About Me

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Not too old. Not too young. Not way too fat. Not very skinny. Not a bad cook, but not great. Not too healthy but not bed-ridden. Sorta boring but kinda fun.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I gotta Peas!

HOLY LEGUMES, BATMAN! This is about 2/3 of our harvest so far. Part is in the freezer already. Another part in the dehydrator. And MORE drying out on the fence! Guess we'll have peas with supper tonight, eh? So glad for Crazy Uncle that his first big jump back into farmer mode is going so well! Already had too much spinich and lettuce. Multiple beautiful cabbage, the cabbage worms thought so too. And the tomatos will keep me busy for days and days and days.....when canning time starts! He's a happy camper! Cheap therapy. Super hot here again. Hmm, must be summer or sumthin'. Kinda feel bad for our Mama Kat tho. She's getting up there in age, app. 15 as she adopted us one day 14 years ago. Don't know how old she was when she arrived. CU isn't a big cat fan but she appeared in our driveway super skinny and VERY pregnant. She brought CU a mouse the next day so she made his top 10 list and has been with us ever since. She's kind of a dog-cat. She follows him wherever he goes on the farm and hangs out like his big ole boxer dog does. She's going downhill tho, healthwise. She has a tumor on the back of her neck and doesn't keep food down well and is very skinny again. Vet said not much he can do. So we feed her, love on her and enjoy her while we can. Funny thing happened 3 weeks ago. We were feeling bad 'bout Mama Kat and decided to find a kitten to help us with the mice and mole population. I went outside to smoke, yes, I'm one of "those" people. I heard a meow from under the car, bent over to peek and a lovely little orange striped cat peeked back at me. She came out for attention and of course she was PG. What? Is there a human-invisible sign out front that says, "suckers live here, all wayward PG cats will be fed"??? She thought so. I fed her and she stuck around. Couple days later CU was working on the gutters and he hollered for me to come quick! I had visions of him bouncing off the ladder and splayed on the front porch concrete. He's the nurse, I just apply bandages and kisses. But when I got there he's up on the ladder and new Mama Kat is on it too, next to his foot, watching the show. Now she follows us every where outside too! We make quite a parade to the garden, 2 peoples, 2 cats and 4 dogs. Just thought it was kinda cool that God cares about such mundane issues like sorrow about out Mama and sent us another! Yup, He's cool like that, just gotta pay attention.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Ain't no Cure for the Summertime Blues

I've been thinking about blogging for quite awhile now and finally realized, duh, ya gotta write to actually blog. amazing. I won't pretend to be a pro author or even a good speller but if you want to join in our lives, come on in. CU (crazy uncle) and I share a 5 acre domain in beautiful south/central IN. I rule the castle, he holds court over the turfdom and fowl. CU excels at soilRX, motorcycle minutia, and useless trivia. The Queen rocks at cookery, canning, and canines and Clearwater. I'm interested in multiple diverse areas of living this life to it's fullest. The most important things I've learned throughout the journey is to enjoy each minute, don't sweat the small stuff (98% of all squabbles), do what you can to make each relationship the best you possibly can, and remember I'm not in charge of my life-just my attitude. Today is a good day to freeze CU's fresh peas from the garden. Love 'em. We're gonna dry the bulk of what's left and going to research re:freezing young peas still in pods for stir fry. Also an excellent day for pulling out good recipes for the blackberries soon to be ripe. We'll have a major boatload! CU found a yummy sounding recipe for apple/blackberry pie in the current Backwoods Home mag. I highly recommend this helpful and entertaining publication. Jackie Clay is a solid gold mine of food prep/storage ideas. I tried a new whole wheat bread yesterday from my King Arthur Flour Recipes book (also highly recommended reading). Smelled good but alas, still a short, heavy result. CU will gobble it up anyway via PB&J. There must be a secret trick I haven't discovered yet to making a whole wheat bread, w/o adding any refined white flour, to producing a tall, light and pretty loaf!! The search continues... I have my Beanie Boy here to babysit today. He's 4 months old and shares the castle with us M-F while Mama works. When he needs to be held and smooched I'll be reading book 2, The Hollow, in the Seven Signs trilogy by Nora Roberts. So I'll be away in New England somewhere if you call and I don't answer. Peace out.