Family

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE TO GO OUT – NOT AGAIN!

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Funny how quickly the spring can make me just fly out the door with joy! The smells of all the new flowers, after the first good thunderstorm, and new mown hay excite me into the season. Just when I thought it was safe to go out and I am prepared for all the nasty critters (mosquitos, biting flies, snakes etc.) a new one comes along:

What is the Powassan virus? From MNN.com

It is from ticks. Including our Deer Ticks here in the US (and Canada where it originated).

deer-tick.jpg.653x0_q80_crop-smart

(This pic is from their article – great shot!)
Now, I can handle spiders no biggie.

I do not mind snakes (as long as they stay in their own space and warn me when I get close.

garder snake

I’ve even been known to handle them – not a problem!
I hate mosquitos just because I am allergic to them. A normal person gets a bump the size of about a pencil eraser head; not me, I get one the size of a silver dollar.

cartoon mosquito

Bees and I have a great gardening understanding: They don’t sting me and they can hang out in and round me and our gardens all they want!
Yellow-jackets/wasps and I have an outright third world war going on! Took out about 20 nests in our open sheds this last winter. I have only seen a couple of them this year, but I see they are already looking to build a new home (grrr!).

When it comes to ticks, I get all icky!
• I hate finding them crawling on me.
• I hate having to pull them off me, someone else, or the dog.
• I hate how sneaky they seem (you never know where you pick them up at?).
• I hate that I do not see any purpose for them except to bug me.
• Worst of all, I hate the way they look. I blame the Alien movies for this part.

aliens movie pic  (see – flat head, with a huge nasty mouth – yuck!)

Ick – sorry, just gave myself the willies thinking about the creepy crawlers. This post is not concerning my nasty bug fetishes but to warn you, my fellow outdoorsy people, about the new virus out-and-about. So please click on the link to MNN and check out the symptoms – let’s be safe out there!!

 

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JUST A LITTLE QUICKIE FOR FOODIE FRIENDS.

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Don’t want to bog you all down with too much info.  I found something new for those of you that read me and know how obsessed I am with clean food.  This one comes from one of my email newsletters.  I am always on the look-out for the facts in regard to real food, not chemicalized.

This one, I felt, was worth checking into….

http://safefruitsandveggies.com/facts-not-fears

They are supposed to be answering questions, concerns, and information in regard to better, healthier, eating foods.  They quote their research, link it to where they find it, and why they feel it is relevant.  It is part of the Alliance for Food and Farming.  I do not have any affiliation with them other than believing in their work and enjoying their articles.

Hope you find them informative and helpful in your gardening efforts, I do!

8-27 bounty 1 day

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Friday fun: WHO NEEDS A GUARD DOG?

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I was wondering around the trees and bushes to the south yesterday.  I needed to see if I should water anyone just in case the storm scheduled to today (it came) missed us again.  I was not paying attention to where I was walking because I was checking the base of the plants when “OUCH” – SOMETHING STABBED ME!  Not a poke but a nasty stab.  This was the culprit:

5-1-17 thorns on locust tree

I purposely left this picture larger than most, just to try to impress upon you the length and effectiveness of our locust tree spikes (the minimum length of these spiky behemoths is three inches).  Yep, this monster has gotten very dangerous indeed!

If I ever run out of yarn, sewing, or darning needles; these suckers would be perfect!  They are as strong as steel, sharper than a knife, and more vicious than a guard dog.

Somehow in the next few days, I need to figure out how to get near it to do some trimming.  Pretty sure I will at least need body armor.  We used to have a long-handled hand saw to do things like this, but my grandson decided to try jousting with it – and lost.

One of my grand delusions is to have a huge four-foot-thick castle wall around our property (because too many people find us to be the Colorado Information/Gas Station/Potty Stop Center).  Now I think I will try to grab some suckers off this beastie and try to root start them.  Wonder if a huge hedge of them, totally surrounding our property, would keep the uninvited out?  Hmm, something fun to ponder this Friday!

Aubrey 2

(Hee, hee – next best thing to Aubrey 2 – LOL)

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HAPPY DIRT DAY – oops, sorry EARTH DAY!

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Yes, it is that time of year again where we all pause for a moment to see the damage we are personally causing to the earth and if we can fix it.  I checked out several articles this last week on a variety of topics, the ones that caught my eye were about an individual’s past.

celebrate earth day

My past has some lumps and bumps in it but overall very few regrets.  I think one of my biggest regrets was not paying enough to my carbon footprint when I was young.  I NEVER threw trash out the window of the car (parents would have slapped me silly for a stunt like that), which is good, however;  I used to trust the bug killers back then, and that was bad.nasty bug spray

I didn’t catch on to the whole “earth-friendly” movement until the late 70’s (boo hiss).  I didn’t care what I ate or where it came from as long as I didn’t have to make it – fast foodaholic!  I also didn’t think twice about the plastic soda pop bottle I threw in the trash.

clean earth

The thinks (yes thinks not things as it took me a while to think of them – another proud idiot moment for me – woo hoo!) I know now are:

  • Reduce, recycle, reuse, repurpose everything I put my hand on. I three two are easy enough to manage, the last – repurpose – is my most fav one.  I blame my mother for this!  She was what we affectionately labeled her “a Dumpster Diver”!! (get out of the gutter for a moment!)  She could not pass up a junk (yard) sale, junk (2nd hand) store, or even an actual dump site.  It was not totally her fault.  She grew up during the depression, and they learned to save everything, just in case you needed it for something at a later date.  So rummaging around at flea markets, garage/yard sales, second-hand stores, and even dumps (trash places) was one of her most favorite things to do.  We three sisters all have this addiction which has also passed on to my eldest sister’s son (in truth he is worse than all three of us girls combined!).
  • NO CHEMICALS! Organic was the big “it” thing from decades ago.  As time and governments passed, the organic certification came about.  The funny thing about getting the organic certification is you can still use up to 15% chemicals on your plants (including food) and are still allowed to be called organic – bummer!  We prefer “natural” because all that we do on our tiny piece of earth is natural.
    • Companion planting.
    • Good bug attraction planting.
    • Weed removal by hand or earth-friendly methods (vinegar works great for a ton of bad weeds)
    • Using other things like feeding birds to deter (eat) bad bugs, setting water out (We have a pond and a creek in our field, and a coy pond in the front yard with easy ways for the honey bees to reach the water.  We also float wood in there during the hottest parts of summer in case they fall in.), allowing our goofy chickens to roam freely (might have to re-think this idea if they don’t stay out of our plots) and eat bad critters (grubs, grasshoppers, etc.), the guineas also get to roam about
  • Water conservation and sustainable farming/gardening practices.

every day earth day

Well, once again my trusted Farmer Almanac has provided  us all with some help:

15 Things YOU Can Do to Protect the Earth.

They have some of the great old standbys like eat green, waste reduction but they are also sharing ways to save with heating and cooling – nice guys!!  Oh, and I love the “Remember Mom’s Advice” part – my mom was full of them!  In fact, thinking back now, I do not think there was a single conversation with mom that did not carry some type of mom-ism in it.

earthday chocolate

My final thought on this wonderful Earth Day 2017: (you must sing this…) It’s not easy being green.  Having to be the same color as the leaves and the trees… (Don’t you just love Kermit the Frog!)

kermit easy being green

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HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THIS?

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Today’s Friday funny is very simple.  Just click on the link.  It will take you to YouTube.  This is one that I have never seen or heard before.  Please share if you have and if you can remember where/why!  Also let me know if you laughed as hard as I did?

 

Kremit The Frog – Piggy Got Back

 

Hope you enjoy your Friday Fun Day!!

HOW LONG SHOULD A PROJECT TAKE?

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I don’t think there is any single easy answer to this question.  Then again, maybe it’s just me because I have so many things going on at the same time.

  1. Knitting
    1. More hats for my Etsy shop (also scarves and jewelry)
    2. Personal requests – shawls, throws, and the occasional baby things.
    3. My creations:

4-17-17 my entralac creation

  1. Gardening
    1. Cleaning and prepping plots inside and out of the greenhouse.
    2. Keeping chickens from ripping out my new transplants and seeds.

dancing chickens

(Yes – my birds do the chicken dance every time they tear up a plot-grrr!)

  1. Writing
    1. Helberg farm stories blog
    2. Etsy shop – Rachellenacreations – blog and shop updates
    3. Rlh Creative Virtual Assistant – Yep, new job for me so more time to squeeze in a day (can you say IDIOT?? – but you have to say it really loud!)
    4. Other creative writing jobs – copywriter, author, nut-bag in a pen addiction (this one is the worst to keep up with…it’s all those wild ideas floating around in my head.).

When is a body to find time for the standard day-to-day projects?

  • Cooking
  • Cleaning
  • Shopping
  • Farm chores
  • Extra seasonal farm chores
  • Specialty projects (like setting up new plots)

They are all never ending.  So my question goes out to all of you – How long should a project take?

When I have the help of my co-farmer/sister; a simple project can be done in a day or a weekend.  When my Grandson is preoccupied, I can get minor projects done (cooking, cleaning – at least a little, etc.).

nathan hiding

I have a yarn addiction that must feed, or it gets ugly!

cat n yarn

The gardens cannot be left attended for a day without the weeds full-on assault on all my hard work.

scary weed

Where does one project end and the next begin?  Is it the same for everyone?  Am I the only whack-job that has to have several things going on at the same time, all the time?

Do not even start that “list” thingy with me!  I have tried every list and method out there.  Read the blogs.  Listen to the podcasts, and watched the webinars – bah humbug!  You can’t tell me that the people that create all that “helpful list stuff” are completely in control and on top of all their projects?  They must have some help, or they live in a box.  Some days I think it would be great to live in a Tiny House just to have my own quiet little space to thing…and of course, work on a project.

tiny home

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DID YOU JUST TOUCH MY FOOD?

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The ugly storms that came through Colorado decided to dump moisture almost everywhere but here – boo hoo!  With the temps jumping back into the 70’s tomorrow, my hose team (which is just me dragging out a bazillion hose’s) is set up and ready to go.  Now I am thinking about what to share with you over this next month.

(When you realize your hose is old-)

cartoon hose

My thoughts, topics, and ideas usually get inspiration from all the different emails regarding farming and gardening.  Most are just shares, some are things to buy, and some are of a more serious nature.  Those of you that have been following me know how I do not care much for the serious.  I get too serious and have a bad tendency to get on my soapbox and rant.  That is the biggest reason I shy away from them – however – that being said:

I want to share that I support this organization (not financially because I am broke, but I do sign petitions and emails to the Government):

http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/about-us

The reason why I connect with them instead of worrying about the FDA is simple – – – ACTION!  They are working hard to try to assure us that our food sources are decent and safe to eat.  I live for this way of life.

where food comes from

Yes, we do have to buy some things from the markets.  Yes, I do read labels.  Yes, it does make a difference to me what I feed myself and my family.  This, and more, is the reason why I follow these guys.  With all the ugly recent changes in our county of late, I am pushing more to maintain our own family food mill.

I know I have several readers from other countries and I am curious to know how you best obtain your foods?  Markets? Open Markets?  Barter? Or are you a self-supplier?  Please share as I will probably never get to go world traveling (boo hoo), I find it all interesting!  I also think there is something great to be gained with universal exchange of knowledge, especially in regard to good, clean food.

Then, on occasion, I see headlines from ezines like this:

Brazil, Mexico make first deposits to ‘doomsday’ data vault.

Which reinforces why I love to grow our own food.  They are saving seeds in a far-off hide away prepping for the end of everything.  Hmm??  I always wondered if there are people there to take care of things should it happen – AND – do they know how to farm or at least garden?  I mean really, if they save all the great seeds but no one knows what to do with them, what does it matter?  Oh, and don’t get me started on the hybrid/GMO seeds that are sterile.

really-you-did-rgoobv

So, for me there is a great sense of satisfaction when you get to eat the fruits of your own labors.  That is just one benefit of growing your own.  Some of the others are:

  • Knowing what is put into the food and the soil.
  • Giving a bit back to the earth instead of just taking away.
  • Pulling the family closer together by working on it all together.
  • Lessening the dangers of what goes into our food.
  • Cost savings by growing our own and saving our own seeds (fyi: a ton of seeds out on the market today cannot be repurposed. Most of them are treated in such a manner that they are sterile.).  We try to only use heirloom seeds.
  • Income benefit of having enough grown to give some to family and friends, yet still having enough to sell to others.

We grow our own peppers, but still to get our black pepper from the store.  We grow stevia for added sweetener, but we still get our sugar in bulk from the local beet factory (or store if needed).  On a side note, our small town local grocery storiesdont touch chocolate are outstanding!  I have requested some special items several times, and they went out of their way to provide it.  They also helped us during the fire and for that they will be eternally our friends!  You tell me if you can get one of the big mass grocery stores to do that?

We love to do bartering, trading, sharing in tons of different ways.  I think that may also come from farm, or at least small town, living.  I hope that you have connections – near or far – that you can exchange seeds, food, or just ideas with.  If I missed something here, please share!

what-did-you-lq0cwv

TIME TO CRY, WE SOLD THE FARM!

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There are times in life that you just cannot take anymore!  One of my mother’s favorite expressions was “God never gives you anymore than you can handle.”  WHAT A CROCK!

DSCF4878

Three years of the worst drought Colorado had seen in more than 100 years.  That was our first 3 years on the farm.

A goat herd going from 75 down to 42 in one spook by a coyote and dive into a train.  Most of what the train took out was the babies – broke my heart the first time.

A new batch of 12-week old chicks just moved from the porch to their own space in the chicken barn.  We just knew it was secure – wrong.  The mama fox and her kits snuck in from the older chicken side and went on a frenzy.  When it was all said, and done, the fox carried off just one older hen, and all but two of the one hundred babies were dead.  I opened the door and dropped to the ground when I saw the carnage.

Purchased the greenhouse kit when we moved in, August 2000.  Spent over three years arguing with the company over a stupid finally shipping/admin fee.  We won the war but lost the battle.  The delay cost us our savings for that project and it took till 2011 to finally get to it. As of this post it is still not complete, but it is workable.

Then in 2007 we were in the storm path.  The old farmers around here say you can tell how you will do with the first good spring storm.  They are right.  If you are hit hard on the first, you will be hit by everyone that year, and we were.  Our outside gardens – tomatoes, peppers, cucs, everything were in full fruit mode in July.  One Saturday storm evening and everything was stripped to a single stalk.  This also shredded our roof and window frames.  It was not large hail, just the sheer force of it did the damage.

In 2014, we had the fire.  April 20, Easter Sunday.  It was a beautiful day.  By 8pm that night our world was gone!  It is very true that you never know what you have till it’s gone. A 4-year old grandson, fifty plus years of memories, pictures, tools, personal art and craft works including several things by our mother, now deceased.

Well it is 2017.  AND I HAVE FINALLY HAD ENOUGH!

APRIL FOOLS! 

OH, who am I kidding, they are gonna have to bury me on this place!  A person like me does not fight so hard for something to simply give up – not gonna happen!

So, for all of you that maybe fighting your own fights and contemplating quitting – don’t!  Here’s a bit of advice from an old expert at it:

  1. Take a deep breath, hold it to the count of 10 and exhale.
  2. Step completely away from whatever the bad thing is that is making you think these thoughts. I mean COMPLETELY AWAY – stay at a friend, a night in a hotel, a nice country drive, anything to clear your head.
  3. First thing you do when you get back to your issue – start thinking of the good things you still have:
  4. A new home.
  5. Another flock of birds.
  6. The other Grandson is still with us.
  7. We are fairly healthy (just fair – not perfect – LOL)
  8. The sun came out yesterday (not today) and spring is in the air.
  9. And, Thank God I still have my sense of humor!!!  Couldn’t make it through anything without it!

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY EVERYONE!!

20130719_144913

(No, we are not selling the farm- this is where my littlest pirate watches over us all!)

Did I get you?

 

WHAT DOES THE GRANDMA SAY?

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Spring Break stinks!  It is hard enough for a Grandma of 57 to care for her Grandson of 8 using regular daily routines.  Then the school system throws in all of these extra breaks.

Every other Friday is only a half day.  Used to be the only “break” was during Christmas, now they have a Fall and a Spring Break too!  I have custody of him, so it is a never ending mental endurance just to keep up with him.  During the extended times off, I have to come up with things to occupy his mind even more.

Lucky this Grandma is a crafter and gardener!  The last three days have been really cool and rainy (of course – just because the kids are off-grrr), so they qualified for crafting days!  I come fully prepared to handle this battle.

This is the target:

n n max 3 29 17

My Grandson is holding his second favorite cat, Max.

The tools needed to complete the job:

 

The final product for today:

(It’s up to you to decide who did which project.)

One last bit of fun to share with you.  My cousin, who lives in Alaska, sent me this pic this morning:

Jeffys AK skyline 3-28-17

His skies are awesome, but check out the snow they still have – eeek!

Happy Spring Y’All!!

 

 

 

WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND OUR GREENHOUSE? – Part 4 (last one)

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Answers to all the little questions.

I think the first three Saturday blogs answered the

“Why did we do it?”     “What did we do it for?” and  “Why so big?” questions.

This final bit of our greenhouse process will hopefully answer more questions.  Please feel free to write me if you have more after this!

1)      Why Plants vs. flowers?  This one is easy – FOOD.  Everyone will always need food, not always need flowers.  We do plant flowers, but only for our admiration or to share with friends.

2)      Why inground instead of on tables?  In ground is more natural.  It also takes less water.  Plants can dry out much faster sitting up on a table.  The other main reason is temperature.  It would take more to heat the underside of the table vs. allowing the sun to warm the ground.

3)      Why so big?  We wanted to make sure we could produce enough (in the long run) to sell the extras.  We love to can and process our homegrowns, and it takes a lot of food to make something like a sauce.

4)      Why build it ourselves vs. hiring a company? This one I would re-think if we did this again.  I am very glad for the learning experience, but, it was hard, hot work.  I had never done something on this scale before (thank goodness our friend did) but I do love learning new things.  In hindsight, I would have paid a company to do it and just did some oversight on the hard stuff (to learn how it operates).  Also, because it took much longer than we originally anticipated, funds became scarce.  This is the main reason why we only have plots on the north end for now.  However, I and my motto (everything happens for a reason) also think we may have other ideas for the south end (a special seed start area and maybe an aquaculture spot?).

5)      How do we keep it hot?  The sun does most of it for us.  We do have natural gas heaters installed, but have never used them yet.  Thinking we may switch to electric, easier in the “alternative energy” long run.

6)      How do we keep it cool?  This is harder than the heating part!  Since we are in Colorado and we are closer to the sun, it is quite warm here during the summer/fall months.  We try to plant close to the seasons, but we also like things like spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets all year long.  During the summer months, those plants are closest to the swamp cooler (remember it is the width of the greenhouse – HUGE!), and we have started using shade cloth and warm weather crops trellised to provide more shade areas.  This helps to keep our cool weather crops cooler.  We tried to grow spinach and lettuce outside in the shady areas, didn’t work very well.

7)      How do we water?  We have our own well, plus we have rain barrels to collect any snow melt and rain that we can.  We have several tanks that we can transfer from one to another in, and if you noticed last week’s blog, there are several blue barrels that hold extra water inside the greenhouse.

8)      How do we feed the plants?  As natural as possible.  We have animals for manure, several wood chip piles that are continually composting down (part of this is through an agreement with our local tree trimmers), egg shells, coffee grounds, end of season plants (except tomatoes) are all mixed into our composting piles (yes, more than one).

9)      Do we use pesticides or garden naturally – how?  NO PESTICIDES!  We pull weeds by hand or dip in a vinegar, salt, and dish soap solution.  We use companion planting in EVERYTHING!  We have just started introducing the Weedless Gardening Methods to our exterior plots with great success.  We have free-range chickens and guineas to help keep down the pests (guineas are great for the grasshopper, snake, and rodent control).  The bummer to the birds is chickens scratch up everything.  We have to build good wire borders around the exterior plots, at least for the first couple of months.  Once the plants are established, the birds are pretty good about just going after the bugs.

We also leave part of our gardening areas weedy – this has been very beneficial!  We have left/created a natural attraction for the bugs, good and bad.   We found tons of Praying Mantis, Ladybugs, and Lacewings all over the natural area in the last years.  This then led them to our plots and protecting our food area as well.

It’s funny when you think about it; this trick was an accident!  Things got very overgrown after the fire and because of my surgeries.  It was all we could do to keep up with our food areas, so some outer areas were left to nature.  When we finally did get around to work on them, we could not believe how many good bugs were hanging out there!

Well, I hope this helps anyone that is thinking about creating their own greenhouse.  I will gladly share more with anyone that asks and give you any helpful hints that we have learned along our journey.  You do not have to go as big as we did.  There are now tons of online places to purchase some fantastic kits to help start you on your way.  My last bit of advice to you – HAVE FUN WITH IT!  We have been having a fantastic time learning all the unique attributes in all our garden areas.  We still are learning (hope that never stops!), and would love to hear what natural ideas you use!

Happy Gardening!!

20160605_091933 (1)         good pic our veggie garden

(Note: Neither garden looks like this for a couple of months yet)

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