Not So Virtual Homestead

Sun - July 20, 2008

Birthday Girl

Although Gi's big 3rd birthday bash isn't till next weekend, we celebrated her official birthday this Saturday with her grandparents. Now she and her sister are off with dad to swim a bit this afternoon. She's been begging to go to the splash park since we were there a few days ago, so that's on the agenda for this week - a late afternoon trip though, since this heat wave is a bit much for the baby...

We had a good, if blisteringly hot, market day and picked up a week's worth of veggies and fruit - this is the time of year when the market is bursting with fruit and I just want to haul it all home in a mad canning frenzy. :) I'm picking up a case of peaches to can from our farmer's market neighbor next week, and we're going to the u-pick blueberry farm this week. We may have missed strawberry season as far as canning goes - though we certainly ate our fair share! - but things are settled enough now that I think I can break out the pressure canner for the season. Not much to harvest this week - we're waiting on the peppers and tomatoes to really boom, which should start next week, but we harvested the last of the spring carrots, more baby beets, our first good cuke harvest, and the last of the spring onions. We planted more winter squash and three kale varieties for fall harvest, though keeping the soil moist and cool enough for germination may be a struggle this week.

On my sewing table this week is a custom harley t-shirt quilt which one of our farmer's market customers ordered. I enjoy doing them (except for the tedium of backing each piece in interfacing!:) and I think I'll start bringing E's t-shirt quilt to market as an example to encourage more custom orders. I'm even thinking about getting us a second tent (we can bring as many tents as we'd like to our market, which is nice) so that I can better display my quilts. We're already overflowing our one canopy, so it will be nice to have the shade for the veggies too. Next endeavor - get myself accepted into some craft shows for the winter/spring and see how my stuff sells there. I know I already missed many of the deadlines, but I'll apply for the ones I can.

Posted at 10:54 AM Read More

Mon - July 14, 2008

Much Needed Rain

The forecast is predicting rain all day, which I'm grateful for. I've actually had to water the newest plantings every night for the past few days, a rarity here. We have mini carrots, winter squash/pumpkins, and another bed of bush beans coming up now. The farmer's market was a bit slow Saturday, but we sold about half the honey we harvested (we ended up pulling off between 30-40 pounds - a really nice harvest for us!) and I'm sure the rest will sell next weekend. I noticed Lucretia and her kids were a little anemic earlier this week, and was worried about them, but after a hefty dose of a different wormer they seem to get perkier every day - I'll follow up with a second dose in two weeks just to make sure we got all the little buggers! I'm also excited because my mom is digging up the asparagus bed at my uncle's new house to bring over here - they were just going to tear it out for their new landscaping - and last time I drove by it looked like a really big, established bed - if I can get ours planted more heavily I'm hoping it will keep it a little easier to manage, since the weeds beat us out there every year right now.

I didn't sell any quilts, but I still have lots of sewing to do this week - a couple of Swap-Bot projects, including a fairy quilt (like a doll quilt but even smaller) and a sock monkey, as well as finishing two alchemy items for Etsy - a watermelon print tablecloth and two zafus. The zafus are just waiting for buckwheat hulls, but we need to drive and pick those up at some point. I'm planning on taking the girls out to run some errands and then hopefully they'll nap so I cna get in some sewing. My MIL gave me her Bernina 1080 the other day, which was a real blessing, and I am slowly figuring out how it works. Still using my mechanical Kenmore for projects, but I'm sure the more I play around the more comfortable I'll get with the new one. I also am going to try to finish a dress she had cut and pinned for Gi, though I may need to go in for open studio time at the quilt shop to figure it out.

Baby crying - I'll check in later....Oh, and Kathy L, let's meet up at the Philly Zoo w/ the kids - what do you say? :)

Posted at 08:15 AM Read More

Sun - July 6, 2008

What We've Been Up To...

After a busy, crazy month of June, we're slowly settling into summer here. School wrapped up, the girls and I went to Cape Cod for a week with my folks, the garden is booming, hens are laying, and baby goats are almost weaned. I've been making and selling quilts like crazy, which is very, very cool. I love being able to bring in a little cash by sitting down at my sewing machine and turning the ideas in my head into fabric. This week's current quilt is a twin size with really bold, graphic green and pink hawaaian prints surrounded by a coordinating brown fabric. We have a farm "intern" for the first time, and it's already proven to be a great help. Honey harvest is Tuesday, and we're hoping to extract two full supers.

For now, pictures :)

Cape Cod with the girls.....

And some completed (and already sold!) sewing....The placemats and madras laptop bag were alchemy bids - one of my new favorite things on etsy. :)

Posted at 09:52 AM Read More

Mon - June 2, 2008

Bringing home the (Veggie) Bacon

Things are going well here, just crazy while we all get used to our new two job, two kid routine - we're drowning in radishes, and the gardens are overflowing with pea flowers. I've started browsing the alchemy site on etsy, and have two projects in the works for customers. When we pulled into the driveway after this past Saturday's farmer's market, there was Lucretia with two cute little kids - a boy and a girl - just what we wanted! The little boy will stay here, be wethered, and join his dad in a new bachelor pad pasture so that we can start milking Lu once the two human kid craziness dies down. We're hoping to sell or trade the little doe for a doe from different bloodlines so that we can keep Guy as our buck for quite a few years.

Only two weeks left and hopefully I'll be back to more regular blogging once school is over. See you on the flip side!

Posted at 07:46 PM Read More

Sun - May 25, 2008

Ah, Sweet Sunshine

It is so nice to finally have a day where we're not weaving in and out of thunderstorms. Yesterday was a great market day - the place was packed, our friends stopped by, and we sold out of pretty much everything. We came home to have a big lunch with E's family who are in from Trinidad, and then met up with friends later that night for a late dinner. Unfortunately, the flounder we had at lunch must have been a bit too close to the clams and oysters in the display case at market - E ended up in the ER at 4 am with a bad reaction (he's allergic to shellfish). It made for a pretty scary night, but he's up and about today, and we'll need to re-think this eating fish thing - or at least get an epi-pen to keep around the house!

My dad and I both mowed a bit today, but then the bees got up in arms about it so I had to stop till later tonight. It may be purely psychological, but I feel so much better when all the edges of the gardens and paths are mowed down - it looks so much more organized! (And you notice the weeds less :) E is out there now planting some more tomato/pepper/eggplant seedlings into polymulch, and I'd like to turn over the last of the scallion bed to cukes tonight so that whole bed is up and running. Also on the to-do list this week, trellising the rest of the peas, weeding the beans, beets and radishes that just came up, potting up mint, looking into organic sprays for our fruit trees and grapes that have started bearing, vaccinating the goats, and lots and lots of kiddo snuggling, as I head back to teaching next Monday! The girls will be fine but oh, I'll miss them. It's only for three weeks and then I'll be back home for the summer, so I'm trying to focus on that and not leaving my babies!

Here's our independence days challenge update:

1. plant something:
another round of cucumbers, some tomato seedlings.

2. harvest something:
eggs, lettuce, baby kale, radishes, scallions, oregano, mint, thyme, rosemary, parsley, garlic chives, siberian iris

3. preserve something:
I planned on starting to chop and freeze the green onions we brought home from market, but with all our company, I ended up using all of them for lunch and dinner. :)

4. prep something:
mowed paths, weeded and kept thinning beets and radishes

5. cook something:
Used our scallions, greens, herbs, and eggs in meals this week.

6. manage your reserves:
kept using up canned goods in the pantry, note to self; can less green beans this year, more tomatoes!

7. work on local food systems:
Sold at market, bought asparagus, fish, strawberries, cider, and baked goods from other local producers.

8. reduce waste (was compost something):
Started using waxed paper bags to pack Georgia's lunch for school, recycled and composted.

9. Learned a skill:
After several years with my sewing machine, realized I was placing the bobbin incorrectly. What an ah-ha moment!

Posted at 06:12 PM Read More

Fri - May 16, 2008

To market, to market

We were thrilled to see this rain will end by tomorrow and the sun will come out in time for the farmer's market. Hopefully the forecasters are right!

Independence days update:

1) Plant Something: I planted about half of our tomatoes yesterday in preparation for the rain, planted the first hills of cucumbers where we harvested scallions last week, and put down more grass seed in the backyard (we're still working on getting a nice lawn back there after (halleluiah!) taking out the pool last fall.

2) Harvest Something: We'll harvest scallions, salad mix, a ton of radishes - cherry belle and d'avignon, and cut siberian irises for market tomorrow, as well as eggs. The new pullets have finally started laying! 2 eggs yesterday, and 2 today, so we're hoping all the girls kick into gear within the week.

4) Store Something: Steadily working through the pantry, and need to cook some of last year's greens from the freezer as the garden fills up with spring greens this year.

5) Prep Something: Landscape fabric is down over about half of the total area I plan to use for tomatoes in polymulch. Vaccines for the goats are all safely tucked away in the fridge, and I need to give them their CDT vaccines tomorrow. E cleaned out the garage too. I finished my favorite quilt yet, with a matching pillow to bring to market tomorrow.

6) Manage Something: Weeded and thinned more beets and radishes.

8) Add to local food system: Prepping for second market as we speak. :)

9) Reduce Waste: Composted everything as usual, recycled all our paper, plastic and glass.

10) Learn Something: I *think* after quite a bit of trial and error I have my quilt binding down the way I would like it. I did a bit of needle felting too.

As for the rest of the week... We did end up getting a new car on Monday, a used Forrester which so far feels really good - so much safer and more reliable then my old vehicle. Learning how to drive it is going faster then expected - I even made it all the way to Pennington, NJ to get some fabric to finish my flutterby quilt, and start my eric carle and cake rock beach seaweed quilts.

I still feel like we're behind out in the gardens, but my MIL is planning on coming out one night a week to watch the girls so E and I can get out there and work on things together, which will help immensely. I keep reminding myself that we are still two weeks earlier then we ever have been in the season, and so we can't expect to have as much ready for sale, especially since the cold and rain have slowed the season down on top of everything else. We'll be harvesting tomorrow morning for market since it's still pouring outside tonight, and I need to get price tags on the quilts I'm bringing. Off to work on a little needlefelted robot before we go and grab some dinner!

Posted at 08:36 PM Read More

Sun - May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day!

First, our independence days progress this past week...

1) Plant Something: We planted the first bush beans, our remaining golden beet seed, another round of radishes (probably the last batch for the spring), and some dragon langerie wax beans. This week I'll cover the needs-improvment part of the newest garden and plant the first tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, and put in cucumber seeds under hot kaps where I harvested scallions.

2) Harvest Something: We harvested salad mix (baby bibb lettuce, dino kale, arugala, and mizuna), cherry belle radishes, and scallions for the first farmer's market, as well as our usual eggs.

4) Store Something: I emptied and cleaned out the pantry, so now know exactly what was lurking in there, and have been steadily working through some older canned goods this week.

5) Prep Something: We moved the pigs to what will be next year's garden expansion, and have been scattering their food all over the area to encourage them to root up the sod. I ordered new kidding supplies from Hoegger's - vaccines we were out of (we do a yearly CDYT vaccine here, as well as giving kids some short acting tetanus preventative before castration and dehorning), and some supplies for the livestock first aid kit. No babies from Lu yet though. We'll clean up the garage this week and take the opportunity to clean out the milking parlor area.

6) Manage Something: Weeded and thinned the beets. Removed last year's polymulch and prepped it for planting. Mowed the rest of the pasture and dreamed about fencing in that whole area and getting sheep instead of pulling out the old ride on mower to maintain it! Someday! :)

8) Add to local food system: Sold at the first market of the season and purchased asparagus, baked goods, and a hanging basket from our "neighbors" at market.

9) Reduce Waste: Composted everything as usual, recycled all our paper, plastic and glass.

10) Learn Something: Talked to North Slope about how to use/cook our green garlic, since they had a bunch for sale this week. Figured out how to make my mitered corners even on my continuous binding for quilts.

It's been a crazy week here - E needed to trade in his truck for a four door, so that he can travel with both girls in their respective car seats, so we sold his car and found him a new-to-us one, only to find that the brake rotors were acting up when we took it out on the highway. The dealer was great though, and had it fixed within days, but still, lots of running around. My car has been faltering for months, E would say years :), and the latest round of mechanical problems were estimated to cost more then we were willing to keep throwing at it...so, TWO new to us cars now! Luckily, our neighbor has wanted to buy my old Jeep for some time so he came over and bought it yesterday. We test drove one I kinda' liked yesterday, and will continue the search on Monday. I know having safe, reliable vehicles is worth it, but oh! way too much wheeling and dealing the past few days.

Our first farmer's market went well - since it was a full three weeks early this year, traffic was a bit slow, but we definitely brought in enough to make it worth our while. Lots of people looked at and asked about my quilts, so hopefully I'll sell one or two to returning customers this month. Now to get those started pullets laying so we have 50 dozen eggs fro NEXT Saturday. C'mon girls!

Posted at 10:12 AM Read More

Fri - May 2, 2008

Cool Challenge

As Tansy said on her blog, it can feel like nothing is getting done when you're farming with little ones around, and she is participating in the Independendence Days challenge to keep track of what DOES get done amid the crazy, joyful everyday of family life. This challenge is from Sharon at Causabon's Book and is all about doing something each day in the name of local food. The mainstay of the challenge comes from Carla Emery's routine of planting something every day till mid summer, and then harvesting/preserving something every day till the end of the harvest season. She suggests updating weekly, so here is our first update!

Planted: So, let's see...from last Friday? I planted the rest of the scallion sets - none will sprout, forgotten in the corner of the barn, this year! I also put in anouther sucession planting of lettuce for salad mix - a purple looseleaf and a nice green oakleaf type. Today I'll plant anouther round of radishes and get one more bed ready to go. We really need to move the pigs ASAP so I can get into that garden bed too.

Harvested: Eggs :) I definitely could harvest some dandelions, just need to remember!

Preserved: Nothing in this area this week.

Storing: We're starting on the second egg fridge and I've been collecting, cleaning and packing eggs for market every day.

Prepped: We are wrapping up our pullet preparations today - E called off of work and is out gathering supplies to finish the second chicken coop for the pastured pullets. Once he has put the fin. We have a new waterer and range feeder, and will put another solar light in the second coop just like we have in the first. My goal is to see equal production between our chickens on pasture and in the barn, or very nearly so.

Managed: I plan on cleaning out the pantry this week, so that we can do another round of use what you have cooking over the next few weeks. :)

Cook Something New: I already make homemade mayo whenever we need it, but since E has been eating a low carb diet lately, I learned how to make hollandaise sauce to put over fish and broccoli.

Work on Local Food Systems: Paperwork was sent out for the farmer's market, and I just received a copy of our liability insurance so that will be sent out today. We need to buy a new cooler and tent, and then we should be good to go for next Saturday!

Compost something: All our scraps went to the pigs, as usual.

Learned a skill: See the hollandaise sauce above :) and I did some free-motion quilting on my latest Etsy quilt.

Posted at 01:08 PM Read More

Thu - April 17, 2008

April Farm Report

- First farmer's market is in less then four weeks - hooray! We should have plenty of eggs from our over-wintered hens for opening day, but hopefully we'll also have our new pullets here and laying by then.

- The usual start up costs are overwhelming this season - feed costs have nearly doubled! - but we'll cross our fingers, lose a little sleep and forge ahead...

- E's first bees came last week, a package from Georgia, brought up the coast by a local guy who owns a pollination service. Mary will have a nuc ready for us in May, and hopefully we'll be able to catch a swarm or two as well this season. E already had to put a honey super on our strong hive - it's looking good for our spring harvest! He went out this afternoon and opened the new hive for the first time - the queen was released, accepted, and has started laying eggs.
* the difference between a package and a nuc of bees is that a package is a few pounds of bees and a queen that they haven't "met" yet - they slowly release her from her cage, and in that time you hope they come to accept her. A nuc is a few pounds of bees and a queen, as well as a few frames of eggs and developing bee babies - you don't have to worry about the workers rejecting the queen and the hive gets established more quickly. .

- I haven't mentioned it here - didn't want to jinx ourselves! - but I think pig move number 2 can be officially declared a success. Roko and Lola have settled in nicely to their pasture digs, so now we have to see how they take to being moved to a new section of the garden in a week or two. We've been bribing them into a large dog crate with food and moving them that way, so until they get too big, we will probably stick with that method.

- Scallions, peas, carrots, beets, mizuna, mesclun, arugala, and dino kale are all up and running. I stripped one of last year's tomato beds of landscape fabric tonight, so will turn that and plant it with more spring crops tomorrow. I'm anxious to get summer crops in, but we'll probably plant those as the spring veggies are harvested, since the scallions and radishes will be up and out very soon. Only one bed of peas is trellised, so that's another chore for the to-do list.

- I'm debating getting into mushroom production this year...still thinking it over.

Posted at 03:19 PM Read More

Wed - April 16, 2008

Here we go...

The Etsy shop is up and running - wish me luck!

Posted at 08:28 PM Read More

Sun - April 13, 2008

Spring is here!

I spent some time weeding and putting in a few rows of french breakfast radishes and more scallions underneath threatening skies today... the beets, peas, carrots, and greens are all up and growing, as this constant rain has been great for germination, if not for getting more actually planted. We were able to make one last egg delivery to the Bent Spoon, and now the egg fridges are filling up in preparation for our first market day. We have lots more planting to do, as well as tracking down a new tent, and getting our paperwork back to the market committee.

I think it will be a good year! This time last year, half our seeds had washed away in the flooding we had, and most of our potatoes were rotting in the ground from all the standing water. We didn't plant potatoes yet this year, but there's still time - priority has been going to crops that will be ready by the middle of May. Warm weather crops will go into the beds as the earliest crops are pulled, and we'll probably plant our potatoes then. I noticed a bunch of garlic we must not have harvested growing up out of the cloves that were left in the ground...I wonder if we'll get some garlic bulbs out of the deal? All of them may just set seed, but it's worth leaving them there to see what happens. Even Lucretia is getting bigger by the day, so she may have gotten pregnant this year after all - we were pretty sure Guy didn't hit puberty in time this season... Baby goats after all! We're actually hoping for one buckling, which we'll castrate and keep as Guy's buddy. That way he can move to a new, separate pasture and we can start milking Lu for our own use. (In our experience, milk from a doe who is anywhere near a buck is .... ewwww.... - it gives goat milk a bad nam.e!) I'll miss having him right by the driveway though - he's certainly always happy to see us!

I've beens sewing, as usual. I just finished an all linen baby quilt in a modern geometric design, and these are two of my latest swaps...

The best thing about this whole swap-bot thing is the way it makes me try new techniques - for this pincushion swap I used some printable fabric that I usually use for quilt labels and used my sewing machine to do some decorative stitching in combination with a note-card to create a needle-book.

Posted at 05:56 PM Read More

Wed - April 2, 2008

Up and running

I wish the title above was in reference to the market gardens, but we're still waiting for those first seeds to sprout out there...but actually our computers were down. E bought and installed a new router tonight and voila - we're live again. So, news.

Baby C finally had a growth spurt and passed her birth weight, so we're good to go on that front - a relief, especially not having to go for our weekly weigh-ins at the doctor's office. My dad is home and recovering pretty well, slogging through the massive antibiotic doses of his H. pylori treatment, and he and Gi are spending the day together tomorrow. Planting is coming along, though E and I both are anxious to get everything in the ground NOW. Our replacement pullets are coming in two weeks, so E is starting to pull together the hoop house, get the batteries charged for the electro-net, and gather supplies to build a second hoop house. We will be housing about 50 hens per pasture/hoop house combo this year, and will see how that goes. We had some issues with productivity compared to the birds we kept in the barn and attached yard last year, but we'll try the solar lights we started late last year and keep our fingers crossed. The fruit trees are pruned, but the asparagus and rhubarb beds need to be cleaned out before everything starts sprouting up and the grape vines need to be attached to new arbors. The to-do list is always a mile long around here....

While the girls sleep I've been sewing (quilts for the etsy shop we'll be stocking soon) and making projects for swap-bot....

Posted at 11:10 PM Read More

Thu - March 27, 2008

D.O.N.E.

And just in time, as I'm itching to start on a new quilt, or two, or three.... A few posts back, I wrote about how I only had a few little loose bits and pieces to fix after washing my last quilt...this time around - success! Generous quarter inch seam allowances and actually giving up on using miniscule bits of fabric paid off! There are a few times I stitched through the whole quilt when finishing off the binding, most likely due to sewing while too tired or while herding a toddler, and a few pinkish spots where the batik scraps I used turned out not to be pre-washed and bled into the res of the block they were in, but all in all, it held up perfectly through a thorough wash and dry cycle. Hooray!

Out in the garden we've hit a 2 kid stride of getting one bed turned over and planted each night while the other person wrangles the girls. Monday: beets, 1/2 bulls blood and 1/2 touchstone gold. Tuesday: Snow peas, dwarf gray sugar. Wednesday: Scallions, white and red sets. If it doesn't rain tonight, the next bed is Shell peas, Caseolode. And watering....I haven't watered anything in, since rain has been forecast all week. Still to go into that side of the garden, radishes, carrots, and mesclun: mixed leaf lettuce, arugula, dino kale, and mizuna.

Posted at 06:04 AM Read More

Mon - March 24, 2008

Time to Dig!

I received an unexpected e-mail today that the farmer's market will be starting the 10th of May - much earlier then expected, and much appreciated during my unpaid :) maternity leave. That means the peas can go in as of today, along with the beets and carrots (I'll try getting a bed of each done tonight - not being too ambitious, as my dad may be finally! discharged and the weather is unseasonably cold today) We'll wait till the 1st to put in the radishes and mesclun, as those are two crops I hate to let get even a day past their prime.

This also means it's time to rent the industrial tiller from down the road and till up the other existing beds so I can plant a ton of potatoes and get my brassicas started. The pigs are still in the back kennel after one failed move (we've learned they're still too small to be deterred much by a few strands of electro-tape), but we're going to put the elctro-net up and try again this week - even if I can't use them to turn over the old beds, they'll be a big help in getting some new beds ready for later in the season - there will always be more tomato seedlings needing homes, as well as more winter squash varieties to try .

Posted at 11:56 AM Read More

Sat - March 22, 2008

Rainy Days, Sunny Days

Life has been a bit of a roller coaster here lately, my dad's been in the hospital with a bleeding ulcer (no fun, but we're all grateful now that we know his collapse wasn't due to something less treatable and more serious like a heart attack....) He's gotten a few blood transfusions and is getting his strength back, but I think at least part of our Easter will be spent in his hospital room - he's not ready to come home yet. The wee baby, while she's thriving in all other ways, seems to have the metabolism of a hummingbird, and hasn't returned to her birth weight yet (she'll be 4 weeks old on Wednesday). This week we're mixing organic formula with some pumped milk after every nursing session in an effort to boost her calorie and fat intake and see if that helps - she has her next weigh in Monday. She took to the bottle without any problems, but there have been lots of warm baths and belly rubs since the poor kiddo now has a tendency to get all blocked up from the formula.

In between taking care of the girls and visits to the hospital there has been SOME time for creativity and farm work though. C's quilt top is almost done - I keep adding border after border so that it will fit nicely in the existing quilt hanger already up on the wall in the nursery! Early this am, Gi and I made an egg wreath for A's house since she's hosting Easter for her fam tomorrow, and yesterday A and Alex came over and we made all the ice cream cakes for her train birthday cake. It needs to be decorated, which I'll do before the party later this morning over at their house. I made a big frittata last night, which we'll serve with cold cuts for Alex's birthday party lunch as well.

I joined swap-bot this week after seeing it on several sewing blogs and just put together my first "newbie" swap package. The whole concept definitely speaks to my long, love affair with pen pals and the post office and as an added bonus pushes me in new directions with my craft and sewing projects - should be fun! I also joined etsy (as a browser only :) and have been scoping things out since I'll be listing my quilts there, as well as our beeswax and a few other farm items, as I make up merchandise for the farmer's market.

Posted at 06:42 AM Read More

Done!

A Great Day for an Egg Hunt

Small Indulgences

Redwork Table Runner & Gi's "Big Girl" Quilt