Little Princes & Frugal Accomplishments

Last week, I applied rock dust to the raspberries, some strawberries & two figs.  Harvested a handful of raspberries every day, and the first few wild blackberries.  Transplanted some native plants that had ended up in the middle of a path after some earthwork.  J grilled on Memorial Day.  He cooked pork loin for himself & M, baked potatoes, corn on the cob & vegetable kabobs.  I made a marinade for portabella mushrooms for myself, and harvested mint for  homemade ice cream.  We also used our eggs and homemade vanilla in making the ice cream.  After a week, I tried the kombucha I was trying to revive.  It was still weak, but when I tried it again at 11 days, it tasted just right.  I'm happy that was a success.  I took a bag of last years zucchini out of the freezer and made bread with it.  Took 2 bags of french toast out of the freezer for J's breakfast.  Weeded a bit in the asparagus and beet beds.  While weeding around our largest fig, I found 2 fruits on the tree I hadn't known were there, and am hoping we'll have many more!  I'm joining in with the Frugal Accomplishments community.

I brought my water bottle while working in town.  While there, I dropped off my pressure canner lid at the cooperative extension office, for them to do a free gauge check.  Picked up a cardboard box to put in a garden path.  Used my own bags at the grocery store, saving .20. I stopped by a thrift store to look for 2 things.  I didn't find either, but got a hooded vest for .99. The eggplant I started from seed didn't do very well, so I bought some more while in town, & planted them with J.  Applied nettle tea fertilizer to some recent transplants.  Rooster #2 has been looking poorly, with his comb rather pale. When I noticed his tail feathers drooping, I separated him from the flock and he seems a bit better.  I've added some poultry boost supplement to his scratch, gave him some of the nutritious chick food, and he has been eating the greens I bring him.  He seems a bit off balance.  I've always felt fairly helpless in figuring out what to do when a chicken appears sick.  Most of the time, it's not easy to distinguish what their problem is, at least to me.  Though I've researched online, it's still not clear.  I may try a natural wormer product.

I cut a red, white & blue bouquet for Memorial Day.  Our Buff hen that was broody is no longer... hooray!   As I write this, mama hen has been sitting on eggs 12 days, & the two little chicks are growing and healthy.  I gathered red clover blossoms for drying, & chocolate mint.  I am trying a recipe I saw to make extract with it, so it is sitting and percolating on the pantry shelf.  I think many years ago I tried baking with it, which was unimpressive.  Otherwise, I've only added some of the fresh leaves to coffee grounds, which I enjoy.  I typically drink that as cold coffee in the warm months.  Made suet for the birds.  I've been enjoying reading library books, especially Little Princes.  J watched a couple of free movies on Amazon prime, but I didn't care for either, so read instead.

We were able to use some bricks, broken cinder blocks & rocks that were already here for a project, keeping us from having to buy anything and cleaning up too.  I finished stripping the paint off the final porch post.  J put it in place the next day.  Oh happy day!  I do have some furniture pieces I want to strip, now that I've gotten my feet wet, but I'm going to take a break first.  I fertilized all the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, potatoes & onions with a new to us product.  If it works well, I'll share more about it.  I harvested nettles for drying.  Much of it has gone to flower, so I had to search for some younger plants to harvest.  Some of our winter greens from last year volunteered in the onion patch, so I harvested those while weeding for the chickens.

I made a kale salad to bring to our friends house for dinner.  I brought an order of soap there, & traded the soap plus a few dollars for a pottery bowl.  I really love using handmade items for my food and beverages, and had recently broken my favorite bowl.  J & I  replanted cucumbers, summer squash & lima beans where they didn't come up, or died.  I transplanted seedlings of dill and carrot to the garden, and transplanted Long keeper tomatoes, asters & sweet marjoram into larger pots.  Shortly before heading to Denver, I won a giveaway on Lesley's blog, and a package filled with her paper lovelies awaited me when I returned home.  Do check her site out if you have a moment.  I finished sewing my quilt binding.  All that's left is to remove all the threads.  I'm hoping to finish that this month, and will share the quilt once I do.