Heidi's Blog

2011-07-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Garden - July 31

When I took these photo, I didn't realize the flash was on, so they look a little weird.

The corn has really taken off and is starting to get it's tassels. We should have some sweet corn pretty soon.

The pumpkin growing amongst the corn is a Rouge Vif d' Etampes.

Italian plums are starting to ripen. This is the first year that I really have a crop. They don't get as purple as I thought they would when ripe. They are almost too sweet when soft. I've been picking and eating them when they are pretty hard. It only takes two bites to eat one and the pit comes out clean.

Chrissie hanging out under the tangerine tree.

Sid made two new bee blocks this spring, that's five blocks in total now and they are almost completely full. The population in our garden has grown a lot over the past 4 years. Now I hope we can find someone who wants to rent the house and garden, so those bees have something to eat.

2011-06-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

June 2011
Snapping turtle mother at my parent's home.

She traveled from the ponds near my parent's home and laid her eggs under a bush in their yard. Looks like there are going to be a lot of snapping turtles in the area in a few months. Make sure you wear shoes in the yard!

"Females travel over land to find sandy soil in which to lay their eggs, often some distance from the water. After digging a hole, the female typically deposits 25 to 80 eggs each year, guiding them into the nest with her hind feet and covering them with sand for incubation and protection. Incubation time is temperature-dependent, ranging from 9 to 18 weeks. In cooler climates, hatchlings overwinter in the nest." - wikipedia.org

2011-04-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

New Chicken videos

This video is pretty long, but the chickens are extra cute.

Preening under the lilac tree.

More of the same, but different

Eating scratch.

Chrissie making some noise.

Chrissie checking out Lu.

2011-02-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

More eggs...

Blondie's first egg was this Thursday, Feb. 10th. It had some little dark specks on the larger end. We only got 2 eggs from her, so far. 2/10 & 2/11. She is already taking a break. I think I know who the slacker is.

Chrissie's first egg was today, Sunday, Feb. 12. It's lighter in color from Blondie's eggs, kind of pinkish. You can really see the color difference below.

Here is a sampling of eggs. Besides colors, you can really see a difference in shapes and sizes. If you look at the detail of this photo, you can see some weights that we wrote on them in grams. Biggest so far is 46 grams from Siouxsie. She as laid everyday so far, eight! Such a good girl.

2011-02-05T08:01:00.001-08:00

Week 24 - We have an egg! - February, 5th 2011 - 7:30am PT

The tiny blue egg is from Siouxsie. The brown one is just a dummy egg, so they understood where to lay their eggs, but it is also a good comparison of the size. Because she is new at this whole egg laying thing, it will take awhile for her eggs to get bigger. It's a pretty grayish, blue.

This photo isn't very good, but I wanted to weight it. 1 3/8 ounces. We were expecting Blondie to be the first one to lay, because she is so much bigger than the other two. Siouxsie is actually the bottom of the pecking order and the smallest. YAY!

2011-01-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

Heidi's Birthday Present from The Bleuler's

Sid's parents sent me this great painting that Hugo painted in 2009. I love his work. When we visited during the summer, this was one of my favorites.

Our gallery is getting big thanks to them. Well maybe not big, but it's three more than we had a year ago. Sid also has a couple of Hugo's abstract paintings. I'll post those at another time.

Thanks Karla and Hugo!

2011-01-15T14:40:00.000-08:00

New Videos for the New Year

There are 3 videos here, but I uploaded more to YouTube. Out Of Order Acres YouTube

Chrissie really likes Lu. He doesn't really know what to do when she chases him. I still need to get a really good video of her chasing him.

Eating yogurt with their regular feed. They love it.

Checking out the cat door. I'm waiting for one of them to figure out how to get in the house.

2010-12-12T17:41:00.000-08:00

Updated Videos and Still waiting for the first egg...

Sid and I were outside with the camera and the lens caught the light and the chickens went crazy. By the time Sid went in to get the video camera they were not as interested any more.

2010-12-11T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is a make-shift chicken tractor that i put together with some concrete reinforcing wire. (usually used as tomato cages) some shade cloth and whatever i had around to block the ends. There are plenty of weed sprouts to eat and garden bed to fertilize.

2010-11-14T15:13:00.001-08:00

First time in the new coop. It was Thorty's dog house, now it's a coop for the girls.

the coop tour

2010-11-14T11:18:00.001-08:00

Chicks in the new coop

Group dust bath

2010-10-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Close ups - Week 10

Siouxsie is starting to get the fluffy cheeks that Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers) get. She is a bit smaller than the other two and I think she might be the bottom of the pecking order. I found Blondie sitting on top of her twice now and Chrissie pecks at her.

Chrissie is really pretty with the Wyandotte's laced feathers. Can't wait to see her all grown up.

Blondie is at the top of the pecking order. She was the same size as Siouxsie for a long time and then grew really fast. Now she is bigger than Chrissie. I'll weigh them later this weekend.

2010-10-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

Chicks at 9 Weeks

The chicks should start laying eggs around 20-24 weeks.

2010-10-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Carbon checking out the chicken tractor

2010-10-10T14:30:00.001-07:00

Chicks week 6

Chicks eating tomatoes

2010-10-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

Chicks get some grass sprouts

I started growing some of the pasture seed, in a container for the chicks. They destroyed most of it. I'm going to re-do the lawns with this new chicken Omega-3 pasture seed, so they have plenty to graze on.

2010-10-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

New small chicken tractor

Built a small tractor so the chicks could enjoy the outdoors without me babysitting.

2010-10-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

Chicks Week 4

The chicks hear something and stop peeping. Of course, Chrissie is busy taking a dust bath and doesn't even notice.

Bondie finds a leaf.

2010-09-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Chicks Week 3 Videos

Chrissie taking a dust bath.

Chicks come when I call them.

2010-09-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

Week 3 chicks

Blondie

Siouxsie

Chrissie

2010-09-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

Introducing...

Siouxsie (Susie), Blondie, and Chrissie. We finally came up with some names for the peeps. They are getting some wing and tail feathers. They changed so much in just one week.

2010-09-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Chicks day 2 - new water and food system.

2010-09-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

2010-09-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Extending the Family

The brown chick is what they are calling an "Ameraucana", but really it's a hybrid. Easter Egg is a more correct variety name. She will lay blue or green eggs.
Grey/Black chick is a Silver Laced Wyandotte. Will have black and white lacy feathers.
Yellow girl is a Delaware. She will grow up to be white with some black accents.

Close up of the Easter Egg chick. I'll post more photos once they get settled in. It's been a long day for them.

2010-07-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

Summer Road Trip 2010

House in Lower Salem, Ohio

House and garage with a summer kitchen. (They didn't want to heat the house up while canning the summer's harvest, so they would have a kitchen detached from the home.)

Looking up the driveway at the shop and barns. The tan building to the right has a walk-in cooler where livestock was butchered.

Looking down the driveway at the house and a couple of the outbuildings.

The HUGE shop. Sid had the biggest smile on his face when he saw this building.

View from the shop to the house.

The large bank barn. (Bank barn on wikipedia)

The barn from below. There are 3 buildings with beautiful slate shingles.

The pastures are ready for animals.

2009-12-27T18:38:00.000-08:00

Homemade gnocchi

Made some gnocchi with the potatoes that I thought would go bad before I could use all of them. I'll freeze some of them so we can eat them at a later date.

2009-12-23T21:28:00.000-08:00

Sid and Carbon napping

Sid and Carbon had a little nap yesterday. Button is at the other end of the couch.

2009-12-09T12:41:00.000-08:00

Little Dog that we found

She's a lost little girl. No collar or license. She was shivering from being cold so I quickly made her a little snuggie. She seems to love it.

She didn't get a long well with the other dogs at first, but now they are good friends.

OK, Button is not thrilled with her, but she is tolerating her.

Carbon likes her a lot because she is in season. Lots of sniffing butts going on here.

2009-11-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

Produce Bags

I made some produce bags, so I don't have to use the plastic grocery bags anymore. I made them in a variety of sizes.

2009-11-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

Button and Carbon looking cute

Button loves fleece blankets and today I guess she was cold.

Carbon got a little jealous so he had to try to up the cuteness.

I think he just wanted to disturb Button, she jumped off the couch right after this. He was whipping her with his tail.

2009-11-13T14:51:00.000-08:00

Whole Wheat Bread

The loaf after rising is ready for the oven.

Yummy warm whole wheat bread.

2009-11-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

November Lilacs???

Why are the Lilacs blooming in November. This means I won't have any flowers this spring. They didn't fully develop, so they kind of mutated.

2009-10-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Carving 2009

Sketch of pumpkin idea

Bad photo of carved pumpkin.

2009-10-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Pre-Carved Pumpkins

I didn't grow any pumpkins this year. So, we went to the local pumpkin patch and sorted through the fields to find our picks. We plan on carving them soon. I picked the little one and Sid picked the "Big Boy".

2009-10-06T15:42:00.001-07:00

Territorial Lane Part 3

Living room with wood stove.

Other side of living room.

The kitchen.

Second bathroom.

Second bedroom.

Master bathroom.

Master bedroom.

2009-10-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

Territorial Lane Part 2

Looking south from the porch at the barn and fields. Click on the image to see the property line better.

The rest of the field panning right. The fence directly in the front is for the current owner's dogs. It will work nicely for our dogs too.

The large shop connected to the stables and arena.

There are 6 horse stables that could be converted for goats.

The covered large arena.

King Estate Vineyard is a 1000 plus acres of organic grapes and veggies, that is directly across the road from this property. To see some views that we will be enjoying, scroll to the bottom of this page, http://www.kingestate.com/tradepress/image_library/index.php.

Next to the shop is a room that is called a greenhouse. It's really just a room with some translucent panels facing west.

2009-10-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

Territorial Lane - Eugene, Or

Google map overhead of property. I highlighted the property line. It's 15 acres mostly fields for haying and grazing, but there is a little stand of trees behind the house. Mostly Oaks and Doug Fir. Not a lot of blackberries or poison oak. YAYS.

Looking up at the house from the wrap around driveway. The barn is behind me.

The side of the house looking towards the fields.

Backside of the house and carport. That's the current owner.

The front porch. It looks over the barn and fields.

2009-09-19T12:53:00.001-07:00

Clouds

The clouds were amazing today.

2009-09-16T14:19:00.000-07:00

Falcon

I'm pretty sure this is a Peregrine Falcon. It flew in and hung out on our fence until the dogs ran outside. Wish I could have gotten a better photo.

2009-09-14T14:18:00.000-07:00

Puppy dog legs

Lots of legs in one place. How do they keep track of them? Silly dogs

2009-09-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

New Kitchen Faucet

Seems like I'm always installing a new kitchen faucet. The last two started leaking from the handle connection area. They were the same model faucet and both failed within 6 months of installing it. I took it back to Lowes without a receipt or the box. They swiped my credit card and saw that I had purchased it and refunded me. I was surprised. This new faucet was a lot easier to install. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

2009-08-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

Popcorn de-cobbed

Lu helped me of course. I separated the red kernels from the multi-color kernels, but they are the same variety. I guess I mix them all together at some point.

2009-08-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Tomatoes and Sunflower

Five varieties of tomatoes fresh from the garden today. Martino Roma, Polish Linguisa, Jersey Devil, Olpaka, and Heidi.

We are going to get lots of sunflower seeds from this huge flower. No wonder it's called Mammoth.

2009-08-19T14:08:00.001-07:00

Test Pop

I did a test pop today. 6 out of 20 is not great. I think they need to dry out a little bit more. I'll try another test pop in a couple of days.

2009-08-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Cochiti Pueblo Popcorn

Some of the popcorn harvest and the seed packet I got from another Seed Saver member.

Purple, white, and yellow all on one cob.

Terra cotta colored ears. They are all the same variety, but some stalks produce the multicolored ears and others the rust colored ones. I'll dry them out and pop some of the corn. Maybe I'll put some of the homemade butter melted over it. mmmmmm

2009-08-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

Bee Block Making

Sid decided he would make me a new bee block for the garden, yesterday.

Drilling the holes where the bees will lay their larvae.

All done. It's beautiful.

Mounting it on the garden fence.

Vacancies available. - Thanks Baby!!!

2009-08-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

Bread

Here is the lucky homemade loaf that got slathered with the yummy butter.

2009-08-08T13:09:00.000-07:00

Cultured Butter Making

I started making this butter on Thursday. I didn't get a photo of the first step, which is putting heavy cream in a bowl and letting it ferment at 60 degrees for hours. I added some raw whole milk to help with the fermentation.

Today I put the cream in a sterile mason jar and shook for about 8-10 minutes. The above picture was the result.

After pouring off the buttermilk, which I saved, the butter goes into a bowl. I'm going to make some buttermilk pancakes with the real buttermilk.

Now all the buttermilk needs to be washed out of the butter. It took several washing to have the water run clear.

All done. The butter is room temperature, so it's very soft.

I added a little salt, weighed it (almost 8 oz)...

... and rolled it in parchment paper and put it in the fridge. I'm going to bake some bread later today and try out the butter.

For more info about making cultured butter read How to Make Butter and Buttermilk article from Mother Earth News.

2009-07-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

In the garden today, July 30, 2009

The sunflower is huge. As the seeds develop it gets more bulbous.

It is getting very top heavy. This is a photo taken from directly underneath.

The bee block is a big hit this year too. The most desirable holes are almost completely filled. I think I need to make another block this week.

Pomegranates are looking good this year.

Pimientos de Padrón peppers are growing pretty well. I got the pepper plants in the ground late so they are just starting to produce. Emily is waiting for me to bring her a big bag of these beauties. This one is ready to be picked. Happy Quail Farms has more info about this pepper and it's origin.

2009-07-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Kevin & Aimee's Wedding

Pre-wedding photo of Sid and me.

Aimee being walked down the aisle by her mom. Her sister and aunt are in the background.
The happy couple. Mr. & Mrs. Cole.

2009-07-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

July 20th sunflower

2009-07-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

Big sunflower opening

I measured the sunflower's height today. I was 95 inches. Almost 8 feet tall.

2009-07-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Garden stuff

This one stalk of popcorn has at least 8 cobs on it. This main stalk also has 2 more stalks from the base that has more cobs.

The popcorn tassels are strange on this variety. It seems confused. It has silk and a little corn like cob, but the rest of it is the tassel with the pollen that falls on the silk of the cobs to fertilize.

This is a big sunflower that is about to open up.

2009-07-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

Tall sunflower and some corn

The sunflower is getting huge and the popcorn is starting to get it's tassels.

Almost each plant has grown several stalls from one seed. Hope to have lots of popcorn for the rest of the year. I'm planting some white corn for us to eat and freeze for the winter.

2009-06-28T21:44:00.001-07:00

The Goats text

I had some trouble with the first post of this image. This is an image that you can enlarge and read.

2009-06-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

Goat Cheese

After milking the goats we washed up with Goat Milk Soap and went to the cheese making room. There is a batch of cheese hanging in the far sink. They hang it to separate the curds from the whey. The whey is in the buckets under the sink. It will be fed back to the goats.

After trying some of the cheese we went to the shop and got some ricotta, chevre and a new mug for tea. It was wrapped in the pretty purple tissue paper.

The goats on their way into the barn. The owner thought it might have been too hot for them in the fields. It was an unusually warm day for Pescadero.

2009-06-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Harley Farms

We went on a tour at Harley Dairy Goat Farm today. While we were waiting for the tour to start I found this sign that spoke about the The Goats. If you enlarge it you will be able to read it.

This is the first baby goat we came across. She was very sweet and wanted to suckle on Sid's knuckle.

We got to go out into the fields and hang with the goats. They come right over to you wanting to be pet just like a dog.

These are American Alpine goats. They come in many different colorings. Some have long hair all over, others, like this gal, has a patch of long hair along her spine and hind quarters.

Sid wishing he had a tractor.

They have 3 Llamas to protect the goats. They will spit in a Mountain Lion's eyes and kick it until it leaves.

Another pretty goat. Number 26 to be exact. Most of the goats don't have names.

The farm has about 220 milking does. They love to climb. Here is a pair on top of the chicken tractor.

Everyone got a shot at milking a goat. It was really easy. Sid was a pro his first try.

2009-05-26T20:47:00.001-07:00

No water, no crops

On Sunday, we went back to the Tenmile property to talk to the neighbors. They said the well did not have good flow. 1.5 gallons per minute. We decided to give up on this site. Our agent will keep looking for us and we will wait for something better to come along.

2009-05-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

Tenmile property

This was our favorite property. It is 45 acres and about 10 of those are pretty flat pastures. This is some of the pasture area near the barn.

This is looking from the the right side of the house, down towards the barn.

There are several different fenced off areas. We think they had sheep. The fence is in really good shape.

This is the back side of the house and shop looking from the road.

Sid and Carbon enjoying the pastures. That's a big tongue, Buddy.

2009-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wild Turkeys in Roseburg

On our morning walk, in a nearby neighborhood, we saw a couple of wild turkeys. The dogs didn't see them, so Sid was able to get a pretty good picture. Rhododendrons are in bloom and almost every house in this little neighborhood has a few. We don't see too many of those in our part of California, nor wild turkeys.

2009-05-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

Day 1 Road Trip to Oregon

Button and Carbon enjoying the long ride to Oregon. This is somewhere near Redding, CA.

Mount Shasta, were almost to the Oregon border.

The rolling hills of Roseburg, OR. Tomorrow we are 'site' seeing

2009-05-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Second Compost Pile

Sid and I made our second compost pile yesterday. I started a small pile last week, but it just wasn't big enough to heat up, so we spread that one out and built on top of it. The pile in the foreground is the one we built last Monday. It started out as big as the one we built yesterday.

2009-05-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

Compost Pile - day 6

The pile has shrunk at least 6 inches since Monday. It's heating up and breaking down.

2009-05-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

30 minute workout

Sid and I built our first compost pile this evening. I made one over the weekend by myself, but Sid needed to learn how to do build them. We had lots of dried leaves from the fall and plenty of vetch, oats and various weeds to complete a 3'x3'x3' pile. It should heat up fast and give us compost in a couple of months. We will probably build 2 or 3 more later this week or over the weekend. It took us about 30 mins and it was a good workout.

Some of the fodder for the compost pile. CA poppies, flowering radishes and cereal rye.

2009-05-09T15:32:00.000-07:00

Black and Yellow ladybug

Found this little guy on a carrot that is going to seed. Never saw one with yellow markings.

I hope to see more in the garden soon.

2009-05-05T11:39:00.000-07:00

Chickens

On Saturday, I had my last gardening class. For part of the class we went to a local chef's garden. She has 6 chickens who live in a beautiful chicken coop.

The chicken coop has a wire mesh bottom, so the chicken poo can be collected easily for the compost pile.

Egg collecting is easy. There is a hatch that opens directly to the nests.

2009-04-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

Google goats

Update: Google's statement about the goats

After lunch one day as we drove past Google and noticed a field full of goats. They must be using them to "mow" the land. Maybe they will make it into a garden for their employees after the goats are done.

Pretty black and white goat with nice markings. There is one in the background trying to get in the picture.

This was the first goat that came over to the fence to check us out. She really just wanted us to feed her the grasses on the other side of the fence. It was only a little greener.

A young kid who had and identical sister. Those ears are bigger than Carbon's.

This Osprey was making quite a ruckus before it took off. I was lucky to get this shot. I don't think he could take down even a small goat.

2009-04-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

Wisteria

The neighbors have a large, out of control wisteria vine. They are really beautiful this time of the year. The bees love them too.

2009-04-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

Edible garden class - week 4 - Composting

Bottom layer consists of sticks and other larger pieces of vegetation, like these cauliflower stalks.

Then a layer of straw or some other browns.

Followed by a layer of greens. Greens are food scrapes, grass clippings...

A thin layer of soil.

The next was a layer of mixed straw and chicken manure. I didn't get a good photo of the final pile.

2009-04-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

New dog toy

I bought this new toy for the dogs with a high recommendation from the kid at the store who also has a 4 year old female Lab. It has a toughness ranking of 9 out of 10. This is how it looked after 5 minutes with Button. It does seem to be much stronger than most toys, but if we are going to have it longer than a day, I'm going to need to monitor playtime...

OK... So, when I went to get a photo of her with the toy I found this...

the squeaker, some stuffing and the "luggage-tough" edging. Oh well, I could take it back for a refund or I could just let her destroy the rest of it.

Button on top of the dog house with her toy.

Update: Carbon's nail is doing fine now.

2009-04-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

Cracked Nail

Poor boy. We are going to the vet tomorrow morning.

2009-04-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

Carbon's bad day

Carbon messed up his nail somehow. He tracked in a bloody trail.

I'm going to let nature take it's course and not pull the nail off right now.

2009-03-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

Making cheese and then pirogies

I decided to start trying to make cheese. I'm starting with the simple fresh cheeses like cottage cheese. I started on Saturday and finished Sunday afternoon. It takes about 24 hours to make small curd cottage cheese. This is a photo of the curd being heated in a water bath.

Hanging the curd and draining the whey. I used the whey to make a batch of ricotta cheese. The leftover whey is going to be given to the dogs over the next couple of days.

Final cottage cheese. I didn't rinse it so it has a tangy taste to it. Perfect for making cheese pirogies.

Starting to make pirogies.

The first pirogi waits for the boiling water. The rolling pin was hand made by my friend John Fetterman. Thanks John!

Finally some pirogies to eat. Yum.

2009-03-21T16:22:00.001-07:00

Lilac with 5 petals

The white lilac has many flowers with 5 petals instead of 4. I believe 4 petals are more common.

2009-03-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

Tomato Seeds in Flats

Last weekend I built these seed flats and today I planted my tomato seeds. I planted my chile pepper seeds about 4 weeks ago. You can kind of see it under the shade cloth to the right. Most of those have germinated. Peppers take a lot longer to get start then tomatoes.

This is a photo of my gardening notebook where I detail what I planted, when, where and how. I will also keep track of which plants do better than others, when the first tomatoes are harvested and many other details. These should be ready to plant in the garden by May 1 give or take a week.

2009-03-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

Week 3 of Edible gardening class

We discussed seeds, planting seeds, transplanting seedlings and planting seedlings in to the garden.

This is a set of spacing sticks that someone made for our teacher. In biointensive gardening it is important to space plants properly in order to create a living mulch. The living mulch will help ensure the correct environment for the plants by keeping in moisture and shading out weeds.

It's a 4 inch spacing for parsnips.

2009-03-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Lilacs, plum blossoms and vetch flowers

This is a lilac flower in it's early stage.

Then it starts to look more like the lilac flowers we know.

Finally it opens and lets loose it's beautiful fragrance.

The purple lilac is always a little behind in development compared to the white variety I have.

Plum blossoms.

Common vetch is a legume that I plant as a cover crop. The flowers attract bees and the roots put nitrogen back into the soil.

2009-03-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

Puppy training class
I stopped by the pet store after my gardening class and there was a puppy training session going on. I thought this pup was cute.

2009-03-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

Speckle Trout and peas

Forellenschuss is the name of this lettuce. The greener leaves are from the shaded plant and the dark red is the plant that was in full sun. It's a very pretty lettuce. I also harvested some shelling peas today.

2009-02-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

Mysterious Mushrooms

Found about 5 of these funky mushrooms in the garden today.

Maybe they are fungus. Here's another example.

2009-02-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

Plum blossoms and a light dusting

The neighbor's plum tree is fully blooming right now. It's about 30 feet tall.

When the petals fall off it looks like we got a light dusting of snow.

2009-02-09T17:38:00.000-08:00

Dehydrating Oregano

I dry oregano to use when cooking. It's one of those herbs that I think is more diverse when it is dried. This is the before drying photo.

And after 30 hours in the dehydrator.

2009-02-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

Week 2 of my edible gardening class

I'm taking a class from Common Ground in Palo Alto on Edible gardening. There are 5 classes that take place over 5 months. This is the demonstration garden on week 2.

We started the class at the store/classroom and then went to the garden to see a double-digging demonstration.

Photo of the cold frame with flats of oats, beets and jerulseum artichokes. There are lots of great classes to take at Common Ground, take a look at the upcoming class list.

2009-01-31T20:30:00.000-08:00

Peas and Carrots

This appears to be the first pea of the season.

Some of the carrots I transplanted from seedlings. They seem to be stunted and not very impressive. I think I'll stick to direct seeding carrots from now on.

2009-01-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

More Scottie dogs

This is Lisa's new girl. Her name is still to be determined. I believe this is the first pee outside photo.

Pretty girl!

The whole Scottie gang. Duncan is in front, Fiona is behind him and the new girl's butt.

2009-01-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

Fortune Cookies

I was looking at all the stuff on the refrigerator and really liked the fortunes I had posted. The bottom one is my most recent. It's also my favorite.

2009-01-26T14:13:00.000-08:00

New couch cover

We got a new couch cover this weekend. The seat cushions are one piece and the bulk of the couch is the other piece. We had to use some zip ties to make it all work, but overall I think it will be a better cover for all of us.

2009-01-24T19:41:00.000-08:00

Rain in the garden

A pea blossom with rain drops.

Tangerines are ready to pick. You would think that such a sunny tasting fruit would ripen in the summer.

2009-01-19T17:37:00.000-08:00

Baby Scottie

I went with my friend Lisa today to check out a new Scottish Terrier pup. She was very pretty and so cute. Lots of kiss and bouncing. Lisa will now have 3 Scotties. You remember Duncan and Fiona.

2009-01-18T15:11:00.000-08:00

Peas and broccoli

One of the first blossoms on the peas. The weather has been really nice here lately and things are growing well.

Some pea tendrils.

One little broccoli floret. That's not enough for a stir fry.

2009-01-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

Cold Thyme

The temperature at night has been getting pretty cold. We had frost on the lawn a few mornings and all the heat loving plants have turned brown and dead. Thyme is a pretty hardy plant, however it has turned from a deep green to a dark purple. The plant is still living and will turn green again once the weather turns warmer.

2009-01-10T15:01:00.000-08:00

Before and After Button

Aunt Becky stopped by with Christmas presents for Button, Carbon and Lu. Both dogs got rope toys and Lu got kitty treats. They all love their gifts. Button had a great time chewing, ripping, and completely destroying her rope. Carbon's still looks brand new with it's tag attached even.

2009-01-08T18:07:00.000-08:00

Fondue

We had cheese fondue the other night in our Swiss made pot. The whole setup was a present from Sid's parents. His mom also provided the recipe we use. It's really good, but it's not something you can eat everyday and I like cheese!

From this angle you can see the cross design on the pot. An even better photo can be seen on Robert's site.

2009-01-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

Pea tendrils and other garden scenes

This is a tendril from one of the Tall Telephone pea plants.

Last year I didn't save the radish seeds from most of the plants, because I had several different varieties growing at the same time. When I pulled out the old plants I didn't worry about collecting the seeds. The yard near the garden bed has a lawn of radishes, California poppies and some broccoli.

The oregano is starting to get new leaves. I harvested a bunch this weekend and put it in the dehydrator. It's perfect for tomato sauces and such.

Lettuce plants have seeds that kind of look like dandelions seeds with the fuzzy end. I didn't get to collect too much seed, but many fell on the nearby soil. This is one of them growing on it's own.

This is one of the biggest broccoli plants, so far this year.

2009-01-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

Before and After

This is one of the larger Rouge Vif d' Etampes pumpkins from this year. It is about to become a pie.

Pumpkin roasting in the oven.

Finally, pie!

2008-12-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

Peas and Carrots

The peas are getting pretty tall now, 18" - 20". Some are growing on the trellis I set up and others are climbing the old raspberry canes. By the way, I picked a fresh raspberry this morning. I don't think I'll get anymore this year.

This is a detail of one of the carrots. I harvested about 7 peppers this morning. Mostly Black Hungarian and one Belecskai.

2008-11-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

Strawberries in November

The strawberry plant is still producing some berries. There aren't as many but they are still a nice size and sweet.

2008-11-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

Scottie dogs

My friend Lisa has 2 Scottish terriers. This is Duncan in mid-bark or snarl. He wanted to play with the basketball or kill a squirrel. He would have been happy doing either.

Fiona has long beautiful eyebrows.

This is Duncan look less intimidating.

I thought only old men had eye brows that long.

Duncan had enough, he's outta here. For more photos of the Scottie, see the dog overflow blog.

2008-11-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin harvest

I decide the pumpkins were ready for harvest. They didn't get as dark orange as I thought, but I compared them to some other pumpkins I saw recently and decided they were ready. There is one more still on the vine. It got a later start.

Peas are about 7 inches tall now and reached the bottom of the trellis.

The largest of the broccoli plants.

2008-11-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

Buttons favorite place to sleep

Button loves to fall asleep behind in the bend of your knees. She looks so content there. It's actually a nice place for her to fall asleep. It keeps your butt warm and isn't very intrusive.

I need to figure out a new routine for taking photos of the garden for winter. By the time I get home it's dark and I don't want to take flash photos of things. I guess I need to wake up earlier and get some morning images.