The caramelized onions were a success! I put about 3/4 cup fulls in ziplock freezer bags and put them in the freezer. Now it will save me cooking time when I want some for a sandwich or for breakfast eggs!

I would certainly do this again. 

Anyone know how to discourage deer from eating the garden, that really works? We have put the dog in the garden area, with a doghouse so he is out of the weather if need be. The deer are coming in the garden, not 15 feet from the dog, and eating the green beans! Ed has put repellant on them several times and so far nothing has worked! Apparently they are doing this when the dog is asleep because if he was awake, NO DEER WOULD BE SAFE IF HE COULD REACH IT!

Do you see any leaves on those beans? NOOOO! But they did have lots of leaves and lots of small beans that weren't ready to pick! But no more!

These are beans on an A frame to make them easy to pick! But all we did was make it easy for the deer to pick them. The dogs' house is 12 to 15 feet to the right of this frame!

So to give the deer something to think about he moves the dogs' house every couple of days. The red arrow is the beans on the A frame, and the green arrow is the beans with no leaves, and the orange arrow in the lower right is where the dogs' house is right now. Within deer grabbing reach! Will we get any beans? Don't know. Time will tell, but we are pretty upset at the deer. They also eat the tomatoes if they can reach one. Ed has them in cages but they have chowed down on several already. Green ones! It seems like we are surrounded! We can look out and see them in the edges of the fields often. 

This morning I had to rescue a fawn that had gotten into the back yard. Before I left for work, I put Buddy (our deer dog, Ha!) in the back yard and I went to water the flowers on the porch. I heard this awful bellowing in the back yard. This was just about 5 minutes after putting him in the yard and closing the gate. I went running down the hill, and he had a fawn down, on its back, biting it. It got away from him, and he got it down three more times before I could get my hands on him. I finally got him on a leash, which I had in my hand and the baby ran along the fence trying to get out. It was in a panic and was just running into the fence trying to get out of the yard. I took Buddy and chained him in the barn. He barked his head off as I interrupted his fun. I went back down the hill but couldn't find the baby. It had some superficial skin injuries, but wasn't seriously hurt. I saw it running along the fence line just after I caught him and it didn't appear to be damaged. Just scared out of its wits. When Ed got home tonight, we both went down there and couldn't find it. I think when things got quiet it must have jumped back over the fence. That is the only way it could have gotten into the yard in the first place! I sure don't want to have to do that again, and that was the way my day started. I could just do without all that excitement, and I think that baby could too.

I AM NOT DEAD!

It has been more than a year since I have put anything on my Blogger page. A lot of water has gone under the bridge, so we will just begin today as if I just left off yesterday. OK? OK. 

Ed and I have been making hay most of this and last week, It feels like it has been going on for weeks, but thankfully, it has finally ended! For now. Later in the fall, we will bale the second cutting. We put 702 bales of first cutting hay in the barn! This hay was about 5 or 6 weeks over mature but that couldn't be helped as the weather didn't cooperate. That is the most we have ever had in the loft and it is stuffed! There is no room to put a second cutting, as it stands now. Ed has suggested we take a trailer load to Rockville and sell it at the hay auction, (that would be 80 bales on the trailer) just to make room. I particularly want to keep the second cutting of hay to feed Solomon as it is much less stemmy and easier for him to eat at his advanced age of 26 years old. I don't have any photos as we were just too busy, too tired and exhausted. Ed said we will never cut that whole field at one time again. Just too much for two and a half people. (Neighbor helped a little, as we baled his small field for him and it made 45 bales for his two horses. He has no where to store more than that.

And on to other things. Some time ago, I found a recipe for Caramelized Onions cooked in a crockpot. I finally got around to trying them today. They are cooking right now. Supposed to cook 8 to 10 hours on low so we will see how they turn out. Love to add them to sandwiches, scrambled eggs and omelets. I've made them in my cast iron frying pan before, but it takes a while to cook them properly. I hope this works out. These are about half done in this photo.

My garden is looking nice so far. I am trying something new this year. We were in Rural King during the spring sometime and I found a package of Bush Zucchini seeds. I have three plants in the garden and one of them has a 4 inch zucchini on it! (The were put out quite late and were long and lanky but they have recovered nicely). My garden is pretty small at 16 X 12 feet, so I don't have room for the usual sprawling veggie plants. These are not supposed to spread more than 3 feet across. That is still big, but I wanted some zucchini to eat! I always grow Bush Cucumbers on a small frame that Ed made and they produce well, with smaller plants and yet the cukes are regular size. Tasty too. I have already picked one cucumber and there is another that is about 4 inches long. I have 4 of those plants, I think.

 I planted Elephant garlic that Sarah gave me several years ago and they have prospered and multiplied. Anyone need garlic? They are ready to dig now, and then they are normally planted in the fall again.

Mom and Dad, here is a photo just for you! Mickey said to tell you hello and he hopes you come and visit sometime.

 He eats too much but is healthy and happy. I have never had a cat that talks so much! He even talks more than my Siamese used to! He has a lot to say! He follows me about the house and lays down near my feet, and then follows me somewhere else in the house and flops down and waits until I go somewhere else. Loves to be petted and fussed over, but don't try to comb out all that dead hair! He bites me when I try that! Other wise he is a sweetie.