Ready for the Fourth of July Weekend

Baking at the Cottage

Loquat Jam

My mother has two Loquat trees.  She named them after the boy who lived next door and planted them between the houses.  She calls the one closest to her house her "Jacob Tree".  We've never done a thing with these fruits in the 4-5 years that they've grew there.

This year, determined not to let them go to waste, I decided to try to make jam for the first time.
The process wasn't hard at all!

• Easily peel, seed, and dice 5 cups of the Loquats
• While cutting, mix in the juice of a fresh juice of a lemon
• I sterilized 8 six ounce jars and lids

• Cook the fruit with about 1/8 cup water
• Once softened, bring to a boil and add 1/2 tsp. of butter 
• When the fruit is at ta rolling boil, add the Sure-gel and continue to boil
• Add 7 cups of sugar and bring it to a rolling boil for one full minute.
• Ladle the jam in to the hot jars, cap them, and give the jars a simmering water bath for 10 minutes.  
• What a cool thing to hear the jars ping as they cool and seal!

 This was a great way to spend a couple hours on Mother's day.  i can't wait to share it with the people I love.  I only wish I could carry it on the plane to Dallas next month to share it with my twin sis.

Cuba!

 

I have the awesome opportunity to visit Holguin, Cuba for a eight days.  This plan has been in the making for four years.  We apploe for our visa in August 2009.  

I leave tomorrow.  I'll be blogging about the trip when I return on my other blog Letters for Posterity

Until then, Adiós a mis amigos!

We have our first eggs!

Wedding Preparations

Today was the most productive wedding planning day so far.  My Mom and I washed all of Emily's heirloom china to give it to the caterer for the head table.  We "tea dyed" her bright white veil to ivory so will will match her dress.  We shopped for more shower announcements and tested out the centerpiece plans.

I was doing great until I started writing out the registry cards.  As I sat in the quiet writing her name over and over I felt as if I were sitting in my hospital bed on May 3, 1988, writing out her birth announcements again.  That evening, I was so completely happy we had a little girl that I couldn't sleep.  I wanted to announce it to the world.  I looking forward to all the pink and sparkle.  Emily didn't disappoint.  She is the essence of pink and sparkle.  My eyes well up every time I think about how quickly my tiny baby girl grew into a beautiful, compassionate, funny, self confident, woman.

Learning to take the farm life on the chin

There is a chicken in my small flock that I've become particularly fond of.  This sweet chicken started as a tiny little yellow chick and has grown to be large and the most beautiful gentle bird.  I've had a sneaking suspiscion that this was not the hen I hoped it was, but was woken by his crow just this morning.  Since I live in the city and I'm not allowed to have chickens at all, he will surely give the rest of us away with his alarm clock voice.  I'm so sad that he'll need to find a new home.  I have a prospect or two, but no one who would consider this sweet gentleman for dinner.

Upcycled wood/recycled plastic composite raised beds

What a cool turn of events that resulted in some great raised beds. My Frenchman noticed that some composite (trex type) decking had been sitting around his work. It was once part of what used to be a handicap ramp. He asked and was given the materials and began cleaning them and planning our new garden area. Last week, he installed two of the three new beds (we're waiting until the sweet potatoes are harvested before we add the third). I was so excited to get started on the beds that I started filling them and mulching around them until I found myself trying to finish in the dark!

We've been digging and planting and seating in this record hot weather with high humidity.

It's been a good week and I've somehow kept in a fall mood as we begin planting like it's spring.

The Coop

I laugh as I write this. "The Coop" was once a place where the Frenchman and I (and most of our families and friends) used to go to dance on Saturday nights when we were dating and living in Maine. It was a barn with picnic tables lining the inside and the house band was the Ritcher family who owned the place. Strictly BYOB. They played for our wedding reception. It was quite a party!

The coop that we are installing is not as fun, but it's definately as creative. The Frenchman has built this chicken tractor (movable coop) from recycled PVC pipe and recycled PVC fence material. The only thin we bought was the wire and a few latches. 1/2" wire is suggested to keep snakes and things out, so here we go.

Here it is!

I'm proud that this talented carpenter has always been interested in reusing every scrap and has made some beautiful furniture from it in the past. We rescued a side table today from the landfill. I'll post that project as we get it underway along with the raise beds, and maybe a salad growing table. (He's sucha good sport).

The Dogs approve, too!

Saturday Morning at the Cottage

Ahh, to sleep in one day a week. It's such a guilty pleasure! The dogs and I puttered around all morning; I read and made sandwiches for the event, the dogs napped, and the Frenchman is in the yard working on the new chicken coop. Today I'm preparing to go to the bridal shower of a beautiful young woman, the bride of our young Director of Worship, Tom. The church will overflow with well wishes for them today and I'm excited to go.

Open Face Cucumber Sandwiches

3 small cucumbers (peeled if waxed) and sliced thin
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 package dry Italian dressing mix
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 sour cream
1 loaf rye cocktail bread (or regular loaf cut in half)
dill weed to garnish

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, mayo, and dressing mix together and refrigerate (overnight is best)
Spread each piece of bread with cream cheese mix, place a cucumber slice or two on top and garnish with dill.

Garden Update in Pictures

The fastest growing animal on earth?

Ok, I felt bad when my two children grew up right before my eyes, it's even more amazing to watch my baby grandson turn into a toddler, but I've never seen anything grow as fast as a chick! They are now 18 days old. These little buggers are changing daily. They obviously weigh more everyday and are more curious all the time, just like our grandson. They're starting to roost on nealy alnything and they are eating a ton! Here are a few pictures of "the girls"; Cocoa (Brown Easter Egger), Bella (Buff Orpington), and Daisy(soon to be a white Delaware).

By the way, our grandson has accidentally squeezed Daisy a couple of times, but she's still our most relaxed and friendly chick!

Today I got to spend time caring for my grandson after dinner which meant poop, came home and cleanned the chickens (more poop), and let the dogs out (you guessed it). The moral of this story is: the more people and pets you love, the more of thier poop you have to put up with.

Urban Farmer: Raising Chicks

A New Adventure in Urban Farming!

We've just received our shipment of three day old chicks. We requested hens to appease the neighbors, hopefully that's what we recieved. The are so sweet and seem very content in our homemade brooder. The cottage seems more homey already! The Grandbaby loves these little hens.

Late Summer in the Deep South

It's mid August and the subtropical weather has been seasonably hot and humid. The heat on our shady back porch has been at 100 at 4:00pm two days in a row. The humidity is at 95-100% every morning and usually levels out to 35% by afternoon.

The Frenchman and I got way to the beach for a couple of days to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. We day dreamed about a little beach house, but we'd miss our veggie patch. The 30 miles that seperates up from the ocean is just fine, besides, if we lived there, where would we go to get away?

The early mornings and evenings are my favorite times now. On a cooler morning I find it hard to stay out of the garden when I'm supposed to be getting ready for work. I'm craving a cool Maine day and a cold night a the county fair. I'll settle for a cooling rain shower and our local hot county fair in early November. I suppose this is a perfect time of year to rear some baby chicks since they love the heat, so that's my next big adventure. They arrive in 7 days!

The Frenchman and I have begun to talk about our dream of building a small eco-friendly home with big front and back porches and a bit more room to expand and explore. We have a good amount of planning and even more financial buckling down to do if we want to accomplish this dream, but the planning is part of the fun.

Meanwhile, we're constantly puttering around our little cottage, especially in the back yard. Our anniversary present ot ourselves was a papaya tree. I'm so happy we enjoy the same things!

Late summer planting began last week & my zucchini already has it's first leaves. I've also sown some okra, chocolate mint coleus, Big Max pumpkin, summer squash, and cherry tomatoes. It's all an experiment at this oint, but my goal for fall/winter planting is a container garden full of herbs. I've have to wait for cooler weather and besides, I need to help build the "stealth" chicken coop first (city limits and chickens don't jell). The coop has a planting area on top, so maybe it will be my new herb garden!

The sedums have been loving the weather. I've just potted an Autumn Joy in honor of my grandson's mother (her namesake) and it's one of the few potted plants that are thriving in this weather.

The watermelon is being attacked by stink beetles, but it's hanging in there. I've just planted some sweet potato vines, but probably too early since they look very droopy, so I've been hand watering them daily along with my green peppers.

Some recent flops has been carrots that seemed to like the sandy soil, but looked terrible malnourished. My tomatoes have died off and I fear my Cecile Bruner rose is not responding well to the organic liquid fertilizer, so I think I'll try a teaspoon of Epsom salts. It's all a big experiment that I hope to learn from.

I sometimes feel like a mad scientist with my little assistant(19 month old Logan). He likes to throw rocks in the tiny pond, so it may be a rock garden soon - poor fish :(

Stay cool and enjoy what's left of the summer!

US Botanic Garden Washington, DC

I just returned from DC where I visited (with my Mother, Sisters, and some friends) so many sites, I'm having difficulty recalling everything that I took in over our weekend. One of the highlights was the U.S. Botanic Garden, with the Conservatory full of diverse plant life and "rooms" like The Jungle, Children's Garden, World Desert, Southern Exposure, and the Orchid display, it was a vast collection of plants from all types of climates. I found it hard to take it all in, so I snaps some photos of my favorites. I also tried to capture some of beauty of the parks close by. I hope you enjoy this little photo tour.

My Sisters, Mom & I

My twin sister