Family Reunion 2013

On Saturday 74 members of the clan arrived to celebrate birthdays.  A grand time was had by all.  The weather was actually not too bad.  A little breezy but the sun was shining on us all day.  There was food, laughs, stories, and plans to do this again. We were sorry that the 30ish that were missing couldn't make it.

Siblings with the parents that started all this.

Meet the New Girls

Tuesday evening under the cloak of darkness and on the coldest windiest night of the year we added 2 new girls to the flock. Why under the cloak of darkness you might ask? Well, everything we were told by all the "experts" was to add a drop of essential oil to each of the birds in the flock, then put the new birds up on the roost when it is dark and when everyone wakes up in the morning, they all smell the same and no one is the wiser that anyone new has joined the group. Well, we are here to tell you that the "experts" are WRONG.  Wednesday morning we woke up to 2 new birds huddled in the corner of the top roost.  Any time they attempted to come down 2 of our older birds attacked them and chased them around until they ended back up on the roost.  Buff, the meekest bird was never mean and they actually never moved away from her when she came around. So Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Pat and Lisa went to the coop twice daily to give special attention to the new birds and make sure they were eating and drinking.  By Saturday afternoon we had coaxed them down and by Sunday morning they even ventured out into the yard.  Now, there are still chasing episodes and occasional flying of feather but I think we are making progress.  As you can see from the photos, they like being king of the hill up on the water tank where no one can get to them.  Only time will tell if they will ever be one big, happy family flock. So the moral of the story..........sometimes the "experts" are full of chicken poop.

And then there were three

Tying up loose ends

This week Lisa has spent time tying up loose ends as she finished Christmas presents for Wyatt and Bayleigh. The quilts are adorable as you'll see and should provide the kids with warm, personal gifts they'll appreciate this winter.

 Loads of love in each and every stitch. You can't tell from the picture, but many of the frogs and lizards are outlined .

 Bayleigh's is adorable and should give her plenty of letters to practice her sounds.

 In addition, She also made apple pie filling  ad canned eight quarts and three pints worth. That can only mean one thing: there are apple pies in our future!!!.

Winter Prep

This past week we experience our first cold weather  with temperatures dipping into the 20's. In addition to the other things we have been doing around here, I have slowly been working on making the shop more habitable so that once cold weather arrives for an extended stay I can work on some projects I have planned without worrying about frostbite.  My brother Tim gave me a bunch of leftover insulation which I applied to the exterior walls and covered with OSB board which helped quite a bit. However, memories of cold winds blowing through from the ceiling had me scrounging for a way to insulate all that space. i looked into buying the insulation and installing it myself when Lisa suggested we call our contractors to see who they would recommend.  Truthfully, I think she just didn''t want to spend time on scaffolding and ladders while I/we installed it ourselves. Of course, our contractor came through for us and recommended the same company who did our house. Truth be told, they charge just a little bit more than the materials alone would have cost me.

Today they came and in a matter of 3 hours completely installed R-19 insulation in the ceiling and knee walls on the ends.  Boy, what a difference in sound and warmth already. For now, I'll use space heaters to heat the space until I can work out something more permanent.

 R & S insulation 

The completed job

Now we are waiting for estimates on installing a ceiling  which we'll try to get done next month. 

I am also slowly working on getting beds ready for winter with mulch and soil amendments all around.The blueberries have a fresh layer of mulch as do the raspberries while the asparagus  has a fresh layer of dirt.  We also have a black walnut tree up near the road that drops  black walnuts (funny thing) everywhere. Yesterday I took the tractor up to clean up where they had dropped on the ground and picked up an entire front end loaders worth.They are a real mess and tend to sour the soil so it's important to get them up.  I took some of our bounty and "planted" them by throwing them into the woods in hopes they will grow.  The rest I just dumped on the edge of the woods for the squirrels to work on. 

nope, not tennis balls; black walnuts

Gleaning In The Garden

We are expecting our first frost this week so we went into the garden to glean the crops that will freeze. We grew some october beans at the end of the summer with the intention of having them dried for soup beans.

Unfortunately only about half of them were ready to pick today and the other half were still a bit green. The ready ones are a very pretty mottled pink bean. The green ones are....well green. We will make a pot of soup with them sooner rather than later.  The pink ones are drying on a cookie sheet and can go into a mason jar and we can eat them thru the winter. I guess next year we will plant them a bit earlier so they are drying in the pods when it comes time to harvest them.


We also picked all the remaining peppers that were on the plants and then pulled up the plants.  This is a huge bowl of them.  They are all sizes so Patrick cut up all the small ones tonight and we have 4 dryer trays in the dehydrator as I type.   We made a pile to take to work and share and the remainder we are leaving on the counter to turn red.  Some of them are already turning a bit red as you can see in the picture. If we were not expecting the frost we would have left them on the plants until they turned red.

    

I pulled 2 carrots to test size.  The really big one in front is one of the red carrots.  They are so pretty in salads as the outside is red. The next layer is orange like a traditional carrot and then they have a yellow center. When we grate them we end up having tri-colored strips.  Freezing carrots in the ground make them sweeter so we are only harvesting carrots as we need them.  The orange carrot is a "danver" carrot which grows well in heavy soil.  The grow short and fat as this one definitely is.  

And finally...........the row covers which prevent frost damage and lengthen growing seasons.  One bed is entirely lettuce.  The other contains the danver carrots, celery, kale, swiss chard, spinach starts which should overwinter and give us a jumpstart in the spring, and the remaining radishes which we will eat in the next few weeks.   

We let the chicken roam around in here today so they could stir up the empty beds.  They had a great time digging around and hiding under the pepper plants before they all got pulled up.  They then started trying to jump the fence to head for their favorite tree spot so I helped them get over.  They have not been out for a week now since Patrick has been trying to establish the grass so I think they enjoyed the freedom.

Overall it was a beautiful autumn day to play in the yard.  Hung a few loads of laundry on the line, had all the windows open, and ate on the porch.

Why we have been missing in action....

This blogspot has been quiet for a few weeks but that does not mean it has been quiet on the home front.  Pat has been busy in the evening reseeding bald patches in the yard and hunting each weekend (unsuccessful thus far). I have been busy working on a couple of sewing projects for the grandchildren for Christmas. I have a new fleece jacket that I want to cut out and assemble and a wall hanging that I want to experiment with. I have enjoyed having my new chair in my sewing room to design projects.  Now if I just had enough time to do all I want to do. 

Quilt for Bayleigh...Wyatt's is still a work in progress

Crayon roll for Wyatt

In between we have been helpful to our friends Bridget and Janet on the opening of their new winery. We have been part of their work crew for the past several years as they have worked to realize their dream. Last Saturday we helped with all the last minute things that needed to be accomplished for the grand opening, which is this weekend. We are excited for their new endeavor.

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Belle-Nicho-Winery/507634275944927

We are the hosts and presenters for our local October marriage encounter meeting so we have been busy doing a few things around the house. It is amazing how dirty white trim can get in the short period of time since we have been in the house. So.... Sunday we spent the morning washing all the trim on the front of the house and it looks so fresh now.  Big job but satisfying to see it all clean again. 

We have also been in the discussion stages of getting some new chickens.  Our research has informed us that our chickens, which are in their 3rd year of life, are on the downhill slide of production. Between their molt which some of them did this last summer and their age, we have seen a huge drop in production. We are currently only getting 1 egg every 2-3 days and the other day at the farmers market I even had to purchase a dozen. OUCH! So we are talking with the farmers about getting a few 1 year old birds to get us thru the winter and spring while raising a few newly hatched chicks which will start producing in the spring. In the mean time we will start thinning out the 4 that are not producing. I see some broth and stewed meat pieces in our near future.

I got a few more quarts of applesauce made and continue to dehydrate peppers from the garden. Lettuce has sprouted bigtime and it is so pretty. Started harvesting it last week and we have it in a variety of growth stages so it should last a while. Lettuce from the garden is just so much better than that from the store. The cold damp spring did not give us a good lettuce harvest and we were so disappointed that we only got a few meals out of it before it all bolted and got bitter. So this fall batch looks like it is going to make up for it.  The hoops you see in the pic will support the row cover which will protect it from frost and cold weather.

Baby Girl Fleenor Quilt

So here is baby girl Fleenor's quilt.  Emily received it yesterday and loved it. Once I know her name and birthdate I will make an additional little tag with that info.  The frame of triangles near the border are actually loose prairie points and similar to "taggies".  I free-motioned quilted it with meandering hearts.  The thread is variegated and if I must say so I think the overall effect is beautiful.

Blackberry Applesauce

We picked up a bushel of apples on Friday. We washed them that night so Lisa could transform them into applesauce on Sunday. So today after Mass Lisa got busy. She cooked up some frozen blackberries from this summer while the apples were cooking down. She cooked the blackberries so she could strain out the large seeds. Once the apples were cooked down she strained them in her KitchenAid mixer fruit strainer. It takes out the skin and leaves a nice applesauce puree.  Then the berries and apples were mixed together along with some sugar and a sprinkling of cinnamon.  YUM.  Total yield was 7 quarts and 4 pints. Only half the bushel was used today.  The other half bushel will be mixed 2 different ways.  One batch will get mixed as cinnamon applesauce and another batch will get mixed with some of the rhubarb we harvested this summer. 

Clothespins

Not many people enjoy using a clothesline anymore. With work schedules, weather and the conveniences of an electric or gas dryer most people just don’t see the point of a clothesline. However, there are a few of us that have returned to using a clothesline and actually enjoy it. There is nothing like the feel or smell of climbing into bed with fresh line dried crisp cotton sheets. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still use my electric dryer and have no plans of disposing of it. Lets face it, a polo shirt hung up to dry on the line just doesn’t have that nice snuggly soft feel to it. But there is one thing that really grates me about using my clothesline and that is the poor quality of the clothespins. Plastic clothespins degrade and become brittle very quickly due to the UV rays of the sun. Newer wooden clothespins are absolutely junk. They spring apart in a flash, hold virtually no weight greater than a dishcloth and are splintery. If you do happen upon some older clothespins (in your mothers stash or at a yard sale) you will notice immediately the difference in the type of wood, strength of the spring and the weight they will hold. I found out the reason for this while we were at the Mother Earth News Fair last week. As of 3 years ago there is only one company left in the United States that still manufactures wooden clothespins. All others have been outsourced to China. (Sound familiar?) The Vermont Clothespin Co still manufactures wooden clothespins and they are proud of it. They use locally harvested maple and beech wood, brass coated springs, hand-make each pin and hold a hefty price tag at $25 for 16 pins. Sixteen pins won’t even hang a half load of laundry. While at the fair there was a clothespin rep that sold Australian designed pins marketed as Hills brand clothes pegs. (Clothesline drying is the norm in Australia)  Yes they are still manufactured in China but they are sturdy, molded plastic with a stainless steel spring, have a 2 year warranty and are resistant to UV rays. A box is $25 for 50 pins (I can’t believe a good clothespin runs 50 cents each).  They have 3 notches for varying thickness of fabric and are pretty. After all, hanging laundry out in the breeze should be pretty. I am not thrilled that they are plastic but I guess I can’t have my cake and eat it too.

Mother Earth News Fair

 So it is Monday and I sit here in the car as we travel home from a great trip to Pennsylvania. Where do I start?????

We left home Thursday morning and had an uneventful yet beautiful trip.  The drive through West Virginia is breathtaking. We traveled through mountains, saw deer and bear, drove through tunnels, saw some beautiful rolling farmland and arrived at our quaint Victorian bed and breakfast just about dinner time.  The B and B is owned and operated by an elderly couple and they were full all weekend with people attending the conference like us.

The 3-day conference was held at a local ski resort and part of it was outside under tents and part was inside in the conference center. Friday was 1/2 day and the weather was beautiful.  We spend the afternoon getting oriented, seeing some vendors and attending a few workshops.  As with all conferences you can only attend so many workshops before your brain is on overload.  Glad we had three days.

We saw all sorts of stuff over the course of our three days there: how to save seeds, how to start seedlings, maximizing your gardens productivity, keeping your chickens healthy, using the right tools for your job, how to butcher chickens, how to cure bacon, gardening in the winter and improving your soil organically.

Saturday had rains of biblical proportions which prevented us from attending the keynote speakers talk, as our feet were so wet we needed to get inside for a while.  There were hundreds of vendors there, selling and promoting all sorts of cool stuff; some hokey, some legit. We bought some things and gathered some great info.  Approximately 15000 people were in attendance this year. One thing that struck us was the wide diversity of the people participating.  There were nuns, Hindus, Amish,preppers, hippies, cowboys and farmers as well as those of us who dream of having our own little homestead tucked into our little piece of land. Despite our differences, people were extremely cordial and had much to share and teach each other without rancor or disdain. We frequently saw people from really different backgrounds laughing and sharing their experiences while others listened respectfully, adding their own experiences and ideas. Sure seemed like if we could do that here around the topic of chickens, gardens, clean water and possible solutions to energy problems, we could expect our government to do the same. All I could think about was that this was a microcosm of America  when she is at her greatest.

One of the highlights was the fellowship with the other couples who stayed at the B and B with us.  We really connected with two other couples: one from Texas who was also there celebrating an anniversary and another young couple from WV.  Talking and sharing with them was really fun.  Even though we come from different background we found that we shared the same core values and stayed up late Saturday night visiting.  Too bad they live so far away as we could all be good friends.

All in all we came away tired but with a wealth of information, excited to try some new things and owners of a few new tools and of course what is a conference if you don't come home with some new books.

 Liz, the graduate student who stayed with us really spoiled us when she brought us maple syrup last year. With those memories and the empty bottles fresh in our minds we decided to get some while we could. While it's not from Vermont, it is the real deal and we'll take what we can get.  At least we won't have to make do with the fake stuff they sell at the grocery store.

 There were several vendors selling seeds so we took advantage of the opportunity to collect some without having to pay for shipping. Believe it or not, we'll get some in the ground soon for our winter garden.  Stay tuned for pictures of the garden as we prepare for colder weather.

Once we were home and had let the chickens out to stretch their legs, Lisa checked the garden and found that our carrots were doing well. of course, because they live under ground you have to pull one to see how they are doing. These particular carrots are red and tasted great in the stir fry we had for dinner.

Pennsylvania Bound

We are leaving out this Thursday morning for the Mother Earth News Fair.  We have taken a week off of work,  booked 4 nights at a bed and breakfast up there, downloaded program guides, picked out workshops, found our interstate route and have arranged someone to take care of the chickens and mail while we are gone.
We decided last January this is what we wanted to do for our 30th anniversary trip so we ordered our tickets and made reservations at the B&B on New Years day. We have been looking forward to it all year.
So the time has actually come and we are off. Off to learn about gardening, amending soil, raising meat birds, saving seeds from your garden, etc etc.  One of the key note speakers is Ed Begley who has a TV show "living with Ed".  He is really funny and it should be a packed house.
While there we plan to visit some Amish quilt shops, furniture makers and stores.  We will let you know all about our trip when we return.  See you in a week.

A Place to Sit and Ponder....

For Lisa's Birthday, I wanted to get her something nice for her sewing room. Of course, I went to our favorite furniture store, Patterson's Amish Furniture for a Morris Chair upholstered in brown leather. It was delivered today and is so much more than we ever expected. I love the idea of building furniture someday (heavy emphasis on "someday") but know it is beyond my skill and tool level at this time. So this is the next best thing.

 Quarter sawn oak, mortise and tenon

Even the back, which is covered by the leather cushion, has beautiful raised panels. It is signed and dated as built for us and delivered through Patterson's Amish Furniture. It sits beautifully and already has an accompanying quilt located on it. 

I can see lots of pondering and quilt designing going on in this chair.  I tried to talk her into trading it for one of the upholstered chairs in the living room and she was having none of it. Can't say as though I blame her.

One other beautiful gift that showed up at our house was the fabulous sweater vest Sara Gatilogo made for Patrick. It is absolutely beautiful, all the more so because it is such a gift from the heart.

The yarn is an alpaca wool tweed knitted with a cable stitch pattern. The color is gorgeous and the fit and feel of the yarn is amazing, I certainly look better wearing it.Cooler weather is just around the corner and I can hardly wait to wear it.  Thanks Sara for making this for me!

Sunday and a spoiler alert.....NOT

So Sunday was a great day.  Got a ton of stuff done in the yard, cleaned out the chicken coop, planted some garlic and then Patrick and I went our separate ways. He went off to do some deer scouting with his hunting buddy and I went off to my workshops: the kitchen and the sewing room.

This is what I got accomplished in the kitchen.

I made 2 loaves of bread along with a bowlful of pizza dough. I froze some of the dough for future meals and then turned the remainder of the dough into this awesome pizza.  It was topped with some homemade pizza sauce and pesto. Toppings included some ground pork crumbles, peppers and tomatoes from the garden and a few remaining mushrooms in the fridge. I sprinkled it with 3 cheeses; provolone, Romano and cheddar.  Why cheddar?  I thought I had mozzarella in the fridge but when I went to grab it I discovered I had none.  Oh well, cheese is cheese. We got to enjoy this meal on the porch.....the 3rd meal eaten there today.  The temperature was glorious.


This is what I got accomplished in the sewing room.

 A label for baby Fleenor's quilt.  What? You want to see the front? So sorry.....you will have to come back after the 28th to see it as that is when the baby shower is.  This is just a little tease for Emily.

Squash Vine Borers

The dreaded squash vine bores payed a visit this week.  I had my suspicions this past weekend when I noticed that a zucchini was no longer growing and that it was actually starting to shrivel on the vine.  I cut it off and inspected it but could fine no indication of a borer inside the zucchini so I left the plant alone. The only way to actually confirm that there is a borer is to split open the main stem and inspect it for debris; which then kills the plant. I was not willing to do that since the plant was still alive and growing.  Today when I went to the garden the plant was all wilted so my suspicions were sadly confirmed.

This is what I first saw when I entered the garden this evening. Yesterday it was really perky and full of life.  This plant had three baby zucchini that I could salvage that are now in the fridge.  Unfortunately there were about 5 tiny sprouts that would have ripened to nice sized zucchini over the course of the next two weeks.  There was no salvaging them.

This is what I saw when I dissected the main stem.  I searched for the caterpillar inside but could not locate it.  All I could see was the yellow debris that it had left behind indicating that it had been eating all the life out of my plant. Pesky little caterpillars.  It robbed me of my zucchini harvest this year.  I have one other plant that is not showing signs of infestation at this point.  I hope it just focused on one plant.  The still-alive plant has about 4 zucchini growing at this point.
Note to squash vine borers/moths:  
Watch out squash moths.......homeowner on the war path

Summertime dinner

Only 1 word is necessary to describe this: YUM

My Latest "Project Linus" Quilt

For those of you unfamiliar with Project Linus..............

Founded in 1995, Project Linus provides love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets, quilts and afghans. Lovingly created by volunteer “blanketeers,”  blankets are collected locally and distributed to children in hospitals, shelters, social service agencies, or anywhere that a child might be in need of a big hug.

This one was a lot of fun.  

A Riot Of Color

I harvested all these colored peppers from the garden the last few nights.  The yellow ones were a surprise as I thought I had all red ones.  However, three of the plants are producing yellow peppers so  I am fine with that.  Also in that pile are 2 pitifully small carrots.  They have not done very well this year.  Last year we had nice long ones.  Not sure what is different this year.  The leafy pile in the center is celery leaves.  All this (not the carrots) headed to the dehydrator Thursday tonight.  The celery turns to crumbles in about 90 minutes and is great in salad dressing.  The peppers run all night and once re-hydrated are used in lots of dishes throughout the year. Two different kinds of red ones are pictures here; the smaller ones are thinner-walled and the larger ones are those really thick-walled sweet peppers. At a dollar or more each in the grocery store I can't even begin to calculate the money I have saved growing these peppers. Not even to mention the enjoyment I get from seeing this riot of color on the kitchen counters.

Good Chicken Eats From Lisa's Larder

For your enjoyment.............Everytime we exit the back door now the chickens come running cause they think we might have a treat. When they see what is in our hands they start jumping up and trying to get to it. They do the same thing when they see the white oatmeal bowl.  Tonight I was giving them the last of the pumpkin oatmeal bars.  I think I will have to make some more of these. Tell me they aren't smart......okay okay; about some things.

Celery

I read that you can propagate celery from the leftover stem.  So I started a stem a few weeks ago and it is growing some nice roots.  Still not ready to go in the ground but I see it doing that by cooler weather. So today I started another one. We have 2 growing in the garden that we started from seed this past winter.  Celery is a slow grower which requires about an inch of water a week. It also needs regular fertilizing. God took care of the watering this summer for us. I wasn't as good about fertilizing it but it is still looking pretty good.  I will try to get some more growing next year.  Garden sites say it is really hard to grow so time will tell if we are successful or not.

Kitchen Failures.........or NOT

With the boatload of pumpkin we harvested I started trying some new recipes.  Patrick likes to have portable granola bars when he is hunting so I thought this pumpkin oatmeal bar would be a hit.  Boy was I wrong. These things are AWFUL. Patrick took one bite and said "sorry Lisa but this is chicken food".  Now why are some things good using the same ingredients while others are terrible.  So we took 2 down to the chickens to see if they would eat them.  They LOVE them.  So I guess this kitchen failure is actually a success.  Now we will have to see how much I start cooking for the chickens.  HAHA