Truly Thankful

Dog Tales

This past Saturday we had Vulcan entered in his first Schutzhund show.  This is not a competition, it it is a judgment of the animals physical appearance, temperament, and training.  Our dog, Vulcan Vom Haus Baysden was in the "Working Dog, 2 Yr or older, No Title" category and he earned SG1.  This is the highest rating of this particular category.  Robby did a FABULOUS job acting as "decoy".  He had to run around the outside of the ring to keep Vulcan coming after him.  Robby may not have earned any titles, but I do believe he earned some pretty big respect points.

 


 

Permaculture - The Everyday Harvest

Permaculture means that you plant things once and harvest for many years to come based on all the normal "things" that happen to the plant in your part of the planet.  I like to stretch the meaning somewhat to also include year round planting AND (the best part!) HARVEST!  The ULTIMATE whopee moment! 

Everything has cycles, as everyone over the age of 24 should realize.  Not everything runs on the same cycle, as every married person should realize.  ::smiles sweetly::  SO, it stands to reason that in the plant world, different things grow best and come to harvest at different times of the year.

On October 31, 2009, I was busy planting garlic.  In mid December I planted some more garlic.  In late December I planted yet more garlic.  I kept looking at my wee little patch and thinking, "not enough".  However, we were fast approaching temperatures that were just too cold, even for me, to be out planting garlic in, so I stopped.

Now, here we are 7 months later and while I do indeed spend time planting stuff, eggplants and Thai basil today, I am also in the midst of harvesting my garlic.  Now, I have never tried to grow garlic.   My skill with alliums in general is limited to onions from sets and seeds.  To date, my seeds have all unanimously failed.  So to say that I was a tad nervous would be a major understatement.  I am; however, VERY pleased to announce that the garlic has been MOST successful.

This is how it looks straight from the garden.  Garlic is actually a very delicate veg at this point and needs to be handled very gently or it will bruise and rot.  I've been reading a lot of contradictory information about how to prepare it for drying or "curing".  We trimmed the roots to about 3", rubbed off most of the loose dirt, trimmed the greens at the point of the last leaf coming out, and laid them out in the black trays where air can circulate around them, facilitating the drying process.  The trays are then "stair stepped" under our school table where there is an AC vent, and a fan is set to blow on them.

In addition to the garlic acquired from Sam's Club, Costco, and an over ambitious friend from "Home Grown Goodness", I received 4 bulbs of garlic which I have grown out for research purposes.  This was very exciting as it increases my varieties and because they are all from Spain, it gives me another tie to my Father and his place of birth.

These are not the biggest garlic I have, but I assure you, they are among the most precious!  Can you see the red necks on the garlic in the tray at the bottom right?  Beautiful stuff, let me tell you!

The curing process is supposed to take about 2 to 3 weeks, depending on conditions.  However, I used up all my black drying trays and there is still a LOT more garlic in the garden.  So, last night, about a week into the curing for these bulbs, we started going through and removing more dirt, trimming the dried roots, separating the hard necks from the soft necks consolidating the hard necks into smaller space and braiding the soft necks so they can finish curing while hanging.

I've never braided garlic before so this was pretty interesting for me.  Trying to learn from photos, instructions, and video online just didn't cut it for me.  I have to learn hands on so here is a photo of my very first braid:

Well, when I made this braid we had only gone through a little of the garlic.  So, once I had gotten all of it, or at least all I was willing to do this evening, I was able to make a MUCH longer braid!

The kids had to get in on the excitement of course:

The final product, hanging from the fireplace mantle looks like this (but without the funny red glare):

I'm not sure what the deal is with the glare, but I'll probably get another photo when I have ALL the soft necks braided and hung.

Now then, just in case you think the boys are limited to toiling in the garden, you should know that their favorite pass time is fishing.  Last time they went they brought home the biggest fish to date.  I thought it was a snakefish at first.  Turns out it's a bowfin.  This is a fabulous fish for eating.  Nice firm flesh and no bones because you can easily pull the fillets off the bones.  Still an ugly fish if you ask me.

Now THAT's what I call a face only a mother could love.  Take a look at those teeth!  YIKES!

There are more photos in the Spring 2010 album.  I wish I could reorder them so the oldest would be at the front, but I can't.  Still, you might enjoy the browse. 

As you can see, I have much to be TRULY THANKFUL for!

Happy Mother's Day

I have problems with holidays.  Particularly days like Mother's Day, Father's Day, and birthdays.  They are like trying to wear a sweater that was purchased for me when I was 8 years old.  It just doesn't fit, it's raggedy, and it's stained, and it smells funny.

I don't need a "Mother's Day" to know how important I am to my sons.  Unlike most mothers, I am with my children every day, 24 hours a day.  If you know my boys, you know me.  Not very many people know me. 

When we go out, I don't really notice to much about other people.  They have to really act out to get our attention.  We are pretty focused on each other.  Is everyone like that?  I have to wonder sometimes.

I know we dress funny.  Clothes are not very valuable or important to us so I'm sure we look rather odd sometimes.  Especially if we have to run to the store for some small thing in the middle of a work day when we are wearing the oldest and most tattered things for work. 

We watch about 3 hours of TV in the evening.  A kids game show followed by the news followed by Nature, or Nova, or whatever is on PBS that night.  If there is nothing interesting we play family games or read.  Last night we read a chapter of Harry Potter "Escape from Azkaban" and Bernstein Bears "No Girls Allowed".

We usually eat only 2 meals a day.  We always eat together and we always pray before we eat. 

My primary job and focus in life is being a wife and a mother.  I can't imagine giving 9+ hours a day to Wal-Mart or a bank or the government, or any other "job".  I feel so sorry for women who are trapped in that kind of life.  I hope they feel different about it.

I am a mother and a wife, all day, every day.  I am never bored.  I am TRULY THANKFUL!

Soap

Today I wish to keep things clean.  What better topic than soap?  My husband and my youngest have very sensitive skin.  They are forever itching themselves into a tizzy.  The best I had been able to do in the past was cutting dryer sheets in half and buying the fragrance and color free laundry soap. Then a discussion was started on "Homegrown Goodness", a gardening forum I belong to about homemade soaps.  The talk was that using only half as much laundry soap, or better still, homemade laundry soap and vinegar instead of fabric softener is far more gentle on sensitive skin.  So I tried it!

First, I cut the amount of laundry soap in half and switched to vinegar.  Not only did my guys report happier skins, my clothes felt AND smelled a LOT cleaner and fresher!  I was very surprised about the smell in particular as I expected everything to smell like salad from the vinegar.

Next, I started looking at the recipe for the homemade soap.  It wasn't written quite to my understanding, so I read it over several times then began to hunt down the 3 ingredients.  The fourth ingredient, water, I have plenty of!  A friend found a site called "Soaps Gone By" that sold the other ingredients in kits.  Here's the link to the kit page:  Laundry Kit 

I found the service to be kinda slow.  My order didn't ship for 2 weeks after I placed it.  However, a phone call tells me this a family business, probably out of someones garage and to be honest, I would way rather do business with them than with a large company.

So today, here is what my assembled ingredients for my second batch of homemade soap look like:

This is a full bar of Fels Naptha soap that has been grated and separated into 2 oz portions.  You need 2 oz of Fels Naptha to make just over 2 gallons of laundry soap.  So, 1 bar will give you 3 batches.  I grated it lickity split in my food processor which left me with that little tailing.  Fels Naptha is wonderful against poison oak/ivy/summac so that little tailing will come in handy when the chores of the yard include combating the "evil weed".  We've already discovered that it works beautifully for this purpose!

Now, for the next ingredients:

A half cup each of Borax and WASHING soda.  Don't try to substitute baking soda, baking soda is all together different. 

Now, how do these go together?  Well, you put 6 cups of water into a medium pot then add your 2 oz of grated (or chopped if you don't have a grater) Fels Naptha (you CAN use Ivory soap as well).  Put the pot on medium low heat and leave until the soap dissolves.  Grated soap will dissolve faster than chopped soap.

Once dissolved, add the Borax and washing soda.  Stir gently and continue to cook for 3 more minutes.  After 3 minutes, remove from heat and stir in about 4 cups more of HOT water and mix well.  Pour in to container (I have 12 quart Rubbermaid buckets I purchased at Sam's Club) and add another 2 gallons of HOT water and stir to mix well.  Allow to cool and you are ready to use your soap! 

You can add some essential oil to this to change the fragrance, but it won't really do much to change the way your laundry smells as it comes out of the dryer.  The Fels has a very strong fragrance, but it goes completely away at the end.  I find that rather fascinating.  Final analysis, for about $30 (including shipping) I will get more than 40 GALLONS of laundry soap that won't irritate my families skin like the $9 or more per gallon stuff available at the grocery store.  In addition, my washing machine is smelling much better because the soap build up from using to much soap rots and stinks over time.  That was another surprise benefit of switching.

So, for my friends on the forum who started the discussion and for the success I have met with so far I am TRULY THANKFUL!

Sometimes It Doesn't Pay to be Good

The phrase "being in shape" has shades of meaning that change as we age.  I was rather surprised this year, when I discovered that I seem to be able to bend over longer than I used to.  As a wanna be farmer with a large garden, this is a very good thing.  I can plant more seed, pull more weeds, and examine more bugs at close range.  Just don't ask me to stand up to fast!

Well, the strawberries are in season now and we decided to go to a local u-pick farm to get some for jam.  I figured, "Oh, we can get maybe 10 to 15 lbs. in a couple of hours and that will make a nice batch of jam, some for the freezer, and a nice shortcake.  We even managed to con... err, CONvince, a friend to come with us and bring her son, JUST to make sure we had enough pickers to meet the goal.

So we get to the farm and low and behold, the price of the u-picks has gone up to $2 lb.  YIKES!  OK, well, I guess I can part with $20 to $30.  After all, we are only getting 10 to 15 lbs.  Right?  ::chuckles wryly::  OH yea, right!

We spent 45 minutes.  That's right, 45 minutes with 6 of us moving down the row.  Everybody has filled a basket EXCEPT for me.  I have filled a garden tote AND 2, 1-gallon containers.  So, off we go for weighing and paying.  The farmers wife is laughing and smiling at us as though we are the best friends she has ever had.  The folks in the shed are practically applauding us as we arrive.  My husband who can't bend over as well as I can has already been hoofing the filled baskets up to the shed so when the last of us arrived, we had only 3 baskets to add to the collection. 

At first I was rather pleased looking at the array of containers all filled to the rim with plump red berries.  Certainly everyone else around us was making complimentary sounding oohs and aahs.  Then the farmer's wife started weighing our baskets and calculating our bill.  I wasn't paying her much attention at first but when I heard "$17 for this one."  I nearly jumped out of my socks! 

"Excuse me?  What do you mean $17 for that one?"  To say that I was stunned would have been an understatement of major proportions.

"That's right." she responded.  Her smile suddenly started to look more like a smirk.  I was sinking deeper into shock because that was only the second basket and it wasn't a very large one.

Well, to spare you all the gory details, I picked a grand total of about 24 POUNDS of strawberries.  I managed to $48 worth of strawberries in a scant 45 minutes.  The total damage to the wallet?  $120.  I nearly died.  My friend ponied up $40 but she was laughing at me the whole time.  I had to write a check for $20 because all I had on me was $60. 

So, I'm a little to tired to be thankful right now.  I still have all those berries to clean and process.  But tomorrow, when I'm making jam and the whole house smells like a pastry shop, THEN, I will be TRULY THANKFUL!

Silver Nissan Altima, Kentucky, 764 KPT

driven by a blond woman...

Why did you dump your trash in the parking lot in front of the Barnes & Noble store here in Jacksonville, NC at about 4:15 p.m. today?  Terribly rude and disrespectful of you.

You Know it's Been an Interesting Day When:

…you blow your nose and dirt comes out.  Yea, I’ve had an interesting and “fruitful” day.  Well, actually, most of my days have been interesting and fruitful in one way or another lately. 

In case you haven’t noticed in your part of the world, it is now the season of transition.  We are leaving winter behind us and marching into spring.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how things have progressed since we have arrived here to our little patch of heaven.  Each year there are goals set and each year at least most of those goals are met.  There is always a BIG goal.  Last year it was putting in a truffle orchard.  It isn’t a huge orchard mind you.  Around 40 trees.  some were lost, but most of them have survived and continue to move forward.  This year the BIG goal was to have chickens.  We’ve purchased 33 chicks (so far).  One died, not a major disaster.  The coop is built and the older one are living high on the hog.  No more store bought chemical laced meat for our children!  Farm fresh eggs…  yep, now this is what I call living.

So, those are some of the big goals.  But, there are smaller goals as well.  Learning is a constant goal.  Growing in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.  In this effort, this years goal was to start growing more fruit and nut trees. 

This effort actually began a year ago when a dear friend sent me some seed.  Not a few seed mind you… HUNDREDS of seeds.  Cherry seed of 6 varieties, apricot seed of 3 or 4 varieties, plums of 3 or 4 varieties, and even a few peaches.  At this point in time, 6 of the apricots have sprung up and have been in need of being transplanted.

I have also been needing to acquire more varieties of hazelnuts because of pollination issues.  Trees of the same variety will not pollinate each other.  At least, this is what I have been told and so far we’ve had no nuts.  This year may be different, but if not this year, then in the next couple of years for certain!  Why?  Because as of Thursday, I have started rooting 33 hazelnuts of 3 different varieties.

Now, much as I love hazelnuts, I want some different nuts around as well.  So, on Friday, I started rooting 15 butternuts of 2 varieties.

Fruit is also important and we really haven’t rounded out our fruits quite yet so today, I planted out 10 bare root stock pears and after I write this, I will graft (for the first time) read and sucre vert pears to these lovely root stock trees.

To achieve all this I’ve been making up batches of potting soil consisting of:

4 parts store bought “garden soil”

1 ½ parts sphagnum moss

1 part vermiculite

a bit of lime

a handful of dried thyme

 I’ve been in dirt up to my elbows trying to mix it up in batches large enough to fill several pots at a time and let me tell you, it’s not an easy job!

 Now I’m getting my courage up to go out and graft on the pears.  I don’t mind telling you, I’m nervous about this.  I got the scion wood for the trees free, but the 10 root stocks cost $52.  That is a lot of money for us.  On the other hand, I could only get 2 plain jane variety pairs from a regular nursery.  This way, if I’ve been successful, I will have at best, 10 trees and some very useful new skills.  If the whole thing falls flat, well, I still have the lessons learned and there is always next year to try again. 

 And for the opportunity to try again, I am…  TRULY THANKFUL!

Love you guys!

The Joy of Parenting

Gee whiz!  It has been a week and half, I'm tellin' ya!  On Tuesday morning, my kid got a light bulb stuck in his ear.  A LIGHT bulb!?!?!?  ::sigh::  I couldn't get the truth out of him for love nor money.  He absolutely INSISTED that it went into his ear when he fell.  ::sigh again::  OK OK, so off we go to the children's clinic.  They can't do a thing but I sure did get a lot of "I sure feel sorry for you." looks.  They send me to the ER across the street. 

I go to the ER.  The folks there are teasing me saying that they are reserving one of the exam rooms for my family since we spend so much time there.  ::)  ::sigh::  They can't do anything either and give me a referal sheet listing 2 ear nose throat specialists in town.  We go home with lots more "I sure feel sorry for you." looks.

At home I manage to get a 9 a.m. appointment for the following morning.  Morning comes and we are johnny on the spot getting to the appointment.  I'm a wreck by the way.  Even though the rest of the world seems to think this is the most amusing thing since who knows what, I just haven't been able to laugh along with them.  Maybe AFTER the light bulb has been removed... but not now.

So, here we are at the doctor's office, we have the receptionists full attention since there is no one else in the office... and what happens?  My kids are practically falling over themselves telling HER the truth, the WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth?!?!?!?   >:(  Mommy is NOT a happy camper. 

So, what exactly IS the whole story you ask?  Well, 9 year old is vacuuming and decides he needs ear plugs to protect his delicate ears!  ::)  Naturally 7 year old decides that if it's good for his brother, it's good for him.  Well, the little foam ear plugs we have are just to big for their ears and promptly fall out no matter how tight I squish them and try to shove them into their ears. 

After a sufficient amount of wasted time, I sent them off to finish their chores.  Well, it seems that 7 year old gets the absolutely BRILLIANT notion that since the little green LED bulb they pulled out of Kasey the Kinderbot is about the same shape as the ear plugs but smaller... it would surely do the trick!  So, one gets shoved into 1 little ear.  Fortunately it was ONLY one bulb into ONLY one little ear. 

Soon, they were trying to pull it out and that was where I came into the story.  ::sigh::

Truly, TRULY thankful!

Christmas

This is shaping up to be a memorable year holidaywise.  The boys have been unusually naughty.  I won't go into details on this as I have been assured of EXTREME contrition regarding the various indiscretions.  We have been practicing our Christmas Medley 2009 which consists of "Angels We Have Heard On High", "Joy to the World", "Away In A Manger", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", and "The Little Drummer Boy".  We are practicing for when we go caroling after the 25th.  We have cracked open the rum cakes and fruit cakes for sampling.  Not to mention the snowball cookies.  Packages for various friends and relatives have been planned and are being worked on.  Family photos have been taken.  We hope to get our Christmas tree today or tomorrow.  We have a giant star over the house that can be seen from the street.  Yep, all in all a really great Christmas season so far.

I am, TRULY THANKFUL!

The After Math

I have to wonder how different your feasting was from our feasting.  Truly we did feast.  But it wasn't as I remembered it from my own childhood.

As I child, I recall that everyone ate 2 or even three plates of food.  We barely got through one plate.  As a child, we were given snacks through out the day, things like stuffed celery, stuffed dates, mixed nuts, etc.  We ate waffles at 10 a.m., a piece of pie at 3 p.m. and dinner at 8 p.m.  Nothing else.  As a child the male family members sat in front of the T.V. watching football, the female family members cooked and cleaned at a frantic pace, and the kids engaged in acts so dangerous that today we would be imprisoned if we were caught. 

We did what we did out of boredom.  No one had us help in the kitchen, no one had time to assign and help us to chores in the yard.  The word's we heard most was "GET OUT AND STAY OUT UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO COME BACK IN!"  Over the years we remembered the routine and, as we got older, planned out our escapades.

My father was never involved with this.  My parents were divorced and my Daddy was not part of "family" gatherings.  I was divided for holidays.  Interesting way of putting it, but that's how it is for "D-Kids", they are divided.  That is how it all was until I was 9 years old.

The summer I turned 9 was the year my parents decided to get back together and give marriage another shot.  We moved from Florida to California.  Life became a series of hellish events, each more hideous than the last.  The highlight being the Sunday night when my mother was more drunk than usual and decided that she needed more attention than usual.  She pulled out her pistol and started waving it around and demanding my father and I to tell her why she shouldn't use it.  That night was more fun than a barrel of monkeys! 

I had a report due at school the next day.  I had put everything off till the last minute and there I was, trying to focus on the assignment but all I could see was my drunken, pathetic mother and my furious, frustrated, father performing their macabre dance of defeat.  Like a performance of "The Nutcracker" where all of the performers are on drugs.  How does a kid do well in school when life is like that at home?  I'm sure some do very well, but I did not. 

Anyway, Thanksgiving was very odd in those years between 9 and 13 when my mother moved from California and back to Florida.  To be honest, I only remember the first year and only a little bit of that.  I remember the table that my Daddy made from plywood.  At least, I think he made it.  I can't really be sure.

But all that is now more than 30 years past.  This year there were only 4 of us.  Our daughter and our three grandchildren are in California.  The boys learned how to make sweet potato and pecan pies.  They lost interest in the kitchen at that point and it was then Daddy's turn to work with them.  Wood working is their current art interests.  Specifically, wood carving.  However, to be good at carving you need to understand wood.  So, our first projects are crafting wands and walking sticks.  The guys went searching the woods for likely branches for good sturdy twigs to use as wands, and with the shape and heft to make them good walking sticks.  As a result, we have a handful of twigs and a beautiful oak limb all peeled, coated with linseed oil, and sitting around drying.

Now the boys have to learn patience because the drying process will take several days and as the days go by some of their work will have to be discarded because of splits and other issues proving them unfit to the duty to which they have been called.  Once they are dry, the process of sanding will ensue, followed by more oil and another drying period.  Finally the carving of the walking stick will begin.  How does that compare to history? 

It is hoped that when the Farmer's Market starts next year, we will have a stall where we can offer these things for sale along with trees that we are sprouting, aloe, lavender, and rosemary plants we have propagated, herbs and peppers we have patiently dried, seed we have gathered, and produce we have grown.  There might even be eggs from chickens we have acquired. 

My sons will be very different from me.  They already are very different from me, they are boys!  But, don't think that I am whining and complaining about my past.  I'm not.  It was what it was.  This is true of all of us.  My father was, and still is, my greatest hero.  For my Daddy, and for my life, I am TRULY THANKFUL.