Pumpkins and Compost

This week seemed to fly by at The Acre. Thor's Day of red meat offerings got here before we knew it. We guessed it's the difference between being able to get out and work on projects and being stuck in the house watching it rain?
Speaking of projects, we were project heavy this week. We started off trying to beat a cool front passing through. We wanted to get the pumpkin patch up and running so we could get some rain on the plants we started. Pop came over on Monday and we got it done. We planted the two dozen pumpkins that we started inside, and another two dozen watermelon and cantaloupe plants. If we don't have pumpkins, watermelons or cantaloupe, it won't be from lack of patch.

So of course as soon as we got the ground squared away and the pumpkins in the ground, the feathered wrecking crew paid a visit.

We have been putting scratch grain out around the old deer stand because it's cool, shaded, has a constant source of water and it's in the opposite direction from neighbors houses. We figure if they have a better forage area they will stay there and away from our planted things. Training chickens is harder than you might think.

They are staying down in the woods, but we guess bird curiosity will keep them coming to our garden and pumpkin patch.
On a bird related thread, we finally got around to building our compost box this week. We had several ideas on where to place the box, all of them involved moving the poop from the coop deville to the box, then dumping the poop. Inspiration hit us Saturday morning, why not just build the box under the coop? So we did. It took us about ten minutes to sweep the poop straight out of the double doors and into the compost box. We plan to leave the box uncovered so the girls can get in and scratch around, which will save us the trouble of turning the compost as often.

The guinea birds were none too pleased that we were in the coop, much less that we were moving out the old straw. One girl has a nest on the floor, and the bird that is nesting in the nest box came down to help protect the nest. Big Man was sure he was gonna get an ass whoopin, but Fraidy Mutt came to the rescue. She stood between BM and the birds and didn't back down. She may be a bad ass bird dog after all?

The girls have been working overtime in the nest box, and egg sales have dropped off a bit so we had a stockpile of eggs. Lucky for us our pal "Rhulenbarb" has an egg network. He takes them off our hands and makes sure they find good homes. It's a win/win for both of us. This week when we dropped off the extras to Dave and Brother Danny at The Corner, we got to pop in and visit his mother and father. It's been over thirty years since BM has seen them. They haven't changed a bit. It was great catching up with the whole Hall crew.
It wouldn't be an update without at least one food picture.
We start off with Thor's Day red meat offerings. We returned the cast iron griddle to service, so we can sear all three steaks at one time.

We also got our first picking of fresh collards from the garden this week. That's always a welcome treat.

And because we were outside working most of the week, we needed a quick lunch. Big Man whipped up a chicken salad that we ate on most of the week. We used fresh dill from the herb garden, and fresh onions/scallions from the deck box. We also used "them yellow pickles" that we have a stockpile of.

And it looks like we're going to get a great harvest of apples this year. It's going to be one heck of a jelly making season.

Gearing up for Memorial Day, Cupcake made a from scratch pasta salad. None of that boxed stuff that crazy granny uses and calls "homemade" for us.

And last this week, Jacob finally got his second deer head from the taxidermist. He proudly displays this one in his bedroom.

We ended the week with wings.
K&K

Suckers and Pudding

This week was pretty much a complete washout around The Acre. We had rain every day, some days just enough to make it too wet to mow, other days it just rained all day and took away all hope of mowing. Being stuck inside is hard on active retirees and their spouses, but we rucked up and managed.
We did find a few things to take pictures of. We start off with the suckers part of the our title. Cupcake read online that when one pulls the suckers off of their tomato plants, they should not discard them, but replant them. The article says the suckers will take root and will match the size of the host plant in one months time. This sort of information appeals to us, so we gave it a whirl with our tommy toe tomato plant on the porch.

Being inside we did a bit of cooking. One thing new this week was butterscotch pudding. Cupcake found a recipe for it on the faceplace and Big Man had free time plus ingredients, so....

And we had a discussion about from scratch biscuits this week. The other party's idea of biscuits were frozen. For shame

We did a boil, Pop's favorite

And we have a neighbor lady nearby who's getting on in years. Big Man worked in the hay fields throwing hay bales as a young lad for her father. She's taken over the farm but lives in Roanoke. Big Man looks after the place, keeping the yard mowed and trimmed up like folks live there and whatnot. Since she's of the generation that seems to appreciate buttermilk pie, we fixed her one when she came up this week.

Always home made pie crust

We got our first strawberry of the season this week. First of many we hope.

And lastly, we have crazy critters on The Acre. Most of you know this already but this week they went out of their way to remind us. We have two guinea birds gone broody, so we put a bunch of blue eggs under them along with a dozen or so of their own eggs. Then our little blue hen went broody (Boomer) so we gave her a few more blue eggs.
One day we were out on the deck, minding our own business when we heard a commotion near the coop deville. There must have been a predator in the area, because our guinea birds went in to full blown combat air patrol. We stood by for a while but never saw what all the drama was about.

"Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full"

Our regular followers know we always sign off with wings. This weekend "The Dutchess" wanted to have a cookout Sunday afternoon to celebrate the graduation of the feller she is dating. We bought copious amounts of hamburger and all the trimmings, but plans changed and they went sparking on their own, so we had burgers Sunday night. Plus we had s'mores on the grill for dessert. Cupcake put graham crackers on tin foil, along with a marshmallow and a piece of chocolate. We will be making these again soon.

K&K  

Team Arrow

Last year we added to our little feather group, and we had one bird who was yellow out of five who were black. The Flash was on TV and had Eobard Thawn (Reverse Flash, yellow suit) so they were dubbed "Team Flash".
This year we added to our little flock once again, so we decided to go "Team Arrow." Cupcake decided on the name. Big Man pointed out that one of the birds was going to have a white head, and Cupcake asked "which one?"   "Um, the one with the white head." So it was decided the chicken was a blond, and Cupcake named her "Felicity".
Left to right we have "Felicity" "Diggle" "Thea" and "Ollie".

Team Arrow

We planned on plowing out our pumpkin patch this week. Big Man helped Pops remove his blade and put on the plow, then came over to the patch to plow. They had to stop and adjust the plow depth, and when they started the tractor back up, the fuel pump blew a gasket. So we had to put off the pumpkin patch one more week while repairs were made.

That's gonna be a lot of pumpkin pie

The unmowed area is the future pumpkin patch. If we don't have pumpkins this year, it won't be from lack of patch.
Cupcake added ferns to the front porch, which signals spring each and every year. We were a little late on doing it this year, but the weather has been kind of screwy. Of course as soon as we hung them out, we had a cold front move through.

Ferns and Police Week flag

While we were out shopping for ferns, we found Home Depot has persimmon trees. Not only did they have the trees, but the trees already had small green fruits on them. We picked up two and added them to the front yard. We plan on using these to shade the windows in the garage in the summer time to keep the garage cool.

"Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin"

And Saturday we got out and fenced up the peas that we planted a couple of weeks ago, and set out of cucumber plants that we started in the grow center. We have a dozen green cucumbers for dill pickles, and six yellow lemon cucumbers for "Them yellow pickles" everybody seems to love.

Them yellow cucumbers

Peas

And for those tuning in to see why we had a Chevrolet in the driveway last update, this is why. Cupcake had training in Richmond for a promotion she's in line for, and we had that letter from the Virginia Lottery, so we rented a vehicle to make the schlep to Richmond and kill two birds with one stone. Big Man has always said he would rather have his wife turning tricks on Patapsco Ave than have a bowtie in the driveway, but Cupcake wanted to drive a Tahoe on the trip. The local car rental place had a few to select and she picked out her color. We made the trip with the help of the on board GPS, and it was uneventful as could be. The truck had all the bells and whistles which made it comfortable and fun.
We are in the market for a new car, so we considered this a test drive for the Tahoe, and Big Man relented. If we can't find anything better, we will have a bowtie in the driveway.
We ended the week with wings.
K&K

Dutchess and Dignitaries

This week "The Dutchess" wanted to try her hand at baking, and we had distinguished guests out to The Acre. It was a fairly eventful week.
We start off with the dignitary visit. "The Beamer" and "Rhulenbarb" made a trip across the mountain to see us, so Big Man smoked a brisket for the occasion. We also had two seasonal treats. First, we made a rhubarb pie for dessert. Second, we found a small batch of morel mushrooms the day before their visit. Regular followers may remember we are nuts for morel mushrooms.

Gold. Solid gold

We sliced them in to quarters and soaked them in salt water overnight.

Then we fried them up in a buttermilk/seasoned flour breading.

We probably should have taken a picture before we served it

And then we moved on to the main course.

The other big event in the kitchen this week, Kattie Grace found a recipe for a pizza pretzel and wanted to give it a try. She did very well.

We do not believe she was as excited about clean up as she was about dirty up

And it rained a few days this past week. When Big Man is stuck in the house he always finds something to do. This week: Pizza sauce.

We used five quarts of the tomatoes we put up last fall, and threw in a few secret ingredients here and there. Slow cooked it in our cast iron pot and then canned it in a water bath. This is how from scratch pizza is done right.

Another rain day project was laundry detergent. Somebody keeps using a shovel full of detergent when a tablespoon is all that's needed for a load. But as was pointed out to Big Man, it only costs a dollar or so per gallon to make, so get good with it.

Later in the week, we took a stroll around The Acre and took note of a few things we are proud of, first being our peach trees withstood the freeze and are bearing peaches.

The rhubarb is coming along better than we expected

This is one of our apple trees that we started from a seed. This is three years growth

And our ground cherries survived the hard freeze as well.

The grapes are beginning to run

While we were out, we took a days serving of scratch grains and tossed it out along our creek. Since we moved the Coop Deville to the corner of the woods, the birds have been spending most of their day to day in the woods. Big Man has been trying to get them to forage further down into the woods where the creek is. This would give the birds more cover from hawks, and a constant source of water. Because carrying water to the coop wasn't factored in when we set it so far from the house.

The birds have found the scratch, but they are not making it their routine just yet. It's a good thing Big Man has a lot of free time to train chickens. This will keep him busy this summer.
And speaking of keeping busy, next week is a big week. Leading off to next weeks update, we leave you with something Big Man never thought he would see. A Chevrolet in his driveway.

Friends don't let friends buy Chevrolets

You'll have to tune in next week to find out why this is.
We ended this week with wings.
K&K