Sunday, April 22, 2012

A busy Sunday

Earth day started off rainy and cool here.  Nothing going on outside this morning.  So, I delved deep into the Pasta Mines of Moria.  V has long joked that when I'm heavily into canning that I'm firing up the Canning Fires of Mordor so for pasta we had to have something else.  Yes, we are that geeky.  But seriously... today was pasta day.
I have decided that 4 batches of pasta is about all I can stand to make in one session- after that, it isn't fun anymore!  Today I made 2 batches with lambs quarters puree and 2 with a roasted butternut squash/onion/rosemary blend from the freezer.  Three batches went into the freezer and we had squash fettucini for dinner.  Mmmm... with an garlic, herb and cream sauce... delicious!  And a dozen eggs are now out of the fridge.
After the pasta marathon, I cleaned the kitchen since I made quite a floury mess.  Then J17 and I ran a few errands.
While I made pasta V and the children worked to re-place Sleepytime Bridge over one of the creeks since it had washed out in the storm last weekend.
I honestly don't know where the rest of the day went.  I had hoped to get my little seedlings transplanted today but I didn't have enough potting soil to do it (that was one of the things J17 and I picked up on our errands). I do like to use potting soil because there is less possibility for disease and weed infestation- especially since many of these seedlings are going for the plant sale.  Speaking of infestation... I discovered, much to my dismay, that I had aphids on my little seedlings.  Ack!!  I'm not sure the plants are big enough to risk spraying with anything- even something benign- so I used a low-tech solution.  I rolled tiny bits of painter's tape and used it as a wand to act as a sticky trap for the aphids.  Did you know that aphids stick really, really well to painter's tape when you touch them with it?  I'm sure I didn't get them all but I put a significant dent in their population.
Tomorrow is my Manic Monday.  On tap is seedling transplanting, digging new beds by the barn and coop and a trip into town to have some legal paperwork finalized for V.  Soon his whole legal saga will be done and I can share a bit of the stress we've been going through for the past few months.  If the soil is dry enough in the garden I'm hoping to plant out my little broccoli and cabbage seedlings as well.  We'll see, it is pretty wet out there.
Tomorrow K12 starts 'School of the Wild'.  This is a pretty cool thing in our district, I think.  Every year, the 6th grade class spends a week outside at our local nature center.  They get to explore prairies, swamps and woods.  They learn how to construct shelters for survival and learn a bit about wild edibles and wildlife.  Since they only have a 4 day school week this week (Friday is a day off for Midterm conferences) his class already had one day earlier this spring where they got to go to the Raptor Center where they rehabilitate and release birds of prey.  They got to watch an injured eagle be released back into the wild. Pretty cool stuff.  I wish we had something like this when I was growing up.  And his class has chickens!  They hatched out some eggs and have chicks in the classroom.  Evidently there is a chance that we will be able to 'adopt' one or more at the end of the school year since they have to go somewhere.  We'll see.  We've already got chickens so we'll let someone else have first choice.  Of course, K12 wants to bring home the one they've named Fabio.  Only if Fabio is a girl!
I do hope you all had a fabulous weekend.  Mine seems to have flown by!

10 comments:

  1. The pasta sounds wonderful...you're inspiring me!

    Happy Earth Day!

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    1. It was pretty tasty. Try some... you won't be disappointed.

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  2. Aphids on the seedlings... oh NOOOOOO!!! I have an ongoing battle with aphids on my cruciferous veggies. Last year I decided I was gonna solve the problem come hell or high water, so I read everything I could find. I finally settled on a two tier approach. Firstly, they say that if you mulch the area with dried banana peels it will keep the aphids away. I've been eating bananas all winter and dutifully drying the peels, so we'll see if it works. The other thing to try once you start to get the aphids is neem oil. Neem is rather gloopy at room temperature, so most people suggest mixing it in a solution of soapy water and spraying it on the plants. It doesn't actually kill the bugs, but it interferes with their reproductive process, so they can't multiply. That's the theory anyhow, Since they use neem in products like toothpaste I figure it can't be terribly toxic.

    Anyhow, I was all set to try this stuff out last year, and then the whole garden got wiped out by hail. So hopefully this year I'll get to see if it works or not.

    Glad you didn't run into any pasta Balrogs... I hear they can be nasty!

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    1. The aphids only seem to like my little peppers and they are pretty tiny.
      And, we were a bit worried about Balrogs... but we got lucky.

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  3. Painters tape huh?! Sounds like an easy plan. Do you place the tape over the plant or stand there and snag them? The pasta sounded great. Oh how I love pasta dishes!!! You'll probably end up with all the chickens - male and female!! lol...debbie

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    1. I just make a little wand out of tape and snag them. It seems to be fairly effective so far.

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  4. I'm starting to think your middle name should be "Busy"! Ack - I hate aphids! That's a great low-tech way to deal with them. What a great experience that "School of the Wild" will be for the kids. Sure wish they would have had something like that at my school - besides the wild kids, that is.

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    1. This is our third child through School of the Wild and they have all had great experiences.

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  5. Mmmmm homemade pasta! yep it's time to be cleaning out the freezers and canned goodness. Hate aphids, this was my 2nd year without them on the seedlings, but 3 years ago they were so bad that PTSD will carry me through for awhile LOL. Hope the legal stuff goes smoothly from here on out!

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    1. I hope I can keep these aphids under fair control. The tape method seems to be working pretty well. I think I caught them before they got too bad. I may have to track down some lady bugs outside!

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