it's a beautiful morning

I just wanted to post the picture I see in the morning while I am working from my home office.

try, try again

This is my 3rd go at knitting something for myself... the first 2 hats were too big and you would think I would just buy a pattern. I think it's more about being lazy than too cheap. I tried to shrink the hat so it is a shade different now... figure it'll all match in the end.

This is my 2nd attempt at whole wheat tortillas. The first time I ground the whole wheat berries and it was not fine enough. This time they tasted wonderful even though they are not perfectly round. So now we're set for breakfast burritos homestyle! The Cultivator is buying me a stone mill to make the flour easier. So excited about a flour mill, you'd think I was getting a Red Ryder BB Gun!

Well I am off to knit my hat while my 2 loaves of WW bread are baking.

the good egg

We decided to try a new laying chicken breed this year, the Gold Star. Seems they lay about 1 month before the rest of the hens. It was just in time too, we actually had to buy a dozen eggs last week. We had older pullets, but we also have a fox who discovered the food supply, and ate all our layers, except one hen... but she doesn't lay eggs, just crows like a rooster (figures the fox didn't take her!). We call her Hen Who Crows and she may be dinner this summer. If she's going to crow like a rooster, she should protect like a rooster would too!

I posted about my sad Clematis the other day. My mom replied to my post by email: "Clematis' like to have the base covered with mulch/pine needles, etc. Water so that it is once a week but let the water hose on very low trickle and let it soak for SEVERAL hours. Cook roots and warm leaves. Don't cut the dry stems as they will probably recover with manure and then mulch and move water. said to put some manure on it and put the water on a trickle for most of the day." So I went to the barn Saturday and got a bucket of dry manure and followed mom's directions... we'll see if it perks up.

Our beans are growing well, which is awesome because they are my favorite. I know The Cultivator doesn't like when they are frozen, but I was thinking of blanching and freezing some so I can enjoy during the winter months. I will have to do some research on this.

I made a couple stops this weekend on my weekly grocery store run: the farmers market, the book store and the flourist.

1. I met a woman who will breed her goats to sell us a few in 2009 (awesome!).
2. Checked with the flourist on Alliums, to see if she was ordering them this year. She said September order. I am planting bulbs this year after seeing them in Ave's wedding... oh so wonderful!
3. Picked up a copy of David Sedaris' new book When You Are Engulfed in Flames... hehehe, so funny.

This week I'm going to the NLO show to see The Cultivator fiddle.

ML's atoms

Brainstorming about my friend ML... and 9 years of friendship.

When someone says, "Life Decision" they are most often only making the choices that alter the type of human existence they will be experiencing… your heart is burned at a much greater magnitude. Just know that He has a plan for you Sunshine.

I think since you’ve been feeling so terrible that your happy atoms are somewhere in Ireland walking the coastline wishing you could join them.

Felting

... Thanks Laureen for showing me how to felt, now I have yet ANOTHER hobby that I absolutely am loving and not sure how much time I can spend to create the things floating around in my mind.

...and at least this is a flower I won't be destroying.

Status on my Clematis... not so good. I watered it yesterday and the vines that had grown up the topiary (and actually bloomed this summer) are dried and dead. There are some leaves at the base still green, I will get some dried manuer and try and make it better.

Garden by the pottery studio

This will take quite a bit of vision for you to read this and see what I see, and even more time for me to pull it off, did say 5 year plan? ...maybe it'll be more like 10 year plan.

Ok lots of work to be done but lets not get side tracked... we're garden planning! The picture below will eventually be the front of the pottery studio .

This area is 55 feet wide x 29 feet deep. Windows and a door will be on this face of the building. I want to start here and keep it fairly natural with stone and grass walkways... but clean and short. So here's what I had in mind...

Research to be done:

What type of flagstone, other flat stone or as I was reading in Mother Earth News recycled concrete...

Do I need to put something under each stone or just dig down so they lay even with the ground?

Do the flowers I want to use grow in my zone 3a/b, Spacing the plants/flowers in the beds? (list below)

Work to be done (not including building work):

Remove rail road ties from feed lots fences.

Move bus (oh quite a sight)

Pull weeds & thisle

Level Ground

Flowers, plants, grasses I have my eye on:

Queen of the Prairie,Hostas,Allium,Miscantus Sinensis,Lambs Ear, Euphorbias

I am starting with the smallest flower garden I want, first of all because I have to still keep up with farm chores, but also so there is more chance of survival of each of these areas I want to plant.

Hops

We moved to the country to live in nature and create a self-sustaining lifestyle. It will take a lot of work and a long time to feel like we’ve actually reached our goals. But I definitely feel like The Cultivator was the right man to have in this life adventure…

Here are the hops he’s growing for his beer brewing:

Grow and Cook Foods

The Northern Lights Opera Company is putting on Into the Woods musical for the next couple weekends, so The Cultivator is playing violin with them.

Anyhow, Tuesday was the only day he has off this week so we had planned a date night in town. As it got closer to time to go into town, I suggested we spend time in the garden weeding together. It was nice to have conversation while in the garden… sort of "cultivating our relationship" and then he brought in the tiller. Genius, he finished the ½ of the garden that I didn’t get to over the weekend in 1/3 the time!

What is your favorite garden tool?

Mine is this rake:

And I think if I had a good hoe it would probably save some time, ours is seriously dull. I watch The Cultivator use one and it looks so effortless, but when I use it I feel like I am going to throw out my back. A little hoe training could go a long way.

I know I talked about no experience in the garden. So while I watched the news after dinner there was a commentary on renowned Chef Alice Walters. She was teaching kids to grow and cook foods. This is kind of lifestyle changes I am trying to incorporate into my life (and the purpose of moving to the country), and exactly the kind of experience our children should have.

One last thing , my overgrown radishes are woody… it was dog gluttony as I tossed them over the fence.

Good Titles

Hazards of gardening...

Things that eat me...

What the bug...

Heap of compost...

To begin...

The Cultivator* has 2 green thumbs which I feel makes up for my lack of one. Right? (Note: *101 names for my husband, all very nice names)

My goal with this blog is to spend more time researching plants & flowers in the upper mid-west so I can plant a backyard flower garden. Target date 5 years. I’ve bought a magazine Cottage Gardens.

I won’t bore anyone with all the plants I’ve killed mostly unintentionally (those pesky ferns The Cultivator had before we married).

We also have a vegetable garden, which I confess I just don’t know much about either...

Stuff like:
When is a tomato ripe enough to be picked?
How often do you pick beans?
How can you tell when tubers like beats and onions are ready to harvest?
How often do you weed a garden? (when The Cultivator starts getting frustrated is my clue)
*Note- I've been lead to believe that you don't weed until things come up initially.
How long should I water for?
If it isn’t doing well is there something I should do to help it?
What if your seed never sprouts?
Is it legal to shoot the birds eating your bean sprouts?
When I pick spinich do I pull the whole head like lettus, but cut swiss chard?
And those darn strawberries… I waited too long to plant them and watered dead stumps for 2 weeks. What a waste!

Besides the vegetable garden I have kept 1 clematis, and 1 peony alive for 4 years. I have 2 house plant for about 8 months now, and a Peace Lily I bought in March it's touch and go though, I think I need to repot it. But how do I know how big of a pot?


Anyhow after hearing a bit of complaining about my lack of participation in the garden on Friday night, I spent the weekend weeding. I was getting the grasses close to beets, when… oops I pulled up one, then two. Ok, so I will move on and get the big stuff, leaving the less established plants alone.

Then I happened upon a strange a row of nothing, hmmm and another row… and I am thinking to myself this leaf kind of looks like a pepper, but since I planted the pepper plants 1 row up I know I am wrong. Then I spot 2 plants, no idea what they are but I weed everything except those. Then the row past that is odd, it’s not marked with the usual stick, and it’s sort of random. I decide to pull it and see if it looks familiar out of the dirt. Yep it’s an onion… duh. I sort of thought it was familiar looking. So I quickly stuck it back in the hole from which it came and went inside to work in the pottery studio.