Working on a New Project

And it's a BIG project.

I've been looking for a long time for some property to buy for my Moody Girl Farm homestead, and I believe I've found it.  I signed a contract on a 1.15 acre property in western central Texas.  There's a small older house on it (a fixer-upper), an outhouse, an old well, and a cistern along with city water and sewer and co-op electricity.  I signed the contract on November 9th.  The hold-up is the survey.  The property is in a small town (population 338) and surveys are difficult to get done.  Very few properties in town have been surveyed so the surveyor is having trouble finding a starting point.  Closing was postponed from December 12th to December 27th (yeah, tomorrow) and now has been postponed until some time in January, the date to be determined.  I've been up to see the property several times and I'm so ready to get started fixing it up. 

In the meantime, I've begun working on a site plan for where everything will go: the gardens, chickens and bees, and a greenhouse.  When I originally composed my Goals in 2011, I wanted 2-3 acres with the idea that I might also have several goats.  They're still on my list, but further down now.  I suspect the house will take up a lot of my time, trying to get it move-in ready for when I retire, again, in November 2018.

I'll have lots of photos once I close on it.  Until then, never surrender, never give up, and may all your dreams come true.

A quick photo from December 7th when we got snow!  Big ol' fat snowflakes!  We got about 2 inches of snow here in town.

Becomming a Sponge, in Several Steps

First steps, clean the skin off the gourd, shake out the seeds.  This is the OLD loofah, it measured about 10 inches long and had well more than one hundred seeds!  I suspect the other longer gourds will have a lot more seeds which means I'll probably never have to buy loofahs seeds again!  The skin wasn't too hard to remove because it was so brittle.

Here is the gourd after a quick plain water rinse.

 

Here is the gourd after a quick rinse in a light bleach water.  I might should have left it in the bleach water a little longer than the 3-4 minutes I did. This is a practice gourd, so once it's dry I'll know if it needs more time soaking.  I'm hoping the bleach will lighten that dark spot.  Now it's laying on top of my compost bin so it can dry in the sun.  I need to turn it over every 30 minutes or so.

Once this one is done, I have six more to do...

Can't stop a Loofah!!!

THIS is my loofah vines!  They've taken over the garden bed and have spilled out onto the grass in front of the bed.  I had to use a 2x4 to prop up the trellises, as I mentioned before they weren't really strong enough for loofahs.  The cucumbers would have done just fine here had the loofahs not crowded them out.

 

I picked/cut these seven gourds to begin practicing this week how to peel them and make them into sponges.  The one on the far left was the first to grow on the vine - I probably should have cut it much sooner.  I'm going to have more than three dozen gourds to play with - and I just saw 6-7 baby ones on the vines in the grass!  I've read that the vines will keep on producing until they freeze! Oh boy!

I'm working extra this week so I may not get the next post on until next week.  Until then, never surrender, never give up, and may all your dreams come true.

Drooping loofahs

Hurricane Harvey brought wind and rain to San Antonio this weekend, but not as much as they predicted, and not near as much as poor Houston is getting.  I had already tried to prop the trellises up three times, but they weren't meant to hold up this much vine, and in this kind of weather.  We're supposed to have rain for the next four days, so I may let the vines just stay where they are for now.

 

Sweet!!!

I picked this little stem of berries even though a couple weren't completely ripe.

 



 

Oh gosh, they were good!  The two largest were really sweet.

 

I should have my funds to purchase my land by next week, then I'll begin searching.  I'm ready to get all of my trees/vines in the ground at their 'forever' home.  It's going to start getting interesting...

Can You Find the Cat?

Gifts from my Cat

I found this yesterday morning when I went out to feed my kitties.  It was slightly stiff so it had been there for several hours.  I didn't know which of my kitties brought it to me, but I moved it out to the sidewalk, planning to put it in the trash can before I left for work. 

 



 But then Big Boy began sniffing at it. 

Then he moved it away from my other cat, Big Girl.

 

He didn't eat it, thank goodness.