Truely Blessed

Fig preserves. In the back you can see salsa and tomato juice.

This summer has been a blur of visitors and food preservation. How blessed we are to have such wonderful friends and family to visit. With the exception of a few days, we've had visitors all summer. Boy does that ever help to chase away our homesickness. Our home feels so full (in a good way). In addition to being able to visit with and cook for, we've also been able to bring lots of our family and friends to our farmers market and introduce them to the idea of local food. So exciting.

We have also been blessed many times by our neighbors who have shared with us the abundance from their gardens. We've been blessed with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash (by the truckload, it seems :), blueberries (literally by the gallon) and this week figs (25 pounds yesterday, plus another 15 pounds last week that we made into preserves to share with our extended family). We have been preserving this blessing as quickly as we can. Most days find the dehydrator going all day. We have veggies for soup, lots of tomatoes, figs, peppers both hot and sweet, potatoes and blueberries all dehydrated and ready to be used in the off season (mmmmm . . . dried blueberries in oatmeal - I can almost taste it now).

We've also frozen lots of fruits (peaches, blueberries, a few strawberries and some figs) and veggies (squash, zucchini, corn and even pesto). The fruit we will use in smoothies, pancakes and pies. The veggies will be used mostly as side dishes.

And it seems that at least a few times a week, we've been firing up the water bath canner to preserve something in canning jars. So far its been mostly the same thing over and over, but I'm grateful because it is stuff we eat a lot of and will need many jars of in the off seasons. We've made peach syrup, salsa - lots and lots of salsa, garden tomato juice (like V-8) and fig preserves. Once we take care of all of these figs we were given, I'm hoping to put up some more salsa and some tomato sauce/ puree. Then we are going to get to work on making some pickles. We've also been offered some pears (they are not yet ready to harvest) and hope to make pear sauce out of what we don't eat fresh. It is comforting to know that we have some locally grown and home preserved foods set aside for the time when there is less fresh produce available at the market or from the garden.

And speaking of gardens, my little garden is growing nicely. We have been able to harvest several cucumbers and yellow pear tomatoes and the peas are growing quite nicely. I think they will begin flowering soon. It has been fun having our garden survive to harvest :)

The chickens are still laying well, even in the heat. We are still getting an average of about 9 eggs each day. It has been such a blessing to have eggs to share with those who share their garden produce with us and to send home with our guests.

Garden/ Chicken Update June 2011

I can hardly believe it! My very small garden is still alive and is producing veggies!! I know that I am inviting disaster by writing those words, but I can't help it - I'm that excited!! We have tomatoes and cucumbers on the vine and purple hull peas are growing well. The lone strawberry plant that survived the winter is trying valiantly to produce berries. About a month ago, the neighborhood dogs tore out our potato plants (they are why I am cautiously optimistic about the garden). The plants had been growing for about 6 weeks. I assumed that there were no potatoes, but when I dug more compost into the bed, we found a few pounds of new potatoes. Pretty exciting to me :) The fruit trees are doing well. We have an orange and a lemon tree, both which have fruit growing on them. The fig trees have no figs on them this year. Thankfully, we have a another source of figs for this year's preserves.

The chickens are doing really well. We have only one rooster and we've lost a few hens to the dogs, so we have 11 laying hens and 6 new chickens (they are about 3 months old). We get approximately 9 eggs per day, which is plenty for us to use and allows us some to share with our neighbors, friends and family. The new chickens should begin laying around the time the laying flock molts, which is great because then we should be able to keep getting eggs.

Harvested so far this month:
Eggs: 234
Cucumbers: 1
Potatoes: 2 lbs

Homestead Baby Steps

I started a list yesterday of things we need to do around the cabin to help it become more of a homestead. To help me remain accountable, I will post updates, hopefully daily or every few days, as we accomplish things on our list.

I have accomplished one thing on yesterday's list. I began planting cool weather seeds again. I just planted a 4X4 foot bed of lettuce and today will plant one with spinach seeds. I will take picture if/ when things start growing. Also, I have come up with a relatively inexpensive plan for the compost bins. Only time will tell if this actually works, but I am hopeful. In addition, since the hens are laying better again, we have begun sharing our eggs with our neighbors again. I am so excited to be able to to this again, as our neighbors are so wonderful and have been so generous in sharing their time and their garden surplus with us in the past.

But, as I complete things on the list, I find that there are many things to add to the list. I'm afraid that it will soon be much longer :) It will be important for me to focus on the baby steps if I am going to keep from becoming so overwhelmed that I just give up.

A Sense of Urgency

Four years ago, when I began seeking to explore local food supplies and self sufficiency, one of my goals was to acquire land and begin growing/ raising our own food in a more deliberate way. Country living had always been on my heart, but at that point it began to be more about sustenance and less about scenery. Last year, we saw that dream begin to become reality when we moved to our little cabin in the woods. We love our little cabin, and in many ways it is meeting our food growing/ raising needs, but in other ways, it is falling very short.

Our cabin is a hunter's paradise. Too bad, we are just beginning hunters - experience would surely help us to have more success. It is also a nice place to raise some livestock. Our chickens are doing well and I could see adding a few more things such as ducks and fish (we have a pond) and maybe goats (lots of scrub), but anything requiring pasture, such as cattle, sheep and turkeys, is probably out.

The other problem we have with growing our own is lack of sunlight. We are literally IN the woods, so we get no sunlight from mid March to mid October. Fall/ Winter crops grow fine here, and once we have better fencing, I think we will have success in those seasons, but unless we can find a way to increase our sunlight, spring/ summer crops will fail here.

I am beginning to feel a sense of urgency in becoming more self sufficient. The world seems to be changing very quickly and it has me nervous. It could just be post pregnancy hormones or something, but I am becoming increasingly concerned about being able to feed my family. Food and gas prices seem to be rising daily and I am beginning to see empty shelves in the grocery store. We had been, as a family, transitioning away from the grocery store for a few years and over to farmer's markets and raising our own, that is, until last year when I became pregnant and spent those months so sick and so exhausted. Now that our little man is here, it is time to get serious about building our homestead. Here is a list of the things we are going to be working on in the coming weeks.

1. Repair/ renovate the chicken coop and run. The cold, rain and ice were really hard on the chickens' home. Much of the safety netting is torn and needs to be replaced. We also want to add a pitched roof to the run so that when we cover it next winter, rain does not pool in the tarp and tear the netting. First on the agenda with the coop, after replacing the torn netting, is to make the laying boxes accessible from the outside. The roosters are becoming increasingly aggressive with my husband and the boys and I think it would be safer as well as simpler to be able to get to the eggs from outside the chicken run. This would also be safer for the chickens, since there is a chance of them getting out every time we open the door. In fact, last week, two of them got out and we were not able to catch them or coax them back into the run, and the neighborhood dogs got them both.

2. Build a stronger fence around the garden. I am afraid we will need cattle fencing around the garden in order to keep the dogs out. For some reason, the neighborhood dogs enjoy digging up some of my plants and sitting on and crushing the rest of them. A stronger fence may keep them out.

3. Plant some fruiting trees and bushes. We have a small area on our property near the road that gets sunlight. We will be planting some fruit trees and berry bushes along the tree line in the coming weeks.

4. Repair the compost bins. The dogs destroyed the compost bins and scattered the compost all over the woods. I think we will have to make the bins out of wood and hope they survive the canine assault.

5. Remove some of the smaller trees on the property. Many of the shade producing trees are huge and much to big for us to remove ourselves. Since tree removal is expensive, we will only be removing the two that are near the house and that I feel are in danger of falling in the next few years. I do feel confident in removing the smaller trees, though. In fact, the boys and I removed many of them last year and cut them up for firewood. We plan to continue doing that this year.

6. Investigate indoor growing. We grew micro-greens indoors last year with some success. I would like to do that again. We also have everything we would need to grow sprout, except the seeds. I need to find a source for seeds. Anyone have a suggestion?

7. Get something into the ground outside. I plan to get some seeds into the ground, even before the new fencing is up. Lettuce and snow peas, as well as carrots and spinach are on my list right now. I hope we will see these last till harvest.

How about you? Are you feeling a sense of urgency about things lately? What are you doing around your home in terms of growing or raising food? Have you made any changes to your shopping habits?

Harvest Totals October 2010

Well, October has been much better, harvest wise, than July, August or September. The garden has consistently provided enough greens for a salad about 3 times a week, and I was even able to bring a salad to a family gathering for 11 and I only had to add a cucumber from the grocery store. I was pretty excited!! These greens include mesclun (looks to me like only red and green leaf lettuce), romaine lettuce, baby kale, parsley and occasionally baby swiss chard. It is so nice to have homegrown greens again.

This was taken early last week. The eggs are usually bigger, more like the size of the green one, and we usually have more than 7 as well.

The hens have really hit their stride egg production wise. Their eggs are getting bigger, averaging large size, though there are two who are laying the equivalent of jumbo eggs. They are also averaging 9 eggs per day now, up from about 6 last week. This month, they laid 186 eggs!! I am extremely pleased with this number. It comes out to an average of 6 per day for the entire month, and that includes days with only one egg and even one day with zero eggs. In fact, we have so many eggs, I'm not sure what we will do with them. We gave away 3 dozen this week, ate or baked with 2 dozen and have 4 dozen left in the refrigerator. I wish I knew where to find one or two customers. I don't think I could support more than two, just in case they don't lay well one week, but it would be nice to have an outlet for these eggs.


In the meantime, I guess we'll be eating lots of omelettes, like the one above, which is made with caramelized veggies and cheese. Yummy!!

What's Happening Around the Little Cabin

Today was a pretty busy day at The Cabin. It has been raining most of this week, which meant we could not get much done outside, and there was lots to do outside. Today, we were blessed with cool weather and sunshine, so we got outside and got stuff done :)


First, we put wheat straw in the chicken run (they were so thrilled) because all that rain had turned things to mud. While we were in there working, we had the opportunity to see one of the hens lay an egg :) That was pretty exciting for the boys and for me, especially because she's my favorite hen (very friendly - she lets me pet her and she "talks" to us). It was also neat because now we know which eggs are hers ( the really jumbo sized army green colored ones - WTG girly).


Next, we put down some stepping stones to make a path between the house and the shed. We must walk that path a lot more than the previous owners. We had walked a dirt/ mud path through the grass and decided it would be better for the lawn and for our shoes if we had stepping stones.

We also put a temporary fence up around my garden, as all of the animals in our neighborhood seem to think of my garden as their own personal beds and they have been crushing my lettuce. Hopefully we can fortify it in the next day or two and make the fence more permanent.

Finally, we put compost in the new bed and then started some new compost with some leaves and chicken manure. Phew! I'm tired and so are the boys. Busy, busy day!!

What's happening at your place?

Garden/ Chicken Update - October 21, 2010

We finally got some rain, after 9 weeks with no measurable rainfall. The ground was so dusty that we could barely walk outside some days, with all the dust flying around. The ground, and my garden are enjoying the deep drink of rainwater provided earlier this week.

The little fall garden is really beginning to feed us more substantially (finally!!) and I could not be more happy. Our greens have reached the baby stage so we have been enjoying some nice "gourmet" salad mix with our meals and even as meals. I don't weigh the "harvests" but I have taken pictures of a few of them. Our mix includes mesclun (a few green and red leaf lettuces), romain, parsley and kale. The spinach is still too small - only about 4 true leaves and not many plants - so we are not harvesting it yet. The above photo is pretty representative of a harvest and we are able to pick this much a few times a week. This amount will make 3-4 side salads or two or so meals.

This week, I planted some more mesclun and spinach. The spinach plants that have been growing for several weeks are still so small, and most of the seeds did not germinate yet plus two of my chickens got out a few weeks ago and ate half of the mesclun seedlings. Having a staggered planting will be nice, so I guess things have worked out for the best, in that regard. I am hoping that we can keep all beasts from eating, squashing or digging up the garden so that we can continue to enjoy it in the coming months.

The hens are laying pretty well (except for today when they laid a grand total of ZERO eggs - weird). So far this month, they have laid 113 eggs and we have been able to use almost half for ourselves (we enjoy eggs, plus we bake a lot) and have been able to share the rest with our family and neighbors. I've really enjoyed that part of having laying hens. It is nice to have something our land has produced to be able to share with our "community".

We are getting ready to add compost to a new bed that we will use for herbs and tomatoes, plus probably a few caning berry plants (blackberries, maybe) in the spring. I'd like to get the parsley transferred there before it gets cold here. If I can get to that next week, then that will free up another 4 square feet of garden for more spinach. I also still need to plant the sprouted potatoes and garlic. We have a micro climate (where that new bed is going) that is significantly warmer than the rest of our place and gets lots of sunlight, too. The potatoes will be in containers in that area, so I think they will grow well into winter and produce a small harvest. Not a lot, but home grown potatoes are so worth the effort :)

I have a question for all my gardening friends. How often do you add compost or fertilizer to your garden? I've been adding compost (made with leaves, garden plants, grass clippings, kitchen waste, chicken and rabbit droppings, wood shavings and hay) about once every 2 months or so. Is this often enough or am I depleting the soil? Any advice?

September "Grow Our Own" Totals

We finally have something (though just a very little) harvested to count, so I'm going to try to keep track of what our little cabin/ farm is producing for us.

In September, we grew a lot of baby lettuce that we did not get to consume, but that the chickens did get to consume and that we will ultimately consume as eggs. The only green stuff we harvested in September was parsley and basil. The parsley was used in Taboulleh and most of the basil was dried (5 plants - dried to about a cup of crushed leaves). In addition to the small harvest, we planted lots of fall crops including Romaine lettuce and Mesclun, Kale, Beets, Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Snow Peas, and Spinach. We lost our bunching onions to something (I think it was our dog who dug them all up) and those will be replanted soon.

Not food, but we also harvested some hay (about 3 wheelbarrows full) and have some more to harvest. We also cut some trees (3) and made firewood.

The chickens began laying eggs on Sept. 19th and the total egg production for the month was 60 eggs. We used many of them ourselves and have also been able to share some with our wonderful neighbors. We also harvested a rooster who dressed out at about 3 or so pounds. He is still in the freezer.

All things considered, I am quite pleased with our very small harvest. I am hopeful that October will be even more productive.

How about you? Harvest anything in September?

Little Cabin/ Garden Update

I'm sitting here this morning with all of the windows open, listening to the sounds chickens make when they are busy laying eggs. The trees have been losing their leaves for weeks, though our temps have been in the 70's at night and 90's during the day. It may have looked like fall around here, but it has not felt like it, at least not until this morning when we woke up to a lovely 51 degrees :) Fall makes me happy.

This is the path to the pond on our property. In the summer, it was so dark on this path that it looked like evening all the time. With the leaves falling, we are starting to see the sun again.


We've been keeping the chickens inside their run instead of letting them run around in the woods and yard. Trying to grow a garden with them running around was futile. Even with netting and fencing, they still managed to eat most of my seedlings, and what they did not eat, the dog would dig up, so this summer did not boast much of a harvest. After losing two plantings of my fall garden, I finally have something to show for my efforts.



The small plants in this photo are some kale I just planted. The larger plant in the foreground is ginger that I planted from a sprouted ginger root I had for cooking. It is about 3 inches tall right now. Its really fun to get free plants from the kitchen :)Here are a few of our broccoli plants. We have nine, which will not be enough to supply us with broccoli for even a few weeks (we go through tons of broccoli here), but still, it is worth the effort of planting some.

Here is our "spring mix" lettuce that is just coming up. I have lost count of how many times I replanted this as the chickens would eat this up as soon as it sprouted. We like to harvest a few leaves from each plant every day to make a salad. That way, they just keep growing all season. These usually are ready to start harvesting by about 3-4 weeks old. We've got about 2-3 weeks to go.



Here is our romaine. I think we have 12 plants. They are growing nicely and I am hoping we will be able to start using some of them as baby lettuce soon.

We have not had measurable rain in over 6 weeks. The garden is surviving because it is small enough for me to keep up with watering. The rest of the yard is not doing as well. Most of the grass is brown and the trees that still have leaves are looking pretty thirsty. We had about 15 minutes of rain yesterday, but it was definitely not enough to make any difference. Hoping for a little bit more soon.

I think that this week I will pull up the rest of the basil and either dry it or make one last pesto with the harvest. In its place, I think I will plant some of the sprouting potatoes that are in my house waiting for a place to grow. Potatoes grow pretty well here during fall and even winter, if they are kept in a warm-ish area and get enough light.

We have a very small area with cut hay that we have slowly been raking and bringing in. Right now, all that we have 'harvested" is in the chicken coop, but I am hoping to get a little put away for later when the pen needs to be refilled.

We also built the girls two more laying boxes and they are putting them all to good use. When they first started laying we were getting about 4 eggs per day, on average. They have slowly increased their numbers and are now averaging about 8 per day. Not only are they laying more, but their eggs are getting bigger.




The middle egg was laid last Wednesday and the other two were laid on Saturday ( you can see the date I wrote on the green/ blue one-I date the eggs as I bring them in so that I can be sure to use the oldest ones first-learned that from my friend Kathleen ). At first they all looked like that little bitty one, but now most of them are like the big ones and we only get one or two of the little ones per day.

At this point in my pregnancy, I am still feeling really great and have lots of energy, so I am hoping to get some more of our projects done in the next few weeks. We are hoping to build some beds to help with erosion where our yard does not get enough light and water for the grass to grow. I am also hoping to chop down some more small trees and cut them into firewood (not only is it great exercise for me but the boys love this chore and will happily help with it for hours at a time). We are also hoping to get some limestone put down in the driveway/ parking area so that when the rain starts up again, we are not walking through mud to get to the house.

Inside the house, I am hoping to get the school room back into shape - it has become the school room/ dumping ground for anything that does not have a home. I also hope to organize the pantry.

What is going on over at your place?

Garden Update: Fall Garden and Garden Addition Plans

Well, there is not much to take pictures of right now in the garden. The only things growing now are parsley, mint, basil, bunching onions (and they died back when it was so hot and dry), a pineapple top I planted as an experiment and one or two lettuce plants that survived the assault by the 60 lb puppy.Mint that has started growing again after all of the heat lately.

I put the fence back up and planted some seeds for fall. So far, I've planted broccoli seeds, swiss chard, kale, spinach and some sprouting ginger. Still to go in are beets, potatoes and carrots. I'm also thinking of adding snow peas which we've grown during winter before, though not in this planting zone.

This was a pineapple top I planted several months ago. It is starting to grow new leaves (lighter colored than the original)

We also did some planning over the weekend and decided that while the location of the garden will be fine during the winter, it does not get enough sunlight during the summer when the trees have leaves, so we are building more raised beds in other locations of the property that get more sun. These will need to be built in the next few months since I may have a high needs baby in the spring.
I know the chickens are not technically part of the garden, but since they fertilize it and eat so much of it, I'll put the chicken update here with the garden. After much debating, I've decided against building a new coop for the layers. Instead, I am going to add laying boxes to the existing run. Not only will this be easier for me, but the chickens will probably like it better, since they are creatures of habit and do not take very well to change. Another bonus is that the girls will probably start laying as soon as the weather cools a bit and there is definitely more of a chance I will have laying boxes built in time. We will build a chicken tractor with an enclosure for the little group of hens and rooster that we are hoping will become parents, but that can wait since I really don't want little ones while the weather is cold.


The roosters are getting so beautiful. Their long draping feathers are growing in nicely and they are becoming so colorful. One of them is a dark red with iridescent dark green tail and shoulder feathers. The boys call him "Pawski" after my Dad. He is in the picture above surrounded by his girls :)One of the others (Casanova - he is the most amorous) is a beautiful gold color with lots of rust and dark greenish black tail feathers. He is pictured above with the Dominique rooster who is so huge. The one below is a Barred Plymoth I think, (based on his coloring and comb). So pretty, don't you think? Can you see the pretty colors this one has on his sides. They boys call him Hawkie because his comb looks like a mohawk, lol.

Most of the time, Pawskie (the Rhode Island Red) is the only one to hang out with the girls. He is a wonderful protector. The other Roos usually just act like frat boys hanging out together unless they are feeling amorous. Usually. It is actually quite interesting to see the flock dynamic beginning to develop and to watch the guys taking care of the girls, but that's another blog post.

Edited to add pictures.

Garden Update - May 5, 2010

Our little garden is coming along. We are harvesting a little something almost every day now (mostly peas and strawberries). Here are a few pictures and updates:

Here are some blueberries. We have two bushes and they are loaded down with pretty silver-blue berries. We are really going to enjoy these in a few months.


These are our yellow bush beans. They look a little droopy because we had just watered them with the hose and that usually temporarily knocks them down. Behind them, you can see russet potatoes which are growing like crazy.
These are "Small Sugar Pumkins" the boys planted a few weeks ago. If they fruit, the boys want to make pies from them.


These are "Sugar Snow Peas". We have been harvesting a few each day and some of them even make it all the way into the house before they are eaten :)

This is my parsley plant. It has been eaten down to the dirt several times by the adorable little woodland creatures, so I put this hardware cloth around it until we get the fence built. It seems to be working well.



These are our little "Black Prince" Russian heirloom tomatoes. This picture is almost a week old, and I cannot get over how much they have grown in that time.

These are some bunching onions that my Dad gave me from his garden. These never develop a full bulb, but serve nicely as green onions. He originally got these from my grandfather who was a farmer. Dad has been growing these for years without ever having to get new plants, since they make new onions by growing "babies" around the "mama".



These are the garden boxes my Dad built for us last year when we were in a rental. The tomatoes are planted here as are the snow peas, some bulb onions (red, yellow, white and sweet), some carrots, a few strawberries and spinach.

I do not have pictures of the rest of the strawberries, nor the pear tree with its thousands of little pears, nor the fig tree. For some reason, I also don't have a picture of the Swiss Chard, which is ok, since it is still pretty small. When there are more leaves on the new raspberry and blackberry canes, I'll post pics of those, too. Also, we have recently been gifted a loquat tree, which has the boys thrilled. It is still really small, but when we find a place for it, I'll post a pic, too.

The garden is small this year, but I am really hopeful. We are planning to remove some of the big trees near the house, which may free up some more space to garden. Do you have a garden update on your blog? Feel free to post a link in the comments, since most of my readers love to read garden updates. I know we'd all love to see what's going on in your garden. :)

A Few More Pictures

Last week flew by in a blur - there was so much to do, and unfortunately, not all of it was outside. But at least now, our taxes are done :) I had hoped to spend Thursday outside working on the garden, but instead, spent the day inside because of rain. Well, most of the day, anyway. I did get to spend some time outside in the rain, raking and digging wet leaves and branches out of the ditch near the driveway. It must have rained really hard that night because that morning, I noticed that the street was flooded in front of our house. When I investigated, I found that it was because there were leaves and sticks blocking the flow of water through the ditch. Ahhh . . . country living :)

We had guests over this weekend, so I spent most of Friday getting ready for them, but I did have time to plant 4 asparagus plants. From what I can tell, moles have already dug up one of them, but I am hopeful that the others will make it.

Saturday, our guests were interested in going to town to check out some garden centers, so we did. We came home with a Japanese Magnolia, an Azalea bush (an interesting variety that blooms most of the time), strawberry plants, blueberry plants, raspberry plants, a few heirloom tomatoes and a flat of pansies that we received for free (I am sure it is because they were looking kinda rough and would have been hard to sell - and aren't they going out of season, too?). We put them to good use filling some terra cotta pots with them.

This one is my favorite.

The garden is slowly getting built. I am hoping to spend today working on it and maybe get it built and at least one raised bed planted. This is what it looked like late yesterday afternoon. The plan is to cover the area we are building it on completely with hardware cloth (moles) then lay weed blocking paper (most likely newspaper) over that. We will lay the beds on top of that and build a fence around the entire area. I'm hoping to get the hardware cloth and weed blocking done today so that I can start filling the beds. As you can see in the picture, I had to purchase compost this year as there is no way the compost I am making will be ready in time for spring planting. I guess that means we'll have to build more beds in the fall :) The fence around the garden may have to wait until early next week because I have another pressing building project that I must finish soon. I need to build a chicken coop.

Yes!! A chicken coop!! We were offered 3 hens and a rooster and if we are going to take them, they need to bring them by next weekend. Since they are full grown and already laying, they need a coop and not just a cardboard box, so I better get busy. I will post pictures of them some time next week. I do have some pictures of my Dad's chicks. He got 4 of them last week from a farm supply store in a town near where they live. They are such cuties!!
His choices were the commercial variety of white egg laying chickens or a mixed variety, so he went with the mixed, though he does not know what kinds they are or what sex. We think the gray one is a rooster, but the others are probably hens. The chicks (oh, and my parents) were our visitors this weekend so the boys fed these chicks lots of our farm bugs and my compost got a nice little (well actually, not so little, these guys can produce some manure!!) boost of chicken manure. Just a few short years ago, I would NEVER have believed I would be glad to have poop, lol. Ahh . . . country living :)

Projects and Happenings at the Cabin Update (Pics)

I have a few pictures. I'll add more as things get done :)



We are having much success, as you can see, in growing a puppy. He is getting so big. And, he has a natural hunting instinct already, which I can appreciate. He has already caught (and ate) a mole that was digging around in the area we are prepping for my garden. Love that dog!!

This is the pear tree. It does look somewhat like a Bradford Pear, but the branches are more spread out. Only time will tell if we will be putting up our own pears this year.

Between doctor's appointments, vet appointments, homeschooling and math club, I have not been able to get outside to work on the many projects I had planned. I have something else pressing to do today, but tomorrow, after school, I am hitting the yard and getting some work done :)

Garden Update - Feb 22, 2010

Here is a picture of my indoor garden. I have 4 containers of lettuce planted and sitting in a sunny window growing like wild. The container in the foreground was newly planted. The one you can see in the background is almost 2 weeks old. So far we have only used it as micro greens on sandwiches, but it is growing really well and I am hopeful that some will grow past the micro stage and we will get some baby greens. I am very pleased with how well this is working out. I hope to continue growing these indoors all year, since we eat a great deal of lettuce - more than I would be able to grow outdoors (for now, anyway).

I've also pulled all of our carrots and since the adorable little forest creatures at the rest of the garden, I've planted new seeds in those containers and put a screen on top (pictures coming - its raining right now). So far I've planted one 2X2 box of kale and one of sweet peas. I'd love to try beets again, and I have one 2x2 that is not yet planted, so I will probably put beets in there. The garden beds will be ready for planting in a week or two, and I'd like to put some cool weather crops in one 4x8 bed. Lettuce, spinach and carrots for sure and if I have enough room, cabbage and broccoli, though I'd have to buy the last two as plants for them to have enough time to mature before the heat kicks in.

The onion tops are starting to grow back and I am hoping that they will still be usable this year. In addition, the parsley is growing back. I hope that I can keep the local wildlife out of them both long enough to be able to harvest.

Its hard to believe that it will be time to start planting the summer garden in our area in anther month or so. Have you started planning your summer garden?

Can you compost Valentines Day flowers?

I know you "can", but I guess my question is actually, should you compost them. Is there anything in them that would make it unsafe to use them, composted, in our veggie garden?

Garden Update January 29, 2010

Look how pretty! The previous owner planted lots of bulbs all over the "yard" and things are starting to come up. These daffodils bloomed just yesterday. Aren't they pretty :)



Last week, I posted about the "no longer so cute" little woodland creatures who are eating my container garden that we brought with us when we moved. At first, I joked with my husband that I hoped it was a deer because with all of the onion tops and parsley it had eaten, my sausage would already be seasoned. We discovered though, that it is probably rabbits. We found a rabbit "village" - lots of rabbit holes and lots of rabbit families - just a few feet from the location of the container garden. My Dad is planning to take the boys rabbit hunting soon, but really, there is no way to keep them completely out of the garden, so I think we are going to have to try to contain the entire garden somehow to protect it.

The plan is to build 4' X 8' raised beds (hoping to have the first one finished by next weekend) with a hinged lid composed of 2 4X4 frames with hardware cloth stretched across the top and sides. The lids will fasten to the raised beds with some sort of clasp so that they cannot be opened without an opposable thumb, lol. Under each raised bed we are going to put hardware cloth to help keep out the diggers. I don't know if we will be able to completely outsmart the critters, but we will start here and add more reinforcements if necessary.

I am also planning to add lids to the container garden, as the onion tops and parsley are growing back. Hopefully we will still be able to harvest and use these at some point. And speaking of harvest - I harvested 8 carrots this week (5 orange and 3 white) and used them in a soup - well, only what the kids didn't eat right away made it into the soup. Very yummy! I hope to plant more as soon as the new beds are ready.



While my parents were here last weekend, my Dad helped me to make a compost bin, and he, Mom and our oldest son helped to fill it with leaves. I'll get a picture of it soon and post it. It is nothing special, just posts and hardware cloth, but we definitely need it for the garden and we have more than enough leaves to get one started.

I also mentioned last week that I wanted to work on getting some salad greens to grow indoors. We have many East facing and many South facing windows that get so much beautiful direct sunlight. A week ago, I planted the first small container (an old bowl) with mesclun seeds and they are up.


We will probably harvest some as micro greens and let some continue to grow to the "baby greens" stage. If they look to be growing well, I'll let one or two plants get bigger. I planted a second container yesterday - in a lettuce container from the grocery (thanks for the idea, Alea!!).


In another week, I should be able to tell if they are going to grow well. If they are, I will plant another container and then a fourth the following week, maybe with spinach.

Do you have a winter garden growing? I love to read about other people's gardens and would love to read an update of yours. Please post a link or update in the comments :)

This post is linked up to Fertilizer Friday.

Garden Update January 19, 2010

Can you believe that even after a hard freeze (low of 18 Degrees for 5 straight days), a lot of neglect before the move, and then moving, my container garden survived! That is until something in our woods ate about 1/3 of it, including some of our onions. I am disappointed to be sure, but I'm trying to chalk it up as a lesson learned BEFORE I actually build and plant the spring/ summer garden.

I have several different plans for a garden floating around in my head. One includes raised beds with small holed chicken wire under the beds and a mesh covered hinged top on each. This would be expensive to build and would only really work for things that don't get really tall or spread out too much, which means I'd need another option for those items. A second idea is a fenced in area with small chicken wire covering the entire ground inside of the fenced area and tall fences since deer are everywhere on the property and they jump regular fences as easily as I walk.

If you have experience gardening in this type of environment, I'd love to hear your experience and what you've done to help your garden efforts make it to your table. Does a dog help? We are getting one in a few weeks, but it will most likely be indoors or in the kennel at night, which is when I think our uninvited dinner guests are dining.

We are also ordering chicks soon, so if you have thoughts on breeds, coops, etc, I'd appreciate hearing your advice.

In the mean time, I think I will stick to making compost from the acres of leaves we have scattered all over the property, and trying again to grow salad greens indoors. At least I know the deer won't get that salad. :) I'll post pics once I get that experiment started.

Yummy Homemade Lemonade from our Homegrown Lemons!

This is all that is left of our first pitcher of homemade lemonade made with our homegrown lemons. It was so yummy! Here's how we made it:

Lemonade

1 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice (it took 4 lemons)
1/2 cup sugar (most recipes call for more, but we like ours sour)
3 cups water

Add all ingredients to a pitcher and stir until dissolved. Enjoy :o)

Are you enjoying anything from your garden this week?

Garden Update 9-14-09

Our little seedlings are growing.

Our lettuce is getting bigger and starting to put out new leaves.



The spinach is also starting to put out true leaves that are growing so quickly.

Here are the little tiny carrots. They are so cute :o)

We are still getting tomatoes. In fact, since the weather has become more mild, they have begun to put out more tomatoes than before.

We are also getting more peppers.

We also have small beet seedlings, fingerling potato seedlings, one cabbage seedling and parsley seedlings. Our lemons are starting to turn yellow. I am planning to plant a few more cabbage, lettuce and spinach plants, some garlic and some kale.

What's happening in your garden?

Garden Update - September 3, 2009

My little garden is in transition. Since the weather has become more mild, some of the summer veggie plants have rebounded and begun producing again. In addition, some of the fall plant seeds have been sown and are germinating.

This week, I've harvested one lemon (our first!!), two small "pear" tomatoes and a bunch of basil that I am currently drying.


We've planted lettuce seeds and now have 14 lettuce plants that are all about 2.5 inches tall and growing every day. We've also planted 32 carrots and most of them have germinated and are growing nicely. In addition, we planted 17 spinach plants, 8 beets, two cabbages and 2 parsley plants that have yet to germinate, (though I only planted these on Monday). Most of these are planted in the two moveable raised garden beds that my Dad has made for us.


He also gave us a bunch of compost he made with organic materials from his garden. We are using it to add to the soil of all of the containers in the garden to feed the plants. Having the raised beds on wheels is helpful in moving them around to maximize sunlight. There is no one spot in our yard that gets more than a few hours of sunlight a day, but if we move the plants twice a day (once right at sunrise and once at lunch time), we can arrange for them to get 8 hours of full sun. Rolling beds make that chore much easier, and thus make it more likely that we'll do it.

Still left to plant for the fall garden are onions, garlic, one or two broccoli plants (N, our oldest wants to grow these himself - it is his favorite veggie) and potatoes. Plus if we can find the space for them, I'd like to grow some kale and chard and more beets and cabbage.

I love to read about other's gardens, so if you have a post with an update, leave a link in the comments and I'll check it out. Thanks :o)