What I learned #3

Good evening everyone!



It's getting darker earlier and earlier here in NW Indiana. The landscape is dotted with yellow trees. Though it's only the beginning of fall. In the fields near home down the road are acres of sorghum. At the festival, I've finally learned what they do with sorghum. I met a very nice ranger lady who was directing an old white workhorse in a circle. The horse was attached to a couple of wooden logs that were attached to a grinder. The grinder was used to squeeze sap from the stalks of sorghum. (Sorghum, if you don't know, looks a lot like corn stalks). Next, they take the juice of the stalks they squeezed out and pour it in a hot wide pan over wood fire to boil down and thicken, just like you do with maple syrup from the sugar maples in late winter. The liquid eventually turns into molasses, a sweeter the pioneers relied on here since sugar cane sugar was difficult to come by, especially in the winter when they settlers had to wait for months before they could get to town. When regular sugar crystallized and became hard to use, they would soften it with molasses and that's how brown sugar came about. They baked things like ginger snap cookies, which use molasses. That along with honey kept families in sweeteners through the long winters. I found it very interesting.

Well, have a good night my friends.

Nickie

Our Daily Bread

Good Morning Friends,

Another gorgeous cool morning here in Corn and Soybean land. The perfect kind of morning for long walks in the woods if one was inclined to. No walking for me today though, as I am very tired! Yesterday at work was crazy. I even had to work some over time and my boss HATES giving out over time. I expect another busy day today and so I am resting up and working on some sewing instead of working in the garden. It's only Tuesday and I have a long week ahead--too soon to be so worn out.

Yesterday before work I found a bread machine at the thrift shop. $5. It seems to work when I plug it in and play with the buttons. I printed a manual from the Internet. They did not have that particular model on-line as the company who made it, Regal Ware, no longer makes or repairs bread machines. But that's OK, so long as I have the general idea how to use it I can experiment. This will be my first time making bread in a machine-- I've always hand made bread. However, I rarely do make bread because of my busy life so I always end up buying the grocery store bread. With a machine, I can set a timer before I go to bed at night and have fresh bread for my homemade strawberry jam in the morning when I wake up. How sweet is that?

Have a good day!

Nickie

Buckwheat

Good Morning Friends!



Its a beautiful morning outside today. In fact, its the perfect kind of morning for lounging around outside watching chickens, kittens, rabbits and birds with your caffinated beverage of choice. It's sunny and 70 with a breeze. But I told myself I would finish the left half of the vegetable garden today and get the buckwheat planted. I could tell when I was digging this morning and turning the soil over, where I had amended last year as apposed to the new area this year. HUGE difference. Still clay but dark brown, moister, filled with organic matter to make it lighter in texture and easier to turn. I'm still stunned at how well the corn did in the not amended side with little rain or water and no fertilizer either this year. I will have to remember the variety-- kandy Korn i think. It isn't too picky! I don't know, it could be the soil too, after all, my broccoli gets huge without fertilizers in the unamended clay too and I KNOW those are heavy feeders.
Anyway, I got that part finished and got out my big bag of buckwheat seed (there are a few peas and mung and alfalfa seeds mixed in there thinks to our old dog getting into the seeds and spilling them onto the floor) The directions on the bag said to broadcast the seeds and lightly rake in, but not how much per foot to broadcast so I took handfuls and threw them all around. I probably planted way too many but its short term anyway as if we get an early frost they will be goners and I intend to cut them down before they go to seed as green mulch before frost anyway.

A few things to note, The strawberries grew bonkers this year but the fruits are sour---I think they did not get enough sunlight so I will move them next spring. I think I'd prefer them in a strait row anyway so I can control the runners more carefully. I need to move a few flowering plants to the shadier garden on the north side of the house-- the bleeding heart that is in with the strawberries now, *don't ask*, and the hardy geraniums that are in the south flower bed. they do OK where they are but the get sun burnt and ugly in the heat.

Yesterday I collected a whole bunch of daylily seeds from the stella d' oro's I planted along the street last year. I think I'll offer up those for barter or pay this winter with some other things. Daylilies are surprisingly easy to grow from seed. My not yet year old plants I started in the winter last year are doing great. They are knee high and loving their new garden spot.

Today's Harvest was:

• 1 really big red tomato (I think it was called Supersteak)
• 39 cherry tomatoes

Enjoy your day!

Nickie

Kittens and Plants

Good Afternoon Friends,


Today's Harvest:

• 1 cucumber
• 3 past tomatoes (not counting the ones the chickens helped themselves to)
• 22 pumpkins

I am late for my normal morning post today because I have been busy working furiously outside! I am having a small plant sale which isn't going good and a kitten give-a-way. I advertised, put a notice on Craigslist, and put signs up but nobody comes down this dead end road ever who doesn't live here. All morning I only had one customer, who bought a peppermint plant but she really didn't come for the plants, she came to pick out a kitten. She chose out the black and white tuxedo kitten and promptly named him Oscar. I knew that kitten would be easy to home, he has such a nice personality and is as cute as a button. There are 3 kittens left now, all little girls, all tabbies.

In the garden, I cut down all the corn stalks and piled them up near the compost. Then I harvested all the pumpkins and the 3 mystery squash mutts too. I added the vines to the pile just to get them out of my way. I'll likely not fit them into the compost, they have too much powdery mildew on them. Then I began to dig up the garden area, it was dry and dusty and a little difficult to turn the earth and dig out the corn roots but I want to get it done this weekend so that I can plant a cover crop and try to start improving the soil on that side. It looks bare and empty now, with only the sunflowers still on the end. meanwhile, the chickens were dust bathing and having a blast today. That's the first time I've actually seen them dust bathe. They were both competing for the same spot even though they have the entire garden full of dust!

I think I'll move my sale table under cover of my porch now as I have indoor chores to do now--like cleaning my sewing room that I finally have back from the kittens! Boy were they getting into everything and making a mess. If anyone stops by, I'll leave an honesty jar outside for them if they don't want to knock on the door.

Have a great rest of the day!

Nickie

Chassed In By Rain

Good morning friends!

We are getting a nice hard rain this morning. I kept hearing the thunder in the distance and was enjoying the warm humid morning until the rain chased the hens and I under cover. But that's OK, we need the rain and it will hopefully be enough to make working in the dirt easier this weekend. Clay...hard as a rock clay.....

I got up nice and early this morning ready to get out and get hopping on the garden today. There really isn't a whole lot to do but a bit of puttering around like trimming the mint before it goes to seed, doing a bit of light weeding so I can re-mulch one bed this weekend and chopping up some things for the compost pile--mainly some corn stalks which would take forever and a day to decompose if you don't chop em up into small pieces. You would think that a grass on steroids would seriously heat up the compost like a bag of grass clippings does. It doesn't so I need to throw in some chicken turds this weekend to get it cooking. Part of me cringed at wasting such pretty corn stalks, after all the local shops sell bundles of them for fall decorations near Halloween. But it's not near Halloween yet and I don't want to store them as my space is very limited and even if I were to use them as decoration like last year, i don't expect them to last thanks to the deer who destroyed my fall display last year.

I keep starring at the small pumpkins scattered all throughout the corn patch hoping that with every blink of the eye that they get orangier. I really want to get those ugly vines out of there before all those squash bugs hatch. Some already are hatching. Did you know those suckers bite? I found that out this morning. And speaking of getting ripe, I realized today as I checked out my watermelon that I have no idea how to tell if one is ripe yet!

My finicky and somewhat spoiled rotten hens turned their noses up at cantaloupe slices this morning. But the rabbits didn't. They chowed right down. The buck is a pig. He'll eat anything without hesitation and if I don't measure his feed out everyday he would be too fat. He goes through a lot of feed. I've noticed that rexs are like that. The doe is much more hesitant about eating new things, even though I've fed her new things since she was a baby! She doesn't eat a lot and one dish of food lasts her days if I were to give her the same amount the other eats in a couple of hours time. My co-workers were going to throw out this perfectly good fruit from the office fridge last night....I thought of a much better use for it! I took it home and they shook their heads at me, the office weirdo. At least the hens don't turn up their beaks to elderberries. I have a couple of year old plants that bore some fruit, not enough for me to do anything with so I gave them to the chickens who sure love them. Word of warning though, don't stand too close--those suckers squirt!

This weekend I think i will do a plant sale, and offer up my kittens for free as well. They will be 7 weeks old and they are going through so much litter and chow. I need to find them homes this weekend! I found a home for one this week Monday, with some co-workers of my husband in the city. The big fuzzy fluffy laid back kitten. I also need to find homes for all the peppermint seedlings, rugosa rose seedlings, and red lily bulbs that are threatening to take over everything so that I won't have to trench them in for the winter. This particular dark red Asiatic lily increases itself like mad and it really needs to be divided and re-homed and since the almanac is predicting a cold hard winter, I doubt things in pots have a chance at survival if I don't bury them deep in the ground.

Other things I will need to do before winter arrives will be to fix up a place in the shed for the rabbits and chickens. last year I had one rabbit and she stayed inside the house until spring. That isn't going to work now that we have Brandi, who likes to kill rabbits--plus, they are very messy! And there is no way the chickens could stay inside either. I'll have to clean and organize the shed to fit them in, and add lights and maybe heat lamps for the really cold days. I could put the lights on a timer in case it snows so bad I can't get out to the shed in a timely manner but if its very cold we usually have very little snow so that shouldn't be so much of a problem. Snow likes to drift 4 feet high or more sometimes in front of the shed door! I also need to get some kind of protective tree wrap for my young trees or chicken wire to put around them, whatever is cheaper. The chicken wire helps my hawthorn and other small seedlings keep from getting chowed down, so it should work for tree trunks and blueberry bushes. I need to get a supply of hay or straw for animal bedding during the winter and for mulching more tender things like the cranberry, and some burlap for my not-as-hardy-as-it-was-advertised rose bush which luckily came back from the ground after last winter. Thats enough typing for now.

Hope all is well,

Nickie

Invasion of the Blackbirds

Good Morning Friends,

I hope the new day is bringing you joy. When I woke up this morning and the first thing I noticed out the window was that the female blackbirds were everywhere outside. They coated my lawn, my trees, my corn plants, the power line and anything else they could perch on. I think my home must be marked on bird maps as a resting place because I get all kinds of flocks stop by from geese, to finches, and I've even had herons and ducks show up.

The blackbirds are getting ready to fly south. The females always go together, flocking for the journey. Then the males. It's the males who come back first in the spring. Seeing them puts me in the joyous mood of fall, where nature and harvests are celebrated but it also reminds me that summer is coming to a close and soon after that, barren garden and icy weather for months.

I went outside to enjoy the cool morning while it lasted, to finish 'weeding' my garden and then I weeded the real weeds in my elderly neighbors yard. I use those weeds to give my rabbits and chickens something fun to do. I layer the weeds thick in the bottom of their cages. Much better then sending it to the landfill as I am not about to stick crab grass into my compost. I have enough problems with it thank you very much. The critters will eat it, seeds and all and turn it into some great manure for the compost.

The pumpkin vines are looking terrible now all except for the new growth. Seemingly over night the invasion of the powder arrived. Powdery mildew is pretty much a given in this climate but this has been a pretty dry year and so i haven't had a problem with it on anything else. The pumpkins are just about done anyway, as is the corn. I will be cutting back vines this weekend to encourage the pumpkins to start ripening. If I get the corn out soon enough I can plant a quick cover crop of buckwheat. That spot really needs something. Its clay. I'm surprised my corn and pumpkins did so well there without any amending. I love fresh from the garden corn, but I'm debating on whether or not to grow any next year. In the same space I could probably grow a lot more food and I have neighboring farms who grow plenty of corn. I'm also debating on changing my big flower bed that is along the side of my patio over to veggies, exclusively and moving flowers over to the front as the people here give me a hard time about growing vegetables in the front. *sigh* I might do it anyway but not because of them, It would give me more space for things like greens and herbs. and I would have to buy less seeds for flowers.

I went to see if I had any blueberries left, so that I could throw some on my oatmeal. I didn't find any but I noticed that I have cranberries. 6 of them. At least I have an even number! I only planted one sprawling little plant and didn't expect anything to come of it this year but it did bloom and now I have berries. I'm hoping it spreads and fills in around my blueberry bushes which also didn't grow much this year thanks to deer and rabbits eating them down during the winter. I'll have to protect them this year.

I told myself that in order to focus on the future, I had to stop living like I'm going to be here forever, which means buying no more fruit trees! But then yesterday, the very day after I told myself that, the Stark Brother's catalogue arrived in the mail box with pictures of luscious peaches, apples, plums and cherries, with a promise of 20% off on the trees if I were to order before October no less. Its cruel. Just plain cruel.

I also got an invitation to the Midwest Hound Dog Hoot-N-Nanny and fall faire parade in the mail.. Its a get together and donation drive for those who adopted and who volunteer with Robdar's Houndsong Hound Dog Rescue, whom we'd adopted our dog, Brandi from. We would of loved to go, and I know Brandi would of also. She would be able to play with other dogs like her. Because she is big and strong and barks a lot, a lot of dogs are intimidated by her around here, all except for one Australian Shepherd dog, who adores her down the street, she really doesn't get to socialize much with other dogs. But she has a hoot with other hounds! Unfortunately, the day of the gathering, I have to work--and since I don't have to work most weekends, it would be unfair to my co-workers to ask for it off instead of taking my turn. Maybe next year we can participate. :)

Well I think that is more then enough typing for now. I have other chores to do.

Have a great day!

Nickie

The State Of The Garden Address

Dear Friends,

I've had a great little harvest from my vegetable garden today! The Great White tomatoes are producing the best this year and I'm finally starting to get a few cucumbers from my late planting. Unfortunately, it looks as if one of my cherry type tomatoes has some kind of blight, as all the leaves are turning yellow and sickly. I may have to pull that one up early and send it to the landfill instead of the compost pile. I've never had blight before in all they years I've grown tomatoes. One thing I loved seeing on my tomato plants this morning was a shriveled blackened tomato horn worm with the remains of predatory wasp eggs on it's back. Nature can be gruesome, but I love it. That being said, I'm going to enjoy today's harvest!

Today's Harvest:

• 3 dozen cherry tomatoes
• 3 drying tomatoes
• 6 Great White tomatoes
• 7 Gypsy peppers
• 13 ears of corn
• 3 pickling cucumbers

But not all is peaches and cream in the garden this year. It seems that some folks have nothing better to do with their time then to harass the non-conformers. Who would of thought that a trailer park housing committee would be so uptight? Apparently they don't know the difference between California Poppies, Larkspur, and Yellow Scabiosa from weeds.

I know who it is who keeps complaining too-- If it isn't one thing it's another. He rides a lawn mower up every street in here, even if he isn't mowing. he's a cranky looking guy that never smiles. he looks rather unhappy with his job or life in general. He works for the trailer park and he HATES anything that isn't lawn. But I didn't want to sit in a sea of useless lawn and when we moved in here, we chose our lot more on the size for gardening then anything. The office told us strait up that they welcome gardening and in fact have a garden contest every year. It turns out, their idea of gardening is to have 1) a few scraggly annuals from walmart in hanging baskets or a couple of pots, or 2) sprigs of fake flowers stuck in pots. I am seriously not kidding about this. The don't appreciate carefully tended garden beds, mulched and weed free filled with unusual flowers and plants I have either collected from cuttings or mail order, and from seeds I've planted.

Last spring, before the ground even had a chance to thaw we got a notice that they didn't like our empty garden beds and to correct the problem by so and so date. I ignored that one. It was BS. How could I 'correct' the problem before it was warm enough to plant anything? And then they complained about our patio being messy. I had left my shovel out that morning leaning against my step railing.....and about the skirting on our trailer even though its fine and completely intact unlike several folks in the neighborhood. One gets the feeling they are being targeted after a while.... And the one thing I would of thought they would complain on they haven't; the chickens and rabbits which I keep meticulously clean so that none complains about barnyard smells.

So I was told to rip out my 'weeds' by the 20th. I got the notice Saturday. This morning I got up bright and early to pull my lovely flowers that have given me so much joy, fed butterflies, bees and the yellow birds. Right now I just can't afford the fine. If i didn't take care of the problem, Mr. lawn mower would be over here mowing it all down then fining us with a hefty price to cover his hard work. I can't afford to protest that one right now.

Such is life here...see why I would love to get out of here?

Someday I can have free rein over my own garden, I can have as much corn, sprawling pumpkins, and yes, even yellow scabiosa and larkspur as i want to my heart's content. i just have to grit my teeth a while and try to have patience.

Have a good day,

Nickie