Planting, planting and more planting

Seems like this time of year, it gets hot and that fall planting just never gets done when it's supposed to. Except for this year. We've been very diligent this year about replanting. Last week I put in carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, lettuce, spinach, cowpeas, swiss chard, kale, roman chamomile, more peppermint, and am readying the new bed where the huge amount of garlic will go this fall.

We are getting lots of green beans, okra, cuks, zuccini, have lots of tomatoes on, but none ready for picking, green peppers, and have tons of watermelon and pumpkin coming on.

Will put in a row or so of what we used to call 'indian' corn, the colorful kind for fall decorations.

There is still so much planting to do this year that I feel still like the year is just beginning.

I've been busy sewing this week also, have two new aprons in progress, am making (finished one) new shams for our bed, to go with the new curtains that are already made and the quilt that matches all of them, which I'm still working on. Knitting dishclothes right now, still have two shawls I'm in progress on, and the baby blanket is done. Need to get back to the socks I put aside, as well as mittens to match the hats I made my granddaughters last year. Would like to get a little sweater made for the littlest granddaughter, who is about 9 months old at this point, and one for the new baby boy, four months.

Sewing wise, I have so much ready to go. Material for so many aprons. What am I going to do with all of them? I feel like I'm going to be drowning in aprons, lol.

Hubby is doing well. His health is staying good for the most part. He's still very short of breath most of the time, but is able to do some things, as long as it is in small increments. We've been looking for that perfect little camper so we can just take off, haven't found it yet, well, thats not quite true, I've found a small one up north in Kansas, but haven't heard back from the owner yet on whether or not it's already sold. It's a little beauty, 1951, and it's all aluminum outside, the inside has been redone partway, so we'll see how it is when we get to look at it.

For those farmgirls out there, did you know there's a group that helps those of us who have had breast cancer to learn to fly fish? That is DEFINITELY on my list of to do things, or the bucket list as we are calling it now. I used to love to fish, but haven't in years, due to all the health problems, but now seems like the time to get back to it. My dad used to fly fish alot, but I never learned how. Give me a fishing pole and some cheese and I can catch catfish, and I was learning how to fish on bass, but never on trout, and I love trout. It's some of the best tasting fish, to me anyway. So that's on the list next.

I'm restless right now. Need to get in the car and go somewhere. But I can't do it. Just can't justify the money for the gas right now, so here I sit, itching to be somewhere else. I have that travel bug. I think it's just because we are in the dead of summer right now. Seems like travel would be a good thing.

Until next time.

Mid Summer Gardening

The 100 degree temps are gone,....for now....but in true Kansas fashion, I'm sure they will be back before fall. But we have a few weeks of reprieve here. I've been busy with putting in more raised beds, planting more for summer and now getting ready for fall. Succession planting. Our potatoes are just about all ready to pull, and I have the intention of going back in with black eyed peas, along with a bunch of stuff under those. Where the garlic was until a few weeks ago, I'll go back with beets, turnips, carrots and parsnips. The garlic harvest was the best we've had ever I think. We'll have garlic for all winter, and then some, some to give away and tons of small heads to replant for next year. We got some wheat from our wheat patch, actually it was pretty good. Squash and all are growing like we live in the tropics right now, but one pumpkin I've noticed is wilting, so I'm suspecting a wilt, and will pull that pumpkin today and put it in the trash. Tomatoes are coming on strong, even with the heat, the tomatillos are growing like a weed (which is what they really were). All of my herbs are doing great except for the dill and it didn't fare well. I haven't really figured out why yet, but for some reason, it never set up new shoots. I've been pulling and drying peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, chives, elephant chives, sage. Have a ton of basil ready to make basil ice cubes.

Green beans are almost ready to start harvesting. It's late, but they are doing really well, we have both bush type and pole beans. The dried pole beans (limas) are growing and getting flowers, so I hope to have some limas this winter for our use. I have more rhubarb than I will ever use and have thought about going to the farmers market with some of the things that I have an overabundance on, like the rhubarb, and the herbs. We'll see.

Flowers look great, the elderberry has a ton of flower heads just starting to develop into little berries. If the birds and squirrels don't get them all, I'll have enough for either wine, or elixir for winter. The strawberries didn't do as well as I had hoped, so I'll have to find some for freezing. The blackberries we put in this year aren't mature enough for fruit. But hopefully we'll get a little off of them next year. Blackberries seem to do best every third year.

Besides all the gardening and weeding and those chores, I'm knitting every chance I get, things for Christmas, things for market. And the housework, and the cooking. It's all in a days' work.

I'm still cancer free, hoping to stay that way now until I get very old and very grey (I say very, because I'm already over 50 and already have grey).

I'm still working on preparedness constantly, but never think much of it as we have been doing it for so many years now, long before we heard of peak oil, or Y2K, we have stocked up for winter. Both of us grew up with parents and grandparents who always kept enough to get them through, so it's been pretty much part of our lives and I never really thought of it as 'preparedness'. I just thought of it as canning and preserving and freezing. Who would have thought so many could make so much money off of all of us women who get ready for winter?

Anyway, life here at our urban/prairie farm goes on.

Until next time.

100 Degrees? Summer is here.

We should have known that the nice cool weather wouldn't last.  It was a beautiful spring, lots of moisture for growing, nice cool nights, warm days, and we took advantage of it, cleaning out gardens that hadn't been cleaned out in a while, weeding new gardens and planting everything we could get in the ground.  The problem is, I wasn't done.  I still have seeds and room for things to go in.  And now it's 100 in Kansas.  When it gets this way in Kansas, we don't work outside.  It is truly dangerous to ones health.  So we do what we can in the early morning, and by 10 in the morning, we are driven to shade, or inside, to work inside the rest of the day.

The upside to this is that I can get sewing and knitting done that have sat all spring while I was busy preparing for this heat.  So now I have a quilt that I'm working on that maybe I can get done, and two shawls I'm knitting, plus a myriad of hats, socks, sweaters, etc., that have been sitting and waiting for me, as well as spinning that sits waiting.  Most of our days are full of 18 hours of work, and hopefully some sleep in between.  But the older we get, the less sleep we get.  Aches and pains keep us up, or wake us up, and the sun does it's job early in the morning.  We've gotten used to getting up with the light now, and believe it or not, we do get sleepy at about 9:00 pm.  I used to think that it was really weird how older people get tired so early, now I know, it's because they rise with the sun and sleep with the darkness.  It really is the way God intended us to be, and it works if you allow your body to do what it wants to do.

I have strawberries to clean today, and will get that done as soon as I get off of here, and peaches and cherries also.  Will try to get as much done as I can inside this afternoon.

Then tomorrow morning, while it's cooler (in the 80's here is cool in the mornings), I have mammoth sunflower seeds to still go in, they love the heat, and as long as I can keep them damp, they will come up.  And also still a ton of flowers to put in.  I'll start posting pics of our flowers this year, as soon as I figure out what's up with the camera.  The last two rolls of film, came back blank, so don't know what's going on with the 35 mm.  I could use the digital, but I really do not like it as well.

Everyone here is well at this point, and we are hoping to stay that way.  We frequent the farmers markets, and do what we can as far as stocking up, but I don't keep track.  It takes too much of my time, and time is precious, so we do what we can, and just let it go at that.  I can say that this week I have planted some things, harvested some things, stocked some things, visited farmers markets, etc, etc, etc.  But it's nothing different than we have been doing for many summers and springs in the past, so to me, keeping track of exactly what we have done just doesn't make sense.  I just know that we do these things.

I appreciate all those who do keep track though, I get great ideas from them occasionally on what I don't have in the garden that needs to be there.  

Well, enough for today,

Until Next Time.

A Year's Supply?

How many have a whole years supply?  I know we've been stocking up, and I know that on occasion I seem to be able to convince myself we could get by for an entire year on what we have.  And if it were just the Mr. and myself, we might be able to.  But you know, we have two kids, who are both married, with three children themselves.  And my mother and the Mr.'s father are both older, and I have a single brother and his daughter.  Out of all of them, my mom, and my two kids stock a little.  My mom and brother could probably get by for a month or two.  The kids maybe a month, or less.  So that leaves me.  If I had to feed all of us, I MIGHT be able to get us all by for a month.  So I start all over now.  And I'm stocking for at least 14 people.  Three months at first, the finally a year.  And the amounts are daunting.  But someone has to do it.

How about you?  I'd like to hear from you.  How close are you to having a years supply?  A great site I frequent has a ton of ideas, and amounts to stock.  If you would like the site address, let me know, I'll get it to you.

The garden is doing well, except for the danged gopher we are still fighting.  I think I'm going to have to break down and use pellets.  I hate that idea, because the poison goes into the ground as it breaks down.  But we've tried just about everything else.

Until Next Time.

Another Great Giveaway

A wonder Mill Giveaway.  Please join me in this great giveaway and if you give me credit, we both get signed up for it.  Also if you don't want to join in the giveaway, there is a great discount on the site for a Wonder Mill.  

Not only that, but this site has great ideas, and little baby steps can be e-mailed you to on stocking up.

Great giveaway

Shelf Reliance has a great giveaway right now for those who are busy stocking up.  Visit 

http://www.shelfreliance.com/blog/ and follow the instructions.  These are a great tool for those who need to keep track of canned goods, and whether or not you win one, you might want to seriously look into getting one anyway.  They not only help you see at a glance what you have in stock, but they also making it very easy to do turnover of your stocks.

Until Next Time.

Different areas of stocking up?

I know that the majority who might read this are probably busy making their own stock of food and personal items.  But something people don't often think of are items for down time.

Personally, I love to scrapbook, and knit.  So I have a huge stock of scrapbooking items, including the empty scrapbooks, paper, embellishments, ribbons, tools, everything I could need when I get the time.  I also have been collecting a stock of yarn.  I have everything from Peruvian Wool to Cashmere, to acrylic.  I have different weights of yarn, have accumulated a complete stock of straight needles and circular, and circulars in different sizes.  I also crochet, so have different sizes crochet needles, yarn for that, and cotton yarns.  I sew a little, but my mom sews alot, so I have a huge stock of all different kinds of materials, tons of thread, sewing needles, safety pins, elastic, etc.  I am accumulating materials and patterns (get these at JoAnns, or Hobby Lobby, or Michaels, etc when they have their 99 cent sales), for all of my grandchildren, in larger sizes, so that as they grow, I will have the materials for new clothes, pajamas, blankets, etc.  I also stock sheets, towels, blankets, etc for future use, when the ones we have wear out.

I am accumulating clothes in larger sizes for all six grandchildren, and after I feel comfortable with what I have, I will start on clothes for the Mr. and I, and my kids.

I find a great place to stock some of these items are second hand stores.  Clothing, bedding, even old sweaters that are made of great  yarn, can be taken apart and the yarn can be reused.

Paper items, especially for the grandkids, and paper items for the office I get at cheaper stores, Walmart especially.

The more I stock peripheral items, the more I realize I am unprepared for what may come, but at least I am trying.  And that is the important thing, we all have to try.  Come what may, someone will be able to use these things.

Until next time,

Gracie