almost end of april and really feeling like spring!

today was such a beautiful, clear and blue day!

here is my beautiful oregano plant that i trimmed back and am in the purpose of drying for use as our own spice over the winter. we will get several cuttings from this one plant over the season to dry to make our spice. this oregano plant is 5 yrs old and they come back on their own - year after year.

we have a ton of store-bought spices in our long-term food storage...but we won't use any of it if we can grow and dry our own. it's always great to have a ton of store-bought spices in your food stores but it is so much better if you can grow and dry your own. healthier too!

surprise!

the tulips are popping up and showing green. the tulips i planted were a mixed bag so i don't even know what colour each tulip will be until the flowers appear! that's the surprise!

here's a prepper-related item that i am growing for the first time - hops!

can you say home-made beer???? we have a beer-making kit and can't wait to try and grow our own hops! again - you can buy beer, you can store beer - but isn't it better if you have the knowledge and equipment to make your own? from your own hops? again - healthier, too!

some stuff that i planted today - some of which is prepper-related, and one that is simply for my enjoyment:

american ginseng, irish moss, F1 hybrid cabbage and sugar beets! the ginseng, cabbage and sugar beets are all prepper-related - the ginseng root can be used just like ginger and turmeric root - and we all know the health benefits of ginseng! i got the cabbage because it is a super-size cabbage that does well in northern climes and stores well. the sugar beets can be used as regular beets, or you can make sugar out of them. the process is not difficult to do at all! and, even though we already have a ton of organic sugar (cane) in our stores, if we can make our own - that will be brilliant! we are not big sugar consumers to begin with but the ability and knowledge to make our own sugar is also brilliant!

the irish moss is simply for my pure enjoyment. jambaloney said "we have 10 million kinds of mosses all over our land! why do you need to buy moss seeds!". i explained that irish moss is a particular-looking moss that i want to use in my faery gardens. he just shook his head. and now that i come to think about it - the moss IS prepper-related - imagine this scenario: S has hit the fan, zombies are everywhere, no one has any food - what is the one thing that will become one of the biggest barter items??? yep - you guessed it! FAERY GARDENS!!! bahahaha!

anyway, while i was doing my planting, jambaloney transplanted the kale from the greenhouse into a bed. yes - he needs a tiny bit of help with making straight rows!

here are some daffodils popping up!

and some more!

kids - we had a long, wonderful day! and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer - woohoo - RIVER DAY! after we do some chores and whatnot. maybe even our first canoe or boat ride tomorrow.

after such an awesome day, we of course had to celebrate with some sushi!

tuna and avocado sushi with dipping sauce, warm tamago and pickled ginger. not an exciting sushi plate but i can gum the tuna, avocado and tamago. i can't gum the strawberry due to the seeds.

anyway, in good old kirsty udall style who never seems to get her deliveries on time - we have been waiting for our 2 new loungers (our 10yr old ones finally crapped out!) allllllll day! and this is the third time we waited. the first time they left a note on the door - i must have been asleep and jambaloney at work. then they sent us an email for another delivery day - then changed that day to today! they deliver anywhere between 7am and 7pm which means you can't go anywhere (like walk to the river). we were outside all day and so left a note on the front door telling the guy that if he knocked and got no answer, to come around back. it's now 6:40pm and that guy better get here soon! i don't like being mean but we planned to spend all this evening in the hottub!!! arghgghghg!

oh well - tomorrow it's supposed to be gorgeous out....can't wait! and if everything goes as planned - i'll show you the GREATEST THING ON THE PLANET! it's hot pink, is sparkly and completely useless to most people. and certainly there is no 45yr old woman would ever WANT - let alone go out and GET!!! but she's a real beauty and i cannot wait to share it with you all - bahahahahah! if you don't already think i'm loopy - you definitely will when you see this! bahahahahah!

just a quick update. not much to report.

there's not much been going on around here this past week. except for really early evening and later evening skies.

so pretty!

all the tomatoe seeds have come up, most of the pepper seeds and nothing else gets started until the tomatoes get re-potted and put out in the greenhouse in about a week/week and a half.

here's a yummy supper for a hard-working man:



strawberry/mint soup, his icky rare steak, some gorgeous looking scallops and some slices of mango. i only had the soup, scallops and mango.

it's been kind of a sucky-week weatherwise...it's also sucked the last 2 weeks because jambaloney has been putting in full days at the lobster plant. he doesn't only put in a full day AT work, he comes home and does several hours in the evenings as well.

i've been doing some chores around the house but haven't been feeling so well. nothing major - just a little sore, a little tired and missing jambaloney! i know - i'm a big baby! he's back in tomorrow but we get friday, saturday and sunday to ourselves. and this weekend it is supposed to be really nice out.

have any of you book-lover's tried SCRIBD yet? they have thousands of books for a very small monthly price you can choose to read and save and create libraries. you can try it out for 30 days free! i love it! as we are nowhere near enough to a library and have too many books stuffed in every nook and cranny to begin with - i really enjoy scribd and can read it on my computer, laptop or my walkin'book (tablet) - the laptop and tablet are jambaloney's for work but i am just letting you guys know that it works on just about anything!

i still prefer the feel of an actual book in my hands but scribd lets me know if there is a book that i really want and then i can order from amazon.

okay - that's enough blathering.

First Official Framboise Manor Nekkid Suntanning Day 2016!

this past friday was the First Official Framboise Manor Nekkid Suntanning Day 2016 - woohoo!

it was a balmy 10C with very little wind. we did our morning chores and then got out our pads for our loungers and laid on 'em butt-nekkid! it was wonderful!!!

and like we do everyear - we sunstroked ourselves! jam's a little pink but at least we aren't sunburned!

we were back out on saturday to a balmy 6C but at this time of year when the sun is so high up in the sky - it's awesome to take an hour or so and just lay out. we suntroked ourselves again.

here is my trimmed rosemary, thyme and sage to be made into a smudge brush for us.

here's 16 beautiful pints of mostly bone/meat broth but with some veg. i made it over the past 4 days and we canned it this morning.

we had some leftover and had it for breakfast. it's very strong, very bone-y tasting - deelish!

and remember them strawberries? they got blitzkreiged with fresh mint and almond milk.

and then chilled in the freezer for about an hour. deelish!

today is grey, misty and windy - still ok for the hottub dips and there will be many. jambaloney has been working on a variety of things today - he cleaned the basement while canning our broth, worked on his contract and a bunch of other little things. he's back working on his contract right now and will be in to work on-site tomorrow. so far, the system he built from scratch is working extremely well with only a few glitches that he fixes immediately. you have to expect a few glitches when you build something from scratch and have go right into production. makes me so proud!

the other good thing about his work is that they all treat him very well. he's "pirate jambaloney"!

well that's it for now kids. off to make that hard-working man some dinner!

2 beautiful days in a row!

yesterday morning, jambaloney got this beautiful picture of the moon.

the moon wreaks havoc on us being that we are both scorpios. our sleep patterns are very heavily-affected by the moon...and now that we are so close to the ocean, and everyone knows that the moon affects the tides...like i say...the moon wreaks havoc on us. but the moon also takes care of us in different ways. i won't go into more astrology than that as i do not wish to offend any readers.

what a gorgeous day yesterday was.

gorgeous and WINDY! even jambaloney was having trouble not getting blown away!!!

here's some beets we planted - we'll be eating beet greens soon! we loooooove beet greens!

here's some red-veined sorrel, parsley and mint that we overwintered in the greenhouse.

and some oregano, cone flowers and lemon balm that we also overwintered. that greenhouse is a joy to have!

here is a sage plant that is becoming a tree.

we overwintered it and i plan to cut it down to it's main branches in order for it to bush out. i will use the cut stalks to "smudge" us whenever we come home from an event or when jambaloney goes to work. we feel that since we do not go to other people's houses, or community events, or jam going to work very often - we feel that we bring bad bacteria and negativity with us. by having a a sage "smudge" will help to keep us healthy. i will also be cutting back our rosemary, thyme and lemon balm to add to the "smudge" stick. again, i won't go into any of this any deeper - we have our beliefs and you have yours and we respect that.

kids - how about an entire plate of food that i can eat??? yes, i even gummed some of it!

jambaloney was in to work on monday and tuesday and you all know what tuesday means, right? THE FISH GUY! jam bought all of his tuna - but he gave jam 2 for free because jam is such a good customer. jam also got the first of the season's scallops - wahooooey for me! i looooooooove scallops! so that plate above is raw tuna on rice (which i can eat/gum), avocado on rice (which i can eat/gum), scallops in all of their glory cooked only in butter ( which i can eat/gum when cut into tiny pieces) and a beautiful strawberry, when once mashed with a fork, i can eat/gum. oh goodness that was an awesome meal!

yesterday afternoon in the hottub it was blue and cloudy and WINDY as oh heck. but beautiful!

i love the clouds here...even though they cover the sun - they are still beautiful to look at!

here's last evening's sunset...so beautiful!

want some more beautiful? how about these gorgeous organically-grown strawberries?

although we try very hard to eat locally and seasonally - jambaloney knew that i would love to make a chilled strawberry soup with these - so he bought them. they are organic and from california and i checked their website and they seem like real nice people...but hey, let's admit they must be adding something to get strawberries so big! i didn't care! i made strawberry and mint soup with almond milk out of them. it's in the freezer now chilling.

and because i am finally allowed to chew/gum food - i had to have more scallops. fresh caught the day before yesterday.

they taste like the ocean. and everytime we go swimming in the ocean i take a big gulp of ocean water and drink it. i do the same at the river. yes, i love putting my hands in dirt and planting seeds, yes i love to take jambaloney out in the rain naked and drink some of the rain and run around with muddy feet and laugh our heads off, yes i am proud that he has come into a job that he loves - he's working on it right now - but i also love to drink the ocean and river water.

i am a water sign. nothing brings me more joy than water. and putting my hands, feet, head or whole body in water. except for jambaloney and my 3 lazy cats. jambaloney is the same as he is a water sign too! he loves the ocean as he did not grow up swimming everyday in the summer in the ocean.

jam is almost finished getting a crucial part of his work finished. then we are going outside for our first Official Day of Framboise Manor Suntanning afternoon. if not today - then it will be tomorrow. stay tuned. i'll keep y'all informed.

sending love!

a bit of this and that.....

yesterday was cloudy all morning and early afternoon...but then the blue patch came and we had a lovely rest of the day!

kids - the gums are healing up really well! the denturist wanted me to not do any chewing with the gums for at least a month - he told me it would be hard and let me tell you - eating mush every day for the past month has not been easy. but i persevered. the denturist said wait one month to let the gums heal (they are almost all closed up) and then start chewing easy things to chew.

so in my not proudest cooking moment - last night i made macaroni, with chicken and mushroom and soya milk. the macaroni was cooked to sheer mushiness, as was the chicken and mushroom. jambaloney claimed it tasted deevine! he was lying just to cheer me up because i used my gums to gum my macaroni, chicken and mushrooms - woohoo. i had to blitzkreig my veg, tho.

and then there is chilled avocado soup - something that is supposed to blitzkreiged! we've had this a lot over the past month...don't know why i didn't put up a post about it???



i use 2 avocados, the juice of a whole lime, half a cup of coconut milk, a big dump of cumin, a pinch of cayenne, a pinch of turmeric and cayenne, and a ton of salt and pepper. you blitzkreig this until it is a smooth puree, add some orange peel shavings and then stick it in the freezer for a few hours. it is deelish - with or without teeth.

today has been a bit of a grey day in more ways than one.

first off - it's a pretty grey and cloudy day. second off - jambaloney is at work on-site today. i never sleep well when i know he has to go to work the next day. actually neither of us slept very well last night. he was awake at 3 and just stayed in bed with me. but i had been tossing and turning all night and at 3:30am - got up and hoped i wouldn't wake him. but he was already awake and came out to feed the cats with me, feed the birds, do the berkey filters, play cards, have his shower and get ready.

it's strange....but we honestly hate leaving the property and can go over a month of only seeing each other and spending time with each other. people think i am silly when i say that i miss him when he is gone to work for the day - i don't think it's silly at all. we have both come to the conclusion that if neither of us ever had to leave our property and never see another living being except each other and our cats - we'd be perfectly happy!

even when i am out planting things and he is out building or fixing things - i always go and find him after about 40 mins and bring him his water and say "babe. drink some water. i love you". he calls me "the water nazi". but i have to be one and always on the ball with the water...otherwise he would work 14 straight hours in the sun and not even think to take a sip of water. we really are the best half of each other and make a really good whole.

i'm sappy cuz i miss my baby and know that he has to go in again tomorrow. i'll probably die. i don't think he's ever had to go in 2 days in a row...but today he has to download some stuff on the server and tomorrow he has to teach the new girl. he's hoping that based on her skills, he'll be able to pass off some of the small stuff he does - which is really important - but is a time killer for him at home. he wants to move past the small stuff (which isn't small - trust me!) and bust out his real ninja skills!

anyway - on to more uplifting news....almost all of the tomatoes have come up - woohoo!

in only 3 days!

they are a little scraggly looking but they will thicken out with the fluorescent lights on the side of them and the natural light coming through the front door which is all window.

my friends, actually my 2 Sweet Angels (inside joke between the 3 of us) have stuff already in the ground and growing!!!! i'll get stuff in the ground soon...we usually have to wait until end April/beginning of May to put stuff in the ground. but we have an extended growing season which really helps. soon i'll be complaining about my constantly black fingernails.

yikes! i just had an email pop up from jambaloney....gotta run!

what a beautiful day...lots of stuff done...and a walk to the river....with lots of pics!!!

it was a beautiful spring day and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

here is our mess of concord grape vines.

jambaloney went out and trimmed them according to our friend W's advice. here is the front.

and here is the back of the vines. W let jambaloney know if he did it right or if he needs to do more trimming. thanks W!!!

i planted 4 trays of different kinds of lettuces and 9 pots of sunchokes.

i also did 3 pots of different kinds of amaranth. the amaranth will be planted all over the yard once it comes up and we plan to use the seeds for food.

a great sign of spring? how about getting the spring/summer bedding out!

we have spring/summer bedding and fall/winter bedding. i like it like that.

jambaloney, following W's advice transplanted some of the grape vines near our telephone pole. here's hoping they'll take and climb the pole.

then it was off to the river!

the greatest well that ever lived! it's 350 ft from the house and on a down slope and we have never had trouble with our water. we love our little well!

the first flowers of the season. they are called colt's foot and are beautiful to see!

baby trees growing as other trees die. these trees will probably be 6ft tall next year!

here is a creek on one side of our road to the river. sometimes it runs much faster and deeper but it never stops running.

here is our swampy creek on the other side of our road to the river. one thing for sure - we have a lot of water!

as you all know - we like to run around nekkid during most of the spring summer and fall. but in the house - regardless of the weather - it's clothes off! but when we do have to wear clothes, we try to be "stylin". here's jambaloney "stylin"...and carrying his fishing bag, fishing rod and more grape vines to plant down by the river.

not to be outdone by jambaloney, i try to be pretty "stylin" too! bahahahhahaah!

oh...forgot to add that i planted 4 rows of carrots from last year. i planted them to get seeds this year. guess what else we never have to buy? yep - carrot seeds!

here's where jambaloney planted more grape vines. hey - if they take - maybe we'll open up framboise manor winery!

our platforms that we lay on with cushions are still in good form. boatdura held up another winter. we can't wait to take our first ride in boatdura!

the shed and the canoe are in tip-top shape!

this is a pic i always take for my friend C!

here is a beautiful pitcher plant - i think they are beautiful but they do eat bees.

here's a tree/plant that some deer have been nibbling on.

and i saved the best pic for last -

my man doing what he loves best! the trout are still sluggish but he'll be catching us a ton this year. fresh trout is delicious...but so is smoked trout. i can't wait until he goes fishing regularly and catching our breakfasts and suppers.

and just a bit of fyi - brook trout (or speckled trout) in any water are like the canary in the coalmine for fresh water. if the water is even a little polluted they will not survive. we got some of the freshest water known to man - every time that man goes fishing he comes home with 5 beautiful brook trout.

i hope you all had a nice day like we did. tomorrow is supposed even nicer out. sure hope so. might even be able to take off our clothes - bahahhaah!