Awwwww...

Awwww...so sweet...big bro and little bro...

Awwwww....so sweet...Allison and Lady

Awwww...so precious...little guy and his bodyguard

Awwww...nothing like a little sweet talk on top of the pig shed.

G'night

Got Kids?

My daughter, Laura, her husband, Matt, and their 9 darling children arrived Sunday AM after driving all night from California.  We ate breakfast and then went off to church...here's the pic of them taken after church when everyone was still clean and in their Sunday Best.

                                     We're having a great time together...of course!

Motto:  "Keep looking up"

"Inset clever caption here"

Good dog.  World's Greatest Grandkids.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode.

By the way...we've got 12 chickens, 4 cats, 2 cows and one dog.

Meet Lady

Tom and Lady

You just never know where a day will take you...sometimes it takes you to the local animal shelter...directly to cage #33 and a sweet, four year old Rhodesian Ridgeback named Lady.  Then you drive home...still thinking about the dog in Suite 33 and get the rest of your family (minus Christopher) to drive back to the animal shelter (before it closes) to check out the aforementioned animal.  Now all of you have been taken...in a good way...and so has Lady.  She's been taken by us and we've taken her home.

Lady, smiling for the camera

Lady is four years old and was dropped off at the shelter by her owner who could no longer care for her. The first time I told her to 'sit'---she sat!  Lady has had obedience training somewhere in her youth or puppyhood...she can sit, stay, come and lay down. Whew! I can take it from there. (God bless the previous owner!)

If you're interested in learning more about Rhodesian Ridgebacks, check out this site:

http://www.ridgebackrescue.org/what_is_an_rr.html

Kits 'n Chicks

Check out our new critters!

Tom "The Bird Man"

Okay...time for a pop quizz.  How many chickens and how many cats/kittens live on The Croft?  Leave your comments!

Apricots are still occupying my time...only 2 or 3 more buckets of fruit still left on the tree...

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...I think...

'Cots and Company

Whenever I move to a new place, I get to experience a whole new set of 'firsts':  first night in my new home, first visit to my new church, first time meeting my neighbors, first time shopping the local thrift stores.  There are so many 'firsts' that life seems all new and fresh again and full of discovery like it was when I was a little kid.  In the beginning of our move to Greenleaf, every day was filled with 'firsts' but after a few weeks the frequency of 'firsts' seemed to drop off and the new 'normal' took its place. All that said, last week I had a number of new 'firsts':  our first out-of-town guests, our first harvest of apricots, my first time canning and dehydrating in a new kitchen.

First things first....our first out-of-town guests, Jeanette and Ken Morris of Atascadero, CA, graced us with their presence in our home.  And I mean 'graced'.  Ken worked in the hot sun---of his own volition, mind you---trimming trees, weeding, watering and otherwise beautifying our property.  Jeanette volunteered to be my kitchen buddy and HELP! me with all the apricots that were steadily taking over the countertop in the kitchen. We made some yummy apricot jam and an apricot 'Secret Sauce' which was to die for poured over homemade vanilla ice cream.  

It's a wonderful thing to have friends who feel comfortable enough to truly make themselves at home. Everyone should be so blessed. 

When Jeanette and I were on the downhill side of jam-making she suggested that I could have used our jam making session as an opportunity for a blog entry.  Silly me for not thinking of that sooner.  I could have been snapping pictures of us executing our culinary skill and gleaning ideas from our cumulative years of fruit preservation experience.  *sigh* I hate wasted opportunities.  After Jeanette and Ken took their leave (boo-hoo), I still thought she had a good idea, so here is a reenactment of our apricot jam adventure, without Jeanette and without all the great conversation.  (If you try hard, you can  imagine that she is present.  That's what I did and it worked pretty good, though time would have gone by much faster if she had actually been present and the conversation much less one-sided.)

Start with one apricot tree.  Only one.  You do not need more than one.  One is plenty. Two is too many. 

Admire the beautiful fruit on the heavily laden boughs. Begin thinking of the many hours of work which lie ahead of you processing all those apricots.

Put the fruit in a nice white bucket.

Transfer the golden beauties to a sinkful of cool water.  Add a 1/2 c or so of white vinegar to help clean off dirt, grime, bird poo and anything else which may be on your fruit.

Cut the fruit in half, remove the pit and place in a bowlful of cool water to which has been added a teaspoon or so of plain salt.  The salt will keep the fruit from darkening while you're working. 

If you decide that you want to dehydrate the apricots instead of make jam, just place the fruit on a tray and dehydrate for about 10-15 hours. Check every hour or so after about 8 hours to make sure they aren't getting crispy.  Because dehydrators work by blowing hot air around, I place mine on a table in garage.  No point in heating up the kitchen in the summer!

To make the jam you'll need:  canning jars, two-piece seals (lid and ring) to fit your jars, Sure-Jell fruit pectin, sugar (lots), lemon juice, tongs to lift the jars from the hot water, and a funnel with which to pour the jam into the jar.  The magnetic lid lifter is cool.  It's the little blue stick-like thing in the picture that makes it easy to lift lids from hot water without burning your fingers.  The Sure Jell box contains all the instructions for making almost any kind of jelly, jam or preserve so be sure to save it when you open the box.  

While I'm preparing the fruit, I place the jars in a large pot of water on the stove.  You'll want to sterilize the jars by boiling them in the water for about 10 minutes.  Then just leave them in the water until you're ready to fill the jars.  Place the lids (flat part only) in very hot/simmering water.  Measure out all the ingredients ahead of time so they're ready when you start to cook the jam.  The whole cooking part goes pretty fast and you don't want to be fumbling around the kitchen looking for sugar once you start.

I usually cut my apricots into large chunks because I like chunky, fruity jam.  If you want the fruit more evenly distributed throughout the jam, you can use a kitchen shears to cut the fruit, like so:

                Just stick the shears in the bowl of apricots and snip, snip until the size is to your liking. 

Next, place 5 cups fruit, the whole package of pectin and 1/4 c lemon juice in a large stainless pot.  Bring to a boil and boil for one minute.  It's a good idea to stir the mixture or you could end up burning everything in which case you'll have to start over again.  That would be a bummer.

Then dump all at once the 7 c. of white sugar (which you have  premeasured) into the pot.  Toss in a pinch of butter  (1/8 t.) to keep the jam from foaming. Have a sip of tea if you like.  Bring the mixture to a boil (while stirring) and let it boil exactly one minute.  Remove from the heat.

Using your jar tongs, remove a jar from the water.  Place the funnel on the jar and fill with jam leaving about 1/8 inch room at the top of the jar.  Clean the rim of the jar with a damp paper towel.  The rim must be very clean in order to make a seal.  Place the lid and then the ring on the jar.  Screw firmly but not tightly.  Set the jar to the side and fill the next one.  Before long you'll begin hearing the sound of jars sealing as the vacuum is being created. The jars make this lovely pinging sound.  So cute.

This next part is very important.  Be sure to admire your handiwork.  Let the jars sit on the counter overnight and admire them again in the morning.  After basking in the warm glow of  apricot bliss,  serve samples of jam to anyone who is hanging around. Send a jar over to your neighbor.  Share the wealth.  Smear some jam on a slice of homemade bread.  Enjoy it on buckwheat pancakes. Try it mixed with a secret ingredient and poured over homemade vanilla ice cream.  Or how about layered over cream cheese on a toasted bagel?  On a spoon straight from the jar? 

Then go pick some more apricots and do it again---preferably with a friend.

What you will discover is that you've filled your jars with more than fruit and sugar; you've added the most important ingredient: love.

Croftsip

"croftsip" imaginary n. 1. the latest gossip originating from a croft.  2. a type of fizzy beverage drunk on a small farm

Check out what the cat drug in this morning...

Tom saw the cat with something in her mouth and went out to check.  The kitty was more than happy to show us her 'treasure' and did, in fact, make a gift of it.  Nice kitty.

Then a couple of days ago when I was walking out to the chicken coop, I noticed a HUGE splat of something green and nasty right outside the henhouse door. Yuck.  There was more of the nasty stuff around by the shed and some large animal tracks in the gravel--like those a horse or cow would make.  I didn't think much more about it until later in the afternoon Christopher mentioned that there was a cow outside of our fenced pasture---was it one of ours that had gotten out??  I rushed outside to check and was relieved to see our 'boys' still inside the fence but they definitely had a 'friend' visiting.  

Turns out our neighbor had 'rented' a bull to freshen up his 2 cows.  For whatever reason the bull decided he wanted to go home.  Maybe he'd done his job and couldn't see staying on.  So he broke through the electric/barbed wire fence and headed out.  Apparently this feller had been on the loose for HOURS (hence the doo-doo by my hen house.  I'm sure glad I didn't accidentally come eyeball to eyeball with him while out doing my chores!)  My neighbors rounded him up and put him back in their pasture...and wouldn't you know it, this determined bull did it again!  He broke down the fence but this  time he took some friends with him:  his 'girlfriends', a couple of steers and some calves all joined him in his mad dash to freedom.  Bovines were roaming the neighborhood like zombies in a sci-fi.  Calves in the corn.  Cows in our driveway. The bull on the ditchbank.  Meanwhile the neighbor's 2 teenage sons were zooming around on quads doing their best to get them all rounded up before the sun went down. I'm not sure how the story ended. I couldn't handle so much excitement and besides, the mosquitos were biting.  I went inside and ate some chocolate to calm my nerves.  Then I went to bed. When I got up this morning, everything seemed quiet and peaceful with nary a rogue cow in sight.  

All is safe on The Croft once again....or is it????              (To be continued....)

Back in the bathroom....again

I'm not sure how I keep ending up in the bathroom, but here I am again.  This time it's the bathroom window that got the make-over.  Here's the 'Before' picture so you can see what I'm dealing with:

Just a window. White.  Blinds. Nice view of garage siding. Not very inspired.

The first thing I did was remove the blinds.  They just weren't necessary.  You'd have to really work if you wanted to see into the bathroom from the outside. Regulating the light wasn't a problem either since the window gets lots of shade from the trees in the backyard.  However, once the blinds were removed, all I could see when I looked out the window was the garage siding.  Yuck.  I hate crappy views...even if  I'm only looking out the bathroom window. So I needed to come up with an idea for a snazzy window treatment that met my stringent criteria: 

1.  It had to be sheer enough to let sunlight in but not so sheer that you could still see the garage siding.

2.  It had to be interesting.

3.  It had to be cheap. I am the Queen of Cheap. 

The cheap part of me led me to my vast storehouse of Stuff I've Been Saving Until I Need It Someday.

I found strips of sheer fabric I'd used as table runners for my daughter's wedding.

I found 'silk' leaves I'd picked up once upon a time at the Dollar Store.

I found my glue gun.

I found my inspiration. 

First, I sewed the fabric strips together.  Then I cut them and sewed them again until I had a sheer fabric quilt top looking thing sized to fit the dimensions of my window.  

I used brown thread and it was my intention that the seam allowances be part of the 'texture' of the window treatment.  I didn't finish the seams and I didn't turn over the side edges.  I did make a casing on both the top and bottom of the curtain. I tried to make the seams very tidy.  My mother would be proud.

Next, I took my Dollar Store leaves and detached the 'leaf' from the plastic stem.  Very easy to do. Just pick and pull.

You end up with some sad looking 'stems'.  Throw those bad boys away, then go get your iron and gently press the 'leaves'.

Next, in a flash of foresight, I realized I needed to place something underneath my fabric so I wouldn't accidentally glue leaves to my carpet. I located the cutting board I use for sewing projects.  It was behind Tom's rolling tool box in the corner of the garage. (Isn't that where you keep your cutting board?) With the wrong side of the curtain facing up, I tossed my 'leaves' on the fabric, as though they'd just been blown in by the wind.  I pretty much left them where they landed and glued them in place using just a dot of glue. When the glue was set, I used embroidery floss to stitch on the 'stems'. 

Next, I flipped the curtain over and glued about a third as many leaves on the front side.  They got stems, too.

I remembered coming across a couple of downed poplar branches in the yard and decided that they would make a good curtain rod.  I stripped off the dead leaves, made a couple of snips and VIOLA!.. a curtain rod and a weight for the bottom of the curtain. They slipped easily through the casings I'd made on the top and bottom.

Here's the finished product. See the sun coming in? You have to see this in person to get the full 3-D, almost stained glass effect.  Very cool.  Here are some more pics...

Check out the 'shimmer'.  Gives me goosebumps.

See the shadow cast by the leaves?  Almost looks like the real deal...

Can't you just hear the autumn wind rustling the leaves in the trees? I can.

Ta-dah!

I'm a huge fan of leaves.  I like leaves as much as I like rocks, but just in case leaves aren't your thing, you could easily substitute 'silk' flower petals for the leaves.  Heck, you could substitute buttons or doilies or whatever 'winds your watch'.

The important thing is that you end up with something that makes you happy whenever you look at it.