Year Of The Cicada?!

Yikes! Here on the Backwards Homestead we are being overcome with Cicadas!! They are everywhere!  Anyone who knows me is aware that I HATE flying bugs. Well, hate is a strong word, lets say I strongly dislike them, which again translates into have an unnatural paralyzing fear of  them.... SO, this return of the Cicada is like my worst nightmare as far as bugs are concerned.  I spend my time flailing, flapping and otherwise making everyone around me laugh uncontrollably. Not..Cool!
So, I decided to go out, and try to make peace with the Cicada. Or, at least take pictures of them, with a zoom lens, from a distance. But, there are SO.Many! They are covering the trees, the bushes, the flowers. Their little shells are piling up everywhere, leaving a brown slimy mess when they mix with the rain. Ugh...

Anywho, thought I would share a few of the pictures that we have (Thanks Katrina), and maybe this will at least make them a bit interesting. lol

Wow, how did I EVER fit inside that tiny shell!?

This one has not been out too long, but almost dry and then he will fly away. If he is lucky, he will make it past the chickens! They are having a blast getting full as can be on these things!

Where is the sunscreen?!

 This one is still white, he is not ready to run the chicken gauntlet quite yet! Gotta be quick to make it past those snappy chicken beaks!

Too Slow!

  He didn't get out in time and dried until he was too hard to exit his shell. He is pretty much doomed. Molting is a tricky process and it seems time is of the essence!

NOT my hand, this is Katrina! *shivers*

This one is still IN the shell, a late bloomer I suppose! He better get cracking! hehe! Otherwise he will be stuck in there forever...
Just in case you ever wondered, here is a bit of cicada information! I always called the Cicada, a locust. It was just what I thought they were actually. But, a locust is basically a grasshopper. Responsible for mass plant destruction, plagues etc. Here, is the Desert Locust. A mighty hungry insect

Picture attribution: Copyright © 2011 - 2014 FactSpy.net

 The Cicada, on the other hand, actually do not eat much at all during their short lifespan. They basically climb out of the ground ( in the nymph stage), find their way up a tree, branch or otherwise, shed their skin (molt), sing a while, mate, lay eggs, and die..Yea, All in three to four weeks. That is how long the cicada has to dig out of the ground, claw out of that shell, make a bucket list, and fulfill it. Wow, amazing really if you think about it!

Fresh out of the shell, waiting for wings to open!

 Another interesting tidbit. There are actually cicada that come every year, and then the periodic cicada, which comes every 13 years, or every 17 years. This is said the be the 17year cycle of the cicada. We never notice the annual cicada as much since they come slowly, spread over several months. We hear them in the summer, singing away, but since there aren't huge piles of them we don't give them much thought. The periodic cicada, is way more of an attention getter. Since they have such a large number, that comes in a shorter time frame, they insist on being noticed! Totally different to see a few shells on your apple tree, as opposed to slogging through cicada shells to get to your car! Ok, so I exaggerated! But...it SEEMS that bad!

They're everywhere!!

Well, hope this post was a bit interesting, and here is a link to find a bit more information on the cicada. Cicada. Picture credits to Katrina, she has been diligent in preserving the invasion! Thanks goodness, as I am too busy screaming like a girl to get any good pictures!

We Are Still Here!

Whew!! Things have been so busy here at the Backwards Homestead! I thought when summer came to a close that things would be slower. It seems that it has not been like that at all! If anything it has been even crazier!
First off, Lee and Cayce bought a home of their very own! I know right? When did Lee even get old enough to do such a thing? The house is only a very short distance from ours, it even connects to our property. I will say that it was quite the ordeal as there were many hurtles to jump, and several issues that needed to be unraveled. But, it finally happened and with a little elbow grease, and a lot of teamwork it has come together.  Now they are moved in and happy as two bugs in a rug! Here are a few pictures, Yay! These are Cayces' pictures, which I snitched off her facebook, lol THAT is why there are none of her included. I MUST make them take a good picture in front of the house soon!

Here is the house!

Beautiful painting done by Lee and Cayce,

First supper in their new home! Yummy!!

Jayne is feeling right at home!

 We even captured a very rare picture. I think it is called: "Man Mopping" 

Look at Lee go!

We have also gotten a new addition to the Backwards Homestead! Katrina and Joy now have a new little colt named Baelfire. We call him Bae, and he is a real sweetheart. He is about 6 months old, so just a little sprout!

Yummy Grass!

Ciskgo is not too sure about the new baby!

Bae was trying to be friendly, but they were having no part of it!

He has already grown a lot, and is doing great. I think he will make an awesome addition to the farm. I know the girls are just crazy about him already. He has even captured my heart with his big brown eyes and total fuzziness!
As a quick catch up we have also:

Bought some turkeys!

Gotta Love a sale!

Made delicious ham broth and turkey stock!

So pretty!

Canned some Cabbage soup! Which I might say, was not a good idea. After canning it tastes SOO strong..Boo!! Very disappointed!

Soup!

And even canned some venison!

Mmmm!

Well, not too much of an update, but I hope that it at least fills in some of the blanks of how things have been going here on the farm.
I am planning a few posts in the near future that will be a bit longer, lol  Please, comment below with any comments, or just a note to let me know you were here!

Let The Canning Begin!

I just love summer! The sunny days, warm nights! It is all just too wonderful after freezing our butts off all winter long. I personally think about gardening ALL winter long. From the time I gather that last veggie out of the garden I am thinking toward the next spring. I am not sure what it is, but gardening, canning, dehydrating and freezing all the bounty of summer is just the best thing ever!
This week has been dill pickles, Clifty and Kosher. Clifty pickles are ones that I made by mistake one year and we loved them, lol They are pretty salty and quite sour. But yummy!

Cucumbers!

All sliced up and in the jars

Yummy seasonings!

Here they are fresh out of the Water Bath Canner

 The last picture is the finished pickles made by Cayce! It was her first time canning with me! She Loved it, I may have created a monster! She is practically hovering over the cucumber vines waiting for them to get big enough to make more, LOL! I love sharing the canning bug with others, as it is such fun and the rewards are so tasty. It really makes me happy to be able to go to the pantry and grab a jar of summery goodness.
During the summer garden time is a time to family togetherness too. We all troop out to the garden every afternoon to pick all the yummy goodness. It is like a treasure hunt for cucumbers though, those little boogers are nearly invisible hidden under all those big green leaves!
Joy has her eye on a couple of juicy watermelons that are coming right along in the garden!

Joys picture of one of the watermelon babies

Another thing that has been going on here at the Backwards Homestead is Haying. If you have animals, they have to have something to eat during the winter too. Since horses and cows won't eat pickles, we have to head out the the hayfields and toil away until we have sweet smelling rolls of hay for them when the snow blows!

One of Pud'nins trusty tractors!

Lee driving along

HAY!

With all this work, we still have to have fun! Especially when it is a billion degrees outside! Our pool is going through a renovation stage, so we aren't even sure at this point if we are gona manage to get it up at all..So we had to improvise when a couple of the grand kiddos were toasty!

Brr!

Water troughs are the best!

Today will be more canning, and if I am lucky I will pick enough blackberries to make seedless preserves. Last year I made 24 jars of preserves and it didn't even last until Christmas! That is like the Clifty pickles, I guess. I made 32 jars and thought I might be done. BUT, we have already eaten 5 jars, so I might ought to make at least one more batch, lol These things are addictive! Salty, sour and all crispy. Nothing like a homemade pickle on a sandwich! 

I am so blessed to have had so many people in my life to teach me the skills I would need to be able to live a self sufficient lifestyle. I remember sitting with my MeMaw at her kitchen sink on a stool "helping" her do peaches and tomatoes. We sliced the peaches and then she put them out to dry on a sheet of tin in the sun. Now days people would have a stroke if someone even suggested doing anything like that! One year the peaches were so wormy that it took forever to get anything substantial, but she persevered, and that stuck with me. She told me that " Any was better then none!" I sure miss my Memaw, she was one of a kind!

My mom continued the tradition, and when my kiddos were small I would go to her house and we would have all day canning marathons, lol We would start early in the morning, going out to the dewy garden to get things gathered before it got too hot outside. Then we all worked together getting it into a bag or jar, which made it go faster. It was always a time of talking, joking and sometimes tears if someone was having a hard time with something in their lives.  

My kiddos were always right in the middle of it all, learning the process as soon as they could, lol Of course, sometimes it was a bit harder with all their help, like the time Katrina sat her hiney in the middle of our dishpan of corn, and took a bite out of every ear! 

Canning days were more than just a day to put up for winter, it was time to spend with the ones that you love! Maybe that is why I love it so much! With that being said, I better get up and get busy! Here on the Backwards Homestead, there is no rest for the weary!

Mary Mary Quite Contrary!

How does your garden grow?
Anyone remember that nursery rhyme from when you were a kid? My mom used to read nursery rhymes to me all the time and I actually remember them from way back then! The reason I used that particular nursery rhyme is that is is Spring! Yep, and that means it is time to get out in the SUN, and plant your garden!
This year we have decided that we are going to try and make this farm pay for itself a little bit, and since we will have the Backwards Homestead totally paid off this summer, there is no time like the present to start some self sustaining projects like bigger gardens!
For several years now we have been fighting the same garden spot and the hard clay dirt that it contains. It is a nightmare. I am totally serious when I say that you could actually throw a pot with the dirt. When we till, it turns into hard clods that just rattle around your hoe making you so mad that you could actually pitch those clods at anyone who even doubted the depth of the clayness!

WATER!!! WATER!!

To make things even more needful as far as MORE garden area, Katrina and Joy had went to town to buy me some seed potatoes and onion sets. When they get to the store, the guy is overcome with seed potatoes! He offers them a 50 lb bag, with a BOGO deal!  Trina, being her mothers daughter, comes home with 100 pounds of seed potatoes! To be fair, she did call first, but I am sure knowing the answer. I mean FREE TATER! Who would say no to that? Not I! I now needed a tater patch. A big tater patch...
We had already decided that we wanted to expand our horizons, and till up a few more garden plots.... But! I was pretty nervous because taking totally awesome grass, and tilling it up gives me hives! After all, what if the dirt was the same?! What if it was still clay-e?! What if it washed, and made a huge mess of the yard?!? What if!?!? I could pass out just thinking about all the things that COULD happen.

The INHUMANITY!!

 So, one day while I was inside, Pud'nin just went outside, leaped on his trusty tractor, and tilled me a spot. I was a bit nervous when I saw it, and I admit I was a bit itchy. It looked great, but....what if?!
But, we forged ahead.
But, this digging thing is addictive, and like most farm things, is one enough? Is two enough?! What about THREE! Since I had gotten my hives under control, and the world had not ended because we had tilled up the grass, we decided to till yet ANOTHER garden spot! This one is even bigger than the original garden area!! Woot!

The original area, AKA the clay mine!

This is the third spot, ignore the grass, been too wet to till!

The second area where I figured out the world will go on even  if I destroy the grass.

It has been SO awesome having all that dirt, all the possibilities. We planted onions, radishes, tomatoes and cucumbers! We planted potatoes, green beans, horticulture beans and watermelons. We planted until there was not a single inch of unseeded dirt. It.Was.Awesome.
Well, unless you count that I threw out my back and I am still not able to walk totally right, it was awesome! Someone had to take one for the team, so what is a little back pain...or alot of back pain. Debilitating back pain actually. Looking back, if you decide to triple your garden space, you might wanna stretch a bit first, it can be a bit of a buzz kill when you are laying flat on your back crying like a girl for days!

But, it was worth it because now I have so much stuff growing that when it all comes in I will be under mountains of produce! Acres of squash, billions of tomatoes!! I can't wait to start eating and canning all sorts of yumminess. We ate so much of my stash last winter that I will be one busy woman this summer. This is the part of being a throwback in time. Feeding my family from the land and from the work that I do myself as a labor of love! There is nothing better than popping open a jar of home canned goodies. Or being able to give someone a gift of summer deliciousness in the middle of December.

Yummy!

Did anyone else decide to go big or go home? Expand a garden? Take on a new project that will make things way better for yourself and your family? If so, I sure hope you are as excited as we are with our venture into mega gardening!