Additional Changes, Garden, Donations

Along side our small orchard, and the fenced in garden area behind the house was 3 cedar trees which needed to be cut down, and a pile of old trees and branches.  All of which needed to turned into pulp and shredded.  Here's a before and after picture.

Before clearing area and chopping trees

Different view of clearing area and chopping trees

Before

After

We replaced the screen door on the back porch due to wood rot, the door falling apart; and  also because it had a dog door in it allowing access by any wildlife critters.  Mainly raccoons!!!

We added a piece of solid colored corrugated plastic to the bottom of the screen door with

screws to prevent the raccoon (or other critters) from pushing in the screen to get access

to the back porch.  The corrugated plastic also blocks the dog's view from the door, so he can't

see what's just outside the door; to where he barks his _ $$ off, thinking he's got a play companion

waiting for him outside.  Now many of you are going to ask what about the rest of the screened

in porch, won't the dog see the critter.  Actually, he won't, because we put blinds down during the

winter to help with blocking the cold air.  Our dog's  main concern is always 

lunging at that screen door, never the screen on the rest of the porch.  I really think it had a lot

to do with the doggy door.

Speaking of Beans, here are a few cute pictures of my large Chihuahua………..

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Have you placed your seed order yet?  I've placed an order with Baker Creek.  This year's

order is a small.  I'm only starting a small garden due to all the work required back down

south with my sister's estate.  I started my celery slips several weeks ago inside the house,

on my kitchen window sill.  There are 4 celery slips growing roots, and small stalks.  I'll keep these

slips in water until it's time to plant them in soil.  I've never had any luck growing celery from seed,

so when I purchase organic celery from the store, I chop the bottoms off the stalks and

place them in water to start slips.  This process has been very successful for me.  When I need celery for a recipe or meal, I just go out to the garden and cut what I need, leaving the root ball in the ground to continue growing and producing.

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Some of you are probably going to say, oh what a cute little ladybug!!!  NOT...…….

this is a Chinese Beetle, Harmonia Axyridis.  This beetle has been a royal

pain in the butt in areas of Oklahoma.  When temperatures warm up in the winter,

these beetles swarm.  They love to get into your home through cracks, or any type of 

hole or opening.  They'll land on you while outside, and inevitably they come inside your

home with you.  These beetles will bite you, which is not as bad as an ant bite.  

When you kill them, they stink, and leave an orange liquid which stains furniture, 

curtains, and clothes.

This year, the Chinese Beetle has been a real hinderance.  Many say they're good 

for killing off bugs in your garden.  I don't have a garden yet because it's still

winter.  My thought about the Chinese Beetles, they need to go away......stop harassing humans 

until winter is over!!!

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Last weekend, Bulldog Man and I drove back to Texas to pull my sister's truck out of the

garage, wash it inside and out, and drive it to CarMax in order to sell it.  The truck

was a gorgeous Chevrolet High Country, with all the bells and whistles.  We didn't need another

truck, and it was just too fancy for us.  This truck was not the type of truck you wanted to

haul manure in, or use on the farm out in a pasture, if you know what I mean.  CarMax did my sister's

estate well.    

And this weekend............

We drove down once again; this time we donated my sister's furniture, dishes, etc.... to 2 families

in need.  My sister loved helping people out, and I think she would be proud of the decision I made on donating her household goods to help 2 families.

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I didn't forget about the give - aways.  Tomorrow, I will be introducing two items in a give - away 

I'm sponsoring.  Keep your eyes peeled!!!

That's My Toy!

Bulldog Man is learning how to use the Mebo 2.0 drone.  We purchased the Mebo drone to use in the tight spaces under the house in our crawlspace for checking on the plumbing and pipes.  This drone is capable of taking pictures and video.  It has a functioning arm and a flash light built in the center of the arm.

Why not learn how Mebo operates, and get the feel for it's controls while playing with Beans our dog.

Piddling All The Time

This is the first year I’ve grown red onions, and wanted to find a recipe on the internet to make a sweet jam/marmalade.  While searching the internet, I came across a recipe from Canning Homemade! Sustainable Living and Preserving the Future!  The recipe is called Canning Red Onions – A Marmalade!  . 

This recipe was very easy to follow, and the marmalade turned out really good.  If you have red onions and can’t figure out what to make with them, I would recommend trying this recipe.

Over the weekend, we went up into the Oklahoma City’s farmers market where I picked up some squash.  My plans were to cook this squash with dinner; instead I canned it and put it up in my pantry.  Over the next several days, I will revisit the market and pickup more squash to can; because, our squash plants failed to provide vegetables for harvest due to the excessive amount of rain and squash bugs.  

We had several fresh peaches, blueberries, and raspberries left on the verge of being overripe, and I decided to make a fruit crumble instead of letting the fruit go to waste.  While the crumble was baking, our house smelled amazing………fresh baking fruit always smells amazing.  Once out of the oven, I couldn’t wait any more I had to make sure and spoon out a couple of bowls to the guys, and myself.  Now, most people will top a fruit crumble or cobbler with ice cream, we didn’t!!!

With our first harvest of tomatoes, several blogger friends said they would be more than happy to take my Sunrise Bumblebee tomatoes off my hands.  So sorry………you’re too late!!!  I made some eggs, with my tomatoes and had a handful of grapes for lunch right after I picked them.

Here’s yet another wonderful harvest of tomatoes (these are already claimed so don’t ask), jalapeños, and beans!!!

Speaking of tomato plants, remember I mentioned a volunteer tomato plant was growing out of my raised compost bin?  Well here it is, doing really good for itself.  Notice, there’s a second plant coming out of the bin.

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On to creating things………

While hanging laundry out on the clothes line, my clothes pin holder fell off the line.  Because it’s been exposed to the weather, the holder actually ripped when it hit the ground.  

Instead of buying one, I decided I was going to make one; with some material I had on hand, from a yard/estate sale I went to last year.

I pulled out the material, folded it over, making sure to double the material, and started to cut out the shape I wanted. Once done, I pinned it together, and sewed it by hand.  Yes, I said by hand; that’s because I was too lazy to clear off my old singer sewing machine cabinet to access my sewing machine.   Bulldog Man has been using it as a desk for his computer which is tied to his ham radio; truthfully, I didn’t want to disturb my husband’s stuff, because he had it setup just the way he left it the night before. 

Here’s what the new handmade clothes pin holder looks like, a quick and easy project complete :-)

Ever get annoyed trying to find a coaster to put your drink down on a table?  Well I have, more than once!  Each and every time I go to look for a coaster, there’s none available. 

We had two complete sets of beautiful hand painted clay coasters.

In the move to Oklahoma several of these coasters went missing or were broken.   Instead of buying coasters, I decided to make some out of our son, Tank’s old jeans.

Periodically, Tank will come up to me and say “mom, I have jeans which I no longer can use because they’re too worn, or too big….do you want them?”  Of course I want them! Instead of throwing them out, I will take them apart and use what I can of them.  Now we would donate good jeans but these jeans were worn out; terrible to give to someone. 

I cleaned up each ripped out seam, using scissors to remove unwanted strings and excess material. 

I then put them aside until ready to start the rolling process. After every seam was cleaned, I heated my glue gun, and pulled out two seams to start making my coasters.

To begin the process, take one of the seams and place glue on the inside of the seam, then start to roll the seam up like you would a cinnamon roll.  

Continue this process until you no longer have a seam to roll.  Now add another seam to the rolled seam, make sure the ends are against one another, and repeat the process making a large coaster. 

Once the glue dries, you have a coaster to place your hot or cold drink on.  The coasters come in handy, because they absorb any liquid your cup leaves behind. 

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Flowers and Critters………

My sunflowers have started to show their flowers.  As you can see this bee is really enjoying the pollen found on this flower.

Here’s one of my flower beds at the front of the house with gorgeous Zinnia’s growing like crazy.

While working on another upcoming project, which I will share with you very soon, this dragon fly decided to hang near me on one of my clothes lines. 

Finally, I wanted to share a picture of Beans looking at me as if to say, “I wasn’t anywhere near the bird mom………trust me!!!!”  As one can see, there’s a parakeet feather on his nose. Do you believe he wasn’t anywhere near the bird?

Beans' Dreams!

I’m Batman!!!!

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…

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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?  

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