A Legacy of Love

In a family the size of ours there is almost always a new baby coming along and we are spread out over a pretty large space sometimes so the baby wont always be able to meet his or her relatives right away or even ever sometimes!  So we have a family tradition among some of our people that helps the new arrival to have a connection to the family and to their ancestry.  We make family quilts.

We start with squares of white or off white material and use iron ons or we trace pictures out of coloring books to get the picture on the fabric.  We have done all sorts of themes - animals, equipment, flowers, mickey mouse, Pooh, even race cars or Mater!

We send out a block to anyone who tells us they would like one.  Sometimes we have to limit it to say 20 blocks because we have had 40 people say they want to do one.  We give everyone a due date to have them back by and they go from there with embroidery.  We did have one quilt where none of the folks were  able to embroider and they did paints and wax crayons that they set with ironing.  It was also beautiful! We have also at times used pieced blocks between the embroidered ones so that more people could participate (that made a twin sized quilt instead of a baby quilt).

 The above photos show one of the quilts that have both embroidery and pieced blocks.  Everyone signs their blocks either with permanent pen or with embroidery stitching.  Sometimes, when the child doesn't get to meet the person who made and signed the block, for whatever reason, it gives a point of reference for the family to get out the pictures, show the child who that was and how they are connected to that person and let them feel the love!  It is a great way for the child to have a memory of someone they didn't get to meet!

Above left shows a single block that has had the borders sewn on already.  Above right shows the quilt blocks being staged - it took some time to figure out where each block needed to go to balance in this quilt as we had a lot of different styles of embroidery.  This quilt is for a little guy who will be from a hunting family so he gets a wild game quilt.

Above shows the quilt after the blocks have been sewn together and I am now working on putting the binding on so it can be delivered to the mom by the time the baby gets here.  There is a soft flannel on the back and it will be a warm comfort both from the flannel and from all the love that was put into it by his family!

Its that time of the year!

You can probably tell by the sporadic nature of my posts that it is THAT time of the year!  Yes folks it is Hockey Season!  My youngest still plays hockey both league and high school levels - at the same time!  So - as most farmers slow down in the winter - my pace sometimes picks up!

I love hockey - I love the work ethic and skill that is required to play a sport with 3 inch pucks, hockey sticks and boots with blades on them.  The amount of work that is required to stay in shape and "keep the hands" so that they can "put the biscuit in the basket" and "dangle the goalie" is nothing short of super human!  I get tired just watching them!



Some people say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year - and sometimes I agree, but sometimes I think that hockey season is the most wonderful time of the year!

So cold and crisp inside the rink and the camaraderie of all the parents who are hoping for the win but never begrudge it to another team - especially its players who are working (almost) every bit as hard as mine!

We have more than one team at any given time and so the kids all have friends that are on a team with them that during high school they have to play against and try to win - it is hard sometimes to score a goal on your cousin or to have your goal denied by that same cousin!

Tournament time is wonderful - hard hard work but wonderful all the same - eight groups coming together for the love of the game!

That doesn't mean I dont dream of summer!  Stay tuned - I am looking at seed catalogs in my spare few minutes that arent taken up working or on the road - we will be trying ghost and fish peppers this year here on the farm.  Ill (try) to keep you posted!

Mad is a Momma Moose!

The moose here at Wicked Raven are sometimes out of control and I am pretty sure they are trying to make me quit farming completely at times!  You have all seen in prior blogs and probably on Facebook that the moose eat just about everything - and they love the fruit trees!  I told you last year about using the mattress deconstruction to protect a few of the apple trees - as I started to deconstruct a few more mattresses that I had this summer - the neighbors came over and commented that they hardly "redneckednized" the place what with all the crap everywhere and why didnt we just put up some real fence?

This is one of the momma moose that have been trolling for trees in my yard - the two calves are just outside the picture - I couldnt get them all in!

We can't afford to fence the whole 5 acres, and it would be really hard to have that many gates - we would have to have about 8 gates to make it be useful and semi easy to navigate through the fences so.... enter the hubby with a brilliant idea!

We got two rolls of this fencing - 50 yards each - it cost about $1.00 per foot.  Total cost to do all of my trees (15 total so far) was less than $200.00.

We used the survey stakes mixed with some regular pound in fence posts (I think they are called "t" posts)

We made a circle around each tree large enough that the branched didnt stick out and locked the circle together by bending the cut edges of the fencing around itself - sort of looks like a hook and eye when complete.

We also used some of the broken hockey sticks that are composite fiberglass - those things are tough!

Above left is a shot of the winter fence covering.  We also had to put a fence lid on the rounds as the moose are tall enough to stick their necks into the rounds and eat the tree anyway if the lid isnt on!  Above right is the moose creeping up thinking she will get a bite of a cherry tree!

Notice in the above picture how her hackles are all raised up on her neck!  She is not happy to not be able to get to the cherry tree!  She dented the heck out of the fencing around the tree trying to get at it though!  I had to go out and pull it all back into a round shape!  Everything held up though!  yay!

Below you can see the "lid" on the round.  We also put the blue and orange newspaper bags (our newspaper comes in a plastic bag that is sized for it depending on what day it is - Sunday is a bigger baggie - they are plastic tubes basically) and they flap in the breeze and sometimes scare things away!  Sometimes they are necessary so a snowmachine, go kart or four wheeler doesnt run over anything!

Another winter view!  

Word of advice from the voice of experience here - don't try to do fencing by yourself in s stiff wind!  Luckily I had my glasses on or I probably would have lost an eye here!  As it is I have a nice fencing "war wound" on my nose to remember it by!   Hubby had gone hunting and I was just gonna finish the last two rounds that we didnt get done before he had to leave!  I would probably do it again though - Ill never give up!  No matter how mad those moose get!

The fencing works well and it looks nice as well.  Way better than the mattress coils - I am still using them - just not where you can see them from the road!  It was too great an upcycle to not use again! 

Blessed be and I hope your winter is going well!  Keep the farming faith alive - there is a way where there is a will - even with moose around!

Caesars' Brother and a rest for the Butterflies

This summer - as most of you have already read in my prior blogs - was a scorcher here in Big Lake, Alaska - and many of our feathered and flying friends needed a little help to get through it!  

This area near the "brown shed" as we call it, has been bugging me for about two years but I had not had time to do anything about it until this year.  Fortunately for me it is in an area that is mostly shady throughout the heat of the day.  I just needed something to make it a little neater and seem a little more welcoming space as it is one of the first areas you see when you drive in.

 The eave on the shed is perfect for hanging baskets of wave petunia in my favorite purple and lobelia and miniature asters in the round planter fill in the space around without making it look crowded there and without shading the plants around it.

I had started with the bench from Pinterest that I featured in another blog.  The pictures were taken before I had given the bench the re-vamp!  I planted the Caesars Brother iris next to the bricks and of course surrounded it with plastic underlay and stones on top to keep the weeds down.  I left a rather large hole in the plastic here so the iris can expand when it is ready.  Caesars Brother is a beautiful blue-purple iris that almost seems like if you touch it that it would feel like touching satin.  The leaves are more grass like and thinner than his blue flag brothers and Caesar might not be as hardy but it is awfully close - lives in Big Lake without too many problems.  I have another one in a full sun area and it does not do as well as the one in the shadier area - Ill keep you posted on that on the "Thriving on the Farm" page.

The terra cotta pot bottom is the waterer for bees and butterflies!  It is shallow and with some added colored stones and pebbles in it is the perfect resting oasis for those smaller bees, butterflies, and even some of the birds for whom the deep birdbaths dont work!  Its only drawback was that it had to be filled about three times a day when it was really hot out - but the trade off was that I got to see more of the visitors to the space by making trips over there throughout the day!

The "gazing globe" that you see is in reality a bowling ball that I got for $5.00 at the Salvation Army store!  ALways check the sports bin - I have seen a number of various colored bowling balls there - I have a blue one in another location on the farm.  I have never been able to keep a real gazing globe alive - they always get hit with something - other balls, rocks, dog tails or hockey pucks - even a go kart once - so the sturdy bowling ball saves the day and no one can really tell that it isnt glass.

The shed still needs a good coat of paint - on the list for next year but now that I have the bench revamped and this corner done - this will be a space that gets enjoyed all spring, summer, and fall!

Even your most raggedy spaces can become beautiful oasis areas for you and for the wild visitors who come through!  Find your oasis - if you build it they will come!

Houston High and the Best Garden Ever!

We had an awesome year in the garden this summer!  Even though we had some setbacks we out produced all our other years - partly due to the added space with the new raised beds that were built in the spring.  We also had some great plants donated that turned out some fabulous produce!

Harvest time is always a rushed affair in the school garden due to the time constraints of trying to do everything in about two class periods.  Our culinary arts class is two class times per day and only on certain days do both of the classes meet so we have to time it just right and then try to have each class harvest half of the produce so it is fair for both!  We also have some life skills classes and science classes that help out when it fits their classes as well.  Lots of kids learning in the garden!

Above photo shows our awesome culinary arts instructor Mr. Bredberg showing the kids how to dig the potatoes in the raised beds.  Most of the kids in the garden when the pictures were taken were new to the program this year.

Talking about the rhubarb that we are excited to have and should be able to harvest some of next season!  We have two plants right now and hope to add at least two more next year to make a "pie-able" patch!

The tomatoes in the above photo didn't impress anyone this year in the tires - too hot is our thinking and limited water hindered the growth.  Next year we hope to add some water catchment (rain) barrels so that we can water the garden no matter what is going on even if we cant access our hose bibs.

More potatoe harvesting - Mr. Brednerg is showing the seed and letting the kids know that its not one that you eat!

Digging a tire full of spuds!  The tires and the pallet bins did well for the potatoes - possibly due to them being in the shade more than the raised beds.

This is Mike Riffelmacher - he is a culinary hot shot and in the above picture is working with some of the peas harvested from the garden.

Mike also used some of the squash and onions mixed with the peas and carrots from the garden and made an absolutely delicious dish for my lunch and also treated the principal and vice principal!  If was so so good!  A huge treat for us!

The carrots were harvested a few days after the rest of the garden - the carrots did pretty well even though they were in the raised beds also.  We had a different soil mix in those bins a little more loam and it held the water better!

Next season we also hope to be able to get a greenhouse going so that the kids might do a "grow and take home" plants program of some type.  We are working on funding that and we are also moving towards working with our middle school to start a garden on their side of the fence so that all of the kids will have had some exposure to growing things and already have an interest before they get to the High School.  Stay tuned for some exciting things going on coming soon!

If you have a school near your home or farm I hope that you will start or support a garden there - or host tours/field trips of your gardens to help get the kids learning in your neighborhood!  It is so fun to see them use what they have learned and grown!

Leaving Alice in Wonderland - fixing a Pinterest wonder!

I love Pinterest as you all know from previous blogs!  I have done quite a few projects from my Pinterest findings.  One of the projects I did you may have seen - bricks and 4x4's to make a simple outdoor bench!

The project required 12 cement blocks and four 4x4' timbers.  As you know - I get a lot of 4x4 timbers from the dunnage pile at our shop.  They come in between the casing sections so that forklift tines can fit in between and we can move them off of the trailers.  They are often a little beat up but still a great product and perfect I thought for this project!  It seemed like I couldn't lose with this simple project!

So off I went and built that bench!  The above photo shows my completed bench!  It was easy - the hardest part was getting the ground under the blocks level!  There was one small problem however!  I am not a tall person and this bench requires the leg length of a 6'6" person!  It was like a bench that might be found in a bad Alice in Wonderland dream scene!  I had to put the two 4x4 extra timbers under the foot so that I could even get up onto it to sit without jumping and once I was on it my feet didnt touch (just the toes folks) so they would fall asleep after a few minutes.  And then there was the issue of the distance between the timbers - it was not comfortable on the bum - be assured - I tried everything!  So...... A Pinterest revamp was in order!

I started by taking the 4x4 timbers and putting bracing 2x4 sections underneath and screwing them on with my trusty cordless drill and some 3" decking screws to make a solid seat platform.

I tried to use the "ugliest" sides of the timbers for the underside where it would be screwed.

Then I took off the top layer of bricks to bring the height down to a reasonable level as well!  The blocking on the end of the bench timbers holds the blocks where I want them to stay.  Still simple!

Finished revamp!  No footstool section necessary and no sleeping legs, or sore bum either!  I didn't paint the bricks or the wood yet - that is on the list for next summer, but we use this bench often now and it is sturdy and comfortable!  And I have enough bricks and timbers to make another one somewhere else!  Maybe a lakefront bench - stay tuned for that and don't be afraid to try a change when the original doesn't work like you need it to!

An herbal harvest

This is one of those blogs that is better late than never - since it is predicted to snow here on Tuesday!  That snow date is a little early for us which is what makes this almost an emergency posting!  You gotta get those herbs indoors!  One easy way that I do that is to plant the herbs in pots that can come inside after the summer is over.

The above is a 14" terra cotta pot that I have put sage, thyme, and apple mint into.  The other plant is lemon cat mint that reseeded itself in the pot that I left out last year.  It is wonderful stuff!  If you have herbs in the ground or in other places, just dig them up and pot them and bring them in!  Most of the time you wont even be able to tell that they have been recently transplanted!

This one has sage, thyme, and oregano.  It looks really full right now but at the beginning of the summer these were just little 2" pot plant starts.  You can crowd them a little from the beginning though or leave room for growth!

Here is another shot of the one with oregano in it.  They live outside the greenhouse door during the summer, and then in the fall they come into the greenhouse for a bit (to make sure they are bug free) and then they come in the house.  It makes the herbs available to use all winter as long as they are cared for well.  You have to watch the water for these pots as they seem to need less once they are brought in for the first few weeks and then more as the indoor heat dries them out.

The only plant that I have not been able to mix into this type of planting is basil.  Im not sure if it needs more room than this provides or if it needs a different watering schedule or what.  I just put basil by itself and everyone else gets along great!

Don't be afraid to give it a try!  Enjoy the tastes of summer all year long!

Muffin tops? NO! Carrot Tops!

The time of year has come to harvest the carrots once again and although we struggled to get a good carrot crop (again!), we have a few and all of them have tops on them!  Why is that important you ask?  Let me tell you what you can do with a carrot top!

Above shows one of our carrot bins here at Wicked Raven.  We had forgotten that the year that we put this bin in that we had put landscape fabric under it to keep weeds down (we had cabbage there that year).  So this bin had pretty good tops but the carrots underneath were small and misshapen from pushing against the fabric.  Our other bin of carrots was the one that the moose and the rabbits both got into and pulled up or stepped on a great majority of the carrots and the radishes in it!  Darn things!

When we are harvesting carrots we harvest both the tops and the carrots - we keep a bucket about 1/3 full of cold water so when we harvest the carrot we pop the top off and put it in a hod (see below photo) and we put the carrot in the bucket.  It does a little pre-clean for us so we have way less dirt in the house sink when we are doing the final clean.  Just pull the carrots out of the water giving them a little swish as you do, then put them in the hod with your tops to take in the house.  Pour the dirty water on one of your trees or shrubs nearby - food for the winter!

Above shows a few carrot tops in the hod before we put the carrots on top.  The upper right corner of the photo you can see some tomatoes from the greenhouse in a container.  We still have lots of tomatoes ripening there.

The above carrots didn't get the pre-clean treatment but gives you a good idea of the carrots to tops situation we had this summer.  Tiny carrots with lots of top!

So wash the tops and...... Oh the things you can do!  Below photo shows some carrot tops in the dehydrator.  Once they are dry you can use them just like parsley in any recipes.  The flavor is slightly sweeter than parsley, but very close.  It is a free food and really healthy as well. Carrot tops are high in protein, vitamins and minerals.  Your carrots become a zero waste product!  When I run out of carrots and dried tops in the winter I try to buy the organic carrots with the tops on (I cant always find them with the tops here) so I can use the whole thing.

You might prefer to use them fresh as well!  There are many uses for fresh carrot tops as well.  Trim them and use them just like you would use spinach.  Make a pesto with them (this is especially useful if you are short on basil as I often am) and I have made pesto with a mix of tops and basil to make the basil stretch.  We have used the tops in salads, fritatas, and a number of other dishes as well both fresh and dried.  Enjoy the free fronds of summer! 

**The only caveat is that the carrot pulls nitrates from the soil and may be high in nitrates.  I have eaten a lot of carrot tops with no side effects, but please be aware if you are sensitive to nitrates, and always make sure you are eating organic if you are buying them.  Be safe and test it first by trying a small amount before you commit to the food play!

Houston High and the Wonderful Garden!

We have had a great year here in the garden at Houston High School!  I told you in an earlier blog about how we were a Wildfire Command Post with the fire fighters and evacuees living all around and in the school - and once our yards were cleaned up (they didn't leave too much of a mess - just had to put some things back where they belong), we got busy putting in the rest of the garden.

Two apple trees went in at the point beyond the huglekulture beds.  We have an Adanac and an Early Harvest planted there now and they seem to be thriving.  I am concerned that we weren't able to give them enough water during the season - I just read that they should have about 10 gallons per day to start out and we weren't able to give them any where near that without our hose connection.  We weren't able to hook up our hoses during the fire since it is non-potable water hose and might contaminate the water spigots that were needed for potable water for evacuees and firefighters.  Ill keep you posted on how they do.

Here they are in the ground!  We had some funny things happen - I have the spoons as markers (also see prior blog for more information on that), and I would come to the garden and the spoon markers would be out of the ground and all over the place.  Finally one of the people helping said they thought they saw a Raven messing around near the apple trees.  Sure enough - the Raven liked that shiny spoon and was picking them up and tossing them about!  I have now wire tied them to the stakes so they at least can't be absconded off with!

Another perennial we have for the garden now is Chives.  We have the potatoes and maybe the kids can do a baked potato bar and have the chives and all the fixins!  They are small now but we should be able to harvest some after next season.  we will probably add a few more plants to the patch as well. 

The Kohlrabi did wonderfully - we had to harvest them before school started as they were starting to split and were not going to make it to the opening day.  We shared them among staff members and we have some new Kohlrabi fans at the school!  Many of the folks hadn't tried it ever so this was something new and wonderful.  It tastes like a cross between jicama and turnip - very mild and refreshing flavor.  It would make great pickles or slaw as well - we just sliced and dipped it!  We will definitely grow these again next season!

Oregon snow peas are looking good - we had a harvest in the second week of school and are excited to have the kids trying these.  So good!

Yellow zuchinni did amazingly well at our location!  We harvested 5 squash off these two plants and there are at least 10 more almost ready.  The kids will be using these this week in their dishes.

The cabbage is doing great and will be ready for slaw soon.  This is Stonehead and even though it was such a hot summer, as soon as it cooled off it took off and is growing great guns!

Rhubarb.  Almost don't need to say more!  We have two of these perennial plants donated to us and we will be able to harvest next year.  Looking forward to that - our culinary arts class knows how to make some pie crust if you know what I mean.

Yukon Gold potatoes thriving in the pallet bin!  The raised bed potatoes didn't do as well (lack of water after planting I think), and the bins got hot, hot, hot.  The pallet bed and the tires did really well for us.  I didnt get a picture of the carrots but they are really doing well too!  Next year we will rotate crops and the carrots will be in one of the big new raised beds so we can plant a lot more - maybe two beds full!

Huglekulture for the strawberries.  

I completely underestimated the amount of fabric and chips it would take!  These beds are huge.  This is one whole roll of fabric and it did about a third of our strawberry row!  We planted 30 strawberry plants in this section and we will go and grow from there next year.  We have quite a few folks who have said they are saving runners and starts for us for the garden.  Can't wait!  Strawberry Rhubarb pie - that's what I'm talking about!

We also planted a few raspberries that will be perennial for us and should produce next year for some berry mixes.  We will be getting some more of those plants as well for next spring.

Stay tuned for the harvesting of the garden.  The kids are anxious and even the staff seem really excited to see what the garden holds. 

I hope your garden is growing well - no matter if you have one bin or 50!