My Garden Yesterday

The tomatoes

My BIG brussel sprouts

A flower on my potato plants

My fourth of july tomatoes

The GIANT lemon cucumber

The End!

Finally Done

After 2 months and 2 calls to our power company about them dumping a load of mulch from cutting limbs off the power lines I was mad. We found out that a neighboring county has free mulch for the public if you load it up yourself. So that is what we did and made two trips. It was back breaking work and it didn't cover as much as we thought it should. Here is Keith loading mulch on the trailer after filing the truck bed. Then the other day I was looking through my notepad that I keep in my purse and passed the page where I made notes on when I called our power company. So of course I was mad because a house down the road got a huge load and I see the trucks at the gas station pretty much every day on my way home from work. So I knew that they were close by so why wasn't I getting any mulch. So I called again and left a not so nice message and about 3 days later someone knocked on the door and said to Keith "Your wife called and wanted some mulch, where would you like it?"! That is what I thought!!!! The funny thing is we used it all but about a quarter of it.
Then the next day Keith called me at work and said that they dropped another load off. The picture above is Keith standing by the second load.

We cut some cedars a couple weeks ago to act as a barrier between our front yard and our garden/hammock/firewood/chicken part of the yard. We wanted the mulch to cover that area. This is it finished finally.

Root Vegetables

I haven't learned the trick to planting root vegetables yet but I am trying. My carrots that I picked a week after the maturity date are mostly tooth picks and the radishes have the same story.

I just wanted to share so that if something isn't turning out right in your life right now you will know that you are not alone.

Vegetable Markers

I don't mind my family asking what is this, what is that but every week or other week makes me think that they aren't really paying attention. I am probably wrong and might not remember something they tell me so I took it as a chance to make something crafty for my beds.

I called Lowe's and Home Depot to see if I could buy the paint sticks since I needed around 50. Lowe's said they will not sell them to me but Home Depot said they were FREE to come get what I needed. So I did in three different trips and bought something every time so it didn't seem that bad. I got some lively craft paint and got busy painting. The caribbean color took five coats to cover up the writing on the sticks. After they were all paint I got a paint pen and wrote the names of my veggies that I have planted this year and veggies I plan to plant in years to come. Then I clear coated them a few times to keep them nice and pretty.

Besides the breakfast table being covered in paint sticks for a week or so I am very pleased with the way they turned out.

Red Velvet Cake Balls

I got this great recipe from Ann Jones, the wife of a fishing buddy of Mr. Larry's.

Thank you so much it is really great. It is so easy to make and I wanted to share it with you.

What You Need:

Red Velvet Cake Mix

3 Almond Bark Bars Vanilla Flavored

1 Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients Needed for Cake Mix

Wax Paper or Parchment Paper

Cookie Dough Scooper

1 cup Chopped Nuts

Pyrex Type Pan

Really Big Mixing Bowl

How To Make Them:

1. Make the cake as directed on the box and bake it in a Pyrex type pan.

2. While the cake is baking make room in your freezer for about 2 cookie pans to sit flat.

3. Cover two cookie pans with wax paper or parchment paper and sit aside.

4. Right after the cake comes out of the oven dump it into the mixing bowl and crumble it up.

5. Take the Cream Cheese Icing and mix it thoroughly into the crumbled cake. Next mix in the chopped nuts. Mix until everything is well blended.

6. Take your Cookie Dough Scooper and form balls with the cake mix. Place them on the cookie pans and when all the balls are made place them in the freezer for 1 hour or longer. (Hint: After they are frozen you can place them in a ziploc bag and put back in the freezer for a later use)

7. Melt the Almond Bark Bars per the directions on the package. While that is melting cover a portion of your counter with wax paper or parchment paper.

8. When melted completely, dip and cover the balls and then place them on the paper for the coating to harden. You can double dip but more bars might be needed.

9. Eat and Enjoy!!!

New Roosting Pole

Last Sunday I was thinking the chickens needed a new roosting pole so I went to Home Depot for their free paint sticks (I am making garden markers) and I was looking at the lumber seeing what they had that was already cut to size since Keith was at work. I ended up getting 2 step risers and 3 porch rails. I was really thinking out of the box and this I think will work perfect. I eventually want to make it taller and maybe get some risers with 5 or more step so they will have more places to roost.

Nina

This is a test to see if you actually looked at the blog. So leave a comment, since I know you are gonna call me Martha Stewart or Betty Crocker.

My Veg-Table Garden Today...

Everything is really starting to grow quite nicely. The carrots in this bed will be harvested towards the end of this week. I can't wait! I hope that they are actual carrots and not long toothpick size roots. But this gardening thing is a learning experience and they might not turn out right but if so that means I will get to research why and learn more information.

This is my lettuce and last batch of radishes. When I harvest the carrots I will also take up the back half of the lettuce and plant some melons. The front half of the lettuce I am taking the outer lettuce leaves as needed and it is still producing leaves so yeah!!!
My tomatoes are getting so tall. I can already taste a fresh tomato slice with a tad bit of salt. Yummy :) The potatoes are getting huge. You are suppose to cover them as they grow to increase your crop. I ran out of the same soil I used in the bed and had to use bagged soil and I have ran out of that also, so they are getting really big.

Here is all three beds together. I hope to next year add a forth (Daddy I will need some more wood, please) that way I can plant more types of potatoes and some bell peppers.

This is the flower from one of my pumpkin plants.

I would have to say and I have also read a lot of different places that Gardening and Chickens are the cheapest therapy bill. When I get stressed, bored or mad I will go sit and watch the chickens or pick some weeds.

Market Days on Broadway

In Columbus on Broadway every Saturday they have Market Day's on Broadway from 9 am to 12 pm where you can set up and sell only handmade items, cakes, breads or hand grown veggie. This is Daddy's setup after the day of selling right before we packed everything up. The crowd was nice and the baked pastries were great. We snacked on a Vanilla Bean Scone and later had to buy a second one it was so tasty.

So if you find yourself with nothing to do one Saturday morning come on down to Broadway!!

Sewing

I have turned my guest bedroom into a sewing room and here it is all cozy.

This is two of the squares that I have completed in my quilting class at "Sew Much Fun". If you look at them really close you will notice that they are not complete squares. But these are my first and I am learning.

The Garden Now

Fourth of July and Supersteak Tomatoes (planted as a transplant)Radishes (planted form seed) and Brussel Sprouts (planted as a transplant)
EZ Serve Lettuce (planted from seed)

Short n Sweet Carrots (planted from seed)

Pumpkin (can't remeber which kind and planted from seed)

My First Quilt

My Aunt Janet sent me a heart quilt block with all the sizes to cut out. I got everything cut out and realized I don't know how to sew it together. So I went to Sew Much Fun and asked for help and ended up signing up for a class. This is me doing my homework and cutting the fabric for a Churn Dash square. It is lots of fun and can't wait to do more and more and more.

I want to thank my Aunt Janet and Rachel Cox for the encouragement and giving me a little boost to get started.

Camping

Keith was on vacation so we decide to go camping. We went to Oak Mountain State Park in Alabama. We got the best site if you ask us. It was right on the water/beach and we had easy access to put the kayaks in. Keith got to do some fishing and I got some reading done.

Daddy's Chickens

My Daddy's got chickens shortly after we purchased our chicks. His are Sebright Bantams in gold and silver. A Bantams is like a mini version of chickens and the Sebright is one of the true bantams. That means there is no standard (large) version of the breed. The breed was developed by Sir John Sebright early in the 1800s and has the distinction of being the only breed of chicken named for an individual.

His chickens are full grown and lay eggs a little smaller than a golf ball.

Getting a Roosting Pole

Chickens love to roost and this is them enjoying the new roosting pole. When they are perched up on the pole it is mainly when they are sleeping. I have a picture of them being put on the pole. It is a picture of 1 and then 2 and then 3 and so on until I think 9 are on the pole. When I took the picture with 10 one jumped off. If I could of got all 10 I was going to make a counting book.

Getting the Garden Ready

This is me preparing for my first ever vegetable garden. The pictures are not in order, sorry about that. I have started cucumber and pumpkins in the house. They grew well and took over the breakfast table and Aubie's window seals.

This is something that yes I have been the one doing ALL the work. Keith has cut the wood to size and screwed it together. I am so glad that this is all coming together. I was looking through articles that I have printed off the internet or cut out of magazine and some are dated 2005. That my friends is how long I have been wanting to do this. I have a very nice gardening journal and keep notes on ever little detail.

It is finally done!!!!

Moving Day

Margaret came and spent the night one weekend so the chickens had to be moved and her bedroom dusted. We put them in the corner of the living room and could not take it. So Saturday Keith put it in 5th gear and got busy on the coop so they could go outside. We did not let them outside because the run was not completed but they were out of the house and in the Chicken Playhouse as my Grandma calls it.