August Ramos Up

The harvest is beginning. Forget whatever you've heard about "Fall harvest". The harvest is here. That means busy time for farmers and families alike.  And Croteau's Corner is no different. At the same time we are getting ready for back to school and all the preparation that entails, we are canning and preserving the fruits of the earth. Just this week we put up green beans, carrots, beets, and pickles. And I tried my hand at canning a vegetable soup with chicken broth made from the unfortunate rooster that walked up the driveway last weekend. 

Which said rooster and the positive experience we had at Wilcox Poultry Provessing in Brown City has inspired us to keep some meat birds for the last quarter of the year and put up some chickens of our own for the winter. I can't wait for the experience. And I am still anticipating the arrival of the goats in the spring. 

But this week I have grandkids Matthew and Jacob here, and they are learning some of the tricks and skills of home food preserving alongside me. I had them out in the garden pulling the beets, they helped snap beans, and watched the pressure gauge on the canner while we canned the food. They watched as the bags of raw food on the counter dwindled, and the stack of filled canning jars grew. They ate the homemade chicken soup and pronounced it "great." They begged for more homemade treats. It was a wonderful experience for me to expand their horizons. 

With all the foods available I am trying new recipes and new opportunities to preserve food. Tomorrow I am making zucchini bread (nothing new) but I am also looking at preserving some hamburger in cans, and taking some of the pressure off the freezer. Out here (as well as in the city) the freezer is, of course, dependent upon the vagaries of the electrical grid. If the grid fails, we have about 36 hours to use the gas stove to can up the meat in the freezer. So rather than wait for that to happen, I'm going to try pressure canning the meat we have now. Many people have inspired me to try, and I guess it's time. 

So there's much to do and much to learn. As I was talking with my cousin Debbie this afternoon, I mentioned how I was forging new territory that my mother never tried. I learned to can tomatoes, peaches, pears, and chili at her knee. We had a summer kitchen in the basement so we could can in more comfort. But she was afraid of the pressure canner, and stuck only with the kinds of foods she could safely water-bath can. I hope she would be proud of me for stretching my wings even now, and continuing to learn and try new things. I hope she would appreciate the ways I am preserving the harvest and the traditions of the farm with my grandkids. I hope she is looking down with approval this August and nodding her head and smiling and understanding that all I do I rooted in what she taught me. 

So the harvest rolls on. 

Dog Days

Mark says these are the dog days.  No more enthusiasm for the chores and responsibilities of summer.  No enthusiasm for preparations for the coming winter (and you know it's coming). No energy for keeping up the farm, the gardens, the interior, the exterior.  Just the lethargy that long hot days brings.  

I look today out at the farm and I see so much that didn't get done that is now too late.  Seeds that did not make it into the ground.  Earth that did not get worked.  Weeds that are taking over the fields.  Work that still needs to be done.  Harvest that is still burgeoning and preparing to ripen to fruition in the coming weeks.  This is the push now, the downhill days to the fall preparations for the cold.  Tomatoes that will be made into sauces, beets and cukes to pickle, beans and carrots to preserve.  Corn to pray for, eat, and save.  Fruit trees to buy and plant to prepare for next spring.  Always looking forward, looking to what went awry this year, and plans for fixing it for next year.  

Still need to put the gutters on the house.  Have to buy the pipes for the two new wood burning stoves.  Footings must be dug and poured for the chimney for the house, block laid, stones placed.  Stoves must be installed and wood procured (from our woods or purchased).   The goat house must be planned for early in the spring, the chicken house must be insulated and heated for this winter.  Plans, plans, and no energy.  

These are the days for planning, and waiting, and poising on the brink, alert for the first crisp breeze, the first cool rain, the changing of the leaves that signals the need for action, the moment when these plans must be implemented, the move made in order to be prepared.  The signal that says, now.  The dog days are over, and now is the time for action.  The hot, sultry summer is waning and the need to act is now.  

And so we wait.....

Summer's here - 9 June

Finally!  A day off.  I have been working two jobs since November and while that has paid off in terms of building the farm, it is not conducive to actually working on the farm.  So today I finally had some down time and a chance to work on spring (summer?) planting.  We put in peas, but I am not hopeful for them.   We will also try again in September for a late crop.  Mark put in tomatoes a couple weeks ago, and they look good.  I also put in some cucumbers and planted onion starts, beets, and broccoli then.  Today I got in quite a bit.  We have corn, potatoes, beans and cabbage, The sunflowers are up against the far fence and I will get the pumpkins started, too.
These are hot, sultry days.  The humidity is high and we have had several rainy days.  Today was sunny and cloudy and warm.  Thank goodness, or I would never have gotten anything done.  I am looking forward to plenty more time to plant in the next couple of days because school has ended and I only have one job for the next ten weeks.  Since I am only available afternoons and evenings, I will have all my days to work on the farm!
I have some flower gardening to do as well, and will post up pics when I am done.  I am putting Lily of the Valley up by the house, and peonies down where Mark panted the lilac bush.  I bought the big elephant ear hostas and will put those down around the trees in the back.  I want to put a patio down back this summer, too, so we can spend some cool summer evenings down there.  At least we can look out on the yard instead of the driveway!
And a pool.  Jacob and Zach worked pretty hard today to get the planting done, and mentioned that they would like a pool.  And while I can't get a big pool, a small cooling-off wader would be nice.
More to come in the next few weeks.

Lurching through Winter

It is January again, and a blessing compared to the January of last year.  We have had no polar vortices, compared to at least three last year, and little snow.  Today as the east Coast is being hammered by FEET of snow, I am looking out a cold, sunny landscape, devoid of a blizzard, warmed by thoughts of spring. 
And we are preparing for spring at the Corner. 
Today I ordered 27 new girls, laying hens that should be laying eggs by July.  We can't fill our egg orders now, and we will have to wait for the new girls to grow.  We will pick them up on 10 February, and I am looking forward to a day trip out to Zeeland to get them. We are truly blessed to have a hatchery like Townline in Michigan that has chicks so early so we can get a good start on the 2015 season.
Anni's Heirloom Seeds has been sending out info on the new planting season, offering enticements to order seeds now.  The Northern homesteader garden has 35 varieties of seeds and is only 87.50, but this week they are offering a 10% discount to order early. 
 
Started this in January.  I still like the image of lurching through the winter.  Only thing is, I didn't realize what was still ahead for February.  Polar vortices, and fiveof them this year, all climaxing in a -30 temperature reading on my truck thermometer.  So now if feels more like shambling through winter...

Well.  Glad we're through that.  I did get the seeds, and we are getting ready to start the cooler weather varieties.  We got the chicks in February, too, and Mark already built the enclose for them in the basement.  Between how fast they're growing, and how many I bought (27), we're going to need an early  thaw to get them outside soon.  

I haven't been as dedicated to the running as I should have, but I didn't quit entirely.  As a matter of fact, it is 32 degrees outside and that is warm enough to run, or at least walk fast, so I will be heading out as soon as I finish this to get some exercise.  The sun was shining brightly this morning, but I think clouds have moved in, but it felt good to have a small ray of hope that this winter is gasping for its last breaths.  So off I go, and will begin writing more as there is more to communicate in the spring.  Until then, stay warm, and keep hope.  Warmer days are coming.

Summer 2014

Gone too fast.  That would be my first summary of this summer.  

Never really started. That would have to follow.  

And now it is almost the end, evenings waning toward fall.  A chill is in the air in the mornings already, a testament to the brevity of this season, the seaon following the most bitter winter in recent memory, in my memory, in my father's memory.  We've had long winters.  We've had cold winters.  We've had snowy winters.  Never a winter like that.  

Funny to be writing about winter in the middle of August, in the middle of a blog note about the summer.  But there it is.  Last winter cast a long shadow over the sprng and summer, and I feel it's early return in the winds of change.  

Everything was late this summer.  Spring planting was late, made later still by Farmer Mark's hospitalization, surgery, and recovery, which wound its way well into July.  School ran later, thanks to winter, whch robbed us of school days that needed recovery.  The ground didn't warm, the chicken coop didn't get built, the goats were not purchased nor prepared for.  All summer felt like a mad catch-up to get done things that "should have been done" weeks before. 

Rescued materials finished the chicken coop for summer, but still the coop needs finishing.  Some sides are still made of netting, a pleasant, breezy material the ventilates well in the middle of July, but not so well on cold autumn nights.  It is August, and the forecast low overnight tonight is 47 degrees.  Moving too quickly toward fall, and the coop needs work: sides, tarpaper, and a proper roof.  When will it get done?  I have returned to work part time this summer, teaching summer literacy to elementary children, and there is no break before I return full time to my regular teaching job.  Time, time.  

The garden has suffered, and bloomed.  The seed crops mostly got in too late, and there will be no corn this year, but the green beans are thriving, and even as I type, I am monitoring the second batch of green bean quarts in the pressure canner.  There will be a second crop as well in a couple more days, and maybe more.  Sometimes I feel the pressure, and fail to realize: it IS only August, and the crops have two months left.  But I feel the urgency of last winter, of the return to work (when will I can all this food?) and I panic.  The tomatoes I rushed to plant the weekend Mark got his diagnosis.  What kind of wife races to put in 20 tomato plants while her husband lays in the hospital awaiting open heart surgery?  But I knew those plants would make him happy, enrich his healing experience, watching our garden thrive.  And so I took the extra hour and planted the tomatoes.  It was a good use of time as it turns out.  We are putting up a few quarts every couple days, and when the eggplant comes in I'll make sauce.  But time, time......

The cucumber plants are sad and small.  There are a couple pickle size cukes, but little else.  The squash may or may not come in.  I have a couple little baseball size globes on two plants, but I planted eight acorn squash, four spaghetti squash, and eight unknown mixed seeds.  I was planning on a lot more that two fruits.  And the pumpkins.  No fruit yet.  End of October, end of October.... I have to remember that my eminent return to work does not close out the gardening season.  But the urgency remains nonetheless.  

For now I will go pull my green beans out of the pressure canner.  I am done for tonight.  Tomorrow, work at school in the morning and in the garden at night.  And canning and preserving.  I am content to put the fruits of my land up for the winter, long or short, hard or easy, as it may be.  And I will plan.  I will plan for the garden next year and hope for an early spring.  

What good is a blog?

Just ruminating on my ruminating......

I have looked at the icon for the blog at least once a day for the last week and half.  Maybe more.  And each time I think, "I will get to that next."  And I don't.  I always find some other mind candy to pick up the slack in my day, then move on and neglect my poor blogger.  

Solitaire is a big favorite.  Standard 7 Pile solitaire is by far the front runner in this category, followed at a distance by Free Cell.  I rarely play Spider anymore.  I don't know if it is because of the ease of 7 Pile play with my iPad, or if I am just lazy and comfortable with my choices.  I usually can win at Free Cell, it just takes me longer.  7 Pile is a quick and easy game I can usually finish off in two minutes or less.    Spider solitaire has always seemed the most difficult so maybe I am afraid of the challenge.  

I have mostly been able to aviod some of the obvious traps of internet games.  I never played Farmville, and have avoided Candy Crush like the plague.  Never one to be labeled a "follower," I deliberately eschew those games.  I am lured instead to less popular, but no less addicting, games.  I played a game, which name escapes me now, where you built a town.  You could add ever and ever more land and buildings, but there was little value to doing so, other than personal entertainment.  I had a town hall, school, and library, but was soon adding things like bowling alleys and record stores.  It had some fun improvements, but that soon grew tiresome.  Besides, it started costing money to build the better improvements to my town.  So one day I just deleted the whole mess and called it quits.  

My latest distraction is a game called  Home Design, and maybe Home Design Story, I'm not sure which.  You can decorate your space with rooms full of chic, modern, funky, or downright straight funishings.  You can't really design any decorations of your own, and the ideas come straight out of someone else's head, so it's fairly limiting.  But I've reached the pont that to move any further in the game you have to pay money, so I've kind of lost interest.  I'm not into handing over my hard-earned cash for someone else to spend.  I'm not that entertained.  

Which brings me back to my point.  This blog is free to create and post.  It is completely the creature of my own mind, imagination, or introspection.  It is can be used to be cathartic, or at just a diary of my life.  It can serve no meaningful purpose, or I can use it from one year to the next to help guide my choices and seasons on the farm.  It can be deep and meaningful or frivolous and entertaining.  It is another form of mind candy, one I am free to form in my own genre.  And I can entertain others for free.  Bonus.   

As I write this, I am completely distracted by the chickens clucking like maniacs out in the back yard, and the dog chasing them like a fiend, and, in checking on them, chasing them all back up the hill to where they will be safer.  These are the makings of my real life, a life I have deliberately chosen to avoid city life and its particular pressures and strains.  I listen to crazy wildlife at night, and keep myself busy with bred making, jam preserving, and gardening during the day.  I have a normal job, of course, to pay for most of this, but the hope is that the sacrifice now will make it worth the effort in retirement income down the road.   

The Blog is to follow that choice, to document my successes and failures, to serve as a record of the fact that I did live, and live well in the 21st century.  Not well in the financial sense, since I will never be a milionaire (or a thousandaire for that matter), but that I lived well by my own terms and definitions.  I promise to do better at documenting the things that make this life interesing (and catch up on recent events) in the next few days.  Less time spent playing stupid brain games and more time expending some real mind-crafting energy for something of my own.  

Wow! So much time has passed.

     It is spring again, finally spring, after an especially brutal winter. We lost Buddy, our faithful chocolate lab mix. We gained Max, our Rottweiler/Aussie mix, the new big baby of the bunch. Our chickens started laying and provided well through the winter even though it was so cold. Snow fell, and fell, and fell. And it stayed around. We lost power for a week at Christmas and camped out in our house using the stovetop for heat. Aaron cooked up pheasant breast road kill over the campfire Mark kept going to melt snow for wash water. And we ate spaghetti sauce and grape butter, and pickles, and eggplant/spaghetti sauce from the arden well into the fall.  What an encouragement to us to start again this spring.  

     And we got more chickens.  Twelve new babies.  Six Plymouth Barred Rocks for Mark and six Araucanas for me.  I want the green and blue eggs, you see.  So they are all growing up together, and we need to finish the new coop soon.  At about 10 weeks, it became apparent that I would not be getting eggs from one of the new chickens.  She, or should I say HE, was crowing in the mornings and growing beautiful rooster plumage.  Had to be one of my Araucanas, and not the Barred Rock, of course.  So back he went to DUCK N COOP, the local hatcherie we use.  

     So Iwill try to do a better job of blogging our experiences from this point on and forget about catching up any more on what I missed, because, boy, have we already had a spring of it!