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...

Homestead Happenings

Yesterday right before getting a little bit of rain we planted 8 potatoes in those tires I lined up in between my fruit trees. (yes 8 even though I have 7 tires) They are Yukon Gold's as I'm hoping for some nice potatoes out of them. It's also a trial on what I see/have seen from some other homesteaders using old tires to grow potatoes. Especially after any time I did a potato “bed” my chickens would get loose and wind up digging through the patch and eating them. Guess what chickens love potatoes.

My peas are starting to grow faster, and I am hoping for a good amount of peas off of them. My spinach is starting to set true leaves and the onions are coming up now as well. I am hopeful that I will be thinning the lettuce in a week. I had to rebuy my Dark Star zucchini as I could not find the seed packet, thankfully a lot of local stores carry Seeds of Change and they had them in the display. For the most part I do buy my seeds from Baker Creek but this one variety I happen to really like and Baker Creek doesn't carry it.

Yesterday had some interesting happenings on Craigslist here, I'm not sure if it happened near you or not. However, due to it being April 1^st some idiots decided to post some fake free items with other people's phone numbers. I was caught by one as if it had been real it would have benefited us a lot here. I do hope however the person didn't get many calls. I don't understand why people would do something so asinine though.

Yesterday we went and got another truck bed load of composted wood from the lumber mill (free is good in this case). We did mix in some of the sawdust with it to help keep it a bit more loosened. It will soon become part of new beds that will grow as time goes on.

...and speaking of that “style” of gardening I did find the video of Ruth Stout's garden on youtube. I had forgotten that someone did a video on here in the 1970's. I was very excited to see it, her methods are very simple and if you take hers and add in lasagna gardening and regular no till it makes wonderful soil.

We have a few days of rain ahead of us (yeah spring), so we'll be workign as weather permitts us to here.

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

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

..it really was too...

It overfilled my pond a wee bit, the young willow on the right of the picture has wet feet.  However it's not the only one with wet feet...

That would be my Macintosh tree.  It's kinda swimming, so as soon as it dries up a little bit (yeah Spring and dry prob not anytime soon) I need to get more dirt around it to keep it from happening again.  I just need it dry enough to move the dirt without it being clumped.

The other side wasn't so wet thankfully:

Not sure how well you can see it, but the Redhaven peach is in water that isn't in water now.  It soaked up in a few hours where as the Mac is still in all that water.  See the tires?  I thought I'd try the grow potatoes in tires since I have 7 tires right now.

Also I have  another picture of the cinder block stove.

The back will get raised up like the sides, then we'll fill up the holes of the  cinder blocks then they'll be capped and some rebar will be put across to cook over.  Also the center will get a solid block for the burn surface.   I can't wait for it to get done so we can cook in the mornings on it.

Hope you're safe with the severe weather moving about.

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

Trees... PLANTED!

So we spent a hard afternoon planting the trees today here they are:

My peach a Redhaven:

Next is the Double Delicious (Stark Bro's own):

It has the thickest truck of the four trees.  Next is the Cortland I ordered as the final one's pollinator:

Sorry for it being blurry I couldn't get the camera still.  Now the final tree the one Silver wanted is a MacIntosh:

The Mac is the only one without any "baby" branches.  Though it has tons of unswollen buds on it so we'll see where it grows from.   It took us all after noon because we had dug a trench back when we had the track hoe a few years back and that was for the fruit trees.  Our soil is mostly clay here so it took forever to fill in around the trees after planting.

I mixed in the last bit of the composted sawdust some rabbit manure and one of the pot fulls of dirt that I had peppers growing in a year ago.  It made for some nice loose soil of the type we do have around here so they should have a nice start.

We're going to be covering the pathway between the apples with sawdust tickly to keep "weeds" down and prevent the blackberry bramble from taking over my trees.   I love the black berries but... I don't want them to take over the trees.

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

Special Delivery

I got a package today!

My pretty babies have arrived, and of course they'll have to wait a day to get put in their home due to the dreary weather we're having right now.

So I have made sure to unwrap their roots from the plastic bag so they can breathe over night.  Thankfully it won't go down to freezing tonight.  Three apple trees and a peach tree.  The peach came from Stark Bro's nursery in this state and the apples came from Illinois.

We have some soil prep to do tomorrow morning and some brush clearing to do, we got most of the brush today, but the thick spot will be done tomorrow.  I can't wait to get them in the ground and watch them as they grow this year.

I got an email yesterday saying they had been shipped with arrival today!  I have been pacing like an impatient parent, all day.  They look very healthy, and are bare root.  So getting them in the ground is very important unfortunately I can't till tomorrow.

I am planning on getting pics with them in the ground.  I also know my peas will be up in a day or so based on what I saw in my garden.  My chicks got put in with the big birds and seem to be doing well with the others.

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...

Gardening Time

Well it's coming to that time of year my friends, and I am hoping to have my taters in the ground by week's end.  Also I just found out that the Elderberry trees have baby leaves on them.  As the snow is melting in the lovely temps of the last few days our pond shrank a little, which I expected; I hope the rest of the water stays.  My day lilies are coming up as well, so I defiantly think that the warm weather is on it's way.  I set my plant starts outside they have to come inside tonight, but they should be able to get some time outside tomorrow too.  My good tomatoes are not doing as well with the weaker light we have this year.  While the eggplants love it.   Go figure.
 Hope it's warm by you!

 Be Well, BE Safe, and Blessed Be...

After the Storm

Well here we are the morning after the storm and I'm making brownies.  Sourdough brownies specifically, it takes about 25 minutes after the sponge sets most of the night to mix them.  However I am a tad worried that they might come out a bit burnt as my oven is now running a lot hotter than it was before.

As for the storm...?  Well we have ice, we have snow, and we have power.  That makes me happy, not long after my post yesterday our internet went out for the whole day, it was expected as we have satellite internet; breathe the wrong way and it goes out.  The kids again have no school so lets see... They had a total of 2 days of school this week, guess it's better then them not having any school at all.  Granted though some school are having a late start today it would be near impossible for them to walk to the bus stop safely.  Also as Silver mentioned yesterday due to the ice, we are not driving for the next couple of days.

We are planning on either tomorrow or Sunday to go out and set the rebar stakes into the ground, more likely on Sunday as we are going to be in the 50's then.  Maybe I'll cook something outside on our mini grill if it's going to be that nice out.  Though we had something interesting in the storm previous to yesterday's.  The old dishwasher that was left on our property before we got here that we are going to turn into a smoker was knocked onto it's side by wind.  Now it's sat on it's base for years and a couple of days ago it gets knocked over?  Defiantly a strong wind, or rather strong gusts.  The wind that day also picked up one of our 2 good outdoor chairs and dropped it in the pond breaking it.  So now we are down to one outdoor chair, we need a couple more; hopefully we can find some more cheaply as we still have building supplies to buy.

Speaking of which on next Friday we will have money again and after bills/animal  feed/gas are paid for and my DL is replaced we are going to go and buy soil for the apple trees then the next item on our building supply list.  Which may be either wire, pipe or fencing for the dome itself.  Depends on what we have left really.

Well have a nice day all, I have to go check my brownies as they are starting to smell very done way to soon.  Where did I put that aluminum foil again?

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

Earthday in the garden

Well it was such a pretty morning this morning when we got up we sat outside to enjoy the morning sunshine, before the kids went off to church. We also went out to see what our screening trees were doing, and right now the ones doing the best seems to be the poplar's and I was concerned about those ones. I had thought those weren't going to grow well, but they are “leafing out” the best right now. My willows are getting leaves, but very slowly.

I went out and finished “weeding” the garden bed that the green cabbage, lettuce, chard, onions, corn salad, and chrysanthemums are in, and then planted my bush bean seeds. I did pole beans last year, but they did not produce as well as the bush beans I have used for years. I do want to make a very good effort to grow Tiger's eyes next year, provided I can find a place that will sell me about a pound of them at a reasonable price.

While I was planting the beans I noticed that the soil is looking wonderful there, and the chicken manure is composting down well in the soil. The funny thing is, the area the most of our volunteers are coming up in that bed is on the end that had the worst soil last year. Seems I got the soil right in that section now. I did fin another volunteer today a bit farther down than the others. I have almost ½ a pound of my blue lake bush beans planted. I will be planting more once the other plants there are done growing and have been fully harvested. I did discover that right now I didn't need a full pound, but next year I will have a “bed” big enough for it.

I also went and set out the sprouted potatoes we have discovered in our potato bin. While out there I did discover that my seed potatoes are growing, and I had to do a quick check and make sure I did not step on any of them. Also I had to recover a couple I saw that were uncovered, as well as move a little of the straw away from one that was struggling a little.

The puppies my girls have been taking care of are supposedly leaving this week, we'll see if they do or not. I am hoping that we can do some training on the pups Paris had and maybe raise their value a little, maybe we can get a little money for them. Though Tink.. I'll save one if the little guy can have it yet.

That's it for now,

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

Happy Easter!

For those who celebrate it Happy Easter Morning, and for those like me who do not, Good Sunday Morning. I have finally gotten all of our plants and they have been planted. This includes all of the “screen” trees we ordered. Those have been planted along our road just far enough back so if they have to dig up the electric line that the one neighbor put in they shouldn't be bothered. There are 26 (only suppose to be 25) hybrid willow's, 5 Russian olive (not edible), 2 honey suckle (the third is in the garden for bee attractant), and 6 poplars. We have almost fully done the road line on our property. We are hoping they will grow in well and hide our property a bit.

Now considering Silver has promised his son if he does well in school he will go visit I can say that we have bought a van. It is a 1989 GMC conversion van, that the back seat turns into a bed. It is going to be useful when we take my kids to visit their grandmother this summer. We spent a good deal of money buying it and getting it on the road, but it is worth it. We love it, we also spent Thursday cleaning the interior; oh the conversion is a camper. We only had to do one real repair to get the van inspected, replacing a part on the brakes; thankfully it only cost $9. Incidentally the plates in this picture are not the correct ones.

So we got ourselves a Spring gift.. or it could be considered an early birthday gift for me.

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

New Plants are on their way!

Well... today is going to be a semi-long day. All the kids are off school for today as it's the end of the marking period. So grades are out too, which my kids are not terribly worried over.

We have peas sprouts, cabbage sprouts, onions popping up. Not to mention we picked up some red cabbage plants and some brussel sprout plants. Also... I received my plant investment from my mother and aside for the money I had set aside for Baker Creek (which went to something for a pick me up after some bad news) I have placed some seed, plant orders. We have a irs check coming..in the mail... after we discovered the bank wouldn't accept the check. We are going to use that money for a car when it gets here. Problem is we found 3 that we really wanted that we looked for when we thought it would be directly deposited. Then find out the bank wouldn't accept the check, it wound up be a big let down. One that required a “pick me up” meal. It entailed beef fajitas, followed up by chocolate cake for the adults macaroni for the kids. So the money I put aside for the bulk of my seeds will be coming out of the remainder of our irs check. I am planning to take Queen sized Tink with me when I go shopping (I hope we don't run them out of inventory grins).

As for the plants/seeds I ordered with the companies, now note I did buy plants from Burgess... aside from 1 due to it being the only place that carried it, the other plants are ornamental from them.

Burgess:

Screen trees/shrubs:

Russian olive (5 plants)

Hybrid Willow (20 plants)

Butterfly/insect attractant shrubs:

Old Fashioned Lilac (2 plants)

Pink Honeysuckle (3 plants)

Edibles:

Daylilies (20 plants?)

Dwarf Flowering cherry (8 plants)

Cold Hardy Banana (4 trees)

Luffa sponge squash ( 1 pkt)

Other:

Weeping Willow (2 trees)

Bushel Gourd (1 pkt)

Stokes Seed Company:

Ornamental:

Purple Millet (1 pkt)

Edibles:

Corn salad (1 pkt)

Blue Lake bush beans (1 lb)

Celery Root (1 pkt)

Raintree:

Wintergreen (4 plants)

Goji berries (1 plant)

Russian Tea (2 trees)

Rhubarb (4 crowns?)

I think this is a very nice start plant wise, the cold hardy banana is suppose to be edible, and with how we go through bananas. I do hope they taste good... we eat bananas like most people drink water. Burgess is the only company that offers it, so that was a necessity. We are getting a goji berry as I want to try them, I figure if they have an odd flavor I can always mix them into something and we'd get the health benefits from them. Anybody know if you can harvest from a tea plant in the first year you plant it?

I replaced the potatoes the former roosters ate today, then watered all the garden. Mind you, we were suppose to get rain for the last few days... it has all avoided us. I'm figuring that because I watered it will rain today. Had a funny moment while watering the potato pile, one of the kittens was trying to catch the water and not understanding why he was getting wet.

Well that's it for now, everyone have a good weekend!

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...