Welcome to Lizzy Lane Farm

FROST!

This little fella is not cold!

The weather man said it would happen last night and he was right. There was a light frost covering the grass, gardens and windshields this morning when I went out to feed the animals at 6am. I am so not ready for the changing of the season, it seems so early after such a late spring.

Dalton is warm too...

I was pleased with myself for harvesting and picking another good batch of Calendula yesterday morning and setting them to dry. There have been around 12 pounds of these dried so far this season. Quite an accomplishment for me, that is a pretty good size bed of plants. With the tops harvested every couple of days just after they have bloomed and before they begin to wilt with age. We will have quite a few seeds as well.

Fresh Dried Calendula Petals

Have you ever seen what a pound of Calendula petals looks like? They will fill and packed HARD into 4 Quart canning jars! So that is around 48 Quart Jars full of these lovely and treasured petals. Available in one ounce, half pound and one pound in our Etsy shop. They have been popular and I expect to be sold out of them before the winter is out. No worries here though I have several pounds set aside just for our use in our soap, salves and other herbal goodies.

The Chamomile did not grow well in our gardens this year. Instead I purchased several pounds from a local herbalist and have those stashed away and in our shop. They make very tasty tea when I mixed them with our bee balm and a bit of our mint and chocolate mint.

Some side shoots loaded into the dehydrator

Today we will be sadly putting away some of the summer time toys and yard ornaments. The wading pool, all but one bike and a few other toys will be washed, dried in the sun and stored safely away until its time to take them out again. We will pack a picnic breakfast/brunch and head over to the town park to watch and cheer on Daisy for her Soccer practice today. She is very excited and can’t wait for the first one to start today.

Side shoots grow off the side of the broccoli stem after the main blossom has been cut. They ae smaller but just as tasty.

Seasonable Living

Many have commented on my absence these past few months. Honestly I don’t know where the time went! I have been making an effort to spend my time in the moment and enjoying what “is happening” and not trying to depend on list and deadlines. I really became obsessed with my lists and feeling not so great when one of these lists didn’t get done when I thought it should. This happened because I had too much on my plate to ever finish.

The garden is nothing to write home about this year and in some ways been a disappointment, but there are a few triumphs as well. The tomatoes I picked all green off the vines this week and ended up with enough (maybe) to make a batch of relish with them. Bust for the dehydrating plans. The zucchini another bust, not a single squash so far this year from 8 tiny and embarrassing looking plants.  Oh’ well I know where there are some begging to be given away. All of our tomatoes this year have been the same, overflow from other gardens. I swapped seeds and soap for a good amount of slicing tomatoes. I have also been able to share our garden with a few friends who don’t have a garden at all and it was well appreciated. So what is seen as not good to me is a bounty to others, it all depends on how I look at it. It has also provided us with many hours of enjoyment on so many levels.

 I have been successfully feeding the turkeys and chickens daily with veggies grown just for them. Success for this plan! They are so large now that on top of all the veggies they will eat they are going through 2 bags (80-100 pounds) of organic grain a week. We estimate them to be around 25 pounds and they are headed for the freezer in another 2-3 weeks.

I have done no canning at all and don’t plan on doing any this year. We have some left from last year both canned and dehydrated to pull us through, I think. If not I will have to change our meal plans to fit what we do have on hand. The joy of having a well stocked pantry. Remember we are going into our 7 months of eating from our food stocks and pantry. Last year went very well and I didn’t see much that needed improving so my list was basically the same quantities. An easy project to finish on time.

My view this morning while having tea in the garden

I have had the dehydrator running all summer with bits of herbs and veggies as they came ready. The quiet hum of the fan is comforting to me. Last year was the first year I got serious about this project and it worked very well all winter for us. It also took less storage space. If you can believe it a single quart canning jar will hold around 9 average sized yellow neck summer squash. Try to fit those all in a jar to freeze or can. Not that anyone would want to can them…

These days have been filled with thought of the garden, stocking our pantry and most recently Daisy’s school. We have started our new school year and it so far is going very well. We have several units planned that are seasonal rather than what a list some where says we should be doing. Just this week we are making a tree journal and finding ways to cover all our subject needs. We have been enjoying time with some activities she is finally old enough to do. On the list over the winter is Daisy Scouts, ice skating lessons and for the fall soccer. We will see how she feels about them and what comes along for the winter.

How is your season going?

 

It’s Labor Day

 

The final official weekend of summer a time for most to be on vacation and enjoying their time with their families. Ours is no different, we will spend most of the weekend at home but one day we will head of to the local fair to watch the horse pulling and meet up with old friends we haven’t seen since last pull.

Its a time to be picking up summer equipment, closing up camps and swimming pools. A time most start to pull up their gardens, after all garden season is over. Isn’t it?

I just a couple of weeks ago sowed more beets, carrots, broccoli, radish and lettuce for hopefully a nicer fall garden than our summer one turned out the be. I will spend a day adding compost, adding some tubing to the new raised bed for some covers and see how long the bed will continue to grow for us.

I said to myself I had enough pickles left from last year that I wasn’t going to do any more but you know, I was picking cucumbers, green peppers, green beans this morning and before I knew it I was in the kitchen making pickle brine for refrigerator pickles. Geesh. 6 jars later I reminded myself I wasn’t making any this year.

I’ve been busy dehydrating summer squash to use in cooking to use over the winter and to feed to the chickens. We have not picked a single zucchini this year! After planting seeds 4 different time the zucchini plants are just starting to flower, so I hope the warm weather holds out a few more weeks.

The turkeys are now around 25 pounds and I have started looking around for a butcher to process them. Two are sold already and we are keeping 6 of them. The temporary pen we put together for them has worked well this season but I am thinking next year we will put up something more permanent for them and add a few meat chickens and pheasants.

Miss. Daisy started her first day of Kindergarten this week. She was very excited and road on the school bus for the first time. This is the official start to her school career and while I think the school will be helpful this does not mean we will be stopping our home schooling, this will continue and I have talked with her teacher to see when the units she has planned will be started so I can continue them at home with our own projects and studies.

Plans and progress are well under way for our eating from our pantry months. I feel I am a bit behind and hope to catch up soon. I will need to make a few trips to the Farmer’s Market to gather tomatoes, celery and a few other goodies to get our canning started for the season. The tomatoes this year didn’t do much and not a single one has even started to ripen yet, most are still in blossom…A very strange year here.

 

Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be back soon.

A busy Summer so far

Time flies buy so quickly it seems. At the start of the season I made a list of things other than work/farm related I wanted to get done. The list is going very slow seems there is always more work to do that time to have fun these days.

We did manage a day at the circus. Right off I would like to say I am not a fan of any circus because I hate the way the animals are made to live. Yes they have a job to do and that means hours and days locked in their cages riding down the road to the next stop.

I wanted Daisy to see this at least once so we built a week long theme around this. We talked and looked at some of the conditions these road animals had to endure. Talked about the groups who look out for their well being, (PETA) and how this carried over into many parts of our lives we don’t often think about. (animals in the movies, zoos, circus, fairs ect.) We explored and thought of both sides the good and the bad. She decided that her horses LIKE to ride, train and work that an animal with a job in the circus might be just as happy as her horses. She decided that long trips day after day would not be so much fun they should have exercise, fresh air and sunshine. “No one likes to take long car rides, especially when you have to use the bathroom.” Daisy decided this too.

We talked about the hours of training for the animals, the kind of life a person living on the road would have and how it is different than our own. We read about the different kinds of animals and where they first came from, what kind of special training the performers (animal and human) had to have and the hours of practice they must put in each day.

We started the day bright and early to watch the big tent being put up by so many workers, equipment and the highlight was to watch the elephant pull up the center poles.

Great team work, you could tell they have done this a few times.

 

up goes the first center pole

Daisy wanted to ride the ponys and the camel. I was impressed on how clean, healthy, and well cared for the workers, equipment and animals were. There were nice pens that allowed the animals to move around and a person right there to pick up the messes as soon as they were made. Some were getting a bath and others were resting in the shade. The workers that could speak english were friendly and interacted well with the kids answering all their questions.

 

"Mom, Camels are a bumpy ride, and I held on tight!"

good girl! heals down, sitting straight, and looking where she wants to go. She is turning into a good little rider.

Daisy liked this pony because it had stars and watch eyes.

After the tent raising in the morning we went about our day here at the farm and that evening went back to see the show. She was amazed at how in such a short time that huge empty field and tent was packed full of seat, rides, games and people.

My camera was being naughty that night so I don’t have many good pictures of the show itself. We had a good time and Daisy decided she was going to teach our lazy beagle, Dalton how to sit on his back legs and bark like the ones in the show did. (I think to myself that WOULD be a great trick just to get him to move, never mind do a trick)… She has gone through a box of biscuits trying and he is getting fatter an still no trick to show us. I think the trick is still on us, this dog got a box of biscuits and didn’t have to do anything special to get them other than give Daisy some love.

Some how we ended up with front row seats.

We still have a bit more studying to do about a few of the animals, there is still time summer is not over yet. We have another trip planned to the zoo in York Beach, ME. That I think will be an overnight trip so we can also spend a day at the beach while we are there. Remember the shell collection on the kitchen table? Daisy wants to find new ones to add to it. She also wants the chance to identify shells as she finds them with her shell books she has.

Also on our non- work- fun- summer- list is a few more cookouts and bon fires, a day at the lake and a trip to do some school shopping. Kindergarten starts in a few weeks and Miss Daisy is very excited to meet some new friends.

The tent was beautiful

I’ll be back with more to share soon. I’m off to weed in our non-productive garden. All the gardens in the area are doing badly this year. I’ll get some pictures up of the knee high corn all over with tassels on the tops. You know the old saying “Knee high by the 4th of July”? well not this year my friends, things are just starting to flower, weeks late. Last year this week I was putting up pickles and was up to my ears in cukes, this year they are just starting to flower and run.

Cathedral in the Pines. What a great day for Sunday service outside. We drove almost 3 hours to get there as another day trip.

Have a great week