Garden Work

Husband took the week off to work in the gardens and around the acreage. There is always so much to do in the spring and clean up the mess after the snow has melted. It is hard to imagine now that only three weekends ago we still had snow covering most of he garden.

Some things that Husband (and some by me) accomplished:
•Tilled the garden
•Brought tomatoes into the greenhouses
•Hooked up the electrical wiring to the barn
•Installed one of the iron gates at front of property
•General clean up of propery
•Put in bedding plants
•Weeded beds and berry garden
•Planted garden
•Built planter boxes
•Fixed fence around garden
•Planted flower beds and boxes



Garden freshly tilled




Large greenhouse waiting to be planted




Small greenhouse with two variety of tomatoes. (The white cloth is the row covers for the cabbages)




Husband had better luck starting some of the tomatoes this year. The Purple Russian only produced one plant and a few fruit last year. I manages to save a few seeds, and this year started five plants.




Glacier tomato plants all died last year. We had a few seeds put away and were able to start five plants this spring. We are keeping our fingers crossed that all will survive and fruit.




The chicks are three weeks old and it was a nice weekend so I brought them out into the sunshine. Right away they lay down and stretched out their wings to sun themselves.

Gourmet Dinner at Home

This was a long weekend for Canadians as today was Victoria Day celebrating the birthday of Queen Victoria (for our country's British heritage)

Husband, Son and I spent most of the weekend outdoors weeding, cleaning and getting the gardens ready for planting. We took breaks to talk to the pigs helping them get used to us and their new environment. The neighbours also brought their young children over to spend some time with the goslings and to see the piglets... there's nothing cuter then seeing toddlers with animal babies!

Daughter had a project to complete this weekend for her Foods 9 class - to cook and present a gourmet meal. How wonderful to come in after the garden work, have a hot shower and then be served a beautiful meal. Here are the photos documenting her meal... and it was delicious!

Menu



Table Setting

Appetizer

Mozzerella and Sweet Basil Bruschetta

Main Course

Savoury Chicken Bake

White Wine Asparagus Risotto

Cucumber Yogurt Salad

Dessert

Diabolic Cheesecake with Sliced Strawberries

The Pigs Have Arrived!

Thursday afternoon Husband and I drove to the next town to meet up with the people who were selling the piglets. We waited in the Co-op parking lot not knowing who we were meeting, or what they were driving. As we waited Husband made a comment wondering if this is what drug dealers feel like when they're waiting to make an exchange.

After about 25 minutes a silver pickup truck roared up next to us... they has obviously seen the dog crates in the back of our truck with which to transport the pigs.

They had a wire dog crate containing six piglets as they were meeting another buyer as well as us.

Pigs were grabbed by their back legs and ferried over into our crates. We expected a lot of squealing but only one protested... probably because they were fast asleep by the time they arrived at the Co-op.

When we got home and hour and a half later the pigs were fast asleep again. After getting the pig ark filled with hay Husband began to unload the piglets into their new pen, only to have one escape between the fencing slats... they were a lot smaller than he had anticipated when building the fence. So we ran around trying to catch her, looking like a bunch of maniacs I'm sure. Once caught and secured, we had to fix the fencing so that they wouldn't get out again. When all four pigs were in their new home Daughter had names for them all within a few minutes. We now have Boris, Delicious, Bacon and Miss Piggy at the acreage.

The pigs are very skittish but are beginning to slowly get used to us. Son was even able to scratch one's back as he fed them today.

So, our adventures in pig raising has begun!

















 Posted on Homestead Barn Hop #14

Home Tour

I'm so excited!  Our home tour is up on the Home Sweet Home blog... check it out here

A Wordless Wednesday

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Husband was 'down south' on the weekend and brought home a present for me...




... a big box of rhubarb. Now, husband's favorite is Strawberry Rhubarb pie, so it makes me kind I'd wonder who the gift was really for.
















Filling for pie (enough for 2 large pies)
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon (or there abouts because I don't measure)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (as above)
8 c rhubarb cut into pieces
4 c slices strawberries
mix all together and fill pie shells and then top

Pie crust  (enough for 2 large pies and tops)
6 c flour
2 tsp salt
2 T sugar
Mix in a bowl

1.5 c water
1.5 c lard
Boil in a pan until lard is melted and stir vigorously into the flour mixture

Divide into balls and roll out.

Can't wait until I can bake these pies with our own strawberries and rhubarb!  Everything tastes so much better from the garden!

Goslings

Since we picked up the goslings it has been raining.  Hey, at least the snow is gone now (other than the odd patch) and we have some green grass!

Sunday afternoon was a beautiful 22c and Son and I took the goslings outside on the lawn to get some fresh air and stretching...

...and the odd nibble of grass.  I'm surprised at how fast they can run... only a few weeks old and they can out run me (though most things probably could)  They like to follow and we have to watch our step lest we squash them.

At this stage the goslings are so adorable, but we have to remember eventually they will be Christmas dinner.... hard not to get attached though.