The big kit & the kickin' clubhouse

The baby rabbits are going strong. We lost 2 in the first 48 hours including the one she birthed 14 hours before the other 7. At just 1 week old, we already have a kit twice the size of it's litter mates. If it's growth keeps up like this, I plan to keep it as a breeder.

There is an area off to the side of the house which is overgrown with brambles & weeds. It sits about 6 ft higher then the rest of the yard. I began clearing it out so we can place the tall wooden play set up there. The plan is to stabilize it to the ground and run their zip line from the top clubhouse area to a tree off in the clearing. About 125 ft away. I'll need to build a small 4x2ft platform for their landing area. It should make for some fantastic fun for the kids. Plus I will need to re attach their pulley system for bringing up their wood basket full of their "stuff". Little Man has asked if he could do it this time. I'll be there to assist but I will indulge any help they want to give.

Imagine, being 20 ft above the rest of the area, looking out with a telescope through the woods. Tree branches and thick grapevines surrounding you. Giving the feeling of being in the woods alone. Sounds of birds and the wind swaying the branches of trees. "Intruders" are spotted, so you grab the zip line handle to fly from your lookout through some clearings to the other side of the woods line. I would have LOVED it as a kid. My 3 enjoy the wooden play set and it's climbing rope. The slide is nice too. No bumps. Just a smooth 7 ft long plastic slide. I am brainstorming some other ideas and may go with my previous plan of a rope/wood plank bridge going to another tree. I will survey it some more tomorrow for the perfect tree. It will need a small "look out" platform built in the tree, so it may not work as I hope.. sigh....I love this stuff. Knowing that my kids will enjoy all the work we put into it, makes the bug bites, thorny cane scratches on the face & arms plus the sweaty skin clung with chunks of plant debris well worth it.

This weekend I am biting the bullet & purchasing a memory card for the Sony FS10. I have done everything we can brainstorm to fix the issue and my FIl suggested to just get the card and see if it will read that. We think there is something possibly faulty in the camera. It was tried on 2 separate computers, downloading all the software/drivers with no luck of recognizing the connection. Oh well. I needed one anyway.

Well I must be off. Momma rabbit and her babes are ready to be moved from their wire cage to a bigger pen area and a wooden nest box. I have been using cardboard so i can replace the nest every few days. Keeping things cleaner in their small quarters.

Sweetest Dreams,

~Tammie

Trickery in the Garden....

Our old neighbor & my good friend Jeannie came over to play yesterday in the woods. We picked her 7 lbs of blackberries in about 30 minutes. These babies are ripening fast on a daily basis!

We both had scratches all over our legs and arms but decided it was way better then our previous "secret berry patch" (in the metro park). No mosquito bites in the new "secret patch", out back.

Her husband commented about her scratches when she got home "You were playing the woods with Tammie again, haven't you?!"... laughing....Yep.

Then today while picking yellow tomatoes in the garden, something catches my eye over in the Patty pan squash area. I get closer to investigate and discover what looks to be a genetic freak Butternut squash growing from a Patty pan squash plant.

I call the Captain over to see it and as he steps closer I pick it up and....the vine was cut. Hmmm. I stood there confused, staring at this 20lb monster. Where did it come from? Then I thought of my Bud Chris who had "planted" a cockatoo egg in the chick brooder (2 month old chicks were inside) of a newbie chicken neighbor. The guy was convinced those chicks laid that egg . he would not be deterred from his conclusion until he called Chris over only to discover he had been Punked.

So I call Chris and he denies any involvement in this trickery. The only other person I know with a garden is Mr. J, our landlord. I walked over with this life preserver sized squash hanging from my arm and knocked on the door.

Oh he's good. Real good. Not a smile or laughing twinkle to his eyes as he came to the door. I ask "Did you put this in my garden?"

That's when the poker face broke and he grinned with a chuckle, "yes. Yes I did".

We had a good laugh about his trickery and he explained it is a Pennsylvania crook neck squash from last years garden.

I so adore he & and his wife. Truly wonderful they live just across the road. When I pick berries from the yard or U-pick, I make sure I bring some over for their enjoyment. When the tree fruits are harvested here, they will be included.

Mrs. J has asked if they could come over sometime and see our chickens. She has so many questions about keeping them and appears to be a possible future Chicken owner.

Fresh eggs from our ladies seem to have given them a new taste for homegrown poultry. They exclaimed our eggs taste richer and have such a deep orange beautiful color. Wonder how they feel about Dairy goats....

Looks like I will be making some pies tonight while the heat is down. I have a 20lb squash to peel & prepare which was split in half due to Lil Man & Frog wearing it like a life preserver, playing "Man over board" with the coffee table.

Sweet Dreams,

~Tammie

Luscious berries & chomper the apple helper

I had a little "me" time which I utilized for picking blueberries at The Blueberry shack. They are at $1.40 per pound this year. In about 1 hour, I had 7 1/2 lbs picked. The annoying flies and rising heat put a stop to my goal of 10 lbs.

Once home, they went right in the freezer and I went right to the Blackberry canes with Frog & The Captain in tow. We picked about 3/4 of a gallon in 1/2 hour. The trees which line the property perimeter helped shade us from the sun, making the picking much more enjoyable.

I grabbed my much inspired colander berry picking set up, inspired by the very much missed & loved Matty from Dog fight cove. I thought of them all as I picked those berries. Despite the sadness & loss I feel for all who Love & miss him, I smiled thinking of how he inspired me from so far away with his blueberry picking set up- minus the Mt. dew. It is one of my favorite "antic" pictures of him. I am ever so thankful for their blog. In so many ways they have shared & given inspiration. smiles. tears. gains & losses.

without sounding too stalkish here....I love you Dog Fight Cove!

Beside the canes which are in a "must wear pants & shoes" area, we gleaned every ripe blackberry in sight. The Captain was amazed, as was I, over the amount we have here. Looks like I will be making some Blackberry wine this year.

I must update you on one of the projects I have been working on with Chris, over at the 1 acre homestead. Well, he has done most of the work. I just kinda keep him company and get to play with a few tools when I can grab them away.

Can you guess what this is for?

Yep. It is the half way done apple grinder. That would be a very old hard wood rolling pin, picked up from the thrift store to use for the main smasher head. Of course it all looks rather naked at moment. We still have the stainless steel screws to put on the rolling pin, add the hopper head and of a few other things.

We are almost completely done with the apple cider press. We brainstormed together and I do believe have come up with not only a hardy press but one of low expensive. Once it has gone through the trial run, I will report back our findings and how to make one yourself. It really is not as hard as I thought it would be. but of course, he does most of the work which may be why I feel that way.

Apple's are abundant on these tree's. Seeing them everyday makes the anticipation to play with the press even harder. I do believe I will use it with the pears for making pear juice. Makes for a great thickening agent additive for soups & stews.

Now to dust off the old water bath canner so I can make Blackberry jam as the rain pours this week.

Sweet dreams,

~Tammie

Onion drive, fat rabbit brat,Summer night fun

The onion bulbs were planted almost 4 months ago in the old garden. The weeds have hidden them so well that I was only able to pull just over half what was planted. Which is exactly why I decided now is better then later. I will go back once the weeds begin to die down to see if there is more I can harvest.
For now, our harvest is curing in the driveway.

Obviously they are not of a very large size due to the weeds blocking all the sun. I'm smiling despite the fact, due to our growing onions for the first time with moderate success.

Momma rabbit decided to taunt me with her current state of pregnancy. I swear she enjoys giving me a hard time with each one. I knew she had to be due soon.
When I walked into the pen for water duty around 2 pm yesterday, I found 1 lone rabbit kit, pink and wiggling on the ground. I searched frantically for more pink babies. I overturned every possible hiding place. I crawled hands and knees through the weeds searching for her spot. I even dug up the groundhog tunnel she had played around in. Nothing.
So I decided to put her and the lone baby in a cage with nest box.

What confirmed her full term pregnancy for me?
As I finished up painting the new chicken coop, she decided half of a wooden box I leaned up against the coop, was the PERFECT place to start building a nest. She was busy bringing mouthfuls of grass to put inside, with barely a glimpse my way. Well, she did nudge my feet if they got in her way without even so much as an "excuse me". She was busy a good 1/2 hour before I peeked inside for a look at all her hard work. No Fur but I knew to be on baby alert.

I woke the next morning to her having just finished giving birth to 7 more babies. I can not believe she had them so far apart. Female rabbits do have 2 horns which means they can have 2 separate pregnancies of different gestation age. But 14 hours apart?

Like I said, she enjoys giving me a hard time.
As for Sir Don Julio, he will be banished to his own little fenced in area once the babies are a bit older. No more of his interruptions will be tolerated.

The cider press is half done. The Hopper style apple grinder will be next. And between everything else going on, I have to find a way to get the huge wooden clubhouse play set with slide from the old house to the new house...Yeah...Not sure how this is going to work out with the truck being a mid size... Now if I could only come up with a cool spot to place it so we can hook the zip line up to it & a tree. Man, that would be fun to sail down on!

Tonight, It looks to be another grand show put on by our neighborhood lightening bugs. You can find me enjoying our oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwich's as I sit on the front stoop. Watching the kids run after the twinkling yellow lights.

Sweetest dreams,
~Tammie

Cider press, Apples, pears, berries & my *@:`%! PC

With a new home that has such an abundance of fruit trees, we have decided to make sure the fruit does not go to waste. hours have been spent on contemplating cider presses for the huge amount of apples we have now. The ones with the jack method appeal to us verse the normal piano screw twist method for pressing. After crunching some cost numbers & comparing the yield of juice in the many cider press styles, we will begin making a model similar to this one:

This guy has a series of pics showing his set up and in a comment on another site, he said his yield is about 20% more then he had with the old school style. the Shop press is about $130. With their coupons, we could save about $40 more and total for making this set up will be about $175-$200 with purchased hardwoods for pressing plates, mesh fruit press bags & the Food grade plastic press plates.
I'll keep ya updated with the progress & outcome once things get rolling.

We also have 2 Pear tree's on the side property line. One is about 60 feet (or more) tall. Mr.J, the Landlord said they are Bartlett's and the best pears are of course HIGH up in the tree. Looks like someone will be donning a climbers get up when the harvest time comes around.

The 2 pear tree's with Lil man for height comparison



The pears are looking great! No care of any kind has been taken for all the fruit tree's here. We are most likely the first family in over a decade to have any interest in them.



More Black Raspberries being harvested. Frog eats them as quick as I bring them in. We have yet to save enough from her hunger for saving in the freezer.

I am having PC issues with connecting the Digital video camera. We are using Roadrunner now and received a wireless router from my FIL. It seems to have erased any memory of the connection to my camera and being they are away until next week, I STILL have no videos for posting. VERY frustrating since I have things lined up for filming. With built in memory, I have to connect the two. Looks like I may end up biting the money bullet for a removable memory card to prevent this in the future.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for those looking forward to my little Homestead theme videos. I am working on rescheduling a few things for next month and hopefully this whole mess with the PC ports/software, will be fixed ASAP.

Now I must be off to get the new chicken coop started before bed.

Sweet dreams,
~Tammie

Garden weasel,beans,berries & livestock run

We planted a second crop of beans today. Dragon tongue & Triumphe de Farcy french green beans. They were planted in spots where the birds must have taken seed from the corn & yellow wax beans. That just means there will be more Fresh beans in 2 months and dried beans in just over 3 months.

While we were moving the furniture into the new house, The Captain spotted a garden tool by the front stoop. A garden weasel! Kinda old school looking or maybe a different brand then the original infomercial one. Little Man & I decided to give it a spin in the garden along with another new garden tool (of which I have no idea of it's proper name). What a difference they made for weeding the garden.The Garden Weasel was able to break up the surface dirt between the plants where it has hardened plus loosen the soil around the weeds. The other tool was able to pull up the weeds and dig deeper for better aeration to the surrounding plants.

Since Panda is away at camp this week, Frog & Lil Man ventured out the 3 acre perimeter, helping pick the black raspberries. We discovered tons of blackberry plants along the way and soon the mosquito's discovered us. Our picking was short lived and a mental note was made for making tea tree oil repellent before heading back out..

The rabbits and chickens are VERY happy it seems in their new run. I have decided against caging the rabbits. I am very active in surveying the fence perimeter for any attempts of digging. They seem content hiding in the tall grass & weeds, munching the day away. When I enter this VERY large dog run kennel, I am greeted by the soft clucking of my feathered ladies and little white heads popping out from under the greenery. Sometimes the rabbits come to greet me as well, munching the garden cuttings from my hand or they run deeper into the tall shade of leaves.

They do have an old groundhog hole which has been long abandoned. It seems Momma rabbit has made it her burrow. It is located next to the outbuilding and has a long board leaned up, making a nice shade area for the rabbits.

I may change my mind on their colony style come winter, but for now I will leave what seems to be a good thing, just as it is.

I have emails to send out for video trips which have been stalled due to our move. Some things had to be rearranged or canceled while I settle our family into the new Homestead.

Time to get a few more box's unpacked before bed.

Sweetest dreams,

~Tammie

Comfrey fertilizer, rainwater catch & our garden

Comfrey is one of my top 5 favorite herbs we grow. The diverse uses of this plant are amazing and very beneficial to the organic garden. Today, we began the process of making it into liquid fertilizer. We stuff a bucket as much as we can fit in there.In the picture below, the bucket is half full. Place a rock or brick on top, so be sure there is enough room to fit the lid on top. This will add in "pressing" the liquid from the leaves. Put on a lid and let it rot down about 6 weeks. Strain the liquid out and put the rotted leaves right into the compost pile. Comfrey grows quick and can be re cut every 2 weeks.

This method is MUCH less stinky then the other methods of letting the leaves rot in water. Not to mention, this method uses a smaller container like a 5 gallon bucket with lid. A great space saver. Just add this magical tea to your water containers as you water the garden.

The liquid is diluted 15:1 for watering our plants. This natural fertilizer tea is rich in nitrogen plus has 2-3 times the Potassium found in barnyard fertilizer.

This is one of 2 rainwater catch systems built onto the side of this large outbuilding. The other one is being built on the back side, inside the chicken & rabbit run.

We use one gallon milk jugs to bring water to the garden. Makes it easy for adding that liquid fertilizer. We cart them over to the garden in a wagon. Not only does this conserve water in the garden by the jug method, it helps when having small children who like to spray the hose over the tops of plants. Which we all know, is not the right method of watering and can put disease issues in the garden such as with tomatoes.

The garden is not so great looking due to this late season move. I had to restart sugar baby watermelons which means watermelon in September. None of my other melons survived the care of my little family while I was away Memorial weekend.

I am thinking I should try juicing the watermelons. Freezing it for drinks & next year, it would provide early summer popsicles.

There is so much space to be filled up next year. I feel so wasteful with all these bare spots.

I have to keep reminding myself we are fortunate to have what we do, this year.

So much yet to do with this move and being the rare break I have had in over a week, I of course decide to share other going on's around here.

I best be off. I need to catch Sir Don Julio at the old house while the day is cool. Mr Escapee is on the run once again and needs to come home to the new homestead.I have his pattern down & know he has been hiding in the old garden where the weeds are 5 ft tall & the thistle is hampering my catching him.

Sweet Dreams,

~Tammie

We are in mid move...

Finally have internet access and are more then half way moved into the new house.

One side of the outbuilding has the Rainwater catch system in place and soon the back side will have another 250 gallon catch system. Solar lights to come for the chicken run.

The landlords brought us a wonderful meatloaf last night. Saying that they knew we would be so busy with the move, dinner would be a hassle.

It was so nice to have an actual sit down dinner in our new home. So bright and cheery here.

I'll be back to the normal posting schedule after the weekend.

Camera is packed away so for once in my postings...no photos to share.

Until next time..

Sweet dreams,

~Tammie