The three day weekends

Well, Memorial Day is here at last! Mother Nature has gifted us with a gorgeous weekend, and we're taking advantage of it here. Yesterday was devoted to some necessary, though rarely enjoyable tasks.

The morning went to butchering rabbits - yes, even on a holiday weekend that has to be done! Thirteen rabbits, all of them with beautiful pelts and nicely sized. After than I ran into the Village for a much needed haircut, then back home to tackle the rabbit once more! All of the meat is now parted out and more than half of it is wrapped and in the freezer. I think I'll try to get the remainder done later today.

Mike's knee is healing, and he's been getting around without crutches since Monday. Some days are better than others, but on the whole the knee is better than before the surgery. Wednesday is the followup visit, and we'll find out where we go from here. Otherwise, he has exercises from the physical therapist with a couple more weekly visits before he's free to proceed on his own.

We had a wonderful dinner last night. Mike grilled up some chicken and rabbit - and we were both thrilled to find out that my treatment of both of them addressed the worry of overly dry meat! A little oil, my special spice mixture and Mike's careful grilling turned out mouthwatering spicy grilled skinless chicken legs and thighs and lean rabbit quarters. Yummy. Accompanying that was the first pasta salad of the season!

Tomorrow we're going to be grilling out again - brats this time! We picked up a watermelon, and a friend might be coming down from Buffalo to hang out for a bit with her dog. Pollux should love that!

On to some farm news.

On the poultry front, we have 25 day old chicks coming in a couple of weeks. We're getting 11 Barred Rocks, 11 Golden Laced Wyandottes, and 3 Delawares. Here's what will be populating the chicken coop here shortly.






Initially our intention was to get the 25 and perhaps sell most of the pullets once they reached laying age. Well, tragedy struck last weekend, the day after Mike's surgery. A fox and her litter wiped out all but three of our hens. We thought we had lost the entire flock - no one heard a thing until the the last Buckeye squawked and drew out attention to the goings on. Needless to say, neither of us were happy. We're going to be taking a trapping course this summer and over winter we will take advantage of the fact that we are permitted to trap on our property. The predator pressure has been increasing, with raccoon, opossum, coyote and now fox all sighted in our yard.

Starting next week, we're going to a schedule of four 10 hour shifts at work. So, for the duration of the summer, I'll have three day weekends! I'm positive that the long weekends will more than make up for the long days.

Today we're hoping to get the tomatoes and peppers transplanted into the garden, as well as some more seeds planted. We're going to give okra a shot this year - the seeds we picked up are merely 56 days to harvest, and the plants produce until frost! We've a few different recipes to try, and hopefully this is another vegetable to add to our garden permanently.

Well, time to make some blueberry pancakes and get going today!

A pictoral walk through our place

Mike and I took advantage of the explosion of foliage and color last weekend to take some photos as we did our walk through, check on our plants and trees. I thought I'd share the shots!

The first three raised beds for the garden. We took out the pool(way to expensive to upkeep, especially with the lake a mere two miles away) and will fence this in one the remainder of them are built and filled. We have beans, snappeas, beets, radishes, turnips, swiss chard, spinach, mesclun, and lettuces in already. The bed in the foreground will be devoted the tomatoes - we're trying five different varieties this year.


The strawberry tower is coming along wonderfully! These two sides are planted with Tribute strawberries and the opposite two are planted with Ozark Beauties. We have blossoms already coming in, and I think we need to pinch those off to let them get a bit more established.

This is one of the three quinces that were here when we bought our house. We got a couple of fruit off of them last year, but they are jut gorgeous in bloom!

This is one of our raspberry plants. The coloring on the leaves is just breathtaking. We planted 26 starts, and 25 of them are showing new growth. We won't get raspberries this year, but next year...yummm!

This isn't the best shot, but those tiny blossoms are on my currants! My Gramma Jean gave us five rooted cuttings last year, and these babies are just taking off! Can't wait to get some berries this year :)


This is a Black Lace Elderberry. It is extremely ornamental, and Mike planted it below the kitchen windows. It should grow in to create a breathtaking showpiece.

I just love this shot. The foliage of the Peashrub is wonderfully textured, and I love the fact that Mike was able to catch the raindrops clinging to the leaves.

This is one of our two Carpathian Walnut trees. We planted them in the backyard to provide shade, and they're coming on wonderfully.

Isn't this a beautiful shot? this is the Wolf River apple tree(at least, we think that's what it is) that the previous owner planted. Its in full blossom this year, so we might just get some apples!

And this is a cluster of blossoms off of our 4-on-1 apple tree that we planted last year. And is also the reason we might get some apples off the wolf river. It's nice knowing we have a tree that will pollinate that one! We'll have to pinch these off once the blossoming is done - the tree is definitely too young to be letting fruit.


So there you have it. A walkthrough of what we have growing here this year.

Spring is here.

Spring has arrived in glorious fashion. The rising sun spreads a carpet of exploding dandelions across the lush green lawn, blossoms blushed with pink cluster on the apple trees, and the crab apples erupt like fireworks along the roads.

It is gorgeous and affirming, that once again we have made it through the winter.

The chickens scratch amidst leaf litter, announcing their finds with happy chirps and warbles. The rabbits have nests full of babies. A robin has a nest atop a post against the barn and scolds me daily as I go about my chores. Soon she'll be feeding babies from the bugs she finds in the yard.

The trees have finally donned their leaves. One can no longer look deep into the woods behind the house, between naked branches and trunks. Instead a brilliant wall of leaves has filled in - beech and poplar, oak, maple, cherry and birch. The canopies dapple the ground and sing as the wind moves through the leaves.

Soon, soon, vines will climb the trellises in the garden. Beans, snappeas, cucumbers. Seeds unfurl leaves and grow their roots.

It is spring, and I am renewed.

Spring is here.

Spring has arrived in glorious fashion. The rising sun spreads a carpet of exploding dandelions across the lush green lawn, blossoms blushed with pink cluster on the apple trees, and the crab apples erupt like fireworks along the roads.

It is gorgeous and affirming, that once again we have made it through the winter.

The chickens scratch amidst leaf litter, announcing their finds with happy chirps and warbles. The rabbits have nests full of babies. A robin has a nest atop a post against the barn and scolds me daily as I go about my chores. Soon she'll be feeding babies from the bugs she finds in the yard.

The trees have finally donned their leaves. One can no longer look deep into the woods behind the house, between naked branches and trunks. Instead a brilliant wall of leaves has filled in - beech and poplar, oak, maple, cherry and birch. The canopies dapple the ground and sing as the wind moves through the leaves.

Soon, soon, vines will climb the trellises in the garden. Beans, snappeas, cucumbers. Seeds unfurl leaves and grow their roots.

It is spring, and I am renewed.