Thursday, March 22, 2012

Sorry for my lack of blogging!

Hey there readers, long time, no see! Sorry for my absence, but March is a super busy month for any farmer or gardener in the deep south! This month already I have planted all of my veggies in the garden, weeded, and watered til I was blue in the face. I have built a fence for my peas, which are now blooming, and thinned the carrots which are growing now at double speed. Then on top of that, I still have my girl scout troop and my diva girl has started playing Tball and practice is 2 times a week. So crazy busy spring thus far! Hopefully when everything calms down I will be able to blog on a more regular basis. Sarah should be back with us soon as well. She has been equally as busy with her awesome new job! Here are some pics of spring Tball! Enjoy!



Monday, March 5, 2012

Its Growing!!!!

Another year, another spring, brings a new planted garden! As of now we have broccoli, carrots, and peas in the ground. Guess what, they are all up. After last fall's dismal failure in the broccoli and carrots dept. I am so happy to see them growing! My challenge at the moment is fabricating the fence for my peas to grow on as they already have tendrils growing. As of now working on the fence I already have 2 blisters and cuts all over my arms from the chicken wire. One row is completely done and the other row is short so it won't be as much work. Here are some pictures of the lovely growing world!

The two planted rows. The row on the left are just peas. The row on the right is carrots, broccoli, and a few more peas.
Peas!
Carrots!
Broccoli!
These 2 are pictures are of the fence I have thoroughly injured myself creating...
The pots on my front steps. The big pots have violas in them and the little ones are strawberries.
Strawberry plant, already has a strawberry on it!
Last but not least, these are my garlic plants! And there is a little strawberry plant in the planter on the right. It was the only one that grew out of my first attempt. Never buy strawberry plants that are closed up in a plastic bag.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

On the Fronteir

Yeah, it's been a while. I blame it on the moving, and then the post-work exhaustion. There's nothing like manual labor to remind you how out of shape you are!

So far, I am more than pleased with my new career choice (historic interpreter and farmer for those not in the know.) Its been a blast working with everyone, all of the animals, and all of the period gear!

I have three close co-workers, and then tons of peripheral people (volunteers, the lady that runs the gatehouse, our handyman, my boss, etc.) Heather is the farm wife (now widowed in our farm story since my predecessor left.) she runs just about everything, and is pretty spectacular. Tama is the other farmer with me (my younger, unmarried sister in our tale.) She's a crack up, and we end up doing a lot of our tasks together, and chatting all the while. J-D is the facilities manager (our neighbor on the farm.) He's pretty dang awesome too.

It's only been two weeks so far, but so much has gotten done, and tons more is in the works! Today, we read through all of the apprentice applications for children who want to work on the farm and chose our favorites (we chose 13 new ones, there are 63 total!) Tama and I have also been busy using the draw knives to make new clapboards for the farm house's roof, which is leaking like a sieve. I managed to get the smelliest chicken poop on me, so I had my jeans in the wash and was wearing my petticoat while they ran. Then Tama knocked the wind out of herself with a rogue board, and she recommended that I put my stays on to avoid such a terrible fate. Which led to this spectacular outfit:

I looked just as homeless yesterday when all of my clothes were in the dryer from being rain drenched. I love our dress code.

In crafty news, during the rain day, we got too lazy to do anything big, so Tama and I both made ourselves housewives, which is a fancy 18th century name for a sewing kit. Mine has three parts: two pockets and a pin cushion built into the middle. It's all made from scraps of linen and some raw wool for the pincushion stuffing. Did I mention that the entire bottom shelf in our 7' long fabric closet is free scraps? Yeah. Heaven. Anyway. I also made myself a leather thimble (because why not?) and added a nice chunk of beeswax, some needles, and straight pins. I think now it's time to go 18th century sewing accoutrement shopping... Oh yeah!

There's tons more to talk about it, but is 8:40 and I'm already ready to sleep! And apologies, I'm posting from my phone, and I have no idea what's going on with the pictures. I'm sure y'all are smart enough to figure it out ;-)

<3 Sarah