Another Rainy Day

We are over l0 inches and  counting.  It is raining very steadily now and is supposed to all day long.  We aren't  in a flood zone but so many in the southern Ozarks are.   My heart goes out to them.

I am still feeding kittens  and teaching them to use the litter pan.....I never knew what I was getting into with these little beasties.  They are doing well and still sleeping most of the time.  They will be traveling with us to KC this weekend.  What fun!  We are going to our granddaughter's high school graduation. Fortunately they are a 'cat' family and welcome them.

I am having a good time  baking and cooking for the pre-grad party.  I have missed baking.....yesterday I did our normal honey, oatmeal bread.  This time I made 4 loaves instead of 3 that the recipe calls for.

This is just for family use.  I am taking a double batch of my standard refrigerator rolls, two batches of cookies (maybe more), and a large batch of barbecued meatball (small size  for hors d'oeuvres).  It is good weather for cooking inside.

Yesterday was a lovely, sunny day. We took the opportunity to mow and didn't bury the wheels in the soft grass. I have seen more butterflies in the last sunny days than I saw most of last year and a better variety.
So  far,  We are hoping that is a good sign for the rest of the year.

 I hope I am right on these, if not, please tell  me.  A Red Admiral

  A Giant Swallowtail

The rains have not improved my poor blooming things.

The Native tradescantia has held up well.  It is a ditch plant here so I guess it has to be tough.

We spotted a Rose Breasted Grosbeak a few days ago.  We haven't seen one here in years.  Also the hummers  are back for a week now.  So far, just counted 3, but hoping for more as the weather warms.  I have a honeysuckle in bloom so they can supplement their liquid diet.

More in bloom:

The first is a red peony in  the Well House Bed.  It is gorgeous, but no fragrance at all.

This is iris Swingtown near the almost bloomed clematis Hagley Hybrid

This is my lost red iris among the weeds in the cellar bed....I need to rescue it!

I need to  go start cooking.

Ice Storm Arrived

But it could have been worse.  It drizzled all day two days ago but the temperature hovered around the freezing mark so we just got about 1/4 inch accumulation on things and the ground never froze.

This is the front yard.  The poor river birch is bent to the ground.



 This is the view out my kitchen window



Looking from the back patio toward the garden,



This is taken from the driveway looking northwest



The ground never froze so walking wasn't impacted.

I did get three bales of  straw  over the strawberry bed the evening before the ice storm came.  The berry plants look very good. 

FARM

This is the group of calves we will be selling in January.  They have finally settled down and quit bawling.

(This is Willow's rear in the photo on the right).

They were standing right there looking at me so I took their picture too.  These are Willow's babies,



We notice these two geese acting strangely the other day.  They seemed  to be nesting in the middle of the snow.  They stayed there all day.

From december blog

RANDOM CAT PICTURE

I caught these two right outside the milk parlor after  milking.  I think since we have had another litter ......

A Little Bit of Everything --- Pie!

Monday, June 10, 2013

Mulched strawberries while waiting for DH to check cattle.

With his help set two cattle panels for the tomatoes....have 3 leftover that I will stake somehow. I don't want to wastes a 15 foot panel for them.

and the back side of the fence,

I hoed out most of east side of garden and harvested very nice broccoli. This was the first year ever in my gardening life that I had zero little green worms from the cabbage butterfly. In fact, I have only seen one of them and it was in the front yard!

I thinned the onions some and will probably have to chop and freeze them.

I chopped some low-hanging branches from the trees on the west side of the house and then,

we actually sat down in the shade and enjoyed our morning coffee break outside.

It is now too hot to do anything so I am in for the day.

I am making Spanish rice and new broccoli for lunch.....may go out and pick enough strawberries for dessert (or not)

June 11, 2012

This was my morning to milk. Willow is down quite a bit but she is getting along in her lactation so that is part of fit.

After milking, I tilled the garden, both sides. I also replanted the very spotty corn patch. I used a different variety, Bodacious. I always select varieties that don't have to be isolated so I am hoping this will work.

I tied up a few tomatoes that were large enough. I also picked the strawberries again. I won't get many more pickings from them and they will be smaller berries. I got another gallon container full.  I also did my last harvest of the two different rhubarb plants.  I know I am pushing the size on the red one but it is my Sis's  fault!  She has been talking all week about making a strawberry rhubarb pie.............I finally gave in and harvest the makings:

From June Blog 2013

I wasn't far from this since I keep Nathan's Never Fail pie crust in the freezer and it  thaws very quickly.

and the finished pie,

She makes hers using tapioca and strawberry jello and cooks filling on stove top first.  I used  my Joy of Cooking cookbook method which is just fruit tossed  with sugar and cornstarch and baked from scratch.

I should have used more  sugar!  But I love it.....DH, not so much.  He isn't a fan of rhubarb.

The first Asiatic hybrid lily opened.....I think  (stress think) this is a Brunello I rescued from the driveway border.

and more poppies,

I was happy to see  honey bees working the poppies this morning.  I think I just don't pay close enough attention  to see them all the time.

I checked out the garden too,  this is the strawberry row finally mulched,

and last,

Yes,Virginia, that is more cats(kittens) and these two aren't all,