Had 12″ tomato plants, 6″ peppers in various varieties, 4″ brocolli, cabbage, celery, various herbs and cauliflower. I knew I needed to get them in before we left. At least a week before and let see how they did. Up to this point, I had been putting them out during the day, a couple of nights that were warm. One day whilest planting other seeds, my 4 year old, or “the middle child” as she calls herself, decided to feed all my plants, including flowers that had not been planted yet. She added 5 Tbls of Miracle Grow to two gallons of water and had at it. 

She’s such a sweet girl and helper my “middle child”, but she’s also very independant and very smart with a memory like a steel trap.  I think its her smarts that is her undoing at this age.  Anyway… I digress.

Immediately, I poured quite a bit of water on all of the plants to dilute the fertilizer. Worked for some, not for others. The tomatos were hard hit. By the time I put them in the garden, which I hated to do after the trauma, they had started coming back.

We left for vacation. The tomatos looked pretty good. Leggy, from all the clipings I did do get rid of dead stuff, but that didn’t bother me. It seems each year because of surprise freezes I’m always doing quite a bit of “pruning” at the beginning of their growing season. Doesn’t ever seem to keep them from turning into giants. Literally.

We left and while we were gone it rained everyday. Alot. With hail. We’ve had 13 days of rain. I knew there would be some casualties. I was pleasantly surprised at what was doing well still. Lettuce, brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower, strawberries.

The seeds, carrot, chard, spinach, kholrabi, beets and beans had come up, much to my amazement.Not all in great shape, but most of them surviving. We are south facing on a slope. Let’s say that even with my numerous ditches above rows, that there was erosion and rivulets.

I’ve read my books and hit the internet and I know a lot now about blight and fungus.  My concerns currently are this, and I’m hoping you kind people can give me some tips;

Tomatos- Splotchy brown crackly, curling leaves, with holes here and there. At the top small tight clusters of dark green leaves. When I did my snipping I noticed that the leaves and stems at the main stem are still very green inside. Our warm weather is back as of tomorrow, will sun heal these poor vegies?

Royal Purple Bush Beans- These I had just planted the seeds when we left. They came up, hit 2 inches and now look similar to the tomatos but much, much worse off. Splotchy brown crackly.

Peppers- A very sick split green color. The leaves do not have damage such as rips and curling, but look as if the hail made some holes. The hail was hard on my seedling. Again, I’m hoping sun will heal these poor fellas too.

Oh, I’d love to hear your ideas. I’m feeling very poorly about all of this. So much hard work.

I will put in the pole beans, pole peas, corn, cucumbers  and squash this weekend. My mother says its too late, I say thank goodness I didn’t put them in with the rest. The short growing season up here in the mountains can be a challenge.

Background on garden- this is new site on our property. As I said above, it is South facing, sun all day and is on a slope. Tomatos up top, beans and peppers in the middle next to each other. My husband, the soil specialist (really, it’s his job), says we have a sandy loam, “perfect for both retention and drainage”. You’ll see in the photos that I sprinkled a general vegetable fertilizer. This I used on the whole garden & have used this kind and brand the last three years.

My poor sick tomatos. I got rid of the really bad leaves and stems. These I left. I see freeze and then the yellowing.

…and my baby beans @ 2 weeks.

…all of the peppers, regardless of variety look like this.

Oh, yes, I’ve been busy!

Just last night we arrived home from Oregon. We stayed in Yachats, Depoe Bay and Mt. Hood.

Did I tell you that my monster-in-law, whoa, I mean mother-in-law retired? And, that she went with us on our trip?

Okay, let’s see if I can address the title subjects in a few quick bullets.

• Yes, I finally received my chicks. But not all from the farm store I ordered from in my previous posts. This story will need it’s own post. As it turns out, the manager DOES hate me!
• My father in law purchased a calf, cow and a hiefer. We will help take care of them and will be packing the freezer w/ . 5 of the heifer in fall. [Okay, I've been corrected. Steer, we have a steer instead of a hiefer?!]
• Skittles and M&M, our sister and brother, 8-month old, cats ”married” and had four kittens on Easter Day. My allergic, no-like-cats  hubby, for some reason has decided to let all of them stick around. [Update: just got a call from hubby, it seems two of the kitties, Hershey and Annika, hitched a ride to work this a.m. One made it about 50 feet past the mailbox, the other didn't make more than a mile up the highway. Unfortunately, those two were the two older girls kitties.]
• The garden… oh, the garden. I spent three weeks non-stop planting up to the day we left. I did get in: tomatos, peppers, stawberries, royal bush beans, carrots, chard, spinache, three kinds of lettuce, cabbage, broccolli, cauliflower, cabbage, oregano, catnip, basil, thyme, rosemary, basil, cilantro, kholrabi, beets, radishes, and potatos. Still have pole beans, pole peas, horseradish, onions, garlic and corn. I figured most of it had to go in before the trip and no, it is not summer warm weather yet, and I paid for putting in my warm weather plants. They are yellowing and the rain has not stopped in over 2 weeks. They are not dead however and it is only June 12. Either they’ll revive or I’ll replant. The cool weather items however, are in heaven! More on my poor garden in its own post.
• The vacation. Ah, the vacation. Long story short for now: my brother-in-law purchased a World-Mark membership or condo [?], I’m not exactly sure how it works. All I know is he spends a lot of money and feels that the rest of us need to utilize his condos when he gets them. He nor we, get to choose dates. He gets to stay at timeshares around the world. For this vaca he chose a three bedroom in Depoe Bay, OR on cliffs overlooking the ocean. It was a beautiful view. He insisted in having along: his ma (retired from 35 years medical service the day before we left), his brother- my hubby, me and the three munchkins (one of which missed her last week of school). As luck has it, my uncle owns a 100 year old motel 45 miles down the coast, that he’s spent the last five years remodeling. A great little mom and pop, or aunt and uncle place. On the way over from N. Idaho, grandma’s pristine condition Caddy over-heated south of the tri-cities. Thus, the tone for our vacation was set.

Gosh, I hope I have time to eventually write this post! Picture this: 1) A family of five feeling obligated to go on vacation, not wanting to because of lack of gas funds, 36 baby chicks, a dog who runs, a large garden with night freezes still, and the last week of school so important to the third grader. 2) Grandmother, an RN, who for the much of her 35 years of public health service, was the county wide manager for the local health district, just retired, not on her own terms and still needing to control… anything. 3) A 30-year successful construction business owner, who in the last two years has been heading into some type of life crisis, has let his hair and general appearance go, is the baby of the family (and acts as such), and while on said vacation, started getting calls from the IRS because his accountant paid neither his federal nor state taxes. Oh and while we were there, his head foreman was caught with missing equipment and tools at his house, and the head of sales was caught pocketing money that clients had paid for jobs, we’re talking thousands. The you have my hubby the older brother,  who feels he needs to take care of everyone. Stressful vacation for him.

I spent the vacation packing and unloading everyday, taking turns staying at the condo and my uncles, as I refused to be caught up in the drama. Yes, I said drama. All I wanted to do was take the kids to the beach, Newport Bayfront, the Aquarium, eat seafood and more beach. And, we did those things. I’d say the kids and I had a pretty good vacation. We also had some good times with Daddy.

Daddy and the trouble makers! Cate is 2 and at the heighth of her terrible two’s, Alicia’s is 4 and addresses herself as “the middle child”, and Emily is 9 and is our “little” softball start. Actually, she’s very big and very smart. She scored in the 7th grade, 8th month on her STARS and had the highest ISAT scores in all categories in Math, Reading and Language. Yes, I like to brag, I’m very proud of her.

Ah… isn’t this a sweet photo? There’ve only been a handful of pics of Erik and I over the last 13 years.

I wonder if they know that Jaws is one of my ALL time favorites?

For about a year now, I have been researching chickens. Not to mean I knew NoThINg of chickens, my mom and aunt had chickens. As did my husband. I knew a little, okay, very little. I never bothered to ask and wasn’t around much between 17 and 27. I knew my mom had some mean Rhode Island Reds and that every time I came home she’d send me to get eggs and I swear they all hated me. I think they sensed my fear. Mom said I was being “silly”. Those pecks didn’t feel very silly.

Anyway, I digress.

I did as much research as I could online, tried to find the right chicken w/ the right characteristics. There are a lot of chickens out there. At some point you have to talk to people. Hopefully people in your area. Where do you buy them, which breed thrives well in our colder winter climes and hot summers, most docile, etc… So, I tried to find people to ask questions of that wouldn’t treat me like “those city folk who don’t know nothin’ about the country, and are lookin’ to have chickens, pigs, cattle and gardens, like they wanta be one of us.” Um, okay. That was my husbands comment when I told him that I called the local Farm & Garden and the owner was a bit rude to me at first, until I dropped my last name and bluffed my way through words like pullet and sexing. My instant recall of “Chickens 101″ didn’t immediately pull those definitions to mind.

But, I did it. I found out that the “common” chickens are the same ones that I had narrowed down in my exhaustive search- RIR, Barred Rock, Sex Links and others, and that the “exotic” chickens were a couple of the others I really wanted, Aracauna, Americana, Cornish Cross. Exotics are much, more expensive than common chickens. Oh, and did you know you can get pullets or hatchlings. And that the hatchlings they get from the hatchery aren’t sexed?!? Still working on this one.

The beginning of my conversation w/ the owner went like this:

Me: I heard you sell baby chicks there.

Owner: We don’t sell them.

M: Oh, I was told I could get them from you.

O: Well, you can order them from me.

M: Well, yes, that’s what I mean. Can I get baby chicks from you?

O: You can order them from me.

Aghh… according to my husband, who knows said owner, this was the point, right in the beginning, that I was pegged as being one of those “outsiders, who think they can live off the land like the rest of us”.  Again, my husband. Man, he really needs to get clue. These comments from an educated man who lived in the city with me for 10 years!

By the end of the phone call, I found out you have to order at least 25 of one breed, no mixing and matching and that they were placing the last order the next day by noon. The chicks will be in April 25th, give or take a day or two and when they call we need to show up by 4pm that day or they place them on sale at 7am the next morning. Oh, and they’ll be a day old when they arrive.

My husband to his credit has started on the chicken coop and has cut up the cedar posts and drawn a plan. Just like his family’s chicken coop when he was growing up. I asked him the other day when he was showing me dimensions if he’s ever heard of the bubblegum theory. 

It’s not that he doesn’t want chickens or this life, to me it just seems that he’s really busy w/ his job and keeping food on the table and he figures this is my “thing”. Home stuff, kid stuff- my stuff. And he figures right. But, up to the point of actual ordering and a date of chicken delivery, I wasn’t sure if it was really going to happen or if he had just been placating me the last 2 years to keep me out of the looney bin. 

Too, I suppose I didn’t figure the learning curve on this farming thing  would be so high, since he’s been here and done this. But, maybe he’s bluffing his way through and doesn’t remember a thing. Yeah, that thought keeps me happy until he pulls some completely unknown fact out of his head that shows he really does know what is going on. Or, maybe not. Oh, I don’t know!! Husband have a really great way of coming across dumb when they want to.

Anyway, I decided upon 25 Buff Orpington Pullets. I haven’t completely researched the food area yet and am not sure what they’ll be eatin at first and for how long, but I figure I’ll have it figured out in the next month. If not, I’ll send my hubby to pick up the chicks and feed. Because it will go something like this:

Hubby: Hey Bob, those chicks in?

Owner: Yup. How’s your dad doing these days? Still driving a logging truck? (I hear this query all the time. It’s been over 20 years!)

Hubby: Nah. He sold his rig. Hey, you got something to feed those chicks?

Owner: Yup, I’ll throw it in w/ your chicks.

Hubby: Thanks Bob, have a good one.

Owner: Yup, you too. You tell your dad hi for me.

Go figure…

It is not that we are a stupid people and make these decision consciously. It is that in the last 60 years our nation has built itself on the idea that it’s all there for the taking, so why wait. If you want it, get it. Life, liberty and property. It’s our liberty to spend our property freely, even wantonly, to be able to live our lives to the fullest. We as a nation have been taught this.

Since WWII this is the overriding more’ that each generation has built upon and made easier for the next to live up to. Living “the dream”.  Yes, that’s what our gratuitous lifestyles are called- “the dream”.  Ironically the two thesaraus definitions for gratuitous are unwarranted and free.

Little did I understand what lack of pride and true ownership does that life hold until we started doing w/out. Doing without for two reason. One, because we wanted to. 

By some act of God my husband and I came to a similar understanding after our third child came along that we were not raised in cities dealing with some of the issues our little ones had to endure and that by moving back home and rural, we didn’t have to live life in the fast lane and neither did our kids. We had a choice. What strong words. Try saying that everyday. “I make the choices.”  See what happens. I don’t say that after two years of making choices, I actually taught that. I expected it to work for other people. Never thought about applying it to my own crazy life.

Two, by making a long series of choices, we now have to do w/out. I won’t bitch or moan because we live in a trailer, however temporary. Or that we live paycheck to paycheck, probably not temporary if I want to stay at home and our family debt free.  We made the choice. Or, actually quite a long series of choices.

What does doing w/out mean? Well, I’m finding every week that it means something different. And, honestly, it’s that old saying about why didn’t the frog jump out of the pot before he was boiled to death. Every day the last two years has lived up to this day. Next week, will be an addition of this week.

After doing w/out for long enough, you don’t even think about some of what you are doing w/out. The cravings diminish and you feel as if you are losing your successes in life. Heck, making Executive Director enabled us to by a new car, a new house, a new child may even fit this category. I traded that job in for this life.

Many people may see this as taking a step backward.  I don’t. My husband and I worked hard to get here. Our schooling, degrees, grunt jobs, good paying, emotionally hectic and exciting jobs are all part of our successes and led this family of five to live in this little trailer. If you don’t think so, well, we’re probably not good enough to hang out w/ you anymore anyway, so I’m not even going to worry about it.

What are we doing w/out? While I am proud of our family, my husband especially and feel good about my daily accomplishments in simplicity, sometimes it ways heavy on the soul some of what we consciously decided to give up. Good and bad a few things come to mind-

*We gave up storebought meat and eggs to support our community, do our share in the rising fuel and commodities costs, and eat healthier. Turns out we also save money and the meat tastes better and is fresher. Go figure.

*We don’t eat out and we save money. We save tons of money. If we happen to be out of town and do eat out. More than one of us gets physically sick.

*We gave up a mortgage and car payments.

*We gave up storebought cookies, cakes and breads. I bake all these items now and love it.

*Only one of our two vehicles makes the 16 mile round trip drive to town in any given day. We save tons of money here too. And, I have a great excuse to not go anywhere.

*We gave up our brand new house we built, with its master bath, walk in closets and dining room. Never thought I’d miss a dining room so much.

*We gave up dry roads and sidewalks over country roads, spring break up and mud that sucks your boots off when you step off the porch.

*We gave up a nightlife.

*I gave up 65lbs.

*We gave up prepackaged food for homecooked. Yes, you save a lot of money this way.

*We gave up donuts, Cheetos, pretty much most those foods w/ nuclear levels of preservatives. Yes, we save a lot of money this way too. I swear the more it costs, the more preservatives it has.

*We gave up cable for three primetime stations and two PBS stations.

*We gave up radio stations.

*I gave up an indoor washer and dryer for a set that is a couple hundred feet up the hill from us in the pumphouse. Lots of bootsucking mud.

*I gave up hotwater.

What we’ve gained? Well, I’m still figuring this out. This is where we wonder why the frog didn’t hop out of the boiling pot, with a positive twist. I know my life has greater quality that it ever has. I feel like this is what I’ve been waiting for the last 20 years and where I belong. I’ll be damned if I can tell you all we’ve gained. It feels too natural to me. Like it was always meant to be this way. I still feel that each day I am striving for that simplicity and look for ways daily to work at acheiving it. 

Go figure. I know that my life no way resembles the life I once had. I’m still here and mentally saner that I was previous, contrary to what all thought of me going into this. And, those who said that 34 was too young too retire. I know I’m healthier and so are my family. But there is more we can do, always more.  And, each day and month that goes by we are ready to make one more change or do w/out what we couldn’t have 6 months ago. Amazing how that works and it feels so good.

I must tell you that I really am wishing now, that we would have attended last year. I was sick, we didn’t go. Now, I don’t have that choice. It’s hard enough to travel the 60 miles to and from Sandpoint once every two-weeks to do the household shopping, much less travel to Spokane and back.

Is this some type of conspiracy on ___________’s part to alleviate some of the world’s/State’s pollution by making it so that we cannot afford to drive? We own two cars, live rural and I have spring fever. This means, my husband is the only one that gets to drive during the week and only to work, and I have really BAD spring fever

I am somehow trying to figure what to cut from my bi-monthly shopping trip to allow for us to make our trip. That’s a big “something”. What can the children and my husband live w/out for two more weeks? “Something” around the tune of $35.00. Any ideas? Bread? Milk? Cheese? Oh, yes, these items have risen in cost so much the last year; I just may be able to do it!  Is this part of the conspiracy too?

So tell me, whoever’s plan this is, will you let me know when it starts working? Much appreciated!

Having recently come back to this site after 6 months and reading some of what I have put on here the previous year almost makes me somewhat melancholy, but then gives me perspective. All of my posts have given me strength in one form or another. However, from this point, I won’t be writing to heal,  I’ll be writing to share my experiences and report on my epiphanies, as they are.

Right now I’m into food and sustainability. Recently, I looked around my kitchen at the brand names on all my food packages. While we do partake in local meat, poultry and eggs, produce in season and I typically bake from scratch, I have a lot of name brand items that I wonder about. Do I really need that food? Can I make it from scratch at limited cost? Can I buy something in place of it, w/out all of the preservatives, sodium, sugars, etc…

And so my adventure goes. A day at a time. A time to enjoy!

What a peace of mind to have this meat available daily to us. The biggie for most people is that we are paying less than store price. The biggie for me is that it comes from our community. Meaning, I know where it comes from and I know who I am supporting. If I want to know exactly what the animals were fed, I ask.  I know that we are not eating tainted meat and that we are doing our share in trying in minimizing fuel costs  in shipping food.

And, honestly folks, just ask anyone who partakes in locally grown meats and dairy… the food just tastes better. Don’t take my word for it. There are many opportunities in any community. Through farmers markets, local butchers, family farms. A great way to find these farms and ranches is to look on the internet. Many belong to organizations. Some, however, you may not find like our chickens we get from a rural Mennonite Community up the Montana Yak. That was word of mouth. But they are out there, trust me!!

We started slow. Just like putting together our little farm. Some came through word of mouth, some the farmers market, others I found online. But all of them are local. I hope that eventually we will raise and butcher most of the meats. If not, I’m happy to keep doing as we are and finding new opportunities. Happy Eating!!

Below I’ve added some links to help you get started. These sites are pretty comprehensive and will get you on the right track. Many of your own states have their own cooperatives and organizations.  It’s real simple, if you made your way here, you’ll find what you’re looking for! 

Eat Wild http://www.eatwild.com/products/idex.html  — A comprehensive source for grass-fed meat, eggs and poultry, and dairy products in the United States and Canada.

Local Harvest http://www.localharvest.com — A comprehensive site for finding local farms nationwide, farmers markets, and members of CSA or Community Supported Agriculture subscriptions.

International Yak Association http://www.iyak.org — Yak members nationally (ranches), yak information, recipes, for sale.

Local Amish Farms http://www.localamishfarms.com — LocalAmishFarms.com offers information about locally grown, locally raised, locally made items available for you and your family in the Southeastern PA area.  

Last Saturday morning while folding clothes, I caught the last half of a special on bread around the world on PBS. Home-made bread has always held an allure for me. Even more so now while trying to live sustainable, by our own hands or those of our neighbors and community.  After watching this verrry interesting program I decided I was going to make some sourdough starter. Very easy. Hard part: waiting for it ferment, 2 to 5 days. I am a big sourdough fan so it was 5 days.

On the fifth day, I pulled out one of my three faithful cookbooks, my Betty Crocker binder my husband gave me 10 years ago; my grandmother’s old GE hand-mixer ( I know what you are thinking, and yes, I found out the hard way); and my mother’s old 2-quart Tupperware measuring cup.

Now, since I’ve been home full-time and had my life turned up side down (by our choice), I’ve been pretty handy in the kitchen and have done a lot of baking. Too, I put flour, water, salt and yeast in my bread machine and use the dough setting, shape the rolls myself and bake them. Everyone seems to be pretty impressed with this.

Now handed kneaded bread is different, it’s a mystery, it’s something that only mother-in-law’s, Mennonites and rural stay-at-home mom’s can do. Not the rest of us. Oh, wait- I’m a rural stay-at-home mom now!! Yes, it was time to break the myths and knead my own bread using my own starter.

As I said, I got all the tools and ingredients out, checked the recipe 12 times and began. Needless to say, today I’ll be using elbow grease and my mother’s 35 year old Oster countertop mixer/blender/cuisinart/meat grinder to make my next batch of sourdough bread. My grandmother’s poor hand held GE mixer may be out of commission for good. Sniff, sniff…

All went as specified in the cook book, with the exception of a small appliance death, and in the end I came out with a pretty good looking piece of dough. Time to knead. Wow, what an experience. This is what I need to do 2 to 3 times a week if I want arms like Jennifer Aniston. How I figured out I was done kneading, I’ll never know. It was a combination of time, soft, bouncy dough and arms that were on fire. What ever it was, it worked.

I’m sure this is something that is typically taught generation to generation. Such as canning, making pies and grinding your own sausage, all of which I’ve all done this year.  On Wednesday after reading up on kneading and bread making, I taught myself.

Being somewhat OC as I age, it had to be perfect. Of course, first times are never perfect. And I’m learning that’s fine. However, I was very pleased with the outcome as were my family and my in-laws. That night I made some home-made marinara sauce, noodles and meatballs from local beef and we shared our bounty.

My husband was very pleased and my kids were quite impressed. I felt good that day and still do. Funny thing is, it wasn’t that hard. Just like making pies, canning and grinding your own sausage or ground beef.

All of these skills and more came across to my generation as something your grandmother’s and mother’s did, and we went to college. And, I did go to college. For a long time. But the satisfaction I feel now making my own bread and that I continue to feel make me wonder what drove women out of the home. I know, I know… there were a plethora of reasons. However, this college-educated, ex CEO is very happy to be back at home and learning and doing as my relatives have done for the past 3000 years.

Wish me luck on my baking today!                                 

Soon we’ll have our chicken coop up and I’m looking for some input into chickens and eggs. We’ll be raising  chickens here in North Idaho for eating and eggs and selling eggs locally. The best eggs I’ve had have are usually large green egss, nice big yokes and/or a rich yellow/orange color to them. I’d like to hear from some of you with experience as to which chickens have worked best for you. I can never get too much information on chickens and eggs!!

 Thank you!!

1. Youngest (2) sleeping in her own bed, all night long!!

2. The middle child (4) sleeping in her own bed, all night long!!

3. I have become an artisan of crocheted hats made out of exotic and luxury fibers such as yak, camel, NZ Possum, Angora, alpaca, silk, Cashmere, Rambouillet… etc… My shop: www.browncreekexchange.etsy.com

4. I have crossed the 30′s barrier (36). It’s official, I am getting older!

5. I have lost 60lbs since the birth of my last child in March 06. The last time I weighed this was prior to my first birth in October 98.

6. No mother-in-law in the house.

7. Much less stress.

8. Wonderful white winter. Total snow accumulation was 3 ft. Our new 7-8 ft. fruit trees were buried up past branches.

 9. I have spring fever in a bad way!

Phew… this is a nutshell.  I’m moving on. Soon we’ll be building the chicken coop, pig-pen, and now that we only have 18 inches of snow left, we’ll be getting our new property ready for spring and planting. Praise God!!