Herbs

The last few days I've been harvesting herbs.
I've found some wonderful ideas online about what to do with them.

I've harvested basil, bee balm, stevia, shiso, mint, oregano, feverfew, angelica, marshmallow, lemon balm, rasberry leaf, purslane (a weed?), chamomile,......

There are so many more I wish I had planted and I intend to do so.
Have you heard of Mountain Rose Herbs?
They are a supplier of bulk herbs if you are not able to grow your own and they provide a wealth of information as well.
Sand Mountain herbs is a great resource too.

I'm trying out their idea of infusing herbs with fresh honey.
I've been wanting to make my own teas for some time....perhaps for little care packages for loved ones.

My garden is doing wonderful regardless of the deer nibbling the tops off from a few plants :)

This fall I am toying with different ideas for a separate herb garden.
I was a bit ambitious this year with the garden and I've found I don't care much for weeding. This weather seems to be like Maui for weeds. They bask in it and glow with health. Makes me quite irritable, lol.

We gave away the two Jersey Giant roosters.
The fellows were just too darn big and wouldn't give the hens a break. Poor girls.

Now we have the two banty roosters. The little guy is a feisty one. He will chase you and peck at your toes. He's temporary as he belongs to my neice.

It's nearly t ime for school to start. I'm not ready. I enjoy having the companionship during the day. I'm going to miss them.
It is hard for me to imagine that one day I will have no children living at home.
Honestly I don't even want to think a bout it.

Bike rides have been lovely as of late. The path is surrounded by brambles or berry bushes and riding though them is nearly intoxicating.
Our house is surrounded as well. Sometimes I can hardly believe the scent is so strong. It's lovely. Reminds me of girlish desserts.
Back home is was the russian olive trees that made me drunk with memories.
I've been smelling the blooms on those trees since I was a girl. Sticky and not the prettiest trees, but their perfume could take you worlds away.

It's time to put in my winter garden. Would anyone like to volunteer to come pull weeds? No... I didn't think so.

We have been here now for nearly a year.
I'd like to do without the rain and the gray skies, but the moderate temperature has been glorious. Did I mention that my magnolia and crocus think it's spring again...yes I think I might have.

I've been quilting. Getting ready for winter.
This summer my favorite spot has been on my swing on the back porch . I think it will continue to be my favorite spot all through the year. Well.....as long as I can find a really big umbrella.

Off to blanch some beans.

Please forgive any mispellings or typos as I've been struggling this weeks with my arms :) You should read some of my texts...hahahaha

Basils


lettuce I let go to seed (before the deer ate it)


On a really bad day I stepped outside to this...and felt better.


A recent outing


One of the two deer who enjoy my buffet garden


Awe




The kiddos and I braving the humidty at Sahalie Falls


This is in the woods, near the falls

On love and potatoes

I was talking with a cousin I haven't seen in some time. He is not married and has no significant other....he has no children...no certain career, yet he is happy and in love with life. He lives for his nephews and nieces and thrives for the simple reason that he breathes and is able to enjoy this life he has been blessed with.
He tells me he feels complete.
I believe we are all different in what we may seek and what makes us complete is up to us. Marriage does not make you complete, nor does having children....a high paying job......a sports car and a fat wallet......
When your heart feels near to bursting and you could not imagine one thing in this world you need. When you love yourself exactly as you are.
I think perhaps then you are complete.

Lately I've been having strange dreams. Some nights they are nightmares about some traumatic events I survived....other nights I'm in the arms of old loves.

I remember my first boyfriend. I was eight and he was about eighteen.
He worked on the ranch and I remember sitting on the fence admiring him as he prodded the cattle on through the gate. I was just a little squirt to him....oh but it was love. Seriously now....I still love every man who has ever come into my life and held a special place in my heart.

I already knew this, but just today I thought on it for a bit and came to the conclusion that it is what it is and I accept it.
Loving comes easy to me. I don't know why and I don't want to question it anymore.
I love and that's who I am.


My daughter often tells me I need to toughen up. There are people who are unkind.
They say and do things that I would never do. My girlie tells me I should be this way in return. You know what? It's just not me.

When I was 16 years old I went through something no young girl should ever go through. But I'm ok and I forgave them long ago. That's how it has always been with me. I get through it and I move on.

Things in my life are not always as I would hope them to be...but I'm alive and I am so very blessed.
Tonight I'm not half as eloquent as I would like to be as I haven't slept well lately. (darn dreams) I do however have a point.

It's ok to forgive. Accept prople for who they are and that they are doing the best that they know how to do.

It doesn't help in any way to carry anger, regret, or wonder what could have..... should have..... would have been.



so....lets talk about what I've been harvesting
from my garden aka the local deer buffet.

Mustard Greens and breathing

I'm pretty sure that rather than easing into this new life.....I jumped in fully clothed. Think I may have put my family into shock.

I've been thinking and decided to slow it down a bit and take a breath now and then.
I cannot change the world, I cannot protect my family every second of the day, I cannot go on battling everything I feel stongly about every waking moment.

I'm going to slow it down just a bit and enjoy those simple things that were always just out of my grasp.


As for eating healthy that won't change :)
Last night I made mustard greens and they were absolutely delicious.
My kiddos even said they were "the best ever"

Here's what I did
Large bunch of greens
2 large cloves of garlic chopped
2 leeks from my garden
2 small shallots from my garden
2 small crookneck sqaush from my garden ;)
4 small green onions from my garden
salt
olive oil

Wash the greens well. Rip out the center stems.
Toss into a pan with the oil, add onions, leeks, shallots.
Cook about 5 minutes. Add garlic and squash, salt to taste. Cook a few minutes more.
The greens will be just that, bright green.
I tossed them into a pan with some pad thai rice noodles.
Amazing. YUM.

Now if my tomatoes would just ripen up ......

My friend took this pic a while back, lol...it just reminds me of how I feel about gas prices. My hubby refused to take a drive with me to Joanns yesterday for thread. The gas was much more than the thread.


Have a blessed day.

A day in pictures

shiso herb in my garden.....for wrapping sushi


Mooie Americana


Rooster who was supposed to be a hen


berries



more berries



chamomile


I am a basil addict, love it a million and one ways, many varieties grow in my garden


Nasty cucumber beetle


I will add many more later this evening......blogger is evidently too busy now :)

Garden pests and life changes

Cucumber beetles have taken up residence in my garden.
Leaves are wilting and plants are dying.
This has been my tester garden for this new to me area.
The Pacific Northwest. I just can't keep up with the beetles.
I've found great pleasure in squashing them, but there are just too many.
I've tried two handfuls of all natural sprays and remedies.
My goal was to raise and preserve all my own food.
At this point I'm not sure how much I can save.
Perhaps I will shift my idea to purchase as much as I can at the pick your own and farmers market and still can and freeze what we need for the winter.

Curious about my potatoes, I harvested a few and sure enough....some were holey and home to something.
What a let down. We've always had success in the past with our gardens.
It has truly been a learning experience.
We were able to enjoy many types of lettuces. The beetles don't seem to like lettuce.
Chard on the other hand, they devoured.
I'm going to take a few pics today in the garden so I can share with you the devastation and what the little buggers look like.
At first the kids thought they were pretty yellow ladybugs. Nope!!

I'm thinking of selling most of my sewing supplies, including hundreds of yards of fabric. My neurologist has told me that I need a new hobby. I'm pretty sure the computer was also on the list of what not to do. I'm still considering. I enjoy sewing so much, as well as my time chatting with new online friends. Yet I would like to explore new things. Maybe a little volunteer work is in my future. There is a local womens shelter and I do have past experience with domestic violence.

I'm trying to be more compassionate.
The little man smashed his finger in the truck door last night.
It was a sleepless night for all. I will admit I enjoy when they still allow me to mother them :)

Off to confront those beetles.

On Pandemics and Homeschooling

I find this particularly interesting this morning. I was especially moved by the replies.


"These are the bits and pieces I agree with...
We may not be able to save the world but we can make educated choices. About what we eat and where it comes from. What we do, and how we build a sustainable lifestyle that our children can emulate and improve upon. Be the people we want our children to become. "

"In order to not mentally make myself sick,I learned to pick my battles to worry about and mainly I learned that I can not save the whole world and that some things I just am not able to do anything about."

I'm not going to panic. Just going to keep it calm and keep on moving forward.
I'll panic about the little things :)

On another note, I really don't care for public schools. This is putting it lightly.
My teenage daughter has literally begged me to take her out of school.
and iI'd love to have the little ones home with me as well.
We might also get a whole lot less of whatever is going around. It's a vicious cycle with five children.
My little guy stays home with me. He has an anaphylactic reaction to nuts and we carry epipens with us everywhere. I do not trust the school to keep him safe. Not for one second.

I think I will focus on learning my options. Unschooling is what I lean toward, but I need to do my research. If I don't go that direction...there is a montessori school twenty minutes away.

Here I'm sharing some pics from our last garden before we moved from Idaho. This was shared with the sweet older couple living next door. They were a wealth of informaion. I miss them.

See the Borage.......

broccoli, cauliflower, berries, squash

beans cukes, peas, strawberries

The little guy helps

As for the infestation of us. I am considering cutting all of my hair off. All.

I was concerned about how I would look and how my hubby would respond to it..

I expressed my concern to my hubby and he said let me tell you a secret....then he whispered

"I like you naked". Hahahahahahahahaha.

Ok, I get it. Get over it and stop stressing. It's just hair.

Planting the Gardens

We are only a few steps away from planting.
The compost/manure/mulch.................is mixed in with the top layer of soil.
The center path is dug out and looking beautiful.
The kids and I made a game of everything today.
We dug the middle row from the garden, but before we could do that evenly we tied it off with string, making two race lanes :)
That was fun.
Then we made a path all around the garden about a foot or foot and a half from the fence.
The imaginary fence I mean, lol so we can get around the rows once they are growing.
About the fence....
We haven't gotten quite that far. Takes cash we don't quite have yet.
We know it's a must. The deer make themselves far too comfy in our backyard as well as the cats, the chickens, raccoons, and other............varmints :)
Kiddos and I have decided to sew up a scarecrow.
That's the easy part.

The companion gardening is what has me frustrated.
Almost enough to just toss it all out and plant where they land. Oh I wish I weren't such a perfectionist. My uncle use to tell me I was a tad neurotic.....I know he was sugar coating it.
It's how I was raised. If I didn't do it right the first time.....my stepdad made me do it twenty more just for the fun of it.
These days I'm thankful. I hated that man back then. Maybe still do, yet he taught me endurance, perseverance, and patience. He wasn't patient. I learned to be.
Whoa I just got a flashback memory of painting the shed.....and painting it again the right way..

Today my garden space increased a bit.
It is 80'x50' . Was 70'x50, but we cut down a tree that was growing sideways.
The earth there was so rich and beautiful. The pine needles did a glorious job of creating some truly amazing soil. I'm going to plant strawberries in that spot. I'm allergic to them, but what a treat for the kiddos.
Maybe I'll mock up a drawing really quick and scan it in.

Our house sits facing East. Maybe it faces West. Honestly I'm not sure which one is supposed to be the front door.
What we call our backyard is on the North side of the house. This where our deck and lounge/activity area is.
The garden is on the North side of the house as well, but it is back in the clearing and is the only large area with no trees overhead.
It faces South. There is a gently slope toward the house and this will make for good drainage.
It will have a nice wind blowing across for good ventilation as the plants grow. I've made the rows going north to south.
I wasn't sure if this was logical, but I was sure hoping. Makes perfect sense to me.
This way everything gets full sun down the row and nothing is shaded.

Right next to the veggie garden is the herb garden. I thought it would be fun to do something more whimsical with this. I dug it in a medallion shape or a circle, with an open end.
It is 28 feet across at it's widest. In the middle is 14 feet of grass. I'm going to put a bistro table and chairs there or maybe put stone in and throw some pillows out there.
I considered a fire pit, but we chose another spot for that.
I can imagine the herbs and flowers in full bloom with me laying in the middle with all the scents mingling in the air as I have the privacy of the living wall. Oh yes I can just imagine that.
Maybe I should have made a full circle so I could hide there from the kids, lol.

My children really are quite wonderful. But this mama needs a break. Just a little one.
Hubby worked for seven days in a row and I'm shocked that I still have my hair.
He may only give me a ten to twenty minute break from the kids now and then, but boy I sure notice when I don't get it. It only takes five minutes of closing my eyes and breathing for a moment to regain my balance and clear my mind of stress. Not all the stress goes away, but I do feel refreshed.

Everyone helped today. Hauling and digging. Working. I hope that the children will understand that their hard work is appreciated and that it will pay off in the end as they see and eat the fruits of their labor.

Here is my list of what's going in the veggie garden. I'm too lazy to alphabetize it for ya.
Please forgive me.
carrot
tomatoes many varieties
cucumber many varieties includin my fave lemon.
squash varieties
melons oh so many including moon and stars mmmmmmmm
greens lettuce, spinach, etc...........
broccoli
cauliflower
celeriac
celery
cabbage
peas
beans
radishes
peppers varieties including chocolate YUM
asparagus
rutabagas
parsnips
peas
onions
leeks
pumpkin
kale
kohlrabi
strawberries
raspberry bushes outside the garden
blueberry bushes outside the garden

Some are cool weather crops that won't go in until fall or late summer and I might have forgotten some for now. I've been digging the day away and am not thinking very clearly. In a good way.

We also have several fruit trees, yet we do not know their age or their overall condition.
We will have to wait and see how they perform.

In the herb garden (several of these will also go in the garden between veggies)
anise
borage
calendula(marigold)
chamomile
thyme
mints (contained deeply underground)
fennel (isolated)
parsley
coriander/cilantro
basil mmmmmmmmmmmm
rosemary
wormwood
comfrey
stevia
lemonbalm
chives
dill
coneflower
marjoram
sage
chives
epazote
lovage
cumin-nigella sativa
chervil
mullein (still not sure on this one) I use to take a mullein tincture
sweet annie(ambrosia)
yarrow
mexican tarragon

I might add more as I find things I like. I'm hoping to make the farmers market this next weekend.

I would like a green tea plant, but I think I'd need several to make a go of it.
At $25 a plant, I'm not thinking that's frugal when I can buy tea at the natural market for pennies yet at the same time I do want to be self sufficient so we'll see.



I'm going to save here while I try and whip up something to scan.
I will also add what makes good companions and what to keep far apart.

Garden Planning

It's a beautiful day. The kiddos and hubby let me sleep in.
And.........................hubby made breakfast. Oh I think I'm in heaven, lol.

Today I will sit down with all my lists and plan out this garden.
I'm going to be trying some companion gardening so it's going to be work this first time.
Next year it will be easy. I hope. ;)

I'll try to put up pics of my finished plan tonight.
I am so excited to get these plants out of my sewing room.
I have some picnic quilts to make.
We discovered laying out on the grass is not such a great idea.
*scratch scratch*

I also discovered there is a whole colony(heh-heh) of sticker weeds out there, hiding in the tall grass just waiting for my bare foot to come near. ouch!!


ETA.........I mowed the lawn. I must say that's a useful way to shut the brain off.
The chickens were chasing me around the property.
I got absolutely no planning done. :)

Is it Spring yet?

Madness.....that's what it's been like around here.

Sometimes I find no words that make sense...no matter how I try, lol....it's this theory I have about childbirth and brain cells...but it's my story, heheh.

My seedlings are reaching, reaching, reaching their little necks out for some sunshine, only it's not to be found. Gray skies....that's all we've had.

Veggie seedlings

This morning my little man woke me up and said "mama it snowed", sure enough.....outside was a blanket of white. Crazy Oregon weather.

Thought I would again share some pics of recent goings on.

Got the chance to sew up a pair of gardening gloves from Weekend Sewing, did I already mention that? It's so not easy to photograph ones own hand with only 50mm or 85 mm lenses ;)

Once I had a fabric stash the nearly size of Canada(no joke), but slowly it's been shrinking...it's hard to see some of it go, yet we really needed to put the money toward immediate needs.

not much left in the way of hard to finds and what I do have...is for me.

This is probably not even an 1\8 of my stash

These are my knits. Some of them, lol.

You can't see the lower shelves of all eco fabrics, my hemp jerseys etc........ love love love those.....you can find them here.

I was very selfish and frivolous.....not there anymore... I've had this stash for a few years...

Favorite Vw's....love VW's and someday I'm going to have a real one, not barbie sized :)

short sleeve camp shirts

My reliable workhorse....rocketeer

My baby..featherweight

I'm looking forward to some princess and the pea fabric soon to make the girls some nightgowns.

Heather Ross's far far away line.

I haven't been buying fabric......sort of learned my lesson and am far too frugal these days to pay much for fabric unless it's for a special occasion or something much needed.

Too often I would buy and hoard all the popular fabrics and I wouldn't even sew them up.

Too afraid to cut into them.

I have more of a thing for vintage fabrics and even sheets...I cut those up with great joy.

We were able to rototill the garden spot a bit this past weekend before it starting pouring.

That's the plan for the coming week. Rototill and get the raised beds made.

I've made several tomato cages out of fencing I found out in the woods.

I also made some cute ladder type trellises out of limbs that were cut from the trees.

:) need to take pics of those.

Here are a few random pics.

mama made blueberry banana rice milk smoothies.....

These are little mushroom planters made of terracotta.



Newest member of our family.


Fresh eggs every morning.......

Plotting.......???????

Bad kitty (Don't worry, this doesn't happen anymore)

Likes to be the squirter, not the squirtee

You ever see that cartoon with the two bunnies...the "what?" one, lmao........

It's Raining it's Pouring

and hailing, and snowing, and hailing again and then snowing, heheh.
The sun is teasing me, peeking through the clouds, then disappearing....
I am itching to get outside and plant my garden. It's time to dig into the sweet rich earth.
However.....I have the flu...yep. My children are so very generous. They share each and every little virus ;) Yes, sweet little darlings.
For now I sit in my house gazing out the window with anticipation, tea tree oil on my ears and a bowl of steaming eucalyptus water on my lap.
In a little while I will go back to my chair in the corner near the bookshelf and pour over the seed catalogs and my organic gardening magazine. I will lose myself in the stack of books on composting, biodynamic gardening, seed saving, preserving, etc...... as my littlest one sleeps nearby, fighting the flu himself.

Here are some great resources for seeds, tubers, etc...
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/
http://www.territorialseed.com/
http://www.fedcoseeds.com/
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.victoryseeds.com/
http://www.abundantlifeseeds.com/
https://www.highmowingseeds.com/
http://www.seedsofchange.com/default.asp


One of my sweeties, the nuturing one