Upkeep

First off, everybody in the world should know about this Baked Pumpkin Steel Cut Oatmeal recipe. It is amazing when it is baked the night before and lasts us for a couple of breakfasts reheated in the morning.

Fall officially came to the valley a couple of weeks ago and our blueberry bushes are still an amazing color.

Q has taken to the new tiller with zeal. He'd already done the side and back beds (which now have annual clover sprouting) and them moved on to the front bed and the paths.


He's still planning on tilling up the strawberry bed, make a new raised bed that matches the others to replace the one currently tipped up on it's side, till up a curved path around the asparagus bed at the very front of the house, and put new bark down on the paths.

We'll see when all that happens because he spent yesterday working on a new chicken yard behind the shed. This will hopefully be the "permanent" one for the layers. Time was of the essence on this project because we got some new chickens yesterday. A lady was selling her 3 chickens, 1 rooster, and their coop for a very reasonable price. The rooster, who crows very robustly, is living in our guest bathroom on water alone until he gets put in the freezer tonight. The other three hens are locked in their coop until this evening when we are going to put all the girls, six in total now, together in their new yard. Since Lacey has been separated from Lily and Little Miss ever since the failed introduction, we currently have three "sets" of chickens. We figure that putting them all together in new, neutral territory will let a proper flock pecking order develop. The new ones are two Speckled Sussex and another red sex-link (like Lily). Pictures will be forthcoming.

Willow and I just got back from a two week trip to visit Colorado. I don't have pictures to post today because my phone is being difficult. It was so much fun and the drive was easy with a very good baby and a couple of excellent books on tape. I strongly suggest Clara and Mr. Tiffany and The Poisonwood Bible to anyone looking for a good read or listen.

Putting the Yard to Bed

It's that time of year. This season's been made especially neat due to the purchase of an electric rototiller, which Q has put to good use. He double tilled the corn bed, including another couple of feet of sod, which the tiller had no problem with.

He also did the oat bed. We planted annual red clover as a green mulch in both beds. He's also going to do the front edamame/squash bed and who knows what else!
We also finished getting the corn husked this weekend. A few ears of sweet corn had a couple of moldy spots, so those are getting slowly fed to the chickens fresh. The rest are up drying along with the popcorn (which we need to try soon). It looks like we're going to crack most of the corn and use it to help lower our chicken feed costs this winter (along with the oats, which we haven't found a good method for threshing).
Here's Willow helping me test fit a pants pattern for her, courtesy of a worn out pair of Daddy's boxers. I'll post pictures of the finished first real pair tomorrow.
And here's an easy fall dessert...

I cut the apples in half and used the melon baller to remove the cores before putting them in the baking pan. A dollop of butter and teaspoon of brown sugar in each center, liberally sprinkled with pumpkin pie spice, and baked uncovered at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Early October

I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since I posted. Time flies in a haze of undone/slowly done chores and lots of baby snuggling.

This weekend we dealt with the corn patches.

This is about half of the popcorn already husked. Still working on the other half. It should end up being most of the winter supply considering we generally use about 1 cup every Sunday.

Here's the front yard with the popcorn stalks cut out of the raised bed and the lawn and strawberry patch mown. We're releasing the chickens on the strawberry patch for the winter whenever we get the fencing set up.

Here's the back yard after removing the sweet corn stalks. We were surprised to find that we could get a small electric tiller for $130. It arrives Wednesday and Q's going to go over all the beds with it. We found a source for reasonably priced straw bales so then we're going to mulch everything. We've done the city's free leaf program for the last 2 years but are tired of all the trash and fungus the leaves bring into our yard.
Here are the two feed bags of drying sweet corn that I need to get husked.

Apple cider we pressed with friends and then canned. Spiced, it's a delicious treat on a rainy evening and the smell is heavenly.

We're out of storage in the pantry so I'm using food as art. We grew everything there except the largest pumpkin and the largest acorn squash.

Purple carrots!

Here was our first dinner after we finished Whole 30. Willow got to watch. I've taken to using the stroller as living room/kitchen accomodations for her.
Here are the two knitting orders I've finished and I have two to get done.

BTW- This is the same laundry detergent recipe I use and the tutorial includes some very cute kiddos.

Hopefully it won't be another three weeks before I post again!

Transformation Behind the Shed

As promised, here's the before and after of the space behind the shed that we hired a guy to clean out. We think we need to go over it with a rototiller before planting it with some clover. Wouldn't the bees like that when we get a new hive in that box? We've also been offered some lilac bushes from a friend and are thinking of planting them along the side fence to create a more opaque barrier there.

Before

After

Garden Update

The first strawberries were finally ripe yesterday!

When I looked back at last year's posts, it looks like we're about a week behind; not surprising considering how rainy it's been this spring.
Some major harvesting is just around the corner. The parents left today and Mom is worried about me being able to bend down to harvest the bounty that is coming. I'm hoping I have special "bending down" reserves if strawberries are the reward. Of course, Q is also awesome and usually willing to harvest.

The big project while Mom was here was getting the back yard a little more presentable and usable.Q mowed the lawn (such as it is) and built the chickens a big run for the summer. Hopefully, they'll destroy the grass that has infiltrated the Oregon grapes. Mom was with me and offered to put me in one of the pictures. I was surprised by how large I am.

Mom took it upon herself to move leaves, pull weeds, and generally work her tail off to get a corn bed prepared. It's 250 sq. feet, about 116' of row, and we planted about 360 kernels of Golden Bantam corn in it.
There was a crow hopping around looking a little too proprietary this afternoon so I covered it with some netting until the plants start coming up.

The front yard also got a lot of work. Grass has been trying to take over so Q found a guy to hire and do some work for us. Between his work and the hours Mom and I put in, the front yard is looking pretty good. I find it really difficult to acknowledge that I can't do everything myself right now but I am very appreciative of the results.Looking out from the front step toward the west...
Looking toward the east (six new tomatoes went in today!)...
I've still got to remove leaves from two more beds and last year's celery (the "bushes" visible toward the street) need to get taken out.

The squash and melon seedlings are hardening off in the shade before being planted.

The oats are coming along nicely and we just planted more oats yesterday in the currently bare patch just behind the gladioli. Probably about 200 sq. feet all together?
I love running my hands over the soft oat grass...
The popcorn is to the back of this picture and a small potato patch is hiding behind the lavender in the foreground.
The edamame we planted previously is growing nicely and we just planted more this morning, bringing the total up to about 100' of row.
Grape vines...
Baby grapes!

The blueberry bushes are loaded and maybe about 2 weeks from a few ripe berries.
The first iris open up yesterday.

The bachelor buttons have started. We currently only have one that is this amazing purple color instead of the more usual blue-violet and lavender shades.

Here's the "before" picture for the next project our yard helper is tackling tomorrow. The area behind the shed is completely overgrown and needs to be completely cleaned out. "Afters" to follow soon!

Buds and Early Growth

Two of last year's grape vines and the new one all seem to be doing well. It looks like we lost one to some sort of fungus though - oh no, a trip to the garden store! ;)

About seven of the asparagus crowns in the front bed have stalks.

Raspberry cane

We now have seven rhubarb plants.

I realized that we need to use the rest of last year's rhubarb and strawberries before this year's crops come in...and we have tons of backyard grown eggs. This translated into vanilla custard with strawberry-rhubarb fool for breakfast this weekend.

When we came back from Colorado, the blueberries had burst into bloom.

The cherry tree

The bulbs have been having a nice succession.

We spent a bunch of the weekend working on the new chicken coop. The layers are in their new house tonight and the meat chicks are spending their first night in the tractor. I'll post chicken pics once we get the finishing touches on the coop done.