Fruit Trees Update

So I thought I'd show how my new fruit trees are doing as I took a picture of each of them when we were out yesterday. Here is the funny part my delicious was the slowest to get started leafing out but look at it now.

Conversely the peach tree the first one to get leaves is going slow to get them full size. Maybe they go slower?

This is doing good to this is the Cortland apple, I think it'll give my delicious a run for it's money on speed of growth.

The Mac seems to be doing better, however the buds on the top that had the “rust” on them don't seems to have produced any real leaves at all.

I hope they keep doing well, and that the peach tree gets a move on with it's growing. I am pleased so far with these trees from Stark Bros, I do believe I will order from them again in the future. Granted, these guys still have a lot of growing to do.

On another note the grape we've had (now in the third year), is doing amazingly this year. It has loads of leaves and is growing like the proverbial weed. I think it's happy.

So I'm 39 today, ugh another year and I hit 4 decades. Funny how it took me to be in my 30's to decide living here this way was a good idea. I am happy though living here far from the hustle and bustle of the city. Funny how now when we go to town I have troubles dealing with all the people and the funny thing is I grew up in the Chicago area.

Our across the street neighbors are getting their power pole today and seems our power will be off for a short time while they do it. Guess what though our neighbor's aren't here to see it, it's funny as they've been waiting two weeks for it to be put in so it's funny.

Have a good day and be safe.

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

Review of Listia.com

HEH... well I've been having some fun over on www.listia.com bidding with credits,not money; on seeds. Me and Silver have managed to win some dwarf teddy bear seeds and some sugarcane seeds. I also got some acorn squash seeds this morning on it.

Now I really enjoy this website as it's a good way to pass along seeds you don't need and to pick up some hard to find ones. I.E... the sugar cane. You join the site and start with about 500 credits to bid on auctions, you gain more credits by “gaining levels”, buying them, or from auctions you set up.

Me and Silver set up separately auctions of the two packs of carrot seeds I had that we can't use yet. Our ground just isn't good enough as yet to grow carrots in a year or two maybe.

Now while perusing this website I have discovered a few “funny” things about this site. ...not bad funny though... First one... in the seed category you will see many seeds up for auction and sometimes muti-auctions by the same person that are the same item. Also these seeds come in small amounts. My dwarf sunflowers are only 6 seeds... which if I were paying cash I put out I might not be willing to put out as much as I did.

The other thing is while tech everything on it is FREE.. tech... I think if you buy credit it's not free. There are people who make you pay shipping... even on a few seeds... come one.. they aren't willing to put out one stamp? I could certainly understand not being willing to do shipping on a LARGE item... but a pack of seeds... or just a couple... it's silly.

Then.. oh this is good... finding “organic” Lambs Quarters, and this morning... “heirloom” cattails..., I've got “heirloom” cattails across the street, and I know a few other spots that have them. Though, I imagine some people might not know that while yes you can eat both of these plants... one is by most considered a weed. The other is grown as “pond decor”, which is sad as cattails are a supermarket of food; well food and weaving material.

However overall I think the website is good, and fun too. Just remember what I mentioned if you go into it. Also if any of my readers wants to join if you use the following link I get a bonus and supposedly you'll get an extra 100 credits.

https://www.listia.com/signup/1604452

We have a mass of bean flowers right now, my secondary beans are sprouting up front as they are a different type. If I'm lucky my melons will stay around and produce. I picked another pint of berries this morning and we did some pond digging too. Gotta send my son out to cut wood later.

Have a great day!

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

Working Weekend

Well, it's been a fairly quite week; but this weekend is rushing by so far. I have my son out clearing our potato patch, and of course being a 15 yr old he's taking forever to do it. I and my youngest did some “chicken salad bar” weeding, stuffed a 5 gallon bucket full of clover,grasses, and what ever else was trying to choke our Rhubarb.

I transplanted the eggplants last week, while I do see some new growth on them it seems something likes eggplant leaves. I have seen on my wintergreen the suggestion of new flower buds, and plenty of new leaf growth. I discovered a small possible melon plant growing in my onions the last time I was picking Lambs Quarter. I am hoping it grows well as I had accidentally pulled it up I had to quickly put it in the ground.

One of the volunteer squashes, has been growing amazingly and seems to have possible flower buds showing up now. One of the cold hardy bananas seems to have survived transplant and all my day lilies are growing fine as well.

I transplanted a couple of my paste tomatoes that OMG needed it. They were starting to reach out at me, so I cleared out where I had some planted 2 years ago and planted 4 of my pots and added a small amount of fresh chicken manure.. well relatively fresh I had to dig it out. I think I'll have bean flowers soon, and I should be getting some more lettuce tomorrow.

We are also prepping for a young man who is coming out next week to help us out around here. He's an old friend of mine and Silver’s and he's going to be at first staying in a tent till either our house gets built or we break down and get a secondary building.

Well that's it for now.

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

Anniversary Day!

Well today is the anniversary of the day we have moved to our home This starts our 3^rd year living here and there has been so many changes. In more ways than one. One big change is with the life I am living and the people I am with I finally have a stable home for my kids. This is the biggest deal for us.

We are growing at least part of our food in our own garden. We are on a first name basis with the local MFA employees. We have been to Baker Creek Heirloom seeds a couple of times. We have our own producing flock of chickens.

The soil in our garden is getting better than it was when we moved here. I couldn't believe it when the soil was easy to dig down into. Silver has been in the best health in years, as he's getting plenty of exercise.

We have gone from having no water and living out of a tent, to having a small building and a claw-foot bathtub in a real bathroom. We now have a “real” kitchen … and a acquisition over the last weekend was new (to us) side-by-side refrigerator that we bought for $75; that is maybe a year old.

These are just a few of the things that have been changing in our lives since coming here, and living the life we have wanted to live. My only regret? That we had not done it sooner. Live the life you truly want to live, not the one you think you need. Remember we are living off a very small income, and we take care of all important things. All of our bills get paid, we have a home to live in, we have food on the table. ...and We live where we want to be living, could life be any better?

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

One nice Saturday morning...

Good Saturday morning all!

Nice warm-ish morning here, and we started the morning off with a fresh loaf of my sourdough cooked in my new cast iron dutch oven. However, I think this new “toy” has a slight problem, I believe the lid handle is painted.... I hope the paint will safely burn off. As the handle itself seems to be metal and probably is cast too.

I have taken up to making a very multi grain sourdough for now on, our discount grocer has a “7 grain” mix, it also has flaked barley, then I add oatmeal, hulled (non salted) sunflower seeds, and flax seed. It makes for a wonderful tasting bread.

Our first two “dinner guests” actually did not come to dinner, we gave them to Queen Sized Tink and now are deciding what to do with our two polish roosters. Now I said deciding as well, even though we keep a good amount of “water bowls” out for them and our couple cats that prefer to be outside; they prefer to drink out of our septic. I don't think I want to eat them now.... I'm sure a few people will agree with that.

So I have to spend part of today seeing how many of my seed potatoes they ate, and how many more of the onion sets they dug up. If you didn't know, chickens (at least mine) don't eat onion. Also as a friend on another website has asked me some info about my chickens after I posted the Record Keeping post I'll post what I wrote there in case anyone wants to know this information:

I buy feed from our local feed store as the organic feed is about 4x's the price here. I feed my 16 birds (1 rooster) 3, 50 pound bags a month @ about $8 per bag. That is the lest expensive feed here and it's mixed at the local major feed company on site. They get kitchen scraps and in summer the odd "weed" that I found they like. (chickens will eat almost anything).

We haven't used extra light, but our coop has that big screened opening at the east side that gives them tons of light. They have their "yard" that they if they chose to be in at any hour. They get cicadas (in season), and tomato horn-worms (in season). They are also almost a year old and haven't had their molt yet.

we also don't have extra heat, this winter was mild, we are going to upgrade our coop this year (crosses fingers) with a power box in it for if it is necessary. I do not feed them back their egg shells, I buy oyster shell only, I don't want to risk them eating their eggs in any way.

... also I would occasionally add milk to their water or some molasses (heated water and added it). We have also made our own suet when we had tallow for deep frying and it would get a tad "old". I'd mix in some grains I have for my bread making, some milk powder, dried berries, and pour in the hot tallow then let it harden overnight in a cool spot (in winter outside works well) Then I'd put it into the chicken yard in a suet feeder for them to inhale (which they did, the one time I had walked back to the house to get them some water and by the time I came back it was gone).

So they are pampered a tad...

I thought this info might be helpful and if it is good.

We have as of today shrunk our “indoor” wood piles down to just one as if we need heat it might be a first thing in the morning to rid us of the chill. So where we had the one wood pile under my girls' ladder, we are putting in some shelves. ...I like shelves... shelves are nice... I don't have many shelves, now I'll have two more.

Out during my normal garden walk this morning I noticed one cabbage sprout from the seeds I planted. Now from the cabbage plants I transplanted only one seems to be “holding on”, the others have changed to an odd color, and I can't figure out what is causing it. According to what I know I transplanted them at the right time, the broccoli I planted near them are actually doing about 100x's better, and has some noticeable new (and better) growth. The Hyacinth that I saw coming up (which I planted 2 years ago and this is the first year it has come up) has bloomed with pink flowers. The elderberry trees(?) are coming along in their leaf growth. I am worried about the fig however as the buds don't seem to be getting larger, but we'll see what happens with it. The rosemary plant that I transplanted into the ground last fall has new growth on it, Silver thinks we might wind up with a bush of it this year. The prickly pear that I planted last summer also has new growth, as does my yucca plants. I planted some chives in one of my trunk “pots” and they have sprouted, and about ½ of my tomato and peppers have as well.

So far this year is promising to be pretty good on our food production side, I am hoping it will only get better. I am waiting, and waiting for our dogwoods to finally bloom, they've had their flower buds on them for months. I do hope they bloom soon they are always a good show in the spring. With all the nice weather and not seeing much green yet outside I've been looking at ornamental plants with lots of color, just to see some color. Anyone else feel that way right now?

Hope you have a good weekend!

Be Well Be Safe and Blessed Be...

"Bad?" Corn

I have come across a strange/startling discovery lately while we are driving around. It has to do with our local corn (feed corn) crop. Now last year I had seen some areas in fields that were not as well grown as they others. No big deal right?

Well this year, while driving past at least 3 different corn fields (feed corn). I have seen some puny plants, also large portions of the field just aren't growing at all. I know and you also may know that old line about how corn should be” knee high by the 4^th of July.” At this moment I do not think that thses corn fields will manage that height at all.

Which made me think about something else, people here have heard me talk about what I think of GMO crops. Also my concerns about what they -might- do. Well what if we are already seeing some kind of affect on our crops now from it? Maybe something is going on in their genetics that is making them harder to grow? What if we are heading to a corn blight? What if...?

There is just to many questions about these crops (in my opinion anyway), also to many “what if's'” to really want to have anything to do with those crops. I don't think I will ever grow corn as I worry even with sweet corn that I would have some crossing with a GM product.

My other concern about at least the GM corn, but the others as well. When you have a crop with that “terminator” gene, where does the company get the new seed every year? The whole point on having that gene is to prevent them from producing viable seed. So where are they growing the corn that they use that gene in and how is it that the “seed corn” is/has the “terminator” gene in it?

Am I the only person asking this question?