Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Spring Around The Corner, Food, & Inspiration



Sure signs of spring being around the corner, the dogwood trees are blooming, and so are my orchids.  
 


When my sister came down to watch our animals, she brought us this awesome device called the Spiraletti by Farberware; to help shred vegetables in the shape of spaghetti.  We made spaghetti, with zucchini and meat sauce.  My entire family loved it.  The secret is to find other vegetables to replace the bad things we eat :-)




I had one cup of blueberries I needed to use up, so I made this blueberry lemon bread this evening.  I came across Trisha Yearwood’s recipe and decided to give it a shot.  OMG, talk about really good…….Bulldog Man rates it 4 paws up. 


While at First Monday in Weatherford, Texas (kind of like a swap meet), I came across this homemade bird feeder rack and had to take a picture of the birdfeeders for inspiration.  Yet another project to complete using quart canning jars, pieces found at the farm store, and from your own kitchen.



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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

66



There are 66 days until spring arrives. Have you decided what you’re going to plant in your garden come spring? 

Are you the type of person who saves their own seeds to use next planting season?  Or are you the person who receives catalogs and needs time to place an order?

I’m the person who does both…..I save seeds, and I compliment my seeds with a nice order through several out-of-state vendors.  




Many of my Blogger readers are experienced gardeners, who know exactly what seeds to plant or order, how to prepare their garden beds, when to plant, and when to harvest.  However, there are some of you who don’t quite understand when, or how, to setup and start your own garden.  

Here’s a great website to help walk you through the garden process, it’s called Vegetable Gardening Online.  

This website talks you through how to design your garden, the zone you live in, when to plant, and what type of garden best to start with.

Are you ready to start taking those baby steps of becoming self sufficient by first starting to grow your own garden?  

It doesn’t hurt to try.  What are you waiting for?
 












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Friday, March 6, 2015

Spring Knocking; Ammo Cans; Garden; Feedlot Panels



It finally looks as if our snow is gone until the next winter.  Everything melted, YAY…….spring is knocking at our door.  

This weekend, its spring a head time………for those of you who don’t know this or forget……………set your clock ahead 1 hour on Sunday for Daylight Savings Time. 
Picture from NEWFRUIT.ORG

The recent happenings on the homestead; we received a couple of deliveries of ammunition boxes for our son.  Apparently Tank found himself a good deal off of Amazon he couldn’t pass up.  He had ordered, I believe, about 10, 50 caliber boxes, and 5, 40 mm boxes.  I found this out because they were in the middle of my living room when I came inside the house.  At first, I thought I had walked into an Army Surplus store, lol……. The boy has another package or two coming. He’s waiting on another delivery from UPS/Federal Express.  


Late this morning, after the temperatures warmed up outside, I removed the plastic covering on my onion bed.  I also removed the feedlot panels holding the plastic, along with the bricks, to expose my planted onions to the sun.  Once the onions were exposed, I was happy to see they survived our radical temperature changes, snow, and ice.   As it warmed up outside, I gave the onions a nice long drink of water.  



Our dog, Beans, decided he wanted to stay outside with me while I continue to work in the garden.  He was in the middle of everything, smelling, and playing.  I guess he wanted to plant some lettuce seeds with me.  He grabbed a packet of seeds and ran around the garden box holding them as if to say, “Come on Mom we need to get started planting”.

I planted 4 different types of lettuce….Red Romaine, Paris Island Cos., Great Lakes, and Butter Head, in one of my smaller garden boxes.  Throughout the planting season, I generally will plant several different varieties of lettuce, to get us through until the end of fall when the temperatures start to change.


Initially, I was going to plant my lettuce in with my onions….companion planting.    Companion planting sometimes helps with confusing insects by luring them away from the plants they normally target. With onions you could plant beets, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, and summer savory vegetables.  I realized after uncovering the onions, I had no space to plant my lettuce or beets.  I’ll give the onions a few weeks to get bigger and see if there’s any way I could possibly squeeze some beets or additional lettuce seeds in between each onion.

While piddling out in the garden today, I noticed we have several strawberry plants producing new leaves.  It’s time for me to pull out any old leaves, cut and remove several runners, and place more straw around the base of each plant to prevent snails and slugs from getting at the leaves.


See this picture of feedlot panels? This is just one stash of several panels waiting to be used this weekend (weather permitting).  Bulldog Man and I will need to pull up the old fencing, move old T-posts, install new T-posts, and line the bottom of the feedlot panels with a smaller wire to prevent critters from getting through the squares on the bottom side.



What are your plans this weekend? 




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Saturday, February 7, 2015

Onions, Signs of Spring, Beans



Not too long ago, I ordered my onions from Dixondale Farms out of Carizzo Springs, Texas.  I came across this company through a friend, Sandy, over at the Texan Blog.  She orders her onions from this company, and has been very happy growing onions.

I ordered 1 bundle (approximately 5 dozen onion plants); the Intermediate-Day Variety package, which consists of Candy, Red Candy Apple, and Super Star onions. 



My intentions were to plant these onions the first of March.  Temperatures were too cold, and I just couldn’t make myself work outside in the cold.

In the early afternoon hours on Friday, I raked up the straw covering one of my raised garden boxes.  Then, I proceeded to manually till up the entire garden box, preparing the soil for planting.  Gradually, I soaked the entire box with water, and allowed the water to seep into the soil.  After taking a brief break, I came back, and planted 4 rows of Dixondale Farm onions in this one garden box.  Then I covered the entire box with a layer of straw (the same covering I raked up earlier). 
Click to make bigger.



Now I need to wait a couple of months before harvesting onions ……. Have I told you I’m not a very patient person, lol…

*****
Spring is practically here.  Sitting on my kitchen window sill are several starts of organic celery.    When I have a root ball on the bottom of each stalk, I will plant each in soil outside in one of my garden boxes.  I’ve found this is the only way I can grow celery in this part of Oklahoma.  In the past, I tried growing celery from seeds and didn’t have much luck.  
3 ends cut off of organic celery, in the process of growing roots.

When my Phal schilleriana orchid, also known as the “Pink Butterfly” starts to bloom, I know spring is not far behind.  
Little buds forming, here's one.


Do you have plants blooming right now?  

*****
If you haven’t had your laugh today, check this out.  Beans, our dog loves to watch, “The Pioneer Woman”.



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