Tapping the Trees

This is something I've looked forward to for the longest time....tapping the maple trees! 

Since we began this journey 4 years ago, our goal has been to produce as much edible stuff as possible on our 1.18 acres.  Blessedly, about the same point in time, I met a friend who knew how to make maple syrup and she totally gave me the syrup bug!  How amazing would that be if we could produce a large portion of our sweetener from trees right here on our property?  Even if we could just produce a gallon of finished syrup, that would be more than enough syrup for a year...if we used it cautiously, anyway. 

So yesterday, we tapped.  We used the Grimm spiles and they are performing well so far.  They're supporting the weight of the buckets without bending, so that's good.  They're easy to install and that's good too.

We gathered enough sap yesterday to begin the boiling today...this is going to be a long, slow process, so I'll update you later this week.

Wish me luck!


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Before And After

This old sewing machine is a project I've been excited about for a long time and I finally got to work on it last weekend.  Unfortunately we weren't able to salvage the machine.  Too many years of storage in a barn did the machine in.  But the cabinet.......it had some definite potential. 

Here's the before:

And now the after:

Still pretty beat-up, but rather charming in the basement stairwell.  The front panel of the cabinet was beyond saving, so eventually we'll replace it.  My hope is that I can use it for a sewing stand; a nice place to store thread, notions and whatever small project I happen to be working on.  That's my hope anyway.  For now, it's a nice stand for a lamp and maybe some pretty seasonal decorations.

And Jeff thought I was crazy when I traded a pint of apple butter for this old, beat-up piece of history :) 

 

It's Not What You Have-It's What You Know!

I blog a lot about stocking up on food and necessaries (now!) while prices are low, but admittedly, stocking up isn't the only plan of action one might take when preparing for the unknown.  When winter rolls around and there's free time on hand, my thoughts automatically turn to developing skills.  For the most part, we homesteaders/preppers have an unbroken 3 months of free time that we can devote to brushing up on old skills and learning new ones.  From January 2 until sometime in late March or early April, there are no holidays to plan.  Nothing needs winterized or de-winterized.  No grass to cut.  No flowerbeds to weed.  Just solitude.  And there's no better time to learn something new than when you can apply your undivided attention.

Each year, I try to learn something new.  This year, I've devoted a lot of time to learning knitting, baking sourdough bread and correct methods of pruning trees and berries.  I took my concealed carry training and practiced target shooting.  I've also spent a lot of time reading and re-reading the Bible in an effort to extract new bits of wisdom.  

My plans for this winter include researching medicinal herbs and root cellaring, attempting to make homemade sausage blends and finding a good recipe for sprouted wheat bread.  I'd also like to learn the trick to growing leeks so I don't have to pay $3/bunch for them at the grocery store.  And of course, more knitting.  Knit one.  Perl one.  Knit two.  Perl two.  It gets a bit tedious, but I WILL learn to knit successfully.

Having a full larder and all the necessary accouterments will only get you so far and at some point, what you know (or don't) may be even more important.  Now is a great time to learn or relearn those valuable skills!

What do you want to learn this winter?

      

Still Puttin' Up

We're still in preservation mode here at the Run. It was a strange growing season, to be sure, but our little bit of earth is still producing, still feeding us. Isn't that a lovely relationship? We feed it, it feeds us.

The poor tomato plants look positively sickly...but the tomatoes are bright and beautiful, so that's all that matters. After sharing more than a bushel with the women in my church ladies' group, I'm still buried in tomatoes. Lots and lots of tomatoes. The paste/sauce/salsa tomatoes are the real winners this year and are the only varieties that are still green and healthy looking. So we're drying tomato slices. And there may be at least one more batch of salsa. And possibly some Tabasco-infused tomato juice.

And I'm pleased, humbled, blessed to say that it looks like we may have a late green bean harvest. The short season Italian beans I planted mid-August are about as big as my little finger...and the plants are loaded with blossoms. As long as nature holds off and doesn't surprise us with an early frost, we may just have some green beans to put up for winter. Yes! Thank you God!

The carrots are looking wonderful, as are the beets, broccoli and kale. And for a bit of flavor during the dark, the herbs are doing beautifully this year. I've dried, frozen, shared, decorated with the herbs from the various gardens and they're still producing like crazy. It's fantastic to see the fruits of our labor from years past. The little tarragon sprig I planted a couple 3 years ago is so tall and bushy that we had to stake it and tie back. Not that staking it helped...it just snapped the stake in half. We've also been hard at working putting up apples. Dried apples. Sauced apples. And very soon, canned apples.

A couple weeks ago, BFF Suzanne asked what we did all winter. She said she knew we spent the spring tilling and planting and weeding. Then we spent the summer and fall harvesting and canning and drying and pickling and jellying. But what did folks like me do during the winter?

We eat; and we eat well :)

What are you going to be eating this winter?

Preparedness Challenge: July Edition

Once again, I sit here looking back on a month that has just flown by. It saddens me to see how quickly time passes the older I get, and makes me want to put the brakes on anything that takes time away from home and family. Like yard work, appointments, phone calls, standing in line, running errands. But since we can't stop time or even slow it down, all we can do is throw ourselves in headfirst and spend every waking moment of our lives doing what pleases us. Like playing with our children. And developing relationships. And celebrating every day. And reconnecting with friends and family. After all, there are only 2 things we can take with us: our faith and our relationships, so make sure you work on those things each day!



So now that's over, what have you done this month to be better prepared for winter? I know. It's crazy talking about winter, but it will be here before you know it. Get ready now so you can sleep when the wind blows!



Store Something: It's time to start saving seeds for next year's garden. We let one lettuce plant go to seed, along with some onions, herbs and greens.




Grow Something: Our green bean harvest was very disappointing this year, so tonight we're ripping out the old vines and planting a short-season Italian green bean. Hopefully they'll make up for what the first planting lacked. It's also time for a second planting of carrots, beets, spinach.




Harvest Something: Green beans, carrots, blackberries, red raspberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers.





Preserve Something: This month we put up green beans, applesauce, peach butter, blackberry jelly, and lots and lots of pickles.





Practice/Learn Something Useful: I've been practicing a good deal with firearms this month and am giving consideration to a CCP. That's still way up in the air though.





Do Something the Old Fashioned Way: We built our own deck over July shutdown. Does doing-it-yourself count as old-fashioned?





Have Fun! This month we took the kids to the AF museum, played card games on rainy nights, spent time in the pool, surprised Mamaw with donuts for her birthday and watched fireworks on the 4th. We also finished up an incredible series on Revelations at church.

So what was your July like? Any lovely productiveness you'd like to share?

Vacation At Home

Yesterday was the last work day for the Mister for about 3 weeks, and invariably when we mention we have 3 weeks off, the first thing people ask is where we're going to go on our vacation. Umm...nowhere. That's astounding to many, but what is more astounding is the suggestion that staying at home for vacation is a big let-down and maybe things will work out better and we can go somewhere next year. Let me clarify a few things, m'kay.

I do have a desire to travel. Perhaps abroad to the motherland one day, but not now. I'd like to take the kids to the Outer Banks to see where I spent a large part of my childhood and where their uncle Chris was born and all the pirates hung out. And I'd like to go to Gettysburg one day, when the kids are older and don't have to take potty breaks every 12.5 minutes. Of course with Miss Mara, that could be a decade or more away!

Here's the thing though; for me, being home with everyone under one roof is a vacation. I like it here.

-We have peace and quiet.
-Lush grass.
- Extraordinary views.
-Good neighbors.
-We eat local (backyard) food prepared with extra love.
- There's a lake down the road for fishing.
-Uncle Joe's pond is just a few miles away for a change of scenery.
-We have a spot for a campfire to roast marshmallows and hot dogs.
-There's a nice flat spot under the tree for a picnic.
-There's a wide open area for playing Charlie Brown football.
-There's a clean, warm pool and enough privacy that the kids can change out of their swimsuits in the backyard if necessary.
-On cool evenings, there's bike rides in the cemetery, especially now that it's freshly paved.
-Depending on the season, there's fresh fruit to be had straight from the patch/tree.
-There's also tons of great entertainment to be had in the tri-county area like museums, discovery centers, parks, concerts.

Tell me where you could go that would offer all those amenities?

And furthermore, why would I leave when I have it all here? I'll pass on the cruise and take my vacation close to home, thank you very much.

It's going to be a busy 3 weeks for us, as we'll be building a deck to replace the patio we jackhammered last weekend. Fun plans include a campfire, staying up late to chase fireflies, Cousin Olivia's birthday party and fireworks at the fairgrounds. Isaac wants to go to the AF museum again and I'd like to squeeze in a trip to the childrens's museum in Dayton...but we'll save those for a rainy day.

Have a great 4th of July....and don't forget to tell the kids the reason behind the fireworks!

Springtime and the Livin' Is Sneezy

I can tell when spring is getting close. Actually, my nose can tell and right now it's saying that spring is nigh. I developed seasonal allergies when I was a little girl, around 4 or 5 years old and while they're not terrible and life-altering allergies, it's definitely not pleasant to go around sneezing my head off during the months of March and April, followed by September and October. I don't know WHAT I'm allergic to, but it definitely follows a set pattern each year. I've taken medicine for it, and while it works, I normally end up woozy and disconnected, making the side effects worse than the allergies themselves.

There is a point to this post, so just hold on.

When I was pregnant with Miss Mara in the fall of '05, I had the worst cravings! Spinach, green apples and cat-head biscuits with honey. (Thankfully, not at the same time.) But what I noticed immediately as I scarfed down biscuits with honey on a daily basis was that my seasonal allergies disappeared. I'd *heard* that honey was helpful for allergies, but up til that pregnancy, I'd never tried it because just the thought of honey would turn my stomach. Upon doing some reading and talking to my obstetrician, I learned that many circles believe honey is good for what ails you. The thought is that eating a bit of local, raw honey each day builds up an immunity to the seasonal allergens, the same as having allergy shots. It works for some folks, but not for others, the same as any treatment but the bonus is that honey (even good, local honey) is cheaper than a trip to the doctor, more inexpensive than a trip to the pharmacy, has fewer side effects and, let's face it, tastes really really good. (Yes, I love honey now!)

So if you're like me and are beginning to feel those tell-tale tickles in the nose and throat, get thee to an apiary. You want honey produced as close to home as possible. Walmart honey won't cut it unless you're allergic to pollen native to China. You also want honey that is minimally processed-raw is best obviously. And don't give it to infants for Heaven's sake! Just use 1-2 teaspoons of honey a day; on toast or biscuits, in your cup of morning tea or straight up. Within 2-4 weeks time, you should begin to see improvements in your sneezin'!

Weekly Top Ten Revisited

Last year, about this same time of the year, I did a list of the top ten skills I wanted to learn during 2009 and I'm pretty pleased to see that I accomplished quite a few of the goals on my list. Some of them are ongoing; cheese-making for instance. Mozzarella cheese is 'brain-dead easy', as a friend of mine would say. Cheddar and hard cheeses are a little more involved. We started our garden plants from seed and hatched chicks this summer, check and check. And the kids loved our homemade pop. Maybe too much.

I never learned sourdough bread making, but I've practiced long and hard at yeast breads, so I think it's a draw. I haven't picked up a pair of knitting needles since last winter, but there's still hope. Ditto for needlework. So now it's nearly time to bid 2009 adieu (and good riddance) and give thought to 2010. Here are a few of the things on my list for next year.

1. Knitting. I'm going to learn to knit, darnit.
2. Candlemaking. It's not rocket science, I just haven't taken the time to do it.
3. Grain-milling. I want to learn how to mill grains and prepare something edible with them.
4. Lacto-fermenting. Beyond sauerkraut, I mean.
5. Find a knock-off recipe for Jack Daniels Vanilla Spice Egg Nog.
6. Root cellaring. I've got an area of crawl space that is wicked cold in the winter. Not freezing, but cold. Why not use that space?

So these are a few of the things that I'm aiming to learn over the next 12 months. I'm sure some of them will be dropped from the list and others added, but like any list, it's a work in progress. Now it's your turn. Spill the beans. What's on your list for 2010?

Secret Room

I've always been enamoured of the idea of stumbling across a secret room or a hidden staircase, but having grown up in simple ranch homes, it hasn't happened yet! The first thing I do when we move into a new house is look for cubbies, nooks, hidden spots, but so far I haven't found a thing. No hidey-holes, no secret stashes, no Mason jars full of old coins. Nothing. But now, I have a plan...(cue the mad scientist music, please.) If I can't find my secret room, we'll build one instead!



We have this weird closet in the living room, sort of tucked behind the basement stairs. And Jeff is talented with power tools. And that's where my plan comes in. We're kicking around the idea of taking the bifold doors off the closet and creating a built-in bookcase that swings open to access the closet behind it. With the right oak trim and some imagination, we could have usable storage space AND an area that is completely hidden from view. How awesome would it be to have a place to hide goodies (guns, Christmas presents, safes, important papers) and noone would know it's there but you? Plus in the case of something like a home-invasion, it could possibly even be a life-saver!



After the Christmas hubbub is through and we all have a little down time, we're going to get busy planning out our secret room. With any luck, it should be a fairly quick, fairly inexpensive project.

Okay.

You can turn off the mad scientist music now.