Hope you all are doing well - it's time for another edition of the Suburban Farm. Not much has happened in the last two weeks. Ryan's work slowed down enough for him to spend some quality time 'round the 'ole homestead, so we started a blog. The blog contains my emails, as well as some ravings from my partner in crime. You can check it out at http://www.suburbanfarm.blogspot.com
Tammy, the tropical storm, stopped by for a visit over the weekend and returned our backyard to its usual swampyness. For those who know of our on-going battle with what is passably a marsh behind our house, this is no surprise. It had finally dried out enough for me to mow the weeds back to respectable height, and now I could farm shrimp - or mosquitoes at least.
Since it's been rainy all weekend there wasn't much to do but stay home, cuddle, and watch tv. The cats made the most of it, but Ryan and I got our fair share of cuddle time. Ryan, Riley & Greebo did get motivated enough to make bread. This is their experiment, Nantias. They’re a cross between a tortilla and nan bread. Very tasty, and it was so nice of the cats to lend a helping hand.
Last weekend we did get out to our favorite nursery. Paradise Nursery in Virginia Beach. It's a hike for us to get out there but totally worth the trip. We absolutely adore Sybil and Rob, and they are extraordinary helpful to two fledgling gardeners. In the spring we visited the nursery and picked up a lovely fig tree and some blueberry bushes. This past weekend we added two blackberry bushes and a pineapple guava to the mix. They do ship all over the country, so if you're thinking about adding some fruit trees to your collection I would highly recommend purchasing from them. (http://www.paradisenursery.com/) This is not a plug by any means, we REALLY like this place. They have the fruit trees planted all over the property and they gave Ryan and me the tour with some samples. It's just neat to see what other people are doing with their edible landscaping - and Ron and Sybil are the king and queen of edible landscaping.
We did stack firewood for the winter. We’re going to try, emphasis on try - there are no guarantees, to heat most of the house over the winter with wood. At least it will cut back on our heating bill a bit. A downside of having a two story great room is that you spend a lot of money heating the ceiling.
Tammy, the tropical storm, stopped by for a visit over the weekend and returned our backyard to its usual swampyness. For those who know of our on-going battle with what is passably a marsh behind our house, this is no surprise. It had finally dried out enough for me to mow the weeds back to respectable height, and now I could farm shrimp - or mosquitoes at least.
Since it's been rainy all weekend there wasn't much to do but stay home, cuddle, and watch tv. The cats made the most of it, but Ryan and I got our fair share of cuddle time. Ryan, Riley & Greebo did get motivated enough to make bread. This is their experiment, Nantias. They’re a cross between a tortilla and nan bread. Very tasty, and it was so nice of the cats to lend a helping hand.Last weekend we did get out to our favorite nursery. Paradise Nursery in Virginia Beach. It's a hike for us to get out there but totally worth the trip. We absolutely adore Sybil and Rob, and they are extraordinary helpful to two fledgling gardeners. In the spring we visited the nursery and picked up a lovely fig tree and some blueberry bushes. This past weekend we added two blackberry bushes and a pineapple guava to the mix. They do ship all over the country, so if you're thinking about adding some fruit trees to your collection I would highly recommend purchasing from them. (http://www.paradisenursery.com/) This is not a plug by any means, we REALLY like this place. They have the fruit trees planted all over the property and they gave Ryan and me the tour with some samples. It's just neat to see what other people are doing with their edible landscaping - and Ron and Sybil are the king and queen of edible landscaping.
We did stack firewood for the winter. We’re going to try, emphasis on try - there are no guarantees, to heat most of the house over the winter with wood. At least it will cut back on our heating bill a bit. A downside of having a two story great room is that you spend a lot of money heating the ceiling.We started brewing the pear wine with the pears from Ryan’s Dad’s trees. We did bottle the cranberry wine (aka Greebo’s Remarkable Holiday Elixir.) The fig wine, with figs from Ryan’s Dad’s trees, is ready to be bottled any moment now. We only got 12 or so figs from our tree this year, but considering we planted it in the spring I’d say it’s doing remarkably well.
That’s about it for this week. I will try to send another edition in two weeks to keep you all filled in.
- Gretchen
That’s about it for this week. I will try to send another edition in two weeks to keep you all filled in.
- Gretchen