Destruction Zone

Because before construction can begin, destruction must precede. One of the big projects that we have been putting off for far too long is building a shop. We either don't have enough time or enough money. This year money was put up from taxes and was not allowed to be touched in expectation for the summer when Brad and Keegan are out of school. Other big projects we plan to achieve this summer are replacing the floors where we have had water damage in the past, sealing the roof, and fixing the vehicles (both my poor old car and the SUV Brad's parents are being nice enough to let us use once it is running).

We are putting the shop/shed/building in the back just inside the treeline. We have gardens and fruit trees/bushes covering every other spot remotely close to the electric box and apparently the wire to run electricity to the building is very expensive, so close is good. Brad borrowed a chainsaw and spent the day earlier this week cutting down trees in a place where only scraggly weedy trees stood. Only one big healthy tree was downed, and it was a pine that was a danger to the roof anyway. He also took down huge rotten oak that was falling apart and shading the pecan tree we discovered on the property a few weeks ago. While brad cut branches off Keegan stacked the brush to be burned in place.

The big logs were cut in 6 foot lengths so I can use them to replace rotten logs in my small above ground garden this fall. The smaller ones are going to border my herb garden and flower beds. Yesterday while I was stealing some time between rain storms (which have been nearly constant lately) I was cutting and placing some of the smaller logs in the flower beds yesterday. In my infinite wisdom, I was doing it in flop flops. One day I will learn. I managed to drag a log in such a way that I popped the nail completely off of my big toe. After screaming at air for a few minutes I quietly came inside and tended to it since Liam was napping. Now that I don't tear up just thinking about it I find it quite amusing to gross Keegan out with it.

It is supposed to rain for the next week. Thankfully it isn't as bad as it has been other places. I am praying for all those poor people in Texas that are dealing with severe floods right now. Hopefully we will get some work done outside soon. Now off to find some old shirts or something to rip up so that I can tie tomatoes whenever I get a rain-free few minutes to slip off to the garden. So glad I have above ground beds that shed excess water.

Happy Tuesday

Yesterday evening it was supposed to rain. A definite change from the hot, sunny, beautiful (and very dry) weather we have been having. No better time to plant tomatoes! The little tomato plants were starting to get really tall and leggy. Just the way I like them. Any taller and they would start falling over and then get sickly.

Brad took Liam with him to pick Keegan up from school, since he was desperate for a nap and just wouldn't throw in the towel. A car ride is the perfect remedy. As soon as they left I headed outside to plant. Over thee hours later about 100 tomato plants had found their new home. As usual, I pinched the leaves off the sides and buried them in a trench up to their top set of leaves. They look tiny now just barely poking above the hay mulch. Because any part of the stem buried underground will root, the tomatoes do so much better during the super hot summers when planted that way. I finished as the wind was beginning to blow and the sky looked ominously dark. I worried that the storm might actually be too rough and damage the little plants, but I watered them anyway because I know how my luck typically works. By that time Liam needed his mommy so Brad handed him to me and we picked our first mess of green beans just in time for the rain to start falling. It rained... sprinkled, for maybe 5 minutes. And the 100% chance of rain today? Not a cloud in the sky. Oh well.

Since I emptied all of those containers out of the greenhouse, what better to do than fill it back up? I replanted all of the containers with acorn squash, butternut squash, jarrahdale pumpkins, Connecticut field pumpkins, Australian Butter Squash (also a pumpkin), and watermelons. The section that they will go in the pigs need to till and I am having a really difficult time nailing down a time to go get them. I know that I am saving money on feed, and I can't complain when I am being gifted 3 pigs, but I really want my pigs! I need to train them to the electric and let them till the garden before it is too late to plant corn, squash, and melons. It is already, arguably,  too late. Brad says that I should just stop stressing and it will all happen in good time. He is probably right. In the meantime, Keegan and I set up the hog ring on Mother's Day so everything is ready when we finally get the green light to pick up the piglets.

While on the subject of new farm babies, I set turkey eggs in the incubator a little over a week ago. They should be hatching (if all goes well) on the 31st. There are a baker's dozen. I only want perhaps 4 to go in the freezer. Toddlers and free ranging turkeys don't go well together, so I am getting out of turkeys for a while. I will keep yellow and tabby, but all others are destined for the freezer. I may gift any "extras" to the lady I am getting the pigs from if she would like them.

In other baby news, Liam is getting huge! He is army crawling at the speed of light and in to EVERYTHING! I can't believe how big he is getting. He is getting to the stage where nothing is safe. He crawls, climbs (yes he climbs right up the back of the couch!), cruises around on the furniture. He has to touch everything he sets his little yes on and each thing he see he makes the sweetest little "hmmm?" like he is so curious about it. I love this age!

MmMmMmMm Green Beans right off the vine!

May Already?!

 I can't believe it! This year is going by so quickly. Busy days tend to fly by. Brad is finishing up his finals and all of Keegan's end of the school year stuff has begun. We really enjoyed is spring concert last week and tonight is the band banquet. It should be fun. Hopefully Liam agrees. I don't want to leave him with anyone so he goes everywhere with us. He is usually very well mannered when out and about, but band functions can be quite long. Many things are happening around the homestead as well. One of our peach trees is covered in peaches! Despite the other tree blooming first, it has no peaches. Not sure why?

 The green beans have reached the top of the arch! I saw a couple of ladybugs hanging out on the leaves. Sadly, I also saw some aphids. I guess where you have one...

 We will have beans soon!

 Keegan turned my herb garden plot and amended it with as much compost as we had left after the big garden got most of it. I need to find some more because this soil is terrible. I will be planting herbs soon!

 The tomatoes are doing wonderfully! I want to keep them in the greenhouse for a bit longer. They are much easier to keep up with and water properly when they are all in one little area. A few of the last seeding of peppers in those large center pots are starting to come up. Hopefully the rest will soon follow.

 The zucchini is looking marvelous.

 Elliot looks pretty good herself.

 The above ground portion of the big garden is done and ready to be planted! Two rows of tomato trellises are already up, everything is amended with compost, and the mulch is down. Keegan was nice enough to stand in the row to show size. He is about 6ft tall and standing in the center of the row. Once the tomatoes fill in we will barely be able to walk down this row (if all goes well). The other half of the garden will house the pigs in a few weeks. They will till the soil and fertilize it, then corn, pumpkins, and melons will be planted. I may start some of them int he greenhouse soon.

 My sweet little monster man is checking out the garden too.

The blueberries are insane!

And the flower beds are still intact. Apparently the pine cones are doing their job. Who knew? I will be using this concept for many things now.

The piglets are weaned and ready to be picked up. The people we are getting them from have been working off of the farm but will hopefully be back to let us pick them up in the next couple days. Lots to do. Life is good.

Seedling Fail

Since it rained heavily last night and this afternoon I mostly worked in the greenhouse today. As it turns out, that is where I needed to focus my attention anyway. I failed to pay attention to the fact that the ground the greenhouse is standing on isn't flat. It didn't seem like a big deal. Failure on my part. Water pooled in the dips, which happened to be where my flats of peppers were sitting. The poor little seedlings couldn't take overabundance of water. Very few germinated at all and the ones that did aren't looking too hot. That paired with the fact that I think there is some kind of plant eating insect in there topping the smallest seedlings. Shelves really need to be figured out for the next round of seedlings to keep them off of the ground and allow them to drain properly. Probably in the fall.

I replanted all of the peppers. Mostly, I scattered seeds in large pots rather than planting in the flats again. We'll see if it works better. We use so many peppers that if they don't turn out it will hurt us. The tomatoes are doing well at least. I transplanted quite a few that were seeded too heavily. I'm afraid to put the number of each type in writing for fear that they will be smited for being too sure of myself.

To make room in the higher spots on the greenhouse floor I cleared a bunch of stuff out. I planted the pomegranate trees in larger pots and placed them and the "Hawaiian Lei"  tree on the back porch. All of the "Clearance rack" flowers and ornamental plants went into flower beds. Finally. And I repotted the herbs to hold them over until I can get the herb garden turned over.

I spoke to the lady I am getting piglets from. She said they are weaned and ready to go! I plan to get them this coming week. The pig waterer, feeder, and hog ring need to be prepared. I expect issues with the waterer. There always are. Waterers are evil.

Allergies are also evil. We are all suffering from seasonal allergies. Liam included. He is snotty and wheezy. Not sleeping. Neither are the rest of us as a result. The poor guy has also been dealing with another, more serious allergy. His ear infection was being treated with penicillin, which he apparently is allergic too, like his big brother. He broke out in polka dots. Luckily, I was paranoid about it after Keegan having such a bad reaction when he was little, so as soon as I saw spots I stopped giving it to him and called the doctor. The reaction wasn't very severe. I caught it ridiculously early. His ears aren't better yet, though. I think they are playing a role in the lack of sleep too. We go back to the doctor on Friday. I think I will probably take him sooner if he doesn't act like he is feeling better soon. Even sick, he is such a happy baby. And smart! He learned to crawl and sit on his butt from his belly this week. Walking while holding onto furniture, pulling up by himself, and crawling. Things are about to get real.

Foiled Again

My plans for yesterday were to try to get as much done in the big garden as possible before it starts raining tonight since Brad was home to keep the baby while I worked. That was until my mother in-law showed up with a new wading pool for Liam, filled with plants! She is cleaning out her flower beds to make room for rose bushes and asked if I wanted the flowers she pulled out. Of course! There is no way I can pass up free plants. She is a plant-addict like I am and she has amassed a beautiful collection of flowers. I didn't expect them yesterday though. I suppose that beggars can't be choosers.

So my day was spent planting flowers before they withered up. Of course, I really have no idea what it was that I planted. Most of them she said were lilies. I have no idea what kind. There were a lot of what appeared to be gladiolus and then a bunch of monkey grass. I hope I got everything planted in places that they will be happy. I mostly just tucked them in where every I could find space in my flower beds, a lot of which are pretty shady. That sounds easier than it is since the soil here is rock hard and compacts immediately when water is added. My vegetable garden beds have had a massive amount of work done to them to prevent this, but the flower beds don't usually get the same kind of love. Not enough time or resources. We will see how they do.

While I was finishing up planting the last of the plants, completely exhausted, itchy from mosquitoes, and rushing because Brad couldn't finish his homework while on baby duty, I was watching the chickens scratching around my newly planted beds and thinking about how lucky they were that I couldn't shoot lightening bolts from my eyes right at that moment. Red the rooster ran by to have his way with a hen, getting a pine cone stuck on his toe in the process. He hopped around trying to pull it off his toe with his beak and avoiding the area that was sprinkled with cones from the towering pine trees above and I had an epiphany. The chickens always seem to avoid pine cone strewn areas. They are prickly and unpleasant. Perhaps if I put them places I don't want them scratching they will avoid those places too! So I did. It is just an experiment, but as of this afternoon all of the mulch, plants, and pine cones are still in place. That. Never. Happens... Ever. Anything I plant seems to be the most amazing thing in the world and the chickens just MUST eat it, scratch it up, and destroy it. Immediately. If this works I will be on the hunt for loads of pine cones in the future. Good thing I live in south Mississippi.

We've Made Garden Progress!

Like, actual, honest to goodness progress in the big garden! It rained for a week straight, and I have 4 (now 3) days before another week of rain so yesterday I decided to buckle down and get it done. The problem is, once I cut the weeds the soil will erode unless mulched. But before the mulch goes down compost has to be added. So it has to be all done at once before any rain or not done at all. It was a family affair. Brad and Liam spent the day inside. It was the longest continual period of time I have gotten to work on stuff outside since Liam has been born. Daddy fed him, and changed him, and even got him to sleep! I just popped in to nurse him a few times and snuck back out. It was amazing!

While Liam and Daddy were inside, Keegan and I were outside. In true teenage fashion, Keegan was forced, kicking and screaming... ok fine. Not actually kicking and screaming, but grumbling, and groaning, and whining, and telling me how mean I am for not letting him play video games and watch tv inside on one of only two days off he gets a week. It didn't last too long though. It seems to be a detox withdraw kind of thing when teenagers are extracted from their lair and placed in bright sun away from all manner of bright flashy mind controlling electronics. Luckily he had a "replacement patch" of sorts in the form of his ipod which he used to text his friends at every available moment. Usually having a shovel propped against him as he waved his fingers around on the screen, appearing to be casting some sort of spell on it. How do they type so fast with no keys?! I feel so old. I still refuse to get rid of my flip phone. I would really never accomplish anything if I could carry the internet around with me in my pocket!

Anyway, we finally got some stuff done. After the grumbling is over, I love working outside with Keegan. It is nice to be able to have decent conversations with him and laugh. He is a funny guy. Always making jokes and laughing. My favorite comedian and one of my very favorite people to spend the day with.

Before and after pictures make me happy too. Nothing makes me feel like I have accomplished more than when I have photographic evidence for comparison purposes. Unfortunately, I never remember to take the before picture until after I have started working. Just imagine all of the beds looking like the really grassy one on the left.

 

 Keegan shoveling the remainder of the dirt out of the paths that I had just hoe'd (is that a verb?) loose. All of the mulch and a lot of the dirt from the beds get scratched into the paths during the winter by interloping chickens looking for overwintering bugs.

 "You better not be taking a picture of me to put on your blog!"... ummm. No? Maybe? I was dead at the time!

Lots of weed eating, hoeing, shoveling, 12 gorilla carts of compost, countless armfuls of hay, and a gazillion ant bites later we have 2 completed and 2 partially completed garden rows. The two in the middle are going to be tomato rows. The trellis in the row to the right needs to be moved over and another one added. The old tomato row will host peppers this year. Still more work to get done in the next few days but this is definitely a good dent in it.

 Preparing the garden instills a strange kind of exhilaration and joy in my heart because I know it is truly that time of year again. Time to garden. To see my hard work and effort in physical form. To nurture and grow plants that in turn will nurture us and help us to grow. It is hard to describe and I feel a bit silly just seeing it written down. I guess you have to be one of the few that feel the same way to understand. It really is a kind of passion.

Baby Food

One of my favorite parts of having a baby to play with is feeding him. Yes, it is like I am a little girl with my own little baby doll. The cutest, most snuggly baby doll ever! His big brother being the exception... although he isn't quite as snuggly anymore. But he is still cute! Even 15 years ago (wow...), before I knew anything about processed food, pesticides, yada, yada, yada, I still felt guilty feeding Keegan that watery, nasty looking jarred baby food. I tasted everything before I gave it to him and only things I could handle eating made it to his little tummy. Even then, none of it was what I would call appetizing. I decided before even conceiving that not only would this little one be breast fed and cloth diapered, but I would be making his food too. He still gets a jar of food now and then. Primarily pears and applesauce.

Today Liam and I made carrots! I didn't manage to get carrots planted last fall so these are organic from the store. He helped by chewing on this carrot while I peeled and sliced the rest and got them ready to steam. I love that I can make it thicker and with more texture, you know, more like actual food instead of being so watery that it drips off the spoon on the way to his mouth.

My mom got Liam the best Christmas present! These little freezer trays are amazing! They freeze everything in little cubes. It takes 4-5 cubes for a serving, but it makes reheating it much easier than if they were in one big hunk of ice. It is also fun to combine cubes. Liam's favorite combos at the moment are 2 green bean + 3 butternut squash and 2 strawberry + 3 banana + oatmeal. I also cook with minimal ingredients and low salt/sugar so I can puree what we eat for him. He has been enjoying the turkey soup from scratch I made for us to help kick that cold we have had. He had that and a bowl of sweets and beets (sweet potatoes, beets, and onions baked until caramelized. Yum) that only he and I enjoy. Not all of his food is premade and pureed. We share a bowl of fresh avocado dip or yogurt most every morning. But this helps me make sure he gets a good variety of healthy food on a regular schedule. I'm not always good at making meals at specific times and sometimes I'm busy or exhausted and make fast easy stuff that isn't always so healthy. Yes... guilty. But Liam doesn't feel the effects. Yet. At the moment his freezer stores include, bananas, strawberries, butternut squash, green beans, sweets and beets, turkey soup, pear juice, sweet potatoes, and now carrots. Liam says YUM! Joker style.