Summer Nights

Today is Thursday, and is my day off work.  I woke up and had a small bowl of granola with blueberries, with almond milk.  Dan left for work.  I washed the sheets, and had them back on the bed by 8:30.  I picked some food out of the garden.  I picked cherry tomatoes for Myrna, since I was going to see her later in the morning.   I cleaned the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom, and was out the door and on my way to have breakfast with Myrna at 9:30.  We had a nice visit.  We went to a diner type place, and shared a pecan waffle.  We went to the Saint Vincent store, and I bought a few pieces of clothing for Silas.   I got home, and did a load of laundry, and was hungry for  lunch, as it was after 1:00.   Dan and Silas got home around 2:30.  Silas played his drums while I walked on the treadmill after supper.   Now it is Sunday, and I have figured out how to put the video on my blog!!  :)

Time marches on

August is here, and we have had hot humid weather.  The mosquitoes are plentiful too.  When I do go out to  water our flowers, go to the garden, or do anything outside, it is still necessary to wear long sleeves, and my hat, along with a mosquito net, and bug spray.  That is the way it is.  I am fortunate to have such a nice place to live.

The photos above are a Sunday that we went to Amy/Ana's place.  We brought a Savory Vegetable Cheesecake that I had made that morning.   They have a nice airy/bright flat.  The word flat suits their place better than "apartment".

The insect is a Japanese Beetle sitting on an eggplant leaf in our garden.  They do not usually do a lot of harm, but are not an insect we want in our garden. In the  picture you can see the purple eggplant below the leaves.  With it, and it was the only one we produced in the garden, I made eggplant parmesan.  It was very good. The recipe came from the September issue of Prevention magazine.  
That is a view from our kitchen window.  We like to watch the birds and hummingbirds.

Silas was over one day, and he insisted on wearing his batman outfit outside.  It was a hot day, with a dew point probably close to 70.  He would take off the mask until the sweat dried, then put it back on.  He enjoyed the disc swing quite a bit.

I just came across this short story, and thought it was thought provoking....


It is by Mark Twain, and follows:


  A man dies and meets Saint Peter at the pearly gates.  Immediately realizing that Saint Peter was a wise and knowledgeable individual, the man inquired, "Saint Peter, I have been interested in military history for many years.  Tell me who was the greatest general of all time?"
  Saint Peter quickly responded,  "Oh, that's a simple question.  It's that man right over there." 
  "You must be mistaken," responded the man, now very perplexed, "I knew that man on earth and he was just a common laborer."
  "That's right, my friend," assured Saint Peter. "He would have been the greatest general of all time, if he had been a general."

Holiday!!

Today has been a good day.  I slept later than I usually do, which was 7:30.  I have a  few days off work, so I have that luxury.  I have a few things on my list to do this week, and made a good dent in them.  I went to the grocery store, and  got a few items.  Went to the feed and seed, and got bird seed, as the birds eat like  PIGS!!  But we enjoy watching them none the less.  Picked a lot of veggies from the garden.  We froze a gallon size bag of peppers.  I  made roasted vegetables  for supper, and chocolate pudding!  One of the peppers I  put in the roasted veggies burned in my mouth!!  I am not sure what type it was, but it was one of the hottest peppers I have eaten!  I roasted a bulb of garlic also for later use.  I steamed some beets for Dan, as he likes them.  I think they taste like the earth.  I did try a small  bite of them.  
    These pictures were taken at Silas's birthday time.  He is playing his new snare drum, and the other pic is  Daniel, and Si in our woods on a big tree that has fallen and is fun to walk on.

The next picture is of a really cool fungus of some kind that I came across while I was walking  back in the woods.  The black raspberries are as tasty as they look!  The last picture was just after a rain, and a big  rainbow was out.  The next  picture is me picking out in the garden  Notice the mosquito net on my hat.  A  necessity!!

The vegetables in the sink are a few that I gathered.  They look pretty good don't they?  The plate of  food is  what  I made with the vegetables.  We are really enjoying it all.

This is what Dan has been working on for the last few weeks at granny and papa's.  It is going to be quite nice when it is done.  We spent the afternoon there Sunday, as Trevin is in town with his family for the week,  and there was a get together so that we all could all see them, and they could see us!  We had a good time.

 
 This is obviously me on the trail.  I am fortunate to have such a good place to walk and get fresh air!
I hope that all of your summers are going well, and you are able to get outside and enjoy!

Bloggeroo

This has been a good summer.  It is July already.  It is still somewhat light outside at 9PM.  We have had very nice summer weather here.  
Our summer has been uneventful.  We like it that way.  
We went to a  friends wedding last weekend that was outdoors.  It was a very nice wedding, and the first outdoor wedding I have been  to.
I have picked many black raspberries already.  I have picked  about 10-12 quarts.  I froze most of them, and ate quite a few too.  I cover myself  from head  to toe when I go out to pick, covered to protect myself from mosquitoes, and plants with sharp prickers on them.  I wear a mosquito net over my head, which keeps the mosquitoes off my face, and I do not have to put repellent on my face.
 I have  planted flowers in all our pots, and arranged them on the farm.  Dad has  planted a garden, and I have done a little planting, and much weeding.  There is more weeding to do, but it is too hot!  (I know how Stewie feels).    ;)

I will explain the pictures:     

That is me in my garden hat.  It gets hot in the sun, and the air circulates in that hat.  The chin strap also is helpful, as it gets quite windy where we live!! 
The picture of Dad, is on a Sunday as Daniel, Si, Dan and I went  back in the woods to the fire pit area, on the gator.  Silas wanted to have a picnic, so we did.  What we ate for our picnic was:  Homemade  whole wheat  bread, with homemade strawberry jam on.  Then we shared a large bar of  good dark chocolate and ate that with sectioned oranges.  
The flowers are on the steps that go to the old white dairy  barn.  The flowers are finally starting the bloom nicely!
The garden picture is obviously the garden, and that was a couple weeks ago. 
The peas, I shelled on Saturday.  I enjoy them  raw, and Dan prefers them cooked.  
Daniel and Silas, at the kitchen table, was taken on the day of Silas's 6th birthday party.  We made him a cake, and gave him a snare drum.  He had a  nice time, and so did we.
I found the dark clouds quite interesting during this particular storm.  There were a  few tornadoes formed during this storm, but none that we saw.


We had a some friends over Sunday afternoon for a 4th of July picnic.  They have two children, 6 and 8.  We had a good day, and enjoyed the weather.  The kids enjoyed the gator rides of course.


The firefly's are out now.  I wish I could catch that on a picture.

The way it was

I am frequently asked what did you do over the weekend?  Molly or Amy will pose this question, and i really cannot think of all that i have done, so i thought this last weekend i will write down what i do each day, to see what the heck i do, do.  So here is the tale of a weekend on the farm.
Saturday began as a lovely day near 70 degrees.  We washed the sheets, and hung them on the clothesline.  They always smell good when i do that.  I will include a little of what Dan does also, since that is a part of my day too.  Dan mowed the grass for a few hours.  Maybe three hours or so.  He trimmed some branches off the path, and mowed the entire path too.  For lunch i made lentil apricot soup.  It was good, but not a recipe i would make again.  Dan made vegetarion brats.  I also made a layered dessert, with chocolate cookies, yogurt, swiss rum fudge topping, and diced oranges.  We did enjoy that!  While Dan was mowing, i picked up the piles of sticks and branches that had fallen in the yard, and the shingles that had blown off of the building.  That took two large loads in the gator for the branches, and one load for the shingles, bringing them back in the woods.  I then went for a nice long walk on the paths.  Dan and i  went to frostie freeze later in the afternoon, and we had heath bar freezes.  We went to the library in edgerton so that i could return some items that i had checked out.  I planted   two flower pots with flowers.  One has trailing type flowers, and the other has a geramiun, that a lady/patient  from where i work -brought for me.  She has been planting the same geramiuns outside of her house for 38 years, and brings them in every fall, and re- plants them in the spring.  Send good thoughts to my plant!!  It needs it. 
On Sunday, Dan was awake super early, like 4 thirty.  I stayed in bed until 7ish.   I woke up at six, but i like to slowly wake up, when i have the opportunity; for about an hour.  I like to doze off and on until i finally decide to get up.  When i got downstairs, dan had gone to the bakery, in stoughton.  He had my favorite glazed cake donuts.  There was coffee too.  :)  We went to the farmers market that is at the race track.  While we were there, we looked up and down at the items for sale, and the people.  We bought free range eggs,  fruits, and vegetables.   We thought that Daniel, Sarah, and Silas were coming over, so i made lots of good food.  Sarah's mom was in Madison for a short while, so she wanted to spend the day with her mom, so they did not end up coming over.  Dan finished mowing the entire yard, and i made Texas Caviar, potato salad, confeti, rice loaf, with onion gravey, and granola bars.  The granola bars did not work out so well as bars, but made a nice crumbly dessert granola for ice cream, or  yogurt.  So, we had a great lunch!  I washed my car.  I like to do that every weekend if the weather permits.  Dan watered the garden.  It gets very dry with all of the wind that we get here.  He tasted a few radishes, and said that they are gong to be good!  The spinach is almost ready to eat!  I went for a walk on the path.  The path is very green, and has many yellow wildflowers along it.  I think they are called "Hoary Puccoon's."  Isn't that an attractive name?  It is in the "forget-me not" family of wildflowers. My mom came over for about an hour late in the afternoon, and dan made her a plate of food.  She brought us some peppers, and apples.   That evening, i looked at magazines.  We were in bed by nine. 

The first pic is of Daniel and Si reading at Granny and Papa's- on Mother's Day. 
The second is of our new table and Chairs. 
Third, is Granny and myself, sitting on their new couch.  I call it a "Throne Couch".
The next two are of the garden, and dan too.

Heidi's helpful hints:

For an inexpensive shaving cream, use hair conditioner.  You can choose from many types of scents, and it is inexpensive.  A little also goes a long way.   :) 


LIFE LESSON     #1

I really do believe that we get what we ask for.  So i asked for younger looking skin.  Within a short while, i noticed that a patient of mine, who was past 80 years old, had very nice skin.  So i asked her what her secret was.  She told me of a lotion that she gets at walgreens, and it is under 6 dollars.  I thought to myself, yay!!  I will try it.  So i bought some, and used it nightly.  within three weeks, i had acne like a pubescent teenager.  It was the worst that i recall it being since i was much younger. ~~~Aha, i did have younger looking skin.  I did get what i asked for.  What is the life lesson learned here? ~~~BE SPECIFIC!!  ~~~

Happy Spring!

This last week was a week of vacation for Dan and myself.  We had no definitite plans, but did want to have the garden ready for planting by the end of the time off.  We did achieve that goal.  Dan has done a good share(most) of the work.  I have done only what I need to.  I am good at keeping Dan company while he is working.  The weather cooperated wonderfully.  We had days of 70 degrees, and sunny!  I did a lot of walking.  A little baking, -not too much.  We also enjoyed good home made food all week, but we do that most of the time.  We do occasionally enjoy a "Home Run" pizza.  They are the very best frozen pizza we have ever tried, and we have tried a lot of different brands!   We watched one movie.  The Blind Side.  We liked it fine.  To me it seemed predictable and hokey, and the funny thing about that is, that it is based on real people. 
Yesterday we had an Easter dinner at Granny and Papa's house.  Aunt Connie and her family were there, minus Luke.  Cindy and Uncle Tom was there, and Uncle Andy.  The food was their traditional fare.  I brought a rasberry cake with cream cheese frosting.  Everything was very good.  My favorite was the waldorf salad.  I really like that stuff!  Today we went to Aunt Jennie's and Uncle Jon's.  Eric and his family were there, as well as Uncle Peter and his family.  Daniel, Sarah and Silas came to Jennie's also.   We left before dessert, darn!  I do believe she had cheesecake.  I did make light rolls for this event.  They were as tastey as ever.
This evening we are winding up our week of not having to leave the house for much of anything.  We did enjoy it thoroughly.  It is nice to just be home, and have no where to go, and not much to do.  We shall do it again .
I have one more Michael Pollan book to read, and I will have then read all his books.  I have enjoyed them, and find them well researched, and informative.  His writing style is easy to read, and has a nice flow.   His books talk about eating well, and being responsible in our food choices.

 Don't those rolls look good!  They were right out of the oven, and I had two.  One with just butter, and one with butter and rasberry jam!  I think next it will be peanut butter and honey!
Dad and I also also shared a delicious chocolate easter egg this evening, I do believe that it was purchased in a candy shop in PA!!  ;)

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag

I will explain the choice of pictures I have chosen for this post.  The first picture is of some cookies I made for Silas to eat.  I made them with 1/2 whole wheat flour, and I put in a lot of flax seed, wheat bran, and less sugar than usual, and some honey, maple syrup, and I chopped up dark chocolate and added ground pecans.  I I also added sunflower seeds.!!   They are delicious in chocolate chunck cookies!  They were quite tastey, at least Dan and I sure thought so.  I did make enough for us to have some too of course.  The second picture is myself with my jar of homemade granola.  I am making it now with hemp seed, flax seed, and coconut oil, maple syrup, and other good stuff.

Don't I look happy to have made it!  :)   The third picture is of me and my friend Myrna.  I thought I had erased these pics, but obviously did not.  

This week has been espesially nice, weather wise.  We have had days in the 60 degrees.  Tomorrow we are to get snow, but it will not last long, so we will watch it, and enjoy it.  It will be warmer and sunny already by Sunday.  

Currently I have a pizza crust rising on the kitchen counter.  It is whole wheat, and we really enjoy this recipe.  We will be eating it wthin an hour!!  I have set the bowl on a heating pad, to make it rise quickly.  Dan is preparing the toppings for it.  We will put peppers, onions, feta, olives, mushrooms, and tomatoes, and other things that Dan will come up with- it will be good. 

Dan is preparing the seeds for the garden.  Many of them need to be started right away in our house,so that they will be the right size to put out in the ground, at the correct time.  That will take up a lot of his weekend.  These fruits and vegetables will all be worth the work when they do "produce".  There is nothing better than food that is that fresh. 

I finished reading a book titled "In defence of Food".  By Michael Pollan.  It was another good book by him.  It is well researched and discusses many questions that everybody who eats food  (which is all of us)  need to consider when we feed ourselves.  Eating is something that should be done with pleasure, and for health, and done thoughtfully by educating yourself.  I recommend this book, and any that he has written.  I recently read "Omnivoe's Dilemna", writen by him, and it was excellent too. 

Time to go finish making the pizza!!