Rhubarb Love

Woo Hoo!  Guess who?  It's me, Karren.  I am so excited about our rhubarb patch.  I love all things rhubarb and can't wait to start making cool rhubarb treats!  I plan to bake with it, make jam with it, and freeze it for yummy treats later in the year.  I have a feeling we will have rhubarb coming out of our ears.  Death by rhubarb.  Death, where is thy sting.  : )  If you get rhubarb jam in your Christmas stocking, you'll know where it came from.

You can see in the picture below that we have four healthy plants.  They are already as big around as a Miata tire. 
 

A Tilling We Will Go...

This is the view I have of the north end of our valley on my way home from work. It takes about 30 minutes to make the commute, which is easy to take because of the beauty and (no) traffic. The only time I wish I lived closer to town is when I'm sleepy! The town on the left is Inkom, ID, which probably has a population of around 500. Big town, huh? The freeway dips down here to the Portneuf River, then climbs back up onto a lava rock mesa, about 500 feet above the river. It is this stretch that sees the worst snow and drifting in the winter. It is only a stretch of about ten miles, and it is really not a big deal.

Yep, that's me posing like the farmer that I am. We have finished preparing the garden plot for this summer. We are planting corn, swiss chard, butterbeans, green beans, tomatoes, squash, peppers and onions. We have raspberries that have wintered over from the previous year, along with our latest discovery: rhubarb! That's right, we have five large rhubarb plants that were discovered by Ken Light, our church friend. Ken came to our place and brought his outstanding (old) Troy-Built tiller to help us prep the soil for the garden and he stumbled into the rhubarb while walking about the property! Of course this just sent Karren over the edge. She is already planning to freeze it, make pies, etc. We will have rhubarb for the entire Marsh Valley!

Ken is a wonderful friend to do us such a great favor by tilling the soil for us. Sure does take the work out of getting the plot ready! He wouldn't even let me pay him for gas. He and his wife Wanda are fabulous. That's the western face of the barn, by the way.

This is a-tilla the hun at work : ) Those old Troy Built's are pretty stout machines. His just chewed its way through the grass and rocks to yield a perfect texture of soil ready for planting. Look at how dark this dirt is! All the soil in these parts is from broken down lava flows and it is almost black. If you keep it wet anything will grow here. That's why potatoes do so well in southeast Idaho. We are not planting any potatoes, but there were a few left from the previous owners that will probably pop up.

Finally, a shot of the tulips that are by the garage. Flowers are appearing literally everywhere on the property. We have just begun to find them. Kind of like a scavenger hunt!

We did buy a new riding mower. It was painful and it set us back a good ways, but we had to have something to keep this growth under control. I had no idea Idaho had such a wet spring. The grass is growing well and the color is deep green. The yard is beginning to look like someone actually cares about this house we live in. If it were only as easy to fix up the inside as well.

Tomorrow I am going to work with a new company after I leave Home Depot at 9am. I received a call from the owner on Tuesday and he was interested in meeting me and talking about the possibility of working part-time with his company, 21st Century Renovations. They do only custom renovations, not clean up of fire damage or that kind of stuff. I met them for lunch on Wed. and we hit it off pretty good. They are interested in someone that is well rounded and flexible, i.e. knows a lot about all phases of construction. They were particularly interested in my sheetrock skills. What I also found out is that they are interested in having me full-time as well! Wish me luck as I try out out my first day tomorrow!

I will of course continue at Home Depot until I decide to throw in with this new outfit. I will of course give Home Depot the customary two weeks notice if it comes to that. I don't like to burn bridges.

Be sure to check in soon for more updates. Things are growing out of control here!

Long Time No Blog!

It is just one of those times. You know, things get wrapped up in knots and you are swept into the currents of everyday life. Time slips by. Next thing you know it's been months and you've ignored the blog. Until today.

PROGRESS REPORT:

We have survived the idaho winter, the glaciers have receded and spring has sprung. The last snowfall was day before yesterday. It was 22 degrees this morning, but we were out this afternoon working in the yard in t-shirts. Glorious balmy breezes were blowing. It was time to continue the clean-up.

Since the snow has melted and the ground is dry we have gotten most of the shingle debris from the fall taken care of, but the rear of the house still has a pile left. We loaded the truck again with shingles (I think this is probably around ten loads at least, not to mention the load that our neighbors helped us take to the dump. If you ever choose to strip shingle off of your roof, for goodness' sake, GET A DUMPSTER TO SHOVE THEM INTO! Lessen learned.

Notice in this last shot the pile of cinder blocks? That is actually stabilizing our internet dish antenna. The hurricane force winds we get on a consistent basis were enough to loosen the pipe in the ground causing us to lose our connection, so I piled blocks around it and it has performed fine ever since. I chose the location for the dish so that it was out of the wind, but apparently mother nature had other plans.

The place is beginning to look like we actually care about our appearance. The front is fairly debris-free and flowers are springing out of the ground everywhere. Karren has begun a rock drip strip around the house to prevent mud from splattering the siding. We removed the gutters last fall before we put the new roof on. I think we'll leave them off. Do you really need gutters in Idaho? We'll find out.

What we need now is a mower. Badly. I had no idea we would have this much grass growth in the spring. Looks like we'll have to go into hock for a riding mower. A tractor is still way too far out of reach until I can pick up a better job. More on that later.

Here's a shot of the rear of the place with Old Tom mountain in the background. Notice the burn scar on the pasture. Morgan (our neighbor) and I did some burning to improve the pasture out back sothat he can graze it this year. It is foolish to own prime pasture but let it go fallow, so I offered to let him graze it with his horses and we will get the benefit of his expertise and labor to help us keep it in good shape.

The white box is the telescope trailer. The main building on the left is the barn. It needs a lot of work too, but it will have to wait its turn. As you can see we've got a few piles of brush to dispose of, but I will wait until I can get a machine to move them far enough down the pasture and away from the house. It would be good to wait for a wet day too. Fires can get out of control quickly here.

This weekend we should be able to finish the shingle clean-up and we may have a solution for the mowing figured out. Our wood pile is beginning to grow for next winter and we have lots of work to do before we will have enough wood. I've got to drop a couple of large fir trees at the end of the house that are too close, and they will provide quite a bit towards our goal.

See you next time!