I Know It's Been A Long Time, But...

   I know, it has been a couple of months since I have written anything, but there is a really good reason for that. Nothing ever happens here. I have thought about writing something new quite a few times, but what can I say? So, here goes, I will write about what is happening around here.
   We bought some new chicks and a couple of white broad breasted turkeys in March. We now have two coops, the breakfast and the dinner coop. One of the turkeys is a definite tom. I was calling him Thanksgiving, but yesterday I changed his name to Godzilla. He walks on everyone else and he reminds me of how Godzilla stomps on cars and buildings. The turkeys are also getting pretty ugly.
   We have two Buff Orpingtons that are going to go into the breakfast coop, even thought one of them is a rooster, and we have 10 New Hampshire Reds. One of those is going into the breakfast coop. One is so gentle, I pick her up and she just relaxes and doesn't struggle at all.
   Too bad my parakeet, Frosty, isn't like her. I have had Frosty for almost a year, and I still can't get her finger trained. I have tried all the ways you hear, but no luck. I can pet her, but that's it. I have had birds before and they got finger trained, but not Frosty. Maybe it's her name that did it. Since I named her Frosty, maybe she is just giving me the cold shoulder.
   We planted a small garden this year, because we really need to build up our soil, but we also needed the garden. I was beginning to think I had a bad packet of bean seeds, but after tow weeks, they have finally started coming up. I know I didn't plant them too deep and I have planted this kind before. I was getting ready to go replant them.
   I have been busy making and selling teddy bears in flannel pajamas. I have three left to sell and am making eight more.

Pale blue bear wearing polka dotted jammies

Striped bear wearing train jammies. He looks swirled in the picture, but he is just striped.

 

 Tan bear wearing sheep jammies. It isn't swirled either. All bears and clothes are machine washable and dryable. I am selling them for $40.00 each which includes US shipping. I even started a Face Book page for them.https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lauras-Bears-Critters/624151867673434
   So, now you know what I have been up to. I have a black Shetland fleece in the living room that I need to
wash and spin. The neighbors behind us gave it to me. The sheared
the sheep before they butchered him. I also have shirts and
shorts to make. So much to do and so little ambition.

But It Was A 6 Foot Fence

   Well, the deer have been in the garden, even with the 6 foot fence. I guess there is really no stopping them. They had a good old time eating whatever took their fancy. Who needs lettuce, broccoli and watermelon? Who needs peas and beans? We do have a freezer full of peas and beans. They haven't helped us harvest onions yet. I'm sure with time, they will.
   There is a pumpkin with some teeth marks in it, but it's still ok. Chard is also good deer food. I went grocery shopping yesterday. It was a really long day. I noticed people weren't buying the non-necessities.
   Tomorrow there is a farmer's market in Clayton, WA, which isn't that far from here and I am trying to convince Tim we need to go. There are going to be spinners there, with fiber to buy. Who cares that I have a bath tub full of still untouched fiber to do something with. There will be Alpaca fiber to buy and I've always wanted to try some of that. $10.00 for 4 ounces. 4 ounces of Alpaca fiber will go a long way.
   There will be other crafters there, as well. Also fresh cheese, homemade goat milk soap, small farm animals to buy, and free lemonade and cookies. Who knows, maybe we can get more peas, green beans, onions, carrots and potatoes.
   One of our tomatoes that had a big boy label in the pot turned out to be a cherry tomato. Big difference in tomato size. I bet someone had fun playing with the variety sticks stuck in the pot.
   The birds have discovered Tim's black berries and raspberries. He's not happy about that. He put bird netting over them and the birds were trying their darnedest to get in under the netting.
   The wild turkeys are still roosting at the end of the driveway high up in the trees. Tim is getting a good collection of turkey feathers for his fly tying.
   Amy caught Michaela walking yesterday. She just turned 8 months old. Michaela really has that throwing things down pat. She still spits up a storm, too.
   Well, my break is over. It's time to get back to playing in the green beans. Amy and Daniel are shelling the peas for me, but for some reason, they don't like doing the green beans.

So Much For Sunny Weather

   It seems our sunny weather has left us for a while. Yesterday, we had a brief high of 66. With more rain. It's so dark and cloudy now, it's probably going to start raining any minute now. We have 20% chance of isolated thunderstorms today. I told Tim the weather report and told him it would be a nice enough day do ride his motorcycle to work. I hope he doesn't get wet.
   The deer have discovered the garden and our fruit tree saplings. Pea plants seem to be really tasty. There is now a fence all the way around the garden.
   One of the 3 cherry trees we planted is now a cherry stick. No leaves or branches on it. It should come back. The deer started on a second cherry tree, but didn't eat much of it. I figure the deer was full because it eat pea plants and the cherry tree.
   The one cherry tree that had all the nice, red, almost ripe cherries on it, has none, thanks to little birds that went through the fence to get them. It has netting over the top of the fence around it, and the birds didn't get in that way. Darned wild life.
   In the last couple of days, Michaela has learned how to sit up by herself, get on her knees and not hold onto anything and pull herself up to stand. She's working on the how to get down from standing other than letting go and falling. Amy said she caught her holding onto the top of the crib with one hand and turning and bending down to pick up a toy to throw. Amy also said she walked around the crib while holding onto the rail. Michaela will be 7 months old Saturday. Michaela doesn't like being a baby. We need to find someplace else for the play pen because it's by the window and yesterday, she stood up and grabbed hold of the blinds. I guess it's about time to baby proof.
   Chris the llama, who lives behind us scared Chip yesterday morning, and now Chip won't even go to his favorite tree. It looked like Chris was eating, when he scared Chip, so I have no idea what happened. Poor Chip came running back to the house and if he had a tail that wasn't cropped, I'm sure it would have been tucked between his legs as he ran to the house.
   Once again, I'm trying to convince Chip he is a dog and that I am boss. It's really hard to do when I'm the only one who does it. I'm tired of being jumped on and pawed. Tim says he doesn't have any problems with Chip. Chip also has started growling at me and snapping at me when I try to cut his hair. You nick the god one time with a pair of scissors and look what happens. The nick barely broke the skin. I think I'll get him a muzzle. I also think stress from the now lively home has gotten to Chip. He was used to quiet sure and dull. It's not anymore. Jealousy is another of his problems. I'm not suppose to hold anyone but him. He keeps the other 2 dogs away from me.
   All four dogs play together now, which is progress. Unfortunately, Elsa and Sadie say that Jake and Chip don't know how to play. They play tug of war and Jake and Chip never have. Elsa wisely stays out of the way when Jake is playing. She'd get run over and hurt. So instead, she parks at the dogs as they are playing.
   The wind has started and I think I can see some sun. Hopefully, the clouds will burn off. I've got to go. I've got a basket of towels calling me. Again.

Poor Rototiller

   We were planting the root vegetables in the garden today when a terrible thing happened. Our trusty Troy Built Econo Horse engine blew up. Tim says there is no hope for it. We've had the trusty tiller since 1988 or '89, and it has served us well.
   Just to make things more fun, our little tiny tiller won't start, either. It's enough to shake your arms off when it does work. Now, Tim is out there digging the huge garden by hand. I really hope he doesn't kill himself doing it. He was preparing the potato area, and it was going to be a pretty big area. We planted onions red, yellow, white and bunching onions, garlic, shallots and 2 different verities of carrots. I was staggering their planting.
   Tim does admit he's too old to be working as hard as he is with the garden. And, just for more fun since he ran over some hidden barbed wire with the riding mower, he was thinking about cutting our massive area of wild grass with an old push mower. The barbed wire popped the only good tie on the mower and the side of the tire blew out. It did something to the blade, too, but I don't remember exactly what.
   Of course, we are suppose to have rain move in tonight and it's suppose to poor Sunday and Monday. Tim got his motorcycle out of his moms garage, where it winters, in the hopes of riding it next week. We have only 20% chance of rain after Monday, so maybe he'll be able to ride. He's going through riding withdrawals.
   While we were out and about yesterday, we had to stop at garage/yard sales, because it's required by law that we stop. For $5.00, I bought a brand new paraffin wax therapy thing I had been looking for in stores and could never find when I had money to buy one. $5.00 was a steal. We also bought an oak DVD/CD holder for $3.00, so we did well. I'm going to turn it into an all DVD holder. We should have a garage/yard sale sometime, but it just sounds like too much work.
   Me, I'd better get cracking and finish Nathan's teddy bear. Also, since it's finally warming up, I need to make some summer clothes.
    I also have a book to review that needs to be read. Soon, I had better find someplace to put the things we moved out of the spare room. I suppose they really don't need to be just plopped in the middle of the dinning room floor. There is also the usual baking and clothes washing to get done as well. The work around here just never ends.

What Do You Do With 25 Pounds Of Green Tomatoes?

   I've been pretty busy lately, so I've been slacking off with my blog. Our garden is the reason. I took pictures of thing to put on here, but wouldn't you know it? I can't get them off of the camera onto the computer. I'll have them up when I can get them.
   Back to the garden. It did really well, even with the deer helping themselves. I didn't weigh everything, but what I did weigh came to 329.25 pounds. That's:
138 pounds of potatoes
54 pounds of onions
27 pounds of carrots
38 pounds of cucumbers
29.75 pounds of zucchini
29 pounds of tomatoes
13.50 pounds of patty pan squash
2 bushels of spinach
25 pea pods
2 green beans
   Deer really like peas and green beans. We are still harvesting corn and my lima beans are still playing around.
   25 pounds of the tomatoes were green. They just didn't ripen anywhere this year and had to be harvested before the frost go to them. I looked for recipes for green tomatoes and found the usual fried green tomatoes. I was looking for sauce. I decided to cook them all, without seasoning, so I could use it for different things. I ended up with 9 pints and 7 quarts of green tomato sauce. It looks like green enchilada sauce. I also have 1 quart of red tomato sauce. I hope the green tomato sauce is edible and not a waste of time and effort.
   I spent 12 hours working on my 25 pounds of green tomatoes. I had planned on freezing it, but lack of freezer space, (we only have the small one on our side by side fridge), said I needed to can it. What a long day that was. I finished canning my last batch at 11:15PM.
   It was my idea to plant a lot of tomatoes, but I was thinking the harvesting would be staggered,  not an all at once thing, except for the few ripe tomatoes we had. Deer started helping themselves to the ripe tomatoes as the summer went on.
   I am freezing and dehydrating potatoes. This kind doesn't have a long shelf life, but I thought it would be longer than it is. It's not.
   Carrots are being dehydrated. I also dehydrated zucchini.
   I still have 3 gallon bags of cherries in the freezer. I had another one, but yesterday it became cherry cobbler.
   This weekend we might be getting a bunch of concord and wine grapes, along with some sprouts.
   I need to buy more jars this weekend. I thought I had enough when I first bought some, but I was wrong. This will be the third time I'm buying more. I need quarts and pints. I have enough 1/2 pints and 4-oz jars.
   Once again, I think it would have been nice to start this self sufficiency thing at a younger age, but it didn't work out that way. I don't mind dehydrating and canning, but it would have been much nicer if it didn't happen all at one time with everything.
   Chip says he's suffering from neglect because I haven't played with him as much lately. He started to sit up and beg when I walk by, and no one taught him how to do that. If that doesn't work, he throws himself on my feet and rolls around. I do add, he is very cute doing both these things, and he knows it, too.
   After seeing how well the garden did, for the most part, I don't know if Tim still wants a bigger garden next year. We do need deer fencing,a freezer and a bigger dehydrator for next year. I also think I need to be cloned a few times to keep up with everything.

Garden Predators

   Yesterday, I let the dogs out to do what dogs do, and Chip started to stare intently on the side of the house, and point like a good hunting dog should. The only thing is, is Chip is a miniature poodle. He didn't make any noise, just stared. Then he crept forward and then took off chasing something. He took off before I could see what he saw. What he saw was a flock of wild turkeys. Two or 3 hens and a good crop of pretty young turkeys.
   Chip chased them ,and most ran through the fence and into the field behind us. All of a sudden, Chip found the turkey he wanted. A big hen was what he wanted. As I'm trying to catch Chip, he is trying to get the turkey, and the turkey takes off in flight, almost hitting me in the head. Pretty funny. Chip chased the turkey until it landed in a tree. If he could of figure out how to climb the 45 foot tall pine tree, we might have had turkey for dinner instead of squash. Now, Chip is upset he has to go outside on the leash.
    Besides the deer problem, we have wild turkeys eating what they can reach. The really seem to be partial to the tomatoes. It would be nice if the ate more grasshoppers. Our garden feeds the wild animals, and us, well.
  

The Stinky Stuff Just Might Work

   As you know, we planted another garden this year and have a deer problem. We saw the deer that have been eating the garden. They are less than 6 months old since they still have their spots. Did I ask them their ages, you ask? Nope, I just looked up the answer to "how old are white tail deer when they lose their spots" on the internet. White tail deer lose their spots when they are about 6 months old. Anyway, the deer looked very healthy and well fed. They should be well fed since they are doing a number on the garden.
   When we win the lottery, we will finish fencing in the garden. We would like to fence in a very large area to include the berry patch and future garden growth. I know it has to be a very high fence since deer can jump over a 9 foot fence. They can also run 40 mph and swim 15 mph. I just thought I'd throw in those facts.
   I was looking on the internet (I waste a lot of time on the internet), and found some recipes to make your own deer repellent. The deer munched on the garden the night I sprayed the stuff on, but they haven't touched it the last couple of days. Maybe it works after all. Deer aren't suppose to like stinky stuff, but then, who does?
   The stinky stuff I mixed up had a little milk, 3 eggs, garlic juice, hot pepper oil, clam juice, and a couple dashes of cayenne pepper. The recipe didn't call for the clam juice or the cayenne pepper, but I thought the stinkier and hotter, the better. I put this in a blender and blended it really well, and then poured it into the empty gallon milk jug I had finished off that morning and added enough water to make a gallon. I used hot water, not that I think it matters, but i thought it would make the stuff smell more. A couple of hours after I made it, I poured some in a squirt bottle and sprayed the plants in the garden. Wouldn't you know it, no matter where I stood while spraying it, I kept drifting onto my legs. After I had sprayed the whole garden, I just poured the remainder in the milk jug onto the most eaten veggies. I also sprayed the concoction on the berry plants and the Japanese Maple, that tastes so good.
   I think when I spray the garden again, I will just use garlic juice and clam juice. I think I will have to spray the garden once a week, or when ever the deer start eating it again. If that works, I guess it's a cheap enough fix until we can afford the mega fence. The stinky stuff is also suppose to repel rabbits, but that's one problem we don't have.

Never Ending Rain, But The Garden Is Growing

   Our garden is growing in our never ending rain. I can see green from the window, and since it's coming up in rows, I figure it's veggies. The deer haven't even tromped thru it yet. Maybe they don't like all this rain. I figure since I'm stuck in the house, I might as well clean it. I haven't started sewing yet, but I did fold those towels, so I guess I'm making some progress.
   All this rain is making everything so very green. Very pretty shades of green.
   Puddles of water with rings of yellow pine pollen around them. I never knew pines had so much pollen until we moved up here. Could it be, because there aren't that many pines in the desert?

Finally, it was time to plant our garden

   At long last, the weather cooperated, and we were able to plant most of the garden. We still need to plant the tomatoes, but it's been in the mid to upper 20's at night, so they are still in the house. We are going to try walls of water this year for them. We hear they are the way to go. I hope so, since the tomatoes really need to go outside. They aren't looking to perky right now. We are also planting more potatoes. I think we need to try sweet potatoes this year, too.
   I know it will eventually happen, but so far, no deer. Could be, because it's just a patch of tilled dirt right now until thing start to grow. We are planting a lot of onions and potatoes since we go through them. You'd think, that being a hop, skip and a jump from Idaho, the potato state, we'd be able to get good potatoes here, but we don't.
   We are also planting garlic, red and green bell peppers(yuck), spinach, lettuce, tons of corn, radishes, carrots, turnips, green beans and peas and assorted squash. Oh, and of course zucchini, so we can give it to everyone we know. Kind of a we'll take yours, if you take ours thing. We figure if we over plant, we should have some after the deer eat their share. We will also give to friends and neighbors if we have more than we need.
   I plan to dehydrate most of it. It reconstitutes in boiling water, lasts a long time, keeps more nutrients than canning or freezing, and the biggest reason is, it won't be taking up room in our tiny freezer. It gets to take up room in the pantry. For some reason, I keep thinking my dehydrator won't live through this year, even though I have never had any problems with it.  Could be because I've had it since 1993.
   The sheep that live behind us seem to be happy, and well fenced, in their many acres this year. Good thing, since there are a lot more of them. Time will tell, though.

Gee thanks, deer

The deer have decided it's time for me to harvest our onions. Up to this point, the deer haven't bothered the onions. Now, they are eating the tops and pulling the onions out of the ground. It does make it easier to harvest if they are already laying on the ground. Unfortunately, it's all the onions at one time and not staggered like I had planned on harvesting them.
The deer haven't tried carrots, yet. Most of them are ready to harvest. Tim dug up more potatoes this evening while I was picking up onions. More to be harvested later. I guess tomorrow, besides baking, I am doing things with fresh produce. I'm going to try dehydrating garlic and potatoes for the first time. The garlic and onions will be dehydrated outside, using my dehydrator. No rain in the forecast, so it's a good time.

More garden info that you don't really want to know

Last night, we had some of our home grown Yukon Gold potatoes. They were really good. Not a bad spot in them and they didn't need peeled. One spaghetti squash is about ready to be harvested. We've never had one before, I hope we like them. We are finally done with radishes and the carrots are slowly growing. We had onions and garlic out of the garden the other night. It's nice going out to the garden and harvesting what you need for a meal. We do have a really bad grasshopper problem that's quite common out here. No more sheep, though. Now, I'll try my hand at canning cherry preserves, as soon as the temperature is out of the 90's. The weather forecaster tells us that our "normal" temperature for this time of year is 84-86. That would be nice. I'm tired of hot weather and there's this small fleeting voice that says it would be nice if it was early fall. That little voice must be out of it's mind, because, after fall comes winter and I'll be living in my snow globe again.

A meal from our garden

Last night, we had a very good meal from our garden. I picked a zucchini, an onion and some garlic. I cooked some sausage, made some spaghetti sauce, cut the zucchini in bite sized chunks and mixed everything together and put Parmesan cheese and Italian bread crumbs on top and dotted it with some butter, (OK, it was margarine), and nuked it to microwave perfection, about 6 minutes. I usually bake it in the oven, but it was a hot day and I was in a hurry, so in the microwave it went. We have leftovers for dinner tonight, but I need to add another zucchini to stretch it and fix some garlic bread. Too bad, our salad makings isn't ready to harvest yet. I also made a pistachio Amish friendship cake for desert. Leftovers of that, too.

*^%$#! Sheep!!

This morning at 5:00AM, we heard a thunk on the side of the house and several loud Baaaaa's. The sheep were back. Not 8 this time , but 17, thanks to the populations explosion behind us. They found the garden. We don't need to worry about too many radishes anymore. Apparently, sheep like radishes. They sampled everything else but they should survive. The sheep were careful and walked between the rows of potatoes, though. Tim went out and told them to go home, and they took off. I see they are in the pasture furthest away from us now.
Tim saw a buck, down and speckled fawn in the yard on his trip to get the newspaper out of the box at the street. He said the doe and fawn were playing, chasing each other around. The buck stood up really tall and snorted and stamped his feet when he finally noticed Tim. Then they took off to go wherever deer go during the day. Life is interesting up here.

Garden update

Our garden is doing pretty well. The potatoes are growing nicely. Hopefully, we will get a good crop. The zucchini and spaghetti squash seem to have magically disappearing zucchini and squash. I don't know if deer like them or not. The replanted cucumbers haven't done too much.
We have radishes coming out our ears, and Tim will be so tired of them, since I don't like them.

I harvested some garlic and green onions that were ready. We have a lot more that isn't ready yet. The garlic is hanging on the hand rail of the back steps. No vampires will get in the back door. I thought I would dehydrate the green onion tops. Wouldn't you know, the only place I have to do it is in the house. Now, we can cry up a storm. I wonder if strong onion smell will chase away anything? Visitors, maybe. The deer don't like garlic and onion tops, though they did try them.
The deer have trimmed the pepper plants. The spinach went to seed without getting leaves big enough to harvest. My carrots have managed to end up all over the place and the red leaf lettuce is just now getting around to growing. I hope it doesn't snow in the near future so we can harvest the rest.
All in all, our first garden up here is doing better than we expected. We did eventually put a fence of sorts around it to keep the deer out, but it only worked to confuse them when they got in the garden so they could trample it better.