Spring Things

Hello, friends.  The wild atamasco lilies are blooming on this land, which is always a treat.  I'm still enjoying free episodes of Northern Exposure on Prime.  As coincidence would have it, the episode I watched Monday night is one in which Maggie prepares a seder for Joel.  I didn't realize, until after watching it, that Monday evening actually was the beginning of Passover, so the show couldn't have been timed better.  Last week, I harvested lettuce, asparagus, arugula, chard, and basil from seedlings that were already trying to flower.

newly emerged cicada

lots of cicada activity

After an appointment, I went by a favorite thrift store.  This one has four thrift stores on the site, though I rarely go to the two clothes stores.  At the "last chance" store, behind the main store, I bought a 100 year old butter crock for $1.50.  One sold on Etsy for $110.  It was obvious this one had been used as a planter.  I don't think I'll do that, but think it would be nice to hold things, though I'm not sure yet what that might be.  I had a nice conversation with the ladies running the store, and they were happy it was going home with someone who appreciated it.  Golden paste was made for the pups, and food for the hummingbirds was made.  The 17-year cicadas have started emerging here.  We noticed an occasional exoskeleton during the week, then on Saturday, we saw dozens of newly emerged cicadas, along with their exoskeletons.

On the subject of creepy crawlies, our Ameraucana hen has been flying out of the chicken yard the past few weeks.  On the way back to the house one day, I saw that she had gotten a small snake.  I couldn't get close enough to identify it, as she moved away each time I got too close, and was moving quickly in general.  She's a good forager.  On Thursday, my sister and I had a thrift day.  I did find a canister for my shop, but a favorite find was a cashmere poncho bought for $3.50, which sells for $129.  I do love cashmere, and am happy to be able to use it as a layer in my winter wardrobe.  The weather is warming up.  I'm thinking of turning on the water to the outdoor shower, and giving the pups a bath this week.  J tilled spots for sweet potatoes, marigolds and four o'clocks, and planted the flower seeds.  The sweet potato slips should arrive this week.  

Our garden spigot has been leaking for years, making it a mucky mess around the spigot. It was our second frost-free hydrant, so J ended up replacing it with a regular spigot this time, much cheaper and hopefully less problematic.  I helped him make a little deck for the area, a vast improvement.  Our compost bins are there, and the table I seed and pot things up on, so I spend a good bit of time there, under our largest mulberry tree.  I tried a new recipe, for a cashew-based creme fraiche spread.  I'll increase the spices next time, but it wasn't bad as is.  I cleaned out the chicken coop, the first time this spring, which is always the roughest one.  Mint was gathered to place in their nest boxes, and around the coop.  My car was washed and vacuumed.  I've thought for some time that receiving a gift of car detailing would be lovely, as it's not my favorite task, nor J's.  But, now it and the coop are done.  I'm sure both will be more pleasant to be in for a time.  I hope you accomplish whatever tasks you'd like this week!

The Latest Skoolie Progress

 

As the bathroom vanity didn't have any room for mounting a faucet, Joseph added a wood piece at the wall, which he covered with some copper sheet, to mount it.  With that done, he dropped in the basin.  As the piece was not originally meant for plumbing, he had to do some adapting, then got all the plumbing hooked up.

He's been working on our solar system, first hooking the batteries up, and adding an outlet.  The charge controllers arrived today, so I got a photo of him installing them.  All of this is under our bed, so a bit of a squeeze for such a tall guy.  He's a trooper!

The Optimism of a Gardener

Hello, friends.  I hope you've had a good week.  Last week, I harvested asparagus, lettuce, and arugula.  The asparagus was enjoyed in soup, and the greens in salads.  I made broccoli pad thai with a combination of bought broccoli, and homegrown broccoli and garlic.  A grocery bag of nettles was gathered, and delivered to my potter friend, who recently gave me her extra vegetable seedlings.  It's that time of year.  When we begin to see the oaks drop their tassels, we know stinky, dark water won't be far behind.  I seem to remember it lasting much longer, but J says it should only be a few weeks.  I do hope he's right, but that's life on the homestead, with rain as our water source.

I mulched the carrots, beets and swiss chard.  The bird feeder experiment has been ongoing, with me moving the feeder every two or three weeks.  I spoke about it here.  The farthest fruit trees are in the pond garden, and I left a 5 gallon bucket with sunflower seeds to refill the feeder.  I placed two large rocks on it, but something still chewed the lid edge enough to make it leak, so most of the seed had molded.  As I couldn't use it as feed, I worked up a plot of ground in the main garden,  in the area which has the poorest soil, and spread the seeds.  I'm hoping there will be enough viable seeds to give us many sunflowers, and also stalks we can till in to improve that area. 

 

We had a major frugal fail.  Our large stand up freezer door was not fully closed, and not found until the next day.  Of course, everything defrosted.  Much is being composted.  Some is being fed to the dogs and chickens, such as figs.  A few things will be tried before deciding, such as GF bread, which I think will be fine.  Ah well.  At least I'd been working on clearing it out, so there was less in there than often is.  J & I divided and planted the hostas my sister and BIL gave me.  A number of wintersown containers were ready to plant out, including rudbeckia maxima, bachelor buttons, black knight scabiosa, borage and marigolds.   I got them in the ground Saturday, before a forecast of rain, along with the golden alexander I bought at a pottery several weeks ago.  Lantana and penstemon were transplanted to sunnier places, and creeping phlox that had spread out was moved to several new places.

J planted seeds of lima beans, green beans, cucumbers, yellow, zucchini and tromboncino squash in the garden, and the three gifted cucumber seedlings.  I planted basil, nasturtium, portulaca  and zinnia seeds.  A volunteer parsley was transplanted into a bed.  So many things are blooming.  I do think this may be the prettiest year yet.  J cut down two of our kiwis last winter.  The one remaining male and female are covered with many buds.  We're hoping this will be the year we finally begin getting kiwis to harvest.  The optimism of a gardener.  I'm sending many wishes you have things that bring you hope this week and this year.

Skoolie Progress On a Few Fronts

 

The skoolie bathroom is close to  being done.  Joseph installed the faucet in our bathroom vanity, and hooked up the plumbing.  The vanity came with a lid, which we didn't have a use for.  Joseph came up with the idea to use it as an accent on the wall behind, which we think looks good.  We're holding off putting the antique basin in, until all the work in there is done.  We still need minor things, such as hooks and knobs, and the door hung.  

I worked several days on stripping the paint off the stained glass piece for the bathroom.  Boy, did it have lots of layers of paint!  There was at least white and blue and orange, history of the house it hung in in the UK.  We want to keep the bathroom window usable, so Joseph is pondering how he wants to hang it.  

I wanted to show the secretary desk, now that it's inside the skoolie.  I don't think I could have found anything that would have fit any better, or pleased me as much in that spot.  

A Good Week

Hello, friends.  Last week, while canning black beans, I decided to finish cracking the pecans we had left, while sitting with the canner.  Another day, I vacuum sealed the jar of pecans.  A jar of honey had crystallized.  I put it in a bowl of water, on the woodstove, and after a bit, it remelted.  We're in that in between seasonal place with meals.  I was running out of ideas, so pulled jars of home canned green beans, and carrots, and baked several potatoes.  The green bean dish used our onion and garlic, and the carrots used our parsley and garlic powder.  The deer have again begun munching on our asparagus.  I sprayed stalks with I Must Garden, which seemed to help last year.  I missed a day after a rain, and they munched some more.  Sigh.  J & I put up the trellises for the peas, and while doing that, noticed a few blooms.  Yea, we were a little late getting to that garden chore.

I meant to mention last week that my sister and BIL gave me three shepherds hooks and a pot of hostas.  They belonged to his Mom, who is now in a care facility.  With warmer nights, we let the fire in the woodstove go out for several nights.  The first cutting of nettles were harvested, and jars of glycerite started.  I cut open my toothpaste tube, getting several days more use out of it.  For a dinner, I harvested kale and pulled spaghetti squash from the freezer, and made this dish, which has become one of my favorite ways to use spaghetti squash.  I harvested asparagus, rosemary, and foraged cat brier tips for myself and the pups.  I went through Swagbucks for a purchase, for 6% cash back, and used a 10% promo code towards the total.  Books were requested from the library.

After seeing several people online talk about rising gas prices in their area, I noticed it had come down 4 cents here, to $3.15, so went ahead and filled up, though I still had over a half tank of gas.  A tank of gas generally lasts me from 2 to 4 weeks, depending on what life is like.  By Sunday, the price had risen .10, still less than the reports I'd heard elsewhere.  J lost a hearing aid twice recently.  Thankfully, he found the one he lost while on the backhoe, and I found the one that came off in his shop.  Neither looked good at first...  a patch of muddy ground, sticks and such, and a shop full of all sorts of stuff, so we were delighted to find it each time.  I needed to deliver soap to a B&B.  Before my diet became so restrictive, I used to eat at their cafe each time I made a delivery.  I recently realized there were a couple of sides I could eat, so ordered to support them, but they insisted they wanted to cover it, in appreciation.  I probably won't do that again, if I can't support them, as I try to stay fat-free in the mornings, and this wasn't.  Ah well, I did enjoy my potatoes and fruit.  I didn't see anything I wanted in their little free library, but dropped off several books while there.  

While in town to deliver soap, I checked two thrift stores.  I bought nothing at the first, but found two canisters for my shop at the second, along with a little summer linen dress from J Jill for $3.09.  Groceries were bought, but there were no good sales to report.  My two workdays fell through, as the potter ended up too sick to give her talk in another part of the state, so ended up staying home.  There's always plenty to do here, and I was able to deliver the soap before the weekend, so it's all good.  We received some nice rain.  I finished going through my photos, cards and such, and got rid of a good amount.  I went through, and picked out the most meaningful of the cards, etc., and let go of the rest.  I kept the front of several pretty cards, to possibly decorate with.  

All the seedlings in the garden and containers were fed with the weed tea I made recently.  I filled a six gallon bucket with weeds, to start another batch of weed tea.  The first of the lemon balm was harvested, and a jar of glycerite started.  There was a frugal fail last week.  After running by the bank, I stopped at Dollar General.  No one was at a register, so everyone was doing self check-out.  After I got home, I realized I'd been scammed, and bought a lb. of butter for someone.  I'd heard that people will scan something then leave, but I've done self checkout so rarely, it hadn't become a habit to check, before I leave the store.  I'll try to remember, going forward.  It's sad to see crime in our tiny town, though I expect no one is immune these days.  A friend planted all the seedlings she had room for, and very kindly offered the remainder to me.  There are many tomatoes, of all sorts of interesting varieties, sweet peppers, and a few pickling cucumbers.  I brought some bars of soap for her, as a small token of thanks.  It's been a good week.  I hope the coming week will bring good things for you too.  

Bathroom Progress In The Skoolie

The major accomplishment in the skoolie recently has been work on the bathroom.  Joseph got the marble shower floor in place, along with pieces for the threshold and inner upright portion of the threshold.  He put the cultured marble walls up, and another piece on the outer upright of the threshold.  The drain, shower fixtures and rod were installed.  Though we bought a curved shower rod to hopefully give us a little more room in the tiny space, it's such a short span, it may have been pointless.  

He finished trimming out the bathroom, and created a closet door for the narrow space next to the shower, putting up two shelves in the closet.  He's also been sanding spots on the bus roof, in preparation for painting the top.  We're painting it white, both to reflect heat, and also to reflect more light to our bifacial solar panels.  We haven't made any decisions yet as to the color of the bus itself.  That's the latest.  I expect to be able to put another post up next week.

Purple

Hello, friends.  I'm shop sitting for one of the local potteries, several days last week and this week.  Because of that, I didn't make any notes for this post, so I'll see what I can remember.  One day, I canned up garbanzo beans.  I'd really like more on the shelves, as I use them so many ways, so I'll need to pick up more dried beans, for future canning.  In between customers, which were few, I was able to wrap soap, read, and work on other projects.  These concentrated bits of time are always welcome.  I've already got a couple of projects planned for this week's workdays.

The weather has turned fairly cold and windy again.  There were frost warnings a couple of nights, but it looks like we slid by without any damage.  Every day, I shuttle the tomato and pepper seedlings outside and back in.  They're growing stronger in the sun and breezes.  The first batch of hummingbird food was made, and feeders hung.  On Wednesday, I spotted the first one(s) at the feeder.  I've been away during the day since then, but haven't seen any yet today (Sunday), so they may have been the scouts, or I haven't looked at the right time.  Before a rain forecast, I hoed the peas, and mulched more than half of them.  When J got in, we planted our potatoes (finally), and finished mulching the peas.  A few of the potatoes we planted in grow bags last year, which didn't do anything, have sprouted again, I believe six at last count.  We're hoping for a better potato year.

All the wintersown arugula and mache were transplanted into the garden. I found three volunteer parsley, and added them to the bed, though they're not looking especially happy.  Hopefully, they'll recover.  All the wintersown radishes were planted in spots where peas were missing, and the parsley seedlings were transplanted into individual cells.  Three sunflowers were transplanted in various places.  They don't love to be moved, but sometimes do OK.  Asparagus, oregano, and greens for the critters were harvested.  Here's hoping the eclipse is just that, a purely astronomical event.  Stay safe out there.   

Late March

Hello, friends.  If you celebrate, I hope you had a lovely Easter holiday.  Last week, I did two loads of laundry, and dried them on the line.  Golden paste was made for the pups.  I brought a pot of small sweet potatoes to a boil on the stove, then finished cooking them on the woodstove.  These were used in the pups meals, and a few in the chicken's mash.  A library book was picked up while in town, which alas, turned out to be one I'd read before.  Thank goodness for unread Kindle books.  Asparagus was harvested, along with greens for the chickens and pups.  

The freezer was filling up with veggie scraps, so five gallon bags were simmered on the woodstove, and broth canned the next day.  Soap oils were melted on the woodstove.  My sister and I spent a day together.  In the town we were in, the co-op I belong to had 20% off your purchase for members in March, and I received that, along with using a $5 off coupon I had for completing a survey.  I donated a rug hooking fabric cutter and a bag of needlepoint scroll frames to a wonderful thrift store, which focuses on art supplies, but has all sorts of vintage goodness as well.  Those were things I decluttered.  My sister wanted to go to the Goodwill bins.  While there, I picked up a colorful boho bag, tank top, twinkly lights, two sturdy wood hangers, and two like new washcloths for $3.79.  

Yasa bag from the bins

For Easter, Joseph cooked a pork shoulder from a nearby farm in the crockpot.  I treated myself to a couple of artichokes, made an asparagus soup, and pear lettuce salad with toasted pecans.  It was such a lovely day, we even got in a "pond sit", before our dinner.  I went through Swagbucks for a cash purchase,  receiving 5% cash back.  The first batch of hummingbird food of the season was made, and  two feeders were hung.  Wishing you a peaceful week.