Planting Day!

Yes today was my planting day.  It opened with showers that we just barely south of us, and a little cool.  So I started off with getting the laundry out, which kept me busy till about 10 am.  Which is when I figured it would be best to get started as I did not want to work the soil before it warmed some.  Yesterday when we picked up another straw bale for the chickens I "mucked out" the coop to use in the soil mixing I was going to do today.
  So This is the "mix" I used for my plantings today.  What it contains is:
 Peat Moss
 chicken manure (straw included)
 wood ash
 homemade charcoal
 oyster shell
 leftover compost from last year
 local "soil" which is mostly clay
 The manure and the soil needed some breaking up to be usable and mixed in.  The manure still had some straw that wasn't composted as yet.  The layer closest to the top was this way. This is my new Pecan seedling, it's a Stuart Pecan.  From what I have looked up it says that it is a Moderate producer.  Which isn't all that bad for me.  I like Pecans, but I think one tree will suffice for us.  They also  seem to grow to 100ft tall if they do well.
 I planted this one in the end of one of the trenches we dug for the apple trees that aren't coming.  We had to back fill a little bit just so that it would be at ground level.  This little "guy" was a surprise when we went to the farm store the other day.   I had not seen them selling Pecan trees before so when I saw it and noticed the price I felt it was worth the cost to get it.
 When we planted this I put some of the nearby branches and brier into the hole before we back filled.  I know that they will eventually decompose down adding more nutrients to the soil there so it'll help.  When I finally got him out of his wrapper I noticed quite happily that this little one was not root bound at all.  It also told me just how young this seedling is too.
 We wound up putting 2 gallons of water around it.  The peat moss really soaked it up.  I also added some of the fresh straw to the ground at ground level around it.  Just to help protect it.  We had to berm up some of the straight soil next to it as we didn't want the soil or water washing away.
 Here it is fully into the ground:
  Isn't it cute?  I know it's tiny, but my thought on that is; it'll grow up with our home.  It came with a tiny bamboo stake to tie it too until it gets stronger.  Probably a good idea around here as I have seen trees here that are growing tilted or sideways.  I image it's due to the wind we get here.
 Also this was the first thing I planted, I figured due to the size best get it in the ground first so that it'll have the most time to acclimate before night.  That tie on it?  It came with the plant.  I also discovered that there was a second one inside the "bedding" it had.
 Funny story about the ties these kinds of plants have on them.  Like most this had one of those pieces of metal tieing it shut.  On time many years ago I cut it off... instead of untwisting it.  I learned my lesson there... The next plant we put into the ground was a Red Current:
  We did get this one from the same store as the Pecan.  Now I am a little concerned that this one won't due much as last time I bought a "boxed" plant it didn't do hardly anything.  Those were the grapes I bought from SAMs club before moving here that we planted when we moved here.  Thing is they never grew, and from what a local grape grower told me.  The ones SAMs sold didn't do anything for her either.  This woman grows them for sale to the public so she knows how to treat grapes.  ... but those ones didn't grow either.  That tells me a great deal.
 This lovely little lady has been planted near my up and coming berry patch near my pond.  Actually if you were looking right at the pond from the driveway it would be on the back side of it.  Partially obstructed by a tree stump that we left to use for growing things over.
 I am growing my berries near the pond as the blackberries along the road were the biggest near the stream running across our road.  So my thought is why not try to duplicate this by growing the berries near the pond?  Worst thing that happens is that the plants don't grow huge berries.  Ok, technically the -worst- would be that they don't grow, so far my blue berry does though.  So that gives me hope that the other berries will too.  I know the wild black berries do.
 This one and all the other "non-garden" plantings are getting stakes around them to prevent kids and people from crushing them...
  Seeing as how most of the plantings I have done that I recall where the plants are... no one else can.  Even when they have helped me plant them.  See the little leaves?  I also noticed when I unwrapped her that there are some "sucker" plants starting.  If it becomes a massive bush I have no issues.  I want to have as many plants as I can as fruits I can dry or can.  Canning as jams and just syruped fruit.
 Before anyone asked, no I have not had currents as of yet.  However I have not tried a berry that I didn't like as of yet.  Besides if they are dried and mixed with other fruits, I doubt that if I don't like them that I would notice the flavor much.  Especially if I mix them with strawberries.
 Speaking of which, they are doing very well I  am hoping to take a few pics for my next posting.
 Now here is something interesting to note.. while the Pecan is on one side of where the house will be and the current is by the pond, the next plant is going near the pecan.  However I planted it 3rd.  The reason is, we needed to gather a bit more compost so as we had to go close to where the current was going to be planted we just did it while there.
 The next plant?  Why that's my White Niagara Grape:
  I had to take a picture of this one on the table as  with all that growth I didn't dare put it in the wheel barrow to do so.  Yes, another "boxed" plant.  My thoughts however in this case is that with that much growth (including the starts of 3 bunches) It may do very well.
 This one is being planted right next to where my outdoor kitchen is going, it is going to be trained up the side with a goat panel.  We still need to get said goat panel.  This way we'll have a nice green screen on one wall of the outdoor kitchen.  It'll also benefit the grape as that spot gets a great deal of sun.
 Tomorrow I need to go back and do some trimming around it, as I didn't have time to as yet.  I'm sure the bramble won't choke it just yet.  It has a "hook" on the stem that we pointed so that it is growing in the right direction from the start.
 Lets just hope if it grows well in the next month I won't have to do much prying to get it where I want it.  As from what I hear it's not easy getting a wayward grape to go in the right direction if it gets too big.  These first three plants were all bought at the same store, the grape is what decided me to get any plants.  As I could not pass up how healthy this one was.
 So we had the hole for this one dug well before planting as Silver dug it while I was prepping for the current. The funny thing is the rest of my plantings were harder in some ways than planting these three plants.  We moved on to the garden next.
 What we did first however was to make a barrow full of the soil mix and dumped it on the spot that I had planted the Rhubarb that hasn't shown signs of life.  We planted some horseradish in this. After which we both figured out we might want to get the hose out and set it up to use.  AS it would be a big pain to water in the garden with jugs and buckets.
 We have 2 good hoses and 2 bad ones, or more like 2 "useable" ones and 2 bad ones.  I say "useable" as one of them leaks like a sieve at the connection point.  Other than that it may last the year.
 We moved onto my "middle" bed in the garden, and while Silver wrestled with the hoses I loosened the top soil.  I had to use my pickax for it.
  The track hoe tore up half the soil in the bed so I had to loosen it all up and respread it.  I also added a little bit of the soil mix to help add more to the soil.  These are my 12 cabbages.  They are on the outside of the bed.
 I am planning on putting 2 squash plants in the center when they can be planted.  My thoughts are that the cabbages will help keep the soil cool if we have another bad heat year.  The squash will also help the cabbages in the same manner.
 What I did with the plantings is I went one green one red all around the edge of the planting bed.  I then planted onions between each one, and a line of "spring onions  inside the bed from the cabbages.
 These were plants that were grown locally by a nearby nursery, the only thing I didn't like was that they were grown in a carton that all the roots grow together.  So I had to cut the plants out. This is what the bed looked like when I finished with it.  I took the picture when I was watering the bed.  I also watered the potatoes when I was out there as they looked a little dry.
 When I was setting up the bed I had to remove a bunch of clover, which my ladies were very happy.  I'd say about 3 pounds of clover to them to inhale.  Which is what they did.
 I know my soil is getting very good now as when I had to dig it up some I found tons of worms in it.  SO I must be doing something right. After finishing all of this I went up front and after making lunch I cleared another of the tires and planted my garlic in it.  We have yet to grow it, so I am hoping it does well.
 We moved onto the sprouts and broccoli next.
  I reused the buckets from last year's tomatoes with the sprouts and the broccoli as well as the remainder of the ONION and the rosemary.  I capitalized the onions as again I bought way to many so I have onions growing every where right now.
 I have 5 of these "supplement" buckets, these are buckets where the farm stores sell a feed supplement to farmers.  They sometimes bring them back to the farm stores and then they in turn resell them for people to use to plant in.
 I have noticed if you need to cut up your plants it's best to let them get a little dry first as I don't recommend cutting them when they are wet.  It's like cutting paper when they are a little dry.
 Our Rosemary is 2 pots of three plants in each pot so we are hoping they grow big, and together. I had one more thing to plant.
  Tulips!
 I like Tulips, I have as yet to plant some before now.  These I bought "spent" for $1 at Walmart before they would be tossed out.  The cashier was happy to see someone buy them.  As you can just plant them in your yard after they stop blooming.
 Each pot had 6-8 bulbs in them, also a few of them had baby bulbs growing.  I had 5 pots worth of them.  I planted 2 pots up by our house sign, 2 pots by my rose, and one pot by the pond.
 So I finished at about 2:30pm so I spent hours planting.  My feet hurt as does my back.. but it's a HAPPY hurt.  I accomplished something today, getting my plants in.  Silver also set out the boards we bought yesterday to plan out our bigger well house and where the floor of the outdoor kitchen will be.  We had to buy pressure treated as they were cheaper than landscape timbers.
 Yesterday if you didn't figure it out Silver got out Wheel barrow fixed.  We had to buy an inner tube that was bigger than the one that was on it.  However it worked and now we have a wheel barrow again.
 That's my fun and busy day, I have to post my pics on pintrest then I will be making dinner!
 Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

New Plants!

I have some new "babies" that I'll be planting on Thursday provided the weather is good.  Yesterday we picked up 12 cabbages, 6 broccoli  and 6 sprouts.  I also picked up more onions to grow, some to be just "spring onions" some crosses fingers to be stored onions.  I checked the strawberry plants and they seem to be doing well and have new growth and almost all of them. 

Today we picked up a few more plants... We almost picked up chicks, but they didn't have any that I wanted in the shop we were in.  I still would prefer to get my new chicks from the hatchery, but if I can get the ones I want cheaper at a store then I will.  I did get a very nice looking green grape, that has what appears to be some bunches already starting on it.  I am planning on putting it next to where my outdoor kitchen is going to go.  This way I can have it grow to cover one "wall" in it.  I found a red current and I am hoping it does better than the black currents that I kept buying.. and died. 

We found some small rosemary plants and as it seems that ours may not have survived the winter we got two of them.  We picked up some  garlic and some horseradish as well.  Now my big surprise was find pecan seedlings there.  I like pecans, and I was very happy to see them in the farm store as it will probably take a few years for this one to produce.  It's about 9 inches tall not counting the root system.  I can't wait till the next no stormy day so I can get all these out and in the ground.. Thursday is the most likely of days for that it appears based on the weather pattern we have coming through. 

I am planning on getting pictures of all of them once I can, the light isn't what I'd like for it right now.  ...and it's COLD outside today.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Strawberry Day

Yep, today is the day to plant...
  looks outside
 ...ummm MUD my strawberry plants in.
  This is one of my little strawberry babies, I have 50 of these.  My thought(s)?  If I have issues with them growing at least some should do Ok, right?  The two worst case scenario's are:
 #1 they all die
 #2 they all produce
 I just don't see with #2 that being a problem and if #1 happens... well then I learned something.  It took me about an hour to plant them all in the mud.  I put them in today as we are due to spend the rest of the week in RAIN.  Fun for us yes?  However I can't leave the poor things in their box for a week or more, they would die.  So I went out today and mudded them in.  About half of the little plants had really good crowns on them really think, a few were pretty small.  So we'll see.  
   I planted them in our old onion bed that the Elderberry trees are planted on both ends of.
  You can if you look very closely the escapee onions that we have growing there.  My thoughts at having the plants there with the Elderberry is that they will become the ground cover for the trees (shrubs, elderberry are tech shrubs).  I know the ground there is very good as it's full of worms and we already have things growing in the soil there, besides the onions.
 From what I have read over the years you should let the plants not produce the first year after you plant them.  I am debating this as I know the strawberry farms harvest yearly including the first year.  Anyone have some suggestions?   My Elderberries have been doing wonderfully since they were planted where they are, I think due to 2 reasons.  First is that they were grown locally, also Elderberry plants grow here naturally.  They have been sending out "suckers" too.
  This is the taller of the two "trees" see near the base?  that is the "sucker" plant.  Elderberry is one of those that can reproduce by suckers, or plants growing off of roots that grow near the surface.  There are quite a few of them around the "trees"  I do not know how fast they grow, I do know that they are going eventually I should be able to have tons of elderwine, and cough syrup.
 I was covered with mud when I was done with that planting, and when I was done needed a good bath.  
   I need to run for now I have to post these pics to pintrest and start on dinner, have a wonderful evening everyone!
 Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Sunday Musings

Well, it's been a wet couple of days here. ..wet and cold, we've had rain,snow, sleet all in the last few days. Fun times! (my sarcasm over bounds) I am hoping the weather will be good Monday as our strawberry plants arrived and I need to get them into the ground soon. I am hoping to get pictures of them.

I've been downloading some info on various wildcrafting methods in the hopes of broadening my skills a tad more. Some are about making primitive tools, which I do find fascinating. So we will have those things to work on as well.

Soapbox time...

I had received on one of my posts the other day a message from “Heather” to email her as she wanted to talk to me about something. Now what happened after has me slightly annoyed.

#1 her name is Heather Von St. James

Good, so I have a name yes? Well there is more...

#2 She sent me a “canned” email asking me to post her story on my blog.

Which outwardly I have no issues with, however I did a bit more digging and sent another email asking a few questions about her as person. As I will not post about someone's story without knowing what kind of person they are. Just telling me you survived mesothelioma won't get me to post your story. Even telling me your daughter has it won't get me to either.

#3 She has through whatever method this is she contacts people she has at least 100 private blogs posting her story.

Ok, so again we fall to a question I sent her.. why my blog? I have a small amount of followers on my blog, so why would someone who needs to get info out about mesothelioma use me to do so? Doesn't make much sense to me.

#4 She has a facebook page and a Twitter feed.

This tells me she can reach millions of people is she truly wished to. Again why my blog? So I sent her a facebook message to her asking the same message I emailed her with.

#5 Upon digging deeper I have found out she herself has through lawsuits gained $5mil due to lost wages and medical bills.

Well in my opinion, if she has gained that much money she does not need my help gaining any more money. If she wants money for mesothelioma research then she should send me a message saying that. Not sending me a message saying she is trying to gain money for her daughter. Why not put aside some of her money just for medical expenses for both her and her daughter? Makes more sense to me.

#6 If you wish to make someone pay for what they did for you, do more than hit them in a pocket book.

Besides, the people who made the materials that did this nasty thing to them are probably not being bothered by it. Also, the biggest issues with it is if things are tested more/longer then maybe they will learn that the “thing” is bad and not use it.

Now go back to #2, I sent the email early this week. I still am waiting a reply. Same for the Facebook message, and I know she has her facebook page very active. So my guess is she doesn't truly care if I post her story or not. Now digging I found out that people call Heather the voice of mesothelioma good, they need a voice. However, a good voice would be very concerned if their message got out to all the people they contact. Not send one canned message and then ignore them.

Just wanted to put all this info out to everyone out there, just so that if you get the “hey email me I want to ask you something about your blog” message you you have info to look back at and make a informed decision based on more than just a canned email.

Now it's time for me to step off my soap box and finish breakfast.

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Happy First day of Spring!

Well it's a lovely cold morning, so nice to have to light a fire on the first day of spring... yeah ...  Anyway. not much going on with the weather not co-operating.  WE have a winter storm warning which starts tomorrow...fun.  I did manage to get something done yesterday, besides laundry.

I went out and first I fluffed up the potato patch and then I planted my seed potatoes (we didn't manage to get the sun chokes again).  The one red potato I planted last fall is starting to  grow as well.  I did have a surprise when I got out the seed potatoes, they had all sprouted and had roots on them already.  So on the few I had to cut down to be smaller I cut them so that they would all have some actual roots on them.

Had some good news from the weather people the other day, due to all the precipitation we have gotten ourselves out of the "severe drought", and are now just listed as "dry"; I am hoping pretty soon we'll be past that too.

A friend of our's Mark Cheneil writer of the "Missouri Journal"  over on homestead.org is in the hospital, we all wish him good health; and to get well.

That's it for now...

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

March is almost halfway over!

Well it is...
 I have managed to do a tiny amount of work outside today, starting with some clean up from wind blown trash. After that me and Silver went across the road for a bucket of pond water and were pleasantly surprised to see a frog swimming in the neighbor's pond already. Considering we have at least one more near freezing night coming up it was very nice to see.
 We did get the water for our pond so as to add the microbes and the diatoms that appear locally from a healthy pond. I haven't dug up cat tail roots as yet though. It might not happen till sometime next week. I haven't even seen shoots coming up yet in that pond.
   I then went to start moving the mountain of mud/clay from around the pond. Big problem with this is. Both our wheel barrows are minus a wheel, and on the one we cannot remove the old one so we can't replace it. The other .. well we can't seem to find a replacement for it.
   So I am moving them by the 5 gallon bucketful. So the second issue is where to put the stuff. Well I do kinda have one place that does need some dirt. That would be where we put the ash from the trash burning, if I cover it with the dirt I can put grass over it and it'll slowly decompose. As it's in a dedicated place it won't interfere with anything else we are doing. I have mentioned this before also.. trash has to be gotten rid of some how.. I'd rather have to deal with my trash that can't be composted rather than send it off to a miles high landfill. I am tech composting this “stuff” but it takes a bit more to do and I have no plans on using the leavings after the fact.
 After I got worn out from the dirt moving I decided to attempt to do some out door plantings. I have planted some short carrots and some kale in the box that I picked up for free. It now has “black gold” in it, the soil is perfect; which is why I planted the carrots in it. At the end of the season this year I will have to find a good home for the dirt in it.
  Now I also planted in two of the cut out used tires I set up last year. The soil in these while better than just the ground is here still needs a tad bit of work so I went over to the old compost site and dug out what I could of the left overs that were usable. There is a bit of paper and sticks still in it, but it's going down.    
     I took that which filled a 5 gallon bucket about ½ way, and what was left of the starting mix and some wet ashes and added that to the soil in the tires. I did notice when I was mixing it in that there are more worms in those tires than I thought there would be. So the tire closest to the door got some of what was left of my Red Fire Lettuce. It is a red leaf lettuce that we do enjoy. I only planted that in there as I am going to attempt to grow the bushel gourds in that tire this year as I have still to get them to grow for me at all. Since the luffas liked the soil so much it may be possible that the bushels will too. The second tire got mini Pak Choy and edible Chrysanthemum. Done half on one side half on the other. I am really hoping they both do well there.

 I do have some “bad” news.. I'm not getting my apple trees and it's my own fault. I didn't notice on the receipt (especially since according to our transactions in our account it already went through) that payment won't be billed till they send it. So I had to cancel them, my only issue there is the person on the other end of the line got very pissy once they found out I was canceling the order. Shrugs Go figure, guess they don't like dealing with people who always have money. If I had noticed that on the receipt the money would have been there.
   Well need to go for now as I have dishes.. then I have to go bathe this mud off me as the girls have a concert tonight.    
  
 Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Family Problems

Fun times, fun times indeed...   My grandmother last year was initially diagnosed with throat cancer.   Now this came on as a surprise to her supposedly.  However since the tumor at the times was very large I don't think it came on suddenly.  I believe she just ignored it.  Half of her throat was gone when the disease was "discovered"  it had spread badly enough that it had gotten into her mouth.  She was on a feeding tube and medicines for months.  

Then out of the blue my one aunt told my mother that my grandmother was cured of it.  Not remission, which as far as I knew is all that can happen with cancer; except in very rare cases.  Also my grandmother is worse than a chain smoker and drinks her breakfast, so... eeehhhh... I don't think it was "cured".

My proof...?

I got a call last night from my mom saying she is going to be in the area next week as my grandmother is now dieing of her throat cancer that my aunt told the family she was cured of.  Seems when my grandmother left the hospital, got her feeding tube removed she went right back to smoking.

I guess the one "upside" of this is at least it's as smoking cancer.. and not some other kind; and I don't smoke. Yes I realize that cancer of any kind is not good, but this is my effort of finding an upside to anything.

That's it for now... sighs

BE Well. Be Safe,  and Blessed Be...