Down on the Farm – Volume 1, Issue 7

This week was…tedious. That’s the word that comes to my brain. Tedious. I felt like everything I wanted or needed or planned to do somehow got waylaid. Not by any person…just by circumstances, situations. Like wind and rain. Or exploding bottles.

Monday was “Kitchen Day.” I had an incredibly busy day in the kitchen. I like to make like 10 quart jars of tea at a time. I make the tea, like I’m going to make a pitcher. I add the sugar to the jar (in my case, Splenda), boil the pot of tea, and pour it into the jar. If the jar isn’t filled all the way up, I add water. With that done, I put a lid and ring on it, and set it on a towel to cool. I do that X10. Then, when all ten jars are cool, I put them in the refrigerator. Then, when I need another pitcher of tea, I shake up a quart jar, pour the already cold tea into the pitcher, add cold water to finish filling the pitcher, and I have nice, refreshing sweet tea. Add to ice, drink, repeat.

With the tea done, I steamed some eggs and made egg salad. I love egg salad. I make mine with Miracle whip lite and I eat it on that Sara Lee 45 calorie wheat bread…which turns my egg salad into a very healthy lunch.

Two items scratched off my “Kitchen Day” list, and the day was going smoothly. I was very excited because I was about to make my first batch of BBQ sauce to sell. So, I made the sauce…and it is DELICIOUSNESS. Then, I did the responsible thing and processed it after bottling. Well, I used plastic bottles that were rated for just such a thing. They were supposed to handle the heat without a problem. Let me just say…THERE WERE PROBLEMS. Lids blowing off, bottles swelling, precious barbeque sauce floating around in boiling water kind of problems.

Needless to say, I decided that making and selling barbeque sauce really wasn’t worth the time, effort, and expense you need to invest in unless you are making tons of it or you are willing to charge like $25 a bottle…I’m not doing either of those things. I was thinking about charging $10 per bottle, and really felt like that was too much money to charge, even though I would only be making about a dollar of profit per bottle. It’s just…for me…not worth doing. So, our famous BBQ Sauce will only remain famous locally, for those who come to our barbeques…and for family of course.

Because I had that HUGE disappointing mess to clean up, I did not get around to making my tinctures or salves…maybe they will get done this week. I’ve also got a lot of orange peels to powder up. That is DEFINITELY worth doing!

The rest of the week was either too windy or too rainy to do the things I wanted and needed to do. There was supposed to be an Herb Deck day, where I would finish painting, get all the plants out of the hobby den (which is what we’ve decided to call it), and make some planters. But if it wasn’t raining, the wind was blowing at hurricane force…or it was raining and windy.

The planned Hobby Den day, where I was going to repot what needed repotting and start cleaning up all of the seed starting mess never happened because the day I was going to do it, I woke up and there was no water. No water all day long. Apparently, there had been some break in the system overnight (according to the water company). So, what did I do instead? I wrote content for the website, visited with my sister and got some housework done.

Wednesday, I planned a “Garden” day. I was hoping to get my tomatoes into the ground, but the nights were about to dip down into the 40s, and to my way of thinking, that was just too cold for my tomatoes. Also, it was going to rain. So, the tomatoes are still hanging out in the hobby den. I wrote more content, visited more with my sister, and did more house cleaning.

Thursday, before it started raining again, I was able to get outside and plant some luffa and cushaw seeds. Most of the day, I wrote content for the website. It was supposed to be Quilt Day, but the dampness and cold wind had my joints feeling all knotted up. A lot of the time, I can grit my teeth and work on through it…but not this time. On my walk back up to the house, I saw Rosie and Fitzroy…they have a secret friendship, but in front of the other pets, pretend to not like each other. It’s so third grade!

Friday, I planned a Chicken Coop day, and I actually got to do stuff! The wind was still a blowing, but it wasn’t raining and I miraculously wasn’t hurting as much..so I was able to start cutting pieces for the nesting box build. So, before I headed outside, I put some Bourbon Meatballs in the crockpot and got to work. Oh how I enjoyed being outside in the fresh air. I was only to do it without worry or interruption because my sweet sister, Stephanie, was inside with my Daddy, and I knew he was okay with her.

Saturday was supposed to be Chicken Run day, but the weather had other plans, and that did not get done. I was able to finish the nesting box, with Jeremy’s help on Saturday….under the carport with the rain and the cold wind blowing in! But we did not give up. We got it done, and Jeremy spent time yesterday trying to finish painting it. He still has a little more to paint next weekend.

Here is a video my sweet Jeremy took. Yes, I AM proud of my nesting box…I feel like it’s the only thing I really got accomplished this week…other than tea and egg salad.

Sunday was dry, but windy and cold…and cloudy. Regardless of that, Jeremy was able to get my four Coral Honeysuckle plants planted out at the garden gate arches. I can hardly wait for them to start climbing and flowering…but on our garden walk, before he had to leave out on the road, I managed to take pictures of everything BUT my honeysuckles. I had fallen (fell backwards over the miter saw that Jeremy had sat on the floor of the carport to use the table saw) on Saturday. Jeremy got my big clumsy butt up off the ground, and nothing was sprained or broken or bleeding…but OMG my EVERYTHING hurt on Sunday! Everything still hurts!

But I don’t complain.

But would you take a look at all the beans?? Everything is growing so well in the Garden…beans, taters, squash, cucumbers, peppers, you name it…except tomatoes. Don’t name tomatoes. It’s still a sore spot.

I know it looks like we are about to hold some nightmarish wedding…we aren’t. What we are doing is protecting our beans and peas from the dang deer. I hate that we have to do this, cause it takes away from the beauty of the garden…but if we want beans and peas to eat, we have to net them. We have found that the cheapest way to do this is with that netting they sell from walmart that people use to make wedding veils and what not. It costs about $30ish and we buy one bolt each year. It works.

So folks…what’s on the list for this week? A kitchen day, a deck day, a hobby den day, a chicken coop day, a quilt day, a chicken run day, and a garden day…same as last week!

Wish me luck!