what a difference 7 years makes

I was having fun going through some old photos the other day and ran across one of the main garden area from early 2006.

Here is the one I took yesterday from about the same place.

What a difference a few years makes!

growin tool handles or an implement tree

  All homestead have implements of destruction  with broken handles. More  often than  not it is easier and as cheap to simply buy a new one  which leaves us all with a pile of  perfectly usable if they had a handle implements. We are no different and found ourselves with this nice assortment which we burned the old handles out of.

  Many years ago we ran across a web page  that showed an ol feller growing his own tool handles and we thought how cool, one day we are gonna do that.  Finally this year, the trees we had coppiced, for another  experiment, were ready to fit  the implements on and attempt to grow our own handles.   Who knows if it will actually work, how long it will take, or if the handles will be straight enough to   use. In the mean time, they implement trees will look   neat and be a conversation piece.

cutest critter ever!

 Saw this lil feller crawlin through the grass. I think it is one of the cutest things I have ever seen!! What is even cuter is that when it was frightened it shimmied n shook.
After looking it up I found out it is a caterpillar of the  spicebush swallowtail  butterfly(Papilio troilus). the caterpillars start out green and turn yellow or orange when they are ready to pupate.

gone to the birds...

I had noticed over the past few weeks that we had a bird living in  amongst the  pea vines. This is not all that unusual as the Carolina wrens tend to build their homes anywhere they  find  a hole  and if they  cant find one suitable they  make do with most anything. Last season I had set aside  some nondairy creamer containers for projects  but they soon took them over and  made them home. We have had one nest in the outdoor kitchen cupboard  for  many years  and we have them in a decorative clay pumpkin down by the green  house and we have a  pair that actually live in the greenhouse.

The other day  when I was cleaning out the pea vines I  knew I had upset a bird as she dive bombed my head but I never found a nest down in the vines.  I moved the bamboo trellis  several times  while cleaning the mess not thinking that  this was where she had made her happy homestead.   After a short break I went back to work and when I put the trellis over the newly planted  black eye peas I swore I saw a bird fly out of it.  Yesterday while weeding  the remaining  rows I again bumped the trellis and got dive bombed, so I knew that indeed she was nesting down in the bamboo poles.  Today while down hilling taters, I  bumped the poles and again she flew out in a mad fashion. Since I had the camera with me  I decided to turn the flash on and see just what was down in  there. Lo and behold,  in two of the poles there are nests  filled with eggs.  So not only is the  bamboo a trellis but a bird  condominium. Can't wait to watch the lil fellers hatch and  fledge through the season.

  Here is another home for our birds. Yes, it is in the shack and on the book shelf.  The sliding glass doors stay open most  all of the summer months with no screen and the little darlings  fly in and out as if they live here. Last year one built in the same spot but it was under the blue  binder. I thought it was cool and just left the nest there. Apparently she thought it was cool too and came back again  this spring and built another.

catching up...

Sorry for such a long delay in posting. The manthing and I both  got the creeping crud after the last post and were completely down and out for two weeks.  Never in my life have I been that sick  for such a long period of time and I never hope to be again!

Last week, though we were both feeling much better, all of our time was spent catching up on things and stuff that we got behind on while ill.  Though we  will never ever be able to say that everything that needs doing is done,  we did get most everything back to a manageable  level of craziness.

 The greenhouse is emptying out finally and all that is left is a few tomatoes, peppers and tobacco. All the beds are planted but two and the tobacco patch. They are even mostly weeded, which is a rarity.  The last two days we got some much  needed rain to  kick all the plants into growing gear. The very early tomatoes I put out survived the two frosts in April and  are flowering  already and  a few of the volunteer squash are as well.

Early spring crops are already fizzling out due to the overly warm spring we have had.  We have had a pretty decent year for greens of all kinds and  for a change I was able to even freeze a few bags of peas.  We skipped out on spring cabbage this year  because we never have any luck with it but the broccoli is looking pretty good so far.   Our puny area of strawberries has given us a few snacks and  a couple meals of belgium waffles with fresh berries.  Today I was able to freeze some rhubarb to  make some chutney with  after  the next town trip.  It looks to be a banner year for  blueberries, grapes and blackberries but many of the fruits off the trees  dropped after the last cold spells.

 All in all it is looking like a decent year for the gardens. Hopefully we will have plentiful, but not too much, rain and warmth, but not like last year. Now all we  have to do is  teach these dogs  that bunnies are BAD, even though they look completely harmless, and  that they must be chased off. Heck, I will even allow them to eat them if they do.

over the mountain and through the woods

We took a couple days this past weekend to go out and about in the local area. The video is just some of the scenery from while we were there. Pinhoti means turkey home in Creek.

new kids...

only kids this year
buck in front, doe in back

monday's mountain musings

For a change, the moon cycle and the planting season cycle correlate enough that I am trying to plant with the moon. This has meant we have been busy planting root crops. Carrots, onions, leeks, turnips and potatoes have been going in when weather and time permit. We are trying to plant taters in several different areas this year in hopes of a better crops and to eliminate the problem we had with the potato beetles last year.
Some of the beds are being amended and many of the medicinal herbs are going in as they need the time before frost to do their thing and germinate. The remaining beds will be worked up and amended as we have time. Most of the started seeds are now in the greenhouse and things are greening up nicely outside. The few cabbage that made it through the winter are heading up nicely and the peas are beginning to climb. I made three trellises for them today while out putzing about and they turned out quite nice.

Speaking of time, after this week I will have 3 months of free time before going back to school. I cannot wait to not be tied to the computer for half my waking hours unless I choose to be. I have a few projects up my sleeve that I want to work on while I am off. More pallet fun, Hoorah!!

apple cider vinegar-so easy even a hillbilly can do it

vinegar

mother

Today I finally strained off our apple cider vinegar that I made after we made jam and sauce from the apples last fall. It looks lovely and we got a bit over five gallons of healthy for you, raw, unpasteurized, product.

To make all that is needed is a container of some sort to hold the peelings, water and a piece of cheese cloth. After peeling and coring your apples set them out to get air for a day or two to brown and then toss them into your container. Add water enough to cover all peels but leave enough room that the vessel does not overflow. I like to weigh the peelings down so that they remain under water. Cover with a piece of cheesecloth to keep bugs and junk from entering and sit in a cool dark place. Let ferment.

The mixture will get a funky covering over it which is a whitish gray mass, this is the mother so leave her be. You will smell vinegar as the process occurs and after 4-6 weeks you can taste test it and see if it is strong enough for your liking. I let mine go 12 weeks with this batch and it is quite strong. When it is to your liking strain and bottle. It will likely be cloudy and sediment will drop to the bottom. This is fine, however, if it is bothersome, strain it through a coffee filter to remove the majority of it.

the plant pharmacy

Though we live in an area with abundant medicinal plants in the wild, I do not trust myself with identification of most of them and do not have the means or time to toodle about the countryside in search of them. I would also rather have them here on the property rather than have to go and hunt them down as I am rather lazy like that. Besides that, many of the herbs have beautiful flowers that attract hummingbirds and other healthy critters that we would like more of. So, a couple weeks ago I went on a herb shopping spree and got us a slew of new herbs and plants for medicinal use and a few off the wall edibles that should do well here.

peachlings

Two years ago when, we had the glut of peaches from our then lone peach tree, many of the peaches ended up on the ground or eaten by critters. Unlike any year prior, all those peach pits sprouted into tiny trees, so for kicks I decided to let them grow assuming most of them would die a natural death. Oddly enough, most actually lived through their first winter and and all through last summer and on through this winter (what winter we have had and it aint much). Between not having time, having bad weather when we did have time, having people say they were going to move them and then not and my own laziness, I just got around to digging several of them out today and replanting.

I had big ideas of moving all 23 of them today and only got 12 moved but it was a good start. Since these peaches were all surrounding a tree and since they were not in pots, but in the actual soil, getting them out with all the roots was a bit challenging. Most came out with a nice chunk of sod with them, making the transplant fairly easy, but a couple came out bare rooted. Wonder if they will survive?

This is just another experiment around the place that only cost me some time. Will they survive the transplant? Will they grow decent peaches? Is peachling a word? Only time will tell, but if they do, we will have one heck of a peach orchard in a couple years.

turnip coffee-Blech!

Folks that have followed my ramblings for any length of time know that one of my hobbies is finding a suitable alternative to coffee. This time around, the adventure was using turnips. For hundreds of years turnips were animal fodder rather than people food but during the early 1900s in Germany, they became a staple food item. They were used as a coffee substitute, flour substitute and became a primary ingredient of many dishes including war bread.
Since we have had virtually no winter this year, turnips have grown very well and out of curiosity, boredom, and the need to know I decided to make me some turnip coffee. After slicing and dicing, drying and roasting, and grinding it all up I finally got to make me a fine cuppa turnip java.

BLECH!!!!

Maybe it is an acquired taste, that comes from necessity? Hopefully it is a necessity I will never have to acquire a taste for. Of all my experiments, it is the worst tasting and smelling. After all the hard work, it still smells and has the flavor of a turnip. Perhaps not being a huge fan of turnips to begin with plays a part but liquid turnips is simply not appealing. Maybe it will be better used as a flour replacement though I doubt it.

ETA... I should have added that turnips have many other uses beside fodder for man and beast. They have medicinal as well as other uses around a homestead. Rather than write it all up here is a link ....

sowing of the seeds

With the weird winter we are having this year, planning and planting of the gardens has been quite a challenge. We have had next to no winter weather and nice warm days with few cold nights which makes it very hard to hold back from planting early crops.

Over the last couple weeks I have decided to not hold back any longer since it is just seed and why waste what could be a perfectly good cold crop growing season. Of course, now that I have planted several thousand square feet of gardens, winter is going to arrive. Even if it all gets killed it is just seed and I will have wasted approximately five dollars. If I did not plant until the calendar tells me to I may miss the window and not get any of the cool weather crops.

Thus far, we have carrots, onions, peas, greens of all sorts, beets, turnips, sprouting broccoli, broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage of several varieties planted in the GH and outdoors. Since none have sprouted yet, I am hoping that the cold streak coming in for the weekend will not harm them in any way. Though, if it does, I will just plant again.

It is the perfect time to get some of our other seeds started. The tobacco was seeded the other day as were some tomatoes, paprika peppers, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. Now I can relax a bit while all the little darlings germinate and work on outdoor beds as time permits.

Speaking of time, only four more weeks until I am done with school! It will be awesome to have a three month break before I begin again but more importantly, it falls the 6- 8 weeks before our summer planting, leaving me with plenty of time to get gardens ready.

Lastly, after searching for a tobacco growing group on the lovely FB and not finding any, I made one. For anyone wishing to join in on the fun we now have frugal homesteads, homesteading, and hobby tobacco growers group on there .

Silent Sunday

growing quinoa

This is an old post I did on growing quinoa a few years back and never put up. (pic is not mine)

The quinoa growing experiment
This past spring we decided we were going to attempt to grow some of our own grains in our attempt to become as self sustaining as possible. One of the grains we chose to grow is called QUINOA or the mother of all grains.For ease in explanation here is a pretty good link describing it. It sone of the best grains available and is super high in protein content (20% or there abouts). It also has all your amino acids in it and very little is needed to be a very nutritious grain for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa

My own observations
It was very simple to grow, simply plant and let it go. It withstood both heavy rains as well as dry to drought conditions very well until just before it should have been harvested. The weight on the seed heads did cause it to snap off just before harvest time. I am assuming that part of the breakage was because we planted in rows and it wasn't dense enough to keep it standing .

The plant itself it beautiful, when it is nearing maturity it changes color much like hardwood trees do. There are shades of yellow, reds and oranges in the leaves then they begin to fall off. The quinoa we planted had seed heads that were rainbow colored as well, making the plants even more pretty.

Plants were ready to harvest here in about 4 months time. I direct seeded just after the last frost and harvested the second or third week of august. I simply went out and cut the stalks off then laid them out to dry or hung them to finish drying. Then I rubbed the seed heads between my hands onto a large sheet. Once this was done i harrowed it in front of a fan to get the chaff and junk from the actual seed. This is a bit tedious and boring... OK, it is a lot tedious and boring, but a good job for a useless eater. I then let them finish drying and tossed them into a storage container.

The biggest problem I have had with the quinoa is removing the saponins from the outside of the seeds themselves. The saponins are also what make it a good plant since birds and other animals will not touch the seeds. Removing the saponins is very important before cooking , they can make you very ill or kill you if you ingest too much of them. To remove the outer coating, books will tell you to soak for 12 hours before cooking. I did this and it didn't work . I since have figured out that in order to eat the final product, you need to think about it 3 days in advance of when you plan on eating it and soak them in water for all three days. Change the water out several times a day and mix the grains around in it while doing this. The water may bubble some , much like soap does and it will be a greyish color when you change out the water. When the water runs clear and no more bubbles it should be ready for cooking. A different approach is to soak it for a day or two before cooking, Place it in water boil for one minute, change the water boil another minute and then cook.

It is a rather odd little grain, has a different consistency to it and takes a bit of getting used to . There are a few ways to cook it other than boiling like rice. Some roast it and "pop" it and make something resembling popcorn balls. It has a slightly nutty flavor to it when done this way. It is often seen in vegan and veggie dishes and there are a few cold salads that it can be used in... It can also be sprouted and used as a sprout.

Overall, it is not bad to grow, harvest, or cook. Its pretty and can be grown in some pretty rotten soil and conditions. As a survival food it would be good to grow in a garden or in a guerrilla fashion. It will reseed itself and grow again the next year. One other thing I did notice was that it will begin to sprout in the field when the seed heads are ready and a big rain comes so it is important to get it out of the weather when it is ready for harvest. I lost a few plants of it this season by not realizing just how easy it goes to reproducing..

PS...
I forgot to mention that we planted only one small pack of seeds this spring in ground that had only been tilled in order to plant grains. In total i had about an 80 row of quinoa (was actually four 20 foot rows). No fertilizers or nutrients of any kind were used so the soil base is hard chunky clay for the most part . When all was said and done i got about 4 pounds of quinoa for cooking purposes or two quart jars which for us would be about 8 meals as a side dish. All total time spent between harvesting n harrowing was about 3 hours in addition to the time spent tilling, planting and weeding once.

We are thinking next year of just scattering some seed in an area using the broadcast method and seeing how this turns out rather than using tilled garden space for this grain...

PPS...
We have since been growing quinoa in non garden areas and it seems to do quite well that way. I just leave a few plants to do the reseeding for me and it comes back year after year.

the singin bowl

A couple months back Granny passed away and in proper new age fashion many of her belongings were posted in a private group on face book through photo albums. Family got to go through them and choose what they would like to have. I, of course, was drawn to this cute little 'mortar and pestle'. Once it arrived, it was quickly realized that it was not a mortar and pestle at all but a Tibetan singing bowl.

To make her sing you take the little stick and run it around the outside of the bowl where the ridges are. It is something you either like or really dislike listening to. I happen to like it while the manthing finds it quite annoying. The video is of when I took her to the woods yesterday on my walk about.

around the homestead-the cistern saga continues

Ahhh, we should have known better than to think the cistern project was going to go well the first time around.
After coating the cistern with the sealant, the weather took a turn for the worse. It continued to rain for an entire week and nothing was drying out even with a fan and a heater running in the room. The biggest issue, however, was the seepage from the blocks themselves. It is amazing how much water a cinder block will hold. The water seeping from the blocks made the sealant slide down and puddle and we were again left with bare cinder walls. There were also a couple spots that we decided could use a bit of hydraulic cement too, just in case.Those minor patches were made and then it became a waiting game. MothEr always wins so after a couple of days we realized that time was the only cure for the mess we had created. We decided it was best to just shut the door and forget it.

Finally, on Saturday the cistern was dry and we could fix the messes and give it another good coat of sealant. With warmer temperatures we were sure it would dry before the next round of rains came in. It did, so we gave it one more coat for good measure. By Monday morning everything was dry so the gutters were hooked back in. By last evening the cistern was full and we could turn the water back on to the shack.
We would like to think the cistern project is now a done deal but we can't be entirely sure of it.

around the homestead-refurbishing the cistern

For the last few weeks we had been noticing puddling water around the cistern room but because we have also had decent amounts of rain it was hard to tell if something was amiss. On Wednesday manthing had to go into the cistern room and he decided to look at how much water was in there and we only had 2 blocks of 7. With just the two of us here and knowing how much rain had recently fallen we knew the cistern had sprung a leak. After looking around we believe we found the source but then a decision had to be made. Would we simply patch the hole and be done or would we finish emptying it, clean it out, scrape it down, make any repairs, and reseal the entire thing.
We decided that since the cistern was well over 20 years old and had never had any maintenance that it would be wise to completely go through it and hopefully be done with it until we are too old to be doing such things. We also had a fairly decent window to get the work done before the weather turned, a big bonus in January. The bad part was that our window was a fairly small one for the work that needed to be done so it meant bustin our butts a little bit to getter done.
We had to start by finishing emptying the cistern, so we brought the 325 gallon tank up and filled it. We knew we would be without any water for at least four days and perhaps more depending on the weather. This left about 3 inches of water and a big layer of nastiness that had collected on the bottom for twenty odd years. The only way to get it out was by climbing in and bailing the water out by the bucket full, lifting it over the edge and having the second person hauling it out to dump. It then had to be completely dried and scraped down to remove the old sealant and expose as much block as possible. After getting as much out as we could , it was decided the kitty litter soaker upper stuff would work best to dry it then we could scoop it out.
Once it was all dry we made any repairs that needed to be done and could then begin applying the sealant. After applying each coat of sealant it needed to dry for several hours before the next layer could be done. Last night, we were able to get the second coating on and decided that the rain was not going to come in until late this evening so we would do a third and final coat this morning We also neglected to pull the gutters from the pipe going into the cistern since there was only a 10% chance of rain. At 3:30 this morning we had a middle of the night trip to pull the gutters out and protect our masterpiece.
The final coat went on this morning and we are now hoping that the heavy rains that are forecast do not come until tomorrow so that we can put the gutters back in, fill the cistern and see how the pretty cement pond works.

monday's mountain musings- break is over

busy bees on New Year's Day

Happy New Year! It has been a little while since my last post but all is well around the homestead. I decided that I needed a little break from life with the exception of my darn math class for a few weeks (translated to, math moron trying to keep an A) and then decided that my winter break was going to be a break from everything except the essentials of homestead life. It was a much needed break after having such a busy spell of folks coming through over the last couple months.

Our first big dose of winter has finally arrived. Yesterday it was in the 60's and today it is 34 and VERY windy. Tonight will be the first night we get into the teens or single digits. I am going to either be really brave or really stupid and not cover any of the outdoor veggies that are growing. An old local farmer last summer told us to just leavum and they will be ok. In reality, I don't have much choice as row covers would not stay on the beds with this wind. The green house stuff will all be covered with an inside layer to keep things alive. I have about a 100 cabbage and broccoli plants in there that I thought bugs killed last fall as seedlings that have all come back to life as well as peas that are just starting to produce, greens, lettuce and asparagus seedlings.

Not much has been going on around the place in the way of improvements or changes. Manthing has been working steadily this winter (not complaining) so project time is limited for him. I have been a lazy slacker with most everything but school. Wood for next year is being cut when time permits and a clearing is being made for an eventual raised bed, hoop house. Seed catalogs are arriving so soon I will be sorting and deciding what and where stuff will be planted. Seeds will be started in a week or two for the early crops and before ya know it spring will have arrived.

every once in a while...

some talented folks roll through here! After a long day filled with all sorts of craziness: some good and some not so good we ended it with a jam around the campfire. The sound isn't the greatest and doesn't do them justice.