Homestead Days

Hello, friends.  Last week, I redeemed Swagbucks for a $25 gift card, using a 12% discount and $1.50 credit.  My sister recently joined Swagbucks through my link, which they did not follow through and acknowledge.  I wrote them twice, and eventually got all that they promised, which includes 10% of her earnings for as long as she's active, which is a pretty great.  Hopefully, I won't need to write again.  I made batches of Golden Paste for the pups, and vegan cashew parmesan on Memorial Day, while watching the canner with baked beans processing.  It's become a habit to collect the aloe ends from smoothies for several days, blend it into fertilizer, and feed different plants.  

The Mother's Day flowers are still going strong, from my spirit daughter.  I'd known some orchid flowers could last for months, but didn't realize their cut flowers were also long lasting.  This Tuesday will be four weeks since they arrived, and they're still gorgeous.  I hadn't mentioned, but the bantam rooster was allowed back in with the flock, once the abused hens got their aprons in place.  Sadly, our bantam hen went missing last week.  She was, of course, my favorite.  The bantam hens I've had always seemed to have the best personalities.  She was such a little thing, we expect a hawk may have carried her off.  I've been gathering mullein flowers for a skin oil, after seeing one of it's uses is for eczema.  I know nothing topical will actually heal it, but if it can ease the itching and redness I still have off and on, I'd love that.  I picked up an armoire off of FB Marketplace on Saturday, to house fabric.  Saturday night, I woke at 3:30.  After finishing a book, I got up, organized, and put all the fabrics in it.  

I made a batch of bird suet and hummingbird food.  I stopped feeding the birds sunflower seeds a number of weeks ago, due to the cost, and they're going through about two suet cakes per day.  The deer are eating the tips off of quite a few plants in our landscaping for the first time, including borage and sunflower, which are quite prickly plants.  Go figure.  I tried the first of the garbanzo beans I canned in March, to make hummus, and was very happy with how flavorful it was.  I love hummus, and this seemed especially good, even though I left off adding any olive oil.  I tried the first of the canned baked beans, with black bean burgers.  They were good, but I'll tweak the recipe a little.  I'd like them a little less barbeque and a little more sweet.  Fresh pea soup was made with some of our peas.  It's admittedly better with real butter and half & half, but the vegan version was still tasty.  Pasta sauce was made, using our butternut squash, vegetable broth and sage.

Something ate all of the cucumber seedlings I started in pots, which was tried because something ate all of them planted in the ground.  Sigh.  I tried another round in pots, and put them in our seed starting tool box, hoping they'll be safe there.  I'm pretty sure I forgot to mention that I started an additional six potatoes, planted in feed bags this time, and all are up and growing.  I brought four of our tomato seedlings to a neighbor, who is beginning container gardening, and said she could use these.  I got the sweetest surprise from Daisy.  She sent several different seeds she'd saved, and a windsock with an old pick up truck on it.  I've told J before that my dream vehicle is one of those old trucks, so it's perfect.  I already planted some of the black eyed susan vine she sent.  I noticed a wide variety of gas prices one day locally, all at the same brand.  It started at $3.29, next I saw $3.36, and finally $3.19, which is where I filled up.  Their prices are not usually so different.  I harvested peas, lambs quarter, and chard for us, and dandelion greens several days for the pups.  Wishing you a week of simple pleasures.