Lovely Day for an Update

Today was an absolutely beautiful summer day! The weather was perfect; not too hot and not too cool. And, it was Lara's birthday. We celebrated by going to the Mexican restaurant in Hurley on Highway 51 for some excellent food, and then later in the day after we returned home, we had some Williamsburg Orange cake for dessert that I had made per Lara's request for her birthday. She opened her birthday gifts and talked with her friend, Carrie, on the phone. Everyone crashed. I feel like I'm going to pop. Not good for my diet, but a splurge now and then is OK. For a change, it was a day without stress.

This was a busy week taking care of doctor and dentist appointments. A trip to the feed store took up another day. And, of course, there is working in the garden. FINALLY it is starting to take off.

Here's before in mid-May:

 Here's now:

I actually have weeded these boxes three times now.

It was a job but I also got the fence erected around the big garden over by Dad's. I have potatoes, pumpkins and winter squashes, Moon and Stars melons, beets, rutabegas, Golden Bantam corn, Jerusalem artichokes, pole beans, and flowers in it that call my sister's bees, and that garden needs to be weeded again. I have to thin the beets and rutabegas and till the bare area I left for the squashes and melons to run in.  I'm ecstatic that no deer have gotten over the fence. There are deer beds in the grass around the garden so I know they have been thinking about getting in. I will have to take some pictures of the garden for you so you can see what I'm talking about.  Tom and I put up 7' deer fence over 6' posts. We used old t-posts from around the farm and pieces of angle iron Dad gave me. We decided to let the overhang be instead of tying it up with the thought that the deer might be spooked by the loose fencing blowing with the wind, and so far, it has been working. Two of the four fruit trees I planted died and need to be replaced, but I think where I planted the trees will work as an orchard area. The soil just needs a bit of work. Good spot for comfrey to do its magic, and I have been taking black and red currant cuttings and potting them up for new plants to add, as well.

Earlier this spring I pruned the rose bushes and currants. Holy smokes, does everything look good! I think that despite the weather this will be a great year for fruit. I will be loaded with plums, black and red currants, blueberries, and raspberries. Even the elderberries, of which half the plants had to be severely pruned because of winter kill, are going to give some berries. And for the first time there will be some apples on the Honeycrisp apple tree. Half of my grape vines died right to the ground although thankfully they did not die and are sending out a new central leader, but the others are beautiful and climbing all over the newly repaired trellis fence. The hops are happily climbing the trellis fence on the far side of the garden. They are filled with drunken fat bumble bees. Ever see a drunk bee? 

I have been harvesting some herbs this year, too. I dried a bunch of violet flowers to put in teas and soap.

And German chamomile decided it wanted to grow for me and came up all by itself in the boxes where I transplanted all the rhubarb and the walking onions. I just love volunteer plants; they are like old friends you haven't seen in a long time that suddenly drop by to visit. I'll be cutting and drying St. John's wort, yarrow, and mugwort this coming week.

In the back yard the collards and kale are doing well enough that I will harvest some to take to the farmers market this Wednesday. I'm not happy that the collards that have grown are not the collards I thought I planted. I like the giant leaves on champion collards. Still, collards are collards I guess and when you are hungry variety doesn't mean much. It all looks the same in the freezer. It is a shame that everything growing is behind time about two - three weeks. I am concerned the season will be short and not everything will have time to  mature.

Tom and I have noticed all the wild trees that are flowering and fruiting.  We discovered three hop hornbeam trees at the edge of the back yard behind the Honeycrisp apple tree. They have beautiful white flowers that look like big hop flowers. All the lower branches of the trees have been eaten by deer, and when Tom looked the tree up in our tree identification book, it said that deer and lots of other animals love hop hornbeam flowers. Medicinally, it is also a great tree to have around. You use the leaves and flowers. The choke cherry trees are full of fruit and all over the place. It's no wonder we are being visited by all sorts of birds. We have the usual nuthatches, finches, robins, chickadees, and marsh sparrows, as well as orioles, blue jays, grosbeaks, and red wing black birds. We even have catbirds, Cedar waxwings, scarlet tanagers, and believe it or not, we actually had a meadowlark stop on the feeder, but it flew away before I could get a picture of it. I would have sent the picture to the newspaper if I had been able to get a shot of it. I thought meadowlarks were extinct. I discovered that they are not, but they are almost gone. Tom says the birds line up on the back yard trellises and nearest trees and wait for him to hang out the feeders in the morning. Spoiled critters!

I got 19 chicks hatched out in the incubator, and after they hatched my big hens decided to go broody. I was going nuts there for a while trying to gather eggs, but finally one of the bantam cochins I bought last spring outlasted everyone as a biddy. The other day while I was out in the coop cleaning and putting away new supplies, I heard a "cheep cheep" that sounded like a new baby. I knew the incubator chicks while still small were too big to make that sound, so I looked around and sure enough, there was a baby sticking its head up through mama's feathers. Baby looks good and mama is still sitting on the clutch so I think more babies may be coming.

Well, it's time to go shut up the coop and take care of Lara. It feels good to have time to sit down and blog an entry. I hope you all are well and have your gardens planted.

Be safe and prepared!

Time to Work Outside

Well, the snow has melted enough for me to get out to clean out the chicken coop. Was that ever a job! I'm usually able to clean it out during the "False Spring" that comes in January, but this year the weather didn't cooperate. In fact, it got so cold that I added four bales of hay to the coop for some additional insulation for the chickens. The hay worked out well keeping the chickens warm, even when we had the -50F wind chill nights. But it took me two whole days to shovel out the coop. Now when the ground firms up a bit and the rest of the snow melts I'll have to cart everything over to the compost area for breakdown and use on the gardens next year. I'll sure get my five miles a day walking in then for sure.

I potted up a bunch of seedlings I started in the basement last month and they are coming along nicely. I have about 30 Brunswick cabbages started, lots of kale, cilantro, onions, and some flowers. I hope to move them to the greenhouse in the next few days. It's funny. In the Spring you find you have to "do this" before you can "do that". And before I can take the seedlings out to the greenhouse, I have to clear out all the yard "stuff" that I stored in it over the winter. Then I can go back into the basement and get my squashes and pumpkin seeds started.

Yesterday I went out to the forest garden and pruned the black currants and a couple of fruit trees. This year I'm clearing away a lot of the "weed trees" so the sun can better reach into the garden. It's too soon to tell if I'll need to replace any of the trees, but most everything looks good. I took 20 black currant cuttings and potted them up in the greenhouse. I really like those earthy black currants. Once you get used to the taste they are great. Try an apple-black currant pie; it's delicious! Anyway, I sure hope those cuttings take. The cuttings I potted up last summer and left to overwinter in the greenhouse have started putting forth leaves. Only two look like duds. Of that group there are six black currants and six red currant starts. If I get good at starting cuttings like this I may be able to sell them for extra income. That would be great.

It's mud season now and the roads are posted against heavy traffic. The snow is rapidly disappearing and we've had our first good rain. I can work outside without wearing a heavy coat, and the birds are starting to return and sing.

If only those black barred cochins I bought last year would sit on some eggs now . . . .

Tough Winter

Winter started late again this year and has turned into a monster. Morning temps are evidenced by the above picture are lately the norm. Boy, am I glad I dug out the wood piles and refilled the wood stacks in the garage before we started getting the non-stop storms. Having a fire in the wood stove sure is nice.

Snow storms have been coming non-stop. It takes Tom and I about three days to shovel everything out -- just in time for the next storm. Keeping up with the snow is hard. He is ready to move and I say he can go if he wants. I'm not going anywhere. Moving the snow is hard work, but I am grateful for the opportunity to exercise my muscles, solve problems like where to put the snow and how to take care of the chickens in extreme weather, and test my critical thinking skills regarding "what would I do if . . .". I can't do any of that living in some shitty little condo back in the city. I believe in being self-sufficient and getting older simply presents me with an exercise in adaptive living.

The chickens are doing remarkably well. No frost bite to deal with and I haven't lost any of them yet. When we had the -50F nights I spread a couple of bales of hay in the coop, and just doing that noticeably helped warm the coop. Still, about half the eggs I get I have to toss because they freeze. Those little barred cochin bantams I bought last year are real talkers. I get the biggest kick out of them and can't wait till it warms up so I can clean the coop out well and set up the broody box for them. With their feathered feet the snow doesn't seem to bother them.

I've started a bunch of seeds in the basement and some of them are already starting to come up. I bought a wood stove and may set it up in the greenhouse (which miraculously has not collapsed with the ice and snow) to keep seedlings warm overnight.  Australian Brown and Newburg onions, New Brunswick and red cabbages, rainbow chard, Champion collards, Tuscan kale, and lots of perennial flowers. I'll wait till May to start the squashes and cucumbers. Supposedly it will be a cool and wet summer. We'll just have to wait and see.

Here are some pics of the snow around the house. We had three more inches after I took these pics and we are expecting another 5"-8" again this weekend.  By the way, I'd like to thank whoever the good person was who moved the big snow banks at the front of our driveway. Our snow plow couldn't move the snow back any farther than we had it so your act of kindness has given us some place to put the incoming snow.  Thank you!

Tom may be right saying that we'll still have snow in June. As far as making maple syrup this year, well, that's up in the air for now. I'm glad Dad is in the nursing home; it would be really hard worrying about him if he was at the farm house and dealing with our issues, too. Thinking positively, when the sun does shine the days are beautiful, and Spring IS on the way!

White Patty-Pan Squash

Our biggest seller this year at the farmers market was the heirloom White Patty-Pan summer squash, and I had so many people ask how to use it that I thought I would show you one way my family likes to eat it.

This dish can be made ahead and baked later, if desired. If you are going to cook it right away, lightly oil a 9" x 13" baking dish (I like coconut oil) and turn your oven to 350°F.

First I wash the squash. I like them to be larger sized. Many people prefer "baby" squash, but for me, a larger squash has more flavor. Don't let them be too big though because the skin on an older squash can grow too tough to eat. 

Use a sharp knife and cut around the stem (pretend you are starting to carve a pumpkin). Be careful not to cut through the bottom!

Pull off the stem and use a spoon to help clean out the inside.

Arrange the hollowed out squash in your baking pan and set aside. Now make whatever filling you want. Here I used ground venison, corn, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme with an added can of tomato sauce and some shredded mozzarella cheese.  Use your imagination when making your filling. Bacon anyone?

Now fill your squashes and top with more cheese if you like. (I had extra filling so I spooned it around the squashes.) Cover the pan with foil and put in the refrigerator to bake later, or put it in the oven now and bake about 45 minutes until heated through and the squash pierces easily with a fork.

Enjoy!

Winding Down the Garden Year

Oh, my, how the year has flown. My good intentions to post here more often went by the way. It just seems to take more energy and time to get things done!

The garden year started off uncertain as the weather seemed confused. Cold, then hot, then cold again. Only days before I took this picture we had a good 2' of snow on the ground. You could not tell there were garden boxes in the yard. Then it got hot and all the snow vanished.

I got everything planted by the new moon in June, and by the end of July the garden was growing well.

These were my four patty-pan summer squash plants from one of the garden boxes in the back yard. I could not believe how well they produced. I had a bumper crop of cucumbers this year, too.

Lara was excited for us to finally get to the farmers market in Park Falls. It really is fun to go to the  market! It's been so nice to renew acquaintances with the other vendors and to meet old and new customers.

Sadly, the deer devoured my big garden over at Dad's again, and I firmly resolve to get a fence erected around that garden spot. I lost all my winter squashes, corn, pumpkins, melons and tomatoes. They also munched to death the four apple and pear trees I started in a new orchard. So, enough is enough. Next year is sauerkraut year. I plan to grow lots of cabbage and I don't want the deer to get it.

I did notice a curious increase in customers wanting to buy finished, value-added products over raw produce. As a grower this disturbs me. I would much rather see people buy the raw produce and prepare it themselves. 

Since we did not have much to sell, we are finished going to market for the year. I am working hard to clean up the garden boxes and work my way through the forest garden. It looks like I may actually get ahead of my pruning and trimming tasks before the cold weather sets in again.

I have started red and black currant cuttings in the green house and am trying to see if I can get plum and peach trees to sprout from seed. I also have several kinds of hot peppers I started from seed in the greenhouse, but they are coming on so late that I fear I will not get any peppers from them.

Out in the forest garden I am enjoying my first plum harvest. I have enough plums to make a batch of plum jam. It isn't much, but I am so happy my trees are getting old enough to bear fruit. The hazelnuts look great, the new row of black elderberry plants took off grandly, and while the black and red currants didn't bear much fruit because they need to be pruned, they are also healthy. The rhubarb and horseradish in the hugelkultur bed are massive, and the grapes and hops are happily filling the trellis fence. Only one of the grape vines bore fruit this year, but it, too, was enough to me to make at least one batch of jam. I will be ecstatic when the apples and pears begin to fruit. 


Lately we have had a lot of rain and there is flooding both north and south of us, but thankfully we have been spared any trouble. Dad is still at the farm and doing well.  I am still on my diet and half-way to my goal. I am determined to reach my goal!

Canning, cutting a trail out to Tom's deer stand, and cleaning out the chicken coop to ready it for the winter are next on my "To Do" list. Might was well "make hay while the sun shines," as the adage goes.

Hopefully I'll post again soon. Take care!

Good Fortune

I had an unbelievable turn of good fortune a week or so ago:

I went for my annual physical and :( had to go to our local pharmacy afterward to get back on my high blood pressure medication. Now, downtown Park Falls is undergoing quite a bit of road construction, and I had to park some distance from the pharmacy and walk through the back alley to get there. After I got my medication and was on the way back to my truck I spotted the new bakery that opened a few months ago. It was open! So I decided to check it out and buy something sweet for Tom.

As I walked into the bakery I noticed that the owners were turning part of their space into some sort of yarn/craft area. It was obviously not finished, but I already liked it. There was a gorgeous spinning wheel there that I thought was part of the decor. I said, "I like your spinning wheel," and the bakery owner said, "It's for sale." I literally stopped dead in my tracks. I held my breath and hoped the eagerness didn't show on  my face. I mentally crossed my fingers and casually asked, " Oh. Well, how much do you want for it?" It turned out that the spinning wheel was being sold for another woman and the bakery owner knew nothing about spinning wheels or how much the wheel owner wanted as she had just received it from the owner that morning. My Providence detector started sounding loudly in my brain. So, I decided to take a chance and left my phone number for the wheel owner to give me a call. I bought Tom a cinnamon roll and went home. (Yes, I had a raspberry strudel!)

Later, the wheel owner called. We chatted a bit and then she told me she wanted $200 for the wheel and the spinning chair that was with it. I was ecstatic! I told the lady I would buy the wheel and chair for that amount and that I would meet her the following Tuesday after the bakery opened.

That Tuesday the wheel owner asked me if I wanted the wool she also had for sale. I told her I would have to see the wool and then it would depend on how much she wanted for it. She took me and the bakery owner's wife a few doors down the street, through the back of the business there, and into a large garage that was filled with all kinds of stuff that was for sale. She led me to a corner and kicked a plastic bin filled with various rovings. Then she kicked another bin and said she would throw that one in, too, for $15. About that time my eyes fell on a large Ashford drum carder that needed a belt and was sitting by its lonesome on a table and I asked what she wanted for it. She thought for a moment, then said she would give me the two plastic bins, the drum carder, a new in the box Harrisville warping board that just needed to be put together and the wood oiled, and a Harrisville rug loom with shuttle, all for another $100. I thought I died and went to heaven. I said, "OK," and we all went back to the bakery and celebrated with coffee and delicious pastries.

I would have loved to have stayed longer, but I had to get back home to take care of Lara, so the ladies helped me load the truck and off I went. When I got home and started going through the plastic bins, the good fortune kept coming. Among the wool rovings were luscious bags of llama and merino fibers, and in the second bin were one pair of antique and one pair of new in the box hand wool carders, a yarn swift, a Lazy Kate, two niddy noddies, several bobbins, extra spinning wheel maintenance parts, books on spinning, and I don't remember what else.  I just couldn't believe it. I was SO happy. That night I went on line to The Woolery  and ordered some extra drive belts for the wheel and the drum carder. I think God must have wanted me to have these things.

The spinning wheel is an Ashford Elizabeth. The chair matches it.

Here is the drum carder. When I can I'll get a packer brush kit for it.

You know what the best part of the day was?  I made some new friends. Thank you Pam, Heather, and Mike!

Another Year

Wow, I can hardly believe how long it's been since I last posted! The time truly has flown by and there is a lot to update here. Let's see, where shall I begin . . . .

Since January of last year I have lost 44 pounds and counting. Hooray! I'm down three clothing sizes. I was a bad girl, however, and stopped taking my high blood pressure medication, but I am now back on it and will not do anything that stupid again.

I lost my sister, Anna, to pancreatic cancer last October, shortly after her 59th birthday. That totally sucked and that's all I have to say about. Second Saturn returns can be the pits.

Then, in November, I went to check on Dad and found him lying on the floor and no heat in the house. He was stiff as a board and did not know me. He wound up staying in the nursing home till this past March and was happy as could be when he came home just before his 87th birthday. He now has nurses aides and therapists coming to visit him regularly, and my sister, Mary, was finally able to get in the house and have major renovation done.

My Eddy turned the big 3-0.

Our Sarah, who works for the US Forest Service down in Arkansas, has decided to add Florida wildfire fighting to her resume. We are very proud of her!

Things are hopping here at the farm, too, but I'll save the updates for the next post. Talk to you soon. Until then, Be Safe and Well!

Summer Update

I know it's been a while since I last posted. How time flies, eh? For a quick recap, our Ed turned 29, Cousin It turned 31, and Lara turned 33. Tom and I are married 41 years, and our Yellow Lab, Sandy, is a creaky 12 years old. Dad turned 86 and is doing much better since he hooked up with the VA hospital in Iron Mountain. We had a family Father's Day gathering that turned out great. Just about everybody came.

Dad and brother-in-law John

Ed and Lara

Cousin It (Sarah) and Tom

 The big news and main reason I have not blogged is that I am participating in a weight loss study that keeps me on my feet and off the computer. Honestly, by supper time I am tired! (I'm only blogging now because I took the day off from exercising.)  Since January I am down 32 pounds and half of that since I started participating in the study. I am learning a lot about exercise, nutrition, shopping and eating habits, and strategies for dealing with eating in various social settings. I am enjoying all of it and am really working hard at making lifestyle changes. I would love to lose another 30 pounds by the end of the year.

The weather and the wild critters have been my plagues this year in the gardens. I had to replant my garden boxes three times because of squirrels. One morning I woke to find a turkey hen taking a dust bath in my greens box. Every so often she would kick up dirt and then deftly stick her neck out and snatch a bite of lettuce or mustard. Sheesh! The pole beans were eaten by bugs so as a last resort I have planted some in pots in the greenhouse and hope to harvest something this Fall. The deer have eaten most of my winter squash and pumpkins over at the big garden I have by Dad's, and because of all the rain we've had the grass has overtaken that garden, as well, though I am doing my best to keep the crops visible. It's hard to work that garden properly because of my family time constraints. There are still some tomato plants, a few green beans, and my Fisher's Earliest corn (I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the corn because there is a Sandhill crane nest in the field about 10 feet from the back of Dad's barn) that survive and I need to weed by hand. I'm starting some perennial plantings in that garden and started this year with putting in about 10 black chokeberries (aronia). Only one has died.

Speaking of tomatoes, my garden box that hosted tomatoes last year sprouted a number of volunteers this year, and amazingly they are my strongest plants anywhere in the gardens! Yesterday I cut some poles and staked them all. I have to mention that the Russian tomato varieties I planted this year don't look so hot, but I will give them another chance next year before I make my mind up about growing them after that.

Garden boxes in the front yard

The garden boxes in the back yard don't look nearly as good as the ones in the front yard and I will have to take a picture of them for you. About half of those boxes are dedicated to perennials now. There is a box for blueberries, one for bush cherries, one for domesticated raspberries, and I am in the process of making another box for just herbs, both annuals and perennial, culinary and medicinal. After I harvest the garlic, I will amend all the empty boxes and replant them for a late harvest.

Forest garden path (chop and drop)

I am learning much from my forest garden experiment and continue to read as much as possible about permaculture practices. I have found that by leaving everything to grow together as they will there is much less insect damage and increased harvest. For example, bindweed left to twist and climb becomes a natural trellis for raspberries, grasses, and red currants. Dogwoods seem to favor grouping with basswood trees and elderberries. Raspberries and ferns like fruit trees. Bergamot loves spreading in the sunny grassy areas. The black and red currants are simply overflowing with berries. My mugwort decided it didn't like being next to my hazelnut bushes and has, on its own, migrated to my hugelkultur bed next to the hops I have growing on the trellis fence. The grapes seem to like being left to climb where they will. The blackberries are definitely not happy and I expect that at some point I will move them elsewhere. Horseradish and rhubarb love the hugelkultur bed, and all of the apple and plum trees seem to be happy. Even the "iffy" pear trees have settled down and are beginning to gain growth. This year I added two apricot trees. I don't expect them to survive the winter, but I thought I would give them a try anyway.

Peaches

Canning season has officially started for me. I wish your gardens a heavy harvest!

Computer Woes

Well, I'm ready to run around the house shrieking because of our computer trouble.  It all started when I was accepted into a weight loss for rural seniors research study from the University of Kansas that our clinic is partnering with. Part of the study requires video conferencing. Well, my computer has no camera and runs on Windows 7. So, I bought a camera and tried to set up Skype (which won't redeem the prepaid voucher I bought). Then because my computer frequently blue screens on me Tom and I decided to buy a new lap top computer. That one runs on Windows 10 and has a camera built into it. And, because I like to read a lot I bought a little Kindle Fire to ease the wear and tear on my poor old desktop. OMG! Trying to get everything to work together has been a nightmare. Now my old computer constantly crashes Firefox, and it and Internet Explorer are besieged with pop-up ads despite my installing the latest Kaspersky Total Security. I finally downloaded Google Chrome on the old computer and so far I can at least function. (I am able to be posting this!) My Kaspersky Total Security tells me everything is fine as does Windows, but I can't seem to get rid of the annoying pop-upson Firefox and Internet Explorer. I even reset the computer to an earlier time and reinstalled Firefox. At least the Kindle Fire seems to be OK. Now I have to figure out what is wrong with Skype (when I chatted with their people they couldn't find anything wrong even though I'm getting an "internal error" message). My husband thinks the Skype problem has to do with our being located in an area where cell phones don't work. I just don't know how that would affect a computer program. Ugh! Anyway, progress is being made slowly but surely and we are being dragged kicking and screaming into an updated computer era.

We are well into mud season now and most of the snow is gone though we could very well see more of it. May 15th is the latest I've seen it snow here, and the cold will be here a while yet because the frogs down in the marshes aren't peeping. Our town has instituted the annual weight limits on the roads and will no longer give a permit to the garbage collector to collect our garbage so we have to take our garbage down the road a ways (about four miles) to a drop off point in Ashland County. You'd think we'd get some type of refund or credit on our contract for having to do this because, after all, we are paying them to collect the garbage from the end of our drive, but no, not a word from either the town or the garbage company about that.

I cleaned out the chicken coop on the first nice days we had, and the ladies and gents approve. They are having great fun scratching through the old bedding. When I can I will shovel it all into the trailer and haul it over to the garden by Dad's. He wants me to learn how to run the tractor so I bought a can of diesel fuel and when the grounds firms up I'll give it a go.

And speaking of Dad, Mary bought him one of those emergency buttons you wear around your neck that you can press for help if you fall and can't get up. And she was able to get him signed up at the VA in Iron Mountain for health care. He seems satisfied and liked his doctor. She told him he needs "eyes, ears, and feet" and they will get him glasses, hearing aids, and send him to someone to check his feet out. We got a kick out of the appointment reminder:  "You must report to . . .", just like military orders. And so long as he doesn't get hold of any alcohol, he's ok. He also just turned 86.

I started seeds out in the greenhouse earlier in the month, but yesterday I brought the trays into the house and put them down in the basement because we are supposed to get a really cold spell toward the end of the week. I am trying several new varieties of tomatoes and would hate to lose the seedlings to cold. The seed trays with all the herbs I left in the greenhouse because they like a couple of weeks of cold before they decide to sprout.  My sunflower tray was ravaged by a mouse -- twice -- so the last time I went to town I picked up some mouse traps. I am now out of Fat Mama and Maximilian sunflower seeds but did find a pack of Burpee's American Giant seeds in my stash so all is not lost for a sunflower border around the garden.

No pictures for you yet, but I hope to take some soon. I just love it when the tree buds start to swell. The sand hill cranes are making a racket down by the creek.

Well, I have to get back to trying to fix this computer so I'll let you go. I hope all is well in your world!

Into Another Year

2016 has started out with a bang. Seems like everyone I know is being slammed in some way, mostly by grave illnesses and issues with family members.  For me, it's my Dad. The situation has me so stressed I won't bore you with the details. I will just say that my husband and I will never do to the young people of our family what my father is doing to my sister and me. Never. And that's my polite vent.

Elsewhere, I managed to cook up my first batch of hot process soap. It was a six pound batch using tallow, lard, olive oil, coconut oil, and shea butter. I scented it with patchouli essential oil right before I spooned it into my mold. The soap turned out beautifully. It smells so good! I couldn't find a large enough slow cooker so I made a double boiler by using my water bath canner and inserting a 12 quart stainless steel pot inside it. A cast iron trivet raised the 12 quart pot off the bottom of the larger pot, and I added water in the larger canner pot to halfway up the sides of the 12 quart pot. I mixed the lye water out in the garage. As the outdoor temperature was so cold it didn't take long for the lye to cool. I was sure to wear my heavy duty rubber gloves and my "Imperator Furiosa" safety glasses. While the lye cooled in the garage, I melted my fats and oils in the 12 quart pot. When the fats and oils and lye water were the same temperature (100°F), I stirred the lye water slowly into the fats and oils and "cooked" the mixture in the water bath, stirring every half hour. After three hours I checked the pH. Soap that is meant for use on skin should be between 8.0 and 10.0 pH. My batch registered 8.5 on my digital pH meter so I removed it from the water bath and spooned the soap (it was pretty thick) into my freezer paper lined plastic bin mold. I let the soap sit overnight and cut it into bars the following morning before stacking the bars on a shelf to store. That batch is going to last us a long time. I can't wait to make some more.

I'm also cutting out the template pieces for the different blocks for Ed's Hobo Quilt. I have some nice 10" fabric squares to use for it. As ever, a project's preparation takes longer than the project does to actually put together.

This Mercury Retrograde is a doozy. In our spare moments both Tom and I have been shoveling out the house getting down to bare necessities. We've made three trips to local thrift stores so far and I have to say the house is looking much less cluttered.  I got out my Feng Shui book and am working my way room by room through the house. I found a poster advertising a fish vendor in the back of our closet so I bought a frame for it and hung it in the wealth and prosperity section of our bathroom (where, unfortunately, the toilet is located), but I think I'm going to have to move it because since I hung it on the wall we've been having to spend money left and right for unexpected expenses. I'm sure our "wealth" is now going down the toilet because certain persons in the house refuse to keep the toilet lid down and the drains closed. I'll hang the picture in another room's wealth and prosperity area and see if our "money drain" stops.

It's amazing how Feng Shui decorating really does work. I discovered that the main Love and Marriage area of our house is in the garage. What a mess! I cleaned up the garage as best I could and I bought a sign of what I consider to be the happiest kiss ever to hang out there. I'm not sure I put it in the right corner although for sure my marriage is much improved. The one thing I've learned about Feng Shui is that you must make changes slowly and remember what you did because often your results happen quickly and dramatically, and if the results send you bad fortune, you can quickly reverse the change you made. Whew! Believe me, that's important to remember. (Note: if you are looking for a new job, try spiffing up your career and wealth and prosperity areas!) I am also working on our Health and Family areas since I am feeling very stressed dealing with my Dad.

I have a neat little history book for you. It's called Stalag Wisconsin by Betty Cowley. It relates the story of WWII prisoner-of-war camps in Wisconsin. It is interesting that there is actually not a lot of information available on this topic because (if I read the book right) much of the information was deliberately destroyed by the Army after the War. Local newspapers of the time cooperated with the Army by severely limiting news of the camps, and recollections in the book are mostly from people who were just children at the time. I have not finished the book, but so far my favorite recollection relates the tale of an American soldier who was one of only sixteen survivors in his group of over 275 men that were at the Battle of the Bulge. When he returned home he was very angry to find German prisoners of war having a good time in a local tavern together with their guards! Well, the American soldier went home, loaded his M1 carbine, returned to the tavern and told the locals to git. He then proceeded to march the prisoners of war AND their guards back to the camp, whereupon he gave the camp commander a piece of his mind. In short, there were no more tavern visits by prisoners of war and the entire camp was closed not long after! Great little book.

I've ordered some seeds and seed starting supplies, and I'm looking forward to getting the garden going. Lara is looking forward to going to the market again this year, too. I have to find time to take my market scale down to Merrill to get certified by the State, and I want to get another small table and some produce baskets to improve our display.  I am hopeful that we will have a good year. Growing time is rapidly approaching.

Well, I guess that's about all for now. I hope your life is going well. Be safe and take care!

Merry Christmas

Today was rainy and the little snow we have is dwindling quickly. If it gets cold enough tonight I expect the roads will be very icy tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about the weather. It is nice not to be out shoveling deep snow, but it certainly feels weird not to have -0°F temperatures. None of the snowmobile trails are open and I'm sure the local businesses are hurting. We've hardly needed the wood stove except to take the damp out of the air in the evening. I am thankful that the chickens are handling the seesawing temps all right. They are still laying, too. Yesterday I gathered four eggs! (Which was good because yesterday I dropped the bucket of eggs I was going to wash and I broke every last one of them. Ugh.)

I have been knitting and reading. I made several hats and pairs of mittens, and with some of the wool from the yarn I received from the fleece I shared with my friend, Sally, (did I mention in my previous post that her husband's father was a Navajo code talker during World War II?) I have started knitting myself another cardigan sweater, this time incorporating simple 5-stitch cables and seed stitch.

I am looking for an old crock pot that is big enough to make some hot batch soap in and I stopped at the thrift store in Phillips to see if they had any. They did not, but a large red and gold scarf dangling on the scarf rack caught my eye. I could tell immediately that it had been woven because of the twist in the fringe and I wanted to take a closer look at it. The gorgeous feather pattern was reversible and the scarf was large enough to wear as a shawl. The price was right. It was marked $1.50 and I bought it. Later I discovered a label on it that said 100% Pashmina. Well, I had no idea what that was so I looked it up on the Internet. It turns out that Pashmina is the finest kind of cashmere wool. However, according to the Wiki article, the label should not read 100% Pashmina because that is not a label recognized in the United States by the Federal Trade Commission. Shawls this size sell for around $200 and I have not come across any on the Internet that have this lovely a pattern. The fabric drapes heavenly and it is light and very warm. I just love it. I'm sure it is an authentic Pashmina shawl despite the illegal label. As most of the items at the thrift store come from decedent estates, I look at the shawl as a gift sent to me from some deceased little old lady's ghost that knew I would appreciate so fine a weaving. I have no idea how old the shawl is, but I expect to love it for the rest of my life.

I also went to the Christian Mission Thrift Store in Park Falls still looking for a large crock pot, again to no avail, but there I did find a smashed up DVD of the movie Jurassic Park for $2.00. The cover was shot, but the DVD looked OK so I bought that for Ed. Then, I almost stepped on a professionally framed double matted Norman Rockwell print that was just laying on the floor. Anyone who knows me knows I love anything Norman Rockwell. It was a print of "The Runaway". I got a strong impression when I picked up the picture that it had once belonged to a policeman. Well, I had to have that, too, for $7.00. "The Runaway" is now hanging in our center hallway next to my print of "Sunset" where it will be joined after Christmas by my Christmas gift to myself of "Refugee Thanksgiving".  And when I got home I ran the Jurassic Park DVD through Lara's SkipDr, popped it into the DVD player for Ed and the disk played like new.

Christmas here will be quiet. Tomorrow I'll visit Dad and take him his annual supply of pipe tobacco. Dad has not decided whether or not he will join us on Christmas Day for dinner.  (I expect he will eat a big dinner tomorrow with my sister, Mary and her family, and will not feel like eating a second big dinner on Christmas Day.) We will be having pork roast, sauerkraut, and dumplings with a Raspberry Bavarian for dessert. I baked cinnamon rolls and some Christmas cookies to munch on throughout the day.

I wish you all a Blessed and Happy Christmas!

Thanksgiving

 This is about as good a picture of our Thanksgiving turkey I could get this year because a certain unnamed party had already started snitching pieces off of the side you cannot see.  (Sigh.) If you've ever seen the movie A Christmas Story you'll know what I mean when I say that the ghost of Ralphie's dad must have been hanging around my kitchen. My Dad came over to eat with us and he is looking good. My sister and some of her children were going to stop by for a short visit, but the weather quickly changed from freezing drizzle to snow, so she called to say they were going to stay home. I don't blame her. It was a nice day and we'll eat for a couple of days on the leftovers.
 
 Here is a picture of the railroad knitting blanket I made. The blocks are a log cabin pattern with each block segment highlighted in outline stitch, and the blocks are connected in rows of single crochet.  The blanket is much heavier than I expected and it is very warm. I used up quite a few of the little balls of yarn scraps in my yarn bin, but I still have some more I can use up. I am thinking about making some Christmas ornaments, small animal toys, or working them into some knitted Christmas stockings. We'll see.

Well, there are many projects on my to-do list and I'll keep you posted as I get to them. Right now I'd like to thank all of you for reading my blog. I am grateful for your company. I hope that some of the things I do give you both inspiration and encouragement as you carve out your own homestead. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. We all have much to be thankful for.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 -- Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Halloween

It's cold, wet, and bone aching miserable outside so I put on my nice grey sweater that I finished last year

and am spending my time making a blanket in railroad knitting (a/k/a Tunisian crochet) with all of my yarn scraps. It is taking me longer to finish because I decided to embroider each section on each block in black outline stitch. It was a good decision because the colors are nicely highlighted by the outlining and the blocks are reminiscent of stained glass windows. I'll take a picture of it for you when it is finished.

Yesterday (speaking of yarn) I picked up my share of wool yarn from splitting the costs of a fleece with a woman I know in Phillips who used to go to the Phillips Farmers Market. She had the fleece spun at Blue Hills Fiber Mill and it is gorgeous. The wool is grey and the natural color of the fiber. I received different fiber thicknesses so I will make me a nice warm shawl (I have a thing for shawls), Ed gets a good warm hat with ear flaps, and Lara will get some nice warm socks.

The reading bug has hit me again, too. I am nearly finished with the totally awesome Gulag Archipelago and have finished The Forever War.  I'm half way through A Canticle for Leibowitz. This book is excellently written. It is a shame, but I think only someone raised as a Roman Catholic in the pre-Vatican II, Latin Mass era, can fully appreciate how that type of upbringing strengthens the cultural nuances of the story's core and makes for such an enjoyable read. ("Eat! Eat!" You have to read the book to understand why I was bug-eyed when I reached that part. . . .)

I have received the fabric to start Ed's Hobo quilt, so I expect to at least get that project started before the end of the year.

Elsewhere I have six chickens butchered and another six to go. My sister Mary had one chicken that "got away" when she butchered her flock so she said I could have the hen.  I retrieved the hapless one when she was asleep and back in the hen house that night and put her in with my flock. Since she is a hen I'll keep her for her eggs. She has adjusted well. I knew she would because she is bigger than my chickens who were extremely put out because of the stranger in their midst. It only took about three days before calm descended in the coop once more. I have scrubbed, scraped, swept out cob webs, and otherwise cleaned out the coop and "winterized" it with about six inches of fresh wood chip bedding. I had to take a scraper to the window because it had not been washed for a couple of years, but it looks great now, and the chickens can sit on their perches this winter and watch the snow fly.

I still have some fence work to do and the cutting back of weeds. Tom and I are waiting for good weather to go up on the roof and clean out the gutters now that most of the leaves are off the trees.

Twice already we've had snow fall but so far nothing has stayed on the ground.  The birds are busy at all the feeders though so I expect we will freeze up pretty soon now.

Since it is Halloween, I thought I'd leave you with a fun link to the complete broadcast of Orson Welles' famous radio program from 1938. Be safe Everybody!

Summer's End

The Autumn leaves were beautiful this year and stayed a long time on the trees, but today the wind and rain came and blew most of them away. I fear Little Luke's Summer, that last sweet spell of summery weather that occurs around the Feast of St. Luke (October 18), is over. I need to finish up the last of the yard work soon as snow will not be long in coming now.

It's been quite busy here. Look at these lovely Fuji apples I bought at the Feed Store. Do you believe they were selling these as deer apples for hunters? I bought two boxes of them for $12 a box and promptly put most of them in the dehydrator. I can hardly believe that this is the first time in 10 years that I've not gone to Bayfield for apples.

The cabbages were wonderful this year and I had lots of them, both red and green. I put all of the red cabbages in the freezer and made sauerkraut with most of the green. I also used a 6.5 gallon plastic fermenter I bought from a brewery supply for the first time and it worked out great. It was much easier to handle and clean than my heavy pottery crocks. I canned 42 quarts; good thing we like sauerkraut!

 

 

Working on Dad's wood pile was a family affair. Gosh, what a job! Tom and John cut the logs; John, Mary, and I split it; and Tom, Ed, and I stacked most of it. There is only one small pile left to stack, and after that, all that is left to do is to rake up the bits and pieces to add to Dad's stove wood that is already stacked on the porch.

The pile of wood in the foreground is what is left to be stacked.

Tom and Ed

 Greens and cabbages grew best in this year's garden. The tomatoes were pretty prolific, too. I planted Chadwick Cherry, Aunt Lucy's Paste Tomato, original Abe Lincoln, Vintage Wine, and a very old commercial variety called 1884. All did well though they seemed to come on late in the season. I attribute that to the odd weather we had. I would say I was most impressed with 1884. For going into the ground late (July!) it grew like gangbusters and produced some real nice large sized fruits. None of the tomato varieties were bothered with insects, but I did have problems with blossom end rot, and again I attribute that to our cold nights. Vintage Wine was a second year trial. When I first planted it, it did not do well at all and I only saved a few seeds, but when I planted it this year, boy, did it grow. And for a tomato it is a pretty plant; I like its leaves, and the fruits are pink with yellowish striping. The name is justified. Aunt Lucy's Paste Tomato produces mountains of smallish red fruits. It is a real work horse of a tomato. It did extremely well when I first planted it in a dry year, and it did just as well in this year's hot/cold/wet weather. I also liked original Abe Lincoln. A very pretty red slicer with great taste. Perhaps the most finicky for me to grow is Chadwick Cherry, but I like to freeze the fruits whole (like berries) and add them as I want to soups and stews.

 While the garden's bounty was limited, I was able to gather a lot of seed due to the long season. No garden year is ever the same, and the learning experiences always differ. I love this life!

Now, for the chickens . . . .