Sunday, January 18, 2009

Sunday Stills

Over at Sunday Stills this weeks photo challenge is Color. So since there is not much color outside except white, brown, and blue this time of year in Maine here are a few indoor pictures I took over the weekend. The above picture is of some buttercup squash we had for dinner last night. We still have a reserve in the root cellar although I whined on a previous post that we had a good amount of losses in the squash stash. I think I have 3 left along with an acorn and a spaghetti squash.

We also ate some potatoes over the weekend.....baked, mashed, and home fries. We will be out by February. Next year we hope to plant enough to get us a little further into the year.

Don't you love that counter top, 1960's 70's??? Gotta love it!
Our onions are still looking good and we have a still have quite a few if they hold up. Not very colorful....sorry.
Unfortunately this is store bought corn. We froze several bags of corn on the cob that has held up but I did not put up any kernels....maybe this year. A good portion of the food we are eating now is what we have raised or grown although we are still supermarket dependent for many items. I plan on buying a pressure canner this year along with a cow so that will allow us to put up more food that is grown here on the farm. Looking back to our meals a year ago I never would have imagined we would have come this far.
I went to a seminar on co-ops this week I am very interested in starting one. For any locals that are interested let me know, I have a price list I can send you. I would like to start with 10 local families.
Luke had an idea to make some candy out of snow and warm maple syrup. He has been reading a book called, Little House in the Big woods and this is how the pioneer children made candy back in the day. So the kids did some experimenting and they were successful in making maple sugar candy.

Anxious for spring we planted a few things today. We planted lettuce, cucumbers, basil, dill, and cilantro.

I cut up a cool whip cover to use as markers for the plants. I had my hand in one of the photos but quickly deleted, I could never be a hand model that is for sure!


MM's tractor has come in handy this winter, sure beats snow blowing! He does not have a plow for it but the bucket and box blade work just fine clearing the driveway.

Thankfully it has warmed up but this week the temperatures dropped to 20 below zero in this area and and at my dad's (up north) he said it was 36 below one morning. Our animals survived, the pigs seemed to tolerate it the most and the chickens the least.

Leave a boy alone with his friend and what do they do? Well, naturally bury his sister in the snow. She loved every minute of it!

16 comments:

  1. That looks like one frozen sister! BRRRRRR!!!!!

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  2. Your photos were so much fun today!! I love the squash!
    I have read little house in the big woods, my daughter has the whole series...well she did I think they got sold in the yardsale

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  3. We read that book ( little house in the big woods) not to long ago too! I hadn't thought of making the maple candy in it,it must have been fun to do!

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  4. You're really doing good, storing food, etc. If I lived near ya, I'd want to be in on the co-op, I'm sure you won't have any trouble fining enough folks who want to do it.

    From what I understand, you can freeze goats milk but not cows milk.

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  5. Great pictures...some nice colours in all of them. :)

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  6. Very cool, I liked the maple candy, ingenius of your boys, and I buried my sisters when I was a kid, unfortunatly they got out... :-)

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  7. Colorful Photos.
    You must be planning on an early Spring, I hope your right.
    At least your son collected some wasp nests, best time of year for that.
    Best Wishes on starting a co-op.

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  8. Aweomse on the maple candy..I was reading the Little House book to my daughter and that was our favorite part of the book...talking about Grandma calling everyone in to make it...it was a great picture in our minds...

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  9. You started some seeds already? I saved some tags last year(from some plants I bought)for labelling.
    I love the maple candy picture!

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  10. We were commenting on the same thing last week - look at how far we've come in producing our own food! And we're not even close to your level.

    I've always hated the grocery store. It smells bad, and all the overly colorful packaging stacked up over my head makes me dizzy. LOL

    When I was in elementary school, your progress in reading the Little House series was a status symbol. "Silver Lake? Pfft, that's sooo 2nd grade. I'm already on Golden Years." haha I can't imagine it's like that these days, but neat to hear kids still read and enjoy them.

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  11. OMG, I would just die if I were buried in snow...even as a kid. Shes so brave...I was the kid that went out to play in the snow and 5 minutes later I was done because the snow was wet and cold and to this day I don't like snow.

    I too am anxious for spring...I keep staring at my seed catalogs...I need to finalize my list so I can order soon.

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  12. THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYONE'S COMMENTS!

    KY, I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THE SERIES...MAYBE E-BAY?

    THANKS JOANNA, I WANT COWS FOR MEAT NOT SURE IF I'D MILK. I WOULD LIKE TO GET MY GOAT PREGNANT TO GET GOAT MILK OR WORK A DEAL WITH MILKING MY NEIGHBOORS IN TRADE FOR MILK. I DID NOT KNOW THAT ABOUT FREEZING, THANKS!

    TOO FUNNY ED!

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