Bobwhites!

I love this section of road!  I have been seeing wonderful things along it. 

I thought for a minute I was seeing grouse again, but realized... it was a pair of 

bobwhites!  I think I must have seen a female when I thought I was seeing a grouse. 

They were so hard to get a picture of against the gravel.. this was the best I could do 

through the windshield.  I swear I am going to go over and sit in my little 

chair and wait for the animals to come. 

Why are the apples ripe in July????

You see the creeks are running crazy still. 

I ran to get chicken feed and scratch this afternoon, and decided to take them to the 

old house and put them away. 

I saw this little group coming down our road! 

They are a handsome group! 

I think they live on the corner, and I've never seen them so far up the road. 

These guys were with them. 

I love Queen Anne's Lace... 

I saw this girl on the way home... we were at an impasse. 

until discretion became the better part of valor. 

Saturday and Sunday Pictures

This little female dickcissel was chipping her heart out as I drove to the old place Saturday. 

She doesn't have a beard, it's a piece of the plant behind her! 

I'm starting to see the red-tails again.  This one almost looks suspended in the air in front of the tree. 

I missed the great shot a few minutes before, a red tail swooped down on something, talons extended, about ten feet from the car just as I turned a corner.  I was so dumbfounded I couldn't stop and grab the camera in time! 

Then I saw this one going across a pasture to the tree, and stopped and caught it.  This is 

much-cropped, of course. 

I am having so much fun feeding the birds on the back yard deck rail.  

Today, I saw a dove eating there that had a hurt leg... she hops on the good leg... 

I don't know how long she will be able to last. 

I did not know until last week that there are six kinds of bumblebees around here. 

I love to watch them. 

They love the catmint that has invaded the old gardens. 

This ... thing... is blooming under the feeding station at the old house. 

Look at the thorns! 

Here they are growing under the flat feeder. 

The suet feeders are empty out there, and I think I may take them 

down.  Then again, I saw a woodpecker fly to them yesterday, so 

they may stay up for a while. 

This is a very small daylilly, and it's coming here.  I'm going to get 

it ready to move tomorrow or Tuesday. 

You see the catmint to the left of it?  Invasive! 

Here's a better look at the Virginia Creeper growing up the old walnut tree. 

The red hens are really starting to look good! 

Our green apple tree out there does not look good at all.  We planted these five years ago, but 

we did not really LEARN about them.  We have never sprayed them, as should be obvious. 

This is the worst it has ever looked, it has something. 

Something bad. 

The red apple does not look like this. 

I have shown you this little girl several times before.   She stays in a specific area that
I pass through every day.  She is not afraid, and it scares me. 

As Keith says, she must have been orphaned and not taught by her mother to be afraid. 

She stood there calmly while I dickered around with the camera. 

She's the little doe with the ticks by her eye that I showed you a few weeks ago. 

On my way OVER to the old house, I saw eight or nine vultures in the sky, circling above this freshly-mown field. 

When we came back there were eight there. 

The ninth flew in, and took off again. 

I love these big birds. 

This girl is the first turkey I've seen in the open in a month! 

She was getting a drink from the standing water there in the yard. 

Tomorrow I'll show you the standing water in OUR yard, and tell you what we 

are going to do about it! 

Apples and Apples

I went to the old house today to pick apples. 

Here  is where the caveat comes in.  Do NOT let your apple trees become this burdened... pick off 

some of the apples.  This is a five year old tree, we did not let any apples ripen on it for the first 3 years. 

However... we have not lived there now for five months, and the poor tree was almost down to the ground. 

If you don't spray organically or non-organically... this is what you get. 

I had quite the cart full... and I wish I knew someone with pigs. 

My goats would never touch them, but pigs would. 

As it is, these are going on the compost heap, they are full of worm holes. 

These came home with me to be eaten, along with some green apples for a crisp tomorrow. 

The green tree looks great.  The apples on it look fine... most of them, but these are baking apples. 

Here is my other caveat... if there are just two of you... it does not make much sense to have these dwarf trees if you do not can or preserve. 

I know one of our pear trees did not set fruit this year, and tomorrow I'll look at the other.

This is a milkweed pod.  I want to bring some home to plant in our rain garden next year. 

They were covered with these little critters. 

I harvested my ear of corn!  I don't think the little one on the bottom is going to mature. 

I have not opened it yet.  

This. dog. should. be. ours. 

I'll explain more later. 

His name is Toto, by the way, and he's seven years old and weighs MAYBE five pounds dripping wet. 

Hallelujah, the tractor is fixed!  I know Troy is glad. 

And today was probably the last regular day I'll be exercising the puppies, their mama, Uno, pictured here... and Mia... the year old pup.  Valerie, my friend, and their owner, will be moving back home to Michigan in a few weeks, taking her whole kennel with her.  How I'll miss my fun times with these beautiful dogs. 

Uno is the best "fetcher" I have ever played with! 

Tomorrow I'll be working at the old place again... and hope to finish the painting on Thursday. 

Another Five Hours of Work

Hard work, that took it's toll on my body, believe me. 

I took the truck today, and thought I was being smart unloading the dirt here. 

Then I started on the five remaining planting boxes in this section.  See that second box? 

There was a lamb's quarter weed in there that I had to literally cut apart with the big cutters... and it still took 30 minutes to dig it out.  It wore me out. 

But, I got a little reward when I got down to the last box. 

This is the last box.  Can you see what is hiding in the weeds?  A huge tomato plant!

There were actually five in the box, and one of the smaller ones had tomatoes on it.  I stopped, trekked up to the porch, and got a bucket with water and put them in it. 

I cleaned carefully around the big tomato plant. 

I staked both the smaller tomato on the left... and this big one in the front. 

You can see a weed pile to the right... more about that in a minute.  There was another 

weed pile off to the left, from the last two boxes on that side. 

See where the bags of dirt are?  That's where I erred... I should have pulled the truck around to the right in this picture, between the vegetable beds and the henspa. 

I carried fifteen bags... from where you see them, and three from yesterday I had unloaded in the yard. 

My back.  That's all I'll say. 

As an experiment, I planted two more of the tomato plants in the end bed, and staked them.  It will be interesting to see how they do. 

You can't tell, but I also tied them up to the posts, or rather, tied baling twine around them to hold them in. 

They got many buckets of water, all four plants. 

See the pile of weeds?  

It took everything I had in me to throw them in the back of the truck. 

I had to leave the other big pile for next week, I just could not lift another thing. 

See this mess?  That's next week's project.  I'm going to limit myself to two hours a day, and not tear my body up like I did today. 

I'm going to empty those planting beds out .... they are the ones that are trellised... and try to fill them as much as possible with the garden dirt.  Then I'll put the straw on them, too... I bought two bales. 

We are expecting storms tomorrow, and I have family things to do... so maybe Monday I'll start again and slowly empty those beds out.  See the weeds to the left in the pile?  They were heavy and awkward, and I appreciate Keith taking the first batch  to the transfer station for me so much! 

I'll have to drive the truck next week, and start loading this pile, and the subsequent ones. 

I had to sit frequently... my back is just beyond sore right now.  

I looked at the dying walnut tree... so majestic... and realized that it is dropping 

leaves right and left! 

Last year, in July, I realized they were dropping, and mentioned it in a blog post... but 

here it is June 27, and they were raining down!   The walnuts are always the last to leaf out, and the first to drop. 

I was so tired, I didn't go over and eat any mulberries on the huge tree out of sight to the right... 

I just couldn't do it. 

But, happily, I didn't get the truck stuck in the yard (Keith!) and managed to get back out to the driveway with no trouble.  

I stopped on the way out and ran back and took this shot... it's one of our apple trees, full of fruit! 

It was a happy ending to a hard day. 

Another Rainy Weekend

Blog-hopping last night before bedtime, I realized we aren't the only ones dealing with mud and muck these days.  It seems the unseasonably cool and wet weather is blanketing a large part of blogdom.  We did not have direct downpours today, but the swollen creeks around here are running fast and furious.

Last night while grasscutting, I managed to drop out of my jacket pocket and drive over my point and shoot Canon camera.  I am, at present, trying to revive it.  If not, it will be another camera purchase unlooked for and unbudgeted for, I'm afraid. 

I had help today doing water... while his dad did the weed-eating for us, Jaxton helped grandma gather eggs and got to pet a baby chicken and hold it for a while.  He wanted to pet the llamas, but of course, as much as they were interested in him, they did not want to be touched!  We sat down on the ground to tie wrap some wire to an opening in the dog cage that Butch and his girls will go into tomorrow, and the llamas came up behind us to see what we were doing, so Jax almost got to touch one! 

This somewhat blurry picture is the little Mille Fleur pullet that was originally attacked by the Bullying Brahma Boys.  She appears to be blind in her right eye as a result.  Her feathers have not grown back where she was bloodied, but she gets along okay with the other juveniles.  She will never be in a large flock, as the Milles will be in the 4 x 4 together. 

I just went out and collected eggs, as we are going to the TBones tonight.  It is lightly raining, sprinkling, really... so we will take umbrellas and hope for the best.  A fellow blogger, Melinda, of Country Dreaming, will be at the game, so we are hoping to finally meet in person.

I collected an egg that was stranger than I have ever seen before...and will hopefully be able to take a picture of it tomorrow and show you.  I brought it in to keep in the refrigerator to show as an anomaly.

Here are some of the apples growing on one of the apple trees we planted last fall.  We'll plant more this fall.  It's fun to see this little fruit tree bearing.  Keith has worked very hard to get them off to the right start in life, and his hard work is paying off.

I took this picture as I mowed around it last night.

We also picked our first sugar snap peas today, and some spinach, so tomorrow we'll have a spinach salad with strawberries, and sugar snaps with a sweet dressing for lunch.   YUM!

Baking Sunday

The complaint going around the office last week finally got me Friday, so I spent most of yesterday (after the grocery run) resting. 

This morning I felt better, though I have only been outside once, to check on the birds.  I have been watching Food Network and vegging with the pugs, while the big dogs snooze in the kitchen and the kittens in their warm places.  Keith has left for four days, for an emergency response excercise in another county, 3 hours from here. 

Right before he left, I decided to bake another apple dessert so he could take some with him.

In our family, we have a little joke about apple desserts.  You see, once we went to Ames to see the folks, and decided, since the whole family would be there, to stop at Lamoni at the Welcome Center for treats.  There was an Amish lady selling cinnamon rolls and pies on a long table in front of the Welcome Center, and her horse and buggy tied up under a roofed hitching post nearby.  As Keith's family was Amish two generations ago, we decided to get our treats from her.  We bought several trays of cinnamon rolls, and an apple pie.  When we got to Ames, the cinnamon rolls disappeared in short order as soon as the kids saw them.  (the whole family had gathered, which is rare).  The pie was set aside to enjoy at breakfast the next day. 

The next morning, Ralph, Keith's dad, sat down at the table, and asked for a piece of the pie.  He bit into his piece, and didn't say anything, so Keith asked how he liked it. "It would be great," he said... "If there were some apples in it!"  It turned out that the pie was simply apple pie filling from a can, with no solid apples!  We have always joked about it since.

So, we make apple desserts frequently, and always make sure there are real apples in them.

I found this dessert on a blog, and if you are reading this, and see it.... please identify if for me!  I forgot to write it down the night I printed it six weeks ago.  I do not think I found it on Farm Bell, as it would have printed out below, but it could have been.  It is called "Mom's Raw Apple Cake", and it is wonderful.  Keith does not really like iced cakes, so this kind suits him fine.

Here are the first ingredients, mixed in a bowl by hand:

3 cups chopped baking apples (I used 3 Granny Smiths)

Add 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 cups oil, 2 eggs, well-beaten, and 1 teaspoon vanilla

And get this:

Looks yummy already!

Next, sift together

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

And then mix together with the wet ingredients, getting this:

The batter will be VERY thick.

Spread in a greased 9 x 13 pan, and bake at 350 degrees for an hour OR until a toothpick comes out clean.  (It may take longer than an hour, depending on your oven). 

I only baked mine about 35 minutes, and it was done. 

Here is what you will get:

There is a note on the original that this is a cross between a coffee cake and a cake, that is perfect for dessert or with coffee in the morning.  The cake will keep up to three days, covered.  After that, it will get too moist.

Here is a bit out of  piece:

This was, hands down, the best coffee type cake I've made in years.  Keith did not get to taste it, as he had to get down the road before it was ready to be cut, but let me tell you, it is moist and good, and I'll make it again next weekend so he can have some.  The cake is going to work with me tomorrow so that my co-workers can have a treat in the morning.

As I sit here typing this, the fog is so thick that I can't see past the llama shed.  I am going to pull my boots on and go slosh in the mud and melting snow, putting more feed out for the wildings, and checking on the henhouses.  The starlings have been invading the big henhouse daily, eating and drinking everything.  At least warmer weather is coming, which will stop that.  I'm going to load the llama's hay buffet up, too, as we expect storms tonight. The weather around here is on a wild ride!

Have a peaceful Sunday evening at the Oscars, everyone!