THE END IS NEAR

Yes, spring was spposed to be here on March 20th.  It's April and there seems to be no end in sight. Until yesterday!  It was a beautiful 45 degrees and the sun was shining!  I haven't been this happy in 6 months!

A few weeks ago I pulled into the driveway to find a new snowman in our yard.  I laughed hysterically for a moment after I read his sign:  "THE END IS NEAR!" Then I cried.  Because it was the end of March and there was still enough snow to build a snowman.  "Egads!  Will it ever end!" I sobbed.

Here is how it went:

then, I put this picture up on the Facebook page entitled, Meanwhile in Minnesota.  Next thing I know someone spent some Photoshop time with our snowman:

and enjoy the video:

Yesterday - it's felt like it was all over!  Well, until tomorrow when it snows again…. bah!  Humbug!

THE CHAT - THIS TIME I PUNCH PEOPLE IN THE FACE!

Yes, this winter is getting to me.  I wanna punch people in the face!  This statement came outta nowhere in this chat and it's still the funniest thing I've said in years.  I wonder though… is it really funny or is it one of those, "Guess you had to be there?"

Not sure.  Oh well!  Hope you find it amusing at least!  or that you can relate.

The Chat - they've got pet peeves up their sleeves!

THE SUN IS SHINING, THE SUN IS SHINING!!!

It's been about two weeks now since the sun was shining.  Or maybe it has been 6 months? At least thats what it feels like.

So when I spotted the large sunbeam laying across the office floor I got super excited and had a small moment of avarice take over me: I stole the sunbeam from the pig.  She wasn't too happy, there were a few grunts and snorts followed by a big sigh. But as resilient that that Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig is, she decided that making me her pillow was a better idea for her anyway. Ya gotta love a positive thinking pig!

And by the way - It's not very pleasant snuggling with a pig.  They have bristles.  Sharp bristles.  This is good information for everyone to know prior to having one as a pet.

But I felt bad for stealing her sunshine so I let her lay by me.

Come to think of it, pot-bellied pigs really shouldn't be living in Minnesota anyway.  They come from Vietnam!  Do you know what it's like weather wise in Vietnam?  Hot, and muggy, all the time.  I'm sure the pig wonders daily whose brilliant idea it was to bring them here to America?

Did you know there are only 18 days left until SPRING???

gotta love the Life is Good t-shirt!

THE CHAT - WITH JEN AND PAM

We did another chat last week, Jen, Pam and I and it was grand fun.  How can you not have fun chatting with two beautiful, witty women talking about the cold barren, Minnesota winter blahs???  The Post Bulletin decided to use my image for the on-line version - IDK why, but they did. So there I am - all aglow, egads!

Having a sunny outlook on winter:

THE ENERGIZER BUNNY STRIKES AGAIN!

I have been feeling so good lately!  So good that I have more energy then I have had in a long time.  I was depressed. It's winter. Its 0 outside and there's hardly any sun.  My vitamin D necessity was at an all time high. I miss my kids.  I miss the warmth of the sun on my face and a horse between my legs. I miss….

Oh well, I snapped out of it!  Or something came over me - or it's so boring being inside all the time that I just have to do something!

So I cleaned.

SHOCKING!  I know.  But I do this every winter it seems.  Like when I cleaned out the closet that winter.

So now I'm seeing a pattern.  I have patterns.  Wow.

The other day, I not only cleaned out the drawers in the kitchen that were, like, not done for what seemed like years, like the plastic container drawer, the junk drawer and the utensil drawer, I also cleaned out under the bathroom sink, my desk 'in-box', my hall closet again, the drawers in my dresser AND took a bunch of clothes to GoodWill!  Phew!  Now it's time for wine.

I didn't take before pics, that would be inappropriate for blogging.  But here's the 'after' shots:

The plastic container drawer now has room to add more.

This is what came out of the junk drawer

So it now looks like this

and I can find the utensils I need for cooking. Finally

IT'S SNOWING! GOOD THING WE GOT THAT TRACTOR!

See, I knew we were gonna need it!  Look at this baby go!

We got about 4-6 inches on Sunday and Bob was in his glory!  Plowing around he stopped and said to me, "This is fun!"   Then he had to call me while I was out and tell me, "That was a religious experience for me!"

 I think he's smitten!


a little blurry - my hands were shaking I was so excited!

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

It's been a long winter, not as harsh as the terrible -20 degree days of last winter but long anyway.  As I feel the approaching spring air and see the sun shining out there, all I can think of is - the garden!  How fun this is gonna be this year, we have so many new plans and so many possibilities out there!

But for now, I resort to my fellow farmers out there and buy their wonderful beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and meat from the Farmer's Market.  Don't know how I could survive a winter without it!

So last week, a few days I go I took the night to do the Dark Days challenge and make an all around, if not perfect SOLE meal:  Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Chicken Thighs with Whole Grain Pasta and a Garden Salad.

I took all the ingredients for the salad that I bought at market; cucumbers, tomatoes, spicy greens, onion and carrots, then chopped, sliced and diced and made a wonderful Garden salad.

I took the chicken thighs and stuffed them with home made ricotta cheese form our goat's milk.  Topped it with some homemade pasta sauce that I whipped up this last October from our plethora of tomatoes, sprinkled some homemade mozzarella cheese I made from that wonderful goat Ezzy's milk.  Baked it in the oven for about 40 minutes at 350*.

Add a side of organic whole wheat pasta and top with some more homemade sauce and walah!  a good meal!

PLUG SPAWN AND ME

I'm having a lazy day today, thinking about the upcoming spring, the impending snow storm tonight and all the things I should be doing like finishing up the taxes: I find myself sitting here on the computer wasting time, dozing off and enjoying every minute of it.

So yesterday I was in the kitchen and remembered the Plug Spawn in the fridge.  I got out the directions and started figuring out what one needs to do to produce a plethora of mushrooms!

It seems complicated, a little, well no, not complicated but time consuming just like any other farm project but it will be fun!  there's a lot of paying attention to detail like watering for several days, then not, then waiting, then drilling holes into wood, then waiting, then watering, then waiting, then putting the logs in buckets of sand to stand upright, then waiting.  And each mushroom is a little different of course, so each requires a different set of rules.  Oh well, I am looking forward to the harvest!  I guess that's like anything in gardening;  you know it's a lot of difficult, time consuming, back breaking labor - but the rewards of the harvest are definitely worth it!

Then as I was going through the directions, I started thinking to myself that most people would not get it, not understand or misconstrue this in some weird way, but in my life - this question and answer is perfectly normal:

"Honey, why is there plug spawn in the fridge?"

"I'm gonna inoculate it in wood this spring."

Perfectly normal, really.

DEATH IS ALL AROUND A FARM

I was out enjoying the beautiful weather the other day with my camera in tow (of course!), and looked up to notice something on the side of the barn.  Luckily I had my 70-200mm lens on my camera so I could take a better look at what it was.  Sadly it was a bird who apparently had went to enter a hole in the side of the barn and it's foot got caught in a crack under the hole.  I looked and looked and couldn't determine if it was alive or not.

I thought for a moment, " If it is alive, I can't just leave it there to suffer!"  So I walked out to the pole barn looking for the long ladder.  Then I thought to myself, "If it's dead, I would have just carried a 100 lb ladder over to the barn for nothing."  So I thought maybe I would go get my 300mm lens and see if I could tell if it was alive or not before I did something like that.  It didn't look like it was moving but sometimes you just can't tell with the wind and such.

Well, I am truly sorry to say but the little thing was dead, caught in the side of a barn by it's leg.  It must've flapped and flapped it's wings until it just passed out.  Do animals that go through something like that, just admit defeat and die?  OR do they stay there until they starve to death?  I think they admit defeat and die, the way it should be, without too much suffering.

I wish people had such options as that.  Makes me think that we hang on to things longer then we should in life, if something isn't working, let it go.  If we aren't in the right position, let it go.  If we are dying, let us go.  Why hang on? I like to live my life to the fullest every day, linger in the moment and know that each day is a blessing because who knows how much time we have?  Animals do that, they live in the moment, why as humans do we let our selves suffer and run the rat race in hopes that someday we can retire?  I'm already retired: retired to a lovely little farm, with great animals, friends and beautiful gifts of life.  I actually worked on the computer for 8 hours yesterday; I felt like I had one of those real jobs, ya know the 9-5 jobs most people have?  And I got down on my knees and thanked the dear Lord that I will never have to have one of those!  I couldn't possible do that!  I'd die, just like that little bird did, flapping my wings repeatedly hoping someone would notice me dying and then, just give up.

No siree!  I am meant to be a farm girl!

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

more info here

I've been kinda ignoring my Dark Days Challenge with being gone so much and all this work coming my way, I decided last Thursday night would be the challenge for me, but the problem was: I was running low on items and because I missed the last market due to my birthday celebration and the "day after the night before syndrome" caused by one thing: sake bombs! (I don't want to talk about it!) I failed to get up and get some more items from market to sustain us through these dark days of winter. So needless to say, there wasn't much in the freezer/cupboard to choose from.

I dug through the freezer anyway looking for some type of local meat, and ransacked the pantry to find what ever I had left for veggies.  Luckily I did find some leeks in the bottom of the crisper drawer that I had picked up a long time ago that were still good (see? you buy locally and the food doesn't go bad in two weeks - I think I bought these back in December!)

I also had some beets I found buried under some potatoes in the basket and found some pork chops in the bottom of the chest freezer in the garage.  I decided to fire up the grill (nice weather this winter) and get them cookin'.

Not only do pork chops taste better in the winter when you grill them, but they look good too!

GRILLED PORK CHOPS WITH 

SAUTEED LEEKS AND BEETS SEASONED WITH ROSEMARY

 Nummy, nummy, nummy! (and all grown within 20 miles of my house!) 

THESE CHICKS ARE HOT! *update*

Time lapse of nearly 2 months and how fast a chicken grows!

Dec 15, 2011

Dec 15, 2011

Jan 15, 2012

Feb 8, 2011

Yes, they grow REALLY fast! Now my trouble is - when to put them out side with the other chickens?  

They don't have quite enough feathers on them just yet, and they are not making too much of a mess down there in the basement of the granary.  I am planning on turning off the heat lamp soon - soon after this 10 degree cold front moves on!  It's been such an amazing mild winter with temps sometimes reaching the 40's - 50's that I could've moved them out doors a while ago, but they were just too small.

As much as I love this winter - I am afraid we will be paying for it this summer in hay prices and dryness, low water tables and so on.  Maybe we'll get a huge downfall of rain in the spring to make up for the lack of precipitation this winter.  I'm ok with that. I like not having to dress up like an eskimo to do chores.

But for now, my new baby chicks will have to stay warm under their heat lamp.  Next week it's supposed to get back up into the 30's, plus of course they will have more feathers by then too. 

: )

WHETHER OR NOT TO WEATHER THE WEATHER

This has been the most fabulous winter ever here in MN and rightfully so when you get days like this in January!

Remember last year at this time when it was like this out side:

and in order to be able to functionally do chores outside, I had to dress like this:

and this last week I got to do this instead:

and the ducks got to do this:

and the sun was shining like this:

But alas… it was never meant to last and now I have to dress like this:

and the snow is coming down like this:

and within a few weeks from now, I'll be dying for it to be like this:

So I can get back to doing things like this:

and this:

Which produce things like this:

and this:

and I can go to places like this:

and watch smelly, bassets run like this:

and grow pretty flowers like this:

but for now…. I will be living like this:

the end.