George,
you are right,
I should talk more about vegetables on the forum, or talk at all. If I would be just not so busy all the time. I think I have too many hobbies and interests and those Teenage boys, boy they keep you more engaged and busy then when they were Babies. >lol<
I recently got a new sewing machine, which can do embroidery so I am looking forward in playing with that, once I can ply it out of my husbands hands, which surprised me with all of a sudden taking an interest in making very colorful clothes for himself, with my new machine, so I actually have not been using the machine much at all. I make my own lotions and soaps. Right now I am working on making a drop cloth rug for under the Dinner table. Then I started baking my own bread. I am getting really tired of eating the same old, same old bread we can get in the bakeries in the US. Even we have some good, decent bakeries, they just limit themselves to so few breads, most of them are just white breads, that after a few months it seems you are always eating the same bread all the time. I am German, I need some Crusty Grainy Breads, something to chew and with flavor and I need variety. So now I got my new kitchen, which by the way is wonderful, I finally got a great stove, I bought some Terra Cotta tiles and it's like a baking stone in the oven (but cheaper) so I get some wonderful bread.
I made tons of jam with my home grown fruit this year also and our new neighbor who is a single guy, not much into gardening but the previous owner was a nice old lady with a big vegetable and fruit garden, planted all these trees. So this year I asked him if I could get the Grapes, Pears and Plums from his garden. I made a lot of grape juice and even started canning, which I never did much before. So now I have my pantry full of canned plums and Pears, I made grape juice, Blackberry juice, Strawberry jam, Plum jam, Blackberry Jam, Raspberriy jam, Mixed fruit jams some Plum chutney. I made German style pickles and I filled my freezer with Green Beans and other treasures of my garden. You see I'm always busy doing or making something.
There is not enough time in the year for doing everything I would like to do. I need longer days I think >lol<
Then I still got my blog, which I have neglected a bit because I first was researching so much which sewing machine to get and then I got a virus, so I really have not been on much. I am trying to learn to do a real website, I have a hard time with that, so I am planning to make my son, who is really good with that, to give me lessons.
But you also need to be able to relax, go out and have fun. There is a lot of fun to be had in Eugene during the summer. They have the most amazing festivals out here. It's only good they have a rainy winter, or I would hardly get anything done
It's great that you are also growing vegetables now. Aren't they so much better then what you get in most stores. Although I have to say, if it comes to food/vegetables we live in a great place in Oregon. There is so much variety grown here and there are so many organic, sustainable farmers here, you can get almost anything. We have been buying organic, natural raised baby goat meat from the farmers market, you can get Ducks, geese, Rabbit. Even Pork, Buffalo, Beef, Lamb. And so much variety of vegetables. Even If I would not garden I still could eat like a king out here. But growing your own is so rewarding, even if you don't have perfect harvests. This year has not been that great of a growing year. Some things did not grow that well, or were eaten by bugs and snails. Snails and Slugs we had so many this year, I never seen that many snails in my life. I think it was because we mulched the pathways in the garden with leave mulch. So this year, no leaves in the paths, instead I will put down newspaper. The summer was a bit cooler this year so many of the warm season veggies did not produce as much, or too late to produce much. But I had a bumber crop of Beans and many Berries, which loved the not so hot weather. My salad crops I harvested for a long time, which shows how cool the summer was. I did not get one Zucchini, usually one has more Zucchini then you know what to do with.
The chickens have been a lot of fun, I really get a kick out of their interactions with us. I never thought chickens would be that friendly with people. They even jump on our lap when we have coffee outside. The eggs are a great bonus, but even if they did not lay as many eggs I think they have such a calming effect, it really brings you back to earth watching them. We often just sit outside having cake and coffee watching the chickens, like watching Chicken TV.
My "des res" as you call it (I don't think I ever heard that phrase in US) is not as perfect as you think. I have a hillside yard, which is steep, we had to retain the bottom part of it to make it level so we could grow vegetables. But it is hard to have to go up and down the hill all the time. Every time you are down, you remember something you need from the shed, which is uphill. It's really difficult to get wheelbarrows or anything up the hill. Then I have a huge Oak tree, covers almost all that yard, unfortunately it is situated in the middle of the yard and so I have problems with it shading big areas of the vegetable garden. I also think it is sucking all the nutrients away from my vegetable garden. No matter how much compost, manure and nutrients I provide my vegetables are growing not as quick as they should and seem to be starved. It is actually amazing I get anything out of there. But some things just don't grow that great, I try every year again, but I have not harvested one Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower out of this garden yet. So my dream garden for the next house is going to be flat and with no 300 year old tree in it
I had much more vegetables in my old California Garden on less land. I still dream about that harvest. Those nice eggplants, Peppers and tomatoes I harvested there.
I still enjoy growing my vegetables, even with all the limitations my garden gives me. I still get to eat a lot of food from there. It definitely is not a perfect garden. I do not enjoy the climbing so much. That rock wall of mine, which the previous owner built. Is badly built too. It looks nice, when you downhill and look at all the flowers, but trying to take care of the plantings is very challenging. I fell of this wall a few times and it really is a balancing act. Badly designed it is. But what can you do, you have to work with what you got. It does hold a lot of plantings and I do have some neat plants in it, I just wished the guy who built it actually would have know what he was doing. I don't think he was really gardening in there, they just planted a few Azaleas in that wall. Otherwise they would have known the problem they built.
So I will try to come more often to the forum, but I can't promise for sure. I am a busy gal
