20December2008
Posted by Kathy under: Farm Experiences.
Before we even moved to Missouri I knew that I wanted to build the garden up rather than down. I had read a book called Lasagna Gardening and it seemed to make sense and solve a lot of potential problems - not the least of which is weeds. Under this system of building a garden, you place layers of wet newspapers directly onto your sod. This smothers the grass and weeds underneath. Then you put layers of compost material over the newspapers until your bed is built up to at least 18 inches high. After that you can either let it break down for a few months for certain crops or plant seeds and transplants directly into it. As the layers break down, the earthworms will be eating the sod and breaking up the newspapers, mixing the layers together for you. The final result is an organic, self-tilled soil that’s rich and free of disease and weed seeds. Sounds simple, right?
So we took all of our moving boxes (figuring they would work the same as newspaper) and spread them over the area that was to be our garden. We added some old sawdust as our first layer of compost because we had an abundance of it available from the old sawmill where our friends, the Byrants live 
.
We also planted about a half a dozen tomato plants that Doug picked up at the hardware store when he was purchasing lumber for another project. We planted them directly in the ground and just built the lasagna garden around them.
We didn’t get back to the garden for a while, but as you can see in the picture below the tomato plants grew a lot in a short time with very little help from us.
By the time we were ready to work on it again we had learned that sawdust was very acidic, and it didn’t have any nutrients in it. We were not going to be able to use a lot of it in our lasagna garden unless we had a LOT of manure to mix with it. We also decided to make the garden MUCH larger. Therefore, the lasagna gardening technique wasn’t going to work. We just didn’t have enough material to layer such a large area.
We still wanted to build up, not down, because of the rocks 
. So we decided to have dirt hauled in. We used the backhoe that we had rented to dig our root cellar, and turned up the sod in a 45X45 area.
Then we ordered 10 tons of great, ROCK FREE dirt for $110. We thought that was quite a bargain for no rocks .
Now, I thought 10 tons sounded like a LOT of dirt. But it didn’t take long to realize that it wasn’t going to go too far on our 45′ X 45′ garden.
It was gone in no time…
and this was all we had .
So we requested another 25 tons from a bigger truck, and they had it back to our house in about an hour . I though that was pretty impressive.
Now this was a BIG truck…
with a lot of dirt.
It made a huge pile that would be the envy of any dirt loving child, of which we had four.
They had a lot of fun climbing on this huge mound of dirt .
But, alas there was work to be done, and all that dirt had to be spread around the entire garden, eliminating all the fun piles .
But the children enjoyed this part also. They were good helpers. Don’t tell Jonathan that shovel is to big for him .
After spreading the dirt around we got distracted with other projects and didn’t get back to the garden until just recently. And this is what we found…
Lots of WEEDS . Even though we weren’t able to use the lasagna garden technique to build layers of compost material in our garden we still should have lined the bottom with boxes or newspaper. But we had run out of boxes (amazingly they didn’t go very far) and so we didn’t line this part of the garden. I guess we should have found more.
Anyway, we still needed to do a lot of work before winter. We decided to make wide beds in our garden. We learned about this type of gardening through the Vegetable Gardeners Bible, as well as some other magazine articles that I had read. The width of the beds is determined by how far you can comfortably reach. You need to be able to reach at least half way across. That way you will be able to tend the whole bed from one side or the other. This allows you to do all of your work without stepping on the bed, which keeps the soil in the bed really loose - allowing the plants to grow better. You make the walkways between the beds wide enough to allow you to move around and work comfortably. Our beds are about three feet wide.
When this was finally done we brought pickup loads of sawdust from the old sawmill where our friends live. Our neighbor (the one with the great garden) said that was what he did for his garden. When just adding it to the soil, instead of trying to create a garden from it, it becomes a good thing, rather than a bad thing .
The children helped to spread the sawdust around.
Our neighbor also said that he adds lime to the garden every fall. He works it into the soil then lets it sit over the winter. So we did that also.
This took quite a while. But after several days it was finally done.
Now we just wait for SPRING .
20December2008
Posted by Kathy under: Farm Experiences.
This year, instead of trying to find a place that sold Christmas trees, we decided to drive around on our own property and see if we had anything that would make an acceptable Christmas tree. For us, this was not asking a whole lot because we have changed our expectations for a Christmas tree significantly over the past four or five years. When we first felt burdened to rid our Christmas of the materialism and traditions of men that pervaded the season we did away with the Christmas tree altogether. When we decided to bring it back a year or two later, it was very small and simple, in order that it would not be a main focus. Our tree last year was only about four feet tall and was quite scraggly. Picture the Charlie Brown tree.
So we loaded up in the back of the pickup and drove around the property.
Then we drove around it again. Most of the trees were either huge, or really tiny, or on the neighbors property .
But we finally spied this one, and after taking a closer look we found that is was on our side of the fence…barely .
So, Doug cleared away a lot of vines…
Then chopped it down…
timber…
It was actually taller than Doug . The girls were happy.
We loaded it in the back of the pickup and hauled it back to the house.
The cows chased us, and Jonathan was terrified of them .
When we got it back to the house we discovered that the UPS man had been by while we were gone and two boxes of presents from Grandma were on the front porch . Thanks Grandma. So in a short time we had a tree, complete with presents.
4December2008
Posted by Kathy under: Mom's Musings.
Well, I would never win any prizes in a quilt contest - my piecing is not precise enough and my quilting stitches are nowhere near tiny enough, but because the Lord has cured my of my perfectionism I don’t let that stop me. And the ability to make a quilt is a handy skill to have when you move into a new house that has been decorated with with a rustic theme and has browns and greens on the walls, and the blue comforter that you have had on your bed for the last twenty years just doesn’t look right, and you can’t find a bedspread that will go well without spending a fortune.
I had NO quilting knowledge and had never tried any other quilt except a rag quilt (which is VERY easy and forgiving to people who are not quite precise enough with cutting and seams) until about a year ago when I decided to try and make a log cabin quilt. I learned by watching a video called Make a Quilt in a Day:Log Cabin Pattern. This is the quilt I ended up with. It is far from perfect, but it is functional .
This video was my only source, so I don’t know if there are other ways of making a log cabin quilt, but I’ll tell you what I learned from this video. The first step it to cut 2 1/2 inch strips of fabric…
from seven colors, then decide how you want to arrange the colors. I had several pieces of flannel that I had planned to make into a rag quilt a few years ago, but never got around to it. They were the perfect colors , but there wasn’t near enough of any of them to make the 40 blocks that would be required to make the quilt big enough for a king size bed. I wanted to make it the size of a bedspread (not a comforter) because I didn’t want to mess with a bed skirt. I was about to give up, but when I was searching the internet (to possibly order something instead), I saw a bedspread that had a pattern across the top and just a plain solid ruffle around the sides. I decided to do that, then I would only need 25 blocks (this was based on the size of the blocks from the quilt I had already done).
But when I started measuring and calculating how much of each fabric I had and how many 2 1/2 inch strips I could cut from it and how long the strips would be if the fabrics were 44 inches wide and I sewed them together in one long strip (great homeschooling math project), I could see that I wouldn’t have enough of some of the colors (I knew how much I would need of each color by measuring the strips on my last quilt) to make 25 blocks either. I couldn’t figure out any way to rearrange the colors so that I could get 25 blocks out of them, so I decided to make 16 blocks with solid strips between them to make them go further. This is the arrangement that I chose.
You begin by sewing the first two strips together with right sides facing.
Next cut the strip every 2 1/2 inches.
Stack the blocks up and lay the next strip (in this case the second strip of the first brown) on the machine and begin attaching the pile of blocks.
Make sure that you place each block so that the most recent strip that you added is always at the top, perpendicular to the new strip as shown above. Attach the blocks one right after the other along the strip. You can sew strips together to make them long enough.
Press the new seam open.
Then lay it out and cut between each block.
This was what my final block looked like.
If you were observant you may have noticed that it is different than the one I had planned. I miscalculated, and the dark brown that I intended to be the third (and last) brown did not have enough fabric. I should have placed it as the first dark brown. Thankfully there was enough of the first dark brown to cover this, so I just repeated it. My daughters and I agreed that it looked fine (and one of them reminded me that looks weren’t as important as function anyway ).
Also, when I got the blocks completed they were smaller than the ones I had made for my other log cabin quilt. This is because the first quilt was sewed on a serger. I am guessing they did this because it was faster, in that you didn’t have to press the seams each time. But I found that the serged seams were not strong enough. I had some of them split and I feel like I have to be really careful with that quilt. I am afraid to wash it. So I decided to sew this one on the regular machine. I took pretty small seams, but it still ended up smaller than the serged block.
Also, I figured out that you wouldn’t have the same pattern affect if you put large strips between the blocks to make them go further. So, I decided to simply add one more color on each side. This would solve both problems. I had to buy two more fabrics, but it was only about one yard of each color.
After all of the blocks are completed you arrange them in a design. The more blocks you have the more design choices there are. This was about the only one that would work with only 16 blocks, but I liked it.
After deciding on your pattern arrangement, you sew the blocks together into strips then attach the strips together and you have your quilt top. Mine was still a bit too small to cover the top of the bed, so I added a 3″ border of the first fabric, which I had used in the center of the block and had plenty of leftover.
After the top is done you are ready to sandwich it together with the batting and the backing.
I stretched my backing (a queen size sheet) out on the carpet and pushed straight pins into the padding of the carpet to hold it. This worked pretty well. (When I made my last quilt we had hardwood floors, and I spread the backing out and used masking tape to stretch it.) I did the same with the batting and the quilt top. Then I trimmed the batting so that it was the size of the quilt top, and the backing so that it was a bit bigger. Next I used safety pins to secure all the layers together in several places.
Then you begin quilting. I just made a big X through each square. I guess this is a common pattern for a log cabin quilt, and it is quick and easy. Then I quilted all around the outside.
This is what the back looked like after all of the Xs were made.
Next I made the ruffle. I had this fabric also, since I had purchased it with the intention of using it for the backing quite some time ago. Knowing I would need a lot for backing I had purchased six yards. This was a perfect amount for the ruffle . I split the entire length in half at the fold, sewed the two pieces together and ended up with a strip that was 12 yards long. I serged the top to prevent fraying and ran two baste stitches along the entire length. I checked the bobbin a lot because you don’t want to run out part way through a baste stitch that will be used for gathering. I knew this would be a lot to gather, and I didn’t want the strings to break , so I sewed three separate sets of baste stitches - one for the bottom and one for each side. Then I pinned the center of each section to the center of the quilt top (right sides together) and gathered from each side. This has to be done very carefully so that you don’t snap the threads and have to start over . It doesn’t hurt to pray a lot during this process.
I didn’t have to hem it, because the bottom side was the selvage.
After sewing on the ruffle I turned under the edge of the backing and pinned it.
Then I quilted all along the edge.
Next I folding the backing along the top over the front and quilted it down.
And here is the end result. I was so excited to have a bedspread again after six months. And it is VERY cozy and warm .
3December2008
Posted by Kathy under: Food Preservation.
I used my very last bag of frozen apples recently. I loved being able to thaw these and make Apple Cinnamon French Toast, Apple Crisp and Apple Cobblers. The apples I had gotten at the local orchard would not have worked well for this because they had too many bad spots. And I was never able to get any at the auction. So I thought I was going to have to do without. But then our local grocery store had a sale on apples - they were marked down from the normal $2.++ per pound to $.69. So I bought 15 pounds of beautifully unblemished apples.
I peeled and cored them and boiled them in a light syrup.
Then I processed them in the water bath canner. I only got 10 jars . They will go fast. But maybe the grocery store will have another good sale bofore I run out .
2December2008
Posted by Kathy under: Farm Experiences.
After morning chores, Allison came inside and said she was concerned that the cows were gone because they hadn’t come for grain when she called them. If you read my prior post on the cows you know that Allison is the one who learned Rev. Ronnie Roy’s cow call (yo babeeeee) and they always respond to her. She had put grain out the night before and they hadn’t eaten that either. Now, let me just add that the cows really LOVE their grain, and they usually come running. So she was justified in her concern. However, she had this same concern about a week before and when we went out the cows were there eating. They must have just been at the far end of the pasture.
This time, however, they weren’t there when Doug went out. So he got in the pickup and drove through the field. He didn’t find the cows. But he did find a gate at the back of the pasture hanging open.
He thought maybe the cows had been stolen. But he decided to try calling them before doing anything else. Yo babeeee, which just seemed fun and entertaining at first, proved to be very valuable. When he called he could hear the black cow bellow back somewhere in the distance. He kept walking toward the bellowing and ended up at a neighbors house not too far away. The neighbor had seen the cows running down the road and somehow caught them (I didn’t hear the details of how he did this) and penned them up in his yard. He didn’t know who they belonged to, but figured someone would come looking for them. He also informed us that hunters are not good at closing gates. Ahhhh, mystery solved.
We are raising these cows on grass, because it produces healthier meat. However, we have always fed them a small amount of grain because it is fun for the girls. The cows would come running, even though it is only enough gain for about five or six bites. Again, it is more for the entertainment value. However, this too turned out to be very valuable as it allowed us to get the cows home pretty easily.
Doug just drove the pickup, and Allison and Christina road in the back with a bucket of grain.
The cows followed them right up the driveway and into the pasture.
Yea. There’s no place like home.
