Catch up to ketchup

It has been a while I wrote for this blog. Time to catch up!

Still being in Roy,WA,USA at Debra’s (Robert’s sister,who is a veterinarian ) property in which we joining her. A 20 acres piece of land with lots of green, trees, a Lacamas creek, a swamp near the creek , a logged forest, grass land, wet land and lots of Blackberries. Actually all you can expect in an area around the Pacific North West. And not to forget with a view on Mt Rainier! Or like the natives say ‘Tahoma’ – She who gives us water’. Our trailer is near the shop, that we are rebuilding to a better place. A recreation area with all you might need for (dog) meetings, hobbies, family gatherings and for us a place to return too after a travel with the trailer, or better saying : a base for the trailer.

On the property are living besides Debra in her new house with her Bearded collies, 3 Boer goats, and at this time after 4 new hatched eggs 16 Runner Ducks. And of course us in the trailer , while also camping out and working on the ‘shop”, with our two dogs Beethoven and Gypsy. Robert and I call ourselves “Rangers” of the park. Every day chores on this piece of land is a lot of work in all kinds of way. We gave the property a name: Pentangle Croft. Debra’s Bearded Collies kennel name is Pentangle and Croft is a Scottish name for a small farm.

I created a forest garden behind the shop.I just couldn’t resist. Own home grown veggies are simply the best. After searching and digging through layers and layers of branches ( of the logged trees by last owner of the property 😥  ) to find clean soil without trash and good for growing on; I now can say the garden was and is still a success.  After many “negative” advice of people who told me all would be eaten by critters when the garden is not protected by high fences -what could be true seeing all the wild life passing through- my stubbornness overcame. .. And I’m glad! Almost nothing was eaten by other critters than ourselves. This land has so much green and food for wildlife, they don’t need to come close and eat the veggies.

I posted a lot of daily experiences on Facebook what I will try to copy and paste to this blog along with the photos and little stories I wrote. Some events I will describe separately from this blog and make a short new blog. Like a day with the Dutch girls, all living close in WA and a rare Thomas family gathering….That for later.

The area behind the shop was covered with layers of fallen branches, trees, thick layer of leaves after logging by last owner and maybe even before that …and also hidden trash. I dug in so deep to get it all out. Not intend and not planted veggies on the trash covered soil.  On the good spots, a perfect dark forest soil came up , and became my total natural forest garden. I re-planted the wild strawberries which were everywhere at the property and planted veggie and flower seeds. Also took some out of the first temporary garden, further in the logged area to ‘save’ from too rude wildlife and grumpy husbands 😂

And being a monkey, made me making a veggie monkey zoo!

~ A cry to the wild~ also goes to wild food. Stinging nettles this time…Yes stinging nettles! They are superfood! An no! they dont sting in your throat after you heat them.
From stinging nettles to pizza

And then just walking with Beethoven to check the mail box..
We discovered mama coyote, simply near the road! ..She made some howling noises and unfortunately the neighbors, who were outside, came to watch what was going on. That makes her more nervous and she started louder. When they left, I could make some better pictures of her. Beethoven calm sitting near me!!
Somewhere she hide her babies. And yes this is close.. my biggest lens is a 300mm lens.
~ A Cry To The Wild~

 

Later on I replanted all plants from the ‘ open’ forest garden to my other garden to give all a better chance. It looks actually great. And with this kind of beautiful weather, its growing fast.

The potatoes and the onions and some carrots are on their own now the most of the time, but those are actually the ones not getting eaten and growing! The little kale, lettuce, chards etc. I ‘saved’ and are standing straight, closer to the shop. All grews pretty good . and I bet a lot will still grow at the ‘ open ‘ spot with less care. Hot day today in the garden. Some people know why I have to protect myself more than normal. So far so 👍

Okay laugh about my sweet forest garden ..it was growing good and we already ate out of it !!! 🤗

Forest garden progress

Morning visitors.. Elk Bull waiting for his female.. Thanks Beethoven for notify me

Elk visitors

A memory picture of September 2018, when started to be on the road..

Fresh produce is therapy

Too much greens to eat all by ourselves. Pentangle Croft produce for the runner ducks.

Too much greens

Sitting folded in my innie Minnie trailer bathtub. My butt just fits in it , and its like a baby in a kitchen sink or bucket. I know I can get it different than this, but sometimes it’s just relaxed to hide in a place that’s your own to over think the thoughts I collected the last days for later. Meanwhile trying to soak that darn splinter out. Of course the propane tank ran out , so no hot water refill in the first place… but ….there is hubby who had to brush his teeth!  Good! That didn’t take long and with new hot water the thoughts continue. Some decisions to make. Not quite all my own and not all quite really to make yet. If I had put soap in my bath, the bubbles would come out of my ears. Afraid of not having enough water to get the shampoo out of my hair, I skipped that part. At least my poor feet get rest and clean. My army boots after 2 times self repair said today: its enough! we are done! and immediately felt wide open. The with care repaired stitches by me still in it,..the leather decided to break just near it. Okay okay, you guys did a good job. How many miles I walked with these in rough terrain? Over mountains, rock, sand and now through brambles and branches and thick blackberry thorns. My long rubber boots as replacement are fine; only my toenails are complaining not getting enough air. Free breathing for a while is a good thing..!! I discovered cowboy boots are not made for walking either;,even some famous guys kept on singing this. Its for riding a horse! Period. The refilled hot water is slowly getting cold … I’m not finished with my list of thoughts..Oh well..I will not start to count sheep while laying in bed, mostly when my head feels my pillow I’m gone! Counting the goats comes not further than 3. Unless I so don’t like to say: that’s for later, I simply skip the rest of the list for another day. Night night all.

When we are almost home this is what we see from out the truck..You will also see it when in town. For a flatlander and Dutch like me, this mountains amazes me every time I see it.

Mt Rainier, also known as Tahoma( She who gives us water) is a large active strato volcano and is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world

Mt Rainier or Tahoma

 

For the ones who are following me, friends, family and /or have interest, I did it again!
4,5 year after diagnosed to live only 5 to 6 month longer, I can announce my hubby will be stuck with me a little bit longer than today.
The recent Pet scan shows nothing! Also the six months ago noticed tiny little spot in my lung disappeared. Blood work was good! And the standard check up before every appointment, like pulse,oxygen level, blood pressure was even after I ate yesterday all the double salted licorice out of the Netherlands (yum yum and smarty pants I am :p ) great and as being a young girl..
Next check up about 6 months..! yeah.. I hate hospitals so that’ s good!
My concept for healing?:
Avoid idiots, worrying kills you, don’t people too much, love your animals and wildlife, see the small beautiful things in life, live today, always see the positive thing in a negative world, be a go-getter, mind over body, fight for the things you want to fight for, take of the bad pressure, let go you can’t change, disappear and hide in the woods as much as you like and is possible, feel the energy that has to tell you something, compose your own life melody…

Own life melody

I remember all the good meant words and advice about getting a fence and that the daily passing Elk and deer, rabbits etc at this spot will eat my garden. Nevertheless I wanted to give it a try. Never done, is never learned is my opinion.. And maybe a surprise for many; my indeed very wild forest garden, is still going strong!. Every day we eat out of it and it’s still going.Oh yeah some critters as birds and slugs are eating some of it too, but for now I consider it as sharing with nature. For me this forest garden made be believe in the future.

Natural hatched egg in the ‘open” gives us this precious new Runner duckling. The other eggs in the nest took too long before they hatched and little one didn’t get the attention it needed from mom. I took the other eggs out after waiting another day and good I did because they were simply rotten eggs. The eggs most likely didn’t belong to one mom and laid on different days.

Little ducky regular lost it’s mom in the whole group and some of them ‘adopt’ it friendly; other are chasing it away. Eventually it finds mom back I noticed, so it will be fine. It’s a tough one this little one

No these are not tomatoes; they are potato berries.
Most potato growers never seen them; it only happens with the right cool not that dry weather and some more facts play a role. Especially my husband wanted to see them and let them ripen when possible. In Methow I came once close till they simply dried too early due the hot weather and felt off. Not sure if these will make it either. Not a good idea to eat them, they are poison. It can takes some years to grow potatoes out of the seeds in these berries. Would be fun when I can try. On all the potato plants I grew, this is the only one that produced berries. There were more plants flowering, but then the flowers simply felt off.

For info see link below:

https://www.cultivariable.com/potato-what-you-should-know-…/

potato berries

Most of the in the first place overwhelming growing lettuce out of my forest veggie garden are going to flower these days and I fed them every day to the ducks. Nevertheless my forest garden is still going strong. Unprotected for animals, no chemicals.. just like it is.

The tomatoes are turning red now and even the smallest plants have some tomatoes on them. The peas, we ate at the first place very young and in their shell. Now I leave them grow as peas. Carrots are almost all eaten. The little kale plants with small leaves, seems still like the weather and even when I cut regular some off for dinner they kept growing. The pickle cucumbers suddenly think they have to grow too. Like the pumpkin and maybe some melons. The broccoli is having a hard time but produce a little which is just enough for a dinner to mix with other veggies.Onions from seeds, takes another year,The cabbage and Brussels sprouts have hard times too but are just beautiful as they are and we will see..And of course the potatoes..looks like they are doing very well.

garden at its fullest

Later on…

Slowly my veggie garden will come to an end. it isn’t so much appreciated as I thought other than by myself. While it’s still growing delicious potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, peas, squash, melon , onions, kale,we eat every day from, I start to pull out daily the cabbage leaves, the broccoli leaves and other edibles for the goats and ducks.They enjoy it for sure and they got some other food than standard processed animal food.

For me the garden was and is still fantastic.Wild  with lots of very fast growing forest weeds, Still not protected by a fence for deer, rabbits and /or other critters and no use of any chemicals at all. The already ate veggie empty spaces get filled these days with flowers started a long way from saved seeds I had in the Methow, Maybe weird for someone who doesn’t like gardening and think it’s too much work worth the effort, I can be thrilled seeing the flowers flowering in all its Morning Glory and Marigolds. Seeds saved from other places, generation after generation.

Yes it’s a lot of daily work. To find a clean spot and prepare the soil was a real challenge by itself. With an injured back due a fall, I had to remove layers and layers of branches, remnants of the logged trees from last year by former owner of the property. They logged, but didn’t clean out anything. When finally reached the soil itself, a wide spot near the shop was filled with hidden trash, digging and raking again and again, made a lot clear about the history and lifestyle of these people, to say it in a neat way. That cleaned out spot by me by hand, was for me a reason not to grow any veggies in. Luckily I also found rich forest soil, and unless I had to be very creative to grow my veggies on a not flat and smooth soil bottom, it all turned out all well. Tomato, cucumber and pea trellis made from branches and tied with plant roots, made my ‘wished for’ and experimental garden complete. And those trellis still stand.

Maybe it isn’t worth the effort for others and is in their eyes just simply going to a store the best solution. In my eyes is exactly knowing what I am eating after exactly knowing I did to let them grow, at least for some parts of dinner, a huge benefit. Even the organic stores use products, accepted for the organic labels, I never will think of that those would be tasty on my veggies. I know it’s difficult to hold on and almost impossible in life. And also I like sure from time to time ‘ bad’ comfort food. I even need that too!. Although that’s not what my story is about. Anyway.. putting seeds in the soil, watering, and seeing tiny little sprouts coming up, can make me jump of joy. Growth! Not sitting still, learning, experiences, knowledge are basics I need in my life.,Not always skipping a lot of steps by buying it ready to go or eat. The slow consciousness, patience, experience and yes also a lot of disappointments in life… Growth..

Planting a seed in the soil makes me I want it to harvest, the hope and urge it will grow and even better, I finally can eat it in another form I planted.
Precious nutrition for body and ..mind!
For me a believe in future times..

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When hubby has to go ‘early’ tomorrow to Chehalis and wants to sleep at 9pm ! ..ugh! and I can not use his computer to watch “Longmire” what will keep him awake..Well here I am listening to all the evening noises. From wildlife to shooting, airplanes and airplanes,a train? Coyotes and something I can’t identify  Night night to all.

night trailer

Living in a trailer is not always a path over roses. We have not a working toilet in the trailer, cause the lack of properly blackwater drainage and that’s why we rent a porta potty. A little plastic house with a toilet seat in it and that above a hole of the poop and pee tank.When we first started I really hated it and wondered if I could get used to it. Well it took some time, but I did. Still not really like it though, At least we have some and even at night time when the need is high, I don’t hesitate to go to the potty totally in the dark, simply because the little headlamp goes off every time when I need it the most. On a clear night with moonlight it’s amazing how much I still can see. I’m not afraid of the critters who are running by at night time, but certainly skip the thoughts about not friendly spiders. I just pretend there are no black widows at this side of the mountain to comfort myself. The snakes are friendly and I can’t imagine other little creatures will choose the porta potty to go sleep at night time. Not only the smell of poop, but more the dominant ‘Mango’ ( how can they call it Mango!!!) smell of the blue chemical liquid in the tank.

This morning sitting on the potty ,still with sleepy eyes I felt some on my naked butt. And yes tough or not; this makes me jump up like crazy. Especially because it felt kind of wet and somehow sticky.. Then I saw a little froggy crawl away under the toilet seat. Afraid the froggy would fell into the nasty tank I ran as fast with not covered up butt to grab a wooden board to cover up the toilet seat and yes, photographer or not ,my camera! Quickdraw!

Luckily the froggy was saved and it didn’t jump in the big tank.The thought of a little froggy fighting for its life somewhere in this nasty tank and me sitting on the toilet makes a porta potty really uncomfortable.

So we have a new task: check on froggies before potty🐸

 

Your eyes will not fall on it , looking at the picture of my ‘August’ garden. Although the relative small and low plants have bunches of tomatoes!

Going from a catch up to ketchup; see you next blog!