Raising the Roof

We can officially wipe one goal off the list as done, as the hard-working guys from Ehrhard Roofing just finished putting the new roof on the house.  No more leaks!

The bad news?  Somebody put their foot through our office ceiling.  Not once, but twice! 

Those wires you see in the picture are the TV, phone and networking cable that we ran throughout the whole house.  It all comes back to a patch panel in the white cabinet at the bottom of the picture.  We decided to use a drop ceiling in this room in case we ever needed to get to the wires for some reason.  So there isn't a "real" ceiling in there.

The aluminum panels are salvagable and we were able to bend them back into shape.   But we lost one support and we're trying now to see if we can find matching paint.  I think we used Martha Stewart metallic copper but we'll have to see if it matches.  I already have to repaint the walls - I really don't want to do the ceiling also!



I was on our roof almost 14 years ago to the day! 

As with all projects on this old house, we found some interesting stuff.  We sign and date everything when we do a project so we laughed when we found the plywood that we fixed the roof with back in 1999.  It's 1/2" and had some damage on the gutter end, so we had the roofers replace it with 3/4".  They also shored up the rafters and put in some additional insulation.  We should be nice and comfy now.

An even more surprising find was this:

It never ceases to amaze me what folks did to recycle back in the day.  This old license plate was used as flashing on one of the dormers.  It's in pretty good shape and is going to join my other old license plates from the 1920's and 30's on the wall of our garage. 

We find all kinds of crazy stuff like this in our house:  old coins, blank checks from the late 1890's, jewelry.  Somebody in the house must have been either a boozer or lived during Prohibition, because the attic was full of old liquor bottles.  The house was split up into 4 different apartments back in the 40's and one of the bedrooms (now our closer) was a kitchen.  Under the linoleum in that room, we found perfectly preserved Kansas City newspapers from that era.  One of the front page headlines reads "Nazis Bomb London".  We got absolutely nothing done that day except perusing those old papers.  I should dig them out and share some of the classified ads with you, because they are quite a hoot.

Til later,

Heads Up: LDS Canneries to Stop Canning on June 26th

 

The reason being given is too much government regulation.

(Thanks, PreparednessPro!)

As Kellene mentions in her blog post, LDS members are encouraged by the church to have a year's supply of essentials on hanmd (food, water, etc.).  They are the ultra-preppers in our society (not that there's anything wrong with being prepared for an emergency when it happens.)  LDA canneries have long been the go-to place for high-quality canned goods, canning and prepping items, and they provided the much needed facilities and help for folks who don't feel comfortable doing it on their own at home (or who don't own canning equipment).

They're not completely closing up shop - members and non-members can still purchase pre-canned food after June 26th, as well as bulk foods and other supplies.  But it's disturbing that folks won't be able to can at their locations.  Apparently it would be too expensive to bring the canneries up to meet the onerous OSHA and FDA standards.  That's our government working for us!

I've purchased from them before and found LDS to be very reasonably priced (the cheapest on mylar bags!) because they sell at cost and they don't charge sales tax.  The package I received was packed very nicely and I received it quickly.  I am definitely going to make additional purchases from them.  If you're interested, you can see the items that are available by browsing their order form.

The Kansas City cannery is open to anyone, although you do need to call and make an appointment if you want to use their canning equipment.  Here's their contact information:

          3601 NE Kimball Dr
          Kansas City, MO 64161
          (816) 453-2398

Since I'm on vacation today, I think I may try to swing by and check it out this afternoon.

Please consider supporting the local LDS cannery and, if you use them, make sure you get there before June 26th! You can find information about your closest cannery or browse the online store at https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage.

DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with the LDS church and didn't receive any compensation for this post.  I just really like their mission in helping to get everyone, even non-members of their church, under self reliance and being prepared.

No Happy Post Today

The storm has passed but we still have cool weather in its wake.  I untarped the strawberries, tomatoes and peppers and they appear to be just fine.  The strawberries were standing up tall reaching for some light, so it was definitely time to uncover them.  We'll tarp them again tonight and then, as temps warm starting tomorrow, we'll hopefully be able to leave them uncovered permanently.

What I'm sad about...REALLY sad about right now is that I checked on Daisy Bill, the baby dove, and he didn't survive the storm despite my fashioning him a shelter and straw nest.  I think it was probably a combination of the extreme cold and mama Dove not feeding him because of the weather.  I really was pulling for the little bird and am now second-guessing myself that I should have brought him in and put him under the brooder light.  It's a grim reminder that we are all here at the whim of Mother Nature, cruel mistress that she is.

J. thinks I'm silly to care so much for a wild bird, but I've been that way all my life.  I sometimes joke that I like animals more than people, but there's probably more truth than joke in that statement.  Of course, J. has learned to put up with it.  Several Mother's Days ago, when we were rebuilding our front porch, we discovered a nest of baby sparrows.  It was hotter than tarnation and we were exhausted, but I couldn't bear to destroy those babies just because they were in our way.  And it seemed to me that we would be asking for a whole double truckload of bad karma if we killed them on Mother's Day.  So we stopped what we were doing and made a makeshift bird house out of some scrap lumber, moved the nest into it and hung it on the front of our house.  J. grumbled the whole time.  But the mama bird found her babies and fed them until they grew up and left that nest.  Then we took it down and finished our project.  Like I said, I'm a big softy - especially for baby animals.

Later today, I'll bury Daisy Bill's little body in the backyard next to the beloved dogs that we've lost.  Just seems like the right thing to do.

Not Fit For Man Nor Beast

Did somebody not get the memo that IT'S MAY??!!  

 

Not only are we forecast to break the record lows for the lowest temps in May today, but it's also been sleeting and snowing all day. Fortunately, most of it isn't sticking.  Yet.

Last night, we were out in shorts and t-shirts trying to get ready for this crazy weather.  Everything got tarped and you can see the strawberry beds on the left and the tomato and pepper beds on the right in the pic below.  We used tomato cages to make a tent and added a heater to keep it nice and cozy in there until this stuff passes.  Fortunately, it's supposed to be back up in the 60's on Saturday and then go up from there.  I'm crossing my fingers that my little plants survive!

And the snow starts....

Not only am I worried about the plants, but I've also been agonizing over what to do with Daisy Bill, the baby dove.  I know, I know...he's a wild bird.  But he's also a baby and I have a serious soft spot for baby animals.  I just can't bear to think of him out in the cold without a mama to warm him up.

 

Here he is yesterday under our Japanese Maple.  I caught Mama Dove feeding him, so I know he's being taken care of. 

 

Can you spot the little guy in this pic?

I checked on him when I got him this afternoon and found him huddled under the tree where he was still getting sleeted on.  What to do?  I suppose I could take him inside and put him under a brooder lamp, but I don't have the faintest idea of how to feed him.  But I just couldn't leave him like that.  So I made him a little shelter and a bed of fresh straw. At least that will keep him dry and somewhat warm while we all weather this late Spring storm.

You can see his little behind right above that yellow arrow.  Note the straw bed that I made for him.

Yes, I'm a big softy. 

Nature's Surprise

I've got some more pictures to share with you from our working weekend and start of the week.  The weather has been gorgeous (if not hot at 84 degrees yesterday) so we've been out in the yard most of the time.   The roofing crew has been here replacing all of the trim on the dormers with Azek ahead of the new roof.  Unfortunately, that has to be reschedule for next week because we've got rain coming.

 

On Sunday, Domino was sniffing like crazy in some grass by one of the basement windows and we discovered this little soul:

Meet Daisy-Bill the baby dove.  When I asked our adorable 6-year-old neighbor, Emily, what we should call "him", she said "Well, Daisy if it's a girl or Bill if it's a boy".  And then we decided that, since we can't tell which, we'd split the difference and give it both names.  Ah, to be a 6-year-old again.

 

This little chicklet appears to have either been thrown out, jumped out or fallen out of it's nest in the crook of our gutter. Mama dove took over an abandoned robin's nest and made it her own after we neglected to get it down last year.  Note to self:  remove nest this year!

 

I think this little baby is about 10 or 11 days old according to some quick Googling.  His pin feathers were just drying out and he appears to be losing his baby feathers.  The weather is warm and everything I've read is that the mama will find the baby and continue to feed it, so we are opting to let nature take it's course.  Of course, I'm agonizing over that.  The good news is that the baby is sheltered in our yard from dogs, cats, etc. as the yard is mostly fenced in. 

The Honeycrisp apple tree we planted last year is blooming!

One of the tasks we had this week was dig up the apple trees that we got from Home Depot.  Our new trees arrived from One Green World so we needed to get them in the ground as soon as possible.  As you can see in the pic above, the silly Honeycrisp that we planted last year is blooming.  I think you're suppose to pinch those blooms off the first year, right?

 

It was actually easier than I thought it would be to dig up the Stayman's Winesap and Honeycrisp trees and we put them into some huge 20" containers that I picked up at Home Depot.  These will be their permanent homes, as dwarf trees do fine in containers.  But we may take them up and plant them permanently on the farm also.

The unused potato bins provide a place with ready made stakes for the container trees.

Then we started digging.  And digging.  And digging.  And it was hotter than Hades.  The two new apple trees (a Braeburn and a Honeycrisp, both grafted on M-7 stock) went back in the holes that the others came out of.  By the way, you can read about different rootstocks here.


Little Braeburn apple tree all happy, happy in it's new home.

Then we had to dig two new holes for some NorthStar cherry trees.  These are dwarf trees on Colt stock and should provide some nice pie cherries in a couple of years.

Next up was getting the tomato and peppers in the newly-topped-off raised beds.  So far, we have 2 Early Girl hybrids, 2 Cherokee Purples, 4 Romas and 3 red peppers.  I need to go pick up some more Romas, as that's not nearly enough plants to make a good amount of sauce.  And we still have the other bed to plant our squash, green beans, watermelon, etc.



And, finally, we turned our attention to the strawberry bed where I was surprised to find them blooming since it's been colder than normal.  I spent the rest of the day pulling Bermuda grass out of the bed until my fingers hurt.  Have I mentioned that I HATE Bermuda grass?

One more surprise and it's not a good one.  Mr. Weatherman is predicting we're going to get a cold snap starting tonight and the next 3 days will be highs in the 40's with a dip tomorrow night near 36.  Gak!  Not what I wanted to hear now that we have tomatoes and peppers in the ground! We'll be covering everything tonight with tarps.

 

Is Spring EVER going to be here to stay?

I've shared thist post with this week's Down Home blog hop and Home Acre hop. Go check 'em out!

And God Made An Urban Farmer

J. taking a break to survey the day's work.

I was going to just post this picture but I think one thing is so funny about this that I just had to comment.  Nope, it's not the overalls or the bright orange shirt.  It's that shower-seat-turned-garden-seat.  We had been pricing those rolling garden seats and they're obnoxiously expensive!  Like $30 and up.  Shower seat at an auction?  Just $3.  And it's adjustable to different heights.  Booyah!

**If you haven't seen the Dodge Superbowl commercial featuring Paul Harvey and titled "And God Made a Farmer", take a few minutes to watch it.  I think it struck a cord with many a folk, including me.

What a Bee-yutiful Day!

Finally!  A break in the weather yesterday and we enjoyed the entire day outside in 75-degree sunny happiness.  It truly was a gorgeous day and that made our work cleaning out planting beds and transplanting trees even more enjoyable. In fact, I'm sore today from all the digging and raking but it makes me feel good knowing that it came from a hard day's work.

We also took a couple of breaks to talk to the various neighbors that emerged to enjoy the sun. I spent quite a bit of time in the morning talking with our neighbor Christine (from The Deadly Nightshade fame) as she showed me her newly tilled garden beds and plans for the yard. While we were standing there talking, their bees seemed quite lively but I thought it was just because they were "stretching their legs" after being cooped up in their hive all winter.

Boy was I wrong!  Christine came running over about an hour later to tell us they were swarming.

I've never seen a swarm before so there was no way in he-double-hockeysticks I was going to miss it. 

 

Look at all those bees!  Their were literally thousands of them swirling around in the air all around us but they seemed to not even notice that we were there.  None of them landed on me or tried to sting me.  It was really amazing to stand in the middle of this chaos as they whizzed past me.

The taller hive is the active hive where all the bees were living this winter.  According to Christine, the shorter hive died off during the winter and, when they opened it, there was no brood, honey or dead bees in there.  So apparently the active hive had scavenged everything out of it.  It almost looks like they are swarming over to the other hive, doesn't it? Bees are opportunists and this would be the equivalent of a live-in ready house for them.

 

Then, as I was talking to Christine, I noticed this on the fence.

A second, smaller swarm!  These bees were just hanging there quietly on a piece of bark stuck to the fence, presumably protecting or waiting for their queen before moving on to another location.  I'd say there were a few hundred bees here.  These were combed into a third box and given some honey.  So now Christine has 3 hives instead of just 1. 

 

You can see some of her pictures of the swarm over on her Facebook page. 

 

I just want to thank her for allowing me to experience that.  It truly was beautiful and fascinating and one to add to your bucket list.  Thanks, Christine!

Shared with this week's Homestead Barn and Clever Chicks hops.

He Stopped Loving Her Today

This was one of my favorite songs growing up, listening to country music at my grandfather's feet or in his old pickup as we traveled the dustry country roads.

George Jones lived a hard life but still blessed us with his unique voice and music.  We've lost another icon. 

 

May he rest in peace.

Mid-Week Update

We're still riding the temp roller coaster:  it hit 71 today, but we had a frost warning last night and another tonight.  Kinda ridiculous, when you consider that this is what the garden looked like a year ago:

We transplanted those tomatoes at the end of March, 2012 and on April 16th, they had blooms on them. 

 

*sigh*

 

This may be our final weekend of cool weather, though (*fingers crossed*), so I'm hoping we can get the plants in the raised beds on Saturday.  We've been moving them out once it's warmed up at noon so they can get some direct sunlight and then back in again at night to keep them from the 40 degree cold at night.  Honestly, that dance is reaaaallly starting to get old.

In other news, the roofers may start the work on our house tomorrow if the rain holds off.  There's some wood rot on the trim around the dormer windows that needs to be fixed and we got several quotes ranging from $850 to over $2000 to fix it.  Being DIYers that did all the work ourselves, we know what work is worth and the guy that gave us the highest quote is...to quote J....."smoking crack".  Yes, indeed.  The roofer does contracting work also and they were the cheapest.  They said they'd replace the wood with the fake plastic stuff that looks just like the original trim for $1250 and we'd never have to worry about rot or needing to paint again.  The siding is already no-maintenance, so that's no contest in my book - $400 more to never have to worry about something that's 3 stories up?  When can you start?

 

Finally, I got a new toy at work and am having fun learning how to use it:  a Microsoft Surface Pro.  I'm sure you've seen the silly commercial for these.  It's like a laptop and an iPad all rolled into one.  I can now take my work and personal email and calendars anywhere I go, it can run any Windows apps including all the Office products and the coolest thing is that it has handwriting recognition.  The fact that it can recognize my weird combo of printing and cursive is utterly amazing.  I mean, I can't even read my writing most of the time.

What are you guys up to?  I've been trying to make the rounds but still have quite a bit of catching up to do this weekend.

Til later,

 

Brie En Croute Bites

J. and I spent a couple of hours on Sunday making a dinners for the rest of the week and it was fun getting adventurous with some homemade cooking.  I'm talking lasagna that must have been 15 pounds when assembled, and I used up our egg supply making bacon and cheese quiches.  If you've got extra eggs, quiche is a perfect way to use them up because you can bake them ahead of time and then freeze them.  Then just thaw and pop in the microwave or oven for a quick meal.

It's been awhile since I posted a recipe here, so I thought I would share the recipe for the snackies that we made to munch on while we were cooking.  If you've ever had brie en croute, you know that it's yummy, and gooey, and oozey and messy.  When you cut into it, it goes everywhere.  So why not make a "brie bite" that's a much more manageable finger-food size?

Heck yeah......

Brie En Croute Bites

(makes 24 small servings)

 

Ingredients

• 2 sheet puff pastry, thawed in the frig before use
• Filling (optional):  blackberry jam (or apple butter, apple pie filling, whatever)
• 1 brick of brie cheese

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
2. On a lightly floured surface, layout the puff pastry dough and cut each sheet into 9 even-sized squares.
3. Leaving the rind on the cheese, cut the brie into 1/2" to 3/4" cubes and place one cube in the middle of each dough square.
4. Optional:  The brie is great by itself.  But I find that the taste of the cheese is enhanced by fruit.  You can be creative here and use a 1/2 teaspoon of jam, jelly, pie filling, fresh fruits, dried fruit, or whatever you want on top of each brie cube.  Be creative! 
5. Pull the sides (not the corners) up and box in the cheese.
6. Then pull the corners up toward the middle so that all the insides are contained.
7. Pinch the corners together to seal them and then give it a little twist and press it down (to form a top.)
8. of the pastry up and around the brie/jam/cranberries and seal with a twist.
9. Bake until the pastry is puffed and golden (about 12-15 minutes).

Notes: 

• Don't worry about leaving the rind on.  You won't even know it's there.
• Pillsbury Crescent Rolls also work for this recipe, but they can be a little harder to get wrapped up. Personally, I really like the flakiness of the puff pastry.
• These are better when they're warm, as the cheese sets up again as it cools.  You can pop them in the microwave if they start to firm up.
• For  traditional brie en croute taste, add dried cranberries.

We'd never tried brie before, and these were really quite yummy.  Brie does have a little pungency to it but I didn't find it overbearing and the blackberry jelly mellowed it out.  In fact, it was sometimes a little difficult to taste the brie but you couldn't miss it's oh-so-good gooey cheesiness.

Let me know if you try these!

I've shared this recipe with this week's Homestead Barn Hop. You can find all kinds of stuff over at the Hop, so go check it out!

The Greening

My, how time has flown!  This week has just been insanely busy between work, finishing up taxes, getting quotes for a new roof and some housepainting, and multiple conferences for work.  So this is the first time I've had to sit down and write a post since last weekend.  In the meantime, however, life outside my windows has gone on without me.

The tulips are blooming...

A gorgeous red Emperor Tulip turns its face to the sun. I shared this over on Madge's Weekly Top Shot.  Get well, Madge!

I can't remember what kind of tulips these are, but they're unusual aren't they?

The strawberries are waking up from their long winter's nap...

Ozark and Ever-bearing strawberries. They survived!

I'm thinking about moving these over to the blackberry beds closer to our house because it's been impossible to keep the crabgrass out of this bed.  But I need to do some research and find out if it's OK to move them now.  Anybody know?

And there are some lovely Cherokee Purple and Early Girl tomatoes and red peppers waiting for the weather to stabilize so they can be planted in the garden beds.

If the weather holds today, we'll be amending the beds and getting ready for planting.  But the temps are supposed to dip to a high of just 41 on Tuesday, so those tender plants can't go out just yet.  We had everything out in the middle of March last year, so it's unbelievable that we're here at the end of April and still dealing with frost warnings.

I just heard J. start up the mower outside so that's my cue to get outside and get to work. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!

A New House for Henrietta

I swear...the things we do for our pets!  We spent a beautiful day today (70 degrees!) setting up some new digs for Henrietta the Hen-Pecked Chicken.  (Read about her story here.)

It was finally time to move her out of the ramshackle pen that we built for her last May.  As J. put it, "it's looking a little dogpatch."  And that it was.  Of course, the RV and the tractor sitting in the yard may have added to that redneck-ish ambience.

Here's where Henrietta has lived for almost a year:

Yep, that's a dog house on stilts, folks.  Nothing to see here.  Move along...

That would be the aforesaid Henrietta on the right hurling insults at the bully Barred Rock in the henyard.  We had removed part of the floor to the doghouse and added the ramp for her to access the area underneath.  During the winter, we covered the whole thing with a tarp and added a heater.  I suspect that may be the reason why our electrical bill was so darn high.

Poor thing!  She basically used the ramp as a chute.  You could almost here the "TA DA!!!" as she hopped down from the doghouse, slid down the ramp chute and popped out on the ground, narrowly missing a swim in the water bowl.  I give her a consistently solid 8.3 for the landing.  That's my girl.

I snagged a nicey-priced 4' x 4' dog kennel at an auction a couple of weekends ago and, using the existing hen pen as one side of the enclosure, we were able to reconfigure it into a 5' x 10' enclosure for 'Etta.  It came with a sunshade, which will be nice on the hot summer days here in Missouri.

The nice thing about this new enclosure is that she has more space, even with placing her house on the ground.  And no more acrobatics trying to get into or out of her house.  Inside, we added fresh straw and a roost for her.  Note the quality feeder in that picture (an old milk jug).  I'd say this ought to be more acceptable to both fowl and neighbors.

We still need to finish the top and get some chicken wire around the bottom just in case the friendly raccoons that live in the sewer decide that they'd like to have some chicken dinner instead of dumpster diving. 

That's right...no need to get your eyes checked.  We have a raccoon family that lives in the sewer.  We see them come out of the storm drain and go prowling around at dusk.  I have to confess...the first time I saw them, I thought I'd had one beer too many.  But I suppose that's just another oddity that comes with living in downtown KC.

Apparently, we're not the only ones that have this problem.

Ah, well...I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Til next time....tood-a-loo!

 

Shared with this week's Clever Chicks blog hop.

Rethinking the Orchard

It just doesn't seem right to rip out what I thought were perfectly good apple trees.  If you've been following Cranky Puppy for awhile, you know that we have 3 dwarf apple trees that were planted in 2011 and 2012.  Little did we know at the time that Home Depot is NOT the place to buy trees.

J. attended an 8-hour in-depth orchard class a couple of weekends ago and it covered everything you could possibly want to know about growing fruit trees including...you guessed it....never buy your trees from a box store.

Why?  It's all about the rootstock.  See, most fruit trees are grafted and the rootstock that's used can determine the tree's hardiness, how much fruit you get, how big the tree gets, etc.  For apple trees, the instructor recommends trees that are grafted onto a rootstock called B.9 (or Bud-9).  It's a dwarf rootstock that allows the tree to grow somewhere between 6 and 10 feet in height.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was when J. came home and told me that we really ought to replace our trees.  Rather than let them die, we're going to dig them up, transplant them on the 40 acres, and let them do their thing.  If they live and bear fruit, it's a bonus.  If they die, then c'est la via.

Now back to this rootstock thing.  If you ask someone at Home Depot what rootstock their trees have, they'll look at you like you've got a third eye.  Same thing with some of the online nurseries like Stark Bros.  But....if you look really hard, you can find good companies that happily list what rootstocks they use.  The bad news, however, is that all the varieties on B.9 are sold out by now.  After 2 days of looking locally and online, I finally found some in stock at One Green World and placed an order for 1 Braeburn and 1 Honeycrisp - both are semi-dwarf trees on M-7 rootstock.  They will be a little larger than the dwarf trees we're replacing at a mature height of 12 to 15 feet, which is why I only purchased 2.  They're also pollinators for each other which is obviously very important!

While I was at it, I also ordered some Northstar pie cherry trees to put outside the fence. (J. is salivating right now thinking about some homemade cherry pie.) 

We're getting intermitten 60 and 70 degree days now and this weekend should be in that same temp range.  On tap is a trip to the dump, cleaning the chicken coop and cleaning up the garden to get ready for planting.  What are you up to this weekend?

 

I've shared this post as part of this week's Homestead Barn Hop.  Lots of interestin' stuff happening over there...go check it out!

Vote for Cruella: It's Chicken Madness Time!

Let's have a little fun, shall we?  The folks over at Backyard Farming have come up with a fun contest called Chicken Madness where you can submit a pic of your favorite chick and folks vote on the chicken that they like the best. Well, I just couldn't resist entering that picture of Cruella sporting the latest in feathered friend eyewear.

Cruella asked me to pass along this message to her would-be constituents: "Bawk!  Bawk, bawk, begawk. Bawk baaaaawk bawk chirp begaaaawk bawk.  Bawk bawk."

Translated, that means "If I win, you'll have a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.  And I promise to balance the budget, pay off the debt and procure world peace. It's so easy a chicken can do it."

Okay, well maybe not. 

But we sure would appreciate your vote in the Madness Challenge for Cruella.  The champion of the challenge wins a copy of "Your Farm in the City" by Lisa Taylor.  Since Cruella can't read, I'm sure she'd let me borrow it.

Thanks for your support!  You can vote for Cruella here.

Go Cruella!

Chickens From the Past

I'm in the middle of a long post about what we were up to this weekend as we gear up for Spring (finally!), but it's not quite finished.  In the meantime, I thought I would entertain you with something that my lovely mother-in-law emailed to me this weekend.   

 

She knows that I'm  lover of all things old. 

And I love this page from the 1934 Montgomery Ward catalog that she forwarded!

Back in the day, keeping a garden, raising chickens, etc., was a given.  Everybody did it.  Kinda makes you wonder how and why society changed so much.  But it does seem that more and more people are going back to these traditions, doesn't it?

 

Let's take a look at what some of these products will cost you in 2013:

 

48" galvanized chicken feeder

1934 price: $0.59

2013 price: $28.00

 

Barred Rock chicks

1934 price: $2.20 for 25 chicks

2013 price: $3.00 EACH! 

 

I wish we had those 1934 prices again, don't you?

Update on the Tomatoes and a Feature

I'm officially calling it the Tomato Disaster of 2013.

 

 

This is how my poor little grafted tomato plants look after being dropped a couple of days ago.  As you can see, the one in the middle of the back row is in particularly bad shape.  But they are hanging in there.

So now I'm stuck.  I need to get the plants that were fine and have healed grafts into more sun and hardened off, but I'm afraid that exposing the newly grafted plants will kill them.  What should I do??

(BTW, I didn't mention this before, but I'm actually using a plastic cake cover\carrier as my healing chamber for these.  It keeps the humidity in nicely and the cover is easy to remove if I need access (like to take pictures!)

I've been featured!
 

Also, I want to give a big thanks to Jenny and Lisa over at Black Fox Homestead for featuring my post on tomato grafting. I'm honored (and really happy) that she found it interesting and I hope you did too!

They have all kinds of interesting entries in their weekly family-friendly Home Acre Hop.  I'm talking topics like homesteading, caring for livestock, gardening, recipes, homeschooling, food preservation, crafts, etc.  You know, the cool stuff.

So I highly recommend you check it out when you have a sec.

It's 70 degrees outside and sunny and I am just off work for the day.  Time for me to get a tasty beverage and head for the backyard.  Hope you're having a wonderful day!

 

The Latest in Garden Wear

I'm sure you'll see this in the latest version of Cosmo, Elle and People shortly.  All the hip celebrities are ringing my phone off the hook asking where they can buy one of their own, doncha know?



Me rocking the latest in cutting edge Hip Garden Wear by Cranky Puppy Farm. Yeah, baby!

I'm starting a trend.

 

Who said you can't have dirt under your fingernails and still look good?

Sometimes I'm An Idiot

Today is NOT a good day despite the fact that the sun is shining and it feels like Spring.  My little baby grafted tomato seedlings were perking up quite nicely over the weekend. So, on the way out the door to go to work, I thought I would increase their light and move them closer to the window.

 

And I dropped them.  Flat on their little heads.

 

Aaaarrrggghhhhh!

 

It broke two of the grafts, so I re-sliced them and will start all over again.  I just hope I didn't kill them.  I am seriously upset about the whole thing.  In fact, I would really rather be home nursing them back to health.  I know it's insane, but I am really distressed about possibly killing them.  And they're just plants...

 

If these little guys live, it won't be because of me, that's for sure!