Cranberries!

I love cranberry sauce but have never tried to make it before. I found a recipe that sounded yummy with the canning directions also. Has maple syrup in it too, and just couldn't resist trying it. It is so much better than the canned stuff! I have made it a couple of times and now I have some on hand to add to a turkey sandwich! Sooo goood! Cooking!

Straining!

Smooth!

Canning! In the water bath.

Oh yum, give me a spoon!

More Of This and That

When E ordered his garden seed this past spring, a free packet of carrots were included. These were all colors. I didn't even know carrots came in these colors! I planted them and they actually grew! Here is a bowl of them that I pulled. Some tasted good, some were kind of dense and fibery, if that is a word. But they were quite pretty in the bowl.

I planted a short row of these wax beans. Maybe a 4 foot row, but only five plants actually came up. They have been very prolific and I have picked the plants twice now and there are still little baby beans on the plants. I made Pickled Wax Beans with them. They turned out pretty nice. Even taste good.

This is my last bowl of salad greens. Boo hoo! I planted Buttercrunch Lettuce and it did so well. I loved the salads that we made from it. We made a Greek Salad, I think. We made it with grape tomatoes, sliced red onion, Kalamata olives, grilled chicken chunks, Feta cheese, and probably some things I can't remember. I made a homemade dressing with mayo, a bit of sugar and a bit of vinegar. I have had a request for that same salad again. Guess I will have to plant Buttercrunch for sure next spring.

More of This and That

I have been having some trouble with my photo program, so I will have to blog using Picasa. It doesn't work the way I want it to, but it is the best I can do at the moment. It will only upload 4 photos at a time, hence the different blogs today.

My garden has matured and the potato vines all turned yellow along with the onion tops. I dug up the potatoes and was quite surprised at the bounty. After planting a few leftover grocery store 'taters last spring, there were some very nice sized ones under the dirt. Some nice big ones too! I just wish I had a cellar to store my gardens bounty in for eating later!

There were several nice onions. I haven't used any yet so don't know if they are hot or sweet. Time will tell.

I only planted one tomato plant in my small garden. It is a Heritage Tomato called Elberta Peach. It is small, but tasty. I have been making Caprese Salad with them. Oh, so yummy! I don't think we are going to get enough tomatoes from our gardens to be able to make anything. Ours is just now starting to show a bit of color! We should be deep into tomato canning season by now. I wanted to make spaghetti sauce to can. We even planted extra plants to have enough to can, but it looks like we will have to buy tomatoes this year.

Abit of This and That

Missy is slowly progressing. I expect to see her walking in a little while. She sits up and attempts to stand, just can't quite make it yet. Here she is laying on the porch while I vacuumed her rug in the house. The cat is Bart, on of the strays that came last year on July 4th. He loves everybody, even rubbing on the horses legs when I go out to put hay out! He is a real pesty cat!

I went to J.W. Jones (a local horse riding and camping place) and picked wild blackberries, a couple of weeks ago.There are about 4 or 5 quarts of berries in this bowl. I cooked them until they were soft, then strained out the juice and

made some lovely Blackberry jelly! I was going to go back and get more to but lots of stuff got in the way and I haven't been back. It may be too late for berries now. I found a bunch of chiggers too, something we don't seem to have here at home. I think it was worth it though when you put homemade jelly on a freshly toasted and buttered English muffin! Soooo gooood!! Yes, it was worth it!

Missy is showing a bit of improvement. She can lick her back toes if she wants to now. I saw her roll herself over form left to right! She also spends more time up on her chest as she is in this photo, instead of flat out on her side. Her appetite has improved a lot. For a long time, she would hardly eat at all, now she will eat everything put in front of her! Her back legs are still not working yet, but she is able to do much more than she could 3 weeks ago. Her demeanor is much happier. I give her a full body massage and stretch and work her back legs in a swimming and walking motion. She seems to like all the attention.

This is a photo of a single flower of one of my Hostas. I have several different varieties, but don't know the names of any of them. I liked this. It reminds me of a lily. Smells nice too.

This is E's garden, with the horses' run-in shed up on the hill behind it. There are two plantings of sweet corn, also of green beans, one row of kidney beans, one sweet potato growing in the stack of old tires, several varieties of tomatoes, one short row of potatoes, and lots of volunteer cherry tomatoes, all over the garden.

I found this hiding in the cucumber leaves in my garden! I love fresh young cucumbers. I am making cucumber and onion salad with this one. If I get enough of these at once, (there are three plants) I will make bread and butter pickles.

I am growing my cukes on a wire cage this year. Hopefully they will be easier to pick and produce more fruit. An experiment in progress.

Garlic anyone? This is elephant garlic. I have heard that it is milder than regular garlic, but as this is the first harvest, I haven't tasted it yet. Whatever am I going to do with all of it? How to preserve some of it? any ideas? This is just one plant and there are at least 4 more!

I have dug two hills of my potatoes. There were some nice sized ones. I wasn't expecting much, as these were just 'grocery store' potatoes that had started to sprout so I stuck them in the garden this spring. I like this kind of a bonus! Free potatoes! Wish I had a root cellar, then I would grow enough to feed us a long time. I am going to make potato salad with these.

A man and his grill. Last weekend we went to Mom and Dads for Fathers Day and had a lovely visit and good food. E grilled the chicken which was very juicy and done just 'right'! He is a 'good cooker' as David told Mom one summer when he came to spend a couple of weeks with us. I don't remember what she had made but it was something he especially liked, I'd guess.

The hungry horde! Everyone filling their plates. The weather was just lovely, very comfortable to eat outside.

Anyone for homemade sweet tea? It was so tasty and 'hit the spot'!

I see chocolate cake, bannana pudding, and watermelon for dessert.

This nice looking young man brought his hearty appetite too. His Chocolate No Bake Cookies were very tasty! He can make a mean cherry pie too! A man of many talents.

What is she loading her plate with? Looks like baked beans and a piece of chicken. Bet she had chocolate cake for dessert!

It was a perfect day, good food, good company to eat it with, good weather, lets do it again real soon!!

A Mixed Bag

Yesterday as E and I were driving through Cloverdale we happened to see this! It was sitting in a car lot among other vehicles. We drove in and gave it a good look and yes! it is my old truck! Has the ding on the left side of the trucks bed where the flag pole fell over and dented it, among other blemishes well known to yours truly! It has been polished up and is sitting pretty. When we traded it in, we were given $400.00 dolllars for it. We also would like to know if it has been repaired or just covered up? Who knows! And this is the price tag on it! Yikes, but that sounds quite high to us. No, I don't want it back, I like my Blazer a lot! Even if the airconditioner doesn't work just yet!

Solomon had an itch! He is bothered something awful by the little midges, no see ums or what ever you call those little biting things. They don't seem to effect the girls like they do him.

This is a messy job but some one has to do it! Living under so many trees, the leaves really pile up on the barn roof. Maybe if the roof were steeper, they would wash off when it rains, especially like it did today! We had 2 inches of rain in 2 hours!

About 4 weeks ago, we got up early (Starts at 6:00 AM and ends at 12:00) on a Sunday morning and went to the Cory Creek Trade Day. I think that is what it was called. It was chilly so early that morning, and hot later on when the sun was up high. There were rows upon rows of venders selling everything imaginable. Antiques, junk, garden plants and flowers, popcorn, walking sticks, small tractors, all kinds of household goods, handmade items, chinese stuff, everything under the sun! Chickens, dogs, goats, a calf, rabbits, someone said they even sell horses sometimes, but didn't see any that day.

One vender had baby ducks for sale and someone wanted to buy only the females. He reached into the cage and grabbed a duckling.

He would hold this string with a washer tied on the end of it, over its back. If the string swung on way it was a female or a different way it was a male. Now did he swing it whatever way he wanted to, or did some unseen something make the string swing? I'll leave that one up to you to figure out!

Another shot of the rows of venders. We had fun, it was a lovely morning to spend time together and enjoy each others company. I think between us we spent $5.00!

Babies!

I was checking out the weeds in the flower garden at Moms and came across this little guy, sitting in the old lilac bush. He was calling for Momma to bring him something to eat, I guess. I was within 3 feet of him, and he never did leave. I think this is a baby Chickadee. Love those tufts over his eyes!

One of our hens went broody and wanted to be a momma. We gave her two eggs to hatch and this is the result. Only this one hatched. It is the tiniest little chick I have ever seen! Lets hope this is a pullet baby. (a girl chick).

I spotted this flower in a friends yard and just had to take a photo of it. It is a Gerbera Daisy. I love the way it is colored! So pretty.

Signs of improvement with Missy are tiny, but we think we see a little. I watched her lick her back foot yesterday and she has not been able to do that up until now. We think she sits up on her chest longer too, instead of laying flat out all the time. Can't wait until she can walk again and I won't have to carry her outside and out to the back field to 'go potty'.

Missy And What Ails Her

We think Missy finally has a diagnosis. Weeks ago, I noticed that Missy didn't wag her tail or even lift it up over her back any more. She ususally carried it curled up over the top of her butt. But it just hung down all the time. The next thing I noticed about her was that she didn't go off and do her 'own thing' anymore. She tended to stay near us as we were out and about in the yard or at the barn. I even commented to E that she sure was staying with us all the time. And her favorite activity was to go out and dig in the clumps of tall grass and weeds in the fence rows. At the same time I noticed that she seemed more 'jumpy' than usual. She was reacting to any sound and with an abnormal quickness! Not like her at all, with her Terrier personality. She wasn't afraid of ANYTHING!

Then she started stumbling a bit, and couldn't get up the step onto the porch without help. Then she would fall down. I also noticed that she couldn't bark. When she tried, there was just a weird sort of squeak. It just progressed until she couldn't walk at all, couldn't get up, couldn't turn herself, could only stand for a few seconds, then would fall down. We took her to the vet again, and this time she took x-rays, changed her steriods, prescribed an antibiotic and a pain med. Vet couldn't find anything of significance on the x-rays. All her bloodwork came back normal. Vet was pretty puzzled, thinking she had a back injury but couldn't see anything on the x-rays. She has no fever, no nothin'. She has a good appetite, has normal pottying, but needs help from us to hold her up so she can potty. I carry her outside 4 or 5 times a day for her to potty. She doesn't always 'go' but she is offered the opportunity.

Last Wednesday and Thursday I had to be gone all day, so took her to the vets to board her for the day. I took her home at night, but at least while at the vets, someone would take her potty and turn her several times a day. When I left her I asked that the vet do one more evaluation and tell us whether she thought she had improved any or gotten worse. It had been about two weeks since she had seen her. We were ready to put her down as this couldn't go on forever like this. We couldn't make contact with the vet for a couple of days. Then on Monday morning she called me here at home, and told me she had been doing some more research and studing on Missy's case. What caught her attention was the comment I had made to her that Missy couldn't bark. After studing on it she thinks this is what she has. She has almost all of the symptoms of Coonhound Paraylisis. I never heard of this before but here is some information.

http://www.petplace.com/dogs/acute-polyradiculoneuritis-coonhound-paralysis/page1.aspx

And if you want to read a blog by someone else that had a dog with this, here is that link and this dog was a 155 pound Mastiff!

http://coonhoundparalysis.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html

I learned a lot by reading this blog and the different links they have. Also the comments are full of information.

Now we just have to take care of her until she is able to be mobile again. The vet said to make sure she eats and drinks and to be especially careful that she doesn't get pressure sores.

Any job seems to get bigger the more we try to fix it, doesn't it? The hallway between the living room and the bathroom had an uneven floor too. Since we had finished the floor in the back room, and painted the whole room and had it essentially finished, E thought we should go ahead and tear out the old carpet in the hall way and redo that floor! It was also concrete! Here he is trying to make some sense out of someone elses hideous repairs. Will keep you posted.

I have been making mulberry jelly again. I went to Stoneridge and picked up the berries that Enrique had in his freezer. He had saved them and was waiting for me to come and get them and make them into jelly for him. He said he would get me the jars and sugar, but I haven't heard from him for weeks. I have kept saved the receipts for all the jars and sugar that I have purchased. I need to get them out of my freezer so just started to 'do' it! If he never comes through, I will have a lot of jelly sitting here! There is still enough in the freezer to make this much more. I think he had 12 gallons of frozen berries that I picked up!
Our little dog, Missy, has hurt herself somehow. About a month ago, maybe a little longer, I told E that something seemed wrong with her. She didn't hold herself right, and she stayed close to us when we were all outside. The first thing I noticed about her was that she didn't hold her tail up over her back anymore. Her normal routine was to see what she could scare up out in the fields. She was always running from here to there, digging and hunting for who knows what in the grass. Mice and moles for sure! Her decline was so slow that we didn't notice it for awhile, but then she had some trouble walking. It was kind of crooked and slow. I took her to the vet, and it just so happened that our usual vet wasn't available that day, so another one saw her. She thought she might have had an upset stomache. A couple of days later I took her back, as she was even worse and requested our regular vet and she gave me some anti-inflammatory for her, (don't know if I spelled that right). She said she should start to feel better in the next day or two. She did find that she had pain at a certain place in her spine. Well she got worse all week end, so I took her back on Tuesday. (Monday was a holiday). She said if she doesn't show improvement she would do x-rays. So that is what she did. She couldn't find anything significant. But she found that she definitely has pain in her back someplace. She thinks she has damaged a disk in her back, likely shaking chipmunks. Missy has taken them away from the cats and then kills them and sometimes eats them. The cats have killed lots of them in the last several weeks (at least 15 of them) and she would always steal them, shaking them vigorously. As it is now, she can't get up by herself, she can't walk except on the kitchen floor where it is smooth, as she drags her back legs which makes her fall down. I have to roll her onto a towel to pick her up as it makes her cry if we try to pick her up just with our hands. I have to carry her outside to potty, which she has a very hard time with as her hind end is very weak. She can't lift her head up if she is laying flat out as she is in this photo. She is lying on a 4 inch thick piece of foam. Vet said this could take as long as three weeks to start to heal. The only improvement that we have seen at all, is in the last couple of days she has been holding her tail a couple of inches higher. Her appetite is very good. She just needs her legs to work properly.

Here she is doing what she loves to do most! Digging! Gotta get that mole!!!

Here are some more random flower garden shots. Love these lilies! They are so bright and cheerful.

I finally replanted my Hen and Chickens. They have survived the winter and my neglect. I took them out of a broken clay pot and stuck them in this one. They have already started growing to fill it up.

I was given this bird bath and even though it has a crack in it, I liked it. It doesn't hold water for long but I did see a bluejay getting a drink from it. One of the cats too!

Early this spring, I started to use these Small Mesh Hay Nets for feeding the horses. The idea behind them is that the horses take longer to eat their hay rations so are satisfied longer. It keeps them busy longer. More like grazing. It used to take them about 1 hour and 30 minutes to eat 10 pounds of hay and now it takes them about 3 hours to eat 8 1/2 - 9 pounds of hay. And we are feeding less hay too!

They really seem to like them and even if I put loose hay on the floor, if they have these filled nets hanging in their stalls, they go for these first. There is a lot less waste, and they are busy eating, instead of just standing around. Now if it would just quit raining long enough to dry out the round pen, I could exercise them too!

Now what is she doing? She wants green grass, so has figured out a way to get it! There is an electric fence around their lot, so what does she do? Gets nearly down on her knees so she can reach under the fence and get it! This girl is very ingenious! She can only do this now that the grass is tall and has started to fall over, so she takes advantage of it at every opportunity!

Ok, I'm off to go clean stalls and sweep up the barn floor. The farrier is coming on Monday to trim the horses 'toenails'.