Harvest almost complete

Fall is here in full swing and hubby and I have been harvesting and preserving in every free moment. The final big push happened this weekend when we added 15 quarts of salsa and 11 jars of pizza sauce to the spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, grape jam and myriad jars of other items that can be found on the basement shelves. It gives me a good feeling to walk into the basement and select a jar from the shelf or an item from the freezer to set on my table which was grown in my garden and prepared in my kitchen. The final batch of grapes have been cleaned, smashed and is currently draining in the kitchen. The juice will become jam sometime in the next couple of days and I will again have time to devote to my other hobbies.

An update on the cotton...
The plants continue to flower and produce pods. All the rain we have gotten in the last couple of weeks seem to have encouraged a new flowering season. The things I have read say I should be plucking off the flowers so the plant can concentrate on the bolls but they are too pretty so I will be happy with less cotton and enjoy the flowers while I can. We covered the plants once a couple of weeks ago when we got a scattered frost. Other than that they are still doing well and I am waiting patiently for my first boll to pop open and share its soft bounty with me.

Abundance of Summer

Wow, been almost a month since my last post. Too many things to do in the summer so computer time is taking a hit. Things I have accomplished in the last month...

Finished first pass of a new pattern for the etsy shop. Here is how it turned out. I have some changes I want to try on the next one before the pattern is ready for publishing.

Read the final book in the Harry Potter series. I really enjoyed the ending. I will say no more in case any of you are still working on it.

Garden produce is everywhere. I have been distributing zucchini and cucumbers at the office. Canning of the beans and pickles is done for the year. I started freezing beets and peppers this evening. Sweet corn is almost ready. Husband has started digging up the red potatoes. Noticed my first orange tomato tonight so we are getting close to salsa, spaghetti, soup and pizza sauce time. Half of the onions have been dried and stored. Waiting patiently for the first cantalope to be ready for picking.


Finished spinning my purple fleece and made my first 2 ply. Still need to wash it to set the twist.


Cotton plants are flowering. I saw my first flowers on them last night and they are lovely in my opinion. Color seems to vary from light pink to deep rose on the same plant. Not sure if this is an indication of how long the flower has been opened or just the way it is. I will have to keep an eye on them for the next couple of days and see what I can learn.


Finally, this years fun project has been eating up a considerable amount of time. We have had a flower bed next to a wall on the barn hill for about 15 years. It's main purpose is to hold the cement wall which holds the dirt on the hill. Maintaining and weeding of this area has become impossible so my husband suggested converting it into the water feature I had been hinting at for a couple of years. It only took us about a week to start digging in. Lots of shoveling and rock arranging later this is where we are currently at. Still working out the kinks on the pump which the water can also flow through and pour into the bucket and we will probably be doing some more digging to increase the size and depth of the bottom pool so it is deep enough to house fish. Those modifications and some more plantings to disguise the mechanics of it and I think we will have this one conquered. Next year, we are talking about a covered bridge.

Update on the cotton and knitting projects

I had a request from Jean about my cotton growing venture today so I thought I would provide some more information for her and an update for anyone else who is interested. Along with a quick note on the knitting projects.

Cotton status, as of today, I still have 4 of the original 10 cotton plants which went outdoors (3 green cotton plants and 1 white). The plants are approximately 12 inches tall and appear to be getting some type of seed in the center just below the top leaves. I tried to get a picture of this but it got too fuzzy when I zoomed in. So I have only included an overall picture of the plant.


In the knitting arena I currently have 3 projects I am actively working on.

My Journey Shawl grew considerably during the Maine vacation but I wasn't happy with some parts of the pattern. Originally, I was going to continue on and just do another one using what I had learned with this one but last night I changed my mind. So I ripped out (is this what people refer to as frogging???) about 4 inches of the shawl, back to the part of the pattern I was not happy with. I have now started back in finishing out the cables and converting over to a simple lace pattern but this time I have included a border to separate the cables from the lace and will hopefully not make quite so many errors on the lace portion.

Another project is a rambling rows cardigan for myself from yarn I recycled from a sweater I had made my husband when we were dating (approximately 17 years ago). He wore it rarely and was getting rid of it. I always loved the yarn so I took the sweater apart and am making one for myself. I have completed the back and am working on the front right side currently. Pictures will be provided someday.

Final project is a double knit hot pad in a yellow and green check pattern. I made one for my sister-in-law last fall which she really enjoys so I started another to place in the etsy shop if I ever finish it.

Now, more cotton details for those who are interested. Everyone else may want to stop reading now unless you are having trouble with insomnia, then by all means continue.

March 12, 2007 - received 3 varieties of cotton seeds (white, red and green) from mail order
March 15, 2007 - planted seeds in 4 inch peet pots filled with Miracle Grow potting soil. 12 (6 white, 3 red, 3 green) pots were placed in bay window with an eastern exposure. Remaining 3 pots (1 of each type) were placed at a western exposure window. Watering was done as needed to keep the pots moist.

Late May, 5 white, 2 red and 3 green pots had sprouted. All 3 in western exposure sprouted and 7 in Eastern exposure. Plants varied from just a couple leaves to up to 5 leaves. Placed on screened in back porch to harden off in preparation for planting outdoors. Continued to water as needed.

June 2, approximately 11 weeks after starting the plants, they were transferred outside to a full sun location on the corner of the property. Soil in the outside location is just regular dirt (I added nothing special to improve it) although, it is some of the better soil we have on the property since we have a lot of clay which is like growing in rocks. For the first 3 weeks, I watered pretty much daily unless I got help from Mother Nature. Since then it has been just as needed. I lost all but 4 plants usually to the sun burning them off but one was killed by an over-helpful husband, I still have 1 white and 3 green plants. In hind site I shouldn't have planted some of the smaller plants out until they got 4 or 5 leaves on them.

Hope that helps Jean. If you or anyone else has more questions let me know.

Growing cotton in Michigan

About 9 months ago I got an opportunity to buy a used Louet spinning wheel which I jumped at the chance to purchase. Spinning wheels are one of those things that have fascinated me since I was a small child. Through the Middle of the Mitten group I have also met wonderful ladies through whom I can purchase wool, alpaca and angora roving for spinning but even with these sources I wanted to have my own source of spinning material. I thought about rabbits or a goat but my husband wasn't keen on the idea and I admit I don't really have time to take care of animals. So I found a used copy of the book 'A Weaver's Garden' by Rita Buchanan which tells how to grow many plants for fiber. Flax and hemp are mentioned as being very easy to grow in Northern climates but the preparation of the plant for spinning was somewhat involved, not to mention growing hemp (or marijuana) is illegal and I don't think they would allow my wheel or needles inside the cell with me.

So my next choice was cotton. But I live in Michigan, definitely not cotton growing country but
nothing ventured, nothing gained so off I went to investigate using my trust worthy tool, Google. I found an article by Nev Sweeney describing small scale cotton growing. He described how he had broken several rules of cotton growing but was still successful in his endeavor. With Nev in my corner I found a source for cotton seeds at www.earthlyseed.com (Google again), purchased some peat pots and potting soil and away I went.

Placed the planted seeds on the windowsill about mid March.
It took 2 - 3 weeks for the first little guys to poke their heads out.

At about 10 weeks after planting, I moved the plants from the windowsill to the screened in back porch to prepare them for the fluctuations in Michigan's weather and at 11 weeks I moved them to the selected location in the yard.



Like a hen with her chicks I have been checking them at least daily making sure that they are doing ok and nothing is disturbing their growth. If all goes well I will have 3 kinds of cotton to play with by September, a standard white variety - Upland, a green cotton and Nankeen - a red cotton. Gotta go check on my babies now.