Imploding..........

 

I would but I can't even find any damn chickens!  Yes, there is baby chick shortage!  It was toilet paper during covid and now it's baby chicks.  I will wait a couple a months and they'll start showing up on Facebook market place. 

Are we buckled up? Buckled in and ready for a ride we have never been on before?  

We have watched the country decline into chaos in 70 short days. Innocent people have been plucked off the streets and sent to prisons in foreign countries. PhD students, the best and brightest, lacking blonde hair and fair skin have been detained, deported and landed who knows where.  The stock market tumbles into sights not seen since before Covid with no end in sight.  Weapons of war are being moved from the Pacific to the Middle East at an alarming rate. Reuters  The Doge kids and their ketamin fueled Overlord, Musk continues it's rampage, although it's rumored he may have fallen out of favor with the orange one.  Threats to social security, medicare, the veterans, the farmers, have I left anyone out?  Oh yes, the oligarchs are standing on the sidelines licking their lips.  As we clutch our pearls looking at our retirement, the regime is doing something even more diabolical somewhere else, pull the curtain back and look!  Congress has become impotent and absolutely no one is coming to save this country so you better get busy, as we are the only ones who will saves us.  This time in our countries history will surely go down as one of the darkest.  Science and education have been kicked curb along with healthcare.  The anti-vaxers are now in charge of health care.  I often wondered how the dark ages started, I could never understand how an intelligent civilization went from the Classical era to the dark ages so quickly and now I now; although the US seems to have set a record pace.  

Where does this leave me, us, anyone living in this country?  How are you coping with the chaos and insanity. 

I have taken to YouTube and launched a channel Sandy Miller - Paine Falls on gardening, kitchen stuff and other helpful tips to stretch your budget.  I was letting pottery take a backseat until I read the tariffs are going to directly impact aluminum cans and glass.  I doubt we will stop drinking so maybe it's time to make growlers and whiskey bottles again.   Fermenting jars are always at the forefront. But for now it's time to get the garden in order, deer proof, raccoon proof, and batten down the hatches.   I know we need to get lean and mean.  Maybe this will stop our consumer driven economy and the earth will catch a break for awhile.  

The back forty is fenced!  There is still quite a bit to do but the posts are done and the cattle panels are up! 

I am rocking the Giant Eagle gift cards for Tractor Supply and Lowe's.  I paid .79 a gallon for gas! 

Ya, I'm playing the game....... le sigh.

I'm working on the raccoon situation......

On cold or rainy days I retreat to the kitchen or the potting bench to divide precious seedlings. 

The Alaskan Sisters asked me how to can taco meat. 

 After searching through countless canning books I really could not find a tested "taco meat" recipe.  Oh there are plenty out there on there on the internet but unless they are approved by The National Center for Home Food Preservation  or the  Ball Canning website or the Healthy Canning website I am not canning rebel recipes.  Science still works! 

This week it was; Roasted Pork in Spicy Broth.  

The youtube video:  canning roast pork in spicy broth

This is great recipe and super easy.  This weekend we'll try Chipotle Beef Stew.  The more jars on the basement shelves the better!  If the EU is telling their citizens, all 450 million, to stock up and prepare for 72 hours. "We can no longer rely on ad hoc reactions." Fortune    I am not in the EU but as we are getting no transparency from our current government regime, I going with the EU but bracing for 3 months.

The few nice days we had I managed to get the onions and brassicas planted.  Covered with netting to keep the skunks, opossums, birds and other critters from ripping them out.  Frost cloth is on standby and the garlic is looking good. 

The soil was amended, wood chips raked back to reveal wonderful black soil beneath.  I am applying organic alfalfa pellets as top dressing to make up for any nitrogen lost to the wood chips breaking down. 

The pond is up and running again!  The two fish survived the winter better than I did and happy for flowing water again.  No frogs in sights yet.

Planted a Superior plum tree, Fuji and Liberty apple tree.  

Grapes will be going in on the fence line and strawberries around the base for a nice green mulch area. 

Meanwhile in Alaska this happened!  Big Congratulations to Abby!!

So get busy, stock up and stay tuned as we are in for a wicked ride.  

Ferns working overtime and pumping out an egg a day. 

Thank you Fern we are grateful. 

New Projects are gonna kill me........

 

I have been fiddling with my way backyard for decades.  It started as a weedy field, an attempt a huge garden by my parents, back to weedy field, then to ornamental delight and do you know how hard it is to keep those stones clean and white.  Great for monks in a zen garden but I am no monk and this is not a zen garden so away with the stones!  

and now back to garden and fruit farm.  The deer herd is burgeoning far beyond tolerable.  Several trees were plowed over by bucks sharpening Fall antlers.  When I walked around the way back the beginning of March I knew it was time to dig in and start again.  

It began with taking out three large pines and one large serviceberry........ with my trusty Japanese pruning saw.  Amazing the damage one little saw and a crazy person can do in couple days! 

from this........

to this in three short days...... carnage! 

I now need to rent a big ass wood chipper from our local rental place.  So for 4 hours on a Spring day I will slap down $198 and turn brush piles into wood chip piles.  That is pure gold in my book and should get me through the next few months of mulching paths and beds. 

Last year we had the property surveyed and had pins with bright yellow caps sunk all along the property line.  Mostly for a crazy neighbor with aggressive lawn mower habits, constantly taking out my blackberry brushes as if the deer weren't bad enough.  Well I am happy to say he is gone but he didn't take the deer with him when he packed up. 

As I walked around the back 40 surveying the deer damage and winter damage.  I thought why not put in a fence, the markers are there and it's Spring.  NOT: let me pay someone to put in a fence.  Off to Giant Eagle and buy a gift card to Home Depot for several hundred dollars because then I get gas points and right now I am up to a dollar off a gallon!  My van could handle 10 fence posts and three bags of concrete in one trip.  It has taken three and half trips to Home Depot.  I started digging post holes on the south side and sunk ten fence posts.....  these are days 50 looks way better than 70 in this body but then I have those damn eastern european genes.  

So far three sides down and one more to go.  I saved the best to last.  The east side of the fence is all tree roots from old maple trees and yes, that last row might kill me but I have a sawzall and very long extension cord!  I can get 10-11 posts sunk in a day.  And the teenage kid behind us had pulled the marker in the northeast corner 😡.  Had to rent a metal detector to find the original 1865 iron pin!  

Planning on putting 16 foot cattle panels for fencing and thankful Tractor Supply moved in not too far from here! 

Lessons learned this week..... If you do not want to be considered elderly go to Home Depot.  There is no one there to help anyone, you are left to your own devices and I love that.  However if you go to your local bank and take out the funds to the buy gift cards for this project you get a lecture.  OMG are you being scammed, you are elderly and you are the perfect target.  No I'm putting in a fence and paying cash but I'm buying gift cards so I get free gas as I am on a limited income these days.  She dolefully counted out the bills and tucked it into a neat little envelope.  "now were are you putting this?"  (I don't carry a purse like most elderly women).  I slid it into the interior pocket of my coat and said; thanks.  "Oh ma'am please be careful."  As I walked out the door I said; "Not to worry; I'm locked and loaded!"  I patted my other pocket.  Nothing but my phone but she really didn't need to know that.  

Off to Home Depot.  Grab a lumber cart, load 10 timber fence posts and grab three 80 pound bags of cement; not a soul in sight.  Cashed out, dug my heels in and wrangled all this out to my van.  The cart boy was retrieving carts in the parking lot and while I was heaving 80 pound bags of concrete I thought he was coming over to help the elderly.  Nope.  He put his hands on the back of my lumber cart and said; Almost done?  I'll take your cart back....... I still had two more bags to load and 5 more timbers.  He stood there and watched.  WTF cart boy...... I closed the doors on my van and drove away fueled by even more WTF cart boy thoughts.  Unload and start digging post holes...... encounters like this make the day go so much faster.  

After gardening here for over 40 years you see the difference in soil too.  This made me so happy! 

and if anyone is wondering where Butch is....... Florida! 

New times ahead, old ones are hard to let go........

The hardest blog I have had to write but it must be written.....

Kirby  2/27/2025

February was so cold, so long and so hard this year.  My best buddy crossed the rainbow bridge on February 27th.  An ending to a wonderful 8 year ride.  It was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in a very long time.  It was the final winter gut punch.   He is still wandering around the house and I am still talking to him.  The first week I got up several times in the middle of night, hearing him panting at the bottom of the stairs but no Kirby, hearing the jingle of your collar but you're not there, hearing the click of your paws on floor, I turn my head and your not there, but I know you are and probably will be for awhile. You were not ready to go either.

  We had a truly remarkable relationship.  I remember bringing him home; blind, scared, a broken jaw and so many scars I would never be able to heal.  His first three years on earth were the stuff nightmares are made of but he landed here.  I made a promise to him that we would do our best to make up for those first three years.  We more than doubled that time with beach walks, swimming in a cool lake on a hot day.  Laying next to a warm kiln in the studio on chilly mornings.  I think it was a good life.  He was the perfect dog for me.  He never ran away, we never once heard him bark.  He had the ability to bark and on warm days we would sit in the backyard and I would try to get him to bark.  Are you happy?  The tail would wag, he would bury his massive head in my lap and sing a little.  I would talk back and we could have a very sweet conversation.  He was "that dog".  If you are lucky you get to bond to that one special dog and for me it was Kirby.  We did everything together.  I left him two times in his eight years here; once to head up to Alaska to see Rachael and once to head off to a clay conference.  He went every where; delivered pots to far off galleries, off to watch Abby graduate in Gunnison, CO, play in the cool snow of Monarch Pass on a warm summer day.   He slept in front of my bedroom door every night until he could no longer climb the stairs.  He made me a more patient and better person.  Yes, he was stubborn and hard headed and probably why we were such good buddies.  

 

He taught me it's OK to stop and feel the warm sun on your face....

always stand with your face to wind ....... 

Sleep well my dear boy, until we meet again I know you will be at the rainbow bridge waiting for me. 

Until then chase the stardust bunnies around sky and run free.  It has been a joyous ride and I miss your soft fur and warm snuggles more than there are words to write..... 

  

The house has been de-dogged.  All his meds, bandages, foods and leashes have been donated to the local dog shelter.  I have not yet been able to wash the nose prints off the sliding glass doors.  I am so happy it is Spring and there are new green growing things and new projects to start.  And yet in the middle of the garden with dirty hands and doing some busy work I think; is time to go check on Kirby, do his bandages need changed, maybe he needs a snack and I go back to my busy work.  Argh, the adjustment to a new life. 

Although the sun has set ....... until we meet again my best buddy ever. 

With all that is going on in the world I can officially say 2025 just sucks....

Still February, still fighting for everything......

 Still snowing .....

But! today we reached 34F with glorious sun!  I went for a walk at 8:30 am and my face did not freeze off!   I came home and had coffee in the hoop house; by 11:00 am it was 82F with humidity and I had to open the west door to cool things off.  I stayed out there way too long!  And if the sun is out tomorrow I will be back again.  I think I need a recliner out there.  

I left the compound around 2 pm to pick up two fittings for a hydroponic tower I'm cobbling together.  I haven't gone out on a Saturday in quite awhile and I was shocked!  I have been reading that consumer confidence is down by 10% this month.  Apparently not in our neck of the woods.  Route 20 was bumper to bumper.  Every store, including the ones I currently boycott were loaded: Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Goodwill did not have a parking space in sight!  I stopped at a local grocery store to pick up a few fresh veggies and we checked out.  I had my own bags and always bag myself.  The woman in front of us was MIA as the groceries careened down the belt.  The check out woman just kept scanning away.  A bump from behind and a frazzled woman plopped a giant chunk of plastic sealed red oozing meat on the belt.  It was a big piece of beast or something like that but the splat was alarming.  She had one grocery cart of plastic filled bags and her total came to ........ (drum roll) ..... $513.72.  Did you buy a whole cow?  Even when I used to buy a whole cow it didn't come to $513.72!  I was dying to ask her what she got for more than my house payment.  

We were up next and even Butch commented on how healthy our stuff looked rolling down the belt.  We are belt judgers!  A lot of greens; 2 bunches of kale, 2 bunches of green leafy lettuce, a big bunch of radishes, a bottle of red wine that was on sale, a large head of purple cabbage that cost as much as the wine and a couple organic oranges.  And a bag of potato chips that somehow fell in the cart when I wasn't paying attention.  Try not to take Butch shopping, ever!  Every stop something ended up in the cart that I had not budgeted or even wanted in the house, like sea salt chocolate bars.  A perfect meal, chips and chocolate.  Anyway our bill came to $31.04.  The same checker grabbed our receipt out of the machine and said; Well that can't be right!  She had me take all the things out of my bags and compare them to the receipt.  Yup, we are careful shoppers.  She said a couple times, but you have wine.  And we pointed out it was $10 off a bottle and was now $6.99 a bottle.  She verified it with manager and we won!  She was in utter disbelief that we were getting out of the store for under $100.  Yes, I was smug about the whole thing :)  And I gotta say I even think $31 is bit high for what we got!  The produce was from a local grower too.  Not GREAT LAKES GROWERS out of Middlefield as they had the biggest MAGA signs outside their greenhouses that I had ever seen, visible from space!  They hire Amish women as below minimum wage and I'm just not supporting them.  I'm not sure if they even know what DEI stands for. 

I honestly thought we'd be enjoying greens out of the hoop house this winter but that didn't happen!  So once again I am realizing how resourceful we need to be.  How you must not put all your eggs in one basket and always have a backup.  Micro-greens are great but they're just not a salad.  They great on top of the salad but not a whole salad.  

I started collecting buckets from bakeries around town.  I'm up to 9 bucket for hydroponic grow towers.  I should have at least one hooked up tomorrow.  I'm planning on turning the bay on the south side of the house into a conservatory with three bucket set ups and Ursula.  Ursula has been amazing this winter!

It is possible to grow greens all winter here, it's just been a bit of a learning curve. When I read the data on getting lettuce to the grocery shelf; great paper Ohio State research on growing local lettuce  I am committed to either growing my own or buying as much locally as I possibly can.  A head of romaine lettuce uses 29 gallons of water, is shipped over 2,000 miles from drought stricken southern California and manages to land on the grocery shelf still green.  Yikes that is a lot of resources for me to enjoy a bowl of crunchy water!  70% of the lettuce in this country is produced in Southern California, so read those labels!

The studio has been too cold to do much tinkering this year.  As the days grow warmer and longer I am finding myself out there more and more and I couldn't be happier!  I found myself walking in a snow storm on Tuesday with windchills that took my breath away but it was worth it!  The sun is coming back and the sky is so blue.  Tulips are forcing their way through the ground next to the studio but no sign of the garlic yet. 

I have time to call my congress people every single morning.  All three republicans and only one has a 

real live person that answers a phone and listens to constituents concerns.  The other two are newly elected MAGA nitwits.  I swear I'm ordering a rainbow hat with MAGA letters in sparkles:  "Make America Gay Again" and I'm headed straight to Home Depot!  I am not sure how we get out of this mess but daily I watch our country slip away.  Food Security is front and center.  And then this came out yesterday.

PFAS regulation rollback under Trump

Since our drinking water comes directly from Lake Erie I have been shopping for a water filtration system to go under my sink.  All the Great Lakes are at risk Forever Chemicals in the Great Lakes

Everyday we wake up to new nightmare and it's getting impossible to keep up.  So I ask what do I need to stay healthy and live?  Food, water and shelter.  So I guess that is what I am working on.  

Climate change is foremost in my mind, even bigger than politics.  If there is no planet who cares about politics?  I am honestly exhausted by this administration but that is how they want us to feel so we stop calling, stop writing letters, stop speaking out.  Step back catch your breath, recharge and step into it again.  And participate! 

Today is recharge day........