Dreary Days

It is so time for Spring. Last weekend I was sick and this weekend will be dreary again. It is time for Winter to move on out and let some good gardening weather in! I don't have much to write about today, I'm still recovering from a bout with the flu or something similar and it has sapped my creative energy for now. The picture of the beebalm is from last year's garden. I moved it to my new garden, but not sure if it will come back or not. I hope so, but if not, I have seeds on standby. Beebalm is a great hummingbird, butterfly, and medicine plant. I use it in my cold/flu tea and tinctures, but last year I didn't harvest any tea supplies at all. This is the first time in many years that I've gotten the flu, and wouldn't you know it would happen when I am least prepared?? This year, I will be harvesting the necessary ingredients all year long as they become available. Send me an email if you'd like to be notified when the tea is ready, if you'd like a sample. I'll put you on my mailing list. The tea usually includes things like beebalm flowers/leaves, echinacea flowers, yarrow flowers, elderberry flowers and berries, lemon balm leaves, heal-all flowers and leaves. And maybe other things I run across that would add useful qualities to the mix, like spicebush berries and twigs and peppermint and other wild mints. Last year I found a really nice little wild peppermint and I forgot that I intended to transplant some to my garden. I'll have to remember to go look for it when the weather clears up.

Hey, it won't be long before it is time for the first spring herb walk! Be sure to send me an email if you want to be put on the mailing list - the first walk is scheduled for Mar 22 or 23 (can't remember which day and I can't see the sidebar while making this post, LOL). But that's about when the bloodroot starts to bloom and a few of the other woodland plants begin to pop out and show leaves.

Last weekend Gary and I raked pine needles and refreshed the chickens nest boxes with it. The horses kept poking their heads in and eating all the hay before, so we thought maybe pine needles would last longer. Well, the hens must be happy! Five eggs yesterday and the first white egg from our spangled hamburg hen, to boot. We have been planning to make lots of chicken jambalya if they didn't start laying soon, so maybe they have redeemed themselves now ;)

In other news, Gab's brown recluse spider bite has almost completely healed and it doesn't even look like it will leave a scar. This is excellent news because this bite was on her forehead! She did get the standard medical treatment for it, plus I had her keep a clay pack on it most of the time during the early stages. The clay contained herbal tincture of myrrh, goldenseal, comfrey and cloves as well. I think a person may also gain some resistance to the venom, because this one reacted less than the bite last year.

Zack has started the driving part of his CDL classes and he is thrilled - he feels like this is what he was destined to do with his life, loves it as much as he loves hunting. Now that is saying a lot for him! He did say it is very hard to learn how to make turns, but he will get more practice on that today.

The horses have been in my new garden. I must finish the fence this weekend, even if I have to go out in the ice to do it because they'll tear up all the work we did last weekend if I don't. There's nothing growing in it for them to eat, they just like to check out all the new rows...and three horses walking around in soft ground spells disaster.

I've started a seed swapping blog. If you would like to offer heirloom or organic seeds to trade, please join me. Send me an email and I'll add you as an author to the blog. If you don't want to join, then keep an eye on the posts and chip in whenever you feel like it.

This weekend was a good and productive one. First, I made up our household budget. This was a sorely needed chore that I've been putting off for a long time. Now that it's all organized I am happy. On Sunday I worked in the garden all afternoon. Now there are 4 tilled rows and 2 of them are planted. On the first row we have Bull's Blood beets. There is 100' of beets and they should be ready to pull right as it is time to put in the artichoke transplants in that same row. On the second row we have 25' of red onions, 25' of yellow onions, 25' sweet peas (Lincoln), 20' Lady Finger Carrots, and 5' Red Globe radishes. The peas will give way to the snap beans and the radishes to lettuce. Row 3 and 4 are unplanted right now because I just ran out of time. It will be raining too much this week and likely next weekend to do much more in the garden for now, but I will be working on the fences if the weather allows.

What did you do this weekend?

Yesterday my daughter and I groomed our horses. Mine has a wavy mane and tail that gets little wringlet knots in it and they're very difficult to unwind. But I managed to get them all undone this time. He also has very long hair on his jaw and legs, LOL, he looks like a wooly mammoth. This spring I will begin working with him and riding some, but he'll only be 2 in May and I'd like to give him another full year of growth before I ride him often. We'll get a lot of the ground lessons started, though.

Bobbie Sue and Pooter (the dogs) were busy trying to dig up a mole. Just when Bobbie Sue closed in for the kill, I ran and snatched it up by the scruff of it's neck so I could get a look at him. I've only seen pictures, never seen a real mole before. Boy! They are fiesty little critters! He kept trying to turn around and bite me, and I know he must have been terrified, but I wanted to hold him long enough for the kids to get a look at him, too. Some people think they're ugly and I'm sure most would think I should have killed him, but to me he was cute with his huge front paws and long little nose. And as long as they stay out of my garden, I don't care if they till everywhere else. They can even till in the garden out of season and I'll be happy with it.

Speaking of the garden, I was out there on Saturday. I took down the bean trellis and moved it out of the future perennial garden. The pieces are lying in the future annual garden waiting for their new life. While I was there I noticed all the mole trails and saw that they completely avoided the garlic rows. So I am thinking that I will plant a garlic boundary around the entire garden. That might help with both deer and moles. I hung the bluebird box while I was out there too. I've been seeing them on the roadsides, maybe they are scoping out spring nesting areas. I want a family to move in by my garden this year.

While thinking about a book I am writing, the POV it needs came to me all of a sudden. Going over it in my mind, it is definitely the right one! All the ideas are flowing better now, so I'd better get busy with it.

If you've never read 'The Essential Herbal', now is a great time to find out more about it! Click on the link and it will take you to a free online issue. This is a great little herbie magazine with articles about herbs ranging from culinary, to medicinal, to folklore usage. The advertising is non-obtrusive and the products and companies are those that we herbal folks want and need to know about anyway. Try it, you'll like it :)

Okay, today is going to be a work related post. I have to tell you what the guys have done in the lab! We got a sample in, oh, it might have been a couple years ago now. This sample smells soooooo badly that it has earned a permanent place on the lab director's bench. Not only that, it also earned a name: Mean Joe. The guys love to open this sample from time to time to make the lab smell really really bad. Imagine the worst smelling baby diaper you've ever encountered and it is worse than that. They've been trying to have it smelling real bad like this when the Cintas guy comes to pick up our towels, but they keep missing him. This morning they made a pre-emptive strike and took the cap off the jar and left it off, letting the air in the room become so thick you have to cut your way through it to get to the door for a breath. Of course, the Cintas guy is running late. I just wanted to talk a little bit about this, it's one of the things that makes life interesting around here. I'm going out for air now!

Today Gary helped me gather horse manure. We applied it to the row I tilled yesterday - and it's actually 115'. I know because we measured it today...seems my estimating was a little off, lol. On that first row will be a 3-sisters planting every 3 feet. So that will 38 hills with 3 corn stalks each... so, 114 plants with hopefully more than one ear each. I sure hope the horses, deer, coons, and bears cooperate to let me have some corn this year! We will get the fence up before I plant anything, or I can guarantee nothing will survive.

Here's the first row of the new garden. This will be a fairly large endeavor and will supply our family and our little CSA's members with some good eating this year. The new addition measures about 100' x 30'. This is nice sandy loam, but it's low in organic matter so I will be adding amendments to make it better. Every year the soil condition will get better and every winter I'll grow a green manure to incorporate every spring. Right now it is too early to plant anything, but soon the sweet peas and beets, turnips and carrots will go in. I am collecting bagged leaves, so if you live in the vicinity and have some to donate to the cause, I will pick them up!

Here's a new blog for you to visit; it belongs to my friend Dena: http://giftsofgodherbals.blogspot.com/

She makes and sells all sorts of excellent herbal formulations. I use her super tonic and tooth and gum formulas all the time and they work great for me. She also has pretty much every single tincture you can think of, and if you happen to ask for one she doesn't have, I'll bet she can get one together for you.

Today was one of the best days I've had in a long time. The weather was perfect, not too cold and not too hot. I planted some more ginseng seeds, laid out the garden and planned what was going to go where this year, cleaned up around the outside of the house, and caught one of the new hens on the nest laying an egg. Gary brought Garrison to basketball practice, so I had most of the day to do whatever I wanted. Right now, a pot of coffee is brewing and I'm going to go outside and sit on the swing and enjoy the end of a wonderful day. I hope your day was as good as mine was ;)

I took a survey today to see what the kids wanted most out of the garden this year. Asparagus was top on the list from Gabrielle, Garrison wants carrots and corn and peas. Zack likes turnips and radishes, but both he and Gary especially want some beets. I know my daddy doesn't want onions and garlic, but I have to plant those! I have green beans and potatoes planned, so I think he'll eat those. Momma probably likes most of what I'll grow.

It's hard to not plant things too early when the weather is nice like weekend before last. But this past weekend was typical January weather and I stay inside when it's like that. Cold, drizzly and windy. Yuck! And last year's lesson stuck pretty good. That late freeze snared a lot of gardeners who thought it was safe to plant already.

The kids at Garrison's school say I'm crazy for thinking I can grow figs up here. But my fig tree is very happy sitting under the window in a pot in my living room and it is putting on new leaves. This year, it will make figs and Garrison can bring them to class to prove I'm not so nuts after all. I'm going to make sure and not put it out too soon, especially not until after mid-April. And then later this summer I will build a cage around it so I can mulch it heavy all winter and not have to bring it inside every year like that.

If you like to write, you will be interested in this website I stumbled upon today. It is full of inspirational stories and blog entries and very useful information! It's called "Writers on the Rise" and its a site good for beginners and seasoned writers alike. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Something that occurs to me is this. Yes, it is important to be truthful in everything I say. But it is also important to know when to speak and when not to speak. That kind of discernment seems to me to be harder than simply telling the truth. If I am committed to saying only truths, then there is no judgment needed in that respect on my part. Judging WHETHER to speak sometimes is very difficult. Another difficulty is in deciding HOW to speak, what words to choose. An artist can paint a picture in many different styles, and it still portrays the same scene - but some styles are more easily looked upon than others. The same applies to the spoken word and the written word.

Those are my ponderous words to guide me for the new year :)

Today is the start of a new year and a new month. I feel optimistic. The seeds came in for the spring garden and each seed represents the hope and promise of good things to come!

What is on the menu for today? I am cooking a duck gumbo to bring to work tomorrow. The guys marked it on the calendar to make sure I'd remember. It's hard to find good sausage out here, and even harder to find andouille, but I found some and that fact is very encouraging, LOL. Usually, we have family members bootleg good cooking supplies from down south, but its nice to know that I can at least get those two items locally now. But to eat for today we are having corn beef, cabbage, and black eyed peas. That is our traditional New Year's Day fare. It is supposed to bring good luck. Oh, and I'll try to make another cornbread with grits, and another pie - but this time I'm using store bought crust. It's good to know I ~can~ make it if I have to, but I sure like being able to buy it from the grocery when I'm in a pinch for time.

Plans for this year not only include an awesome garden for our CSA members and our family, but also include getting Comanche ready for me to ride. He'll be 2 in May and although I don't want to ride him much yet because I like to wait until he is 3 for regular riding, he is old enough to learn to carry my weight and follow commands. So we'll start with the ground work when the weather gets nicer and from time to time I'll sit on him and let him get used to that feeling. He's such a good boy already that I don't think this will be too hard for him. When he's 3 I want to start using him to get me and my supplies out to my ginseng patch and forest gardens. I also want to get a buckboard wagon fitted to him so I can pull a vegetable cart to the farmer's market if the economy all comes tumbling down anytime soon, LOL. But he's not a stocky horse and may not be built for that kind of labor. I'd love to have a draft horse for that sort of thing, though.

The experiment is done. Okay, the pie came out good. It tastes just like pumpkin pie - except it's made with cushaw instead of pumpkin. The crust was even good, which surprised me. However, there was a complete and miserable failure with the meringue. Apparently, you can't make one with a blender. Or else I did something else wrong. I am not sure, but when I get a mixer I'll try that part again. Maybe I'll try the whole thing over again, but it better not ever take so long to make a pie again!

I'm trying something new right now. I'm making a pie from scratch! I know, this is probably old hat for a lot of you, but I've never made a pie completely from scratch before. Starting with the cushaw squash that my neighbor grew. It took me more than an hour to cut up and peel the squash - that was a chore! Then I added too much water to the cut up squash and it took all day yesterday and today to cook it out. But now the squash filling is ready and the pie crust is in the refrigerator getting ready for me to roll out. I made the pie crust too, and I sure hope all this tastes good in the end because I've never heard of someone spending TWO days making ONE pie, LOL. Hopefully, it won't take so long next time because now I know what I did wrong and will do it better next time. There will be a next time if this pie holds at least enough promise to make it worth a next time :)

It's a yucky drizzly rainy day. But I did get out and plant some ginseng seeds before it got too bad. I'll have plenty potted seedlings to sell again this year and enough to plant some out in the woods too.

"Word of the Year
Editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary announced their "word of the year" and this year ... "locavore" is it! Congratulations are in order to Chelsea Green author Jessica Prentice (Full Moon Feast) who is one of four women to coin the phrase (actually they use the word locavore without the second "l" as in location as has been adapted elsewhere in the country and used as localvore) and spark a food movement that continues to grow in popularity as people become more aware of the benefits of supporting their local food systems and reducing the amount of food they eat that is trucked in from hundreds and hundreds of miles away."

Link to Oxford site: http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/

From Chelsea Green’s e-newsletter 12/07

Shrimp Etouffee. Another great way to use green onions, and also garlic and celery from the garden! This dish was prepared by my husband today. Too bad he's down in Louisiana visiting his daughter and grandaughter and not up here.

Today's project was to move the old iguana cage and turn it into my seed-starting mini-greenhouse. It's very heavy so I had my oldest son help me move it. The ground where it is has a drop of about 1' for every 5', and the cage is about 5' deep, so I had to stack rocks under the back end a foot high to make it semi-level.

It didn't go well the first time. I had almost all the the rocks stacked and needed just one more under the front end to make it look just right. Well, when I lifted the front end to slide the rock under, it started an avalanch on the other end and the whole thing slipped off the little walls I'd so meticulously, but apparently not correctly, stacked. Yes, some mortar would make it a lot stronger, but I don't have time for that today. Ha, but I have time to stack the whole thing over again!

Finally got it mostly finished, at least enough to keep the chickens out of it. Still need to drape the plastic over it and make some shelves inside, but I won't need it until later on anyway. I have a picture of it to post, but the picture loader wasn't working a while ago. I'll try it again in a minute.

My friend Dena will be doing the seed starting, for the most part, but this mini-green house will allow me to hold seedlings and start a few seeds of my own. Without the cage, the chickens wreak havoc. The garden is not right here by the house, so they don't bother that. I do have a little garden by the house, but covering the roots of the plants with feed sacks weighed down with rocks seems to be enough to keep them from dying. But last season the chickens were still very small. This year they might be ravenous for that to work. We'll see.

Just wanted to post this recent picture of Comanche :) He's such a sweetie! I can't wait to begin riding him, but he's only a yearling right now. This has nothing to do with herbs, or gardening, or writing, but horses are my first great passion and I couldn't resist putting his pic up here for ya'll to see.