Sabotage!

Ok I know critters will be drawn to garden beds but people need to keep their cats inside (I know the offenders) and their dogs on leashes or chains or behind a fence (again I know who owns the dogs)! If people can not propperly restrain their pets I will be forced to report them to animal control because I refuse to have my beds dug up or defficated in. I refuse to eat animal feces. Having raised beds seems to keep out the voles, mice and wild rabbits but invited cats and dogs to come and play. What's that saying? Good fences make good neighbors? I will teach these country folks that this is VERY true and that just because I moved from the city to this small "city" does not mean I am nieve or down right stupid as they seem to think.

I will not put the money and effort into food for my family only to have to dig out and toss the entire beds contents dirt and all due to contaminant. Anyone with non-harming deterrant methods for cats and dogs please let me know, because right now my only method of defense is to run out and yell after getting photos to show animal control. Would prefer minimal to no chemical introduction here if at all possible.

Cookies to push back winter weather blues

Well it snowed today. Actually had the nerve to snow. Felt bad so I dug up a chocolate chip recipe to play with online. I don't think I can share the original recipe but I can post the recipe post alterations as they technically make it mine. I call them Fig Chip Cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp imitation almond extract
2 tbsp powdered milk
1 tbsp water
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dried fig chips

Directions:

Melt buttter gently in microwave for 45 seconds on high. Slowly blend in both sugars. Fold in eggs, extract pwdered milk and water. Gently add in flour, baking powder and soda with salt. Lastly add the chips.
Stir well and place on lightly greased cookie sheets, makes 24 to 48 cookies depending on size of spoon drops you use.

Cook in oven set to 350 for 7 minutes.
--------------------------------------
Review: Too almondy, next time I try this will reduce the extract to 1/2 tsp. Also feel the sugar had it too runny so would cut the brown sugar to 1/2 a cup and omit the tbsp water. The figs came out soft and moist like broken bits of fig nutons, YUM!

Will deffinitely try again with alterations. If you like the flavor of almond you will enjoy it as is!

Whew what a day!

Well, I did not get as much done today as I would have liked but that was because my husband got called in for extra work. Extra work means extra money so I am not too disapointed. I got the frame up for one raised bed and its about 1/4 full of soil. I have to say the topsoil sold at the stores seems to have a bit of debris in it so in the future I will only be buying the humus with manure mixture. I am hoping to setup one or two composting boxes this year too. I did not get a before or afte shot of the yard unfortunately as my batteries for the camera are charging but I will get a photo in the morning before I begin the next stage of work.

It will be a week or so until I can get more soil for the bed but I can still do other prep work. For example I plan to grow flowers around the outter peramiter of the raised beds so I can strip that area around the one bed that is in of grass and other unwated junk. Oddly I did find trash buried in the soil I turned for the raised bed, and a lot of rocks but those were expected.

The bed put in today will have our 3 tomato plants and 4 or 5 pepper plants. Those will be bought later on when they are available at the local greenhouses. Once we have the soil in to the level needed for this year we plan to turn the soil with some fertilizer. We plan to water every other week with a special mix of:

1 tbsp powdered milk
1 tbsp epsom salts
1 tbsp store brand fertilizer

dissolved in a gallon of water per raised bed. Otherwise, water will be either from our tap or a container we plan to put out to catch rain water for the beds. We also have plans to start a new watering method shared with us by a friend. The method involves cutting the bottoms off of pop bottles and poking holes in the sides. You leave the lid on and bury in the ground with the open end up and not burried. This lets you fill it with water for a slow release and thorough soaking. They should be filled as early as possible every 3-5 days depending on temperatures and rainfall. Obviously if the soil is still damp you would not want to fill them.

That's all for now, but stay tuned as we also plan to share about our canning in this blog!

First day of Gardening!

Today the weather is delightful! Last night we heard FROGs chirpping away at the creek, this is a good sign that its time  to start prepping the gardens.  Today we are going to rake the yard and choose the place for the first raised bed.  This bed will hold Tomatoes and bell peppers. It will be surrounded by flowers which will include marigolds to incorporate some natural pest control as well as encourage bees and other polinators to visit our garden. We will also be choosing where to put our raspberry bushes we plan to put in this year. 3 should be good for a start.  These will be surrounded by flowers as well and given trellises to climb instead of being left to their own devices.  We will post photos as they are taken so you can enjoy our work with us.

This year we will be using rabbit manure in our beds as a natural fertilizer. We will also be composting. First photos to come soon!



Things are turning green!