Upcycling Dandelions

We have had a bumper crop of dandelions this spring - made worse by the fact that the mower was out of commission for more weeks than was reasonable, as well as the fact that I can only mow so much of 48 acres with a push mower.

JP finally got the mower back in working order and finished the mowing between rain storms last week, but there are still ginormous dandelions lurking around the property.

I decided to deal with the ones in the garden yesterday.  The soil was nice and pliable due to a rainy weekend, and I gathered a wheelbarrow full and threw them to the hens.

As you can see, they have scratched every bit of green and growing things out of their run over the winter.  We are waiting a bit longer for the greens to be fully established else where before moving the fences and giving them access again.  In the meantime, they flocked to the dandelions, and ate every bit of green off of them.

Hence I have upcycled my weeds into eggs.  Ta da!

Mother's Day Blooms

Yesterday we took our annual trek to the local Nursery to purchase plants for Mother's Day.  I bought several annuals to go in my outdoor pots near the doors, and some herbs for my herb garden.  We also picked up a few plants for the garden:  broccoli, kohlrabi, and marigolds.  I also got a few annuals for in the flower beds:  zinnias and cosmos - they make for nice bouquets in the summer time.

Speaking of bouquets, here is one featuring the things blooming in my flower bed this week:

2 varieties of iris, several columbines & salvia

I no sooner had several of the new plants in the ground yesterday, when the sky broke open.  We had a doozy of a thunderstorm, with thunder, lightening, pouring rain, and even hail for a while.  At the end of it all, the power went out, so we spent a quiet afternoon reading.

Once the power came back on, I froze 3 pounds of asparagus from the garden, and baked molasses cookies from my friend's awesome recipe.

It's been a great weekend here.  Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms!

I Think Spring Finally Arrived!

Long time no post - sorry.  Life has continued, and for the longest time, nothing was happening outside.

Just last week, I commented to JP that the trees still weren't green.  24 hours later, leaves appeared - it was amazing!  Now there is a green haze in the woods, and spots of purple from the Redbud.

I gathered this bouquet yesterday from my flower beds and the woods.  There is Solomon's Seal, 2 varieties of Bleeding Hearts, Dog Wood, and my favorite Jack-In-The-Pulpit.

It was rainy over the weekend, so we stayed in and watched a couple of movies.  One had fabulous singing ("The Greatest Showman") and one with terrible singing ("Florence Foster Jenkins") - but we enjoyed both of them!

JP and I also created this to surprise the girls:

A giant "Reece Cup" with Reece's Pieces inside.  It was fabulous as well.

It is beautiful outside, and the mixture of sun and rain has everything growing at amazing rates.  JP got the mower fixed, and then it broke again, so I will be using the push mower again this afternoon.  Sigh.  It's good exercise!

I also need to cut the asparagus again.

Enjoy your Spring!

The Scream

This is what my pear trees look like today.

I wore the socks that express how I feel about it the best.

April Showers

I finally got one bed of peas planted this weekend!  I also planted out a couple of new plants in the flower bed, and finished deadheading in there.

It was lovely this weekend - sunny with blue skies and temps in the 70's. 

I managed to take a few pictures of my blooming trees before the sun turned to rain, and dropped more than 2 inches overnight.  The girls came home from school early today due to flooding in the district.

Right now the rain has turned back to snow, and they are forecasting 1-2 inches by morning.

ARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!

File This Under "Unbelievable"

We made our final payment on the Subaru this month, and received the title in the mail on Saturday.  Wouldn't you know it - Saturday evening, JP went out to return our Redbox DVDs and was hit by another driver.  Luckily it happened at very low speed and no one was hurt, but it did do significant damage to the front end of our newly fully owned vehicle!  We are waiting to be sure that the other driver's insurance company will accept liability, as he was completely at fault, but it appears that the car will be in the shop for some time in the near future!

 

I decided to make some more French food this weekend, and settled on Julia Child's recipe for Supremes de volatile aux champignons (chicken breast braised in butter with mushrooms and cream sauce) with fresh asparagus and hollandaise sauce.

 

It was delicious...but can you believe it used 3 sticks of butter?

We woke to another 1.5 inches of snow on Saturday, and it is snowing at this moment.  Enough is enough...time for Spring!

Easter, Spring Break & April Fool

It's been a while since I've posted.  Sorry.  There has been a lot going on.

The weather has been crazy (note the snow on the 2nd day of Spring.)

We decided that we needed to head South for Spring Break, so at 5:30 last Thursday morning, we got on the road to drive down to NC.  We arrived at the home of JP's sister about 8 1/2 hours later.  Conveniently, JP's nephew & wife live down the street, and another of JP's sisters arrived the following day with her hubby.  We had a fun time enjoying the sunshine and blooming flowers.  I had to start my allergy medicine!

The girls had a blast sight seeing and playing silly games with their cousins.

 

We had to come home on Sunday, but we were unpacked and ready to watch "Jesus Christ Superstar, Live" on TV by that evening.

We woke to 2 inches of snow outside.

 

The weather has remained weird.  Yesterday it rained so hard that the schools let out early due to flooding.  Last night the wind blew so hard that the cover blew off our cistern.  Today it has been blowing snow again.

Sheesh!  It's April, I mean, C'mon!

Despite the weird weather, JP and my dad took a road trip to Columbus today.  JP found this grandfather clock listed on line for half price.  We have talked about getting one since we got married, so it is a culmination of many Anniversary gifts that we never got each other:  1st year (clocks), 17th year (furniture), 21st year (brass), 24th year (musical instruments), and coming up this summer - 27th year (sculptures.)

 

I love it!