IT JUST SMELLS GOOD HERE...

I don't know what it is but when you walk outside, morning, noon or night, it just smells really good here. Maybe it's everything that's blooming (which would make some of you sneeze most likely), maybe it's that we're in a higher altitude? I really couldn't say. It's true though. It smells GOOD. It smells CLEAN and it smells FRESH. You want your laundry to smell this way :)

Even though we have had our share of hot weather these past couple of weeks, we're fortunate the humidity levels have remained fairly low. You feel the heat but you don't feel that constant dampness like you do in FL. I was on a conference call yesterday where one of my teammates asked me if I missed the FL weather. Quite frankly, no, not so much. Do I miss all of you? Certainly. But you can't have everything, right? Where the heck would you store it? LOL

There's not much to report on the garden subject other than that the flowers have dropped from the bean plants which gives me hope that beans will soon be in abundance. The Burpee Catalog people keep sending me emails so I can order more plants and seeds and all kinds of gardening supplies. Don't they realize the danger in that??? LOL For goodness sake, I've got my hands full with what I've already got planted, let alone when the canning begins :)

So I made up a new recipe. There are pictures on the flickr site but they don't do any justice to the flavor of the dish. It was so simple and could be adjusted hundreds of different ways depending on the type of vegetables you and your family prefer. For us, I decided on broccoli and snow peas. I had both of them in the freezer and I was in the mood for some green food. They fit the bill.

I had shrimp in the freezer too and what's better than pasta, shrimp and vegetables? Well, okay, lots of things but this is what I was in the mood for. I filled my pot with water and started it to boil with a little salt thrown in to season the whole wheat pasta. While that went on, I gathered the remaining ingredients; Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper and a jar of homemade salsa.

While the pasta boiled, I peeled the shrimp and broke out about 8-10 spears of the frozen broccoli. When the pasta was about half done, I added the broccoli and brought it back up to a boil so they could finish cooking together. I poured them off into a colander but saved the hot water and poured it back in the pot. When it came back up to a boil, I added the snow peas and the shrimp. Those only had to cook for like 3 minutes and they were done.

I drained them in the same colander as the pasta and broccoli and I was just about set. Everything went into a bowl where I added the jar of salsa, the crushed red pepper and the cheese. I gave it all a good stir and scooped a big spoonful into my bowl. Talk about easy, fast, tasty and pretty darn healthy to boot! I couldn't find one ingredient that was unhealthy...can you? Maybe the fat from the cheese but there wasn't that much cheese in it - just enough to add a little extra flavor. hmmmm what do you think?

Folks I do believe that rabbit season is upon us....the little hoppers are everywhere! It doesn't matter what time of day it is, if you go outside, you're going to see at least 2 or 3, possibly even more. When I left the house this morning, there had to be at least 15 of them hopping around the property, up along the driveway and everywhere in between. It's a good thing they're quick to get out of the way because with as many of them as there are, it would be hard to miss hitting them if they weren't. No wonder they don't have a rabbit season...they would over-populate in a seriously bad way if people couldn't hunt them all year. Not to worry, as I said before, I'm done with trying to like rabbit meat. If it was all there was to eat, yeah, I'd eat it but it's not top on the list.

Just before Wally left for FL, he noticed that Ruger had a bad spot on his throat where it looked like his fur was pulled out and it was all red and inflamed looking. Well, after a day or so it appeared to be getting better and then I noticed he got another spot just like it on his back - right up by his neck. This sore spot was about as big as my palm so it worried me. I called Wally and he had me pick up this medicine at the co-op that's like a topical antibiotic for animals. I brought it home and sprayed it on his sore spots and within a few days the spot on his neck was completely cleared up (although the fur is still missing) and the one on his back was starting to get better. Meanwhile, this stuff is dark purple. When I sprayed it on him, some of it over-sprayed onto me...all over my legs and hands. I knew it was on my hands because I could see it, of course. But I never looked at my legs. The next morning in shower I freaked out for a second there wondering what the heck was all over me...lol oh, it was pretty funny!!

I scrubbed and scrubbed and most of it came off but I still had some purple speckles between my knees and ankles and I was wearing my white capris...LOL it showed up really well against those white pants!! hahaha no one said a word...now, I know if I was in FL, y'all would be saying all kinds of stuff. You would have at least asked what the heck happened to my legs...lol Not here - not a word. Funny, huh?

After a couple more washes the purple came off...and Ruger's back has healed up nicely. I'm watching for his fur to come back in but so far it hasn't. I don't know what the heck it was, some kind of skin irritation is all I know.

On the subject of the puppies - it's hard to call them that now that they are so HUGE - but age wise they are still puppies. They continue to delight me with their antics - they chase butterflies and rabbits but never catch a thing...except the one time Colt caught the rooster. I doubt he'll do that again after the trouble he got in. Mostly they catch each other and then come running back to me to be petted, rubbing on me with their slobbery fur. I don't know that they'll ever stop growing...I'll get new pictures for you this weekend. You won't believe how big they are now.

It's festival season here in TN. I don't know that we'll make it to any of them - too crowded for my liking but if you were in search of something to do...now would be a good time to be here! There's so much going on, it gets mind-boggling. Some things are free and others will cost you but all of them have to do with music or food or both. There are garage sales galore - signs dotting every corner - tempting you to turn in and check out the junk other people are selling...I'm pretty well stocked up on junk so I just drive on by....lol! We'll stop every now and then...sometimes you just can't resist a good garage sale, right?

The cicadas have arrived and so have the lightning bugs (aka June bugs) and together between them there's enough noisy clacking and little, blue lights flickering that it seems you could be at a really bad outdoor concert. LOL Thankfully the cicadas only come from the ground in swarms every 13 years so this won't happen again for long time. The lightning bugs are quiet and really cute with their little lights blinking all the time. I read in a magazine (Southern Living?) that you can catch them in a jar, cover it with a breathable fabric and set them on your picnic table for muted lighting in the evening. You have to let them go after a couple hours but that's kind of a cool idea.

I have no idea how to catch them so you won't see them adorning my table but the pictures in the magazine were neat looking. They tend to fly close to the woods so I see them when I'm on the porch just before and right after it goes completely dark out there. The woods just light up!! June Bug is a good name for them for it's the only month they are here. I don't know where they are before or after June but they're gone just the same.

Who knows how long those noisy cicadas will be around...? They're an ugly bug, that's for sure. There's a guy in Nashville who dips them in chocolate for people to eat...hmmm enterprising, I guess, but I don't see the attraction. They're about the size of a big cricket...you can look them up on the internet and see what I mean.

It's graduation day for Britney Pattishall. WAY TO GO BRITNEY!!!! We're very proud of you!! Britney is Ernie's youngest daughter - I know you know Ernie :) For those of you who haven't met Britney or haven't had the chance to really get to know her, she's a very special young lady. While attending high school and making good grades there, she also attended Westside Tech school where she has completed studies to earn her Veterinary Assistant Certification. She graduates from there today as well. Britney is a sweet, fun-loving teenager who has her sights set on being a Veterinary Technician. She'll do it too - she's that kind of person! While her father (William Pattishall) won't be here in person to witness his daughter's graduation, we all know he'll be watching from on high as she takes that walk across the stage to accept the diploma she's worked so hard to get. May he rest in peace with a big smile knowing she did it!! We love you Brit :)

Well, the weekend is upon us and the farm beckons us outdoors...weather permitting I'll be planting the 8 tomato plants I picked up at the co-op earlier this week. It's not like I can just wander out to the garden, dig a little hole and stick the plant in...nooooo, not by far. Remember the rocks? Yeah...there's that. So while I will be digging holes, I'll also be redistributing rocks (aka throwing them over the fence into the woods) and clearing away the weeds that have taken over since last weekend. I can't even tell I pulled a single weed lol!

I should go into the business of growing rocks and weeds instead of flowers and food...lol!! There's a good two hours worth of work before the first tomato plant gets sunk into that cool, moist earth of ours and I'm looking forward to every minute of it. I enjoy the exercise and I enjoy looking out there and seeing the fruits of my labor. The part I love best, of course, is eating those yummy vegetables and knowing that I grew them myself.

Since the heat replaced the rain, the garden has been a few days without a drop of water. It's a good thing the soil holds moisture so well. When I dug it up to test for moisture, it was plenty damp under that first layer of dryness. All is well on the watering front but I'll still give everything a drink since new plants will be going in the ground and I'll have the hose out there anyway....Pictures will be posted come Monday. Hopefully, we'll have beans!!!! The suspense must be driving you crazy...I know it is me :) :) :)

Have a great weekend - plant something would ya?? LOL!
"The trouble with, "A place for everything and everything in its place" is that there's always more everything than places." ~Robert Brault, http://www.robertbrault.com/