Another pet photo

 You would think that the dog thinks we got this couch just for him.  At least he's comfortable.

And not pet related:

The first of the garden porn is starting to arrive....  Must. Not. Look. Yet.

Brrrrr

We missed the heavy snows that many got but we haven't missed the wind and frigid temperatures.  When I got up this morning, it was 2 F outside (about -17 C).  Brrrr!!
But the chickens are (hopefully) faring well outside.  We've got the heated base on the waterer and the infra-red ceramic bulb deployed over the roost.  I like it much better than a traditional heat lamp because it doesn't produce light.  It only emits infra-red waves and it warms the surfaces (and chickens) rather than the air.   We used it last year with good success so hopefully this year we will be as lucky.
V is busy writing. The business he used to write for has been bought out.  Fortunately, he was kept on in the merger so now he is writing for Direct Energy, even writing articles for Canadians, LOL!  The boys are busy as ever with school stuff and Justine is winding down the semester out east and eagerly waiting to fly home on the 18th.
Me... I've been sewing and cooking and all that usual stuff.

But I leave you with a cute photo of Spaz.  People talk about letting the cat out of the bag...

Don't I wish...  At least he's in the bag and not on the tablecloth.....

A weekend of photos

It's been busy here... but laid back as well.  The pace has definitely slowed with the shortening days and it's rather nice.  Rather than bore you with all the details, I thought I'd share a few photos of the weekend.

I ran my first 5k race in a long, long time on Saturday morning.   I'll admit, I did walk some of it and finished in a pathetic time... but I got my old, out of shape body out there and did it!  Look out zombies!  I'm getting ready for you!

V was helpful and carved the jack-o-lanterns into chicken friendly pieces with his sword.  I love the action shot with the falling bit of pumpkin!

 Spaz, the Mighty Hunter, was successful at stopping an unwelcome intruder.

And a little light demolition occurred in the pantry.  When the addition was built onto the house, they blocked up the original basement staircase and built the pantry and a closet on the other side.  Unfortunately, they didn't remove the original door lintel.

 You can see the top shelf of the pantry right underneath what's left of the door frame.  It was virtually unusable for anything larger than 6 inches wide.  But, thanks to the sawz-all and my honey...

 The old door frame is gone

 and the top shelf is opened up.

 A bit of plaster work- still currently in progress.

 And the newly opened top shelf is perfectly sized for the water bath canner and the stock pots.  Yeah!! The next phase will be doors over the top three shelves to protect the jars from light.  I do have larger shelves in the basement where most of our food stocks are kept but these are the 'immediate use' jars near the kitchen.  On the bottom shelf are my jars of dried beans and grains.  And underneath are cabinets that V built in that house small appliances, bread, potatoes and the cleaning rags as well as 'the junk drawer'.

 The chard is doing well in the greenhouse.

As is the leaf lettuce.  I see salads in the near future.

I hope you all had a good weekend as well and that all those out east are beginning to get back to whatever normal you call yours.

A Sunny September Saturday

It was a gloriously beautiful day today.  Brilliant sunshine and temps in the mid 70's- perfect for working outside.
I did some weeding and other work in the garden. I finally finished off all those giant lambs quarters along the fence line. I picked tomatoes and a few tomatoes.  I did laundry. I made roasted tomato/pepper salsa.  V worked on my greenhouse.  All in all, busy but pretty laid back.
Here are a few photos of the day.

 The first Long Island Cheese squash was harvested!

 Tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic go into the oven to roast

 ... come out

 and make a fabulous salsa!

V working diligently on the greenhouse.  See, it isn't big- only 6x8 but I'm excited to get some fall greens planted in there.  He managed to get it finished tonight but it was too dark to get a good photo so I'll post one another day.  I will still need to put raised beds of some sort in there before I can plant.
And finally...

I'm so glad to see that someone was able to relax today!  Eesh!  I can see that the rug desperately needs vacuumed. That is the dog and cat's favorite spot to lay so it tends to collect lots and lots of fur.  Hmm... I think it is I15's turn at vacuuming this week.

Wonderful Weather

... if you consider 70 and rainy wonderful.  I certainly do!  It has been a cool drizzly day here all day.  I got up early since I had so much to do and wanted to pick tomatoes before it rained again.  I was a bit disappointed.  I lost more than I would have hoped while we were gone.  The first week in August would not have been my first choice for a vacation but we were coordinating with 4 other schedules and this was the one week that worked for everyone.  sigh.  I probably would have been better off if it hadn't rained. I lost quite a few ripe tomatoes because they split due to the sudden influx of moisture from the big rain last weekend and rotted.  But I still got enough to can another 7 quarts of tomato sauce today.  And the cool weather made canning a joy- well, as much of a joy as canning tomato sauce can be....
I fed overgrown zucchini to the chickens and picked a couple of small ones for dinner tonight.  I discovered only 4 oversized cucumbers so that's not too bad.  But the weeds.  Oh dear. The weeds have grown huge in just a week.  And I discovered that a couple of the tomato plants blew over in the storm last weekend.  But since the tomato vines, too, have had explosive growth in the cooler, damp weather we've been having there is no way I will be able to right them now.  So, it's a tomato jungle out there.
I'm trying to have some of Justine's favorite meals in the next few days since they leave on Wednesday morning to take her out East for college.  V will be back home on Monday.  So, the boys and I will be here by ourselves for a few days.  We would all go east but the boys start school on Thursday this week.  It seems so, so early.  And we've got to get them fully registered for school.  We missed registration/fee paying days last week when we were gone.  K12 has Jr High orientation on Wednesday so I'm sure we can get it done then.

V picked the dog up from the kennel this morning and oh, my he was stinky and tired!  So, it was dog bath day as well as tomato and laundry day.  The cats have started to forgive us for abandoning them for a week.  At least things are starting to get a bit back to normal.  NORMAL!?  hahaha  We'll never be considered normal!   And thank goodness for that!

Lemon curd, fluffy dog and randomness

It has been a rather laid back two days here.  It has just been too hot to do much outside.  Not to say that things haven't been accomplished.
First... Lemon Curd.  I was looking for egg-heavy recipes yesterday and stumbled upon a recipe for Lemon curd.  I've heard of it but haven't ever made it- until yesterday.  Let me just say:  YUM!

It was even pretty easy.  Definitely not something I would eat on its own but it is heavenly on toast for breakfast.
Here's the recipe:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice (it took me 2 1/2 large lemons)
a pinch of salt
1 stick (half cup) unsalted butter- chopped in half inch cubes
grated lemon zest (1 tablespoon or so)

In the top of a double boiler whisk the eggs,  Add the sugar and stir until throughly blended.  Over (not in) boiling water add lemon zest, salt and lemon juice, stir to combine.  Add butter cubes.  Stir constantly with the whisk until the butter melts and the curd thickens (it took about 15 minutes).  Pour into a bowl or into jars and cool in the fridge.  It will continue to thicken and set.  According to internet sources it will last about 2-3 weeks in the fridge (if it lasts that long).
I had some on toast for breakfast and I'm thinking about making some little tart shells out of graham cracker crumbs, using this as filling and topping with fresh fruit.  It is VERY lemony and very sweet.  Some recipes call for straining it after cooking to remove the lemon zest but I like the zest and don't mind the tiny lumps in the texture.

As for fluffy dog- we bathed the dog this afternoon.  Ugh.  How many people does it take to bathe a large dog?  Well, it took 4 for us.  He is not a fan of baths.  We hosed him down outside, soaped him up and hosed him off again.  Now he is fluffy and shedding fur EVERYWHERE!  But he's clean.

Even with the warm weather we have been having many, many visitors.  A pair of goldfinches have been busily fluttering about.

The male goldfinch likes hanging out in the blooming catnip.

Followed shortly by the female goldfinch.  She looks like she's having a hard time finding her balance on the stalk.

The female is pretty skittish but the male goldfinch hung around for a while for a photo shoot.  I'm still in love with the zoom on my camera.
I'm really going to try to get up early tomorrow to get out to the garden. Of course, it was already 80 by 8:30 this morning- we managed to briefly hit 100 today- and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. Oh joy....    The other damper on outside work is the number of ticks that we have been finding.  Usually we have a flush of ticks in the spring and then just a few for the rest of the summer.  This spring, we had very few, but suddenly we can't even walk through the grass without picking up two or three crawling up the leg.  Every time I've been out to the garden in the past week I've found at least three ticks crawling on me.  Thankfully no one has found any attached but it's only a matter of time.  One reason the dog got a bath today is that he is due for his monthly flea/tick treatment and I wanted him clean before I applied it.  We've only found one tick attached to him all year so it must be working and with as many ticks as have been around he definitely NEEDS it.  Who knows, maybe we're seeing more ticks because we've been making sure that there is water for the wildlife out near the barn.  Maybe the animals are bringing their friends with them....

1000 posts...

...and a few photos.

Can you believe that this is my 1000th post?!  Amazing!!  What I find truly amazing is that anyone cares what I write.  But I'll be honest- I value each and every one of you that reads and comments. You are all truly inspiring to me.  I would feel so all alone and 'different' without all of you. Thank you for being here for me.

Now, on to other things.  I was busy all day but don't really feel that I got that much done- or at least, I didn't accomplish everything on my list.  Hmm, I seem to remember others complaining about this.  Maybe we need a support group.  But, a few photos of the day:

 Ticket is just the cutest thing, isn't he??  Here he's begging for a treat.  Amazing how cute 125 lbs (56.7 kg) of dog can be.

 And V is also pretty cute...  at least I think so!
But, I know you're all waiting for baby quilt progress photos...  here's a rough lay out.

I got it all washed, cut out and the 4 patch squares made, they just need pressed. Several things I'm glad of in my  design...  1.  That I found that blue in the stash.  Again- the colors are better in real life than in the photo but it does match the blue in the little bits of sky in the animal print and in the border.  2. That I opted to do the 4 patch and not big squares of all the fabrics. That leopard print is so eye catching that it would be really distracting any bigger and would draw away from the focus fabric.  3.  That I cut the animal print into the big alternate squares.  Any smaller and the design may have been lost.
I should be able to finish the top tomorrow and quilt on Monday.  Hopefully I can be finished in a weekend.

This is help??

Spaz was helping me cut out V's smoking jacket this afternoon.
Acting as a weight on the fabric is one thing- but I drew the line when he started pulling out the pins.
4 different fabrics later, the jacket is cut out.  Velvet for the body, black brocade for collar, cuffs and pocket trim, interfacing and flannel for extra padding in the collar and cuffs.

A few photos of the day

Inside and outside, it was a lovely day.
J17 and I sorted through patterns and fabric.
I guess it was too much for her!

 Below, Magnus struts his stuff.

I pulled a bunch of nettles for the chickens and also discovered a lost pattypan squash in the garden.  They were clucking around- doing what chickens do.

The lovely hens featured- mostly showing their tales- from left to right: Abbie, River, Zeva and Gretchen.  Helen is in the background
We are still waiting to put the roof panels on the run.    It has just been too windy to put those panels up safely since we got the supports up.  It was also much too windy to have a bonfire.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow.
Ticket spent most of the day outside...

 Now he's tired from catching voles.  Or sad because I took his little pile of dead voles away from him... not sure.
And I can't believe how many leaves have fallen!

It looks like Fall is truly here!

Do you see a problem here?

Hmmm, what kind of ornament is that?

It ain't over yet

Today's harvest

Still going... and finally two little bell peppers!

I see some sauce in the future- tomato, eggplant, pepper and basil. Mmm

Spaz, the mighty hunter.

He caught another mouse in the house this week. That brings our total to three in the past few weeks. Hmm, I wonder how they're getting in....

Things...

How's that for an original title? Things have been busy. Things have been great and not-so great. First the great:

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. Highs around 80 during the day and NO RAIN!! I desperately need to get out and weed in the garden but we've been busy with other stuff. Such as:

J16 wields a broom in her newly dry-walled room!

LET THERE BE LIGHT!

It's amazing the things that can make a 16 year old happy.

She now has drywall on all the walls of her room and the ceiling. Let me tell you- I HATE doing ceilings! V is down there now, hanging the rod in her closet. Of course, it all still needs taped and mudded but that will happen when we get the next room done and can do it all at once. But she can actually start putting things away in her closet... that's GOOD.

But, on to the not-so good... Work has been hectic since we're extra short staffed this week. That and there have been some really stressful situations to deal with. First, there was no hot water in our clinic kitchen and I did lunch with 10 patients on Tuesday and we couldn't wash the dishes. UGH. And, I really dislike having to do evaluations to determine if a new mother is functioning well enough to be allowed to take her baby home with her. At least I've never had to go to court about one (as have several other therapists) but I did a particularly difficult one this afternoon and they just wear me out emotionally.

And I'm already tired. Coming on the heels of our trip to Minneapolis neither V or I slept much Monday or last night. When V picked Tick up from the kennel, he noticed that he was shaking his head and scratching at his face a lot. The boys had noticed on Friday morning that he was scratching but couldn't find anything. But, over the weekend, whatever was bugging him turned into a staph infection on his cheeks.

Poor puppy- shaved cheeks!

The vet figures that he got into a plant of some sort (anyone want to guess nettles by the barn while on vole patrol?) and started scratching. The scratching, coupled with the stress of being kenneled all weekend, made him susceptible and the infection was spreading quickly. Poor guy got sedated, shaved, a dose of IV antibiotics and will be on oral antibiotics and steroids for the next 3-4 weeks. It had also traveled into his ears and eyes so he's got drops for all of those as well. He was so miserable on Monday night (we didn't get him to the vet until Tuesday morning) that he paced all night and kept rubbing his face along the edge of our bed (can you say GROSS!!!). That's also why he smelled SO bad! He is now starting to act more like himself so hopefully we will all sleep better tonight.

You know what they say- there's no such thing as a free puppy! We spent more on the dog at the vet than we spent for our entire trip to MN! But, he's family and we love him.

Now, I'm off to check on closet progress.

Apologies

to Dora fans everywhere. J16 was complaining that she didn't get a 'special' cake this year for her birthday. So, this afternoon while she was off with friends, I got busy in the kitchen to create one of our signature bizarre birthday cakes for her.

Behold:

The severed head of zombie Dora the Explorer.

Amazing what you can do with frosting, fruit, pull and peel Twizzlers and cranblueberry applesauce.

She was dutifully shocked, amused and amazed (sporting her new summer hair cut)

But, on to the rest of the weekend. It has been HOT! I believe it hit 90 here today. We've got the windows open, much to the delight of the cats.

Oh, what a rough life he leads!

I converted some of the "flower" bed to an herb and kitchen garden.

I also planted one section with our mints that we have acquired: peppermint, chocolate mint, apple mint and corsican mint (a tender groundcover). I've been wondering what to do with these beds. On one side of the stairs there are a few pathetic shrubs (now with mint planted in one of the larger open sections. On the other side, where these herbs are, was just weeds and rocks. I added some topsoil so hopefully things will do well. In addition to the perennial herbs (sage, 2 types of thyme, french tarragon, garlic chives and a curry plant) I planted some basil and lettuce seeds. I have other herbs in a bed in the garden. All of these were to go somewhere else but we're STILL waiting on contractors for the septic replacement. sigh... But, we are plotting and planning something different we can do with the south side of the house while we wait. This will be a 'temporary' planting since we hope at some time to build a solar addition. However, that is down the road so this will be something that will be easily moved.

We made arrangements to borrow a large borer next weekend to dig new footings for the deck so we can get that reassembled.

But mostly, it has been a peaceful, relaxing weekend.

The peonies are blooming.

V and I took a moonlight walk through the property last night. It was beautiful! Tomorrow evening, we will leave the children home with a pizza and go out to dinner, just the two of us to celebrate.

This and That

Photos of the day....

The chinese cabbage is doing well.

Three baby robins have hatched.

Sorry for the blurry photo- I had to be fast to not upset mama and the angle is hard to see.

That's not a stick- it's a LOG!!

Mystery solved?

Debbie gets the prize. I finally managed to identify this (I think) as an Autumn Olive. It is an introduced species that is considered invasive and has been classified as a noxious weed in some areas. I have seen good and bad things about it so I'm not sure if we should leave it or not. It has some uses- wildlife habitat and food (and the berries are edible). It fixes nitrogen in the soil and is a great stabilizer for stream banks. However, it also tends to crowd out native species and can form monoculture plots that are difficult to eradicate. I sent an email to our local county Extension Office to get some advice. I don't know how much of a problem this plant is in this area- but, it is pretty.

A Saturday in pictures

Oh, I am weary.

It was a very busy day here at Troll Bridge Farm. (how do you like the name?) The weather was beautiful- sunny and around 70. A lovely spring day. Here are some of the highlights of the day.

Our first daffodil.

One of 5 little apple trees that I planted today.

Looking up hill from what is now the orchard.

Tilling with my new toy...er...tool.

The garden is ready

A sleepy dog- master of his domain.

Our other new acquisition.

Already put to use- picking up sticks and downed limbs.

K10 up a tree.

We're all ready for some muscle relaxants and off to bed. Tomorrow I plant garden!!