wild cherry jelly

Sabbath school class: this week read the first 14 Psalms and memorize at least one verse of the 14 to share with the class. We read last week that people in Bible times memorized much more readily than we do now and we talked about how we need to memorize more because in the time before Jesus comes we might not have our Bibles any more and we will need to comfort ourselves and others with God's Word, and hence the only way we can do that is by memorizing.
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The nanking cherries (wild type cherries) did well this year and the ones that I planted 6 years ago when I first moved here, the ones God blessed and made live, did the best. I made 10 batches of jelly yesterday! It only took me 7 1/2 hours to do it and that was after all my morning jobs away from home! And there are still more to pick if I feel in the mood. I'm sort of thinking that the birds could enjoy the rest.

When we first moved here, Pat was gone helping his Dad back in Denver so I tried to dig holes to plant the trees that I'd lucked into because someone didn't want their order from the conservation agency. The ground was like concrete and I couldn't dig a deep enough hole to bury roots so I finally heeled them in and told God if they lived it would be because he made them live despite my pathetic efforts. And they did live and they always out bloom, give the most berries and it is because of God and God alone that they do well.

The others that we planted the next year do okay, though. The next year we planted wild plums and hackberry trees. All are doing good, if is continues as it looks I'll be making plenty of plum jelly later this summer. The hackberry are just a deciduous tree that forms a wind break.

Our asparagus plants are doing wonderful and our mouths are watering for that tiny crop we can eat next year and the big crop we can eat the year after that!

I had to replant the okra as the first crop didn't take and we are going to have to re-plant carrots, beets and parsnips as the first planting did so poorly. We have so much wind here! It dries the soil and since it rarely rains (high desert) we have to irrigate everything and we have had a late melt this year (hasn't happened yet!) our irrigation water has been cut to only 60% of what we usually get. But we are finding that sawdust is good to put on top of tiny seeds so it will hold in the moisture better and give it more of a chance to germinate. Our tomatoes are pathetic, too. We are trying to germinate some more in the shop to supplement but something, a mouse?, ate almost all the tiny first leaves off 2 nights ago!

Well, I'd better get back to cleaning my craft room, any excuse to play seems more fun! If I'd quit being such a pack rat and if I'd put things back when I was done; I'd be someone else! Kind of like telling someone today my weeds are growing...like weeds!

Father's Day

Yesterday we ate our first spinach. It was sorta ugly because of the hail damage but once it was cooked until just barely wilted it was marvelous with the ravioli in Alfredo sauce. Store bought fresh spinach isn't bad but I swear our just picked stuff had the most wonderful nourishing taste, the essence of warm green vitamins filling winter's lack in your body. A spring tonic like poke greens and lambs quarter in the spring when we were kids. I often believe that our bodies have this sense of what we lack in the way of food supplied vitamins if we can hear it speak. But we tend to overeat and fill our stomach with convenient food rather than think what does my body need to survive. I also believe that we often confuse hunger with thirst. We are easily confused. But if you doubt, try for even just one day, and every time your body or mind says hunger, give it water instead. Yes, eat your three meals a day but all that inbetween stuff, take a drink of your body's main component, water. I think it will make you laugh at how you've been fooled.

Sabbath school class, this week read chapters 29-through the end of Job. Then we get to read the Psalms.

It's been a crazy week, Betty left to visit Michael (Washington) so I had her house to look after and then Mabel fell at the nursing home and ended up in the hospital with another break. Same side as one not yet healed. They are debating whether or not to do more surgery. Old people sure need good advocates, doctors just don't work well with them and this old person is often confused so what does she know and how quick will she forget, 2 seconds or maybe 1 hour. So I feel like a crazy person running from one house to another, hospital, nursing home (Merle is there) and then my own house. I managed to get Pat and his Dad's Father Day cards done in between frying chicken! The bad thing about being able to make cards, is now you are obligated to make all cards or you must not love them!

Speeaking of cards, this week is birthday card committee thursday at church, I feel like the rabbit in Alice of Wonderland, oh what will I do!

I did get in a couple of yard sales Friday morning before all this happened. I got a baker's rack for $10.00 which I promptly set up in my kitchen to hold all my jars of beans and pasta. I collect decorative glass canisters or containers with attractive lids and store my stuff in them because they look pretty. Now I have a bit more counter space and cupboard space. And let me tell you, my cupboards need re-organization again! How does this happen? Oh yes, I'm in a hurry and just shove it where ever! I also got a deck of cards from Shanghai China that says, Characters in Water Margin. The cards all have different chinese people like samarai warriors, peasants, etc on them. I don't know if this was a play or a painted piece of chinese art. Water Margin, guess I'll have to investigate. But I love the pictures and they will turn into some spcial cards with some chinese calligraphy rubber stamps. Okay, Water Margin is one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. It is during the Song dynasty or the 11th century.

The Annual Lamb Roast

The recipe for lamb roast was utterly delish! Those Greeks know how to cook lamb! This lamb was so yummy that I even liked it cold and before you could not have paid me to eat it cold. Of course the lamb was on the spit so all the grease came out, but something about the lemon juice made all the difference and while warm the oregano was evident but not overwhelming and it married in the lamb overnight to become one. Not as many people showed as we had asked but those that did show, I hope had as good of a time as we did. After the feast, Sharon played the keyboard, Sheryl the violin and Omar the harmonica. It is always so special to have live music and hear the musicians jam, first one starts some music and then the others come on one by one. Now we need more musicians and more parties! I'm thinking a fall harvest one could be fun! No one was a garlic aficionado, but several tasted it and pronounced it good. Best of all 3 people brought chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, each was different and each was yummy, I assure you! I enjoyed hearing a bit about Scotland from Matt, who is going to law school there. I always wish I could be everywhere at once and hear every one's stories. Doug and Coady brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers to adorn the table. All in all it was a great party for me and I had fun. Ryan and Crystal brought their little boy (4 months old) with them, our first glimpse, and he was a smiley baby and seemed intrigued by all the people he saw. His name is Osage River! I'd like to be a mouse when the first grade teachers get this new generation. There are some really unique names out there right now. Hope this encourages you all to try new recipes and have more parties! Ta ta!

Garlic Confit

For Christmas last year I gave Pat the cookbook How to Roast a Lamb, new Greek classic cooking by Michael Psilakis. We're having our annual lamb roast this Sunday and we're going to do it the Greek way. So I thought it might be time for me to deal with my garlic phobia (don't like). I bought a bunch of garlic and made garlic confit per the same cookbook. It does get sweet when cooked like that. I ate a whole clove all by myself. So much better than garlic salt! So now I'm the proud owner of 2 and 3/4 pints of garlic confit! It consists of 3-4 cups whole garlic cloves peeled (took me about 2 hours to peel all those!), whole peppercorns 15, kosher salt, fresh thyme (from my garden), bay leaves, and 1/2 canola oil and 1/2 virgin olive oil, roast in oven in a dutch oven @300 degrees. It took 1 3/4 hours for my batch. You can use the left over oil in the jar once the garlic is gone to drizzle over whatever you need. We'll serve some at the lamb roast and I'll let you know the verdict. I still have to make the barley salad and the tsatziki sauce (yogurt sauce with cuke, onion and mint that is delish with lamb).

devotion this am

From Charles Spurgeon, "We shall not be ashamed of our love. Jesus is to us the altogether lovely, and never, never, shall we have to blush because we have yielded our hearts to him. The sight of our glorious Well-beloved will justify the most enthusiatic attachment to him. None will blame the martyrs for dying for him."

pictures

The first picture below this is the dog in her bone chewing palace aka my herb and flower garden by patio. The 2nd one is Pat petting suffolk sheep and sleeping beauty racing to me as I try to take her picture so you can see she's growing up! All the other pictures I got of her she got so close that I could only capture part of her face, she runs well.

 

 

Brain Damage

Apparently, I have a severe case of brain damage. Class wasn't last night but next Monday! Oh well, I'm all preped for it now! Got up early and did my gardening job and it was nice to have it so cool but I felt confused all morning going to work 2 hours early!

When I got home Pat was gone on his jobs for the day so I laid down with the mail from yesterday, my options were Architectural Digest (AD) and Adventist World. I know hard choices! But I felt so sleepy so I chose Adventist World, the June issue. I think it is probably the best one yet! There is a web site about a creation movie presented in Germany that I want to check out www.dieSchoepfung.eu and then the article In God's Image by Richaard Spillman on creativity was great. Then The Greatest Story Ever Told by Connie Vandeman Jeffery and the section Ron's story was very touching, indeed, Jesus took our pain! And the very first of Small Things....can lead to great results by Ellen G. White says: "Our ministers are to go forth to proclaim the message of present truth to those who have not heard it. And our churches should not feel jealous and neglected if they do not receive ministerial labor. They should themselves take up the burden and labor most earnestly for souls." We forget that we are supposed to be fishers of men and to work along side with our pastors instead of waited for their sermons each worship day like little robots.

As I was reading a part of the magazine, I had this overwhelming need to stop and pray for someone, like the thought was put there by the Holy Spirit, such an urgent thing that I stopped right there and the words flowed into my brain. I was astonished! Now, I can't wait to see what God is going to do! And after that another person came to mind and I prayed for that person, too, but it was me this time not a powerful must do thing. I don't think I've ever felt such a thing before, truly.

When I finished reading the mag, I picked up AD but after a couple of pages my head jerked with drift off sleep and I took a nice nap. Then, after the nap, I looked at AD but I wasn't too impressed today, it was a good reminder about what is really important!

Well, it's time to water things and cook things and care for things...you know... LIFE.

chickens

Thought you might like to see a picture of my chickens. They are taking a dust bath in my new addition to the flower bed! Chicken names for the curious are: brown chicken and white chicken (we raised from chicks) and big mama, kevin, and chicken hawk which were gifts from someone who had to move and yes, kevin is a girl. Probably a bit of confusion occured in the one who named it. Kevin shrieks madly when you first pick her up but seems to like being held and petted. White chicken likes to chase after the dog and try to get the dog bones from her (Lacy). Lacy does not like this at all. The brown chicken lays green eggs.

 

 

The beat goes on

Remember the cookbook thing? Well, Lois gave me a copy of An Apple A Day, which was published in 1967 (3rd printing) by wives of Loma Linda University Doctors(Los Angeles, California) A vegetarian cookbook. I noticed the bread and cookie section were marked and stained with food, which means that was the good stuff. There were some pretty good quick breads recipes. Now, I just have to cook!

#2 scrapbook class meets here tonight. We're going to play with grunge paper die cut into bird cage and bird with separate wing as well as decoupage, paint, glitter, etc. to make a 3-D tag. It's a messy, do you own thing class. I hope they enjoy it.
I took a couple of pictures of the tag so I'll try to post them.

trial and error

Okay, I roamed about on my blog settings and layout and found a new layout I liked better and I think you can leave comments now, Darlene, and whoever else wants to. I sure wish I knew more about computer stuff. But I know once I quit learning or wanting to learn the neurons die fast and I'd like to keep all the little brain cells i have. But I sure do wish I had a computer savy kid!

Iris

thought you might like to see a couple of my iris