Helping to celebrate a good friend's success in graduating school!
Friendship is commitment to one another, good times and bad.
Faith
.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
April 11, 2009 ~ Being There
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Helping to celebrate a good friend's success in graduating school!
Friendship is commitment to one another, good times and bad.
Faith
.
Helping to celebrate a good friend's success in graduating school!
Friendship is commitment to one another, good times and bad.
Faith
.
April 10, 2009 ~ Fun
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Fun with Friends!
Friends, Fun, Fellowship, Food, Feasts, Festivals...
F is a Fantastic letter!
Faith
.
Fun with Friends!
Friends, Fun, Fellowship, Food, Feasts, Festivals...
F is a Fantastic letter!
Faith
.
April 6, 2009 ~ Potato Boxes and Horse Monsters
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Spring was being its usual fickle self and the weather turned cold again. However we had potatoes to plant today.
Early in the year I had mentioned to my dad that I'd like to try potato boxes. I'd grown potatoes before and they were so good. Much better than store bought. But I knew room in our garden would be scarce. Vertical gardening is really helpful when you can get the right apparatus to assist you.
My dad liked the idea and offered to build the boxes for us and for him as well, using mostly wood from our pile at the back of the property and some scraps from his deck. The boards he had used were the new type of compressed boards that have a lifetime guarantee.
The recommended varieties for this type are smaller, fingerling potatoes. So that's what you see here. We put in Yellow Finn, Red Pontiac, and Russian Banana.
Michael is down in the garden area getting some soil to cover the seed potatoes to a depth of 4 inches. We will mix it with some potting soil.
And now we wait until the stems grow above the soil til we have to do anything more.
We are still planting more flats, and having to bring them in and out of the house as weather demands. It takes 1/2 hour for each time we move them.
I am not sure I would do this again. The cat really challenged us, having to protect them from her. We not only had the chicks in the spare bedroom, but also the flats anywhere we could find to put them. It was smelling like the great outdoors, for certain. Also, when it did not actually freeze, we left the plants outdoors. The problem with that is the roots like to be warm. So if the roots are below about 60 degrees, the plants don't grow at all. For a couple of weeks, the spring weather was quite chilly. We did not gain as much ground as we had hoped.
The horses, playing "Oooooh, The Wind and the Wheelbarrow are Scaaaaaaaaarrry!"
Planning and hoping for a greenhouse this coming winter.
Faith
.
Spring was being its usual fickle self and the weather turned cold again. However we had potatoes to plant today.
Early in the year I had mentioned to my dad that I'd like to try potato boxes. I'd grown potatoes before and they were so good. Much better than store bought. But I knew room in our garden would be scarce. Vertical gardening is really helpful when you can get the right apparatus to assist you.
My dad liked the idea and offered to build the boxes for us and for him as well, using mostly wood from our pile at the back of the property and some scraps from his deck. The boards he had used were the new type of compressed boards that have a lifetime guarantee.
The recommended varieties for this type are smaller, fingerling potatoes. So that's what you see here. We put in Yellow Finn, Red Pontiac, and Russian Banana.
Michael is down in the garden area getting some soil to cover the seed potatoes to a depth of 4 inches. We will mix it with some potting soil.
And now we wait until the stems grow above the soil til we have to do anything more.
We are still planting more flats, and having to bring them in and out of the house as weather demands. It takes 1/2 hour for each time we move them.
I am not sure I would do this again. The cat really challenged us, having to protect them from her. We not only had the chicks in the spare bedroom, but also the flats anywhere we could find to put them. It was smelling like the great outdoors, for certain. Also, when it did not actually freeze, we left the plants outdoors. The problem with that is the roots like to be warm. So if the roots are below about 60 degrees, the plants don't grow at all. For a couple of weeks, the spring weather was quite chilly. We did not gain as much ground as we had hoped.
The horses, playing "Oooooh, The Wind and the Wheelbarrow are Scaaaaaaaaarrry!"
Planning and hoping for a greenhouse this coming winter.
Faith
.
April 5. 2009 ~ An Early Harvest
.
Some of our farm's bounty.
From three hens we are getting about 3 eggs a day, and the asparagus was in danger of being killed by a late frost. We went ahead and harvested the spears to eat.
I was also worried about our bush cherry blossoms. The bush cherries were planted in a low spot with sink holes, mostly for the purpose of holding the soil, but also hoping to get a bit of fruit. Not the best tasting cherries, but not bad. We don't often get fruit from them, but we were blessed to do so last year. Fortunately, the frost did not develop as anticipated, so it looks like we'll have cherries again.
Raw asparagus is delicious. I will often eat it that way, just munching on it as I pass by the bed.
When I want to cook it with more than just a light seasoning of salt and pepper and butter, this is one of my favorite recipes:
Holiday Fruited Asparagus
Melt butter with apricot preserves,
stir in crumbled bacon and maybe even some dried cranberries.
Pour over the top and bake at 350 until tender.
Enjoy!
Faith
.
Some of our farm's bounty.
From three hens we are getting about 3 eggs a day, and the asparagus was in danger of being killed by a late frost. We went ahead and harvested the spears to eat.
I was also worried about our bush cherry blossoms. The bush cherries were planted in a low spot with sink holes, mostly for the purpose of holding the soil, but also hoping to get a bit of fruit. Not the best tasting cherries, but not bad. We don't often get fruit from them, but we were blessed to do so last year. Fortunately, the frost did not develop as anticipated, so it looks like we'll have cherries again.
Raw asparagus is delicious. I will often eat it that way, just munching on it as I pass by the bed.
When I want to cook it with more than just a light seasoning of salt and pepper and butter, this is one of my favorite recipes:
Holiday Fruited Asparagus
Melt butter with apricot preserves,
stir in crumbled bacon and maybe even some dried cranberries.
Pour over the top and bake at 350 until tender.
Enjoy!
Faith
.
April 4, 2009 ~ Glorious Spring!
.
Today we picked up 6 pullets at Tractor Supply Company. The chicks we'd hatched and survived had ended up being only 8 and usually at least half are cockerels, so at most we'd likely get 3 or 4 hens. These chicks are sexed and 99% likelihoodof being hens, so we'll have our egg layers by fall.
Here is our first run of sugar snap peas. So yummy. All the years growing up, they never made it inside the house. My little brother and I would go out and eat them straight off the vines.
Life springs forth eternal!
Faith
.
Today we picked up 6 pullets at Tractor Supply Company. The chicks we'd hatched and survived had ended up being only 8 and usually at least half are cockerels, so at most we'd likely get 3 or 4 hens. These chicks are sexed and 99% likelihoodof being hens, so we'll have our egg layers by fall.
Here is our first run of sugar snap peas. So yummy. All the years growing up, they never made it inside the house. My little brother and I would go out and eat them straight off the vines.
Life springs forth eternal!
Faith
.
April 2, 2009 ~ Back to Some Serious Work
.
Working toward the ball was great in a million ways. But once it was past and the full advancement of spring was upon us, we had a lot catching up to do here on the farm.
Lots of mowing to do.
We'd been trying to get 200 strawberry plants in for a week. But it had been so incredibly windy that laying down the barrier paper we'd had left over in the shed for years was impossible. On this day, we finally did it, but it took two tries. The wind managed to catch it when we were almost done burying the sides and we had to redo it. However, it was finally laid down and readied for planting.
We installed hose holders on the back porch. Our plastic hose bin had long since fallen apart and we'd taken to coiling the hose on the pool deck. It was always in the way.
Maybe not prettier, but much more efficient now!
Faith
.
Working toward the ball was great in a million ways. But once it was past and the full advancement of spring was upon us, we had a lot catching up to do here on the farm.
Lots of mowing to do.
We'd been trying to get 200 strawberry plants in for a week. But it had been so incredibly windy that laying down the barrier paper we'd had left over in the shed for years was impossible. On this day, we finally did it, but it took two tries. The wind managed to catch it when we were almost done burying the sides and we had to redo it. However, it was finally laid down and readied for planting.
We installed hose holders on the back porch. Our plastic hose bin had long since fallen apart and we'd taken to coiling the hose on the pool deck. It was always in the way.
Maybe not prettier, but much more efficient now!
Faith
.
March 30, 2009 ~ Helping A Friend in Need
.
Here is our church giving financial and physical help to a woman whose house was in need of repair. We had a few workdays. This is the day we could make it over to help. We finished up with dinner and laughter.
A good day's work!
Faith
.
Here is our church giving financial and physical help to a woman whose house was in need of repair. We had a few workdays. This is the day we could make it over to help. We finished up with dinner and laughter.
A good day's work!
Faith
.
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