A Change

Blogging was different when I made my first post in mid-2008.  I've thoroughly enjoyed it as a way of communication and treasure the many readers with whom I've become friends even though we've never met.

 

Times change, people change.  I often wonder what happened to certain bloggers I knew years ago.  I miss them.

 

All is well here.  We'll always be busy on our little homestead.  We have plans for the future, but are trying to be sensible(!) about jumping into anything too soon.  (Been there, done that.)  Some changes are being made first toward creating more balance in life prior to adding anything new.  (Wait.  Could we be gaining a bit of wisdom?)

 

All this is to say I will miss all of you who read my words, but it's time for me to discontinue, close down, put to bed A Home Grown Journal.

 

 

Food from the Garden, Driveway Repair and Thankfulness

Too much rain, not enough warmth, but the garden is starting to come through.

 

Although my lettuce seems super-slow this year, and none is ready to be picked quite yet, I harvested some nice salad greens yesterday.  Wasabina, arugula and mizuna mustard.  Added to a local organically grown salad mix I purchased at our Co-op, the greens are being enjoyed.

 

Also in our salads are scallions and radishes from the garden.  The first picking of strawberries yesterday was only one pound, seven ounces, but it's a start.

 

Using two cups of those berries, I couldn't resist making the first Strawberry Cream Pie of the season.  (Too bad nobody likes it.)  The remainder of the berries are ready for eating with milk (or maybe cream) later.

 

I've hilled up the potatoes with more soil twice now, but the heavy rains we're continuing to have are washing my efforts away.  I hoed the soil back up and then laid some old straw I had over the mounds to hold the soil in place.  I sure hope that helps since more rain is coming again this week.

 

Speaking of way too much rain, our good neighbor was here first thing this morning to see what repairs we might need on our driveway.  Some folks have had their gravel drives wash out twice now making them impassable.  Ours has held up remarkably well with only a couple of spots showing minor run-off ditches.  That has a lot to do with this same wonderful neighbor who put our driveway in over 20 years ago and keeps a careful eye on it for us.

 

Even with the occasional troublesome weather (drought last year, followed by very little snow in the winter months and now flooding this year) we are blessed, in many ways, to have our little homestead in the area we do. 

Lotsa Garden Pictures

Papa Pea finished the huge job of mowing today.  Yes, we absolutely have to wear our bugshirts when doing ANYTHING outside.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  The biting bugs are horrendous this year.  Ugh.

 

I put eight full trays of mint in the dehydrator today.  That's the first cutting of mint for the season.

 

One of our peony bushes has a gazillion (okay, only half a gazillion) buds on it this year.

 

And look what I cut to bring in today.  (The blooms are FULL of ants!)

 

Checking out the strawberry patch, I found many plants with lots of developing berries on them.

 

And one beautiful berry that is already ripe.  The very first one always goes to my husband as strawberries are his most favorite fruit.

 

About every four years I lose my senses and try planting corn.  Again.  This isn't a good picture, but I got 100% germination on the four 12-foot rows planted.  Now if we have warm enough weather and the stalks don't get flattened by some of our crazy wind storms . . . 

 

I just hilled the potatoes up for the second time and they're lookin' good.

 

As with the corn, every few years I pretend I'm Ruth Stout and try planting a few potatoes under straw mulch.  So far, this method seems to be doing what it usually does for me.  Only half of the eyes  have popped up with sturdy green vines.

 

A week ago, I planted seeds for some mini pumpkins, little things only 3" across that I would like for fall decorations, next to each side of the garden trellis.  Seed packet says germination should take place in 7-14 days.  Nuttin' yet.  (The garden soil looks cracked and dry, but right beneath the surface it's quite moist as we've had many cool and wet days.  That could be slowing up the sprouting of the seeds, too.)

 

Shell peas are coming along.  Slowly.  (So are the rocks.  Always the rocks.)

 

The cabbages are growing great.  Both the green and red ones.

 

That's all for now.  More to come if all goes well.  Some sprouts are so small yet they're not ready for their close-ups!  

Asparagus Explosion

We had an inch of rain overnight and into this morning.  Apparently the asparagus patch loved it.

 

I was sure I was harvesting about twenty-five pounds of it, but when I brought it in the scale read only six and a half pounds.

 

A hefty harvest, for sure, even at that.

 

Fresh asparagus at our local co-op is currently selling for $6.99 a pound.  That makes today's bounty at our little homestead 'round about forty-five dollars.

We'll take it!

 

Busy Summer(?) Has Begun

I woke to 36° this morning, a temperature which definitely does not qualify as summer time.  However, it's not unusual for this time of year for those of us living up here near the Arctic Circle.

 

The past few days have been lovely (except for the on and off showers on Tuesday) and much has been accomplished out in the garden.  Dear daughter has been helping me and to paraphrase (badly) the old saying, "Two people working together more than double the efforts of one."

 

I'm staying ahead (almost) of weeds springing up in still yet to be planted areas.  Our asparagus patch is flourishing as is our giant rhubarb plant.  I simply cannot indulge in another fresh rhubarb pie.  (Okay, maybe just one more.)

 

Our hens have finally (we hope) decided we are not letting them go broody and hatch out chicks quite yet this season and the egg production is climbing again.  Hooray.

 

As I was finishing the task of getting our strawberry bed ready for the season, I noticed the planting of comfrey was ready to be cut.

 

Although Papa Pea dries a lot of it each summer to use as a supplement to our chickens' feed during the winter months, I decided to steal some.

 

Since comfrey is said to be a great addition to compost piles and also adds lots of nutrients (fertilizer) to the soil, I cut it to lay between the double rows of strawberry plants before covering the same area with mulch.

 

The strawberry plants are now completely ready for the season.  I've already seen some white blossoms, harbinger of berries, on many of the plants.  Can hardly wait for those first, fresh strawberries! 

Attempt To Catch Up

Oh, my.  I can't remember a busier spring.  Maybe it is true that the older one gets, the faster time goes.  Uh-oh.

 

We've been having many rainy days lately.  Which is a good thing considering our drought conditions last summer and lack of snowfall this winter.  Yesterday morning our rain gauge held 3" of water.  This morning we have lovely sunshine, and I'm hoping it will dry some of the puddles and muddy dirt everywhere outside.  But rain is predicted to come again later tomorrow and continue through the weekend.

 

I've been using my time indoors to stock the freezer with casseroles and soups that will come in handy this summer.  (No rest for the wicked, they say.)

 

One more cutting of chives (if the four clumps in the garden ever dry out) should fill the quota of frozen chives I use all winter long.  Our asparagus patch is bursting forth with a bumper crop that gives us plenty to eat every day and still more to share.

 

Rhubarb is a miraculous plant that just keeps on giving.  Unfortunately, the rhubarb desserts I've been happily baking are giving me visibly tighter pants.

 

The southern part of the most recently plowed up planting area has so many good sized rocks (mini-boulders) in it that not only has my little Mantis tiller proved totally inadequate in working it up, but even Papa Pea has been hesitant to use the Gravely garden tractor in it fearing the rocks will cause unwanted damage.  If nothing else, we grow magnificent rocks here.

 

So our good neighbor offered to bring his small backhoe over to do the job of extricating the blankety-blank rocks.  He's a pro with his machinery, and now we only have to haul away the piles of rocks unearthed.  We'll use the bucket on our tractor once the ground dries enough so we won't tear up the area needing to be accessed.  The guys finished up in drenching rain.

 

Our haskap berry bushes have been totally blossomed out and the earth beneath them is carpeted with falling petals as the berry buds form.

 

That's all for today as I'm heading out in my muck boots to pull up the rest of the hardy and healthy weeds I was working on removing from the blueberry patch before the most recent rains began.  If the lawn area, which is particularly long and lush, isn't dry enough to mow before tomorrow's rain arrives, we may have to use a hand scythe to beat it into submission. 

One Onion, Two Onions, Three Onions, Four

I use a lot of onions in my cooking and meal preparation so plant a big bunch of them each year.  (No, it's still a wee bit quite a bit early to put them in for this season, but it's coming.)

 

I plant both red (Red Comred) and yellow (Stuttgarter Reisen) onions and normally use about the same amount of each variety.  A total of three 4' x 8' raised beds are devoted to growing them every year.  I plant them fairly close to each other, about 8" apart in each direction, which works for me.

 

Keeping our onions over the winter months hasn't been much of a problem as our basement that stays close to a constant 52° seems to be a place where they're happy.

 

Curiously, last year the red ones developed much larger than the yellow ones so I knew there should be more of them left this spring.  I've been noticing some of both varieties were starting to go . . . sprouting big green shoots or developing mushy/rotten spots . . . so it was high time to sort through all the remaining ones.

 

Brought them up from the basement and spread them on a table on the deck.  Gosh, I had more than I thought in those two crates.

 

I went through all of them, checking carefully and these are the ones I relegated to the compost heap.  That leaves me with maybe 5-8 pounds of yellow onions and a heap of reds.  Guess I should lean more heavily on the red ones now.  Wonder what French Onion Soup made with red onions will look like? 

Chickens, Compost and Asparagus

Our chickens seem thrilled to be outside and able to roam their yard and pasture in this good weather.  They're already finding bugs, worms and the first of the green grass.

 

While Mr. Rooster watches his happy flock, several hens gleefully take a communal dust bath. (I'd be gleeful, too, if I hadn't had a bath in months.)

 

Papa Pea is spreading beautiful black compost on the field garden.

 

While he was doing that, I worked on prepping the asparagus patch for the season.  Old dead ferns removed, the first of the early weeds dug out by their roots, compost applied to the top of each ridge and mulch laid down between the rows.  All set for the first little green spears to appear.  Asparagus has many beneficial qualities.  It's loaded with antioxidants that promote detoxification (no wonder some people feel it's a spring tonic) and is great for your gut health.  And we all know good gut health is instrumental in promoting health throughout our whole body.  So bring it on! 

First Day In Garden of 2024

One day this past week I went out into the nearly barren garden and started to do some clean-up.  (Thanks to my daughter for all the pictures.)

 

This was taken from a second story window.  I was able to till up three of the raised beds before the tines of the tiller got bogged down by wet soil.  We had had some rain the night before and we were thankful for every drop of it. 

 

I raked up straw I used for mulch in the pie pumpkin patch last year.  Back to the main mulch pile it went and will be used again.

 

Our little crocuses have started to pop.

 

How do their delicate blossoms survive 

in this cold weather?

 

A bunch of lovely lavender

and white ones.

 

What a welcome sign of spring, even though our temp has been dropping down to freezing at night.

 

A Job Well Done

Yesterday Papa Pea asked our daughter to re-glue a couple of spots on the kitchen floor where the self-stick tiles had come loose.  (Only 23 years on the floor that gets an incredible amount of traffic and they're failing us.  Geesh.)

 

I thought it was interesting to note the particular objects she chose to put pressure on the repaired spots while the glue dried.  What does that say about us?  Hmmm, a vise that isn't fastened to a work bench, bar bells and a couple cases of beer. 

Not Much of a Post . . . But It's Something

Have you noticed one thing leads to another?

 

~ You're dicing onions, and you're reminded your knives desperately need sharpening.

 

~ You take some burger buns out of the freezer and notice those two buns are the last so you need to make more.

 

~ A pencil is dropped on the floor and you spy what looks like two months of debris under the kitchen table.

 

~ You move houseplants off a shelf to dust and realize the soil in the pots resembles the Sahara Desert.

 

~ You fill the kindling basket with the last sticks from the kindling bin which means . . . you need to split more kindling.

 

Well, no wonder The List never gets done!

 

* * * * * * * *

 

I've spent part of the past two days on some clean-up from winter in my garden areas.  It gave me some wonderful fresh air and exercise.  And also the realization that certain muscles in my body evidently haven't been used since putting the garden to bed last fall.

 

I tilled up three of the raised beds to help get the compost spread last fall incorporated thoroughly before planting.

 

Planting?  Ha.  That won't happen around here for quite a while yet.  We've had a couple of days that reached the 50° mark but mostly the days have been in the 40s and going down into the 30s at night.

 

* * * * * * * *

 

About my blog posts lately . . . or lack thereof.  I actually have notes of ideas to write about scattered on my desk, but have been unable to pull them together into any semblance of order.  I took a look a day or so ago at some of my posts from the past and was impressed with the writing.  (Hope I didn't strain anything patting myself on the back.)  But currently, the words won't come.  What's happened?

Perhaps with gardening season soon beginning I'll gain inspiration.  (Come on, inspiration.  Get behind me and . . . inspire!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing with Fabric - Using Up Scraps

Knowing busy spring time may come early this year for us up here where winter never arrived (no snow on the ground when normally we would still have at least a couple of feet), I've been making time to play in my quilt room.

 

I knew I had a bunch of half-square triangles left over from a previous project and wanted to use them if possible.

 

I'm pretty sure they reproduced in storage.

 

End result?  I'm pleased, but all those pointy points to try to match!

 

Somehow, I still have 4,776 more triangles left.  Any ideas? 

Handwork Weekend

I spent a good share of this past weekend in my quilt room.  (Hooray!)  Two unfinished projects were worked on.

 

One piece was completed.  (Hooray, again!)  For now, it's hanging in our bathroom.  The design is from one of Kim Diehl's books.  She's my very favoritest professional quilter.  Love her work. 

 

The other UFO is a counted x-stitch piece started last year, but alas and alack, I didn't finish it before the Easter season.  Will I accomplish that this year?  I have a whole month and a half so there's a possibility I will.  The design ends up in a round shape, and I have a round wooden frame that I'm hoping might work for the final finishing.

 

Now, can I squeak out more time hiding in my quilt room today?  I may just try for that. 

Yin and Yang

The yin and yang symbol shows a balance between two opposites with a portion of the opposite element in each section.

 

~  I have a list of creative/fun projects I want to do these winter

     months.

*   I'm lacking the impetus to do any of them. 

 

~  The unseasonably warm weather and melting of the scant

     amount of snow we've gotten these past couple of months

     makes it easy to get around outside.

*  The perpetual dampness has gone straight to my bones.

 

~  My enthusiasm for planning this year's garden and ordering

     seeds has burst forth.

*   Have you noticed how much the price of seeds and postage

     has gone up?!

 

~  We had a wonderful visit with our California family during

     the middle of the month.

*   I have yet to get back to any semblance of my regular routine.

 

~   I've had plenty of time to shop, research, compare prices

      and purchase products online which we've needed for some

      time.

*    I hate shopping, researching, comparing prices and

      purchasing products online.

 

~   All in all, everything is fine and dandy.

*   There's a distinct chance I don't know what I'm talking

     about.  

Snow Slushies

What does your family call this winter treat for the kiddies (and sometimes big people, too)?  Snow cones or snow ice cream?  Or snow slushies as we do?

 

When our daughter was at our quasi-grandson's home yesterday, she introduced him to the snow slushies she remembers from her childhood.

 

She told him you go out and gather some clean snow in a container, bring it in and drizzle some fruit juice (apple, orange, grape or that of your choice . . . even maple syrup is yummy) over it, grab a spoon and enjoy.

 

When the two of them came here for a visit in the afternoon, after telling me about making slushies earlier in the day, they decided they should sample one with our snow.  The little squirt got a kick out of explaining it was okay to have the snow turn yellow if you used orange juice, but you had to stay away from snow that was yellow outside.  Big grin.

 

The only juice I had was grape so tongues ended up looking a bit questionable.

 

Too bad we can't make snow slushies in the hot summer time when they would be all the more appreciated. 

Finally!

The weather prediction was for us to get 4-6" of snow (Snow!?  What's that?) Thursday night to Friday morning.  Hubby said he thought we were really going to finally get our first, long-awaited snowfall of the season.  I've been tired of waiting for it and, having turned into a real bah-humbug, proclaimed it wouldn't happen.

 

What a pleasant surprise to see about 3" of (very, heavy, wet) snow yesterday morning.  It was beautiful with ground and trees coated.

 

The temperature read above 32° from the get-go and stayed at about 35° all day.  But for some reason, the snow didn't melt (as my continued bah-humbugging self insisted it would), and we felt almost giddy all day doing our various outside chores while trudging through the beautiful white stuff.

 

I snapped the above picture from our back entry at 4:30 this morning when I got up.  So, so glad to have the snow.  Especially since temperatures for this coming next week are supposed to plummet and folks were beginning to talk about frozen septic lines and such if we went into real winter temperatures without any ground cover.

 

Yep, happy, happy.  We love snow.  We missed having it for the holidays just past, but are pleased as punch to have it now.