Buttoning Down for Winter

Jan here, with a moving in update. I've told you about the back porch at our new house. The view gets better with every change of the seasons and angle of the sun!

But there's another side to our new home. I love the front of the house, too.

This is our front door and the perennial flower bed we inherited from the former owner. This is much like it looked when we first saw the house in April - dormant plants. We added my favorite blue bird bath and our herons (made of iron and stone,) plus the bird feeders. After a summer of neglect, it was time to put these plants to bed.

You might wonder why I was so pleased to find this mature garden. Well, if you've been around the Cafe for a while, you know that we've moved. A lot. Our average time of living in a place was five years until we moved here.

I have planted - and left behind - more flower beds than I want to think about. With each garden, I've left a little piece of my heart planted in that ground that I tilled, fertilized, planted, mulched, watered...

But here, in this new place, we have no plans to leave this garden behind for many years. My dormant green thumb can come out and play again!

In case you're wondering, that brown thing
is the downspout from our eaves-troughs
(aka gutters)

Since we were expecting another winter storm to come through on Sunday, I spent a couple hours on Saturday morning trimming, pulling weeds, deadheading flowers, and cutting back. Of course, I had a helper!

I also did a little planting - - -

A few crocus bulbs strategically placed,

And my great-grandmother's rose that lived in this pot all summer during our move.

Here it is, in its new spot and cut back for winter. I'll buy a cover to protect it from the frigid cold we're expecting this year, and it should be just fine next spring.

And here we are! All buttoned down and ready for the winter storms!

Jack celebrated with a nap, and I celebrated with one of my favorite treats - an "Everything But the Kitchen Sink" cookie! Click HERE for the recipe!

How do you get ready for winter?

Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.

Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com

Armadillos are NOT Cute

All these years of coming to the ranch, I've seen armadillos and thought they were cute. They're mostly nocturnal animals that don't see very well, though they have a very keen sense of smell. Which means, if you're downwind of them, you can sometimes catch one.

This is from quite a few years back, but why the boy felt compelled to catch one (yes, he let it go), I will never understand. Kind of like climbing a mountain. Why? Because it's there. (Which will never be a good enough excuse for me)

Now that we're living here at the ranch, and most recently, I have come to a very different opinion of these little armored creatures. 

See this mess in what was one of my flowerbeds? 

And this one.

All of this trenching is the work of an armadillo looking for grubs and other bugs. So what if the pansies and snapdragons were almost spent, the little booger didn't have to uproot them. 

Well, hubby found Mr. Dillo's hole in the bushes, so we dumped a box of mothballs down there and sprinkled more throughout the beds. Remember what I said about them having a keen sense of smell. 

Then it was time to replant. With temps already in the 90's, we needed some summer color. This year, it's in the form of Vincas.

The nursery called these shades the Lipstick Blend.

And I'm happy to say that the mothballs worked, because the flowers have gone untouched for three days now. 

Last week I mentioned that it had been a  year since we started the renovations on my in-laws home, so I thought I share a couple before and after pics with you today.

Removing that brick wall at the front that was used to create a courtyard was priority number one and, boy, are we glad we did. Not only do we have a space we utilize now, all those windows finally have views of the great outdoors which brightened up the inside of the house, too. It was a win-win all around. 

Unlike Mr. Dillo. But I am not sorry to see him go. He has plenty of space to tear things up in the woods without terrorizing my yard.

Now it's your turn. What type of flowers will you be planting this year? What is your favorite?

Three-time Carol Award finalist, Mindy Obenhaus, lives on a ranch in Texas with her husband, the youngest of her five children, two dogs and countless cattle. She's passionate about touching readers with Biblical truths in an entertaining, and sometimes adventurous, manner. When she's not writing, she enjoys cooking and spending time with her grandchildren. Learn more at mindyobenhaus.com.

Black Cherry and Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

Hi everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back with a fun summer recipe. But first, a silly picture. (I'm wondering if this will be the screen grab for the post, haha. That would be great!) Anyway, we walk along the river in the evenings and came upon this field of... toilets. 

Apparently, this retirement home is renovating, but the image was so funny, especially to our elementary aged boys. "Ahhh, summer, when toilets are finally ripe for the picking."

  I also have to share this funny picture of my seven year old reading. It's so "summer" to read in an inner tube with goggles. LOL

 So, our peaches are ripe!
                                             
For a while, every day he'd go out with a basket and come back with a few tomatoes and peaches. Now, we need about five grocery bags.
                                            
We leave them on the tree as long as possible so that friends can come and pick what they like.

 We had old friends from Idaho visit this past weekend and my fifteen year old made a peach cobbler...

 And a huckleberry one (that was my favorite!)...

 And a blueberry one. It looks like all the fruit sunk to the middle, but it was nicely distributed.
                                  
Oh, it was delicious. I forget how amazing huckleberries are. We have blueberries most of the time, but huckleberries have such a unique flavor.

 We also made pasta salad. Only sharing because it's sooo prettttyyyyyyy. We also made a roast chicken with potatoes, gravy, corn, fruit salad, etc. Good food and great friends over, can it get any better?

 Random pictures of the garden before I get to the ice cream. Black bell peppers! They tasted pretty good once they ripened. I had one before it was done and thought it was bitter. But they were actually okay.

 Purple tomatoes. They're really called "black beauties" or some such but they're not exactly black. :D

 The tomatillos are growing! This is the source of all our salsa verde and green chile pork stew through the winter. MMMMMM....

 I'm excited to pick these banana peppers and stuff them with herbed cream cheese, then fry!

 It's been a great year for cantaloupe. Not anything like Ruthy's farm but I'm proud of these little guys.

 I'm not actually sure what this is...

 Pumpkins!!

 Little guys wanted me to take this picture of a "beauty" hidden under a spider web.

 I can't remember what heirloom variety this is but it's getting interesting.

 And the sunflowers! I love these giant sunflowers that grow bigger than your head!

 OK... so finally to the recipe! And there was something awry with my camera so it's a bit fuzzy. This is the final photo and it was so hot the ice cream was melting as I took the picture. The recipe is a general ice cream recipe tweaked for maximum deliciousness!

Ingredients:
one and a half cups chopped and pitted Bing or other sweet cherry
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 1/3 cup heavy cream (I used half and half, still good!)
1/2 cup sugar
dash of lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate (I used chips)

Some add the chopped fruit directly to the cream, sugar, milk mixture, or they heat the cream and cherries altogether to make a dark purple ice cream (very pretty!). We've done it both ways, but I like this way the best: I like to make it into a syrup first. Add 1/4 cup sugar, cherries, and lemon juice to a sauce pan on medium heat (stirring constantly) until cherries are semi dissolved and the mixture is thick and bubbly. Let cool for about 30 minutes.

Mix the cream, milk, 1/2 cup sugar in a pan and heat on low until the sugar is combined. Pour into a form or mold. Place into the freezer for one hour or until lightly set. Fold the cherry mixture in, letting it fall gently into the ice cream. Let freeze overnight. Each slice should have a delicious ribbon of cherry goodness!

 That's all for now! A few last photos of my grandfather's typewriter. He was raised on the border of Arizona, the son of a border patrolman and fluent in Spanish from childhood. He knew from his teens that he wanted to be a veterinarian and to raise money for school, he wrote and translated letters for the illiterate city residents.

Note how there are the "enya" and upside down question mark keys! So wonderful to see this and remember how much he loved typing out stories. I have dozens of letters from him from my college years and early on in my marriage.

Everyone have a wonderful weekend and stop by my facebook author pages Mary Jane Hathaway, Virginia Carmichael, or my blog The Things That Last!

Hobby farms, greenhouses, and strawberry salad!

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back with more pictures of flowers, the garden, a farm, and of course, kids!

Here's my ten year old being smothered by our old cat. Don't worry; he was rescued!

I was researching and went to visit a little hobby farm near us. We live surrounded by real farms of hundreds of acres but I wanted to see a small farm run by people who have day jobs. It was so much fun!

The owner's husband made her this greenhouse from recycle materials. The windows came from an old school. I grew up in a house that had a large green house attached to the main house and just the smell brought me right back!

Edward said we needed one  and I agree! I spent hours and hours tending African violets and other miniature plants in my "special area" of my childhood greenhouse.

The builder even salvaged a pulley system from an abandoned mill. He rigged it to open an close the windows in the roof. The greenhouse I grew up with was automated (push a button, things open or close) and it was really neat to see this old-fashioned way of providing ventilation.

They had such lovely little raised beds. Nothing like our wild garden! Frog Hollow Farms (the name of this little place) also sold fresh bread, goat cheese, and cinnamon rolls. You can imagine that besides our heirloom tomatoes and other plants, we also came home with some tasty goodies.

Our garden is in full bloom and I can't help it. I have to share. One of our clematis.

My favorite rose. It smells delicious!

We have about ten bushes of these. They were here when we moved in almost fifteen years ago and have only gotten more beautiful.

Some of our peonies have opened but the later variety are so pretty when they are just beginning to bud.

One proud seven year old in the strawberry patch he's tended all spring.

The very proud five year old with his heirloom pineberries... these guys are mostly white with red seeds and taste like pineapple. They used to be very hard to find in the US but they've gotten more and more common in the last few years.

This is my amethyst basil plant. Isn't it pretty?? I love all kinds of basil but this one makes a beautiful pesto.

Ordinary strawberry.... if there ever was an "ordinary", sun-ripened, perfect berry from the garden!

And the grape vines don't look too impressive but I'm SOOOOO excited.

Because this--

Will soon become this!

Now, in honor of our very first strawberries, I'd like to share a salad that probably has been done before. I don't have any of my own pictures because I always remember AFTER I've eaten it, but this is a good spring salad that celebrates what's local and fresh!

(spontaneoustomato.com)

Sweet berries, goat cheese, pine nuts, fresh baby spinach, and a little balsamic vinegar makes a perfectly refreshing lunch!

Until next time! Be sure to drop by my facebook page Mary Jane Hathaway or my blog at The Things That Last to see what I'm up to! (Which, honestly, is researching and revising right now. Nothing really cool. But pop on by anyway because I'm always up for a chat!)