Snowed in

Typical Minnesota January.  We have already had several significant snow events and our ground is pretty well covered.  Some of the animals that live in our grove have been bolder in their search for food.  A couple of days ago I had a bunny checking out the dogs' food bowl.  Usually this time of year the Blue Jays are interested in any left over food in the dishes but I haven't had rabbits before, at least not that I know of. 

And then the next day I had three pheasant hens up in the yard digging and scratching just out from my front door.  I hear them in the grove and sometimes see them fly in there from the road but this was the closest I have seen them to the house.  Of course as soon as I opened the side door they flew off.  I walked over to where they had been and saw that there was an empty ear of field corn.  All of the kernels has been removed.  I imagine the dogs brought it up from the field across the road at some time. 

I have decided to try to feed them, but trying to find a way to to do it so that they can eat without harassment from my two dogs.  I put food out yesterday, but now I will wait until the current weather passes.  We are in the middle of a three day weather pattern.  The last couple of days have been cold with windchill warnings.  It was -14 I think at the lowest.  Today and tonight it is warmer but we are getting snow.  One prediction is 4-7 inches and another is 8-12 inches.  Schools were cancelled and people were encouraged to stay home.  I don't know how much snow we actually got.  It has been snowing for much of the day.  It is still snowing and looks like it will snow much of the night.  It is windy and so the snow is deep in some spots and absent in other spots.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be even windier and a blizzard warning is next.  By tomorrow night I am hoping that it is done.  So far everything is working, no power outages or branches down.  I have these nifty new heated hand grips for my snowblower, a Christmas gift from my kids that help keep my hands warmer when I am snowblowing--probably my Sunday project. 

I haven't minded staying home.  I have gotten started on some projects that I have needed to do.  Today I sorted my garden seeds into a new container that arrived this week, a baby step in getting better organized for the garden.  

Keep warm!

Lorri

One week into the new year

Well, we are one week in. How am I doing?  I am started.

Bullet Journal

My bullet journal is a blank book and I am customizing the pages hoping to meet my needs.  Some of the journals are beautiful with artwork and fancy lettering.  Mine is going to be more minimalist.  If I can get the hang of this I can try and add fancy later but that is not one of my strengths.  I started out with three year at a glance type calendar spreads.  In each of the calendar spreads I have the name of the month and the numbers but not the days of the week, so they are not specific to one particular year.  I am not going to necessarily start a new notebook next year so I can keep using this calendar ongoing. 

On the first four page spread I am putting recurring things like birthdays and anniversaries.  The second four page spread I will track my dad's medical tests and procedures.  I go with him to all of his appointments and I am hoping this will be an easier way to stay on top of his tests and procedures.  My third year at a glance calendar will be the garden calendar.  I debated on placing that calendar in my garden journal but since I will be generating a to do list from the bullet journal I will start out with it here.  I plan count back from our last frost date and label the weeks before our last frost, and going forward after the last frost date and the weeks leading up to our first frost date in the fall.  I will also track the 'seasons' of the winter growing in the greenhouse.  This will help with knowing when to start the different seeds so that they are ready to be transplanted at the right time. 

My bullet journal next has a month at a glance.  This will have appointments and other nonrecurring things that are specific to one particular month.  I will also have a week at a glance which is where my to do list for each day will be.

I am going to give a habit tracker a try.  My friend Kim is using a gratitude journal.  I like that idea and so I am adding a gratitude page.

I have so many things that I want to accomplish this year and unfinished projects from last year.  So starting in the back of my book and working forward I will make a brain dump page for each of the areas of the farm that needs some attention.  (That would be all of them!)  From those brainstorming pages I will pick and choose and prioritize projects and make a list of goals that will span the year.  24 goals would be two per month.  So far I am getting titles on the brain dump pages, not much brainstorming has happened there yet.

Lorri

2019 regrets. I have a few.

Happy New Year.  This time of year always seems to be a time of reflection and review and thinking about the new year.  Whether that is an intentional thing or an accidental thing, for me it just sort of happens. 

2019 was both a challenge and a joy.  I have a lot to be grateful for.  But 2019 was a fight from beginning to end.  Mother Nature did not cooperate.  My garden was a disaster.  The farm repairs seemed to be unending.  Nursing as a profession is hard on the body and this old nurse's joints protested a lot.  So many projects I wanted to get done didn't happen or are still only partially finished.  Blogging was practically nonexistent.  I wasn't even finding time to read my favorite bloggers.  I have recipes I wanted to try, new or new to me kitchen tools that I bought or was gifted that I haven't used.  Holiday decorating was minimal.  Holiday baking consisted of a batch of rosettes and a batch of krumkake, one batch of Russian teacakes and one batch of peanut blossoms.  All at the last minute.  No fancy cookies which I love to make. 

Now that the holidays are past and outside stuff is less, it is time to take a hard look at how to cope better in case 2020 turns out to be a repeat of 2019.  No more limping from one problem to the next.  It is time to make goals and plans that are reasonable, rethink some things to make them more manageable.  If I can no longer do it all I want to make sure that stuff like blogging and trying new recipes makes it to my to do list.  I have picked up some cute notebooks and I am starting a bullet journal, a garden journal, a holiday journal and a meal planner.   

Wish me luck.

Lorri

Summer is winding down

This summer has been a roller coaster and I am not too sad to see it winding down, but it is not quite ready to be done yet.  We have had cloudy, rainy, cool weather lately but next week is threatening to be in the 80s again.  Plus, there are increasing talk of an early frost and another challenging winter.  We are in that schizophrenic time when it is fall one day and summer the next. 

This has kind of been a year of 'the good, the bad and the ugly'.  It has been pretty overwhelming and I am kind of tired of bad and ugly but I am excited to share the good.  So here is my list:

I had a milestone birthday.  That in itself is not a big deal, those happen all of the time but we did take a day this summer acknowledging that milestone by spending the day touring gardens.  In July, my kids and friends and family took part in the Hennepin County Master Gardeners home garden tour.  We were able to visit 10 of the 11 featured gardens.  Most were flower gardens or landscaping but there was one community vegetable garden.  It was educational so we saw rain gardens and pollinator gardens and one garden that was reclaiming land taken over by invasive species.  So inspirational.

My dad is feeling better than he has in several years.  I have older parents, both 81 this year on their birthdays and my dad's health is challenging and complex.  In February we nearly lost him.  He had a lengthy hospitalization that began with a near respiratory arrest and code followed by a couple of days in the ICU, a thoracentesis, 10 more days on the regular hospital unit, some medication changes and eventually discharge to home.  He lost a lot of extra fluid and has continued to lose weight.  His many medical conditions have not gone away but the symptoms are so much better and his quality of life is better.  He actually felt good enough to dance at the weddings of two granddaughters.

The wedding season was great.  My daughter, Caitlin, and niece, Ashley, were both married this late summer.  My daughter at the end of August and my niece two weeks later at the beginning of September.  Of course the shower season preceded the wedding season and that was fun too. 

The shower for my daughter in June allowed me to bring out my vintage china and glassware.  I have a fairly extensive collection and rarely have an excuse to use them so it was fun to haul them to the park and set them up in the log cabin shelterhouse.  It was a fun look.  We did not use the plain white or mostly white china.  I have another niece, Kaylee, who is also planning a wedding and she is thinking that she would like white china for her reception so we have kept them in reserve for her.  But the china with colored or patterned rims were used.  I had purchased a bolt of gray/white ticking and there was enough to make tablecloths for all of the tables.   Flowers and the bride's brass collection and her other vintage treasures served as centerpieces.  We had a fun lunch.  I didn't do any of the food, but it was beautiful and tasty.  Caitlin spent a semester in Italy so a couple of Italian favorites, caprese skewers and prosciutto and melon were on the menu.  There was also sandwiches and cheesecake in mason jars and other sweets for dessert.  It was a group effort and so much fun.

A month later in July Ashley's shower was held.  It was a brunch and the location was a church basement.  Very traditional Minnesota event.  Another group effort.  Her maternal aunts did the decorating  framed photos and lanterns on the table.  Her fiance's aunts helped with food.  We even played a bridal shower game.   This menu was juice and coffee, assorted huge muffins, a fruit bowl and a yogurt parfait bar.  Again, great food. 

In August Caitlin and Robb were married.  They had a ceremony in the church that Robb and his family attended.  The wedding party wore navy, both ladies and the gentlemen.  The ladies wore different styles of dresses made from the same fabric.  The men, wore matching tuxes.  The reception was held in a venue that was originally a vintage movie theater.  It was the theater that my siblings and I attended movies at when we were children so it is old!  It has the marquee on the outside and the buffet was set up in the lobby.  The head table was set up on the stage in the front where the movie screen had been at one time and long tables were set up on the gently sloping floor.  The back part of the theater where the projection booth was and the steeper sloped seating that was up the steps held narrow tables at a railing and chairs facing the front in rows like the old seating would have been.  The meal was a served lettuce salad followed by a buffet pasta bar, with both Alfredo and Bolognase sauces and breadsticks.  The cake was a centerpiece cake displayed on an antique mirror cake stand and featured a handcrafted version of Willow, their dog.  The guests served themselves mini  cupcakes, doughnuts made by my dad and Scandinavian almond cake slices from the dessert table. They had a bar set up and served two classic signature cocktails, the manhattan and the old fashioned, in addition to beer, wine and other cocktails.  Delivery pizza was a late night snack.  Three sizes of glass cylinders with floating candles decorated the tables. 

Ashley and Jeff were married at a lake.  The ceremony was outdoors with white chairs set up on grass just off of the beach.  It was cloudy and unseasonably cold even for northern Minnesota with a cool breeze blowing in off of the lake but at least the rain held off.  The ladies of the wedding party wore a steel blue dress, again, different styles of dresses made from the same fabric.  The men wore white shirts and leather vests, blue jeans and boots.  Between the ceremony and the reception the wedding party went for a pontoon ride, wrapped in coats and blankets.  The ceremony was beautiful but bittersweet.  Ashley's dad was my brother and he died in 2011 from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).  His absence was very poignant.  There was an empty chair where he would have sat after walking her down the aisle.  It held a picture and his leather hat and a framed message in memorial.  Her brother walked her down the aisle and both cried as did most of the guests on the 'bride's side'.  At the dance in place of the traditional father daughter dance Ashley danced with her brother, both of her grandfathers and one uncle.  She had asked these four special men in her life to participate and all were honored to do so.  There were tears.  And when her brand new father-in-law cut in to dance with her I doubt there were many dry eyes in the room.  She had round tables with white tablecloths and white  coverings for the chairs.  There were three different centerpiece designs, more cylinders with candles, very tall vases with flowers and wood boxes with flowers and candles.  There were lots of large wooden spools for displays and rustic boards held up by pairs of whole wine barrels to serve the cupcakes and collect the gifts.  Their menu was a served lettuce salad and a two meat buffet with garlic mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. 

Lots of good stuff this summer.

Lorri

Good morning!

Blogging has been on the back burner lately.  To be honest it has been on the back burner for at least the past crazy, challenging year.  Time to get a little caught up on what has been going on.

The farm

It was a snowy winter and one of the wettest springs I can recall.  I know that some places set records and if we didn't here we must have come close.  Everything went in late.  Some farm fields in the area didn't get planted and I doubt that many of those that did will have good crop yields.  My garden went in late and I still have a few things in pots yet that I might still try to get in the ground.  I had a nice amount of asparagus that I was able to harvest this spring.  I have had a few green peppers and am still waiting on tomatoes.  Something ate my beans and edamame so I will try replanting them.  It is raining today so that may be a Friday project.  I am working on adding some flowers to attract pollinators.  I have expanded the flower bed near the gate and added a few new things to the hitching post garden.  Last fall I had some arborist wood chips delivered and I am in the process of mulching with them.  My birthday hydrangeas from last year came back and are doing well.  I am growing wedding flowers for my daughter's late August wedding.  I am growing two varieties of eucalyptus and two red flowers, an amaranth and a celosa.  It is a fun project. 

The orchard

I planted two new peach trees last year and they did not survive the winter.  The new apple tree is doing well and the older apple trees have some fruit coming.  Something is eating the leaves.  I have never done a spray program but may have to start.  The pears and plums are not getting any fruit.  They are young trees and the pears have not had a fruit crop previously.  One of the plums had fruit last year but none this year.  My elderberry bushes did not leaf out on the established parts but there is new growth surrounding the dead looking parts.  They are currently flowering so I am hoping to get berries.  Although not a part of the orchard the other tree that is struggling is my river birch.  It barely got any leaves.  In researching why this 25 year old tree would all of a sudden struggle it sounds like the wet spring might be the culprit.  I am hoping that it will come back next year. 

The vineyard

Last year I planted 12 grape vines.  I have four grape vines on an arbor but they are hard to manage so I decided to add some more and grow them like a traditional vineyard.  This year I need to install the posts and wires and start training them.  The three rows flank my second driveway with two rows on one side and one on the other.  They look a little silly right now, three very short rows but I am planning to add to them next year.  I want to add a pollinator garden near the new grapes as well.  I am thinking at the corner of the pasture where the corner fence bracing is falling down.   

The herd

This year in late winter/early spring we lost two goats and our one sheep.  The goats were pretty young and I am not sure what happened to them, they died only about a week apart.  The sheep was very old so not a surprise.  Our two Great Pyrenees, Elke and Libby remain.  Libby is the new puppy that was added last spring.  When she came to live at the farm we had Codie and Elke.  Codie was an old dog and Elke was a young adult.  We lost Codie in the summer and I think that she was a stabilizing influence as after her death the two young dogs started to leave the yard and run.  Efforts to keep them home were not successful and although Elke always came home Libby did not and after the third (and scariest) episode she spent a few months with my daughter and son-in-law in the Twin Cities where they have a fenced yard.  She is back at the farm where she is a house dog that is only outside when supervised.  My daughter and son-in-law did a fantastic job training her but she cannot be trusted yet to stay home.  She is all grown up, 97 pounds worth, but still has a lot of puppy in her. 

The farmers market

Our small local farmers market is open on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings.  Last year I went nearly every Thursday and every Saturday.  It was a tremendous amount of work.  I didn't have a lot of garden produce so I sold baked goods and jellies.  Each market day required a good part of a day of baking in preparation and the market schedule meant that four days in a row each week my time was occupied with the market and other things like mowing and gardening and sleeping were tough to fit in.  This year I am only doing the markets on Thursday afternoons.  I am hoping that is a better fit.  We will see.  I will have to get a few pictures and post about how it is going. 

The garden tour

This year I had a milestone birthday.  Since I am not really the surprise birthday type my kids wanted to do something together as a group to celebrate so what we decided to do was a garden tour.  The Hennepin County Extension/Master Gardeners do a garden tour every year and last weekend we did the tour.  Nine of us toured 10 gardens.  They were generally flower gardens although one was a community garden and a couple incorporated some vegetables.  I came home inspired and hauling a few new plants.  It was a good time.  I didn't take as many photos as I should have and I have yet to sort them.  Perhaps they will get their own blog post at some point. 

The weddings

My daughter and a niece both have late summer weddings this year so we are in bridal shower mode.  The end of June we had a shower for my daughter and the end of July we are having a shower for my niece.  In both cases they are showers put on by a group so the work is shared by many.  The showers will be different.  The first one at a log cabin shelter house in a park.  The second one in a church.  To be totally honest, I didn't take a single picture at my daughter's shower but others in our group did and I will try to post some of their pictures in a later post.  Caitlin's shower gave me a chance to use my vintage china, which was fun.  And since I have the dinner plates for five different patterns out of the dish pantry it seems like a good time to dust the shelves before I put it back so I have stacks of clean dishes that I need to put away yet but I am going to empty off the rest of the dishes and clean and then put them back.  We hauled a lot of stuff to the park but it was so nice.  We didn't use any disposables.  Cloth tablecloths and napkins, stainless silverware, glass punch cups.  We used the bride's vintage decor to decorate the tables.

Hope all are having a good summer.  It is Wednesday and tomorrow is the market.  I better get to my baking. 

Here we go again

After a teaser of some springlike weather and most of our snow melting Mother Nature decides that she is not quite finished with winter after all.  We are predicted to get a potentially historic blizzard with expected snowfalls of 16-24 inches and 50mph winds.  We were predicted to start with rain today and turning to snow tonight and continuing tomorrow and tomorrow night, ending on Friday morning but we missed the rain and are already getting heavy snow with schools closed, plows out and the ground is again covered.  So those hardy Minnesotans who were riding motorcycles and wearing shorts and flipflops on Monday when it was 50 will be back in their winter gear for a couple more days. 

I thought I better water the plants in the greenhouse in case I can't get there for a couple of days so I took a couple of pictures of the tomatoes while I was there.  We are still 5-6 weeks away from our last frost date for our zone 4 area so they have some time to grow yet.  The top picture are brandywine tomatoes and the bottom picture are Siberian tomatoes.  You can see the snow collecting on the plexiglass.

The sap season is winding down

The weather is warming up.  The nights are not getting below freezing and the days are too warm also.  My sap buckets have been empty since I took the last of the sap and filled the two electric roasters that I have been using to evaporate the sap outside.  The sap cooked through the night and early this morning while it was still dark I combined the contents of the two roasters into one and it cooked some more.  Late in the afternoon the sap was cooked down enough for its final boiling which is done in the house.  I just put in jars the last of the finished syrup.

I have 17 pints of amber colored syrup.  The season started for me on March 21 and lasted about two weeks.  I will leave my taps and buckets for a little while yet in case the weather changes enough to move the sap.  Next week there are some nights predicted to be 30 or high 20s with daytime 40s.

I am still a relative newbie at syrup making.  My first year I hung two buckets on taps on one tree.  The second year friends with way more experience than me brought me a little different system.  The new system has tubing attached to the taps and the tubing from several taps can drain into the same bucket which sits on the ground.  I went from two taps on one tree to twelve taps on two trees.  I only have two maples but they are massive.  There is a formula that uses the diameter of the tree to determine the number of taps that can be used.  My trees are much bigger than the largest diameter in the formula and my experienced friends helped me determine the correct number.

In year two I struggled with inaccurate thermometers.  Sap turns to syrup at 7 degrees above the boiling point of water.  So 219-220 degrees is what I was shooting for.  Too low and the syrup is thin and watery.  If it is bottled at a temperature less than 180 then it could mold.  I had three thermometers and none of them read the same.  This year I upped my game and bought a new thermometer at the place where I buy maple syrup supplies.  I also bought a hydrometer which measures the sugar concentration of the syrup.  It is an interesting process.  There is a metal cup, kind of a tube that is filled with syrup and the hydrometer, a glass instrument is placed in the cup and allowed to displace syrup until it floats, measuring the density of the fluid.  

I am pleased with my 17 pints since the season was so short, only two weeks long.  Until next year.