Spring wonderings and update on Resolutions

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!

Independence day update

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

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.

It's May

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.

Seeds ordered and the competence project

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.

I'm a really bad blogger.

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!

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.

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 been too long

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.