I wanted to make a quick post just to assure anyone who's interested that the Hoosier Country Homestead hasn't fallen off the face of the earth! We are two days away from Daughter #2's wedding have been consumed with preparation, moving things, and getting ready to host a house full of out-of-town guests tomorrow night.
I did manage to get mostly caught up with posts on your blogs, and have a new pic of the homestead to post on mine, but that will likely have to wait until Sunday evening when things have hopefully settled down a bit. I'll try to get a couple of wedding pics and such posted up, along with the thoughts of what is like to walk the first one down the aisle.
Time to get to work on getting her car ready to go, I likely won't see it again for awhile and want to be sure it's going to be good for her.
Col. 1:9-12,
Mark
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Saturday, October 18, 2014
I'm gonna hafta stop this
Not the blog, of course. I'm going to have to stop claiming the garden is finally done. I'll get back to that shortly...
Today De and I decided, since it is chilly and damp outside and we've had a very busy week, we were just going to call it a lazy day. We failed. Miserably, I might add. On this 'lazy day': I got up early and went into town to have breakfast with some friends and to get my hair cut. Since I was already in town I went to the local farm supply store and got two bags of chicken feed, two bales of pine chips, 4 bags of softener salt, two cases of clay pigeons, and some 12 gauge shells to break them with. While I was out, De took care of the morning chicken chores. And some laundry. After getting back home and putting all that stuff away, De and I decided to go back into the same town I just left and do some grocery shopping. Since we already in town we went to the local big box home improvement and construction material store, and picked up a few things there. After getting back home and putting all that stuff away we fixed a mid-afternoon "lunch". Then we decided to let the chickens out. And top off their food and water. While we were out we walked to the garden. Yes, the same garden about which I noted only few hours before in a response to comment, that was "done" except for a few potatoes yet to dig. The very same garden that I said was "done" before. Twice. At least. Even going in the direction of the garden was a major tactical error in the quest for slothfulness. By the time we got there, we knew we were defeated.
It started as a very innocent diversion to "just look", but quickly escalated into something much more. To paraphrase that grand and grizzled philosopher of the Dark Side (Darth Vader), "Our failure was now complete.". It started with me just yanking a few 'done' plants out a bed, and finding they were not 100% done - So we got a couple bell peppers and the compost pile got all the plants. We tried dashing off to the other garden plot but found a half dozen spaghetti squash, and one butternut squash were still good and needed to be brought in tonight. (We have an overnight freeze warning.) Oh, and 2 or 3 small melons. We retreated to other garden plot and found a small white pumpkin that I thought was too green before was just fine. And needed to come in tonight. Making a final retreat to the garden beds we found a few scraggly carrot tops with really nice looking carrots underneath. And a handful of beets. And about a half dozen little cabbages. After gathering up some melons that didn't make the cut and opening them up for the chickens I remembered the horseradish. Had I simply 'remembered the horseradish' (e.g. "Hey, I have horseradish!") I might have walked away with a tiny shred of "didn't do nothin' all day" dignity left, but I traded it for a trip to the barn to get my shovel. <sigh> I'm such a loser at being a loser. (Don't think on that too hard: It's not worth it.)
In any case, here is the haul. I'm not going to claim it's the last: I've finally learned my lesson.
We may not be good at being lazy, but we are blessed!
Col. 1:9-12
Mark
Today De and I decided, since it is chilly and damp outside and we've had a very busy week, we were just going to call it a lazy day. We failed. Miserably, I might add. On this 'lazy day': I got up early and went into town to have breakfast with some friends and to get my hair cut. Since I was already in town I went to the local farm supply store and got two bags of chicken feed, two bales of pine chips, 4 bags of softener salt, two cases of clay pigeons, and some 12 gauge shells to break them with. While I was out, De took care of the morning chicken chores. And some laundry. After getting back home and putting all that stuff away, De and I decided to go back into the same town I just left and do some grocery shopping. Since we already in town we went to the local big box home improvement and construction material store, and picked up a few things there. After getting back home and putting all that stuff away we fixed a mid-afternoon "lunch". Then we decided to let the chickens out. And top off their food and water. While we were out we walked to the garden. Yes, the same garden about which I noted only few hours before in a response to comment, that was "done" except for a few potatoes yet to dig. The very same garden that I said was "done" before. Twice. At least. Even going in the direction of the garden was a major tactical error in the quest for slothfulness. By the time we got there, we knew we were defeated.
It started as a very innocent diversion to "just look", but quickly escalated into something much more. To paraphrase that grand and grizzled philosopher of the Dark Side (Darth Vader), "Our failure was now complete.". It started with me just yanking a few 'done' plants out a bed, and finding they were not 100% done - So we got a couple bell peppers and the compost pile got all the plants. We tried dashing off to the other garden plot but found a half dozen spaghetti squash, and one butternut squash were still good and needed to be brought in tonight. (We have an overnight freeze warning.) Oh, and 2 or 3 small melons. We retreated to other garden plot and found a small white pumpkin that I thought was too green before was just fine. And needed to come in tonight. Making a final retreat to the garden beds we found a few scraggly carrot tops with really nice looking carrots underneath. And a handful of beets. And about a half dozen little cabbages. After gathering up some melons that didn't make the cut and opening them up for the chickens I remembered the horseradish. Had I simply 'remembered the horseradish' (e.g. "Hey, I have horseradish!") I might have walked away with a tiny shred of "didn't do nothin' all day" dignity left, but I traded it for a trip to the barn to get my shovel. <sigh> I'm such a loser at being a loser. (Don't think on that too hard: It's not worth it.)
In any case, here is the haul. I'm not going to claim it's the last: I've finally learned my lesson.
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| The haul in a tarp on the floor, along with the day's eggs, because my wheelbarrow is still full. |
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| One of the Red Stars took to terrorizing the worms after I got the horseradish up |
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| Our first harvest of horseradish! Yum! |
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| De is working feverishly feverishly to pawn off spaghetti squash so we can have our living room back. (Not lazy) |
Col. 1:9-12
Mark
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Hard Frost and Buttoning Up the Barn
I think I can safely say the Hoosier Country Home garden is done for the season! We've had hard frosts two nights in a row, and the plants are showing it. I do have the last of the potatoes to dig and I'll probably wait for one more frost to harvest the horseradish, but the growing season is done. We do have some pole beans we hope will dry on the vines
De and I went down to the garden Friday night and brought in the last of what we wanted to save. It included a handful of small bell peppers, two little zucchini, one yellow zucchini squash, seven little white pumpkins that will become decoration for Daughter #2's wedding in three weeks, and a wheelbarrow load of "stripetti" spaghetti squash, and butternut squash. It was dark (that happens about 7:30 these days) before we were done, thus the flash pics.
The other weekend chore was to finish getting the barn buttoned up. Those of you who follow the blog has seen the open loft entrance for a good part of the summer. This was the weekend to close it up! The job is done, somewhat complicated by the fact that I struggle to make a straight cut within an 1/8th inch of where it supposed to be with any saw I own or use. There is plenty of construction cleanup to do, but at least we can close up the barn. Another pre-winter milestone met!
Next up: (in no particular order) lights and winter watering arrangements in the coop, garden clean-up, finishing up the ham radio tower, one last lawn mowing and removing the deck, putting the compost pile to bed for the winter, and surely a host of thing I've forgotten or don't know about yet. Ya gotta love life on the homestead! Always something to do!
I hope everyone's pre-winter preps are going well and that everyone stays safe in the process.
Col. 1:9-12,
Mark
De and I went down to the garden Friday night and brought in the last of what we wanted to save. It included a handful of small bell peppers, two little zucchini, one yellow zucchini squash, seven little white pumpkins that will become decoration for Daughter #2's wedding in three weeks, and a wheelbarrow load of "stripetti" spaghetti squash, and butternut squash. It was dark (that happens about 7:30 these days) before we were done, thus the flash pics.
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| These pumpkins will be part of Daughter #2's wedding decorations. |
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| These will part of a tasty array of warm winter meals! |
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| Finally done, with some decorative white trim! |
Next up: (in no particular order) lights and winter watering arrangements in the coop, garden clean-up, finishing up the ham radio tower, one last lawn mowing and removing the deck, putting the compost pile to bed for the winter, and surely a host of thing I've forgotten or don't know about yet. Ya gotta love life on the homestead! Always something to do!
I hope everyone's pre-winter preps are going well and that everyone stays safe in the process.
Col. 1:9-12,
Mark
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