Rain Rain Go Away!
The weatherman reported this morning that we will be without rain for the next three days! Cna you believe it!!! So later this afternoon after I get the back yard cleaned up, and it's a PIT, I've plans to start some dye bundles thus taking advantage of the reprieve. I really don't enjoy monsoon season, which was one of the reasons I moved to Iowa in the first place, alas it has followed me here!
Jerusalem Artichokes
They are growing like crazy with all of this rain, I'm sure they'll make it to 12 feet in height this year.
Soggy Garden
My garden which is in sore need of weeding but it's to muddy to get in there right now. Unfortunately we have more rain in the forecast.
Potato Bin
John planted some potatoes in this bin with straw, this is a new experiment for us, will let you know how it turns out.
The idea behind this potato growing method is as the starter potatoes send up shoots you put more straw, and another round of wood (or tires) and you keep doing this until you are ready to harvest. This is supposed to encourage more potatoes and less vines.
Purple Cabbages
My purple cabbages are coming along nicely. To protect them from slugs etc., I'll put a roof shingle at the base of each plant, apparently slugs don't like crawling across roof shingles!
Gardening
Hardware cloth tent, it's a strip of hardware cloth 1/4" holes, bent in half to create a barrier against birds, etc., this strip is over my mustard greens. To make it chipmunk proof I'd need to put caps on the ends to keep them out.
Coffee cans surround my young pepper plants protecting them from crows, grackles, and the wind.Compost Bin Update
Now finished we've been using the compost and have since added about a half ton of rotted horse manure to the mix. We haven't ever had problems with critters in our compost pile, unless you count two legged critters!
Garden Fencing
I was asked how I deal with critters in my garden and whether or not I put fencing materials over the top of my garden. Rabbits are a major issue here, second only to ground squirrels, crows, and grackles. Here are some ideas on what I do that I found works:
I don't put fencing materials over the top of the garden - yet anyway. The fencing keeps the rabbits out, and not the young ones or the chipmunks. To keep the small rabbits out I have, in the past, put a layer of hardware cloth around the bottom of the chickenwire fence. I have a friend that uses old screen windows to do this.
What I found that works really well for young tender plants is to use coffee cans, juice cans, milk jugs, and 2 gallon plastic buckets, all with the bottoms cut out as a barrier to critters. I put them around the plants until they are big enough that they are critter proof. Rabbits will eat a young squash or cucumber plant but when it's about 12 inches they don't bother them anymore. I then remove the coffee can from the plant. Mind you these plants are STILL inside of a fenced in garden space but a rabbit will jump a 30 inch fence, John and I have watched them do this, to get to young tender plants.
The cans etc., also protect young plants from wind damage and make them easy to cover in the event of a hard frost or freeze.
For the crows what I've used in the past are cds on strings etc. and strips of mylar from mylar balloons. I live in Iowa so wind is a constant here, most critters don't like the movement and tend to keep their distance. The crows seem to be enamored with snapping off my young tomato, pepper and squash plants. So the cans, I use the smaller coffee or juice cans, prevent them from getting close enough to do this. They also like digging up my onion sets! Hardware cloth tent prevents this from happening - but isn't chipmunk (ground squirrel) proof.
Daring squirrels - I have dogs so the squirrels are not as daring as they'd like to be, and they know I've no problems with taking them out, squirrel tastes really good with mashed potatoes and gravy btw! Fry it up like chicken. Critters seem to pick up on human attitudes ;-)
As for possums, they don't seem to navigate the fencing well, and I don't have skunks here - praise the Lord for that one! That could be a real nightmare with the weimeraner that loves to chase everything - she's not all that bright.
I'll go take pics of my garden and post them in a bit.
I don't put fencing materials over the top of the garden - yet anyway. The fencing keeps the rabbits out, and not the young ones or the chipmunks. To keep the small rabbits out I have, in the past, put a layer of hardware cloth around the bottom of the chickenwire fence. I have a friend that uses old screen windows to do this.
What I found that works really well for young tender plants is to use coffee cans, juice cans, milk jugs, and 2 gallon plastic buckets, all with the bottoms cut out as a barrier to critters. I put them around the plants until they are big enough that they are critter proof. Rabbits will eat a young squash or cucumber plant but when it's about 12 inches they don't bother them anymore. I then remove the coffee can from the plant. Mind you these plants are STILL inside of a fenced in garden space but a rabbit will jump a 30 inch fence, John and I have watched them do this, to get to young tender plants.
The cans etc., also protect young plants from wind damage and make them easy to cover in the event of a hard frost or freeze.
For the crows what I've used in the past are cds on strings etc. and strips of mylar from mylar balloons. I live in Iowa so wind is a constant here, most critters don't like the movement and tend to keep their distance. The crows seem to be enamored with snapping off my young tomato, pepper and squash plants. So the cans, I use the smaller coffee or juice cans, prevent them from getting close enough to do this. They also like digging up my onion sets! Hardware cloth tent prevents this from happening - but isn't chipmunk (ground squirrel) proof.
Daring squirrels - I have dogs so the squirrels are not as daring as they'd like to be, and they know I've no problems with taking them out, squirrel tastes really good with mashed potatoes and gravy btw! Fry it up like chicken. Critters seem to pick up on human attitudes ;-)
As for possums, they don't seem to navigate the fencing well, and I don't have skunks here - praise the Lord for that one! That could be a real nightmare with the weimeraner that loves to chase everything - she's not all that bright.
I'll go take pics of my garden and post them in a bit.
Starter Pantry Inventory List
This list is by no means meant to be comprehensive but it is a start for a well stocked pantry providing a large enough variety of foods for any and all occassions. -well I'll post it as soon as I can figure out how to put the link here!
Potato Leek Soup
Going camping this summer, looking for a food gift that doesn't require much in the way of cooking or can be used later or do you simply want to put some food up for a rainy day (or a blizzard) - that actually tastes good then try this recipe on for size:
I found this recipe online and changed it to make it "taste" better.
INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups instant mashed potato flakes
1 1/2 cups dry milk powder (I used dry whole milk as it's richer)
4 T. chicken bouillon granules (originally called for 2 T. we like ours richer)
2 T. dried minced onion
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper (originally called for white pepper)
1/4 teaspoon dried chives (make sure you use onion chives and NOT garlic chives!!!)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (originally called for seasoned salt)
1/8 cup dehydrated leeks
2T. dehydrated carrot chunks (adds color)
1/4 cup dehydrated potato chunks (these can be whirled in a food processor but I didn't bother)
DIRECTIONS:
1.Combine potato flakes, dry milk, bouillon granules, onion,parsley, pepper and salt in a plastic bag and shake to mix (original recipe said to use a bowl to mix but I have lots of recycled sandwich bags and chose to use one of them instead). Pour into a 1 quart jar.
2. Attach the following instructions to jar (use waterproof ink on label glued to jar or card attached with a ribbon): To serve, place 1/2 cup soup mix in bowl. Stir in 1 cup boiling water until smooth.
If you want to use this in long term food storage or for camping, then put into mylar or food saver bags and vacuum seal shut. Assuming you used fresh ingredients this will keep for quite some time in a cool dark place.
I found this recipe online and changed it to make it "taste" better.
INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4 cups instant mashed potato flakes
1 1/2 cups dry milk powder (I used dry whole milk as it's richer)
4 T. chicken bouillon granules (originally called for 2 T. we like ours richer)
2 T. dried minced onion
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper (originally called for white pepper)
1/4 teaspoon dried chives (make sure you use onion chives and NOT garlic chives!!!)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (originally called for seasoned salt)
1/8 cup dehydrated leeks
2T. dehydrated carrot chunks (adds color)
1/4 cup dehydrated potato chunks (these can be whirled in a food processor but I didn't bother)
DIRECTIONS:
1.Combine potato flakes, dry milk, bouillon granules, onion,parsley, pepper and salt in a plastic bag and shake to mix (original recipe said to use a bowl to mix but I have lots of recycled sandwich bags and chose to use one of them instead). Pour into a 1 quart jar.
2. Attach the following instructions to jar (use waterproof ink on label glued to jar or card attached with a ribbon): To serve, place 1/2 cup soup mix in bowl. Stir in 1 cup boiling water until smooth.
If you want to use this in long term food storage or for camping, then put into mylar or food saver bags and vacuum seal shut. Assuming you used fresh ingredients this will keep for quite some time in a cool dark place.
Wrapping Paper
We have a wedding reception to go to later this evening and I didn't have any wrapping paper for the gift, so I made some. It was so sweet seeing John's jaw drop when I pulled the present out of the bag - yeah baby I did THAT! The tag could use a little work and I'm thinking of redoing it before we leave - well actually I'll use my wacky scissors and make a pretty edge to the tag.There's about 9 yards of vintage binding ribbon, and threads, on here, I had to go around it several times to make it look like there was something on the package. Hmmmm I don't see any buttons, I have just enough time to fix that as well!
I used white butcher paper, distress inks, metallic paints, and a stamp to create this lovely covering.
Peonies
I took a bunch of pictures (185 pics in all) of my peonies tonight, and found myself being greatly inspired but the petal and leaf shapes of this particular plant. I have some silk fabrics that I dyed using cochineal and madder root that I stitched but never went any further with them, now I'm wondering how I can go dimensional with these fabrics, in effect capturing the essence of these beautiful flowers!Note I"m not sure why the pictures are loading with this distortion, they don't look like this in Photoshop!
Peonie Bouquet
Bouquet of Peonies
Some Thing Pretty
Some Thing Pretty
Flood Warnings Again
I'm in prep mode right now, picking everything up off of my basement studio floor in anticipation of the coming flood waters. Maybe it won't get so bad this time??? Then again I could be wrong the ground is super saturated here, the rivers are quite high and there's not a whole lot of places left for the water to go, except into basements etc.,
So prep I must. Granted it doesn't get deep here, six inches in the one corner, but it's still a pain cleaning everything. I'm debating cleaning the floor in advance, less surface dirt means less dirt afterwards right? Maybe, so long as the sewer doesn't back up into the house, again, which is what the problem has been.
More later from the land of Flood.
So prep I must. Granted it doesn't get deep here, six inches in the one corner, but it's still a pain cleaning everything. I'm debating cleaning the floor in advance, less surface dirt means less dirt afterwards right? Maybe, so long as the sewer doesn't back up into the house, again, which is what the problem has been.
More later from the land of Flood.
New Ideas and a Rant
I've been cleaning our flooded basement the past few days and am finding all sorts of rusted mildew encrusted items, and it's giving me ideas!
A recent thread on one of the lists I'm on is price point on artwork at shows and apparently the going rate for items being sold is somewhere between ten and twenty dollars. Now this leaves me the artist in a prediciment I don't like - trying to undercut WalMart and Target. Lets face it that's exactly what we are doing!!!
Example: I make a necklace with high quality beads and craftsmanship but my customer demands that I sell it for less than $20.00 US. The same customer can go to WalMart, or Target, and purchase a crudely made necklace with beads whose color may bleed all over you and your clothes, for less than $20.00 US.
I've been wondering if this is a matter of educating our customer base or if this country has managed to "cheapen itself to death"? It's like people don't either recognize or don't care about quality anymore, could it be both???
It doesn't matter if it's jewelry, scarves, handbags, hats, aprons, hand dyed whatever, the customer demands the same price, or LESS, than they would pay at the local MegaMart. I'm just glad I'm not doing any shows this year!
Yes I'm well aware the price of gas has shot through the rough, it's the reason I'm not driving anywhere right now. But the demand for cheap goods actually hurts the economy more than it helps it right now, simply because the money doesn't stay here.
More later, I'm tired from cleaning and gardening today.
A recent thread on one of the lists I'm on is price point on artwork at shows and apparently the going rate for items being sold is somewhere between ten and twenty dollars. Now this leaves me the artist in a prediciment I don't like - trying to undercut WalMart and Target. Lets face it that's exactly what we are doing!!!
Example: I make a necklace with high quality beads and craftsmanship but my customer demands that I sell it for less than $20.00 US. The same customer can go to WalMart, or Target, and purchase a crudely made necklace with beads whose color may bleed all over you and your clothes, for less than $20.00 US.
I've been wondering if this is a matter of educating our customer base or if this country has managed to "cheapen itself to death"? It's like people don't either recognize or don't care about quality anymore, could it be both???
It doesn't matter if it's jewelry, scarves, handbags, hats, aprons, hand dyed whatever, the customer demands the same price, or LESS, than they would pay at the local MegaMart. I'm just glad I'm not doing any shows this year!
Yes I'm well aware the price of gas has shot through the rough, it's the reason I'm not driving anywhere right now. But the demand for cheap goods actually hurts the economy more than it helps it right now, simply because the money doesn't stay here.
More later, I'm tired from cleaning and gardening today.
Garden's In!
Well after spending all day yesterday scrubbing the laundry room from top to bottom (it flooded this past along with everything else) I was finally able to get the remainder of the south and east gardens in tonight, before it begins raining again. A good portion of my cucumbers didn't come up so I planted watermelons a small fruit variety type that matures in 73 days or less. So come August I should have some ripe melons hopefully.
So the only thing that is left to tackle is the north garden, but the junk pile needs to be removed. First we need to find a source of clean fill dirt and then haul the remaining horse manure to the site and get it "composting".
So the only thing that is left to tackle is the north garden, but the junk pile needs to be removed. First we need to find a source of clean fill dirt and then haul the remaining horse manure to the site and get it "composting".