A little bit of spring

Last Monday and Tuesday (21 and 22 March) we had two days of spring. The temps were in the 70's and it stayed above 50 both nights! So we were able to get some outside work done.

The first of what I believe will be many raised beds was put together and filled with growing medium. You can see a pile of dirt in the back ground that makes up a large portion of that medium. I had my neighbor bring us two dump truck loads of dirt. It all has to be shifted to remove rocks and other trash from it and it is mostly sand, but we add peat moss, worm casts and compost at a rate of 5 to 1. This makes for a very loose mix and if (and when ) weeds get in there, they will be easy to remove.
We also got seeds started. Tomatoes and some lettuice. Because we used a lot of compost in the mix, we also got a lot of volinteer pumpkin plants. At last count, 46!

As you can see from the above photo, the whole thing will be covered with chicken wire. This will (I hope!) keep the rabbits and deer out of the bed until the plants are big enough to produce a harvest. And the coast of this construction project? $6.00! The coast of the 1/2" PVC pipe that forms the three hoops. The other materials I  had on hand or got for free. The wood I get from a import company that would rather have me take it, then have to pay the city to pick it up and take it to the land-fill. You can see that we tilled the area before placing the box and that there is mulch around it. There is cardboard under that mulch and the next box will be placed to the right of this box. And as we add boxes, we will have two rows running back toward the shed.

This is the little work horse that we use to do all our tilling, mowing and bush hogging. Its small but it gets the work done. Mowing is the job that takes the most time (we have 6 acres to mow!). And when we get it done, we have to start all over again!

Here are some pictures of that spring day.

One of the two pear trees in bloom.

And one of the raised beds we built in Marks flower bed last fall.  Daipodils, Tullips,  Pansy's and Flowing Kale. We built 10 boxes and planted lots of bulbs that are blooming like crazy!

As you can see, the flowering Kale over-wintered well and as the weather got warmer, it came back in a big way!

Elie (Marks dog) just soaking up the sun and chilling out!

But old man winter does not want to let go his grip! The days following the two days of spring, came back with day-time temps dropping into the 40's and hard frost's at night. Today is the first time we have see the sun in a week and it may get into the 60's today. But the rest of the week is predicted to be rain and cold (still!).
So I better get out side and get as much done as I can. As "The Duke" would say "We are burring day-light" (and what movie is that from?)
Talk to you later.
Tom

Neglacted Blog.....Its the computers fault!

I terrible sorry for not posting for the longest time, But that %$&*#@!!!! computer is acting up. And I do not know how to fix it!
But any way, it looks like spring is trying to get its foot in the door! Today was blue sky's and 78 degrees! The daffodils are in bloom and the pear trees have blossoms all over. In fact a lot of plants are breaking ground and starting to put buds out.
Terri and Mark planted 6 - 8 new Maple trees and I have three fig trees to plant Monday. I also have to get the ground tilled where the new raised beds will be. I start on that project first of the week and will attempt to get before and after pictures posted.
I have been trying to save money on gas by staying in town (Portsmouth VA.) with a friend during the work week and only going home on Sunday night. I do not get anything accomplished by doing this, but the cost of driving 115 miles round trip each day was killing me and putting a lot of wear and tear on the truck!
WORM NEWS!
If you remember that I took some of the worms out of the outside bed and took them into the house so they would not freeze this last winter. And they are doing good, But the worms in the outside bed are exploding! With the day time temps in the 60's and 70's, they have gotten very active and have consumed all the food material I placed in there just a few days ago. This Sunday, I will have to get up early (at my friends house) and go pick a truck load of horse manure and get it out to the homestead. I have to get this bed dug out and the worms picked out and get another bed built. I will divide worms up between the two beds and give them each new bedding and food. The bedding this time will be mostly leaves that I picked up, bagged at curb side this last fall. They have been laying in the yard waitting to be put through the yard vac and then wetted down. The main idea here is to setup a new bed and let it decompose for a week or two before adding any worms. That way the the bacteria that the worms really eat will get a chance to grow and multiply. A better enviorment for them to be introduced to.
Well , that's it for now. I will try and get pictures and a post up about the raised beds and the new garden early next week! Until then, keep looking for spring, ITS OUT THERE!!!
Tom

Mother Nature has a sence of humor

And she likes her little jokes!
Yesterday was a perfect day to get some work done outside. The high was 74 degrees and I got some transplanting done. Mostly day Lillie's and some Glads. A day to take off the sweat shirt and enjoy the sunshine. Even the spring Peepers were out in force! I even got to get the tractor started and did some tilling. It made me think that spring was really here. Little did I know that Mother Nature was giggling behind my back!
Because today it has been cold and windy! Its now 1630 and the temperature is 39 degrees! Along with a stiff, cold wind blowing! Winter just doesn't want to let go!
So today I spent the day sorting worms and harvesting Casts. This is a long process and I do it by hand. But I need to get the Casts to mix with my starter mix and get some seeds started. I should have done it long ago and starter plants should be under lights. But I need to make my newsprint pots and get them planted.
For those of you who saw the picture in my last post and wanted to guess at what those things were...

They are Pumpkin Sprouts! And they came from the totes that I have in my utility room (3 of them) that I have worms in. I was afraid that with the cold that I might loose the worms that are in the outside bed. So a few months ago I loaded up 3 totes with bedding, Worms and food material and brought them into the house. They have been consuming the kitchen scraps I accumulate and are doing quite well.
A few weeks ago I had two pumpkins in a bucket on my front porch that had broken down pretty good and I deviated them up between the 3 totes. When I checked the next day to see if the worms had moved into the new food, BOY DID THEY! As I removed the lid from the first tote, I could hear the sound of the worms moving away from the light! Now that takes alot of worms to make enough noise so that I could hear them!
It was only a few days before the pumpkin was gone and the seeds started to sprout. So I pulled those out and let them died back before putting them back into the totes. Worms only eat things that are dead and rotting.
They liked the pumpkins so much that I will plant them as a field crop this year and hope the deer leave them alone. I'll have to fence that area now too.
So there you have it, Worms and Pumpkin and Mother Nature as a stand-up comic! Life as it is!
Tom

Old man winter

Good afternoon,
the weather yesterday was sunny, but with a cold wind. I put a comment on Bev's Blog "Bee Haven Acres" the other day. She had said that "you could feel and  taste the color green as well as see it" I told her that you could also hear it. We got rain late Monday night and the temperatures were in the mid 40's. I took Daisy out for a walk at 9:30 or so and the rain was still coming down. A nice easy, early spring rain and that's when I heard the color green! A lone spring peeper was calling for a mate. He was on the edge of one of the many water puddles in the yard and he kept calling all night.
Tuesday broke with sunny skies and temps in the low 50's, but night time temps are still mostly below the 30's Wednesday is my first day back to work and last night I had the Truck gate. This is where we check in Truck traffic into the trailer yard. The guard shack is all windows and I had a perfect view of a cold front coming in from the southwest, until the sun went down.
And it started snowing around 2100! A very lite snow that I drove Thu all the way home.
And this is what I woke up to this morning.

This is looking to the southeast across my side yard. It's still snowing at this point.

And this is looking across the road to the southeast.

Now I know that for all of you up north and out west, this is just a dusting. It is for us too. As I write this at 1400, Most of it is gone and the temperature is in the high 40's. But what is weird is the day before and the day after! Both of them were warm enough to hang cloths out on the line and have them dry. I know because I did that on Tuesday!
Go figure!
Tom

Buttermilk

Hi Everyone,
When I was a little boy (Oh so long ago!), my Dad use to bring home real Buttermilk and drink it by the glass full. I hated it, but because he drank it, so did I. And over time I developed a taste for it. And now I Love it.
Guess what I had for lunch today? A big cold glass of Buttermilk with a little salt & pepper. Back when Dad would get it, he would pick it up at a locale dairy and it was the real stuff, Not the cultured kind that is available at the store now a day's. I can remember that each bottle (yea, it still came in glass bottles back then!), had small bits of butter in it and if you wanted any in a glass, you would have to shake the bottle.
I read somewhere that you can use cultured buttermilk to make more just by adding a cup to a cup of whole milk. Ever try this?
And of course there are so many recipes that call for buttermilk. Breads, Biscuits and batters for deep fried foods. If the buttermilk is not there, I can tell because that TANG just isn't there!
Its also a natural leveling agent and helps breads and batters to rise (I bet you knew that already, didn't you?).
And for thoes of you that have the family cow and get your milk stright from the tap, do you make buttermilk? I envy you...SO MUCH.
So for tonight's dinner, Battered fried chicken tenders, fries and home made sourdough bread (pretty healthy huh?) and for desert......DUMP CAKE! If you don't know what that is, I give the recipe in my next post
Do I talk about food to much?
And now for something to get you to thinking...What is in the photo?

I'll tell you in the next post. Also does any body know if they are eatable at this stage? TOM

Desert and you get your veggies too!

Hey guys,
APG like my last post and wanted me to show her husband how its done. Well here is a desert that you only have to use two items...And its sweet, moist and it will give you a serving of veggies too.
Ready?.........Its Devil's food cake! And it really does not need frosting (But Terri said everything needs frosting...So we did!).

Yep, only the two pictured above. Don't use pumpkin pie filling, just plan canned pumpkin, And you will notice I use a sugar free cake mix. Just dump them into a big bowl and mix until the pumpkin is incorporated into the mix. I made 12 cupcakes with this and they were OUTSTANDING! I used a ice cream scoop and filled cups all the way to the top, Baked at 400 degrees for 25 - 30 min (until tooth pick comes out clean).


We did not tell Mark what was in them until he was working on his second one, He doesn't like any vegetables at all....But he liked this one! APG... I dare you to make them and see if Hubby can figure out whats in them! I'll lay odds he can't!
So there you go...Another example that TOM CAN COOK!
See YA!

Yang Can Cook

And so can I! With my off the Homestead job, My normal days off are Monday and Tuesdays. And I help Terri cook dinner or (because she is back in night school now), I do the wole thing. So last Monday night I fixed dinner and had it ready when she and Mark got home.

Dinner was Chowder with smoked sausage and corn. The day had been cold and we wanted something filling and something to warm us from the in-side out!

Here you see my two taste testers. Eli on the left and Dodger on the right.

Also on the menu was a green salad and toasted sourdough bread.

And for desert......STRAWBERRY SHORT CAKE!

I think they both liked the potatoes!


How's that for a single guy?
And tonight I cooked 7-layer dip with torttia chips! and wait until you see what I made for desert!!

until next time...Have a great day!
Tom