Second Summer Garden

Our garden this year is coming along quite nicely! We learned so many things from last year's garden, our first, that we were able to make some changes in placement and even added some things!

We increased the size this year by about six feet. I tried to plant a few more veggies, but instead I have more room between rows so I can use our Brand New, 30 year old rototiller we found for sale on the side of the road. The outer blades come off so that we can till between rows to keep the weeds at bay. It didn't quite work out like I planned on that aspect, but the idea is a good one I plan to use later.

I am trying my hand at paper mulching or lasagna gardening. Everytime I hear the latter term, I think that I should have everything needed to make lasagna, including the macaroni bush! It is actually a technique where newspaper, soil, and grass clippings are layered to mulch the garden and keep weeds away. I'm still learning.

I planted some new veggies that I am so very excited about! I have some pie pumpkins, three kinds of tomatoes, herbs, and tomatillos!

Because it didn't come naturally, I have made it my mission to paint my thumb green. So, I am reading and learning all I can. Perhaps I can just wear some pretty gloves and fool the garden!

A Garden Paradise

Back in the day, before I raised so many kids and weeds, we used to garden every summer. The "me" part of we used to do the maintenance and harvesting, while the "he" part of we was in charge of getting the ground ready and planning where everything would go.

This year, I was on my own for ground-breaking and planning. One would think that with all the years of wathcing it be done, that I would be ready. Not so. I refer now the phenomenon of going to the same place week after week as a passenger, then suddenly driving oneself to the destination only to realize you don't remember the way!

Number 1 and I found a place to rent a roto-tiller and brougt it back home ready to break ground on our own. I had used a tiller before, but only long enough to frustrate Hubby and have him take back the controls.

Tilling actually went fairly quickly and was a little easier than I had thought it would be. We covered the whole garden in black plastic for a couple weeks to kill any weed seeds that had been churned up. That method worked very well!

Planting time came and we put it some potatoes and onions. I was proud of us to remember how to properly set potato eyes into the ground and mound the rows. A few weeks later a very nice friend stopped by to help get the rest of paradise planted.

We have lovely pole beans, squashes, broccoli, lettuces, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers, and radishes! I love going out every morning to check on my little babies to see how they are growing.

Biscuit designed a fine scare-crow, and Trink put up a scary little tiki man. Number 1 built a tee-pee for the pole beans, and E-man was on worm patrol to make sure there were plenty around!

Today, we harvested our first radishes! Boy they grow fast - only 24 days from seed!
I can hardly wait to start canning our own veggies this summer!

Busy with a capital OMG!

I have obviously been way too busy! I have not even posted in three months! Homeschooling is wrapped up for the year, other than maintenance reading and writing. We are in full-swing summer mode.

To me full-swing summer mode means: easing into the morning, picnicking at the lake, afternoon bike riding, evening salads (read NO Cooking!)and gardening, lightning bug hunts. Whoa! That's horse language for stop! That does not look like MY full-swing summer mode at all!

Number 1 is carriage driving (mom is planning summer camp!), Biscuit is riding as often as possible getting ready for horse camp, E-Man is baseball superstar riding horseback whenever he can to get ready for horse camp, and Trink is wondering when she'll get a turn, too! The two olders are also serving as grooms for other riders this summer. Of course there are festivals and fairs the kiddos are signed up for one event or another, in addition, they are trading barn chores for riding/driving privileges!

Where is the lake, bikes, picnics, bugs???? Although this is not the kind of summer I dream of with no responsibilities, we are having a blast doing these other fun things.

Of course we blend in chore time, friend time, nature club, and ice-cream. Perhaps I can slip in some more blog time, as well!

Happy Summer y'all, Ayuh!

Maple Sugaring Update

We boiled down the last of our maple sap today and pulled out the last tap. I combined all the syrup together and planned to can it for later. I didn't have a jar small enough! The grand total came to just 1 cup of syrup! It was still very worth the effort of trying it this year!

We tapped a total of four trees and checked for sap every day for three weeks. Sometimes we only brought in 1/2 a gallon of sap. Twice we got just over one gallon of sap! I will definitely do this again next year!

Improvement ideas for next year:
- Trees will be positively identified in the fall and marked.
- I will purchase more taps right now for next year.
- I will look into boiling the sap down outside on a stove(to avoid too much sticky moisture in the house).

I'm already excited about next maple sugaring season. Now I just need to plan that "perfect" meal to feature that hard earned mapley perfection!

Whistling Dixie

Every farm (and kid) should have a dog, right? I have definitely been the hold-out in our family. We would have had a dog a long time ago if it had not been for the fact that I didn't WANT a dog!

Well, times are changing and our farm now has a dog! She's a three year old Wheaten Terrier from the Humane Society. Her breed is known for herding, protecting chickens and eggs, and hunting. She is gentle and seemingly very smart.

She came to us with her name and it suits her very well. Dixie is very sweet and we are very happy to have her sharing our home!

Sap Today, Syrup Tomorrow! - (maybe)

After a week of not-so-cooperative weather, the sap buckets were only half full. However, still very excited about the maple adventure, I boiled it down! We only tapped two trees with one bucket on each tree, so there was only about a gallon of sap. I decided to use my indoor woodstove and put the pot with sap on top and left it overnight. (I actually started it on my electric stove, but quickly moved it over to the free heat!)



The next morning, more than half had been boiled away! According to the book, we should boil down most of the sap until it becomes syrup-y and the correct temperature, of course! Our family needed to be gone from home for the day, so the pot just sat for the day off the stove. One more night over low heat and WE HAVE SYRUP!!

Pancakes were certainly on the menu for breakfast, and the maple syrup tasted fantastic! Even better than I imagined. There was just one problem. There are six people in our family and enough syrup for just TWO!



It takes about 40 gallons of sap to get about one gallon of syrup - so with just ONE gallon of sap, we got about TWO ounces of syrup! I guess we wait for more sap!!! Please HURRY!

The "yolk's" on us!

I'm learning a lot about chickens and the eggs they lay. As I have posted about before, we get a variety of colors; greenish/blue, white, and different browns. We also get a few with more than one yolk in them!

They come out quite large and occasionally we get to hear the hen who lays it! She really makes a squawk in that nesting box - I can feel her pain (I myself had enormous children!)

Sometimes when the kids come back from gathering eggs, they will tell of eggs without shells! They are always broken open, usually by the hens themselves. The kids just scoop it out of the nesting box and throw it into the compost. But recently, they found a whole egg without its shell.



Today, the neighbor's dog got into the chicken run and killed a few of our hens. It was a sad event. Being thrifty and trying to make the most of the farming/homesteading lifestyle, we salvaged the meat. During the "salvage" we discovered another type of unusual egg - one not yet laid!

I guess the joke's on us this time!