Wow, it quit raining

Asa had the most terrifying experience today. We went to the car wash and.......vacuumed the truck. He cried hysterically, in all of his almost 20 months he has never heard anything as frightening as that. Poor baby. We don't own a vacuum cleaner so he's never heard one before. :-)

We came home and Katie took him outside, his favorite place to be.

Chicks dig Asa, he's scared of the Momma though. We have turkey poults too, but they're in a different shed.

Dirt is a nice playground for little boys.

What happens after you spend the morning racing around outside, come in and eat lunch, get cleaned up and changed, and then rocked to sleep.

The gardens are still not tilled. We had record breaking rainfall here for the past month so it will be a late start this year. Things will hopefully get planted in the next week, it's so nice to see the sun again.

Spring at home

My two oldest, Aleks and Katie, went to Tennessee this past week. They stayed with Meggie, a friend of Katie's and had a wonderful time! They got to see mountains and historical sites, as well as meet interesting characters like Joe. That's Katie proposing to Joe as Aleks and Clive (Meggie's Dad) look on. They have had so many interesting stories to tell about what they saw and did. For Aleks it was a working vacation of sorts, Clive owns an antique grist mill that he grinds corn in to sell to a distillery and he also does historical restoration. They were moving a log barn into Gatlinburg last week. Aleks loved the work and really enjoyed himself. Katie got the opportunity to spend time with a very Godly young lady who is like an older sister to her. It was a nice break for both of them, they work hard here and deserved a vacation, but oh, am I glad they're home!

Aleks' tomato plants grew an amazing amount while they were gone, he has about 100 left after thinning them out. They're all heirlooms, what we don't use will be sold at the Farmer's Market. He also has oodles of peppers and tobacco started too. I want to get my culinary herbs going, but haven't yet. We won't plant anything outdoors until May but I'm excited to think about canning again. Last year, in the thick of it, I was plenty tired of doing it but it kept us eating and eating well, this winter! Most of my canned food is gone, I have some tomatoes, some meat and 4 jars of beets/parsnips/carrots/squash and that's it! It's a good feeling to have jars upon jars lining the shelves.

We were in Kidron today so we stopped by Lehman's, they had a flood there and some merchandise is marked down 70%. I bought this cutesy little 1 gallon keg for $15 and 2 real bayberry hand dipped candles made in Zoar for $3.

Though I pointed out to Aleks and Katie that the Forsythia is in bloom and there are daffodils galore, they sniffed disdainfully at this cold Northern weather after their foray into the South. We still need a fire many mornings, though by noon it's warm enough for the cow to go on her picket and the calf to go in her portable pen so she can still see Mom while she grazes. It's much more pleasant to hang laundry out now that Spring has arrived!

Goings on

It's Sunday morning, almost noon and we're done with church so I thought I'd write a bit. We've been going through Hebrews, I enjoy hearing Mr. G expound on it, but it's deep stuff so we take it only a chapter per week. Katie opened a can of pork and mixed with BBQ sauce for pulled pork sandwiches for lunch. We've had that quite a lot this winter. Our seed orders are ready and we've been discussing buying 2 bummer lambs to raise for meat. I like lamb and another source of grassfed meat would be welcome. The men have been cutting wood every day or sometimes every other day, Levi and Micah haul it home and then Mr. G and Aleks split it. Lately it's been yummy, fragrant cherry.

We watched a hawk swoop down the other morning and kill one of Micah's banties. :-( There are mice, voles and rabbits galore, but the hawk prefers "chicken welfare". Tansy is due to calve in another month or so, I'm ready for it! We're eagerly checking the weather in anticipation of syrup season. I just ordered another 20 gallon cast iron cauldron. In some areas of the country you can pick them up for very little money, here however, they go for way too much money! The Amish still use them and demand drives up the price. Anyway, I bought both of ours from the same folks in SC. They're honest, decent people and I enjoy doing business with them. Syrup boiling should go twice as fast now. Aleks and the boys use the roaring fire to melt lead to cast their bullets. It helps break the monotony of sitting up in the sugar camp for hours, plus it's a useful skill.

In the background there is our deceased vehicle. So, currently we have no working transportation! :-) Woo Hoo! Mr. G is working some things out, so by hook or by crook we should have something figured out in a day or two. That's pretty well the sum of happenings in our neck of the woods!

Perry Cider

We reached another Fall milestone last week when we pressed apples for the first and only time. Actually, we have "perry cider" not just plain cider this year. Our neighbor brought over 4 bushels of pears which we pressed along with the apples (pressed pears being perry) and the yield was 67 gallons! We use the community press here in our community and the cost for the 67 gallons was $43, over half of that charge was the plastic gallon jugs that we brought it home in, the actual pressing charge is a pittance. I was very pleased with such abundance and as of Sunday evening we have it all canned. A few jugs got a bit of a "nip" to them, the children love this stuff, it fizzes like pop and Sunday morning they were drinking it for breakfast. :-D I have so many half gallon jars full and it makes a very striking sight, but our camera isn't feeling up to par and doesn't want to take any pictures. A have a few of the jugs set aside for vinegar making; hopefully the camera will straighten up before then so I can take pictures step by step. Making vinegar is an important part of homestead life and being able to home manufacture it will be a boon for food preservation should very hard economic times become a reality.

Saturday was my 40th birthday and we spent it rearranging the living room and moving chicken fence in anticipation of getting 30 more layers. In the Winter we bring the dining room table and benches into the living room so that we can eat where it's warmer, it makes a snug fit but it is also nice to have all evening activities center in one room, I like being all together. Our neighbor is giving us their 30 laying hens as they no longer want them so I will be raiding the recipe books for recipes heavy on eggs!

Sewing and knitting are carrying on as usual, but I don't really want to write about something that I can't take pictures of. I hope that situation will rectify itself before long.

An Abundance Of Fresh Meat

Today we went to pick up the meat from the pair of pigs that we had butchered this month. These were grass fed Tamworth pigs, born right here on our farm; they had an ideal piggy existence with one very bad day. :-) Because Tamworths are an old heritage breed they don't reach market weight in 6 months, they were also slower growing than pigs that are exclusively fed grain. We could have butchered them last Fall, but we held them over for another year and consequently they were huge. We ended up with well over 400 pounds of meat! We have 8 large hams, 70ish pounds of bacon, spare ribs, 100 pounds of sausage and about that much of pork chunks to can. I am going to be very busy getting as much as I can into jars because we have chickens to do next. For the curious, our butcher's bill was $336, I have no idea what we would pay for that much meat if we had to buy it retail. I'm pretty sure it would have been more than that though. :-)


I stopped at my friend Anna's house on our way home. They have 10 children and haven't butchered yet this Fall so it has been a while since they've had fresh meat. I left some bacon with them and got a box of zucchini to turn into pickles. Anna is the one that I have make shirts for Mr. G and the boys, she charges $10. When we gather apples in the Autumn and have cider pressed we always take some over to their place because they don't have apples to turn into cider. I enjoy the rural give and take friendship that we have, it is the "community" that is largely lost in our modern world. Both Anna and I live in a world that has more similarities to the 19th century existence than it does to the 21st century. So, anyway, for Supper tonight there are fresh porkchops and homemade baked beans. And tomorrow we will have ham! Which, as a matter of fact, is another vestige of a by-gone era. What I mean by that is what was once common place, plain rural food such as: maple sugar/syrup or organic fresh meat is now a high priced specialty food that is beyond the means of most people. Only by creating an underground, homemade economy can I enjoy the life that I do. Of course the downside is that there is an awful lot of hard, unromantic work involved. :-) I don't know if you envy me or pity me, I hope that I paint a realistic picture of my life showing both the good and bad.

September Means The County Fair!

I know a lot of people are celebrating the end of Summer and delighting in the cooler temperatures that September brings. There is a charm in the change of seasons and a calm associated with the slower pace of Autumn and especially Winter. I will eventually join you, but for us the pace has yet to slacken. The cooler temperatures are a starting gun in the race between a killing frost and us. Many, many things are still in the garden and are yet to be harvested. On the farmwive's porches are makeshift tables sagging under the weight of bumper tomato crops. They will finish ripening and then be put to rest in the larder dressed as spaghetti sauce or salsa, barbecue sauce or perhaps plain tomato juice. My own porch has the requisite tomatoes as well as white peaches and pears. Most of the dry beans are out of the garden and strung upside down from the barn rafters awaiting shelling. The men shell about a bushel a day and have many more days work ahead of them.



Amidst the press of work comes the quintessential rural experience of the County Fair. Our county has held a fair every year since 1849, a chance to showcase the hard work that is a farmer's lot, a change to renew acquaintances and perhaps sell some breeding stock.



I was especially interested in the displays of canned goods, I'd like to enter next year and it was instructive to see which jars the judges favored. There are categories for cookies and decorated cakes, knitting and sewing, quilts and wood working, all signalling the effort to be the best in their class.
There were tables and tables of produce, giant pumpkins, wafers of hay, ear corn, dry soybeans and wheat.

We toured the dairy barns (mostly Holsteins with a few Jerseys and a very few Ayrshires), the pig barns (all of the same boring variety that can survive the stress of a confinement hog facility) and the poultry barn where there were some interesting varieties in addition to the far over represented Cornish Rock Cross (these are the brainless white chickens that you eat and spent their pathetic lives in chicken concentration camps). The only turkeys were Broad Breasted Whites. :-(


The fair used to be the place to witness innovation and see new breeds, but it has unfortunately become a showcase of what works in confinement. Still, I am glad to be a part of the rural heritage that is part and parcel with living here. It was nice to take a day off in the middle of the week and enjoy being with other farm folks. We came home, ate lunch and tried to fit some work in this afternoon. Most of the children want to enter produce in next year's fair, I want to enter some canned goods and perhaps some sewing. It refreshes and revitalizes us to remember some of the entries and think "I could beat that!"

Supper is waiting and there are tomatoes to can yet tonight. Thanks for stopping by!

I Am In Canning Paradise

We have a lot going this week in the canning kitchen. Over the weekend we canned tomato juice-21 quarts, salsa-10 pints, chokecherry/peach jelly-10 half pints and the Cowboy Candy that I blogged about before. This week we have more of all of the above to can as well as pears, more peaches (hopefully),

and Tennessee Sweet Potato Squash (that's it above, they're huge) and Pie Pumpkin. I'm canning both the squash and pumpkin in a sugar syrup, the pumpkin will have cinnamon and nutmeg added, then you can open a can and voila'! pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, steamed pumpkin pudding, pumpkin bread, the list is almost endless. I will can some pumpkin plain because we like it in Winter Vegetable Chowder (that has parsnips, carrots, beets, squashes and pumpkin). I'd like to can beef tips this week, but I might not get to that. I love canning but the sewing suffers when I'm busy putting things in jars and the canning suffers when I'm sewing a lot. Such is life. There isn't enough "me" to go around some days. :-) I put an advertisement in our local newspaper to purchase canning jars and over the past few weeks I have acquired about 600 more jars, there are jars *everywhere*! We have hundreds of jars filled already and plans to fill most of the rest. Life is busy, work is good, I am happy.

A Busy Day in the Kitchen

We've had a busy week in the kitchen putting things into canning jars. Hot, tiring work to be sure, but I know the reward will be worth it. Katie canned a canner load of Rattlesnake pole beans this morning, our first of the year. I was working on Rebekah's birthday presents while she did that and then we canned blueberries and pickled heirloom beets this afternoon/evening. Our beet varieties are: Chioggia, Golden, Lutz Winter Keeper. I don't think I'm a huge pickled beet fan, but they will add variety to the dullness of Winter's protein-heavy repast. I think we're about finished with the blueberries, I ought to make more syrup since what I did make is making its way to New York before long and I have none left for us. We'll see, I know we'll be elbow deep in peaches tomorrow and/or Friday and I don't want to bite off too much. This is our Pickled Beet recipe, it's from 1911.

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Pickled Heirloom Beets

1. Wash beets and trim off beet greens. Dispatch a child to feed the greens to the pigs; meanwhile leave roots and 1 inch of stems and cook until tender, about a half hour more or less.

Drain beets, cool and peel. Next, admire them on the plate.

2. Cut into slices or cubes, place in jars and pack them in but don't crush them. Then admire them some more and call all of the children in to remark on the pleasing aesthetics that beets entail.

3. In a separate kettle combine: 4 cups cider vinegar, 2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups water, 1.5 teaspoons canning salt, and in a spice bag put 2 cinnamon sticks, 12 whole cloves and 1 teaspoon whole allspice. Add spice bag to vinegar/sugar and boil for 5 minutes or the amount of time that it takes a 4 year old to tell you about the presents that she wants for her birthday which is still 4 months away. Remove spice bag and ladle syrup over beets in jars.

4. Put bands and lids in place and can in a boiling water bath canner for a half hour. Watch the storm roll in as you frantically grab the laundry from the clothesline with clothes pins flying every which way. Let it occur to you at 5:30 that you have nothing prepared for Supper and call for pizza.

Be thankful for everything that was accomplished in a day's time and doubly thankful that every day isn't like today. :-D

Using bail canning jars safely in the 21st century

The home canning authorities no longer recommend using bail lid canning jars, their official ruling states that only modern bands and lids are safe. However, I'm sure that I can't be the only person on the planet who wants to use these for something more than a button jar, so here is a step by step tutorial to ensure your safety.

1. Bail jars need 3 pieces to function: the jar, the rubber gasket and the glass lid. The jar and lid must be without chips and the gasket should be free from weak spots or cracking. I buy boxes of gaskets from Kidron Town and Country store but Lehman's also sells them.

2. After jar is filled, using recommended head space, wipe any food residue from the jar and stretch the gasket over the mouth of the jar. There will be a "shelf" that the gasket rests on. Make sure that the gasket is flat and not twisted.

3. Place glass lid over gasket and put bail closure in place.

4. Process for recommended time and allow to rest on the counter for 24 hours and then check seal. To check seal you remove the bail closure and pick the jar up by the lid. The picture shows me checking the seal on a jar of blackberries. Hold the jar only an inch or two above the counter to avoid a broken jar in case it didn't seal.

I only use my bail jars for foods that are canned with the boiling water bath method, I don't use them in my pressure canner. Certain foods need to be pressure canned to kill any botulism spores, but foods canned with a water bath canner aren't prone to botulism. Food spoilage will generally unseal the lid from previously sealed jars, look funky and/or smell bad, any of these will be obvious in a regular canning jar and will be equally obvious in a bail jar. Observing proper safety measures can make using these vintage jars a rewarding experience and less like a death defying act by a crazy women who enjoys flirting with death. :-D

Abundance

Our gardens are producing bountifully, I've never seen such abundance before. The beans are doing fantastic, the pumpkins, squashes, and cucumbers look great, the tobacco is huge, and the beets promise to be a bumper crop. We are exceedingly blessed this year. And all of it is due to the extraordinarily hard working sons that I have. :-D

We braided the garlic today, first we sorted out the 60 biggest bulbs to plant next year and then we braided the rest. They are hung on the porch and smell wonderfully, if you like garlic that is. Earlier this week we made blueberry syrup. Blueberry syrup, for those of you who are so unfortunate as to have never had this delicacy pass over your palate, is a sweetened, thickened blueberry juice that is the perfect topping for Belgian waffles. You mush up any berry and boil for 15 minutes, strain and add an equal amount of sugar, return to a boil for 1 minute and can it. It is all of Summer's sunny goodness packed into a canning jar. MMMmmmm!


I received my knitted sontag this week. It was hand crafted by the very talented Sarah H and is beautifully knitted. All of the girls are getting something similar to stave off the cold this Winter.
I am very pleased with it, it is quality workmanship through and through!


I have been busily knitting and sewing up some needed clothing. Rebekah's birthday is in exactly 2 weeks and everybody gets a new dress or two for their special day. :-D More peaches are coming today so I better get going as there are jars to wash.......

Chapter 10: In which I discuss the merits of tobacco

Among the many new things that we try every year, this year we are growing tobacco. Aleks has wanted to try to grow it for quite a while and this year he is giving it a go. He selected Orinoco tobacco, a variety that has been grown in this country since the 1600's when John Rolfe obtained the coveted seeds. Rolfe shunned the harsh product grown by the local Indians, Nicotiana Rustica. It would never sell in London. Somehow he obtained seeds from the coveted Nicotiana Tabacum strain then being grown in Trinidad and South America--though Spain had declared a penalty of death to anyone selling such seeds to a non-Spaniard. Jamestown was wildly successful in their tobacco venture, in part due to the better Spanish strain and in part due to improved cultivation methods. When in 1614 the first tobacco arrived in London, it was in almost immediate demand. Though King James I despised the crop, he knew that the colony depended on it for survival and the import duty on tobacco meant that the English treasury grew with every shipload sold. Tobacco cultivation soared in Jamestown (they were even growing it in the streets!), so much so that the colonists had to be forced to devote a percentage of ground to grow food crops. By 1639 the colonies had exported 750 tons of tobacco to England, thus ensuring the once doubtful survival of this fledgling colony.

Now, why would we want to grow such a horrible, cancer causing substance? Tobacco is used as an insect repellant in the garden and it's also used to worm animals. The remarkable stimulant properties of tobacco were utilised by early American Indians in curing wounds, swellings, coughs, tooth-ache, rheumatism, and stomach disorders. Tobacco was administered to patients in several forms, and was used in emergency treatment for snake and insect bites. We believe, as with most things, that proper use of an herb can be beneficial, but abuse, of almost everything, is detrimental. Tobacco can be tricky to grow though, so this year might not be a success but if not then we'll try again next year!

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Lastly, this is Asa's 8 month portrait. I debated about posting a picture of his little naked heiney but I couldn't resist!

Of vintage canners, planting by moon, and 1940's rationing

I wanted to blog about everything that doesn't have to do with Katie's birthday today, mostly farm and kitchen related happenings. I needed a second pressure canner, so many things take 90 minutes to process plus the heat up and cool down times that 7 jars can take a few hours all told. New pressure canners cost a bit more than I'm willing to pay for such a thin walled contraption (they say it's to make them heat up and cool down faster than the old style but I don't believe it, it's all about cheap, shoddy goods) so I kept watch for a nice used one and I found this beauty!

I think it dates to the 1930's, it has wooden handles instead of the usual Bakelite. I really think it's cute, or as cute as a pressure canner can reasonably be anyway. :-)

We planted the crops that bear above ground last Wednesday and Thursday, the ground was dry and we didn't water them at all and!!! the plants are up, way up, yesterday morning! That is so amazing! I have never, in all my years of gardening seen seeds do this. Planting by the Moon was one of the smartest gardening moves we've ever made. Above is one of the hills of corn with a bean also up (they use the corn stalks to trellis themselves).

On my way back from taking the garden picture I snapped this picture below. I didn't "artistically arrange" the snaths or the yoke. They rest at the corner of the porch and the yoke does its duty daily in the hauling of water to the pigs, chickens, turkeys and cow. The yoke is surprisingly comfortable, light weight yet strong. Aleks used it this Spring in hauling sap, that was its original purpose but now it assists in water hauling. Following the old ways brings such a sense of "rightness" about it, there's something about doing the same things in the same way that people have been doing for hundreds of years that meets a need that humans have to feel connected to the natural world. There's a peace in it that isn't readily found in our plastic, throw away world.

I dispatched Levi to go take a picture of the Buff Orpington hen with her Chocolate turkey baby, as you can see by the ruffled neck feathers the hen was irritated at the intrusion. She was so anxious to go broody that Aleks gave her a turkey egg and she struts around proudly with her surrogate baby. :-)

Doesn't it look like a little bandit? Chocolate turkeys are very rare, one of the rarest heritage breeds that there are.

And lastly, have you read about the gal who decided to lose weight following 1940's recipes using rationed food proportions? Her goal is to lose 100 pounds and she's well on her way. I thought it was an interesting idea and certainly a worthwhile goal. She lists an authentic recipe for every pound she loses, I think there are 30 some on there now.

Bone Tired And Ready For First Day's Welcome Rest

The title really sums it up, we're bone tired and ready for the rest that tomorrow brings! The 26th and 27th were the last days this month for planting crops that bear above ground so we p-u-s-h-e-d to get everything in the ground. All together the gardens are about an acre to an acre and a half. We planted these bean varieties (all heirloom, open pollinated): Soldier, Mayflower, Jacob's Cattle, Appaloosa, Papa DeRolla, Christmas Pole Lima, Painted Pony, Snowcap, Jackson's Wonder, Marrow, Cranberry, Butterscotch, Dapple Gray, Rattlesnake Pole, Turkey Craw, and Bible Ruth. We also put in a great quantity of corn, Delicata squash, Connecticut Field Pumpkins, Sweet Meat Squash, Boston Marrow Squash, Moon and Stars Watermelon, Giant Fodder Beets and Sunflowers. Whew! I know that I missed some things but you get the idea anyway. :-)
And then began hay cutting. We have several scythes and cut the hay in short order with them, once you get a rhythm going it goes pretty well. The snick, snick of the blade as it cuts the grass down is a relaxing experience. The whole art of scything is dying, maybe it's already dead, I don't know, but it is a skill worth cultivating I believe. There are American snaths and European snaths and both are different (the snath is the wooden handle). The scythe is the blade and there are different blades for each style of snath and for differing jobs, whether you're cutting hay or trimming brush from fencerows. Your snath must be fitted to you so that you can expend the minimum amount of effort to move your blade across.

We also canned more rhubarb today and will begin on strawberries later this week.

For a bountiful harvest we should give nought but thanks!

Thanksgiving is 6 months in the making

Hello to all of you, I hope you had a pleasant Thanksgiving. Our day was relaxing and enjoyable, as well it should be after the months of preparation that go into it! Plans begin in May when we plant the garden and decide which varieties of squash and pumpkins to plant, the very ones that will grace our table come the holiday season. We had Delicata squash this year, and oh! what a delicious tasty variety it turned out to be! This is a variety that dates from the 1880's or 90's and will definitely be something that we will plant next year. The pumpkins were a variety called Connecticut Field Pumpkin, a very old variety that dates back a few hundred years. They make the best pies, a process that begins the day before Thanksgiving when the pumpkin is quartered and baked. The cooked pulp is then scooped out, seasoned, mixed with fresh cream and baked to perfect doneness. A real homemade pumpkin pie beats any other kind! Whilst Katie and I were in the kitchen on Wednesday, the men and littler girls were outside butchering the Thanksgiving turkey. It was one that had been raised on our farm, outside in the fresh air and sunshine. We raise Narragansett turkeys, another old, heritage breed that is no longer commercially grown due to their slow growth. Your typical store bought turkey was a confinement raised "broad breasted white" hybrid monstrosity. They reach market weight in less than 6 months, whereas Narragansetts take a year or more. Slow is good. :-) The whole butchering business goes quickly, so quickly that I didn't get pictures and I really did mean to. The ambiance of country life, eh Ken? :-) However, I will describe how we go about it. A lot of folks have a killing cone but we don't, so we use the good, old fashioned chopping block. A piece of twine is tied loosely around the turkey's neck to keep its head stretched out so that it can be killed in one quick chop, I abhor the thought of torturing anything. Aleks sights the spot where he wants the ax to fall and thwack! its head is off. I've only ever seen a bird *run* after its head was cut off once, usually they just flop around which is what this one did. They also butchered 3 chickens that day and one of them flopped around so wildly that it ended up in the corn field, much to the amusement of the children. Then the bird is hung by its feet to bleed out, after that it is dunked in the cast iron cauldron of boiling water to loosen the feathers which are then pulled out. After the bird is plucked then it is gutted and immediately thereafter put in a tub of ice water to cool down. And that's it! About 12 hours later it was in the oven to slowly bake to perfect yumminess!

Later that evening we played tableaux vivants. This is an old form of entertainment where people in costume, with or without props, put on a scene. They don't move (so it's unlike charades) or speak and then we guessed what it was they were. For example our first tableaux of the night featured Asa, Abigail and Elisabethe sitting in the cast iron baby tub. Elisabethe held a knife, Abby had a rolling pin and Asa held a pewter candle stick. Can you guess what they were? Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub, and who do you think they be? A butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, throw them out, knaves all three! Other children did scenes from fairy tales, the pilgrims landing, a scene from Of Mice and Men, a scene from Fiddler on the Roof , and even one scene from Bugs Bunny, lol. We had such a good time and already everybody is planning what they will do for New Years. We finished off the evening by listening to records on the phonograph player. I have a treasure trove of 78's that we play, including a lot of Bing Crosby Christmas carols. There are waltzes that we love and even some FDR speeches if the mood strikes us. The younger set like to wind the handle before placing the needle on the record and they like to discover a new favorite from the box of records that we haven't yet listened to. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful day!

A New Barn

Our current barn where the cows are kept and milked is really little more than a tumble-down shack, it features holes in the roof and a rotted out floor. It is the epitome of the "rustic and informal look" as Micah likes to say. :-) There is no way it will make it through another winter and so Mr. G has endeavored to build a new shelter before the snow flies. The new barn will be large enough to store some hay in, as well as put the fanning mill and plow etc. in.


Someday I would like to live in a house with post and beam construction, whether we'll buy an old house or build one that way is still uncertain, but there's no teacher like experience! Mr. G is framing the barn using mortise and tenon construction, so although it's not "post and beam", it's a close cousin. Things are still occasionally built this way, but not very often. Because it's time intensive it has fallen out of common usage in favor of faster methods.
In the pictures he is using a mallet and chisel to square up the hole that he previously drilled out using a bit and brace. We will all be glad to see the cows in a snug barn, no one more so than the men who do the early morning chores, at times it's so gusty out there that the lantern doesn't want to stay lit. Milking in the pitch dark quickly loses its charm I'm told.

and THIS little piggy.....

I had a check-up yesterday with my midwife, whilst there we wanted to get an approximate weight for the little man. I knew that he was gaining but I never expected that he'd be well over 10 pounds! That's over a pound, more like a pound and a quarter in 13 days; I think they recommend that babies gain back their birth weight by 2 weeks to a month, ! So, I guess he's getting enough to eat, huh? :-) That's a picture of him taken this evening in the 3rd nightgown that Katie made him, it's flannel lined and *cosy*!

We are starting to can pumpkin and squash now, it will make an easy addition to quicky meal preparation. I'd like to can dry beans as well like we did last year, but I don't know if I'll get to it or not. We pressed cider for the first time last Thursday and got 20 some gallons, they were so busy, we waited hours to get our turn. I'd like our own cider press, maybe some day! Senna is now weaned and so we've been having a massive influx of milk. We make a lot of ricotta but really how much ricotta can one family eat? I've made some harder cheeses a few times but I'm no expert, a lot of people make yogurt but I'm not really a fan of anything that feels like snot in your mouth...... So, what to do? All the animals would drink the excess of course, but I'd rather the children benefitted from it. We still have chickens to butcher, a turkey for Thanksgiving, and several pigs to do this Fall.

In other mundane news, I washed the baby's clothes this evening. I hand wash all of his clothes, he doesn't do well with standard detergents so I wash his in Charlies. Have I mentioned Charlies lately? I *love* the stuff, it's not harsh on clothes and is completely unscented as well. His clothes just smell clean, not perfumey. I add the recommended 1 tablespoon of soap to a washtub of straight hot water and all of his white clothes (gowns, chemises, socks, caps, petticoats etc) and let it set until I can comfortably put my hands in it. Then I rub the clothes between my hands any place where they seem soiled. Squeeze water out and place in rinse tub. I rinse twice and that's it! Hang and they're dry by morning! To the wash water I then add the hot rinse water and his pastels and repeat. After that the water is pretty cool and I wash his few darks. It uses a lot less water, is much easier on his clothes, and most importantly I like to do it.

I have a number of sewing projects lined up for the coming weeks that I'm excited to get to! First is a dress for me! I'll be so pleased when I can wear it, I almost never find time to sew for myself, but I'm *making* time. I've been inspired anew but several dear friends who are sewing lovely historical gowns for themselves. Thanks to all of you!

All finished!

It is with great satisfaction that I can write "my sewing's all done!", great relief as well as I was nervous that I wouldn't have it completed and then what would I do? I finished the final little gown at the end of last week, it is a really beautiful terra cotta color and not pink like the photo seems. I put calico buttons on it, I don't know if that's a no-no or not but white china gets boring.


Following are photos of the baby sacque and bonnet that I finished a while ago. I know a lot of you have already seen it but my family hasn't. The outside is light blue tropical weight wool, the lining is champagne colored silk poplin and the embellishment is peach silk embroidery

Katie has been sewing more little caps and if I feel like it I'd like to make a fancier cap from Batiste. I guess that I just can't knock it off with the sewing!

:-)

The boys gathered about 60# of apples today. We will eat a lot, dry some and make apple butter for the year. Early apples don't make good cider so we'll wait to press until October, I think. This weekend we did another 15-18 dozen ears of corn and we are *hopefully* done with corn now!
I am 39 weeks on Wednesday but since I go late I could actually have close to 3 weeks left. I am so eager to meet our "little stranger"!

Corn and a nightgown

Katie finished the baby's nightgown yesterday. It is flannel on the inside and smooth on the outside (I'm sure there's some technical term for that). We drafted the pattern ourselves and I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. It was Katie's first try at a placket and I think she's really glad that it's over, lol. She did offer to sew another though, so maybe it wasn't a horrible experience after all!

We're big fans of composting and adding manure to the garden in the autumn, it has really increased our soil fertility. Our neighbor who is a conventional farmer has soil that's pretty well dead, his yields are about half of ours. Here are some examples of healthy soil and what it will produce. Below is the first of our corn harvest. We grow open pollinated corn and grind it for cornmeal; this was not by any means the largest ear, merely the first to ripen!

Aleks also trained the pole beans to climb the corn stalks. The problem now is that the corn stalks are 10-12 feet high and the beans dangle high overhead. :-)

4 down......

I've completed 2 more gowns for a total of 4 and that only leaves me 1 more to do! I will leave the 5th and last gown until everything else is done though since it's the least of my worries. The white gown has a tucked front and the skirt is pleated, it reminds me of a tuxedo so that's what we call it, the "tuxedo gown". I will finish up the last bits on the chemises by next week and hopefully the sacque (the bonnet is already done) and that's it!!! I'll be done with the baby's layette with time to spare! I need to order some diapers, I had quite a few newborn sized fitteds but I loaned them out and they never came back. I need another wool soaker or two and some diaper pins...... but I am truly almost ready. Your 9th baby might as well be your first; by the time you have that many most of your clothing is worn out and has to be replaced anyway. I made some diaper rash cream last week with comfrey, plantain, chickweed and shepherd's purse. We also use it for wounds etc. and I want to make a batch of unscented soap to use on the baby, I'd like it to be done before I go to the hospital so that I can give him his bath. I don't want him leaving my sight the entire time. We are printing out our "refusal of care" forms worded the way we want them instead of the standard form that implies that you're negligent for refusing. We basically refuse everything: eye drops, vitamin K, hib shot, PKU test, all of it.


We picked up 15 dozen ears of corn yesterday and will get 15 dozen more on Saturday. We are drying it all like we did last year, I want a total of 60 dozen by the time it's all said and done. Katie did all the corn yesterday, the younger ones husked it and she did all the blanching, cutting, and stirring it every 15 minutes in the oven. It's easier for me to sit and sew than it is to bustle around the kitchen these days ("bustle" seems kind of comical considering how slow I am these days :-)) We missed "sewing hour" yesterday but Katie did get another baby cap sewn this week, it's like the other only in a bigger size.

We also brought home 40 zucchinis. I really like zucchini but you can only eat it so many days in a row so we looked for other recipes and found Zucchini Pickles, I hope that we like them! I will add zucchini to our relish and I suppose if I can't find enough ways to use it then the animals can have it.

I noticed that the cicadas started singing a few weeks ago, a sure sign that Summer is waning along with the goldenrod in bloom. Public school started this week although we won't until after Labor day. Usually I'm all excited and so ready to be doing school again, this year however, I'm not ready! It came too soon, the garden is rather late this year and the baby's coming and I need more time! We'll be gathering apples before long to press into cider and making sugar beet syrup as well. Will there be enough hours in the day? To every season there is its own work and unique pleasures. Here's to you enjoying and appreciating yours and us to enjoying and appreciating every moment of ours!