Winter is approaching....

Izzy and Rud are keeping warm by crawling into fresh piles of clothes right out of the dryer. They dont like cold weather at all, so they snuggle alot.
The like to sleep on daddys lap while he watches tv.

We got the greenhouse done just in time for cold weather.

We have two layers of plastic over a frame and straw bales around the parimeter to keep the frost line higher. We have carrots, squash, broccoli, califlower, pumpkins, basil, and about 1,000 tomatoes sprouts although the tomatoes wont make it in the colder nights.

It stays about 80 degrees during the day and gets cool at night but for now is working really well. We just want to see what it can do.

We just had a storm with 50 MPH winds the other night and the greenhouse stood strong, test #1. Cold is next.

Bree got a new car this month. It's a 2009 Honda Fit. Small and gets great milage ( about 35-40 MPG) and it has much more room than the little fairy car. It was a sad goodby to the little show car but its time for a more useful car now.

Thats all for now, hope everyone is well! Keep warm!

Been a while.....

Well, Its almost the end of October and its been a while since we wrote. Its starting to get cold at night so we have been busy getting the garden ready for winter. We are building a homemade green house out of things we found around Mom G's house. We have the frame built out of re bar we found and tied it together with zip ties. It is about 25 ft long and 15 ft wide. We still need to get the plastic on it but we are almost done and we will hopefully have a quaint little green house for the winter.

Adams birthday was last Tuesday the 14th and we spent the day together going to his favorite restaurants for lunch and dinner and we took a hay ride and picked pumpkins from a pumpkin patch at a big farm here locally. He was a happy boy....

He got a dehydrator from his parents so we have been drying all our herbs from the garden and made our own hot Sage tea tonight...yummy!

We are getting ready to pick crab apples from the 5 big trees my mom has and dry them for crab apple tea, and jelly and canned candied crab apples.

We will post the final pictures of the green house when it is finished, hopefully this weekend if the rain holds off for a bit.

Its time for bed, the little ones told us to get off the computer and tuck them in. Izzy's pooped, she had a long tough day at work we assume.

Goodnight...

In Honor of Nick and Kat England

Our Friends got Married last night. It was a great wedding and they had a nice reception with catering by yours truly. Adam was the best man ( & best looking man he he) and gave a great speech and was looking great in his Black and red tux. They had a beautiful cake with Red roses and black accents with a fancy drape that Bev made for a background by the cake. The tables were decorated by Bev with cute little bud vases and red roses. Nick, the happy groom.

I spent all day cooking and getting set up. Friday my mom spent the day helping me get preped and make the cold food. Bev and Rick were great catering assistance at the reception hall. Rick helped me refill food and Bev was busy keeping the platters full. Could not have done it with out them!

Today we are being lazy and taking naps that are well deserved (that is what the pups tell us, we obliged.)

Cold in Missouri!!

For the first part of September it is to cold! We had to pull our citrus plants tonight since they say it will go down to 41 degrees tonight and stay low all week. We have a big grow light that we will keep everythin under throught the winter. We actually have some Myer Lemons that just fruited and should be ready in a month or so. They have beautiful white and purple flowers that bloomed a few weeks ago and had an amazing perfume scent. After the flowers died off these little baby lemons poped up, theres about 20 little lemons already.

We also have 4 small pomegranet bushes that will grow to about 12 feet, 4 baby Papyas and a baby Valenca Orange tree that are huddled in the garage.

We have enjoyed the infant strawberries that are the sweetest we have ever had although they are only about as big as a dime this year. Izzy has been spotted several times this year picking off the perfect ripe ones before we get to them. We will have to make sure she has her own patch next year so she leaves ours alone.

Inside the house we are laughing at izzy in her little box that is warm and tucked away in the corner. She would prefer a warm lap but that is not always available when she wants. Rudiger is just happy as can be under a blanky on the couch.

Ralph Nader tonight....

Nader gave his speech tonight. We didn't even know about it, but we just happened to look him up online while McCain was talking and found out he was also speaking. I have to say, I have always heard of him but never really listened. He was a great speaker and was very motivating. He talked about universal healthcare with freedom of choosing your doctor, taking corporations out of the government process, bringing home the troops but keeping humanitarian efforts intact there, etc. It is so sad that the media wont show his speeches and people cant learn about him as we have learned things about the others. Why cant everyone say their part and have equal airtime so we can all make an educated decision. Some of his talks are above if there is an interest but we don't think anyone should cast a vote without hearing from him too. This is the man that started OSHA and the EPA protecting the environment and the safty of Millions of Americans in the process saving lives. He is deticated to making America better. If people don't like what he has to say then they shouldn't vote for him, but at least hear him out. Corporations are running America and telling the govenrment what to do and it should be the people doing that.

Ahhh Friday.....

We normally stay home on Friday night, tired from a long week but the Pups love it. They take over the couch and either Adam or I sit on the floor. Dont want to disturb this sleeping beauty.

Dusty got to hang out in the loft with us this week to. Dusty is my moms Italian Greyhound of 10-13 years. Mom went on a trip to Colorado so he got to hang out with the little ones for a few days.

They dont do much, just snuggle under the blanket and get up every so often to have a snack.

We also picked more tomatoes and cucumbers last night and took them to work today. We have plenty more coming !

Looks like we have an extra varity of large tomato that got mixed in. The ones to the far right are 1 lb rainbow tomatoes that are georgous when you cut them open, speckled with red, pink and yellow. Below that is a red "Druzba", just a normal medium tomato. Then to the left is the "Italian Ice" Cherry tomatoes that are sweet and can be used to make wine due to the sugar content. A few "black pearl" cherry tomatoes are just a good cherry and then the "tangerine Mammas" that are a yellow roma that are just wonderful!

These "Boston Pickler" Cucumbers are the perfect size for pickling. We did a few jars of Dill Pickles (with Dill from Bev and Ricks garden) and my mom made a few dill and bread & butter Pickles. Cant wait to see how they turned out!

Tomatoes.... Finaly!

We have been waiting for all of our hundreds of tomatoes to turn and we just had our first bunch come to fruition!

We have some yummy Itialian Ice Cherry Tomatoes and some Black Pearl Cherry Tomatoes and one small red tomato (about a 4th of the size the rest are going to be).

We normally see our tomatoes turn in early July but we have had them in raised beds in the past. This year we had them in the ground and noticed a major difference.

Today we are planting our Pumpkins so they will be ready by Halloween. They are about 4'' big and will be so cute ! We also are planting our Spaghetti Squash, spinach, eightball zuchinni, and onions for our Fall beds.

Izzy and Rud are excited about the Cherry tomatoes, they are the perfect size for a healthy puppy snack. Yes we feed our dogs good organic human food, we dont want them to miss out!

Welcome to Snikta Farm!!

Well, hopefully this will help everyone keep up with he Crazy Atkins crew in Lees Summit, Missouri!

We have had a eventful Summer so far with the selling of our home and the beginning of our "Off the Grid" Adventure!

We have moved into my moms loft above her outside garage and have started a little garden in her back yard for our "Practice" Farm. We also have a small garden at Bev & Ricks house so they can enjoy the yummy foods to!
We are growing items such as Chinese Red Noodle Beans, Boston Pickler Cucumbers, Purple King Beans, 5 types of Tomatoes, Broccoli, Sorghum, and many more!

We just built our fall raised bed and have decided that it is best way to get the most of our garden, so we will be building many more raised beds and doubling the size of our current garden.

The dogs really seem to love country life. Rudiger runs in the back yard until he is so exhausted he can barely walk. Izzy just walks around in circles because she is very easily confused by all the space.

We are planning our new home and are looking into building it with Solar power, Wind Power, LED Lighting and Rain Water retaining systems to be as self sufficient as possible. It really is interesting and we are learning a lot!
We hope everyone is well and we will keep updating this page with our Snikta News!

Love you all!
A&B