I Was Only Helping Them Out

Sep 272012
 

I have a confession to make.  I wasn’t completely honest in yesterday’s post.

Yes, I did go out to the farm.

Yes, I did harvest some sunflowers.

Yes, the squirrels have started the war early by pilfering some of the sunflowers.

The one thing I neglected to tell you was that I came home with other stuff too.

I know, I know, I need more tomatoes like a whole in the head.  But it was only one more flat, and they’ll be really good dehydrated.

Now the potatoes, those are something new.  I knew the farm had a big crop and I really wanted to can some this year.  And by purchasing them (for little or nothing) I was helping them out!

So instead of spending time on stringing up the sunflowers, I canned 13 quarts of taters.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I can maybe try to refrain from getting any more produce from them when I go out there again this weekend for what I will from here on out refer to as “The Great Sunflower Watch”.

I just know you’re bubbling over with excitement!

 

Game On!

Sep 262012
 

I went to the farm on Monday to check out how the sunflowers are progressing.  Status:  not ready yet.  There are some big heads and it doesn’t look like the birds have been attacking them too much, but they just haven’t started to dry out yet.

I’m suspecting it’s because we’ve had some good stretches of rain for these past couple weeks, so the seeds are still white instead of that nice grey/black color they’ll become.  According to the weather gods, there’s no rain in sight for our parts until next week, and the temps will be cooler so that should help push them along a little bit *crosses fingers*.

But while ours aren’t ready yet, a neighbor garden has some that are and I have been given permission to take what I want.  So I did.

This is actually the 3 bucket I’ve harvested from her garden.  There are 2 different varieties but I don’t suspect the birds will care much this winter, just as long as they have something to munch on (and I’m saving money by not buying from the store).

Since I had other things on my “to-do” list, I decided to just leave them in the bucket for the night and string them up another day.  Not wanting the squirrels to start hauling away my bounty (which they did before… little bastards), I decided to put them in the garage.  At least that was my intent.

Somewhere between setting them down outside the garage to open up the door and actually setting them in the garage, I got distracted.

5 hours later my brain remembered that I may not have gotten the bucket into the safety of the garage.  And it was right.

But I was too late.  The little terrorists had already struck.  They pilfered at least one of the heads, and had started munching away on the others.

If this is their calling card of what to expect this winter, all I can say is Game On!

 

Little Pieces of Wonderfulness

Sep 252012
 

Many years ago when Rick & I bought our first house, I was able to have a real garden of my own.  It had perfect soil and I could grow whatever my little heart desired.

One thing that I had always wanted to grow was my own herbs.  I hated the fact that the stuff I bought in stores tasted slightly more than nothing, and the color always seemed to be “off.”  I wanted to be able to flavor my dishes with something more than salt, pepper and Lawry’s.

The only problem was, I needed a way to dry them.  I knew I could put them in the oven or hang them, but neither idea appealed to me.  So for Christmas one year my Mom bought me a Ronco Food Dehydrator.  The.  Best.  Present.  Ever.

Not only could I dry my oregano, chives and countless other herbs, but I could also make fresh apple and banana chips for the kids!  Heck, if I was really ambitious I could make jerky (although I’ve never been that ambitious… ever).

That silly electrical piece of plastic was another notch in my belt in food preservation.  And I worked the heck out of it!  Until we moved to the Northwoods where it remained in storage for years due to the worst soil conditions on the planet.

This year I decided to dust it off and put it to use for something I’ve never made in my life.

Dehydrated tomatoes.  I had seen a friend of mine post about doing this and thought “Why not? ”  After canning 80 pounds of the stuff, I was starting to get a little burnt out with all the prep-work.  Dehydrating them was less time consuming, and I wouldn’t be letting anything go to waste.

And the verdict?  Yummers!  What a flavor-packed piece of wonderfulness!  When Nichole tried some this past weekend she was really surprised at how great they tasted, and she came up with a fantastic idea for a new food product:  Chocolate covered tomatoes.

Because, naturally, everything is better with chocolate.

 

Little Details

Sep 242012
 

Due to Alexis’ birthday this past weekend, we didn’t get a whole lot done on the “shed”, but some progress was made.

There are so many little details that Rick does to make it a sound structure, that my help isn’t always needed.

But when the time comes, I’m raring to go and not afraid to grab those power tools and get the job done.

We actually work quite well as a team, and I got to learn more about those little details and what their purpose is in the overall structure of the building.

And I like to stand back after another section is complete, like the deck we did on Saturday, and say “Hey, we did that! ”

You know, like Michelangelo  after he finished the Sistine Chapel.

Kinda.

 

Eight

Sep 232012
 

8 years ago today I was stirred from my slumber in the wee hours of the morning by a telephone call and the following statement:  “Mom, we’re heading to the hospital.”

I woke up Rick and called Chris to get over to the house because Nichole was in labor.  I swear that girl was here in 10 minutes flat (which is amazing since it’s a 20 minute drive) (OK, not so amazing when I think about how Chris drives).

Driving 2 hours to a hospital at 2 am is not exactly ideal conditions, because that is the social hour for deer around these parts.  Since I was gonna spend a couple days with the new parent’s, Rick drove separately and I had Chris with me to look out for any critters that may look like they were gonna bolt into the road.

I’m happy to say that we made it down with no incidents.  I had expected Rick to beat us there (he graduated from the Indy 500 school of driving), but I neglected to tell him about the road construction on the normal road we take that detoured to Egypt and back, so he wandered in an hour later.

But all was well and good because it was another 10 hours before we welcomed Alexis Marie Ziegler into the world.

Was that really 8 years ago?  It just doesn’t seem possible!

Before I know it, this little girl is going to be going on her first date, learning how to drive, and graduating from High School.  And on each of those milestones I will think back to the day she was born and the excitement she gave all of us with her first cry.

And I’ll probably cry a little bit myself.

:::

Happy Birthday, Alexis Marie!

Grandma & Grandpa love you very much.

 

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