Sunday Doings

This blog helps me remember when I planted things and when lambs were born, so bear with me as I recount the doings of the day. 

I had the kids tackle the Christmas tree dismembering.  We'd sort of just thrown it off the deck onto the ground next to the trampoline where it would be under the roof a bit to finish drying out.  It made the area near the laundry line smell nice for awhile.  My son used a pruner to cut the branches from the main trunk and my daughter separated the needle-bearing branches from the support branches - so we have mulch, kindling, and a trunk to cut into firewood. 

Since they were outside and willing, I had them help me prep a small-ish garden bed for vegetable seeds.  This is the area we dumped a bunch of compost in and covered with a black sheet of plastic quite some time ago.  Since the sheep stall is floored with big cinder chunks, we needed to loosen the dirt, break up the clumps, and rake out the rocks.  We each grabbed a tool and it didn't take long to get it done. 

I was in an experimenting mood, so I went through all my seeds to see what I had - some of them were very old, but they'd been stored well, so I planted a mix of old and right on time seeds - collards, corn, kabocha pumpkin, amaranth, turnip, beet, parsley, carrot, onion (don't have a lot of hope there), and bok choy.  I guess in a couple of weeks, I will see what comes up and what doesn't and I can fill in the gaps. 

I made cookies - baked some and froze the dough for "convenience food", hamburger buns, and muffins.  Briefly thought about pulling out some soup bones to make beef broth - but not sure how much propane we have for the stove, and broth after being made needs to be canned.  I don't have the money this week to fill a propane tank - so canning and long-drawn out cooking like stock will have to wait until next weekend after pay day.  I might make some English muffins in a bit for the freezer.  A fried egg and a bit of bacon on an English muffin might tempt my sleepy-head teens into eating breakfast at home - the school breakfast is more like a snack than an actual breakfast.  It would be something they could eat on the way, anyway. 

Yesterday,  I hacked the grass back around another half a row of the taro and found some huge corms which I pulled out.  This is another thing that needs to be cooked up at length that will have to wait!  Taro has oxalic acid crystals which have to be cooked thoroughly to be edible.  The pressure cooker is good for that, but it takes a lot of propane to heat that puppy up - when directions say pressure cook for 20 minutes, you are looking at over an hour of heating. 

It's so windy and a bit chilly (it was 47 this morning), so I might just pull out one of my quilting projects and fold the laundry that's on the line.  I feel antsy, though, so maybe I will just brave the possible rain and hit the pavement or climb into the taro patch, after all.