Back in the Garden Again

There's not much that's more pleasing to the sight and smell senses than sweet peas. I have three bouquets in the house as I write. It was late last week that I noticed the first blossom buds on the vines and now both trellises are blooming like crazy. Sweet peas do rank right up there at the top of the list of my favorite flowers.

Elsewhere in the garden, my earliest planted cucumber bed has cucumbers measuring at least (tah-dah!) two inches long. It may be a short while yet before we're feasting on the succulent, crisp, crunchy, wonderfully fresh fruits.

The potatoes are all looking good, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the traditionally hilled-up-with-dirt ones vs. the ones planted under straw are gonna win our contest this year. That is if the potatoes below compare to the plants above. Definitely larger, lusher, more prolific plants coming out of the dirt.

The sweet green bell peppers (the ones that are supposed to turn a bright red at maturity but never do for me) have plants taller than I've ever seen and lots of blossoms but only a few gumball sized peppers, so far. I'm also growing a sweet pepper this year for the first time, the Antohi Romanian. It's that one you see in the store that is either yellow, red or orange and grows in a narrow, long, kinda banana shape. I already have lots of peppers on the plants, some four inches long and about 1-1/2" wide but they are all a pale yellow color. I'm assuming they change to the brighter colors as they mature? Anybody know?

My squash and pumpkins are growing v - e - r - y slowly. 1) They're planted on ground that was sod plowed up for the first time last fall, and 2) we haven't had many hot, humid days that they thrive on. I planted them all in hills I made out of rotted compost and good, black soil but they definitely seem to be lacking something. Maybe next year . . . .

This past Tuesday we had the first massive picking of shell peas. Whadda crop! The snow peas are also bearing well. I've never had much luck freezing snow peas; they come out limp, lifeless and slightly mushy. The reason I planted as many of them as I did this year was to supply the restaurant. And, of course, we'll take our share for fresh eating. Both varieties of peas have grown so tall and thick that I'm a little fearful of the trellises toppling should we have a wind storm.

Alas and alack, we've had a baaaad infestation of worms in our broccoli this year. The Chief in Charge of Spraying (that would be my husband) didn't implement his organic, biodynamic spraying program early enough this year (my fault, I usually alert him as to when it's "time") and we think it was that dratted little bugger, the gray mottled moth, that sneaked in when we weren't looking. Oh, well, the chickens, ducks, and geese will gladly devour any broccoli we reject.

The pickling cucs are tall enough to reach the first string of the trellis but, as usual, will need a little encouragement from me to get started on their upward climb. I always feel like a mother trying to teach a toddler to stand on his own when I tie some of the cucumber plants to the trellis so they get the idea that's where they're supposed to grab on and climb.

Still fun to watch the garden as it changes every day, but lots of work too as the harvest gets into full swing. The strawberries are almost done, but today I saw the first ripe blueberries and raspberries. Oh, yeah! This morning I saw some orange on a tomato for the first time . . . whahoo!

Summertime . . . And the Livin' is Easy

Oh, the aches and pains in my body. I need a vacation. Lots and lots of bending, stretching, and over-use of my muscles this summer, not enough down-time, too little sleep and the general stress on all my systems of heavy metal chelation for the past six months . . . add all this together and I'm a wreck.

We made a trip to the Big City yesterday which always leaves me feeling beat-up on the day after. It's a minimum of 5 hours in the car/truck on one's butt getting there and back for starters. Then the stress of making the umpteen stops for an appointment or two and lots of in and out of the various stores in the city (let alone the mental duress and punishment of so many on-the-spot purchasing decisions!), never enough time to get to everything on the list, trying to avoid thinking of ALL THE MONEY one is spending, navigating in more traffic than we're used to . . . well, you get the idea. It's a rough life.

When we return home and unload from one of these infrequent but necessary metropolitan forays, I just have to wonder where we'll stash all the loot we brought back with us. I sure don't remember noticing any empty cupboards or shelves or drawers or even carrying out or using up so much stuff over the last weeks/months since we last went to the city. But, get put away it all does and it's no time at all before another list is started for our next supply trip down the road.

There are times when I wish we weren't so many miles away from shopping convenience . . . but more times when I'm so thankful that we are as far removed from "civilization" as we are. We definitely pay a price for living in the remote area we do but the benefits (at least to my mind) outweigh any disadvantages.

So, how come, since we're living out in the sticks, away from the hustle and bustle of the populated rat race, why isn't my life simpler, slower, less complicated, full of days leisurely spent in my lovely quilt studio, lying in the hammock with a good book, soaking up some sun while lazily paddling a canoe or sitting on the shore contemplating the birds overhead? Well, the aforementioned hammock has yet to be set up this season . . . and I'm too tired to come up with a plausible reason why all the other things aren't happening. But it's helped just to grump and groan and complain for a while. I know I don't really have anything to bellyache about. I'm better now. Thanks.

Just Another Small Project

The primary heat source in our house is the wood stove. This makes getting a year's supply of wood cut, split and under cover a priority job each summer so that the wood has plenty of time to season and dry before we need to use it. As our little red pine squirrels are stashing away their supply of food for winter, we're stashing away our wood.

Here's Roy (resting) in front of an almost full wood shed. He did all of this by himself and it bums me out. I really, really enjoy putting up wood but so far this year I've been so busy in the garden and elsewhere that I haven't helped with any part of the wood working. Okay, I did get in on two huge flat bed trailer loads of lengths of dead trees Roy took down early this spring but that's all. Now that the garden is in pretty good shape, in between harvesting and processing the different crops, I should have some time for playing with the wood.

Much of our wood comes from the dead, standing trees on our land, but occasionally we'll buy a few logger cords of maple in eight foot lengths and work them up. We have a lot of birch, poplar, and pine to harvest from our property but no maple which is best for the really bitter, cold winter weather.

We have two wood sheds. Ideally (true confessions now, there have been years when this didn't happen), one shed is full of wood from a year ago and that's the one we will use for heating this winter. The other, the one we're currently working on filling, will be for burning a year from this coming fall.

In one shed, we partitioned off a small area that we fill with kindling for use in starting fires. We went into last fall with it chuck full and used about two-thirds of it over winter and spring so that will have to be topped off again. Roy saves odds and ends from all construction projects to be made into kindling and this year we also have a good sized pile of dry, old slabwood that we'll cut into about 12" lengths and then split into kindling sized sticks.

Whether it's felling, cutting, hauling, splitting, or stacking, squirreling away a good supply of wood feels like money in the bank. Sure, we expend a lot of time and energy on those BTUs that keep us cozy and warm from September through May, but it's also total body exercise in the fresh air (with a great companion, I have to add) and gives a true sense of accomplishment when we see our wood sheds full of nuts. I mean wood.

The Best Laid Plans

Remember the picture I posted a couple of weeks ago of the 35 foot row of cosmos I had planted at the north end of the field garden? By now I'd expected them to be a riot of blooming color. Well, as you can see by this picture taken this morning, I've got color, but not exactly a riot thereof.

I started the cosmos inside this spring with seeds from two different packets I had from last year. One variety I had grown many times before and knew it would produce a plethora (ha!) of white, burgundy, pink and rose colored flowers. The other packet was labeled simply "Cosmos" and had been a freebie sent with some other seeds ordered. I started about 20 plants from each packet and then set them out, alternating the two varieties, in the garden row.

As you can see, the "mystery" cosmos are a'bloomin' away, all one color, all yellow. Guess I should have known better than to plant the generically labeled cosmos. Why did I assume they would be a lovely medley of colors? Should probably be glad they didn't turn out to be miniatures that grew only 4" tall. My white/burgundy/pink/rose colored variety has but a couple of plants in bloom --- all pink. Very disappointing.

Next year: The row will be assorted giant snapdragons. Then we'll see some color!

P.S. I'm STILL having troubles with my blog entries being published with incorrect layouts. Sometimes I get no paragraphing at all and sometimes "almost" paragraphs, but not quite. I'm working on it. Please be patient with my less than easy-to-read copy. Thanks.

Guilting Myself Into Action

This picture shows a portion of the queen size Double Wedding Ring quilt I gave my daughter for Christmas year before last. I gave it to her . . . and then took it back because I hadn't managed to complete the hand quilting on it before Christmas. Guilt, guilt, guilt. Shame, shame, shame. Hang your head, Mama Pea. It's still not done.

That Christmas I made a quilt for FSIL (favorite son-in-law) and one for DD. FSIL's was done by September and then I started in on DD's. I would have been okay if I hadn't decided to hand quilt the thing but I wanted it to be special and hand quilting was the only way to go.

Why isn't it done by now? That Christmas was a year and a half ago! It's one of those projects that looms so HUGE and will require so much time that it's hard to just jump in with both feet (both hands would probably work better) and get on with it. If I set up a schedule to do an hour a day, it wouldn't seem so daunting. But I don't use a hoop when I hand quilt. Smaller projects I can do on my lap but this quilt is much too large for that. For this I require a large, flat surface on which to spread the quilt. The sewing table in my quilt room is perfect for the job, but that means I have to clear off the table, put away my two sewing machines and various necessary tools that are always set up and ready for any spare time I can squeeze in a little quilting. And don't ya know, every time I do clear the table, an URGENT need comes up for a mending job or gift to be made and I have to put the quilt away and reset up my sewing table with machine, etc. Oh, the great hassles of it all.

The quilt has been calling to me lately though and I think it's time to diligently put in those hours whenever I can until it's finished. So go ahead. Lay a little more guilt on me by asking how it's going. :)

Posting Problems Equals New Blog Site

Due to continued and inexplicable Blogger issues, I've needed to create a new "home" for my blog. It's not too far: just click here to go there. And, set your browser to that new link for reading future posts.

Thanks! Mama Pea