The New Green House

We built a second greenhouse a couple years ago. We finally got around to covering it with plastic this year. The first 30' x 48' greenhouse was purchased as a kit and is constructed of very heavy steel pipes. We made the second greenhouse ourselves with used water pipe and a manual pipe bender. You can see the two greenhouses in the background. The home made one is on the left. The total cost for the home made 30' x 48' green house, including the plastic was about $1750. It is not designed to carry any snow load, so the plastic will have to be removed every winter. Here is Elijah heading up the ladder to help pull the greenhouse plastic over the frame. He almost made it to the top once, I was too alarmed to think of taking a picture of it though.

Don't try putting the green house plastic on when it is windy out. As you can see, a half covered greenhouse makes a great sail.

Here it is all covered. We attached the plastic to the frame by taking PVC pipe in a slightly larger size than the metal frame, cutting it into 12" sections, splitting those in half, and sandwiching the greenhouse plastic between the metal frame and a pvc piece and securing with 2 screws in each pvc piece. They are spaced about 2' apart. You can see the black pvc pieces along the frame in the picture above. We are leaving the ends open so that it will be a cooler greenhouse than the other one. It gets over 100 degrees in the enclosed one on an 80 degree day, we will dedicate the enclosed green house to super heat loving vegetables like the tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and peppers. The new greenhouse will have things like corn, lettuce, and beans.

We planted the corn, beans and lettuce already. They are being hand watered until we get the irrigation lines set up. The irrigation lines consist of a 3/4" header pipe with T-Tape running down the rows. We get all of our irrigation supplies at www.dripworks.com. It is fairly inexpensive unless you include shipping to Alaska. That usually doubles the cost.

Sprucing Up the Flower Bed

Flower Beds Before...I shuffled around some of the stones on the top row and exposed some very elaborate ant tunnels. The ants were not pleased to have their home destroyed. I had a lot of good help. That is dirt on the camera lens. The dramatic AFTER photo. Ok, it's not so dramatic - the plants need to fill in a little. I planted nasturtium and sweet pea seeds, so maybe in another month or so the flower beds will start looking really good. I'm going to plant gladiolus along the back wall, they are already started in pots, but I still have to plant something in the center - maybe a bush of some sort.

The budding mechanic working on a plow. Enjoying the Play Yard - The kids have a play yard. Unfortunately, there is only grass in it right now. Soon there will be a play house, slide, sandbox, swings, etc. But today, all they get is an empty pot...

that they have to share.

Starting Seeds, Baking, and Mud

RECIPE: BLUEBERRY BANANA BREAD

1 1/4 C Sugar

1/2 C Butter, softened

2 lg Eggs

1 ½ C Mashed bananas (3)

½ C Buttermilk

1 tsp Vanilla

2 ½ C Whole Wheat Flour (regular or pastry)

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

1 C Blueberries (cranberries)

*Adjust recipe up or down according to the amount of mashed banana you have. ( I had 4 1/2 cups of banana, made 5 loaves).

1. Adjust oven rack so tops of pans will be in the center. Heat oven to 350.

2. Grease bottom only of 9x5x3 pan (2 8x4 pans). Coat with cinnamon sugar, shake out the excess.

3. Cream together sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Stir in bananas, buttermilk & vanilla; beat until smooth.

4. Mix together flour, baking soda & salt. Stir into batter just until moistened. Stir in blueberries.

5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes (1 hr for 8x4 pans) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack. Remove from pan, cool completely. If you turn the loaf out onto a sheet of waxed paper on the cooling rack, it makes it much easier to turn it upright without injuring the loaf.

*You can mix up the batter the night before, store it in the refrigerator and bake in the morning, just bake a few minutes longer.

I also oiled my wooden mixing spoon and lemon juicer this weekend. Regularly oiling wooden cooking utensils and cutting boards seals the wood making them easier to clean, and helps them last longer. I coat the piece in butcher block oil, let dry for 6 hours, recoat, and let dry for 24 hours before using. I need to get more wooden spoons in various sizes. I often use my long handled plastic spoon for stirring dough and batter, but the handle is too flexible when mixing large batches and I must have used it for cooking since the tip is melted off flat. As you may notice from the picture, I do not have kitchen counter tops yet. I have beautiful hickory cabinets with 1" plywood countertops covered with contact paper. It is beautiful contact paper however, it is not as resistant to scratches, heat, or water as say granite. Unfortunately, counter tops are rather far down the list of priorities. But I do have a marble board for rolling out dough, it works much better than my previous dough board which consisted of tinfoil taped to the dinner table.

I am a perfectionist. When I set my mind to a project I like to take my time and do things just so. Last night I made Chicken Pot Pies for dinner. I have never made pot pies before. It was much more involved than I anticipated. The Betty Crocker recipe used frozen carrots and peas and premade pie crust. The recipe also was for 1 large pot pie casserole. But I wanted perfect little individual pot pies made from scratch.

I mixed up a double batch of dough so I could use some later in the week. Then chopped and cooked the chicken, and the carrots and celery - I was going to include potatoes as well but couldn't stand the thought of chopping and cooking anything else, I also left out the onion for the same reason. Then I made the gravy and stirred in the chicken and vegetables, adding frozen peas. All that was left was to line each jumbo muffin tin with foil to easily lift out the pot pies (I could just envision the disaster of trying to dump them out like muffins), roll out the dough for the bottom and press into the muffin cups, fill with the prepared filling, roll out the dough for the tops and seal the pot pies. Then bake for 35 minutes.

I started making the dough at 5:00 pm and dinner was on the table by 8:30. But the pot pies were too hot so we didn't actually eat until almost 9:00. Darren said they were the best pot pies he has ever tasted-and it only took 4 hours to make 6 pot pies! I am working on moving faster.

SEED TIME: I already have tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, peppers, and asparagus started. But I am way behind on starting everything else. I got 1 tray of Snow Crown and White Sails Cauliflower and 1 tray of Goliath Broccoli planted this weekend. I didn't get finished all that I needed to though. Since I never get around to transplanting the seedlings after the first true leaves appear like a good gardener is supposed to. I cheat and fill the bottom of the seed tray half way with potting soil and then top it off with seedling mix. That way, the seeds can sprout in the seedling mix but still get some nutrients from the potting soil as the plants grow. I bought some soil blockers a couple years ago, but have never gotten around to mixing up the special soil blend needed to use with soil blocks. I would still like to try it someday.

What? We weren't doing anything...

This is what happens when Mom focuses too intently on getting the dirt perfectly distributed in the seed trays. Wow! I love Summer Already!

Greenhouse

Darren got the greenhouse tilled up and ready for planting. This is a 30' x 48' greenhouse. This year we will plant the following in the greenhouse, outside gardens, and hoop houses:

• Tomatoes (bush, vine, and cherry)
• Cucumbers
• Peppers (Bell, sweet & hot)
• Okra
• Cantaloupe and Honey Dew Melon
• Carrots
• Spinach
• Green Beans
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Asparagus
• Strawberries
• Rhubarb
• Potatoes (Yukon Gold, Fingerling, Red)
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Beets
• Corn (never ripens, but we keep planting it anyways)

After a long cold winter of snow and ice, freshly tilled up dirt is cause for celebration!

Hmmm, this dirt ball is fascinating! I must eat it...

Reindeer Update 2010

1. Here is the herd this morning. They decided to come over and check us out. Notice the big bull's antlers? They are still growing, of course. When they arrived last fall, all of their antlers had been cut off so they wouldn't impale each other during their trip to Alaska. And they remained antlerless all winter - I am certain they will look much more majestic this year.
   That's little Rosie in the front, she is just over 4 weeks old. Virginia (laying by the feeder way in the back) was sick yesterday, she is only 1 week old. Darren called and asked me to pick up some injectable antibiotic from the feed store on my way home from work. He didn't think Virginia would make it, she was weak and wobbly, she was not nursing. But since he didn't want to wait all day for me to get home with the meds, he gave her 2 amoxacillin pills (for animals) that we had on hand and washed it down with baby formula that he mixed up in one of Elijah's bottles (hopefully he will wash it well). He thought it would do in a pinch to keep her hydrated and get some nutrients to her in her weakened state.
   Apparently it is very difficult to milk a reindeer, as they have very small teats and only put out a couple ounces at a time. They have to do this up at the University (University of Alaska Fairbanks) Reindeer Research Facility because they have several cows every year who reject their calves, probably from too much handling or stress shortly after birth.
   By the time I got home with the $60 antibiotics, Virginia was up and about and nursing just fine. Darren heard back from the University regarding the antibiotic. They had initially recommended it but then said that it is very potent and just might kill an animal that is already weak. It also ruins the meat in the vicinity of the injection, even if given subcutaneously (under the skin). Not that we were planning on eating Virginia, she will be instrumental in increasing our herd. When young animals get very sick or are frequently sick during periods of rapid development and growth, they often will never reach their full potential. They are usually never as large, robust, or productive as the animals who did not get sick. We have seen this often with our chickens and turkeys. Thankfully, Virginia was cured quickly through fairly gentle means so I doubt she will suffer any lasting effects from her illness.
   We try to limit the kids exposure to people germs as much as possible for the same reason. I have seen many studies proclaim that it is actually a benefit for children to be chronically sick as infants and toddlers so that they will have fewer illnesses when they start school. I think it is wise to wait at least until they are capable of blowing their nose and coughing productively. Our pediatrician agrees. Plus, they have plenty of exposure to farm germs.

Here is Serena greeting Lefty the young bull. She seems to be more at ease with the reindeer than she was when she first arrived. She still wants to chase the turkeys, though.

Spring Flowers

The snow is gone now and the leaves are turning green. This picture is from a couple weeks ago, Smokey is patrolling the farm. It had been so warm and sunny lately, that I thought I should start some annuals in the pots on the porch. I usually wait until about mid-july to plant flowers and then they just look pathetic until the frost kills them a month and a half later. Darren was dissatisfied with the galvanized buckets and tubs we used as planters on the deck and insisted that they needed to be painted. So I spray painted half of them white and half of them butter yellow - very lovely. Then, I bought petunias, pansies, and marigolds and planted about 16 pots full of flowers.

Then it got cold again.

About half of the marigolds died while still sitting the greenhouse waiting to be planted. So every night, the pots are carried into the house or garage, and then they are carried back outside in the morning. But just think how beautiful they will be in another month when it is actually the appropriate time to set flowers out!

Rosie Darren had been bribing Rosie with tidbits of lichen, he tried an apple slice first but she wasn't interested. But the lichen is a different story, she has come to expect her daily lichen treat.

Baby Virginia is still to little to bribe with treats, but she did try tasting a little grain.

New Guard Dog

We got a new farm dog 2 weeks ago. She is a Great Pyrenees/Golden Retriever mix. I thought she would be a good gentle guard dog for the kids. I have to do some obedience training with her though, she likes to wander. I have been walking her on a leash, which is a pain because the other 2 dogs can just hang out outside with out fear of them wandering away. Hopefully she will catch on soon. Serena - 3 years old

The Reindeer Herd

My husband decided last year that he wanted to be a reindeer herder. In Alaska, only Alaska Natives can legally own Alaskan Reindeer. This proved problematic as neither one of us is Native Alaskan. Long story short, we managed to import some from Canada. This was a major feat of coordination with many State and Federal Agencies which will probably never be duplicated again. Even with all the proper paperwork, the border guards on the Alaska side almost didn't let him through with his trailer load of reindeer. But as of last August, we are officially in the Reindeer business! We got 3 older cows and 2 bulls. The older cows were cheaper, plus we would be able to have calves from them in the spring. Win/win! This is Lucky with newborn Rosie.

Rosie is now 3 weeks old and busy chasing all the other reindeer. Especially the younger bull, he always tries to get away from her but mom Lucky thinks he is the one being ornery and chases him off and butts him. Rosie thinks it is great fun getting him in trouble. Our second baby reindeer was born today at 9:30 am. Her name is Virginia. She is 3 hours old here.

That's her mom, Pepper. We are waiting on one more calf to be born, any day now. That will bring our herd up to eight reindeer, now all we need is a sleigh!