Garden Project

These are some pictures of our garden project. You can see the braces that my husband put up to stabilize the fence. We also put up some old fence panels for some vertical structure for sweet peas and then green beans and cucumbers. We have to more old fence panels I'm going to put up in another section of the garden.

I love red and we had some old paint left over from a project long ago :) so I couldn't resist painting the old panels and the post. I put red in somewhere in almost everything I do. It will be a colorful garden!

I move some old concrete planters beside the fence panels. I plan on planting extra herbs in those. That's the latest on the project!

Update on Farm Project

I told you the wind comes sweeping down the plain in my neck of the woods. I could hardly believe my eyes. I went out to work on our project and our new fence had been up about a week. I went out to start working on some vertical structures in the garden. We have some old fence panels I was going to put up for sweet peas to grow on as well as green beans when I spotted one of the pickets barely holding on. I went around the fence to survey it and to my shock the fence was wobbley. I thought this couldn't be, my husband cemented all the posts in. We had experienced several different days with wind gusts in the 40's and the back and forth motion had loosened the posts. So my husband put braces all the way down the fence to stablize it. You can see why I needed a wind break for my plants. If the wind is moving a stockade fence what would it do to those delicate plants.

The longer I live, I have more and more appreciation for my ancestors and what they went through. First of all, having the courage to leave their homeland and everything familiar and then to brave the unknown. My dad's father came from England and his mother from Ireland. My grandfather was in the Oklahoma Land Run and secured 160 acres in Prague which is near Meeker. When I think of them pitching a tent and living in the elements until they could get their home built. Wow, I wonder if I could have endured all of that and then trying to raise your own food. They sure couldn't drag a water hose over to the garden and water.

I got my soil sample in for my blueberry patch and I am waiting for the results which should be in sometime this week. I hope to get the blueberries planted by mid March. I'm still looking for a fig tree for this region.

I got an e-mail from a friend entitled 25 clever ideas and one of the ideas I loved. It was guttering that was secured to a fence and they planted lettuce and onions in it. I loved the idea because if you have grown lettuce or spinach it gets gritty from the dirt getting on it and takes soaking to get all of that off. The guttering would solve that problem because the lettuce and spinach are off of the ground. I plan on planting spinach and several kinds of lettuce in mine. My husband found some guttering that is a heavy plastic (like PVC pipe) that will work great. I can't wait to get it up and see how it all works.

I have run out of red bricks for the edging around my flower beds. I really wanted to get all of that complete before spring arrived but I don't think that is going to happen.

Lots of projects going, I just need to make sure I am getting some of them complete. That's my problem, sometimes I get to many things going and nothing is getting finished.

Until next time........ :)

New Project on the Farm

My husband and I are making a new garden space. Last year I was wanting a new space for blueberries and I didn't get started in time to dig up the grass and get the space ready. I'm glad I waited. My mother-in-law passed away 2 years ago and we sold her trailer last fall and when they moved the trailer I instantly had my garden space. Five sections of good dirt with a long narrow concrete pad between each section.....perfecto! As I was thinking about what I wanted to do with the area I kept thinking about the south wind and knew all my hard work would be wiped out if I didn't have some kind of barrier. We had some old stockade fencing we were going to use but when we went to get it from behind the barn it had deteriorated so bad that we couldn't use it.

My husband found a place to buy all the supplies we needed at a really discount price. He brought it home and we built the fence and put it up one plank at a time. It really went a lot faster than we had anticipated. It will make a great wind block for the garden. I will be posting on the progress of the garden space. I will be getting soil samples this week for the blueberry section because the soil needs to be acidic. From my research, if the soil is not acidic I will be wasting my time and money.

Chicken Pot Pies

Last week I had some great friends down for lunch. I made chicken pot pies for them with spinach salad. I really like chicken pot pie but my husband doesn't so I never make it. In fact, this was my first attempt at making chicken pot pies and they turned out really good. You could make this in a pie plate, or oblong casserole dish. I had these oven proof bowls that I used. Most recipes I looked at didn't put crust inside the pot pie just on the top. But from eating frozen pot pies as a kid, I like the crust inside too and so did my friends. The pies were a success and everyone enjoyed them. We all ate too much! :(

Here's how I made them.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, boiled
3 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1-1/2-2 cups of frozen peas
1-1/2-2 cups of frozen corn
2 medium potatoes, diced
3 tablespoons of butter
4 tablespoons of flour
1 chicken bouillon cube
salt and pepper to taste
chicken broth

Cook chicken and let cool then take chicken from bone and cut into cubes. Reserve broth and add one tablespoon of butter to broth plus one chicken bouillon cube. Let these melt. Taste broth to see if you need any salt or pepper. Then set aside.

Take diced potatoes and cook in water until potatoes are tender. Don't let them overcook. You don't want them mushy. When potatoes are tender drain off water and let them set.

In a separate soup pot, melt butter then saute celery, carrots,and onions. After they are semi tender add flour and stir for about 4 minutes coating vegetables and letting flour cook. Then slowing add chicken broth and stir until slightly thickened. Add thawed peas, corn, potatoes, and chicken. Stir well and let cook on low heat for about 10 minutes. Check to see if you have enough salt and pepper.

Then make your pie crust and cover the bottom of your pan. Spoon mixture onto pie crust and then put on the top pie crust and crimp edges. Bake at 400 degrees for about 35-40 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is all about LOVE!

I was thinking about love this morning and remembering my journey in learning to love unconditionally. I don't want to sound like I have arrived but I'm a lot further along than when I think about how I used to be. In my journey with God, the times He has placed a heavy hand on me it has always been regarding love. I remember years ago being in a small fellowship and after we were there for a while we started seeing signs of problems in the fellowship and I was heart broken hoping this time this was going to be the place where things would work out. One day on our way home from church, I was thinking about the situation in this fellowship and out of the blue God said to me get the log out of your eye before you get the speck out of someone else. Well, I said, "what is the log? I don't have a clue." Silence from God. Not until 2 months later in the middle of the night, I had awakened and was laying there thinking about this fellowship and was heart broken and like before out of no where, God said to me, though they speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love they are like a clanging gong and a noisy cymbal. I said, "that's it, that's it." There is no love! Sadly, I didn't remember several months ago when He told me to get the log out of my eye first.

After this, we were in another fellowship and I watched the same thing taking place there. In the last twelve years, God has taught me a lot about love and how we all need to feel loved and accepted and I mean we need to really love from our heart. None of this, "I love you" and it's not backed up with actions. For someone who needs love, that's only words and it means nothing. We need to love and accept people where they are without trying to change them. When you love people without trying to change them, then they change, because they want to change.

Something that will be forever etched in my memory,was a television show it was either 60 minutes or 20/20 and it was about street people in New York. The whole segment was about street people and following them for a day. What they do, where they go, what they eat, where they sleep etc. At the end of the day, the reporter was under a bridge in New York City talking with a woman who was making her bed for the night. It was winter and she was sleeping in a huge box (like a refrigerator box) and she was taking her blanket out of her cart that she had been pushing all day. The reporter asked her how old she was, she was 37 but she looked like she was 73 (I'm not exaggerating). Then he asked her if she could have anything in the world what would she want? She did not hesitate, she said,"I would just like to know that someone really loved me." Tears were flowing down my cheeks. I'll never forget it because in my mind when he asked her I knew she would probably say a warm home with a nice clean bed. I realized how important unconditional love is and how desperately people need it. Not just the poor of our world, because there are rich people who are poor and they need it just as much.

When I talk about unconditional love people think they have it and I'm not saying that everyone doesn't have it but it has been my experience that most people don't understand unconditional love. That's why my advise to young mothers is learn about unconditional love. That was the LOG in my eye!

As you celebrate this wonderful day of LOVE, ask yourself what does it really mean to love unconditionally.

Always love to you,

galatha

Apple,Pear Salad with Maple Pecan Bacon

8 thick bacon slices
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (finely chopped)
1 head Romaine
1 head Red Leaf lettuce
1 large Barlett pear
1 large Gala apple
1 cup halved red seedless red grapes
4 oz. Gorgonzola cheese crumbled

Cranberry Vinaigrette
1 cup canned wholeberry cranberry sauce
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
Whisk the above ingredients together until smooth makes about 2 cups.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place lightly greased wire rack in a foil lined 15x10 jelly roll pan. Dip bacon slices into maple syrup allow excess to drain off then press pecans onto both sides of the bacon. Bake for 20 minutes on each side or until bacon is crisp and brown. Remove and let stand until cool and then cut into 1 inch pieces.
Place cut greens into a salad bowl and thinly slice pear and apple. Toss with salad greens. Top with grapes, cheese and bacon. Drizzle cranberry vinaigrette over top.

Made this salad for my sister's birthday dinner and it was fabulous. The mix of sweet fruit and sweet and tangy dressing with the salty cheese and nutty bacon was some wonderful flavors.

Grandma Mills' Old Fashion Egg Custard Pie

My family celebrated my sister's birthday on Sunday. She didn't want anything particular for her birthday dinner so I chose to fix Turkey and Dressing. We only had it once through the holidays and my husband had felt a little deprived since we had Italian on Christmas day instead of the usual turkey and dressing again. It was all very tasty and everyone enjoyed it.

I had put some leftover cranberry salad in the freezer and also candied sweet potatoes. I wasn't sure how they would do in the freezer but we always have a lot of cranberry salad left and I usually end up throwing it out because we just don't eat it all. I am happy to say that it turned out great after being frozen. It tasted wonderful and so did the candied sweet potatoes. So we had a few little traditional items to go along with our turkey and dressing. I will post my cranberry salad recipe if you are interested. It is very good and now knowing that you can freeze it........that's an added benefit.

When I am making pies for family dinners my sister will always request an egg custard pie. This pie is very light and is really good but it's not a pie that most people think of eating these days. Most people want apple, cherry, chocolate etc. So I always make my sister an egg custard pie for her to take home with her.

This recipe is from my father's mother. She was a little wisp of a women. Probably 90 pounds, long grey hair that was always in a bun on the back of her head. She always wore cotton leggings (summer or winter) and cotton dresses buttoned all the way to the neck. A gentle woman who told me wonderful stories. They were make believe but I was a little girl and I loved to hear them. She would sit for hours and play cards with me....books and Old Maid. After my grandfather died, she lived with my aunt but would come to our home several times a month a stay a long weekend with us. She always made homemade donuts, a vinegar or custard pie. My sister and I have tried to find her recipe for a vinegar pie but have been unable to find it. She became sick while staying with us and wanted to stay at our home. She ended up living with us for almost a year. She died at our home on Mother's Day when I was eight. I was very blessed to have two wonderful grandmothers.

Egg Custard Pie

4 slightly beaten eggs
1/2 cup sugar, (I add 1 cup sugar)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups scalded milk (I use 1 cup half and half and 1 1/2 milk)
1-9inch pie shell
ground nutmeg

Blend eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Gradually stir in scaled milk. Pour into pastry shell, sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Juice Feasting

Last week I finished up a 9 day supposed to be 10 day juice fast. My daughter, for several years has been following a blog, Juicy Days.com by Q. She purchased his e-book for me and it was filled with a lot of great information. Our family has juiced for many years but it has mainly been carrot juice so I was very interested in all of his green drinks since I want to keep my body neutralized and not acidic. Almost all diseases flourish in an acidic environment. When your ph is neutral your body starts to heal. The basic green drink is cucumber, celery, 1 lemon, spinach or the green of your choice (kale, romaine, red leaf lettuce, chard, cilantro, arugula. It is very tasty. I could tell that my body needed this because it tasted so good to me. He also has savory drinks which include adding broccoli, zucchini, bell pepper, tomato, carrot, ginger, fresh garlic. These are also wonderful. The savory was my husband's favorite. Then there are the fruit juice, several examples are watermelon and lemon, orange, grapefruit and lemon, apple,beet and lemon. On this fast you can have one fruit drink a day, all the green juice and water you can drink.

I have never detoxed before where I felt like something was growing on my teeth but I was brushing my teeth quite often. This fast was a lot easier for me than a straight water fast because you don't feel weak and I actually had energy to do things. This fast also includes several water enemas to help flush toxins out of the body. He also recommends a quart jar of lemon water first thing in the morning.

This juice feasting was very beneficial for me and I have no major health problems. So check with your doctor before doing anything like this if you do have health issues.

FYI - My husband loves apples and he had been telling me lately that the apples we tasting terrible. Then I was with a friend recently who was telling me her husband saw something on T.V. about how they pick apples and store them for an unbelievable period of time before the apples reach the public. Then another friend was telling me after this about seeing Suzanne Sommers on a talk show and that she always buys organic apples, strawberries, and grapes because you cannot wash the chemical off of these fruits. I have actually at times been able to taste the chemical in grapes. Hence, I bought organic apples at the health food store and my husband could tell the difference. He said, "they were delicious and he couldn't believe the difference in the taste." Needless to say, I won't be buying apples at the store anymore and I'm thinking about growing my own strawberries and grapes.

I want to encourage you to start growing a garden and herbs. First, the herbs are so flavorful and they add so much to the taste of your food. Then if you are growing your own food you know what has been put on it. There is nothing like bringing fresh produce from your garden to your kitchen table. Can't get better than that! I always say, start with a salsa garden - tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro - doesn't take a lot of room and I promise you'll love it.