Cabin 11 happiness

strawberry jams!

So thanks to Ella and Sarah, our neighbor friends who pick great berries for me, I have two batches of regular preserves and one batch of strawberry honey preserves! I must say, the honey used quite a bit less of sweetener, and it is soooo smooth reguarding the taste! You can taste the flavors happening! I have found a new recipe!

Broccoli from my garden, peas too!

Anniversary Dinner Table's

Rustic Tarts

These are 5 different flavors! One each of apple, peach, plum, strawberry and blueberry! About 4 cups of fruit on each, then for the apple and the peach I take unsweetened apple juice concentrate, heat and thicken with a tbsp of cornstarch poor it over the fruit on the tart (pie) crust, back 450 degrees for 30-40 minutes. The others I used black cherry concentrate and thickened it and poured over the fruit and baked the same. Yummy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side! ~Happy Anniversary~

Four Ways to Use Baking Soda in Your Garden - Planet Green

Four Ways to Use Baking Soda in Your Garden - Planet Green

Christine's Garden!

Take a look at this! My Sista in law has a container garden on her patio! My brother built her a frame to hang her topsy turvy's on and also built a tiered area in the garden! Lots of pots, hanging planters and even a blueberry and blackberry bush tucked into the built in planter! I am proud of their diligence in container gardening! I love it! Good job Chris and Jack! Hats off to you both!

Fishing Round Pond

We had a blast! Though Bass could not be taken until the season opens, next Saturday, we had a grand time catching and releasing them. We did take about 26 fish, Crappy's, that Dad then cleaned and cooked for an early supper! Oven roasted herb potatoes, pickled beets, home made cole slaw, sweet tea, followed with a Blueberry pie,a Strawberry Rhubarb pie made fresh that morning, and Dawns famous Southern Oreo cookies.
Dad's fish recipe is as follows:
clean your fish well, bone it too!
in a sack, place 2 cups flour, 2 tsp pepper, 2 tsp salt, some garlic powder. Place a few fillets in at a time, shaking them around to coat dredge the fillets in and 4 egg and 1 cup milk mixture, then dredge the fillets in dried instant potato flakes.
Fry in a hot oil, about 350 degrees turn when brown, brown other side, drain on brown paper bags serve with some lemon wedges or tarter sauce. Yum this will do about 50 fillets

Don't forget, click on the picture to get a larger view!

Vegetable Garden!

the 1st photo is one of the new fencing I installed today! Little bunny foo foo can't get through this! Darn rabbits are prolific this year! Where is Matt?
The 2nd photo is of the tomato bed in the front of the garden. This bed also has beets around 2 sides and carrots around the other 2.
The 3rd bed is potatoes and squash and cucumber.
the 4th bed contains 2 kinds of peas and 6 types of greens.
the last photo is the length of the garden with a few chickens in the background along with the bee hives. The fields were just mowed so it all looks great! Also, while looking through notice all the blackberry flowers! Even some berries are forming! There were many little bees doing their job today! They did not mind me doing mine either!

Hummus!

This is a portion of the Hummus that I made for Sabbath lunch today.
I want to share my yummy recipe with you!

CATHI'S HUMMUS

1 can of chick peas/garbonzo beans drained
2 cloves of garlic, smashed & skinned
Juice of a large lemon
Juice of a large lime
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup of tahini
1/2 tsp sea salt

Put all these the ingredients into a food processor ant let it go
for a good bit of time. I actually used regular raw sesame seeds
in this recipe, so I let it go for 5 minutes while I prepared my vegetables. The garlic makes it spicy, so use less if you would like! This is a great base, not a lot of oil, just enough to bring it all together. I have left out the oil completely and find no difference. Enjoy, let me know if you tried it and what changes you might have made!

Round Pond Farmstead

So what do you think? I figured I need a name for my operation. We sell eggs now, we also will sell honey, I am going to start making some floor cloth mats to sell, maybe some place mats also. I have been saving my egg money to buy supplies for painting old fashioned type oil cloth. My logo on the honey jars will be a pic of our place from the road with the lake in the background, farm in the foreground. I can also use it as my label and stationary header. Give me some input!

Smaller hive!

This is a frame from the smaller hive. I am a bit concerned about this hive, but will go to my book and do a little studying up on the health of a smaller hive. The bee's are only using 3 frames to draw the comb, the other hive is using all the frames and is thick with comb already. I did not look for the queen which I will do later this evening when the sun goes down and they are a bit calmer. I will at the least have to make sure I feed this hive over winter. My biggest concern is loosing the bee's to the other hive robbing it of their honey. Will probably have to close the hive with the exception of the feeder as well as putting sugar in the lid. Will keep the details coming as things progress. I will probably treat this hive as a smaller one that has swarmed.

well, I finally got out to check and the queen is still there. The bee's are quite active in their work and might even have some larva going in some cells already. Each colony should have about 20,000 to 30,000 new bee's before winter. Likely one will have more than the other since we had the migration at the onset of the endeavor. Time will tell...

Large bee hive

The pic above is the larger hive opened up



This has been about 10 days. One hive is over full of bee's and the other is only 20%. Obviously the large is made up of 80% of the other. I had to feed them, so I geared up, smoked them and checked in on them! Wow! I will probably put medium super with frames onto the "large" hive. They are even capping comb already, preferably brood, which is young workers to hatch out, that is the larva the queen lays. Also looks like a bit of honey being made also!

Bee's!

Amazing to see all those bees in that screened cage. One screened cage per hive. This was very interesting being a newbie and all! It was a calm experience! Though Susan was a bit crazed about it!
Oh yeah, I got a bit cocky and opened the hive w/o my protective gear, let's say that won't happen again! One sting on the elbow and a bee in my hair, thankfully I did not get stung in the head.

Some where over the Rainbow!

we just happened to look out and saw this rainbow in a place we never saw them in before! And it hadn't even rained! The sun hit the clouds at just the correct angle to get this! The pic does not even begin to capture the essence of color it gave off!

Mothers Day Bouquet!

Melissa Ben and Eli sent me a wonderful arrangement from Roaring Oaks florist in Sharon Ct. I love all the flowers in this arrangement and can even reuse the tub this arrangement came in! They were so sweet to send them! hugs and kisses to all of you! Love mom!

Mother's Day Rose!

Matt and Susan surprised me with a yellow rose bush for Mothers Day! I had a spot in the lower part of the Rock Garden that I was able to dig and place this beauty in! There is now 2 small pinkish reds, a low spreading rose, and now a striking yellow! Will post more photos when it blooms!

Well hello Dolly!

I mentioned that I was making a dolly for 'Bella, which is posted in a previous blog page. So my mother mentioned she never had a home made rag doll, so I made her one for her 74th birthday! Her doll is a bit cutter and softer in color. I adore the hair on her and the pinafore is from leftover curtain material I have in my sun room!

Young Ducks!

These youngsters came on board here about 6 weeks ago! They have grown very quickly! In the tub is a duck pile up! The one outside is a bit smaller and the old Ducky Girl actually dominated her in the water earlier in the day so she finds it safer to stay out of the tub at this point! So fun to watch! They go back to the coop every night with the chickens!

Bee Hive

In a week this hive will be full of a few thousand busy bees! We are so excited to have a new hobby! One that is fun, beneficial, gives back to the nature, and can provide an income in another year or so!
Home grown honey! We will have 2 hives to start with, so tune in next week and hopefully I will have a video posted filling this hive! Gonna bee and experience!

Happy Birthday Bella!

This is a doll I made for a birthday gift for a friends grand daughter who is a cutie pie. Tired of spending hard earned cash on plastic, I thought I would make a gift, which seems to be more and more my M O if I dare say! I hope it is liked, except for the pink cheeks, the face has been embroidered on. I drew a heart on her heart and wrote Bella, baby's name, then I signed her butt with my initials and the year!

Mels wedding gift!

A Double Irish Chain quilt, I made for Melissa my daughter and her new husband Ben! A wedding gift from mom!