Monday, December 22, 2008

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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.
brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

4 comments:

FarmerGeek said...

I feel your pain about the cold, man! The new puppy has to go out a lot more often than our other pup and let me tell you, when its cold for me, ITS COLD! Getting right up and out the door to the pup out from a nice warm bed stinks!

Its awesome that you think of your friends and everyone by offering the bounty of your harvest when your friend's mom can't garden much anymore.

We still have to plan out our garden, but I like the idea of going heirloom so you can save the seeds! We will have to look at that as we plan out our garden. I'm stealing that idea!

Stay warm!

Chris W said...

Luckily we don't do anything to get the dogs out but open the door. The way I fenced in their area, I just let them out and they're all enclosed...nothing but a quick blast of cold on the feet, lol.
My friends mom can't do much of anything anymore, and she hasn't had a vegetable garden in over 10 years since her stroke. I've been friends with her son since we were in diapers, so I've known her forever. She always gets the best of the pickin's from us.

Leasmom said...

Man, reading about lisa's baking makes me feel a little like I'm missing out since this year I haven't done any of our usual baking for the season...we would make peppermint bark and chocolate covered pretzels along with tons of cookies...oh well, there's always next year.

the dafthermits (Mel n andy and wee clan) said...

wonderful blog

we have 2 dogs and 2 cats and when it's this cold their all trying to sit on you ha ha


happy xmas


andy the dafthermit

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