God is so good!
Delicious, nutrient dense, full flavored produce that is beyond anything we can get in the stores!
These are some of our heirloom veggies, fruits and seeds we are working to gather before the birds and slugs do.  {Yes, (!) Jr. Farmer has a small green watermelon in there too! Do you see it between those two peppers?} Gratefully, we are gathering our biggest seed harvest yet that we'll dry to use in the garden next year. Dad found his favorite peas of those we grew this year and we are making certain to keep as much of that seed as possible. It's a treat to see him happily gobbling goodies in the garden with us.  

When you harvest your own seeds, they grow even better than those you can purchase as they are grown in your region, your climate, your soils...basically, your very own 'garden specific' seeds. In our experience they come up first and are the hardiest compared to seeds from other sources. We try to save the first and largest fruits/veggies from each of the plants for seed.

This year we have really enjoyed our tomatoes and found that starting them with a bit of Epsom salt, crushed egg shell and rabbit manure in their transplant hole brought the biggest, healthiest, most abundant crop we've ever experienced! That is one experiment well worth repeating. I even found during the heat they did not need watering as you would expect because the soils retained water and nutrients really well.  A great (and delicious) learning experience for all! 


Many of the seeds we started with we purchased from our favorite supplier:
www.HeirloomSeeds.com
They have excellent prices, great germination and quality -we've kept seeds for YEARS and they still grow well. We started getting their seeds over 14 years ago and today they offer even more varieties including organic seeds! They are a great resource to help you get your own 'garden specific' seed bank started.

 Although, it's not without it's work, the Lord's touch of abundance has filled out the Kitchen Garden rather nicely! As we no longer have the ducks to munch down all our slugs, and we did NOT get truly dry weather until mid-July, it has been a challenge to keep those munching mollusks at bay!

We were gifted Sunflower starts from Miss Judy,  bought some local sunflower mixed seeds from 'Chipping Twigs Farm' (acclimated better for growing) and we got some started from our own seeds.... I was determined to have some Sunflowers!
We had to wait to get all the starts in, but when it was warm and dry enough we planted them just in front of the wood chip border mounds. They are coming in well as a living privacy screen.  The slugs were able to get to some of them creating some gaps, (grrr!) so, I used some Jerusalem Artichoke (also from 'Chipping Twigs') to fill them in as they also do much better with soggy weather... They are getting quite tall, but have yet to flower....The bonus, these produce a high fiber root crop that will expand and produce even more next year!

We have also struggled with greedy, hungry MOLES!!! These guys have found the areas we topped with rabbit manure, or where we put it into the holes before we planted (I recommend this to everyone) and they love all the worms that gravitate to those nutrient rich spots. Unfortunately, as they tunnel, they tear up root systems and we go out to the gardens only to find giant sunflowers tipping because their roots have been seared. In the case of our raspberry patch (on the other side of the house), we've lost over a third because a mole tunneled through and we didn't know until the poor raspberries had baked in the heavy sun and were drying out so quickly! Because we mulched heavy with wood shavings in that area, it is much harder to see the digging and harder to get soil back into those roots.

We work diligently to make the soil rich for the plants and those moles want to fill their bellies on the goodness as well! We have tried a number of measures and have only trapped one mole so far... One thing we've noticed in our raspberry patch, the row we made a hugel kultur in was not affected. The wood chunks make it very hard for the moles to dig - so YaY! We're learning!
Making more of our beds hugel kultur will require quite a bit of forethought and work. But will be work for the winter, not now...

We are now harvesting HUGE heads of delicious broccoli that Jr. Farmer is showing off! They are 'the best broccoli' Dad says he's ever tasted. I was pleased they had solid, strong stems. I learned years ago that a local, large farm was having problems with hollow shafts on their broccoli. I researched it and learned it was due to low levels of boron. I believe the Lord has directed our efforts to avoid that with our soil amending & compost tea treatments and that is something many don't consider, but another aspect we're thankful for! Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ has poured out a fruitful garden for us!

After several months of productive composting, soils heaving with the freeze and settling again, I wondered if we'd have little to do but work what would be great garden loam for spring planting. After all, I'd found putting my rabbit litter in one area over winter resulted in beautifully rich soil in just a few months, years ago...but alas, this time -Not so much! 

This was not my previous rabbit manure mix and as it had sat in the weather before we 'harvested' it, it was a more soggy form when it was put into the original rows. I realized it had been distributed far too heavy in the limited areas and didn't get enough air to break down correctly. I went through with the pitch fork and tried to transfer it more equally amongst the entire garden patch but realized it was going to take more work to open up the clumps and allow them to break down. The challenge is, our soils stay wet a REALLY long time here in Washington; in particular, our property has a lot of evergreen trees (extra shade) and in some areas, quite a high water table and clay soils. For us this means we HAVE to wait until it's been dry for several days before we can even attempt to till, otherwise we'd have more chunks with a severely compacted soil base only a few inches down. Jr. Farmer and I tilled it once in April and we still had a lot of heavy manure chunks. Jr. Farmer tilled it again, going a different direction a while later - mind you, these dry day streaks aren't so common here... still a LOT of chunks! In between I was going out with the pitch fork breaking up pieces as best I could. Finally, in May, Lil' Miss was able to help us out and she went yet another direction. I was thankful for the help and grateful we had reached something I could work a bit better in...

We have an opportunity to offer our wares and demonstrate some heritage skills at a brand new, local fiber event this weekend, May 13-14th. We are thrilled to participate in the first Plateau Farmers Fiber Festival at the Buckley Hall in Buckley, WA. We hope this will become an annual opportunity for local fiber folks to share all the goods they've been creating and the fiber their animals have been growing!

We had an opportunity to sit down with the fiber focused minds that brainstormed this event and I assure you, they are working tirelessly to offer the best fiber festival they can! Really! We met up with them just this week (let the count down begin) and I was flabbergasted to hear about these ladies working for days on just a few hours sleep! PHEW!

Their labors of love led them to coordinate this fiber fest to offer an experience not found in the area. Each of these ladies keep fiber animals, from hobby flocks, on up to large herds and the closest event is the Shepherd's Extravaganza in Puyallup - several towns (and lots of traffic) away. We know a lot of knitters, crocheters and general yarn and fiber fans that yearn for a one stop shopping opportunity that is local, fibery goodness and we're pleased that this will 'fill the bill'.

So to all those in Orting, Graham, Eatonville, Sumner, Bonney Lake, Enumclaw, Buckley and more...it's here! Load the buses, haul your friends, grab your Moms and zoom on over to load up on luscious fiber, project supplies, and goodies for you and Mom!!!
(Yes, it's Mother's Day Sunday, what a perfect opportunity!)

It has been a wonderful treat to see the growth and progress in all areas of the garden.
Last year, as we were working on getting a new house in, we didn't get to work much in the garden. In fact, we did a LOT of dirt work, but the heavy equipment kind, taking out stumps, leveling the ground, bringing in big gravel, repairing the garden beds and getting branches and lots and lots of tree parts out. This year we are also having to use heavy equipment to move dirt away from the foundation making sure we are allowing for the 5% grade we were informed we're required to do. Beyond all that, we finally, finally got to dig into the gardens again.
This January we decided to add a new 'Kitchen Garden' to the other side of the house because the new kitchen window faces the opposite side of the house it used to. I enjoy being able to see the beauty of a garden as I'm working in the kitchen and while preparing meals and it's especially lovely to catch glimpses of easily accessible food we can add to what we're making! The previously existing weeds and grass were already gone because we had to clear out trees in that area and we finished fall 2016 by mulching it all with straw and keeping the remaining Maple tree's leaf litter in place.
So, I found an ad for someone needing their excess rabbit manure picked up  (woohoo!- top quality garden & worm food there) and we got the farm truck, pitch forks & shovels and filled it up not once, but twice! Each time we got it home the boys spread it in nice rows to prepare for a potential garden layout. I also put free, raw sawdust from a fine furniture maker in between those rows as a great mulch and to better define the planting areas. The rabbit folks were happy, the furniture store is happy, we are happy, and I'm dreaming of explosions of greens, pinks, and tall yellow and orange Sunflowers....aaahhh.....

Yes, that is our tiny farm guard we got from Grandma and Grandpa surveying our work and the giant stump (on the far left) is what's left of the huge tree that destroyed our old house. After the length was cut off, it ended up slowly righting itself over a period of weeks and looking like it never fell! I plan to mulch heavy around it and use it as a 'nurse tree' to grow goodies in the future!

Additional Note: Later, we were able to get some free local wood chips from a service doing work along our road. We used this to make a mounded border around the entire garden making a nice walking area and definitive line dividing it from the grass. This also acts as a nutrient hold capturing excess water or potential runoff and filtering it before it heads down the hill to filter again through the grasses toward the creek.

As the rain pours, the colorful birds settle amongst the branches and the bright frogs croak to each other...

This was an interesting fiber batt from another vendor a friend had asked Lil' Miss to spin. Unfortunately, Lil' Miss found it to be in such large, uncarded chunks that she couldn't spin it as thin as our friend desired and carding it ended up muddling the color. Time to deliberate...

During the next visit, I showed our friend some of my Luxury Loft yarns and offered to spin it for her in that style. Although she had not knitted with yarn so chunky, after I showed her finished projects that could utilize the yarn (like cowls & ear warmers and ways to incorporate other coordinating bulky yarns to make longer scarves that highlighted the more textured hand spun), she was excited and I was set to begin.

I began drafting it to spin and once I started some spinning trials I found the texture too coarse and knew that there was not enough of the batt to create the length of yarn she was hoping for. Knowing her finished knitting project was likely to be worn next to skin, I offered to incorporate some of my black Alpaca fiber to soften it, add length, and enhance the thermal value. Remember Alpaca is 4 times warmer than sheep wool.

With  some effort, deliberation and resourcefulness, this project offered an opportunity to work successfully through several challenges and the colorful solution is a cherished Luxury Loft yarn our friend appreciates handling, looking at, and soon knitting into a well loved project.
It's a treat to share the fruits of our joyful fun with fiber!

A year ago while we were displaced & living in a hotel I began working on my first weaving project with our new little table top loom. I talked briefly about the planning for it here. Lil' Miss and I have created shawls with our triangle loom in the past, but this was a new experience!
Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it in progress as we shuffled about during our various moves. I did however get some pics just before I gave it to the recipient, Miss Shelby!
That's something, right?

The wonderful variance of purples in the Concord vineyard highlight the stage of each grape as it ripens. Truly a sight to behold, what's and even greater joy? Harvesting the delectable fruit and savoring the sweet juices as it keeps for many days to come!

I really appreciate the vibrance of this yarn...the colors are so rich and the curls of the mohair I liken to the twirling grape vines. The Alpaca and Angora add juicy plumpness while the silk and firestar capture the light like glistening grapes after a rain.

Wow, can you believe it has been a full year since a HUGE tree took out our house?...
No longer will we hear a great wind and not consider the powerful crash that can follow it. There are things in life that will affect you the remainder of you're time on earth, this experience is one of those...
Planning a year in the future seems like such a LONG time, but considering a year in review makes you wonder if you could have done more!

Cold!!! Wet!!! Not much fun to work in...

Okay, so really, it's typical Washington weather but interestingly enough, things in the garden kept going for quite some time...I still had strawberries growing in November! That's unusual for us, but our first true, cold freeze didn't happen until pretty late this month. Typically we have our tomatillo plants growing late into October, and they were, but because we decided this summer to put a lot of effort into our 2017 garden, the plants were excelling from our extra effort.

As the sun begins to rise and the morning dew glistens, the warm touch on each lavender bud brings a sweet subtle fragrance through the tired, old barn....
Another adventure in Luxury Loft Yarn spinning is about appreciating the nuances of subtle hues.

This luscious your would make any number of lovely wearables....what will you make?

I loved the colors of the Candy Stripes Luxury Loft but I thought it would also look nice in a muted version. Utilizing the same fine fibers of Candy Stripes I toned it down and named it Candied Ribbon:

This beautiful hand dyed fiber blend is perfect for any season and includes:
Falkland, Merino, Angora Mohair, Tussah Silk, Alpaca, Blue Faced Leicester, Sari Silk, Firestar and Starbright.

I've been working on another hand dyed, bulky yarn creation and I love the muted colors of the subtle pinks, purples, whites and creams along with the rich and softened browns.

This luscious yarn is so soft! With Coopworth, Alpaca and Angora along with silk and some Firestar for flare...it has next to skin softness with just a hint of sparkle against a natural backdrop.
Like fragrant roses climbing an aging wooden fence...