Garden – Page 11 – This Old House 2

Caught with a hoe.

Now get your mind out of the gutter.

Today is one of those glorious weather days when working on the farm is pure bliss. I’m taking a break from the sun and chores to post these pictures. These are the days I cherish. Gratitude is the attitude today and I’m soaking it all up, breathing deep.

Some of you might remember the neighbors in the new subdivision who didn’t like looking at farm equipment two fields over from them, right?… Well, they’ll be looking at a barn full of farm equipment from now on… hope this makes them happy. They’ve been seen taking photos of our manure spreading and haying tactics.

Below is the foundation for an equipment barn.

Walter and son have hayed these fields for many years…

they’ll leave us some bales for the horses this year with each cutting…

Foundation for the horse barn – small this time, three stalls and hay/shavings/grain storage room

Hello, my name is Karen

and I’m a Coca-Cola addict.

It is what it is.

Grey Gardens

Wordless

Farm Updates

This Old House is now officially a member of the Connecticut Farm Bureau. We received our metal sign the other day…

See the four Robin eggs up in the header?

They hatched overnight…this is what BEN found this morning.

They just look so naked and exposed.

My Rock garden at the side door has filled in some

with a little help from perennials I bought at the garden center (too expensive)

Opie’s shoes at the gate.

Front door urns filled…

and garden cart made from recycled house parts…

This is the color combo I used around the house this year…

100 year old cast iron plants are back out on the porch…

I pimped the chicken coop just a little…

And they moved out of the house

and into their new pad.

He’s exhausted from planting this ginormous garden…

(what. was . he . thinking)

but it is an awesome garden and we will reap many rewards…

and a sore back.

My blueberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes…

The chicken sh*t did the job it was supposed to do…

the hay this year will be fantastic

The little backyard garden is very happy…

ancient lilacs in full bloom..

Kate of Chronicles of a Country Girl gave me a tip on cut lilacs

They don’t last long.. but if you smash the woody stem a little,

they last longer in a vase of water.

I’ve filled my assorted pots…

The dogwoods on the edges of the fields are just beautiful right now…

..and the rain keeps coming…

but that’s OK… because we’re GREEN again.

Amen.

Greenhouse Project Continues…

Those of you who were following along while we put This Old House

back together will remember Jeff – Mike’s best bud and Restoration expert.

He stopped by today to fix broken windows in the old doors of the new old greenhouse project.

Still four eggs in the industrial – area nest…

A Jarring Experience

My heart goes out to those in southern states who are suffering at the hands of the weather. It’s getting downright eerie… the weather patterns and distruction this year.. everywhere. Makes me wonder if the Earth has had just about enough of our abuse and is ready to shake us off like a bad case of fleas.

Anyway… on to a Jarring Experience of a different sort.

Me and my big ideas.

I’m all FARM GIRL and BACK TO THE LAND now,right?

I’ve been cooking for as long as I’ve been married

and I make a mean apple pie…

but I have never made applesauce from scratch, or canned/jarred anything…

So.. today is a rainy misty day…nothing outdoors is do-able.

This gave me the idea to go ahead and break in my

brand new canning/jarring boiler so that I can start stocking the pantries.

I decided to start with Applesauce, as I had two big bags of apples in need of use.

These were Empires and Macintosh..

I peeled and cored and quartered.

I cooked until softened,

Then threw the softened apples into a food processor.

I couldn’t help but notice the amount of “sauce” was starting to look like

it was not going to fill all six of the quart jars I was boiling for sterilization.

I put the processed apples back in the pot,

added just a little brown sugar, just a little white sugar and cinnamon.

Then brought it back to boiling, and after five minutes, started filling jars

that came straight out of the jar sterilizing pot.

Then I covered them with lids from the lid sterilizing pot.

It tasted delicious.

And I got – Two – quart jars.

That’s all I got after all the prep of two big bags of apples

and a ridiculous amount of pots on my stove

(who knew I OWNED that many big pots?).

Then I threw the two in the boiler, rolling boil for 20 minutes, per recipe…

And took them out to cool.

All two of them.

SO… all you canners out there …

Does it really take

two jar sterilizing pots, a lid sterilizing pot

A cooking apples pot, a boiler,

and a DUMP TRUCK LOAD OF APPLES

to make a few jars of apple sauce?

And how do you know you’re not gonna give your family botulism or something down the road?

Back to the Land indeed.

73 degrees

That’s what the thermometer read yesterday.

We spent a good part of the day working outside and it felt . so . good.

My side door rock garden with Newport and Hammonasset real estate.

I need more rocks – a near future trip to Newport is in order.

I planted three kinds of phlox in the border and there are

purple cone flower and daisies coming up, but most of the Lavender didn’t make it

through that bitter winter. I’ll have to find something to replace it.

New kind of phlox I haven’t seen before… not sure of the name, I found it at the grocery store.

A dozen fruit trees have been planted behind the garage/barn next to the coop. This is a Red Haven Peach.

The chicken sh*t has done a glorious job.. the grass is incredibly green after less than a week!

Amazing.

The aroma has died down, but it’s still present when the wind blows a certain way.

Ben couldn’t care less.

The Geese were moving yesterday…

After a few hours work and before the family Easter gathering,
I turned my face to the sun and silently gave thanks for all that is good.

I hope you were able to do the same –

Sh*t happens

I know for sure we are not the neighborhood favorites today at This Old House. I’ve discussed a few times the hideous pile of chicken manure out in the back field…that rich black mountain of pure organic gold fertilizer that stinks to high heaven?…. THAT pile. Well it’s gone, baby, gone….the last of it has been spread all over the fields and tonight we’re supposed to get a rain storm. I’m doing a rain dance for good measure.

Yesterday as my son and I were driving home late in the afternoon… about a mile away from our little spit of land we saw a woman walking her dog with a scarf up over her mouth and nose. Odd, because it was warm out. Then we rolled down the windows and OMG the stench was gut retching. And I do mean RETCHING. It was coming from our acreage, yes it was. This morning the man went to breakfast up the road with his friends. When he came out of the little restaurant… he could smell OUR CHICKEN SH*T all the way over there!!!

No, my friends, we are NOT going to be nominated for a good neighbor award any time soon.

Some of you may remember the subdivision neighbors who didn’t like looking at our farm equipment and vehicles parked two fields away from them on our property? Yes well…. their two dogs came on over into our field to have a look at what we were spreading… and they took a good roll in the process.

I already called the Town to give them a heads up in case they get another complaint.

Louie Part Two

You remember Louie a few posts back, right? Yesterday we took a trip over to Louie’s house so the husband could order more plants. Oh yes, we need more vegetable plants… the 500 or so we are growing on my screen porch aren’t enough, apparently.

First, an update around here…
The two raised beds in the immediate backyard were supposed to be IT! REALLY! NO MORE THAN THAT! TOO MUCH WORK!…. NOT GOING THERE AGAIN!

Except… winter somehow erased that memory and now there is that big patch out in the lower field. Seedlings are on my porch to the left.

This is our first produce, last year’s dried oregano ….. I had labels made for the farm too, but found that it’s expensive, not sure if I’ll do that again.

These are by far the most comfortable garden/barn/work shoes I have ever worn. I have always hated the look of crocs, so I didn’t fall into that fad. However, I needed something for out in the garden and chicken coop and found these at our local True Value hardware. I’m telling ya, it’s like walking on clouds. And they breathe! no sweating.

On to Louie…

When we arrived he was giving a neighbor some tomato plants..

His little green house, which we are replicating to some degree…

He’s already got onions and broccoli rabe growing ( I know that’s spelled wrong, some italian I am)

His neighbor, Egdio, is also from Italy and grows a mean garden of his own just across the creek.

Wouldn’t you love to have these two as neighbors?

Egdio is helping Louie plant peas – which Louie says “You can’t-a buy better peas..ooh nooo”. Ofcourse, he wouldn’t let us buy his either.

Now, Louie raises rabbits for food and fertilizer.

This never sits well with me..however… in Louie’s defense, the rabbits always have fresh water, large clean hutches and good hay, pellets and vegetables from his garden until their day of reckoning comes.

In my last Louie post I told you that I have “rescued” two of those rabbits before.

One, sadly, died at the paws of my barn cat. I built a large Bunny yard as high as my shoulder and thought he’s be safe from preditors. Not.

Needless to say I was horrified.

The other died in a heatwave when we had a week of near 100 degree days.

While my hutch was large and shaded, the vet said the rabbit probably needed a frozen liter soda bottle full of water in there to help him with the heat. I had no idea that even though in the shade and able to get inside his hutch if he desired, a rabbit could still die of the heat if not assisted.

Live and learn, is all I can do.

A momma about to have babies….

These are a mix of flemmish giants.. HUGE rabbits

These babies are just two weeks old.. see how big they are already…

uh-oh.

Rude

I drove five hours –with my mother!- to go pick him up from his birth place in Pennsylvania. Each Way! We’re talking a 10 hour car ride – with my mother!

When we finally got there, he was brought into the exam room and literally leaped into my arms, which was quite an accomplishment because he only weighed about three lbs at 10 weeks old and didn’t know me at all! My mother said it was a sign that he was meant to be mine, he just knew I would be his mother. Or something.

We intended to call him Chandler – I couldn’t tell you why. But Rudy was brought up as a possibility and I have never been drawn to the name, but for some reason it seemed to fit him.

I shoulda read into that sign.

He barks incessantly, he has bitten, he is a wuss when the wind blows and he pees on everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING. He drank Christmas tree stand water once and was poisoned so badly he spent two weeks at the veterinarian looking yellow. $1,000. later his liver was fixed. Merry Christmas indeed.