One of the Last Strawberries

Ok. You're going to think I'm goofy. Well...

Heart Strawberry

Here's one of the last strawberries we got from our strawberry patch this year. I thought it was cute. I've never seen such a pretty heart-shaped strawberry.

I hope this put a smile on your face today.

Take care.

Rain, Rain. Go Away!

Beginning Thursday afternoon, we've had rain. Lots of rain! We were shin-deep in water on our property. Where we live, we are pretty much at sea level...maybe 1 foot above. If we dig a hole, we get water at about 1 foot. Sometimes a little more. This means we have to have a deep ditch around the perimeter of the property in order to grow things. Well, sometimes it still floods, but the ditches make the water clear off quicker. Needless to say, Thursday, Friday and Saturday our strawberry patch was pretty much flooded. One low end was under water along with our mustard greens and onion sets, which is planted in front of the last row. This is not good because the strawberry plants grow from the crown. Those shouldn't get soaked like that. I may lose part of the strawberry patch. As soon as I can figure out why I can't post pics, I'll get pics to show you the strawberry patch and part of the food garden so you can see what I mean.

Also, the chickens were partially under water. On days like this, I call them duckies because they sometimes have to wade through water. Luckily there is a large portion of their run which is high and dry. I'm sure they get upset when they get water like this. I'm thankful it only happens a couple of times a year.

Today, we have no rain. It is sunny! Yay! I went outside and got my potting soil and compost mix so I can transplant seedlings from indoors. Right now, I have red peppers, yellow peppers, eggplants and summer squash transplanted. They are sitting outside under the picnic pavilion hardening off for a bit. It's a little over 60 degrees F outside, so they'll be getting a little bit of air. Hopefully they will get good stalks from being outside. They're a bit spindly right now.

I've sunk the summer squash stems about 2" into their new pots. Some say that the squash won't transplant well and they'll die. I've wondered why this is? They sell the squash starts at the garden centers. I've always sown the squash seeds directly into the garden. So this is one of my experiments for this year.

In a couple of weeks, I'll be transplanting all into the garden after the frost has finished. Wish me luck!

Good luck to all of you with your gardens this year!!!

Lazy Me!!!

Yes. I've been a lazy poster. It's not because I haven't been busy. It's because I've been lazy.

I promised pics of a craft I was working on. I'm still working on it. Lazy me!

I've been meaning to post on the goings-on about our small acreage. Lazy me!

I've been meaning to tell all of you what I've been cooking for the holidays. Lazy me!

Well...I have to get back into the swing of things. I enjoy reading everyone else's blog and seeing what they've been up to in small farmville. Just maybe someone wants to keep up with us?

For some reason, I cannot download pics today. Every once in a while this happens. Sorry.

I can now upload photos. Much thanks to the computer guru at work! Go Bob!

So...in November, for Thanksgiving, we had some company come up from Florida. It was hubby's brother and his daughter and family. It was great to spend some time with them. I especially enjoyed it since I really didn't know them that well. One thing my niece and I had in common was SHOPPING! If you don't know someone that well, go shopping. It's a great conversation starter and an all-around fun olympic sport. ; ) We spent a day bargain shopping! No guys, just us girls. I treated them to some homemade pizza when we returned. I made dough in the morning and we had two very large pizzas in the evening. YUM!

For Thanksgiving dinner we had loads of food. My brother-in-law wanted to treat us to a dinner. So he had his daughter cook. What he didn't know was that when the rest of the family came over, there was more food coming in. I did my usual desserts and breads. Everyone else brought sides. It was great!

Pumpkin Pie, Cornbread, Rolls

Biscuits, Cookies, Banana Cream Pie, Lemon Cranberry Bundt Cake, Honey Butter

 Then in December, I still had flowers blooming in my garden. My lantana was busting out with flowers because it was still warm. The butterflies were everywhere! There were some yellow flowers growing up into my weeping holly bush. They were really outstanding with the red berries from the holly bush. Crimson and yellow together were really pretty for fall.

Lantana

Unknown Pretty Flower

 Then, we were invited to go to my Florida brother-in-law's place for Christmas. It is a pretty short trip and we had great weather. Sunshine all of the way down. : )  We spent a day at BIL's house then went to his daughter's house in Palm Harbor, clear on the other side of Florida. It only took about 1-1/2 hours to drive. It was a really nice drive. We had great weather the whole time we were there and stayed in Palm Harbor until the day after Christmas. Then it was home again.

In January, we started planning for our spring garden. This meant getting seeds germinated and a strawberry patch ready. Last week, I finally transplanted the last of the strawberry plants that I was going to plant. In the large patch, we have 1110 plants transplanted. In the nursery patch, we have 135 plants planted. Were we busy? You bet! We're experimenting with a watering system this year since we have such a large patch. Wish us luck with that! But we still have somewhere between 200 and 400 plants left to get out of our other garden before we can plant tomatoes, beans, peppers and such. All of those left over strawberry plants will be lifted and I'll take them to work for the guys there.

Hopefully, I'll be able to insert photos again by the next post.

I wish you all well.

Michelle

Crafty Things

There is a birthday tomorrow for a coworker. Actually, her birthday is today. I've made a couple of things I've been thinking of giving her. First of all, she likes beachy stuff. So I put this thing together.

Beachy Thing

It's kind of OK, but not something I'd like to give as a gift. This kind of has some voodoo feeling going on. Looks more like a creature than a gift. I don't think I like it all that well. However, it doesn't look too bad in my soon-to-be-redone bathroom. Hmmm. Should I get greedy? Well, you can't call it greedy if it ain't that cute. Right?!

Now on to the next creation.

Bird on Nest

Now this I can get really excited about, if it was a gift for me. Of course, this idea came from Miss AJ of the Trash2Treasure blog. If you love recycling/repurposing/redoing/re-anything-ing, then you MUST take a peek at her site. To me, she is the Queen of Repurposing and Decorating Ideas. She makes 'stuff' into really cute items. Here is the link for the bird nest inspiration. Click on the link and scroll down. You'll see different bird nest variations. CUTE!!!

Well. I guess I made up my mind about the gift. The bird nest is it. I hope my co-worker likes it.
I do!

Take care. Happy re-doing!

Projects Completed

I've done a few small projects, lately. I've been in a refurbishing mode and I'm having a ball with it!

The first project...

Gazing Ball

So what! What's so special about a silly ol' gazing ball? Well, I've had it in the garden a few months. After I got it out there and we had a couple of good rains, the humidity removed all of the silver from the inside of the ball. Even though there is a plasting cover over the opening, the silver melted off of the inside. So my gazing ball turned into a 'gazing through' ball.

Hubby and I had mistakenly purchased a few cans of chrome paint because the cap was gray. Hubby needed gray paint for the wheels of his dump truck. Surprise! Not gray...chrome.

So I bought some white primer...good stuff. Right! Half of the can came out in a dry mist. The rest of it came out like normal. After the primer dried I rubbed my hand over it and took off the dried mist. Well, most of it flaked off. Then I primed again. Then I took a can of chrome paint and painted the ball several times after the primer dried. It's not a shiny gazing ball. It's got kind of a sandy texture to it in places and shiny in other places. I like it! It looks pretty cool since no one else has one like it.

Here's my before and after project.

Side Table - Before



Close-up of Detail

  We've had this side table for a long time. I've seen them at yard sales and was going to pick up another one to make a match, but didn't. Well, they are really made crappy. It's not a bad looking table, but it was beaten up pretty much. When I sanded it down, I saw how cheaply it was made. The legs were made of pieces of wood glued together, then cut and shaped. Thin plywood is the top and the shelf. The top had lifted a bit in spots and my dog had chewed a corner of the table top. It had some markings underneath the table top and on the shelf, so I didn't refinish the underneath parts for later reference.

Ta Daaaaaa!


Shabby Chic Table - After

Not too bad for a first major Shabby Chic project, eh?!

I sanded, primed and painted it with white latex paint that I had on hand. Mod Podged a piece of pretty paisley wrapping paper to the top to cover the raised area and a bad finish. I sanded the edges to give it a worn look. I gave it a coat of paste wax and put it into the 'company' bathroom for now.

I had a willow basket in my basket stash. I dry-brushed a little of the white on it to cut down the darkness. It was a really dark walnuty brown.

I still have to paint the walls and put mouldings around the ceiling and floor in the bathroom. Then I'll make the curtains and shower curtain. I already have the material for the curtains. I was planning on this being a beachy-style room. But, because of the material I have on hand, it will be a cottage-style room.

I also have that 'special project' to make for in here. I mentioned it before and I haven't started it yet. I'm still gathering pieces to finish building it.

I'd like to find a nice small chandelier-type light fixture to put in here. We're going to the flea market tomorrow! Hee Haw! I'll be scoping out chandeliers and milk glass vases for in here. Oh, and maybe some chunks of wood for the 'special project'. I hope I find at least one thing on my list.

I just noticed that it also looks like I need a piece of beadboard on the side of the vanity. This small remodeling project is starting to sprout wings! Well, at least it will be pretty and new when I'm done. This is the first room of a whole double-wide trailer load of rooms that I want to refurbish. Right now, it doesn't look so much like a trailer, but I want it to be more of a home.

Take care. I'll be showing you more of the project as I go along.

Coffee!

I love my morning cuppa coffee. A little while ago we purchased a new coffee maker. Just like anything else, it took a while to get used to the new machine. Here it is. It is the best investment we've made in a long time. I'd have to say it's probably my best investment in kitchen appliances. It has a water reservoir that you put the water into. And, here's the best part, a coffee reservoir that keeps the coffee hot without evaporating or burning. This means you get a really good cup of coffee every time. No burnt taste. No concentrated nastiness. Just a nice, smooth cup of coffee every time for the next two hours...if it lasts that long. Next best part of this little baby is the dial on the top. It's like a fuel meter. E for empty. F for full. You know exactly how much is in the coffee reservoir. You can set times and do a few other things to get the coffee how you want it and when you need it. No glass carafe! Yay! Stick the cup under the spout and press the lever down. Out comes the good stuff!



I have this near my kitchen entryway, next to my fridge. This little bit of counter space is useless except for making a coffee station.

I thought I'd share this little bit with you in case you're looking for a new coffee maker. I highly recommend this type. This brand is great, but we also have a smaller one in our camper made by another brand. It is just as good, but not as fancy.

Take care.

I hope your next cup is as good as mine will be!

Michelin Stars?

Look what I found hanging in my kitchen!

My Michelin's

I've got a 5-star kitchen! Who needs Michelin reviews?

This is another idea I got from Trash2Treasure, the site by AJ mentioned in my last post. I got 2 pieces of crappy wood rescued from our burn pile, which my hubby gave me really strange looks for. Then, I dry-brushed on the blue base color, then stenciled the stars and painted 'kitchen'. At first I was going to make some beachy-looking signs for my bathroom revamp. I did the stars first. Hmmm, I thought of Michelin stars and decided to promote my kitchen to a 5-star kitchen without the help of Michelin. My kitchen has earned this distinction, IMHO. ; ) Maybe next time I'll make a sign for the bathroom.

One of my favorite things to do in life is to cook. In fact, I just finished cooking for this week's meals. I do this on Sundays since I don't feel like doing much during the week after work. My lineup today was pork steaks in saurkraut, lentil salad, macaroni salad and macaroni with meat sauce. I'll make a greens salad tomorrow and we'll take a little of this and that to make our meals for the week. I also have potato soup, which I made last Thursday, in sealed containers in the fridge. I think this will hold us for a few days.

Take care.

Stop by again.

Hubby's Afghan

Here is Hubby's afghan that I made for him after the holiday season. He's been sleeping scrunched up under one I made 30-some odd years ago. He deserved a nicer one and one he can stretch out under.

Hubby's Afghan

It is hard to see, but it's a Jacob's Ladder pattern. He wanted it all in the variegated color, but I told him my eyes would get the best of me if I did. So I made it in black and variegated. It turned out really well.

Sometimes you just can't tolerate looking at graphics for too long. Some colors are hard on the eyes, too. I made a baby afghan in the Jacob's Ladder pattern for a friend shortly after high school graduation MANY moons ago. I made it in a pretty yellow since we didn't know if the baby would be a boy or a girl. Bad choice of color on my part! I had headaches while I worked on it since the yellow was so bright. I really loved the color, but it didn't love my eyes. I had never been so relieved to get rid of an afghan before. All said, it was a really pretty afghan and the Mom loved it.

Now it's my turn to have a new afghan. I'll be posting on that one when it is finished. I'm working on it, but the details will need to be refined a bit.

Take care...until next time.

Gardening for Food

Ever since we've been married, we've been putting in a food garden every year. It all started with a couple of tomato plants and a couple of jalapeno plants. Our first garden gave us the biggest and best tomatos we've ever had. I also had so many jalapenos from two plants that I had to either freeze or can them. Here is another glimpse of what we have going this year.

Strawberry Patch - before weeding

Here is the strawberry patch before the second weeding. We have about 300 plants total among this and the raised beds. We have Ozark Beauty plants and they are everbearers. However, our weather in SC is too hot for them to bear as much as they are supposed to. But this year we've had a bang-up crop of berries. We've had two bearings and a third smaller bearing is coming up. We ate most of the berries and the birds and slugs had some too. I have enough berries in the freezer to make about 8 pints of jam. That is a favorite thing for me to eat with my homemade biscuits and a cup of freshly-brewed coffee. Yummmmm. Back to gardening.

Strawberry Patch - after weeding

Here are some of the lovely plants growing in the Back 40 garden.

Zucchini and Summer (Crookneck) Squash

Pattypan Squash

We finally got zucchini to grow. We had six summer squash plants last year and just three made it this year. One or two zucchini and two Pattypan plants. I guess the zucchini makes up for not having so any summer and pattypan squash this year. If you've never eaten Pattypan squash, you'd really love it because it is a nice fresh flavored squash. It is best eaten when the fruit is about 6" in diameter or the green tinge has just gone off of the white skin. If it grows too big, you have to peel it to eat it. The skin becomes very hard.

Cherry and Grape Tomatos

Cherry tomatos on the top right and grape tomatos on bottom left. We have eight plants of cherry tomatos and two plants of grape tomatos. Our other tomatos are a mixture of Mortgage Lifter and Better Boy plants. They are all doing well but we are having a few problems. Blossom end rot and rust. We've pulled about six plants already. We probably should pull at least two more with rust, but they have nice tomatos growing on them. I don't know how that will affect anything, but we have to be careful not to touch other plants when we've pulled leaves from the rusty plants. Don't compost rusted leaves. That's not good for the next round of tomato plants.

Beans (squash to the left)

Here are our green, pole and speckled beans. They are all bearing well, right now. It is so wonderful to have fresh veggies on the table. They taste so good! I will have to freeze some of the green beans. They are really producing.

Now, all of these plants can be planted again in our zone beginning in July. We've never done a second planting, but we will this year. Then we'll figure out our fall crop for the winter growing season. It's three season gardening down here.

Herbs and Nursery Garden

I love my fresh herbs. This is what I have growing this year. Garlic chives in the front right and oregano behind it. The small patch in the middle is thyme and basil is the large-leaved things behind that. Dill is the ferny stuff you see to the back left. My nursery items are a very small strawberry plant which grew to a massive plant with babies. Little pieces of sedum (variegated and green) and a lantana plant that I didn't think would amount to much. I'm considering one whole box of herbs for next year and one for the nursery items.

Well, I have dinner to make and a lot of housework to do. You betcha we're having green beans for dinner tonight!

Take care.

Campfire Night

Since Hubby and I live way out in the hinterlands, we can have campfires as long as they are under control and the SC Forestry Service doesn't have a 'no burn' warning out. 

One of Our Dietz Lanterns

For us, this is a really relaxing form of recreation. Then, again, we're old farts and it doesn't take much to amuse us. LOL. We really love discussing the day's goings on and what we're planning to do in the near future. Sometimes we'll talk until 10 or 11 pm as the night goes quickly when we're having this much fun.

We set out our lanterns around the campfire and picnic table. They really make the whole experience nice. We bought these little babies from Lehman's in Kidron, Ohio. No. We didn't go there, but that is one of my bucket list items to do. They have a really nice website and they will send out a catalog if you request one. They cater to the Amish and those who choose a rustic or off-grid lifestyle. Maybe this summer, when we visit relatives in PA, I may be able to get Hubby to make a side trip.

Trixie Getting Ready for Campfire Night

This night, rather than having our own campfire by ourselves, we were having company! The little neighbor girls have been coming over to play in our sand pile and we invited them and their parents to our campfire.

I bought marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars to make S'mores. That was a hit even for the adults! I also made a huge bowl of buttered popcorn with our air popper. Yum! The night flew quickly. The little girls tried to tell ghost stories and other tall tales. We got a kick out of them. We all talked until about 10 pm when the neighbor mentioned the time.

I think we all had a good night. The dogs were great with all of the loving they were getting. The little girls were hanging on their necks and giving them hugs and petting. I think the company wore them out because they were really good dogs and fell fast asleep when we got into the house.

May all of your campfire nights be filled with enjoyment!

Memorial Day Camping

Well, we decided to take a trip to a local campground to see how our new truck pulls a heavy load. Hubby's truck strained pulling loads so I got a 'big girl truck'. Now we can go camping again! Yay!

Camper with Big Girl Truck

This was a really nice campground in Lexington, SC. It was called The Barnyard Campground. No. It really wasn't a barnyard. It was really nice and clean and reasonably priced. We were within walking distance of a lot of things like a roller rink, a grocery store, several restaurants and business. And...

a really big flea market! Woo hoo! One of my favorite things to do was within a block of our camper. We didn't buy much but we got a good look at what they had. This was a very clean flea market. I was really surprised. This one was great!

Take care. Happy camping.

Our Gardens

Here are a few pics of things going on in our gardens right now.

Driveway Garden

This garden is by our driveway. There are dwarf daylilies in the front. Standard orange ones further down. To the left, near the truck's bumper, is a perennial sage. The fragrance of the leaves is really great. The purplish flowers don't have much of a smell. I think I have had this one for about 5 years in this spot. I trim it down every year to new growth and it gets better and better. Between the hoses, you can barely see the yarrow. Behind the standard orange daylilies is a Weeping Holly.

Back Fence Garden

From the driveway garden, if you follow around a little, this is the birdbath garden between willows. Yarrow is in front of the birdbath. The white flowered vine is Confederate Jasmine. It has a really pungent fragrance. The grassy stuff in front is something that grows wild here. It stays in a clump and seeds very well from the spent flowers. I don't know what it's called. It is also sold in the garden centers for quite a few dollars. Hmmm. I got lots of these free flowers. I give credit to the birds for helping spread the flowers, too!

Back 40 Garden

Way in the back of our property, we have a very large garden. Peppers to the left. Tomatos in the center. Cucumbers to the right. There are beans, squash, radishes, lettuce, onions and potatos in here as well. We're anxiously waiting to see what we get from here. Gardening in SC sure is a challenge! We have 3 seasons for gardening. We've only had 15 years of trying to figure it out. It's crazy!

Take care, for now.

One More Thing

Here's a pic of a shawl I made for myself. I make stuff for everyone else, so I decided that I had some lovely leftovers and made this shawl.

I finished this a couple of months ago, but I never posted it. It is all acrylic yarns from leftover afghan projects this past Christmas.

Strawberries!!!

In February, we were busy transplanting our strawberries into new soil. We should have done this last December and we had a lot of babies to transplant.

About 250 Plants

This is our old garden. We planted a couple of rows last year to see how they would do in this area. They did really well so we decided to plant the strawberries here.

About 90 More

Well...we had leftovers. This is where I usually plant the strawberries. There are still 50-100 plants in the box you can barely see in the top left of this photo. I didn't get to amend the soil and transplant them. They are doing really well anyway.

New Coop!

Well, it's not really new. It was actually a storage shed we made into a coop / potting shed. I like to call my side my 'Mama Cave'. : ) We've lost a few hens and all of our roos so we're only going to keep a dozen or so instead of the 40+ we had. Downsizing is everywhere!

Front View

Back View

We do have wire over the top because of hawks. A hawk got one of them last year and it wasn't pretty. Funny thing is, we had chicken wire on top of the last one and the darned hawk pulled up a loose end and crawled in, we think. This one is tied in really well. I have the muscles to prove it!

Perches



New Nest Boxes

Yes, that's linoleum on the floor. I wanted to make it easy to clean so we went out and got remnants.

BTW, I found the setting to make more than one pic fit into a post.

I spoke too soon. I may need a better ethernet card. I replaced a blown one and didn't realize 'good price' meant 'slow moving'. I'll need GBs instead of mbps.

Anyhow, I've cleaned it and it works like a dream!

Table Napkins

In case you haven't noticed yet, I cannot publish more than one pic at a time for some reason. I've got to check my settings so please bear with me. Here's the next installment.

Did you ever get sick and tired of buying paper napkins? Do you hate to have pieces sticking to your fingers when you use paper napkins? I did. So I went to my trusty fabric stash and unearthed a bit of forgotten cotton cloth to make these.

They work really well. They clean up really well. I'm saving trees. I love being environmentally mindful. I try to use what I have before I buy. These only took a few minutes a piece to make. The hardest part was trying to figure out what size. The red and gold are 18" and the flowered ones are 15". I really don't know which size I like better. I guess I better make more of each size.

Doggie Stuff

Here's another thing I've been up to. I love my babies, which just happen to be furbabies. I decided to try to make them 'gourmet' biscuits. They looked and smelled so yummy! The girls thought so, too.

As for the recipe, I just make them up as I go. I use whole wheat flour, water, egg, some garlic powder (just a dash or two), grated carrots or other veggies, some water to bind. I roll them out on the counter in corn meal to about 1/4 inch. The cornmeal makes them look so dusty. Bake them and let them cool. I use what I have and take it from there. The girls NEVER turned them down. I've made batches now and again. I don't want to spoil them too much! Yeah, right.

Catching Up...Again

Once again, it's been a while since I've blogged. The weather has been unseasonably nice here in SC. We are enjoying being outside and getting the yard spruced up for the summer season. We get summer really early here. Like in April / May. However, the temps have been in the 80's and very close to the 90's already! Whew!

Here's a project I finished for a baby shower in March. A lovely young couple had a baby girl. This turned out very nice, if I may say so myself. ; )

Violet Brynn's Round Jacob's Ladder

Some More Catching Up

Hubby and I took photos and made some of our own Christmas cards this year. They turned out really nice. Here's one of the pics we took. Now you get to see what us old fogie chicken farmers look like.

Me and Hubby

I think we're cute. Oh well...that's what love means!

More Catching Up

I have a little bit of a problem attaching successive photos within one entry. So bear with me while I continue with my catching up.

Check this out...

Blooming Cactus

I have no idea what kind of cactus I have, but it decided to bloom. It had a pod on it for about a week. The pod was the size of...if you put your index fingers together and your thumbs together to make a 'spade' shape...that's how big it was. Then it opened up into this beige and maroon fuzzy thing. Gorgeous! I'm sure this picture doesn't do it justice. When it bloomed, I was awe-struck. Sometimes you just don't know what to expect from God's gifts of nature.