Mmmmm Blackberries and vanilla yogurt!

Vanilla Greek Yogurt that is - with blackberries in it. Right now blackberries are falling off of the shelves in the grocery store. Unfortunatly, they are from Mexico and not from my property. We havn't gotten any rain so the blackberries have not ripened. There were millions of buds on the vines but alas, I don't think we will get many berries. The ones that do decide to brave it and ripen will be small and full of stones instead of plump and fat with juice.

A couple of years ago, we got millions of blackberries - so many that the birds and us shared the bounty thankfully. I still have some in my freezer. I just wish we would get a good couple of days of slow steady rain to soak the ground and ripen the fruit. My luck this will happen while we are at PSG and I'll miss the peak of the season.

I CAN go pick blackberries (and raspberries) at the local farm where we picked strawberries but I just have issues with paying to pick fruit that should be growing on my own land. Next year, we need to look at irrigation - so that we can water the blackberries even if we don't get rain. Right now they are too far away from the pump - we already have 150 feet of garden hose going out to the garden! The plan is to get rainbarrels and water from them instead of putting the strain on the well.

What's Cookin?

This is a crazy mixed up week. I posted Monday’s menu last week since it was Memorial Day and I would be home with the family. And I’ve already had to mix up this weeks plan. My mother’s house looks to finally be going to sell on Thursday so I may be heading up to Danville Illinois either Wednesday night or Thursday morning which makes the planning a bit off. But here’s my best guess:

Tuesday: Chicken Quesadillas w/ onion and green pepper, avocado and sour cream (we didn’t get to do this last weekend)
Wednesday: Hamburger helper if home (Monical’s Pizza if not)
Thursday: Wednesday and Thursday are switchable at this point in time (I will have Monicals one of these nights!)
Friday: Dinner with Meghan’s Dad for her graduation
Saturday: Grilled Salmon, pasta salad, Grilled veggie kabobs if we get zucchini and squash)
Sunday: Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans

As usual if you want a recipe just ask.

A very busy weekend!

My weekend started on Thursday with the wedding of Bill’s youngest son Matt. Matt and his fiancée entered a contest to get married at Six Flags in St. Louis on top of the newest water slide. They just got a call last week saying that they and 5 other couples had won. So we arrived at Six Flags at 7:30am on Thursday morning. We ended up having to wait until the very last couple because they put Matt and Paisha on the news! Channel 4 filmed the ceremony and the ‘plunge’ they took down the slide.


Here is Bill chilling out waiting for the wedding to start.


Matt and Paisha posing for pictures ahead of time.


Bonzai Pipeline - they are up there on top taking their vows.


Splash Down!


The Kiss


Cutting the cake

Six Flags provided everything – cake, food, flowers – and then the couples were all put into a drawing to win a honeymoon anywhere in the continental US… guess what, they won! I think they are going to go to the Florida Keys. They have until the end of the year to take the vacation.

Then, that afternoon, Bill and I got our new tattoos.


My tiger tat


Bill's Tat

In case you can’t tell, that is my left outer thigh. Boy did that hurt! The tattoo artist said that is a very tender part of the body and this tat had a lot of detail so he had to keep going over it with both colors and by the time he was done, I was pretty much done! They are healing really well now and we are putting lotion on them several times a day for two weeks.

On Saturday morning at about 7:30 we got woken up but the dogs barking that someone was here. Bill got up and looked out the window and then told me I had to get up and get dressed. “What?” “Just get dressed; someone is here to see you.” So I got up and got dressed and went out on the porch and there stood my oldest son Tom – in uniform! After hugging him and asking him what he was doing here (he graduates from EOD School in July) he said they gave them all 4 day passes so he and a buddy drove home! What a great surprise. Apparently everyone knew ahead of time but me!

Bill put him to work helping him jack hammer the hole where we will be putting down the septic tank for the new place.


Putting in the septic tank

We also got our first veggies out of our garden in the country – zucchini! I fried them up in some bacon grease and we had them with BLTs on Sunday evening.


Zucchini

And the nests that the birds built in the shelter in the campground – well one of them was knocked over and I think something got to the babies and the eggs. The other one is still there and the eggs are starting to hatch!


Baby Bird

Monday we had a BBQ in the back yard with all my kids and some of their friends. We played washers and hillbilly golf and got sun burnt.  It was a good day. The boys all posed for a picture of the family tat.


Family Tat

Tom left at 4:00am this morning to go pick up his buddy and head back to Florida. Now it’s back to work for me as well.

 

What's Cookin

Since its Memorial Day weekend I went ahead and included Monday in this weeks menu. I will be going down to Bill’s house on Thursday after his son’s wedding and staying till Monday evening. I’m hoping the kids will come down on Monday and we can have a BBQ and hang out in the woods. :)

Monday: Pork Steaks, corn on the cob, salad
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: Pork tenderloin in pan sauce (March 2010 Everybody Cooks),
mashed potatoes, green beans
Thursday: Eat Out (getting tattoos at Bill’s)
Friday: Tilapia, steamed broccoli, rice pilaf
Saturday: quesadillas, chips and salsa
Sunday: BLTs, chips
Monday: Country Ribs, Mac and cheese, salad, chips, dessert (probably strawberries)

As usual if you want a recipe just ask.

Spring is here

I haven’t posted in a while about the ‘barn’ because we have been working outside instead of inside.  We have a couple of festivals out in the campground so we have been focusing on Beltane as of late.   We will host our Beltane festival this weekend.  We usually do our festivals in the middle of the month so that they don’t conflict with all the other festivals in the area.

While we were working on the campground a few weekends ago, we found that a bird had built a nest in the fold of the 10x20 shelter that we have permanently out there.  Well, as we feared the wind knocked the nest down and all four eggs were left by the mother.   On Saturday night we were out there again for the full moon and I went over to the shelter to get our chairs and another bird had built a nest in the chair!  She had 3 eggs in it already.  So we have decided that we will tape off the shelter this year for Beltane and not use it so that the bird can raise her young in peace. 

Yesterday, Bill discovered that the original bird that had built her nest in the fold – is back.  She built another one – in the fold above the last one!  She just didn’t learn I guess – or she’s determined – one way or the other.  J

Soap Box or rant – you decide.

With so much information in the news lately about same sex marriage, I guess I am just too simplistic for the masses. My thoughts are why is the government involved in marriage at all? I know the benefits thing but really, does the government need to identify what a marriage is? I think this is a religious or spiritual thing not a government thing to be decided in black and white, yes or no, good or bad.

Marriage is a union of two people that love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together – period. What difference does it make what sex, color, race, creed, whatever they are – they are committed to each other.

I say let your religion decide if they want to marry you. Get your marriage from your religious affiliation and if you don’t have one then get married by one that swings your way. Then the government would not have to pass laws, worry about, waste our time with the endless battle over same sex marriage – just issue the benefits based on your status with the ‘church’ or other religious affiliation and move on.

I’m sure I’ll get lots of comments on this one as I know there are as many opinions out there as I have friends on my list. You are entitled to your opinion and so am I – just voicing mine. :)

What's Cookin

Monday: Chicken tortellini casserole
Tuesday: Amanda’s for dinner
Wednesday: spaghetti
Thursday: Three Cheese Pizza with Garlicky spinach and bacon (WW Better than takeout)
Friday: Blackened Salmon, mashed potatoes, asparagus
Saturday: Leftover chicken casserole and strawberry shortcake
Sunday: BBQ Pork Steaks, pasta salad, grilled veggies

As usual if you want a recipe just ask.

A storm is coming

Literally! Looks like we are in for a good old fashioned thunderstorm with rain and lightning and thunder which is already rumbling in the distance. I have the windows open to take full advantage of the sound of it and the smell of it! I love the smell of rainstorms!

It did this early this moring too but we never got a drop and it passed on by - this time I don't think we will get away with that. I'm so glad I work from home on Fridays so I can cheat and sit here with my big kitchen window and watch it.

Weekend Pics

I kept forgetting to post these and I have a lull at work right now waiting for something to get fixed... so here they are:

Miss Meghan helped me plant flowers around our quarter trees a couple of weeks ago and last weekend cherittfn pulled weeds and mulched - everything looks so pretty now!


This is our West Quarter - Pan there looks right out to the road as you enter the campground.


This is our North Quarter - I just love that little gnome!


This is not the 'official' East quarter but I had an extra Fairy and she likes it here.


This is the East Quarter - We were cutting trees last fall and Bill just happen to cut one like that and it looked like a chair - se we put in in the East for the Fey.


And finally the South Quarter - I should have gotten a pic of the other dragon we have close by - it's all curled up.

This weekend is Bill's son's Graduation at Rolla so we won't be doing much if any work on the land - but I do plan to go out Saturday night and do full moon!