Feathered Friends with Attitudes

Today our feathered friends discovered my garden! You may be wondering how said chickens would get into the Fort Knox that is my garden?  Well, let me tell you!  You see, when dh was building the fence for the garden (which he did a marvelous job on) one thing got off kilter and that the was the measurement for the door and gate.  The hole is a bit bigger than needed for our recycled gate, big enough for furry beagles and said chickens to get through.  We have talked about putting a 4x4 in there to block the gap, but we just have too many projects going and no 4x4 and no extra money so that is on the back burner.  Ugh. 

I don't mind if they are in there eating mosquitoes, as there are an abundance that call my garden home.  I was reminded of that as I was picking beans this evening to can, but I don't like the trails that they are making through my bean bed and other beds.  The pooh is great for the soil also, I just wish they would stay between the rows.  Is that too much to ask?  As long as they leave what is left of my wimpy tomatoes alone, I won't put them on the supper menu yet. 

Carrot Manicure

Today has been a day of canning.  I received a good chunk of HUGE carrots from a friend and I decided to try canning them.  My vintage pressure canner only does 4 pints at a time so this took awhile.  After a morning of cleaning, cutting and canning 11 pints of carrots my nails and hands have this strange new orange glow to them.  I must say it is different and not something I plan on sporting come Monday at the new job.

Yes, I said new job.  After a year of being an assistant teacher at the day care that my kids go to, I am moving on to the new center that my boss bought this last spring as the lead preschool teacher.  I am looking forward to this new challenge of new kids and parents, new setting and planning curriculum.  My kids are not sure they like the idea, but this means I get 40 hrs. a week and more income which helps during this very lean time.  The extra income also is a + now that our wonderful (not) Governor's budget crap has taken effect. Wonderful.  What is a family to do in their little corner of the world?  I guess I'll make some spaghetti sauce to store up and save.

Seeing as how my tomatoes that I had such high hopes for this summer have been plagued by to much rain at times, to much heat and cold at different points in there lives, blight and little chipmunks who like to each almost ripe fruit have petered out on me I am not sure how much sauce I am going to be able to put away this year.  Holy run on sentence.  My sister would be appalled.  Sorry but I don't care, I just tend to type how my brain thinks sometimes.  Anyway, I have finally been able to start my first batch of spaghetti sauce this afternoon and I am excited.  Right now it is simmering away and the house smells wonderful.  If I had access to about 16 gallons of tomatoes I would be set for spaghetti sauce for the year.  Yeah, that would be about 40 quarts of sauce when all said and done.  You would think we were Italian the way we eat spaghetti, nope, Norwegian, Danish and Chinese. 

With the last 30 minutes of simmering I am going to start warming up my BWB canner.  Happy farming, gardening, canning or what ever you do to pass the time. 

Lone Eggplant

So I tried growing Eggplants for the first year this year and I have had many beautiful blooms, but only one became an Eggplant.  It is quite nice, but now I need to know how to fix it?  Anyone out there in blogger land have any ideas?  I am not even sure if I like eggplant, but here goes.

Something in the Air?

I don't know what is going on, but all my kids are misbehaving today, feather ones and all.  The three were just pills today all day from the moment they got up until they fell asleep.  The chickens were crazy also.  Normally they all head for bed and supper around 7 pm if not earlier, but not tonight.  I topped off their feeder and water, and they did not listen so I gave them another 30 minutes.  Then I headed back out and they just scattered into all corners of our little corner.  Uff Da!  After another 30 minutes or more, Scott had to come out to help me round up the troops, we were both exhausted from the day and wanted to head to bed.  Finally they listened.  I felt like I was putting 2 year olds to bed again.  Thank goodness I only had 2 of those at one time and not 7.  Now to head to bed after our chicken chasing.  Night all.

Stump Moving

Today after work, Scott and I put the 4-Wheeler to work moving stumps.  As Scott has been clearing out the east end of the barn, he has had to dig up a ton of stumps and not all of them are little.  Some of them have had to be winched out and some rolled one flop at a time with the wheeler.  Tonight we put the wheeler to the test and drug them all out into the woods and out of site.  I was impressed that the wheeler was finally able to pull them all.  The big ones have dried out a bit so I think that helped.  I have also discovered a new way to plow up the soil - just hook up a root ball of a big oak and drag.  It turns up the soil nicely.  I really don't think that I'll be using that method though.  At least we have have them out of site.  :)

Absence

So far this month I have been pretty absent from my blog.  This absence has not been by choice, but controlled by time, sickness, Internet/computer problems and life in general.  I hope that I am able to be back at it now that school will be starting 2 weeks from today and the weather/heat is beginning to be manageable.  Lots of things have been happening here on our little corner of the world.  The most recent is that Adin has now lost his first tooth.  Pretty exciting.  I have found him in the bathroom looking into the mirror smiling and sticking his tongue through the hole where his tooth once was.  He is such a goof. 

I have been trying to do a lot of canning (beans, strawberry and blackberry jams, pickles and chicken broth) but more needs to be happening in the next few days.  I was hoping by now that I would have a batch or two of spaghetti sauce done, but the heat has done a number on my tomato plants.  We have some, but the plants look awful and the tomatoes are just now starting to blush.  I have a long way to go. 

Scott has been doing a lot of wood cutting on public land with his dead and down permit.  With what he harvested on our land this spring and the down wood elsewhere we have enough for this year.  Now he just wants to get ahead.  From the storms on July 1, we have enough trees down on our 20 for a full year also, but that is still green and we won't harvest that until next spring.  I do have to say that I miss the "hot" water from the boiler.  Having the hot water heater plugged in again is just not efficient and it takes forever to get hot water to the tap.  When the boiler is running, it is HOT right away, no waiting or wasting water.  I like that.  All in good time. 

Some sad news to report, our Lionhead bunny Amy passed away a couple of weeks ago.  Not sure what happened, but Adin took it pretty hard. 

On a fun note, our feathered friends are getting pretty big and much more curious when they are out free ranging (which is everyday while we are home).  Their new favorite place to hang out is the kid's playset/sandbox/swings/climber.  They are always over there climbing around on stuff and scratching in the sandbox.  Bumblebee (our Red Star Rooster) has taken a liking to Adin's tonka dump truck.  He likes to sit in the back.  I am still trying to get pictures, but I don't have a zoom on my phone and I don't have a good camera other than that.  Maybe one of these days I'll be able to sneak up on them.  :)  It really is funny and the kids love it when they come to play with them in the sandbox. 

Well the day is getting late and work is early tomorrow so I bid you all a happy night.