From Seeds to Harvest

I've decided to join the challenge at

http://teachinggoodthings.com/blog/from-seeds-to-harvest/ 

I read about it over at

http://www.homesteadblogger.com/youwantmetomovewhere/133719

This looks like fun and should help keep us working in the garden.  It should also be a learning experience.  Want to join us?

Here's a start or  a few of my starts.  Tomatoes, broccoli,cabbage and peppers.  Some of the peppers haven't come up yet.  I'm not sure why.  I thinned the broccoli, cabbage and peppers.

The second picture has some of the herbs we planted, too.  There's thyme, lovage, sweet annie, parsley, and comfrey.  The next two  pictures are lavender and rosemary.  I bring them in during the winter because they can't handle the cold up here.  Then they go back out every spring.  I get fresh herbs all winter that way. 

These are the plants going into my garden next month.  My tomatoes should be monsters by then.  My son is starting some flowers.  He wants black violets and larkspur.

Feeling like joining the fun?  Let everyone know how your gardening is growing.

From Glory Farm

Dutch Oven Cooking

Well, maple tapping is over and I have left in my yard a firepit that I made for boiling down the sap.  With summer coming on and with the rising price of electricity, I thought I'd utilize this new piece of equipment.  I've been looking at sites with recipes for cooking in a Dutch Oven. Two of the sites I've found are  http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/dutch-oven-recipes.htm  and http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-DORecipes.html  .

  I know some of you out there are seasoned Dutch Oven users so any favorite recipes or words of advice would be great.  I think this means that I'll also have to redo my menu to include cooking outside at least three times a week.  Sound like fun??

Maple Syrple

I think today is the day I pull the taps.  The sap has slowed down and it didn't freeze out last night!  Time to start thinking about working the garden up and spreading manure and disking the field, planting the field, oh I"m getting overwhelmed just thinking about it.  Thought I'd post some pics my daughter took of making syrup.  She did the batch yesterday, by herself.  Now she has something more to enter into the county fair next summer.

One of our taps-

Cooking it over the fire.

When it boils down to about a gallon, we bring it in and finish it on the stove.

Then we strain it and bottle it.  She didn 't get pics of the finished product, but she was so happy-it tasted just like maple syrup!

Good Morning Farm

That's what I say

Every morning of every day.

Good morning rooster

How doodle you do?

Nobody's wider awake than  you.

This is from a book my mom used to read to me until she couldn't take it anymore.  I have more memorized, but I won't go on.  Thinking back, this is probably how it all started.  The farming, gardening, animals, etc.  My mom has big shoulders and consented to take the blame.

I wanted to introduce you to......Esther.  OUr brand new Angora doeling.

Syrup is done.

I think  our sap collecting is coming to an end.  I've put up a gallon and a half so far.  This isn't as hard as I originally thought.  Even I can do it. 

I started shearing this week.  I have seven left to go.  Three goats and four sheep.  I still have a lot of hoof trimming left, also.  Today I have the children home, so I think I'll see if I can round up some help.  I'm still learning to shear.  This will be an ongoing education for quite some time.

There's the van to wash, bathroom to clean, floors to sweep, hay to move, sap to boil, yard to clean, paperwork to do, birthday cake to bake, hotdish to cook , get ready for Easter dinner,  "Get Everything Done" day.  I'll check back this evening and let you know how it went.

Life is busy, but life is good.  When we go to "Simplify" our lives, is this what happens?  We, as in I, take on more and more learning experiences and create a life that is so full its ready to burst.  Teach me to work hard and rest in You, oh Lord.  Help me to hear your voice in the din I've created.

So off I go.

From Glory Farm 

We did---wash the van, bake the cake, make the hotdish, sweep the floors, get the sap, move the hay... we didn't clean the bathroom, vacuum the livingroom, do the paperwork, or clean the yard, but.....we peeled some fenceposts and trimmed the hooves on three goats and got one more goat sheared.

Easter dawned this morning with new life in the barn. We have a new kid, a doeling, an Angora.  She is the cutest.  Pictures coming soon.