Farm Fresh: Plants and Paths

Saturday was a balmy 70 degrees and we spent the day outside. So many projects to do!  The main accomplishment was hubby and the neighbor finished clearing brush and trees from what will be the back fence line.  The neighbor and we are sharing the cost and work of putting up that section of our property fence. 

 That pink string is the property line.

I worked on my front yard garden extensions.  I have attempted to build up this section of soil and start garden beds here several times with meager success.  The biggest problem was that much of the soil and compost that I added slid down the hill.

 We had these big rocks behind the barn that were making it hard to mow that field. Hubby tractored them up here.

 The kids and I used sleds to tow some fairly straight logs up here from the wood piles.

 I have been "spring cleaning" the compost-ish manure and bedding from the poultry houses and putting it here.  About 8 wheelbarrows full just from the guinea house...

 I dug out some bushes and moved them to be a side border (future corner with the wooded landscape) so that I can make a path that will extend down from the front steps.  A friend gave us a pile of rocks from her old patio. I am hoping to use those (light gray triangles) for the path.

 And this pile of river rocks was next to the barn -- we are going to try to use them to make rock walls in front of the logs. It is an evolving WIP.  Lots of salvaged materials means zero cost (other than sweat!), but lots of creativity required to make it work. 

 I don't want to eliminate the slope. We have a nice dry basement and I would like to keep it that way. I just want to build up the soil enough to plant herbs.

These two hazelnut bushes will be the edge on the left side. I expect to make two more "levels" moving out from the first tier, but I may not have enough compost to fill all that in this year. It will be an ongoing project.
Meanwhile, Spring planting and sprouting is going strong. Hellebores.

 Hostas.

 First baby lilac. I plan to plant a lot more of these! I love them.

 Daffodils are coming up all over the place.  Some are in the middle of the front yard?!  I need to move them so they will be grouped nicely next spring.

 In the garden, rhubarb seems to have leaped out overnight.

 I made one of my special compost rows for new strawberries. Still need to mulch over the cardboard. As I said before, I am doing Amish style long rows this year.  Chinese cabbages are under cover and pea teepees in the back corner.

 Daffodils transplanted last year came back well along the fence line. Tansy is up too.

 All the plant starts are doing well. I sold about 20 comfrey starts and made back the money that I spent on comfrey roots. Their are 20 plants left for me or to continue selling on craigslist and at the poultry swap. I am probably going to want to order some more root cuttings either way.

 These onions are going into the garden in 10 days with the carrot seeds.

 Nasturtiums.

 Lemon balm, tomatoes, yarrow.

 Parsley, tomatoes, feverfew

 This next part is for the W family.  I spring cleaned all the rabbit cages (scrubbed them) and reconfigured them.  Pretty boring news for anyone other than close buddies who spent a lot of time at our house. Here are some shots of the new configuration. Starting with the long hoop house (chicken house) - the 3 current big (30 x36") cages and one more coming to even it out.  These will house mama's with babies and litters growing out.

The guineas have entered their "Spring crazy" phase and only want to roost in high trees.  The guinea house is now the big daddy house with lots of bucks and buck grow-outs. Four more of the smaller size cages will line the back. 

But for now I just added two cages because...

 Mrs. Muscovy (Perry) has been laying a clutch in there and I will let her set on it if she wants.

That means that the barn and the garage are rabbit-free now. I still need to do some cleaning in there.  Hubby is pleased.

You might have noticed the orange cat in that crate.  Around Christmas time our kids favorite kitten, "Tiger" or "Twyger" depending on who you talk to, disappeared. Our friends in the ward just found this orange stray miles away.  His ear is clipped and he is neutered like Tiger was. He seems a lot like our lost kitty, but we can't really be sure.  He is getting the new home treatment with 2 weeks in the cage until he is acclimated. He is a sweetie just like our old Twyger was.  The kids are thrilled to have Twyger back. I have given up telling them that it is probably not him.

St. Patrick's Day

Now that I know my mom is at least 30% Irish (DNA test), in addition to my love of Brittany and all things Gaelic, St. Patrick's Day has a lot more meaning. Hubby said he has some Irish ancestors too. So we made a big deal over it.  I made clover skirts for the girls and we all wore green to church.  I wore my triskell necklace. I wish I would have remembered to take a picture of us before church!  Then we had some friends over for a dinner of corned beef, cabbage, bangers, mashed potatoes, Irish soda bread, and angel food cake.

Field Trip: Back to the Aquarium

Our aquarium membership expired more than a year ago. We went at least 6 times that year. I thought they might still need a little time to be excited about it again. My young oceanographer/marine biologist boy was jumping for joy though when he heard that we had been invited to join a home school field trip to the aquarium.

 They each knew where they wanted to go and what they wanted to see. Sharks. Stingrays.

 Tree frogs. (in the amazon rainforest area of the aquarium)

 Parrots.

 The jelly fish invasion.

And of course, the dolphin show. Front row seats.

Field Trip: Free ice cream week

The first day of Spring is the start of my favorite time of year.  I am filled with hope for all my little plants and big plans for my garden. The first week of Spring means something else to my kiddos.  Free ice cream! 
After swimming lessons we went to Ritas for our free ices.

Then on to do a couple more errands and make a stop at Dairy Queen for our free cones.

Then a couple days later was pajama day at Brewsters. We saved the best for last. Their flavors cannot be beat. Real homemade pistachio ice cream is the best. And nutty coconut is pretty amazing. And almost all of them are delicious, except for a couple that the kids like: birthday cake and cotton candy explosion. Why would you get that when you can have real butter pecan ice cream?

Plant Medicine: Cure for an ulcer

Over the last couple months I have had a lot of stomach pain.  It started to become more noticeable around the holidays.  By Christmas I knew that chocolate was a major trigger for both my stomach pain and migraines.  I mostly stopped eating it.  But my stomach got worse.  By early March, it hurt right below my rib cage any time I ate.  I self diagnosed with an ulcer and I knew that if I went to the doctor they would give me a prescription for one of the plethora of pain relieving meds that would not really fix my tummy, but allow me to eat whatever I wanted.  I researched ulcers in my several herbal remedies books.  I tried teas and tinctures, but they only helped temporarily.  Their is an anecdote in Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health about how her mom healed an ulcer by doing a cabbage juice fast. She drank fresh cabbage juice 2-3 times a day and ate only an occasional piece of fruit FOR 7 DAYS.  That sounded like forever. But finally I got desperate enough to do it.  This is what I ate for 7 days.  I lost some weight. I was not as light headed as I thought I would be. I felt weak, but never faint.  I was even able to do 7-8 hours of yard work one day without passing out.  I did eat more than "a couple" pieces of fruit that day... more like 6 fruits.  

Guess what?! It worked!! I tried to keep to mostly fruits and veggies the first couple days of regular eating. Everything tasted so good.  I didn't add dairy back in for the first week.  I do not eat a ton of dairy and my rare bowl of ice cream or custard has been fine.  Today, 2 weeks post cabbage fast I ate a wee bit of regular yeast bread.  I think I probably need to continue to avoid that.  I have been making my sister's pioneer whole wheat sour dough bread and that seems to be good for my tummy.  And it is delicious.

Cub Scouts: Dead Cows

Apparently the kids played a super fun game at their cub scout pack meeting.  It is called "dead cows".  This is what it looks like:

If you smile or laugh you become a "dead cow" and go around trying to get the others to smile or laugh.  Brother M was one of the last 3 to get out.

 And they each earned some awards.

Family Schooling Summary: March at the home school co-op

 I've missed a couple weeks of co-op school updates.  The kids are learning quite a bit, but mostly having a lot of fun in their classes. 

 Hapkido class - practicing self defense moves

 In Miss L's Kindermusic class the teacher brought real Mexican jumping beans! They were amazing. They jump when they get warm.  It is because they are not actually beans at all. They are little cocoons with tiny caterpillars inside.

 The kindermusic curriculum has a lot of cute ways to get kids excited about music and teach things like rests and quarter notes at the same time.

 We played in the snow one week and then had gorgeously warm weather the following week. Spring!

In master builders they had a substitute teacher one week and just built whatever they wanted.

 Once the regular teacher came back they had a new challenge. They were supposed to make a wall around their house to keep it from flooding. Then they added water to test their designs.  M says his design worked "pretty well".  The middle stayed dry.

The activity girls had a mother daughter service project and craft day.  We made 40 lunches for a homeless shelter.