High Mill Happenings

raise. shop. eat?

2012-01-16T09:13:00.001-08:00

I like when winter slows me down enough that I can catch up on the world around me. Sometimes during the growing season, my hands are in the dirt, eyes are to the ground, and I'm tripping over a million things to do. It's good to refocus and figure out what's going on in the broad view of the world so I can remember why I put so much work into what I do.

Here are a few of my focuses right now:

Meat - To Raise or Not To Raise
The question haunts me after the dizzying whirlwind of getting the animals to the butcher and matching orders up with how much meat I end up with in the end and getting schedules all coordinated and making sure that my cost doesn't outweigh the price but that my price is still inkeeping with market prices, which are artificially deflated and don't match the actual cost. Will I do this again? Winter is the perfect time to work through this.
Here's what I know: I don't eat that much meat. When I do eat meat, I eat chicken. I failed miserably at raising chickens last year. I didn't eat any of them, except the one I found at the bottom of my freezer that wasn't marked, but I think it was a chicken? I finally got my chicken plucker. It works wonderfully, if I can actually get chickens to that size. Chicken feed prices went up as did baby chicken prices. Chicken mortality rates also went up. I need to charge more than $10 / whole chicken, but grocery stores sell rotisserie chickens for $5. That kinda grosses me out a bit. So I'm probably not going to raise meat chickens this year.
I love to eat my pork. Pigs scare me though. One bad pig really can ruin the whole bunch and Jason and I both are still terrified of pigs, including that cute pig on the Geiko commercials. Babe is now ahorror movie. But out of everything that was in my freezer, I enjoyed my pork the most and I miss it the most. So I'm not going to rule out pigs, I might just throw the offer for pork out there and see how many people want it and we'll go from there.
My beef is amazing. I had beef ribs slow roasted to the most meatie bliss I've ever experienced. My ground beef makes the perfect hamburgers, not too greasy but with a delicious flavor that just says 'I'm grass fed!' I'm quite proud of my beef. I also learned a very valuable lesson after picking up my beef sides from the processor - cows aren't as big as you think they are. I now know why farmer's price their beef based on hanging weight. Appropriately noted and now pressing on. I have 10 calves on pasture now. They won't be ready this year, but maybe the year after that. I'm working on getting some steers to put on pasture this year that will be ready in the fall. Mmm, beef.
I will raise lambs again. I don't eat lamb that often, but there is something inherently therapeutic about raising sheep and for that reason, I'll continue to do it. I'm excited for lambing season this year and I'm passing the tie making wool pillows... but that's another thought entirely.
Turkeys are for sure. Delicious. Easy... except when they decide to roam across Fulton Drive. But worth it.

So that's my plan for meats as of right now. I also should put in an order for more egg laying chickens and put my old hens in the soup pot... but I'm kinda a sentimental farmer, so I'll probably only go through with the first half of that statement.

What to buy - When did grocery shopping get so difficult?
I have a new routine when I go grocery shopping. I pick up a food and read it. Constantly. I no longer just grab whatever is on my shopping list. I pick up everything and look at it.
I'm not a proponent of eating pesticides. If it's meant to kill an insect or fungus, I don't really want to eat it. The US does have testing to make sure that our chemical pesticides aren't too terrible and yes, they do degrade over time or can be washed off. Organic pesticides aren't always the best option either as a neurotoxin made from a plant is still a neurotoxin. In general though, I purchase domestic grown foods as often as possible.
Health and safety issues arising in trade are not always easily resolved at either the domestic or international levels. Domestic regulations that prohibit the sale of, for example, a toxic pesticide, do not apply internationally. “Goods that are restricted in domestic markets, on the grounds that they present a danger to human, animal or plant life or health, or to the environment, may often be legally exported. This may cause a problem for the importing country, where information is lacking on whether and why the product is banned: exporters may make false declarations, customs authorities (particularly in developing countries) may lack adequate product testing facilities.” from http://www.eoearth.org/article/Trade_and_the_environment
I also am amazed at concentrated juice in the frozen food aisle. Look at them some time - contains juice from at least three contries. Wow. Our food web is so oddly interconnected.

I try not to purchase processed foods. I'm not sure how I feel about 'chemically separated' or 'modified' anything. And I'm alright with eating lard over crisco. http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/lard-the-new-health-food It feels like a whole animal fat is way better than

The more I look into food additives, the less I really want those oreos. I am even having trouble finding a soup base that doesn't have MSG or some chemically modified something. http://www.rense.com/general84/foods.htm and bouillon cubes no longer appeal to me.

Cooking Soup
So right now I've got a pork bone in the stew pot with the onions I've been saving from last growing season and some dried beans. I know the ingredients so far: pork bone, dried beans, onions, bay leaf, garlic, salt & pepper. I guess I'm not going to get those short cuts of bouillon cubes anymore, but the from scratch smell that's emanating from my kitchen is satisfaction enough and will keep me and my family fed for quite a few days.
I'm finishing off my delicious beans and broth by adding frozen spinach towards the end of the boil and then sauteing up more onions along with a ham steak cut into spoon sized cubes along with some french filet cut frozen green beans saute'ed in butter. Non-homogenized, of course. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_er_Pkf7Fdk&feature=related

It smells more like spring.

2011-11-15T08:41:00.000-08:00

The creek is high again.
This year has washed away the sides of the creek bank more than any other year. The rains come all at once and I'm happy to have the dam upstream hold up against this torrent of water. Our little bridge by the chicken house that's been there since I was about 6 has eroded away from below. The high waters came up and chipped away at the earth around it until there was just a crust on top that turned into a sinkhole when my dog stepped on it. I'm surprised I didn't lose her! She also has noticed that places in the creek she used to be able to walk across are now a swimming endeavor.
I'm on my second cup of tea, my fourteenth tissue, and still in my pajama pants debating where this day is going to go. My dad has the fedco tree catalog and keeps milling about thinking over the descriptions of the trees both with interest and incredulous disbelief. They actually tout the amazing properties of the locust tree! They describe how to turn acorns edible, and they sell unsexed ginkgo trees for city plantings. Ha! Nothing like some stinky fruit to give your city a very interesting nickname. I guess it could be a conversation piece.
I am contemplating ordering more kiwi vines. We've been planting them for the past few years with no fruit yet. I guess that's how my cranberries are too. And the blueberries, plum trees, cherry tree, aronia bush, serviceberries, gooseberries, and baby apple trees i've been nestling all over this little spot of ground i have. The pear tree that marks the grave of my sister's late great cat produced this year (the Jasper pear, as we'll call it) and the peach trees tried to produce baby peaches which were delicious, albeit rather tiny. Our strawberry patch went crazy this year. A week ago, my sister was back in there breaking up garlic bulbs and planting them among the mat of junebearing and the sporadic everbearing that still have little flowers and tiny fruit coming on.

Bronchitis has slowed me down a bit today and I'm back to curling up and watching the cooking channel, planning winter soups and trying to use up all the winter squash that I've squirreled away. Jason made winter squash enchiladas, which were amazing. He boiled the winter squash until tender then cubed it along with some summer squash, carrots, and made a sauce with garlic, cilantro and onions and some chili spices and butter. He mixed that all together and stuffed a soft shell tortilla. He topped it with sauteed garlic, onions, butter, and rooster sauce put in the blender and baked it. A little sour cream on top and I really didn't miss the meat at all! It was slightly sweet but still spicy and completely delicious!!!!

Now my task for the day is to figure out a winter vegetable storage plan. I have my root cellar (aka a corner of my basemet) cleared out and now I've just got to figure out the best way to store the surplus of winter squash that I've collected along with some apples, onions, beets, and other random veggies.
I know that apples must be stored completely separate because they give off something that accelerates the rotting of other fruits and veggies, which is why they shouldn't be placed in a functional fruit bowl.

So now is a good time to share a tip that I've learned about storing fruits and veggies - there are two requirements to consider when cellaring fruits and veggies ::: temperature and humidity. Think of the difference between moist loving veggies like turnips or cabbage vs onions and winter squash. Your turnips would turn into dry little shrivels if they were stored dry and your cabbage would split without high humidity. Meanwhile, your onions would get that annoying mold under the skin at high humidity and your winter squash would get squishy.
So here's a list from Root Cellaring that gives a basic outline of what fruits and veggies should be stored at.
Cold & Very Moist:
Carrots, beets, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, celery, chinese cabbage, cereriac, salsify, scorzonera, winter radishes, kohlrabi, leeks, collards, broccoli (short term), brussel sprouts (short term), horseradish, sunchokes

Cool and Moist: potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower (short term) apples, grapes (yeah right, not for very long), citrus, pears, endive, cucumbers, sweet peppers (45-55) cantalope, melons, eggplant, ripe tomato

Cool and Dry: garlic, onions, green podded soybeans

Moderately warm and dry: dry hot peppers, pumpkins, winter squash, sweet potatoes, green tomatoes

So now I've got to get my winter squash out of the basement and into the living room by the fire and my potatoes are going to the basement and I'm suddenly really hungry for brussel sprouts and apple pie. I'm going to put the goats in the garden to try to mow down the weeds that have all gone to seed as I shake my head and hope that next year works out better as I shovel dirt into the holes in the eroded bridge while enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. I love the smell of mud, but I fear my brain is getting tricked into skipping winter entirely and thinking it's spring already. I know my lilac is tricked into leafing out already. Oops. I'm sure we'll see the snow fly by next week and all will be back to normal... well, as normal as Ohio weather ever is.

sick slipping into fall

2011-09-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

Oh man. I feel funny.

I think I need to find a really good book to dive into. I think I've been running for so long that the cool air that hit me this morning really knocked me back and hit me really hard. The wet rain is lingering on the leaves a little longer and the dark cool nights are creeping in. I have that twinge of -where did the time go- feeling in the back of my mind. I'm not ready for winter.

I think these feelings are compounded by the knot in my throat. I think I'm getting sick. And when my head gets cold with these cool nights, I have more bad dreams. It's too early to start sleeping with a hat on!

Anyway, I had a wonderful time down in North Carolina. I like learning and having someone so amazingly knowledgeable and fun to follow around, I really feel rejuvenated and excited about making wine from start to finish.
I like working constantly, eating really good food, chatting with other wine people, and meeting some great new friends too.
My mentor down there is terminally ill. It makes me really try to capture and freeze every minute that I can. I'm super happy to have met him, but also painfully sad at the same time. I came back with this feeling of -wow, what a great trip- mixed with a twinge of regret for not staying longer, not helping more. I'm already planning my next trip.

So in this Ohio chill, I'm looking at my ewes this year and quite excited for next years lambs already. I can't wait to get a good ram! Oh crap, I should probably email that lady back and confirm that I'd love to get one of her excellent ram lambs.
I'm very excited about this year's rugs and lamb chops. Anyone know about tanning? I guess I'd better learn soon.

cathartic cleaning

2011-07-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

It's a little late for spring cleaning. But that's what I feel like doing now. Cleaning. Donating clothes and stuff I've accumulated over the years with that "maybe I'll use this one day" mentality. If I haven't used it, it's going. One garbage bag full of donations already.

It always amazes me how much can collect in one house. I only use 1/10th of it in a year. Old art supplies, movies I watched and hated, records with no record player....

I think I'll feel better once I get rid of most of my stuff. Kinda like how happy I was without a backseat to collect junk when I moved from a car to a truck. No backseat equals no carrying around 10 extra shirts and 5 extra pairs of shoes and boots where I would lose one of them (I swear my dog hides all my left shoes so I can't leave her) or other books and magazines I collected with the lofty dream of having enough time to one day having a minute to sit down and actually read them.

Each donations bag is cathartic. I like the question -what do I need? Like trimming the fat off a pork chop. Not that I live an extravagant lifestyle or am tied to a lot of things. Just thinking about spring cleaning.

Also cleaning out the barn of the sheep that don't obey the fence. Anyone want lamb, just let me know.

I think my eyeballs are sweating

2011-07-12T17:02:00.000-07:00

Oh July, you are cruel sometimes.
I know it's only been a few weeks of 90 degree heat, but I'm already considering moving more up north. I'm not sure where, just a little more north. Somewhere colder. Somewhere cloudier.
I guess I should just remind myself that this is sweet corn, tomato, and melon growing weather. I'm pretty sure my eyeballs are sweating though.

I'm at an odd spot in the gardens. The early crops have kicked off and now I'm just waiting for the "45 days" the backs of the seed packets promised me for the next wave of harvest. Come on little veggies. You can do it! Grow grow grow!

I think the heat might have taken the wind out of my sails, or I'm just a bit exhausted, but my brain is in slow motion now. I'm just going to call it a heat haze. My dog is asleep, my sheep are being baaaad, my goats are constantly complaining, and as soon as I get out of the water, I want to jump back in and go swimming again.

This is the point in the season, middle of planting, where I just need to re-focus and get back on track. Concentrate. I still need to plant shelling beans, second round of lettuce, kale, beets, broccoli, kohlrabi, onions, get all the rest of the tomatoes in the ground and peppers and herbs... and here's where I lose focus again. It must be the heat. Concentrate, janeé.
Ah, concentrate. Good thinking. I'm finishing up my last round of meat birds and probably going to stop doing them. I need to focus and I can't charge people what it actually costs to raise them... especially with my losses to predators this year. Dang dog found out she's rather sleep inside than guard the birds, and I can't blame her for that. So no more meat birds.
I also lost an insane amount of baby turkeys this year. I hope to have just enough for my returning orders and my family, but it's been a rough year. Boo raccoons.
I have to admit though, I loved the burgers I just cooked up from my beef. The roasts are amazing and I think that might be the one meat that I'm going to keep on the menu. I'm still toying with the idea of pigs, but not this year. Chickens are too much work. Turkeys think dying is a sport. Sheep are a pain to fence. But man, grass fed beef is delicious.
My sister took some down to my aunt, who bought the biggest hand made buns from the bakery ever. So my sister, not knowing the fat content of my beef, made massive pattys... but the actual fat content was so low that they didn't shrink at all, but were massive, medium well, and delicious. I just had Monday night taco night and holy cow, that was good.

So, CSA, beef, and maybe turkeys. And maybe a new -not so lazy- dog. Sorry Pepper. You're retiring at the ripe old age of.... 3?

Oh, and CSA members, I'm starting to post the newsletter and recipe on the CSA blog if you happen to miss it or if it rains to the point of non-readability. Email recipe ideas or anything that you'd like to plant for this year still. There's still time, I've just got to get out there and keep planting!

beautiful Tuesday

2011-06-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Alright. I'm doing deep breathing and meditation this morning (oddly enough, combined with lots of coffee) in order to prepare myself for the daunting, daring, and dangerous task of....... raspberry picking.
I should keep a bee keeping suit around just for the raspberry season. I put on flip flops and I don't think that's going to cut it unless I really want to take my chances at the new poison ivy remedy pills I just got as I trounce around in the woods.

Ok, some Regina Spektor on the radio is increasing my meditation for CSA pickup week 2. Feels oddly like the hymns I grew up with, piano in the back and a nice vocal melody on top. I'm ready for anything today.

So I've been weighing out and looking up glyphosate, the chemical that kills weeds in products such as Roundup. I see people spraying their driveways with this stuff, which makes me kinda giggle because I can't bring myself to care that much about a perfect driveway. If that energy was only spent growing potatoes instead of spraying their gravel... but anyway, back to glyphosate.
Europe is having their bouts of love and hate with this chemical. They've banned imports of Roundup Ready genetically modified corn and soybeans from the US. We're in love with genetically modifying things to take the weed killer Roundup because it does make commodity growing easier. The rest of the world isn't as sold on it as we are.
Here's a nice fact sheet which seems to give the pros and cons of glyphosate. And I like that they put in that bit about the endangered toads. I love toads.
http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/Actives/glyphosa.htm
I have a feeling there's going to be quite a few heated battles behind closed doors about this product. It's less toxic than weed killers in the past, but it's like -well, drinking bleach isn't that bad, we used to drink battery acid back in the day, bleach is waaaay better-. And it's odd that trees in hedgerows are dying on the edges of Roundup fields. Makes you wonder what's really happening to the microbial community that we can't see but rely so heavily upon.

The wind is picking up. It seems like excellent weather to lay out in the grass and stare up at the sky... well, after checking the grass for sheep poop.
I'm picking up my beef on Wednesday and splitting it Wed. night for the 8 families 1 cow program. I can't wait. I love making burgers with cream cheese or chevre worked into the patties with some fresh herbs. It's like a cheeseburger with cheese in the burger. Gormet right there. Heh.

Ok, berry picking time!

2011-06-21T10:12:00.001-07:00

Csa pickup tonight 6-8pm or Friday 8-10am! Wohoo. Let's get started

diapers

2011-06-13T08:10:00.001-07:00

Holy Frack! How can this be legal???

I'm continually amazed at the amount and scope of chemicals that we interact with in everyday life without anyone being worried about the consequences.

Anyway, my new niece is due in a week. She's not doing well. She's tiny and the doctors are worried. I can't even imagine how nervous I would be in my brother's situation. There's nothing the doctors can do except hope for the best now.

symbiosis - mushrooms and beef

2011-06-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

While walking through my yard this morning among bottomless pens housing rabbits, I found the cutest little mushrooms springing up everywhere. There's a path from the rabbit cages - the farthest is super green lush grass that's got new growth on it and the next square is eaten down to nubs and is just starting to green up and the next square is just rabbit pellets and eaten down to nothing and then the next square is the rabbit cages.
What if instead of using Scott's Weed n' Perfect Yr Lawn chemicals, we used bottomless pens housing rabbits. The pellets seem to work wonders for the grass, and these little mushrooms make me feel good about restoring the symbiotic nature of... um, nature. I like to think about the bacteria and fungal life forms that I cannot see. I like to think about the network of earthworms below the surface that are working to aerate the soil and the microbes breaking down the earthworm poop and the mushrooms that feed on the freshly fertile soil.
I like to think about the soil web while I pay my bills online using this odd man made internet which of course humans first used for only spreading the most carnal images, but of course it's ascended into a higher calling of social media and congressmen sending "joke pics" to college girls. We may be smart, but we're still oddly simple minded sometimes.
I also got some garden oyster mushrooms for putting in my tomato beds this year. Double your crop with the mushrooms breaking down mulch into nutrients for the tomatoes and bonus - this is one fertilizer that you can eat too! Starting trials this week to see what these mushrooms like. I love mushrooms.

Anyway, the farmers across the street were running three tractors with all their lights on to plant corn last night. It looked like aliens took over and were running lines up and down this barren wasteland searching for something.
I drove past it on my way to escape the craziness and stress that weight heavy on me right now on my way up to Akron just to sit on a porch in "the city" thinking about life if I live in "the city" instead of in the country. I drove and thought about a cold beer and good conversation and just sitting without thinking of all the lists that I have to do. I had Nick Cave playing, which is both agitating and soothing at the same time, and I could almost taste the cold beer and fresh city air.
About the time I drove into downtown, I got a call that the cops were at my house trying to keep my little hoodlums from causing mayhem... aka, my sheep were out and standing in the middle of the road. Crap. Turn around, half hour drive back to the country, past the 3 tractors driving in circles, back to mend the jailbreak with the help of bright headlights while the sheep all look at me like -what did we do?
I know I love them, but man did I contemplate reaching for the 22 and making lamb burgers.....

Speaking of burgers, the beef is at the butcher now. If you still want to buy in to 8 families: 1 cow program, there's still spots left. Email me!
I'm really excited to see how an actual beef animal will do after being pasture raised. I like reading what other people are doing with feeding animals grass (novel idea) but I really want to taste it, not just read what other people think.
I am new at this, which probably is a good thing because I'm looking at the whole idea with fresh eyes. So far, the holstein is winning the taste test (cow A for you last year meat share members) but it doesn't yield that much meat. The marbling was great though and it was tender as can be.
I went to a seminar on grass feeding beef cattle this winter and this beef cow was at the perfect age according to this grass fed rancher in Southern Ohio for maximum yield and tenderness. I'm happy because the only thing left in my freezer is a goat leg and a couple hams from 2 years ago which I'm saving for I don't know what occasion. While I'm at the butcher, I might just see if she can get a couple bad lambs on her schedule too. That might make the rest of them stay in line a little better.

CSA starts in only a few weeks. Grow little cucumbers! Grow!

100% Pasture Raised Angus Beef, coming right up!

2011-05-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

8 families: 1 cow begins!

I am the luckiest girl in the world right now. My boss has a 100% pasture raised Black Angus cow for me that's ready in a month! Wohoo!!!! Just in time for burgers on the grill. My freezer was getting super low on beef and I'm really happy to pick back up with some amazing grass fed beef again.

So we now have beef shares available.

8 families: 1 cow is our way of splitting up the whole beef into manageable portions that will fit into regular sized freezers and give you access to some locally grown, lean, pasture raised beef. The beef will be ready in a month and I'll bring it back here to the park and split it up equally between 8 shares. Each beef share will have a representative sample of the whole cow including some roasts, stew meat, burgers, soup bones, and steaks.

Shares are reserved when payment is received and spots do fill up fast. I'm not sure when I'm going to have another beef ready so let me know if you want in.

What the heck and I doing behing a computer on this beautiful day. I've got to get out and get planting! We're so far behind. What a totally weird spring, but CSA members --- prepare for a super bountiful fruit harvest this year. The plums actually made it and the apples and pears didn't get nipped with that frost either. Wow. I've got gooseberry plants to get in the ground now and potatoes and beans and cucumbers and tomato plants and and and......

Hope everyone is having a wonderful spring. I'm dancing around thinking about sunshine and fresh beef and a very happy growing season this year. Wohoo!

love the dandelions

2011-05-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

So it's been a lazy Sunday after a very enjoyable, but busy Saturday. I uncovered the carrots to see how many sprouted, kicked a couple chickens out of the greenhouse as they love laying eggs in there all the sudden, and went back to bed after waking up at 6am to put the sheep in out of the rain. It's raining again.... What a crazy spring where not much is in the ground yet. And I just looked at the calendar and it's MAY 1st!!!!!!

Whoa. Goodbye April showers, right. Right?

I had a fun time at the plant sale yesterday. I really enjoy my customers and I continually am amazed at the variety of really cool people around here that come out. I guess I just forget that sometimes as I'm either staring at sheep with Jason or in my own little world at the vineyard with the only human interaction being at the grocery store with people buying mass quantities of tv dinners standing under fluorescent lights. Feels really detached to me so it's nice to see people coming out and trying to grow their own food and get back into contact with the dirt. Kudos, Massillon.... & Canton & Akron too.

Anyway, I've got a nice list of flowers for the Mother's day plant sale next Saturday. I'm drinking some nice herbal tea with local honey in it right now and contemplating trying some buckwheat recipes. I have some mushrooms sprouting from a maple log in the orchard that are really enjoying this weather. Everything else is a bit tired of it though.
I don't mind it. It's spring time in Ohio. The dandelions are up and are beautiful as always. Everything is starting to grow, the apple blossoms are bursting, and I think I can finally say winter is over, I hope.

I'm grabbing my digger and planting up some sweet peas and calendula now and seeing what the sheep are up to. Tshirt weather!

plum blooms.

2011-04-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

This has got to be one of the latest that the plums have bloomed in years. It's the end of April already. They usually burst the first warm weekend in March and then get frosted or I try to cover them with sheets or put heaters under them only for them to get frosted anyway. So we might have a plum harvest this year. These are the Japanese plums with the light delicate flavor... which of course makes them marginally hardy. The hardy American prune plums bloom much later, but I don't think are as quite deliciously sweet.

And lambing season is now officially done. Every ewe had a successful lamb this year. Wohoo! 100% A plus ladies! And they are all healthy and growing like weeds. Which of course means either selling them now or putting up more fencing. 14 lambs total this year!!!!

I'm sketching out my new meat share plan called 8 families, 1 cow. If you're interested, just let me know. I'm super excited to try out new types of cows for the best flavor and the grass is greening up really well... although it is still quite wet. Nothing like a big animal on soft ground to make ankle breaking holes. Maybe I should just stick to sheep - they aerate the soil while fertilizing. My grass is always the first to green up in the spring. Must be all the poop. :)

I've been potting up my fruits for the first plant sale. It's going to be light to start out with the first Saturday, threat of frost is still pretty prevalent. Just the hardy herbs and small fruits including cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, and thornfree blackberries.
The next Saturday, May 7th is going to be a mothers day plant sale with blooming baskets, annuals, herbs, and some heirloom tomatoes.
May 14th is going to be the big plant sale with all the veggies. It's about the date of the last frost in the area so we'll have everything from squash to peppers to herbs to edible flowers. We'll have the baby lambs out and some peeps too for the kids to play with. I also found a local organic farm that makes flour for all those bread bakers out there. Let me know if there's a particular type you like and I'll make sure I have it.

The magnolias are coming out, the hyacinth are joining the daffodils in bloom and the 10 day forecast isn't showing any cold snaps below freezing any time soon. On the down side, it's been raining hard and the ground is totally soaked so the only thing I have coming up are some peas we put in a couple of months ago and last winters crop of spinach, kale, and lettuce is coming back. I hope things dry out for a big planting weekend. I'm sick of tripping over the hundred pounds of seed potatoes in my living room. Let's get this planting party started.

My first truck

2011-04-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

I've always been a sensible car girl. In high school, I found this beautiful little silver Buick Skyhawk from a little old lady that drove it 2 miles a week to the store and back and that's it. Funny to find a car that's 10 years old with only 30,000 miles on it, but it got me the 250 miles to college and back for holidays and summers quite well, until it started deciding to slowly die. After an hour stretch of highway driving, any stop would make it sputter out and die, refusing to start for the next 15-20 minutes, much to the dismay of those behind me on the toll turnpike. I learned that if I just slow down and throw the exact change out the window as I crept by, I could delay the stall until after I was through the toll booth and just sit on the shoulder for awhile while the little Buick bird would cool off.
When that beauty finally kicked the bucket, I got a nice sensible green Honda and beat the crap out of it. Road trips were no worry for my little four door and although everything else broke like the power locks, the windshield wipers, odometer, a few of the windows, and the kicker- the speedometer stopped working (I was in a constant state of non-speeding just to be safe) it drove just fine to North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan... anywhere I wanted to go. Until one trip gave it a jolt and an out of town mechanic deemed it doomed.

I was quite devastated as it's pretty well right when you have no money in your account that something like this happens. So I hopped on craigslist with my $600 out of my account looking for something cheap. Note, I just said something cheap, not something reliable or fuel efficient, not taking into account that my commute to work is 70 miles per day.
It seemed logical then that instead of hauling one bale of hay at a time in the backseat of my Honda while my hay fever allergies made misty eyed driving nearly impossible, I should just purchase a truck. That would also eliminate those funny looks when purchasing animals only to shove them into the backseat and drive away really fast, hoping they would stop ramming the windows once we got on the road. Or the overwhelming laughter when going through a drive through with a dog in the front and two sheep in the back. And what can you really get with $600 anyway.

In true Janee fashion, I bought the first truck I looked at. I needed something to drive to work the next day. Little did I know that the vehicle I purchased was from someone with a drug problem who was really good at lying. I took me a week to hunt him down to get the title and the ignition key didn't really work, but the truck was advertised as having AC that blows ice cold and heat that really works. Approaching winter, I found out that for certain one of those was not true at all... unless he meant to say that the heat blows ice cold.
But I had a truck and I picked up feed and bought every cheap goat and chicken I could find on craigslist because now it wouldn't stink up my car for a week.
Shortly after my happy purchase I had to take a trip up to the other side of Michigan and was still in the honeymoon phase of truck ownership and decided that it was the right vehicle for the job.

I had a flashback to my little Buick stalling at the toll booth because as I pulled my truck up to get my toll ticket in a snow storm, the window got stuck down.
Window down, no heat. Awesome.
But it wasn't until I got to the other side of Michigan that the brakes stopped working. Downshifting in a city SUCKS!!!!! The shoes on the back were super rusted and would either be in the -nonstopping- position or the -deadstopped- position. And my drivers side door was either stuck open or stuck shut. I pried the window into a manageable position to keep the snow at least 50% off of me and I bought a blanket at Meijer to try to stave off the cold. By this time, chicken shit in the backseat and hay fever sounded really nice.

After I got home, whiteknuckled the whole way, I got the brakes fixed and got the drivers side door and window bolted shut. I got in on the passenger side and all was well, except that v6 engine was sucking me dry and the bed was so rusted out that only the bedliner was holding it together, which meant I could haul absolutely nothing with it. I'm not saying that I didn't try, but every time I did, the rusted out back shocks would pinch my wires and cause my brake lights, headlights, radio, and/or turn signals to short out. Yeah, quite a peach... but according to the craigslist post the AC blows ice cold! Yeah, not even that worked.

The final kick in the pants, the finishing blow wasn't with the intermittent lights that would work when the felt like it or not being able to use the drivers side window or having to crawl over the seat through the passenger door or not being able to actually put anything in the bed... nope, I could deal with all that kinda. But the final kick in the pants was when the bumper rusted off so much that my license plate fell off somewhere along the way.
Oh crap. I was not going to pay for new tags and new plates for this heap of junk.
So back to craigslist I went, only I didn't post that the AC blows ice cold or that the heat actually works or that the muffler isn't rusted off. I told the truth and posted it for parts, which there are still some ok parts even though the engine kinda leaks oil and I'm not sure where from, but maybe someone would want the... um, I don't know, windshield wipers. Those still worked, kinda. I threw it up there for cheap with no lies and my phone blew up with calls. Are these people crazy?! Seriously this truck is a heap of junk. Within less than an hour, I had a guy out here salivating over this super cheap truck and his only question was "does it run" to which I was like yeah, it runs but.......................................... long list of problems. That didn't phase him. He wanted to take it home right away.
But I couldn't find the title. This is officially the truck from hell. I can't wait to get rid of it.

So moral of the story is, you get what you pay for with a truck. And poor people always get shit on. That too. If you don't have money for a decent car, you'll end up with even less money after purchasing a cheap car. 18 mpg = my 70 mile per day commute would take almost 4 gallons of gas. Times 5 days a week is 20 gallons of gas per week. Even when it was cheap at say $3.25 a gallon, I was spending at least $65 in gas just to get to work. Not to mention the environmentalist voice was quietly whispering ---nooooooooo-- every time I started it up. For that small of a truck, it should not be that much of a gas hog.

Oh Chevy, what have you done.

Car/truck shopping again. I did loooove having a truck when it actually worked, and I hear back in the 80s, Toyota made a 28mpg little truck. Or Volkswagon made a 45 mpg diesel little truck.
Until then, I swear I'm going to save up more money before I make a purchase.

Barren Ewe.... not so barren

2011-03-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Spring lambing is in full swing now and our cute little black and white Jacob ram has brought amazingly cute little spots into our flock.

This morning I got quite a surprise from my first ewe I ever got, who I thought was barren because I've had her for years with a few different rams and she's never given me a lamb. Well, this morning, she gave me quite a shock as she looked to be giving birth. I thought -no way, she's just faking it- but lo and behold, an hour later I found the most long, lanky, leggy lamb shivering beside her as she cleaned it off and encouraged it to milk. Well I'll be. I just had to threaten her with the potential auction future she had in store unless she began earning her weight in feed.

Lambs are born and immediately after all the labor of, well, labor, the lamb stands up right away and starts looking for it's first meal. Geez, having kids is tough.

Now I've got two sets of twins from my Icelandic crosses (here's a nice family photo) and two single lambs from two other mothers. Four more ewes that haven't had lambs yet to go and one goat left this year. Babies are all cute, happy, healthy and just starting to play and jump around.

Ordering my meat bird chicks today. I've got several orders for heritage breed turkeys in already along with some quail in a brooder and also some slow grown meat birds as well. Should be interesting to see what's in my crock pot this fall.

I'm still having one heck of a time securing a beef cow. They're so expensive! Good for the farmers, bad for the people like me trying to buy them. Oh well, corn prices are on the rise... it's going to be a weird year.

Second greenhouse is almost up. Recycled sliding glass doors form three walls and now I'm just looking for some windows and a door to finish out the front. I'm hunting down some materials to make the tables and after this cold snap of 19 degree nights, I'm ready to move into April. I have hundreds of Ginkgo trees just starting to bud out. The sap has not been running yet for the final maple syrup boil, but I still check the trees quite regularly. My house still reeks of fish emulsion, but at least the little seedlings look happy to get some food... even if it makes me lose my appetite.

In other good news, my most recent foster dog, Ruby, just found a new home. Go Ruby! Wohoo! They really seem to like her and I'm glad, as we struggled through the kennel cough she came here with, and the affinity for playing in the road. I'm both sad to see her go and happy that her new family will give her plenty of love and attention, which is what she really needs. I'm also happy to report that no chickens were harmed in the training of this dog. :)

Let's go spring! I'm ready for April!

Sugar vs ????

2011-03-11T08:08:00.000-08:00

LAMBS!!!!! LAMBS!

Despite the March mud and snow storms, our little Olive gave birth to twins. Beautiful little lambs that were born from our sweet Olive, who we bottle fed a few years ago to make the sweetest ewe that would just hop into my car, happy to go for rides. The father was one of our lambs from last year, the first lamb that was born here, actually. I like crossing different breeds of sheep and selecting out the ones that don't require chemical wormers and grow big and fat on pasture with low maintenance. I found it by crossing a Jacob with an Icelandic. And then last year I got a Painted Desert ram and crossed that in there and then crossed that with Olive... who I got from a little amish lady with unknown parentage, but she's happy and healthy and has been a great ewe for us.

So I will spare you all the genetics of coloration as I still have no idea how it works, but we got a beautiful little white girl lamb and this amazingly spotted, panda looking girl lamb. So cute! Thanks Marty for the picture.

In other news, I just let out a very happy sigh a few days ago. The pork fiasco has officially ended. Sigh of relief. No more pigs, just a freezer full of chops, hams, and pork steaks. Oh, and plenty of lard because those pigs were HUGE by the time I happily said goodbye to them.
So now we're having roasts from our own cow, bacon from our own pigs, and life is pretty good. I still have a few meat share lose ends to tie up, but overall for the first year I think it turned out alright. Meat share members - any feedback would be helpful, good or bad. I'm still debating on doing it again this year. Eh, we'll see.

Anyway, I've been having a terrible personal struggle as of late. Fact is, I love sweet things. I am quite ashamed at my affection for soda so I've been trying to kick the habit.

I started by just avoiding things with corn syrup. Notably because despite those "sugar is sugar" ads touting "corn sugar" as being the same as regular sugar, it is not. It's high fructose corn syrup where fructose is processed differently than real sugar and interferes with copper metabolism, causing our connective tissues and collagens to not form correctly. This leads to flabby, soft bellies, weak arteries, fragile bones, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, and heart attacks. Mmm, want a coke?

So Pepsi now makes a product with "real sugar" now. Great, right? Actually, their "real sugar" doesn't actually have to come from a sugar cane, but rather a sugar beet... and more probable than not, a GMO sugar beet.
Sugar is sugar though, right? So I probably shouldn't have looked into what GMOs really are and what they do inside our systems. It's about 80% of the soybeans produced and put in our food supply (not labeled, of course) and all that delicious high fructose corn syrup, yup, that's most likely genetically modified. And here in America, we don't have GMO labeling.... yet.

Here is a good article on GMOs.

So I'm starting to feel a bit paranoid. I have a sweet tooth. Sugar is out. Corn syrup is definitely out. And I'm not about ready to start putting aspartame in everything to trick my brain into thinking something is sweet. AGH!

It's about this time that I'm hanging my head low, sick of reading the packages on the foods I used to eat because they are "generally recognized as safe" (can a company put out a product and be innocent until proven guilty if it doesn't even test to see if it's safe?) and I'm starting to feel like there's nothing good. So I go to work with my mind just reeling about what to do when my boss pulls me aside to show me his maple syrup boiling system.
It's awesome. Right about now, the sap is running and he's got milk jugs on a stand of maple trees next to his field. He collects twice a day when the sap is running and puts it into kegs where he then boils it outside, evaporating the water away to leave only the most delicious, sweet syrup. Not genetically modified! Yes!

I thought it was odd that he put maple syrup in his coffee, but that's what I'm drinking right now and I love it! I've been having maple syrup teas like crazy and I feel a million times better. Who knew a tree could be so sweet and I'm not supporting any corporation, except maybe the small company that made his sap boiler.

I'm happy now. I don't miss soda except for once and awhile at a gas station when the bright colored cans promise happier times, but that thought is fleeting and I'm quite happy with my maple tea because I know exactly what's in it.
I want to take a jar of syrup everywhere with me now. I'm looking forward to maple syrup lemonade in the heat of summer and watermelon maple smoothies (or daiquiris) and maybe some maple ginger rootbeer. Maybe I'll make some maple butter cookies. Mmm, I smell an entire cookbook coming soon. Recipes welcome. :)

Butcher Date

2011-02-10T08:33:00.001-08:00

New date with the butcher - Saturday Feb 12th.

Which makes for a very nice Valentines day for me. I can't wait to get them gone. I can't wait for some hams.
I'm trying to look at the positive side of this experience. I got worried that maybe they were getting too old, but I found that this is the best timing for some really good bacon. They're very large and will probably have to get half hams to get them in any oven or roaster.

My favorite thing about raising pigs is delicious hamsteaks. Oh man.... breakfast, lunch or dinner, these things are amazing. It's just the right size to throw in a pan for some ham and eggs or put on a delicious ham panini with artichoke spread and fresh spinach with a ripe tomato, or thrown on the grill just until it gets those nice grill lines and put on the side of some fresh grilled veggies. Holdays and Sunday dinners are reserved for the big hams, but the ham steak makes every day dinners divine.

For all you meat share members out there salivating, it takes about 3 weeks for the smoked meats to be ready so as soon as I know it's ready, I'll let you all know. I wasn't too worried about freezer space with two cows as I quickly passed that on, but I am worried that I won't have enough freezer space for 4 giant pigs! To be sure, I'll pass it along as soon as I get it.

And it kinda worked out well having the meat share end in the winter time. I can't imagine having this much meat on a warm fall day and shuffling around to get it distributed as fast as possible. I really enjoyed spreading out the different cuts on frozen tables outside. It gave me something to do in the cold winter months.
I really need to work on my math though as I wondered why most farmers sell their beef by hanging weight - which is before the bones and fat are removed. Once you get down to it, a cow isn't as big as you might think, especially with 10 hungry meat share families. Lesson learned - hanging weight does not equal how much meat you get. Oh, and cows don't have nearly as many steaks as they should.

My morning is going well, I got a real stock trailer dropped off and the pigs are loading and unloading themselves with ease and coaxing of day old cherry pies and a warm bed of straw. I'm feeling much more at ease than three weeks ago, muscles are relaxing and sleep is back to normal... only one nightmare about pigs this week, which is really good. I almost checked myself into a mental ward after a terrifying night where I dreamed the pigs were downstairs in my house snorting and eating the walls, only to find that it was just a load snoring dog in real life. I kicked the dog off the bed and the pig dreams stopped.

I am starting to feel like I am almost caught up from last year. Almost. I still have my first batch of chickens going to replace the last years disaster.

So now I'm looking at this year fresh and here's some things I'd like to do --

Plant Sale - I had so much fun selling veggies to other locals who appreciate heirlooms and growing your own food. I'm starting in April with every Saturday open for a couple hours to sell veggie starts, herbs, unique small fruits, and free gardening advice. Open April to end of May

Local Honey and Maple Syrup - Along with selling plants, I found some honey and syrup from other local farms that I'll offer for sale. I sure as heck don't have the time to keep bees, even though I'd really like to, but I still love local honey. And I hate looking on the back of "pancake syrup" to see that it's all high fructose corn syrup (GMO) and a bunch of other chemicals. Nothing compares to the real thing and it's quite an Ohio pride item. We sure can't grow sugar cane, but we do have sugar maples!

Organic Grains - I'll be offering some locally grown, organic grains too for all you bread bakers out there. I think I'll start pretty basic with wheat and rye, but special orders are always welcome!

Smaller CSA - We're scaling back our CSA a little this year just to give our members extra attention. We only have a few spots left so email me if you want on the list. Spots are reserved by payment on first come, first serve. I've ordered tons of seeds this year, but I've come to terms with my work garden not producing as much as I'd have hoped last year and I'm adjusting our signups accordingly.

Meat Share? - I'm still debating on doing the meat share again. I loved my members this year and I would not have gotten my first cow if it hadn't been for the meat share. I learned a lot and might make some adjustments and offer it again in 2011. The pastured beef is really good and I want another cow this year as my freezer is almost empty already. As soon as I iron out the details and make a plan, I'll let you all know.

If anyone would like to stop out and help, we could always use an extra hand. I just keep thinking - in a month, we'll have another greenhouse up and the smell of mud will be so fresh under the melting compacted ice. Spring kids and lambs should be on their way soon and in no time, I'll be out putting up more fences, planting more strawberries, pruning the apple trees, and playing in the dirt. Let me know if you want in on any of this fun, ;)

pigs, Pigs, PIGS!!!!!

2011-01-24T06:40:00.001-08:00

I just had the worst weekend I've had in a long time. I'm holding back a long stream of cuss words that would make my great grandmother turn over in her grave.

I had an appointment with the butcher for 4 pigs on Saturday. I rented a truck Saturday morning ($$$) thinking everything would go smoothly with a nice ramp and they would just run up there and be happy. I didn't feed them for a few days before just to make them nice and hungry so that they would jump for any food.

They did not.

There were 5 of us chasing them around in a various manner of coaxing, tying, feeding, and the occasional slap on the pig butt to try to get them up into the truck. Hour after hour, we ran in circles getting one halfway up just to have it run backwards back down with it's mouth full of whatever we put up the ramp to tempt them.The truck was high off the ground and they didn't like seeing how far from the ground they were.

These things are just pure muscle. We tried to corner them, but no luck as they just push us over. We tried a bucket over the head and walked them backwards to no luck. At 4 o'clock on Saturday when the butcher was about ready to close, we called it a day and hoped to get them in the first thing on Monday morning.

Round 2 on Sunday had no more success. Just freezing cold feet and a lot of frustration.
The final round on Monday, we got one in the back of my dad's truck, but it just shredded the bed and barged out screaming.

I'm completely spent. I'm sore and when I went to take a shower this morning after total failure, my legs were bright red from the cold.

Now I'm back to square one. I think the butcher is mad for me standing them up, but not for lack of trying. I'm no better off than I was before all this, only a bit smarter and really beaten down.

short, short days.

2010-12-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

December 21st is one of my dates to mark every year. It seems right around this time the light is gone and winter has its full grip tightening on this little spot in Ohio. I get really sad, there's not much to do and I'm usually pretty broke.

So I look for December 21st, the shortest day of the year. That means it's all up from here. The days will keep stretching. Soon the snow will melt and the grass will shrug off the cold and turn into beautiful April pastures with happy dandelions springing up everywhere. Yes, it's all looking up from here, well, except those two and a half more months of brutal cold.

But my first order is piling up from High Mowing Organics and soon I'll have dirt all over my house and little seedlings sprouting up to some far off tune of the promise of another growing season. (CSA future members, any High Mowing requests?)

And crap if this darn hawk didn't find my little flock of laying hens that are limping through the winter. The last batch of meat birds was a total and complete failure as they one by one were taken by either the cold or the hawk. So as soon as the weather breaks in March, I've got some chicken orders to fill. I don't like starting the year already behind, but it won't take me long to catch my tail and start moving forward again. I've got plans for a better chicken tractor system for some fresh egg layers and I think I have my system down for meat birds, when the weather isn't below freezing. Live and learn, I guess. Sorry for those short on chicken dinners this winter.

I've been sick all day, eating only bread with honey on it and drinking hot tea, but now I'm buzzing with thoughts of spring, dancing around to Metric with thoughts of spring strawberries.

All this darkness and winter has given me plenty of time to obsess over my new plan, to build a cord wood building that will eventually become a store front. Here's a pic from tinyhousedesign.com with a green roof, because of course after building a sustainable small wood and cob building, why wouldn't you plant grass on the roof?

Now the logistics part is where I am getting a bit muddled. I'll have to plow through zoning permits and whatnot... mostly the battle is getting my dad to turn the zoning from commercial to agricultural. He has big ideas of re building the old mill into this giant convention center and wants me to get investors and contractors and I'm pretty sure that's not what I want to do.
Maybe I'm not looking at the big picture, but I think I'd prefer to use this opportunity to start small and work my way up. Start small. Kinda like the CSA, every year we keep adding something and try not to bite off more than we can chew, well... I guess I had no idea how much interest I'd get from the meat share and hate being behind in that, but otherwise we did pretty well.
In keeping with the organic mindset and trying to be sustainable, I'd love to not have to borrow money from a bank, if at all possible. The supplies for a small cord wood building are somewhat cheap, except for time and labor, but I'd love the learning experience of once again working my ass off for no pay. Heh. But it's all in fun.

Anyway, if anyone wants in on this fun / hard labor project, just let me know. Of if anyone has any supplies around, old doors, bricks, liquor bottles, or anything else that might be useful, let me know.

Until then, I'll keep trudging through the cold, hopeful that the days are getting longer as I feed the pigs expired sweet rolls and keep a wary eye on the sky for that beautiful feathered cannibal. Oh, and pluck Christmas turkeys in the dark. At least today is the darkest day. It's only going to get lighter after this. Sweet!

food safety and store fantasy

2010-12-03T06:42:00.000-08:00

It's only after the second cup of coffee that my feet start to warm up. The snow is a light dusting that's falling at a decent rate and I am at my winter ritual of constantly checking craigslist while updating about all the things I did during the super busy season.

Also, I'm sifting through all the information I can find on the new food safety bill that just passed.
Ah, thank you Jon Tester for exempting farms that sell within a 275 mile radius that sell under $500,000 a year. Check and check. So we should be alright for next year. I panicked for awhile thinking - do I need to call my CSA a "rabbit food" co-op? And the meat share could be really high quality "cat food." I'm still thinking about how things are going to be different next year, but at least I won't have to worry about tons of paperwork and the FDA looking over my shoulder now. I like personal accountability better. These are my eggs, I collect them fresh (when the darn hens are laying!!!) and this is what I feed my cow, this is what I enrich my soil with, and here's a list of anything that I spray.

I love watching food safety issues come and go just to see how much focus is spent on it. The alar scare with apples in the '70s is amazing to read about: a spray that was designed to make harvesting easier by getting all the apples to ripen at the same time, causes cancer? Noooo, really? The mad cow disease footage was enough to make anyone stop eating beef, but I think it also opened people's eyes up to the fact that they don't know what their beef was being fed - which was the underlying more disgusting story to be told.
Now there's salmonella in the eggs and this outbreak keeps happening. Why? Because the massive factory farm that these egg layers are kept in don't know which hens are laying the bad eggs and they don't want to post a loss by getting rid of the bad hens.
I think everything is getting too big to fail now.

Right now the whole nation is sitting on top of a teetering tower of subsidized corn and a complex network of food haulers and producers where a beef cow can start in West Virginia, travels out to the southwest and then back to the east coast again before it lands on a plate. I certainly wouldn't want the job of tracking lettuce from California or Argentina through all the trade routes, processors, packagers, and grocery store chains.

But then again, I'm sitting here drinking coffee from South America and my dogs are cheaply fed, so I'll try not to throw stones. Just sitting here thinking about the way things are, I guess.

I've switched over to tea now and have made the necessary phone calls to get both my cows into the butcher on January 9th. I was hoping for earlier, but I just couldn't swing it. Now I've got to find something else for christmas presents and apologize the the meat share members for their empty freezers.

Now I'm looking to next year. What am I going to do...
Now is when I look back and see what went right and figure out how to adapt and make things better. There's always a slight twinge of reflection about this time now as well where I say- do I really want to keep doing this?
I got attacked by a 700 pound pig this year. I popped out a rib. I didn't go on vacation. I did many rounds of poultry killing. I sold out of everything and had to turn people away. I raised my own piglets for the first time. Hell, I watched my first lambs getting born last winter! And baby goats are ridiculously cute. And I mended fences, beefed up my garden soil, planted a cherry tree that didn't die yet, more plums, paw paws, blueberries, gooseberries and a new strawberry patch. I had an amazing plant sale and loved my CSA member's recipes and feedback and excitement at picking up their baskets. I got my first cow and learned that butcher dates fill up fast and I probably need to get a trailer now. I bought my first truck and consequently started getting a myriad of craigslist gems like cheap new hens, picked up hay and was able to get feed and goats without shoving it in the back of my honda. I grew carrots successfully this year! First time ever!!! I actually got a few carrots... of course they were in October, but still they were delicious!

So I guess there's the good and the bad. The ups and the down vary day to day, almost to the point of being bipolar. Things can go so right or so wrong, but I guess it's all a learning experience. I didn't grow up on a farm, but geez I love animals and still somehow am perfectly fine with eating them.

With the slowing down of winter, I'm sure these blogs will become more frequent as I've found that most of my problems are best worked through via writing, venting, reassessing, and therefore planning. Like right now, I'm playing out in my brain the possibility of opening up a little farm store. Yes, I know I just kinda said that I work too much as it is, but seriously, how cool would a little farm store be where you could buy local honey, organic grains, vegetable seeds, maple syrup, organic gardening sprays, and pickup for CSA under a roof, and have a freezer for the meat share people to pickup instead of the cooler system or waiting around for me to be home to pickup chickens. Just something small, maybe a strawbale building with skylights and a wood burner in the corner. Jason looked at my the same way he looked at me after I pitched the meat share idea to him - both happy and wary of how it is going to pan out. He wants to go on vacation, and rightfully so. Maybe this is just a winter fantasy, where when the snow is blowing I tend to forget how short on time I am in the growing season and I tend to over-order on seeds and have grandiose ideas about what can get done in a day.

Do I really want to keep doing this? The answer is more than likely yes. And well, if I'm already doing it, why not do more?

falling leaves and killing chickens

2010-10-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

The nip in the wind and the bright red sun glare bright this morning. The maples release their leaves with a groan as the wind lifts them off and adds them to the swirling masses.

My favorite part of my mornings now is this beautiful wild turkey that follows around my turkey flock. I see her about once a day, just mulling around like she wants to join my heritage breeds that are begging me for their breakfast. She's really shy and will only let me get so close before she takes off in flight, which is actually quite impressive and she can soar easily through the fields or straight up into the woods. I hope she integrates and doesn't get too sad when Thanksgiving comes for the rest of her friends.

The morning feeding is quite humorous as I imagine anyone that drives by looking over to see this mass of white meat birds running as fast as their little fat legs can carry them, running through the field over to the chicken house for their morning meal. This morning I came out to a pile of pigs, cuddled together in the mud with a meat bird snuggled right on top of the pile. I always worry the pigs might want a chicken dinner, but so far they've cohabited quite nicely.

I have these swirling masses of meat birds and a pretty empty freezer because time always seems to be short as the days keep getting shorter and my whizbang chicken plucker still has yet to save me from hours of hand plucking all these birds. And I might only slightly be kicking myself but I'm happy at the same time at the overwhelming demand for these happy and delicious birds. Maybe next weekend I'll carve out a day and get everything taken care of.

The winter gardens are limping along with the shortening of days. The frost isn't really knocking the kale back much, but not enough sunlight is pretty apparent in our late planting of chard, kale and radishes as they're a month in the ground and only knee high to a grasshopper. I am super happy to see the pea flowers and the cosmos are in full wispy glory. I shelled the last of the shelling beans and I'm putting up a fence at my work garden to let the sheep graze on all the weed seed pods and remaining thistles still standing. Then in the spring, I'm going to put up a fence section where I want to plant up and put pigs in there to till up and eat the roots of the plants. This is my new master plan. We'll see how it actually pans out. I just know that I've got a couple of acres of dirt and I really want to use it the best that I can.

Well I'm off to get a book on tape and scrape out some of the ram poop from my backseat (I really, really need a truck) and load up for a long drive down to North Carolina for a weekend of wine, pirates, partying, and stuffing my head full of as much information as I can soak up. I love studying under an amazingly knowledgeable winemaker... and consequently drinking some amazing wine.

Potluck Sun July 25th at 2!

2010-07-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

There are different fragrances tempting the busy bees as I walk from one end of my garden to the other. The sunflowers have a heavenly perfume, the lemon balm that brushes my leg releases something reminicent of floor cleaner, and the freshly pulled garlic smell mixes with the delicious scent of tomato leaves just to accent the eutopia of the veggie garden. Jason has stippled patches of flowers throughout the garden and the kohlrabi patch is bordered by borage and zinnia, which are just now starting to open up into their full State Fair glory. The drip irrigation is getting a full workout now that it hasn't rained more than a quarter of an inch in 12 days and the new replants of fruit trees and small fruits are choking and lifting their weak arms up to beg for water. It's july. Even the grass looks dead.
So what more of a perfect way to celebrate the heat of another Ohio summer than with a picnic. Potluck style.

Local Foods Cookout. Sunday July 25th at 2pm

Bring your swimsuit if you so desire to jump in for a round or two of water volleyball (swimming at your own risk, of course) or just come to enjoy some fresh local foods from the bounty of zucchini season. Summer squash is in high production so we welcome dishes that are in season right now, the more local the better. I'm getting some delicious burgers from the beef side of my work and we're firing up the grill with some summer sweet corn as well. There will probably be a lot of cucumber salads as they seem to be rather prolific this year. My sister might be able to scrape together enough cherry tomatoes for another tomato mozerella salad with fresh basil, which is amaaaaazing. All are welcome and bring a friend and a covered dish. I wish I could think of a better name than "potluck" as it reminds me of piles of corn or meat mush in oven bakeware served in a damp church basement, but alas, any other word isn't coming to mind right now.

I can't believe it but I'm already thinking about next year. I'm already dragging out the dog eared, -crinkled from being watered- pages of the 2009 seed catalogs planning excitedly for next year. We're on week 7 of the csa and only a little tiny sliver of the gardens have produced and gone into baskets. We have so much deliciousness left, just basking in the sun and waiting for their time to shine.

I am going to put a deadline on my meat share signups - August 16th is the last day to signup. Reservations are made by check to High Mill Park, first come first serve so I know how much I'll need. If you've shared interest, now is the time to hold your spot for the delicious supply of the best raised meat around. We are going to start our first installment soon as the geese are almost ready already and some early chickens for those who want to get started will be ready in a month or so.
Any questions can be forwarded to janeehouston@gmail.com or check out highmillpark.com/meatshare

Both me and Pepper my cattle dog are tired from wrangling piglets and fixing their fence yesterday, which is only amplified by the gorgeously sunny-humid day. We're both looking forward to a relaxing night of planting fruit trees I just found on sale and weedwhacking the garden. I'll probably do most of the work and Pepper will just stare at me like she wishes she could help if she only could figure out how.

Projects of the next few weeks - corn crib, more chicken tractors, figure out where the turkeys are going to live, work on new sheep fence, plant fruit trees, water everything if it doesn't rain, clean bathrooms for the cookout, plant late season broccoli and turnips, and get more ducklings.

Exciting things happening this week - my hops flowered, peaches are starting to ripen, apples are coming on strong, grapes at work started turning colors, more potatoes are coming in, tomatoes are starting to turn, sunflowers are in full effect, piglets are still cute, and 3 more weeks until grandma gets her neck brace off and she'll be back to picking beans. I'm sure her doctor would love to hear that. hehe.

This has been deemed the year of the piglet and will be our 5th annual harvest fest. Tshirts will be made if you want one, they'll be around $12. Email if you'd like one ordered. Any color you want. Also - CSA members will get a special surprise at the end of this season at our Harvest Fest the last Tuesday in November.

2010-07-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

PIGLETS FINALLY ARE HERE!

Holy crap! After months of staring at a giant 700+ pound sow, wondering if she looks more pregnant than the day before as she stuffs her face with mashed potatoes and corn, she finally had 6 little piglets.
Yes, I am witholding pictures because they are completely adorable. Jason cooked up some amazing pork chops yesterday on the grill while I made a fresh cucumber salad. I should have taken a picture of that becasue it was beautiful and delicious. But because of the delay, meat share members take note - we're behind at least a month. We're still on schedule for the Houston family christmas ham though arriving on time.

In other news, one of our CSA members is expanding their yoga studio. Check it out at www.pilatesyogaandmore.com for an integrated relaxation yoga session. We're hoping to break away from the gardens soon and check it out and I love the fact that you don't have to wear shoes. The world needs more barefoot activities.

Oh, and speaking of barefeet, the pool is filling as we speak. Water volleyball will start up every sunday evening.
And mark your calendar for a special event - our yearly Zucchini cookout will be here at the park on Sunday July 25th starting at 1pm. Bring your favorite covered dish, as local and as in season as possible, and come out for a potluck style cookout with water and land volleyball and plenty of swimming, eating, and just plain enjoying how nice Ohio can be in the heat of July. We also welcome unique ways of cooking zucchini as by the end of July, we all start really getting creative with ways to use the bounty of summer squash season. Hopefully we'll have some tomatoes too and maybe some delcious beef from my work. Local brews permitted as long as you're of age and we'll have some local herbal tea, hard cider and wine to taste as well.

Garden Tour- Rootstown

2010-06-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

Let's take a little tour of what's growing in my plot at work...

Brussel Sprouts forming.

A row of painstakingly hand weeded carrots and Carnival winter squash

Sweet Alyssum fragrantly blooming next to Garbanzo beans.

Carrots and red dianthus nestled up together.

Jacob's Cattle Heirloom beans just starting to poke through the ground.

Bread, anyone?

2010-06-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

Hey - just throwing this out to see if there's any interest.

Anyone out there bake their own bread? Want to start up a bread baking group? Not like I don't have enough stuff to do, but I'd love to get together with other bread bakers once a month and swap recipes, work on a wood fired oven and bake. Email me if you're interested - janeehouston@gmail.com

broccoli flower soup

2010-06-16T13:14:00.001-07:00

I knew I'd find it! Thanks cooks.com

I have not tried this yet. If you do, let me know what you think!

BROCCOLI FLOWER SOUP (BEST EVER)
3 c. chopped broccoli tops
3 qts. water
1 med. onion, chopped
4 tbsp. chicken base (dry)
2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. season salt
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. cooking sherry
1 c. milk
1 c. Ranch dressing
1/4 c. sour cream
6 strips of uncooked bacon
1 to 1 1/2 c. flour

What do you do with broccoli gone to flower? Make soup! Wash and trim long stalks on fresh broccoli. Chop broccoli to make approximately 3 cups. Bring 3 quarts of water to boil and add broccoli, chicken base, garlic, pepper, season salt, Worcestershire, nutmeg. Boil 20 minutes uncovered. While water is boiling chop onion and mince up bacon strips and fry on medium high until bacon is crisp (without burning the onions). Then add flour to bacon, onion and bacon grease until lit is a thick paste. Remove from heat and set aside.Lower heat on boiling broccoli to medium (nice low rolling boil). Add Ranch dressing, milk, and sour cream while constantly stirring with wire whip. Then slowly add bacon, onion, flour mixture until soup thickens, simmer on low for 10 minutes and add cooking sherry. Serve hot with bread sticks or crackers.

_________________________________________________________________

CSA week 1

2010-06-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

CSA Pickup Starts Today!!!!

Times - Tuesday 6-8pm or Wed from 8-10am.

Email me with any questions at janeehouston@gmail.com and I'll see you all soon!

broken neck

2010-06-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

CSA First Pickup is June 15th!!!!!!

With the plant sale and putting everything in the ground and all this warm weather, I'm left wondering - where did spring go?
I think I blinked and missed it. I rejoiced at the first tshirt day... and I don't think that I have worn a sweater more than a couple days since.

I had so much fun at the plant sale this year! Thanks to everyone who came out and helped. It was great meeting new csa and meat share members and watching kids play with baby ducks. Everything that is leftover fit on a couple tables and slowly we've been planting them flat by flat. We have hundreds of tomato plants in the ground and hundreds of pepper plants happily growing in the gardens. We're running out of room! Travis moved his melon patch up by my parents house and they're starting to grow. We have all different, unique kinds this year. It must be bad if I'm already planning my order for next year and anticipating seed catalogs. Gardening must be an addiction, which is odd that even though I'm saturated in it, I'm still looking for more.

On a really sad note, one of our super garden helpers, my Grandma, broke her neck. She was playing in the back garden, getting a pump in the creek to water everything that was coming up on Memorial day and she tripped and fell backwards, hitting her head on a fencepost and cracking her C2 vertebrate right in half diagonally. The emergency room on a holiday was terrible and they sent her home with a neck brace and told her to take anacin. Yeah... that didn't fly for more than a few days before she was back in the emergency room begging for Dr. Kevorkian. But now she's back at home on a bit stronger medication with a better neck brace, talking about picking beans in a few weeks. She's amazing and the gardens are a lot less lively without her bossing us around and making fun of the way I plant potatoes. I am so glad she's not paralized.

Anyway, everything is growing at an odd pace: our asparagus is slowing production, our strawberries started producing really early this year, rhubarb flowered before I could make a pie, bok choy already choked in the heat, the peppers are loving it, my onions are the size of golf balls, and I'm having a heck of a time keeping the garlic from flowering already. And my sister declared this the year of the tomato because we already have little green tomatoes forming on a few of our plants. I'm just worried that all this hot weather will burn out our broccoli and lettuce before it's even begun.

Oh Ohio! You are sooooo weird.

This morning

2010-05-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to my normal routine - put a bottle in the microwave for the new fainting goat orphans. Then I sat on the couch and rifled through the bag of seeds that are all begging to be planted right at the right time and upon deciding to throw some keeper squash in my garden at work, I heard a cheep come from the incubator. The turkey eggs are pipping and one turkey had it's beak out and was complaining about being stuck in an egg in an incubator. That's turkeys. Always complaining. But I'm happy they are starting to hatch as they are delicious and hatching right on time for landing on a Thanksgiving table this year.

From there, I walked back to the sheep and goats with a steaming hot bottle of milk in one hand and throwing pepper the ball with the other hand as she bounded through the grass still wet with last nights rain. The back field was heavy with a weird fog that made the sleeping alpaca look like a lockness monster in the middle of the field while the sheep trudged through with their zombie-like morning hunger groans. I went to check on the Icelandic we call Black Cloud that I had spent hours brushing out yesterday for a shear date of today only to find that among the giant curtain of frizzed out wool was a perfect little white lamb.

I still am baffled by sheep genetics and so I'm not sure how almost every sheep I've had born here looked the exact same - black with a little white spot on its head. Why then is the blackest of all our sheep the mother of the whitest lamb we have?

Oh well. Either way, I'm happy. The lamb is healthy and resting and despite being rather young, Black Cloud is caring for her little one like a veteran matron.

I'd say I had a good morning. I watched the ducks in their endless games of tag, washed the three dozen eggs were are getting a day here! Wohoo! I checked on the baby bunnies, nestled in their little hay nest. The next batch of egg laying chickens looks happy as they play with the baby geese. The greenhouse is ridiculously green in full effect.

I have such a busy day ahead that the excitement of the morning is just a sliver of my entire day. Fence building, seed planting, grapevine trimming... I've got to get back to work!

april 3rd

2010-04-03T12:36:00.001-07:00

It's April now and unseasonably warm. About 20 degrees higher than this time of year usually is.

We're planting potatoes if you'd like to come out to the workshop here and help Wed, April 7th at 6pm. It's $10 if you'd like to take a bag of potatoes home. Email me so I can get a rough count.

I dormant oiled the fruit trees last week and am staring at their swelling buds, hoping that they don't burst into bloom when a frost is approaching. I hate it - it's like sliding on black ice, where you have no control over the situation, but you're still in it and trying to do all that you can. The plums are two days away from blooming. I'm not going to fight it. If it happens, it happens. I won't try to cover them with blankets or frantically turn on the sprinklers when the next wave of snow inevitably comes our way. I need to prepare myself for it so I don't freak out when the cold snap hits. Each year is different.
I'm just hoping that the apple trees and grapevines hold off.

I think our last set of lambs were born last week and I'm looking at the three yearling sheep that didn't lamb this year as pretty doubtful that they will lamb this year. Although, I'm new at this so anything can happen. I'm happy to have 5 healthy fainting goat kids and 5 healthy crossbred lambs, all growing like little weeds and playing happily in the greening fields.

We're starting to put seeds in the ground - peas are in along with beets, turnips, and some cabbage. The kale came back from last year and is looking delicious as always. With the mild nights ahead, we're looking forward to not having to heat the greenhouse, which is now filled and double stacked with seedling tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, different types of basil, broccoli, onions, kale, raddicio, artichokes, and cauliflower. I'm staring at the dang ground cherries and they just won't grow! I might order another set of seeds from somewhere else because I can't imagine not having ground cherries this year. So delicious!

Our CSA is FULL - if you've contacted me before today, you're fine. Returning members please email me as I need a final count of members as potatoes are going in this week and I need to know how many I'm planting for.

Rhubarb is up, farmer's fields are getting tilled, the killdeer are searching for nesting sites in the vineyard, and spring s certainly here.

grass growing

2010-03-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

Spring lambs are here!

The grass is getting green beneath my feet. I have my first sunburn. The geese are playing in the spring puddles right next to the road. And all signs point to the fact that spring is here!

I have ten half finished blogs about winter where I would start and then wouldn't really know what else to say. Now I have so many things to do I can hardly sit down for a minute!

The goats are kidding as I write this, I'm hoping for twins. So far, our first fainter kid is pretty darn cute. The sheep lamb out in the field like old pros. The lambs really look like their father and I'm excited to get rid of my ram and try a new one for next season.

My sister is talking of tilling. With this streak of nice weather, It sounds like a fine idea.

Jason and I are doing minimal tilling in the front garden. I never thought that I would do anything just to not disturb the earthworms... but it's all holistic in the end.

We have seedlings growing everywhere! I do mean everywhere too. My entire dining room is now a seedling room with a grow light nourishing flat after flat of vegetables and herbs.

Spring is coming now and it's so exciting!!!!

spoke too soon....

2010-02-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so no sooner had I given up and told Jason I wasn't going back to check on the goats 15 times a day anymore, than he went back and found a bright eyed little kid. So cute!

Babies!

2010-02-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

I've been staring at pregnant goats for months now. I've been fussing over them, making sure that their diet is perfect and that they have a nice little pregnancy ward that's warm and safe and fresh water and plenty of hay. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking - oh no, today might be the day - and then walk all the way back to the barn at the back corner of the property just to have them cry at me that I didn't bring them more grain. Spoiled rotten.

So it's the end of Feb and I can certainly say that I have got my exercise running buckets back and forth of water, which they invariably kick over and hay, which they just throw all around. And in my frenzy of pregnant goat caretaker, I just so happened to notice that one of my sheep didn't come out of her morning meal. So I went back, got a bucket kicked over by an ungrateful goat and then made my way to see what was going on with my Jacob/Icelandic cross named Petrone. Wandering out into the sheep pasture, I found her box and peered inside and found a pair of stunned little eyes staring back at me, all knock-kneed and freshly born. While I was standing there marveling at the ease in which Petrone took to her motherly tasks, she birthed a second knock-kneed, shivering ball of wool. She cleaned them up quickly, making very odd, maternal sounds.

They are a day old now and tromping around after their mother in the snow. They have little toupees of white hair in between their tiny lamps ears and I have yet to see them nurse, but their temps are right and their bellies feel full. Sometimes nature just does it, I guess.

I think it's funny how much time I have spent worrying about goats, I've just been throwing some hay to the sheep on the way to worry about the pregnant goats. I just never worried about the sheep. I wonder if they always lamb so easily. Maybe it's just that goats are such complainers that I dote on them more. The sheep just do their own thing.

So, I have heard that a watched pot never boils, but does a watched goat never kid?

buyer beware

2010-02-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how many different books or websites I've read that all say - DON'T BUY FROM LIVESTOCK AUCTIONS.

Well, being a stubborn little know-it-all, I went and looooved it. It's like a buffet of anything that you can think of all at once and the excitement of being the highest bidder is overwhelming. I saw a little cow sell for $5 once! There's tons of different types of animals all at once and they are brought out so fast and then sent back so fast and some go for a ton of money and some go really cheap. It's fascinating.
I always do the same thing -- get really excited about the auction, go to the auction, not bid on anything too expensive, bid on things when think I'm getting a really good deal, end up getting stuck with a crappy quality animal.
The problem is you never know exactly what you are getting. A lot of people dump their problem children off at the auction, the runts of the litter, the pregnancy that's not quite right, the animal that's on it's last leg but no one wants to pull the trigger. That's not always the case. Some good animals end up there. The trick is trying to tell which one is which.
It's kinda like the beloved family dog - no family would throw their dog in the pound, nameless, and with no description of what the dog likes or dislikes or how house broken or not he is. A family that loves their dog would post him in the paper - to loving home - and explain face to face what's going on. It's a lot harder to lie about the problems with an animal when the new prospective buyer is wide eyed standing there asking a bunch of questions as to the care and feeding schedule.
I have sold at the auction. I sent some of the most spoiled peachicks there. Someone got an excellent deal and went home with well cared for, de-wormed, well fed little birds. It was my last resort after a bunch of no call-no shows.

I guess what I'm going to say is advice for those who want to build their flock, whether they take it or not.... DON'T BUY FROM A LIVESTOCK AUCTION.

On the flip side, I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the best farmers in the area through online ads and craigslist. I loooove going to other farms, talking with the farmers and being able to ask them about their stock. The prices are set early and usually are higher that I think I want to pay, but they are ALWAYS worth the price. I have a well stocked pasture with beautiful Jacob / Finn crosses and some Icelandics that I thought were outlandish when I bought them but are beautiful and growing well and healthy as can be.
I only have two survivors from the auction lot and one is our "herdsire" who Jason calls a "midget fruit bat" and the other is a cute little shetland who was in dire need of a haircut, but otherwise was healthy and is getting along beautifully.

I'm in the market for a cow now and I'm not going back to the auction, especially with such an unvestment in time and feed. I am excitedly looking for a couple scottish highlands while my neighbor is clearing a space in his barn and pasture. I can't wait to eat the meat goats this year, although I'm pretty sure the feed to meat ratio is pretty darn low on those guys so they better taste really delicious.
I'm stir crazy at this point and ready for this sea of white to start melting. The turkeys fly and land in snow drifts over their heads. The hens don't even leave the hen house, but have started laying again, which at least means fresh omlettes to go with the mass quantities of sausage we're still working through in the freezer.
...and I'm not complaining. The pork chops are fantastic!

OEFFA conference

2010-02-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

So this Valentines Day weekend was really special this year. I guess last year going to see the Pretenders in Akron was kinda cool, but this year was waaaay better. Jason and I traveled down to Granville to the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Associations conference - Growing with Integrity, Eating with Intention. It was AWESOME.

I guess sometimes I feel like a little satellite just kinda orbiting around, not really aware that there might be other people like me doing the same things I'm doing. Not true. There were people from all over Ohio who came to hear about sustainable beekeeping, worm composting, apple tree grafting, niche pork raising, and a ton of other seminars. My head is fully saturated with new information about soil types, crop rotation, small fruit ecosystems, birthing goat tips, and pride in locally grown food.
Jason and I volunteered in order to get a massive discount and actually afford to go. We worked in the kitchen for both lunches and I really got this odd sense of accomplishment from working with the nicest catering company and serving local, organic veggies, meats, and cheeses.... and taste testing them along the way as well. Granted, I was a bit annoyed at the vegans who snubbed the piece of artisan cheese on their salad (more for me!) but overall everyone was super nice and I got to work up a sweat while doing dishes before sitting down for 5 more hours of seminars.

While the organic greens salad has long been digested, I'm still rolling around a few classes trying to wrap my head around some research that's just come out. I guess the next thing for me to do is go out in the fields and test it for myself.
I can't wait!

Headsup everybody

2010-01-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hey,

Take a look at the supreme court hearing of a Monsanto case here. This is happening now so keep an eye on it. What this company has been doing for years should be illegal, but the cats in the USDA for the most part have ties to Monsanto. I can't tell you how many letters I've written to DC on this issue. Is this sustainable? Is this good for us?

Not that I particularly like going on polical rampages, but it really upsets me that we've screwed with the building blocks of nature just so we can spray more chemicals. How does this make sense?

How will I know that the hay I buy from up the street isn't genetically modified? How will this effect the animals that eat it? How will this effect the plants that cross pollinate with it? How could we let this happen?

I'm so frustrated right now....

Project Files - West Wall (1)

2009-12-31T10:45:00.000-08:00

With wintertime upon us and my (painfully) open schedule, I decided to tackle a project that my mom has been requesting for years. We have this west wall that was as drafty as an open window with a fake rock facade and a fireplace that made the whole house cold when you lit it up.

Here's a picture from a few years ago with my brother and Spike, the Christmas chicken in front of the wall in question. He was wearing long sleeves because of the draft coming off that wall.

Anyway, we replaced the windows thinking that single pain glass was the problem, but in doing so, we found that the wall had no insulation. So energy star windows installed in an open wall was kinda pointless. The fireplace was another issue and after being in a tshirt at my boss's house in the dead of winter and admiring his big, beautiful woodstove, I had hopes we could rip out the oddly constructed brick fireplace and inefficient insert.

With crowbar in hand and asbestos protective masks on just in case, we tackled the wall, carefully saving the stones for grandma in case the need ever arose to have fake stone again.

With the wall down and the (crappy pine) mantel off, the fireplace seemed even more puzzling. An efficient fireplace is open to the room and shallow. This one was constructed to jut out into the room and be very deep and narrow. It made no sense and I swore they were hiding their family treasures in the mortar... but we moved on to the insulation as we debated keeping the fireplace.

Then with a few shims and a lot of great stuff, the drywall went up.

And with a lot of discussion, a couple of crowbars and a jack, the fireplace came down.

While I was mudding the drywall with Pepper's help, dad found an old wood stove he had stored the basement for years and hauled it up to see if it would fit. With two cook top surfaces and the promise to kick out a lot of heat, we decided to refinish it and give it a new home in the living room.

Next up, we had to remake the fireplace to surround the new woodstove. We got some reflective foam insulation and starting building a rock fireplace from rocks we found around the park. It was like tetris, only really heavy and painful for pinched fingers

I really like playing with mud... even it it is mortar. And lifting rocks really helped exercise away the winter blues a bit and exfoliated my hands. Ow.

Next on the list, an electric paint choice inspired by our peacock and the beauty of woodworking cherry from the park.... check back for pictures on our progress.

sheep are snow mountains

2009-12-19T08:34:00.001-08:00

The snow has hit. The sheep walk around with piles of it on their backs, pushing away the snow on the ground to nibble at the grass. It is coming down in little whisps and today we are finishing off the last of the meat birds, which means....

If anyone wants fresh, pasture raised, no GMO fed roaster chickens, just email me. $10 a piece, pickup tomorrow or they are going in the freezer and let me know if you'd like them later.

I am staring at a wood burner we just installed with a new fireplace made out of stone we found on the property. The next step is the cherry trim that was milled from when a tornado hit and took down a nice tree. My uncle saw the potential in the fallen trees and sent it off along with some nice black walnuts that also fell in the storm to be milled into plank boards. He died before he could really help me install it, but some of the walnut is now my beautiful bathroom floor and this cherry is going up as trim at my parents house on a brilliant blue wall, inspired by Max, the peacock. Every time I work this wood or go out to his old woodshop, there is a hollow echo of his laughter like a phantom limb that is no longer there, but you still can feel all the same.

Well, anyways, now I'm doing the normal winter thing... er, well I guess it's normal for me: scouting high and low for more sheep, modifying the garen plans, reworking the CSA, scouring seed catalogs for what people really want, pulling excellent meals out of the freezer and filling the whole house with the smell of roasting chicken, pinto beans, dried herbs rehydrating, tomato chunks, and sweet corn. Well, that's today. Last night it was pork chops, onions, rice (not mine), and broccoli.
I don't think that i've ever thought - man, I wish I wouldn't have frozen so much food. I am so happy this year that we still have peppers and sweet corn to pull from. And the pig this year was great.

Oh, and winter is when I get a bunch of crazy ideas and throw them out there to see if anyone is interested.
My new idea this year is to offer pork, lamb, and beef not by the whole or half, but more like the CSA. Anyone who wants delicious meat can join our Meat Share program, where for a flat rate, you get a portion of our pork, lamb or goat, roaster chickens, and new this year - beef. You can have a say as to how it's raised and butchered.

Well, I guess it's back to chicken plucking for me. Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

Snow

2009-12-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

The snow is falling in dreamy whisps this morning, just floating down aimlessly as my boots crunch on the newly frozen crust on the ground. The ducks and geese hang out right in front of my door, noisily yelling at me while keeping their bills tucked under their wings in the soft down.

I have been keeping busy with small winter projects and rationing out my money with meticulous care. We have collected bags of leaves for help with feeding the goats and sheep this winter. They also eat old corn stalks, branches, brambles, and non-treated cut christmas trees (any of which if you have, we will happily come and pick up, gratefully.)
I'm trying to post some of mom's jewelry online... if I could only spell bracelet right. Agh! Oh well.

The countdown to Dec 21st continues as the daylight keeps slipping. This year doesn't seem too bad so far as the weather has been fairly mild. The past two days have been a little slap in the face... or a little hint of what's to come. The days have been flying by at a crazy pace so far.

life lessons of sorts.

2009-09-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

First off ---Daisy found a home! They are happy together and I'm glad. She's an amazing dog.

Secondly, the CSA season is winding down and I'm getting that nostalgic-season feeling where I'm reflecting on everything I did and did not do and wishing I did more and thinking about next year and what to do differently and what not to grow and what to switch up. I think for right now, I should try to just focus on the question - what did I learn this year?

Hmm, with the hard task of clearing out my brain from the frenzy of harvest time and putting food back for the winter, amazingly enough, it's hard to concentrate. But anyways, here goes.

What I learned in 2009.

by Janee Houston

Pigs love to hang out in the road.

Sheep can't swim.

Radishes love to reseed themselves, especially if you don't like radishes.

If you want rain, it won't rain but if you don't want rain on a Tuesday... it pours.

Cats can't stop traffic like pigs can.

Not all apple trees are created equal.

Yes, there can be "too much of a good thing." Example, a very succesful zucchini season.

You can never plant enough garlic.

...or potatoes.

....... or asparagus.

............. or sweet corn.

Carrots hate me.

Onions hate me too. note to self, try a new technique - winter seed sowing in greenhouse?

For every one pint or black raspberries picked, expect 25 briar scratches.

Kale in partial shade is no match for kale in full sun.

All kale is still delicious, except after no rain for 3 weeks.

More dogs equals more fun.

Alpacas make crazy noises like cats fighting.

"Free" cow means something you feed, but you can't eat. (still trying to figure that one out too)

Real fencing works far better than electric and is totally worth the money to not have to chase sheep and goats and pigs all around, though I do miss the daily jog and anger management just isn't the same.

Do not count your melons before they grow as they will grow slower and less prolific than math equations and seed packets may want you to believe.

Forcing grapes to be seedless cuts down on their diversity.
Goats love to destroy anything you spent time on - especially if it's time spent planting.

Hmm... I'm sure there's more life lessons to be had, but after a long CSA day of fighting rain again, I'm ready for bed. Members - one more pickup before we close up shop for the season. It's time to stock up. See you Tuesday night!

scattered showers

2009-09-21T05:15:00.001-07:00

It rained a little bit yesterday. Not much at all. By "scattered showers" I think the weather prediction meant -one spitting little shower- because it was just enough to get your windshield wet. I guess this is the odd end to a weird season, a little 3 week drought ought to confuse the plants even more. I have a apple tree in bloom now. The dirt is just powder. Even the established trees are looking a little stressed.

The grape harvest is coming up fast and the last week of the CSA is impending. I'm feeling the end of the season blues pretty bad. Even football can't cheer me up this year as my team is more disappointing than ever this season. (I think you know which one I'm talking about...) I'm placing an order for blue berries and cranberries to plant along the creek bed. The pigs are all but one gone, and she is the most lonely looking pig ever.

I guess I'll just keep my eye on the winter plantings of garlic, kale, and turnips that we'll hopefully be pulling up all the way through the dark winter days. I guess no matter what the weather is, things are still growing.

Indian Summer

2009-08-09T05:58:00.001-07:00

It is August now. Welcome to the Indian Summer... er wait. Welcome to summer part 1. Hm... well it's going to warm up some time now.

In the grande scheme of things, August was going to be my month to really step back and work on battening the hatches for winter. We were going to start on plans for a wind turbine to start cutting down on the electric. We were also planning on hooking up an old wood burner in my basement to start cutting down on heating bills. And then I was thinking about figuring a compost heating system to try to heat up the greenhouse for a bit to keep me occupied with green things in the winter as well.
That is my wish list.

Instead, August has begun with sore muscles, an -o crap I have to find a job for winter- search, and for some odd reason a rescue dog trying to find a home project came to fruition.

First off, manual labor sucks. It is fun for a bit, but then there are just some days where I wish I had an office to crawl into and hide behind a computer. I spent most of the drizzley day yesterday cleaning up my loft and trying to get my head straight amidst a whirlwind of activity. Between the park and the vineyard, my mind is constantly racing and my body is constantly in motion. As the sun dapples and the wind blows... and the turkeys cry loudly for their breakfast which is a Sunday morning kind of late, I am really trying to sink my roots in and let things happen as they may. Maybe a good yoga stretch in the back field would really start this day out right.

Second - oh crap. I have to find a winter job.
This is really starting to hit me. I think it was the football cue that really knocked me on my feet. Our fantasy draft is coming up. Usually by the time football rolls around, I am done with gardening and the heat and am ready for the snow to fly on a lazy Sunday and fall asleep to the browns getting beat mercilessly.
But the heat never came this summer. And I am not ready to give it up yet. Where was all the swimming!? Where was the water volleyball? The summer nights with friends? Camping? Fishing?! Where have I been all summer? What the hell have I been doing!!!???
Which of course brings me to a new crisis...
The vineyard is great. I could list like twenty million things that I like about it, but I will spare you all. The one bad thing about the vineyard is this winter I will be SOL for employment. It is just this year and it shouldn't be too bad, but uncertainty is something that I am uncomfortable with and this is as uncertain as it gets.
The harvest is going to happen in late September. I am traveling down with the grapes to get pressed then and watching the master vitner start to work his magic. By the time I get back, frost will be upon us and I will have nowhere to go, no CSA to divert attention, only the cooing of turkeys that need sold for Thanksgiving (but of course, their deliciousness sells itself) and the deep longing for warmer weather.
We'll see, I am looking at some ridiculous options, and some of them involve plane tickets to warmer climates...

And lastly, the dog project.
I have no idea what got into my head. Perhaps I always wanted a pound puppy. Perhaps I just wanted to add a bit more chaos to my life. Perhaps I just really love all dogs, but I have a new project and she is happily sleeping on my rug in my newly cleaned room.
She doesn't have a name yet. It annoys me that I don't know it. I found her while searching for a pound puppy for my friend Bethani. And she is ridiculously sweet. I saw her first about a month ago, happily wagging her tail and rubbing up against the chain link trying to get pet. I took home another dog who looked like a young purebred border collie with the intention of training him as a herd dog, but he turned out to be really sick and after a tearful vet visit, I returned him. This girl was still in her cage, doe-eyed and almost crying with her big ears and wagging tail.
Thinking - of course that sweet dog is going to find someone - I left her there. I went back one week later, two weeks later... still there. But the pound and the barking was getting to her. She was more reserved, scared, and getting sores from being on concrete too long. So I took her home.
She was on a leash attached to me for 3 days. She went to the vineyard with me. She slept outside. She howled to come in.
After a few days, we started calling her Daisy. She still doesn't know it. I wish I knew her former name. She was somebody's dog. Her coat is soft, the vet said she was already fixed. This is someone's dog, but they threw her away.
I cannot have another dog. Pepper is all that I need. Daisy is a sweetheart though and I still think that there is a home out there that is perfect for her. We are re-teaching her manners and she knows how to sit and answers more to "Come here" than to "Daisy." She is most certainly from herd dog blood though and once she was inside the sheep fence, she split the flock then brought them back together, drove them to one end then circled and brought them back. It was amazing to watch her, totally untrained before but just enjoying what she was meant to do.
Since then though, she's slowed down a lot and would much prefer to be an inside dog. She will still run around and put the ducks away at night, but not with the ferver that Pepper keeps the pigs in line. Seems like she is most at home in front of the TV watching movies.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for a dog, just let me know. This one is 100% sweetheart and waiting for someone to give all her love to.

Until then, we'll be wandering around on this lazy summer sunday, bathed in sun and waiting for that 90 degrees they are talking about so we can go swimming!!!

fourth of july

2009-07-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

The dew soaked my feet before I even got to the turkey feed this morning. The sun was bright but it was cool enough for a jacket. The ducks filled their bills with all the mash they could fit before running to the creek to wash it all down and take their morning bath. The meat goats were happily laying under the shade of a bark stripped locust tree, lounging around eating their morning grain. I picked the summer squash while the sheep impatiently yelled at me for their morning meal and the pigs weren't even up when I threw their feed in.

It has been a tough week with the loss of the best cat who thought he was a dog and the best sheep who loved people. The pigs were running crazy and getting my grandma yelled at (what kind of jerk yells at a sweet old woman) and the goats were mischevious as ever. The next day, we lost our first fainting goat kid before we even realized it was born. So heartbreaking. In the middle of the week I was completely frustrated and tired and about ready to just move to a giant city and eat food shipped thousands of miles and not think about it.

... but I guess that's when you really just put your head down, one foot in front of the other and tackle each problem one at a time until everything is back in balance.

I moved the pigs behind the chicken house and gave them an electric fence of their own. I tied the alpacas to a tree so that they could graze, put the meat goat in a nice fence Travis built behind my house, checked online to see what could cause a miscarriage in a goat and what we can do about it next time, weed eated the trees that are growing in the cabbage... and slowly before long everything seemed to hit equilibrium again.

This morning was a sigh of relief, a sun bathed scene of beautiful fields with ducks preening themselves, geese flapping their wings for a morning stretch, sheep bounding and jumping at the sight of their breakfast, pigs sleepily waking up and plowing nose first into a giant bucket of slop, and pepper the heeler sitting back to survey her flock and make sure everyone is in line.

After blue berry pancakes and a big pile of eggs, I feel much better. And now, with one eye open to the problems at hand, today I am going to try to sit back and enjoy this independance day, eating straight out of the garden and grilling up some home grown hamburgers.

It's CSA season!

2009-06-17T04:54:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like the sit down at the end of the day, especially after running around all day. The first pickup day is always very exciting, with all of us running around through the berry patch, pulling root veggies out of the ground, deciding what lettuce heads to cut and which to keep for next week... all the while thinking - do we have enough? or do we have too much? how will i remember everyone's names?
So when 8 o'clock starts drawing near and the chickens are just starting to roost, it's amazing how your feet feel when you finally give them a break. With an extremely pleasant new signup rounding out the end of the pickup day, we were all happy to crack open a beer, giggle at the ducks and geese chasing bugs, and sit down to assess the first pickup day.

My sister looked a bit incredulous at me when it was all said and done and said "you do that every week?!" Eh, it gets easier as the season goes on though. It is so odd to think -- yes, I am planting this today but it won't be ready to eat until.... three months from now or four months from now or five weeks from now. After last year, I threw out the calculations going by the back of the seed packs (seed companies are terrible liars with high promises of huge yields in little or no time at all) and we have gone for the gung ho - plant as much as you can whenever you get the chance - approach. With the extra help this year, the gardens filled up quickly and we started looking for more land that we could use. Travis is the best for that. He can prepare a bed where there was nothing before (or where the pigs used to live, hehe) and things just start growing from there. I am trying not to worry, but I can tell it is going to be a wild ride as we battle the bugs, grow through a rather rainy summer so far, and try to stop the deer from eating our tomatoes in the back garden. They think we planted just for them. Wouldn't you know that as soon as I got the groundhogs under control, something else would think the garden looks delicious.

Anyway, as I promised this year to Jason, we cut back on signups so that our family can eat out of the gardens, a luxury we didn't have this year. I looove the radish recipe from the baskets this week and we are going to have grilled asparagus, lamb chops, and steamed on the grill radishes with a light short cake with a couple tiny strawberries on top.

I forgot over the winter how nice it is to cook straight out of the gardens.

summer salads and the first lightning bug

2009-06-07T20:27:00.001-07:00

I feel so lucky today. Perhaps it was sleeping in on a warm summer Sunday or maybe it was the hours playing in the garden and then jumping in freezing cold water to wash off the sweat and dirt. I am very happy with the pace of how the gardens are planted this year and I am incredibly happy that we didn't start the CSA as early as we did last year. I just keep thinking, geez, we'd be on week two already last year!
I am happy this way because it is allowing the lettuce to head instead of all be loose leaf. Sure, we will only catch the waning end of the asparagus and strawberry season but I think that the best is yet to come. The war on the weeds is on and Scout, my dad's white german shepherd suddenly figured out that his call in life was to hunt groundhogs... which is good news for us. There has only been one squash bug sighting so far and I haven't seen a cabbage moth all year yet. The peas are in full flower, the squash is putting on new green leaves, and the trees have settled into their new leaves quite nicely, turning the chartreuse into a rich, chlorophyll green of summertime.

I saw my first lightning bug today! It was at dusk and I was walking out to the sheep as the tree frogs were warming up for their nightly song when the ground started blinking at me. It is so funny how the early lightning bugs are supercharged, blinking so fast it seems like they are confused with their power to illuminate. Once settled in within the next few weeks, I'm looking forward to their nightly show as the bats fly overhead eating hundreds of mosquitoes.

I feel lucky today. Not that I am going to play the lotto or win money or narrowly escape catastrophe, more just glad to be in this moment at this time. Everything is growing, blooming, fruiting, and baa-ing. It's summer salad time!

carrots, kohlrabi, cabbage, and peas

2009-04-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

The peas are up, the garlic is almost knee high, the onions are poking out of the ground as we throw mulch to cover their bare shoulders. In the ground, waiting for germination to catapult them into happily growing are colored carrots, purple kohlrabi, cylindrical cabbage, white radishes, golden beets, swiss chard, arugula, two types of kale, and all types of heading and loose leaf lettuces.
The broccoli, cauliflower and celery are happily soaking up today's rain and I'm cursing the plum tree who foolishly burst into bloom the first warm spring day, leaving it vulnerable as always to those last inevitable spring frosts.

This is the time of so much anticipation. This is the first flush of chartreuse in the grass and a bit under the trees. The apple trees have a little green on their tips and the lilac has what looks like baby grape clusters coming on. There is a sweet smell in the air, combined with the rain turning everything into mud means that spring is certainly here.

Spring!

2009-03-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

The first day of spring is always so exciting. Each year, the season begins with a flurry of work after the nip in the air subsides a bit and this year proved to be no different.

My list of things to do is getting whittled down slowly and I feel like we're really on top of our game this year. I've recently taken up employment at a local vineyard and budding winery. I'm learning so much and playing outside all day. Every day I soak up more information from older, more experienced farmers and now I'm learning all about the best butchers around, when to spread manure and till in cover crops, advanced animal husbandry (they also have a beef operation), and the basics of making hay.

With all the excitement of budding grapevines, I am still keeping up with everything at home as well. This weekend was a tilling frenzy as we rented the Baretto from Leppo Rentals and increased the front garden by 1/3rd along with preparing the beds scattered at all four corners of the property.
We also have increased the livestock around here by 1/3rd as well. We now have 4 pigs of all colors with spots and stripes. Two bottle baby lambs follow my sister and her husband wherever they go and we finally found a fainter buck to start breeding these genetic anomolies. There's also two boer goats living with a giant white rabbit as I've never really had goat meat or rabbit meat for that matter and the conversion of feed to meat is amazing. And of course there are 25 little peeps ready to take their place in the hen house as soon as it gets warm enough and all their feathers come in.

I am up to date and on track for the organic orchard spray regimen. Pepper is doing much better with herding and keeping everyone in order. The seeds are growing at a nice rate and I'm holding back not putting everything in the ground too soon.

Set aside April 4th for our seed swap. That also happens to be the weekend of the Mount Hope exotic animal auction so you never know what else we might have by then!

Think Spring!

dust bunny and lamb meat

2009-02-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

I realize that most of my blogs are just a reflection about how fast time is flying. That's probably because whenever I sit down to write, I think - geez, is it 2/20 already? Holy crap! Spring is just around the corner.

Although right now, you would not believe that bright sunny days in the balmy 50 degree rainy spring could be anytime soon, these 20 degree-wind chilling through to the bone- days aren't going to last much longer... well, I hope.
We are keeping busy around here inside, but Pepper the puppy is really stir crazy with the winter blues.
The first dormant oil spray has been laid down on the apples, peaches, pears, and plums and I'm hoping that we'll have another mild and late frost-free spring like last year, although I'm not holding my breath.
Our seedlings are about ready for bigger pots as watering seems to never ending now and planting in the ground seems like a far off dream. I ordered a greenhouse online, a dream of mine to have a tropical oasis to hold me over through the terrible Ohio winters, but one day after putting it together, a terrible wind storm came by and put it in the neighbors field. I guess three inch stakes into not really frozen ground is not a good idea? Geez. The directions should have said that...

Rebuilding in progress.

A few of the garlic cloves heaved out of the soil during the two days of 60 degree weather and they have little roots growing in and a little green stalk poking through.

I am getting pretty antsy for this year's pigs. We had a lot of fun with them last year and they are completely and utterly delicious. The sausage cooks up perfectly for breakfast, the ribs slathered in grandma's bbq sauce were to die for, and the pork chops and bacon are divine. We cooked a ham in a cider glaze from our cider pressing frenzy and I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.
I also recently discovered a love for lamb meat as well. Believing firmly in the -try before you buy- theory, I decided to try a couple lamb steaks just to see if it was worth it to get some grass fed lamb this year.
The answer is easily YES as the sweet meat just melted into deliciousness with every bite. The question now is what breed to choose. Poor Crystal our lonely Jacob sheep has a new fear look in her eye as I just picture rack of lamb... although weighing in at about 40 lbs she probably will not end of up a dinner table anytime soon. We are working on spinning her wool and with a new Angora bunny from DustBunni English Angoras.

Now I am curious about goat meat and while Jason swears that we can't eat anything that we've already named, I'm wondering if it's an acquired taste or have I deliciously overlooked it like lamb, but nowhere around here sells just one goat steak. The butcher offered to sell me a whole goat to which I replied, no thanks I already have one.

We did recently pick up a fainting goat buck from NW Ohio. He is black and tan with a big beard and no horns. We named him Omar and he's still learning where the electric fence is and how it works. Every time he gets it wrong and leaves the pasture, Pepper is more than happy to put him back in his place. I did see him stiffen up once from excitement and we're hoping for some great kids with marbled blue eyes and delicious goat milk and cheese coming up soon.

My house is aliiiiive

2009-02-10T06:56:00.000-08:00

It's hard to sleep now. Spring is rushing towards us at an alarming rate. The rain was patting the ice off the roof early this morning and the first step outside just squished in the mud. I love the smell of fresh mud after the rain and it seems like the grass takes a beating from which it will never recover from in between the frost every morning and the barrage of moisture from snow melts and spring rains.

My house makes noises at night. It's alive now with beer bubbling, rabbits drinking, quail hatching, and seedlings sprouting. My morning rituals are getting more involved now with spraying down the flats of basil sprouting in every window of the house and turning the eggs slowly warmed in the incubator. We added an angora rabbit to the mix just recently and we hope to have some of the best scarves by next winter... or at least some fiber to spin to get through the long dark days of January.

The sun is stretching across the horizon, the goats are fully utilizing their fenced off pasture and pepper is barking and chasing around everything that moves.

I know it's still February but with 60 degree days it's really hard not to think that spring is in the air.

Let's talk about the weather

2009-01-25T08:08:00.000-08:00

It's 17 degrees outside today. There's a woodpecker right outside my window that is tapping and it kinda sounds like ice slowly melting and dripping off the slate roof. Perhaps that's just my hopes running off with my imagination. It is still nice to look outside and even though everything is brown and white, the little red headed woodpecker is working over the old apple tree for it's winter breakfast.

Today, I kinda feel like I'm always pushing the seasons to change faster, like the four seasons should be condensed and not drag on for so long. Perhaps it's just that winter doesn't seem so exciting after the holidays.

The first snow that pummeled down on in the new year lent well to building giant snowmen in the front yard. My sister and Travis made a huge snowman in browns gear and a green snow gator. Jason and I made a very disproportionate snowman (we forgot the proper way to roll snowman balls) with a huge center and a tiny base. We made a little snow dog for our snowman to stand next to with one ear up and one ear down, just like pepper.
The snowmen have been up for weeks, with their facial expressions changing as their pine branch eyebrows were moved by the wind and their bodies started to slump over in that brief warm spell, making them look like they are peering through the windows.

My new thing is sitting on craigslist and seeing what people are getting rid of. Recently, I got a little rabbit for free along with a couple pairs of silkie roosters from a 4H project who recently discovered that there's not always a 50/50 chance that you'll hatch a girl.

It is amazing what people are getting rid of... One man's trash is another mans treasure --- or at least something to do until it warms up outside.

winter is plodding along

2009-01-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

So I'm actually surprised to find that winter is plodding along at a decent pace. It's the 13th of January and i feel like the sun is slowly pulling us closer to summertime. Granted, it's still dark by 5:30, but at least feel like I'm getting a bit of Vitamin D during the day.

I put the garlic in the ground in the snow, Siberian, white striped, red toch, music pink, and another type that's escaping my mind today. I know you're supposed to plant them in the fall,

but life eternally gets away from me and the fall time is for falling back and making a game plan... and of course watching the Sunday afternoon games. I feel like just now, I'm starting to get a handle on where we're going with this year, and yes, it does take me the whole month of January to make up my new years resolutions.

We also made some cider before the holidays swept us away, pretty much just clearing out the old apples after the snow had knocked them all down. The shock in our hands was frighteningly painful, but we are all happily working up a sweat under ten layer, just thinking of hard apple cider, apple brandy, and whatever else we can do to make it deliciously alcoholic.

It turned out to be quite a process, but with a lot of people helping, is seemed like more fun than work. Well... at least for the people who weren't washing the apples with freezing cold water. and yes, that is snow in the pictures.

So far, I've already put in an order of peeps to be delivered Feb 16th and an order of seeds to come at the end of January. Soon we'll be starting the pepper and celery seeds and I'm happy now to have my sister home from Florida, albeit freezing here with us, but happy to help with the gardens and other events around the park.

This is going to be a great year. I can't wait to get started!