As you know, I don’t share to many direct photo of me or my love ones, more likely to get a side or back view 🙂 but today I am sharing something I took on this trip that I will be holding dear to my heart for many years to come.. I hope this works, my first video done this way.. My mom has always sang for as long as I can remember but her voice has changed since she really started having lung problems (its a liver issue but it effects her lungs) so she does not sing near as much as she can lose her breath.. Hope you will enjoy it..
A this and that post, a little catchup both on the farm and here as well..
The Elderberries are in full bloom at home now, I have asked DH to dry me at least nine trays worth of flowers and then put them in glass jar in the dark for later use, these are amazing fresh in gooseberry/elderflower pie. The flowers are also excellent dried in homemade tea’s.
Toad update, looks like there are at least three different aged tadpoles in there for sure, the oldest have grown legs and are climbing the sides of the trough and also up the wood post, and leaving for the big wide world of the farm yard, others are just starting to get their changes and others still are very young.. The little turtle is currently nicknamed Bright Eye’s and was stopped sunning itself on the log, as it turned out, moving them was a very worth while effort, as the high heat dried the mini-pond and anything not moved, died from the heat/lack of water.. but this way, several hundred (300 to 500) or so more little toads have a chance of developing to age and spending their summer/fall eating lots and lots of bugs in my garden/food forest area’s..
I have been told that the garden grows by leaps and bounds, my Dh has spent the last two days, weeding, mulching, mowing and getting the last of the seeds for june planted, in before they say that the farm will be getting four to five days of rain.. I have been told that our corn came up with about a 90% rate, that we have tons of blooms on the pepper plants and lots of tomato’s and blooms on the plants, that everything is doing well..
I on the other hand, got out to dad’s farm, (that big hill and that flat land with the outbuildings is his place :), where there was a little time on the quad, a bit of work with bare wire, some gate building, and I got to check out a few of his new toys!
What a sweet Machine!
But of course, I also checked out what was growing and what stage it was at, here are his saskatoons by the edge of his lawn.. Then on the way home, stopped and got a as always to short visit in with Kodi and family, still it was great to see them..
Hand written canning recipes from my mom’s homedone cookbook
I could not resist sharing just a few of these, but I am NOT!~ recommending these as safe recipes in anyway in line with todays recommended canning practices.. This is a walk down memory lane only!
Mom’s Little Garden Update..
So here was what I came home to..
This is what we have two weeks later.. but man am I behind in that big garden!
Mom Update for her surgery..
Well, mom got her staples out and the wound itself looks great..
We found at that she has very extense nerve’s acting up, so we have added in a topic nerve dimmer to the program and that seems to be helping alot.
As you can see the bruising is much better on the leg itself..
We got some excellent results on the tests, great weight bearing, and she moved from her walker to the wheeled walker but we also got a failing grade on a certain area of her range of motion, so we are working on a program to make headway in that area.. One step at a time..
Food Forest-Hiding in plain view..
If you drove by this, would you see anything other than a green jungle?
Currently in that front green jungle there is
- Apple Trees
- Pear Trees
- Plum Trees
- Sweet Cherry Trees
- Sour Cherry Trees
- Mulberry
- High Bush Cranberry
- Honey Berry Bushes
- GooseBerry Bushes
- ChokeCherry Tree
- Chokeberry Bushes
- Lilacs
- spruce trees
- Wild Rose
- Elderberry
- Plant wise there is
- Rhubarb
- Mints
- Horseradish
- Strawberries,
- raspberries
- Black Berries
- Wild alpine Strawberries
- Grapes
- Day lilies
- Milk Weed
- Pig Weed
- Burdock
- Nettle
- dandelion
- Coltsfoot
- Clover
- Wild Violets
- Horsetail
- Annuals currently growing in that area as part of a food forest..
- Six kinds of winter squash
- cucumbers 2 kinds
- Scarlet runner beans
- Melons
- Spinach
- Chard
- Walking Onions
- Green onions
I am sure I am forget things as I am not there to take a walk about and write out more of the wild growing things.. but even when you come into the lane, you can see that there is something cut into and being worked in the rows..
So later this year I will take a walk though it and provide some more photos of things as they are producing..
One of the other things I just adore about my “wild Garden” is that it is such a heaven for the bee’s, as well as for the birds and I love seeing my preying mantis and their babies each year..
Posted in farm, food
Tagged 100 mile food challange, Farm Life, Food Forest, Food Production and Recipes, Frugal, Garden, Greens, Health, Herbs, nature, plants, Soft Fruits, Veggies, Wildlife
5 Comments
The next part of my Family Milk Cow Journey with Girl
Girl will be two years old in July, and I am so very excited to annouce that yesterday, she was bred, we will of course have to wait a full month to see if she took? or if she comes back into heat, at which time we will have her bred again.
She will be expecting for right around nine months, which means if she caught, I will have a march calf, both a good thing and bad thing.. good because momma will have fresh spring grass for when she comes into milk, bad because it means IÂ will need to plan for lots of fresh sprouting and extra goodies to take her though those last months of the cold part of winter, while she is finishing off the wee one.
I am both excited and to be honest a little nervous, every birth is always filled with both joy an fear as its a risk each time it happens, but also just as thrilled at the idea of having six plus gallons of fresh whole milk for use on the farm (o the cheese’s I have planned to try!) but the idea of being so tightly bound to the farm with that twice daily milking.
I had planned on doing half us and half calf but my reseach is leading me to believe that if she milks right around where I think she will, she will outproduce what her calf will need by a good 60 plus percent, unless I don’t want her at her top production, and allow her to drop that production downwards to meet our needs and requirements. Having said that, at the moment, I am not there yet, I want that milk, for making butter to freeze, my household uses around 40 pds of butter a year, and I want to take it all to homemade.
A little collection of my sweet girl growing up.. first one of her at 11 weeks, second at year and the last one just this past week, looks at her now, no baby left showing in her lovely adult head side profile, o but I can see that the fly’s are bothering her a bit while out on her teather for grazing.. We are trying a new holistic treatment that goes in their food and it seems to be working some but they say that longer term use will work better and better, its a natural dewormer as well.
Posted in Critters
Tagged Family Milk Cow, Farm Life, holistic treatment, Oxen, spring grass
6 Comments
And a baby turtle added to the mix..
So as you can see, the mudhole is basically done. Had I not dug the post-holes yesterday, it’d be completely dry this morning.
I went down with a bucket and sieve to retrieve what I could out of the post-holes. I clearly did not completely clear the holes, but collected another couple hundred. Scoop in, dump out sludge and tadpoles. Scoop in, dump out sludge and tadpoles. Scoop in, dump out sludge and tadpoles and what the heck was that?
Oh – as can be seen from “tadpole rescue not” – a baby turtle came along for the ride.
Okay. so finish scooping holes. There are still tadpoles in there – so be it. I stick my hand in each hole and fish around for other turtles. Don’t find any. What to do? Guess I’ll stick him in Colony Two – even if he eats tadpoles, there’s far more than he can eat in a day.
Good thing we want those toads for the garden and bug control LOL, and clearly my hubby is just having some fun with this as well, but wow, the baby turtle was a surprise, I know a great turtle pond just a ways from our place that we can release him back into.
Just another Day on the Farm 