Odds and ends

In May I quit my full time job. It feels like a step forward. Which seems odd given the financial limits that places on us. Still… I think we are moving in the right direction. The best and most important part of staying home is that I get to spend precious time with my daughter rather than missing out on so much of her daily life. The move has also allowed me to work on certification as a doula and begin to build a business as a doula. It’s something I have wanted to do for sometime and I’m thrilled to be starting. I have already attended my first birth and absolutely loved it.

We are conitnuing to collect the skills and knowledge we will need when we have our own place someday. HB got her own colony of bees this spring and built a top bar hive for them. It didn’t go quite as planned – the bees didn’t quite settle into the top bar hive (but they did stay in a regular hive box) but it was a good learning experience. We continue to be involved with the farm here and our own garden plot. My garden was not a roaring success this year, but I did have some small victories. Whereas last year the squash beetles killed all my squash, this year I was abe to harvest 4 butternut squash and a canatloupe. Some of our tomatoes actually survived this year and EG was able to eat her fill and then some of the cherry tomatoes. I need to get out there and plant some fall crops soon, plus I’ve got sweet potatoes to dig up.

For the first time we ordered a whole lamb from Nature’s Harmony Farm. They often offer half a pig, but I always seem to miss out. We picked up the lamb from the butcher this past weekend and decided to keep all the parts. I’ve never eaten organ meats before, but maybe it will be a new and exciting adventure!

Fall Planting

Cool weather is on its way.  We’re still in the 80′s and 90′s here in Georgia, but you can feel a shift in the air with cooler mornings and a break in the humidity.  I took advantage of the cool morning and tried to get a start on fall planting.  My garden was rather pitiful this summer.  I don’t think I got a single tomato that didn’t rot on the vine before I picked it.  And the weeds certainly got the better of me.  Whoever decided to plant morning glories is no longer my friend!  Still, Baby Grace and I dug up probably 20+ pounds of sweet potatoes earlier this week and the peanuts are also growing strong.  I can’t wait to harvest those!   I’m hoping for a better fall.

 

Peanut bush

Peanuts!

I got two long rows of multiplying onion sets in the ground.  A neighbor gave the sets to me from stock her grandfather has been cultivating for years.  Here are her instructions for caring for the onions:

1. Plant now
2. Eat the green shoots all fall, winter & spring.
3. In spring they’ll bloom. When the blooms dry up, dig the bulbs
(there will be more than you put in = multiplying), pull off the green
stuff & store bulbs till fall
4. Repeat

Also: eat the whole onion in fall, winter, spring — but don’t eat
them all or you’ll have eaten all your stock!

Onion rows

I also planted some stray sweet potatoes (I think!) that I found sprouting in our root cellar.  It’s probably a bit late to plant them; but it doesn’t hurt to put them in and see what happens.  And for Baby Grace, lover of all things with peas, I planted two rows of peas – English Peas and Sugar Snap Peas.

HB stayed busy with bee care this weekend.  She checked the hives to see if new supers needed to be added, changed out the beetle traps, and made note of the hive conditions.  A month or so ago she and a friend captured a swarm to add to the apiary.  That swarm is now happily living in its new hive and HB reports that they seem quite settled and productive in the hive box. 

HB checking the hive