Mushroom Hunting Season

Posted on May 18, 2015 by farm2011

It’s mushroom hunting season around the area and this year seems like it’s going to be a bumper crop!

If you’ve never had fresh mushrooms before from the timber – well I’m kinda feeling bad for you. I’ll give the recipe later in the post and then you’ll know why they are sooooo good and you’re missing out!

Now if you’re asking yourself if I actually went out to the timber and found these mushrooms myself – well the answer is no. But my brother is an awesome mushroom hunter and every year he drops off about two meals worth for me to eat. The good thing about cooking them up in our house is that no one else likes them much except for me. Yea… can you say SCORE! Whoo hooo!!

What you have to do is to go find a certain tree (not sure which kind) and on one side of the tree (not sure which side) and in certain weather (I think when it’s sunny but not too hot) OK, as you can tell I’m not a good mushroom hunter. If I can’t find a mushroom patch in let’s say the first 10 minutes I would rather give up and look for frogs or something. Patience isn’t something that is a strong point for me.  But with two bags full and keeping a secret the good spots to hunt – I appreciate having my brother stop in every year with some for me.IMG_2867

So here is the recipe : I take the mushrooms and cut them in half and soak them in salted cold water overnight. Now I’m not saying that over the years I probably haven’t eaten an ant or some kind of small bug or two and if you don’t do this step, well you might be eating some ants also. So just for giggles I looked up on the internet how many bugs people actually do eat and man oh man am I sorry that I did!

Check it out  – “The Food and Drug Administration has surprisingly specific guidelines about exactly how many bug parts can be in certain foods. Your 8-ounce (226-gram) glass of orange juice, for example, can legally contain five fruit flies. There could be 50 aphids, mites or thrips plus some caterpillar larvae in 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of frozen spinach. Thrips, tiny winged parasites that are up to an eighth of an inch long, hang out in apple butter, and frozen asparagus, broccoli and Brussels sprouts [source: FDA]. And that’s just for starters.”

Yea… so gross. Kinda wish now that I didn’t look that up. 

Wow did I really get off the subject there. OK, back to the mushrooms. So I know that there are usually tiny ants in mushrooms so into salt water they go to soak overnight. Then the next day, you wash them off and your’e ready for the next step.

This step is to get out some crackers, butter, and eggs. IMG_2869Whip the eggs and crush the crackers. Now put some butter in the pan and then put some more in the pan. (Here is where the meal gets a little calorie heavy) After you dunk the mushroom in the eggs, coat it in the crackers and then fry it until golden brown in the butter. IMG_2871Now depending how many you’re going to do in a meal, you might have to replenish the butter in the pan at least once while you are cooking 🙂

Now a little salt and pepper to finish it off and bon appetit!IMG_2874

Posted in In the kitchen | Comments Off on Mushroom Hunting Season

A much needed getaway planned

Posted on May 17, 2015 by farm2011

Have you ever got to a point when even sitting in the hot bath tub just won’t let you relax? Well that’s the point that we’ve been at lately and it seems like the perfect time to run away for a little while and go someplace to relax.

And the timing couldn’t be better. Last fall I ordered Daryl’s birthday gifts and we (sorry .. Daryl 🙂 ) was able to use the first one on Saturday. You see his birthday gifts were to go see two concerts this year and so we were off to the Cities to see the first one. The concert was Billy Joel along with the opening act of Gavin DeGraw. Yea, can you say Fun?

So Kyle helped us out with the chores and also to watch over the animals,  and with knowing that – we were off! It wasn’t the most perfect weather, but hey we were headed for a weekend get away and going to a concert. Life is good!20150516_140440_resized

We purposely booked a hotel out of the cities and took the light rail system to get downtown. It worked out just perfect. Once we got downtown, we found a small pub to grab something to eat before the concert and we only had to walk one block to get to the Target Center where we needed to get go. Seriously, I was kinda wishing it was going to be a little further because with all the food I ate,  I think I could have used the walk!

So we hung out the night with some of our closest friends at the concert, all 19,000 of them in a sold out crowd. Our seats were pretty high in the nose bleed area, but they weren’t the worst that we’ve ever had either. 20150516_205405_resized The opening act was Gavin DeGraw and then followed by Billy Joel. The concert lasted 3 hours and it was a great!.20150516_211100_resized

After a quick trip back on the rail system, we called our hotel and got picked up in no time. Like I said earlier, we purposely stayed out of town to stay away from all the traffic of driving your own car into the city and we decided that this was a very good choice.

While on the train I snapped a quick picture of the new Viking’s stadium that they are building. I’m not that much of a football fan, but it was pretty cool to see it being built.20150516_181220_resized

When we got home Sunday afternoon we wanted to see just how well our car did in that driving. It was windy and rainy so we weren’t quick sure how she was going to do. But we had exactly 329 miles that we put on and had used 7 gallons of gas. Not bad, not bad at all!

The rest of our Sunday afternoon/evening is filled with graduation parties to go to and that will be fun to catch up with some of our friends at those parties.

What a great weekend!

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The sun makes everyone feel better

Posted on May 15, 2015 by farm2011

When the sun shines it sure makes everyone feel so much better doesn’t it? Well we’ve been in a rainy pattern lately and even though I don’t think anyone should complain on the rain because we’re always looking for it come July – but when the sun came out this afternoon, it was sure noticeable that everyone just wanted to be outside just soaking up the rays.

Here’s a couple of shots that I took while the sun was out today:

First the chickens – they’re pretty lucky that Daryl isn’t home yet and wanted to use that tractor! There’s like a million spots to lay, but for some reason this was the best one today!DSC_0490

The next one is that of Sam the peacock. I like this picture because it shows just how long peacock tails really get. I thought that he was starting to loose his feathers, but by the looks of it, not yet. I started to run again (OK, that’s kind of a loose term) anyway, I’ve looked behind me more than once because I feel like I’ve got a lead anchor tied to my backside and now I know how these peacocks feel!  DSC_0491 - Version 2

And finally the dogs. Now I’m not sure if they’re enjoying the sunshine or if they’re just plain bored. My guess? Well I’d have to say it kind of looks like boredom to me 🙂DSC_0496

Posted in Farm animals, Our dogs | 4 Comments

Mystery Photo 5-13-15

Posted on May 13, 2015 by farm2011

OK, not that I purposely tried to make this one hard – but let’s see who can guess this one!

Here is the clue

DSCN9909

Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | 3 Comments

Answer to Mystery Photo 5-6-15

Posted on May 13, 2015 by farm2011

By how fast last weeks photo was guessed – I’m thinking it might not have been too hard.

Here is the clueDSCN9798a

and here is the answer to the puzzle – it is our gravity wagon!

Whooo Hooo Elaine and Tammy!! DSCN9798

Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | Comments Off on Answer to Mystery Photo 5-6-15

And how does your garden grow?

Posted on May 12, 2015 by farm2011

And how does your garden grow these fine spring days? I can tell you how mines doing, and well it’s not so good.

I’ve never sprayed our garden before for weeds, but heck there’s always a first time right? Check it outDSC_0447

Now my seeds that I planted in William’s greenhouse are doing pretty good.DSC_0465 I’m not sure why this one type of flower is going crazy – but if they all survive, they’ll be a good fill in flower.DSC_0466

I’ve been spending most or all of my nights after work helping with getting things ready for our local festival coming up for our town,  but I’m hoping that I’ll have my part of it done soon so I can work in the garden. When you are sitting at the computer all day for work and then you go home to spend a couple more hours on it, spending time in the garden will be a welcome change.

So after I was out checking on the garden and other stuff, Daryl and Kyle have been busy tonight working on the yard. We’ve been getting rain on and off these past days and today when the sun came out, it was pretty noticeable that it was time to mow again. The yard usually gets mowed at least twice a week in the spring and to be honest we don’t even put the lawn mower away for weeks. Daryl also worked on spraying the dandelions after the yard was mowed. Just as the grass is really starting to grow, so are the dandelions. He does a great job keeping in front of the weeds and I’m grateful that he’s doing it. DSC_0446

I checked in on the little chickens and everyone is doing pretty good. Without spending a whole lot of time with them lately, they sure are some scaredy cats! I tried for quite awhile to get a good picture of them, and this is the best that I could do. They’re getting pretty big and hopefully soon we can shut off the heat lamp. It’s still around 40 degrees this morning, so it’s got to get a lot warmer before that happens! I mean our furnace kicked on this morning and the thermostat is set to 64 degrees! Yea, it’s been a little chilly lately.  DSC_0448

Pumpkin soap was also on the agenda tonight and it was a test for me to see about pouring a white color into the yellow color and see what the outcome would be. Not sure if I like it or not for the color, but the soap is supposed to be good for nourishing your skin and also to help with psoriasis. It has at least 6 weeks to cure, so I guess we’ll see how it is comes about the end of June. It’s my first soap with literally opening up a can that I took from my cupboard and making soap out of it. It was kinda fun! DSC_0485

The photo of the day is one that I took of our big trees in our front yard. The first one is to show how big they actually are. I think they were on the farm when Daryl’s folks moved here, so they are I’m sure over a hundred years old. I laughed when I saw this picture because of Reno in the front yard watching the bird fly over. Both dogs HATE birds and especially ones that just are flying over the farm.DSC_0475

OK, and the second picture is standing beside these trees in the front yard and looking up. When I was taking this one, I realized Reno was following me and was just watching me from the porch now. DSC_0467I think she was wondering just what in the heck I was doing looking up in the tree. Maybe she thought that I was watching a bird up there or something 🙂 DSC_0471

Posted in Gardening, Our dogs, Picture of the day | Comments Off on And how does your garden grow?

Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 10, 2015 by farm2011

As I’m sitting at our kitchen table thinking about the topic of my Mother’s day post was going to be about, I looked up at our refrigerator and found my answer.

First let me show you what I saw

The boys

The boys

This is a picture that has been on our refrigerator for literally years and it still makes me smile today as much as the day that I put it up there.

Now you’ve seen pictures of our kids on this blog – probably more times than you can count 🙂  but this one is from 1996 and from the looks of it, our kitchen table was the location for the picture.

Don’t get me wrong, I have tons of pictures of the boys that are special, but this one just is pretty much is up there for one of my favorites. William looks a little nervous and Kyle is right beside him telling him that everything is OK. Yup, Love it! Now you can make a good case that that’s not what really is going on and you could be right  – but I’m sticking to my story because… we’ll it’s Mother’s day right?

When I look at the picture I think of how many things that you go through as a family and all the changes that happen along that journey. I mean we went from Thomas the Tank Engine toys, to Ghostbuster slime kit, 3 D puzzles and Nintendo. And then just like that we had girls hanging out at our house and college moving in days!

I always hear everyone saying around Mother’s day is that the Mom’s are always standing beside the kids and helping them along all the different steps that they will be taking. But I’m not sure that’s really how I would describe it. I think my definition of being a Mom is that they are the ones that can hear what the kids are saying without them actually having to say it out loud. They are the ones that even though they know that some of the choices that their kids make might not necessary agree with your own ideas, but you need to let them grow and figure it out themselves. Who knows – maybe your ideas need to change? (pretty sure not, but maybe?) There is a movie that I think describes how I feel a Mom is in real life. If you’ve ever seen the movie ‘A Christmas Story’ the Mom on there that really shows what a Mom is to me. She is always the last one to sit down for a meal, she knows things about the kids that maybe no one else really needs to know, and would do just about anything in the world for her kids.

Spending Saturday morning with the boys

Spending Saturday morning with the boys

So here’s a shout out for my Mom who probably knows stuff about us kids over the years, both good and bad. I’m sure for me it was only good stuff, but the others? Yea, hopefully she can keep good secrets. Our Mom is always the last one to sit down for a meal and sometimes she doesn’t even sit down until everyone is done. She has worked hard her whole life both farming and taking care of our family and now at 85 years old she seems to be even more active than pretty much anyone else than I know. I tried to call her today to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day, and she just got home from going out to dinner. I told you she’s a busy gal didn’t I?  Just like this weekend. It started out with my brothers dropping off a cool watering can filled with flowers on Friday and then I tilled her flower garden in front of her house. My two sisters took her out for dinner on Saturday and then to the flower shop to pick up flowers for her yard.  And then my other sister was going to help plant her flowers this afternoon!

Happy Mom's day!

Happy Mom’s day!

So Happy Mother’s day to not only our Mom but to all the other Mom’s out there reading this!

Here’s also a wish for those Moms for many more days with kids around your kitchen table.

Posted in Family, Picture of the day | Comments Off on Happy Mother’s Day!

Cards, Cards, and more Cards!

Posted on May 8, 2015 by farm2011

I needed a couple of cards made for a little bit of everything and took the time tonight to get them done. Here they are:

Baby cardDSCN9809

Wedding cardDSCN9811

Graduation cardDSCN9819

and finally the MOST important one, my Mom’s Mother’s Day card!DSCN9807

Posted in Cards | Comments Off on Cards, Cards, and more Cards!

Second Book

Posted on May 8, 2015 by farm2011

Have you ever said that you’d do something and then once you’ve started the project, it almost seems like it has a life of it’s own?

Well for some reason this happens to me A Lot and like history repeating itself, I’m in that situation again.

This time it’s with the next volume of books in a 5 part series. These books are for our local town and with finishing the first book last year you can guess we’re working on the second book now to hurry up and get it done.

Now we promised ourselves that we’d start earlier this year – like almost in November! But Life got in the way and well, needless to say it just didn’t happen!

So we’re working really hard on it these past couple of weeks and do I regret not starting earlier? Well yea… But guess what? Because Kyle is home for a little while, we’ve talked him into helping us. Now our two person team has increased to a 3 person team!  Yea!! He’s been tons of help and we’re sure appreciative that he’s been available and willing to work on it with us.

As I walked by our ‘work’ table, I just can’t help to wonder just what were we doing in November?IMG_2841

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It’s that time of the year…

Posted on May 7, 2015 by farm2011

It’s that time of the year when Ms Reno starts shedding. And when I say that she’s shedding, yea that’s putting it pretty mild!

You can tell when it’s time for her annual spring brushing when you are walking through the yard and you are literally seeing clumps of her hair flying in the wind. I guess it could be gross to a lot of you, but on our farm it’s kind of a spring ritual.

It’s right up there with trimming the lawn – expect we’re trimming the dogs 🙂

So Kyle tonight had some free time and after finding the dog brushes, he was determined to get Reno all brushed out. He had one thing going for him. And that was that it was Reno that he was brushing out and not Kaiser. If you had to rate Reno on a jealous scale from 1 to 100, and 100 being the most jealous – well she’s probably a 100!

They did make a good headway tonight and by the piles of fur in the yard, I bet Reno was going to be pretty chilly tonight. She almost looks like she’s got a butch haircut.

Here’s the picture that I snapped of Kyle working on Reno tonight. Reno looks like she’s liking the attention!DSCN9803

Posted in Our dogs | 1 Comment