First day in the gardens

It felt great to finally get out to the gardens.  The weather was perfect for uncovering a few blooming hyacinths, daffodils and tulips.  The herb gardens are coming up already and I can’t wait to start drying some for next winter.   We did not dry enough last summer.  I have an abundance of green onion, and plan to share that with as many people as I can this year.   

Although the herb garden shown above is not looking real good yet, it will be soon.  I think this one needs expanded.

No Make-Up Required

Yesterday, my husband and I started to build a split barn door, to replace the one that is basically hanging from the barn.  When we moved here, the bottom door was missing.  Here is the “before” picture.

We are trying to keep the original barn frame vs. tearing it all down and starting over.  It has housed many animals for many owners over the years.

My husband took this photo of me putting the screws into the backside of the bottom portion of the door.  It’s a bit out of focus, but the good news is, we have a new camera.  Pictures after these were taken, should look a lot better.

And yes, I used the table saw myself.  We work together 50/50 on most work such as this.  All women should know how to use these types of tools and build items from scratch, or re-purpose items to build from.

We are making progress, but these things just don’t happen as fast as you think.  We still need to frame the outside it, and attach it to the existing hinges.  Instead of purchasing new hinges at $8-9 each, we are using the ones that were already on the barn.  We estimate the barn was built around 1954, first housing cattle. 

We worked until dark, but had to stop to plant a plum and peach tree.  We are starting to build a small orchard for our self-sufficient farm.  We are unable to grow oranges here, but we can add pear and more apple trees.  If the two blueberry bushes survived the winter, we will add raspberry and other berry bushes for our fruit as well.

I’m so tired this morning.  I forgot how much work is involved with self-sufficient living. The humidity was very high yesterday, and it just sucked the life out of us, while working outside with tools.  There’s no use, or purpose, for wearing make-up these days.  

It’s all worth it.

Crawdad Gumbo Anyone?

We found this guy in our driveway.  The rains must have brought him out of his hole.  However, he soon became bird food and was snatched away as fast at we found him. He was about 5-6 inches long.

Hearthside Cooking

A good friend and one of my daughter's participated in a Hearthside cooking class.  We were first "team Pastry" and started mixing a Dolly Madison Scripture Cake.  We were so happy to taste your cake, along with all the other items cooked/baked and prepared.  This was such a fun experience, and we now know how to cook over fire, or coals in a brazier (see below)

I got "notered"

Table Talk

“Why do you even put one on the table Mom?” 

That is a good question.  I love to add a touch of “home” to my kitchen with an antique table cloth.  It’s a new tradition in our home, and one that I think will stay. I don’t intentionally shop for them.  For some reason, they seem to show up here and there on there own.  

The second one from the left, has a 1961 pattern date on it.  I did not pay more than $4 for each of these larger ones, and no more than $2.00 for the square or round smaller ones.  The kids seeing them on the table too. 

And although these are "antique" I buy them to use them.  I also came across a large cloth seed bag that will most likely be re-purposed into something new.

Worth Buying

We debated, and debated, but it was worth the cost.  We only buy natural peanut butter, and mixing the oil in once it’s opened is messy.  With so many kids, we bought one and absolutely love it.  It fits right onto the glass peanut butter jar.  There’s no mess and the kids don’t hate mixing it anymore. You can buy these from Lehman's on-line, or by visiting the Lehman's store.  Be sure to measure your jars, they make these in 2 sizes.  As shown in the photo, it fits perfect on a Smucker's natural peanut butter jar, however Smucker's adds additional sodium to their peanut butter.  Check your jar size before you order one to be sure.