Join us as we wander through life's adventures on our hobby farm in the Nebraska prairie land.
Posted By FarmerJ on February 5, 2010
…to get out of Honey-Do’s. But, this is one of the most creative methods I’ve ever seen!
Now, this is neither my soldier nor our couch ~ but it is too funny not to share with you. I know some of my ‘deployment sisters’ have seen this photo before. Hopefully, it will remind you of at least a couple of the rare moments we laughed during that time.
Posted By FarmerJ on February 4, 2010
Abigail here…and I’m not a happy camper! I’m spoiled rotten, and I demand all of the attention, all of the table scraps, all of the toys and all of life’s great comforts ~ including my blankie on my recliner. I am not one to share these sorts of things.
So, this one time at band camp…oh wait, that’s a different story. So, this one day a couple of weeks ago, it was a typical arctic day on the Farmstead. I was quite content in my blankie Mama had set up for me on my recliner. I could easily keep an eye on her while she was in the kitchen, and from this vantage point, I would have a ‘heads up’ if the house was about to fill with smoke again. But, when nature calls, she calls, and Mama diligently met my high-maintenance needs by taking me outside to ‘answer the call.’ All was well in my little Toy Fox world.
Or, so I thought! While I was braving the cold arctic weather ~ even I, in all my glory, don’t have a nice box tucked away in a warm corner to do my business in ~ that mischievous Mon-kay had nestled into my blankie on my recliner! Oh, the humanity! Wait, she’s a feline. Oh, the feline-ity! Or, would it be ‘Oh, the canine-ity!’ since I’m a canine? Anyway ~ the point is that this finicky fur ball had taken my spot! Hmpf!
Knowing good and well that I can’t make that Mon-kay do anything she doesn’t want to do ~ and knowing that she’d put a good ‘Womp!’ on my head if I tried ~ I decided I’d join her.
Excuse me while I pout a moment…
Posted By FarmerJ on February 3, 2010
Wow! I didn’t realize how lackadaisical I’ve been about updating you on the progress of Project: Pantry. No wonder Darling Husbie keeps poking and prodding me! If it’s been too long for you to remember where we left off, you can check out the last photos with that link. Basically, all that was done was the frame for the wall, the lights, the light switch and the door put in place. But, this is where we are now! I’m beyond anxious to get it fully completed and get everything set up just so!
Here, Dominic has installed the outlet for the freezers, which will be able to stand side-by-side. He had to redo his wiring, though ~ he had initially tapped into the wire that fed the lights, which meant that when the light switch was turned off, so was the power to the outlet…not going to work for the freezers, Son! His mind was on other things, perhaps not so unusual for a boy who’d just turned 18 years old the day before and who was still in shock that his best buddy from Arizona had just flown in that morning to surprise him for his birthday. They had places to go, things to do and people to see, so he made sure he got it right the second time.
Good thing, too, as Darling Husbie was waiting on Dominic to finish so he could begin putting up the walls. We decided on Lauan wood for the walls with a generous coating of Natural varnish. The first photo shows the walls after I varnished them. It gives them just enough luster to bring out the natural beauty of the wood grain. Darling Husbie instructed me that there is a ‘right’ side and a ‘wrong’ side to Lauan. Of course, I really preferred the ‘wrong’ side because it has so much more character with the knot holes ~ I was always lovingly referred to as a ‘knot head’ when I was younger…perhaps that’s where the psychological damage appeal comes from?!
I spy…a Darling Husbie! We’re never too busy for a little silliness here on the Farmstead. He’s supposed to be cutting the last piece of Lauan so that we can call it a night and eat dinner ~ that is, if I hadn’t vaporized it.
It took me a couple of days last week in between other projects to get the walls varnished. Darling Husbie was able to get the floor done in a short afternoon ~ we decided on wood laminate flooring. It seems to ‘fit the bill’ pretty well for the pantry. We were then ready for some trim pieces. Darling Husbie is making our own custom trim with 1 x 4’s and a router. [Really, making his own trim pieces was an easy segway into getting a new router! That's okay, though, we needed to replace the one we lost in the shop disastrophy.]
The floor trim pieces are cut and varnished; they’re just waiting for Darling Husbie to use his air nailer to secure them in place. Then, he’ll be ready to complete the trim around the door frame. That will leave us with the ceiling and crown molding and move-in day! We’re almost there!
Remember all those hours on New Year’s Day I spent arranging everything so precisely on the shelves ~ the thing that sparked this whole project? Well, here’s the chaos now. It only took me about 15 minutes to undo what I’d done. Everything is haphazardly stacked along the wall, which is totally against every OCD bone in my body! But, oh, the therapy I will get by placing it all back into the Prairie Farmstead Pantry on move-in day!
Oh! Here is a little peek at the gambrel walk-through I briefly mentioned when rambling about projects begetting projects. Originally, this walk-through was the width of all 7 joists you can see at the top of the photo. I won’t go into the lack of construction done by the builder / previous owner ~ I’ll just say that the ceiling above, which happens to be the floor of our master bedroom was…um…sagging a bit. So, Darling Husbie commenced to jacking the joists back up, putting in some worthy reinforcements and narrowed the walk-through. It all fits into the plans for the future guest suite and utility closet to the left and right respectively on the other side of that wall.
I’ll post some photos of the finished pantry ~ hopefully soon. Darling Husbie has to work this weekend, so it may be a couple of weeks yet before we’re able to get the ceiling and remaining trim in.
Posted By FarmerJ on February 1, 2010
Do you like my little ‘Menu Planning Mania’ graphic? I created it quick-like this morning ~ I thought it would be fun to have something that reflects Valentine’s Day and the month of February as we post our menus each week. Feel free to grab it for use on your blog, if you’d like. All I ask is that you credit me with a little link back to here.
Anyway, on with the menu! Right off the starting line, I’m reserving the right to change the menu this week on any given night. I don’t know why, but nothing is sounding good at the moment. Hopefully that changes rather quickly, lest I get that patented ‘eyebrow look’ from Darling Husbie when I serve him his plateful of food each night. [tee hee!] And, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, I want to stay on the Good Girl list!
Monday ~ Green Chile Chicken and Rice Goop Casserole; Sweet Corn; Garlic Bread
Tuesday ~ Shepard’s Pie; Buttermilk Biscuits
Wednesday ~ Grilled Bratwurst; Roasted Ranch Potatoes; Sauteed Yellow Squash, Zucchini and Onions; Cheesy Breadsticks
Thursday ~ Sausage with Biscuits and Gravy; Eggs; Mandarin Oranges
Friday ~ Chicken Alfredo; Broccoli; Sauteed Yellow Squash with Onions; Garlic Bread
Saturday ~ Cheese Burgers; Homemade Freedom Fries; Cowgirl Beans
Sunday ~ Chicken and Dumplings; Tossed Salad
Desserts this week will be centered around the some of the fresh produce from last summer’s garden that’s in the freezer [I've really got to be diligent about making room for this summer's harvest!]. There’s still a ton of shredded zucchini, carrot puree, and sliced strawberries. Perhaps some Zucchini Bread, Carrot Muffins and Strawberry Shortcake will magically appear on the dessert platter?! Does anyone have a good recipe for homemade shortcake?
I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I gathered my myrrh along with my balsam, I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!
~ Song of Solomon 5:1
Posted By FarmerJ on January 28, 2010
Have you ever had one of those days…or weeks? Have you ever attempted a task and things just seemed to go from bad to worse…to sublime? Well, I have! I never thought it’d happen ~ because I am married to the most easy-going man when it comes to caring for his culinary needs ~ but Darling Husbie has threatened to ban me from my own kitchen if things don’t change!
It all started a couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday. We have ‘Soup for Sunday’ at the Farmstead, and this particular Sunday, we were to have Potato Gnocchi and Chicken Soup. I got the chicken leg quarters on to boil in my favorite Caribbean Blue Enamel Cast Iron Dutch Oven ~ my mother-in-law had just given it to me at Thanksgiving. I doctored up the water with all kinds of flavorful spices and seasonings, as I was planning to use the homemade chicken broth in the soup, and then I set off back downstairs to assist Darling Husbie with the Project: Pantry endeavors.
Some time later, I began to smell a wretched smell. What was that smell? Then it dawned on me. The chicken. Cheese and crackers! I’d forgotten all about the chicken on the stove. I bolted up the stairs coughing and gasping and then coughing some more the closer I got to the top. I thought I’d done a good job of filling the house with smoke the day I made meatballs. Ha! I was an amateur that day, for I had really done it now! I hollered ~ and coughed some more ~ down to Darling Husbie to please open the front door for me. There it sat. What was to be our delicious Potato Gnocchi and Chicken Soup was now a charred blob of vaporized chicken parts billowing smoke atop the wood pile. Fortunately, it was a nice 34 degrees outside and I was able to open the doors and windows and turn the ceiling fans on to help at least clear the smoke. That ordeal was bad.
It took me six days to get that wretched smell out of the house. How do I know it was precisely six days? Because it was the following Saturday, as I was making a Cheesy Mashed Potato and Ham Bake, that I noticed I could finally open the spice cupboard and not have the lingering smell of vaporized chicken parts waft into my face.
Little did I know at the time, I really needed to cherish that moment because it certainly didn’t last long! Shortly after placing the Cheesy Mashed Potato and Ham Bake into the oven, I started smelling that smell. Not the wretched smell of vaporized chicken parts, but the smell of charred food, nonetheless. What could possibly have gone wrong? How could I possibly have ruined dinner this time? It was a simple casserole. You just can’t ruin a casserole! Eeeew, that smell. It wasn’t a pleasant smell, but unfortunately, it was a smell my family was becoming accustomed to. It was enough to distract Darling Husbie from whatever he was doing ~ he asked, “Are you burning something again?” Gah!
Somewhat fearful, I peered into the oven. Thankfully, dinner wasn’t a disaster this time. It was just a little messy and the oven was letting me know it was less than happy about it. The Cheesy Mashed Potato and Ham Bake had gotten a little too productive in the ‘heat until bubbly’ stage. Not a problem. I just scraped the charred cheesy mashed potato blobs from the bottom of the oven and carried on. Dinner was saved, but that smell was back. Sigh. Something in the world had to be off kilter. These kinds of mishaps just don’t happen this frequently around here. They just don’t. It had gone from bad to worse.
Somehow, I’d made it through the rest of the week kitchen unscathed. I was beginning to think whatever was off kilter was back on again and all would be right once again on the Farmstead stove. Ha! How wrong I was.
Sunday rolled around, and it seemed like a good day to piddle while Darling Husbie installed the floor in the pantry. I decided to get a loaf of homemade bread started ~ no concern there, as the bread machine has total control of the outcome. Once that was going, I thought a Jell-O Salad as a light dessert after dinner would be a nice treat. Easy enough. What could possibly go wrong making Jell-O, right? I mean, all you have to do is boil a little bit of water. Uh-huh. Just boil water. Right.
There were some fresh cranberries in the crisper that needed to be used up, so I thought they might be good in some orange flavored Jell-O. I put them on the stove to cook ~ a menial enough task. It wasn’t long before I realized that whatever was off kilter before was still off. This wasn’t my first cranberry rodeo. Cranberries ‘pop’ when they’re done. I knew that. I’ve cooked them before. But, they’ve never ‘popped’ so much that they spat boiling water on me before. They did this day.
I said ouch [I think Darling Husbie heard that subconsciously], rubbed it off and carried on my merry way. I added the sugar to sweeten the cranberries a little, turned them down to simmer and began to focus on the Jell-O. I read the instructions. Yep, still the same. Add one cup boiling water; stir until dissolved. Add one cup cold water; refrigerate until set. Got it. I wanted to give those cranberries a little more time, though.
The cranberries were smelling wonderfully ~ such a pleasant smell as opposed to wretched vaporized chicken parts and charred cheesy mashed potatoes. I thought I’d better give them a little stir so they wouldn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Everything was going along just as it should. The cranberries were no longer ‘popping;’ they were just simmering in their sweet sugar syrup. The bread machine was working its magic perfectly without human intervention. Complete order. Pure kitchen bliss.
I went into the office to chat with Darling Husbie a minute. You know, just long enough to get a feel for his plan of attack on the day. What was that sound? Hmmm. There it was again. What was that? There was that smell again, too! Ugh! I abruptly interrupted poor Darling Husbie and rushed into the kitchen to find that the sweet sugar syrup the cranberries were simmering in had bubbled and crept up the sides of the saucepan and up and over onto the burner. Sweet. Now I had sugar syrup burned onto the glass stove top. The cranberries were still fine, though.
It was at this point Darling Husbie appeared, asking me, “What is going on? Am I going to have to ban you from the kitchen?” To be honest, I was almost ready to admit that he should ~ I was genuinely concerned that my family was becoming too accustomed to that burnt smell, that if something should really catch on fire they’d think, “Oh, that’s just Mom in the kitchen again,” and let it burn.
I brushed my bangs from my forehead, smiled and uttered an uncertain, “No, Lovie,” and then persevered to conquer the difficult task of making a Jell-O Salad. “I’m not so sure,” said Husbie as he [reluctantly, I think] returned to the office, leaving me alone in the kitchen. But, all that was left to do was boil the water.
I filled the Pyrex measuring cup with water to the one-cup line and placed it in the microwave. I set the time for three minutes and pressed ‘Start.’ I glanced down at the cranberries still sitting on the burner, now turned off. I think I actually sneered at them for the mess they’d made.
I turned to the other counter to pour the Jell-O mix into the bowl. Trust me, given my luck lately, I very carefully tore the package open and very attentively made sure all the Jell-O granules made it into the bowl and not onto the floor. Ah, success.
Poof! What was that?! The cranberries were turned off, the bread machine was working its magic without human intervention, and the water was heating in the microwave. The microwave. Why was there water running down the inside of the glass window of the microwave? Closer examination led me to discover there was actually water all over the inside of the microwave and the Pyrex measuring cup was almost empty. The whole kitchen crusade had just gone from worse to sublime.
I think I must have let out an involuntary yelp when the unexpected poof went off behind me, because Darling Husbie surfaced again, this time not saying anything, but looking at me with that one eyebrow raised. Any of you who know Darling Husbie and have spent enough time with him know that you don’t want that one-eyebrow look! Well, I got it.
At this point, I knew something extraordinary was going on. I still don’t know what, but it’s something. And, it’s something to behold. Darling Husbie hasn’t completely banned me from the kitchen ~ I don’t think his tummy will allow him to do that ~ but I think he figures that look was sufficient enough to make me realize I need to take extra precautionary measures when I’m in the kitchen…at least until whatever is off kilter gets back on again. ♥
Posted By FarmerJ on January 26, 2010
Monday ~ Kielbasa and Fried Potatoes with Bell Peppers and Onions
Tuesday ~ Sloppy Joes on Homemade Rolls; Corn and Cucumber Salad; Pork-n-Beans
Wednesday ~ Chicken Fried Steak; Mashed Potatoes; Gravy; Sauteed Zucchini and Onions
Thursday ~ Beef Stir Fry served over Jasmine Rice
Friday ~ Roasted Sticky Chicken; Sweet Potatoes; Yellow Wax and Green Beans; Cheddar Biscuits
Saturday ~ Homemade Personal Pan Pizzas; Tossed Salad
Sunday ~ Beef Stew; Cornbread
We went light on the desserts last week. I did make an Apple Pie Pastry and an Orange Cranberry Jell-O Salad. So, perhaps this week the Lofthouse Cookies and Fudge Brownies will find their way into the oven and around our waistlines. Darling Husbie has also been dropping hints of pie, so a homemade Pumpkin Pie may appear one of these nights. I’ve got one pumpkin left from the garden that needs to be used up anyway.
What’s in the kettle at your homestead?! ♥
Posted By FarmerJ on January 22, 2010
I finally completed a project that has been gnawing on me for about three years now! Of late, I’ve been experiencing what Darling Husbie has coined as ‘Projects Beget Projects’ ~ you know, you set out to complete one task and in the process another task spawns, so you tend to that task which quickly creates another…and so on, and so on.
The pantry has been that project for me. It all started with the simple relocation of the shelves. I moved the shelves out of the under-the-stairwell closet to a corner of the Man Cave. Since I had everything off the shelves, it was the perfect opportunity to do a detailed inventory of what was on those shelves. A project begot by a project.
That spooled Darling Husbie, and before I knew it, Project: Pantry was bred. A project begot by a project. Getting the framing up and sheathed really lent itself to being able to visualize other rooms we’d talked about, and so yes ~ from that, the gambrel-shaped passage from the future kitchen/dining area to the hallway leading to the future guest suite was born. A project begot by a project.
Back to the task of inventorying the items on the shelves. As you can guess, the items in the pantry are my stock items. I have a rather large food ‘cupboard’ in the kitchen upstairs where my every day supplies are kept. I may as well get those supplies inventoried while I’m at it to make sure things weren’t approaching that magical ‘Best Used By’ date. A project begot by a project.
So…since I had that cupboard emptied, I just couldn’t see putting those fabulous gallon-size jars Darling Husbie bought for me back on the shelf with those ugly, unevenly torn pieces of scotch, masking, packing and duct tape with the contents written with a blue, green or black Sharpie, could I?! Some jars weren’t even labeled ~ do you know that unless you’re paying really close attention, in a dimly lit cupboard, wheat flour, corn meal and Masa Harina can look strikingly similar? The results in substituting one for another in a recipe? Not so similar. I’d been meaning to properly label those jars for years now.
My friend, Laura at Ten Things Farm, had given me some cute labels quite some time ago already. I’d really been meaning to label those storage jars. Do you know that unless you’re paying really close attention, again in a dimly lit cupboard, red wheat berries and kamut or white wheat berries and pearled barley can look strikingly similar? They can. The black beans and the split peas? Well, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to be able to distinguish those two.
Anyway! I finally took a few minutes and created a Word document that coincided with the spacing of the sheets of cute labels Laura gave me and made some proper labels for my storage jars. A project begot by a project. I’m so excited! Do you know the pressure one has having a project like this hanging over her head for years?
Well, I’m here to tell you ~ the jars look cute, it feels good to have it done…and I’m only a little concerned about whether I got the red wheat berries and kamut labeled correctly. ♥
Posted By FarmerJ on January 21, 2010
I stumbled upon an offer just a few hours before its deadline December 31, 2009. It sounded like an offer that was too good to be true, so I thought I’d give it a try before I spread the word about it. Well, the offer stands true! Check it out!
HotPrints Photo Books are a great way to share your digital photographs with family and friends. The books are 16 pages printed on high quality Hewett Packard paper. I must say, I was impressed with the quality. And, what impressed me even more was the offer!
Right now, you can sign up to receive one free HotPrints photo book per month ~ even the shipping and handling is free. How can you pass that up?! The fees are being paid by sponsors, so there is a removable insert page included in the book. No worries, it does not effect the pages containing your photos whatsoever. The back cover contains some printing like the logo, name and address, but it’s certainly not unsightly. If it really bothers someone, they could get creative and give that page a little ‘makeover.’ Honestly, though, it really doesn’t look bad the way it is.
Since I was under such a short deadline to submit my December photo book, I didn’t have a lot of time to explore the features and options of the software. I just quickly chose a scrapbook format that wasn’t too ‘girlie’ and uploaded a bunch of photos I had saved on my computer of Darling Husbie’s deployment in Taji, Iraq. I clicked on the ‘Auto Fill’ button and that was it. I was going to have this scrapbook be a little surprise for him, but he ended up walking in on me while I was uploading the photos. In his typical, adorable inquisitive way, he just had to see what I was so secretively up to. While the timing of my surprise didn’t go as I had planned, he was tickled about what I was doing and we were both anxious for the book to arrive.
Anyway! Since then, I’ve learned that you can really manipulate the pages of the book. You can choose to have all the pages contain the same background, or you can have a different background on every page if you so desire. There are different page layouts to choose from, so some pages can have one or two photos on it while others have five or six photos on it. You can add captions to the photos, if you wish. There are little embellishments you can add, like borders and the old fashion picture tabs that held the photos in place, even. It’s actually really neat ~ and it’s free! Oh, and once you save your photo book, you have the option to download a .pdf of your book!
Our Taji, Iraq scrapbook arrived yesterday, so the process took about three weeks from the time I submitted the photos. As I said, I am impressed with the quality, and I am quite excited to get my January photo book assembled and ordered now! Darling Husbie enjoyed receiving it, too, I think. He sat for awhile looking through it last night ~ I could tell the photos were bringing back memories of his deployment experience…which is exactly what a scrapbook is supposed to do. He carted it off to work with him this morning. I just know he’s placed it somewhere where it can become a conversation piece and allow him the opportunity to share his experiences with others. [My mission is accomplished!]
If, throughout the year, there happens to be a month when I don’t have a photo book to submit, I think I will redo the Taji book. I’d like to make it more personable and add more captions now that I’ve learned how to use those features. I don’t know, though! I can think of photo book projects for at least the next three months…
Let us know if you end up taking advantage of this neat opportunity!
Posted By FarmerJ on January 19, 2010
We were blessed with some spectacular scenery a few days ago. One evening last week, we had some fog set in. The temperatures were conducive to creating a strange phenomenon to us transplanted desert dwellers ~ freezing fog.
When the water droplets in fog freeze, it creates rime. There is soft rime and hard rime. Now, I’m not sure which rime enveloped the Prairie Farmstead because, frankly, I was not willing to bundle up and traipse through the snowdrifts in order to closely inspect the formation of these ice crystals ~ but it sure was pretty, whichever it was.
We woke up to a dark, wintry sky but everything was radiant with these fabulous white crystals. The photo above shows the Mulberry trees nestled on the west end of Darling Husbie’s shop. We lost one Mulberry tree in the shop disastrophy. We’re hoping we don’t end up losing this big boy, as it got pretty scorched from the extreme heat. We’ll see come spring time.
This is the view through the Cottonwoods and Maples to the Mulberries located on the west side of the square foot garden plot ~ it’s hard to tell because of the snow drifts, but that’s part of the slough just on the other side of the tree line…the slough divides our ‘yard’ from the alfalfa field.
Finally, around noon, the fog burned off and revealed a spectacular blue sky. The sun shone brightly and the crystals were glistening brilliantly. The sparkles made you squint and your eyes water! Here’s the Mulberries by the shop again. Quite different from when we woke up; so much more cheerful!
And, here’s the same shot toward the square foot garden after the fog burned off and the sun came out.
There’s one thing certain about Nebraska ~ other than the craze over football ~ the weather is never boring!
Posted By FarmerJ on January 18, 2010
Monday ~ Potato Gnocchi Soup; Tossed Salad; Bread Sticks [We were supposed to have this last night, but I had a little...um...er...mishap in the kitchen and had to quickly come up with Plan B. So! We are going to have this wonderful meal tonight ~ if I can avoid another mishap.]
Tuesday ~ Fiesta Chicken and Rice; Black Bean and Corn Salad
Wednesday ~ Pork Roast; Brown Rice; Baked Butternut Squash; Sauteed Zucchini
Thursday ~ Steak; Baked Potato; Tossed Salad; Cheesy Garlic Biscuits
Friday ~ Chicken Bacon Wraps; Sweet Potato; Green and Yellow Wax Beans
Saturday ~ Ham; Scalloped Potatoes; Asian Vegetable Mix; Dinner Rolls
Sunday ~ Okra Stew; Cornbread [Okra Stew was on the menu a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't end up having it ~ I can't remember what caused the change of plans that time. Oy!]
Desserts will likely be Homemade Apple Pie, Lofthouse Cookies and Jell-O Salad. Maybe, just maybe, a pan of Brownies will get tossed into the oven, as well.
