May Showers

Just an update on the last post--we had to drain the dog's ear one last time, but now it has completely healed!  Thank goodness for that. I hate spending lots of money on animals, but my heart can't bear to see them anything less than healthy. 

In the meantime, we found out that our master shower is leaking-again. This means we will have to tear it out and have to replace the whole thing.  Cha-ching.  That's okay. I didn't need any of the scant amounts of money I've managed to save so far, right?  Geesh...

As far as the garden goes, we've been getting rained out quite a bit.  We braved the elements (okay, it was as strong breeze with a few raindrops) in order to plant a few more plants this week.  I've been pretty good about getting pictures every week, but this week I was in a hurry to be done before it really started to rain that I didn't get any.  Just imagine me planting potatoes and we're good to go.  I will share a few pics from the last couple of weeks, though.  Here's a picture of our blank slate. The garden is divided into two halves, and the rows are about 50 feet long. That's 50 feet to the first white irrigation pipe, and another 50 to the second.  The trees on the left and the right are fruit trees.

We've been working pretty hard at getting the kids to work in the garden.  My boys probably won't spend much time in the garden this year because of schedules, and SE will be at work most of the time as well, so it's just me. The other families with children have been encouraging (okay, maybe forcing is a better word) the kids to help with the tasks.  In the past, they have had crafts  and games and been allowed to run loose, but this year we are shorthanded and we all very strongly feel that it's good for them to learn how to garden.  They have responded quite positively and have been pretty great about helping out. 

Here's a picture of three kids and one of the moms planting tomatoes:

Here's the garden master and his apprentice, my brother (he is on the left).

My sister-in-law and I building up the rows. We did most of the rows, and my abs and lower back complained about that for a couple of days after.  I bet my SIL wasn't even stiff. She's tough as nails.

Two of the kids planting tomatoes:

I may leave something off the list, but here's what I can remember that we've planted so far:

strawberries (filling in the bits that didn't make it last year)
raspberries
tomatoes
onions
shallots
potatoes
peppers

Here's hoping for a bountiful harvest!

Random Thoughts

Here's a shout out to all the Marchants, who recently lost Grandma Wanberg.  She was a fantastic lady.

My puppy's ear is broken!  She got a [hematoma, seroma, or blister-thingey--not sure what it's really called] that apparently is the result of a blood vessel breaking in between the flaps of skin that make up the ear.  The price to fix it?  Anywhere from $300-$1000.  SE said we could just buy a new dog for that price.  (What can I say? He has a dark sense of humor at times.)  If we ignore it, then the poor dog would have rotting flesh and could lose her ear.  Anyway, on the vet's advice, we decided to go with the drain-and-bandage procedure for $100, which may or may not work.  On Sunday when we checked it, it had filled up again so SE used a hypodermic needle to re-drain it and then bandaged it again.  I cried because it was hard to see my pup in pain and frightened. I hope this works, because otherwise, we are looking at the spendy option. 

In the meantime, our dog walks around with her head cocked to one side because of the weight of the bandage.  She also tries to shake it off or scratch it off with her paw, but she is quickly learning that we will tell her to "leave it" and make her stop. In fact, since we re-bandaged it on Sunday, she has been much better about leaving it alone.  Hopefully on Wednesday when I remove the bandages, all will be well and we can all just leave it alone.

Easter is coming, and I'm looking forward to spending time with family coming from out of town. The problem? Both my family and SE's family are coming from out of town, so I have to figure out how to split my time without offending either.  YIKES!  Looks like I will be pretty busy this weekend.  (SE will be out on the trail, and the kids are spending Easter with their mom this year.)

Old Dog, New Tricks

Many of  you know that we have cute German Shephard who is just so darn lovable.  We got her around three years ago when she was six or seven years old.  At the time, she was not socialized to other dogs and it caused some pretty big problems for us. SE has done a great job working with her and she is ever so much better--for him.  I've had problems a couple of times while I've been the one in charge of the dog.   The last and most traumatic was over a year ago when my dog attacked a neighbor's Welsh Corgi--I mean geez, that's not even a fair fight.  (Or maybe the Welsh Corgi attacked my dog, I don't know who called out whom.)  Anyway, I didn't get bitten trying to break up the fight, but my coat did, and I still have the holes to prove it.

Ever since then, I've been traumatized that my dog will attack someone else's dog on my watch.  It's to the point where I walk my dog late at night.  If I see someone else walking their dog, or another dog roaming free, I pretty much turn around and go somewhere else.  In essence, where SE has proactively worked with the dog, my solution to the problem has been to avoid the problem, to wit, it's not a problem if we never ever meet any other dogs.

I've asked SE to help me get over this fear because it isn't healthy for me and it isn't healthy for the dog, either.  Last night we went walking with the dog.  I was pretty complacent that it was late enough we didn't have to be worried about other dogs being out so I wasn't paying super close attention when all of a sudden, I feel a jerk on the leash and my dog lunges, pulling me after her.  I shrieked (sorry for doing that at bedtime, neighbors) and yanked back, sure I was about to witness my next traumatizing dog fight.  Just miliseconds after that, two ducks flew up and away from the dog's reach.  No dog fight here, and no duck dinner, either.

SE just laughed, but I, on the other hand, was suffering from PTSD (can that occur just seconds after the event, or is that TSD?)  Anyway, I start crying.  SE just laughs harder, and I can see the humor in the experience, so I was laughing on the inside.   

So, I'm thinking now that our old dog has learned new tricks, but her dog-mama, on the other hand, has a ways to go (frustrated sigh.)

Garden of Eatin'

We officially began working in the garden last night.  It looks like we already have a stellar crop of weeds-SIGH!  But we ignored the weeds in favor of using the last few bits of daylight to prune the fruit trees.  Here's what the garden looks like  right now:

The garden master said he is taking bribes for which rows we want this year. I said I would take anything but the strawberries, which are hidden among the weeds at the far left in the picture.  I didn't pay him anything, so I imagine strawberries will be on my list. :)  Should I have also mentioned the asparagus and herb garden, which are also weed-ridden?  (Those are the only perennials in the garden right now, so they don't get plowed under, hence the weeds.)

My brother, who also blogs about the garden.  With a plot this big, it has to be a family affair. It's great to have all the help, and it makes it a lot more fun.  The mutual gripe-fests are also fun.

Being a gardener is extremely hard work and it is time consuming, but it is also very rewarding and I am looking forward to another great year and a large harvest.

Talent Show

I was reading my brother-in-law’s blog (which you can find here, along with some of his great music) and down at the bottom, he encourages everyone to get involved in a choir, perform in community theater, to write a song, or to learn a musical instrument. I love that he encourages us to do that, but I also get a little frustrated, because I don’t feel like I have any performable talents. I love to listen to music, but I’m pretty sure no one wants to see me on a stage, listening to my iPod. I have no background in the theater, unless being silly in general counts. It seems to me as if I am missing a few of the basic steps.



But it did get me thinking. What talents do I have that need dusting off? It seems to me that I have been so busy with my focus on other aspects of my life, I certainly have talents that could use some attention. One of my loves is photography. Since we’ve entered the digital era, this has become so mainstream I hardly even know if it’s considered a talent anymore. And I certainly have hundreds of lousy shots to prove that I’m nothing special. The thing I really appreciate about photography is learning to see. It’s not about who is going see my pictures, although I really love to show a picture that turned out really well. I notice that when I have my camera in hand, I am thinking about what would make a good picture. I take the time to notice things that other people normally wouldn’t see, like yesterday when I noticed the bees buzzing busily about the blossoms. (I really appreciated this moment because we’ve been experiencing a good deal of snow lately and it’s nice to see that spring is being stubborn about springing.) I took several shots with my new point and shoot and was frustrated because it was so hard to catch the bees in my frames. When I got too looking at my pictures, though, I realized that, if I really looked, I could see bees in most of my shots. What a miracle that is! Clearly I had slowed down, but I hadn’t slowed down enough. Slowing down—now THAT is a talent that needs dusting off.

Shining Example of My Own Pet Peeve

Alack and alas, I have become a shining example of my own pet peeve--I haven't updated my blog in ages.  I have tons of great excuses and I'd shower you with all of them (and they are very plausible, trust me), but I'm afraid I would scare away the two people who actually read my blog, so I better be careful.

I've been working very hard on my food storage plan.  However, I hit a roadblock in the form of SE.  He said he won't cook any of the stuff I have planned because he doesn't know the recipe or which book it's in.  This is standard excuse #1 why he doesn't feel like he should have to cook dinner. The funny thing is, he knows it's lame, but he still uses it anyway.  I actually made a recipe book with all the recipes in it, bound it, and put it in a very obvious place in my kitchen.  Let's see what excuses he comes up with now!  I may also have to tweek some of the recipes which aren't being well received by the family.  SE says tamale pie is one of them--it's too tomatoey.  I made one up Sunday night that was a huge hit.  Here's how it goes:

1 lb of ground beef
3 c. Botan rice, cooked (measurement is for raw, I don't know how much it makes cooked--maybe six cups?)
1/2 c. soy sauce (and then to taste)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can full of water
1 can of mushrooms

I browned the beef, and then added the cooked rice, soy sauce, soup, water and mushrooms and warmed through.  It was fast and the kids totally chowed down.  It even made great leftovers for lunch the next day.  (It has the consistency of a sort of hamburger helper, only not that greasy.)

I also found a recipe for oatmeal waffles, and those were a huge hit as well--they are definintely going into the rotation.  They were surprisingly fluffy, and didn't taste grainy at all.  The recipe can be found here:  http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Oatmeal-Waffles-2.

SIT1 and SIT2 had a great Halloween.  We carved pumpkins and went to the ward trunk-or-treat, which thankfully was inside and kept us from having to be outside in the cold wind and rain.  After, we went to my parents' house for treats.  We told the kids they could trick-or-treat by themselves around the circle on which my parents left.  They took off in great excitement, only to come back about two minutes later complaining it was too cold.  I could hardly believe that the temperature trumped their desire for candy. Things were sure different when I was a kid!

The garden is all wrapped up for this year.  I may try to can some chicken later on, if it goes on sale, but other than that, I'm all done canning this year.  I can hardly believe it's November already.  My favorite time of year, because I'm reminded of all the blessings which I enjoy.  What are you thankful for?

Food Storage

If you know me or have been reading my blog, you know that I am in the thick of canning season, which rebuilds my stores of all sorts of produce that comes from the garden. I was also raised in a house that had an amazing food storage, and the concept has always been familiar to me.  Recently, I was introduced to the concept of not just storing food--in my case, whatever was randomly on sale or whatever came from the garden, but to actually formulate meals and then buy enough food to be able to create these meals without ever going to the grocery store for fresh items.  This comes in handy if there's a natural disaster, or a disaster of some other kind--like job loss.  Of course, we hope that we will always be able to supplement our meals with fresh items from the store, but what if?  Oh, and is it cheating if my meal plan uses items that have to be frozen?

I recently tried to come up with a family plan that incorporates what I already have stored that will turn into a meal, and then builds so that I have more meals and some variety in the food at that. I dutifully researched, looked into a couple of books, and then made the plan and wrote it down in my planner.  I've lost my planner, but I thought I would write what I could remember so that hopefully you could be inspired, too.

Here's the list of what I can remember. I had more, but they are in my missing planner and I will post them later if I find it.

Meal Options:


Spaghetti
Chili (canned or homemade) with cornbread or Navajo tacos
Meat Gravy
Serity’s casserole
Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, waffles, muffins and bacon/sausage)
Fried Rice
Bean & Rice burritos
Sweet Pork & Rice

meals to try (meaning I'm not storing 3 months' worth of ingredients if my family won't eat it):

chicken rice bake
Tamale pie
Beef & Lentil Soup
Janet's chicken
Teriyaki ham

Side Options:
Frozen corn
Green bean
Peas
Peaches
Applesauce
Pineapple
Pears
Jello

We went to Macey's and bought some powdered milk, powdered eggs and powdered butter to put into the rotation and see how they work.  (A few months ago, we got a small portion to try from a neighbor, but our dog ate it before we could really try it out.)  Anyway, I'm thinking as long as SE gets his chocolate chip cookies, he will gracefully eat just about whatever I fix!

I've also discovered that you can substitute ground flax seed for eggs, and you can substitute applesauce or mashed beans for the oil in a recipe, so I'm going to try putting that in some of the recipes and see how it goes.  I've already tried the flax seed in cornmeal pancakes, and they were delicious. The only drawback to the flax seed is that it definitely looks like it has "grain" in it, so if you have picky eaters, it might not go over so well.  However, I hear it hides well in chocolate flavored baked goods such as cookies and brownies.  Mostly, it's nice to know I have options other than fresh eggs!
If you are interested in any of the recipes I've mentioned, just comment below or send me an e-mail.