Tuesday, December 15, 2009

What's Cooking ????

This first one is my niece's recipe












Is anyone hungry yet ????

Friday, December 11, 2009

Brrr....A Cold Windy Wintery Morning


Brrrr.....it's a cold windy morning and I really didn't want to leave the ranch but there are errands to run & a blog of mine that has been definitely neglected. If it weren't for having to go to the feed store, post office, library, grocery store and bank we would much rather stay home. There are times when sitting in front of the fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa is the absolute best case scenario. As I left the ranch I noticed all these water birds and as I stopped to photograph them the sound of my vehicle spooked them and made them start to fly away. What a beautiful sight !!!!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Thankful......

This is me in my apron....although I've been cooking for 40 plus years, this is only the second time I've been photographed wearing an apron, lol !!!!

I'm so thankful for so many things this year. After four full days of marathon cooking, having over a dozen family members at our house for Thanksgiving and now spending several days eating leftovers (especially desserts), I am thankful to finally get some rest. I'm including a link to a prior blogpost about another Thanksgiving many years ago. If you haven't read it, you can click on this link. I hope that you realize all the reasons that you should be thankful during the holidays and year around. A Happy Belated Thanksgiving Wish To You !!!!
Gypsyheart Lady: Thanksgiving Day 1985

Monday, November 30, 2009

Burned Out....


Burned Out is how I described us after spending so much time cooking for our holiday meal. We spent four full days of marathon cooking to prepare for that Thanksgiving party. We used the toaster oven all day long on most days. After we'd all eaten Thanksgiving dinner and were in the kitchen serving dessert, suddenly without warning the glass door on the toaster oven literally exploded. It had been turned off for a few hours when it just went kaboom but fortunately no one was injured. Thank goodness it didn't happen while the million dollar brownies were baking.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Fall Colors



Fall colors surround us at this time. Although we've had more than our fair share of rain we do still have leaves on our trees. Around our house, it's a busy time of year.

Friday, October 9, 2009

A Little Behind The Times...


I'm a little behind the times....as you well know. My blog posts have been few and far between. With all we have going on around the ranch, I don't make it to the library very often.

A good example of how far behind the times we are is this photo of a zucchini. If you've ever grown zucchini then you know how big and leafy the plants are and how well they hide from sight. I weighed this zucchini. It weighed 9 and 1/2 pounds and the chickens sure enjoyed it.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

September Days...


September days have melted away. When I wake up tomorrow, it will be October.


September was a busy month filled with many significant dates. Several of my lifelong friends have birthdays during September, like Chris, Bill, Mer and Mari. September 12th is My Mom's birthday, my stepdaughter's Mom's birthday and My Honey's brother's birthday. For My Honey and I September 23rd is our anniversary. This year was our 10th anniversary. During September there are several other anniversaries as well = Bill & Frankie 21 years / Mari & Jesse 11 years / Jan & Kevin 3 years. So a bunch of Happy Birthdays and Happy Anniversaries to you all.

I'll try to make it to the library more often in October to keep up with my blog posts, but don't count on it, since there's hay to haul, firewood to stack and stalls to build. The weather is changing and the hummingbirds will be leaving before long. The leaves are changing colors and starting to fall. September days have melted away !

Saturday, August 15, 2009

My Favorite Avocado



Avocado is one of my favorite foods. These are a couple of my favorite dishes that require good avocadoes.

Coctel de Camaron = Mexican Style Shrimp Cocktail

and

Sopa de Tortilla = Tortilla Soup


YUMMMMMMMY ! ! ! !

Friday, July 24, 2009

Lunch With GrandMother Harriet


This past Sunday I made a spiritual journey, which was very important to me.

While on a road trip out of state to attend my niece's birthday party, I decided to dedicate a whole day to search for my GrandMother Harriet. This was not my first attempt to find her. Over nine years ago, My Honey and I went searching for her without success. This time I used the modern technology available and did a Google Search on the library's computer. This time, I headed out early in the morning with a map and detailed directions. This time, I was very determined and did not plan on returning until I found her. After a few hours of driving, I stopped at the famous "Dairyland Cafe" and picked up lunch. With a brown bag lunch in hand, I headed down the dusty dirt roads toward my destination. After another hour of searching, several dead ends and locked gates, I finally arrived.

It was a hot, sunny, still day when I parked my truck in front of the gate. A wide variety of emotions began to swirl around in my head and in my heart. I had finally arrived. I was finally there for the first time. I am forty-eight years old. It was a trip that should have occurred so many years ago. My mom and I had talked about making that trip for many years but we never made it there. My mom died in 2007.

As I opened the gate and took that first step inside, suddenly a strong breeze created a dust storm which stopped me in my tracks. I thought immediately "THAT IS A SIGN". As the dust settled and I got a chance to look around, I then realized that finding GrandMother Harriet STILL MIGHT NOT ACTUALLY HAPPEN. The cemetery had been well maintained. The grass had been recently mowed and many graves had flowers on them. I started on the west side and began a grid search, front to back. Many of the tombstones were very old and the words etched on them had faded out over time. Many of the graves did not have "real" tombstones, instead the graves were marked with a rock.

Finally I found GrandMother Harriet. She is my Great-Great-Great GrandMother. She was born in Tennessee in 1821. She was Cherokee. I grew up hearing stories about how she had survived "The Trail Of Tears" as a child, how she had survived the Civil War as a widow with eight children. She had seven sons and one daughter. Her youngest child was Mary Elizabeth, who was my Great-Great Grandmother, who died in 1932, three years before my own mother was born.

After all that she had been through in her life, more tears flowed when GrandMother Harriet faced the death of her 14 year old son William. They lived in a "Confederate" State but like many people back then, didn't have interest or affiliation with issues of war. William had been killed by the Confederate bushwhackers. In response to his murder, his four older brothers went to join the 4th Regiment Calvary of the Union Army. According to the story, after her sons left, the bushwhacker's returned and were intent on finding out their whereabouts. GrandMother Harriet was tied up and tortured for information. Like a scene from one of my favorite movie's "Cold Mountain", she stubbornly refused to tell the bushwhackers about her sons and she ended up with parts of several fingers missing and the complete removal of both thumbs. Their home was burned to the ground. She later relocated to nearby where her soldier sons were stationed and cooked for the troops in exchange for food and protection for her younger surviving children.

GrandMother Harriet died in 1904 at age 83. She was buried in that spot 105 years ago. Her grave is surrounded by the graves of a son, a daughter in law and two grandsons. I stayed there for two hours, talking to her about everything and everyone. I sat cross-legged next to her grave and had "dinner on the ground". I said a special prayer. I left an offering for her. I tied my special bandanna, into a bow around her tombstone. I took photos of the cemetery and the tombstones. I told her about each member of the family all the way down to the teenagers (Molly & Mary D). I even told her about the brand new member of the newest generation. Jayden is her Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandson, he is four months old and living 8 generations since GrandMother Harriet. I thanked her for her strength and determination which has shaped so much of my own life. I acknowledged that had she not survived her own struggle through such adversity, that none of us would be here today.

Since I was a kid, I've always felt connected to the Earth and to "those who came before me". I was the child that was fascinated by the old family stories and said that someday I'll write a book. I was the kid that always came home with pockets full of stones and pieces of wood. When I was little I used to use the brown crayon for the face and the black crayon to draw long dark straight hair when making drawings of women or girls. The other kids used yellow crayons to draw short hair and white for the face color. They said I was doing it wrong, but I didn't care. I just answered " I like it that way". I've always been the restless type and have always referred to it as being a gypsy at heart. It's taken a lifetime to understand those tiny details that connect us.

When I was trying to find the cemetery, I passed this grove of trees off the side of the road several times. Each time I felt drawn to it. I even considered parking on the side of the dirt road and crawling over the fence to investigate that area. Maybe I will stop there next time I go back. As I was driving away, following the dirt road back toward the pavement, I thought that when she died in 1904, her coffin must have been transported by wagon to the cemetery. Since most people weren't buried very far from where they lived, GrandMother Harriet probably lived somewhere nearby. Maybe I should go back to that grove of trees that drew me to that spot.

Thinking about it now, knowing about the joys and sorrows of several generations since GrandMother Harriet was forced out of her home in the East, I realize that we have all been on our own journey called life. We too, have left behind a trail of tears of our own, as well as a trail of joy and hope for future generations to follow.

Finally finding GrandMother Harriet's final resting place brought me a kind of peace that I've never know before. After a lifetime of struggling to find my place in this world, I feel that I've now come full circle. I know where my place in the world is and at last, I feel totally comfortable in it. I promised GrandMother Harriet to continue to search for those who came before me. I promised to go to the grave site of her daughter, Mary Elizabeth in the near future for the first time. I promised to share her stories with the 7th and 8th generation, so that they can teach it to the 9th and 10th generations. Thank you GrandMother Harriet, I love you !


Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I Can Can


I can "can". Canning is part of my history. Growing up in the country, I helped my grandmother and my mom with many of their "country chores". Canning fruits and vegetables was a routine summer activity.

This week we've been busy canning the plentiful bounty from our garden. For the past few days we've been canning salsa. Since we have so many tomatoes and chile peppers, we decided to start with canning salsa first. So far we've canned over 4 gallons of hot sauce (one pint at a time). As I learned from a elderly "senora" in Mexico, to make "real" salsa, you have to roast the tomatoes and chiles on the "comal" (griddle) first.

This afternoon will be dedicated to "putting up" peaches from our first peach harvest. We ordered the fruit trees from a catalog about three years ago. When they arrived in the mail they were about 12 inches tall. Taking care of those little trees for the past several years is finally paying off. We have lots of sweet juicy "organic" peaches. Yesterday we had biscuits and homemade peach jam. Ahhh, just another day in paradise !!!!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Just Another Day In Paradise

LAYLA: FUN IN THE SUN !

OUR FIRST HARVEST FROM OUR CHERRY BUSHES

HANDFUL OF PEPPERS

OUR FIRST JUICY SWEET PEACH OF THE SEASON

OUR FIRST TOMATOES OF THE YEAR

Sorry I haven't been posting much on my blog lately. I've not been able to get to the library very often to have computer access. As usual, we are busy, working around the ranch. June 20th was six years that we've lived at the ranch. One thing different this year is that My Honey is now home full time. This retirement gig is working out really well, especially for me. I used to have to do all the chores more than half the time while he was out of state working. It's a win - win situation. He loves being home full time and I love having him home full time. It's taken us ten years to finally get on the same schedule.We've been catching up on some of the things that we'd been behind on around here. We finally took the trailer load of stuff to the dump. We finally got our above ground pool cleaned and set up. Now it's like heaven with a pool, which is really nice after a long hot day working around the place. Mowing, weed eating, gardening and working on the flower beds have taken up a good portion of time. But this past weekend,we had a rare occurrence at the ranch, we had company. Our visitors were my niece Katie, her husband, Chilo and their two year old daughter, Layla. We had a grand time. We looked at old photos, laughed, ate, swam and explored around the ranch, garden/orchard and barnyard. A good time was had by all. My Honey and Chilo went fishing in the pond and Chilo "ran the fence lines" on the 4-wheeler. Layla and I had our photo taken sitting on one of our horses. I'm so glad that they came to visit and hope that by having such a good time that they will be inspired to come back for another visit in the near future. Hard work is our life style but you know what they say about ALL WORK AND NO PLAY !

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Squash, Squish...Slice & Dice ?


Squash, squish.....slice and dice.
Posting this blog is not easy to do without the use of all of my fingers. I got this new Slicer and with all the fresh veggies we are harvesting, it has been a great help in the kitchen. For dinner last night, I julienned some squash to saute to go with our grilled chicken and baked potatoes. Then I decided to slice some cucumbers as a side dish, that's where things went south. When I cut the squash, I did use the hand guard slider (in the upper right hand portion of the photo) but I (mistakenly) thought I'd slice about half of the cucumber and then put the hand guard slider on, but much to my surprise, about a third way through the process, the cucumber slid sideways and my pinky finger went right down on the blade, badly slicing it. I called out to My Honey to come help finish the cooking while I held pressure on my bloody finger. It probably needed a couple of stitches, but with my aversion to doctors and emergency rooms, I opted to put a couple of butterfly closure strips and be bandaged up. I've always been this way, a klutz of sorts. I was just thankful that my finger was still attached and that it wasn't more severe. Next time, I will use the hand guard slider and if you have a slicer, I hope that you do too. Better safe than sorry, like My Honey (Mr.Safety Dude) always says and HE IS RIGHT, again :)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Driving Country Roads....


Driving country roads you never know what may walk out in front of you around the next curve....there are dogs and cats roaming freely. At any given point you could cross paths with a coon or possum. Routinely we see deer and turkey.We've even seen wild hogs. I've seen a wolf, a bobcat and my dad even saw a black bear cross the road in front of him a couple of years ago.But the other day while driving up a steep hill and around a curve, suddenly two peacocks were right in front of me. Fortunately I was able to stop in time and let them take their own sweet time to "strut" across the road.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Herbs and Butterflies In The Springtime




I love the springtime. To me, the awakening of Mother Nature with all her glory is a magnificent event, even though it happens every year.

We have a wide variety of herbs growing in containers in our greenhouse. Basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, chives, tarragon and mint are only a few. We also have lovage, lemon balm, stevia and lemon verbena. The butterflies seem to love the herbs.

Our greenhouse has become a favorite pit stop for the butterflies as well as lady bugs, mosquito hawks and crickets. Like I've said before the only regret we have about getting the greenhouse is that didn't get it six years ago.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

He's A Fishin' Man



My Honey, he's a "fishin man". After working all day long around the ranch, he still likes to go out to the pond to "throw a line". It doesn't matter if it's good weather or bad. It doesn't matter if it's early or late. It doesn't matter, if he catches anything or not. Besides all that, he throws back whatever he catches anyhow.

After twenty eight and a half years of dedicating his time to being a professional fire fighter in the city, now he can go "throw a line" whenever he feels like it.

I'm so proud of him and so happy to have him home full-time. It's only taken us ten years to get on the same schedule !

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Early Harvest


Our early harvest always seems so special. To most people it's just lettuce, a few radishes, a head of brocolli and a bunch of green onions. To us, it's the first taste of garden freshness which we've worked toward and waited for so long.

After "surviving winter" and eating "store-bought" food, our first vegetables are so anticipated that it makes them taste all that much better !

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Rising Water





The water is rising. As the Weather Channel shows, we are not the only ones getting way too much rain all at once. My Dad says that this is our July and August rain, that we are getting early, like an early birthday gift that we should appreciate.

The road that I take to drive to the library (in the above photos) will most likely be closed by this afternoon or tomorrow. The water was almost up to the pavement when I came through there this morning. Last year, the water came over the spillway, below the dam and the road was underwater and was closed for about two months.

If the road is closed we will have to take a 15 mile detour, but we are thankful that our place is only totally saturated but not underwater,,,,,yet.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Catfish Dinner




A few days ago, I'd gone off to town to do my weekly errands. I called My Honey and told him that I was bringing catfish home for dinner. I asked him to get the 4-wheeler out, hook up the 4-wheeler trailer and meet me at the front gate.

Much to his delight, I was bringing home catfish and we would be serving dinner. Catfish food for the 100 new baby catfish would be served in all three of our ponds where we put the 6 to 8 inch Channel Catfish. We had meant to stock the pond with catfish long before now, but as usual something else came up to delay that project. I just happened to be at the Farmer's Co-operative on the right day, at the right time when the fish truck was there. For once I was in the right place at the right time. My Honey was a very happy man !

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Stray Cows


Living in the country we always have had problems with stray dogs and stray cats showing up and causing problems at our place.How many people have problems with stray cattle? As I've mentioned before, our place is surrounded by government land which lease grazing rights to people with cattle. For the past six years, we've had problems with stray cattle coming in and taking over. In the past we've stressed out over it. In the past, we've herded the intruders out, mended places in the fence where they push their way through and spent time tracking down the owners to have them picked up. This year, I told My Honey that we need a new approach to this problem. We decided not to spend our time chasing someone else's cow around the pasture. We decided to "make friends" with them instead. At first three cows showed up in our barnyard. Later one of them had a baby, so there were four. A few weeks later, four more cows invaded our place. Now we had eight stray cows that were causing us problems. The local sheriff's department said for us to place an ad in the newspaper and if they were still unclaimed, that we would be legally allowed to sell them. After a few months, the owner FINALLY came looking for them. My Honey informed him of our "new plan" regarding the stray cow problem. Since the cows had been eating our grass, hay and feed we required the owner to buy us some feed and a salt block, which was still a pretty good deal for him considering that we'd "boarded" his cattle for two months. "Betcha" next time his cows are missing he will be more concerned about retrieving them before we "legally" sell them for our own profit.

Friday, May 1, 2009

In The Green


In the green and loving it. Our new greenhouse is awesome. It has helped our gardening endeavors so much. Our only regret is that we waited so long to get one.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

What A Difference A Month Makes...



What a difference a month makes in the gardening world. Even though the weather has not been cooperating with our plans, we have been making progress. The second photo is our little cabbage and broccoli plants that we transplanted into our brand new garden beds. I meant to take the photo before I started adding the mulch so that you could see the plants better (by the way, we are using dehydrated alfalfa horse hay for mulch). The first photo is what we had four short weeks later. Working in the garden day in and day out you don't notice the changes as much as is evident in my photos which I can track by date. Wow, what a difference a month makes.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Now That Bush Is GONE...


Now that Bush is GONE....

I can go back to taking my customary "state line photo". Whenever I enter the state of Texas I like to take a photo of the "State of Texas" sign. Last weekend was the first time since January 20, 2009 that I'd driven into the state of Texas. I was thrilled to see that they promptly removed the sign that had been attached to the State of Texas sign. For the past eight years the sign at the state line said: Home of President George W. Bush.

For the past eight years I didn't stop to take a photo, but yesterday I was able to pull off the highway and take my "state line photo". As you know, my blog is not politically oriented but I couldn't resist the chance to post my photo of the "State of Texas" sign now that they've removed the part about Bush.

As we all know, he IS NOT REALLY a Texan, we just had the misfortune to get stuck with him !!!!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Our First Greenhouse




Since we move here in 2003 we've wanted to build a greenhouse to help facilitate our gardening endeavors but as you all know so well, time, energy and money always seem to play a factor in our progress. We decided that we should have a "practice greenhouse" before we make the decision to build a "real greenhouse". We bought a reasonably priced greenhouse kit as a compromise. The kit came with a gazillion little pieces but it was reasonable easy to assemble within a few hours. Next we made greenhouse tables from 1 x 6 x 6 lumber.

So far we just love it. Every year the farm supply stores put out the veggie plants way too early for the season. If we buy them early, they are in terrible shape by time they've spent weeks indoors without enough sunshine. If we wait to buy them when the garden and the weather are both ready to plant them, then the selection is very poor. We moved a number of our house plants in the greenhoue right away. Also it gives us a place to set up seed trays to germinate our own veggie plants from seeds, as well as giving the seedlings a good start before they are ready for transplanting. Like I said so far, we just love it.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Out Of Hibernation


WATCHING MY PRESIDENT ON TV JANUARY 20, 2009




STACKING FIREWOOD





MY HONEY SPLITTING FIREWOOD





GETTING VEGETABLE GARDEN STARTED




OUR NEW RAISED BEDS FOR GARDENING BY THE SQUARE FOOT




STORM DAMAGE TO GARAGE ROOF



Out of Hibernation seemed like a good title for this blog post. It has been soooo long since I've posted anything but here it goes..... The winter months are not my favorite and our life is so much harder during the winter. Around our place, My Honey and I have a lot going on. Cutting, hauling, splitting and stacking firewood is a big chore. Everything to do for the animals is more difficult during cold weather. Busting ice off the water troughs is a common practice. Although I'm not complaining about our hardships, I am soooo relieved that SPRING HAS ARRIVED..... I thought I'd post a few photos to show what we were up to for the months that I didn't go to the library to have computer access.