fast grow the weeds

The turkeys’ and geese’s view
I am watching snow fly upward.   We are staying home today under a blizzard watch, and I’m watching my own little blizzard right now while everyone else sleeps.
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments yesterday.  I cannot tell you how gratifying it is to me to learn there are so many [...]

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Because we live in the bounteous Fruit Belt I suppose I am a bit jaded about what the average person pays for fruit.  (One of the final straws of our moving from Minnesota was the $48 pricetag on a peck (half bushel) of Macintosh apples.)  I’m even more jaded now that I get much of [...]

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Very busy today. Just thought I would show you something pretty.

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Playing with one’s food: turkey poult
The reason I ask is I do not think I have one. I do enjoy sitting down and eating dinner, though. And right now it’s a very fine evening of complete stillness and long shadows as the sun tips away from us for the night. If [...]

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Until I feel up to a real post, here’s a few Wyoming wildflowers Tom snapped for me on one of his hikes. Enjoy.

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Where are you, El?
I’m going to take a few days off.  Have a great weekend, everyone.

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You know, they only are cute and fluffy for such a short period of time!

The typical scene.  What you are not hearing is me doing the mothering harangue.  “Honey, don’t squeeze them.  No, you should put that baby down.   Honey, he’s cheeping, he’s scared, please set him down.”

Chick complete with egg tooth

Ducklings on 11 June

and [...]

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This is the time of year the above two devices get found in the junk drawer, washed off, and used.
Marital aides? Child behavior modification tools? Nope. These are a cherry pitter and a strawberry huller.
It’s funny: we went to three stores before we found the cherry pitter. It was in a [...]

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Hum a bum buzz buzz
Holy Crap!
Just walked into my potting shed (also known as Shed of Dreams, like, I better get this x farm implement for future use and store it in said shed) and I’ve got bees!
I stopped (backtracked, blocked traffic) a couple years back to grab a super I saw on the [...]

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Here’s to the end of a very trying week. Amongst other woes, I got a new laptop, as my six year old model is slowly giving up the ghost. Unlike a new car these things magically don’t just, you know, start working on their own. Considering I have the patience of a [...]

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We have done some thinking about our poor yard birds. With Bonnie’s unexpected death, I am beginning to think that we need to contain our birds completely.
As it is now, I jump up at any guinea squawk, dog at my side, weapon in hand, to rush forth and defend the Chicken Homeland. If [...]

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Oh mercy
One heartbreaking thing about seed-starting is those cute little green babies are just crying out for your love and care.
I say, get out the scissors.
Seriously: if you sow more than one seed per pot, you’ll need to thin them out to ensure that someone has the best opportunity for growth. You might [...]

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I don’t think Pauline counts as a wild bird.

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Snow is still more picturesque than mud
So Saturday I stepped outside into the sunshine and said, Wow, it smells like spring! It was still chilly, and still so much snow on the ground that the chickens were despondently digging up their coop floor to meet their need to scratch.
Sunday, I stepped outside into the [...]

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The first salad of February
Friday was our third snow day in eight days. Crazy.
It was also Tag El for a Meme Day, it would appear. Pattie hit me for the 7 Random Things meme; seeing as I have done this one twice before and really don’t think you all are interested in Things [...]

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Red chard
I went out into the main gardens today just to see what’s going on. It had been snowcovered until our huge thaw last weekend, and I hadn’t been out there for a while. You know, you just gotta take your hat off to certain plants’ will to live: despite [...]

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And it won’t make me sick: greenhouse broccoli
You’re supposed to ask the above phrase in a droll, sarcastic manner. And what is it you are asking about? The all-local, mostly-home-raised diet that I have imposed on my family.
And I will say to you: It is going well. It’s when I eat [...]

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HEY dear readers!
I am ranting today at Garden Rant. Go check it out.
xoxo

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Thank you all for your warm sentiments. I appreciated the cyber-hugs!
Gardens, in the scheme of things, are nothing to cry over. I didn’t lose my job, I didn’t lose a loved one in a war, I don’t have an incurable disease. Those, frankly, are great reasons to cry.
My first thought, honestly, when [...]

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I did something yesterday that I never do. I cried.
Yes, I am normally very much a tough cookie, and am not easily given over to much sentimentality or, indeed, to tears of any kind. My first reaction is usually anger. It’s a wave, usually, of red-eyed steaminess that, with much social grace [...]

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We liked it so much, we stayed an extra day.
The kid is definitely an urbanite. She’d say things like “I need to make a call,” and she would. She also had me in tears when she saw that I was taking her to the train and she said, “No, we don’t take the [...]

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…because the camera is away, with Tom, on his trip.
Robins. Robins, today, flying south, a few at a time, a hundred at a time, flap flap flap swoop with their wings. They’ve been flying by all day, just above the treetops. Last week it was starlings, two weeks before it was red-winged [...]

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Lemon balm, tarragon, basil, summer savory and marjoram tied up and ready to go
With September’s Eat Local Challenge’s emphasis on food preservation, I thought I would show “easy stuff” first. Refrigerator pickles are easy. This is even easier.
A lot of the reasons I do what I do is because, in the country, I [...]

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Now, well, there are no steps. You’ve arrived at the first garden: the greenhouse garden. It is the newest one, it’s six raised beds and one big flat one against the back of the icehouse and my garden shed. What greenhouse, you ask? The one that’s not assembled yet in [...]

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