Author: Cabincrafted1

A Week On the Farm – September 20, 2013

Fall harvesting

Pasta sauce for the freezer

Free ranging and learning that my best layers are the Red Stars, not the heritage breeds. Hmmmm.

Doggie walks off the farm

Wild Asters

and Bee Balm

The week has been cool and gray with more rain tonight and tomorrow. A horseback ride on a different horse, just reminded me how little I know, I guess I had gotten comfortable or complacent riding the same well schooled gelding all the time. Some doggie walks and another session with the doggie behaviorist, still trying to get the big guy comfortable again with strange dogs. He loves people and cats, but not so much, new dogs.

Life continues to be good on our mountain farm.

September 20, 2013
Fall Bounty

Today dawned quite chilly, only 43f , gray and again foggy. The sun peeked out briefly and it had risen to the low 60’s with another 40 something night expected. We will awaken to a frost soon, within the next couple of weeks. The stinky young meat chicks seem to be handling the chilly nights, still benefitting from the heat lamp and partially covered chicken tractor. This breed will not go up on the perches, they huddle on the ground, so the partial cover will likely remain even after the heat lamp is removed, just to provide them some protection from wind and rain.

In spite of the very cool nights, the fall planting of bush beans is providing and still blooming and hopefully will continue to do so until the frost. The only remaining tomato plant is a volunteer of a heritage variety of plum tomato that I planted last year. It came up just outside the bed where they were planted, a bed that is now the grape bed. It is providing me with a couple of hefty sized plum tomatoes every couple of days, which I accumulate until there are sufficient numbers to peel and freeze.

Today’s harvest, beans, a few tomatoes and 7 eggs.

Tonight we will feast on fresh pasta from the farmer’s market, spicy Italian Sausages, also from the farmer’s market, and a big pot of homemade sauce, entirely from our garden harvest. The onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs picked right out the side of the yard in the farm garden or from herb pots on the back deck. There will be plenty to enjoy and enough to freeze at least a couple more meals worth for our enjoyment later in the season.

A handful of those fresh beans, sauteed with olive oil and garlic and we will feast like royalty.

Life is good on our mountain farm.

September 17, 2013
Fall is upon us

Though officially still a few days away, fall has come to the mountains. After a cool, rainy summer, we have had a dry spell of several weeks, today is chilly and foggy with a slight chance of afternoon showers as another front moves through. It is unlikely that the colors will be stunning this year. After two years of dry conditions and the stress of too much water this year, the trees that normally color first are browning and dropping their leaves instead

There are hints of color change, the emerald greens of summer are now dull, hints of rust and reds appearing.
The weather lore is that the morning fogs we have been experiencing for several weeks portend early and heavy snow. Last autumn, we had a school closing snow in October. Hopefully that won’t be the case this year since I went to the effort of putting in a fall garden. We have only lived in the mountains for 8 years and I have noticed that none of our farmer neighbors put in fall gardens. As I was pulling spent summer plants, weeding beds and dumping the weeds in the chicken pen, I wondered if by now, they are just tired of their gardens, or if by experience, they know that the weather will win. Most of them don’t work to keep the weeds at bay after their plants are established. They till it all in come spring, or they put down huge sheets of black plastic, punch holes in it and plant through the holes. I don’t want my food growing in beds that have plastic leeching into them. I will continue to weed, mulch and hope for the best. Perhaps, one of the huge round bales of hay should be spread around the trees in the orchard and over the fallow beds and aisles soon.

September 16, 2013
“Turtle on the Half Shell”

For my farm readers, this one is a craft post.
“TURTLE ON A HALF SHELL” HAT

Choose your turtle by the color of the mask. This hat was engineered after seeing a picture of a similar hat at the request of my Daughter in law as part of Halloween costumes for grandchildren. Now I just need a little girl or boy head to model it on instead of a doll.

Hat
Size 20” head and 22” head. Larger size is in parenthesis.
The hat is a knit beanie, the mask is crochet, both using Ella Rae Superwash or a similar worsted weight yarn. It can be knit on circular or double point needles.
CO= cast on
K= knit
K2tog= knit 2 together
Cast on 88 (100) stitches using a stretchy cast on such as long tail on a US 7 16” circular or double points. Join to knit in the round, placing a marker at the beginning of the row. Knit 2 X 2 rib for one inch, continue in stockinette stitch for 4 ½ (5 ½) inches. On the next round, place a marker after 11 (10)stitches and each multiple of 11 (10).
To complete the top of the hat, you will knit the following decrease pattern, switching to magic loop, two circs or double points when needed.
Row 1: *Knit 9 (8), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 2 and each subsequent even row: Knit
Row 3: *Knit 8 (7), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 5: *Knit 7 (6), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 7: *Knit 6 (5), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 9: *Knit 5 (4), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 11: *Knit 3 (1), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 13: *Knit 1, K2tog* repeat to end of row (skip for larger size)
Row 14: *K2tog* repeat to end of row (repeat this row for larger size)
Cut 6” tail and draw through remaining stitches. Secure tail on the inside of hat.
Mask
SC= single crochet
HDC= half double crochet
Make 2
With size G hook, chain 15 stitches, join with slip stitch. Chain 1 (does not count as stitch), 25 HDC in ring. Chain 2 and join to first HDC with slip stitch. HDC in next 10 stitches, 2 SC in each of the next 5 stitches, HDC in next 10 stitches. Join with slip stitch, cut off tail and pull through last stitch. Sew the two eyepieces together at the bridge connecting about 4 stitches.
For the ties: Pick up the first single crochet on the outside edge of the mask, chain 2, HDC in the next 4 stitches, chain 2, turn and HDC in the next 4 stitches. Repeat until tie is the length you desire. Repeat on the other side of the mask.
To assemble. Place the top of the mask, wrong side out, even with the bottom of the ribbing. Using coordinating thread, attach 3 or 4 stitches to the ribbing. The mask can be worn flipped up on the hat or down over the eyes.

Copywrite 2013 by Fran Stafford. Please feel free to use this pattern, to sell objects made from this pattern, but do not sell or share the pattern without permission.

September 14, 2013
A Week On the Farm – September 13,2013

As the week and the summer draw to a close, the fall garden is beginning to take off as the summer garden is almost gone. Today, we picked our first batch of fall bush beans and enjoyed them for dinner while preparing 8 more meals of them for the freezer to enjoy this winter when the days are cold and the snow falls.

The tomato plants are all brown, the last of the tomatoes ripening or being attacked by grasshoppers and stinkbugs. The only ones left are small yellow, orange plum and Roma tomatoes. The volunteer that is sprawled through the grape bed, is producing the best crop right now.

The potato growing experiment was less than successful. We tried growing them in half barrels putting a couple inches of compost in the bottom, planting the seed potatoes and then adding more compost as the tops grew a few inches. We were hoping for a couple of barrels full of nice potatoes, but only got about 10 lbs. They are tasty though, we had some mashed with dinner tonight.

Today, for the first time, the hens produced 8 eggs. That leaves only one who still hasn’t figured out how to lay an egg.

The freezer, in spite of the cool wet summer, is beginning to look like it will hold us through the winter months. If the beans continue to produce, the peas make it to production size, the cabbages and broccoli are heading nicely, the chard is developing this time, we will be able to put more away and enjoy some more fresh produce. Today only reached the low 70’s and it is going into the 40’s tonight. The weather “prognosticators” are threatening us with an early and snowy winter, I hope they are wrong for a while.

The 4 1/2 week old meat chicks are tightly snugged in the chicken tractor with a tarp covering most of it and a heat lamp on to help them through the cold night.
On the craft front, our daughter in law asked me to make two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hats for two of our grandchildren as part of their Halloween costumes. One of the hats is almost finished, pictures will follow next week once they are finished.
Life is good on our mountain farm.

September 13, 2013
Dumb Chicks

No, I’m not using a perjorative name for women, I am referring to the 4 week old meat birds that I am raising for my son. The ones that so quickly outgrew the brooder that they had to be put outside in the chicken tractor with a heatlamp and tarp to give them more room. They don’t have the sense to go up on the perches in the top of the structure to protect them from wind and rain. It only took them 3 days to foul the area under them so badly that the chicken tractor had to be moved today. Unlike the other chicks that I have raised, these birds are ugly and stinky. Even when they are fully feathered, they have naked spots.
These chicks, don’t have the sense to get out of the rain. The hens and rooster get under their coop or inside their coop when it rains. The chicks just sit there and squawk. The chicken tractor is triangular in shape and about 8 feet long.

It has about 12 feet of perches located across its width just above the solid roof, but they stay on the ground in the wire covered area and get wet. It is currently pouring down rain outside. Mostly falling straight down thank goodness. Once it stops, I guess I’m going to have to go out and make sure they aren’t drowned rats.
Dumb chicks!

September 10, 2013
Sunday Thankfulness/Week on the Farm – September 8,2013

This is a combined version of two of my weekly posts. This week just got by me somehow. We did get a weekly horseback ride, looked at and rode a gaited horse as a potential buy, mowed the yard and cleaned the house in preparation for weekend house guests.

Yesterday, we made our semi annual visit up the Blue Ridge Parkway to show our guests Mabry Mill. This is always fun as they have an old restored water wheel mill that served to grind grain and as a saw mill, a blacksmith shop, a cabin with a loom and several spinning wheels, a cabinet maker who demonstrates building chairs using only non powered hand tools. There are short walks through the woods back and forth across the creeks feeding the mill. Our fall trip always allows me to stock up for the winter on locally ground grits, corn meal and buckwheat flour. The photo is of the mill, but an earlier trip with our daughter and two grandsons instead of this weekend’s guests.

From there, we ventured to the Poor Farmer’s Market in Meadows of Dan for our annual apple purchase for the freezer. Peaches, white sweet potatoes, and cheese we also purchased. We made a stop at Chateau Morrisette for a wine tasting, purchase of a few bottles of wine then back to the town of Floyd, we stopped for a light late lunch at Dog Town Wood Fired Pizza and tap house for a shared pizza and a pint of their own brew.

Because of our previous night discovery that our grill no longer works, our dinner was all prepared in the oven, roasted veggies, pork chops and we were supposed to have beans that we had purchased at the farmer’s market earlier in the week, but they proved to be old and tough, a disappointment as they came from one of our favorite vendors. We ended up pulling a package of the beans I had frozen and subbed them instead. One of the bottles of Chamboursin was opened and enjoyed with our meal. After a busy day, the evening was spent visiting and playing with the pups, but otherwise just chilling out.

Our guests had requested that we make reservations for brunch today at Mountain Lake Lodge. A bit of strolling the grounds, some photos for them to show that indeed, Dirty Dancing was filmed here, we found out that with the new management,the weekly brunch has not been held this year except for Mother’s Day and was just being re-instituted this week. The spread was much reduced from prior years, but the food was varied and delicious and none of us left hungry. Our guests left after brunch to return to the coast and I moved on to prepping the goodies for the freezer and getting some of the other neglected tasks accomplished.

Just prior to their arrival, we realized that the 15 three and a half week old meat chicks had seriously outgrown the brooder box they were in. They really are too young to put outside as they aren’t fully feathered and the nighttime temperatures are dropping to the upper 50’s, so a decision was made to move them to the chicken tractor anyway, but to hang their heat lamp inside and drape a tarp over the structure during the night. So far they seem to be doing ok with this and seem to like the added space. Early this week, I am going to make a temporary pen of 3 foot fencing and poultry net surrounding the chicken tractor, so that they can get out into more space.

The hens and rooster wondering why they can’t get to those chicks.

Eighteen cups (a peck) of pared, sliced apples, vacuum sealed for the freezer.

More diced and crushed tomatoes, peeled and vacuum sealed also for the freezer.

The winter’s supply is looking better each week. The beans are blooming and we should soon begin getting a second crop for enjoying and freezing. The peas are ready for the trellis and hopefully will give us more to eat and freeze. I haven’t lifted the row covers over the cabbages, broccoli and chard, but they seem to be developing well. The potatoes are dying back, so they will soon be dug, the sunflowers are ending their season and the little birds are flitting around the garden enjoying the seeds.

Life is good on our mountain farm and we are enjoying the cool early fall weather.

September 8, 2013
Best Laid Plans

This weekend we have house guests. They arrived last evening in time for dinner. I like to cook, I especially like to cook for guests and had planned my menu with care, HA!

We had made a Wednesday trip to the Farmer’s Market for beef and pork, for corn, squash and beans with the two dinners in mind. I already had sausages from the Farmer’s Market in the freezer and local buckwheat for breakfast pancakes.

The plan was for drunk beef kabobs with our, onions and peppers, and the purchased squash, grilled to perfection. A side of corn on the cob and a platter of our just picked sliced tomatoes and this years dill pickles. For dessert I was making an apple pie. The meat marinated all day. The first snafu came when I peeled and sliced the apples and they didn’t fill my smallest pie pan, hmmm…
That crisis was solved by making a large apple tart by folding the apple mix in one crust, sealing the edges and baking it on the pizza stone. Veggies were cut in chunks and the corn shucked and washed. The skewers were threaded. Guests arrived and we sat around visiting a with crackers, cheese and a beer or glass of wine. Finally time to grill thd kabobs and cook the corn. Hubby went out to light the old faithful gas grill and snafu number 2.

We had noticed that her inner working had gotton a bit rusty this summer with all the rain, but she worked fine a week or so ago. I guess moving her to mow jiggled some rusted part on the burner pipe, so instead of a burner of flame we had a fountain of flame. Plan 2, turn on the broiler in the oven, but wait, this high end GE marvel didn’t come with a broiler pan. A bit of improvising and dinner turned out quite delicious, enjoyed on the back deck, only the third time this summer because it was always raining or the cushions were wet every time we planned on eating there.

September 7, 2013
HUMP DAY

We have all seen the commercial of the camel, yeah, that one. Yesterday, one of my hubby’s acquaintances posted an obscene version of it on Facebook. No, I won’t share it here. I dislike the commercial on television, in fact, I dislike most commercials on television and the insurance ones are the worst offenders.
Today is hump day by definition and we had a very full schedule. Because I was away last week and did not get home until afternoon on Saturday, we missed the farmer’s market. There is one on Wednesday afternoon too, not quite as many vendors, but enough to take care of most of what we needed. We are having guests this weekend and needed meat in quantity for 4 instead of 1 or 2 and veggies as we are currently in a doldrum with only a few tomatoes and peppers ripening, the peas, beans, cabbages and broccoli are still growing and maturing. Wednesday is the day I get my bouquet from the flower share and that also involves a drive to town to pick it up from one of the two Natural Food stores. Wednesday evening is knit night and since I was away all last week, I had 5 extra dozen eggs to share and those ladies are generally ready for some fresh country eggs, so even though I had flowers and farmer’s market goodies that needed to get home, I stopped by for a short visit and sold some eggs.
As we have seven weeks at home before any more travel, babysitting, or other reasons to tie up our schedule, we requested some riding time this week and our instructor suggested today at 2 p.m. We accepted the schedule and that meant that the rest of the afternoon’s errands that couldn’t be done until after 2 would have to be done sore and dirty. We are currently looking for our first horse, and our first appointment to look at one was also supposed to be this afternoon, but we postponed it so that our instructor could go with us to look at the horse.
Every Thursday, we have training for the big dog beast, and that is mid day, messing scheduling much else, as we have nearly an hour drive each way from training. Tomorrow will include a grocery store run for coffee, cream and a few non farmer’s market items and then the house needs cleaning after a two week without one.
I did get some more tomatoes in the freezer for winter, enjoyed some stuffed peppers, the hens are consistently producing 6 or 7 eggs each day with two still not laying. We did get the yard and orchard mowed yesterday and this morning, most of the front bed weeded, but after we bring the dog home tomorrow, we will have to venture back out for fresh mulch for that bed. The wet summer has encouraged, clover, oxalis, smartweed, horse nettle, purslane, dandelions, and anything else that could gain a foothold in the garden beds.
Now, I’m tired, a good tired, but tired just the same. Time to lock up the chickens for the night and get a hot bath and some rest.

September 4, 2013
Sunday Thankfulness-September 1, 2013

This week, I am grateful to my hubby, who stayed on the farm to care for the dogs, 10 big chickens, and 15 two week old chicks. They aren’t cute anymore. In my week gone, they have tripled in size and become feather growing eating machines.

My son will enjoy the protein they provide on their 3 student budget.

I am thankful for the opportunity last week to help them out with laundry, cooking, and grandson time so they could settle into this year’s schedule with less stress.

Together, we explored 4 museums, the zoo, and the aquarium. Got in a pool afternoon, lots of reading and snuggling as we sat together in a big chair. He is a lefty, as am I, so I also taught him to tie his shoes.

For my garden, though the seaon is drawing to a close, I did harvest an 8 quart bucket nearly full of tomatoes and peppers that will be processed later for the winter fare.

And for my chickens who filled several dozen cartons while I was away. Two more of the girls finally figured it out and now we are getting green and pink eggs too.

Hopefully my knitting group will be in the market for some eggs this week.

Life is good on our mountain farm.

September 1, 2013