Author Archives: Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Harvest basket

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Sarah in Illinois is still looking ahead to garden season. In fact, she’s looking far ahead to harvest time. She’s made a super cute harvest basket. I’ve admired these on other blogs, and I love the special twist Sarah added to hers (read on to find out what it is).

I have several projects pinned on Pinterest that I have wanted to work on, but making a harvest basket has been at the top of my list for a while. I have a few images pinned.

I did not click on any of the pins to know what kind of instructions they give. I just used the images as a guideline to make my own.

Wooden vegetable harvest basket with a twig handle

I started with cutting two boards for the sides and two boards for the uprights that would hold the handle. I took no measurements. I just “eyeballed” what I thought would be a good width and what I thought would be a good height. I am sure there are much more precise directions on Pinterest.

How to make a wooden vegetable harvest basket

I wanted the bottom to be rounded so that it was easier to attach the hardware cloth. So I used whatever I could find (which happened to be a can of spray paint) and drew my rounded corners.

How to make a wooden vegetable harvest basket

I wanted the sides to match so I clamped both boards together and cut the rounded corners with a jigsaw.

How to make a wooden vegetable harvest basket

I also needed to notch out the corners for the side rails. I did this the same way as the rounded corners, by clamping the two together and using the jigsaw.

How to make a wooden vegetable harvest basket

It was at this point that I attached everything together. The frame work was fairly flimsy, so I used both wood glue and screws.

How to make a wooden vegetable harvest basket

I could have used just a dowel rod for the handle, but in my barn are several branches. Someone took the time to find very straight ones and remove all of the limbs. And those branches have been out there since way before we moved here. So I thought they would make a nice handle.

I used a paddle bit to cut a hole in the top part of each upright. Since the limb was not a perfect fit, I used a nail to secure the limbs in the holes.

How to make a wooden vegetable harvest basket

Then I spread a quick coat of stain over the whole thing.

Wooden vegetable harvest basket with a twig handle

The final step was to attach the hardware cloth. It is very sharp so I was sure to wear gloves and used metal snips to cut a piece to size. Then I stapled it to the frame.

How to make a wooden vegetable harvest basket

Wooden vegetable harvest basket with a twig handle

This was not a difficult project. It took me about two hours and now that I have done it once, I think that I could do the next one even faster.

And I am thinking I know of a few people with gardens that might like one as a gift!

I hope that we put this one to good use this year. I can’t wait to take it out to our garden and fill it with fresh vegetables for supper.

Isn’t that a great basket? I love the twig handle so much. Clamping the wood together and cutting it as one is such a smart way to get precisely identical pieces. Oh, and I think I know at least one person with a garden who would absolutely like a harvest basket like this! 😉

Icy Easter

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Hello. How was your weekend? Did you have a good Easter?

Our Easter weekend ended up being extra long thanks to an ice storm that rolled through our area on Thursday. The storm closed both Matt’s and my work and turned off our electricity for 9 hours.

By Good Friday, the freezing rain had stopped, but temperatures had not risen, and a thick coating of ice covered everything.

Spring ice storm

Spring ice storm

Spring ice storm

Just days into spring, and our lilacs had their new green growth encased in ice.

Spring ice storm

The ground was covered in ice chunks from the trees and bushes.

Spring ice storm

Icicles dripped off the back of the bird feeder and at the front there was a steady queue for the only food available.

Icicles on the birdfeeder

In the garden, icicles hung from the top fence rail and the chainlink was augmented with its own icy shield.

Spring ice storm

Fortunately, we didn’t have much damage. The worst was losing just a few branches off the pine trees.

Spring ice storm

The weight of the ice is incredible. Normally, we can walk easily under these branches that are touching the ground.

Spring ice storm

Down the driveway, more branches overhung far enough that Baxter could reach them.

Spring ice storm

Temperatures finally started to rise on Saturday afternoon. Ice slid off the roofs and the cars in sheets. Slowly the branches returned to their usual heights as the trees shed their icy casings, shards shattering into the ground.

By yesterday, Easter Sunday, the farm was back to normal.

What was the weather like where you are? Did you do anything special this weekend? How did you celebrate Easter?

Deep thoughts on DIY from the dog

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I’m excited to share that I’m now a regular contributor to ThatMutt.com. This gives me an outlet to write about dog training, care and of course my favourite dude, Baxter. You can read all of my posts at ThatMutt here. My latest post went up on earlier this week. A slight variation is below.

“I’d help you put up those curtain rods, but I don’t have a drill.”

Uh-huh? What about no thumbs, no vertical reach and a tendency to spend most of your time asleep, dude?

Baxter installing curtain rods

“You think a paintbrush makes up for not giving me a drill? This pooch likes power tools, lady.”

Baxter and his paintbrush

“Oh, and you made fun of my thumbs and my height. You’re on your own for painting that mirror. This is what I think of your paintbrush.”

Baxter avoiding painting

“Ahhhh… dreamland, where doggies have drills… and thumbs.”

Baxter dreaming of not painting

With Baxter’s help (or perhaps despite it), the guest room is now done. The reveal is coming up next.

Let’s get vertical

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In the words of organizing guru Olivia Newton John,

Let’s get vertical, vertical
I wanna get vertical
Let me hear your closet talk

That’s not how it goes?

That’s how it went in the closet under the stairs… and it’s fabulous.

Building shelves in this closet was one of my home goals for this year.

We have a great storage space, but without shelves it was just a pile.

Messy closet

Disorganized closet

Confession, I hadn’t even put away our Christmas decorations because I didn’t want to go to the work of digging through the pile to find the storage bins.

But no longer.

Building shelves in the closet under the stairs

Christmas is tucked away, along with camping gear, electronics, artwork. There’s even a place for the vacuum and folding chairs.

Building shelves in the closet under the stairs

I used my very simple technique of affixing cleats to the wall (I used 1x3s) and then putting pre-finished white melamine shelves on top. The wrinkle with this closet was the stairs. I could only put the cleats on the back and one side wall, so I needed to find another way to support the end of the shelves that tucked under the stairs.

A few 2×3 braces screwed into the stairs solved that problem.

Building shelves in the closet under the stairs

Because I went vertical, we can fit a tonne of stuff in here. In fact, we have more than a shelf and a half empty–room to grow!

I think my favourite part is that I have a nook that perfectly fits the vacuum. Some mail organizers on the wall hold alternate attachments and extra bags.

Storing the vacuum and its attachments

Sturdy hooks hold our folding chairs and little step stool.

Store folding chairs by hanging them on the wall

And there’s still room to walk beside the shelves and access everything even at the far end.

Sing it with me, people. Let’s get vertical, vertical…

Nature

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Teri the turkey is no more.

We hadn’t seen her for a day or two and then Baxter found a fresh coyote kill behind the barn.

Wild turkey kill

All that’s left are the feathers. The distinctive turkey wings give away the identity of the victim.

Wild turkey kill

I can’t really be upset. The coyotes are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. If Teri was doing what she was supposed to be doing, she would have stayed roosted in her tree–or with her flock instead of with us.

Still, it’s obviously not what I was hoping for.

Sweet times on the farm

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I looooove maple syrup. Growing up, every spring my parents went to a Mennonite farm and bought gallons of pure maple syrup. Then they put it into containers and froze it, so we had it for the whole year. It was always a sad day late in the winter when we ran out of syrup.

Sorry, Aunt Jemima, you’re just not for me.

You can imagine how excited I am to be making our own maple syrup this year.

We jumped right in to tapping our trees with little thought to how we’d transform the sap into syrup. A lot of what I saw online talked about evaporators or cauldrons over fires. Pretty much everything said, “Do not boil sap indoors.”

We have neither an evaporator nor a cauldron, however. Nor did we have a ton of sap, so Matt and I threw caution to the wind and decided we were going to boil our sap inside on the stove. Daring, I know.

We selected some large pots–including our big roasting pan, dumped in the sap, set the burners to high and turned on the exhaust fan to suck out the steam. And you know what? It totally worked!

Boiling sap on the stove to make maple syrup

On an average evening, we found about 12 litres of sap was a good quantity. It fit in our pots easily and didn’t fill the house with too much steam. After boiling for about 3 and a half hours, the sap had transformed into syrup.

At first we just judged by colour and flavour, but Matt progressed to measuring the temperature. He found online that 218ºF (103ºC or so) was the magic number.

Tip to anyone who wants to try making syrup indoors, we used the soup pot as a finishing pot and transferred the sap from the roasting pan into the soup pot for the last half hour of boiling

Boiling sap on the stove to make maple syrup

The ratio for sap to syrup that we found online was 40:1, and that was our experience too. 12 litres (12,000mL) of sap made about 1 1/2 cups (375mL of syrup).

This picture shows another neat thing I’ve learned about syrup. I knew it came in different grades or colours, but I thought it was just the amount of boiling time that determined what grade your syrup was. It turns out it’s early versus late in the season. The jar on the left is from our second boil, and the one on the right is our fourth. See how the colour is subtly darker in the older syrup?

Homemade maple syrup

An aside about these old Crown canning jars. How perfect is the made in Canada label?

Homemade maple syrup in a Crown canning jar made in Canada

I’m loving having maple syrup again. It’s sweetened a lovely pumpkin soup, made a beautiful golden topping on vanilla ice cream (one of my favourite ways to eat it) and of course added just what was missing to my favourite meal of the day, breakfast.

Homemade maple syrup on French toast

I’m trying to be a bit frugal and not eat it all at once. We already have two full jars in the freezer, so I’m hoping to remember my childhood and make it stretch as long as I possibly can.

Are there any other maple syrup snobs out there? Have you ever made your own syrup? Any tips to share–whether for inside or outside boiling? Do you have a favourite maple syrup recipe?

Starting from seed

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Sarah may be in Illinois, but her mind is in the same place mine is–the vegetable garden. However, Sarah’s doing something that I’ve never tried before–starting her own plants from seed. She’s sharing the lessons she’s learned and the progress she’s made so far.

Every year Steve and his parents have grown a very large garden. And when I came along six years ago, I jumped right in to help and have become more and more interested every year.

I had always planted a few tomato and pepper plants before, but until I started helping at Steve’s I had never seen broccoli, or cabbage or brussel sprouts growing in a garden.

For several seasons I have tried to start plants from seed. And that usually starts off great and then fails miserably.

Steve likes to say that I have a “brown thumb” but that isn’t really true.

I just am terrible at hardening off the starts. I am impatient, and I am forgetful! So I push plants to be ready when they are not, and I forget to water them or forget to bring them in during the hardening phase.

This year I am going to use my “word for the year” that I mentioned around New Year’s and I am going to FOCUS on the hardening off process.

Starting plants from seed

This weekend I started my first seeds. I looked up online when the last predicted frost for my area will be and it said April 18. So I thought this was the perfect time to start some kale and lettuce.

Now I am going to make note here for the future that Steve says his farming sources predict a late frost for us and that we could get a frost up until May 5. That is a huge difference and I am really curious which source will be more accurate.

Over the next week or two, I plan to also start tomatoes and pepper plants from seed.

I found some plants on sale and used a black marker to label them. I was sure to not only write the variety of the plant but on the back I also wrote the brand of the seed. That way I can make notes of which seeds worked best and then I will have reference of where to buy my seeds in the future.

My mom and I had placed a small order for seeds and plants and those arrived last week. So besides the kale and lettuce seeds, I also had to do something with the strawberry and asparagus starts that I had ordered. Since I do not have my raised beds ready yet, I just stuck them in a bucket and pot temporarily. But now making those raised beds needs to be a priority.

Strawberry and asparagus starts in a bucket

While I was digging through my gardening supplies I found a grocery bag with daffodil bulbs from last fall. So when I say I am forgetful, I am not exaggerating.

Daffodil bulbs

I stuck them in the ground since they were still alive, and I reminded myself that “FOCUS” has to remain my theme!

Next post I will update with the progress of my seeds.

Do you have a green thumb or a brown thumb? Do you have any helpful hints for the hardening off process? Do you have trouble staying focused?

Good luck, Sarah. Funnily enough, plants are one area where I get impatient or forgetful too. I hope you find your focus this year. I’m looking forward to following your progress–and seeing who’s right about the last frost.

Getting sappy

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We have a new project for these last few days of winter. We’re tapping our maple trees!

Tapping maple trees

I picked up a basic starter kit at the hardware store. It came with five buckets, five lids and five spiles.

Backyard maple syrup kit

Thankfully the kit also came with instructions on how to get started. We selected trees that were the right size, drilled holes, stuck the spiles in, and watched the magic happen.

Tapping maple trees

The sap started flowing as soon as we drilled the holes. Matt was impatient saying, “Stop taking pictures! We’re wasting sap!” (Picture Kermit arm flailing). The maple syrup has totally turned into Matt’s thing.

Tapping maple trees

The spiles, buckets and lids all hook together in a pretty simple system. The sap travels up the tree, into the spile and then drips into the bucket.

Tapping maple trees

Tapping maple trees

Tapping maple trees animated gif

The sap run this year hasn’t been terrific. Last week temperatures shot up, and I had high hopes for a a lot of sap. However, the temperatures were so high that even night was above freezing. Apparently cold nights are critical for sap.

However, we have had a few good days where Matt had to empty the buckets several times.

Tapping maple trees

To collect the sap, Matt takes my biggest stock pot outside and empties the buckets into the pot. Then in the house we strain the sap to get out any dirt or bugs or twigs and put it in big containers in the fridge until we’re ready to move on to the syrup stage–which I’ll talk about in my next post.

Have you ever tapped trees? Are you trying anything new this time of year? What’s your big spring project?

The fireplace gets a German accent

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It occurs to me that I haven’t shown you our winter mantel yet.

This year is pretty similar to last year. The snowshoes, the candles, the antlers, the lantern.

But there is one new addition.

Courtesy of Matt.

Autographed Heino album on the mantel

I’m not sure why this has to go on the mantel.

Autographed Heino album

Apparently, back in high school when instant messaging was just getting going (oh Lord, I just did the math and that was 20 years ago… holy moly), Heino was Matt’s avatar.

I don’t think Matt was a particular Heino fan. I’m not sure he’s even heard his music. Don’t ask me to decipher the mind of a teenage boy.

Somehow, his oldest brother remembered this, and when he saw this autographed Heino album in a thrift store the other week, he bought it for Matt.

Autographed Heino album

And now it’s on our mantel.

Fortunately, spring is almost here, so I’ll be redecorating soon and the winter mantel (along with Heino) can move on.

In the meantime, I leave you for the weekend with Heino, a Hit Medley. You’re welcome.

Who else’s partner “helps” with decorating around the house? Do you remember IMing with your friends–way back before texting? Better yet, do you remember your avatar? Do you collect vinyl (despite appearances, we do not)? Is anyone a Heino fan?

Thisclose to a breakthrough

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I’ve had this whole “break-on-through” post that I’ve been planning. You see, all winter I’ve been working my way through our woodpile. It’s three rows wide, and I’ve been slowly using up the back two rows. (Matt, the official woodcutter in our relationship, would argue it’s not been slow enough).

Loading firewood into the washtub

Well, I was almost at the end. I had snapped some pictures showing how far I’d come, anticipating the day when I would break through.

Woodpile

Then I would take my final pictures and write a blog post where I talk about how happy I am that we have a fireplace, how nice it’s been to have fires all winter, how it’s almost the end of winter and how neat it is that this breakthrough moment coincides with almost the end of fire season, how we (Matt) will have to restock our firewood in anticipation of next winter.

I had it all worked out in my mind.

But then something happened. Cave in.

Collapsed woodpile

There will be no breakthrough.

There will be restacking, more burning (sorry, Matt). And instead you get this blog post, mourning what could have been, rather than triumphantly celebrating a milestone.

Okay, maybe milestone isn’t the best descriptor, but I’d worked it all out, people!

I blame the turkey.

Her footprints are all around that woodpile.

Turkey tracks around the woodpile