Enslaved by Ducks

This is a title to a book someone gave Bob.  I am finished with my big canning for the season.
Phew...now into the shop because November is just around the corner!  Some of the extras I have in my shop for sale.  I am NOT in the food biz.

Chutney trio offered in my shop

Daisy the white pekin holds court for her drakes.

I am starting a new 365 project for the year.  So excited to share.  Kicks off November 1, 2012 for Day of the Dead.
Thanks for reading.  xo
Suz

Farm and Garden

Salad

12 banty eggs are in the fridge.  So cute, so small.  Here are a few photos.  I haven't time to write much. Tomorrow is pickle day: refrigerator dill and bread and butter.   Bob should have the laying/nesting coop finished enough to introduce it to the girls. 
I continue to use my kneely walker...whizzing down the front hall!  :-)

Chicken tail: they really have their bustles and petticoats.

The buff cochins are really filling out in weight as well as feather.  

Thanks for reading.

Each day is a gift. Open now.

xo,

Suz

A Farm Morning

New typewriter, Bob's latest mug, and architectural salvage.

Here are some photos I took early this morning out with the chickens and at the gardens.  Of course my furry shadow Buddy follows me everywhere.  He sits outside the chicken coop and licks his lips as he watches the chickens move around.

"Loving Frank" a still life including our bowl from ceramics

Little Missy, Irma, and Goldie

"Biggie Small" and "Talullah"

Full petticoat

I am finally taking photos of the wood printing blocks  and architectural salvage I will sell in my Etsy shop The Polkadot Magpie.  I am really enjoying shooting them.  You get a bit of an idea of the items around my house.

Corn, cukes, strawberries

Lettuce row

I bought a vintage typewriter on Etsy.  A 1940's black, heavy, and needing a bit of work...but soon to be typing brilliant :-) quips for my artwork and cards. 

Buddy guarding the tomatoes

Summer is 2/3 over...I can't believe it.  The garden is starting to produce much more than we can eat. So canning and freezing are on the horizon. 

Vintage salvage propped with Ethan's latest bowls from ceramics

Thanks for reading.  Each day is a gift. Open now!
xo,
Suz

Harvest Time with Mother Night

My view of the West from inside the garden.

The last bit of the sun slips into the horizon.

My kitchen has been in full swing for the last week.  It's that time of year.  I am trying to keep up and manage what is ripening.  As the days grow shorter I can see less and less blooms, and new fruit.  13 hours of daylight means about 9 in the vegetable garden.  As always things seem to ripen all at once.  So I'm on one of those "Jetson treadmills" or Tetris moments where the same thing is happening, just at a faster pace.  Bob bought me a beautiful basket from Peterboro Basket Co. in New Hampshire to carry veggies back from the garden.  So here are some photos...mostly from my iPhone of this food factory I am running.

 Tomatoes and green chili.

I roasted mine and put it in

the freezer in ziploc bags.

I oil a rag to wipe the bbq 

grate, so they don't stick.

Bob is getting ready for the Las Vegas Gathering.  It's a very social show.  We have new things on knives that are my doing...skulls.  It's pretty cool to have collaborated a bit.  I realized that I can't be hustling for the show.  We need someone to hold down the fort.  So I won't bring my jewelry.  I'll post it on the USN forum, and in my Etsy shop.

The skulls are new, and my direct influence.

Doing what I can to support Bob right before a show makes both our lives more manageable.  So I bring him tastes from the kitchen and garden.  The peaches continue to rain down on us.  I have them on their own ripening treadmill.  Now putting them into the freezer.  Later to make jam and salsa out of.  Waiting for the big ones that are left on the tree to ripen for pies and crisps.  I hope we don't miss that window while we are in Las Vegas.

Peaches halved, pitted, and brushed

with lemon go in the freezer.

Later we can make jams &

such with them.  I plan to make

peach and green chili chutney.

I downloaded Clarissa Pinkola Estes latest series of broadcasts: "The  Mother Night."  Her soothing voice always makes me feel the Universe is right.  I have so many images coming to mind when I listen to her.  It seems that when I listen to her, I listen to me.  My authentic self is front and center.  Filled with images I scratch down in my sketchbook as fast as I can.  I've been listening through my lap top while working in the kitchen.  Bob has chopped for me, and peeled for an hour or two.  We really enjoy this canning thing together.  Pickles when we come back from our trip.  Hopefully Dilly Beans too.

I don't have her on when he is there, because I relish Clarissa.  It's a no talk zone when she's on.  What a gift she is to my life.  Her series on creativity, and death, and wild women have made their spiritual mark on me.  If you have not heard her CD's, I highly recommend them for the artsy and creative types. She feeds the soul with her "curandera" way of storytelling.  Very Jungian for those who are analytical.

Back to the food factory I am managing at the moment.  And back to learning to see in the dark.

The "Sandias" last night.  

Thanks for reading.  Every day is a gift: open now.

xo
Suz

From the Front Porch

Good morning from the front porch.  It's been a bustling morning here.  I should be getting ready for the Las Vegas "Gathering" show. However, there is just too much to do here.  It's harvest time. This means canning, and watching or ripening fruits and veggies so the varmints don't get them first. We've had huge winds and branches down.  Clean up as well as fruit that wasn't quite ripe to deal with.  The dinning room table is lined with brown paper bags with ripening peaches. There is a stack of boxes with peaches ripening.  I find by dinner time, I am out of gas.  This is something new for me.  So I try and get as much done before I run out of steam.

Just Peachy

Above the pears that came from our tree.  Some fell, some were picked by me climbing a 10 ft. ladder while Bob held the ladder.  When there were little holes or nicks in the pears, I put masking tape over them.  Some ripened as if they had their own skin, others just rotted.  Why, I have no clue.  I made pear marmalade, and pear butter.  Also, some green tomato jam for the first time.  Helping me was a new tool that I bought a Williams Sonoma.  It's a silicone spatula that gets into the edge of the pots while cooking.  It kept fruit from burning and sticking while boiling.  It's my new best friend. :-)

The pumpkins and various squash continue to get bigger. Lots of peppers, green beans, and tomatoes, strawberries,  and peaches are yet to be picked.

Thanks for reading.

Every day is a gift...open now.  

xo Suz

Yes I Can!

I've been busy doing things around the house all week.  My business is slow.  I "should" be getting ready for the Gathering Show in Las Vegas.  Instead I am canning peaches and tomatoes from last year that have been frozen.  I have to make room for this year's haul.

On the kitchen table above are 12 jars of peach jam...I left it chunky.  Also a UFO peter pan squash that was hiding and got larger than edible.  Bob helped last night with the hot water bath.  He had never canned before.  He said he remembers his aunt canning with parafin wax.  I have no memories of this from my childhood.  Women on the North Shore of Chicago didn't can.  When I moved to the farm, I did a lot of canning.  Bob and I plan to do pickles next, then dilly beans.

This photo is the inside of the canning pot.  It has a rack to put the jars on. This pot is HUGE!

Somewhere out in the universe are my canning tools from the farm.  When I bought this pot a few years ago, it could only be found at Walmart.  I called around.  Believe me, NO ONE knew WHAT a canning pot was! In Walmart  I was holding it my arms waiting in line to pay...a man came up to me.  With tears in his eyes, he said: "I love a woman who cans.  I suppose you have a significant other?  My late wife and I used to can together before she passed away."  How sweet was that?  We shared some of our canning favorites, and some disasters.  People around us could hear, and looked stymied.  I mean really...who cans anything today?  

You'd be surprised.  Many of my Etsy sisters commented on a canning treasury I created.  So there are closet canners.  :-)  Ball published a book that is the easiest guide to canning: "The Blue Book."

Thanks for reading. I'm still amazed that you do.

xo

Suz

Where is Elmer Fudd?

 2 Crows grace the entrance. On the day Buddha was

born it is told two crows nested on his roof. This is

supposed to be my place of serenity.

 About half of what I planted has survived. :-(

I am on a mission, I tell you.  Where I live there is little for wildlife to eat.  So putting in a garden is like setting a buffet table for rabbits, gophers, ground squirrels, bugs and birds.  With the help of some friends, previously I told you how we made a 50 x 30 foot basket of chicken wire and horse fence to put the raised beds on.  Weaving the side fencing to the chicken wire floor.  

"Just when you thought it was safe."

 Down to the stem rabbit munching on cantaloupe vine.

Turns out baby rabbits could squeeze through the horse fence.  Every sprout that came up was nibbled to the ground.  So I put 4' chicken wire along the sides of the whole shebang.  Again weaving the bottom with bailing wire.  Yesterday was the first day I entered the garden and didn't find stems with no leaves on some plant.  When I went to do my evening watering 2 bunnies were sitting outside the garden.  I assume they were plotting their way in.  Oh, the power I felt seeing them on the outside.  But when I opened the gate...about 50 large grasshoppers hopped away.  Grrrrrrrrr.  Grasshoppers take bites out of the leaves.  Lots of the plants look like swiss cheese plants.

Out I went this morning...fully expecting a plague of locusts.  The weatherman promised near 100 degree temps.  Which choke all nutrients trying to get through the plants. Calcium is unable to be processed when the temperature fluctuates to these extremes.  "End rot" on the bottom of tomatoes and peppers occurs.  "OH NO!"  Something totally chewed my sunflower shoots, and a melon plant.  I inspect carefully...and see they are "v" shaped bites...that means birds.

And so the next level of armor will go on the garden...bird netting.  I must admit I am a bit exhausted from varmint patrol.  But I will do it.  I have the black netting.  It will need to be secured for wind.  I have never had birds eat the leaves of the plants.  Yes, they are famous for taking one bite from a tomato or peach.  But the leaves?  They must be hungry.  As I said...there isn't much to eat in the desert.

I called my master gardening buddies.  I asked if they knew anyone in our neck of Albuquerque that had a vegetable garden.  "Oh yes, Mary Lynn has a huuuuge vegetable garden!"  I begged for her number.  When I phoned this woman and explained my plight...I could hear her take a breath.  "My Dear, I couldn't keep out the buggers, and put up a hoop house years ago."
"I was hoping you wouldn't say that"  I replied, humbled.

A metal woodpecker is one of many birds adorning the posts.

Bought from Etsy sellers, as are the crows.

A hoop house with shade cover mesh would pretty much solve my problems.  Or row covers with shade cloth above.  Hoop houses are ugly, and my neighbors might not like looking out at a plastic quonset hut.  I could get small hoops and put what are called "row covers" on each raised bed.  But green shade mesh is a must for next year no matter what I do.

 On top: hoops with row covers for individual beds.

Below: green shade cloth on hoops.

Inside the back wall I have 4 tomato plants, one hot pepper, acorn squash, birdhouse squash, petty pan (or Area 51 squash as Andy calls them), and pumpkins.  I have made a trellis for the vines to grow over for my "Pumpkin Queen" friend Abby.  Hopefully, a cool hiding place for a 3 year old.  A lettuce bed is now in a shady area.  Except for aphids...they are all doing pretty well.  How an adobe wall 4 to 5 feet tall can protect it all, boggles my mind.  I think it's so close to the house, that the "buggers" stay away.

2 photos on top are inside the wall

We will have plenty of peaches and pears.

Where is Elmer Fudd when you need him?  Waskaly wabbits, bwuddy burds, jumping gwasshoppas--I will prevail.  Lately I have been thinking about getting chickens and using the whole thing as a coop (once the top netting is up).  I may get them anyway, and put some in for bug and varmint control.  Did Elmer have chickens?  Who knows.

A "chicken tractor" that is movable might be in our future. :-)

Thanks for reading.  I'm still amazed that you do.

xo
Suz