Day Off Around the House

Fall is the time of year I usually dedicate a day off to staying home and getting the garden cleaned up and put ito bed for the winter.  Sometimes I clean the house, too!

The overflowing dining area.

Yes, under all accumilated crap, there really is a kitchen table. 

Or atleast that's the rumor - I haven't seen it in weeks.

 

WOW!

Time to move the house plants in off the back deck, too.

 

 Potato Bed - Before

 

 Potato Bed - After

Only a small crop (7 lbs) but it was an experiment this year.

 

 A "new" hoop house over the potato bed.

"New" as in used and gifted to us by a friend.

 

 A relocated and semi-protected grape tomato plant.

 

Fall lettuce sprouts in the recently turned 'tater bed.

 



My kitchen herb bed was being overrun by the tarragon.

After realizing just how little tarragon I actually use and how space consuming it was I pulled it all up.  I halved the sage bush and dug back the marjoram too.  Then I planted a ton (maybe 40?) garlic bulbs for next year.

 

The chickens enjoyed all the fresh herbs, little did they know I was trying to season them from the inside!  Ok, maybe not.  But with the shorter days, colder weather and my three layers in molt, the  egg production is pretty low.  We have wondered when the first one will end up in the soup pot.

 

Happy Fall to Ya!

A Day Around The House

Sometimes it's nice just to stay home and get a few things done.

 

Usually I make this uber long to-do list and add to it as fast as I cross things off.  My days off are hardly relaxing when I decide to get stuff done.  However, yesterday was different.  I slept in.  I am usually a get up and get to it person.  Jim says that on the days I sleep in I sleep past my productivity.  True, I suppose on most days I can do more by 8 or 9 a.m. than most people do in an entire day.

 

Yesterday, I let the day flow in an organic unorganized energy and still managed to get a few things done.  I uploaded a TON of photos and have blog posts drafted up waiting to be finished and posted.  I baked two loaves of sourdough.  I roasted the last of the turkeys that we slaughtered last fall.  I worked in the garden beds with a little help.  I cleaned out the chicken coop.  I played with the BB gun.  I drank some wine.  I read part of a book.  I knit a bit.  I just relaxed!

 

 Me & "Cheep" labor working the garden beds.

Thanks for the help Scrappy & Cocoa Bean!

 

A portable dog kennel and a few sheets of metal roofing for shade/rain protection worked great to protect our girls in the front yard while they tilled the soil for me.

 

 Jim even got the garden / yard work bug.  Trimming dead branches off the pine trees with extreme amounts of caution - since he broke his collar bone 5 weeks ago.

Be Careful, Honey!

 

 Thanks to the handy user friendly design of the chicken coop I built a year and a half ago, cleaning is a breeze.  One side of the roof lifts completely off and I simply use a cat litter scoop to clean out the coop.  It's as easy as a litter box!

 Last fall I transplanted some horseradish roots.  Of course, I was given these roots the day after I had read an article stating that you should transplant horseradish in the spring not the fall.  Well, I followed the directions and stuck them in the ground anyway.  I have tried unsuccessfully to transplant horseradish before but I think it worked this time.  Anyone recognize this as a horseradish sprout?  (The lighter green sprout in the background is lettuce from last year.)

 

Jim challenged me to a BB gun competition late in the afternoon.  How could I say no?  He holds up the final results on the target looking slightly chagrined.  I was pink, he was blue - 5 shots each.

 

 

Well, thanks for visiting our corner of the globe. 

 I hope you had a relaxing Sunday too!

Early Harvest Surprise!!

My compost has two stages - working and finished.  In the "finished" side I threw some old organic potatoes in earlier this spring.  They sprouted into thriving plants and I added some dry leaves to help keep the moisture in.  I never "hilled" them like you are supposed to with potatoes because they were too many plants too close together.  I never watered them either.  They got rained on and got some sun and were pretty much left to figure it out on their own.  Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I needed to work on the side yard to prepare for the installation of the fence and that meant moving my compost.  While moving it, I noticed a few new potatoes.  I dug deeper and found more!!

(tilt your head again)

Here are a few of the plants pulled back and a couple of new 'taters!!

Look at that lush black soil!

I also found a gaint worm! 

Maybe not exciting to most people, but considering our poor soil quality and that I have been adding small worms to my compost for a couple years it was exciting to find one so big.

So many new potatoes!

A whopping 7 1/2 pounds!!

 

Not a bad surprise to be harvested this time of year.  A few of them got skewed by the first strike of the pitchfork and got returned to the "working" compost, but I am setting the rest of them out to dry. 

 

Guess what's for dinner?!

First Day of School - 11th grade

Ok... So what's the deal with "Blogger" uploading vertical pictures horizontally and then not allowing you to rotate them?!  Ugh!!

 

Well, just tilt your heads to the right and try not to kink your necks.

 

 

 Stown with his strawberry patch (remember those new planter beds?).  He asked if we could plant strawberries this year so we did.  They are doing quite well for a first year crop, I can't wait to see what happens next year! (Berries don't normally produce the first year, it takes them a year or two to "get in the groove".)

 

 He is as tall as a corn stalk this year.

(Actually, he's taller than my poor corn, perspective is everything.)

 

 Ok, enough posing in the garden. 

Grab your backpack and drive yourself to school before you're late!!

Home Improvements Projects

Well, this summer seems to have flown by in the blink of an eye.  Here's just a few before, after and still works in progress pictures of what we've been up to around the house....

An old dilapidated garden box at the bottom of the stairs.

 

Three planters and another old garden box in the middle of the yard.

 

Viola! 

I replaced the boxes and containers with retaining wall pavers that I scored a really great deal on from someone who purchased them and then decided not to use them.  I even had enough to build a new bed in the corner of the sidewalk!  I relocated the canoe from the side of the house to the front.  Nothing was planted yet, just some chives leftover in the canoe (oh, and my kitchen herbs at the bottom of the stairs if you look close).  Now everything is bursting with plants - corn, pumpkins, squash and strawberries.

 

Next came a big new BBQ.

But where to put it?

TaDa!

I picked up FREE flagstone from yet another person that didn't want it in their yard!  A little sweat and a couple days later I had a beautiful new patio area for my "outdoor kitchen".

Another Project?!

This time it's the fence.  Our existing fence is over 25 years old and barely standing.  So we finally bit the bullet and started replacing it.  This time around though, we are expanding our fence to the property lines.  This will give us a larger enclosed backyard.

 

I thought we would never get those holes dug! 

Hardened clay and rocks do not make for easy digging.

We took the easy way out and purchased pre-made fence panels.  This forced us to terrace the fence line but I am sure it has saved us a ton of construction time.

 

At the time of this posting we are about to close off this side of the yard (putting the last panel right where this photo was taken from).  I have started preparing the other side of the house for the next stage.  The longest stretch of fencing (all the way across the back yard) will be the biggest and longest part of this project. 

 

More pictures as we progress!

 

 

 

Sunday Chores & Rewards

This Sunday was not one of lounging around and watching mind numbing TV and ordering take out- like so many oblivious Americans do now a days.  Perhaps we enjoy our simpler world, without television, working with our hands to create, build, grow and harvest.

 Jim & Stown

Waiting until 9 am before the hammering began (in consideration of the neighbors), the boys went to work on our new back deck.

Stacks of lumber await purpose in a new life as a deck.

I worked the garden beds.  I planted my spinach and lettuce starts.  In the ground a bit later than last year, but this fall has been quite a bit warmer.  Once sprouted and a few inches tall, I will cover the glass with cardboard and let them sleep under the snow.  I did this last fall and when the snow melted this spring I was able to harvest my first salad in March!!

The final harvest.... (clock wise from the top)

Cherry Tomatoes (will be wrapped to ripen inside), Radishes, Parsley, Spearmint, Catnip, Sage, Huge Green Onions, a Tiny Cantaloupe (I found it hiding under the tomato plant.) and Peppers (center).

Hanging Herb Bunches

Homemade Pecan Sticky Buns!!

They definitely kept us fueled for the day!

Hope you had a productive weekend!!

Put to Bed Just in Time

As I finished up my winter yard work the snow started to fall again.

Looks like I got everything done just in time.

Insulated with straw, Ms. Parsley will winter over in her plastic pot nestled in an old dilapidated oak barrel.

The S.S. Sidedish has been mostly cleaned out and docked for the season.

Packed in the straw under an old window still grows mixed lettuces and spinach. See the milk jug buried in the background? It has holes through out the sides and that's how I water them without weighing down their little leaves with heavy wet droplets.

New pine needles and scrub oak leaves on the path to the shed.

It keeps the ground from getting all muddy when we shovel away the snow.

(We need access the shed through out the winter.)

The last of the goodies for the year.

First Snow

"Be careful what you wish for"

That's what they say. (Who are "they" anyway?) Well, so far everything I post comes to me the next day. Two days ago I was ranting about it not being cold - yesterday: freezing temperatures. Yesterday I complained that if it was going to be cold it should snow - this morning: Snow!! Maybe to day I should discuss the poor economy? Who knows, perhaps a bag of money will show up on my doorstep tomorrow. (Wishful thinking.)

Meanwhile, I never got around to putting away all my garden containers and winterizing my herbs. Why waste the beautiful weather we've been having to do chores that bring such sadness? It is definitely the end of the season when I put everything in it's place for the winter and stop harvesting even the smallest herbs. Besides, I don't procrastinate today - I wait for tomorrow to do that.

Terry, our androgynous yard gnome, was looking a bit sassy with all the snow on it's hat.

My poor frozen plants. The snow's melting off the roof as I type, I will let it warm up some then head out to take down the 'Mater house, pull up the chard and clean out the box of cilantro. I am sure the worms in the compost will be happy to have new greens. But for now...

I will spend my morning doing one of my favorite things - Rummaging the pages of cookbooks!!

With a cup of coffee and a hot bowl of teff, I am going to sit at the table and flip pages. I pulled these two off the shelf in search of inspiring comfort foods. Sarah Leah Chases's Cold-Weather Cooking, I picked up at the Friends of the Library used book sale last spring for $4. I put it away until the seasons changed. I think now is a good time to dig through it. Stew Leonard's Winning Recipes Cookbook was a gift from a friend a few years back. It contains great twists on old favorites, like "pizza potpie" and "honey baked acorn squash".

Although, dinner for tonight has already been decided. Stown helps me in the kitchen at least once a week. I think it's important for him to learn to cook. My mom never taught me, I learned from books and endless experiments. In fact, I am still learning and experimenting - not too modest to say they don't always turn out great but are always edible. Like Jim says, " That was OK, but if you never make it again that would be OK too." Got to love the man who eats almost anything you put in front of him!! Stown mixed the rub and applied it to the ribs last night. Today he will learn how to braise, grill and glaze them to create "barbecue-braised country spare ribs with beer and mustard glaze". He will also learn how to make homemade mac 'n' cheese and steamed broccoli. Of course we will have a fresh loaf of bread, but he's already mastered the baking of that.

For now, it's up for another cup 'o' joe and more page turnin'...

Spring Has Sprung!!

Good Morning Sprouts!!

I may not be the best photographer in the world but sprouts don't exactly smile for you. Here are my wonderful basil and broccoli sprouts growing happily in my window. Every day they eagerly bend toward the warming sun, so I am constantly rotating their container to help them with their posture. This is just one container on my rolling shelf system that occupies the only south facing window in our house. It takes up a good portion of our dining area. Hence, when we have company for dinner, I just roll it into the other room. I acquired the rack off the porch of a house on one of my delivery routes. Part of the joy of delivering mail all over town is all the cool free stuff you find that other people are just throwing out.

(And the obvious fact that I get paid to walk around outside all day!)

My Patiently Waiting Containers.

Dinah, the old cat, looks out the window wondering what all the change is about and why there are so many little birds in the yard. I cleaned away years of pine needle and scrub oak debris and threw down wild grass and flower seeds (area not pictured). I thought these would help with erosion on our front sloping yard, what I didn't realize was that little birds have a radar which must go off when seeds hit the ground. I have yet to see any new sprouting but the birds are fattening up! Oh Well. Meanwhile, I have all these fantastic containers awaiting planting. I only bought 4 containers and some soil. The rest of the containers were free along with about 1/3 of the soil... again thanks to customers on my route! One customer needed to thin out her herb garden and invited me to help dig up and transplant some herbs. I received thyme, marjoram, sage, chive, parsley and rhubarb! They are all living and thriving outside. I have basil, broccoli, cilantro, squash, tomatoes and strawberries safely inside. Many more seeds will be sown today - spinach, peas, bush beans, carrots, radishes and lettuces in the canoe a.k.a. "S.S. Side Dish." Jim was kind enough to let me turn his old canoe into a shallow garden. It's had a hole in it for years and he's been threatening to patch it since we met. Instead, he drilled more holes in the bottom for drainage and we have given it a new life. My containers appear sad and empty in the diffused light on this overcast morning, but I can close my eyes and imagine the lush bounty that will soon await harvest.




More Free Stuff!!

So after searching for a quality seated garden scooter to comfortably work in my low containers I had given up and purchased a padded garden thing to kneel upon. It seemed all the new scooters are now made of plastic and resemble children's toys. What happened to building quality products? Do we live in such a "disposable" world that nothing is made to last more than a year or two? Alas, another free-bee from a customer on my route! He had this old scooter in his yard ever since last fall. It endured the rain and snow and was covered in dirt and wet leaves. It was just what I had been looking for, so I inquired on where he had gotten it. Then he offered it to me. He stated that he didn't use it and just wanted it out of his yard. I was elated at such a find and took it home that day. Aside from flat tires and dirt, it is in perfect working order. The tractor style seat spins and raises and lowers in height. It's perfect to scoot around my canoe work the soil without working my back.



So spring has sprung and sprouts are underway here in Colorado. Most are safe inside the warmth of the house, protected from the sporadic snows that still decorate our yard. Birds are singing and the trees are swaying... the earth is awakening.



May your spring be graced by new life!!