Ma and Pa Kettle

Sometimes I feel like we’re the real life versions of Ma & Pa Kettle. Remember the one show when one of the sons wrote an essay “What Our Farm is Like” and kind of stretched the facts a little? The whole family moved back to the farm and jerry-rigged the farm to match the essay, putting up false fronts and borrowing other farmers’ livestock and equipment. Well, at least we have our own quality livestock but sometimes I feel like I’m putting up false fronts, choosing which pictures to put up here on the blog. I mean I’ve never posted a picture of the junk collecting under the hay shed yet and probably won’t!

But tonight after John and I finished tackling the mowing and  weed eating I took some pictures I’m proud to share. No false fronts here! And no, there’s not one of the hay shed junk either. Use your imagination and then multiply by 50 and you’re close.

Green beans are growing protected from the guinea in the hoop house. We got so much rain for so long that pill bugs were eating the sprouts as fast as I could replant them so the rows are sparsely filled but there’s more rows of beans on the other side of the black landscape fabric.

The onions John planted in the spring bulbed out nicely and are drying in the carport on an old sheet. The potatoes are small, as we like them, so I’m digging them as we need them for meals. We eat so few potatoes that it’s not worth while to let them get too big - they just rot or sprout on us before we use them.

The canteloup, zucchini, asparagus beans and tomatoes are growing well for this time of year, considering how late it was when everything was put out - thanks to the monsoon rains this year.

The old manger box was filled with compost and potatoes planted in it as an experiment that did not work well at all. The compost dried out too fast and killed off the potato plants. The other potatoes are in the east garden, planted the old fashioned way. Cantaloupe is on the right, squash in the middle and the ferning asparagus patch on the left. (are you starting to see Ma & Pa Kettle in these pictures now?)

Another messy area - I’m growing cucumbers and asparagus beans up a cattle panel attached to the kids’ play fort. I had to protect the seedlings with chicken wire so I can’t weed the bed and grass is enjoying the nightly waterings as much as the plants we’re purposely growing.

I’m really enjoying the new sitting area. You can see the hosta behind the swing and the Swiss Chard growing in the shade house to the front and right of the swing. There’s a new raised bed in front of the shade house that’s still in progress.

The raised bed design came from Bobbi (Earthly Gardener on the blog roll). It’s cedar fence pickets with stakes only in the front. The dirt holds the pickets in place on the inside. I’m going to protect the house foundation with cedar pickets, too. I’ll plant this bed in the fall.

We spent the last two days mowing and trimming the yard so you’ve got to see pictures of it, too. Might be the only time this summer it looks this good!

You can tell by all these pictures I don’t have too much growing in the gardens right now, huh? BUT I’m doing good as a goat herder. As an update on the goats - 4 does in milk equals a lot of milk daily. I’ve made mozzarella and ricotta  three times this week and plan on making some pudding this weekend. John used a batch of the mozzarella to make home made pizza tonight …….. ymmmm, I can smell it baking as I type. The chickens are laying so well still that I’m cooking eggs for the dogs to eat for supper once or twice a week.

I’ve also made some progress on hand quilting the Compass Quilt - the feathering is sooooo slow! You can see by the quilting frame picture I’m at the bottom of the middle of the quilt. (note to Gina - I love the purse for holding my quilting supplies!! keeps everything handy)

That’s about it here at Beulah Land. Nothing exciting, just good life!

(I never should have ended this post with that line. Went out to help John with the new goat area, lifted a log and found snake #6. He was full of eggs and I hope he was the LAST. Enough excitement for now.)

This entry was posted on June 13, 2009 at 10:39 am and is filed under Homestead living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.