It's Finally Spring!

We had a bit of  late winter with cold wind and rain.  The rain was wonderful but the cold was not so gratefully received by me.  I had to drag all the houseplants back in and the tomato and pepper plants that I had just hardened off for planting.  But it saved me from having to buy more because it froze two nights during that time.  I tried making asparagus soup out of the frozen stalks from the garden but I was not fond of it or maybe it was the psychological aspect of the limp spears that I had to work with. Now, Spring has truly arrived at last!  And now I'm getting rather tired of asparagus.  Tonight, I tried the unhealthy method of dipping the spears into flour, then beaten egg and then panko (Japanese bread crumbs), it was delicious as were the eggplant slices.  They had big, beautiful eggplant for $1.00 last week at City Market (King Soopers).  And it made us 4 meals, a few slices at a time.  I love Spring with all the yummy veggies and fruit coming into season somewhere in the world.  I, also love that my garden will be growing goodies for me to eat and  can for winter.  I have one jar of corn left and quite a few green beans left from last year and some tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.  Still have tons of jelly and pickles left so no more of pickles to can this year and I'll have to do a few jelly, I'm hoping for grape this year as have none of that.  It looks like no plums made it this year or peaches or apples at my grove.  However, the Nanking cherries will have some trees with fruit that survived the late freeze.  So far I have peas coming up and the tomatoes, peppers and cabbage and onions are planted.  I have to get the green beans and okra in, as well as squash and cucumbers planted.  Beets, too.
It's all hard work but rewarding.  Can't wait until the tomatoes get ripe!  I planted quite a few heirlooms this year, some that I have never tasted.  Planted 4 of my favorite Mr. Stripey, yellow with a rosy blush starting at the blossom end and growing outward through the tomato.  It's low acid and so juicy.  It makes lovely tomato juice, too.  Can't wait!
We had to kill one of our chickens tonight.  We'd been noticing her butt was always shitty (sorry couldn't think of a better word) but tonight a gross big shitty wad of flesh was hanging out of her anus and so we did her in.  Farming, what fun!  She went to the garbage, of course.
  I finally got the asparagus bed weeded out tonight.  Then after Pat went to bed, I finished the note card folio that I had started this am.  It turned out very cute if I do say so!  I now have all my planned acts of kindness gifts all done and will start mailing them Wednesday.    Time for"beddy bye." Goodnight.                                       

Good grief, it's May!

April came and went fast!  We had more winter during that time so it thwarted my Spring ambitions.  Pat and I with the help of a friend got the tiling started in the breakfast room behind the wood stove we are putting in and we have a lot more to go after we get the tile saw. 
The lambs are quite placid little sheep already except for Snow White which I call Grasshopper as she jumps up in the air all four feet off the ground.  She's getting a bit calmer but I still delight in her occasional forays into silly hood!
I have a new obsession!  I got into watching You Tube Artsy videos and found out it was like going to school  and you could learn all sorts of cool things and I found Kathy Orta Files and later many more.  So I became very excited about Kathy Orta Files and ordered her book.  As soon as I got it I started making the books that she had in her book.  4 in total and I completed them all and started making them all again and now I am just about all done with the projects for all the people on my Facebook planned acts of kindness.  I'm going to teach the first book to a class end of this month.  This weekend is National Scrapbooking Day celebration and I am going to play hooky and watch 3 special classes presented by Laura Dennison, Kathy Orta Files, and Kathryn Krieger.  I even bought myself some special  food treats like it is a sporting event!  I warned Pat about my plans; he's going boating with his friend Roger in their new co-owned motor boat Saturday.  So I'm having my own little "elk hunt", and we are having hotdogs Saturday night so I can stay up late and get up early to watch my "classes" with minimal work on the wife's part.
Lou, you mentioned wanting to know about the envelope punch board.  You can get it from Stampin' Up or We R Memory Keepers.  You can find tutorials on Pinterest and You Tube.  One of my favorites in Sam Donald's site Pootles on You Tube.  She's from the UK and a very good teacher. 
Well, it's heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work I go.  Got to plant peas today and hit the greenhouse before all the good stuff is gone as the weather is starting a warm up now.  I hope it's the final warm up that means Spring rather than the abrupt reversal back into winter that we just went through.  Happy Spring to all.

Surprise!

Thursday evening, March 20th, Pat and I were walking to the barn to do evening chores, when Pat says " Blackface has a baby!"  Sure enough the sheep we didn't know was pregnant as she was 10 years old and didn't have hers with the others, has a tiny little white lamb.  She was a 10 lb. 9 oz. little girl.  I named her Snow White.   Black Face was just talking like crazy to the little lamb and is extremely attentive to her!  It's sweet.  But as always Black Face only tolerated one day in the barn and then she kicks like a mule on the walls and gate of the lambing pen so we will let her out.  We hated to let her out as we had a cold spell arrive and the lamb hasn't developed a good fat layer yet but we had to.  I noticed that mama snuggles her little one up close when they lay down outside so the lamb can stay warm.  She is still very verbal and protective of her lamb.  I can't wait until it is really truly Spring and warm every day! 

The Meadowlarks Are Back

Yesterday, I knew it was Spring for sure now; because the meadowlarks are back!  It is so lovely to hear them sing.  I think it affected us more than we knew.  Pat plowed the garden and when he was done I slipped off my flip flops and walked in the dirt and it was really pretty warm.  The nights are still dipping quite a bit below freezing, however; so no planting quite yet unless I try peas.  I got the front flower bed raked and trimmed down.  Next I will need to do the back flower bed where the tulips are coming up thick. 

We are going to put a wood stove in the breakfast nook area to help heat the house this next winter.  so we had to move Pat's albino deer and case out to the shop for storage and we got that done yesterday, too.  Then, that evening we did the elastrator thing on all the little boy lambs.  Pat grabs them and I sit in a folding chair and hold them so Pat can put the elastrator band on their testicles, as all of them had dropped their testicles into their scrotums now.  They were all very good while I held them and it was amazing how big they had gotten since they had been born!  We must have done a good job as none of them laid down and acted in pain when we got done.  That always makes me feel better.  Because I hate to see my babies in pain! 

Now, it's Sabbath and I don't have any functions at church today; so, I am going to play hooky and let my sinuses drain and hack up the drainage when it makes me cough instead of taking cough suppressant and wishing I could curl up in the pew and sleep.  It seems to be Spring allergies already!  Now, for a little nap after breakfast!

Butternut Squash Rolls

Makes about 2 dozen.
375 degrees F. for 20-25 min.

1 pkg. dry yeast
1 cup warm milk and 1/4 c warm water (110-115)
3 T. softened butter
2 t. salt
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. mashed cooked butternut squash
5-5 1/2 c. flour, divided

In mixing bowl dissolve yeast in water and milk with sugar and let yeast work about 2 minutes, if yeast doesn't make foamy isles then throw away and get fresh yeast.  Now add rest of ingredients and 3 c. of flour.  Beat until smooth.  Add remaining flour as needed to make a soft dough.  Turn out on floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top also.  Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.  Punch dough down and form into rolls on a greased pan and cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 min.  Then bake. 

These have a lovely color with the flecks of squash throughout.  So now you know what to do with extra butternut squash.  I package 1 c. of cooked squash and zip lock bag it in freezer and when I'm ready to make rolls, I nuke a bag until it is warm and then add it to the dough. 
 

First week of retirement over

Well, last week was my first week of retirement.  No other jobs than home, supposedly!  I was very good and assigned myself tasks for each day and marked them off as I did them.  Then Thursday I gave in and had a bit of fun learning how to make cool things with my newest toy, an envelope punch board.  Mine is from Stampin'Up (SU).  We Are Memory Keepers has one, too.  They work the same but WAMK has a blue punch button and scorer.  They not only make envelopes in whatever size you need but they make cute boxes and gift bags and other cutesy things.  I've been watching tutorials on You Tube and learning lots.  I wish I was getting commission on all the ones I've told people about who ordered them!  I've been with Close to My Heart (CTMH) for 6 1/2 years and I'm kind of wishing I was with SU.  Have been attending some classes for SU in Grand Junction with a friend and I really like the emphasis on tools that they are into.  I think CTMH is falling behind.  They, CTMH, is into the Cricut (an electronic cutting machine) but I really like the new thin metal dies to use with the BigShot.   This probably looks like Greek to someone who doesn't do all this stuff but you should learn, it is FUN!    Take classes, and if you don't like the teacher, find a new one.  Everybody has different ideas of what and how they are taught.  I've also found as a teacher that some students are not easy to teach and you may have to help them find someone else, put in a different class or teach them on a one to one basis or tell them goodbye.   As a student, I don't care as long as I get to learn new stuff.
 So, I have the grapes pruned, the asparagus bed cleaned and most of the weeds in garden in a big pile to burn.  I am once again re-arranging my craft room.  Will I ever figure out the right way to set it up so it will function at it's best?  I am trying to set up a beading area, plus a stamping, paper area to work with all my various tools and then there is polymer clay and good grief, I need a barn.  I have the counted cross stitch in the bedroom and the knitting and crochet in both the living room and bedroom.  Then there are the books and magazines I can't part with.  My obsession with cookbooks, is getting out of control, but I even like to read them, too, from cover to cover.
Today I had a class with a lady who is sweet and 82 but poor memory.  I'm relieved when it is over. 
Well, I'll bake buns tomorrow for hamburgers for supper.  Think I'll make the butternut squash ones.  Need to make cookies, too.   
 

God's promises are for us today

We are having many problems with Pat's dad.  He's becoming quite delusional and paranoid.  The reason, we moved him over here was Pat's love for his dad and that he was becoming more and more in need of help and we worried that in his declining years he would have no one.  In the process of all this we found he was depressed and somewhat mentally ill.  But it has reached the place where we can not be around him as he has a long list of litanies about all the things we do or don't do and more and more of it is not true.  It hurts Pat horribly.  Pat's dad is instead now fond of his son-in-law who's wife is dead and is now openly in a relationship with the woman who he was cheating with while his wife was alive.   The wife was dad's daughter!  Pat had another episode with his dad yesterday.  This morning, I was reading my Bible chapter for the day.  II Chronicles 20:12 says "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You."  God informed the king who prayed this that the battle was not his and he was not to be discouraged or afraid,  that the battle was God's.  I thought that this verse and story was so how we should handle this situation.  Then I thought there was probably some of you who could use this verse in your lives, also.  Hence the new post.  Read the whole chapter to see it in context and to find out what God did.  May God touch you today as you read His word. 

Tomatoes in Winter

Monday, Pat and I had our first homegrown tomatoes.  They were small but oh so good!  You see, I grow them indoors.  Each fall I chop off some good looking pieces of tomato plants and bring them indoors and root them in water.  They root rapidly and with great enthusiasm.  Then I plant them in big pots and grow them in my west window.  I seem to have the best luck with Roma tomatoes,  but I'll try anything once.  They don't do much until the end of December and then something happens and they start to go nuts.  I pollinate the blooms with a paintbrush or a Q-tip, pretending I am an indecisive bee.  Going from one to the other and back again.  Two of my plants are not happy and have just a couple of tomatoes on them and the leaves say, " excuse me but I am weary of growing!" 
The Roma tomato though has 14 tomatoes on it so far and 2 are starting to turn.  I wish I had a south window but alas I do not.  These tomatoes keep our hearts happy until Spring and zucchini time.  However, by the time the garden tomatoes are ready, we are ready to be tomato gluttons once again and marvel at the luxury of having plates full of red and yellow tomatoes and 2nd and 3rd helpings, if we desire.  We laugh about our winter ecstasy of a tiny tomato cut into quarters so we get 4 bites out of a tomato that could be eaten in one bite.  A bit of a good thing is better than none.
 Speaking of zucchini, I found a really good fast recipe for zucchini fritters in an Amish cookbook that I only tweaked a little and Pat and I love it. 

Cast Iron Skillet Zucchini Fritters
2 c. grated zucchini, skin and all
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated.
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 c. flour
salt to taste (about 1/2 teaspoon)
Cavendar's Greek seasoning to taste (about I teaspoon)
Mix all together and drop by spoonful, then flatten, into hot vegetable oil.
Brown until crisp on both sides.
Serve immediately. 

It may seem strange to add all that flour but it soaks up the juice from the watery zucchini and makes a nice firm patty.  Since I added way more onion (we love onions) and added the Cavendar's and cooked it in a cast iron skillet I renamed it. 

The cookbook I found it in is:
Cooking with the Horse and Buggy People II
from the 207 women of Holmes County, Ohio

We have a lot of Mennonite people in the area and they have a small store where you can buy some things in bulk and others in small packages that they portion out the bulk into at the store.  You can also buy a few cookbooks and other interesting things.  I bought some pretty cookie sprinkles lately.

For those of you who don't like onions, do like I do with garlic, start out with a tiny bit and then work your way up to more.  Onions are known to strengthen the nerve synapses so they can better carry messages to your brain.  And garlic has great benefits regarding preventing colds and infections so....I am learning to use garlic. 
Funny how if you grow up not eating certain foods you have to make yourself eat them and other foods, you love the first time you taste them.  I adore all olives and some say that it is a genetic trait to prefer them.  The first time I ate Mexican food I loved it, even though I'm a baby about too much heat. (What's not to like about pinto beans!)  And the first time I ate Greek food, I knew I was really part Greek!  But, durian fruit, who ever decided that it would be good to eat had no sense of smell or taste, in my book.  And why would anyone ever think of eating an octopus!  Did they catch one and just think it gross and threw it in the fire and then some brave soul say hey, it smells good, let me taste it?  And then they all decided to taste it and pronounced it good? And  currently chefs, are using squid ink in their cooking and people are eating it and smiling after a bite with black teeth and lips and tongue!  Please!   I think durian might be preferable!  Anyway.  Happy eating what ever you like!  Spring is coming! 

I think I am going to try more heirloom seeds this year.  The best two catalogs I have found are Seeds of Change and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  Both are good reading, too.  I'm going to place my seed order in Feb. after my old age check comes in.  They say you should actually order in January,  but in January I'm not quite ready to garden yet.  February though, I've had it with winter!  Bring on Spring!

The last lambs

Mon the 27th of January, I got home from my job and found Brownie barely dilated but with 2 little hooves and a nose protruding.  So I raced to the house and changed into farm clothes (which means I look like the little match girl or worse).  I get back to the barn yard and tried to get a gloved hand into the sheep so I can help her and the dog runs over and the sheep jumps up and insists she must have her lambs in that very spot outside but not with a dog.  So I run the dog to the house and lock her in.  I call my father-in-law to see if he could hold the sheep down while I assist her but he is leaving for an appointment.  It's been a half hour now at least with the sheep in this condition and the lamb in same.  So as I run back to the barn, I tell God He has to help me because He is all I've got.  Well, God was  enough.  Just as I got to the gate, the sheep stood up and splatted out the lamb.  Little arms and legs everywhere (oops, no arms just legs!).  I thanked God!  Then the ram decided I and the sheep needed attention so I had to lure the ram into the feeder area and lock him in and then grab the lamb and race hunched over with it so the mother could see him and follow to the barn.  I get the mother and baby into the stall and start drying the baby off as he is shivering.  Used up my barn towel supply so I run to the house to get more.  When I get back to the barn, Brownie has had another lamb, a little girl.  The little boy is brown and named Mr. Miracle and the little girl is white and is named Cream.  Both are doing well.  It's like Siberia outside but the lambs dance about like it's July.  I notice they keep track of Mom real well.  That life giving warm milk is the key to their survival. 

Yesterday, Joan (Marty's niece) called us to let us know our neighbor, Charles Marty, died.  It will seem so strange without him around anymore.  But we are glad he could go.  The end of life when you get old is no fun and the last breath is welcome.  I guess the government owns the place now.  Something about when his wife died and needed a nursing home he got to keep the land and house until his death and then the government got it.  Marty (he went by his last name) was quite a character and he decided to give the government some fun when he died so he hauled a lot of junk onto the property.  I've never seen so much trash.  Pallets to make the city folks that make all that stuff out of pallets green with envy, if they weren't so rotted now.  Wire hangers to hang a million tail pipes up in the inner city.  Stuff like that.  I try not to look too closely when I have to go over there!  He has bunches of mink cages lining his driveway on both sides and its a good length of driveway!  Well, his hauling is over and now someone else will be doing it in reverse. 

Monday, Monday, once again

January 27th:  Friday night our Suffolk sheep had 2 lambs, a boy and a girl.  Since it was  my brother Paul's birthday I named the boy Paul and the girl Bev.  Then yesterday Rosie had babies.  I found one laying on the ground half frozen and the other had just been born.  I grabbed the frozen lamb and put in barn and then grabbed newborn and got mama Rosie to follow me.  After they were in a stall I grabbed frozen one and raced to the house and wrapped it in a big flannel sheet.  A swaddled lamb!  I raced back to barn and fixed up mama and a little boy.  Then to the shop to get bottles and milk replacer and diapers.  Then back to house.  The little girl was very, very cold yet and her face appeared deformed.  Her upper jaw wasn't as long as the lower jaw and her nose area wasn't well developed but she was so close to death that her lower jaw jutted out very pronounced so I wondered if once she relaxed and got warm if she would appear better.  So I made some formula and dribbled a bit in her mouth which she swallowed little of.  I ended up just holding her on my chest as I half reclined in my chair and talking to her and petting her and I got a bit of eye response and later a few noises, no true baa.  After about an hour of holding, she died and as her face relaxed, you could tell that she was definitely deformed and would not have been able to nurse or eat normally so it was good that she could go.  I named her Petunia.  I saved her so Pat could see her when he got home from ice fishing.  The little boy hasn't been named yet.  He is a little frail acting.  One more very pregnant ewe, Brownie,  left to have babies yet.  If Black face is pregnant, we can't tell so we rather suspect she is past her breeding life.  She is 10. 

Saturday afternoon, we went and saw our neighbor, Charles Marty, which everyone just calls Marty, at St. Mary's hospital in Grand Junction.  His niece said his heart was working at about 20% and his kidneys were failing.  We wanted to say goodbye, so to speak, while he was still alive.  He woke up and talked a bit to us but he was coughing a lot due to congestive heart failure.  He told us they were practicing on him so they could help someone else down the road!  Which is sort of the way it goes, isn't it!  I peeked at his urine bag and saw the urine was black.  Not a good sign!  So we hope Marty can go soon and without much more fiddling.  But the niece told us yesterday they were going to check out his lungs and see if he had blood clots there.  No rest for the dying. 

Well, in a brighter note, God goes through everything with us.  So we can rest in His arms when we get tired.  Take care and have a peaceful day as Jesus walks with you as surely as He walked with the disciples on those dusty roads of Galilee.  He'll wash your feet, too. 

The first lambs

7:45AM 1-14-14
Pat called me from the barn this morning, I said, "do we have babies?"  He said," I see one so far."  So I quick bundled up and went to the barn.  Little Girl had 2 babies sometime last night.  They were both nice and dry.  The little boy is the biggest and has white markings amid the chocolate; including a bull's eye around one eye!  Hence his name will be Bull's Eye.  The little girl is a tiny thing and solid chocolate as far as I can tell now.  Both appear to be little hair sheep so I suspect that Cocoa Puff snuck one in before we moved him in the ram pen.  I will name the little girl, Midge (short for midget).  Pat and I will weigh the babies and put a tag in their ear and notch the boy ear tonight, as he had to hurry off to work.  We found it's a lot easier to find the boys when their ears are notched. 
     Last night when I was doing chores, a huge hawk flew into the willow trees by the chicken yard.  So today I'll weave some baling twine across the top of the chicken yard as Pat says they don't like to go where their wings could get caught.  The chickens are confined to the pen for at least 1 week and maybe two.  We had a hen, last late summer, make her nest in the barn to set on.  And we left her and she raised her babies there and they called it home.  It was a dreadful mistake on our part.  The chickens roosted up in the rafters and did Vitamin S all over the barn and everything in the barn.  So, Sunday morning Pat eliminated 4 roosters and 1 hen that didn't cooperate. Then Sunday evening, we clipped all the chickens wings on one side so they couldn't fly out of the chicken yard and got the 2 hens from the barn and put them in with the other chickens.  Now they have to learn this is their home and here is where they lay their eggs.  One rooster escaped, but he is a bantam and has been roosting in the willow trees all winter long.  One night in December, it rained and froze and then snowed and we thought surely he would go to the barn with the other chickens but no, he's a tough bird.  Well, I'd better get with it.  Have to bake bread and make cookies today.   

A New Year

It has been almost a year since I posted last.  I'm ashamed.  But last year was interesting.  We had, probably, our last annual lamb roast.  We continue to downgrade our sheep population as we are getting old and with Pat working full time plus extra,  making hay is difficult to find time for.  Plus we have had little snow pack on the Grand Mesa the last couple of years, so the irrigation water supply was greatly decreased.  Which means no water to grow hay.
     This fall, I decided to quit several of my part time jobs so I could concentrate on growing more of our own food and canning much more.  Last summer I canned spaghetti sauce and it is so great to be able to open a quart of homemade sauce and it saves on the budget.  So this coming summer, I am also going to make pizza sauce as I have a great dough recipe now and I adore pizza.  I found a good site for ordering cheap books,  Alibris!  I ordered, Food For 50 , which will probably be an adequate size recipe for me to can new things.  Plus I ordered, What Can I Bring Cookbook by Ann Bryn and Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka.  I love Kafka's cookbooks, they are fun to read as well as good recipes.  And the cookbook by Ann Bryn is really good.  I have tried 3 of the recipes so far and they are keepers.  The savory cheesecake was good and impressive.  The spinach balls are a great appetizer which you can freeze and cook in 12 min when you get to where you are going.  The lemon cheesecake with gingersnap crust was good.  She also tells you the best way to transport your finished dish to the potluck or party to keep it beautiful and safe to eat.  I am doing a church vegetarian cookbook and it has really forced me to find good food recipes to fill in the gaps.  It has also gotten me excited about cooking again.  I had gotten bad about convenience food and thought it saved time but actually if you have a good recipe and the food is in your pantry you can make it from scratch just as fast and the taste is far better.  So, it proves you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. 
       Apparently, our removal of the rams from the ewes was not soon enough and now we are going to have lambs in winter!  We only have 5 ewes and 2 of them will be having their last lambs due to age.  It is so sad to grow so close to them and then have to get rid of them.  We've had them since 2004!  Now I just hope the babies live and their mothers love them all.  I really don't want a lamb to raise by bottle this year!  I've found that the lambs don't survive well unless I throw them in bed with me and diaper them and truly become their mother.  The lambs however think that they are supposed to eat paper if they hang out with me and poo-poo (or vitamin S, as Pat calls it) if they hang out with the dog.  So I have learned to let them go to live with the other sheep much sooner than they are ready to go just so they will learn to eat grass.  Then I have to run out with supplemental bottles several times a day.  Boy, those little lambs come running when they see me coming with a bottle, baaing all the way!  Does a mother's heart good! 
     So, I will try to keep you informed of this year better than I did last year!  Love, me