Stone Fence Farm

Baby hats

2012-01-25T09:01:00.000-08:00

Craft Show

2011-11-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

My friend Molly and I (me?) got a table at a local school craft show. It was fun but not very productive. I sold a pair of fingerless mitts for a 20% discount at the last minute. Molly didn't sell anything even though people came by and stroked her knitting. Her bamboo yarn catches everyone's eye. My wool yarn does not.

The Boy's Quilt Top

2011-10-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

After almost 2 years, I finally sat down and sewed up the quilt top for my son. Maybe it will be done by Christmas. These a few of the blocks.

Where have all the tomatoes gone?

2011-09-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

The last time I posted I had ordered seeds. Well the garden was kind of a flop this year. Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee made the tomatoes explode. I had beans. Would have had more if HI hadn't knocked down the bean poles. I had broccoli. We've had some frost already.

We've got a new puppy, a beautiful German Shepherd.

I started an Etsy page to try and sell some of my knitting so I can justify my excesively large yarn stash.

Spring is on its way

2011-01-27T10:19:00.000-08:00

I spent a good part of early winter working on presents and stuff. I have made approximately 6 hats. I made wallets for a friend to give as gifts and a quilted table topper for my sportsmen's club holiday party raffle.

Seeds are ordered.

Yikes!

2010-10-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

The Summer went by fast. Locke is in all day Kindergarten now. I'm knitting, quilting and trying to keep the house clean and the budget under control. It's not going really well. I also started a jogging program. I can't call it running yet. I'm moving to slow. At least I'm moving.

Busy Summer

2010-06-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

The boy graduated from Pre-K, started swimming lessons and resumed piano lessons. Busy, busy, busy. The garden looks awful. I think there is lettuce amongst the weeds. Someday I'll get back to sewing.

Blooming Apple Trees

2010-05-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

The feral apple trees are blooming. Some day I would like to rehab them and get some apples from them.

It's Official

2010-04-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

Spring is here. I heard the peepers last night.

Crazy Quilt folder

2010-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

I actually had to had sew the entire binding.

Spring wonderings and update on Resolutions

2010-03-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

I finished a bed sized quilt. Next I want to make a quilt with fewer flaws. I may take a stab at hand quilting again on something larger than a doll's quilt. A wall hanging perhaps.

I've been reading up on the Amish in order to get some of my homesteader mojo back. Most everything I read has a decidedly positive or negative slant. I guess there is lots of variation in Amish communities and even in families.

The garden is going to have to dry out a lot more and then I'll put in peas and lettuce. I pick up blueberry plants April 16.

Time to order chicks!

Spring

2010-03-18T06:56:00.000-07:00

It's really warm. The snow is melting fast making everything soggy. Days of rain did not help.

I saw my first Red Winged Blackbird of the season yesterday!

Spring

2010-03-10T06:02:00.000-08:00

Saw my first Killdeer today. We've also been seeing geese recently.

I finished!

2010-03-05T13:52:00.001-08:00

It took me a year but I finished my first pair of socks.

Snow

2010-02-28T11:12:00.000-08:00

We had about 4 feet of heavy wet snow this week. The picture is of the barn. The husband plowed or snow blowed twice a day for 3 days. We had 2 snow days and one early dimissal.

Molly's table quilt

2010-02-25T05:39:00.001-08:00

New Quilt

2010-02-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

I made this for a friend's child. She picked out the fabrics and I picked the design. It even has matching pillow cases and a matching doll's quilt.

2010-01-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

The husband and I were discussing the end of 2009 and the previous decade. The biggest life changes for us happened in the 00’s. We bought land, built a house, built a sheep shed and pasture, built a chicken house and a barn. We filled up all these buildings with the appropriate animals. We had our child. I quit my job. On paper the past decade was awful for a LOT of people. For us, it was a culmination of years of dreaming and planning. Most everything has gone our way. I don’t know about my husband, but I have a little bit of survivor’s guilt.

For this New Year’s resolutions I have a few things I would like to try for. All of them are related. They are in no particular order:
1. I want to get my homesteader enthusiasm back.
2. I want to preserve more of my garden for winter use.
3. I want to make a bed sized quilt.
4. I want to waste less.
5. I want to drive less.
6. I want to do more hunting.
7. I want to get a dog to train for hunting (I’ll need more than moral support for this).

This past year our son started pre-school. The program he is in has the best of intentions, but, I can see the worker drone curriculum shining through. We do our best to help the boy think critically. I really understand why people home school every time I hear “WHATEVER” from my 4 year old. It seems to me that the school system is designed to suck in the parents and families too and turn us all into consumers. I’m fighting it without much success yet.

With regards to no. 4 above, I did order less seeds this year. Hopefully, I’ll get some tomatoes and we’ll have put the late blight behind us. H1N1 doesn’t worry me as much as tomato blight.

Latest work

2009-11-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

More than 2 months

2009-10-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

I've been getting into a routine. The boy started school and it's taken me almost 2 months to get going. About 2 days a week I am efficient and 3 days not so much. I've been quilting recently and I should be taking up knitting again soon. I need me some wool socks.

Independence day update

2009-08-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

Plant something-nada
Harvest something-Eggs, cabbage, cukes, summer squash, peas, beets, potatoes
Preserve something-nada but soon
Reduce waste-fed stuff to chickens
Preparation and Storage-Started plannning with the neighbor for wood purchase and harvesting of wood, also started planning next year's garden expansion.
Build Community Food Systems-Sold some eggs, bought sweet corn from a local farm, gave away squash, peas and beets.
Eat the Food-still eating from the garden, eating eggs and the side of beef we bought from Morning Fog Farm.

Independence day

2009-07-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

Plant something-my neighbor brought me cabbage, pepper, tomato, melon and squash plants. I jammed stuff into the garden.
Harvest something-Spinach, baby lettuce, tatsoi, eggs.
Preserve something-nada
Reduce waste-fed stuff to chickens and I used lawn clippings to mulch the potatoes.
Preparation and Storage-used up the last of last year's raspberries for dessert night with the neighbors.
Build Community Food Systems-Sold some egg, shared above plants with another neighbor, bought lunch at the farmer's market one day and shopped at a locally owned bulk food store for some baking ingredients.
Eat the Food-still eating from the garden, eating eggs and the side of beef we bought from Morning Fog Farm. The afore mentioned raspberries fall into this category too.

Independence Day

2009-06-18T10:48:00.001-07:00

Plant something-got more tomato and pepper plants, also 1 eggplant to replace the frostbit plants. Planted more spinach.
Harvest something-Spinach, baby lettuce, tatsoi and some meculun mix.
Preserve something-nada
Reduce waste-fed stuff to chickens and I used lawn clippings to mulch the potatoes. This will be a weekly event.
Preparation and Storage-practiced baking with freshly ground wheat.
Build Community Food Systems-Sold some eggs.
Eat the Food-still eating from the garden, eating eggs and the side of beef we bought from Morning Fog Farm.

Independence Day

2009-06-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

Plant something-Not doing so good here. Will plant more spinach and lettuce. I need to get some more tomato and pepper plants.

Harvest something-We had radishes! Spinach soon.

Preserve something-nada

Reduce waste-fed birthday cake to chickens.

Preparation and Storage-got out the water filter and tried it out.

Build Community Food Systems-admired the neighbors new garden and it's weed-free-ness and fence. Sold some eggs.

Eat the Food-still eating.

Latest creation

2009-06-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

This was my experiment with hand quilting.

Independence Days

2009-05-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

I am going to do a challenge thrown down by my friend Sharon(see links on the left for her blog), involves doing a lot of your own food production and supporting local producers. The steps are:

1. Plant something
2. Harvest something
3. Preserve something
4. Reduce waste
5. Preparation and Storage
6. Build Community Food Systems
7. Eat the Food

For this week I planted tomato, peppers and eggplant plants that promptly got frost burned.

I may get an asparagus spear this week.

Nothing to preserve right now.

I'm forever composting or feeding scraps to the chickens.

Right now we are eating some of our food storage because I'm too lazy to go shopping.

I sold some eggs and gave some away. I also bought plants from a really local greenhouse.

We eat the food, everyday.

Latest finished project

2009-05-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

This is a table runner I completed while on vacation. I'm working on a mini quilt made from scraps now that will be a doll's blanket.

It's May

2009-05-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

I'm working on the garden a little at a time. Peas are in. Lettuce, spinach, beets, tatsoi and mache' are in. I don't think my blueberries survived.

I was really lazy and did not start any plants indoors. I bought tomato, pepper, eggplant, cabbage, snapdragon and marigold plants.

I did start some melon plants indoors on the windowsill.

Obsession

2009-03-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Quilting is my latest obsession. This is a table runner that I made last week. It's about 17.5 x 51. Cutting out the pieces was the most time consuming part. I'm contemplating a Etsy store when I get a little more proficient. The top picture is the runner quilted but not yet bound. The bottom one is completely finished. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out.

Quilt top

2009-02-23T06:22:00.000-08:00

This is bordering on the obsessive. This quilt top is about 30x30.

Finished quilt block

2009-02-19T06:54:00.000-08:00

My first quilting project

2009-02-18T06:25:00.001-08:00

Introducing "The Princess Cape"

2009-02-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

It was like "Fiddler on the Roof"

2009-02-13T07:32:00.000-08:00

We have a new addition. I have so many projects in my head. I have to wite them down or forget them.

I patched some jeans. I played around with an embroidery stitch. I'm going to make a princess cape for a little girl that invited my son to her 5th birthday party. Quilting is on my agenda, as well as recovering the couch.

Knitting

2009-02-02T08:11:00.001-08:00

This is a hat and booties that I finished this past weekend. I'm really happy with the results. This is my first baby project.

Seeds ordered and the competence project

2009-01-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

I sent in my seed and potato order on December 31. Now I'm just waiting for everything to arrive.

I've been knitting. Sharon (link to her blog over on the left) put out a competence project. She thought that people do not do things that they can't be good at immediately so they don't learn skills that could be really useful after the apocolypse. My project was to learn how to knit socks. Well I did it. I knitted a sock. For practice I first knitted a Christmas stocking for the boy. Then I knitted the sock using an easy pattern that my friend Susanne gave me. Now I'm working on a pair of baby booties and hat for a family I know. Then I'll make the second sock. After that, who knows. I may knit a rug.

Pictures later.

First one of the season

2008-11-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

The first of the seed catalogs has arrived. Just like Christmas music and decorations, they come earlier every year.

The election

2008-11-05T06:12:00.000-08:00

What is a liberal with a serious interest in keeping her Second Amendment rights supposed to do? I voted 3rd party.

Let me explain.

I have never been so conflicted by an election before. Obama stands for most of my core beliefs. Education, choice, taking care of people that need help, ending the war in Iraq, all those warm fuzzy things. He even has hinted at the need for lots of us to make sacrifices in order to pull the economy out of it's freefall. John McCain I found to be erratic and really dangerous, except where my 2nd Amendment rights are concerned. And his choice for VP really made me question his judgement. I thought back in 2000 that he was all that and a bag of chips.

I'm still angry that the country had to suffer through 8 years of GWB. I thought it was apparent in 2000 that GWB was an idiot. In 2004 I thought everyone would see through him and get him the hell out. But no. So now, we have huge deficits and a costly war that is sucking the life out of our economy. Because of the lamest.president.ever I get to sound like a nut.

I don't want to sound like a nut. If I can't defend myself, all my other rights are useless.

I'm a really bad blogger.

2008-10-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

So it's October and I haven't blogged since July. August and September have just blown by.

Up on "the hill" where we live, we had our first frost on September 19th. We've had a few more since then.

I started the garden clean-out. I still have brassicas left. We may actually get some brussel sprouts soon. Pumpkins and raspberries were my best crops. Winter squash was also good, but the voles ate my best looking squash. I fed the remains to the chickens, who had a field day.

I was really lazy getting things put up. I did not process any tomatoes. I froze a few beans and about 3 packages of broccoli.

Until I am at home full-time I don't think I can do a lot of food preservation.

Maybe next fall.

Oh yeah, I bought 50 pounds of potatoes over the weekend (at the Carrot Barn).

JULY!

2008-07-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

Where did May and June go?

We have peas, beets, lettuce, dill, kale and mache to eat already. Local corn has begun.

I have tomatoes on vines. Also a mysterious lack of pests.

This is a pea plant in May. We have eaten lots of peas (pods not actual peas) and the plants seem to have expired. I miss one day of picking and they stop producing. Next I'll rip them up and plant broccoli.

April has been warm and dry

2008-04-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

The first week of April was not so warm, but the last 2 weeks have been warm and dry. So dry that we have a open fire ban.

Last weekend we moved the compost pile and filled up the garden beds. The week before, I had planted peas, beets, chard, spinach, lettuce, mesculen and mache.

Pictures to follow soon.

2008-03-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

It's cold, even for March.

On Easter Sunday I started peppers, tomatoes and eggplant indoors. Also snapdragons, but they like it cool so they are in the basement.

As soon as the compost pile defrosts I have to start making more beds. I need space for my winter squash and pumpkins. I also have to work on my bean trellises.

It's nuttier than a fruitcake here

2008-03-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

So, I work in downtown Albany. In case you've been living under a rock and don't catch any news, the governor of our great state is going to get hung out to dry because he was STOOPID. The tension up around the Capital is pretty thick. The weather is its usual crazy March self. We just started Daylight Savings Time and our internal clocks don't match the adjusted clocks.

I have many irons in the fire and we don't have our new chicks yet. We get them on Good Friday (I hope).

See Sharon's blog post on the stupidity(to the left is a link). It's hilarious.

A call for Victory Gardens

2008-02-11T07:18:00.000-08:00

Remember those? During WWII everyone was encouraged to grow a victory garden to support the war effort. A little bit of self sufficiency went a long way. WWII was over more than 20 years before I was born, but I've seen pictures.

If we grow some of our own food, we won't be dependent on food trucked in from far away, we won't be as dependent on foreign oil and we will reduce greenhouse gases. Organic practices help the soil hold on to carbon. Vegetable plants use carbon.

Anyhow, I'm not really sure exactly how everything works (I'm no scientist) but I do know that I can produce really yummy food without too much work and even have enough to share.

So get on the bandwagon people. Start a victory garden.

Gardener's Porn

2008-01-30T12:13:00.000-08:00

So I finally got my seed order together. I order from Fedco Seeds. It's a co-op in Maine. They have great prices, no GMO seeds and they do no business with Monsanto.

When my seeds arrived I had a refund for the eggplant I ordered. Since I never grew eggplant before, I had my heart set on this one particular variety "Rosa Bianca". Seeds Of Change didn't have it anymore. I finally found seeds at Baker Creek heirloom seeds. I spent $3 just for shipping. I got an extra packet of seed so I don't run out and I can share with my seed exchanging buddy Christy.

I took all my catalogs to the office I work in and explained how they are gardener's Porn. Seed catalogs sell a fantasy. In their pages there is the perfect amount of rain every season. There are no bugs, rabbit, voles or grubs. The vegetables are blemish free and never have blossom end rot.

In January the gardener is a motivated human with big dreams and HUGE ideas. By August a gardener is just a human with a lot of zuchinni.

Long time no post

2008-01-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over. We have a little bit over a foot of snow. The boy has started skiing (strap on skis) and we are enjoying the snow.

I pruned the raspberries before the snow. Seed catalogs have arrived and I'm working up an order.

Frost

2007-11-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

The frost was finally real. We had a couple of frosts that were light and didn't kill anything 5 inches above the ground, but last week was for real. The next door neighbor and I picked tons of raspberries the night before the frost. Now it's time to cut everything back and clean up. I love the Fall. It's a lot of hard work.

It's been a long time.

2007-10-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Garden is almost done and I'm cleaning it out. I should plant garlic. We don't have wood yet and I haven't even begun to make applesauce. Yikes! More later hopefully with pictures.

Latest Reading List

2007-07-31T13:30:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter (finished)
Maxed Out (not started yet)
Four-Season Harvest (in the middle)
Barbara Kingsolver's new book about local eating(I'm on the list at the library.)
Food Not Lawns (Again, waiting to hear from the library.)

Why we do this

2007-07-31T10:41:00.000-07:00

I want my son to grow up appreciating hard work and even enjoying it.

It's been too long

2007-07-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

I finally have pictures of the garden to post. They are at least a month old now. The peas have all been sheared off and died, the beans (once I got the bean poles to stay up) have just fizzled, the corn looks a little bit suspect, I have Japanese Beetles in the raspberries and voles keep eating my tiny cucumbers. I do have summer squash and beets (they taste like corn). The tomatoes look good but only the cherry tomatoes are ripening so far.

I'm doing well with flowers. Japanese Beetles like zinnias.

Finally some progress

2007-05-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

I finally got the peas planted. Also lettuce, spinach, radishes and tatsoi. I weeded the worst out of the still vacant beds and put together the flower beds. In the flower beds we have Sunflowers(Lemon Queen), Cosmos (Sensation Mix) and Zinnias (California Giant). I have Snapdragons to put in that I started in the house. Pictures to come soon.

Stress of working outside the home

2007-04-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

Some days it just doesn't pay to go to work.

It's been an awful Winter for illnesses. No one seems to be exempt. My child is sick again. He's been sick every other week since December. I have burned through all my sick and personal time and I'm using vacation time now. After the cost of daycare I am still making money. We need the money to pay bills. I'm constantly trying to figure out a way to make it cost effective to stay home. The numbers don't add up.

I know that it is most important to take care of my child, but I feel guilt for missing work.

What we really need

2007-03-13T11:49:00.000-07:00

So, I've been thinking about what we really need. For survival we need food, clothing and shelter. I'm guessing that all the other stuff we aquire is supposed to help us get and keep these things.

I've been decluttering. It's a mission to get rid of the things that I don't need. When possible I try to pass on stuff to people who can use it. In the end I just don't want to accumulate more stuff to reclutter my home. That's when it becomes frugal. I always wonder about being a poseur when it come to frugality. I don't buy lots of stuff, at least I don't think I do. I stay out of stores all the time. I look at catalogs and recycle them the same day. I have been known to make silly purchases though. I buy new shoes for my son. I have friends who probably think I am cheap. I'd like to think that is not the case. I don't go out to dinner very often, I can make most stuff at home just as well. Good food is important to me. We don't eat organic, but we eat mostly whole foods. I buy good clothes, but not many of them.

Just so it's clear, my frugality/decluttering kick is pretty recent. There is nothing like bringing a child into the world to change your perceptions about "stuff".

Global climate change

2007-03-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

So, on my friend Sharon's blog (see my links) someone suggested a Peak Oil party. It's like this, instead of having a party to buy stuff (Pampered Chef, Tupperware, etc.) have a party, with wine, where you can trade seeds or clothes or household items that you don't need and drink and eat yummy food. I love this idea.

Peak oil and global climate change are linked and I tend to think of them as one and the same issue. Now if I could just scrape up a few friends to do this with. I've got seeds and probably some household stuff to start.

February 14th and the aftermath

2007-02-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

I turned 41 on February 14th. We had our first snowstorm of the Winter and it was a good one. We had 2 feet of blowing and drifting snow. I stayed home partly because the weather was so awful and partly because my son was sick. He ended up being sick most of the next week too. I'm glad the snowstorm and my birthday are over. Other than the cards I received, and some gifts, I tried to ignore getting older.

I've been letting go of "stuff". It's very freeing. My kitchen if starting to contain only tools that I use. The more I let go of the more I want to get rid of.

The chickens are letting me know that the days are getting longer. Suddenly they are laying lots of eggs. They really did not like January and February.

Global warming

2007-02-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

I finally saw "An Inconvienient Truth". It was good. Really good. It inspired me to get better at my gardening. Work towards staying at home sooner.

The next day I saw "March of the Penguins". It's really sad. You can see how the penguins are so endangered. Just like the polar bears. The two movies go together but not in a good way.

We are in a deep freeze here. Not much snow. Supposedly Spring is coming early this year. So says the groundhog.

Yesterday was Sunday...

2007-01-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

and I kicked ass cleaning and decluttering. I got up at my normal time, showered, dressed, cooked pancakes and cleaned. After I watched CBS Sunday Morning. The boy helped out in his way. He pretends to vacuum. He also took a really long morning nap. That is more helpful than anything. I decluttered my closet, the cedar chest and my dresser. I can't believe how many articles of clothing I was hanging on to for no reason. I can close my dresser drawers easily now. I cleaned off the top of the piano. Things were starting to accumulate. It changed the whole look of the livingroom (to me anyway).

Sunday afternoons

2007-01-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

I'm really wondering what is up with me. The last 2 Sundays I have been sluggish and mopey. It's like I'm 12 again and dreading school on Monday. I hated Sundays as a kid.

Some days I feel the need to DO something. Clean, cook, de-clutter. If things weren't frozen solid I could be making up garden beds. I guess, based on this little exercise, that my problem is cabin fever. I'm between projects and feeling restless. I'm not getting enough exercise.

Next month I'm going to visit my friend Sharon. Hopefully I'll get some inspiration from her. She doesn't get everything done but she seems content to let the little stuff go. She is way busier than I am. Every now and again I need to get reinvigorated and inspired about the things I feel are important (my child, growing food, wasting less, our health).

I usually fizzle

2007-01-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

Every year I start out in January with big plans. I want to expand my fruit production. Last year I had raspberries and they were very successful. This year I want to do blueberries. Plants are expensive but the county will have them for the plant sale.

I try to draw out where things are going to go in the garden. Then a nice day appears in March or April and I plant lettuce and peas. Then I totally forget about my plan. I try and squeeze in one more tomato plant. I plant kale and never eat it or freeze it. The rabbits eat it. I SHOULD plant kale. It's easy to grow. I SHOULD eat kale. It's really good for me.

This year the goal is to not over do. I'll use my space efficiently. I'll do succession planting and I won't expand by more than one bed.

Watch me fizzle!

2007

2007-01-03T06:17:00.000-08:00

I don't make resolutions but, I do start planning for the garden. The seed catalogs are arriving and the vegetables are all sounding so good. The trick is to actually eat what you sow, and keep the rabbits away. I am all about good intentions and eating more vegetables. I really look forward to tomatoes and corn (I buy it, don't grow it). Lettuce and snow peas are the first veggies we have and they are a great treat. I'm liking summer squash more and more.

If the winter stays mild I might even start the landscaping around the house.

We are the proud owners of a paid-for John Deere tractor. Unfortunately it is not a real tractor, it's a garden tractor, but, it's all ours and we do a lot of different stuff with it. We mow the lawn(weekly), the pasture(annually) and the loop around the pasture(quarterly). We haul wood in from the woods. We scrape the horse paddock and push all the manure into a great big compost pile. We move the compost to the garden. The driveway gets plowed. I'm sure there is other stuff we do with it but it's enough to say that it's a pretty useful tool. In a perfect world I would be doing stuff with fewer steps and with horse power. However the tractor only needs a little bit of gas run through it in the winter to keep it in good working order. A horse eats a lot even when not doing anything.

Otto has moved on

2006-11-20T11:21:00.000-08:00

Otto has moved on to a new life on Long Island.

A woman named Donna and her friend Barbara came to visit him on Saturday. On Sunday, Shanna (former owner) drove and I navigated while we trailered him down to the island.

He has a new Quarter Horse girlfriend named Smoochey.

Making progress slowly

2006-11-08T07:40:00.000-08:00

2 weeks to Thanksgiving and I have finally pruned the raspberry bushes. I've got more cleaning to do in the garden.

Sleep issues for my son seem to be done. We've established a routine and an earlier bedtime (8pm). He did have what seemed like a nightmare one morning, but that's to be expected I think.

Otto is for sale. He's just sitting around here eating. He needs something to do. I'll miss him if he goes.

It's cold now.

2006-10-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

It's fun to bundle up and hibernate in the house. By February that will be really old but for now it's fun to snuggle with the baby and plan for the holidays.

We saw snow this week. It wasn't enough to amount to even a dusting but it was flying about in the air. At this time last year we had a snowfall of about 8 inches. It didn't last long. I think that was the most snow we had all winter.

If any old wive's tales are to be believed we are in for a doozy of a winter. There are lots of acorns and mountain ash berries. It was a banner year for blackberries.

It's been awhile.

2006-10-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

A month just blew by me. I've been thinking a lot about what I could be doing. I'm just running out of time. I just got my son sleeping well. To maximise his sleep he should probably go down around 7:00. At 7:00 I've been home for just an hour and I'm cooking dinner and doing other chores. We settle for a bedtime of 9:00. Not ideal but it seems to be working for the time being.

On another note, my friend Sharon is a Peak Oil activist. She has a blog that makes me think that we (meaning my family) are not doing enough to live simply and reduce our footprint on the Earth. I encourage everyone to read what she has to say (it's very thoughtful and well written). www.casaubonsbook.blogspot.com

Cleaning out the garden.

2006-09-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff in the garden is past it's prime. Most of the cucumber plants have expired. The squash is barely holding on. The tomatoes still have a ways to go and the flowers are a little past peak.

So now the work begins. I have to pull the old plants, weed the asparagus and mulch. I love going into Winter with a cleaned out garden. It gives me hope that I can keep up with the weeding come Spring.

It's time to start knitting. I've got to make a bunch of holiday gifts.

I just love Autumn. I feel invigorated and purposeful.

Winter is coming

2006-08-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

I love the change of seasons. It's not even Labor Day yet and it seems like fall already. The temps have been very cool for about 2 weeks. We had rain, wind and mist for 2 days. It really felt like September.

We do lots of winter prep here. The chimney gets cleaned, the old chickens get processed for the freezer, tomatoes get made into sauce and get canned, the garden gets cleaned out, the asparagus gets mulched, the generator gets drained and gets new gas, winter clothes get brought out, the clothesline comes down, the flannel sheets come out, the raspberries get pruned.

A friend asked why we have a generator (or rather, why we have plans for a power outage). The answer is that we can't rely on the power grid to keep us going. My friend never considered the possibility that we may be out of power for any length of time. The fact is that the grid can fail for lots of reasons. In 1991 I lived through an ice storm. I lived in Rochester, NY at the time. I had no power for 12 days. Fortunately it wasn't really cold. I had city water so there was no interruption of service. On our farm we have a well. The well pump needs electricity to get water up from 547 feet. Since the animals need water (we do too, but not as much) we have a generator to make sure we can get along for a short amount of time (couple of weeks?) We also have a wood stove for heat. After Hurricane Katrina especially, we have come to realize that we have to be responsible for our own health and safety, we can't count on "the government" to take care of us.

Lots of flowers...

2006-08-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

and Blackberries.

Casey

2006-08-18T07:19:00.000-07:00

Casey is a 5 year-old border collie. She is an interesting dog. She'll probably never be a real farm dog because she'll never be off leash. Casey is a really good watch dog. She only ever barks for good reason. Even when she sees deer she only whines.

Flowers and vegetables

2006-08-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

The squash are yellow crookneck. The flowers are zinnias and a red sunflower, variety unknown.

We're waiting on some rain. The humidity is supposed to break tonight.

Hot Hot Hot

2006-08-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

It's broiling. Since it is broiling, we got our big hay delivery. The unwritten rule is that you will be doing hay on the hottest day of the year. Hay harvesting requires dry weather. Dry means HOT. We stuffed 320 bales into our barn last night and it over 90 degrees and high humidity. Only today is supposed to be hotter. I am so glad that is over with. It makes me feel rich to have our winter forage in and paid for. It's beautiful hay.

Summer squash and cucmbers

2006-07-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of rain over the weekend. I have summer squash, zuchinni and cucumbers. I split the first squash and zuchinni in half length-wise and grilled them. They were mighty tasty.

I planted golden zuchinni. It's much easier to see on the plant than regular green zuchinni. Pictures to come later.

Voles and rabbits

2006-07-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

Holy cow. I have horrible problems with voles and I think rabbits. The mild winter has us with a population explosion of rabbits. The voles have been steadily getting out of hand.

I think rabbits have decimated my peas and beans. They are also hurting my brussle sprout plants.

The voles have been eating my beets. Last year I lost tons of tomatoes because of voles. They ate the bottoms off all the fruit.

I ordered some Mole-med and got another, similar product. However, it's not supposed to be used around food plants. I guess I need to send it back. My other option is to get an outside cat. I don't really want a cat but we have rodent problems in the barn too. There is a cat hanging around (I hope he's hunting). I've contemplated feeding him. A friend also has a batch of kittens. Perhaps I should invest in some rabies shots and neutering and get some. Unfortunately our road is really busy.

Japanese Beetles

2006-07-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

They have arrived. I knew it was going to be bad. They denuded a few leaves on my grape vines in 1 day. I sprayed pyola (organic pesticide) and now they are gone. I'm finding them everywhere. I think some came into the house on my clean laundry.

I also found a very interested customer for my veggies. Every day I go to the post office for work. I'm afamiliar face to the postal people. I brought samples of my eggs to my regular contacts and the other people asked for them. Today I offered Swiss Chard to one of my new egg customers. She was very excited to get it and she wanted 2 dozen more eggs. There may be something to this networking to sell my products.

Next up: Summer squash, golden Zuchinni and cucumbers.

When all else fails, post pictures

2006-07-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

Flowers last summer

The horses our Willie and Otto. The red building is our chicken palace.

Reading

2006-07-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

I'm reading the Little House books. Many friends that are farming/gardening/homesteading say that they were inspired as children by Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books. I decided to check them out. So far I have read Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie. I'm reading Farmer Boy now. It's about her husband's childhood. I'm liking Farmer Boy a lot. It's all about Northern NY (near where we almost moved to) and farming there. The Wilder family was pretty prosperous. I've noticed with these books that the food is almost a character unto itself. I guess if you spend all your time trying to aquire food, grow food, prepare food, store food, sell food, etc., then eating it becomes more significant. All that work also makes for a huge appetite. I would bet that 5000 calories a day would keep you fighting trim if you were doing the physical labor of farmers in the second half of the 19th century.

Long weekend and holiday

2006-07-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

This past weekend and holiday were a bit productive. We made more progress in the basement, defrosted the freezer made a big trip to the dump and went to a party at the neighbors.

We have really good neighbors. We help each other out. We can borrow and lend tools. They have a son who will be able to baby-sit in a couple of years.

In the news: North Korea attempted to test 3 missiles (2 SCUDS and a long range one). All fell into the Sea of Japan. Ken Lay (from ENRON) died of a heart attack. He was waiting sentencing for fraud and some other stuff.

Decluttering

2006-06-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

I've said before that we are in the process of decluttering and it is going pretty well. I have new shelving up in the basement that is for essential stuff, like canning jars and equipment.

Every time I go into the basement I find new stuff to throw out, give away or sell.

I tend to think that being clutter free, or at least clutter-less, makes me a calmer more energetic human. I'm more likely to go out and weed the garden or sweep the kitchen or do the dishes. Outside (our yard) is pretty clutter free. All the stuff that could be out there is stashed in the basement.

Next we will do our best to not accumulate more "stuff". Every purchase will be well thought out, no matter if it's $1000 widget or a $.25 widget at a garage sale. It's the 25 cent widgets that get you!

Here's a thought, maybe I'll donate my video collection to the library. That way I'll have access to it (a couple of exceptions, Charlie Brown Christmas, Wizard of OZ, Disney's Beauty and the Beast). Hmmm.

Regional Farm and Food Project

2006-06-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.farmandfood.org/

I haven't looked at their website in a while. It looks wonderful.

Lots of work accomplished

2006-06-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

The rain held off this past weekend. I got the carpets cleaned. We made serious progress on cleaning out the basement. The weekend before we had a yard sale and got rid of lots of stuff. We made two trips to the dump Saturday. Then we got some shelving. Lest you think that this has nothing to do with farming, I will say that I couldn't get to my grow light this Spring and ended up buying tomato, pepper and broccoli plants. This is the reason I have no heirloom tomatoes. Now I can get to my light and my work table. I unearthed all the canning jars. I discarded all the suspect ones. Now I'll have all my jars sorted and on the shelf waiting for all those hybrid tomatoes to come in for making sauce (pasta and pizza). Apple sauce, apple butter and apple preserves are also on the agenda. I may try to make apple cinnamon jelly too.

I feel so productive.

We had serious thoughts about moving.

2006-06-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

A job opportunity came up for my husband in Northern NY. Land and taxes are cheap up there. We decided against. Neither of us wanted to move. We like our place. I would regret leaving all that we have built to start all over again.

One of my reasons for staying is that I really want to see how great I can do things here. I really would like to build more garden beds and landscape around the house. This is what it looks like now. Kind of blank and stark. There are apple trees to the left. They aren't growing very fast. I have lots more plans. It'll take a long time to do everything, but it'll be worth it. What few flower gardens I do have are maturing. I had my first peony blooms this year. We have a humming bird stopping by now and the blue bird babies are close to going out on their own.

Another reason for staying is that there is a great market in the area for good food grown locally. The Regional Farm and Food Project is here and they are very good at marketing local produce and sustainable agriculture. I'll post a link when I get a chance.

2006-06-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

last summer's garden with a view of the Catskill's and our horses

What would you buy?

2006-06-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Planning a garden for market sales is all about having that which everyone wants and still having a product that sets you apart from all the other corn and tomato farmers. What would you buy? I'm having fabulous luck with my lettuce and spinach this year. I've managed to beat back the slugs with wood ashes. The flowers are coming (sunflowers, cosmos, zinnnias) but a long way off. The voles have decimated my pea pods. Broccoli is on it's way. Tomatoes look good, but I only have hybrids this year. Peppers look better than they ever have, but that's not saying much. Cucumbers, zuchinni, pumpkins and winter squash look good so far.

I also have wool, in yarn and roving, and eggs.

I guess the wool sets me apart.

What to write about?

2006-06-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. I never thought I would want to share with anyone who wanted to know, but this is a great way to share our progress with family and friends. A website would be just too much.