Farm Tour Day 3

The current state of the weather keeps me from taking many pictures, as camera's and tsunami's don't mix well. I am only exaggerating a tad. Every time the water stops pouring from the sky I scoot out the door snapping pictures like a mad woman. If only you could see me, slogging about in my muck boots, apron strings trailing- skirts a'flyin... A pretty picture indeed! Thankfully I can remove that image from your mind with these shots from around the farm and homestead. Enjoy~

I always plant flowers with my veg. This year I sprinkled Cosmos seeds in the Hot Pepper patch. Those pink blossoms really stand out amidst all the shades of green.

My darling menfolk made me a new squash patch this year and while it didn't produce scads of Winter Squashes as I had hoped, I was pleased that this special plant produced 3 healthy fruit. This is Red Kuri or Potimarron or Onion Squash. I hear it has wonderful sweet flesh that tastes a bit like chestnuts. I can't wait to try it.

For school the kids are studying Honest Abe. The youngest farmer boy finds Abraham Lincoln most fascinating. He writes himself notes so he won't forget a single detail.

Fall leaves make my heart go pitter-pat.

This is how I spent a healthy portion of the weekend. It was heavenly. The pounding/pouring/sloshing rain only distracted me slightly. 

Note: Pay no attention to the frown lines on my forehead this is a good book! It's about Depression Era farm women.

Inside/Outside:: Farm Tour

Time does slip quickly by when one has far more chores than there are hours in the day...  (Deepest apologies for the lack of photo editing here...not enough time!)

Garden harvest 22 October -in the torrential downpour/thunder and lightening storm.

                                                             

Bloody rotten APHIDS!! eating happily away at my Brussels 

Farm dog-Hard at work keeping watch for errant toys

Garden Mums. My favourite.

Never ending pile of laundry to be folded or Mt. Foldme

                   

New to the farm this year- raised beds in the front courtyard. Didn't do quite as well as hoped, but still blooming!

After-school mess making...er, playtime.

Raised bed #2 sporting a healthy (5.5 ft. tall) crop of Redbor Kale and the blasted aphid drowned Brussels.

I have carpel elbow from all of the chopping/stirring/slicing/stuffing I've been doing this last month. In the pantry: Cider and juice, salsa, dried fruit/veg, butters and jams and still more to can.

Raised bed #3.  Home to wayward strawberries, various herbs and Cole crops.

Outside-the rain tumbles from the sky. Inside-the fireplace crackles and the tea kettle whistles. Dinner is simmering in the oven and the water-bath canner bubbles steady.

A picture's worth::Farm Tour

I haven't taken y'all on a photographic walking tour of the farm in ages and thought it was high time. So, I have declared this week Farm Tour Week.  Enjoy!

          Blue Orpington baby (Thank you Dora)

                                       Apples from our own trees destined for the dehydrator ((love))

                                                                  Calendula from Cara

                                                            Grouchy old Salmon Faverolle hen

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

For today's posting I am linking up with the gals at Like Mother, Like Daughter.  
Join the fun!

{pretty}

This is from one of the weddings I shot this summer. I love the clothesline. I love the strings of lights. The twilight....very pretty.

{happy}

 I captured this tender moment between brothers yesterday. Both of my boys are suffering from illness.  My man child has just returned from a mission trip to Mexico, where he must have been bitten by a dog or a seal because he is barking up a storm.  He sounds terrible but that didn't stop him from reading a little of  "The Sneetches" to his baby brother who has a mild case of Conjunctivitis. 

This makes me so happy.  I love that my oldest isn't too cool to snuggle on the couch and read Dr. Seuss to his brother.  

{funny}

 This is my youngest child; dramatic and funny are his middle names. We have been standing in the July heat for 1.75 hrs waiting for our local parade -in which he is participating-to start.  Someone just told him he is allowed to "shoot" the crowd with a squirt gun.  He was excited, to say the least.

{real}

My friend Miri and I have a tradition.  Every October, we  make a birthday (Miri's)  pilgrimage to the Sylvia Beach Hotel.   We lounge. We read. We take photos.  We sip tea and take in the glorious ocean air. Otherwise,  we enjoy the quiet lack of children, animals, cell phones and T.V.   
Note:  The hotel, from-which my friend is basking in the ocean sunset above, is remodeling.    Alas, there will be no pilgrimage this year.  There will be no sipping of tea or lounging. There will be no photographing. There will be no lack of noise.  This year we must make other plans.


 (Insert loud sigh here)


Dear Sylvia Beach Hotel,
Hurry up with that remodeling! 
Love, 
Katie and Miri


Happy 20th Anniversary of your 20th Birthday my dear sweet friend! May it be wonderful even without the quiet ocean view.

Victory Gardener

O.K. So, Katie knows it may seem silly to most some but... she is on a gardener's high unlike any experienced thus far in her gardening career.

Take a little stroll through time, if you will.

2000: Katie plants first garden of her adult life.  Blue Jays devour the lettuce seeds Katie lovingly plants in the plot of dirt loaned to her by her beloved friend Ona. Katie replants seeds.  Birds devour seeds. Katie gives up and goes to the  local Farmer's Market for produce.

2001: Not having a plot to plant in, Katie gains permission to garden in her mother-in-law's famous raised beds. Katie plants  lettuce seeds. Seeds sprout and flourish. Rotten neighborhood dog, wallows in Katie's allotted garden bed. Katie cries, then goes the local Farmer's Market  for produce.

2002: Katie, being in possession of her own garden plot but heavy with child, gives up gardening all together, choosing instead to frequent the local Farmer's Market.

2003: Having blown out her knee three days after giving birth the year prior, Katie, still in a knee brace, hobbles around in an ungraceful manner and is thus, unable to garden. Katie sends her loving husband to the local Farmer's Market for produce.

2004: Katie decides that one more baby is in order before she gets any older and is too busy nursing and changing diapers to tend a garden.  Katie and clan venture out to the local Farmer's Market for produce and brief moments of sanity quiet while the baby naps in stroller.

2005: Katie and loving husband decide its high time to move to the country.  After purchasing a small acreage barely off the beaten path and being totally overwhelmed while all that entails, Katie and family seek out a new, not so local Farmer's Market.

2006: Katie plants first garden in her new rurban plot of ground.  Local area experiences drought. Katie weeps over her crispy lettuce leaves and goes to Safeway for lettuce imported from China.

2007: Katie and family move to a beloved neighbouring community.  In a plot that once housed pigs, Katie plants the biggest garden of her life!! Beloved neighbouring community experiences first heat wave in years and Katie's lettuces bolt with only 4 leaves to a plant. Katie decides its time to try the Atkin's Diet and gives up on vegetables.

2008: Unable to purchase home in beloved neighbouring community, Katie and family move back to their small acreage barely off the beaten path, consoling themselves with produce from the local Farmer's Market.

2009-2010: Katie dubs these the years of the Filthy Slug/Stupid Snail/Rotten Dog/Freaking Blue Jay/Bloody Crows/Cussed Late Blight/Stupid-Freaking-Bloodyrotten-Cussed Chickens. Katie weeps in her coffee over lost lettuces, squash, melons, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers. Katie threatens chickens, dogs, birds and baits the snails and slugs with beer.  Loving husband wonders at the cost of seeds/seedlings and beer for slugs and threatens to shut down the garden altogether. Katie rushes to the not-so-local Farmer's Market for home brewed beer veggies. Katie tells hubby she grew them herself.

2011: After eight straight months of rain, Katie plants her beloved garden. Katie tends and frets. Katie amends and lovingly applies fish fertilizer by the gallons. Katie is rewarded, for the first time ever, with a harvest. Katie weeps tears of joy in her morning coffee. Katie does a little jig. Or six  And squeals with glee.

Katie will not be seeking out produce from her local Farmer's Market this summer.  She will be enjoying the fruits greens of her labour fresh from the garden.

Summer Solstice

In celebration of the longest day of the year, I am sharing a picture of sunshine, as sunshine has been fleeting here in the Pac.N.W.   This is a shot of my favourite backyard tree, bathed in evening sunlight.  This is a Fringe Tree; it's scent is amazing and its ethereal beauty is a standout in the garden. (Also, Fringe Trees are in vogue right now. Who knew?)

I would highly recommend this beauty to all my gardening friends. I also highly recommend sunshine, it is good for the soul.


Have a lovely first day of Summer!

April showers bring....April flowers

Just a little sampling of blossoms from my garden. I am surprised that the garden is flourishing as it is.  From where I sit all I see is rain...rain...rain. With more rain to follow.


I hope that where ever you are, there is sunshine. Have a blessed day!

Just a minute for a garden tidbit

In between the torrential down-pours of the last few weeks I have been sneaking out of doors to snip this, plant that and just plain flit hither and yon.  In between the down-pours I have almost gone mad from lack of gardening in its more serious form; ie: hard core garden planting.  All of the soggy soil has about made me resort to container gardening over traditional in-ground gardening...but alas for the last three days the sun has shone! 

After months and months of what my sister farm chicks and I have lovingly dubbed "bi-polar" weather, the seeds are going into the soil!  While Miriam and Cara are starting their Three Sisters Garden plots, I have been  pulling spindly plants from the greenhouse. 

Today however, I had to take a minute for myself.  Today I escorted my kids plus three extras to the library for a moment of blogging.  I do have a smidge of guilt at not being out in the garden but..

So while I am here I want to know...How does your garden grow??

Falling in love

I am so in love with Autumn!  It is my all-time favourite time of year.  The light, the brilliant colors and yes even the fog, all act as a balm for my summer frazzled soul.

My computer/interweb woes still abound but at least I can gaze out my window and clamp eyes on the gorgeous colors of fall; dreaming all the while of all the great blogs I will write... one day.

Easy does it

I have run so harry-carry as of late, I am feeling the need to take a day off.  The busy, bustling of  "putting food by" has taken a toll on my house and my attitude.  For months I have poured out my energies, with abandon, on my garden and now... 

I find I have lost the heart for tending and toiling.  And canning.


Ad infinitum.



I think I will play the grasshopper for a day and simply watch the ants scurry past.

Summer in pictures...maybe.

What can I say? I have been busy.

Fresh greens and one cute baby

Just a little gratuitous garden photography.














































I am blessed to be hosting my favourite baby, (Miriam's daughter Laura, who loving calls me Kaka. Sweet eh!)





















her sisters and a few other adorable children today. All told, there will be eleven children running amok at Calamity Farm this afternoon. As you can see I will have no opportunity to do any proper blogging. Thus the photo blogging.




Hope your day is full of as many blessing as mine! :)


Editor's note: Sorry for posting this again and again and...sorry, still having a few problems posting.

Not a techy:: Part 568

Still working out some bugs. I hope this picture will suffice till I can get things running smoothly.


I hope you are all able to stay relatively cool during this crazy heat wave.


~K

Dieting and digging

For the last few months life has been a rush of fresh, dirt scented, air. To say that Katie has buried herself in the garden would be a true statement indeed. The garden has become all consuming. Thank-goodness for SPF 60 Sunscreen and Nitrile garden gloves, because Katie has worn through her fair share of both. The other day, as Katie was lamenting her sad-state-of-bloglessness with her closest farm-girl friend she had to thank her lucky stars that 'at least there is the garden', for Katie would be an utter wreck with out the diversion of the garden.

"Katie, Katie quite contrary...How does your garden grow?" you might ask.

With tomato's galore and so much more! Katie cannot name the mass of greens growing and sprouting from every crack and cranny. Potatoes, cabbages and onions...

...O' my!

In between bouts of garden madness Katie has decided that enough is enough. It is time to take the battle of the bulge into her own grubby not so little hands, she is starting a D I E T! Oh yes she is! This business of flopping around the garden in her chubby clothes has got to stop! STOP! she says. So as of today, Katie is officially doing the no/low carb thing.

Katie is, however, not doing so well for her first day out of the gate. Already Katie has partaken of her daily coffee. With CREAMER. And has made the mistake of making herself a piece of toast (albeit, very nutty bread) to dip her morning eggs into. So...day one, and Katie is already a failure. Poo!

Well, at least there is the garden! Katie is off to drown her carbohydrate drenched self in garden chores.

And a little 60 proof. Sunscreen that is...

Pardon me...

Being under the influence of Spring, is a detriment to one's blogging. I know what you are saying: Priorities! Girlfriend, get with the bloggin'!

I do have to defend my honor (or some such nonsense) I have been blogging, just not here. I have been cheating on this blog. It is terrible. Unthinkable! It's that blasted Spring thing again. It's got me all jumbled up inside. I can't think straight. So, I have been sneaking off and jotting my thoughts (on Spring) down, journal style on my Little Farm blog.

Go ahead, check it out. You know you want to. :)

Back to being under the influence: I have to blame shift here a little bit more-K?! It really isn't my fault. The fault rests solely in the pages of the dadrabbit seed catalogs. No, really. Those companies just prey on unsuspecting gardeners like myself. They purposely fill the pages of those lovely little books with such glorious overpriced goodies. They suck you in with tales of how "you too can have tomatoes, year round, with the super-duper, upside down tomato growing thingie". And, for just a minute I think, well yea, I totally NEED the "super-duper, upside down tomato growing thingie". Heck yea! I need TWO! And while I'm at I better get just the right seed and some fertilizer and carrot seed and hey....what's that? roses, ooooh roses, and then there's the herbs and squash, broccoli, kale, garlic and potato's! We wouldn't want to forget those now would we. We might as well spend every last dime we have on this stuff because, HELLO, it's Spring!

And what does one twitterpated farm girl do in the Spring? What is the all important, Spring specific, planting thing to do? Why, plant pea's, of course. Lots and lots of peas. Snap Peas, Sugar Pod Peas, Shellin' Peas....

...seed catalogs be damned!


What is a blog are priorities when you have seed catalogs to get sucked into peruse?

Sprouts

True story folks; I lurve me some sprouts, yet sprouts are spendy little buggers. For one third the cost of store bought sprouts, I grew some myself. Aren't you impressed? I am. Having never considered growing my own fresh, organic sprouts, it occurred to that I could totally do this. (Yeah, that's how I roll. You should have heard me talking to myself in the seed store; Well this looks easy enough...I could do this?)

I am very pleased with the ease of such an endeavor.

Purchase sprouting seed
Purchase sprouting screen
Sterilize wide mouth Mason jar
Sterilize seed
Soak seed for 8 hours
Drain
Rinse
Swish, drain
Rinse, swish, drain; twice daily.

Easy schmeasy!

For my first attempt I am sprouting Red Clover. I can't hardly contain my anticipation. I have been dreaming of fabulous sammies overflowing with fresh sprouts, salads teeming with crunchy little sprouts....ah the possibilities. And the health benefits!

I feel so cleaver.

Too pooped.

Sorry for the lack of a post, I am just too exhausted from my day of cooking and stirring I can hardly type. My arms feel like they weight about a thousand pounds apiece. I am plain, too pooped to do much of anything. I didn't get as far as I had hoped, due to crap (story for another day) that happened during the day, but I did get some meals frozen.

******

So here's a photo for today. I hope that you have a wonderful Tuesday.

((OK I had to throw in two pic's, I couldn't help myself))

Oh and go check out the Sanity Saver's site for a trailer backing how-to. Farm girls rule!

Photo Friday

Wishing you all a Happy Friday and a peace filled weekend.

Spread the love...

Here is a bouquet I picked just for you, dear reader. Isn't it just lovely? The little daisy like flowers of the Feverfew plant always succeed in making me smile. I hope that it brings a smile to your face as well.

As well as a nice little bouquet, I have some blogs to share with you. Some of you may have heard of these places before but most of them are new to me so I thought I would play nice and share.

• Mrs. G at Derfwad Manor~not for the faint of heart. Hilarious, and well, hilarious.
• Angry Chicken~this authoress is my new guru. A sewing blog with lots of other cool stuff thrown in for fun.
• Blue Yonder~Stephani is a fun loving, homeschool mom and she just put up a recipe for Jack Daniels Pie...hello, can we say YUM'O?!
• Dana at The Old Red Barn Co.~ just plain cool. A must see and a must enter. She is giving away the most adorable quilt. I would encourage you to go check it out but that would lower my own chances of winning.....ummm, forget I told you about that contest K?? NO! Wait, go check it out. No. Yes. OK, I give up!
• The Replacers~this is The Inspector Generals new blog. I got tired of him leaving comments in my name, so I told him to get off his tookus and get a life blog. He is trying to get me to use the moniker, Agent K. What do you think?? Should I bow to his wishes?? Either way, visit his page and leave him a comment because let me tell you a secret~he has been readin' all y'alls blog posts...yup.
• Soule Mamma~if you haven't been here, go, run to the crafty goodness of this blog.

Well friends, that does it. Got any cool places to share?? Spread the love, baby.

Photography 101.......Sorta

Well I know nothing about taking pictures, other than you need light and not too much of it and you need a fairly still subject. Easy-Shmeasy right?!


RIGHT! Come on work with me here! Tell me that I am fabulous and talented and going to make millions with my unbelievable photographic skills.........


or not!


How about just giving me a pat on the back for my good LUCK with photography.



So, I got loads, alot some flack for not posting photo's to go along with my Photo Journaling post. And after ranting about the blogger business and promising to post some of the said photo's, I thought that I would just fling some nice one's out here for you to gape in awe at peruse.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the lake with my family. I thought that this shot of the leaf on the rocks was really cool.

This is one of the roses in my Rose Garden. The Rose Garden has mostly wild roses in it right now but this solitary massive yellow rose was my muse last night. I love the persective.

Dorky, I know but, what is summer without Flip-Flops and those cute little daisy weeds that seem to take over the lawn?

I have NO IDEA what this amazing tree is called. It resembles a Hibiscus and smells like heaven and honeysuckle mixed together......seriously! Anyone have an idea what this is?? It is a small tree and is loaded with blossoms.

This is Charro, or escapee bunny. She somehow manged to open her cage door one afternoon and has been wandering the farm, eating my garden and annoying the chickens, ever since. This was the prime example of a still subject. If she wasn't running as fast as she could to hide from me, she was sitting perfectly still trying to convince me that she was invisible. HaH!

Well, I hope that I have satisfied the Farm Suite and Chickie Momma blogging masses with my amazing, million dollar making, Ninja photo skills. :}