Cloudy, Rainy, and Windy

The recent hurricanes are creating a strange weather pattern for our area this season.  I can't remember a September where we've had rain after rain after rain.

There has not been a break in the rain for two days now, and I am afraid to pull on my mucking boots, and check on the garden.  The last time I was out there, the last of the cauliflower was about ready.  We also have a few more cabbage and many green peppers.

I am sure, unless the rain caused more to grow, that the tomatoes are finished now.  

Just a few weeks ago, I watched a hummingbird (baby) in our Tall Phlox.  I tried to get a picture quickly, but this is what I ended up with:

If you look under the "Bab" in Baby above, you can see the baby hummingbird.  It was about the size of a yellow jacket.  We've seen many hummingbirds hover over this plant this year.  I have dug up and split it, spreading more of the phlox around the patio.  Hummingbirds never seem to forget where they can find flowers they need.

The clothes drying racks are already out this season.  Hmph!  I have not even started splitting wood yet.  The list of winter preparation is growing, and I'm not getting the list marked off fast enough.

This is what the ground looks like, underneath my clothesline:

The yard is a big sloppy mess. The dogs come in soaked and look hilarious, with their face hair all matted down.  They sit and lick themselves for hours, trying to get every hair back in place.

The creek is overflowing and our new bridge is under water.  We may have to pull it back out and raise it.  I guess we'll just have to wait for the water to lower first.

I am once again battling a messy kitchen this morning.  With two kids working part-time jobs, the dish chart is not being followed.  Dishes are constantly being left out on the counter, dishes on the table and (grrr!) in the front room.  With my daughter working 5-1130pm or 5-9pm, her job never gets done.  I may have to re-write my job list and put  her on sweeping chores.  The cat box, that she is in charge of, is not getting cleaned regularly.  So parents, when you kids want jobs (or need them), remember they will slack in other departments, especially if they are attending school.

The dogs aren't getting brushed either.  It looks like I will be cleaning my kitchen again, before I can clean my bathroom, sweep the floors, bake an angel food cake, make the last batch of salsa, and make iced tea.

On a good note, I have started another knitted block for my knitted blanket.

This block is the basket weave pattern.  I hope the blocks all end up about the same size.  The idea is to make a blanket with all the squares that I make - each one a different pattern (or as many as I can practice).

This cooler, dreary weather, just reminds me that I am very behind on making homemade Christmas presents.  

I guess I better get back to work. 

Wild Flower ~ Catnip

I have no idea what I was thinking.  I picked a small piece of wild growing catnip and put it in my flower press.

Every day, my 9 year-old's cat (Tiger) would attack my flower press.  I finally opened the flower press yesterday and gave him that dried catnip.  He went nuts!  Then along came the other cats and wanted some.  

My 9 year-old has been wanting to dry some to make a safe cat toy for her cat.  I had her look at my wild flower book, so that she could identify it correctly, before she picked it.

We now have catnip drying in the garage, away from Tiger.  The catnip will not be making an appearance on my wild flower book, for the sake of keeping my book in tact.

Dear Lord, Please bring me some of that delicious catnip tomorrow. Amen.

Wild Flowers

The kids just take over the computer when they get home, so while I waited for my turn, I worked on my wild flower book.

My 9, 12, and 14 year-old daughters were sitting around the table watching me.  It's turning out pretty nice too. I just need to label each page and write down where they each grow.

After I worked on that, and got my turn on the computer (he he, I needed to see how to bind off with knitting on YouTube again, I just forgot how to do it already), I went out to pick more wild flowers.

We came back in with this flower, and honeysuckle. 

I saw bushes that had clusters of white berries on them.  I am pretty sure it's White Baneberry - a completely poisonous plant.  I'm working with a park district expert to see if I am correct on the baneberry, and will have to remove it somehow.  The word "bane" is typically found in names of poisonous plants. If it stops raining, I will pull on my mucking boots and go get a few photos of it.

I have no idea what the first white flower that I posted is.  In my wild flower book it looks similar to White Snakeroot.  I guess I'll just have to wait and she what they tell me.

There are approximately 7 wild flowers in our area that are threatened or endangered.  They are:

~Blue-Eyed Grass (Endangered)
~Grass Pink (Threatened)
~Kalms St. Johns Wort (Threatened)
~Prairie Rose (Threatened)
~Prickly Pear Cactus (Potentially Threatened)
~Wild Lupine (Potentially Threatened)
~Wood Lily (Threatened)

I found it interesting that one of the threatened plants, have not been growing here in the wild, since the 1980's.  That plant is the Wild Lupine.  Due to constant weed control and other maintenance techniques, the plants have been eliminated.  Large parks and local preserves have re-planted some of them, starting a recovery program to protect them.


Here are photos of a wild flower display that my 12 year-old put together.  

The flower display turned out very nice.  Imagine who special the pioneers felt, when they woke up to a vase of these in their cabin. 

Homemade Noodles

It's noodle making day.  I hand roll my noodles, so it took all morning - 2 dozen egg yolks.  The barred rock's eggs are still a bit smaller, so I use 2 of them for every egg in a recipe now.

I have noodles drying every where in my kitchen today.  Since we were gone most of the day yesterday, it's a mess and difficult to maneuver in.

My oldest daughter has reminded me that we have not had "tea time" all summer long.  It was just way too hot or we had too many mosquitoes to enjoy the front porch.

Today, I am making them iced green tea with a bit of peppermint in it.  I'm not sure what I will bake yet, as I need to put two whole chickens in the roaster still.  

We have a good strong wind today, so I need to get as much on the clothes line as I can.  The weather is turning much colder and it with the storng wind, should dry fast.

I saved my egg whites for another angel food cake.  I just don't have the counter space to bring my mixer out and make it.  That will have to wait for tomorrow, and I'll have to come up with something else for today.

Update:  I decided to make the kids another batch of zucchini banana bars.  We like to call them brownies.

I used Swiss chard stalks, in place of buying celery, in my roaster pan.  We'll see how it tastes.  

I still have a few carrots in the garden, but will use those for muffins this week.  The ones in the roaster are from the store, but organic.


Speaking of food, we grilled burgers with our tomato jelly last night.  It really doesn't have a ton of flavor like I thought.  It's good, but I think I will try a tomato jam or preserves next time. 

Record Attendance ~ Spending Labor Day at the Zoo

I tried telling my husband that it's not a good idea to visit the zoo on a holiday.  

"No way, everyone will be having cook-outs and family parties.  No one will be at the zoo," he said.

We went and we are very tire people today.   When we took the shuttle back to our parking location, the driver gave us some information.  He told us that the zoo had the highest attendance ever - over 8500 people (according to him at the time) and they closed admission for a while, turning 100-150 cars away (no parking spaces available).

Meet Tuli and her Mom

 Meet Lucas and his Mom

Guess what I did?  I touched this Eastern Fox snake!  I hate snakes.  This one doesn't bite, so all but one of the kids got to pet this.  

The daughter that did not pet it, was out taking pictures.  Check her blog of many other zoo pictures:  Life as A Teen Farmgirl.

More pictures of our first zoo trip (in over 6 years):

Building a Bridge ~ Using All Recycled Wood

Finally.  I got hubby to help me with building the bridge we needed.  On our property, we have a crick (what the kids call it) that runs off the creek.  It runs thru a corner of the property.  On the other side, are fruit trees that were planted by past owners.  Today, we picked one pear from one of the trees.

We built our bridge with measurements of 12 feet by 4 feet.  In the future we may add sides and flower boxes too.  

For now, it's a basic bridge.  We built it out of free wood that my husband got from a co-worker.  The co-worker, a few years ago, tore down his house deck.  My husband gladly took the wood and we have not put it to use.

I'm working on clearing out the weeds around the bridge, and freeing up the water-way below it.

I'm also looking at a couple of possible locations to build my wall tent or place to rest and relax (with a mosquito net). 

It was nice to have leftover angel food cake after this long day.  Yum!  It's so moist and delicious, and made with our farm fresh eggs. 

I was multi-tasking today also.  I guess it's been pretty normal for that around here lately.  While we were out building the bridge, I had pear butter cooking in the crock pot.  Yum.

I guess the homemade noodles will have to be made tomorrow.  I ran out of time today.

Disappearing Heirloom Green Bean Plants ~ Hubby In The Dog House

Yesterday I made a shocking discovery.  I was out picking tomatoes, and saw (eyes popping open, then squinting in anger) none other than mower wheel tracks.  Right there smack next to the corn, and in between the broccoli.  

I wish I took pictures then, because it rained last night . The tracks are gone, but I found out hubby lied.  The shock.  The horror!  My heirloom green plants. Gone.

This morning we had a conversation about the missing green bean plants.  They were not just green beans, but heirloom.

"So, do you remember those missing green bean plants?" I asked him.  My 12 year-old daughter was in present company.

"Well, your Dad mowed them over and told me he didn't know what happened to them," I said to my daughter.

"Aww!  Daaaaaaaaad!" she replies giggling.

"Well, what do you expect when you see a crazy woman with shovels in both her hands, waving them at me from the garden.  She was screaming, 'What happened to my bean plant?' and looking pretty mad," said my husband.

My daughter busted out laughing and replied, "I know!  She came in the house all freaked out and screaming (more giggling followed by rolling laughter)."

Yes folks, my husband was trying to chase the chickens out of the tomatoes.  And with the lawn mower.  Right over my heirloom green beans.


It wasn't a rabbit, or deer, or ground hog.  It was my husband, who won't ever do that again.