Hard to get necessary work done with a J.O.B....but I'm trying!

I started back to work last week, I now work at our local Walmart in the Garden Center. I'm considered seasonal, so we shall see if my job lasts past the 180 days (if I even get that far). It's pretty difficult to keep up with the kids' schedules, the baby chicks, the greenhouse, the garden planting, the laundry, the dishes...you get the picture. :)

I have been managing, though, but I sure do feel the need for a nap about this time every day! Too bad some of those times are when I'm on the clock. Today I thought I'd try to push through that "I need a nap" feeling and get an update posted.

My girlfriend, Regina, gave me her portable raised beds, since she is moving. :( They are 4x4. There are 4 of them, and they interlock, but I am only going to use three for now, as where I am putting them they don't all quite fit. I'm actually centering them under the tomato hoops. I got one of them planted yesterday morning. I put out 3 kinds of kale, collards and 2 kinds of broccoli. I am hoping the weather stays just nice enough to keep them growing. I cover them nightly with an old shower curtain. I need something to hold it up better in the middle, though, so rain runs off of it, and doesn't smash it down like it did last night. I hope my broccoli made it! It was a bit smashed this morning.

The chicks are growing like chicks do...FAST! They are eating like CRAZY! I fill their feed trays three times a day! There are 35 or 36 of them running around in the brooder now. They're soooo cute! They're getting some feathers and they're testing their wings and flying (or trying to fly) around in the brooder. They also think freeze dried meal worms are AWESOME. LOL!

The greenhouse had a little room in it, once I moved the kale, broccoli & collards out, but I quickly filled those spaces up with some more seedlings. The bell peppers are taking FOREVER to pop up in the starter trays. I am quickly losing hope that I'll get any more egg plant starts. They are REALLY difficult to start. UGH! I got a few more tomato starts and some more herbs are popping up, so those got transplanted this morning. Shannon's flowers are starting to take off again, so those are also needing more room. Oh, and my onions are popping up in their pots! I can't wait til the weather is warm enough for me to put them out in the raised beds. That's what I believe raised beds are best for in the Ozarks...root crops...because our soil is pretty rocky, so nothing that needs to grow as a root actually does a very good job of growing. You should've seen my parsnips last year...about 2 inches long, 2 inches thick, and about a dozen points coming off the ends of each. Too many rocks, too much clay. I hope for a better crop this year with the raised beds!

Now, didn't I say something about needing to do laundry? UGH! Off I go to deal with laundry and hopefully get something cooking for dinner tonight, so my family doesn't feel I'm neglecting them.

Have a fun day everyone!

Just a quick update on my greenhouse...

It's PACKED full of seedlings and starts! I am going to hunt through my storage unit today and see if I can find something to use for shelves, so we can utilize the space better.

Shannon has also started her sunflowers over again (they died because they didn't get transplanted soon enough the 1st time) and many other kinds of flowers, like forget me nots, moss rose, love in a mist, mixed autumn colored flowers, daisies, etc.

If you're looking for something in particular, or you know we have something you want, we can "hold" these for you until they're hardy enough to set out...or the weather warms up for good. :) Just please post a comment below.

GRILLED MAPLE MUSTARD CHICKEN BREASTS & MAPLE CORN BREAD...RECIPES!!

Maple Syrup making was one of the things my dad liked to do when I was a kid. He'd tap the maple trees (way up north in NW Wisconsin) when the weather just started turning to spring and I'd follow him through the woods with the buckets for the taps. Every night after I got off the bus (about half an hour before dark) I'd run through the woods with a clean bucket and pour all the sap collected into it. Dad would keep it until there was enough sap to cook down to syrup. It was sooo good! I miss those days with my dad. Enjoy a couple recipes that are my favorites (and I make them VERY often).

MAPLE CORN BREAD
1 ¼ c. flour
¼ c. corn meal
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg
¾ c. milk
½ c. maple syrup
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
Combine dry ingredients. In another bowl beat egg, add wet ingredients, pour into dry ingredients & mix until moistened, being careful not to over mix. Pour into a greased 9x9 baking pan. Bake @ 400*F for 20-22 min until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 min, cut into squares.
Easily doubled for a large gathering.


Maple Mustard Chicken Breasts (for the grill)

½ c. maple syrup
3 Tbsp cider or red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Tbsp vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
¾ tsp pepper
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 3 lbs), poked with holes by a fork
In a bowl, combine first six ingredients, mix well. Reserve ¼ c. for basting & refrigerate. Pour contents into Ziplock baggie. Add chicken. Refrigerate 4-8 hrs, turning over occasionally.

Get your grill preheating. Drain & discard marinade. Grill, uncovered, over medium high heat aprx. 3 minutes per side to get nice grill marks, then grill 6-8 minutes longer, turning occasionally, basting with reserved marinade. Chicken is done when the juices run clear.

Been Busy here on the farm, no time to post until now...because it's snowing! UGH!

The farm has been super busy lately, with lots going on and not much in the way of free time! All sunlight hours are consumed outdoors (I would say "daylight" but daylight savings has kicked in and mornings now begin again BEFORE the sun comes up! UGH! But that's a rant for another day.)

Here's what progress looks like on Wayward Pine Farm (the greenhouse):

And a week later:

We enjoyed several warm days last week, varying from about 45 to almost 80 during the day. It was wonderful! I was able to get soooo much done and working in the greenhouse was so nice! I even had to open the vents for several hours to let some humidity out. :) The tomatoes, peppers & eggplant are growing nicely. You can see the tomatoes are in varying stages of development, from just tiny seedlings to about 6"-8" tall. This is because the seeds I started in January grew too quickly and then many died before the weather was nice enough to transplant them into bigger pots (they were indoors in the mini greenhouse and the new, larger greenhouse hadn't been set up yet).

The newer seedlings are from the second set of seeds I started in about mid-February. The peppers and eggplant that are growing were all started in mid-January, too. I have not had success getting my second set of seeds to sprout yet...I am hoping they sprout soon, because they REALLY need a lot of head-start growth before going outdoors in May, plus I hope to have extras to sell at Farmers Market. So far I will have PLENTY of Roma tomatoes to sell! I also was able to get some of the larger herbs transplanted to full-sized pots and I imagine they will really take off now! I can't wait to have fresh basil, teragon, sage & cilantro again!!!

Here is what else we have going here on the farm, new baby chicks! Shannon bought 15 or 16, she lost count. LOL! I have 10. We'll add my 10 to the current flock and hers she plans to raise and sell, except maybe the one bantam she purchased. We'll see how the little thing does with my giant Brahmas. LOL! It's going to look like a dwarf compared to them, especially the roosters! We have quite an assortment, some brown leghorns, some barred rocks & barred Plymouth rocks, and we will have to wait to see what about 10 of them are after they feather out, as they were listed as "Rainbow Assortment" bred for good egg laying capabilities. This will be really good for our hen production.

We seem to add a new customer every week or so, and have quickly run into production problems...or lack of production, I should say. I think only about half my hens are in production right now. I do hope that with more warmer days than cold, we will soon see production back up to a dozen a day or more. On a very positive note, the ducks have started laying again!!! I am hoping we'll be able to set some eggs this spring. Ducklings are SOOO adorable (and messy)! :)

On the house-building end...we spent an outrageous sum of money last weekend (about $600) getting wiring, boxes, covers, outlets, etc., to wire the crawlspace for lighting and start the downstairs wiring. Wiring & plumbing have to be finished before the spray-foam guys come in and spray the walls with closed-cell foam insulation. Jason has spent several evenings after work getting started on that and he put the boys to work drilling and learning how to wire. It's a good skill for boys to know (girls, too, but Shannon has been too busy). My dryer now has a "to code" outlet, wiring run in the south wall, wiring run & connected for the pellet stove and down the middle wall. we have lighting in a few rooms on the 1st floor and one light bulb in the crawlspace. LOL! I guess the guys didn't get as much done down there as they intended, but they did get the crawlspace "hatch" constructed. It is in the middle of the mud room floor and will be the access point for the utilities (shut offs, water heater, heat pump, A/C connections) as well as some shelving we plan to put up for food-storage purposes, like extra canned goods, long-term storage items and root crops (potatoes, carrots, etc.) that do well in a cool, dark environment. I'll have to take some pictures when the weather clears up. Right now we have nearly white-out conditions! UGH! And yesterday was SOOOO nice. :(

Well, enjoy the day indoors everyone! I plan to read a book and catch up on episodes of Sleepy Hollow.
Oh, and on another note, I have accepted a position in the garden center of our local Walmart store, so I will be ONE busy girl this summer! Work, Farmers Market, church, and on my off-days, still babysitting my favorite little boy, Brantley, who enjoyed the baby swing I set up for him this week. I really enjoy watching him enjoying the farm life...the chickens & cats especially interest him and make him giggle. I wish I'd taken a picture of him excitedly watching the baby chicks running around the brooder yesterday. :)

Flooding...not a rare occaision here in the Ozarks

I thought I'd post some pictures of some of the flooding we experienced last fall. While it's not RARE to have flooding, it's also not really NORMAL, either. We typically have flooding in the spring and fall, usually not so bad that we can't get around, but sometimes the river floods. We live just behind the Niangua River, so we have to cross it to get to town. It's not even really a bridge, it's a low-water crossing that has been paved. There are also several other low water crossings along the route.

If the river is flooded, normally we can just turn around and head to the other small town at the other end of the road and catch the interstate from there, eventually getting where we were intending to go in the first place. Last fall...not so much. All low water crossings were flooded, and the Interstate flooded, as well, along many spots. One of those spots was along our alternate route.

The river flooded farm land that had just been hayed, washing HUGE round bales of hay down the raging river. (We made note to not buy any hay this year from those farmers.) They eventually came to a stop along fence lines. Great, deep gullies where the river is normally just a trickle down below was so high it was across the interstate a few feet deep. Many truckers were being advised to take alternate routes to St. Louis, going hundreds of miles out of their way.

Here are some photos of our little road and river crossing. The river took out the neighbor's fencing, and what was left was covered in grass that the river had ripped up in its rage. Typically this crossing will recede in just a couple of hours, but this particular time it was flooded for several days because of the torrential rains. We are thankful to live up on a hill, while the soil is poor on the hill, and not lush like our neighbors have, we don't have a muck pit every time it rains. One of our neighbors can't mow the back half of her five acres because it's nothing but marsh grass back there. Big humps of grass with mush around it. Even when it dries out (in July) it's far too bumpy to do any mowing. During this flooding the water was nearly up to her porch, and all her ground was a soggy mess.

This last photo is of the low water crossing after the river receded and the highway crew put in a BIG patch! (the darker blacktop)

Michael's Onion Rings...recipe

Michael has always been my aspiring chef. This past Friday he came home dreaming of Onion Rings. I had already planned dinner, BBQ chicken Po'Boys, but onion rings would fit right in. He Googled onion ring recipes and found a good one, to which we modified it. Here's the revised one. :)

Onion Rings

Ingredients
makes 3+ servings
1 large onion, cut into 1/4-inch slices (very important to not get thicker slices than this)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp seasoned salt (we used Tastefully Simple's version)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper (we used Watkins' brand)
1 egg
1 cup milk, or as needed
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs (we needed a lot more than this, so plan on probably about 2 cups) We used Panko bread crumbs.
kosher salt to taste
1 quart oil for frying, or as needed (we used lard)

Directions
1.Heat the oil in a deep-fryer (we used our enameled, cast iron dutch oven with a thermometer) to 365 degrees F .

2.Separate the onion slices into rings, and set aside.

3.In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, garlic powder, seasoned salt & pepper.

4.Dip the onion slices into the flour mixture until they are all coated; set aside.

5.Whisk the egg and milk together, then into the flour mixture using a fork.

6. Dip the floured rings into the batter to coat, then place on a wire rack to drain until the batter stops dripping. The wire rack may be placed over a sheet of aluminum foil for easier clean up (we just let them drip dry a few seconds from tongs instead).

7. Spread the bread crumbs out on a plate or shallow dish. Place rings one at a time into the crumbs, and scoop the crumbs up over the ring to coat. Give it a hard tap as you remove it from the crumbs. The coating should cling very well. Repeat with remaining rings.

8.Deep fry the rings a few at a time for 2 to 3 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Remove to paper towels to drain. Season with kosher salt, and serve. If your rings are not deep golden in all spots your onions will not be cooked through, so check each ring carefully. Also watch your oil temp, if it's not getting back up to temp between batches, your onion rings will not cook properly.

We kept our onion rings warmed on a big cookie sheet in a 200*F oven until all the batches were finished. We got about 6 servings out of one good-sized yellow onion.

2014....New Year, New Goals

Sometime after the interior walls went up in the house we were able to get the kitchen window in (it will be above the kitchen sink) and we've been picking away at other things. It's been a really miserable winter so far...lots of snow, freezing, REALLY FREEZING temps (negative teens a few nights). We're lucky to have not lost any chickens in the bad weather. We have lost two cats. One got ran over warming himself under the car and another has just disappeared. So sad, they were two of our cuddliest kitties with great personalities. :(

While the weather this winter has been REALLY crummy, not much more work has been done on the house. We did have to patch some holes in the tarp this last weekend, because it was leaking. We had to put buckets everywhere downstairs to catch the water. We're hoping the patches hold out til spring, when we can get going on the roof again.

Our roofing material arrived in early January at the supply store. It's currently wrapped up and waiting on us to build the rafters. We are putting up galvanized aluminum roofing. It should sound awesome when the rain hits it. :) The "skirting" for the crawlspace arrived in early February at Menards up in Lake Ozark. We had to wait a week or two before we could go get it. We had a nice weekend last weekend and the guys got the crawlspace skirted. The product we ordered is pretty unique. It's a pressure-treated plywood for below-grade applications. We haven't yet put the fill in around the base of the house, but eventually the skirting will be touching or below the fill line. We plan to eventually disguise it with "rocks" applied all over. It will look pretty neat when it's all put together. I'll try to get a photo of it in a day or so. Right now it's freezing cold and snow covered! :(

In late January I brought out my mini greenhouse, rearranged the cabin furniture, and got some seeds started. My goal this year is to do two farmers markets locally and sell seedlings in the spring, and veggies & herbs in the summer/fall. I also hope to sell some of my homemade sugar scrub and soaking salts. Shannon is hoping to sell flowers and sunflowers. So far she is not doing well, she's not keeping her plants watered and not transplanting them quickly enough into pots. It's her deal, so I'm trying not to say too much, but it's irritating to see her throwing her money away like that. :(

My seedlings, on the other hand, are doing pretty well, all things considered. I was able to purchase a large greenhouse for pretty reasonable through Walmart.com. Everything was flourishing until we got a BAD wind storm a couple weekends ago and it collapsed my greenhouse. I salvaged as many seedlings as I could and took them into the house (new house, not cabin) and set them up on Jason's work bench with heat lamps. Many survived, but I lost almost 20 seedlings of tomatoes, peppers & eggplant. That's so disappointing. Thankfully I still have plenty of time to get them going, IF the weather ever warms up!

I worked pretty hard one morning on repairing my greenhouse and think I have it to where it'll hold up now. It really took some rigging. I had my old greenhouse frame and I basically built it inside the new greenhouse frame in order to keep it from collapsing again. The old frame seems MUCH more sturdy than the new one, but it's MUCH smaller in size...so it will only hold up part of the new greenhouse. Something is better than nothing, though. The seedlings went back into the greenhouse with the heat lamps, and so far everything is doing okay.

This past weekend we had REALLY low temps, down to zero on Sunday night. I wasn't sure my seedlings would survive, but Tim helped me insulate inside the greenhouse with reflective bubble wrap insulation and three 5 gallon buckets of steaming hot water (changed out every 12 hours). I am thankful to say that so far (three nights of wicked temps) I've only lost 10 seedlings! Amazing!

Working inside the house

Jason and the boys did some work inside the house before winter set in. First things first...electricity. We'd run the electric to the site before the foundation went in, so now we had to run it to a breaker panel. Jason was feeling really bad for me hanging clothes on the line when the temps were just barely above freezing, so he wanted to get the dryer hooked up for me. 1st Electricity, then the dryer, then heat, then....?

Jason & the boys worked on the electricity in freezing rain. It was AWFUL weather! Once they had it to the breaker box and to the panel on the electric meter, then all the work indoors could begin. The Panel was installed and breakers put in, a few outlets were installed (temporary) for running power to the power tools, lighting, etc., while we worked indoors. The dryer was brought out of storage and installed. NOW I could do my laundry and dry it in my dryer in the winter! I was so happy! No more frozen fingers and freeze-dried clothes! Although I intend to still hang clothes on the line in the summertime, it just makes sense to save all that electricity.

Once the dryer was in they brought the pellet stove out of storage and installed it, too. We kept it when we moved from our old place. It really puts out the heat...but not so well in an uninsulated shell...but that will come eventually. For now it's just to warm up the interior when we're working in there...or on the occasions when the kids decide they want a sleepover and the nights aren't too chilly. Yes, they really do camp out there. LOTS of blankets and the pellet stove going full bore. LOL!

Once the pellet stove was installed and a BUNCH of pellets purchased the guys got working on putting up interior walls. The kitchen/dining/living is a combo room, so no walls there, just windows (which we had yet to purchase the window for the kitchen at this point). The other half of the downstairs had the mudroom (utility room), master bedroom, bathroom, and staircase. The walls went up pretty quickly. The staircase is waiting on warmer weather. Jason did get the landing built for it already...he told Shannon that was her bedroom. LOL!

We had a nice Thanksgiving here at the cabin, just us. Our Thanksgiving plans with my in-laws fell through.

Winter weather headed into Missouri EARLY in 2013, snow in early December, freezing temps (like 6*F and colder), not a great start for a Mid-South winter. This was an early warning sign that winter would be miserable!

Christmas 2013 and we'd had plenty of snow already. Most years we're praying for snow on Christmas...this was the year we were praying the LAST snow would be on Christmas! Wishful thinking. :( We had a dinner over at my in-laws on Christmas Eve, but weren't expecting them on Christmas Day...once again we had our holiday to ourselves. Jason's company came through for him again with a Christmas bonus (arrived the day before Christmas...so no time to shop with it) and we were able to gift the kids with money again, on top of their few small gifts, and put money towards the house.

2014...here we come!

Chicken Saltimbocca with Artichoke Sauce...recipe when you want to impress company

This makes such a delicious and gorgeous entree!!! And it smells so yummy when cooking. Use FRESH sage leaves, you won't be disappointed. This recipe comes from Chef Sara Moulton and her PBS TV Show Sara's Weeknight Meals. I saw her make this on TV one day and I couldn't wait to try it with the sage that I had growing in my herb bed. It was absolutely AMAZING and my kids who all said "ick, artichokes" ate EVERY BIT of them!!!! I wish I had my own photo to post, as I don't think this one does the recipe justice, but I promise, you will NOT be disappointed! :)

Makes 4 Servings
Hands-On Time: 35 Minutes
Total Preparation Time: 45 Minutes
Suggested Accompaniments
spinach sautéed with garlic chips and couscous


Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/2 pounds) See Note
12 large fresh sage or basil leaves
2 to 3 oz thinly sliced prosciutto di Parma
1/3 c unbleached all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1/3 c dry Marsala or sherry
One 14-oz can artichoke hearts
1 c Homemade Chicken Stock
T unsalted butter

Directions
Sprinkle a small amount of water into a large resealable plastic bag. Place a chicken breast half in the bag and close, leaving 1/2 inch open. Pound the bag with a rolling pin or meat pounder until the breast is about ¼ inch thick; remove and set aside. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts.
Put 3 sage leaves on the less smooth side of each pounded chicken breast. Cover them with the prosciutto and press until they adhere. Cover the breasts and chill them for 10 minutes. Cut each breast crosswise in half.
Spread out the flour in a pie plate lined with wax paper or parchment. Season half the chicken pieces with salt and pepper to taste. Working with one piece at a time, coat the chicken with the flour, lifting the wax paper on both sides to move the piece around;

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over high heat until hot; reduce the heat to medium. Sauté the chicken for 2 minutes per side, or until the pieces are golden and just cooked through; remove them to a plate and cover them loosely with aluminum foil. Repeat with the remaining oil and chicken.
Add the Marsala to the skillet; bring it to a boil, scraping up the brown bits at the bottom of the pan, and simmer for about 1 minute, or until the pan is almost dry.
Drain and coarsely chop the artichoke hearts (about 1 1/3 cups). Add them to the skillet along with the chicken stock and simmer until reduced by half. Return the chicken to the skillet and simmer just until reheated. Add the butter to the pan and swirl until it has melted. Divide the chicken among 4 dinner plates; spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.
Note: Or use 1 1/4 pounds thin chicken cutlets (about 7), which will not need to be pounded or cut in half. Just make sure to distribute the sage leaves and prosciutto evenly among all the cutlets.
*Cook’s Notes
Here is a quick way to dress up quick cooking couscous: follow the instructions on the back of the package for the correct amount of couscous to serve two (or four), using chicken broth as the liquid. Then when the couscous is done, stir in some enough additional chicken broth and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano to make it creamy.