Marching Right Along

Today was a beautiful day.  Sunny and warm.  I have the windows open and can here the chickens' beaks hitting the tin as they peck up the chopped apple treat that Ross just gave them. Max is groaning because he wants to go out and play with the chickens and his daddy.  Earlier I planted our large front porch pots with an assortment of annuals. Other than the black flies (oh how I hate the black flies, and I rarely use the word hate), it was a great day to be outside.  Each day seems to get warmer and sunnier!

I walked around and looked at our gardens.  Flowers coming up all over the place.  Most of our hostas have little heads popping up.  Our other perennials are also just coming back to life. Lemon balm that I planted last year must have seeded as it is back and looking strong.  Seeing all this new growth is exciting. Of course, as all these new plants are starting to grow others are coming towards their end.  Our forsythia and daffodils are at full strength. So are the hyacinths and bluebells.  Soon the tulips and allium will replace them.  Time keeps marching right along.

Our fruit trees are also starting to flower.  The peaches are at full bloom.  Our bees, plus some big bumbles, have been busy pollinating the flowers.  The plum has also flowered. The apples, cherries, pears, and blueberries are close behind.  I included a picture of one of the apple buds as I thought it was just stunning.  I have high hopes of getting some good fruit this year as the fruit trees are all now several years old.  Of course, I will have to wait until each of these fruits come into season!  Everything in its own time.

It's Official

I've always wondered if I was just overstating the facts a bit when I referred to our property as a farm. We have several acres of land which used to be pasture land of a much larger farm.  It is now mostly woodland.  I never thought that having a small orchard, a handful of chickens, and two bee hives really counted as having a farm (and I shouldn't forget the electric fence). I think the fates are trying to tell me otherwise.

For those of you just tuning in to my ramblings, we sell eggs via a cooler on the side of the road.  We work under the honor system-the eggs are in the cooler as well as a bit of money to make change.  You take a dozen eggs, you leave your money.  We don't produce that many eggs so our customer base is a pretty small and loyal group.  Many a time someone also returns their used egg carton.  Yesterday someone returned a carton on which they wrote "Ross's Chicken Farm."  I had a good laugh when I saw this.  We aren't sure who wrote it, but they sure do know who we are.  That was the first sign confirming our 'farmdom.'

The second sign came in the mail today.  We received the 2012 National Agriculture Classification Survey from the USDA.  This is a mandatory form that we have to submit. I picked it up with a "yeah, right" thought going through my head.  There are four qualifying questions on the cover.  If you respond no to all four then you just send the survey back stating that you are not farming.  We have to answer yes to three of the four questions.  

I guess all signs are pointing to us really being a farm.

Teacher, The Dog Ate My Homework

This past Sunday Ross was hired to cater a small holiday party that some friends from church threw. He did most of the prep work Saturday and some final work on Sunday before he went over to their house to cook everything up.  It was some tasty food, and it seemed that everyone was happy.  After all the guests left, Ross helped clean up, and then we headed home.

Once home we unloaded everything onto our dining room table, including the check Ross received for payment.  I said I'd do the dishes as he had just done a bunch at our friends' house.  We chit chatted a bit while I washed, and then Ross headed into the front room.  Next thing I hear is "no Max."  So what did our little Corgie do?  He ate Ross' check.  So not funny in one hand but way classic in the other!

Thank the Lord that these were friends of ours.  Ross called them up and told them what happened.  Their reply was that they paid Max to eat the check (of course we know now he would do it for free).  Ross got a new check Monday and subsequently deposited it before any more mishaps could happen.  Smart thinking!

On another note,  Ross and I have had a little blessing this year.  It may not sound like much, but we had our rosemary plant bloom for the first time.  Woo-hoo you're thinking.  To me, this is an amazing feat as I have systematically killed every rosemary plant I have had up till this current one.  I received them as Christmas gifts and bought them from nurseries; all dead.  We started this one in the Summer of 2010.  It barely survived the Winter on our kitchen counter.  I took it outside this Summer and it flourished.  I brought it back in when the temperature started to drop and said a little prayer for it.  So far my prayer has been answered as it seems to be doing quite well.  It flowering is a fitting Christmas tribute as I recently read a blurb about how the Virgin Mary had laid her blue cloak over a white blooming rosemary plant and from then on it bloomed with blue flowers.  The plant was hence known as the Rose of Mary.  Let's hope that I can keep this plant living so we won't need an Easter miracle later this Spring!

It's the Least Wonderful Time of the Year!

Well it's that time of year again. Time to discard all the potted plants, clean the pots, take the clothe's line down, pull the deer fence off the garden fence... In general, it's time to hunker down for winter.  For everything there is a season, and I don't like this one at all.  It makes me sad to throw all the patio plants into our compost pile.  Ross looked a little sour as he cleaned up his vegetable garden.  On the plus side, the chickens have been dying to get into there all summer, and now they have their chance.  I also made a short list of things I need to finish before it gets too cold (which means the next two weeks!).  If it weren't for the leaf show happening all around us it really would be the least wonderful time of the year.

You're a Big Girl Now!

Which is the little girl egg?

After we woke up this morning Ross checked on the chickens. We still have the little girls separated from the big girls.  In the little girls' pen was a little surprise. One of our little girls laid her first egg.  We believe it was Big Bird as she is the farthest developed (she is bigger than the two remaining older girls but doesn't know it).  It looks like we will be having a lot more eggs coming our way soon!

On another note, the other night we took Max out for his final potty.  We heard this little, clicking noise and saw something gliding from tree to tree.  It was a flying squirrel.  I was so happy as this was on my list of animals that live in New England that I wanted to see but haven't.  In two weeks I've gotten to cross bobcat and flying squirrel off the list. It has been a good summer so far.

Speaking of good summer, our gardens are doing great this year.  Below are some pictures I took today.  The gardens give me so much joy.  I hope the pictures help give you a little too!

The Morel of the Story

Lucky us!  We have several morel mushrooms growing in our orchard.  Ross picked one today, sauteed it in butter, and mixed it with asparagus (fresh from our garden), chives (fresh from our garden), ramps (grows wild on our property), and gnocchi (made with potatoes from last year's garden).  It was a gourmet lunch!  I hope that we are able to find some more mushrooms.

Time Flies

Guess what...

Boy does time fly by in the blink of an eye.  It just seems like yesterday that we were growing and harvesting our garlic, and Ross planted his new bulbs for next year today.  His garden is officially defunct for the year.  He pulled the last of the plants this past week.  We were able to get one last lettuce haul that gave us enough for a salad, and there are some carrots in the fridge that we will need to eat.  For the most part it was a good growing year.  All did well except the potatoes.

I spent part of the day performing the sad task of disposing of our annual flowers that are now spent and cleaning and storing the pots for the Winter.  It's sad to see the plants fade away knowing that another Summer has come and gone.  I still left some plants that are hanging in there go so that there was at least something on the patio when my sister comes to visit next weekend.

Ross planted some more daffodil bulbs in the front of the house last weekend.  The first Spring after we bought the place we had some daffodils sprout.  Ross has added to them each year since.  I can't believe we are quickly coming up on three years in this house.  All I can say is that the house and the landscaping keeps getting better every year.

The weather seems to be getting cooler and cooler as the month rolls along.  I haven't broken out a coat yet but did pull out my quilted flannel shirt.  We are back to wearing multiple layers while we are outside.  What is worse is that I have turned on the heater in the house.  It kills me to say that.  I usually try to make it till November to turn it on, but the temperature has been low enough that the house does not get back to a comfortable temperature during the day on its own.  It is not fair to Ross to ask him to freeze his tuckus off all day long just because I'm a heat miser.  FYI, I know it's gotten cold when Ross tells me that he is cold.  He has officially been wearing jeans and even wore his coat one day while he watched the chickens.  The chickens on the other hand don't seem fazed by the temperature change.

Last weekend Ross and I had our anniversary.  We had a relaxing weekend at home.  We did go to the Garlic Festival at the the Bethlehem Fairgrounds.  It is fun to go and see all the people and try all the different garlic dips and sauces.  I bought a carved wood bowl there to house my pocket change.  While walking around we discussed whether to go out to dinner or to cook at home.  We ended up cooking.  For dinner we had prime rib, baked potatoes, fresh garden salad with a garlic vinegar dressing (we got the vinegar at the fair), mushrooms sauteed in red wine, and champagne to toast another year together.  Ross made an incredible dinner.  I am blessed to have such a talented husband.

All in all it does seem that time is flying by.  I think part of what makes it seem to go so fast is the good company I get to keep!

Break Out the Coats

What a weekend.  We had two beautiful and sunny days with daytime temperatures in the 60s and evenings in the 40s.  This was the first time since Spring that we had to bundle up.  By this I mean that I put on a sweatshirt and long pants (and thought at one point of getting a jacket) and Ross went with a long sleeve shirt and his shorts instead of a short sleeve shirt.  Ross is warm blooded and I am always cold.  In the dead of winter I want to place flannel sheets and a wool blanket on the bed but he gets too hot.  He is best with a light blanket and regular sheets.  I would wake up as popsicle if he had his way.

As you can see in the picture we are starting to lose our leaves.  Everything in the garden has been early this year and it looks as if the changing of the leaves will be early too.  We had a tropical storm go up the East Coast Thursday and Friday which dumped a lot of rain on us.  With it came strong winds which knocked down a lot of leaves.  We needed the rain but could have done without the winds.  We thought about starting to rake, but I thought we should wait another week and let some more drop.  Ross mowed the grass though to help mulch what was already on the ground.  I think the chickens were upset since they love scratching up the leaves looking for bugs and worms hiding beneath.

I spent a lot of the weekend watching the chickens (they desperately needed some outdoor time after two days of rain) while Ross worked on a new Spring bulb border in the front of the house.  He has gotten really good at making rock borders, and we are in no short supply of rocks.  We chit chatted a bit with our neighbors from across the street, and they even mentioned how nice Ross' borders looked.  Now that he has finished this border we will have Daffodils framing the entrance to the driveway; I just love Daffodils and they look so nice with our old stone walls as a backdrop.

Speaking of the stone walls, I have decided to make several jack-o-lanterns this year to place along the wall.  I already started getting pumpkins (because pumpkins are also early this year) to complete my task.  I just love Halloween.  I only wished that the communities around here made a bigger deal over this holiday.  I'll probably start carving in a week or two and slowly build up my army of orange gourds.  As I buy more pumpkins I will of course sneak a sugar pumpkin or two Ross' way for rendering.  He makes a mean homemade pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving is right around the corner!

But Does He Do Windows?

The answer is yes he does!  I spent a good portion of the weekend cleaning windows.  Now I'd like to say that this was part of my semi-annual maintenance, but truth be told, we have not done a thorough cleaning of the windows since we bought the place two and a half years ago (and I can't begin to tell you when they were cleaned before that).  I never really realized how dirty they were until I cleaned one, and then I had to clean the rest.  I also didn't realize how many windows there are on our house between the regular panes and the storm windows until I started this very tedious job.  My thought half-way through was thank God we have a one-story house.  Although the job is in no way glamorous, I cannot describe the feeling of going inside and looking out through sparkling, clean windows.  It was very satisfying to see the world in full color instead of through the whitish-gray haze that was there before.  Of course, someone had to put a finger print on one of my freshly cleaned windows within hours of me cleaning it.  Ross assures me he did not do it.

This was just a precursor to the interior cleaning that we will be doing this coming week.  We are having family visit next weekend.  As such the whole house will be getting  a good going-over.  My mother accused us once of keeping our house too clean, and referred to us a Felix and Super-Felix (me being Super-Felix).  I took it as a compliment.  One of my fondest memories of meeting Ross' family was the first time I met his grandmother, affectionately referred to as Sito.  She came to our place for Thanksgiving, and her first remark after greeting everyone was to compliment us on how clean our home was.  Personally, I think our house could be cleaner, but that's just my obsessive compulsive disorder talking.

It has been a banner year for our tomatoes.  Ross was able to can another batch of his tomato sauce this weekend.  I love his tomato sauce.  For Friday supper, he made homemade spaghetti in his sauce with garlic bread (he made the bread himself and the garlic was from our garden); I am so spoiled.  With all the tomatoes this year, he has canned three batches of sauce, two batches of tomato soup, a batch of salsa, and two batches of tomato ketchup.  We will be eating well this winter!

Of course with me washing windows, Ross was on chicken patrol.  Blackie, our Black Australorps, had a tough Saturday.  Every so often chickens can lay soft-shelled eggs; the shell is there but it is not rigid or hard.  Blackie for some reason does this pretty much once a month, but instead of one egg she usually lays two in quick succession.  This was the case on Saturday.  It was later in the day, and Ross noticed that she was all puffed up and was looking like she was going to lay.  He got the other girls to go to their run so he could baby sit Blackie while she passed her eggs.  I was out front with them cleaning windows at the time.  To my great dismay, I heard a pack of coyotes in the distance howling while Ross was herding the rest of the girls to the back.  Coyotes are common place here, but hearing a group of them howling in the distance during daylight hours is not.  I said a little prayer that out little Australorps would get her eggs out before our property was overrun with hungry mongrels stumbling upon a chicken dinner.  She did get her eggs out, and we were not overrun by coyotes.  Of course, had we been, we would have been able to see them clearly through those freshly cleaned windows!

Fall is in the Air

I can't believe that it is Sunday already.  Ross and I have had a wonderful and relaxing weekend.  The weather Saturday was bright, sunny and cool.  It was a perfect day for our planned outing.  We went on a farm tour in Roxbury, CT which is one of those idyllic, small New England towns that commercialism has yet to reach.  We got to see two, historic farms and two, more-modern farms.  We had a wonderful time looking at the orchards and farm animals.  The not-so-little girl to the left is a Scottish Highland cow.  She was quite the character.  One of the guides mentioned that one farm in Roxbury imported this cattle breed a number of years ago, and now it seems that every other farm in the area has gotten itself two or so from the babies that followed.  They seemed quite the gentle giants and are supposedly well suited to our New England winters.  The farm where this picture was taken is one of the oldest continuous running farms in the country.  It is currently being run by the eighth generation of the family, and the land it sits on was originally granted to them in the early 1700s by the King of England.

On another farm there were goats and donkeys.  As stated in an earlier post, Ross really wants goats.  I was  surprised at the simple shed that was used to house them.  It is definitely something that we could build.   I should have asked if they stay in the shed in the winter or if they are transferred to another barn.  Oh well, we have some time before we get to goats, unless Ross pulls the chicken stunt on me again!

We also toured a certified organic vegetable farm and a local meat farm that focuses on humane treatment of its black angus cattle, heritage hogs, and free-range chickens.  We ended up buying some bacon for Sunday breakfast.  It was really good!  We had a great time touring the farms, but I think it was also very dangerous because now my head is filled with all kinds of ideas.

We awoke to an overcast and very cool Sunday.  I think the temperature might have made it to 62 degrees if we were lucky.  It was a good day to trim some of our trees though.  Ross got this picture of me climbing the ladder.  I wish he was able to catch the moment that I was trying to move it while it was still extended and almost fell backwards.  That would have been classic.  Always the worrier, Ross came around front (with the chickens in tow) and reminded me not to let the limbs fall on my head like I did when I trimmed one of our pine trees in the Spring.  I wasn't directly under that limb, but somehow or another when it dropped it hit me straight on the head.  It hit me so hard all I kept repeating to myself was "don't let go of the ladder."  It took me a couple of minutes to steady myself and then slowly descend to the ground.  Today was the first day since the pine that I tackled some larger limbs.  Believe me, not letting them hit my head was definitely a priority.  I got them down just fine with no new dents in my noggin, phew.

For Sunday supper, Ross made a most tasty pot roast with potatoes and carrots from the garden.  Ross likes to joke that it was his pot roast that sealed the deal on our relationship since that was the first meal he cooked for me.  I think my waistline agrees.

Since I'm on food I just wanted to give a quick update on one of our annual events-Peach Week-which occurred this past week.  Each year since we moved to Connecticut Ross and I go peach picking at a local farm; we did it this year this past Sunday (Daisy's last day-hence the reason that I'm getting to this now).  The week starts off with us just eating the peaches, and ends with jars of peach jam, peach butter, peach chutney, and halved peaches in a light sugar syrup all heading to storage in the cellar.  I can't tell you what a treat it is on a cold, late February night to open a can of the peaches we picked and get a taste of summer.  Peach Week is one of the main reasons we started our own, small orchard.

This year there were two additions to Peach Week; the first was Ross' new copper jam pot (which worked great), and the second was me.  He actually let me help.  It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about canning.   Of course my mom telephoned me at the same time that I placed a jar of jam in the hot water bath and the heat broke the bottom off lickety-split.  Nothing like trying to juggle a phone and a mess at the same time.  C'est la vie!

I should also mention that Ross made a delicious peach pie.  Some people love cakes; some love cookies.  I'm a pie guy.  Ross has always made stellar pies, but I must say that he has perfected his crust.  I think I could down a mud pie if it was cooked up in his crust!  And, on this note I think I will go since I know that there is still some pie in the fridge that needs attending to.

A Beautiful Weekend

Well the weekend is almost over and no more cougar sightings thank the Lord.  We had a very productive weekend.  Ross was able to can a batch of his homemade tomato soup and made a terrific Mexican dinner for us Saturday night.  He made everything from scratch including the nacho chips for the cheese dip.  Mmm, mmm tasty.  They were even better today as a snack!

On Saturday, we finally got the roof completed on the chicken run.  I had placed wire mesh over the top to keep our little cluckers in but it was not secured.  This weekend we connected each of the posts with 2x4s and nailed the chicken wire in place.  We started to weave each of the sections together with galvanized wire, but still have some weaving left to do.  I'll leave that to Ross to finish this week.  I am feeling much better about the safety of my little girls.

Ross noticed that one of the hens was limping as she walked.  We checked her foot and all seems in order.  We are hoping that she just strained it and that in time it will get better.  We'll keep an eye on that.

Today I finished up a job that I have put off for two summers now.  When we first bought the property the woods came right up to the house.  The house sits on a hill (hence Looking Glass Hill) with the area that the house sits on leveled out.  On one side of the house the property slopes upward and on the other the property slopes downward.  Several months after we closed the septic system was replaced.  To do this the contractor had to cut down a lot of trees to place the tank and leaching field as well as to gain access to those sites.  He created a quasi road on our property and opened up a lot of what is now green space for us to enjoy.  That summer I placed some stone steps on the downward sloping side of the house that led to the quasi road.  I always intended to build a hand rail as the grade is somewhat steep but have put it off until this weekend.  As fate would have it Ross and I came across discounted, end of season hostas and decided to place these in this small swatch of land right next to the stairs.  The area was overrun with weeds and was the last remaining section of the area between the driveway and the quasi road that we still had left to reclaim from the woods; probably half of Ross' poison ivy outbreaks have come from reclaiming this area of our property.  I decided before planting the hostas that I should place the handrail  so that I wouldn't have to disturb the plants later.  So as Ross cooked brunch, and a tasty bread pudding that we had for dessert tonight, I went out and started digging the post holes.  Thankfully there were no major rock obstacles so hole digging went quickly.  For the posts I used a maple tree trunk from a tree we cut down earlier this summer.  The handrail is a maple sapling that I cut down today.  I had the posts in place and the sapling cut all before Ross called me to the table.  After a quick trip to the local hardware store for some quick drying cement to hold the poles in place, I was close to being done.  I'm really happy with the railing and was done so quickly that I was able to get all the hostas planted too.  Progress makes me happy.  What makes me really happy is crossing a two year old project off my to do list!

Garden Variety

So we are hitting that point with our garden where everything is starting to ripen at once.  Ross goes out daily to pick tomatoes.  So far he has made a batch of his wonderful tomato sauce and some ketchup which is a first for him.  I am so thrilled about the ketchup.  Earlier this summer we were having some burgers for lunch and I happened to pick up the ketchup bottle and looked at the ingredients.  For the most part it was what I had expected, but there was one thing on there that I did not expect or like.  I would say more, but I won't here, given the fact that it is a big industry doing a lot of spin marketing lately.  All I need is a libel suit filed against me.  All said, I can't wait to crack open a jar of Ross' homemade garden tomato ketchup.

Ross also has made a couple of batches of pickles.  He prefers bread and butter pickles; I like dill so he makes a batch specifically for me.  He really is quite industrious.  So now we have ketchup and pickles.  I keep joking that he needs to make some mustard.  Of course now that we have farm fresh eggs, I bet he could whip up some great mayo (to make mayo you need your eggs at room temperature which is easy to do when you get fresh ones every day).  Now I'm getting hungry for a burger!  Oh well.  On a side note, I hope you like the labels on the lids.  I did this once before for Ross several years ago when he gave away his preserves as Christmas presents.  I thought 2010 was a good time to revive the practice.

Das Sauerkraut

Last year Ross tried making sauerkraut with the cabbage from the garden.  He used our pickling crock, weighed the cabbage down with a plate, and then covered the top with some plastic wrap.  There was a lot of growth on the surface that he had to keep skimming off.  In the end he wasn't happy and began looking online for other crocks.  He ended up settling on a Polish fermentation crock that I got for him as a gift.  This crock has a water trough seal that is supposed to do away with the need for skimming the top.

So here we are a year later and Ross picked some cabbage from the garden that needs processed.  I was not quite sure how cabbage gets to kraut so I was quite interested in finding out.  I didn't realize that this was going to be a hand's on lesson.  Come to find out it's quite easy.  You shred cabbage, place a layer in the crock with a bit of salt, and then mash it to get it to release its natural moisture.  I was amazed at how much water came out.  Once you finish mashing the cabbage-and in the process giving your hand the wonderful scent of eau de ca'bauge-you place a weight on top (our crock came with its own stoneware weights) and let mother nature do its job.  In four to six weeks, and minimal upkeep, we should have some sauerkraut.  Now I just need to talk Ross into making his homemade German potato salad and applesauce again.   Add to that some knockwurst cooked in the kraut and we will have ourselves a really great Autumn supper.  My mouth is watering at just the thought!

It's Good For You. I Promise!

Last October when my mom and Bob visited we went to the annual Garlic Festival held at the Bethlehem fairgrounds.  While there we had some good garlic eats, bought some fancy garlic oil, and Ross got a quarter bag of seed garlic which probably cost the same as buying three garlic bulbs from the grocery store.  He planted many a clove.  Almost a year later our harvest is in, and I am amazed at how much garlic we have.  I spent several hours trimming the stalks, dusting the cloves off with a soft bristle brush, and grouping them together in several bunches so that they may hang and dry.  The herb hook we got earlier this year is really paying off!  For all visitors still to come this year please note that at least one of your meals will be garlic inspired, and I am not make any promises on our breath.

Ross the Chicken Herder

On another note, we made progress on building the chickens a run to help keep them safe from the wild beasts.  We got some 4x4 poles in the ground which was somewhat of a chore.  As my mother explained so eloquently as she was digging in one of our gardens, we "sure do grow great rocks here."  My hands are sore from digging out small rock after small rock.  I'm not quite sure if the 4x4s are a bit of overkill, but I'm trying to keep our poor, little birds safe.  During one of my breaks I asked Ross if he remembered that earlier this year I declared 2010 the year of the bird, and he did.  We laughed over how true my proclamation became.  What makes it funny is that I never expected to get chickens; one day in April Ross went to run errands and when he returned he surprised me with baby chicks.  I then stated that I never knew how much work the year of the bird would be with building the coop and the run, and then I said that 2011 WILL NOT be the year of the goat (Ross has wanted goats ever so badly since we picked up our bees from a farm where their goats had and were giving birth and Ross and I got to hold the babies).  I just don't think I have it in me to build a barn next year.

All in all we had a great weekend.  Ross spent much of it chicken herding while I worked on my projects.  He really is a great man.  I hope to get the run completed soon so that he can stop worrying so much about the remaining chickens and get on to other things.