The brown dirt has been weeded and is now ready for the fertilizer application, then the water and THEN the potatoes and garlic. Or so goes tomorrow’s plan. At this point there are no other appointments.
These starts didn’t get finished today. As you can see, only the cucumbers have been planted into 2″ pots. The others should get transplanted before noon. Though somehow, my plans often get rearranged.
Update: Ava is getting along famously with all the other sheep and dogs. It’s going as smoothly as if she has always been here.
It’s hard to believe that these green stripes have been evading me. They are scraps from several years ago and I don’t even remember the original intention – hopefully this was it. However, I opened a small drawer to put something in and these begged to come out. They are now a new quilt top just waiting to be quilted. It measures 41 x 48. I really don’t know what is about these greens as green has never been my favorite color, but I do like it for quilts.
I also worked at moving a box in the hoop house. We have to move it over about 18″. So I’ve been clearing where the new side of the box is to be – digging the dirt from the left side, tossing it onto the right side. The post on the right side will eventually be in the middle. I still have a couple weeks before planting the tomatoes so I’m okay.
And here is the point from where Lacey enjoys watching the most. No one can come or go without her watchful eye. However, usually she must be in the pasture with the animals. (The alpacas were allowed out to eat weeds today, so she was able to watch from here.)
My body was refusing to do more manual labor today, so we headed out to get a supply of animal feed. Look who had run away. I don’t know who he is or where he lives, but he is quite away from home as he doesn’t live in our area. The truck on the right is following them so cars don’t sneak up on him. Grain purchased and in the proper containers, it was time to make lunch.
After lunch was a good time to go into Seattle, which was more than a 3 hour round trip. We went to REI as I purchased a red jacket there which was great in every way except color. The more I looked at it, the more I realized I wouldn’t be wearing it as I wear mostly red and pink shirts and would feel like the colors were clashing. And DH had a jacket that he wanted to trade for one with a hood. They didn’t have any blue ones in the store, but will be mailing me one next week, which is fine. It is a type of shell, so more rain and wind proof than warm, which is what I need.
After all of that running around, I took two hours to finish this scrappy top. Animals are now fed and put to bed, so I’m taking some time to help my brother on the family genealogy. If you’ve never worked on one of these, you have no idea how much time and effort goes into it. He has spent the last two years rounding up photos, flying to where the oldest people are that still might have information etc. With all this work, you did up a lot of interesting stories and get to know your ancestors. Hopefully he will publish this in the summer.
After finishing the first pair of “boring brown socks”, I looked in his sock area. He has 7 pair that
I’ve made for him, so I’m not in such a hurry to make the next pair. But I do think they will be just like these, so that if he wears out a sock from each pair, he will still have a pair left. What forethought!.
I have knit with a lot of yarn that I enjoyed more. This yarn was very soft and I enjoyed the feel, but it wanted to split and it also showed any unevenness in knitting. So every time I looked up or something slipped off the needle, it showed as unevenness. But they are a good wearable pair with a 10 year guarantee on the yarn. That will be interesting.
Now for excitement – when I put the animals to bed at night, I usually leave the main gate open just enough for the chickens and turkey to get in. Apparently, tonight, it was a bit too much. I spent about 15 minutes chasing alpacas before calling for reinforcements. It’s really too bad, because if they weren’t so difficult to get back inside the gate, they could come out and eat all the grass we have to mow. Perhaps tomorrow, we’ll try letting them out in the morning and putting them back at noon, when they usually have their rest. Keep your fingers crossed, they’ll go back peacefully. If they do, we’ll all be happier.
Mother loved flowers and this print is remnants from the last housecoat I remember her having. I decided this would be a great quilt for me to keep, since it has memories, so I bound it completely by machine as I intend to use it and throw it in the washer and dryer.
I gave the bees another box today and was a bit careless – not a good thing around bees. For that mistake, one of the young ladies nailed me right under the chin. Currently, the bees are very plentiful and I think if I had not given them another box, they might have been getting ready to swarm. I really don’t want to lose them. And next week, I’ll be a bit more cautious.
We planted a few more potatoes from the box that was all roots and pulled out the raspberries that were growing in the aisle. Hopefully Sunday we will get the rest of the potatoes and garlic in the ground.
The bananas are ripening. Today I sliced one box full and put them in the freezer on trays. After a few hours, I transferred them to bags. Don’t they look yummy. Of course now and then a piece did hit my mouth. The 4 boxes remaining appear to be ready either tomorrow evening or Sunday. In either case, a lot of Sunday will be freezing and dehydrating these. When dehydrated, they are wonderful little pieces of “candy”.
It seems as fast as I take items out of the freezer, I find more food to replace it. Today, I took tomatoes out to make into tomato sauce and for lunch we had corn, zucchini patties, and peas from the freezer. Then we had black bean dip and salsa from the canning. It’s terrific to have good food so handy.
I took the seedlings up to the greenhouse when it was only sprinkling. The rest of the day was medium to heavy rain. As soon as I can, I need to start planting them in the ground. Once I start, then it is an unending garden process until the canning is done in the fall. But the benefits are worth all the work.
This is a part of the crew going in for the night. The geese were very independent and finally had to be herded in.
I’m quite sure that groceries are going up, up, and more up, which is why I really want to have a good garden with loads canned, frozen and otherwise stored. We started at Costco and yes, I know that it is difficult to come out of there with just a few things. However, with what we purchased there today, I don’t think we need to visit the food part of the store for at least two months. To follow that up, we went to Fred Meyer for the items that Costco didn’t have. I have definitely learned that only one of a couple should go to the store, but I don’t know how to put that in practice, when he likes to go with me. When the two of us go, it seems to me that we come out of there with three times as much as either would have purchased. The only consolation was that most of it was long term items, some for the freezer and some like sunflower seeds that I use to make humus. Some of it was for the big Super bowl game Sunday where several are getting together to enjoy the game.
After lunch I made zucchini patties for the freezer and for tomorrow. Then I put the rice and lentils that I soaked this morning for flatbread into the blender with salt, onion and garlic powder until it was thick and smooth. I saw this recipe this past week, but I really don’t remember where and since I couldn’t refer back to it, I baked it at 400 for 20 minutes on a silicone pad on a baking sheet, then flipped it for 5 more minutes. If I had used two sheets, it would have made wonderful crackers. Bill cut it into some small pieces for dipping and some larger pieces to eat with meals. This is a great and easy recipe for gluten-free menus.
Then to add some humor to my day, the geese wanted to be herded into the night enclosure. So I put the rest of the birds in and went after the geese. They came to the door which I then opened and the latest three ducks ran out. OK, ducks are out and geese are in. I managed to corned one duck and got it back in and the other two ran off to the pond. So I went into the house. About 1/2 hour later at sundown, I went outside and these two were giving me the what for because they were locked out. So I went down there and told them that’s what happens at night, they better stay in next time. They were very happy to get back in. One just enjoys the animals even with their quirks.
The brown dirt has been weeded and is now ready for the fertilizer application, then the water and THEN the potatoes and garlic. Or so goes tomorrow’s plan. At this point there are no other appointments.
My body was refusing to do more manual labor today, so we headed out to get a supply of animal feed. Look who had run away. I don’t know who he is or where he lives, but he is quite away from home as he doesn’t live in our area. The truck on the right is following them so cars don’t sneak up on him. Grain purchased and in the proper containers, it was time to make lunch.
This is a part of the crew going in for the night. The geese were very independent and finally had to be herded in.
I’m quite sure that groceries are going up, up, and more up, which is why I really want to have a good garden with loads canned, frozen and otherwise stored. We started at Costco and yes, I know that it is difficult to come out of there with just a few things. However, with what we purchased there today, I don’t think we need to visit the food part of the store for at least two months. To follow that up, we went to Fred Meyer for the items that Costco didn’t have. I have definitely learned that only one of a couple should go to the store, but I don’t know how to put that in practice, when he likes to go with me. When the two of us go, it seems to me that we come out of there with three times as much as either would have purchased. The only consolation was that most of it was long term items, some for the freezer and some like sunflower seeds that I use to make humus. Some of it was for the big Super bowl game Sunday where several are getting together to enjoy the game.