It's a "Berry" good day!

It's been so hot lately, like almost everywhere, that we've spent most days in the house, in front of fans, and near the one small window A/C unit we have. We venture out quickly in the early morning to check on the garden and run whatever errands we need to, then find things inside to do for the rest of the day.

This morning at 6 am it was already 80 outside, but when I looked out the window while making the bed, I could see the black raspberries hanging heavy. So I dug out the beekeeping jacket with attached hat and face net, added lightweight sweatpants and sox, picked up my bucket and belt to hang it from and headed out to pick.

Besides the constant screen of mosquitoes hanging between me and my quarry, it wasn't bad out there. The raspberries were poor this year, mostly dried out from the heat, but I picked about two pounds of them, then tackled the blueberries, just coming on now. They grow in the lowest ground we have, so have the most moisture they've been able to reach with their deep old roots, and are just wonderful, plump and delicious.

I'm sure the neighbors thought I was silly looking, with all my cover, and I really freaked out their dogs, but it worked well. I managed to get back inside with about 4 pounds of berries for my labors, dripping wet inside my cover, but pleased with myself.

I stopped out to check out the garden while I was out there, and found our first zucchini and a summer squash, so dinner tonight will be great, with fresh squash, and berries for dessert.


The garden is welcoming now, with the scarecrow in place, waving us in with pinwheels in hand, tomatoes, scarlet runner beans and cosmos leading us to the new garden shed. Things sure are growing fast out there these days. The sunflowers are up to 12 feet tall now, the beans covering almost all the fences, and tomatoes just everywhere. The corn is looking good, and the hollyhocks just look so happy!

The rest of the day will be spent inside, for sure. It's HOT out there.

We've Got Garlic!

Whew, life sure does move fast lately. I've missed posting for way too long now and we've gone through all the early spring stuff, all the way to summer.

The garden's going gangbusters now, with little tiny tomatoes hanging everywhere, the potatoes in their tubs are reaching out for the sky, and the beans are on their way to the top of anything within reach.

Last fall we ordered garlic and carefully planted it, in hopes of finally growing our very own supply of that essential flavoring. This week, they all bent over and laid down, turned brown on the bottom, and looked ready to harvest. I looked up when to harvest your garlic online and decided that was the day. What a kick! It was fun, carefully loosening the soil around each plant and lifting them out. I gently knocked off the majority of the dirt and piled them into a basket to carry inside to dry. The heads weren't as large as I'd hoped, but not bad, and they were all in great shape, no insect damage to the plants at all.

Our little greenhouse has a sun cover on it this time of year, so heat doesn't build up too much on the south side of the house, and the metal rack shelving inside made the perfect place to lay out the garlic to dry.

The air can circulate all the way around it there, and the open window on the end of the greenhouse allows fresh air all the time. The bonus for us is the great garlic odor we smell each time we walk past that window.

We're really fond of garlic here, and use some almost every day. This should be enough garlic to keep us supplied for at least most of the coming year. Now I'll just need to shop more carefully for the bulbs I'll plant this fall for next year. I wanted to plant hardneck garlic, for the larger heads, stronger flavor, and the scapes they grow, but apparently was shipped softneck this year. At least I should be able to braid this kind, and be able to hang it for storage.

Yummmmm-Garlic! Just makes you feel good all over!

It’s almost Spring!

Poof! Three months gone, just like that! It’s almost Spring!

I can’t believe my last post was just before Christmas. Seems like, as the years go by, we’re having a tougher time dealing with these long cold, dank, dark winters. I can feel my life slowing down, and I go into semi-hibernation. Then, this morning, as I trudged out to collect the sap from the maple trees, I stepped outside, and it was spring!

Not totally Spring, and there’s still snow in places on the ground, and not a lot is up and blooming yet, but it’s there, quivering on the edge of becoming……Spring! My step grew faster, breathing was a bit deeper, I’m sure I grew at least two inches taller and my heart grew two sizes, right then and there.

I collected the sap from the 5 trees we’re tapping this year, then set the bucket down and went straight out to pull up some tiny sassafras trees for our annual rite of Spring—Sassafras tea. The ground is so soft here in old sand dune country that I can pull these tiny trees right up out of the ground, especially the ones that the deer have nipped the tops off of. While it was steeping, I made a quick trip around the yard to see what other signs of Spring were out there ready for me to see.

The flowers were peaking out from under the leaves at the foot of the greenhouse.

A robin watching me from a nearby tree.

I pulled the cover off the raised bed in the garden and the peas and garlic I planted last fall are coming up and ready to take off. Lots of weeds in there to clean up soon.

The new garden storage shed that Jim’s building has three side walls on it, ready soon to store hoses and all those tools, right at hand in the garden for use.

The snowdrops are up and smiling, and the owls are hooting in a hormone influenced dizzy frenzy of mating time lust.

I’ve already planted marigolds, herbs and the cabbage, broccoli and bok choi seeds in the greenhouse, and they should be up soon.

So I’m back! As I sip my spicy sassafras tea from my favorite froggy flower pot mug, I feel the happiness growing. I'm waking up from the long cold sleep of winter and ready to face the joy of Spring again. It may snow again, it’s still early, but the sun shone down its promise on me today, and better times are ahead. I’ll close with pictures of my beloved grandson, who thinks outside is pretty cool, and loves to go out in his oversized sweater and sweep the patio or follow Grandpa around the yard.

Life is very good! And it's going to get better.

Ok! NOW I'm in the Christmas Mood!

No pictures with this post, because I didn't think to take along the camera last night, but we had such a marvelous time, that I just had to share my thoughts with you. We’re in the Christmas mood after a terrific concert last night. We live out here in the country in northern Indiana, and the closest town to us is across the state line in Michigan. It’s a tiny town, with one stop light, two bars, four churches and one gas station.

Lately it’s been having a changeover from sleepy little farming town to an artsy community. Part of the energy in the change came from one place, the Acorn Theater. Two men from Chicago, with lots of experience in theater, bought an old factory that used to make corset stays out of turkey feathers, and changed part of it into a theater. It’s a good sized stage, a huge Barton pipe organ with pipes hung all around the room, and seating that changes with the shows from some intimate tables and theater seating to all the chairs they can squeeze into the place and it holds about 250. They have all kinds of amazing acts come in to entertain, plus open mike nights, videos and special celebrations that are such fun.

Living nearby are singers with the Chicago Opera Company, and they’ve started doing Opera at the Acorn, a series of Opera based events that bring world class entertainment, out here in the middle of nowhere. Last night was their 5^th Annual Christmas show, billed as the Jolliest Christmas Show Ever. They brought along a harpist, classically trained pianist from the Ukraine, a guitarist and a violinist, to accompany the incredible singers.

When we arrived, someone was outdoors roasting chestnuts, grown on their own trees, and handing them out to everyone. It was such fun to see an event like this in a small town, because everyone was there, from the moneyed lady in the full length chinchilla coat, to the teenaged goth girls, in their black hair and lipstick. Hugs everywhere, and everyone visited so that it was tough to move through the theater to our seats. They started with songs from Handel’s Messiah and ended the first part with a sing along of the Halleluiah Chorus, accompanied by the booming organ. They handed out the sheet music, but like most, we can’t follow it, so we just picked a singer we liked, and sang along with that one as best we could. It was a wild musical romp and somehow sounded goosebump-raising great!

After that they took a break, and an older gentleman climbed up onto the seat of the organ wearing a peaked elf hat, and played traditional carols. The second part of the evening was a mix of all the performers favorites, some great, O Holy Night, and I Wonder as I Wander, to the ridiculous, like I Saw Daddy Choking Santa Claus. What fun that was. They ended the night by bringing their three dogs out onto the stage wearing antlers while we all sang along to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. We feel so lucky to have this kind of crazy, talented people in the area, and glad we can afford to spring for tickets now and then.

Seems like each year, I need a good strong dose of Christmas music to get me jump-started in the holiday mood. That sure did it. I'm in the mood now, and think I'll probably get those presents wrapped today. Merry Christmas, and God Bless us All!

More Lessons From the Greenhouse

We're having such fun trying to extend the growing season in our little unheated greenhouse. Now I know that tomatoes are heat-lovers, but with dreams of savory home-grown tomatoes in winter, I snipped the tips from some growing plants in the garden, and rooted them in soil to bring inside to try.
They rooted well and started to grow, but just couldn't make it. Two of the plants took on the strangest coloring. Their leaf veins started turning purple! We also had aphids and whiteflies on some of the plants, so I thought that there was some kind of infestation going on there too, but finally found that it was just too cold for the poor tomato plants. When the soil gets too cold for them, they can't take up the calcium they need and they turn purple, starting with the large leaf veins, and spreading out into the edges. So the tomatoes have now come inside to the living room bay window.The green beans were a semi-success. They did well for a while, blooming and actually growing a few small beans, but as it's gotten colder, they've now given up and will have to go.
The hot peppers seemed to be aphid magnets, and no amount of soapy water would discourage them, so they had to go too, as did the other plant with whiteflies.

So, with those out of the way, we now just have cold loving plants in the greenhouse and they're doing well. Slowly, but well. The pea pods are doing very well, growing out of their pot and down the wall of water filled heat storage buckets. I'm so looking forward to picking pods off of them for winter salads.We have spinach, collards, onions, three different kinds of lettuces, herbs and some radishes and beets. The radishes seem to be all tops, and the herbs are doing just fine. The greens all seem to be growing well, just in slow motion, which is fine.We have no added heat out there at all, but the double polycarbonate glazing and a stapled up layer of plastic with dead air space on the south side help gather what sunlight we do get and at least insulate. The temperature maintains in the 40's while outside it's been down to 16 and is usually in the 30's during these days of high wind and blizzard. Jim just checked the temps, and it's 6 degrees above zero this morning, and 33 out in the greenhouse. That's the coldest it's gotten so far. Not bad, for no added heat at all.
I took these pictures before the blizzard hit and we only had a few inches of snow. For the past four days it's been snow and high winds and we couldn't get out for 3 days of that time.
Last night I went out and harvested a salad for us for dinner. Just enough for a generous salad for two.

This greenhouse has been such a fun experiment. Even if we can't grow all the good things we want to in there, it's been a nice thing to step into that space on these dreary days and see green things to greet me. We keep three florescent lights going for about 12 hours a day to help the plants along, and that costs us very little. We gain a bit of protection on that side of the house because of the greenhouse there, and that wall, which has always been cold to the touch in the wintertime, is warm now.

We're really looking forward to time to start our seedlings on those shelves in the early spring. That's when we'll really enjoy it. We're already making our list for our first seed order of 2011.

Do trees have a sense of humor?

This eastern cottonwood is devoid of leaves now except for the very top. It reminds me of a new style haircut where they head is shaven along the sides, with only a mop above. I have to smile each time I notice this tree out there with its top fringe flagging in the breeze.

I love trees; perhaps mostly for their perseverance. I've seen them growing out of seemingly solid blocks of rock along the eastern Appalachians; clinging to mountain pinnacles high in the Sierras of California, stunted by wind and weather, yet living. In the deep, dark forests of Northern Maine small pines grew like blades of grass under the shadow of their forebears. Most can not survive the competition for sun and space, yet they make the effort because they're trees.

I have made my bed at night, under the thick intertwining branches of pines. I know that if a storm comes, the pines will provide the best protection as they shed rain off their densely packed needles and layers of branches.

It was probably 10 years ago I came here and found that cottonwood struggling. It was small then (cottonwoods grow fast), and overshadowed by a dense growth of autumn olive bushes. The little tree reached out at an angle, around the bushes, wanting more of the sunlight. I cut the brush and dug out the extensive network of roots to give the tree its freedom. It rewards us today with its beauty. You might notice in the photo, near the bottom where the trunk curves somewhat. That's the reach around the autumn olive 10 years back.

I've planted trees on this 3 acres of home, and will continue to do so long as I am able, for their represent to me a continuity of the land, and we are the land.

If I could only be a tree.

by Jim

Happiness is!

Happiness is the sun shining through the trees on a misty morning that promises us anything's possible, as long as we believe.Happiness is all the firewood we'll need for this winter, stacked against the newly resided garage and covered, ready for warm toes, and long relaxing conversations-all winter long.Happiness is-this corner of the farm, where there used to be scrub and thorns, now carefully planned, planted, pruned and tended until this patch of sunlight lays on it like a note of grace in our own beautiful world.Happiness is green and growing things in the greenhouse. This year we're extending the season with all kinds of herbs and veggies in a grand experiment all our own. Such good things there to bring a taste of summer goodness to our wintertime meals.Happiness is this crazy upside-down grape tomato plant that had already given up the ghost outside and is now bearing like crazy inside the greenhouse where we can watch it from the living room window. It's even reblooming! Happiness is the blush of red leaves on the blueberries as they pull into themselves to rest for the winter season.Happiness is one perfect red sassafras leaf among the yellow maple leaves. And Happiness is this exuberant yellow tree on the path through the woods, celebrating fall in silent glory, all by itself until I was lucky enough to wander by and share in the joy. Life is very good these days.

Lessons Learned from the Garden

Lesson 1-The tiny pumpkins that never grew to their full size are just fine when you see them together with our tiny grandson—they fit just right!

Lesson 2-It’s not necessarily a bad thing when a groundhog comes to snack on your garden.

We grew Scarlet Runner Beans this year and they took over the fence. Grew so plentiful that they were bending over the fence. The groundhog that lives under the woodpile took a liking to the bean leaves and carefully pruned them back for us. Caused the beans to rebloom and the fence is fine! We didn’t mind sharing at all.

Lesson 3-Sometimes you need to think about the outcome BEFORE you plant the seeds. Amaranth sounded like a marvelous experiment, who knew it’d grow 8 feet tall, and so heavy it waved around like a club in the wind, beating up other plants.

Now that I’ve harvested the seed heads and hung them upside down, hoping the seeds will fallout into the bin—I realize that I have no idea how to cook and serve the seeds. Hmmm, maybe this wasn’t such a great idea?And last, Lesson number 4-Cucumbers sometimes grow in the strangest places. I swear, this grew all by itself, right there! I love gardening. I never know what’s going to happen next.