Canning peaches, berries, and pickles

A couple days ago I went to a local farm and picked raspberries, blackberries, and peaches.

The next day I got to work on some of the berries and peaches.  I made blackberry pie filling first and then froze a tray of blackberries.

Then I got to work peeling and slicing some of the peaches to can.

I ended up with 2 jars of blackberry pie filling and several jars of peaches in medium syrup.  Amazingly, things went smoothly, all of the jars sealed, and the kitchen was not a complete disaster area.

So today I decided to get to work with the rest of the peaches and berries because they were starting to go bad and to take care of the cucumbers from our garden.

Once I got the peaches and cucumbers sliced up, I realized that there were probably a few more cucumbers that had grown so I went outside to get the few I should add to my batch.

Twenty minutes later, I had pruned the tomato plants and collected all of the produce that was ripe.

Finally another zucchini, and those are yellow tomatoes :)

I ended up making a bunch of jars of pickles and three jars of peaches in light syrup.  I also got the rest of the raspberries and blackberries frozen in trays and I poured the left over peach syrup juice frozen in ice cube trays because I heard it can be used to make drinks later.

The small jar is a gift for someone

I just can't figure out why my back hurts more from working in the kitchen all day than it does when I work outside all day.

Meeting with an attorney

I haven't updated about the land situation.  A few weeks ago I met with an attorney to just find out what my options are and if there is even a reason to get an attorney.  I know I can't stop the county from taking the land, but I also saw that the money they offered me did not take into consideration that my property value would decrease which would be pretty bad if I ever decide to sell my house.

The attorney has had many cases like this before, and many with my county, and he has won.

I explained that if he can get me $2,000 more, but then he charges me $2,000 to $5,000, then I would rather just accept the money that is being offered.  There would be no point in doing something that will get me less money in the long run.

He went through all of the paperwork from the county and I learned the following things.

My mortgage, and apparently many/most mortgages, have a clause in them.  They say that if eminent domain occurs, the money that the county or state pays goes to the mortgage company.  I won't ever see a dime of it, but it will be put towards my mortgage.  In 20 years I will be happy about that, but who wouldn't want to see some of that money now?

The amount that was offered to me really doesn't include anything besides the land.  There was no compensation for my property value decreasing.  There was no compensation for my standard of living changing.  There was no compensation for the loss of the trees (that not only provide nature and shade, but also lower my electric bills in the summer and create a noise barrier from the traffic that is going to increase substantially after the road widens.)

The attorney said that he would work for me and would only charge me a fraction of any additional money he gets me.  Meaning if I walk away not earning any additional money, he doesn't get any money.  If I get $1,000 more with his help, he only gets a fraction of that $1,000.  I think that's a pretty good deal.  He also wrote a letter to my mortgage company on my behalf asking that his fee be taken out of the settlement, so while I won't ever actually see or get the money from the county, his bill will be paid from that money.

My attorney did tell me that this could go to another step in which the county takes the land while we are still trying to negotiate, and we end up going to court.  A jury of peers will be selected and then in one day we present the case, they see the land, and the jury decides what to do.  Obviously, I'd rather not go that far, but I also need to protect myself, my kids, and my animals from what will happen when they take our land and so many of our trees.

And now for pictures to help explain how much land they are taking.

Stake #1 marks the existing end of my property.
They will move the drainage ditch to be between Stake #2 and #3, closer to the house.
The trees and bushes between stake #3 and #4 will be cut down for the electric company to move their lines back.
The trees between stake #4 and #5 will be cut down for the "temporary construction easement".

These are stakes 4 and 5 where the trees will be cut for the construction area

This is the left side of the driveway, from the red line forward is where the trees will be removed for the construction area

Looking toward the house, the trees from the red arrow forward will be removed.  The red arrow is pointing at the tree in the BACK.

 I think the picture above does the best job of showing just how many trees are being removed between the road and our home.

You can see the two stakes along the driveway by the trees that show what will be removed there

I should also point out that while they are cutting down all of my trees, across the road where the large community is, they are going to build a very large "privacy wall" to protect those houses from the noise from the traffic.

The county negotiator and my attorney are coming to the house today, in an hour.  We will be looking at the stakes so my attorney, and then going back to their office a few miles away to try to negotiate.

The Nokesville Road Rooster has a Facebook Page

With all of the publicity that the rooster has been receiving, and the things that the boys put together last night, I decided that the Nokesville Road Rooster needed a Facebook page.

Yesterday, the boys created a fundraising page online to raise money to replace the rooster, and get him a friend.  http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/replace-the-nokesville-rd-rooster

I had also decided to do some online yard sale stuff to raise some money and offered to babysit and tutor as well.

It was then that I decided to create a page for the rooster (click the image to go the page).

I figured this would be the best way to share updates about our efforts to replace him but then I also thought it would be a ridiculous (ridiculously funny!) way share how the rooster changes once we replace him.  I thought we could post pictures of him each time that he is painted and if we are ever feeling creative enough, we could post a random status update.

This morning, I finally agreed to let the youngest do a lemonade stand.  He has been asking me, and I kept saying no, but I finally gave in.  Tomorrow I will let him squeeze lemons and make lemonade and then in the afternoon I will let him and the older son set up a stand on the road to sell lemonade and raise some money.  I even said that maybe I would bake some goodies for them to sell.

I also decided that since so many people in the community have shared their enjoyment of seeing the rooster changing for the seasons, some people that donate will get to come paint him however they would like to.  :)  So far two people are on that list!

Then, I received an email from the Bristow Beat, the online local newspaper, asking for information about the fundraising.  I'm not sure how he knew we were trying to raise funds, but I told him what we were doing.

I can't believe a silly rooster that we put by our mailbox as a sort of joke has turned into something so big.  I am in awe at how supportive the community is and how much they enjoyed seeing him.

Three days in the garden

We've worked in the garden for the last three days.  We spent one day weeding between the rows and around the plants as well as the front walkway in the garden.  I didn't even attempt to weed the huge areas that are unplanted and covered in weeds.

Cucumber and squash plants

Tomatoes, Beans, Onions, and Garlic

Carrots, Lettuce, and Parsnips

The second day was spent pruning the tomato plants that are huge.

And the third day I added fertilizer to the plants and harvested the tomatoes and potatoes.

It looks like a few of the green bean plants have survived the damage the goats caused last month and are actually going to grow now.

Growing Potatoes

I decided to record the details about how I planted potatoes this year since I didn't do the traditional route and I am curious about how this method will turn out.  So far it isn't looking great.

We went the cage route this year.  With the boys help, I build 6 tall cylinder cages out of wire fencing.  I used a bale of straw to spread around the sides of the cage, poured in some soil, and then placed the potato spuds on top of the soil.  I topped it off with more soil and watered it.

It started with only about 6-12 inches of soil at the bottom and it didn't seem like it took very long to see green leaves poking up through the soil.

I decided to make have three more cylinders, but this time I used three that were already made and someone had just given them to me.  They were wider and shorter.

 The plants seemed to sprout like crazy, and now, at the end of July it's been two months since things were planted and seven out of the five cages have a lot of green growing in them.

I noticed a couple weeks ago that two of the cages looked dead.  Not only were the plants dead, but they were now completely gone.  Since I have been working in the garden a lot, I decided to knock the two cages over and see what the cages had produced up to this point.

It wasn't good.

There were only potatoes in the bottom 12 inches of each cage and although these will taste great, it really isn't what I was hoping for.

Cage One

Cage Two

Everything I read said that there should be potatoes in the entire cage, as soil is added, potatoes will grow in layers.  That definitely didn't happen with these two.

Based on what I've read, this isn't the best method and trenches are the best way to grow potatoes, with raised beds being the second best way.  I'm hoping that the wider, shorter cages will be more similar to raised beds and will have a better yield.

This blog was shared on the following blog hops (please click the name to go check out their blog hop):
Frugally Sustainable
Down Home Blog Hop
The Homesteaders Hop

The case of the missing rooster

Yesterday afternoon we had a knock on our door.  Someone had seen the huge sign we put up at the mailbox stating that the rooster statue was stolen and we were offering a reward for it.  She said that she saw a rooster in front of a house over the weekend in the next county over.  She told me she'd never seen it before and when she saw our sign just then, she'd made a u-turn to come back and tell me.  

She gave me directions on how to get to it and we got in the car and off we went.  I kept telling the boys it wasn't going to be our rooster.  I didn't think anyone would be dumb enough to put the rooster out in front of their house, less than half an hour away.

Not our rooster

Sure enough, it wasn't our rooster.

We came home.

Today I got a message from someone on Facebook saying her friend saw a rooster that had to have been ours.  I replied and told her that the one on "Green Road" isn't ours, and she told me that was the one that she had seen.

I'm thankful that people are looking for it and noticing things and trying to help.  I just with the thieves had it somewhere to be spotted.  I believe that whoever took the rooster have it tucked back in the woods on their own property, perhaps as a funny target for shooting at, and it will never be seen again.

And that got me thinking about the path our rooster has taken with us.

Awhile back, a good friend of mine shared this blog post with me from The Bloggess.  I laughed out loud.  Several times.  I just knew that when I purchased my house, I had to get a rooster too.  A few months later when I finally did buy my house, I started looking for my own rooster, and that good friend was also trying to find me one too.

Finally, after searching for about six months, I found my own rooster.

When we got him home, I bought spray paint to repaint him just so the colors would stand out a little more, and then we propped him up by the mailbox and chained him down so no one would take him.

Sure enough, a few months later we found him laying on the ground.  Someone had moved the boulders and tried to take him but stopped when they saw he was chained down.

For Christmas I thought it would be funny to start painting him for the different holidays.  We started with red and green.

 And then we added a strand of Christmas lights.

I had been hoping to paint it red, white, and pink with hearts for Valentine's Day but didn't have the paint or the time.

For Easter I knew we would do an Easter Egg, but the vision in my mind was much better than what my artistic abilities could create.

And then for the summer we painted him red, white, and blue and I even got smart and created a stencil to put some stars on him.

The plan was to paint him orange like a pumpkin at the start of October and I hadn't decided how to paint him between now and then.  He was stolen before I came up with any ideas.

Now that I've seen how the community liked him and liked watching him change, I'm determined to replace him and paint him more often.  It still won't look great as painting a metal rooster with spray paint isn't easy to do, but now that I've gotten smarter and I can make stencils, I think I can come up with some ideas.

This post was shared on Thursdays @ the Homestead Blog Hop

Stolen Rooster

Saturday night someone(s) stole our rooster.  :(  

We didn't leave the house from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning, so we didn't notice it missing until Monday morning.  The rooster had been chained to the mailbox post to prevent anyone from taking it, but the thieves ripped the mailbox out of the ground and took the rooster.

I posted on several community groups in the area and heard a lot of supportive posts, but even more than that, people were commenting on how much they liked seeing the rooster.  I didn't realize what a following we'd created with that rooster.

And then the community news paper ran a piece about it.  If I had known they were going to quote me when I sent them the quick email, I would have picked better words.  :)

http://bristowbeat.com/news/072913-bristow-woman-seeks-return-of-stolen-rooster-sculpture/

I filed a police report but wasn't given much hope.  

I'm thinking that some teenage or early-20s kids were out Saturday night and thought it would be funny to take it.  I can only hope that somehow someone who has seen this show up in their yard will see one of the community posts or the article online and will get it back to me, but I'm really not thinking I will ever see it again.

Sigh.  We're disappointed and surprised.  We knew someone would try to take it, it happen once about 18 months ago and when the thieves realized it was chained down, they just threw it in the ditch and left.  I never would have thought someone would go so far as to pull out the mailbox post.

If we replace it, which I'm sure we will do at some point when I have the money to buy a new one, I'm just not sure how to secure it since a chain didn't help.

Crazy Chicken Lady

I don't think I ever shared this great shirt that was given to me by one of my former students.  She'd been out to the farm several times and I was always thankful that she had the time and patience to sit and hold the chicks because I knew it helped them to be more social.  

Then one day she gave this shirt to me at school, I literally laughed out loud when I opened it up.  

She clearly knows me so well.

She recently moved with her family to Montana and I'll miss their visits.  I'm secretly hoping she will be able to live on some land and have her own little farm one day. :)

More guinea

I meant to post these pictures of the guinea keets three weeks ago when we got them.  There are 8 of them and while I can try to tell them apart now, it is impossible for me to tell them apart when they are adults.

Because it was so warm outside, I was able to move them out after a week in the house.

And at two weeks old they were already finding a way to the top roost in this old coop - it's about 4 feet off the ground!

Three weeks old