Savoring the Moment

Maine Man & I were off today and the kids were in school. Unusual occurrence here on the homestead. He planned to go out back and gather wood since we only have a weeks worth left. We have burned about 7 cord this season. In my mind I was reviewing the endless list of things I could do then decided to go along. I find that sometimes you just have to say hell with it, "it can wait". It all to easy to get caught up in the routines of life.
That is something I love about the kids! Their spontaneousness (I'd say I just made that word up because spell check is not finding it) , their ability to completely change my focus for the day. They do that too me on a routine basis. I never regret it!

Any how, we gathered some wood then went for a walk on the trail.

There is still lots of snow but regardless it was a gorgeous day.



Even Callie thought so. She loves going out back. The minute she has the slightest idea we are going out back she goes ABSOLUTELY mental until you hit the trail.

We gathered bows for the goats to munch on.

MM stacks the down brush to help house the wild critters (rabbits) in the long Maine winters.

Even though the snow has been melting slowly and most days have been cool. The preparations of Spring are still underway. I planted green peppers and cauliflower and plan to start more seeds over the weekend. A green house is in our future....post to come. We have lots of peeping chicks and ducklings in our wood room. We sold all but the 20 chicks (rhode island reds) we are keeping and 10 ducklings(khaki campbells). MM always orders by th 100...uggg. I SO want an incubator but I also long for a new camera, pressure canner, and a dishwasher. That is my WANT list for 2009.

On Sunday we are going to tap our two maple trees. I look forward to that adventure. Another first! On a final note I am dreaming of finding a local source of raw milk so I can give homemade butter making a try. Then maybe I'll progress to yogurt and/or cheese making. Maine Man grew up drinking raw milk. I have never even sampled it.

Harvest Time

The gardens have really taken off, if you click here you can see how much they have progressed over the last month. It has been a great growing season in Maine, lots of sunny days followed by rainy nights. Too bad the season is so short. I have been doing some research on 4 season gardening and I am trying to talk John into building me a cold frame.

Interestingly, if you didn't know the difference between the tomato plants we started in January compared to the ones started in March you could never pick them out. Although there was about a 2-3 ft difference when we transplanted the late starters caught right up in size. However, January's tomato plants are the only ones that have produced ripe tomatoes, about 10 so far to date.

Ok, here are some aerial photos taken from the hay loft. No sure why but our corn is really short this year. John just planted spinach and more onion in that row that looks empty.

I have yet to open up my garden stand that I have previously talked about because I do not have enough produce or eggs yet. We have been averaging a dozen eggs/day and believe it or not I still had to buy a dozen the other day. Between Leah's omelets, John's infamous egg salad and my baking we use them right up. The garden vegetables I have been able to utilize and have had enough to share with my friends and neighbors. John assures me that we will soon be overwhelmed with garden veggies within a couple weeks so next time I go to town I will buy the canopy I plan to use for my stand and sell whatever extra I may have.

Aerial photo of the pool..it's a bit cloudy, were working on it!

Photo by Leah

Last year I made zucchini pickles and zucchini relish and it was a real hit so I decided to do the pickles today.

I had 3 lbs and this is what it made.

Here is the recipe in case anyone wants. I had posted it previously but now that it is that time of year I thought I'd put it out there again.

Zucchini Pickles

• 2 lbs. sliced zucchini
• 2 medium onions
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 1-2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 teaspoons mustard seed

Place zucchini in a large pot. Add salt and enough water, cover and let stand for 2 hours then drain well. Combine remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Have glass jars prepared filled with the zucchini and onion then fill jars with boiled liquid, seal jars and boil jars for 10 minutes.
I hung some mint to dry. Not sure yet what I'll do with it. I have used it in lemonade this summer and that's about it. Do any of you grow mint, if so what are some of the things you do with it?

The rest of our meat birds are going to the butcher on Tuesday. John decided to leave the dirty work to someone else this time.

These Dalia bulbs came from my grandmother who passed away a few years ago, we dig them up in the fall and plant them every spring. They are very special to me!

John has been busy in the woods cutting for a while now but today he brought the first load into the barn. That will keep us warm for a few weeks. We are very thankful to have a wood lot on our land!