Saving Seed

I was just leaving a comment for Suz....and I thought, heck I typed it all out, I might as well make a quick blog post out of it, lol!

So here ya go: a little information on how to work towards saving seed from your garden veggies. It's just a copy and paste....if anyone has questions, hey, just leave them in the comment area. I'll get back to you....

There are some root crops, rutabagas, turnips, beets, mangels, sugar beets and probably others that in order to get seed you do this:

seeds in ground, let them grow for the summer.

in fall, lift them out, do NOT cut off or break off any roots. Cut the TOP growth to about 2 inches. Put the whole root in a cold room, or someplace cool that will NOT freeze. Do NOT wash them or remove the dirt.

The following spring, plant them again....just plop them in ground. Come fall, they will flower and then go to seed, Usually the seedheads are on the top of the plant, you will see them.

Does that makes sense?

Beans and peas....just let them dry out on the vine, get all yellowy and dry. then bring in the pods and shell them. Leave the beans or peas out on a counter or such, and let them dry out some more.

Plant these the following year.

And now, a bit more quick info while I am thinking on it....Potatoes

Save your NICEST AND BEST potatoes for seed. The ones with a good number of eyes (those little indentations) are what you want. If you save your itty bitty odd shaped ones....well, that's what you're gonna get more of.

Use the good ones....I separate my potatoes into boxes when I am picking them up from the field.

- Seed
- Nice looking keepers
- Itty bittys (that I am gonna get real sick of cleaning and peeling) - these will hopefully go to pigs (if we don't run out and have to use them)
- Ones that I stabbed with the shovel or fork while harvesting - These have to get used first. Never store them with your good potatoes, they will all spoil faster.

You will have to replenish your seed potatoes every maybe 4 years. UNLESS you happen to be lucky enuf to live at least 800 feet above sea level. Then you can just continue to use your own. Yes, seriously. Has something to do with cooler temperatures...google it to find more info.

Don't lime your potato patch, they can't stand that and will get scab on them, just to get back at ya! Sphere: Related Content

Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots' From CNN

Finally....someone is making sense...understands reality!! What do you think?

http://us.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/executive.pay/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One day after President Barack Obama ripped Wall Street executives for their "shameful" decision to hand out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008, Congress may finally have had enough.

An angry U.S. senator introduced legislation Friday to cap compensation for employees of any company that accepts federal bailout money. Under the terms of a bill introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, no employee would be allowed to make more than the president of the United States.
Obama's current annual salary is $400,000.

"We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer," an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate. "They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out 18 billion dollars in bonuses."

McCaskill's proposed compensation limit would cover salaries, bonuses and stock options.

On Thursday, Obama said the prospect that some of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout could end up paying for bonuses to managers of struggling financial institutions was "shameful."

The president said it was the "height of irresponsibility" for executives to pay bonuses when their companies were asking for help from Washington.

"The American people understand we've got a big hole that we've got to dig ourselves out of, but they don't like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they're being asked to fill it up," Obama added.

McCaskill's proposal comes three days after struggling banking giant Citigroup -- which has taken about $45 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program -- reversed plans to accept delivery of a new $42 million corporate jet. The company changed its mind under Treasury Department prodding.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Friday defended corporate bonuses, saying that cutting them also means slashing jobs in the Big Apple.

"If you somehow take that bonus out of the economy, it really will create unemployment," he said on CNN's "American Morning." "It means less spending in restaurants, less spending in department stores, so everything has an impact." Sphere: Related Content

Seed Order

One more seed order taken care of....I THINK this is the end of it....I wanted to order dry beans. The plan is to harvest and dry them, to use in chilies or bean casseroles.....baked beans, yummy!

Arikara Yellow
Big Red Kidney

I've ordered both thru http://www.prseeds.ca/index.html located in Saskatchewan.

Tonite I think I'll sit down with a glass of wine in front of the woodstove, and go over my seed list. Just wanting to make sure I have all (most) of the loose ends wrapped up! Sphere: Related Content

Making a Window Quilt

Browsing around on the Net a few years ago, I happened across this site:

http://www.manytracks.com/Homesteading/winquilt.htm

I thought it was a pretty good idea! And since it's been so cold up here for part of this winter, I thought I would give it a try making one of these for our living room door. (BTW, this door leads nowhere, there is no deck out there....yet)

I don't know how to quilt, the Gman's Mom does - she makes some beautiful quilted runners, placemats etc. I am not very savvy when it comes to sewing, but I am going to give it a try.

The window coverings Sue shows are so nice...all those squares sewn together, then pieced to the backing fabric. Mine is going to be a LOT simpler.

IF it works out, it will hang on the living room door - if it does not work out, it will never see the light of day!

Here's the top fabric, the burgundy.....and the accent fabric, a nice gold colour. It has some fancy scrolling on it. I thought these colours could be easily tied in with the Christmas decorating next year. Maybe put some bows on it, or little doodads, we'll see.

So today, I got the cover fabrics washed and iron. Then I cut up an old white sheet that I will use for the backing.... here's the backing and the batting pinned together.

I doubled the batting, I hope that will work ok....

I'm feeling the need to keep it pretty simple, so I am considering just making a wide border with the gold fabric and putting it around the burgundy fabric. I'll sew bias tape around the outer edges.

After I've got it sewn together, I'll either tie it all together in several places, or I'll get brave and do some topstiching. I thought it would look nice to have the burgundy and gold sewn together in diagonal pieces, but I don't think I have the level of ability, lol! I am NOT a sewer.....

Wish me Luck!

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Here Comes the Cold Again

Ugggg, what a temperature change! -35C this morning when the alarm woke me up at 5:45. It has now warmed up, if you can call it that to -32C.

This cold snap is supposed to only last today and maybe tomorrow....Good!


Got up and put the coffee on, remembered that I was going to clean out the woodstove today before I lit the fire.....yuk!


Since we don't have a metal bucket (and we Should, we really Should!!!) I have to use a 5 gallon plastic bucket. What this means is that I HAVE to go dump it right away.




Leaving ashes in a plastic bucket is foolhardy....there Could be a few embers still glowing. And I NEVER leave a bucket of ashes on the porch, or just outside the mud room. It's just not worth it to take the chance.

Normally I'd take it down to the garden and throw it on top of the snow covering the strawberries, asparagus or raspberries, but it seemed too darn far to walk in my houscoat! Fed it to the driveway instead...it might help for some extra traction.

So there I am, outside just before 6am, dumping the woodashes along the driveway, far enough away from the house so there is zero chance of something catching fire. Oh and yes, I got my fleece jammies on, one housecoat and then my winter coat overtop of that plus my winter boots.....I looked like a real winner, I'll tell ya!

Trying to watch the market today, as so far the Dow is bouncing up....misssed good entries on two stocks I've been watching.

Went down to check on the hens and bring them some hot water....poor things have laid only 4 eggs so far today...well that's understandable, I'd be putting my energy into staying alive rather than laying a egg!!! I think they deserve some porridge later on this morning.....

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Snowy PIcs and Icicles

Several days ago, I walked around with the new camera and snapped some pics of the snow on the roofs of our buildings....they look kinda cool.....

Look at the creases and folds in the snow in this pic....it almost looks like a bedsheet up there.

Looking down towards the barn....we don't use these steps in the wintertime, so there is no point in shovelling them off.

This picture was taken several days ago....

Here it is this morning...the snow and ice has slid just a bit more....

I sure don't want to be standing underneath there when it comes off!!

Ice Curls (My Favourite!!)

Our first big dumps of snow were followed by the freezing rain and ice storm. Because of that, we haven't had much snow slide off the roofs.....

There have been a few building collapses up here.....including one of ours, thanks to yours truly.

Remember this? The canopy I walked past probably 4 times a day? The one I forgot to take the snow off....yeah, that one!

We have had several days of +0 weather, enuf to make the snow start melting....

and shifting......

I like this one, the snow and ice are folding over themselves.....

Snow Curl on the back roof of our woodroom.....that's one building I sure don't want coming down!

I spent some time on a ladder taking the snow off the front roof of the woodroom....the little roof just didn't look sturdy enough to me. And hey! We NEED to get at that wood to keep us cozy warm!

Here's one I took a few days ago, it was warm enough to sit on the front deck in the mid afternoon and bask in the sun! Just had jeans and a sweatshirt on, aaah it was wonderful!

During that spell of warm afternoons, the snow slid off the front part of the main roof.....there was so much of it and it slid with such force, some of it landed in the veggie garden!!!

And boy, does it make a lot of noise when it starts coming down, rumbling like an earthquake or a jet gunning it's engines for takeoff.....no matter how many times it happens, there's always a bit of fright "What's That??" and then if we look out the window fast enough, we can see sheets and sheets of snow coming down!

The Gman is coming home today after being away this week, yeah! So tonite for dinner we're having lamb chops, baked potatotes and squash....followed by homemade Strawberry and Saskatoon berry pie, yummy!!! And I already have a loaf of wholewheat bread going.

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Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom!

It's Birthday time around this place, it seems! Mom's hanging out down in Southern California with my Dad, probably having a round of golf right about now!

Enjoying the sunshine, swimming....sounds nice, doesn't it?

Hope Dad's taking you out for a nice dinner tonite!

Annie and the Gman Sphere: Related Content

Ordering Some More Seeds

I'm going to put an order in for a few more seeds in the next day or two:

Amish Paste Tomato - gonna try these for the first time
Sugar Beet - we have Some seed left from last year - not enuf. We also have 4 sugar beets (I think) down in the cold room from last year's harvest....we'll pop those back in the ground this spring, and hope to collect seed in the Fall of 09
Amaranth - gonna try these for the first time. I'm not sure how they will do, as apparently they don't take too kindly to frost. I'll experiment a bit tho and give it a try. It's the Grain Amaranth I'm ordering - if we get lucky and get some to seed by Fall, we can feed it to the chickens..... Sphere: Related Content

It's the KGal's Birthday today!

Happy Birthday KGal!!!

I wish I had pics of her when she was little, but her parents are out of country, and the Nman doesn't have any pics of when she was itty bitty.

I've watched Kgal grow up from her mid-teens, she's the fiance of my youngest, the Nman (also known as Help Desk, lol!)

Now she's in her early 20's, has had her head firmly on her shoulders for years now, and is reaping the benefits.....

She's become a world traveller...in the past few years she has travelled to Palm Springs, Las Vegas, San Diego, England, several countries in Europe, the Far East, and several other places I can't remember....she loves exploring and seeing new things.

Here she is at Joshua Tree National Park....


She went from kindergarten right thru Grade 12 in French Immersion...wow, every single school day was conducted solely in French, I can't even imagine.


After high school graduation, she immediately went to school for Respiratory Therapy, and has a good job on the Coast (in one of the big hospitals close to Vancouver).







She makes my Nman very happy, they've been together for years and they are a really good fit!














She has a dog named Kitty, and a Mom named Cat....I get a kick out of that.

(Actually, BOTH my boys' gals mothers are named Cat...what the heck are the odds of that????)

Here is Kimono Kitty wearing a new outfit that came all the way from the Far East...

Have a wonderful day today hon....make sure Nman takes you out for a really nice fancy schmancy dinner!

Love ya,

Annie and the Gman Sphere: Related Content

The Journey - A Place for Homesteaders (and Others!)

I belong to a neat forum...a place where I can go and ask questions, provide some possible answers, hang out with people who live (or would like to live) the lifestyle the Gman and I so appreciate.

There's a button over on the right hand side of this blog....called The Journey. Click on it and come on over to the Forum. You can read the posts as a Guest, if you like, but it'd be great if some of the readers sign up and join in the postings over there....

There's subjects like Gardening, Cooking, Raising Animals, Self Sufficiency and all kinds of other topics. There are a few Homesteading Journals on there, where people post often about what they are doing on their homesteads or in their city backyards.

Click on it and check it out!

Annie Sphere: Related Content

A Really Neat Experience Yesterday Afternoon!

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting here...actually I had just responded to a comment Krissy had left.

I heard a snowmobile coming, figured it was our neighbour. He regularly runs over here on his snowmobile, trying to keep his trails open.

So he says to me, "You wanna go for a ride?" I looked at him warily (as I am a bit Yella, aka Chicken) He says "Nuttin to worry about, I'll go slow....no one has EVER fallen off this thing"

OK, so I grabbed the camera and hopped on the back. You can't sit down on the box, you have to stand on those back rails and then hang on to the handle.

So off we went down the road over to his place and we went across the bridge over the creek and up the back of his property....

He has built a hunting cabin (with its own woodroom, for goodness sake!). His buddies come up in the fall and they all stay in the cabin. He said they have stayed in there when it's -20C out!

So I took some pics

You can see some of the trees have snapped.....probably due to that ice storm awhile back.

Then we headed back, got over the bridge and he made a fairly sharp right hand turn, to go to the Other neighbours place.....well...guess what?

Yes, I FELL OFF....the whole sled tipped over and there I went. Luckily, just landed in the snow and not on a stump or anything.....he stopped the machine, shook his head and said...gee, no one has EVER fallen off...

Well, I guess there is a first time for everything!

It was a LOT of fun...he can really get the machine going, he said he can get it up to 75mph on the road (gulp!)

I asked him if it was ok to post some pics on the blog, and he said "go for it!"

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Severe Cuteness Alert!!! Baby Wesley

Ohhhhhhhhh man.....look at this lil fella....just look at him....ohhhh

(that's the sound of the heartstrings being pulled......)

here he is after he arrived home.....

and after his big sista got her hands on him, lol!

Wesley's a big boy, well over 9 lbs at birth.

Nuttin like a new baby, is there? So adorable and cuddly!

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Seed Orders and a Cold Room Update

I've been working on finishing up the seed order. I wouldn't mind having extras again ( I just hate it when I plant the LAST of my seeds). So I have the major order ready....here goes

Tomato - Jetsetter - yummy big juicy meaty; Roma VF - I need to try these!
Turnip - Purple Top
Peas - Alaska - need more; Sugar Snap
Lettuce - Salad Bowl
Kale - Dwarf Green Curled
Carrot - have lots of seed, but ordering some Danvers Half Longs
Cabbage - Early Copenhagen Market
Cauliflower - Early Snowball
Broccoli - Packman
Beets - Detroit Dark Red
Beans - Bush Blue Lake
Swiss Chard - Fordhook

I have quite a few seeds leftover from last year....Good!

One of our Main Goals for this year is to try to grow twice as much animal food as we did last year...so we'll need lots of seed on hand.

checked the cold room - we have a LOT of potatoes still down there - like almost 2 -50lb feed bags full, PLUS all the seed potato I put away in the fall. So, we should have potatoes on hand to feed to the little piggies whenever they come (and yes, it's too early for me to even begin to dwell on piggy numbers right now)

The rutabagas, sugar beets and mangels that we put in the cold room in the Fall, still look fine. We're hoping they'll be ok to just plop in the ground come May. Then in the Fall 09, we'll be able to harvest seed from these ones that are on the "second time around".

Over the next few days, I will finalize the rest of the orders and get them sent off! Sphere: Related Content

Seafood Surprise Spread - Recipe

We had friends in for dinner last night, roasted chicken (homegrown of course)....ooooh, was it good!

For an appy, I made Seafood Surprise Spread. I got the recipe from an ole College Colleague probably about 20 years ago....yikes, I am getting old!

I don't make it often, but it IS a hit each time I make it....hope you enjoy the recipe....

Ingredients.....

1st Layer -

8 oz softened cream cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp dried dill

Mix all these together well and spread it right onto the dish. A 9 inch fluted quiche pan would work well, but I don't have one, so I improvised.

2nd layer -

8 oz fresh or canned shrimp (frozen is ok in a pinch, but be sure to drain it really well)

(I messed up and bought only one can shrimp instead of 2, so I used 1 can shrimp and 1 can crab meat)

3rd layer -

1 cup seafood cocktail sauce (for some reason I have DON'T use Kraft written down, who knows why?) (But, we made our own sauce using horseradish and ketchup)

4th layer - 2 cups Havarti cheese, grated (grates easier if you freeze it a bit first)

5th layer - 1 green pepper, 1 tomato, green onions (all chopped together)

Cover well and chill for several hours (overnight is good). Serve with crackers (Bretons or other wholewheat crackers are wonderful with it!)

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Blogger Word Wrap

Does anyone out there know how this works? Like...what do I need to change in my Settings to make a whole complete word move down to the next line.....

Right now, you can see the words get cut off at the end of the line, and then the missing letters move to the next line.

Me no so smart with Blogger, sigh....anyone know??? Sphere: Related Content

Some Goals for 2009

I'm still working on mine but here is a good start:

Grow 2X as much animal food as we did last year
Do a better job of keeping up with weeding
Finish Gman's shop to lockup point
Get the ditching done at barn
Finish enclosing the barn
spend more time laying in the hammock
leave the property and go Camping!
take more mornings OFF and go fishing!

Well, it's a start! This year, I want to be more aware of taking time off so we can just go have fun.....I don't want to be constantly on the go. I am planning to take time to smell the roses, so to speak.

So, after that unreal snowfall again yesterday, we have spent most of the day moving snow. I have been worried about our woodroom roof, so I spent part of the morning on a ladder, cleaning the snow off the front part.

The Gman got the driveway and parking areas all done, thanks to his excavator. I spent the time digging out around the greenhouse. It has been about 4C today, a great temperature for working outside!

And we've had lots of snow sliding off around the greenhouse, camper, boat, etc...

All the piled snow was beginning to put pressure on the sides of the greenhouse, so I went around the perimeter and dug out the snow. Hopefully I won't have to do it again (wishful thinking maybe).

There is so much snow we are running out of places to put it....I think lots of people here in BC are feeling that same way right about now!

They are worried about flooding down on the Coast, because the temperatures have warmed up. All that snow they have had, it has to go somewhere. Vancouver is asking residents to clean out around their stormdrains...a really good idea! Sphere: Related Content

It's Snowed All Day

Oh? You can't see that very well....yes, I am still trying to work with the new camera...

Here, check this one...almost one foot of snow here today and it is Still Falling...

wonder what we will wake up to in the morning?

Look what the Nman has been doing...this is on the Coast. Lotusland...you know, the best weather in all of Canada....They have had a ROUGH time of it.

My parents narrowly escaped to the sunshine of Southern California. If they had left 2 days later, they wouldn't have made it. As it was, they got waylaid at my uncle's place in Washington a few days. (He's a great cook tho...yeah, things coulda been worse!)

The Gman's parents...in Snowville BC, this winter, they are getting their fair share and then some.....

Who's ready for Spring? Anyone????

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Toboganning

The other day, it was the Tobbogan Festival...a once a year event. There was a good group of people, music (thanks to a generator and sound system), a bunch of tobaggons, crazy carpets, etc...

A huge fire going, chairs set up, it was great!

....we thought we'd only be able to be out there for an hour or so. We were still not feeling that great....but we stayed the whole afternoon, thanks to being bundled up tightly against the elements...even the snow blizzard that lasted an hour or so...

We had a Great Time! Here you can see the hill they go sledding down...neither of us were up to it this year. We did last year and da Wolf even pulled our tobogann!

I like this pic, the way the moon is coming up...

btw, how do you spell toboggan? I probably don't have it right!

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More Snowy Pics....

We brought the camera along with us when we went for a ride the other day....

Lots of trees weighted down with snow and ice....

A pretty paint.....

Part of a Guest Ranch.....

lots of snow....

A tree had fallen over the road....someone must have brought their chainsaw.

A couple more horses.....

Old barn....

These folks are gone for winter....they park vehicles sideways in the driveway to deter someone from bothering to break in....

they've named their property Rancho Jeepo....driveway markers are used antifreeze bottles...yup, there's a Jeep under there somewhere.

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Snow............

It's snowing again out there, not heavy tho....

The greenhouse...so far, so good. I went out there a few weeks ago and knocked all the snow off the roof. It should have just slid off, but we had that nasty spell of ice rain. Because of that, the snow that fell on top just sat there on the greenhouse.

Here's hoping that building stays UPPPP all winter....

And the temporary chicken house, sitting at the bottom of the veggie garden. This kinda shows just how much snow we have....

Compare it with the way it looked in late summer....

We may go to the small town about 20 minutes away....I wouldn't mind getting a parcel of gifts into the mail, destined for the kids of my niece...a gift for new baby Wesley, and two small gifts for each of her two other kiddies....plus we need more cold medicine...and Kleenex...uggg

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