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

Hillbillie Saturday night!

Life in the country and on the farm probably is not for everyone. But dang for us its really the good life. Let me give ya the whole story of this picture. We butchered our hog in January and it was cold, too cold in my opinion for the meat to cure like I wanted it to. I would have been happier with it if we had not gotten so much really cold a couple days after we butchered thus allowing the cure to penetrate better. So today I took the hams in an we sliced them up and put them in the freezer. Better safe than sorry later.

After we cut into them, hind sight, I think they would have kept OK. But we decided to have country ham and biscuits and red eye gravy for supper tonight. So that is what I fixed. Dayemmm talk about good. That stuff make ya take back stuff ya didn't steal. Any way Jason had went home to get some old corn and cobs and stuff out of the big corn crib at the old home place and burn them. I thought he was posed to be here for supper. But he still had too big a fire to leave so when the biscuits got done I took the biscuits, ham and a bowl of red eye gravy and went around to hang out with him. Pretty nice weather to sit outside eatin ham biscuits and dipping em in the red eye. Red eye gravy as we call it would send most cardiologist into cardiac arrest just thinking about the fat content, but oh well! Easy to make and so good. When you fry your country ham use lard in the skillet, preferably cast iron, dont take much extra lard and brown the ham. Remove the ham to a plate to keep warm. Drain all but about 4 tablespoons of the fat from the skillet making sure to leave all the brown bits in the bottom. Add about 1 cup of cold leftover coffee to the grease. Sprinkle in a bit of black pepper and stir to loosen the bits from the bottom. Simmer to get really hot and pour into a shallow bowl. Make your ham biscuit and proceed to dip it in the gravy with each bite. Not recommended for the faint of heart, this stuff will make your taste buds do jumping jacks. Sure don't take much to keep us occupied on a weekend.

                                                 (Dont he look like a happy feller!!!!)


The fire was nice and warm after the sun went down but the air was kinda cold for me. But earlier in the day it was sunny and really nice an warm out. Good weather for yard chores if have em to do. And goodness knows I got plenty things to get done around here.
So till 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

Starting a few more seeds

I got up early this morning thinking I had to go to a doc appointment with mom and she decided she was not going cause she felt fine today. So I didn't have to be up early at all but I was. The sun came out early and it was so nice and warm outside. I keep telling my self not to get in too big a hurry to plant stuff, it is early yet. So I got my shower and headed into town to check on her and just to get out of the house for a lil bit. Mom was OK and I called a friend of mine who cuts my hair and went to visit her for a bit and got a trim. Dang now I feel human. I got on back home and got my seed starter trays out and filled 2 of them with soil to finally get the celery and leeks started. So now those are sowed and for now sitting on the kitchen counter so they can stay nice an warm to help sprout the seed. I usually damper the soil after the seeds are in with warm water and cover the whole tray with plastic wrap to hole in heat and humidity. This method seems to work well for me. Then I got the hair brain idea to get a few cabbage seeds in some soil as well for really early cabbage. For the cabbage I just filled a regular flower pot with the potting soil and sowed the cabbage seed on top, covered them with a lil bit of soil, warm water, then covered the whole pot with the plastic wrap. Once the seedlings get up big enough I can tease the roots apart I will transplant them into cell packs till they are ready to go in the garden in a few weeks. I made it to the summer kitchen a lil later to finish up vacuum sealing my bread flour into half gallon jars for long term storage and got all that out of the way. That is also where my onion seedlings are and they look really good. So far am pleased with them. I did give them a drink of water too as they do get dry pretty quick when the sun shines in the windows and warms up the kitchen. But it does make a nice place to get a few things started. The plastic will need to be put on the greenhouse in a couple more weeks and then seeds starting will start in earnest.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Nice weather, more outdoor work

Another beautiful day here today, warm, sunny and a nice breeze. If you were in the sun a tee shirt was nice, but the shady spots or when the wind blew it was a little cool for my liking. But if ya moved around a bit it was nice and warm. Rodger had gotten all the straw bedding out of the brooder house yesterday. So all that needed to be done today was a shovel run across the floor to scrape up anything that was stuck. And we know how chicken poop can stick. So I scraped the stuff off the floor and took the broom in there to brush down the walls and sweep the floor. All done , it s nice and clean and I am leaving the door open for a few days to allow it to dry really well. Then it will be ready for more babies in a month or so. I went from this to emptying out the compost that was in my compost tumbler out back and put it around the grape vines we had pruned last weekend. Then put the stuff I had scraped off the floor of the brooder house in the compost tumbler so it can compost down. I still had some energy left so I weeded the asparagus bed and raked off some of the dead plant tops that were still there from last fall. Hopefully we will have some asparagus this year. I went ahead and pulled up the cabbage plants that were still somewhat green and tossed those. I don't think they were gonna do much other than make seed at this point. I did get one decent head that was big enough to make some slaw for supper tonight. It was really super sweet and good. I finished weeding the onion bed and already have some lil green onions coming up in there from top sets I placed on the ground last fall. Those are the walking onions that make great green onions really early in the spring.  So if someone likes scallions or green onions those are the perfect thing to grow. And gosh do they produce lots of sets. This fall I will probably have to dig out some of them as they are starting to get crowded.
After I was tired of playing in the cold dirt I got in the cellar and took out all my half gallon jars that I had forgot I had and washed them up and they are drying. Tomorrow I will put the rest of my bread flour in those and vacuum seal them for longer storage. A pretty productive day I think.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella