FIRST MOW AND A MYSTERY HOLE

Well it finally happened!  I was able to MOW for the first time since October, ha.  I went to the farm, not expecting much because it was gray and overcast, looked like it might rain, and in Houston there was on and off rain most of the week.  There has been standing water for weeks.  I even told 2nd Man to stay in town as I wouldn't be gone long.  I was mainly going to check on things after the freeze earlier last week.

I got there and it was dry!

And sunny!

And there was a cool breeze!

I went into the shed and dusted off the John Deere.

I filled it with gas...

I rolled it out...

It fired right up...

I was back on the Zen Machine!

Here is a before.  It looks pretty but believe me, it was overwhelming.  I really thought if I couldn't mow for another week or two (heavy rain expected this week) I'd have to hire it out.  In spots it was more than ankle deep.

But it was dry and I was able to mow without a problem.  I left the clippings down, I always do with the first couple of mows of the season as it helps the new growth coming in.

Here is the side yard, before...

And after...ahh, much better!

As an example, here is one of the heaviest spots.  You can see how tall it was.  Now mind you much of that is not grass, it's a longer weed that we get down here in these parts, and while it looks green and fluffy, it's a pain to deal with, ha. 

Of course, I was so "in the zone" while mowing, I didn't think to stop to check the fuel level like I usually do.  So of course I ran out of gas...and had to walk two acres to the shed to get the can and then carry it back two acres to fill it up.

At least it was cool!

  

Here is an app I have on my phone that maps my mowing in real time and records the history of each mow.  Saturday I mowed a total of 4 acres and covered a distance of 7.4 miles.  At two hours, it was a longer than normal mowing session (probably why I ran out of gas) but I did cut some new areas.

All in all, it was SUCH a satisfying weekend.  I really feel like I accomplished a lot.  I didn't get to edge yet but I think with the still cooler temps, it won't grow much and this coming weekend I can do that. 

Now here is the mystery...

This is an old wheelbarrow that we have under a tree.  It was going to be one of my refinishing projects this Spring/Summer but as I was mowing near it, I noticed a lot of dirt.  I thought that was weird, I didn't remember any dirt piled up next to it.  Then I looked around to the front of it.

I saw this hole.  A very LARGE hole (you could easily roll a soccer ball into it).  Um, yeah, no, I didn't stay around to see what was inside.  I thought about tossing a stick or pebble in it but then I imagined something charging out and my imagination took off from there.  I'll wait on that. 

When I got home and showed 2nd Man he said "why didn't you put one of the trail cameras near it?"

Arrgh!

I can't believe I didn't think of that.  Sigh.  I'll do that this coming weekend and then we'll have to wait another week after that to see "what lies beneath".  Armadillo?  Opossum?  Fox?  Werewolf?

Stay tuned!

MAC AND CHEESE RECIPE COMING WEDNESDAY!

SPRING IS BLOOMING OUT ALL OVER

Was at the farm yesterday (more of an update on all that tomorrow).  Today it's about to rain.  

But while I was there, Spring was definitely blooming out all over!

Plum blossoms

Plum blossoms on both trees!

Peach blossoms

Peach blossoms on one tree (the other tree had already bloomed earlier this season).

Pear blossoms

Pear blossoms on both trees!

Apple blossoms

Apple blossoms on one tree (the other tree is a later blooming variety).

It's nice to see things happening.  After our blast of Winter earlier this week, upper 20's Tuesday morning and upper 70's Friday, we figure Winter is over for us so things will finally start budding out all over.

Running errands today!  Hope you are having a great weekend wherever you are!

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM

For those that "do Instagram", we have set up an account there.  We actually set it up a couple years ago but I've recently started to post there regularly.  

Don't worry, this isn't replacing the blog.  It's just a supplement to it, a place for us to do "extra" stuff that won't fit on the blog and maybe gain some new friends along the way.

I take a lot of photos.  But not all of them would make for an entire blog post.  Thankfully, that's what Instagram does best.  It might be closeups of something, food pics for sure, random thoughts about an object or something we see, decorating ideas, maybe a lunch thrift store find, a view we like, a picture of crazy weather, etc.

So if you are so inclined and would like to keep up with us this way too, it's super easy.

Our Instagram account is @SedaBolsaFarm

You can just go to Instagram and put that in the search field.

To make it easier, we also have a clickable link over there on the sidebar ----------------->

Of course we'll still be 1st Man and 2nd Man there and we'll always be here!

BRICK BIRD BATH 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!

Our property has some bricks scattered around.  I think "Ma" (the previous owner) had a project she was going to do and amassed some bricks.  We don't think anything ever came of it but of course when she moved, she didn't take her bricks, ha.  They are scattered around, in fact, most are in one area under some brush (and yes, I'll be aware of snakes and spiders, ha!).  

There are not enough to build a fence, not enough for a brick patio, so that's why have just sort of been left alone.  That's why when we saw this online a few weeks ago, we knew right away this would be a good use for the bricks.  Easy, looks nice and would not require a huge amount of work.  Plus the birds would be happy, that's a win win! 

Be inspired!

p.s. Don't forget to check out yesterday's recipe post

CASHEW CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES SHEET PAN RECIPE

Here's a quick and easy sheet pan meal... 

Here are the sheet pan main ingredients. 

4 cups broccoli florets, 2 green bell peppers, 1 red bell pepper,  2 lbs boneless skinless breast cut into cubes, 1 cup cashews (plus a few extra for garnish).

Chop it all up into fairly uniform pieces, about 1 inch cubes.

Meanwhile, mix the sauce ingredients on the stovetop in a pan.  Soy sauce, hoisin sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, cornstarch, garlic, ginger, brown sugar and water. 

Mix over medium low heat until simmering. Stir while this is heating so that you dissolve the cornstarch into the sauce.  Above is after it has heated and thickened a bit (the bits you see are the minced garlic and ginger).  Remove from heat and set aside.

Take the chicken pieces and mix with about 1/3 of the sauce mixture.  Turn to make sure coated.  Put it all in a single layer on a sheet pan.  Place into a preheated 425 degree oven.

Cook for 10 minutes.  

Remove from oven and add the broccoli, red and green bell pepper and the cashews to the pan.  Pour the remaining 2/3 of the reserved sauce over everything.

Sheet pan cashew chicken

Toss it all around to coat everything with the sauce and put the pan back in the oven.

Sheet pan cashew chicken and vegetables

Cook for an additional 10 to 12 minutes or until chicken is done.  Remove from oven and serve!

Cashew chicken and vegetables

We served it over rice of course and garnished with a few hand crushed cashews.  2nd Man said two or three times while eating "wow this is really good".  It's always nice to surprise him with some good food.

Ingredients:

For the Sauce

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 2  1/2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
• 3 TBSP brown sugar
• 1 TBSP toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 TBSP cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water

For the chicken and vegetables

• 2 medium skinless boneless chicken breasts and/or thighs cut into 1" inch cubes
• Salt and black pepper, to taste of course
• 4 cups broccoli florets (about 1 head)
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into chunks
• 2 green bell pepper, cut into chunks
• 1 cup roasted cashews

I took leftovers to a friend and she said it was like something from a restaurant.  Aww, thanks!  Enjoy!

CITRUS BLOSSOMS, CABBAGE AND DITCH CLEARING

Citrus blossoms

The three citrus trees, which are on the porch to protect from Winter until I can get their raised beds built, are in full bloom.  The scent is amazing.  I opened the window over the sink in the kitchen (it's the window in the picture above) and it was like an all natural air freshener for the house.  Love it.  Some might find the scent a bit strong, especially concentrated like that, but it sure was nice.

And made me think of Spring on a cold, gray day.

Bananas protected from freeze

With a freeze looming both tonight and tomorrow night (Winter is back), I put the box around the banana trees again so they would be safe.  It worked when we got down into the upper 20's so we should be good with this round of freezing temps. 

Napa/Chinese cabbage

Harvested the last two Napa (Chinese) cabbages.  Well there was one more but it had not formed like these and looks like it was about to flower.  I pulled it and threw it away.  Since we still have one more from last time, we gave both of these to 2nd Family. 

This is interesting.  Here is the front of our property along the road.  In the years we've owned it, the county has never done this but they did it to several properties that front the roads around us.  Obviously this is the easement so it's in their right and we're OK with it.  They actually graded down into the soil to created a curved area from the driveway all the way to the corner.  Side note, not sure what kind of machine does this but it must be cool, ha).  

Obviously it's done to help with flooding and to let water drain away.  We don't want it to grow up with grass and start to fill in again.  Does anyone know a good way to keep this up?  I'm guessing I could mow it, though it's a pretty steep curve so I'm not sure that would even work on the riding mower.  Maybe it's something we might have to pay to have done every few months?

Anyone have any experience with this?

Any advice on upkeep?

WET COLD AND PIGGY POPS

This is the view from the porch...it might look pretty but that not grass.  It's weeds. 

If I don't get to mow soon, it's going to be out of control.  Wait, it already is out of control.  It has rained on and off every day or two for weeks.  Nothing like floods or anything, just enough that with the cool, cold weather, and no bright sunshine, it won't evaporate.  There is grass growing up and around the raised bed fruit trees but I can't edge because of the standing water.  Sigh. 

I went out to the farm, watered the items on the porch (irony I needed to water, ha) and checked things out.  Then it started raining harder so I begrudgingly came back into town.  Cold and wet, not how I wanted to spend the day. 

On the way back, I stopped at the grocery store and saw these.  Piggy pop?  Fill with batter, pop in a hotdog and bake?

Is this something that the world needed?  

Am I missing out on something? LOL!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

BREAD A FRIDAY FUNNY

Saw this sign and we cracked up laughing...

We love our bread, that's for sure.  Of course around here, 2nd Man bakes most of the time...

Regular white bread...

And "fancy sourdough" loaves...

And even I dabble on occasion (this is beer bread that I make on occasion)...

We can attest to the fact that is does indeed rise in the yeast and set in our the waist!

Hope you are having a good week.  It's been another one of our weird Winter weeks.  We got up into the mid 70's at one point, it's been foggy every morning and rainy on and off all day, every day, and now we're back down into the 40's.  TGIF!

CREAMED COLLARD GREENS RECIPE

With our Fall influx of collards, we had to get creative.  Here is something I came up with.  Super easy and was really good.

We used about 1 cup of shredded Parmesan...

1/2 cup cream (or half and half)...

1/2 of an 8 oz pkg of cream cheese...

I'm not sure how many collard greens we used...

I rinsed them, cut the center stems out and chopped them into smaller pieces/strips.  If I had to guess, about 4 cups chopped?  All of this is really just to taste, personal preference.

I brought a pan of water to a rolling boil and added a chicken bouillon cube for a bit of instant seasoning.

I added the collards and cooked about 10 minutes or until they were tender.  Drain the water completely and put collards back into the hot pan over low heat.

I missed a pic of each step but they probably looked about the same, white, white and white, ha.  First I added the cream cheese and stirred it around so it would melt.  Then I added the cream and the Parmesan cheese and just kept stirring until everything was melted and incorporated.  You can add more cream if it's too thick.  It can really be to whatever consistency you like. 

Serve it on the side and enjoy.  It's really a great side dish.  We had ours with steaks and potatoes and it was really good.  Just like what you'd find at the steakhouse restaurants...only collard greens instead of spinach.

SPRING IS COMING

Don't stop reading without seeing the bottom photo of this post.  Our patience finally paid off, ha. 

It was gray and overcast, on and off.  We went out Saturday and this was the day.  Of course Sunday was better but still cool and the ground was way too wet to try to mow or edge.  Sigh.

Of course, the fruit trees feel like Spring is coming.  Three of them are breaking out into blooms.   The citrus are still on the porch in their black containers.  They didn't let that stop them.  All three of them (lemon/lime/citrus) are in bloom.

The garlic is doing its thing in both beds.  Nice to see.  Hoping for a great harvest this season.

Collard greens are still producing.  After trying collards, kale, mustard greens, and even a mixture of all in one bed over the last few Fall seasons, we have found that collards do best.

We harvested another large batch of leaves. As we were driving back into town we decided that we will always include them as part of our Fall garden plans. They are, for us, foolproof and hardy.  They also give us a lot of great meals.  

But HERE is the exciting part!  We FINALLY got Napa cabbages!  They look like magazine worthy heads, ha.  We gave one to 2nd Family and they said "you grew these here?"  They didn't know they would work in our climate.  Need to eat them before they go bad.  We should have three more next weekend, we left them to grow a bit more.  Not sure why they took so long or if it was just our odd weather but we're glad.

Any uses you have experience with for this type of cabbage?