It's Show and Tell with Mary!
We spent 6 days over at our homestead, right during the "big one" that rolled through the PNW the past few days. It hit a high of 14 or 15 and plunged to 0 at night. One morning it was 37 inside the cabin (it's hard to get up in the middle of the night to toss wood in the stove). Now that we have power, we have an electric blanket. Very cozy.
We had some visitors--out for a morning snack. The snow was about 8" and crunchy. I loved walking through the forest, with the snow weighing down the pine trees and the sun shining. It was cold--about 8 degrees--but so fresh and clean!
In the next picture, the flat part is where we hope to put in the pole barn next spring. Isn't it a lovely view?
Last but not least, I tried out the loft as an office. I liked sitting next to the window and looking into the forest. Of course, I hope to have a real desk and computer over there some day. But these things take time. Anyway, it was hard to go home to the West Side. I love the peace and quiet of the "middle of nowhere."
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I'm so excited! We struck it rich (water, not oil), and in these trying times water is more precious than any of that black gold. I wish I had a picture, but I'm on the West side and DH is on the homestead. The well drillers started drilling on our second "tax" piece (we have 14 acres, but 2 parcels so we can have a well on each one). Our current well is 3 gal/minute, which has been fine for the amount of time we're over there. But if we want to irrigate fruit trees and gardens, etc. we needed another well.
Ah, the saga. Our current well is 180 feet, so we thought it would be about that. DH told me yesterday that he was discouraged, as the drillers had to stop for the day at 200 feet and no more water than a trickle (less than 1/2 gal/minute). A lot of soul searching (and I was in prayer about where God wanted us to go with this...as in how far down do we keep going in faith?) about how to proceed.
So just a couple of hours ago DH called and said "bad news--good news" and my stomach lurched. He had to decide to keep going in "sticks" (20 ft. increments), and at 300 feet and still no more than a trickle, he said, "another stick." And then it burst through into an obvious vein in the granite, and now it looks like it will be a 5-6 gallon/minute well! At 360 feet. I'm so glad DH decided to go another "stick." But it must have been an agonizing decision that last 100 feet or so (feet = $$$). That was the bad news. It cost more than we'd planned to pay, but without water you don't have anything, as any homesteader well knows!
Praise God for "striking the rock" and delivering water, as it was anybody's guess where to drill. My DH just picked a spot that looked good, half-way down the slope (we're at 3,000 ft.) of our land and said, "Drill here." The drillers think it's going to be a great well.
Our sweet Mary hosts Show and Tell. Click the graphic to join in on the fun!
For those of you who are keeping up with our little wheat project, we harvested our trial plot this past week. Took about . . . 7 minutes. LOL
Here are a couple of pictures and a parable "come to life."
Yep, this is it. Our entire wheat crop for 2008:
Here I am using the latest in harvesters: a pair of scissors. We stuffed the wheat stalks into a big garbage sack for hauling to the West Side for threshing (another S&T sometime).
Look what I found growing in with the wheat! Boy, was I surprised!
Wheat on the left; "Tares" (AKA weeds) on the right. I found these "tares" (weeds) around and mixed in with the wheat, but no where else in the area. Explain THAT! (It reminded me of the weeds in my corn patch that look just like baby corn plants). They looked exactly like the wheat stalks until I looked closer and discovered they are shorter and the "heads" are not really heads, but fake. Amazing! The parable of the "Tares mixed in with the Wheat" took on new meaning. For sure you wouldn't want to try and pull them up while both are growing together. But now? When we thresh (AKA whack) the wheat, there will be no wheat grains from the "tares" and they'll end up with the empty stalks of wheat to be "burned" (well, not really. We'll compost them). But the idea is the same.
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Our Yellow Transparent apple trees went a little crazy this year. DH and I spent all day canning them. Ended up with about 68 quarts, plus some fresh sauce for the kids and some that went in the freezer the past week when DH squeezed the windfalls. Below is a photo journal of the experience. (This early retirement thing is turning out very well. I could not have canned this much applesauce on my own. In the past I've always had kids chopping the apples. But the two youngest were both at work. DH stepped in and it was great!). In addition, mid-way through the day, we ended up watching 5 grandkids while Kristel went to her OB check-up. All in all, a very long but productive day.
Both 7-gallon bins started out filled to the top.
DH was in charge of chopping and cooking the apples.
I was in charge of squishing the apples, mixing in the sugar, filling the jars, and canning them.
I got myself a little help squishing when the grandkids came over.
Even #4 got into the act, but she wasn't a whole lot of help.
To keep the youngest out of the kitchen (no burns, please!), we put her in the highchair and tossed her blueberries, which she loves.
Here's the beginning of the jar-filling.
By the time we were finished, cooling jars filled the dining room table, jars on the dryer, jars around the stove, and messy applesauce everywhere you can imagine: floors, clothes, counters, pots, pans . . . I even set a potholder on FIRE when I transferred the pressure cooker onto the burner, not realizing a sticky potholder was "glued" to the bottom of the canner. The kitchen sort of looked like the smoke from a California fire for a while. Thank goodness we have air conditioning, as it was one of our warmer days.
I think this is the end of my canning "season." No room for peaches this year, anyway, and I have some left over from last year.
It's Show and Tell Friday with Mary! Click the graphic!
This was supposed to be a S&T about a NEW BABY! But alas, Christian is not cooperating with us. I came home early from writers conference in Oregon on Tuesday night, because Kristel was (actually is) in labor. Really. After 5 kids, one knows these things. And #6 we figured would go fast. So I hurried home. She's STILL in labor (but the eggplant at Olive Garden should speed things up....today). I don't know how she manages to care for 5 little kids between contractions. This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. She finally sent Sean back to work yesterday and today. Ridiculous! She says she's not going back to that hospital until she's ready to push. (Big talker). But after 3 times for being checked and no progress, she's humiliated into the dust....
So today I'm going to give you an update on our trial wheat plot. For sure next week I'll have baby pictures? The wheat is golden, but not quite ready for harvest. (compare with the green wheat 2 entries down).
And an added bonus: who would think a picture of a power pole would be fun to share. But after 10 years, the PUD finally brought power up the forest service road and we nabbed it!
Here is our new firewood storage. I stacked the wood in the two pallets farthest away, (only one pallet is split). The rounds are waiting to be split (with the retirement present of a hydrolic log splitter). DH had to cut down (actually PULL down) a bunch of trees to clear a spot for the pole barn.
How would you like to BURN these stumps? I feel for the pioneers, who did not have a 4X4 pickup and a chain saw to remove stumps. Back-breaking labor. And they take FOREVER to burn. And I can only burn in the spring, before fire danger. I'll be burning for years!
Musings of a frustrated former small-town "farm" wife, who's waiting on pins and needles to "get outta town" and back to the country life. We have 14 acres on a mountain in North Central Washington state, where we plan to move and establish a homestead in the middle of nowhere.
It's Show and Tell with Mary! 
I found these "tares" (weeds) around and mixed in with the wheat, but no where else in the area. Explain THAT! (It reminded me of the weeds in my corn patch that look just like baby corn plants). They looked exactly like the wheat stalks until I looked closer and discovered they are shorter and the "heads" are not really heads, but fake. Amazing! The parable of the "Tares mixed in with the Wheat" took on new meaning. For sure you wouldn't want to try and pull them up while both are growing together. But now? When we thresh (AKA whack) the wheat, there will be no wheat grains from the "tares" and they'll end up with the empty stalks of wheat to be "burned" (well, not really. We'll compost them). But the idea is the same.
