2013...the year I sucked at gardening but that we got the house going again

Yes, I sucked at gardening in 2013. I had such high hopes. The veggies got started nicely in the greenhouse (which was really falling apart by this time) and the boys helped till the garden up really well again, to which we added a LOT of composted horse poop. The garden really should've done quite well...but it didn't. Part of the problem was the very LATE frosts we got...and snow...in May!!! It's very rare to get snow in May this far south. It does happen occasionally, or should I say RARELY. 2013 was the year of the rarely seen snowfall in May. The temps just never got very warm all spring. I was finally able to get the garden in after Mother's Day..and by then it was HOT. So once again, lettuces didn't do well, and I got zip for peas. I was really hoping for good results with my sweet corn...after all, if the grasshoppers hadn't eaten it all last summer, it would've been great. NOPE. It didn't grow.

Here's a picture of the garden in LATE May...things are just going in the ground and starting to grow. It just was a very COLD spring:

The tomatoes really struggled to produce all summer, and my peppers died in the ground. It was a really frustrating year. I think my best crops were radishes. Even the cucumbers struggled all summer. I got plenty for eating, but not near what I'd gotten the year before for canning. No pickles or relish this year.

What did do well were my herbs! They were really bountiful. We enjoyed them fresh in pizza and pasta sauces, chicken saltimbocca, etc., and I got a LOT dried for winter, too. Here is a picture of our dog, cats & chickens napping in the shade by the herb garden (various pots in partial shade surrounded by chicken wire to keep ALL the animals out the best I could).

Oh, and the small patch of sorghum I had experimented with was FABULOUS! I was so happy to see them grow tall and put out a lot of seed heads. If I had the equipment for making sorghum syrup, I would've given it a shot (it's like making maple syrup, only have to press the juices out of the stalks...not tap a maple tree for the sap). :) I did harvest the seed heads and have been feeding them to the chickens all winter. They really enjoy them. I am saving a sackful for planting this spring, a bigger plot than last year, so I can get LOTS of seed heads for feeding the chickens. I am also going to try millet and oats this year.

By late summer Jason had decided that he was going to get the walls and 2nd story deck on the house, even if he couldn't get the roof up right away. Friends of ours, for whom we will always be grateful, came to help. It took a whole day to get one wall up, but after everyone got in a rhythm, the rest of the walls went up very quickly! After the walls went up the floor joists for the 2nd story, and then the decking on top of that. Rain was forecast, so we had to get that second story covered up. We went looking for a hay tarp like we'd purchased the year before, which had done a great job at keeping the first story floor protected. Nope, no luck. They had sold out. I was able to get Tractor Supply to call around to their other stores and found one about an hour and a half away. I headed there the same day to pick it up.

When we got it home we were really disappointed. The tarp had cost the same as the one we'd bought the year before, but the quality was a very poor second. It was thinner, much thinner. It was all they'd had left in the size we needed and we prayed it would make it through the winter.

Here are pics of everyone getting the house up.

2013...a year of change

2013 ushered in a lot of changes for us as a family. My oldest (Tim) had turned 18 the end of 2012. We had jumped through hoops to get every form filled out and submitted for scholarships and college. He had done very well in high school and was awarded the Bright Flight scholarship for a very high ACT score, the A+ scholarship for good grades, attendance, and being a mentoring volunteer. He also applied for scholarships at the college of his choice, University of Missouri-Rolla, which specializes in engineering degrees. He was a candidate for a full-ride scholarship but there was a lot of competition and he didn't get it. He was awarded several smaller scholarships to the college and he was considering going there all four years.

In May 2013 Tim (picture of him on left, his best friend Connor on the right) graduated and we had a big picnic party here on the farm for him with all his friends and as much family as could come. Two of his aunts (my sisters) came down for the weekend from up north and we all enjoyed the visit with them! I wish they could've stayed longer...maybe 2014 for Michael's graduation?

Here's some great pictures...notice how GREEN everything is. What a wonderful day this was!

Shannon spent half her summer break from school down in Norwood, Missouri interning on the Rockin H Ranch with friends of ours, owners of Real Farm Foods. She spent a LOT of time in the gardens, some with the chickens, guardian flock dogs, herding cattle, sheep, pigs, goats, etc., but her favorite was the goat dairy! She helped milk around 150 dairy goats and she fell in LOVE with goats! Here she is trying to get the goats off the hay ride trailer. :)

We also lost our not so beloved but good on gas mileage Nissan...it just finally croaked. We went shopping for a new vehicle and came home with an '05 Dodge Grand Caravan with stow and go seating. It has auto doors and just about all the bells and whistles you can ask for! I love it!!! On the down side...it's back to car payments again. :(

The boys both looked for regular jobs over the summer, but they never found any, so they mowed for the neighbors all summer, and did odd jobs for people.

Tim purchased a car (van) with his savings and graduation money, which is great for him, because he can pile all his friends in the car for D&D games (Dungeons and Dragons) which he and Michael play, usually here at the house. He ran into an old teacher of his, she had retired the year before he graduated and he really liked her a lot. She had some good advice for him about college...take his scholarships and use them locally and save some money. Live at home, save a lot more money. He wasn't thrilled about living at home two more years, but he is really good with money and saw the wisdom in her advice. He decided to attend Ozarks Technical Community College his first two years and save a LOT of money in the long run (about $40,000) over going to school in Rolla and taking out student loans.

Notice how much his car resembles ours? LOL! But his cost a LOT less.

Jason got hired on at OTC for the fall semester to teach the HVAC boilers & chillers class. This was on top of his work schedule.
In July I began watching my girlfriend's grandson, Brantley, while his mom & grandma worked really WEIRD hours. I also began working for my girlfriend at her newly opened party supply store...RSVParty in Marshfield. (Same friend, the baby went to work with me). So all in all, we were trying to build the house, take care of the kids & animals, and work multiple jobs. 2013 was coming to a close and we were worn out! :) Did I mention Tim nearly totaled his car, too? Yep...he spent many hours working on it to get it running again. Thankfully he finally managed it, with Jason's help. In the meantime he caught rides to school with Jason on days he could, other days he'd take my car if I didn't need it, and some days he had to have me take him to school. Did I mention we were WORN OUT?

Christmas 2012

It was simple but happy. I'll keep this brief, as I'd like to keep posting today to get caught up to the end of 2013 (I'm aiming high...I know.) :)

We were lucky to get a Christmas bonus from Jason's work...and the kids were thrilled. Had it not arrived, we would've had another very simple Christmas...which is fine, but the kids worked so hard, we really wanted to reward them. We were able to give them each some money on top of their Christmas gifts, and the rest we socked away for the house.

We got the dogs groomed, too, which was really needed! Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

July....still no rain

Anyone who has lived through a drought knows how tough it is. You start worrying about water conservation, about how you're going to feed your family with the limited produce being produced...and what IS available has gone WAY up in price! So affordability is also an issue. Top that off with HOW are we going to afford to feed our animals, too??? UGH!

It got me thinking about what I could plant in the garden area that would also feed the animals. While I'm certainly not an expert at growing vegetables, I'm not too bad at it. Grain crops on the other hand??? This was something else entirely!

I narrowed it down to some crops I thought I could maybe manage on a small scale: Oats, Millet, Sorghum, greens (like lettuce for the chickens, ducks & rabbit). Oats and Millet would take some room away from my veggies. Sorghum grows a LOT like corn, and I KNEW it grew well in Missouri because the Amish and Mennonites grow it locally for both grains and as a sweetener (ever heard of sorghum syrup or sorghum molasses?). Lettuces were simple, but you needed cool enough weather to grow them, or grow them in partial shade, so they don't bolt (go to seed and get bitter). So I began researching these crops, I'd give it a shot next year, if I felt confident enough.

We were feeding hay to the horses already. We bought square bales locally for $4.75 a bale and prayed we'd have rain enough to green up the pastures before winter actually got here, so we could take a break in feeding hay, and so farmers could get in another crop of hay. Our wishes didn't come through. We went back for more square bales in August and they were now up to $5.75 a bale.

Meanwhile the garden was still going strong (thanks to heavy watering) but the yard was brown and crispy, as was the pasture. We closed off the pasture and put the horses on a dry lot up by the barn. It was SO hot and dry that the animals were getting dehydrated and overheated, even with all the water we put out multiple times a day. We got inventive and used a method that had kept animals cooled off in the hot, arid regions of Arizona, where we'd lived for years...a misting system. I ran hoses, hooked up some mister sprayers and ran the water at a trickle to produce just the right amount of cooling mist. I aimed it towards the barn and horses, and the chickens, ducks and dogs enjoyed it, too! Saddly we lost a favorite cat during the heat. He got dehydrated and over heated and just went to sleep under our car and never woke up. It was very sad and I had to get onto the kids to really keep an eye on the animals. They didn't just need water daily, they needed to be checked for overheating and nursed back to health indoors. He had been inside the day before he died, because I thought he didn't look well, but as soon as he perked up the kids let him back out, not realizing he was still dehydrated. :(

By the end of July the grasshoppers descended. Anything green was devoured...the only thing green was my garden, so they ate any greens I had in there, including my sweet corn. I was left with a few tomatoes and pepper plants, and the marigolds. It was really disappointing. I now know how Ma & Pa felt in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when the grasshoppers descended on their homestead. :( All the trees had lost their leaves, too...and there was little shade now from the trees for either the house or the animals.

Nothing had really been done on the house all summer long. Jason was working far too many hours and we were afraid to really build anything more without having the money for a roof (about $5,000 or more), so it stood as a foundation all summer. We did spend a little money on the cabin. Having lived through one winter and a super duper hot summer, we knew we had to do something not only about loss of indoor heat/cooling, but also about all the shoes, hats, coats, mittens, gloves, etc., that comes with cold weather. We were losing a very large portion of space just to coats and shoes, and they never stayed where they belonged, because the dogs and cats would knock them all around, so we were constantly tripping over them...not to mention the mess on the floor daily from tracking in dirt and chicken poop on them.

Jason added a small, enclosed porch to the front of the cabin. He and the boys did an excellent job of making it look like it belonged there. On the down-side, once it was finished it was winter...and it never got insulated (at least not yet), but thankfully we can put a curtain across the old doorway into the porch and keep out most of the cold/heat. We now have a LOT of space for coats, hats, mittens, boots, shoes, gloves, the litter pan, and some of my food storage (although I have to be careful with the changes in temps...so I try to only keep things out there that I can use within a year or so, in case of loss of food quality).

Here is a photo of the porch after it was all finished...right around Christmas time 2012.

Prices on food and animal feed were starting to skyrocket. What we'd purchased in hay wasn't going to last all winter...so we began looking for quality hay to get us through. We found good quality hay for $8.75 a square bale...and then $9.25 a square bale. We bought all we could afford and prayed it would get us through til spring. The barn was full of hay, and we were ready for snow.

Bonus recipe today! Crockpot Lime Chicken Tacos

This recipe is one I found in a Quick Cooking magazine a long time ago, too. I did some adapting to make it more friendly for my family. I do find that when everything is done cooking, the chicken tends to have a LOT of juice, so be sure to use a slotted spoon when placing the mixture onto your tortillas. :) This is one of those SOOO simple recipes that is another hit with my family. In fact, when my oldest has one of his best friends over, the first question out of his mouth is if I'm making chicken tacos again, he likes them so much!

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 3 really large or 4 normal sized)
3 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp chili powder (you can use more, but I suggest if you like it HOT, to use a spicier salsa)
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1 c. frozen sweet corn kernels
1 14 oz can pinto beans, drained (or black beans)
1 c. chunky salsa
12 flour tortillas (6 inch)
sour cream, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes & taco sauce for toppings

Place chicken in a crock pot.
Combine lime juice & seasonings; pour over chicken.
Cover & cook on low for 5 hours, or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken, cool slightly, then shred & return to crock pot. Stir in beans & salsa; cover & cook on low another 30 min. or until heated through.

Serve on tortillas with additional toppings, if desired.

This recipe originally had no beans, but I think they really add to the total recipe. You can always leave out the corn if you don't care for it. We prefer full flavors to the taste of chili powder, but you can always up the chili powder to a full tablespoon, if desired, but a better option for heat is to use a hotter salsa, or add some chopped jalapenos. :)

So simple and tasty baked chicken recipe...Breaded Italian Chicken

This recipe I found ages ago in a Quick Cooking magazine. It originally called for 1 envelope of Ranch Dressing mix, but I didn't have one in the cupboard, so I used 1 envelope of Italian Dressing Mix and Viola, new recipe that my family LOVES! The part I love is that it's so very simple!

Breaded Italian Chicken (or Ranch, if you prefer to make the original)

Ingredients:
3/4 c. crushed corn flakes
3/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 envelope Italian Dressing mix (I use Good Seasons usually)
1/2 c. butter or margarine melted
8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Preheat oven to 350*F
In a shallow bowl, combine cornflakes, cheese & salad dressing mix.
Dip chicken in butter, then roll in cornflake coating.
Place in a greased 13x9x2 baking dish.
Bake, uncovered, 45min or until chicken juices run clear.

This recipe is EASILY halved.

I'll post pics the next time I make this, which shouldn't be long. :)

Cheesy Potato Corn Chowder...recipe

This recipe is my very own! I'm not usually creative in the kitchen, I take a recipe, use it, tweek it a little, but usually never actually make my own up (except a select few). This is one of the select few.

I had left over ham one day and wanted to make a soup with it. I knew I wanted a creamy soup, so I searched my magazines and cookbooks for the perfect recipe. I didn't find any I really liked the sound of, some sounded tasteless, and some sounded like WAY too much work. After all, I'm a farm girl, not a chef! I took the best parts of the recipes and got started. After a few tries, this is what we decided was best. I've had to tweek things to make them palatable to some family members who shall remain nameless...so I've also included how I would make it if it were MY taste buds I wanted to make happy. :)

Cheesy Potato Corn Chowder

Ingredients:
1-2 Tbsp butter
1/4 c. minced white or yellow onions (finely minced and a sweet onion is best)
2 c. chopped, cooked ham (we use leftover)
1 14 oz can chicken broth
3 med. russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (you can also use dehydrated slices that you've rehydrated OR 1 1/2 LARGE baking potatoes that you've baked and have leftover, skin removed)
1 small can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 small can condensed cream of potato soup
1 14oz can sweet corn, drained
a dash of celery seed
1/8 tsp dried dill weed
1/8 tsp dried tarragon (or marjoram, depending on your taste preferences)
1/8 tsp celery salt
salt (go easy) & pepper to taste
1 soup can of 1/2 & 1/2 cream

Saute ham & onion in butter in a heavy bottomed soup pot or dutch oven until onion is translucent. Add chicken broth & potatoes. Cook on med high heat until potatoes are tender (aprx 10-15 min.).

Turn burner to med/medium low, add in canned soups and herbs/seasonings & mix thoroughly, heating until all is warmed through.

Turn burner to low, add in the corn and the soup can of 1/2 & 1/2. Whisk thoroughly until well blended, heat until warmed through. Remove from burner & serve with fresh baked bread or cornbread.

You can substitute 1 minced celery stalk in place of the celery seed & celery salt & saute it along with the onion & ham.

This recipe is hearty & satisfying and one of my favorite one-pot soups for winter! And an excellent way to use up leftover ham. :)

It's JUNE 2012 and it's HOT and DRY!

We barely received any rain in May, and I don't remember any in June, maybe a sprinkle, or a promise of rain, but nothing that really DID anything. We were watering the garden daily, just to keep things alive and growing, and boy were they growing!!!



And here is a great photo of my daughter's wheelbarrow flower garden (with the house not being done, we didn't want to put in a permanent flower bed yet.)

It seemed the weeding of the garden was endless, but it was worth it! Here are some pics of tomatoes from the 1st of June.

You may noticed the "hoops" that the tomatoes are climbing. Those are 16 foot welded wire cattle panels that we've buried each end in the ground about a foot. An old neighbor taught me that trick. Makes an excellent trellis for the tomato vines, cucumbers, too. Only we just stand panels up and wire them to a few T posts for them.

And here's one of the squash plants;

We had also planted a whole row of marigolds beside the tomato plants, and they did a fairly good job of keeping the bugs away for awhile.
I got pretty good at picking off tomato horn worms and squashing them. I sprayed every other day with insecticidal soap that I'd made up, and sprinkled diatomaceous earth on the squash plants, in hopes of keeping the squash bugs at bay.

By the end of June I was learning how to water bath can pickles. My mother had ALWAYS canned, every year I can remember her making pickles, sweet & dill (the best dill in the world...only she never wrote her recipe down) and green beans in the pressure canner. She'd never let us kids help, and many times she'd shoo us out of the kitchen until the pressure canner had cooled down some. She was always worried about us getting hurt. Now it was my turn to learn how to do this, and it was a HOT job!!! My range in the cabin is electric, and a glass top at that, so any kind of canner would not work. I took my canning chores outdoors. We have a propane grill with a side burner...I canned on it. It took FOREVER for the water to boil! Once it did then the jars went in and the timer started. I didn't make a whole lot, but the pickles and relish have lasted us two years, so I guess that's an accomplishment. :)

Sometime in late May my husband brought my washing machine from the storage units, hooked it up inside the shed with the well, and strung some clothesline between 3 trees. I admit it wasn't glamorous, and it's a lot of work carting the clothes outdoors to wash and then hanging them dry, but the weather made QUICK work of drying them! It was so hot and dry that summer that clothes would dry in less than an hour on the line. We had also estimated at our old house that we saved $50 a month on our electric bill by using the clothesline (I sure miss the nice clothesline Jason built me there). Having done laundry over and over at the laundromat, we were saving even MORE money, because I think I spent between $15 and $20 a week in quarters, not to mention the gas to and from.

Besides keeping the garden watered, we also had to change the chicken and ducks' water daily (ducks make a BIG mess of water). We had 2 kiddie pools we used for the ducks, and before summer was over that became three. We also had a 2 gallon water fount for the chickens, and they'd sometimes go through that twice a day (thanks to the ducks, too). So we got strategic and placed some one gallon founts here and there throughout the yard. The evaporation from the water was cooling, and you'd see the cats hanging out next to them.

Speaking of cats...that cat was NOT our cat...she showed up from the neighbors house with six kittens! The neighbors were really not cat people, and they were looking to get rid of all of them. We took in two kittens: Buster and Wally, but it wasn't long before the mama cat and the rest of the kittens were hanging out here, too. We gave up, gave in, and we gained 7 cats. Sigh...we were up to 19 cats, I think.

Here's a picture of Jason relaxing after work with the kittens crawling all over him. The one on his shoulder is Izzy. Notice how brown the yard is? :(

Worth the Effort...Apple Pie...Recipe

Apple Pie is something I believe MOST people love, and it's an All-American favorite. I make apple pie probably 4 or 5 times during the winter. Usually 2 pies at a time. In fact, I just made this today. :)

My recipe comes from my very worn out and much-loved Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, this one was published in 1981 and is my go-to cookbook if I'm looking for anything "standard". It also has cooking times for meats, poultry, etc.

This recipe calls for a double-crust pastry dough. You can make your own pastry dough for your pie, or you can do what I do (yes, I am THAT lazy) and buy the Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts. They come 2 in a package and America's Test Kitchen tasting panel declared them the #1 store-bought pie crust (don't use frozen pie crusts/pans...they're not big enough). I can make a pie crust, I just find that in my VERY small kitchen, I'd prefer NOT to add to the mess and clutter by doing so.

If you own one of those apple peeler/corer/slicer gadgets USE it! It makes the prep time almost nothing for this pie!

Preheat oven to 375*F

Ingredients:
Pastry for a double-crust pie
6 cups (2 pounds) thinly sliced, cored, peeled, cooking apples (I find that Granny Smith is THE apple to use for apple pie, but I believe Golden Delicious is another apple recommended by America's Test Kitchen for this purpose). I find that 4 LARGE Granny Smith apples is perfect for one pie.
1 c. sugar (I use organic, evaporated pure cane juice sugar, but you can use white)
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (I use unbleached)
1/2 to 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Dash or two of ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp butter
1 egg, lightly beaten with a little water (egg wash)

If apples lack tartness, sprinkle with 1 Tbsp lemon juice (not usually necessary for Granny Smiths).
Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon & nutmeg.
Add sugar mixture to the sliced apples; toss to coat fruit.
Line a 9" pie plate with pastry crust, fill with apple mixture, dot with butter. Cover with 2nd pastry crust.
Seal and flute the edge. Brush the crust with the egg wash, and sprinkle a little sugar over the crust. Cut a few vents in the top.
Cover the edges of your crust with foil or a crust protector. Bake 25 min.
Remove foil or protector and bake an additional 20-25 min., or until the crust is golden.
Cool.
Serves 8

Here is my worn-out, much loved, falling apart, tried & true favorite cookbook:

Cheeseburger Casserole with Tater Tots...recipe

One of these days I'll start taking pictures of the recipes I've shared on this blog. :)

This is one of those meals that tastes great on a winter night, and perfect for those "meat and potatoes" kind of guys. Simple and hearty.
You can throw it all together and then while it's baking you've got time to help the kids with homework, do chores, or make a dessert.

Preheat Oven to 350*F

Ingredients
1 pound hamburger
1 onion chopped (we like ours diced really fine) Sometimes I add a minced garlic clove for a change of pace.
1 package frozen tater tots (we use a 2 pound pkg)...I suggest pre-baking these for 5 min. less than the directed time on the pkg. This makes the tots on the bottom AND top nice and crispy.
3/4 pound Colby cheese, grated (you can also use mild or medium cheddar, depends on your tastes)
salt and pepper
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 soup can of milk (we like whole)

In a skillet brown hamburger and onion together, drain, being careful not to lose your onions.
Place half the tater tots in the bottom of a buttered casserole dish and lightly salt & pepper. Cover with the meat/onion mixture, season with salt and pepper, then top with the grated cheese.
Combine the soup and milk, pour over the casserole, then top with the remaining tater tots, lightly salt the tots (or omit if you think you've got enough salt in your recipe).
Bake about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the casserole is heated through and bubbly around the edges.

Note: if you do not pre-bake your tater tots, up the baking time to 1.5 hours.
Sometimes a little dried basil sprinkled over the cheese, before the soup mixture goes on gives this dish an "Italian" flavor.

This is another recipe I found in the Sept/Oct 2011 Issue of GRIT. If you can get a hold of this issue, there are a LOT of good recipes in it! I have adapted it to suit our family's taste buds.

May was finally here!

May certainly was a sign of things to come. We had temps in the high 80s, beautiful weather for being outside, but it was only May. Nearly everyone had planted their gardens early, so sales at Farmers Market of tomato and pepper starts were slow. We sold enough to break even when it was all said and done. We did better than some others, because we'd had a nice greenhouse to get everything going in, and the plants were huge and hearty! We'd also done a good job of hardening the plants off, so they were all set to go in someone's garden. Our best success seemed to be the "patio plants", the ones we'd planted in big pots and could be left there all summer long. They were also our most expensive, because of the buckets, soil and time we'd put into them.

The lady I was next to at Farmers Market had gotten a slow start on her plants, she'd started when everyone normally started, and they looked small and spindly. I'm sure her plants would've grown just as well as mine did, but they looked sad. I felt bad for her, and we did some talking, sharing, and a little trading. I had some varieties she wanted to try, and she had some I wanted to try. It helped that we both got our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and I brought my catalog with me, so when someone would ask about a variety, we could both knowledgeably share the info, and some pictures. I didn't try to compete with her, I figured if mine didn't sell, they'd just go in the garden, if hers didn't sell she'd wasted a LOT of time and money, and she'd come from quite a ways away. In the end I think I gave up on the Farmers Market before she did, but we were both disappointed that year, spring had just come too early.

I was hoping for a lot of produce to sell later that summer, whatever we decided not to use or preserve ourselves. I know the other gal, through our discussions, was hoping for the same. I did get to visit some with a few of the other vendors, one with honey bees who lived not too far from me (good to know) and another who sold herb starts, duck and chicken eggs. Selling eggs at Farmers Market was something I was also considering, but her sales were very slow...maybe a dozen eggs each market day (once a week), that really didn't seem like it was worth it.

By the end of May we were hitting 90s nearly every day. The kids were now out of school, Jason was too busy to work on the house because of his job, and it seemed we spent all our time running hoses all over the property.

The peas wilted and hadn't really done much, we might've gotten a handful off the vines. The lettuce had finally bolted, and the spinach never did anything. The beans never came up, but the squash, corn, okra, sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, onions & potatoes seemed to be going nuts. We were really hoping for good things out of the garden!

The boys helped me run drip lines around the tomato and pepper plants, and we ran hoses and sprinklers to the garden so we could turn the water on and walk away for awhile. We also got some fruit trees planted, some were new and only a couple feet tall, and some we'd dug up from our old place, and they were maybe 4 feet tall. Shannon brought home some blackberry briars and one paw paw tree. She had ordered a LOT of trees through FFA from the Missouri Conservation Dept...but her teacher had lost the order forms and by the time she got to class, all that was left was what she got. She was TICKED off. I don't blame her. Kids who hadn't ordered anything took it all. She said she'd never order though FFA again, we'd just do our own order next time. So we ran hoses all over the yard for the fruit trees, too. Thankfully we had two water hydrants in, one off the end of the cabin, another out in the middle of what would become our front yard.

The horses were happy, the chickens and ducks were now big enough to be outdoors all the time, and they enjoyed free-ranging around the yard. Their favorite place in the afternoons were under the big cedar, which we call the Wayward Pine. It was nice and cool under there. the down side is that was very close to the neighbors' back yard (wooded lot) and we had a hard time keeping them close to the house. It was time to get a fence up along the property line.

Keeping the garden watered and weeded seemed to be the hardest jobs. Getting the kids to HELP weed the garden was a battle every day. They wanted to stay indoors where it was cool and play video games all day long. Nothing was getting done on the house, because Jason was never home to work on it. Summer was here and we were all getting frustrated.

Tangy Meatballs over Noodles Recipe...kind of like sweet & sour, but more beefy tasting...

I've had that recipe for ages, and can't really remember where I found it. This is our family's favorite way to eat meatballs, because it's so easy! If you want to cut down the prep time, simply use store purchased frozen meatballs. The best "flavor" to go with this recipe would be home-style...Italian has too many spices to go well with the sauce.

Preheat oven to 350*F

Ingredients:
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 c. milk
1/4 c. seasoned bread crumbs (again, Italian is not the way to go for this recipe)
1 Tbsp dried minced onion
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 pounds ground beef

2 cans/jars (14 3/4 oz each) beef gravy
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp apple cider or red wine vinegar
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 pkg (12 oz) medium egg noodles

In a bowl combine first five ingredients. Crumble beef over mixture & mix well. Shape into 1 1/2" balls. Place 1 inch apart in greased 15x10x1 baking pans. Bake, uncovered, 20 min. If using frozen meatballs, par-bake them ahead.

With a slotted spoon transfer meatballs to a greased 2 1/2 quart baking dish. Combine gravy, brown sugar, vinegar, ginger & cloves; pour over meatballs and stir to coat. Cover and bake 30 minutes or until meat is no longer pink.

Meanwhile, prepare noodles according to package directions; drain. Serve with meatballs. yield: aprx 8 servings (40 meatballs).

This is great with a romaine salad alongside and something fruity for dessert. :)

March is marching in...

And March didn't come in like a lion, that had been February, not a good sign...spring had sprung a month early. However on the home-front, it was perfect, because we were getting a jump start on the house project, and I was ready for the garden to go in. Jason had purchased a single-bottom plow to make the first pass through the field where the garden would go. It ended up being so rocky that the plow broke. :(

We called a guy advertising garden tilling on craigslist and he came out a week later and finished the garden for us. It was well worth the expense, I believe we paid $300. This was a "virgin" garden, so Shannon & I had to get out there every day and pick rocks and pull out the big clumps of grass, so it wouldn't reseed as weeds in the garden.

We placed the garden on the north side of our cabin, far enough away so it wouldn't get shaded until the very end of the day. It seemed like a good spot. I hauled many wheelbarrow loads of horse manure and dumped it on the garden, and eventually Jason and the boys took turns tilling it in with the walk-behind tiller.

The garden measured 35' x 60' or so. Hopefully enough room for everything. The seeds came out for early spring crops (it was already in the 70s most days, and soaring into the mid 80s on others).

The garden was tilled up quite nicely and just in time, too, because the next several weeks saw Shannon & I busy with our new chicks and ducklings that had arrived the end of March!

Shannon got 15 Buff Brahmas, I chose 10 Light Brahmas and 15 ducklings...Welsh Harlequins and Rouen

Chicks and ducklings grow quickly, eat a LOT, drink a LOT, and poop a lot. Ducklings are also notoriously messy! Their brooder needed to be cleaned every other day because their bedding would get soaking wet and stink. When the cage needed to be cleaned the ducklings came inside and played in the bath tub while we cleaned and changed the bedding. Then we'd dry them off and take them back to the barn.

It wasn't long until the ducklings were big enough to move to our portable cage. It's the end of April now and the temps are in the mid to high 80s nearly every day! Farmers Market has started and we'd sold several tomato plants.