Mother

Yahoo. Got you down .Becca. 👍 We have our big planters built but not filled with soil. We might need help with that but I do have some seedlings ready to go out as we get them filled. The rest I will direct seed. Mt_Ruder….. can I put you down? Your 🦆🦆🦆🦆might live in the country but you tomatoes 🍅🍅🍅🍅are going to be growing like urbanites!

Wow! Lots and lots of reasons to celebrate. 🎂🍰🍧🍦🥧🧁🥮☕️🥛🥤🍾🍿🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂🎉🛍🎊💐

Hope you both had a great day.

I was just outside and we literally have carpets of violets in our yard. Blue, purple, pale blue, and white. The yellow ones aren’t blooming yet. The horrible part is that neither DH nor I am able to get down to their level and pick them. Where are the little grands when I need them.

Mt_R, You definitely have an unusual setting with your short growing season. Your duck project might be rural but your porch ‘farm’ would Fit the challenge, which is to see what you can grow in small spaces and in your case short times. Should I put you down for the challenge??? Come on, raise your hand! 😁.

Let’s PARTY. Hope you had a SUPER day, MM.

I’m putting you down, Dee. I will really be looking forward to your projects. Especially your potato one. I’ve wanted to try them in a fence cage with straw around the inside but was not brave enough. YIPPEEEE. Now who is next? 🥬🥦🍅🌶🫑🧅🧄🥔🍠 🐇🦆🐥🐓🦃🐐. 🐄??? Those are produced too, aren’t they? Okay the cow might be too big for an apartment but just saying if someone is trying any of those animals in an urban setting or very small footprint area come join the challenge.

In revisiting this thread I realized there were a couple more ways to propagate tomatoes than just what was mentioned. One less work method I use is to choose a stem near the bottom of a plant or an especially long one further up and gently bend it down to the soil or even to a pot of soil nearby. I pull off some leaves in the middle of this stem where I want it to root, bury that bare area two or three inches in the soil, then use either a garden staple or some other means to hold this area in the soil. I try to make sure there is at least six or eight inches of nice leaves sticking out of the soil at the tip. The stem is still attached to the main plant and is being fed through it but is also putting out roots where the leaves had been. In three or four weeks it should be well rooted and you can cut it from the main plant. If you used a pot to put it in you only need to take the pot inside. Otherwise just dig the rooted stem up and pot it. With this method you don’t have to worry about caring for small plants and you can do several stems from the same plant at the same time. It’s a great way to save a favorite variety from year to year. Another way to grow tomatoes without buying seeds is to take a center slice from a tomato, even a store bought one, and place it seeds and all on a bed of soil. Cover with an inch or so of soil and keep moist but not wet. You end up with dozens of small tomato seedlings that you can repot individually. If the tomato was an heirloom variety the plants will be true to type. If the tomato was a hybrid it may or may not be. Usually the first year it will be but subsequent tomatoes from that plant may not be. It is, however, interesting to see what you get. 🍅

Dual post…..I posted this in the Homestead forum but thought it might fit here also. This came in my FB newsfeed today. It is a new online magazine with articles written by homesteaders for homesteaders which reminds me of the Countryside and Small Stock Journal. It is a quarterly publication and if I go by the list of articles it covers a wide range of homesteading topics. $7 for the first issue or $19 annually. https://homesteadliving.com/

This came in my FB newsfeed today. It is a new online magazine with articles written by homesteaders for homesteaders which reminds me of the Countryside and Small Stock Journal. It is a quarterly publication and if I go by the list of articles it covers a wide range of homesteading topics. $7 for the first issue or $19 annually. https://homesteadliving.com/

I stubbed a couple of toes a few years ago on a chair leg that got in my toe’s way. They were painful but I thought the same thing. Not swollen enough. I was due to have open heart surgery so was required to have them X-rayed. Yup, both broken, one in two spots. They swelled enough after they were taped to make up for it. Delayed the surgery by six weeks. At least you have done what would be needed if they were. Be wary of those books. They can be as tricky as chair legs.

I posted a picture in January of a tomato plant growing in my aquaponic system. It over grew that considerably and I transplanted it to a big pot. This is the tomato plant now. It is starting to produce and will be moved to my ‘deck farm’ as soon as the weather settles.

Looks wonderful, Kappy. Can’t wait to get mine growing. A bit early here yet.

Happy birthday Cookie43 and Carol. Hope you had a SUPER day.

Oh my. Such an adorable face even if it does have chewing teeth LOL

Great thoughts. Let us know how it works!

Our son and GS were both hands on learners. I had them build the shapes. We used clay, cardboard, left over pieces of wood from construction projects and etc. I also had ‘Treasure Hunts’ where they had to find the shapes in common objects. There is nothing like getting them to ‘see’ the reasons for their lessons. Of course there were prizes.

I like country too, Jeepers, but being IN the country far from a road I have no curtains anywhere except for the bedroom but I have been considering the need for them in a blackout necessity. You might want to consider that while you are doing them. Perhaps a double curtain with one being a solid black of heavy material and a white striped one for overtop. Both pulled back but the black one showing as a sort of layered look. Then you’d have curtains for if things get really bad. They would also help insulate.

It doesn’t come up for me now either.

Jeepers, the solution is just for checking the tester the first time or perhaps if your numbers seem really off. I never use it at all. These you just pop in a test strip (conveniently stored inside), use the lancet to prick a finger or even in the forearm. It needs only a very tiny bit. You touch the strip to the blood and have a reading in about five seconds. I like it is all self contained. The lancet sets in an elastic loop on the side of the kit. Great for travel, not much bigger than a medicine bottle. And it’s cheaper at a hair over $15 for the whole thing, fifty test strips and all, than most just for the strips. Plus I’ve checked it against the lab tests several different times and it’s always been within a few points. I have my low blood sugar under control at usually low 90’s fasting with food at night before bed. It used to sometimes be as low as 50 fasting. What was and sometimes still is a problem is my Blood sugar going up like it should after a meal but then at a half hour tanking and not coming back to pre food level.

Hope your day was SUPER!

I have hypoglycemia and check my blood sugar regularly. I use these. https://www.amazon.com/Sidekick-All-One-Glucose-Meter/dp/B07RNPWWMV/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1MFXBHDQFM31X&keywords=blood+sugar+test+kit+one+step&qid=1650762874&sprefix=blood+sugar+test+kit+one+step%2Caps%2C317&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExUUNUMUlOM0NYUlNEJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMjgyNTMyMUY1TEZRTEhFMFRQQiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODI1Mjc3MTFZMldZU1dWRTNNSiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

A dozen large eggs weighs about 24 ounces or a pound and a half with shells, or (if my figures are correct) Round $3.75 per dozen for breaker eggs. By the way, I have seen an organic egg ‘farm’. Big huge long Morton building with no access to the outside I could see. They were ‘cage free’ but so crowded they hardly had room to move. The eggs were laid in nests with conveyor belts to take the eggs directly to another room. Hens, supposedly, lay more and eat less when it is hot. It was so hot in the building that the hens had mostly wing and tail feathers and some on their heads. No others. The dust was so thick in the building you could not see the other end and had to wear a mask to even enter the outer room where the eggs were sorted by machine. Every 18 to 24 months the hens are all replaced. We got 30 of their ‘old’ ( Red cross link) layers which are usually sold to makers of broth as the hens are little use for meat even after being well fed. It was cold out and we lost a few before we even got them home. The others I debated knitting sweaters for but settled for a half dozen heat lamps in a small well insulated and bedded chicken coop. Those hens never stopped laying. We did cull 3-4 that did not lay but the others went on to lay almost daily for THREE years. When we finally butchered them they were still full of ova but had slowed to laying two or three eggs a week. Organic is not what you might expect. I learned from the owner of that farm that the various names do not always mean healthier, happier, hens. Organic means given feed that is organically grown and no non organic practices are used. Cage free only means they are not IN cages. Free range means they are allowed access to the outside but that can be into a small fenced in run and does NOT mean they DO go outside as often the doors are just small chicken sized openings. Pasture raised means they do have access to pasture daily but that might be only in large cages (so called ‘chicken tractors’) that are moved to fresh graze daily. Organic, pastured, free range means the hens are allowed to run around free and return to coops at night which are then moved to a new pasture as needed. With the price of feed today it may or may not be cheaper to raise your own hens but at least you get a choice for how your hens are treated.

I have made many flower jellies over the years but none recently as we use very little sugar. Violets and Johnny Jump Ups make a nice one but are almost too bland or delicate tasting to use by themselves. I like Bee Balm jelly but didn’t care for lavender. Nasturtium makes a nice spicy jelly that goes great with meat. oh, now I want to buy sugar. 😁

Thanks Wychwood and Euphrasyne. The second recipe is the one I used way back before I found gluten was a problem for me. I SO wish we could have gotten the vital wheat gluten then as that recipe sounds super. You can add vital wheat gluten (protein) to your four when making bread to help it raise better and give it texture. Bread flour often has it added already. Does anyone know how long vital wheat gluten will store?