Zucinni overload!!!

First, a quick shout out to my middle DD Shannon. It's her 10th B-day today!!!

Second, I hope hope hope I remember to check back here next year and I'm reminding myself right now, DO NOT PLANT SO MUCH ZUCCINI!!!!! I had tons and tons last year, and thought I was under control this year, but no, I am still buried in it. For the record, I planted 3 regular zuccini plants, 3 Italian zuccini, 1 patti pan plant and 1 yellow summer squash. And it is WAY to much. Two zuccini plants really is enough, 3 max!!!! Ok, I feel better now!

Hot Hot HOT!!!!!

Oh my, I haven't posted in ages. Thought I'd come and post and update because it is just way too hot to do much else around here! It's near 100 today, and should break 100 the next 3 days or so. It never gets this hot around here, so we are really not used to it at all. It's also very humid, which just makes it so much worse.

ANYWAY. The garden is booming! We have harvested 5 gallon sized bags of raspberries in the freezer, and eaten our fair share fresh as well. We also have about 3 gallon size bags of blueberries in the freezer. Those are much harder to get in the freezer as my girls wolf them down as soon as they are picked!

Zuccini is coming in like crazy. We've had our first baby potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, beets, turnips, onions and lots of peas, and lettuce although those two are are just about gone now. We should be getting our first beans, cukes and carrots anytime now. Our corn, watermelon, canteloupes, pumpkins and winter squash look to be doing really well. For the first time our apple trees look like we will have a nice harvest and we are excited about that. Next year or maybe even this fall, the kids have requested that we put in some grapes and more plum trees. We have some very old Italian style plums here which are still producing, but they are very small, so I'd like to try and find some type of plum that produces the bigger plums. If you have recommendations, please let me know what has worked for you!

Hope you are all staying cool and sipping some lemonade while you enjoy watching your gardens grow!

We've been busy!

My how time flies! Last week was just gorgeous weather wise, including the entire weekend, and we got a lot accomplished around here. Our older chicks moved into the new coop about a week and a half ago. I'll post some pics on my chicken blog in a bit. I'm also pretty darn sure at least one of our chicks is a rooster, which is fairly disappointing. No one else sees it, but I'm waiting for it to start crowing any day now to prove my point!

Last week I got my first row of potatoes in and TWO rows of strawberries! I had thought the strawberries I ordered from Gurney's would fill one row, so having two rows full, plus two more small containers on the back deck filled with them, just thrilled me to pieces!

My husband also helped me dig lots of holes this weekend around the property to get a bunch of miscellaneous plants in and we also transplanted a few perennials. We got our 6 blueberry bushes in to replace the 6 our puppy managed to chew up. Although when digging them up, 5 of them had the faintest signs of life, so I stuck them in a garden bed to see if any of them pull through.

Then Monday, we were expecting a huge wind/rain storm to come in, so I frantically got all my onions planted which filled another row. BTW, each row is approximately
25'-30' long. Right after finishing planting them, I had a bit of an incident. The wind was starting to pick up, and it managed to catch our big heavy door in the mud room to the garage, and it slammed really good on two of my fingers. It was not a pleasant experience to say the least. I really thought one finger was broken for sure. I went into shock, blacked out, threw up, the whole nine yards. Luckily, it does not seem to be broken now. In fact, it doesn't hurt much now at all. But man did it hurt when it happened!!! Thankfully, I think it's just going to turn lots of different colors as it heals over the next week. I'm very thankful it won't keep me out of the garden!

Since Monday, it's been raining non-stop, so I've been busy playing catch up with things around the inside of the house. I have a few pictures to get posted and will try and get them up tomorrow. Gotta go catch American Idol....go Danny!!!!

Happy Earth Day!

I hope everyone pitched in and did something kind for the Earth today. My DH and I actually loaded up our SUV and took part in a recycle event at his work. I'm almost ashamed to say we brought in 3 monitors, 2 CPU's, an old TV, a printer, a scanner, and old broken X-Box and 3 old cell phones. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate! I'm glad all of it went to an organization that will recycle what they can, and it reminded me again to really think twice about our future purchases. Is that something we really need, or will it just fall into the more "stuff" category? Good things to think about.

Gurney's box of goodies and more!

Look what came in the mail on Friday?


It includes 5 bags of onion sets, 3 yellow Ebenezer, and one bag each of red onions and white onions.


52 bare root Whopper Strawberry plants


And last, 2 bags each of potato starts, in the Red Pontiac, Yukon Gold and Kennibeck varieties



I had hoped to start getting these planted this weekend, but we were too busy trying to finish the new chicken coop. Check out our progress at my Keeping Backyard Chickens blog. We're almost done!!! I'll have to hope my husband can get the rototiller out tomorrow after work so I can get these in in the next few days.

My seeds I started inside over Easter have been doing well also. Here's a peek at them as well! These include red & green cabbage, broccoli, watermelon, cantaloupe, cukes, zuccini, butternut squash, acorn squash and Burgess Buttercup squash.



I am feeling slightly overwhelmed as all I have to get done in the garden in the next few weeks. I love this time of year, but it sure keeps me busy! Hope you are all checking things off your to do list and making progress on your things to do.

Productive Week and Asparagus is up!

Well for the most part the weather was great this week. Supposed to be even nicer this weekend, which will be perfect for finishing the new chicken coop. Over the last few days, I got quite a bit done. I planted alot outside, including 3 packs of peas, two Early Frosty and one Lincoln Homesteader. I also planted two packages of Shallots and half a packet of spinach, and three types of lettuces, red romaine, green romaine and buttercrunch. I also got all my Sweet Peas planted. Most of the seeds I planted inside last weekend are up too. What I'm most excited about though is I have some asparagus coming up! I planted a 30' row last year, and had almost given up hope! But the first spears are starting to peak through! YEAH!!! Now I just have to resist harvesting them this year so they can grow stronger for the years to come. I imagine I'll have to pinch a few though, just to have a taste!

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We had a quiet day at home. We cooked a big ham dinner last night for some friends, and the family has been munching on ham leftovers all day. The girls woke early to see what the Easter Bunny had brought and have been eating more sugar than they should be. It's our last day of Spring Break with everyone home, and we are basically having a veg day, with lots of heavy rain outside.

We didn't quite finish the new coop yet which was the plan. The weather wasn't cooperating. Hoping to finish it next weekend as it is very very close to being done. Just have to finish the run and put in the pop door for the birds.

I did manage to get some seeds planted today and now have them under my new grow lights on heated seed mats. I planted 3 types of cukes, 2 types of zucchini, 3 types of winter squash, red and green cabbage, broccoli, watermelon and cantaloupe. I'm very excited about the last two as I have never planted them before. Our growing season here is rather cool and short, but I found a short season variety of each so I'm giving them a go. Whatever I can do to grow more fruit is a good thing as my kids go through it so fast!

I'll be watching the mail this week as I got my shipping notice from Gurneys.com that my potato starts, onion sets and my strawberries are on their way. I couldn't resist these Whopper Strawberries!

First week in April

Just an update on things around here at the end of the first week in April. Did I mention we are refinancing? We locked in a 5.0% rate. If you haven't looked into it yet, you really should! We will be saving a nice bundle each month at this new rate. We should close in the next two weeks. Make sure you also consider changing the term of your loan. If you have had your mortage for awhile and started with a 30 yr, it may be worth it to refi and go with a 15 yr or 20 yr term. Those shorter term loans will often give you an even better interest rate!

This week is spring break for the kids, and my husband took it off as well. Our primary focus for the week will be building a new coop (our third...yikes!). We are using recycled wood pallets that we got off of Freecycle. You can check out our progress on that on my Keeping Backyard Chickens blog.

The weather has been absolutely perfect the last few days, and it is well deserved! We have had such miserable weather. March was one of the coldest March's on record here, and it seemed more like January. February was actually warmer overall! I had planted some peas and swiss chard in February, and there has been no sign of them whatsoever. I think the seeds just rotted away in the cold wet weather. Today I planted two packs of Alaska Bush peas, as well as half a packet of spinach and two bags of shallots. I am hoping to get my husband to till the rest of the veggie beds by the end of the week. I also need to get my indoor seeds going as I haven't started them yet! I will only be doing easy to grow things inside like my squashes, cukes and melons. I will by tomato and pepper starts later in May.

Last week I got all my apple trees and raspberries pruned. I have 6 new blueberry bushes that need to get planted this week. I think that sum's up what's happening here lately. What's new with you?

Have you made a Rag Quilt yet?

So while I wait for the spring rains to subside enough for me to get outside and acually enjoy working in the garden instead of freezing my buns off (did I mention it is supposed to SNOW again tonight?!?!?!), I've been sewing. Now let me let you know, I do not sew. I am just learning. My 9 year old daughter wanted to sew, so last year, we joined a 4-H sewing group. This is her second year in the group, and I have learned via her learning. Over Christmas break, I got brave enough to sit down and try my first ever sewing project. I made a Rag Quilt for my youngest daughter. Here's a picture:



A close up:



For all you other fearful wanna be sewers, let me tell you this is a great easy project to start with. I have in fact, started a second one for our bedroom, in turquoise, tan and chocolate brown prints with a chocolate brown backing. Here are the squares.



I will try and take more pics as I assemble the quilt and show them in another post. Right now I have about 2/3's of the squares assembled, meaning the backing, batting in the middle, and top print square, are sewn together by stitching a simple "X" through all three layers. I have to finish doing this to the rest of the squares, and then start sewing the squares together to make the rows.

Spring Rains are here....

Now that it is officially spring, I guess I can call them that! Since I posted a few weeks ago about it raining, and it still is. We've been busy with my mom visiting, and trying to refinance the house, so we've been pretty busy and not really able to get outside much. We did score a bunch of free pallets off of Freecycle.org almost 2 weeks ago, and will begin working on the new coop this weekend. DH took spring break off with the girls, and we plan to focus on the coop project while he is off. That's the first full week in April. The chicks are growing so fast, they need to move outside! I also purchased our first incubator this week. No using it until the coop is done though! Right now it will just be used to help the breeding project of the Japanese Bantams if it is needed. But I've been spending a lot of time on BackyardChickens.com and am really really tempted to buy some eggs off of some of the members there. But that's on the back burner for right now.

Garden projects are piling up way too fast! I've set up my lights for starting seeds, but haven't acutally started any yet. I still have winter cleanup to do in several garden beds. I need to get more peas in. Haven't planted any since I posted here last, and none of those are coming up yet. I fear either the birds have got them, or they've rotted, or maybe it's just too cold still. I've got all my seeds purchased, and just waiting for my final order to come in which included potato starts, onion sets and some strawberry plants.

March 1st and more planting done!

Well, my to do list was very long today, but I made a good dent before the rain came in. I planted 2 more packets of peas, this time the Little Wonder variety, last weekend I planted 2 packets of Early Frosty peas. I also got in 1/2 a packet of Swiss Chard, the Large White Rib variety...that was when the rain started! I had wanted to get some spinach and shallots in too, but I had to stop planting and put up a little fence around the garden bed as Toby the 1 yr old Puggle puppy keeps getting in the garden beds and digging around. He has also been eating my new young blueberry bushes! I planted 6 new ones last summer, and he's chewed them down to the ground! I bought two more to start replacing them, but need to put a fence around them too, so didn't get them planted today as I had hoped.

My husband and I also worked on the chicken coops a bit today too. Their run's are so muddy and gross, I bought tarps to put over them and needed the hubby's help to build a support to help the rain run off of the big one. I checked it out before coming in and it seems to be working well and not pooling too much anywhere. We need to find a rain barrel to place where all the run off goes. We also put 1/2" hardware cloth around the base of the smaller coop where we keep our Japanese Banties. They are the nicest birds we have and the girls want to use them for fit and show at the fair this year. Unfortunately, a hawk was fighting with our rooster this week, and through the chicken wire, the hawk managed to bloody up our rooster Charlie pretty good, by just reaching through with his talons, he was able to grab onto Charlies comb. He wasn't looking very pretty when we found him! I've been reading a lot on www.backyardchickens.com, and they say the 1/2" hardware cloth is the most predator proof material you can use, so hopefully it works!

Thinking of getting chickens?

Now is the season where your local feed stores will start carrying baby chicks! They are so adorable and hard to resist! If you are thinking of getting some and are new to chickens, here are some books I recommend:

Planted my first batch of peas!!!

I'm so proud of myself! I've never gotten my peas in so early before. My Mother-in-law and many others in this neck of the woods, have always said February is the time to get the peas planted, and I was determined to get it done this weekend. Hubby even tilled the garden bed for me after I cleaned it up. It's been in the 50's and sunny for the last week, but rain is supposed to come and stay tonight or tomorrow. So yeah for me!!

We have new baby chicks in the house!

I had to share what has been keeping us busy these last 2 weeks. We got new baby chicks! 13 in all, including 3 Buff Rock, 1 Barred Rock, 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 Ameraucana (aka: Easter Eggers), 2 Silver Polish, 2 Rhode Island Red and one mystery chick that we know is a feather footed bantam of some type who is yellow in color right now. Here's the pic's!







We actually went in on an order with a couple people my husband works with, so you may see some other breeds in the photo's like the cornish. We babysat theirs for a week or two. Now we have to get busy building another coop, as our current one is not quite big enough for those we currently have and these, so that will be our spring project.

I've also been browsing at www.backyardchickens.com for coop ideas. Members there have posted lots of ideas and it's a great place to get inspired. Also been browsing on Craigslist.org to see if I can find a previously used coop or shed at a good price. We are also thinking of maybe using pallets to construct the new shed. You can usually pick them up for free on Craigslist quite often, and it a great way to recycle them. If you have a cool, cheap coop design, please share! I'd love to see them!

Spring Fever!!!

Well, guess what? I got soooo busy in the garden's last year, I didn't post here! Sooo sad! Well now it's that time of year again, I'm just itching to get out there, and it's still too cold and wet to do much.

So let me fill you in on things around here. The gardens were a HUGE success! It is February, and we are still eating our own potatoes, carrots, leeks, parnsips, turnips and winter squashes.........LOTS and LOTS of winter squashes! In the freezer we still have corn, beans, diced green peppers and raspberries.

This year I need to make a few changes. LESS SQUASH!!! Both summer squash and winter squash! Here is just one wagon load of summer squash we had, and trust me, we had many more!



I did waaaaay too much of both last year! This year, I want to do a lot more peas, enough to put a ton away in the freezer. We did a lot of green beans last year, and the kids are not so hot on them frozen. They prefer them fresh. They prefer the peas fresh too, and last year they ate most of them before I could get any in the freezer, so need to plant at least 2 or 3 times as much! Also would like to do a little more variety of things this year to take up the room the squashes took up. Maybe some try some celery, kale and beets and plant a little more cabbage and broccoli and spinach.