The snow has arrived

Its official- the snow has arrived.  Last night was the first snow storm.  We have about 3 inches now.  We did not get a chance to rake up the leaves.  Hopefully it will melt and we will be able to get that done as there was alot of them!

Today I made a batch of this jelly.http://growitcookitcanit.com/2011/03/17/stout-beer-jelly/  Joe makes homebrew, so when I saw the concept of making a beer jelly, I looked it up and found this recipe.  It definitely has a stout flavor.  It can be use on grill cheese sandwiches or used as a glaze for ribs.

Then I tried this recipe for Caramel Apple Jam using this recipe http://hitchhikingtoheaven.com/2011/10/caramel-apple-jam.html  Can't say that I was thrilled with it.  But the boys like it and I think it would be good warmed up on ice cream.

The gardens are put to rest for the winter and ready for spring.  We did not get the other bed made before the snow came.  So it has become a spring chore to do.

Garden Update

The garden finally got itself started as it slowly warmed up.  It has issues though.  Since we are using railroad ties, we are going to have take each one apart and line them due to the creosote treatment in the ties.  The good news- we had a great strawberry crop this year!  We had enough to freeze 2 batches of Strawberry jam!  The strawberries liked the cold weather! The basil did not grow after 2 plantings and the tomatoes are okay, nothing stellar. Thess photos were taken 2 weeks ago, now the sunflower and dahlias on the edge of the planters are in full bloom.  I planted pickling cucumbers, only one planted grew and I have gotten 2 cukes from it.  So to sum it all up, we have a lot of work to do with revamping the planters, and adding 2 more where the pumpkin patch area. We defiantly hope next year will bring better soil and better weather.

Spring prep and planting

Yesterday was Mother's Day.  Went to church and had a good breakfast, just the 3 of us.   Joe, Jake & I went and gathered poop to amend the box gardens along with lime.  Last year- 2010- we made 6 8x4 railroad ties garden boxes.  We filled them with dirt that we took away from the previous owner's weird ass landscaping around the house.  So the dirt was probably "dead" dirt as our garden were terrile last year.  Hopefully warmer spring weather and this will help produce some plentiful gardens.  Never in a million years, I would of thought that I would be out in the pasture on a little garden tractor with Joe following behind and me yelling "Poop" for Joe to scoop up. We actually did have fun, laughed alot.  The kids came over later on and it was a very nice Mother's Day all around.

Today -
Just planted basil, spinach,  peas, radish and romain lettuce.  I also planted some dahilias on the edge of the boxes to give a border of flowers on each side of the boxes.  We will see how they will turn out.  It is 62 degrees out right now