Hopping the Fence

I stare at the shed in the back yard while I'm washing dishes.  There is barely anything in it.  I prefer to keep my lawnmower, garden tools, and whatnot in the garage, so the shed is just barren.  It also has that weird added-on roof that scares the bejeezus out of me.  I mean, look at that support post just barely hanging on to the concrete brick there.  There's a small pile of firewood under that roof that could easily be relocated.

I've also been taking a look at my finances, and my student loan, new car, and tax repayments are going to swamp me for about three years.  It's unlikely we'll be vacationing for more than a few days away from home, if at all in that time period.  To sum that up... I'm going to be staying home and I'm going to be living on limited means for a while.  I'm perfectly okay with this, as I'm soon going to be starting a position that is literally a two-minute drive from my house (that alone is a $300/month savings in gasoline as my current commute is nearly an hour and a half each way).

So, I'm getting chickens.  I'm converting the shed into a coop and building a run so they'll have a place to scratch and play outside without worrying about dogs, hawks, foxes, raccoons, skunks, and coyotes.  It gets cold here, so the chickens I chose are breeds that are exceptionally cold-hardy.  I've also chosen breeds that are friendly and lean toward not being broody, since I'm not going to be hatching chicks.

But, back to the shed:  This front corner of the floor definitely needs to be addressed.  Not only is it an entry for predators, it can expose the chickens to drafts.  It looks like the concrete pad crumbled and bricks were used to support the base of the shed.  Pavers were thrown down to even out the floor.  I think some excavation of the crumbled bits has to happen, and some concrete needs to be mixed up and poured to remedy the situation.

 The interior of the shed needs to be cleaned out, but there is plenty of room for 7 chickens, roosting bars, nesting boxes, and a quarantine space for sick or new chickens.  Once again, the floor needs to be leveled out and repaired.  There is plenty of ventilation in there, which is important for healthy birds.

I love that the doors of the shed open wide and allow for easy entry, which should make gathering eggs and cleaning the coop a breeze, but the locks need to be revamped.  Raccoons have finger dexterity and can figure out most simple locks rather quickly.  The main latch on the door doesn't latch very well at all.

We're going to build a run similar to this one, but one that is taller because I want to be able to get inside of the run to rake it out and replenish supplies without having to stoop over to do so.  The other change I'm making is using 1/2-inch hardware cloth instead of chicken wire, since predators can easily break through chicken wire.

Now, for the fun part:  the chickens!

The first chicken breed I chose is the Speckled Sussex.  They're just so pretty!  They're also prolific egg layers.  The speckling is more pronounced as they age, so early on, they'll mostly have brown feathers with a few hints of white.

The second breed I chose is the Buff Orpington.  They can occasionally get broody (sit on their eggs in an attempt to hatch them, which won't happen since we won't have a rooster).  They're known for being great layers, but also for having a sweet temperament.

We'll have seven hens total:  4 Sussex and 3 Orpingtons.  As an added bonus their litter can be added to the compost tumbler, and they'll happily eat veggie scraps, slugs, and other garden pests.  We're not letting them free range as we live on a busy road, every one of our neighbors has a dog, birds of prey are everywhere here, and they'll be more than happy to not only clear the bugs out of the garden, but they'll also voraciously eat seedlings.

The day-old chicks will be arriving April 4th or so, and there's a lot to do between now and then.  They will be living in a brooder (baby chicken house) for a couple of months before they're introduced into the coop, but we still have a lot to do between now and then.  Don't forget that we're also taking delivery of trees for the orchard, assembling the garden beds, and digging 40 million holes for plants and trees.

Here's the list I'm working with:

• build chicken run panels in the garage 
• clean out the coop
• excavate loose concrete in the coop
• patch holes and cracks in the concrete floor
• use self-leveling concrete to even out the coop floor
• relocate firewood
• remove roof
• replace latch
• cover windows with hardware cloth
• predator-proof perimeter of coop and run (buried hardware cloth)
• assemble run
• cut out door to run
• build roosting bars
• install cleaning boards under roosting bars
• install nesting boxes
• install feeding/watering/dust bathing stuff

Living Landscape

Ouachita Blackberry

I have a lot of digging to do.  

My garden and orchard plans have snowballed into a near full-on farm.  In addition to the quince, apples, and peach tree I initially planned on, I've added several other trees, a rather large handful of berry plants, and a couple of elderberry bushes.  

So, what's new?  I've added a Blenheim apricot tree, Illinois Everbearing mulberry, Stanley plum, and a Brown Turkey fig that'll spend winters inside.  I've added a collection of northern highbush blueberries, Boyne raspberries, Koralle lingonberries, Old North Sea strawberries, and Ouachita thornless blackberries. I nixed the Queen Cox apple altogether.

I'm going to go off on how excited I am for a minute.  The Blenheim apricot is the benchmark of apricot flavor.  They were grown at Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, and at Blenheim Castle in England.  Despite the royal pedigree, they don't tend to sell well at market because they don't take on that perfect light orange coloring.  In fact, their shoulders tend to stay on the greenish side.  Oddly enough, they just appear to be under-ripe.  Inside is a veritable explosion of apricot flavor.  Blenheims are in danger of disappearing for the simple reason that Americans like their food to look pretty, and commercial farms are pressured to grow varieties that do just that, despite what may be a sacrifice in flavor.

Blenheim apricots

Initially, I was going to build raised beds on my own, but I've decided to go with pre-made that requires minimal assembly.  It's quick and dirty, and I can spend more of my time digging holes for the bazillion trees I'm planting.  I'm putting them directly on top of the soil, so I don't have to have a deep bed.  I'll just have to remove the turf and turn some dirt over to loosen up the soil.  

I got four beds that measure 4 feet x 8 feet x 10.5 inches, and three beds that are 4 feet x 4 feet.  

Emily wants to plant corn, so one of the four-foot beds is destined for a patch of corn for her.  

The other two small beds are earmarked for asparagus and strawberries, respectively.  The large beds will have our usual staples like beans, peas, beets, tomatoes, peppers, greens, squash.  I'll likely get another bed for just herbs.

Due to our current rodent situation in the lawn (voles and moles), I've decided against my original plan of building a compost bin on the ground.  Instead, I've used my Amazon gift cards to buy a compost tumbler.  This one has two sections so that each side can be in different stages of breakdown.  Until I have leaves to rake up, I'm going to use some coconut coir potting amendment as my "browns" so that my compost will cook and not turn into a slimy bog (which is what happens when you have too many greens).  

We're still on the fence about chickens.  It wouldn't take much at all to convert the backyard shed into a pretty solid chicken coop.  The issue is that we'd have to be home or to have someone feed, water, and tend to the chickens when we go on vacation.  Maybe once I've finished all of my digging I'll have some time to think about adding chickens to the mix next spring.

Maybe.

Planning the Orchard

Emily (when she was 3) apple picking

I grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts.  One of the best memories I have as a kid is apple picking every fall.  My brother, sister, and I would run wild in the orchard, picking Cortlands, MacIntoshes, and Red Delicious apples.  Once, I picked an apple that was as red on the inside as it was on the outside, and as a city kid, I was in awe.  Who knew that apples could be red inside?!  I haven't seen one in an orchard since, but as I recall, it was one of the best apples I've ever eaten fresh.

I've been bringing my kids apple picking since they were little.  I live just below Western New York's apple growing region, so a "quick" 1-1/2 hour drive is all it takes to have a fun afternoon picking a couple of bushels of apples.  A lot of growers here tend to only have "popular" apple picking varieties like Cortland, MacIntosh, Mutsu, Empire, Gala, Honeycrisp, and Delicious... I like to branch out a bit and find heirloom varieties if I can get them.  My late step-father's favorite apple is called Northern Spy.  Every so often, I can find those at a farm stand locally, but they're gone in the blink of an eye--sometimes, the same day the sign proclaiming their availability is posted!  That was the sad circumstance this year, and I was only able to get a bushel each of Cortlands and Pippin apples (another heirloom variety).

Since some varieties are so prolific here (Cortland!) I don't think I'll be planting those.  I can usually buy a bushel for under $25.  The apples I want are the ones that can't be found on the commercial market.  I want to can applesauce and apple pie filling, have a slew of apples to eat fresh, and some more to dry for morning oatmeal.  Here is the list of the trees that made the cut:

Calville Blanc d'Hiver-

This variety has been dubbed one of the world's best culinary apples, and also one of the least pretty.  It is also notoriously winter-hardy in the aspect that it flowers much later than other varieties, so less chance of a late frost destroying my apple crop entirely.  That pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Queen Cox -

A self-fertile apple, this one doesn't need a pollinator.  This is good, because it's the only mid-season apple I'm planting, so it'll set flowers before the others.  It is great both fresh and cooked, and it is like an improved version of Cox's Orange Pippin.

Northern Spy -

Of course I'm growing this one.  Bonus?  It keeps for 3 or more months if properly stored.  Fresh apples all winter?  Yes, please.

Mountain Rose -

While this one just has a blush of red on the outside, it's rated at one of the most delicious red-fleshed apples.  It also holds its shape for cooking purposes, and also retains its color.  Oh, and it's simply gorgeous!

Smyrna Quince -

I'm also planning on planting a quince tree, since I can only find them at the supermarket in tiny quantities and at $2 each.  Each!  They're inedible raw, but cooking them for a little while softens the fruit, turns it a rosy color, and tastes like a cross between an apple, pear, and the smell of flowers.

George IV Peach -

One of my besties and I make a ton of bourbon peaches every year.  We usually try to get a bushel or two put up, but we got one bushel of really bland-tasting peaches that ended up in the jam pot.  I'm hoping that by growing my own, I can pick them when they're just ripe, and I won't have to settle for bland peaches.  This one is known for cold-hardiness without sacrificing flavor.

The Site:

The orchard is going to be on the side yard, toward the front as the vegetable garden will likely be somewhere behind it.  Since the trees only have to be about 10 feet apart, I'm going to stagger them in two rows so they don't throw shade on the vegetable garden.  I'm also planning on planting berries, but they'll go near the shed somewhere, probably by the row of shrubs in the back.  I'm hoping to have some chickens at some point, and the coop will be near the shed as well, and I don't want to have hungry chickens right next to my berries.  More planning is going to be required, and the chickens are still a potential addition.

The actual site is just above the back yard on a slope, which could be ideal for avoiding cold air that will gather on the low points of the lawn.  It gets sun the entire day.

One of the major issues I've noticed is that I very likely have voles in the yard.  Voles are rodents that look like mice, but with shorter tails.  They are plant eaters, and will chew the bark off of new trees.  Vole damage looks like shallow tunnels running across your lawn, not to be confused with mole damage, which looks like small piles of dirt on the lawn (moles also eat insects, like Japanese beetle grubs, instead of plants).  I poked around and found several holes in the lawn that are likely housing the beasts.

vole damage + the runoff drain

They're going to have to be eradicated, or at least controlled, before new trees are planted.  Spring is already looking busy as can be, but in the end, the results will definitely be worth it!

Plants Gone Wild

My friends & I foraged wild ramps in May

Here we are in the heat of summer--sort of.  This last week was the first one in which it didn't rain nearly every single day.

I haven't done a lick of painting at all because it has been far too humid for exterior painting.  If I think about it too much, I start to panic in the likelihood that at some point during winter break, I'm going to be on the front porch freezing my butt off while painting the front door.  I'm grateful that we have an adequate water supply where others in the country are suffering through drought... but I'd settle for a two-week run of 75 degree days with low humidity.

The garden, though, has been LOVING this weather!


Oddly enough, this is the first year out of the past four that I'm going to have tomatoes!  I've lost the rest of them to blossom end rot, but the raised beds drain really well and I haven't had one with it so far!  It has affected the Black Lightning zucchini due to a calcium deficiency, and I'll fix that for next year by adding some lime and crushed oyster shells.  Lime makes calcium more available to the plant, and crushed oyster shells will add calcium to the soil over the long run.  As always, I've been fighting slugs by applying diatomaceous earth after each rainfall.  They've managed to decimate a stand of green beans, but the other patch is just fine.  My strawberries didn't do much this year, but we went strawberry picking and managed to come home with 18 quarts of berries.  Freezer jam has been made.  The rest of them have been crushed and mixed with a tiny bit of sugar to be spooned on top of waffles, scones, pancakes, and biscuits all winter.

There are just about four more weeks left before school starts, and I'm no where near ready for summer to end.

Year One Down

Well, on Friday, I wrapped up finals week and my first year of nursing.  This year has been a whirlwind of early (4 am!) mornings, challenging skills to learn, and far more med cards than I ever thought possible.  I loved every second of it!

Now that break is here, it's time to get stuff done.

Today, I set the seedlings out on the back deck to begin the hardening off process.  We'll still be in danger of frost for another 5 or 6 weeks, but I'm hoping to get some cloches rigged up before then.  The seed potatoes have been sliced into 3-eye chunks and are scabbing over on the deck as well.  This step is important to protect them from simply rotting away in the soil, which has totally happened to me before.  At some point over the early spring/late winter... neighborhood kids cut down my sapling apple trees with steak knives (which I found in my yard).  I'm devastated, to say the least, but the one "stump" has sprouted buds this week.  It will never be a strong tree, but I'm hoping it can be used to either feed bees or pollinate another apple tree.

The fan I was using to circulate air in the dining room seedling central died and I thought I could get by without it... big mistake.  I've lost half of my peppers to damp rot (all of the hot ones).  I've planted more seeds, and the remainder are enjoying a slightly breezy day on the deck.

I also broke the hose... Well, one of the hoses.  It, however, is the hose that reaches the raised beds, so a new hose is also on the list.

There IS good news.  The peas and garlic are up.  The strawberries are doing well.  Hon Tsai Tai, spinach, basil, cilantro, beets, and carrots have all been planted (and some are sprouted).  I finally sanded down the little Moroccan side table I picked up at the antique mall last February.  I have a few options as to how it'll be painted, but I'm leaning toward something that'll look good on the front porch.  I've also figured out how to add my Instagram feed to the blog.  I took the girls to the creek for a photo shoot, and I'm planning on doing something with the results either in the entry or in the dining room.  Haven't decided, but I'm leaning toward the entry.

Oh, I did manage to finalize the front door's new color, and that'll be in the works soon.

It hasn't been ALL work and no play... I finished a book that I had started over winter break.

And So It Grows

As you may or may not know, I live in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania.  Due to our proximity to the Great Lakes, we have rapid weather changes.  In fact, last week we experienced temperatures as high as 80*F (26C) and as low as 16*F (-8C)... in a 30-hour timeframe.  Due to such fluctuating temperatures, you can imagine how difficult it is to get a garden in place.

Our first average frost-free "safe" day doesn't occur until the very end of May, and our first average killing frost date is mid-September.  It makes for a very short growing season.

So, what's an avid gardener to do?  Start seeds inside!

There are quite a lot of benefits to growing your own plants from seed.  First of all, the sheer abundance of variety trumps anything you can get at a big box store or even at a landscaping center.  You can find varieties that are collected by small mom-and-pop seed companies who are passionate about revitalizing nearly extinct seeds.  You can grow the same melons that Thomas Jefferson grew at Monticello, or tomatoes whose seeds were brought to the U.S. by a singular immigrant nearly 100 years ago.  Much of the produce sold at the grocery stores today have been grown simply for their ability to withstand shipping stress.  When you grow your own vegetables and fruit from seed, you can grow solely for flavor.  Everyone knows a vine-ripened tomato tastes worlds better than anything you can get from the produce aisle in the dead of winter.
 

just one page of lettuces at High Mowing Seeds!

Seed packets have a wealth of growing information on the back

I've waxed poetic about my favorite seed companies before.  I like to stick to small companies that have a commitment to selling seeds that aren't genetically engineered or genetically modified, who sign the Safe Seed Pledge, and who refrain from doing business with Big Ag giants like Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland, Seminis (now a subsidiary of Monsanto), or ConAgra.  That said, I love the folks at High Mowing Seeds, Filaree Garlic Farm, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  I've been ordering from these three companies for a few years, and I've had consistently excellent germination results... not to mention that their customer service is truly excellent.

Just some seeds I'm growing this year... purple carrots, anyone?

If you have never started seeds before, I would advise you start small.  Get a couple of varieties that are suited for your growing zone and grow something that is easy that you really like.  If you like green beans, I would highly suggest starting out with those.  They are nearly foolproof, yield beans all summer, and can be grown outdoors or in a container on a sunny balcony.  You can up the ante with cherry tomatoes and zucchini.  Easy, prolific, and delicious!  Heat-loving plants like peppers and melons are a bit more finicky, and require higher temperatures to germinate (or sprout).  If you do grow them, you might benefit from investing in a heat mat specifically designed for growing seeds.  Lastly, seedlings need about 16 hours of sunlight daily, and I solve this issue with a couple of shop lights that I picked up from Home Depot for about $15 each.  Plant light bulbs run about the same price, so for about $30 you can start enough seeds to fill your garden.  My current light bulbs have been going strong for 3 years now, so it really is an investment that'll pay off in the long run.

Here are some of my "babies" that have just sprouted:

A cabbage plant (purple rim) that Evie brought home from school mixed in with New England Pie pumpkins and Obus melon

Toma Verde tomatillos, H-19 Little Leaf Cucumber, Crimson Sprinter tomatoes

All Red and German Butterball potatoes

King of the North sweet bell pepper, Magnum Orange habanero, Ring O Fire cayenne, Little Tam Jalapeno peppers

Nutterbutter winter squash and Baby Blue Hubbard winter squash

Heritage and Latham raspberry canes (didn't start these from seed)

Amish Paste tomatoes

As you can see, you can use just about anything to start seeds in.  I have peat pots, yogurt containers, and half-gallon milk containers.  I do buy an organic seed starting soil mix to start seeds in, and as they grow, I fertilize them lightly with a tiny bit of Neptune's Harvest organic fertilizer that I just mix with water and add to a spray bottle.  For pest control (like the fungus gnats that killed last year's strawberry plants), I use sticky traps.  Sticky traps are SUPER sticky, so you want to make sure not to touch the sticky part, and keep it away from kids and pets.

In other news, it is finally finals week.  Six more days before I can start working on the house again!

Disclaimer:  I am in no way affiliated with any of the seed companies mentioned here... I just love them.  While I do have an Amazon storefront, none of the links provided are affiliated with the 1868Pleasant Amazon Store.  

I really, really want it to be spring.

Is anyone else in a funk?  Tired of freezing your hind end off and not a lick of green to be found?

I'm right there with you.

A couple of weeks ago, we had temperatures plunge into the well-below-zero region and the water supply line to my washing machine froze.  I ran to Home Depot and picked up a heating cable and some insulation tubes in order to remedy that situation.  Of course, I forgot the heat-safe tape, so by the time I got everything installed we had a 40-degree day and the pipes thawed on their own.  A major lesson I learned in this case was to open the heating cable instructions in the parking lot (after I made my purchase) to find out if I had all of the components necessary to install the cable in the first place.  I also kept the faucets open at a trickle, and kept the washer on so that when things did thaw, there wouldn't be a buildup in pressure.

I did get outside on that 40 degree day to plant garlic in my frozen raised beds.  I simply laid garlic cloves on the frozen soil and covered it with about 4 inches of topsoil that I stocked up on at the end of summer.

German Butterball & Rose Finn Apple fingerlings

I placed my order of organic seed potatoes from High Mowing Seeds already, and those will arrive in April sometime.  I'm sticking with the All Red and German Butterball that I planted last year.  I didn't get a good harvest from the All Red, but that was due to a lot of rain and not enough sun.  I'm skipping the fingerlings this year for the simple fact that they're a bit out of my price range and we didn't get a high yield from them last year.

I'm pretty happy with the fact that my Brown Turkey fig has suddenly gone wild and is sprouting leaves like mad.  I brought it in before our last frost and all of its leaves promptly fell off.  It didn't look like it was going to make it.  I added some azomite and greensand to the soil, watered it a couple of times and left it under the grow lights.  Apparently, that did the trick and I'm hoping to maybe have a figlet at some point.  Fingers crossed.

Next month will usher in seed starting on a larger scale, most notably getting the onion seeds sprouted and I'm going to try my hand at growing them inside, in a container like this:

from Auntie Dogma's Garden Spot

That is pretty fricking amazing if I do say so myself.

Let's Get it Started in Here! Peas are in the Houuuuuse!

As much as I'd like to host the Black Eyed Peas at Chez Pleasant, it's just not going to happen.  It has been a crazy couple of weeks!  I've been working on seed starting, but boy, have we been through some stuff these past few weeks!  Emily started it off with a crazy stomach virus that eventually worked its way through the rest of us, and between doing copious amounts of laundry and making sure kids were not dehydrated, everything else was at a standstill.  I think we all have times like this, so you'll forgive me for not posting, right?  Right.  Okay, let's move on, because like Fergie Ferg says, big girls don't cry.

This past week, I've managed to get the tomato and pepper seeds planted and they're finally sprouting.  I'm growing 8 different varieties of tomato and 9 pepper varieties... 7 of which are spicy.  I do like a hot pepper.  Okay, I love them.  Since peppers crave heat for germination, they're on a toasty heating mat in the dining room.  I'm going to have to move them under the lights, though, to prevent them from getting leggy and unmanageable.  We can't have floppy seedlings.  

I love the names of tomatoes.  I'm planting
"Crimson Sprinter", "Matt's Wild Cherry"

Peppers... and Robb Stark (Winter is Coming!)

I learned a hard lesson in plant starting.  Remember those 125 strawberry plants that I ordered?  I planted them in the Topsy-Turvy Strawberry Planters.  They were doing great and just taking off like I would have a million strawberries in June.   Then I brought a basil plant home that I picked up from the grocery store.  You know, the ones that they put right next to the tomatoes that smell so good and you think, "Mmm basil.  I'm going to make marinara tonight!"  Only you bring it home, and make marinara that night, and a pizza margherita the next night, and that basil plant still has some tiny leaves on it so you think, I'll just stick this under the grow lights so that it can grow and while your head fills with dreams of bruschetta....

You get a fungus gnat infestation.  

See those black dots?
Gnats.

Said fungus gnats moved into my delightfully moist strawberry planters and wreaked havoc.  When I saw the first little cloud of black gnats fly up when I watered the planter, it was far too late.  I've lost about 80% of my plants, and have managed to control the rest from spreading elsewhere by hanging sticky traps next to my seed trays and fig tree.  

In the garden, I've discovered that the weed barrier I first purchased disintegrated as soon as weeds began to grow under it.  I've been holding off on purchasing mulch, as I've been trying to find a mulch that isn't dyed red or black or dyed at all.  You'd be amazed at how difficult this is to do in my area.  Locally, along the side of the highway, crews have been clearing brush and small trees from the sides of the roads so that drivers can see deer that jet across the road.  There are plenty of wood chips there, and I might just call and ask if I can haul some of it away.  If not, I swear I'm going to resort to cedar shavings that is used for hamster bedding.  Anyway, one corner of it flew up during a windy rain storm and when I attempted to put it down again, it just disintegrated in my fingers.  I'm not happy about that.  I got some heavy duty weed barrier at Big Box Store and I intend to weed the underlying layer of vegetation that has sprouted and replace it with the new and improved barrier.  I'm testing it under my potato towers, first, since it has a money-back guarantee to block weeds, I don't want to put it all down if there's a chance it'll peter out in a couple of weeks.

Outside, I've planted beets, peas, kale, lettuce, and red onions--all crops that can stand a little bit of cold.  I started my All Red, All Blue, and Rose Finn Apple potatoes using a tower method.  This is a great way to grow a lot of potatoes in a little bit of space.  I built mine with plastic chicken fencing which I cut horizontally, affixed in rounds with zip ties, and filled with a combination of hay and compost.  

Front to back:  1: kale & lettuce, 2: Spanish onions,
3: beets, and in the 4th box, peas... which are NOT in the house.
On the very right, looking like piles of hay, are the potato towers

Here's a better look at a potato tower:

The side yard, and now the front yard, are plagued with the weed of all weeds-- Bishop's Weed, the variegated form is known as Snow on the Mountain.  Both are illegal to plant in some states due to its ability to invade and choke out nearly everything in its path.  The moment the snow melted, there it was, an inch high.  Of course, I dug out what I could, but two weeks later, it's nearly a foot high.  

No, I haven't weeded the walkway yet.  This used to be a perennial flower garden, until the weed spread from the neighbor's house.

The weed spreads via an extensive runner root system, the tiniest bit of which can sprout another plant.  You cannot just pull it out, as it has bits that shred, spawning-- you guessed it-- more plants.  It's like kudzu, the vine that took over Florida, but shorter.  For years I have mulched, put down weed barrier, newspaper, applied vinegar, and done everything in my organic bag of weed-fighting tricks to keep it from taking over, to no avail.  It doesn't look terrible, but I'd like to be able to have flowers in the side yard.  My friend Kim said the only way to get rid of it is to move out (she has it too).  In fact, it is all over our town.  My goal this season is to try to contain it to where it is, and work with it where it stands.  It does get some lovely Queen Anne-type flowers, so I think I can work with it as long as it doesn't penetrate the garden beds.  Okay, well, it's already in the garlic bed, but once that garlic is harvested, there will be some digging and weed barrier action going on.

Garlic, kale, and weeds

I have plenty on my to-do list for this summer, and I'll be working on that and of course, keeping you all updated.  More to come, and I promise not to get buried under so much work that posting becomes impossible. 

Two Weeks and All is Well!

strawberry lemonade!

It has been 14 entire days since I've written last, due to throwing myself into work and having very little time to do much of anything besides make sure the kids are clean and fed.  We had a couple of nice days--and by nice, I mean over 50 degrees!  I managed to get soil into the raised beds and get some seeds planted outside.

The peas are in the hoop bed, red and golden beets are in another bed, an entire bed of red onion sets have been planted, and a couple of different kinds of kale have just sprouted.  By the time our last frost date rolls around, the peas, kale, and beets should be ready to harvest, and the beds will be home to peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and carrots.  Amazingly, our Red Russian kale from last year started taking off the moment the snow melted.  I picked off the browned outside leaves and it is starting to grow new ones!  The garlic I planted last fall has kicked into gear as well, and I'm starting to feel the excitement of impending summer.  I have a schedule of when to plant each set of seeds, based on the number of days it takes them to mature.  Right now, in the house, I have celery and shallots started, but nothing else will go in until this weekend.

seed starts

This past weekend was Evie's birthday, which also coincided with the opening of Pennsylvania's fishing season, so we went fishing for her birthday!  We've been having a ton of rain, though, so the creek was muddy, fast, and the water level was really high.  Everyone was having a rough time getting the trout to bite.  One gentleman overheard that it was Evie's birthday and gave her his only catch of the day, which was super sweet of him to do.

The birthday girl and her birthday trout

On the homemade front, I've been baking apple turnovers with some of the apple pie filling that I froze last fall.  Tonight I baked some bread, and for the past few weeks have been making a huge batch of steel-cut oats in the slow cooker.  This week, I've been working on going "shopping" in my chest freezer so that we can use up the things that we froze from last year in order to make room for this year's harvest.

I managed to burn my hand last week by hitting the exposed top of my hand against one of the hot oven racks.  I put the last of my homemade "owie salve" on it, so ended up making another batch.  It is easy to make and really works well on minor cuts, scrapes, scratches, and burns.  It also smells really good!  I base my recipe on Mrs. Happy Homemaker's Homemade Natural Neosporin as well as on ingredients that my ex-husband's late grandmother used in her "Horton's" salve.

Herbs infuse the oils making it a dark green

I've been up with a sick kidlet for the past few days, but it looks like the tide has turned and she's on the mend, finally.  I'm going to head to bed early (for me) and hope tomorrow brings us a healthy sort of day.  Friday, I'm headed to the creek to hopefully catch some trout, and Saturday, the girls and I are meeting up with my friend Cynthia to go foraging for leeks and morels.  Of course, I'll take the camera this time.