Springtime In Ohio

Hello friends...hope this post finds you all well, healthy, happy.  For the first time in nearly a year, I felt the real urge to take up pen (er, um, keyboard?) and start blogging again.  It's kind of strange, but I feel like I keep getting kicks in the seat that cause me to start moving again.  Have you ever noticed that kind of thing too? 

So I've been super super busy trying to get ready for summer.  98% of the summer garden is planted...just another small patch of onions and a couple more seed potatoes and things will be ready to roll.  I was late getting things planted, but it's in the ground now and just in time for the rains, so a few more weeks and we should begin enjoying the first of our harvest.  Size-wise, our garden is the same or just a smidge larger than last year, but in terms of variety, we've reduced what we're growing and concentrating on the main-and-plain stuff that will give us the most return.  No more exotic greens, rainbow-colored cauliflower and funky tomatoes, but plenty of taters, onions, string beans, drying beans, cabbages and saucing/juicing/drying tomatoes.  Hoping for a beautiful, bountiful harvest that will last us through the winter.

Some exciting new happenings here at our home include a lovely new, no-till garden.  Or at least that's what we're hoping for.  We used 8 yards of rich, garden-blend soil, a cubic ton of cardboard, plus all the grass clippings, straw and leaves we could lay hands on.  We're hoping to see fewer weeds, larger harvests and less tilling, but we shall see :)

More excitement...her name is Miss Maggie and she's a 10 month old Great Dane-Boxer cross.  She's a very friendly, playful dog, but she sure can look and sound mean when she needs to!  So we'll call her our first line of protection as well as our alternate dishwasher and floor mopper. 

Other areas of excitement include the fact that my beloved has only 4 more courses to finish his degree, my son was labeled as "accelerated" in 3rd grade, and my skinny, scrawny little girl is a proficient reader having learned 300 sight words and read nearly 150 books in 1st grade.  And the biggest fun....I joined a shooting group in north Dayton and acquired a new firearm (Springfield XDS .45). 

So for the past year, I've felt like I could just sit down and vegetate for a while. Just knit and play Angry Birds.  After all, my kids are good, my life is good and no real complaints.  But then I turn on the news or read Facebook and I see that things just aren't good.  It's like America as a whole is going down the tubes more quickly than ever.  I try to laugh it off and just accuse myself of being a tinfoil-hat wearing, right wing, homegrown conspiracy theorist. And then a few weeks ago, an intelligent, sensible 70 year old man made a comment to the effect that "This is all going to end in a civil war", and I felt like something in me just snapped.  It's not just me seeing this!  So, after a yearlong hiatus, I'm ready to get moving again.  I'm ready to start prepping again, learning again and blogging again.  I feel like I have my direction again and I'm so excited to get back to the grind. 

My best wishes to you all,
Andrea     

     

Hoppin' Jalapenos!

There's a couple advantages to having family in the farm market business. 

You start to see trends, in weather, in harvests, in economics.
You have someone to share recipes, ideas and troubles with.
And once in a while, they bless you with their bumper crops.

Such was the circumstance this week: a bumper crop of jalapeno peppers, banana peppers and tomatoes.

My cousin, Farmer D, has a tomato and pepper patch covering an area the size of a football field and this year, the harvest is excellent.  When he asked about my garden and I told him the harvest had been sort of "meh", he invited me to take what I needed.

Yikes!

So this week, we're canning jalapenos.

Pickled.

Candied.

Jellied.

Salsa.

Perhaps freezing them stuffed?

Or dehydrating them for cornbread?

Sometimes I think my time could be better spent canning substantial veggies, but how can you turn down tons of hot peppers?  And from a prepper stand point, peppers are terrific.  Full of vitamins and fiber, and they give bland, plain foods such a kick in the seat!  And they're so good on a cracker with cream cheese or topping a big bowl of chili.

I'm giving myself a belly ache just posting this :) 

The Harvest Continues

This has been such a beautiful busy week!  The harvest continues here on our little farm, with armloads of carrots and dishpans of grapes.  Throw in another trunk-load of corn from a local farm and another half-bushel of cucumbers and it all adds up to delicious productivity.

Want to see my carrots? 

In my humble opinion, everyone should grow technicolored carrots.

And grapes, plenty enough for jelly and juice.

And here's my little juicer.  There was something frightening about turning her loose with a wooden mallet, but she did quite well.

I've tried to impress upon the kids lately how life, particularly our life, is a team sport and everyone needs to contribute.  How that load of corn was a huge daunting task for me alone, but when we worked together, the work was more pleasant and passed more quickly. 

No matter the age, everyone can contribute something.  Whether it's shucking the corn or emptying the bucket of shucks into the compost.  Brushing the corn to remove the silk or stacking the corn neatly into a cooler for processing. 

Everyone can contribute something to the household.  

Too bad Congress hasn't figured that part out. 

The Great White Hunters

I don't know if it's an Ohio thing, or maybe a rural thing, but Isaac has been interested in hunting from day one.  It's hard to believe that he went from this......

....to this, in only a few short years.   

          Tonight when Jeff brought out his crossbow, Isaac was right there.  He absolutely would not be denied a chance to target shoot.  So he did it, with minimal help from dad.  And he did well.  Very well. 
                                                

Initially, I thought riding the 4-wheeler that was hunting's main draw for Isaac.  You know, the idea of hanging out in the woods with Daddy and Papaw, drinking hot chocolate out of a thermos, wearing camouflage clothes.  That sort of thing.  But no.  Isaac wants to hunt.  He's been learning how to shoot and now that he's a big boy, he wants to go out in the woods and get himself a deer. 

And if that isn't enough, my darling, tiny, little Tinkerbell wants to hunt too.  Not to be outdone by Isaac, Mara insisted that she have a chance to shoot Daddy's crossbow too.  She's so short it took Daddy holding the crossbow, Mommy aiming it and Mara firing it, but by golly, she hit the mark.  Collectively, she hit the mark, that is. 

For some reason, Mara is the one who unnerves me.  She's so beautiful and tiny, with her flyaway hair and big blue eyes.  And Mara has absolutely no Disney/Bambi misgivings.  She knows the order of things; deer are food and they're 'dewishious'.  She keeps telling us that she's going to wear her pink camo long johns and shoot some deer jerky.     

Part of me feels sort of weird about all of this. 

Not because there's anything inherently wrong with hunting; but maybe because it's so out of the norm for this day and age.  If my kids sat around watching TV, playing video games, texting and skate boarding, it wouldn't be so unusual.  But hunting, how many kids do that?  

I said part of me feels weird.  The other part of me is pleased about it.

I'm pleased that my kids are developing a realistic view of the world.  They don't have a warped sense of the pecking order that God has established, courtesy of stupid cartoons and liberal main-stream media.

I'm pleased that at a very young age, my kids are learning to respect firearms.  They know they're loud, they know they kick and they know they completely destroy anything they hit. At this point, they have a good healthy fear that's going to make them think twice before playing with guns.   

And I'm very pleased that my kids are learning skills that many adults have never learned.  These basic life skills may prove invaluable to them one day, especially when you consider the state of the world.

So, I may not be popular for encouraging my kids to hunt.  I'll probably not win "Mother of the Year".  I may offend your delicate sensibilities by suggesting that deer aren't the cute, sweet doe-eyed little creatures that cartoons make them out to be.  And I'm fine with that.  I've never been politically correct before and I don't intend to start now.  

Deer burgers, anyone? 

Disconnect

Deer gun week has started in our area, so hunters are out en masse trying to bag the big ones. In a couple of days there will be a front page picture in our local paper of a hunter squatting next to a big dead buck. And then begins the tirade. The online edition of our paper has a comments section where folks are able to sound off on various topics and spout their opinion no matter how abrasive or inane. Already people are up in arms regarding deer hunting.

There seems to be 3 major groups that feel the need to vent and they are 1)earth-crunchy animal lovers, often vegetarians 2) clueless, disconnected folk who think that all deer are Bambi and 3) rednecks. I respect the vegetarians who think it's wrong to eat any sort of meat. I respect the rednecks who eat what they shoot. In fact, my friend Jim oft referred to me as "sawed-off little redneck". (Of course he was from LA.) It's the clueless folk who get my goat. They gripe and moan at the cruel, cold-hearted hunters who wipe out the deer population, then they sit down with a burger from McDonald's, feeling bloated with superiority for not killing a gentle, helpless creature. Um. Hello? The phone is ringing but noone is home.

I think one of the major problems with our society today is it's total disconnect from reality. People say killing a deer is cruel and cold-hearted, but it's okay to eat a cow that was confined in a 2 by 4 pen, repeatedly jolted with a cattle prod and possibly skinned alive. That's okay because when it arrives at the Walmart meat department, it's pretty and packaged and in no way resembles an animal. Oh, and the fact cows are big, smelly and dumb, that makes it okay too.

Not like a deer.

Deer are sweet, gentle and have retained their natural human-like qualities. They're friendly with skunks, talk to rabbits and fall in love. Disney's 'Bambi' proved that. And everyone loves Bambi, so we shouldn't eat him, but Daisy the Cow, we'll just throw her under the bus because everyone knows what cows are really like.

Does that make sense to anyone but the aforementioned clueless folk???

How different things would be if we were forced to raise and process our own meat. Or if we were privy to what really goes on in factory farms and slaughter houses. But for now, we are blissfully ignorant of all the ugly things in life, comfortably superior to the animals that feel the need to hunt their food, be they human or another species. We're disconnected from reality and we're happy that way.

At some point, the delusion MUST give way to fact. Right?

Best wishes,
The sawn-off little redneck.

In The Kitchen

After a busy weekend, I've had an equally busy morning in the kitchen.

We had an unexpected bounty of carrots last week that I'm finally getting put up for winter and goodness do they look beautiful! It's not often that you can call home-canned food beautiful. The green beans turn sorta olive colored, bright-white applesauce usually turns beige after being exposed to air; but these carrots are beautiful! We grew a number of different varieties and colors this year including red, orange, yellow, white and purple and they are simply stunning sliced up in canning jars.

To my colorful carrots, I added broccoli, cauliflower and pearl onions in layers then pickled it with a vinegary brine for jardinera. The hard part will be waiting several weeks for the flavors to mix and mingle, but what a wonderful treat we'll have for Christmas Eve! We love jardinera with crackers and cheese or as a side with modest meals like soup or sandwiches. But our favorite use for jardinera is as a relish...scoop the veggies out of the brine and drain them, then run them through a food processor til you have a nice, finely chopped relish. It's so delicious on top of hamburgers, mixed into tuna salad or anywhere else you'd use dill relish. Probably more healthy too!

The Best Gifts

Yesterday was a bleak, windy, cloudy day with few prospects for anything other than napping. Yeah, still feeling listless. About 4 pm, a car I didn't recognize backed into our driveway and who should pop his head out but our friend Dallas! He walked around to the back of his SUV and popped the hatch and what should I see but a 20 gallon bin FULL of pears!!!

A few days earlier I had mentioned to him that Miss Mara loves pears and that my step-dad's pear tree was about to go on the real estate market (along with his rental property), so it didn't look like we'd get too many pears this year. Dallas has a pear tree and said he was afraid the wind would cause the pears to bruise so he picked them and brought them over to us. Bless his pea-pickin' heart! I know what we'll be doing today...canning pears!

I know. It's odd to get so excited about a 20 gallon bin of pears, but that means that Mara will be eating fresh, wholesome fruit all winter. It means Jeff won't have to shell out a dollar (or more) for a pint-can of pears that were grown in China, picked green and processed in some other 3rd world country before being shipped halfway around the world to Walmart in Ohio. It means that I'll have another shelf full of food, just in case the SHTF. And honestly, there's nothing better than a dish full of warm pears with some cinnamon and whipped cream. Especially when they were grown chemical-free in your friend's yard, 3 miles away.

The best gifts are oft unlooked for. Thanks Dallas!

Slowing Down

Mercifully, things are starting to slow down a bit here at the Run. August was a whirlwind of canning, freezing, drying, well-digging and school prepping that left us all breathless and tired. Thankfully, that's coming to an end.

Isaac is adjusting beautifully to his new classroom setting: having never been in a daycare or preschool it took him a little while to get into the routine, but now he's doing very well. He's smart as can be, and we finally have that left-hand/right-hand ambidextrous thing figured out. It would appear that though he writes well with both hands, he's just a little more comfortable with his right. So, he'll be like his Mamaw and write right-handed, play golf left-handed.

The garden is starting to die off slowly. There's still tomatoes blooming, and our fall garden is beginning to come on. Our only disappointment this year was corn, and we learned our lesson. You simply can't grow beautiful, white open-pollinated corn in a patch 20 feet from a hundred acres of hybridized field corn. Our corn is bland, dry and hard as can be. So disappointing. Even the chickens wouldn't eat it. Next year, we'll have to look into a bi-color hybrid and see if we have any better luck.

Canning and preserving is slowing down too. I put up less this year than last year: you can only eat so much jelly and jam, you know? But on the other hand, we did a LOT of drying this year. The dehydrator is loaded to capacity with apples right now in fact. Still to can this year is pears and apples, plus there are sunflower seeds and walnuts to harvest and a fall garden to tend. The carrots are looking gorgeous as are the short-season Italian green beans. Here's hoping for a lovely, late harvest.

Given a little time to breathe and think, my attention has turned to getting the house ready for cold weather. We've been airing quilts and heavy blankets, emptying drawers of summer clothes and replacing them with fall/winter clothes. Stockpiling dry goods and putting together my 'pandemic closet' has also been WAY up there on the to do list. Short of an oil fill-up and new winter shoes for everyone, I think we're well on the way to being ready for winter.

So that's what I'm doing during this changing of the seasons.

What are you doing now that fall is on the way?

Roast Me Some Peppers!

I love the roasted red bell peppers that you find at the grocery store in the pickle aisle. You know the ones, 5$ a jar, for a half-pint jar! I love them on sandwiches, burgers, salads, soups, pasta, but who can afford that addiction?

Today I finally found a recipe for roasted red peppers that doesn't require a marinade! Yes! And blessedly enough, I found red bell peppers at a local farm store at (drum roll, please) 3 for $1!!! When you consider that our local grocery sells red bells for $1.19 EACH during the height of the season, you can see why I'm so excited! So I spent the day today roasting peppers, peeling peppers, chopping peppers and finally canning peppers. And Lordy, do they smell good! For less than $6, I've taken care of my fix for the year!

So how do you do it? First you clean your peppers, rub them with oil and broil them until the skin is charred and blistered. Throw them in a bowl and cover them with plastic wrap to steam them; then when they're cool, peel the skin off. Chop them up, pop them in jars and season with a bit of salt, vinegar and olive oil. Add enough boiling water to cover the peppers, cap them, then pressure can for 35 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. Done. And so much more affordable than grocery stores!

Heather's Challenge

Sometimes, in the whole swirling, whirling scheme of things, it's hard to know if you're actually accomplishing anything in your day to day life. Or maybe you're just hanging on by the seat of your pants and the skin of your teeth. And while I love lists, my lists normally consist of what I need to do, not what I've already done.

Heather has a fun, slightly adapted version of Sharon Astyk's Independence Day challenge that just fit the bill for me. A no fuss, no muss fun way to see what we've managed in the past week. Gotta love that! We just need to come up with a cool name for our challenge; any suggestions?

So if you're wondering what it is that we do every week...here it is.



Plant Something- Lettuces, oriental greens, kale and spinach in the bed on the north side of the house.

Harvest The Food- Green beans, onions, tomatoes and beets.

Preserve The Food- Last week we canned 12 qts of green beans and a few pints of beets. The onions are hanging from the shed rafters drying.

Eat The Food- We're still eating last fall's applesauce and jams! We're also enjoying fresh green beans and the first of the fresh tomatoes.

Reduce Waste- All the dinner scraps go to our spoiled chickens, which is great for them and the feeding frenzy is big fun to watch!

Reuse/Repurpose/Reclaim- Fun repurposing project; I cleared out a bed on the north side of the house to build a hot weather garden for cool weather plants. Using old galvanized bins, buckets, tubs and even a tea kettle, we planted our delicate lettuces in the coolest spot on the property. I did a little decorating with an old wooden barrel and my g-grandpa's plow. When the greens start to grow, I'll take a picture!

We finished our new chicken coop and used as many reclaimed materials as possible; freecycled windows, vinyl flooring we found in the attic, branches from an old tree for roosts, bits of old siding for nest boxes.

Have Fun!- We had a lot of close to home fun last week; going to the AF Museum, hiking at a local park, ice cream at an old-timey corner dairy.

Homestead Happenings

After a day or two of gloom and cloudy weather, this weekend was fantastic!

Firstly, Miss Mara is officially potty trained! Yes! No more diapers, no more Pull-Ups! She's dry all day, through the night and in the morning too! While I'm thrilled to be finished with it, part of me is sort of sad too...there's no denying now that my kids are getting big. No more babies in the house. Mara is so proud of herself, she's been telling everyone she's not a baby anymore. She's a "beeg gorl". Thrilling and heartbreaking at the same time.

In the garden, the veggies are loving this temperate, rainy weather we've been having. We're up to 11 pounds of veggies for the month including onions, lettuce, greens, sugar snap peas, a few beets and turnips. The runner beans are covered with red blossoms, the tomatoes are full of blooms, the sunflowers and amaranth are almost a foot tall already. Summer is definitely in full swing, regardless of what the calender says.

On the preservation front, I ordered a new dehydrator this past week and I can't wait to lay hands on it! Should be here tomorrow, and then I can start with the drying of the berries. Drying is fast becoming my favorite means of food preservation...especially the fruits and tomatoes. I can eat dried tomato slices like they're candy...very chewy, tart candy. I planted a number of tomatoes this year specifically for drying...Principe Borghese, Amish Paste and Striped Roman. Can't wait for them to start bearing.

The hens are doing great! Miss Broody-Butt Dominique is finally off the nest and has stopped growling when you open the coop door. That's always a good thing! Nothing like a growling chicken to get your day off to a bad start! We're getting, on average, 5 eggs a day, which is just enough to keep us in eggs, with extra for parents and an occasional neighbor. My dear friend Ann surprised me with a pair of Ameracaunas, which with any luck, we'll be bringing home in a couple of months. She's got them tucked away in her brooder, til they're big enough to fend for themselves in the coop. If you recall from last year, Mr. Roo was supposed to be our green egg layer, til the whole gender confusion issue came up. Ann was sweet enough to share a couple of Ameracaunas from her newest batch, as she knew I was pretty disappointed that I'd be getting no green eggs from Cockadoodle-Stu. Thanks Ann!

Domestically, we're back on track after a couple weeks of weirdness. Jeff has been working an average of 3 weeks a month with a layoff week thrown in to keep us on our toes....which an occasional week off is better than indefinite layoff, right? It makes for interesting finances to be sure, but it also does odd things to our home schedule. Our diets change, sleeping patterns change, spending patterns *definitely* change, but for the most part, we're hanging in there and doing okay. We've been hearing rumors of a new project coming to the plant...military trucks...and if that's the case, it will be a real boon to our little community.

Plans for the upcoming weeks include building a new, traditional coop (in lieu of a chicken tractor), constructing a lattice screen to provide shade for the back of the house and patio, replacing our crappy old sidewalk with a new brick sidewalk and possibly installing a whole-house fan so we won't need to run the C/A as much. I'm hoping we can squeeze in a trip to the zoo/waterpark as well, during July's extended shutdown (2 weeks vacation + 1 week layoff). We shall see. Til later, best wishes from the Run.

Letter Of Intent

It's been more than a year since our little family began it's journey toward greater self-sufficiency, but that's such a vague phrase...'greater self-sufficiency'...that I thought I'd restate what it is we're trying to accomplish. And by we, I mean me.

My first and primary goal is to increase the production of homegrown veggies and fruit so that eventually, we may be able to cut out store bought produce altogether. Yes, it's a lofty goal, and as bananas aren't native to Ohio, it's going to take a lot of getting used to. My plan is to grow enough produce that I can trade for what I don't produce...such as apples, walnuts, etc.

My second goal is to learn to make as many cleaning and toiletry products as possible, thereby decreasing what we spend each year on soaps, cleaners, etc AND ridding our house of nasty chemicals. I'm thrilled with no-poo, so shampoo is pretty much a thing of the past. And I have an excellent resource for homemade soaps, but eventually, I'd like to learn soapmaking to make my own herbal soaps.

My third goal is to relearn some of the lost skills; candlemaking, knitting, seed-saving, herbalism, etc. Things that aren't *necessary*, but make life pleasant.

My fourth goal is to create a permanent food supply, through canning, freezing, drying, buying dry goods in bulk, etc. I'd like to get to the point that I have a 6-month supply of food rations in the storage area of the basement...at all times.

Lastly, eventually, I'd like to create a home-based job to contribute to our household budget; through selling soap, seedlings, eggs and extra produce. That one will be years down the road as my hands are full of youngsters right now, but eventually, that's my plan.

You may be rolling your eyes at this point, but having children, watching the economic situation unfold and being fearful for the future has lead me to believe that this is a necessary path for my family. I figure if all things work out and next year the economy is just fine...well that's great! If not, my family won't be going hungry. My deal with Jeff for the past year has been..."you keep the roof over our heads, I'll fill our bellies." And that holds true whether we're turning a corner of not. I feel like we've thrived over the past year and that in many ways, I've found my niche in life. Call me a recessionista, but I'm having a great life regardless of what is going on up there on Wall Street.

State of the 'Stead

I've noticed a number of other sites are doing an update on life on their homesteads, so I thought I'd join the trend and let you know what's going on here on our little bit of Earth.

Here on the Knobs, we're finally starting to see some signs of springs. Wait...are you wondering why it's called the "Knobs"? Our area consists of hundreds of small, conical shaped hills with low valleys in-between, probably a result of the last ice age. When I go up to our back yard, to the highest point, I can see the tree range on the next Knob 1/2 mile away, but little else...the fields roll down into a valley that all but disappears from sight. The Knobs are generally associated with an area of Kentucky, but there is such a large native-Kentucky population here in Ohio, I think the name just immigrated with the immigrants. So there you go; your useless piece of information for today.

Anyway, yes, things are starting to green up here in Pleasant Township. The kids and I spent 98% of the day outside today, hanging out laundry, watering seedlings and picking rhubarb...yay! We had our first rhubarb of the year; a very small bunch, but enough to satisfy our cravings for a rhubarb tart. And it was so delicious! I've waited 2 years for a taste of the sour stuff...last year, our local grocery store wanted 3$/lb and I just couldn't bring myself to pay that price. So I planted rhubarb instead. And it was a good decision because this year, they're asking 4$/lb. Crazy! My red raspberry transplants, a gift from a freecycler, are starting to leaf out. It looks like about 6 or 7 of the 10 survived....not bad odds for a bunch of bare root canes. The blueberry bushes are full of buds, the fruit trees are starting to leaf out and already some of the perennial herbs are starting to grow. What a great time of year!

The chickens are really hard at work; we had 77 eggs in Feb. and 89 in March, and we're already up to a dozen this month. Although I'd like another chicken or two, we're getting just enough eggs for ourselves and to share with friends and family. The only problem we're experiencing with the chickens right now are a pair of fugitives. Mr. Roo and Miss Buff routinely fly the coop. They don't get into any meanness, they just wander around together, scratching and pecking. And a little coercion is all it takes to get them back into their pens, usually in the form of pasta. Show them some pasta and they'll come running. Now that spring is here, we moved our portable coop to the back of the yard, with a smallish enclosure, to keep the chickens out of the garden and the kids out of the coop. I don't think they like to be cooped up, but it's a necessary thing until fall/winter comes around. Then they'll have free range of the yard to eat and poop anywhere they want to.

The house is starting to come together as well. We replaced our laminate hardwood in the living room with a lovely thick carpet, about the color of peanut shells. It's so nice to have a comfy soft place to roll around and wrestle with the kids. The bathroom, hallelujah, is nearly finished. Jeff made huge progress today...the floor is down, the toilet and sink are installed and the mirror is hung. We had a little snare on the light fixture, but that's an easy enough fix. With any luck, we'll be able to finish it up in the next day or two. With 2 potty trained youngsters, it's wonderful to have a second bathroom up and running again. And the new house rule regarding toilet paper; no more full rolls in the kids' bathroom. Ever. Think of it as a preemptive strike.

We're still eating on last year's harvest...we just finished up our last bag of frozen mixed veggies today, and we have just a couple bags left of strawberries, corn and snap peas. By the time harvest 2009 rolls around, last year's goodies should be gone leaving more space for this year's goodness. I was afraid I had really overdone the canned beans, but surprisingly, we're down to less than a dozen jars. Ditto for pears, frozen apples, etc. Our only disappointment this year was the canned carrots. No one seems to like canned carrots. And I'll admit, they're not nearly as tasty as fresh or frozen. Well, if that's my only error in judgement for the year, I'll call it a good year. For 2009, our goal is to cellar as much fresh produce as possible. I have about 1500 carrot seeds to sow, so hopefully we'll have a successful crop that we can cold-store during the dark days of winter. Same with leeks, celeriac, onions and potatoes.

Both children are growing like weeds. Isaac will be 5 in August and will be starting Kindergarten (weep, sob). He's so smart, it's scary sometimes. I'm amazed at how computer/electronics-savvy he is. The things he can pick up after one try, it's incredible. If you discover that someone has sneaked onto your computer and changed all your logos, icons, screen savers, wallpaper, etc., it was probably Isaac. He's good at the stuff. Mara just turned 3 and is keeping up with Isaac in every way. In the past 3 months, she's turned into a real talker. She doesn't just ask for chocolate milk now, she discusses how it looks when the chocolate starts to swirl together with the milk so it looks like a whirlpool. And she's become a 'girly-girl'. She's suddenly ALL ABOUT pink, shoes, dress up and hair 'pretties'. The mimicry is what tickles me; you don't realize how you sound until you hear it coming out of a 3 year old's mouth. I hate to brag, but my kids are amazing. We managed to get through the entire fall/winter/holiday season and all without a single cold. I tell you, my kids have immune systems of steel! If there's 2 things I've done right in raising my kids, it was nursing them and letting them eat "just enough dirt", as my mother in law would say.

Again, on a personal note, I'm feeling much much better. Much more like my 'old self'. The weird withdrawal symptoms are nearly gone with the exception of the occasional electrical 'zap'. And what's more, a large number of people have sent me private emails telling me of their own experiences with Effexor and SSRI's...apparently this is a larger problem than I ever realized. Why is it that doctors aren't telling their patients about these side effects? The only answer I can come up with is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. One very helpful phrase that I learned from this whole experience...."full disclosure". I'll know every side effect, withdrawal symptom, long term effect, etc. before I ever take another drug. My doctor is going to hate me, but he's going to be much better acquainted with that big blue drug book he keeps on his desk.

Well, tomorrow is back to the work-week, so I need to start packing lunch and folding laundry. For the past 2 days to have been such long days, it sure made for a short weekend. Hope you enjoyed the update about life here at the Run.

Mother's Pride

I'm so proud of that little boy-o-mine. He's growing up so fast and absorbing everything around him. He's sharp as a tack and really has a mind for working out details, although he does have a low frustration level. He is constantly surprising me with his ideas, plans and imagination.

Several days ago as I was finishing up my seed order for Heirloom Seeds, he asked what I was doing. I told him I was getting things together to grow my garden. He asked what about his garden. Isaac wants his own garden this year and has his own definite ideas about what he wants to grow. Berry-sized tomatoes, peas 'that we don't have to cook' AKA snow peas, garden berries and maybe some corn. Not a bad little garden! So now we're tossing around location ideas for Isaac's first little garden. As a surprise, I'm going to find something to use as 'garden art'... something they can paint, like an old chair or ladder, or a display of some sort...like a small barn to park his outdoor tractors in.

I'm so thrilled that he's only 4 and is already interested in having his own bit of land. That says to me there are great things to come.

Isaac, age 2, 'planting' a broccoli leaf

A Good Day's Gleaning

What a great day! The weather turned cold and windy yesterday and we even had some snow showers today, but that didn't slow down the fun! After lunch today, we got all bundled up in our homemade felted wool mittens and hats and went to gather pears, apples and walnuts... and what a bounty we came home with. Not as much as last week, but definitely worth the trip. We scrounged up 5 gallons of pears, 3 gallons of apples and 5 gallons of walnuts...so tomorrow is going to be an orgy of peeling, shelling, coring, canning, and storing. What a great way to spend a blustery afternoon!

Jeff made a homemade fruit picker out of an old pole, a coffee can and a few pieces of flat stock. And it worked really quite well! Isaac had a blast using it! He has this particular laugh...sort of along the lines of Mr. Crab from Spongebob...but he only uses this laugh when he's tickled to the core; I heard that wonderful laugh more today than I have in the past week total. Whenever he or Jeff would use the fruit picker and pull down an apple, 3 or 4 more would fall down around them. And Isaac thought that was the funniest thing going!

Mara helped for a few minutes, then decided that she was too cold to go on...she spent 20 minutes or so playing in the car, turning on all the lights, switches, nobs and gadgets. She managed to find an All-Christmas All-The-Time station on the radio so we had a pleasant Christmassy ride home. After gathering a trailer of firewood out of a nearby woods, we headed home to a warm homemade meal....pork chops with onions, homegrown wax beans, homemade applesauce, homemade cranberry sauce and macaroni and cheese. Honest to goodness, Jeff ate til I thought he'd burst. I don't know if the meal was *that* good, if it just hit the spot or if we all needed a hearty meal after an afternoon in the cold air. Whatever it was, there are practically no leftovers to speak of and everyone is full to capacity.

A Gleaner's Work...

is never done and, praise God, I'm thrilled about it! We were blessed with the opportunity to glean the leftovers at a wonderful local orchard and I tell you, I felt like a kid in a candy store! We left with four 5 gallon buckets of a variety of apples....Macs, Empires, Yellow Delicious, and several varieties that I don't know the names for. They'll be sauced, dried or frozen and the 'firsts' will be left for eating later on.

THEN, after that haul, we drove down the road to my step dad's rental, hoping for a few pears. We left with more than 10 gallons, plus a huge bag of walnuts. And having run out of bags today, I'm going back for more tomorrow! My kids will be eating canned pears from now til Doom's Day if I have any say in the matter. Thankfully, they love pears, so that's a joy for them and not a punishment.

I think initially Jeff was a little embarrassed that we were scavenging around for free food, but he got over really quickly. You just can't pass up good produce and nuts are so expensive. With our economy in the toilet and the job scene looking iffy, there's no way I'm passing up basic hearty food like apples, pears and nuts. Those are staples in this house, and in a pinch could provide both vitamins and variety to a boring diet. I keep telling Jeff that in many ways, we need to go into Depression mode. I don't mean panicking and hoarding weapons....but why not stock up on a little extra of the things we use on a daily basis? And if free food is there for the taking, put your pride to the side and grab a bag. Get pickin' mister!

Hurry Hurry

I found this poem on one of my favorite sites and had to post it. Such is the life of a homesteader.


HURRY, HURRY, MARY DEAR!
Hurry, hurry, Mary dear
fall is over, winter’s here.
Not a moment to be lost,
in a minute we get frost!
In an hour we get snow!
Drifts like houses! Ten below!
Pick the apples, dill the pickles,
chop down trees for wooden nickels.
Dig the turnips, split the peas,
cook molassses, curdle cheese.
Churn the butter, smoke the hams,
can tomatoes, put up jams.
Stack the stove wood, string the beans,
up the storms and down the screens.
Pull the curtains, close the shutters,
Dreadfully the wild wind mutters.
Oil the snowshoes, stoke the fires,
Soon the roads are hopeless mires.
Mend the mittens, knit the sweaters,
bring my glasses, mail my letters.
Toast the muffins, brew the tea,
hot and sweet and good for me.
Bake me donuts, plain and frosted….
What, my dear? You feel exhausted?
Yes, these winters are severe
Hurry, hurry -Mary, dear.
- N.M. Bodecker


What a great reminder that Father Time and Mother Earth wait for noone.

Pre-Winter Prep

Winter is getting close, friends. I can feel it in the air....and in the frost I have to scrape off the windshield. Brrrr. Here on the homestead, we've been trying to winterize a bit at a time, but I think this weekend will be our 'GO' weekend. Gotta get it done, and the sooner the better. So what's on the list???

1. Drain and store garden hoses
2. Rake leaves and plow them into the garden
3. Empty and store buckets, bins, baskets, outdoor toys,etc.
4. Find a nice, mouse-proof spot to store the patio furniture.
5. Cover up the grill
6. Move the chicken coop closer to the house.
7. Install a heat source in said coop.
8. Finish siding the end of the house.
9. Create a storm window for the basement window.
10. Knock out basement walls to make room for the wood stove.
11. Finish stacking the firewood
12. Hang a clothes line in the utility room.

I think that's about it really. Not as daunting as I thought originally. And the kids can help with a number of them....it's amazing how excited they get over small projects when the lawn tractor and trailer are involved!

On the preservation front, we were given permission, nay, encouragement to come to our favorite local apple orchard and glean whatever leftovers we can find. They'll not be good for eating, but should make some great applesauce and juice. Plus, free is free, so we'll be doing that early next week. The kids should get a big kick out of that. I'm hoping to scavenge some more walnuts too....the ones we collected last week are hulled and drying on top of the furnace, so hopefully they'll be ready to go in time for the holidays.

Next week will also be a whirlwind of pumpkin baking, canning and freezing. Not gonna let those decorations go to waste! All in all, I think we're pretty much done with our canning and freezing for the year. It's been a good season and I'm excited for next year. It looks like the number to beat for next year will be around 700 pints. And you know what that means....it's time to pull out the seed catalogs. For me, seed catalogs are as exciting as the Sears Wishbook, Victoria's Secrets catalog and the Black Friday sales ads, all rolled into one. You do your wishing, and I'll do mine, okay LOL.

Strike That! New Total!!

After an evening of baking, scooping and bagging acorn squash, my new total for the season is 684.5 pints of food. We've started dipping into our stash, which feels sort of odd after all the time involved hoarding it, but I suppose that's what it's for, right?

I'm really beginning to feel the pinch from the economy, probably more psychologically than financially at this point. Lower gas prices are a plus, but seeing all the other prices on the rise really is starting to panic me. I can feel myself going into depression mode and it worries me that folks around me aren't beginning to tighten their belts too. I think Jeff is beginning to understand that I'm worried...he knows it's serious when we begin to eat a lot of beans and rice. And lately, there's been a LOT of beans and rice LOL. And don't forget the applesauce. We'll be eating a lot of applesauce.

Thankfully, mercifully, the work we've done on the house the last year or two has started to make a big difference. The new windows, insulation, siding, etc. has cut down on drafts and chills so much we haven't had to turn on our furnace this year. The house, at it's coolest, has only gotten down to 65, which is a bearable temperature for sleeping. Next up will be hanging some heavier curtains so the house will seem 'warmer' even if it's a tad cool. I'm hoping all these combined efforts make a difference in heating and electric this winter.

My next project, after finishing Mara's pirate costume, will be using up the felted wool for mittens, hats, scarves, booties and if possible, a couple of small patchwork throws. There's just nothing cozier than wool blankets, a bowl of popcorn and a good old black and white movie to warm you during the dark days of winter.

Best 2 Dollars I Ever Spent- Take 2

I've been a scrounging, tag sale shopping, clearance-tabling fool lately. And I'm proud of that fact. If you've followed my posts at all, you know that last week I very clearly stated that my Pampered Chef apple peeler was the best 2 dollars I ever spent, but now, there's a contender for that spot. Today, at 2 pm at Huck's Apple Orchard, I purchased half a bushel of acorn squash for 2 dollars. Egad! It was an end of the season deal I made with the owner and I have to say that I am thrilled to no end! I love baked acorn squash and could eat it with every meal....and with the sheer number of squash I purchased, it very well may happen. Yay! They're roasting now, so all I have to do is cool, scoop them out and freeze them for some delicious, practically free meals. What an incredible blessing!

I also managed to scrounge 2 grocery bags full of black walnuts; just need to dry those babies and we'll be ready for some holiday baking. Again, what a blessing!

We're in full fall mode here as we had our first frost last night...the veggies are safely tucked in their little tunnels, so hopefully we'll have a few more weeks of fresh greens and lettuce. The strawberries are snuggled in under the straw and the herbs got cut back hard yesterday and are drying as we speak. All in all, it's been a pretty successful first year homesteading. We've ended the season with a full pantry and freezer, and more trees and vines than we started with. We've also gained an immense amount of experience in saving seeds, successive planting and how to deal with Mother Nature.

I've been dropping hints to Jeff that we should consider a couple of turkeys for next year....something to plump up our freezer : ) It would be our first venture into meat production, which is sort of a scary new territory. We'll see if he got that hint.