Keeping busy all the time...

We had a really good weekend what with bull dozing, blackberry picking, squash canning and tomato caging going on. I hope your weekend was as much fun as mine. Wally was able to get that bull dozier all the way up to the barn Sunday - this was cause for celebration as it has been a lot of work for him and the guys helping him out. The holes created by the flood waters have all been filled in and we are now able to take the 4 wheelers from the house to the barn with no problem. It actually looks so beautiful through there that you feel like you're in a state park or something.

Wally made the road wider than before because he had to use the dirt and rocks from the sides of the old road to fill in the holes. The trees make it shady all the way through and there are blackberries galore just waiting for me to get down there and pick them. I did pick enough for a freezer bag full and I'm going back for more. My hands are all scratched and so are my arms but it was worth it just to have a bag of those bite-sized, juicy morsels... :)

I'm making a blackberry sorbet with what I have now. It's so easy. All you do is freeze the blackberries, put them in a blender with a little bit of honey and blend them together. If the mixture gets too runny, just slip it back in the freezer for a few minutes. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Friday was nice and quiet for us. Curt, Beverly and Teneshia were there when I got home but they didn't stay long. After they left, we had steaks that I cooked in the cast iron skillet and steamed broccoli with a little cheddar cheese melted on it and some gently simmered red beets from my csa basket. Daryl had given me a huge bag of cucumbers so I sliced up one of those too. Eating healthy never tasted so good! 

Claudia gave me two more hummingbird feeders which I filled with sugar water but no red food coloring this time. Wally hung one of them outside my kitchen window and the other one, we hung from the tree branch right outside the living room doors. The feeder I have still doesn't tempt them much although they will drink from it every so often. I noticed that little black ants have found it and taken over so I'm sure that's the problem. I'm going to hang it down lower and lube the hanger so they won't be tempted to climb it. Maybe. Hopefully. 

Saturday morning we were up early and I was off to the Fairview Co-Op to get cages for the tomatoes while Wally and Daryl worked with the bull dozier down in the holler. Well, low and behold on my way to the Co-Op I passed a little farmer's market. It's not really a market so to speak, it's really just two farmers who bring their harvest to the Recreation Center parking lot to sell. They had purple hull peas, corn, new red potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, scallions, yellow squash and homemade jams and jellies. I bought the peas, potatoes and tomatoes and got the heck out of there before I talked myself into even more.

I stopped at the Dollar General to get jars, lids and seals for canning and found them to be on sale -woo hoo, my lucky day! I hadn't even gotten to the Co-Op yet and my day was already getting off to a really good start! At the Co-Op I found tomato cages for three dollars and change so I bought the 6 that she had and after much to-do, I finally figured out how to get them in my car. Big, long, cages, little, bitty car - see my dilemma? I'm sure anyone driving by at that moment probably got a pretty good laugh out of it. I did. Trust me, they absolutely would not go in the trunk no matter what I did. I realized after I got home that I could have put the back seats down and then they would have gone in the trunk but that's not how it went.

I picked up a few things from Food Lion and headed for home. What a pretty day it was. The sun was shining but it wasn't hot yet and a nice breeze was blowing just enough to where I didn't need to have my a/c on in the car. I turned on my radio and listened to the old country western music of my childhood and daydreamed about doubling my garden next year. I'm going to need lots more jars, lids and seals that's for sure!

I got home, put away the groceries and headed for the garden to get the tomatoes caged up. This was a bit of a challenge because as you know, the tomatoes have been in the ground since before we came to FL. They aren't easy to cage when they're already 2, 2 1/2 feet tall but I managed to get it done with only one broken limb to show for it. While I was at it, I noticed I actually had tomatoes on a few of the plants! I've been so concerned with getting enough water on them that I haven't been checking for fruit every day like I should have been. Surprise, surprise! The German Queen has 3 on it and one of the other plants appears to be those little pear shaped tomatoes. They're hanging on the branch like little tear drops about to fall. Teri said that she may have given me one of those varieties and I'm sure glad to have it. Hers are yellow so maybe mine will be too. Either way, I just love those tomatoes. I like to put them in my lunch salad because they don't make the lettuce all soggy by the time I go to eat it.

Don't forget, if all goes well, I'll be canning them in the very near future. Whoever guesses how many jars I put up will get a jar of their own! I have 10 plants if that helps you make your determination :) Claudia gave me seed packets for cilantro and chives so I hoed a couple rows for the chives and then planted the cilantro in a planter box next to my other herb planter box. I put a picture on the blog but it's kind of hard to tell what's what. From left to right, there is one tomato plant in the picture. Next to that is the cucumber plants (2 cucumbers on the vine!). It looks like there is only one plant in the picture but there are actually 2 or 3 of them. Next to the cucumber plants are the squash plants and then on the far left are the herb planters. The one in front has sage, basil, thyme and dill. The white planter has the cilantro in it. Next to the planters but not so clear in the picture, is where the chives went in.

I planted radishes too. They are at the front of the garden in 4 rows that are about 3 feet long. I'll have to thin them out some once they come up but all in all, the garden is looking pretty cool. Teri gave me some delphinium seeds to plant but I wasn't able to get to that yet. Maybe this afternoon if it's not raining or too hot... I did get the rails for my garden wagon painted, finally. I've had it for over a month now but time gets away from me as you well know. The wagon is red (my first little red wagon at 47 years of age! lol) and the tires are black so I painted the rails black too. I figure it this way, when they get dirty, maybe it won't be so obvious since we all know I may not have time to clean it every day that it gets used. Of course when Christmastime comes along, I may paint green over the black so it will look Christmassy... :)  Can't you just picture it? My little red wagon all loaded up with my snowmen?? I can :)

After all that work I was getting a little worn out so I took a break and packed up some red grapes and some cantaloupe for the guys and headed down the holler on the 4 wheeler. They were in the process of pulling Wally's bull dozier up to the barn with the bull dozier he borrowed. Lots of noise, lots of diesel smell and about 30 minutes later, it was done. I spent the whole time picking the blackberries! lol  Talk about some prickly plants -whew! I have little scratches all over my hands and arms. But the sorbet will be well worth it. There are still hundreds of berries to be picked but I can only get to the ones on the edge of the road. It drives me crazy that I can't reach the big, fat, juicy ones in the back!! I wonder if I could just pull up the whole bush and pick them that way... lol  It's not like I'd be doing any damage as there are so many bushes, they are taking over.

My fingers were purple, my hands and arms were dotted with little bloody spots and I was sweating like you wouldn't believe! I went up to the barn and rinsed off at the water pump. Oh that cold, cold, spring water flowing over my hands and arms was the most refreshing thing I had felt all darn day! I couldn't resist having a big drink of it and when I was done my arms were dripping with it and so was my chin! The guys just laughed at me. I showed them my blackberry harvest and we ate some of the fruit then I was back on the 4 wheeler headed for home. Daryl had to leave too so he could get over to Pee Wee's. He was on the other 4 wheeler but I told him not to wait for me because I don't drive that fast and I also wanted to get more blackberries. He waited up at the cabin to make sure I made it home safely. He didn't say that was why he was there but I knew it was. He's a nice guy like that.

I canned 7 jars of of those pretty, little, tender, yellow, summer squashes. I put a few slices of white onions and some dill in the jars along with some canning salt and into the canner they went. My canning book didn't have a recipe for the squash so I followed the one for pumpkin since it was the closest I could get. I sure hope it turns out good so I won't be disappointed when I open one of those jars this winter. They look so cool! I don't have any more room in the pantry for the jars so I set them on the bookshelf. I told Wally, we'll just have to eat all those canned vegetables we got from the store so we can make room for the new jars. LOL it would be so nice to never have to buy another can ever. I'll keep you posted on that progress :) I think it's been a goal for some time but only in my head. Now it seems it could become a reality.

Sara Jean had her baby today!!!!!!!!!!!!! Neccy called a little while ago to say that Cypress Dixie Lynne Davis was born weighing in at 8 lbs 6 ounces. Both mom and baby are doing well. Now the fun begins...

I'm not done with the weekend just yet so go get another cup of coffee... lol  As I was making pickles, which I'll get to in a minute, I caught sight of a hummingbird out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't even sure that's what it was but sure enough it landed on the new feeder Claudia had given me. I swear that feeder had not been out there but about an hour or so when that little bird found it. The girls were right - they smell the sweetness of the sugar and come flying in! There's no red food coloring and yet they spend all day drinking away. So now what the heck am I supposed to do with that bottle of food coloring? Suggestions are welcome but keep it clean people...

I was so excited to see that little bird I had to call my Mom and tell her about it. She said she wished she was here to see it with me. I'll get her here somehow, someway, someday...  meanwhile I told her about my squash canning efforts and my pickle making too. I found a recipe for refrigerator dill pickles that doesn't require a hot water bath. Daryl says his mom used to make them but she called them 14 day pickles. She was right. They stay in the refrigerator for 14 days before you can eat them. You have to shake the jars every day to mix up the seasonings and it's very tempting to open one up and see how they are but like cooking in a slow cooker, I know better!

I had so many cucumbers I had to do something with them before they went bad and pickles seemed like the best bet since Wally and I both love them. Seriously, Daryl gave them to me in a plastic grocery store bag and they were overflowing from it. Some of them were straight, some were curved like the letter C, some were bumpy and some were even kind of prickly but they were all perfect for pickling. I measured out my spices (naturally) and sliced and soaked the cucumbers as instructed. I packed them into the pint jars with boiling water and sealed them up. Into the refrigerator until next Thursday... Didn't Tom Petty sing that "The Waiting is the Hardest Part?" Well, he was sure right about that... lol  Neccy has already put in her order for a jar and we don't even know if they'll be edible yet!

While all that cucumber soaking was going on I made a zucchini bread. Again, they are so plentiful that I have to use them up before they go bad. I shredded up the 1 cup that the recipe called for and it didn't even take a whole zucchini. The bread was just okay. I set the timer wrong and it got too crunchy on the top in my opinion. It wasn't burned but it wasn't just right either. I sent some home with Daryl and he told Wally it was really good. I'll have to make another one so he can see that I really can make it better. Unless I make it with Splenda, it's not a good option for Wally since it has a cup of sugar in it. I'm going to have to go UNHEALTHY tonight and fry up the rest of it. It just pains me to do so when we've been eating so very healthy lately. But eat it I will and it'll be yummy! I could steam it but c'mon, fried zucchini, pretty darn good stuff if I do say so myself.

I made a pot of chicken broth with the chicken feet that I got the other night. I know it sounds gross but really it isn't. You just throw them in the pot with the bag of frozen onion tops, celery tops, carrot peals, etc. (you know, the ones you save for just this purpose...?) and before you know it, you have a very healthy and nourishing bone broth that will aid in joint pain and provide a very nice base for soups (and yes, chicken & dumplins, Rebecca) as the weather gets colder.

Zucchini bread, canned summer squash, chicken & dumplins and home-made pickles, is that not enough to get you to come see me people???

Daryl said all varieties of green beans and peas will be coming in next so hopefully you aren't bored with my ramblings about putting up vegetables for the winter. This could go on for a long time :)

You must be just dying to know what was in my basket yesterday, aren't you? I feel like this whole posting is about food but the weekend was filled with it so it can't be helped... Yes, the basket was as beautiful as ever! I have a perky little head of red leaf lettuce, cucumbers of a variety I've never seen called Japanese Climbing Cucumber, summer squash that is so light yellow it almost looks white. I have some patty pan squash that is as big as my hand, regular and plum tomatoes and a big bag of Rattlesnake Beans. I had never heard of those before either. To top it off, it came with a bouquet of multi-colored zinnias! These farmers are after my heart I tell ya...

The beans are in pods but they are tender enough to eat so no need for shelling. The pods are mostly green but they have a purplish pattern running through them which gives them their name. I ate one raw and it was very tasty. Since cow shopping was put on hold until this weekend coming up, dinner will probably be a ham steak, the summer squash and Rattlesnake beans with carrots. Oh yeah, and the "bad for us" fried zucchini... well, sometimes you just have to have a little fat in your diet. At least this way, it comes with a vegetable too... gotta justify it somehow! lol

I did talk to Claudia on the phone and Neccy and Dizzy Debbie called me from the ride they were on. I wouldn't have traded places for all the money in the world but I sure was glad to hear them having so much fun. It was even better when they thought they had hung up the phone and I got to listen to them carry on without them knowing I was there... lol  now that was some funny stuff!! ha ha ha

What fun I had watching the hummingbirds, canning and pickling the harvest given to me and baking bread that made the whole cabin smell like cinnamon and nutmeg. While I do enjoy spending time with my new friends, indeed spending time alone is something I'm very well suited for. It didn't bother me one bit that no one was there all day. I rather liked it for a change.

Well, how does your weekend stack up against the one I had? Hopefully, you did just what you wanted to do and enjoyed yourself just as much as I did. Until tomorrow...

"As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists." ~Joan Gussow