tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352537132030525702024-03-05T23:59:06.178-05:00The American Haggard HousewifeStonyValley.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01268613604746762432noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-28481498117671711182017-09-19T14:14:00.000-04:002017-09-19T14:14:30.422-04:00All-Too-Real Reality of the 2017 Garden <div style="text-align: justify;">
Today, I am going to be one hundred percent realistic when it comes to our 2017 garden. For many of you who follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/americanhaggardhousewife/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, you might have noticed strategically placed photographs throughout the season, but now it comes down to admitting the all-too-real reality of what happened in our garden this year. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLo0TDgbiXiPVEwcqlE89H7JYmu3gi9H8YpcyAufusqxQsfcDbZxE6WLFT0069r7IQ8O6C3rLDQ-vxNw9OvQLlyQEfWnnuo97iuc718pRAHCgOXwfhfRw_1-4Ef1j4ViCi3y2E34SF1g/s1600/20170526_175443.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLo0TDgbiXiPVEwcqlE89H7JYmu3gi9H8YpcyAufusqxQsfcDbZxE6WLFT0069r7IQ8O6C3rLDQ-vxNw9OvQLlyQEfWnnuo97iuc718pRAHCgOXwfhfRw_1-4Ef1j4ViCi3y2E34SF1g/s320/20170526_175443.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spring 2017 Garden</td></tr>
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We had good intentions. </div>
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We ran our meat chickens and turkeys across the garden in the late-fall and early-winter to help turn up the soil, eat down some of the remaining plants and cover crops, and provide us with some free manure where we wanted it. By spring we had cover cropped sections in buckwheat, put black plastic down to kill any early sprouting weeds, and laid out rows of fresh transplants with landscape fabric and feed bags to help suppress the weeds as the crops grew. The Mr. would go out a few times a week with a hoe and tiller and make sure the paths were cleared of weeds, as well as in between the plants. It looked like it was going to be a very successful year of keeping up with the garden, and keeping the weeds at bay. </div>
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Then life happened...</div>
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Perhaps we should have heeded the advice of "don't take so much on when you're expecting a baby" and we continued to plant the already growing transplants in our garden, swearing that these easier methods will cut down the workload (and they have). Perhaps if we had wholeheartedly taken that advice the garden would have looked different, the canning would have been more lax, and the preserving of the harvest would not be weighing as heavily as it is now that I am 37 weeks along, counting seeds for next year's garden, and <i>finally</i> getting around to the dried mint from the beginning of the summer. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMhrmyU2793kUlJ4u7JKqQgPkf66Wm7A5oHUmEc-wRSFIfz8HNbfaCJOh9m7W7IMjmX-uXOJ3BB4nRjdYE3k5jQdwN1xBDodsQrTXFC4TSdo482Br3RFz5v3pVW5_VLozOw9LqqQesg/s1600/20170815_083208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMhrmyU2793kUlJ4u7JKqQgPkf66Wm7A5oHUmEc-wRSFIfz8HNbfaCJOh9m7W7IMjmX-uXOJ3BB4nRjdYE3k5jQdwN1xBDodsQrTXFC4TSdo482Br3RFz5v3pVW5_VLozOw9LqqQesg/s320/20170815_083208.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We were fortunate that relatives and friends also assisted with <br />
some of the larger canning loads to get them all done, not to <br />
mention my mother who gave up two days to harvest apples<br />
and peaches with me at a local orchard as I fought through <br />
"practice contractions" for eight bushels of fruit.</td></tr>
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Each year we push ourselves to do better than the previous year, and make the most of our yields. After all we eat from our garden throughout the year to help offset our grocery bills, and can more food than most people would dream of in a lifetime. Yet, we were not prepared for how pregnancy would effect my body, nor how quickly the morning sickness would set on and last, and how weak I would still feel. We were not prepared mid-pregnancy for a second batch of meat birds that needed butchered when the smell of wet feathers would turn my stomach so quickly, even though I had been fine at the beginning of my pregnancy with the first batch of the year. We were unrealistic when we thought that I could keep up with my regular daily animal chores, and quickly found that along with his own, the Mr. would have to pick up my daily chores, most of the housework, almost all the garden work, harvesting, and soon canning. </div>
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We had tried our best to "power through" as we did each and every year in the past, gradually adding a little more to our plate with each coming year, but this year it was different. This year the final straw came the day I was getting ready to pressure can chicken stock, and the exhaustion compounded with the heat of everything going in the kitchen caused my vision to black and I caught myself on the counter before I fell and managed to lower myself to the floor, knocking over a few glass pint jars in the process. I was okay (and so was the baby), but it was then the full realization set in that I just couldn't do a lot of it anymore, no matter how hard we had tried to scale me back in work. </div>
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Simply put, the compounding of life has caused us to fall behind as it became unrealistic for the Mr. to work 40-60 hours a week, come home and take care of feeding and changing water for the animals, weeding and harvesting the garden, and tend to the baby chickens and turkeys that needed nursing... all <i>before </i>dinner, which he generally had to also make for us as I was quickly becoming too exhausted to safely prepare the meal. </div>
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All of this boils down to the picture that shows the all-too-real reality of the present state of the garden...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEianVhbBKw3Zw4S6bBUfPMOaYZq0_CATt1IPTul2rEadrq2L3Q1ACHtOTz38JQNdei6G_HvT2NUzEZLoPwTntKLsMX1ddnsA9WugBz0If0Gtq7-rifDA8J-BERYQ-oJgCyAYOi_FV9sUQ/s1600/20170919_112306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEianVhbBKw3Zw4S6bBUfPMOaYZq0_CATt1IPTul2rEadrq2L3Q1ACHtOTz38JQNdei6G_HvT2NUzEZLoPwTntKLsMX1ddnsA9WugBz0If0Gtq7-rifDA8J-BERYQ-oJgCyAYOi_FV9sUQ/s400/20170919_112306.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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... underneath all of those weeds lies the garden. The toppled tomato cages we fight to get the fruits off of the tangled vines once or twice a week. The potatoes that were overcrowded by the weeds, and now lie somewhere underneath a thick blanket of unwanted growth waiting to be unearthed. The beans that skipped over their rows and overtook the pathways in between, but at least overran most of the weeds along with the pathways. A random volunteer gourd plant that clings to the Scarlet Runner Beans. Sweet corn that is only now starting to tassel alongside the tall blades of grass. Vines hung heavy with pumpkins and squash, creeping ever quicker into the surrounding yard. It's all there... waiting for us... taunting us. </div>
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We've yielded over $800 worth of produce so far off that overrun dream, but still there is more. There is always more to be done, but there are changes on the way too. There are new dreams. There's a little one on the way to keep up with amidst this craziness we call life. There's a new job that takes us away from this place we've called home for over four years now. There's a new home being searched for with dreams of animals and gardens, and the stinging reality of whether we can actually get everything we desire on a deadline and a budget as we continue our search. In the end though, we know there'll be a new garden to lay out in 2018, and perhaps... just perhaps... another chance to right reality again and see what beauty lies in a once-again weeded garden. </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-2326536539619992202017-07-21T08:07:00.000-04:002017-07-21T08:07:56.365-04:00Time Saving Canning Hacks From Prep to POP!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4adFDZRwH3CzhuNx15bnAbmoQdxc1Yl9ncu9N-E0QcnesYMHw4Nh2lEOL0I9zjUPXHcT3eNHBMKFqqq94Ym1pxNx73cgD7D4Ig5h2YzbwdrdGsTstI3vQaFTUU3ouOaqS8UkOigTEw/s1600/canned+goods.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="960" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA4adFDZRwH3CzhuNx15bnAbmoQdxc1Yl9ncu9N-E0QcnesYMHw4Nh2lEOL0I9zjUPXHcT3eNHBMKFqqq94Ym1pxNx73cgD7D4Ig5h2YzbwdrdGsTstI3vQaFTUU3ouOaqS8UkOigTEw/s320/canned+goods.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A "light load" in 2017 with chocolate black raspberry<br />
dessert spread, blueberry pie filling, strawberry-lemonade<br />
concentrate, and black raspberry vinegar. </td></tr>
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Have you ever had someone see a picture of your canned goods and think you're nuts and that you must <i>never </i>have a chance to sit down, <i>like ever? </i></div>
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For us, it's not uncommon to make sure by the end of canning season anywhere from 700 to 900 jars of canned goods are filled to last us until we can those particular products again (<a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2015/08/you-plan-to-eat-all-that.html" target="_blank">and yes, we plan to eat them all before you ask</a>). To do so, it could easily mean a couple dozen jars done in a morning or evening, or 100+ jars done over a long canning weekend. We've noticed that a lot of people seem to think that doing this will take <i>FOREVER, </i>but it doesn't have to! There's certainly places that you can "cut corners" to save time and still safely can your garden's bounty for out-of-season use. </div>
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Step 1. Sterilizing canning jars </h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_679a-26xr1KLcmYugifw3yNcoxqLL2zRS5C0IWRpC_olBySzTV4SowsEps18TMs7S6i9n5Cg8w8VlRLOSimvIhyphenhyphenSLkcW9m5P2WKCkziGt7IM0Ggo_CuIEN7RfxFmihM1kvuu_HEUHw/s1600/jars2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="720" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_679a-26xr1KLcmYugifw3yNcoxqLL2zRS5C0IWRpC_olBySzTV4SowsEps18TMs7S6i9n5Cg8w8VlRLOSimvIhyphenhyphenSLkcW9m5P2WKCkziGt7IM0Ggo_CuIEN7RfxFmihM1kvuu_HEUHw/s200/jars2012.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Washing canning jars in my husband's<br />
apartment kitchen in 2012.</td></tr>
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Jars right out of the package or off your storage shelf (even though they've been cleaned in the past) are not considered sterilized. Did you know that according to the <a href="http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/factsheets/sterilizing.html" target="_blank">National Center for Home Food Preservation</a> you don't have to sterilize your jars if you'll be processing them for more than ten minutes in a water bath or pressure canner? Since we can everything for more than ten minutes, we do an abbreviated "sterilization" by washing our jars with a clean washcloth in a scrubbed out sink in <i>hot</i> soapy water. Then they get loaded onto cookie sheets and placed in a 200 degree oven to keep them warm. We heat them for at least ten minutes in the oven prior to use so the jars are hot when they come out, and therefore hot when the hot lid/food hits them as well. We've found this assists in keeping the jars from breaking when different temperatures meet. </div>
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Tip: Any water drops that are left on them when they enter the oven are usually gone by the time the jars come out, and therefore we don't bother drying them off between the two. <br />
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Tip: We found that however many jars your recipe calls for, always have an extra one or two ready to go because it'll likely make more, not less, than what your recipe says. So think like a Boy Scout, and Be Prepared for that to happen. </div>
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Step 2. Heating lids</h2>
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I've watched some people skip this step altogether, but along with it being more sterile for your soon-to-be processed canned goods, it also really helps get the wax on the standard canning lids heated up. There's multiple ways to heat lids including just piling them all in a pot on the stovetop, but we use two handy gadgets - a canning lid rack and canning magnetic lid lifter - that make quick work of heating and using the lids. <br />
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A <b>canning lid rack</b> holds twelve lids vertically, and can be submerged in a pot of water. It keeps the lids separated so they don't accidentally stick together when the wax begins to heat up. New these cost between $9-20 depending on the brand. <br />
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A <b>canning magnetic lid lifter</b> is simply a magnet on the end of a stick. Complex I know! In the early days of us canning we used a pair of tongs to lift the lids out of the hot water, but now with a magnet, there's no more having the lids accidentally slide back into the pot, and seemingly <i>hours </i>of fishing around in the bottom of the pot for the last remaining lid. New these cost between $2-8 depending on the brand.<br />
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Tip: Heat an extra lid or two in case you drop one during the processing. They can always be cooled down and reheated again at a later time. </div>
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Step 3. Prepping your canned goods</h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GiRRxKfJykktLnlzTOvA9hBdL5PUAxUwKIxkkSu-cDrgLmScmwJM_Z-2wY-TGfom5uExSJC__O2_hJLXBAhFVAl6wU504nDMTaZrFuwl8y4Cr1TeHv5whPLRfOLAIpKCX8BmgZmlXg/s1600/peaches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3GiRRxKfJykktLnlzTOvA9hBdL5PUAxUwKIxkkSu-cDrgLmScmwJM_Z-2wY-TGfom5uExSJC__O2_hJLXBAhFVAl6wU504nDMTaZrFuwl8y4Cr1TeHv5whPLRfOLAIpKCX8BmgZmlXg/s320/peaches.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prepped recipes during Peach Season 2015.</td></tr>
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Ask yourself, "How many recipes worth am I planning on making today?" before you get started. We don't just prep one recipe at a time, but <i>at least</i> two. If you're planning on doing a lot of canning, you never want to have a stilled canner as a stilled canner means wasted processing time. <br />
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I had started pre-prepping multiple recipes during peach and apple processing a few years ago because it just made more sense to get it all done while your hands were already sticky, and you could sit and watch television. In that case, I chop all the peaches and other produce that is needed for a particular recipe beforehand, label them and stick them in the fridge so whenever I need to refill the canner with something other than what I was previously canning, there's a recipe more-or-less ready to drop into a pot and heat up. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNh89ocxYf_LKvFXO9HfmYfyXgQevi7lKxgaOQ7Y0cS4yizxVgQG6wp8FeptSNPO84LPq1WwrK5HSy3xZ4s4FSlv9EdBHjRPf5VxuLHwcxx-QQLhqPdAXIKuf915xrSd1pbdSpzAJXvg/s1600/pizza+sauce+sweet+n+sour+tomato+sauce+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNh89ocxYf_LKvFXO9HfmYfyXgQevi7lKxgaOQ7Y0cS4yizxVgQG6wp8FeptSNPO84LPq1WwrK5HSy3xZ4s4FSlv9EdBHjRPf5VxuLHwcxx-QQLhqPdAXIKuf915xrSd1pbdSpzAJXvg/s400/pizza+sauce+sweet+n+sour+tomato+sauce+2016.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pizza sauce (back left), sweet 'n' sour sauce (front left) and tomato sauce<br />
(front right) cooking down on the stove in 2016.</td></tr>
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When doing jams or tomato sauce-based recipes, I like to have one pot on the front burner, and one pot on the back burner, spaced evenly apart time-wise so that when one set of jars is ready to come out of the canner, a new set can easily go in. I've found that it takes me approximately 10 minutes to take the jars out of the oven, fill them on the cookie tray so any drips and spills are easy to clean, and secure the lids and bands. Usually, right as I'm putting on the last band, the previous load of jars is ready to come out of the canner. <br />
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Tip: Gallon pickle jars, half gallon canning jars, and 8+ cup plastic containers make great options to store pre-prepped goods before you're ready to use them.<br />
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Tip: To keep your fruit looking fresh and the proper color, place in a container of cool water with some Fresh Fruit powder or lemon juice.<br />
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Step 4. Heating your (water bath) canner.</h2>
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Fill up your canner with water <i>before </i>you need it. We even get the water in our water bath heating about thirty minutes before we need it so that the hot jars won't touch cold water when they go in. Then, even if you have to adjust the water level of the canner, it won't take nearly as long to heat back up once you've filled it with canned goods. </div>
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Tip: Keep a mixing bowl filled with water in your kitchen sink so you can level off the water of the water bath canner to at least one inch above your jars once they are in.</div>
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Tip: If you want to keep your jars (especially those that go into a pressure canner) from getting water spots, add a little bit of white vinegar into the water as you are heating it.</div>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Step 5. Filling the jars</h2>
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<i>Splish! Splash! I think I need a bath!</i> This is by far the messiest part of canning for us because you're on a tight timetable to get the hot jars out of the oven, the hot ingredients into the jars (we don't do a lot of cold pack), and the hot lids on the jars, and then everything quickly and effectively into a canner. I found the most effective way to do this is make sure you have a fully prepped "fill space" next to the stove (if possible). Imagine that you're prepping a surgical area, so you want to have everything laid out in easy reach. Here's the big three that you need to remember:<br />
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<li><b>Gather everything you need to fill the jars:</b> ladle or deep spoon, funnel for easy filling (we use a plastic collapsible canning funnel that costs around $5), small metal spoon to skim off foam or change volume in the jars, butter knife to remove air bubbles.</li>
<li><b>Keep the lids and rings at close reach. </b>This sometimes includes putting a potholder out for the lids if they are located on a burner too far away on the stovetop, and having a basket full of <i>clean </i>rings handy. Make sure you have your magnet handy if you are using it! </li>
<li><b>Hot pads are your friend. </b>We put out two potholders for our cookie tray to balance on with the hot jars from the oven. You'll also want to have an oven mitt or glove to remove the cookie tray, take off the hot water bath lid, and also to tighten any rings on the jars once they are filled. </li>
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For me, it's always easiest to work in a grid pattern when I fill the jars then, leaving those furthest from the canner for last so nothing gets dripped into the otherwise empty jars and they can either be filled with another load, or cooled and put away without having to clean them. </div>
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Tip: Think of this process as an assembly line. Fill all the jars first, so you have the chance to adjust their volume easier if need be. Then put all the lids on. Then put on the rings and tighten them as you go. Once they are all ready to go, open the canner lid and place them in. </div>
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Note: Even if a lid pops once the ring is screwed on, <i>process it anyways. </i>Processing is not used just to seal the jar, but to heat whatever is being canned to a high enough temperature to make it shelf stable. </div>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Step 6. Removing the jars from the canner</h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSO0-0lNqx_Oar5HaNNKvbaHoy8ad3zroS8bNQj0ALMYNymdauYKc1Yb86GAeQ4z1Z0YcP5gno3G07XYJLbf1H7nB70cZlhPVnTY21bsdXy6DBDZnDkpnDuoTXNPpFLI9N4BXVs_2jDQ/s1600/removingjars2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="720" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSO0-0lNqx_Oar5HaNNKvbaHoy8ad3zroS8bNQj0ALMYNymdauYKc1Yb86GAeQ4z1Z0YcP5gno3G07XYJLbf1H7nB70cZlhPVnTY21bsdXy6DBDZnDkpnDuoTXNPpFLI9N4BXVs_2jDQ/s200/removingjars2012.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Removing jars from the canner in 2012.</td></tr>
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<i>CRRRRAAAACCCCKKKK. </i>It's bound to happen at least once in your canning career; a jar cracks either in the canner, or once it's removed, and makes what could be considered one of the stickiest canning messes you'll ever see. To try to prevent this from happening, take some precautions:<br />
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<ul>
<li><b>DON'T </b>remove the jars immediately from the (water bath) canner, but turn off the burner, remove the canner's lid, and set the timer for five minutes. The jars not only start to cool down during these five minutes, but the lids (at least in our experience) are more likely to pop within the first minute or two of the jars coming out. </li>
<li><b>DON'T </b>remove hot jars from a canner into the direct flow of an air conditioner or fan, or cool them in that air flow. The change in temperature is likely to make them break. <b>DO </b>keep those cooling devices on until it is time to remove the jars or otherwise it'll be hot, hot, hot in your kitchen!</li>
<li><b>DON'T </b>knock the jars against the side of the canner when removing them. </li>
<li><b>DON'T </b>drop the jars back into the canner. Actual jar lifters designed for the purpose of lifting canning jars make a world of difference to the safety of your jars. They cost anywhere from $3-$13 new depending on the exact style and brand you choose. </li>
<li><b>DO </b>slightly tip the jar to drain most of the water off the lid before you move it to your cooling location. The last thing you'll want is a burn from the <i>very hot </i>water. </li>
</ul>
<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Canned pineapple, apple pie filling, apple butter, and hot<br />
pepper jam cooling on the table in 2013.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
Make sure you have a place prepared to let your jars cool before they need to come out of the canner. You can use cookie trays with dish towels or cookie racks on, turkey roasters with their roasting racks, dish towels or bath towels laid out on tables or counters, or also cookie racks with towels or foil underneath to catch any overflow that might occur. Although we started off just using the cookie tray and racks to cool them on, as our batches got bigger, we quickly ran out of racks. We now remove all of our jars to a cookie tray to then carry them over to their cooling location on a large bath towel set on either a table, desk or trunk away from any direct air flow. </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>DON'T </b>check your lids too early. This may result in a false seal, and therefore a ruined jar of canned goods. Within about an hour or two all the lids should have popped. Any canned goods with lids that have not popped should be stored in the fridge. Wait at least eight hours to pack up your canned goods for storage. </li>
<li><b>DO </b>label all your canned goods before storing them with both year and their contents. <i>Trust me... </i>you won't remember which kind of jam it is when you're looking at a sea of reds and purples without having a label on it. </li>
</ul>
<div>
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<div>
I hope some of this is helpful in making your canning process a little easier! What time saving tips do you have in the canning kitchen? </div>
</div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-84732863917441237712017-07-01T10:32:00.000-04:002017-07-01T10:32:02.143-04:00Know Thy Enemy in the Garden<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZcr8lvHuvyZ_LbeUjwe4JLx5d5qfDIIyLi3u1dvN3INXZ4TOlkQYAqjwwQAXItxvT1jrA9qSdsKCBHC8bhIDkfF34RIBw30SAUJpCf8Gu3Xy5ATQWPesdGimNRWOujVpBq4LcbixzNA/s1600/19198492_1571616639529352_864181311_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="959" data-original-width="960" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZcr8lvHuvyZ_LbeUjwe4JLx5d5qfDIIyLi3u1dvN3INXZ4TOlkQYAqjwwQAXItxvT1jrA9qSdsKCBHC8bhIDkfF34RIBw30SAUJpCf8Gu3Xy5ATQWPesdGimNRWOujVpBq4LcbixzNA/s200/19198492_1571616639529352_864181311_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cabbage White Butterflies dancing <br />
on the blooming lavender in the garden.</td></tr>
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<i>Chomp, chomp. </i>Some summer days it seems to echo throughout the land. The chorus of quiet munching and nibbling on every leaf, stem, and fruit in the garden. Somehow these pests know exactly where to go. They avoid the weeds like the plague, and plop down on the squash, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, potatoes and corn, settling in for a good filling meal <i>for them </i>over the growing season, but a meal for them means less of one for us. </div>
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In September of 2016, the Mr. and I went to the Mother Earth News Fair in Somerset, PA, and listened to two different individuals discuss how they organically repelled, destroyed and co-habited with their garden pests. They both had wonderful ideas that worked for their situation, but I've come to find that not all situations are the same, and as every single presenter seemed to say in answer to question after question that weekend... "it depends." </div>
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Those words leave me a little frustrated. Can't there be a full proof way to get rid of these buggers, both big and small? One that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? One that doesn't involve laying down floating row covers, fencing the perimeter, or turning over every leaf, every day, as sunlight is waning as quickly as your sanity? So I repeat, "it depends." It depends on what pest you are dealing with, where you live, what your weather is, if you garden organic or pesticide friendly, and how much time and money you are willing to invest. </div>
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After four seasons of in-ground gardening (and in the midst of our fifth), I'm offering some of the pest prevention tips and tricks that we've used in our garden for five common pests. Every garden is different, and maybe they won't work for you, but why not give them a try as most of these won't cost you much?<br />
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<h2>
Five Common Garden Insect Pests</h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSYSbCKM4eihDUOCC9mYe5Vb5pJvtDJw1EJSxscWopSQ-9kc5evSNwnaFr06CO87pIz71owE0PpiHv848mqGVJ_Okv1VGAQ7-x47HfwoHAfkAXluMNis75hXYN6rdeiPQKnC76BWmHQ/s1600/swallowtail+cattepillar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSYSbCKM4eihDUOCC9mYe5Vb5pJvtDJw1EJSxscWopSQ-9kc5evSNwnaFr06CO87pIz71owE0PpiHv848mqGVJ_Okv1VGAQ7-x47HfwoHAfkAXluMNis75hXYN6rdeiPQKnC76BWmHQ/s200/swallowtail+cattepillar.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caterpillar of a Swallowtail Butterfly </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Caterpillars. </b>I get it. They're stunning. They'll turn into an abundance of beautiful butterflies or moths, some of which eagerly help to pollinate the garden. However, like it is for us, they are probably decimating your parsley, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc., depending on the species' desired buffet. So do you kill them, or let them live? Are they friend or foe? We've come to the conclusion you must either hand pick them off the plants and send them to the afterlife, or to someone else. Perhaps friends or family have butterfly gardens nearby and would be willing to take them off of your hands so they can watch the caterpillars mature, munch, and reproduce... in <i>their </i>garden. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOH_JCkh1AFQ_Gs4iVnxK5VEGgOD6BQXKzXoH7H49bwiIw_6o4AwkgDcJtawiIepKzJ7gZmsoNnfvAE790R1swYnyXlwhH297RMGVEJYQm-iVdRuDmXOdOPEV_NjRIFGtjC-eFLNj5A/s1600/grasshoppers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMOH_JCkh1AFQ_Gs4iVnxK5VEGgOD6BQXKzXoH7H49bwiIw_6o4AwkgDcJtawiIepKzJ7gZmsoNnfvAE790R1swYnyXlwhH297RMGVEJYQm-iVdRuDmXOdOPEV_NjRIFGtjC-eFLNj5A/s1600/grasshoppers.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Differential Grasshopper</td></tr>
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<b>Grasshoppers. </b>Anyone else grow up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's <i>Little House on the Prairie </i>books? Among the most memorable parts of the series for me was in <i>On The Banks of Plum Creek </i>when the glittering cloud of grasshoppers shaded out the sky and literally ate the fields out of house and home. Although, they were technically the Rocky Mountain Locusts of 1874 that were commonly referred to as grasshoppers, I feel that in the summer garden, the story sure fits. Aside from the floating row covers that many gardeners swear by, I've noticed that another animal has quite the appetite for these... farm cats! Although they don't completely eliminate the pests entirely, they certainly keep the population, and therefore problem, down as the cats "assist" us during our morning and evening chores. In all, our less than half a dozen farm cats do pretty well over the 8,400 square feet of garden space we maintain.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPUk3dAGYxsYBKZMmt9VquZWsUOeGcik6yg11hyphenhyphen7Mhg8S56myVh6IGOpce392ddBoa8vRbjstaXbQypnBuXcYXRGzBWOOW_ttxGP6aIswWxvKAa1Wex6b9g77cb4XDc6Dq7I_AA1Z2WA/s1600/Potato+Beetle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPUk3dAGYxsYBKZMmt9VquZWsUOeGcik6yg11hyphenhyphen7Mhg8S56myVh6IGOpce392ddBoa8vRbjstaXbQypnBuXcYXRGzBWOOW_ttxGP6aIswWxvKAa1Wex6b9g77cb4XDc6Dq7I_AA1Z2WA/s200/Potato+Beetle.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mature Colorado Potato Beetle</td></tr>
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<b>Colorado Potato Beetles. </b> The first of the pests for us to wage full-on warfare on was the dreaded Colorado Potato Beetle who systematically devoured the leaves of the carefully mounded Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold potatoes the first year until nearly none were left in the June heat. Once feeding on the buffalo bur of another lonesome prairie in 1859, the pioneers’ potatoes looked better to these bugs that multiplied by the millions and traveled in droves 85 miles further eastward each year, looking for new potato fields to systematically devour. The first year, we lost the crop as the plants were defoliated. The second year we burned all the plants with a flaming torch. The plants <i>and </i>beetles both returned. In the third year, we hand picked every blasted one off, but this past year, we finally found our solution. The potatoes were set in late this past year at the beginning of summer, instead of being the second crop in the garden at spring. It broke the cycle, and we didn't pick a single beetle off the plants that I can recollect! This year we once again planted the potatoes late (two rows in May, and we're hoping to put our third row in during early July) to see if we can eliminate or greatly reduce the beetles two years in a row. We did have one or two appear thus far this year that were quickly picked off, and have been constantly surveying the crop for any other additional damage. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xAmocRpNOKhzy-sl94wn3c6tWb1EWkwqB_acloSv1UfYv8rDse2_63bE4L4MzGyOLSJdGg9Bccgcl1e9V3dGfkDEVAfO4-RWvtUSHxDT-qSms4ri6JFnvzFHHdXalr4YsHRQzmmdXw/s1600/japanese+beetles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xAmocRpNOKhzy-sl94wn3c6tWb1EWkwqB_acloSv1UfYv8rDse2_63bE4L4MzGyOLSJdGg9Bccgcl1e9V3dGfkDEVAfO4-RWvtUSHxDT-qSms4ri6JFnvzFHHdXalr4YsHRQzmmdXw/s200/japanese+beetles.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Japanese Beetle</td></tr>
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<b>Japanese Beetles. </b>Arriving in America around the time of the First World War, the Japanese Beetle plagues our berry patch each summer (fortunately it's usually towards the end of the season). This past year their sweet tooth sent them migrating to our sweet corn crop as soon as the berry patch was picked out. Japanese Beetles are happy to dine on over 200 plants so there's no telling where they would have ended up next in our garden in the summer heat. Although we cannot eliminate them all together, we can minimize the amount of damage they do by planting our crops earlier in the year before they make their largest attacks on our gardens near the end of summer. Earlier in the season, we do hand-pick the beetles from the crops in the evening hours and drop them into containers of either soapy water or old motor oil. </div>
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<b>Tomato Hornworms. </b>Notice what looks like a moving tomato stem? Uh oh. You might have a Tomato Hornworm that blends in amazingly well with the tomato plant itself as it's often found clinging to branches and leaves near the tomato's main stem. Tomato Hornworms, which can go up to 4" in length, are actually caterpillars of the Five-Spotted Hawk Moth that has a 3.5-5" wingspan itself. We generally allow Mother Nature to take its course (with some help) with the Tomato Hornworms in our own garden, although you can pick them off by hand earlier on when they are just green caterpillars. </div>
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If you see a green caterpillar covered in what looks like white eggs, STOP! Braconid Wasps lay their eggs under the skin of Tomato Hornworms (and their close relative the Tobacco Hornworm). Once the larva chews its way through the hormworm, they spin little white cocoons on its back, which many mistake for the wasp's eggs. The larva will feed off the hornworm, and once they emerge from their cocoons, the hornworm usually has but a few days left to live. If you want to make sure the Tomato Hornworm is not continuing to decimate your crops during this process, you can pick them off the plants and put them in a quart-size yogurt container with a branch of tomato leaf. Make sure to cover the container with screen or punch a few holes in the top for air. Set it outside in a covered place so rain water doesn't flood the container. Braconid Wasps (which pose no threat to humans) are less than 1/8" long when they emerge from their cocoons so they can easily fit through the small holes punched in the top. By doing this instead of immediately killing the hornworm, you are producing the next generation of Tomato Hornworm killers for your garden. </div>
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<i> (Note: It astounds me to no end that I cannot find a picture of these annual garden pests, especially with the wasp cocoons all over their backs. If I do find or get a picture of them this year, I will certainly update this post with one! For now search "tomato hornworm wasp" on the internet and you'll surely pop up a lot of pictures.)</i></div>
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<h2>
Other Ways To Help Prevent Pests</h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidw2I3PsRt9ngNMvFf2X3L4vUqeMSVGqskPmfPA49XtrUUTahGl9LauR9uBFSIlbzYOR8AVwuIvM5WStK86s1DWsWINifYyWvsE6a9ztvsLfPd08AGq-Pdwdgv0HRP9UdQO5HMVOPTsQ/s1600/IMG_2806.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1402" data-original-width="1402" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidw2I3PsRt9ngNMvFf2X3L4vUqeMSVGqskPmfPA49XtrUUTahGl9LauR9uBFSIlbzYOR8AVwuIvM5WStK86s1DWsWINifYyWvsE6a9ztvsLfPd08AGq-Pdwdgv0HRP9UdQO5HMVOPTsQ/s200/IMG_2806.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Striped Cucumber Beetle</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sure insect pests still show up in our garden. Sure they are just what they are called: PESTS! However, there are other ways we've found to deal with some of the pests too that can help in the garden overall. </div>
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Our most important piece of pest prevention is <b>CROP ROTATION.</b> Crop rotation is where you don't plant a crop in the same place in the garden for successive years. It can be done on a small, medium, or large scale, but honestly, the bigger your garden the better this will work. We personally use a three-year rotation so the same crop is not planted in the same place for at least three years in a row. This makes it more difficult for pests who overwinter to find their desired food crop. Keep in mind when you are planning crop rotation that crops in the same family may share the same pests (i.e. Colorado Potato Beetles like both potatoes and tomatoes, which are both members of the nightshade family, so for crop rotation to truly work, you shouldn't plant potatoes where tomatoes were the previous year, and vice versa.) </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1ypVoCrMB8CWykFmBfM4JYciciPYdzH3Yvj0e_X_859DfbNndoIDnxEFRY3awgg_JyU3XYBLg0uu8ixg-8nOVsJ9weroHxTBQgMs3yicW8JD_X-lHE4tsHpM1OBWHzk26p0ZmOtrWA/s1600/2014garden.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="1576" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1ypVoCrMB8CWykFmBfM4JYciciPYdzH3Yvj0e_X_859DfbNndoIDnxEFRY3awgg_JyU3XYBLg0uu8ixg-8nOVsJ9weroHxTBQgMs3yicW8JD_X-lHE4tsHpM1OBWHzk26p0ZmOtrWA/s640/2014garden.png" width="560" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The layout of the 2014 Garden (our second year of in-ground gardening here). </td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"> You can also go back to our </span><a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2015/02/first-seeds-of-season.html" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">2015 garden plan</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> and </span><a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2016/03/planning-2016-garden.html" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">2016 garden plan</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> posts to see how we rearranged the garden those two years to do our best to rotate crops. Please keep in mind we may not have been 100% successful with crop rotation year to year as our gardens grew in size, but we certainly did try! (On all layouts, one square = one square foot.)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSAVNvbF5ZDI6Yo0xnZIcTiwjh0lIi4ot67rtrzmlIsnzabY2nhOMREZZ0rSKkDUY16jQvuLsIIszVMDgNI3ZIPrEernQ593YvvzHMre1E9QM8bxDICL5qEIKODCFbegtePmQUDhTsTQ/s1600/radish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSAVNvbF5ZDI6Yo0xnZIcTiwjh0lIi4ot67rtrzmlIsnzabY2nhOMREZZ0rSKkDUY16jQvuLsIIszVMDgNI3ZIPrEernQ593YvvzHMre1E9QM8bxDICL5qEIKODCFbegtePmQUDhTsTQ/s200/radish.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Radish planted as a trap crop</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b> </b>Another way to help avoid pest problems on particular crops is through the use of <b>TRAP CROPS. </b>A trap crop is simply a crop that is sacrificed so that another crop might live. For example, flea beetles that commonly defoliate eggplant leaves are drawn to radishes as well. So therefore if you plant radishes nearby the eggplants, the flea beetles <i>may </i>find their way to them instead and leave your eggplants alone. </div>
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<b> </b>When all prevention fails (which does occur from time to time), it's time to <b>CHECK EARLY AND OFTEN. </b>By taking morning, nightly, or even bi-weekly strolls through your garden you are more likely to catch the pests early on before they cause too much damage. Once you find a pest (or really, even if you don't find any), continue to check up on your plants to make sure you are not seeing signs of them being attacked. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-C9pR_X1sqYQQwvdVyNe9phPCooFKjJ5zftivZ7qaq7r0h7tHCJRlkA75aoGjK_uCThI5nwcxf8McFK0Kv29R9leNepMp2WkeG9FiBktjsiqIOuXhwv_c2FYUBPv3hAx57OTeZb3EpA/s1600/IMG_2905.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-C9pR_X1sqYQQwvdVyNe9phPCooFKjJ5zftivZ7qaq7r0h7tHCJRlkA75aoGjK_uCThI5nwcxf8McFK0Kv29R9leNepMp2WkeG9FiBktjsiqIOuXhwv_c2FYUBPv3hAx57OTeZb3EpA/s200/IMG_2905.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spotted Cucumber Beetle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The most common sign of a plant being attacked is holes in the plant's leaves. Holes (or chew marks) along the outside edges might be rabbits nibbling at a tasty treat; whereas, holes straight through a leaf is a sign of insect damage. Once you have identified damage on a plant, the next step is to identify pests that prefer that particular plant. In this case a simple internet search of "pests of [insert variety of crop]" will tell you <i>a lot, </i>along with a variety of ways people found to get rid of that particular pest. Keep in mind not all ways work for every garden because as the presenters stated again and again at the Mother Earth News Fair, "it depends" on a number of factors. <br />
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Always make sure to write down in a notebook or scribble on the edge of a calendar when you noticed a certain pest showing up in the garden, and next year be extra vigilant a week or two prior to the same time to see if you can catch that pest earlier on if you haven't been able to eradicate it completely. <br />
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What pests have been eating your gardening efforts? </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-36321715205717634732017-06-21T17:54:00.002-04:002017-06-22T17:53:15.437-04:00A Taste of Family History<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoz_owdBCw4_Q0BlxsqHZmmwoo64Rn34BR2NS8RpoBFD7BFO9lYNnDl2IZxb_uY09GJi41KrW1qE6fm-KnnOhWomRdUgVdeQscDDxwehNaAHAo72IiZTB3equtTRkNiGR_x8cI9QfG8A/s1600/Butter+Churn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="959" data-original-width="960" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoz_owdBCw4_Q0BlxsqHZmmwoo64Rn34BR2NS8RpoBFD7BFO9lYNnDl2IZxb_uY09GJi41KrW1qE6fm-KnnOhWomRdUgVdeQscDDxwehNaAHAo72IiZTB3equtTRkNiGR_x8cI9QfG8A/s320/Butter+Churn.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I recently posted a picture of a "beyond cool piece of [The Mr.'s] family history" on my personal Facebook page, and asked our friends and family to take a gander at what they thought it might be without any additional hints or descriptions. We got some pretty fun answers in response with a washing machine and bread dough trough ranking among the highest. I will also admit the "giant mouse trap" and "bathtub for kittens and puppies" were rather inventive, but unequivocally wrong. <br />
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So we're left with the question that everyone now has, "What is it!?" <br />
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It's a BUTTER CHURN! The refinished churn still has bits of its original yellow paint clinging to the wooden cracks, and it also still rocks gently back and forth on its homemade stand (as the original one is no more). <br />
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From dimensions and overall design, it's believed to be the Davis Swing (Butter) Churn No. 3, which was patented in 1877 by the Vermont Farm Machine Company. There were twelve available sizes in all, which ranged from 4-gallon capacity for at-home use to 300-gallon capacity that was suspended from the ceiling beams of creameries. This particular size (the No. 3) would have an 8-gallon capacity, and includes a glass peep-hole window in the top, and a drain hole on the bottom. With no paddles or plunger inside, the swinging motion of the whole churn back and forth would make the butter instead. To make the butter churning easier, a treadmill could be attached to the churn so sheep, goats, or dogs could act as the power instead of young children. A new churn in 1889 would cost around $8.00 from the company, a folding frame cost an additional $1.00, and the animal treadmill would be an additional $16.00.<br />
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<h2>
Who Needs A Churn That Big? </h2>
Why a farm family of course, and on my husband's father's side they were <i>all </i>farm families! This particular heirloom came from my husband's paternal grandmother's family. <br />
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The Mr.'s Third Great Grandfather Moab H. Showalter (1853-1930) had moved to Washington County, Maryland around the spring of 1888 with his already expanding brood of eventually nine children. Just a few years earlier, the local newspaper had already begun to run ads for the Davis Swing Churn, which was quickly becoming a labor and time saving device. It would make sense that Moab, his son Amos Tobias (1885-1951), or Amos' son Paul Daniel (1920-2003) would find a use for such a butter churn on one of their farms.<br />
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Moab owned two farms in Maryland, one being 110 acres and the other 120 acres, living in the area of Marsh Pike near Hagerstown, Maryland. His son Amos would also eventually farm in the same area. Although Amos mainly sold Stark Delicious, Grimes' Golden, Stark's Golden, Roman Beauties, Stayman, and Jonathan apples, Irish Cobbler potatoes, and oak lumber in the local classified ads, when he discontinued farming at the old Heilman Farm in 1936, he sold off 50 head of guernseys and cattle, at least fourteen of which were freshened at the time.
By 1954, Amos' son Paul had the second highest producing dairy herd average in Washington County at 36.3lbs butterfat. He also sold off "lots of old milk cans" when he rented his farm out in 1970. <br />
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Until we get more clues from other relatives, any of these three men could easily have been the original owner of the Davis Swing Churn that Great Grandpa Paul had pulled out of the old pig pen on the farm and refinished. Now, we plan to have it grace our own "farm kitchen." </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-76945225345846094372017-05-26T12:05:00.002-04:002017-05-26T12:05:29.674-04:00Never A Dull Moment <div style="text-align: justify;">
This mommy-to-be (that's right, if you missed our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/americanhaggardhousewife/photos/a.399146740239585.1073741828.396346317186294/799986633488925/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">Facebook announcement</a>, we're expecting!) has already played her entire hand of energy cards today, and I've only made it through morning chores. It all started with the cries of a farm cat coming from the shed. Tiger had apparently fallen asleep in there and been locked in overnight. Don't worry, she made herself at home with the free buffet of open feed bags. </div>
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As I was searching for her hiding place, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye by the grill. It wasn't Tiger colored, and I didn't think we could have possibly got two cats stuck in there overnight. <i>Had we locked someone else in the shed? </i></div>
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Wait... that's not a cat! </div>
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CRAP! </div>
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The meat birds got out of their brooder!!!! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kFCjNbJwB0VZ3A1aPi_jAzOeOnSUx6cMzHIwVPnioE1u4Phh0JEZQUT5F8DYpSTTcUFoHXoeU5vR9WvPWhVUAuK6e1P10AWhyphenhyphenEhCG9ULmJH4WSV08V6AM3O93YvWt1i3jZIqCI6Zjg/s1600/chicks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="638" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kFCjNbJwB0VZ3A1aPi_jAzOeOnSUx6cMzHIwVPnioE1u4Phh0JEZQUT5F8DYpSTTcUFoHXoeU5vR9WvPWhVUAuK6e1P10AWhyphenhyphenEhCG9ULmJH4WSV08V6AM3O93YvWt1i3jZIqCI6Zjg/s320/chicks.jpg" width="319" /></a> Yup, that's right the meat birds that have been hanging out in their brooder have made it to the age that they <i>should </i>go out on pasture. We just happened to be 12-hours too late with our plans for this evening, and the birds managed to fly up and pop the top cover of the brooder and four of the sixteen found their way out into the shed... chowing down in the feed bags, balancing on flower pots, and making themselves a nice comfy roost on a pile of pallet boards. </div>
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This left the now tired pregnant woman, who hadn't eaten breakfast yet, let alone fed anyone else, a dilemma. How was I going to get these birds back in? </div>
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I'd move within three feet of them, and they'd frantically fly looking for a safe place out my reach, and pooping whenever I got close enough to grab them out of fear. Now they were wedged between flower pots in positions that I could not get to them in, clinging off the spokes of a mountain bike, perched on the windowsill, and one almost made it to the rafters. </div>
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In the meantime, the birds still in the brooder were trying with all their might to once again pop the top and join the escapees in their perceived freedom. I refilled their feeders and tossed two boards on top of the brooder to try and hold down the screens that covered it. </div>
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Defeated, I called my husband for a second time; the first time having been to inform him of the situation that I found myself in ten minutes before. </div>
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"Do we have a fishing net on a big pole somewhere?" I asked meekly. </div>
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"Nope, just the ones downstairs... can't you just corner them and grab them?"</div>
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"I haven't eaten breakfast yet, or even touched the rest of the chores, and every time I bend up and down I get more and more lightheaded," I sighed. "Could I just put a container of feed and water in the shed for them and leave them for when you get home?" </div>
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It was a last resort for the now exhausted pregnant lady who could hear the farm cats scratching at the door I had managed to tie shut with a piece of bailing twine. Purrball was adamant that I was <i>way too late </i>with his breakfast. Even Tiger seemed to want back in because at least then she'd have her free-choice feed sack buffet back. I shooed the cats away from the door, and completely defeated and exhausted set out containers of water and feed on the floor of the shed next to the brooder. <i>It's just four of them, </i>I reminded myself as I went out to finish the chores. </div>
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Here's to hoping the Mr. has better luck catching "just the four" escapee meat birds tonight so they can head out to their new homes on pasture. There's officially <i>never a dull moment </i>around here. </div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-62290776643454178022017-04-01T15:16:00.000-04:002017-04-01T15:16:17.573-04:00How Much Should I Plant?<div style="text-align: justify;">
As we work towards the ongoing chore of planning and planting the 2017 garden, that semi-crazy idea of growing enough food to sustain ourselves comes to mind once again. In reality, we don't have the space, nor the time, it would take to be truly 100% sustainable, so we (more or less) plant enough food to supplement our trips to the grocery store, and certainly lower the grocery bills. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglyuik5z8Us5T2cZEAG-rrpk8WBRfraEtgaCR6a7nMvy8bBiXrzjCpNbjW1iqAsVJglphqMpYCRuuLIFHd8glV_MIXX21JL7ndDjuUVxhnPi-IBaR5YhntUSn0jarcscgftXddeucmCQ/s1600/zuke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglyuik5z8Us5T2cZEAG-rrpk8WBRfraEtgaCR6a7nMvy8bBiXrzjCpNbjW1iqAsVJglphqMpYCRuuLIFHd8glV_MIXX21JL7ndDjuUVxhnPi-IBaR5YhntUSn0jarcscgftXddeucmCQ/s1600/zuke.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>So much zucchini! 2013 was the year of <br />more zucchini than I ever cared to see, <br />some of them almost reaching the <br />width of baseball bats! </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Determining exactly how much we need to plant to do this comes with <i>a lot </i>of trial and error, and for certain crops, we've never made it past the error stage. There are; however, some crops that we are essentially sustainable with unless there is a bad harvest year. There was the one year that we planted a whopping 200 pea seeds, and yielded over 20 pounds of the tiny green things that blistered our fingers as we shelled them by hand. The following year we upped it to 400 seeds and a different variety for the spring, and got a measly few ounces of peas that didn't even amount to half a pound for our efforts. There was the year that our zucchini was decimated by squash bugs, followed by a year where we prayed the squash bugs <i>would </i>decimate the single plant that was producing over 30 pounds of zucchini and causing us to toss more than just the occasional scrap to the chickens. It's essentially a toss up with what Mother Nature might throw at you. <br />
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It all boils down to <i><b>how much should I plant?</b> </i>I've been asked this question multiple times, and in reality, it all comes down to trial and error. We started off using advice from the internet by simply Googling "how much to plant" paired with some common sense to figure out how much to plant the first year. From there, we started to expand upon what we needed more of based upon how quickly certain crops were used up. Here's three tips to get you started that go beyond Googling "how much to plant":<br />
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<h2>
Sit down and calculate what you <i>actually </i>use over the course of a year.</h2>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJX3RTpn3k2IXImm-7paev6DV85MfjA0QoJWirOj4ElZ6USv-CDSHLXlm1ICcNVM3TDkWYgeFgv9blbbXmgLlCyLmdqI5Dh4IKXuFpCTZm2rGmT2JXyu46pkT-6dL2ohCeniGwMcgBQ/s1600/jams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQJX3RTpn3k2IXImm-7paev6DV85MfjA0QoJWirOj4ElZ6USv-CDSHLXlm1ICcNVM3TDkWYgeFgv9blbbXmgLlCyLmdqI5Dh4IKXuFpCTZm2rGmT2JXyu46pkT-6dL2ohCeniGwMcgBQ/s320/jams.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>We try not to overburden ourselves with canning and do 1-year,<br />2-year and 3-year cycles. Pictured above is a 3-year canning<br />cycle of Mixed Berry and Strawberry jams. This year <br />(2017) our cycles collide so we will be canning all three <br />cycles at once. YIKES!</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I know this sounds time consuming (it is) and bothersome, but when your up to your ears in spaghetti squash that only one of your family members will touch, you'll wish you would have listened. We have three categories that we take into consideration: canned goods, frozen food, and dry goods (and root crops). I generally don't calculate what we'll eat fresh because that greatly fluctuates with what is in abundance when harvesting. <br />
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Below is an example of what we preserve for consumption later. (Items that are crossed out means we are using up our current stock and do not plan to can or otherwise preserve them again in the coming year. Items that are in parenthesis means that we plan on adding them in the coming year if our harvest permits.)</div>
<center>
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<table border="1"><tbody>
<tr><td valign="top"><b><u>Canned Goods</u></b><br />
Apple Barbecue Sauce<br />
Apple Butter<br />
<strike>Apple Juice</strike><br />
Apple Pie Filling<br />
Apple Pie Jam<br />
Applesauce<br />
(Baked Beans)<br />
(Beef Stock)<br />
Blueberry Pie Filling<br />
Bread and Butter Pickles<br />
Carrot Cake Jam<br />
(Chicken Stock)<br />
Corn Relish<br />
Corn Salsa<br />
Cranberry Relish<br />
Cranberry Sauce<br />
Dill Pickles<br />
Duck Sauce<br />
Grape Jelly<br />
<strike>Grape Juice</strike><br />
Ham Stock<br />
Hot Pepper Jam<br />
Ketchup<br />
Marmalade<br />
Mixed Berry Jam<br />
Peaches<br />
Peach Honey Butter<br />
Peach Jam<br />
Peach Pie Filling<br />
Peach Salsa<br />
Pineapples<br />
Pizza Sauce<br />
Raspberry Jam<br />
Raspberry Jelly<br />
Raspberry Lemonade Concentrate<br />
Rhubarb Jam<br />
Rhubarb Relish<br />
Rhubarb Sunshine Concentrate<br />
Roasted Red Pepper Spread<br />
Salsa<br />
Sauerkraut<br />
Spaghetti Sauce<br />
<strike>Strawberries</strike><br />
Strawberry Jam<br />
Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate<br />
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam<br />
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling<br />
<strike>Strawberry Syrup</strike><br />
Sweet 'N' Sour Sauce<br />
Sweet Pickles<br />
Sweet Pickle Relish<br />
Tomatoes, Diced<br />
Tomatoes, Whole<br />
<strike>Tomato Juice</strike><br />
Tomato Paste<br />
Tomato Sauce<br />
Tomato Soup<br />
Turkey Stock<br />
Vegetable Stock<br />
Wineberry Jam </td><td valign="top"><b><u>Frozen Foods</u></b><br />
Blackberries<br />
Blueberries<br />
Broccoli, florets<br />
Cabbage, quartered<br />
Cauliflower, florets<br />
Chili Peppers, diced<br />
Celery<br />
Celery Leaves <br />
Corn on the Cob<br />
Corn<br />
Green Beans<br />
Green/Spring Onions<br />
Jalapeno Peppers, diced<br />
Lima Beans<br />
Patty Pan Squash, sliced<br />
Peaches<br />
Peas<br />
Pumpkin, cooked<br />
Raspberries<br />
<strike>Spaghetti Squash, cooked</strike><br />
Strawberries<br />
Sweet Peppers, sliced<br />
Tomatoes, whole cherry<br />
Wax Peppers, diced<br />
Wineberries<br />
Yellow Squash, coined<br />
Zucchini, coined<br />
Zucchini, shredded<br />
<br />
<b>Prepared Frozen Foods</b><br />
<b><i><u>From Garden/Produce</u></i></b><br />
Apple Dumpling Roll-ups<br />
<strike>Cream of Celery Soup</strike><br />
Egg Rolls<br />
Enchilada Sauce<br />
Pesto<br />
<br />
<b><u>Chicken Scraps </u></b><br />
<i>*We keep chicken scraps </i><br />
<i>frozen to feed them over </i><br />
<i>the winter to supplement </i><br />
<i>their diets when there is </i><br />
<i>limited pasture</i><br />
Cabbage, shredded<br />
Garden Scraps<br />
Mulberries<br />
Radishes<br />
Frozen Produce Surplus<br />
left from <span style="text-align: justify;">previous years</span><br />
<br /></td><td valign="top"><b><u>Dry Goods</u></b><br />
Basil, multiple varieties<br />
Black Beans<br />
Catnip<br />
Chili Peppers<br />
Corn<br />
Dill<br />
Garlic<br />
Hulless Oats<br />
Hutterite Soup Beans<br />
Kidney Beans<br />
Lima Beans<br />
Mangals - chicken feed<br />
Meadowmint<br />
Onions, multiple varieties<br />
Oregano<br />
Parsley<br />
Pinto Beans<br />
Popcorn<br />
Potatoes, multiple varieties<br />
Pumpkins<br />
Scarlet Runner Beans<br />
Speariment<br />
Squash<br />
Sugar Beets - chicken feed<br />
Thyme<br />
Tomatoes, sun-dried</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<center>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Now after reading that list you are probably feeling a little overwhelmed, or perhaps proclaiming "ain't nobody got time for that!" (Which I wholeheartedly agree with.) Again, this is an <i>example</i> of how calculating what we use over a course of a year works for us. It is certainly not meant to be what your family will do because every family has different tastes. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCPXJ_QIvauVOCPWdU5Kf5iTLXhf2gqT3Z3LIZMgw12sW-lYKiTJgMll59f2i4sthwfyNTtcyLdq1_3zeaAFdGnQt5e3fdj0fhp70onX957DzEsF_pMZSTv0Q1CJomhmcbLM-9QfINFg/s1600/tomatoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCPXJ_QIvauVOCPWdU5Kf5iTLXhf2gqT3Z3LIZMgw12sW-lYKiTJgMll59f2i4sthwfyNTtcyLdq1_3zeaAFdGnQt5e3fdj0fhp70onX957DzEsF_pMZSTv0Q1CJomhmcbLM-9QfINFg/s320/tomatoes.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>You plant it, you preserve it! Processing tomatoes is always<br />the biggest chore around here because there are so many of<br />them! This is an evening's worth of cutting tomatoes in 2014<br />to go through the processor and start canning in the morning.</i></td></tr>
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In this example, I'm going to use tomatoes as it's a fairly common item for people to plant in their gardens. Out of the above items, the following have tomatoes in: Corn Salsa, Ketchup, Pizza Sauce, Salsa, Spaghetti Sauce, Sweet 'N' Sour Sauce, Diced Tomatoes, Whole Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Tomato Sauce, Tomato Soup, Vegetable Stock, frozen Cherry Tomatoes, Enchilada Sauce, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes. That's a lot of tomato products! Now say your family eats two large pizzas every month. A large pizza equals one jar of pizza sauce, meaning you would need to can 24 jars of pizza sauce to get you through the year. To make 24 (jelly) jars of pizza sauce using Ball's recipe, you will need 39 cups of plum tomato puree (or about 13 pounds worth of plum/paste tomatoes). <i>IF </i>you are having a good season with a good plant, a single tomato plant can produce 20-30 pounds worth of tomatoes, so you would have to plant half a plant to make pizza sauce, and then the additional harvest for the remaining plant could go to another tomato product. You would then use the same method for the remaining recipes you want to can to get an estimate of how many tomato plants you'll need to plant. We usually plant one or two extra in the garden to help if we might have a bad year. (Note: We plant anywhere from 18 to 40 tomato plants in any given year depending on how many tomato products need canned as we stagger our canning in 1-year, 2-year and 3-year intervals. A 40 tomato plant year will yield around 600 pounds of tomatoes for us, or an average of just fifteen pounds per plant. This leads me to my second tip...) <br />
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Write It Down!</h2>
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Every year you plant you should keep records to help you determine how much you need to plant in subsequent years. Although you swear you'll remember, in the midst of a crazy harvest season, it's a lot easier to just write it down and look it up than wrack through your already nerve-wracked brain. We use a cheap produce scale (it's not even digital) and white board that's attached to the side of the fridge to record weight totals as the produce comes in. Once the white board gets filled, I input the totals and dates the items were harvested into an Excel spreadsheet that will calculate our total produce amount over the season. </div>
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Having records that tell you how much you planted, and how much you yielded are helpful in averaging how much you will get from each plant in your particular growing location. Keep in mind, just because you planted ten tomato plants one year and got x-amount of pounds of tomatoes, it does not mean you will get the same amount of tomatoes the following year. </div>
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After looking back through your records you'll get an idea with how much you should plant. Here's three examples from our garden, which we are only feeding two from: </div>
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<b>Lima Beans - 38" double row (about 150 seeds). </b></div>
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This gives us enough to eat fresh, freeze some for use throughout the year, and also enough to dry as seeds for planting next year. <i>(What happens if we get too much? If we end up with too many Lima beans, succotash will be added to the menu more often.)</i><br />
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<b>Peas (Hull or Shell) - 38" double row (about 400 seeds) - single planting </b></div>
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This gives us enough to eat fresh and freeze some for use throughout the year; however, we do not have (at this point) enough to save seeds as well. We hope with a double planting in the spring and fall this coming year, there will be enough to save dried peas for seeds the following year. <i>(What happens if we get too much? Looks like Sheppard's pie will have extra peas in!)</i><br />
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<b>Potatoes - three 38" rows (about 10lbs of seed potatoes).</b></div>
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This gives us enough to eat fresh, store for use throughout the year, and about 10lbs worth to use as seed potatoes for the following year; however, we <i>do </i>need to supplement potatoes from planting until harvesting (about four months) from the grocery store. Our on-going struggles with the Colorado Potato Beetle and blight also limits the crop that comes out of the ground during harvest. <i>(What happens if we get too much? We'll let you know when it happens... ;) We eat a lot of potatoes!) </i></div>
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Don't be afraid to re-evaluate each year.</h2>
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Once you have a few years worth of experience built up you will quickly find that you may be pawning off zucchini or eggplant on your neighbor <i>every year</i>, stuck without lettuce for three months at a time, or having to buy onions at the grocery store as soon as you put your onion sets into the ground. It's okay! It's part of the learning experience of trial and error. At the end of every (major) growing season we sit down and do a quick evaluation of what we need and what we have too much of, then we adjust our planting totals to try and do better next year. Sometimes it works, and sometimes, as is in the case of 400 pea plants, it fails miserably. Just remember...<br />
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There is <i>ALWAYS </i>next year!</div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-60429528771195628742017-02-27T10:58:00.000-05:002017-02-27T10:58:26.364-05:00Even Pa Went To The Store<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkC5eFu4J6ZgsFR7PBuDlsh-dcMLanVGkyrcKcXQ1xvmTC1B51CylyjeOH5jze4SCEC2OC50gyXTLrNHAZpPfsMfeZaSkfY19AWnEapXWoWzf-Gb3Oo3iEUaeYQhD0KSRWl82uY6tY5A/s1600/farmers+in+field.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkC5eFu4J6ZgsFR7PBuDlsh-dcMLanVGkyrcKcXQ1xvmTC1B51CylyjeOH5jze4SCEC2OC50gyXTLrNHAZpPfsMfeZaSkfY19AWnEapXWoWzf-Gb3Oo3iEUaeYQhD0KSRWl82uY6tY5A/s400/farmers+in+field.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the Mr.'s ancestors working in the field.</td></tr>
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"I want to live off the land, just like my ancestors did." </div>
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<i> Ummmm... what? </i> In an ongoing quest to be more sustainable, people often turn to their ancestors to find answers (even us). Thoughts of their grandparents picking huckleberries and hoeing their gardens during the Great Depression, their great great grandparents camping in covered wagons on the open prairie with hundreds of buffalo off in the distance, and their namesakes in a new world carving a life in the woodlands of the east, come to mind. Yet, there is something we forget, or maybe our idealistic desires tend to ignore or overlook, the simple fact that <i>even Pa went to the store. </i></div>
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<i> </i>I know, I know. It sounds crazy, but the more I think about this whole "completely sustainable" lifestyle many of us would <i>love</i> to have, the more crazy it <i>all </i>seems. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEnmeApFINGWAsRke1__zP0MFSncHAzvCcFYKU8E-bz9PkB5sWc31CyH9_5Q5sP5-weT4fY8zp31stYSPCyN6ahAa7oJktNLG7gPssonKCK-KcF7Ps8_lMV5WwqrCN7uXMQl_3QtqQA/s1600/picking+beans+1918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEnmeApFINGWAsRke1__zP0MFSncHAzvCcFYKU8E-bz9PkB5sWc31CyH9_5Q5sP5-weT4fY8zp31stYSPCyN6ahAa7oJktNLG7gPssonKCK-KcF7Ps8_lMV5WwqrCN7uXMQl_3QtqQA/s400/picking+beans+1918.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My great grandmother (the little girl) and her relatives picking beans in 1918.</td></tr>
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Think about Laura Ingalls Wilder, arguably the most famous pioneer in America. She was born just a few years after the American Civil War, and traveled westward with her family towards Indian Territory. In her very first book of the <i>Little House </i>series set deep in the Wisconsin woods in <i>Little House in the Big Woods, </i>as soon as the crops came in after the season's sugar snow, the whole family piled into a wagon and made the seven-mile trek to Pepin, and they traded at the store in the chapter "Going to TOWN." Why? Because even though the Ingalls family were growing crops, Ma needed calico for clothing, Pa wanted tobacco for his pipe, and the family desired store bought sugar (instead of sugar made from their maple syrup) and tea (not to mention candy for Laura and Mary). </div>
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By the next book in the series, <i>Little House on the Prairie, </i>they were now in route from Wisconsin to Oklahoma. After settling in Oklahoma and putting up a homestead, Pa left and made the four-day long 'round trip to Independence in the chapter "Pa Goes To Town." Why? Because, once again, they couldn't grow everything they needed on the prairie. Once again, they were after that store bought sugar among the other goods they needed including window pane glass, nails, fat pork, salt, and cornmeal.</div>
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Once you stop and really think about it, the Ingalls family wasn't really living off the land at all! In fact, as the books progressed, the family became more and more entrenched in the life of towns, and less and less worried about being completely sustainable. By <i>The Long Winter, </i>Pa Ingalls and the townspeople didn't almost run out of food because they didn't plant enough, it's because the trains couldn't make it through and therefore there was none to <i>buy</i><i>. </i>It left me thinking maybe our ancestors didn't <i>want </i>to be sustainable after all. Maybe they were trying to live a sustainable lifestyle because they <i>had to. </i><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGOISei3nLCHPmEzHsiMv-AIujVK1ZlZy9FUCCZGxt9tb5z0qyKPrrjMio0gCP3Rsm5b79l-oysBtEpo7k5W7fVefAU5iBaP9_ktqBU4-pvp0zaUFY5S1iZTwo4_NEmzMI-7RS0GnyyQ/s1600/feeding+the+poultry+1919.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGOISei3nLCHPmEzHsiMv-AIujVK1ZlZy9FUCCZGxt9tb5z0qyKPrrjMio0gCP3Rsm5b79l-oysBtEpo7k5W7fVefAU5iBaP9_ktqBU4-pvp0zaUFY5S1iZTwo4_NEmzMI-7RS0GnyyQ/s400/feeding+the+poultry+1919.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My great grandmother and two of her brothers feeding the poultry in 1919.</td></tr>
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So here we all are trying our best, striving to live the way our ancestors did, when in reality, they may have wanted nothing more than to the live the lifestyle we are presently trying to escape. It certainly makes me think. What do you think? Did our ancestors desire to be sustainable, or were they trying to be sustainable because they needed to in order to survive? <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3VnYhpFs6umP8ZCPQUV9kAKuNYs8QutDIwDX4niM16Ac8c09g5S_1kgZc-T5LSVZIxCM4D88fBARQk5RbvKJjgQmKDpFUzVX7NeusJL51E6kyLOR8Wp_lx5mLeJpoc2zj-VNAdZFs5g/s1600/milk+cow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3VnYhpFs6umP8ZCPQUV9kAKuNYs8QutDIwDX4niM16Ac8c09g5S_1kgZc-T5LSVZIxCM4D88fBARQk5RbvKJjgQmKDpFUzVX7NeusJL51E6kyLOR8Wp_lx5mLeJpoc2zj-VNAdZFs5g/s400/milk+cow.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My great great grandmother with the family cow in 1918.</td></tr>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-20014278556737058062017-02-06T08:13:00.000-05:002017-02-06T08:13:54.077-05:00End of the Season Sauce <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The piles of produce grew as we continued to rip out our autumn garden with the frost laying in the dips along the garden's edges. Like every year, we had to now find a way to use up, or put up, all of the produce in a semi-timely manner. There were greenhouse tomatoes resting on our counter. Another bucket of semi-green tomatoes on the kitchen floor, and yet another container full in the fridge because, let's face it, I ran out of counter and floor space. A plethora of peppers coated a blanket on the floor of our spare bedroom as they change from green to their rainbow of goodness. Another bucket full is jammed into the corners of the fridge. </div>
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Then there were everything that was trying desperately to find it's place to dry from the containers and baskets of herbs and beans to the basil that has overtaken the living room. There was still more of all of those to come, as well as even more produce, that withstood the light frosts in the garden, and happily warm and cozy in the greenhouse. It made for a lot of produce to use up, or put up, and I've managed to find just the recipe for a herb laden tomato sauce that made for wonderful mountain pies over the campfire, a zingy marinara for bread sticks, and tastes delightful on noodles. </div>
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<b>END OF THE SEASON SAUCE</b></div>
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<b>Yields: 2 cups.</b></div>
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<b>Ingredients:</b></div>
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2 tbsp Olive Oil (I used Extra Virgin as that's what was on hand)</div>
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2 medium cloves Garlic</div>
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1/8 cup chopped Onion</div>
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3/4 cup loosely packed fresh Basil (I used a mix of Purple Basil and Blue African Basil)</div>
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1/2 tbsp fresh Oregano</div>
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1/2 tbsp fresh Thyme</div>
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1/8 tsp fresh cracked Black Pepper</div>
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1 lb Paste Tomatoes, cored</div>
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1 tsp Sugar </div>
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<b>Directions:</b></div>
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Saute garlic and onions in olive oil until golden in a saucepan or edged skillet. In the meantime, blend the remaining ingredients together in a blender. Add them to the pan, and cook over medium heat until it reaches desired thickness. (Note: Our paste tomatoes were fresh and not overly juicy or ripe so the thickness was reached in about 20 minutes.) </div>
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Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to one week, or frozen for longer. This sauce cannot be canned.</div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-60282979484264151982017-01-12T14:22:00.000-05:002017-01-12T14:22:18.445-05:00Food For Thought <div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked out of the grocery store today feeling defeated. I had only three things on my list so it wasn't the cost of the purchase that weighed heavily on my mind. Instead, it was the fact that I made the purchase at all.</div>
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At the beginning of the month we were eating the last of our fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse in the garden. The greenhouse and the cold frame had prolonged our growing season this year, and are even still producing broccoli, carrots, celery and radishes inside their wooden walls. The tomato plants; however, had accepted their fate towards the end of November, and were finally pulled out and the last green tomatoes left to ripen on the kitchen windowsill. Now those tomatoes are gone too. </div>
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Yesterday I had made a pasta salad; a sun-dried tomato basil pasta with tomatoes and basil that had been dried from the garden, and eggs from our chickens. I added green peppers that had been frozen from garden's surplus, and served it beside homemade potato chips (from our potatoes), strawberry-lemonade (that we had canned this past summer from strawberries we handpicked at a family-owned strawberry farm in the next town), and cookies (that used our eggs). It was a beautiful feeling to have so much of your own produce being served as a snack at a meeting, and I was overjoyed to know that our energy went into the food that we ate. </div>
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But, we don't always have that feeling.</div>
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That was the problem as I walked into the grocery store after spending the better part of last year reading up on community supported agriculture, the shop local movement, and how to save the family farm. Presently, a book by Joel Salatin sits next to me that is going to preach the merits of Christian farming, and just <i>why </i>knowing where you food comes from and how it's raised matters. Yet as I walked into the grocery store to get those <i>three things, </i>I knew all too well just where they did, or <i>didn't</i>, come from. </div>
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The <b>milk</b> came from a farm somewhere <i>semi</i>-local that likely used a confinement operation, and the cows probably had only limited time, if any, on this green thing they call pasture. Around here, that's how most of the farms are, and we pass plenty a feedlot on our drives through the countryside. The milk was then shipped by a tanker, and combined with the milk from countless other farms, before it ended up in that plastic jug. To top it all off, it wasn't raw milk, but skim, so you can add a handful of other steps and processes between the cow and our fridge. </div>
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No one has been producing <b>lettuce</b> around here in the ground for a few months now, and even the lettuce in our unheated greenhouse didn't make it this far into the season. It's unmarked plastic sleeve spoke volumes on how it <i>didn't </i>come from the Amish farmer up the way, but was shipped in from some other destination (perhaps a warmer climate) before it would end up on our sandwich tonight. </div>
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Then there were the <b>tomatoes</b>, which hit me the absolute hardest. Plastic container and plastic lid with a neatly printed label that clearly read "Product of <i>Mexico</i>." <i>How did we get to this point?</i> Tomatoes from our garden at the beginning of the month, and tomatoes from another country by mid-month? </div>
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So now, as I turn my attention to Joel Salatin's words for the afternoon, I would like <i>everyone</i> reading this to think about something. <i> </i></div>
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<i> If </i>it matters where our clothing and cars are made... <i>if </i>we made the decision to eat organic or healthier in the new year... <i>if </i>we, as a country, care so much about our health and fitness that we spend over $20 billion on it during the course of the year, then <i><b>HOW</b> </i>did we come to a point in this nation that we can grab a cheap burger at a fast food place, a box of cereal with ingredients that we cannot even pronounce let alone identify, or a bag of baby carrots that were grown on a farm across the country (before being mechanically shaved down to make them appear more appealing) when the farmer down the road struggles to feed his family, and feel okay about it? Do we actually know where the food comes from that we are putting into our bodies every day? </div>
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If we want the family farm to exist next week... next month... next year... maybe it's something <i>all of us </i>need to think about. </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-65316923391551510912016-12-29T10:04:00.000-05:002016-12-30T08:17:23.329-05:00A Snowy Morning For Chores<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The seasons seem to change quickly around here. Looking back at my farm notebook, it was a sunny 56 degrees just two days ago, and today we awoke to snow falling from the gray clouds above. December has been a hectic month being in the midst of another holiday season, and had some fairly abnormal weather, but today all was calm when I stepped outside to do the morning chores in my new insulated bibs that I got for Christmas, with farm cats tangled at my feet. </div>
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Dashing through the falling flurries, the farm cats, as always, were quick to help this morning, and grab a snack in the warm dry shed of some of the turkey feed.</div>
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Since I've checked in with everyone last, a bit has happened around here with our turkeys. A week ago, we moved the turkey trailer to its new location by the chicken coop inadvertently creating a sort of barnyard for our animals past the old Pennsylvania Barn up on the hill. </div>
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It's a rather haphazard barnyard created with bits and pieces of whatever we could scavenge up: an old shed door propped up with tomato stakes to act as a windbreak for the chickens, chicken wire and garden fencing zip-tied to the runs to give the chickens some extra space and new areas to scratch, and an overabundance of white string used to tie newspapers together, now tightly strung in a 6-8" grid to create an aerial barrier between the turkeys and freedom.</div>
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Unfortunately, this aerial barrier has failed us. <i>Again. </i> You may recall the turkey hen on the greenhouse roof from the <a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2016/12/talkin-turkey-our-first-month.html" target="_blank">last post</a>. Well, after just hours outside the second day (at their new location), she was promptly seen checking in with the chickens from our window. I gathered her up, and stuck her back in the enclosure, and then spent the next thirty minutes securing the place she escaped through around the tree (witnessed by the turkey down stuck in the string nearby). </div>
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An hour after the repairs, she had escaped yet again. Again, I stuck her inside their enclosure. As dusk was now approaching, I decided to grab the hunting seat, and sit outside in the barnyard to watch vigil over the turkey hen to make sure she <i>did not </i>escape again. If, <i>somehow</i>, she did, at least I would know <i>how </i>she did it, and in theory, be able to get her back inside quickly. </div>
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Without missing a beat, at dusk, she glanced upward through the strings, and tried to catapult herself through to freedom. She hit the strings and flapped back down, defeated. <i>Yes! It worked! </i>She had been using the tree for leverage after all! After a few more failed attempts, I was satisfied that she would have to sleep in the trailer tonight. Just as I thought she had given up, she mustered up enough wing power for one last ditch effort, and <i>through she went! </i></div>
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I spent the next ten minutes chasing her around, while the gobbler now tried to desperately hurl himself through the aerial barrier. I finally managed to wrestle her back in, but before I could turn around to secure her escape route, out she went again. This time she found herself on the trailer's roof (where I could not reach), and was eagerly eyeing up the mulberry tree above her head. </div>
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The Mr. had fortunately pulled in at the landlord's (past the white barn behind her in the above picture) around that time, and I was able to frantically call him and get him home. He climbed up to the trailer roof and grabbed her off, then promptly put both her <i>and </i>the gobbler to bed for the night. Presently, they are stuck inside for a few days until repairs are made to the enclosure that will <i>hopefully </i>keep them inside! </div>
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With the turkeys out of the garden, the Delaware cockerels are now down there alone in their chicken tractor, working up the ground and eating up the tall and small weeds. Our aim is for them to make it to the end of the garden before it gets too cold, and then they'll head off to the freezer so we can have some more chicken throughout the year. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xmum0eMiFXkke5IkPjF2DGL1Q_mXZ3DTF-nDfsuWLVv10SSFu9wegiM6ioDx82-1ARjU3ERrW_Ah8JenN9BLAxfSBM8zdFXSq4MaweEYFsbloiYiGTt1LdfYc-a9SZ_DkxH6F5Nc-w/s1600/20161227_125133.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xmum0eMiFXkke5IkPjF2DGL1Q_mXZ3DTF-nDfsuWLVv10SSFu9wegiM6ioDx82-1ARjU3ERrW_Ah8JenN9BLAxfSBM8zdFXSq4MaweEYFsbloiYiGTt1LdfYc-a9SZ_DkxH6F5Nc-w/s200/20161227_125133.jpg" width="200" /></a> As they work up the garden, we are finally starting to plan for next year's garden, but a little differently than before. In years past this was a quiet winter break where all the planning could take place for two months before seed starting began. This year, the greenhouse and cold frame are both still producing so there's only a limited break from the gardening. Who would have thought that I would have to weed in winter?! In December, we've harvested and eaten radishes, carrots, parsley, celery, and even tomatoes, though the plants of the latter are now pulled up. Although the plants inside were bit by the cold, both the greenhouse and cold frame are certainly extending our season! </div>
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So on this cold and snowy day, it looks like I'll be finishing up some of the year-end totals, and perhaps get to work on a new garden layout plan for the coming season as I've already managed to inventory all of our seeds earlier this month. After all, we can't harvest a seed that was never sown. </div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-64330293202808832972016-12-10T12:01:00.000-05:002016-12-10T12:01:26.714-05:00Talkin' Turkey: Our First Month<div style="text-align: justify;">
Grab a couple of pallets and some old shipping crates. Gather pieces of a once painted red dock, parts of a once painted brown pool deck, and scraps of a once painted white garden shed. Add on shingles left over from a relative's roofing project, a couple of second hand windows, and some new latches. Screw and nail everything to the top of a former boat trailer that was shortened by its previous owner to haul firewood, and what do you have?<br />
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A "Turkey Trailer" to house our newest additions around here: two Bourbon Red Turkeys! Although originally our second choice on variety (behind the Narragansett Turkey), these birds - who are <i>believed </i>to be a future breeding pair - should make for some interesting days ahead. (In fact they already are with the constant tapping on their coop windows, tipping of their feeder, and a pain in the neck waterer that we purchased because it had better reviews than the other choice, that we've now finally gotten used of and love.)</div>
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Like our other <a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2016/05/international-heritage-breed-week.html" target="_blank">poultry</a>, the Bourbon Red Turkey is a heritage breed. Dating from the late-nineteenth century in Bourbon County, Kentucky, this breed was utilized as a commercial variety during the 1930s and 1940s; however, broad breasted turkey varieties would eventually replace it. <a href="https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/bourbonred" target="_blank">The Livestock Conservancy</a> has more information on the history of the Bourbon Red Turkey.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgws25WmZjlJf9zS8FpBR4sypIo4-CZzrN1YyWox3GWSazhenlMdo4d6ANtYYYIw3Aoxdc-hijP2ozt105bXbh33omPJkPeCNkZpcKgms1E4i8YtiJhW8UVaUG35HQpfgidPYwhyphenhyphenf1arw/s1600/20161112_095002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgws25WmZjlJf9zS8FpBR4sypIo4-CZzrN1YyWox3GWSazhenlMdo4d6ANtYYYIw3Aoxdc-hijP2ozt105bXbh33omPJkPeCNkZpcKgms1E4i8YtiJhW8UVaUG35HQpfgidPYwhyphenhyphenf1arw/s320/20161112_095002.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Testing out their new roosts.</td></tr>
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Their 6' x 6' Turkey Trailer, which is my husband's take on an easily-movable coop on wheels so when we relocate their pasture we could easily haul them as well, is plenty large for two turkeys, and should be large enough for about a dozen who are given regular access to a larger area outside. Magically, the Turkey Trailer didn't end up costing an arm and a leg, and managed to be completed in under a week. Inside is an L of 2x4 roosting bars screwed into the wall, and also supported by a 4x4 post, a 5-gallon waterer on paver blocks, a large nesting area, and a wooden feeder (now screwed to the wall to solve the constant "tipping" problem). The entire trailer is also insulated under its plywood ceiling and pallet board walls. The base of the trailer - pressure treated boards - is covered with plastic paneling, like the chicken coop and brooder has, for easy clean-up. <br />
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After being constructed in our driveway, the whole trailer, with the turkeys securely inside on their roosts, was towed down in the setting sun by the Ford Ranger to its first temporary home in the garden.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After some complaints from the Ranger, there is <b>no way</b> the mower can pull this.</td></tr>
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Once they made it to the garden, they hung out inside the Turkey Trailer for a few days to get settled in their new home before we released them to their enclosure. The enclosure consists of an approximately 20' by 20' area of the garden that has not seen chickens or chicken manure for at least three years, which we staked with chicken wire and metal t-posts. Due to the lumps and bumps in the garden, some of the chicken wire is also secured to the ground with U-pins that are used to hold down hoses. Human access is through a wooden gate covered in hardware cloth. After all that, the fun began of stringing the entirety of the top, so that it created a "visual barrier" for the turkeys below and other birds that may fly over above. Since the wings of the turkeys were not clipped, it was important to keep them in, and I can assure you this crazy spiderweb of strings caused many a car to slow down.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't worry folks, she's just dust bathing! Freaked me out a few times too.</td></tr>
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All-in-all, their first month with us has been pretty successful, aside for one <i>minor </i>design flaw with the enclosure. The hen figured out that if she hops on top of their door, she can poke her head through the spiderweb of strings, and launch herself to the roof of the coop and freedom. We figured out how she did it, and added a green plastic mesh above the strings near the coop. It was working fine until earlier this week...<br />
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The Mr. frantically called from the driveway on Wednesday night, yelling to "grab two flashlights and get outside!" First I thought opossum as one has been regularly raiding the cat food dishes, followed by perhaps the foxes we heard yelping had found their way to the cockerels in the garden that had no secure underground barrier in their chicken tractor. I had dinner in the oven and dessert set to go in as soon as dinner came out... I had just five minutes on the timer, so I hurried outside. I met my husband in the yard, still in my slippers, with two headlamps (because darn'd if I couldn't find any flashlights). He had a ladder. (That's <i>never </i>a good sign.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizfCfWFOQcMHuIo3taoeMM9xZ2Vrx4hTiT8_AVDdhCvj2RaALOdHI7NT5XZH_kX6ESXQpN_DFzdmF4evYt6rQztDLKaAlnUvHo-OCsDjP8nEbWuqa_p1OfbG0FSNPCDZFQo6P1yF92hQ/s1600/turkey+crow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizfCfWFOQcMHuIo3taoeMM9xZ2Vrx4hTiT8_AVDdhCvj2RaALOdHI7NT5XZH_kX6ESXQpN_DFzdmF4evYt6rQztDLKaAlnUvHo-OCsDjP8nEbWuqa_p1OfbG0FSNPCDZFQo6P1yF92hQ/s320/turkey+crow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Apparently, she had found a way out of the enclosure we thought we secured, and lo' and behold, the Mr. had pulled in to see the Bourbon Red Turkey hen <i style="font-weight: bold;">on the roof of the greenhouse! </i>We still have no clue how she did it this time, which causes me to religiously check the enclosure multiple times a day (and in many cases a hour) to make sure she is still securely inside.<br />
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There's truly <i style="font-weight: bold;">never </i>a dull moment around here! </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-26464774464400758672016-11-12T10:44:00.000-05:002016-11-12T10:59:00.590-05:00Feeding Time At The Farm<div style="text-align: justify;">
I know, I know, it's supposed to be "feeding time at the zoo," and some mornings it certainly does feel like a zoo around here as you trip on farm cats running at your feet to help with the morning chores. This morning I wanted to give everyone a sneak peek at our new additions that I've been dropping hints about on Facebook, and if you take a walk with me through some morning chores, I'm sure you'll quickly discover just who they are!</div>
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So, let's start out down at the garden with our Chicken Tractor, which we just finished construction on last month (not even a whole month ago!), that's complete with laying box and roosts and the eight Delaware cockerels who are acting as <a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2016/10/our-self-powered-manure-wielding.html" target="_blank">our self-powered manure welding lawnmowers.</a> They sure do get feisty when they see their morning feed coming, clamoring at the door to get to it. Currently the Chicken Tractor has a temporary blue tarp for the roof until we get a white or tan one to replace it, and has two pieces of plywood that are acting as windbreaks in the chillier temperatures we are reaching at night. Before too much longer these cockerels will be heading to the freezer as our temperatures really begin to dip. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPnOmN0XwTdt5ObHfKgzURgQU398UIuDHiWsC82ksH4m8L0mZR8ZS84LSjUcC9lb0FjrV_AkOIxEMJd7YPcq_xMZ8gkSV9k4jka2LyH2ep3RmKynU-YVyAC4XDF41SUFjEt8vAQ51Nsg/s1600/20161112_093913.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPnOmN0XwTdt5ObHfKgzURgQU398UIuDHiWsC82ksH4m8L0mZR8ZS84LSjUcC9lb0FjrV_AkOIxEMJd7YPcq_xMZ8gkSV9k4jka2LyH2ep3RmKynU-YVyAC4XDF41SUFjEt8vAQ51Nsg/s400/20161112_093913.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtWQvppVXWDBvnFHg9Ob5TJMZZCHhRfQ1v8EbsGb-Vc9TDaY86puZE0PjvYFRS9YCNf3ANPwA-GWKPX3mJfgPlwFIm1IxI__-ZxWlovrbWDtEAscsHW9zOS_Lp8fMoImLccS_JOVs1Q/s1600/20161112_093606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtWQvppVXWDBvnFHg9Ob5TJMZZCHhRfQ1v8EbsGb-Vc9TDaY86puZE0PjvYFRS9YCNf3ANPwA-GWKPX3mJfgPlwFIm1IxI__-ZxWlovrbWDtEAscsHW9zOS_Lp8fMoImLccS_JOVs1Q/s400/20161112_093606.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you look to the left of the Chicken Tractor you'll notice Purrball is being a big helper this morning and cleaning up the chicken's feed bucket!</td></tr>
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Next, I head up the hill to the main coop, or the Pastured Poultry Palace as I like to call it. Go ahead, roll your eyes at the name. Plenty do. This coop was completed in the summer of 2015, and presently holds our laying flock of five (Plymouth Barred Rocks) and breeding flock of eight (Delawares) for meat birds. At the moment we are collecting eggs from both flocks until the spring when <i>hopefully </i>someone will go broody and we can get some chicks around here! The Barred Rocks are now over a year old, and are presently going through their first molt, although their egg production is doing okay at the moment, and believe it or not, up from this time last year. We'll see how long that lasts though. The Delawares just started laying last month, and have finally made it over a dozen eggs between the seven ladies. Their extra small eggs make cooking rather interesting. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQmV6f_0s4KEHnrVeYo1VOIIFWG135fLTQSqTHEn2WHav-VmNIkacMZDNJ-Xr92Ne4PhGqJMiZqE7xdVGjRTiTTvyYq0gT53-2PXUOXCg-Dwy8JjWugUk6376vsipx3J-RCFvthru4bQ/s1600/20161112_094038%25280%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQmV6f_0s4KEHnrVeYo1VOIIFWG135fLTQSqTHEn2WHav-VmNIkacMZDNJ-Xr92Ne4PhGqJMiZqE7xdVGjRTiTTvyYq0gT53-2PXUOXCg-Dwy8JjWugUk6376vsipx3J-RCFvthru4bQ/s400/20161112_094038%25280%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2J6dLPKsqk7u6-h58Os9_-zt4CNJhyCiV4WXWbxizFpfdHVIW2CP2bN1RqCPrEjwrnBILXHBi-ZxvSUy9Pe-G1DaypU8puKV3DauCAuXlHiTNJziGVRSb9XjXg7dDKL4n-G5TJ2rSQ/s1600/20161112_094307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2J6dLPKsqk7u6-h58Os9_-zt4CNJhyCiV4WXWbxizFpfdHVIW2CP2bN1RqCPrEjwrnBILXHBi-ZxvSUy9Pe-G1DaypU8puKV3DauCAuXlHiTNJziGVRSb9XjXg7dDKL4n-G5TJ2rSQ/s400/20161112_094307.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mr. Roo always knows when feed is on the way, and keeps track of the camera for the ladies.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhT3l8ERhH_sV2-lyU92rt0bKHQSBwZaLu6W5JN_9sr_EO1J7PF3fRX8cU3FNEXAhjD28Q9_UFtSmf-Z1_30fFwB48peX8_Kwmyc1teaD4M3j9izFRo8M-25ZFflBEjy9dEozYSdlREg/s1600/20161112_094608.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhT3l8ERhH_sV2-lyU92rt0bKHQSBwZaLu6W5JN_9sr_EO1J7PF3fRX8cU3FNEXAhjD28Q9_UFtSmf-Z1_30fFwB48peX8_Kwmyc1teaD4M3j9izFRo8M-25ZFflBEjy9dEozYSdlREg/s400/20161112_094608.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_U82syudYGuoMIITpXqgtX122Ik_epikr5NYF0p3Qvf0pRFdbw3a7Rd4HaYO6BCF9rxu0dNNTk60eY0-UYpll19Lm2P1visIl6ssZT-U1iTnF6ktN7sy5mTqiEpKEQN6rHH6gGKChQ/s1600/20161112_094453.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_U82syudYGuoMIITpXqgtX122Ik_epikr5NYF0p3Qvf0pRFdbw3a7Rd4HaYO6BCF9rxu0dNNTk60eY0-UYpll19Lm2P1visIl6ssZT-U1iTnF6ktN7sy5mTqiEpKEQN6rHH6gGKChQ/s400/20161112_094453.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This morning's breakfast for everyone is <a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2015/12/eggs-in-winter.html" target="_blank">chicken porridge</a>!</td></tr>
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Next, we're heading back down the driveway and towards the house, whistling away. It's time for the farm cats' breakfast with a brief stop to check on the new additions that got fed late last night, and still have plenty left. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Ht8CjL894xuFBouMmwPZI_bOH01iF-dNfVaaP8EM3EluuQxl2w8Hp69T9UqqVYmDNDfPf0MYMiR8q2xJKRRVVbKeeDSwJWgfp3tZiIJVKruPvjJfcZmH0cUfHwnH0n9SbmA0U4JtHw/s1600/20161112_095109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Ht8CjL894xuFBouMmwPZI_bOH01iF-dNfVaaP8EM3EluuQxl2w8Hp69T9UqqVYmDNDfPf0MYMiR8q2xJKRRVVbKeeDSwJWgfp3tZiIJVKruPvjJfcZmH0cUfHwnH0n9SbmA0U4JtHw/s400/20161112_095109.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Construction areas are certainly a mess, and today it's my mess to clean up (at least a little). With construction started midday Sunday, there are only a few more boards that need tacked on to call it done for now. Later we plan to add some more amendments to the structure, and in a few days move it out of our driveway. Nestled inside are our new additions...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOtxIURNCWTN0ENURZy_EyXK2rvV17Q5BM6Blx5h7IfLg853OdZyJw7fr86ulPw9y29wekJCJTQjny5PYZcqNH-iklIJs_08l743MQx-Wx_cSeBLL72VFzfCo2I6u57tZQaisVCN8R0g/s1600/15044909_1339955246028827_231456074_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOtxIURNCWTN0ENURZy_EyXK2rvV17Q5BM6Blx5h7IfLg853OdZyJw7fr86ulPw9y29wekJCJTQjny5PYZcqNH-iklIJs_08l743MQx-Wx_cSeBLL72VFzfCo2I6u57tZQaisVCN8R0g/s400/15044909_1339955246028827_231456074_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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... two Bourbon Red turkeys who are about four months old. They came from my in-laws who didn't have a place to house them over the winter, and therefore asked if <i>perhaps we might want some turkeys?</i> After some debate between the Mr. and I as turkeys were not in our plans at the moment, and less than a week of construction on the new Turkey Trailer (I'll talk about that in another post), we're quite excited to see how these two settle in around here! The guess is that these two are actually a pair, and it's our hopes that next spring they will become a breeding pair. For now, they are pecking at the glass windows in front of them (they've never had windows before as they've lived outside in a mobile run) and taking in their new surroundings, including the farm cats that needed to peek through the windows. </div>
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Speaking of farm cats, it's on to breakfast for them! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNNAEB2A1RQkZwgp-BDZRkhkwWubu13hl3JW9TlQCtZTaDTuQ5xzF-dEnnFioQZZ6lh6EygMhmMas0Ox7hstQEDIXHqtSKSaAGsw8BnOIfqntp-BH2KSl32bY8DA-RK4F1c0GWD3-lEQ/s1600/20161112_095354.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNNAEB2A1RQkZwgp-BDZRkhkwWubu13hl3JW9TlQCtZTaDTuQ5xzF-dEnnFioQZZ6lh6EygMhmMas0Ox7hstQEDIXHqtSKSaAGsw8BnOIfqntp-BH2KSl32bY8DA-RK4F1c0GWD3-lEQ/s400/20161112_095354.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Followed by what quite a few of us wish to be doing right now... snoozing in the sun.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaehD73v6VYhnRZQ1G3hxJwliTClo-POS1jfCfK8kTxOlh4j5UQYLfVXSa3Ub3DVULg-Op9imDfjj02t5iSWOlmthoVXHSl_Da34tNAsbFYywXTN2qqI2b-AoTlCF1Ktj1of11FeqMRw/s1600/20161112_094532.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaehD73v6VYhnRZQ1G3hxJwliTClo-POS1jfCfK8kTxOlh4j5UQYLfVXSa3Ub3DVULg-Op9imDfjj02t5iSWOlmthoVXHSl_Da34tNAsbFYywXTN2qqI2b-AoTlCF1Ktj1of11FeqMRw/s400/20161112_094532.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Wishing you a beautiful, albeit brisk, autumn day from Pennsylvania Dutch Country! </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-77787898727035985352016-10-17T10:31:00.004-04:002016-10-17T10:31:53.063-04:00Our Self-Powered Manure Wielding Lawnmowers<div style="text-align: justify;">
Last month, the Mr. and I went to the Mother Earth News Fair in Somerset, Pennsylvania as an early anniversary trip. Camping at a nearby state park in the brisk mountain air of Western Pennsylvania, we spent three days soaking in the sights, sounds and even smells of the farming and homesteading lifestyles. While there we got to hear a lecture from the "most famous farmer in America" Joel Salatin on <i>Salad Bar Beef</i>. His rousing Southern Baptist style lecture was a fabulous way to kick off Sunday morning as we learned how he raises beef cattle using rotational grazing in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. (More about his farm can be found on its <a href="http://www.polyfacefarms.com/" target="_blank">website</a>.)</div>
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While my husband was dreaming about getting beef cattle, I was hurriedly taking notes <i>while </i>attempting to figure out how to scale his practices down for chickens. Yup, you heard me right... chickens. If you can use rotational grazing for cattle, why not implement the practice with some amendments for chickens? After all, we were already halfway there.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfqDG2tFRM48xaPzn95ryCLJnf_u-v6SnZRgwvhpKAsOIlxe-hZMgm7-fDB8FTWML1Da9gyX8Xmr_WNUJNeE-XXeORj5Y9D3lmyV0ZNb-jfvDsfAKMui5b_Bt8fWE-9s79guwZKsr-cw/s1600/chicken+coop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfqDG2tFRM48xaPzn95ryCLJnf_u-v6SnZRgwvhpKAsOIlxe-hZMgm7-fDB8FTWML1Da9gyX8Xmr_WNUJNeE-XXeORj5Y9D3lmyV0ZNb-jfvDsfAKMui5b_Bt8fWE-9s79guwZKsr-cw/s320/chicken+coop.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As our Delawares grew we wanted to give them <br />more space, although even in their present pasture <br />they were more than content.</td></tr>
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Before leaving on our three-day getaway, we started construction on a chicken tractor that we planned to use in our garden to help rough it up a bit (and weed it!) for spring planting. Our plan was to allow half of the flock of sixteen Delawares - all cockerels - to escape the confines of the coop and pasture runs before butcher. Once we got back, we finished off the construction, and this Saturday set our plan to work. </div>
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Using these self-powered manure wielding lawnmowers (i.e. chickens), we intend to make the painful process of putting 8,400 square feet of garden to bed for the winter a little easier on us. Fortunately, the Mr. moved the eight not so happy cockerels down to the garden on Saturday morning while I got to man the doors to the run, coop and "animal transportation system." (Okay, so the Mr. tied a large dog crate to my old red wooden wagon I had when I was a kid. Unfortunately, we were so busy I neglected to get a picture of this spectacle, but it worked out wonderfully.) </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjChMPLvXB16-y6fjhq6tZKvprHbE6iWCS2UjrSGh8WxsCQCZfIG63XAklNo2ZmIKLqYU4LLO-pcUgQqPUrPEVRwGIPTV4vfQ52Shixn59h0GlWHTH2ZB-8Wo7loXIQMj1-nhc6kv6jyw/s1600/chicken+tractor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjChMPLvXB16-y6fjhq6tZKvprHbE6iWCS2UjrSGh8WxsCQCZfIG63XAklNo2ZmIKLqYU4LLO-pcUgQqPUrPEVRwGIPTV4vfQ52Shixn59h0GlWHTH2ZB-8Wo7loXIQMj1-nhc6kv6jyw/s320/chicken+tractor.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Then, off into the chicken tractor they went, and were happy as could be until about mid-afternoon when they noisily demanded more ground to peck on. Thus, the Mr. moved them down the row simple as could be. Sunday morning, they were moved again, further down the row. Then came this morning, when it was now <i>my </i>turn to move them. </div>
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The Mr. made it look and sound so easy, taking less than five minutes to move the chicken tractor. Simply lift the axle for the tire, hold it up with your foot, and then slide the tire on. Spin the nut onto the end. Then repeat on the other side. Grab the rope, and pull forward. Do the reverse, and remove both tires. Sounds like a breeze <i>right? </i></div>
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<i> If only... </i></div>
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With two farm cats in tow I grabbed a container of feed and headed towards the garden. I tossed out the feed to the new area they would be moved to. That was mistake number one as it sent the Delawares into a frenzy trying desperately to get the feed that was on the <i>other side </i>of the chicken tractor. </div>
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I lifted the axle, barely getting it two inches off the ground before I had to drop it. There was no way this was going to work, and now the two farm cats that I had in tow were sitting where the tractor was going to be moved <i>eating the feed!</i> I tried pulling the rope without tires on. Surprisingly I made it eight inches while the cockerels continued to demand their new ground and scrambled for their eight inches of feed. Finally I gave in and called my husband. "Use a shovel to pry the side up and stick the wheel on. You got this."</div>
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Kicking myself for not thinking of this easy solution the whole way to the shed for the shovel and back to the garden, I jammed the shovel underneath and pried. Seriously? It came two inches off the ground... the same height I could have lifted it myself. I pulled the shovel out and moved further down the bottom board. Still not high enough. Then I moved even further down. <i>FINALLY! </i>Four inches off the ground now, with me holding the shovel, would be enough for the tire. If only I could reasonably reach that two feet away to put on the tire with those two hands that were holding the shovel... (Mistake two.) </div>
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Doing half a split in the garden, holding down the shovel with one foot in a shoe that bore no traction (mistake three), I begun to slide on the tire with my hands, just as my foot slipped and down four inches the chicken tractor came crashing. <i>Whack! </i>The shovel handle went flying straight against my shin, while the disgruntled Delawares flew and squawked about. I jammed the shovel back in and tried again. Success! Now onto the next side. </div>
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The second side went <i>a little </i>better. Finally, the chicken tractor was just shy of four inches off the ground in the back, so I went around front, grabbed the rope and yanked. It slowly inched forward. <i>I GOT THIS! </i>That's when I became a little too ambitious (mistake four), and started to walk backwards as I yanked, slipping in the wet grass on the edge of the garden pathway which caused me to go sprawling, landing squarely on my butt. </div>
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For once in the morning luck was on my side as there were no cars passing at that moment, and the only living things to witness this was the eight Delawares who now were busily pecking at their new ground, the two farm cats who had made themselves comfortable on the lawn, and all the plants who fortunately didn't have eyes, and came out unscathed. Well unscathed aside from those that I had landed on, and now sat on bewildered and frustrated. </div>
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At that point, I gave up and got up. I grabbed the rope, yanked it one more time to its final destination, situating the chicken tractor in a straight line. I pulled the wheels off, and said firmly, <i>"I hope you're happy," </i>to the Delawares, before grabbing the feed bucket and heading up to the coop to do the rest of the morning chores with the two farm cats once again in tow. </div>
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All-in-all, everyone is only slightly worse for the wear. I have a bruised shin and backside, along with slight rope burn on my hands and a sore wrist. Additionally, the escapade only took an extra twenty minutes. The eight Delaware cockerels are now once again happy, starting their morning thanks with adolescent crows that sound more like bleating goats than roosters. Yet, the only thing I can fully consider is, <i>"Darn. I have to do this again tomorrow morning."</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Our Self-Powered Manure Wielding Lawnmowers at work Saturday morning</span></div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-47615908791317864992016-10-11T10:01:00.002-04:002016-10-11T10:01:28.125-04:00A Hectic Harvest To Kick Off Autumn<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPDA6RBYPSLiwTuh5wBNq4HHLiSiaUj2ern0V1Y-Zb6PDVtXCAcX_iIAfPSvWoVSSSnGGg4eEqEqmPjQA_ne9Kn3XIToe2PDtLcKvu13CR76fWF8cF0HhFgwsHvIR38PA_BGdEy1zmQ/s1600/greenhouse+roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPDA6RBYPSLiwTuh5wBNq4HHLiSiaUj2ern0V1Y-Zb6PDVtXCAcX_iIAfPSvWoVSSSnGGg4eEqEqmPjQA_ne9Kn3XIToe2PDtLcKvu13CR76fWF8cF0HhFgwsHvIR38PA_BGdEy1zmQ/s320/greenhouse+roof.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Among the various projects that needed done before winter <br />
was the addition of a new greenhouse roof due to ours <br />
shredding in a wind storm in the summer heat.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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As the leaves begin to turn on our maple trees and the farm cats are dashing here and there underneath the black walnut trees so not to be beaned on the head by the plummeting walnuts, autumn is officially upon us. With autumn comes the last of the usual harvest seasons around here, and more than a little work to put the garden to bed for winter. </div>
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By the beginning of September we had reached $1,000 worth of produce harvested from our gardens, and as we pull out row after row of dried beans, green and red tomatoes, and even a second patch of late-season sweet corn, we're sure to only increase that number.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Z_vjFtK-n-MMr2V865pj9z7MIhK8qcE8CvRiwCTqtbp8EXmy_Eekkb5Z_N5SNvU37NijxiCVMF8glQhEf45FAoTSOcIoMjrDqwIQd2dyM0wrIJj4754oPVYFMVxKZUJJvN-sU70ulg/s1600/marigolds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Z_vjFtK-n-MMr2V865pj9z7MIhK8qcE8CvRiwCTqtbp8EXmy_Eekkb5Z_N5SNvU37NijxiCVMF8glQhEf45FAoTSOcIoMjrDqwIQd2dyM0wrIJj4754oPVYFMVxKZUJJvN-sU70ulg/s400/marigolds.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fall comes to the garden in a beautiful array of colors.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-s8FvY2DkF6NmzpRjkoboh81jzPnWDBuUiLXEgIIVy7hBF3AnlcIGcN375XSAYKBYW8m2mvMCx5vrR8wi465-d9nRF84lITNYgK07IedRiADyth_ynnjhCLr3bhWELJ7HJsuPUWJ2Pw/s1600/scarlet+runner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-s8FvY2DkF6NmzpRjkoboh81jzPnWDBuUiLXEgIIVy7hBF3AnlcIGcN375XSAYKBYW8m2mvMCx5vrR8wi465-d9nRF84lITNYgK07IedRiADyth_ynnjhCLr3bhWELJ7HJsuPUWJ2Pw/s200/scarlet+runner.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The flowers of Scarlet Runner<br />
Beans add a splash of color.</td></tr>
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Throughout September we've been busy getting in the harvests, especially those of the dried beans, which are now decorating the house in baskets of color as they continue to dry. We <i>may </i>have gone slightly overboard in beans, but last year we just simply did not have enough to last us the year. In all, this year, we planted a double half row of Kidney Beans, two full rows of Scarlet Runner Beans, two rows of Black Turtle Beans, a double half row of Hutterite Soup, a double half row of Jacob's Cattle, and also two full rows of Pinto Beans. Not to mention, the two full rows of Lima Beans, some of which are being dried, while most will be frozen. It's a lot of beans, which means a lot of shelling by the light of the television set at night, just the way our pioneer mothers did it. (Seriously, we all need a little humor to get through harvest season.) <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2td49jRhYmbiWY9HYE9_n8qZz0tXAfcT9SAHEKbAOGLgZd6zPVgzmbekPcSnu2wcWziIErYW9hLON7dtY49VbEPjm-OnLLhE5VYrFal8BmkuTQzbHyK_6q6btVIwSA35CUNNm1SScqQ/s1600/herbs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2td49jRhYmbiWY9HYE9_n8qZz0tXAfcT9SAHEKbAOGLgZd6zPVgzmbekPcSnu2wcWziIErYW9hLON7dtY49VbEPjm-OnLLhE5VYrFal8BmkuTQzbHyK_6q6btVIwSA35CUNNm1SScqQ/s320/herbs.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mountains of basil, parsley and thyme (not pictured) <br />
came out of the garden yesterday.</td></tr>
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The most frantic of the harvests of the last of our peppers, tomatoes, warm-season herbs, and broom corn occurred yesterday as a frost warning popped across our phones, sending a chilly reminder that autumn is upon us. By this morning, the temperatures were barely tipping freezing at 8 a.m., and the Plymouth Barred Rocks and Delawares were getting impatient for their "<a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2015/12/eggs-in-winter.html" target="_blank">chicken porridge</a>" for breakfast. With geese honking overhead, I hurried to the greenhouse to check on the crops. With the frost only laying in the dips of the garden, the temperature read 53 degrees, and the three tomato plants seemed cozy in their warm home. <br />
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This year; however, our harvest is not planned to stop with the last leaf dancing in the wind. With the addition of the greenhouse, (see <a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2016/09/preparing-for-frosty-fall.html" target="_blank">Preparing For A Frosty Fall</a>) one can hope, we can continue to harvest into winter. For some reason, we thought that not having a break in gardening was a good idea. Ask me again in January if I'm still feeling that this was a wonderful plan. <br />
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Although not all of the crops are harvested from the garden as the celery, carrots, dried beans, and oats could withstand the frost, it will certainly be a hectic day today as I put up the last of our warm season crops and try my hand at propagating some of the herbs. As it looks like another few frosts will be upon us by the end of the week, I better get to work. Happy harvesting everyone. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEXTZWH8_k1VtezbKinos7vvaMpp5N0T0K5Ln3E7Je0w8PpOemUqcI_nbt4JCpfcB6RNRKkHOs2hqHD83-gB7O-kgvGA8HifxG8ghC584-h3a0ihYCmOrbaBCCz8MaJ6FKeeNCQ7neg/s1600/frost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEXTZWH8_k1VtezbKinos7vvaMpp5N0T0K5Ln3E7Je0w8PpOemUqcI_nbt4JCpfcB6RNRKkHOs2hqHD83-gB7O-kgvGA8HifxG8ghC584-h3a0ihYCmOrbaBCCz8MaJ6FKeeNCQ7neg/s400/frost.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Frost in a dip on the edge of the garden pathway this morning.</td></tr>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-82367462169382635712016-09-22T08:28:00.000-04:002016-09-22T08:34:19.725-04:00Preparing For A Frosty Fall<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-mpDEhX7g9vCQbWgMpNe6zfdkj24XBmvRRzRPZrn63qgri1byyqpsEEeG_PvsnkhCie2_4Zl32G8aPzFu3MURmoc69rhq9Sye1yS2urZw4YC-FEiywnm_A6MDpUqO9aH_FELGXmWm3g/s1600/greenhouse+roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-mpDEhX7g9vCQbWgMpNe6zfdkj24XBmvRRzRPZrn63qgri1byyqpsEEeG_PvsnkhCie2_4Zl32G8aPzFu3MURmoc69rhq9Sye1yS2urZw4YC-FEiywnm_A6MDpUqO9aH_FELGXmWm3g/s320/greenhouse+roof.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Repairing the shredded roof before planting the fall seeds.</td></tr>
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Winter is going to be a bit unusual around here this year. This year, we're not planning to stop the growing season with the first frost, and our garden isn't entirely "put to bed" like it has been in years past. It just may be the first winter season that I can say I harvested fresh lettuce in January, or maybe, just maybe, it will all go down in a withered frost bitten heap by Old Man Winter's cruel icy hand. Fate is funny like that. You never know how she's going to act. </div>
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This year, with a new roof (due to the old one shredding during a wind storm in the hot summer heat), the greenhouse is ready for some late-fall and winter crops. We, like usual, <i>packed </i>the greenhouse. The three tomato plants, left over from summer, are blooming as they climb their strings towards the greenhouse roof, while the four cauliflower and four broccoli transplants came from a local greenhouse. Everything else was set in as seed in mid-September with the hopes that since the greenhouse is touching anywhere from 70s to 90s throughout the day they will germinate just fine. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwRkKXJBYWKgxrx5VaBdlVEg9mIzJ8yc00tXfV989Vr9Dc32YFSvc7Tc9r1ku08rD_vxHPK9BWkCu2lS90oB8wolJawEI42I94R4TLMbrg-VhEUh7C0_o08d2R44xg7Rrbdt74EGaIvQ/s1600/tomatoes+to+the+roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwRkKXJBYWKgxrx5VaBdlVEg9mIzJ8yc00tXfV989Vr9Dc32YFSvc7Tc9r1ku08rD_vxHPK9BWkCu2lS90oB8wolJawEI42I94R4TLMbrg-VhEUh7C0_o08d2R44xg7Rrbdt74EGaIvQ/s400/tomatoes+to+the+roof.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tomatoes within inches of the roof in mid-September.</td></tr>
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A fair number of the seeds for our greenhouse came from relatives this year who were retiring from gardening and mailed their leftover seeds to us from halfway across the country. It was quite the blessing, and the Mr. and I would both check the mail religiously, wanting to be the one to open the packages! (We were truly like kids on Christmas morning.) Among the crops we planted:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;"> Beet, Early Blood Turnip - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22.176px;">SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;"> Broccoli, Arcadia</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small;"> - LOCAL GREENHOUSE</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;"> Carrot, Royal Chatenay - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22.176px;">LAKE VALLEY SEEDS</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;"> Cauliflower, Snow Dream </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small;">- LOCAL GREENHOUSE</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;"> Lettuce, Four Seasons - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22.176px;">BURPEE (FROM RELATIVES)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;"> Lettuce, Iceberg - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22.176px;">WEEKS SEED CO. (FROM RELATIVES)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;"> Onion, White Lisbon - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22.176px;">LAKE VALLEY SEEDS</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22.176px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;">Radish, Champion - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22.176px;">ROHRER SEEDS</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: 15.84px; line-height: 22.176px;"> Spinach - </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "sorts mill goudy"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 22.176px;">(FROM RELATIVES) </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSgGwuF8zOqHdlRJUokdc_YSSob5aXW9NAHaTjPYcJBNlXdFhPAfYMwwNuunFMhePO4NAZYzxR_TUJ10B0D77O_A3QKLB4iBVjtq5ZzPut12W_csw6D1Y8KRlct7Zo0RDypXvjYhoygg/s1600/greenhouse+2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSgGwuF8zOqHdlRJUokdc_YSSob5aXW9NAHaTjPYcJBNlXdFhPAfYMwwNuunFMhePO4NAZYzxR_TUJ10B0D77O_A3QKLB4iBVjtq5ZzPut12W_csw6D1Y8KRlct7Zo0RDypXvjYhoygg/s400/greenhouse+2016.png" width="300" /></a></div>
Yes, the green was certainly packed to say the least, but at this point, would you expect anything less from one of our gardens? <br />
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<h2>
Keeping It Warm</h2>
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After some research, we decided on a plan to hopefully keep the greenhouse warm:<br />
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<ul>
<li>The main way revolves around two 55 gallon plastic drums filled with water. Over the drums will be black plastic leaf bags (hopefully by early next week) to help them attract the heat during the daily hours and slowly release the heat as the temperature cools after dark. Currently the blue barrels are keeping it warm enough. </li>
<li>Most of the windows in the greenhouse are insulated double-pane glass. Anything that is not, will have a piece of plastic tacked over it to help keep the drafts out by the end of September. </li>
<li>Put plastic over the screen door by the end of September. </li>
<li>Two basement vents that are activated by the outside temperatures will help to vent the greenhouse should it get too warm, and close to help keep the heat in as the temperature drops.</li>
<li>The pathway is concrete pavers, which should hopefully soak up some of the heat during the daylight hours.</li>
<li>All the plants will be mulched within the next week. As the mulch decomposes, heat should also be released.</li>
<li>All the cracks around the base of the greenhouse (especially in the back corner, which happens to sit over a filled-in groundhog hole) will also be filled by the end of September.</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJuZpGxNNcvH-rYgQiTUrC1wp7qAh4MVbO-FKsmaa12N4joCEbexV1v8h_FPHSqtBfC6sF1oaso4IZHfTQmFY3m1fQihkTTAQOnTLwpCpFm5uEv_tJ_crAWhyphenhyphenUaMlccEpAmMAVjFvVTA/s1600/greenhouse-inside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJuZpGxNNcvH-rYgQiTUrC1wp7qAh4MVbO-FKsmaa12N4joCEbexV1v8h_FPHSqtBfC6sF1oaso4IZHfTQmFY3m1fQihkTTAQOnTLwpCpFm5uEv_tJ_crAWhyphenhyphenUaMlccEpAmMAVjFvVTA/s400/greenhouse-inside.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adding the water barrels. If there's time <br />
before the temperatures drop too much, we <br />
hope to get some insulation in the walls too.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><br /></i><i> If</i> there's time, we might add some insulation before the temperatures drop too much as well, and plywood the inside walls. All of this will then be coated in a water-seal so when we spray the hose during the warm weather, we don't rot out the greenhouse. The outside will be coated in water-seal as well, just as soon as the last boards go onto the bottom by our basil plants.<br />
<br />
At a little over 85 square feet, our fingers are crossed that all of this should be enough to keep our plants alive and thriving. As this is our <i>experimental </i>year with the greenhouse, we have yet to see if our plans will work; however, I hope to keep everyone posted on how this progresses throughout the season, and maybe, just maybe, my dream of harvesting lettuce in January will come true. </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-50384604520331075022016-09-17T14:24:00.002-04:002016-09-17T14:24:45.180-04:00Making Straw Bales Without Equipment<div style="text-align: justify;">
Around here we have limited equipment. Most of the garden work is done the good 'ole fashioned way by hand tools, and if we're lucky enough, it's tackled with the lawnmower and trailer, the David Bradley Super Power, or the borrowed rot-o-tiller. When it comes to baling straw for the winter, the lack of tools left us in a bit of a predicament. Just how are we going to bale? </div>
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Last year I came up with this trick using everyday items you can find around your home. So take a look at how we bale without equipment, and maybe get some ideas for your own farm. </div>
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Happy baling while we still have this gorgeous autumn weather!</div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-10460635693331847282016-09-03T11:07:00.000-04:002016-09-03T11:21:37.961-04:00Keeping History "Currant"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWM9CH5XUR2V7CAqQgLAD6f6xfex2WrFzGVs82UdYoQ_JFwzKQjW5Qnd417A87FczzGznQTZVcmBgjm3x3_4QePf3nAeaT-9OAuw7tTCxY7KPoxFBxB-1wNNurzvC7bklFHy6cOpyfsA/s1600/autumn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWM9CH5XUR2V7CAqQgLAD6f6xfex2WrFzGVs82UdYoQ_JFwzKQjW5Qnd417A87FczzGznQTZVcmBgjm3x3_4QePf3nAeaT-9OAuw7tTCxY7KPoxFBxB-1wNNurzvC7bklFHy6cOpyfsA/s320/autumn.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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To me, today seems like a perfect autumn day, with the geese honking as they fly overhead, the clippety-clop of hooves on the pavement as horses pull a harvest wagon up the road, and the young cockerels getting their rooster crow on, welcoming the dawn. The falling leaves and gentle breezes of autumn are so welcoming that the windows are opened wide, and the first of our autumn decor found its way out before Labor Day. Yet with all this beautiful weather, there also comes the dreaded word... <i>work.</i></div>
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The garden has been long overdue for some tlc since August crept up on us, and the harvest kept us hopping. Yesterday evening we ignored much of the weedy patches and harvests, only pulling weeds and picking produce here and there, and instead started our garden winterization as the temperatures began to dip, and my nervousness began to skyrocket. Although the temperatures may return to summer and the 90s next week, it's always good to get a head start on winterizing as we never seem to finish it before winter! ("Last year" we actually put the garden to bed at the beginning of this year.)</div>
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Our project last night was planting some of our fall transplants. No, not the broccoli and cauliflower. They'll be tucked into the greenhouse a little bit later. Instead, we transplanted our blueberry bushes, soapwort and currant bushes that were taking up much of the greenhouse. Of these plants, the ones I am most excited and nervous about are the currant bushes as they are literally living "family" heirlooms that I am now charged with trying to keep living! Yikes!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNrrU45HySIstVl47udJRGTvXQlWRO3jJ7uvdpPPUAS5CNuKHBVZ8PA5UQ67daeqHptrJqc6rcRK0STuN53zcKsO7ZSuZHzRB05bzdx21mwIBUsZO6zS5Q8YqcxHQh0q45q-t8Sl7JSQ/s1600/currants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNrrU45HySIstVl47udJRGTvXQlWRO3jJ7uvdpPPUAS5CNuKHBVZ8PA5UQ67daeqHptrJqc6rcRK0STuN53zcKsO7ZSuZHzRB05bzdx21mwIBUsZO6zS5Q8YqcxHQh0q45q-t8Sl7JSQ/s400/currants.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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As history-people it's no wonder that we like heirloom plants, but when my mother asked if I wanted the currant bushes, I almost jumped for joy! The currant bushes had originally come from my great great grandparents' farm. </div>
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Curtis Custer Carbaugh once lived a few miles outside of Tionesta, Forest County, Pennsylvania in the community of Nebraska. A blacksmith by trade, Curtis and his wife Eva May Whitman raised their nine children - Grace, Viola, Floyd, Emma, Everett, Orion, Harry, Dorothy, and George - on the farm that was once considered one of the best producing farms in the area. Although the farm is no longer in our family, it is still a working farm (unlike so many other ancestral farms in my line) and now called Pleasant Valley Farm. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2iKWiPl9S9pCdofEly_36B34Ynqm49DaxDu8YiixG7-D_kSAHNZ-xRYE9j3UcVlImc29VrgBGVWJ3eVzhadCtwTOQn8CD6zWDRJM0uhlVvCTN7qV1-EcJLu1uFxCgDPWYx2aIctRQQ/s1600/Curtis+C.+%2526+Eva+Mae+Carbaugh+-+fixed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2iKWiPl9S9pCdofEly_36B34Ynqm49DaxDu8YiixG7-D_kSAHNZ-xRYE9j3UcVlImc29VrgBGVWJ3eVzhadCtwTOQn8CD6zWDRJM0uhlVvCTN7qV1-EcJLu1uFxCgDPWYx2aIctRQQ/s400/Curtis+C.+%2526+Eva+Mae+Carbaugh+-+fixed.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Curtis Custer Carbaugh and Eva May Whitman, lovingly known as <br />
"Grandma and Grandpa on the farm"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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My mother received the currant bushes this summer from her uncle, whose father was a son of Curtis Custer Carbaugh. Unfortunately, once she got them home, after somehow managing to cram them into the backseat of the car along with all their camping gear, she realized that she didn't have a suitable place to plant them. It took me a whole month to then decide where exactly <i>I </i>was going to plant them as well! Now they are happily in the ground at the edge of our garden. I certainly hope they make it through the winter, and next year, we may be lucky enough to get a few currants from them. For now, the winterization of our garden will continue as I nervously nurse our new plants. </div>
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Do you have any "family" heirlooms in your garden? </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-546228451094910832016-08-23T09:00:00.000-04:002016-08-23T09:00:39.864-04:00Things They Don't Tell You About Raising Chickens<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwkOAxG4jTQMljXwDZTeOT_kztbP9fLdFbGj00kv7GCQKAUEbKZMwc6Pbup0nfbNTIO5yRWoAjCVe4VNQy-zVXXtdAhNN786beCXnBO8H2vTP8tGeCf21hc7k4J2AvloyU51cTTLc8xw/s1600/barredrock-left.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwkOAxG4jTQMljXwDZTeOT_kztbP9fLdFbGj00kv7GCQKAUEbKZMwc6Pbup0nfbNTIO5yRWoAjCVe4VNQy-zVXXtdAhNN786beCXnBO8H2vTP8tGeCf21hc7k4J2AvloyU51cTTLc8xw/s400/barredrock-left.jpg" width="225" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUInbDnQrkox8rKxlA3p0CPO1LS1IO4gIqCigag2satEuN7jbstr7j8bqGCVs_AwprUpBfnxcao62-PxEyksUPQIyU1vaOwdSFneHNMDb0c1HG94c9-EqgdpCgLsWY9FMf-Pj3rz_3pw/s1600/delaware-right.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUInbDnQrkox8rKxlA3p0CPO1LS1IO4gIqCigag2satEuN7jbstr7j8bqGCVs_AwprUpBfnxcao62-PxEyksUPQIyU1vaOwdSFneHNMDb0c1HG94c9-EqgdpCgLsWY9FMf-Pj3rz_3pw/s400/delaware-right.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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It's been over a year now since we brought home our balls of fluff. From the start we knew we wanted a multipurpose chicken that we could raise for eggs and meat, and had settled on Plymouth Barred Rocks after <i>a lot </i>of research, and this past spring we added some Delawares as well. The Mr. designed a chicken coop, which I've nicknamed the "Pastured Poultry Palace," designed to separate the birds into meat and laying flocks, and cut down the workload on us of having to go to two separate buildings. Yet during the last year we came across quite a few things that no one really ever told us <i>before </i>raising chickens. So to hopefully eliminate some surprises for you along your journey, I thought I'd better relay some of our not-so-wonderful adventures: </div>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Decide early on if the chickens are your pets <i>or </i>your food. Realistically, they <i>cannot</i> be both.</h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPMBnqfBZ1JvAiFm9raQP-K1WPHvgO098eEkOhHAA3F2xkKVVm_TOx_4fqUK-k7Nkg1fBf5vo0hyphenhyphenSMn51-j9T78gGLPF1_mDtD0YQcg5FB6HTJYKJXYN84Kq2dw7yov9Qy_txBEHCEsQ/s1600/roosters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPMBnqfBZ1JvAiFm9raQP-K1WPHvgO098eEkOhHAA3F2xkKVVm_TOx_4fqUK-k7Nkg1fBf5vo0hyphenhyphenSMn51-j9T78gGLPF1_mDtD0YQcg5FB6HTJYKJXYN84Kq2dw7yov9Qy_txBEHCEsQ/s320/roosters.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roosters to roasters. <br />
(You can thank one of my old bosses for that pun.) </td></tr>
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I cannot recall how many times I was asked what the names of our chickens were, as though all animals have names... but ours don't. It was something we decided immediately, and by not naming them, it helped us along in the mindset we had to follow to get us through the inevitable fate of farm animals raised for food. (It certainly helped me for sure!) <b> At some point our animals would become dinner. </b>That <b>by no means</b>, means you should mistreat the animals because they are your food instead of your pets. Every morning, I still went up and said hi to them as I got them their food, and changed out their water. I'd throw earthworms I found to them or leftover grapes, and enjoyed watching them chase each other around for the "treats." When times are economically tough, I always make sure to purchase the animal's food first before our own to ensure that they always have enough to eat. (Don't worry, we won't go hungry either. We just might not be eating the food we <i>want</i>, but instead the food we <i>have</i>.) They, while they were with us, enjoyed great lives. And, when the time came to make dinner out of some of them, the process was quick. I cannot stress enough that whether your chicken is a pet or food/food source is something that you need to understand from the beginning, and remember that mindset as you raise them, because if you're treating your chicken like a pet, it will be really hard when you need to cook one for the table.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSr4Gycha2czkMK0FA-nQCjxN5vYIhupvyvWIiOYln-yMa6YUGfdTwNTi9wjV8tSauEswJg76z5Io8OOVnh2CM-CJeRvAC7ba-Hbp4groTWyd611Bve1ZEfzBTjTLKGXaxwevyOUn59w/s1600/delaware-eating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSr4Gycha2czkMK0FA-nQCjxN5vYIhupvyvWIiOYln-yMa6YUGfdTwNTi9wjV8tSauEswJg76z5Io8OOVnh2CM-CJeRvAC7ba-Hbp4groTWyd611Bve1ZEfzBTjTLKGXaxwevyOUn59w/s400/delaware-eating.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Delawares out in their pasture run. We've found our chickens prefer green over grain.</td></tr>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
They want it all, and they want it <b><i>NOW</i></b>. </h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP7ujV5pnZFvUgv7m2lX8dlUPsEVNcISjKrq9v_cN9Cjh0RLxkXEKufDuySxCLks-Caj4VGfEXVoWhG6iWOjhZ-jQpW0RXbvOoxNcTFBiZgf4hAKYqofhuKzsU3WP4iGbQYqReP4VXzg/s1600/rooster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP7ujV5pnZFvUgv7m2lX8dlUPsEVNcISjKrq9v_cN9Cjh0RLxkXEKufDuySxCLks-Caj4VGfEXVoWhG6iWOjhZ-jQpW0RXbvOoxNcTFBiZgf4hAKYqofhuKzsU3WP4iGbQYqReP4VXzg/s200/rooster.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Plymouth Barred Rock rooster is<br />
always the most vocal with his <br />
demands. He also lets his hens know<br />
when someone is on their way with<br />
food to the coop. The Delawares<br />
have caught on to his announcements<br />
now, and come running too.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The chickens have always been ones to want to be fed. It's not that we underfeed our birds. It's just they believe that whatever we have in the bucket is going to be bigger and better than whatever they have in front of them. The hens scramble to the feed bucket each morning, half climbing over top of each other on their mad dash for whatever "treats" are in it. (Apparently, the grass <i>is </i>always greener on the other side.) I have gotten pecked by the hens until I drop the bucket and released all the food, especially if I am blocking them from getting into the bucket since they only get half of its contents. I've also gotten pecked by a rooster so badly that it drew blood because I wasn't feeding his grain holder fast enough. (My mother actually got spurred by a rooster when doing feeding for us while we were on vacation as well.) The moral of the message is... when you feed them, <i>do it fast and no one gets hurt. </i></div>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Roosters <i>(and hens)</i> can be ornery. </b> </h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxvsKHwuUuVZRupyO3nQ2DcZugOKBh9PETF1se4ILXZh26JJz40KxII6G_VkgEWHmGc9KtXDJAAi_nlTSL-0nYh0Q0W6D05SjasVVp6_cikTlzoXzOCND53yEBMcs_uBK4efwbzVTSag/s1600/roosters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxvsKHwuUuVZRupyO3nQ2DcZugOKBh9PETF1se4ILXZh26JJz40KxII6G_VkgEWHmGc9KtXDJAAi_nlTSL-0nYh0Q0W6D05SjasVVp6_cikTlzoXzOCND53yEBMcs_uBK4efwbzVTSag/s200/roosters.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our three Plymouth Barred <br />
Rock roosters in calmer times.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Everyone mentions a mean rooster or a hen a little too aggressive in establishing the pecking order, but we were certainly not prepared for the blood bath that I stumbled across when closing up the coop on March 28. It looked like something out of a television crime drama, with actual spray patterns of the blood inside the run. You could see where one cornered the other. Where the larger of the two started aggressively ripping feathers out from the underside of the medium rooster's wing. And then, their blood stained trail to the coop.</div>
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We shined a light into the inside of the coop, the largest two roosters were coated in blood, feathers still hanging from their mouths, and their faces pecked and obviously still bleeding, as well as were various parts of their bodies. The third rooster, the smallest one, was snuggled up on the roost against the wall that led to the ladies' side, specks of blood on him from the spray of the fight, but no sign of physical harm, or that he was aggressive towards the others. He had always been the quiet one, while the two larger ones were always battling for dominance. There was nothing we could do for the two larger, battle scarred roosters, and for the first times in our lives butchered chickens. We started at 7 p.m., and only stumbled into bed around midnight. The next morning our lone rooster, crowed much louder and prouder than I had ever heard him crow before, to welcome the sun and greeted the four ladies on the other side of the fence. I have a feeling our meat birds will become meat birds a little quicker from here on out...<br />
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<h2>
There's a routine established with chickens.</h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3F9o3I_8E1UCt3TCV-LykJUQzb_eFSgLsfx0FhiSOaub0D-6tu0PAZoxrAZo4Nzui1zatDQ8f3gu1LNjBWukNKqzdP9XwQO7FGm4b5-l_g25bSzwv-tVEW3pK86qPlfy6teGatVu3vA/s1600/20160808_115340+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3F9o3I_8E1UCt3TCV-LykJUQzb_eFSgLsfx0FhiSOaub0D-6tu0PAZoxrAZo4Nzui1zatDQ8f3gu1LNjBWukNKqzdP9XwQO7FGm4b5-l_g25bSzwv-tVEW3pK86qPlfy6teGatVu3vA/s400/20160808_115340+%25281%2529.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking down their tunnel run. The <br />
scraps they don't pick at get cleaned out.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Maybe it's not intentional on the part of the birds, but the chickens established a routine <i>for us, </i>and not the other way around. The first thing I do in the mornings at the coop is dump their scraps into their "tunnel runs" to the "pasture run," or directly into the "pasture run" if I'm feeling extra adventurous. Then, I open the tunnels or chutes, and head towards the coop. This preoccupies the chickens so the rest of the chores I can do <i>only </i>with the "assistance" of the farm cats, and not both birds and cats. Then I change out the water inside the coop or run, refill any grain holders that need filling, and check for eggs. (We also check for eggs in the late-afternoon/evening too, as some prefer morning to lay, and others the afternoon.) By getting the birds essentially "out of the way" chores go a lot quicker at the coop. <br />
<br />
As an important note: They <i>will </i>let you know if you are late. Every morning, I try to be out there between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. By 9:45, I am officially late, and the rooster will be crowing about more than just the sun. If I'm there at 8:00 a.m., the hens are dust bathing, and looking at with the "um, we're still getting our morning baths" look, and you know you are in trouble for interrupting them. <br />
<br />
<h2>
No matter how you design your coop (or if you purchase a pre-built coop), they'll be something about it you'll wish you could change. </h2>
</div>
<div>
We did <i>research </i>for months on how we wanted a chicken coop constructed before the hammer hit the first nail, yet looking back, there are certainly things we'd do differently now...</div>
<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMRlebC5dM4HDJ6hWjIV2D2mpmeszwzMgd0AGT6ubE2LWvWRfybhEfY5b8to2VttADWHGmTv0Nh6VcMT7iFtc156-uJfwWCi_tSAWfOkaTgR7Shvjucbok2ZitlU98vytzG_jOUWfig/s1600/20160808_115431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirMRlebC5dM4HDJ6hWjIV2D2mpmeszwzMgd0AGT6ubE2LWvWRfybhEfY5b8to2VttADWHGmTv0Nh6VcMT7iFtc156-uJfwWCi_tSAWfOkaTgR7Shvjucbok2ZitlU98vytzG_jOUWfig/s320/20160808_115431.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Sure edges on poop trays and doors to the coop hold shavings and poop in, but they also <i>hold it in, </i>making it a pain when you go to clean the coop. </li>
<li>The chicken "pasture run" was originally constructed without an access hatch, but we quickly learned it needed one to allow us to feed them in the run and for any emergencies. </li>
<li>The pvc grain holders made life easier to fit everything inside the coop, but the elbows don't allow feed to fall down very well, so we resorted back to regular feeders as their primary feeders in the coop, and use the pvc pipes as a secondary feeder. </li>
<li>Our Plymouth Barred Rock hens prefer curtains on their nesting boxes as long as they are pulled <i>way</i> back. Regardless, our hens prefer to face the wall when nesting and only turn around if they hear noise in the coop. </li>
<li>You will <i>never </i>be able to make their favorite nesting box large enough, and they will try to lay eggs on top of each other in the box. Two of our hens favor the left box, and the other two favor the right. If someone is in the box when they want to be you can hear the ruckus caused by the complaining hen in the house (a few hundred feet away, with all windows closed)! </li>
</ul>
<div>
... just to name a few. </div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
What have you learned about your chickens that no one prepared you for?</h2>
</div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-77619661675479952602016-08-13T07:00:00.000-04:002016-08-13T07:00:22.209-04:00Tips To Reduce Your Use of Paper Towels<div style="text-align: justify;">
If you happened to miss our tips for reducing your use of paper towels in your household on Facebook over the last five days, I've decided to share them on the blog as well. Our journey started in December 2015, when we decided to reduce paper towel consumption in our kitchen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweVJ8oaGODJpvCNymalviRWaQoxgEig_xMj-4xxZHQBk3DroKgh4FuBDDbtnZfKklXCmOz-vid_ioRugdrtxW_NYK0RpNWB4R869vA19S0eN_oiG_nbBw-VEjngIuvuTI6wc-a_sj-A/s1600/Tip1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiweVJ8oaGODJpvCNymalviRWaQoxgEig_xMj-4xxZHQBk3DroKgh4FuBDDbtnZfKklXCmOz-vid_ioRugdrtxW_NYK0RpNWB4R869vA19S0eN_oiG_nbBw-VEjngIuvuTI6wc-a_sj-A/s400/Tip1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Our key to reducing their use in the kitchen is to have a basket of washcloths at easy reach on the counter instead of a roll of paper towels. Spilled something? Grab a washcloth. Need to clean off the stovetop? A washcloth will do! Really greasy fried foods? Wet a washcloth to wipe your hands on instead of a paper towel. The possibilities are endless.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx3cKjrLluwCF2-kW-fTFcdwsjxDD6r082tI5L8s1cAE_NP7qwN4s_7kqM3QhQosY9i9SBLY48WjQyXqZsoH0lCruUte4EOztkiKMdq4IZ1movykbhUzuGc1N6s5V08BIcHxj2uwbkuQ/s1600/Tip2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx3cKjrLluwCF2-kW-fTFcdwsjxDD6r082tI5L8s1cAE_NP7qwN4s_7kqM3QhQosY9i9SBLY48WjQyXqZsoH0lCruUte4EOztkiKMdq4IZ1movykbhUzuGc1N6s5V08BIcHxj2uwbkuQ/s400/Tip2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Our second tip to limit the use of paper towels is when cleaning, whether it be the house or a spill, use rags. I've cut up a few old t-shirts and have a small crate with t-shirt rags in underneath the bathroom sink. They're quick to grab when cleaning up. Once they're dirty, toss them into another container or bucket, and after the bucket fills up wash a bleach load of rags in your washer.<br />
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(Bonus Tip: Don't toss wet rags into the bucket, or you'll know it in a few days! I leave mine to dry out on an aluminum pie pan first.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1gw0NdSdm9S0IR-3emtndchKBSv6-RoDKNEEhOyKiiyVhvMdiTZW3N_s68k-ET5Rw5-km7ajtudCJhdEucPKoXdAZPLKP9wqQ3UknTnkemtklHaxGOO9vPSkSH0jJKYc1SipLqWT1NQ/s1600/Tip3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1gw0NdSdm9S0IR-3emtndchKBSv6-RoDKNEEhOyKiiyVhvMdiTZW3N_s68k-ET5Rw5-km7ajtudCJhdEucPKoXdAZPLKP9wqQ3UknTnkemtklHaxGOO9vPSkSH0jJKYc1SipLqWT1NQ/s400/Tip3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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Can you smell the bacon? The third tip I'd like to share with you on limiting paper towels has to do with all those fried foods you love. We used to toss piles of bacon, egg rolls, donuts, and fried chicken onto paper towels to sop up all that grease, but now, we found that using a splatter guard over a kitchen plate allows the grease to drip through.<br />
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(Bonus Tip: If you have a spray nozzle at your kitchen sink, it really helps to clean your splatter guard afterwards.)<br />
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Cloth napkins can be used for more than keeping the crumbs at bay in our fourth tip. We certainly used paper towels in place of napkins when it comes to greasy foods, or when you just run out of napkins and forgot to add it to your grocery list. There's added bonuses to using cloth napkins:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>If you weren't too messy, cloth napkins can be used for more than one meal before they need to be washed. </li>
<li>Cloth napkins can easily be dampened to clean sticky fingers. </li>
<li>Fancier napkins also work great in place of paper towels for lining baskets for chips and rolls during picnics. </li>
<li>They're reusable! </li>
</ul>
<br />
We currently have about 20 cloth napkins (all thrift store buys, which cost 50 cents or less each), which last the two of us about a week. That's $10 or less for multiple years' supply of napkins! I haven't purchased paper napkins since last year as cloth napkins also reduce our use of napkins, and not just paper towels!<br />
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Ewwww! I pondered long and hard about sharing a picture of my toilet to the world before I posted this last tip, but alas, I just <i>had </i>to. Believe it or not cleaning the bathroom is not my least favorite chore, but it does lead us to our fifth and final tip on reducing paper towels.<br />
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Once you get really dirty rags that the wash can't clean, use them to clean the bathroom, and toss them when they're done. For me, the toilet is one of those places that I just can't clean with a rag that is going to be washed, and maybe touch my kitchen floor. Although the rag is washed, the thought alone makes me cringe a little.<br />
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I hope you have a few new ideas now to try around your house. Is there another way you reduced the use of paper towels in your own home? We'd love to hear it!</div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-43968650256630323802016-07-25T12:24:00.000-04:002016-07-25T12:24:10.571-04:00Canning Season<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjBWcRAk7B8a08Kx-_DI-T_JzPb20Z1ZoAchUEMnSHSWJCnJRqLETIcu3k0_zWrLgUGGZ54EyVa08bp_tS5hCBIFhmidLGBnumUEml30HXm9CHHAIy7kI2CWL4PLfWPsUqBgFyd3ocw/s1600/veggies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZjBWcRAk7B8a08Kx-_DI-T_JzPb20Z1ZoAchUEMnSHSWJCnJRqLETIcu3k0_zWrLgUGGZ54EyVa08bp_tS5hCBIFhmidLGBnumUEml30HXm9CHHAIy7kI2CWL4PLfWPsUqBgFyd3ocw/s200/veggies.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An evening's harvest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Things are a little crazy around here as the summer harvest begins to come in, and the deep freezes and canning shelves overflow. We've just entered Week 3 of canning season, and as I was putting away some of the newly canned goods (Sweet Pickles from Week 1, and Bread & Butter Pickles and Sweet Pickle Relish from Week 2), I realized something... </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No, it has nothing to do with the amount of cucumbers we're swimming in. Well, actually, I take that back, it just might. It also has to do with all the cabbage, tomatoes and peppers, and all the not-so-blank spaces on our canning shelves as we expand to can even more of our own foods each year. You see, we're not going to have enough room for all of our canned goods this year.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was concerned last week about running out of freezer space after having to dedicate <i>another</i> compartment to chicken scraps. (Two whole compartments of one of our 15 cubic foot deep freezes are now almost full with vegetables/fruits for the chickens this winter, and before it's all said and done, a third compartment might be added as well to make sure we have enough for them.) </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now, with the lack of space for canned goods, some serious rearranging is going to need to take place, because figuring out where to store canned goods is not quite as easy as everyone thinks as this is our year's supply worth of food essentially being "purchased" at one time. (Take a look at "<a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2015/08/you-plan-to-eat-all-that.html" target="_blank">You Plan To Eat All That?</a>" if you don't believe me.) </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some days a weekend "shopping trip" to purchase this year's worth of food seems more reasonable. I often wonder why it should take an entire "season" to can everything you need. Why can't we just all jam it into a couple of days and be done with it <i>all</i>?
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Canning weekend of 2015</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Spoiler: Don't do this. Once a year I get this <i>brilliant idea </i>and jam peaches, apples and tomato products into one weekend in August just to get them all over with. Every year I come up for air exhausted and swear I'll never do it again. This year, I've bypassed most of that stage and am making plans for a "relaxing" canning weekend containing all these products again from the fiery depths of my kitchen in August...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This early summer has been the year of pickles for me. The cucumber plants are (for once) doing what they are supposed to do, even though we have an outbreak of striped cucumber beetles to deal with. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage <br />
fermenting to make Sauerkraut</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So far we have a batch of Sweet Pickles done, with another batch fermenting. There's Sweet Pickle Relish canned (<a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2015/08/gad-cukes.html" target="_blank">recipe here</a>), and also a batch of the simplest pickle I can find: Bread & Butter Pickles. To top it all off, Sauerkraut is also fermenting alongside the Sweet Pickles right now, and I'm about to have to thoroughly rearrange the kitchen for canning season soon as from here on out, it is expected that I will be canning (at bare minimum) one recipe each week until October. That's at least twelve weeks of canning (and a lot more than twelve recipes worth of things that will need canned)! <br />
<br />
I'm not quite sure how many more cucumbers we'll need this year, so our chickens might get lucky and have some extra cucumbers to pick at instead of just cabbage heads, broccoli, cauliflower, beet tops and radishes. I'm sure they won't mind. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0led8k-liaz1FWA_K7Fq7gDe6VVuD6GbdwF7Vw1WfjXBCL3-q55N2XI7JWbgU4K6BWJEjdfy_iENSjeygb6SsM-RZeAhdXPPMV6dLFB1PEs_rGEEUWko8mmMGd9JlDp8HVikKgbD57Q/s1600/Barred+Rocks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0led8k-liaz1FWA_K7Fq7gDe6VVuD6GbdwF7Vw1WfjXBCL3-q55N2XI7JWbgU4K6BWJEjdfy_iENSjeygb6SsM-RZeAhdXPPMV6dLFB1PEs_rGEEUWko8mmMGd9JlDp8HVikKgbD57Q/s400/Barred+Rocks.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Plymouth Barred Rock also pecking at some Watermelon rinds.</td></tr>
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In Other News</h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNhHYOuJM1lZ99bvrmBxD5xNgHJe3IMSebnlDVqU4rNw7b-BezGZapGa_WHp_Rf41XBEVSfjCRZub5PWlp6K5h7bqRhYj10_LxhlJaUIFFYFJpnZ6q12Wi18_hHhTx5t7sx7-NTrGUQ/s1600/Delawares.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNhHYOuJM1lZ99bvrmBxD5xNgHJe3IMSebnlDVqU4rNw7b-BezGZapGa_WHp_Rf41XBEVSfjCRZub5PWlp6K5h7bqRhYj10_LxhlJaUIFFYFJpnZ6q12Wi18_hHhTx5t7sx7-NTrGUQ/s320/Delawares.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Did you say food? Our Delawares are the least picky<br />
chickens I have ever seen when it comes to food. </td></tr>
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To complete the cycle of chaos around here, the Delawares are begging for their own pasture (and three escaped their run in search of grass when I went to change out their water the other day, so we <i>really </i>need to get their pasture done). Chicken chasing is not all that it is cracked up to be. </div>
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With temperatures climbing into the 90s for almost a whole week now, they and the Plymouth Barred Rocks have been getting mud puddle filled runs to help keep them cool, and they are loving it! They have also been keeping us on our toes as we change out their water multiple times throughout the day and keep an eye on whether or not they are getting heat stressed. In all the twenty-two chickens seem to be doing fairly well considering the temperatures.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLbOhD7dPtPxhIpl1gYlIf07Nh5FI4-tDlsAyoVSKr4I87BFhsgpNmJRIre88WWbq3f1aM7VUm3d4pEitTGxUTmDjLDCwy63cBeQTcsRGGlFK0gB0RimIdivz474i8XsIu8hnnWWJ-Q/s1600/straw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHLbOhD7dPtPxhIpl1gYlIf07Nh5FI4-tDlsAyoVSKr4I87BFhsgpNmJRIre88WWbq3f1aM7VUm3d4pEitTGxUTmDjLDCwy63cBeQTcsRGGlFK0gB0RimIdivz474i8XsIu8hnnWWJ-Q/s320/straw.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baling Straw on July 4th before the rains came. The Mr. is <br />
sitting out there in the tractor, waiting to get a wagon.</td></tr>
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The Mr. has been helping out our landlord occasionally with the hay and straw harvests this year, and my cousin who was visiting from North Carolina and I got to watch everyone try to get the straw bales in before the rains came on the Fourth of July. The rains, which were supposed to only arrive in the evening, came early (around 2 p.m.), and sent everyone, along with their wagons, running for cover. Fortunately, we live in the country, and the July Fourth weekend also gave us 18 different fireworks displays, which we watched from the sand mound.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFa_ukTyZkh7RYcFXpifL4nnunhvmhM0osYBBlIwhaczAEGLCEXleOyPUcYVyXZ9eWSvw3v6KYxpubtDLu34H3XhjGt_RNEcilifOMvRWDVHu0QrvH_64CdaGlVcg9Iz5EaYxfqDHkg/s1600/greenhouseroof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFa_ukTyZkh7RYcFXpifL4nnunhvmhM0osYBBlIwhaczAEGLCEXleOyPUcYVyXZ9eWSvw3v6KYxpubtDLu34H3XhjGt_RNEcilifOMvRWDVHu0QrvH_64CdaGlVcg9Iz5EaYxfqDHkg/s320/greenhouseroof.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We will also be working on replacing the greenhouse roof<br />before winter as a windstorm late last week ripped it to shreds.</td></tr>
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As we started to harvest our summertime produce, we planted a late season crop of Incredible Sweet Corn, and are now planning for our fall crops in the garden. Just this past week our seed starter trays were filled with Winter Dream Cauliflower, Sun King Broccoli, Red Acre Cabbage, Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage and Blue Curled Scotch Kale seeds. The seeds are currently waiting out the weather on the porch, where I can keep them easily watered, and will hopefully be moved to the greenhouse once needed adjustments are made to it. Soon we'll harvest the rest of the cabbage and begin planting some of our fall season seeds. <br />
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Crops Being Harvested</h2>
<b>July:</b> Black Raspberries, Blackberries, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cucumbers, Herbs (various), Hull Peas, Lettuce, Mint, Mulberries, Peppers, Radishes, Sugar Beets, Tomatoes, Yellow Squash and Zucchini<br />
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<b>Upcoming in August:</b> Blackberries, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cucumbers, Herbs (various) Lettuce, Lima Beans, Mint, Oats, Patty Pan Squash, Peppers, Radishes, Sugar Beets, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, Wineberries, Yellow Squash and Zucchini</div>
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Until next time, Happy Harvesting! </h2>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-56413039453497588022016-06-18T10:05:00.001-04:002016-06-18T10:05:50.371-04:00A Photo Tour: Mid-June Garden Update<div style="text-align: justify;">
The garden is officially progressing into early summer, and green as can be with life from vegetables, fruits and grains to weeds, weeds, weeds. The latter we are getting mighty tired of already, but at least the fruits of our labors are beginning to pay off. Due to the amount of time we've been spending on other projects, from getting our Delaware chicks moved up to the coop, to getting the garden weeded and the finicky David Bradley working properly(ish), I've decided that I'll give you a photo tour today. So <i>behold</i>... our main garden... </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4D7H1KLhtxHZaK6gjuR7y2UK_qFtxV1pBcex08N83SEzaQ215e6OKn2NGPTEt7W6CGL9WQhHrP9ZL545xU8I1RMuRCdrHByeKM8Qo1gHWX4HL_KVYF5kRS200wdz7l6-ksO3Eri9tw/s1600/13493144_1213545192003167_1298156882_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr4D7H1KLhtxHZaK6gjuR7y2UK_qFtxV1pBcex08N83SEzaQ215e6OKn2NGPTEt7W6CGL9WQhHrP9ZL545xU8I1RMuRCdrHByeKM8Qo1gHWX4HL_KVYF5kRS200wdz7l6-ksO3Eri9tw/s400/13493144_1213545192003167_1298156882_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XHC9kx6zI5_L0YK4fDUwfMxeZYqi_T69PDCD9bnz9Y6z-Zqkju7Ognh9OvBDEDSRt8huilp1eiuUH3NHFbFPH0WRZAJrTN7cjPicL03TbWBgraCEduBn2hxRtHdU1Gmzj9S1l9dpnA/s1600/13418976_1211210392236647_7613015480264062742_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XHC9kx6zI5_L0YK4fDUwfMxeZYqi_T69PDCD9bnz9Y6z-Zqkju7Ognh9OvBDEDSRt8huilp1eiuUH3NHFbFPH0WRZAJrTN7cjPicL03TbWBgraCEduBn2hxRtHdU1Gmzj9S1l9dpnA/s320/13418976_1211210392236647_7613015480264062742_n.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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Yup, that's just shy of 6,400 square feet of garden space (in the main garden) and boy are we tired! Some of our early spring crops, like the Early Freezer (hull) Peas from Rohrer's Seeds didn't take too well between the cold snap that came mid-May and the crazy May weather that rotted out seeds left and right. Just last night I harvested and shelled a whole 1/4 cup of peas from our first harvest. Fortunately, we're planning on putting in a fall crop and hopefully the weather will be nicer that time around. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKT_Ba49P4bWHBJidTbeEZrjJBlT16_mlh_cWMYKq2dvTU36mvlvWf_k1_6_fQJcTGckjmN7LHB-UrpSImO5ozURK5JocxHf9mrYHPOyy9T0-fz4z85_dohGDnci92ETX-q4sqeJHew/s1600/13445581_1211210412236645_8500894197721854935_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKT_Ba49P4bWHBJidTbeEZrjJBlT16_mlh_cWMYKq2dvTU36mvlvWf_k1_6_fQJcTGckjmN7LHB-UrpSImO5ozURK5JocxHf9mrYHPOyy9T0-fz4z85_dohGDnci92ETX-q4sqeJHew/s400/13445581_1211210412236645_8500894197721854935_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Even though, the peas we're necessarily happy with the May weather, the Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage was off to a great start, and it's leaves are now starting to form heads. Additionally our broccoli plants are forming heads as well! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnAeah3_3bqEM2aqXM5b4Hr_yjU6-UQBzoogUq3bmWz7hVLb1elqp1LwTRwwdAfecJJZLo5_c4rvRSQxZY988kdql8tHV5PV9_SXcUJF26rhyphenhyphenNkbfVsHc4Yyti_r9qxXq9dMFyLSA6yg/s1600/13435452_1211210395569980_2424713398262363898_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnAeah3_3bqEM2aqXM5b4Hr_yjU6-UQBzoogUq3bmWz7hVLb1elqp1LwTRwwdAfecJJZLo5_c4rvRSQxZY988kdql8tHV5PV9_SXcUJF26rhyphenhyphenNkbfVsHc4Yyti_r9qxXq9dMFyLSA6yg/s400/13435452_1211210395569980_2424713398262363898_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We've also been eating <i>tons </i>of lettuce. Why plant so much? Because, homegrown lettuce tastes amazing. So amazing, that it looks like they'll be salads in our future tonight as well! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3Bl2lSqdwMsKnG8-9_rzEIGECGhF_sAMJplxx3SdSDOzeuVFzcDPmK1Mbh4N-q11aRHk5Avywc-T-fqX46KP7A98lQhusmjx-yTuIUCnaGugr2lGMKD3hqWso4qANo6CydgFVv4Xug/s1600/13423956_1211210445569975_3364354718167373702_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz3Bl2lSqdwMsKnG8-9_rzEIGECGhF_sAMJplxx3SdSDOzeuVFzcDPmK1Mbh4N-q11aRHk5Avywc-T-fqX46KP7A98lQhusmjx-yTuIUCnaGugr2lGMKD3hqWso4qANo6CydgFVv4Xug/s400/13423956_1211210445569975_3364354718167373702_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Doing exceptionally well are our sugar beets, and just today I saw one that looks to be almost three inches across! Unfortunately, our mangels are not looking quite as wonderful, but having thinned the weeds around the one row last night, maybe they'll catch up to the beets.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxFif6QvaTrzwOxzR4nT8mDh_oGLwwbbpUU1JbLEO1lGzEpjBodgss4VbKjcnpixVNL_lFYi9Y4o80GjwENDACr_QW2Q2Pc6LGKMIg-oJ9A2izWkrea8VNTAmIdpzycZnRYxHkGlZ4kQ/s1600/13269277_1211210585569961_2780315986125159371_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxFif6QvaTrzwOxzR4nT8mDh_oGLwwbbpUU1JbLEO1lGzEpjBodgss4VbKjcnpixVNL_lFYi9Y4o80GjwENDACr_QW2Q2Pc6LGKMIg-oJ9A2izWkrea8VNTAmIdpzycZnRYxHkGlZ4kQ/s400/13269277_1211210585569961_2780315986125159371_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The first of the celery, which also made it through the cold snap, got harvested on Sunday for German Potato Salad. It's presently going a little crazy, but I'm seriously considering putting it in again next year.</div>
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Then, there's the tomatoes. I'm a little frustrated with the tomatoes this year already. Not because they aren't doing well - they are! - but because we had to replace almost a whole row of them. You see, who thinks its going to <i>heavily</i> <i>frost </i>in mid-May? So, we went ahead and put the first row of "warm weather crops" - tomato plants - in on the eleventh while the weather was warming up and momentarily sunny. We covered the cages with bags, piled some dirt on the bags' edges (and later added some clothespins) and created a few mini-greenhouses, for our garden ghosts. We were not expecting what happened on the fifteenth; however, when a frost warning caused us to quickly decide that the seedlings we moved earlier to the greenhouse, along with the tomatoes that were securely planted in the ground, needed reinforced from the potential cold in what was seemingly gale-force winds. (Okay, so they might not have been "gale-force winds," but if you were the one trying to secure plastic covers for tomatoes... they were gale-force winds.) We readied them the best we could, and waited...</div>
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The frost came just before dawn on the sixteenth of May; the temperatures dipping down to the 30s on our thermometer. It was absolutely devastating to walk out to the garden. We had been hit... <i>hard. </i>The wind had torn at our carefully placed bags and smashed our weakened plants upon the plastic. To see limp plant after plant lying near-lifeless across their cages is devastating. In all, ten out of the eleven plants we planted early were lying near-lifeless to absolutely dead down the row. (Out of the eleven plants, only three would bounce back.) Among those that had not gotten into the ground yet and survived, are now setting fruit. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDeSAf0g9d2iDfid9NB3HM8ccXSs8ILqLzQ1FdjbbizFHWM_BMv67kHjLP4IHd0wp2agcdD6ezg4PeOLS97NR6S65zFmwGbsWtLav4dKekhAKVE9sscKMqyquTQD0VDaKc1mylAEw97A/s1600/13315710_1211210645569955_6559522319350744432_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDeSAf0g9d2iDfid9NB3HM8ccXSs8ILqLzQ1FdjbbizFHWM_BMv67kHjLP4IHd0wp2agcdD6ezg4PeOLS97NR6S65zFmwGbsWtLav4dKekhAKVE9sscKMqyquTQD0VDaKc1mylAEw97A/s400/13315710_1211210645569955_6559522319350744432_n.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EOcwnS7XCvDSrRdEEluFm07up7_0c81opAKwWf-9cTYBrK__aFcyuPYwS-VzK6jOnI2L2T5KhRnanGPRmaPYjjU2CYalpIcsewfZvo26I_jzjqFxw1ruW-gHS90yEZiP85oOwTD9dQ/s1600/13406716_1211210515569968_592138085701246825_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_EOcwnS7XCvDSrRdEEluFm07up7_0c81opAKwWf-9cTYBrK__aFcyuPYwS-VzK6jOnI2L2T5KhRnanGPRmaPYjjU2CYalpIcsewfZvo26I_jzjqFxw1ruW-gHS90yEZiP85oOwTD9dQ/s400/13406716_1211210515569968_592138085701246825_n.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Also, as equally happy as our tomato plants now, are the pepper plants. The first of our red sweet peppers having already been harvested! </div>
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Progress in the squash row is really starting to pick up as well. Our Yellow Crookneck, Spaghetti Squash and zucchinis are all starting to set fruit already. This year, we also erected a sturdy trellis for the cucumber and luffa gourd plants and one of our farm cats, Whitey, decided to figure out how sturdy our handiwork was. The trellis is acting as shade for our lettuce crop.</div>
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Additionally, we planted some radishes to help with pest control in our squash row as well, and it looks like the first of them will soon be harvested and we'll start our second planting. </div>
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By far, the most exciting for me so far, was seeing our oat crop last night, actually start looking like oats! It's a fairly expensive experiment when it comes to gardening, but it looks like it just <i>might </i>work? For those of you wondering, we did choose hulless oats, so in theory, it should be slightly less work involved in the whole process. We'll see if that's actually true when it's time to harvest them. </div>
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I additionally know some of you are probably thinking <i>no potatoes? I thought there were supposed to be sunflowers in there. What happened to the onions? </i>Well, I can assure you, they are all there as well. Actually, there were very few things that we left out from our original <a href="http://americanhaggardhousewife.blogspot.com/2016/03/planning-2016-garden.html" target="_blank">garden plan</a>, but I decided to focus on our earlier season crops for this post that are starting to produce fairly well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our sweet corn <i>will </i>be "knee high by the fourth of July," and that we'll be able to pull some more of these weeds by that point as well. I hope the rest of your gardens are just as green as ours! Happy harvesting! </div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-38207395004374768542016-05-20T08:53:00.000-04:002016-05-20T08:56:01.500-04:00International Heritage Breed Week<div style="text-align: justify;">
In honor of International Heritage Breeds Week (May 15-21, 2016), I'd like to skip ahead in our chicken keeping adventures and introduce to you our new editions around here. Cue, cute balls of fluff and feathers: </div>
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Meet the newest, rather vocal, members of this crazy life we lead, who arrived via a 26-hour trip from Missouri on the twelfth: seventeen Delaware chicks. </div>
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Having started our chicken keeping adventures last spring with seven Plymouth Barred Rocks, a mid-nineteenth century breed, which are on the recovering list of Heritage Poultry Breeds by the Livestock Conservancy, we figured that another heritage breed would be a good edition. (Plus, as history people, we are biased towards heritage breeds. Go figure.) Plymouth Barred Rocks are hearty birds that can withstand differences in weather, overall climate, and work well both free-ranging and confined. On top of that, Plymouth Barred Rocks are a dual-purpose breed, being wonderful brown egg layers, and also good meat birds. Before being replaced by other more modern breeds, Plymouth Barred Rocks were popular in the meat bird industry as broilers during the 1920s. Two of our roosters went by the way of the meat birds, and ended up in our freezer. Our third rooster (above, left) is happy with his four hens who keep us in <i>a lot </i>of eggs as they pass their first full year of life. </div>
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So why not stick with Plymouth Barred Rocks, and add some more of them to the flock instead of another breed, since they're such a great dual purpose bird? I'm blaming this one on the Mr. (Who knew there's Crazy Chicken Men and not just Crazy Chicken Ladies?) He noticed the Delawares, and literally <i>on his birthday</i> we ordered fifteen of them. Thanks to the hatchery for throwing in two extras in the tragic event that not all the chicks we ordered would make it through the mail, we now have seventeen (as they <i>all</i> made it through). </div>
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Delawares are a much younger breed than our Plymouth Barred Rocks are, but ironically, more difficult to locate. On the watch list of Heritage Poultry Breeds by the Livestock Conservancy they come in slightly more endangered than the Plymouth Barred Rocks. Delawares have only been around since 1940, just sliding into the cutoff for heritage breeds (a breed that has been around since at least the mid-twentieth century). They, like the Plymouth Barred Rocks, are good dual purpose birds and were utilized by the meat industry up through the 1950s as broilers. </div>
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Thus, we decided that the Delawares would become our meat flock and the Plymouth Barred Rocks would be our laying flock. (Thank goodness the Mr. designed a coop that would hold so many birds! I have a feeling he secretly knew what was to come when building it.) Both flocks would be separated on their own side of the coop and run system, and contain their own rooster along with a few hens.</div>
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Still young and only gaining their first black-tipped white wing feathers, our Delawares are currently in quarantine in a brooder in the wood shed, waiting until they hit at least a month of age and the weather gets warmer, for them to be sent out to the coop with the "big chickens." For now, they're only testing out their newly discovered "big chicken skills," scratching in the new shavings and testing out their wings, which you can watch in our video below.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyhzaVahyvExsUxQUQxORbwzey90vRfYA-79woGRaf6YaaVldSIjW7e07_G2k_EaIAezxzxnVTAhlRZoTZV' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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For more information about heritage breeds, visit The Livestock Conservancy's <a href="http://livestockconservancy.org/" target="_blank">website</a>.</div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-51516940508112871202016-05-14T16:20:00.003-04:002016-05-14T16:20:59.507-04:00Five Years Ago Today<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2011 - The college graduate.</td></tr>
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As I attended my brother-in-law's college graduation last Sunday I started to think back onto when I was walking across the same stage five years ago, and it's hard to believe it's been five years now since I graduated from college, and started a new chapter in my life. Five years ago today I was excitedly graduating with my dream degree in American Studies, and even had a position in my field as an Interpretive Guide at a Colonial American historic site all lined up for me to start after graduation. Little would I know then, that today, five years since, I would no longer have that job, or any other job in my field (although I still give historical presentations and study a local region here in Pennsylvania, but it's not really considered my "job" anymore). </div>
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Over the last five years there's a couple of thoughts that I just can't seem to knock from my mind in regards to my college experience, and what my husband and I jokingly refer to as the "most expensive dating service we could find" (as we met in college, but neither of us have jobs in our intended professions today). Among these thoughts is that unrealistic thought that most of us have at some point in our lives of "if we could go back in time." <i>Would I let my newly graduating self know what the future holds, or would she think herself five years down the road absolutely crazy? </i>So, to my newly graduating self five years ago, I can only say, you have <i>no idea </i>what you're getting yourself into, and if I told you, you'd never believe it...</div>
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To the Recent Graduate:</blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv87RXqbhSmqzGGJjABgt4kGMUMzhpMGnaqdW_T5aHBbSXdsrXY-D9oPClVdiyv7eGJeBp8v2nHH1Ug5X898NihwlDhZhojNS_T1P6Q3qUXpgwO85PD8QjSMGN1uXwzKyI7HAN4Zf6bg/s1600/college-grad3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv87RXqbhSmqzGGJjABgt4kGMUMzhpMGnaqdW_T5aHBbSXdsrXY-D9oPClVdiyv7eGJeBp8v2nHH1Ug5X898NihwlDhZhojNS_T1P6Q3qUXpgwO85PD8QjSMGN1uXwzKyI7HAN4Zf6bg/s200/college-grad3.jpg" width="168" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2010 - Getting into character <br />
for a lawn party while an<br />
interpretive guide in college.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Your life is not going to turn out how you think it is right now. Future You won't be a museum curator or exhibit designer, or even an interpretive guide. You won't be living your life in high heels, khakis and dress shirts, worrying about how to reprimand politely, but firmly, some tourist trying to lean against a historic artifact, or another who insists that everything is a reproduction so they should be able to touch it. (Spoiler: museums and historic sites are not generally filled with repros). Your days of worrying about black snakes wrapping around your arm during a tour, wearing historic garb as the temperatures climb towards the triple digits, and trying to entertain rooms of school children will be short lived. Instead something that you never thought you'd be in your wildest dreams is going to happen, and you're going to <i>love it. </i>Trust me. </blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMaiuXMCLVxuIzEiNiw5vvQDm5qP-PlPUZIVEHAabZklAzuewb2neiAcAa2WAxQVzXXOGm-vy5GYvMIJIIDzj2Dk_8uQN7Ngpzh84AlqJOSEOuQQRPOsVGWGBBc7TgC0Q1tWzXaFtpBQ/s1600/college-grad-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMaiuXMCLVxuIzEiNiw5vvQDm5qP-PlPUZIVEHAabZklAzuewb2neiAcAa2WAxQVzXXOGm-vy5GYvMIJIIDzj2Dk_8uQN7Ngpzh84AlqJOSEOuQQRPOsVGWGBBc7TgC0Q1tWzXaFtpBQ/s200/college-grad-2.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2012 - Overflowing my then-<br />
boyfriend's (now husbands's)<br />
apartment balcony.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Those fourteen tomato plants that you'll put in next year on your boyfriend's patio, along with a plethora of other vegetables to make him feel a little more at home, will turn into rows and rows of tomatoes once you get married. (Yes, you're getting married!) Instead of dreaming of an apartment of your own close to work, you'll begin to realize that life in town/in the city is just noisy, and within five years you'll be listening to the banjo of bullfrogs across the way as you tend to your tomato plants, and an abundance of other vegetables and berry bushes, on a four-acre farm you rent. </blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeih-PQ_mWykDjRXLkE8ukph_ElvpnPH6b7NB7fYzuoR4o6_plQvv13093N9b90gjN0N0T0eZiSRWQrmb-jRtPhIocQiQRTFP6nXko65PhQPa81Oa27e71fbkZiD9LivoHpNnhgHCEDA/s1600/college-grad-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeih-PQ_mWykDjRXLkE8ukph_ElvpnPH6b7NB7fYzuoR4o6_plQvv13093N9b90gjN0N0T0eZiSRWQrmb-jRtPhIocQiQRTFP6nXko65PhQPa81Oa27e71fbkZiD9LivoHpNnhgHCEDA/s200/college-grad-4.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2013 - Farm machinery at work in<br />
the field behind the house.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
You won't be driving over an hour (one-way) to work anymore, weaving in and out of tourist traffic and buggies, praying you don't get stuck behind farm machinery. Instead <i>home </i>will be your job. Those buggies and farm machinery that you once dreaded getting stuck behind will constantly pass by your new job. The friendly faces inside them will wave. And, you <i>will </i>be stuck behind them, at least every other time you run errands during the week, but you won't be in a rush to get past them as now you realize those buggies and farm machinery are just a way of life. It gives you time to stop and smell the farm fields - yes, you'll actually like the smell of manure - in your otherwise busy life.</blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZVwdOb8wzLyAje0AA17eTqEndtuWAnj4CNO3wDAKBS_AIzm2QW4I_0at8oZcOsBqkGFo4dgENSCm2aomwKVxMkRpxov3H7oTtB9t6awRSnDPu9GKOIt93JEc0e6ckuJOC7GkD0vT0g/s1600/college-grad-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZVwdOb8wzLyAje0AA17eTqEndtuWAnj4CNO3wDAKBS_AIzm2QW4I_0at8oZcOsBqkGFo4dgENSCm2aomwKVxMkRpxov3H7oTtB9t6awRSnDPu9GKOIt93JEc0e6ckuJOC7GkD0vT0g/s200/college-grad-5.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2014 - Mini, Whitey, Gravy and <br />
Skunk hanging out in the mudroom. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Your busy life will consist of meetings and Scouting events nearly two hours away a couple times a month, and your attempts to get to church (an equal distance away) at least semi-regularly. To counter all of the time spent away from home, you'll actually become a semi-morning person so you have time to tend to the huge gardens, cats and chickens. (Yes, you're going to have animals, but you won't consider the chickens pets. It's really possible.) They'll be a lot of work crammed into the six days a week you work, as you'll only take care of the necessities on Sunday. Yes, can you believe it? <i>Sunday will actually be a day of rest. </i> </blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMe5myuD_1iwKiGkKDQxAqDW2AWyOCI5_bykZl1zctQTB04YwVaCsZrIDCJvcrfsvbjtc7TIe3aXjieoi9p2fz-gXGOUVL5j-Cl-R4nbBdHsxcI5iLYU4z1Y6dImT8kV8sRqNBsE3-iA/s1600/college-grad-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMe5myuD_1iwKiGkKDQxAqDW2AWyOCI5_bykZl1zctQTB04YwVaCsZrIDCJvcrfsvbjtc7TIe3aXjieoi9p2fz-gXGOUVL5j-Cl-R4nbBdHsxcI5iLYU4z1Y6dImT8kV8sRqNBsE3-iA/s200/college-grad-7.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2015 - Bringing in the first deer.</td></tr>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Although you think you can easily handle all of this extra work and a job outside the house at the same time because it "doesn't sound like much," I'm here to tell you, it's not possible. Along with the hour of morning chores, there will be hours and hours of weeding your garden. (You know, that job you hate?) They'll be dishes that never get done, and you'll actually wish you had a dishwasher, even though you never once used the one in your boyfriend's college apartment because who needs a dishwasher? They'll be deer to process during hunting season, cats to fend off when butchering chickens, moldy berries and tomatoes to remove from the good ones when the canning runs behind the rest of the work, and your always-queasy stomach will become a little tougher. </blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDyxGCpkOu82xFA9J9HQKOFUjqWcu-1_TW9z7PbmCCMkwcGAlUjRMyC21KQCTa16TFTG_ZgGI0nc89TH2iTESEXdt70R5S_MYiERkJ41ntlvnhKHSShgELb0nbhgp1tu6r82EJbdZ9w/s1600/college-grad-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxDyxGCpkOu82xFA9J9HQKOFUjqWcu-1_TW9z7PbmCCMkwcGAlUjRMyC21KQCTa16TFTG_ZgGI0nc89TH2iTESEXdt70R5S_MYiERkJ41ntlvnhKHSShgELb0nbhgp1tu6r82EJbdZ9w/s200/college-grad-8.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2016 - Five years later.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
They'll be hard times when money is tight and you're not sure how you'll pay all the bills, but each month when you make it through, standing side by side with your husband, you'll have a different sense of accomplishment than you'll ever know walking across that stage today. No certificate, degree, trophy or award will <i>ever</i> match this sense of accomplishment you have when you nurse a sick animal back to health, rush to save tomato plants that are blowing over during a horrid rain storm (only to right them and have them fall again, but miraculously still produce), or eat fresh produce you preserved from your own garden in February. Because although you don't think this will ever be the life you will have, let alone <i>want </i>to have, in five years, you won't want to picture your life any other way.
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: right;">
Love, The American Haggard Housewife</blockquote>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-65063378294038780882016-05-10T09:01:00.000-04:002016-05-10T09:04:37.130-04:00Seasons In The Rain: Early-May Garden Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUywN5kvSKM5bZcWSuJXvsyJIsHFUnM6zd6ATfHoIkSZtmKyNq1RucG_lbpYRvBEUwgH_c9QKj-z68V-27keEgnYicU1ABnavCIXTacGmIAczYuOjM_x7vVKM210swIpKd4s4A1YwUlg/s1600/poppies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUywN5kvSKM5bZcWSuJXvsyJIsHFUnM6zd6ATfHoIkSZtmKyNq1RucG_lbpYRvBEUwgH_c9QKj-z68V-27keEgnYicU1ABnavCIXTacGmIAczYuOjM_x7vVKM210swIpKd4s4A1YwUlg/s400/poppies.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i> Spring is in the air... there sure are flowers everywhere,</i> and yes, I'm redesigning the lyrics to "Seasons in the Sun" to make them fit my current upbeat mood. The first of the poppies are in bloom by the chicken coop, and our early spring crops, which were planted on the 20th of April, are <i>finally </i>sprouting from our hardened earth. </div>
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In less than three weeks time, we went from the threat of drought and fire warnings on the mountainsides to the north of our home to so much rain that the newly installed 55-gallon rain barrel on our chicken coop runneth over in just a few days. All that water also caused havoc to<i> literally</i> rain down on the hardened soil of the garden, and along with a quick cold snap that is slowly warming back up, caused many of our seeds to stall (and in some cases <i>float </i>to the surface) instead of sprout.<br />
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From weeks of praying for rain, I was now praying that it would stop:<i> if only for a day</i>. It did... at least for a few hours at a time here and there, and slowly the seeds started to sprout. The first of our recognizable crops was the buckwheat, which we are using as a cover crop until our "summer crops" could be planted in the garden. (Even though the "summer crops" generally go in on Mother's Day, as the day was a little earlier than normal this month, they are only now getting hardened on the front porch.) </div>
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The lettuce, onions, celery, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower is additionally all springing up with vigor, as well as our first attempt ever at hulless oats. The mangels, sugar beets, parsnips and carrots all have ground disturbance in their rows, but as of yet, are unrecognizable from the weeds. Then, there's the most stressful of all of our crops: the hull peas. </div>
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We have certainly been lacking in peas over the course of the last few weeks. From our freezer, to the garden. Generally, their wiry shoots break through the soil within a week from planting, but as a week passed, and then two, there was <i>nothing</i>. No shoots. No disturbance of the ground. Nothing. Yesterday, nearly nineteen days since they were planted, the first of our super-soaked seeds that at one point had floated to the surface during all the rain, were now breaking the soil. They're about eight inches under the height of our neighbors' peas up the way, but <i>at least they're out of the ground! </i></div>
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To say early May weather has been temperamental, and somewhat unseasonable, would be a bit of an understatement; however, as it continues to rain (even now), at least we say that (for the moment), we're not in a drought. Now if only there could be a few good days of no rain so we can get this grass mowed! As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, "it's always something - if it ain't one thing, it's another." Here's to hoping that your weather isn't as temperamental as ours has been as of late. </div>
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American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35253713203052570.post-21534266510025484692016-05-04T10:34:00.003-04:002016-05-04T10:34:45.596-04:00A Morning Surprise At The Chicken Coop<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCJY-AfaTFWngy_LXfmAqrN0OwVxAV1C9R0OB_HsmTD1L6qUrLnURJ0jM2UNzb7wzuRiWMmCWQaCpQoeAmbLqKNmjDsQc40sysC8AZ7Q_O8tOphDGj0fdos5R5vTmxPvnKrlGdoAPj4Q/s1600/eggs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCJY-AfaTFWngy_LXfmAqrN0OwVxAV1C9R0OB_HsmTD1L6qUrLnURJ0jM2UNzb7wzuRiWMmCWQaCpQoeAmbLqKNmjDsQc40sysC8AZ7Q_O8tOphDGj0fdos5R5vTmxPvnKrlGdoAPj4Q/s400/eggs.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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These three precious eggs certainly made it through an ordeal in the coop this morning! I hurriedly started to clean out the chicken coop, hoping to get it done before the rains came. I didn't bother to check the laying boxes as our morning layers don't usually find their ways to them until 10 a.m.; however, I managed to <i>forget </i>that we never checked the boxes last night as we had arrived home fairly late to lock everyone up. Swearing as we nestled down in bed last night that we'd remember to gather them in the morning, here I was in the morning, cleaning the coop...</div>
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In went the hoe. Out it went. Bumping against every board in the coop to make sure all the hay, shavings and "free manure" were finding their way out of every crack and crevice. Whitey and Purrball, two of our farm cats, had joined me on the roof, every now and then, leaning over to peek through the open doors to see what was going on in there! The cats aren't allowed in the coop, <i>especially </i>when there are chickens in there<i>, </i>but since I locked out the chickens into their runs, I figured the cats could peek in over my head. </div>
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Soon enough I was filling waterers from our new rain barrel and the cats became more interested in sound of running water from the barrel than anything else. After a while, I went to close the doors of the coop and let the chickens back in, never having bothered to disturb the laying boxes as the hens generally keep a rather tidy nest in them. As I went to close the last door, I noticed some grayish fluff sticking out of one of the laying boxes! </div>
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<i>Oh... NO, NO, NO! How could I have managed to not count the hens right?! </i></div>
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<i> </i>I slammed the door shut, locked it tight and nearly tore open the lid to the laying box to make sure everyone was okay in there. </div>
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<i>Meeeeoooowwwww... </i>oh, it's just Whitey. What, Whitey!? What are you doing in here? </div>
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Curled up in a ball in the laying box, carefully tucked underneath him, were these three eggs. Who would have thunk this morning that I would find a broody cat? </div>
American Haggard Housewifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07672942252239750370noreply@blogger.com0