Happy Thanksgiving!

Circumstances changed things up a bit this year, so for the first time we hosted Thanksgiving at our house.

• My day before prep included making jello shots and shot glasses out of jolly ranchers.
FYI – I made Jack & coke jello shots for the first time. They were good! Instead of boiling water, I boiled coke. Instead of adding the cold water, I added Jack Daniels.

• Farmer John picked out a beautiful fall bouquet for the table.

• I ordered cloth napkins from Amazon. Each napkin is a different color. Love that! I added a sprig of rosemary to each place setting.

• Because our holiday included friends, as well as family, I printed fun photo props. I printed my own Friendsgiving set. I also ordered 2 sets themed from the sitcom Friends.

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• We’ve had a crazy busy schedule the last couple weeks. Part of it is getting adjusted to school days, on top of activities for the kids. But also, Farm Kid1 had pneumonia. Then right as he was recovering from that, he dislocated his knee. Now he hobbles around and has 6ish weeks of physical therapy. Farm Girl got sick right around this same time. She had a high fever off and on for a week. She spent a lot of time cuddling with our dog.

In other news:
• Farmer John is working on phase one of a lean-to against the shop. He flattened the area and had a load of gravel poured.
• I’ve been waiting all summer for the morning glories to bloom in one of the herb barrels. Finally, they are making an appearance.
• In the taco garden, a couple cayenne peppers are ready to pick.
• It’s difficult to see, but there is a bird on the Roots & Shoots sign. The Golden-crowned Sparrows have returned.
• Early in the summer, Farm Kid2 & I planted wildflower seed in his garden. Finally they are blooming.

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• The pumpkins and squash are growing… slowly. The plants look good, they just aren’t producing much. And for some odd reason, a couple of the seeds just germinated a couple weeks ago.
• Occasionally, particularly in the summer, I like to take photos of the night sky. I didn’t get any wowing pics this time around, but it’s still fun to try.
• Tomatoes growing in a barrel. Love!
• It seems we are having more than usual squirrel and chipmunk type critters visiting us.
• We live on an unmaintained logging road. The only upkeep on the road is after a logging task or when we or the neighbors fix it. New neighbors moved in not too long ago. They fixed the road! Woop, woop! I love them already. As a small token of our thanks we brought them hard cider and apples from our trees.
• The company sent us, at no charge, a new batch of hatching eggs. There was not any better outcome than last time. This time one cream legbar hatched. Also, one of our own olive eggers hatched. Crummy, crummy, crummy. This really messed up my breeding plan. Time to come up with a new plan… without using hatching eggs shipped across the country.

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Years ago we acquired a 3 barrel garden fountain. I liked it, but we didn’t have a place for it. We finally have a patio and a nice place for a fountain. However, I wanted to try herb gardens on the patio and these unused barrels seemed perfect.

Two of the barrels just wasting space in the yard.

GETTING THE BARRELS READY FOR HERBS

The main purpose of the barrels was to grow herbs. But, I envisioned our new patio with lights, so the barrel install included posts for hanging lights.
Top Left: Metal posted cemented into an old plant container. The container is placed in the barrel.
Top Right: Gravel spread at the bottom of barrel for drainage.
Bottom Left: Barrel filled with dirt & compost.
Bottom Right: Tomato cage placed over the post and into the dirt to support climbing or vining plants.

THE HERBS

I started many of the herbs from seed. I also bought a few from a local nursery.

HERB BARREL

The herb barrel and surrounding pots include:
Basil – Siam Queen
Lemon Balm – Melissa officialnis
Marjoram – Golden
Oregano – Sicilian
Parsley – Italian Flat Leaf
Rosemary – Simplyherbs & Tuscan Blue
Sage – Salvia officinalis & Dwarf Green
Tarragon – French
Thyme – Dot Wells French

extras:
Morning Glory – just for a tall, pretty element
Cucumber – that I didn’t plant (on purpose anyway)

the label:
black paint on brick

My original plan was to create three herb barrels. Somewhere along the way I altered the plan. One barrel is primarily herbs. One of the others is a pizza themed barrel. And the third barrel has a taco theme.

PIZZA GARDEN

Basil – Dolce Fresca, Sweet (Ocimum basilicum),
Chives
Oregano – Sicilian
Tomato – Costoluto Genovese, Aunt Ruby’s, & Black Plum
Thyme – Dot Wells French

the label:
sharpie on broken terra cotta pot
Next to the label I added a love rock. I put the rock here mainly because it makes me happy. Plus, I love pizza. And Italy.

TACO GARDEN

Coriander – Santo (Coriandrum sativum)
Peppers – Ancho Tiburon, Jalepeno Conchos, Cayenne Ring of Fire, & Anaheim
Tarragon – MexicanTomato  – Black Plum

the label:
black paint on a rock
There is also a rock with a tomato label painted by a child in Farm Kid2’s class.

PATIO LIGHTS

Each of the barrels has a cemented post with lights hanging from it. I wanted lights that could withstand our windy, rainy weather. I ended up getting the ones from Costco. They’re quite heavy duty and weigh more than I imagined. This put more strain on the posts than I was anticipating.

Two of the posts handle the pull from the lights well enough to be left alone. But, one of the posts leaned more than we were comfortable with. The temporary solution for this summer was running a guy wire from the top of the post to a chunk of wood. It’s not fancy, but it’s working.

The lights. The herb/pizza/taco barrels. They all turned out awesome. I love it!

This set up really has worked perfectly. I’m using fresh herbs more than in previous years since they are right out the kitchen door. Also, for some unknown reason the deer are leaving the plants alone. Score!

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• Still love okra flowers!
• Okra, cherry tomatoes & Mexican sour gherkins are growing in the aquaponics system.
• The water in one of our ponds completely evaporated. So, I took advantage of it and troweled out much of the duck sludge. This was literally a crappy job. But, I’m so glad I did it.
• Basil growing next to an herb barrel.
• The ladies are continuing to lay well, so I’ve been making lots of hard boiled eggs.
• Awhile back I ordered hatching eggs. Things didn’t go as I had planned and only one black copper marans hatched. Not that it’s a few weeks old, I noticed it has a few white feathers. Ugh! This was a damned expensive chicken for it not even to be breeding stock.
• Zucchini has been blanched and frozen.
• The tomatoes have been transformed into sauce. One batch has Italian flavor. The other has Mexican.

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• Still picking typical green zucchini and less typical golden zucchini. They’re lookin’ pretty good.
• Pepper in the taco garden.
• Herb Barrel going strong.
• Using up the many eggs we are getting: Breakfast Burrito’s, Egg Muffins, Egg Wraps
• Wee little black copper marans
• Gettin’ the stink eye
• Apples on our tree! Still so excited to see this!

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