Well the blog banner will change in time. I just haven’t had any of it!
The garden is in, for the most part, in the back yard. Unfortunately we have two trees in our backyard that shade a large portion of it, and our neighbor has three trees that shade the best spot in the backyard for a garden. We might ask him if we can trim the tree so it doesn’t hang over our property so much, but I don’t want to be “that” neighbor that is seems nit-picky. But we really need a garden that produces well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
I’m considering having my husband cut down one of the trees, but it’s a healthy one and I’d hate to kill a tree for no good reason.
My squash is coming in – I had given up on it. i planted seeds a while back and have seen zero action. The weather has been a bit chilly, but my corn and green beans had been popping up a little here and there, I figured I’d see SOMETHING with my squash by the time I gave up on it. Well… I left the plot alone and started seeds trying to get something started and lo and behold, all of my squash popped up! I’m so excited! hehe.
Broccoli is doing very well. SPinach and lettuce are slow. I don’t have all of the tomatoes planted that I wanted, and i’m starting to get anxious that it might be too late. My husband promises that we’ll visit a nursery tomorrow, so we’ll see. Or later next week, considering this is a holiday weekend.
I’m preparig to make a batch of tallow soap which will then be powdered into a mix with washing soda and borax for a homemade laundry detergent. So much cheaper than buying bars of soap to grate down.
I have a compost pile going here, and my husband is going to put up a clothesline for me soon.
I’ve got my pantry all set up really nice – my pantry actually consists of an entire room in my basement. It shares its self with my office, which is pretty self contained in a small space. I have my two deep freezers, a large cabinet, two long shelves and another big shelving unit holding all of our pantry items and nonessential kitchen supplies and equipment. I do have an actual pantry under the staircase but the shelves in that are stocked to the max with empty mason jars awaiting the harvest. I’ve gotten so many free lately and feel so blessed. I also acquired a second pressure canner (brand new) at a garage sale. It’ll be nice to can double the amount in the same amount of time it takes to do one load, and it’ll be real nice to be able to can with a friend. If I can find a third, that would be pretty neat as well. When I can potatoes, apples, peaches and pears I typically go through several bushels of each all at one time. Nothing but canning is done in a few short days to ensure the produce is canned while it is still fresh. Our family lives on already prepared meals from the freezer (typically homemade food already cooked and ready to thaw and heat) and I don’t leave the house at all so I can peel, core, slice and prepare food for canning.
A few days ago my dad and I (and the kids) visited with my grandma and grandpa. We learned how to make real Polish Golabki (pigs in a blanket). It was a frequent meal at her house and is one of my favorite I can remember from my childhood. I took pictures and am putting a step-by-step tutorial together for June’s issue of From Scratch (Http://www.motherhoodnaturally.com/FromScratch). I’m very excited about the June issue – there is a LOT of great info and it’s going to be a pretty big issue.
I’ll post some pictures of our new dwelling in just a bit.
