Category: Uncategorized

Printed Goodness

Several years ago I joined the eBook populous and either rent ebooks (did you know you don’t actually buy them! And they can be withdrawn from your library on the whim of the publisher!); or check real books out of the library and rarely buy a print book, but yesterday an exception was made.
A few weeks ago, a fellow blogger sent me a link to another blog for a recipe. The recipe author has penned two cookbooks.

Before I bought either, I wanted to preview them and couldn’t find them in the library so I looked for them in our local Barnes and Noble retailer but they didn’t have either in stock. They special ordered them for me to preview and they arrived just prior to my leaving for the retreat so I couldn’t go look at them. Tonight, after dinner we traveled the two towns over so I could preview them before they were returned or put in their stock.

I couldn’t decide between them, both containing many interesting recipes for putting by garden and Farmers’ Market goodies and I left with both books. I don’t know whether to thank my blogging friend or not, but I have added to my library and have many, many new ideas for preserving garden goodness, so thank you Yanic for the linky.

October 1, 2014
The Outing

After traveling home from “The Retreat,” I helped Son#1 move scaffolding and clean up spilled and dripped stain until it was dark. Mountaingdad drove his car, Son#1, Grandson #1 and I drove in my car to town for an 8:30 p.m. burger before the 3 of us left for Northern Virginia. Once in town and too late on a Sunday night to do anything about it, we discovered I had a headlight out so we switched cars, moving bags of clothes, jars of canned goodies and eggs. We arrived at their house after 1 a.m. Today I am guardian/babysitter as Grand#1 has no school.
We are all slow and sluggish today, but Son#1 was gotten to work, most of the weekend homework done except for some social studies as the book was left at school, and guitar practice done. Grand#1 and I went to lunch then to The Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.

We arrived as a light rain started and decided to enjoy the walk anyway. Hubby’s car had an umbrella and we each had light jackets and off we went.

Wet walks, huge Koi, turtles, pagodas, sculptures, old cabins, fall flowers and foliage made for a pleasant afternoon, well worth the combined $5 admission and better for us than caving in to the sluggishness at least I feel today.
Tomorrow morning I head home to do some more staining and regular farm chores.

September 29, 2014
Olio – September 5, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

The Rainbow Ranger chicks have exceeded 2 pounds each at 4 1/2 weeks, far outgrowing anything we have to use as a brooder. They are getting feisty with each other, chest bumping and pecking. They are mostly feathered and it is still warm to hot during the days and mild at night. They were requiring twice daily brooder clean out, had gone for a week without supplemental heat in the garage, so a decision was made today to relocate them to the auxiliary pen, confined to the chicken ark. We did concede to put a tarp over the sides and will keep our fingers crossed that we don’t lose them now. Again I vow to let my hens do the work of raising chicks from now on or we are going to have to build a bigger outdoor brooder with electricity so we can put the heat lamp in it.
The March hatched Buff Orpington pullets are almost all laying finally. We are getting 8 or 9 eggs a day and thoroughly enjoying having them again.
Between canning tomatoes and cleaning chicks, I have found time to finish my Hitchhiker scarf.

And spin and ply 383 yards of Merino wool into an interesting DK weight yarn.

Now I need to decide whether to sell it, or create something with it.
When we had a cool evening two weeks ago, I pulled out my Elise sweater I knit last year and determined that it pulled at my shoulders because it is just a bit too small for me.

I don’t have anymore of the yarn, nor do I want to reknit it as I have two other sweaters currently on needles and they are both shades of blue or teal, so I am trying to decide it’s fate. My options are to try to sell this hand knit sweater for little more than the cost of the yarn, to try to trade it for spinning fiber, or determine if there is a relative smaller than I that would like to have a hand knit sweater that has to be hand washed.

Last weekend, I broke my second tooth of the summer. The first required a crown and that tooth still hasn’t been finished, a temporary crown in place until mid week. When I called the dentist, they were able to get me in yesterday and fortunately this one only needed a filling repair for now. Being a molar, it likely will eventually need a crown as well. I have 6 already and lost one crowned tooth because of repeated gum infections between it and the adjacent tooth. I hope that with dental repairs and care, I will retain most of my teeth as my 91 year old father has.

It has been a good week and we continue to love our life on our mountain farm.

September 5, 2014
Olio August 16, 2014

Olio: A miscellaneous collection of things.

On Thursday, I returned our eldest grandson to his home. He had been with us since July 3 and it was a wonderful 6 weeks. He enjoyed playing with our dogs, learned to ride his bike, traveled to Florida with us to visit his Aunt and Uncle and cousins for a week, swam, had outings with Granddad to the batting cage and several movies. He and Granddad played catch in the yard and had batting practice. A few times, he cooked with me, learning to make his favorite blueberry muffins and getting some math practice with measuring and calculating which measuring cups would give him the quantity he needed. It was a relief to his Mom and Dad to not have to try to find summer care for him and figure out how to get him to and from that care when they both left very early for their jobs.

Yesterday after playing with his neighborhood friends, showing off to his Mom and Dad his new bike riding skills, having Grandmom take him to his guitar lesson, they all left at 9:30 last night on the Metro to Union Station to catch an 11:30 p.m. Greyhound bus to Virginia Beach, where he and his Mom will spend the next week with her parents. Our son will return home to Northern Virginia on the train tomorrow so he can be at work on Monday. His Mom’s summer job has ended and her school begins just before Labor Day. I returned to their house to spend the night before traveling home this morning. As I was avoiding the interstate and taking a leisurely cruise down the Skyline Drive this morning, I received a text from son saying that they were stuck in Richmond, VA, only a couple hours from their home and a couple hours from their destination almost 12 hours after leaving on the bus. Their 4 hour trip lasted 14 hours. There is something truly wrong with Greyhound’s business model that passengers with tickets can not have a seat on a leg of their trip. If they hadn’t had to disembark at the transfer station in Richmond, they would have been at their destination in the early hours, not the next afternoon.

After enjoying about an hour and a half of scenic drive, I got back on the interstate, so my 4 hour trip wouldn’t take all day and like Thusday, was again stuck with the semis.

I followed these two for miles and miles doing less than 60 mph in a 70 mph zone. Behind me was a line of at least a dozen more.

It is amazing how quickly chicks grow. These little guys and gals are a week and a half old. They can almost get out of the brooder which is a huge stock watering tank. I guess I am going to have to put a screen over it soon. They are all darkening and growing wing and tail feathers. The one center front is the one I named Chipmunk because of the dark stripes on his back when I uncartoned them from the Hatchery.

Egg production is picking up. The pullets are getting the hang of the laying bit. In the past 6 days, we have gotten 7 pullet eggs, so I know that more than one of them is laying. We also got 5 hen eggs, though Broody Girl is still insisting on empty nest sitting. This has gone on now for over a month. Perhaps I should get her some fertile eggs and just let her give it a go.

The pullet eggs are so small compared to the hen eggs. At least we are getting some again.

The garden loved last week’s rain, the tomatoes are ripening in the sun, peppers are swelling and I am nearly overrun with Tomatillos. I haven’t looked under the row covers to see how the transplants are doing, but they will have to be watered today or tomorrow.

My purple thick skinned grapes are ripe. Perhaps I should attempt some grape jelly.

The weather feels like fall already. I shouldn’t get too excited, it will probably get hot again soon.

This week, we tackle power washing the decks to re-stain. I’m trying to figure out how we are going to keep the outdoor cats off while they dry and how we will get the dogs in and out. I guess they will have to go through the garage, but neither of them are used to doing that, so it may require leading them out on a leash til the decks dry.

Hubby took off early this morning on a ride on his BBH (Big Bad Harley) with the Hog Club from where his bike came. It is a ride to just get there, over an hour. They were going to have breakfast then ride into West Virginia. He texted me that he did go and that he was in West Virginia. I guess I will see him later this afternoon when he returns.

When I was in Northern Virginia to pick up grandson in early July, I bought some variegated yarn at a local shop. The yarn is one that isn’t available around here and I knit a Hitchhiker scarf from it. I decided that I wanted a cardigan sweater of the same yarn and returned yesterday to the shop to try to purchase it. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough of it to make a sweater, but I did get a worsted weight solid that coordinates beautifully with it. As soon as the weather is cool enough to sit with the bulk of a sweater body in my lap while knitting, I will make myself a sweater to go with my scarf.

Though it is only mid afternoon, I am tired from my travels and contemplating a short nap. Life is an adventure!

August 16, 2014
Squirreling away

Each year I look forward to the time when my forays to the garden are rewarded with baskets of produce to be squirreled away for the cold months. This year’s garden was generous with the peas and many packages were put away in the freezer after a blanch, chill and seal in vacuum sealed bags. The first planting of beans turned out to be yellow wax beans, not the green bush beans that were planned. They remnants of those have been fed to the chickens along with the bean beetles that they have accumulated. A second planting of green bush beans was done prior to our vacation, but bunnies got to them while we were away. I covered them with net on our return, but the wily little cotton tails have managed to get under the net. I guess there won’t be beans in the freezer this year unless I can score a few pounds at the Farmers’ Market. I will be taking grandson home on Thursday and returning home Saturday, hopefully to arrive in time to get some from the market.

Today, after the rain finally let up, a venture over to the garden was rewarded with more than a half dozen lemon cucumbers, still of usable size; a large scalloped white squash, hopefully still usable; scores of peppers, my first two slicing tomatoes and half a basket of Tomatillos. One of the pullets finally laid an egg and one of the hens also provided one. The pullets look like they may actually be getting the hang of it and egg production should increase.

Knowing that produce is best preserved while garden fresh, I set about to chopping and made 3 pint jars of Tomatillo Green Salsa, still having all the Habeneros and a few more Jalapenos that were too large for just pickling for hubby, I also made 2 pints of “Oh, I think I destroyed my tastebuds” sauce. I didn’t taste the salsa, but after searing the veggies and habeneros for the sauce and finally being able to breathe again, I did taste the habenero tomatillo sauce and I may never be able to taste food again. My son will love this one.

In the peppers, we are beginning to get cayennes and anchos turning red, so strings were started to dry them from the bottom of the loft beams for sauces, chili, and crushing for pizza and pasta this winter.

The winter squash, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes look like they will be plentiful. I had feared that there would be little from the garden this year, but my fears were unfounded. Tomorrow, I will go to my favorite local nursery and see if the fall greens, brocolli and cabbage starts are for sale yet. We may not have green beans, but we won’t be without greens.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

August 12, 2014
Mountain Farm Morning

Where is the camera when you need it? I opened the back deck door to let the dogs out and caught just a flash of movement across the side of the deck. It’s size told me it was either a mouse or a chipmunk (the farmers up here call them ground squirrels). Below that edge of the deck is the retaining wall that son and DIL built during construction. It is a beautiful piece of stonework that gets covered each spring and summer with Hairy Vetch and Virginia Creeper. The doors out onto the deck are a full story above the ground, though the deck itself is only 3 steps up.

Beneath the deck there is loose rock tossed in to help with erosion and to keep the weeds down. I’m sure that it is a great hiding place for all sorts of wildlife, more or less protected from the cats. As I stepped to the edge of the deck to see if I could spot the little critter, the chipmunk scurried quickly across the deck and through a space I can barely stick my fingers through and down under the deck. They are cute, but destructive little critters, I hope it doesn’t take an interest in the Direct TV cable that is fastened to the front leg of the deck, travels along the lower edge of the deck then follows the flashing across between the basement and ground floor of the house to where it enters.

Breakfast prep was started as I put some of our fresh eggs on to boil for the pups and me. My morning ritual includes cleaning up their feeding area, two plastic trays on a bath mat to catch at least some of the food and water that the big guy slings around when he eats or drinks. His tray always has a cup or more of water and a dissolved kibble or two floating around on it.

Once their area is cleaned up I call them back in to eat, only as I stepped out to call them, leaning around the west end of the house from the front porch as that is where they always return to be let in, I heard a racket of turkey chatter and dog barks and spotted the dogs both chasing a wild turkey across the near hayfield as the hen took flight and landed way up in a tree on the edge of the field. Shadow once she stopped bounding, couldn’t even be seen in the tall hay waiting for good days to cut and bale. Ranger continued to stare longingly up at the tree where the hen continued to cluck. Hopefully they didn’t disturb a nest, but if it is in the hayfield it will suffer destruction as soon as Jeff comes to mow the hay. Finally I got them back in the house and breakfast eaten.

Then it was chicken care time. I filled the pans with mash, millet and sunflower seeds to take out to the two pens and just as I stepped out, I heard the rain moving over the ridge and through the trees in my direction. Raincoat collected just as a torrential downpour started. Chickens had to wait for it to subside at least a bit. We are in for a stormy day. A good day to sew, knit, spin, and read. Tonight is Knit Night, hope it isn’t storming too badly when it is time to leave.

June 4, 2014
Questions answered

My favorite local organic farmers harvested a bumper crop of salad for their local restaurant and natural food store deliveries and I scored a pound of their “extra” that was delivered to my door for the same price I would pay if I went to the farmer’s market for it. Two of my hen gems are boiling, a few chunks of cheese are cut, some leftover cooked asparagus and I am about to have a late lunch fit for a tired queen of the castle.

While he was here, I asked about the mystery weed

that was threatening to overtake the garden. It is Smart Weed and it does have pretty little flowers a bit later in the spring. It does spread, but is relatively easy to pull.

This morning I went out to finish mulching the garden with the spoiled hay. There is now a good thick layer in the paths, around the grapes and around the berries. Hopefully this will keep the lambs quarters, smart weed, henbit, deadnettle, horse nettle and oxalis at least reduced. For now it looks neat and tidy and I am still picking splinters out of my hands. Yes, I know that I could wear gloves, but I never garden in them.

A few days ago, when I was away from the house and Jim had been off on his motorcycle. He had left the garage door open as it is difficult to close headed up the gravel driveway on his bike. When he came back, he passed two adolescent males walking up our driveway and we wondered why they had been down here. The house is secure with the two big beasts that live inside and I saw nothing amiss in the garage or the chicken pens. Today, I think I discovered what mischief they wrought. The end of the big round bale of spoiled hay that was going on the garden and had been used in the chicken coop until it molded is charred on the end away from the house. Fortunately it didn’t catch, I guess they left it smoldering and it went out, thank goodness. It does make me a bit concerned as we don’t know who they are or where on the mountain they live. None of our close by neighbors have kids or at least kids that age.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

May 21, 2014
Mow day

Last night after dinner out and before it got dark, I pushed the mower two swipes around the house and in the corner that I can’t reach with the tractor in preparation for mowing this morning. The first mowing of the season, I got as close as I could and just did a patch around the house large enough to get to the cars, the chicken coop and garden without walking through knee high grass and I didn’t premow the close strips, so that grass was thick and tall last night, stalling out the mower constantly.

This morning after a trip to the Farmers’ Market for meat and spring greens and turnips, I cranked up the tractor and mowed the area we consider yard in the middle of our 30 acres. That includes around the garden, the orchard, an area that is too small to hay above the orchard, around the well head and the front, side, and back areas that are regularly mowed. With last week’s rain, it didn’t look like it had already been mowed once. The areas around the chicken fence and close around the orchard trees has to be done with the lawn mower or weed whacker and I started on them with the mower and ran out of gas. Not wanting to go out again, I quit for the day, just before Jim arrived back home from his motorcycle ride.

As soon as I came in to get the watering can to water the newly planted porch and deck pots, I spotted a hummingbird who had already found the red geraniums that I planted yesterday. Have you ever tried to take a picture of a hummingbird? You will just have to take my word for it.

It is looking more like spring everyday. The trees all have a haze of small green leaves, the dogwoods are blooming and beautiful.

Only another week or two and we should be clear of late frost and more of the garden will be planted.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

May 3, 2014
Horse Carriage and Smoke Signals

This has not been my week for modern conveniences. As I posted a few days ago, http://wp.me/p3JVVn-zq, I have been having cell phone issues. We don’t have a land line as the service from our cooperative is sketchy at best, we can’t even call the next county without incurring a toll and the signal is so full of static that we can’t hear the party on the other end of the line. We rely on our cell phones. Both of our phones are about 8 months old and mine won’t hold a charge and gets extremely hot even when everything but calls and texts are turned off. I had it factory reset, which was supposed to cure it and didn’t. They have ordered me a warranty phone which is being mailed from Texas and will be here some time next week. Then I have to go through the set up process again. If this wasn’t enough for one week, two trips to the cellular store, I also started having car trouble.

When my 91 year old Dad was visiting, http://wp.me/p3JVVn-xj, we used my car as Jim’s is the pup mobile and we realized that every time we braked, it shimmied and pulled to the left. I had front and rear brakes replaced last May when it was inspected, but it obviously was a brake issue. I took it in for it to be checked and it was determined that the front rotors needed to be re-machined which fortunately they did not charge me. Shortly after, I drove it 4 1/2 hours northeast to babysit for our eldest grandson for a week and back last weekend and was concerned that the brakes still didn’t seem quite right. Wednesday evening, I had the radio off and the windows open and could hear a metallic squeal as I accelerated and more as I braked coming from the right side of the car. Again, I scheduled a maintenance check with the dealer, 40 minutes from home. The car was delivered Friday morning and the inevitable call came that the caliper was stuck and had eaten the brake pad and damaged the rotor on the right rear, so 11 months later, the rear brakes were again replaced and not for free.

Perhaps a simpler life isn’t so bad, it would certainly be cheaper. I know bad news comes in threes if you are superstitious. I’m glad I’m not, I don’t need anymore bad news this week.

April 26, 2014
A Moment from the Week

The real harbinger of spring in the mountains, Forsythia and greening grass.

April 4, 2014