Gardening: We have tomatoes!!

We have 5 tiny green tomatoes! Our Mountain Pride plants have been flowering for a couple of weeks and today I spotted these small green tomatoes!

I cannot wait to go pick a fresh tomato and have a good ole mater sandwich!

Cooking: Pumpkin Granola Bars

I love homemade granola bars! They're cheaper than store bought ones plus you can control what you put in them. This morning, I took elements of my favorite granola bar recipes and mixed them together. Viola...pumpking granola bars! The ingredient list is fairly long (usually scares me away from making stuff when it has tons of ingredients) but they're well worth the time!

Ingredients:
1-15 ounce can pumpkin 
2 eggs
4 Tbsp butter, melted (I used Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses (pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to make it pourable if you need to)
1 tsp vanilla

Books: A Great Guide to Living Off the Land

My wonderful mother gave me an amazing gift this week, a book, rather a guide to living off the land. Country Wisdom & Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Live Off the Land is full of useful knowledge when attempting to become self-sufficient!

It is broken down into six sections: Animals, Cooking, Crafts, Gardening, Health and Wellbeing, and Home. Each section provides a wealth of knowledge from curing acute health problems naturally to raising livestock, building a root cellar to baking bread. It's amazing. The information this book provides is exactly what I need. Even if you don't plan on living off the land to the extreme, there is a wealth of knowledge that can help you from day to day. In my opinion, every person who picks this book up will learn at least one useful thing they can use.

Gardening: Making Changes in June?

I'm not sure if planting things this late will work out or not but our summer's seem to be lasting longer so let's hope this works. Monday, I hoed up all of my spinach and reworked the squash family plants. All of my spinach had come up right before we started having those 85 degree days then it turned yellow and just looked downright awful. It's a cool weather crop and I missed out on it this year. In my other garden, the crows had found the squash, zucchini, cucumber, and especially the cantaloupe seeds. About half of these plants came up, mostly cucumbers. It will still be plenty to provide our family with fresh vegetables but not enough to store up for the winter. Instead of letting that ground go unused, I moved all the good plants into 2 rows and planted pole beans and pumpkins in the 2 bare rows.


Row 1: Cucumbers, Yellow Squash
Row 2: Zucchini, Pole Beans
Row 3: Cantaloupe, corn
Row 4: Pole Beans, Pumpkins

At first, we weren't too thrilled with the thought of picking beans. Beans are a lot more work than anything else in the garden. Yes, you plant them and tend to them like everything else but then there is the back breaking task of picking them. Then you have to work them up and can them. I finally decided that it will be worth it. So what if we'll have to work a little harder? Our ancestors probably didn't give it a second thought. 

In our attempt to be self reliant, canned beans would help get us through the winter. I don't believe it's possible to go from buying every item you use from the store to being totally self-reliant in a single year so we will still be making weekly trips to the store for milk at the very least. Having some vegetables stored up for the winter is one step closer to our goal.

Photos of Items for Sale

THIS SALE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO LAST THE ENTIRE WEEK or until items are sold! The owner has leased out her house and has to move by July 1st. She has been in this home for 20 years so you should be able to find something you need!

Moving sale Saturday, June 11 at 383 Hubert Norris Road, Boone, NC. On 194N between Todd and Boone! If you are interested in anything you see but can't make it out, feel free to contact me at phoenixmtncreations@gmail.com for more information!

Brown chair and ottoman ($100), Treadmill ($400), Futon ($100), 19" TV ($35), Entertainment Center ($35)

Queen size mattress, box springs, and frame ($100)



Clothes ($2 for a grocery bag full), Wicker rocking chair, king headboard, and corner shelving unit ($100)




Dining room table and chairs ($150), dishes, glasses, Princess House ($.25-$10)



Photos: A Look Around

 Here are just a few photos from the past week. These are of the tomato planters and the small garden. We're making good progress!

Tomatoes: Painted the planters this week

Begininning of the cucumber plants



Corn: 2-3 inches tall already

 

Freshly watered corn



Small garden: Corn and a few other plants from the squash family coming up

"Fergie" our 1968 Massey Ferguson Tractor

Please, Just a Little Rain?

I've never been one to worry about the weather too much, unless it's snowing and I have to get home, but I'd really love to see some rain. It's been a dry week. The soil in our garden is cracking, hard and dusty. I watered the potatoes and squash family vegetables on Tuesday. The corn was still holding on to water (amazing to look down after several days without rain and see droplets of water inside the stalks) so I skipped it. I noticed today that it was no longer holding water. The spinach was especially rough looking. I had my mini side kick help me fill a couple 18 gallon totes up with water from the creek, hauled them up to the garden, then watered everything with a pitcher. Actually, my son just played in the totes while I watered the garden. Oh, to be 6 years old again.

We finished up over half of the large garden. Tomorrow, we get to repeat the process, finish the rest, and water the small garden too.

So this is my request, please, Lord, just a little rain tonight?

Chickens: Our Little Buddy

It seems like one animal always stands out in your mind because of it's personality. Spot will be the one chicks that stands out to us.

Spot

He loves to be petted. I've never seen a chicken like that. The others are terrified. However, Spot will walk right up to us. He lifts his head and pokes his chest out expecting you to pet him. He's a sucker for being rubbed on his chest. Yesterday, he kept looking at my ring as if I'd brought him something exciting, even tried to eat it. I never remembered so much entertainment from our chickens growing up. Except for the time they chased my cousin around trying to attack her. Or maybe that was their way of playing. I'm really enjoying being a chicken farmer. Yes, we only have seven but I could seriously see us having 100. The only downside I see, is the smell. Although, imagine how nice our garden and yard would be if we had that many!

Here are just a few new photos of the chicks. They are finally starting to explore their new home and they seem to like it pretty well!

Enjoying a shady spot to roost

Love the color of this one. By far the prettiest chicken I've ever seen.

Trying to hog the food by standing IN the bowl.

At This Moment: Favorite Item in My House

I'm a sucker for daisies. LOVE them. Especially this simple arrangement. Two daisies in a mason jar. Favorite item in my house right now.