Category: Garden

Happy at Home

This has been a busy week at work for Joe. He’s been leaving the house early in the morning, taking his coffee to go, and getting home late in the evening, long after supper. Sunday evening when we were talking abut the week to come, he asked if I was going to need to go anywhere this week. I said I did need to get to the store to get supplies needed for our camping trip and to get chicken feed but I was flexible on when I would need to go. He asked if I could wait until Thursday morning. He would be home on Thursday. The back of the pickup is loaded from last weekend’s camping trip and he really didn’t want to unload everything for me to take the truck to town if he didn’t have to. I was fine with that. The only downside to me having to stay home is the longer I’m home without going anywhere at all, the harder it is to get me to leave. I’m just happy to stay home.

This has been a busy week for me even though I haven’t gone anywhere. The tomatoes have kept me busy! I canned another 9 pints of salsa yesterday. I think that makes 38 pints, and that’s not counting however many Abby has taken home. She’s come over twice to learn how to can. And I’ve dehydrated twice. I’m trying dehydrating the cherry tomatoes, then using the food processor to turn them into a powder. I can use that powder in soups and stews this winter or to make tomato paste and sauce. I decided it was time to dig out the vacuum sealer and see if I could figure it out and I now have two bags of vacuum sealed tomato powder.

I’m planning to chop up more tomatoes today and put them in quart bags to freeze. Any time I need a can of diced tomatoes for a recipe I’ll just pull a bag out of the freezer. If I have this stuff on hand, I don’t have to worry in the winter if there’s a big storm or if Joe is gone and I don’t want to have to go to town. I can go to my pantry or freezer for what I need! That makes me happy!

I also froze four more quarts of corn. On a sad note, when we checked our sweet corn Sunday evening we discovered that either racoon or deer had gotten every single ear. To say I was unhappy would be an understatement. I fed the rabbits well this spring as they got all of my cabbage plants and all of my carrots and kohlrabi. I’m definitely going to have to figure out how to fence in the garden next spring to keep those pesky rabbits away. And now the corn is gone. I was blessed to have a neighbor drop off some corn so we’ve had fresh corn on the cob and I’ve been able to freeze 9 quart bags but that’s not near what I was planning to have in the freezer. But, it’s better than none at all!

This morning Drew asked if we could start school. I love that he asked! So, we dug out the new math program and jumped in! My original plan was to spend this week getting everything organized and ready so we could officially start next week. Then an impromptu camping trip camp up for this weekend, Thursday evening through Sunday, and having to keep the grandkids three days next week to help Abby out seems to have pushed that starting date back. I guess we’ll do what we can when we can and officially start a little later. But, just knowing that Drew is asking makes me happy!

And so I’ll spend the rest of today chopping and freezing those tomatoes, making cucumbers and onions with the last of the cucumbers from the garden, and making out my shopping list and menu for the long weekend coming up. Oh, and packing up our clothes and everything we need in the camper that can be packed early. Abby asked if I could bring the dehydrator so she could dehydrate her abundance of cherry tomatoes at the campground. That makes me happy too, knowing that she’s starting to have an interest in gardening and food preservation.

Oh yes, I can’t forget the laundry hanging on the line that needs to be folded and brought in. And we watched our chrysalis turn into a Monarch this morning. The eggs need gathered and the chickens need to be fed and watered along with Rambler and the kitties. And of course I have to fit stitching in somewhere as I have orders I’m working on. There is always always something to do. And doing these things makes being home a happy place to be!

A Simple Day

After days of hot and humid weather, the kind that make it miserable to be outside for any length of time, we finally got a break today! I even have the windows open! Perfect weather for hanging laundry on the line. Joe braved the heat last evening to finish up my clothesline for me – bless his heart! After I finished up the supper dishes I went out and helped. And I went to bed last night knowing I was going to get to hang clothes outside in the morning. I get excited about such crazy things! And today the sky is overcast, there’s a beautiful breeze, the temp is down and the humidity is gone. The chickens are even happy!

And I get to look out the open window and see my laundry dancing in the breeze! I get excited over open windows too. I hate having the house shut up – any chance I get the air gets turned off and the windows get opened. I love hearing the birds chirping and the trees rustling and Gilbert (in the picture above) and Matthew perfecting their cock a doodle doo!

I had wanted to learn to can for years and last summer I finally decided to jump in with both feet and teach myself. I asked for the Bell Canning Book for Christmas, purchased my canning supplies and next thing I knew I had jelly, salsa, applesauce and tomato juice all in jars waiting for winter meals! And now it’s canning season again!

The beginning of the tomato harvest. Now my table is covered with bright red tomatoes!

This year I’m finding that it has already become more “natural” to me. I don’t have to read before doing every step. I’m a lot calmer and I’m really enjoying the process. Last week I put up Canndied Jalapenos. I made them last year and Joe and I loved them. So this year, I’m planning to can a lot more of them. So far I’ve put up 8 jars using my tried and true recipe. But I’ve discovered a different recipe that is Trim Healthy Mama approved so I’m hoping to have enough jalapenos to give it a try. We’re working on eating healthier and we’re really loving the THM plan.

This week it’s been salsa. Abby came over Tuesday and we put up 11 pints. She took half and I kept half. Yesterday I put up 9 more. And it looks like I’ll have enough tomatoes and peppers to hopefully do that many more again! We like to eat salsa plain but I also put it in chili and other things so it’s nice to have it canned and ready. Canning for me is another way of living a more simple life. And there is just so much satisfaction in it. Yes, it’s time consuming. It takes a lot of time to harvest, prep and go through the actual canning process. But at the end of the day, you have all these beautiful jars full of summer goodness just waiting to be opened and enjoyed! And I never get tired of listening to that ping that says all is good! Homegrown, healthy ingredients – we know exactly where everything came from. Another step towards living simple!

And I pulled my onions today. My Mom says to never let the August sun touch your onions so no August sun for these guys! Last year I pulled them, chopped them up and put them in the freezer. This year I’m going to try and dry them and keep them in the basement. I’ve got them in the pergola right now drying. There’s lots of shade here so hopefully they will dry alright. I’ll keep an eye on them. Then when they’re dry, I’ll clean them up. Cut the greens off, trim the roots and dust off the dirt that’s left. Then I’ll put them in an old milk crate and store them in the basement and see how it goes. I want to keep freezer space open for our sweet corn so I’m hoping this will work out fine. It stays cool and dark in the basement during the winter so I’m hoping for good results. Again, another step towards that simple living. And the more I can put away for the winter, the less running to town I’ll have to do and less chance for worry when a winter storm hits!

Simple

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word simple. I want to live a more simple life. But when I really think about it, simple might mean something totally different to me than it does to others. By simplifying I want to do things more like those before me did. But this will have to be a balancing act as others in the family might not want to go as far as I would like to! As I was snapping beans today for lunch I was thinking about this and I realized that simplifying for me certainly doesn’t mean making things simple or easy. I could have easily opened up a can of green beans, dumped them in a bowl, stuck them in the microwave and served them. Simple. Instead, I walked out to the garden, picked the beans, snapped them, washed them, put them on the stove and steamed them with a little bit of water, butter and pepper and then put them on the table. Definitely not simple. But, they tasted so delicious. Drew commented on how good the beans were. And I know exactly what was in them and where they came from. After all, I did all the work to get them on the table. Well, almost all the work. Joe tilled up the garden for me this spring. Then I planted the seeds, weeded (sometimes) the garden, kept an eye on them as they grew, picked them, etc., etc. And this wasn’t the first time. I have picked beans several times and have put several quarts in the freezer for winter. That is what simple means to me. The simple act of gardening is so very fulfilling. Lots of work, yes, but so fulfilling knowing where your food is coming from and filling your larder for winter. And it’s what my grandmother did to feed her family. And her mother before her. And what makes the most sense to me.

Not only did we have fresh green beans from the garden for lunch, we had leftover jalapeno popper chicken using jalapenos from the garden, along with cherry tomatoes from the garden, pickles made from last year’s cucumbers from the garden made earlier using Grandma’s recipe and cucumbers and onions using cucumbers from the garden. A very simple meal but oh so fresh and yummy.

Simple. For the past two years I have not had a clothesline. We had a clothesline for years and had struggled with it for years. It was made of metal poles and no matter what we did, we could never keep it so the lines were taught. They would constantly sag. Still usable but not always easy to use. Then Drew drove through it one day with the Mule and took out the lines. I asked Joe if we could get it put back together as I really miss my clothesline. I was thinking we were going to piece the original line back together and it would take a little part of a day and I’d have a usable clothesline again. He had another idea.

Yesterday morning he started digging a couple of holes. Then he sent me to Dad’s to borrow the posthole digger. So I gathered up the garbage, ran it to town to the recycling center, dropped off a dozen eggs to an older friend and past coworker who lives in town and then to Dad’s before heading home. When I got there Dad had me come out back because they had company he knew I would want to see. My Uncle Jerry and Cousin Todd had stopped by for a visit! I was more than glad to spend a few minutes chatting as I never pass up a chance to visit with them. Such a simple thing, spending a few minutes on a Saturday morning visiting with loved ones. Then home with the posthole digger. The holes got dug and next come the poles. We used two poles that were originally part of the old building we tore down last year. To that Joe connected the boards to hold the lines. Again using wood from the old building. After getting the poles all put together, he sanded everything down and painted them. This took all day. Definitely not what I had in mind. But, recycling parts of the old building – that I love! That old building is all over our property now! We are definitely putting the salvaged lumber to use!

Then the next morning we sunk the poles. I added dirt while Joe tamped, and tamped and tamped some more. It took most of the morning to get those two clothesline poles in the ground and secure. Now to let them sit for a few days and really get set. Next we’ll add the hardware and the lines. And I will have a clothesline that should last for ages! We will have to purchase the bolts to hold the lines but everything else will be salvaged. Definitely not a simple project. And if we had done it the way I was thinking it would have been a pretty simple project but it would have been something I would have fought constantly. So, I think Joe is starting to look at things a little differently too. He’s starting to think the same way. No more doing something quickly and easily just to get it done. We’re going to take our time, do it right and have something that will last.

Which brings me back to simple. I am so excited to have a working clothesline again. There’s nothing better than bedding that has been line dried. Oh that smell! And I just enjoy hanging out the laundry. And taking it off the line and folding it as I go. Such a simple thing. Does it save time? Absolutely not. Throwing wet laundry from the washing machine to the dryer and pushing a button to start the drying process. Simple. Carrying wet laundry out to the line, hanging each and every piece up, waiting for it to dry, taking each and every piece off the line, folding it all, carrying it in. Definitely not saving time. But for me, it’s a simple and fulfilling process. And, it saves on electricity and saves on wear and tear on the dryer. For me, this is simplifying. Hanging clothes on the line takes me back to my grandma. I’m not willing to get rid of the washing machine yet, and probably never will. And I can’t see myself out hanging up laundry in the dead of winter when it’s freezing cold and blowing snow. But I always think of all the women before me who hung out their laundry because they had to. Because they didn’t know anything else. You can really slow down and think when you’re outside hanging clothes on the line. It’s another fulfilling home keeping chore. For me, another way to add simple to my days. And going for a walk down to the corn patch is a nice way to end a day of hard work and simple living!

Getting Things Done

Some weekends just fly by and this past weekend did just that. Joe was able to work from home on Friday (yeah!) which gave him some extra time in the afternoon since he didn’t have to drive and he called Dad and asked if he wanted help moving his building over the weekend. The weather looked like it would cooperate and since Joe is wanting to do some pheasant hunting next weekend he thought it would work out best to get the building moved now. That worked great with Dad and Mom’s schedule so we basically spent the whole weekend working outside and getting things done! I am so thankful Joe is able and oh so willing to help Dad and Mom around their acreage!

I spent Friday planning and ordering some garden seed while Joe worked. I know, it’s really early to be thinking about the garden, but I want to explore some different types of veggies and I have this fear that I won’t be able to get what I want if I don’t order now. I didn’t get a tremendous amount but I am excited about what I did order. Things like purple carrots and different varieties of kohlrabi. It never hurts to plan ahead!

We left the house Saturday at 7:00 and didn’t get home until 8:00 that evening. Then Sunday we left the house at 8:00 and got home around 5:00. We didn’t get much done around here but we did get things done for Dad so I would say it was a very productive weekend. Drew and I ventured down to the timber as Dad wanted me to see the lichen growing out of the cottonwood tree. This tree has always been my tree, my favorite tree, the one I always gravitate to when we’re in the timber. It is huge and ancient and full of growths and protrusions and nooks and crannies. The eagles love to sit in the very tip top branches and look out over the fields and timber. If only that gigantic and ancient tree could tell stories. I can’t imagine what all it has seen over the years.

I told Dad and Mom that the building should be moved down to the timber, at the bottom of the sandstone bluff where the fire ring is, nestled between the trees. We could clean it all up, put a couple of beds in there, a couch to sit on and set up a camp kitchen. It would be the perfect place to get away. But alas, they had other plans, which I knew they did. But a girl can dream right! So we moved it up to the lot and it will be used for storage and that is as it should be.

I finally got some stitching time in yesterday evening. Mom had gotten out her microwaveable heating pad to show us and Drew wanted one so bad. She got hers from the store but since we aren’t doing much shopping and I’ve decided to try and make what I can with what I have versus buying anyway, I stitched him up a rice bag. I found a pattern I liked on Pinterest and used it as a guide and he loves it! I let him pick out an essential oil he wanted and we mixed few drops in with the rice before we stitched up the bag and he hasn’t let it out of his site since. He slept with it last night and warmed it back up first thing this morning. I love it when something so simple and easy can be made at home and can make someone so happy. Now I think I’ll make one for me too, and use lavender oil. Oh, to have warm toes when I get in bed at night. And then Joe will want too, to put on his back when he’s hurting. I’ll definitely need to put rice on my grocery list. Another reason to get the sewing machine out of the box and teach myself to sew. How much quicker and prettier would it be to sew up rice bags on a machine versus stitching by hand!

Homemade

I’m slowly exploring the art of homemade products for the skin, health and home. There is so much information out there and so much to learn. I don’t plan to become an expert but it does fascinate me and I want to learn some of the basics. I have been using a handful of homemade cleaning products for quite some time. And I have a skin cleanser that I am really enjoying. I have made lotion bars, body butter and lip balms. I want to explore more of those too. I find so much joy in using products that are all natural and that I have made myself. To know there are no chemicals in them gives me peace of mind. My newest project is infused oils. I have calendula and lavender infusing right now. They look so pretty sitting on the windowsill with the sun shining through them! In a few days they will go into a nice dark cupboard for a few weeks. In the meantime I’ll be researching what all I can do with them. I know the first thing I’ll be making is a salve with healing properties and to use for fungus. Maybe some lavender lotion of some sort. The possibilities are endless. And then next spring I hope to plant some lavender and calendula so I can harvest and dry them myself. Now I need to break out the seed catalogs and start planning!

A Productive Day

We were supposed to wake up to 6″ to 8″ of snow on Saturday. Instead we woke up to ice. Ice everywhere. I was so thankful Eric came home Friday night before the nasty weather started. He needed an oil change, he had two tires leaking and his door handles weren’t working right. Well, his dad changed the oil and replaced two leaky valve stems but the door handles we picked up at the salvage yard awile back were the front handles and not back handles so that means Eric will have to come home again some other time. Yeah!!!! So what to do on a cold and icy day? Well, I had started the process of mustard making and that was ready to be finished.

Gotta let these sit for two days to absorb all the moisture.

Oh my goodness – the beautiful colors, smells and taste of Homemade Lavendar Mustard. And it was so very easy. I’m positive I’ll be making this again and I’m thinking it will be a perfect Father’s Day gift for my dad as he loves mustard.

It’s so pretty!

Then Joe helped me pull Drew’s bed out so I could finish painting his room. This kid and all his treasures. After getting the room done and everything moved back the way he wanted it, he went through the house, through cupboards and drawers, all the nooks and crannys and he “shopped” for things to decorate with. It’s funny what he chose to use from around the house. My old roller skates, some of Grandma Houseal’s dishes, old Sucrets tins, whatever he could get his hands on. Gotta love him!

What a mess!

Then sweet Humphrey got a nice clean rearranged home. Drew decided on a camping theme this time around. With white bedding so he’s camping in the snow! We found some timothy hay and something called Nature’s Salad for him and also scattered some carrot and celery pieces around the cage for him to find. He was one happy camper when we put him back in the cage and he explored for ages. Then he knocked his camper over, decided not to bed down in the timothy hay and instead made a new nesting area and promptly fell asleep!

Not a good picture but this little guy is constantly on the move. I have yet to get a decent picture of him!

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast so instead of crushing the eggs up this time around and giving them back to the girls, I let them dry all day and crushed them up and put them in a jar. Since then I’ve added egg shells two more times to the jar already. Those shells will go in the ground this spring along with the tomatoes we’re going to plant. It feels good to get started planning for spring even though we’re living in an ice covered world at the moment!

Handy Man

 

We’ve been wanting to get a tiller for awhile now. Right now I have a raised bed for tomatoes and peppers but I’ve really been wanting to start a garden. We didn’t want to pay someone to come work up a spot and tillers sure are expensive so the garden has been put on the back burner. Then over the weekend I saw on Facebook that our neighbor had a tiller she was wanting to give away for free. The kicker was it didn’t work. But – I’m married to a handyman! We ran right over and said we’d take it. She refused to accept anything for it, said she just wanted it gone, so we brought it home.  Joe worked on it a little before we had to head out to visit Uncle Jerry and Aunt Konnie but he’s positive he’ll be able to get it running. After tinkering around he’s figured out what’s wrong. So we are now the proud owners of a used but new to us tiller and hopefully next spring I can plant onions and green beans and sweet corn and who knows what else.  I guess it’s true – good things do come to those who wait!

Homemaker Mode

 

(My Clematis is blooming – so pretty!)

I seem to go in spurts – I can be in homemaker mode one day and the next – not so much. Usually homemaker mode for me means planning ahead, experimenting and being frugal. The past few days I have been in homemaker mode. I pulled some chicken breasts out of the freezer and cooked them up in the crockpot. After shredding them I now have chicken for Sweet Chili Chicken Pizza, Chicken Spaghetti, shredded chicken for a lettuce salad and enough to freeze for later.

(Cheesy Creamy Chicken Spaghetti – yummy!)

I made the Sweet Chili Chicken Pizza and it didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. We love this pizza from our local Pizza Ranch and I am hoping to be able to make it at home. For one thing I didn’t have any pineapple and it was definitely lacking the pineapple. I also used too much pizza sauce and instead of using mozzarella cheese I used what I had on hand – which I think was Cheddar Jack. I’ll definitely try again and make a few tweaks and hopefully I can come closer to the Pizza Ranch one we like!

I also picked up some blocks of cheese on sale at Hy-Vee and shredded it. Now I have shredded cheese in the freezer. I don’t like actually shredding the cheese – I always make a mess and it’s somewhat time consuming but – I like having  it stocked in the freezer – I think it tastes so much better than the bags you buy at the store.

I did some research on chives as my chives are blooming right now. I harvested some and froze for later. I plan to freeze a bunch more. Then I harvested the blooms and have some chive blossom vinegar infusing in the cupboard. I’m hoping to make a Dijon mustard vinaigrette later this week with the chive infused vinegar to put on our shredded chicken salad. I hope it turns out as good as it sounds! We had chef salads for lunch over the weekend and it was so good to sprinkle fresh chives from the garden over the salads! I also chopped some up and mixed with a container of cottage cheese. Yummy! I’m planning to transplant some later in the season and bring in for the winter – hopefully we can have fresh chives all winter long!

(The color of the vinegar is so pretty!)

I made a big batch of potato salad to have for supper meals. It’s always nice to have a big salad to eat on throughout the week to go along with whatever we have for a main course. And it’s a great way to use up eggs when I have an abundance.

I also tried pickling some eggs with our over abundance of eggs. A couple we camped with last year brought jalapeño pickled eggs to the campground and Joe loved them so I thought I would try to make him some. In three weeks we’ll know if they turned out or not. It’s always fun to try new things and see how they turn out!

Early Father’s Day

When Joe ran into H & M on Saturday to get a replacement tube for the wheel barrow tire he mentioned that they had these tractor planters that reminded him of his dad and he thought it would be nice to have one in the flower bed along with the stone he got from Albert’s funeral.  He wondered if I would have anyplace to do something like that. Now this is not something Joe normally thinks about doing so I thought I would run back in sometime during the week and get one for him for Father’s Day because he had obviously put some thought into it. But then I didn’t know where I would put it so he wouldn’t find it. So, on Sunday I suggested we go in and look at it and if he wanted it it could be an early Father’s Day present. I should have taken a before picture because we got it home and Joe immediately took it down to the shop and “Oliverized” it! He used the paint he had leftover from when he refinished his Dad’s original Oliver tractor to paint the wheels red and the grill yellow. The little planter came with a free flower and he picked out a begonia – a flower his mom always liked. I think it’s just perfect and a perfect addition to this little spot under the kitchen window!

Another Busy Weekend

Another busy weekend is in the books. And we didn’t get near as much accomplished as we would have liked. We did, finally, get the chicken run completely done. Yeah! The babies are now in with the older girls. That’s not going as smoothly as I would have hoped. I really hope they make friends with each other soon so I can quit worrying. We are constantly going out and checking on them, afraid we’re going to find one of the babies dead. Those older girls can be mean.

We started out Saturday checking things off our to-do list. Joe got the mowing done, I got the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers planted and the rest of the my flowers. As we were getting ready to start on the mulch Joe got a phone call. Quick change of plans. Friends we hadn’t seen for ages called and asked if we wanted to meet in the Amanas for the afternoon. Of course we said yes! I wish I had taken pictures but I totally forgot.  We had so much fun getting caught up with our friends Fred and Denise. They moved here from Texas 13 years ago and we met them right after they moved. Fred’s sister was with them visiting. This was her first time visiting here and she loved it.  It was a great afternoon and evening catching up with old friends and  making a new one. Definitely worth the break from getting projects done at home!

Sunday we thought we were going to work on getting the mulch put down but once we started we realized that to do the job right we really needed to get some landscaping materials to keep the mulch in around the last two sides of the house. Otherwise it just keeps washing away. And we want to finish a deck we started a few years back because it just looks awful right now the way things are. So we did a lot of measuring and talking and figuring out and measuring and writing things down and we have a list so we can go back to Menards, again, and get more supplies. This is the year of getting things done around here and I’m so excited! One night this week we’ll run to Menards and then we’ll have everything we need to get two more projects finished. Yeah!

Later we met Dad and Mom at Belva Deer for our first picnic of the season. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Drew took his new scooter and had fun on it. We walked around the campground and stopped and talked to the Sigourney campers that were there. Our camper is still in storage. We’ve decided to get our  projects done before we think about camping – but after being out there and talking to friends, Joe was talking about bringing it home this week. I’m not ready to camp but it’s always nice to have it home!