hoop house !!

Here is what our new and revised cattle panel greenhouse looks like.
It is about 15' x 27'. Hopefully one day the wind will quit blowing and we can get the plastic on.
The cattle panels have their own curved shape that wants to sproing out straight. With the front wall being set up for a wind-up area for the plastic, we needed some good structure to keep the panels from pushing out straight. If we could have found the 20' panels we wanted, it would have been simpler. The door is on the east side, and we'll make some sort of window on the west end.

Hopefully I'll get some curtains made from this rowcover material so I can snug things up when a chilly night threatens. There are several tomato and pepper plants waiting for their new home. I think I'll direct seed the zucchini. Tonight I started a few seeds of Kazakh Melon. Its from Kazakhstan and should be suitable for short seasons !!

Plus I have a randow arrangement of row covers made with Agribon 30. One started out with wire wickets to hold the row cover up. The cats made short work of that, so I put in some small rebar hoops that we had. Another is a small Caterpiller Tunnel, the others are rebar hoops with row cover on them that is gathered and staked at the ends like the Caterpiller Tunnel. Then there is the patch of carrot and lettuce seeding that just has the rowcover 'dirted in' along the sides.

As you can guess, the row cover is new and exciting to me. A month ago when we had 24 degrees, the row of small broccolis under 2 layers of rowcover were cosy at 36 degrees !!

Inside the Caterpiller tunnel. The 4H kids practiced transplanting and got the lettuces and such planted !!

Beautiful February Day

View of our Winter garden ...

Thinning Broccoli

Wow, stunned by the images from the Japan earthquake and tsunami. Just thinking about all the turmoil in people's lives today that wasn't there yesterday. Coincidentally I was watering the onion, broccoli and cabbage seedlings for this summer's garden. The land that got Tsumani'd may not be the best for gardening for awhile. Then noticed how the broccoli and cabbage need thinned a bit, so I pinched off a few from each part of the 6 pack. Absentmindedly I set the thinnings aside on the counter, then realized that they would be potential food in Japan, so I tasted them. Just bit the top leaves off and found out they were yummy !!

There is potential treats, onion thinnings, a bit of parsley and celery, topped off with broccoli sprouts. If only I could send a few trainloads to Northern Japan !!!!

Brussel Sprouts

Brussel Sprouts, the vegetable that amazes me.
Last year we grew 8 - 10 Brussel Sprout plants, ate lots fresh, gave a few plants away. That was fun since we left them on the stem for people. Most had never seen a brussel sprout plant before. The rest we put in the root cellar with the potatoes and carrots. Today I went down to get some more potatoes and carrots for dinner, and there was one Brussel Sprout stem left, so I brought it in. Granted, it was a big ugly. Some sprouts had a blackened outer leaf, and a few other designs. I cut the sprouts off and just peeled off the outer leafs until it looked edible. Then steamed them up and super good on the dinner plate !! March is the latest we've ever kept one, and this year, it worked !!

Here's a heap of garden stuff. The flowers sure were abundant this year.

Yikes, -17 degrees this morning !! Thankfully we had to reschedule shearing for this Sunday from 2 weeks ago. The sheep would have really wanted their coats back on today. Shearing is always an interesting time. I get to see the condition of the sheep and see how the feeding has been going. Plus its always fun to see the fleeces. Plus it will be interesting to see how preggers the girls look. All 16 ewes were with a ram, so it could get pretty busy come April. I am excited and a bit anxious about the Shetland x BFL lambings. Hoping and praying for the right preparedness and smooth lambings.

Thankfully the temps this weekend are supposed to be in the 40's, hopefully that means a warming trend.

After shearing is done, I plan to get the greenhouse going. Someof the seedlings inside will want to get into some real dirt pretty soon. There is Bok Choy, parsley, 3 kinds of lettuce, 3 kinds of tomatoes, plus thyme and savory. This weekend I'll probably start a zucchini and cucumber plant for the greenhouse.

squash soup

Yesterday I had squash soup on the menu, so began early with hopes of actually getting it done before going to the kids' soccer game after school. Well, sometimes my idea of fun contradicts my toddler sons' ideas : ) So he was tired of the whole indoor idea just about when the squash was cooked. So I barely got it peeled. How was I going to cube it up ??? An ah-ha moment, I grabbed the potato masher and simply mashed them in the soup pot withh one hand while holding The Kid with the other. A simple thing, but a victory nonetheless.

Garden pickings

Monday looked like nearly the end of our growing season here. My toddler son and I were out in the garden picking peas and an idea came to mind !!! While he was engaged with eating peas one by one, I could do some harvesting. So I grabbed a nearby flowerpot, thankfully had my scissors in my pocket, and began picking broccoli, then trimmed all the flowers off a tall sunflower that tipped over in the wind on Saturday night. He was still munching so I scooped up some baby potatoes that got left behind, then picked peas until he was ready to go swing. I got quite a bit harvested. Plus I learned something, it might be a good idea to leave a few empty flowerpots or buckets around the garden for when the harvesting moment presents itself

!!!