Gardens and Life

The weather finally warmed up this past weekend, and we did our best to enjoy it. I had to shovel a good amount of snow off the deck in order to get to the grill, but it was worth it. Put some polish sausages on the grill for lunch, to kick off another grilling season.

Spent most of the afternoon getting seeds planted in flats in the greenhouse. Planting them much later that I would have preferred. Had problems with the electrical wires I ran to the greenhouse last Fall that took a bit of time to resolve. Was able to get everything started and now the waiting begins. The spinach, lettuce, and kale I planted earlier this spring in the raised bed in the greenhouse are slowing coming up. I also planted some sugar snap pea seeds about 14 years old to see if any would germinate, and much to my surprise, a number of them have sprouted and are growing. I will be saving all those seeds, and they have to be very hardy.

daughter and munchkins helping out with various chores and projects on Saturday, and decided to grill some steaks and red potatoes for supper. The steaks were from locally sourced beef raised on grass, as they should be. Munchkins weren’t too hungry, so had leftover steak for breakfast yesterday and today.

The munchkins wanted smores after supper and had gathered twigs and branches left over from the trees taken down this past Fall. They started the fire and got it going to the point it was ready for cooking marshmallows. Of course, they had to find other  sticks to put in the fire, and play with the fire.

Once the fire was going, daughter and granddaughter got involved and cooked their marshmallows for smores. By the end of the weekend, the snow right behind them was gone, and the snow on the other side of the driveway went down quite a bit. Spring has been very slow to come this year.

On Saturday, the boys asked about getting up on the roof, not to do anything, but just for the experience. Sunday ended up being a good day to spend  little time on the roof. Once granddaughter saw her brothers climb up on the roof, of course she had to join them. They all behaved quite well up there, which is a little surprising Their mother helped get back down onto the ladder and safely on the ground.

After having wonderful weather this past weekend, we are now facing several days of temperatures in the 40′s, with clouds and rain. One thing about living in Minnesota, is that we enjoy good weather when it happens, as it sometimes doesn’t last long. I am hoping the weather improves a lot by later in May when I’m on vacation and hoping to get the garden planted. At least the rain will take care of the rest of the snow and provide some more moisture for the garden and our landscaping.

Our third day was spent visiting some plantations further up the river from New Orleans. We visited three plantations and took guided tours through two of them.

The first one was Laura Plantation, named for the granddaughter of the woman who ran the plantation for most of her life. We didn’t  take guided tour, but did purchase a DVD of the PBS documentary of this plantation. One of the most disturbing parts of the story was how the owner increased the number of slaves. While visiting the slave market in New Orleans, she noticed how inexpensive the  young girls were, and decided to buy a number of them, and four males to hopefully impregnate the young girls. She referred to the unborn children as her “crop”, which highlights how little regard she had for the slaves.

Here is a picture of the restored plantation house, built in Creole style. Creole style dwelling were built off the ground on stone pillars, to allow for air flow to help cool the house. There were only three rooms, and no hallways, with large windows to help cool the house. The large pot in the foreground was originally used to boil the sugar cane.

The second plantation we visited was Evergreen Plantation. Evergreen Plantation is the most intact plantation complex in the South with 37 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including 22 slave cabins. Evergreen has its country’s highest historic designation and joins Mount Vernon and Gettysburg in being granted landmark status for its agricultural acreage.

Today, Evergreen Plantation remains a privately owned, working sugar cane plantation. People live here and work here. The woman who owns this property lives in the French Quarter and will come up here to entertain guests. Because it’s a private residence, we were not able to take pictures of the inside. The house was originally built in Creole style, but later modified to the Greek revival style you see in the picture.

One of the very interesting feature of this property were a pair of building on either side of the big house, called garconnaires. The purpose of these dwellings was to give the young men of the family a place to live once they turned 15, as they were not allowed to stay in the big house.

Evergreen is noted for having 22 intact slave cabins, something very rare. The main reason they are still standing, is that sharecroppers lived in them until the 1940′s. The cabins are 12 x 24 feet, with a wall down the middle that had a hearth for each side to share. A family lived in each half of the cabin.

The third plantation we visited was Oak Alley, the largest of the three, named for the majestic oak trees in the front.

While waiting for the tour to begin, you can purchase mint juleps to sip on while relaxing on the front porch. Here are Denise and Cassie relaxing with a cool drink while taking in the scenery, partly shown in the picture above.

One of the most impressive parts of the tour was the dining room. The large piece of fabric over the middle of the table had a rope tied to it that ran over pulleys to the corner. A servant would pull on the rope to get it moving and create a cooling breeze for the people at the table. Some times an ice sculpture would be in the middle to provide more cooling for the air.

On Tuesday, we toured one of the famous graveyards, which are unique for the above ground burial structures. Our daughter then showed us some of the other areas of New Orleans and we did some shopping, including picking up some steak and other items for supper.

On Wednesday, our last day, we did some more shopping in the French Market, to get some last minute items for the munchkins and others. We then went to Tulane University, and I helped Cassie load costumes in her car that were used in a recent play and needed to be dry cleaned. Then it was off to the airport for the first of our two flights that would get us to Minneapolis that evening.

This it what greeted us when we got back to the hotel. I did clear a some snow off before taking the picture. We arrived home a little after midnight, and were glad the day of traveling was finally over.

I am considering trying to make it back to New Orleans this fall, to relax by the pool and eat some more great food. Until then, we’ll have the great memories of this trip, especially spending time with our daughter.

Earlier this month, Dense and I were able to take our first real vacation in a long time. We went to New Orleans to visit our daughter there for five days.  This posting will cover the first two days we spent in NOLA, as we visited several restaurants and did quite a bit of wandering around. The apartment she shares with her best friend from College is in the French Quarter, which made getting around that part of town very easy. Even though it wasn’t very warm the first two days, it was certainly much nicer to look outside and see green plants, instead of snow.

For supper that first evening, we went to Mandina’s Restaurant and had some great food and laughs. Took a while to get seated, but the wait was worth it, as all the food was excellent and the atmosphere very relaxed. For some reason, the ladies started singing songs they remembered from Girl Scouts (Denise was a leader when our girls were young)

After dinner, we went to Angelo Brocato Ice Cream from some coffee and gelato, which was  very good. We had a great time that night and after all the excitement, were ready for a good night’s sleep.

The next morning we walked to mass at St. Louis Cathedral. The oldest Cathedral in the United State. Catholics have been worshiping there since 1727. After mass we met our daughter and friend at Cafe Du Monde, world famous for their beignets. the beignet is a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar. They are served in orders of three. The beignets were so good that I didn’t think to take a picture until they were gone.

Once we were done with that snack we wandered around the French Market looking at all the items. The French Market is a combination of a farmer’s market and flea market, catering in large part to tourists. After wandering around for a while, we decided it was time for lunch. We ate at Frank’s Restaurant and had a wonderful meal with a muffuletta  (Baked Ham, Genoa Salami, Imported Swiss and Italian Olive Salad on Italian Bread), some red beans and rice, and seafood gumbo.

After lunch we did some more wandering around and killing time until Denise and I went for a ride on the Steamboat Natchez. About a half hour before departure a person started playing the calliope on the top deck

The ride was about two hours long and went down the Mississippi for a ways, before turning around They pointed out a number of historical sites along the banks of the river. Perhaps the most interesting is the building where Andrew Jackson met with pirate Jean Lafitte during the Battle for New Orleans. Without the ammunition and extra men Lafitte supplied, the battle would have been lost.

After the ride we met up with our daughter’s roommate  and walked back to their apartment. Before supper she took us for a driving tour around the 9th Ward, as I wanted to see some of what had happened since Katrina. While a lot of the damage had been cleared away and/or rebuilt, there were still buildings marked for demolition, which gave us a better idea of the destruction of that hurricane.

Supper was at another wonderful restaurant, Acme Oyster House. We were dropped off to get a place in line, as they don’t take reservations. The line took about 45 minutes to move forward enough so we could get a table. We started with char-grilled oysters, which were fantastic. I had a fried oyster Po-boy and Denise had a Fried Stuffed Crab, which she really enjoyed. After dinner, since the walk back the apartment was a bit too far, Denise and I took a bike taxi back to the apartment.

The next two days were great, with warmer weather and seeing some very interesting sites, and those days will be covered in part two.

I have one big tree in front of my house that has a lengthwise crack that is growing, so I decided to find someone to take it down, along with some other trees on my property. Found a small, local, one-man business that does tree removal at a reasonable price. He and his helper showed up this morning to start removing the trees.

They are also chipping the small branches, which will provide great mulch for our perennial beds and garden.

They started in the front and made short work of the trees I wanted removed. Seems like they are leaving the big one until later, as one of them will have to climb the tree and start cutting the top branches before taking down the main trunk. They are cutting up the trunks into 18 to 20 inch lengths so I can later split them for the wood stove I hope to add this year.

Beyond my garden there are two trees being removed which cast a shadow on part of the garden during the later part of the summer. Both were older and needed to be taken down, which will help the garden do better this year. There was also one to the south of the garden that also cast a shadow during part of the summer, and so I had them remove it. Really looking forward to having more sunlight on the garden this year.

2012 brought many changes to our lives, both positive and negative, which is how most years turn out. In this posting I will discuss those changes, some I’ve written about before, and some that will be new to readers.

The early part of the year was fairly routine, with teaching classes at church two evenings a week, seeing K (#2 daughter) and the munchkins on a regular basis, and getting seeds started for the garden. Other “spare” time was taken up with planning for A’s (#1 daughter) wedding that took place on June, 23, 2012. Denise’s health was a bit of a concern during this time, and that concern increased in March, leading up to her surgery on April 19th, and six weeks of recovery.

During the time of her initial diagnosis (possible cancer), the trips to the surgeon in the Cities, and her time in the hospital, there was a palpable sense of God’s presence. The first experience was when she was anointed by our priest, who then prayed over her. I felt the presence of God envelop us and sensed that the outcome would be a good one. Of course, we had many others praying for her, such as our bishop, various priests and deacons, wives of our deacon friends, and many others whose names I don’t know. While she was getting prepped for surgery a Catholic chaplain visited with us, and when she prayed for Denise, God’s presence descended over us once again, to provide strength and healing. To God’s glory, no cancer was found during surgery or in the tissue examined later. Denise recovered well, and went back to work for a week, before taking time off for A’s wedding.

While everything was going on with Denise, new garden beds were added and the whole garden planted, with a lot of help from K and the munchkins. In this picture, Denise is supervising the munchkins planting one of the new beds.

I also took vacation the week before the wedding and had lots of things to get done, and errands to run. C (#3 daughter) and her best friend flew in from New Orleans to help with preparing for the wedding. They were a great help and contributed, along with many others to a very wonderful day for A and her new husband. This is my favorite picture of my three girls. A, of course, in the middle, K on her right, and C on her left.

Here they are at the reception, with C’s best friend in the yellow dress. She worked most of the day at the reception site, helping my youngest brother, our chef, his son, and my other brother get the place set up, food prepped and cooked, and ready to serve. Everyone loved the prime rib and the rest of the food they served.

Here is a good picture of my brother, the chef, his wife, and my other brother wearing the Hawaiian shirt, who was simply functioning as “eye candy” (his words) at this time. This will be test to see if either of them actually read my blog.

We moved back to this part of Minnesota in April 2008, after I was given the “opportunity” to take a supervisor position back here, as we were expanding the locations for having call center people to other areas of the country. The primary reason I took the transfer back here was so Denise and I could help take care of the munchkins, and God has shown us too many times to count, why He brought us back. We had built a house in Madison, WI and tried to sell it in the declining housing market. We ended up trying to do a sort sale on it, but that fell through, due to the lack of urgency on the part of two financial institutions for getting their part of the sale approved. The house was foreclosed on the Tuesday before the wedding, adding to the “excitement” of that week.

Once the wedding was over and the “other” house gone, I began wondering what the “new normal” would be in our lives. That wondering lasted until the middle of July, when K told us she and her husband were separating and she would be moving in with us later that summer. Fortunately, the house we bought when we moved back has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Not a very large house, but plenty of room for Denise and I, and occasional guests. We had turned to of the bedrooms into offices, and over the next few weeks, cleaned them out so they could become bedrooms for the munchkins, whenever they are over here, which is at least half time. All of them moved in Labor Day weekend, and the new normal began.

With kids once again in the house, and all the business with school, homework, etc, the Fall just flew by. The munchkins started attending the public school in this area, and having the schools close by does help. #1 munchkin ran track this Fall, and I would pick him up after work once or twice a week, since his school is next to my workplace. We attended his band and choir concerts last month, and Denise and I laughed about how many hours we had spent in that same auditorium when the girls were attending there.

The only really bad thing that happened last year was the death of our dog, Princess. She was only six years old, and losing her has left us heartbroken. We miss her dearly and are slowly adjusting to this most unwanted new normal.

The plan, since last Christmas, was for C and her best friend to come up here for Christmas. They had quite an adventure driving through the aftermath of the pre-Christmas blizzard, but made it up safe and sound. We had held off on doing a good part of the baking until they got here, so they could enjoy helping. This picture shows C, with the apron on, her best friend next to her, and granddaughter getting ready to put powdered sugar on the rosettes being fried in oil by C.

Their next big project was to cook the lefse. C had used an old recipe that called for lard, and everyone thought they were the best we’ve made in many years. There is one munchkin next to C, and K is the one with the glasses on. We did a lot of cooking and eating while they were up here, and really enjoyed ourselves.

While cooking the last big meal before they left last Friday, I told them how much I was going to miss cooking with all of them. If plans hold together, all of us will be able to cook together in two years, when the New Orleans gals return for Christmas. K drove back to New Orleans with the girls to spend her birthday, New Year’s Eve, with them in New Orleans. She has had a great time and I just got a text from her at the airport, getting ready to board her flight home in a little while.

Once the girls left, the house was very quiet, as the munchkins were with their father. Denise and I had a relaxing weekend, not doing much at all, and I even was able to read some books. We celebrated New Year’s Eve quietly, as usual, and were asleep when 2013 began. Tomorrow brings a full scale munchkin invasion and busyness will return to our home.

While Denise was in the hospital, I was able to finish reading two books by Fr Walter Cizek, a priest that spent 23 years in Soviet prison camps and gulags, until being released. From his writing I learned more deeply the importance of turning all my life over to God and letting His perfect will guide my life. Everything that happened last year, good and bad, is part of His plan for my life. I know I won’t understand why it all happened until I meet Him in Heaven. I have only to trust and have faith.

I have plans for 2013, such as expanding the garden, growing plants in my greenhouse, adding more fruit bearing trees and shrubs, and other improvements on our property. We are planning a trip to New Orleans before Spring, to see the girls and eat some great food.  I also hope to take an early retirement in April 2014, assuming I have something to retire to, meaning some other type of work. Hopefully, I can keep everyone updated more frequently during 2013, and show how we’re transforming our one acre lot to produce more food for us and also be a place where munchkins can roam and enjoy themselves.

Princess had not been feeling well for a couple of weeks, and so I took her to the vet last Monday. She was put on some medication, but did not improve. Today, Denise took her in and the vet discovered she had liver cancer. The tumor could not be treated, and there was nothing that could be done to relieve her suffering. So, the decision was made to put her to sleep. About 1 1/2 hours ago, she ceased to be an integral part of our lives.

She was only six years old, and we bought her while we were living in Wisconsin. Six years ago, Denise was diagnosed with cancer, and after the treatments had begun, asked me if she could get a dog. I relented, in the hope it would help her during this time. We bought Princess that April, and soon after I noticed Denise was smiling for the first time in four months. I also fell in love with Princess, and over the years she tended to be daddy’s girl, a bit of a sore spot with Denise

Princess was Denise’s companion when she traveled back and forth from Madison to Brainerd for work. She kept her company on the long trips and the nights away from our home in Madison.

When we moved back to Minnesota, Princess had a lot of room to run around and chase the various “beasties” on our property. She also loved to tag along with me whenever I was working outside. The picture above is from this summer, when she was in the garden with me, while I was putting in some more raised beds.

Words cannot express the grief we are experiencing at this time, now that Princess is no longer with us. We have many great memories of our time with her, but wish that time had been much longer.

Thanksgiving Day started out nicely. The weather was partly cloudy and temperatures were in the mid-forties. But the forecast for the day let us know the nice weather was not going to last, as a cold front with strong winds and snow was heading our way. By mid-afternoon, after the Thanksgiving meal had been eaten, and leftovers put away, the wind began to pick up from the Northwest, signally the front’s arrival. The temperatures continued to drop and snow began falling by late afternoon. I woke up this morning to temperatures in the teens, a wind chill in the single digits, and about two inches of snow. Winter has officially arrived, and no one was really happy to our “other” season beginning again.

My inbox was filling up with Black Friday deals, and I decided to go with one from Tomato Fest and ordered my tomato seeds for next year.

•      San Marzano
•      Yellow Gooseberry
•      Camp Joy
•      Martino’s Roma
•      Chocolate Stripes

Ordering the seeds was my way of rebelling against the onset of winter and the long, cold nights ahead, by focusing on the promise of warm Spring days and tomatoes ripening in the  greenhouse and then outside.

Fall is the best time to plant garlic, and I’ve had varied success with it in the past. This past Spring, I let the chickens in the garden area to do their thing, and unfortunately, they dug up a number of the garlic bulbs I had planted the previous Fall, resulting in a much lower than expected amount of garlic at harvest time.

The picture is from this Fall’s garlic planting and you can see how curious the chickens are after spotting the cloves lying on the ground. I had to keep shooing them away so they didn’t mess with the garlic.

I laid out the cloves on top of the ground so they would be properly spaced. I ended up planting an entire 4×4 foot bed with garlic and half of another one before I used up the six heads of garlic I had ordered.

This is what the garden bed looked like before I planted the garlic. I just poked a hole in the soil with my finger, put the clove in the hole, and covered it with soil. When the entire bed was planted, I covered it with a two-inch layer of compost. I did the same process for the half a bed planted with garlic. I have more garlic on order, which will finish the half bed and likely fill another 4×4 foot bed.

I put a plastic fence around the bed I planted, using two metal posts to keep it semi-upright, and keep my garden “helpers” out. I laid the fence on the second bed to keep them from scratching the freshly planted garlic and will surround the bed with it once I’m finished planting it.

The chickens do a great job of cleaning up any veggies that may have landed in the garden beds or walkways, and help break up the soil in other beds. It’s quite entertaining to watch them scratch and dig around the garden, even if they make a mess at times. Yesterday, I dumped some compost on a bed, and let them scratch and peck in it, resulting in a garden bed evenly covered with compost. They are good garden workers, and also give me eggs

The garden has been doing extremely well this year, due in large part to a very wet June. July has not been as wet, as it’s been over two weeks since any measurable rain at my house. I am very glad the drip irrigation is in as it is making the watering much easier than past years.

Almost two months ago, the grandkids were helping us plant the garden with peas, two kinds of beans, lettuce, and spinach.

Here is what the beans and peas look like now. Yesterday, Denise and I harvested beans and snow peas, and after keeping some for upcoming meals, froze ,most of the beans.

Denise cut off the ends of the beans and when she was done, the harvest filled a large colander. I rinsed the bean, and after taking some out for a couple of meals, moved them into the boiling water to be blanched.

I blanched the beans for about three minutes and them moved them into the ice water to stop the cooking process.

I had laid out a towel to dry the beans before vacuum sealing them, and they ended up covering the entire towel.

You can see the vacuum sealer in the background.

Here is the finished product. Only four bags of beans for all the effort, and about one bag’s worth of beans for eating. These will taste very good once the fall and winter have set in.

We froze the beans because we have an electric range with a ceramic cook-top, that won’t handle the high heat necessary to pressure can the beans.

So glad all the hard work from earlier this spring is starting to pay off. The only down side will be all the work to process it for storage, but when we eat it later, it will all be worth the effort.

The last few years, I’ve taken off a week in May to get the garden in and take care of other outside jobs that need warm weather to complete. This year has been challenging, as we have seen rain most days this past week. Denise and I did get all the bedding plants in early last week, during the two days we didn’t have rain.

I also added two new beds this year, one 30 feet long and 18 inches wide, and a second 20 feet long and 18 inches wide to practice the Mittleider method of gardening. In order to add these beds, I had to rent a rototiller to chew up the area being added to the garden, as seen in this picture.

The tiller was large and did the work very quickly. I also used it to clear the area for my greenhouse, and till around the outside of the garden fence line so Denise can move some perennials to that area to make way for another project.  A third 20 foot by 18 inch bed will be added later this week.

I used 2×8 boards to give some good depth to the soil. I put about a two inch layer of compost over the cardboard at the bottom (to stop weed and small tree growth) and then added organic top soil bought at a local big box store. Each 10 foot section required 10 bags of soil, each weighing 40 pounds, so I’ve had quite a workout this past week loading, unloading, and moving those bags around until they are finally in place. This bed was planted with bean, peas, and the far section has pole beans, and will have a A-frame trellis over it, as soon as I can get it built.

I’ll let you follow the link to learn more about the Mittleider type of gardening that has been used around the world for over 40 years to grow vegetables in some of the most difficult environments. I first started using this method last year, to grow tomatoes, which is why you will seen the posts in a T form in some pictures. The indeterminate (keep growing taller unless you pinch them off) tomatoes grow up and around the small ropes and produce more tomatoes per plant the regular methods.

Yesterday morning, the forecast was for rain to begin by 10 am, so I hustled Denise and the munchkins (who had spent the night) out to finish filling and planting the last beds. We finished just as the rain began. They planted the pole beans, spinach, lettuce, and a variety of melons. The 3.6 inches of rain really helped get those seeds jump started, as well as the sunshine and very warm temperatures we’ve had this afternoon.

Through all of this activity, Princess was close by to lend moral support and catch a quick nap. The chickens were usually around, and were a real hassle when I was planting beans and peas, as they would jump up on the bed, start scratching and trying to eat the seeds. I finally had to have Denise stand guard until I was finished planting and we could put up a temporary fence.

All in all, it’s been a good vacation, and am looking forward to the vegetables growing and providing us with lots of fresh produce this year, as well as some to put up for over the winter. Next big project is the greenhouse, and I’m sure constructing it will take a good part of my “free” time this summer.