Garden Pics and a funny one of the cat

It is still cold and rainy, not even broken into the 70's yet!  So the garden is kind of hibernating on the warmer weather plants.  But my cool weather plants are loving it!

I'm not sure how our cat got into the tree like this, but he was stuck when I took this pic.

When good rhubarb goes bad

bed with lettuce and spinach

The new strawberry bed

the first two rows from left are potatoes already coming up and the third is beets, carrots, radishes, and turnips

peas and tomatoes

garlic rashes and salad mix

things that haven't come up yet

The apple trees

my lilac bush, sadly almost done

the herb garden

mints

horseradish

Visiting The Art Show- or what we did this weekend with pics

This last weekend was filled with a local Western Arts Show and Old Car show.  We went to both, because they were free!  It was allot of fun, but I noticed there weren't as many booths as last year.  Not even close.  We looked at all the art from various artists and the kids insisted on dressing in their "western" wear.  Much of it was very beautiful, I'm not much of a "Western" art lover, but I do love landscapes of which there were plenty.  There were several activities to participate in while we were there.  There was this roping area for kids with a real Chuck wagon the kids could play in.  This is brought every year by members of our church who are very much into western stuff.

Then there was a children's art area where the kids could make bead jewelry, paint different types of pictures or get their faces painted.  All for free I might add!

We visited the history filled train station that has gads of memorabilia from the founding of the town and train line history.  It still has one of the few remaining working telegraph lines.  It also has a antique train caboose that you can explore which was very neat.

There were cowboy poets, storytellers, singers, and actions all day that you could listen too.  But the biggest hit had to be the shoot out reenactment where several "bad" guys took the ladies hostage and got into a shootout with the local law.  They used real guns that shot off blanks and produced lots of noise and smoke.  Viking boy was in heaven.

The car show was mainly for me and Husband and we enjoyed seeing over 40 antique and classic cars.

It was a fun and

The Kids had a blast

Western Gals

Gentlemen Cowboy showing the kids how to rope

Sweet!

This man has worked as a cowboy and camp supervisor for his whole life

The only art I bought was something I really couldn't pass up.  I was walking along and saw an interesting artist who painted landscapes on feathers!  Yes I know that sounds maybe not so nice but these were truly fantastic.  Well I saw one that was of a Gazebo that looked exactly like a Gazebo I played on as a child in Walla Walla.  It's locally famous and has an amazing history.  By sisters and brother and I used to bike to that lovely park all summer to look at the birds in the aviary (also really amazing) and play on and around the gazebo.  In olden days the local bands would play music on summer evening whilst ladies in white strolled with gentlemen.

I exclaimed to husband about the similarity and the artist immediately said "Oh that is that Gazebo, we live in Walla Walla."  This proves it's a small world and we started comparing town notes.  She knew several of my family members as well and it was just funny.  So I bought the print of this place where I have so many cherished childhood memories.  Here's the link to the picture I bought, it's just the print but oh well.

http://www.sherryorchardart.com/painting_exhibition_042.htm

And here is the original.  Now the Walla Walla symphony plays there on magical summer evenings.  Walla Walla is my favorite hometown.

Memorial Day Remembrance

God Bless those who have fallen in defence of our country, and God Bless our troops!

Memorial Day Remembrance

God bless those who have fallen in defence of our country, and God bless our troops!

Belarus devalues currency and Gasp! Massive Inflation follows (or a sneak peek into the future of AmericaD

• 
  A visitor looks at empty shelves in a shop in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, May 23, 2011. Belarus is facing a severe downturn, with hard currency reserves plunging 20 percent in the first five months of the year to less than $4 billion, and staple foodstuffs vanishing from stores. Photo: Sergei Grits / AP
  A visitor looks at empty shelves in a shop in Minsk, Belarus,...
• 
  A young man counts his money outside an exchange booth in Minsk, Belarus, Tuesday, May 24, 2011. The National Bank of Belarus devalued the national currency on Monday by 56 percent against the U.S. dollar. The official Belarusian ruble rate for May 24 has been set at 4,930 to the dollar, RIA Novosti Agency said. Photo: Sergei Grits / AP
  A young man counts his money outside an exchange booth in Minsk,...
• 
  Belarusian drivers wait in a queue to fill their tanks with fuel a petrol station before a price hike in Minsk, Monday, May 23, 2011. Prices of fuel will rise up to 20 percent by Tuesday, according to local media reports.

http://www.newser.com/article/d9nej3j81/belarusian-ruble-devaluation-threatens-to-cause-social-unrest-paralyze-economy.html

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Belarus-devaluation-spreads-panic-1395054.php

my plan on growing a green curtian for high sun windows

We have several windows that face the sun most of the day without any shade, and unfortunately we can't plant any trees there to shade them.  In the summer this side of Washington gets HOT so I want to shade those windows to save energy and keep the rooms cool.

Here's more info on growing a green curtain:

http://lifehacker.com/5635574/grow-a-green-curtain-to-cut-down-on-cooling-costs

I have a nice old window box and I'm going to plant pole beans all through it and place in front of the windows.  They will grow up a wire trellis and cover the window in nice green leaves.  You can use any vine plant but I want something that produces food. 

I will post pics when it actually warms up enough to plant my beans.

Quote of the Day

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."

Isaiah 12:2a

Husband Is Injured

Sorry for not many posts, but Husband has been injured.  He got hurt at work and now has a hernia that is dangerous and painful.  Due to that I am taking on most of the heavy work about the place so he wont strain himself.  The hardest thing is keeping him from working.  It is just so hard for him not to work!  Also this brings a new and interesting twist to our finances.  His surgery is in about two weeks so we are praying for no further complications till then.

Crossing the Bar - Music by Donald McCullough

For my father who passed away two years ago

Some Pics of our fishing trip

We decided to take off from life and go up fishing in the Tuccannon Wilderness in the Blue Mountains.  It is a place both Husband and I camped and fished at as a child.  There is the Tuccannon River which is great for trout fishing, and then there are 6 stocked lakes full of rainbows as well.  The lakes are very family friendly with pit toilets and nice accessible shores so that even small children can have a great time.

We caught quite a few trout but didn't keep them because there seems to be some sort of nasty fungal infection on many of them and there were allot of them dead.  It looked like ICK to me (I used to work in a petsmart fish department so I know all sort of fun fish diseases).  But it was fun to catch and release and the kids  had a great time in the woods.

The Wilderness had a horrible fire about 5 years ago and looks much different than it did when I was growing up, or even when we visited there when we first were married.  Husband proposed to me up there after a romantic picnic in a little meadow next to a creek.  Lots of wonderfull memories up there!

A Tom Turkey and his hens.  He gobbled at us and puffed up to show us who was boss.

Viking Boy on his first fishing trip.  He had a blast and loved every part of it.

At Curl Lake

 

A bush in flower

A stream going into Rainbow Lake

The lonely arid lands on our way there.  We drove for an hour and only saw one other car. The Blues are in the distance.

Wildflowers that covered the hills

A Lovley Blog - Hearth and Home

Just the words Hearth and Home bring up visions of crackling fires, homey smells of baking bread, and peace and love.  I was browsing about the net for things on Hearth and Home and came across this site on old fashioned cookery.  There are some yummy recipes I am bound to try.  Enjoy!

http://cookbook.vcdesignconcept.com/

Real American Cooking

I get so tired of people (mostly from other countries) putting American food down.  They really seem to think all we eat is pizza and hamburgers!  On the other hand I can understand why many people think that.  Much of our food heritage has been lost, not from some crises, but from the simple fact of women going to work.  Women are the ones who keep family traditions and recipes alive.  But for the past 3 generations almost all American women have had to work just make ends meet, and when they get home fast food or convenience food is all they can do.  I hear many women bragging, that's right bragging!  That they cant cook!  I just don't understand that!

If you want to experience real American food you have to be asked to a really good country cooks house.  That is really the only place good ol' American cooking can be found anymore on a regular basis.

Yesterday I was feeling in need of some comfort and I wanted to use up some more rhubarb. As I have never had rhubarb pie I decided to make a strawberry rhubarb and a plain rhubarb just to see the difference

Both were very good.  Rhubarb has an interesting taste that's for sure.  I liked it though, and so did everyone else.  The recipe for the crust is from my favorite pie cookbook "Farm Journals Pie Cookbook".  And the pies were from my Old Fashioned Baking cookbook.

OK I love roasting chickens.  They are the ultimate comfort food for me, and today I will be making chicken pot pie with the left over meat, and tomorrow chicken soup with the racks of chicken.  The chickens were on sale so I get three meals for 6 people for less than $10.00.  To go with dinner I made homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and then we had fruit.

I also made more Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.  Look at the color!  It is a lovely bright clear strawberry shade.

 Spring flowers from our garden

Are you ready for a Zombie Apocalypse? If not the CDC has a handy guide for you to follow!

This one got me laughing!  Who says people in government have no sense of humor?

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/18/cdc-warns-public-prepare-zombie-apocalypse/?test=latestnews

Quote of the Day

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

 

Martin Luther

Quote of the Day

"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."

- Thomas Jefferson, from a letter to Joseph Milligan, 1816

Quote of The Day- a really good one!

This is a really good quote.  Watching our culture I am constantly amazed by the rabid degeneration into hedonism that is not just done in the shadows, but embraced and celebrated.  Look at popular TV shows and you see this attitude.  This is what people want.  Interesting food for thought on where we are at in the collapse.

“Civilizations rise, decay and die. Time, as the ancient Greeks argued, for individuals and for states is cyclical. As societies become more complex they become inevitably more precarious. They become increasingly vulnerable. And as they begin to break down there is a strange retreat by a terrified and confused population from reality, an inability to acknowledge the self-evident fragility and impending collapse. The elites at the end speak in phrases and jargon that do not correlate to reality. They retreat into isolated compounds, whether at the court at Versailles, the Forbidden City or modern palatial estates. The elites indulge in unchecked hedonism, the accumulation of vaster wealth and extravagant consumption. They are deaf to the suffering of the masses who are repressed with greater and greater ferocity. Resources are more ruthlessly depleted until they are exhausted. And then the hollowed-out edifice collapses. The Roman and Sumerian empires fell this way... Civilizations in the last moments embrace a total severance from reality, a reality that becomes too bleak to be absorbed. This time when we go down it will be global. There are no new lands to pillage, no new peoples to exploit. Technology, which has obliterated the constraints of time and space, has turned our global village into a global death trap.” - Chris Hedges

Baby Bunnies

These are pics of the baby bunnies born a few weeks ago.  Arn't they cute!

Quote Of The Day

"We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. - Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them."

- John Dickenson and Thomas Jefferson, Continental Congress, July 6, 1775, Declaration of Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms

Sometimes it fun to just be girly!

On Sunday we try to make it a true day of rest. We have so many things that need doing that we can easily turn Sunday into another hectic work day. So I try and force us to relax. These are some pics of eldest daughter decorating me and Princess in Waitings hair in the warm spring sunshine. It was lots of fun for everyone and she made us look so pretty!

Calling All Home Canners... We Ride!

It has officially begun!  Canning season is here at last!  Now begins the exciting time when I begin canning and preserving the foods that will last us from this spring to next spring.  My canning goals are very extensive this year to not only include all our fruit, jams, jellies, pickles, and condiments.  But this year I am also pushing to can all our vegetables, soups, and salsas.

My first endeavor of the year?

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

I have actually never have had rhubarb before last year when we moved here.  Our rhubarb plant is amazing and huge.  People comment on it all the time.  So this year I have made a resolution to not only can up lots of rhubarb strawberry jam, but also just plain rhubarb in a heavy syrup for baking with all year long.  We have several recipes that we have tried that are very good.

The jam was amazing, but really you can't taste the rhubarb.  It just tastes like strawberry jam to me. The recipe comes from my ever trusty Ball Blue Book of Canning.

Quote of the Day

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual
who can labor in freedom."

Albert Einstein

Things Are Blooming

Now that we have had a couple of days of almost 50 degree weather things are starting to bloom.  Last year at this time my lilacs were in full blossom and I filled the house with them for mothers day. This year?  Not even close!  But so many other things are blooming!  I love flowers, especially old fashioned ones like pansys, foxglove, lupines, etc!

My pansies are back, these are vollenteers from last year.  I transplanted a bunch to differnet areas of the yard.

Dafodilles are one of my favorite flowers so I planted allot of them.

Blossoms on our apple trees! YAY!

Both our peach trees made it through a very bad winter