Beauty Farming Life

OK...fair warning, long post and graphic content.  If you are weirded/grossed out by snakes and mice and scat and other creepy things, CLICK HERE for something warm and fuzzy.  Otherwise continue on... So I get to the farm early Saturday morning.  The weather was stunning...our first true Fall weather day.  Visions of garden cleaning, a nap, planting trees and bushes, a glass of tea on the porch, windows opened to cool air, were all dancing around in my head...well that was all shot to Hell when I opened the door and walked into this: By way of location explanation...the only bathroom that the house has is what they call a "Jack and Jill" bath (Jack and Jack in our case, LOL)...it connects the guest room with the master bedroom.  Since we've figured that our mouse problem could be from the space behind the sink in the bathroom, we keep the doors shut when we aren't there.  We also came up the idea to get one of those under the door draft dodger ...

So I was in the store the other day and saw this bin full of "Pie Pumpkins".  Besides being adorable tiny little pumpkins, the stickers have a recipe on them on how to make a pie out of them. Pie Pumpkins We must confess, we've never heard of them.  When I think of pumpkin pie, I just think of regular pumpkins.  You know, the kind carved up for Halloween.  Oh, sure I could Google it, but we like to hear firsthand from readers with stories about using them.   I'm also thinking that if they are easy to grow, this might be a good crop to grow for next Fall (2015), if they are suited to our climate of course.  They would be great for pumpkin pies and we were even thinking that they would make really neat Autumn themed soup bowls. Anyone ever grown them? Anyone ever used them?

I first picked up this book at the store because of the cover.  It was gorgeous.  Simple yet detailed, modern yet classic. I guess you could say that yes, I did judge a book by it's cover! The Beekeepers Bible Here is the Amazon link to the book.  I originally saw it in a bookstore but when I went back, it was sold out.  I searched Amazon and of course, found it online. The Beekeeper's Bible: Bees, Honey, Recipes & Other Home Uses Anyway, I purchased it and wow, do I love it.  It's on the nightstand beside the bed so that I can read a bit each night.  It's very comprehensive, covering the history of bees and beekeeping and then delves a bit into the 'how to' of beekeeping.  It has recipes using honey and even shows you how to make candles from the wax and soap using honey.  In a way, it's like a history book, an encyclopedia, an almanac and a cookbook were all rolled up into one. The illustrations and photographs are beau...

Arbor, image courtesy of Sunsetliving.com Since I had a post about Pie Pumpkins   a couple of days ago , when I saw this, I was intrigued.  Several of you mentioned the smaller pie pumpkins and other similar smaller squash growing on trellises.  We wondered if something like this would work for them because they are small? It's a great way of doing a trellis, regardless.  It would have to be strong, that's for sure.  One more project to add to the 'someday' list...a list that somehow seems to always grow exponentially, ha.   Hope you are having a great week! Be inspired!

Comfortable cat This is the late great Sydney Cat...he could get into the most seemingly uncomfortable positions and just sleep...legs outstretched, lounging on pillows, with a silly grin on his face, and seemed to be in the most comfortable spot ever, LOL.  I wish we could get that comfortable sometimes, ha.   More later today!  It's Friday!

"I think it ticks God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it..."                                   - Alice Walker "The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most..."                                   - John Ruskin These photos were taken at the farm.  It's some basil that sprang up randomly near the garden and a purple, wild, morning glory type vine that also randomly sprang up.  It's almost like nature is giving us the colors we wanted, ha. 

Well, today will be a washout...of course I need to mow at the farm, have the garden stuff to do from "the list"...have the holes to dig for the trees/bushes...and it's pouring rain.  Sigh.  Glad for the rain but come on, how about next time during the week instead of the weekend? The good news?  It's a front that is pushing through...so it won't be prolonged rainfall and there will be cooler air behind it. So it looks like today will have to be a day in town running errands and relaxing and then tomorrow will be off to the farm. Hope your weekend is off to a better start.   Anyone have any big plans?  We can live vicariously through others!

This picture is from last weekend when it was beautiful and cool.  Today it's still kind of cool after yesterday's rain... Back yard at the farm Our fingers are crossed that the bathroom is clear this weekend.  The doors have been shut all week and the opening behind the sink has been sealed up.  We do not want a repeat of the  EPIC BATTLE ! The good thing is that today I am going to get time on the Zen Machine (for those new followers, it's my John Deere mower).  It will most likely be the last mowing until next Spring (that seems so far away). More later when we get back into town.  Unfortunately we can't spend the night since it's Sunday and we have to be at work bright and early Monday morning. However, after last weekend, 2nd Man might not be so keen on spending the night at this time...maybe we'll wait a few weekends until we know for sure we are snake/mouse free.   Hope your weekend is going well!

Vegetables of War, vintage poster image, courtesy of NYPublicLibrary This is a really cool poster image.  For those with monitors that make it hard to read the printing on the image, I'll re-quote it here because it's so fascinating.   " More Health and Strength for a Nation at War is the War Cry of America's Southwest.  In this land of golden sunshine and fertile fields grow tons upon tons of vitamin-rich vegetables.  Many of its fields are producing one, two, three, and even four crops each year -- our Vegetables of War.  To you of the Southwest who are asking more and getting more from your acres than ever before -- thanks, from all of us!  Keep up the good work that means better nutrition for America's fighters and workers." It was put out by Santa Fe railroad lines, which I would presume hauled a lot of that produce to other parts of the country.  We love the way they talked about the 'vitamin-rich vegetables' and equating it...

THEY'RE BAAAACK... ARRRRGH!  SO upsetting...   So this is what we walked into at the farm.  Remember last week?  Just a few nibbles.  This week, the entire edge of the flooring from one side to the other... And on the other side, same thing, stripped out huge chunks of the vinyl flooring trying to get out.   We're guessing this is more than a snake and a mouse.  There was also additional large scat (poop) today.  I did some more Googling and there is a chance it's either a roof rat (aka Norwegian rat) or a possum.  Whatever it is is, it has to be something living perhaps in the attic and coming down through the walls behind the water heater or maybe even something hiding/living back up under the bathtub.  One this is for sure, I'm not sticking my face under to check it out.  For brief moment I thought maybe we should just leave the doors open but then my brain cleared and I realized ...

OK, enough of the bad/creepy news, here's some good news! Those who have been around the blog for awhile know that we have a fondness for naming trees.  Click  HERE  to see about when we named this tree at the corner of the driveway.  It's a mesquite, as a lot of our trees are, that has a graceful curve like a dancer.  We named her "Ginger". Flash forward to the other day when I saw our  TURTLE  visitor again!  He was heading back to this area around the tree.  It's also very near where I first saw him so we're thinking this cool, shady spot is his permanent home. Since all signs point to the turtle being a male, and he's hanging around "Ginger" the mesquite tree...it only seemed natural... FRED AND GINGER, together again! Since he seems happy in his spot, we'll leave him alone and hope he stays a long time.  There are certainly not many dangers at the farm, at least that we know of, that could put him in dan...

This is sort of an easy variation of a Tex-Mex classic called "Migas".  Traditionally, they are made with tortillas and eggs (and we'll show that one one of these days as well).  This is a version that 2nd Man came up with when were were out of eggs and wanted to make this anyway.  We looked around and what we did have were onions and tomatoes... 1 large onion, sliced 1 can of diced tomatoes 1 small can of tomato sauce About 3 cups of corn chips Olive oil, salt and pepper Sauté the sliced onions in some olive oil, a little salt, and some pepper until translucent.  Pour the two cans of tomatoes into the onions and stir it all up until heated. Add the corn chips to the onion tomato mixture.  If they seem too large, it's OK to break them up a bit with your hands.  This is the easy shortcut to this recipe. Stir it all up and let the chips start to soften.  They should get soft but no...

Last Thursday, I posted the image of a really neat arbor that had small pumpkins...then I found THIS . How unbelievable is this?  I wish I knew the original source/location.  I just found it on a Pinterest board and the link to it was a dead link.  This almost looks surreal doesn't it?  At first I thought they were those paper lanterns...then I realized they were gourds and squashes of all types and shapes and colors. Would we have this on the farm?  Um, no, I can say we'd never be able to have anything like this...the ground isn't conducive and more importantly our weather isn't conducive.  But we could possibly do something on a much, much smaller scale.  I'd sure love to see something like this in person, it's almost magical! Have a great day! Be Inspired!

Cat covering face Brisbane has always liked to sleep with his face covered.  He's either burying it in a pillow or covering it with his arms legs.  We've always thought it's such a cute way to sleep.  Heck, I think I've woken up a few times in the morning with my arm across my face doing the exact same thing. FINALLY...it's Friday...more later this afternoon/evening.

Here's an awesome find! Recently, while on my lunch break, I decided to stop by a garage sale that I saw as I drove through a neighborhood.  I only found this one item, but it was just too pretty to pass up... This looks like an old vase/crock of some sort that someone has hand painted... Painted jar with wildflowers On one side is a medley of flowers...in fact, it kind of looks to me like the artist/crafter was going for a wildflowers theme.  The background is full of bluebonnets (the state flower of Texas). Bluebonnet painted jar And on the other side is a large closeup of a bluebonnet. Hand painted flower vase On the last rainy weekend we had at the farm, we found a place for it.  It's now on the end table next to the couch...where we have the colorful afghan that we found at a thrift store a while back.  The hardest part was deciding which side of the little vase to showcase.  I suppose we could turn it around on occasion a...

It was a beautiful blue Texas sky yesterday...hot though... Blue Texas Sky ...87 degrees (and it's supposed to be Fall ?).  The goal was to finish planting the Texas Lilac (Vitex) trees along the driveway.  It was on the list a couple of weekends ago but I just didn't quite get to it with all the other drama that was going on at the house. Fiat Pickup Truck As you can see in the photo below, it's a long walk from the house to where I was planting.  Long enough that if I got down there and forgot something, it's a long, HOT round trip walk.  2nd Family said we needed a golf cart.  We think we need a farm pickup (and we're working on that possibility).  So I did the next best thing; I turned Luigi (my car) into the worlds first Fiat pickup truck, ha!  I loaded the back end up with three trees, bags of soil, fertilizer, shovels, the auger (in the front seat) and other items, left the hatchback up and drove down the driveway t...