cherries, blueberries and yogurt dough

Whew . . . I’m tired.  Exhausted is more accurate.  This week HM and I have put up 24 pints of cherries and 79 pints of blueberries.  Of course, neither one of us wants to look at either fruit again.  Maybe next week when we’re doing plums the blueberries will look good.

Last night for dinner we had the first of the raspberries made into a yogurt dough torte.  Yummy!  Cool and refreshing, light and easy to do.

Yogurt Dough:

Cream together 1 cup butter and  1 cup yogurt.  Add 1 tsp salt and 3 1/2 cups flour.  Mix well and shape into a ball.  Let sit 1-12 hours. (It depends on how tangy you want the dough or how quickly you want to eat!)

Roll out and place in pie pan or torte pan.  ( I just use my fingers and mush it all around the pan)

Bake 400 for 15 minutes.

Next up in the seasonal parade of fruit:  plums, then blackberries, then early peaches.  July is going to be busy!  Hopefully less busy than June.

We never did get started on the wool.  Next week, I promise.

Tasha Tudor

August 28, 1915-June 18, 2008

An inspiration for beauty in my garden and life has died.  Tasha Tudor left this world surrounded by family and friends in her own home.

snapshots of june; 2

More pictures. This time the older grape vines, little bitty grapes, the strawberry bed, the herb/flower bed, and lavender.

snapshots of june

Our little bantams are all grown up now.  They are about 80% grown and could begin laying eggs in 6 more weeks.  They are so fun to watch.  Some of them are quite the looker!

Next a view of the pasture where the bunny barn is located.  You’re looking at the back of the garden too.  The tall plants (with white flowers) are the seed carrots.  They are almost ready.    The next picture is the middle part of the garden.    Then the front of the garden with the asparagus all ferned up.  In a month the asparagus will look like miniature Christmas trees with little red berries all over them.  The final picture is the woods.  These are the trees that the goats girdled last fall.  They seem to have survived and even have new growth.

Kim

bunny barn

Here are our rabbits.  Mr Hazel is at the very bottom, Miss Maggy is all stretched out in the dirt box.  Sally, Jessy, and Katy are sort of scrunched up together.  Eric, the spare buck, is also scrunched up there with them.  He isn’t old enough to pose a threat to Mr Hazel’s manhood, so he is tolerated by the older buck.  Soon he’ll have to be removed to his own pen.  The rabbits love to lie in the dirt box.   They scratch at the dirt and take a siesta.  They also love the concrete floors on these warm days.

Here is a shot taken from inside their concrete run.  That is the open doorway into the actual hutch.

Finally a shot from the back door looking at the bunny barn.  It has a 4×6 hutch with an attached 6×6 run.  The whole thing has a concrete floor so that the rabbits don’t dig their way out (and into my garden!).

We hope to build a matching barn for raising the bunnies from weaning to butchering size.  We’ll divide it into two sides so that there is no unplanned breedings!  You know how rabbits are . . .

no posts this week

Our daughter, HM will be having a graduation celebration this Saturday. We are nearly ready for the company, but I’d like to spend a few quiet days this week.

Regular posting will continue on Sunday with pictures from the celebration.

Be well.

Kim

Repost: keeping cool

This is reposted from June 2007.  It is always a good thing to refresh your memory before heading into a new season.  We had a much cooler Spring this year, and for that I am thankful.  This has been the first week with 90 degree days.

So for Caroline and me here is a repost!

Summer weather has arrived in Southern Indiana. That means heat and humidity. Lots of heat. Lots of humidity.

We have come up with a system to keep the house and its occupants fairly comfortable this year without the AC. Most of these we have tried as stop-gap measures as we fought our desire to turn on the AC. Here is our system done as a list. That way I can come and read it everyday until the urge to turn on the AC fades!

• Open windows at night and use fans to pull in cooler air.
• Shut windows as soon as the sun hits them. Pull curtains closed.
• Make reflectors or shades to go behind curtains.
• Use dishpan (not the one from the kitchen) with cold water to soak feet. (By the way, this really helps. I sometimes stand in the pan while washing dishes, chopping vegetables, or even doing my reading.)
• Turn on a fan if you are in the room. Sit in front of it with a cold wash cloth around your neck.
• Go outside and sit under a shade tree or take a walk in our woods.
• Go outside and sit on the hot deck. Then come in. You’ll remember that the house is much cooler than the deck.
• Remember you are doing a good thing by leaving the AC off.
• Look at last years electric bills for July, August and September!
• When you absolutely cannot take it — read the Little House book where Laura helps Pa make hay. Now stop complaining.

OK. I have a plan. I hope the plan works!

KMH

independence days; 4

Week four saw a lot less planting, a lot more managing, and a huge amount of planning.

1.  Planted: sweet potato slips (25, and I hope to buy a few more today).  I also filled in “holes” in the garden.  There were places where the seeds didn’t germinate (or a rabbit got in and helped himself), those now have new seeds.  I’m out of planting space now.

2.  Harvested:  arugula, little bits of mint, tastes of lettuce

3.  Preserved:  more dehydrated onions

4.  Stored:  soft wheat, navy beans, sugar, peanut butter

5.  Prepped: added another day of stored water, prepared one closet to be turned into a canned vegetable pantry.  Since I’ve always dehydrated all our vegetable stocks we definitely need more space for canned veggies.

6.  Managed: Drug out all canning jars and stacked them neatly on a utility bookshelf.   Counted and determined I need a few more cases for vegetables this year (since I have the pressure canner).   Chicken coop cleaned out.  Bunny barn in progress.  Hay from barn to compost heap is proceeding very slowly.  All gardens and orchards weeded and tended.

7.  Local:  Still sharing seeds with neighbors and friends

Kim

happy mother’s day

Happy Mother’s Day!  I hope each of you have a wonderfully restful day.

Kim

end of the buy nothing challenge

April is over and with it goes Crunchy’s Buy Nothing Challenge. We didn’t do too badly. We had a few purchases that weren’t planned for.

The second week I was painting the kitchen (with pre-purchased paint) and ran out with just one wall left to go. Now I suppose I could have left it that way, but — well, no I really could not have left it that way. So I went to the very local hardware store and purchased enough to finish the job.

We also had some major car repairs come up. Things like brakes, wheel bearings, tie-rodes, and tires. It was on the only vehicle that can safely transport my entire family at one time.

Let’s see . . . oh, yes. Three out of the four of us needed new sandals. Needed as in didn’t have any for this year. I got them buy one get one for a dollar. Good deal!

Kim

lambs

Abby and Elsy.

Lizzy, Livy and, Betty.

More pictures of the lambs because they really make me happy.   They are getting quite big.  All three are eating pasture and chewing cud.  Big steps for such little ruminants.  They are also learning that alfalfa pellets and oats are good eatin’.

Kim

shaky start to the day

Interesting morning here on the homestead. At 5:37 a.m. we had an earthquake. The dogs whined a little beforehand and snuggled in close. I was just about to fuss at Ginny for waking me up when the shaking started. It lasted quite a while. News reports say 30 seconds, but it felt like at least 2 minutes.

Illinois basin-Ozark dome region (New Madrid Fault Line); New Salem, Illinois (160 miles from us); 5.4 on the Richter Scale.

Back to my day, which hopefully will hopefully turn out to be far less interesting than its start!

Kim

the 11th hour

We watched The 11th Hour yesterday afternoon. There were many great things about the production. It was well done, interesting to watch, and appropriately “scary.” I’m glad we had it on our Netflix list. It is something I may purchase in order to lend to others. Of course, I won’t purchase it until after the Buy Nothing Challenge!

Coming soon . . . lessons I learned from watching The 11th Hour! There were a couple of doozies!

Kim

lists

I am a list person.  I like to make them; I like to scratch things off them; I like knowing what needs to be done.  You might have noticed this in my blog.  There are garden lists, pantry lists, riot lists, and animal lists.

What is it about a list that excites me so?  I think it is order.  Chaos rattles me, confuses me, and invariably leads to my acting out in a harsh way.  I don’t like that about myself.  But not everything can be put in a list.  There are those things that just occur.  I don’t plan for them, and yet, they happen. (I thought about inserting a list of these occasions, but decided against it.  Grin!!)

10 years here on the homestead and I continue to be amazed at the chaos that Spring brings.   Weeds grow at random intervals and in random patterns.  The laundry can’t be hung on the line with reliable results.  The goats will willy-nilly become the silliest creatures on the planet.  The sheep just placidly look on as if asking, “what just happened?”  The rabbits are chasing each other in circles around the pen.  The grass is beginning to grow, and I still haven’t figured out how to use the scythe without amputating my own leg.

So in order to bring a little order to the chaos surrounding me I present the following to-do list!

1. tighten clothes lines
2. clean screens
3. plant orchard as the orders arrive
4. complete beer brewing batch #2
5. begin and complete beer brewing batch #3
6. air futons
7. repolish wood floors
8. build food storage closet
9. move chicks to chicken coop
10. build chicken coop
11. repair barn roof (It really took a beating this winter.)
12. check with “Hay Bob” by mid-April about this year’s supply
13. finish HM’s graduation plans (nearly done!)
14. RELAX!

Happiness

My friend E (see I do have at least one friend!), came up with this meme and tagged me.

Here is her explanation of the meme: “Okay, now your part. You must figure out five things that make you happy, watch the trailer, share it with others and tag 5 people. You will link them to your blog post about happiness and go to their website and let them know in a current comment field that they have been tagged. Participation is completely voluntary.”

So here is the trailer:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jSW2mzOumno

Here is my happy list:

1.  New balls of wool yarn just begging to be used.

2.  Seeing my family gathered in the same room.

3.  Knowing Spring is just around the corner and that means chicks, bunnies, little plants, and gardening.

4.  Long walks with time to think, pray or talk to my walking partner (HM usually).

Archive Meme

Katecontinued tagged me with this meme.

Archive Meme Instructions: Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you’ve written. … but there is a catch:

Link 1 must be about family.
Link 2 must be about friends.
Link 3 must be about yourself, who you are… what you’re all about.
Link 4 must be about something you love.
Link 5 can be anything you choose.

I think this is a great way to circulate some of the great older posts everyone had written, return to a few great places in our memories and also learn a little something about ourselves and each other that we may not know.
Post your five links and then tag five other people. At least TWO of the people you tag must be *newer acquaintances so that you get to know each other better….and don’t forget to read the archive posts and leave comments!

Here are my links.

Link One:  Family

Link Two:  Friends (eegads, I just realized I never post about friends.  I do have friends, honest I do.)

Link Three:  Me

Link Four:  What I love

Link Five:  My choice 

help!

OK.  I have an orchard ordered.  I have a variety of reference books,  but nothing that deals specifically with fruit trees or berries.  Does anyone have a “best of the best” recommendation?

Kim

First Meal

Our first 1oo foot meal actually came from last year’s garden. We had a nice vegetable soup made with homegrown onions, potatoes, carrots (dehydrated), tomatoes (dehydrated), corn (frozen), and green beans (frozen).

I served the soup to HM and I along with homemade muffins.

Kim

blog vacation

Ahh . . . I’ve given myself a nice break from the blog.  It was needed.  I needed to think about where this blog is going, why I continue to blog, and even if I should continue.  When I am on the computer other things are not getting done.

This week I finished a long knitted scarf, 2 mittens, a thorough house cleaning, battled a 4 day migraine, sketched the orchard, sketched the flower bed,  read Affluenza, read The Elusive Pimpernel, and had nice chats with HM in front of a cozy fire.

Kim

blogger brain

I think I have blogger brain.  I can’t have writer’s block because I’m not a writer.

In other news — I have almost completed my garden planning for 2008.  It consists mostly of rough sketches of the garden, ideas for what to plant where, and a list of what I want to plant that I need to build beds for.

Kim