Plans?

So the deployment has really changed things. I feel like I had a plan for the future before, now I've got to regroup and form a new one. Sadly, one that will probably put us in debt. Though, if one must have debt, it might better be a mortgage. Yup, that's the thought. If I DO go overseas in 2013, I want Sarah to have a place to stay where I won't worry about things breaking down on her. If I don't go overseas, well, then I want to live in a place where I won't worry about things breaking down. So we're looking at building within the next two years, getting a VA guaranteed loan possibly. Anyhow, we're looking at building a panelized home to save money and maximize quality, and this is the one we're most attracted to at the moment:
home link We would get rid of the gable over the front door, add a back door, make a bunch of changes to the floor plan, and get rid of the bump out thingy around the front door, and put in a front porch with a roof. So...any comments, suggestions? We haven't a clue what we're doing, so any and all input is appreciated.

But first, a smaller project, we want to buy a shed kit and put that together. This is the one we're looking at: shed link. Cedar, nice and big, and the hope is that someday I can transform it into a sugar shack, way down the road once the house and barn are built.

We made our first batch of dandelion wine the other day, the sticky sap and the yellow pollen gets all over your hands when you pick 'em



Boy does it look funny when you boil the flowers




We'll let you know how it turns out! We also started a tea wine experiment and a ginger wine. The tea sounded interesting and the ginger wine sounded very refreshing, and heavens it smelled good whilst it boiled. Sarah's mom visited yesterday and today, which was fun, and we slept in the living room. (Hooray for slumber parties in the sleeping bag!) Thursday evening there was a mother daughter dinner at church, so they took a picnic basket to bring their table settings and their dish to pass. When Sarah and I were getting ready for bed that night, we found that Gerard had found his own use for the basket.




He's desperately cute.

April Showers and Flowers

We have all, human and animal, been enjoying the spring flowers around the yard. These pansies came up near our cold frames.
I believe these flowers, growing on the west side of the house, are called bleeding hearts. (Thanks to Mick, who identified them as "similar to Dutchman's breeches", and Google filled in the rest.) I hadn't realized the flowers were heart-shaped, but it is a very fitting name for them I think.
Gerard loves to sit right among the flowers. One day, Mick came in and told me I should go out and follow the trail of his leash. His meandering reminds us of the Family Circus cartoons.
We still have birds coming to our suet feeder too. The most faithful visitors are a chickadee and a hairy woodpecker. One cold day, we had kept the living room curtains closed to keep the house warmer. But that didn't stop Gerard, who had stayed inside that day because of the cold. He spotted a bird at the feeder, and you should have seen his tail twitch!
The crabapple tree in the front yard looks beautiful since Mick pruned it.
Then right in the middle of all these April flowers, we were very surprised last weekend by April showers that felt a whole lot less like spring.
Yes, that's snow.

Which was followed up by wind-blown sleet.

Not the sort of showers we were expecting, that's for sure! But now things are returning to normal. After the coldest spell, Gerard was determined to be outside, even though it was still quite windy. He very cleverly found a spot in the sun but sheltered from the wind.
And he defended his territory from curious intruders!
The crabapple tree flowers have survived their icy showers, and the tree looks pinker every day.
We are certainly looking forward to the final arrival of Spring!

A little bit of Spring and Gerard the Hunter

It's really starting to feel like spring, even though it keeps frosting (or snowing) at night. Our Cornish Rocks are doing very well, we can't believe how fast they're growing! In addition to the feeder and waterer, we put in a saucer filled with either water or feed (they don't get to eat at night, so it's filled with water at night and feed during the day...Cornish Rocks can only eat for 12 hours a day or they suffer from fatal heart attacks...we lost three before we figured that out) because we had something of a runt who always got pushed out when he tried to eat. We weren't sure what the problem was, though we think he didn't figure out where the water was when we first put the new waterer in. I tried to dip all their beaks in water but I can't tell them apart. It was acting lethargic and kept falling asleep on his feet, wouldn't eat even if we separated him with feed. So I dipped his beak in water twice (to make it stick!) and he drank, then drank three or four times on his own. Now he's doing great, but as part of his recovery effort we put in that extra saucer so there would be plenty of room for all the chicks to be at a feeder. After he started eating and drinking, the problem became his little size. Every time he wanted a bite to eat, it would give the other chicks the idea that it was time to eat and he got forced out, as the other chicks are larger. So we keep the saucer in just in case.

This is our brooder, it's 9 feet square and we keep it out of drafty areas so it can be open like that. [Doesn't Mick do amazing work? I think the brooder looks outstanding! and he just whipped it together in an afternoon. -Sarah's edit] They're growing so fast I think I'm going to try to have the chicken tractor planned and built within two weeks.

Gerard finally started paying attention to the chicks.

Yes, that's really his paw IN the brooder...

We also changed some things around outside. We finally moved aside the landing thing, and are just using the stairs. It feels like it gives us more room, and we're using the landing as a sort of potting bench/gardening area.

Here are a few of the potted plants we have going.

From left to right, those are blueberries, the earthbox is spinach, broccoli, and celery seedlings, then two elvira grapes, and the flat has some peppers, tomatoes, more celery, and a few experimental onions.

On the East side of the trailer we have a bed of kale growing, and soon I think we'll be putting in some lettuce and other greens.

On the south side of the trailer we put in two cold frames, and we have some chard and radishes coming up. My uncle John says radishes and beer make an unexpected and delicious companionship, we'll soon find out.

And here is what might be Sarah's favourite part of spring, clotheslines!

Gerard has finally found an animal he might be able to catch someday...bumblebees.

Well, maybe someday.

Squash Pie and Scrapple

Ma (Heidi), just thought you might like to know that we are using and enjoying the squash you helped Sarah can. We made two delicious pies with one quart, and we used your no-cutting pie crust, which is so easy to make, so flaky, and it isn't that much less pleasant than a butter or lard crust. Thanks! We used Spice Islands cinnamon, which is different from the others we've had. It has a stronger cinnamon flavor, and a great heat to it.

Also, the liquid in with the canned squash is intensely flavored and deliciously sweet, with a beautiful color

We used the liquid to make a hot buttered rum drink, which was also delicious. Sarah recommends it

And Mom and Dad (Laurel and David), we performed our scrapple extending procedure with the scrapple you gave us. First we diced an onion

and boiled it with some wheat bran

Then we cubed the scrapple to make it melt faster (yes, scrapple melts...weird) and tossed it in along with some wheat germ and herbs (mostly savory)

We boiled everything until it was homogeneous, then added some wheat flour and stone ground cornmeal to adjust the consistency,

greased some "molds" and poured the slop in

Sarah thinks they look like banana breads or something

We figured out that the scrapple before we got to it was 1/7th fat by weight. We extended that one pound block to three pounds of scrapple, increasing the fat only through the grain we added. Not bad! It slices up great with a cheese slicer

And it looks great in a skillet (thanks Ma!)

We had it with some eggs scrambled with the stem portion of a mess of leeks, very nice. And thanks, Amie, for the stein/mug, and thank you, Nancy, for the placemats.

It was good! As usual, Gerard wanted some.


Also, Gerard has taken to finishing Roscoe's meals...

...which distresses the puppy

...who expects me to do something about it.

Later that night, after the humans had a beautiful anniversary dinner, Gerard gave most of his dinner back, but Roscoe wasn't interested in it this time around.

We weren't either.

Yuck.