The First Tomato

Hello, friends.  The first chanterelles of the year have been foraged.  They were added to mushroom gravy I had planned for that day's dinner.  Last week, I harvested lettuce, peas, lambs quarter, the first yellow squash and zucchini from the garden.  We've had a few blossoms, and I was excited to find the first tomato forming.  A shirt was mended.  Early in the week, there were cool, rainy days.  These inspired me to start on some spring cleaning.  It worked out well.  Though we did have a fire in the woodstove on Monday, surely it will be our last of the season.  Heating with wood is such a messy thing, I try to wait until we're done having fires to do spring cleaning.  I'd love for things to stay clean for at least a little while.  I've continued making progress through the week on more deep cleaning.

I replanted swiss chard and kajari melon seeds, in spots where they hadn't come up.  More zinnias and hyacinth vine were planted.  The kajari melon and hyacinth vine seeds were shared by the lovely Daisy.  We've gotten plenty of rain this week.   The kitchen composter has not been drying it fully for some time, and started leaving a thick layer of material on the bottom of the bucket, which makes the paddle stop working.  I'm waiting to hear back from customer service, but in the meantime, I powder coated the bucket, as the non-stick coating had worn away in spots.  It seems to have helped slightly, but is still not working the way that it first did.  I expect my use is harder than most, with running it daily.  Hopefully, they'll help get it running optimally again.

Ronde de Nice zucchini

I've been consistently doing the mini-move stretches, and now have added a workout my sister shared with me, and have already noticed a difference.  So happy about that.  Bird suet and hummingbird food were made for the wildlife.  On a rainy day, all the house plants were moved from the porch to their summer spots.  I plan to continue deep cleaning, as often as I have time this week.  I hope your week is a good one, in the ways that matter most to you.

Wildflowers & Wildlife

Hello, friends.  It was a good week on the homestead.  One morning, I was met by this lovely sight, when opening up the chickens.  They're a pair of cecropia moths, the largest in N. America, members of the giant silk worm family.  Researching that they typically lay eggs in one to two days, in host trees, when I found them still there the next evening, I moved them out onto trees.  Being nocturnal, I hope they found safe places that night.  I harvested and dried comfrey, oregano, and lemon balm.  Batches of golden paste, ketchup, and curry blend were made.  I freeze the ketchup in 4 oz. jars, and defrost a jar as needed.  With J being allergic to several spices, including turmeric, I began making our own curry powder blend a few years ago, so we can be sure what's in it.  I dehydrated GF bread and made bread crumbs.  Lettuce, peas and mulberries were harvested.  The chickens got bolting lettuce several days on their new treat feeder.  

wildflower patch

Temperatures have cooled off, and as usual, I began looking for heat-producing chores.  One of the days, I canned all the vegetable scraps into broth, which removed 7.5 gallons from the freezer.  Besides running the dehydrator a couple of days, I baked sweet potatoes one cool morning, and left the oven door open afterwards.  Regular potatoes were baked another day, and a new GF muffin recipe was tried.  Water was boiled for hummingbird food.  We've got little summer squash, cucumbers and kiwi in the garden.  Lots of marigold and tomato volunteers came up in the garden.  Many have been transplanted, and marigolds, iris and tomato seedlings were shared with my massage therapist.  A red bellied woodpecker has been enjoying the fruits in our largest mulberry tree.  

wallflower

All the houseplants were taken out onto the porch.  They'll be moved to their summer spots in the next couple of days.  The grow station was moved out of the house, and into storage.  I brought peas to shell on our skoolie trip, and needle and thread to mend a shirt.  I did these while relaxing with the pups in their fenced area.  At home, I mended a favorite flannel shirt, while sitting on the porch, on a lovely day in the low 70's.  The wildflower bed in our garden is doing beautifully, and makes me smile whenever I see it.  Several new to me wildflowers were researched, which included wallflower, sweet William catchfly, and flowering flax.  There are several colors of bachelor buttons, including a pretty one with two blues.  I hope you have a most lovely Memorial Day.  

And Isn't That Life?

our view out the dinette window

Hello, friends.  Well, I'll say our first trip didn't go quite as we expected.  The bus itself did well.  There were several issues, but nothing that stopped us.  The mini split leaked water when we turned corners, but did great when we were sitting still, with outside temps in the upper 80's.  It's set up as our heat and air, even while we're driving down the road.  The oil pressure gauge wasn't working properly.  Joseph's already replaced it, and it's working fine now.  The operating temperature got higher than he would prefer, and he's working on that issue.  The power steering has a leak.  The drinking water pump over-pressurizes, due to the small faucet size, which makes it start and stop, instead of continuously flowing.  He's going to create a bypass system to fix this.  This is exactly why we're doing local shakedown trips, to make us aware of issues, and fix them, before we take off on longer trips.  

ducks strolled by a few times a day

Our biggest challenge was with McNibs.   We'd been wondering if he might be getting some dementia, and this trip made it clear.  Away from his usual cues and consistencies of life on the homestead, the poor boy seemed lost.  He paced almost the entire first night, despite multiple walks through the night, and me sitting up with him.  His bathroom habits got all off, and he went inside the bus almost every time through the weekend, often shortly after coming in from long walks.  He just wasn't his usual happy self.  Thankfully, back home, he seems back to his usual self, though as the weeks go by, he's obviously slowing down.  I'm waiting to hear back from our holistic vet, and making an appointment with an animal communicator, to see if there's anything more I can do to help.  Joseph may take more shakedown trips, but for now, I'll be staying home with him, and not putting us all through that again.  I sure love that silly boy.  

There were some bright spots to the weekend.  The two campers closest to us were two sisters and their husbands.  They've been meeting up for years, and traveling together.  We enjoyed talking with them.  One of the husband's was an engineer, and noticed how robustly things were built on the outside.  They wanted a tour of the bus, which Joseph happily gave them, while I kept the pups outside, so there was room to move around.  There were lovely places to walk, around a large pond with ducks and geese, and through the woods to a large field along the river.  I noticed several native wildflowers that we don't have on this land, and enjoyed learning about them, including fire pinks and partridgeberry.  In the days before we left, I finished the needlepoint pillow.  So, despite the down side, there were good things too.  And isn't that life?

A Quick Update

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been enjoying these recent days.  Well, we finally did it, and took our first skoolie trip.  We just got back today (Sunday), so this post will be short and sweet.  I plan to put up a post on Friday about our trip.  Other than the usual homestead happenings, a neighbor we shared sweet potato slips with gifted me several petunia seedlings, of different colors.  Petunias are something I've never grown, and I'm excited to see how they do.  So far, they all seem happy, though a few are being chewed on by something.  Another neighbor gave me a chicken treat hanger.  Before we left, I put a bolting head of lettuce on it, to give them some amusement while we were gone, as I left their screened porch closed to their yard, to keep them safe.  I gave them another head of lettuce when we returned today.  I'd say the feeder is a hit.  We have some great neighbors!  

Plants & A Trip to Raleigh

Hello, friends.  I hope you've been well.  Our snake plant is blooming, this time with three spikes.  It only bloomed outside before, and only the past two years, so imagine my surprise when I noticed a quite sweet scent one night, when I sat in my chair to read, after McNibs woke me up to go out.  You may get a laugh out of the fact that I briefly entertained the thought of some sort of visitation causing the sweet scent, before realizing it was the snake plant.  I do believe our beloveds can visit us, though I've never had the experience.  It's interesting where thoughts go, in the middle of the night. :o)  With the likelihood of some price increases or difficulty in getting, I recently picked up a few extras of things at Dollar Tree.  I also saw that my favorite sneakers were a great price, at 70% off, so got a pair to put back.  All these things were made in China, so it seems wise.  The summer clothes and sheets were brought down from the attic.  The bedding was changed out, though with a few more unexpected nights in the upper 40's, the flannels might have been welcome a few more days.  

The kiwis are blooming, on both the male and female plants.  Will this be the year we actually get to harvest kiwis?  Time will tell.  All the seedlings in the grow station were fed with seaweed fertilizer.  Most are not really thriving like I hoped they might.  I guess I have plenty to learn about using the grow tent.  J planted out the cucumber seedlings, and replaced the tomatoes that didn't make it.  He's seen flea beetles chewing on the smallest ones, which I've only noticed on eggplant seedlings in the past.  Oh well, at least I grew plenty.  I canned up lentils early in the week, and gave the pups a bath in the outdoor shower.  

Usnea & nettle glycerites were strained and bottled.  I made hummer food, and golden paste for the pups.  I traveled with a dear friend to Raleigh, for a concert over the weekend.  We've been friends since I first moved to NC, in 1972.  Yikes, that's 53 years.  It's always wonderful to spend time catching up with her.  We realized a plant nursery with beautiful gardens was having one of their open house weekends, so on the way home Sunday, we enjoyed wandering there.  We both found a few plant treasures.  Mine were a salvia, brunnera and pulmonaria.  The pics below are from there.  Enjoy!

A Few More Home Details

Hello, friends.  Last week, I sewed up the dinette curtains (on the left), using a drop cloth.  It seemed years ago, it was popular to cover couches, and make other home furnishings from them, but I haven't noticed that lately.  It did have a few flaws in it, and I just used the best parts for the curtains.  It was pretty inexpensive ($9) for the amount of fabric, and there's quite a bit left for another project. 

We'd been pondering a way to affix the stair treads, which would allow easy removal for cleaning.  Joseph didn't want to glue anything onto the wood, and damage it.  So, he came up with an idea to hold them in place with rods.  He initially was going to fabricate something, then realized tension rods should work as well, and would be even easier than unscrewing the rods each time we wanted to remove the treads.  I sewed up four pieces of cotton webbing per tread, then hot glued them to the back.  Knowing the cut webbing is prone to unraveling at the edges, I decided to glue those up well, after I took this pic.  The webbing was some I had in my stash, from when I was sewing tote bags for my shop.  We're waiting for the rods to arrive.

I had my first experience blocking needlepoint, thanks to YouTube tutorials.  This is a piece I thrifted, which was extremely out of shape, more of a trapezoid than a square.  This was after the first round of blocking.  I steamed it first, then decided to wet it, then dry with a towel, before attempting it.  It came out better than I expected.  I steamed it one more time, and reblocked it, and am calling it good enough. I'll be turning it into a pillow for our couch.  Joseph purchased a water filter, similar to a Berkey, and is figuring out how he'll secure it in the skoolie.  As our build is almost complete, with only a few things remaining to do, I'll likely take some time off from skoolie posting, and be back to share our first adventure.  Be well, friends.  

We Have A Plan

Hello, friends.  Last week, to replace some that didn't come up, I replanted a few seeds of yellow squash, tromboncino and eggplant.  I transplanted two sunflowers that had volunteered near the bird feeder to a better spot, and planted the wintersown borage, near the tromboncino squash.  There was a happy surprise, when I went to plant out the hydroponic basil I'd bought.  It was actually multiple plants, which I planted one evening with a 100% chance of rain in the forecast, followed by rainy and cloudy days.  Unfortunately, none of the rain panned out, other than a handful of drops, and there was lots of sun, but it looks like four may survive, which is more than I thought I had, so I'm considering it a win.

A $25 GC I'd gotten through Swagbucks was used to get dog beds at Marshall's, one a marked down bed, which almost covered them. McNibs has begun dribbling urine, so I need to have plenty to rotate.  He'd never tolerate a diaper, and always scratches around before laying down, so the pads wouldn't work either.  This seems the best solution.  I'm also looking into natural remedies to support him.  When we moved into this house, we had the small trailer we'd been living in moved into the woods.  J turned one side of it into a small workshop, gutted the middle for an outdoor work area, and I've used the rest of it for storage.  The majority of what was in one of the two rooms was boxes, saved from the time I was actively selling my friend's antiques on ebay.  There was such a variety of shapes and sizes of items, it was an attempt to have what I needed on hand.  As it's been a while since I've worked on that, I cleaned out all the boxes, and a number of other things.  This decluttering project has been long overdue, and I hope to get back to it soon.

I was looking forward to making tortillas for bean burritos, as I liked them so much the first time.  For whatever reason, this time the same recipe did not turn out at all, only stuck terribly to the pan.  After several attempts, with two different ceramic pans, I gave up, and had all my burrito fillings as is for dinner.  I put the batter in the fridge.  I harvested leeks for potato leek soup, at J's request, and thought I'd try again, to have tortillas with the soup, this time trying a little spray oil.  Same challenge.  It's a mystery.  Ah well, the chickens and pups have enjoyed them.  I gathered  a bouquet of peonies and roses for the house, white and pale pink.  A neighbor stopped by the next day, with a gorgeous bouquet of the loveliest pink peonies.  Over the weekend, we finally came up with a plan for our first skoolie adventure, nearby this time, to check how everything works.  It's a ways off, but we have a plan now!