April Showers, Ants and Lemons!

Greetings All:

Weather Report:

They say that April Showers bring May Flowers.  Well.  Apparently the Nature Goddess who oversees Alberta's weather has missed the memo this year thus far!  It has been sunny and warm though.  Such a lovely reprieve!

Several of our spring bulbs are poking through including the crocuses, tulips and a few daffodils.  We have been working out in the garden and around the yard in the mornings, enjoying the sunshine, but by noon, the wind picks up and makes for some blustery climes.  The only amount of any precipitation so far has been some wet snow on Wednesday.  The forecast is for -8c over night and a snow storm on Friday night to late Saturday.  Quebec and the Maritimes are flooding and we are gasping dry.  Go figure?  Our hope is that we do get the big dump of snow as it stays put for a bit and actually adds some moisture to our parched landscape.  We even found some Spike Moss in the pasture while trimming the rest of the Green Ash trees the other day.  A true indicator of how dry we are.  April Showers/Flurries would be very welcomed here!

Crocuses announcing Spring!

Tulips starting to poke up

The Spike Moss aka Selaginella densa, a sure indicator of drought conditions

Greenhouse and Garden Update:

We have been working around the yard when the gale force winds haven't shut down our mission for the day.  All the trees are pruned now - and I am taking pruning course at the beginning of May, go figure?  It sprinkled a bit and the wind picked up on our last pruning day, but we are done!

We also got the raspberry patch cleaned out.  I missed it last year because we went from winter to summer within a week and I missed my window of opportunity to get it done without interference of the creepy nature.  Once the ants start moving around back there, I am done!  I become a buffet for them.  Literally!  Those little suckers hurt!  

One year while picking the berries, I kept getting a stinging sensation on my legs.  I didn't think too much of it until I got the same stinging sensation on my arm and flicked off an ant.  Well!  The light bulb went on and the pants came down!  I was crawling with the little beggars!  That took care of the raspberry picking that day.  I ended with 29 incredibly itchy and very painful ant bites on my legs!  It was pure torture.  No amount of antihistamines, vinegar swabbing, Bactine spraying, baking soda pasting, or itch relief cream helped.  

I discovered, entirely by accident, that the only real relief I got was when I first got into the shower and the water was too hot.  It stung a bit, but the itching stopped, if only for a while.  After that, I tried extremely hot compresses and low and behold, the itching stopped again.  Temporary relief is better than no relief.  After that, when a spot would flare up, I would hit it with the back side of a spoon run under scalding, hot water.  The burning of the spoon was temporary, but the itch relief lasted for several hours!  When I googled this oddity, it is actually the right thing to do.  Who knew?  

So now when I venture back to the raspberry patch, I am wearing heavy jeans, with two pairs of socks - one under the jeans, one pulled over top the jeans and lace up boots.  Bug spray doesn't even deter them.  The are vicious and very determined to take a chunk out of me!  They still crawl up the jeans, but can't bite through.  And the really funny thing is, they hardly ever bother Papa.  Go figure?  But then again, I can't leave the sidewalk in the summer or sand fleas attack my legs.  It's brutal!  And random wasps, hornets and mosquitoes go out of their way to find me for a quick snack.  Bugs don't bother some people.  And then there's me!

The good news is that 2 years of overgrowth of spent canes and grass have been removed from the raspberry patch. This, as well as 2 inches of compost has been added.  A good job, done!

The raspberry patch has had the old canes removed and we just need to remove the grass and add compost and it will be
ready for another growing season.

The Greenhouse is doing very well.  Apparently we had a few visitors in it though.  Papa noticed that the Leeks looked a little shorter one morning.  The next morning, they were sheared off to the top of the soil and some tell tale pellets were found in the vicinity.  A mouse trap baited with peanut butter netted a two mouse catch the first night and a single mouse the next.  He will keep the trap out there just in case they had friends over.  We don't let the cats into the greenhouse as they think all the lovely, fresh soil would be too tempting to pass up!  This and we don't need a wild chase in there with all those plants.  Hopefully all who entered, have now been removed!

Tomato plants getting ready to bloom

Cucumbers growing

Lemons!

We bought a bag of lemons at Costco a few days before Easter.  Suddenly our Easter meal took on a Lemon theme.  For the main course, we stuffed lemon halves into the 2 chickens that we put on the rotisserie.  The lemons inside the trussed up chickens help to hold them tight onto the post so they actually rotate on the rotisserie.  Then we added the juice of a lemon to my homemade BBQ sauce as a basting sauce.  The back yard smelled divine!  We were all drooling whenever we walked past BBQ area.  And it was absolutely delicious!

The second Lemon item was the Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Drizzle for dessert.  I even found some violets in the garden and sugared them for decoration with the lemon peels.  So pretty and very good as well.  We were two for two!

Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Drizzle and Lemon Curls and Sugared Violets on top

I still had half a bag of Lemons left that I really didn't want to spoil.  Papa can only use so many in his homemade iced tea.  I had remembered that I had seen a You Tuber dehydrate lemons to make lemon powder.  Why couldn't I dehydrate these lemons to make a Lemon Peppercorn blend?  We love lemon pepper but it can be difficult to find and is rather expensive when you do.  It is also ground up, so it doesn't stay fresh for very long.  If it doesn't work, I am out 7 lemons.

Lemons scrubbed and thinly sliced to fill all 5 trays of the dehydrator

12 hours later they are snap crisp

Lemons broken up and put thru the food processor.  I am mixing them with peppercorns so I do want the larger chunks.  I think my experiment is going to work very well!

We kept checking on the dehydration progress.  About 12 hours later, they are shatter crisp.  Not an speck of moisture is left in them.  And do they smell amazing!  I removed them from the trays and put them onto a baking sheet where I broke them up to put thru my mini food processor. The end result is bits of lemon rind and lots of powdery crystals.  And the smell is heavenly!  I will leave this sit in a jar for a few days to see if any residual moisture shows up.  If not, then I will make up a blend of the powder and peppercorns, to be ground as needed.  I am so excited about this!  It doesn't take much to amuse me, eh?  

Studio News:

I still haven't had much time out here in the studio.  There is definitely more to do than there are hours in the day this time of year.  In preparation for the stall we are going to be renting in the Antique & Mercantile Mall, I am wanting to make vintage items to follow the theme.  I made some clothes pin bags when I first opened the studio almost 3 years ago.  There had been a lot of interest in them, but I never considered making any more.  Perhaps now is a good time?  I made up a couple and will make up a few more.  They are my own pattern and I think they are pretty darn cute.  Papa will be making vintage style hangers for them, so they are not finished yet.  This is what I have so far.  

Vintage Style Clothes Pin Bags

Coop and Pasture Update:

The chicks have been moved to their new brooder pen.  They are doing well.  They are actively growing as we speak!  It seems that this heritage breed doesn't really go thru the awkward transition phase between chick and full grown chicken like our previous hybrid chickens have.  These guys and gals are actually still pretty cute!

Chicks in their new brooder area and feathering out

The three steers have all settled in nicely.  This is a nice quiet bunch.  They aren't spooky and are very calm when you approach them.  They obviously came from a gentle environment with lots of human interaction.  It makes our time with them a lot easier when they aren't jumpy and skittish.  They are nosy and very friendly.  A lovely bonus, indeed!

Our Three Boys enjoying supper.  

Papa got his fertilizer for our trees yesterday.  We spent this morning mixing and applying it in anticipation of the 6-8" of snow in the forecast.  We don't tend to fertilize our trees, but they were heat stressed last summer and had a rough winter this year, we thought we would perhaps give them a bit of a boost.  Our Spruce trees are particularly stressed looking.  At this point, we figured it wouldn't do them any more harm than what they have already gone through.

Until next time, hold your little ones a little closer and take the time to tell those whom mean much to you how much you love and appreciate having them in your life.  Life is precious and often too short.  Don't take any days on this planet for granted.  You only get your own allotment, without any guarantees.  

Take Care,

Gremlynn