Maple Grove Farm

Up Close and Personal in My Garden

The Big Picture - My Garden

Work and Play

We had both a busy day and one filled with play.  We cleaned out all freezers (5) in the house and re-organized them.  We cleaned them all out and sorted them again.  We inventoried all of the items and entered them in our spreadsheets.  We were also able to figure out that we will need to butcher pigs again in November.

After taking care of the freezers we headed to Wal-mart and picked up some swimsuits, towels, and a life jacket.  We are dress wearing but we do swim with dresses over swimsuits in the rivers in the summer.  Then off for a picnic lunch and a little swimming in the river.  It was a nice treat on this very warm day.

Later we headed home and whipped up a birthday cake.  Little Morgan, my baby girl, turned two.  She isn't the littlest still but she is my baby girl.  I can't believe how quickly she has grown.  Dinner was her choice - hamburgers and potato salad.  We then had a nice cake with fresh strawberries and ice cream.  She got a doll and a ball for her special day.  The ball was liked the best but right away was taken over by the boys.  It must be hard being 2 with two brothers 3 and 4 so close to you in age.

Tonight we sat outside and cut out three dresses.  We will begin sewing tomorrow some dresses for the 4th of July.  We also got some fabric today for 3 more dresses each for our upcoming family reunion.  They always seem to have getting dirty dresses and nice dresses for church, but never enough middle of the road, presentable in public dresses.  With only 3 or 4 each in the latter category, I would like them to have a couple more to make it through a week away.

I put up some peas and some broccoli today.  We still have some more onions to plant this weekend.  I took a count of the number of onions planted versus how much we need for a year and I am short still.  We'll see if we are able to get enough grown.

Canning and Preserving

We have been canning away and freezing some too.  I did a little spinach and broccoli.  I also have done 36 pints of jam between raspberries and strawberries.  I thought it would be helpful to show a little piece of two of the spreadsheets I use to track what I need and what I am preserving.  This first one is where I calculate how many of each item that my menu requires for a year. 

	Item	Description	Breakfast Month	Lunch Month	Dinner Month	Total Per Month	Number of Months	Total Needed	Current Count
Canned and Frozen Preserving
f	Apple	Cider				0	8	0
f	Apples	Apple Butter				0	10	0
f	Apples	Dried Rings	1	1	1	3	8	24
f	Apples	Fruit Leather		2		2	10	20
f	Apples	Pie Filling – Dry		1	1	2	10	20
f	Apples	Pie Filling – Thick			1	1	10	10
f	Apples	Sauce	3	2		5	10	50
v	Beets	Regular Canned			1	1	10	10
f	Berry	Conserve				0	10	0
f	Berry	Syrup				0	10	0
f	Blackberries	IQF	2			2	10	20
f	Blackberries	Jam	0.5	2		2.5	10	25
f	Blueberries	IQF	2		1	3	10	30
v	Broccoli	Frozen			3	3	10	30
v	Brussel Sprouts	Frozen			1	1	10	10
v	Cabbage - Kraut	Canned			1	1	10	10
v	Carrots	Whole			1	1	10	10
v	Cauliflower	Frozen			3	3	10	30
f	Cherries	Bing Canned		4		4	10	40
f	Cherries	Pie Filling				0	10	0
f	Cherries	Regular Canned				0	10	0
v	Corn	Frozen Cobs			2	2	10	20
v	Corn	Regular Canned			2	2	10	20
v	Eggplant	Frozen			1.5	1.5	10	15
f	Grapes	Juice		2		2	10	20
v	Green Beans	Regular Canned			5	5	10	50
v	Green Beans	Whole			1	1	10	10
v	Kim Chi	Canned			1	1	10	10
f	Peaches	Canned - Elbertas	4		3	7	10	70

This second sheet show I how I track what I have already canned.  The desired quantities don't match up because this second sheet is based on my historical experience and not on a menu.  It is a work in progress.  Both of these are not all inclusive of all items because they would have been too long so I just cut them off at peaches.

Date	Fruit/Vegetable	Food Product	Process	Size	Quantity	Source	Count
	Apple	Cider	Water Bath	Half Gallon	40
	Apples	Apple Butter	Water Bath	8 oz	6
	Apples	Dried Rings	Dryer	Tray	12
	Apples	Fruit Leather	Dryer	Tray	12
	Apples	Pie Filling – Dry	Water Bath	Quart	6
	Apples	Pie Filling – Thick	Water Bath	Quart	12
	Apples	Sauce	Water Bath	Pint	50
	Apples	Sauce	Water Bath	Quart	50
	Beets	Regular Canned	Pressure	Pint	8
	Berry	Conserve	Water Bath	Quart	5
	Berry	Syrup	Water Bath	Quart	5
	Blackberries	IQF	Freezer	Gallon	6
	Blackberries	Jam	Water Bath	Pint	15
	Blueberries	IQF	Freezer	Gallon	6
6/24/2008	Broccoli	Frozen	Freezer	Cups	30	Garden	2
	Brussel Sprouts	Frozen	Freezer	Cups	20
	Cabbage - Kraut	Canned	Water Bath	Pints	24
	Carrots	Canned - Sliced	Pressure	Pints	10
	Cauliflower	Frozen	Freezer	Quarts	40
	Cherries	Bing Canned	Water Bath	Quart	20
	Cherries	Pie Filling	Water Bath	Pint	8
	Cherries	Regular Canned	Water Bath	Quart	20
	Corn	Frozen Cobs	Freezer	Gallon	20
	Corn	Regular Canned	Pressure	Quart	30
	Grapes	Juice	Water Bath	Half Gallon	60
	Green Beans	Regular Canned	Pressure	Quart	50
	Green Beans	Whole	Freezer	Cups	20
	Peaches	Canned - Elbertas	Water Bath	Quart	100

Weekend Update

A Family That Works Together . . .

It's Thursday evening and I am starting my weekend, since I work 4, 10 hours days each week.  We had a quick dinner and headed outside to enjoy the nice weather.  We relaxed and drank Otai (watermelon, water, and grated fresh coconut).  We quickly were done relaxing and were back at work pulling weeds in the flower beds, watering flowers, and washing the front porch.  The kids then picked up all their toys and we headed to the garden to weed.  We got several rows weeded and also gave manure tea to plants that needed a little growth boost.

The garden is really doing quite well.  This year we have managed to keep up on the weeding and it really makes it more enjoyable to be out there weeding.  At least you feel like you are making progress.  DH and I each weed a little each day and we assign the older girls to do weeding if we get behind.  All the little plants are up and the garden is very full of items that will be harvested and stored away for winter. 

Tonight I had my yearly panic attack - maybe it is not enough?  Some of the tomatoes are not looking well, maybe they won't make it.  I should have put in more eggplant; we eat a lot of eggplant.  Squash there is not going to be enough.  Every year I go through this.  Then I take a deep breath and realize that 1) the Lord will provide and 2) it is more than last year and we have made it just fine.  I will try to get a few more plants if I can find any and shore up some of these areas that I am concerned about.  After all, I never have too much.  You may say ask, "never?"  Yes, never.  I always wish I had more to put up even zucchini.

The girls finished their cobblestone path through the herb garden on Wednesday.  They shoveled for a couple of days until they had it dug out 3" and then they laid 1" of gravel.  Wednesday evening they moved all the cobblestones to the location and it took Dad about 30 minutes to put them in.  DH does this for a living so we were blessed that he helped get them in all flat and level.  The girls did the hard work though and I hope they are proud.  Their next project is to research wind power for running two functions of our home - hot water/heat pump that works with the outdoor wood boiler and the water pump. 

We are working on getting some more animals here on the farm.  We hope to get a buck this weekend for our milk goats.  We are planning to cross breed them with a meat goat.  I am looking for a milk cow and I may be getting close.  Next will be sheep.  We are getting a cow from my father to butcher in July and when he brings her he may also bring a horse for the girls.  They don't know yet, but they will be so blessed and excited if that happens.

Well, this weekend we have to pick strawberries and make jam and freeze them whole.  We will harvest some spinach tomorrow and put it in the freezer.  We will run a few errands tomorrow.  On Saturday I am going to the home shcool curriculum fair and prepraing to have another family from church over for Sunday supper.  It will be another busy weekend, but we have a plan.  Happy homesteading . . .

Update from the Farm

Well we are busy, busy, busy around our little farm.  There is always mowing and weeding to be done.  I am trying something new this year and putting the grass clippings down between my vegetable rows.  Just a thin layer.  It seems to be breaking down quickly and is helping with making walkways less muddy after watering and keeping weeds downs.  I think it will make nice hummus for next year. 

We are weeding on a daily basis until canning starts.  We are also still planting.  As rows are cleaned up we are planting the ends where the seeds didn't go to the end, adding rows in between items, and re-planting items like lettuce that are already being harvested.  The bulk of the garden is planted and coming up.  Everything we plant now is like a bonus.  Strawberries and spinach will probably be ready to process next weekend.

The girls and I weeded the herb garden today and planted a few more herbs.  I like finding unusual herbs and adding them to my stash.  We also strated putting in a cobblestone walkway through the herb garden to the egg boxes.  I have this lovely little fenced herb garden with a gate.  It is on th edge of the chicken coop and the nesting boxes open to the outside in the herb garden.  This pathway will help me be able to fill in with more plants and keep the kids from trampling my plants.  We are hoping Daddy will come home and help us finish, but we have it mostly dug out.  Since my DH is a contractor, we have left over materials from projects such as cobblestones.

In the house, we did some of our baking yesterday.  Today we still have major cleaning to do - bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, etc.  We would like to start some seedlings also.  We are getting ready for soap making scenting some of our oil with lavendar.  It is a little experiment. 

I am working on overhauling our monthly rotating menu.  I am starting from scratch and setting up five weeks of rotating menus that are based on what we raise here on the farm only supplemented with the what we can bake from the staples we do purchase.  I can/freeze/dry/store based on 40 weeks of eating from our stores.  So I have calculations on how many times we eat things each month - potatoes 13 times, peaches 6 jars, pears 4 jars, etc.  I then plug in the items in to a month long menu.  I also have my meat consumption of beef, pork, and chicken done the same.  All convenience foods are being eliminated and replaced with home baked items all the way down to homeamade corn chips and homemade noodles. 

I am also researching more inexpensive ways to feed our animals.  We had considered planting some corn for them, but space and water are an issue.  We did plant additional corn in the garden that we will be able to use to supplment feed.  I am considering sprouted wheat for the chickens.  I am interested in any ideas anyone has.  I want to be free of buying feed.  I read about the old days when everyones raised their own feed so it isn't too far fetched.

I hope you are finding your homestead productive . . .

Family Picture

Here is a recent picture taken of our growing family. 

Flu Bug and Other Bugs that Bug Me

I had the flu this weekend.  The really yucky kind that makes you throw up and stay in bed.  Some aphids destroyed my beautiful ficus in my bedroom and I was too busy to deal with them until the damage was done.  I hate those pesky buggers too.  And although not a bug, it is bugging me that a gopher is eating my broccoli and cabbage plants. 

I've been overwhelmed a little lately, but I'm back.  Now that my system is all cleaned out, I have lots of energy.  I am even thinking of posting a picture of my family recently taken.  That's for you Alaina. 

Herbs, Baby Wearing, and Needle Work

It has been one of those weekends when you get to just putter from one homesteading activity to another.  I started my weekend with lots of bread baking - two whole wheat loaves, french bread, french rolls, and cinnamon rolls.  I did all the kids mending in my mending box and we tidied the house.  We watered the strawberries which have their little green berries already.  We weeded, worked on fencing, fed the vinegars, did the bookkeeping, cut the lawn, washed laundry and hung it on the line outside.  Today we are going to a BBQ.

This is the perfect time of year to do your herb harvesting.  Saturday we cut lavendar, sage, peppermint, lemon balm, rosemary, and thyme.  Some of these are medicinal, some for soap, and some for culinary purposes.  These are hung now in our multipurpose food storage room.  They will be dried in a month and we will store them for winter use.  We will continue to harvest and dry throughout the next month.  We have lots of lavendar to cut and dry to use for soap and satchets. 

Another good activity to be doing this time of year, while you wait on the garden for your first harvest, is knitting and crocheting.  I am working on the winter knitting needs like scarves and mittens.  I finished a pink scarf for my youngest and I have a purple chenille on the sticks right now for my 8 year old daughter.  My 10 year old will get a pink one, which will be the next project.  Then I will move on to mittens for all of the them and the boys.

My baby is 4 months old now.  He is doing so well.  We have struggled with an allergy to formula and it has taken awhile to get his rashes under control.  He is doing so much better now.  He is a very good baby - sleeping through the night for the last 3 months, smiling and cooing, and rarely fussy.  I am practicing baby wearing lately with him snuggled in a baby sling around my mid-section whenever practical.  I take him to the garden with me and as I work around the house.  It also works great during church when I need my hands to manage the other little ones.

Have a great week homesteading and enjoy all the activities which bring you closer to the Creator!

Food Storage

I can't believe how so many of the websites I have read lately that are mentioning stockpiling or storing extra food.  Many homesteaders seem to believe that now is the time to be prepared.  Leading newspapers have been reporting on various reasons why stocking up may be prudent during the uncertain economic times we now find ourselves in.  So I must admit that yes, I too have been adding food to our stores.

The size of our family already lends itself to bulk buying and it has been my practice for some time to have 3 months of food on hand.  Of course, we also can and freeze lots of meat, vegetables, and fruits and have these items on hand most of the time.  Now I am increasing these amounts, focusing on the most practical items first and foremost.

The items I consider most important to have on hand include wheat (assuming you have the ability to grind), oats, rice, beans, corn, honey or sugar, and salt.  My next tier of items include baking soda, baking powder, yeast, powdered milk, spices, vinegar, soap, bleach, and toilet paper.  This is a good calculator http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm for figuring out what items and how many for your family.  I do not support the theology of the lds church, but this will provide some guidance.  I have a book I used to make calculations, and I thought some of the amounts seemed high.  This calculator seemed pretty accurate to me. 

You can of course figure out how much you buy on a monthly basis and multiply that, but don't forget to figure in that you won't have access to convenience items and therefore would be doing more cooking from scratch and baking.  I have been stocking up on the first tier items I mentioned primarily and I am not finding it horribly expensive to add to our stores. 

The primary word of advice that I have for anyone considering stocking up - - don't buy items you normally don't eat.  My mother told me she is stocking up on canned corned beef.  She'll never eat it, and I mean never.  In order to make food storage work financially in the long term you have to eat from your stores and replenish them as you go, always rotating.  Items you can't rotate because they are not part of your normal diet, are really not worth it in my opinion. 

Hot Weather!

The hot weather has kept us working a lot in the mornings and evenings and then resting in the middle of the days.  I almost feel guilty.  We got some baking done this morning and a couple more loads of laundry.  I love when we can dry the laundry on the lines outside. 

I am so pleased with how the garden is doing.  The lettuce and spinach that I was so worried about because I thought it never came up, is there under the weeds.  I have been weeding them every day.  Most everything is up and looking really good.  I started tomatoes from seed, but still need to get a few more from the store to round out the 40 plants we need.  Every year we come a little closer to figuring out how to start all of our plants from seed.  I think the tomatoes would have done better if transplanted one more time to the larger pots so that the stems would be stronger and the plants more vigorous.

This time of year we are always busy looking for animals to add to the farm and outlining our summer projects.  This year we need to add a cement area to the pig pen so that they can stay dry and we can feed easier during the bad weather.  We have to have some work done to our outside wood boiler that heats the house.  I am pusing DH to build a wood shed so that we can make sure we have a couple of years supply of wood on hand and cured.  We have been doing a lot of cut as we go.  DH already took care of the additional run for the chickens.  This new area is smaller but provides nice shade during the hot summer months and lets the soil rest in the other area.  Of course we are letting them out a lot right now.

In terms of animals, we would like to add a billy goat and some sheep.  I also just looked at some turkeys on line.  That would make a nice addition.  I have heard you can not raise them in the same areas as chickens.  We have a divided chicken coop that we use for raising the baby chicks until they are big enough to join the regular flock.  I was wondering if I could raise a few turkeys in there.  Any thoughts?  I might have to wait awhile to get DH to build them their own place.

I love homesteading and all the thoughts and plans.  There is always something to be working on and doing.  My mind is always busy with the next project.  But I was telling DH that I have had to learn patience.  You can't do everything today or even this summer.  You have to prioritize and be willing to learn.  If you think you are going to move to the country and the first year enjoy the self-sufficiency of homesteading, don't be disappointed when you fail.  Even growing up in the same circumstances, both DH and I have had to learn through trial and error and have had to use funds to cover the gaps.  I hope you are enjoying the learning process of you homestead. . .

A Hot Day . . . A Busy Morning

Update on the Work

This weekend was a both full of work and full of relaxing.  On Friday we ran errands and I bought myself a new sewiing machine.  I have been using the one I inherited from my grandmother.  It is about 60 years old.  It works fine except I have to do the button holes by hand - one step at a time - and that is not my thing.  Every time DH takes it for servicing he comes home and says it is still a great machine and I don't need a new one.  Since the girls are starting to sew and would like to be able to work on projects too, I thought we were due for a second machine - with a one-step button holer.

I worked on finishing up the dresses we started last weekend.  One weeks work of work - 11 dresses and 4 slips finished.  I am hoping that I just have 7 dresses left for summer sewing.  It really mupltiplies fast when you have 4 girls to sew for.  We are starting to look for fabric for fall sewing.  We will plan on making 28 dresses, 12 nightgowns, 8 skirts, and 4 slips for the fall sewing.  Oh my!  Well, just one step at a time.  All I have to do now is find fabric and gather the patterns.

We did some yard work this weekend.  We are working on filling in a part of one of the flower beds with perennials to give it a cottage look, so we planted flowers.  We weeded the herb garden and planted some flower pots to give it some color.  We planted some sunflowers.  We cut back the dead daffodils.  DH is almost finished with the addition to the chicken coop.  We added a second small run for when we have birds we are keeping separate or to rest the ground in the main run area. 

We also took out the tomatoes and put them outside to harden them off.  They are not looking too good.  One daughter was told to water them when she got them outside but she did not and then it was real windy even though they were protected.  I am going to take a look this morning.  My mother told me that I should not depend on a child to water such important plants as tomatoes.  I was so proud that I finally raised tomatoes from seed to a point that they would have produced well in the garden.  Well each year we learn a little lesson.  I am just hoping I don't have to replace them all - 40 plants.

Our focus on work is shifting to weeding.  We have lots of garden weeding to do.  We'll be spending most evenings outside to work on it so that it does not get away from us.  I another month we'll be able to shift away from weeding as the plants take off, but for now we need to give those plants the best possible conditions.  I hope you are enjoying your garden . . .

And the work goes on . . .

It was such a busy weekend that I did not get a chance to post.  I feel like I am disappointing people if I am not on top of posting.  Maybe no one checks.  Anyways, it was a busy weekend.

We had a birthday on Wednesday.  This time it was mine!  We have 4 birthdays and Mother's Day over 20 days.  It keeps us busy.  On Monday was DH's 40th birthday, so we had a BBQ on Sunday to celebrate.  Before we got there though it was a sewing day on Friday and our monthly grocery shopping on Saturday.  We also got a few more plants in the ground.

I got a lot of sewing done between Thursday night and Saturday night - 10 dresses and 4 slips.  I have just a few hems and button holes to finish up the last five dresses.  I am doing some of that tonight.  It was really an assembly line with my daughters pinning and unpinning items while I whipped them through the machine. 

Here is how we did it: On Thursday we cut out about half the dresses.  On Friday, after cleaning up and starting chili and bread for lunch, I began sewing.  My two oldest kept cutting out items.  I did a lot of pinning and some sewing.  We used only white thread to piece all the dresses and for the serger.  Later the girls all assembled and I whipped the pieces through that I had pinned.  At the same time two daughters unpinned items while my oldest re-pinned pieces together.  We had a good time.  I also spent a little instructional time with the two oldest so they got to practice their sewing.

It was a lovely weekend . . . in the end

The weather was sunny and beautiful this weekend.  I dried laundry on the line.  We planted in the garden.  We are nearly done now.  I made chicken stock and canned dry beans. 

Then my oven broke!  Oh my, I was so upset and the customer assistant people were no help; they said look online at their website.  Which frankly, worked about as well as their oven - that was broken.  I was resigned to have to call a repairman, but I thought I would wait unitl Monday to schedule it.  I mentioned it to my sister, who mentioned it to her husband, who called his father (a repair man for the same company that I bought the stove from), and he was able to walk my husband and I through the simple repair to fix it.  Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord!!! 

I use my oven a lot and I didn't know what I would do without an oven for a week or maybe two.  But I use water even more and on Sunday morning our tank that is filled by a spring went dry.  Luckily DH was able to easily blow out the line and it re-filled while we went to church.  Praise the Lord again!

We were able to enjoy the nice weather and the kids loved playing outside.  It was a relaxing day and a joyful day on the homestead.

Garden Work

Work continues on the garden.  I got some herbs yesterday and planted them in pots for the herb garden.  I also got a few more potatoes and onions as well as the peppers I did not start myself.  All I have left to get is some more cauliflower and maybe brussel sprouts.

I have been fine tuning my preserving plan and reviewing it to make sure that I get enough plants in the ground while I can.  I was reviewing vegetables for dinner.  We will have green beans 2 times each week, broccoli 1 time, cauliflower 1 time, spinach 1 time, and either brussel sprouts, zucchini in tomatoes, or peas for the other two days.  This makes up 1 vegetable serving for each day.  I plan another serving each day out of carrots, sauerkraut, corn, pickles, or tomato items.  The last serving will be fresh salad or homemade kim chi.  This provides us with 3 serving of vegetables each day.

For fruit, I often use canned fruit to make breakfast like baked oatmeal or a dessert like cobbler for dinner.  I use dry, canned, and frozen for snacks.  I also use frozen fruit in my baking as well as adding it to yogurt for breakfast.  I have about 600 servings of fruit planned and based on 40 weeks that gives me 15 per week or the 2 per day that I need.

Using this method, I will then plan my menues around 3 vegetable servings per day and 2 fruit servings per day.  I can get almost all of my family's nutritional needs in these areas met through prepserving from my own garden.  The key is to be creative.  While my family loves canned peaches, they would quickly grow old if I didn't present them in different ways - peach baked oatmeal, peach ice cream, peach cobbler, peach pie, peach crisp, dried peaches, peach roll-ups, etc. 

It is possible to feed your family all year long from your own preserves.  Happy homesteading!

Looking Forward to the Weekend

I have a lot of cleaning to do this weekend.  Next Friday the ladies from church are all coming over with their kids for a sewing day.  It is a great way for us to fellowship and we get to work on our projects also.  I am really looking forward to it, but I need to get the house cleaned up and organized in preparation.  If I get some time I also want to get some projects ready.  I may just work on my quilt since I don't have any dresses that have to be sewn.

Our second priority will be working on the garden.  The weather is suppose to be nice and we need to move our plants back outside.  I have a few things that may need to be planted and of course there is always weeding to do.

I am concerned about some of the issues regarding food in our country.  Not only are we seeing prices rising, but now some stores are starting to say they will ration some products.  I will stocking up on pantry items.  I now have about 1-2 months on hand and I will up that to 3-5 months.  I will also can some beans and maybe some soup and broth this weekend.  I want to make sure we are well stocked.  Of course we have freezers full of meat and plenty of canned fruits and vegetables so with a few staples we will be just fine.

Passover, Resurrection, and Other Updates

Saturday night we celebrated Passover with a Seder Meal.  It was a good opportunity for the kids to experience something we just read about.  They were very curious and excited but they were mixing up different Biblical items, so perhaps a visual will help them remember some of the details.  We began with a lighting of the candles and a prayer.  We then reviewed the symbolism of the items on the Seder plate.  We are blessed to have a Seder plate from Israel that some missionary friends gave us.  After the review of Passover we read from Mark about Jesus sending out two disciples to find a place for them for Passover and read through the Last Supper and took communion with them.  It was good.

We have had the most bizzare weather around here - snow.  Now I have lived in this area almost my whole life and I don't ever remember is snowing this late.  The garden faired fine, but we brought in all the plants that we had outside in pots waiting to be planted.  Everything we started is looking really great.  Next year I think I will start the lettuce and spinach in pots that I had to buy starts of this year.  I think my garden planted seeds of spinach have finally sprouted.  I saw our first little asparagus is up when I visited the garden today and the rhubarb I moved is looking fine.  Everything else seems to be fine.  We still have a lot to plant and I am not sure we have enough room, but that is always my concern.

All weekend we worked on putting our bacon in the freezer.  Early numbers show 40 packages of bacon (1 pound each) from the 6 sides of bacon from our 3 hogs.  We used a dry cure of salt and rapadura this time and then smoked them with apple wood.  After freezing, for easier slicing, we gave our new meat slicer and real work out.  The bacon turned out great and we are extremely pleased with the results.

Garden Fury

This is the time of year when I am always frantic to get things in the garden, but at the same time worried about any late freezes.  Yesterday we got some spinach starts and lettuce starts in the ground after our seeds did not sprout.  Our peas were very slow to come up, so maybe the spinach and lettuce will still come up.  We then planted two rows of onions.  This is another item that we have not had good luck with.

Our soil really needs some hummus to improve it, but that is always a slow process.  Every year we mix in manure, but what we really need is some good compost.  I am planning on building two compost bins this summer so we can compost green items like grass clippings with manure.  We have not gotten to this project before, but we really can't wait any longer.  Each year our soil is a little bit better, but it really is a long process.

We weeded a little bit around the peas and worked in the herb garden planting and transplanting a few items.  The girls are excited to plant some flowers around the edge of the herb garden, but we haven't got all the soil turned yet.  We did get all of our seedlings transplated to larger plants.  Everything came up accept the acorn squash - how odd.

After church today we will work on planting potatoes, carrots, and beets.  There is so much to do it spreads over to Sunday, despite our desire to have this be a day of rest.  For now this is a tradeoff we have to make to break the cycle. 

By cycle I mean - I work because we need the money and in order for me to stay home we have to abide for a very strict budget that requires very little for food.  In order to keep our food costs down, we have to grow as much food as we can.  Once I am at home the work can be completed on other days and Sunday can be a day of rest.  So tdoay we work on Sunday so in the future we can set Sunday aside as its proper day of rest.