Rain,Rain... we need it...

We do, just hopefully not the severe stuff that is moving around.  My new day lilies are coming up and I have seen that the cattails are all sprouting nicely.  I was worried about the cattails, but seems that I did ok on the moving of the plants, a big THANK YOU to Rich and Daina who own the property kitty cornered to us for the cattails.

I got a plant/seed catalog the other day that has pond plants in it and I'm considering some of the irises.  I would not mind a few flowers there in addition to the other plants there.  My lettuce is coming up, and I believe my mini Pak Choi came up as evidenced by the "mowed down" look they have this morning.

I have found a variety of Jalapeno that is almost the size of my hand that we are considering planting this year so we can make our own "poppers".  I had gotten some a year or two ago and we stuffed them with cheese and a beef/rice mix before breading and deep frying and they came out wonderful. I'd like to try it again.

My grape has flowers on it and the red current while it lost it's top leaves, the lower buds are growing.  Also the Pecan tree seems to be holding it's own.  My mother sent me an early (one week early) birthday gift off my Amazon.com wish list, it's a large Ball brand water bath canner.  To see the wish list here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/L8YKMO2HVVP9/ref=cm_wl_act_vv?_encoding=UTF8&reveal=&visitor-view=1

It's so pretty I can't wait to get a chance to use it!  However it'll probably be a few weeks as I need more lids to do more canning.  I am planning to make a "stew mix" to dry can as the year goes on, this will be a simple pour into pot add water and heat meal.  It'll contain:

Jerky

bouillon

dried berries (probably blue and black though if the currents produce them too)

dried potatoes

dried garlic

dried onion

dried day lily buds

dried peppers

dried potato flakes (home made hopefully)

Now why two kinds of potato?  Simple mashed potato flakes make a good thickener.  So it'll make it into a nice thick stew.  I'm going to tinker with it as I make them, and I'll probably not "assemble" them till later in the year when I have everything setup.  So we'll see how it goes.

BE Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...

Happy Friday!

Well I'm sitting here waiting for my chicken bones to de-pressure so I figured I'd write something today.  Not as much as yesterday mind you... btw in case you were wondering it came out to about 4 pages on my word prossesor when I converted it over.  Looks back a few words.  I love those spelling mistakes that the "suggestions" have no correction for even when you know you spelled it wrong; but cannot spell it right.

I have watered all of my plants that I put in yesterday and they do seem to be doing rather well except for 1 of the red cabbages.  That poor thing is drooping.  I think I know why too, it got only about 1/2 of the roots available when I had to cut them apart.  So it probably does not have enough roots to make it.

We discovered this morning that the 2 hoses we are using can reach everything but... The pecan tree and the current.  No biggie, we need at least one new hose as one of the 2 like I said has a leaky connector.

I have discovered this morning that we have 1 small frog living near our pond.  I hope there is more but 1 is a start.  My blue berry is looking very promising so far and I hope it produces well this year.  It has buds everywhere, it looks as healthy as the Elderberries do.

Once I get my soup going I get to go out and do some clearing near all of my plantings from yesterday.  Just to ensure no over crowding and plenty of sun for my new plants.  I did notice the Kale seems to have sprouted finally, just when I was ready to give up on them.  I also may have one carrot sprout, we'll see as it grows.

Time to go work on the soup,

Be Well, Be Safe, and Blessed Be...