Homey Dreams

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I always have those future dreams, of the kind of house and garden I want someday, permanently. I'm pretty content with what I have now, knowing it is very affordable and comfortable and pretty great for the point I am at in my life. But still, those dreams pop into the front of my mind once in awhile...usually in the winter when I am getting restless for the options and comfort of summer. Here are a few, mostly things I have had a taste of at some point and found how well they suited me.

A sewing/craft project room

One of my biggest roadblocks to tackling larger sewing projects is the lack of space to spread out, and to always have my sewing machine set up and ready to go. How I would love, someday, to have a room (or half a room) that can simply be a dedicated sewing/crafting area. A nice broad table with my sewing machine set up on it, and shelves where my fabric, yarn and notions can be stored in plain view and easy reach. Thread stored on a thread rack (preferably handmade), and with a bit of luck a nice big window right over the table for lots of light.

 Something in this vein...but maybe more colorful.

Photo credit home-designing.com

A pantry

I grew up with one, and there's just no way around how awesome it is to have a room, however small, that is dedicated solely to food and other kitchen-related storage. Get those canned goods and spare jars out of my kitchen cupboards, and the less-frequently-used kitchenware out of the way. I would love to re-create my parents' sunny yellow pantry; they have their fridge in there to open up space in the kitchen, and last time I was home, my mom had added another set of shelves, custom built to fit the Adams peanut butter jars that they use to store dehydrated herbs and veggies.

Yes, please. 

Photo credit New England Home Magazine

A proper garden

And by proper, I mean big. Big enough to grow plenty of food, plus herbs and flowers. How nice it will be, one day, to just be able to pop out the back door to pick veggies for dinner, or to weed for a few minutes, rather than plan a trip to my community garden. When I own a place, I can plant more long-term things, like strawberries and asparagus and maybe fruit trees. To build a garden from scratch, of my own design, not the previous owners'....well, a gardener can dream, right?

(Have you ever searched for images of gardens on the internet? The possibilities are endless and amazing. And a bit overwhelming.)

Photo credit Garden Diggings

Chickens (again)

Maybe just three next time, but I miss their beautiful and delicious eggs, their hilarious and exasperating chicken-ness, the way you can feed them all the weeds and slugs from the garden. Someday.

(Photo credit Me!)

The list goes on, of course, but these are the ones that stay constant. Dreaming about them is such fun; sometimes the anticipation of something is just as enjoyable as the thing itself.

Green Eggs and Thrift Store Finds

Apparently not all of our hens are moulting- Thelma and Louise are laying! We got our first green eggs on Monday, and now we are getting a regular influx of them! One of the other girls started laying again too- we're getting one brown egg every day.

The light and timer we set up on the coop to give the flock lengthy days must be doing its job. So nice to have fresh eggs again, and such pretty ones too!

Another nice addition to our household this week is homemade soap. Yesterday I received a package in the mail from Laurel, containing my share of the soap we made, now well-cured and ready for use. It's a biggish batch and should last us until I can get it together to make another batch on my own. I'll give some of the small bars as gifts, but keep the big ones for the bathroom and shower and kitchen sink.

I went thrifting this week, in search of flannel sheets for our bed. I didn't find any, but I did come across a couple other treasures. The first was a cast iron griddle pan, in perfect condition. I've been wanting one for ages, but not badly enough to pay for a new one. But for $7, we now own this one:

We're going to break it in tonight, making hamburgers for dinner. Matt says he's going to go find a small brick from our collection and clean it really well to use as a hot press for making things like panini and tuna melts.

I always keep my eye out for sewing supplies and candles, things that can be expensive if bought in large quantities new, but are always cheap and abundant secondhand. We use a lot of candles, especially in winter (our living room is not particularly well lit, so we always have candlelight at dinner). I bought a bag of about 15 tall taper candles for $3, then found a bag containing a bunch of lovely ribbon and some thread for $2. I like wrapping gifts either in reusable bags or with fabric and pretty ribbon that can be reused, rather than the weird plastic-y kind that is everywhere. Plus, with a couple young kiddos in my life, this kind of thing is very useful for craft projects.

We were down to one set of flannel sheets, and needed another set to swap out with when the other set goes in the wash. But not a single thrift store I went to had any queen-size flannel sheets. I stopped at Fred Meyer for some groceries and peeked into their homewares section to see what they had. I found a nice set of cream-colored sheets (two pillowcases included) on sale for $20, so I got them. They're very cozy, they'll last us a long time, and they mix and match well with the rest of our bedding too.

Matt and I try to limit what we buy, because we already have more than we truly need, but we keep a philosophy of "pay for the good stuff," things we know we'll use and that will last a long time, even if they're not completely necessary (case in point: griddle pan). We also keep in mind our "someday plan" of having a bigger house and more property, where our sometimes strange collections of tools and books will be more practical.

On the Weekend

Such is my life now, that I only end up having time to post once a week. Nonetheless, being back in student mode is pretty great. And much easier to keep up with schoolwork now that the rain has set in and it's less appealing to skive off and go play outside. Our true Portland fall weather finally came back this week, and nature is watering the gardens --and everything else--for us, quite regularly and liberally. In a break between showers today, we went over to the community garden with Elliot, to finish cleaning up our plots and preparing them for fall and winter. We cut down all the remaining sunflower stocks, pulled up withered bean plants, and carted away the contents of our compost piles. Elliot planted his and Jessa's plot full of winter greens and a cover crop of red clover, and I am pleased to report that every fall/winter crop that we planted in our plot over the last few weeks has sprouted and is doing well. Matt and I did some work here at home too, cleaning up the backyard of the remaining apple branches from pruning, and putting away the camp chairs and barbecue and anything else that probably shouldn't be rained on for six months.

After nearly 100 days without rain, it is awfully nice to hear the soft sound of it falling outside again, and to feel the coziness that comes with cold wet weather. I know I'll be complaining about it come January, but it's nice to enjoy it while it's still a novelty. The flannel sheets are on the bed, and soups and stews are a regular occurrence. I made my first rabbit stew on Friday (it was delightful), and dinner tonight was a white bean and squash stew, flavored simply with onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and bay.

Inside, this year's harvest is very apparent, in our meals and in our seasonal decor. Matt moved the chilli ristras inside so they can actually continue to dry, and hung them in the south window upstairs.

The last gleanings from our best tomato plants are decorating the kitchen windowsills:

And our meager squash harvest lives by the back door. It would just be a shame to put these pretty things in the basement where we can't see them:

Outside, the trees are turning and the leaves are falling. The days are getting dramatically shorter, and the hens have taken notice. We are eggless for the first time in a year, as they all began to molt this week. We were getting four or five eggs a day, and then suddenly last weekend there stopped being any eggs at all. We checked all of their secret laying spots repeatedly before we accepted the truth :). The run is full of feathers, and it seems they are all right on time- the internets and Carla Emery tell me that hens almost always molt in the fall, or when they have laid for about 11 months, and/or when they have been stressed out. All three are true in our case- it's mid-October, they are all the same age and started laying last November, and the introduction of Thelma and Louise, in addition to the suddenly wet weather, most certainly threw a wrench into their routine. Thelma has continued to be a loner and quite feral, attempting to roost on top of the henhouse and madly pecking whoever tries to lift her off and put her inside. We've learned to just herd her with a stick instead. Sigh. We rigged up the light and timer on the coop as we did last year to extend their days, and hopefully in a few months they'll be back to giving us some eggs again.

 After we ate the broccoli heads, the chickens devoured the rest of the plant. 

Mimi does not approve of the rain. 

Matt is very much enjoying his job, and is doing very well at it (no surprises here). It's been an adjustment for both of us (depressing as it was for him to be unemployed, it was awfully nice to have him home all the time...), but I think after two weeks we're both fairly settled in our new routine. Now we just have to remember to take our raincoats with us every day.

From the Week

Wow, it's been a busy week! Matt started his job at precisely the moment that school kicked into high gear for me, resulting in a routine in which there are only two days per week when we are both home before dark. This week was particularly insane, with me in class on Friday night and all day yesterday, hence the lengthy radio silence.

I forgot to mention that I did make jalapeno jelly a few weeks ago. I used this recipe, and while it came out positively delightful, I would definitely reduce the sugar next time, probably by at least one cup.

I highly recommend it. It's particularly good with cheese and crackers, and on sandwiches that involve meat.

I also cut up our apple harvest, and put away several gallons of frozen apple pie filling.

Today was my one day at home for the week, and while I have a huge pile of homework lurking upstairs, I spent most of today outside. Our beautiful weather is continuing, although the nights are getting colder now.  Rain is in the forecast for next weekend; if we get it, it will be the first proper rain in three months.

We had baked colcannon for dinner one night this week. Definitely one to add to our menu plan on a more regular basis.

Matt and Elliot butchered all but two of the 8-week-old rabbits yesterday, and today I butchered my first rabbit (or any animal, ever, for that matter). WARNING: MODERATELY GORY PHOTOS OF BUTCHERING AHEAD. I know there are people who think it's insane to kill your own meat, let alone post photos of it, but in our society where the process behind meat and meat products is completely hidden from consumers, I think what we need is more visibility of the process. Strangely, it's completely acceptable to do your own butchering when it comes to hunting, but people seem to think it's weird and gross to butcher animals you raise yourself, and the smaller the animal, the more people get freaked out. It's certainly not something to be taken lightly, and we make sure to thank the rabbits and give them a last minute of cuddling and relaxation before they go, and it is distinctly difficult to watch the life go out of an animal's eyes. But if you eat meat than I think you need to be willing to see how the animal becomes meat, even if you don't actively participate. If you can't stomach the process, you probably shouldn't stomach the product. That said:

Matt did slaughtered and butchered the first one, so I could see how it was done.

I was a little nervous about getting the killing part right- it's a fairly tricky business and unfortunately it's relatively easy to break a rabbit's neck without killing it (the actual slaughtering is much easier on larger animals). So I asked Matt to kill mine for me, and after I've seen a couple more I will do it myself.

Here I had cut the head off, it was draining the blood and ready for skinning. 

Reflecting on it, the hardest part for me, apart from watching the killing, was the fact that the carcass was so warm the whole time I was processing it. I've cut up chickens and cut the skin from the meat, but the meat is always so cold that you don't necessarily get the sense that it was once alive, and of course there is no blood. It was also fascinating to see the insides and where the organs are and how they all fit together. I'm really glad I know how to do it now, and in a strange but satisfying way I look forward to being able to do the killing part too. Another skill in my self-sufficiency arsenal.

After putting the rabbits in the freezer and cleaning up, I worked on putting the veggie plots around the front yard to bed for the winter. I pulled out all the remaining tomato plants, and tilled it up and planted it in cover crops, along with some spinach and kale.

 I unhooked the drip hose and packed it up for the winter, and left the strip in the foreground (with the turning fork in it) alone- that is where we'll plant garlic later in the fall.

Now Matt is working on cleaning the house, and it's time for me to get a pot of chili and some cornbread going for dinner. Once that's done, I'll contemplate doing some schoolwork. It's just so good to be home today.

A Full and Satisfying Day

Tomorrow it will be October, but our beautiful Indian summer weather is hanging on. It still has barely rained since mid-July, and the days are lovely and warm, although the nights are finally getting chilly. Matt and I made the most of this beautiful Sunday, working full-out until well after dark. I got my homework done in the morning, while Matt tended the rabbits and began pruning the apple trees. He got both done by early afternoon, and they look great. The Asian pears still haven't ripened completely, so that one will get pruned later, after it is picked.

I messed around the yard and garden, weeding and picking up fallen fruit under the trees for the chickens, and cutting back the banks of lemon balm and oregano against the garden fence and under the Asian pear. It looks much more tidy now, and the chickens appreciated getting the big pile of cuttings to scratch through.

I took a little survey around the garden, to see how the fall crops and cover crops were getting on.

Collards!

Red clover coming up among the green onions.

I cleaned out the chicken coop and added all of the dirty straw to the compost pile, and filled the henhouse with fresh clean straw. Esther seems pleased about it.

While Matt finished up the pruning, I got a baking of bread into the oven, some dishes washed, and a little bouquet put together for the birthday of a special young kiddo. Making an appearance at her party, and then picking up some groceries, gave us a quick break in the middle of the afternoon.

After we got home, we changed back into our work clothes and headed to the community garden. We dug up the potatoes there, and sadly got a paltry harvest. Well, that garden has a healthy gopher population, so growing any root crop there is a crapshoot. Of course, that didn't stop us from planting more root veggies. I pulled up all the bean plants that were no longer producing, and planted in a couple rows of turnips and beets.

Working in the beautiful evening light, Matt planted chard and more radishes, and field peas where I had pulled up the remaining carrots.

Elsewhere in the plot:

Matt transplanted the leeks in on Friday, and they seem to be acclimatizing pretty well. 

Lots of little parsnips to perk us up late in the winter!

Radishes and spinach and self-seeded nasturtiums. 

Back at home, we raced against daylight (when did the days get so short?!!) and dug up almost all the rest of the potatoes growing around the front yard. We could leave them where they are, but we want to plant in more winter crops, and also cover crop some of the space where the soil isn't so great. We have already used most of the All-Reds and Yukon Golds- a lesson to us to plant potatoes rotationally next year, so that we still have plenty come fall (all of these ones were planted at the end of March, and we could easily harvest those and plant a second batch in June and still have a full fall crop). So we dug all the Austrian Crescents, to put into storage in the garage. The Yellow Finns from the community garden are in the fridge, but the A.C.s grew very abundantly, and we had enough to go through with our experiment of packing them in damp sand in bins in the garage. We did the same with our meager carrot harvest. There are so few at this point that we could easily keep them inside, but we want to see how they will keep for a few months in the sand. We also have two more smaller batches of carrots still growing.

There are still a couple potato plants yet to be dug, but it was completely dark by the time we got these finished, and moved into the garage to pack them into their bins. Then it was inside to get dinner, eating at 9 PM. Nothing beats a long day of good satisfying physical work, followed by a chard and carmelized onion quiche.

It's back to the grind of work and school tomorrow (Matt starts his new job tomorrow!), but we're feeling pretty good tonight, about our wonderful harvest this year, about so many fall and winter crops already planted and growing while this warm weather remains, and of how it feels to work so hard and be so exhausted in such a good way. I wish I could feel like this at the end of every day.

Thelma & Louise

Last Sunday, Matt and I made the 30 minute trip across the Columbia to Washougal, Washington, where we obtained the newest members of our backyard brigade.

Introducing Thelma:

...and Louise: 

These girls are year-old Ameracaunas, just slightly younger than the rest of our flock. This is our second attempt at some green eggs, although it might be a little while; Thelma is finishing moulting, and the trauma of being introduced to a new flock might put them off the lay for awhile anyway.

Matt had brought up the idea a few weeks ago of adding two more ladies to our flock, since our permit from the county allows us seven hens, and we have a growing market for eggs, with several of my coworkers wanting to buy them from us. So we scouted around and found a place in Washougal that was selling hens for $14 apiece. 

Picking them up was a bit of an adventure, mainly due to a bad move on my part. We bought the hens from an older man with a big property on the edge of town, and we took along a box to put them both in for the trip home. The man had caught the then-nameless Thelma with a long handled net and got her into the box, and I held the lid on while he went after Louise (Matt was moving the car at the time, so someone else could get out the driveway). Louise was netted and handed to me when the man's phone rang. So I had Louise under my arm and was holding the box shut with my other hand, and without thinking of the possible negative consequences, I tried to slip Louise into the box by myself. In hindsight, more than two hands were needed to keep one freaked-out chicken in the box while inserting the second. Thelma saw her opportunity, and made a break for it. As the man came back from his phone call, he found me looking incredibly sheepish, now with Louise safely in the box, and Thelma on the lam and out of the fenced chicken yard. He ran after her as she escaped the property completely and went into a massive and dense camellia hedge beside the road. It took another fifteen minutes of Matt crawling around inside the hedge trying to spot a perfectly camouflaged chicken, and flushing her out, while the man waited grumpily at the end of the hedge with his net, and finally sprinted madly after her when she did make her exit. I spent the whole time feeling like an idiot and simply holding the chicken box shut, since the bungee cord we had brought to keep it closed was in Matt's pocket, deep inside the hedge. As we left, I tried to apologize several times, and dearly wanted to explain to the man that I was a keeper of chickens and knew their ways and just hadn't thought, but I'm sure he believed I was just some greenhorn from the city who had no idea what she was doing. On the drive home, Matt suggested that any pair of chickens resulting in such a runaway should be dubbed Thelma and Louise. Since in the movie Thelma was generally more of a hell-raiser, that name went to the beautifully mottled brown lady that led Matt on a wild-hen chase in what was virtually a jungle.

Nearly a week later, they are somewhat integrated into the flock. Louise more so than Thelma. There has been some brawling in the chicken run, but it is decreasing every day. So far Louise is jumping in to fight over the kitchen scraps with the other hens, but Thelma is rather reluctant for fear she will get chased or pecked. Ironic since at first she raised Cain and went toe-to-toe with the other hens. She must have come off worse in the end to be at the bottom of the heap now. I managed to get photos of her showdown with Goldie:

Strangely, Mimi, who was once the new kid on the block, has become the boss of the flock and is most likely to dole out punishment on the new girls. She is also the biggest of the hens so is probably the most intimidating if you're at hen-eye-level.

Well, they're here, and they're figuring out the routine of where to roost and to come running if they hear me or Matt come outside. We clipped their wings and tails when they first arrived, to be on the safe side, but I don't think they're wanting to escape as much anymore. Another week and hopefully there will be peace in chickenland and they'll all be getting along well all the time, rather than only at select moments. Here's to green eggs soon!

Our flock of seven!