Buzz....A Busy Bee

       Did you know all of those beautiful blossoms you see in early spring will turn into delicious fruit later on?  I guess we all learned this at some point during our education, but maybe never really thought about it since.

        All the blossoms that seem to popping up everywhere this time of year are just simply a blossom unless a bee comes along to pollinate the flower and turn it into something extraordinary.

       This morning these tiny little bees where busy turning tiny little white flowers into juicy delicious strawberries to be enjoyed in a little over a month. 



      You can see a bloom in waiting right next to a flower that is spent and beginning its transformation into a strawberry.  Funny how it already starts resembling a strawberry.  The center light green area will keep growing and changing until a red strawberry appears.  

    Next let's take a look at a peach blossom.  A few short weeks ago my two young peach trees were covered in pink blossoms.  You can see the faded blooms in the picture above.  Thankfully the cold snap we had back then didn't stop the bees from doing their job.

        The late frost did cause some of them to drop off, but that is ok.  Last year we had to pick some of the undeveloped peaches off.  As they were growing it put too much stress on the tree.  The leaves were turning yellow and beginning to drop.  All of the tree's nutrients were going to the fruit instead nurturing the tree itself.    I imagine we will have to do some selective plucking again this year. 





       The young peach will continue to grow out from the center of the blossom until the dried brown blossom falls off revealing the smallest peach.  Peaches will continue to grow and grow until they ripen in August.  

      Side note: Peach blossoms only develop on new growth.  So if you prune a tree too heavily in the spring you might not get any blossoms.  Often times peach trees are pruned in the fall to prevent this.

       Then there is the apple tree.  This is the first year we have had blossoms on our two young trees.  We can't wait to taste their delicious fruit in September.    
        Side note: Apple blossoms only appear on old wood, which is why it took the apple tree one more year than the peach tree to have fruit.  These  branches are two years old.  Also this means your blossoms will be concentrated in the center of a young tree. 

        Raspberries are a little different than fruit trees.  This cluster you see is all new growth this year.  The new growth will spend all year growing and not produce any berries. 

        This stem on the other hand grew last year.  Therefore it's stem looks more wood like instead of soft and green.  It will produce berries this year.

       If you look closely at it you can see the berries already beginning to develop in the center.  Raspberry bushes don't blossom in the spring.  The seed clusters appear as the leaves unfold.  Then sadly next year this shoot will be dead. 
       To keep the raspberry bed from getting too full of briars I trimmed out all the dead stocks yesterday with a good pair of leather gloves. 

       After three short years our orchard is coming along nicely.   With continued care they will produce abundant fruit in the years to come.  
       Along the way we did learn a few things.  Our orchard is in a slight low spot, which means we have to find a new place to grow a cherry tree.  They don't like wet feet.   The only reason it lived the first year was because we were in the middle of a drought.   

 

 





Lenten Journey

      Our journey begins today.  Lent is a time for prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  Ever since I was a little girl my parents instilled in us kids that during Lent you abstain from sweets and eating in between meals.  In addition to that there was always one thing we either did or did not do that would make us a better person.
      This Sunday in anticipation of today Fr. Szydlik gave a powerful sermon, which made me rethink my journey this Lent.  Fr. Szydlik challenged us to "begin with the end in mind." One of the seven  habits of highly effective adults.  At Easter all of us need to feel a deeper connection with God.  The only way to get there is to focus on prayer.  If we choose to give up chocolate, pop, or something similar in the end all we can say is, "Yay, me!"  I can go 40 days without doing such thing.
        During these days when our world seems to be separating itself more and more from God's plan for us, we need PRAYER.  Every good thing in our lives is truly not because we did x or y, but because of God's grace and mercy.  Through prayer and lots of it, we can start to turn this world around. 
        Fr. Szydlik listed three ways to help us focus on prayer.  One was to list three things you are grateful for everyday.  Then spend quiet time in prayer reflecting on those gifts.  At this point I thought, "Wow, he is speaking directly to me."  Recently I have found myself being a Debbie Downer.  Looking at the gifts in my life will help me get a new perspective. 
        Second was to go to confession once a week.  He knew this was a huge challenge considering many people haven't been to confession in years.  He even said if you think you don't sin, go through an examination of conscience every night. You will be surprised at the things you will find to confess.   Once again, nail on the head.  When I was teaching I would go to confession once a month with the school kids.  It did help to keep you focused on the end goal in this life, HEAVEN. 
        Third was to challenge us to go to Stations of the Cross.  For those of you who don't know, Stations of the Cross are traditionally held on Fridays during Lent.  Catholic churches will often have fourteen images on the walls of the church that commemorate the last day of Jesus's life on Earth. They begin with him being condemned to death and ending with him being laid in the tomb.  During this devotion, which is like a mini pilgrimage, you recall what Jesus went through and meditate on it before moving to the next station.  Personally I find Stations of the Cross are very powerful whether it is using an elementary level reflection with the school kids or an adult level reflection in the evening.   
       Challenge accepted. 
       Prayers that our world turns to God in times of need instead of just ourselves. 

Expanding the Hog Operation

 

   In 2016 we are going to start a farrowing operation.  This decision did not come lightly.  Breading and raising baby pigs is a lot more work, but the difficulty of getting enough finishing pigs at a profitable price pushed us to the decision.

       After looking into how many sows we would need to get enough babies to fill the pens, we decided the goal is to get to the point where we will have 20 sows.  We could split them into two groups of ten with each group have baby pigs two times a year. 

        As we speak my husband and the neighbor are on their way to gets some gilts.  A gilt is a female pig that is yet to have a litter of piglets.  (By the time I was able to finish this post, they are back and the pigs pictured are them.)

      To get ready for our new adventure my husband built two hog huts.  He modeled them off some old ones his grandpa built years ago.  He used some tin and boards we had around the farm. 

       The first one has a slanted roof to keep the rain out.  The sides and back are slanted in so when the sow goes to lay down she doesn't squish her babies. 

      Looks like there is plenty of room for a momma and babies.    Since we don't have a pen for the boars, this will probably be theirs. 

        The next one is in an A frame and top notch....for used materials. 

       The edges of the door are wrapped to keep the sow, or son, safe from cutting herself on the sharp edges of the tin.  



        One modification from his grandfather's is he put a 12 inch door on the back.  This way he can pull out any dead baby pigs without having to fight the sow.  No matter how good of a mother sow you have, she will loose some. 

      On the A frame he lined it with plywood before putting the tin on to provide a little bit more insulation on cold days. 

        The hog huts are nice because you can pick them up and move them to clean them out. Then you don't have work bent over with a pitch fork to clean the manure out.  Also they make great summer pigging shed because they get more air. 

 

     Step two in getting ready is converting the chicken house into a farrowing shed with 10 pens.

       First we had to clear out all the old chicken coops.  Each box was a nest for a chicken laying an egg. A young healthy chick should lay an egg everyday, but we are getting off subject.  Back to building. 

      The layout is a center aisle with five pens on each side. 

     As you can see when the sow is in her pen you have to slide her door up, which lets her out into the aisle before going outside.

        Once in the pen there are two by fours screwed in about 12 inches in from the side and 10 inches off the ground.  This allows the babies a safe place to escape to when momma lays down.  Otherwise a few would get squished between the wall, floor, and momma.

        Unlike most hog confinements where a sow goes into a pin just big enough for her to stand and lay down for six weeks, there is plenty of room for momma to turn around and move. 

        In the future running electricity to the shed will be nice so you can see after dark and have outlets to plug in heat lamps next winter. 

     Step three is building pens for two boars and bred gilts before they pig.  It will be awhile before we have babies because the gilts are still babies themselves.  We are just trying to get ready before the weather gets nice.  That's when things get busy on a farm.

    Derick is getting to know his new gilts.  Trying to tame them and get them used to humans will make them easier to handle when they are pigging.

       Copper saw us out with the pigs and he had to join us.  The pen is too tall to jump so he squeezes between the pipes on the gate.





LOVE

      One last sewing project to share.  Now that I got my sewing fix, it is time to get back to sanding and painting.  Winter is flying by and I still need to get the bathroom done and 4 heaters painted.

     Using some leftover binding scraps from earlier project I was able to create three hearts and spell the word LOVE.  

       The most challenging part of this whole project was figuring out how to get the angle just right on the V and still keep it the same size as the L and E.  If I were to make this again.  I would reduce the spacing between the heart O and other letters.

       For the backing I found a print with cupids arrows flying around.  The perfect ending to a Valentine's table runner. 

       I found this print on pinterest of I Corinthians 13:4-8.  Then I had to print it off and frame it.  Last Sunday this was one of the readings and Fr. Tony had a perfect homily to go with it.   He told a story using this reading to reflect on how a parent struggling with depression and alcoholism, the spouse, and child might interpret it.  I wish I could have given my full attention to it.  As the case with all mothers, our attention is often distracted by little ones. 
       
        

Dresden Plate

      After putting the Christmas decorations away, the house looked so empty.  I decided a table runner for our console table in the living room was needed.  This Elementary charm pack called to me with it's blue, tan, and black color scheme.  It just screamed winter to me. 

       The dresden plate design gave the impression of a snowflake at first.  Now that it is finished I think it looks more like a sunflower minus the yellow.  Since January flew by maybe next year it will make it's appearance. 

Among the Stars

       I just happened to have a layered cake of Miss Kate in my stash begging to be made into something.  A layered cake is usually consists of 42- 10 inch squares of fabric from a designer.  This darling quilt took only 12 squares to make, which means there is plenty leftover for a future project.
    

        The quilt top has been completed for awhile.  With an upcoming baby shower this weekend, it was time to pull it out and finish it.   

       All ready to wrap another one of God's greatest gifts.

Winter Fun

           With our mild winter, snow has been hard to find, but a couple weeks ago Evan got to experience the joys of sledding.  The first time down the hill he wasn't so sure about it.  After getting to slide down the hill and ride the sled back to the top, he changed his mind.