What "Witchy" things are brewing up at our place?

The medicinal herbs have produced well so far. I have Yarrow flowers, Comfrey leaves and the beginings of Calendula flowers empowering the Cold Processed- Extra Virgin Olive oil. With an early start this year on the herb collection, I should be set for the Fall making of Salves.

We have also started the harvesting of culinary herbs. I am using the "brace size" rubber bands to hold the stem bundles with a twine piece in it to tie on the Herb line. I have one on this Kitchen side and one on the dining room side of the room divider.


Being so in tune with the nature around us this year, has brought more creative dreams brewing at night.
Once again, I started with the base of the face and ended up walking away. It was 2 more days before I could feel it calling me. (I'm sure being so happy, knee deep in herbs, distracted me for a bit).
I decided to try my hand at making this a wall fountain piece. Admiring the intricate lines of my grape vine leaves gave me one of those light bulb moments. I created the leaves with ones harvested from those vines and could not be happier with how well it did turn out. At least for an amateur such as myself....
Here is your sneak peak at a portion of the project:


And a great big bear hug Thank you to Chris and Lisa at the 1 Acre homestead for letting me pick strawberries from your magical strawberry producing spot. They have already harvested 28 pounds from that bed! I filled a large rectangle berry flat and you could see there would be plenty more ready this week for them.
I made a 1 gallon crock of strawberry wine with our trip to the local field a few weeks back & 2 gallons of strawberry wine from the magical 1 acre homestead plot.
I always hear that song in my head when I think or say Strawberry wine....
** "Strawberry wine" by Deanna Carter**here's a link for ya' folks)**


And just so you do not think I forgot- Here is another clue as a picture to an upcoming (in July) Project. And it has nothing to do with my oh so loved recent Curb side find seating:


I have a new lettuce raised bed to fill up and a Front yard which needs some TLC this weekend- hardcore! Oh, and I need to call the Blueberry shack and see when the Blueberries will be ready for us to pick and get out to the Secret spots to check on those wild Black Raspberries...heheh. It's Summer people! Yay!
Sweet Dreams,
~Tammie

My green man is almost complete...

When I get in one of those moods and can not seem to get out of it, I find doing something creative with my hands acts as a meditation. Pulls me out of the negative mood. My little brother Army told me "Sis, don't stop doing your thing with the clay". I have just sat and stared at the bag of clay, not feeling inspired since I brought it home.
Then I decided that if I just open the bag, touch the clay with my hands, my creative mind would kick in.
And it did:

I read somewhere that The Green man is also a representation for new beginnings. Life and death of everything living, the ebb and flow of life.
It seemed fitting that my hands started going the way of this wall hanging Green Man for the particular mood I have been in for a few weeks now.
It's odd really. I just blank in and out while I sculpt. Time speeds by and it feels like minutes, not hours.
I began this in the late afternoon yesterday as the kids play with their friends on the back deck. After an hour, I covered the base with saran wrap and walked away for the night. At 3 am I awoke and felt compelled to get my hands back on the clay. At 7 am the above is what came of it.
Here is a view to show the inside portion of the bottom leaves which I hope will hold a tea light and herbs in the future:


I have some tweaking to do and finsihing touches, so what you see is only 95% done. The bottom leaves will be opened up a little more to accommodate a tea light and the face needs a few touch ups along with general "clean up".
I feel lighter. I can feel myself smiling and the negative energy I felt around is once again disappearing.
"He dances the Moon with power and grace
Amidst the hills and trees, in His sacred space
A dancer moving swiftly between the realms
There in the leaves . . . . what do you see?
If you honor the Old Ways ~ it may be He"
The magic of creation. It's an amazing thing.
Sweet Green dreams,
~Tammie

Stroll through the unorganized garden at Dusk...

The rain has been coming down and keeping us inside, I missed my morning walks and evening strolls through the garden. I was afraid I would miss so many of the flowers which had just begun to show. This particular Foxglove was planted last year. They do not bloom until the second year. I was so excited to see it today!(*Looking back, I think this is the Marshmallow herb I planted or a stow away from another seed packet.Hmmm...now what ever happened to those fox Gloves?..)

The long Pie pumpkin patch has exploded with this rain. There are tons of pumpkins the size of fat hot dog buns beneath the cover of their large leaves.

The sunflower wall, behind the cucumber tepee's will soon need thinning and some moved to The Captains garden down the hill.


Imagine my surprise to find the tomato patch in need of their supports in just 1 week's time. And the weeds once again standing their ground against my battle...(check out that beautiful and for so long waited on Mesculan!)


I added in 2 raised bed box's for Romain lettuce and will be adding another for just Mesculan down by the driveway. During the later parts of fall these will be utilized for more greens to eat through the cold months- hence the closer raised bed by the house front.

While inspecting our grape vines and trying to figure out what is happening with them...


I found this little friend hiding beneath one of their leaves:

Which reminds me. I have not shared the state of the hive!
It seems our queen has died and there is not another in there to replace her. The bee's seem to have not noticed and continue to work-Thankfully.

Our Bee man is hoping to get a new one for the hive here soon.
It appears I need to clip some chicken wing feathers. Not that they stray where they should not, but I rather they only roam when I LET them out to do so.
We lost all but 1 baby rabbit. They were let out by an undisclosed (not from our house) child while we were gone one day and roamed out to a neighbors yard.

A neighbor's yard who I have seen spray chemical on the dandelions. There was just one baby left in the hutch with the mom and that is also the one which has survived (now who roams in the chicken pen with it's mom). I think they passed from poisoning.
We are also down to 1 silkie chick. The big Delawares stomped the others during a food stampede...
The children have been enjoying their See Saw and a second swing replaced on the Magick Tree.
We have not made many trips away from home but the fun times we are having make it just fine.
Panda has begged for her own rose bush so she can try her hand at making rose water (with The Captain's moon shine still -I told her that it was for making flower water and essential oils instead of having her repeat to someone at school "oh, my dad has a moon shine still!" during a lesson of History...). So I surprised her with a big bunch of divine scented pink roses placed in a crystal glass next to her bed.
I wake hours before the sun rises and made my way to the old farmstead I dug my Antique Roses from a few years back. I carried my basket along the 100 foot length of old Rose bush's and clipped from the street side. Once I had a good bunch for her, I searched out a new green cane grouping which had grown a distance away from the grouping.(I have gained Permission to remove the bush and roses every year as long as it is from a new "in the way" growth and of course cutting roses just helps keep it tidy since I cut away dead cane while I gather.)
As she opened her eyes in the morning, First thing she had seen were her roses & her nose was be greeted with their pleasent scent.

She was very pleased.
I have been taring down the rotten wood under the house front windows. The plan was to scrape the old paint off before applying a new layer. Nope. As always a simple job turns more intense when dealing with this place.
Panda has a birthday camp out coming up and the outside jobs will at least be done by then.
Hopefully anyway.
I have a project to share soon which I think many of you may find rather interesting.
A hint? We have wood floors....
That is all you get for now.
Sweet Dreams,
~Tammie

Feels like summer camp has begun at the Urban farm...

Tractor Boy's dad is bringing over a big 5X6 (8 ft tall) shed for me. I went to look it over yesterday and it has good bones. Not the prettiest thing to look at but the bones are perfect for the cordwood coop. I may shorten it to 6 1/2 feet tall. I really do not like the height.

I can already see the curbside find of those garage door top windows across the top, allowing the morning sun to warm the ladies and awaken Ray Ray to crow his greeting to us.
It may not be a pleasant site for a little while, but at least they have a safer place to roost at night. I saw a coyote across the road in the opening of the woods. We are so behind on projects. I had hoped the Solar pit would be in place before the coop so I can position the coop as to not interfere with the access of sunlight to the pit greenhouse. At least we have it dug down to the hard clay which will give a good idea on a placement which is best with shadows.

Tomatoes have been flowering real nice on thick deep green stems. The Long Pie pumpkins have little pumpkins! The mesculan gave us a first harvest yesterday- enough for us to enjoy a large salad and give some to Tractor Boy's dad. The beans are behind thanks to those pesky crows (and the now retired to 3 yr old Frog's tea parties with daisy crowns adorning his head~ "Salad Bouncy Ball" the Owl).
The strawberries are invisible to adult eyes while the children have red stained fingers and lips. The weeds are putting up a good fight. They have super powers this year. No really, I can not keep up! I am determined today to start the Hay/newspaper even if it is just a small spot at a time. I will not let them take me! I will squash out their efforts of an uprise a little at a time.
The San Marzano tomatoes have not grown past a 1 1/2 inch height. It is like they are stunted!
I am getting a bit nervous about the market being just 4 weeks away. I can only hope the garden gives me a good variety and amount to bring for the opening day.
I also changed my Bakers Creek seed order since they were so kind to call me and let me know they did get some Sweet passion Melon seed back in! YAY! So I removed the tigger melons and added the Sweet passion, some long island brussel sprouts( my kids devour Brussels sprouts or as my Cousin Matt called them when I was 9 and his mom brought them to the table..."Alien heads". I giggle every time I hear the kids call them that.) plus some little fingers carrot seeds.
Hopefully they are here before the week's end. I need to get them into soil ASAP.
My Leaf casting came out nicely. One of the kids have to do another. I felt horrible when I lifted the cement to only have it split in my hand. I plan to do Papier Mache' birds with them this week. Thought it would be nice to do a few like the ones I saw in Viva Terra.


I thought they would make a nice addition to their concrete leaves. After we paint them, we use a waterproof durable clear finish so if they like, they can put their leaf casting "bird bath bowls" along with the birds outside their home. Now I need to come up with something they can make for their gift for Fathers day... Something kinda manly, but does not involve sharp objects to make.LOL. I do not need 7 kids with saws, screw drivers or other shop equipment surrounding me.
Maybe we can make plant bags like these ones (also at Viva Terra) with a tomato plant in the top for them to give. No pockets, but a simple bag planter they can hang since their dogs dig up any flower/veggie beds they have tried to plant.

I buy Lamb and rice formula dog food from Purina one. Their bags are the woven plastic which would work nicely and should make 2 from a single large bag. The inside is white which would look having green leaves tumbling from the top and cherry tomatoes hanging like gems.

I'll run it by all the kids to see what they think. I can always work one on one with my machine out on the back deck.
I have Cubs getting loose- a break in their box thanks to kids sitting in their with them has given an escape for closed eye puppies to wander.. I can hear their "momma where are you?" cries.
Sweet dreams,
~Tammie

School's OUT for SUMMER!

We have been enjoying casual day's here as of late. Observing the garden wild life has been rather nice. I guess we have the toad's "stamp" of approval since they have laid eggs in the new garden pond- we have never seen eggs in any other water feature we have placed in there. Clicking the picture will enlarge it for a much better view of detail:

How do I know they are toad eggs? well here is the difference between frog and toads
"It is easy to tell toads' eggs from frogs' eggs. Toads'eggs look like long strings of black beads, held together with clear jelly. Frogs' eggs are laid in bunches like grapes."
as found this *page*
We have also been enjoying the baby bunnies who have been adventuring outside their garden side pen. But they had to be "jailed once the adventuring brought them too far away:
We did a hike through our "secret" trail to check on the black raspberry growth. Looks to be a good year if I can beat the other people to them. I do believe my spots have been compromised..LOL.
While we were out, we picked some large Burdock leaves to use in our leaf casting with a mixture of 1 part portland cement(the smooth kind without small rocks) to 3 parts play sand(consistent smooth small granules).
I bookmarked the Artistic Garden site over a year ago so I could play around with the project and am just now getting around to it. Trust me, it's not as hard as it might seem.
Panda and 2 of the neighborhood kids her age made their own leaf castings with me. They used a sunflower leaf and pumpkin leaves while I used a large Burdock. I think my cement layer is a touch too thick.. We will see soon enough. It takes 2 days to dry.

There was a good amount of cement sand mixture left over so I used it to make a bird bath. I dug a hole in the Long Pie Pumpkin patch area to use as a mold. Not perfect , but I like it. The flowers, leaves & Yarrow "ferns" are for an imprint picture. There is tiny stones scattered on top just for color once the organic material is pulled/washed away.

The puppies are growing great. Poor Grizzle has been snoring hard due to her continuous care of these 6. There is just 1 boy in the bunch. How amazing is that? It is one of the pure black ones.

The Captain has caught the Garden bug. He decided he would grow his own peppers and such which I will not grow in the garden. Mostly due to the fact I can pick them at the U-Pick farms for cheap. Of course, I will give him a break for using Hybrid seeds he picked up at the Dollar general. Everyone starts somewhere. The kids were more then happy to help Daddy out:


The whole family was out, including Griz and her Cubs. It's kinda funny to see her so protective that she barks at car's driving by the yard. She kept the chickens out of the area who were determined to help with bug control but she would not let them near those cub's!
Her mothering instinct is strong. Frog had a baby bunny in the house and put it in with Griz while she was feeding her babies and refused to let us take it back out. We had to distract her with grapes and yogurt just so I could grab the bunny.

Now she is determined when she eyes the bunnies, she must catch them and try to put them in her whelping box...OY! So I guess it is a good thing they have been caged up with their long eared mum.
I have seed's coming from Baker's Creek Heirlooms. They are having a free shipping special so I ordered a seed pack each of Tigger melons, a Banana Melon and the Green Zebra tomatoes.
I so badly wanted the Sweet Passion Melon. They were out of stock which broke my heart. So I got 3 out of the 4 I have had on my wish list.
I hope they are here soon so I can get the melons planted. I think it may just be too late to do the tomato seeds. I might try a few of the seeds just to chance as an experiment.
Much to do as always. Projects to plan for the week so my 3 cubs are not bored and romp in the garden to keep it at least half way weed free.
Weeds grow 3 times quicker while you sleep, ya know..LOL.
Sweet dreams,
~Tammie

Grizzle had her cubs and garden-isis has spread...

Around 6:30 yesterday late afternoon, this little lady came into the world.

As the evening went on she gave 4 more by my 3 am awakening. I was just too tired for number 4 & 5 to stay awake.)
Unbeknown to me, by 6 am there appeared #6. I had assumed she was done 3 am. Panda went in to say good morning and came back saying there were 6. I had to go count thinking for sure she was just counting Grizzle's tail by mistake..Nope. 6 little Grizzle cubs it is.

She did fantastic and never left my side. I had to fall asleep with my hand hanging down into her box (see above) just so I could get some sleep and she would be content not birthing the rest of the litter out of her box and on my bed.
By late Afternoon today, she was outside running around enjoying a little free time on the hill but would rush back down to whine at the door to get back to her babies.
Frog brought a baby bunny in and placed into the dog box... And instantly Mama adopted the bunny and refused to let us take it back out. So as Panda distracted her with some green grapes, I was able to sneak the bunny out of the box and back to her long eared mother. Grizzle still ran out to their run and searched for that baby but soon gave up and returned to her little ones.
Man! They whine a lot!
Those darn crows stole more of my bean seed! The one eyed owl "Salad Bouncy Ball" has been fired and is looking at a different position...in a different part of the yard. My bean arch of tree limbs came down in the rain fall we had a few days ago. My eggplant has leafhopper's and a batch of organic garlic pepper spray is in the works.
I purchased 2 new grapevines - a Catawba and a Candice table seedless grape. Big beautiful vines to go next to the Concords.
I have been eating Tabouli like its candy to a junkie. I can not seem to get enough. So I bought a packet of parsley seed to keep myself in one of it's main ingredients.
The book I found it in also has a recipe for Dolmas (stuffed grape leaves). My good friend and neighbor Jeannie and I have been enjoying the Tabouli and plan to raid the grape leaves from her dad's massive concord grape vines in his garden. Plus the back neighbor's cherry tree which they do not pick and said we could raid it (said it has 2 or 3 "harvests" a year. No idea what type it is). Plus we have been eyeing the other back neighbors side yard and it's most wonderful sunny open space. We warned him one day he was going to come home to 2 ladies weeding out what was once his side yard and now filled with edibles. He actually said he would'nt care. I said you best be careful. One day we may just do it.LOL.
Now that I have Jeannie on board and with a huge garden, it makes for some fantastic conversations. Plans are for Blueberyy and strawberry picking together to load up our deep freezers plus go in halves on getting 2 pigs from the Amish auction to take up to the processor.(last time I was down there they were selling around $50 for a 200 lb pig!)
She is excited to eat some rabbit as I am. We plan to have a "wilds" party possibly this year. Make lots of out of the ordinary foods that are delicious but 100% or as close to it local. Between rabbit, pig, garden produce and homemade wines/cordials/beers. We will see if The Captain is even on board for a party this year. I want TOGA"S! But most of his friends and their wives would most likely be babies about it and not wear one/show up. I like teasing him how my friends are cooler and would actually participate in these things. LOL.
Got a garden to weed before putting the newspaper and hay down for weed control. Not to mention a whelping box to freshen up for the new Momma.
Sweet Dreams,
~Tammie