Around this house we seem to be obsessed with ways to create work for ourselves.  My husband is uber-project boy and is always engaged is some sort of hobby/craft/construction/etc.  Several such projects are under way at this moment and I will be sharing one of them in a few weeks (Hint: large talons).

The most recently completed project is one that actually really excites me.  We have often talked about developing an orchard and we finally made it happen.  Okay, I should say that my husband made it happen, I just sort of took pictures of the process.  The one major input I had was what sort of fruit to purchase.

Next to our driveway was an empty, weed filled space that led downhill to the barn.  It is bordered by the drive, horse corral, and road to the barn.  Using the trusty tractor my husband filled in some holes and made a nice sloping orchard space. 

We laid out the spacing and started planting.  We bought bare root trees and plants so they all had to soak.

We think it is very important to provide moral support to the one person in our family who volunteers to do the digging.

Most of the trees are dwarf fruit trees so they are a good size for the kids.  They were able to do a lot of the hole-filling and straightening while we planted.  Actually, my daughter did a lot of the planting, my son decided it was more fun to play in the tractor scoop.

In total, we planted eight trees.  Here is what we are growing:
2 Apples (we put one apple in last year so we added a second for variety)
2 Pears
2 Cherries
2 Nectarines

We also planted a few grape vines.  Over the last five years, we have tried three times to grow grapes and have failed each time.  I find it ironic that we live in the heart of wine country and the one thing we can't grow is grapes.  Maybe we will get lucky this time.

It exciting to already see buds on the trees, can't wait to eat some home grown fruit.  I should mention that even though the hubby really wanted an orchard, he hates fruit.  Odd, huh?

Farm to Table

I have been hearing about farm to table dinners for the past year or so and love the idea.  The premise is that you go to a farm and have dinner where the food comes directly from the farm. These dinners can cost over $100 to attend so I have never participated.

Since I have been trying my hand at gardening for a year or so, I am also very excited to eat food my family has cultivated.  Each Friday I have coffee with a friend who also is into gardening.  We were chatting and decided it would be fun to do a pot luck farm to table dinner where most dishes had at least one ingredient from our respective gardens or other harvesting methods (I'll explain that later). We invited one other couple who also gardens and cooks.  The result was fun, delicious, and definitely worth repeating.

The first decision made was I would host since I live out in the country.  I picked a location out in one of our fields that had wonderful views and opportunities to see the wildlife.  We moved our outdoor table and chairs out to the field and set a casual table.  The center piece was a simple glass jar with a few stones and a tea light inside.  A sprig of tree moss from our tree was tied around the top with string. The color scheme was beige, white, and glass so the focus stayed on the natural surroundings (and, of course, the food). 

The center piece doesn't show, its hidden behind the salt and pepper

 We also brought out our large bar-b-que to give some heat and a cooking surface.

Here is the food heating and chicken cooking. 

Last week we had pretty cool days so we were a little worried we would be chilly but nature was on our side.  We started around 3:30pm with a temperature of 68degrees.  It did cool down considerably by the end but that's why we had the fire.

Here was the menu:
Course 1 - Homemade Pickles; cheese and crackers
Course 2 - Garden Salad with vinaigrette;  Tomato Soup with whole wheat Challah Bread 
Course 3 - Barbequed Chicken; Roasted Vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, radishes, and onions); Chard Polenta
Course 4 -  Blueberry Cobbler with vanilla ice cream

I made three of these dishes.  The first was the tomato soup.  I had frozen tomatoes from the spring and that was enough for half of what the recipe called for so I had to supplement with canned crushed tomatoes.  I will absolutely make that soup again, it was delicious. 

Isn't that a fabulous color?!

The second dish I made was the roasted vegetables.  I have been super stressed about my cauliflower because our overnight freezes have turned the heads a bit brown.  Roasting them seemed like a good way to "mask" the discoloration.  I also had to soak them in salt water to help rid us of the additional aphid proteins.  I didn't think my carrots would be ready but I was pleasently surprised.

I planted a variety including multicolored carrots and Parisian carrots - those are the round ones.

I also stole some radishes from my mother's container garden and pulled one of my onions.  Look at this gorgeous skillet read to go into the oven!

Pretty colors make everything taste better :  )

The last thing I made actually broke all of the rules.  I made the blueberry cobbler and none of the ingrediants came from my garden.  I justified it by telling myself we had tried to grow blueberries and failed.  Also, I just love desert and who doesn't love cobbler?

I said other harvesting methods and here is what I meant.  The same person who brought the pickled veggies (she canned those last summer) also brought the chicken. The chicken had been slaughtered and plucked by her daughter, fresh and hormone free.  It was wonderful chicken.

My other friend brought the salad - all garden ingredients.  She has started eating a lot of dandelion greens and dill, this made a very yummy salad.  She also brought the polenta and bread.  Both of these used eggs from her chickens as well as some garden items. 

So combine the good food, nice views and a few bottles of wine (some of it form our local wineries), our farm to table dinner was a relaxing and yummy event.  We will most likely be doing another one when our spring gardens are producing. Looking forward to it!!

Art Again

I had to share one more picture of our skies.  I meant to include this image with the first post but forgot.  That happens when you are trying to write and entertain your two children at the same time : )

I took this picture on my way home the other night.  I stopped at the gate to our property and captured another fabulous sunset.  During the fall and up until Christmas, my kids and I always look up at skies like this and say to each other, "Mrs. Claus is baking cookies!"  My kids love sunsets.

I was thinking this morning how we need to use these moments to teach our children in a meaningful way.  How many colors do you see in this picture? As parents we need to recognize what we educators call "teachable moments."  When we want our kids to learn something, there is no stronger way to imprint something on their little brains then to make it have personal meaning.  Seeing a sky that looks like this first hand (not just in a picture) is very powerful and memorable.  To connect learning to these times is the best way to help our kids become eager learners. 

Natural Art Show

I have always been captivated by beautiful skies.  I love sunsets and sunrises because no two are ever the same, kind of like snow flakes.  Watching and observing these natural occurrences is like a free trip to an art gallery so I try very hard to point out these moments to my kids.  Hopefully they will always appreciate natural beauty. 

It is very typical for us on the Central Coast to have clear blue skies.  We get very little rain fall so we have very few stormy, cloudy days.  There are many overcast foggy mornings and wispy clouds in the afternoon but real storm skies are rare.  Over the last few weeks we have alternated between rain, sun, and freezing overnight temperatures.  It seems like we are on a two to three day rotation of these weather patterns and this makes for some fabulous skies.

This was Christmas day looking out over the barn.  We had rainy weather and the sun kept peeking through the clouds.

People always talk about Hawaiian sunsets.  I have been to Hawaii several times and I have to argue that our sunsets rival any island.  This is what we get to see on a regular basis.  This was taken a few days after Christmas.

I said that we have had many freezing temperatures overnight.  This was what the hills looked like under a blanket of frost last weekend.  The intense sunlight in the morning is a regular thing around here.  When it reflects off the frost, it makes the new grass look brown and its intensity almost obliterates any blue in the sky.

The rain came back overnight and the sky had a real heaviness to it.  With the sun shining through in the east, this heaviness was accentuated.  This orientation of this picture is actually the same as the previous one but the camera was tilted up a bit. The two pictures were taken at almost the same hour one day apart.  What a difference twenty four hours makes, huh? 

I have always taken pictures of the skies and it is really hard to edit myself.  Who doesn't want to trap the beauty they're witnessing?  I have to keep reminding myself that another beautiful sky is only a day way. 

Growing Growing Growing

I haven't had a chance to write in a while because we have been immersed heavily in the process of growing.  Typically I would just be talking about our garden but tonight I have garden news as well as kid thoughts.  Both of these center around growth.  

To start off, lets chat kids.  This past weekend centered around a milestone for my daughter.  She celebrated her fifth birthday.  Birthday number 5 is a very special one I am rediscovering.  As of this birthday, she enters the school-age population and is fully registered to start kindergarten in the fall.  I set up a kindergarten academic screening for her and took her to get her kindergarten shots.  She bravely accepted that she needed shots and only cried when 1.5" needle number 4 was thrust into her thigh.  Those are Mommy moments I wish I could erase but simply can't.  She passed her vision test with amazing success and hears us perfectly despite choosing to ignore us most of the time.  She was also very instrumental in planning her party.  The only requirements for her party were that it be a princess theme (going on year 3 of that theme) and that my sister/her aunt be present.  My sister is her absolute favorite person so luckily she made the trip.  As we held the party, I watched her play with the other young guests and enjoy being a kid.  She is a baby no longer and it is strange to see her entering a new phase in life.  I know that she will take on this phase with enthusiasm but I now realize that time is on the run way, ready to take flight.

Here she is with our traditional on-the-real-birthday cake.  Her party was two days later.

On another growing front, our garden is doing wonderful and terrible all at the same time.  To start off, the wonderful part is that everything we planted in the higher planters is doing great.  The pumpkins are growing, the lettuce and peas are getting taller, and the watermelons are coming in.

Mesclun Lettuce

The lettuce was a plant I was very worried about.  We have fairly hot summers here with many days reaching over 100 degrees F.  So far, we have  had two days that have reached temperatures over 90 degrees F but I am trying to give them lots of water to help protect them.  Also, they are shaded for a good portion of the hottest part of the day so they are still doing great.  Realistically, lettuce in our area really does better planted in the fall but we're still going to try for a decent summer crop.  Just for reference, we are zone 8 for planting.

Peas are getting taller too!!

A little over two weeks ago I put in watermelon seeds and I am thrilled to say that I have 17 watermelon seedlings in my planter.  I know I will have to thin these but it is so exciting to see something I planted from seed is pushing its way up to the sunshine.  Right next to the watermelons are the pumpkins and  I now have 9 pumpkin seedlings.  I am thinking I will thin those out to 3 plants so I don't wind up with a hundred pumpkins.  Again, grown from seed so I consider this garden to already be a great success.

Part of my watermelon seedlings - how cute are they?

I did mention a terrible part to my garden's development.  For some reason, my dogs have decided that the most easterly end of my low, large area planter must be constantly molested.  Almost every day I go out to water and discover they have dug out more dirt and destroyed or almost destroyed a plant or two.  So far, they have eliminated my basil plant, a row of lettuce, 3 marigolds, and several of the potatoes I had in the ground.  Just tonight I had to shovel about ten shovel-loads of dirt off my cayenne peppers, dill plant, and pickling cucumbers to save them from being buried alive.  Geoffrey has a plan to lay some extra fencing over the garden to stop them from digging.  We'll see how this works.  Hopefully I can keep writing about the growing plants and not murdered plants.  

Garden death - they even dug out my sun dial.

Repurposed Garden: New Babies

We have new babies in our re-purposed garden!!  Almost two weeks after putting in our final boxes to our re-purposed garden, we have new growth emerging.  Each day I run out to see what is new in the garden and it is always exciting to see actual growth.  I have always been a person who opts to plant plants, that have already been sowed, into my garden.  I had a very bad experience with bare root roses about seven years ago and it scarred me badly.  I had planted three rose plants in pots (my very first attempt at growing pretty much anything) and it ended in rotting death.  That same year I discovered one gallon rose plants that were already leafing out with buds and those plants are still alive and well at our other house.  Each year they have to be hacked down from their 6'-8' heights but they are beautiful.  Lesson learned - roses like ground, not pots.  I have since never been able to kill a rose bush so they have become an old faithful of mine.

Back to my new babies. So, because of the rose lesson, I have always erred on the side of plants instead of seeds for my garden.  This year I am trying to venture into growing plants from seed where possible since it is such a savings in terms of budget.  In our garden I planted the following plants from seed:

• peas
• pumpkin
• mesclun lettuce 
• watermelon (a later addition last weekend along with cayenne pepper plants)

I did grow some winter mesclun lettuce from seed successfully this past year and it tasted great.  Here are the baby mesclun plants that have pushed their way out of the ground this week.

Hello baby lettuce!

They appear small now but I learned this past winter that they will give a wonderful consistent harvest for quite awhile when cut regularly.  This is a mix of lettuces so we will have MANY salads with our dinner for a grand total of $0.99 worth of seeds.  Great value since I have paid about $1.99 for a head of lettuce which usually lasts for about two or three salads.

Baby pea plant

Peas are planted along the same length as the lettuce but they are on the south side of the planter.  This means they will get more sun when the weather heats up.  Since our summers can easily get to 100degreesF, my lettuce needs lots of shade to keep producing. I am planning on having the beans climb up so they shade the lettuce.  I am still looking around the property to find suitable climbing materials to reuse in the garden.

New pumpkin plant

The pumpkins have also started to push up and I was very worried about these little guys.  I had found a packet of seeds tucked away in my desk at work from when we had done some planting at school four years ago.  I really had my doubts that any of these seeds would actually germinate but now I have four plants popping up.  If the rest come up, I will definitely be thinning pumpkins.  On the bright side - we won't have to pay for pumpkins at the pumpkin patch! As a side note, a pumpkin seed was accidentally planted in a small planter at school and today I noticed that a pumpkin plant is growing there for the fourth year in a row.  These are truly hardy plants! 

Our family at the pumpkin patch in 2010. We failed miserably at the corn maze.

Re-Purposed Garden Phase 2

Well, we have just finished the second phase of our re-purposed garden.  We were able to get two raised beds from a very unique find.  My parents own an interiors shop (carpet, window coverings, etc).  They had a client who ordered custom made carpet - very pricey.  Carpet normally comes any length but almost always in 12' widths.  Because this was a custom made piece, it came 24' wide.  The company who made it had to package in in a wooden crate.  That crate has been sitting out at the dumpster at my mom's store.  Geoffrey and I decided it would be a perfect addition to our re-purposed garden.  So, yesterday we went to the shop and Geoffrey was able to cut it down to two 10' boxes. We took them home and this morning, we got to work turning them into a garden. 

Geoffrey, hard at work.

We had to reinforce the ends and replaced the bottom pieces of wood with chicken wire.  In between these two long, narrow beds, we also built a lower bed that measures 3' x 10'.  The wood used for this bed was almost all found about to be put into the trash. This bed also has chicken wire all along the bottom.  Because we wanted all three beds to be the same length, we did have to purchase one 2" x 10" board for one side. All in all we spent about $15.00 on materials for this garden. The chicken wire was found in my mom's garage and she let us have it in exchange for part of the harvest : )

Next came the hard work - filling all of the beds up with dirt. Shoveling dirt is never something I enjoy.  Filling three pretty good size beds was a bit exhausting.  I freely admit I hate manual labor.  

Here we were almost done - where is my beer?

For dirt, we used what we had around the property.  Some family members have their cows grazing out here so we were able to get some pretty fertile soil.  We had done the same thing for the dresser beds.  The bed closest to the fence was easy since we drove the tractor right up to the fence and dumped.  All the others needed to be done with a shovel and wheel barrow.    Once they were filled, planting began.  Here is a look at the end product:

Please ignore my sweatshirt on the fence

So what went into these beds?  Here's a list:

• cucumbers
• squash
• zucchini
• lettuce (mesclun - cross your fingers, it may get too hot for lettuce)
• peas
• strawberries
• melon
• potatoes
• pumpkins
• dill
• basil
• marigolds

We put the lettuce where it will get a lot of shade so hopefully it will grow.  We just love fresh lettuce so we'll think positively.  I also planted oregano in a pot so it won't run wild in the garden.  This garden was a lot of work so I am looking forward to eating well this summer!

Tomatillo blossom!

Scrapping

Some you are aware that I am a scrapbook-er.  Thanks to my friend Jill, I started seriously scrapping about five years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter.  I now have four books I work on regularly: Daughter Book, Son Book, Travel Book, and Home/Holiday Book.  I really enjoy this craft because I can accomplish a goal in a relatively sort amount of time.  Some crafts take days or weeks to complete and I just don't have the attention span to follow through with these.  Scrap-booking, like cooking/baking, I can do in one sitting and be done with a project/page/meal.  Since we have been living in this country home, I have not scrapped at all.  After moving all my materials, things were disordered and generally a mess.  I needed  to get organized. 

When my sister moved into her first apartment after living in the dorms during college, she bought a computer cabinet that would serve as her desk.  The cabinet stands about six feet tall and looks much like an armoire.  It has been standing in the living room of this house for several years.  While I was on Pinterest, I saw someone had turned a TV armoire into a closeable scrap-booking center. Here is the link and picture for what inspired me:

http://pinterest.com/deveaupchina/scrapbooking-ideas-storage-and-fun/ 

So Thursday night after putting the kids to bed I set to work.  I transformed my sister's old computer cabinet into a scrap-booking center.  I am very pleased with the results. 

Closed cabinet

Open cabinet

I know mine isn't nearly as snazzy as the Pinterest example but now I have everything in an assigned place.  Over time, my goal is to upgrade/coordinate containers.  For now, this was a cost-free endeavor.  For paper storage, I did go to three different stores looking for plastic paper holders but found none.  All I could find was wood build-it-yourself cabinet/cubes.  Luckily, I saw some plastic stack-able trays at my mom's store and she wasn't using them.  Now I have organized paper storage!  My daughter helped me sort it into warm tones, cool tones, and neutrals.  One feature I love about the actual cabinet is the foldout table.  It closes by folding up and the cutting mat stays right on top of it.  The TV armoire didn't have a table so I feel lucky.  Next to it there is also a pull out keyboard tray that I can use for additional work space.  Under the table is a drawer with drawing supplies and a shelf for storing my scrapbooks.  The baskets are sticker storage, arranged by categories.  One of the top shelves holds my portable paper storage and the other shelf  allowed for storage of the kids painting materials.  Now I don't have to worry about unapproved painting jobs all over the house.

I was so inspired, yesterday I developed and ordered $25 worth of pictures for a total of 10 pages I need to finish.  My usual pattern is that I do very little scrapping during the school year and then hammer out a whole bunch of pages over the summer.   However, since I was so inspired by this organization idea, I am hoping to get a pretty good jump start on my pages. My daughter already helped complete one page for her 4th birthday party.  Yeah!!