Wahsega Valley Farm

Please excuse the mess

Hi guys! I've been gone so long that when I checked back here yesterday I felt all cramped and stifled, like I need more room to spread out. So, I'm going to do some remodeling and it might look a little messy while I'm at it since I will be "live" as it's happening. I'm going to start blogging soon too, though I should probably have my head examined since it's gardening time and I'm crazy busy. But, I miss being here and I want to get back to it. So, please pardon any weird formatting issues that might be happening soon; it's been awhile since I configured this place and I'm sure some layout will look funky while adjustments are being made. Hopefully you can just step over the mess and still be able to look around.

Anyone have a good turnip recipe?

I thought I'd have time to write a catch-up post today, but Mike came home from work last night with a lot of kale, collards and turnips with the greens attached. One of his customers asked if I'd like them and I said "Yes!" since I didn't grow any greens this winter (due to having such a hard time with pests in my summer garden... I just wanted a break!). So today I've been washing and cutting them up and it's taking up most of my day. Not complaining; I love free food, but it's keeping me away from other want-to-do things.

Here's the beginning of the cleaning process, with my helper, Dusty, in the box the veggies were delivered in:

The collards are soaking in the sink and you can see I have quite a few turnips - with red Georgia clay still clinging to them. Does anyone have a good recipe for them? I've never been a big turnip fan, but I've not had it fresh very often. I'd like to give it another chance and have been looking online, but have yet to find a recipe that tempts me. I'll have to check all my cookbooks next.

The chickens will get a lot of cast-offs in the cleaning/cutting up process; they will be thrilled at something different from their usual cabbage and lettuce. By they way, remember all those green tomatoes I had from the garden at the end of the summer? They all turned red and ripe and I only recently ran out. They were so nice to have and the chickens ate most of them; it's one of their favorite treats.

Here is another shot with Dusty looking quite demure, which is laughable considering he is usually running around the cabin like a raving maniac. 

Well, the kitchen is a wreck with bowls all over the place and mud in the sink from the veggies, so I must run. 

Have a nice New Years Eve everyone!

Checking in...

I just received a nice note from a reader of my blog that was very sweet - hoping my family (little Dusty included) and I are okay since I haven't posted in awhile. I then realized it's been over two weeks since I've been here! How can that be? Well, I've been so busy finishing up all the gifts I've been working on that it's just flown by. And, I've been a bit introspective too... something that just seems to happen this time of the year. But Mike, Sophie, Dusty, Miko and all the chickens are just fine... though there were a couple of close calls that scared me silly last week with the chickens and the little Duster Buster. I will write about that and lots of other things very soon. Right now I just wanted to stop by and say HELLO and let you know that everything is fine here ... and thank the reader for her sweet note. 

And, in the meantime, here is a picture of Dusty playing in one of the bookshelves...

Too pretty to be inside

It's a crystal clear non-humid gorgeous day today - currently 55 degrees F - and I've got too much to do to be sitting here in front of the computer for very long. But I need to check in; I miss my blog when I don't write a bit now and then. I need to schedule more time here. 

Spring and autumn are really busy for me though and I'm slap dab in the middle of lots of autumn activities. I made soap day before yesterday (pictures soon), have begun crocheting six different projects, am making Christmas tree ornaments (pictures soon) like I made thirty years ago, am baking some very easy-to-make yeast bread (not gluten-free though, so it's just for now and then) and am still dehydrating tomatoes and peppers and herbs like crazy. And as soon as Mike and I can get up to the apple orchards, I'll be making lots of apple butter for canning.  

Today I need to bring in all my houseplants that are out on the deck. Well, at least the ones I can lift; Mike will have to bring in the big'uns. The cabin will look like a forest again, but we like it all greened up - especially when it's all black and white outside here in the winter. There are acorns all over the deck; I almost fell on my rear the other day... it was like walking on marbles! And the leaves are really starting to fall as well. It's time to remove the first layer.

To get the plants inside, I have to move furniture around and reconfigure things; so it's time consuming. And I'm sure I'll find some of those bug's (who infested the cabin in spring) crunchy dried up little dead bodies underneath the couch when I pull it towards the center of the room to give the plants more window space. I guess it's autumn cleaning time as well.

It'll be getting into the 30's this week at night so Mike will be bringing some wood home as soon as he has time. At least we have electric heat here if we need it; the only heat he as at his shop is the wood he burns. But I like to keep the fires burning here as well too; it saves money and is super cozy and smells great. 

For now I must get the laundry started and then begin the shuffling of furniture, stuff and plants.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Comments responded to very soon!

Checking (*cough*) in...

I've been coughing my head off the past four days and feel as though I've done thousands of sit-ups... my stomach is so sore. Cough- ing makes you flex your abdominal muscles you know... so maybe the upside to this horrid cough is that I'll have rippling abs when it's all done. Yowsa.

But I've not gotten much sleep the past five or so days and that puts me in dumbed down daze with low energy during the daytime when I like doing so much. 

But! I've been able to keep up with my de-bugging in the garden and think I have won this ongoing battle. The cucumber beetles thought I'd not find their new hiding place - down inside the squash blossoms - but I've been foiling their partying down by pulling them out with my trusty tweezers. And the ucky stinky squash bugs are all but gone. Some still appear, but they're no longer doing damage as most of the plants have gotten large enough to not be bothered by an occasional attack. I have not grown complacent though... you give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile, the little demons.

And, I've been able to take care of my chicken children - and all are happy. This weekend Mike and I are going to try to incorporate the last of the young'uns (blue cochins) with the older group... and maybe the guineas too, though I think the guineas are too young to run loose outside since they would fly over and out of the run. I'm not sure they have the gumption at this age to come back to the coop at night.

So... I'm low energy, zombified and tired, but life goes on and all is well. I need to go outside soon to refresh everyone's water... it's going to be a scorcher today.

Enter: busy season

What a contrast from the winter. I was busy then, but not in the same way at all. It was relaxed and relatively peaceful. The snow and cold weather kept me inside most of the time and it was cozy and kinda laid back. 

Now it's crazy and exciting. Mike and I have cleaned out one storage unit completely back in Atlanta and tomorrow we start on the other. It'll move faster since there is a lot of big furniture and just boxes - no crumbs lying around loose and dusty like in the other unit. But it might take three trips on the new unit too. We have stuff everywhere again so I'm spending a lot of time going through it once more to see what to do with it. There are quite a few thrift shops around here so we might end up just taking a lot of it to the one who helps the needy not too far from Mike's shop. But there are things we definitely want to keep that won't fit into the current configuration of our cabin, so we'll have to store it somewhere. A big barn sure would be nice. 

The garden will be tilled up this week! I can start planting after the 15th, but my cucumber seedlings have already started to bloom and push out tiny cucumbers. They're still in their big newspaper pots and seem happy, but I'm anxious to get them into the ground.

I've already planned the layout of the garden so just have to follow it. We still have a lot of chicken poo left from last year for the garden and this year we'll start making our own. The chicks are due next Monday! I'm thinking about just taking 3 each of the two breeds I ordered (buff orpingtons and light brahmas) because I really wanted 3 each of 4 breeds, but the others won't be here for a couple of weeks at minimum if I order them. I want to get three wyandottes and three plymouth rocks too. I would have ordered them sooner but I didn't know we'd be ready for chicks this soon.

Here is a a blue laced wyandotte:

and a plymouth rock:

We have to clean out the current chicken house until Mike can build the new one. He might have it done in time, but we need one for-sure ready and since there is one already here, albeit not a perfect one (it's old and beginning to fall apart in places and it's downright ugly), we should use it until a new one is built. It's jammed with stuff that we put in there when we moved here so that's another big chore to undertake very soon. 

The weather is perfect this week and I we should get a lot done. Not sure how often I'll be updating here, but I'll try to stop in at least once a week until things settle down. 

It sure is different here in the country. My goat friend visited again this morning and last night one of neighbors came by to visit and rode up on his horse. How cool is that?

Some stressin'

I've been busy stressin' about things and not blogging lately. I'm so behind!

The first thing stressing me is the invasion of the Lady Asian Beetles. They are driving me crazy! We didn't live here last February, so must have missed their February 2010 debut, but we're all here now! Here is a picture of what our windows currently look like. These are not our actual windows, they are from A Way to Garden, where Margaret Roach writes about her experience with Asian Beetles:

 
I've been spending the last two weeks running up and down the stairs with the vacuum cleaner, sucking these creatures up as they congregate on the sunny windows. When I'm cooking, they sometimes fly into the food. Last night in bed, one flew in with us and bit Mike's arm - though fortunately when it cools off at night most crawl back into the little crevices from whence they came. I had one on my eyelid crawlin' around in the middle of the night, waking me up.

Normally, I'm not a innocent bug killer, but this is outa control! They're cute little creatures, see?

 
But cute turns into monstrous when they're so many. My vacuum cleaner is jam packed with their dried up little bodies. These are not the same as the lady bugs we all know of and grew up loving, though they look quite similar.

In addition to the beetle invasion, Mike's mechanic up and quit about two weeks ago just as tools and machines were coming in to be repaired. The way he left was downright mean and inconsiderate. He was a cocky thing and not a team player at all - and it turns out he was a big fat liar too. Mike called his wife to find out what was going on and she started yelling and cursing at him and calling him horrendous names. She yelled "how dare he" not pay her husband for two months! WHAT??? Mike paid him every Friday! He'd been telling her Mike wasn't paying him and who knows what else. He also told Mike he didn't want to keep his area at the shop clean by sweeping, etc., because that was "women's work". What a knuckle-dragger. In the long-run, it's good that he's gone and Mike now has two new mechanics with much better attitudes. But for awhile there, it was quite stressful. Mike put ads in three papers and was inundated with mechanics looking for work.

But the stress of that situation mixed with just the right body twist while sweeping up the shop messed Mike's back up big time. He couldn't walk at all the first day. I had to get him a walker (it was a beautiful teal color at least) and he used that for about five days - just to be able to go to work. Before we got the walker, he had to lean on me to go from room to room. The walker helped keep the pressure off his back and kept him going, but I could tell the pain was extreme. He is now walking okay, but it's still pretty bad. We have an inversion table and he's been using that again and it's helping. His back does this about every two or three years and I feel so helpless when he's in so much pain.

So it's been a bit stressful here lately and I've not been online much. But now things are easing up a bit and I have some catching up to do - and have at least three posts lined up. I never did post an after picture of my hair trim so will do that next, probably tomorrow. And I have comments to respond to and emails to answer and will get to that soon too.

In the midst of a drab winter day, I just saw this:

 

The crocus are blooming!

From Elly Mae to Granny

Sigh...

Somehow you just don't expect it to happen to you... looking in the mirror and seeing "old".

(The word "old" is in quotes here because if one thinks one is going to live forever for whatever spiritual, religious or other belief one has, the word "old" really doesn't have much meaning. I use the word to describe the ravages of time that occur on our bodies while we reside here on Earth.)

I have days when I look in the mirror and see a 30-year old and I have days when I see myself as I am... an almost 60-year old.

When I was 13, I went to our school Halloween party as Elly Mae Clampett. The Beverly Hillbillies show was popular then and I related to Elly Mae because she loved "critters" so much and was a tomboy like I was. To the party I wore jeans with the rope belt like she did and a shirt like hers and was barefoot. And I bought a cheap ponytail at the dime store that looked just like Elly Mae's, and did my hair up to look just like hers. Everyone at the party knew who I was, yes'm.

 
Donna Douglas as Elly Mae Clampett

Night before last I was at the computer with my glasses on and my hair in a bun and I wasn't wearing any makeup. I was wearing my keep-the-fire-going-not-very-feminine-but-necessary-for-the-job clothes. Mike was sitting on the couch behind me and I turned around to say something to him, looking over my glasses at him.

Shortly afterwards, he said, "You're starting to remind me of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies," without giving it so much as a 2-second thought.

Does he know what he has done??? He has burned the image of Granny into my mind and it is now there like a permanently seared scar that will never ever disappear.

GRANNY???

 
Irene Ryan as Granny

The part that blows me away is.... I can see it! I CAN SEE IT.

I couldn't berate Mike too much for his comment because I could see what he was talking about. But at the same time, I told him that "he don't know nuthin' about women" because telling a woman that she looks like Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies is not a wise thing to do - ever. Not wise. EVER. You want to tell a woman she looks beautiful no matter what, right? Of course you do! And, to Mike's credit, he tells me I am "perfect" and beautiful a lot and I have no complaints there. But... did the truth seep out of his loose lips?

Granny's image is boinging around in my head like a bouncing ball moving about constantly, popping up when I look in the mirror and when I'm wondering about what to do with my hair and when I'm getting dressed for the day. And it doesn't help much that I still see Dogpatch when I look out the front of the cabin. I'm now officially old and live in Dogpatch. Well, isn't that just dandy?

I will be 60 years old next month. I'm not a spring chicken anymore. No matter how many lotions and potions I smear on myself, my skin is not going to bounce back to its more youthful self. I don't wanna look like Granny. I don't want to wear buns. They look elegant on young faces, but on me with jowls beginning to flap in the wind, I look like Granny. And I don't want to look over my glasses at anyone ever again!

I need a hair makeover. I need plastic surgery. I need to wear makeup again. Aaarrrrggghhhh... Old age is coming after me and I'm not ready... I'm not! Here I am wandering around thinking I'm Elly Mae... but I ain't! Granny is coming to get me and I'm trying to keep two steps ahead of her, constantly looking over my shoulder now.

'Scuse me, but I gotta go put on my runnin' shoes.

A white Christmas

 
 
I had my first white Christmas this year - and it was beautiful! It snowed once on Christmas day when my son was around 14, but it lasted only a couple of hours and didn't stick around. But this snow came down for almost three days in chunky soft flakes and covered most everything - until the wind blew it out of the trees. The cabin was cozy even though it was in the 20's outside, and we enjoyed the whole day watching the snow and enjoying the quiet. Here are a few pictures.

The creek in the front pastures...

 
Looking at my garden area with the mountains in the background...
 

The bench above the garden...

 

A close-up...

 
Our cabin...

 
Looking out the kitchen window as it snowed...

 

And looking out the same window the next day (a little to the left) when the sun came out and after the wind had blown the snow from the trees...

 

And here is Sophie hanging out inside when there was just too much snow for her to deal with...

 
It's finally warmed up and the snow has melted, though there is still a patch here and there. Tomorrow or the next day I'll post some inside pictures and some of the things I made, including Margot modeling one of her sweatersI crocheted. We didn't finish our Christmas festivities until yesterday since my son's family couldn't get here before then because of the weather. Making Christmas last longer was pretty nice though.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Went to town...

I needed to mail some Christmas packages today, so bundled up and went to town. It's not as cold today as it's been lately, 34F now at midday, which is pretty typical. I think it's been two weeks since I left the cabin! I drove the long country road towards the city square - enjoying the bucolic scene of cows grazing and how stripped bare everything looks now that winter is here full force. I stopped by Mike's new shop to see the progress he's making there and then he joined me on my trip to the post office and yarn shopping.

In or near Atlanta this time of the year the post offices are too painful to deal with. You must wait in a looong line if you're lucky enough to find a parking space. But here there was no line! We were in and out in a minute and I can't tell you what a wonderful thing that is. Small towns have their good and bad, but one good is that there just aren't that many people here to clog up the post office - or any store.

I'm making Mike a warm hat for when he's working since they don't have heat yet in the new shop, and as I was drooling over a yarn I'd not seen before, Mike checked it out and said that was the yarn he'd like me to use for his hat. It's another Lion Brand yarn called Tweed Stripes and this one is a combination of browns and blues... quite pretty:

 
Lion Brand's "Tweed Stripes" yarn 

I can't wait to see how it works up. I still have a few things I want to make before Christmas so need to get to it. After the holidays are over, I'll be more flexible again and will visit here more often. In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying this special time of the year.