Back in Production

Around August, our chickens went through a hard moult.  It lasted around 3 months and we were getting around 3 eggs a week from our 20 chickens.  Then the short days kicked in and we stopped getting eggs all together.  Adding a light to the coop didn't help.

I was starting to doubt that they'd ever start laying again when Limey brought me a little surprise.

Yay!  What's even cooler is that this is our first buff orpington egg.  The roos are starting to get frisky and when the layers really get into laying we can start incubating them!  Once I've topped up my flock I'll be selling buffs.

Argh Pirates

A couple of months ago the kids crashed someone's pirate birthday party at the bowling alley.  When they came home with their pirate booty, dd2 declared that she wanted a pirate party too.

Since then I've been formulating my plan for her April Birthday.  They have one of those little slide/stair toys like this;

I'm going to turn it into a pirate ship using a cardboard box, some rope and a sheet.  They already have a pirate flag to put on top.  If the weather warms up in time I'm going to make a treasure map that leads to the sandbox where they can dig up treasure.  I bought a little faux aged treasure chest from Dollarama that I'll fill with chocolate coins.  I'll probably stuff the map into a bottle.

Pirate balloons from Ebay.

Tattoos from Ebay

Costumes will be made from whatever we have laying around the house.  I'm going to make the paper swords as instructed here.  I printed out this banner and will decorate with some skulls leftover from Halloween.  I'll probably make a piñata and make the kids walk a plank.  I think watching Pirates of the Caribbean is pretty much a given.

For food I'll make fish and chips for the main and lemon curd filled cupcakes for dessert.  The cupcakes will be decorated like this. I bought red and white striped cupcake liners and black and white striped candles.  Ginger ale in beer mugs should fit the theme as well.

If you have any other ideas for me put them in the comments.

Ships ahoy!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I've been in need of some creative inspiration for most of the winter so I was quite excited when I came across Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

The rules are pretty straight forward.

1. Anyone can participate.
2. Try to take 5 new photos during the week of the challenge, however, you can use one from your archive if you get desperate.
3. Link up over here on Sunday (or Tuesday at the latest) 
4. Leave comments for at least five entries around yours.

Here are the words from the past week.

Crosssed
A Glimpse

Handwritten

Bliss

Gray

My photo interpretations.

Crossed-Teaching the girls how to play cat's cradle.

A Glimpse-A quick glimpse for me before he became dinner.

Handwritten-Finally starting some seeds!

Bliss-Sleeping children is bliss for exhausted parents!

Gray-Old barn siding.

This weeks words are;

Routine
Music
Technology
Show Me Your Style
Mismatch

Reminiscing

Dd1 has been saying she wants to move back to the cottage.  She is referring to our house in Thunder Bay.  She really misses our gardens and I keep reassuring her that our new one will be nice as soon as the flowers fill in.

Here are some of our favourite pics from the old house.

Spring, maybe?

Here's the forecast for the next two weeks.

It's looking pretty decent. The snow is almost melted and the bugs are starting to wake up.

It's funny, back in Ontario winters would last 6 months and I'd be going crazy by the end of it.  Here, winter has really only been around for 2 months and I'm already at my limit.  Bring on spring already!

The soil in the hoophouse is unfrozen.  Limey went in there to clean out so we can plant in a couple of weeks.  He found a gruesome stash of bird parts back in the corner.  No wonder Tootsie has been shunning mice all winter.  He's been dining on a higher class of prey.

We have quite a bit to do as the weather warms up.  Here's my list so far.

• fix hoophouse door and replace broken window
• move rabbits back outside
• clean barn
• remove all garbage such as windblown siding and the old rabbit hutches
• dig out paths and reshape the veg garden beds that we didn't do last year
• muck out the chicken coops
• fix fencing
• set up pig fence
• fix pig house
• move ducks, geese and turkey back to their paddock
• finish fixing broken house window
• clean out sunroom, set up grow lights
• order soil and distribute where needed
• plant!

So, what do you think?  Is winter almost over?  Do you smell spring on the air?  

Resplendant Roses

I'm currently drooling over the Best Rose Guide.

At the old house I had Robusta Rugosa, Morden Centinnel, John Davis and William Baffin roses.  The Rugosa was huge and fabulous.  I never got to see William Baffin flower and the other two were always decimated by aphids.

Last year I planted another William Baffin and America.  Both are climbers.  I got a couple of gorgeous blooms out of America last year and am looking forward to seeing a lot more growth this summer.

 They should eventually look like this

America

William Baffin

As roses aren't exactly in the budget this year, I'd be interested in getting cuttings from friends' gardens.  Have you ever propagated a rose by cutting?  How easily do they root?

I'd love to add some white and yellow roses to my garden.  The Knockout roses look fab but it would be nice to have some of the older scented roses.  What's your favourite rose?

More Garden Inspiration

I can't stop thinking about gardening.  In my dreams last night, all my vegetables beds were full of flowers that were poking up through the snow.

I've been searching Google for flower porn to tide me over until spring. I love Pinterest for saving inspiration photos.  Here are some of the photos I've found.

I'd love to buy a coffee table book on flower gardening that I can drool over. I've borrowed dozens of books from the library but none are quite grand enough.

What's your favourite garden inspiration book?

2012 Seed Purchases

I sorted through my seed stash the other day and was surprised to see how much seed we have left from last year. There's a few vegetables that I need to get but I'll be picking them up at the feed store. They sell seeds in bulk there and it's a lot cheaper than ordering from the catalogs.

The only seeds I'm ordering online this year are for my flower garden. I ordered from Thompson and Morgan and The Cottage Gardener this year.   Here's the lineup.

Aquilegia 'Caerulea'

Aquilegia 'William Guiness Doubles'

Foxglove 'Candy Mountain' (Charlieeeeeee)

Foxglove 'Pam's Choice'

 Godetia  'Rembrant'

Hollyhock 'Charter's Double Icicle'

Lavatera 'Mont Blanc"

Sweet Pea 'Lord Nelson

Foxglove 'Apricot'

Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate

Peony Poppy Mix

I'd also like to add some more flowering shrubs this year.  I have my eye on a snowball bush, bridal wreath spirea and the new re-blooming lilac 'Boomerang'.

Are you adding anything new to your flower garden this year?  Getting rid of anything you didn't end up liking?

Wild Garden Inspiration

I really love cottage gardens. I had a bit of one at our previous house. Unfortunately we weren't there long enough to see it get really full. I want to continue to pursue my cottage garden dream here in Nova Scotia and I'm always looking for inspiration.

The kids were watching The Secret World of Arrietty the other day and as usual I was struck by the beauty of this latest Studio Ghibli film. Specifically the wild tangle of garden surrounding the house. It's way more chaotic than I'd be comfortable with but it's still worth pulling inspiration from.

Here are some screenshots.

Where do you get your gardening inspiration from?

Because He's So Cute

Baby + chocolate cookie = cuteness overload

Chilly Enough For Chilli

I don't know if it's from the diminished sunshine, the biweekly viruses that have been taking up residence in my house or my son who insists on nursing all night long.  Whatever it is, I've been feeling blah for the past six months.  Really freakin blah.

Because I've been feeling this way, fancy meals have not been on the agenda.  Seriously, I look in the fridge and go "blaaaaaaaaaaah".  This is repeated a dozen times before I decide what to slap together.

Luckily, it's that time of the year when one-pot meals that last all week are greeted with enthusiasm.  One such meal is chilli.  I've been making chilli for at least a decade now but it's only been the last couple of years that it's been really, really good.  Ever since I found this recipe.

I've put my notes in red.

Best Chilli Ever

• 2 teaspoons oil I use butter or lard.
• 2 onions , chopped
• 1 bell pepper, any colour, diced
• 3 cloves garlic , minced
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• ¾ lb beef sirloin , cubed I add this but will thicken with TVP if needed.
• 1 (14 ½ ounce) can diced tomatoes usually use two 
• 1 can dark beer use it if I have it
• 1 cup strong coffee use it if it's already brewing
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 1 can beef broth homemade is preferable
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 3 ½ tablespoons chilli sauce I use the garlic chilli stuff in the ethnic foods aisle.
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon cocoa  Do not omit.  I usually use two but start with one.  
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon cayenne I omit this.  Dd1 hates anything spicy so I  keep hot sauce on the table for the more adventurous eaters.
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans I fill my crockpot up halfway with dried beans.  Cook then add to the chilli pot.
• 4 chili peppers, chopped I omit.

salt/pepper to taste

Instructions.

It's one pot so pretty easy to put together.  I saute onions, garlic and peppers for a couple of minutes and then add the meat. 

Add salt and pepper and cook meat until not longer pink.  

Add everything else.  Let simmer forever or until you are ready to eat.  If it's turns out too watery, you can add more ground beef or veg.  I keep TVP (textured vegetable protein) on hand for this very issue.  Dump some in and let it cook another 30 minutes. 

Serve with grated cheddar, sour cream and toast. 

A Rare Photo of...

Me.

It's sunny and warm today.  I'm feeling good in my yellow jeans so temporary vanity made me feel like posing for a photo.

Here it is friends.  Two photos of myself with my face not cut out.  

The grody caulking isn't supposed to match my pants.

It Lives!

When the 2011 gardening season was winding down, I dug out the lemon verbena out of my herb garden and put it in a pot in the sunroom.

After a month or two of winter dormancy, all I was left with was a nice brown twig.  Limey declared it dead.  Still, I continued to water it once a month and two weeks ago my verbena shot back into the land of the living.

In May, I'll just plant this baby back in the ground and it should be good for another growing season!

Almost Out

Back in the fall, Limey picked a bunch of windfall apples to store over the winter.  We filled 6 buckets full and put them in our unheated basement.  A bucket full of rotten ones have been tossed to the ducks over the winter.  The rest have been devoured by the kids.  We're down to our last 5lbs of apples and they are still in great condition.

We planted a bunch of 5 year old apple trees last year so hopefully it won't be long before we can pick them fresh from the tree.

What's left in your cold room?