It Isn't All About Work...

Believe it or not, we do have some moments simply to enjoy.  The goats had a nice little nap (they were laid out like pancakes, really) in the pasture...

And we hosted the April meeting for the local Homebrewers Guild :)  (Yes, we are founding members.) 

  I even gave a talk on making cheese, and proceeded to demonstrate making soap since making cheese is much like wine... a labor of love that's as boring as watching paint dry, but worth it in the end!

There are no photos of the soap making process.  (Since they are mostly guys, I made a leather scented soap so they can each have a sampler bar.)

Cheers, Y'All! 

Happiness Is the Color Green

It's been a long day full of sometimes unexpected things, many of them that leave me wondering at people.  I shared the insanity with my husband, and shed a tear or two on his shoulder (I've always been emotional - don't judge me!) and he wanted to show me something that would make me happier.

My amazing husband poured me a glass of wine, had a word with the main source of my concerns of late, and waited while I put on my garden boots then walked me to the garden.

You see, Monday is my late day at work so he gets here well before me and takes care of the animals and the watering.  It is good to know that things move along perfectly well without my presence, but it makes me a little bit sad too because I love being part of everything here and all that goes into making it flow smoothly. Today though, he had the perfect balm for my sad spirit.  Today, he showed me how much growth we have had just overnight.

When he watered today, he saw that the green beans have grown at least another inch and a half just overnight.

And that the tomatoes had also grown overnight, showing their sturdy trunks getting fleshier every day.

And that all of the pepper plants were thriving, habanero, green pepper and sweet gold peppers alike!

Even the cucumbers were coming up all of the sudden.  Yesterday we had one little set of leaves showing - today, we had 6!

The chard is showing it's beautiful colors!

The carrots are showing their thin green early tops!

Even the rhubarb that I didn't think was going to make it is showing it's baby green starter leaves!

The basil has finally recovered and looks like it will take off and do well...

And some of the cilantro is ready to be used!  (This will be fantastic in the faux Pho we will have this week!)

The garlic is rampant, and glorious - This is probably one of the most exciting crops we have out right now!

And my gorgeous rosemary are taking off and thriving!

The zucchini will be coming up in about a week, and we realized today that the one pepper we haven't planted yet is jalapeno.  Next weekend, jalapeno and yellow squash will be planted, and we can then stop putting extras in the ground to focus on tending what is already underway!   

Finally!

I'll start with admitting that it has taken a week to find time to post this little missive. 

We finished the fence dividing off the eastern 40 feet of the North pasture and started putting in the garden which is a series of framed beds. The soil in our area is heavy clay which would probably be great for throwing black pottery, and is no doubt why ACME brick is located in this region, but is absolutely not great for growing a garden. 

We have been putting together the frames for our little garden, and hauling in composted soil.  We put the compost heap (bed?) into a small section of the barnyard that only the chickens can get into, adding kitchen vegetable scraps as well as barnyard and barn droppings, then simply let the chickens do their job and break down the additions and help create the most fantastic soil you'll find! The result is rich, loose, and full of earthworms that help keep it healthy and add their own healthy waste along with that of the chickens. 
 

Lots of happy earthworms doing their job!

We hauled load after load after load of the composted soil, dumped the loads into the beds and worked the soil around. Then, we planted seeds. The first round was green bean, rainbow chard and carrots.

 

Planting lovely green bean seeds.

 

See? :)

 



Cover gently and water thoroughly.

And in the meantime, the potatoes are growing like mad!  The garlic is getting huge!   The rosemary is surviving!  The basil - well, there's always one dud, right? 

A short week later and the seeds we planted last weekend are sprouting up quickly! 

Green bean plant

 

Tiny baby carrot tops :)

 

Baby rainbow chard peeking through! 

 

This weekend we *finally* got the tomatoes in the ground, as well as habanero peppers and green peppers and one little yellow pepper plant and a sweet mint for my sweet daughter, and cucumber seeds for pickling cucumbers. Hopefully, these we will vine up an old gate that we have and isn't in use.  Oh, and a row of basil seeds.  We are all just crossing our fingers on the basil since we haven't had the best of luck getting it to take off. 

 

Hubby working on the second round of planting with me!  You can see that we still have some beds that need filled and planted. 

One of four tomato plants.

 

After all of that was done, hubby went and tilled down the compost heap making it easier for us to haul the next rounds, and my younger daughter and I made two more tiny beds and planted my rhubarb starts.  One of the tiny beds is for the sweet mint, which lives in the garden area, and the other is a little flower bed out front of the house.  It has my older daughter's geranium potted and on a stump in the center, then we planted flax and true lavender to grow up and surround the stump.  We are crossing our fingers it all works out like we think it should! 

 



And now... I'm beat.  Time for some much earned rest! 

Is it just me or does anyone else think I was born in the wrong century? :-) 

One of Those Rare Moments

Spring has sprung with a force, and with it comes the quickening of life.  There has been fence to set, and hooves to trim, and plants to be planted, and oh so much more.   The hectic pace is wearing on me at times, but we make the best of it. 

Last night, as I stood in the kitchen preparing to make a batch of "Kyle's Nekkid Soap" (a goat milk soap with no colorants and no scents added - just nekkid) and my husband and two out of the three kids came in the front door and brought a fresh wave of activity with them I had an unexpected moment of peace.  I smiled at them and watched the influx of busy and turned my head to look out the back door at the animals. 

They had already been fed and milked, and hay had been served and the water tank had been topped off.  The pasture grasses are coming in green and gorgeous, and the back yard is out of control with new growth when I saw Lulu and Balvenie out in the back corner of the pasture just beginning to amble toward the barnyard through the evening light.  As they came up through the pasture, the goats angled toward them and as a group they slowly made their way up to the barn. 

I was so taken by the peace of this moment that I left my preparations and walked out onto the deck to simply enjoy the tranquility of the moment.  The temperature was cool and the evening sun was clear and beautiful. 

A moment to be treasured.

It's the Little Reminders

It’s the little things that make a difference in each day.  Saturday, this came by blowing off responsibility at home to enjoy the day visiting friends not seen in nearly a year and laughing with my husband, and just in general remembering that it is okay to not work once in a while.  It isn’t that we don’t spend time together – just that we don’t get to spend much time together just playing.  Those are moments that are so precious and dear!

Sunday, we took care of things around the farm.  Our potatoes in the box have grown tremendously in the last week and it was time to add more soil to help them develop more delicious potato goodness.  Our garlic is growing and the cilantro looks like it really will survive.  Seeds that I thought weren’t going to make it are now sprouting!  And since the original basil (from seeds) didn’t make it, we have planted new starts along with rosemary.  This coming weekend, we’ll be getting other plants in the ground and looking setting up the watering lines for the plant beds. 

To top it all off, last night my dear husband was inspired with the cheeses. In addition to candied habanero chevre, and our basil pesto with pinenuts and sundried tomatoes chevre, he came up with a raspberry chipotle chevre that is intriguing with it’s sweet and smokey flavor.  Mmm!!   I

Yes - little things, but the happy impact is huge!

A Sad Society

This isn’t about the animals, nor is it about soap or lotion making or even about cooking.  This really makes me a bit sad. 

Yesterday, after work and doctor, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple of items on my way home.  It was raining pretty steadily, and as I waited on a car to pull out of a parking spot so that I could park I watched an elderly woman, easily in her eighties, wandering through the parking lot with her cart.  She had only a thin jacket, no hood and no umbrella. She had obviously forgotten where she had parked her car.  She found it, just a little bit closer and diagonal from my own parking place.  As I parked my truck, she was moving her items into her car but had a few left.  I put my hood up, and walked up to her and asked if she wanted some help so that she could get out of the rain sooner. 

Keep in mind I was still dressed for work in heels, slacks, and a nice black rain jacket.  She looked at me like I was going to attack her, and said she would get it.  I smiled and asked if I could at least take her cart, so she wouldn’t have to stay out any longer than necessary and then she smiled and said I was speaking her language.  She thanked me kindly and sat down in her car as I walked off with her cart and put it away on my way into the store. 

This entire event bothered me.  Not that she wouldn’t let me help her, but that we live in a time that a simple act of kindness that any decent person should offer is viewed with concern and an amount of fear. 

It is an unfortunate type of society that we live in, when we cannot be considerate for fear someone will take it the wrong way.  I don’t believe in a perfect society, but surely we should be doing better than this right?