Deep In The Heart Of Tomato Season

Well it's finally happened.  I am officially up to my eyeballs in tomatoes!

Tomato plants are sneaky creatures.

You make sure their future home is rich in nitrogen, calcium, potassium, and toss in some rooting compound.

You plant them after the soil reaches 70 degrees, and then pray that you don't get a late, surprise chill.

You plant them deep, or laying down even, with just the tippy top leaves sticking out of the soil, the whole time apologizing to the once tall, lanky seedling, telling it, "you'll thank me later".

You spend the whole month of June, checking them for worm eggs, and leaf spot, and blight.  The stubby seedlings seem to mock you with each passing day despite your initial enthusiasm, which turns to begging, with then morphs into threats.

Late June finds you in the garden, buckets of fertilizer in tow, looking at scraggly knee high adolescent plants. You start to wonder if you should drag out the tie up strings, but then think against it.  Instead, you walk the rows, pinching off suckers and pruning.

July, and picnic season rolls around, and while the grocery store seems to have plenty of ruby red, ripe orbs, you have trouble even spotting a green marble.  Sigh...

Did I buy mutant, non-bearing, decorative plants?  Did I over fertilize?  Was it too wet? Too windy? Too cool?  Did I look at you wrong?  Was I singing off key? What do you want!? What!? Whaaaat!?

Then it happens.  You go out one morning and suddenly they're 3 feet tall and you find yourself running out of string for tie-ups.  Then they're 4 feet tall and you're looking for old t-shirts to shred and turn into more tie-ups. Green orbs and pear-drops are everywhere!  You look to the sky and and say "please no hail this year, not this year." And the hail passes you by (well, mostly).  The daily routine of walking the garden and pruning is now habit.  Your eyes dart to and fro looking for pests to throw to the giddy hens who so eagerly wait outside the garden fence, their voices high with excitement they pace back and forth for a tasty tidbit.  Worm after worm flies over the fence top, and are happily dispatched.

By the end of July, your daily mosey through the rows, becomes an expedition.  You start to wonder if you should have purchased the giant roll of twine instead of the single.  You begin to consider a pith helmet and a machete purchase from Amazon.  You add a black light flashlight to your arsenal to find the greedy hornworms and brown eyed tomato moths at night when they come out to devour whole plants and fruit while you sleep. The deep green fruit is becoming lighter, and lighter, until one morning......

There she is! Is it? Yes, it IS! Your first red tomato.  You can hardly believe it.  The unforgiving heat and humidity of August, which is the 7th level of Dante's inferno to all other living things, is the very weather the tomato plant lives for.  You pluck your treasure and take it inside.  Some consume this first prize warm and dusty right there in garden.  Was it an apple that tempted Adam? Or was it a Tomato, fresh from the vine?  Others carefully coddle their Precious close to their breast, hiding it from view of the hens, the neighbors, and even hovering spy satellites to gently wash it and place it on the counter.  It's thick red hide glistening under it's perfect green top hat as you contemplate it's demise.

The first week of August provides you enough for a salad and some beefy cuts on a roast beef and bagel sandwich.  Slow and steady wins the race they say, but this is silly. You find yourself addressing the entire garden, tapping your foot as you spray them with their weekly dose of food.  "This simply will not do!" Your pep talk comes out loud, unrelenting, and unforgiving, yet understanding.  You don't even care that passing bicyclists and walkers are listening in.  The troops MUST be told what is expected of them, what they can accomplish, and what their reward will be. (Although I don't know how much of a reward it is to them to be cut up and dropped in a pot, but it is their destiny.)  Patton would be proud.

The troops rally.  By the second week of August you're taking a small bucket to the garden in the morning to harvest.  By the end of the week the bucket has turned into a strong box.
  By the third week, the box has turned into a lug.  Processing tomatoes is turning into a twice a week project.






Almost ripe tomatoes are picked and covered with dark towels on every flat surface in the kitchen to prevent them from splitting after the overwhelming summer downpours.  The poundage tally board keeps climbing; 20 pounds, 40 pounds, 65 pounds, 110 pounds, up and up it goes.

The canning recipes come out and the pressure canner becomes a permanent resident of the kitchen stove top.  Pasta sauce (with and without meat), pizza sauce, ketchup, bbq sauce, and tomato soup, it's all fair game.  As of this posting, the garden as blessed us with 185 pound of tomatoes.  I planted indeterminate tomatoes, so barring hail, wind, blight, fungus, locust or plague we'll keep going until frost, which is usually about October 3-7th.  Even then, I'll work before the frost to harvest any and all light green tomatoes and put them up in the basement for further ripening, which usually nets me another 40 pounds after frost.  It is a crazy work load, that gets insanely tiring by the end of August, but in the dead of Winter, with the North winds howling, popping open a quart jar and hearing that familiar hiss of the seal breaking on a jar of your own tomato soup, is comfort food at its very best. It's the fuel that simmers the fire of the endless planning, blood, sweat, tears, bug bites, sunburn, and manure under the fingernails that the summer season brings. That warm bowl of soup helps set in motion the gardening amnesia that allows you to do it all over again, and again, and again.

That said, here is my recipe for Tomato Soup.  ( I have taken to canning tomato puree made with my KitchenAid puree attachment, which removes the skin and seeds and core and leaves me with nothing but juice and meat in the bowl.  I can do more at a moments notice with puree and I'm not stuck with too many of any one finished product at the end of the season.  So the majority of my processed tomatoes go into cooked down puree.)

• Simple Tomato Soup
• 3 cups chopped white onion (or one LARGE onion)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic (about two large cloves) OR 1/2 teaspoon of garlic POWDER
• 3 cups water, divided
• 1 quart (32 ounces) of either your crushed (no skins, no seeds) tomatoes  OR 1 quart of skinless, seedless tomato puree 
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano or Italian Seasoning
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt - NO IODINE salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 1-3 teaspoons of granulated white sugar, divided
• and have some baking soda handy.

In a three to four quart pot, toss in your onion and about a half a cup of water, and cook at medium to medium high heat,  until the onion is translucent.  At this point, add your garlic and cook for about one minute, stirring to prevent the garlic from scorching.  Add the remaining water, the tomato product of your choice, the oregano/Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and ONE Tablespoon of the sugar.  Mix and lower the heat and bring to a simmer for 15 minutes.  I then take an immersion blender to make it a homogeneous, smooth soup.

At this point it comes down to personal taste. And you will need to take this in stages, and just don't dump things in all at once.  Each batch of tomatoes, even canned from the store will vary - some are sweeter, some more or less acidic.

If it tastes too metallic- add a little more of your reserved sugar, mix and cook another 5 minutes and taste again.

If it is too acidic - add 1/8th of a teaspoon of baking soda.  It WILL fizz as you mix it in.  Wait another 5 minutes and taste again.  

You can also add more of any of the seasonings to include more onion (in the form of powder), more garlic (in the form of powder) or any of the seasonings above. 

EVERY batch will require a different amount of everything and every person has a different idea of how it should taste.

SO make it yours! Serve with toast, or an ooey gooey grilled cheese sandwich.  Sprinkle it with parmesan cheese and croutons or a flotilla of oyster crackers!

But most of all, sit down with a seed catalog and a notebook and start planning!

Wearing of the Plaid

It's official! DunRovin Station Ranch has an official Tartan designed (by me), registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans.  It is now on record forever!

I have all the warp done, and am ready to dress the loom to weave a sample of it for The Registry, and then a long traditional sash for me.  

Update will be coming to the blog as I get to THIS project.

Bing, Bang, BOOM it's JULY!

Well we did it.  We pulled the cord and purchased our own haying equipment.  It wasn't easy for me to part with that much money, ugh.  Heck, I was exited of 12 cent jars for crying out loud!  We researched and hemmed and hawed and finally did it.  We chose Yanmar compact haying equipment.  Mostly due to the fact that their customer service was incredible, and they had detailed videos online so that you could trouble shoot on your own.  Because issues don't always happen during weekdays during office hours.

We purchased the disk mower, the multi use rake, and the mini round baler.  After much discussion in the house, we came to the conclusion that while the hay system will never pay for itself on our ranch, it would save on the annual frustration of waiting to hear from the non-existant hay contractor that comes around whenever he pleases, but not necessarily when the hay is at it's peak or when the weather is at it's best.  We had TERRIBLE hay harvested last year. It was rained on 3 times before baling, was almost all straw or sticks (far past prime), and the alpacas wasted nearly 50 % looking for palatable food.

So we put our order in and waited.  We missed the time for the traditional first cutting which was the middle of June, but that's ok.  We'd do it when we did it.

The 4th of July came and went, but it didn't feel like the 4th.  The neighbors down the road set off fireworks, one of which got away from them and sent fireball after fireball into our uncut hay field.  Doc and I raced out with buckets of water, but the dew on the field kept it from catching fire.

The mini round bales are actually easier to lift than the squares and still fit nicely in the hay shed.  We did have to get the PTOs cut specifically for our tractor, but that's ok.  Challenge met, accepted and done.  Of course the days we had to fit PTOs, hook up equipment and actually cut and bale hay were some of the hottest and most humid of the year so far, of course.

The local fox kits are on the prowl. Ugh.

The project for this month, on TOP of everything else, was to get a canning cabinet built.  Another blog I follow, Old World Garden Farms, posted a great set of plans  (for sale) for a canning cabinet.  My current method of shelving jars on industrial shelving was not working for me in any stretch of the imagination.  I don't like to stack jars, as the weight can pop the lids.  Putting lumber between the layers is an option, but my jars aren't all the same height, so that's a problem.  PLUS, both methods hide what's on the shelf.  What to do what to do?  Well they had my solution right there.  I was reading the blog to get an update on their cancelled around the country trip in their teardrop camper and came upon the cabinet.  Well I have a wood shop full of scrap lumber and odds and ends, so I ran with the idea using what I had on hand.  Mentally, I couldn't stand the thought of one more trip to the hardware store.  Using a pair of bi-fold door I picked up at Habitat for Humanity 6 years ago for $5, I came up with this.  It has slanted shelves, with non-slip shelf liner on them. The bottom shelf is for the canning pots, both pressure and water bath canning.  The top shelf is sized for my giant dry storage jars.  Rings and lids are stored on the side.  I LOVE IT!  (Posted with permission from OWG as they were my muse.)

Starting in July, the canner is a full time resident of the stove-top;  soups, stew bases, meats from the freezer, veggies, and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!)

Garden at one month old.

After windstorm after windstorm, I invested in two, long, 4 foot tall windscreens and attached them to the outside of the garden fence all the way around.  It was so windy that the self-pollinating tomatoes weren't!  I also had branches snapping off on a regular basis.  This cycle HAD to stop!

A poor choice of parking locations for the mower.  Barn swallows are
a necessary pest.

 Comet Neowise made a spectacular early morning visit in mid-July.  We were lucky enough to not only have clear weather for two days, but the humidity dropped so we had crystal clear skies with no distortion!  It was an amazing sight, even if I did have to get up at 4 am.

I got this adorable planter for my birthday.  This is exactly how I see my chickens.  I thought she'd be adorable with leaf lettuce planted in the back, making her extra fluffy!

The chicks have outgrown their pen in the workshop.  And besides, they're driving me nuts in there.  The older girls are breaking into the shop during the day and "visiting" and pooping all over my shop floor.  The benefit to this breaking and entering visitation is that the girls see them as flockmates already, smaller ones they can still bully, but mates just the same.  The day came when I was truly sick of them underfoot and I kicked them out with the big girls.  They LOVED exploring and playing and annoying the big girls.

 Canning is up to full speed.  I stumbled on a meat sale at the market, and of course had to take full advantage of that.  Jar after jar of beef went on the shelves.  Then I got a deal on greenbeans, so I dug the ham out of the freezer and put up some ham and beans.  Older, bagged, dry navy beans, garbanzo beans, and red beans were next.  Chicken from the freezer was made into chicken soup and put up, and canned with broth and put up.  That freed up a lot of room in the freezer.  Sloppy joes, pizza sauce, and spicy fiesta chicken soup have rounded out the month of July.  I LOVE using my All American Canner! (no affiliation)  I only have the 921, which holds 4 quart jars, 5 wide mouth pints, or 12 half pints at a time, but it was the largest I could afford at the time. 


And if THAT wasn't enough......at the beginning of the month I purchased a wonderful antique bed set from a man down the road.  It had been his mother's and had been stored in the back of his barn for years.  He wanted the barn space back, so he was clearing things out.  He sold it to me for $20.  It took me on and off for the month of July working on it as it needed totally taken apart and it was HOT in the workshop.  The foot board was the piece that originally had the curved top with the leaves carved in it and the walnut rosette.  The head board had the flat edge and the high top.  I took the oak, walnut, and cherry ends apart and reassembled them to put the curved top on the headboard and the flat top on the foot board. 

I then cut the foot board in half.  I decided that it made the bench too deep and further removed 9 inches from each piece.  I used the side rails as the front and back boards for the seat.  I left the curved trim on the front piece, which is now actually upside down.  On the original bed, the curved pieces went up to hold on the mattress.  I wanted them to curve down as a decorative piece.  I removed these decorative curved piece on the back rail and added them to the top of the armrests. 

I then sanded it enough to make it soft, but not so much as to remove the character, to include the water spot on the headboard, where grandmother's hair made a spot.

The seat is purchased pine, but stained walnut.  The whole piece was top stained and sealed with this same walnut stain to make it a cohesive piece.  It looks WONDERFUL.  It will be the new bench in the master bathroom sitting area.

The tomatoes are almost 6 feet tall with some varieties.  The cabbages have been netted to keep out the worms.  The squash have been subjected to squash bore and have yet to make a male flower to fertilize the female flowers.  The mustard plants are 5 feet tall.  It time now to start hunting for horn worms at night with our black light flashlight.  And with that July is gone, just gone.

August brings the start of school in person, back to the office, back to the dorms and the tomatoes turning red. More canning, more projects, the countdown to Fall and Winter preparations is looming and seems more depressing than normal.  But we are blessed to have it.  So I'll take it.

June the month of birthdays, tomatoes, shearing, and just like that...BOOM...it's SUMMER.

While May might have been the month of May-be it's Summer, May-be it's not, June left no doubt in your mind that we were on the heat train. It actually started in late May.  Day after day of rain, and days in the upper 80s, prodding us towards 90 as if we wouldn't notice.  The alpacas, still in the full Winter fleece, were roasting and needed their legs and bellies hosed off almost daily.  We happily obliged.

The shearing team came and in anticipation of Angus being, well, Angus, we purchased some calming liquid for dogs online.  2-5 drops for a dog.  What does that translate to for an alpaca?  And how do I count drops for something that doesn't stand still and spits?


 Half a dropper and see what gets in there and stays in there, sure why not.  Within an hour, dude was mellow. Not dopey, not a blob on the floor, just a nicer beast.  He was perfectly happy having his halter on and being led to get sheared, and you know what, he's been nice and playful ever since.  Huh.  Coincidence?  Grateful to be naked again?  Decided it was easier to be sweet than get another does of what-ever that stuff was? No idea.  But I'll take it.



Here they are in all their relieved, but embarrassed nakedness, well, Stormy, Sterling, and Nova anyway.

Not only was it HOT and humid during the day, but the humidity was insane DAY and NIGHT, which the tomato plants love. I planted the tomatoes on the 2nd only to loose 20 of the plants a week later to an incredible windstorm with winds howling into the 60 mph range again and again.  Most of the storms came at night, which was creepy, but when the lightning flashed the view was FANTASTIC!

With the tomato plants replanted and snuggled in their spots, it was time to take jar inventory for the upcoming season.  Everything was boxed up tight, but well marked in the basement, but a chance stop at my favorite thrift store netted me jars for 12 cents EACH!  DEAL!  I bought every one they had, boxes and boxes of them.

We also bit the bullet on the chicks.  With the heat, the broodies stopped being broody.  Who could blame them? The coop was hot.  Who wants to sit in there on a heap of eggs, bored, in the heat?  I went to the farm store to get chicken feed at they were just unboxing some puffballs.  I only wanted 6, but as you can see I came home with 7, two leghorns, two California whites, two I forgets, and Edith.  LOL.  You see, I was picking out the two leghorns and when I picked up the second, little Edith ran over like I was snatching her only fried in the world. I just couldn't LEAVE her there!!  So she came home too.  So we have Edith (cream), Aunt Gail, Linda, Annie and Ollie, Louise and Tina.  This is my Bob's Burgers batch of chicks.  LOL.

 June brings Doc's birthday and mine 5 days later. We managed a lovely steak dinner at home with all the trimmings. It also brings the annual snapping turtle migration.  Here she is for 2020, passing through.  We just speed her along, so she doesn't stop and have any chicken nuggets along the way.  Yes, she's HUGE.

The girls are still keeping us up to our eyeballs in eggs.

The mid-June means the Cornhusker State Games Torch Run.  This year, everyone was on their own;no cheering crowds, no bystanders, no police escorts.  I did 2.3 miles in a little village called Dwight.  It was hot, humid, and lovely.  And yes, my "torch" was edible at the end of the run.  HA!

I found this thistle on my weed walk of the pasture.  It just looked like is was ready to break out in song, or start eating people.

The first Arapaho Blackberries of the season.  

The fireworks tents are popping up everywhere, so June must be coming to a close and July just around the corner.

May...maybe it will, maybe it won't.

May is a month of uncertainty in any year.  This year was no exception.
Will it rain?  It May.
Will it be warm? It May.
Will it be dry? It May.
Breezy?  Yup...that's a given.

With the promise of a real Spring, garden centers filled with people and with great flats of lush, green garden plants.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "IT'S A TRAP!"  But this year, even more than in years past, people have fallen for the lure of garden plants at the big box store.

The stores, eager to take your green backs, are happy to push whatever you want to take home, knowing full well that May will eat every effort you put into your plants and spit you out like an unripe grape.  They know you'll be back to replace and replant your failures.

Except for cold weather crops like lettuce, peas, or cabbage, nothing goes in the ground here until at least June 1st.  While plants are happy and green at the garden center, they have also just been yanked from massive, toasty green houses, with grow lights, and attendants that see to their every need.  They're put on trucks and delivered to box stores within 48 hours where you buy them and take them home, shove them in the still cold, poorly prepared earth, and expect them to thrive.  Nope. Not going to happen.

If you bring them home, be prepared to keep them warm, feed them, watch for and treat disease, and yes, even prune them.

This year I decided on just tomatoes, 50 tomato plants, in fact, and one row of silly sweetheart cabbage just for fun.  I planted one row of mustard seeds just to act as bait for the horn worms, and then I'll seed the ditch with the seed this year.

Flat after flat of tomato seedlings filled the potting shed shelves just waiting for June.  I let them get lanky for deep planting.  With nothing much else to do after planting the apple seedlings, I loaded up the truck with my trusty 5 gallon buckets and shovel and headed to the county compost soil site.  The county collects yard waste all year and then spends all winter turning it into black gold, free for residents to haul off, as much as you want, free of charge.  It's awesome.  I loaded up the truck with my treasure, and on the way home stopped short to avoid a run-a-way driver, dumping many buckets of black earth inside the truck.  (Better than an dented truck.)  Luckily The Boy is good with a shop-vac, and loves me enough to detail the inside of the truck.  Phew.

I used the dirt to amend all the planting rows in the garden and worked in a mix of epsom salt, worm castings, egg shells, and ground baby aspirins to make for strong and happy tomato plants.

We managed to get a pair of broody hens in May.  Sadly, we think our rooster is getting up there in age and, while still dancing and having the eggs show as fertile, none of the eggs have made it to hatching.  Some of the girls are getting rather old, and we've done nothing all spring but treat for Northern mites, which are brought in by wild birds.  We've already lost two girls to the tiny blood suckers, so we'll need to think about chicks soon.  Yet another commodity that is hard to find.

In project land, under the heading of 'anything other than mask sewing', I purchased a Cricut machine to make my own business decal for the truck and it has turned out handy for other fun projects, despite the fact that it is not Chromebook friendly and any project takes me twice as long as it should.  But they do turn out nicely in the end.  I made a bee warning sign to go by the beehives that were recently moved closer to the garage.  I made name and birthday signs for the boys, a decal for the truck, and 'do not spray' signs for the ranch.

Speaking of mustard from the paragraph above.  I finally got around to dealing with last year's harvest that has been drying in a paper sack all winter.  I got it in my head to make a batch of mustard with it.  I now wonder why this stuff doesn't cost $100 and ounce.  It took me hours to remove the seeds from the prickly pods, and clean the chaff out.  Then it needed to soak in vinegar for two days and then get pureed.   IT was really good and hot.  But OH removing those seeds!

On a day trip, I stopped at a favorite local candy shop. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had renovated and expanded.  I was thrilled to find root beer from our alma mater.A great, and sugary box of sweeties was shipped to my niece and nephew who were still in a locked down state. And a 6 pack of root beer came home with me.

 The lack of Spring festivals, events and parties is making the weeks and months feel even more odd.  March didn't feel like March. April didn't feel like April, May isn't feeling like May.  Norwegian Constitution Day came and went without festivities and feasts in the great church halls.  No picnics were had, no dressing up, no parades.

 Like I said, I moved the bee hives.  They are now in a VERY sheltered spot and I hope they do better there.  The light blue hive is the hive from last year.  We lost the bees in that one this Spring with the last great freeze.  Even though they had plenty of pollen enriched food in the hive and plenty of insulation, they simply couldn't cope with the last great cold snap.  We had several nice days, and then slammed down to 20 for several hours.  They actually just dropped.  It's sad to loose a whole hive.  Many around here lost 30% of their apiaries.
I have plans to purchase one package of bees with a queen from a man just up the road, so cross fingers that that works out, as I missed the deadline to order more bees from California.

Another day trip, and I came across a gas station that was shut down and remodeled into a much needed village market!  Just look at all that gorgeous fruit and veg!   Fresh local beef inside as well.

May also brought the end of the school term and the ramp up of the ubiquitous ZOOM staff meetings. Bombed by farm animals, of course.

And June is fast approaching, so you know what that means!!!  SHEARING DAY!

Just look at that CRIMP!

Doc and I went out and noticed the boys weren't going to make it to shearing day to get their nails clipped.  They were crazy long, thanks to the fortified feed they get.  So we haltered each one up and marched them to the new small animal chute I built and everyone got a pedicure.  Of course Angus, Oh ANGUS, didn't want anything to do with his halter, or being led anyway, and he's unanimous in that.  He ran, bolted, kicked, spit, and basically pitched a fit, all with my hand wrapped in his lead.  All was rocky, but good, until we got inside the barn, when with one great burst of energy on his part, he slammed my left hand into the steel stall door lock ripping it open down to the tendons.  I won't show you that picture. Trust me it's gross.  I washed it out, put on some Vetericyn chicken spray, a piece of gorilla duct tape and my work gloves and got back to it.  It took a solid month to grow back over, and only I can see the scar, but ooo that little bugger.

Spring comes in April, right?

Still stuck inside in April, and the warming temperatures, longer days,  and increase in sunshine sure didn't help with wanting to get out and DO something.  I had planned this Spring to gut the master bathroom and remodel it.  Those plans were put on hold as the master bathroom is directly above BOTH lower level home offices. With classes, and zoom meeting, and conference calls going on below stairs, I could hardly be banging away at tiling or sawzalling a fiberglass tub. 

So changing gears, I compiled all the things I need to remodel the bathroom and heaped them in the storage room in the back of the lower level storage room; paint chips (Blueberry frost) , vanity, sink, fixtures, hampers, lighting, and artwork, just about everything.  Which reminds me, I still need to order the wood flooring and barn door hardware.

Mask orders were still piling in, but with hopes that Spring and Summer festivals would still take place, I decided to take breaks from tiny sewing to working on my DAR and Norwegian clothing.  8 skirts, two jackets, petticoats, a set of stays, caps, and aprons and I now have a grand wardrobe.....and no where to wear it.  But it's done and ready when needed.

An early Spring is always welcome.  Although we had an easy Winter, weather wise, the urge to get OUT and be free of heavy gear is always a joyous feeling.  The increase in the sunshine meant that the hens were up to their shenanigans.  More and more they too wanted out from the in.  They were sick of looking at each other, sick of eating in, sick of playing the same old games, and sick of watching the re-runs of alpaca TV out of their picture windows.

The nest boxes became a place to queue up and gossip.  I swear they spent more time in there than was needed, just to have a moment of peace and a little space to themselves.  Well, unless your Jaunita, then every box is your box regardless of who may have been there first.  With no campers in the park below us, and our regular customers in lock-down, we were drowning in eggs even though there was a shortage of eggs in the market. 

So I gathered the needed ingredients and The Boy and I set to filling the freezer with cheese quiches, sausage/bacon and egg and cheese muffins/bagels/biscuits/burritos for grab and sit breakfasts.

The alpacas, being curious little beasties, are always happy to see the grass greening up.  Happy to munch on hay and browned pasture grass all winter, those first tender shoots of green have them almost giddy to go out and nibble noisily all afternoon in the Spring sunshine.  They can sense that the long, dark, cold days of plodding thought the snow for exercise, or laying about in the barn all day listening to NPR are almost over.

But you know....April.

 One day it was Spring, and then it wasn't.  Fortunately, it only lasted one morning.  Winter's final try to keep us subdued.  It was heavy and wet, and miserable, but as quickly as it came it was gone.

Stormy made sure to let me know that shearing was coming up and that he wanted to be SURE to cost me extra money at the Mill this year.  He found the biggest puddle of mud and went for a dip. Some days........

Besides sewing my fingers to the bone, planning the grand bath project, and just generally keeping up with this place, I had to replace the sewing table.  I had been using a small, plastic, folding table that was barely large enough for the machine on it, and forget about stability.  With the new, larger machine, I wanted a table that could put up with my marathon 12 hour sewing sessions.  A friend that owns an antique shop and B&B (which was closed for the duration) let me in to scour the rooms for something not too wide, not too long, that I could put between the sofa and TV on the lower level and leave out day to day.  I was also looking for cheap.  $15 later and I was out the door.  A quick stop at the local hardware for a can of spray paint, and a stop at another friends scrap wood pile and I was set.  In one afternoon, we went from this .... to this!

Now it's much easier to just leave everything right where I stop and night and just pick up in the morning.

Hey, the Easter Bunny did manage to find us! Thanks to stores putting out Easter Candy right after Valentines Day.  Smart Easter Bunny.

 Remember how I mentioned we grind out our wheat?  Well I love bread, who doesn't?  But I wanted a real WHOLE Wheat bread that was soft and delicious and didn't turn into brick on day two, was easy to make, and was actually GOOD for you.  I experimented all winter.  Along the way, I sent many a bricks/doorstops to the compost pile.  I found out that commercial loaves separate all the bits of the ground wheat and then add them back in at a specific ratio, but that ratio and the remixing really doesn't mimic the health benefits of actually using all the bits from the wheat kernel as it is ground.  So I ordered a large bag of wheat from Wisconsin and a NutriMill grain mill to grind it with.
I managed to do all this just before the world went nuts and started buying up all the flour, yeast, and baking supplies in stock everywhere.  I already keep one pound bricks of yeast in the freezer, so Phew.

I can't tell you how much I love this thing.  (No affiliation or goods or payment received).When I got my grain in, I vacuum sealed it in 8 cup amounts and put those in the freezer.  When I'm ready to bake, I pull out a bag, let it thaw an hour, and then toss it in the grinder.  I then have enough fresh flour for 4 loaves plus other baked goods.  On a funny note, this is what happens when you forget to fully lock it into the working position and pour in your grain.  There is no recovering from this.  You just have to let the grain flow and then clean it up.  Sigh.  It....was...everywhere. But it was funny; Lucy in the candy factory funny.

I'm making so much whole wheat bread that I was killing my professional 6qt kitchen aid!  So I ordered the companion mixer to the mill, which is specifically made to handle heavy duty blobs of dough.  I really like it too.  (Again, no affiliation, payment, or product received.)

If anyone is still reading this blog, and wants the recipe, I'll be happy to share it on here, just post in the comments and I'll add it on.


 Oh and what else do you do to keep busy when there is nowhere to go?  You take online classes and re-certifications. A friend of mine and I decided back in December, that we would add our state substitute teaching licenses to our list of credentials as country schools were desperate for subs. So I managed to get into the January class and finished the 8 week course (except for the final which was scheduled for week 8) in just 10 ridiculously hard days.  I took my final exam on the day the country shut down and schools closed.  Grand timing, eh?

The same friend also asked me this winter to bring baked goods to her new flower shop when it was open.  This required a food handlers permit, which also required classes and exams.  Mission accomplished...the same week the country shut down.

CCL done.
NRA RSO and Instructor Re-Certs done. 
Pollinator Habitat and No Drift Zone re-certified.
Norwegian is on its second year straight of no missed days for at least a half hour per day.

Garden plans were accomplished and seedlings started in the potting shed.
Spring apple trees were planted and irrigation lines installed.


Come on MAY!  I need to get outside!