IS IT TIME TO START SEEDS YET?

Have you started thinking about your spring garden yet?  If  you are like me you probably stared the day after Christmas. 

I start most of my seeds  for tomatoes and peppers and other plant in those cell trays and need  markers to remind myself what is planted in each tray.  I have used Popsicle sticks and bought the plastic sticks in packages but came across a tip on a YouTube site video that sounded like a better solution. Old Vinyl Blinds

 (You can buy a set of blinds from Walmart for about $8 )

I took my old ones apart and wound up with 75 slats. I cut them into lengths that I needed and had a total of 370 plant sticks.  The nice thing is you can customize them to your needs.  I cut some longer, some shorter and some skinnier.

Write on them with a magic marker and re-use each year.

I can't wait to get started.  Hope this helps. 

Something New On The Homestead

I took a walk around our property yesterday and came upon this Holly Tree. We have had them for years but this is the first time I have ever seen them with berries.

This tree has two others around it with no berries.  I have learned that the Holly trees are either Male or Female with only the females having berries. I also learned that the berries are poisonous.

There are also little baby holly trees coming up under the mamma tree.  I'm hoping to transplant them but need to do more research.  Has any one out there had any luck with this?

Of course the Holly tree reminds me of Christmas decorations, so here's hoping  you all have a great Christmas.

             GOD IS GOOD, All THE TIME

FIRST SNOW

The first snow after summer means the garden is finished and the quilting has begun.

This is the scene out of my quilting room door. It came early this year, I think it's going to be a cold winter. But be of good cheer, the seed catalogs will be filling my mail box in less than a month.

I hate to admit it but I'm way behind in doing my machine quilting. That's okay though, while standing at my machine I do a lot of planning for the upcoming year.  I like to grow something new every year, this year it was loofah sponges,, more about that later. 

Doing the farmers market is a big interest to me but I didn't have the produce this summer.

Any way, time to get busy with Thanksgiving preparations, then Christmas,  Hope every one has a blessed holiday season.    Because                                  God is good, all the time.

February Truck and Seed Time

       Ta-Daaaa, I'm way ahead of myself believe it or not.  I finished my block of the month truck in just two days. It helps when you have a friend (Kim) who is taking the same class and you are in competition with each other.

        This is Buttermilk Basin's Vintage Truck through the year pattern. I did the applique on my machine, I really don't have time to sit and do it by hand although I really enjoy the hand work.  Like most quilters, I have so many project that are unfinished (UFO's un-finished-objects) that I would never get them done if it wasn't for my sewing machine. But I think it's my sewing machine that caused all these UFO's to begin with.
                                      ************************************************
                                                                          SEED TIME

        I found a new seed company and placed a seed order.  BAKER CREEK.  The seeds arrived in a week and the prices are great. Next week I will start the cabbage and onion seeds.  I know I can go to the store and buy onion sets but I'v never started onions from seeds so I want to try something new.

       

       So stay tuned,for next week's project,   Cabbage and another block.  Thanks for lookin'

Another Year Another Opportunity

    Isn't it amazing how one day it is the middle of August and you are harvesting and canning and wiping sweat from your brow and the next day it is January, the start of a new year, a new beginning.

    My garden and canning are behind me until March and the quilting is ahead of me. So in a couple of weeks I will start a new "block of the month" class at the Spring Creek Quilt shop in Rickman Tennessee. The pattern is called VINTAGE TRUCKS by Buttermilk Basin. I will post  the completed blocks.  I also intend to make baby quilts and rag dolls, lap quilts and more soap. The rag dolls will be something new for me. So many projects and so little time.

   I hope you have dreams for the new year. So get started, life is short, make the most of  it.
                                             

                                                             HAPPY NEW YEAR

Peach Butter

A few day ago the same people who gave us the plums, gave us some peaches from their tree.
I usually freeze peaches in jars with orange juice and sugar syrup but I have some from last year. So I decided to make peach butter.

I've never made  fruit butters before although I have wanted to for several years. I thought making fruit butters was hard and time consuming, I thought you had to watch over the pot and keep stirring and stirring.  Well let me tell you how easy it is.  First we peeled and pitted the peaches, sliced them and put them in the crock pot.  I added cinnamon, sugar and cloves to taste, put the lid on the crock pot and let it cook on low all night.  In the morning I put the butter in the blender to smooth out the pieces of peach then put it back in the crock pot until  it was as thick as I wanted it. I think it took about 17 hours.  I put the butter in jelly jars and processed them for 5 minutes in a water bath.

Turned out very good.  Can't wait until the apples come in.  If I had know it was so easy I would have made fruit butters a long time ago.  This will go on the shelf with the jelly and jam.
                                                                                                  Thanks for Lookin

      

Plum Jam

Today our neighbor gave us some plums from their two trees. I've never liked plums very well but

 when some one gives you plums, you make plum jam.
This is my third batch of Plum jam. I followed the recipe in the "Sure Gel" box and it all turned our really well,  just a little sweet and a little tart.

I'll put it on the shelf with the blueberry jam from last year and black berry jam from two years ago. We picked mulberries from our tree which will go into the freezer with any thing else we pick so I can make jam next year and then put it on the shelf with the rest of the jam. You can never have too much jam.
                         Oh when will it ever end.



Stay tuned for PINTO BEANS.    Thanks for lookin