Monthly Avatar: January 2014~Out With The Old

Sabrina, when she is up on the pasture fence she likes to rub her head on the llamas faces. If they push back a little too hard she slaps their faces. This has nothing to do with the theme, Out with the old In with the new.
Sabrina is simply a really cool cat year in and year out.

llama momma wrote:Sabrina, when she is up on the pasture fence she likes to rub her head on the llamas faces. If they push back a little too hard she slaps their faces. This has nothing to do with the theme, Out with the old In with the new.
Sabrina is simply a really cool cat year in and year out.

That is one SASSY cat to slap a llama! My kind of critter!

GG

She may be sassy enough to slap a llama's face but I'm not so sure how smart she is for walking under the llama's too!

Heather harvesting Rainbow Swiss Chard from the Gratitude Garden ~ a little something to go with Kim's groovy new garden boots!

Nice swiss chard and Heather is sure beautiful!

Ok, first time I changed this since I joined....about time!


This is my daughter showing off the garden early last summer. Ahhh, it's good to see the garden in bloom again.

I decided to change my avatar for this last week of January after seeing this: old ready to use compost pile on the left, new pile on the right.

Guess I won't be digging up any of the usable compost for a while with single digit temps ahead. I am so not a snow person... Fortunately I got half a wheelbarrow full put into the garage before the snowfall.

Meanwhile, the stevia, parsley, basil & rosemary are growing great in the bay window and will hopefully be joined by cabbage, broccoli & onion seedlings soon.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:Meanwhile, the stevia, parsley, basil & rosemary are growing great in the bay window and will hopefully be joined by cabbage, broccoli & onion seedlings soon.

CC

Love your pics. I think I'd title it, "dreaming of spring!"
I had thought about trying stevia in the garden this year and hadn't even considered the possibility of how well it would do indoors. What's your experience w/ growing stevia and where did you get yours?

This stevia plant is going on 4 yrs old, maybe 5. I got it for free as the nursery lady said they were about dead. I repotted it, cut it back to about 1/2 inch and it grew to about 6 feet of swirling mass in my bay window. Every year I cut it back again just as it flowers or goes to seed, and hang the mass upside down and use the leaves in my smoothies and baked goods. I have some seeds from it somewhere in the fridge if you want some. I haven't planted from them so I don't even know if they'll work but PM me with your address and I'll send them if you want to try.

CC

Triciasgarden wrote:Nice swiss chard and Heather is sure beautiful!

Thanks a bunch, Tricia!

 My January 2014 avatar is an all American canner.

I'm going to grow to cook & can as much as I can .

 I went round the garden yesterday and was disappointed top see that the constant rain of the last few months has really hammered my veg especially the greens .. the sprouts have not had sufficient cold dry weather and as a result have blown , the sprouting broccoli has developed black mould spots . The celery has all but died though some of it is making a comeback .

Yesterday ( New Years Eve ) Alison & I were talking about how we are going to try and do things , when I mentioned the canning she said that goes without saying , but what else could we do that does not rely on electricity from the power companies. ( our supply is prone to drop outs lasting a few hours to a couple of days till an emergency hook up genny arrived on a truck )

We have a small pure sine wave back up genny giving 240 volts @ 50 cycles a second providing  2.5 KW continuous but that is mainly so Alison can work from home uninterrupted .
 

 I told her about dehydrating fresh grown veg if we get a planned glut .
 We talked about using the SQ ft  beds and the new ones that are soon to be constructed to grow in bulk batches .Whilst we will still have fresh veg  most of the time we will be coved for the gap periods of the year .
 It wasn't until recently we started looking at the prices of veg in the shops that we realised how expensive they're becoming .. the quality of them is not much to write home about either 

It now looks like we will be up for getting  a decent home dehydrator set up  in a few weeks time though as much as I'd like to build my own like I have with the food cold smoker , it will be a new unit as it will reside indoors , we'll get a clean aesthetic plastic looking one instead .

Out with the old:

In with the new - all ready for painting and then seed starting next month:

Like a blank canvas.   

CC

Ready for spring.

plantoid wrote:
what else could we do that does not rely on electricity from the power companies.

 I told her [Allison] about dehydrating fresh grown veg if we get a planned glut .

It now looks like we will be up for getting  a decent home dehydrator set up  in a few weeks time though as much as I'd like to build my own like I have with the food cold smoker , it will be a new unit as it will reside indoors , we'll get a clean aesthetic plastic looking one instead .

Will this dehydrator be electric?  Do you have decent warm or sunny summer weather for a solar outdoor dehydrator?

I have 2 passive hot weather dehydrator boxes DH built for me out of scrap wood from his workshop.  Great for stinky garlic or onions!  In 2012 I dried veggies for soups and vacuumed sealed in Mylar, just to see if I could do it.  2013 I just dried fruits and herbs.

Please post a larger version of your avatar in this thread.

Preparing for some new seed starting in a few weeks.  Woo Hoo!

sanderson wrote:

plantoid wrote:
what else could we do that does not rely on electricity from the power companies.

 I told her [Allison] about dehydrating fresh grown veg if we get a planned glut .

It now looks like we will be up for getting  a decent home dehydrator set up  in a few weeks time though as much as I'd like to build my own like I have with the food cold smoker , it will be a new unit as it will reside indoors , we'll get a clean aesthetic plastic looking one instead .

Will this dehydrator be electric?  Do you have decent warm or sunny summer weather for a solar outdoor dehydrator?

I have 2 passive hot weather dehydrator boxes DH built for me out of scrap wood from his workshop.  Great for stinky garlic or onions!  In 2012 I dried veggies for soups and vacuumed sealed in Mylar, just to see if I could do it.  2013 I just dried fruits and herbs.

 
We don't have sunshine here I fear , unless it's liquid sunshine .  
 
Sadly Solar dehydrators in South Wales UK Great Britain would be a disaster for 29 years out of 30

I'll settle for an electric fan assisted c/w timer and temp control kitchen work top jobby that's light enough for the two of us to take outside into the green house for any really stinky stuff.

My new chairs hubby got me for Christmas and new garden beds also I'm blessed!

This will be the yard and garden area of the Philippine house when the kitchen/dining room/storage area(see edge) is completed and we move.  Note  the mango tree behind the banana tree the ladder is leaning on.  One of two.  And there is a guava tree way at the back.  Banana trees and papaya trees are easy to grow. A coconut palm  is ready to be put into the ground and we have 3 avocado seedling ready to plant.  All about 3ft tall.   But I'm not having any success with veggies.  Seedlings damp off too easy in the tropic heat and humidity.  And the tropic sun cooks them.  Going to have to wait until I can get 1. better growing medium, 2.  shade cloth and 3 tabletops for my back.



Here is a view of the driveway beside the cement block house and the new native materials addition.  The plan is to convert the kitchen in the block house into a 3rd b/r and a/c the whole place. Only the B/Rs are a/c right now.  



A longer view of the block house and new construction

Moving date is Aug.  The block house is rented until then.

Kay





K

It looks good Kay ...   are the spikes on the gates and rails to keep you in or other people out ????  

plantoid wrote:It looks good Kay ...   are the spikes on the gates and rails to keep you in or other people out ????  

they came with the property and definatly point to the outside   

Kay

Finally got a brand new chest freezer, should be plenty for two people.

llama momma wrote:Finally got a brand new chest freezer, should be plenty for two people.

How many cu ft?

GG

Goosegirl wrote:

llama momma wrote:Finally got a brand new chest freezer, should be plenty for two people.

How many cu ft?

GG

I was told this 7 cu. ft. G.E. model could hold 250 pounds of meat.  But I look forward to putting a lot of veggies in there and begin buying local organic meats.