Tomato Tar & Frugal Accomplishments

We had a gathering here on the 4th of July for family & friends.  I made asian cucumbers with the cukes I was gifted last weekend.  To save a 30 min. trip to town for organic fruit, we decided to make homemade ice cream using almonds & the remainder of our hazelnuts, which I toasted.  It was delicious!  I gathered flowers for 2 bouquets from the garden, & picked the first 3 cherry tomatoes, & used them as part of a pasta salad.  J found a 10# bag of rice on markdown at the local grocery, & I dry canned it in jars.  We did some research, and J found special lids that go over canning lids that you can vacuum seal with, instead of oven canning them as in the past.  We were hoping to be able to seal foods without subjecting them to heat.  Though we didn't manage to get the jars to seal using our vacuum cleaner as promised in a youtube video (we don't have a vacuum sealer), J got his vacuum pump from the shop, which worked wonderfully.  I'll be happy to not have the added expense of gas for the oven as well as the heat, at least with summertime dry canning.  The sealing went very quickly, which is also a bonus.

I had found some olives that we loved last year at Big Lots, and was delighted to find them again last week.  I bought all the jars I found at $2 ea.  I mentioned in a post a while back that I was given the OK to pass along any of my friends antiques that didn't sell on ebay after a time. Last week I gifted my second box of antiques, to a lovely local woman who unexpectedly lost her husband last year (in his 50's).  She has a consignment shop with all sorts of vintage goodness.  I hope these items will sell well for her.  Various spots were weeded, including the carrot bed, around blueberries and a flower bed.  I trained cucumbers up the trellis, as well as some beans.  Squash bugs have arrived.  J & I squish them whenever we find them on the cucumbers or squash.  We enjoyed steamed chard from the garden.  One of our cabbage heads had split, so I harvested it & made asian slaw.

unwrapped soap shortly after "the incident"

There was a day last week with several water challenges.  The first happened when I put a load of laundry in & headed to the garden.  When I got back, I found one of the washer hoses spewing water.  That wasn't great, but our little laundry closet happens to also be where my shelf of soap inventory lives. M & I quickly unwrapped close to 150 bars of soap & I got the dehumidifier running before running to town for new hoses, which J then changed.  Thankfully, it appears most of the soap will be salvageable, which means hours of wrapping will be on my to do list this week.  Next I hung two loads of laundry on the line, with the forecast for 20% chance of rain.  Just minutes after I got the second load hung, the rain began & quickly got heavier.  M came to help me get the laundry in.  About the time I got most of the first load in the basket, I remembered there were chicks out that needed to be let into the roofed area, so took off running to do that, as the rain came down hard for several minutes.  That evening, J realized we had no water pressure.  With changing our system over to rainwater, all the residue from extremely hard well water is gradually coming loose, & it clogged up the system.  After changing the 3 whole house filters, he had to take apart, clean out & put back together our tub temperature regulator 3 times while I ran outside to turn the water off & on.  I'm glad things typically come in 3's rather than 7's!  Then too, I notice what's happening in lives other than my own, and I know this is small stuff in comparison.  This post was a bright spot in a rough news week.

Love the coloring on this April born chick

I harvested more lambs quarter, then blanched & froze 2 bags.  Harvested parsley for potato salad and drying, harvested sage which I began a medicinal tincture with, & spearmint which I'm drying for tea.  Speaking of potato salad, I brought in the potatoes we had harvested & weighed them, which ended up being a little over 27 lbs.  Not our best harvest, but that's the life of a gardener.  While picking japanese beetles for the chickens, I found dozens of june bugs on our wine grapes.  We have the green type (june bugs, not grapes :o). They definitely put a hurting on the grapes.  I may have gotten 1/3 of the bugs; the rest flew off, but I'm sure they'll be back. I'll have to be vigilant in the coming days.  During a time I was out picking blueberries, the tall stem of one of the 12 apostle lily clusters fell over, so I cut it and brought it into the house to enjoy.

I've been looking for new recipes for swiss chard, & tried making a wrap using a large leaf.  I made hummus & put that in first, then added carrots, grape tomatoes, black olives, cucumbers & feta before rolling it up.  I thought it was pretty good, but J didn't care for it.  He admits to not being much of a wrap kind of guy though.  I made pizza dough with mostly home ground wheat, our garlic & oregano, & peppers gifted to us, in addition to a few store bought items.  J picked our first cucumber for the salad.   For many years, I'd wondered why my hands & arms turn black when working with tomato plants. I finally thought to look it up, & found out it's due to tomato tar.  Who knew?  It seems as though it must vary some, & I wonder if it might be due to a person's chemistry.   Lemon juice helps a little, but not much.  I read of vinegar and tried that, but it didn't do anything on me.  Does it affect you?  Do you have any tricks to remove it?  J worked up the soil where we harvested potatoes, & planted the first of the fall garden.  We planted collards too late last year to have a good crop, & want to be sure that doesn't happen again. Have you begun planning your fall garden yet?  I'm joining in with the inspiring Frugal Accomplishments community today.

Summer Fruits & Frugal Accomplishments

Last week, J & I put up trellises for our cucumbers and beans.  We've replanted our squash so many times, we're no longer sure where the squash needing trellising are.  Tromboncino squash are probably the only ones getting a trellis, and they will once they're identified.  We usually don't trellis our pumpkins and other winter squash.  They're in a garden where it's not a problem if they ramble.  Cucumbers and winter squash are starting to blossom, so I'm hoping to be harvesting cucumbers soon.  After creating my new logo, I hadn't taken photos of most of the soaps in their new labels, so I finally got that done.  When I first opened my online shop, I hired a photographer friend to take photos of my soaps.  I helped do most of the styling, & he said I was a natural.  Since then I've taken my own photos.  Good thing, as I expect I've taken thousands of photos for my shop and ebay listings in the 8 years since.

Wild blackberries, blueberries, and a few mulberries and raspberries make their way into my basket most days, eggs are gathered, and japanese beetles are gathered and fed to the chickens.  I'm working on eating down our freezer to make room for summer produce, & cooked spaghetti squash, lambs quarter & tromboncino squash.  When I tried to use 1/2 onion & 3 avocadoes that I noticed during my crisper clean out, I found they were too far gone.  A frugal fail, and into the compost crock they went.   I hadn't realized you could extend the life of an avocado in the crisper until a friend told me.  If you wait until it is just barely ripe to put it in the crisper, it significantly extends the keeping time, which  I still managed to pass.  I sewed a button on a nightgown, and made a vinaigrette using mixed berry syrup I had canned.

This spring I learned about Long Keeper tomatoes, bought seeds & planted 8 in pots quite a bit later than the others.  As you don't harvest them until you're expecting frost, which is October here, they should be fine.  I planted the seedlings in the garden & fertilized them with nettle tea.   Another gardening experiment in the works.  I also planted asters and sweet marjoram that I had grown from seed.  We'd had a good rain & a cloudy and cooler morning, so it seemed like the time to plant.  I made a hearty salad, and used our eggs and arugula in it.  Orlaya flowers are lovely in the spring, but they'd rather overtaken my rose bed.  I pulled up all the spent plants, and set some aside for seed saving.  As sweet marjoram is said to be an annual here, I put it in some of the space vacated by the orlaya in the rose bed.  The asters went where they can be viewed from the porch & the new room.  I'm hoping they do well, and we'll have some pretty fall color.

I gathered and washed a basket of lambs quarter from the garden.  Watched an episode of Victorian Pharmacy online.  J & I dug our potatoes.  They're lovely, though there are not many due to an extremely wet spring that delayed planting, & some pretty hot temps early on.  We'll cherish every one.  I harvested kale & brought a kale salad to a gathering, & was delighted to be gifted a basket of cucumbers while there.  I added several strands of twine to our cucumber trellis, & hope to soon be picking our own.  Had a fruit & homemade yogurt breakfast, including our blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries with a bit of mixed berry syrup canned last summer.  After scrubbing off rust with a wire brush,  I applied stove polish to our woodstove, which has it looking much better.

Last year, I took both pups to the vet for their rabies boosters the same day, so I was surprised to get a notice that one was due for another booster.  When I called, I was told they gave one pup the 3 year & the other the 1 year because it was only his second time there (the 1st time being just a few weeks earlier).  I noticed the same serum lot number on both their certificates, & after researching, learned the vaccine used is usually the same for both 1 & 3 year vaccines. A lot has to do with the states laws, & some to the vets discretion.  Both pups have always been kept up to date on their rabies vaccines, & vets say they give immunity for at least 3 years, so I can't in good conscience subject him to an unnecessary vaccination.  We have pet sitters come in rather than board them when we're away, & they almost never leave here except to go to the vet, so I don't feel it will be an issue.  This & this are two of the sources I used in my decision.  Though it does have a frugal outcome, that is just an added benefit of what I feel is doing the right thing.  Have you any thoughts or similar experiences?

My heart has been heavy for a dear friend.  Her 20-something son has been very sick, but no one seems to have any answers so far, even after a week's stay in the hospital and multiple tests.  They've thankfully ruled out a number of things, but the waiting is scary and frustrating for everyone.  I'm hoping the coming week will bring good news and better days.  I'm joining in with Frugal Accomplishments today.

June Doings & Frugal Accomplishments

ironweed

Sadly we lost our ailing rooster this week.  The rest of the flock, including the 3 new chicks look healthy, thank goodness.  Last week, I harvested parsley & basil.  On a day when I wasn't feeling well, I watched a documentary and a couple of episodes of Call the Midwife on youtube, while working on my quilt.  I used homemade bread crumbs in a pasta dish.  Hand picked japanese beetles daily  & fed them & greens to the chickens.  Made a sweet potato pie from our potatoes.  It did seem a little odd to be making one this time of year, but we enjoyed it just as much.  I found a tomato volunteer, which J transplanted in the garden.  I collected eggs from the hens and used cloth napkins with meals.  I'm joining in with The Prudent Homemaker's Frugal Accomplishments today.

soapwort

To keep the house cooler on hot days, I closed the blinds and door on the south side of the house.  After trying the new Harris Teeter a second time (the first time they charged full price for sale items I had bought), I was once again less than impressed.  The cashier forgot to ring up my $10 off $50 coupon, so I had to go to customer service.  That wasn't too bad, but when I got home, I realized the almond milk I had bought had a use by date of Nov. of  '15, and this store wasn't even open in November of  '15!  After letting them know of my displeasure, I was given a $10 credit on my VIC card, which will go towards my next purchase.  When I received a survey from the company I buy supplements from, I let them know that I much preferred the shipping they used prior to the past several months, which got orders here typically in 2 days vs 6 or so.  Because of that, they have upgraded my account to always use Fedex shipping for my orders, instead of being turned over to USPS Smartpost.  I guess sometimes it pays to complain :o).

I found this yellow flowering plant down near the creek, which I've not seen before.  If you know what it is, I'd love to know.  I believe it may be some type of hypericum, but I haven't found anything like it yet online.  The leaves are smooth ovals, & do not show spots when held up the the sun, as I had been taught, so I'm not sure.  I've been hanging on to a free Tofutti coupon for a long time.  We were headed to a family gathering, with a Whole Foods a block away, so we used it when buying groceries there.  I've begun gathering the first ripe blueberries, along with wild blackberries, & rare raspberries & mulberries.  I used our garlic when making hummus.  We've had some very hot days (mid 90's), so I gave the chickens some frozen corn "muffins" to cool & amuse them, and froze another batch.  I made an herb tea using red clover, nettles, spearmint & red raspberry leaf harvested here, & planted 3 varieties of beans in the patches where the previous beans didn't come up.  Our garden spigot had a significant leak, which J felt was finally beyond repair,& he and I replaced it.  In between helping with that job, I weeded around a fig bush, cut away a mulberry seedling & some milkweed that were keeping sun from it & pulled up horse nettle & wild blackberry that had come up around it.  I'm hoping that will mean more figs in the future.  We have 5 fig trees, but a total of only 3 figs so far this year.  Three of the fig trees have become fairly shaded by various other plants, which doesn't help.  Oops, make that 7 fig trees.  I forgot about the 2 youngest ones next to the pond.

loving the various colors in this bachelor button mix

Laundry was hung on the line, after washing it with homemade laundry soap & soap gel.  I trimmed the dogs nails at home.  Guinness is a sweetie, & lets me trim all of his.  After much cajoling, McNibs let me trim his 4 longest nails, which I consider an accomplishment.  Though he is very food oriented, even treats don't help in this instance if he doesn't want to do it.  I gave both dogs a bath using my Sirius dog soap, which includes a number of essential oils for fleas and ticks.  There was a huge auction nearby over the weekend.  It was so large they had two auctioneers working in different parts of the estate.  J & I looked around, but ended up leaving in an hour without bidding on anything.

I did a clean out of the crispers in my fridge, which seriously needed some love and attention.  Some broccoli was steamed, a mix of spinach and lambs quarters was steamed & frozen for future meals;  zucchini, peppers and leeks were grilled, an elderly beet and apple were turned into apple beet salad, & I'm embarrassed to say some cranberries which were soft but not moldy were given to the chickens, who enjoyed them immensely.  I fully intended to freeze them at some point, but didn't.  The one thing wasted was a small bag of  arugula I had harvested some time back, & it went into the compost crock.  I sprayed a liquid fertilizer on the wine grapes, & also picked off japanese beetles while I was attending to them.  A late frost damaged a lot of our fruit, so I don't think we'll be making wine this year, but there's always next year to look forward to for our first batch.

Happy Summer Solstice & Frugal Accomplishments

Last week, at the discount grocery, they had all food for 1/2 off their usual price.  I was concerned they were phasing out food, but was told they just wanted to move out all that was there to make room for newer items.  Phew!  There were also sunglasses for $1/pair.  I'm a bit rough on them, as they generally live in my car, so I got 2 pairs.  I also found a Himalayan salt lamp for $9.50 (list price is 34.99).  The salt lamps emit negative ions, which is said to have several health benefits.   The lamp will be a nice nightlight in the new room, and could also be used if I were to do massage work in the room.  At the grocery store, I found organic vegetarian beans and black beans in the markdown area for .80 ea.

My stepmom came to help me begin finishing up all the loose threads on my quilt.  The next day, we took a road trip to J's old house, and I worked on the quilt while going down the road.  I picked basil, kale, lambs quarter & chard from the garden, & prepared meals with all but the lambs quarter.  Once or twice a day, I've collected japanese beetles, and given them to the chickens. After someone suggested putting a lure in the chicken pen, bringing the beetles directly to them without the need to gather the beetles, I ordered some, and placed it in the chicken pen.  After 2 days, I've not seen any near the lure, & have continued to pick many off the plants... bummer.  Squash bugs are also causing challenges in the garden.  J read about using sticky traps by the squash plants, so he placed those around both summer and winter squash.

Out of 6 eggs mama hen had been sitting on, we ended up with 3 new chicks.  A 4th chick hatched, but had health issues and didn't make it through the first night.  Mama hen left the nest with the 6th egg still on it, & we never figured out what happened to the 5th egg, which we did find broken, but no chick.  Perhaps it was an unfertilized egg.  We're happy to have the 3 new chicks, and the two that are a bit older, to add some young birds to the flock.  Of course, we're hoping most if not all are hens rather than roos, but time will tell.  Our second rooster is still doing poorly, despite getting special foods & attention daily and being separated from the rest of the flock so he's not picked on.

I bought a bag of red onions at Aldi's, & dehydrated them.  I don't use them often, and this works well when a recipe calls for them.  I will say it was a fragrant and eye-burning event for a couple of days! Did the usual composting, washing plastic bags for reuse, doing laundry with homemade soap & hanging it on the line, making kefir, yogurt, & hummingbird food.  I planted crowder peas & more sunflower seeds, as the first ones either didn't come up or got eaten.  I'm joining in with Frugal Accomplishments.

After a night in the mid 50's, I took advantage of the cool morning air and baked sweet potatoes.  I got out to the garden early, and weeded the beet bed.  J joined me & helped me finish up that bed, then we weeded dill, onions, basil & eggplant.  He also watered using the irrigation pump from the pond.  After that, we're in pretty good shape in the garden.  It's probably too much to hope the food plants will out grow most of the weeds that come up from here, but I'll hope anyway.  There are now small tomatoes on several of the non-cherry tomatoes, and a few small peppers.  The bean beetles have been munching on the eggplant, but I think they'll do OK in spite of it.  J harvested the garlic & planted okra in its place.  I fertilized all the house plants and a number of other plants with nettle tea.  I wish you a most happy summer solstice!

No Shortage of Critters

Hello, friends!  It's turned hot here, with temps in the mid to upper 90's over the weekend.  On days like these, I do as many outdoor chores as possible early in the day, then move indoors.  The garden is growing well.  There are tiny tomatoes on two of our plants.  Our peanut experiment seems to be working very well so far, though the deer have already been munching them.  J did a lot of work in the heat, hoeing weeds and cleaning the garden perimeters with mower and tractor.  He grew up doing a lot of farm work in the heat, but it's still tough on a body.

There are no shortage of interesting critters around the homestead.  There are still lots of little toads jumping around, though instead of the hundreds I would see in a day, now there are a few dozen.  I've seen two leopard frogs the past week.  We were expecting chicks to hatch this coming Wednesday, but lo and behold, we found one that had hatched Sunday morning, & another later in the day.  Sorry for the not terribly clear photo.  It's quite dim in that area of the coop.

This weekend, I took part in a pre-Fathers Day show at a local microbrewery.  I thought it was fitting to add a few sprigs of hop vine when cutting a bouquet for the event.

hoppy bouquet

I've been doing all the usual frugal activities... composting, cooking mostly from the garden and pantry, hanging laundry on the line, making yogurt, kefir & suet.  I'm enjoying these long days of almost summer, and hope you are too.

A View From The Porch

As there have been a few questions about the new porch, I thought I would share a bit.  We sided the addition with rough sawn pine from a local sawyer, to match the rest of the house.  It's somewhat of a tradition in the South to paint porch ceilings "haint blue".  I did choose blue for the ceiling, though the shade was another name.  The porch posts still need to be sealed, likely with linseed oil.  I like vintage metal chairs, and would like to find one of the vintage metal gliders, or possibly an old church pew to add for seating.

We moved a small round table to the porch one recent night and enjoyed dinner on the porch, which was lovely.  In my first house, there was a room that was originally a porch, which I used as a meditation space.  I pulled up the ugly carpet and painted the concrete floor blue, then sponged clouds on it.  I was pleased with the results, and am thinking about doing the same with the porch ceiling at some point.   It would be a little tricky with all the divisions in this ceiling, so I'm pondering it.

Here's a view of our new walkway from the porch.  The walkway does help a great deal, but there is still a lot of mud getting tracked onto the porch, from all the other areas we regularly wander around the homestead.  It's been a very wet spring in our area.  But the new grass is coming up, and we're researching various possibilities for stepping stones to use on the other paths.  The plantings in the shade garden are still fairly small, but are coming along.  So there you have it, friends, the latest with the porch project.

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.