It was amazing and she’s about the prettiest little thing. 6 lbs, 14 oz, a nice 9/10 apgar and nursed really well. Thank you all for the warm thoughts.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programing:
A lot is going on around here. The new furnace and hot water heater have been installed. The rest of the windows are on order and, as soon as we can count on the weather, the new roof and insulation are going over the living room. We plan to face next winter as tight and efficient as possible in a house built in 1863.
The plot plan for the garden is finished but I know we’ll be refining it. I have, as usual, gone overboard with my tree and bush order and all of them need homes. The time is also getting short if I want a couple of sheep in the back pasture. Bruce needs to lay in a call to the farmer who usually mows that field so we know where we stand.
My garlic is poking up as is the rhubarb, just in time for a late spring snowstorm.
How is your storage food holding up? I’m now out of broccoli and onions. The beets and carrots will make it to the next harvest and I’m drowning in jam. I love to make it but we just don’t eat that much. We go through a lot more fruit leather and dried fruit for sauces and frozen fruit for yogurt than we do jam. I don’t through turnips quickly enough to justify much garden space but I could have used double the peas (my last bag was eaten yesterday). I still have string beans but my dried peppers are all gone as is my dried spinach and zucchini. In general, I used a lot more dried vegetables than I expected but none of the canned vegetables got eaten. I needed more pickled beets but not so many dill spears. The bread and butters were just about perfect. It’s all tweaking, isn’t it? I’m also trying to calculate for feeding more people next year. I hope to ease things for my kids by offering produce.
I’ll get back to regular posting schedule next week. Thanks for your patience.
March 31, 2011 at 7:24 am
Congratulations Grandma! So glad she’s here and all is well. Does this gorgeous girl have a name?
March 31, 2011 at 7:42 am
congrats on the new grandbaby! Name??
My jam is over flowing too…it’s just so much fun to make. I’ll be making more juice next year I think.
Snow isn’t gone up here yet, so no veg poking through…and yes, I’m not looking forward to that storm! But at least it will be over and done hopefully after that.
March 31, 2011 at 8:22 am
She’s Mackenzie Jenkins (mom and gramma’s maiden names.
March 31, 2011 at 9:43 am
I like it!
March 31, 2011 at 10:26 am
We are so glad to hear about the new granddaughter! How many of your family live with/near you? It does make a difference in planning about how many folks will be eating the food and using up sundries! I am always amazed at how much food we go through when the family gets together for a meal.
March 31, 2011 at 12:20 pm
I like jam on my yogurt.
I know that you and the parents are all glad that Mackenzie is finally here.
March 31, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Congratulations! Pretty name for the little girl,too. I like MacKenzie.
peace, shamba
March 31, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Yay! So glad all went well! Lovely name, too.
Regular business…I had mentioned that we moved in December (Never move 2 days before Christmas, folks!)and have been busy updating our untouched-since-1950 kitchen, plus other areas. We just had the new windows put in and you can really feel the difference with drafts! New roof a few weeks ago, and that helped as well. You’ll be amazed when it’s all done, Kathy!
March 31, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Congratulations.
If you were to get a couple of sheep, would you go down the road of shearing them and then doing anything with the wool? Just curious…
KB xx
March 31, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Congratulations, I’m so happy everything is great. Our daughter had a miscarriage in December and it would have been our first grandchild. So heartbreaking for all. Hoping the next pregnancy will be fine.
I do have a question with regards to emergency food stocks, you say that you have eaten up certain food stuffs now, do you not keep any extra “just in case” before the next harvest? What would happen if there was an EMP strike now or other disaster? I have a pantry and cold cellar with about 6 mos worth of food and while I do use it, I immediately replenish what I have used. Thanks in advance for answering.
March 31, 2011 at 3:13 pm
A miscarriage is so sad. I had 2 and I remember grieving and no one much understanding why. I have a lot of other commercially canned and dried food but it really is for “just in case” With the long shelf life, I don’t rotate very quickly but it’s there to get us to the next harvest. What I grow is the good stuff.
March 31, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Congratulations!!
Lots of jam left here, too. We use them primarily for yogurt & oatmeal. Though I imagine we’d use a lot more of it in an emergency. I also use it for last minute, unexpected gifts. I will be working on refining the flavors I do. For instance we learned from last year that while we love drag strawberries, jam and frozen aren’t our favorite. Though the strawberry lemonade concentrate was nice. Anyway we’ll likely enjoy our own strawberries this year but not go picking. Blieberries on the other hand we need to pick about 3 times as much as we did last year!
March 31, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Congratulations! We have a new grandbaby girl, too! and my sympathies to Debbie – I had a couple of miscarriages also, and Kathy is right – no one really gets how sad it is. My prayers are with you and your daughter.
My husband finished our chicken coop, and still has the fence to build, but we will be getting our first chickens very soon! Our first 2 hives of bees will be here in late May. The next big project here is a passive air transfer root cellar in the basement – we have a perfect little area that even has a built in shelf. Sometimes I feel like I might have bitten off a bit more than I can chew – but I am having so much fun!!!
March 31, 2011 at 8:02 pm
I discovered that we don’t like all the seeds in our black raspberry jam! Especially in smoothies! We might not even use what I canned. I bought a food mill and tried running the jam though to get out the seeds. It got some out, but there are a lot of seeds!
April 1, 2011 at 6:44 am
Congratulations on the new baby daughter. Makes springtime even sweeter.
I’ve got jam here too. I really thought I’d use more but I guess I’m still learning quantities to preserve now that we’re empty-nesters. And I’ve got frozen strawberries too that I’m not sure what I’m going to do with. I think I might try dehydrating them this year instead of freezing.
April 1, 2011 at 6:45 am
baby granddaughter… sorry about that.
April 1, 2011 at 7:03 am
Bite your tongue Supermom!!! Grandbabies are all I want at this stage of my life>
April 1, 2011 at 8:16 am
Oh me too, me too, though I’m happy to wait for several more years for grandchildren, as well. The moment I hit “post comment” I realized I had mistyped. That will teach me for trying to post a comment so early in the morning.
April 2, 2011 at 5:50 am
I thought of that but he would poop in the soil.
April 13, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Congratulations on a healthy baby
Hm… maybe you could trade some excess jam for someone else’s excess something else? I still have winter squashes, but they’re still holding up well. The onions I didn’t keep cool enough, so I need to finish using them PDQ.
Another thought on excess jam — use it for tart or pie fillings.