Happy 2017!

Oh my goodness it is a new year already. I have spent the last couple of months thinking, oh I need to post this amazing (insert whatever I just made, pie, cookie, etc.) recipe! Only to look down and there is nothing left to take a picture of. Optimistically I then think, oh I will make it again this weekend and write down my changes and take pictures... can you guess what happens? No? Seriously? Okay, I know you know. Anyway, the holidays flew by and now it's the start of the new year, again. So many little changes and big goals are racing around in my mind. It can be rather overwhelming to think about all the things I want to get done. A year is a long time and yet, it is only a year.

One Good Deed

Recently I took L1 to the library in the evening after my husband got  home from work. We went partly to pick up our books that came in, partly to sign out a local museum pass but mainly to return a book, The Importance of Being Little, that was not only long overdue  but also now billed to me. I had been working my way through it for the last two months. Because, as you may have guessed in my absence, things have been really busy. I would love to explain that spring is the busiest time of the year and all these things happened, because they did but the real reason for my absence has been lack of motivation. Sleep and energy too but mostly motivation. When you get out of the habit of something, it can be so easy to just let it go for a few days but then days turn into weeks and weeks into months and suddenly it is a whole different season. So today, as I looked over the couple of books that came for me, I saw that One Good Deed: 365 Days of Trying to Be Just a Little Bit Better. I figured that I could check out the introduction while I made lunch. Can you guess what it was about? Yep, doing good but on a larger scale, it was about doing what you are passionate about. One of the things I have been behind on and really missing, is writing. I miss your comments and being part of a community.

Hello May Babies!

Many of you know that we had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new baby. Although the baby wasn't due until May 24th, all three of our little ones arrived around the 37 week mark. Thankfully E2 did not disappoint and arrived at 37 1/2 weeks with a quick but incredibly intense labor.

So where have I been the last five weeks if E2 isn't even 3 weeks old?

Bay Tree

One of the many things that I use in the kitchen is bay leaves. They are great in stock, soups, even macaroni and cheese (at least my recipe calls to add a bay leaf to the milk while you warm it). The one thing I never remember to pick up at the grocery store? Bay leaves.

Bay leaves are simple to harvest and use so I finally decided to bite the bullet and order one. An Internet search for organic bay trees provided many results but The Tasteful Garden's trees looked and sounded the best. Plus they would ship immediately. Price wise, they seemed to be in line with other retailers, although there were a few that were cheaper. I know the saying about judging a book but I found their site pleasing, straightforward and so I ordered the same day.

Hooray for Duck Tape

Last year my squash crop was destroyed by squash beetles. It was highly disappointing as I worked at hand removing the bugs as the eggs (you can see them on the far right side of the picture). After fighting a losing battle for a month or so, I gave up. I pulled all the plants up, they were already dying and threw them away far from my garden compost pile.

I then came across this post by Mavis of One Hundred Dollars a Month regarding how to deal with the beetles. While I didn't find the article itself helpful. The comment section provided a fantastic solution: Duck Tape!

The Reel Deal

I have always wanted a reel mower. My husband has always said no. Then one day, he took a day trip with his brother to New Jersey and I happened upon a tag sale (next door to my parent's house) selling a reel mower. Yep, I bought it. One of the best $5 investments ever!

As soon as I got it home, I buzzed off the kids section of the lawn, maybe about .10 acres. Not a whole lot but enough to see how it works. Yep, I still love it.

Egg Troubles and Homesteading Goals Update Two

A few of you know that our family has been under the weather. We rarely get sick but when we do, we tend to be down and out for a bit. Thankfully, neither I nor the baby got sick so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The boys ran low grade fevers on and off for a week causing us to miss out on some family Easter activities. My middle son is almost better but not quite if the copious amount of green snot is any indication.

Unfortunately, we are not the only ones who have been having some troubles. One of my Red Comets has been having some form of reproductive malfunction. Some days she lays an egg (or two!) sans the shell. Other days she lays really small eggs and some days really large eggs. I mean, really large eggs. Below is a normal Red Comet egg, Last Friday's egg, a small egg from this week and today's egg:

Last Friday she was having some trouble laying the egg. It was stuck! Now, I have read about being egg bound and how a hen will look like a waddling penguin but having never witnessed it, I was doubtful. Here's the thing, when experts say the hen will walk like a penguin, IT WILL WALK LIKE A PENGUIN! There is no mistaking it or guessing about it. I caught the hen for a second and tried to rub a little coconut oil on her vent as the bottom of the egg was sticking out. She just kept moving around, trying to squat and lay the egg every 30 seconds or so. She finally did lay the egg and everything seems fine. With six of the same chickens, they all look very similar so I am not sure exactly who is having the issues. For now I am keeping an eye on them and hopefully, this spurt of egg issues will pass.

2014 Homesteading Update One

Last week I shared all my homesteading goals for this year and this week, I thought I would share a few updates on my list.

Expand my weedless garden beds.
While I haven't expanded yet, we installed the new support system in three of the existing beds. Last week we planted peas in these beds (after soaking them in water overnight) and knew that they would need something to climb. I am planning no putting similar supports up in the new beds for the tomatoes. This way, we can easily plant peas or beans or whatever crops we rotate in the beds each year.

Grow corn for our chickens this winter.
Learn to forage and use forage items.

2014 Homesteading Goals

I rarely make a New Year's resolution. This could be because I haven't seen the ball drop in the last decade and while it is the start of a new calendar year, it really doesn't affect my life. I do however make gardening goals right before spring starts. I make small goals for harvesting. I make goals all winter long and keep a little notebook specifically for jotting down improvements and ideas that require further research. Despite Old Man Winter's desperate hold on us, I am dreaming of spring.

Bounty and Bugs

One of my favorite things about summer is that we can walk out and pick a snack. Before starting dinner, the kids and I walk through the garden and eat all the ripe cherry tomatoes. It is a great start to dinner, the kids eating vegetables and it keeps any grumpiness at bay while I figure out what to make. Up until last week, we would go to the garden and pick peas and the few cherry tomatoes that were ripe. So imagine my surprise a week ago when a stroll through the garden finally produced a big enough bounty for dinner. Even the chicken looks excited.

Our bounty: Lettuce, Blue Lake Bush beans, our first non-cherry tomato, sugar snap peas, Sweet basil. Not pictured is a cucumber that I picked earlier that day when I was checking for cucumber beetles. Since dinner was already a little late, I needed something quick.
 

Outside Spring Cleaning

During the dark gray days at the start of spring, I typically hear everyone talking about spring cleaning. On our Upstate New York homestead, opening the house and airing it out, beating the carpets, changing our curtains over (from winter to summer ones) and all the other little chores that are associated with spring cleaning typically don’t happen. If by St. Patrick’s Day the Christmas decorations are all stored safely in the attic, I am usually feeling pretty good. (Disclaimer: While all our Christmas decorations have been packed up, tubs are still sitting in the hall, waiting for twenty empty minutes. I am still pretty happy and the world hasn’t ended so a few more days won’t hurt.)

Don’t get me wrong, we do spring into cleaning, it just doesn’t happen to be inside. Spring is always busy on a small homestead. Between planning our gardens, yard work, seed starting, transplanting and record keeping, the days are filled quickly. It can be overwhelming, even to those of us who have been homesteading since we can remember. The trick for us is to remember to do outside work smartly. This doesn’t always happen and yes I will give you some examples if only to make you laugh and remind you that these things are every day occurrences on a homestead.

Read the entire article at Gluesticks.

One Seed, Two Seeds, Three Seeds... Weeds

I have read many articles, blog entries and books about people's love of gardening. The authors all seem to be happy working hard in the sun, planting and pulling weeds. Me, not so much. For one, it is hot in the summer sun and I burn. Second, aches, pains and blisters oh my. Thirdly, there is always something else I would prefer to do... cough, cough relaxing in the shade with a book.

Needless to say, I am always looking for something to minimize the amount of work my garden requires, while still producing the all the delicious bounty of the previous years. I know you are probably thinking, hey chick, it takes hard work. You are right but I would still love to work smarter instead of harder. So this winter as I was checking out too many gardening books and memoirs from the library, I stumbled across Lee Reich's book Weedless Gardening.

The Season of BLTs

When you live in the country, you live by seasons. Not the four season, although that plays a part, but the seasons that describe daily life: sap season, mud season, planting season, football season, zucchini season, the rainy season. Up in the northeast it is currently tomato season. There are so many tomatoes that they are literally everywhere - the tables, the garden, the chicken coop (for those that didn't make it), in jars of sauce, salsa, our dinner plates. While I don't enjoy the canning of tomatoes - something about always burning myself either peeling them, cooking them down or canning them - I love to eat them fresh picked. This week marked the start of the end of tomato season. Now we pick as many as we can because the frost is coming and soon there will only be those that were put up for winter.

With so many tomatoes, it is important to find creative ways to eat them. We eat them in tacos, salads, on sandwiches, with eggs. About five times a week I make a Polish favorite where you cut up your tomato, mince a small piece of onion and add sour cream, salt and pepper. It is served immediately. My husband grew up eating it with half and half or heavy cream instead of sour cream, depending what was available. My son loves it. Really, who doesn't love anything coated in sour cream?

My favorite though is the BLTs. Although in my house I add organic Wisconsin Cheddar cheese to my toasted bun. I eat them for lunch when the kids are napping and then again for dinner when the air still smells of bacon. I use Hellman's Mayo (every time we have tried to make this homemade has been disastrous. Anyone want to come over and show me a thing or two?), salt, pepper, warm bacon, cheese,butter lettuce and a ripe pink brandywine tomato picked fresh while the bun was warming. To me there is nothing better. The warmth from the bun and bacon melt me inside and the juicy tomato cools me and quenches my thirst.

Soon the weather will turn cool and my tomato plants will die. I will miss the quick trips to the garden... Oh, would you look at that? The sun is shining and the breeze is warm. Please excuse me while I pop out to the garden and pick a tomato. All this talk has made me hungry.