THREE YEARS LATER - 2004
(Page currently under construction)
I again increased the size of my garden this year, in hopes of getting more 'crops' in. That I did, but the weather was working against me the entire season, with flooding causing a late start, followed by too cold conditions, followed by more flooding and more cold, and then drought, followed by more flooding, and more cold temperatures. I've lost track of how many times I restarted, replanted, watered one day followed by flooding the next, just not a good year for most of what I planted. And that was after one of the most severe winters, with extremely frigid conditions and heavy snows. The temperature got down to -14F several times, starting in mid-December, and followed by major snow that buried my car to the roof in hard-pack snow. It took me several days just to clear away some of the snow along one side of the car, where I dug a snow-stairway just to go to my uncle's place nearby. I tramped up and down that snow stairway many times... it was that hard , while trying to dig the car out. My uncle and I tried to remove the snow using both a blade and later e rear-mounted scoop, but the snow was too hard and the tractor became stuck up to the axle , and we eventually winched it out. After 2 weeks of hand digging, we finally contacted another farmer with a 4-wheel drive tractor with a large front-end loader to remove the major portion we had been unable to. It still took a considerable amount of work to clear the snow away from the rear and other side of the car, but we finally had it free from it's cold 'prison'.
The weather warmed up early, and flooded the land, turning the newly worked ground into a 6 inch deep mudbath, only to turn cold again, and flood all over again. It was getting late in the season to plant , again, but I kept replanting time and time again. I tried every trick in the book and some new ones to get my 'crops' in, but many didn't mature well. Only spinach, tomatoes, and pumpkins, did reasonably well.
I tried something new to me this year. I pressure-canned what few peas I was able to grow, above what was consumed right in the garden, and I processed a good quantity of tomatoes into a light paste that I hope to make into other products this winter. I've also managed to do up enough pumpkins to make about a dozen and a half pies with... one already made and eaten at our Bluebird Club Christmas Social. It went over so well (my own recipe) I should have made more. My very large potato crop, turned in a very disappointing amount of mainly very small potatoes. Less this year than last , even though I had 5 or 6 times as many plants. Totally not a good growing year.
I've continued to make all of my own bread, and have been perfecting many of the recipes I've developed. My recipe book continues to grow with these changes noted for future loaves. One part of bread-making requires the liquid to be warmed to 80F. I do that in the microwave oven and I've gotten so I can hit that mark about 99% of the time, first time. And it's a matter of only seconds. I also use home-grown herbs in many recipes to add goodness and flavour, and other grains and ingredients to make it more healthy, but I don't use any un-natural preservatives. And tasty.... ummm (Still looking for more recipes ).
Now for a change in topics.
It was 3 years ago that I had a mild heart attack at home, followed by two more while in hospital. Those were more severe, and could possibly have been deadly had I not been still in the hospital. Something I keep mentioning to anyone who will listen : Every home should have a BLOOD PRESSURE MONITOR and know how to use it, and use it. This is not to take the place of your doctor, but to 'supplement' your families' care. It can be a life-saver. It was for me. But there's more to this story.......... and I need your help.
I suffered some very intense pain during those attacks, but that went away. I have 'heart' pain of a different sort that continues to plague me. I need your help to alleviate that pain.
( TO BE CONTINUED - SOON )
