Garden Cleanup

Rain or not, the garden strip needed to be cleaned up. The girls helped by looking for snacks brought up by pulling up roots. 

The compost pile continues to expand with all the debris but has been breaking down faster with all the rain. Next summer I'm going to keep the top covered with a tarp to keep moisture in it so it won't dry out in the summer heat.

I'm looking forward to growing more food in the same spot next year. 😀

Kitchen Greenhouse Tour

Six months ago we started our garden from seed indoors. I like looking back at how we began what has now become a way of life for us.

The seedlings we started in the kitchen were moved to the new garden when the average last frost date was behind us. We have been thrilled with how much food you can grow in small spaces. 

I'm so glad we decided we didn't have to wait until we have a place outside of town. If you want to homestead don't wait! There are so many skills you can learn and experiences you can gain wherever you are. We've both learned so much this year that we can use from now on that we wouldn't have if we hadn't started.

Grow herbs in your flower beds or in containers. Start some veggie plants from seed and watch the miracle of growth before your eyes. Start doing little things and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish. 

Cooking Up Cookies

My man doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but he does have a weakness for cookies. Rather than have him pick up a package of cookies filled with white flour and unnecessary ingredients, I thought I'd bake some with whole wheat flour instead.

Now, I'm not a baker. Ovens and I have never been able to work that well together. Ever. I've set off smoke detectors more times than I will ever admit to. I've made biscuits that Chris just couldn't handle eating more than the customary "They're fine honey" one.

Rather than tell the oven "It's not you, it's me" and move on to store-bought pastries and no-bake cookies I've continually vowed to improve the skill (or lack thereof) and try new recipes. I recently had a crack in that resolve when I messed up a batch of no-bake cookies. Yep, no-bake cookies. Something so simple you could use a microwave for and don't even have to use a stove. Still, I want to improve. Besides, it can only go up from here.

Since Chris likes raisins, I found a recipe for soft raisin cookies. After gathering all the ingredients I got to work. I had one store bought egg left and decided that it was older than our hen's eggs and should use it for baking. We had bought them for Chris to make breakfast for friends at the elk hunting camp he went to a few weeks back. With our girls only laying a few a day we needed enough to feed five or more people.

When I added our hen's egg I was surprised at how much paler and runnier the store egg was compared to it.  

The egg on the left is a store bought egg and the one on the right are from our happy backyard hens.

I normally can't resist the urge to eat all the cookie dough eat a bit of raw cookie dough but the fact that this doughy goodness was full of gluten that wouldn't make me a happy camper made it easier to restrain myself. There was no tasting. Just a lot of drooling.

It took a bit of time and patience to get all the dough on the cookie sheets but it was well worth it. I didn't burn them and the house smelled wonderful when Chris got home from work. I gave him a smaller cookie to keep him away from them long enough to take a picture of all of them together (minus the sacrificial distraction cookie of course).

We ended up with just short (two less) of seven dozen cookies. My sugar canister is temporarily housing half the goodies until I can find a cookie jar. I'm hoping to find a glass one similar to my sugar canister at a thrift store.

I'm happy I made them. Chris ate a ton of them right away and took some to work. My turbulent relationship with the oven may have taken a turn for the better. I think I'll try some sugar cookies now. I may need a lot of practice before Christmas. 

Backyard Homestead Progress

It feels wonderful to be able to accomplish some projects today that we've been wanting to get done for a while.

Today we moved both of the chicken coops to other spots in the yard. The big girls' red "pretty coop" was moved to it's permanent spot for the rest of the year. After finally getting it level (there isn't a level spot in the backyard) it was cleaned out.

The only way to really clean it out is to take out the floor tray and climb inside.

The little girls' temporary "ugly coop" was moved to where the pretty coop had been so that we could use the same fenced run. Chris put up a new larger run for the pretty coop so the big girls would have lots of room to actually run. And run they did! They love the new set up.

Liquid Gold

Sometimes it's worth the extra effort and time it takes to make something nourishing from scratch.

Chris had roasted a chicken a few days ago and I asked him not to throw away the carcass when he was done carving it. I had noticed that the crisper drawer had claimed yet another bunch of celery and we had carrots that were not at all for fresh snacking (imagine sawdust with a vague hint of carrot flavor). 

All I needed was an onion and I had the base recipe for chicken broth. I cut the veggies into large pieces, added them to the chicken in a large pot and filled it almost to the rim with cold water. Some fresh ground pepper was added for a little spice but I wanted to keep it pretty basic so it could be used for everything.

I turned the burner on high and waited for all the cold ingredients to come to a boil. Once it reached a boil I turned it down to low/medium to cook at a low simmer with the lid tilted enough to let out steam.

Every so often for the first hour, it needed to have the foam that would form skimmed off of the surface. Then it was time to wait. And wait. Checking now and then to add more water if needed.

Five hours later the house smelled amazing and the stock had a rich amber color. 

The bones had become soft enough to break and I broke most of them in half to help release the marrow. I let it gently simmer for another hour just to make sure all of the gelatinous goodness inside would make it into the liquid gold.

After straining out the vegetables and bones I was finally rewarded with just a little over 3 1/2 quarts of wholesome homemade chicken stock.

The reward!

I'm excited to try it out! Now to make some soup...

Precious Potatoes

With it raining all day today I couldn't work in the backyard but really wanted to work on gardening. So I cut up the seed potatoes I had chitting (sprouting) in front of the big kitchen window. The plan is to plant them in a few weeks when the weather clears up.

I made sure to leave at least one "eye" on each piece cut to ensure it has enough to grow. 

More than an hour later, I had more than tripled the number of potatoes we'll be growing.

We're hoping for a bumper crop of tasty taters to store and can that we can eat all winter.

For The Love Of Peppers

I love cayenne pepper! I put a little in just about everything from my scrambled eggs to my hot chocolate. Don't knock it till you've tried it. A little sprinkle of cayenne makes hot cocoa taste great...especially if there's a shot of whiskey in it. Again. Don't judge. 😄 

So when one of the local farm supply stores has a sale on seeds you buy the packet, even if you thought you already had enough things to plant this year and didn't need any more seeds. Because really, how can you ever have too many garden seeds?

I ended up planting more than half of the packet today. That's 46 seeds planted!

If they all sprout...well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. The worst that can happen is I end up with a bushel full of peppers. At least it's something I like and will use. Unlike zucchini. 

Trying To Beat The Rain

While the first day of spring the day before yesterday had been beautiful, the weather forecast for the rest of the week is rain...lots of rain. Not the sort of weather you want when trying to turn a backyard into a garden.

Yesterday was a mad dash to accomplish some things before the monsoon arrived in the afternoon. The hourly forecast said the rain would start showing up around 4pm, and it did. Thankfully it was only scattered showers until around 6pm, which bought some time.

I raked the part of the yard where the giant pile of bamboo had been. A good portion of the leaves had come off the branches while the bamboo was parked there forever longer than I had intended. The leaves were confined to a new pile beside the compost pile to be added to the potato bed as mulch in a few weeks.

As I was trying to get a tarp to fit over a large pile of sod I had removed from the large new garden space I heard a commotion in the tall holly tree behind me. At the same time, my next door neighbor working in his backyard laughed.

It took me a second to pick out the silhouette of a small hawk perched on the fence beside the tree. My neighbor had seen it plunge straight into the tree at high speed, frightening the large flock of sparrows out of it before it landed on the fence on the other side.

She looked so majestic sitting there...and then she saw the chicken coops. She darted the twenty feet to the cable line that runs directly over both little coops. Both the big and little chicks' runs were totally enclosed with wire but I still felt a bit of panic.

She bobbed on the wire as she looked down on them. I was standing there bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a camera with me and my phone was charging inside. The hawk darted back to the fence behind the thick holly tree and I decided to make a run for the camera in the living room.

When I returned I couldn't see the hawk but my neighbor had kept an eye on it. He pointed her out on the wire over the other next door neighbor's yard. I was able to snap a few pictures before she took flight and disappeared a few streets away. 

Female Northern Harrier surveying our chickens

First Day Of Spring!

Well, it finally happened. Spring is finally here!

As if on cue, tiny spinach and pea seedlings greeted me as I examined the raised bed I had planted two weeks ago. Their delicate bright green shoots were enough to make me beam with delight.

Tiny spinach seedling.

First pea to sprout.

The weather was perfect for working in the backyard and I heard lawnmowers running all over the neighborhood. I was able to fill one of the small raised beds along the garage with soil and fill it with heirloom seeds.

I may have been a bit too crazy enthusiastic due to the spring equinox. Peas, carrots, parsnips, kale, spinach, corn salad and lettuce all made their way into the 1'x5.5' bed.

So many seeds!

I can't wait to see how they do.