Wind, Re-Use, Water, Bread Tips

Welcome back to Windmill Farm.  Can you believe that wind we had last week and even today?  And going from the 70 degrees to today, it is supposed to be 104 degrees.  We can adapt fairly well by wearing hats when outside; turning on the sprinklers or when inside; to turn on the fans or air conditioners.  But our poor vegetable and fruit plants really took a beating.  After the wind settled down, Frank and I really pumped the water to the plants to try and revive them.  My pepper plant leaves looked burned and half of them were knocked over. I am not sure, are we in spring or summer?

     We delivered our CSA baskets this week and they were filled with fruits and vegetables; along with basil, mint, chives.  They would have had some yummy parsley too but a gopher made very short work of them in just a few days.  For those that dream about someday owning their own small farm, make sure you are ready for lots of joy, but lots of extremely hard work and tribulations!

     I mentioned this before about how I am really loving all the renewed interest people are having into anything that has to eating healthy food; growing your own food; preserving your own food; farm animals; farm life.  Every magazine or TV ad shows the how to grow tomatoes or how to raise chickens in your backyard.  The new Williams Sonoma catalog has a new section called Agrarian where they have for sale gardening tools; seeds; planters; and even a chicken coop.  Some years ago I had attended a Sacramento Flea Market and purchased a couple of galvanized sinks that I was told came from France.  I really loved them so two came home with me.  While fixing up my garden shed, we decided one of the sinks would be perfect to water plants or even to have flowering plants under the window.  Frank installed it for me with a faucet next to it.  Here is a photo of mine with Rosie the cat using it to get up and lay on the window ledge and when I opened up my Williams Sonoma catalog, they are selling them too!!

Re-using, re-purposing happens all the time here at Windmill Farm just as it is happening in your home and you are seeing it everywhere.  Here are a couple of examples.  The first photo is a galvanized round hood looking object.  I purchased two of them from an antique store going out of business about 3 years ago not knowing what I would use it for but I just love anything farm related and made of tin or galvanized.  I believe it is called a brooder.  You put a light through the opening and hang it suspended over baby chicks to stay warm.  When we were putting together a little self service road side stand out front of our house, Frank built the stand and made a brooder into a roof.  I glued the flags around it and it helps to keep my items cool.  Re-using feed bags are very popular and I make them into farmer's market or tots when I have some time to sew.

TIP FOR THE DAY:  Did you know there's a way to help figure out how fresh store-bought bread is? Just look at the twist-tie or plastic tab that keeps the bag closed. Turns out, it's color-coded to reflect the day that the bread is baked. It became an almost-universal practice among commercial bakeries as a way to help grocery store restockers recognize which loaves to replace on their shelves.
To remember which color is which day, put the colors in alphabetical order. Here's the breakdown:

• Blue: Monday
• Green: Tuesday
• Red: Thursday
• White: Friday
• Yellow: Saturday

Did you know this??  Now we just want to know why bread isn't baked on Wednesdays.
PS-Keep watering because plants, trees, shrubs, vegetables dry out so much faster with wind than the heat and we are having both!