Category: Country living

Arctic Zone

Yesterday was cold and wet, rain at our elevation, snow about 800 feet above us. With the cold was wind, stripping the gold and red leaves from the trees that had not lost their leaves yet. A good day to stay indoors, but it was Farmers’ Market day and if we were to have meat this week, other than chicken, a trip to town was necessary. We dallied, not leaving to have breakfast as on most weekends and knowing that there was a home game at the University in town, an attempt to try to miss the traffic seeking to find parking on side streets or failing that, paying $10/car in church lots or people’s yards. Home games are madness in our little town as the university is huge and the alumni dedicated, even in a cold rain. The market was done, the vendors all thanking us for coming out in such nastiness, but we came home with ground beef, stew meat, onions and radishes, still having greens in the garden and a bit of the last salad in the refrigerator. Our usual meat vendor wasn’t there, so I was unable to get the ground pork that I wanted to make a stuffed pumpkin this week, unless I can find a package in the chest freezer. Or perhaps, I will make a pumpkin, chicken curry in a pumpkin shell, there is plenty of coconut milk and red curry in the pantry.

Once home, the winter squash picked over the prior two days were toted down to the root cellar in the basement, two big canvas sacks at a time, many, many trips up and down the stairs. The shelves look ready to provide well this winter.

Pumpkins, sweet potatoes, garlic and canned goodies. This is what is left after loads to northern Virginia and what is upstairs in the pantry. The freezer stocked with green beans, peas, apples, chicken and a bit of pork and beef stockpiled from weekend trips to the Farmers’ Market. Our favorite meat vendor toughs it out at the market on all but the worst winter Saturday’s throughout the upcoming winter.

As the wind blew last night, and the temperature dropped, our power failed. Quickly gathering up the battery lanterns and flashlights and tossing a down blanket on the two quilts on the bed, I settled in with my tablet that had a good charge and the ebook that I am currently reading. Fortunately, the power only stayed out a couple of hours and we were awakened by the TV and lights coming on and the computer printer doing a self start, though it had been powered off before.

The morning dawned an hour earlier, thanks to the time change last night from daylight savings time. Yes, I know, an extra hour to sleep, hmmmph, I awake with the sun and get up once awake, my body doesn’t just switch gears like the clock. As I let the pups out, I realized that we were seeing our first snow flurries and the lightest of dusting on the ground and decks.

Mountain snow showers are a common occurrence, rarely amounting to anything, whenever there is moisture in the air and the temperature below freezing. The freeze last night, the first freeze burned back the pumpkin patch and the bean patch. The greens look sad this morning but will perk back up as the daytime temperatures rise above freezing.

After feeding the chickens and breaking the ice on their water, a walk through the ruined patch revealed as I suspected, several more pumpkins. The largest, not damaged ones gathered and brought in, like I really need more in the house.

Happily, several of them were Buttercup squash. A couple were tossed into the chicken pen and the rest left to be gathered in the garage or thrown immediately to the chickens over this week once the wind dies down and the temperature rises to a more comfortable range. This was the first morning that I had to don the heavy barn coat to go deal with the birds.

The peppers that were gathered prior to the expected Arctic chill have all been processed, the tiny jalapenos sliced and frozen, some used in last night’s chili with cornbread for dinner. The small bell peppers, sliced and frozen, the ripe habeneros packed whole in freezer bags, the green ones set in a bowl to ripen as you can see they are doing. They too will be bagged and frozen. The tiny hot orange pepper that I still haven’t identified, was pureed with vinegar they had been soaking in for the past few weeks and a Tabasco-like sauce made that a single drop burned my mouth for an hour. The rest of them are ripening on the upside down plants in the garage. The tomatillos that we gathered were rid of their husks, washed and packed whole in freezer bags, another 3 pounds to be used in Pozole this winter. A chicken, some tomatillos, a bag of dried hominy soaked, a handful of Mexican spices and a hearty soup to feed a small army is made.

We are lovin’ life on our mountain farm and now must accept another winter is upon us. We were lucky this year, we got an extra 2-3 weeks before the first frost.

November 2, 2014
A Tribute to a Mountain Man

Today a true mountain man was laid to rest on the hill overlooking our home. The banner photo at the top of my blog was taken almost from the spot where he was buried. He was one of the first people we met upon buying our land. He was wary of us and we of him at our first meeting, but he quickly became a friend. One of the characteristics of Appalachian men is to not to talk to women outside of their family. He, though shy, was never like that. He would stop when he saw me at our mailbox or mowing the top field and chat. A nature lover, he would point out the hawks or the baby raccoons that he could spot before we ever saw them. As a veteran, he was proud of his country and his service to his country, generally wearing a ball cap that stated Viet Nam Veteran. He was a simple man that didn’t care what other people thought of him, he marched to his own drummer, but would do anything for you if asked. In the past couple of years, he first lost a leg to circulatory issues and finally his life to Pneumonia on top of COPD, he failed fast and will leave a huge hole in his family and his neighborhood. His request was to be buried on his farm, on his hill where he spent many hours day and night, watching the wildlife or the stars. At his graveside, he was given a 21 gun salute by the local American Legion, VFW and National Guard. His family presented with the flag from his coffin. Like in life, he was buried in simplicity, in his hunting clothes, his Viet Nam cap and a simple pine box. He will be missed on our mountain.

His passing allowed us to meet people who had just been names to us since our move here. Our farm sits in the midst of hundreds of acres of farmland owned by his family, his brother and cousins, only a few of whom we had met. It is a sad way to get to know them, but nice to be able to put faces with the names we have learned.

After the service and a dinner at the chapel, we hurried home to try to harvest what was left in the garden, one of his cousins, our closest neighbor coming down to help and visit. We are expecting winter to arrive tonight and have snow flurries expected this weekend with nights in the 20’s.

Darrell helped harvest any pumpkins and winter squash that were hanging from the compost bins, the ones on the ground we left to see if the leaves will die off in the freeze. A box of mixed peppers, another of the remaining tomatillos and some greens were harvested, the pepper and tomatillo plants pulled and tossed in the chicken pen, the chard covered with row cover to try to save it for a bit longer. The two cayenne pepper plants were pulled and hung upside down in the garage to see if the rest of those peppers will turn red. He left after visiting and having a cup of tea with a box full of some of the goodies. As we were cutting the pumpkins, we realize that there must be 35 or 40 more in the garden. I need to find more recipes other than soup and roasted winter squash.

October 30, 2014
Tis The End

Saturday mornings are usually spent going to the local diner for breakfast then on to the Farmers’ Market. Not today. Today the morning was spent processing the last two baskets of tomatoes, both green and red, many with spots that had to be cut away. I started with the green, as my end product was to be Green Tomato Chutney from http://foodinjars.com/2010/11/green-tomato-chutney/. The cooking part of this one takes an hour and a half or more. It was prepped and set to simmer on a back burner. Next up were the remaining red tomatoes that were pared of cores and bad spots, diced and tossed into another large pot with some salt. On the last functional and largest burner was the pressure canner with the requisite 3 quarts of water and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar as we have hard water and I didn’t want white rings on the jars. Loaded inside were my last 7 pint jars full of hot water to heat until filling time. The red tomatoes filled those jars with some to spare, so a quick jaunt out to the garden to harvest a pound or so of Tomatillos and some hot peppers and with an onion, some garlic, a toss of herbs, a bit of chopping, the tomatoes became salsa. It was left to cook down some while the diced tomatoes canned and cooled enough to remove from the canner.
While I was standing at the kitchen window, enjoying the outside while doing dishes, I spotted a coyote in the hayfield.

They have been very vocal the past few nights and while I got the binoculars to check him out and my phone to take the distant photo, I spotted two more. All three were taking their time sauntering across the newly mowed hayfield, into the woods and up toward the house. They passed close enough to the house that the dogs indoors became very agitated.

The only jars left on hand were a new flat of half pints that I bought with the idea of making the chutney, so nine of them were washed, filled with hot water and scalded in the canner. The end result was 5 half pints of salsa, 5 half pints of chutney. One of the chutney’s didn’t even go in the canner, it will travel with me this week to the spinning retreat with a block of Neufchatel cheese and a box of crackers to share at the happy hour. A half pint of salsa and a bag of chips will also go.

It has been a good season for tomatoes, unlike last year when we didn’t get enough to get up through the winter. It was not a good year for beans thanks to the bunnies. The shelves are stocked with tomato products. The freezer with chicken and peas. This week I will purchase one more flat of jars and a basket of local apples and can one batch of applesauce, then the canner will be packed away for another year.

My session ended with a sandwich and a fried green tomato that I set aside just for my lunch.

September 20, 2014
The Last. . .

…harvest of tomatoes that is. The vines are dry and brown, the handful of remaining tomatoes are being decimated by the stinkbugs and each day I pull and toss a vine to the chickens to pick over. There are a few remaining green slicer tomatoes and I will enjoy them as fried green tomatoes, a treat that I rarely indulge, partly because my diet contains very little fried food and partly because I let them ripen on the vine during warm weather to enjoy sliced or canned.

These will be canned probably into salsa to add to the root cellar shelves to enjoy and remember a successful tomato season when the snow is falling or the cold wet wind is blowing much sooner than ready.

…the last pullet figured out the egg laying business, sort of. There was a tiny egg this morning, apparently laid yesterday in the run and not seen until this morning when I went to let them out. It was dark when I locked them up last night when I came in from knit night. Surprisingly, nothing found it during the night. Now, if she will just lay them in the nesting boxes with the other hens. Romeo is a very frustrated young roo. None of his ladies in waiting will stand still for him to mount them, they run and peck. When he was first added to the run, several squatted in submission, but not now. It is going to be hard for us to raise a heritage flock if that behavior continues.

…of the 5 gallon bucket of stain will be mixed this morning once the fog clears, to stain the soffit and fascia board overhang from the front porch. At knit night last night, I ran into the manager of the Sherman Williams in the coffee shop and he suggested I wait until this weekend to buy more as the stain that we use will be on sale for 40% off and that is a significant savings in dollars for our budget. That also gives me two days for my sore and painful shoulder to calm down before I tackle the log wall of the front of the house. Saturday is to be mild and breezy with humidity in the right range for the project, so that will be the day to complete the task.

…the last few rows of the beautiful handspun sweater. The photo doesn’t do the color justice but it is lovely. It should be ready for the spinning retreat I will be attending soon.

September 18, 2014
I’m getting too old for this!

The weather has been beautiful. Mid 50’s at night, great sleeping weather with a window open, 70 for the day’s high. Occasional clouds, some of them quite lovely.

Last night it was so beautiful outside that after I finished staining the garage doors with Mountaingdad and then finished the half wall on the garage that Son #1 didn’t have time to finish, we grilled out and ate on the back deck. I was tired and sore and needed some zen time, so I spend about an hour near sundown mowing in one of the back fields. It really is quite zen to ride the tractor and watch the goings on around you on the farm.

Today being a copy of yesterday, I began earlier to get the front and back walls of the breezeway stained. This critter with her brood of babies on her back watched from the stone wall nearby for quite a time.

While I was doing the breezeway, our handyman neighbor was staining the ceiling of the front porch and we worked together to get the front porch posts to use up the remaining stain mix that was made today. Once the additives are mixed in, it must be used within 6 hours. As we were working on that, I spotted another spider’s work.

It is spun to the contour of the A frame bird house. This is the best I could do to get a photo.

The only parts of the house left for me to stain are the front log wall, seen in the background of the photo above and the 8 windows that are in the areas that I have or will stain.

About 38 years ago, I separated my left shoulder on the second day of skiing with my hubby. We weren’t married then, though he says that my skiing for several more days after that injury helped him decide that I was the woman he had been looking for. I am a southpaw, so I work that shoulder and arm a lot and when I do, whether gardening or staining like I am doing now, that old injury makes my shoulder quite sore. I may need a day or two break before I tackle that front wall. It will take me several hours to complete. For now, I’m going to get cleaned up and go socialize with my friends at knit night. As a bonus, I have 4 dozen eggs to sell to them.

September 17, 2014
Salsa Season

With tomatoes and peppers taking over the empty spaces in my kitchen, sauces and salsas are the order of the day most days. The lion’s share of the tomatoes become pasta sauce for the quick winter meal. With or without meat added on serving day, spaghetti or penne cooked al dente and a salad or green beans sauteed in olive oil with a splash of lemon juice and sometimes a chunk of bread if I have been baking.

Another couple dozen jars will be canned tomato chunks with green chilies for using when I make my prize winning pot of chili on a cold eve.

Hubby and Son#1 love salsa, fresh or canned, green or red. I have made one batch of tomatillo/jalapeno salsa and will make more with the next harvest of tomatillos. Pico de Gallo is always welcome, but only happens when everything is fresh from the garden. This year, I am going to try canning my own salsa as the brand of choice here has risen in price to nearly $5 per pint. To make this, I am going to use the one referenced in yesterday’s XXX hot sauce post. We were visiting our cousin at their casa in Mexico and they have a husband and wife staff. He cares for the grounds and does maintenance, she cleans, deals with linens and if you purchase food, will prepare breakfast and dinner for you for a very small fee. If you want a great place to visit, check out http://www.Casadelplatero.net . Our cousin likes his salsa too and this was served with breakfast and dinner’s in.

Casa del Platero Salsa

2 medium tomatoes, cut in half

1 medium onion cut in halves or quarters

2 jalapeno peppers cut in half lengthwise

2 cloves garlic

salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet in a small amount of cooking oil (I use Olive or grapeseed) cook the tomatoes, onion and peppers cut side down until lightly browned and softened. Add garlic and cook just until fragrant, don’t let it brown, it gets bitter. Place all in a blender or food processor and blend until a chunky salsa consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. May be served warm or chilled. It will keep for a week or two in a jar in the refrigerator. If you want it less spicy, just use less jalapeno, if you want more fire, add more or add a half of a habanero pepper.

As I plan to can it this year, I will add 1 Tbs lemon juice and 1/2 tsp pickling salt to each hot pint jar before spooning in the salsa and will water bath can it for 25 minutes (I live above 2000 feet so adjust to your altitude) or pressure can it for 15 minutes.

The remaining tomatoes will be eaten fresh or canned plain for those days when I just need canned tomatoes for a recipe. It looks like a bumper crop this year.

August 20, 2014
Summer Delights

Yesterday was miserable! My day started with dog and chicken chores in the rain, not a gentle summer shower, a torrential downpour. I had moved Broody Girl to the auxiliary chicken run and chicken tractor the day before and had put her in the chicken tractor with some amusing effort the night before. Her food was in there, but not her water. She squawked unmercifully until well after dark. Figuring she was better off in the tractor since it was raining, I attempted to put her water in with her, but she dove past me into the run in the rain so I just left the door to the tractor open. Now I have heard that turkey’s are stupid enough to drown in the rain. That may be an old mountain tale, but Broody Girl was stupid enough to stand out in the pouring rain nearly all day instead of going back inside the tractor. Last night I felt sorry for her and returned her to the coop, very wet and very agitated.

The first thing she did was go to the nesting box and I ran her off. She is showing me her wet displeasure. This morning she exited the coop with the others and has stayed outside. Yay!

Once those chores were done, I spent 90 minutes in the dentist chair getting a temporary crown on the tooth I broke 7 weeks ago when I went to Northern Virginia to pick up Grandson #1 for the summer. As soon as I got home from that, the dentist did a build up so the tooth wouldn’t break anymore until he could see me for the crown prep. This is not a fun time. It is my 6th crown.

As we were headed home, still in the pouring rain, we picked up the power washer as scheduled and in spite of the rain, our neighbor with my help cleared the covered front porch and open back deck of plants and furniture and he power washed both. He was soaked from the effort and the rain and I was also from helping to move furniture and the hose from front to back.

Today is still overcast and has rained off and on, but not like yesterday. The weather broke enough after we returned the power washer for me to do some harvest. It is definitely that time of year.

The two trips out to the garden resulted in a huge bowl of mostly hot peppers and another of tomatillos. A few tomatoes are getting picked each day and a few lemon cukes. The counter full of goodies encouraged me to haul out the water bath canner, a box of jars, and the other necessaries to put some of it away for the winter.

The cayennes were strung to dry, the habaneros and a couple pounds of tomatillos were made into another batch of the I No Longer Have Taste Buds XXX hot sauce (son said it was wonderful), the jalapenos pickled for hubby, the rest of the tomatillos canned in quarters and the lemon cukes pickled in a dill brine.

One afternoon’s canning session cooling on the counter. A good addition to the goodies accumulating on the shelves for winter consumption. As I’m a rather adventurous cook at this age, the XXX hot sauce must be documented so I can duplicate it next year. My basic idea came from a visit to Mexico where the woman house staff made a salsa for us from Jalapenos, tomato, onion and garlic. That one is good too.

I No Longer Have Taste Buds XXX Hot Sauce

a dozen or so medium Habanero peppers

2 lbs (16-20) tomatillos

1 medium onion

3-4 cloves garlic

2 Tbs. lemon juice

1 tsp pickling salt

1/2 c fresh of 2 Tbs dried cilantro

In a heavy non reactive pot, heat a couple of Tbs of Olive oil and saute the onion, chopped coarsely. Quarter the habaneros with seeds (gloves are advised), peel and chop the garlic, remove the papery husk, wash and quarter the tomatillos. In a blender, place the peppers, garlic, tomatillos, sauteed onion, lemon juice and salt and blend until fairly smooth. Pour back into the heavy pot, add the cilantro and simmer for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking. If you are going to can this for shelf stability, it should be water bath canned for 20 minutes in pint or cup jars. It will keep for months in the refrigerator if just packed in hot jars and lids with bands applied.

I do love this time of year. Enjoying the spoils of our garden and the labor of putting is away for winter enjoyment. Soon I will be canning tomatoes and tomato sauce nearly every day, but it will be so good later.

Life is an adventure!

August 19, 2014
Sunday musings August 17, 2014

This is the first Sunday in 6 weeks that I could be lazy. The first Sunday where I didn’t have to arise by 7 a.m. prepare breakfast for Grandson #1 and supervise a math worksheet and a writing assignment then encourage him to practice his guitar and his Kung Fu forms.

I was tired last night. I drove for 5 hours and once home alone as Hubby was out on his BBH riding, I turned on the Solar Charger that I installed just before leaving to charge the electric fence. Reluctantly I touched the fence at the farthest point from the charger and nothing. It is a 12V impulse charger, so I should have felt a zing every few seconds, nothing. Again I read the manual. I had attached everything correctly, but I had tried to run the wire in two directions from the charger to give me a better place to put the gate without having to bury the wire in PVC pipe below the gate. Assuming that to be my problem, I disconnected everything and determined that the gate was just going to have to be where the charger is mounted on a wooden post and rewired the fence in a continuous two strand loop from charger to gate opening. When I turned the charger back on, still no zing. In walking around the perimeter, I realized that the wire was touching the welded wire fence of the auxiliary chicken pen and must be grounding itself. That corrected and the charger on, I did indeed get shocked on both sides of the gate opening. Now I need a third gate and a second non conductive post to hang the gate for our convenience. The garden and chicken pens are within an electric force field. It won’t keep the bunnies out, but it should keep the neighborhood dogs and coyotes out of the chickens and the deer out of the garden.

Once that was complete, a walk around just to enjoy the beautiful afternoon, I discovered …

The apple and Asian Pear trees are only three years old, so I stripped most of the flowers from them this spring to give them another year to establish. I left a few flowers on one apple tree and the larger Asian Pear tree and was delighted to find 4 apples (one was badly pecked so I gave it to the chickens) and 8 Asian Pears. I ate one pear standing right at the unsprayed tree, Tossed the two tiny malformed ones to the chickens. Our first tree fruit. The peaches produced small hard peaches that all oozed sap. I assume they were attacked by something. I will have to do some research as I won’t use pesticide spray on my fruit, near my vegetable garden and the chickens.

Once I was finally moving this morning, after dog and chicken chores, and enjoying a bowl of homemade granola with coconut milk and a cup of coffee, I hauled the lawn mower out to cut the area inside the electric fence that is not vegetable garden, compost bins or chicken pen and also the grass inside the auxiliary chicken pen as there are no chickens in it right now and the grass was getting quite tall.

Later we must make a Tractor Supply run for dog and chick feed and perhaps to purchase the gate. I can get our neighbor to help me hang it this week. As I was mowing the area above my garden, I realized how much slope the yard has between the area that Son #1 and wife had established as the upper garden and where my vegetable garden is with the compost bins in between. As we are going to remove the compost bins and just leave me a compost pile, I think we will have to terrace that area making a 4 tiered garden as we expand the garden and berry patch back up the slope. It has been nice having the space this year for the pumpkins, winter squash and sweet potatoes. It will be nice to have more space for summer squash and cucumbers to spread out, a place to again plant potatoes which we haven’t done in a couple of years and more room to spread out the tomatoes and peppers so they aren’t quite so crowded. Since I have started using the heavy spoiled hay mulch system this year, there has been much less weeding to do.

Planning continues as our little mountain farm evolves. Life is an adventure!

August 17, 2014
Fall Gardening

The sunny day yesterday did not really happen, but it didn’t really rain either. It was only in the mid 60’s most of the day and partly to mostly cloudy, so a perfect day to garden.

Since eggs are a premium around here still, we went out to breakfast at our local diner. I have gotten 2 pullet eggs in the past couple of days. There are 11 pullets, so we are hoping they will all get the message soon. Their eggs are so cute next to the hens eggs.

After breakfast, we ventured down to Tractor Supply for pine shavings for the brooder and to replace the solar charger that is supposed to protect my garden and the chickens, but failed right before we left for vacation. When we purchased it, we only got a 6V solar charger. The batteries on them only last about 3 years and it probably needs a new battery, but Tractor Supply had a 12V on sale for a price I couldn’t pass up. It is mounted and charging to be connected after I return from taking our grandson home today. Our adventure yesterday also took us to our favorite local nursery for fall vegetable starts. Having grandson here, activities with him, and our vacation just got in the way of starting my own. Once home, a bit of grubbing in the soil with my awesome hoe and my hands, cleared two beds, weeded the bean patch where I realized that the gnawed off shoots were growing new leaves. Planted were 4 Rainbow Chard, 8 Broccoli, 4 Kale plants.

Once they were safely tucked in the soil and mulched with some spoiled hay, row cover was placed over them and the beans to thwart the bunnies and the cabbage moths. Perhaps we will get some beans this season after all. We have about 60 days until our average first frost date, so I am hopeful.

In recent years, I have been reluctant to plant radishes and turnips in our garden as they always seem to be attacked by the little white maggots. Recently I read that if you sprinkle wood ash in your furrow that they won’t be a problem. I hadn’t really saved any wood ash, but found a couple of cups worth in the bottom of the woodstove and added it to about a cup of diatomaceous earth and planted a row of red radishes, a row of white icicle radishes and a row of turnip seed as a test, sprinkling the mix in the row and on top of the covered seed. We will see if that experiment works, if so I will save more wood ash next year. This bed was also covered with a row cover to thwart the bunnies.

My son says I should sit out there with my .22 and dispatch them and eat them. Unfortunately, I don’t like rabbit and I couldn’t clean them if I succeeded in shooting one. I will continue to deter them with row cover and maybe once I get the electric fence charged to keep the deer and dogs out, I will string plastic bunny fence around the vegetable garden.

I couldn’t get cabbage starts at our local nursery, they were all sold out, but Lowes just got theirs in yesterday afternoon and a scored a flat of 9. This morning they were planted. , Now it’s time to thin the raspberries, harvest and preserve for the winter.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

August 14, 2014
Noah, we need help.

Please send Ark plans. Today is our 5th straight day of rain, often heavy. This rain allowed only that the scaffolding be erected over the weekend, no caulking done to allow the staining.

It is the 5th day that harvesting in the garden has been difficult to impossible.

The chicken pen is so deep in mud that my muck boots sink a couple of inches each time I have to enter the pen. I would clean out the coop and throw the soiled hay over the mud except that it won’t stop raining long enough for me to uncover the hay to put clean dry hay inside. The older three of this years chicks are now 24 weeks old and I am hoping for eggs soon. To encourage them, I put fake eggs (golf balls) in the nesting boxes. Broody Girl is still being stubborn and has managed to move two of them into her box so she is sitting on 3. I move them back and she relocates them again. She is sure being stubborn about being broody.

The new babies are thriving in their brooder.

The rain has done nothing to help the lake at Mountain Lake. It began to leak a few years ago and went totally dry for two summers. Geologist and soil scientists studied the lake bottom and attempts to repair it were made. The lake partially refilled last summer after the repairs were made, but mother nature had other ideas and the lake is only partially refilled and lower this summer than last.

August 12, 2014