FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

[FarmerDenise]

I had my store bought yogurt with homemade blackberry jam and I even got SO to have some yogurt with home made strawberry jam!!!
It was so good.

Well, everyone in snow country, you can feel like you got even. It is freezing cold this morning. Brrrr. Must be around 50 and overcast. We are off to gather firewood.

 

[Occamstazer]

Farmerdenise, can I threadjack for a sec and ask about your shallots?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE shallots, but they're so expensive in the store!
Can I grow them in a big pot like I do my garlic? Are they easy?

 

[FarmerDenise]

Farmerdenise, can I threadjack for a sec and ask about your shallots?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE shallots, but they're so expensive in the store!
Can I grow them in a big pot like I do my garlic? Are they easy?

I grow them with our garlic and onions. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't grow in a pot. And yes they are outrageously expensive, which is why I decided to grow them.
Normally I try to get them planted at the same time as the garlic and onions. This year everything kinda went haywire for me and so I am glad that I finally got some in the ground. I hope to plant some more. But at least I got a fair amount of them planted.

Today was gloomy all day. At least the rain is supposed to go to the south of us. We figured we better go and gather some more firewood, just in case the nasty cold wet weather does return. FIL had offered a big stack of firewood to us. Their tenant had moved and left it behind. When we got there, someone had already taken most of it I filled the truck half way with what was left. Mostly cut up 2x4's. It'll do for us for a little while. We still have some nice hunks of wood left, from when we went to DD's to pick some up.
There is more at DD's, but it has been uncovered all winter and getting rained on. so it is rather wet. We did get a few branches at FIL's and SO cut those up, once we got home. So we should be set for about a week.

I took Susie and the chicklets outside for a few hours today. The chicklets are more like feather dusters now. Especially since they are frizzles I cleaned up a flower and herb bed with the help of the chickens
Then I brought Susie back inside and decided to make a pot of chicken soup. I used home made broth, carrots, and herbs from the garden and store bought celery, canned chicken and pasta.
Now we have a nice fire going, to keep the chicks warm (Yea, right ), a hot pot of soup on the stove and all our chores done. Soon it'll be time to lock the chickens up and bring the dog in.

When I was out today, I checked the back field and noticed that the grass is quite tall. Next big break in the weather, I'll have to go and cut some of it down and let it dry, so we'll have hay for the rabbit.

I feel like I should be baking something , but I don't feel like doing the work

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

bake baby bake!! how about some of that bean cake? i've been thinking about it all day...

but

what got me was these life changing brownies. my hubby said they were too fudgy... so i ate them all.

http://chocolatechic.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/february-9-3/

 

[Beekissed]

Okay...that was just mean! That was so beautiful that it made tears come to my eyes! Oh, how I miss flowers!!!! And chicks!!!! And...and....GREEEEEEEEN!

Okay, Okay! So..I admit that the snow is lookin' kinda dirty now and not very attractive and I keep getting all these seed catalogs and I can't get out and about around the place without sinking to my thighs in snow and...well....I think I really dislike you, FD!!!!

Just kiddin'! I love you dearly! Thanks for the pics....it's great to know that somewhere spring still exists!

Praying for a spring thaw real soon.....

 

[FarmerDenise]

You guys sent your gloomy weather this way :/

Here are my little feather dusters sitting pretty

And here is a bushel basket of chickens

Here's a pic of the homegrown ingredients I used in the strata I made the other day.

It is cold and gloomy here. I took Susie and her feather dusters outside anyway, because they were not happy being caged inside and making a big noise about it.

I might just have to go to Goodwill, and see if they have anything I need

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

ok the bushel basket of feather dusters made me laugh out loud! they are PERFECT

oh look at that asparagus.... i could have asparagus now... but i'd pay $4.99 and it probably came from china...

;-)

GREAT pix! thanks for sending some grins!!

 

[Farmfresh]

What adorable frizzles!

 

[FarmerDenise]

It was cloudy and drizzly today. I still took Susie and her feather dusters outside. I had to clean their inside pen and wash the sheets I use in it. I also hung those sheets up, even though it is raining. I don't want all that chicken poop in my dryer

Since it wasn't raining hard, I decided to go and gather some greens for a salad. We haven't planted any lettuce, so I just went out into the field and picked the edibles that grow there: chickweed, wild mustard tops and miner's lettuce. Then I went around the gardens to see what I could find to add: beet tops, borage, swiss chard, chives, garlic tops, parsley and mizuna. The only thing I had lots of was parsley. But a couple of leaves of this and that made up a nice salad.

I pulled out some lamb chops from the freezer and fried them up in bacon fat and reheated left over mac and cheese. The salad dressing was made with home made wine vinegar. I thought we should have some fruit too. So I took out some frozen blackberries and put a little bit of sugar on them and let them thaw. When SO saw them, he thought they would be good on pancakes. So after dinner he made a thin pancake batter (he added more eggs than the recipe called for) and we topped them off with the black berries.
DSS came home in time for desert.

SO built a nice fire with the wood we recently gathered and now we are all nice and full and warm and toasty.

 

[FarmerDenise]

They keep predicting rain, but we had a nice and sunny day
I took Susie and her brood out early and let them loose in the field. then I got going on washing all the animal bedding and rugs and my bedding too. I also managed to give my kitty Petey a bath and after I had mine, I gave the dog a bath too. So since we are all nice and clean, I really wanted to get everyone's bedding washed.

The weather was nice enough that everything got dry except for the last couple of loads, that I didn't get hung up til around 5 pm. I'm hoping it won't rain again tomorrow, so it'll get dry. I also have more laundry I would really like to get done.

I have been trimming our lavender bushes, which the chickens love, because now they'll be able to get under them and forage. I am really glad that I started this, because I found rat droppings. Now the lavender won't be so nice for the rats to hang out.

When I brought Susie and the chicks inside they were all tuckered out and have been sleeping, with only occasional interuptions to drink and eat.
And so am I