 4 buds on each cutting. The bottom and top cut should be near the top and bottom buds. Dip in rooting hormone and shove them into a tall container of damp sand. I used extra tall coffee cans for this with sand in them.

The canes are put in the sand over the second bud up the cane leaving the top bud exposed. In about a month they should have roots and the top bud should develop leaves. I put my container in a trash bag an sealed the top to keep in humidity till the plants get started. So they are sitting here in the house to keep warm and hopefully sprout roots an leaves soon.
Rodger also got the young pear tree pruned and tied back to try and straighten it up. Last year it had so many pears it pulled the tree and made it lean down the hill a good bit. So lil by lil we are getting some things done. Or maybe we just are trying to force spring. Next project will be to prune the big really old apple tree that is in the back yard at the home place. I really need to learn how to graft and propagate that tree.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella