Add a Little Spice....

We finished up our lessons late one afternoon, I had a half hour before I needed to start dinner.  Not enough time to start many projects and too much time to allow my self the luxury of sitting around.  So I decided to head out to pick spice berries.

Me: Girls, I am going up top for spice berries. Do you want to come?

Grace: Sure, if I can drive!

Beth: I'll get some bowls.

Me: Great! but we only have a half hour, so let's get going.

We headed up with Grace in the drivers seat of the Rhino.  Shortly she stops to look at a turtle...

Me: Grace, half hour, sis.

On she goes... till we hit the cow pasture and she has to stop and chat with the cows and scratch the new calf behind the ear.

Me: Maybe, you should get out and when you are done checking the cows you can join us....

Giving a big old sigh, she takes off again.  Around the corner there are two LARGE cedar trees that have grown close together making passing between them next to impossible.  A new road is starting to form going around them.  Everyone else uses the new road, not Grace.  Giving a sharp punch to the accelerator, she plows through the branches and I let out a groan of complaint as the branches drag across my face and dry out my eyeballs, scratching and tearing at my hair.

Me: Grace! Normal people go around you know?

Grace: Say's the woman who only has a half an hour! I'm making up for lost time here!

Even minus my eyeballs we still managed to get a good picking of spice berries in a short amount of time, next time I won't hurry her like that. LOL!

If you are not familiar with the spice berry bush, you are in excellent company.  I staggered onto them quite by accident.  I found the berries while making my rounds checking the cattle pastures.  Not knowing what they were or if they were poisonous, I broke off a branch and sent it with the menfolk to the county extension office.  Such a pleasant surprise to find that the berries, bark and leaves are all useful!


Just a few fun facts:

Spice berries were substituted for allspice during the civil war.

The fruit, bark and leaves all have medicinal qualities.

The bark and leaves make a wonderful aromatic tea.

After we harvested the berries we rinsed them in cool water and placed them in our dehydrator over night.

The smell is heavenly!  To preserve the quality of the berry we freeze them after dehydration but it is not necessary and they do look pretty in a jar on the shelf.

Using spice berries is not as convenient as picking up ground allspice from the store. They need to be ground fine and are a bit sticky after being ground.  I place them in the blender and once they are pulverized I add the sugar required in the recipe to the blender and pulse it a few times. This will draw it all together and help clean the blender.
The inconvenience is minor, however,  when one thinks that  A) the berries are free, while spices are expensive and B) It is natural (non GMO, non hybrid, non anything if you will) and organic, growing on our place with no other hands touching it but ours.   I am sure that should have a C,D, and E in there but you get the picture.

I wanted to try the new berries right away so I sent Andrew to the garden to find a ripe pumpkin..

Pumpkin pie can take a long time when you make the ingredients from scratch...... :)

But once the pumpkin was cooked down and the berries dehydrated we were in business!

 I am not a winter person but I see many cold days spent experimenting with our new found gift in our future!  Thank you Lord, for making your creation so much fun!

Lying In Green Pastures....

Is this scary?

No? Okay, how about this?

I didn't think so either.... but, my cows...... my cows, they thought differently.  You see for the last two years they had lived on a little 16 acre pasture.. In this pasture they had grown together as a herd, here they were fed hay when the grass grew short, here they birthed and raised their babies.  Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter they lived their lives and had grown VERY comfortable where they were.

Enter now our plan for rotational grazing... We had spent the entire Spring fencing the perimeter of our property and were ready to rotate the cattle to the back pasture for summer grazing.  It was beautiful.. Lush grass and hanging grape vines over head~ cow paradise~ everything they could ever want just waiting to be munched by my ladies. I was filled with excitement as I walked along making sure all was safe for them when we turned them in the next day. It was going to be perfect.

But you know.... it wasn't.

 The next day, as our entire family gathered at the fence with grain bucket in tow, the cows became nervous.

When the gate swung open wide...

they balked.

 NO cow had ever gone out into the orchard before....and here we were trying to coax them past the orchard and down the lane...

Shane, tired of their hesitation, jumped on the four wheeler and tried to shove them through.....

 the cattle scattered.


Over and over we tried different tactics. What a fiasco! Every critter on four feet was scared and every critter on two was ticked.

 I wished at that moment that I could speak cow, I knew if I could just tell them of the deep, thick grass that was growing out back they would come. I had SEEN with my own eyes, great things waiting for them but they couldn't see anything wonderful from where they stood.  All they could see was us standing there,

 the gate,

the four wheeler,

the new road...

and all of it scary.

After an hour of running in circles, I called it off for the day and decided Andrew and I would try it alone the next day.

As we walked out the next morning I explained to Andrew that we would have to take them as they came... if only one cow followed the bucket, then we'd move them one cow at a time.  Under NO circumstance were we to go back for stragglers. Under no circumstance would we yell or use the 4 wheeler.

We braced ourselves for an all day ordeal.


To my surprise when Andrew shook the grain bucket, all ears came forward.  Andrew walked straight into the herd, showing off the grain as I opened the gate. They were totally focused on the bucket and on Drew. One cow stuck her head in the bucket and started a shoving match with another... Low and slow I say to Andrew "Run, Son."

Turning his back as if to hide the grain, he calls " C'mon cows!" and off he ran like a bullet from a gun, through the orchard gate and up the lane just as fast as he could go. (You would too if you had nineteen 1,200 pound animals running after you ;).  Everyone followed, oblivious to where they were,  focused only on the bucket and Andrew. Up the trail and to the back they went.

Only when they had eaten all the grain did they stop to look around at their new surroundings, surprised at where they were, they began to eat and rest in the lush grass.  Life became so simple when we all had the right focus.

Stuuuuuuupid cows right?  Let me ask you something.....

How is it with you, Christian?  

When the LORD asks you to follow Him, where do your eyes turn?  To the circumstances around you?  The strangeness?  The people watching?  To the unknown?

Do you understand, He has seen the other side.  He has complete view of the path, He's even walked it to make sure it is safe..  more than that he promises to lead you without fear if you will only turn your eyes on Him.....

Ride on, ride on triumphantly,
Thou glorious Son ride on!
Thy faithful children bravely take
The road that Thou hast gone..

I have no cares, O blessed Christ!
For all my cares are Thine;
I live in triumph, Lord!
For Thou hast made Thy triumphs mine.

Have you heard? We have a Pond!

Our home is obsessed with our pond, every free moment has been spent researching and planning.  We talk about our pond, we talk about talking about our pond....

POND!

POND!!

POND!!!

POND!!!!

Hey, there is a lot to learn before we get our fish on the 16th.

Drew, a few days ago found a publication on water quality and how to improve it.  One test seemed pretty straight forward.  Collect a sample of water in a glass jar, leave undisturbed for two days and see what settles to the bottom.  Easy Peasy!

Well, we took our sample, labeling it pond water we set it on the counter to begin the count down.

Day 1....

Day 1 and a 1/2 ..... safe

The eve before we get to peek... I walk into the kitchen to find Cody shaking the jar like a little boy would shake a snow globe....

"hey Ma, what's this?"

shake, shake, shake.  As he totally concentrates on the particles floating in the water I say....

"Oh, you know, just a water sample that we took from the pond.  It had to sit for two days to let the stuff settle to the bottom and we were going to look at it tomorrow.........."

As the realization of what I was saying sinks in, Cody's snow globe transforms into a stick of dynamite and he gently places it on the counter, slowly backing away.

"Sooooo, two days from right this second would be Saturday?"

I nod, switching off the light,  now having a better understanding of why some animal mommas just up and eat their young.

Unfortunately, Saturday is no better.  On Saturday I am washing dishes and ask Shane to run a bottle of sugar water out to the hive close to the house.  I noticed they were a little low on feed and want to keep them in good shape for a Spring split...  Like the sweetheart he is, he says "Sure" and grabs.. .....you guessed it.... my bottle of pond water.

"Oh, not that! The sugar water is over here!"

Shake Shake Shake... "What's this?"

"Nothing"  I say as I dump it down the sink...

Those fish are just going to have to live in whatever is out there because that jar is interrupting the peace and tranquility of my soul and home.. Nuff said.


On a funnier note, we've all been discussing what kind of fish we want in our pond as well.  Grace decided that we should have Sea Horses!  She even went as far as to find some for sale on eBay.  I was proud of the other children because, without laughing  (I can't say the same for me), they explained that "Sea" Horses had to have salt water to live.  Undaunted, she calls on Mr. Google to see if the people she lives with knew what they were talking about.  Turns out the Sea Horse has a fresh water cousin called a  Syngnathid..... who knew?  It looks kinda like a Sea Horse, kinda like a Sea Dragon... But as she triumphantly scrolled through the pictures her expression changed and to my relief she no longer wants them in our pond.  In her own words "they are so ugly, they would haunt my dreams!"  Whew! We dodged a bullet there......


At any rate, the fish will be here next week!  We have a Weeping Willow sitting here waiting to be planted when the goats are moved to their summer pasture.  We picked up a few pussy willow twigs at the Swap Meet  in March and are rooting them for the edge. Our Brandy Wine Crab Apple should be here shortly and if I could just find a few cattail starts we would be all set!!!  Cannot wait to see how this all plays out!  Pictures will follow!!!

Geraniums..

In this post I am going to assume that you already know the wonderful benefits to growing geraniums in your garden. If you don't, a quick google search should bring you up to speed but it is safe to say that geraniums are a repellent.  If you have a bug problem in your garden, nine times out of ten you will find geraniums as a good companion plant to repel it.  My husband would tell you that it repels humans too as he hates the smell of them.  We are very careful not to perform this activity when daddy is home. :)

Why grow your own? Well, because....

1) Geraniums are expensive.

2) when you are caring for a family my size you soon learn to despise paying for anything twice.

3) growing your own helps  insure a supply.

4) during the dark grey of winter it is nice to have something as stubborn as you blooming in defiance.


so here is how I solve my need for geraniums...

When my daughters were young I took them to the store and allowed them to pick out two geraniums each, from those "mother plants" I have kept my garden in supply of this God given repellent every year since.

During the winter my geraniums sit on the window sill and are allowed to do what ever they wish.. usually they wish to grow long and stringy and bloom.

 It's a jungle in there...

The girls need a haircut..... I try to imagine the little starts you find at the greenhouse. and clip them off the main plant. On the baby... I will not be scientifically correct in my speech here ~I want to leave just enough leaves to allow the new plant to photosynthesize but not big ones that would over tax the new plant by trying to support it, See how I have plucked the cut end bare, that will be the root system.  DO NOT throw the extra leaves away. I'll show you what to do with them later.

Now, if ( and that's a big if) I have the money or left over product from the year before I like to use cloning gel from Worm's Way. (no they didn't pay me to say that, but if they wanted to that'd be okay too..) It causes them to sprout roots faster but it is not necessary. If I don't have gel I will often shave pieces from a willow tree and stick them in the dirt with my cutting. (Willows have amazing growth hormones) And if I don't have either I still stick those puppies in the dirt and get new geraniums anyway... don't over think this.

The babies are then placed in the dirt and kept WELL watered. I try to start them when I start my tomato and pepper seeds.

The blossoms are placed on the table for one last hurrah.

And those leaves that I told you not to chuck are placed in dishes of water and kept watered until they sprout or die... I will have both.  Law! would you look at that woman's widow? Somebody should make her get the spring cleaning done... who's brave enough to try and drag her away from the garden right now...anyone?

One thing I would like to point out is a geranium will eventually get old and you don't want to be left without mother plants. Usually when they start to turn woody on the bottom and crack you should replace the mother with one of the new babies in the fall.. I don't know if this picture will show it well....

I may replace this one in the fall or keep it and and add an additional one.. we'll have to see how I feel. :)

The ladies with their new hair cut, waiting to spend the summer on the porch.... my rule of thumb is take half /leave half. I could have cut a little more and I still may but for now I think I have enough babies.

And that, my friends, is as simple as it gets. Plant your new babies in with your garden plants and you are done.

A Spoonful Of Honey...

Takes a while to get....

Did you know that it takes 560 bees their entire life

 just to make a pound of honey?

In our hives we use medium size boxes. The first three boxes are the official "hive"

Here the bees store their honey for winter and raise all the new bees needed to keep the hive alive. Any box above and beyond the three are called supers, a super is where you will find our honey.  After we have inspected the hive and made sure all lower boxes are filled for the coming winter we bring the rest to the house.

Most of our frames were bare when we started out this year.  This means there was no pulled wax for the bees to fill so they had to make their own.  You sacrifice seven pounds of honey for every pound of wax the bees have to make.  In other words we lost a lot of honey because the girls had to set up house.

In spite of this we still managed to bring in two and a half boxes of honey.  We were careful not to crush the comb so the girls can reuse it next year.

(above) the frame has drawn wax, you can see empty comb on the top row.

the rest of the rows of comb are filled with honey and capped. 

Andrews’ job was to slice off the cap, being careful not to squish the comb under it.  (Below) he did a great job. The honey was kept warm by the fire.  It began to flow as soon as the cap was removed.

(below) the cap is being strained for honey too.

If this had been a real documentary, someone would have thought

to take pictures of the inside of the extractor.

Instead it was just sticky, old us trying to snap shots and jar honey.

So you are just going to have to use your imagination.

Basically the frames fit down inside the extractor and it works like the spin cycle on your washing machine. Our extractor is a manual. 

He cranks the handle and the force pulls the honey to the outside edge.

It then runs to the bottom.  In the bottom is a spigot, the honey is drained from there.  I was surprised at how well it worked.  When I hear "manual" I really hear "lots o' work" but it was easy and worked fast.

doesn't he have a great smile?

He said I had ENOUGH pictures....

And then, he really got sick of pictures....

Normally he'd get his mouth slapped for that but today I am pretty confident that if I were to do so, as sticky as I was, my hand would be permanently stuck to his tongue and that would be a tad awkward....

The next step was Grace, who managed to escape all the pictures, 

drains the honey into a bucket and carries it to Beth.

Beth then strains it through cheese cloth to remove 

bee wings, legs, shards of wax and whatever else they left laying around on the frame. (yes ma'am. I said that)

we only got a half gallon of dark out of the whole five gallons!

dark honey for commercial growers isn't as desireable.  It can only be sold as

honey for baking, not table honey and it brings a lower price.

For us it will be used for baking and we are so thankful to have it we really don't care.  The honey pictured is table grade. 

My job, after the jar was full was to wipe it down

(no small feat)  and seal it. 

(below) some of the jars waiting to be hauled to storage.

After that the only thing required is to EAT it!!

Our family goes through between a half gallon and a gallon of honey

every month. So this year we didn't have enough to sell

but next year, if the Lord sends the flowers, 

we will be in business! We are all looking forward to it.

For now the ladies are snuggled safely in

waiting patiently for spring so they can start it all over again.

Taking Dominion.....

When the Lord created Adam, He gave the earth to him with the 

command to subdue and have dominion over it. 

What we learn from scriptures is that Adam, through sin, then turned the earth

over to Satan and things became hard... very hard.

One thing that didn't change, however, was the command of

subduing and taking dominion.

When we moved here three years ago, that command took

on a new meaning in a very physical way.

I love our property.  We have sixty acres, forty of it wooded.....

I love our trees, I love the seclusion.  

Cows, on the other hand, cannot live on trees alone. =) 

Our family has spent the past three years cutting trees, building fences and 

seeding pastures.  Leaving trees to keep our seclusion but 

opening spaces for the cattle to graze.

It is a blessing because the results have been beautiful. Yet, at times it

is exhausting as our task is still far from over.  I once told the boys

"Just think, when your children are born, this will all be clear and they will

have it easy."   To which Drew promptly replies "Na~ah! I'm going to buy 

at least thirty for them to clear just because it'll be good for them!" =)

One day in June, while we were cleaning out the holler next to the house, 

Shane pulled me up the hill saying "Come here, I want to show you something."

As we stood on the hill, he reminded me of a child at Christmas.  Excitedly he 

pointed out a perfect spot for a pond and how the natural curve of the holler 

would give it a beautiful shape. As we talked, the children, one by one, set

down their chainsaw or took off their gloves and joined us on the hill.

That day it was decided ~ we would sell our pontoon boat

 and use the money to build our pond. We mapped out a

place for a dock and possibly a gazebo.  We decided what size john 

boat it would hold and then took the rest of the day off!

I am not sure what made them happier, the thought of growing

 their own catfish or the idea that we no longer had to cut trees in this area.

A dozer would be needed and could make light work where it had been heavy.

Shane hired Charlie.  To explain our relationship with Charlie and his 

little wife Carole would take a complete blog post for itself.

Short to say we love them to pieces!

And Charlie, well, Charlie makes dozer work look easy.

I didn't get anything done while he was here.

Just stood at the fence watching him transform our hillside.

The pond will be deep and steep on the dyke side. 

 More shallow and gradual on the opposite side.

The dyke is wide enough to drive across, 

allowing easier access to the back side of the pasture from the barn.

just take it slow over the spillway.

(above)The opposite side of the pond and the gradual slope. 

I should have taken a picture with someone standing in the bottom.

These pictures do not show the depth or width as it ought.

(Pictured below) the slag piles have been burned

 and thanks to the Autumn rains it is filling.

Filling up and muddy!  We are so excited to start
growing our own catfish and bass next year!
Also, because I can hardly contain myself ~ Shane and I were standing
at the fence looking at the pond
and I said " a pond that pretty requires a weeping willow"
 he answers "Sure, it'll be a great place for snakes to hide."
I punch his arm "I'll take that as a yes, and...." (proceed cautiously here)
 "It could use a Brandywine crab-apple..." silence...
 Shane does NOT like crab-apple trees and I have wanted a
 Brandywine for at least six years or better..
"Well then, woman, you'd better get one ordered."
At first I doubted my ears but then it sunk in and I took that as a yes too!
I ordered one the next day and have kept my mouth shut.
I'm not taking any chances on him changing his mind
after the warm and fuzzy of the moment wore off! =)

 I know it's sinful to wish your life away, but come on April, I can't wait to get that tree planted.
I love the rose shaped flowers!

I'll continue to post pictures as the pond fills and the landscaping takes place!

*disclaimer, the pictures of the Brandywines are not mine..sigh, they were taken by someone else who 
is already blessed to have one and posted pictures on the internet. 
Thank you, whoever you are for helping to feed my addiction....

I looked out the window and

What did I see? Popcorn, and not even from an apricot tree! No, instead it was hanging in the house.... all over the house. Last year we left the popcorn to dry on the stalk (it worked well when we grew it in Idaho) but a monsoon rain came and made all of it mold. This year, in October, as soon as it was ready we walked the rows, plucking ears and hung them in the house to dry.  Cody came home from work and asked if it wasn't a little early to start decorating for Thanksgiving? I almost smacked him, did he really think I would hang five hundred ears of corn in my house for decoration?

 The first step when the ears are dry is to shell the corn.  Our corn sheller is old but works perfectly, the cobs came out clean. Next year however, we will build a box for it. The bowl is just to small to catch it all.

 After it is shelled we need to winnow it. For this a fan was set up outside.

Working in small amounts, we slowly poured the corn from one bowl to another. This allowed the light weight chaff to blow away.

 You can see the chaff on the ground around the bowl.

The kernels are pretty.

and they grind perfectly to make cornbread.

There is no better popcorn than fresh from the cob.

But Zac judges popcorn on how well it flies.....

guess we passed there too!