Thursday, November 29, 2007

Lead down the Garden Path


This is my side yard Summer of 2000, the following spring after I bough my homestead.
I and my then 6, 5, and 3 year old children landscaped in a raised bed design.
As it looks now- with iris, phlox, lilac, purple cornflower, strawberries, tulips, Shasta daisies, roses, mints, yarrow, an occasionally eggplants. The a good many of my plants were traded, or acquired by either gleaning in nature (hike in the woods) or scouting out gardens in abandoned homes that were soon to be demolished.

Shhh - guerilla gardening


ept.
Technically, this isn't my land.
My lot stops right about where those landscape timbers are laid. When I bought this HUD property there was an ugly gray thick wooden fence in the same spot. It stopped right about where you see that corner post of that chain link fence. That fence is now a trellis for raspberries.
Not surprisingly this 2' to 3' wide by oh just shy of 20' collected lots of stuffs. Items like soda & beer cans, paper, along with hidden treasures left by cats.
One day I had a stress relief moment & took a sledgehammer to another portion of this fence that lined my driveway. Shortly afterwards I posted an offer on my local freecycle.org group.
Word has it that it is now a deck out in the country.
So back to this thin speck of dirt that receives a poor amount of sunshine. Can't recall all that is planted except for sure is Bloody Butchers, an heirloom tomato & perhaps Hubbard squash in the far corner leftovers from our plant sale.
Raspberries transplanted from our satellite farm a.k.a. "Niagara Mohawk" might find its way here. Strawberries as ground cover should make the walk over too. Followed by a few outhouse plants & butterfly bushes.
Scroll down to the bottom of my blog for a link to guerrilla gardening a very interesting concept.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Backyard Cider Making

This is our apple grinder not to be confushed with a Monkey grinder selling peanuts.

Husband believes that this is actually a grape crusher. I know that it was a good deal at the antique shop where we bought my coal laundry stove that I can on. The scent of fresh apples.
Point is that it works fairly well provided you have ready & willing manual power.
The apples this year are a mix of gala, rome, crispin, mac ... really anything we could get our hands on.

Ah fresh off the press.
Pity Mom won't let anyone but Husband drink it truely fresh. The rest of the family has to wait for pasturization. After that the majority is canned for later use ... like after Christmas caroling.
Making cider was a great way to spend quality time with both my husband and children on one of the last crisp autaum days on our homestead.
Here's a cute link on cider & perry making. Perry is Pear cider made some last fall for DH Hunting buddy.

City Thing


It's a city thing.
It's pull one over on the man, beat 'um at their own game, no code man gonna keep me from my fresh eggs thang.
It's a one too many episodes of TOH, gonna own me a painted lady - no cookie cutter split ranch suburban 30 year mortgage for me, thing.
It's a sit a while on your front porch and smile a hello to strollers ... hand out homemade popsickles to all the neighboorhood children sorta thing.
Walk to a live free concert, enjoy an evening little league game, or simply go visit on your neighbor's porch thing.
For the blessed few of us it's a less than 15 minute work commute thing.
It's a don't tell me I can't grow this in a cardboard box ... in this zone ... with this dirt ... thing.
A great radio interview about a Massachusetts homesteading family http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5427293