What's happening...baaabbbeeeeee ???

  Pulled some gorgeous carrots this morning. Thinking about making some vegetable soup to can.

 The chickens loved the carrot tops !!  This is the queen mother of the Buff Orpingtons,  Goldie.

 And this is the gorgeous Australorp.

  This is Brewster... he tries to be mean, but can't hold a candle to our last rooster!

And here are a couple of the youngsters, eating carrot tops. They do love their greens!

 Last stand of edamame

  Beautiful lemon grass !!

  Big pot of rosemary on deck.

  New green beans in foreground. Sweet potatoes in the background.  Swing and pond.

  My big beautiful coleus on the back deck.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

  That's it for Wednesday. There's other stuff out there...but....

  Yesterday the belt broke on the washer in the middle of a load of workclothes.  Son is going to check it out today and fix it (hopefully). I pulled the wet things out and hung them outside, even though they're have to be re-washed. Don't want them to mildew.

   Just closed everything up and tried to turn on the air..and something popped really loud when it tried to kick on. I can smell something burnt--electrical wires, I think. Damn.  It's always something.

 And the temp has already gone up 2 degrees in here.   Sigh.....

  Alright...gotta call the repair guy I guess for that....later taters....

Namaste.

Tickle me Tuesday...

  This is maybe one of the best salads I've made in a long time. 

 This might be a little better view...

  It's a minty peach and watermelon salad. Oh. My. God.  This recipe is heading for Dragon Womans Kitchen.

  The wrap was really good too. I originally intended to make a Mediterannean wrap, but wound up making a teriyaki tempeh wrap.  I had some leftover pinto beans, some leftover rice...I cooked the tempeh strips in olive oil and then simmered them in teriyaki sauce. I laid that on top of some julienned green onions from the garden, topped it with some leftover sliced black olives and a few leaves of lettuce from the garden. Wrapped it all up in a sun-dried tomato tortilla and ate like kings. YUM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  It's a scorcher out there.  95 already at noon.  I have been one busy beaver this morning...took the Irishman to work and kept his truck. Stopped at the Rural King and picked up 160 pounds of critter feed and came back home. Unloaded the truck, fed the critters, spent almost an hour watering the gardens and  flower pots. Then I went around front and hosed down the concrete (dog puke from yesterdays heat) and my rocking chairs and the shutters and stuff.  Watered the 2 pots hanging on the porch too.  Came back in the house to cool off for a bit and started some laundry.  I have 3 loads hung out to dry and I think that is all I'm gonna do. 2 of the loads are bedding from the spare room --full of baby chick dust!!   And one load of whites.  Not really that much of anything else, since I just did laundry on Thursday. 

  Then I headed back out to the garden and picked about 2 quarts of snow peas! And a handful of radishes. And some chard. I still have enough lettuce in the fridge, so I left it alone. That doers finish off the radishes though, so we need to get some more of those darling seeds in the ground.  I am thinking I will just do a big salad for supper. It's too hot to cook.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The doglets are all in the house. Most of the cats too. Can't say as I blame them. I don't want to go out again either.  But I do need to go pick up some straw. WHICH I WILL NOT UNLOAD BY MYSELF. (Just sayin'...)  The RK had straw for sale, but they wanted 7 dollars a bale for it. No, thank you.  I am already balking at having to pay 5....so that means I need to make a run into town. Actually, just outside of town--the other side, naturally. But it's either that or get it from the nursery, and I'd really rather buy from a local farmer.

************************

  Think I'll make myself a peanut butter sandwich for lunch...just wish I had some of that good milk from MOTS...I really need milk with my peanut butter....but don't drink enough milk to keep it on hasnd.  The Irishman drinks rice milk, which I'm not crazy about. It's okay for using on cereal, but I can't drink a glass of it. lol

   sigh...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Ok--I need to eat.  Then I might just take a nap, since I've been up since 5. I have to pick the Irishman up at 5:30, and in between now and then, vacuum, get some straw and ??? something.  I can't remember what.   I'm sure it will come to me...

lol

*********************

  TTFN....keep smiling, it helps!!

Namaste.

"Human kind cannot bear very much reality." ~T.S. Eliot

True words.  This explains our constant need for political debates and television.

***************************************

  I had a lovely day cleaning and cooking and having my sister and my sister-in-law to lunch today.  I made the most lovely Vegan creamy carrot soup and then a gorgeous salad of greens and red onions and bell peppers and radishes and carrots. I topped it off with a heart stopping pile of roast beef, ham and smoked turkey with Provolone cheese, on 15 grain bread and grilled. We talked and laughed and ate like big dogs. I am really blessed with a pretty wonderful family.

  After they were gone, I had a conversation with the electric company which resulted in cutting my bill nearly in half for this month and next. Yea....me!

  Then I ran to the post office to mail said check and stopped at the local market that was having a sale. I got chicken breasts for 1.39/lb...ground chuck for 1.99/lb and  country pork ribs for 1.89/lb.  I spent over 50 dollars, but stocked the freezer nicely.

  I've been home ever since. 

  It's cold out there, about 28 right now.  Expecting a hard freeze tonight...we'll see. They said there would be one last night too, but it didn't happen. Then the temps are supposed to steadily increase and get back up to the 60's and 70's later in the week. it never got above 50 today and the wind was pretty fierce, so it felt even colder. Good day for soup, and we had enough left over from lunch to have for supper too. 

   We've got the garden covered, but I'm afraid if it gets too cold we may lose most of it. I have turnips that need harvesting and a bed of kale to dry. Anybody ever do that?  Not sure if I want to just string it up somewhere or  use the dehydrators or what.  The kale needs a good freeze to bring out the sweetness. I have a bunch of green tomatoes out there too and I meant to pick them today to pickle, but I got way laid by my company and then forgot about it. Oh well. We'll see about them tomorrow morning. If  they're lost, they're lost. I hate it, but not much I can do now after midnight.

   Gonna cut this short and go to bed. I've been up since 5:30 this morning and am starting to run out of gas.

 Plans to make an apple crisp tomorrow and find other fun stuff to do, which  (as usual) will include chickens and food and love and happiness. The Irishman has a 10 AM appointment to get his tooth crowned and I don't really have any plans at all besides finishing the laundry I started today.  Gonna be a "seat of the pants" kind of a day, I'm guessing. Sounds great to me.

  TTFN. Sleep well and have a great weekend...

Namaste.

Lazy Saturdays...

  Even the dogs slept in.  All three of them are in here with me now, sleeping around my feet. This is my Caylee girl, who now has somebody (Bella) to boss around, and is exhausted by it all. She is ecstatic to have a playmate again, since Lucy has been gone she has been just lost.

  Bella is a big galoot. Her paws are already bigger than Caylee's and she is at least as tall. At 4 months old, I suspect she's gonna maybe be around 65-70 pounds eventually. She is acclimating well and loving having Caylee to play with. She is doing better on the housebreaking issue, but not perfect. Part of that, of course, is these two old humans trying to learn to read her. But, it's better already, after being here only a week.

  We went to dinner last night at our favorite Chinese place, and I ordered the wrong thing and didn't like it at all. And the place was packed and the service was not as good as usual, and I was cranky. We had plans that got changed at the last minute, so we just ate and came back home to watch a movie a friend had lent us. Called "Inception" with Leo de Caprio...a movie so action packed and frenetic I could barely keep up with it. When it was finally (over 2 hours!!)  over, I was exhausted. It was good, but so fast paced this old woman could barely keep up. Towards the end, even Bella was sitting up beside the Irishman barking at the television. After it was over and we had even closed up the cabinet, she still barked at it.  LOL

  It's 10 AM already and I haven't even fed the chickens. They always have food out, but mornings I throw scratch and crumbles down for them and we have our little daily get-together. Then I stroll through the gardens with my coffee cup in hand and exclaim over the progress or demise of things. Today I am lazy.

  Our local Sierra Club is having a workshop on Ethical Eating the end of the month. The Irishman is on the committee and so I shall go along. They will have interesting information and then a local vendor exhibit, complete with samples. It will; be at the Jacoby Arts Center, a lovely venue. All about local eating and organics and surely some vegetarianism thrown in for good measure.  Also about feeding the hungry and becoming more active in your own community in this area.

  I still have to finish the booklets I am preparing for my canning workshop and get them off to the CSA for publishing. I have been lazy about that too. I have started them though, and the workshop is not until October. Still...I have procrastinated something ridiculous.

  I need to rearrange my pantries and start getting canned beans and such put away. Rotating last years harvest (what's left of it) and putting this years stuff in the back. Cleaning out anything old enough to go away. Dusting and wiping and straightening. I have 2 big pantries and then a big 3 shelf cabinet in my kitchen as well.

  Okay. Nothing gets done when I am sitting here now, does it ?  So, I am off into my day, having a limited amount of time before I head down to MissB's house for my usual Saturday event. She timidly asked me if I had any fresh real tomatoes yet last I was there...so I shall gift her with one today. Thought I might also take some green beans (cooked) because it's one of the few vegetables she remembers growing herself, back in the day.  Apparently she and the mister used to grow some ferocious gardens back in the day, and she loves to tell me stories of growing up in the country and how her mother grew such magnificent vegetable gardens, and her father raised chickens and pigs and they always had a milk cow.  It was a good life, albeit hard at times. She was born in 1929...

  The heat wave is on its way back here (we had a couple of days of respite) and we haven't seen a drop of rain in almost 2 weeks. Things are looking a little raggedy out there, in spite of our attempts to keep things watered. You almost cannot water enough when the temps are nearly a hundred degrees...leaves are burning up, things are starting to crackel.

  Off I go.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!



Namaste.

And now...back to our regularly scheduled programming....

  It's a hot and humid morning here at Honeysuckle Hill. 73 degrees already at 7 AM and gonna climb to the mid 90's before it's all over. This is a picture of one section of the honeysuckle that climbs the fences on the front and sides of the house and driveway. It is absolutely lush this year, and the smell  knocks your senses for a loop every time you walk out the front door. I adore honeysuckle...it's one of my all-time favorite flowers and I don't care--no, I LOVE!!-- how invasive it is. I'm thinking seriously of transplanting some up onto my front porch rails. We already have bees all over anyway...and in a year or two, I would have a front porch rail covered in vines and flowers. They are pretty evergreen too, so it would be  nice in winter.

  The pickup truck is back in the shop this morning.  And now my little car needs a new battery. The light keeps coming opn, randomly.  I'm agonna take it down to Auto Zone and have them test it. It's at least 4 years old and I'm not sure what the life of a car battery is these days, but I'm guessing it's as short as everything else.

  Am I just getting old?

  It seems like nothing lasts anymore. Has the world of manufacturing forgotten how to make things that are not disposable?? Or am I just a naive idiot??  I am stuck in a warp of thinking that when I buy something, that should be it. It should live as long as I do. (Which is really scary, if you think about it). lol  I have always been like this. I guess I need to get over that, huh?


  I need to get out and finish mulching in the garden. Bales of straw are up to 5 bucks apiece this year...it's like mulching with gold.  I cannot believe how fast this garden is growing ...is that my age again??  lol  It all looks beautiful, I'll say that for sure. I already have a golf ball sized tomato on one plant...one that I missed, I guess, as I pull the flowers off them the first month or so, until the plants are bigger and well established. It's so cute, I can't bear the thought of pulling it off, so I'll leave it be.


  The chickens are laying well and happy, although it stinks over there from all the rain mixed with chicken poop mixed with grains laying about out in the run. The inside coop smells sweet from the fresh straw...whoever thought I would like that smell so much?   And the smell early this morning when I was out feeding the girls and the humidity and the dew and the drifting honeysuckle smells nearly made me delirious.

   Reading Ms Moon this morning, I am reminded about how much my world has shifted these past few years. As I enter an older and wiser stage of this existence. As I leap from the uncertainty of youth to the resigned uncertainty of old age.  As I find the joy and yes, Ms Moon, the kindness, of the life I have carved out for myself, I know deep down that truly, in the end, it will all be okay.  And if it's not okay, it's not the end.


  Now. Get back to your regular week...it's Tuesday for crying out loud....



  Namaste.

It's Thursday...and the sun is shining!!!

  Here's an early picture of the painting of the living room. I went through some anxious moments when I was second guessing myself about the color. In the end, I'm real happy with it.

  Here's a shot of the dining area, with some of the junk back on the walls. You'll be proud to know that I did scale it way down...lol  Either that, or I've just been too lazy to put stuff back up.  Crikey. Is that a cat sitting in the midle of my table??  Surely not...


  I was way too tired to post last night and was in bed before midnight.  I was up before 7 AM this morning and today and tomorrow I get to stay home and play, or go out and play, or just play and play.  Or work my butt off...which doesn't really appeal to me either. WHAT??  How about a little balance, you say?? How about a little work and a little play? hmmmm....what a concept.


  Yesterday morning  was  weird. I got a call from a lunatic woman across the pond from me, screaming at me and swearing at me and telling me to come get her dog because she was sick and tired of cleaning up after it. Before I could say anything, the gods intervened and she hung up on me. Somehow, I managed not to go over to her house or call her back. It would have been  a mess. As it was, I got angry, I got thoughtful, and I got busy thinking about something else.  I am constantly praying for compassion where she is concerned.  I wish that she and her husband would just move back to the city where they belong. I don't think it will be long. They have taken most of the trees off their 5 acre property because she "doesn't like trees".  She gets pissed becasue the ducks and geese make too much noise on the pond, and it bothers her.  There are bugs in her house, no matter how much Raid she sprays and the mice too...don't get her started on the mice.  I just smile and shake my head. This is country living, bitch.  Out here, you learn to co-exist on some small level with Mother Nature. Or--you go away. Becasue MN will win every time. They fight and scream and call each other vile names...and it all drifts across the water to my backyard.  I told her once that every time they fight, I could write a ttranscript of it. She said she didn't care. I said, well I care.  I care about havingt abusive energy and language assaulting my senses every time I go outside, or if my kitchen window is open.  She flounced off. (She's a flouncer).

   Sigh...

  I really wish I had 40 or 50 acres, so I could live in relative peace. Of course, I'd have to have a handsome young handyman to help take care of it all.  *snork


   I'm going to take my baby sister out for lunch today, if she's free, and maybe bring her home with me for a while. That means I need to get off here, get a tiny bit of straightening up done and maybe start a load of laundry.

  Then I'll make a nice supper for us and actually have an evening meal  with my husband.

  OOooo...the possibilities.

  For now, I have to check on my chickens. The rains have turned their chicken run into a muddy mess.  I'll feed them and talk to them and collect some eggs and maybe make a nice quiche or something. We'll exchange some chicken loves and then I'll mosey on into the day....



Namaste,

Funday Monday

  

It's been a long day...started off with an early physical therapy appointment. The place I'm going is staffed with some really nice people and today I did enough new stuff to make me very sore tonight.  I don't go back until Wednesday and it's a good thing...I might be ready by then.  Maybe. lol

Picked up the young Prince and headed for IHOP for lunch then came home to be amazed by all the new kitties and chicks. It's been a good day, full of the blessings of family and pets and lots of love.  

He's going to stay for several days as it's spring break. Trying to figure out what wonderful stuff we can do tomorrow. Should be lots of fun.

This morning when I went to clean up the area under my desk where the kittens were born, I discovered that sometime during the night, Blaze gave birth to one more kitten, so we now have 6. They are all so adorable and mewling like crazy, every time she shifts or leaves them.  They are so tiny...they look like little gophers. lol  The chicks are doing well in their cage in the spare bedroom. I can't stop myself from going in and picking them up all the time and loving on them.  They are adorable, and it doesn't take long for them to outgrow that stage. lol  I want to handle them as much as I can to keep them used to me and to know that I am their caretaker. That way they'll be much more user friendly when they get grown.

Nice weather today and predicted for the rest of the week. It's rather warm tonight and supposed to stay this way, I hope. I so want to get out and start planting some stuff in the garden,  Get some lettuce started maybe and some tomatoes. Hoping to sit down with the Irishman and figure out just what we're planting soon. Lots of things blooming around these parts, and the fruit trees are budding out too. Spring fever--I got it, baby!!

Gonna hit the hay...tired to the bone tonight. Looking forward to another day of sunshine and blue skies tomorrow.

Namaste.

Thursday's child has far to go....

Isn't this beautiful? Somebody worked on this piece of needlework for a long time...I found it at a flea market for one dollar. It graces my office wall. 

***************************

  As you can see, I didn't get on here to post this morning. lol  Maybe tomorrow.  But don't count on it.  LOL.  I started painting kinda early and between that and other chores, I didn't even get on here for a while. 

  Had a great gathering of girls tonight at the Thursday 7PM... several that normally don't attend, 2 of whom are very new to the game. It was quite lively and the time passed so quickly. I didn't get home until close to 10...

  Made bbq ribs for supper and then ate and ran...am paying for that now.  Burping like crazy. Not sure if it's the ribs or the garlic mashed potatoes... Had a good day today, a number of interesting coincidences showed themselves, and it was gorgeous weather. Hit 65 again today. Very sunny and just a tad breezy, but nothing too bad. The tornado watch petered out and we did get some thunderboomers. One of them, just as I was going to bed last night, was a doozy, and lasted close to a whole minute.  Exciting stuff!!  It even woke up the Irishman.

  More seed catalogs came in the mail today.  It has me wanting to plant something sooooo bad.  But my new mantra is ..."It's TOO early, it's TOO early..."  The month of March cannot be trusted, this much I know is true.  Even April is dicey...but by the end of the month, I will be starting flats. That should take the edge off it for me, lol.

Thinking about buying some baby chicks and seeing if I can't fool one of the hens into thinking they're hers. Then she'll protect them. It might not be a problem since there's no male anymore. Roosters are known to kill and eat baby chicks, so you almost always have to separate them from a new brood. Since there are only 3 hens, it might be an easier transition. Only one way to find out, I think.. The thing is, if the hens won't accept the babies, they will freeze to death out there.  If I keep them in the house until they're bigger, the hens won't accept them. sigh... I gotta tell you-chickens are some freaky critters....

  Gonna hang her up and go to bed.  It's a tad past midnight...and already I'm hoping I don't forget to turn the clocks forward Sunday early AM.  I am so ready to "SPRING forward" !!!!!

  Namaste.

Meandering through Monday...

It was a slow going laid back kind of day, for the most part. I took care of the little woofer, made sure she got her medicines at all the right times, cleaned up after her, and loved her UP. I straightened a little, I did some dishes, I fed some chickens. I took a nice long bath with water boiled on the stove, just like camping. Washed my hair and spiffed myself up. Felt much better after that...

The chicken and rice casserole was in the oven by 2:45, as it takes 3 hours to bake. I went online and paid some bills. I did a little reading from my new Amy Tan book. Talked to my neighbor on the phone for about half an hour--last night she had to call an ambulance and take him to the ER. His back is out and he couldn't get out of bed. He's a tall guy, probably over 6'3, and she couldn't help him, he was in excruciating pain. He's better today after all the percosets...lol

The pup update is that she is much better and walking more and even starting to be able to squat again. Bless her little heart...every now and again she twists the wrong way and cries out. She is still refusing to cooperate with the leash though. sigh...

It's been snowing for the past few hours, a light fluffy snow that has covered the car and yards. I have hubby's lunch made, his breakfast as well, and everything cleaned up. I'm ready to hit the hay...so sleepy I can barely keep my peepers open! I've been up since 6:30. Still not sleeping well, but maybe tonight...

I'm feeling a lot of gratitude today...my sister-in-law is celebrating 25 years sober tomorrow (or today). My friend is celebrating 4 years. There are more sober people in my life than there are drunks. Wasn't always so...

Tomorrow is the big day in Washington. It's amazing we survived to this point. It will be a historic day and I plan to watch the whole shebang on television.

My quote for today is from ~~Tolkien. It goes like this:
"Faith dares the soul to look beyond where the eyes can see."

I really like that...



Namaste.