running right along with the reds...

i'm late the the RSC19 linky party today- we were butchering our pig! we raise about 12 pigs a year, and 2-3 of them are for the family. over the years we've learned to butcher our own- bacon, hams, linked sausage and all! when we first moved to our little farm about 11 years ago, we sent our pigs to the butcher, and got them back frozen in little packages, labeled and in a box ready for the freezer. 

we've *always* butchered our own poultry- the meat birds, turkeys and even the old worn out laying hens. i wasn't too keen to learn how to butcher a pig, but.... Dave really wanted to do it, so about 9+ years ago, we dove right in! we bought a DVD from somewhere online (like askthemeatman.com or something like that...) our first time butchering (breaking down) the hog, we set up the little portable TV right at the end of our stainless steel counter... then we pressed play, watched the first couple steps... then pressed pause and did just like the professional butcher....

play... pause... cut, cut, cut. play... pause... cut, cut, cut.

now, after 9 years or so, and about 20 pigs, we can do a pig relatively easily and painlessly. i don't think we even turned on TV (or youtube) all day! we're not professionals by any means, but we're confident beginners, and know just what cuts and seasonings we like in our hams, bacon and sausages. (here's the book we use for all our sausage recipes- it's also full of other great info, too, if you're interested in that sort of thing...) 

anyway- little C (who's the oldest grandson at 2yo) walked in this morning, all ready to help Pap cut up the pig! within minutes, he was set up at the work table with a big piece of fat, and a {butter} knife and fork. he proceeded to saw and sort meat with Pap for over an hour! (we worked inside boning small pieces of meat at a time, and then putting it back outside in the 20° weather to cool off and stay safe.) Behind C you can see his little brother L (10 months old) and our youngest daughter, B who is 11. 

now: on to the RSC19 reds! i finished my isosceles triangle quilt this week. it measures 68" X 82". i know the picture isn't the greatest- sorry! my triangles are 6½" per side. i cut my strips WOF at 6½" and then used my triangle ruler to trim them to the right size/angles. (if there is interest, i can do a *tutorial* next month on how i do it...)

this quilt will go in to our church sewing group- Scraps to Wraps and will be tied and donated locally when there is a need. i'll piece the backing, and also cut the binding from my stash. then when we have a need brought to our attention, it will be ready to go with minimal fuss. 

i happened to also have this completed quilt here at my house, and since it's primarily red i thought i'd share it today too. the pattern is called Friendship, and it was pieced by me and quilted by my friend Karen. it's also a donation quilt, and will be mailed off to the MCC quilt sale in Nebraska next week. 

(these postcard patterns are available at my LQS for about $2. i'm a pattern junky when it comes to these things {have you seen how much quilt patterns can cost these days?!} and i have a whole stack of them in my sewing room, just waiting for a pile and inspiration to collide...) 

and: welcome to all the new RSC19ers! i've noticed a bunch of new quilters/bloggers have joined in the RSC fun this year! welcome, again! i don't post here on my blog as much as i might like, but you can follow me { jlcap69 } over at Instagram. i'm more active there... and be sure to click over to Angela's at soscrappy and see what everyone else is stitching up this weekend! 

L & G Report: 2 ~ week 10 & 11

I've had uploading issues with the camera, so this is the post that i intended (and tried) to get up last week is just now co-operating!

this mulberry tree is right outside our kitchen window, and we've been enjoying watching the birds all fight for their fair share of mulberries. we've had quite a few goldfinches, and for the first time this week we've seen Baltimore orioles!

this mulberry tree is actually quite old, and has been growing here for over 100 years. or maybe i should say, (more accurately) the grandfather stump that this tree is growing out of has been a staple in our home's landscape for quite a long time now!

here is the upper garden- you can see the onions, beets and tomatoes. in the rows of black plastic are the cucumbers, zucchini, yellow summer squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, butternut and acorn squash. on the very right is ½ of the row of sunflowers.

there is also a row of beans thrown in, just for good measure! behind me, to the right, is the other half of the upper garden, containing popcorn, eggplant, some cabbages, yellow and green beans, sunflowers and gladioli.

on Tuesday i went to the greenhouse and bought a few flats of larger plants on clearance: cukes, watermelon, butternut and acorn squash. also green and purple cabbage. most of that stuff is in, and growing happily.

this is the first harvest of cauliflower. wow! we are so pleased with how the broccoli and cauliflower did that we're wishing we'd bought several more flats of each. i harvested more cauliflower tonight, with 2 dozen or more plants still maturing. the broccoli has had 2 harvests already, and tomorrow morning i plan on having M harvest, and pull, the rest of the plants. that will give us the needed room to plant the remaining green and purple cabbages.


our potatoes are doing very well, and have been hilled several times. Dave made a special attachment for the roto tiller, so no more back breaking hoeing needs to be done. just one pass down the row, and it's done!

most of the potatoes are flowering, and I'm very optimistic that we'll have fresh potatoes for July 4th! I'm also thankful that we planted (at the last minute) superior potatoes (white), in addition to the kennebec (also white). in one of my evening perusing of our multitude of seed catalogs, i noticed that superior potatoes were an early variety, while the kennebec are later. (of course, this makes sense, since the kennebec are intended to be a keeper potato...)

since the kennebec are still not flowering, we would not be able to have our red, white and blue potatoes for July 4th...




the sweet potatoes are also doing well, in spite of our disgust with Gurneys. one of these days, when i have a bit of free time, I'll call them and ask to be taken off their mailing list. that way i won't be tempted to buy something from them next year, no matter how cheap!

we still have the sweets under the row tunnel, and the plan is for them to remain that way. G made 2 end covers for me out of chicken wire, but even so, Dave often uncovers part of the row during the day so the sweets don't get too hot. B, my self-acclaimed "garden helper" will go down at dusk and help cover them up again.

the first batch of meat birds are 9 weeks old, and cannot reach butchering weight soon enough for me! I've bought 18 bags of feed, and after purchasing 10 more at the feed mill today I'm more than ready for the cash flow to be reversed!

Dave's horseradish is doing fine, too, and we're looking forward to trying some fresh horseradish. we'll have to wait at least until September, though, since the old-timer told me horseradish can only be harvested in a month that has an "R" in it.

i may have forgotten to mention that we (I) decided to also raise 12 turkeys! 4 i hatched out in our incubator, and the other 8 i bought. it only cost me $50 for all 12, so even with that dismally disappointing hatch percentage (18 eggs) they were still far cheaper than if i had ordered day olds.

the turkeys are outside in the brooder hoop house, and moved daily just like the chickens. so far they don't eat much, but i expect that to change soon.

at least several are toms, and it's comical to watch these small birds strut around all puffy and proud despite their diminutive size.

the first 2 pigs went to the butcher last week, with the remaining 2 to follow July 8. (anybody local need fresh, pastured pork?)

the girls and i went to farmer Allen's to get our next batch- 4 feeder pigs. 2 of these are ours, to be butchered in December and January, with the remaining 2 for sale.

Wednesday our remaining 100 Cornish cross cockerels came, joining the 15 buffs i hatched out, and the additional 15 buff pullets we bought. with all these new birds, the poultry population here is nearing 250!

the baby buffs are our new laying flock, as the old buff orpingtons are 1½ years old, and showing it in their egg production. just today M gathered a small egg- about the size of a malted egg! that's ok for a pullet, but not acceptable for a mature hen... so as soon as these new hens start laying, it's off to the chopping block for the slackers!

that's about it for the happenings here "by the bridge". we're harvesting beets, carrots, peas and the occasional ripe tomato (when we can wrestle it away from A and B!) the eggplants and beans are blossoming, and there are tons more yellow blossoms on the tomatoes.

we're managing to *mostly* stay on top of the weeds. we primarily use the hand cultivator, but still use the roto tiller on occasion, and sometimes even resort to the old-fashioned method of hand weeding.

we're thankful for the consistent rain, and still have not installed our new irrigation system, but that should be done soon; hopefully next week.

thanks for stopping by; we appreciate your interest and your encouragement!

Livestock & Garden Report 2: Week 5 and 7

finally ~ the explanations to go with these pictures! i had finally taken the time on Saturday to sit down and write, and just as i hit publish, everything disappeared!

so now, i guess I'll try again. I'll give you both the explanation and the update, all in one fell swoop...

Dave turned our old "chicken triangle" into more garden space. last fall we laid mulch, and early spring Dave was out tilling the hay under. the soil is still fluffy (and rocky) but we're glad for the extra dirt.

A helped us plant sweet corn ~ 3 different kinds: yellow, white and bi-color. all will mature at different times ~ 63, 72 and 85 days.

although it's not enough corn to sell, we will have plenty for ourselves to eat.

the corn is now up about 2" and just this morning i was able to cultivate it for the first time. when it's early, and the dew is still on the stalks, it's easy to see the rows. as the day goes on, the rows just fade into the dirt.

the potatoes in the lower garden are all up ~ all 300 lbs of them! we definitely expanded our potato farming from last year, but it was such a successful crop.

both the kennebec and red Pontiac i was able to plant from our own potatoes, thus saving us the cost of buying more seed potatoes. with the exception of the 200 lb. of seed potatoes i bought ( 50lb. red pontiac, 25 lb. blue, 50 lb. superior and 50 lb. yukon gold), we have not needed to buy any potatoes for our family to eat for almost a year!

now that the potatoes are gone, however, we're on a potato fast until the new ones are dug, hopefully around the beginning of July.



the little high tunnel worked very well, and really gave a boost to the cauliflower and broccoli. the tunnel is off now, (we're using it for the sweet potatoes down in the lower garden) and the plants should be large enough to fend off a marauding bunny.

there are a few slugs, though, but early in the morning Dave takes the girls out to squash the slugs and snails. B is so cute as she earnestly hunts for slugs, and then shakes salt onto them with the saltshaker!

the chickens are coming along very well, and are nearly half-way to butchering day.

every once in a while one (or two, or three...) will get out, and the girls are happy to help put them back in the hoop house. since chickens absolutely do not herd well at all, they need to be caught. both girls know how to catch the chickens by the body so the wings don't flap all over. they gently put them back.

all three girls A, B and M help feed the chickens. (G feeds them in the morning) here B is hauling the feed sack down in her little wheelbarrow.

100 birds eat 100 lbs. of food in less then three days, so we're kept busy either running to the feed mill or mixing the soybean meal into the food.

the meat bird grower that we buy is 22% protein, but these high octane birds need 26% protein. so, for every 100 lbs. of grower, we mix in 6 lbs of soybean meal. since the soybean meal is 47.5% protein, that gives the food (and chickens) the extra boost that they need.

this is the first year that we've supplemented the meat birds food this way, so I'll be interested to see if it makes a difference in the butchering weight.

right now all 4 hoop houses are running on the garden, so the chickens can help eat up the winter rye that is still growing. however, now that the danger of frost is past, we will be tiling the upper garden this week, so the chickens will need to be moved somewhere else.

the peas in the high tunnel are finally producing! just yesterday we had 2 quarts!


i sold one quart, and the girls sat in the yard eating the peas fresh yesterday after their nap. i was pleased that the peas did produce, since originally i was worried that they would not be pollinated, but that obviously was not a problem.


A and B still go get the eggs together, and besides being sisters, they are best friends.

this is the parting shot of the Indian runner ducks. we had been keeping them cooped up, since they would most likely eventually get into the lettuce, peas or spinach.

we were feeling bad that they could no longer roam about freely, so we sent them to the auction. hopefully they have a good home, and weren't some one's Sunday dinner!


we had a hail storm, quite fierce, and the girls we fascinated by the little ice balls. no damage was done to the crops, thankfully!


the peas are much larger than this now (that's what happens when it takes so long to post!) G and i staked them with sumac branches. i like the way that looks, but next year we will probably just use wire and stakes.

this salad box (radishes, lettuce and spinach) is producing profusely, and it's nearly impossible to keep up with it!

A found a toad while planting corn with daddy, and after she and B were done looking at him, they set it free in the high tunnel.

hopefully he'll gorge himself on the slugs in there!

this little spring hole is handy for watering the animals. it was just a wet spot in the yard that Dave dug out, and the girls like to sit on the edge and play in the water.

these are the two 300 gallon water storage tanks that we bought at the farmer's auction.

Dave plans on hooking them up to the drainage system in the lower garden, and then we'll have an easier way to water the plants down there.

he's in the process of working on that now, and i should be able to show it to you by the end of the week.

Dave has the row of horseradish planted, and they seem to be establishing themselves well.

a neighbor showed up with a plastic bag of root cuttings, assuring me that Dave wanted to plant horseradish. somehow, though, Dave has no recollection of that conversation!

the pigs are getting bigger and fatter, which is a good thing, since the butchering dates in June and July are rapidly approaching. it's hard to tell in this picture, but the red pig is significantly bigger than the white striped one.

and the parting shot: B and i lovin' on the cat. see, we do take the time to smell the roses pet the kitty!

Livestock and Garden Report: Round 2~ let's just call this week 1

it's been a flurry of spring activity around here. the wonderfully warm weather this week has allowed us to be outside getting lots of our time-sensitive projects done. (as a matter of fact, the Things To Be Done As Soon As Possible List is nearly done! the only things remaining on that daunting list are find some turkey and duck eggs to hatch and start the strawberry beds. Dave is building the brooder box tomorrow.)

Dave plowed and disced the lower garden yesterday, so hopefully by Monday we'll be planting potatoes and maybe onions as well. I've been having trouble tracking down blue potatoes, but i haven't given up yet!

already in the upper garden i have red and white onions planted, as well as 1 row of beets. in a few weeks I'll plant more beets. I'm going to try to be more organized about succession planting this year. it's so easy to start off like gangbusters after the winter's hibernation, but harder still to manage everything efficiently for the long haul. we did hang up a black board in the mud room, and i have all my garden notes and reminders on that. i plan on also having a large calendar to write dates of plantings and projected harvests.




this week Dave and G finished the 2nd pig tractor, and none too soon! 4 pigs slamming around in one small space is very crowded. not to mention messy. and muddy. we've been getting plenty of slops from the local restaurant that is the favorite hangout of the gas workers, so that's why we decided to get 2 more pigs.


i didn't take any pictures of the pigs. i guess we've been raising pigs so long now that i figure if you've seen one pig, you've pretty much seen them all! red. hairy. smelly. curly tail. big. sound familiar yet?




the big push this week was hauling the dirt from our farmer friend, Jay. G and Dave built 12 raised beds, and we filled them all with a combination of our bottom land soil, the dirt from the cow pasture and vermiculite. if you've seen or read the book Square Foot Gardening, you'll have an idea of the general direction we're headed.





the best part of hauling the dirt was borrowing the farm truck from our other farmer friend, Doug. G got a kick out of the truck, too, and could be observed on more than one occasion with a big grin on his face as he drove it around to unload dirt.



oi vey! the stories i could tell! suffice it to say that it was a driving experience that will give me some colorful stories to tell my grandchildren someday~ the highlights of which would include wearing a garbage bag skirt to keep me dry while driving the truck in the rain. and the absolutely best part: using a fire hose to fill a gas tank that would prefer an eyedropper. the gas guys standing in line for their lunch time hoagie won't soon forget that.






the high tunnel is doing well, and has some lettuce and spinach ready to harvest. the cold frames are full, too, and hopefully we'll have continuous harvests of lettuce, spinach and radishes until the hot weather.

G and i finished raking the vermiculite into all the raised beds, and i have 4 beds planted with peas and carrots. i can honestly say that even after only one day of gardening in raised beds, I'm a huge fan! the dirt is wonderful, it's easy to pick out stones and plant the seeds, and since the beds are so small it does not feel overwhelming. (like the long rows in the lower garden often do)

we're doing a buffet of gardening techniques this year: raised beds, square foot gardening, traditional garden, small scale farming and wide rows. we're still experimenting to find the best combination of what works well for us, and what will help us to be both productive on a large scale and efficient.

we have 25 buff orpington eggs in the incubator, and they are all due to start hatching out the evening of April 21. this clutch is just a trial run, since we've never used this incubator before. (i can vouch for the convenience of the automatic turner, however, and can't imagine remembering to turn the eggs 2-3 times a day!) i plan on filling all 42 slots in the incubator to hatch out my new laying flock later this spring.

on Wednesday our first batch of 100 Cornish cross roosters are due to arrive, via the United States Postal Service.

so if we think we're busy now, just wait until then!

p.s. ~ i finally finished the post about the drywalling in the girls' room. so if you've been anxiously awaiting news about that project, be sure to read the previous post!

we have so much to do, that i think i'll take my nap first, just so i can cross that off my list....

* build another pig tractor. (did i mention that we got 2 more pigs?)

* build a 5X5 brooder pen for the 100 cornish X cockerels that are coming April 14.

* build at least 12 10'X4' raised garden beds

* maintenance and *fix* tiller

* buy seeds: beans, cukes, sunflower, corn, summer and winter squash....

* buy 250 lb potatoes: 100 lb. kennebec, 50lb. red Pontiac, 50lb. Yukon gold and 50lb. purple variety.

* buy 15lb. onion sets: 10lb. purple onions, 5+lb. white onions, and 5+lb. yellow keeper onions.

* drywall upstairs.

* finish wiring upstairs

* plan several quilt classes for BF.

* finish girls' room, so they can move upstairs in the spring after M comes home.

* clean out high tunnel

* build a few more chicken hoop houses.

* hatch out 42 buff orpingtons in Dave's incubator (Christmas gift) so we'll have a new flock of laying hens.

* find, and hatch out some turkey eggs. also some ducks.

* till, and plant cold weather crops in the high tunnel.

* plow and disc lower garden.

* buy, and butcher another (full grown) pig. our sausage is almost all gone, and we need (would like to have) enough pork to last us until we butcher again next December.

* get manure for raised beds. fortunately, I've lined up a (dump?) truck that we can borrow. this task will take several days, and many trips.

* start 2 raised beds of strawberries.

* Dave would like to plant raspberries this year.

it was a rough week for the livestock...

it was a really busy week here, with a lot of blood and gore being flung around...

after finishing up with the 3 deer that we got (1 roadkill and 2 on the first day of deer season) it was time to launch right into our next project~ butchering the pig!

she was slaughtered on Tuesday, and after hanging all night (in the 20 degree weather) we butchered her on Wednesday.

i plan on doing a post about our experiences~ it was not nearly as difficult as you might imagine to butcher a pig, and we have lots of fresh meat. the hams and bacon will be ready by Christmas, and we're really looking forward to that!

while we were on a roll, we went ahead and butchered 20 chickens on Thursday. only 30 more to go this next week, and then we're all done for the season! our freezers will soon be groaning...

i, for one, will be relieved to be done. we've been raising chickens since last march!

also, there are pig butchering pictures up over on facebook, so if you're a friend, you can see them now... here's a link, even if you're not:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37399&id=1559330479&l=50262d8545

and that nasty pig stomach is still in my fridge. i think I'll just chuck it- i have to draw the line somewhere!

in which the blogger rambles on a bit, and also hops up on the soapbox

can i just say that we live in a really strange world?

'cause maybe you won't realize that unless i tell you.

remember the other day when i told you about our new Christmas family tradition, the Jesse Tree? when i googled "Jesse Tree" to find some suggestions about our ornaments, there were results of well over 1 million. actually, it was closer to 1, 060,000.

today we butchered our pig.

or maybe to be more accurate, today we slaughtered our pig. the butchering part comes tomorrow.

and now you're wondering if there really is a point to this post?

it's coming, just hold on a sec...

anyway, i saved the pig stomach. because Dave likes hog maw. i never even heard of it until i married him, but apparently it's a local delicacy that he grew up eating. or something like that.

and because I'm a really good wife like that.

so.

now i have this really disgusting thing sitting in a bowl in my refrigerator.

and i don't quite know what to do with it.

so i did what any modern, technologically savvy person would do. i googled "preparing a pig stomach for hog maw"

and i got 4,130,000 results. four million, one hundred thirty thousand results.

like i said, it's a very strange world that we live in.

and that thing is still sitting in a bowl in my fridge.

Thursday's Livestock and Garden Report ~ Week 27

although we still have just a few things going on in the gardens, i will reluctantly call this the last L&G post for 2009. it's been a busy growing season for us, but not nearly as busy as it could have been. we'll remember all the things that we've learned this year, and by doing better next year, we'll be busier~ and have more of a harvest. but all-in-all, it's been a good year.

here's a view of the upper garden from the duck puddle. you can see the buckwheat and pole bean cover crop. the soil is not that great, as evidenced by the stunted buckwheat, but we're still working on it!

we did finally pick the beans, and i got enough to freeze for 3 meals. the yield was disappointing, but I'm thankful for what we did get.

note to self: although i did plant these beans (back in July) as a cover crop, i was certainly hoping to harvest a fair amount of beans, both to eat and to sell. however, all that was available at Agway were pole beans. i wasn't able to stake all the beans, so we just let them crawl over the ground. they did their main job of shading out the weeds in an area of the garden that had just been tilled up. (we decided halfway through the summer that we wanted less yard and more garden) however, pole beans apparently really do need to climb. (go figure) consequently, the beans were in all stages of maturity- from blossoms to tiny beans to nicely edible to cigar size. i sorted them out for people consumption and animal consumption and just called it a lesson learned.

we pulled all the beans out, and tilled the green stuff under,


including the buckwheat. already we have a winter cover crop of annual rye and oats in. with the rain that we've received in the last few days, the shoots are already peeking through the soil. both of these crops are not winter hardy, so at some point we'll roll out some of our mulch hay.


last week we butchered our 2nd crop of chickens. that was the batch that we had such a miserable time with, having only 21 chickens to butcher! (out of the 50 that we started with!) 15 were sold, and the remaining 6 i put in our own freezer.

the chickens are winding down as well, with our final batch of 50 4 weeks old today, giving them another 6-8 weeks to get pleasingly plump.



the first crop of green beans that i planted is still growing! we left them on the tomato cages and just planted the rye around them. the girls love to go out and pick beans for the chickens.

the chickens are always eager for something green, and B is quite adept at poking the beans through the wire without getting pecked by a greedy hen.



we are getting almost a dozen eggs nearly every day, and it's hard to keep up with that production rate! i freely share with some friends from church~ but still...


soon the older hens will be destined for the pot. it seems such a shame (disloyal, even) but they're getting ragged looking and old. from the 5 older hens, we're only getting 2 or 3 eggs a day now, so there's definitely some slackers in there!


B is still enjoying some of our fresh peppers- what's left of them. i forgot all about them down in the lower garden, so we definitely could have had more for the freezer if i had remembered!


the big red pig was ready to butcher, and i was able to sell him at the last minute to someone we found through our butcher! Dave still wants to try our hand at butchering our own pig, and since it's still too warm to do that, i was so glad to not be stuck with this gigantic pig!


we got him all crated up and i drove him on his final journey to the butcher shop. we got a call later in the week that he hung at 223lb! that's some pig!


we found this praying mantis while working down in the lower garden


and had a fascinating time looking at him. a praying mantis is a cool looking bug~ in a freaky sort of way!





but the really big news is~ we bought a potato plow! with 5+ rows of potatoes to dig, any help we can get is appreciated!


it's actually a horse drawn walking plow (close-up pictures later, hopefully) but easily adaptable to our horses Massey and Ferguson. i was elected to drive, while Dave wrestled with the plow behind. the idea is to run the tip of the plow right down the middle of the potato hill, and all the potatoes just pop up and out, neatly laying in the row for the happy helpers to gather up.



*ahem*


there's definitely a technique for using this implement, and we're still learning. but even with several stops and starts, we were able to dig a whole row rather quickly.

we filled the wagon with Red Pontiac and kennebec, plus a few renegade pumpkins.

next year perhaps I'll grow all my veggies like we did these pumpkins- benign neglect. (and come to think of it, the whole gardening thing would be so much easier!) we did not plant one. single. pumpkin. seed. and at the beginning of the season, i was even pulling the baby pumpkin shoots like weeds! but still~ we got a respectable showing of pumpkins, did we not?

however, i can say that the philosophy of benign neglect does not work for flower beds! i really need to get out and weed before we close everything down for the winter.

i also have bulbs to plant- garlic and spring flower bulbs. i ordered some bulbs from gurney's and Dave got me tons of tulips and daffodils for my birthday so i can see another gardening day in my near future!

I've never planted garlic before, so I'm looking forward to trying it. i still haven't decided where in the garden to put them- i don't want to forget about them and accidentally till them under in the spring!

our freezing and canning is also winding to a close- just some grape jelly (today) and applesauce (next week) to do yet.

we also need to put the cover back on the high tunnel. it's getting chilly here at night (no frost) and the broccoli and cauliflower are doing well. hopefully well enough to actually produce something!

I'd also like to get a planing of lettuce and spinach in the high tunnel and cold frames. i should have done that a few weeks ago, but never got to it... i have noticed, in all my second plantings, that the plants do well, but take longer to mature and produce.

so- i guess that's it! we learned alot, and had a good time with our gardens this year. before you know it, the seed catalogs will be pourning in again, encouraging us to dream and plan for next year.