A Breather

Well looks like we managed to get the phone/net company to give us until the 18th to make arraignments for paying them, so if I don't write anything for sometime then we have had out net turned off.

I'm still waiting on the seeds we ordered to show up, I may check with the company to see what is going on with it. Silver has been downloading PDF books on as much info he can find for gardening, and building and we will probably read them while our net is down. I will probably get him to make a list of his favorite links of information for everyone to check out.

Right now I have been perusing the Burgess catalog and looking over nut and fruit trees. If we want them producing when we want we need to buy them soon. If anyone knows of a place that has heirloom trees other than Seeds of Change -PLEASE- pass it along. Our biggest problem is Silver only like MacIntosh apples *shrugs*, I prefer sweeter ones and after working in an apple orchard for 3 months I got to try a few. I will say though if you like sweet apples Honey Crisp is wonderful it is -VERY- sweet, much sweeter than a Red Delicious.

We have found something interesting in that Burgess catalog though, it's a cold hardy banana (Musa basjoo) , with how we eat banana's I am seriously considering buying a few. Burgess also has a new item it is now selling Goji Berries (also called Wolf berries) (Lycium barbarum). Even though I am hunting for the non-GMO seeds Burgess has a few things I am interested in seed wise, one is a gourd they call Bushel they can be used as containers after drying. I am also wanting to get the "luffa sponge" squash, these you are suppose to be able to eat when they are young and when full grown and dry you remove the outer skin off and have a sponge; these are suppose to outlast normal sponges.

Thats all for now,

Be Well and Blessed Be...

WARNING

Just want to let everybody know that due to the "blizzard" that wasn't and us rushing out to get food just in case. Our internet will be off for the next month starting sometime today. the phone company didn't say exactly when but today. Next month is the earliest we can pay them on it so we will make due.

Be Well and Blessed Be...

SEEDS!

I just placed an order for some of our seeds a few minutes ago from Seeds of Change, http://www.seedsofchange.com/default.aspx I like this company for seeds. I am planning to order from Baker Creek as well, but due to the lovely weather the last day; the money for seed buying has shrunk so I'm making do for now. I ordered:

Tiger's eye bush bean

Lemon cucumber

New Red Fire Lettuce

Hales best muskmelon

Dark Star summer squash

It does look like one or 2 of them are not current available but I am sure they will be very soon. As soon as my taxes can get done I do plan on ordering more seeds and stock up on tomatoes seeds so I have them for over winter. silver has grown tomatoes over winter before in New York and they had cherry tomatoes coming out of their ears then.

here is some info on the tiger's eye bean:

Tiger's Eye Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Heirloom
Tender Annual

(85-95 days) Gorgeous orange with dark-maroon swirling stripes. Similar in taste to a pinto bean, but creamier in texture. Easy to grow and harvest. Aslo eaten as a green snap bean.

I was so fascinated by this one the first time I found it, now I'm going to try growing them. I will keep everyone up to date on who they grown and their taste as well.

Be Well and Blessed Be...

sNOw FUN...

Well, today was a snowy day; supposedly a blizzard. So far I've seen heavy snow, after we got lots of freezing rain. Due to when Silver gets his checks every month we needed to run to the store.. that was so much fun... The ride there wasn't bad a couple of slides due to icy roads, we had only had a little bit of snow at this point. We decided so we could be quick we went to Wal-mart, and I saw the funniest thing, they were out of ; eggs, butter (I got the last 2 lbs), water (which I expected). Now they were almost out of toilet paper, cereal, flour, and sugar. Mind you the canned meat isle was still half full. I know if you have propane or a wood burner you can cook without power... but if the power did go out the non-perishables would be a better choice.

This is what it looked like when we left Wal-mart at about 10:30, it had started snowing heavily and the parking lot was a sloppy mess. Not to mention the ride home... We took it slow, but still about 50% of the time we were sliding on the road. Then on the dirt road before our dirt road we almost didn't get past the turn onto it. Our wheels kept spinning and we'd get about half up the first little hill and get stuck. Took us ten minutes to get moving up that little hill then down the road. Once we got moving though we were fine. Speaking of the fun driving, Silver in his infinite wisdom knowing I am an anxious person in the car. Before we left this morning asked me if I was going to being a cup of tea with to drink, now granted my cup is an insulated cup that once had a lid. It no longer does, so i spent the ride out worrying about spilling hot tea on myself instead of the road.

they have already called off school for tomorrow and considering our "Slip Sliding Away" ride home from the store, I would not want to drive a school bus down these roads either. I did have a minor scare, my mother who lives up by Chicago has MS; I have spent a day and a half trying to call her to see if she's OK with this lovely storm. She just returned my phone call and let me know she is fine and does not plan on going anywhere tomorrow.

So for the next day at least we are going to tuck in and watch some movies and do nothing until the weather decides to co-operate with us and be nice again. I do hope where ever everyone lives they are warm and safe tonight.

Be Well and Blessed Be...

Short days

Well I defiantly need to start getting up before 10:30am, I don't know why but since the kids had the Christmas vacation from school I've been unable to stay up after they go to school. I use to wake up at 6am no matter what and jump out of bed and work. With (today included) being above 40 and at least the next couple of days also being so warm, I am planning to do some yard work tomorrow; and manage to bake some bread. Hey anyone out there now a -GOOD- place to get sourdough starter?

Even though I do like the green movement and want to make our home a "green" farm right now we have a garbage pile and a burn pile. Well considering until recently there have been fire warnings locally we have not burned anything, and the dogs have been digging... so I have garbage strewn everywhere. I am going to kick myself in the butt and go get working on cleaning it up tomorrow after the kids go and I make breakfast for us. Any suggestions for bacon strips, bacon pieces, instant pancake mix, oat bran for a good breakfast that doesn't make you think you are eating bricks?

That bean soup last night according to Silver was wonderful... he also informed me that because it's a bean dish it will taste kind of bland, which is what I thought of it. I will try it again but make sure we have the onion and the potatoes to put in it.

Silver's been sleeping a lot the last couple of days and he's been doing it very deeply, worries me a bit but until our car is in better shape or we get another .. (or his Medicare kicks in) he said he's not going to a doctor; I think it might be his blood sugar but with his tester missing we don't risk the blood sugar meds right now. He use to take 3 pills 2x's a day and since moving here 1 once a day dropped his blood sugar way low. So I guess we are buying a new one this coming month so we can find out what the heck is going on.

We seem to have one winter casualty.. possibly 2. I am not sure I mentioned this but my son's cat went missing it's been 3? months now and we have not seen her (she's the calico); he is upset over her being missing. We think either the colder days or a coyote got her. The other possible casualty is the large black but skinny dog that decided to stay with us has not turned up this morning. Her and my white spotted one have been "wandering" in the evening, I'd let them outside to go.. and well they'd go. Two days ago she was curled up in the outside dog house and when she got up you could see her ankle was swollen. She had sprained it. She spent one whole day inside, then yesterday she went out with Lucky (the spotted one) and she has not come back. Normally I'll find her laying somewhere outside and she'll come streaking inside, not today; so who knows.

We finally finished off our 5 gallon bucket of rice, we will have to buy more this coming month which is a drive to shetlers grocery store about a 30 minute to an hour drive from here. Aside from it smelling like coca cola the rice kept well in it. The store also sells the food grade buckets cheap with the lids. We want to get another for sugar and maybe for flour.

Well thats all for right now,

Be Well and Blessed Be...

Dutch Country Bean Soup

Well first.. still no camera, and it's a lovely day today hit almost 50 degrees. I got to go over to the neighbor's and do some laundry, which hanging up with the mud is a chore within itself. I have set out a oak plank and some fabric down for me to walk on, and boy is it fun to need to "balance" on the board while carrying clothes and -not- stepping on cats. Silver is reconsidering the house plans, no he is considering a geodesic dome made in the straw-bale style. That wouldn't be bad the heating would be easy once it was done, we'd probably get the house too hot some days.

Dutch Country Bean Soup

1 pound soup beans 1 can tomato sauce

1 ham bone 1/2 cup diced potatoes

1/2 cup chopped onion 2t minced parsley

1 C diced celery salt and pepper

Soak beans overnight in water. Drain, add fresh water and cook slowly with the ham bone for 2 hours. Put in the onion, celery, potatoes, tomato sauce, parsley and the salt and pepper and simmer until vegetables are soft. Remove ham bone, trim off any meat, cut it up and add to soup. Many Pennsylvania Dutch cooks cut up hard boiled eggs and add them to the soup.

This is tonight's recipe.. and well when I got it started I had a few interesting moments.

1st dang out of fresh celery.. "Hey hun how much of this dried celery should I use?"

2nd what where did the potatoes go? We had fries the other night?

3rd shoot forgot about the onions... will powdered work?

So we will see how it comes out based on what we don't have. I don't like the smell so far, so I am hoping that will change. Also on another note.. but about ham. My mom cooks ham in lemon lime soda so when we had ham for New Years I noticed we didn't remember to buy some.. we did have mountain dew though. Hey guess what mountain dew is good to cook ham in!

Be Well and Blessed Be...

Recipe review

Stuffed Acorn Squash

3 acorn squash 1 pound pork sausage

1/3 molasses 1 t sage

1 t salt bread crumbs

Wash squash and cut in halves, remove seeds. Put a tablespoon of molasses in each half, sprinkle with salt and pinch of powdered sage (if sausage does not contain sage). Fill the cavity with sausage and top with bread crumbs. Place the squash halves in baking pan, add about an inch of water to the pan. Cover and bake in hot oven (400-f) for 40 minutes. Remove cover and brown.

OK this was a good recipe, tasted good. Now we could not find any molasses in the stores, boy was that odd. So we used dark brown sugar instead, the only thing I would do is add seasoning of some kind to the sausage. The kids were of mixed views on it, my girls loved the squash.. my son liked the sausage. I plan to make this again, but we'll have to work out seasoning for the sausage.

Deviled Eggs

6 hard-boiled eggs 2T soft butter

1/2 t prepared mustard salt,pepper,paprika

remove shells and cut eggs in half. Mash yolks to a smooth paste, adding the mustard, butter, salt, and pepper. When well mixed press into the cup-shaped egg whites, round the tops and sprinkle with paprika. For a special treat, add 2T finely chopped ham or a small can of deviled ham to the egg yolk mixture.

We tried this as Silver loves hard -boiled and deviled eggs, well... it was a nice difference but it just didn't taste as good as I'm use to. silver thinks if we grew up eating it, it probably would have tasted better to us then. I could see us eating it if I had tons of butter in the house (hmm how much milk will we get from 1 full sized cow a day..?)

Sugar Cakes

3 C sugar 2 t baking soda

1/4 C butter 1 C thick milk (cream added milk fyi)

2 eggs

Mix eggs and butter well, (add 2 1/2 C sugar and mix) Then add milk and soda. Mix in enough flour to make a soft dough, just so you can roll it. Cut into any shape you wish. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, and bake in a moderately heated oven.

OK very interesting recipe, it had a couple of problems. Notice the parentheses? Well... that part was -NOT- in the written recipe, Silver figured we are covering the "cakes" with 3 C of sugar. As we currently do not have a mixer I did this by hand, I took pictures too! ...now if I can find my camera I'll post them... You do not want to melt the butter at all it does need to be very soft. also as I could not mix it by hand till the dough was rollable so we tried to make them "drop cookies". They cooked very nicely I think the first time we used a 325 degree oven, and well the "cookies" were becoming "Cakey" as they cooked; i guess thats why they are called "sugar cakes". So with that in mind I decided to put the remaining batter into a cake pan and baked that. All I can say is WOW... it cake out like a cake but with a sugar cookie flavor. I did make it a second time, this 2nd time I baked at 375 and well.. it browned before it finished cooking. We had to scrap the center out to eat it, but it still tasted good. I hope someone can try it our as the rolled cookie and tell me how it is.

OK on another note Silver found an interesting page on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=379346590583

take a peek at it, it has some interesting info on it.