Life and Death of a Snow Sculpture

 When it comes to snow sculpting, timing is everything.

First, the temperature has to be right. Too cold and the snow won't stick, it'll be powdery. Too warm and we know what that means. The sculpture will melt.

The best time to make a sculpture is just before a cold snap but up here we rarely have temperatures warm enough for the snow to stick.
Even in the best of circumstances, a snow sculpture usually has a short lifespan. Just a week ago we had a brief warm-up and the freshly made snow sculpture started to suffer on the second day.

So let's take a look at the life and death of a snow sculpture.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

RIP!

Bears Caught on the Trail Cam

 It's been an interesting summer. My neighbor and I have been setting our trail cams here and there to see what's all out there.

I honestly didn't expect to see so many animals around here.

Between the two of us, this is what we have seen so far:

- Bears - many
- Deer - many
- Bobcats - 3
- Coyotes - 2
- Racoons - 4
- Skunks - 2
- Fisher - 1
- Bunnies - 3
- Turkeys - many
- Grouse - 1

I might have forgotten some, but these are the ones that come to mind.

Here are some bear pictures. We had damage to 2 trail cams due to bears.

Got some big ones around!

Wildlife - Game Cam Pictures

 It is such a privilege to live close to nature. It's difficult to imagine the sun setting behind a skyscraper, out of sight just like it's difficult to imagine living life without smelling freshly cut grass in summer. The passion is real.
I wanted to share some pictures captured by my game cam this week. Enjoy!

Deer munching on apples under our apple tree.

A raccoon, also in search of apples. I've seen it on the cam a couple of times this past week.

A young buck roaming the fields.

Judging by the rack, this buck is a few years older. He might want to hide during the upcoming hunting season!

A turkey family. The young ones are growing!

Flowers.

 The main reason why I plant flowers in my vegetable garden is to attract bees, but every year I am amazed by their true beauty. The flowers make me smile every time I go in the gardens.

Flowers are generally super easy to recycle seeds from so all it takes is the purchase of one seed package and it's like the gift that keeps on giving.

Sharing the beauty..

Love in a Mist. I discovered this flower last year after planting a seed mix. The seeds of Love in a Mist were easy to recycle but not very easy to germinate. Only 3 out of 10 seeds germinated. This is one of them.

California Poppy. The orange is lovely.

This is some kind of poppy, but I don't remember which one. I want to call it sloppy poppy for obvious reasons :)

The bees like it.

Delphinium, also loved by bees, butterflies and their families.

Here's a Frosted Salmon Poppy which closely resembles a Flemish Antique.

One of my all-time favorites: The Teddy Bear Sunflower.

Painted Daisies. The butterflies as well as the hummin bird moths are regular visitors.

Black Eyed Susans. They are grateful flowers because they bloom long, and they are downright beautiful. You'll see pansies, alyssum, and lavender ladies in the background.

Paradise can't be much better than this.

I'll post pictures of sunflowers soon; they are just starting to bloom now.

Beef with Onions, Pineapple, and BBQ sauce.

All recipes in this blog are my own. When cooking, I very rarely measure anything at all, so I'm afraid that some of the amounts I mention here are just educated guesses :) Use your best judgement.

What you'll need:

- 1 pound of ground beef.
- 1 small can of pineapple chunks. 
-  4 ounces of BBQ sauce.
- 1 big onion.
- 4 ounces of Thai coconut cream.
- 1/2 cup of fine breadcrumbs.

- 1 tbsp of dried spinach or parsley flakes. (optional)

How to cook it.

This is a really simple recipe but it's delicious, I promise. It only takes about 15 minutes from start to finish so it's great for a quick meal.

1) Open the can of pineapple chunks and pour a little bit of the juice in a pan. I am using this juice instead of oil which makes the recipe a bit healthier or at least I think so :)

2) Break up the ground beef and add it to the pan. I cook it on medium heat to medium-high.

3) Chop the onion in small pieces and add it to the meat.

4) While it's cooking, add the breadcrumbs, BBQ sauce, and half of the pineapple chunks as well as some more of the juice from the can with the pineapple. 

5) Last, add the coconut cream. 

6) Let it all cook through, add the spinach or parsley flakes, and it's ready to serve.

That's really it. It's super easy, it's fast and it's delicious.

A few things to keep in mind

- You can add as many or as few pineapple chunks as you feel comfortable with. I use half a can, and I transfer the other half to a plastic container and put it in the fridge to make something else with it later.

- My ground beef is incredibly lean. I can't even cook it without using oil or some kind of moisture like the pineapple juice. This is because my Amish friend raises the cow, I don't buy meat at the store. If you have ground beef that's fatty, you might want to cook it first and drain the fat.

- Thai coconut cream (not to be confused with coconut milk) comes in a 13.6 ounce can, it can be found in the Asian aisle at Walmart, at any Asian store, or on Amazon. Walmart is often out of stock on it, so I usually order it from Amazon. It's actually not more expensive than at Walmart. I open the can and transfer the content to a small canning jar with a cover and put it in the fridge. It's excellent in stir fry, soup, and all kinds of sauces. It needs to be stirred up very well before each use.

- The spinach or parsley flakes are just to make it look fancy.

Time is all we have.

 

Time slips by unnoticed.
How often do you look back and wonder where the time went? 
Just a couple of weeks ago, the sheep shearer arrived to take care of our sheep. He comes every year in July. All I could think of was whoa, it's really been a year? It just didn't seem that long ago.
Do we use our time wisely? Let's admit to it, we're all guilty of wasting time. Of course, wasting time is a relative concept. What might seem like wasting time to me might be considered a useful activity to someone else and vice versa.

Time is all we have.
A wise old man told me once that time is all we have. He was right, and yet we often hear ourselves say "I don't have time". 
The way I consider time is rather similar to the way I consider expenses. I'll check my expenses for the month and figure out where I could have saved more, or what I might have spent money on that I didn't really need. It is exactly the same with time. When the day is over, I often look back and wonder where I could have saved some time, where I might have wasted some time. It is something to think about.

Time is an awesome gift.
This past autumn, my Amish friends came here for an afternoon and gifted me several hours of their time. They are farmers and they were in the middle of harvesting season where time is never on their side. Yet they decided to give me this previous gift. Within hours my food plot was cleaned up and they did more in that afternoon than I could have done in a month. They are young and strong.

Time is merciless.
Maybe not the nicest of thoughts but the older we get, the more we find out how time can be merciless, and we cannot cheat time. It passes at the same pace for everyone, rich or poor, sick or healthy.

Time counts.
Somewhere far away in China, twelve hours ahead of me, lives a programmer. His name is XiangLiang. Although he's less than half my age, he too contemplates time. He even made a countdown clock that tells how many hours are left in a day. The clock starts at midnight and counts down. As an extra treat, you'll find some random thoughts about time whenever you click the sentence below the time display.

His clock makes the time move backwards to emphasize the importance of every second.
https://pushme.top/en

Tips for Growing Peas

There's almost nothing more delicious than eating peas for dinner while they were still growing a few hours prior to dinner. Growing peas is pretty easy overall and they can be grown in fairly poor soil if need be.

Peas can be pretty close together. I usually plant two rows per trellis. I put the peas in the ground just a couple inches from one another and I leave no more than 4 inches between the rows. It is said that peas can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked. In my experience, it is better to wait. I'm in a cold area and it's true that pea plants are very hardy, but I've noticed that if I start later the germination is quicker and seems better all around. I usually start between mid-April and the beginning of May.

Just like most of my other vegetables, I grow peas in hills. Especially with the climate change, we are having more torrential downpours than we used to have, and the hills prevent the peas from being flooded or being in standing water.

I put the trellis up immediately after I put the peas in the ground. No need to wait until the plants are big and fall over. By the time the plants are big I am far too busy in the garden with other things, I don't have time to put a trellis up, so I do it right away.

The trellis consists of just a few stakes with chicken wire. Peas don't require a very strong trellis.

The height of the trellis depends on the kind of peas. I've seen the plants grow 7 feet tall, and I've seen them as low as 2 feet. I prefer the lower ones as they can stand more wind without pushing the trellis down.

Here is a picture mid-season.

The peas are ready to be harvested once they feel hard and full. Don't be tempted to pick them when they are not completely full. They won't be ready. But here we have to keep in mind that peas won't wait until we're ready to pick them. When they are ready they need to be picked or they'll look and taste old. I am referring to peas that need to be shelled as I rarely grow the sugar snaps. The pods always seem stringy.

Shelling peas is not a quick job, it takes time. I'm easily shelling a half hour to get enough peas done for a meal for two but it's so worth it.

Using Cardboard as Weed Barrier

 

The picture above shows what my corn patch looks like at the moment.

This year is my first experience with using cardboard as weed barrier. Here I thought that I was the first one to come up with this idea but after doing some research it turns out that this is not an unusual thing to do. So far it seems to be working out well. Since this is new to me, I did do a lot of reading up on it to make sure I'd know what I was getting myself into. 

Here are a few hints:

- Only use brown cardboard without any text because text = ink and you don't want that in the garden. Best is to find large pieces of cardboard. I was lucky to find quite a few of those.

- Absolutely do not use any cardboard with glue. If you look at a cardboard box, you will see that it is glued in one corner. I have cut this out of all the boxes that I used. Cardboard is often double layered with glue in-between but apparently that kind of glue is something natural and thus harmless.

- Remove all tape because that too is glue. I even went as far as to cut out the pieces of cardboard that had tape. I don't think it's necessary. Removing the tape should be sufficient.

Putting the cardboard down.

This is easy as pie. I used a simple steak knife to cut the cardboard. I found that a serrated knife works the best. I measured the distance between my rows and cut the cardboard accordingly. I made sure that the pieces overlap. It's very strongly suggested to weed before putting the cardboard down.

Also, I didn't read about this but found out the hard way: put the cardboard down when the ground is dry. I noticed that in some places where the ground was wet, the water stays on the cardboard after it rains. This is not happening in places where I put the cardboard on dry soil.

The use of mulch.

I read on several sites that you should put mulch on top of the cardboard in order to keep it in place. I don't want to bother with mulch and so far, all my cardboard has stayed in place on its own. I've also read that some people use stones to keep the cardboard down. Since I use very long pieces of cardboard, I don't think it's necessary to do so. I'd say use your judgement. I've had no problems at all with the wind blowing the cardboard around, it has not happened so far.

In some places where I used smaller pieces of cardboard, I covered it with hay and grass clippings.

To decompose or not.

My neighbor tried using cardboard as weed barrier once, but he had to drag it all out of his garden after a few months because it was not decomposing. He did put it down in autumn and dragged it out in springtime. I put mine down in springtime and hope it will be decomposed by next spring.

I noticed that in the spots where I put hay and grass clippings on top of the cardboard, it decomposes faster.  Overall, I think that using cardboard as weed barrier is worth it. I'll update this post next spring as I should know by then whether the cardboard fully decomposed or not.

A major advantage of using cardboard as weed barrier is that the cardboard will feed the soil after decomposing. Only a little though. It isn't horse manure :)

Comparing prices between 2014 and 2022

On December 24 2014, I went shopping for a few necessities. I saved my receipt and I went shopping for the exact same things on February 4th, 2022.
The shopping happened at the same store. It might not seem like a huge difference but keep in mind that this is a very short shopping list and you'll see an almost scary difference when you look at each product individually.

Receipt from December 24, 2014

Toothpaste Aim brand 85 cents 

120 count aspirin $5.88

1/2 gallon of 2% milk: $1.84

1 pound butter store brand: $3.68

6 pack Cottonelle toilet paper: $4.77

Subtotal:  $17.02

Same list, same store, on February 4th 2022

Toothpaste Aim brand 98 cents

120 count aspirin $6.97

1/2 gallon of 2% milk Byrne Dairy: $2.38

1 pound butter store brand: $4.48

6 pack Cottonelle toilet paper: $6.98

Subtotal: $21.79

Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese Sauce

 All recipes in this blog are my own.

This is one of my favorite recipes :)
Please note that I never measure anything at all, so the amounts are not exact but should be pretty close.

What you need:

- 3 large potatoes
- 1 standard package of bacon
- a big head of broccoli
- butter (about 1/4 of a stick)
- flour (about 2 tbsp)
- salt 1/4 tsp (optional)
- pepper 1/4 tsp
- nutmeg 1/4 tsp (optional)
- 1 cup of milk
- mustard 1 tbsp
- 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese 

It takes me about 40 minutes to put this together, and I'll give you the sequence of actions. This feeds 4 people and it's well worth the time.

- Peel and wash the potatoes, and cut them in thick slices, each slice being a half to 3/4 inch thick.
- Boil the potatoes.
- While the potatoes are boiling, wash the broccoli, cut it up and boil it.
- Cut the bacon into thin pieces and fry it.
- Turn the oven on warm, just warm.

- When the potatoes are ready, drain them and put them in a large baking dish. Keep them warm in the oven.
- Drain the broccoli but keep the water you used to boil it.
- Add the broccoli to the potatoes in the oven.
- Drain the grease off the fried bacon. I keep the grease and freeze it to be used for popcorn making some other time.
- Add the bacon to the mix in the oven, dividing everything evenly across the baking dish.

OK now you just need to make a cheese sauce and that's it.

- Put the butter in a pan and melt it.
- Add the flour to make a roux
- Add salt, pepper, nutmeg and mustard. 
- Add milk and keep stirring. It should be pretty thick. 
- Add some of the water in which you boiled the broccoli, add a little at a time until you have a smooth looking sauce.
- Add the grated cheese, stir one more time and pour the sauce over the contents of the dish in the oven.
- If you want to be fancy, you can also put some grated cheese over the top of it all and put it under the broiler until brown.

Serve and enjoy.

Growing Giant Peruvian Corn

 We grew giant Peruvian corn for 5 years in a row until this past growing season we decided to stop growing it.
Keep reading to find out about the great, the good, the bad, and the ugly about growing giant Peruvian corn.

The giant Peruvian corn stalk easily grow up to 20 to 24 feet which is 6.09 to 7.31 meters. They grow super quickly too. The stalks become so thick they almost look like small trees and the good thing is that the stalks can be used the next season to make trellises for beans and whatnot as long as they are kept in a dry spot in wintertime.

Here are some pictures of the corn:

Impressive for sure. Visitors loved it and we always got a lot of oohs and aahs but you know what we didn't get? Corn! That's right, we never had any corn to speak of except last year, but it wasn't pretty. The ears would grow big and thick. They too were impressive, but something always went wrong. Critters and birds got away with them and they didn't want to share with us, or the season wasn't long enough for the ears to mature, you name it, it happened. 

The corn would sometimes fall over in a storm. Due to the huge stalks, they caught a good amount of wind. A decent storm would knock them over.
This past year I had started the corn inside the greenhouse. As they say, by the 4th of July the corn should be knee high. Mine was well above my head by the 4th of July. So here we thought we would eat some giant Peruvian corn at last, and we did. It was tough, bland, and chewy, we had left it on the stalks for too long but who knew. These ears took longer to mature than regular corn, and we were inexperienced. This is when we decided to stop growing this kind of corn. For stalks to get this tall, it takes a lot of nutrients out of the soil.

I miss seeing those giants but it's for the better.

Meet the Sheep

 Let me explain how we ended up with sheep. We had 8 chickens, they gave us many eggs and even friendship. Once they became too old to produce eggs the coop turned into a chicken nursing home. We let them live out their lives but then came the dreaded moment when we were down to one chicken. Her name was Annie and she was such a lovely creature.

Here is a picture of Annie:

To prevent Annie from getting lonely, we borrowed a lamb from a friend.

Here is said lamb, we named her Laika:

Wouldn't you know it, Annie was terrified of Laika. Indeed, we were rather inexperienced with all this. our friend could not take Laika back right away, so we kept her in our little homestead for a few weeks.

Then came the day that she went back home. I came with her to drop her off. As I turned around and walked back to my car, Laika started to cry so badly, it was heartbreaking. She pressed her head against my leg, looked up at me and just cried and cried. The rest is history.

I quickly built a sheep stall inside our shed, Laika came home and we thought that she would live happily ever after. Little did we know that you can't have just one sheep. Laika got lonely. We spent every free minute with her, took her for walks, played with her, etc.. But the second we were out of her sight, she'd cry. Long story short, we got her some company.

Meet Laika and Betty, both very much grown at this time. They've been together for four years now.

Stuffed Peppers Recipe

 All recipes in this blog are my own.

Stuffed Peppers.

What you need:

2 peppers
1 pound chopped meat.
1 large onion
1 small can of tomato paste
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper
a cup of breadcrumbs
2 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp parsley flakes or dried spinach flakes.

Preparation:

Cut the peppers in half length-wise and remove the seeds and the white stuff.
Mix all the ingredients together (except the peppers of course)
Stuff the peppers with the mixture. There will be some left. The leftover can be shaped like a little meatloaf and can go in the pan with the stuffed peppers.
Put everything in a baking dish. I usually like the dish with parchment paper since I don't use oil when I can avoid it.
Cover with aluminum foil.
Bake in the over at 375 degrees for about a half hour.
Remove the aluminum foil after a half hour and bake for another half hour or until ready, it could be less than an hour total, just keep an eye on it.

Note:

The amounts as well as cooking times are approximate since I never set a timer and I never measure anything, so use your judgement.

Strawberry secrets

 Well, this was my first experience with growing strawberries.

I purchased 10 small strawberry plants last year. Great was my excitement when I found a handful of strawberries on the plants. I saved the runners and planted them in little pots in September. Runners are vine-like extensions that shoot out of the plants and grow some leaves as well as some roots.

Once the runners were well established in the pots, it was time to plant them outdoors.

I made a hill of about a foot tall and planted the runners about 12 to 15 inches apart. Once planted, I covered the entire hill with hay, and this has definitely kept the weeds down.

I also planted some runners inside a stack of two tires plus I made a raised bed out of Styrofoam boxes. At that point, the runners had gotten pretty big.

This is what it looked like:

After my strawberry beds had been set up, fall and winter came and the gardens took a long, cold nap. Would the strawberry plants survive the bitter cold? Would the snow flatten them?
Once spring came and the snow melted away, I was happy to see the strawberry plants come to life.
Fast-forward a few months, and June has been beyond generous. With still numerous strawberries to pick, I have already frozen 10 quarts.

The strawberries are big and oh so sweet.

Four quarts in the sink, just from today's harvest.

I didn't even use half of the runners. I am convinced that you can start a strawberry farm with just 10 plants. If I saved all the runners from this year, I'd literally have hundreds of plants.

Snake Rescue.

 We rescued a snake today. The poor thing was stuck on some ductape and she was stuck with 3 different parts of her body, the front, the middle, and the end. Things looked hopeless there for a bit but it all worked out in the end.

She was stuck on a bag in the old chicken coop which we now use as a hay storage shed. I saw her right away when I opened the door, but it took me a few minutes to realize that she was stuck on the ductape and couldn't move. I took the bag outside because it was super hot in the old coop.

If you look carefully, you will see the snake stretched out across the tape. It quickly became clear that the tape was far too strong to simply pull her off, so we resorted to the next best and maybe only option, Mark cut the tape from around her and simply left pieces of tape on her body.

Rescue operation almost finished..

While I was holding a piece of the tape she was stuck on, she 'musked'. I actually thought she pooped since I had never heard of snake musk. The smell was awful and very strong. Turns out that snakes use this musk to keep predators at bay.

Miss snake was very lucky that she was found because I usually only go in the old coop maybe once every other week. This could have ended very badly for the snake but thankfully, this story had a happy ending.