Where is our spring?

What the heck happened to spring this year. Here it is mid March and our ice an snow just melted. It sure was nice out today. I even had the patio door open most of the day. So nice to air the house out an let fresh air in after being cooped up all winter. But by this time next week they are giving rain and snow showers again. Crap!! I am so ready for it to be warm and stay that way. Pretty sure things will do better in the greenhouse once it warms to a decent temperature. But I should not complain, my lil cabbages are coming up. I also had a huge flower pot that I filled with soil and sowed some lettuce, kale an spinach in. It has come up rather thick. Really pretty and green. I wanted to get an early start on tomatoes and peppers but I sure don't want to have to keep heat in the greenhouse for the weather we have had. That can get quite expensive after a while. Tomorrow I think I will go ahead an fill my seed starting trays and put them in the summer kitchen so the soil can warm up. Once it gets warm then seed to tomatoes, peppers and a few others things I need to get started early. Most likely those trays will stay in the summer kitchen till it warms a bit more outside and stays that way. Then they can be moved to the greenhouse. Peppers need really warm temps to sprout. My buddy Randy sent me some paprika pepper seeds and I hope to hell I can get them to come up and grow this season. No luck at all last year. 

This month has been abnormally cold I think for us. Normally I don't have a problem raising my Cornish cross meat birds in March and April. But dang it, this year has been different. I still have all of em, no losses yet. When our temps dropped down in the teens last week I was just afraid they would chill in their lil building so being the worrisome person I am I moved them into the summer kitchen. Yep you heard me right. I used an old quilt to put on the floor and up the cabinets on both sides of the kitchen, stapled it to the cabinets and pulled up the ends and tacked those down. Imagine a big 4 ft square basket made of a quilt. I put some stray on the quilt to help keep them dry and put them in their temporary home. The had their heat light, food an water and stayed toasty warm without me having to worry about them. Yesterday Rodger and I moved them back to their building where we used an old metal topless picnic table to suspend a quilt to help hold the heat in a smaller area to keep them warmer. All is well. You know chicks are warm enough when they don't huddle under the heat light. It was obvious from the droppings that they were warm enough to be able to move away from the heat. I won that round with mother nature. Depending on how cold it gets next week with the predicted rain and snow, they may be back in the summer kitchen. I don't care if I did spend a couple hours cleaning and sanitizing things in thee. I just cant afford to let those critters get sick or die.

I still don't have any hens setting this season so I finally gave up and loaded the incubator with eggs. So God willing, I should have baby chicks from the standard breeds about April 4th. I thought for a day or so that my incubator was dead. I could not for the life of me get the temperature up to where it needed to be. I kept turning the thermostat up, no luck. Then on closer inspection, being a dummy, I was turning the thermostat the wrong way. Aha! Once I figured that out and turned it up it warmed up to where it needed to be and I put the eggs in on the automatic egg turner. With the still air incubators the temp needs to be about 101 degrees. There are lil indention in the bottom of the incubator that need to always have water in them to keep the humidity up to mimic a setting hen. It is kinda tricky to add water and not pour it on the eggs. I have been using my plant water can that has a long skinny spout on it. Works like a charm. About 3 days before the eggs are due to hatch they get taken off the egg turner and placed directly on the mesh bottom. This is the incubation period where the chicks are turning in the shell and pressing outward with their beak to make a lid they can pop off and get out. Once they turn completely around in the egg they then break thru to the air pocket at the big end of the egg and start pushing till they are free. Once they are out of the shell you have an incubator full of lil critters that very much look like lil dinosaurs. Just another miracle of life.

This weather being first warm then getting cold has made my joints a miserable lot. I has been nice enough for a few days that I probably should have gotten out and finished pruning things in the yard. I got rose bushes that are going wild. Actually both the ones I have are old fashioned varieties and they have the best scent ever. But the smaller one near the cellar is crawling all over the place. I don't think it can be classified as a climbing rose at all. I crawls all over the place. Or maybe I should put up a taller stronger trellis for it. Maybe I can do that. Next nice day we have. I have 2 thornless blackberry plants that my friend Rosie had given me a few years back that are on the other side of the cellar door. They for sure need a trellis to climb on. One has a runner that is about 12 ft long or more. Just lots of lil things that make for a lot of work to care for around here. But I like my roses and blackberries. Thankful only one of em has thorns.

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

Stella

Loving this weather...for now

Oh gosh our weather has been so dang nice the past few days. I am so glad to be able to get outside and putter around and get a few minor things accomplished. On Friday I did finally get my cabbage and Brussels sprouts in the seed flats. Now to just hope they sprout an grow well. I had a big old flower pot that holds a lot of soil that I also filled and sowed some lettuces in it for early green stuff. I need to get in there in about a week and start some onion sets to have green onions about the same time. Yep, you know where I am going with this. I want my spring fix of wilted lettuce an green onions with lots of crisp bacon on top. I did sow a lil bit of spinach and kale also. I might, key word being might, get in the mood to make smoothies or green drinks. I do know they are very healthy for your body. And my body needs all the help it can get. Rodger spent most of his day today getting all the equipment running and ready for gardening. The tiller was not a problem. The big Ford tractor is being contrary again. Every thing else is good to go. Now he is itching to start plowing. He does have a lot of that to do. He wants to plant 2 kinds of field corn this year. The Reid's yellow dent for stock feed and the Boone County white for corn meal. I think he really needs to get some corn shelled really soon to have ground into cornmeal or we are gonna be in a fix and run out. My stash is really low. I might have 2 more bags of cornmeal in storage.

I got my baby chicks in the mail last Wednesday right in the middle of all that super cold nasty weather we had. I was very concerned that they might be in pretty weak shape on arrival. But they were great. It was so neat to see the box they were shipped in and that is really what makes all the difference in how well they survived.

This box is not more than a 1 ft square with a round nest made inside. There were 25 lil chicks in here standing shoulder to shoulder. They were warm and toasty and ready to eat an drink as soon as the opportunity presented itself. The first water they got was warm sugar water. They all started eating and drinking within minutes. As of right now they are out in their new building all nice and toasty with plenty of space to run around. We set up 2 heat lights just in case one happens to go out in the middle of the night so they don't freeze. But so far, so good. God willing we should have 25 nice meat birds that will meet their demise the weekend of Good Friday in April.

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

Stella

Busy on these warm days

In spring on the farm once the sun starts to shine we get busy. You may have one or two days of nice sunny warm weather then rain for a few days and repeat. On the nice days I try to get lots done so I don't fall so far behind. Since I last posted I kinda have over worked myself. It all started with the front porch and back deck. I thought on one of the nice days it might be a good idea to get the porch cleaned off and get new slip covers made for the patio furniture. I dragged the water hose out and with dawn and bleach went to work scrubbing the porch. Got it looking nice. Got the cushions out and got the new slip covers made for those. I used an old comforter that I bought at a yard sale a few years back. They turned out nice. Too bad I don't have a picture to prove it. But you could guess that, right?

We got new satellite Internet installed last week too. Now I can stay online without gettin kicked off or the Internet being slower than dial up. I like it! My computer is old and slows me down some but I can live with it for now.

We are still waiting on that lil grandson to make his appearance. I took my pickup in last week to the nearest Chevy dealer to be serviced before we take it on a long trip. Rodger was there with his company truck gettin it serviced too. We walked around out side just talking and looking at vehicles and we spotted THIS...

Long story short, this is my new ride. Its a 5 speed Hummer, H3. Drives and rides much better than my pickup and I am sure the trip to Nevada will be a lil easier. I take my baby back to the dealer tomorrow to get the computer sensor that tells me I got a low tire fixed. Then I will be set. We are waiting on the call that our sweet daughter in law, Amoy is in labor and we are gonna head out to Nevada to meet our first grandson. I am really looking forward to seeing that lil fellow.Papaw Rodger bought him his first lil camo sleeper last weekend and a lil shirt/shorts sets in camo as well. I think they are just darling.

Wont that lil boy be cute in these? We think so. We have an online baby shower going on for Liam and Amoy. Its kinda neat with all the new technology to be able to be in on the shower and not actually have to travel all the way across the country. They have registered with Babies R Us for gifts so family and friends back here can get gifts and have them shipped straight to them to open at the actual shower. They have his lil bedroom almost done but they are lacking a rocking chair. We have a rocking chair here that Rodger bought for me when Jason was born. So its 31 years old. It have been moved around a lot and different people have used it and it had its fair share of damage. So this past weekend Rodger was off on Friday and we got the chair out on the deck while the weather was nice and sanded and refinished it. It looks like brand new now.

Our dining table was in bad need of refinishing too because a past owner had put an incompatible finish on it and it had bubbles and raised areas where the finish was peeling. So we toted it out on the deck and I started sanding the top. Rodger ended up taking a wood chisel and literally peeling the top layer of finish off and that made my job so much easier. I love the way it turned out. I love oak anyway and this looks nice.

I have the antique linens on there just to add some warmth to the dining area. I also put a fresh coat of polyurethane on the chairs that we have had since we been married. It sure freshened them up. I like the end result of a weekends work.

Sunday Rodger finally got my benches done for the greenhouse. Then I got all my seeds started the same day. I started just as much stuff I think but I still have empty spots on the benches. I hope I haven't had a brain fart and missed getting something started.

I went down to the chicken house across the road this morning to check on my lil Cornish babies and found the heat light had died sometime last night. Oh my goodness!! That is usually a disaster when they get cold. But fortunately they had huddled together and stayed alive. I came back to the house and got another heat bulb and put it in so they had nice heat. They got up and all of them were moving around good and started eating and drinking. So the heat must have been off a good while for them to be too cold to eat and drink. These birds do not tolerate extremes of heat or cold. I don't think the light was off all night or they would have all died as the temps were in the 20's last night. Talk about heart breaking. But it all ended well. That is just one reason I don't like having them so far from the house and I cant see if the light is on during the night. And its too far for a remote thermometer to alert me. So hopefully next time we can have a building up here hear the house.

This evening Rodger got in the garden with the rototiller and got the area plowed up good so we can plant taters and onions tomorrow. I have to get the taters cut and ready by time he gets home tomorrow so we can get them all planted and the onions set in. Our peas are up about 3 or 4 inches tall now and look great. I will be picking up some fertilizer tomorrow while I am out so we can get the peas side dressed and have enough to put in the row when we plant our taters too. I still need to get my raspberries cut down and some compost put on them. Doubt that happens this weekend because I am leaving Thursday to go visit my aunt Ann and attend my cousins wedding. I have to gt my visiting done soon so we can be ready to travel and when we get home from seeing the lil grandson and spending a lil time with him we have to hit the ground running. It will be time to plant the major part of the garden when we get back. I am just not sure my body is gonna tolerate much as far as gardening this year. All the piddly stuff I have done over the last 2 or 3 weeks have my knees hurting so darn bad. I am giving serious thought to maybe goin to the RA doc and having steroid injections. I am gonna try taking oral prednisone for a few days to see if that kicks the problem and if not, then its gonna be off to the doc.

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

Stella

I learn something new almost every day

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

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

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

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

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

Stella

It looked like spring, and felt like spring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stella

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

Love or hate the weather

I think most people across the country have had a love/hate relationship with the weather this year. We didn't have much of a winter here at all, very little snow, now its warm outside and we have lots of rain and thunderstorms. All the trees are starting to get leaves. I even have a lil small cherry tree in the orchard that is blooming out already. So with it being this early I am guessing we probably wont have much in the line of fruit this season. I suspect it will get frost bit for blooming this early. It was so warm here in February that we kept postponing pruning the grape vines till we got a nice cold snap that never happened. So we are going to definitely prune them this weekend and hope to hell it don't kill em all. This is the year we need to also prune the kiwi vines. I simply must do something to make them produce kiwi's this year so Josh and Jason will stop fussing about all the work of setting post for kiwi vines to never get a kiwi off em. Just kidding, they give me a hard time but they are alas willing to help out with what ever projects I need help with when they here. Although it takes 5 years for them to produce, and I think this is the 5th year we have had them planted. We shall see. I do hope we have some. Will sure be a nice treat in summer to be able to pick fresh kiwi from my own vines.
I took out the flower bed near the drive way last year and covered the soil with black plastic all last late summer till now in hopes of killing any weeds and left over seeds in there. Now I need to think of what I can plant in there that looks nice and will be edible. Maybe a trellis and plant the Mexican cukes in there with a couple cherry or grape tomato plants, some lettuce and what ever other goodies I can think of. Or maybe I can just fill the whole bed with strawberry plants. Now that would be convenient for me. Still thinking on the project for now.
I had a doc appointment yesterday with the ortho doc for follow up on my arm surgery. All is well with it. I did ask him about the bad pain in the elbow and he tole me he guessed 6 to 8 weeks post surgery before that pain eased up due to the fact it was tendon repair and those take a while to heal and quit hurting. So I told Rodger I have minimum 3 more weeks to whine. Not sure that made him too happy but such is life. OMG we made the mistake of eating at long john silvers for a late lunch too and all the oil tore both our bellies up. I have felt like crap all dang day. Didn't wake up till 11am this morning and had went to bed fairly early too. Then I have been nauseated all day. I really did myself in when we got home and I was having some leg and foot cramps. I drank a lil small glass of orange juice and gosh that did not sit well on the tummy. Then on top of all that being really sore this morning from riding in the truck yesterday while we were out and about. Long story short it has been a rotten day. At least I have felt rotten all day. The weather was nice enough and warm, but we got thunderstorms this evening with lots of rain. Not really storms tho which I am very thankful for.
Not much else happening here on the farm, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Great weather to work outside

It was probably 60 degrees outside today and sunny.  Really a great day for working out in the yard. And that is exactly what I did. I managed to weed the strawberry bed that has not been touched since last fall. The plants are still green and growing. We really have not had winter so far to kill them back. I still need to find energy to clean up the onion and asparagus beds, but thas for later. I pulled the few weeds that were in the herbs in the old pyramid bed and pulled about half the weeds in the big herb bed in front of the house. My back cant do it all at once. I have a deer netting little fence around the herb bed to keep cats out and did some repair on the fence. It has been bumped into with car doors and had some tears in it. Its all fixed back and looks a lil better. Still got a good bit of work and cleaning to do in that bed tho. If we don't get rain tomorrow I may try to dig up a small space and sow some lettuce. It would be nice to have fresh lettuce to use along. Beats all to heck buying the stuff in the stores. If I grow my own at least I can choose varieties that have some nutritional value. Not long till it will be time to plant peas, carrots , onions, beets and those kind of cool weather crops.

After supper I made some cookie bars that were easy and quick to make for a snack. The fellows like them pretty well. So I will share the recipe with you.

Toffee Bars

 * 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
    * 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
    * 1 egg yolk
    * 2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    * 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
    * 2/3 cup finely chopped nuts

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add egg yolk. Add flour and vanilla, and stir until well blended. Spread dough into a greased 15x10x1-inch jelly-roll pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle chocolate chips on top of crust. Allow chocolate to soften, and spread evenly. Sprinkle with chopped nuts and press nuts lightly into chocolate, using the bottom of a glass. Cool, then cut into squares.

I usually line the pan with parchment paper for easy of removal. The crust will be somewhat soft when they are done. No worries. Just put the chips on top and let em melt and spread em. Once the nuts are on and pressed into the chocolate I drag the parchment out of the pan onto the cutting board and let the chocolate set. Then use a pizza cutter to cut the cookies into bars. Simple and tasty.
Not much else happening here so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Nice weather for winter

Our weather today was so nice, about 65 degrees and sunny. I let the chickens out to run around today and the setting hens with the little babies came out for a bit today so the lil ones could get some fresh grass. They did OK for a while till a lil breeze blew up and they got chilled and started complaining. The mommas took them back inside to get them warm. I find such relaxation watching chickens. Guess its just my hillbilly nature.
I had a doctors appointment yesterday and the doc changed some of my meds. The one I am taking now has a side effect of causing syncope or passing out upon standing. Just what I need when I have enough problems staying upright. And I am on antibiotics to fix a sinus infection that has lingered for probably 2 months. My arthritis meds suppress my immune system and I can have an infection in my body and not have a lot of symptoms which is what I was doing. Then finally the sinuses got really bad an then I knew. I do feel some better today. Dang being sick can really drain ya. Not that I had a world of energy to begin with. I want to get outside in this nice weather and get some weeding done in the herb and asparagus beds before the weeds get too big. I know its just wrong to be weeding this time of year but dang they are in there and growing. I walked out to the chicken house earlier today in my bare feet and it the end of January. Strange winter we have had for sure. I might get out in the yard tomorrow and piddle around if I still have good balance and feel better. Just have to wait and see what tomorrow holds.
Not much else happening around here, 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

Weeding, planting, starting plants

The weather was rather nice today and I actually felt like getting outside to do a few things. The past couple days I have been pretty sluggish. I think it is probably the new blood pressure meds and they may be elevating the blood sugar as well. I will get them adjusted soon, at least I hope. Damn it, take meds to fix one thing and it breaks something else. Oh well!!
I worked on the strawberry pyramid out back today. It had a good deal of weeds that had gotten started in there. I decided it was easier to just take all the dormant strawberry plants out and dig up the whole thing and replant the plants. So that is what I did. I had about 50 or so plants that I didn't put back, lack of room, so I put those in soil in a tray to transfer to the berry patch in the big garden a lil later on. As I tole ya before I got damping off in my onion seedlings and I decided to just cut my losses and re-seed the 2 trays. I dried the soil today and treated it and got more seeds in there and the trays are back in the house, WITH drain holes. Now we can see how we do this time around. Sometimes you just have to laugh at your boo boos and move on. 
I got the herb bed and onion/asparagus beds weeded today too while it was nice out. Now I need to get mulch hauled to cover them to keep em looking nice and keep down weeds. All the herbs are starting to green up and start growing again.
Yesterday the guys got a big cage built to fit the back of Jason's truck for transporting small livestock. So hopefully if the rivers are not out of their banks this weekend we can go get out pigs before the price goes up any more. Livestock prices in our area are getting ridiculous. We have been kinda plotting on getting set up to keep a few sows and a male to raise our own pigs. We are figuring it will likely take at least 3 sows having pigs twice a year to be able to sell enough to pay to keep the stock and our meat animals will be free. This might be something we could do next year. This year we just don't have buildings or fences ready for em.
I had also hoped that it would be dry enough to plant raspberries and move some strawberries in the field this weekend but sure don't look like that will happen. It is raining now as I write. But this lil rain should settle the plants in that I disturbed today. 
Nothing else happening here, so til next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Yard work is never done

The only time I think the yard work will be done is when I am 6 feet under. Everytime I walk outside I find something else that needs attention. Today it was the spreading and creeping juniper at the driveway end of the house. I usually take the pruning scissors to them and give them a hair cut in spring so they grow back fuller and look better. Today I had to use the pruning lopers on some of the branches. But they got trimmed. Then I had an idea, yep here we go again. I thought, "hmmm wonder if I could take cuttings and root them for new plants". So back in the house to google propagating creeping and spreading juniper. The instructions online says its easy to get them to take root. Ok we shall see. The method was to take young growth from the tips of the limbs making the cuttings about 8 to 10 inches long. Then strip off the lower leaves or in my case needles, stick them in damp potting soil and keep damp. They should have a humid enviroment to take root so the instructions suggested putting them in a container in a clear plastic bag and tie the top. Ok, I got as far as getting them in the soil and now who the heck has a clear trash bag that darn big. So plan is to make a cage of woven wire to go around all 3 pots of cutting and cover it with plastic to keep them damp an warm. Well if they make roots and grow, great, if not I have lost the 30 minutes it took to get them ready and in the dirt. Unless ya want to count the itching on my arms and hand from the damn needles eatin me up. So I will let ya know if they grow or not. If so I will have a boat load of spreading and creeping juniper plants. Sure could use them around here for erosion control tho.
When I came in to fix supper My cabbage had sprouted and are coming up already. I sowed some cabbage seed on Monday in a pot and covered it over with plastic wrap after I watered the seed in and in 4 days they are up. I did have them sitting here in the house on the bar. But that is rather quick.

They lil fellers but at least they are heads up outa the soil. These will go out to the summer kitchen on the counter to join the onion seedling tomorrow.
I was informed today that we are not going to plant the peas till mid-March. What the heck, make up my mind! I thought we were planting them this week but I was told we planted last year in mid-March and we did have a good crop so I reckin we are waitin for a while on them.
I hate to say this but I got a lil sun and wind burn today out working in the yard. It was so nice and warm, and I even saw some robins in the yard too. Lots of the perennials are coming up that I had not seen yesterday. Just hope to heck they dont get frost bit.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

More yard work, things are coming up

The weather here was so nice to day, almost spring like. Sunny with a lil breeze. I think I even broke a sweat a few times. I started out putting the trellis up higher on the cellar wall for the thornless blackberry to climb on and pruned the lavendar that is growing at the base of the vine. Got the dead leaves and trash off the flower bed on the right side of the cellar door. Looks  a lot neater now. The blackberries had trailed down and touched the ground and 2  of the tips had taken root. I pulled those out and cut them to transplant elsewhere. I shoveled out the ditch behind the outbuilding to drain the runoff water away. Dang I am already paying for that task with sore joints and achey back. Then I took the leaf rake and cleaned up the mess I made yesterday cleaning out the herb and flower beds. It does look some better out there. After a look at the onion bed, I can see onions starting to grow already.

 The asparagus should be up pretty soon. So we can have some fresh green veggies.

 Rodger and Jason got one of the oak trees cut that were shading the grapevines and lower part of the yard. Most of the wood is split and stacked.

 The little lilac bush had buds on it already. But it is on the south side of the house and gets warmer.

The flower bed along the front looks better without all the stubble of dead plants from last fall. It is starting to show some green as well.

The herb bed is all cleaned off and the wire put back to keep the dog an cats out. Even a lil green showing in here too.

The heirloom rose that I dug up at an old homestead up the road from us has lil tiny leaves already. I am hoping to get it set in the ground tomorrow.

The chives that I had out back in pots are getting some green to them. I actually thought they might freeze out being in pots up off the ground. But so far, so good. I love this time of year when things are coming back to life after a winters nap.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Cleaning the herb bed off

The weather here was fairly nice today but no sun shine to amount to anything. Dang I think I am solar powered. The sun don't shine, I don't function well. Just could not seem to get motivated this morning. Finally got outside and got started cleaning off the herb bed and the flower bed near the front side walk. I had put woven wire over the flower and herb bed last year to keep the cats and dog from getting into them. I pulled the wire out and used my long bladed pruning scissors to kinda mow the tops off the flowers and raked the debris off them. Then put the woven wire back in place. Maybe I can take some pics tomorrow and post them. Some of the perennial stuff is putting out buds already so spring is very close. It was a much bigger job to get the wire off the herb bed. It is much bigger and the plants are hardier and grown up thru the wire. It was going to be a big job with my pruners to cut all that so Rodger cut the bed off with the weed eater when he got home. Then all I had to do was take the spade and dig out the dandelions and rake the debris off the bed. All the wire is back on it now as well. It just looks much neater that having all the stubble sticking up all over. Sure makes for much easier harvesting too. Still have one more flower bed to get cleaned off and some odd plantings that need to be trimmed up.
We had 2 big oak trees on the lower side of where the grape vines are that needed to be cut. Rodger has run the weed eater with the  brush blade down there over the weekend and got the small stuff. This evening after work he and Jason got one of the trees cut down and most of it cut into firewood that will get hauled to the wood shed to dry for next year. It will let a lot more sun in the back yard to the things that we have growing back there. I'm sure the grapes will do much better with more sunlight. Once the trees are cut and the under brush cleared away we will be able to see the garden better from the house so any critter that gets in the garden will be living dangerously. We hope, as long as we shoot straight.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella