2022 Comes in With a Bang

 

Not one but two snow storms back to back have visited us this week. Everything is covered with a blanket of white. 

Not much activity outside other than making sure the animals are all comfortable with plenty of fresh water, warm bedding and good food. 

More snow than we have seen in a long time. 

But on the inside we are still gardening. The sweet potatoes are just starting to sprout. These slips will gradually get larger and will become next springs sweet potato slips once rooted. 

I have been doing lots of knitting for the Newborns in Need organization. Lots of little sweaters, hats and booties and some blankets as well.  This box is ready to go as soon as the road is clear to get to the post office. 

My mailbox has become a victim of the snow plow AGAIN!

In the meantime lots of hot tea, reading, movie watching and seed catalog dreaming. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Garden Friends and Memories

 

It is a cloudy, humid and drizzly Sunday here on the mountain. O Wise One and I listened to church this morning on the radio and then went out and just tinkered in the yard a bit enjoying being together. I picked some squash to cook for lunch in a skillet with bacon and onions and made a stuffed pepper casserole with ground beef, peppers, onions, rice and tomato sauce. Kind of like stuffed peppers just not stuffed. 

While we were walking around outside I walked a baby duck that I am hand raising. O Wise One accidentally got a duck egg in with the eggs that he sat under the hen. It hatched but the hen rejected it rather violently so I guess I am now the mama duck. It's a tiny little thing just 2 days old but is doing good but has definitely bonded to me. So I now do a walk around outside in the sunshine and grass to walk my duck. I am hoping as it becomes a juvenile the duck flock will easily accept her/him into the fold and relieve me of my duties. But for now I am hoping it is another little hen for my flock and have named her Tiddly Winks. I have a feeling she will grow up to be quite the pest. 

While we were out we picked up plums again. That has become a daily thing. As I stood under the tree with my butt in the air picking up fruit a car pulled up to the fence with an elderly man and his wife in it. They were coming back from church and asked if they could have a hand full of plums to eat. As they stood there eating plums at the fence they began reminiscing of his childhood days and foraging these small yellow native plums for his mother and grandmother to make jam with. It was funny because I also shared my memories as a child of sneaking regularly to the front pastures of my childhood home in Louisiana and climbing up into the plum trees of a thicket of the same native plums and eating myself sick on them. My mother made a thick and sweet golden jam from them that was absolutely delicious.  

As we four old people stood at my fence line on a backwoods country road swapping stories of foraging for fruit as children, plum juice was dripping off our elbows as we all snacked on plums and took a trip back in time. It amazes me how the gardens, plants and fruits so often remind our generation of home.  A generation of agrarian based lives with our parents working the land. I do find it sad that so many children now miss those experiences. They will never know the hot summer days of picking wild blackberries on back pasture fences. Catching mosquito hawks just to see if you could. Fingers stained black and anticipating the cobbler mama would make that night. Made all those chigger bites worth while. 

Or picking wild huckleberries in the woods of Mississippi at my grandparents house for those same huckleberry pies my grandma was known for. Gathering wild mayhaws in the low lying areas on the back of my parent farm back by the swamps. Sometimes having to go by the small pirogue that we kept back there for getting back in the swamp which is where they loved to grow. Had to keep a close eye out for the cotton mouths but that heavenly mayhaw jelly is the stuff of southern legend.  A big homemade biscuit slathered with real butter and mayhaw jelly would make anyone a fan of that illusive fruit so rarely even heard of anymore. 

And we can't forget gathering the muscadines that grew overhead. My brother would climb those trees like a monkey and shake those vines. Many times they would fall into the water and again we would take the boat and gather them off the top of the water. They loved to grow down along the river at the back of the property. 

In those days summers for me were spent helping gather in the garden or foraging for fruit interspersed with swimming in the creek and fishing, helping get the hay in during season, and helping process honey from the bees. But more than anything helping babysit the younger kids and that never ending string of diapers and shelling beans or chopping vegetable to help mama with the constant canning. With 5 kids to feed those gardens were huge and those rows seemed endless. Long days turned into weeks and months of back breaking picking and canning.

The one thing I will say is that I will admit I had never in my entire childhood went to bed hungry. And oh the life skills I learned along the way. 

My hair is now completely gray and my children grown. Even some of my grandchildren are grown and it would not surprise me to hear of greats on the way soon. But I still am walking the garden. Not too old yet to eat plums and visit over the fence with strangers with a baby duck in my pocket. Let's not forget the duck. 

So I am feeling blessed on this lazy Sunday afternoon. God is good. 

I am wishing you all juicy plums and fuzzy baby ducks in your future. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

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You can also find me at

https://thebackfence.freeforums.net/

Are We All Preppers Now?

Most people when they think of preppers think of the reality show from a few years back when prepping was at it's heyday. I don't think of myself as a prepper very often but in many ways I really am. As was my mother and grandmother before me. I was taught from a young age at the knees of the masters. Women who had lived through depression and war. Women who had made do and had vowed to never be unprepared again. These women raised families and made do when making do was pretty hard. It left an indelible mark on their lives. It was a lesson learned well. And taught often. My mother at the time of her death still had a huge pantry full of canned food. 

As for me I thoroughly believe in being prepared. If the lights go out I have light bulbs, candles, matches, lamps and oil and flash lights and batteries. I am a nester. That is my nature to feather my nest and keep everything running and happy. Need a bandaid I got twenty. What size. Need a tissue I got some on the end table, in my pocket, in my purse and more than likely in my bra. And a couple boxes somewhere in the pantry. I try to be prepared for whatever life throws at me and then some. 

Hoarding no. Everything is pretty well in it's place. I am the quiet soldier catching sales and buying a bit extra here and there. A coupon or sale at a time. Yard sales and Goodwills galore. Seeds, gardening supplies, tools. Rarely will I ever buy cases. I think the one thing that will baffle me to the day I die about this present situation are the toilet paper runs. As I sit in the comfort of my clean and comfortable home watching grown people fight over toilet paper I have to wonder. When the smoke clears and we lick our wounds, mourn our dead and resume our lives. How many will like me become closet preppers. Quietly stalking the grocery store aisles watching for those bargains. Buying that extra can on sale. Buying extra pounds of meat for the canning pot.

No stockpile of guns or bunkers just an army of housewives vowing to never get caught like this again. A new humility and appreciation for the preppers of old. A new outlook on independence in the pantry, in the garden and in all aspects of their life. Indeed life is a hard teacher. Will they remember.

Just curious how many of you out there consider yourselves preppers now?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

A New Beginning

I have been absent from Blogger for several weeks now and have an announcement to make.  O Wise One and I have been down South purchasing a new home and will be moving in the future. Hickery Holler Farm has been sold to a new owner. A young man who has grown up in the area and wishes to return to his roots with his wife and young family. O Wise One and I made this decision some time ago. We felt that we have gotten to an age where the everyday chores and upkeep of this amount of house and acreage had become a daily struggle. We no longer need 3 huge gardens as all the children have left home but Baby O and as she prepares to go off to college it is time to downsize. We no longer want to mow grass all day just to keep the grass down and do not require acres to sustain us.We once filled this 3,000 square foot home with children but alas they have all grown and married now and have homes and families of their own. We do not need to rattle around in this huge empty house and have elected to purchase a smaller home further south and with milder winters. Not so far south as to have to endure those scorching endless summers but far enough to not have to shovel snow for the entire winter. 

We have decided to move to Tennessee.  We return to my Southern roots.

We have purchased a small 1400 square foot single story brick home to downsize into.

 It has a beautiful shaded yard with towering oaks.

It also has a one acre FLAT fenced yard and is out in the country but not far from a small town. Lots of room for the dogs and some backyard chickens and a smaller garden. Closer to doctors and medical care. 

Instead of all that mowing we are going fishing! And investing in a small couples camper.

I will keep the blog but will not be posting often to give us time to move and get settled in. This seems sudden I know but we did not even get our home up for sale and it was sold. We had not one but three people offering to write us checks in the driveway. It had gotten out by word of mouth into the community and was sold within 48 hours of having it appraised and sold for the full asking price.  I will keep the Hickery Holler name because Hickery Holler is not a place but people, my people,  and a way of life.   I will still garden and can produce but on a smaller scale.  I hope to quilt more and maybe find a quilting guild that I like. 

The farm now belongs to new and younger owners, our new house has been purchased and we are simply waiting on the paperwork to be completed. We have started to go through our belongings and started giving things to the children, donating to Goodwill and packing the remaining belongings that we will be taking with us.    

Even more exciting is that I will be reuniting with my childhood friend Shelia. We have been together since third grade. I was maid of honor in her wedding and her in mine. All these years we have visited regularly and kept in touch. We will again be living near one another to share our lives and families. 

For us it is a new beginning as we approach the next chapter of our lives. We look forward to starting a new garden and learning to garden on a smaller scale. New fruit trees and asparagus and strawberry beds. We hope you will all wish us well and visit often once we are established and blogging again. I will leave all content up because I know so many refer back regularly for recipes. 

See you at the new Hickery Holler Farm!

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Mid August In The Holler

The weeks go by quickly and another Autumn is here already. We are starting to see the first leaves turn and fall. School is starting and the canning is slowing down somewhat.

The grapes were loaded this year and the grape juice is tucked safely in the pantry now. We shared some with the neighbors as well. 

The peppers are loaded and it will be time to deal with those soon. 

The plums harvest was beyond our expectations to make up for no peaches or blackberries. 

The apples continue to ripen on the trees. 

Right now the lilies are blooming 

The Naked Ladies lilies are thick this year and I think will have to be thinned again. 

The gardens are winding down quickly now and we have planted very few fall crops. With both freezers full and canning jars running scarce we are not planting fall crops other than a few greens and such to eat fresh.  I have about 2 dozen empty canning jars left and refuse to buy any more. I think that the thousand or so that are already full will have to be enough. The pantry is full with no more shelf space left. I want to add some apple pie filling to the jars that are left and some pickle relish. I will freeze the peppers  and we are thinking to call it a year and get our seed saved for next year. 

I hope that all of you have has a productive fall as well and we look forward to a winters rest. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

It's Been Awhile

It has indeed been quite some time since I have visited with you all. So much that in fact I have worried a great many of you for which I apologize. I so appreciate all the emails I have received and the prayers extended to my family and I. 

Spring came to Hickery Holler with lots of rain and cool weather. The gardens grew fast and the weeds grew tall and often. O Wise one and I have struggled to keep up with the mowing, weeding, gardening and canning. We also took some personal time away and took Baby O to the State University hospital for some testing concerning her heart problems. The downfall of living in such a rural area is that we are limited to small clinics and local small hospitals for medical care. Doctors are not lining up to practice medicine in these small farming communities and so for us to get specialized medical care many times we must travel 2 hours one way to a large hospital. We wanted a second opinion on Baby O's heart rate problems and that meant traveling to the city to find a pediatric heart specialist. It also meant updating the original tests at the large hospital. In addition Baby O had one side of her wisdom teeth removed about 4 weeks ago and the second side removed last week. She returns next week for the last of her heart test updates and we are hoping to be caught up on medical trips for the near future.  We are exhausted though all has come out well.   

The spring crops were lush and plentiful and the black snakes were thick in the gardens. There have been few insect problems other that the occasional cabbage worm. The grapes are ripe right now and I will put up grape juice this next week. The apples and plums hang thick on the trees. The peach harvest was lost to a late frost. We harvested huge amounts of rhubarb and ended up selling it to the local fruit stand because we had so much already from the year before in the freezer and in jars.  

I will be honest in that O Wise One and I have struggled this year with the workload more than ever before. Six years after cancer treatment I have struggled more than ever with neuropathy.  A long term side effect of chemotherapy effecting my mobility and balance. I have been able to tend the garden less than usual and fall more than ever. We continue to persevere though and have begun to consider retiring from the farm. Baby O will soon move on to the next phase of her life. But for now we continue our normal routine and start to plan for the next phase of our own life together. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Farm Goings On

Well here is another week at the Holler. Spring has definitely arrived but the temperatures are  cool for spring temperatures this week. We have started opening the house every day and the laundry is again on the clothes line. The trees are budding out as well. Our young chestnut trees are blooming out by the clothes line for the first time. We are wondering if we might have chestnuts this year for the first time. We started those trees from seeds and it seems like just yesterday we were setting them out. 

We continue to work trimming rose bushes and shrubs to get rid of the winter kill and weeding flower beds and such. Mowing is a regular chore right now with all the rain we have been getting. 

The tulips are starting to get beat up from the rain and I will be cutting the blooms off soon and adding to the compost bins. 

Remember my huge "Knock Out Roses" that are so pretty every year. I almost lost them this winter. By the time we cut off all the winter killed wood there isn't much left. I am hoping they come out of it. 

With the return of the blossoms on the columbine the hummingbirds have returned as well. I saw my first one yesterday. once the columbine blossoms go away then they feed on the blossoms on the trumpet vines on the clothes line poles all summer. 

The Bridal Wreath or Spirea is beautiful this year but I did lose one of my larger bushes to the winter cold weather as well. 

The tulip Tree is in full bloom too. 

That last late frost came just in time to nip most of the peach blossoms so there won't be any peaches this year to speak of. The apple trees on the other hand are loaded and there will be plenty apples to make up for those lost peaches. 

I on the other hand have been busy with freezing mushrooms and O Wise One has two catfish cleaned and filleted in the refrigerator waiting for me to freeze those up as well. 

The Asparagus is rolling in on almost a daily basis and since I still have plenty in the freezer I have been canning it every two days. 

The tomato plants are still on the porch waiting for their turn to be planted in the garden. I am holding off hoping the weather stabilizes just a bit more. I like to plant my tomatoes the last of May or the first of June. Rarely before that and it always works for me.

The brassicas on the other hand will go into the garden here very shortly. We have potatoes and onions  up as well as peas. The strawberries are blooming and I cleaned out the raspberries last week. A huge thank you to Katzcradul for my start of those last year and they are filling in nicely. Last week we planted corn, green beans and field peas. As soon as it dries up a bit I will try to get out there and get some pictures for everyone. My rhubarb is growing nicely and it won't be long before we are eating Grandma Edna's rhubarb cake. O Wise One picked out pecans all winter to go in those. 

I have 12 laying hens and 4 are broody and setting on nests. I still have jars of chicken in my pantry from last year. I may be putting chicks on Craigslist like my turkeys. 

And speaking of turkeys both my first and second hatch of turkeys are gone. Both hatches sold out within 48 hours on Craigslist and I am now running a waiting list of people to call when the next 3 hatches are ready. I will save a few for myself but we still have turkey in the freezer and jars even from last year. So this year we will put up less turkey and chicken for ourselves. Now that it is just the three of us we just are not eating as much as we once did when we had more kids at home. Time to cut back more. 

So we start another year here in Hickery Holler. Thankful every day that we survived a long and brutally cold winter. Thankful that we continue to be healthy enough to produce as much as we do of our own food. Thankful for the land that provides nourishment for our bodies and our faith that provides nourishment for our souls. And yes even thankful for these aching muscles and looking forward to our bodies again becoming accustomed to the hard daily garden work. And thankful for all of you that visit so often to read the ramblings of this old man and woman. May we all have another great gardening year and fill those pantries and larders. May the grass stay short and the corn grow tall : ) 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

A Wet Spring

Many mornings last week I woke up to a bank of low rain clouds. Remember last year we had snow the first of May. This year it has been rain and storms but luckily not any violent storms for us although many other parts of the country have been hit terribly. The temperatures have also been running pretty cool too which can spell bad news for the garden because seeds tend to rot in cold wet soil. My green peas are up and my potatoes are also coming up so far. The onions are also coming right along.  

The flowers are loving the rain but it has put us behind in planting gardens and mowing grass though. We have finished all the walnuts and have a few more pecans and we are done with the winter nut shelling.  

The tulips are beautiful this year but the rain does take a toll on them and tends to beat them to death. They are pretty while they last though. 

Now the smaller daffodils are blooming. O Wise One bought me a small pot of these one year and all of these small ones are starts from that one pot so many years ago. 

Between rain storms I have been working on trimming the roses back. I wanted to post this to show you how much winter kill I am having to cut off to get to green growth. Notice the two lower bushes in front compared to the bigger unpruned bushes in the back.  This winter was hard on the shrubs and bushes with not enough snow cover to insulate them from brutally low temperatures. I lost a Spirea(bridal wreath) and one Althea so far. My big Knock Out Roses also took a beating and I am waiting to see if they make it.  

As usual this time of year my back porch is full of plants in various stages of hardening off. Peppers and tomatoes above waiting to be potted to bigger pots.

Cabbage, Bok Choy, Broccoli and lettuce waiting to be planted. We never work in the garden when the soil is wet so with days on end of rain we are behind in getting these little guys set out. With pretty weather forecasted for this week I have a full schedule already just catching up with every thing to be planted.  

Hoping everyone out there is safe and that you all have a great week.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter