Too many (not enough) words

They grow up so quickly!

This is Belle, the beauty of our new angora kits.  We also have another doe, Bête, and a buck, Toro.  Pika is due to have another litter in just over a week.

I've been busy working full time at an orchard/farmstand, translating, and neglecting the garden.  There is yarn to skein, fiber to spin, angora fluff to pluck...so many things to do and so little time to get them all done.

I am taking a break from ebay and have started listing in my etsy store again.  I'm planning on taking a break from selling at farmers markets until the winter market.

I am thankful for all the work that I have to do and for how green everything is once again.

Baking all day

I've been meaning to write here again for some time, but every time that I sit down at the laptop, I remember that the dishes haven't been done, there's knitting in the basket next to me, that laundry is still in a huge pile on the bedroom floor, Jon calls me over to discuss cabin plans again...or I am just too exhausted to fill a blank page before me.  My job at the farmstand is only part time.  That is quite enough for now.  I am only working in the bakery now and survived making hundreds of pies through the end of the year and now am figuring out how to make shelves look full without over-baking.  I still am having a very hard time waking at up 4:45 am and now eat two meals a day because my stomach can't handle being awake so early.  However, this is one of the best jobs that I have ever had and I am so very thankful to be paid to bake all day.  Even if it does mean that when I get home I feel like a blob and go lie on the couch.  And neglect cleaning and making dinner, especially baking again.

Jon is at home for now and very forgiving of my blob-ness.  There are some days that we only eat rice and kolbasa.  Tonight we are eating homemade baked beans and roasted butternut squash and anadama bread, not only because it is delicious, but we can also eat it for days.  I don't mind keeping this job for a while until we can save up or Jon gets a really good job.  I'm hoping that once the days get longer and warmer my energy will increase and I will once again be able to do everything around the house and keep up with my massive garden plans.

I think ahead to the future, a one room cabin, spinning wheel in the corner, bread in the bake oven and the warmth of the hearth.  Goats grazing the lawn, and maybe children playing on the porch.

Oh, and I finished the sweater-thing.

Urban gardening, composting and other ways to upset the neighbors.

To solve the basement flooding problem, bring in an excavator and dig out a massive trench from the basement door to the end of the backyard.  Build retaining walls.

Get some local boards and make raised beds.

Level these beds with scrap wood/stone blocks left from previous projects.  Helps if you know a stone mason.

Throw in some sod clods or roots in the bottom.

 Fill raised beds with the dirt pile left from excavation (this will take several days).  The rest of the dirt for the compost beds will be delivered by truckload in the spring.

Don't forget to plant garlic in the fall!

Add some stone sculpture.

Fencing will happen later on.

Build a compost pile out of a branch you take down.  Line with burlap and cover with a weighted tarp.

Make pretty paths to the doors, but leave the extra stone piled up against the house.

Spread out whatever dirt is left around the back lawn in anticipation of tilling that area in the spring for another garden.  Add sculpture that looks suspiciously like a gravestone.

By now, the neighbors should be standing in their driveways shaking their heads and asking if you have a 'real job'!  Just wait until spring when planting begins.  I can't wait to see the looks on neighbors' faces when I'm out there, barefoot, talking to the plants.

I've been keeping busing working on projects and I am still processing things that I brought out of the garden before we moved.

Herb garden.

 Sugar beets, peeled and chopped into small pieces, to make into sugar beet molasses.  I also have been freezing the pulp to add to baked goods later on.

 Chicken stock.

Haven't even made it halfway through taking the sunflower seeds from their heads yet.  I think we will be set for a while.

I have also been working on Jon's sweater...again.  This time, I am designing the pattern myself (except for the cables).  This is the back.  Handspun wool, of course.

I also have a job at a farmstand.  Some days I work at the register, some days I am left alone in the bakery to make the day's breads, cookies, coffee cakes, doughnuts, and whatever else I think people will want to eat.  I am very happy.

Squash soup.

After I saw that I was only scheduled once or twice a week for August, and considering quite a few other factors, I quit my job at the ice cream stand.  It just wasn't worth it.  The small amount that I was making wasn't worth the drama and stress, especially when they suddenly cut my hours!  As for the people already asking me, 'So, when are you going to get a new job?!'...I have a job.  I'm still translating.  Yes, that's a real job.  And between jobs, I will be out in the garden, or making jam, or working on Jon's sweater, and not being lazy.  Most of the time.

My challenge recently has been to use up zucchini and summer squash.  I'm kinda glad that not all of my seed germinated, or we would have been eating squash for THREE meals a day, instead of two.

Here is my favorite recipe to use up the larger zucchini and summer squashes:

Squash Soup

Saute a medium chopped onion in olive oil until translucent in soup pot.  Add a chopped clove of garlic.  Dice up a couple of cups of zucchini and/or summer squash, as well as one carrot and one potato.  I've also thrown in turnips and beets.  Amounts don't have to be exact.  Saute a few minutes.  Add 3-4 cups of broth.  Add, to your taste, tumeric, cumin, paprika, ground mustard, cinnamon, cayenne (very little), salt, and pepper.  Keep in mind it will cook down, so watch how much salt you add.  When all the veggies are soft, use an immersion blender, or like me, pour small amounts into a blender and blend until pureed, being very careful- hot!!!  Add a tablespoon of butter -or- a splash of milk of your choice and stir in.  Enjoy!

This recipe is great for using up odd amounts of things.  I've been picking a tote bag full of squash every few days...seems to be the only thing coming out of the garden besides turnips!  Anyone want turnips?!  Seriously- let me know.  You can have all you want.

Long summer

I keep telling myself, "This is going to be a long summer!" as a joke, and really, it is only June and I am looking forward to the fall.  Part of this is due to the heat, the rest to my summer job.  Scooping ice cream is fine.  I just didn't expect so much drama!

It really isn't that bad, well, except for a few things.  I am just very much looking forward to the end of ice cream season.  Maybe by then I will have saved enough to get a car!

I have planted two gardens again this year, one at my parents', and one behind the apartment.  The larger of the two needs some major weeding....which will get done sometime.  I was able to acquire some seed from a neighbor to make up for Seed Saver's Exchange seed not germinating, and I just found out today that I will be getting some heirloom tomato plants.  Most of my plants are heirloom this year.  Hopefully things turn out well!  I hope to post more about the garden later, but for now, I am exhausted once again and am off to bed.

Day Off! Violet Jam and Transplanting.

It has been more than two weeks since I had a day off to myself.  I've spent a most relaxing day getting lots of things done and catching up on chores, hanging out with Tavşan.

He's so pretty now with his fur all grown in!

(Yes, he CAN see)

I made more violet jam.  I had more than enough violets picked from Jon's parents' and his Gramma's yards.

Absolutely beautiful, tastes of flowers.

And then I transplanted tomatoes, ground cherries, huckleberries, peppers, and eggplants into larger pots with Coast of Maine organically approved potting soil.  I also did some replanting and planted a container of lettuce.

 My awesome indoor greenhouse!

 Cherokee purple tomatoes

 Carmen, jalapeno, chocolate beauty peppers and one rosa bianca eggplant

 Principe and roma tomatoes

Lettuce box: one side Freckles lettuce, the other an heirloom blend

I hope to have time later this week after work to hand cultivate the garden plot here, and then sometime soon I will start planting at my parents'.  For now, after all this and washing every dish in the house, I am ready to eat some chocolate and take a nap.  Work is hard.  I have 'ice-cream-elbow'.  I really hope that they hire more people soon so I don't have to work at such a frenzied pace!  I'm also looking forward to Thursday, when it is supposed to rain...even though I still need to walk there and back...

Working.

I know I said that I was going to stay at home.  After over year of being mostly at home, I decided that I needed a job.  Things were too close to sleep at night...

I love being at home, and I will be at home again at the end of the summer.  Because I still don't have a car, my options were limited.  So.  I scoop ice cream part-time at a stand 1.63 miles away.  Its not like I don't live up a hill or anything =)

It is temporary.  I am still translating.  And gardening.  But this job will make the difference from just scraping by to replacing the cushion we had used up.  I'm not sure what will happen when this job ends.  For now, this is good.

I think it is going to put me off ice cream for a bit, though.

I really did completely forget that I had a blog.

Things got busy.  I started working for a print shop, then quit because some people there were...well...unpleasant.  Then I translated quite a bit.

We had a massive snow storm around Halloween that killed the power for a week.  I learned how to cook mac and cheese on a grill, take a bath in the amount of water that could be heated on a camp stove, and go to sleep at 7 pm.  If we hadn't lost everything in the fridge and freezer, and running water, it would have been really fun!

At the beginning of December, we moved out on our own.  I was SO HAPPY to move, not that I don't love my parents-in-law, but it was time.  I love knowing things don't get moved overnight, I am in charge of cooking/baking/groceries, and I can run from the bathroom to the bedroom in a towel if I want.  Not that I actually do now...its freezing!  The bad part...the apartment itself.  Lovely neighbors cause the cops to show up at all times of the night, domestic fights outside the door, small children screaming until midnight...And then the hot water lasts 10 min. max at lukewarm, the stove pilot roars like a bonfire, it is so humid water runs down the walls and leaves little yellow streaks from the stains in the ceiling, the few windows we have we need to keep the blinds closed because people walk right by them (sketchy people), the bathroom blower just blows up into the ceiling space and grows mold, and the bathroom does not even have a door.  Not to mention there are train tracks in front, a river gorge in back, we park at the edge of this cliff, and two streets go by the front door.  There are just too many things to mention...basically, we live in a cave.

I am very grateful to be living here, but we aren't looking to stay very long.  Once again, we are looking at New Hampshire.  Last time, we decided to stay in Mass. to be around Jon's family and work on Jon's business as a stone mason.  Now we are just looking to save up some money.  I miss New Hampshire!  So the dream apartment that I mentioned in September is hopefully going to work!  We'll see how that goes...

Last month, I worked for a day at a local farm, but that didn't work out.  So now I translate when I can get the work and spend the rest of my time baking interesting things and knitting.  I'm back to being a housewife!  Jon has been getting enough work and I've been translating enough to keep us going, but credit card bills are dragging us down and eating the savings.  Hopefully this spring will bring Jon a ton of work in NH and I will be able to find a part-time that will enable me to make dinner on time and keep weekends free for Jon.  I'm going a bit nuts being stuck in the cave all day.  One of my friends is working on not buying any packaged foods, so I've been looking up her recipes and experimenting with baking things instead of buying them.  Today, I made rye crackers.

Not too bad.  I don't think I'll be buying crackers again!

In other news, my rabbit Ruby had a litter of kits!  Three survived of seven, and they are absolutely adorable!

They are getting bigger every day.  The one with the pink ears has lighter brown fur now.  Ruby won't feed them on her own, so I need to hold them up to her twice a day to nurse.  But I love them.

Busy Summer

I haven't posted in quite a long time...So here's what's been happening:
-I quit my morning job.  My body just does not want to get up at 6 AND keep going until evening anyways.  I was also not really qualified to provide care for a special needs child.  I can change diapers, but only when I'm stronger than the child!
-I've been translating quite a bit.  This was also another reason to quit the other job.  I really need to keep up with vocabulary.  I'm hoping that I continue to receive a lot of work!
-The baby I nanny is now crawling at top speed and can pull up on things.  He also has object permanence and eats a TON.  He's only 6 months...The toddler's favorite word is 'no', and his favorite activity is to lie on the floor, talk to himself, and push a car back and forth.
-I'm getting extremely tired of living with my parents-in-law.  Rent may be low, but if I put something down, it gets moved by 1 of 3 people, we fight over tv's, the fridge is packed with leftovers no one eats/expired food, I 'get in trouble', I had to pack away almost all of my bridal shower and wedding presents 'cause there's no room for them...you get the idea.  We've only been there since the end of March!

Here are some more wedding pictures, with DIY ideas and projects:

We had the reception in a historic building, using their tables and chairs, with added padding.  

The tables had lilacs in mason jars, plastic silverware that was actually silver, plastic champagne flutes for sparkling apple cider, borrowed table clothes and runners...The place settings also had wedding mad libs, a sheet with information about the historic church we had the ceremony in, and a wildflower seed packet with our picture, names, and the date.

It was catered by the Celery Stick Cafe.  Great food, great prices.  And they are a co-op!

The church was old, and also very cheap to rent.

We rode in a family friend/distant cousin's antique truck.

With the help of several friends, I made this cake.  There are violets from my backyard on it.  There were also 9 small sheet cakes that we handed out to the tables for the guests.  It was delicious!  The cake mixes were only a dollar each at Walmart, and I made the frosting with some friends.  The piping came from tubes with decorative tips already on them.

Small guest book, basket for the wedding mad libs, and box for cards.  The ring bearer's pillow that my mom made from leftover wedding dress fabric is on top of the box.

Pictures were done for free by an old roommate's father and my cousin.  This one is taken in front of my favorite mountains!  Bridesmaids' dresses were bought on clearance from David's Bridal.

I made my dress, got the veil from Veilubridal.com, got the slip and underthings online, and my shoes were from Payless.  The flowers were extremely simple and cost a total of $330.

(I'm not that heavy!!!)

With a tiny bit of altering to make it fit properly (still ended up needing double sided tape and safety pins...), I used this pattern to make the dress.  It was easier than the prom dresses that I had made with boning and multiple layers.  I was able to have the wedding dress of my dreams, for a price that I could afford!  With all of the fabric and notions, this dress cost me a little over $100.

Yes, I finally did finish the shawl...a week after.  Thankfully, it was far to warm to even think about a shawl for the wedding day.  Its still beautiful and an heirloom to keep!

That's all for now.  I'll write again soon about my garden's progress!