Whiteley Creek Homestead

I had planned to share a photo of five trellises that Dick and I constructed and set up in our gardens today despite the drizzly chilly day, however my fingers got too cold to tie the strings onto each framework to complete the project. Instead, I moved on to the next project which was removing last year’s nests from my four pairs of bluebird houses. When I went inside to prepare a bucket of warm water with a biodegradable disinfectant cleaner to scrub them squeaky clean for the spring’s arrivals, my eyes settled upon this plaque that I purchased from my high school/community college friend, Gladys, which she sold along with other items at a community art sale. Now you must know that I dislike two colors… black and purple. My guess is that Gladys must have chosen this particular base color because of the book titled When I Grow Old I Shall Wear Purple. I overlooked the color because I liked the message so much. "Leaner, meaner, and sharp-edged", you wonder? Why would anyone strive to attain such traits? To me it means arriving at a place where one feels more confident and comfortable with who one has become. It is being content in our particular life’s season and not worrying so much about other’s judgement of us… not leaner, meaner, and sharp-edged in a negative way. To shoot the photo, I set the plaque on the weathered gray floor boards of Whiteley Creek Bed and Breakfast Inn’s back porch. I think it makes a pretty color combo… yes, even though it’s purple.

This the back side of the plaque. It appears to be a tree section that Gladys varnished to preserve its beauty. I should have asked her. I will ask her. My friend Pat said, "It looks like she used a type of tree fungus called a conk or shelf fungus.  Here are a few sites you might be interested in." (You really should check out the sites Pat supplied. They are so informative! The first site tells how shelf fungus can prolong an old tree’s life, the second site has many photos to view, and the third site describes how to dry it and seal it.)

http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/friendlyfungus.html

http://search.pbase.com/search?q=shelf+fungus&b=Search+Photos&c=sp

http://boards.diynetwork.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2021916776/m/8011050023

It is my pleasure to introduce you to my eight laying hens.

Most days Olga, Pearl, and Flossie are hard at work. Flossie is always sitting on her nest. She takes her job very seriously. A signature breakfast entree, "Flossie’s Eggs on the Rails", is named after her. The recipe was chosen from state-wide entries that is featured on the label of a CD of relaxing instrumental music titled “Bed & Breakfast Mornings and Beyond”, so she has made a name for herself. Opal is always first to the daily afternoon treats of fruit and veggie scraps. Henny Penny is too busy worrying about the sky falling down to get down to the business of laying eggs. She paces back and forth… usually in the vicinity of the chicken wire enclosure entrance/exit gate. Cora is somewhat of a rebel…. the last to go in the coop at night. Lastly, Phoebe… She eats way more than her share. I have needed to make additional trips to purchase organic chicken feed from a local farmer who travels to Wadena and returns with a truckload of bags at a time. What dark orange yolks are produced from the organic feed and the free-roaming lifestyle that my flock of chickens enjoy!

Flossie is in her nest, as usual. Olga, Pearl, and Phoebe are deciding which nesting box to hunker down in today. Edith is still outside chatting with her girlfriends.

I bought these four varieties of heirloom dry (soup) beans from a neighbor who has a small-scale fruit/vegetable farm business. The yellow eye, soldier, Vermont cranberry, and Jacob’s cattle beans date back to the 1700s and 1800s. I made soup out of some of them with plenty left over for planting in my garden this spring to multiply my supply for carrying me through next winter.

I packaged some of each variety of the bean seeds in handmade seed packets to share with a friend to plant in her garden that I will give to her along with my "Stormy Day Bean Soup" recipe. Did you say, "I want to be your friend?" I downloaded the seed packet templates from a link that was in a "101 Hip, Handmade Gifts" publication that I purchased with my 40% off Joann Fabrics coupon. 

Have you wondered, “What is the difference between a regular seed plant and an heirloom seed plant?” The following information comes from the "TomatoFest" web site. Even though the article specifically refers to tomatoes, the explanation is apropos to other seeds/plants as well. For the past 40 years or so, when most people spoke of "regular" tomatoes they meant hybrid tomatoes because these were the most commonly available in markets and seed catalogues. Hybrid tomatoes are genetically created for the particular purpose of marketing and distribution (i.e., thick skins so they can withstand the weight of huge amounts of tomatoes stacked in a truck, a longer shelf-life so they might last a week or longer at the market, or a particular disease resistance). Too often a hybrid's last priority has been taste. Heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated tomatoes, whose seeds have been handed down from generation to generation. (Heirloom status is attained when plants have bred true from seed for 50+ years.) Heirloom tomatoes are generally thin-skinned, extremely flavorful and have a natural resistance to disease.

Can I save the seeds from hybrid tomatoes? Yes. However, you will not get a tomato like the parent. If you want to have fruit that is identical to the fruit you are seeding, you need to do so from an open-pollinated or heirloom tomato. One of the primary reasons that heirloom tomatoes are so popular is because after finding a favorite heirloom tomato variety, you can save the seeds of that variety for many generations to come.