Pardon the Garden

Confessions of a lazy wannabe homesteader

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Canning season

August 12, 2018 Marie Leave a Comment

A lot of years I have been terrible about canning up our tomatoes. I’ll freeze them for later and then forget about them in the deep freezer never to see them again.

This year I’m trying to be better. Small batch recipes are my favorite, simply because they’re quick to make with my limited time. So far I’ve made pizza sauce, which we have been using a lot of for homemade pizzas, and today I’m doing crushed tomatoes for use with pasta recipes. There’s still a pile of tomatoes ripening in the garden so I’ll have to research more recipe ideas (or just load up on pizza sauce)

Featured, Posts food, garden, preserving

A little August break (and things I forgot to post)

August 5, 2018 Marie Leave a Comment

Is it just me, or did it feel like July flew by?! Summer was FULL for me, between work and motherhood and taking two college classes and the Mr’s new 2nd shift work schedule. So. Full. Today, however, is the first day that I feel like I can really breathe and relax. There’s no assignment deadlines staring me down or tests to study for, so it’s a peaceful few weeks in my future and I fully intend on soaking up all the crafting and baking and canning time… as soon as I can decide what, exactly, I want to do.

Things that happened recently that I’ve failed to post (in no particular order):

  • Shortly after my birthday, we bought a fire ring thing so we could have campfires and s’mores at home. It is, by far, my most favorite purchase of the summer. I even hosted a “crappy dinner party” with pizza and s’mores and a bunch of my friends and it was so perfect – kids running around everywhere having fun, adults enjoying good company and beverages… I really should do that more often!
  • We also bought a blueberry bush. I have long-term plans to redo the backyard and move the raised garden beds, so we planted it in a corner where we won’t have to worry about moving it when those plans begin. The Little Mr basically ate all of my raspberries, so I figured a small blueberry patch would be good, too, and maybe between the two I’d get enough berries to make SOME sort of jam!
  • The garden is in full swing – we have peppers that are bigger than my hand, and tomatoes are finally ripening. It is excellent timing that my classes are over for a few weeks so I have time available to make some salsa with the tomatoes!
  • Despite all of the class work, I have managed to make time to craft at least a little bit here and there. I spun some yarn for Tour de Fleece even though I didn’t officially participate in the event, and started making a Goldilocks and the Three Bears stuffies for a new grandbaby that is on the way in the family.

Posts garden, Little Mr, spinning, summer

Busy little bee

August 23, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Found this little cutie taking advantage of my laziness and getting the pollen off my flowering basil. I have a kid-free evening, and decided to throw together a quick garden harvest meal (roasted eggplant, tomatoes, and fresh basil drizzled with some garlic olive oil, served over some pasta… it smells amazing so I’m hoping it tastes just as amazing), so I’m thrilled that coincidence of it all led to getting to watch this little one work for a bit and take a few (blurry) photos. ♥

I can’t decide if I want to curl up with a book and read, or watch a show and knit with this alone time. There are too many possibilities to choose from!

Featured, Posts food, garden

Tour de Fleece and such

July 4, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

Sunday, we spent a good portion of the day cleaning the house. Literally. When I put my new furniture out I realized how awful and dirty the siding and trim was, so I grabbed a bucket and some soap and scrubbed the whole thing down.

A smarter person would have just rented a power washer… I am not smart, sometimes.

But the porch looks a thousand times better and cleaner. I bought some lanterns at Joanns that were 70% off, and I think I’m going to hang them above the table to give some nice lighting once it starts getting darker earlier.

Tour de Fleece began on the 1st, and while I missed out on spinning on Saturday I’ve been making up for it the rest of the weekend. I finished a bobbin of some teal that was in progress on Sunday, and then Monday I spent part of my morning spinning the other half on the porch. I’m working on my long draw method to get faster singles. Normally I’ve been an inchworm, pulling small amounts of fiber out of the fluff inch by inch to keep my yarn somewhat consistent. But this puts a strain on my wrists and takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. The long draw thing lets me just kind of pull my whole arm backward and let the twisting single do a lot of the work. Much faster.

I probably won’t spin every single day of the tour, but I like that it gives me a push to use my wheel more. I’ve actually considered getting rid of my wheel – I messaged the girls in my knit group to see if anyone wanted to somewhat semi-permanently borrow it. The thing had sat for almost a year without being used and I saw no end to the perpetual fight with the kid over getting time to myself to use it. Thankfully, my lovely friends talked me out of it, and (also thankfully) I’ve tried to start forcing “me” time to spin. Now if I can just get someone to force me to knit the yarn I spin up… it’s all so pretty in the skein and no pattern ever seems worthy of it. Which is silly, of course, because #1, I can always make more yarn and #2, there will always be a better pattern to come along that I’ll later wish I had made and #3, life is too short to make things and then not enjoy them. So that’s the next thing I need to start working on.

Posts garden, Little Mr, spinning, summer

A little garden after all

May 29, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

So we put a garden out after all. I told myself multiple times that I wasn’t doing it this year. It’s too much to manage with the kid and work and everything else. And then, when it came down to it, Mother’s Day – our usual planting weekend – came and went and things felt off. It didn’t feel right not having a garden. I mentioned as much to the Mr, and with a knowing sigh he just kind of looked at me and said “I’ll get the boxes out of the garage.”

We broke up the dirt in the old spots where the boxes used to be, and then stacked the extras on top to make them deeper this year. Well, the guys did – I sat on the porch drinking a beer :) Today we visited Lowes to buy plenty of potting soil to replenish the nutrients in the soil that we’ve neglected the last two years, along with plants since we didn’t plan on a garden to get seeds started. 3 tomatoes, 2 peppers, an eggplant, kale, and zucchini. I bought some herbs from one of the local school fundraisers, which were half dead by the time I planted them, but I’m hoping they come back now that they’ve got some proper soil to grow in. We planted carrots and radishes, too, just so Declan can watch something grow from seed out there. We potted some Strawberries on Sunday, too – I don’t generally have much luck with them, but Declan LOVES to eat berries so we’re trying them yet again.  Raspberries are growing, too, and I’m determined this year to actually use my HopTop for at least one small batch of something boozy.

We bought a new grill this weekend, invited the stepson and his family up (that’s the grandbaby with the big pretty eyes – still weird that I’m 32 and a grandma), and made some damn delicious chicken thighs on it. I tried to gussy up the patio a bit to make it cozy, though the birds just poop everywhere so most of the pretty things are temporary items. Tablecloth that can be washed, items that get brought inside after we’re done, etc. How on earth do people keep outdoor furniture clean?! I feel like every time I want to use the table I have to wash the whole thing down – there’s no popping outside and just hanging out back there. Maybe because our patio is covered so the dust just collects without any rain to wash it off? I don’t even know. I’m working on finding some cute things to hang up on the side of the house to decorate a bit more. Maybe a cute wood wall hanging/sign painted to look like a barn quilt square? Hmmmm…

Posts family, food, garden, Little Mr, summer

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Pardon the garden. A phrase I’m most likely to utter anytime anyone visits the house during the growing seasons of spring through fall. Sure, there are pretty flowers and delicious veggies in there somewhere, but they might be a little hard to find amidst the mess of overgrown grass, dandelions, and weeds that have found their way in there and haven’t been pulled. Read On

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