A lil' bit of quilting; a whole lotta gardening

Although my quilting time didn't happen until Sunday, I figured I would post about this first.

Yes folks -- I set time aside and burned through a few bobbins worth of quilting thread, making progress on Berquist Beauty.  Like riding a bike :)  This is a bigg'un though, so it'll take me a bit to complete all of the quilting.  Baby steps.  An hour here and there.

But backin' up the bus....

On Saturday, with the help of MIL, FIL and the girls, we made record time of hauling in the garden harvest...

A little under half the corn was picked and shucked, the last of the cucumbers were picked, and the first teaser crop of tomatoes FINALLLLLY came off the vines.  Goodness... mix together a late Spring with a cooler than normal summer, and those 'maters are takin' their good ol' time ripening on the vine!

Yes folkies----the camera was NOT in my hands for once :D  Cassie took care of recording the day's events with digital film....{I think it was her way to get out of helping} ;)

Between FIL and myself, we made fairly quick work of the corn.

I set off blanching it and cooling it, 

while FIL started the process of cutting it off the cob using one of Paul's electric fillet knife.  I joined him at the table to finish up the cobs once all of the corn was blanched.

Not having the pigs this year has been quite different.  They ALWAYS loved corn harvest day because they would get the spoils of the "trash" (aka: naked cobs).  

Waste not, want not....

The girls still had their contest of "who can throw the corn the furthest off the deck?"  or "who can hit the target in the pen?" {{NO!  Not one of the animals!}}.

The goats actually enjoyed the cobs, nibbling off some partial kernels.

The pig pen (aka: goat and duck pen now) is still a work in progress.

While I was getting the corn water up to a boil and preparing all the supplies for the corn harvest, FIL scrubbed up the cucumbers...

...and then got lost in the dill patch.

Yes folkies---we had a great dill patch this year.  

Then, while FIL and I were working away on the corn, MIL took charge of packing the cuks into jars in order to pickle.

With all hands on deck, we were complete with the harvest and preserving around 1PM.  LOTS of time left in the day to play, relax, and nap (not me, but others) ;)

BOY!  Now that I've gone through all of that with such a group of people working like a well-oiled machine, I don't think I'm looking forward to THIS weekend's harvest of even MORE corn, and (hopefully) tomatoes, with only the help of the girls.  The lil' teaser crop of tomatoes went untouched;  only 7 pounds worth;  can't do much with that.  They will either be enjoyed this week, or will wait patiently until next week's harvest to become spaghetti sauce (or pizza sauce).

Happy Monday everyone :)

Happenings around the Ranch

No, we don't live on a ranch, but we sometimes refer to our lil' place as the Skattebo Ranch.

The morning routine has been established.  I typically wake around 5:30-6:00 and enjoy blogging/FB time with a cup of coffee.  The girls get wakened at 7:00, and we leave for summer school at 7:45.  

The two youngest attend summer school from 8:00 - 4:00.  WHAT a full schedule for them!!!! Archery, weight training, touring our town on bikes, art, and then an afternoon of science, more art, outside games and swimming lessons.  Cassie participates in some weight and agility training every morning 8:00-9:00, while I spend some time in my old & new classroom; decluttering, cleaning, organizing, and moving.

By 9:30, Cassie and I are usually back at home, having a morning snack, before embarking on our task for the morning.   The garden has been claiming most of our time lately.

The last of the seeds have been planted..... (SO I THOUGHT!)

While just "taking a look at the corn," I started hoeing the weeds around the stalks seeing that we loaned our tiller out to a friend for a short time.  {{I really am looking forward to having it back -- parts of the garden are starting to look like a lawn!}}

The little bit of hoeing turned into a full-fledge TRANSPLANT operation of corn plants.  As typical, not all of the seeds sprouted.  In the end, nine rows (~30 yards ea) of corn were condensed into five.  The four emptied rows will be tilled up and replanted;  this will be the third (and final?) planting of corn for us this year.  On Monday, Cassie and I planted four more rows of corn for her "little" garden plot (yup, her rows were ~about 30 yards long, too).

But now---at least the corn rows are looking a bit more lush than before! :)  And we'll have more corn.  {{yeah, I'm sure I'll be revisiting this post come September, saying...IDIOT!  Didn't you realized how long it would take to harvest all of this corn???}}

I started "looking around" the corn at 10:00....

... I was quite surprised when I came inside for a quick lunch break and the clock read 1:30!  My stomach is usually a better timing device than that!  Truly!  11:30, and my stomach is typically moaning and groaning, "feed me.  feed me."

While eating my sandwich at the table, THIS GUY rolls into the driveway!  Oh boy.  More work :D

Short version:  last year, we ordered a load of wood because the price was right!  Over the crazy snowy winter, our neighbor was having difficulty getting wood shipped (something to do with loggers unable to get into the woods due to all the snow).  Our neighbor processes wood for selling to others, so he was hurting for some supply.   We had barely TOUCHED our load last Fall, but had plenty of processed wood to last the winter, so Paul and neighbor worked out a deal.  The neighbor could have his hand at the entire load from last summer, and when time came to order a spring/summer load, he would simply put our name on the order as well.

Today was the haul day. 

Not having been around logging all my life, I found it interesting to see how all of that wood gets unloaded.

What a little contraption!!!  And 45 minutes later... we was rolling right back out of the yard, emptied.

The chicks were all mesmerized by the noise of the unloader too.

Along the topic of chicks... Big Mama had been given one more day to decide if she was going to sit on the eggs we've been leaving in the nesting boxes.  But, she was still out wandering around with her hen friends.

With 19 eggs neatly organized in the nesting box, I decided to gather them up and play Mama Hen myself.  For those of you who have chickens -- do you find that all of your hens have a favorite box too?  ALL of our hens (mind you, we only have 4 right now) use the same nesting box.

The duck eggs led to zilcho babies :(, but I'm going to give this egg incubating one more try with chicken eggs.  I've been reading up a bit more on incubation -- I think part of the duck-egg zilchness was because we waited too long to get the eggs in the incubator.  These chicken eggs have been laid within the past week, so.... let's see if Steve and the girls have been getting along ;)

Like my little path along the floor taking me to the incubator (on the table) ??? ;)

SOON, Celtic Solstice... SOON you will get some work time.

Another animal we've been seeing around lately :)  I dare say that this is one of Paul's bees....

Parts of the garden are SLOOOOWLY starting to take shape...

Wittle-bitty carrots....

cucumbers... we have 12 plants this year.  The pantry is completely OUT of dill pickles!!!

... onto my tomatoes......

:(

To let you all know:  I'm worried.

It's been cold.  

And wet.   

Here's a variety we produced from seeds we dried and saved from some heirloom tomatoes a neighbor gave us two years ago.  They will make BIG, BIG, full pound+ tomatoes.  We have three planted.

A new variety that I'm excited about:  Red Oxheart.  But, they are CERTAINLY taking their time to grow big and lush.  I hope it warms up soon to give these guys a boost!    We have 10 planted.

{{BTW, it's raining.  Again.}}

Another new variety this year:  Abe Lincolns.  Gah!  See how yellow those leaves are?!??!!?   These plants really need a break from all the water.  We have 8 of these planted.

There's more garden to show -- eventually.  Right now, it's really a bunch of brown dirt without a lot of green.  

Spring has Sprung! Garden 2014 underway!

I truly can't remember the last Memorial Weekend that consisted of THREE absolutely picture perfect days!  Friday evening was Graduation for our Class of 2014, however I ended up bowing out of the festivities;  (and yes... the guilt was almost getting the better of me!)

Instead, the girls and I tilled up and planted four rows worth of sweet corn.  I am not certain of the length of the rows -- 100 feet maybe? 

I also looked over my strawberry patch I had spent some time with last weekend.  It really sprouted at the end of the summer last year with loads and loads of daughter-runner plants.

The patch has been increased 3-fold!  Next year, I'm hoping these new rows will be growing nicely with some fresh runners so that in two years, we'll be able to have a substantial harvest.

The first lawn haircut happened on Saturday...

And the girls picked some 'flowers' for a graduation party Saturday afternoon.  Hannah is a neighbor about a mile down the road, so we ended up walking, enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather!

Paul worked all day Saturday, and spent much of the morning on Sunday tilling up gardens for friends. But by early afternoon, he was home to start helping me set fencing and trellis for our own garden.  I don't mind planting most of it, but setting fencing and trellis isn't an easy task for me.  I need m'man! :)

The upper garden is back on rotation for potatoes, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peppers and carrots, in addition to a few other small odds-n-ends (radishes, mixed salad lettuces, ...)

And y'all should be so proud of me!!!!!  I've LIMITED myself this year with the beans AND tomatoes!!!!  If all of the beans germinate, there will be about 50-55 plants (pole-beans on a trellis). Pa-lenty, right??

And as the picture shows, I have 17 tomato plants in the ground, safely protected by our infamous milk jug greenhouses.  The next couple of weeks are still touch-n-go, whether we'll get some low over-night temperatures.  The tomatoes are still quite small, too.

Potatoes, on the other hand, are back on full load with.... about 80 Lasoda Red and 56 Yukon Gold plants.  Hearty hearty hearty plants.  

Ummmm....ruh-roh folks!   More tomatoes are waiting !!!..... ;)

Both of these varieties are new to me this year.  These few stragglers will have a chance to grow some more before (possibly) finding a home in garden spot... somewhere!  15 more tomato plants.... you truly can never have too many tomatoes!

The lower garden is only partially planted.  Nine long rows of corn (100' each?), and a long row of peas.  The rest of the space is still being planned out by Paul once he arrives home from work tonight.  We have a variety of melons, squash, pumpkins, and other vine-y spreading plants.  Plus, I'm sure he's going to plant his broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages too.

We've increased the amount of berry bushes and fruit trees... I can't even keep track of what Paul is bringing home anymore.  Cherry trees, grape vines, a multitude of different arrangements of berry bushes.  All edible.  I can't wait to see this place in another 5-6 years!!!!

The goats enjoyed the fresh cut grass clippings on Saturday -- Candace tried her darndest to get Starz to sit still for a picture.  

And since these lil' gals enjoy all of our berry bushes too -- they simply need to stay penned up for much of the time.  They are allowed out on good behavior as long as they are monitored the ENTIRE time!  They ate away most of my deck flowers on Sunday!

Shadow man has also been enjoying some additional attention lately.  He ran away for the fourth time (usually about once a year around this time), but this time there was no call from any of our neighbors.  He went missing last Thursday.  Last Sunday evening, I was scrolling through FaceBook, and a friend happened to share the status of our local Humane Society.  And there was his lovely ol' picture!!!!  FB truly does have its purposes, right???

After school on Monday, we picked him up, and continued driving right to the local Vet to schedule a lil' surgery.  We're hoping his running tendencies will subside considering the myth (fact?) that males typically calm down after being neutered.  Surgery planned during the first week of summer vacation, June 13.

He wintered VERY well, so we've been out walking and running with him once (and sometimes even twice) a day.  He's seven, so he still has lots of life to go. 

My quilting endeavors have definitely been quiet, however I did get a pantograph done for my MIL's hand-embroidered quilt, meant for a friend of the family.  My crochet hook has been quite silent as well lately, but here-n-there I'm working on a lazy-wave afghan using some rich, earth-toned, fall, manly colors.

Despite having a late start to the track season, our Middle School girls team ended on a high note, bringing home the Conference Champions plaque on Thursday.  They put up 120.5 points, while 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place tallied up 79, 77.5, and 77 respectively.  It was quite the defeat, and they were super pumped!  Cassie came away with three 2nd place ribbons (Long Jump (13'0.5"), 400M (1:07) and the 100M.

So, with Memorial weekend behind us, and Spring FINALLY underway... many yards are strewn with dandelions.  Cassie borrowed my camera on a walk this AM and snapped a few lovely 'springy' pictures.  

I have come to appreciate dandelions a bit more, now that Paul has taken up Bee-keeping as a new past-time.  He's had them for a couple of weeks now, and I'll be certain to do some blogging on his new adventure!

Leaving you with a few of those pics from Cassie.....

Two more weeks (and a half-day Monday 5/9) -- and then..... time to de-stress and decompress.  My amazing coworker and friend who teaches HS math has decided to move his family back closer to his alma-mater, and is therefore leaving us at the end of the school year.  With much thought, I decided to request a transfer back to teaching solely HS math in his place, so... that transition will be hanging over my head as I head back in three months.  My first 6 years were in the HS (my past 10 in the MS).  I'm ready for the new transition back to the older ages :)  The HS hallway is filled with amazing staff!  I'm truly looking forward to it.

Alrighty--- 4 days, then 5 more days, and then half-of-a-day Monday.   I got this! :D

Happy Monday everyone.  I've missed all of you :)