Some Spring Things

                                                                                                                                                                      The days are getting warmer, well some of them. We have had a fairly cool spring so far- we had frost this morning when I woke up. Progress is happening, and being made. Over the weekend, although I have a nasty spring cold, I did manage to pick and pull more rocks out of the garden, and Joe straightened the edge of the garden, which increased the size slightly ( enough for at least one extra row of beets!) I also picked up a load of cow manure from a relative down the road- some went on the garden, but a lot went back on the compost pile, as it had a lot of grass in it. When it's free you can't really complain though!

The ever expanding rock pile. I took a wheelbarrow full of smaller rocks and dumped them down back.

I also successfully made yogurt! Last weekend, I attempted to, but because of a few small errors on my part, it did not set at all. This time I was a little more attentive, and found a different method ( using a warm oven to incubate) and had success! It set up nice and thick and tastes great. What I would really like to do is find someone whom I could trade with- for raw milk- eggs? veggies? anything for about a half gallon a month- because jeeze, I don't see myself eating more than a half gallon of yogurt every month!

Flowers are coming up, the Daphne is pretty much in full bloom, and now the trillium ( Stinking Benjamin's) are opening up too. A few happen to be living, with my assistance in my front garden. They are Joe's favorite flower.

Lilies from my grandmother's garden

"The Shed Master" He is shedding so bad right now that this is his current nickname.

 

Buddha watching over my stinkin benjamin's

My few seedlings are doing fine- I don't have a proper set up to start much here. I'd love a greenhouse- maybe next year! This years plan for garden expansion includes two small beds near the big garden- one for strawberries and one for...whatever I want- I plan to try to put some low tunnels up over one of the beds and see how that works out. Anything to extend the growing season would be super!

Jalapenos- just over a month old

 

 

 

Scallions- in my MOOmilk planter!

Not the best photo in the world...but who cares, the bluebirds are here!

friendly flycatcher- every year since we have been here there has been a pair that nests somewhere near the house, and I love watching them snatch bugs out of my garden!

 

Bad Chickens, Cockchafers And Being A Domestic Queen.

      Oh where to begin!! Lets start with the bugs. Cockchafers- I had never heard of them before, but let me tell you what, they did a nice bit of damage to my potatoes. In grub form, they are huge. I mistook them at first for giant stag beetle larva, and was very concerned when I found so many- I could not imagine a swarm of giant stag beetles emerging from my garden. I researched a little more, and surprisingly, there are a number of beetles that start out in similar form- this form being huge grubs with large scary mouth parts. Because of the number of these little jerks, I decided I better dig up all of the potatoes immediately. I ended up with about 25lbs of good potatoes, and I had to toss around 5-10lbs because of the damage. Jerks.

damaged potato

 

    I also have bad chickens. They won't stay in my yard. My yard is huge- 2 and a half acres and most of it is lawn. One neighbor is fine with roaming chickens, but the other, come to find out, does not want to be "invaded" by my chickens. We put up a make-shift fence to block to main area they were accessing his yard- but they found out how to go around it. A better fence will come. Today though, I called them all into their run before I was going to leave for work, all of them except for the 2 barred rocks- Baby and Gerda. I ran like a fool all over my yard chasing and trying to shoo them into the pen. I finally got Baby in, and just as I was about to get Gerda in, all of the rest of them came back out!! I tried and tried, bribing them will all sorts of treats, but they knew my plan and they were not falling for it. They stayed out today. I hope they did not invade the neighbor....

Baby




   I truly enjoy baking, gardening and just doing things around my house, and I just had not had a chance to do any of it lately, but since this weekend I have been on a roll! I made bread and butter pickles, pickled beets, more english muffins, granola and I've got carrot and zucchini muffins in the oven as I type. I end my current job on friday, and I have myself a good 2 weeks before anything else starts up and I am seriously looking forward to my home time.




I always have my Granola with this Yogurt- so amazing! check out Kennebec Cheesery for more information.

this is the second year in a row that I did NOT plant Tomatoes, yet they continue to grow.

I guess I will have corn afterall, despite a very slow start.



destined to become pickles