Living the Frugal Life: Potatoes in Buckets 2.0 (Finally!)

Living the Frugal Life: Potatoes in Buckets 2.0 (Finally!) Something to try next year!!!... Oh dear... where did I put all those plastic buckets???

Growing Shiitake Mushrooms

Growing Shiitake Mushrooms
I just put Shiitake Mushroom growing on my wish list.... now I'm off to find some hardwood trees! Oh, honey, can you bring your chain saw on a walk with me??? LOL! ;)

Happy Fall!

Fall is my favorite time of year. This past weekend the girls and I, along with their friends went to a corn maze. We had a great time deciphering the map,finding some clues to the game and of course, eating french fries and ice cream!

Then on Sunday, I made some Sausage and Sauerkraut, German Potato Salad and Apple Cake! I'm definitely in my autumnal mode.

I'm hoping to start a craft/sew group with my daughters and their friends on Sundays as our time permits. First up....tied blankies. We'll see how it goes.

Until next time.

Wow....

Wow, I can't believe I haven't updated since shearing day! Where did my summer go? The bookmobile was busy this summer as were our daughters. We planted a garden, however my darling husband will have to "kick it up a notch" for next year. Our tomatoes didn't do so well. I harvested enough to make a couple batches of salsa, but that was about it. I canned dill pickles, kosher dill pickles (I know, I know), bread and butter pickles, pickled beets(red, striped and gold)dilled green beans, canned peaches and am looking forward to the fall harvest. I would like to put up some applesauce and can some pears.

Apiary update: our purchased bees from North Carolina did not survive. Now we have two swarms in our hives... one we adopted on Father's Day and another adopted on the 4th of July. We have been nurturing them, feeding them and now we are preparing them for the winter to come. They have been pollinating the goldenrod and ragweed and the front of the hives have a yellow deposit on them from where the bees land to get into the hive. It is rather fascinating to watch this.

Alpaca update: They survived the shearing, and this past weekend was PEDICURE weekend. We harnessed, led, cajoled, and yes, wrangled our Alpacas to clip their nails. They haven't looked our way since! LOL!

Chicken update: We now have 10 ladies left. The rooster was attacking Allison and Emily so.... Soup time for you! One lady never returned after we let them out one evening. There you go... circle of life and all that. We continue to get 8 to 9 eggs a day. Our plan is to purchase more chicks this spring and begin again.

Canfield Fair update:
Emily and I didn't enter many categories this year. Allison entered a few more.
Emily entered Pecan Tassies and won 1st place. And she entered her basket we made in our weaving guild and placed 3rd.
Allison's spinning won 1st place this year! We were thrilled. This is our own Alpaca fiber that she dyed herself, then spun herself. (Sounds like the LITTLE RED HEN huh?) She did a wonderful job! She decorated a cake that looks like the Tartis on Dr. Who and won 3rd place. And she also took third place on her woven basket.
My snickerdoodles won 1st place as did my Elderberry jelly. My pickled beets took 2nd place. All in all it was a good year.

Allison and Emily update:
These two are keeping us so busy I don't have time to post here! They both swam for the Firestone Area Swim Team this summer. Meanwhile, Allison was practicing daily for the Flagline for the awesome Austintown Fitch Marching Band. The band participated in 3 band nights (one was our own) the Canfield Fair, the Carnation parade in Alliance, Ohio and of course... all our football games.
Now we are also into volleyball season. Emily earned a place on the 8th grade red team this year. Most nights we aren't home until after 8pm!

Shearing Day!

Photo updates

Catching up.

The hummingbirds have returned and are visiting our hummingbird feeders. A nesting pair of blue birds found one of bird houses to their liking and are now busily building a blue bird family.

The lily of the valley blooms are almost done, the irises have started to bloom and now that the rain has stopped the grass is GROWING. We think by Wednesday the ground should be dry enough to begin planting our garden. On Sunday I stopped by Park's Garden center in Canfield and bought some flowers for our outdoor pots and some peppers and tomatoes for the vegetable garden. Emily busily attended the planting of our flower pots and they look awesome. Thanks for a wonderful job, Emily. I need to prepare a little space for my sunflower garden. Sunflowers are important to our honeybees and the birds. I encourage everyone to make a little space for some sunflowers.

The alpacas were sheared over the weekend and we contributed our shearing 'ends' to the Gulf oil clean up efforts. Allison is working on uploading a video of the shearing. I can't wait until she is done, then I can post it here. Emily created a nice display explaining about our animals and about alpacas in general. Allison had her spinning wheel out, but lacked the time to spin due to her video project.

The rooster is getting 'cocky' and has attacked both Allison and Emily. I fear for him if he should attack me... if his attitude doesn't improve, I think I'll be making some soup soon.

The middle of last week found our bee hives covered in black ants and our poor honeybees fighting for their lives. To top that off one hive was hosting a nest of yellow jackets! We initiated a cleanup effort and removed the unwanted yellow jacket nest. I checked the hive thoroughly to ensure that there weren't any more unwanted visitors down in the comb area. Now the honeybees can go about gathering nectar and pollen in peace. Blooming for our ladies this week is the blackberries and strawberries.

I will post a few photos soon and hopefully Allison's video.
Until next time...