Birds, Butterflies, Bean Blooms and Blistering HEAT...

THE past three days were days filled with gardening, taking long walks, sitting on the porch reading books, organizing canning jars and cleaning floors. Every night from Friday through Monday was a "go to bed early" night. Yep, I was in bed before the sun went down every night. I worked hard every day so I deserved it - that's for sure. So here's how I kept myself busy :)

When I get home in the afternoons, the puppies were all keyed up and full of puppy energy - I swear they are like two year old little kids sometimes with all that energy. I set them free from their chains and off they ran. They chase each other and tumble and roll around like there's no tomorrow. When they finally settle down a bit, we all walk together down to the flag pole where I had all my fall decorations.

Colt runs circles around Ruger but every now and then Ruger will catch him by surprise and roll him down. Colt is by far the more agile of the two but Ruger has him on size. He's probably an inch or two taller and fully uses it to his advantage! They run ahead of me and they run off in the grass beside me but they always come right back to my side almost as if they are protecting me.

They run off down the driveway towards the gate and I let them go so they can get some much needed exercise. When I'm ready to head back to the house, I call their names and they come running at me full speed ahead. I can see now where an intruder would be ready to climb a tree with these two guys coming after them! They don't slow down even as they get closer to me - they simply come to a complete halt on either side of me. Sometimes it seems they'll run me over but they never do.

They love to be petted and told what good boys they are so we stop and do that every so often. I can certainly tell they are excited to be hanging out with me as they look at me with those puppy dog eyes like I'm the end all - be all to them. They really are good little fellows until they go chasing my roosters!!

When they've worn themselves out, they go to their water buckets and drink, drink, drink of that cool, crisp, spring water. By now they are ready for me to collar them again and then they burrow under the dog house in the dirt where it's soft and cool on their skin. They both nap for a good solid hour! See...just like a two year old!! LOL

There's no point in checking on my flowers or my vegetables while they are free because they'll just maul anything they think I might be looking at instead of them. So once they are settled in for the evening I make the rounds of the flower beds and vegetable gardens. The day lilies and tiger lilies are all thriving despite the heat we're now being tortured with...I know, you're in FL, you don't want to hear it. But 97 degrees is 97 degrees no matter where you are. It's hot!

The 4 O'clock seeds I planted never showed up so I'm going to try again...never let it be said I didn't try to get some flowers growing around here!! Seeds are cheap and the packets at Food Lion are multi-colored. I already have the ground ready because I planted "Mammoth Russian" Sunflower seeds in amongst the irises. I figured while I had the hoe out I might as well hoe up the whole space!

If you're standing on the front porch looking toward the outhouse (aka Dizzy's Apartment) that's the side where I planted the sunflowers. It's a bit shady during the early morning hours but after that it gets full sun almost all throughout the day. I also planted three rows of them on the back side of the outhouse. There should be plenty of sunny sunflowers around here within a few weeks. The packet says "Days to Germinate," 10-14 days. I can handle that! Now these sunflowers grow to be 8-12 feet tall so even though they'll come from the ground in 10-14 days, I don't expect flower heads to appear until they reach up close to the roof of the outhouse.

Towards the end of the driveway there are two dirt berms on either side of the driveway. These berms are where I decided to plant the Echinacea seeds. I dug out a little shelf on the berm and planted a row of seeds on each one. In this way, they are off the ground and not subject to the bush hog when Wally goes through mowing. I hope they grow well up there because that's one place there are no flowers at all except for the wild blackberry bush. I bought the pink cone flower variety which should be very pretty against the bright green background of the woods. Unfortunately I forgot that seed packet so I can't say how soon they germinate. But you can be sure I'll get some pictures when they come up!

I still had two packets of sunflower seeds to plant so I hoed a couple of rows up by the flag pole and set the seeds in place. Here I planted one row of the mammoth seeds and another row of a variety called "Evening Sun." According to the package these will be a high percentage of red and mahogany shades with blooms about 8 inches in diameter. They don't get as tall as the Mammoth sunflowers do - only about 6 feet. I think it will look kind of cool to have one very tall row and then another row in front of it that's not quite as tall and with varying shades to boot! The packet also says they are easy to grow...hahahaha whoever wrote that must not have rocks like I do...there was nothing easy about hoeing those two rows!! LOL

When the flower seed planting was done I headed for the vegetable garden where I pulled weeds and inspected the pea situation. I found that whatever has been eating them ate the tops of some and the roots of others. This being said, I may still have more peas to come. For those that had their roots eaten I dug a little hole, pulled the bottom set of leaves off and replanted them in the hope that they will somehow, maybe, re-root and start growing again. For those that still had roots but very little in the way of top leaves, I dug a little trench around them so I would know where to look and start training them on the fence as soon as possible. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

If you have the ability to view the flickr site, you'll see the picture of the peas that I picked over the weekend. While I was weeding I noticed there were quite a few that were fat and ready to be picked so I went down the line doing just that. If you cup your two hands together, that's about how many pods I had. When shelled, they amounted to one whole serving and YES, I ate them all, every last one. Wally was out of town after all...

With any luck, maybe I'll have another batch before too long so he can enjoy them with me! I guess I'll just have to plant lots more plants next year if I hope to have enough for the freezer. Don't get me wrong, there are still about 20 plants out there so I may be pleasantly surprised this year when the second round comes in but that's only if the MOLE leaves them alone!! lol I'll be pleasantly surprised if that happens..:)

I weeded around the tomatoes, the one beet and the carrots. If vegetables grew as prolifically as weeds do, there would never be a problem with hunger. I'm here to tell ya, I can grow some awesome weeds! With my rake and my hoe I go down the rows digging and pulling and piling them up. I toss them up and over the fence into the woods behind. For whatever reason, they don't seem to grow as well back there as they do in my garden...lol!!

The tomatoes are looking good and growing tall. Their stalks appear strong and very dark green. I bought 8 more plants over the weekend and will get them in the ground before this week is out. Claudia had some to give me that she started from seed but they didn't make it. She said one day they just died. So I bought 8 plants from the co-op for just $3.79 total. What a deal - they want that much for just one plant at Lowe's!! hmph! I have to get more cages too because the new plants are all indeterminate which means they'll grow every which way and require cages to hold them up. At the very least I'll have to stake them.

Of the two that Teri brought me, one has a flower on it already. It's only a foot and a half tall and yet it's beginning to bloom. I remember my dad telling me that the first blooms always drop and it's the second round of blooms that brings on the tomatoes. Hang tight folks - we may be in for lots and lots of tomatoes! woo hoo!!

The green beans are full of blooms and don't seem to be having any trouble whatsoever standing on their own although I can see where the beans themselves will add some weight that might have them bending over. At this stage, nothing has been eating at them, knock on wood! Dizzy's beans are working their way up in height and will soon have flowers of their own. I'm thinking all those bags I bought for the peas will probably be filled with green beans instead...lol! Well, they won't go to waste that's for sure :) :) :)

I dug the dirt away from one of the onions and it appears they are going to take a while longer yet. The one I checked looks like a really fat, red, scallion. Of course they can be picked and eaten at this size - just peel the top layer off and serve them on a plate with plenty of salt. Indeed I'll do that with some but some are planned to get nice and big around so I can make pickled onions with them. When you pickle them, they get really tender lose most of their heat...so good on top of a burger!! I covered up the onion and took a break.

I didn't realize how long I had been outside until I went inside and checked the time. Wow! I had been out there digging, hoeing, planting, weeding, and picking for a good solid 4 hours. WHEW!! It's no wonder I was worn out...lol Time flies when you're having fun they say...

Since the air was warm and there was a slight breeze I washed my clothes and hung them on the line. I barely had two full loads without Wally's clothes there. I could have done them all in one load but that's just not right...whites with purples, darks with reds...nah - I just made enough for two loads and started the washer.

As the first load of clothes dried on the line, I took a long, muscle-soothing shower. I scrubbed all the garden dirt from my hands, nails, legs, face and hair. I scrubbed the sticky, sweaty sunscreen and bug spray from my skin and slipped into my comfy shorts and a tank top...ahhhh

I could have sworn I saw a mud puddle when I was through...lol!

The activities and the days get mixed up so the order of my story is completely random but at some point, I moved the new humming bird feeder from the front yard to the back porch. While it was in the front yard the only action it saw was from butterflies and wasps. The humming birds completely ignored it. After moving it to the back porch, within about an hour, the humming birds were buzzing it. After an hour and a half, they were flying from one side of the porch to the other, drinking from all the feeders. Funny how the feeder has to be in just the right spot for them...no matter how sugary sweet the water is, they aren't interested if it's not in the right place.

Looks like I'm back in the good graces of those little birds. Seeing and hearing them flying around again is one of the signs that, yes, summer is soon to be here. This is when I truly get some good exercise; hanging clothes on the line is a main source of exercise. You wouldn't believe how good it is for your arms to be lifting and reaching while your hanging them and bringing them in. I spend most of my time outside - even in the heat - and I keep moving. There's always something to do.

One of the highlights of my three day weekend was the baking of a loaf of sourdough bread. Calm down - I'm not that ambitious! LOL I used a box mix and the bread maker that Teri and Jay brought me. What a wonderful invention that turned out to be! You add some water and then the flour package and the yeast from the box mix. You plug in the machine and set it according to how you want your crust and what type of bread you're baking, push start and off it goes. The machine does all the rest.

While the bread machine worked its magic, I sat on the porch reading my book and watching the birds. They fly so close it seems I could just reach my hand out and touch them but they fly so fast there's no way in the world it could ever happen! They even make a little chirpy sound when they fly away.

I took a picture of one of the birds as it was about to drink from the feeder - it's just hanging there in the air. That was the last picture I was able to take before my camera told me the memory was full. Darn it!!! I had all weekend to get lots of pictures for you and now the memory was full. Ernie tried to help me, bless her heart, but I'm just not that much of tech-y person like she is and I couldn't figure it out. I had to take the pictures of my basket with my phone. They aren't nearly as clear and nice as the camera pictures are but at least you get to see what the basket looked like.

By the time I came back inside, the bread had the cabin smelling wonderful. I sat and watched a little tv, breathed in the scent of fresh bread baking and waited to hear the timer go off. When it did, I lifted the basket from the machine and dumped the bread on the cutting board to cool. Well it smelled so good, I said to heck with that and sliced the crusty end piece from the loaf. I slathered it was real butter and sat back in my chair to savor the flavor. mmmm mmmm good!!! After one more slice I was full!

This bread is more dense than what you get at the store and the crust is just that...crusty - even almost crunchy. The bread is soft and soaks up the butter without it leaking through to the other side. The loaf is smaller than what you get at the store but that's okay with me - we can never seem to eat a whole loaf of bread anyway. You can just imagine how good it was soaking up the yolk of the farm fresh eggs I had for breakfast the next day. What a treat!!



The CSA basket was over-flowing to be sure! In it was another batch of Red Russian Kale and more bok choy. The farmer tells me this is a different variety of bok choy so I'm to be sure and notice the subtle differences in flavor and texture. The basket had another bunch of radishes - of which only half made it to the refrigerator! It had two different kinds of lettuce; savoy lettuce which is a beautiful shade of bright, light, green and the leaves are very ruffled and romaine lettuce. The romaine is dark and crispy-crunchy whereas the savoy is soft and tender. Both will make some awesome salads this week! Also in the basket was a bag of what my farmer called "braising greens." Now, I'm not really familiar with braising greens so she explained it to me.

I'm to rinse them, dry them well, then put them in some water to simmer gently. I figure I'll use chicken broth instead - or maybe even beef broth. She said to add garlic and black pepper if I prefer either or both of those. When they are tender, I'm to drain them and serve them as a side dish with just a bit of salt and if I like it, lemon juice. hmmmm sounds like there could be lots of options here... any of you ever heard of braising greens? Let me know how you like them cooked. I have a big enough bag to make them a couple different ways.

The weekend was over and I still had to gather up all my canning jars, lids and bands. I needed a count to see if I should pick up any more at Fred's while they were on sale. I think I have enough pints to last a lifetime...72 or some crazy number like that. I have less than 20 quarts and no jelly jars at all. I was short on lids and bands so I counted everything up and made a list. Looks like most of my canning will be in pint jars :) :)

I did get my floors done and in way less time than it used to take thanks to the swiffer steamer that Kris sent me. That thing is wonderful!! It gets the job done quickly and is easy to manage and store. I love it! Now those steps on the spiral staircase, those are a different story but they took only about a half hour with a rag and a bowl of water with murphy's oil soap. The floors are shiny, the laundy is done, the garden is weeded and me and the dogs all got plenty of sunshine, vitamin D and exercise.

I hope you had a three day weekend and I hope you were able to check off a couple of "to-do's" from your to-do list...:)

I'll get that memory cleared from the camera so I can take more pictures for you. In the mean time, I hope you're enjoying the blog even after a year of reading my rambling :) I know it was hot there in FL and even for Dizzy Debbie in AZ but it was also very hot here too so don't feel bad...I guess the whole nation realized some serious sweat this past Memorial Day!

The quote for today is unrelated to the posting but I thought it was pretty darn funny... see what you think.

"I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three." ~Elayne Boosler

So Much For Nice Weather...

THAT didn't last long...lol! As of Sunday night we have had rain, rain, rain and more rain. Here it is Tuesday and the rain is expected to last until Friday...only a 20% chance on Friday. Hey, I can't complain, it saves me from having to water the garden :)

I went to Tenesha's graduation at the Hickman County High School Gymnasium. Her graduating class was 150 students! How cute. I'll tell you what though - it's a big, big deal here. There were so many people that they were having to stand on the sidelines because the gym didn't have enough seats for everyone. There were so many people that they had school buses providing a shuttle service - LOL

There was a very touching moment that I'll tell you about just because it was so cool. I went to the graduation with Claudia. Her husband serves in the military and other members of his family do as well. Of their two nephews, one is already in the service and the other one was graduating from high school in this ceremony.

The graduate stood in line with his schoolmates and when his name was called he walked across the stage. Claudia mentioned to me that he was her nephew and they were all very proud of him. When he reached the other side of the stage, his older brother, the one in the military, walked into the gym through a back door and tapped him on the shoulder as he was walking away. What a surprise!! He had no idea his older brother was going to be there. The older brother is currently stationed in Texas and was trying to get leave to be there but no one told the younger brother. It was so cool! The older brother in full dress uniform, the younger brother in his graduation cap & gown stood there hugging like there was no tomorrow.

When they broke apart, they shook hands and the graduate returned to his seat. The soldier went to sit with their parents. The whole gymnasium gave him a standing ovation that rocked the entire place and probably half of Centerville! If there was a dry eye in the place, I would have been very surprised.

The rest of the graduation went as they all do with music from the band - it had all of 15 members in it - speeches from the honor students and "most likely to succeed" students. Little kids were running all around, grandparents were dressed in their Sunday best and proud parents were snapping pictures left and right. It was fun even if I knew only 4 people in the whole place. Indeed they all knew each other...Centerville is truly a small town like Mayberry. Claudia knew 10 of the kids who were graduating that day but then again, she's lived here 20 years.

Once we saw Tenesha walk across the stage and get her diploma, I asked Claudia if she was ready to leave so we could beat the crowd. There was sure to be some traffic issues when all those people left the gym. She was ready so we went back outside and caught the shuttle school bus back to my truck. From there we headed over to Kurt and Beverly's house where they had planned a big graduation party in Tenesha's honor.

Darryl was there cooking 12 boston butts and 9 whole chickens. He had probably 20 ears of fresh corn on the grill and it was all smelling wonderful. I was hungry and we still had two more hours until the food was ready!! We took our chairs out of the truck and set them up under a tree so we could have some shade. It was predicted to be 86 degrees and clearly, that temperature was on its way! lol

Claudia and I went inside to help Beverly get things set up, brought out, wrapped up or whatever else needed to be done. You know how it is when you're having a big party - there's always plenty to do and not enough people to help do it. We got baked beans going in the oven, appetizers pulled from the refrigerator, ice poured into coolers and water bottles stuffed into the ice.

We set out styrofoam plates, napkins, plastic forks and red solo cups. We visited with the new comers and relaxed in the shade until time to put out all the rest of the food. There was karaoke going on, horseshoes being played and folks coming and going throughout the day to congratulate Tenesha on her big accomplishment.

When finally the time came, everyone pitched in and made trips into the house to bring out food. You name it, it was there - banana pudding, two different potato salads, homemade whole wheat bread (still warm!), baked beans, deviled eggs, cake, fresh sliced tomatoes, cole slaw, chips and dip, and all kinds of other stuff. If you went away hungry from this shin-dig, you had problems!

As the sun was beginning to set, I bid my farewells and packed up my chair to head home. Saying good-bye took another 15 minutes because you always end up talking to someone again...but soon I was on my way, in my big, red truck, driving on the two lane back roads of TN to our cabin in the woods. I had been gone since 8:30 that morning and it was 7:30 in the evening. I couldn't wait to get home. I drove down the driveway and up to the cabin just as the sun was setting in the back yard. Perfect day, perfect food, perfect timing :) I slept really good.

My Sunday breakfast was bacon, whole wheat toast, sliced tomatoes and two fried farm eggs (in bacon fat, no less). You can see the picture on flickr. It was so yummy smelling and I knew it was going to be tasty but it just wasn't the same without Wally there. :( I ate it nonetheless! lol

I fed the dogs a couple scraps so they had their morning medicine then I got into the truck and headed to the dollar store. I needed potting soil and another hummingbird feeder and a couple planters. I was in and out in less than 15 minutes and down the road to the little Value Plus Food Store in Lyles. It's about 10 miles down the road from the dollar store I guess. Anyway, I picked up some green peppers and a big container of strawberries ($3.99) and made my way back home.

I let the puppies off their chains and watched and laughed as they ran around nipping at each other's feet and ears and rolled in the grass. They walked down to the flag pole with me and then back to the cabin again. They were very well behaved so I gave them both a doggie biscuit upon our return. Colt didn't want his - he wanted to be petted instead. Too bad for him, Ruger found it and gobbled it right up. Aw poor little fella...I went and got him another one of course!

So after they ran for about and hour and a half, I put them back on their chains. They were happy to get a drink of fresh water from their bucket and dig back in under the doghouse where the dirt is cool and damp.
Within about 10 minutes they were sound asleep! LOL

I got on the 4 wheeler and rode down to the trailer to cut the roses. I ended up missing out on two of them but there were two others just starting to open so I clipped them off, wrapped them in a wet paper towel and stuck them in a baggie. I dug up two pieces of forsythia (blooms bright yellow in the spring) and stuck them in my bucket and headed back home.

I got the roses in the mason jar and then gathered up my purchases and headed for the front porch. I have a makeshift potting bench out there until Wally gets my real one set up in the garden. I transplanted the forsythia into the pots and since they already had roots I'm ever so hopeful that they'll take. I'd love to see that blast of yellow color on either side of where the gate used to be come next spring. From what I can tell this shrub will get about 5 feet tall and just as big around. That'll be so pretty when we come out of the winter season.

I filled my new hummingbird feeder with sugar water and stuck into the ground the shepherd's pole on which it will hang. Those little birdies can't resist and have been wearing out the feeders since they finally arrived on Saturday in full force. There's a picture of one of them on the flickr site. The "whirr" of their wings sounds like a huge bumble bee only louder. It's pretty neat to watch them hang there and drink from the feeders...won't you come join me?

I took some pictures of the turkey (I call her turkey girl) that was crossing the front yard. She started out eating ever so peacefully when out of nowhere the dogs started barking. She lifted her head, heard them, sensed disaster and took off in the other direction. When they got really loud, she took flight and flew off into the woods by the horse pen. Can you believe I got that picture??? LOL

As you can see wild turkeys don't look anything like the big, white, bird sold around Thanksgiving time. Not by any means whatsoever. This bird is tan and brown and she blends so well into the surrounding woods that once she's in there - you would be hard-pressed to find her. Wild turkey meat tastes different too. You know you're eating turkey but it's different. It's good, oh it's really good, but different. It's also nice to know that it hasn't been fed hormones and antibiotics all its life. Just like nature intended, it survives on bugs, grubs and worms and whatever else it picks up off the ground. Turkey season is over up here but we may still harvest one for Thanksgiving...you never know :)

Either Friday or Saturday evening as I was getting ready to go to bed, I looked out the living room window at the front yard and there stood 5 deer not 20 feet from me. I swear they all looked pregnant - they are so incredibly FAT! They stood there eating while I watched them for about 20 minutes and then they just sort of moved off down behind Dizzy's apartment and into the woods. They were all a light brown color which I've noticed changes to a grayish color when winter sets in. They looked pretty content and certainly comfortable with their surroundings. No, I didn't consider shooting one of them...jeez. That doesn't come until hunting season starts! lol

All day Sunday I worked in the garden. I transplanted the "volunteer" tomato plants that came up from last year so that they are in a nice neat row instead of all scattered about the garden area. I found that I need 5 more cages and that doesn't include cages for the tomatoes that Claudia is supposed to be giving me. I should have plenty of tomatoes for canning this year. I'll make more bloody mary mix and spaghetti sauce and the rest will be good old tomatoes with just a little salt in the jar. You can just pluck them from the canning jar and eat them as they come out of it. You can cook with them, make salsa with them, anything you would use a canned tomato for - these fit the bill. I may even try tomato gravy this year. mmm mmm thank you Ernie for the know-how :)

I was able to get just one load of laundry dried on the line before the storm moved in. Thankfully it was the white clothes so my towels are nice and itchy-scratchy when I dry off with them - it's the best back scratcher when Wally's not around - love that! The dark clothes and the red clothes had to be dried in the dryer. That actually worked out well this time because, little did I know, chilly weather and stormy skies were slowly moving my way.

I pulled weeds and then pulled some more weeds and there are still more weeds to pull but I got through the whole row of carrots, the whole row of peas and all around the tomatoes. There are still a few rows to weed but since nothing is planted there - I figure I'm safe, for now. Feel free to join me in the weeding frenzy that occurs, oh, about every other day...lol!! Someone has got to do it!

As Sunday afternoon clouded over, I took the Bok Choy from my CSA basket and grabbed a few other things I would need to make my stir fry complete; red, green and yellow peppers and a big, juicy vidalia onion. I had thawed out a leftover smoked chicken and thought it sounded good to add in. I peeled and chopped up some ginger and garlic and got them going in the pan with some olive oil. I chopped up the vegetables and the chicken and added them to the skillet when the garlic started smelling like garlic :)

The whole dinner came together in about 20 minutes - it cooked for about another 20 minutes more and it was done and ready to eat. I spooned up a bowlful for myself and sat at the table eating it while the rain pattered gently on the tin roof. After working all day and playing with the dogs I felt like it must have been about 5:30 or 6:00. When I looked at the time, guess what? It was only 3:00 in the afternoon. LOL I already had my shower and had my dinner and was ready for bed.... :) Farming is lots of work!!

I simply couldn't justify going to bed that early so I grabbed my book and plopped down in Wally's recliner. Rarely do I ever sit there. Mostly because it's too big for me. My feet don't touch the floor. But also because I feel like I'm falling backwards. Sunday afternoon, that was okay by me. I reclined and sat there and read my book and watched a little tv until it really was time for bed... well, I made it to 6:30 anyway. Hey, that's not bad considering I started out at 3:30...!!!

Monday after work I drove to Centerville to get my vegetable basket and ended up getting stuck in a line of traffic (I know, right!) just before I got to town. Someone had driven their jeep off the road and into a ditch and it was so far down in there that the tow truck had trouble getting it out. I turned the truck off, grabbed my book again (lucky for me I carried it home from work) and started reading. If you are a reader, you know that anytime is a good time to pick up a good book and read. I was almost hoping that the tow truck didn't move for a while...lol but by the time it did, I was late getting to the basket delivery site.

I called Trish, the farmer, and she said to meet her at the laundromat in Centerville. It's just off the square across from the Shell station - not hard to find at all. Remember Trish and her husband, their two kids, their dog and their cat all live in a pull behind camper/motor home. They have no washer and dryer so once a week she carries all their dirty farm clothes to the laundromat and washes, dries and folds them before going back to the farm. Her laundry day is the same day as our deliveries since she is already in town. I know they'll be glad when their house is finally finished and she won't have to do that anymore. What a hard working family they are!

The basket was over-flowing again! This week I got Red Russian Kale, Skyphos Lettuce, radishes, micro-greens, lettuce spring mix and garlic scapes. For those of you unfamiliar with garlic scapes, they are the green skinny stalk that comes up from the garlic just before it is harvested. Typically you would cut them off before they bloom or as they are blooming. They are considerably milder than garlic cloves and go well in just about anything you would use regular garlic for - spaghetti, sauteing, etc. For me, I'll chop them up and saute them in some butter with a few mushrooms and spread them over my steak or pork chop. They would be just as good spread over a piece of toasted french bread :) :) I've never seen them in a store but they say you can get them in Asian markets?

Well that's quite a posting if I do say so myself. I hope you had a big lunch to eat while you read it, or in some cases an afternoon cup of coffee. Either way, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I always enjoy writing it! Until next time...

"Your hair may be brushed, but your mind's untidy. You've had about seven hours of sleep since Friday. No wonder you feel that lost sensation. You're sunk from a riot of relaxation." ~Ogden Nash

Getting Lots Done...

The weather is so nice it just makes you want to get outside and DO SOMETHING!! Well, for me that's going to be gardening and cooking and cleaning the chicken poo off the porches! Trust me, with laundry included and a graduation to attend, I'll be a busy little bee all weekend long :)

As for the garden, I'll be doing some more weeding out there. It seems whatever was eating my peas has moved on as no more of them have come up missing. I hope it stays away for good! The peas are slowly climbing the fence - I thought they would be much higher on it by now considering how they grew so fast once they got out of the ground. It matters not since the plants already have peas on them...now the peas just have to get fatter :) :) :)

The carrots are doing well with their feathery leaves standing tall above the weeds...lol! They look so pretty when the wind blows and they all bend back and forth with it. I haven't uncovered any of them yet, although the temptation is very strong, because I think the packet said they wouldn't be ready for 70 days. Now I don't know if that's 70 days from when they go in the ground or if it's 70 days from when they emerge from the ground...I'm going with 70 days from when they emerged from the ground. That would have them ready for the picking around June 26th according to my garden calendar. Of course I had to have a calendar, how else would I keep up with this sort of information with the memory I have? LOL!

I still have just the one beet...no sign of any others at this point. When I get the weeding done, perhaps I'll come upon another one or two...ever so hopeful of me to think so, huh? Well, those two rows of seeds had to go somewhere??? I'm thinking since we planted them when it was raining, maybe they got washed out of the garden somewhere or maybe the dirt was washed off of them and some but ate them...who knows? All I know is I have just the one beet. I don't see me making too many salads with that one unless I let it grow all summer long. hahahahahaha I had such high hopes for them... :( oh well, there's always next year!

The beans are doing wonderfully and, again according to my calendar, should be producing flowers by sometime next weekend. The row that Dizzy Debbie helped plant should produce flowers by about mid-June. There are lots of these bean plants and all are doing so well that it appears I should have set my sights on them rather than the beets...lol! So far, so good on the rabbit population. We have lots of rabbits but they don't seem to be interested in my beans. Now watch, I'll say that and they'll start tearing them up! hahahaha

The onions are coming along very well and I think I'll try to uncover one of them tonight! The stalks are looking really, really fat which means the onions underground are likely getting fat too. They probably won't be ready for harvesting so I'll be sure to cover up the one I check on. I won't dig it up - just move the dirt from the top of it so I can see if it's getting nice and round. mmm a salad with slices of juicy, red onion...YUM Certainly there is no worry with rabbits eating the onions...nope, no sign of that!

The Mexican Oregano from Teri has grown a little bit and for sure I'll snip it when I make my marinaded mushrooms. Italian salad dressing does them well but adding that little bit of freshness, sends them over the top! Oh, I'm making the mushrooms for Tenesha's graduation party on Saturday.

The sacrificial geraniums look beautiful with their red blooms completely covering the plant. As I was sitting on the porch reading my book last night I could just barely catch their scent. Some people don't like the way geraniums smells but I do. To me they smell very earthy and dirt-like...and that's a good thing - if that makes sense?

The pink, wild, roses are still blooming along the front of the woods and my plan is to ride the 4 wheeler down to the trailer tonight to check on the rose bush down there. I hope I get to snip a couple of flowers to bring home to the cabin. I hope I'm not too late to get those first two you saw in the flickr photographs!

That's your weekly garden update :) Stay tuned for another episode coming up this Monday :) :) :)

Getting back to me sitting on the porch last night...it was a very pleasant evening, about 68 degrees and slowly dropping, a slight breeze was coming off the hill, there was still plenty of sunshine and FINALLY a hummingbird showed up. It didn't stay long, just took a drink from my little feeder and off it went. It came back probably every 15 minutes or so and then it was gone. I'm sure it went to tell all its friends that I finally got all my feeders back out and filled to the brim with super sugary water! LOL!

I hope to be watching them again tonight if I can get home while it's still daylight. I need to do the grocery store thing after work but since I'm only shopping for one this week, I should be able to get in and out pretty quick. I'll get the groceries in, head to the trailer to check the rose bush, get back up to the cabin, get my book and my beer and get out to my chair all before the sun goes down on another beautiful spring day in Tennessee. It's hard to stay at work, that's for sure!

As I said the temperature was dropping slowly and after an hour or so outside, it was just too chilly and I had to come inside. Not to worry, I opened a can of boiled peanuts, grabbed a napkin and a paper plate and headed into the living room to watch Iron Chef America. I rarely get to watch it anymore because it comes on so late on a Sunday night that I just can't hold my eyes open long enough to watch it.

Well it was "Battle Basil" so that was pretty exciting (well, for me it was, okay??). I know I'll be inundated with basil in my CSA basket somewhere towards the end of summer so I thought I'd pick up a few basil recipes. As it turns out I ended up on the phone through the whole show...lol! No recipes for me unless I catch the re-run again!

So I finished my peanuts and cleaned up my mess and then went to the kitchen window to see why the dogs were barking their heads off. Even the old dogs were barking so I knew it had to be something. There in the driveway, not too far from the doghouse actually, were three deer. They were grazing through the grass, filling their bellies, when one turned directly toward me. She was so fat that I couldn't see her hind legs! I've never seen a pregnant deer before but I know they aren't typically that fat. She must be about ready to give birth. When the second deer walked over towards her, I noticed it was just as fat! How about that? Two pregnant deer eating grass along our driveway? The third was thinner, as they typically are, so it's possible this one could be a very young buck or just one of the females who didn't get, uh, well, you know.

I'll be watching for those little ones as days go by and keep you posted on my sightings :) Wish you could be here to see them for yourself...:) :) :) As wildlife goes, there's plenty to be seen these days. We have lots of rabbits running around, lizards lazily soaking up the sun, birds chirping from all sides, a turkey who comes up in the front yard every day and now the deer and hummingbirds are back. It seems things have come full circle.

TGIF everyone! Enjoy the weekend and have fun hanging out with Wally while he's there!

"How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?" ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

Peas on the Pea Plants!!

Yes indeedy it's true!!When I checked the plants Friday afternoon, sure enough there were about 10 peas on the plants. They are by no means mature enough to pick but it's a good sign of things to come. Unfortunately, something has been eating the plants and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do to stop whatever it is.

Of the 12 foot long row, there is about a 2 foot section that is completely bare. I mean gone. No pea plants at all! I don't know what ate them but they're sure enough gone. It's strange too because they are on the inside of the fence - not out by the woods or exposed to nature in any way except over the top of the fence. Wally said it could be a mole and now that I think about it, there was a hole in the ground about the size of a tennis ball and it was so deep I didn't want to stick my hand in it....he said I should put a rock over the opening and see what happens. Goodness knows I have a few rocks to spare!! LOL!!

I guess it's a good thing I planted two rows of peas since something has decided part of them are free to eat as you please...So, yes there are peas on the plants, they aren't fat with pods yet but they will be if they can survive whatever is out there. I still plan to par boil and freeze them and I have plenty of baggies awaiting the day. According to my garden journal, they should be ready to pick sometime around mid-June. Woo Hoo!! I can't wait to get all set up on the front porch with my chair, my basket overflowing, the sunshine warming the day and nothing to do but shell peas. Care to join me?

I hoped to get some weeding done but that never happened. Just after dinner Friday night it began to cloud up and when I heard thunder, I went out and closed the windows on the truck and brought in the rest of the groceries. It wasn't a huge downpour but it was enough to keep us indoors. The rain turned everything a bright, shiny green just as if it had given the world a bath. All the trees in the yard looked brand new :) The grass looked like it grew a couple inches and will be ready for mowing again this weekend coming. We sat and had our cheeseburgers at the table while the rain drizzled in the yard, dripped from the porch overhangs and pounded lightly on the tin roof of the cabin.

I watched as the birds came to clean out the feeders and the sacrificial geraniums got the water they were hoping for. I have filled my hummingbird feeders twice now with no birds to show for it. I'll refill them again tonight and hope for the best. Claudia says she has about 20 birds flying around and drinking from her feeders every evening just before dark. The water goes sour after a few days so I'll change it again and see if they come back. A lone female turkey crossed the front yard heading towards the woods. The rain seemed not to bother her a bit...

The thyme that Teri brought me is ready to plant. It has little roots on it that are about an inch to an inch and a half long. I'll pick up some pots when I'm in Fred's this afternoon. When she was here I showed her the delphinium plants that came up not too long ago. She said that's not what they are. She didn't know off hand what they were but she knew they weren't delphinium plants. Well, that's okay. Whatever they are, we'll know before too long because they continue to grow and don't seem to be phased by whether it's sunny or shady. I put them in both locations not knowing which they preferred.

The wild roses have opened up and the fragrance coming from them reaches all the way around to the front door. I'll have to get a picture of them this afternoon - again, if it's not raining still. They are so abundant and beautifully pink! Now that they are blooming, there are literally hundreds of flowers out there. They are just on the edge of the woods for the most part but a few have come up under the tree right in front of my garden area. They look so pretty whether in fullness or sparseness. There's just something about a wild pink rose that captures your attention.

Other things that are blooming on the farm are daisies and goldenrod. I didn't plant either of them but they grown like wildflowers all over the yard. Right now the daisies are white with yellow centers. Soon there will be yellow with brown and black centers like Brown-Eyed Susans. I don't know that they are called Brown-Eyed Susans because they are certainly wild but that's what they look like, so that's what I call them.

I planned to get some sunflower seeds in the ground but that didn't happen either. I guess you're wondering what did happen since nothing I planned on got done...Well, we had to go to a funeral service Saturday. We found out Tuesday that a dear friend of Wally's passed away on Monday. She was 62 years old had been suffering with cancer for just over a year. Wally met her about 20 years ago when he was working in New Orleans and from what I heard about her at the service she must have been a lot of fun to be around.

I'm into this whole tostada thing right now and coming up with new ideas seems to be working out for both of us. I'm trying new things and Wally gets to eat them. I buy the whole wheat tortillas and, on the advice of Dizzy Debbie (yes, it's true!), I butter just the very outside edges of them. I set them on the broiler pan and then under the broiler for barely a minute. They puff up and get crunchy like a very thin pizza crust.

For our Sunday breakfast I started out in just this manner. I fried some eggs and broke the yolks - I didn't let them get all the way done so some of the yolk would be running on the crispy tortilla. I chopped up some turkey lunch meat and some pepper-jack cheese and topped the eggs with those. I spooned on some salsa and spread it around as much as I could. With the cheese and turkey, it wasn't so easy to do. I'll put it on first next time...anyway, I slid the broiler pan back up under the broiler and in no time we had bubbling hot cheese-topped breakfast tostadas!

There are so many combinations out there just waiting for me to try them! You'll be hearing more of these recipes as days go by... :) Feel free to send me yours too!


The funeral service was very short and sweet and since we didn't know too many  people we opted to head back to town shortly after it was over. Around 3:30 pm we made it to Centerville for Claudia's cook-out. Of course we were quite late and everyone had left but we stayed for a couple hours, ate dinner and sat on the porch when the rain had quit. Claudia has some beautiful plants around her yard and is great about sharing them. She has a huge blue hosta that she's going to give me a division of as soon as it's ready to be divided. It is at least 3 feet in diameter and the leaves are so dark green that they look blue. It's magnificent! It's happy in the shade or in full sun and it will even bloom come summertime.

She has peonies that are already in decline but I could tell they were beautiful in bloom. There were hundreds of spent pods on the bushes. She has a honeysuckle vine that is dark red and climbing about half way across her trellis. She calls it a hummingbird vine because the hummingbirds completely cover it when it blooms. She promises to get me a cutting from it as well. :) :) Now I'll just need to come up with a trellis...hmmm. Unlike in Florida, the honeysuckle will not take over house and yard. Here it dies back sufficiently to keep it from spreading across the world! lol!

She showed me her irises and promises plenty of those as soon as she has a chance to dig them up. I told her not to get in a hurry because I have plenty of work to do as it is. But I'll welcome the irises whenever they come as I would love to have some bloom in my yard next year. I thought I would have them this year but apparently that wasn't meant to be. It's not that I didn't plant enough of them...Lord knows I did. They just didn't bloom for me...oh well. Everyone says sometimes they take a year or so to get established when you  move them so I'm going with that theory. What else can I do?

Sunday we awoke to yet more rain. While this does my garden good, it makes for a difficult time when you're weeding...hence no weeding got done :)  Indeed I'll have my hands full with weeding all I want this weekend coming up. The garden does look good even with something eating my peas and grass growing within the fence...lol! The beans and onions are getting taller and the feathery leaves of the carrots are now almost a foot tall. There's no mistaking them at this point :)

I spent Sunday getting the laundry caught up - I had to break down and use the dryer as the rain refused to let up enough for even one load to dry outside on the line. This turned out to be a plus because little did I know the temperature was going to drop to the mid to low 40s while we slept. The dryer is right below our room so the heat comes right up to us when it runs. ahhhhhh warmth!

I also FINALLY put all my tax paperwork together. Yes, I'm overdue. Whew what a chore it was! Of course everything was right were I could find it...hahahaha! Actually, it wasn't all that bad - just lots of paperwork to look at and sort out for the CPA. I'll mail it all to her and she'll finalize it and submit it. I know, I know, these days everyone does their own on-line...well I have too much confusing stuff to do it that way and she's up on all the new laws and benefits so I prefer to have her take care of it for me. She does a great job!

I had so much trash after taking everything out of the envelopes that we stuffed it in the fireplace insert, lit it on fire and burned it all. It seemed like we would have a nice little fire to warm us on that chilly, rainy, day but it went up so fast we barely knew it was lit before it was out...lol One really good thing came of it...I cleaned out another box! I still have a couple of them that got piled up and I never got around to going through them. I was on a mission to find my 2009 taxes and thought maybe that's where they were. Well, the taxes weren't in that box but a bottle of extra virgin olive oil was in there (I got it on sale at the HomeGoods store just before I moved) along with a couple of candle holders that I had been looking for and a dozen pint size canning jars!!!!!!! Now that's like finding a box full of treasures for me :) :)

Since it was Sunday and since we had been gone all day Saturday, we were in no mood to leave the farm. From the freezer I took out a bag of field peas with snaps and another bag of speckled butter beans. I had a couple of ham steaks thawed out so I decided to cook them all together. I even used one of my precious bags of chicken broth to season all of it. I got the beans and peas into the big red pot with the chicken broth and then trimmed the fat from the ham. This was the last of the ham steaks from the pig we harvested last year. Amazing it lasted this long. All we have left are a couple of fat pork chops and a couple bags of sausage. I have the lard I rendered from the fat and that's it.

The chicken broth thawed in the pot with the beans and by the time it started to bubble, the ham was chopped up and ready to go in with it. I fried the fat for the dogs so they could have a warm treat on a chilly day too... :) I added some black pepper, some recaito (in the Spanish section - it's a cilantro soup/bean base) and a couple cubes of cilantro bouillon. mmm mmm good! It was hearty and warm and healthy and filling all at the same time. Of course I made some mayonnaise biscuits to sop up the juice...

As the day wound down, we watched the race and "Hogs Gone Wild." Apparently there's quite a problem with these feral hogs invading Florida, Texas, Hawaii and Tennessee. There's enough of a problem for them to have a television show about it. They should just have an open season on them, like they had to do with the alligators a long time ago, and get rid of them all. The meat can be donated to homeless shelters or food banks across the nation. On the Cape Canaveral Sea Shore park, the park ranger said there are upwards of 5 to 6,000 of these hogs roaming the land. Tell me that much pork wouldn't feed a few homeless shelters for months...????

There are people making a good bit of money just by offering their services of coming out to your land, trapping the hogs thereby lowering the population and saving whatever farmland you happened to have. What a great job - hunt hogs for a living. It's like the guy who got the first sponsorship for fishing on national tv...smart man there.

They aren't just invading farmland though. They are everywhere. We watched last night as the trappers got 5 of them in one night on the property of a church in Tampa (or was it Texas?). It was right out there in public on a main road in the town! Amazing. If you're looking for a job, this could be your opportunity....hahahaha!

The roosters have begun taunting Colt and Ruger. They work their way up almost to the door and then the dogs run them off. Not to be deterred, within about an hour or so, they work their way back up again. I guess they're hoping the dogs won't notice or won't care but they've come to like their dog food and have decided the roosters will no longer be allowed to partake of it...lol!!

It's so funny to watch. The roosters peck the ground all around the dog house, the dogs play and romp around like they aren't there. When they take one step too close, the dogs pounce and run them off!! LOL the roosters start crowing and flapping their wings like they are the offended...guess you have to be here to see it to get the humor? LOL I just stand there at the kitchen window cracking up at their antics.

The tulip poplar tree appears to be just about done blooming but the day lilies are coming on stronger than ever! My oh my there's going to be a bumper crop for sure this year! The Allium stalks have grown to about 3 feet but are in no way ready to bloom - they'll be at least another month I would say. The tiger lilies are fat and ready to burst open just any day now and since my tulips never bloomed, I bought some at the Food Lion for just $1.99. They were closed when I bought them but opened up very nicely on Saturday morning. They are bright pink with white trim and they smell divine :) :) :) As soon as they are done blooming, I'll stick them in the ground and hope for the best next year - I seem to say that a lot when it comes to flowers blooming around here...lol!!

I hope you planted a little something in your garden or in pots on your porch. Flowers to cut for a vase? Vegetables to cook and eat with friends or family? Herbs with which to season your food? Well, guess what? If you didn't plant anything this year, there's always next year...!! hahahaha but it's never too late to plant peppers in FL - they love the heat!

We finished off Sunday evening with my famous fried fish and some leftover potato salad from Claudia's cook-out. The fish was crispy, lemony and just a little spicy. The potato salad was cold and tangy so the two complimented each other very well. With my laundry caught up and the kitchen cleaned, we were ready for bed just after sunset. It was too cloudy to see the stars but I know they were there...that's one thing I can always count on.

They say the cicadas (sounds like see-ka-das) will be up out of the ground before too long. I've never seen one but that's because they don't come up in FL. They stay underground for some 13 years and then out of nowhere, they start coming up out of the ground by the thousands. They are short lived so garden damage should be minimal but won't that be a sight to see when they come up. I'll have to check the almanac for dates...if I have the chance I'll get some pictures of them - I'm curious myself!

Enjoy your Monday :)

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." ~Sam Ewing

April Showers Bring May Flowers???

Maybe in some parts of the world! LOL not so much here... I'm still waiting for something to bloom but while I wait, I went ahead and planted the geraniums so at least there is some pretty, red color (to match my barn red doors) on the front porch.

It was a busy weekend for us so I may not get everything noted on the right day but at least we'll have a record of what happened over the weekend. But first - from the Farmer's Almanac comes this:

"With verdure the wide earth's overspread, and trees adorned with blooms, the paths in May bow sweet to tread, mid forests of perfume."

This fit so perfectly with the picture of the Tulip Poplar tree. Wally has had this property over 20 years and this is the first time he's ever seen the Poplar tree bloom. Of course, that doesn't mean it hasn't ever bloomed, it just means he never noticed it if it did. What a sight to see though - indeed the tree was fully covered in bright yellow blossoms with a reddish-pink splash on every petal. The center comes out yellow while the outer petals bend down and are light greenish shade. Absolutely beautiful! hmmm I guess I do have something blooming after all :) woo hoo!

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home Friday afternoon and picked up everything I thought we needed for our first cookout of the year which we were having on Saturday. I bought a few whole chickens and another couple of bags of leg quarters (.69 per pound - pretty good deal!). I bought the stuff to make the 7 layer dip and some baked beans to which I added some other ingredients and everything I needed to make the marinaded mushrooms.

I bought a few other things and was on my way in less than half an hour. Now, I don't know about you but it's darn near impossible for me to get through the grocery store in under an hour much less under a half hour. That was pretty impressive if I do say so myself :)

So off to the farm I went. I passed by a new bbq place that opened last week. It's not a building but rather a little awning with a picnic table under it and a big cooker beside it. There are two old guys out there cooking bbq on Fridays and Saturdays from 1-7pm. I wanted to stop and get bbq so bad but realized I had just $5.00 in my purse. What a bummer! LOL I'm pretty sure they don't take checks or credit cards...lol! Maybe next week I'll be better prepared - it smelled heavenly!

I always roll down my windows (if it's not snowing or raining) when I get to our mailbox. I turn off the radio and listen to the sounds of the birds, bugs, and other assorted critters out in the woods. I breathe deeply of the fresh spring air, cooled by the shade trees and breezes coming off the surrounding hillsides. I check the mail, check on the hollyhocks and then slowly make my way down the gravel driveway. The beauty of that simple trip makes me smile and I am once again reminded of the reality of living here.

On this particular Friday, Wally had been working at the barn and got his old gold truck running again. There it sat in the driveway just waiting to go on a road trip. This makes the third vehicle he has drug out of the woods, done some mechanic-ing on and brought home! I don't know how it's done and have no interest in learning - obviously he's got it down pat! Well, I may not have written about that old truck but it's probably my favorite. I think it's a 70 model (?) but I could be wrong. He calls it "ear wax gold" because that's basically what color it is.

The man he bought it from was the original owner and when he sold it to Wally, it needed a little work. He fixed it up and had it running in no time. We have been on so many back road day trips in that truck just putting around looking at the creeks, the rocky bluffs and the, sometimes muddy, dirt roads. We have only ever gotten stuck once where Wally couldn't get us out. We had to walk back to the last house we saw and ask the guy to pull us out. It took all of about two minutes and we were off again. The truck is a smooth ride and we like to put on the old country radio station while we cruise along. Wally says there aren't enough O's in smooth to describe it. They don't make trucks like that anymore.

You can imagine my delight when I saw the old gold truck parked up at the cabin Friday afternoon. I told Wally it wouldn't take much for me to blow off my chores if he wanted to take me for a ride in that truck! I brought in the groceries that needed to go in the refrigerator, loaded up a cooler, grabbed my purse and we headed out. We had our windows down and the radio on, the sun was shining and the truck ran like a top! It seemed like we were the only people in the world having that much fun.

We ended up out at Pee Wee's where we stayed for about an hour before going back home. The evening had cooled so we closed the windows and doors on the cabin and I made us each a turkey melt. It's my new favorite sandwich :) I toast the whole wheat bread, pile on the turkey and a couple slices of cheese. I top it with some oregano, salt and pepper and slide it under the broiler until the cheese melts. For a light dinner this served the purpose perfectly.

Saturday was a big day so we hit the hay early in anticipation of all that needed to be done in the morning. Naturally I woke up at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I watched the new for an hour and then got up and went downstairs while Wally got another couple hours in. While he slept on I cleaned the bathroom, took out sausage for breakfast and made the tea. I washed a load of clothes and then started making food for the cookout. By the time I was finishing up, Wally came downstairs and by the time he was dressed and ready for the day, Darryl had showed up.

We had smoked sausage, fried eggs, sliced tomatoes and mayonnaise biscuits with honey & butter for breakfast and then we all got to work. They went to cut down a cedar tree for using in the smoker while I cleaned the lawn chairs and put away the laundry that had somehow piled up on the couch by the laundry room...don't know how that happens...lol!

We finished up at about the same time and got ready to take the tractor down to the barn and check on my rose bush...no, it never got moved. It did get trimmed though and it has about 7 buds on it. They weren't blooming when we got there so I'll have to check it again in another couple days. Instead I picked some wildflowers to go on top of the picnic table. As we were leaving to go to the barn, Kurt, Beverly, Tenesha and her boyfriend showed up. We told them to make themselves at home and we would be back soon.

The stereo was cranking and the party had started by the time we got back :) it had also started to rain...we just pulled our chairs up under the deck and didn't let it phase us. Even with the rain, it was still a great day to be outside spending time with friends. I took my wildflowers and set them in a slurpee cup. I set the cup inside one of Wally's big, old, boots and then set it on the picnic table. It made for a very pretty centerpiece. I can't take credit for coming up with it though, we saw it at a lake party we went to a long time ago. I wish I would have taken a picture of it but with the rain I didn't want to get the camera out and risk ruining it. If no one messes with it today I just might get out there and get a picture! lol

Before long it was time to get the meat in the smoker. Darryl and I injected the whole chickens with Dale's seasoning (the lower sodium one), sprinkled them with garlic powder, pepper and bbq rub. We got them in the aluminum pans, covered them with foil and set them aside. Darryl got the smoker going up to temperature with the cedar wood they had cut and soon the meat was smoking away.

The rain had stopped and we were all back by the outdoor kitchen again; some were playing horseshoes while others were sitting at the picnic table passing the time telling stories, sharing gardening tips and planning more summer get-togethers. When the meat was almost done, we brought out all the other food, set it up on the cedar bar top and lined up to fill our plates. mmm mmm good!! Smoked chicken, deviled eggs, 7 layer dip, baked beans, potato salad and marinated mushrooms...nothing went to waste. When we had cleaned our plates, we had a big pan of bones ready for the dogs and the dogs were clearly ready for them!

The ladies all pitched in to help clean up and we settled back into our chairs to listen to the music and relax while enjoying each other's company. Before it got dark, Wally said we could all load up and take the trucks through the trails where we ride the 4 wheelers. Beverly and Tenesha loaded up with me and the guys jumped into the truck with Wally. We headed down the hill in the front yard to the gateway to the trails.

That first hill is pretty steep and I think I made Beverly a little nervous but we went slow and easy and had no troubles. We did have to drive over a couple of trees that were down and that was a little scary but the truck just ran right over them - they weren't really big trees. We passed the swimming hole and came to where the creek is. The water was higher than usual from the rains and I wasn't sure we would make it through. Wally headed into the water in the old gold truck and once he was on the other side, I started in without hesitation. Once you're committed, you just have to go. So "go" I went! Then the red Bronco stalled just as we were coming up the other side...argh!! I put it in park, turned it back on, told the girls to hang on and shifted into drive while hitting the gas pedal at the same time...out we came with a big splash and a little slipping to the left. But we were on dry land I was proud of it! So were Beverly and Tenesha! LOL

Whew! What a wild ride that was! We drove up to the barn and then back down through the holler and up to the cabin. I had fun but I think I like it better when Wally is driving :)

So the evening skies began to darken and we picked up our chairs and moved them out to where the bonfire was going to be. The fire was set and we were all gathered round...the air had just the slightest chill so it was nice to be able to have a fire warm us. The night wore on and people started gathering up their things to leave. Those who were staying were getting their pillows and blankets from their vehicles or preparing to sleep in their vehicles...either way. I think I went to bed around 12:30 and I was the first to go :) lol no surprise there!

When I got up the next morning, Claudia and Teri had already made their coffee and were outside enjoying the coolness of the morning. I started making breakfast for the crowd who had stayed. It was a simple one but filling and tasty...I took 10 eggs and mixed them up. I added about 3 tbsps of salsa to the eggs. I lightly sauteed some onions and green peppers. I did the same with some smoked sausage and then combined everything together. I sprinkled in some dried sage, dill, salt and pepper and poured it all into two oiled round cake pans. I topped them with shredded cheese and then they baked in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

They came out bubbly, cheesey and hot. I sliced up some tomatoes and set out a bowl of red grapes to which people could help themselves. Everyone made their plates and sat down for a quiet breakfast. Some seemed to be feeling a little poorly, hmmm wonder why? lol

After breakfast the guys went to the barn to work on the 4 wheeler and the girls and I took care of some gardening. Teri brought me rosemary, thyme (two varieties), oregano and a clipping from her while camellia bush. We clipped the ends of the rosemary and the camellia and dipped them into some rooting hormone. They went into a couple of quart size mason jars. The oregano we put into a pot because it already had roots and the thyme went into smaller jars so they could root.

Teri brought me two tomato plants so we headed out to the garden with the hoe and plants in hand. I hoed a row while Teri loosened the roots. Claudia found that one of my plants from last year had come back up! I knew tomatoes were perennials but I never hoped to have one of last year's plants come back again this year. It was a pretty awesome sight and I'm glad she spotted it because I was getting ready to hoe all the rows for when I get my little baby tomato plants next weekend.

I planted the two new tomatoes and then caged all three of them. While we were out there I showed the girls what I thought was my carrots and they both agreed that those feathery green leaves were indeed carrots!! FINALLY! The one picture I have on the flickr site is really and truly a carrot. Now I was doubly excited. I had a volunteer tomato and a whole row of carrots! What the heck, I moved over to where I thought I had planted my beets - the rain made it difficult to figure which rows had been planted even with my markers - and sure enough, there was one little beet plant that had somehow survived and emerged from the ground. I'm so hopeful now that the rest will soon appear...whew! You know I thought for sure the beets and carrots were a wasted effort. Now there's hope that all is not lost :) :) :) I'll be on the lookout for more beets as days go by....

Teri hadn't seen my beans yet so we left the fenced in garden and went over to check out the onions and beans. Low and behold the second set of beans had come up! What a GREAT GARDENING day I was having! My second row of beans is the one that Dizzy helped with. Remember she hoed the row for me while I dropped in the beans then together we covered them up with dirt. She may be in AZ but her beans are here and they are looking very healthy! LOL The same goes for the onions she planted. Darryl says I should take these up early to use in my salads - perfect idea since the little scallion seeds are only slowly coming along. They're there but they aren't growing as wildly as the red onions.

I think at this point I couldn't have stood much more excitement. I have peas galore just like I always wanted, I have carrots all in a row, I have one beet but a hundred hopes for many more, I have two rows of beans and onions and three tomato plants that are sure to produce big red globes in just 70 days! Life is good I tell ya. The garden is such a pleasure to me I'm not sure how to describe the feeling I get when I'm out there. I told Wally we might want to be looking into a plow attachment for the old Massey Ferguson tractor...lol He said he thinks he may have created a monster... lol! hahaha I'll be the MONSTER GARDENER of Hickman County  :)

ahhhhhh life on the farm... :)

I'll be going to see my farmer today - the one who provides me with the CSA basket. This isn't an official basket but they have so many strawberries coming in so fast that they offered all their shareholders a delivery of strawberries if we were interested in them. There is no cost associated with this delivery so I told her I would definitely be there this afternoon. Even if there was an additional fee, I'd gladly pay it to have strawberries fresh from the farm! Wouldn't you??

The farmers at Beaverdam Creek Farm work very hard to fill the bushel and half bushel baskets that we are so fortunate to be recipients of. This is the first year that they were able to sell all the shares they had available. Trish, her husband and her kids are still working on building their house. They are to the point where the drywall can go up so it won't be long now. They are building it themselves, with help from neighboring farmers and members of their church so it's been a longer process than if they had a contractor out there every day working on it. In the meantime, they are still living in their motor home and it's a pull-behind at that. Imagine 4 adults, a dog and cat all living in a motor home for about 4 years now- I believe. I could be wrong on the years - it has probably been longer than that. The kids have been home-schooled and are true farmers at heart.

They all have their respective chores on the farm but for the most part everyone just digs in and does what needs to be done. It's an all day job no doubt. I'm just happy as can be to have gotten in on the sale of the farm share - I was almost too late! Now you and I both have something to look forward to next Monday when the first delivery is official...

Sunday was a beautiful day for celebrating Mother's Day and phones were beeping with text messages or ringing off the hook in the house. I enjoyed talking to everyone and wished they could all be here to live this life with me. I have to remind myself that just because it's the life for me, that doesn't mean it's the life for others. But if you ever feel like giving it a shot...you know where to find me!

The hummingbird feeders are back out but no birds have come to call yet. I had to change the water because it hung there for a week and went stale. They won't come to the feeders unless the water is sweet. Claudia has about 20 birds flying all around right now but then, she also has 6 or 7 feeders. I'm considering the purchase of a couple more...I just have to be sure I'll have the time to fill them all when they need it!

We rounded out the day eating chicken salad sandwiches and sitting out on the swings in the shade of the afternoon. The old dogs were lazy and slept peacefully behind us. The little rascals were wrestling and chasing each other around. The roosters graced us with their presences and crowed and squaked until Jay finally went and threw out some scratch feed for them. We watched the hawks catching air out over the hilltop and the turkeys as they ate their way across the front yard. Just as I was heading inside to go to bed, Jay called me back out to watch as three white tail deer gracefully wandered into the line of woods over behind Dizzy's apartment. It doesn't get much better than that :)

They laugh at me here for calling the hill outside our front door a mountain. Well, to me it is a mountain!


"Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance." ~Epicurus

Mother's Day notes...

"You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back." ~William D. Tammeus

As I was reading through the "Quote Garden" this morning I came to the one posted above. It says a lot in that the children do wave every time they go around and parents certainly do wave back. Why is it? I think for the child, it's their way of saying "here I am, look at me, look what I can do!" For the parent perhaps the wave is simply the answer back, "I see you and I love you!"

I don't know really but it seems to me the child feels as if they have left their parents, if only for the brief time it takes to make the circle, and then when they come back around, it's as if they need to let their parents know they came back and they are happy to see them waiting there. Maybe it makes them feel secure? Indeed if the parents were gone when the merry-go-round came full circle, the child would then be scared and worried and the ride would be greatly saddened. The parent's wave back could be taken as their way of letting the child know they will always be there for them? Deep stuff huh?

"Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly." ~Ambrose Bierce

This is so absolutely true. The children rarely feel the cold as they are endlessly carefree; running, jumping and playing no matter the temperature. It is the mom who feels the chill, right? Once she does, there's no point trying to get out of wearing the sweater. If she's cold - you're cold. Put it on or go inside...those are your choices! LOL

"Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarrasses your children." ~Marilyn Penland

I love this quote. It reminds me of Jarrett when he was just a little guy. Rather than take the bus, he preferred to go over to his granny's (not my Mom, his other granny) house in the morning before school. She would fix him breakfast, make sure he was dressed and had his backpack ready to go. No wonder he loved it! She loved him coming there and certainly he loved going. I was driving him to his granny's house one morning and we had the radio on and I was singing with whoever it was - I don't remember now but I was getting into it. You know how you do when you're in the car...LOL

Jarrett felt the need to tell me that he wished I wouldn't sing that song. Of course I had to know why. His response? He told me "because Jodi sings it so much better" hahahahahaha! I totally cracked up. Jodi is his stepmother and apparently she has a better singing voice than I do :) at least in his opinion. I've never heard her sing :)  Jodi was a really good stepmother to my kids and she and I got along just fine. That was just so funny I thought you would enjoy it.

This is also a good place to add that my mother-in-law was and still is one of the sweetest people you ever want to meet. She is a strong lady, a caring lady and very special to all of us. Regardless of what happens in our lives, we'll always be family and friends. Happy Mother's Day Granny :)

And to all you moms out there who read this, "Happy Mother's Day" to you too. I could go on and on with stories about my Mom and you would find them all quite humorous but isn't it better for me to let you think about stories of your own Mom and the things she did instead? No matter your differences, she's still your mom and believe it or not, she did the best she could.

Okay, maybe just a few stories...:)

For us, we got lucky. Our Mom is hilarious. She's not the typical "grandma" type but that's okay, the kids have Granny to be the typical "grandma" type for them. When Mom made us big pans of popcorn to snack on at night my friends thought it was weird but we all liked popcorn and to this day, we all still do.

She read to us from the "Bookhouse Books" and we would lay there in her bed and soak up the stories of the "Water Babies" and "The Quick Running Squash." She made us go to church, which none of us were very fond of at the time but now that we're older, we realize it was a good thing.

On many a Sunday after church we would all pile into the car and Dad would drive us out to grandma's house (Mom's Mom) in Oviedo. Us four kids would inevitably fight and he would inevitably scold us and threaten to stop the car and spank us on the side of the road if we didn't behave. It never happened and we pretty much knew it wouldn't...He would buy us bubble gum and then holler at us when we chewed it with our mouths open. Mom would always ask him why he bought it for us when he knew we were going to chew it with our mouth's open? He called it smacking our gum and you know what, I can't stand the sound of it either!  

Mom had a good reach though, got to give her credit for that...if at anytime one of us mouthed off to her in the car, she would reach back there and swat the heck out of us. Well, rarely was it ever me, of course... hahahaha! It must be a special trait of Mothers the world over - their arms seem to grow longer when it comes time to swat a bratty kid in the back seat of a car...lol! I know mine did :) Neccy threatened her kids with a fake sherriff, insisting he would come take them to jail if they didn't behave. I stole that from her and used it on Jarrett when he kept getting out of his carseat :) haha!

My Mom was our Brownie Leader in school, she taught herself to play guitar, she took ceramics. She was a waitress, a secretary and a sun-worshipper. She cooked without a recipe and everything always tasted good (Neccy inherited that from her). She now has arthritis in her hands so badly that when she gives another driver the bird, it looks like she's giving it to herself. Make no mistake though - if she flips you the bird, you must have done some really stupid driving!

And finally, in closing...
"It's not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it." ~From the television show The Golden Girls


HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!



 

Life on The Farm = Gardening, Weeding, Hoeing, Digging, Picture Taking...

With all that's been going on lately it's hard to keep you up to date. After the storms we had lots of branches down in the yard. Well, as you know, you can't mow until all those branches have been picked up. So around the property Wally went on the 4 wheeler pulling the little red trailer along behind. As he came to the downed branches, he picked them up and loaded them on the trailer. From there they go to the burn pile which is, by now, about 10-12 feet tall. Yeah - we had LOTS of downed branches...lol.

While he cleaned up the yard, I pulled weeds in my garden - not the vegetable garden, the flower garden. The vegetable garden is going to take some work before the tomatoes can go in...I didn't think the weeds would grow back like they did but that's what I get for not thinking! I enjoy the time I spend out there so it doesn't really feel like work. It feels productive, indeed it's exercise which I desperately need after the sedentary life we led through the winter. The flower garden wasn't so bad - only a few handfuls here and there and I was done.

Moving on to the day lilies in the front yard proved to be beyond my stamina range. Nope - I didn't have what it takes to divide those clumps. I'll have to get the shovel out next weekend and try again. Some days are like that :) I had plenty of other things to do for sure. I emptied out the water from the planters that I hope to soon be planting my geraniums in. I searched high and low for any signs of the 4 O'clocks I planted months ago but to no avail. Once again I buried the Caladium bulbs (darn squirrels!) only this time I put a couple of them in pots to see if they fair any better.

The property is so beautiful this time of year that I find myself looking for reasons to go outside and be a part of it. Sitting on a chair on the front porch, peas or no peas, has quickly become a favorite past time. For those of you who have been here - I know you know what I mean. From the front porch, you can have full sunshine on you with a light breeze coming off the hill or from the back porch, you can have full shade with a view of the woods behind the cabin. Either way your eyes will be filled with beauty and your body will be filled with fresh, springtime cool, mountain air. Breathe.......................

I was talking to Mom on the phone the other day trying to describe what my view looks like on the drive home. There are hundreds of trees and it seems each one is a different shade of green. There are far too many to try and put a name on them but I swear Crayola could make a whole box of crayons a different shade of green if they copied the trees up here. I'm talking about the big box of crayons - the one with the useless sharpener on the back! lol

There are still many flowers blooming, from irises to roses to peonies to wild flowers. Everywhere you look, you're sure to see some sort of flowers. Maybe not in my yard...hahahaha but definitely along the roadside and in other people's yards. Speaking of other people's yards, I've noticed that those folks who planted their tomatoes before all the rains came have had to stake them up. I guess the rains were so strong and heavy that the little tomatoes couldn't take it. I'm glad now that I waited although I'm beginning to feel kind of restless about not having them in the ground yet...jeez, it's May 5th already! By the way, Happy Cinco De Mayo (5th of May).

I imagine in FL the tomatoes are just about done coming in and yet here, I don't even have them in the ground. Can you get a feel for my restlessness...?

On to more interesting stuff...We're having a cookout this weekend, the first one of the year, and Claudia is bringing me some tomatoes that she started in her greenhouse. I don't know what kind they are but it's very sweet of her to donate them to a worthy cause :) lol Darryl says he has some too and will bring them when he comes out on Saturday.

People are really generous around here...When we went to Pee Wee's last night, Darryl loaded my car with 4 dozen farm fresh eggs and another friend of ours added 3 big, huge, vidalia onions to the box. Eggs and onions and I didn't even ask for either of them. That's just how it is. Of course I brought Darryl a baggie full of the leftover smoked ham and he'll benefit from breakfast when he shows up Saturday. He always comes over early and helps to get things ready.

I'll be mowing the front yard up by the hitching posts because the bush-hog is too big to get in that space without running over all my plants. Wally will take care of bush-hogging the rest of the property - it's too big to mow the whole place but the bush-hog takes care of it quite well :) Those are the early morning chores in preparation for the cookout. From there it's pressure washing the porches, cleaning the lawn chairs, making sure Dizzy's Apt. has plenty of tp, hand soap and a towel and piling up wood for the smoker.

I'm making my famous marinated mushrooms and a 7 layer Mexican dip and if Jack will give me his recipe, I'd like to make his "cowboy beans" too. Kurt insisted on bringing the deviled eggs and Claudia is bringing her German potato salad. I don't know what's in it, but it's very tasty! Another guy we talked to last night is coming over and he asked if he could bring baked potato salad...whatever that is, I don't know, but it sounded good to me so we said "sure!" With 4 whole chickens in the smoker and 20 lbs of leg quarters on the grill, I think we'll have plenty of food. We might even have leftovers...lol!!

For those who spend the night, and most of them do, I'll have a breakfast casserole already made up and waiting to go in the oven first thing Sunday morning. It's a very simple concoction of eggs, cheese, smoked sausage, onions, peppers and tomatoes all mixed together with some salt, dill and black pepper and baked in the oven. Only fresh dill in this recipe please - it really does make all the difference in the world. I make enough to fill a cake pan so there's no worry about not having enough. Besides, if there isn't enough, they can always grab some leftover chicken...hahaha!

Somehow I got off track, did you notice that? I was talking about working in the yard and ended up talking about food...lol!

Here's a short story for you...I hope I haven't told it before but if I have, just pretend I didn't...
When I first moved into my own place, I wanted to plant flowers (some things never change). Aunt Karen always had the prettiest flower garden out in front of the Longwood house (how well I remember Mucher's lavender rose and the Mars plant) so I took note of what she had growing there. After some discussion, we decided to purchase geraniums for our gardens that year and headed off to the garden center.

Purchases in hand, we went home to our respective gardens and planted our geraniums. We cared for them ever so lovingly; watering only when needed, making sure they had ample sunlight and no bugs to bother them. Though our efforts were sincere, we found that our geraniums weren't responding very well and they both perished right around the same time. 

Not to be deterred, the following year we headed out to the garden center once again. Again we purchased our geraniums, took them home, planted and cared for them as if they were prized possessions. Again, they both perished. At this point Aunt Karen dubbed them our "annual sacrifice" and for years we carried on the tradition. I think I was able to keep one alive for a whole year one time...we considered it some sort of  freaky gardening miracle.

So a few weeks ago Aunt Karen called to say she had purchased her "annual sacrifice" and had planted it as always. The geraniums weren't available here yet so I wasn't able to plant one at the same time as she did. But I'm telling you this story because I was able to purchase two, nice, big, red-flowering, geraniums yesterday at Fred's and I'm happy to say that I'm now in the running :) :) :)  We'll see who is able to keep their geranium alive the longest and even though there's little hope either will survive, we'll continue to buy them every year! Now that's a family tradition worth writing about! Of course, anything involving Aunt Karen is worth writing about. She's the best!

I left the house a little later than usual this morning with the hope that I would see some deer on my ride in to work. The sun was just coming up when I walked out the door and I could see it's red glow hovering just above the trees as I headed off up the driveway. It was harder than ever to leave... imagine if you will, 58 degrees, sun coming up, cabin peaceful and quiet, roosters not so much - just me and the morning sights and sounds. Then reality hits me and away I go...

It's not so bad at all really, this ride to work of mine. As I've said before there's very little traffic and at this time of the morning people seem to be going at a more relaxed pace. The gas stations are lit up and open to serve travelers getting their morning coffee and home made biscuits with chicken, tenderloin or fried bologna. There's only one McDonalds on my 37 mile trip and rarely is it doing any business in the morning. There's no Wal-mart, no Walgreens, no CVS. There is a Pizza Hut, a Fred's and a Dollar General but that's about it other than a couple of liquor stores and car washes. It always seems strange to me to see people at the car wash so early in the morning. It's not the kind of car wash you drive through but rather the kind where you do the washing yourself. 

On this day the deer eluded me but the fog over the water was pretty and when I crossed over the bridges it seemed as if I were floating on the fog. It was very thick and so completely surrounded the bridges that all I could see were the roads and the pure, white, fog on either side of them. Not a bad way to go at all.

As you can tell we are quite busy this time of year. We have lots to do and great weather to do it in. We have friends coming to visit, gardens to tend, animals to play with and food to cook and eat. We would love to have you come for a visit as well. In case I don't get a chance to write again tomorrow, I hope you have a friend filled, Happy Mother's Day, relaxing weekend :)

"Hospitality, n. The virtue which induces us to feed and lodge certain persons who are not in need of food and lodging." ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911


 

Warm, Chilly, Sunny, Rainy, Cloudy, Clear...

You name it, we've got it here! Weather that is.... We went from high 70s to low 40s all in a week's time. We went from warm, sunny days to clouds and rain with the potential for flooding. Today there is a 50% chance of rain, tomorrow is a 100% chance of rain and from there we just have to wait to see if the rivers and streams can hold the water. Some have already crested but fortunately, not near where we are. After tomorrow's rains, all bets are off.

While we don't have to worry about the cabin flooding, we do have to watch the news to see where there are flood waters coming over the roads and bridges. My drive to work is 37 miles and I cross lots of bridges along the way. This morning was fine. The water is definitely high but not to the point of coming up on the roads or bridges. I'll keep you posted after my drive in tomorrow as this news may not be the same after tonight's rains.

The garden loves the rain and appears to be thriving between bouts of sunshine and rain. The peas are almost all reaching towards the fence and some are already climbing up it. A few of them even started growing together so I just took a stick and tangled it in the tendrils and then leaned it on the fence. In a day or so they'll have climbed up the stick to the fence and will continue on their way to the top. I'll get new pictures when the weather clears again...

This weekend we spent a lot of our time getting the farm chores caught up. We had to do something with the blue gate that was smashed by the tree in the storm while we were gone. We had to make repairs to the fence at the creek - it keeps our horses on our property and while it allows our neighbor's cows access to the water, it keeps them off the farm. Nothing against his cows mind you, we would love to have them. It's just that he doesn't want to have to come looking for them when they graze our property.

We had downed tree limbs everywhere that needed to be picked up before any kind of mowing could ensue and we needed to grade (?) the driveway as the gravel was swept into little currents of rain water and made for a messy ride.

But first on the agenda was the Nunnelly post office where I had a package waiting for me. Just after we left for FL the mail carrier tried to deliver the package but wasn't comfortable leaving it at the gate so they left a notice in our mailbox instead.

I went to the post office in Lyles and they told me I was at the wrong post office. My package was at the Nunnelly post office instead. Duh! Well, in my own defense, Lyles is where Wally has his post office box so that's the one I'm used to going to for his mail. The Nunnelly post office is quite a distance away and it still amazes me that the poor carrier has to come all that way to deliver our mail when the Lyles post office is just a few miles down the road. Welcome to Hickman County :)

We headed out first thing in the morning on Saturday - skipping breakfast and all - as I didn't want to get there too late. I didn't know what time they closed but I figured it would be early since Nunnelly isn't that big a town and the post office probably isn't all that busy on a Saturday morning. We got there in time and picked up our package. They had me fill out a form saying that I was allowed to receive mail there (never heard of that before) and we chatted for a few minutes then left.

I could barely contain myself knowing what was in that box but it was Saturday morning and there were yard sales GALORE so we took our time going home and stopped at a few sales looking for things we simply couldn't live without. I didn't find anything, believe it or not, but Wally found a trunk full of stuff. That's not to say there was a whole lot - my trunk is very small :) LOL!!

We took our time and gradually got back home. We unloaded our purchases and Wally brought the package inside for me to open... woo hoo!!! My long time friend, Kris, had sent me a Shark Steamer with which to clean my floors. I had no idea how it worked or IF it would work but Wally put it together, filled it with water and plugged it in and we waited. Neither of us knowing what to expect we just stood there looking at it like it was going to give us some sort of signal. When no signal came, Wally picked it up and pushed it across the floor...it made a hissing sound and we knew we would be on our way to clean-as-clean-can-be-floors as soon as I had time to spend on them.

The package also had a huge box of doggie biscuits which we stored with the rest of the doggie biscuit stash and there were some winter clothes bundled in as well. This was the second of two packages sent by Kris, the first of which was packed with food. If you recall, I had previously posted about the lack of Aunt Jemima Whole Wheat Pancake Mix in this area. Friend that she is, Kris searched the internet for a location near me where I could buy this mix. She found, as I did, that it isn't available here. That being the case, she searched the area local to her in FL and found where it could be purchased. She bought a few boxes for me and shipped them up here!

Within that first box were two bottles of something called "Mojo." Now, I've heard of Mojo but never used it myself. She tells me to marinate chicken in it and it is supposed to be really, really good. Dizzy Debbie saw it sitting on the bar and said "mmmm mmmmm that stuff is the bomb!" Next time we make chicken, we'll use it and let you know how we like it. From the looks of it, I'm pretty sure we will :)

Kris also sent me several packets of seeds; sunflower seeds, chive seeds and parsley seeds. My plan was to plant the sunflowers while Dizzy Debbie was here but that never panned out. My next plan was to plant them this past weekend but that didn't happen either...sigh... Perhaps the coming weekend will allow for those seeds to be planted as I would love to have sunflowers blooming up and down the driveway come summer!

There were other items in those boxes for which we are grateful and as you well know, getting something in the mail just can't be beat...so long as that something isn't bills :) So, Kris, thank you for everything and we hope to make that pancake mix last until you and Lance are able to join us for breakfast some morning to come in the near future :) :) :) The Mojo - we can't guarantee that will last...lol!

Well now - onto the farm chores... Wally somehow was able to drag the blue gate down to the creek so it was waiting for us when we arrived. The gate that was in the creek had been washed out by this year's rain water. We use a gate in the creek so the water and debris can flow but the horses are unable to get through. It's easier than trying to string barbed wire across it and with less chance of it coming free like barbed wire tends to do in a rush of water.

The first order was to hook up the old gate to the 4 wheeler and drag it out of the water. Wally hooked it up and I drug it out into our neighbors field. From there I drug it across the bridge and back up onto our road. We unhooked it and pushed it aside to wait with the other gate that was taken out in last year's flood. We go through some gates huh? At some point it will be loaded on a trailer and taken to the scrap yard.

While I wandered around checking out the rocks and the waterfalls and the minnows, Wally managed to push that smashed blue gate up between two tree trunks where it held fast. It was long enough that half of it crossed the creek. He tied it to the gate on the other side and secured them together with barbed wire. Now the horses and cows would have ample access to fresh, cold, spring water without the risk of either escaping their respective pastures. Whew! All in a day's work...

We cleaned up what little mess we had made and headed up the holler to the cabin. The driveway was a mess from the rain washing the gravel hither and yon so it was time for me to get another tractor driving lesson. We hooked up the "box grader." I could have that named wrong and maybe even spelled wrong but the purpose of this attachment is to drag the gravel along the way until it eventually builds up within the box. When the box crosses over a hole in the road, it dumps the gravel that has been boxed up inside. Viola!

He showed me the ropes and I was on my way on that big ole' tractor...It was such a beautiful day with the sun shining on me and the light wind in my face from the forward motion of the tractor. I put a bandana on my head to keep my hair out of my eyes and I had my sunglasses on to help keep the dust out of my contacts. Surely I was a sight to see! lol  The holes in the driveway filled in and no one (namely me) had to rake rocks all day to get it evened out. The driveway was nice and smooth after I took 3 or 4 passes and then Wally took a couple more just to kind of clean up my mess.

He was nice enough to say that he just wanted to make sure the road was graded between the gate and the mailbox but I knew I didn't do the best job of things seeing as how it was my first time out. In any event these two chores took the better part of the rest of the day. As much as I wanted to get the steamer out and going, it would have to wait until Sunday. Of course, since the road had been graded, it proceeded to pour down rain all day Sunday...lol!

For dinner on Saturday we grilled up some chicken leg quarters and drumsticks - totally forgetting about the Mojo - we used the Leggs BBQ rub on one side and McCormick's chicken seasoning on the other. Sorry Kris - lol - I put the Mojo in the pantry and well, out of sight out of mind I guess...I'll remember next time!

Wally grilled the chicken while I was on the tractor and when the chicken was cooked, we called it a day. We had grilled chicken and pea salad and we were completely satisfied with that dinner. There was nothing fancy about it but it had all the components of a good meal; chicken hot off the grill with the skin crispy and the meat simply falling off the bone, pea salad with minced onions, hard-boiled eggs mixed stirred with mayonnaise and a little black pepper and cold glasses of tea to wash it all down. ahhhhhh full bellies!

For a Saturday we had accomplished quite a bit. Our muscles were sore but not too bad. We had been in the sun enough to get a good, much needed, dose of vitamin D. We had most of our chores done and our meal was healthy and filling. I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday than messing around on the farm...

We sat down to watch the race but only made it to lap 55 before we headed up to bed. It was still daylight but we didn't care. We had been up before dawn so felt justified in going to bed before dark :) I guess I'm learning why farmers are up early and in bed early. Even Dizzy Debbie thought she would be up until 10 or 11:00 at night but quickly found that 7:30 - 8:00 was more to her liking...LOL Did I mention she's not a big fan of my roosters? lol

With the dawn of Sunday morning came the rain and the wind and the forever more cloudy skies. We listened to the rain on the tin roof and when finally a lull came, we went downstairs to begin our day. I made us a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and tea. We ate like it was going to be a long work day like the day before! With it raining like it was there wasn't much we could do outside so once the kitchen was cleaned up I got out the Shark Steamer.

After a few lessons, I was on my way to steaming the living room floor. This device is a huge time-saver, not to mention WAY easier than ringing out a mop, changing mop water and waiting for the floors to dry. You push it along - it's very light weight - and it steams and cleans as it goes. The end is padded and the pad picks up any dirt, dust or grime left after sweeping. The pad comes off for easy cleaning and the cord is long enough to reach my entire living room floor so there's no unplugging and replugging. The water canister holds enough water to do the living room the hallway and the kitchen with a little left over! THANK YOU KRIS!! This is my new toy! Who could ever get excited about cleaning, right? Well, this just makes life so much easier :) :)


Well now that the kitchen and the floors were clean what was I to do?? I took a long, hot shower and slathered on the lotion. I got dressed, got my bangs blow dried settled down on the couch with my feet on the coffee table, my tea glass by my side and my new Southern Living magazine in my hands :) :) I sat there looking out over the hillside that is our front yard and watched as the rain turned everything a bright, almost neon, green. The wind blew my little hummingbird feeder back and forth until I thought it would fall from the tree. Wally napped in the recliner while I watched my shows and read my magazine. Now this was a peaceful Sunday.

The day before I had decided to take out a ham for Sunday dinner. We bought two whole smoked shoulders back in the fall when they were on sale and since the freezer stock needed to be rotated, I figured a rainy day would be perfect for baking that ham. And so it was...it went into the oven at 350 degrees for 2 hours and then I added some chopped carrots to the water and let it go another 40 minutes. The cabin was smelling of smoked ham and sweet carrots, the two of us were content with our tv and magazine and the rain was out there washing the dust from everything on the farm. My garden was happy to have that big drink! Talk about a relaxing Sunday - whew!! We were in much need of that!

We taped the race and watched it during the afternoon. Wally won the race pool which means he's got $100.00 coming to him when we go to Pee Wee's Place this Wednesday. This is his second win of the year so far - not bad! He called Darryl who congratulated him and then he let Darryl know that I was ready for more eggs if there were any available. He assured me there would be and we told him we would see him Wednesday. I'll bring him some of the ham in exchange for the eggs...that's how things go in these parts :)

I didn't have much of a chance to get out in the garden this weekend but I think I may have identified the beginning of what looks to be carrots. I planted them way back in March and up until now I wasn't too confident that they were going to grow. I made sure the rocks were out of the way and the dirt was tilled and weed-free. Since that time, weeds have grown in and I can't really tell the difference between what might be carrot tops and what might be weeds. I know I've written about this dilemma before but Sunday, when I did get out there to have a peek, it looked as if maybe, just maybe there is a pattern of leaves that wasn't there before. I'll keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed - I'd really love to have fresh carrots from my very own garden at some point this year :) :) Wouldn't you??? LOL

I've decided to go ahead and sign up for the CSA share again this year. If you are a new reader, the CSA share is a half bushel basket of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers from a local farmer. CSA stands for Consumer Supported Agriculture. I buy a share of the farm, the farmer farms the land and provides me with my share of the crops. Last year I was overwhelmed with the amount of food coming in the basket every week. I had lettuce, broccoli, squash (yellow, pattypan and zucchini), tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, cantaloupe, radishes, rattle snake green beans, okra, basil, mint, dill, carrots and sweet potatoes to mention a few. There were greens of all sorts; mustard, turnip and collards. There was chinese cabbage, regular cabbage, bok choy and kale. Imagine the recipes I had to come up with in order to consume all that food! I loved it!

I didn't have to buy lettuce or tomatoes for months! The share isn't free but it was well worth the price to know that my vegetables were locally grown with no pesticides in use and the money I spent went towards this year's purchase of seeds and farm equipment.This is the best way to support the community that I can think of...really - it benefits everyone involved if you think about it. Why not look up CSA on the internet and see if you can find a farm near you? Even if you don't buy a share, you can still shop the farm for locally grown produce. You'll be supporting the farmer and you'll be eating healthier than ever before :) :) :)

I'm looking forward to my first basket which should be coming next Monday! Pictures will be sure to follow. If you want to see who my farmer is, go to http://www.beaverdamcreekfarm.com/. You can see pictures of the farm and hear what's new and what is hopefully coming up in future baskets. Enjoy :)

Let us all have a great week! Eat right, exercise and take a vitamin just in case the first two don't work out for you...hahahaha!

"We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons." ~Alfred E. Newman