Wahsega Valley Farm

2012!

I dunno, but that just sounds so... into the future! Here is a greeting geared more toward my pace...

Best wishes and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my readers!

Anyone have a good turnip recipe?

I thought I'd have time to write a catch-up post today, but Mike came home from work last night with a lot of kale, collards and turnips with the greens attached. One of his customers asked if I'd like them and I said "Yes!" since I didn't grow any greens this winter (due to having such a hard time with pests in my summer garden... I just wanted a break!). So today I've been washing and cutting them up and it's taking up most of my day. Not complaining; I love free food, but it's keeping me away from other want-to-do things.

Here's the beginning of the cleaning process, with my helper, Dusty, in the box the veggies were delivered in:

The collards are soaking in the sink and you can see I have quite a few turnips - with red Georgia clay still clinging to them. Does anyone have a good recipe for them? I've never been a big turnip fan, but I've not had it fresh very often. I'd like to give it another chance and have been looking online, but have yet to find a recipe that tempts me. I'll have to check all my cookbooks next.

The chickens will get a lot of cast-offs in the cleaning/cutting up process; they will be thrilled at something different from their usual cabbage and lettuce. By they way, remember all those green tomatoes I had from the garden at the end of the summer? They all turned red and ripe and I only recently ran out. They were so nice to have and the chickens ate most of them; it's one of their favorite treats.

Here is another shot with Dusty looking quite demure, which is laughable considering he is usually running around the cabin like a raving maniac. 

Well, the kitchen is a wreck with bowls all over the place and mud in the sink from the veggies, so I must run. 

Have a nice New Years Eve everyone!

Back online

It's nice to be back online again! Being without a computer is a hardship these days since I use it so much for research and keeping in touch with the rest of the world. Being the introvert that I am, and living in the boonies... well, it's just a necessity! So it's wonderful being back. 

I have lots of things to catch up on and many pictures to upload and edit so will begin all that and make a for-real post very soon. Oh yes, and comments and emails to respond to as well! At least I have a good excuse for being behind this time. 

Before signing off though, here is a picture an Amigurumi cat that I crocheted this year for my granddaughter, Margot. She is wearing workout gear - leggings, a sweatband and a tank top. It's my first three-dimensional project and was a lot of fun to make.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and not eating too much! 

Computer problems

My computer isn't feeling well so I'm working on getting it fixed... soon I hope. If I can't get back online before Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful one!

Always a trade-off

Just look at this face:

Isn't he cute? Aw, I just want to pick him up and pinch his little cheeks and hug him.

But then again, maybe not... mice just like him (of the particularly small and cute variety) have moved back into the cabin now that the weather has gotten cooler and even with three cats, are leaving mousie poops in all kinds of places in the pantry and kitchen. This morning I reached onto the top shelf of the cabinets to get a bowl to mix two eggs in. I cracked the eggs into the bowl and then wondered what the heck is wrong with the eggs... they had black spots in them! Were the chickens sick or something and laying eggs with spots in them?

Of course not... it was mouse poop in that bowl and I was irked. Irked!

I know the mice are only doing what they know to do; they aren't irking me on purpose, but we can't have mouse poo in our dishes! I already turn all the pots and pans in the lower cabinets upside down, but now I've gotta do it with our eating dishes as well.

I guess we will have to get some sort of traps and I'm not looking forward to it... any more than I look forward to tripping over a mouse carcass first thing in the morning on the way to the bathroom after a night of kitty hunting.

I love living in the country, but there are always trade-offs in life it seems. Mice pooping in our cabin seems to be one of them.

What's lurking at the top of the stairs...

What do you think?

a little closer...

and closer still...

HA!

It's Dusty of course, crazed out in his stalking mode, getting ready to pounce on me as I am walking up the basement stairs. Ha! His ears are usually even flatter in his attempt to not be seen, but I was lucky to get these pictures. He has more than doubled in size since we got him and has turned to greased lightening - running around like a madman - so getting good photos has been difficult; they are always a blur!

His eyes are still blue, but don't really show in the pictures above - that were taken three weeks ago when he still looked like a baby. He's going to be a big cat and is already almost as big as Sophie.

I had a scare two weeks ago with ol' Dusty. I was washing dishes and cooking something on one of the front burners on the stove when I noticed he had suddenly jumped onto the very front of the stove (he's still learning where he can and can't go). Before I could move him (I was just three feet away) his whole right side caught on fire! Fortunately, my gloves were all wet and he seemed to jump off about the time I got to him and he was okay, but looking at his fur ignite like that... I feared his whole body would go up in flames! Just the ends of the fur was burned and it smelled horrible, but didn't hurt him. It was black and crunchy though and the bad thing is I don't think he had a clue how much danger he was in because he still wants to get up there and check things out. He's going to be a stubborn one, I'm afraid.

Here he is recently, sleeping in my bay plant pot:

And, about a month ago, sleeping in a trash can:

That's the Dusty update for now. Oh yeah, he hasn't destroyed anything yet, but as I was writing this he tore off a big leaf from one of my plants and is now running around the cabin at super speed with it in his mouth. What a goofball. We love him!

*****
I will respond to comments soon; I know I am way behind! But for now, I've gotta make some bread!  

Checking in...

I just received a nice note from a reader of my blog that was very sweet - hoping my family (little Dusty included) and I are okay since I haven't posted in awhile. I then realized it's been over two weeks since I've been here! How can that be? Well, I've been so busy finishing up all the gifts I've been working on that it's just flown by. And, I've been a bit introspective too... something that just seems to happen this time of the year. But Mike, Sophie, Dusty, Miko and all the chickens are just fine... though there were a couple of close calls that scared me silly last week with the chickens and the little Duster Buster. I will write about that and lots of other things very soon. Right now I just wanted to stop by and say HELLO and let you know that everything is fine here ... and thank the reader for her sweet note. 

And, in the meantime, here is a picture of Dusty playing in one of the bookshelves...