Meal Plan Fail ~ Purged more Craft Supplies ~ First Herbs to go in the Dehydrator

We woke up to a brisk 36°F outside this morning.  I'm so glad I brought in my hanging potted flowers, and all of the veggie plants.  I was worried about getting things planted late, but this year I am glad we are behind.  I even brought in my potted comfrey plant.  Brr.

I failed to write down my meal plan, and discovered I had a pound of ground beef, and a pound of sausage thawing at the same time.  I cooked both up, put some sausage in the fridge for dinner, and split up the rest to freeze for the up coming week.  I guess you could can I made a plan from a failed plan ha ha!

I made us some air fryer stuffed mushrooms for the first time.  These had some sausage in them. They were delicious, but now my husband wants me to try other recipes, ha ha!

No gardening these past few days.  It's been too cold, and my husband was called off to help a family member, so no more tilling either.  I dumped all the grow bags, and every single one had holes in them.  The plan is to replace them with raised beds.

When the kids were in elementary school, I signed up for several holiday classroom parties.  I loved volunteering for the Christmas parties, and I would make a homemade ornament for every kid in the class, and even wrap every one.  I had a lot of ribbon in my craft stash, and some of those rolls had 100 yards on them ha ha!  I have saved any ribbon I use for crocheted baby booties, and have boxed up the rest to donate.  I have 4 boxes ready to deliver, but may need to go through a few more items.  They are going to a center for women.  

I also created handmade ornaments every single Christmas to gift my family.  I did this for years, and loved creating a new one every year.  They probably had enough for several trees, ha ha!  I just stopped making them after a while, but this was the latest purge.  Feels good to unload some things for once.

I harvested my oregano before the frost arrived.  It is thriving this year.

I also harvested some chive flowers.  I plan to make chive flower infused oil.  Chive oil is tasty for frying potatoes, and for any dips.  Did you know you can eat the flowers?  I just read that.  I have not tried them, but have any of you?  Interesting for sure.
 

Weather ~ Asparagus ~ Organizing Tip for Tall Boots

 

I took another look at the weather yesterday.  Not liking this dip.  We had to re-till the garden, so that has been started, but the planting will wait until this chill passes.

The roots we planted this year are coming up.  Just had to share how cute they look.

We are still harvesting asparagus from the very first year we planted.  Some are huge!

Tip:  I'm not sure you can say this is an organizing tip, but it worked great for me.  I have a few pairs of casual boots that are not stored in a box.  They were falling sideways.  For a cheap fix, buy a pool noodle and cut it to fit.  Slide that puppy right inside your boots.  Wa-la!  You are welcome.  

The truck went to the the transmission guy.  Sigh.  It will cost us a pretty penny to have it rebuilt.  It almost left me stranded last week.  We both knew it was going to be bad news.  Like $4200.00 bad news.

On top of that the dental insurance we have is not that great.  I went in for a cleaning, only to find out I had chipped a tooth, which required a crown.  I went back to get the permanent, and they have to send it back again for a better fit.  

Double sign.  It's a 35 minute drive to get there, so I was a bit frustrated.  Anyway, I talked to them and after insurance with a filling, our out of pocket will be a grand slam of $1575.00.  I cannot believe the cost of a crown, let alone a filling.   How are people supposed to take care of their teeth at these rates?  Crazy.  No wonder some people just have the tooth pulled.

So, with that bad news, there are projects on the house that may have to wait until next year.  Good grief.

Update on the new chicks - two have figured out how to use the ramp that goes up into the coop.  They are learning and figuring things out now.

Blooms and more planting . . .

 

Although no annuals have been planted yet, the flower beds are springing up some more perennial blooms.

I planted spearmint and peppermint.  Last year's pots did not come back, and I have yet to make a "weed" bed somewhere here.

I have not started to plant vegetables yet.  We are to get a low of 38/39 degrees mid-week.  I'll wait until that cold night passes.

Just the Bits

 The weekend was a busy one for us.  There was garden prep (needed weeded/tilled), dropped off donations, ran errands and started to build raised beds.

Put the new chicks in with the hens.  They are getting along.  There were a few pecks and that was it, but the chicks are not smart enough to use the ramp to get back inside for water and food.  I have to put them back in several times.  They will figure it out.

Some of the flowering bushes we planted last year are blooming now.  All of the flower beds are weeded, other than one rose bed.

Should-a, Could-a, Would-a. ~ Raising new chicks

The Should part:  I should have waited to get chicks after we built the new coop.

The Could have:  I could have had electric hooked to the coop, and no dust in the house.  Our garage is not heated, so their make-shift brooder is in the utility room with a heat lamp currently.

The Would have:  I would have had a brooder inside the new coop, making the transition much easier to introduce them to the hens, and again, no dust and mess in the house. 

If you follow my blog, you already know that a few years ago, there was a massacre in the original coop.  It was inside a barn, but after 12 years, raccoons and opossums, ripped holes in the chicken wire (rookie mistake in the beginning, don't ever use chicken wire), and killed more than half the chickens and all of the roosters.

A friend sold me this coop for $75.00.  It worked, but has no ventilation, I have to crawl inside to muck it, and the roosts are on the floor, so we had to install plastic roosts higher inside for them.  Feed and water is an issue with this coop too.  The windows do not open, and it's a hot house in the summer.  The sides do not open from the top to get eggs (which makes no sense to put them at the floor of the coop either).  Chickens like to roost high.  Laying eggs on the floor would encourage egg eating.  The entire layout of this coop make no sense for a proper chicken coop.  Anyway . . .

I cannot wait to get started on the new coop.  We are currently trying to see if the corners of the cement slab behind it (currently covered with trees, rocks, over grown wild growing things the birds planted) will have even corners to work with.  Crossing our fingers it works for the new build.  

Back to the title of this post....I have to get the chicks introduced and I have a smaller kennel that will fit inside this coop (for now), where I can introduce the chicks and keep them safe for the meanwhile, and get them out of the house.  Whew.  I will just pull the plastic tray out at the bottom.  Anyway....got it figured out for now.

 

Egg Shells ~ Lilacs ~ Rain moves in ~ Yarrow uses?

 

I  have been saving egg shells for the garden(s), and even when I shelled eggs for egg salad.

Lilacs are in bloom, and it smells wonderful outside.  I cut a few to bring indoors.

I love snail mail like this!  A Mother's Day card from a blog follower.  Thank you!

Rain is moving in.  We need it, but I wish the evenings were warmer to get this garden planted.  Spring time is always a battle of weather for planting.  I got basil, parsley and cilantro seeds soaked and planted before the rain.  Last year I had to buy plants for some reason or another.

Any medicinal herb gardeners here?  Wondering what the best use is for yarrow?  I have grown it for two years, and failed to harvest it.  I read it's good for IBS, ulcers, and other digestive issues, but wondered what your go-to is to make with it (if you grow it)?

Getting Outdoors ~ Doily Finished

 

The chicks are about 7 weeks old now, so they got a day of introduction to the hens.   They say your chicks should be as large as the smallest hen, before putting them in the coop together.  I had to laugh, as the hens were scared of the chicks and they were on the other side of the run fence ha ha!

My potted comfrey is springing back to life.

Updates with the garden(s):

-planted about 100 cloves of garlic for spring planting (it was very difficult to locate organic garlic for spring planting too).  As some of you read, voles ate our entire 80 fall planted cloves, so we moved the grow bags this year.

-started weeding the herb garden, and I will be digging up all the lemon balm and moving it to the water trough (hopefully I don't kill it, as I use it often, and I need to dig out some chives that moved their way to the green onions

-started weeding the larger rose bed (this one is terrible)

-asparagus is getting harvested

Asparagus is up that we grew from seed last year.  I gave up on it, but it did not.  It's on the weed-it list after the next rain.

-rhubarb is ready to harvest as well

Herb Garden Progress.  I filled the wheel barrow 4 times with weeds, it was that bad.  I got some of the flower bed weeded as well.  They are FULL of purple dead nettle, chickweed, and thistle.  My bum muscles are sore and my arms are scratched up.  I need a day of rest, and a slather of chickweed salve.  

My arms were covered with itchy spots. Not as bad as stinging nettle, but between that and a mosquito bite.  I had no idea that tall thistle, that is dead, can still have thorns on it.

Here is a before and in progress of part of the flower bed.  We plan to expand it (why oh why??), to make mowing easier.  We weighed a tarp down with landscaping stones to kill the grass.

 I think our plan is to put in a ground cover there, such as ground phlox.  We put it off last year.  It may be next year.  You can see the trimming has not been done.

Our hired help used to be hired to mow/trim once in a while, when we are pinched for time.  Not anymore.  We are doing it, as he has raised his prices.  He's not doing more either.  Actually he'd be doing it all in less time, so yeah, we are doing it now, and it's just taking it one day at a time.

I spent my birthday doing more weeding, replanting, and putting some starts in pots for donating to a plant fundraiser.

I also got a haircut and treatment to pamper myself at the end of the day, and dinner out.  Honestly, I would have been okay with grilled dinner on the porch, but we were in town, and our empty propane tank was at home.

One done.  Finished and blocked.  My new porch project.  Only one more to make for the living room lamps.  I ended up with a larger doily than the pattern said.  I took this on a road trip, so my stitches may not be as tight as they should be, but it still turned out nicely.  I found this pattern for free online.  

Square Pineapple Doily

Today is going to be a hot day.  No weeding today, as the ground is so dry right now.  The rain will be returning, and lots of it.  It's a brisk 49°F this morning but a high of 82°F.