Busy Summer

Corn maturing, vegetables withering, never ending canning & freezing, not to mention taking care of the house hold and one half crazy, dementia patient MIL. The last few times my family went to Six Flags I didn't bother going. Why you asked? Well, there are many things to consider before I can get of the house.

The night before I need to cook and gather MIL things for the care giver to have the next day. And when the day finally get here, I have to spent a minimum of 15 minutes or more to explain everything. And when my family and I get back, I still need to check my MIL, gather everything on her side of the house and bring them to my side to prevent braking, misplaced, or hidden in places where they are not suppose to be.

So, I decided not to bother going somewhere, doing all the work I do all day in a short time. Have fun I tell them.

Now let's get back to my vegetable garden. I have so much cucumber and tomatoes this year. I made sweet relish, who kinds of bread & butter pickles, tomato soups, salsa dip, & tomato/spaghetti sauce. Right now I have another batch of spaghetti sauce slow cooking on my stove while I am writing this. Hopefully my family will like the homemade version.

I still have potatoes, corns, peanuts, butternut squash, and sweet potato waiting to get harvested. I'm waiting maybe early November I dig the underground ones. I also incorporate some flowers with my gardening this year. I told DH that I can scattered all the seeds I collected and cover our grassy yard with it, hoping the grass will not grow. He just laughed at me, knowing the grass will take over if its not mowed in a week. Well, I can dream, can I?

DH and I also planted forsythia above where my gardens & grassy yard for hedges. I hate not having my children not allowed to go out of the house during school hours in fear of prying eyes and calling what most called authorities because they are not in school. Not knowing they are home school, the damage is done at that point. I want our yard hidden from the road. The hedges are doing pretty well and already have some new leaves. Some are already as tall as my knees. I can't wait until they are as tall as me. My children and I can be outside more then.

I already took the dry vine remain from my  snap peas & cucumbers. There are about eight cucumbers left when the vines died and I thought I leave it there until they get bigger. Lo and behold they did not get bigger but ripen. Lesson learned, I should have picked them and make juice instead of having ripe cucumbers. They are good for seeds though, but I already saved the biggest cucumber for seeds for better quality cucumbers for next year or the next. With all the canning and freezing this year, I don't think I will need cucumbers next year. The same goes for tomatoes.

And note to self, when planning on canning something, make sure to plant everything I need for canning. I don't like to buy other ingredients when canning my home grown vegetables, unless its sugar, salt, vinegar or something I can't grow or process.

Two Spots

May 9, 2015
Yap, I am going to have 2 gardens this year. One for big plants and one for small plants like herbs and strawberries. I'm not sure if I can plant strawberry this year but I am looking forward to it next year.

Above was already mix. We are planning on putting an above pool there last year, but out neighbor being neighborly told us that we will get fined by the township if we do not get a permit to put it up. We don't want to get a permit and until now no pool for the children and I am taking the spot for some vegetables.

This one is not quite done because our tiller is being temper-mental again when DH started mixing it. This is where my chives and onions can be found. I will be adding strawberries and other herbs here. That's all for today.

New Fruit Trees

May 6, 2015

Yes, I can't believe it either that we left those trees in our old property to be chopped down by the buyers. Oh, well. We got the bad deal on that sale. We got force out because we did not made any deals, well we thought they were nice. Yea, that was the last time. We learned our lesson, and the next time (if ever) we sell another house, we know better.

This time we only bought, 3 apples, 3 peaches, 6 blueberries, and 2 grapes on Friday May 2, 2015. I like plums but the Japanese beetles did not live it alone. And I am not very fond of pears, so no pears either. The blueberries, peaches, and apple already have flowers. I'm hoping to get a taste, even one on each this year.

I will add the picture as soon as we put all of them on the ground. Oh, yeah, I started my garden this week. I will be buying little plants just like last year. The warm weather sneaked up too fast, I sowed some seeds on Saturday, but only Okra sprouted so far. And today we barely made it to 60 deg F and very cloudy. I'll find out soon enough if any other will sprout.

Winter is Not an Issue

Anymore, Yeah! DH bought a used 4x4 F350 diesel truck with a plow for our driveway. Yes, his been wanting one since we move here at Chestnut Ridge Farms a year ago. Having our first winter with a lawn mower plow was pretty hard for him. At one point we were almost snowed in, but luckily the snow forecast change to nothing that time.

He got it all inspected at our local garage and it looks like he made a good deal buying it. There are some things needs fixing, but they are minor to him. He's pretty happy with the purchase. Plus my whole family can fit in it. I can't wait to take to Long Island Beach Park in NJ this summer. We can finally drive straight to the beach. No more walking carrying all the things we need. O yea, we like to beach when there is not much people around us, so we goes to the farthest part of the beach.

June 26 @ Chestnut Ridge Farms

My very selective garden vegetables are growing.

Bell pepper

Cucumber for my sweet relish.

Lemon grass, remember I bought this from my local grocery store and rooted inside a jar. There are two there.

My Garden This Year

Below is the close-up of my garden. I have a very tiny one this year. Hopefully it will get bigger next year. Same old plastic cover, I'm trying to kill the grass and I will put the potatoes there when fall comes, I hope.

This is what it looks like in real life. I did not till the ground and I only planted a few things I needed to make salsa & sweet relish. The ground is very rocky. It will take me awhile to remove all the rocks on it.

A Very Nice Day

A real feel of 17.22° C or 63° F (for me). DH and I did a lot today. I picked the sticks/branches around the yard and put them in the pile. I lit them up but since this is the very first nice day, (they are still wet) they burn very slow.

DH fixed his zero turn lawn mower and was able to cut the acre lot in-front of our house. When he moved to the acre yard where I wanted to put my vegetable garden, (he cut about more than 1/4) the mower broke again.

Now he's outside using the other lawn mower to pull the other back closer to the house. Poor DH, more work for him.

Oh yea, the ground is still frozen.

Around Chestnut Ridge Farm

We finally had a break with winter weather this week. I can see the ground in our driveway. And the snow pile taller than me, is now shorter than I. However, we hadn't shovel our propane delivery truck driver path to our propane tank. Hopefully we can do it today, but not too worry. That means we got less bill to pay if he doesn't deliver anything. We have a wood/coal furnace in the basement to keep us warm enough. Not comfortable but warmer than the outside temperature.

While driving around Friday, I got excited seeing a few local farmers market starting to look lively. I can't wait to start my new vegetable garden also. I might have some company in the garden this year, DH friends wanting to plant a spot in our clearing, which we don't mind. More vegetable choices if we plan on whom will plant what.

And for starters, here is my lemon grass waiting for me to plant in our rich soil. Yes, I finally got them to roots in water. Patience was the key. I almost let it die, because I stop putting water in the jar. However, when I notice a root emerging, I caught it pretty fast and added water. I got very lucky.

By the way, the lemon grass was dark brown color at the bottom already when I put it in water. I think it took about a month to show the roots. I can't wait to use them in my chicken stew.

Yes, I'm Still Alive :D

I am now live from CHESTNUT RIDGE FARMS. We moved here on October 27, 2013. Today is the very first day I am able to rest and blog about our new place. We call this the in-law suite. Most of the furnitures are our extra or we don't use anymore.

PIL new bedroom set-up...

We knocked-down a wall between two 8x15 bedrooms, now it is 16x15. SIL & her DH painted it yellow with white ceiling and green trim, with blue curtains.

FIL new office (8x15) separate from their bedroom. I was going to paint it light peach but BIL said it will blend in with the white moldings and ceilings. However, I was planning on changing the molding color to light yellow or orange. Oh well, he got it done, and that's all matter.

This their living room. I painted and picked the colors to have a very happy color. It used to be light green & brown. I am happy with the outcome. Very cheerful colors. My SIL (DHs' sis) picked the curtain color. DH made a comment, "my wife picked the very cheerful color and you got that color curtain!" with a smile. True though, she should have picked something with flowers or something. But she helped and that is what we are looking for, "help." We need to look for free coffee & end tables @ craigslist and buy a few cheery paintings to complete the setting.

I'm not going to show the dining/kitchen area yet, because we are still using it. Our big kitchen is not finish yet and our groceries are still inside many shopping bags on the floor. However, I will post a pic of the beginning work in the big kitchen.