Cabin Crafted

Category: gardens

  • Summer Camp

    The museum where I volunteer as a spinner and occasional teacher holds a history themed week long day camp each summer. This year’s theme is cultures, representing the melting pot of cultures that dwelt in this region and the crafts they brought. Next week, I will spend one afternoon on fiber and will provide each camper with a small drop spindle to take home and a lesson on how to spin on one.

    The spindles are wooden toy wheels on a dowel with a cup hook at the top. Each in a small storage bag that will also have an ounce or so of wool for practice, and each will be given a printed instruction as a reminder when they get home with them.

    The weather is going to be hot as it has been for several weeks, but cloudy, so maybe not too uncomfortable in the Colonial outfit. I am following the bagpiper and he will certainly have on more layers than I will.

    As my favorite thing to do at the museum is working with children, drawing back on my retired educator skills, this is a perfect afternoon.

    The annual scavenger hunt has been fun this week, with easy to find object and encouraging much more spinning time for me. The wool I have been spinning was slightly sidelined as I wanted to spin the gift sample that my friend sent with the spindle she proxy shopped for me. One half was spun Monday, the other half yesterday and the two plyed last evening to create a small 46 yard skein. The pale yellow, I learned from here is caused by a bacteria in the wool in wet or humid conditions and though washing with soap stops the growth and makes the wool safe, the yellow color does not wash out. It will be added to a bag of other small skeins and they will be knit into hats when my current knitting project is complete.

    If the weather ever cools off, a couple days of weeding flower beds, dividing Iris and Day Lilies needs to be done. And a couple skeletons of Nandina that the cold killed off two winters ago, need to be dug out. Other than cucumbers and a handful of green beans, the garden is growing but not producing much right now. There will be tomatoes, a few ears of corn, peppers, and hopefully a second round of green beans later in the summer.

    Right now, we are sitting out a round of thunderstorms. We got our daily walk in prior to them setting in. It was hot and humid, but done anyway.

  • It’s Gone

    For the past several years, our youngest son and his family have kept their RV parked on our farm. It leaves occasionally for them to use as a mobile hotel and was often used for them to stay in when visiting us. The last couple of times they were here, they stayed in the house due to some repair issues on the RV. I would start up the generator every few weeks, keep mouse traps baited and cleared, but otherwise just mowed around it. They now have a mini homestead and have moved it home. It is odd driving down the driveway and not seeing it, or doing a double take out the front window when noticing it isn’t there. In addition to the RV leaving, a pile of roof and vent repair items that have been in our garage left with it.

    Weekend before last was the only fiber festival that the Jenkins, makers of my favorite spindles attend. A distant friend that attends each year has offered and proxy shopped for me several times as the festival is in Oregon and I am in Virginia, so attending in person hasn’t happened. This new plum spindle will soon join the spinning fun.

    The Jenkins spindle group to which I belong on social media holds a fun scavenger hunt each year during Tour de France, called Tour de Fleece. Many groups hold versions of Tour de Fleece, many with challenges on who or what team can spin the most, but our version is more laid back and more fun. Each day, we are given an object to find and photograph with our spindle in progress on a spin. Each day the spindle needs to have more spun or plyed fiber on it than the day before. I have several small Jenkins Turkish spindles that will be used during this period. There are prizes donated by members of the group if you find enough of the items and post your photo within the 24 hour window. This year, I am doing it just for the fun of it and have asked not to be included in the prize drawing if I find enough items and follow through with the daily posting.

    During DH’s broken clavicle healing, my trigger finger surgery healing, and our cruise, I didn’t post much in the group. It is fun to be back involved with them.

    Most of my evenings have been spent knitting on a shawl with a skein of handspun. Last night, I began the Old Shale Lace border using a different skein of handspun alternating with the other skein as there isn’t enough of it to finish without adding the skein of similar colors. One 4 row repeat of the border has been done and the next begun. We will have to see how many repeats I do before I either tire of it or it begins to distort the triangular shape of the shawl. It is difficult to tell with it scrunched up on the needle.

    After days and days of heavy rain that damaged our driveway, filled the ditch above our culvert (again), and damaged the state road that had recently been graded, it is dry. The garden will need to be watered if we don’t get a thunderstorm soon. Yesterday was a mild day in the upper 70’s, today it is nearly 90. That is usually a recipe for a thunderstorm, at least I’m hoping so.

    My current read is a new release called “Reckoning Hour” by Peter O’Mahoney and as I read it, I feel like I have read it before, though it was just released in April. A bit of research and I think it is very reminiscent (almost too much so) of a Grisham book.

  • Small but generous

    This year, the garden is small, only 5 metal raised beds that vary from 3×3′ to 3.5×5′ plus a small patch of corn and sunflowers and the bed of blueberry bushes. Oh and the asparagus bed that is now tall ferns putting nutrients in the roots for next year’s crop.

    Yesterday in the heat, the first green beans were harvested, enough to freeze some and share some with daughter’s family. The cucumbers are producing faster than I can pickle them, but only one has gotten large enough to discard to the remaining 6 chickens. It is one of their favorite summer time treats.

    The weeds had gotten tall in the paths and unused part of the garden again, so before it got hot this morning, the line trimmer was put to use and cleared the paths and near the pumpkins with some hand weeding around the bases of them. They are not being very successful competing with the weeds. Also this morning, the tomatoes were trimmed and tied to the trellis, more green beans, onions, cucumbers, and the volunteer potatoes were brought in.

    The assistance of the local grandson has been requested and the chicken tunnel fence is going to be moved to allow them in the parts of the garden that don’t have the raised beds that are productive. They will enjoy the fresh greens, scratch the roots up and clean that area up. It will likely mean the loss of the pumpkins, but as I only use a couple a year to make pies, I can purchase them at the Farmer’s Market this fall.

    The volunteer potatoes had pushed some to the surface and they had developed the green solanine, so those were replanted in the bed that had the peas and onions earlier, as we are still within the potato planting window here. The bed that had earlier grown the garlic was replanted with a second planting of green beans and as we are approaching bean beetle season, they will likely be covered in row cover as soon as they emerge. Often, the second planting is destroyed by the beetles before they can really produce.

    I just finished reading “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World” by Robin Kimmerer. An expansion of an essay she wrote on gift and service economy. We should all spend more time giving of our excess and our time and less of the consumer economy in which we live. I try with giving eggs and produce to family and friends, and time as a volunteer at the museum, but more could be given.

  • A Break

    With thunder pounding, lightning flashing, and torrents of rain falling, the heat dome finally broke. We are expected about 10 degree cooler weather for the next 10 days and nice cool nights. We try to go out to dinner about once a week and were in the next town west, a small town, but bigger than our village. They have a great Mexican Restaurant that we enjoy, and we got in before it started. Electricity flickered during dinner. We left running to the car only three spaces from the exit and got soaked. The highway had ponds of water on it and every driver was proceeding at a snail’s pace, except the fuel tank truck that dangerously barreled past, like his product had an expiration date of yesterday, sending rooster tails of water down on those of us who realized the lack of visibility was an issue.

    Monday, the young neighbor that mows our hay for his cattle came and cut the fields in the 96f heat. It sat on the ground Tuesday, and when we got home from errands and a walk on Wednesday, he and an older gentleman were raking and baling it.

    The heat and the mowing activity increased the field mouse activity and living in a hayfield, we keep traps set year round. The other requirement is to keep the attractants like bags of nuts, sugar, pasta, in jars.

    A second quart jar of cucumbers were started to ferment for dills, so 2 are in the works now.

    My chicken coop has a small pen with plastic mesh over the top, and a 2 foot wide tunnel (also covered with plastic mesh) that surrounds about 4/5s of the vegetable garden. The coop has a battery powered pop door that raises at about 6:30 a.m. and was closing around 9 p.m. About 10 days ago, I went out in the morning and two hens were missing. The hay mower found their remains halfway to the lower field. I started monitoring whether the hens were getting in before the door closed and found two hens in an apple tree, one on the coop egg door, and one on the mesh pen cover. They were rounded up and the timer on the door changed to give them until 9:30 to get in. Yesterday morning, I went out to find 2 more hens dead in the tunnel around the garden. They must not have gone in before the door closed.

    The cost, responsibility, and loss are taking a toll on me. I have been using only about half a dozen eggs a week except during holidays for years and the remaining eggs have gone to my children’s families, or neighbors. It is time to give it up, I think. I can buy eggs at the Farmer’s Market when I need them. The coop will be repaired, restained, and maybe I will try again in a year or so.

    The garden is smaller this year, but the area not designated by raised bed boxes is a mass of weeds. The overall fenced area can’t really be reduced as the blueberries are at one end and the asparagus at the other. A solution to stay on top of the weed mess needs to be found. I thought planting pumpkins there would cover and smother the weeds, but they are growing very slowly in the dry heat.

    In the past week, two spinning projects were finished and yesterday at the spinning group, one was plyed, and the other plyed last night. They need to be wound off the bobbins and soaked. Both have tentative use plans. The darker one was the small amount of Dorset wool roving I bought in Skagway, Alaska on our cruise in May and it was plyed with a multicolored strand of BFL that I had spun. The lighter one is Rommeldale and Bamboo and it will be the border on a shawl I am knitting slowly.

    Today’s walk should be less onerous with temperatures only climbing into the mid 80’s. Sunscreen and a water bottle to prevent a burn and dehydration.

  • I could fry an egg…

    Like much of the US right now, we could proverbially, “fry an egg on the sidewalk,” if we had a sidewalk. We have been sweltering in upper 80’s-low 90’s for a week now and high humidity, so it feels like you breath thick fog. Today, we had to take a trip to the “city” about 45 minutes away and lower in elevation and the thermometer there was 96 before noon. We are glad to be home in the air conditioned house.

    The garden is providing. The garlic has cured enough that the roots were trimmed and the stalks cut back to just a few inches. The peas have all been harvested, shelled and frozen with a couple meals enjoyed in the process. The vines have been pulled and need to be chopped into the compost pile. The cucumbers are beginning to produce, so the first 8 small ones were cut and are now fermenting on the kitchen counter to become dills in a few weeks. My plan is to try to stay on top of the production and harvest when they are only 3-5″ long and pickle them whole. Whole pickles can always be slices or quarters when wanted that way.

    In spite of daily soaking with the garden hose, the back deck plants are unhappy with the heat, and the front porch petunias with not enough sunlight. The petunia baskets might get moved to the sunny side of the house for a sunny vacation. The deer are decimating all of my day lilies, Autumn Joy, Coral bells, and Helianthus salicifolius a perennial sunflower that doesn’t stand a chance of blooming this year.

    If you are a reader and like variations on a classic, I highly recommend “James” by Percival Everett.

  • The Norm

    This seems to be a daily event right now. Thick gray clouds for a good part of the day, temperatures in the 80’s (27-29 c) and humidity in the 80%s so hot and muggy.

    It does mean that the deck flowers and vegetable garden don’t need watering, but the paths of the garden did need attention with the line trimmer. That was done in the fog yesterday morning after I had to chase a soaking wet hen though the foot tall weeds when she figured out how to get in the garden but not back out the night before.

    When regrading the driveway and preparing to try to clear some of the gravel from the ditch below the culvert, the tractor ran out of fuel. The fuel gauge is a float device, stuck to the bottom of the fuel tank, so it doesn’t register even when full. Of course I was at the top of the driveway and had to walk down the hill to the house to get the diesel can and carry 5 gallons back up the hill. After filling, the tractor started right up then stalled, repeatedly. I sent a text message to our hay guy to see if he thought it was something I could fix or if I needed to call the repair folks to come get it. His phone died just as he started to read my text and thought I had a critical issue and came right over with this pickup with the fuel tank in the bed. Realizing the issues, he opened the engine compartment, removed various hoses, cleaned out the fuel filter and put it back together. Still stalled, so more hoses removed and there was a clog where the fuel feeds from the tank to the fuel pump. It was unclogged and worked fine for him afterward.

    As we were going away for the weekend, the tractor was parked back in the barn and the next morning, VDOT graded the road and cleared the ditches.

    Our Father’s Day weekend was to attend a play with Son 1, DIL, 2 grandsons, and her parents. This was part of our Christmas gift from Son 1 and DIL. The play was very interesting and thought provoking. The title was Andy Warhol in Iran. It took place in a hotel room with only two character’s, Andy Warhol and a revolutionary who was trying to kidnap him. The character development was fascinating, the two actors performed for 90 minutes straight with interaction and monologue sidebars.

    This followed by dinner out at an Ethiopian restaurant. Father’s Day was breakfast out with Son 1, DIL, and their son and a drive home in the rain. Then ice cream out with Daughter, SIL, and 3 grands.

    We have been fortunate to get our daily walks in between rain storms, but the heat and humidity wear on me now.

    The garden is now providing. Yesterday, the garlic was harvested, but is having to dry in the garage. The first of the peas harvested and half of them enjoyed last night, the other half frozen. The green beans are tall and flowering, a second planting needs to go in where the garlic was removed. Cucumbers are climbing the trellis and flowering. A few new potatoes were pulled from under the volunteer plants to serve with the peas last night.

    We will return to the Farmer’s Market this weekend to stock up on vegetables for salad and ones I either don’t grow or haven’t begun producing here yet.

  • Time flies

    A friend commented that she missed my blog, which tells me, I haven’t been posting as often as I used to.

    While we were away, it rained heavily and our dirt and gravel sloped driveway took a beating. We came home to deep gullies and evidence that someone other than VDOT had attempted to smooth the state road so getting to our mailbox was a real challenge. Our tractor has a blade attachment on the back and I am getting quite adept at smoothing out the mess. I no sooner got it improved than we had another two days of heavy storms and my work was destroyed again. Again, the tractor and I tackled the mess and got most of the driveway smooth enough to not drag bottom on the car coming in and out. When the fiber optic crew was here before out trip, laying the new line, one of the guys on a small backhoe dug out the ends of our culvert for us. The rain now has a better path, but the steepness of the driveway still allows serious run off. The state road is hazardous to drive right now and the ditch below our culvert is filled with gravel from the road.

    The weekend we got home, our eldest local grandson (not the eldest of all of them) was graduated as a distinguished scholar from high school. As his high school is in the process of being significantly enlarged, they held the graduation at the basketball stadium at Virginia Tech, so each student had unlimited guests. He had many, some from as far away as Florida come to cheer him on. Daughter and SIL threw a party that afternoon for everyone and many of his friends as well with lots of food and cupcakes. He will enter Virginia Tech in the Engineering School in the fall. We are very proud of him and his accomplishments as a student, with the robotics team Fabrication co-leader, and in Taekwondo as an instructor and as a 3rd degree senior black belt.

    Last weekend, our spinning group had it annual spring porch party always hosted by the same couple. About 20 of us gathered for an afternoon of socialization, spinning, and an awesome potluck. I brought out my spinning wheel for the first time in a while and started a very colorful braid of Organic Pohlwarth which I finished a couple of evenings ago.

    All of these weekends have thrown our usual routine out the door until this weekend. We resumed our Saturday morning breakfast out, followed by the Farmer’s Market and good local food to supply our freezer and refrigerator.

    Soon I will be able to harvest peas, some volunteer new potatoes, and garlic from our garden. The tomatoes and peppers are growing, green beans and corn getting taller. We are about at the end of asparagus season (hubby says Yay, though I don’t serve them to him.)

    I do need to week whack the paths again.

    The other craft I have dug out, is to set up my sewing machine and make a couple of simple summer tops as the weather has been in the 80’s and humid. As you see, I’m not a good selfie taker, but this is one of them.

    All is well on the farm. Holding out hope the rain doesn’t mess up the driveway again until I can figure out what is causing the tractor to stall out repeatedly. I may have to have the repair folks come and get it and give it a once over.

  • Busy Week/Changing Seasons

    There was a lot of living history this week. On Wednesday, we had about 80 fourth graders and 7 rotations with the museum history, slavery in Appalachia, a bit of William Tell fun with suction cup arrows and a plexiglass shield to protect the”victim,” women’s duties on the frontier, blacksmithing, fiber production at home on the frontier, and frontier Militia that includes the presenter firing a flintlock rifle for the students. After we were done, the curator showed them a covered wagon and how it would have been loaded to travel the Wilderness road to the western parts of Virginia (now Kentucky and Ohio).

    Thursday we had over 100 sixth graders with some changes in rotations to match the available volunteers. These groups are fun to do and also have some of the frustrations that teachers deal with daily. Some the the youth are very engaged and have great questions. Some would rather be anywhere else and poke and prod their neighbors, or engage in flirting with another student.

    The door to the loom house is low, about 5’5″ and most kiddos that age walk in without a thought, but there are a few as tall or taller than me at 5’7+” that have to duck to enter. The space inside is tight to put 15 sixth graders, but we make it work.

    Wednesday night threatened cold so the flowers planted in the deck pots were covered for the night, there are no more nights much below 50 f for the next 10 days.

    The first Hummingbird was spotted this morning. The single feeder that is currently out will empty quickly and soon additional feeders will be added.

    The vegetable, sunflower, and herb seed have sprouted under the grow lights. They will begin to get acclimated to the outdoors in a day or two.

    The Amaryllis bud opened with only 2 flowers but is 22″ tall.

    After the museum yesterday it was time to mow the lawn for the first time. The riding mower original battery was so dead there wasn’t even a hint of light from the headlights, much less turning over the engine. I edged around the house and pulled out the gas push mower and it wouldn’t start either. Our once a year pushing the heavy riding mower up on to the trailer and trip two towns over to drop it off wit the repair guy was done. Once it is repaired, the grass will be so tall it will be difficult to mow, but that is all I can do for now.

    We are looking forward to warm days and mild nights. Tomorrow, grandson will come help me get the rest of the garden ready to plant soon.

  • News from the Blog

    If you are a subscriber that gets the blog in your email, it will direct to here. If you have gotten it from Facebook or Ravelry, you now should use Fstafford165.wordpress.com and it is secure. Subscribing will sent it to your email each time I post.

    The blog looks a bit different as I have updated to a newer format, but it is still the same blog.

    It is that time of the year when I dress up and present to local elementary and middle schoolers what it was like to have to make everything you needed to live on the frontier and to trade and barter with neighbors, provide your extras to the community store for the wagons moving farther west into what is now Kentucky and Ohio. The cabin was originally built in 1769 on Peak Creek and moved to the Wilderness Road in Newbern in 1830. When it was moved, a loft was added, you can see the stairs in the background. The footprint of the cabins in the “planned” community were 10′ X 10′ some with a loft. A fireplace for heat and cooking. The barn loom behind me, similar to the one that was in this cabin for an enslaved woman who was the village weaver. The walking wheel also behind me is one I made functional at the museum and demonstrate it and the drop spindle for making yarn to be used for the fabric needs. Last Wednesday when this photo was taken, it was dreary and chilly, about 47f and the 100 kiddos moving between the 8 stations every 15 minutes had to hustle and pack in tight for some of the stations. They huddled in every porch and building that had space to eat their lunch. I thought I was going to freeze and it took several hours once home to thaw out.

    That sent me on a quest to make or find a historically accurate cape because this week’s groups begin on another chilly but dry day. My quest turned up a navy blue wool reenactment cape with hood used, on ebay, for a very good price and quick shipping. It arrived today and I won’t be cold again when the weather does not cooperate.

    The cold night last week was hard on the new flower starts I put out, I guess a day too early. Today we bought marigolds and petunias as well as some flower seed that mostly will go in a ground bed once I get it cleaned up from winter and the hardier starts were put in the spots in the pots on the deck that were hit the hardest by the 25f night. Also some zinnia and nasturtium seed were interspersed with the small plants, so hopefully the pots will fill in with color as the spring moves on. There are no near freezing nights for the next 10 days and I will cover the pots with row cover if we get threatened.

    The vegetable, herb, and flower seed under the grow lights haven’t sprouted yet, but they aren’t due to go in the ground for at least a month, maybe 6 weeks.

    I hope you enjoy the new format.

  • The Seasons Change

    Each day the trees are greener, the grass taller. When I first moved here, the last expected average frost day was around Mother’s Day, in the 19 years, it has drifted earlier and earlier and is now around April 25. About 3 weeks ago, I started some Nasturtiums, Zinnias, and Marigolds in the house to put in the deck pots. Though it is only hovering around 40 right now, I transplanted them into the pots and sowed some “Bee Nectary” mix seed in a few other pots. We had a 28f night last week, but it didn’t frost and the fruit trees did ok. There are no very cold nights expected in the next 10 days which almost puts us to the “magic” date. The Columbine is beginning to flower and the strawberries are growing.

    Yesterday, 80 herb, flower, and vegetable seed were planted in the grow lite starter trays. They will go out into the garden by the end of the first week of May.

    The asparagus didn’t like the 28f night, but more new shoots are coming up and there will be some to pick in a couple days. The peas, onions, and garlic did fine.

    Two years ago at Christmas, a friend gave me a wax covered Amaryllis bulb already about to bloom. When the bloom stalk was done, I removed the wax and planted the bulb in a pot and put it out on the deck for the summer. That fall, it was brought in to overwinter and around last March, it again produced a flower stalk, then leaves and again it went out to the deck for the summer. Last fall I brought it in and the leaves didn’t die back until late February, but soon after, the new flower stalks emerged. They are amazing as they grow about an inch a day constantly seeking the bright light of the French doors, so it gets rotated a couple times a day. The stalk is taller than it has gotten before and the bud just started opening last night.

    Soon there will be 3 or 4 trumpet shaped red flowers, this year for Easter instead of Christmas.

    If we have a night that threatens the newly transplanted flower starts on the deck, I will line the pots up against the French doors and cover them with a sheet or shower curtain to protect them.

    Later this spring, the front of the house is going to get my attention. Since we lost all but two of our Nandinas two winters ago, there are no shrubs or flowers across the North facing front. That bed will be weeded, planted, and mulched and two large pots placed on the stoop with flowers that can tolerate mostly shade