Learning

Sometimes I get a little high on myself. I think "hey, I can garden and can and cook and do it all pretty well". And then my homemade pectin isn't pectin-y. And my homemade pickles match the textbook description of spoiled pickles that should not be eaten. And it freezes the night that I don't cover my tomatoes. And the only butternut squash that has survived the great squash bug infestation of 2010 (which I fully intended to harvest but my hands were full so I decided it could use a few more days on the vine) also freezes and is then discovered by the ever-expanding squash bug colony.

But I'm good with it. I'm learning things. Every flubbed attempt builds a little more character and expertise (as in What Not To DO expertise, which is really quite valuable). And guess what? My relish is SCRUMPTIOUS, my hubby and kid have downed gallons of homemade-pure-and-unsweetened grape juice within the last week, and there are plenty of edible things hanging out in the pantry and freezer waiting to grace our table this winter.

I'm sure the magpies will be ever so thankful for the spoiled pickles.

The Jungle

Every year I tell myself I will do better about this, and every year I forget. Staking/caging tomatoes is a trial for me! I know it's not that hard, but (like cleaning toilets) I dread it so much that I make it out to be a huge task and then I just avoid it!

Alas, this means that picking tomatoes requires hacking through a jungle. Do you know how frustrating it is to see a glimpse of ripe tomato goodnees peeking through the underbrush, yet not be able to get to it without a machete!? Some of my tomato plants have decided that standing up just isn't worth the battle and have decided to lay down on the job, meaning that my lovely ripe tomatoes are often wallowing in the dirt. Since they were all planted in 4-foot square raised beds, the chaos is at least manageable, but it is messy! And somewhere, hiding under all that, are a few straggling basil plants and at least one pepper plant. I know they're in there--I can smell 'em.

I'm pretty sure the mayhem, combined with my inattentiveness to the blossom end-rot problem, will adversely affect production, but I swear that I will do better next year! Meanwhile, does anyone have any ideas for a delicious way to put up eggplant? And let me mention in advance that pickled eggplant just does not sound yummy to me.

The Non-blogger

Almost every day I think of something I would like to blog about, but (obviously) I don't. And why? It's because I don't ever take the time to take pictures. Or, if I do take pictures, they sit on my camera for a month. I so love to read the blogs of people who document their activities with beautiful photos, but this just isn't one of those blogs. It's pretty utilitarian--simply the method by which I update people-who-care with the goings on at our house. So I'll do that!

Our summer raced by, and was full of camping trips, road trips, gardening, weed-pulling, watering, and now harvesting and preserving those garden goodies. I've overcome my fear of the canner and we're becoming fast friends after long hours in the kitchen together. I now open my pantry door to the delightful sight of jars full of my amateur creations--sour dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, mustard pickles, blackberry jam, grape jelly, plum jam (not actually in the pantry yet, but on it's way), and sweet relish. There are veggies and fruit chillin' in the freezer waiting to be enjoyed this winter, and I am working on creative ways to use my lovely eggplants and leeks.

Luke has gone to a couple of rodeos this summer and the resulting obsession with "buckin' bulls" and "buckin' broncos" has been very entertaining. His stick horse gets a daily workout, and I'm on the hunt for age-appropriate cowboy songs to sing to him at night when he begs for them. Parenting has been wildly entertaining this summer, and I've loved having my sidekick around.

Now, bring on fall! It's time for soup, sweaters, football, boots, rosy cheeks, planting garlic, and getting some venison in the freezer!

The Best Kind of Day

Way back in mid-April, on a beautiful, sunny Saturday, my favorite event of the year took place. A dirty, smelly, sweaty event...branding day. Every year this is a day for family, friends, neighbors, and their various dogs and horses, to meet down at Grandpa's corral. There are dogs underfoot and kids swinging ropes and men wrestling calves. The tween nieces learn how to give shots and one even tries her hand at branding--stressfull business with all the men crowding around giving advice--but it isn't smeared after all, and she has done a great job. The little ones are pooped halfway through the afternoon and head up the hill to play at Nana's house. Hours later, the hard part is done. Up the hill there are steaks on the grill and a potluck in the shade of the house. More neighbors arrive. We stay late and everyone agrees that the weather was perfect. It was a good day.

Slim, the cowdog-in-training

Miss vet-tech-in-training

Flying boy's-eye view


Taking a break

Cousin loves

a new skill

tired eyes

bovine stink-eye

Ages and Stages

The other night, at a 29th birthday party for a dear Dear (who shall remain nameless to protect her in the future when lying about her age), I offered up the sage observation that "the 30s" are my favorite years so far. She responded that this might be true if you have acheived what you want by that point.

She might be a little bit right. I had a whole list of things to do before 30 that I didn't acheive, but the big goals did happen: I gave birth (at about 29.75 years, close one!); I've had a range of professional experiences that made me feel like I've done enough to ease back from the workplace and enjoy motherhood; and I'm the lady lucky enough to be married to my husband.

But all of those things would be good at any age! The thing I like about 30 (that I imagine will increase with each decade), is the comfortable confidence that I enjoy more often. Not because I've grown wise or learned a lot, but simply because I've learned one thing: that success is not the measurement of acheivement--it's the opposite! I've often limited myself to only doing things that I know I will be quite good at. That is a weakness. Trying something new, not doing it well, but trying over and over until you get it right or at least improve--that is strength, and that builds confidence! The 4-H motto "learn to do by doing" really is a life lesson! Here's to doing, whether you do it well or not!

Rainy Monday

Having planned a productive day of finishing up outdoor projects today, I was a little disappointed see that the steady drizzle outside looked like an all-day kind of rain. But thank goodness for rubber boots and a $5 rain coat! We had a great morning splashing, racing, and adventuring. We discovered that a dreary day is the best day to visit the cows - when they are huddled under the only tree cover, even the calves are hesitant to run away from a boy in a bright yellow rain coat.

where are the puddles, mom?

wait up, Katie!

um...are you sure I'm allowed to go in there?

come on in, Katie!

The adventure ended when he went in a little too deep. Then it was time for a piggy-back ride back to the house for dry pants and socks.

Giddyup

Every cowboy has to start somewhere, and a 35-year-old pony

named Billy seemed like a safe choice! This experience suddenly revived his interest in his stickhorse at home. He even practices backing up his "pony"--usually while underfoot in the kitchen.

I love it!

Emerging

I love my corner kitchen sink with its cheery windows, and my seedlings are also loving it! The cauliflower is growing like blazes, the teensy little mint seedlings are filling up their teensy little peat-pot homes, the poblanos are popping through the soil, onions are reaching for the sun, asparagus are sending up delicate shoots, and the eggplants are finally making an appearance.

The blackberries and raspberries have yet to show any signs of life, but round 2 with them will be digging up starts from someone else's patch. The seeds were just an experiment. I will not be daunted!

One more victory - successful transplanting of the cauliflower starts into larger pots (homemade newspaper pots, even) without significant shock and no losses!

Many more seeds to start this weekend, according to my notes-to-self on the calendar. Gardening will be MUCH cheaper if this works and I can get away with buy very few bedding plants from a greenhouse...or perhaps even none at all!

Schleich Vice

Does this image play any role in your childhood memories?

It certainly does for me! And I had every intention of creating an identical memory for Luke, until we discovered Schleich toys. Hand-painted, true to life, detailed, and so very cute! We are slowly collecting...

I've long been strangely proud of the fact that I don't have an expensive coffee habit. It's not really any better to have this retail addiction that involves buying small farm animals. It soon became clear that a barn-raising was in order...

Getting Dirty!

Is there anything better than hands in dirt? Good black garden dirt, dusty dry dirt, fluffy potting soil, loose brown piles of dirt freshly dug from a post hole for a new fence? The season of dirt is upon us...soon to be followed by the season of green and growing.

This vegetable gardening thing is still pretty new to me, but every year I learn a few new tricks and get more "invested" in the process. This year I'm starting a lot more of my own plants and have bought some heritage seeds from Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I have some of my earlier plants started and was amazed to see cauliflower sprouts already popping through the soil. I have purchased 4-foot lights and am in the process of setting up my grow-table in the garage to keep my little babies warm and happy. I've brewed chamomile tea, watered it down, and started to spritz my flats of starts to prevent damping off disease. This year, I will even try "hardening off" my starts before planting them (novel idea), and am also excited to try some seed saving this season. In a few years I might pass as a bon-eee-fide gardener!

There are a couple of more raised beds to be built, a rototiller to be purchased (oy - $$!), and soil to be ammended, but I'm ready for it! It's fun to finally get to work rather than just plotting the garden layout in google sketch-up or making a nerdy seed inventory spreadsheet. Yes spreadsheet! It's lovely! I can sort the info by vegetable alphabetically, or by how early the seeds should be started, or by the seed company, or by the year the seed was produced. I will add a rating column and notes so that I can keep track of the brands and varieties I like (or don't like) and want to plant again (or avoid), etc. Yes, I'm a garden nerd!

Happy spring to all!

Knit-wit

Over Christmas, which we spent with Dad and Diane, I learned to knit! Oh, how patient Diane is! She taught me to cast on, knit, and purl, and got me started on my first pattern - a scarf. We came home before I learned to bind-off, but thankfully anything and everything can be learned from youtube, so the scarf was completed without mishap.

Next, I had my eye on a cute home decor item that I was pretty sure I could make. With the help of google I found a pattern, then popped over to youtube to learn how to cable knit. I am happy to report that - just one rip-out-and-restart later - it is now complete! Blocking and all! This, in itself, is a miracle, because I have a great history of starting (and ONLY starting) projects.

So, here it is. I have much to learn about consistent yarn tension and, well, precision in general...but it's my first all-by-myself knitting project. It can only get better from here!

P(r)ay

As part of Luke's regular bedtime routine, we say a prayer each night after he is tucked into bed with his blanket, water, and bear. He loves to "pay" (pray) and often requests to "pay" whenever he lies down...for a nap, to get his diaper changed, etc.

Last night, I laid a very tired boy in his bed. We said our usual prayer, in which we "God Bless" by name nearly everyone we know, then move on to "God Blessing" Katie-the-dog and the horses and mules before wrapping things up with an "amen" from both of us (his favorite part). After the amen, he was very sad that we were done and kept saying "pay...pay", so on my way downstairs I called up to him that he could say a prayer by himself if he wanted to. Immediately, I heard him babbling away and including the words "mama" and "dada". This was followed by his squawking inhaling and exhaling sound that is a very loud and lifelike imitation of our mules braying. I realized then that he was saying what he could remember of our prayer, blessing mama and dada and the mules.

I doubled over in the kitchen, shaking with laughter and trying not to cry over the preciousness of it! Minutes later he was silent, and I realized, with a lump in my throat, that my not-so-little-anymore boy had prayed himself to sleep for the first time.

Undecided

What kind of 'vert are you if you swap from extrovert to introvert to something-in-between on a daily basis?

I've had complete and total flip-flops throughout my life which have left me a little bit confused. My first memories are of being painfully shy, not wanting people to notice me, and feeling very insecure because I was not pretty and blonde like my big sister.

Then I hit 7th grade (that's grade 7, in Canadian-speak) and decided that I was missing a lot, and I was going to become outgoing. So I did. That's when I discovered that what people think of you comes from what you think of yourself. This has been immensely helpful in job interviews! On the flip-side, it's also when I learned to start thinking of myself as I wanted to been seen. I stuffed away all the parts of me - my preferences, thoughts, habits - that weren't cool.

Since then, I've more than doubled in age. I'm still not very smart, and still struggle to make decision that aren't based soley on what will make other people like me, but I'm starting to rediscover my likes and dislikes. How elementary is that?

So I guess if I want to be an anti-social home-body one day, a gad-about-town the next day, and the hostess-with-the-mostess on the days in between, that's ok. And it's also OK that I like both John Foggerty & Lady Ga Ga; trashy smut & Willa Cather; homegrown-homemade-organic & Burger King; PBS and Jersey Shore.

I. Don't. Have. To. Be. The. Same. Person. Every. Day.

Country Living

I love where we live. I love looking out the window to see mama cows grazing and baby calves cavorting. I love having a happy-go-lucky dog who trots about in the pasture enjoying country life.

I do not enjoy having to ruin Luke's fun when he toddles over to play with something that Katie (the dog) has brought home from her travels.

Perhaps the dog whisperer has suggestions for training a dog to realize that cow placenta does not make a pleasant lawn ornament.

Don't worry. There are no photos to accompany this post.

Short Nights, Long Days

"I think I'm a little tuckered out," Milo said.

"It is possible to over frolic," the deer murmured.

I think I have overfrolicked this week.

Am looking forward to a grown-ups-only weekend

(or, rather, 24hrs) away with the hubby.

I hope the tables are kind to us.

A Boy's Best Friend

After a walk outside this crisp, beautiful, sun-filled morning, Luke wasn't quite ready to leave Katie (the dog) and come inside. So, being the doting mother that I am, I left him out there and told him to knock on the door when he wanted to come in. Don't report me! I kept an eye on him while sipping my coffee in the cozy house. It was precious! He stood in front of Katie, eyeball to eyeball, and launched into a two minute lecture while tossing rocks (as boys are wont to do). She listened and wagged her tail non-stop. The best playmate ever!

the picture above is not our Katie-dog, and was take a few months ago,
but it is taken in the same place where this morning's lecture was delivered.
:)

Knock it off

Oh, how I wish for one of these:

and one of these:

and one or both of these:

Especially since I found this site with plans for knock-off versions of
some of my favorite pieces of furniture
(I think I have a little blog crush).

Oh, how I also wish I didn't have such a fear of saws in general.
I have yet to master the circular saw and reciprocating saw--
beginner's stuff, really

Maybe some day...

a story worth telling

That advice about no TV in the bedroom? Good advice, but not heeded in our house.

Last night I flipped on the TV and snuggled in bed, ready to relax before lights-out. I was quickly engrossed in a documentary about the Young at Heart Chorus, a group of singing seniors. About 20 minutes later, I was propped on my pillows sobbing into a handful of Kleenex. Oh dear. It was that touching, that beautiful, and that inspiring.

I didn't finish watching the program. At 11:17 my sense of responsibility reminded me that the alarm would go off at 5:35, so I flipped off the TV, consoled by the fact that Netflix could likely finish the story for me on another day.

But that encounter left me with 2 thoughts. First, lovely as the story was, it is just one example of the human spirit. For every neat-o film like this, there are thousands of stories that will never be profiled in a documentary. Forget the grim video on your late local news - there are stories all around us that are beautiful and unique! Second, I want to live to be old. In case I had doubted it before, this story confirmed for me that there will be an opportunity for me to create joy at every age I reach.

Now I'm off to Netflix to add this to my queue!

Irresolute

It's 2010. It's 2010? It's 2010! How can that be?

2009 was a only a brief flash, but it was a wonderful flash. I'm excited to see what this next year brings...what life changes will we experience, truths will we discover, decisions will we make, places will we see, moments will we enjoy?

I am going to laugh in the face of goal setting experts far and wide and create no specific, measurable resolutions for the new year, but there are a number of things that I'm vowing to work on. The only point of listing them here is so I will remember them later...so here goes:

• Be more purposeful about things - live each day with less of a "to-do" list and more of a focus on experiencing my life. My life is happening now. It's not something that's about to start after I get a few more things done. Maybe if I'm living each day instead of just getting through it, I'll experience life, faith, work, people differently. Let's just see, shall we?
• Lose my fear of baking (as pertains to anything other than chocolate chip cookies and baking powder biscuits). Having recently received a lovely assortment of new cookbooks and a sparkling new Kitchen Aid stand mixer, I am now well equipped for this adventure. The greatest obstacle will be overcoming my fear of the precision and chemistry that are required for successful baking. Apron on, chilled butter and pastry flour at hand, I march into battle.
• Be hospitable, or at least ready to be hospitable. Why should it take a day for me to prepare for company? Why can't my house always be in such a state that an unexpected guest could walk in and be fed without me feeling embarrassed about the state of my floors, bathrooms, or kitchen counters? Why shouldn't I leave for church on Sunday morning with something in the crockpot so I could invite guests for dinner? Why should everything take so much planning and preparation? I was not raised this way! I was raised among people for whom hospitality was a constant state of being. That is something to admire!

There will be more specific ways that I will attempt to tackle these sweeping changes, but I'm going to be flexible, change my approach and expectations as needed, and not set myself up for failure. I'm not looking forward to year of stressing out about a to-do list of goals. I'm looking forward to a year of thinking happy thoughts about all the wonderful possibilities of change.

Here's wishing a blessed year to you all!