Projects and Happenings at the Cabin

When the sun comes up, I'll try to get some pictures. For now, here are some of the things we've been working on around here.

Taking up most of our time and energy these last two weeks has been the puppy. I have never had a puppy before and was blown away by the amount of work it took the first week or so. He literally pooped 12 times a day, and if we did not clean it up right away, before we knew it, he had run through it and then we had lots to clean. Things have gotten better on that front and he is growing like a weed. We are all crazy about him, especially me, which is quite surprising to me since I don't particularly like dogs, lol.

A few weeks ago, I put together a monthly menu and started making extras and freezing it. We now have about a weeks worth of meals in the freezer (breakfasts, lunches, suppers and snacks) and the monthly menu is, so far, a success.

We were recently reminded of the importance of storing some water for emergencies. Wwe usually do this, but with the move, I had forgotten to replenish our supply. A few weeks ago, the pipe carrying water to our house and the rest of our road developed a leak, then broke and we were without water for 12+ hours. Definitely, it was not a huge deal, since it was more of a localized emergency and we were able to buy water at the store, but it was a good reminder that those kinds of emergencies can happen without warning, and sometimes the stores can run out of what you need, so we are keeping a few day's worth of water on hand from now on.

A farmer's market in a nearby city is now open, though there is very little produce yet. It is mostly crafts and baked goods/ jams/ pickles. There is one farmer there with fresh flowers who also has eggs, so we once again have local eggs. We are also using our lettuce that is growing in a sunny window. We are using it mostly on sandwiches as it some of it is still "micro greens" and some of it is "baby greens" though it is nice added to a salad made with romaine or other lettuce. We are also adding home grown sprouts to sandwiches, salads and stir fry.

We were given 10+ pounds of homegrown carrots recently. We ate lots of it for snacks, made soup with some and the rest is about to be fermented as ginger carrots (as soon as I can get to town and pick up some fresh ginger- note to self, find a place to plant ginger). Our scoby is cranking out kombucha as fast as we can drink it and we are making yogurt as I type.

We have two garden beds built and will be filling them with both soil and plants/ seeds this week (if the weather cooperates - we had snow yesterday). I am hoping to put in two more this week as well. The containers I was growing my garden in before we moved here also have some things planted in them. The onion tops that were eaten by deer or rabbits have grown back It will be interesting to see if they still make usable onions. The sweet peas I put in a few weeks ago are up and growing. One of the new beds will be getting spinach and more peas. Another one is getting strawberries. Sweet potatoes and fingerling potatoes are also being planned on, though I think they will probably go into containers since they grow well there. We are planning an asparagus patch that I am hoping to work on this week or next, if at all possible. This year I will probably not focus much on things like peppers and tomatoes since so many people grow these to sell at the farmer's market . I am planning to get most of my tomatoes and peppers for sauce and salsa at the market this year. We will probably also get summer squash and zucchinni from the market though we will try again to grow cantaloupe, pumpkins and watermelon.

As things begin to bloom around here, we are beginning to put names to some of our trees. We discovered last week that we have a big pear tree. It looks like a fruiting tree, though it will take a few weeks to know for sure. If it is, we may have more pears that we can reasonably use in a year, provided the adorable little woodland creatures don't eat them all before we can. We also have many dogwood, which don't produce anything we eat, but are so beautiful and we are thrilled to have them. A few of the bigger trees around the house will need to come down, I think, both because some of them are older and may fall on their own (did I mention they are close to the house), and because we need to remove some to make sure the garden gets enough sunlight.

Well, that is some of what is going on around here. The sun will be up soon, so I will try to get some pictures and try to post them if I can.