HAPPY EASTER

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.  

Our weekend the farm was cut short due to weather but hey, at least everything is getting watered!

Weekend update later, got stuff done (yay) but got stung by a wasp (boo)...

..but at least there is always chocolate to make everything better!

CONGRATS APRIL THE GIRAFFE NOW IT'S OFF TO THE FARM

 Been up since 7:30am watching a giraffe give birth live streaming on the Internet.  Is this a great world or what?  Congratulations to April and her beautiful little (well, if 6 feet tall is little) calf.  It makes the world just a little bit brighter to see something beautiful like this...

Now it's off to the farm to get some more stuff done.  Beautiful day today, weather is cool(ish) and overcast.  Have a load of stuff in the back of the jeep (cleaning out one of the storage units) and have some thing to plant, need rot check the garden and the orchard, edge, and hopefully just sit back a bit and enjoy.  Hopefully I can skip mowing one week and focus on the other stuff.  

Hope your weekend is off to a fabulous start!

APOTHECARY JARS DEAL

We wish we could say this was a trash room find but we bought these...but a person in our building posted an email to the residents that she had some items for sale and among them were these.  

When we saw saw the picture, we immediately said YES!

Assorted Apothecary Jars

A set of five apothecary jars.  Or maybe not so much a set, since they are all different but they are beautiful.  The skinny one is more than two feet high.

We've never had these types of jars but know they are wildly popular in decorating now.  And the best part?  $10 each.  I'm pretty sure that's a good deal, I've see the tall for for $39.95 or more in stores. 

Not sure how many we will keep in town at the apartment and how many will make their way to the farm, or even how we'll use them for that matter, but we think we scored a most excellent deal on these!

SLAB TOP OUTDOOR TABLE, 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 someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

We're always looking at tables for outdoor options.  We have enough spaces around we can have several different types.  We saw this and though it was so pretty.  The ironic thing is, about 8 years ago, we had a friend who had a large slab of granite that looked a lot like this, irregularly shaped, and they were offering it FREE to a "good home", ha.  Sadly, we had NO use for it at the tine, even at the house we had no backyard and it was just something we couldn't have imagined ever needing.  Sigh.  We won't make THAT mistake again!

Anyway, this is very interesting and certainly would stand up to the elements outside, ha.  We DO like the chairs around it too.  Nice decorative element being a bit different from standard wooden chairs, but of course being metal means shady spot only.  We have faith that the right table(s) will be there when we need them to be.  

Be inspired!

WILDFLOWER WEDNESDAY

Texas Wildflower season is famous for its beauty.  Here are some pictures I've taken.  All of these are on our property.  I guess we do have color, at least at this time of year.

Let's see...we have...

PINKS..

BLUES...

WHITES...

PURPLES...

YELLOWS...

There are others but this is what we have captured over the last few weekends.  

One of these days, we're going to make it to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.

p.s.  A few of the pics above I'm using as wallpaper on my office computer.  A little touch of the farm at work during the week!

Enjoy natures beauty!

GARDEN GATE ENTRANCE

Calling all blog fans...

...this is the entrance to the garden.  Since we've got the flower beds built and filled with a few flowers growing, we feel like this bare spot should have something nicer on it instead of bare ground as an entrance to the garden.  

It can't be anything too high up because I do run the wheelbarrow back and forth through it on occasion so it can't impede the tires. Of course there is also foot traffic on a regular basis.  In fact, all the back and forth with feet and tires has compacted the ground there to where grass won't even grow.  Now that's not to say it wouldn't if I planted some there on purpose, like a couple of squares of sod perhaps? (but then I'd have to use the edger to keep it "trim")

Or maybe roughing it up (to help the new growth) and planting some ground cover of some sort?  

I could do gravel but let's face it, half the gravel will be washed out into the yard in the rain where it could become potential glass breaking flying debris from the Zen Machine mower (that might not be so "Zen", ha).

Any suggestions?

FUTURE FIRE PIT AREA

Now this wasn't this weekend, this actually all happened over the last couple of  month and I realized I needed to put up a post about it before it got too late.  

A couple of years ago, I blogged about our first burn pile.  Well, we've been cleaning up other areas bit by bit and we ended up with another huge pile.  We're not doing doing this anymore.  It gets out of control too quickly and looks horrible in the front yard.  Not to mention there's no telling what is living there! 

We're all about "curb appeal" now (for lack of a better description) so the house and yard look nice (albeit empty, LOL) when we pull up every time.  It's much less stressful when you don't see a giant pile in the front yard.

Thankfully, "R" from 2nd Family came to the rescue and said he would burn it for us while we weren't there and then clear off whatever didn't burn.  He did this over a few days and "J" took a picture for me.  

FYI it looks close to the barn and shed but that's just the camera angle. 

After burning most of a day, this is what was left.  

He burned the last few bits when I was out there to work on the garden last month and then he hauled off a big branch/stump for us that just wouldn't burn.  I was anxious to get mowing, as you can tell, ha. 

Future fire pit area

After it was all gone, I got on the mower and cleaned it off nice and smooth.  Here is the end result.  Now all the grass is starting to grow back but we think we'll keep this same area.  It seems positioned just right to be far enough from the house and the barn/shed so we could have a nice fire going (but still within water hose reach just in case).

Not sure what the exact diameter will be but we can make it big enough for a fire pit in the center, and then an area around around it for chairs, benches, or whatever we decide to put in.  Several of you have mentioned in comments over the years when I posted images on an Inspiration Thursday that fully in ground fire pits have their own unique challenges and above ground generally were the best option.  We'll most likely do something that is a combination of both, sort of set into the ground but having sides that extend up above the ground using a steel ring.  Stay tuned for some picture ideas as we decide.

This is all part of the project planning list and gets it one step closer to fruition.  2nd Man said "let's get it done this Summer and then it will be ready for next Fall/Winter..."  We'll see, I've got some other projects to finish first but so far so good on those!  This let us scratch off the first part of the project, clearing the spot so that it's ready for the rest of the work to be done.

YELLOW FLOWERS, DUCKS AND CHICKEN DINNER, WEEKEND UPDATE

The weather has been incredible.  Clear skies and a cool breeze.  That's why I want to get as much done as possible on the flowerbeds and of course mowing and edging because soon enough, it will be rainy and then REALLY hot.

Yellow wildflowers

The road on the way to the farm.  

Lined with happy yellow flowers.

Ducks

When I got there, "J" from 2nd Family told me that their ducks were hanging around our house for some reason.  Sure enough, I got out of the car and there they were, just chilling in the shade under the back of the house.  They stayed for awhile and the one on the left in this photo kept coming over to my car to watch me unload stuff (and being very vocal).  But when I went in the house, the spot they were under is the mudroom above and my walking around in there scared them off and they flew back home.

About 20 minutes after they left, she called to tell me all three were happily splashing around in their plastic kiddie pool, ha.  

Country road

I got a lot done and headed back into town (the road on the way out).   I'll have pics of the work later.  Hint, front flowerbeds are done!  We were originally both going to the farm and were going to spend the night but 2nd Man had to work from home at the last minute (the company he works for runs 24/7 around the world so we never know).  He wanted to cook dinner for me after my hard work so hey, who am I to argue with that?  

Iron skillet roasted chicken

I came back to iron skillet roasted chicken.  

Super simple: rub with olive oil and salt, pop in an iron skillet and roast in the oven at 450 degrees for about an hour.  Golden and delicious.

Corn, peas and lemon thyme

Then one of my new favorite sides that he makes, corn and peas with butter and lemon thyme.  AMAZING flavor combination.  That's why we are growing lemon thyme at the farm!

As this posts, I'll be back out there mowing and edging.  Hoping to cut the day short and come back and rest, I'm definitely worn out after yesterday!

DEWBERRIES IN BLOOM

Dewberries are in bloom (and even have small berries), woo hoo!!

Dewberry blooms

We can't wait to harvest some.  We missed it last year because of the monsoon rains but so far so good this year.  We have grand plans for some dewberry jam (canning!) and 2nd Man wants to try his hand at some cobblers and muffins.  My mouth is watering already!  For those who are new to the blog, click on the "dewberries" tag below this post or over on the right side where it shows "labels".  But here is an early blog link about them:  DEWBERRIES

The weather forecast for this weekend is wonderful, so we plan to take full advantage.  I hope to get more flowerbeds done and continue clearing the forested area (that's what we're calling it, for now, ha) and hoping that I can skip a week of mowing so that I can focus on these other things.  It would be awesome to get them DONE this weekend.

SAND PIT MINI BEACH, 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 someday, hopefully anyway, recreate it...enjoy!

OK, so this is totally random but interesting.  What we found unique here was how the owners of this yard took a section of grass, dug it out, and filled it with beach sand.

Does this mean we could have a beach in the middle of the country?  We were thinking that instead of a fire pit like they have here, what if you just made a big rectangle, filled it with sand like this and them put in some beach type lounge chairs in the middle of it all?  Sunbathing "at the beach in the country"?  
Hey stranger things have happened!

Be inspired!

FARMHOUSE RATATOUILLE RECIPE

This is one of my favorite things that 2nd Man makes.  It's also what inspired us to plant eggplant, yellow squash and zucchini this season.

Farmhouse Ratatouille 

It seems we usually have it with roasted chicken but it's good with just about anything.  I guess this is kind of like a ratatouille of sorts, though most of the time that is more of a stewed dish.  This is oven roasted and dished up at the end of the cooking process.  

I guess we'll call this Farmhouse Ratatouille, ha.

He slices several zucchini, yellow squash, and Ichiban eggplant (those are smaller than regular eggplant).  Then he puts them all on a foil lined baking sheet and lines them up in rows.  One of each and then repeat, until you run out of veggies.  I know this looks like a lot of work but if you slice them all up first and put them in three piles, it goes fast...

He sprinkles salt and pepper on top of them and then places some heirloom cherry tomatoes on top...

Finally, he drops some sliced purple onion (you could use any type of onion) over all of it and drizzles the whole thing with olive oil...  

Place in a preheated 400 degree oven and roast for about 30 minutes, or until they are fork tender and starting to have that roasted look...

The tomatoes will have burst and roasted, releasing their juices into the vegetables below and the onions will be getting crispy too.  You know it's done.

He sprinkles on some fresh Italian flat leaf parsley and that's it!

Chicken and roasted veggies

All that's left is to dish it up and serve!  

It's SO good and in a way, since you get lots of vegetables, that means it must be good for you, right?   We can't wait to harvest our own vegetables now to make this fresh from the garden.  Fingers crossed!

Enjoy!

ONE MORE FLOWERBED READY

This is on the other side of the front porch stairs.  

Flowerbed before

You can see, it was an overgrown mess.  That's what happens when we just put stuff there and then don't get to it over the Fall and Winter.  Several of the plants we put there in containers were lost in the January freeze.  

So the first thing I did was take everything out, threw away what was dead, then I cleared out as much of the weeds and grass as possible and put down cardboard (missed that picture).  

Flowerbed after

I put in extra timbers, along the front and rear, and locked them in place with the rebar.  We had another Vitex tree (like on the other side of the stairs in the corner bed) and I put it in the ground so that we'll have the same bush on each side and we'll keep it pruned to bush size (purple flowers).  The last thing to do was to fill it all up with soil and there are several bags in here.  Since we had a couple of marigolds left over, I put them in too.  The rest is empty for now.  

Our main goal is to get them built and filled with soil now so they are ready for plantings.  Then we can buy small plants and/or seeds later and let them fill in.

It's hard to tell in this picture but this bed stops about 18" from the water faucet/main water valve shut off to the house.  The timbers will ultimately run the full length of the front of the house including the water faucet area but the soil parts of the bed will stop and start on each side of the faucet.  My next project will be to keep going and get the faucet area cleaned up and filled with gravel, then start on the flowerbeds further down from there.  

It just time and labor, right?  

Now if the weather will just cooperate!

GARDEN UPDATE

Weekend garden update.  Only a couple weeks in the ground and it all seems to be doing well.  I forgot my camera so I had to use my phone, and of course forgot a few pics.  The okra is growing and the cukes are reaching for the trellis.  Oh and the squash has grown a bit too, albeit somewhat slower.   

These are the eggplants, both growing well and this one has a bloom on it already!  I'm sensing one of our favorite snacks in the near future...

OVEN ROASTED EGGPLANT SLICES

The tomatoes are growing, about half again as big as they were last week.  Hoping for some tomato sauce canning a couple of months...

Jalapeños are growing nicely...

And these are the turnip seeds I planted. I need to thin these out next weekend when they are a bit bigger and will plant some more in empty spaces.  I think there were some beet sprouts too but they were really small and scattered not so much in a row so I wasn't sure what might be a weed sprouting.  I need to see a more obviously planned row, ha.  

Keep on growing!!!

WEEKEND UPDATE FLOWERS AND ROSEMARY

Got all the mowing done yesterday, yay!  

Everything edged, yay!  

Built a new flower bed, yay! 

Cleared more in a new spot, yay!

Garden is growing well, yay!

Updates on those things later.  

Flowers

The flowers planted last weekend were still looking great.  This is the Mexican heather and marigolds, actually putting on blooms...

Flowerbed

...and here is the other end, red and purple salvia, pincushion flower and more Mexican heather and marigolds, they were all doing great as well.  Best part of all, no weeds I had to pull (yet, ha).  

With the rains today, they are getting a good soaking and should be good until next weekend.  

Tree stump

What's this?  I was clearing an area under some trees and I found this stump!  It's under some vines that I didn't get to yet, but it's a nice size and is from an old mesquite tree.  I think it's still "in the ground" but not sure.  I remember seeing some things about using old stumps as planters or tables, etc.  It's a bit low to the ground but hey, once it's cleared off, I'll see what potential it has.  Adirondack chairs around it perhaps?

Now I have something new to obsess over think about.

Fresh rosemary

We harvested the first rosemary for this season.  We always let it grow over Fall and Winter and so I pruned some back and we brought it back for dinner...

Oven roasted potatoes tossed in olive oil with rosemary, salt and pepper.  

Steak and rosemary potatoes, a great weekend meal.  

Oh, and a glass or two three of wine.

Today the storms are all around, though it's been pretty good in town nothing heavy or dangerous   2nd Family say it's been about 3/4" rain out there so far, some dark scary skies but nothing severe.  That's not to say there hasn't been, there was a storm that went over the farm early this morning and then dropped a funnel cloud and possible tornado about 20 minutes later.  Still heavy storms to come this afternoon, or so they say.  Now if it HADN'T rained or stormed at the farm, I'd be ticked off at the weather forecasters, but since it's rained out there, I'm ok with saying it was best that we didn't venture out today.  

Besides, now I'm making plans for more flowerbeds along the front and side of the house.  I'm on a mission, ha.

AT THE FARM

Playing "beat the rain" game. Check out this forecast.  I'm not even sure why they put 90%.  I'm pretty sure it's gonna rain, ha.  'Tis the season!

When this posts, I'll already be at the farm.  

Haven't mowed for the last two weeks so I'm sure it will need mowing now, and I need to edge too.  Once those are done, I will top off the flowerbeds from last weekend with more soil, then with the rest of the day, I'll see about creating some new flowerbeds in front of the house.  I have the timbers, the cardboard and some soil, so it will be a good day if I can pull off a couple of those like I did last weekend in front of the garden.  

The good thing about this rain is that the fruit trees are being kept well watered.  We had an inch the other day, and an inch and a half last weekend.  They are saying two to three inches are possible Sunday.  Also a chance of tornadoes and hail.  THOSE we can do without.

Yellow Texas wildflowers\

Let's enjoy some sunshine and flowers before gray skies and storms...these are growing just outside the front fence on the corner of a neighboring property.  Yellow always makes us smile when we see it.  

Hope your weekend is off to a good start!