It's Been a Month???? Really???

I CAN. NOT. BELIEVE it's been a month since I posted.  Wow. Shame on me.  Well, I'm sorry, but it can't be helped right now.  Life has been busy, family has become of utmost importance to me - namely, my sister Lisa.  She's actually feeling pretty well right now.  She went without her chemo for nearly 3 weeks because her "numbers" on her blood, etc., were too low.  The Dr. kick-started her and gave her some treatments to build her blood counts back up and she was able to take her chemo last Friday. Tomorrow, she'll have it again.

However, we've been able to spend some time together.  Our families met up in Terrell to help Daddy celebrate his birthday.  We had a great dinner.  Then Lisa's husband brought her to Mom & Dad's house and then she came and spent a couple of days with me.  We had such a good time, just visiting, drinking coffee on the deck, listening to the birds, putting up green beans, and just being together.  She is so precious to me - I can't even explain it to you... I covet your continued prayers for her and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!

It's that time of year for the garden to start giving forth its bounty. (Actually, we're about a month behind this year, but no matter...)  I've been putting up green beans in the freezer and pulled up my plants just yesterday. I will be planting something else there in a day or so. Blueberries are about ripe, grapes are growing, tomatoes are coming on as are the squash. I have pintos and cukes and purple hull peas, too. And a little corn. June promises to be SO busy.  Bad news is that the late cold snaps got most of the fruit trees around here - the peaches are going to be sparse and my plum tree suffered, too.

Adam did a concert down here at our annual Lakefest and it was wonderful!  His single "There's A Girl Out There" is now on the radio and you can call and request his song on your local country station I imagine. We are hearing it on our local station now!  Take a listen to his new single!

On YouTube here's a link to his awesome VIDEO ---  http://youtu.be/oW1J7Zi6RmY

Sell Music online at ReverbNation.com

You can also download it from iTunes, too!  Adam Fears "There's A Girl Out There".  Also check out his new soon to be released single "Golden Graven Road", also on iTunes.  It's a tear-jerker so get your tissues ready! I love it, too!  I have it here on ReverbNation --- http://www.reverbnation.com/adamfearsmusic

BLOGGER MEET-UP!!!

Of His Pasture - Debbie (and a sweet friend of hers, Mona) and the other Debbie - Wisdom -  welp - we all met up in Jefferson, TX - quaint little victorian town with shops, B&B's, eateries, complete with a bayou boat ride with alligators and cypress trees AND a sweet carriage ride all through the historic part of town!  Good food and new friends!  We've been friends for several years now, but I'd never gotten to meet Debbie (Of His Pasture).  "Wisdom" and I have met up several times and we were thrilled that those two gals drove all the way down to Texas.  Of His Pasture has written about our trip so I won't repeat all that. But I will say that it was SO good to meet Debbie (OHP) and her friend Mona.  It was a wonderful day!

 

L-R Debbie (Wisdom), Mona, Vickie (me) and Debbie (Of  His Pasture)

 

Our very fancy carriage ride!

 

 LOVE LOVE LOVE Horses!

 

Coupla pics of cute victorian houses - I think this 'un was French styled...

 

Notice the sign on the golf cart...  "Bleed Maroon"  (Gig 'Em, Aggies!)

Well, gotta close now.  It's getting late and I've got to hit the floor running in the morning. Hope things are going gangbusters with all y'all.  I'll be back soon!  Take care and I'll get by to visit before long!

And Keep Yer Dress Down!

Sister Update & Springtime!

I am determined to get a post done today.

Thanks to you ALL for hanging in there with me.  I'm back for a bit of update on what's going on at the farm and with my seester.  I've had the wonderful blessing of being able to spend some sister-time with her at her home (and her dear hubby hasn't minded at all me being in the way!)  She's moving forward with her chemo treatments - every third week she gets a double dose (two meds) and they REALLY kick butt.  This week (actually 2 weeks ago...) hasn't been too fun with nausea, tiredness, weight loss and inability to find anything that tastes good.  Her hair is gone, too.  That was not a fun thing.  But spirits are high, she's hanging on to the Lord for her strength and we're all doing our best to tempt her with food and drink.  Friends and loved ones come by to encourage and pray and love on her and it helps.

Must share - my son and daughter in law are members at a sweet little church in Colorado. The ladies of the church have a quilt ministry and they sent Sis a beautiful quilt to wrap herself up in.  I can just imagine all the love and prayers that L is covered up with.  She broke into a huge smile and we both even shed a few tears upon opening her package in the mail and seeing that sweet and heartfelt gift!

 

Not only did they send my sister one but they sent ME a quilt, too!  Boy, do we feel loved with the love of the Lord! And cared for and prayed over when we wrap those beautiful handmade quilts around us!  Their quilting ministry is such a great outreach!  Every time I run my hand over the quilt, it's as if I can touch the precious hands that created it! I know my sister has felt the same.  If you're interested,  the church is the Castle Rock Church of Christ just south of Denver.

Back to the future, my Navy nephew has come home from his last tour in the Persian Gulf.  He was busting a gusset to be home with his mom while she was going thru surgery and chemo. Such a comfort to them both!  He brought his beautiful fiance home with him and they are spending time with my sister and her family this week.  I've gotten to spend time with them this week, too!

My sister, L, has been strengthened so much by the Lord and she was able to come this way Monday for a fishing trip to our favorite private lake.  Her son, husband and future DIL came and we spent the day at the lake.  Lisa fished a little but mostly relaxed and visited and watched her kids. 

 

 

 Then, yesterday, we all met up in Ennis, TX, to visit some of the bluebonnet trails.  It was so fun and again it was a good day for my sister.

 

Garden is going well, I guess.  We've had several cold snaps this spring that has caused me to replant my peas twice already. Another cold blast tonight, and I might be doing it again.  "They" say that produce is going to be about a month behind this year.  Well, at least we didn't hit the 90's in the April this year! My spinach hasn't bolted yet!

 Well there you have it, friends.  We're keeping our heads above water here, some days - just barely.  But the Lord is always good, and He provides us with all we need, He daily bears our burdens and His mercies are new every morning!  Praying for blessings upon you all, my friends!  I'll try not to be so long in posting again.  Family comes first - Love you all!

Brrrrr..... It's chilly again....And a Recipe to Warm Your Innards!

Well, we've had spring-like temps the last couple of weeks but it got chilly again with an east wind.  Rain heading our way I think...  We had a little sleet or frozen rain this morning.  Now it's just grey and damp cold.

I decided that we better get busy and eat up the frozen veggies in the freezer and get it ready for the upcoming garden season.  It'll be here before we know it!

So today, I pulled out a couple of quart bags of frozen tomatoes and decided, since it was icky and cold, that I'd make some tomato soup with basil and thyme.

 

Here ya go.

There's lots of recipes out there for all kinds of tomato soup but this one is my personal favorite (cuz I took a recipe and made it my own).

Vickie's Tomato Soup

6 cups of fresh or frozen chopped tomatoes (I left the skins on - you're gonna puree it anyway)

2 slices of onion

1/2 tsp minced garlic

a few dashes of ground cloves (or whole ones if you prefer)

2 c. chicken broth

Put these 5 ingredients in a good size pot on the stove and bring to a slow boil for about 20 minutes.  Then, puree and set aside in a large bowl.  In your pot, place 2-3 blobs of butter and a couple of T. of flour and make a roux. Cook til brownish.  Add 1/2 to 1 c. of the tomato soup mixture and whisk well so there won't be lumps when you mix the roux in your soup. OK, add your soup back into the pot with the roux and mix well.

Now, here's what I season it with...

1 t. salt, black pepper to taste,  couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce, couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce, 2 t. sugar to taste, 1/4-1/2 t. Thyme, 1/4 t. basil.  You can also use marjoram or savory herbs.  

All this seasoning is to my taste - you adjust the way you like!  If you want, you can throw in celery or carrot in while the tomatoes are cooking and puree with the rest.  I like it without.  Guess you could put anything in it that you like..... Anyway, season and then heat the soup well and let all those goodies just mesh together!

I'm thinking sandwiches and hot soup for supper, maybe grilled cheese sandwiches..cornbread?  Anybody ever put a tad of cheese or sour cream on top of your tomato soup?

I've got a couple of my garden boxes ready and set out some little collards.  I'm not a big fan but the chickens are and I thought I'd grow them some greens.  Who knows?  Think I'll develop a taste for them?  Nah...

Hate that I missed Vee's Note Card Party today.  I'm popping over there to see what's going on.  If you didn't hear, Debbie at Of His Pasture IS BACK.  Go see her and tell her I sent ya - she just couldn't stay away from us!  Thank goodness - she's always got such great posts - timely, controversial, but sure to ring a chord!  Take care, ladies!!!

This and That...

THE ONIONS ARE IN THE GROUND.

(Please do not tell Tony I took a picture of him in his baggy shorts.  He said it was too warm for jeans, so he put on his saggy shorts.  He's got others but these are the ones he wanted.  He says it's his farm and he can do whatever he wants on his farm.    Tony's tilling, and Dad's raking some weeds out.  It was GORGEOUS day!  I helped Dad a bit with the weeds, and then...

...Dad poked holes for me in the ground so I could plant the onions in them.  He made this little "poker" so make several at a time instead of just one at a time.  Then he backs up and goes inbetween the first holes.  Onions don't take much room...

This does hurt his back a bit, but not as much as the actual planting, so I did that. (and boy am I sore today!)  Another thing we did was move my garden boxes to an area closer to the house. Of course, I'll still have my rows of bigger items, but I thought it'd be nice to have the boxes alittle closer, so I could do salad/patio tomatoes and some smaller items that'd be convenient to the kitchen... maybe some herbs, flowers, etc...

We put old hay on the ground, a double layer of landscape cloth, and I will fill the boxes with compost, peat moss, vermiculite, etc.  I don't think grass is going to grow up through that.  Last year, I bought some cheap landscape cloth trying to save money, and all it did was promote the bermuda!  It thrived on that luscious mixture and the cheapo cloth. This year, I went to the nursery and paid the extra for nursery grade cloth.  I think in the long run, it'll be worth it.  Some things you get what you pay for... 

Thought I might even do a box of some lettuces and cool weather things before it got too warm. Most of the other crops won't go into the big garden until sometime in March after the danger of frost is past.

Here's a coupla pics of my onion starts in the ground. I put out 5 rows of about 97 each.  Some white Noondays, yellow granex, white super-sweet and a bundle of candy red onions.  I think we'll have plenty!

I also rotate my plantings every year to help the soil out and to prevent nematodes.  Look that up cuz it'd hard to explain.

I was out feeding the chickens some stale tortillas yesterday, just tearing them up and throwing them out in front of me.  They'll also come and take food out of my hand.  Gypsy wanders up, wags her tail, whines, and asks me politely for a tortilla.  Gypsy smiles, did you know that?  She "talks" to me, too, with all kinds of whimpers and sounds - if you heard her you'd understand. We can carry on quite a conversation.

Anyway, I asked her if she wanted a tortilla, and she answered that Yes, she did please.  She flopped on the ground and rolls over on her back and said, "see how cute I am?  I really need a tortilla".  So I gave her one.

Now, I don't know if she was actually hungry or not - she does have a little winter padding.  But she laid on the ground, on her back, with her tortilla for awhile just enjoying the sun.  Then, she laid it down and just lay there grinning at me and watching the chickens.

Well, the chickens noticed that she laid it down.  They looked on with interest and kept inching a teeny bit closer humming a little bit.  Step by step, and Gypsy watching them but playing like she didn't care.  Then, the chickens decided to have a go at the tortilla, so the chickens AND Gypsy charged the tortilla all at the same time!  Gyp grabbed up her tortilla and promptly moved to a different location and ate it, looking up to smile at the chickens every few minutes.  Oh this was well thought out, let me tell you!

OK, you chicken people.  Tell me if you have any idea what's wrong with this chicken's eyes.  She has been this way since late last spring.  The red skin in front of both eyes has swelled and remained so.  Sometimes her eyes seem watery and sometimes not.  I have isolated her a couple of different times and given her antibiotics by mouth and drops in her eyes.  Nothing has helped.  I wondered if she might be allergic to something like the bedding or could just be something in the air at our farm.

I don't know if it hurts her - she eats and sleeps and poops and lays eggs and does everything all the other chickens do, shakes her head sometimes, seems to scratch with a toe sometimes.  I don't know what else to do.  She seems otherwise healthy.

My question is:  Should I let her live like this even tho she might be itchy or bothered by her eyes OR should she be culled?  I would think if she felt bad all the time, she wouldn't eat or would gradually weaken, or something!  None of the other chickens have this problem so that's why I'm thinking allergies.  If y'all have any ideas, please let me know.  I don't know if she's suffering or not, and it pains me to have to think about culling, but chicken raisers sometimes won't fool with a problem chicken. They cull immediately.  I'm not really a chicken farmer, but I wanna do the right thing by her.

Gotta run - we're off to a superbowl party!  I don't care who wins, just getting together with friends that we don't get to see often is fun - the men will be in front of the tube, and the ladies will be in the kitchen catching up!  Isn't that the way it goes?????

Keep your dress down!

It's OFFICIAL!!!

GARDEN  2013  HAS  BEGUN!!!

It's that time of year!  Still winter, but spring is around the distant corner and it's time here in E Texas to put the onions in the ground!  Ever heard of "Noonday Onions" and the "Noonday Onion Festival"?   Google it if you're interested. You can even order an official Noonday Onion Cookbook from Amazon and AbeBooks.  I learned that the Noonday farmers around our parts plant their baby onions between Thanksgiving and Christmas for softball-sized big-uns - here's ya a link...

http://easttexasgardening.tamu.edu/industry/noonday.html

http://tastingspoons.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/noondayonions_thumb.jpg

http://www.tylerpaper.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=TP&Date=20090504&Category=BUSINESS01&ArtNo=905040306&Ref=AR&MaxH=300&MaxW=330

Where we lived prior to the farm was about 10 miles from  Noonday, which is within the 10 mile radius of official Noonday Onion growing.  I suppose we're too far away now to be official Noonday onion farmers, but I'm still raising Noondays.

Anyway...  here's one of my buckets of starts.

They are about 6" - 8" tall right now.  Sometimes I've gotten them around 3" - 4" tall, but these babies have already got a good start on 'em.  I will set out about 250-300. Dad's raising them, too. We love lots of green ones so they won't all make it to maturity.  They were scheduled to go in the ground this past weekend, but it rained and was nasty outside, so I've put it off til  HOPEFULLY this weekend.  I feel like I'm late to the party on getting MY onions planted!  I'd like to get some cool weather greens out, too.  We did break ground on the garden, but still have some tilling to do - that's the plan anyhow.  Yesterday and today the temps are around 75-76. (can you believe it?)  I turned on the A/C to clear the stuffiness.  It's about 98% humidity, too.  Good ole sinus headache weather... And it swells up the old wood doors in this little farmhouse and they don't wanna shut OR open.

Shout out to Kathy B. at Cedar Pond----  it's gopher season!!!  Well, it is on Sand Flat Farm all year long, but it seems that the gophers (bless their lil ole hearts) are being very prolific here lately and it's time for me to get out there and get to trapping!  Tony has kind of designated that as MY job.  He can do it, but I guess I do it better. (Why did I do that???  hmmmm...)

The chickens are pickin' up on their laying, too!  The hideous molt is over and the days are slowly but surely getting a teeny bit longer - which makes them lay more.  I did not light their coop through the winter - just gave them a rest.  We got 6 eggs yesterday from 10 hens!  They're all laying a bit EXCEPT the Ameracaunas.  Altho they are pretty and I love the green eggs, when I go to replace hens, next time I'm hanging with the Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks.  My RIR has laid all winter long, thru the molt, AND her eggs are HUGE jumbo sized.  She's scraggly looking still, but she's the best layer I've got. I don't know if all RIR's are like that or if she's just a great layer. (I don't know - maybe I'll keep an Ameracauna - just GOT to have some green in the mix...)

Tony asked me the other day if I still liked my chickens.  I gave him a resounding YES.  They are not pets (only one of them has an official name) but I have really enjoyed them, enjoyed taking care of them and learning all about raising chickens, handling eggs and all that stuff.  I haven't asked him, not one time, to do anything for the chickens. It's been totally MY responsibility and I've been glad to do it.  Don't even mind cleaning out the coop!  I keep it as clean as possible, doing a light clean-up every other day or so and once a week a good cleaning.  When the weather warms up a bit, I'll empty everything out and wash it all down and start all over again.

Well, it's supposed to rain later today, possible storms coming this way, so...   Luckily I'm home today, I'm cutting back on work again from time to time. I'm trying to get some painting done, and am working on a couple of paintings for my husband's office.  Fossils. (He's a geologist)  Yep, that's right - fossils.  Pictures to follow in another post.

Hang on to them skirts today girls- it's a windy one!

If interested, hop over to my art blog - a few new paintings for you!