Those Beavers!

Ok, reality check this morning. You know you in the south when.....we were driving down the bottom half of the road that we live on. On the bottom half there are a couple homes, huge horse pastures, and good flowing creek. At least it was a good flowing creek. As I said Brint and I were driving home and saw two Ford trucks on the side of the road where the creek "bridge" was. And there where two good ol' boys with their overalls on and their ol' farmin' hats. Just scratching away at their heads.

We did know one of the older men. It was an uncle of our neighbor Amy (who we do our jam with). His name is Glenn. Brint stopped the car (since he is the most nosey person ever), and asked what was going on. Glenn said "Beaver!". Pause, pause, pause. You could hear crickets chirping at this point. Brint says "well what's he doing?". Glenn said "Building a dam!" Pause, pause, pause....crickets STILL chirping! Brint says "What are you going to do?". Glenn said "Get em'!" Brint said "Are you going to shoot him?" Glenn said "Nope, where going to catch him and take him to the creek by those new houses. That will teach them!"

What he is talking about are new housing development on Dogwood Rd. They desimated a beautiful hill that was half trees, and half rolling horse pasture. IT IS AWFUL!!! Brint and I agreed with him, thought about helping (just kidding), but just took pictures of what was left of the "dam" in the creek.

Now on to GRAPES!!

On Labor Day weekend our friends Susie and Anna invited us over for a Labor Day Pool Party and cook out. It was soooo much fun! We got to talking with them about the over abundance of grapes. They told us if we picked them, gave them a couple of pints of grape jam, we could have the rest. Wooooo, Hoooo!!! Oh wait, we have to pick all those grapes....oh crud!!

So we came back the next day, with our neighbor and partner, Mark, in toe. And we picked under the arbour (while trying not to make the honey bees and bumble bees mad), and the Wall-O-Grapes! They had so many grapes. In fact the vines had grown up into the Redwood trees. We got out our signature orange Home Depot buckets, pruning shears, and a ladder (more on the ladder in a minute).





Oh my gosh, the best part of all this was just looking at the beauty of the grapes. They were SO plump, and SO purple. If you just stood there and took in the smells, it just reminded me of home, of being in Napa and Sonoma. Aaaahhh!



Ok, so on with the ladder story. As you saw in the pictures above these grapes were huge and amazing. Brint was able to grab a HUGE cluster of grapes. They were sooo pretty that I asked Anna to take a picture of us, while Brint holds the grapes. So I am standing on the bottom step as the "weight", yeah...thanks a lot. Brint is standing two steps above me. I am holding the coveted Home Depot buck to catch the grapes, and I turn my body to face the camera. Anna is getting ready to take the shot, as Brint says "Hurry, my feet are starting to hurt." Two seconds later Brint falls (full weight) ON TOP OF ME!!! All on my top left shoulder and left...uh...well...chestage are. I leaned forward because of his weight (I will be kind and not say how much), he bounced off my shoulder and you know what.

Then he bounced off my back and butt, only to land ever so softly onto the ground. Uh, OOOWWW~!!! Of course I was totally to blame because I "made him turn around", and I put the crushed grapes under his shoes that made him fall. Yes, and I really wanted to be the catcher of my heavy-pound husband onto my chest (which turned a lovely shade of black, green, and yellow). I had to laugh (other wise I would cry, and people were watching) because Susie and Anna were both watching, with mouths agape. And the funny thing to was Anna was standing there with the camera, and wasn't able to catch the Argall Acrobats at all. So instead, here is the peaceful and happy picture before the "incident".

All the while, Cleo, Anna and Susie's dog, gave a look of "What the heck was that!?!?".

We have since canned most of the grapes, sold some to the restaurant in Candler and will soon sell some to our personal customers. My back feels better, and my "other" wounds have healed....all this for the bounty of the grapes and yummy jelly! Thanks again Anna and Susie for letting us pick...love you guys!!!!!

Chick-Peck Part 3

Brint and Mark looked over the structure of the new hutch, and it just needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. So guess who stayed the night in our house. Our baby chickens.....I know, I know we can all here the banjos playing now. It was either them sleep in our home, or the possibility of getting eaten!! They were a total joy! They would just peep, peep away ever so quietly. And they loved watching T.V. So much so that I had to put a dish towel on that side of their cage to make them go to bed. I made a roosting box out of a large shoe box, and some old rags. They loved it!!



So without further explanation here is the progress of the chicken "condo".



So here is the inside. I am super impressed at the work the guys did. The chicks were so happy, especially not to be in the transport cage. But they have their own window, incase it gets to hot. We made their roosting "bed" out of a bee box that we could not use, just cut a notch and put in some mulch (till we get some hay), and voila!! And soon to come we will be placing a sliding door with ramp for them to go out into their "sun room". He, he!

P.S. Click on the last picture, so it will enlarge, and you can see the chicks happy, and eating in their new home!

Chick-Peck Part 2

On with the story! So we found a spot for the "chicken house" to live. Mark dug up a spot for the foundation. The next BIG step was getting the "chicken house" off the truck onto the foundation. Uh...Yeah right!! I got in Marks big truck, it's a stick, and I had to do a thing called "granny gearin' it". Only in the south! So I had to pull it forward slower than a snail as Amy, Mark, & Brint slowly pull it off, and place it ever so gently on the foundation blocks. Houston, we have lift off. Planted that million pound building like it was only two! Way to go everyone...Wheew!

Chick-A-Little, Peck-A-Little!

Ok, so we are officially country people. Went to an 80 year old mans house to pick plums. Bought eight grape vines, some thorn-less blackberry bushes (HALLELUJAH!!!), and "oh by the way, I sell chickens for $4.00 a piece". So Brint, and Mark went home with the plants, and us girls had the baby chicks in their transport cage in my car. Dorothy does this train stop in Kansas???

So, we bought 2 Delaware chickens. They are only 3 months old, cute and sweet as a button. Mark and Amy had a old, huge rabbit hutch that we were going to convert into the chicken hutch. That weighed a million pounds, and had to retrieve it from an OLD tobacco barn....FUN!!

Bohemian Birthday!

So Saturday was my 32nd Birthday! In one of my favorite movies, Moulin Rouge, the bohemian moto is "Believe in Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and above all things Love". I love that moto! So I had my self a little Bohemian birthday. It started out with Love...Brint made his famous scrambled eggs, with toast, grapes, and apple juice. My perfect breakfast, especially made by him. Then it was Freedom....freedom to relax on the couch to watch a Jane Austen movie, Sense and Sensibility, free from cleaning the house or canning blackberry jam. Next was Truth...in other words I must tell you the truth! I took a forty minute nap with Brint on my birthday. Sad but true.

Now finally Beauty....We went with Katie and Ryan Jevne to Jerusalem Garden Cafe for my birthday dinner! That was so much fun, and very bohemian. We sat in the tent room, on colorful pillows. Listened to live middle eastern music, which was really good. They even had a belly dance there, which was way cool!! We had appetizers of hummus and Dolma...yumm! Brint had the Chef's special of lam, tomatoes, onions, and Jordanian spices. Ryan had Mussaka (that word reminds me of the movie "Big Fat Greek Wedding", where the little girls asked if she was eating "Moose Ka-ka". He, he!). Anyway, his looked very yummy too! Katie and I had the shrimp with a mango curry sauce. Oh my heavens.....that meal was to die for. We each had couscous, and some pita bread. Yumm!

We were able to sit and relax. I really enjoyed the belly dancer. I think Katie and I may take a couple of classes. Anyway, after dinner we just walked around downtown Asheville and enjoyed the bohemian city around us. Got to say if you want to see creativity, art, and people expressing themselves that is the place! We finished the night off by getting some ice cream at Ingles (my favorite Turtle Tracks), and watched an episode of I Love Lucy. What a great night! Thanks to Brint, Katie, and Ryan for making my day so special. And to all my friends and family that wished me Happy Birthday!! Love to you all!!!

Blackberries....yum, yum!!

Well, our little bees have out done themselves already!! Their hives were tucked into what we thought were briers...wrong they were blackberry bushes. Those hard working bees pollinated every single blackberry flower. Then one afternoon while we were checking on our bees, we noticed itty bitty berries EVERYWHERE! Next thing we know there were blackberries popping up like popcorn.

There was no way all that hard work done by our bees should go to waste. So Brint, Mark, Amy, and myself decided to make jam and can it. So we picked, and picked, and picked, AND picked. Our first day was SOOOO HOT! Once that was done we went back to our house to can our crop.

Now, side note, none of us had ever made jam or canned anything before...ever. So we had a chore in front of us. I hit up Martha Stewart.com and Google, while Amy hit up a bunch of other jam making web sites as well. We even borrowed Brint's Nana's Jam/Jelly making book from the 40s. We all agreed to make our jam pectin free, so we could label our jam as 100% organic. And it helped keep the cost down! Did you know that if you add a small handful of unripened berries in with your ripened berries, they have their own natural pectin!?! Pretty cool!

So we stood in my HOT kitchen and washed, mashed, cooked, heated, boiled, and popped our way through our first batch of five shiny jars of Blackberry jam. Man, that was hard hot work! The funny part was the waiting for the "pop" after the boiling bath, it was totally exciting. We all huddled around the five jars and cheered every time the lids popped.

So since then (3 weeks ago), we have been picking and canning nonstop. We've done so much that Amy and I dream about it all the time. As of right now we have canned over 89 pints, and 80 half pints. And the boys are canning again tonight. Wheew! But let me tell you all that work has payed off. Besides selling the jars like hot cakes, the jam is SOOOOO YUMMY!! We have had nothing but rave-reviews. All the money we make from the sells is going back towards our bees, supplies, shed/barn for supplies, etc.

If ya'll want to buy some let me know! $5.00 for a pint, and $4.00 for half a pint. You won't be disappointed!!!