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.

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?

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.

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

 The Rugosa roses I planted a couple of years ago. They were stunning for exactly one day then the rain came and turned them to mush. Oh’ well there is always next year.

Packing a quick lunch for a day at work. My work days have increased to 3 days a week now.  This week I started my meal planning for the coming winter months and a list of the pantry supplies I will be needing. This I work on while at work a little bit here and there. Buy the time fall rolls around this project should be done and most of the canning and stocking up well underway for our next season of eating from our pantry.

Our latest discovery center. Sea shells we have collected. Daisy is finding this unit on the sea quite interesting and we have a couple of field trips planned including a day at the beach, a few days fishing, and a trip to the aquarium in CT over the summer.

A few new knit facecloths have been listed in our Etsy shop. I have put the knitting away for the season and have been working on gardening projects. That’s the fun way of saying I have been planting the kitchen garden and weeding the flower beds.

Della our Delaware hen has decided she wants to hatch some eggs and is refusing to leave this nesting box. I’m hoping to trade a few of our eggs for some from a friend who has our old Black Java rooster. Seems her girls are laying we just don’t know exactly where they are laying their eggs….

The 6 chicks have been moved to their summer home in the back side of the chicken pen. The turkey chicks are still in the cellar under their heat lamp and seem to double in size overnight.

Daisy had to say goodby to her favorite tree at the preschool but promised to come back for a visit. She is off to Kindergarten in the fall. It was a nice short, sweet but loud graduation for her.

Enjoying a new batch of bath salts/bath tea. This will be in our Etsy shop soon, I’m just working out the packaging details.

Hope your week goes well.

We are enjoying our first spring radish and baby spinach leaves from the garden. I never did get the early Broccoli to sprout and I planted seed twice. I started the summer garden over the weekend. I would go out and plant a bit then come into the house out of the hot sun. So far I have an entire bed of carrots, half a bed of bush beans for our first planting, a second will go in when the bed of radish is gone. The other half is broccoli. There are more beds to be planted in the Kitchen Garden and the Tomatoes need to be put into the gardens by the barn.

I have in my notes from our food use over the winter that I could have used more carrots…for soup and there were a few hints left that the carrot relish was missed. So I planted more this year. Last fall I made corn relish and never did get the carrot relish made, so the corn I canned was hit hard and we only have around 12 jars left for our summer cookout season. We gave out quite a bit over the holiday season and we have enjoyed it on the dinner table all winter long.

one of the new chicks-a Black Sexlink

The herb bed is struggling, the chickens have dug it up three times now! That only lasted for a couple of days and now they aren’t going near it. Hope it was because there were tasty bugs in there they wanted and now they are all gone. Needless to say I had to go out and buy starts of herbs if we were to have any this season. Its to late to start from seed now. I think I did okay with this, I checked each pot and counted the number of plants in each. Some had only 2 plants and some had 4 in the same pot. Guess you know which I brought home with me. This is a good example of taking the time to look them all over to get the best value for the money being spent. Some  were in 6 packs and only had 4 plants with 2 of the cells empty. I couldn’t help myself and had to point this out to a woman who just grabbed the first one her hand landed on, it happened to be one I had rejected…

I missed the spring violets this year for making jelly. It was raining and the blooms all turned to mush then as some new were opening Dick decided to take advantage of the dry weather and started the lawn mower…there went the violets and the first good bloom of dandelions… To make up for this I will have to double up on the berry jams this summer or over the winter make jelly from bottled juice.

Today will be laundry day and I hope to get the shelter and pen up for the turkey chicks that will be here in a couple of weeks.

Puppa kicked all the tires and Daisy went behind him to check them herself

Easter has come and gone and I sure hope you all enjoyed the holiday with friends and family. Here we did and spent the day with close friends cooking and eating more than we should have. A wonderful do nothing important day.

These do nothing days seem innocent enough but the truth is I don’t get to do nothing. My mind is always working to figure out the next project on my want to do list. This last do nothing day my friend and I spent an hour or so in her chicken coop and pen talking about her birds and I kept taking mental notes on how she does things. Well one thing let to another and we got on the discussion of boiling those farm fresh eggs. I mentioned to her about steaming the eggs to get them to peel easy. I was surprized to hear she didn’t know this, she is so smart and is full of great information.

Miss. Daisy and I took some time to go riding in the truck with her Puppa. We just had a short trip up to the log yard but what a good time we had. We sang songs and told knock knock jokes. I must be getting old because I couldn’t remember many of the ones I used to know. We stopped for coffee/juice and a donut on the way home.

The tomato seedlings are now ready to be transplanting into larger pots and are looking pretty good this year. I have 147 at the moment, mostly Roma for sauce and a few Brandywine for eating. I hope I don’t kill to many of them this year. Last year I went out for the day and forgot they were out in the bright sun got a bit burnt up. Woops! I have about half of them transplanted so far. I do a few as time allows.

And lastly I finished up washing all the curtains and windows in the house. I even did the ones in the cellar. Now to start on building the garden beds I will be needing very soon. It’s just about time to start the snow peas….

Have a wonderful day.

There is a new horse here on the farm. Daisy named it lightning

Look at that juice stained smile...a tip of the cowgirl hat to you mum.

These last few weeks I have been having so much fun getting back into the swing of farm life after several months of working off the farm, so to say. Most enjoyable has been the time to dig out the soap supplies and just be creative and the kitchen counters show it.

The running joke lately is hey, Mom, whats for dinner and Dick or Daisy will answer soap of course…

Marshmallow pie anyone?

In our Etsy shop I have reduced the cost of several bars, and I would like to give some of it away. I had such a great time with the give away I did at the last craft show I think I will try it here.

All you need to do is:

1. Go to our Etsy Shop, have a good look around and pick out you favorite item. While your there please “heart” our shop, and your favorite item.

2. Take a few minutes to blog/face book about the give away. Feel free to use any of the soap images if you want to. Don’t forget to link to our Etsy shop and our blog here.

3. Then come back here and tell me what you picked out and leave me a link to your post so I can check it out.

On Monday April 25th I will have Daisy help me pick out the winners. I will stop by each of your posts about the give away. I’m going on sort of an egg hunt for a word. I have already chosen  a “fun spring word” and every post I find that word in I will ship to you the item you picked out.

There may be more than one winner.  I hope every one is a winner and you could be.

Other great fun around here is the starting of the spring seedlings. A couple of weeks ago I sent Mark out to gather up the saw horses that I put up in front of the French doors in the cellar. It sure didn’t seem very spring like to me at the time.

Miss Daisy has decided to start her own plants this year. In her room she has been caring for the calendula and tomatoes on her window. She did this without help from me. I guess after watching and helping for the several years she knows what she is doing. Thats one of the wonderful things about farm life the skills are easy to learn with a bit of practice. I was so proud of her.

As soon as the mud dries up a bit we will start putting up some housing for the summer turkeys. We decided this is the year to give them a try. I think I will order a dozen of them with the hope that at least one is a Tom. I would like to over winter a Tom and two hens with the hopes they will hatch eggs for next years birds. We shall see.

I also will be ordering another dozen Delaware birds for egg production. The leghorn birds have sort of grown on me. I still think they are very dumb and I still can’t pick them up but at least now they will follow Della when she comes running to me for food. They used to run in the wrong direction. Boy do they lay some huge eggs and so they earn their keep. We have 6 chickens and all winter long we got 6 eggs a day. Not bad, it seems the solar powered lighting did its job. It was a good investment and was pretty much maintenance free all winter. Yes, we did have to brush off the panel so the sun would get to it but other than that I flicked the light switch and the girls had light. I have disconnected the light now and hooked back up the electric fence for the summer. Our small battery only has enough power to run one of the other in the winter.

cotton candy puzzle pieces

Do any of you local readers have any red wiggler worms you would like to trade with me? I am willing to ship if you are interested.

Have a wonderful day spring is almost here in the north woods.

A week in review

We went out for a ride and almost ended getting shot at for stopping in the middle of the road and taking this picture. The “back woods Gentleman” was perturbed I took a picture of his property, he was very suspicious and wanted to know exactly why I was taking pictures of his property…makes me wonder what is actually going on there…

Asked Son #1 to bring down the saw horses to start the spring seedlings for the Summer Kitchen Garden. Looks like spring to me ?

Miss Daisy nibbling on graham crackers for an afternoon break from school work.

A review of our sight words this week. 

Spring Butterfly, Bumble Bee & Dragonfly in Sweet Pea, Blueberry and Jamacian-Me- Crazy… Sitting pretty in our bathroom on one of my favorite Depression Glass plates. The pattern is called Ribbon.

and lastly this one Daisy took of her favorite kitty…Dudly

Hope your week is going as well as mine is.