I’m not sure how much I have to report in the last few weeks, but I’ll give it a bash. There has been a lot of unforeseen circumstances which have caused us to move a lot slower with our gardening this year, and last night, Dom and I finally came to terms with it.

After losing almost all our seedlings, I became a little demoralized also. My hands had been hurting for quite a while, to the point of not even being able to grip things or type. I’m currently on the mend from that also. I wonder if the moldy incident had anything to do with my most current flare up of Lupus.

Anyway, we’re gaining a little momentum again, so here’s my Independence Days Challenge:

Plant Something:

• Basil
• Tomatoes (three varieties)
• Dill
• Lettuce (five varieties)

Harvest Something: Eggs- 55

Preserve Something: Nothing this week

Waste Not: We now use all old circulars and other paper products not only for compost, but also to “cook clean” by using old paper products laid on the counter for kitchen scraps, peelings and so on. When done, simply close the paper up and take it all out to the compost heap.

We’ll also be shredding up paper to make a paper mulch for our experimental garden.

Want Not: Nothing this week

Eat the Food:

• Pork tenderloin roast
• Potato au Gratin in my own leek cream sauce
• Creamed fresh corn
• Bacon and onion quiche
• Devils Food Baby Cakes
• Carrot Baby Cakes with Cream Cheese icing
• Strip Steak with Wedge salad and homemade blue cheese dressing
• Mixed Spring Mix with warm fresh goat’s cheese
• Poached eggs

Build Community Food Systems: We now officially have our own business. We got all our articles of incorporation, as well as our Business License Package to fill out for selling eggs, and also for our cottage food business. We’ll be filing for our food permits mid June and then we’ll be able to sell food.

Skill Up: Did research on the different products for homeschooling Simone this fall, as well as looking at all the different devices (computer apps) to help her communicate more effectively:

• http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/visual-schedule-planner/id488646282?mt=8
• http://www.speech-ez.com/
• And of course the ultimate: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/proloquo2go/id308368164?mt=8

She’ll have her own dedicated classroom this fall in our house, so I’m excited to start transforming the room in late July.

The apps aren’t the only part of her schooling, but they are an important part none the less. She’ll have a multimedia class room, with access to a wide range of products.

Because Simone is special needs, we’ll be meeting with a public school teacher who will come to our home to teach her each day. She’ll learn the same things other children her age are learning this September. In this way, when she is able to understand the foods she can and can not eat, can articulate her needs; likes and dislikes, and can attend for longer periods of time, we’ll consider allowing her to go to school. As it is right now, school is just too dangerous for her well being. Sad right?!

Organize: I’ve been rearranging, doing deep cleaning and changing things up a bit. I reorganized the living room, kitchen and part of the dining room to function better, as well as to prepare for the kitchen to be used for our business.

At this time last year:

Noah was planting pepper plants. I love looking at these photos from last year…notice how small the fruit trees are in the background. Amazing right!

For about a week I had been going back and forth in my mind as to whether I should cut all my hair off.

Yesterday,  I got this huge urge to just do it.

Did you ever have that gut feeling that something wasn’t right, but you couldn’t put your finger on what it was?

My skin was crawling, and I was in turmoil throughout the day.

I wasn’t worried about cutting all my hair off. Ever since losing my hair repeatedly to alopecia, I learned how to accept the state of my hair. Whether I’m 100% bald ( loved being skin bald…it was awesome!), have a crew cut, or long silver and white locks of hair, I’m no longer scared to have scissors or a buzzer around me.

For so long I allowed my hair to dictate my beauty, believing that feminine ways were tied to the length of hair a woman has. I’m very glad I don’t suffer with those misconceptions or beauty fallacies anymore.

So how short is my hair at the moment? Just about two inches long.

Okay, so Gina took out the scissors and started cutting off all my dreadlocks. I had some very mature dreads, and others that were just formed. As Gina inspected the dreads, she found what looked like powdery white mold growing at the base of a few dreadlocks. NOT GOOD!

Mold is the one thing I can’t have in my life, and there it was existing at the base of my hair. Geez! That explains why I felt my skin crawling and why I had this urge to cut it all off. I had no idea there was powdery mold growing, but I’m glad they are now gone.

As Gina cut open each dread, she was checking to see if any mold had developed inside the dreadlocks. To my relief, there was none, which means that the powdery mold developing was brand new.

I can’t imagine what would have happened to me, if I insisted on keeping my hair in dreads. I do know that if I didn’t cut them off, Dom would have gone out of his mind, turning everything upside down in the house to search for hidden mold. He wouldn’t have thought to look on my head!

Gross right?!

It happens from time to time in those with dreadlocks. I knew it was a possibility I could develop mold, and I’m pretty sure it had to do with not drying them properly with a blow dryer each day after showering. Last year my hair was much shorter and dreads were much looser, but with them maturing, there just wasn’t enough air circulating through them.

So they’re gone. And I couldn’t be more thrilled.

I won’t be attempting to dread my hair again because I can’t be exposed to mold for very long.

The only reason I allowed dreadlocks in the first place was because of the texture of my hair and the permanent loss of hair from having scarring alopecia (cicatricial alopecia). My hair loss is in remission, but my hair will never be the same.

I have translucent hair that looks like plastic (feels like it too) and also white hair that never regained pigment. I also have grey hair due to my age. It all looks rather colorful. The back of my head where I didn’t endure as much damage from alopecia, is my natural dark brown color.

Can you imagine…front is white, grey and translucent, and the back is dark brown.

I can tell you this much…my head will be a whole lot cooler this summer.

Incredible isn’t it? My little ducklings are only 8 weeks old, and now are officially larger than our full grown Magpie ducks. They are larger than our chickens and rooster also.

Funny thing is that they won’t be considered full grown until 12-16 weeks. I know its hard to tell in the photos, but they are huge!

I’ve totally fallen in love with these ducks. Their temperament is gentle and for the most part unafraid. They are calm, sweet as can be and kind of canine like. I’ve heard that before from other Muscovy owners, but it seems to be very true.

One example of their unusual dog traits was the time our chicken Betty came to inspect them (and their food). She walked into their pen, and they slowly came out of the duck house, wagging their tails and finally sitting in a submissive position, just like a dog that understands an alpha.

Another example is when they are hungry. LOL This always makes me smile:

I’ll come outside in the morning, chickens come running and then I see the large flock of brilliant white ducklings making their way awkwardly towards me too. You see, because they are growing so fast, they aren’t good at balancing all that much. Their feet are large and floppy, and sometimes as they walk, they fall back on their tails. But that doesn’t stop them from coming to me. When they finally arrive, they surround me quietly with mouths wide open. This is their way of telling me that they are starving!

So far they are still quite beautiful, whispering a quiet chirp when they are happy. Sometimes they act like dogs, sometimes they sound like song birds, but most of the time they look like awkward children trying to get their footing to play and romp.

What can I say? I’m in love.

I recommend these ducks to anyone with the itch to keep ducks. They don’t quack, are extremely quiet and friendly…especially if you have a treat for them.

Today, Teresa left a comment for me on another post, asking about where we got our Muscovies. I highly recommend this hatchery if anyone is thinking of getting them:

J.M. Hatchery

Stephen E Horst

Fifth Day Farm, Inc.

202 Oak Lane

Terre Hill, PA  17581

717-445-6255

Email: stephen@jmhatchery.com

Website: www.jmhatchery.com

At this time last year:

Yesterday during the solar eclipse, Gina, Mike and Noah took a hike up to Tome Hill. The goal was to get a few great photos of the eclipse, but instead Gina was able to get a few great photos of our amazing village.

One of the things I love most about Los Lunas is the fact that we can travel five minutes and be in town (we live in an agricultural part of the village) or five minutes in a different direction and be absolutely taken back by the sweeping mesa.

In the photo above, she was able to capture both…side by side. Amazing right? No, nothing was done to the photo to make it look like complete opposites…that’s just how the village is.

Before we moved to New Mexico a few short years ago, I can still remember telling Dom that if we do move there, I can’t live out on a mesa…that I need trees and green things around. I was NOT fond of moving out to the high desert, nor did I ever appreciate the breathtaking mesas, simply because they were “brown.”

I had no desire to live here, and my final compromise with myself in order to make coming to New Mexico something that I would be able to stomach, I said to Dom, “I want to live in a place where if I turn around I see green trees, plants and grass, and when I turn again, I see the the hills, mountains and typical desert scene.” Yes, I was THAT removed from the beauty of New Mexico at the time. I had never been to this great state, so all I had was prejudice since it wasn’t Maryland, Michigan or New Jersey.

Isn’t it amazing…the power of spoken words? A simple statement said out loud can determine the outcome of a situation.

Even more stunning is the fact that on our property, if we look east, all we see is hills and brown, but if we look west, all we see are trees as the sun is painting a masterpiece in the sky as it sets.

It didn’t take long after moving out to New Mexico to finally make the decision that we were lifers here. We didn’t have a permanent home at that time, but still, we knew we could live nowhere else in the world. This is our hometown now…the place where we witness the awesome different life forms that live out here. Trees that strive to grow tall, plants that yearn to stretch and fight for a permanent position in our garden, weeds that are vibrant, long lasting, and full of gumption.

Masanobu Fukuoka once said that if anything green grows in what looks like dead soil or sand, its not dead. If something green pops up, you can grow anything there. Of course I’m paraphrasing his words, but its true. I can’t tell you how green our property is with weeds. Everything grows here if you stick a seed in the ground. Really the only thing needed is water.

We’re about to test Fukuoka’s wisdom by planting out a totally experimental garden. We will not be using any compost, special amendments (other than duck poop water) or other fancy garden techniques. It will be only using water, duck poop water and sun and fingers crossed. LOL Actually, it was John Seymour that said that in the desert, all that is really needed is good aged manure watered regularly into our sandy loam, and POOF! we’ve got a garden. Okay, so he didn’t say POOF! in his book, but you get my point right?

Out here in the high desert, the most critical thing needed in the garden (next to water), is some sort of mulch to keep the moisture in.

On a funny note, this solar eclipse is one that I will never forget. Okay, this is what happened:

Dom went outside to see how amazing the eclipse was. Our neighbor next door had a welding mask so that we could safely view the eclipse. Dom went over to the edge of our property to meet our neighbors, and I stood there speechless by the brightness of the sun as I tried not to look at the sun. Anyway, Dom came back and sent me over to view it. The sun was peeking out through some trees at the time, but I had a clear shot to see it. I looked through the mask, and kept weaving around since it looked like something was in the way. Michelle said, “Can you see it clearly or is the tree in the way?” I said, “No…the tree isn’t in the way, but I can’t see the sun.” AHAHAHAH! At that moment I realized that I was looking at the eclipse, and the both of us start laughing at the stupidity of my statement. I’m laughing as I write this. How amusing…right?

Here are few more captured moments up on Tome Hill:

At this time last year:

Click the photo below to be taken to last year’s post on this date, “I Love My Life, How About You?” The photo below is of the first swale and berm. In the swale, we planted large dead trees, filled the hole with water and buried the trees. This area holds a lot of water. The berm is now planted with Western Soapberry trees.

The other day on 5/16/12 I wrote a post about how we needed a larger capacity double oven for our cottage food business. Well, craigslist came through for us.

Now…I know the stoves to the left are not the prettiest stoves one could ever see, but what I like about them is that they are IDENTICAL!

I had been worried for a long time about how to get two identical yet every cheap stoves. It turns out that we’ll get two of these yellow babies for under $100.00.

Yes, less than $100 for both putrid yellow lovelies. LOL

The last thing in the world that I wanted was yellow appliances, and second to last was the coil electric stove top. We got both.

Since the ranges are ugly, but uniformly ugly, they will actually be a good fit for our kitchen. Strange right? I don’t like black appliances, nor do I like bisque or white, so yellow turned out to be a good alternative.

Each range is 30″ wide, giving me a total of eight burners and two full capacity ovens to work with. (that doesn’t include the glass stove top) Not too shabby!

We’ll be picking the ranges up tomorrow morning, and I hope to have Dom install them sometime in the next week or two.

Have you ever had that happen to you before? You needed something important, had an idea in your head of what that would be, and BAM! you get hit with an even more awesome offering? What I was thinking about was the paint job in my kitchen and how if we dismantled the double oven, I would need to repair the walls.

We had already spent hours upon hours repairing the walls in the kitchen when we took the top cabinets off the walls. I never thought our walls would ever look good again. But we did get them to finally look decent. The same was true for the double oven.

I came up with a solution for the nasty wall dilemma…cover it with bead board up to where we put shelves in.

I love creative solutions!

I found a photo of what I’m aiming for above the two ranges:

I love open shelf designs, and after I found the design to the right, I knew that was for us.

I have an ongoing battle in my brain about whether to keep the corbels and shelf the natural wood color, or to paint it white. I’ll know more clearly in a few days.

Since the shelf will be 12″ wide and 60″ long, it will require at least three corbels.

I also love the copper tubing used to create a place to hang utensils and fry pans, although we’ll probably go with a stainless steel rod instead.

When we take out the double oven, I’ll also lose my built in spice rack. At first I was saddened at the thought of it, and then I started looking for creative solutions to my spice storage problem.

When we have a cottage kitchen, it will be required by law to keep all baking goods for the business separate from our personal food supply. Since we’ll be purchasing all our herbs, spices, and baking goods in bulk, it will require larger space than just little shaker jars.

Pictured below, I found a great solution. Originally we were going to create a place to take shoes off in the foyer, but now we’ll be turning that area into our business pantry.

Even though we won’t be installing cabinets in the new area, I love the open spice rack shelving and acrylic drawers for storing bulk baking items.

We’ll probably do wire rack shelving in this area all the way up to the ceiling and down to the floor.

We need the space to accommodate all our baking pans, cookware, packaging materials, etc.

Its a good start.

We received word that all our paperwork for our company has been filed with the state, we now have a tax ID number and we should receive all our official documents within the next week.

At this time last year:

We had broccoli growing in our experimental tiny kitchen garden.

As part of our kitchen revamp, we need bigger double ovens. Even though our double ovens are original to the house, and I love them, they are too small for a cottage kitchen.

The ovens are also quirky. Maybe that’s why I love them. The top oven runs about 50 degrees hotter than its supposed to, which leaves us with almost exclusively using the bottom oven.

Beyond the quirky temperament, the size is just too small.

Each oven is 24″ x 24″. When baking bread, we can only do one loaf at a time. Not quite conducive to a busy cottage kitchen!

I’ve found a few ovens on craigslist, but the prices are usually too high for us to afford.

To get double ovens over 27″ (27″ is still on the small size for us) can cost a lot of money.

We may need to get two regular electric full size ovens and put them side by side where the double oven and stainless steel shelves are.

I don’t want to do that since it will mean pulling the double ovens and the wood casing off the walls, messing up my paint job from last year. Not only that, but I’ll loose my spice rack built in to the right side of the oven.

I know we’ll figure it out, and find something creative…I just don’t want to reconfigure the whole kitchen. We’ve worked so hard to get it where it is, but as I’ve said before, “Our kitchen is a work in progress.”

On another note, I thought it would be great to end each posting with “At this time last year”, to see where we were and how far we’ve come.

At this time last year:

Behind Simone, can you see how small our fruit trees were? They were all barely four feet tall and now they stand well over eight feet. One of our pear trees reached over twelve feet tall this year.

Okay, in the photo above are two Granny Smith apples and one Elephant Heart plum. Below, I’ll show what the trees look like today.

Gina was painting a tree that now graces our garden.

Remember the first photo of Simone with the watering can? This is what the trees behind her look like as of this morning…you can use the white well tube as the marker in both photos:

Here is a shot of the Granny Smith apples and plum tree:

Mother’s Day was an amazing treat. On the menu for the day were a few overindulgent things. In the morning, my incredibly sexy husband made me duck eggs, poached in heavy cream and butter (pictured above).

Next, was the long all day process of cooking. I’ve been taking a very different approach to cooking, which for me, has been far more productive and pleasurable.

I’ve been following most of Thomas Keller’s recipes, and what his disciplines have done for me is to enjoy the process more than I ever have, take the time to be precise about time and temperature, prepare ahead of time those things that can be chilled, refrigerated or even frozen days before an actual meal.

Now, that may seem long and drawn out, but it isn’t. I made the stock for the French onion soup (my own recipe) two weeks in advance, and froze it. One week in advance, I made the large amount of caramelized onions that are essential in french onion soup and then froze it too. Three days before the soup was needed, I simply put the frozen stock into the fridge to thaw until needed.

We had a lot of things going on that day:

• French onion soup simmering throughout the day
• Foie gras au Torchon (made over a four day process)
• Pot roast brined in fresh herbs, salt and peppercorns (prepared over three days)
• Roasted acorn squash
• Smashed potatoes
• brown gravy
• Devil’s food cake made from scratch (absolutely to die for)

I was going to make brioche also for a few of the different dishes, but we no longer have a stand mixer. We’ll be ordering a Viking 7 qt Stand Mixer next month, but in the meantime, we just need to be creative. A few months ago, I kept reading about how the kitchen aid is no longer made by Hobart, and the motor of the kitchen aids are burning out prematurely. I didn’t want to burn out the motor of the kitchen aid on loan to us, so after talking with an urban homesteader who bakes more than anyone I’ve ever known, I asked her about her Viking Stand Mixer. She couldn’t get enough of it.

Even though I’m not crazy about the shape of the Viking, I do like that its a work horse. The only color I’d get however, is the stainless color.

I ordered foie gras a few weeks ago, and about 5 days ago it arrived. Foie gras is an enlarged fatty goose liver, that when prepared properly is an amazing, buttery, and almost too indulgent food.

I was on the fence about foie gras for a long time…okay, I vowed I’d never eat it due to the process of gavage, which to me looked painful and inhumane. I’ve since come to change my mind after having ducks myself.

There are advocates against foie gras that want to claim that the animals are tortured, mistreated, dirty and that their throats and gullets are splitting open due to the long tube inserted into the duck or goose throat to feed them. After seeing this one facility that anti-foie gras demonstrators use trick people into not trying it, I realized that I was deceived by celebrities and others on the anti-foie campaign.

In the side bar to the right, you’ll see a small square banner that says “Save the Foie.” I support small artisan farmers, especially foie gras farmers. I signed the petition against the ban that will put artisan foie gras farmers in California out of business this summer if no one speaks up.

I’m the last person to get political, but as far as foie gras is concerned, I’ll get political. If the foie industry in the United States begins to collapse (there are only three farms that produce foie gras in the United States), so will other small artisan farmers, like the farmer in Michigan who raises some amazing pigs for artisan charcuterie. If small operational artisan farmers continue to be bullied, it sets a precedent for other small farmers to also be bullied. I can’t have that…can you? This is America isn’t it?

Ducks and geese that are raised on artisan farms here in the United States, are humanely raised, fed three times a day and only spend the last four weeks to six weeks of their lives in the 24 sq ft pen, where they come into close contact with the person feeding them throughout the day.

Even though ducks are force fed with a long tube, I can tell you honestly that they aren’t being harmed. Here is a video about how the animals are fed and treated.

The whole day was beautiful with almost all my children here with me. The only one missing was Shoshie.

In the photo to the right, behind Noah is part of the revamp of our kitchen.

We had a small detour/bump in the road as far as having a commercial kitchen. We’ll have to move very slow in getting a commercial kitchen installed, and the large bread oven built.

Since New Mexico does have Cottage food laws, we’ll be converting all the possible space in the 400 sq ft area of kitchen/dining room, into a space with equipment, larger double ovens, and other things needed to make the area conducive to running our business from home.

Sorry, but I can’t do the challenge this week. Something is wrong with my hands which makes it difficult to type.

I need to go to the rheumatologist. 

Poor little seedlings. Poor, POOR, little seedlings…you never stood a chance.

I planted you, fed you, watered you, cared for you and looked over you since the day you woke up and now look at you.

You’ve been beaten up by the wind and now I fear the worst for you.

You did great when I put you outside under the shade and protection of the trees. It seemed that you were ready to transplant in just a few short days. But alas, your lives were cut short by the ravishing wind.

When the wind first started, I thought it would end quickly, but as it dessicated your tender little bodies, I knew there was nothing I could do. It was too late to take you in and shelter you from the storm.

I know I could blame myself, but I can’t. The high desert is a tricky place to grow. I took my chances and now I need to start over.

“I should’ve, could’ve and somehow” seem a mute point, for if I were to plant you, would I dig you up from your garden bed to protect you?

These are the perils of gardening in the high desert my sweet little seedlings. Rest in Peace.

I know I’ll be able to save a few seedlings, but not all of them. The tomatoes were hit the hardest. It wasn’t the cold that made them shrivel up like a prune, it was the wind that sucked the life out of them.

All I can do is baby them for awhile, and start over with new crops directly seeded.

We do have an extended growing season, but the sun, regardless of how cool it is outside is strong enough to burn new plants…even after hardening off, the wind- unforgiving.

For this reason alone, we haven’t pinned any hopes of making money off our crops. Starting over will mean waiting even longer for the fruits.

Not only were our seedlings decimated, but also our fruit trees. The wind had to be over 50 mph to make the fruit separate from the branches. Our apricot tree dropped all the fruit, save one. The peach trees lost a few and as far as I can tell, the pear trees still have their fruit.

We’re not done with the wind storms. Sometimes there are warnings, and other times they just come up upon us and ravish our garden and its children.

I am a bit disheartened, but I refuse to give up by sticking my head between my legs and kissing my ass good-bye.

Any seedling that has stood its ground during the wind storm will be planted.

On another note, the wind storm also has its affects on us and our home. Sand from the storm gets into every orifice, nook and cranny. It coats everything in the home in a layer of dust.

I chose to keep the windows and doors open during the storm because of a burnt bean incident that left our house smelling nasty. Candles kind of helped, but getting fresh air blasted into the house was the best way to rid it of the charred burnt bean smell.

Not too long ago I was cooking beans in an enamel cast iron dutch oven. As usual I left the beans on the stove to cook over night. Well, this time the beans burned in the night and by morning the whole house was saturated in a thick cloud of burnt bean smoke.

It got into everything! Clothing, shoes, hair, skin…EVERYTHING.

I’ll take sand in the house coating everything over the smell of burnt beans. Odors are hard to get rid of, but grit from outside sand is easy to clean.

For the most part the smell is gone…now comes the fun part of cleaning it all up.

I sometimes feel that our projects are never ending. There is so much to do here and not enough time, man power, energy or will. It’s easy to get caught up in all that needs to be done, and so forget that we are mere humans.

Anyone that works outside in the high desert knows the affects the intense sun can have on us. Being at a higher elevation, doing hard labor is draining and dehydrating.

If you’ve seen the classic funny movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, well, I’m referring to the scene where Clark has to cross the desert to find help for his family after a car accident.

We’re not in an accident, but tired and thirsty, and the growing season is just under way!

Over six hours were spent sheet mulching the garden beds yesterday, and I can tell you that today…I’m dreading going outside.

There are only a few beds left to lay, and another project will be complete, but then I think of all that still needs to be done:

• Weeding (insane weeds abound here)
• Lots of planting
• The pond
• The duck house
• The main chicken coop
• A Chicken tractor
• Finish repairing the greenhouse
• Build a business website
• Design our new logo
• Interior projects
• More tree planting
• Attempting a mass cutting project from our trees and other perennials to propagate more trees

And its only May. I feel crazy sometimes.

Until Dom gets all the water lines laid in the different gardens, it takes me about two hours to water. I’ve had to break up the watering schedule into different days since I can’t be outside watering everything each day. There are trees that are still becoming established and I need to water them each week and other things that I direct seeded that are just coming up.

My biggest issues is with the red ants. They display some of the most greedy tendencies I have ever witnessed. LOL

Yes, red ants are greedy, hoarding, ambitious little creatures who only take for themselves. Have you any idea how much seed I directly planted outside? Each day I go outside, I find seed being hauled away by these red devils!

I’m having a little war with them right now, and I’m determined to win (whine). All day long they take and give nothing except false hope and expectation of a great growing season. Then, nothing grows and I’m mystified for awhile. It finally dawned on me that these little buggers are stealing what we have and storing it away like some stingy old man.

Red ants are an agricultural nightmare! I will say one thing in the defense of ants, if there were ever a time when the world lacked seeds to grow food, just dig a little into the ant’s massive stores and collections, and you will eat like a king.