A cloudy morning on the farm

Still almost dark at 6:23 AM. We are getting a light shower; I hope it turns into a full blown rain which we need badly. I chopped some weeds yesterday and the hoe almost bounced off the hard ground.

I am slowly getting my 'must do' garden chores done. Yesterday I watered the new plot (part of it....I have to move the sprinkler next). Hopefully the rains will pick up and do that job for me.

I planted a hill of Black Beauty Zuchini.
I did a row of zinnias down the garden row of cabbages. They need to be hidden. Cabbage loopers had done some serious eating on them.

Very late with it, but planted some Yvonne's salvia plants in the back of the cellar bed. I hope they grow so tall that I can see them between the rudbeckias there. I have three left and will plant them in the hummingbird bed.

Picked another bowl of strawberries. I made one batch of jam and froze two bags of unsweetened crushed berries. It was so hot in the kitchen yesterday (90° outside) that I decided this could be put off until fall or winter.

In between I made a flying run into the nearby town to pick up pectin and stop by the library for some new reading material.

Todays Plan:

Pick cherries with DH's help
Work over the strawberries again. I think I can get another bowl full. The big project then will be to work over the strawberry bed. I hope to start a new long, single row in the new plot. Mulching will have to be done immediately because of the seed bank in that virgin soil!

Bake Bread.

But right now I am enjoying a computer morning feeling a cool breeze through the open window and listening to the rain falling gently on the parched ground.

Well, the rain let up but it is still overcast and too wet to pull cherries from the tree....unless you want a shower.

So...........making bread. This time I am doing just a simple whole wheat recipe using half white and half whole wheat flour (Wheat Montana). I discovered it has a lot less calories per slice. That can't be bad in our case.

Got the dough rising in the dough bucket. I found a perfectly acceptable Rubbermaid cannister set for about half the price of a regular dough bucket. I am happy. It holds my 3-loaf recipes and could hold a 10 cup batch too. I mark the half line and then I truly know the double. I also like that I don't have to cover it except with the lid. It's working for me.

Yesterday our local store had the only brand of chicken we will eat, Pilgrim's Pride (no Tyson in this kitchen!). So far this brand has been very flavorful. So I bought 4, 3 in the freezer and fried chicken dinner today. While I had the mess from the bread, I cut up the fryer. I always put the wing tips and back and ribs and any skin and fat into a pot with cold water, salt and pepper and boil for broth....dumplings will be a side dish. We make an interesting dumpling in our family. It has nothing but broth, milk, flour, some fat and seasonings, no baking powder or eggs.

I have the fryer in salt water in the refrigerator.

And now the fun part of cleaning up the mess.........including mopping the floor (on hands and knees...thank you glucosamine!)

Earlier when I was checking things in the yard and garden, I saw this in the east field. The dog was stalking a bunny and the calves were going to check out the dog. The bunny was unaware.



The bunny escaped.