Elderberry jelly

Making Elderberry jelly

Weather was kind of uncooperative this weekend so I decided to do some work indoors.  I grabbed 2 gallon bags of frozen elderberries from the freezer to get ready to make some jelly!  I used the old standard recipe and made 2 batches.  The first batch made 12 half-pints and the second made 11 (although I canned one pint and 9 half-pints because I didn't have enough jars!).  Good stuff.

Old potatoes

I checked out the old potatoes downstairs and was not pleased.  They are not keep too well!  I gathered a couple handfuls up and made some fried potatoes.  I will have to go through them and see if maybe I should can some of them.

They fried up nice!

Funny how much more yellow they look because of the purple ones in there!

Tree cages and trimming new trees

I worked on putting more cages up on the new trees.  I used the remaining of one of the old rolls of fencing and another whole roll of the 3 ft fencing.  I got the new apples mostly done (all but one I think) and some of the new cherry trees.  I can't remember if I did the walnuts earlier or just this past weekend.  Its all turning into a blur!

No pictures of the cages, not terribly exciting and I forgot!

Trimming

I got around to doing some yard trimming and trimming around the old blueberries.   After trimming the blueberries I cleared around the base of the plants.  There are quite a few struggling to survive - maybe 2-3 dead.  I am thinking it might be worthwhile to put some blood meal on them to see if that helps.

I actually took this picture the weekend after I trimmed around these.

Auger Stand 

I also started work building a stand for the auger/post hole digger.  I got the base done.  I made it out of old locust fence posts.  I will try to use only locust for the project, but not sure I have enough of suitable size and quality.

Family Easter and fruit tree planting!

Kale status update

I only have kale planted in the "city" raised bed.  It will provide plenty!   The new kale looks good so far.  The old kale is blooming and going to seed.  We will collect and use for next years kale needs!

"New" kale

"old" kale.  Very pretty!

Fruit trees planted!

I picked up the trees on Friday the 21st and actually got a lot planted that afternoon!  Well, not all fruit trees, there was a couple English walnuts in there too.   I got 15 sour cherries and 1 sweet cherry (they ran out of sour so they gave me one sweet).  I planted two of the sour cherries in the front of the house to replace the two that had died there from last years plantings.  I put the rest of the cherry trees below the hazelnuts on the other side of the stream.

I honestly forgot what I had ordered for the apple trees so I had to dig a bit more than I had anticipated!  I got 7 more honey-crisp and 4 more crab apple.  I also planted 2 apricots and 2 English walnuts.  I wedged them all in!  Whew - getting short on places to plant these trees.

I also took down the electric fence around the orchard since it was getting in the way and I don't think it provides much protection.  I will put cages around the trees for protection from the deer.

Sour cherries

Sour cherries

Replaced one dead eating apple (I don't recall what kind) with a honey-crisp and I also replaced one dead crab-apple.

I put the "extra" crab apples in the front and added the remaining 6 honey-crisp to the other side of the apples.  I also took down the electric fence since it was in the way.

Strawberries and blueberries

I also got 100 strawberries and 12 blueberries from the county.  I planted those in the front patch.  I planted the blueberries Saturday morning and just got them all in as the rain started!  The rest of Saturday we attended Easter celebration with family at mom's place  On Sunday I got up as early as I could and started in on the strawberries.  I put down the black plastic first in case rain started and made things muddy.  I usually do it in that order anyway - plastic down and then plant.  Its a good thing I started early - it rained on me a good bit as it was!  I got them all in though.  Whew.

New blueberries in back row.  New Strawberries in front.  

I got Tristar and Surecrop strawberries this time.

Tractor Supply Company

While I was down in McConnellsburg getting the trees I stopped by the Giant grocery there for some sodas.   Right next to the Giant is a new Tractor Supply Company!  Its not open yet, but soon - I think they said 3 more weeks.  Its a shame they weren't open since I needed to get more fencing for the tree cages.  I ended up going to the Everett TSC for that.  I picked up 2 50ft rolls of 3 ft and 2 50ft rolls of 4ft.  I will use the 4ft for the fence around the front garden and to replace some on the pawpaw patch garden.  The 3ft will be for tree cages.

More spring preparations

Cherry trees are blooming

The cherry trees in the front are blooming - the ones that survived that is.  Actually, some good news on the survival front, one of the tress that I thought had died is showing signs of life!   I didn't trim these trees this year in hopes that letting them go might help stabilize them a bit.  

Young (2nd year) sour cherry putting on some leaves!

Sweet cherry trees are blooming up a storm!

Thought this guy was dead, but see?  New leaves are coming!  The top did die out though.

Garden Preperations

I tilled the front patch in its new extended form, connecting the old front patch to the new big patch.  Now its all one big patch.  The front portion of the patch will hold strawberries and blueberries.

I just added two "permanent" fence posts for the corners.  I plan to just pound in some metal stakes to support the rest of the fencing.

Cleaned up the existing strawberry row.  There was quite a bit of weeds trying to take over.

I put the fence back in place until I can get the final fence put up.  Mom says that deer love strawberries so I figured I had better try to make them a little bit difficult to get to!

Tree Cages

I started putting up some more tree cages.  I started with the hazelnut since I figure they are the most at risk.    I used the old fencing from the big garden for a lot of these but I still had to use some new fencing.  I will need to buy more fencing!  I got all of the hazelnuts caged.  I also found another stash of old fencing that I will use first before any new fencing.   I also caged the new pecan trees.

I mowed this area too - it was still fairly wet as you can tell from the mower wheel marks.

Hazelnuts

Speaking of hazelnuts, the "old" hazelnuts are well into coming out!  I wonder if they get nuts on this year?

Birds nest

I found this bird nest right on my fastener shelf!  Even has eggs in it.  Damn bird.  Turns out to be a house wren, so I want to leave it alone.  Sigh.  Stupid birds!

I have seen her sitting on these eggs.  I try not to get too close, but its near where most of the stuff I need is!

Table-saw pusher

I was watching you-tube videos and noticed someone using this type of pusher.  Then I realized I didn't have one like this, so I made one out of some of the scrap locust.  I just eyeballed the design - sketched it onto piece of wood and then traced the handle from a hand-plane.   Then I used the little band-saw to cut it out.  I used the big belt sander to smooth most of the edges and the little belt sander to get into inside curves.  I discovered I needed some new sandpaper for the little belt sander!  I ordered some more from ebay as well as a new small belt sander!

I think it turned out pretty nice for about 30 mins of work!

More plane-blade sharpening

I continued to put my new wide blade tool to good use sharpening the wide hand-plane blades.  It takes a long time - so much more metal on these big blades!  I really like the new sharpening jig though.  I also attached the honing wheel and polished up the blade to razor sharp!

I also read about how far back to put the chip-breaker on this type of plane.  Basically, if you want big chips, pull the chip breaker far back.  If you want fine chips (ribbon thin) put the chip breaker about half a mm from the edge of the blade.  The chip breaker itself should have a clean edge - maybe run it through sharpening process to be sure (don't sharpen so much as put a clean edge on it!)

I put the micro-bevel on using the finest grit wheel that I have (I think its 3000).  Then polished it with green chromium polish on a leather wheel.  Mirror finish!

Amaryllis still going crazy!

These flowers are doing great things this year!  Beautiful!

First mowing of the season

First mowing

I mowed a lot of the place, but some wasn't in need (back toward the mountain) and some was too wet.  The cub cadet really moved though.  Blades nice and sharp and was able to go everywhere on those hills!

The orchard really needed it.  Was too tall in many places.

Much of the black walnut area was "field" grass so it was a challenge.  It will get easier as the grass comes under control.

Lots of field grass here too.  

I don't plan on mowing all these areas forever, only as long as the trees are too small to fight with the grass!

New tool sharpener attachment

The "wide blade" attachment for my worksharp came in last week so I got to try it out over the weekend.  Overall it is well made and seems to keep the tool in good alignment (possibly  even better than the "under the disk" default method)!  Also, it is  nice in that it comes with some templates for determining the bevel angles and for setting the bevel angles.  The basic worksharp only allows for between 20-35 degrees (if I recall).   The only problem I have noticed so far is kind of unavoidable:  big blades take longer to sharpen!

Look at all those angles!  15 to 60 degrees!  The big planer blade I was doing was a 15 degree bevel so this capability really helped.

Saw-milling 

I continued to work on milling up the old tree trunks laying in front of the barn.  I don't really need the lumber right now, but those logs are rotting and in the way! Also, I could really use more wood chips for mulch for all the new trees.

I was surprised to find a decent sized locust log in the pile.  It milled into some nice boards and some good wood stakes.  It had degraded a bit, but not near as bad as many of the oak logs.  Most of the oak that I have milled this past weekend had the sap wood all rotted out.  I was able to get some 5x5's out of them, but little else.  Oak is not great for fence/arbor posts, so I ordered some copper napthenate solution to treat them with.  I wish I had more decent sized locust trees!

Locust boards from 4(?) year old log!

I thought about using this locust log to make a post, but the pattern of insect damage really didnt work in my favor.  

I brought the rough sawn boards over to the shop to clean them up with the 19" bandsaw.  I have a carbide tipped blade on it and it goes through this lumber like butter!  

Pretty Spring Flowers

We stopped by Mom's place for a visit.  Her flowers were really out in force!