Red Currants

I finally got around to harvesting the red currant bush. Jaron and I went out late one afternoon with a small plastic tub. 

He wanted to pick and eat, which was fine. Then he wanted to eat from the dish. Uh, no bud, that's not how this works. I told him the ones in the dish we had to save for Dad. He ended up picking some to share! I thought he was going for more eating but instead he put berries in! "For Dad!" he said. 😆😊 So sweet. 

Here's how many we ended up with! 

They remind me a little of elderberries, just the clusters on the bush and how the berries themselves look (besides being red vs a deep purple). The taste is vastly different though. 

Sandbox Gardening

Friends of ours had a portable sand table out when we visited their house. Jaron had so much fun playing with it, I made a comment about us needing to get something like that for him. Guess what... the table was out at their house because they're getting rid of it. It was a hand-me-down to them, so they were looking for another family to give it to. That's us! 

It came with a few bags of sand and a bunch of plastic toys. I had Galen set it up next to the garden. 

It keeps him occupied for 5-10 minutes, then he toddles into the garden to see what I'm doing. Then he meanders over to his pail of dirt. And then wanders back to the sand table. 

Definitely a good distraction. 

Things are still growing slowly in the garden. The watermelon on the trellis looks pretty good. I've woven it through a few times. No mildew on leaves yet! 

In weeding the potatoes, I came across another basil plant that survived! 

The best looking thing in the garden is a volunteer pumpkin. Who knows what kind of pumpkin it is... Hopefully a good kind!

 

Backyard Pasture

The goats have switched from the north pasture to the backyard pasture. The warm and wet weather has grown things enough we decided it was time. 

This morning I noticed a vine growing and flowering.

Unfortunately, I don't think it'll last long... The goats love eating vines like that. It's just a matter of when they find it. 

One thing that's growing really well is chicory.

It has beautiful bluish purplish flowers. I don't think the goats care for it much though. I think I can spy some flowers in the north pasture, which means they haven't been eating them there. Maybe it's a medicinal plant and they only eat a little at a time? 

Tree Watering Bags

Back in Fulda again for a few days. G had a church conference to go to in Iowa, so Jaron and I went back to the farm. We brought some tree watering bags from the garden center with us to make it easier for my dad to keep these newly planted trees watered. 

I've seen them around trees in town before and always wondered how they work. They're very easy to use. Zip the bag around the tree, fill with water. Pull up on the handles when it's partly full to get it to sit upright. 

They hold 15gal that trickle out over 5-8h. You only need to fill them up every couple days or so as opposed to watering every day. 

Jaron had to check out how his tree was doing...

Yep, looking good! 

4H Food Review and Fashion Review

I was asked by a local 4H extension agent to lead a workshop for 4Hers in two project areas- Food Review and Fashion Review. I did both of those categories in my 4H days and have always wondered why more people don't do them. Probably because they don't understand what the project actually is. So this workshop was perfect. 

I planned one hour total, each project area would get a half an hour. First up, food review. This category is basically meal planning/table setting. Pick a theme, come up with a menu, figure out what to serve it on (plates, cups, silverware, centerpiece), and make and bring one item from the menu. 

It sounds more complicated than it is. For the workshop, I made five examples using dishes and things I had at home already. I used Canva to make my menu posters. 

Each one had its talking points. Japan theme- how to come up with a theme (think about something you've already done or will do at home- birthday party, celebration, holiday, a food you're really excited about, etc), how do you know how many bowls/silverware to include? Think about what you'll be serving and include enough for that. 

This World Cup theme I actually used just last month for a church block party. Since it was an outdoor event, we used paper products as the table setting. Talking points - the formality of the meal dictates what dinnerware you use. Also, tell the judge why you made the decisions about the meal that you did. Looking at this one isn't very impressive, but if I told the judge that I served this meal for 65 people and washing dishes and silverware wasn't practical, that makes a lot of sense. Fun fact- the soccer jersey is from Croatia when they were in the semifinals and finals a few years ago. My college traveling friend and I happened to be there at the time and decided to join the crowd and festivities. It was crazy and awesome! 

This theme I used for a previous 4H workshop I did for a 4H club cloverbud meeting (the really young kids). We baked Hershey kiss cookies and talked about how to do a place setting. So, I reused the idea here. 

This menu I actually did as a 4H project back in the day. I revamped the sign and added sweet rolls to the menu. The talking points for this one were centerpieces (if you make it, bring that as a 4H project too!) and how to decide what menu item to bring to judging. The judge may or may not eat the food. You want to have proper food safety, so it's best to bring something room temp. And a little complicated to show off your skills. Can you imagine if someone just brought a glass of orange juice? 

One of the kids pointed out, what if you freshly squeezed the juice yourself? Okay, that bumps it up to some degree. 

This last one is the one I brought a menu item from. 

We talked about how to display your food item and how to line up your plate/silverware. 

I had a couple people ask for the recipe, so it was good I took a picture of it before I left home. In a regular 4H project, I would have a copy of the recipe posted with my project. 

The second half of our time was Fashion Review. It's such an easy category I don't know why people skip doing it. It's literally wearing your clothing project for the judge to see how it fits you. And adding accessories and knowing how to care for your garments. Still. All stuff you're probably doing anyway. 

We talked about how to decide what to buy/make as a project (clothes-you-make, clothes-you-buy, clothes-you-recycle project areas). Answer - look at what you already have in your wardrobe and see where the holes are, also take into account what your preferences are. If you hate dresses, don't buy or make a dress (unless you specifically need it for an event). If you love tshirts but have 20 already, don't buy or make a tshirt. Maybe try a tank top instead. 

I was going to have them practice writing a biography for their outfit, something they need to do for the public showcase of the fashion review project, but they had enough questions and our conversation was flowing enough, I just did a sample one based on what I was wearing. The biography is read while the 4Her models their outfit on stage. 

Something like this- Emily Holzhueter is a 4Her in the Bondin Belfast 4H club. She chose to wear a loose and flowy black dress that can be dressed up or down depending on the season. The 100% cotton dress is cool in the summer and can be worn with a sweater in the fall and winter, allowing her to use this dress year round. The black fabric means she can wear it with almost everything in her wardrobe. She chose to pair it with a bracelet that was a gift from a friend, a hand-me-down long chain necklace, and silver button earrings. Her black sandals were purchased from a thrift store for $1. All together her entire outfit cost $3. Way to be thrifty Emily! 

I modeled how to walk across the stage (go slowly, smile), pause at the three points and do a pivot to show off the sides and back of your outfit, and the T-stance (how to stand when you pause at the three stage points). All the 4Hers practiced walking across the "stage" to end our workshop. 

The parents who attended said it was really helpful to have someone explain how to do both categories. You can only get so much out of reading the instructions in the premium book. Six 4Hers attended and they all seemed excited about at least one (if not both) of the project areas by the end of it. 

And I finished right at one hour! All in all, it was a good experience. I hadn't realized how much I missed using my teaching/planning brain. It was fun to dive into a topic and figure out what I should teach the kids about it. 

One funny story from home. I baked the cookies the day before the workshop. Jaron recognized them as cookies and kept saying "cookie, cookie!" over and over again. He definitely wasn't going to get to eat one, and I told him, "these cookies are not for Jaron, they're for the kids." He responded, "yeah, kids!" And the rest of the afternoon he would randomly say, "cookie, kids! Cookie, kids!" no matter where we were in the house. 😂

Barn Spiders

Our goat shed is officially a barn- we have barn spiders! 😜

 

Tree Planting

4th of July weekend was very nice. We went down to my parents' farm for the weekend and hung out with family. The biggest activity was a hike at Blue Mound State Park- very steamy weather. 

Jaron had a great time with his cousins, playing in the house and splashing in the backyard kiddie pool. 

Doll teaparty with Gram:

On Sunday we planted "grandkid trees" at Shady. My dad bought an oak tree for each grandkid (and one for the heavenly grandkids), and each kiddo got to pick their tree and help dig the hole/plant it. 

Hold it straight Boppa.

Pat the dirt.

All done! 

First Nap

I successfully got Jaron to nap in his "new" bed! Granted, he fell asleep on my back in the baby carrier and I transferred him, but he did semi wake up and I got him back to sleep there. 

Unfortunately, he rolled to the edge of the mattress to sleep on his stomach. And then when he woke up he fell out of bed because he wasn't used to the boundaries. It's very close to the floor so it wasn't a big tumble. 

Guess we'll keep working on it. 😅

Bedroom Swap

Jaron's crib has been in our room for a long time, shoved up next to our bed. He used to start out sleeping there and then crawl in with us partway through the night, but since I weaned him, he starts and stays with us. 

The crib takes up a lot of space, so I decided to move it back to the nursery. I'm going to see if I can get him to take naps there.

After a little shuffling, here's the setup I came up with:

Shift the diaper station over to merge with the toy shelf, move the clothes bins to the foot of the bed, lower the mattress so it's close to the floor, add a step stool for Jaron to climb in himself. Very cozy! We'll see if he thinks so. 😜

The rest of the room had to shuffle too. 

I'm debating moving the little white table and chairs out to give a little more breathing room. The problem is that we don't have a place to move it. Living room? Reading room? 

I need to do some organizing and shuffling there too before I can answer that. 😅

Pullet Eggs

The trampoline chickens have finally begun to lay! Or maybe all this rain kept them inside during their egg laying time. Either way, we got 3-4 pullet eggs today! 

Size is normally the main indicator of a pullet vs mature hen egg, but the trampoline chickens are colored egg layers, so the color was my first indicator. One olive egger and one Easter egger for sure. 

Here they are next to an egg from Dixie (on the left), our oldest hen. 

There was another green/teal egg that was about the size of a mature hen, so that makes me wonder if we've had trampoline chickens laying eggs for a while but haven't found their nest... Maybe it's time to lock them in overnight. Just to see how many eggs we get...

Potatoes

Hot and humid this week make it not fun to be outside. G called me to say the wind made it actually pleasant to be outside and suggested Jaron and I go for a walk. So we did. 

You can see the stubborn boy was tired, but he didn't give in to a nap. 

On our way back, I paused to check on the potatoes. They are thriving! I've hilled them as much as will fit in the container, so the rest is up to them! 

I'm really curious how the yield will be this year. The potatoes in the garden (planted in straw mulch) are not nearly as tall and full. But they were planted later.