COLD BOVINE DAYS

Off to the farm, it's cold this morning (40's), turning to cool later today (60's) and then colder tonight (30's).  

I still have a bit of a cough so I don't think I'll be outside in the windy cold too long today.  But wow, is it ever gorgeous.  Not a cloud in the sky and everything is perfect.  This cow or bull (laying down, hard to tell, LOL), is just lounging around enjoying the weather as well.

Hope your weekend is off to a great start.  I know for some of you it's probably REALLY cold, there is snow in parts of the country.  And of course for those of you on the other side of the world, well, it's almost Summer, right?  

SMALL STAND TRASH TO TREASURE FIND

 Regular readers know that I have a new favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor and they feed into a separate room, but for boxes and other things that you can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoors) near the loading dock for people to put things they don't want.  I've found several cool items.

And last weekend, before we went to the farm, I stopped to see what I could find and I found this!  It looks to be some sort of child's room stand?  Or Laundry room storage perhaps?

It has these lime green polka dotted pull out baskets.  I know some might like this style but it's not exactly "us", ha.  Fortunately, they were attached to the sliding part with Velcro and so they were easily removable. 

I took them out and saved them.  Need to find a friend with sewing skills to make some replacements and we figured it would be easier to keep the old ones as a future pattern.  Maybe using an outdoor type fabric like Sunbrella.  

Why outdoor fabric? 

White stand between rockers

Because of this!  It's the perfect table for between the rocking chairs, a place for my drink while I'm working outside and taking a break, a place to leave my phone, etc.  I put a dish towel on top to keep off the water damage. 

Remember this BLOG POST about the snake on the porch when I reached down to pick up my glass?  

Yeah, that won't be a worry now, ha.  

OUTDOOR SHOWER, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday, we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  

Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

Outdoor shower, image courtesy of southernliving.com

Been thinking about a way to clean up without traipsing through the house to the one bathroom we have.  So we thought, why not an outdoor shower?  There are hundreds thousands online at any given time with lots of ideas.  

We really like the simplicity of this type.  The hose on this one wraps around a tree, goes up into a branch and just rains down on you while you stand in a galvanized tray to keep the mud off your feet.  Now of course, we have several areas near water sources that could be diverted and would work for this.  They are private so that means this could be just like an indoor shower.  But to us, it would work just fine as an outdoor shower next to a pool, a place to just rinse off and/or cool down...no nudity required, LOL!

  

But for modesty purposes, a simple screen made of some galvanized sheet metal, wood, and a couple of hinges would work fine for the more modest times.

Be inspired!

GARDEN VEGETABLE SCRAMBLED EGGS

This is how 2nd Man loves to cook, just with whatever have available.  In this case it was the veggies we had in the fridge and some eggs.

I missed a step.  First he fried some bacon in a pan, removed it to the side, and reserved a bit of bacon fat in the pan.  We had a bag of mixed bell peppers so he diced those up and sautéed them.  After that, he added asparagus that he had cut up as well.  To all that, he added minced, dried onion and some garlic powder.  It's all to taste.  Whatever you like.

Then a few beaten eggs were poured into the vegetables...

Stir continually until eggs are cooked and set...

Top with the crumbled bacon, a little salt and pepper...

Garden Veggie Scrambled Eggs

And serve!  

It's fresh and delicious.  

A very satisfying breakfast or brunch...and we've been known to have it for dinner as well.  Nothing wrong with breakfast for dinner, right?  HA!

DEAL OF THE DAY

Stopped by Kroger grocery store on a whim, and found these.  A set of Ball wide mouth pint jars.  There was one missing, so it was a case of 11 instead of 12.

And they marked it down from $12.99 to $5.25...more than half price, for missing one jar.  I'll take that deal any day!  Will keep checking back for more!

Never hurts to have a supply of canning jars!

CLEANED UP THE MOWER SHED

We didn't do much this weekend except rest, so I'll share a recent project.  Last weekend I was able to get started on organizing the mower shed a bit.  It wasn't too bad and last weekend was overcast and cooler so that's always good.

Mower shed before

After a season of throwing stuff in there, finding a place to put something down, it's easy for things to get out of control.  Especially when it's hot...you bring something in and go "um, yeah, it's hot in here, this looks like a good spot" and you're done with it.  Then the floor had grass cuttings and dirt on it from driving the mower in and out all season. 

The first thing I did was back the mower out and start pulling things out.  I ended up with a big contractor bag full of trash.  

I moved stuff around, made more space, consolidated things and generally got everything arranged.  I still need to get some containers and storage hooks to hang item, etc, but we're happy to have it cleaner.

Mower shed after

The last thing I did was pulled the Zen Machine back in to its now cleaner home.  It's still too warm to tackle any sort of major organization project (the shed and barn get really hot to work in, even with the doors and window open) but this Winter, on a cool day when I don't need to mow, I'll tackle that.  Until then, happy shed, happy 1st Man. 

Not sure what it is about cooler weather but it always makes me want to clean and straighten things up.  
Fall cleaning anyone?

CURE FOR WHAT AILS YA

This is the weekend so far...

Butterflies...

Flowers...

Sleeping kitties...

Homemade crusty bread...

Homemade chicken noodle soup...

Hope you are having a good weekend!  Things returning to normal.  Feeling better and took time to enjoy the beauty around us.

WOOD PALLET DREAMING

 Regular readers know that I have a new favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor and they feed into a separate room, but for boxes and other things that you can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoors) near the loading dock for people to put things they don't want.  I've found several cool items.

And now I have something new to look for:

Wood Pallet 

Wood pallets!  This is our first ever.  I know there are about a million and one things to do with them.  Now I don't want to end up with a pile of 50 of them rotting away along the fence somewhere, so this first one is in the barn, and I'll get a few more as I find them.  I need to find a project (an EASY one to start).

WOO HOO!

I'll catch up with comments this weekend, feel a bit like I'm getting a cold, or maybe it's just allergies but after the post election, this cold, and the weather change, just been going to be early each night.

SMALL POND UNDER TREES, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday, we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  

Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

Back on track today after the surprising events of yesterday here in the US.  

For today's inspiration, it's a small pond under a large mesquite tree.  Where is this pond?  Why, it belongs to 2nd Family!  It's under their "party tree" which is where we got our idea for our party tree Barnabas.  We don't have a pond yet but we might someday.  We'll have a BIG one (lake-ish) elsewhere on the property, but as far as small, man-made ponds, this is the kind we like.  2nd Family did this over the course of a weekend a few years back and it's been going ever since.  

As you can see, their ducks like it...and so does "Alice", one of their dogs.  She can be found lounging around next to it on any given day.  They have a pump that recirculates water through that faucet you see and it makes such a great sound when sitting around under the tree.  

Be inspired!

ELECTION DAY 2016

It's finally here....Election Day 2016.

I don't discuss politics on here because this isn't the place for it (there are plenty of websites for that). We just believe that everyone should exercise their right to vote because it's so important. 

2nd Man and I early voted last week, stood in line for about 30 minutes, met lots of great people including many young people voting for the first time.

But the best was a woman who was 86 years old and she was there with her 62 year old daughter and 30 year old granddaughter!  They said they had to be part of history in the most important way they could.

How cool is that???

So go out and vote if you haven't already!

As my Grandfather always said, you can't complain about the outcome if you don't vote...

MUSCADINE GRAPE SURPRISE

What are these?  
Purple marbles?
Cat toys?

Muscadine grapes

They are four muscadine grapes that came from our grapevines.  

Wait, grapevines?  I don't remember you having grapevines planted?

Muscadine grapevines

We don't...here they are above!

They are currently being cared for on the "porch greenhouse", ha!  These are four muscadine grapevines that we have been babying since we sold the house last year, keeping them on the porch so they are out of direct sun but of course watering regularly.  I guess the care was good enough that they actually started producing a few grapes.  We ate these four and wow, they had such a great grape flavor.  

It was too wet last Spring to plant them (eight straight weekends of monsoon rains).  According to what I've read, because of our weather, the best time to plant them is late Fall or early Winter.  To be honest, I forgot about finding a spot for them.  I'm thinking of changing up the plan for orchard area and creating a space for a long trellis.

Anyone grow muscadines or grapes of any kind?

NEW ADDITION

I mentioned a surprise yesterday.  Here it is.

It was time to let "Luigi" go (my Fiat 500).  It's the little red car you've seen on this blog with every sort of plant sticking out of it....

In fact, this was just a few weeks ago.  A pear tree and some bushes.  It's funny, when I bought them, the guy at the exit checking receipts said "do you need help loading?" and I said no.  Then he said "you gonna put all this in that little red car?" and I said "yep".  And I did, as evidenced above, ha.

But even though I was able to fit things in my car, I was still limited most of the time.  That meant I had to use 2nd Man's bigger SUV and with that, the inevitable "what did you put in my car?", "what are all these leaves?" questions.  

So it was time to move on.  I thought about a truck but I think the truck will have to come when we are out there all the time.  I'm not just a daily truck person...yet.  Or we may just get a third vehicle, a good, old, used truck and leave it at the farm.    

So I chose this: 

It's a 2017 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk off-road edition.   

Extra clearance.  

Water proof undercarriage.

4 wheel drive (yep my very first 4x4)

It has tow hooks on the front and back AND a regular trailer hitch 
(hello, trailer shopping soon!)
Rubber off road floormats that I can take out and hose down.
And of course it might be off road/trail rated but it also has navigation and satellite radio and some self driving type of features.

But best of all, I've got more space to carry stuff.

Now I just need a name.  I'm like that, I like to name my cars. 

It's white, the picture above is exactly what mine looks like.

In fact, he got his first taste of the farm this weekend.  
Here are some more pictures.

White like the house...

Red and white like the barns...

Our dear friend Dawn said it's the perfect blend of rugged and elegant.  That's a good description.  A combination of "in the city" and "off road".

Let the new adventures begin!

YELLOW AND WHITE

Found these Spring-like yellow wildflowers blooming happy and bright...

...and these Winter-like flowers blooming cool and white...

At the same time. 

Off to do an important errand first (a surprise is coming!), then off to the farm for a beautiful weekend.

More later, hope your weekend is off to a great start!

SLEEPING KITTY, FELINE FRIDAY

There is a kitty snoozing away under this blanket...

Since he was a kitten, he's always liked sleeping under the covers.  Middle of the day, night, morning, it doesn't matter, he wants to be covered up...

It's Brisbane, our 16yr old...sleeping soundly...

The face of an angel...but awake, sometimes not so much, ha.

And this is what we call his "pink bunny".  

We don't even remember where it came from, some random cat toy...but he likes to have pink bunny with him wherever he's sleeping.

We roused him up a bit while taking photos but he just yawned, stretched and then rested his head on the edge of his cat bed and went back to sleep.

Nope.  

Not spoiled.  

At all.  

FLOWER GARDEN WITH PONDS, INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Every Thursday, we like to post a picture of something we've found online that inspires us to do something similar at the farm.  

Sort of our own blog bulletin board so that we can eventually look back and, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

Water pond garden, image courtesy of www.BHG.com

OK, this one just really goes without saying...it's pretty in every aspect.  We call it a dream garden.  What's not to love?  Flowers.  Windmills.  Water tank ponds.  Trees.  Grass.  More flowers.

We realize this is probably several years worth of work to get something looking like this but hey, every journey begins with a step, right?   

Be inspired!

HARVESTING OKRA SEEDS

This past weekend, I decided to do something we've never done...save our own seeds for use next season!

Okra pods

I had been drying some okra pods in the sun along the garden fence.  We knew they were ready when I shook them and they sounded like maracas!  

Okra pods with seeds

When you crack them open, they are rolling around inside like little bb's.  

Okra seeds

I set up on the coffee table in the living room and slowly pulled apart the dried pods.  Seeds went everywhere.  Oops.  I'm sure that in about six months, we'll find some in the far corners of the living room and swear that the mice are back, LOL.  But we ended up with quite a few seeds.

It's our first seed saving exercise from something grown in our own garden.  

Any tips or advice?  

How to keep them viable? 

Storage?

FALL GARDEN UPDATE

Fall garden is growing and coming along!

Bibb Lettuce

This is the Bibb lettuce (one of eight).  

Looking great, perky and doing well.  Not sure when we harvest them but I might cut one this coming weekend...

Collard Greens

Collard greens, they are growing and getting big leaves...

Curley Kale

Curly leaf kale...we LOVE kale, can't wait for this to get bigger and we get to harvest it and enjoy it for dinner...

Mustard Greens

Here are the mustard greens.  I'll be honest, we don't have a lot of experience in cooking with them but we're willing to try. They are supposed to grow well here, and indeed they are, so we'll see...

One tomato plant survived, the other died.  Too late to start another but this one is the "better boy" tomato plant and it has blossoms on it!  

Maybe we'll get some Fall tomatoes after all...

Napa Cabbage

Here is one of the Chinese (Napa) cabbage plants.  They are all doing great.  They look beautiful and since it's our first time, we're just going to see how this all comes out. I think we can eat the leaves at this point but I'd like to see if we can get the center "cabbage" portion to develop...

Here is the one yellow squash plant.  

It is covered in blossoms and of course those in turn gave us...

...our first real Fall harvest. 

 OK, so it's only three squash but hey, we'll take them.  They had a bit of green scale looking spots on them but I read they can be cut off and are safe.  The bumpiness, also from what I've read, means that we left them on the vine too long but I bet they will still be delicious!

Live and learn.  And that's the whole purpose of this scaled back Fall garden, to lean what does well for us and allow us to plan accordingly for next year.  

Any advice on the above veggies?