Clay Pot Tower Gardens

Tower Herb Garden

I've been wanting to make some Clay Pot Tower Gardens for some of my herbs for quite awhile and finally got around to building a few.


My friend Sun, gave me some clay pots when she was moving so I wanted to use them in a creative way.  I used some in one of my tower gardens and one for the base of a pot I planted some strawberries in from a strawberry bed I'm dismantling.

Strawberry Planter

I'm in the process of redoing my herb garden and will be taking the tables out, leveling the ground and putting mulch down.  Then I will put all the planters back in and install a drip system.  We had a mister system in there and it wasn't that great of an idea so now...Plan "B"... a drip system.

I built a couple of Clay Pot Tower Gardens for some of my herbs for the entrance of my herb garden the other day.  Here in the High Desert we get a little done here and a little done there between juggling schedules, taking care of all of  our ranch animals,high winds and whatever else gets us distracted!  So once I get this herb garden creation finished, perhaps I'll post another photo.

Clay Pot Tower Herb Gardens

I have  a couple of hundred seedlings going that will be ready to plant in our Straw Bale Raised Bed Gardens after the last frost which could be really soon!  We really enjoy gardening and it's a good thing, because it is a work in progress on our ranch!

Comments Welcome!

High Desert Home Show in Victorville CA

There's still time to go to the High Desert Home Show at the Victorville Fairgrounds today.  It's open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM today.  We had originally planned to go on Friday when it first opened but we had high winds and pouring rain so we decided to go yesterday after meeting with the High Desert Branch of the California Writer's Club.

Even though it is a smaller scale Home Show compared to the ones in Los Angeles, there are lots of great vendors that inspired us with lots of creative ideas to get busy with this spring!

Our main focus for going to this Home Show was to look at landscaping ideas, gardening, composting, recycling, re-purposing, becoming more self sufficient and health care.  We definitely found what we were looking for and more!

Perfection Landscape

Our good friend, Cindy Poore, a Landscape Specialist with Perfection Landscape, was so generous to gift us with VIP tickets to come to the Home show this year.

She has a fantastic landscaping company right here in our local town of Phelan.  Cindy has very unique gifts and talents in designing special havens for her clients.  She has a great sense of color and has a wealth of knowledge for what grows well here in the High Desert.

If you are thinking of giving your property a face lift, we highly recommend Cindy Poore.
Call: 760-868-6104

Landscaping Etc.

Landscaping - Skin Care - Far Infrared Saunas

We saw quite a variety of fountains, patio furniture and other yard art on display along with all sorts of rocks that can be used in landscaping up here in the High Desert.  There were several Spa booths, outdoor screen rooms, window and flooring booths and a great booth that had several styles of Far Infrared Saunas.  There were all kinds of booths that had unique decor for inside the home.  The Mink Oil products were even there so of course we stocked up on them again...gotta have that Mink Oil for my gardening hands!

Meet Greg Anderson

 World Wide Worm Farm in Apple Valley!

What an amazing guy with such amazing talent.  He composts, recycles and re-purposes all sorts of unique things.  He creates awesome yard art out of...you name it...he does it!  He showed me a photo of a bumble bee he made out of coffee cans.  Check out the Tin Man he made out of tin cans that is hanging in his booth to the right of him.

He showed me photos of his amazing raised bed gardens and cold frames he created as well.  I'm definitely going to go buy some earth worms from him as soon as our raised straw bale gardens are finished composting.  So if you want some worms from Greg for your gardens, give him a call: 760-792-9660.  He even uses recycled paper for his business cards!  He practices what he preaches!

Learn How to Become More Self Sufficient

Compost, recycle, re-purpose, bug control, plumbing supplies, wind power and solar supplies

There were so many educational booths at this High Desert Home Show that had a lot of very informative ways about how to become more self sufficient in these challenging times we are in.  Home shows are great places to go to get ideas and find people that can help you get the things done that you aren't able to do yourself!

Cooking, Local Artists, Boy Scouts, Highway Patrol, Health Education Etc.

 There were all kinds of cooking supplies, pots and pans, cutlery, gadgets, home decor, health supplies and just about anything you can imagine for inside and outside the home was on display.

 Favorite Country Sheds

Sheds on display from Shed World

 Shed world had a wide variety of sheds and out buildings on display that can be used for so many things on property up here in the High Desert.  These are a few of my favorites from them.

Another Great High Desert Home Show

We are looking forward to implementing all the great ideas we got from going to the High Desert Home Show this year.

Comments Welcome.

Our Alpacas Have Character!

"Say What?"

Our alpacas were taking turns yawning this morning and I just happened to catch "Tezzie" on camera!  Looks like he's singing a tune or saying something really important.  If I learn how to attach sound to this, I might add a song later!

Ode to the Redbud Tree

One of my favorite trees is the Redbud tree. We had many in our yard in Glendale, MO, a suburb of St. Louis, MO, where I grew up.  It was one of my mother's favorite trees as well.  When we moved to the High Desert in Southern CA I got several from the forest service and planted them on our ranch.  They have started blooming once again and the butterflies and the bees are are having the time of their lives enjoying the tasty nectar.  Even the humming birds love them!  This is a photo I took of one of our Redbud trees yesterday afternoon while out enjoying all of our fruit trees beginning to bloom.

Butterfly in the Redbud Tree

The Redbud is a small tree which grows in the forest, on the borders of fields, on hillsides or in valleys...and now on our ranch in the High Desert of Southern CA!  The leaves are alternate and heart shaped, three to five inches long, turning to a bright clear yellow in the autumn.  The Redbuds bright magenta, pea shaped flowers grow in clusters along the twigs and small branches, and usually appear before the leaves in early spring.

Redbud Tree in full bloom with heat shaped leaves beginning to unfold

A Bit of Oklahoma History

Maimee Lee Robinson Browne, my husband John's grandmother, was instrumental in getting the Redbud Tree to be the official tree of the state of Oklahoma in 1937.  Redbud in Poetry as expressed in verse collected by Maimee Lee Robinson Browne is a beautiful book of poetry that was published in 1964, honoring the Redbud Tree and acknowledging her for all the work she did to get this accomplished.  She was the leader of a state-wide campaign to plant the Redbud tree.  The beautification program took hold all over the state. There are over thirty thousand Redbud trees in Sulphur, OK.  They must be a sight to behold when they are all in bloom in the spring.  That is a lot of Redbuds compared to the seven on our ranch!

"Whereas in the beginning of this great commonwealth, when the sturdy and hardy pioneers thereof trekked across its rolling hills and plains, one of the first sights to greet them spread out in glorious panorama, was the Redbud tree-a tree, that as it arose in the spring from verdant fields, was emblematic of the eternal renewal of all life; a tree that in its beauty renewed the worn spirit and gave hope to the tired heart of a people seeking homes in a new land, and...." a partial quote from the Senate Joint Resolution Number 5 declaring the Redbud the official tree of the state of Oklahoma on March 30, 1937.

Bees enjoying the nectar from the Redbud blossoms

Beauty in Our Forests

Deep in the forests in spring

When the redbird makes her first call

She sees only the green of the cedar

and the Redbud through brown leaves of fall.

Brilliant buds tempt travelers to gather

Small sprays to take on their way,

Denuding the forests of slender

and wasting God's glory each day.

To protect this miracle of springtime

When drab colors become radiant hue,

Help God keep beauty in our forests

For birds and mankind to view.

MAIMEE LEE ROBINSON BROWNE

Redbud Tree in Full Cycle

 This Redbud tree still has its seed pods on from last fall and is in full bloom with its flowers and the beginnings of the heart shaped leaves unfolding.

Comments are Welcome!

Another Chicken Soup for a Chilly Day!

Homemade Chicken Vegetable Soup

Another awesome chicken soup recipe from Marti's Kitchen Concoctions inspired by a chilly windy day in the High Desert.  Once again, I start out with a baked whole chicken that I de-bone and boil the bones to make scrumptious chicken broth and cube some of the pieces of chicken meat to add to the soup after the veggies are cooked.

Boiling Chicken Bones for Soup Broth

Cubed Chicken for Chicken Soup

Organic Vegetables for Chicken Soup

Today's chicken vegetable soup has organic onions, garlic, celery, carrots, red cabbage, broccoli, kale, home grown squash from our fall 2011 garden that I froze, peas, pink salt from the Andes, and last but not least organic salt free spices that I get from Costco!

Chopped Vegetables Ready to Saute

Veggies Simmering in Chicken Broth

After I saute the veggies in a little sunflower or sesame oil, I add some of the chicken broth and simmer them for a little while.  This gives the veggies a chance to really soak up the flavor of the broth, pink salt and salt free spices.

Chicken Vegetable Soup in Crock Pot

I put all the ingredients in a crock pot to simmer on low until time to eat!  A crisp organic lettuce salad goes really well with chicken soup.  I make a great Italian Dressing using organic olive oil, Bragg's raw unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar and those yummy organic spices I get from Costco.  Bon Appetite!

Stay Tuned for Marti's Next Post!

Comments are Welcome!

Hand Dyeing Fiber for Doll Hair

I got another special order for four colors of doll hair that I hand dye using Cotswold sheep curls or mohair curls from Angora goats. Here's a mini version of one of my processes including a few photos on  how I hand dyed one of the colors of blond for this special order of hand dyed Cotswold sheep curls.

First I soak my already washed and processed white sheep curls in a white vinegar and water solution in a tub in the sink until they are saturated.  This helps the dye to be colorfast.

Then I  heat up my dye pot with water, a little more white vinegar and whatever color of  fiber dye I'm going to use.  When it is nice and hot I add the sheep curls making sure they are covered with the dye solution.  I like to use a vegetable steamer to put the curls in when I'm dyeing small amounts because it makes it easy to lift them out and drain them before cooling them off.

After I take them out of the dye pot I cool them off for a bit before putting them through the final rinse to rinse off any excess dye.

Draining and Cooling off to Room Temperature

Continued Cooling Off Process

Final Rinse to Remove any Excess Dye

Once I have completed the final rinse I put them in my washing machine and spin the excess water out using only the spin cycle.  It is important not to agitate the fiber during the hand dyeing process or you may end up wit a blob of felted curls!

If it is nice weather outside, I dry the fiber on a net drying table I have set up outside.  If it is rainy or stormy weather outside then I use a Hamilton Beach electric sweater dryer that came from Bed bath and Beyond a couple of years ago.  It has four trays....perfect for drying these four colors!

 I usually start out with my lightest color to hand dye and continue to the darkest.  Here is a photo of the four colors I completed for this particular special order.  I also hand dye a wide variety of other colors for spinning and felting projects and create special sampler packages so people can experiment with lots of different fibers in smaller quantities.  I'll be getting out my dye pots to do a large variety of colors in a month or so after I purchase more fleeces from spring shearing.  Meanwhile, I carry white year around for making Santa Beards and other spinning and felting projects.

Hand Dyed Fiber for Doll Hair

These fibers can be purchased in my La Tea Da Designs Etsy Shop

Patio Garden Potato Planter

I love experimenting with new gardening ideas.  The other day when I was at Lowe's I saw these Potato Planter Bags made by Ferry-Morse and picked up a couple of them.  I usually plant potatoes in raised straw bale beds but this looks so easy and they are portable!  The planters are reusable and store flat at the end of the season...of course if you have a green house they can be used year around!

Yams and Sweet Potatoes

 The directions say to fold the bag down to about 12" high and fill 2/3 full with soil.  I used some fantastic composted alpaca manure mixed with other organic soil.  Then plant 3-4 potatoes about half way down in the soil.  Water well.  Once the plants are growing, unfold the bag and place additional soil around the plants.  Continue this process as the plant grows until the bag is completely unfolded.  Keep the soil moist but not soaking or you will rot the potatoes!  Harvest the potatoes a few at a time after blooms have faded using the convenient opening on the side of the bag with the Velcro flap.  No digging!

I planted yams in one and sweet potatoes in the other today...you don't actually have to plant whole potatoes.  I have had great success over and over from buying organic potatoes from our local health food store and cutting them in chunks making sure there is an eye in each piece and then planting the piece with the eye in it in the soil.  It sprouts from the eye of the potato.  My potatoes have always been healthy and taste fantastic.

By the way, sweet potatoes are:  High in vitamin A and fiber, and low in glycemic index, sweet potatoes won't raise blood sugar at the same level as a regular potato.

Chicken Soup on a Chilly Day!

One of my other creative ventures in life is making Homemade Soup!  I create One-of-a-Kind Soups...never make the same soup twice!  Some might be similar but I always create something just a little different.  I don't measure anything either...well except a little of this and a little of that...a pinch of this and a dash of that...whatever inspires me at the moment.

Today's Soup Creation

CHICKEN PENNE PASTA SOUP

First I boiled the bones from a whole baked chicken to create my chicken broth base.  I had used part of the chicken for another meal and saved the breasts to dice up for this soup.  I added some organic Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Pasta, some organic peas and chopped organic kale...last but not least my favorite spices - pink salt from the Andes and Organic No-Salt Seasoning that I purchase at Costco.  It is a blend of 21 organic spices and ingredients from around the world.  It gives soups and other creations a little Pizazz! Bon Appetite!

How to Make Straw Bale Raised Bed Gardens

For those friends of mine that have asked me how we make our Straw Bale Raised Bed Gardens, here are some photos and how we do it:

This raised garden bed is made with 8 straw bales.  Sometimes we use 6 and sometimes we use 10 depending on the space where we are locating them. We line them up so it is easy to reach into the center of the bed from each side.  It makes it easier to pick our vegetables and also maintain weed prevention when it isn't too wide.

This photo shows the straw bales set in position on the shade cloth with the first load of alpaca manure in it.

First we lay weed cloth on the ground and then place the straw bales where we want them.  If we are using a wheel barrow to haul and dump alpaca, chicken and horse manure inside, then we keep one end open to make it easy to wheel into it.  The first load of manure in this garden was a wheel barrow full of alpaca manure.  the next load was a wheel barrow full of chicken manure. We spread it out with a rake and then dumped a few used tea bags, vegetable cuttings and egg shells.  We only use loose tea left overs or tea bags that are made of paper in our composting.  We put left over vegetable cuttings in our garden beds as well.

This shows the alpaca manure and the first load of chicken manure plus tea bags, egg shells and vegetable cuttings

We layer alfalfa hay alternately with horse manure, alpaca, and chicken manure because it gives extra protein in the compost and makes a very rich soil to plant vegetables in.  We make sure to water each layer thoroughly so there is plenty of moisture to help it compost rapidly.

If you are fortunate to have a tractor like we are, then it makes it so much easier to fill the bed with manure

This is layering more manure on top of the layer of alfalfa hay.

Once the raised beds are completely full we use a shovel to dig holes in the garden and bury vegetable cuttings and let them compost making sure that we water the bed periodically to help it compost more rapidly.  We also dig or stir the dirt as it is composting to make sure it gets mixed together and fully composts.  It usually takes about 14 days to compost these beds.

The bed is completely filled with the various layers of manure and alfalfa hay, raked & well watered.

When we were first using llama and alpaca manure we didn't bother to compost it because we could plant directly into it without it burning the plants like un-composted chicken, cow and horse manure does...However we used to feed our llamas, alpacas and horses Orchard Grass Hay - so there was no problem.  Last year we switched to feeding our horses and alpacas Bermuda Grass Hay and it has to be composted now or we end up with our own hay field in our raised beds! ...now we have our own nice hay crop to feed them with and a lot of work to do to re build those gardens once we get the hay out of them!

We cut heavy duty plastic and cover the bed to hold in the moisture and allow it to heat up so it will compost quickly.  We remove the plastic every few days and stir up the soil so it can blend and compost thoroughly.  We have such high winds sometimes here in the High Desert that we need to make sure we keep the plastic secured so some of our wood from our wood pile comes in handy to hold it in place.

  
 The photo below shows a 6 Straw Bale Raised Garden Bed that we made in the early fall of 2011 and composted.  We grew some late squash in it that was quite tasty.  We recently planted some garlic in it which is already beginning to come up.  We also planted sugar peas which are peeking through just barely and a couple of different kinds of squash.  I'll be adding some Nasturtiums to give it a little more color plus Nasturtiums are eatable flowers that are great in salads!

After this planting we will amend the soil so it will stay rich and healthy and provide super healthy veggies!

Sometimes we add earth worms but most of the time they just appear on their own!  We will have quite a few more raised beds this year.  We plan to do some canning and some food dehydration as well as freezing some of our vegetables and fruit this year.  So when it is time to do that, I might blog a little about food preservation.

This is "Stormy" one of our outside "Watch Cats"  I guess he thinks he's doing his job keeping the birds out of the garden!

 

A Great Country Breakfast!

 Farm Fresh Eggs

My friend Collette, invited me to buy her yummy organic veggie basket from the Wrightwood Food Coop last Friday so I could check out what they have to offer every couple of weeks...there were so many yummy things in the basket plus I got to choose some extras!  There were other vendors there as well so I picked up a bunch of Swiss Chard and Mustard Greens etc.  I love omelets with spinach and other fresh steamed veggies in them so I thought I'd steam the mustard greens and fix a little different country breakfast this time...WOW!  Who ever heard of mustard greens with breakfast! ...Delish!  So here's a few photos of the steps in this country breakfast beginning with going out collecting fresh eggs from our wonderful laying hens.

 These are a few of our "girls" plus one of our roosters eating their own country breakfast!

 We get quite a variety of color- even a few blue/green colored eggs.

We also get a variety of sizes! I can't even close the lid on this egg carton!

Interesting Information About Eggs!

• To test an egg for freshness, put it in a bowl full of water. If it sinks, it's fresh; if it stands on its nose, it is about 2-3 weeks old; if it bobs to the top, throw it out.

• Can't remember if an egg is fresh or hard-boiled? Just spin the egg. If it wobbles, it's raw. If it spins easily, it's hard-boiled.

• Eggs contain all the essential protein, minerals and vitamins, except Vitamin C.

• Egg yolks are one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.

• Eggs contain choline, which is necessary for healthy cell membranes in the body. Choline stimulates brain development and function, and helps in preserving memory.

• Eggs contain lutein which helps prevent age-related cataracts. Eggs contain more lutein than spinach and other green vegetables. 

 Check out the color of these fresh country egg yolks from our wonderful laying hens!

 Turkey bacon is the best ever and I do pat the excess grease off before serving.

 And here are those yummy mustard greens steamed and ready to serve.

AND

 WALLAH!  Breakfast is served!