Swamp Creek Farm

News and the New Year

2012-01-01T19:22:00.001-06:00

News on the Scott Walker front marches on! The Federal Government has ordered Walker to lift his ban on Family Care for the elderly and disabled. His attempt to spin the incident in his favor failed horribly when word leaked that the ban lifting was not his choice. Next, a new challenge to Walker's controversial union busting law has been filed thanks to newly uncovered information that indicates Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Gableman received free legal services from a certain law firm which created a conflict of interest in the original case. The Justice did not recuse himself or disclose the conflict of interest. (I hereby disclose that I used to work for this law firm and I really did like most of the people I worked with!) Despite harassment, volunteers are still braving the weather and heightened emotions to collect recall signatures.

Aside from being booed by citizens wherever he goes, I wonder if Walker thinks his new year will be better than his Christmas.

On the Penokee Mine issue front, there will be:

a potluck social on January 6, 2012 at the Community Center in Odanah beginning at 6:30 p.m. and

a PUBLIC HEARING on January 11, 2012 at the Hurley Inn in Hurley from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.;

Assembly Bill 426. This is the third mining bill submitted to the legislature. A fourth attempt is due out shortly. Here is an article about who wrote the bill. Here is an article from The Nature Conservancy summarizing some of what is at risk.

While I strongly support the environmental issues at stake, my primary interest is the welfare of the people in the region and our Northwoods communities. I have yet to see anything that guarantees that most of the mining money goes to Northwoods communities; that the environment will be satisfactorially (as determined by the people of the affected communities) cared for; that individuals and communities will have timely redress for grievances against the company; that should Gogebic Taconite cease mining operations for any reason before the agreed contract date all affected communities will be reimbursed for all expenses incurred for the benefit of the mine operation; that Gogebic Taconite is prohibited from selling any portion of the business other than mineral ore to China or other foreign owned or operated interests whether direct or indirect of any kind; that mineral rights are retained by the people of the state of Wisconsin; that when the mine ceases operation ALL environmental rehabilitation will be paid for by the company; that NO tax incentives of any kind whether direct or indirect are granted to Gogebic Taconite. The days of citizens subsidizing corporate interests are over. It's time for people to stand up and say, "NO," to corporate greed. If Gogebic Taconite want to mine in Wisconsin, they may do so on terms dictated by the PEOPLE of Wisconsin.

Here is one last story you may find of interest regarding global mining issues.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T01:05:00.000-06:00

A timely ditty by Yours Truly:

The Old Years' gone --

Let it go.

Shed no tear.

The New Year's here --

Welcome!

Cheer!

Walking The Road Less Traveled

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T19:16:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas and God's Blessings to you ALL!

http://youtu.be/pn10FF-FQfs

http://youtu.be/Yjk9WqkFDNM

http://youtu.be/VKGonDIq8gw

Building a Warping Board

2011-12-09T22:08:00.001-06:00

I finally got down into the basement and started building my warping board. A warping board is a tool that will help me measure the warp threads needed to string on my floor loom for whatever project I decide to work on. I think prices for warping boards are outrageous. Mine cost less than $25. Here's how I made it.

Materials

2, 8' pieces of 1" x 2" lumber
4, 4' lengths of 5/8" dowel rods
a handful of thin nails
wood glue
hand tools

First I downloaded some instructions from the Internet. I didn't follow this plan, but I needed to know how far apart to place the pegs and this plan had those measurements.

I cut 4 pieces out of the 1" x 2" lumber to build the frame. Two pieces were 4' long, and two pieces were 3' long. I laid the 3' long pieces on top of the 4' long pieces and nailed them together at the top and bottom of the 4' long pieces.

Then with a pencil and ruler I marked the dowel rods into 6 3/4" pieces and cut them to size with a coping saw.

On the frame I measured and marked where the pegs would be placed, and I used a hand drill fitted with a 5/8" wood bit (sized to fit the 5/8" dowel pieces) to drill down ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE THROUGH the frame at those marked locations. The dowel rod pieces will fit snugly in these seatings.

Next, I exchanged the 5/8" wood bit for a finer bit and drilled holes all the way through the center of each dowel seating. I then flipped the frame over and nailed roofing nails through those holes and then turned the frame back over again.

I used a gimlet (purchased at Garrett Wade) to make a starter hole in one end of each dowel rod. I put some good glue in each seating and on the end of each dowel piece, then tapped each dowel lightly with a hammer, hole side down on top of the nails that were just nailed through the centers of each seating. As you can see, I had enough room on the frame to add a few more pegs so I bought another dowel rod and will do just that. After the glue is dry and the pegs are as firm as I expect them to be, I will use some fine sandpaper to make the board all smooth. Maybe I'll stain it if I can find some stain laying around. I plan to hang this board somewhere on the wall in the basement.

Anyway, that's it. I'm proud of this warping board. One more "To Do" task completed. Now for deciding on a project and working the math to figure out how much warp and weft I'll need!

It's That Time of Year

2011-12-09T20:19:00.001-06:00

We are in cookie mode here at Swamp Creek Farm. I get a laugh at how certain people like to linger in the kitchen while I'm mixing batters and moving cookie sheets in and out of the oven. This year I told everybody that I was going to make one batch each of the cookie favorites and once they are gone, that's it, so they'd better save some for Christmas. I put most everything in bags and stick them into the freezer for Christmas week, but I have noticed that the brownies are already going fast . . . . So far I made chocolate chip fudge cookies, oatmeal cookies and cocoa brownies. Today I made the first batch of dough for the pfefferneusse and set it atop the refrigerator to age, white chocolate almond flavored almond bark, dark chocolate orange flavored almond bark, Alton Brown's gingersnap cookies (EXCELLENT and highly recommended!), and cream cheese kolackys. The kolackys turned out so well, I'd like to share my recipe with you:

Kolacky

1/2 pound of butter, room temperature
2 Tbs. confectioner's sugar
1 egg yolk
1, 8 oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter with confectioners sugar, egg yolk and cream cheese. Mix flour and baking powder; add to cheese mixture and stir lightly till texture is smooth. Chill dough at least 30 minutes. Then, divide dough in half. Roll each half out on lightly floured surface about 1/4" thick. Cut dough into 2" diameter circles and put on ungreased cookie sheet. Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each circle and place a small amount of filling in each depression. Bake in 350°F oven 15 minutes till set but not browned. Cool and then dust with additional confectioners sugar. To say that these are yummy is not adequate!

Cream Cheese Kolacky Filling

1, 8 oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature
2 Tbs. confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
2 Tbs. butter, room temperature

Combine all ingredients and beat till smooth. Keep covered and in refrigerator till ready to use.

____________________________________

I have to say I'm looking forward to tasting the pfefferneusse as I have never made it before. I'll finish baking it next Tuesday because on Wednesday I'm going to the Ag Extension Office in Phillips for a greenhouse/biomass heating workshop that I think will be very interesting. My sister will be there, too, and it will be nice to see her.

Tom and Ed went out and brought back a lovely Christmas tree that Ed and I decorated. Our Sarah called the other night and is having her first Christmas tree this year. She has a beau, is doing something new at work that pays a little better, and is very happy with her life. She said she only has three ornaments so I think I'll give her my best Hallmark tree ornaments to get her collection going.
It's bitter cold outside right now and we have a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Our old dog is snoring in her sleep with her head on my feet. There's a fire in the wood stove and the Christmas tree is twinkling brightly. I think I'll give my worries about the world a rest -- at least for tonight.

Cold and Colder

2011-11-19T09:34:00.001-06:00

I finally got my cranberries and made cranberry sauce, cranberry mustard, and cranberry juice with 20 pounds of them. I tried making my own craisins with the last 10 pounds, but it was a horrible failure; the final product tasted like burnt fruit leather. It was simply awful and I had to toss it into the compost. I'll try again next year with a smaller amount. Gosh, I hate to waste food!

We have had little bits of snow here but nothing is sticking so far. The weather varies between cold and colder. Rifle hunting season opens today and I'm sure the hunters would like a couple of inches of snow on the ground to aid their tracking. Tom was out early this morning and let two nice does go by. I think he's waiting for the buck with the big antler rack that shows on his deer cam. He did get a nice buck already with his bow right in back of the house.

On Veterans Day we went to the American Legion Hall in Butternut for their dumpling, sauerkraut, and pork loin dinner. It is their biggest fund raising event. As usual, the food was great! I'm glad we went early because they ran out of dumplings just after 6:00 p.m. Tom had gone to help make dumplings the day before. He said they made over 400 dumplings (and these are BIG dumplings made German style with shredded bread and mashed potatoes). There is no problem getting Lara and Ed to eat at this meal!

I did get the new garden box filled with dirt and compost, and I still have some bags of leaf mulch in back of the chicken coop that I want to put on my forest garden raised beds. I'd like to make them as high as the raised beds Sepp Holzer makes so I will just keep adding material to them till I like the way they look.

I sure miss my chickens.

On other cold (political) fronts, the recall of Scott Walker has started. Within 48 hours recall workers had already collected 50,000 signatures. Great! Between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. TODAY on the State Street side of the Capitol in Madison is a Recall Walker Kick Off Rally. There will be a marching band and singers. Also, Teamsters Local 662 and members of Teamsters Joint Council 39 are sponsoring a canned food drive to help local food pantries, so if you go to the rally please bring a can of food with you for them. And to keep up with Recall Walker information, visit http://www.wearewisconsin.org/.

I have to add this YouTube video of Scott Walker when he went to Chicago. "Mic checks" are all right!

Regarding the Penokee mine issue, the information exchange potluck dinner on November 16th at the Bad River Community Center in Odanah went well. Another potluck will be scheduled for next month. I'll pass on the information when I get it.

Our Special Olympics bowlers are going to the state tournament in early December. All of them made 1st place at the Regional tournament in Eau Claire. Hurray! Congratulations to Justin, Anneliese, and Nino!

This has sure been a busy November.

Mining Update

2011-11-07T21:29:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple of links to updates and who to contact on the proposed mine affecting the Bad River Watershed:

http://savethewatersedge.com/polluters-over-resources-bi.html

Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economy and Small Business

Senate Select Committee on Mining Jobs

Sen. Neal Kedzie is the Chair of the Senate Select Committee. Here is a link to a recent article regarding his views:

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20111027/APC0101/110270495/Wisconsin-State-Senator-Neal-Kedzie-defends-sweeping-changes-water-permits

Senate Bill 24

There will be a photography exhibit highlighting the wilderness area to be affected by the proposed mine opening on November 14 in the Capitol Rotunda in Madison.

There will be a potluck dinner at the Bad River Community Center on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. This is an opportunity to voice your opinions and get current information with respect to the mining issue. If you go, don't forget to bring a dish to share!

You know, no matter how many supposed jobs this proposed mine would bring to the Northwoods, the fact of the matter is that there will come a time when the mine would no longer be profitable and mining would shut down -- just as the old mines did -- and the Northwoods will be in the same bad economic straits it finds itself now, but without the iron ore as a natural resource and with a devastated wilderness area. And who knows -- what is to stop the mining company from suddenly deciding to sell its interests to China and reneging on any conditions imposed on it by the State should it grant permission to go ahead with the mine? How many times have communities in this country been left high and dry by such corporate actions?

On another issue -- RECALL SCOTT WALKER -- the effort begins NOVEMBER 15, 2011, NOT EARLIER. See this article. Don't be confused by dirty tricks. I'm ready to sign! I believe that people are more important than corporations.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-30T22:27:00.000-05:00

Well, so the moon isn't full this Halloween -- we'll have to wait until 2020 for that -- but the traditions and history of the day are fascinating. Trick or treating is a town event in our area so Lara and Ed and I usually make our own fun. I'll read Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti and make traditional Indian Pudding served with a scoop of Schwan's Autumn Treat ice cream for a treat. And after I put the kids to bed, maybe I'll go outside and wake the dead with some whirling and foot stomping of my own to Tulans Magic Drum. Whee! Now where's that Headless Horseman when you want to dance?

Projects and More Projects

2011-10-22T00:24:00.002-05:00

The Full Hunters Moon was really pretty this year. I almost felt like howling at it.

I'm really trying to get as much as I can done before the ground freezes. St. Luke's Summer went by too fast! The warm weather has vanished and the wind has been howling for several days now. No more leaves on the trees; even the tamaracks are turning brown. I finally made it to the lumber yard and bought the wood for several of the projects I've been wanting to build like

Broom Closet

building shelves and putting up organizers in the broom closet so nothing falls on top of you when you open the door, and

New garden box

the new garden box I've been wanting. (OK, so I still have to fill it up with dirt -- why do you think I want to get things done before the ground freezes?)

Then there is my basement pantry shelf unit. I'm really proud of it. Finally I'm able to put all of my canning jars up and off of the cold cement floor and there's plenty room to spare for more jars and pantry items. (I'm still looking to buy about 40 pounds of cranberries.) It feels really good to be organized. I have just enough wood left over to make my warping board so I can measure the yarn to string my floor loom. Hurray!

Pantry Shelves

I have half of one log cabin quilt cut out.

But my biggest achievement this month has been overcoming my fear of and buying

my very own Savage Model 93 .22 W.M.R. rifle! It has a cool scope and an accutrigger. I'm taking it over to Dad's tomorrow for some pointers on using it. Now I won't have to wait for someone else to dispatch chicken eating varmints. Thanks to Marjorie Wildcrafter for giving me encouragement on the topic of using guns in a correspondence with her a while back.

Today I scrubbed the floors before the aide came to give Lara a bath, then finished butchering the chickens and canned the broth (I'll make a pot of gumbo tomorrow with the meat), baked pumpkins for puree to have for Thanksgiving pumpkin pies, and I cleaned and saved the pumpkin seed for next year's planting.

With all this work it's no wonder my back hurts!

October

2011-10-21T22:41:00.001-05:00

It's October.

Steel gray clouds cry cold tears;

to barren trees the wind laments.

Weathered stands the coop

Empty

Silent

For chickipoos are gone.

No eggs till next year.

Apple Time

2011-10-01T22:03:00.002-05:00

Yep, it's that time of year again. I just love apple time! Yesterday I headed up to Bayfield for some of the good stuff. It rained off and on, and a lot of the color on the trees had already peaked, but it was a nice drive. There was even a rainbow in the sky at one point, but the picture I tried to take of it didn't turn out; it's kind of hard to take pictures while driving on the highway.

The first place I went to was Erickson's.

But nothing they had appealed to me this year so I headed on down the road to Bayfield Apple Company where I bought two bushels of apples, a bottle of hard apple cider (I've always wanted to taste hard cider), and a jug of regular apple cider for Lara and Ed. By the way, if you have ever been to Bayfield Apple Company, you can no longer go into the old building -- the one where you used to be able to watch them make the apple butter. You shop in the new store and they'll get the apples you want for you. Be prepared to squeeze your wallet.

Next stop was Hauser's. I love this place! While I didn't buy apples today, I was able to get some pears. Yay! The folks here have some great views of Lake Superior and a lip smacking selection of apple wines. This year they offered apple "seconds" and "thirds" for sale. I think that's a great idea.

The apple dumplings I made for supper were snarfed down right quick.

And you know what I did all day today . . . .

Blue Hubbard Squash

2011-09-30T20:21:00.001-05:00

I get asked alot about what to do with this beautiful squash --

Well, you can cook it like you do any other winter squash. Don't let the size of this squash put you off from buying one.

First I cut it in half, piercing the rind in a rib line with a sharp knife. I don't try to cut the squash through; just cut each side at a time.

See how big the hollow is in this half? Take out the seeds and set them aside to clean and dry for your next year's planting! Then lightly grease a baking sheet and put one half on it. I have to cook each half separately because both halves won't fit in my oven at the same time. I usually place it cut side down first and bake it in a 350°F oven for 30 minutes before turning it over and cooking it another 30 minutes. Depending on how big the squash is and what you want to do with it, it takes between 45 minutes and an hour to bake. For me, it is done when you can easily pierce the meaty side of the squash with a fork.

I then scrape the meat out of the squash and mash it with a little butter. We like to drizzle maple syrup over it. This half squash fed my hungry family of four. I'm going to use the other half to make this Maple Squash Pie recipe.

Blue Hubbard squash tastes great and keeps well. Don't be afraid to try it!

Taking a Walk

2011-09-30T19:36:00.000-05:00

The weather lately has been cool and rainy, but I did manage to dodge rain drops the other day to walk around the woods and take some pictures.

I like the spots that let you peek through to see the big marsh. There are several of them on the other side of the big marsh, but that will have to be a walk on another day.

Here's a nice critter condo.

This looks like a good spot to lay down wet hay and spread around some mushroom spawn.

These little maples aren't wasting any time claiming their place in the forest.

Look at how these new maples sprout from this stump.

Here's a little basswood tree. The tornado took out most of the big basswoods and I miss them.

This is a mature yellow birch left to be a seed tree. Isn't the bark gorgeous?

There are still lots of bees buzzing in these forest flowers.

I don't know what this vine is, but it is thriving on the banks of the creek twisting happily amongst the dogwoods and blackberries. The tree colors are pretty, too. When I have more time I'll have to check out how the beaver dam is looking, but that's a longer walk.

Help Save Landreth Seed Company

2011-09-30T17:20:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Mr. H over at Subsistence Pattern for passing this on. I ordered my catalog and some seeds, and I look forward to ordering more after perusing the catalog.

Have you done a good deed today?
Help Save Landreth Seed Company

What My Eyes See and Heart Tells

2011-09-22T19:42:00.001-05:00

I have to tell you about an incident that occurred at the last farmers market that really disturbed me; I just can't get it out of my head. Three young people came to my stand, two boys and a girl. If any of them was over 25, I'd be surprised. I don't even think the girl was 21. Anyway, the girl wanted to buy some of my potatoes. She had a booklet of WIC/FMNP (Women Infant Children/Farmers Market Nutrition Program) coupons and turned to one of the boys to help her use them. I was surprised that she did not understand how to use the coupons because they are essentially used the same as money, so I took a closer look at her. She was very thin with a pretty face, and tatooed and body pierced up and down, but that was not what disturbed me. When her companion gave her a $3.00 coupon from the booklet and she turned to look at me, her pretty blue eyes and face were absolutely vacant. There was simply nothing there. This girl was literally incapable of thinking for herself. Really. She could not function independently. I walked her through picking out the potatoes she liked from the bushel basket and placing them on the scale to be weighed. She gave me a happy smile when I finally bagged the potatoes and gave them to her. Then the three of them walked away. It was then that I thought, if she had WIC coupons . . . then where was the baby?

And that wasn't the worst of it.

While I was waiting for the girl to pick out the potatoes she wanted, I saw another young man walking down the sidewalk across the street. I doubt that he, too, was more than 25 years old. I swear that but for the loose overalls he wore, he didn't have a stitch on, and the overalls were slit up to almost the hip on both legs.  He walked, not like a human being, but an ape. He was fair complexioned, had a lumbering gait, and he kept his head lowered and avoided eye contact with other people in the area. His hands were curled under like an ape's hands when it walks.  It was almost as if they were paralyzed in that position. I was absolutely shocked.

On various radio shows I have heard of people talk about America's disaffected youth. I believe that I have finally seen what these radio hosts have. But do I think these young people I saw were representative of the majority of American youth? Adamantly, no. Yes, we are living through hard times, and the world we know is transforming like a caterpillar into a butterfly before our eyes. Nothing will ever be the same -- including us. And, unfortunately, there will be some people not strong enough mentally or emotionally to make it through these times to see the sun shine again.  Many will. What is important to remember is to be mindful of our attitude.  These hard times WILL pass. There IS hope.

I came across a link to a video that was posted on a listserv I subscribe to that I believe is good to share at this point. It is an example of how one family did not succumb into negativity following adversity, but rather used it to turn their ranch around. Most people don't have what this family started with, but the point the video makes is relevant no matter what you have: BELIEVE in yourself and you will find a way to make your life better.  Here's the link -- Imperial Stock Ranch.

Harvest in Full Swing

2011-09-16T19:54:00.002-05:00

Did you see the harvest moon? It was so bright and beautiful, I thought for sure I'd hear some wolves howling at it, but they must be busy elsewhere.

Harvest Moon

I know I've been busy! First, allergies laid me low for three days again, but thankfully I'm back on my feet. I thought I'd turn into a lemon from all the lemon tea with honey I drank. Then there was running to the doctor with Lara for her annual check up. The nurse practitioner we saw was appalled that Tom and I never had any kind of health care assistance in caring for Lara and Ed. Suddenly we have seen a home health care intake nurse and had a home physical therapy evaluation to see what kinds of mechanical aids we might be able to utilize at home and what body strengthening exercises we can do with Lara; a nurse has already come out to give Lara a bath for me (to give my back a rest from constantly lifting her); an occupational therapy evaluation is being scheduled to see just what finer motor skills Lara has or may need help with; and, there is the possibility of linking us up with a social worker who would provide us with information about other services we might be able to receive for both Lara and Ed. And on Monday, Lara and I go to see a dietician to help with setting up a proper dietary program for Lara. Wow! Am I still on planet Earth? This all has been difficult for Tom and me. We have always cared for Lara and Ed ourselves or had close family help us (thanks, Aunt T and Grandma Hon!). Learning how to accept help from other people is foreign to us, but I realize that we are not getting any younger and taking care of Lara and Ed will not get any easier for us. So, it is best to admit our limitations and get what intervention we can now before one of us gets injured lifting Lara and care giving turns into an emergency situation. With the way the economy is there is no telling how long the help will last, but I'll take what we can get for as long as it lasts. What we learn from working with these professionals can only help us. I'm grateful for their help. We paid taxes all our working lives so I guess I shouldn't feel guilty about finally using social services. Still, it's hard, but I have to admit I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me. Subconsciously I must have been worried about getting help. I believe Pluto went direct today. I surely feel transformed by events!

On other fronts, I started working in the forest garden to get those raised beds built I mentioned in earlier posts. They don't look like much yet, but you should be able to see the outlines.

I'm going to lay down lots of green matter and cover it with manure and good compost. As the site slopes slightly, the deep rooted horseradish and rhubarb will each go into a bed of their own and hold down the soil. The work is going faster than I thought it would and I should finish it in another day. Hurray!

We have a healthy squash harvest this year.

Tom's Garden Squash Harvest

Here are some of my Blue Hubbard and Sunshine squashes. I'm so happy I finally got some Blue Hubbard to grow. Some of them are still a little green, but they will keep a couple of weeks and ripen up. I still have the New England pie pumpkins and a few more Hubbards out in the field that I will have to gather fairly soon now that we had our first hard frost of the season last night. I don't know what it is about squash, but it's only when I harvest them that I feel like I really have a harvest.

My Red Cloud potatoes sure didn't last long. Lara and I sold half a bushel the first day at market, then I sold a full bushel to the neighbor down the road, and that leaves barely one more bushel to sell. When we harvested Tom's potatoes, for some reason he only got two bushels, and those were very small so we won't be taking any of those to market. He planted Red Pontiacs and Superior varieties. I think I'll stick with my Red Clouds.

This afternoon we were back in Tom's garden again and harvested another trailer load of corn and squash. We were going to bundle the collards to sell at the market, but they are so bug chewed I told Tom I couldn't sell them. But we will eat them. Bug chewed leaves don't bother us. I'm going to leave my Golden Bantam corn on the stalk and let it dry. I'll shock the stalks after they turn brown and shell the corn to use for seed and chicken feed next year.

The kitchen is really full. From saucers of fermenting tomato and cucumber seeds, kefir brewing, eggs that need to be washed and almost ready crocks of sauerkraut calling out to yum it up with a nice pork loin in a pot, harvest here is in full swing.

I feel good.

Mining Update

2011-09-16T16:20:00.002-05:00

I've just received some information on the September 30th rally. The event is being billed as a "Hootenanny and Camp Out". It will be in the Penokee Hills September 30 - October 2, 2011. It is an alcohol and drug free event. For more details, go to savethewatersedge.com. If you need even more information, you can email pheducationproject@gmail.com or savethewatersedge@gmail.com. If you would like to volunteer, contact pheducationproject@gmail.com.

There will also be a presentation about the proposed Penokee mining project and (1) how it would affect the Northwood's flora, fauna, public health, and economic future; and, (2) what YOU can do to raise awareness of it. This presentation will be held this coming Monday, September 19, 2011 from 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at the Portage County Library, 1001 Main Street, Stevens Point, WI. The presenter will be Frank Koehn. Here is a link to an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that will give you an idea of what the Northwoods faces with this mine: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/124929144.html.

Personally, I am all for progress and certainly welcome jobs coming into the area, but I am NOT willing to sell my soul or sacrifice our splendid natural resources just for money. Once Wisconsin's natural resources are gone, they are gone forever. No amount of worthless dollars or paper promises is worth the loss!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

2011-09-05T00:21:00.001-05:00

One night a couple of years ago there was a meeting up in Glidden "informing" property owners about mineral rights and mining. My sister and I went to this meeting. While there, as a former legal secretary, my "critical listening" antennae started buzzing -- something was up. Somebody, somewhere in the mining industry was discretely sniffing for information. Nothing overt happened that I could detect, and I relegated the event to the remote-but-not-forgotten memory section of my brain because my antennae aren't often wrong about such things.

Now, guess what I've just learned? The illustrious corporate whores in the Scott Walker administration are working hard to undermine Wisconsin's strong protective mining laws (look up LRB-2035 and be on the look out for similar legislation to be proposed) and allow Gogebic Taconite LLC (of Cline Resources Group out of millionaire Christopher Cline -- BTW coincidentally(?!) another campaign contributor (from West Virginia) of Governor Scott Walker [http://www.wisdc.org/index.php?filter=+Search+&from=2010-09-24&to=--&contributor_name=Cline&name=Walker%2C+Scott&interest=Natural+Resources&module=wisdc.websiteforms&cmd=searchadvanced]) to mine iron ore in the pristine Gogebic-Penokee Range of northern Wisconsin with little to no regard for environment or citizenry. So what's the big deal, you ask? Well, go to savethewatersedge.com/ and check out the information there to find out. There is supposed to be a rally on September 30th at Copper Falls State Park about this, but I don't have any other information regarding the rally. While you're at it, think about joining former Senator Russ Feingold's Progressives United that is trying to get the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision overturned that will help prevent outside interests from interfering in political elections.

This is just one more reason to RECALL SCOTT WALKER and get rid of his cronies. Does something wicked this way come? Yeah -- if we let it.

Saturday Market

2011-09-04T18:28:00.001-05:00

Proud to say I chipped in to have this sign made for our market

Saturday started out rainy and chilly. I was tempted to turn the car around and come home while Lara and I headed toward Phillips because the rain was coming down so hard, but I took a chance that the rain would stop, and it did shortly after we reached the farmers market. I was surprised at the number of customers that showed up; usually when the weather is off so are the customers. I suppose the good numbers were because of visitors and the long Labor Day holiday weekend.

Marie, a local caterer and long time local food supporter, had a tent next to us and cooked samples of the everybody's produce. The air smelled soooo good! She bought some of our Red Cloud potatoes and made "Loaded Potatoes" (steamed potato split and filled with your choice of chicken or pulled port, steamed veggies, and topped with dollops of sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese). Lara and I bought one and was it ever good. Talk about healthy eating!

Marie and her tent

We sold another bushel of corn and close to 30 pounds of potatoes. Lara and I were very pleased when a man came to our booth and told us he thought we had the best tasting food at the market! That really made my day. My produce may not be the biggest or prettiest or largest quantity, but I don't use commercial fertilizers and I slug through the growing season with only hand tools and my trusty BCS 722 walking tractor. My produce tends to be small because I am still building my soil's fertility, but you just can't beat those old heirloom varieties for taste. They shine! And the lady that bought my small onions last week, came back and bought more because she said she loved the way they tasted. When customers come back like this you know you are selling real food.

This is Dawn. She networks with John and Floyd, the guys who take the time to haul everybody's scales down to Medford each Spring to get calibrated for the season. Because they are a network of growers, they always have a wide selection of veggies at their booth. I like the way they use old potato and feed sacks to decorate their table. I bought a whole box of tomatos from them for $18 to supplement the less than half a bushel of Rutgers tomatos I got from my garden.

Phil didn't want his picture taken but allowed me to take one of his booth. His veggies are simply enviable. He gave me some advice about my soil, which was very nice of him. We are a friendly group in Phillips, but we are definitely food oriented. While we can offer crafts for sale, at least 50% of each booth must be dedicated to food or food products!

Phil's table

This is our market manager, Diane of B's Flambeau Acres. She and her husband, Alan, sell honey and maple syrup. It's delicious! Diane was the first friend I made when we moved to Wisconsin and she is very dear to my heart.

Diane of B's Flambeau Acres

And to round it off, here is our booth and the rest of the vendors at the other end of the market. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember everybody's names.

Find the farmers market nearest where you live and visit it. Farmers markets are good for the stomach and good for the soul!

Feeling Fall

2011-08-31T00:38:00.000-05:00

The leaves in the trees are looking faded and old, and the fog hovers in the marsh long into the morning. It's a race now to finish the outside work before the hard cold comes. The seasons here in the Northwoods are short. I try not to think about all the tasks I want to complete and just focus on accomplishing at least one task every day. Tom and Ed worked on making firewood -- filling the wood stacks in the garage and the kindling bin, and covering the outdoor wood piles with tarps to keep them dry when the rains of Autumn come. I, too, have been busy.

Canned peaches, kosher garlic dill pickles and country bread

And today we went out to the field and harvested my Red Cloud potatoes. We got eight bushels. I took one to my Dad with a bag of fresh peaches (he loves peaches). Four bushels will feed us through the winter, and I will keep one bushel for next year's seed potatoes, so that leaves two bushels to sell at the farmers market. I expect they will sell quickly. Red potatoes are popular and I am the only vendor that sells the Red Cloud Variety.

My Golden Bantam corn is still not ready to pick. I'm not sure it will finish ripening before we get a hard freeze. I expect it needs at least three more weeks of grow time. The winter squashes and the pumpkins I will leave alone till after frost. Then I will go out and bring whatever is on the vines back to the house. I only got four pie pumpkins last year. I sure hope I get more than that this year. And I will be grateful for any winter squash I get. I would love to get some Blue Hubbards this year.

I put all of the gardening tools and farmers market supplies out in the new shed. The garage looks so different! You can feel the feng shui is much better. The no-flat replacement tires I bought from Northern Tool came in the mail for the hand truck and Tom's wheelbarrow -- just in time, too, for all of my Fall weeding and pruning chores. No more cussing over flat tires!

Lara and I had a good day at last Saturday's farmers market in Phillips. We sold a bushel of Tom's corn, all of the radishes we bought, and most of another bushel of green beans. Alan and Diane Barkstrom of B's Flambeau Acres were back from a short trip they took and were selling their delicious honey and maple syrup. It was great to see them and all the other vendors. Farmers markets are such wonderful community builders. They keep money circulating locally so your town prospers economically, and you get to know your neighbors -- an emotional stabilizer that is, in my opinion, very underrated.

Well, it's getting late and I'm beat from digging up those potatoes! Talk to you soon.

Blessings in Disguise

2011-08-17T23:31:00.000-05:00

This is the busiest Mercury Retrograde I can ever remember having. Usually when Mercury goes retrograde I go into turtle mode and decide to shovel out the house, preferring to stay safely home rather than travel and chance having the truck break down. (I really don't travel well.) But this time, all sorts of things are happening.

Tom brought 28 cabbages home from his garden and I put them in the basement to hold till the temperatures cooled down a bit, but he started griping about the smell they gave off so I wound up dragging them all back upstairs and making ten gallons worth of sauerkraut.

I expect this will be a fast ferment because of the warmer temperatures. I don't think a fast ferment makes for a very good tasting kraut, but it will taste ok. There are sixteen medium size heads of cabbage in these crocks. (If you'd like to see how I make my kraut, scroll down the right side of this blog to where "Special Links on this Blog" is and click on the "Making Sauerkraut in a Crock" link. Part 2 is the link below that one, "Canning Sauerkraut in a Pressure Canner".

I also finally made my first batch of kimchi by following this fine lady's instructions, and this is what it looked like when I was finished. This batch made five quarts.

kimchi

Let me tell you, this stuff is really easy to make and is hot enough to burn out anything that might be ailing you. It can definitely "kill a cure". And boy, is it good. Goes well with a cold beer.

Yesterday the shed I've been wanting for six years finally materialized. Am I happy!

Now I will be able to clean out the garage and we will again have room for both the truck and the mini van.

Speaking of the garage, that's where I have the onions curing. They are mostly small, and there are alot more here on this 2' x 3' screened frame than you might think. I stir them at least once a day so they all are exposed to the air. In about two weeks they should be dry enough to take to the farmers market.

Here's a pic of the Silver Queen Artemesia I dried. It is hanging with some broom corn I grew a while back that I want to use to craft some hearth brooms to sell at the last farmers market that coincides with the Phillips Fall Festival. That festival is usually held the end of September. (It's a really nice festival, by the way. Try to go, if you can. There are lots of crafts and good food; a nice family event. That is where I go to buy my yearly supply of cranberries.)

Today was our first day for Special Olympics bowling for this year. Most of the young people showed up. They were all happy to get back together and see each other again.

When we got home from bowling we were greeted by the sight of my neighbor's hunting dog pup coming out of my chicken coop with feathers in his mouth. In fact, there were feathers everywhere -- and no chickens in sight. Oh, boy. Well, I went over to my neighbor's house and they came to get the pup. After supper I got a pail of corn and went around calling the chickens and rattling the corn in the pail. Three of them were hiding in the garage, another four were hiding under the highbush cranberry and wild rose bushes, and lo and behold Fortunate One/aka Jamie Oliver (Lara's pet rooster) came from wherever he'd been hiding with one hen that stayed with him, so all chickens were fortunately accounted for. Fortunate One looked very indignant and like he lost five pounds. That's the luckiest darn rooster I've ever seen.

Sometimes you just need to remember to count your Blessings.

Well, I've prattled on long enough. Be safe and Be well!

Grass Root Super Weeds

2011-08-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

Grass grows in lots of places. In some places there are people who think grassroots are weeds that need to be removed. So, those people use pesticides to try to get rid of the weeds. The problem with pesticides, however, is that over time its use tends to create super weeds, and we all know that super weeds can be overpowering. Well, Wisconsin, we are a state of Grassroot Super Weeds, and we have shown the Citizens United enabled, Corporate/Bankster owned so-called leaders of our state that we weeds aren't going anywhere. Thanks to you Senators Wirch and Holperin have been re-elected. Go Wisconsin!

Working Hard

2011-08-15T21:28:00.000-05:00

Before I forget, here's the picture of our greenhouse roof raising crew that my nephew, John Ertl, took and so kindly sent me even though he's very busy moving to Hartford, Connecticut to begin his new job. He is so fortunate to get a job right out of college! I really appreciate his kindness in sending me the picture. With all our families so busy it's hard to get even some of us together for a picture of any sort.

Left to right: my sister Mary Ertl, Dad, Yours Truly who really needs to buy some clothes that fit, my husband Tom, my sister Anna's husband John Christian, John's daughter Angie and her husband Todd Brandenberg

Thanks again to everyone for helping us get that greenhouse up! Thursday Tom will stop in town and see about getting some stone to put in the the greenhouse and around it as a border.

Lara and I finally made it to the farmers market in Phillips this past Saturday. It was supposed to rain, but we lucked out with a really lovely day. It was GREAT to see all the vendors and our many customers again.

We didn't have very much to sell: beets, fresh sage, rhubarb, scarlet nantes carrots, garlic, one bunch of radishes, and a horseradish root. The carrots went fast (even the misshapen ones that I labeled "Ugly Carrots"), and I was surprised the horseradish root sold. My garlic was very popular. Lara and I debuted our new sunflower aprons. It was a fun day.

Tom brought home another three bushels of beets from his garden, and we picked two bushels of green beans, so I've been busy canning. (I have to tell you that I REALLY like those new Tattler reusable canning lids I bought.) I like to can after I take care of Lara for the last time of the day because then I have no more interruptions to deal with and the air is cooler after sunset so the kitchen is not so hot a place to work. Last night I brought up my sauerkraut crocks because even though I don't want to make kraut now because the daily temperatures are not where I like them to be for kraut making, Tom brought home 28 cabbages that aren't going to keep. He is going to the store tomorrow and will get me some cheesecloth and lots of onions. We already ordered our fresh caraway seed from Penzeys. Then, my sister, Anna, stopped by for a cup of tea and dropped off a bushel of cucumbers for me. She said she was sick of making pickles! I had to laugh. We are not making pickles this year so we will be eating lots of cucumber and strawberry soups and cucumber salads. It is a nice light lunch.

By Friday I hope to pick another bushel of green beans to sell at the farmers market. I may have some cucumbers and lettuce from the garden boxes by then, too. I will sell some of my Egyptian Walking onion sets and the Silver Queen Artemesia bunches that I hung to dry from the garage rafters a few weeks back. That should be enough.

I've been using the dehydrator non-stop for the last two weeks. Little by little I'm drying plenty of sage and Genovese basil, different thymes and oregano from the forest garden, and lots of good chocolate peppermint -- my favorite drink for winter time. Even if you don't have a lot of food, if you have spices you can liven up whatever you have. And should you have nothing but spices, brew some as a tea and you will still derive some nutritional benefit. (But let's hope that life never gets that desperate!)

Chocolate Mint

Out in the field, we uncovered the rest of the hops. I thought I had three more plants, but when I checked my planting map, I did only have 15 plants (three of each): Williamette, Cascade, Nugget, Zeus, and Brewers Gold. Thankfully, all are alive and well. Tom tilled the ground in between all of the plants for me. All the hops need now are some poles and later this Fall a dose of manure.

We also weeded the Golden Bantam corn and sprayed Liquid Fence over the winter squashes. Ed and I pulled the onions and let them dry in the sun till we were ready to go back to the house. After supper I cut off the tops and spread them out on some screens to cure. I always cure my onions before I sell them. They look pretty with their golden papery skins after they are cured, and I am satisfied I am selling a good product.

The leeks are looking good. I told Tom I want to establish a permanent leek bed, so I will transplant them into the new garden box I'm going to build -- hopefully some time next week. They are Musselburgh leeks, a heirloom variety, and I really would like to be able to over winter them and collect seed from them next year.

The collards, cabbages, and eggplants are lost causes, eaten by leaf hoppers. I don't even know why I plant them out in the field because the bugs always get them there. I have better luck growing these things in the garden boxes for some reason.

The barley is visible, grown up among the grass and is nearly ripe. I don't know if I will try to harvest it or just till it all under as a green manure. The pie pumpkins are few and far between, but I will take the sickle and cut down the grass surrounding each mound.

On Wednesday our Special Olympics bowling starts again. Lara and Ed are looking forward to going. It will be nice to see all the young people again.

Well, my arthritis is acting up so I'll leave off for now. Be well!

More Recall Elections

2011-08-15T19:18:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow are the last two recall elections. Get out and vote! Re-elect Jim Holperin and Bob Wirch who sided with working people when the Republicans began their rampage against the democratic process last January. One person CAN make a difference. YOU can make a difference. If you live in the counties where the recall elections are being held, go and vote!

Not the Last Word

2011-08-10T16:08:00.000-05:00

Well, the Workers of Wisconsin may only have won two of the six recall elections, but I bet the crooks in Madison are sweating nonetheless. And if nothing else, these recall elections have made very visible the nefarious and unethical nature of outside big money's influence in state politics. Thanks to the Bankster owned Supreme Court and its Citizens United decision. It may be legal, but that doesn't make it right. I happen to believe that what goes round, comes round, and the rotten elements of our society will at some point reap what they have sown.

I can't wait.

Vote Tomorrow

2011-08-08T19:43:00.000-05:00

There are six recall elections TOMORROW, Wisconsinites, in the 2nd, 8th, 10th, 14th, 18th, and 32nd Senate Districts. We won all six recall primaries, now PLEASE get out and vote for PEOPLE and not the corporate agenda of Scott Walker. HIS RECALL begins in January. Yeah!

August Already

2011-08-05T20:39:00.000-05:00

It's a busy month already. On Sunday I took Lara to see the last Harry Potter movie. It was a birthday present to her. We had originally gone to the theater in Woodruff on the opening weekend, but lo and behold, the show was sold out and we had to go home. It never crossed my mind that any theater up here in the Northwoods would be sold out. Anyway, she didn't mind waiting a while and going to the theater in Phillips instead of back to Woodruff. We had a nice time and she liked the movie.

On Monday Tom helped me can three bushels of beets from his garden since we had torrential rains that day. He really must have been bored.

Then on Tuesday I took Lara to get her hair cut by Lori Wagner over at Lori's Nook in Butternut and we enjoyed our quarterly gab fest.

On Wednesday we took everybody to the Loon Day craft show in Mercer. I bought my yearly 5 lb. bottle of honey. This year I chose Basswood honey. It was a tough choice between the Basswood or getting Tupelo honey. The Basswood has a slight lemony taste to it and the Tupelo tastes like melted butter. Both are so good! I bought Ed a weird blob-type of toy that he likes -- he's very tactile, and Lara got a cranberry scented room spray. I found a new strainer for the mud room utility sink drain, and Tom bought some mesquite barbeque sauce. Loon Day is a big festival that draws people from all over the country. Some years are better than others, and this year was better than last year. We stopped at a vendor and bought hot dogs and bratwurst to eat. It was a fun day.

Back to work on Thursday found me chopping down weeds out in the field in the hops yard with my Austrian sickle. I uncovered 6 hops plants and have 9 more to find. The sun is SO hot that I just can't stay outside for very long before I start feeling sick. That pisses me off, too because the heat never used to bother me. Well, we all have to be very careful while out in this ungodly heat. (I think if I lived in Texas I would go mad. Those poor farmers! It's the Great Depression all over again.) The grass that I'm cutting is about shoulder high, but the hops plants aren't hard to spot. The bines (hops vines are called bines) climb the strong-stemmed grass and then run over the tops. All I have to do it grab a bine and follow it down to the ground to find the clump. After that it's just a matter of cutting the grass around the hop plant mound. The work is tedious because I didn't take care of the section earlier, but I have no one to blame but myself. With the grass cut I wonder where the deer will sleep. There are deer beds all over the place. Figures they would like sleeping next to the corn section!

Uncovering hops mounds

The quest for nine more hops mounds

Tom and I made a wonderful discovery. We have bull frogs! I was reaching for a clump of grass to cut when something jumped. Of course, I jumped, too. I figured with my luck that it was a snake, but a closer look made me smile. A bull frog! I haven't seen a bull frog up here in 50 years. Honestly. Then, Tom came across one as he was mowing, so I guess since we have two of them, there's a good chance we have more. Anyway, the froggie was hiding in the grass next to a hop mound so I covered him up with the bines and cut the grass around him without scaring him away.

Tom has been cutting the grass inside the field fence. We found some catnip, winter savory, elcampane, tansy, and mullein growing where the high tunnel used to be that I will transplant into the forest garden. I had buckets to put them in but didn't have a shovel in the truck, so that will be a task for another day. I love tansy even though it is very aggressive. I used to hang bunches of it in the rooms of our house when we lived in Illinois and we never had problems with wee flying beasties annoying us.

I took a stroll over to the field section where I planted the barley, pie pumpkins and beets. I've never planted barley before so I'm not real sure what I'm looking at, but the spot where I planted it looks a darker green than the areas around it so I'll just give it a while. I was happy to see a bunch of pumpkin vines starting to run, but there was nary a sign of any beet in the 500' that were planted. Drat!

Well, that's about it for now. Be safe!

Pictures From the Forest Garden

2011-07-30T20:31:00.000-05:00

After the rain stopped I thought I'd take a stroll in the forest garden. To my surprise, something has chewed all of the leaves off of every single one of the red currant bushes. They were looking so good, too! The black currant bushes look a little wind swept, but they are not chewed up like the red currant bushes are. I'll have to try and find out what got to them.

Titania Black Currant

I can't believe how big the Mugwort has grown:

Mugwort

The artemesia absinthe (Wormwood) is silvery and gorgeous. I cut armfuls of it to dry and sell at the farmers market.

Wormwood

I spotted this happy bee in the hyssop:

Bee in hyssop

The valerian finally decided it liked where I put it:

valerian

Most of the other herbs look good, but some don't. I think I will make a hydrogen peroxide bug spray and give everything a good wetting. Here's the recipe:

Mix together
1 cup blackstrap molasses
1 cup hydrogen peroxide
1 gallon water

This forest garden experiment sure gives me lots to think about!

Have a good evening!

Greenhouse Raising

2011-07-30T19:28:00.000-05:00

Amen and Hallelujah, Brother! There's finally been a greenhouse raising here. I am SO happy!

We had a great crew: my sister, Mary, and her son, John; my sister, Anna, and her husband, John; Anna's daughter, Angie, and her husband, Todd; my Dad; and Tom and me. I was terrified putting that roof on would be a nightmare, but the whole task took only minutes with all of the helping hands. My nephew, John, took a picture of all of us and says he will send me a copy of the photo to put up here. Angie says that now Todd wants a greenhouse LOL. Tomorrow Tom says he'll put in the door, and then we'll decide on what type of rock mulch to put down on the inside and around the perimeter.

To thank everybody I fixed a huge pot of chili, lots of cornbread, and a big apple crisp. Todd and Angie brought their new baby, Parker, for us to see; and John and Anna brought another daughter's (Darcy) children, Hannah and Cole. They are rather shy kids but gladly they seem to relaxing a bit more -- must be getting used to coming here. Hannah likes my piano and Cole likes our dog, Sandy.
Parker is a little peanut and looks just like his Daddy. What a precious baby. Aren't they all though? Todd said this was like an old fashioned barn raising (hmmmm, a barn, hmmmmm) and I heartily agreed.

It was a fun day. The weather held until about 2:00 p.m. when everybody left to go back to John and Anna's farm before the rain started. This weekend is Butternut's town festival, Pioneer Days, and the kids wanted to go and have some fun there. Thanks to all!

Of Politics and Limericks

2011-07-28T14:23:00.000-05:00

When I checked my email this morning and some of my favorite blogs, I found a great video on Jude Cowell's blog Stars Over Washington. The video is from Russia Today tv and shows how Republican President Eisenhower and Democrat President Harry Truman lowered America's debt AND grew the economy at the same time. It's a great video and I just had to pass it on. (I want to note that in the video Thom Hartmann misnames Mark Kirk and calls him Ron Kirk. The reason I caught that was because my family went to the Drs. Kirk -- Mark's dad and then his brother -- for close to 40 years for our eye care. Once I poked myself in the eye with a screwdriver while messing around with my bike while my parents weren't at home, and I walked over to the Kirk's house where old Dr. Kirk was out mowing his lawn. He checked out my eye, gave me some salve and sent me home with the admonition to leave the screw driver alone. There's a nice old neighborhood doctor story for you!) Anyway, I wish our politicians were as competent as old Dr. Kirk was at handling problems.

On another front, the fight in Wisconsin continues. We have won the first recall election and there are two more coming up in August. Then the big recall effort starts in January. I made up this little ditty the other day thinking about this:

In Wisconsin was once a fast talker

Power and Fame he did stalk fer

People's rights he did diss

So the People he pissed

And that was the end of Scott Walker!

Lara thought it was pretty good. Oh, well. A poet I am not.

Still Taking It Slow

2011-07-27T18:31:00.001-05:00

We ventured out to the field the other day to try and get some work done. We hilled the potatoes again, and I started weeding the onions which are pretty weedy. Tom cut some of the grass inside the fence line, but we only stayed out about 2 1/2 hours before Tom pulled something in his back and I got sick from the heat. We went back to the house and crashed. We are just going to take it slow.

While we were in the field we did have some fun. There is a big spruce tree that was in the creek buffer zone and that came down in last year's tornado (one year ago today BTW) that we still have to cut up and move out of the way. Well, when Tom walked the mower by that tree two fawns jumped up that were hiding behind the branches. Amazingly, instead of being afraid of our BCS tractor (it's pretty loud) they acted like they were trying to play with Tom and the mower. He kept walking afraid that they would spook if he stopped moving, and the fawns darted up and down, back and forth, no more than 10-15' feet from Tom, but always on the outside of the fence. It was something to watch, I tell you. I was surprised at how red the fawns' coats are already, and they still had their spots, too. They must have danced around Tom and the mower a good ten minutes before prancing down the length of the field along the creek and hopping into the woods circling the big marsh to the south of the field. (I bet that was where "Mom" was). Sandy, our dog, was going nuts because I made her stay by me (dog chasing deer get shot real quick up here).

In order to preserve the lightheartedness of the moment, I decided not to bother checking on the status of my beets.

This morning I was feeling better and planned to go back to the field to renew my onion weeding, but it was pouring rain outside. (Ahh, the smell of radioactive Cesium in the morning . . . .) Still, I am thankful for the rain because we have really needed it. I do have some Hubbard squashes and pie pumpkins coming up, and about four melon plants have survived, so the rain will do them some good. The plants look like they are about ready to start running over the ground. I sure hope I get some harvest from them all!

We are running low on basil, so I ran out and cut some of the larger basil plants and put them in the dehydrator. I love using the dehydrator; the house smells so nice when things are drying.

My friend Diane Barkstrom from the farmers market gave me a call asking how I was doing, and I assured her that I do plan on coming to the market, but that I was concentrating on late season crops like my Red Cloud potatoes, the New England pie pumpkins, and the winter squashes. I didn't mention the melons because I doubt they will mature before we get a hard frost. Hopefully, I will get some beets to sell, too. I didn't plant many warm weather veggies like cucumbers and summer squash because our usual vendors always have them. Well, it turns out that this year those vendors either didn't plant at all for the market or their gardens are late, too, so there is a dearth of veggies at both of the farmers markets. Gee Whiz anyhow! I think I'll have to stop guessing what everybody will sell and just plant what I want to plant. My family will certainly eat any extras.

Over in my brother-in-law's garden that he said I could use this year, my Dad unfortunately thought nothing was in there and he plowed everything I had planted under. Ouch! There went the Jenny Lind melons and Old Dutch Half-Runner beans along with everything else.

Back in the garden boxes, the okra is tall enough now that I have to remove the Agribon covering, I just LOVE fresh okra so I'm not so sure I want to share, er, sell any of it, but we'll see. My Rutgers tomatoes are huge, but there is no fruit yet, just flowers. The Egyptian Walking onions are starting to fall over so I think I will sell some of those sets as well as a couple of the Bohemian horseradish roots. I have some Charentais and Moon and Stars melons planted in with the horseradish, and they are doing grand! I think the bugs are not bothering them because of their proximity to the horseradish, which nothing seems to bother. New plantings of beets, carrots, lettuce and radishes are growing nicely and should be ready in about a month, and the green beans I planted are growing quickly. Surprisingly, the beans are showing a lot of sun scald despite my keeping them covered with Agribon for most of the time.

The garlic and Silver Queen Artemesia are drying nicely in the garage so it shouldn't be too much longer before we have things to sell. I also have the one apron I made to sell. It will be interesting to see if anyone buys it.

Nothing came of my three dill plantings, so I bought some more seed from a new company (new, that is, for me to purchase from) called Victory Seeds. I should be able to get a harvest of at least ferns if I plant the dill now. Victory is an interesting company as they sell old fashioned candy as well as tobacco seeds. I bought some native Mohawk tobacco seed to plant next year, too. That will be something different to grow.

I did some more spinning with my Turkish spindle last night. I am still spinning the wool Tom got me two Christmasses ago, but it is actually nice to spread the using of a gift out over time and I do so love how soothing spinning can be to my nerves.

My neighbor, Beth, came by this morning and we shared a pot of Chai Spice tea and gabbed non-stop. That was fun! It was my first time making the Chai Spice tea and she said it tasted good so I guess I made it right. I lost the box with the recipe printed on it and brewed the drink from memory. I sure liked it but I need to find a tea pot that doesn't drip. One of these days we are going to go shopping at the Amish store together. That should be a fun day. It isn't often that I can get out without taking one of the kids with me.

Well, that's about it for now. Take care!

Do What You Love

2011-07-18T20:07:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to think of ways to earn extra income out here in the boonies and started thinking about skill sets. That, in turn, got me to thinking about niches that need to be filled. A lot of people in rural areas wear more than one hat; that is, they aren't just farmers or storekeepers. When you drive by farms at the end of the driveway you often can see signs that say "tool sharpening" and "excavation work" or "wells drilled" and "welding done". Even shops in town have signs in their windows that announce skills or services available besides their primary offering like "keys made" or "zippers mended while you wait".

While I am confident in my ability to do various kinds of needlecraft, I would like to add some of what I consider "mechanical" skills. For instance, one of the schools around here (and I can't remember which one) advertised a welding class to be held this Fall for adult learners. I plan to go to that class. I don't have a welder, but welding is a skill I'm certain has a strong long term value and is a good skill to have.

I'm also interested in tool sharpening. I remember asking my Dad one time how he learned to sharpen tools (a lot of people used to bring him their tools to sharpen when he could see better) and he told me to just take some tools that needed sharpening and sharpen them. Well, I didn't consider that to be much help at the time, but now I understand: Learn By Doing. That was why I bought The Complete Guide To Sharpening by Leonard Lee. I'm not very good yet at sharpening, but I'm working on it.

There is one skill I'm learning that I'm pleased with how I'm progressing --

Yep. Piano tuning. For the last two years I've been wanting to get my piano tuned as a Mother's Day present to myself but never managed to get it done. So, a couple of weeks ago I searched the Internet for how to tune your own piano and came up with this web site. I remembered that it cost me $150 to get my piano tuned nine years ago just before we moved to Wisconsin, and while the cost of Pete's teaching materials was around $190, I figured it would take less time and be cheaper now and over the long term to learn how to tune my piano myself. The best part is that I do have a piano on which to practice the skill of piano tuning. And it really isn't that difficult to learn. I find Pete's books very easy to understand (I wonder if he's left-handed like me), and I thoroughly enjoy getting rid of my "twanging" keys. I think I could like piano tuning as a side job. I just loved opening up my piano and seeing this --

I remember buying this piano at a used piano warehouse in Forest Park, Illinois probably close to 30 years ago. The price was $1,800 but I paid $800 for it plus $100 moving expense to our house. The man in the warehouse went from piano to piano playing a little ragtime music while I listened. I didn't like the sound of any of the pianos he played until he played on this one. The tone was just right! I made a good choice in choosing a Gulbransen piano. And the fact that this piano was made in America testifies to quality American craftsmanship and manufacturing. We aren't a poor nation; we just need to remember who we are and what we can do when we put our mind to it.

Do what you love.

Siesta Time

2011-07-18T20:06:00.000-05:00

We have been hit with a heat wave here in the upper Midwest that is (to say the least) unpleasant. Yesterday the heat index was 108°F. I have never known temperatures to be that high here. The air was so humid yesterday that it felt as if I was down in New Orleans touring the Gulf on the steamboat Natchez. Every little movement made me sweat. I was seriously concerned for our health because we don't have air conditioning so Tom went out and finally bought a 6,000 BTU air conditioner for Lara's room. She immediately perked up after it ran for a while. I called my Dad to check up on him because he doesn't have air conditioning either, AND he refuses to even run any of the fans we have bought him over the years. Then later in the day, thunderstorms blew in -- loud boomers with lots of lightning -- and dropped between 2 and 4 inches of welcome rain on us. Of course, the electricity went out. There was flash flooding in a lot of places, but here the rain soaked right in the ground because we have been so dry. Anyway, the heat wave is supposed to be with us for about a week. I am calling this Siesta Time -- time to take things easy and forget about work until later.

This heat experience makes me think about people's dependence on fans and air conditioning. Maybe my Dad has the right idea about not using air conditioning or even fans to keep cool. If you get used to depending on the electrical grid to be comfortable, what are you going to do if the grid goes down? Is it better to naturally acclimatize yourself to current weather conditions; or, is it better to use modern conveniences and acclimatize yourself only when you must? Need vs. Desire. Hmmmm. Maybe I should pull out my Letters From A Stoic and see if Seneca has any apt input on the issue.

Before this awful heat descended, I was working steadily on breaking the 200 lb. weight plateau that I am struggling with. This empty space --

where we plan to put a 12' x 10' shed to house all of the garden tools used to hold waist high weeds and this --

Remember last year when we had to literally saw our way down through the driveway after the tornado? Well, this is the wood from that mess. It took me three days to move one piece at a time. I don't think it would have taken that long except that our hand cart has a flat wheel on it that I guess will not get replaced unless I do it so I had to roll the bigger pieces over the ground to get them out of the way. We plan to split this wood next summer.

I also took down my maple syrup rig (look on the right side of this blog to see the picture of Tom stirring maple sap) and piled it out of the way next to my burn barrel.

Then I worked on the garden boxes. I pulled out of one garden box the lettuce that went bitter from the heat and the overgrown radishes, and I planted more of the same that will hopefully grow fast with the heat. In another box I planted more carrots and green beans (which I wasn't going to plant because Tom planted so many beans, but the deer have been visiting his garden so I wanted to be sure I got beans from somewhere to can for the winter). Next, I pulled the garlic and let it dry for a few days before tieing it up in bunches and hanging it in the garage to cure for a couple of weeks. That reminds me, have you seen the latest prices are for seed garlic?!!

In another garden box, the basil and sage are gorgeous! The dainty chervil has gone to seed and I'm letting it reseed where it is to increase its patch. And the rosemary I planted is finally starting to come up. I also made a third planting of dill; I'm not having much luck with dill this year and I certainly hope some of it comes up somewhere. The sage patch smelled so good that I harvested about half of it to put in the dehydrator. (The house smells SO good.) The rest of it I hope to sell at the farmers market. The basil looks great but has to grow some before I can harvest it.

I really need to get to town and buy the lumber for more garden boxes.

Talk to you soon. Stay cool!

Ka-Pow

2011-07-06T10:54:00.000-05:00

And that was the sound of Tom's shot gun going off to make us one chicken-eating fox down! Finally. It was the smaller fox that he shot, but I'm not complaining. So it's one down and one to go!

Our Fourth of July holiday was very busy. We spent two days cutting Dad's grass for him with our BCS brush mower attachment because we found out that a certain "good" neighbor borrowed his brush mower and returned it broken. Dad, being the person he is, didn't make him fix it. To Dad's way of thinking, bringing the matter to the "good" neighbor's attention would be equally as bad manners as it was bringing back the mower broken and not even telling that you had broken it. What makes this circumstance so appalling is that the person in question can easily afford to buy his own equipment to use. This is another strike in my book against this person; he had better not show up at my house for anything. Rural etiquette rule: Never borrow equipment from a neighbor and return it in a lesser condition than it was when you borrowed it.

We had visits from nieces and nephews, too. It's always wonderful to see them all. My nephew, John Christian, is off to Basic Training in the Navy Reserves. It's been a while since our family had a "swabby" so I don't know what a medical corpman job is called in the Navy, but that is what John is going to be. We certainly wish him well. Tom gave him a few tips for getting through BT and shared some WWII Navy stories -- Tom's Dad was in the Navy and Pacific Theatre in WWII. Then, my niece's three "shorties" were fascinated by my remaining chickens and had to view the view the macabre pile of feathers on the West side of the house from the latest fox raid. Aaron even retrieved a feather to keep.

And, of course, our bar-b-que was just fine. Dad came over as did my sister, Mary and her husband, John. It was a nice holiday.

Then it was back to work yesterday. I started clearing away the area where we want to put the new shed. This involves moving the pile of wood we cut last year after the tornado blew through and cutting down the weeds. What a job! I also have to move my maple syrup rig, and I think I'll put it next to the chicken run (that they don't use) until I figure out where to permanently site it. I want to eventually build a good concrete/fire brick outdoor oven/bar-b-que where I can boil down maple sap and we can cook outside on hot days. Tom worked on the greenhouse. We are almost ready to raise the roof onto the base.

We finally got some rain last night. Yeah!

Well, I have to get going here. Talk to you later!

Hot and Humid

2011-06-30T18:34:00.000-05:00

It's actually hot here -- and very humid -- but still no rain. We could really use some rain. The farmers market in Park Falls opened yesterday and only two vendors showed up. Everybody's gardens are way behind because of the late season start. Out in the field we hilled my potatoes although they didn't really need it, and we did run the tiller between the corn rows to slow down the weeds which don't seem to be bothered by anything, but the rest of my plantings are doing poorly because we haven't had any rain and the temperatures are wacky -- 44°F the other night to 82°F (plus humidity) during the day simply stresses the heck out of plants. Because the heat bothers me, too, I've been getting most of my work done when the area I want to work in has some shade or later in the day after we have our supper.

Remember this?

I think this looks much better!

Weaving through the posts on the driveway side of the forest garden fence is coming along much faster than I thought it would. I love the rustic look of it. You can see the space between two posts where I'll put in an access gate.

On Midsummer Eve Lara and I put out some cornmeal (we don't smoke so we didn't have any tobacco) for the fairies near a clump of thyme and some more by the Foxgloves (aka Fairy Fingers!). Alas, we couldn't stay awake till midnight to see the fairies dance.

Fairy Fingers or Foxgloves

Cornmeal for the Fairies

I started clearing out the forest garden area near the red currants so I can dig beds for the horseradish, rhubarb, and grapes. If there is enough room after I get that done, I'll try to add beds for the French sorrel and Egyptian Walking onions. There are a lot of tree roots in this area so the going is on the slow side since I have to use a mattock to chop through the roots. To take a break from this work, I was going to define work paths through the forest garden, but everywhere I looked I saw butterfly or moth cocoons on leaves, and I decided to wait a couple of weeks. I'll do it when the tree leaves begin to fall.

cocoons

Well, that's about it for now. Take care!

That Warm Feeling

2011-06-23T13:18:00.001-05:00

Ever since the tragedy at Fukushima I have been very concerned about radiation exposure. And as the Internet sites I frequented to keep apprised of what was happening disappeared altogether or stopped providing information, I have become even more alarmed. No news is not necessarily good news. So, I thought I would share with you some curious experiences of late.

If you read this blog regularly you will know that two of my three children are severely disabled and that my husband is both diabetic and has malignant melanoma. He is a Viet Nam veteran and our children's disabilities are listed effects of Agent Orange exposure. We see doctors often.

I recently had occasion to take our daughter to see her neurologist for her annual appointment. I told the doctor what I was doing to protect Lara (and the rest of us) from radiation exposure: increase in daily vitamins and especially vitamins C and D; addition of nascent iodine daily; addition of alpha lipoic acid 300 mg daily; epsom salt and baking soda baths; staying out of the rain; and having skin covered as much as possible when outside. The doctor's reaction was very curious -- she never said a word, but as I enumerated each step I was taking, she slowly nodded her head. I got the distinct impression that she had been told not to talk about radiation exposure. She never said one word about radiation exposure or about what I was doing.

Then, I had to go for my annual check-up -- at a different clinic. Our area is very rural and doctors only stay here long enough to meet the service requirements of their student loans or grants . Right now there is only a female physician's assistant for women like myself who prefer to see a female doctor. I decided to see what her reaction was to my radiation exposure precautions. It was the same! She never said one word about radiation exposure or about what I was doing. I am convinced that doctors have been warned not to talk about Fukushima and radiation exposure.

A third incident occurred with my husband. A few weeks ago he received a call from his oncologist's office asking him if he would mind seeing a physician's assistant instead of the doctor since my husband's condition is currently stable and because they were experiencing a large increase in the number of cancer cases coming into the office.

All of this could be coincidental, but I'm a suspicious Scorpio and don't think so.

In case you are interested, here are a couple of useful links:

symptoms of radiation sickness;

Jeff Rense's free e-book Coming Clean: From Denial to Detox is a clickable link located here above the right side bar; written for residents of the Gulf of Mexico tragedy that is also being ignored by the media, I think it is a helpful publication; I frequently listen to Jeff's radio shows and was surprised to find that I did not know about this publication until today (thanks to links in George Ure's Urban Survival blog);

benefits of the use of alpha lipoic acid in Chernobyl victims.

Also of interest is this story already indicating an increase in infant mortality in Japan and the West Coast of the United States.

I guess letting your light shine these days includes understanding that the warm glow you may be feeling might not be so welcome. All I know is that I sure don't want to turn into a glow worm.

This and That

2011-06-15T19:33:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit sore today from working on the Forest Garden fences, but I am pleased with my progress. The worm fence is shaping up nicely, and digging in the fence posts for the drive side of the fence went easier than I thought it would in the gravelly soil.

zig-zag or worm fence

Fence posts dug in

Branches for weaving around and tieing to the fence posts will come from my always increasing brush piles. I just can't throw a good stick away.

Since we are finally getting some much needed rain (it didn't rain the last time we expected it) I decided to rest my "shovel" foot and hand by working on another of my long term projects -- putting rocks around the base of the house to prevent the chickens from pecking holes in the insulation.

By the way, in the ice cream pail are two elderberry bushes that I'm rooting in water, and the six little trees in the other pots are those that Lara and I grafted at the Woodland Owners Conference back in April. It looks like at least three of the grafts are taking -- a Bartlett and Lucious pear and a Northwest Greening apple. On one tree I see that I accidentally put the scion on upside down, so that one is a dud, but for a beginning graft attempt, overall I think Lara and I did pretty well.

Getting back to the rock project, as you can see from this picture, clearing away the grass and my husband's idea of a barrier fence isn't much fun. So far I've only uncovered one snake that our dog promptly dispatched for me. I should have enough rock to cover the house base up to the front steps. After that I'll need to go over to my husband's garden and pick more rocks; his garden area is only two years old and it will be some years before we get most of the rocks out of it.

This forlorn mess is my next project.

This is an unplanted area of the forest garden. Although you can't see them, there are several witch hazel trees and native juneberry trees in this mess. After I clear away the brush, this area will be the new home of my Bohemian horseradish, Egyptian Walking Onions, and McDonald/Victoria rhubarb beds, and my three remaining grape vines. The little trees should be happier, too.

Now, I've prattled enough about what I worked on today, but I haven't talked about why I do it. Picking and hauling rocks, digging in fence posts in gravelly soil, and dealing with blood thirsty flies and mosquitoes are hardly pleasant activities. I guess it boils down to my idea of what is self-sufficiency. If I had no money to buy materials and build a fence, what would I do? If I had no money to hire a contractor to landscape my house, what would I do? If I had no gas for my car and couldn't get to a grocery store, how would I feed my family? You get the idea. I teach myself by doing. I learn how to build fences with what materials I have at hand. I pick and haul my own landscaping rocks. I grow the majority of my family's food. Et cetera. And sweat equity is all it costs me. I become accustomed to thinking resourcefully and using my imagination to solve problems. I gain self-confidence. So many people think that they can buy some land, read a library of self-sufficiency books, and just become self-sufficient by absorption; but from where I stand, that is just not so. You have to get out and DO it. Failure is part of the learning process, and losing weight from all that exercise isn't bad, either!

Sweater Weather Again

2011-06-10T19:26:00.002-05:00

Well, the heat only lasted two days -- that was enough for me -- and we are back down in the 45°F range again. I like the cooler weather because the bugs aren't as bad. I was able to get the barley, pie pumpkins, and mangels planted out in the field. I also finished out the potato section with Blue Hubbard and Sunshine winter squash, Vates collards, Danish Ballhead cabbages, Musselburgh leeks, more yellow onions, Pascal celery, Anthem dill, Marketmore cucumbers and a free package of melons (I don't know what kind of melon it is; I think it'll be too cold for melons to grow well this year, but it was a free pack of seeds so I planted it). By the house I planted the Rutgers tomatoes in one of the garden boxes and put an Agribon shield around them because of the cold temps. I also planted some Perkins Long Pod Okra, Genovese Basil (my favorite), sweet bell peppers, and more dill in the garden box, too, and covered all of those seeds with an Agribon row cover. Already this morning the basil and okra are coming up! In the big plastic pot near the garage door entry, I planted the Thai Hot, Tabasco, and Laos hot pepper seedlings. This is the sunniest and hottest place around the house, but I'm thinking about putting an Agribon tent over these plants as well because the cold temps are shriveling them up.

I have one more garden area to plant and that is the garden space my brother-in-law said I could use this year because he is too busy with other things. I was going to put some beans in that garden, but because Tom planted so many green beans, I think I'll plant carrots instead. I also have some Jenny Lind melon seeds I'd like to try. It is a nice sunny location so maybe the melons will be ok there. I would have liked to plant some sunflowers, but it is too late already to direct seed sunflowers. I also have some Gilfeather Turnip seeds for that garden, too.

So why are these plants not in the greenhouse? Well, Tom broke one of the roof flashings and we were missing a hook from one of the roof cable brace kits so we had to order the parts and wait for them to come (they came in the mail yesterday) before we can get back to building the greenhouse. And, of course, now we are busy trying to get everything planted. Ugh! If we can get the greenhouse built within the next two weeks, I'll try putting some more warmer weather varieties in it and grow them in pots.

Today I helped Tom plant out in his garden by Dad's house. We planted Kennebec potatoes, green beans, collards and cabbages, and beets. Then Tom's blood sugar dropped so we quit for the day. Tomorrow we'll plant the corn and winter squash.

The bear is back and the deer are gone so maybe the gardens will have a chance even though I'm told that bears love melons. A woman on one of the gardening list servs I read said that she has successfully deterred varmints from her garden by using a simple fence made up of (of all things) video tape! I'll try anything!

We're supposed to get rain tonight and that will get the seeds off to a good start.

That's all for now. Keep safe and be well!

Feels Like Summer

2011-06-07T14:01:00.000-05:00

We went from winter to summer this year. You could almost watch the leaves on the trees unfold. It has been hotter than Hades the last few days and now the black flies are eating everybody alive. Today it is supposed to be 91°F. That's why I'm in the house right now. I have been putting off most of the work till after supper when it is a bit cooler and the sun is not so hot. It is supposed to get down in the 40's again tomorrow night. I still think it will be a cooler than hotter growing season.

We could use some rain. We have seen rain falling both North and South of us, but we have not been getting much.

We are getting lots of wind though that dries the plants out and keeps me out watering everything more than normal. The black currants especially don't like wind. So far just about everything in the forest garden is still alive: one of the two Honeycrisp apple trees, two elderberries, and three raspberries look like goners though.

Out in the field I got the Golden Bantam corn, Red Cloud potatoes and most of the onions planted.

When I pulled into the field with the truck and started unloading my tools, I discovered a surprise just a few feet away from me in the next field section to be tilled:

A spotted fawn! Its mama must have hidden it in the tall grass and gone to get something to eat. The fawn put its head down when it realized I could see it. It didn't move a muscle. I slowly walked away so as not to frighten it to go plant my onions and when I came back to the truck, the fawn was gone leaving only the grass pressed down where it had lain.

I had other visitors watching me that day. Maybe this doe was the fawn's mother.

Then there was this Canadian goose in the grass just outside the fence. I usually see this goose across the road in Minnow Lake where I suspect it has a nest.

I finally got the cranberries planted down around the West marsh. This marsh is what I think they call a fen because it has a stream clearly visible that flows through it. Fens are rare in Wisconsin. I planted the cranberries in different places around the edge of the marsh and hopefully the plants will eventually spread.

Tom wants to plant some small trees or shrubs around the front yard so we took a short trip to a local nursery. He didn't find anything he liked, but I, of course, am not one to ever leave a nursery empty-handed, and came home with some nice Lady's Mantle, Black Cohosh, Pulsatilla, Russian tarragon, and Lemon Balm plants that I'll add to the Forest Garden. We will take a ride one day out to Winter Nursery in Winter, Wisconsin. I bet Tom will find something nice to plant from there. Maybe he'll buy some Bali cherry trees; they are nice natural dwarf trees that have pretty flowers in Spring. I'm sure we'd never get any cherries off them as the birds are sure to get them first.

Speaking of birds, I've counted at least five sandhill cranes. They must have nests nearby. I suspect I'll see more of them after the corn comes up. Sandhill cranes are the best corn pickers in the world. ;D I hope they leave some corn for me.

I wanted to get a picture of how the beavers chewed down the dogwoods by the creek, but the greenery has grown so quickly that it's hard to see the chewed stumps already. But the creek looks nice --

More planting is on the schedule so I'll check in with you later!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-29T21:35:00.000-05:00

I've been hustling! That new spring green on the trees really has me energized:

First off, the computer is finally fixed and I have been re-downloading my most used programs. That takes a while but I am ecstatic to have my computer back.

Tom and I have been working on building the new greenhouse. We got the base and roof put together, but realized that the two of us couldn't lift the roof onto the base so we decided to divide the roof in half and put it up one half at a time. Tom will do his best to install the part of the roof that will have to remain undone until we have both halves secured to the walls. And, of course, nothing can ever go smoothly for us: as Tom was installing the last of the roof polycarbonate holders, the very last piece broke! So, he had to go online and order that piece. We'll have to wait till it comes before we can finish building the greenhouse. Ugh!

greenhouse base and wall ribs

greenhouse roof halves

It only took me one day to dig up all of the herbs from the field. There sure were a lot of them! And when I looked at the knoll where I wanted to plant the forest garden, I admit I thought I might be out of my mind:

But not being a person that likes to be told, "It can't be done," I went ahead and planted that knoll until I very nearly dropped. It is now filled with apple, pear, and plum trees, black and red currants, elderberries, gooseberries and raspberries, hazelnut trees, and all the herbs I brought back from the field: vervain, wormwood and mugwort, yarrow, sage, oregano, several varieties of thyme, fairy fingers and valerian, heliotrope, rudbeckia and echinacea, chocolate mint and spearmint, hyssop, and anise hyssop. Several of the herbs were placed so that they could run to their heart's content. It doesn't look like much now, but in a year or two the plantings should be pretty well defined, especially as I prune and hoe and mulch.

I brought a trailor load of mink manure to the house to put down around everything. I'm hoping to do that tomorrow -- after all, I need to work off all those calories from our holiday bar-b-que.

May 24th was a special day for Tom and me -- 36 years of marriage. Where did the time go . . . .

Well, I've jabbered on for long enough except for one last note: Memorial Day is a solemn holiday in the United States. It remembers and honors the dead from all the wars of our history. My husband is a Viet Nam veteran. Our daughter is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. I am acutely mindful of how fortunate I am that my loved ones are still with me. May all those souls who made the ultimate sacrifice for the principle of freedom be at peace.

The Rush Is On

2011-05-19T19:24:00.000-05:00

For getting the field ready, that is. Today we took the new trailer over to our neighbor's house and picked up our first load of mink manure. We will go every day except on Sunday to get a load to spread out on the field and on Tom's garden that is next to the farmhouse where Dad lives. As soon as we get the first field section covered with manure, I'll take the BCS tractor and till everything in. I hope to plant the first section just after the new moon.

Out in the field I checked the hops section and the hops are all alive and well. I figure I can clean up that section in only one day and then we'll drop a couple of loads of manure around each plant. The hard part will be digging in the poles. I was a bit worried about the Brewers Gold and Zeus hops because they were the newest plantings, but they over-wintered just fine. My sister is going to the upcoming Gorst Valley Hops conference. That would be cool if she decided to grow hops, too.

You should see how the beaver has chomped down the dogwoods around the creek. I'll take some pictures next time I'm out to the field so you can see it. I told Tom we'll have to take a walk down to the snowmobile bridge to see how big that beaver dam is getting. With all the wood that has been chewed off, I wonder if there is only one beaver.

I am working on carting the pile of chicken manure from in front of the chicken coop and spreading it around the rhubarb, blackberries, wild roses, in the garden boxes, and the forest garden. It's tiring work with just a wheelbarrow and shovel. So far it looks like all the trees and shrubs are taking. Only one Hudar pear tree (the one I had to dig up late and move last year before the loggers came) is iffy. I gave everything a good drink of water last night so that may give that tree a bit of a boost. I still have the cranberries to plant down by the marsh, and once I get them planted and mulched, I'll take some pictures as by then you should be able to see everything sprouting. New trees and shrubs don't look like much, but I'm excited because I can picture how everything will look in a couple of years.

Speaking of pictures, I am still using the old computer which is slow as molasses and won't let me upload anything, so all pics will have to wait until the new computer gets fixed. I called the repair company to find out what was going on and while they have received the go ahead from the warranty company, they are waiting on restore disks from Gateway, so it will be at least another week before I have the new computer back in working order. Grrr!

The good news is that the greenhouse came today! We will start building it tomorrow. I can't wait to get it built. The Fed Ex man who delivered it said that ours was the third greenhouse he'd delivered this year. He said he's seen them built and that it will look nice. I sure hope we don't have any trouble putting it up.

Had a weird dream the other night: I dreamed there was a 10.2 magnitude earthquake in Antarctica of all places. Never had a dream like that!

Well, that's it for now. Take care and happy planting!

Taking a Break

2011-05-13T12:56:00.000-05:00

Well, we didn't get zapped during the recent Mercury retrograde, but we got hit in the retrograde shadow. I left my keys in the truck and drained the battery down to zip. Then the toaster died. Next, the hard drive in the new computer blasted me with the blue screen of death (I'm struggling on here by using the old computer that I fortunately kept because it runs all of my old Windows 95 and 98 software that will not run on 64-bit Windows 7). And lastly, a high wind storm came out of nowhere and knocked the power out for long enough to make my life miserable dealing with family members that freak out from electricity withdrawal. Whew!

I've been hard at work planting. I planted the three Haralson apple trees, one Chestnut Crabapple, one each of Toka, Waneta, and Superior grafted plum trees, one Summercrisp and two Hudar pear trees, two Honeycrisp and the little Antonovka apple trees, all of the black and red currants that overwintered in the garden boxes, 12 Latham raspberries, and three each of Adams and Johns elderberries. The cranberries I want to put down by the marsh came in the mail yesterday. I was able to plant some Bulls Blood beets, Paris Island Cos lettuce, St. Valery carrots, and French Breakfast radishes in one garden box that I covered right away with Agribon. I still have all of the herbs and orchard trees in the field to move. Well, I love the exercise, and I remind myself that the more focused I am on the goals I want to accomplish, the faster they will be achieved!

I am trying to get the fence put up around the new forest garden before the deer find it. I have started a zig-zag or worm fence that is about a foot tall already along the road side of the garden. (I want to make it six feet tall). Along the back side I'm putting in the old wire fence that I had to take down last year before the loggers came. The tough part there is digging the holes for the posts because the ground is gravelly. The driveway and house sides of the garden will continue the zig-zag fence. I think it will look pretty nice when it is finished.

The foxes are still wreaking havoc. I'm down to 14 chickens including Lara's rooster, Jamie Oliver. (I call him Fortunate One.) With all of the rebuilding and repair work I'm doing, I don't know if I'll order any chickens this year.

As soon as I can I'll post some pictures for you all.

Be well, and be safe!

Back on My Feet

2011-05-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

I came down with the flu right after attending the Woodland Landowners' Conference and have FINALLY gotten back on my feet. I was sick practically the entire month of April. Ugh! Today was my first day of being able to work outside, and oh boy, am I way behind on my to-do list. I worked all day at preparing the area for the new forest garden by moving brush and transplanting balsam trees for a privacy screen near the road. If the weather cooperates tomorrow, I'll transplant all the bushes from the garden boxes and set them out on the knoll. The grafted plum trees have arrived and I also have the six trees Lara and I brought back from the grafting class we took at the Landowners' Conference -- four apple (Lucious, two Northwest Greening, and Prairie Spy) and two Bartlett pear trees. I'm still waiting for the Haralson and Chestnut Crab trees to arrive from the nursery in Neilsville. I'm looking forward to watching that forest garden grow. Once I get this immediate transplant work done, it's off to turn over the soil in the field and get everything there in the ground. Hops are tough so the work on the hops yard will be done last.

Tom bought a nice trailer so now we can haul all the mink manure we can get from our neighbor, Dale. We are trying to find a day to get to Menards to buy a storage shed, too. Tom worked today clearing the area where we want to set up the shed. All of the garden tools and farmers market stuff will go in the shed and we will finally be able to move around in the garage. We also ordered the greenhouse which will come in three separate boxes on the UPS truck so we didn't have to worry about road restrictions and delayed delivery. I can't wait to get that set up because the seedlings in the basement are growing by leaps and bounds. The last thing I want to buy is a .22 rifle so I can shoot the two foxes (there's a big one and a little one) that are decimating the few chickens I have left -- I'm down nine chickens since I first saw the fox.

Cliff High's latest Shape of Things to Come report is out and available for only $10 from Halfpasthuman. This report deals with the short term outlook and it is very interesting reading. I personally find the SOTTC reports quite helpful and I truly believe that years from now Cliff will receive the honor he deserves for his work in pioneering the field of predictive linquistics.

There is so much to do. Take care and be safe!

Weather Watching

2011-04-03T14:57:00.000-05:00

Well, we've got another big red fox hanging around and I'm already missing three chickens. Grrr! That fox must be hungry. He sat on a tree stump behind a bunch of balsam trees and just stared at me, bold as brass, while I shooed the chickens back inside the safety of the chicken run. Egg Sucker ran around looking tough with the hair on her back up and her nose in the air. The fox never even looked her way.

When I got up this morning, it was snowing like crazy. I heard on the weather that we may get another 11" of snow, but I don't think we'll get that much. It is the heavy, wet snow that melts quickly and makes our "mud season" so delightful. As I write this, the temperature is dropping and the wind is picking up. I'm glad the trees are not leafed out yet.  It feels more like Winter than Spring.

Tom and I are looking at an 8' x 16' greenhouse to replace the high tunnel we lost in last year's tornado. We can't order it till the mud season road restrictions are lifted, but by then and with the two of us working, we should be able to build it in short order and just move the seedlings from the basement right into the greenhouse. I think I'll put in a couple of black plastic garbage cans filled with water to add to the heat and make a growing bench over the the cans for additional container growing. We'll work in alot of vertical growing with some grow bags and trellises. I'm still going to add a garden box in front of the blackberries, and maybe another one next to the greenhouse.   That will pretty much take care of our available grassy area in back of the house.

The open pollinated Golden Bantam sweet corn seed came in the mail yesterday that I ordered from Shumway's to replace the Ashworth corn seed I couldn't get from Fedco, but now the onion sets I ordered are on backorder. Don't know if I'll get those or not. I hope to be able to buy some from the feed store as a last resort. Boy, we ate all two bushels of onions we had left over from the farmers market season over this winter and that was a big help toward keeping our family food costs down. I expect to plant double the onions I had last year. I just hope I don't have any trouble getting my new Red Cloud seed potatoes.

I've picked out a smallish maple tree to cut down and use for inoculating with shitake mushroom plugs, but I'll wait till after I attend the mushroom class at the Woodland Owners' Conference next Saturday before cutting it down. I want to make sure I get growing these mushrooms right. Lara and I are looking forward to going.   It will be good to get out of the house.

I've been watching the radiation levels for Duluth, MN because we usually get the same weather as Duluth. I check the radiation air flows here, here, here, and here. On days when the levels are rising or there is to be precipitation, I just plan to keep everybody inside as much as possible. There's not much else you can do. Once the weather warms up I will be on the lookout for unusual plants.

Dad is doing well. He got the doctor to take him off the Coumadin and a bunch of other medicines, so he is very pleased with himself. Tom helped him yesterday to drag some logs out of the woods, but they couldn't do much because of the mud. They are making a big pile of logs to split later. I'm still going to order a logger's load of wood for him.  I agree with Tom that it's cheaper to buy the wood than kill yourself for weeks at a time doing it yourself. We aren't getting any younger.

Well, that's about it for now. Be well!

Mark Your Calendar

2011-04-01T13:21:00.000-05:00

Wisconsinites, do remember to VOTE on April 5th.

Please vote for JOANNE KLOPPENBURG for the Wisconsin Supreme Court if you believe that working people have a right to work with dignity in a safe workplace and for a fair wage.

Enough recall petition signatures have been gathered to recall Republican Dan Kapanke and will be filed in Madison this afternoon. The recall process for the other seven Republicans continues!

Keeping Watch

2011-03-25T16:02:00.000-05:00

I almost made it out to the field the other day to cut hops poles, but wouldn't you know it, we got eight more inches of snow so I'm back to waiting for the snow to go down and the temps to warm up a bit. It won't be long. The chickens ventured out before the snow came.

Instead I brought some yarn up from my yarn bin and am knitting a simple vest to wear over my decidedly worn shirts. If I like the way the vest looks I'll wear it to the Woodland Owners' Conference. Then (a sure sign of Spring) I started some seeds in the basement: Musselborough leeks, Danish Ballhead cabbage, Cal Wonder sweet green peppers, Thai hot, some of the hot pepper seeds grown in Laos I got from Bill and Linda -- I think I'll start calling them Laos Hot, Tabasco hot peppers, Rutgers tomatoes, and Fairytale Eggplant (not an OP or heirloom variety, but beautiful and tasty). I'll start more seeds later next month. Most everything else will be direct seeded. And as soon as I can work the garden boxes I'll cover them with plastic and Agribon and get mustard greens, peas, radishes, carrots, cos, and onions planted. I saved some garlic to Spring plant this year. I know you plant garlic in the Fall, but I have heard of people doing Spring planting and I want to see what kind of garlic I get from doing so.

Yesterday I went to Phillips to pick up my order from the 4-H truck sale (that truck sale is the only place I can buy sliced frozen mushrooms in bulk) and while I was there I went to John and Floyds' house to drop off my farmers market scale. They laughed when they saw me and said they had just been talking about contacting me to remind me they would be taking the scales down to Medford around Easter to get certified for the year. They gave me a tour of their house and gardening set up. It was a lot of fun! I had no idea their operation was as big as it is. They really have a nice local network going for them, too.

While there we talked about what we planned on growing this year. I was surprised that they agreed with me that it will be a cold summer. Because of the Japan disaster I plan on growing most veggies under cover and growing a lot of potatoes and onions and other root crops. John and Floyd are going to heavily plant beans.

The March super moon was impressive. It was kind of weird seeing the moon rise in the East while the sun was setting in the West.

Well, I could talk more but there are chores to do. Take care!

Breathe Deep

2011-03-17T00:15:00.000-05:00

World events have me doing a LOT of meditation and deep breathing. Beyond that, I always seem to revert to my old stand-by activity when I get stressed -- cleaning. So today I shoveled out the chicken coop, and I did feel better. If I need to keep the chickens inside the coop for a day or so at a time, at least they'll have a clean coop. I remember that after September 11th I started crocheting a table cloth that took me two years to finish. People are saying, "What can we do?" and "You've go to prepare!" Well, my take on preparation is just to do what you would normally do to take care of your family and then take one day at a time. For crying out loud, please use common sense. Past experience tells me that no matter how much you prepare, you are rarely really prepared. It's like when someone who has been very ill for a long time dies, you know that person is going to pass on, and you think you are prepared to handle the reality of the death, but when it comes you are still shocked by the event. All you can ever do at any time is your best. Leave it at that. If you are in a disaster and lose everything, remember that your most important tool is the gray matter that lies between your ears. Have faith in your abilities and have a positive outlook that you will get through whatever you may be facing. I have a personal reflection that is easy to visualize: When Life kicks me in the gut and knocks me down, I get back up and get out of the way before I REALLY get stomped on. Look at it this way, by living through these historic times you'll have lots of stories to bore younger generations with when you get old.

I have to tell you about cleaning out the chicken coop. I was removing the north side vent wind blockers (empty feed bags) when two black eyes in a head poked out from a bag and stared at me. I shrieked! It turned out that a little grey squirrel made a nest in the bag and had spent the winter in the coop. I yelled for our dog to get it but Egg Sucker was busy so I swung my broom in vain while the critter ran around my feet before it vanished out the door. Well, I'm just glad it wasn't a snake!

April 9th the County Ag Extension is offering a Woodland Owners Conference in Rib Lake. Lara, my sister, Mary, and I are all going to go. Lara and I are going to go to the classes on growing mushrooms and identifying local wildflowers, and in the afternoon we will go to the fruit tree grafting class. I'll have to play that one impromptu what with Lara being blind. Should be a fun day.

Tom's birthday was a few days ago and we went to Little Bohemia in Manitowish Waters to celebrate. It is a restaurant we've wanted to go to for years. Little Bohemia is famous because the gangster John Dillinger had a shoot out there with the FBI. There are still the broken windows and bullet holes in the walls, as well as a display case with items that the gangsters left in their rushed departure. And the food -- OMG -- was great! I had Old World Pork Shank withSauerkraut and Buttered Noodles. I'm telling you, it was the best food I ever ate at a restaurant. Lara loved her Fettucini Alfredo and we didn't even have to harp on Ed to eat his ribs. It was a nice outing for us all.

Till next time!

Sharpening Those Pitchfork Tines

2011-03-11T01:04:00.000-06:00

Well, it's time to get the pitchforks and muck out the barn. . . .

To say that I am pissed off about events in our state Capitol of Madison is a gross understatement. My fury at the trampling of democracy by Republican TRAITORS in our legislature has at least abated enough for my blood pressure to cool from plasma to a semblance of normalcy. (My husband went to bed early to get away from me.) I used to work for a great attorney whose personal mantra was, "Don't get mad; get even."   And my blood is starting to run very, very cold.

If you are awake to the current concerted effort to destroy organized labor in the United States and make ALL people who work SLAVES of corporate interests, here are a few links to goings on in Wisconsin:

Here's a link to buses going to Madison:
http://www.wiafscme.org/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=fd9884e9-33e6-4219-9f2a-ef60cea9eb9f

Here's a link to events this Saturday and Sunday:
http://www.wiafscme.org/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=aef595ea-e5f9-45bf-82df-cb91f1232473

If you aren't a union member but support workers rights, check out We Are Wisconsin.

Here is some information about the recall process in Wisconsin:
http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=1940 (Petition)
http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=11827&locid=47 (Summary and FAQ)

I received this interesting link today from an old friend:
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/general-strike-pamphlet/#more-14975

And if what the Republicans did was so righteous, why this --
http://www.politicususa.com/en/wisconsin-republican-cowards-video

Fox News is reporting that the skulking Republican senators and their families have received death threats.

Oh. Really?   I'm a Scorpio. Guess how I feel about that.

And our intrepid Governor, well, what can you expect: http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?boardId=38496&articleId=18584202&func=6&channel=News&filterRead=false&filterHidden=true&filterUnhidden=false

These events are just little pieces of a terribly complex, multi-layered agenda being levelled against all people in all the world who are not part of the global elite. (Do your own research here; there's plenty of material on the Internet.) While our society is entering an extremely dangerous period of time, I would like people to remember that we are witnessing the birth of a new social paradigm. A new civilization. A new day. The clamoring of the globalists are actually THEIR death throes. Ordinary people all around this world are awakening to the fact that they don't need government to tell them what to do, and they don't need money in order to survive and live with their neighbors.  St. Paul said quite succinctly, "Fear not." And Christ summed it all up for us: "The meek shall inherit the Earth."

Itching for Spring

2011-03-02T08:54:00.000-06:00

The snow is melting steadily but not fast enough for me. I am ready for Spring! Yesterday it was cold enough that I could easily walk on top of the snow without breaking through the crust so I dragged my frozen seed potatoes -- all four bushels of them -- out to the compost pile. When the temp warms enough I'll bring my good floor scrubber up from the basement and wash the wheelchair ramp where the potato juices stained it. They are frozen to the bushel baskets they are in so I'll have to wait till the weather warms up to retrieve the baskets and clean them out with some bleach.

There are some patches on the driveway where I can see the ground, and that has me itching to plant -- anything! And because the temps are starting to swing, I'm trying to decide whether or not to tap a couple of maple trees to make us maple syrup for this year.

Normally I like boiling down the maple sap, but maybe I'll give the forest a rest. It went through a lot last year what with the tornado and then the clean up logging. Still, there are three big maples out on the front berm near the road that I could easily tap that I think would give me all the sap I need to make a couple of pints and tapping just those three trees I don't think would hurt anything. I felt so bad last year when I tapped the 24 trees and then had to dump all the sap because it spoiled before I could boil it down.

I ordered some elderberry bushes, red raspberries, and five cranberry plants from Miller Nurseries. I still have to get my order out to St. Lawrence Nursery in New York, but I can't make up my mind what I want to buy. Is it two or four pear trees? Should I buy more black currants? And do I want just two more apple trees? I better make up my mind or before I know it I'll miss the spring ordering deadline.

I did sit down and write out a To Do list. As soon as the snow melts and the County declares "Mud Season" restrictions on the roads, I will need to get busy. The first thing I want to do is cut hops poles and clean up the hops section. For sure I'll post some pictures of that when I'm done. Fifteen to twenty poles should do it for this year as several of the hops plants can be divided; I just don't know yet how many new plants I can get from the divisions. Say, did you watch that show about hops on the Green Planet channel the other night? It was real interesting. BTW, did you know chickens like eating hops? I gave them my last bag of dried hops and they devoured them right quick. Anyway, I figure my To Do list has a full two weeks of long day work and it doesn't even include working on the fence! It will feel good to work off these winter pounds, that's for sure.

I've cleaned off my seedling table down in the basement and am going through the seeds. I've found that starting a lot of plants for some reason doesn't save you all that much growing time outside in this climate zone. Because of that, seed starting will be limited to what I will plant in the garden boxes for the start of the farmers market, and everything for the field will be direct seeded.

That's about it for now. Take care!

Workers Rights at Risk

2011-02-23T20:06:00.002-06:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Haymarket_Martyr%27s_Memorial.jpg This is a picture of the Haymarket Martyr's Memorial (picture taken by Jeff Zoline) located in Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois (just so happens I grew up in Forest Park, Illinois) and commemorates a tragic event in the history of organized labor in the United States, the Haymarket Riot. Throughout the years, various monuments about the Haymarket Riot have been vandalized, I suspect to repudiate politicizing of the event.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Riot_Monument.JPG

The Wisconsin protests have me remembering the Haymarket Riot and the hardships workers suffered at the hands of corporation owners in order to obtain decent working conditions and fair wages. These protests have everybody up in arms, and I pray for cool heads to prevail. I am very proud of the people protesting for worker rights in Madison, and I am so happy that people realize the issue at stake is NOT salaries but WORKER RIGHTS.

I have to include the "crank" call to Scott Walker. I am sooooo glad I DID NOT VOTE for this guy.

John Ertl spilling his heart for his state

2011-02-23T19:05:00.001-06:00

That's my nephew, John Ertl. He is graduating from Cornell University this Spring. Go, Johnny!

Keeping Busy

2011-02-19T13:21:00.000-06:00

It's been busy around here. My sister and I cleaned our Dad's house while he was in the hospital having a cyst removed from his kidney, and now we are running with him back and forth for various appointments. Tom has been great about feeding Dad's outdoor wood furnace twice a day. Then, our "Big Green" van ultimately died on us and we decided that we couldn't continue pumping money into it. We went to Wheel Way Auto in Fifield and bought a 2010 Dodge Caravan minivan. It was a great deal. Because it was last year's model, we got a $500 dealer's discount, a $3,200 discount from Dodge, and another $500 discount because I'm a member of the Farm Bureau, so we got a nicely loaded new vehicle for just over $22,100. The best part of it is that we started putting money aside for a new vehicle after we bought the truck in 2004 and we had enough saved to pay cash. With the economy crashing I was glad to put the money into a tangible asset instead of having worthless paper. The van is metallic pearl black with grey interior. We're not used to bucket seats, and riding on the road in it seems kind of weird after sitting so high in Big Green, but that new vehicle smell is soooo nice (even if it is toxic). But buying the mini van was a bittersweet experience because with the "passing" of Big Green came the realization that a big part of our life is now over. Big Green saw us see the kids through all the events of their school years, took us to both Fort Jackson in South Carolina to see our Soldier Girl graduate from Army boot camp and to Carbondale, Illinois to see her graduate from Southern Illinois University. Big Green moved with us from our Chicago area home of 27 years to the family farm here in northern Wisconsin. I couldn't even look at Big Green when we left it on the lot as a donation to a vehicle recycling program. Well, we are not young any more and that's a fact. You gotta keep moving on.

Finished the last apron. I think it's beautiful. We'll see if it sells.

Here's a close up of the print:

Our Eddy turned 24 on the 9th. I bought him a good pair of steel-toed hiker shoes. We had chocolate cake which he loves.

Tom is happy because he won a turkey hunting license in the state raffle. Seeing turkeys in the back yard makes him VERY happy.

Well, I lost my winter hat and have to make a new one so I'll leave off for now. Stay safe and warm!

Valentines Day

2011-02-14T22:40:00.000-06:00

I couldn't resist passing on this YouTube video of my all time favorite song. Have a great day!

Seeds

2011-02-10T22:00:00.000-06:00

Have you noticed how much more expensive buying seeds is? I sure have. I'm also finding that I have to shop more seed suppliers to find the varieties I want. I used to be able to make one seed purchase from a choice among a number of suppliers and be done with it. Increasing backorders are another problem I'm seeing more of. This year the one pound quantity of seeds (corn and beans) that I wanted are already "backordered". And that particular order was made on January 6th at the start of the year. I don't even mind that much having to spread my seed order among seed companies, but when you total the shipping charges -- ouch! You can buy a good amount of seed with what you pay just for shipping. For example, I made a $25 seed order to one company and had to pay $6 to ship just 6 regular packets of seed.

I like to save seed from the vegetables I grow. Unfortunately, our growing season is short. A regular seed harvest for me is "iffy" at best. (It doesn't stop me from trying though. :D ) Last year we went into October before we had a real killing frost and I was able to harvest some good seed. Maybe I'm just more sensitive to the cost of seed because I'm a seed saver. I don't know. As a seed saver I know the labor involved in harvesting seeds certainly justifies seed cost. In any event, I wish seeds -- and shipping -- weren't so expensive.

This year I have purchased small quantities of seed to increase the genetic diversity of seed I have managed to save on my own. New this year are several types of small melons. Melons seem to like my soil, but as usual, the difficulty is the short growing season and inability to bring the melons to maturity. I plan to start the melons inside a little earlier and keep them under low tunnels once they are transplanted out in the field, so we'll see how they do. I'm also trying Tuscan Blue kale this year. I've never tried growing kale before and am looking forward to eating it. I found a beautiful French heirloom leek called Blue Solaise that I can't wait to plant. Normally I grow Perkins Long Pod Okra, but this year I'll try a variety called Red Burgundy. Growing hot peppers here has proven very difficult so this year I bought several varieties to replace the seed I've used up. I love hot peppers! Fortunately I was able to find more Red Cloud seed potatoes to replace mine that froze. Overall, this year my garden will see fewer veggies but larger quantities.

Cold winter days sure makes for fine garden planning!

February Already

2011-02-01T14:31:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's February already. And I know that this month will fly by; it always does.

I've been watching the progress of the mega winter super storm that is crossing the country right now. It looks like we will get a glancing blow and most of the storm will pass south of us. Chicago and Milwaukee are supposed to get the worst of it.

We had a lovely visit on Sunday with my nieces and their husbands. It is such a pleasure seeing our fine young people grow up. Their children were so kind to our Ed and Lara, too. How people treat the disabled is always a sign to me of true character, and I was not disappointed.

Started working on the third apron and already have it about half-finished. I have to admit that I'm a fabric junkie. I'm one of those people who love going to fabric stores and just walking up and down the rows feeling and admiring the different patterns and textures. If Hancocks of Paducah has a store, it's a good thing I don't live in Kentucky because I'd probably live in that store! Can't wait to see the apron finished.

I finally found a manual for the big floor loom and ordered it off the Internet. It should come some time this week and I'll finally know for sure if I'm missing any parts.

Well, I've got to call the dentist about getting a crown on one of my teeth so that's it for now. Take care, and stay warm!

Keeping Busy

2011-01-19T23:15:00.000-06:00

The full moon tonight sure is pretty. I'd take a picture of it for you but I don't have much luck taking pictures at night -- somehow they always blur on me. Makes me itch to buy a better camera, but I've learned how to ignore unnecessary spending itches, LOL.

I have finished sewing Lara and I new aprons to wear at the farmers market this year.

Here is a detail of the lace I put on the neck and pockets -- my grand aunt, Mathilda Ledvina, crocheted it; it has to be at least 80 years old.

Lara happily modeled her apron for this picture:

I have a different fabric to make one more apron that we will try to sell at the farmers market. If people like the aprons, I'll make some more of them to sell. The pattern is a Depression style apron so I will sell them as "heirloom aprons". They certainly are sewn to last, and I even sewed them on my Singer black top sewing machine that came to me from my mother (who got it from her mother when she married my father) when Tom and I got married. The fabric will rot before a seam sewn on that machine gives way. The high quality cotton fabric for each apron cost about $30. I specially ordered it from Hancocks in Paducah, KY. There is a lot of hand sewing on the aprons, too, as well as the use of the antique hand made lace for trim. The fabric is pre-washed and pre-shrunk so what you see is what you get. I figure that once the antique lace is used up, I'll get out my lace patterns and make some of my own lace. Any ideas what I should charge for something like this?

Another "to do" task scratched off my list: I brought some canned blackberry juice up from the basement and tried my hand at making blackberry cordial.

I boiled one quart of blackberry juice with three cups of sugar and two teaspoons each of cinnamon, cloves, and lemon zest until the sugar was dissolved and the mixture started to thicken.

Then I shut off the stove and strained the mixture into another stainless steel pot.

Next I added a bottle of brandy (about 2 quarts or 1.75 litres), stirred well, and refrigerated over night.

This morning I bottled the cordial in the brandy bottle and an old wine bottle (I never throw out good containers of any sort), added new labels identifying the contents, and tucked them away in the basement to age undisturbed for at least six weeks.

Blackberry cordial is useful for a number of ailments. You can use it straight (very potent!), but I plan to use it by the tablespoonful added to a tea cup (about 4 oz.) of hot water for respiratory ailments, sipped slowly. Blackberries are astringent so they are good for drying up those wet coughs and cases of mild diarrhea among other things. Check out Maude Grieve's book A Modern Herbal; it's one of those books I think everyone should have in their personal library.

My niece, Jill, is coming to visit with her new baby next week so I am busy knitting a gift for her. When I go to town to get her a card and some gift wrap, I'll stop at the hardware store and buy the lumber I need to make my warping board. That probably will be my next photo essay for you! I am determined to get that weaving loom strung before winter ends.

Speaking of my weaving loom puts me in mind of something else; I have to tell you about a movie I bought our Ed for Christmas. It is one of the old Disney movies called, "So Dear To My Heart" . If you are interested in homesteading, I recommend you watch that movie! Put the movie on "pause" when you need to take a closer look. It shows the building layout of a 1903 homestead, fences, livestock, and the interior of the log house. Granny cards wool into rovings which she spins into yarn on a Great Wheel spinning wheel. It shows Granny winding a warp on her warp board and later weaving a cloth on a big floor loom. She also likes to hand quilt. That movie is a real treasure. I'm so glad I bought it. And Ed likes it, too.

We're in for another below -0F cold spell here. I hope you are all safe and well wherever you are at. Please remember all those suffering from natural disasters around the world in your prayers. By the way, the good folks over at Half Past Human will soon be coming out with issue 9 of The Shape Of Things To Come (SOTTC) reports. I am a huge fan of the web bots (they were mentioned in a show on the History Channel the other night) and recommend the SOTTC reports as a help to getting through these difficult times. Having an idea of what I may be facing in the weeks and months ahead certainly helps me with keeping my act together.

Uncle Al

2011-01-12T01:13:00.000-06:00

Most of us are privileged at some point in our life to know a special person. These are the people who always make you smile when you think of them; who are always there when you need them; who always seem to know the right thing to say when something needs to be said. You know what I mean. I have been blessed to know several people like that, but the one that is on my mind today is my Uncle Al.

Uncle Al was my godfather. He always made me laugh. He had an upbeat clipped style to his speech that made me want to listen to what he said, and when he fixed his gaze on me, I suddenly couldn't move. If you were a kid, he was one of those guys I don't think you could put anything over. He and my Aunt Julia raised 13 beautiful children. And you know how some families are where you feel your cousins are more like your brothers and sisters than they are cousins even though you may not see them very often. That's the way I felt about Uncle Al's family. When we visited together we kids ran through the fields picking every wild berry that could be found, threw goat turds at each other in the farm yard, and watched our mothers cook dinner for everybody in the farm house kitchen using two big pressure canner cookers. And when Uncle Al told the tribe to sit down at the table and say Grace, you did it.

Today was Uncle Al's funeral mass. The parish priest who gave the homily knew Uncle Al and his family well over the past nearly 40 years; he, too, was saying farewell to a good friend. As I looked at my cousins with their children and grandchildren sitting in the pews, I couldn't help but think how rich my Uncle Al was (and Aunt Julia is). How rich a community is Tomahawk, Wisconsin because of their presence. And how rich I am for having had such a wonderful man as my godfather.

So long, Uncle Al. Fare you well!

Raring to Go

2011-01-05T19:50:00.000-06:00

Well, it's a new year, my "batteries" are recharged, and I'm ready to do -- everything! Thank you to all my readers who commented on my end-of-the-year rant; I sincerely appreciate your sage advice, and I want to tell you that I very much enjoy reading your blogs. Some of the aspects of blogging I like are the easy fellowship it affords and the many great ideas that are freely exchanged. Makes me want to rephrase the old IWW (International Workers of the World) slogan to say, International Bloggers of the World Unite! I do think we are changing the world.

The temperature here has been up, down, up, and now down again. A few days ago we were close to the 40F range. That was warm enough for all the bedding in the chicken coop to thaw out so I took the opportunity to shovel out the coop and scrape the roosts down. The chickens were very pleased. They are actually laying a little better (about 3-5 eggs a day), but the eggs are mostly already cracked and frozen by the time I gather them so I still don't have enough to sell.

The warm spell brought rain with it that turned to ice when the temperatures later dropped leaving a treacherous ice glaze on everything. We could have gone ice skating on our driveway. Thankfully, now that we've had some more snow the traction is a little better.

The bad news is that all of my storage potatoes froze. That hurts because the Red Cloud potatoes were my third year of saved seed potatoes from certified organic stock, and Red Cloud seed potatoes are not that common. I think Red Cloud is a great all purpose potato: it's a great seller at the farmers market because it is a red potato; it stores beautifully all winter; and, it is just great cooked in any way -- baked, boiled, roasted, fried. I don't know if I can salvage them for seed; I guess I'll just have to wait and see if any of them sprout.

I have my seed lists whittled down quite a bit. I am still betting that it will be a cool and wet summer. The newspaper today had an article in it that says this summer should be droughty again -- at least according to projections based on weather records. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. I don't think the weather people have been all that accurate. I'll be planting heavily with root crops and greens.

Speaking of greens, last year Tom planted a mustard variety called Green Wave that grew monstrous. He didn't even want to eat it because eaten raw it tastes very hot and spicy. Well, I'm not one to waste food so I went out and gathered all of it and canned it. To my surprise, it entirely lost its hot and spicy taste once canned. In the field that mustard had absolutely no insect problems and was just beautiful. It is one of the greens I will be planting this year.

Thought I'd pass on a link to a web site: http://www.medicinecrow.com/. I buy seeds from Horizon Herbs (their link on on the right side of this blog under Useful and Favorite Links) and I received an invitation from Richo Cech to a free webinar tonight. If you are interested in medicinal herb gardening, you might want to check this site out. It certainly intrigues me.

Take care and be safe!

Letter to the Old Year

2010-12-31T01:04:00.000-06:00

Dear 2010,

I'll make this short:

You totally sucked and I'm glad to see the back of you! You were the third lousy year in a row for me, and all I can say is I will forget you as soon as possible. My Solar Return astrology chart for this year says that the majority of my planets have now moved back into "balance" so I am hopeful of the future, even though the shadow of my second Saturn return waits in the wings of October 2013 and I am not looking forward to that time rhyme because my first Saturn return just about killed me.

While I did recognize the numerous difficult spiritual opportunities you hosted for me this year, there's nothing that says I had to like them. I don't. Nevertheless, I feel that I have successfully assimilated the lessons' essences (I re-read Gregg Braden's book, Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer) and can honestly say that I harbor you no ill feelings.

So, good-bye 2010 as you settle into your place on your appointed square in the World of Time. I will not miss you. In fact, my thoughts have already moved on to more pleasant fare --

A Christmas Prayer

2010-12-25T10:12:00.001-06:00

On this Christmas Day whatever your beliefs, I send you:

LOVE like food to fill you,

PEACE like a blanket to warm you,

GNOSIS like a strong house that keeps you safe,

JOY in the labors of your soul which glorify Almighty God.

SO BE IT.

The Cold Continues

2010-12-16T00:28:00.000-06:00

It was -20F this clear and sunny morning without the windchill, and with little wind, it was actually not bad being outside. The chickens were clucking and cooing inside the coop when I brought them their fresh water, and I swear they were telling me to hurry up and give them their oats and corn. Too bad all the eggs I collected were already frozen. I'm surprised some of the hens are still laying.

I spent the day comparing seed prices. It feels good to plan this year's garden. I even sent off an order to Woodstock Nursery for three Haralson apple trees and one Chestnut crabapple tree. I hesitated to try this nursery because I favor standard rootstocks over semi-dwarf and dwarf rootstocks for this area, but it is a Wisconsin nursery so there is a good chance the trees will grow here even if they are on semi-dwarf rootstock. We'll see. If I like how the trees grow, I'll buy from Woodstock again. I'm also working on a tree order for my favorite tree nursery, St. Lawrence Nursery, for more trees from them, as well. I'm thinking about getting their pear tree package, two Golden Russet apple trees, two Westfield-Seek-No-Further apple trees, and one grafted plum tree each of Toka, Waneta, and Pipestone. The idea is to dig up the trees currently in the orchard section (what's left of them), put them in pots to grow in a sheltered spot close to the house so they hopefully can recover from the deer damage they have sustained, and later be replanted. The new trees will take their place, and this time I have the fencing to surround each tree so the deer can't get at them. I would like to make a single order, but it's easier for me financially to buy a little at a time, i.e., an order per month; ordering this way doesn't stress the budget as much. I figure that I should have everything I want ordered by planting time. I'll be watching for a grafting class to be offered that I can attend so if the trees I dig up from the orchard section are not salvageable, maybe I can use the rootstock to graft on new scion wood.

I've been thinking about what I want to plant for the market garden. It's my hunch that this year will be another cool year. I know, I know -- we were lucky that this past growing season went into October without a hard freeze, but that is not the usual weather for this locale. I'm betting on another year with off-season frosts so I'm going to plant heavily with root crops, peas, and greens. I'm also going to try planting grains to use for animal feed because the cost of feed is skyrocketing. I'll plant barley, oats, mangels, dent corn, and maybe some wheat. Dad is going to show Mary and I how to use the tractor, so I'll practice by turning over some more of the old pasture behind the farm house that we want to reclaim from the woods for that planting. I have already tried growing grains and they have grown well for me, but I have not harvested the grains -- just turned them under as cover crops for soil enrichment. I will need to find some way to store the grains, but it will be great to grow my own animal feed.

Even when it's cold, there is always lots to do to keep busy.

Till next time, be safe and well!

Cold and Colder

2010-12-12T15:32:00.002-06:00

Well, we really got snow! Only about eight inches, but the wind is brutal and is still blowing and making snow drifts. Highway 2 was closed up in Ashland and most people are being smart and staying off the roads. I bundled up and took Dad a plate of lasagna; I was ready to ask him to show me how to use the tractor to plow out his drive because he has a doctor appointment tomorrow morning, but one of our neighbors had already come and cleared out a path for him. Even with the snow still blowing and drifting I think he will be able to get out with his truck tomorrow morning. I told him to call me if he thinks he'd rather not drive because our truck has 4-wheel drive and his doesn't. "No, no, no," -- he never wants anyone to help him. But I think he'll be ok.

The wind chill was around -35F last night and I was half afraid to look inside the chicken coop this morning when I trudged through the snow drifts to open up the coop, but all the chickens looked dandy. The thermometer I have on the wall registered the temperature at 18F -- not too bad! I forked over the bedding, set up the fresh waterer, checked the feeder, and tossed some oats and corn into the bedding for them to scratch out. There was only one egg in the nest boxes, but it was still warm and I carefully tucked it in my coat pocket. Then I banked more snow around the outside of the coop. It is supposed to be even colder the next three nights. When the cold is sustained for several days at a stretch, that's when you have to pay closer attention to your animals. Chickens normally (especially if you buy breeds that are known to be cold hardy) can take cold weather pretty well, but if you get below -10F you have to check on them more often. I like giving them fresh warm water twice a day and extra carbs in the feed -- like oats. A more experienced chicken farmer told me that when the cold lasts more than two days he goes out at 2:00 a.m. with a lantern and wakes them all up to get them moving around for a couple of minutes. He doesn't heat his coop in the winter and slightly overstocks his chickens in the coop area believing that the body heat from the increased numbers of chickens is enough to keep them from freezing. I like being able to ask more experienced farmers questions, and I listen to what they say. There's always something to learn even if you may not agree on procedure.

I got the spinning wheel from Dad today. He told me what parts are missing so I'll go online and see what I can find. He told me that he thinks someone made this wheel more for a decoration than for actual spinning, but I ought to be able to get it to operate with a little work. That's good enough for me, so for the time being I'll put it in the basement corner. The wood is stained a lovely dark walnut color. I really like it.

The Christmas cookies are going fast. Certain people have even cleared off the top of the freezer so they can make cookie raids quick and silent. Well, it is Christmas time, and cookies make some of the best Christmas memories!

Be safe and warm!

Friday

2010-12-10T23:23:00.000-06:00

Tom got a deer today bow hunting! It was a good sized buck; not a big rack, but he was pretty big. I know because I had to help Tom drag the critter out of the woods. Why do hunters always bag their prey just before dark? Oh, well. We finally have some venison for the freezer.

Went to the feed store yesterday and loaded up on chicken supplies since we are supposed to get a foot of snow this weekend. The increase in the price of layer mash was enough to give me heart palpitations. I sure don't like what I'm seeing at the grocery and feed stores. I bought a bag of oats to add to the daily feed. Oats will give the chickens some extra carbs to help them keep warm. I banked the bags of wood chips I use for bedding against the walls to act as insulation, and the bags of feed stacked in the small storage section should act as insulation, too, so this weekend when the temps get down to -0F and below, the coop should be cozy.

I baked Christmas cookies all day today for us, Dad, and to send to Sarah. The house sure smelled good. I made chocolate chip, chocolate chip raisin, fudge and peanut butter chip cookies, gingerbread men, and dark and light almond bark. Lara wants me to make some Hersey Kiss cookies and brownies, and I want to try making Pfefferneuse -- that's something I haven't tried baking before.

Oh, I almost forgot -- my sister found me a spinning wheel at the thrift store (her second home) for $25! My Dad is looking it over and I'lll pick it up tomorrow when I take him some good chicken soup and Christmas cookies. A spinning wheel AND a loom. Wow! And to think that both items came to me out of the blue. Must be meant to learn how to use them. I think that's very interesting. I'll post a picture as soon as I can.

Well, I'm pooped from dragging that deer out of the woods so I'll leave off for now. Be safe and well!

December Already

2010-12-05T23:50:00.000-06:00

I can't believe how fast the time flies. The days are just plain too short!

Tonight I went with my sister to her daughter's Madrigal Dinner Concert. It is such a pleasure to watch our young people growing up. Here is a Christmas treat video for you that I took at the concert. It isn't very long -- only two carols are sung. My niece, Melissa, starts out the second carol, O Holy Night. With times being what they are, it's wonderful to hear music that lifts one's spirit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaf8oBttRao

Lara's check up for her broken leg went very well. I wish I could show you the x-rays. Her leg is mending beautifully, and the doctor says she does not need to wear the splint any more. She will go for another x-ray the end of this month, and hopefully that will be it. The doctor seemed very pleased, and he thinks that Lara will be able to bend her leg at the knee as before. So, another couple of weeks and I'll breathe easier. We even got the ok to go back to bowling with Special Olympics. All of the young people were glad to see Lara again. I like to see her socialize with other young people.

I am finishing up the canning. I took the fruit out of the freezer and canned blueberries and blackberries and cherries for baking. I also made some blueberry and blackberry juice; some blackberry jam; and I found one bag of apricots that I made a batch of jam with, too. That leaves the rhubarb, some strawberries, and one bag of raspberries that I plan to made pie filling with. I haven't tried canning pie filling before so that will be interesting. I may take some of the blackberry juice and try making some blackberry cordial; that sounds like a good drink for a cold night.

It has been around 15F here for the last few days, and it has been snowing lightly. The chickens don't like going outside of the coop. Every morning when I bring them fresh water, I open the door and they are there waiting for me and talking to me with their soft voices. They look very nice with their new feathers. I turn over their bedding and check their food. They watch everything I do. They like the warm water I bring them. I still get between 1 and 3 eggs a day. It's barely enough for us to eat so right now I have no spare eggs to sell. This is usually the poorest time of year for chickens to lay. I don't push my birds to lay because I'd rather they spent their winter energy on growing their new feathers and keeping warm. They will start laying better soon enough. Everyone needs a vacation, right? I love my chickipoos.

I took Eddy to see the new Harry Potter movie at the theater in Park Falls. There were quite a few people there. It was an ok movie; I hope the second part is better. I am looking forward to seeing the new Tron movie and the remake of True Grit. Those look really good.

With the weather being what it is, it's nice to stay inside and fix a crock pot of soup and have a cup of tea.

Especially when I'm working on next year's garden plan and browsing all the seed catalogues that are coming in the mail.

Here are the empty seed packets from last year:

As soon as I get the garden layout worked out, I'll post it for you. Until then --

Stay safe and warm!

Giving Thanks

2010-11-25T17:07:00.000-06:00

It's said that home is where your heart is.

From our house to yours, we send you Blessings on this Thanksgiving Day!

"Let not your spirit be troubled on account of the times; for the Holy and Great One has appointed days for all things."
Enoch's Book of Admonition for His Children
Book of Enoch, Chap. 92, v. 2

End Hunger Campaign

2010-11-10T16:40:00.001-06:00

As someone who promotes local foods in our rural community, I was very interested in The Washington Journal show this morning that interviewed actor Jeff Bridges, who was promoting his charity, The End Hunger Network. I can't believe I've never heard of this program which has been around for nearly 30 years. It was so uplifting to hear about a non-partisan program that seeks only human welfare and not some political agenda. What I liked about this program is that it seeks to work with existing organizations so there is no duplication and waste of resources. The statistics on hunger in America are mind numbing. If you are interested in this topic, check out the Food Research and Action Center and the endhunger.com web sites. Way to Go, Jeff!

Another Day and Fond Farewell

2010-11-09T18:18:00.000-06:00

Today I had a follow up with the doctor and the good news is I lost 12 pounds and dropped my blood pressure 8 points. The bad news is she wants me to see an ENT and neurologist because I'm having dizzy spells and ringing in the ears. She says that periodically falling down with no apparant symptoms is not normal. And she upped my blood pressure medicine. Rats. I'll keep working on the weight and maybe I will or maybe I won't take the new dose of medicine. I have to admit it -- I'm a notoriously bad patient when it comes to taking medicine. But I will see the other doctors because I know I need to have my hearing checked -- what? what did you say? -- and seeing a neurologist can't hurt. The doctor is also going to order a scan of Lara's leg just to make sure she doesn't have a blood clot.

My second order of Tattler canning lids came today. I figure I'll need to make at least one more order to have enough lids for all of my jars. I've been buying about 9 dozen of each size at a time and that number is manageable with our household budget. I haven't tried them yet since I plan to use up all the other lids I have first. I figure I can recoup the cost of the lids in only two years of use.

My neighbor, Beth, stopped by today with a farewell gift of homemade cookies and candy. She and her husband live here in the summer and then roam in their RV visiting friends and family in warmer climes over the winter. I know a lot of people like to do that, but it wouldn't suit me; I'm more of a hermit. I admire people who tend to be flexible like that. I, on the other hand, look forward to fires in the wood stove on frosty mornings and putzing in my basement when the snow blows working on various crafts. This year it will be learning how to use my loom. I will miss Beth and look forward to seeing her next Spring. And the cookies and candy are delicious! Of course, Tom was the first to "sample" them LOL. Did I mention that food doesn't last long around here?

The crescent moon was so beautiful tonight. I wish my camera took better pictures at night, but I always seem to jiggle the camera and night pictures rarely turn out the way I'd like them to. I should ask my Brown-Eyed Baby (a.k.a. Soldier Girl a.k.a. Cousin It a.k.a Sarah) what kind of camera she would recommend since she took that photography program over in Scotland.

Indian Summer starts on November 11th. Watch it be freezing cold and snowy! I shouldn't complain though. We've had really nice weather for the most part of this Autumn (excepting the October 27th over the land hurricane). Normally we have snow on the ground by now. It would be nice to have a few more nice days for the chickipoos' sake. Some of them are still growing out new feathers and really cold weather would be hard on them. They are only laying about 3-5 eggs a day now. It is good that they can still go out on the grass and in the woods. They stick pretty close to the chicken coop now and I expect the wood chips in the coop are warmer on their feet. They are looking very sleek with their new feathers.

Well, I have to go and exercise so I'll catch you later. Be safe!

Time for a Breather

2010-11-05T00:10:00.002-05:00

Lara's leg is looking much better. The swelling and bruises on the right leg are almost gone. The broken left leg is still swollen and warm to the touch, but the horrible bruising on the underside of the leg is not nearly so scary to look at. The low fever she was running is gone, and her appetite is a bit better. Thankfully, the urine analysis came back negative so I don't know what caused the fever. She is still on the cranky side, but improved. I dropped the Aconite and Arnica, and added Symphytom to the homeopathic remedies, which I give her three times a day. My sister sent me a bottle of Ethical Nutrients Bone Builder(R) capsules to give her. They are horse pills so I grind each dose (two capsules) to a powder and mix it into a tablespoon of honey. Lara has no problem swallowing it this way. Hopefully, when she gets her next x-ray the bone will be well on its way to being healed. I am not as afraid of moving her around, but I am putting her to bed earlier and propping that leg up in a fashion that is more to my liking. We got the bed rail from Amazon yesterday and it is really nice. I still have to order the leg elevation attachment for the wheelchair. I went to the Quickie wheelchair site, but I'm not sure yet which part to order for her chair. It will all work out as it is meant to.

I dug out my Solfeggio Healing Tones CD to lower my stress level. I don't know what it is about that music, but I'm asleep within five minutes of putting on the headphones, and when I wake up, I feel great. Last night after supper I canned pie cherries and made two batches of blueberry and blueberry-huckleberry jam!

Yesterday being my birthday, Tom bought me The Men Who Stare At Goats, a movie I really like -- and I'm not much for comedies. If you've read many of the books about remote viewing, you will enjoy the movie even more; it's almost like being part of an inside joke. He also bought me Sarah Beth Aubrey's book The Profitable Hobby Farm which is something I've had on my wish list for some time now. I can't wait to sit down and read it. One sister gave me a lovely candle -- I love getting big candles to use when the power goes out, and another sister renewed my subscription to Dell Horoscope magazine. I wish I had more time to study astrology. Then, my good friend, Kimberley out in DC, sent me an Amazon gift card, which she shouldn't have done. I am grateful to all for their thoughtfulness.

No German Chocolate birthday cake this year though as I'm working hard to lose weight.

Maybe I'll make some pumpkin pie instead.

That Time Again

2010-11-04T22:41:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me-ee, happy birthday to me!

Howl With The Wind

2010-10-30T20:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I have to admit that my first experience with a land hurricane was nerve wracking. While being without electricity is not fun, at least the lack of it doesn't bother me as much as it does the rest of my family. My biggest concern is for the food stored in the freezer and whether it will spoil before the power comes back on. This time, fortunately, our electricity returned in time so that no food was lost.

The way the wind howled through the leafless trees was downright eerie. Maybe I'm still spooked from the tornado back in July, I was sure glad when the wind finally died down.

What was worse than the storm though, was what happened next: Tom found our Lara on the floor in the morning -- we figure she had been on the floor most of the night -- and she had broken her leg. What a nightmare! And it's a bad fracture. The doctor said that if she was ambulatory, she would have to have a metal plate, screws, and pins to put that leg back together. But because she has spina bifida and is not ambulatory, the treatment and risks are different. So, the short of it is that I am on skin breakdown watch for the next 6-12 weeks while her leg slowly mends wrapped in an immobilizer brace. I'm so stressed I can hardly stand it. Transferring her in and out of her wheelchair for catheterization is absolute hell. I am giving her homeopathic remedies Rhus Tox and Arnica for the swelling, Ledum for the horrible bruising, Hypericum for pain, and Calc Phos for the fracture. In about a week I'll drop the Arnica and add Symphytom and perhaps Silica. Already the bruising is easing and the Rhus has really helped bring down the heat and swelling. She is still running a fever but that may be due to a urinary tract infection -- we are still waiting on the results of that test.

I tell you, I cannot wait for October to be over -- you could probably hear me howl with the wind!

Finishing Up The Harvest

2010-10-24T21:08:00.001-05:00

Well, the rain has moved in and I haven't made it out to the field, but that's ok. I'll get out there sooner or later. The good news is that the temperatures are still not that cold so I can still do any digging I need to do, like hauling dirt from my "dirt hole" and adding it to my garden boxes, and transplanting herb plants, or scratching in some perennial flower seeds. It is supposed to rain off and on the next couple of days so I expect to dodge rain drops this week.

I got the sauerkraut canned -- 21 quarts and did it ever turn out good! -- and put the last 6 quarts of zucchini in the freezer. I hope to steam another bushel of pumpkins tomorrow.

As for Mama Pea's inquiry: I have a Mehu Lisa steamer/juicer that I bought from Lehman's for a birthday present to myself, and I steam my pumpkins in that.

Mehu Lisa Steamer/Juicer and Foley Mill

(A large pot with a canning rack in the bottom to keep the pumpkins up and out of the water works just as well, if not quicker; you just don't get the distilled pumpkin juice using the pot). First, I take a paring knife or meat fork and poke holes all around the pumpkin. Then, I try to break the top stem off; if it doesn't come off, that's ok. I put the pumpkin in the microwave for 8 minutes on high power. That softens the pumpkin enough to allow me to easily cut it into quarters or eighths (depending on how big the pumpkin is), and put the seeds aside for processing later. I put the pieces in the steamer and steam them till soft. I then scrape the meat from the shell, run it through the Foley food mill, and I pack the puree in freezer bags, 2 quarts per bag, and freeze it. The pumpkin seeds are cleaned and placed in a large container of water. The viable seeds sink to the bottom, and the "floaters" are carefully scooped out. The floaters are what I soak in salt water overnight and roast for us to snack on. The pumpkin shells go out to the compost pile. I like to save only some of the steamed pumpkin juice and make a couple of batches of my version of Harry Potter's Pumpkin Juice for the kids and me. Just for Halloween.

I've been working on harvesting seed: Garden Sorrel, Black Beauty zucchini, Yellow Warted Crookneck squash, New England Pie Pumpkin, and Ebeneezer onion seed. I still have Wong Bok and French Breakfast Radish seed to harvest.

Something is digging up my garlic so I ned to put a heavier mulch over the garlic bed. Out in the garden boxes, the collards love the cooler weather, and the Italian Flat Leaf Parsley is holding up well. The Scarlet Nantes carrots are just beautiful. It was a bumper year for carrots, I think, for everybody I know. All three of my plantings did great this year.

Talk to you later!

P.S.: I just realized that I'm missing the base to my Mehu Lisa steamer/juicer in the picture above, so here is another older picture of the whole pot (on the left):

Feast of St. Luke

2010-10-18T22:45:00.000-05:00

October 18th has been an important date in my life. I always feel its approach with a good deal of wariness. It is the Feast Day of St. Luke in the Calendar of the Saints. I had the misfortune of attending St. Luke Grammar School from kindergarten through eighth grade. The experience was very emotionally scarring. It was my mother's birthday; she would have been 74 -- she died from complications of diabetes back in 1998. It was the day our Lara lost her sight due to a series of ventriculo-peritoneal (VP) shunt failures when she was 18 months old, immeasurably complicating her congenital spina bifida/hydrocephalus birth defect. I was 5 month pregnant at the time with our second child (Soldier Girl). It was also the day I went to be at the hospital with my sister who was having surgery and was told by the doctor that my dear sister had ovarian cancer. I still remember my words to the doctor: "But, she's only 29 years old." I still remember the look on the doctor's face. October 18th really sucks for me.

So, to take my mind off all the bad memories, I steamed pumpkins all day. I thought I would have finished with more than 10 quarts, but that was all I managed to freeze. I made my version of Pumpkin Juice: 1 quart orange juice + 2 quarts steamed pumpkin juice + 1/2 cup sugar. Then, I have a large amount of seeds drying for planting next year, and I have a good amount soaking in salt water overnight -- I'll roast them in the morning. Roasted pumpkin seeds is a favorite Fall snack around here.

Tomorrow we'll finish splitting wood for Dad. He should now have plenty of firewood to last him for the winter.

I guess there is really something to that saying, "Busy hands make for a happy heart."

Plugging Away

2010-10-13T22:54:00.000-05:00

Let's see now:

1. Garlic planted -- yup

2. Blackberry trellis repaired -- yup

3. Proper fence around the Honeycrisp apple tree -- yup

4. Two handkerchiefs hemmed -- yup

It was a gorgeous October day and a productive one! No rain is expected for almost another week, so I hope I can finish up the work out in the field. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

A Good Day's Work

2010-10-12T00:45:00.001-05:00

We had another busy day trying to get as much done as we can before the cold weather sets in for good. Tom and my brother-in-law split wood for my Dad, and I worked in the back yard cleaning up the garden boxes. I picked out a spot behind the blackberry trellis and a couple of balsam trees to start the new compost pile. I couldn't believe all the garden trash I hauled to start the new pile, but the boxes look very nice and tomorrow I'll plant the garlic. I found a new pole to repair the broken end on the blackberry trellis so I'll fix that tomorrow, too.

I had planned to keep the apple and pear trees over winter in the garden boxes and transplant them to a permanent location next spring, but wouldn't you know it, around sunset two nice sized young bucks meandered into the yard and headed straight for one of the Honeycrisp apple trees. (Tom was ecstatic). We have about 80 acres of fresh deer browse, a quarter acre deer plot, and three gardens, and they go straight to the one fruit tree I've managed to get to grow in six years! I couldn't believe it. I ran out the back door and yelled at the one buck. (For some reason he has only one antler.) He just looked at me and grabbed a branch so I snatched up my hoe and charged at him. Of course, the two culprits took off, and I immediately went and got my shovel, some fence posts, and a roll of wire, and in the dwindling dusk set up a poor fence around the tree that I'll put up properly tomorrow. Sheesh! No rest for the wicked, I guess.

With seeds to harvest, sauerkraut to check, handkerchiefs to hem, and weaving books to study on top of everything else, my day's work is surely full. I have to tell you though that I feel a strange difference in my mental focus. I am much more, well, focused. It seems to be easier for me to zero in on whatever task I choose to accomplish and get it done. It's certainly a welcome new ability. I find that if I use self discipline to put aside negative thoughts and direct myself to the task at hand that I am far more successful in completing that task. I can't explain it, but being positive and alert to what transpires around me seems to bring beneficial opportunities to the fore. The work is not easy and the responsibilities are actually greater, but I am getting things done, and done well. Must be a Saturn aspect pinging me.

Oh, well. I'm too tired to start thinking about where Saturn is right now in my horoscope chart. I know that when I go to bed I'll fall asleep praying and I'll wake up finishing the prayer. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

Be safe, and I'll talk to you soon.

Time is Flying

2010-10-07T22:17:00.000-05:00

Special Olympics Bowling yesterday was great fun. We met a new boy who wants to join our group. He uses the bowling ramp like Lara though he is not in a wheelchair because he is very slight in build and walking is difficult for him. The bowling ramp is very suitable for him. It was his first time bowling and I think he enjoyed himself. Like our Ed, he does not talk. I gave his grandmother the necessary forms to fill out and send to the Madison office of Special Olympics. There were seven of the young people bowling and I admit I was a bit overwhelmed with all the noise. Everyone wanted to talk to me and I was trying to keep an eye on the young people at the same time.

This morning I finished freezing the carrots, and then I canned the Haralson apples for pies. I put 24 of them in the refrigerator for fresh eating -- I really like this variety. Yesterday I canned the bushel of McIntosh as applesauce. The apple slices I put in the dehydrator are just about dry. I slipped a few that were done to Lara without her knowing it. She calls them "Elf Apples" and thinks the fairies leave them for her. It makes her very happy knowing that fairies come and leave her little presents. I told her the apples are more likely from the gnome that lives in the chicken coop and she agreed. That gnome must have sneaked inside the house when I went to gather eggs this afternoon. . . .

I took a stroll after supper out into the front yard and imagined how to landscape it now that the loggers are finished. I think I could easily put a two-tiered ring of about 10 fruit trees out there and interplant them with flowers and herbs. It's kind of hard to describe the lay of the land there now because the knoll where my forest garden was is completely different from what it was. Instead of a rounded knoll, there is more of an incline that slants toward the house, crests, then slopes down somewhat sharply as it faces the house. I think that slope would be perfect for herbs and flowers while the top rim and south facing back side of the slope could hold the trees. There would be much work to do to prepare the soil. Just some more to think about.

The "check engine" light is back on in the van again so tomorrow Tom is taking it back in to the auto shop. I still think we should just trade it in for a smaller, more energy efficient car that we can use for grocery shopping and doctor visits. Oh, well. I don't think anyone will be doing much driving pretty soon anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter whether or not we get rid of "Big Green".

Gotta go. Say, did you remember to make your monthly wish list?

Apple Orchard Time

2010-10-03T21:01:00.000-05:00

Today was a beautiful Fall day, and after an early lunch Ed and I drove up to Bayfield in search of the year's supply of apples and pears. Today was the last day of the annual Bayfield Apple Festival and I learned that if you want to buy apples in bulk and get the varieties you want, you need to visit Bayfield's great orchards before the Apple Festival starts. One of the orchards was already closed; another was completely out of apples; and, I was unable to find Honeycrisp or Northwest Greening apples anywhere. I wound up buying one bushel of Haralson apples (a variety I have been considering buying to grow in our orchard and was wondering how it tasted) at Bayfield Apple Company, and a bushel of McIntosh apples from Hauser's. Of course, I couldn't forget our usual gallon of apple cider from Erickson's and Lara's yearly bottle of Sweet Apple Wine from Hauser's. There were no pears to be had anywhere either. One of the vendors told me that a late Spring frost hit a lot of the orchards very hard and no one that she knew of had any pears this year. Guess I'll have to buy a peck or two from the grocery store. Our house is going to smell so good tomorrow.

Speaking of good food, here's a link to download the new non-GMO shopping guide for you.

Have a great day!

Weaving

2010-10-03T00:30:00.000-05:00

I spent some time this evening looking for weaving books and found some I liked here. I can't wait to try weaving on my loom. Right now I'm reading a book called Warping All By Yourself by Cay Garrett. I like the book; it's easy to understand and the illustrations help alot.

Cold weather always gets me thinking about crafting. I got out my pile of handkerchiefs and hand hemmed two of them while I watched the pressure canners. I really like the fabrics -- bought them from Hancocks of Paducah. Hancocks has some really beautiful prints.

Today when I was looking for weaving info, I came across a web site that sells refurbished sock knitting machines. What an interesting antique tool! (Tsk, tsk. There is NO place in this house for me to put one LOL.) I never saw anything like that before. It really is a fascinating piece of machinery.

That North Wind is Blowing

2010-10-02T23:55:00.001-05:00

Brrr! I've been walking around draped in thermal knits and sweaters all day; you'd think it was the dead of winter. I don't know why I feel so cold, but I do. Even with the kitchen warm from all the canning I've been doing, I still feel cold. Maybe I miss all the trees and psychologically think that the house will be colder now that it is less sheltered (it shouldn't be since the effects of a shelter belt extend approximately 150' depending on the height of the shelter planting and we still have plenty of tall trees around the house that are within that distance). Still, I do miss the trees and it's going to take me a while to get used to the new views around the property.

The loggers are still working here. They are in back of the house, nearer to the hay road, and working their way toward the worst of the storm damaged area by the snowmobile trail. The woods are so open now: there are some nice viewpoints opened down into the big marsh by the little lake that I really like. I took a stroll to check things out and am very pleased. Everything looks just like the woodlot management articles I've read says it should. Tom and I have been discussing what we want to do to the landing areas and skid trails. We've decided to plant herbs and grasses in the pathways, and plant shrubs or small trees like native plums and juneberries along the edges of the paths. In the areas that had to be clear cut because of the storm damage, we will plant sugar maples. Peppermint birch is my second favorite to plant though I know it is harder to grow, but we'll try planting some of those, too. I'm going to spend a lot of time thinking about landscaping right around the house. Right now I'm considering moving all of the fruit trees from the field that are still alive and bringing them to be planted around the house. In between the trees I would have a series of raised bed garden boxes. We'll see. I have all winter to graph it all on paper.

I have my two crocks of new sauerkraut bubbling away, and I canned the last of the tomatoes. Yesterday I worked ALL day canning and freezing carrots, and I still have another big bowl of them to can -- think I'll grate them and can them in pint jars to use for carrot cake. I put away the dried peppermint and cranberries, and refilled the dehydrator with curly leaf parsley. It sure smells good; I love parsley tea in the winter.

Tom and I made cheese pirogi this morning. We had half the batch for supper tonight and they were pretty good. I think we're finally getting the hang of making them. I mix the dough and roll it out while he handles the pirogi mold, filling and sealing the dough pieces.

After supper I went out to the field to get the sunflower heads because tonight is supposed to be so cold I expect just about anything still out in the garden to bit the dust. Lo and behold, the deer had most everything chomped to bits. I was able to salvage a couple of the heads though, and I brought them back to dry in the garage.

While in the garage, I sorted through all of the potato baskets. I have a half bushel of Red Cloud for seed potatoes, and four full bushels of Red Norlands and Kennebecs left. With the pie pumpkins and squashes, that should be enough to take to the Grouse Festival on the 9th in Park Falls. On Monday I will find out about securing a vendor space. I hope the weather is nice that day.

Speaking about the weather again, if it is nice tomorrow, I plan to go up to Bayfield and get my apples for the year. I hope to get a bushel of Macintosh for sauce, a bushel of Honeycrisp for fresh eating, and maybe some Northwest Greening apples for pies. I always stop at Hauser's to get a bottle of apple wine for Lara and a peck of pears to can. I like to can my pears in medium syrup and add a piece of candied ginger and a whole clove to the jar -- tastes SO good.

Well, I better stop gabbing. Take care!

The Loggers Are Here

2010-09-28T15:18:00.002-05:00

Hiring the loggers has been a very interesting experience. We are very pleased with the workmanship and skill of the loggers we hired. They have a good reputation for working with environmentally minded people, and we know from conversing with them that they appreciate the historic value of this farm and are trying their best to log an admittedly difficult area (due to our three wetlands) with the least impact. We have discussed the matter with them considerably. They started yesterday on our property utilizing prior landing areas and logging paths throughout the property. What is extremely aggravating is the fact that someone is constantly complaining about the loggers. The Sherrif's Police have been out here as well as the town Chairman, and both said they had received complaints about the loggers acting "illegally". They would not, however, say who was making the complaint. Well, they aren't acting illegally. Isn't it interesting how cowards don't have the grit to complain face to face to the people they accuse of wrongdoing? It's all right though. I have a pretty good idea who it is doing the complaining. There is only one person in this neighborhood who thinks he owns everything and can't mind his own business. On the other hand, the complaints could have come from another logger. Now, there's only one local logger I know that definitely wanted to log this property and said so. If I find out that it was this logger, then for sure they will NEVER get any business from this farm. I would also like to know by what authority the town Chairman acted under to investigate a private logging operation on private property without speaking to the property owner and asking permission to go on their property.

The chickens are pretty funny about it all: I had hoped to keep them locked in the coop until the area around it was logged, but the loggers finished the south 40 early and the chickens are all over the place. I expect they will return to the coop after the machinery stops and the loggers quit for the day. I have already given them fresh water, feed and a generous amount of scratch to soothe them. They are watching the big machinery from the opposite end of the house from where the machinery is operating. I expect their egg laying will be put off a bit, but I don't force my chickipoos when it comes laying eggs anyway. I will shovel out the coop in a little while and give them plenty of fresh bedding, and they can stay inside the coop tomorrow for sure. Even Sandy the Swamp Creek Dog is preferring to stay indoors today because of the noise.

It's a gloomy grey day.

Tom is off to the doctor for a check up. The kids and I will fix some cornbread and we will have leek and potato soup with salad and cornbread for supper.

Talk to you soon!

It's Fall

2010-09-26T12:45:00.000-05:00

Last night we had our first really hard frost. When I got up this morning the frost was visible on the grass and fog was heavy in the marshes. Already the colors in the trees are fading fast, and I suspect that the next heavy rain will strip most leaves from the trees. It is sad that our Fall season is so short because the hardwood trees are so beautiful when they are in color.

Speaking of rain, the Autumn Equinox brought three days of solid rain with it. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get to the farmers market on Saturday to do the bake sale for our Special Olympics fundraiser because of flooding on the road. Everywhere I looked the water was high. Sure made me think about what I would do should we become isolated due to flooding.

But the road didn't flood and Lara and I made it to the farmers market. It was a great day! The sun shone. The air was chilly and the wind was low. The Fall Harvest Festival in Phillips was in full swing, and everyone was having a good time. Lara and I dressed in layers, and I brought a blanket to wrap around her legs to keep her warm. We wore thermal knit long sleeved shirts under our Special Olympics logo shirts, though I suppose what we wore didn't really matter since we wore our jackets and no one could see our shirts. I bought 5 pounds of fresh cranberries for $10 from Carl, who brought his cranberry sorting machine to "show and tell" for the public, and from Diane at B's Flambeau Acres I bought two kinds of honey butter. Yum! And it turned out to be a great day for the bake sale because we raised $130.50 for our Northwoods 3-13 Agency! My hope was to raise $100 and I'm so happy we exceeded that amount! I also met some interesting people in Phillips who told me about Special Needs services available in the area. When things slow down some I'll check them out.

Because I needed to take care of Lara, we left the market at noon. I drove down to Highway 8 and we stopped at the BP station at the intersection there where I filled the van up with gas and took care of Lara. We drove to Pam Metsala's house and only stayed briefly to pick up a book she sold me called Favorite Rag Rugs. We took our time driving home because the "Check Engine" light lit up in the dashboard and I was afraid we might wind up broken down on the side of the road. I called Tom on the cell phone and he figured the van was ok to drive (there are times that it's nice having a mechanic in the house). Our "Big Green" van is 15 years old; I'm not surprised it's acting its age.

Today is another beautiful day. Tom is watching football so I think I'll go make sauerkraut and get that fermenting!

Nice Surprise

2010-09-19T14:44:00.000-05:00

Just when I least expect them, good things tend to happen to me. Take the other day, for instance. I received a call out of the blue from a woman who bought my corn at the farmers market the week before. She had foster children coming into the house and needed her extra bedroom which currently housed a Hammett's No. 402 floor loom, and would I be interested in purchasing it from her? Boy, was I ever! I have been wanting to learn to spin and weave for years. I could hardly contain my excitement; I just hoped she didn't want more money for it than I could afford. She wanted $150.00 if I could come right away to get it. Now, it just so happened that I had not gone to the bank with my farmers market deposit, and the deposit was just enough to pay for the loom, so instead of going to the bank, I bought the loom. My little voice never hesitated. I am so grateful to her for thinking of me. It turns out that she and I have a lot of common interests and now I have another new friend to add to my "old time creative skills" network. Self Organizing Collectives. Yeah!

It took me a while to put the loom together once I got it down in the basement, and I'm not sure I have everything where it properly ought to be so I have the bolts in place loosely until I can find a manual for the loom.

Hammett's No. 402 floor loom

Isn't it beautiful? I'm going to clean it up with some Murphy's Oil Soap and rub the wood with some beeswax. That should make it shine. It's even nicer when I think that the loom came from the Metsalas Century Farm to the Ledvina Century Farm (at least our part of it). The loom had been purchased by a rich woman whose husband built a castle -- no kidding -- somewhere up here in the woods, and the loom stayed -- unused -- for 15 years in a turret room before being sold to the woman I bought it from. She also had never used it.

I have been looking online for books that will teach me how to set up and use the loom, but am not sure where to start. I really have absolutely no experience with weaving and am still getting the hang of using a drop spindle. It's too bad I can't spare the time to take a course on weaving what with taking care of Lara and Ed, but I'm confident that if I can find the information to study that I'll be able to figure everything out. If you know of a DVD course set on using a 4 harness loom, I'd appreciate a link. I've watched several You Tube videos on weaving, but even the terminology used in those videos is beyond me right now.

I didn't make it to the farmers market yesterday because Tom and I worked out in the field trying to take down the twisted remains of my high tunnel. We have about half of it taken apart. We will bring some more tools with us when we go to take down the rest of it. Tom wants me to sell the steel hoops, but I hesitate -- it would be just my luck to sell the steel to the junk man and then need a pipe for something. Tom is even keeping one of the base pipes to use as a "breaker bar" (a mechanic's tool of some sort). I'm glad that we at least got the torn plastic out of the way.

This morning it was so chilly that Tom lit our first fire of the year in the wood stove. I'm telling you my bones ached I was so cold. Now the sun is shining and the leaves turning color are magnificent. Think I'll go out to the field and see if any more pumpkins are ready to be picked.

Before the Cold Comes

2010-09-15T00:30:00.000-05:00

These days I feel like I'm the ant in Aesop's fable of the ant and the grasshopper. Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Winter is coming! The weather forecasts hard frost tonight.

Here's a picture of the corn and mustard greens I canned the other day:

I'm quickly running out of canning jars.

I dried the first batch of Golden Celery and Italian Flat Leaf Parsley in the dehydrator and bagged them this morning. The second batch is drying now. Tom added some of the celery flakes to a beef stew that we had for supper tonight. I can't believe how strong the celery taste is from those dried flakes. I mean, is it the celery variety, or is it just that the celery is fresh from the garden? The unsold fennel is one of tomorrow's projects if I can find my herb book to see how best to dry the roots and preserve the fronds. I should go to the farmers market tomorrow, but I have just too much to do here around the house.

We have been working to get as much done around the farm as we can before the cold weather sets in. Yesterday and today, Tom and I worked taking down the fence around his garden that was under the power lines and what fence was left uncrushed from the tornado surrounding my forest garden -- the same fence I worked so hard to put up this past Spring. What a job! We rolled up all the fencing and temporarily put it behind the wood piles. Hopefully it will be out of the way when the loggers get here. Why do tasks always take longer to do than you think they will? Tomorrow we plan to mark the trees around the house that we want harvested, and I want to clean up the garden boxes for garlic planting next month.

Oh, well. I'd like to talk more but I'm beat. Talk to you soon.

Canning the Day (and Night) Away

2010-09-13T01:11:00.000-05:00

This month is sure flying by! I went out to the field and wandered through the weeds, and lo and behold, I found lots of things to harvest. I cut all of the Golden Celery, the Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, the Fennel, and the entire 50' wide row of Scarlet Nantes Carrots, as well as the remaining Autumn King Carrots. Those carrots took me all day to dig up. They are mostly small, but I harvested 2 1/2 bushels. After supper, I went back out to the field and meandered through the pumpkin patch. Happily I found quite a few New England Pie Pumpkins that were ready to harvest. More are out there, but I don't know that there is enough time for them to mature. I had to laugh as I was putting the pumpkins in the back of the van: I spied a nice sized buck watching me from the edge of the swamp. Sleek looking critter; must be from eating all of my lettuce and beets. I suppose he was waiting for me to leave so he could munch on what I left. I took everything back to the house and got it ready to take to the farmers market. It was about 1 a.m. by the time I quit. I was just too tired to make everything look as nice as I like it to look, but you just do the best you can and not worry about it.

It was cool and rainy on market morning so I left Lara at home. She didn't mind. I was surprised there were so many customers at the market despite the weather. That's great! I didn't sell much though. No one knew what to do with the fennel and they were afraid to try. I did manage to practically give away a small bundle of it to a couple that was at least willing to try it. I told them to bake some fish with it. No one wanted the celery -- they are used to regular green celery, not Golden celery; and no one bought the Italian Flat Leaf Parsley because they are used to the curled parsley. It's tough trying to educate consumers. I did sell some of the Scarlet Nantes carrots and almost a full bushel of the Kennebec potatoes. I even sold one of Tom's monster zucchinis. Some people like those big zucchinis. And I was really happy to sell some of my Indian corn; I'm so proud of it.

New vendors at the market are the Kagans -- Terry, Peggy, and son, Jake. What a nice family! They are just starting out as market vendors. It was nice talking with them and sharing information. I wish them the best.

Today, after lunch and while Tom as watching the Chicago Bears win their first game of the regular season, I started canning. I canned 12 quarts of Tom's mustard greens -- they wilted on me before I could get them to the farmers market, and 21 quarts of corn. What a job! I am definitely going to need more canning jars. It will be 1:30 a.m. before I can shut off the pressure canner. That's ok though -- it gives me plenty of time to talk to you guys!

I took a bushel of potatoes over to Dale and Cathy to thank them for giving me the mink manure. As soon as I get some nice tomatoes, I'll take some over to them, too. I love the taste of Rutgers tomatoes. Did I mention that I met Dale's cousin at the Park Falls farmers market last week? What a small world.

The loggers should start clearing out the landing across the road tomorrow. I hope they have good weather.

Our Soldier Girl is gone off to the Wild West and her new job that starts tomorrow. We wish her the best of luck and pray that she finds a nice place to live soon. We look forward to hearing from her once she gets settled. The house is so different without her.

Well, I have to finish the canning and tomorrow there is alot of house work to catch up on, so I'll leave off for now. Take care!

Onward the Harvest

2010-09-09T20:57:00.000-05:00

Whew! It's been a busy Labor Day week. Yesterday I went to the farmers market in Park Falls -- the new one in the little park across from the hospital. Some of the vendors I know from the Phillips farmers market were there, and it was nice to see them; I was afraid I might feel out of place. I met a new vendor who just happens to be my neighbor's cousin! His name was Ryan and his farm is Nelson's Berry Farm. What a nice guy, and boy, you should have seen his beautiful pumpkins. (His raspberries were mouth watering, too.) I sold all the corn, carrots, and dill I brought. I thought for sure people would buy my Indian corn bundles, but I didn't sell a single one. Maybe I'll have better luck on Saturday at the Phillips market. I don't plan to bring Lara because it is supposed to rain and I don't want her to get sick. Tomorrow I'll go out to the field and see if there are any more pie pumpkins that I can harvest. I want to gather the rest of the dill and harvest the bulb fennel, too.

Yesterday the bushel baskets I ordered from Texas Basket Company arrived. They are beautiful! Shipping will kill you and there is a $10.00 fee for orders less than $100, but at least they take small orders. There's nothing you can do about shipping so I don't even think about it. All in all, I am pleased with both the product and the service, so if you need some bushel baskets, I give Texas Basket Company a thumbs up. And what did I do with those bushel baskets? Well, today we dug the rest of Tom's potatoes -- the Kennebecs. We got four bushels and the potatoes are really nice. I'm going to give Dale and Cathy a bushel for giving us the mink manure.

Speaking of Tom's garden, we clambored over the trees that fell on his squash patch during the tornado and discovered some Buttercup squash that was big enough to harvest. Tom also found some monster black zucchini, too. I cut all of the mustard greens he had -- two bushels worth -- and tomorrow morning I'll pick through them. If I can keep them from wilting, I'll take them to the market on Saturday. They are beautiful, but I know that mustard greens don't sell well here because they are too hot. People love horseradish but they won't eat mustard greens. Hmmmm. If I can't sell them, I'll can them for us. I LOVE mustard greens.

The loggers are really making headway and will be making a landing on our south 40 almost directly across from our driveway next week. They are doing beautiful work. I've never seen as neat a logging job. They need to temporarily move our mailbox about 20' so I'll call the Post Office tomorrow to let them know what's happening. Don't want the USPS to get confused because the mail box isn't where it is supposed to be.

Took Lara for a blood test this morning which turned out OK. And later I checked on Dad. He had a long day with the doctors yesterday and was feeling out of sorts today. He said he could only drink liquids so I brought him over two quarts of my homemade chicken broth and heated some up for him. I'll give him a call tomorrow and see how he's feeling.

Well, I'm trying to get the laundry done so I'm going to leave off for now. Talk to you soon!

Every Day is Good for Something

2010-09-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

Today's weather was a stark reminder that my garden's good growing days are numbered. It was a cold day with heavy dark clouds. It rained off and on all day, and the wind gusted too much for my liking. I wanted to pick corn but it was too wet. I did pick the last of the green beans, only because I intended to can them for our use. I don't harvest in the garden for the farmers market when it's wet because I don't want to chance spreading any plant diseases or contend with the harvested produce growing mold as I don't have a cooler to store the produce in before going to market. I won't be going to the farmers market tomorrow because I would only have potatoes, onions, and garlic to sell, and I don't think I would sell enough to make the trip worth the while. I do hope to get out in the field to assess everything tomorrow.   I would sure like to have some tomatoes.

So, I canned the green beans. It took me most of the day, but there wasn't much else to do. The chickens spent most of their day inside the coop. I think they didn't care for the cold and wet any more than I did. I bagged up for tea the dried comfrey leaves I had in the dehydrator, and I made a batch of comfrey syrup with the leaf stems. (Comfrey root makes a stronger medicine, but the leaves and stems can be used, too). I read  that the CDC is expecting an increase in whooping cough cases primarily in the Midwest and Northeast United States this winter due to the very cold and wet winter that is being predicted, and I read in one of my herb books that comfrey is very useful to treat whooping cough and other respiratory conditions. It was kind of weird that I read about the expected increase of whooping cough cases after making the comfrey syrup; I hope that wasn't an omen.

I met a new neighbor today. His name is Jim Bloom and he lives down the road a ways. He stopped by today and bought a dozen eggs. I hope he likes them. I am happy to be meeting more of the neighbors. I now know Shane from The Midway Bar; Dale and Cathy down at Camp One; Larry and Carrie across the road; my Aunt Lois; my Dad; Ira; Mike and Beth; and now, Jim Bloom. Howdy, Neighbors!

We had the Special Olympics meeting on Wednesday. I went to the meeting while Tom stayed home with Lara and Ed. (He didn't mind because there was a replay of the Chicago Bears pre-season game on the tv). At the meeting we decided to keep the group going. We decided to keep the competition aspect open for the athletes so even should we not have enough athletes to compete in sports as a team, the athletes can still compete as individuals. We decided to contact Flambeau Lanes in Park Falls to see if they can accommodate our group for bowling, and we will seek the financial backing of the Lions Club (especially since Lara is a blind athlete) and the Knights of Columbus. We do know that bowling at Flambeau Lanes will be much more expensive than it was at Feits. I am going to get a date from Diane Barkstrom, our farmers market manager, for having a bake sale at the market on the last official market day that coincides with the Fall Festival in Phillips. And Tony Erba, our agency manager, is still trying to find out from Special Olympics WI at the Madison office what we should do with the money that has been raised for our group. He also let us know that he and his family may be moving to Milwaukee.  Jonathan's parents have relented and will get Jonathan's medical authorization renewal completed so that Jonathan can participate as a Special Olympian, and Justin may be persuaded to come back and bowl with us. We are looking into other sports that our athletes might be able to participate in, too.

Well, it's getting late so I'll let you go. Be well!

Quick Fruit Grunt Recipe

2010-08-30T20:09:00.000-05:00

I made this recipe the other day and Sarah told me I couldn't make it any more because it was "too good" and she couldn't resist eating it! So, I thought I'd post the recipe here for you guys. I've made this with apples, sour cherries, and peaches. I haven't tried them, but I think raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and pineapple chunks might work, too. I do know that small berries like huckleberries and elderberries do NOT taste good in this recipe. This recipe is great to make ahead if you have company coming on short notice or for pot lucks. I most recently made it to feed my uncle and his sons when they stayed by my Dad while fixing his roof that was damaged by the tornado.

Preheat your oven to 350F (176C) and get a 9" x 13" roasting pan.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk OR 1 cup milk plus 1/2 cup fruit juice
1 heaping tablespoon baking powder
2 quarts fresh fruit, peeled, quartered and tossed in sugar OR 2 quarts canned fruit, drained
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon or mace, optional
Whipped cream or ice cream topping optional

Melt two sticks of butter (1 cup) and pour into pan. Set aside. In another bowl sift together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 1 heaping tablespoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Slowly stir in 1 1/2 cups of milk and stir till batter is smooth. (If you have juice with your fruit, use 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of fruit juice.) Pour batter over butter in pan. Do NOT stir. Spoon fruit on top of batter. Bake one hour.

Yum . . . .

Farmers Market

2010-08-30T18:24:00.000-05:00

We made it to the Farmers Market on Saturday and was it ever nice to be there! It was so good to say hi to all of the vendors. We even met new vendors, Mike and Peggy. It's great to welcome new people to our market. Diane, our market manager, tries so hard to attract new vendors. Lara had a good time. I kept her under our new market canopy, but even so, she still got a little sunburned. We didn't have much to sell: potatoes, onions, garlic, sweet corn from Tom's garden, a little dill, three small red cabbages, some green beans and about a pound of peas. I sold all of the sweet corn, beans, and peas; most of the dill; one red cabbage; and a little of the rest. I didn't see many of the usual customers, and there wasn't one single FMNP or WIC customer.

Lara

Our Farmers Market Stand

A Day at the Phillips Farmers Market

I took a nap when we got home. Going to market is a lot of work!

Today I worked in the back yard and the garden boxes. I transplanted all of the fruit trees I planted earlier this year into the garden boxes to protect them from the loggers. I'll give them new permanent homes next spring. Then I thinned the carrots and pulled the peas. The beans are still producing so I'll give them a little more time before turning them under. I ate the sole blackberry I found and it was delicious! I am debating transplanting the grape vines into a garden box for the winter. And, I will transplant the red and black currants, and take down as much of the forest garden fence as I'm able to get too. Some of that fence is crushed under downed trees. The loggers sound like they are making getting close to our property and I want to get as many plants protected as I can before they get here. That also means I have to get busy and build a gate for the chicken run. There's no telling how the chickens will react when the loggers get here.

I got the new Hancocks of Paducah catalog today. I drool over these fabrics! Sarah told me I should sew pillow cases and sell them. That's a pretty good idea! I thought the handkerchiefs were a good idea, and pillow cases are quite useful, too. Looks like my winter crafting schedule is filling up. It's a short step from pillow cases to grocery tote bags. I have a pattern for a quilt that folds up into a pillow that I've been wanting to make for a long time, too. . . .

Boy, I tell you it is suddenly Fall outside. I woke up the other night to the sound of the wind rustling the tree leaves and I recognized the end of summer. Sure enough, the leaves are changing color rapidly. We miraculously made it through August without a hard frost, but I wonder how much longer our garden luck will hold out. Most of the birds have already flown South. It's actually kind of eerie not hearing any birds; the woods are so quiet (except for the loggers). That reminds me, I meant to tell you about how ill I felt before the tornado. I was super dizzy and there was so much pain in my bones for days before the storm hit that I could hardly stand it. I even remarked on it on a web site I frequent. Then, I remember watching the trees snap as the storm hit and thinking the sound was like bones breaking. And when the storm passed, my dizziness and bone pain was gone. I felt the same way before the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. Makes me wonder if I'm an "earth sensitive", if you want to call it that.

Have you noticed how clear the skies are lately? No chemtrails here for a while now. It's actually taking me a while to get used to seeing the sun shine regularly in a blue sky. Maybe the bad economy is finally affecting whoever is responsible for making the chemtrails. Well, they can run but they can't hide is all I have to say.

Tomorrow I'll go out to the field and see how the Indian corn is coming along.

Talk to you soon!

Quick Notes

2010-08-25T01:46:00.000-05:00

For those of you interested in growing and saving heirloom, open pollinated, and organic seed, this is a really sad time. Seeds of Change is closing its doors very soon. Some of my favorite seeds came from them (Indian Woman Yellow and Pawnee Bush beans). Check out the news story for more details. http://www.riograndesun.com/articles/2010/08/19/news/doc4c6c173529485237508050.txt I loved this company and hate to see it close. What a loss!

Also, for those of you who are interested in the Shape of Things to Come reports put out by Clif High over at Half Past Human, Issue 7 is available. To be read with chamomile tea in hand -- or something stronger.

Harvest

2010-08-25T01:18:00.000-05:00

There's just something about harvest time that makes you feel good. Whether it is all the different colors of the vegetables and fruits that you gather, or if it is simply psychological satisfaction with the idea of having a full larder, I don't know. I do know that harvest time is my favorite time of year. Then again, maybe it's the moon . . . .

Full Sturgeon Moon

I spent the afternoon scrounging out in the field garden. It was a lovely day for a change: not too humid and there was a nice cool breeze out of the north. I took my time among the rows getting a good look at everything. I harvested some nice yellow warted crookneck squash and some Early Fortune, Boston Pickling, and one Australian Lemon Cucumber. There are green tomatoes on the tomato plants, and the leeks are looking good. Instead of pulling them, I will leave them where they are to over winter and produce seed next year -- the start of a permanent bed of leeks. The Jerusalem artichokes are looking fine; I've never grown them before so am not sure how or when to harvest. I'll have to look that up in one of my gardening books. The Ebeneezer onions left in the onion bed are setting seed but it isn't ripe enough to gather yet. The cutting celery is gorgeous and so is the bulb fennel. I am most pleased with the two herb rows. I'll never start herbs indoors again; they just do so much better direct seeded outdoors. I am so tempted to harvest leaves and flowers from many of the plants, but I'll wait till next year. I did cut loads off of the chocolate mint, spearmint, and peppermint and have them drying in the dehydrator. The house smells SO good.

Yesterday we dug up a row and a half of Tom's potatoes. What a job! It was so much harder this year because we couldn't keep up with the weeds because of all the rain. Still, Tom's potatoes were much nicer than mine and his harvest yield is better than mine. He grew Norland and Kennebecs while I grew Red Cloud and Katahdin. Still, I'm partial to my spuds because I grew from my own saved seed. Tom's corn is about where mine is -- a week or so before it's perfect to pick. That is, if the racoons don't ruin it first; they are having a tasting contest in both of our gardens.

The onions are cured and I put them in baskets. I gave Dad a half bushel of onions and a bushel of Red Cloud potatoes. He can go pick all the corn he wants from Tom's garden. Speaking of Tom's garden, despite the fact that there is a HUGE red pine in the garden that was downed by the tornado, he counted about 15 Sunshine winter squash still growing. I figure the deer can't get to the squash because they are under the tree branches so we should be able to harvest them all. I wish I had some winter squash. There are loads of flowers on the squash vines that grew, but no fruit. I only spotted one halfway decent New England Pie Pumpkin in the whole pumpkin patch.

The good news is that when I went out to work in the garden boxes after supper I discovered that I have LOADS of green beans. Hurray! I can take potatoes, onions, shallots, potato onions, bulb fennel, garlic, and green beans to the farmers market. I told Lara that I will get our supplies together and plan to go to the market on Saturday. We will see how it goes and then contact Linda Daubner who emailed me about going to the Park Falls farmers market outside the hospital and maybe selling there, too.

I love the way the kitchen looks at harvest time. It's a comfortable messiness that feels so creative.

What shall we do with the green beans?

Potato soup or latkes?

Oh, onions with everything!

And there's nothing like fresh eggs.

Of course, fresh food addicts like myself always wind up dealing with sugar fiends --

From Sarah's Torturing Dieters Manual

Ahh, I love it when there's no room on the buffet . . . .

Rain and Politics

2010-08-21T00:33:00.000-05:00

I just can't believe the amount of rain we've been getting. All day we had thunderstorms and tonight there was flooding in Park Falls where my sister lives. They are all right, thank goodness. 4" of rain and at least 2" more expected. Our front lawn is starting to look like a pond. If I wasn't surrounded by three natural marshes, didn't have 12-15' of good perk beneath the house, and wasn't 1,600' above sea level, I'd be worried. My biggest fear is that trees weakened by the tornado that blew through here the end of July will fall and cause more damage. I'm sure our logger is being held up by all the rain, too. I worry about the people that live along the Flowage though: The Turtle Flambeau Flowage was created by a dam. It is an old dam and I can't help but wonder how strong it is and how it is handling all the water. We are above the dam so if it should fail we would not be affected, but the situation would be disastrous for anyone living below the dam and near the shoreline. Turtles, snakes, and frogs are even coming up out of the marshes. The other night there were two little green frogs on Tom's hummingbird feeder! How they got there is beyond me. All I can think is that they got sucked up from the marsh by the wind and dropped on the feeder. Yesterday morning I went to crack Ed's bedroom window open to let in some fresh air and there was a snake on the ledge. You know me and snakes! In my haste to shut the window, the snake got pinched in it so I went and got Tom to take care of the matter. . . .

My uncle and some of his sons have been staying at Dad's all week working on repairing the farm house in between the rain spells. Yesterday I fixed them a big peach cobbler, a big pan of corn bread, and a big pot of chicken and dumplings. I haven't heard any complaints. It was a busy day because I awoke early and canned a bushel of sweet corn that lost its sweetness before cooking their meal. In the meantime, I worked on writing a statement I wanted to say at the Mercer Town Meeting about a proposed zoning amendment that OUTRAGEOUSLY wanted to change the current 2 acre limit for ownership of livestock to 35 acres. People would not be able to divide their property into 2 acre farmettes, and current owners of livestock with less than 35 acres of land (grandfathered in under the amendment) would be obligated to tell potential buyers of their property that they would not be able to own livestock. This information was based on an editorial I read in The Miner newspaper. Boy, I was hot under the collar!

I wasn't the only one either. A number of people showed up at the town meeting and the Town Board members came in back peddling about the amendment. They had been hearing from townspeople all week. The story is that the Northwest Regional Planning Commission is trying to force ridiculous zoning and other changes throughout northern Wisconsin and is pushing for agricultural land to be in big lots. The amendment, we were told, was their idea. (Typical agribusiness -- the bigger the better, and Wisconsin is notorious for goosestepping to whatever the Feds and agribusiness wants. I have been paying attention to the push in the southern part of the state allowing zoning changes for mega dairies to be located, too). They are also messing around with Forestry land. All I have to say is that I will not stand for an outside agency telling me what I may or may not do with my land when that land was acquired before the town even existed. And even if they couldn't do anything to me, I won't stand for the rights of my neighbors being infringed upon by unjust laws. I won't stand for it. Urban homesteading, back yard gardening, barter and local exchange will be a base of the new economy, and towns have to realize that and support those issues if they want to attract new residents and survive this Depression. People need to say, "No More". You back the bully up against the wall, you put your fist in his face, and you tell him to take a hike or else you proceed to bring down the wrath of God on him. The Town Board got an earful and I think they heard loud and clear what the people thought on the matter. I am still worried, however, because several people have told me that matters of this nature are frequently passed in small towns on the sly and over the objections of the citizens. If that happens here, I will get the names of the people responsible and put them on the Internet so that when the revolution starts to take this country back from the Banksters the freedom fighters will know who needs to be paid a visit.

Enough ranting -- I promise to be good. Talk to you soon!

A Few Clear Days

2010-08-17T22:34:00.000-05:00

My sister sent me this story and I thought it was good enough to pass on. If you have open pollinated non-GMO sugar beet seed, you could be very popular! http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2010.08.17.15.30.archive.html

It's hard to decide what to do each day as there is so much to do!

Yesterday I worked in the field looking for something to harvest. A lot of the corn is knocked down from the tornado, but I did get a bushel of sweet corn that was ripe -- the Painted Mountain Indian corn and remaining sweet corn (old seed I'd gotten as a freebie some years ago and wanted to get rid of) have a few weeks to go before they are ready to pick -- some more Yellow Warted Summer Crookneck squash, enough various pickling cucmbers to make one batch of garlic kosher dill pickles, and a paltry handful of Provider green beans and Fava beans. I still have to wade through the weeds to find the Old Dutch Half-Runner beans. I'm hoping they escaped the deer. Alas, for my garden! There are loads of little New England Pie Pumpkins on the pumpkin vines that are hanging on despite the weather, but I'm not sure there is enough time left in the season for them to mature. There are a few sweet green peppers that are very small yet, and my okra while growing has no flowers. My hops bines are loaded with flowers, but the bines are still on the ground from the tornado.  I decided to pick the cabbage, bug chewed as it is, and salvage what I can. I haven't been able to find anything that says you cannot make sauerkraut with red cabbage, so I think I will give red cabbage sauerkraut a try. I wish the heads were good enough to sell, but I had to trim so much off each head to reach good leaves that they look pathetic.

In the evenings I've been working on putting the chicken fence back up. It was a mess to clear away downed wood and untangle, reshape the crushed chicken wire, and remove it from the broken fence posts, but this evening after supper I managed to finish stapling the wire to all the reinserted posts. The new fence is much smaller and doesn't include any shade trees in the chicken run.  What the heck -- the chickens never stay inside the coop area as it is unless they sense a predator. Now I have to build a new gate. With that much done I feel as if I'm actually making some headway recovering from the storm.

The builders came yesterday and fixed the holes in the roof. Thank goodness that's done!

And today while we were in the field digging potatoes, the logger stopped by to let us know that he wants to start the logging on our side of the farm and work his way to my sister's side of the farm instead of the other way around because he didn't realize the extent of the damage to the woods. You can't even walk in a lot of places let alone get equipment in. Since we had the heavy duty road ramp built to accommodate logging trucks as part of our eminent domaine settlement when the County raised the road a few years back, Joe (our logger) will use the small meadow (right where Tom's deer plot is that he planted this spring) as a staging area because of easy acces to the ramp and start the logging at that point. He also told us that as he was going through the woods he came across a bear feeding on two fawns. Yuck!

We managed to get three rows of potatoes dug and have three more to go. Many of the potatoes are small and some plants are rotted. A lot of plants are gone altogether, victims I suppose of the now demised garden deer. I'm not sure what a proper yield would be, but we dug three 100' rows and got one full bushel basket per row. Boy, am I glad I planted those potatoes in big hills because the ground is so wet.

Here and there among the weeds I can spy some the herbs and flowers I planted. I'm so glad they are growing! Before the ground freezes I'd like to build a permanent raised bed box and transplant all of those herbs into it. If I can't get it done, I'll mark the area with some sticks so it doesn't get accidentally tilled under and make the transplants next spring. Now that the logger will start sooner than we expected, I have to hustle and transplant all my remaining plants from the forest garden into pots and get them out of harm's way. I'll have to take down the fence (the one I just finished building) from around the forest garden, too. Not sure I'll be able to do that though because there is a big "widow maker" tree on top of it.

Say, I just had a great idea: I'll over winter the forest garden plants in one of the garden boxes in the back yard. That will be perfect.

Time to go. Talk to you soon!

Good and Bad

2010-08-12T20:45:00.000-05:00

The good news is that Lara's doctor appointment went well. The bad news is that her blood sugar is high. Being her father's daughter, Lara obsessed with diet restrictions for the whole three hour drive back home. I had quite the headache! When we see Dr. Arguello at the end of this month, the doctor will probably recheck Lara's blood sugar. Until then, Lara is unhappily relegated to eating oatmeal with cinnamon for breakfast; she's not a happy camper.

The fun part of the day was when we looked for a store that I heard about and have been wanting to visit. The store is called Beaver Creek and it sells food in bulk. It took a bit longer to get to than I thought it would, but now that I've been there, I want to go again! The store is at 6428 Iron Bridge Road, Athens, WI 54411. It is a Mennonite store and the whole area must be Mennonites because as I drove down the roads I saw cows and horses in the lush fields of beautiful farms, women driving horse drawn carriages, and on-farm market stands all over managed by women in Mennonite dress. They are different from the Amish people I've seen; I think they are not as strict, and I saw men driving trucks and one woman at a farmstand using a cell phone. It was a most unusual area. I felt like I was visiting a treasure in some hidden valley. The store is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Be sure to take cash since they don't take credit cards or non-local checks. Having Lara with me was a bit cumbersome because I had a hard time maneuvering the wheelchair and a shopping cart so I really would like to go back without Lara and take a longer look at everything they offer. Since I am a "from scratch" cook, they had everything I could possibly want and use. This store is a real find!

The other good news is that Special Olympics bowling went well. Only Lara, Ed and Chris were there, but we had a good time. The bad news is that Feits' is going to close the bowling alley part of the establishment because it is costing them more to keep it than they receive in return. After 60 years of operating, Feit's is another victim of the crashing economy. How sad! If you go into Feit's you see pictures of the owner's father and various memorabilia on the walls. It just breaks my heart. I hope some part of the establishment can stay open. Maybe they can keep the bar and put a small dining area where the bowling alley is. The town could use a good place to eat, and Feit's is close enough to the paper mill to take advantage of employee shift changes there. Times are what they are. I most sincerely thank Feit's for letting our group of Special Olympians bowl there. I have to contact Tony, our Agency manager and let him know. I think we will need to have a dinner meeting with all the agency members to decide how we want to move forward.

When I went out to shut up the chickens I thought I heard wolf pups yipping on the south forty. Didn't quite sound like coyotes.

More storms are expected tomorrow. I hope I can get out in the field at some point to see if I have anything to harvest. Take care!

Sunday

2010-08-08T22:44:00.000-05:00

Last night we had thunderstorms again and another 3" of rain. Park Falls had 6" of rain fall and there was another flash flood warning. I can't believe this weather; six straight years of hard drought and now this. Part of the front yard is beginning to look like a pond. It was another long night listening to the NOAA radio. I'm sure that water is standing in the field again. I don't know if the pumpkins will take all this water without sustaining damage or even rotting. I still am having a hard time believing that the first tornado in Iron County in 40 years had to land on us.

Yesterday we talked to a forester named Joe Allen about harvesting the damaged trees from the woods. We know we won't get as great a value as we'd like for the wood because it is damaged and the economy is in a Depression, but we care more for the health of the forest than we do the money. This is, after all, a Century Farm. Our family's history in America, its blood, sweat and tears are part of this land, and it is our gold -- refined as it is by the trials of Saturn. As the saying goes, "Saturn is a hard taskmaster, but he gives rings of purest gold to reward perseverence." Money cannot buy it from us. Joe is the procurement forester for Miljevich Corporation, a logging outfit out of Wakefield, MI. Joe was very down to earth -- our kind of guy. We knew that he knew that we knew we don't have a lot of "beaver chow" in our woods (even though we do have a beaver down on the creek). And we knew that he knew what he was doing. We liked the simple contract; the terms and manner of pricing were fair; and the timeline for the job completion is actually much sooner than I expected it to be. The snowmobile trail should be cleared of downed wood before the season opens on December 1st. Hopefully the DNR will repair the bridge over the creek so that it is safe to cross. Miljevich takes care of all permits and notifications, and we were especially happy that they will take the tree tops. We know that tree tops represent 1/3 of a tree's value and it makes us sick to see landowners who hire loggers that take the trees and leave the tops to rot on the forest floor. Loggers who don't take tree tops (1) are only looking for the quick money on the logs; (2) don't have a connection to a market for the tops; or (3) don't have access to the equipment to remove or process the tops. People need to do their research before hiring a logger. In our case since we are of old Eastern European stock and mindset, having a name like Miljevich certainly helped the transaction. Anyway, Joe says he will send his experienced Michigan crew to do the harvest (they are used to dealing with "Michigan Environmentalists" LOL), so we will see what kind of job Miljevich does. If we like their work, we'll do more business.

By the way, here's a good place to start your research if you are thinking about having a timber sale.: http://www.fwe.wisc.edu/extension/.

I spent last Friday weeding in the garden and, lo and behold, I was able to harvest a whole bushel of nice (but big) yellow warted crookneck squash. If we hadn't had to meet with the forester on Saturday, I think I'd have had enough produce to take to the farmers market.

They practically showed up overnight! I even was able to harvest two black zucchini and a couple of Early Fortune pickling cucumbers from my remaining deer chewed cucumber plants. The darned deer must have developed an immunity to Liquid Fence because the beans are all chewed down even worse than before. For some reason though, the Windsor Fava bean plants have been left alone. (Now that I said that, they will be gone when I next get out to the field!) Soooo, I spent Saturday and Sunday canning up green beans from Tom's garden and lots of yellow crookneck squash. The latest canning books prefer that you freeze summer squash, but I have found that if you wash the squash, remove the seeds, and cut the squash in small pieces before raw packing it tightly into your warmed canning jars and then filling them with hot water, the finished product looks great. (I process quarts for 40 minutes at 10psi in the pressure canner.)

I prefer canning over freezing anyway because the power goes out so much up here.

Special Olympics was fun this past Thursday. Now, this week I have to take Lara for a doctor appointment on Wednesday down to Marshfield and Tom will have to handle the Schwan's man. I've been invited to a cousin's baby shower down in Tomah, and I have to get another cousin a wedding gift. It's a busy month!

Moving Along

2010-08-03T23:44:00.000-05:00

Cleaning up after the tornado has been difficult, but we have been able to hire a tree company to remove the trees from the house and cut down anything imminently dangerous to the house area. The electricity is back up and we've put a tarp over the hole in the roof. And we got an estimate on repairing the roof. We cut up some of the downed trees and started piling them near the wood pile to be split for firewood when we get to it. I am going to clear the area next to that for placing logs that I want cut into boards. We have been trying since the storm to get an insurance adjustor out here and finally today Allstate sent somebody. It looks like most everything, including replacing the high tunnel and the missing plywood roof on the chicken skid will be covered. They should even cover rebuilding the chicken wire fence around the coop run and removing the trees that crushed the fence.

That is a huge relief. Once we get the nod from our agent we can call the builders to come and fix the roof and gutters. We will need to hire a logger to remove the damaged trees from the woods. I am not looking forward to that, but it has to be done before the value of the wood drops to nothing.

Tom took a walk down the snowmobile trail to the bridge and it is practically impassable. He says the bridge over the creek is badly damaged. The DNR built the bridge and I wonder if they know it is unsafe. (There's been enough planes flying over surveying the damage.) It may take a while for them to repair it and snowmobile season isn't far off.

I wonder when the electric company will get around to clearing the trees out of the easements -- they told us not to do it.

I was glad we were able to clean up the yard enough for Tom to cut the grass. I don't want mice coming up to the house in tall grass. At least the yard looks better. It's going to take me a while to get used to the view with so many trees gone, and knowing that more trees will have to follow.

Yesterday was rainy so I made a big chicken pot pie and cherry cobbler to take over to Dad's because my Uncle Larry, who is a builder, was coming to give Dad an estimate on repairing the farmhouse. Must have been good because I got back both empty pans this morning! I thought that would last him a couple of days. At least I know he's eating. I'm glad Uncle Larry can repair the damage for Dad. One of the builders who came by today to give us an estimate told us that he has so much work now that he probably wouldn't do the job if we asked him to.

And since it was raining, I went through Tom's garden and brought a big bag of beets and mustard greens back to the house to can. Tom thinks that canning isn't worth the effort, but I disagree. As far as I'm concerned, the quality of the food is worth the effort of canning it. There is just nothing like opening up a jar of canned food in the winter time and smelling summer!

Well, now that the insurance inspector has come I'll start working on clearing up the chicken area tomorrow. I hope it's not as hot as it was today. Maybe there will be a decent breeze, too. I also want to get out to the garden in the field and see if I have anything to harvest. I do want to get to the farmers market.