Gardening

I love my garden. When I am gardening, I think about my family. I remember my Great Uncle Otto, with his acres of vegetables. (I don't know how big his garden actually was, but I was little, and it seemed humongous). When we'd visit in the summer, we would get a tour of the garden as soon as we got out of the car. At least that's how I remember it. I mostly remember his corn...rows and rows, and my Great Aunt Elfie boiling a dozen ears per person for dinner. I remember the adults, my dad, his cousins, my mom, sitting on the back steps, shucking all that corn. I don't believe I'm exaggerating...it was 12 ears per person, right? I don't plant corn these days, but I do think of Uncle Otto when I am digging in the dirt, planting and harvesting.

I remember my Grandpa. He had a garden, too, out at the lake house, and I do remember spending time out there with him, but mostly I remember his flowers. Whether they were for himself or for my grandma or both, I remember hanging flowers, begonias, fuchsias (I think). I couldn't tell you if he really planted these specific flowers (I bet my mom will correct me), but when I saw those particular flowers in the greenhouse this spring, I just had to have them because they made me think of him.

I also think of my dad, with his electric deer fence protecting his precious tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, corn, etc. My dad takes any kids who are at the house out to the garden to pick whatever is ripe for dinner, and I remember H-Bomb eating whole ears of raw corn before he made it back to the house a summer or two ago.

I'm not sure why I remember the men in the family being gardeners. Are/were the women all the harvesters and cooks? Someone can tell me, I'm sure. That's just what I remember, what I think about. I'm sure they had a thousand little secret tricks for growing and gardening, and I don't know any of them. I wish I did.

I still get excited with each little plant that goes into my EarthBoxes.

I don't dig in the dirt so much, although this year I did replace the soil in all my EarthBoxes with new soil. So there was some digging. I used the old soil to make a couple new beds where I planted cabbages, melons, strawberries and some lavender. I moved all the EarthBoxes and their elevating cement blocks closer to the new fenceline. Now the tomatoes and peppers will get even more sun. Just wait and see how big they get this year!

I found a large black widow spider in one of the cement blocks, and smashed it with a rock. I have kids who play in the yard, after all.

After planting about 8 EarthBoxes worth of tomatoes and peppers, I noticed on the bags of Miracle Gro Garden Soil, which I've been using in my boxes for more than two years now, it says "Not for use in containers" or some such nonsense. It works just fine in my boxes. It also says to "wear gloves when working with this product." More nonsense. It's not like sat down and ate it with a spoon. I'm just going to stop reading these things and enjoy my garden as it grows. I'm sure my Grandpa and Uncle Otto would be proud.

Yard Work

The front yard of our house is like an oasis in this desert of ours. When we moved in, we nurtured green grass, planted a little tree, and surrounded the yard with our boxed garden. As H-Bomb began to crawl around and explore on his own, we decided to erect a fence. Just to give an idea of enclosure, and it worked well for a long time. He knew his boundaries, and stayed within them for the most part. At least he never crawled out into the road!


Huge shade trees encircle our yard, providing relief from the summer sun. We've had many fabulous parties in our little space.


Now that H-Bomb and Sawed Off are older and uncontainable, and our house is bigger, our little oasis seems smaller, and out of proportion to the house. And the weeds on the outside of the fence seem more uncontrollable than the boys. Frankly I'm tired of pulling them.


Number One suggested we move the fence out, farther into the driveway, which widens in front of our house anyway. We decided to stake our claim and do it. We took the rails off the fence, and Number One dug post holes with the tractor. He knew, it being a driveway, it would be too difficult to dig by hand. We decided where to put the poles, and Number One dug the holes.


The boys are always tempted by holes and dirt. They practically filled one hole in before we made them stop. Luckily it wasn't too hard to dig back out with a shovel.


In the midst of our project, something on the tractor tire started leaking, and the tire went flat. We'll be able to finish with the backhoe, but we didn't get it done last night.


I can't wait to show you our new and improved yard. Now I just hope there'll be enough water in the reservoir to grow grass!

We have lots of other big yard projects in the works, planting our garden, more perennial flowers, bulbs, adding some rocks, etc. Soon I'll be able to show you!

Unexpected Harvest

On Sunday morning, CG informed us that she had ice on her trees, from where she had her sprinkler running all night long, and that her weather station said it had gotten down to 30 degrees during the night. She asked about our tomatoes. Our weather station, 1/10th mile away, said 36 degrees. And our tomatoes were fine. Peppers too. So honestly I didn't think much about it, and since Sunday was already scheduled as Salsa Day, I spent the morning making eight batches of salsa with all of our ripe tomatoes. I left the green tomatoes on the vines.

Sunday night, however, it FROZE for real. I awoke to our weather station registering a low of 26 degrees. Wilted tomato plants and pepper plants. I knew, after we got home from school today, we'd have to harvest every single vegetable in the garden.

We have yet to turn on the heaters in our house. We're just not ready for this kind of weather. I think I'm in denial.

Today, when we got home to school, I got to work. Wifey said all of her tomatoes, every last one, froze. She tried to bring some in the house, and they were just mush. She pulled up all her tomato plants and fed them, tomatoes and all, to the goats.

I harvested all the tomatoes that weren't mushy, and some that were. I am going to experiment with roasting them tonight into a batch or two of salsa. Roasting and salsifying tomatoes makes them mushy anyway, so I'm hopeful. We'll see. And I'll let you know.

I harvested all the peppers, even the teeny tiny ones that just didn't have enough of a chance to grow, and all the tomatillos. It seems like this is a very early freeze--it seems like I usually don't have to harvest EVERYTHING until at least the end of October, sometimes later.

We lost about half of our beautiful basil. I fed the blackened, wilted, frozen basil, stalks and all, to the goats. Another experiment: I moved the EarthBox of herbs (basil, Italian parsley, sage) in front of the windows in the addition. We'll see if they will last just a bit longer until I can at least make some pesto or dry some of the parsley. I don't see why they wouldn't last, as long as I write a note to myself about keeping the box watered.

Now I will need to monitor my bowls of tomatoes, gathering the ripest ones for salsa every couple of days. Did you know you can pick green tomatoes and they will ripen on the counter or in a bowl? I was happy to learn that several years ago--it really works!

So anyway. The salsa will continue until we are out of tomatoes...

The State of the Ranch: Good and Bad

If I sat down and listed every single thing that is currently wrong with our house, I believe I would lose my mind, so I’ll just list a few. To give you an idea. I haven’t blogged in a while, so please bear with me. Or skim through, whatever. There a couple good things in here too. (Trust me, there really are!)

We are still, apparently, waiting on a bid from the contractor to complete our addition. We were prepared to wait, but MONTHS AGO when ABEG said to “Go Ahead” we got excited. For nothing. So now we are somewhat frustrated about the lack of progress.

The new front door the contractor installed during Phase I, but did not finish on the inside, you remember, the one that fell off the hinges a couple days later? Or maybe I was so mad about that one I didn’t even tell you. Anyway, now it doesn’t close unless you lift up on the handle. Hard. And if you want to lock the deadbolt? Forgetaboutit. You have to not only lift up the door but align the deadbolt with the hole, and then the doorknob thingie doesn’t line up. Whee. Also, even if the door is closed, you can kick it open. I tried it the other day when Sawed Off accidentally locked me out. It’s good for relieving aggression, but not so good when you’re thinking about being home by yourself. Deadbolt it is. I’ll have to add it to Number One’s list.

Our siding is not yet completed. We were waiting for the satellite internet dude to make it over here, and he finally did over the weekend. Now we can have someone finish installing the siding and seal it all before the snow flies! I am so glad I pushed to have the old chinking removed and the logs resealed before the siding went on—there was a significant, noticeable reduction in the number of elm beetles in our house!

Also, we currently have only half of our electricity. Meaning, half of the breakers in our breaker box don’t work. Luckily it is the inconsequential half, if you don’t count the bathroom light fixture. The theory is that there is a break in the line, somewhere underground, and we have yet to find it. Some of the wires from the generator may be shorted out underground, which would theoretically explain why we only have partial power. It’s just a theory.

Right now we have no power/lights in our bathroom, no power in the hall outlets (but thankfully at least one light in the hallway), no power/lights in H-Bomb’s room, no power/lights in the playroom, only half power (no lights) in the living room (thank goodness it didn’t affect the television!) I haven’t checked all the outlets, or the lights in the garage, but thankfully none of our appliances (2 fridges + 1 freezer) were affected.

Many of the other buildings are affected as well, the bunkhouse has untold fixtures/outlets that aren’t working; RanchHand and Wifey were running extension cords to their fridge and microwave; there is power out in the barn and some outbuildings. CG’s house seems to be unaffected, but she is on a different underground line from the rest of us.

CG’s brothers were here, trying to fix the electrical line, but they didn’t have the right equipment or couldn’t find the problem or possibly both. Who knows how long this will go on before CG breaks down and hires an electrician?

Her brothers did temporarily fix RanchHand and Wifey’s electricity by rewiring their breakers. When I found out about this, quite by accident, I was upset that the same service was not offered to us. We are running an extension cord from the kitchen (nearest working outlet) to the bathroom for a small lamp on the counter, near the sink—not exactly a kid-friendly setup! I spoke my mind this past weekend, and when I overheard one of the brothers discussing the situation with CG, “it could be another two weeks…” and she said “Oh, that’s FINE” without a second thought, I could not contain myself. I explained our bathroom situation, and asked that our breakers be rewired also. Brother was supposed to come down in the morning to address it.

The next morning, Brother did come down. And when he suggested re-wiring the entire breaker box, so we’d have all our power back, I asked what the risks might be. He said the box could get “hot” or the breakers could trip. I spoke with Number One, and we decided to just live with it. Brother said rewiring wouldn’t be too difficult, and we’d put the wires back in place it when the whole line is fixed, but with us not being here, we just said forget it.

I think I was just upset on principal, anyway. It’s not like we aren’t managing, and by now we’re so used to having things going wrong in our house On A Daily Basis that, a lamp in the bathroom? An extension cord running down the hall? Not a big deal. But the fact that someone else got their power “fixed” and we weren’t even offered or considered for the same deal? That’s enough to make this cowgirl fume.

It doesn't help much that Number One is constantly on the mountain these days, and we miss him. The other day when Sawed Off said, “Wan go moun wit you, Dada” (translation: Want to go to the mountain with you, Dada). Number One was getting choked up. He misses us too. Soon the fall gather will be complete and he will be here with us, and maybe even be able to come to town with us too.

H-Bomb has been playing and loving soccer, he has even kicked the ball a few times in the games. That’s all he needs to get excited! “Mommy! I kicked the ball THREE TIMES tonight!” Number One has only missed one game (he’s been doing a lot of driving to come down for the games: a two- or three-hour drive from the mountain plus almost an hour to town, and back).

H-Bomb is so proud whenever anyone comes to see his games. A couple weeks ago, he had even more spectators: his Grandpa and our famous cartoonist friend from France, Jean-Claude Mezieres. Grandpa drove Jean-Claude down from the airport, and Grandpa stayed the night at the town house. Jean-Claude is staying at the ranch, in our camper, for a month, I will post more about him next. We love Jean-Claude. We are going to visit him in Paris and at his country house. Very soon.

I have been canning pear and apple jams and butters (in my spare time!) and am getting ready to move on to salsa. It is almost time to harvest all the tomatoes—green and all—before the frost comes. I need to get busy. I made just one pear pie (…sniff…) before the pears got too ripe…I wanted to try freezing the pies, but I just didn’t have time.

I also have a list a mile long of things to do in and around the house, which may or may not get done. The leaves have mostly turned on the mountain, making our drive home spectacular. Except for when a deer ran out and struck our van in the side the other day. I’m not even kidding. We need to get the van fixed now too!

Some days H-Bomb says he wants to be a skeleton for Halloween, which would make my job a heck of a lot easier, because that’s what he was last year. I think we’ll turn it into a Pirate Skeleton, just accessorize the skeleton costume to make it more exciting. I think he’ll go for it. Because I sure don’t want to have to throw together a Tyrannosaurus Rex costume (his first request) at the last minute!

Oh, and Woody, the male goat, STINKS. He literally exudes some kind of male goat stench. It makes a person gag. Jessie does not seem to stink at all. It’s hard to tell for sure with Woody clamoring for attention TOO!! Not only do you have to wash your hands after touching him, you also have to change your clothes. It doesn’t exactly help with my laundry situation.

And Coffee, sweet little Coffee, is pregnant. Again. We really need to do something about this. But the puppies will be very good cattle dogs, a Kelpie/Catahoula mix.

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I Never...

I have had these hens and chicks,
growing on a rock in our yard for several years now.

I have never seen them do this:

Have you?

Mine did it and CG's did it too.

They shot up those tall growths, and I suggested that they might be getting ready to flower.

Lo and behold, they flowered. Aren't they lovely?

It must be a very good year for hens and chicks. Or something.

Seriously, have you ever seen hens and chicks do this?

I want to know. Please tell me your experience.

Busy Morning on the Ranch

The power came on before 6:am this morning. Despite the fact that I REALLY need a shower, I decided to get up and do yoga before the boys woke up. I got through a whole hour with no interruptions! Amazing. And Number One isn't even home; he's still in the Basin. I was also greeted by the discovery that my recipe blog, The Bad Girl's Kitchen, had a record 70 visits yesterday! Excellent.

Sawed Off woke up first, as usual, and ate two bowls of Cheerios, followed by Cheddar Jalapeño Cheetos. He loves both of those.

Wifey offered to get some things from town for me, and brought her computer over for a quick fix because she couldn't close her browser window. Did I ever tell you I'm the resident computer expert?

H-Bomb woke up a little later, but wasn't ready to eat breakfast. He just wanted Garlic Pistachios. Which I had to shell for him.

I decided to get on the ball and make a double batch of Annaley's Prairie Fire Beans so I can freeze them and have them ready to take to my 20 year high school reunion in July. (I realize I just gave you an opportunity to do the math and figure out my age, but I still look young enough to get carded for beer, so I could deny deny deny if I really wanted to!)

The boys decided to play outside, naked, in the little kiddie pool, and then on the swing set, and then with their trucks. They've been busy too.

I never thought I could find a way to improve Annaley's classic recipe, but to be honest, I have. I start off frying onions in lard, the Mexican way, and then continue on with the recipe. They have such a great, smoky flavor! And I know I've said this before, but there is no better smell, except maybe coffee brewing in the morning, than onions fryin' up in lard. Trust me on this.

Once the beans and ham hocks went in the pot, I went out, still in my pajamas/yoga attire, greasy hair and all, to stake out the little goats.

But those little goats, Woody and Jessie, were not being cooperative. They were happy to see me, but then on the way to the stake they got distracted by some fresh little elm tree whips.


Then, they were about to jump on their favorite rock, but got distracted by the flowers Wifey planted around the base. Whoops! I pushed them onto the rock, then missed catching video of their usual morning bucking/kicking/leaping acrobatics to get off the other side.


We ran, the goats and I, between our house and the commissary, past the gas tanks, and it was going pretty well: I could see the darn stake, over there between the bath house and the little log cabin, nicely shaded. Unfortunately for me, all the goats could see was fresh alfalfa growing in the sunny yard behind the bunk house. I got their water ready, untangled their ropes. After 20 minutes of cajoling and bribery, I gave up. I went and pulled up their stake, and tied them out where they stood and moved their water. They don't have any shade right now, but it's only 10:30am so they'll be okay for a while. Perhaps once they eat all the alfalfa, they'll be ready to move.

The good news is, I finally found the darn sledgehammer that's been missing for at least a week. And the ground in the yard was fairly soft, especially with a good sledgehammer to pound in the stake instead of the lame rock I'd been using!

Back at the house, the beans are bubbling away on the stove, the boys (still naked) are eating fresh cherries (which I, of course, had to pit by hand for Sawed Off b/c my cherry pitter thingie is packed away in the cabin somewhere, and if I didn't he would just crunch up or swallow the pits), and I am finishing this blog. All before 11:am.

I already feel like I accomplished a lot today, but there is always more to do. I got more jalapeños the other day, and I need to get another batch of Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños in the freezer! (you can never have too many!) And then there's the Steak Fajitas I need to prepare and freeze because I don't know if the meat will last until Number One gets home from the Basin! And I still would really like to take a shower! If I feel like it later today, I'll do another post to let you know what I've been up to.

Snow in May

As I was driving H-Bomb in to school on Thursday, his last day of preschool before "summer" vacation, this is what greeted us as we rose out of the canyon:


You've got to be kidding. Snow??? It was only raining at our house on the ranch, elevation 5,300, but it was pretty cold. Not cold enough to worry about my tomato plants, but cold enough to require a jacket. Cold enough to annoy me, when it should be at least 70 outside and only four days ago I was hot in a tank top.




It wasn't sticking to the road, which is good, because I was also running a few minutes behind. Finding the jackets and wrangling boys into them. We hadn't needed to wear jackets in a while, so they were, shall we say, misplaced.

H-Bomb asked, "Mommy, is it CHRISTMAS??" The kid can't wait for Christmas.

"Um, no, actually it's close to summer. Your summer vacation starts tomorrow in fact."


This picture above was taken on our way back from town, elevation about 7,000 feet. Notice there is no snow in the foreground. There wasn't much snow in town either, which is fortunate because our fruit trees were in full bloom.


And this picture, where in the morning the ground had been white with snow? Three hours later it was all melted off, except for in the mountains. Freaky weather. H-Bomb was disappointed that there wasn't enough snow to make a snowman, or even a snowball. I wasn't disappointed one bit. And my tomatoes are still fine.

Garden Planters

While we were driving through California, we passed by several nurseries that sold huge plant pots, fountains, etc. I would have loved to get a fountain, but we didn't think the van could take the weight of a fountain (even a smallish one) in addition to ALL the stuff we already had in there. Number One said we could possibly get a fountain next time! Here are a couple I really like:


I did find some great plant pots. There is a beautiful nursery in Carpinteria, where I got some awesome succulents and some colorful pots.


H-Bomb and I went to the Carpinteria nursery while Sawed Off was napping, and he was excited to pick out some little plants and the beautiful square green pot below.


We also saw several playful little insects and animals at several nurseries, made from iron and rocks. Some of the sculptures have movement, they were so fun! They looked fairly simple, so we are going to try our hand at making some of those this summer.


We also stopped at a garden accoutrement place around Pear Blossom, CA. They only took cash, and we don't carry much around anymore. We did get some for our trip, but we were on the way home, so we were down to about $50 in cash. I found some great pots I liked, and I wanted three of them. They were marked $20 each (which is a good deal in itself). After much debate, I decided to haggle. I approached the Hispanic guy running the place. I said, "I want to get three pots, they are marked $20, but I only have $50." And he didn't say anything. Then I said, "Can I show you which ones?" And he followed me. I pointed out the pots I liked. He said, "Alrrrrighh. Tell yourrr huss-ban, brring the trucK." (I am trying to get his accent across. It was very thick. I was prepared to pull out my Spanish if necessary.) Number One was doubtful I could even fit the three pots I bought in the van, but I am a good packer, especially when I am determined! Here is how loaded down our van was (you can see some of my great plants in there as well):


So, we got all the pots safely home. But, I still think we need more plant containers, especially with our new backyard that we are going to be fixing up. I was doing some research on the Internet, and I think I am going to make some plant containers this summer, out of cement and hypertufa, so I wanted to see what kind of containers we had around (we do have some nice plastic ones) to use as molds. I also ran across a website that was very inspirational, describing different things that could be recycled/reused as plant containers.

With that in mind today, Number One, Sawed Off and I went up to the Boneyard on the four wheeler. (H-Bomb couldn't go; he was in an especially long time out because he needed a major attitude adjustment. Don't judge me, you were totally not here.)


I don't believe you've heard about the Boneyard before. This place is an artist's dream. The Boneyard is where everything that is old or broken or unused or no one knows where else to put (but it still might have good parts! we might need it someday!) from the ranch eventually ends up. It is a treasure trove up there: old cars, wood, metal, I can't even describe the myriad of things that are there. There are old farm implements, antique and rusted things that you can't begin to guess at.


(This is also the place we will find most of the metal required to make the above insects, animals, etc.)

And I got lucky today! I brought home a cute little white enameled metal box, and a wooden box, both for holding plants.



I also found the cutest old stove you have ever seen to use as a planter. One leg is broken, but still attached, so I'm sure we can make it work. (to quote Tim Gunn. Yes, I am a Project Runway fan. And so is Number One. Just ask him. He'll deny it).

But the find of the day? Some huge metal troughs that had been collected and brought down from somewhere! I had seen these at some point around the ranch, and told Number One how perfect they would be for planters and how much I coveted one. Or several. Well, now there are several just waiting up there!


Gorgeous rusted turquoise-colored, about 8 feet long, with built-in drainage! One of these will be absolutely perfect in front of our new dining room windows, which span about 10 feet, and fabulous planted with beautiful perennials. I am so excited! I cannot wait for spring!!!

The Final Batches...

The last of the tomatoes have ripened. My kitchen counter is clearing off! Today I made the final three batches of salsa. It is extra spicy because I used extra jalapenos, and they were bright red. #1 is going to be excited. (and I realize many of you have seen this all before, but think of it like this: this is the last salsa of the season. No more salsa blogs until next year!!)

I roasted the garlic and jalapenos:

I roasted the tomatoes:

Chopped the onion:

Squeezed in the secret ingredient: (oops, I wasn't supposed to tell you that part)

And processed lightly.

Voila! I am finished with salsa for the season. Now let's just hope we don't run out!

The Day of The ~SALSA~

I've decided.

For this year, today,

27 October 2007

is

The Day of The Salsa.

By that, I mean that I realized I needed to get my crap together TODAY and make salsa before any more tomatoes rot. As you may know, I rescued all the green tomatoes and all the peppers from the cold weather a couple weeks ago, and they have been ripening (and taking up precious space) on my counter ever since then.

Today, I looked at the tomatoes, and a few of them were beginning to rot. I decided I better get on it. I have been putting this job off for days. I can put it off no longer...not to mention that some of you know I have a teeny tiny kitchen with limited counter space, so I really would like to reclaim it from the tomatoes.

Right now, I am on my 8th batch of salsa. I make them in doubles, so I've put together four double batches. That equals eight. I'm taking credit where credit is due.

The house smells of roasting...tomatoes, serranos, jalapeños, garlic...it is wonderful. I've had a few chips and various kinds of freshly-made salsa for breakfast along with my coffee this morning. (it is imperative that each batch be tasted for quality assurance)

I've told you about salsa making before, in other places if not here. So I won't go too much into it. Let's just say I have made so much salsa, I could probably make it in my sleep. Dare I say, I make

The Best Salsa Ever.

And, as soon as this, the fourth double batch is completed, I will be finished for today. I can't say this is any kind of record for me, because this happens every year. I don't remember if I've ever made eight batches in a day, but if not I've come damn close. B.K. (Before Kids) I used to can this salsa. I have not done that since H-Bomb and then Sawed-Off arrived. Now, it is much easier to freeze the salsa, and it turns out great.

But, I will not be finished until the last tomato ripens and gets salsified. I still have a pile of them, in varying stages of ripeness, as you can see...

And plenty of peppers as well. I think our salsa supply will definitely last through next spring by the time I am through! YeeHaw!


I have been at this all morning. It is now noon, and I am finished but for letting the flavors come together at room temperature and then finding room in the freezer.

Somehow I have managed to do this in between feeding the boys and dealing with whining and disagreements and who-knows-how-many time outs for H-Bomb (he's having a hard time today). But now, I look behind me to the kitchen table. I think the boys have basically been eating since they woke up. Oatmeal? Of course. Granola with milk? Sure. Milk with 'Tine? If you stop whining. More granola? I guess. Ice cream cup? Whatever.

So the table and the floor and the chairs and any and all the surfaces in the dining room? Simply COVERED. With, yes, oatmeal-granola-milk-milk with 'tine-granola-ice cream. I have wiped down both boys. I think you can guess what my next project is for today. Thank goodness I finally covered the dining room chairs in vinyl...