Thank You Cottage Homestead!

You may recall that awhile ago I entered a give-a-way over at Cottage Homestead. I am excited to announce that I won!

The prize? A beautiful cast iron hand crank coffee grinder, something that's been on my wish list for quite awhile.

The grind can be adjusted from coarse to fine. Even at the fine setting the crank is easy to turn. I'm not sure how much coffee one hopperful will make as DH and I usually only make coffee two mugs at a time.

Cottage Homestead offers these for sale at her eBay store, Cottage Bedding And More (currently on sale too I might add). Among other things, she also offers a really nice collection of unfinished Amish made furniture at reasonable prices. There are some really nice pieces on offer: cabinets, shelves, accessories, children's furniture, and cutest of all, doll furniture.

But back to the coffee grinder. One of the things we plan to do (eventually) is make a greenhouse. And one of the things I plan to grow in it is a dwarf coffee tree. Yes, DH and I love our cup of coffee in the morning or after dinner.

I'm not sure exactly when (or where) we'll build the greenhouse, but I already have a dwarf lemon tree for it, so we'll need one eventually. Like everything else around here though, it will have to wait it's turn.

Thank You Cottage Homestead! photos & text copyright 

December 2009 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

The Fruit Trees Are Here! The Fruit Trees Are Here!

The fruit trees we ordered arrived Tuesday evening in a five foot long box via UPS.

It contains:

1 July Elberta dwarf peach
1 Delicious dwarf peach
1 Gala semi-dwarf apple
1 Fuji semi-dwarf apple
1 Honeysweet dwarf pear
1 Moonglow dwarf pear

Very exciting! They are wrapped in plastic with wet newspaper covering their roots. Unfortunately we got another 2 and 2/10 inches of rain yesterday, making the ground soggier than ever. Hopefully we can get them planted soon!

On order but yet to arrive, one All-In-One semi-dwarf almond tree and two American elderberry bushes. I was told they'd probably be here in about two weeks. :)

The Fruit Trees Are Here! The Fruit Trees Are Here! photos & text 

copyright December 2009 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

I Should Have Known Better

For weeks now, I have been protectively covering my surviving tomato and green pepper plants every time the overnight forecast was for the low 30s. Last night? Oh, it was only supposed to get down to 36° F or so. No worry. It hasn't been getting as cold as they've been predicting. No need to cover them. Right? Wrong!

Wouldn't you know it, but in the wee hours of the morning we got our second frost of the season.

I knew it was only a matter of time and that we should have gotten another frost before now. The tomato plant looks as though it might actually survive in spite of this frost. The pepper plant is totally wilted. Just to be on the safe side though ....

... I picked all the last of my green tomatoes and peppers. Fortunately only the leaves of the plants were affected and the fruit seems just fine.

It's sad to see the end of my summer garden. Still, I'm thankful for everything I've gotten from it.

I Should Have Known Better photos & text copyright 

December 2009 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/