Fieldtrip to Gorts Gouda

We went on a fieldtrip this week with our homeschool group. It was a great day and the kids had a ton of fun playing with the baby calves and lambs. And the cheese was pretty good too!

Pantry's Looking a Little Lean!

As I was gathering ingredients for today's lunch I realized that my pantry is starting to look a little empty. I still have a ton of Rhubarb and relish left though! I did pretty well last year, we got more of just about everything that I normally can - especially fruit. We actually still have another couple weeks worth of peaches and a few jars of applesauce so I can definitely say this has been the best year to date for saving our own food. I will be doing some construction in our pantry/root cellar room this year as I plan to have a LOT more root veggies and squash to store this year. Also plan to have more dried beans, fruit and grains this year. Ryan is really getting into making beer so I want to have lots of space for that as well as our wine. I am also going to try making cider this year if we get enough fruit.

The thing that prompted this post though was the fact that I used the last jar of Mayan squash that I canned 2 years ago. This squash was enormous! We ate a small amount of it fresh and it was ok but not the best I have had. Most of the rest I cut into 1 inch cubes and canned. I did dry some and grind it into flour to use in biscuits. The canned squash made the best puree for soup, muffins, pumpkin pie and even cheese sauce! It is so SMOOTH! What makes me sad is that I have been trying to find some seed of this squash variety but no luck so far.

I only got one squash from the one plant that I had but it lasted 2 YEARS!! This is a picture of it a few weeks before harvest - it got about twice that size.

Art Fair

Stephen participated in his first art fair this year. Each year the CHEK homeschool group does a different "fair." Last year was a geography fair but Stephen was still too young and we had just joined the group and didn't know how it worked. This year was art so he did a project on shading techniques. He did a super job presenting his project to the marshal. I'm so proud of him. Next year will be a science fair and this morning he asked when we get to start his project for that!

Seedlings

I have some seeds started. I couldn't wait. I have managed to hold off on the tomatoes and melons so far but with the sun shining outside today I don't think I can wait much longer. At least it is March now. I usually get tomatoes started in early March but boy is it hard not doing it in February!

The lettuce I have started will get hardened off and planted as soon as it is warm enough in my cold frame (that I have yet to build : )Broccoli will probably go out in sheltered "tents" when its a bit warmer. I don't usually get transplants out too early but I was inspired last year by the crop of volunteer lettuce that started growing as the snow was melting. We also pulled a few leftover carrots out of the garden a couple weeks ago (the week we THOUGHT spring had arrived!)It has made me realize that cold hardy veggies like lettuce and broccoli are a lot tougher that we give them credit for. If they don't like their little shelters and end up dying then I won't be any farther behind than if I start them when I usually do and who knows - maybe I'll get lucky and have fresh broccoli in May this year instead of July!

Art Project

Stephen is doing a project for our homeschool group's art fair this year. His project is on shading techniques and he is doing a fantastic job! Today he got the hardest part done - the written description of his project. It was the first "essay" he's ever written and I was so pleased with what he did. He is only 5 so writing is not something that comes easily yet. He had a hard time getting his thoughts represented as sentences so I had him dictate to me what he wanted to say, I wrote it down, then he copied it onto his page. I have no idea what the judge at the art fair would expect of a 5 yr old but I am more than happy with his work on this project and that's all I care about! He still has to get a few last minute things done - like gluing the title to his project board and I am going to frame the picture of the flowers that he did showing his favourite technique but this is what he's done so far . . .

Learning to Spin

Yesterday as I was working on spinning some of the angora wool I harvested, my daughter informed me that she wanted to try it. I had a big pile of sheep wool that I was using to mix with the angora so I pulled a hunk off the pile and started showing her how to card it. I use a couple of dog slicker brushes to card as I have not been able to afford proper cards yet but they are the perfect size for a 3 year old! When she had it combed to her satisfaction I showed her how to make a rolag and then how to pre-draft it into a roving. She was so proud of her project that she carried it around all day. Needless to say it is no longer a nice piece of roving but a smooshed up ball of quite matted wool . . . and now she is determined to knit her piece into something!