Market Update

We were at Lomax tonight. Didn't have enough time to post before the market. We've got lots of good stuff! People are absolutely amazed at the lettuce that I planted in January. Grampa Tom was telling people tonight that next year we are going to plant a lot more stuff like that. If it's ready before the markets, we will just  have to find a way to sell it or feed it to the chickens.

We will be in Burlington at the train depot tomorrow evening from 5-7

At the Sinclair station in Nauvoo from 2:30-5:30 Friday afternoon,

And at the Keokuk mall from 8:30-12 Saturday morning.

See you there!


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Lettuce

Isn't my lettuce pretty? This is the stuff I planted in January. The lettuce we planted last week is just starting to come up. It has some bare spots, durn chicken! I had this under plastic, but I was afraid it would bolt if I don't slow it down. I should have a little to take to the markets when they start. If I don't get greedy and cut it for myself :)

Hopefully, we will have a few radishes by then too. Dave at the Painted Corners in Lomax has decided to delay opening until May 1st. We were hoping to go there tomorrow, but it's just to cold yet :(

Itching, itching, itching ...

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

6 Days of Creation

God created man in His image. Did you know that every one of us is creative? I used to think I wasn't very creative because I couldn't draw or sing, but that is just plain wrong. The way I  read it, God spent 6 days creating and then spent the 7th reviewing all that He had made. . So, on Saturday's I post some of the things that I created the previous week.

Here goes:

This week has been a busy one! A lot of my creative juices have gone into writing. Every day I have been furiously working on my how to homeschool book, Almost Unschooling Grama, and editing my What's in a Name Bible rendition of Genesis. I doubt that either of them will be ready by the time the markets start, but hopefully I'll have them at the markets sometime soon.

I've been planting and planting and planting in spite of the cold temps. Earlier in the week, when it was still warm, I experimented with building a potato tower. Grampa (doubting) Tom doesn't think it will work, so I'll have to wait till next year to build more :) Then the rest of the week I've been planting stuff in flats and pots inside. Hopefully it will warm up soon so I can move stuff outside. My house is getting kinda full :) I have a couple of pots of holy basil and several aloe plants ready to go the markets whenever we get started.

The other thing I've been doing is polishing up several floor plans so I can post them on my Grama Sue's Floor Plan Play Land blog. Trying to get ahead a bit so that when we are going full bore this summer I have something of a chance of keeping it up :)

What have you been doing?


God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Can't wait till it's warm enough to sit outside every day!

Market News

Don't look to bad do I? Yesterday I had WAY to much fun in the sun. I didn't bring the tent because  it was rainy and very windy when I left. Then it turned off sunny and hot. I should have had Grampa Tom bring in the canopy. Fortunately I was selling my extra aloe, so I was snapping off a leaf every now and then and rubbing it on my face neck and arms. Last night, I was feeling so crispy that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to have Julie Marie massage my neck and arms today, but I did one more aloe rub before I went to bed and this morning, my skin is touchable!

BTW, Julie Marie is the massage therapist in Nauvoo. When I first started going to her a little over a year ago, I was having problems holding on to a pencil. She has helped me so much! If you want an appointment call her at 319-572-7767.

I had a great time yesterday reconnecting with all our wonderful Nauvoo customers! I had planned to go home at 4, but I was having so much fun, I stayed till 5:30. 

Thursday, we went to Burlington and had our best opening night ever! So many wonderful interesting people, including this lady:

I love doing farmers' markets! We have lots of lettuce, kale, chard, radishes, onions, peppermint, thyme, fennel, lambs quarters, parsley and Italian parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano and aloe. We will be at the Port in Burlington next Thursday from 5pm - 7:30pm and in Nauvoo at the Sinclair Station from 10am to at least 4pm on Friday. The Keokuk market doesn't start until the 19th. 

See you there!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue 

Mushrooms and Wings

We went mushroom hunting today. All we found was this lone mushroom and a stem ... Grampa found them. I'm not known for my mushroom hunting prowess, but Grampa usually finds a few. I don't know if we were to early or to late. Whenever I've been mushroom hunting, I've managed to find lots of toad stools and other non-edible mushrooms, but today we didn't see much of them either. For those of you that don't know, this is a morel mushroom. They are very easy to distinguish from other mushrooms so that makes them very popular here. You don't have to worry about accidentally cooking up a poisonous one!



We also gave all the chickens a haircut this week. We have 168 producing hens and 3 roosters. Yeah, I know, we tried to get rid of all the roosters, but then we were given some chickens with a couple of roosters and one of the pullet chicks turned out to be a boy. It is hard to sex those things when they are little. We decided it would probably be a good idea to keep a few roosters around just in case something happened that would keep us from being able to get chicks through mail order.



Apparently some animal rights groups think chicks shipped through the mail are starved in the process. Not true at all. Just before a chick hatches, the stomach muscles form around the yoke sack. This gives the baby chick a good three days worth of food and water. God created them this way because chickens tend to hatch over a period of 3 days. This way, the mother doesn't have to leave the nest until they are all hatched. She can keep the early hatchers there until everyone is ready to go out and find food. Chicks are shipped priority and generally arrive to their destination within 2 days, most of the time overnight. They do not starve!



Anyway .... rant over ... here's the mess from our barber work. We cut one wing so they can't fly over the fence and into the garden. It's like a haircut. It doesn't hurt the chickens, just keeps them at ground level. Some of you may think that chicken's can't fly. They actually do a little. They only go up around 5 or 6 feet, but they do fly.



My census job ended yesterday. It was supposed to last 14 weeks. They lied. There was no more work for anyone as of today. Oh well! It was fun while it lasted. The farmer's markets will be in full force in a couple of weeks. I'm planning to spend the summer baking and making noodles unless something else comes up.



We will have chives, lemon balm, radishes, eggs, noodles, some dried herbs and peppers from last year and banana bread to take to the farmer's market in Burlington this week - maybe some green onions and lettuce, but they are a little on the small side as of today. We'll see.



I sold all but 5 of my blown goose eggs. Would have sold them too, but I had hidden them and Grampa didn't see them when the last lady came to buy. Oh well, I need a few to decorate myself. I also have a bunch of blown guinea eggs. They are smaller than chicken eggs. You'd think they'd break easier, but those things are tough little critters. They should be really good for crafts.



I was looking at my herb garden today. I have some cilantro and basil coming up! I took my chicken guard off it a couple of weeks ago so I was wondering if they would devour the seedlings as they sprouted. So far the chickens don't seem to enthused about cilantro or basil. That's OK with me!



On a side note ... the birds are building a new nest in my stove vent. I guess we just have to keep chasing them out.



Well, as usual, the fonts on this post seem all messed up. I really need to take some time and figure out what I'm doing to them, but that's low on the priority list. You all will just have to put up with me.




God Bless You All!