Cabin fever... ramblings

We have been fending off the cabin fever pretty well so far. I still get out in the morning to handle all my girls feeding watering and picking eggs. The girls however are starting to get a little nutty.

Today we received a postcard from Z's summer Circus Camp and I have my seed catalogues. So we are dreaming of days in the heat and fruits of summer. This year I will be without child for the start and season of my gardening year and am contemplating the idea of sharing my garden with maybe a couple of other families in kind of a CSA project where we all contribute time and funds to the cause. We'll see. At this point I could handle a couple of other families and provide eggs and produce. Maybe even poultry if I am able to grow some babies for harvest. Maple syrup too if I had some help. Oooohhh and maybe some happy turkeys for harvest too... hmmm

I am reading Sharing the Harvest by Elizabeth Henderson. I would like to get together with some other gardeners and do a seed exchange this winter. I have already put an order in for apple trees will produce a few years out. Inventoried my saved seeds and ordered what I want to grow in 2010, mostly heirlooms. Three companies I am using are territorialseeds.com, kitchengardens.com and raintreenursery.com.

Week of Harvest and talking about Autumn

Snacking, Story telling, and sketching

Harvesting our carrots with legs

Sketching in the garden

Covering the harvest we are reading The Giant Carrot by Jan Peck, The Autumn Equinox by Ellen Jackson and Golden Delicious by Anna Egar Smucker.

The weather is starting to get a little cooler and there is work to be done in the yard. We want to soak as much time outside until it is too cold. There are games to play using the imagination. I hear of mermaids and boat rides. Witches and ghosts coming to visit. Lots of playing in the dirt and picking up potatoes and harvesting golden carrots.

From the book the Giant Carrot we built a lesson around the golden nugget. Pulling and harvesting the babes softening the soil to plant new babes. Eating homemade Sunset Salad and making Sweet Carrot pudding with a recipe from the Giant Carrot Book and with our own eggs. Yummm

Make it grow baby!

This morning as I picked blackberries there was a hum in the air of all the bees, many different kinds . It was so loud. hmmm maybe there is a hive back in my blackberries and juniper. We were all working hard together in the morning sun and dew.

I will be harvesting blackberries for weeks
a cabbage patch baby and some blackberries and green beans

Harvesting this week:

5lbs of Blackberries so far

Green Beans

Swiss Chard

Cucumbers

Raspberries

Black Raspberries

Couple of SunGold Biodynamic Cherry Toms

Flowers: Echinacae, Sunflowers Not harvesting

Soon there will be Eggs, corn, melon, tomatoes, onion, delicata squash, gourd, ghost eggplant, and carrots

Oh and the apple tree has some and the Quince tree is covered Then there are all the grapes

I have started seeds for a fall crop of radishes, onions, beetberry, lettuce, chard, peas, chives, parsley. So far I think we have done pretty good for our first year and a slow start. Next year will be fantastic!

Two heads are better than one

100th post!!!


Ahhh some creative juices flowing

So I put the creative mind to work and drew up a plan for my future garden a while back. I read somewhere that I should think big and start small, so that is what I did. I also followed the ideas of Joan Gussow whom I met at her 80th birthday party.

There is no way that I can plant all of these beds for the summer but if I did it would be a miracle. Don't be fooled what you see in this pic is just the beginnings of beds covered by mulch and not yet tilled.




Opportunity:

Once again we have been very lucky to have what we need given, salvaged or loaned to us. Our neighbor has a tractor which Ant took full opportunity of. The neighbor had never even used the hole auger and instead of breaking his back digging the holes for the posts Anthony was lucky enough to drill them out himself.
























Handy with a chainsaw


As you can see in this pic the hubby set the post which were salvaged branches and poles from two great yews we had up against the house (which created nice little chipmunk highways right into our attic). We saved material as much as possible. He built the gate frame from chainsawed poles and mortise and tended the joint. I screwed the deer netting up to the very uneven posts. We ran out of fence half way around. Ugg







Protein and an apple break with the girls.











Men and their Toys!!!




Then we laid out the garden and put all of my big-as-your-thumb blackberries with the raspberries from the Tulip house along the north fence line and said "What next?"



So is it me or do guys just like to play with big toys I couldn't get him off the thing!









Out comes the tractor again!

So while he was drivin his new found love all over the property (to the mulch heap and back) I staked some mason lines and plotted future beds and paths. The hubby bucket unloaded mulch on all the proposed beds. Team work!












End of the day and my love is obviously tired and delirious:

Thankfully the temps hit 70 something today. This time it was the girls asking for a little treat. Popsicles! yum! Daddy got freshly squeezed lemonade. While we sat admiring the new garden he tried to convince me that XXGs was worth the tractor (as if we should get one.) My reply.... "It ain't no sailboat sweetie." If I was to spend XXGs it would be on a nicer sailboat...I love sailing and so does he. Life can't be all work.

Garden Update Here

Seed trays...okay I know its a little late

Handy recycle reuse of the old pizza box (top and bottom) with duct tape corners.

Cut little tracks for the yarn and make a grid for the seeds and labeled the sections.

Gotta love the squirt bottle

Finished and ready to cover with a clear plastic bag.

One Week Later: It worked! Now we just need to grow them to the next step. The garden.

That is always the hardest part for me... getting them to the garden.

We bought the farm...

heheh but we didn't kick the bucket!

Since seeing the waldorf community upstate, I knew where I wanted to be. Biodynamic farming, magical living, culture, good life... It is truely a magical place and the land has a very calming energy to it. So... I cast a "golden net" as my circle girls call it and made a list (literally) of what I wanted for my family. Knowing from experience that if it was meant to be it would happen. This is how I found the love of my life and the home we live in now. Be careful what you ask for...

We went for a little ride up to this area to see friends on my daughters birthday. While waiting to pick up my pal's children from the school, we unexpectedly met a realtor. She offered to take us to see some properties while the girls played and then showed us this very special old house with an amazing amount of property. She didn't know us, didn't know that day she would be showing this house to us but that is where the ball started rolling. We fell in love at first site.

The well jack worked no problem. The kids loved it!

All blackberries and grapes in that overgrown garden. I see tons of gardening in the future, with canning and eating of course. The Hubby sees new toys to fill this shed along with wool producing animal friends. I see a couple of rescue sheep and goats and definitely a chicken tractor happening out there. The neighbor has ducks which frequent the half acre pond at the back of the property with frogs and turtles and probably fish in it.

So maybe we have died and gone to heaven...

Daddy's Hibiscus

Indoor Hibiscus , originally uploaded by lillyzoofelt.

... is grown indoors in the winter. My husband received this last Father's Day and some how has lived despite neglect. The other day the girls discovered this beautiful bloom in there playroom. Maybe this reinforces what Hello Toe signaled for us. Spring will be here soon!

Gardening

July and August


Means great bouquets from my yard full of hydrangea, lemon balm, cat mint, echinachea, blackberries and yarrow, which surprisingly I was able to turn into beautiful arrangements for a couple of friends and family.



It also means that my husbands parent's peaches are ready to be picked and ripe to be soaked in our own homemade 2006 white muscato malvisia wine for a refreshing summer desert... a family favorite.


While my in laws have been away on vacation I have been tending to their garden and harvesting all the cucs, romas, peaches, squash flowers, and the best part... getting as muddy as possible.


Now what to do with all the good stuff until they get back... (Who needs a CSA when you have Fam like this?) Toms have to be washed, cut and frozen. Chicory washed and frozen. Flowers need to be battered and fried (mmm and eaten too), cucs must be mixed with salads eaten up and peaches cleaned and frozen. At my house the raspberries, blackberries and mulberries are ready to be picked daily along with my toms cucs and kale. Got work to do...