Land of horses and sunsets.

My husband and I took a trip to visit his dad and stepmother last week. I love going there it is so peaceful and beautiful. The back yard and pasture  are surrounded by potatoes fields . Every year at hunting season we bring back about 100 pounds of potatoes. Wish I could say we bring back an Elk or Moose every year. We are just not that lucky. 

 You can see the potato fields from the back deck.

 Their little vegetable and herb garden . Some things were planted late and haven't come up yet.

 Another shot of the fields.

The horse pasture is right off the back yard. We hope to have our house up and  running on the property  in the next two years. We will be close to where you see the trees. 

The other 4 horses were off on a camping trip with family. But I was glad to be able to get a shot of these three.

Best place to sit and just enjoy the horses and the sunset.

I can't forget Buttons. He loves it when he is able to get off his leash and roam.

 I truly can't wait to get moved out there and get our own little homestead set up.

Can't sleep

I am sitting here trolling the blogs. I am so tired ,but the silver lining is that I am playing catch up on my blog family.
 Eyes are getting blurry, head is starting to bob. Sleep, sleep, my minds is shouting. If only I could get my body to listen.

Garden tour

 I thought I would show  my garden today. I am so happy with how it's doing this year. The green beans  were growing so high that we had to add more netting. We got our first harvest last night. The flavor was so good. It's still early, but I can see a lot of caning green beans in my future.

 These are my spaghetti squash plants. I still have 3 squashes from last year in my garage. These thing keep a long time. This year I will be dehydrating a lot  of it. At the end of the row those spiky things are my rosemary plants.

 My corn is doing wonderful. It's a lot taller then it looks in the picture. I am 5 "6 and It reaches just above my head.

 My nectarine tree has fruit on it for the first time this year.  I don't eat them so hopefully my husband will know when they are ripe.

 My peach tree was a surprise this year. The tree is only 2 years old and it's first bloom, but it's loaded. YA!!!!

                                                                                                           

My poor apple tree is losing the fight with the birds. It's to big to get netting around it. Hope they save us some.

I see plum jam in my future. I can't wait for them to get ripe.

The raised beds are doing great. Those two bush looking plants on the right and left are my tomato plants. Under them I planted onions in one and carrots in the other. The big plant in the middle is my zucchini. I am getting three to four a day.  I also have strawberries, cucumbers,  cantaloup, and purple beans. The pea plants(  front left of the picture ) still need to be pulled up.Their season is over. That will get done tomorrow. Haven't decided what to replace them with yet.

Pulled up my potatoes plants a couple of days ago. We figured all together we got about 45 pounds out of our 4x4 bed.  I found a bowl in the corner of the garage with potatoes that had spouts growing out of them. I figured why not plant them and see what happens. So we now have an experiment  in the works. Will keep you up dated. 

Thank you for touring my little garden with me. Have a great week.

Starting Christmas gifts early this year

This year I decided to give  gifts from the heart for Christmas. We spend so much money on store bought gifts that get thrown in a closet or forgotten. Think back over your past Christmases,how many gifts can you remember? Now think about gifts that were made with love for you. Those are the ones that stay with us thru the years.
Today I started my gift giving  task with dehydrating lemons and oranges for my Simmering Potpourri . While they dehydrate I am cutting strips for rugs.  I am hoping to have several different gifts to give . The big test will be to  get every thing done in time for Christmas.


This is a list of a few of the gifts I am planning to make.

1. Simmering Potpourri
2. Fabric rug
3. Homemade goats milk soap
4. Aprons
5. Needle work sheet set.
6. Homemade Christmas ornaments with kids names on them.
7. Bath Salts
8. Matching towels and pot holders.
9. Homemade Jams and jellies.

Wish me luck.

A Vegetarian's Nightmare or A Dissertation on Plants Rights

Zucchini and Corn Saute

 I served this at my women's church luncheon. They all loved it. I made 35 service for 28 people and had none left. I came up with this recipe as a way to use up the zucchini and corn from my garden.
I adjusted the recipe from 35 to 4 servings.
Please feel free to change any of the amounts or ingredients to your taste.

Here are the ingredients.

  1/4cup and 2 tablespoons of butter

1 small sweet onion finely chopped

  1/2 of a red pepper and 1/2 of a yellow pepper finely chopped

  Put your onion and peppers in a food processor .It will finely chop them for you , making this process a lot easier.

Two teaspoons of garlic

Five ears of corn cut off the cob or 2 cans of corn.

4 to 5 small zucchini cut bite size

salt and pepper to taste

Put your butter in your pan or electric skillet on low to medium heat. Cook until the butter is a light to medium brown.

Add your onions and peppers and saute till the onion are translucent.About 5 minutes.

Add your garlic and cook for 2 minutes 

Add your corn and zucchini to the pan cook till the zucchini is just tender. I like mine with just a little hint of texture to it.

Be careful not to overcook. You don't want the zucchini to become soggy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot


This recipe doesn't make for good left overs. The frig tends to make the zucchini soggy.

Sourdough pancakes and bread .

Decides to make sourdough pancakes for breakfast this morning . Since I had it out I thought I would also make bread. They both freeze up every nicely. The pancakes are really great right out of the freezer. Just pop then in a toaster and they are ready to go.

SOURDOUGH PANCAKES:
In a large bowl or 8 cup measuring cup mix together:
 1 cup starter,
1 cup warm water,
1/2 cup sugar
 1 and 1/2 cup flour
Stir every thing together . Place plastic over the top and put in back corner of oven with the light on over night.

Next morning add the other ingredient:
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp salt
Mix together . ( you don't need to add flour. You did that part last  night.)
 add 2 tsp of baking soda to 1 tbs of water then add to batter.Stir. Let rest 10 mins.  Cook your pancakes just like you would normal ones.

Here is the link to my post for the sourdough bread and starter. http://michelleslittlepieceofheaven.blogspot.com/2014/03/sourdough-bread-and-starter-recipe.html

I love both of these recipes.

Homemade chicken broth

We finished processing our chickens today.  Six of the twelve birds were cut up into pieces which gave me backs to use for broth.  I placed the backs into the crock pot along with carrots, onion, and celery. I added rosemary, thyme , parsley and Sage from my garden. Hopefully this will turn into a great tasting broth. This is my first time making my own. Crossing my fingers here.

Processed meat birds today.

My friend Debbie , Amy, My husband Rick and I processed 31 birds in 3 and half hours. Which was really good since I had only done a couple of birds before and This was Rick's first time.
 we call the Debbie the chicken lady. She is a great chicken doctor as well as a great teacher. I learned so much from her today. We brought home 11 of the birds to finish up the detail work and get into Vacuum Seal bags. We only got three done before my husband had to go to work. So I now have 8 birds in bread bags sitting in my frig till tomorrow. To tired to finish then up to night . Between chickens , weeding and running errands I am pooped.
I learned so much today and all thou it was bloody and still managed to enjoy spending time together. One draw back is the fact that after two showers and repeated hand washing I can still smell the birds on my hands. I think it soaked into my pores. Hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow.