Borscht

Working at the Extension service farm we get to "Harvest" some of our labors, this week it was Beets, Red Onions and Carrots.  Quite a lot actually, what to do with all the beets???
We made Borscht and canned 14 quarts.

Recipe: 12 Beets, peeled, shredded in Quisinart
              3 Onions shredded then sauteed in butter in soup pot
              6 Carrots shredded
              Salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, basil

Heat thoroughly to just boil, process at 12psi for 90 min.

We bought a Tractor

OK so its a CHINESE tractor....but for 7,500 I got a front end loader, a backhoe, a 5' bush hog. 25hp, 2005 model 484 hours total??? not really sure about that.  Has a few issues, starts hard, needs new glow plugs, oil changes etc.  Found a neat tractor place in Keno Oregon that has parts and advice and they are really nice.

Bees!

We took a Bee Class at the county extension service and I decided we would have bees to help polinate our fruit trees.  I think the Kids thought i was a little crazy when I said I was building a Warre Hive (modified of course, octogon style) and was going to "Catch" a swarm.  Sure enough 15 MAY along comes this swarm of 17k + bees.  Thank god for U-Tube, showed us just what to do.  Easy Peasy.

 

Planting an Orchard

Got 30 trees and bushes.  3 Figs, 3 Almonds, 3 Peach, 2 Nectarine, 2 Apricot, 5 Apple, 3 Cherry, 3 Olive, 2 Prune (for Porter), Raspberry Plants, Blueberry Plants.  And 5 raised bed gardens.

Fencing Start

In total we did 910 ft of 6ft tall "Orchard Fencing" thats 90 posts dug 2ft down, set in concrete, drilled for; 180 10ft long rails, pencil sharpened on both ends to fit into the drilled holes.  Whole project took 45 days start to finish.

 

 

This is March of 2012, We have thinned out 95+ scrub oak trees and you can see to the left two large piles of "Moo Doo Compost" 15 yards worth and "Garden Topsoil" 10 Yards.  What you do not see is a TRACTOR which we are looking for but do not have yet.  Have borrowed Todd's for a couple of days but he needed it back right away so not much got done.  All 25 yards of dirt here were moved by hand with Wesley's pickup, loaded in and spread about one shovel full at a time.

View off our porch

Got our first snow of the Season.

Rosie Comes Home

Of course when it was time to pick up Rosie, Troy was out to sea and Oliver needed watching.  This is Momma Heaven.

Momma's Got a Puppy

Celeste has been looking for a Boxer Puppy since Troy took Oliver with him...soooo here we have found a new puppy still too young to take home. Have to wait a couple weeks for her to get ripe for picking, she's now 4 weeks so we have to wait for 4 more.  Rosie is her name and she is CUTE!