Tag Archives: food

Fresh Veggies, Pickling and Pictures

Chickens, Cucumbers, Flowers, garden, garlic, Hibiscus, Nature, Oregano, Peppers, Pickles, Recipe, Reflections, Roses, Summer, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes, Wild Flowers, , , ,

Summer is in full swing and the gardens are producing. We have been including home grown veggies in our meals nearly daily. So far, we have enjoyed beets, Swiss chard, banana peppers, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, and of course garlic.

Check out this post for my recipe for banana pepper poppers.

This week I have also started making pickles. I have two quarts of refrigerator dill pickles chillin’ in the fridge and Wednesday I canned 7 pints of pickled beets. I’m excited about having pickled beets because it has been several years since we have grown enough beets for me to pickle them. we usually eat them all fresh.

Guarding the Pond

For a couple of weeks we were having ducks visit our pond and a daily basis. Ruby would chase them off, but they kept returning. We generally embrace nature, but we don’t want ducks or geese in our pond or on our beach as they can introduce bacteria and parasites that could be harmful to those of us enjoy swimming in the pond. After a couple of weeks of this repeat behavior my husband decided Ruby needed some support. He brought out our Guard Owl and stationed it on the beach. We have not seen the ducks since the owl had been in place and as a bonus the chickens stay off the beach as well.

Our green heron has returned. (Can you see it off to the right in the above photo?) It doesn’t seem to be bothered by the owl.

Here is a closer but a bit blurry photo of the green heron.

The chickens still like to forage around the edges of the pond.

What’s Blooming?

Rose of Sharon

Anise Hyssop

Oregano

Hibiscus

Roses

Hostas

In the Garden

Corn and Sunflowers

Beets and Swiss chard with Green beans in the background

Tomatoes

Squash and Pumpkins

A volunteer sunflower popped up in the squash bed.

Wild Flowers

Mountain Mint and Echinacea

Echinacea hiding behind Timothy

Rudbeckia Laciniata (a type of cone flower)

Purple Loosestrife and Mountain Mint

Queen Anne’s Lace

Queen Anne’s Lace and Milk Weed (I’m not sure what variety of milkweed.)

Purple Loosestrife

As I stood by the wildflower patch a noticed two swallowtail butterflies dancing by. They were so beautiful. I pointed my camera in their direction and clicked a few pictures. They are barely visible in the above photo.

The beauty in digital photography is that I was able to crop the photo so we can see both butterflies.

Thanks for visiting.

The Last Days of Spring

Cherries, Cherry Tree, Chickens, Dogs, garden, Killdeer, Nature, Pond, Power Outage, Rain, Reflections, spring, The Farm, Tomato Weaving, Tomatoes, Weather, , , ,

The Pond

Hot weather moved in before summer actually arrived. It was time to make the pond more welcoming, so on Monday, June 16 I started by raking some of the weeds and leaves out of the beach area before rototilling the beach.

My husband brought out the beach chairs and I cleaned them up. Then we set up the chairs with the umbrella and a small table on the beach.

Ruby enjoys the pond as much as I do. She brings her ball the beach so we will throw it in the water for her to retrieve.

And Ranger, AKA our beagle fish, goes for regular swims just to cool off.

I’m not really a swimmer. I like to be in the water, but I don’t like my head under water..

I use this floating ring as my watercraft. With my upper body floating on the ring and my legs kicking in the water I find I can get a good lower body workout. Probably as good as the recumbent or stationary bike. So, my goal, as often as possible this summer, is 30-60 minutes in the pond each day.

My first time in the pond this year. In spite of my objections my husband took my picture. At least he didn’t figure out how to use the zoom.

Chickens

My husband gave the chickens a mound of fresh topsoil to bathe in. We had a very happy flock.

Prayer Garden

Abundant color.

So pretty.

Killdeer Update

I didn’t get any pictures, but on Tuesday afternoon we saw our young killdeers take flight. They are still hanging around the garden area which is fine with us because they do eat a lot of bugs.

Despite the storms that brought high winds and torrential rain both of the other killdeer are still dutifully sitting on their nests.

Sweet Cherries

The second sweet cherry tree that we planted last year was more productive than the first. I harvested these on Wednesday morning. Enough to have with lunch. And that concludes our sweet cherry harvest for the year.

Except for this lone cherry that my husband discovered on our youngest tree (third tree). I never even saw any blossoms on that tree this year. I did pick and eat this last sweet cherry.

Before The Storms

With heavy storms in the forecast for Wednesday afternoon we wanted to make sure the tomato plants were supported. Last year my husband discovered a method called tomato weaving. No more cages or staking each tomato to keep them upright.

To weave tomatoes, you need a stake at each end of the row. You also need a spool of twine or heavy string. You tie the twine/string to the stake at one end of the row then string it out weaving it in and out of the tomato plants. (On the right side of one plant then the left side of the next all the way down the row.) Make sure that the string is up against the main stem of each tomato plant. At the end of the row pull the string tight, wrap it around the stake a couple times, then weave it back down the row in the opposite direction, making sure that the string is on the opposite side of each plant and up against the stem of each plant. At the end of the row pull the string tight wrap it around the stake and tie it off.

As the plants grow taller you can add another layer of weaving higher up on the stake.

Once we were done with the tomatoes I spent about an hour pulling weeds in the garden.

Here are some views from when I was on my knees in the garden.

This storm went to the north of us. It was after we went home for lunch that the storms hit our place.

A baby tomato, I would not have noticed had I not been on my knees in the dirt. 🙂

Sweet Peas

In April I planted sweet peas in two planter boxes on our deck.

This week’s harvest.

After hulling. We normally don’t grow peas because you have to grow a lot to get a decent yield. I ate these raw with my lunch. 🙂

After The Storms

On Wednesday the storms dumped three inches (7.62 cm) of rain on us. We didn’t have any flooding, but the ground was saturated with standing water in areas. We got more rain Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Our gardens that were doing so well are now struggling. We will likely lose some tomato plants – hopefully not all.

The water level in the pond is up. It is littered with cottonwood seeds but the water is refreshing.

We are currently in the middle of a heat wave, experiencing record high temperatures and intermittent power outages but that’s a story for another day.

Thanks for visiting.

Keeping Busy

Aloe Soap, Chickens, crochet, Daffodils, Forsythia, Killdeer, Making Soap, Reflections, Starwberry Jam, , , , , ,

Hello and welcome! Spring has been very gradual in getting here this year. It seems like we go two steps forward then one step back. No quick warm up this year. I suppose the slow warm up is good in some ways – it means that trees and plants are slow to bud thus reducing the chances of fruit trees being hit by late season frost/freeze. We have had some rain as well but so far nothing extreme. There have been a few outdoors chores that I have been able to get done, but while I’m waiting for gardening and grass cutting season to arrive, I have had spring cleaning (indoors) and some other projects to keep me busy.

Making Soap

A few weeks ago, my sister told me that her husband wanted to go back to using natural soap. She asked if I would make them a batch. Of course I was happy to do it. When I asked what kind of soap she wanted, she asked for “the shaving soap” or aloe soap which makes a really nice soap for shaving. So, on April 1st I made a double batch of aloe soap. I want some to keep for us.

The above picture is the soap in the molds after several hours. The outer edges are hardening but the center is still a thick liquid. It was in the mold for about 30 hours before it was hard enough to remove. It will be a couple more weeks before this soap is ready to use but I am looking forward to it. I haven’t made this soap in a few years.

Below is my recipe for any soap makers who might be reading.

Aloe Soap Recipe

This recipe is a large batch – 32 bars of soap. It could be halved or quartered to make smaller a batch.

40 oz. Coconut Oil

70 oz. Sunflower Oil

8 oz. Olive Oil

16.95 oz. Lye (NaOH)

45 oz. Water

about 1/4 cup – Aloe Juice (Scrape out inside of aloe leaves and blend in small blender) added at trace.

For soap making instructions see my Soap Making Page.

Making Jam

When I realized we only had one jar of strawberry jar left in the pantry I decided it was time make some more since strawberry is both my favorite and my husband’s favorite. Fortunately, I still had three packages of strawberries in the freezer.

We should now have more than enough jam to last until this year’s strawberries are ready. My husband has worked hard on the strawberry patch, so we are hoping and praying for a great crop this year.

Crocheting

In a previous post I mentioned that I was making an afghan to donate to the humane society for a raffle.

I completed that project. It’s difficult to see in the photo but the puppy paws print run through the burgundy stripes as well.

I then began a new project.

This is a cat pattern that I have not made before. Can you see the cats? I began making this using some partial skeins of yarn that I have. I really just wanted to learn the pattern. I’m not sure yet if it will be a small blanket or a pillow.

A Few Spring Pics

At last, the daffodils are blooming.

Forsythia just beginning to bloom.

I finally got a picture of a killdeer. Rarely have I seen one stand still long enough to get a photo. This one was unusual because it was all alone. Usually there are a pair in the area. I did a little research and learned that migratory killdeer will generally mate for a season and males usually return to the same area each year. They may mate with the same female as the previous year. Non-migratory killdeer may mate for life. So, I wonder, since I didn’t see it’s mate in the area, if it is yet to find a mate for this season.

Our hens like to roost in the lower branches of the spruce trees. I thought it was a picture worth sharing. 🙂

Looking Ahead

The weather is supposed to be warmer this week, and my husband plans to get potatoes planted. As for me I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself cutting grass for the first time this year.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful week.