Monday has a mind of its own...

  My Mothers Day herb pot from my husband...loaded with goodies like basil, sage, oregano, thyme, and mint.  It's sitting out on my back deck on the corner...

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  We had a great day yesterday, my son came over and spent the day with his old mam.  He and the Irishman spent several hours planting things and cleaning up some things and working around outside. They had as good a time as I did watching it. lol  Then we had a big late lunch of burgers and corn cooked on the grill, potato salad and Chinese slaw. We all ate until we couldn't move. A good MD indeed, and he brought me the sweetest card and I am one of the luckiest moms I know to have such a handsome, talented and brilliantly loving man for a son.  Feelin' the love, baby!  lol  They can't know what it means to me to be able to cook for them and sit and enjoy a meal.

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  Today I am going to try to get some things caught up...need to make bread, need to do laundry, need to hoe some weeds out of the potatoes so we can straw them.  Going to take it easy on myself, as my back is hurting and there's no need to get crazy about getting things done. The house is okay, as I cleaned like a dervish on Saturday. The only thing left to plant in the garden is the quinoa, and a little pot of extra basil that I got. We got the onions in last night, a little late, but they'll be okay. I am going to go to Pappy's and pick up some more onion sets while they still have them, and hopefully I can figure a way to keep them until late fall, so we can plant them properly for next year. I want to put in garlic then too.  I have 2 celery ends too, that I'll put in to see if they'll grow. They've been sitting in a dish of warm water over night. Supposedly this works, and then you can harvest a piece or two at a time as you need to. Fun, huh?  Sounds like a 3rd grade science project. lol

  I bought a couple of hanging pots yesterday when I went to Dollar General to get a new hummingbird feeder (lost one to breakage last year). I'll get those planted with some petunias or something. I also have about 5 pots of Impatiens and Dianthus' all pinks and reds and whites that need to be put in pots out on the front sidewalk. I might get that done today.  If not, tomorrow will work too. It's a beautiful day, and the wash will be going to the clothesline. What I like about that is that it sets a nice steady slow tone to the day...something about those clothes flapping on the line...

  Hope you all had a Happy Mothers Day and that you're not suffering the overnight invasion of ants like I am.  WTH ????  The kitchen counter AND my desk are crawling with them..

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  My garden is looking good. The peas and green beans are about 3 inches high, the potatoes are going crazy. The squash is starting to poke through, the peppers and tomatoes are  thriving.  I just love this time of year. My kimchi is starting to bubble...and oh--I just ordered a book on Amazon that is about preserving food without freezing or canning. It's done by a collection of authors and Eliot Coleman is one of them. He has written several books on year round gardening (and he lives in Maine!!) one of which I bought himself for Christmas a few years back. But it's  a treasure trove of information on drying, salting, fermenting, etc. And I [finally] ordered an olive oil sprayer for my kitchen. No more aerosol cans. The only thing I ever bought in one of those damn cans, and felt guilty about it every time. lol

  Okay--I need to get moving.  Have a lovely Monday, everyone !!!

Namaste.

The Chicken Wrangler

Rooster boy, staring straight into the camera.

  Yesterday was a busy beautiful outside day.  Temps never got above 72, the skies were sunny and bright. I got my old lazy butt out there about 10 o'clock and started spring cleaning the hen house. I raked all the straw out, took the feeder and water bowl and laying box out.   Took an old broom and swept down all the cobwebs from the walls and ceiling,  Then I drug the hose over and started spraying out the inside, poured half a gallon of white vinegar onto the floor and started scrubbing down the floor, roost, and whatever else needed it. It was a nasty job that took about 3 hours, start to finish, including drying time. Then I went out into the chicken run yard and started digging up some of the wetter places out there and spreading soil around. I brought out the bag of pine shavings I was using in the little pen and spread some of those on the floor of the henhouse and on the ground outside. They are a great deodorizing absorbent material. .  Then, I went to the other side of the run and cleaned out the little cubbyhole that the big chickens will be sleeping in for a couple of days, until everybody gets used to each other, and put in clean pine as well as some straw.  I pulled the fence divider across the middle of the run and went in the house to start bringing the chicks out.

  That was fun.

  I decided that using a cat carrier would be an easy way to transport them by myself, and so I brought one ion and started catching chicks. That was an ordeal, as when I opened the top of the pen to get them out, I caught one and picked him up, put him in the carrier...and 2 of them flew out into the room, screaming their bloody heads off.  LOL So, I had to catch them and that took another half an hour, as I had left the closet door open and one of the Orpingtons headed straight in there.

 Understand this: it's not your ordinary closet.  It's a pantry/Fibber McGee's closet.  Plenty of places for a frightened chick to snuggle into and try to hide.

  I finally had them all out into the great outdoors. Actually I put them into the coop, where they stayed most of the day...finally venturing out near evening. They would come to the door and look out, but not come down the ramp.  I tried to entice them with some greens and seed sprinkled at the doorway and at the bottom of the ramp, but they were having none of it. Finally I just left them alone and they came out on their own.

  This morning I went out and unlocked the door to the coop and within minutes they were out scratching in the dirt.  So far, so good.

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  I planted the Christmas Pole Lima beans yesterday too.  At the base of the teepee trellises.  Last night, while I was gone to a birthday meeting, himself planted butternut squash. Today, I am going to plant the salad bed. And maybe mow some more. Looks like himself is going to be working OT again this Friday, so more of this stuff is falling on me. It's okay...

  It's a cool morning today, about 58 degrees.  Supposed to warm up and not rain,. so that's a blessing. Lots to do and I am stalling to not get going, lol.  Think I'll run out to the garden and snip some chives and some kale and come in and have some scrambled eggs before I get too busy and don't eat. It's 10 AM already, and I've wasted about enough time.  :)  

  Everyone --have a great day. Go easy. Have some fun.  Look for the beauty in your world.

  I'm gonna go fill some bird feeders!!

Namaste.

Rainy Day Woman...

Lazy Day woman, that is.

  This mornings rain made it really hard to get out of bed this morning. At about 6 AM I was awakened by a nasty charley horse in my calf, and my screeching brought the Irishman running in to rub down my leg, as much as I could stand for him to touch it.  Need to get some bananas.  It subsided quickly enough and though it's still a little sore to touch, it was enough of an excuse to make me snuggle back into the covers and sleep for another two and a half hours.

  Finally I was up, if not completely att'em.  Slow going for awhile...as I piddled and had coffee and mucked about.  Now it's 1 in the afternoon and I have a load of laundry going and some oats toasting in the oven to make a batch of granola.  I need to vacuum ion a bit, and maybe dust...doesn't look like there's much I can do outside as it's still raining off and on--a soft rain, as the Irish call it.  But we have enough granola bars for a few more days, so I can put those off until later in the week.  A slow and easy kind of a day. I have to go somewhere tonight after supper and then tomorrow night too. I'll probably not leave the house the rest of the week. lol  I am so grateful that I love my home and I love being in my house.

  Somedays  I feel so blessed to have my life. lol  I mean this one--where I am a bit crippled up, so it's justifiable that I never jump on projects and go like a madwoman until they're finished. Perfectly. There's always the off chance that I would have grown out of that kind of behavior...maybe.  But it doesn't matter...my Creator decided it was time to stop me in my tracks, as it were.  To pull the plug on that working life where I never had enough time to do anything but work and sleep (it seemed like) and enough money to easily get by.  Now I have all the time in the world, just enough money to squeak by month to month, and no energy or physical ability to do so much.  And all that really means is that I have to prioritize my world better...so, I work a bit and rest a bit and work a bit and do as good a job as I can do and let it go.  The old perfectionist has left the building.My house doesn't have to be drill sargent inspection clean. Tidied up is good enough most days. Or, clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy, as my little wall trivet says. lol  

   Time to go stir the granola.  It's in the oven now, toasting away. Full of yummy stuff like flax seeds and dried cranberries and almonds and walnuts and sunflower seeds and rolled oats. And honey and barley malt syrup for sweetening. It's never the same twice...sigh...lol

    The honeysuckle has just exploded around here.  I went out last night to shut the chickens up and it was so humid and the scent hung on the air heavy enough to take your breath away.  It was wonderful...all the flowers are blooming like crazy and my potatoes need strawing--I might go out there and see if I can't at least do that a little later. It's pretty wet out there, still misting...I really need to get out and scrub down that chicken coop too...sigh...

   Yesterday we went to lunch with a friend after the meeting, then drove out to Godfrey to the open house at the La Vista Community Gardens. That was great. By the time we got home it was clouding up and we kind of lost all motivation to get anything done. So while the Irishman lolled about on the couch, I decided to make crackers to go with the big salads we were having for supper.  Found a really easy recipe and made a batch and we ate and then we were done for . lol   I'm feeling kind of like I should accomplish SOMETHING today...anything....lol

   So, I'll do a little laundry, make a little granola, vacuum a little and have supper ready by 6 PM. Not sure what I'm having, but it'll come to me--one thing you can bank on--it's gonna involve that big bowl of already cooked brown rice that's in the fridge.  

   Have a grand (if moist) day !!!

Namaste.

A lovely Saturday...

  The view out my office window....

     It's been a lovely Saturday...started off with a meeting where a friend picked up a coin for 30 years.  Saw several people I haven't seen in a while too. After that I headed for the big city of Edwardsville to pick up a few things--dog biscuits, water clarifier for the aquarium, and some millet sprays  for the bird.  I also got some giant rawhides for the 3 big dogs and a peanut butter one for little Roxie.  Then I went to the big market there and got more soy yogurt, a few odds and ends, whole wheat pastry flour, chia seeds...some different things that I need to make crackers.  THEN, I went to a place called CBW (Crazy Bowls and Wraps) and got 2 gorgeous wraps for our lunch, one veggie wrap and one Mediterranean wrap. BY now, it's about 12:30 and a gazillion degrees out there. It was so hot...I got home just ahead of the Irishman , unloaded the car and got the food mostly put away when he came in starving. We ate and I talked him into helping me with all the vegetable chopping to get the kimchi started.  For about half an hour we stood side by side chopping assorted cabbages, daikon radish, carrots, ginger, garlic and kale. Once it was in the bowls and soaking in the brine, he retired to the couch and I set about trying to figure out what kind of dessert to make to take to the dinner we were invited to. Some friends were camping in a nearby campground and invited us out to join them for the evening meal. Of course we were delighted and when my husband asked what we could bring, they said "Dessert!"  lol

   I had a couple of quarts of strawberries, so I thought strawberries and homemade buttermilk short cakes , with a lovely clotted cream to top it off would be perfect.  All in all, it took me about another hour to get that all made and then we were ready to go.  It was so hot and humid, but once we got to the campground, it had started getting a little breezy, which certainly saved us.  It was quite pleasant out under the trees.  We had a delicious meal of roasted vegetables in a cast iron dutch oven over the campfire and a Waldorf salad made by the lady of the camp. lol 

  Isn't it amazing how good food tastes when you don't have to cook it yourself  ???

  We had a lovely evening full of laughter and food and intelligent conversation--it doesn't get any better than that.  We got back home here around 9:15...

  At 11 PM, it was still 83 degrees.  Tonight is the "Super Moon"...and it really does look pretty awesome. We have had to turn on the central air in here and thank goodness we did...Of course, now, I feel chilly.

    There is one of those tiny little jumping frogs in here. I don't know where it came in, but it hopped right through the office door here and has made himself at home. I tried to catch him, to put him  back out, but with no luck. He's too little to cause much more than a passing glance from the dogs,  I just hope he doesn't die in here. That is my biggest reason for wanting to catch him.

   Now I see one of those big giant spiders back in here again too...criminey.  Did they all just hear that the air was on and come running?? LOL

    Time for me to shut this day down and put 'er to bed.  Tomorrow promises to be full and busy...the local CSA is having an open house and we thought we might go out. It's only from 12-2...during the hot part of the day anyway and we can't do much then.  If we have any sense...  Gonna try to plant some more seeds tomorrow and get a few things done...the potatoes need strawing and blah blah blah...lots of little things to do.

  Have a marvelous Sunday, y'all...

Namaste.

...and I'm still so thirsty...

  This was me today.  lol

  I got up early, thinking I'd knock out a lot of things that needed doing. Was up and dressed by 7 AM. Went outside to check the grass, since mowing before the next band of storms comes through was # 1 on my list.  It was really wet from the dew, so I started the first load of laundry.   I took it outside to hang on the line and started the second load. By 10 I had 3 loads all washed and hanging outside. The grass was starting to dry out and it was getting hot.  (BTW, at 7 AM it as already 72 degrees.)

  I went in to feed the chicks and realized that I was past due time to clean out that dang pen again.  They are getting so big that they are messing it up faster and faster. It was nasty and smelly and it took me almost an hour to get it all cleaned out and get the fresh pine shavings down and the feeder and waterer cleaned and refilled. Yuck, Yuck and Double Yuck.

  Anyway, it was almost 11 by the time I started getting ready to mow.  I had sent the Irishman to the gas station last night to fill the gas can so I wouldn't have to go (or carry it in the car). I picked up a new pair of garden gloves the other day and was all ready to go.

  This is the area that needed mowing. The mower, however, had other plans and refused to start until I cursed long enough that it got tired of hearing me and then started.  A little later I was going through some particularly thick grass and it bogged down and sputtered to a stop and didn't want to start again.  I finally got it going and thought--I'm going to keep mowing until I run out of gas or finish...I'm afraid it won't start again. 

  That was a big mistake.

  I did finish the front yard, but that was it. I think I had a touch of heat stroke...I got violently nauseous and dizzy and could barely get myself into the house. I was soaking wet with sweat and my head hurt and I was exhausted.  I went to the sink for a glass of water, and put my wrists under the cold water, trying to cool my body down.  I was afraid to get in the shower, because I was feeling like I might faint...so I stood there like a fool, splashing water on my face and keeping my wrists in the water and soaking a dish towel in cold water and putting it on the back of my neck.  I looked in the mirror and saw a beet red faced wild woman looking back at me. yikes.

  After I felt a little cooler, I grabbed another glass of water and went into the living room and lay down on the couch.  I stayed there for the next 3 hours, 2 of which I slept off and on.

 Freakey Deakey.

  I still am not right, and am still drinking fluids like crazy and feel wiped out. Am going to bed as soon as I finish this.  I do feel much better though, and have learned a very important lesson.  I AM NOT 25 ANYMORE.

LOL

Needless to say, the hostas, yuccas, oregano and chocolate mint are still not in the ground. Maybe tomorrow?

Depends on the weather and on how I feel.  No more pushing it like I did today.

  The craziest part of all this is that it wasn't really that hot today, high 80's with a heat index into the low 90's.  It didn't even feel that hot. Crazy, I tell ya.

  So....I survived without any major organ damage, lol,  and I will certainly be more careful in the future.  

    

  I'm off to bed now, to rest up for tomorrow's big doins...meeting a friend for breakfast and then I'm going shopping for an olive oil sprayer so I can stop buying those cans of  pan spray. Gonna check Amazon too, just in case.  :)

  Have a great night, kids....may all your dreams be sweet ones.

Namaste

Lordy, it's Wednesday again !

How did that happen?

 Not a lot going on here..a little of this and a little of that.  We've had a lot of rain, which always slows things down.  Now we're revving up into another hot spell, 90's tomorrow, which will be broken by, of course, more rain.  la de da.... (It's called spring, ya'all...)   lol

I did get out and plant a plot of Oregon snow peas and a bed of Blue Lake Bush Beans yesterday. The teepees for the Lima pole beans are built and ready for planting, so I'll do that today when I get back from my neighbors. Gonna stay with her husband today a few hours so she can get her hair done and have lunch with a friend.  I'll probably get out there and get some spinach and lettuce and stuff in the ground too. 

  Yesterday I dried a gallon of strawberries. Dries down to about a half a quart bag, lol, which feels a little disconcerting. I have some pears to dry next and will probably get more strawberries too.  I want to try drying oranges like my friend does...not real sure about that, but she raves about them. Had an interesting conversation about all this stuff with a woman who runs (with her husband) a new little antique/junk mall here in town. It was a nice time until my phone rang and it was my husband asking what had happened to me. (I had run to town to get some garlic and stopped by here, and we talked for over an hour.  LOL)  I'm going to take her some starts of my walking onions, she said her mother used to always have them, but she could never find them anywhere. Mine are thriving.Anyway, it was a nice little chat and I am glad to be getting to know her.

  The chicks are going outside this weekend.  YIPPEE !!!!!!!!!!!   They will be at least as happy about this as I am.  :)  It sounds like they are having a rugby match in there all the time...

  That's about it..not a lot to report from Honeysuckle Hill. The gardening season is moving into full swing. The grass is growing about an inch an hour.  The blackberries and raspberries are loaded this year and the bugs are bad already. There was a thing on the news last night about an abundance of brown recluse spiders this year...but I think that's every year. lol  We have a couple of resident BIG spiders that keep turning up in one of the bathrooms...a big old black fella whose abdomen area is about the size of a quarter. He's quite handsome !  Next time I see him, I'll take a picture.  Also a LOT of those little mega-jumper frogs.  They are tiny little guys and can jump about 3 foot in the air when you try to put them back outside where they belong. lol  You can imagine the circus...

Not sure what's on the docket as far as supper or breadmaking or anything fun like that, so I'll let sleeping dogs lie.  I have been noticing how nasty my carpets are looking...need to get that carpet cleaner out soon...but it's futile really, with more rain coming in this weekend.  sigh...a girl just can't keep up.

Gonna leave you with this: An Ode to Butter

The 20 Health Benefits of Real Butter : I am in shock , Woow
1 .Butter is rich in the most easily absorbable form of Vitamin A necessary for thyroid and adrenal health.
2. Contains lauric acid, important in treating fungal infections and candida.
3. Contains lecithin, essential for cholesterol metabolism.
4. Contains anti-oxidants that protect against free radical damage.
5 . Has anti-oxidants that protect against weakening arteries.
6. Is a great source of Vitamins E and K.
7. Is a very rich source of the vital mineral Selenium.
8. Saturated fats in butter have strong Anti-Tumor and Anti-Cancer properties.
9. Butter contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is a potent anti-cancer agent, muscle builder, and immunity booster
10. Vitamin D found in butter is essential to absorption of calcium.
11 .Protects against tooth decay.
12 . Is your only source of an anti-stiffness factor, which protects against calcification of the joints.
13 . Anti-stiffness factor in butter also prevents hardening of the arteries, cataracts, and calcification of the pineal gland.
14 .Is a source of Activator X, which helps your body absorb minerals.
15 .Is a source of iodine in highly absorbable form.
16. May promote fertility in women.
17 .Is a source of quick energy, and is not stored in our bodies adipose tissue.
18. Cholesterol found in butterfat is essential to children's brain and nervous system development.
19. Contains Arachidonic Acid (AA) which plays a role in brain function and is a vital component of cell membranes.
20 . Protects against gastrointestinal infections in the very young or the elderly.

I'm not defending my eating of real butter ever again. LOL 

Namaste.

A softer Sunday

  It's been a stormy rainy 24 hours.  We are still under a severe thunderstorm watch until about 2 PM. Everything looks so green and soft out there  (well--more like squishy) lol  We did escape the in line winds and the hail...but it poured like a monsoon. Not raining right now, but the sky looks like it could if it wanted to. It's 52 degrees right now, and feels a little chilly. I've decided to make a batch of soup this late morning and put on some sweats.  Snuggling in seems like the order of the day.  I have the radio on, playing a station on satellite called Moodscapes, which sounds like the stuff they play when you're getting a massage. It's all conspiring to make me so laid back, I'm about to tip over.

  So much for getting any seeds planted this weekend.  I got home yesterday right as it started to rain, after having a nice lunch with my new friend, and doing a couple of errands. Had to get some more of that wonderful organic soy yogurt from Dierbergs and made a stop at the Green Earth grocers for some shampoo and some garlic powder and stuff. I came home and made a wonderful peanut sauce and  soba dish full of edamame and broccoli and savoy cabbage and green onions, ginger and garlic. I am officially out of garlic, so I think I'll have to make a run to Pappy's market here in a minute to pick some up. Can't cook without garlic. Well, I could--but why would I ?????

  I bought some organic lemons to make a batch of Violet Dandelion Lemonade this week. 3 lemons will make a half gallon, and I found the recipe on another blog. It looked absolutely gorgeous. I'm also going to start another batch of kimchi  either today or tomorrow. I have a fridge full of cabbage and was thinking I'd try mixing up a couple of different kinds, instead of using all napa cabbage. Last time I also used kale, along with garlic, ginger, carrots and I don't remember what all.  I really should start a kimchi recipe book, so I can document and track the recipes.  Figure out which ones we like best, and more importantly, remember what ingredients I used. LOL

  I'm also in the mood to make some kind of dessert to go with tonights supper...not sure what the Irishman has in store for me, but so far, everything he has fixed has been wonderful. We have both tempeh and tofu in the fridge...plenty of rice and vegetables and such.  I'm considering a coconut milk custard --but I'll have to buy some more eggs...the chickens are moulting and not laying worth a damn right now.

  I can hear the chicklets in the room next door--sounds like they're getting rowdy. This next week they are going outside. They're getting big and I am tired of the mess in that room. It is always a relief (even if it's a little scary for a while) to get them outside into the chicken coop. I love chickens...

  I need to make some bread today too, we're almost finished with the 2 fallen loaves. lol  The Irishman has loved them, and eats at least 2-3 pieces a day with butter and honey.  They are very dense and moist...The mixture of the rye and buckwheat flours turned them a little grey looking though, which I'm not crazy about. I still have a lot of the old restaurant  woman in me to not have my food look beautiful as well as taste good., lol.

   Well, that's about it for my computer time here on Honeysuckle Hill on a damp Sunday morning. The dogs keep going in and out and can't decide what they want. It's chilly and damp and they like to be curled up in here with me when the weathers like that. Except Caylee-the venerable outside dog.  But I think I hear her at the door now too (the others have been back in this time for an hour).

  There is a plant sale going on at Pappy's market and I usually try to hit it. I've had a hankering to plant some flowers, pots, perennials, --I don't care.  My big purple Irises are blooming like crazy with the rain, and I am going to go out and get a vasefull like last year's..

  I hope YOUR Sunday is filled with rainbows and flowers...

Namaste.