State of the Family

Sat - March 14, 2009

Spring Clean-Up and a Birthday Girl

We've officially declared it spring around here - or at least the ground isn't going to freeze again season. The garage is cleaned out and the water is on, which makes it a much shorter trip with the hose to fill the waterer in the barn and the goats' pail. Val went into heat a few weeks ago, so it looks like Guy will be the daddy after all - we'll keep a wether and sell any does I guess.

Today Gi and I did some needle felting (I had brought all of my wool to craft night last night but opted for reading all of Avery's great craft magazines instead :) She made some beads for a button necklace she's currently sporting and I made a new plain wool pincushion since I gave my last one away. Then the girls and I cleaned up the front garden - the crocus are blooming and everything else is on its way up. I'm trying to be aggressive to take out any weeds and crabgrass that pop up - last year we hired help to take back that space and I'd like to maintain control. We put in a bunch more perennials since there was just so much bare ground there, and I'll move more in this year too. Perennial gardens are fine with me, low maintenance and pretty, and I'm not a fan of fussy flower gardens - it's already enough work keeping the market gardens going.

My first craft show of the season was a bit of a bust - what's normally a huge show had the lowest attendance I'd ever seen, but etsy is still chugging along. I lost the will to sew for a few weeks but I can't stay away from the sewing machine long - I found some great hand embroidered strawberry curtains at the antique store and cut them up tonight to make into a baby quilt. Carolina turned 1, and is running around the house like a maniac - definitely more of a mover and shaker then Georgia ever was. I can't blame her though - she has a big sister and two dogs to keep up with!

Once we get the chicken houses fixed up we'll till the first spring garden - I'd like to get the potatoes in over the next week or two, maybe the peas as well. The mesclun, radishes, and beets can wait a few weeks. Maybe plant a bed of kale too soon. We never ordered seeds - we don't need too many - but I need to get some more kale and mesclun, peas and radishes too. The busy season will be upon us soon - I'm treasuring these last few days of slow winter nights by the woodstove.

Posted at 08:24 PM Read More

Fri - October 17, 2008

Finally bought a new keyboard!

Posting just about anywhere has been very light since we figured not many people would want to deal with reading things written without benefitofaspacebarorpunctuation.

We're done with the farmer's market, and are still a bit weirded out at the sight of a barn with only a dozen chickens pecking around, but that will be remedied soon enough as we have 200 chicks arrive on November 12th. Tomorrow we are headed out to MBFarview Farn, where we've been before to buy chickens, this time to buy a new goat (or two). We're fed up with the whole pure bred/show genetics and all the associated problems we've had, so we're mixing up our goat gene pool with some Nubian/Oberhasli does. They are bred to an Ober buck, so our herd will eventually be dropping 50%Togg/12.5%Nubian/37.5% Ober kids. :) We're hoping it leads to a vigorous herd of healthy, rather self-sufficient milkers (and some surprising looking offspring!).

In the meantime, Gi turned the corner and now (mostly) loves school, and Carolina has turned into a world class crawler with 1.5 teeth and a ton of motivation to start walking sooner then later.

I spent the week before our first craft show sewing into the wee hours of the night and we had a good time - I didn't sell as much as I had hoped, but as E reminded me, selling three "big" things (a medium size quilt, extra large pillow, and a scarf) is just as good as selling a ton of little knick knacks, money wise. Since this was an unjuried fall festival, I think I'll have better results at my next one, which is purely a craft show. A lot of people just came out to this last one to eat, hang out on the beach, and listen to the bands. Sales aside, it was great to see that everyone loved my work, and the scarves were a huge hit. I need to pick up a mirror at the salvage store this weekend, since everyone was trying them on in the shop window. Two out of my three sales were with credit cards, and it worked out fine (I'm using Propay) so it definitely paid off to have that capability. I was definitely burnt out on sewing, and haven't so much as touched my machine this week, but I'm starting to get my groove back. I have a mermaid quilt I want to finish, and am going to make some more scarves, coasters, and a few table runners for the next show (several people asked if I made table runners at this last show).

I'll be back with pics of our newest goat soon :)

Posted at 05:11 PM Read More

Sun - September 21, 2008

Monthly Report

It may truly only be a monthly report for a while, but once the farm goes to bed for the winter we *should* have more free time. *grin* So here we go....

Family: The girls are doing ok at preschool, thought Georgia is throwing fits of epic proportions from the minute she wakes up to the second they tear her off of us at the door. We're going to add an extra day, so that she goes M/W/F in the hopes that less of a break in between school days gets her over this phase (she loves it there and has fun once we leave, but oh! what a way to start every Monday and Friday morning for poor E). The baby is everyone's fave, as usual - amazing how a happy cute baby who likes to sleep wins over hearts and minds. :) We've been bringing the whole family along to the farmer's market, which is frantic but fun - it's nice to have the extra time with both girls now that I am away from them so much of the week. Gi is doing well with the potty, but still wages epic battles over wearing anything below the waist - we're hoping the cold weather helps us with this one, since even she has to start getting cold soon!

Farm: Still selling chickens, goat kids still for sale. We've been making steady progress on our flock reduction, but think we probably still have two or so weeks, at least, of the farmer's market left (we'll stop once we have less then 25 dozen eggs a week). I'm not sure if we'll have to sell any birds to the livestock dealer - but I'm hoping if we get to that point we have very, very few birds left. We haven't placed our chick order yet, only because Ideal hasn't posted availability for the beginning of November, which is when we'd like to get our replacement pullets started. We DO have three chicks running around, thanks to a renegade hen who must have stashed her eggs in the front garden. I always saw her out by the front steps, but with the possums and raccoons out there I didn't think she'd manage to hatch out a clutch. They all have the feathered legs of their daddy, a white guy we took in as a favor to the animal control officer down the street. They are black, yellow, and brown though, so who knows that genetics he has going on. Georgia is thrilled. Here's hoping they aren't all roosters! We harvested our second round of honey Friday night, and I canned our grapes into tons of jam, though I need to re-process all of them - they were so ripe I guess I needed more pectin. I also need to can the tomatoes that are filling up all the freezers soon.

Craft: I have three craft fairs booked so far, two juried and one not, and am all set up to accept credit cards. My first show is October 11th, and I'm very excited! I'm planning on finishing a set of quilted place mats (I've been working on lots of smaller, lower priced pieces like place mats, coasters, and scarves) today, as well as basting together a large square bento box quilt so that I can get that quilted and bound a little bit here and there throughout the week. Hillary finally came our with her doll pattern as a pdf and I can't wait to start working the dolls for Gi, Alexandra, and Molly. Need to finish up some sale pieces first though.

Posted at 08:48 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

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

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

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

Wed - February 20, 2008

The Countdown...

6 days left... still seems sort of surreal to have such a scheduled kiddo, but I can't wait to meet the little one. Recovering from surgery won't be a vacation, but oh! it will be so nice to be able to eat and sleep and not vomit daily again! I've been trying to slow down during this week or so of maternity leave - spent the day with A in Princeton and Gi hung out with her grandpa. I've been quilting like a mad woman, and will have Gi's new quilt ready to go in a day or two. Next up maybe a tiny, tiny comforter for her dollhouse bed and crib.

Speaking of all things dollhouse, a trip to PBK today turned up the perfect non-scary baby doll, little sister, and dog which will hopefully curb my dollhouse outfitting spree. Gi loves my old dollhouse and definitely plays with it more then I ever did, and I have been having a great time scrounging up toddler friendly dollhouse furniture (mostly plan toys and ryan's room stuff on e-bay and from the local hippie toy store) and a non-scary dollhouse family, though I think they may have outgrown their space now with two adults, four kids, and a dog. The casualty rate is quite high in their little world due to our resident, very jealous golden retriever, so it's probably good that we have a few extra dolls! Already two kids and one baby have met their untimely end in his jaws.

I've been updating blogs left and right, not that there is anything to show for it. I seem to have figured out what the problem IS with my project page and fellow creature pages, but now we need to find a way to fix it. Off to rest before Gi and E get home...I can sometimes take a cat-nap or too to make up for the very, very few hours I manage to sleep at night between the nausea, sciatica, and heartburn.

Posted at 03:12 PM Read More

Sat - February 2, 2008

Slow Saturday

Gi and I spent most of today dozing and hanging out in the family room - I started the day off with a fasting glucose tolerance test (my kidneys have been spilling some sugar as of late, so it was a double check that gestational diabetes isn't the issue.) That whole bouncing blood sugar/blood loss threw me off for quite a while, but I'm starting to feel normal again. We're going to go to the diner later, to fulfill Georgia's wish for pancakes and milkshakes. Only three weeks till the new kid "shows up" around here, so we need to wash some gender-neutral baby clothes and get the new crib in that room. The kiddo will be using our co-sleeper for the first year, just like Gi, but if Gi or the dogs get too curious during #2's naps, it'll be nice to have the crib already set up.

I'll finish my stacked coins quilt top tonight, and do some creative re-arranging of my remaining quilt batting - I ....think....I have enough that this quilt shouldn't require any new material, but I also still need to account for the backing. We shall see. Now that I've got the energy to quilt again (most nights) I was thrilled to see that it's quilt-along month over at Sew Mama Sew, and am going to follow along with that while I quilt my current project - I think I'll make all three versions of the nine patch in some feminine colors for this week's block. I think the stacked coin quilt may be full size, we'll see how far out I can get with the blue cotton I have left. At the very least it'll probably fit a twin bed nicely.

If I can get together the energy over the next few weeks, I'd like to get all the tax stuff in order so E can bring everything to our accountant even if I'm out of commission. I was planning on waiting to do seed orders till we finished those, but it probably makes sense to just send in the darn things already. G'night all.

Posted at 07:17 PM Read More

Mon - January 21, 2008

Nesting

According to Georgia, this is how she pretends to take a bath (she takes off her shoes, socks, and pants before getting in the drawer but insists the shirt is an integral part of the whole game).

I'm enjoying the long weekend, though E is laid up with a back "thing" and I wish he felt better. I'm sending him over to the urgent care center this afternoon - at the very least they can give him some more effective pain medication while he rests up. Gi and I are hanging out and once she goes down for a nap I'll see what's going on in my sewing room. I have lots of projects in mind, and even more ideas from the copy of "Last Minute Patchwork Gifts " I finally bought the other night. I had been eying it because of the wee wonderful's elephant toy pattern, and when I saw the color wheel quilt I took the leap and bought my own copy. Lesson plans need to be done today as well, and it's driving me crazy having a whole garage-full of ikea boxes and no one to build and haul them into the house for me. :)

We went to the one in Philly yesterday after a trip to the Mutter Museum , which was a pretty amazing collection. I walked around the whole place, fascinated in my zoologist/science teacher way but all three of my companions were waiting in the lobby, green in the gills, by the time I was done. At Ikea we picked up another large expedite bookcase to see if we can consolidate the books in the library on the same wall as E's turntables and records, which are in a 2 by 8 square expedit we picked up last year when he was looking for a decent, affordable shelf for his albums. A and I have both been talking about getting the girls little poang chairs since our last trip, so this time around I bought a matching kid and adult size chair for Gi's room, since we'll probably move the glider into the nursery.

A few emergency "big sister" gifts were also picked up to stash in the closet to help deal with the toddler drama that we know will ensue when a certain someone comes home in a few weeks. "Only" one month left we meet the new kid!

Posted at 11:15 AM Read More

Fri - January 4, 2008

Sunny skies

It's been frigid here, but the sun has been shining every day, so I'm not complaining. While we were on break from school one of the swordtails had some babies so most were eaten by their tank-mates, but hopefully the balloon molly will wait a day or two to have hers so I can scoop most of them up on Monday. We're using a little net fry tank that hangs inside the larger tank - so far, so good. I have grand plans to put away Christmas this weekend and I'm hoping Georgia doesn't get too upset - at her age she probably figures the tree and decorations are permanent fixtures. She's been busy palying non-stop with her "new" toys, especially my old dollhouse we brought up from the basement. The furniture has undergone some survival of the fittest action, and now she has a few rooms of furniture that can stand up to her toddler ways. I'm still on the lookout for a nice sturdy wooden bathroom set and "mama's bedroom" set.

E and friends have been playing lots of Wii sports, and today we rented the surgery game, which is pretty cool so far. My mom and I went through most of Gi's old clothes today and managed to pare it down to four bins, one 0-12 months, one 18-2T, one 3T, and one 4T and up. There are still a few bags downstairs, but the bulk of the sorting is done. E and my dad worked on cleaning up the garage and barn, since it's been too frigid and windy to get out there the past few weeks. I need to move out my canning supplies to some shelves E cleaned off this week, and tomorrow he'll put a final coat of paint on Gi's new dollhouse bookcase. I've always loved the one at pottery barn kids, and was able to find an unfinished wood one at the craft store right before the holiday much, much cheaper then the pbk price. She needs more room for her ever-growing book collection, and then I can put her small bookcase in the baby's room with "baby" books on it that she doesn't read anymore.

I finished our rough seed/planting list for next year and we definitely over-ordered! last spring, so we'll be using up a bunch of that seed and over-sowing to account for any loss in germination. We'll still be buying tons of root crop seeds, especially radishes: cherry belle and french breakfast or d'artignon and a load of onion sets and seed potatoes. Right now I think we'll order from Johnny's and/or Seed Saver's Exchange - both have decent bulk prices and plenty of organic seed options.

Off to relax a bit more before bed - tomorrow I'll be spending most of the day finalizing my forensic science final, as well as coming up with a study guide and answer key. All in a day's work....

Posted at 07:37 PM Read More

Tue - December 18, 2007

Christmas is Upon Us

Thanks for everyone's well wishes, Rips is off her medication and much more like herself these days, though it'll take a while for all that fur to grow back. She's hogging the bed and started stealing food again, so she must be feeling better!

The house is decorated, almost all the gifts are ready (though not wrapped :) and Gi and I made homemade marshmallows and hot cocoa mix on Saturday to give out to the neighbors. I still would like to use a ton of mini loaf pans my aunt passed onto us, but I'm not sure what I want to put in them... I think last year I did mini-loaves of brownies, but maybe I'll make biscotti instead - those would be nice with hot cocoa.

Sorry I don't have more to report, just trying to keep things steady around here and get Gi and E healthy in time for Christmas Eve - they're both feeling under the weather.

Posted at 05:47 PM Read More

Sun - December 2, 2007

First Snow of the Season

The first snow started falling here after midnight, and it's been slow and steady since. The roads are still warm enough that the snow isn't sticking, so hopefully that will continue. I don't mind cold, snow, or ice - as long as I don't have to drive in it!

On the farm, things are settling in. E sold a truckload of chickens to the butcher yesterday, and we're still selling chooks live from the farm every few days. He'll bring the rest of the old hens down this week and then we'll move all our young girls out to pasture for a few days and he can clean and air out the barn before winter settles in for good. The two baby pigs I got E for his birthday are growing like weeds, and Roko (E ended up named him after an All Blacks player, Rokothoko or something) doesn't even seem to have noticed that he was castrated a few days ago, though I think his stitches are itchy. I like this "new" livestock vet we used - they were easy to work with and affordable. We'll bring Lucretia there for an US when Guy the buck seems to have hit adulthood - he's still quite the little boy, tagging along after her all day long, but definitely not with romance in mind.

I'm going to make christmas cookies every few days and freeze them uncooked so I can just do a baking marathon the first few days of winter break - that'll also spread out the dish-washing. Rugelach, gingerbread, mini loaf pans of double chocolate brownies.... still deciding what else. We're going to set up our christmas tree today when Gi gets up from her nap and E finally gets up after a VERY long night of partying with his friends after a wedding. I think once she goes down I'll try to get my lesson plans out of the way so they're not hanging over my head this evening... maybe we can even start rounding up our christmas gifts later tonight. I'll update this post with pics once E is awake enough to bring me the camera.

Posted at 10:31 AM Read More

Mon - August 27, 2007

August

- the picture above was the first in what was to be a little photographic farm tour after the rains stopped, but after discovering one of the Togg kids died I didn't think it would make a very uplifting entry. Luckily, her sister is pulling through much better (they both were knocked down by a nasty, nasty GI "thing" during our week of rain.)

- Other farm deaths, these in the "how are they not extinct?!" variety - the chickens had plenty of food, E fills the gravity feeder with the EXACT SAME FOOD, they bum rush the feeder, and five minutes later two pullets have smothered to death in the pile-up. This is why we always start the season with many more chickens then we need! In better chook news, we put a solar light out in one pastured pen, and it is definitely boosting egg production. Hopefully we can iron out the rest of the kinks and get all our birds out on pasture next year, using the barn as a brooder house during the summer.

- We had quite the busy Sunday yesterday...while getting ready for meeting, we got a call about a nearby swarm. Unlike a lot of the calls we get, this was a easily accessible swarm of actual honeybees, and E was thrilled to bring them home. He has them in a nuc and will open it up so they can start foraging tonight. It's a small swarm, at a bad time of year to be swarming, so we'll feed them through the fall and maybe into the winter so they make it till next spring when they can hold their own. Then we were off to move some furniture for E's mom, and then home to get ready for North Slope's 2nd annual tomato fight. It was fun. :)

- We're taking off this week's market, to take a much needed break before school starts, but that means these next few days are a whirlwind of canning, freezing, and dehydrating all the produce we aren't bringing to market. The dehydrator is filled with tomatoes as we speak, and I plan to can some crushed tomatoes, red salsa, and maybe some salsa verde with the green zebras.

- Mike and Colleen held quite the party last night - Nomad pizza served pizza all night covered in just-picked veggies, we all brought desserts and drinks, and everyone jumped into the pool after a epic rotten tomato fight. Here are some pics...E was a competitor, but Gi and I stayed in the safe zone!

- My new sewing area is coming along, but while I work on that I'm putting together Hillary's new hand sewing critters - very fun, and I can work on them in the car (I get car sick if I even read a map, much less a book, and love that I can sew in the car!) Here's Mr. Turtle...