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As I write this, the current tempertature outside is 3 degrees, with heavy winds, and a windchill of -13! It's definitly the coldest it's been so far this year so I really can't complain. The chickens should be plenty warm since Lisa decided they needed another heat lamp and got on while she was running errands on Friday night. As the winds picked up yesterday, I covered the 2 broken garage door windows, and stuffed insulation under the one door that refuses to close all the way. They got new straw yesterday, along with the rabbits, so with both in place, I'm sure they're doing just fine.
The girls are all settled in together finally and getting along fine. Egg production has went up to between 5 and 7 eggs a day now. I gave some away this weekend to my mom and my friend Bill's mom, and Lisa gave her daughter a half dozen yesterday when she came to visit. Quite a few got used over the weekend as Lisa continued her baking frenzy on Saturday from around 1pm till roughly 9pm, and yesterday pretty much all day. She also made buckeyes, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered peanuts, and white chocolate covered popcorn. Two "goody baskets" went out in the mail already, one to a friend in Oregon and another to a friend in North Carolina, plus we sent one home with Bill for his mom. She can't garden or do much anymore since her stroke left her with no use of her left arm, so we send her things quite a bit during the growing season. This one was all kinds of cookies, candy, bread, jams, jellies, and her request of homeade pickles, lol. Love ya Weezie!




Last night we sat around, notebooks in hand and made out our list for seed & plant orders. The temps outside continuted to drop, the wind picked up, and Lisa bundled up under her usual blankets. Of course as you can see, Austin (our bloodhound) decided he wanted to play lapdog again and get in on the blanket action. Sometimes he forgets he's 120 pounds, lol. It's not the best picture, but not too bad from a cell phone.....

We came up with a pretty good list for '09. Most were things we have always grown, some were from this years new trials, and others are new things we want to try. Every year the garden and thus the selection grows, even despite the fact that it's just us at home now. We just want to try new things, and do more that can be canned or otherwise preserved.
The list from this year will be carried over : sweet corn, green beans, tomatos, green peppers, jalepeno peppers, habenero peppers, chili peppers, hungarian hot wax peppers, green onion, yellow onion, yellow squash, cucumbers, potatos, broccoli, kalarabi, turnips, parsnips, carrots, beets, spinach, leaf lettuce and melons. We'll be adding another 10 or so blackberry plants, as well as starting some peach trees just to see how they do. Other than that, the fruits from the past years will remain. The additions for next year will be: garlic,cabbage,swiss chard,deer tongue,cauliflower,sage, lavender,italian basil, oregeno, mammoth dill, sweet leaf, parsley, lemon drop peppers, and elderberries. Looks like I've got a lot more digging to do in the spring! lol We decided also that this year we are going 100% heirloom so we can start saving seeds and have the orders picked out accordingly. With a little research, I found a place in Wadsworth (about 20 minutes away) that is a vendor for Seeds of Change, so we'll visit there before making any mail orders.
Hopefully.....................the church job I'll be going to today has heat! Last week I was there a day and a half, and it was pretty chilly in the basement where we're working. If there is no heat, we can't work with the glue we use for the CPVC sprinkler pipe. If not, it may be a short day....guess I'll have to wait and see.
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