Happy Fourth of July...

Ok, so I'm a day but I hope your Fourth of July was a good one.  For us, meh...  There was a light drizzle here so our tiny midwestern town decided it might melt if it held it's fireworks display so they postponed it for tonight.  Unfortunately, we didn't get the message and we packed up all the kids in our finest patriotic gear, grabbed the camera, grabbed a picnic basket and headed for the fairgrounds.  At least we didn't feel too dumb, there were several other people there who didn't get the message either.

We spent most of our Fourth of July morning and afternoon working out in the garden planting and weeding and weeding and planting and working on the old Ford tractor that hasn't been run in more than two years.   After hooking the chain up to it and pulling it with the truck around the barn once or twice we were able to get it started and it ran really well.  The only problem with is it refuses to start back up once it's shut down so obviously we need to work on the starter a bit more but just the fact that ol' reliable started up at all and ran for any length of time was a wonderful thing. 

The garden itself is doing pretty well.  In the little garden we've attempted a "mostly" no till approach.  The only tilling we have done has been in the planted rows themselves and, considering the small size of this particular garden space, that has only been about six rows all told.  I can honestly say I don't think I'll take a no till approach next year but the garden has grown, we do have celery, chinese lettuce, peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, watermelon and corn popping up.  We even have a musk melon coming up that we didn't even try for.

Our summer flowers are starting to bloom. 

We finally have our chicken coop MOSTLY finished and our girls have been in their new home for about a week now.  They seem to really enjoy it.  We still have a few odds and ends to work on like their window and cutting out the door to their outside pen area and adding a couple more perches but overall it's done.    It's a nice change from the small, portable coop we did have.  This one is secure in the barn and should, hopefully, be much nicer for winter.  The girls seem to really enjoy it.

I think the only one who doesn't like the new coop is Miney the barn cat

He can watch the chickens in their new space but can't get at them, which he's just not real happy about.  :) 

Popcorn!

My Father-in-law grew an acre or so of popcorn this year and had brought over about 40 ears for us to sell at our little stand.  Fortunately for us, they didn't sell!  For the life of me I can't imagine why it didn't sell other than perhaps most people didn't know what it was and didn't realize that after they decorated with it they could eat it.  I mean, this is useful stuff, it's not like normal purely ornamental indian corn. Oh well, it meant more for us.

Most people don't believe me when I tell them that there really is a difference in taste between homegrown, home dried, pan popped popcorn and the popcorn that you get in a little paper bag and stuff in the microwave, at least until they try it.  Microwave popcorn needs the butter it's slathered in and the mounds of salt covering it.  Without it, it tastes pretty terrible.  Pan popped popcorn tastes great with just a little shake of salt and nothing else.

We dried our popcorn in a cool dry spot in our garage for about two weeks before I even bothered to pop a few test kernels.

Despite the fact that a small mouse  or other critter had managed to sneak a few bites during that time the drying was successful and the test kernels popped just as they were supposed to.  So we took half of the cobs inside to hull them.

The kids usually get the job of hulling the popcorn and it's one of the chores that they actually enjoy.  They made pretty quick work of the first 20 ears that they worked up.  We'll save the next 20 for tomorrow or the next day. Ordinarily, after you've hulled the popcorn you can simply stick what you don't want pop right away into freezer bags and freeze them for up to 30 months.  However, since hulling is done by the children in my house, I find that I have to wash the kernels after they are done hulling because we usually end up with excessive amounts of cob pieces, hairs, and general debris.  When it's in small amounts it's no problem but when the debris covers the kernels in their bowls it becomes more of an issue.

The nice thing is that dry corn kernels sink while dirt and debris tends to float.  So, I simply immerse the corn kernels in a large bowl full of warm water and then fish the debris out with a mesh ladle strainer.  If you find you need to do this then try to make quick work of it.  Soaking the kernels for a few minutes won't hurt anything but you don't want them to soak for hours.  After I'm done washing them I stick them on cooking sheets in single layers and put them in the oven at 170 degrees (the lowest my oven will go) for about an hour or hour and a half to dry. 

I popped up a batch for my brother-in-law and his girlfriend since they had come for a visit.  His girlfriend had never seen anyone pop popcorn in a pan on the stove before, which really surprised me.  It got me thinking that maybe popping popcorn on the stove is becoming a lost art, perhaps there are many people out there who don't know how to do this.  So I'll run down the process on here. 

Popping Popcorn on the stove:

1. Get a sauce pan with a well fitting lid.  I use one with a glass lid so my kids can watch the kernels pop, it's like nature's best magic trick.  It seriously entertains them almost as well as Saturday morning cartoons.

2. Pour in enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  It doesn't have to be a lot of oil, a small amount will do as long as it completely covers the bottom of the pan.

3. Turn the heat on medium-high.

4. When the oil has had a little time to heat up throw in a couple of test kernels.  If they pop (usually takes just a few seconds) then you know that the oil is hot enough to add the rest of the kernels.  If they turn brown immediately or scorch then you know the oil is obviously way to hot.  If it takes them forever to pop then you either don't have the oil hot enough or your popcorn is a dud.

5. Pour in just enough popcorn to cover the bottom of the pan in a single layer.  If you pour in more than a single layer on the bottom, the kernels underneath are more likely to burn and the kernels on top are more likely to not pop. 

6. Move the pan from side to side regularly to coat the kernels that haven't popped with the oil and to help keep the ones that have popped from burning.

7. The kernels will start popping at a furious pace and then, after several seconds the popping will start to slow down. At this point, take the pan off of the heat, wait another couple of seconds for the holdouts to pop, then CAREFULLY remove the lid because there will probably be a lot of steam.

8. Pour your popcorn into a bowl and dress it up however you want.  Obviously you can use salt or melted butter or both.  My husband actually likes to eat his with Zatarain's Creole Seasoning or seasoned salt.  I've also heard of people using powdered cheese, cinnamon sugar, regular sugar, caramel, a little powdered cocoa mixed with sugar, even a little Tabasco sauce (that last one is a little too adventurous for my blood).  The possibilities for toppings are endless really.  Once your done dressing up your popcorn, dig in and enjoy it. 

P.S. No, the popcorn in this picture is not burnt.  The darker hull on the popcorn is simply due to the multiple different colors of the original kernels.

Cleaning the Inside of a Gourd

I've gotten the outsides of all of the gourds completely cleaned and scraped down and ready to go.  Last night I worked on the first birdhouse of the batch.  Now if you are going to make a birdhouse, bowl, jug, drum, etc. out of dried gourds (anything that requires large-ish open holes) you will need to clean the inside of the gourd as well as the outside.

The paper like stuff inside the hole is the pith.  It's usually moldy and gross. 

Not to sound redundant (in other words, yes I realize that I said this in the last post but it bears repeating) but you will need a dust mask of some kind...something more substantial than a bandanna or dew rag or t-shirt tied around your face.  I strongly suggest a full on respirator, I use one-P100 hot pink filters and everything.  At the very least you will need a dust mask made for filtering fine particulate matter. 

The other tools I use for cleaning the inside of a gourd are my trusty variable speed dremel tool with various sized grinding/sanding attachments (a drill and a hand saw or handheld jigsaw/router would work fine too).  I like the variable speed dremel because it cuts down on the amount of dust and offers better control.  I also use an old jigsaw blade, curved awl, and a thin wire brush.

For making a birdhouse the first step is to drill four small holes into the bottom of the gourd to help ensure proper drainage, it is a birdhouse after all not a birdbath. The next step is to determine where you want to place your opening.  I use a compass to draw a circle that is 1"-1 1/2" (the type of bird you want to attract will determine the size of hole you need to drill...check out a chart here) in diameter and use a pencil to mark the center of the circle. That's where you'll drill your starter hole. Then you need to drill two small holes into the handle of the gourd for your hanging wire, leather strips, strong string or whatever other sturdy material you'll use to hang your birdhouse.

I use the various grinders and sanders for creating the hole opening instead of a jigsaw or handsaw in part so that I can sand the hole opening while I'm making it...you know, killing two birds with one stone and all that...sorry for the poor choice of idiom but you get the point.  Anywho, once the opening is made it's time to clean out the inside of the gourd.  I use the old saw blade to break up the pith and the seeds and I shake out the loose material.  Then I use the awl and wire brush to loosen and grab whatever is left for a completely clean result.  Some people leave a bit of pith in the bottom to help the birds gain footing.  Personally the birds that come to my birdhouses never seem to have any trouble with footing without the pith and the one or two times I've left some in there the birds usually throw it right out anyways. Ultimately though the choice to pith or not to pith is really one of personal preference.

The inside of the gourd after it has been cleaned and the pith has been removed.

That's it, now the gourd is officially cleaned. After it's cleaned you can finish it off by painting or staining it and sealing it and it will last for decades. 

Finished (or nearly finished) product. Please ignore the extremely cluttered work table :)

Oy vey!

Have you ever had one of those days that you swore was out to kill you?  Yesterday was one of those days for me. It started out normal enough, I got up to get breakfast for started and I heard Youngest calling for me.   Went in to check on him and stepped on a toy and fell, face first, into the carpet.
 Later, I put Youngest down for his nap, middle and oldest were putting together puzzles with Gran and so I figured it would be a perfect time for me to catch up on a little sleep as well.  I laid down and Middle came in to tell me that Oldest looked at him funny.  Seriously.  Laid back down and Oldest came in to tell me that Middle had made a face at her.  Grrrr.  Laid down again and Cookie came in to root through the bedroom trash.  Got her out of there and the trash picked up and laid down a third time, still hadn't gotten to sleep any yet.  Then came Chandler, to jump up on the bed.  Got him off and out the door and laid down a fourth time and Youngest woke up.  No nap for me.
So I decided to do some laundry.   Carrying a basketful of clothes I happened upon a soccer ball in the doorway to the living room.  I decided to give it one really good kick and send it sailing down the hallway.  That was the plan anyways.  Instead my foot connected with the doorjam.  My toes went totally numb for a few seconds and then....well, the next several words out of my mouth were not Christian or ladylike in any way, shape or form.  
I woke up this morning only to find my pinky toe swollen to twice it's normal size and sporting a rather unpleasant purple coloring.  DH decided to take me into the After Hours clinic to have it looked at and sure enough, I broke it.  So, no I'm sitting here typing this with my pinky toe all taped up and a "post op shoe" on my foot.

There it is, my handsome reminder of one very bad day.

On a not so painful note, we've got all of our seeds started for this spring's garden!   The kids started their seeds a few weeks ago and about three of them have sprouted...the others met their fate at the paws of an overzealous, crazy dog who decided she could not stand not knowing what was on the table so she decided to knock the table and all of its contents onto the floor.

What they have left is doing really well though (we're going to replant some more seeds for their garden tomorrow or the next day):

 This picture has scarlet nantes carrots (left) and a salad blend mixture (right).

This is another scarlet nantes carrot.

The kids are so excited to see their seeds growing, it looks like this year's kids garden is going to be as much of a success as last year's. 

Space Invaders

Anybody who has ever owned an Atari or played old school arcade games will easily recognize the little green men on Middle's latest hat.

Space Invaders! I used to rock at this game as a kid.  Middle LOVES video games, I literally have to pull him away from them after his 1hr time limit is up. So when I came across this pattern on Ravelry I immediately thought of him and since his old hat was worn and ripped, he was presented last night with this brand new one.   He adores it. He's even been wearing it to bed. He refuses to take it off.  It's nice to see someone you love enjoying the things you make for them.

On the homesteading front, we are continuing to plant the starter seeds for spring.  The kids have each picked out their own seeds to grow this year from their grandfather's farm and from our own collection here at home.  Their garden was a huge success last year and they are really excited to start up again this year.

The kids (and I) really enjoyed the break in the winter weather last week.  The boys spent ALOT of time playing with their wagon and collecting "treasures" in the yard.  Ah, to be young again...

Wow, I'm Really Behind

It seems like forever since I've updated, mostly because I haven't had much to say.   We've been cleaning the house in mad preparation for Gran's sister to come visit us all the way from Texas.   She has alzheimers and wanted to visit with Gran while she could still remember who she was.   Her son and his wife are coming up as well to make sure that her trip is a safe one.   So we've needed to clean and get ready for the three house guests as well as get some homeschooling work done and try to get ready for pumpkin selling season.   While we've been busy, it doesn't seem like anything we've been doing has been interesting enough to talk about.  

The weather here has been so unusually dry that most of our apples have fallen off the trees well before they were ripe so we don't have much going on in the way of apple picking, canning and baking.   We have had a bumber crop of zucchini this year though.  So far I've made zucchini bread, zucchini muffins, zucchini cake, fried zucchini, zucchini stir fry, stuffed zucchini and baked zucchini sticks.   I still have 5 zucchinis sitting in my fridge.  :)

Anyways, I haven't given up on crafting, I just haven't gotten much of it done lately.  I'm still working on knitting sweaters for each of the kids for fall, which is coming up on me way to fast.   And I'm still working on the afghan from hell, which is moving way to slow.   And I've been working on crocheting a comfortghan for a care package that will be heading for a good friend hopefully pretty soon.   The projects are in the works.  I know I've said this before but hopefully I'll get some pictures up before long.

The Title Well is Temporarily Dry

This is the face of a dog who didn't know when to quit.   It was a good 95 degrees out a couple of days ago and Cocoa here spotted something in the field while I went to pick peaches.   She chased the thing and barked at it and just generally had a fit until she finally collapsed from heat stroke.   Not heat exhaustion, full blown heat stroke.

Now, by the grace of God, I got a hunch to stop picking and head towards the barn to check on her.   I found her, collapsed, panting like mad, about 10 feet from her water bowl and the shade of the open barn where she usually hangs out when we go to the field.   I hurried and hosed her off, brought the water too her, helped her lift her head enough to drink it and then managed to get her up and into the car so I could take her back to the house and get her into the air conditioning.   Unfortunately, her back legs weren't working properly so it was a struggle for me (weighing in at 130-ish pounds) to get her (weighing in at 75-ish pounds) to the car.  

We then called in the vet who told me that I was lucky to have found her when I did because had it been a couple of minutes longer she would've probably died.   He then gave her fluids and basically said that it would be a waiting game from there.   Fortunately, she came out of it and to look at her now you wouldn't be able to tell that she had been so sick just a couple of nights ago.

That particular picture was taken just after she threw up all over my brand new rug, hence the fact that she is laying on the non-slip mat instead of the rug itself.   And for all the animal lovers out there, do not worry, that little box by her neck is not a shock collar.  It's a spray collar that shoots a mist of water or citronella (depending on what you fill it with) everytime she barks, although it was empty on the day of the incident.

I did get a fairly nice (albeit small) bushel of peaches out of that trip.   Tasty too.  

Getting Ready for School

We've hit that time of year again, where it's time to start getting the kids back into school mode.   I don't introduce the workbooks usually until closer to the start of the traditional school year but I do start getting the kids used to the structure and routine that we have about now.   One of the ways I go about doing that is to start to give them short bursts of structured, focused play time.  
Yesterday Oldest spent her time building with some k'nex (and secretly learning how to follow directions from a pictures).   By the time her focused playtime was finished she had already built two butterflies, two fish and a dinosaur and still didn't want to stop.   So she spent about an hour AFTER her focused playtime building a hanglider.

Her dollhouse "father" is taking a harrowing ride.

And in orchard news:

One of our young peach trees "exploded" this year growing up and out and getting a tree full of fruit.  Unfortunately, it had more fruit than it's young little branches could handle and it started to bend almost all the way to the ground.

It's kind of hard to see in the pictures.

I ended up having to throw off about 40-45 peaches to ease the weight on that limb.   I wasn't really happy about that fact but "ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do, ya' know?"    In about an hour I'll be heading out to the bigger, established trees and picking peaches and plums for much of this afternoon.   Should be fun...maybe.  

Happy 4th of July!

I love the 4th of July.  Grilling, spending time with family and friends, and then watching the fireworks, it's all awesome. :)

The kids harvested two of the onions that they planted in their garden this spring and it looks like the rest will be ready in the next couple of days.

DH is grilling hamburgers up right now as I type this and their onions went into his special hamburger sauce.   They were really excited about their harvest being used in one of our 4th of July recipes. 

We also spent about 2 hours out in the orchard picking apricots this morning so that we could grill them (I maintain that you can grill just about ANYTHING). 

These ones are very small, about bite sized but really tasty.  

After supper, we'll be heading off to see this:

Hope everyone has a good 4th of July!

Memory Quilt

Lately I've found myself over run by baby clothes that Youngest no longer fits but are just too cute to throw out. I've donated at least three boxes worth but there are still more (the grandparents LOVE to buy the kids mountains of clothes). So I've decided to turn some of them into a cute little memory quilt for his crib.

Memory quilts are easy because they don't have to coordinate perfectly, they can be a fun mash up of colors, textures and patterns.  I personally prefer it to have a random, thrown together kind of look but you could easily make it more "planned out" if you wanted.  All you have to do is cut out a 6 in. square of cardboard, place it on the fabric or baby outfit that you want to use and cut around the square.  Then arrange it how you want it to be (as I've done in the above picture) and when you're ready, sew it all together. 

So far for mine, I've got all the squares cut out and arranged and hopefully I'll be sewing them together over the next day or so.

In the garden front we have everything replanted that we had put in the ground before that late frost.  So that's done now at least.  

 

We also have peach buds starting on all four of the peach trees.

And cherries started on the lone, young little cherry tree in our yard. This is the most we've had on this little tree since planting it 3 years ago so it's pretty exciting.  Last year we had a whole 1 cherry on this little bugger.  ONE.  Uno.  That was it.  This year we've got several branches with several little bunches of green fledgling cherries. Yay! The 10 or so cherry trees we have out at the orchard are also starting out nicely this year.  It's a good day when the garden and orchard are doing well outside the house and crafts are going on inside the house. 

Spring is in Bloom.

Our cherry trees decided to take the peach trees' lead and blossom out today.

Spring flowers always remind me of my favorite Albert Laighton poem:

They are autograph's of angels, penned

In Nature's green leaved book, in blended tints,

Borrowed from rainbows and the sunset skies,

And written everywhere--on plain and hill,

In lonely dell, 'mid crowded haunts of men;

On the broad praries, where no eye save God's

May read their silent, sacred mysteries.

Thank God for flowers! they gladden human hearts;

Seraphic breathings part their fragrant lips

With whisperings of Heaven.

The poem is aptly named "Flowers". :)

On the homesteading front we've been easing into the spring rhythm of things.   We have several plants started and ready to go.  DH plans to till the garden tomorrow and then Oldest, Middle and I will work to transplant the seedlings into the garden over the next day or two.   Chandler is itching to get to work clearing the garden of all the typical garden pests.   We're still working with Cookie to get her fully trained in that department but she's making big strides.  I think we'll be able to let her loose in the orchard by the end of the month.   Both of them worked together yesterday to snuff out one of the many voles that has taken up residence in our yard.   They made pretty quick work of him. 

 Typically, when the dogs are working, they run through our orchard at the farm and our garden here at the house barking incessantly into each hole created by some rodent until we give them the commands to stop. The trick is getting them to bark and dig only at the rodent holes, not just dig up the entire garden.  We'll do that every day for about 3 weeks at the beginning of Spring.  Ordinarily that harrassment is enough for the rodents to leave for the remainder of the season but these voles in our yard are particularly stubborn.  They aren't doing as much damage as they were when we first moved in but they aren't gone yet either.   The stress must at least be interrupting their mating cycles because the number of vole tunnels has decreased significantly and Chandler isn't dragging up as many as he had done in years past.  

We've purchased new floors since our carpet has gotten to the point of no return.   Even though it wasn't my first choice, we opted for laminate floors simply because of the durability issue.   We wanted a floor that would withstand the hazards presented by children (ie. matchbox cars being dropped onto it, roller skates speeding across it, juice spills, mini wrestling matches, among other things) and the dangers posed by pets (nails scratching across it at a high rate of pace while two dachshunds attempt to rocket themselves towards a squirrel sitting outside of a window).  With those things in mind, we decided that laminate really was our best option.   Hopefully we'll have that installed within the next couple of weeks.

On the crafting front things have been pretty quiet.   I saved the egg cartons from the Easter egg dying extravaganza and plan to let the kids to a couple of projects with them over the next couple of days.   I've gotten some work finished on The Afghan from Hell and some done on Youngest's sweater.   I also have 2 pairs of light summer pants for Youngest and Middle cut, pinned and ready to be sewn so hopefully I'll be able to get that done within the week although it may be a little dicey considering the moving and packing that will have to be done in order to get the floors in.  

April showers...

Bring peach blossoms!

I had been outside with the kids all day today playing with squirt guns, chalking up our driveway, watching them ride bikes and scooters and playing with the three puppies we still have here at home.

I had walked by the peach trees several times and even took a little time to study the buds on each one.   That was around noon.  None of them were open but some looked about ready to pop.

It wasn't until it was just getting dusk, with a nice storm rolling in, that I happened to go out to get the dogs inside and noticed this one little peach blossom.  The first of the season.

I loved it so much that I had to get TWO pictures of it.

Youngest's Hat

Knitting seems to take me forever.   I'm still working on Youngest's hat, the one that I started about 4 weeks ago.    This is the second attempt I've made at using different colors in a project, the first was in Middle's hat.  

I'm hoping to get finished with Youngest's hat by the end of the week.   Even though it's almost spring (thank you God!), we still get some pretty chilly evenings up in my neck of the woods so he should be able to wear it for several more weeks to come.   

The stripes in the image came out looking a little more black then they actually are.   In reality the are more of a chocolate brown.  Hopefully I'll be able to get a better picture later on.

Speaking of Spring, we've finally gotten some of our seeds planted.  I didn't get a picture yet but we've planted our carrots, charantais melons, radishes, greens, the early season tomatoes, and some squash.    We have a short growing season up in the frozen north so I can't get them in the ground yet, but hopefully in about 2 weeks I'll be able to get them into the garden without having to worry about a late frost.  

Another nice thing about Spring is that we get to come out of hybernation mode and start back into our more productive routine.   Spring is one of the busiest times of year for my family but it's also one of our favorite times of year.   Can't wait.     

I Still Exist

I haven't posted in awhile but to be honest, I haven't had anything to post about.   I was suffering from project overload and took a bit of a break from crafting for a couple of days.   I started back up this afternoon though and am currently working on another preemie hat to be sent with the previous preemie hat (I had originally planned to send that out awhile back but the snow and bad weather has prevented me from venturing out any more than necessary).

And in other news, we've finally ordered the last of the seeds.  We were collaborating with my FIL to find some more interesting, exciting things to plant this spring.   So far we've ordered Cherokee White Eagle dent corn, which is a really deep blue color kernel.  The neat thing about this particular type of corn is that some people claim they can see a white eagle image in the corn kernels.   It sounded to intriguing to pass up.  We also ordered Daymon Morgan's Kentucky Butcher corn which has huge, multicolored ears and stalks that can get up to 18ft. high!   

However, out of all the seeds we ordered, I'm most excited about the cotton.   Yes, you read that right, cotton.  In Ohio.   We purchased Erlene's Green Cotton.    I was reluctant because I was under the impression that you cannot grow cotton as far north as Ohio.   BUT, my FIL reassured me that he has indeed grown cotton here in ohio.   Apparently you can grow cotton as long as it has one of the shorter (relatively speaking) growing season.  

I figured that, living in the midwest, I would just have to accept the fact that I wouldn't be spinning cotton unless I purchased cotton roving.  So you can imagine my delight when I find out that it can be done.   If all goes well, by this time next year I will have spun a bit of my very own homegrown cotton fiber.