Don't be discouraged...

Good morning!

Its Saturday; we've been up since before the sun but its a wonderful day.  :)

Our goal of a simple, self sufficient life has been a roller coaster.  I have a new appreciation for what the pioneering Canadians went through a century and a half ago.... growing a life that is healthy, fulfilling and puts food in your tummy is HARD work.  And not just physically!

Our second summer here - though the first summer with plants in the ground - has been a tough one.  We have seen two months of drought conditions... dry hard earth that has challenged even the hardiest of plants not to mention how rough it has been on animals' hooves and feet.

We also have had our share of pests!  From picking off cabbage loopers early on to finding our poor tomatoes crawling with ugly HORNWORMS!  Acckk!  Leaning away from insecticides, we tried home remedies... but in the end plain old hand picking was what worked.

Our chickens ate these uglies only AFTER I drowned the worms!

At times, I just didn't want to walk through the veggie patch.

But then you know what?  I looked around and counted my blessings.  Our hard work was paying off.  I harvested tons of carrots!  The freezer is full, bunches were given away and I replanted a second bed of these beauties!

Beans and peas were abundant - harvested once and replanted!

I have a pantry FULL of crispy pickles in all kinds of flavours.

And this week's harvest had us eating broccoli and  cauliflower with cheese AND homemade marinara sauce on fresh pasta.

Tomatoes, peppers and onions!

Though I had been feeling pretty low, the last few nights of rain has brightened my outlook and  I can  see we're not out for the count just yet!  These small triumphs put enough fuel in the tank to keep going and show our girls that we can do this.  :)


Jeanette

Green Veggie Pests

Hello again!

The month of July started out busy in both the garden and the kitchen.  There were some veggies that were bursting and ready to be harvested and enjoyed!

Garlic scapes pickled!

Fresh baby peas that the girls ate straight from the garden.

And enough green pepper and tomato to make fresh salsa!

Unfortunately though, spending time in the garden also indicated to us that we had a pest problem on our cabbage plants.  Cabbage loopers.  :(

These fat green inchworms were eating big holes in the outer leaves of our cabbages.  Thankfully they hadn't moved onto the nearby broccoli.  But what to do?  Reading various articles found online there were some suggestions such as flour and baking soda - which I tried as I had these items on hand; and next steps such as bacillus thuringiensis.   And of course manual collection of the worms.  So with Sammy helping, we scoured the backs and fronts of the large cabbage leaves and picked off all loopers we came across.

Into a bowl they went and soon became evening treat for the chickens!

They were very much enjoyed!

So now, daily we closely inspect our plants for loopers.  But what to do about the large outer leaves that are riddled with holes??  I can't find any information on whether or not to trim off the ugly leaves or leave them?  Should I be worried about the plants that have not yet formed a tightly wrapped cabbage head?

If you have any suggestions, please share them.  :)

Jeanette

Bittersweet Boots

Happy Friday!

With wet spring behind us, I began clearing out our shoe closet aiming to put away the winter boots and rubber boots until next winter and spring.  I came across two pairs of boots that all four of my girls had worn and that all four girls had outgrown.

Looking back at these little boots I was flooded with memories... Sammy in the ladybug boots with matching ladybug raincoat; Nicole in the orange boots and nothing else.  Seriously, our eldest loved being naked and spent so much time during the months 9-12 that I was seriously concerned what her profession later in life might be.  Thankfully at 13, nakedness nor boots are an issue.

These poor boots were not fit for donation and I just loved looking at these tiny pairs so this morning I turned them into planters for the front fence.

 This project really is a great mash up of crafting, gardening and power tools.

Love me some power tools!!

First thing was first... using the drill I made a few more holes to add to the worn out soles for drainage.  Just a few little ones.  I filled the bottom of each boot with a little bit of gravel from the driveway also to help with drainage.

Next, the boots were filled with a soil/manure mix and some little annuals that our local supermarket had marked down to $1.49 - SCORE!

Back at it with the drill, each boot was screwed through the back of the leg of the boot into the split rail fencing.

The nice thing about rubber boots is that they LAST... I am hoping to use these as planters for a few years to come.  Though the feet in the house have grown so much bigger, these little boots hold overflowing memories.  :)

Jeanette

Over the Garden fence {{WORDless Wednesday}} June 15, 2016

Happy Wednesday!  

Take a walk around our veggie patch!  Its so exciting to see what is growing!  And, of course taking note of what is needing a little help... Come on carrots!!  

We have: pumpkin, watermelon, four types of beans, four types of cucumber, celery, lettuce, kale, broccoli and cauliflower, large and cherry tomatoes, green pepper, jalapeños, radishes, potatoes, onion, asparagus, corn and peas.

Full garden plus manure pile in the background.  :)

On the request of Derek and Nicole we added a very hot "ghost pepper" plant!

The green peppers are flowering!!

left - cucumber, centre kale, right tomatoes.  Behind: Carrots and beans

Very happy potatoes between squash and watermelon and a row of celery

Left - jalapeños, centre radish, right cabbage

And these newly hatched little cuties.  Ahhh.. the cuteness!

I am fascinated each morning by the changes I see in the plants... and the weeds *sigh*

Jeanette

Veggie patch dreams...

Howdy!

Two months back our little patch of paradise was looking like this:

Cold and icy.

But indoors, things were green... green with thoughts of a vegetable garden full of delicious food to eat!  The idea that we could have a veggie garden that you could walk through!  A veggie garden that you could feed your family meals from really were thoughts that brought us excitement!  Before our move we had a cucumber plant, a bean plant, a tomato plant a few pepper plants in our container gardens.  A great way to dip our toes in but also a taste of what we knew we really wanted on a larger scale!

Last autumn we had chosen a plot and covered it with manure.

As the snow blew outdoors we set to drawing up a garden plan and making a list of seeds to order.  How happy we were to see this box in our mailbox only days later!  (Thank you Vesey's seeds for the speedy delivery!)

As we are trying to use the idea of companion planting, designing a garden layout was an evening in itself.  Figuring in the furrows and walkways we decided we needed to make our plot just a little bit bigger.  :)

When we were happy with what we were seeing on paper we turned to the real life outdoor garden patch.  All of last fall's manure was pulled back; cardboard was set down and the manure laid back on top of the cardboard layer.  The cardboard will keep down any grass/weeds as well as retain moisture.. AND it will naturally decompose!  Layered on top of the manure was some clean fill - mostly sandy soil from the tree line that Derek has been clearing behind the barn.  The last bit to go before seeding will be some nice dark moist topsoil.

All hands on deck to help.  Our hens were great at turning over dirt in the garden as well as turning over the manure in the manure pile...

 What a place to dust bath??!!

Though it feels as though winter will never let go and the last frost may still be weeks away, we began our celery, peppers and tomatoes indoors.  Nothing happened for almost two weeks after we planted them!  Then a lucky trip to TSC found us in the clearance section where electric heat pads for seed starting were on sale.  Within days we had sprouts and now a few weeks in, our plants are well on their way to being ready to be planted outdoors after Jack Frost's departure!!

 Green thumbs up!  :)

Jeanette

Raspberry harvest

Good morning!

I'm still exploring the property, usually on my after dinner walks.  A lot of the gardens and tree lines had become overgrown with weeds and vines making it near impossible to see WHAT was underneath.  One evening last week my two little ladybugs and I were pleasantly surprised to find raspberry bushes.  Not one or two but SEVEN bushes!  Seven bushes that we counted full of ripe fuchsia berries.

To be sure we did have what I thought we had, I used my cell phone to compare pictures and descriptions of various berry bushes.  We do have red raspberry bushes.

Moving at the end of June, I knew I would need to wait until fall to break ground and prepare soil for spring planting of my dream veggie garden so this little find made me very happy.  Though my raspberries wouldn't get a hungry family through a cold winter, I had a few homestead recipes that called for frozen or preserved raspberries!  I enlisted my helpers and we set to work collecting ripe berries.

With dreams of red raspberry preserves in my head, I didn't notice right away just how many berries WERE NOT making it into the bowl.

In the end, a bedtime snack of yogurt and FRESH raspberries tasted just as sweet!

Maybe next year.  :)

Jeanette

A bit like JUMANGI

Parts of SchnickAcres have become overgrown and are in need of a little TLC.               

Though I do not profess to have a 'green thumb', I can usually tell the weeds from the flowers.  I also have open mornings with lots of help, so I've taken to working away at some of the 'gardens'.  Sammy has adopted the front pond feature as her garden and began decorating it with garden decor while I pulled vines and cut back invasive growth.

Under some of the thick foliage we found wild strawberries!  Both Sammy and Krista thought it was such a treat to nibble away on these while we continued our work!

Along the curve in the driveway are some large boulders (we are on the escarpement after all), and it is here that I can picture adding colour with some beautiful daisies or black eyed susans.  As the girls and I cleared out some old grasses, Krista called out that she saw a SNAKE!  

From my college vet-tech days I remembered that Ontario only has one poisonous worrisome snake in this area - the eastern Massassauga rattlesnake.  This little guy was nowhere near looking like a threat, but a quick read on my phone (gotta love technology) and I affirmed that our little snake was a harmless garter snake.  My little ladybugs were so excited to check him out!

With the strawberries eaten and the snake set free it was time to wash up for some lunch.  I wonder what adventures our afternoon will bring?

Jeanette