In The Meantime...

Lots of pottery making going on! Not that I have a tremendous amount of orders but there is a reason behind it all.


Lots of corn harvesting going on too! I think I have picked around 50-60 ears so far. This is astounding to me because I have never had a successful corn crop until this year. We have been enjoying fresh corn on the cob and creamed corn but I have been trying to freeze a good amount also.

And all the ears are so pretty with NO worms!! without a drop of even an organic spray. They are not huge ears but they are decent and very tasty! This is Silver Queen, my favorite! Nomnom!!

And this is Chigger Queen!! She has been so hot lately, poor thing. All her hair is falling out. I have been brushing her, to help her shed. Maybe it offers some relief. She is always such a happy dog with such a good attitude. She is happy to be with you no matter what you're doing, although she really enjoys going on walkabouts. But she's a young dog; happy, happy, happy. Just wait 'til she hits menopause! Then she'll be crabby, crabby, crabby!! Haha!! maybe not.

I have to tell ya'll about this! The other day I was starting to work on the last little bit of siding on the gable end over the door. There were two small boards tacked up in the high part of the gable (for some reason) that I needed to pull down. We must have been using them for a temporary support or something. Anyway, so I get the ladder and climb up there and I'm starting to pry this board off the wall. I'm about 16 feet above the deck on this extension ladder also and they are really not my favorite thing to work off of. So, as I jiggle the board a little prying on it, this creature runs out from behind!! Now, how a spider as fat as my fingers could squeeze it's self into a crack that you would have trouble slipping a piece of paper into, I don't know but it freaked me out. All I could imagine was this spider, as I popped the board loose, would sense it's secure hiding place leaving and fling itself through the air onto anything it sensed was a stationary object; that being my head, neck or shoulders. If any of you remember, perchance, the caulking gun incident, you can imagine where my thoughts are going on this. It was not going to be pretty. I mean, look at that thing! It has HAIR!! Nothing that can be classified as 'bug', spider, what have you, should have hair!! It's not right! Let me also remind you that that is a 2 x 6 board that it is pictured on also, so you can see the proportions there. That scene from "Aliens" kept playing over and over in my head. Jack would come home to find me sprawled on the deck with Mr. Hairy suctioned to my face. I finally summoned all my courage and with one mighty swipe sent the board flying through the air while the octopod hairball fell straight down, thumping on the deck like a sack of flour. It gives me the willies just thinking about it. But you know what's even creepier? That thing fell near the front door. I kept an eye on it every time I would go in and out but after several times I came out and noticed it was gone...Had it jumped through the open door as I passed? Or just slipped through the deck boards to go under the house? Hhhm. Hey, where's Grendal? She was just here a minute ago...

Ramblin' (Wo)Man

Hey, I'm back!! For now anyway. I'm feeling a bit better but still have a short bad spell here and there. Since I have been feeling better I've been very busy with a number of projects. You can see here that the garden is in full production mode! I've never had okra get this big before and I am having to pick it every day to keep up. The green beans are about the same way and the tomatoes are starting to speed up a little. Today will be spent preserving a number of things. I also have a good bit of pottery to get out and have actually started to work on the last bit of siding on the house again.
I have been wanting to post something these last few days but just haven't been able to wrap my head around any decent topic. Then I got to reading back through the blog, often several years back, and was struck at how (to me) boring this blog has become! Ugh! I don't know; just seems that I used to write a little more interesting post. These lately are just gardening, chicken etc. stuff. And not that that is not interesting sometimes but, I guess it's not very thought provoking. Maybe that's why I've had trouble posting sometimes, because this blog has never been about a particular subject. If you limit yourself to only writing about homesteading or such it's much easier to pick a topic. But, that's not me. I like to wander, both literally and figuratively and I'm in a wandering mood lately! It's funny too how that I have come to feel kinda obligated to you out there also, but I mean that in a good way. I don't mind. I've been writing so long that I feel like my readers are sort of a part of my life. Is that weird? I like to read ya'lls responses to things; hear your opinions and I feel like if I don't talk to you often enough we grow out of touch. Since being laid off I especially enjoy it because I don't have the interaction of people at work anymore. I know I have probably lost readers due to my scattered approach to blogging or I have just offended people with my talk! That's okay too. If you don't have a sense of humor you don't need to hang here. But many of you have been around a looong time and I appreciate that, even if you've never said a word. But I'll get you to talk to me one day my pretties! lololol! It's kinda funny that I do blog in a sort of scattered way because I consider myself a rather organized person; nitpicky even. But life is not organized often and I prefer to show things the way they really are. For some reason. Why would someone write about their life for all to see? Is it my ego? Or simply for acceptance? Hhhmm. Nah, I think it's just to make new friends.

I often go a week or more without leaving the homestead here. And for me, that can feel very isolating because I like to talk to people.
So, that's my rambling for today. I just felt like chatting with ya'll about not much of anything. What are ya'll up to today? Anything exciting?! I may have some new topics to talk about soon and a new adventure to tell you about but I don't know for sure yet. Maybe a little more rambling before I'm done.

Rusted

A reader asked me to show a few pics of the rebar handrail I did for the deck and how it had aged.

I had initially sprayed the whole deck and rebar with a light coat of thinned linseed oil. This lasted for a while but some rust is showing on it now. I need to clean everything this fall, go over the rebar with a wire brush and then respray it all. However, it looks fine; just a bit darker than when new.


I've actually been using the rebar to grow cucumbers and such, as a trellis. It works pretty good.

I have more tomato plants, herbs and flowers all along the railing to the right. With all the green everywhere, everything kinda blends together! But you get the idea. Of course, you can click on any picture to enlarge it and maybe see a little more detail.

I'm still feeling pretty bad so not up to full posting speed yet. Hopefully, I will be back at it again soon. In the mean time, stay cool! or warm, depending on what hemisphere you are in! Is there anything else someone would like to see or ask about the goings on here?

Runnin'

Hey Folks!! Just a quick note to let ya'll know I haven't forgot about ya! I've just been very busy the past few days with a number of things I'll tell you about soon. The chickens keep me runnin' too! They are bottomless pits, these things! An open mouth every time you step outside. we let them run loose in the evenings and give them scratch, grass and fruits and veggies culled from the garden every day but they just can't be filled up.!

And, speaking of veggies from the garden, stuff is really starting to come in right now so I have got to do something with all this stuff. This was what I harvested yesterday afternoon but I went out this morning early and have LOTS more. An armload of corn, literally. I've got to can, pickle, freeze or cook all this! Plus, I also have a number of pottery orders to complete, so I'm kinda run hard right now. I have several good posts brewing for you though when I get back.
Ya'll be good.

Monday Munchies

Alright, I finally have some food for ya'll!! And this is a two-fer!! The dish above is a new one I tried the other night and really enjoyed it so I thought some of you might like it because the ingredients are right in season for most of us. It's a great summer dish: light and fresh. My green beans have just started coming in also, so I was trying to find some new ways to serve them anyway and it is scrumptious if the items are just picked. It's quick and easy too!

Green Bean and Cherry Tomato Salad

1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed
1 1/4 pounds cherry tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 tablespoon minced shallots
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Cook bean in boiling water 7 minutes or until tender. Drain. Place beans, tomatoes and oregano in a bowl and toss gently to mix.
Combine shallots and vinegar, stirring with a whisk. Let sit for 10 minutes. Add oil, salt, and pepper to vinegar mixture, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Pour vinaigrette over bean mixture and toss well. Serve!

Now, I took a little liberty with this recipe and used basil instead of oregano, because I have it growing outside on the patio and think it goes well with tomatoes. I cut the amount of salt down a little and I used green onions instead of shallots. Oh, and I added a little feta, because feta goes with anything!
I served this with a grilled steak and roasted corn on the cob. Yummy!!!

Okay, now on to the cornbread. This is a pretty traditional southern meal; fried chicken, beans boiled with fresh taters and cornbread. It is also traditional in the South to serve fresh slices of tomatoes and cucumber with each meal in the summer, even breakfast, as they come in. No dressings or such; you just sprinkle a little salt or pepper on them if you want. Now, this is a true Southern cornbread recipe. It is very simple because Southerners were very poor back when this came about. No fancy ingredients or, God forbid, sugar. Please don't defile it by adding sugar and only use WHITE cornmeal. If mine has a golden cast it is because of the fresh, real egg in it. It astounds me that they actually sell cornbread mix in the stores because the recipe is so simple. I mean, it ain't much more than cornmeal and buttermilk. So,

Southern Cornbread or Cornpone

Now, this recipe is for a 6 inch skillet, so just multiply it or so. And you MUST use a cast iron skillet to cook it.

1 cup plain, medium grind cornmeal (WHITE)
1/4 cup all -purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg

Mix the dry ingredients well, then add the egg and mix until distributed. Add enough fresh buttermilk until batter is slightly pourable.
Now, as you mix the batter, you have your skillet heating on the stove with enough oil to cover the bottom well. You must use enough oil that when you pour the batter in, the oil shows a bit above the batter. I know this sounds kinda voodoo but Southern cooking is like that. I can't tell you exact measurements; you just gotta know by lookin' at it.
So, pour the batter in the hot, well-seasoned skillet (it should sizzle a little). This heat, and the right amount of oil assures a crispy crust. Then take the hot skillet and place in a oven preheated to 425 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes or so. Or until the top is toasty and a knife inserted comes out clean.
Now, some people don't use the egg and you can use regular milk but I think the buttermilk adds a little myself. Serve HOT and with lots of real butter.

Now, if you want to be real white, southern trash, take any cornbread leftovers and crumble them up in a cold glass of regular milk or buttermilk. Or at least, that's what my ex-husband used to call me for eating that! And I did say, EX-husband.

Hang On Little Tomato

I skipped over the tomatoes in my last post because they are kind of a post unto themselves. The copper spray I used on them a couple of weeks ago seems to have helped the wilt problem. The 3 plants that were affected still look kinda funny but they are putting out pretty new foliage. Not many tomatoes on them though. The other plants, as you can see, are very vigorous! They are loaded with maters but are taking their own sweet time about ripening. May be that is due to the rainy weather we have had lately, I don't know. Even days when it has not rained it has often been very overcast.
I planted one row of Amish Paste and the plants that are doing well have produced very large tomatoes; just not ripe yet! The MoneyMakers, I'm not very impressed with and I may have mixed one Black Cherry in that row by mistake. The Moneymakers are all smallish tomatoes and I thought they were supposed to have been a larger, Beefsteak kinda mater. Could they have bred with the Black Cherry in their row?
At any rate, one row over is the Black Krim, which I really like! They are doing very well, don't seem bothered by the humidity and are producing a lot. They are ripening much faster than the others and have a great taste. They are a much sturdier plant too, while the others are long and straggly, and therefore haven't required the as much staking as the others.
All these plants received an organic, tomato specific fertilizer when they were planted, in addition to all that moo poo that was put over the entire garden, and have been side dressed with compost as it becomes available.

This is the one Black Cherry (that I'm sure about) that I planted in the garden. Now, it is doing very well. This thing is huge! I have really been impressed with this variety. It doesn't seem bothered by any disease and is very sturdy and prolific. And tastes VERY good!

I also planted, as an experiment, 2 Black Cherries and two Yellow Pear tomatoes in pots on the deck. They have done pretty good although they are not nearly as vigorous. They did start ripening before the ones in the garden and are producing a lot; just the plants themselves are kinda thin. In this photo you can see the difference between the Black Cherry from the garden, on the left, and the Black Cherry from the pot on the deck (right). They both taste good though! I like the size of the garden grown ones better, instead of those teeny ones. To me, that's a better snacking tomato.

Okay, I know I was supposed to put up a food post but I just haven't cooked anything lately that seemed like a good thing to share. Well, I did make some really good cornbread, true Southern cornbread, the other night and thought some of ya'll might like that recipe. I may put it up later.
Would anybody like that recipe?

Dirty Day

Since Blogger has now made it near impossible to tell in what order your pictures are going to appear on the blog I am just going to start writing and maybe that title will make sense later! With this many pics I don't feel like trying to straighten them out. When I left you in the last post I was going out to dig potatoes, and we did. I have spent a lot of time in the garden the past couple of days actually, harvesting a number of things and I took a bunch of photos of what I saw. I have had a miraculous surge in the number of honey bees visiting my place!! The corn has just been swarmed with them but I couldn't get a good picture to save my life. So, I snagged one on the peppermint. I am just SO happy to see so many of them in my garden.

I have been very happy with some of the harvests so far and disappointed with others. I guess that's normal. This is what I picked today. There's a good bit of okra on the bottom that you can't see and I picked a good mess day before yesterday. For you non-Southerners, a "mess" is a description of volume or quantity. A mess is generally the amount that would make a good serving for a couple of people but it can vary.

The figs are actually doing well this year, at least so far. Hopefully, these babies will mature this year into sweet goodness. Both trees have quite a lot of buds.

So, to the original title. I was happy that there were even potatoes to be dug and nothing had eaten them or spoiled them. I only dug the Red Pontiac and left the Goldrush in the ground to get a little bigger. Of the Red Pontiacs, we got 16 pounds. I was a little disappointed to say the least. I was hoping for a bigger harvest since I planted 4 pounds. And yes, I hilled them up several times. Maybe not enough though. This made my harvest come in at about $0 .81/ lb. Not much better than what you can buy them in the store. But, they are fresh and clean, chemical-wise anyway, and they were very pretty and blemish free for the most part.
My other root veggies were so-so also. I got about 5 pounds of onions and 2 1/2 pounds of garlic. Not record setting, but an improvement over what I have gotten in the past. I think as the soil improves here through natural amending, harvests will get bigger.

All of my herbs are doing well however, especially this parsley. Another blogger somewhere suggested growing parsley in with strawberries so I gave it a try. Seems to work! I have never done well with parsley but have harvested two large bunches from two of my plants already and should have much more if I want it.

The pepperocini peppers are doing great!! Peppers do well here for some reason, any kind. I have pickled 4 pints of these so far. After I taste them in a couple of weeks I'll give ya'll the lowdown.

The cantaloupe are doing well, at least by my standards. I have not had much luck with melons in the past but these are doing well so far. I harvested one small one yesterday that had ripened and it was sweeeet! Hopefully these will hang on. I hate to say this because i know the conditions of some parts of the US but we have had quite a bit of rain this past month and I'm afraid that with it and this humidity I might have some fungus problems in the garden. I have set each melon up on a plastic pot to avoid the wet ground and this seems to work.

This little crap has started to crow. It's pretty pitiful but they are trying. He started belting out the other morning and every chicken in the place stopped dead silent and looked around. They were like, "what the hell was that?" He strutted around anyway as if to say, "yeah, that's me! I'm bad! Uh-huh".

And watermelon!!! One big one so far and lots of little ones. These are Black Diamond and I have no idea how big they are supposed to get. Guess I could read the seed package. Or one of you could tell me if you have grown them yourself! I would say this one is pushing 15 pounds.

Doggone!

The last week or so we have been letting the young chickens out late in the afternoon to forage. They have a blast with this! They just run everywhere, grabbing bugs and scratching, scratching, scratching. We only let them out for an hour or so and this way they don't wander too far into the woods. I have been pleased that Chigger doesn't bother them at all and in fact, seems to look after them a bit. I often see her laying in the shade with chickens all about her. I don't know if she just finds them curious or if she is really trying to watch after them. At any rate, I feel a little better with her around so maybe she would at least bark if a big critter were to come up.

Here is some of what we have gotten done on the tool shed. I have framed just a little more but not much! Maybe I can get back to that later today but this mornings chore is to dig the potatoes. I dug around yesterday under a couple of plants and I think they are more than ready as I got several taters the size of my palm. I hope I haven't let them get too big.
So, be back soon with the results!!

Laugh And Be Happy

Island Rider asked if I would post the recipe for the pear butter I made so...here it is! Several years ago Mama gave me her Ball Blue Book. Now, anybody that knows about canning knows this is a very good book. I love mine. Anyway, this recipe came from there. It very simple and I thought the pear butter came out well and I don't even like pears a whole lot.. I imagine Ball's apple butter would be good too. So, anyway:

Pear Butter

2 quarts pear pulp
4 cups sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

To prepare pulp: Quarter and core pears. Cook until soft, adding only enough water to prevent sticking. Press through a sieve or food mill. Measure pulp.
Add remaining ingredients; cook until thick, about 35 minutes. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Pour into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" head space. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath. Yield: about 4 pints.

Now, on several of their recipes I have reduced the amount of sugar, as I don't like things so sweet and have had no problems with that. Also, I make up my jams in half pint jars just because they seem to stay fresher, because the opened jar doesn't stay in the fridge so long, but that's just me.

Save It For Later

Like most people who are into homesteading or self-sufficiency, I have finally tried my hand at canning, which is one of the better ways to preserve food through the winter. Now, when I was a kid my mom canned all summer, as did her mother, who lived next door. So, I was familiar with the process although I had never done it. I have to say I was a little intimidated, especially about making things like jam, things a little more involved than just sticking one type of vegetable in a jar and processing. At any rate, I made strawberry and blackberry jam and some pear butter and they seem to have come out fine.
In addition to having conquered another do-it-yourself activity, canning also gives an opportunity to save some money. Of course you have some start up costs, such as the water bath canner but I have been saving jars and such for a while so I only had to buy the lids. Since we live in a rural area we were also able to walk down the road and pick several gallons of blackberries and a few bags of fresh pears from a neighbor's tree.. I did buy the strawberries but got them at the local farmer's market so they were a better deal than the grocery store. All this considered the jams ended up only costing me nickels and dimes per jar, rather than the $3 or more you would pay for organic varieties.

Since being laid off I have naturally been looking for many ways to save money on food. Growing our own food is the best thing but there are a few things we still purchase so I thought I would try the couponing craze that is so popular right now. I signed up on several online sites and did find a handful of coupons that I could use, but by and large I was disappointed to see that most coupons are for processed or prepacked foods; stuff I don't use. There are the occasional coupons for cat food or litter or such but it is hard to find coupons for staples such as flour, salt and such. I have been observing other people in the stores also to see how they do it but haven't found much useful info. For example, I saw 2 ladies one day that had their buggies just loaded down to overflowing with food and they had their coupon notebooks with them all categorized and such. I got to looking at their stuff and suddenly realized that the vast majority of what they were buying was junk. Snack cakes, sugary cereal, juice boxes etc. So, what's a person that wants to eat healthy to do but grow your own?! Since the garden has been producing my food bill has dropped a good bit. I used to spend about $100 every 10 days (on average) for me and Allen.. Now, I'm down to maybe $50-60 every 10 days and some of that is for treats, not absolute necessities. The best thing I have found, other than growing our own, is I shop at a store that does a lot of 2 for 1 deals and when they have a staple product (like flour) that I use on special I stock up. I have been making my own chicken stock and such for a while now and will add salsa, soups and many other sauces etc. to that list now that I have the canning stuff. One nice thing about the couponing, (and maybe a good side to a poor economy) is that people seem to not only be looking out for themselves but looking out for others too. I have had several instances of being in the grocery store and looking at a product, or have it in my buggy, and another lady will come up and just hand me a coupon for it because she had extra. And I mean good $1.00 or more off coupons. I talked to one lady about the fact that I hadn't been able to find many for the products I use and she could relate. She did give me some tips on several area stores that had specials on certain days too. She had a whole system worked out!
So, while I think producing your own food is the best way to economize, there are other ways. Anybody have any other tricks or ideas for getting a good deal on things you have to buy?

Reach A Little Further

Well. After about 21 years of trying, I finally created an art object that fully represents what I have seen in my mind. I finally... made the perfect mug. Now, it really doesn't look much different than many of the other mugs I have made. Not to someone else anyway. But, to me it does. And when I pick it up, I cannot feel any error in it. Not see, mind you. Feel. I will not sell this one. This one is mine.
I suppose some would say that if this is a first after 21 years that I am being a bit too picky. Maybe they would be correct. Maybe not. Unless yo have a creative nature if is very difficult to explain to someone how most artists are not satisfied with their work. I mean, you can be satisfied with many pieces that you have come reasonably close to your mind's eye but it is a very elusive thing to hit it dead on. That's why many artists are so prolific; it's a constant struggle to get closer and closer to what you see in your head. It's like target practice with a bow or gun, except you are wearing a thin blindfold. You can see just enough to know what to create but you don't know if you've hit the bull's eye until it's completely finished.

I know also that in my building I am probably overly picky also. I overbuild. This is good to some extent and I'll let you in a a little secret. I do it partially because I'm lazy. Once that projects done, I don't want to ever have to fool with that again. As per many comments I have received in person and such I apparently came off as being a psycho, maniacal control freak in the post "Distant Early Warning". Now everyone I know if afraid to let me see anything they have built or even any drawings they have made for building. Let me clarify some things, please. I don't have any problem with people that don't know how to build. Not everyone in this life knows how or cares to know how. Or even could do it well if they tried to learn. Some people just don't have that talent but they have other talent. (Like making lots of money so you can pay a good carpenter! Ha!) What I have a problem with, and I tried to explain but I know I don't have the talent for explaining, is people that don't know how to build but present themselves as an authority to others. Now, I have a BIG problem with that and unfortunately, the Internet gives these people a very wide audience to spread their misinformation to. And even if they clarify that you should do your own research and such there are many people out there that make building sound overly simple, that if those dumb ol' construction workers can do it I can too or that they used to do a little house framing so now they know how to build a high-rise. Building is not rocket science but you do have to understand some basic laws of physics and geometry. I was only trying to say to please, watch who you get your advice from on these blogs. Be very careful about building anything exactly like you have seen it built on some website. A lot of these bloggers like to present themselves as the true Edifice Rex! (joking!) because they know you can't see their work in person. They know they would get laughed off a real job site so their blog is an area where they can pad their ego. You can't see the back side of that wall where their form blew out. You can't see that footing that cracked all to hell or their rat sill that rotted out because they didn't use pressure-treated lumber. They may occasionally tell you, "yeah, I made a little mistake" but if you notice, they'll never show a close enough picture for you to see how bad it really was. And, as I said, even watch what I do because it may not comply with code for your area. I have done things to my house, say, because of the threat of termites, that people up north don't have to do. If nothing else, some of these people will cause you to do a lot more work than is needed simply because they don't know how to work efficiently or do not know the products available. I have seen them pour walls (concrete) that took over a year, multiple pours and about twice the money simply because they didn't know how to form a wall correctly using the hardware available now that would have allowed it done all at once or two pours at the most. I want to make one other thing clear too: I was NOT referring to anyone whose blog I link to or who is a regular reader/commenter here. I would never link to anyone that I felt was misleading people, no matter how entertaining they are.
So, call me a hard ass or a smart ass if you want, but I'm looking out for you! Buyer and builder beware!

Friday Food!

I thought Hermit Jim's suggestion of doing one food post a week was a real good one and I believe Friday is the traditional time to put such up, so here you go! I know this is a fairly crappy photo but you get the idea. I had recently started making some half size pie plates (about 6 inches) and I always like to actually bake in any new product I make, just to make sure it works okay and doesn't crack into a million pieces. And, since I now have lots of eggs to work with, I thought I would find a recipe that used several eggs at one time. The mini-pie dish is in the background and one of my lunch plates is holding a piece of quiche.
Now, I'm not much on real fancy dishes, quiches and such, but this one sounded really good and easy. And it is! This is a crustless quiche too, so it's fast. You have a basic quiche recipe to which you can add whatever fillings you want, if any. I added potato, onions and mushrooms but you could add whatever variety of veggies you have on hand if you think they go well together.
Now, I will give you the amounts I used for a 6 inch dish, so if you are making one for several people and using a standard 9 inch pie dish or similar, just double the recipe.:

Basic Crustless Quiche

1/4 cup butter
5 eggs (4 if really large)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup or so of grated jack cheese (or whatever you like)

Melt the butter. Whip the eggs until fluffy and add the flour, baking powder, salt, cottage cheese, melted butter (cooled slightly) and the cheese. Fold in whatever veggies you have ready. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish and top with a little more grated cheese.

Now, I had already taken one medium potato and diced into 1/4 inch thick chunks, a small onion (same way) and about 1 cup of sliced, fresh mushrooms and sauteed this with 2 cloves of minced garlic until the veggies were just starting to turn translucent. I seasoned this mixture with a little salt and pepper, a little fresh parsley and oregano and then folded it into the egg mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce to 350 and bake another 25 or 30 minutes or until top is slightly brown and a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool a little, then slice and serve!

Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of omelets or such but this was really good. It had a wonderful creamy texture and flavor.
Oh! and the mini-pie dishes are available for only $16 + shipping if anybody would like one!!

Peekaboo

I noticed in a couple of the last posts that I may have confused a few of you with those large hens I had pictured. About 6 weeks ago or so I bought 3 full grown hens so that we would have eggs now, rather than wait on these pullets to get up and those were the hens you saw pictured. We do still have the 21 young chickens also, which are getting pretty big, but they were not the large black and white barred ones in the post about pest control.
Anyway, we got those 3 hens from a young lady in a county north of us who raises a lot of chickens. . Since we have been very pleased with the Barred Rocks laying ability, I figured "sure", wouldn't mind having a couple more of those myself. And, since Allen just happened to have just bought an incubator, we figured, why not? So, I gathered 2 eggs from each of the 3 hens and we put them in the incubator. We waited 21 days and sure enough, I heard peeping one day coming from the incubator! Four of the six eggs hatched. We could easily tell which eggs came from which chicken and noticed, oddly enough, that Bertha's eggs were the 2 that didn't hatch. She is the largest and oldest of the hens. I don't know what the deal was there, she is certainly young enough to still be producing. Maybe she told the roos to go fly a kite! Anyway, after a stressful couple of days (for us, not the chicks) we got 4 little babies. We had to help 3 of them out of their shells as they had not been able to completely free themselves even after 24 hours of trying. I wasn't sure how they would do but, as you can see, they are now a handful of very rambunctious chicks. I built a little playpen for them to stay in during the day and at night they go back in the tub in the coop. With my luck we got all roosters in this four but I can't really tell at this point. I do know they are very spoiled though and a lot more friendly than the others due to being handled so much since hatching. If you put your hand down in their pen they will run and jump up in your palm so you can get them out. They are a hoot!

About a week ago I started a list of subjects to write about here and it has helped organize my thoughts quite a bit. I still get in rambling moods though and have been in one lately. I often feel like I'm not posting about much that is interesting and feel that is reflected in the lack of comments at times. I certainly don't have the...uhhh.... adventures... I once did! But I still feel compelled to write because the house isn't finished and that is what I started writing for. I guess that seems odd. Well, that is not entirely true. I have written this blog because I enjoyed the conversation and meeting of other people, albeit not in person. I wish I could come up with some more topics that invited discussion however, because I often feel out of sorts publishing these 'here I'm the great authority on this subject' posts. I would hate to think that my writings suggests that I don't want to hear other people's opinions or thoughts because that is definitely not the case. At any rate, I'm trying to come up with a more organized and informative approach to my posting so that it may be of some help to somebody out there.

Funny How Time Flys (When You're Having Fun)

Take us to your leader!

Grandpa, from The Munsters, I swear.

"Boy, Ah say Boy, you 'bout as sharp as a bowling ball..."

Lots of eggs...

Natural fireworks

Bug Bytes

I know, amongst the circle of folks that consider themselves to be environmentally conscious, that the subject of pest control in our gardens can be a very touchy one and I certainly try my best to avoid the use of even natural sprays. However, sometimes there are instances when just good garden hygiene, organic compost and our best intentions don't always work. So, I wanted to show a few of my methods for not only controlling pest but encouraging my garden to flourish naturally. Now, I am by NO means an expert but this is some stuff that has worked for me and I welcome any other suggestions too.
The spray pictured above is one of my last resort tools. It is a certified organic spray made from canola oil and pyrethrins, thus the name Pyola. You mix it with water and spray on your plants. It is very effective against a variety of caterpillars, hornworms, Japanese beetles etc. I apply it late in the day after most of the pollinators have gone to sleep and even many of the plants blossoms have closed, so the bees won't be rubbing against the spray the next day. It does not affect bees and such in the same way as soft bodied insects but you don't want to spray it right on them. I order the stuff from Garden's Alive, an organic gardening company that sells a variety of products that I think are very effective. I buy very little stuff like this but when I do need it I usually go to them. They offer some great discounts on their products for first time buyers too. I also buy their Kelp meal for the garden. Now, like I said, I only use this if I seem to be having an unusual problem with insects, like squash bugs. My chickens won't eat the bugs; I think they must taste really bad because Little Bea grabbed one up one day and immediately spit it out and started wiping her beak on the ground!
The label says it is not effective against fire ants but I beg to differ. You just have to apply it differently. Now, for those of you that don't have fire ants, count your many blessings. They are a hideous curse here and will wreck a garden if left to it. They are one of the most destructive things I have ever seen and incredibly vicious. Alabama has had a significant drop in our quail population over the past couple of decades, due in part, to attacks from fire ants. Quail nest on the ground and fire ants will attack and eat the quail babies. There has also been documented incidences of fire ants attacking and destroying wild honey bee hives. They are not native to this area, or even the US if I remember correctly, so I don't want to hear any shit about my inclination to destroy a fire ant mound. I don't go around looking for them but I will not allow them to reside in my yard or around my animals. It is very difficult to find a natural product that will kill or at least repel fire ants and let me tell you, I have tried most everything; borax, cornmeal, salt, diamatious earth, you name it. This spring they got in my coldframe and were destroying the contents so, on a whim, I put a few drops of Pyola, undiluted, right on top of their mound. By the next day they had moved out. I was elated. I don't think it killed them but if it just repelled them that was enough. I finally found something I could use against them around my food crops!
I am also trying an organic copper spray, like Ron mentioned, on my wilty tomato plants. I gave them some Epsom Salts water, which seemed to help a little but didn't quite do it. Like Ron said, it's very hard to sit and watch your crops, that we depend on so much, die or get eaten right in front of you, without trying something. If people are going to criticize me for trying to salvage my labor and food, well, they can buy my groceries for the next year too.

I do however, try to make the most of natural methods. I haven't had a lot of luck with companion planting but one thing I believe does work is marigolds. I always buy a large flat or two of the stinkingest marigolds I can find to plant throughout my garden, especially around the tomatoes. Not all marigolds stink though, only the true French ones do, so you have to watch what you get. When I deadhead them I take the spent flower and tear it up and throw it over the plants. This helps distribute the smell and lets me get some volunteers! This actually seems to work and it does make some sense because marigolds are one of the plants that they extract pyrethrins from.

Now, these are my best pest control but like I said, they don't always eat everything and after a while they will tear up more than they help. I let them in before the plants start ripening much and before I do any spraying. If the chooks are in there I do not use any sprays, even natural ones. When they are out for the season, due to my tomatoes ripening!, I will then spray if needed. Then, when the season is over and sprayed plants pulled up, they can come back in.

I also plant other flowers throughout my garden, where I have a little room, to encourage birds and any pollinators. I place a couple of shallow dishes with water around the garden also to encourage frogs and I have noticed a big increase in my frog population this year. However, I have to be careful to help keep the frogs out of the chicken run as Henny thinks they are a great treat. She caught one one day and was slinging that poor thing every which way, trying to beat it apart. I ran and grabbed it from her, much to her displeasure, and took it into the garden. I was afraid she had killed it because it was stiff as a board but when I sat it down it relaxed and hopped off under my blueberry bushes.

I also let large patches of wild flowers grow in the yard. This encourages the birds, which in turn, also check out the garden while they are there and also butterflies and bees. I know this is a crappy photo of only the male but his mate was there too, on another flower.
So, the natural methods take time to work but this year I have seen a marked improvement in beneficial insect/ critter population and health of my garden. I also keep several bird bathes and feeders out. I have noticed that the honey bees enjoy the bird bathes as much or more than the birds. I often see half a dozen or more of them stopping for a cool drink during any part of the day.

Try, Try, Try!

Up until about a week ago the garden was doing okay; kinda limping along due to the lack of rain, even though I was trying to water regularly. We have been getting some regular showers now though and the plants have thrown it into high gear! It seems everything has grown a foot or more just in a week.
Because I am attempting to grow a number of new things this year I thought I'd do a little review of those things, that I have harvested so far, and my results. In the photo above I have Amish Paste tomatoes and Moneymaker. I have never grown either of these before. The Amish Paste is not doing too well. About a third of the plants seem to have come down with some kind of fungus or wilt. Maybe it's just too humid here or maybe I have them planted too close together, although I planted according to the directions. I think next year I'm going to give all my tomatoes a bit more room. The Moneymakers seem to be faring much better. I also have two Black Krim that are doing real well. They are planted slightly away from the others, over near the peppers. I am anxious for them to ripen!

On the far left is the Amish Paste; I may still get a small harvest from them. The okra is doing great but then, it's practically designed to grow here! In the background is the corn, Silver Queen. It is another old Southern classic and one of my favs.

This is the new zuchini I tried; Costata Romanesca. This is just 3 plants and I had even cut it back some because it had completley blocked my pathway. I'll be careful not to plant any squash that close to the path again! It started out very vigorous and healthy but I think just recently was taking a beating from the squash bugs. I do use an organic bug spray, which had helped, but the production had dropped way off (maybe from the heat too?). Since it takes up such an enormous amount of room and produced, even at best, a moderate crop, I pulled it up after it got sickly.

These are the squash it produces, which are tasty. However, it just seemed that for the amount of room this thing covers, the amount of care it needs to keep it bug free and the difficulty in harvesting the squash because the plant is so freakin' big, it just didn't seem worth it for the few squash I got. I don't know, if I had a much bigger garden I might go for it but since I don't have unlimited space I think I might stick with the regular zuchini, which tastes just as good and just doesn't seem as big a pain in the butt. The old crookneck yellow squash grows well here and I have 3 of those planted also.

I dug all my garlic and onions yesterday, so that frees up a fair amount of new space. I recently picked up two regular zuchini plants, thinking Big Boy might not make it, so I think I'll use this new space to get a second crop of squash growing.
Oh, I also planted pepperocini peppers, which are doing realy well and starting to make peppers. Those are the type that are usually pickled for eating with salads etc. That's what I got them for and I'll show ya'll my rsults with that. Peppers of any type usually grow very well here with very little maintenance.

So, that's just some of the garden. I still haven't harvested a lot of stuff so don't really know the end results. I'll do another post on just the fruits and melons this year and how they are doing; which seems to be pretty good at this point.

Tell Me 'Bout It

I thought I'd include a quick photo to show ya'll how the little craps are growing and starting to look like big chickens now. They are a lively bunch and never ending source of entertainment. Very few of them are actually the breeds or the number thereof we were told we were getting. I don't believe I'll be too quick to buy from that guy again. Well, live and learn...

Now, on the main subject of this post: I thought it was funny that yesterday's post title got way more hits than even the "Great Big Knockers"! But, Ron, you shouldn't have deleted your original comment on that last post! I was not put off by it and you have a right to express your opinion. I hope my reply comment did not come off as brusque or snippy. I was in a little bit of a hurry yesterday to get going and kinda rushed through a few comments that morning. I needed to go into Birmingham for a multitude of errands and meetings and it was about 10:00 last night before I got home. I intended to continue answering comments but during the last hour of my trip I developed one of my tri-annual migraines and made it home limping and dragging. I had trouble reading, much less typing something legible, so thought I'd just respond to comments here. I feel somewhat better today but am a bit fuzzy still from the meds. At any rate, I don't want my readers to feel they cannot dispute me or argue their point. Ed has disagreed with me a few times and I still let him come around! LOL!! Sometimes it's hard to remember to make absolutely every point you want to within one post. I certainly did not want to make it sound like regular Joe's (non-construction people) can't do a good job. Certainly they can. And I have seen, in person, some horrible examples of "professional" work. I actually meant to include such in my original post but my memory leaves me sometimes. I'll never forget once, Allen and I watched a crew of home builders pouring a footing for one of your typical McMansion type houses in a suburb. This was probably a 2,500 sq.ft. home or more, so a sizable footprint. Now, they were pouring directly out of the truck and we noticed that they only moved that truck once. You see, the concrete was SO wet, it RAN all the way around the footings. We call that pea soup at work. And that is one reason I would never want a licenced home builder, other than Allen, to build anything for me. Sure, the mud set up. But what it's going to do 10 years from now when the ground has heaved a little here and there.....
And what Jenn said in comments about a commercial block building that they didn't even grout or throw their rebar in...Dang! I wonder how that got past inspection? but stuff like that does occasionally happen. That was one reason I was so reluctant to ever work for another construction company than the one I did. We did our work right! We never cut corners on our concrete or reinforcing. We were proud of our work and rightly so.

But yall, please, if you don't agree with me on something, feel free to say so if you're inclined. I would love to get more comments than I do because I like discussion and I am not up here just to spout out what I think is so. I show what has worked, or not worked, for me and I show some building techniques I know to be correct because I know a lot of people want that information but I am not an authority and somebody can always come up with a better or easier way. We always said at work; a good carpenter is NOT one that never makes a mistake. A good carpenter is one that knows how to fix his mistakes. You can always learn from others too. I know I may have a terse manner sometimes and some of my comments may seem snippy but it's just years of construction work and that environment. I know that sounds like a lame excuse but, well, you work on those sites for 20 years and tell me what you think. lol! Either way, I welcome all comments. Unless, you tell me I'm a bitch; then I'll kick your ass!

Distant Early Warning

The photo here does not directly relate to what this post is about but is more of just an example to make my point about something. Now, I don't want this post to come off as pissy or elitist or some other such; it's just my thoughts on some stuff that has bothered me for a while. Of course, I know I'm preaching to the choir, so to speak, on this subject because all of my readers are smart and savvy enough to know what I'm fixin' to tell you but just in case....
Over the years of blogging I have come across a number of other blogs on building, as you would expect. Mostly it's regular people building their own home or barns or such. And that is great. Ya'll know that I try to encourage everyone to try their hand at building, especially women, for a variety on reasons. And in the course of reading some of these blogs I have noticed some of them have quite a few readers. Unfortunately, it seems that the blogs of people who are least qualified to be showing other people how to build something are sometimes the most heavily read. Let me just say, just because someone is being adventuresome in their construction; say, building in some exotic location, does NOT mean they know what they are doing. Now, some of these are fun to read regardless and I am not promoting myself as some all-time expert; I make mistakes too, which I will also show you. That said, I do have almost 20 years of construction and safety training and with that I say please, PLEASE, be very careful who you take construction advise from and what their qualifications are. I don't care how much experience they say they have in concrete, if they don't know what a snap-tie or a johnny clamp is, you run from them, quickly. They are an idiot and have never worked in the industry. In fact, we used to have a game we played when I worked construction. We often had fellows drop by our jobs looking for work and they often claimed to be form carpenters or whatever. This is common in commercial construction. Now, they wouldn't have a resume or anything but would just tell the super what their experience etc. Now, if they promoted themselves as super-carpenter, one who had done all and been all, and even if he uttered the famous words of one guy, "when it gets too rough for everybody else, it's just right for me", we, the crew, would immediately start taking bets on how fast this guy was going to drag up. Not, IF he was going to drag up but just how fast, because when people start talking like that they are full of shit. We never were wrong about a one. Keep that in mind when reading these blogs.
I have also noticed that many of the self-sufficiency types and all really like to get out of the city limits where there are fewer, if any, restrictions on building. Now, I don't have a problem with this. I'm only in the county and didn't have inspections on my house BUT, it is still built to code. Now, I agree that many times the building codes are stupid about some things and the city just wants the revenue. However, for the most part these building codes are for your protection. They are there so that JimBob doesn't put your rafters on 3 foot centers and have the ceiling or roof collapse on you. It's there so your neighbor isn't shitting in a 55-gallon drum and having it overflow onto your property. It's there so your well-meaning cousin doesn't burn your house down because he really didn't know how to wire that junction box anyway.
I have seen some of the stupidest things done, by way of building, on some of these blogs. I have seen people frame a two story house and not put the first header over a door or window. That's fine until about 2 years down the road when things have sagged so bad they can't open any of the doors or windows. I have seen a lot of unsupported spans on outer floor bands and rafters; no piers but in the corners. Code will tell you how far you can span according to the size lumber. I actually saw a couple install rafters with the wide side down. Now, I don't know how anyone can look at that, no matter their experience or lack thereof, and think,' yeah, that's the way those go'.
Granted it was just a chicken coop (a big one) but, holy hell! how do you do something like that.?? I have seen people install roofing in about every bad way imaginable. Granted now, roofing can be difficult and you really need to have help if you don't know what you are doing.
And Lord O' mercy, don't get me started about people pouring concrete. Concrete is a wonderful and versatile medium. It is astounding in it's strength and beauty. Under the right circumstances, it will kill you deader'n a hammer in seconds if you make one mistake. Concrete is not something to screw with and you especially need to watch who you get your advice from. Now, it's hard to make a deadly mistake pouring a slab for a patio or such but you can mess up and waste an enormous amount of money if nothing else. The photo above is of some formwork from one of my old jobs. We were pouring foundation piers and footings that were 2-3 feet deep. You can see some of the massive amount of rebar that went in those footings and the steel sticking up was just part of what was stubbed up for the walls that would pour on top. And, in all honesty, these were kinda wimpy footings for commercial work. I've seen one guy, on a blog, pour walls where he only put a stick of rebar every 4 or 5 feet and then claimed that was overdoing it. And NO, fiber in the mix does not help on walls. Fiber is to help keep slabs and walkways from cracking. It is NOT structural. Nothing over his doorways, windows etc. Please, please, please, consult with an actual concrete professional if you are going to pour walls, even some retaining walls. Walls must be tied into the footings correctly and with sufficient steel and the footings themselves must be sufficient to hold the wall up. Now, I know footings for a house are nowhere near what commercial construction calls for but, as I have actually seen, a 2-inch thick little spread footing is NOT going to hold up a two story house, especially when it was poured right on top of the topsoil! They didn't even dig down past the frost line or to substantial enough earth to meet resistance from a probe. You can get into a lot of trouble with concrete in a hurry if it is done incorrectly. The form itself can fail, which I have seen, and that can hurt or kill someone. Concrete (reinforced) weighs around 140 lbs. per cubic FOOT. That means one yard is way over 3,000 pounds. Concrete is expensive nowadays and hard to get back out once it has set! If you screw it up it can be costly to repair.
It just pains me to no end to watch people install such piss-poor foundations for their houses and such and you know, come a year or two or 5, everything is going to be so damn outta whack the walls are going to be cracking and all kinds of hell. The foundations, however they are done, must be done correctly or the rest of the house will suffer for it. And you too, I might add.
So, this is my rant. Just please, take most of what you see online with a grain of salt. Even me. For one thing, I have come to realize that something that is code down here might not be advisable in another climate and some stuff I've seen done up north (because it was code) I would never do here. MUCH depends on your climate, the geology of your region and the building materials you are using. Please, please be aware of these things, research your ideas for your region and know and go by the building codes, even if you don't have to.