Coffee & such

Isn't this a cute napkin? It is totally embroidered and hemmed by hand. I got 6 of them at the Goodwill outlet in Indianapolis (THANKS Chris Meador). Chelsea and I are planning a trip to the Salem, Oregon Goodwill this month. Everything is by the pound so of 50lbs of stuff for 10 bucks was excellent!

While having my coffee this morning I realized it has been a while since I have written so I thought an update was in order.

Last night we had our first big dinner from the garden. Except for the chicken (which we did not butcher ourselves) everything came from the yard, corn, potatoes, zucchini and all the herbs, ok not the butter, and it was delicious.

The garden has done well, so far, we have collected chard, zucchini, potatoes, snap peas, corn, peas, beans and lettuce.

The bad news... the tomatoes have been assaulted by deer and my in ground potatoes where mainly eaten by the ground squirrels, luckily we have both in pots on the deck . Next year the plan MORE POTS!

Bill has done really well in producing compost and it looks like we will have plenty for next years crops. His large potato box is looking good and he has decided not to dump it till October. We still have onions, pumpkins, squash and cabbage coming.

My black walnut tree has grown about 2 ft this year so it got a heavy pruning. I am hoping that the 3 sumac trees I got from Claudia will live and I will plant them this week.

The blackberries and raspberries are looking good and Bill has already made a few jars of jam of the raspberries. He also made some delicious mint jelly from the rampant mint we have.

This weekend he has dried parsley, thyme, dill and oregano.

It has not been a banner year for flowers. I think the weather played a big factor there all the flowers were rather sparse. More compost next year should help and more early weeding.

Our chickens are doing well and we are hoping to have some more eggs soon and maybe even a few more grown chickens coming our way. I am totally looking forward more quiche! 

On Saturday I brought out three loads of bark from our woods for my flower beds and weeded some.

The reality of that sentence is I was out ALL DAY Saturday weeding and it still looks like I never touched it. Today the weed wacker comes out and then I am going to cover the areas in cardboard and mulch like crazy!

Yesterday I spent the day building an ETSY shop  http://www.etsy.com/people/maryjomcgraw?ref=si_pr  http://www.etsy.com/people/maryjomcgraw?ref=si_prhope this link will work. Just another step to working a 4 day week and being home more, fingers crossed!
Looking forward to a beautiful fall.... WE hope!