Life is a Conundrum

Life is a Conundrum Has Moved

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:07:00 +0000

Many thanks to Blogger for hosting my blog these past few years. However, it's time to move on. Please follow this link to the new blog.

A Knight's Tale - Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 17:21:00 +0000

First a little update on my ten day staycation. I tackled my room on Monday, and thanks to all the help from Kev who really made the job a lot easier for me. I clean, he empties the can and puts in another bag for me. One of the items that gets put into my bedroom with regularity are bags of clothing that no one wears. So I went through all those. I did three loads of laundry day after day before the 9am "cut off" that we agree to with Arizona Public Service (the electricity is cheapest from 9pm to 9am). I took cobwebs down in the living room, and also took down the living room curtains and washed them. And I removed the lime and calcium from which both toilets were in desperate need of rescue. Now to keep them clean and not let them get built up again.

I found myself dreading my return to work after ten days, but I had to, so I did. But I only had to work for three days, and then Wednesday night began the conference I had to attend for my job. It was a training conference for the electronic bookkeeping system we have been using for the last three years. Last year, the conference was spectacular. I have never been to a conference in all my life, so I had nothing with which to compare, but I am sure they really spoiled us. They chose a different hotel this year, and didn't quite spoil us like they did last year. I didn't learn much until after the conference was over, from another user who showed me what I'd been missing in the program that hooks up with Excel. Wow!! I can't wait to get back to work and check it out. I'd be checking it out RIGHT NOW instead of blogging, but the work server isn't allowing anyone to connect and IT won't be back in until Tuesday. So I'll just have to forget about it for a couple of weeks, since I have to get caught up when I get back on Tuesday.

From the same kind lady, I also got to hold an Amazon Kindle in my hands and check it out. I have been so curious about the Kindle and how they work. I don't really have enough time for reading to justify buying a Kindle, and I probably would be reluctant to buy the books for the current cost when I can buy most any book I wish to read from half.com or amazon.com for much less. Still, it was neat to see on in person. The lady I talked to said the best thing about it for her is she can easily increase the font, which obviously you can't do with a book in real life. You can also search the book for keywords, that is awesome. The book also will translate text to voice, and read the book to you! Pretty cool. Too bad it costs $300.

On to the movie review. As indicated in my profile on Blogger, A Knight's Tale (Heath Ledger) is one of my favorite movies. I first watched A Knight's Tale probably about five years ago. I really enjoyed the movie, and Kev and I watched it together numerous times. Even dh watched it at least once. I am certain I watched the movie a minimum of twenty times (had a lot more time five years ago)!!

At last year's conference, on Thursday night they treated us to a huge banquet dinner but this year we were on our own. Kev was staying with me at the hotel and we decided on Chinese for dinner. Only we couldn't find a place to deliver so we went out to pick up. Kev needed some buns to go with the wonderful sausage The Sausage Man delivered to him on Wednesday night at Bible study (thanks, Sausage Man!) and so we stopped at Safeway. Kev wished he'd brought along his current favorite movie, Fireproof. We stopped by the display of DVDs just to see if Fireproof was there and we saw A Knight's Tale. Kev said we should get it and watch it for old time's sake.

I love that movie. What amazed me most; however, is I forgot the most important thing that happens to William! I won't mention it in case you haven't seen the movie.

Kev turned me on to Plugged In Online, a site owned by Focus on the Family proclaiming to "Shining a Light on the World of Popular Entertainment" and the review for A Knight's Tale is positive.

My understanding of the Bible is since we are living in the dispensation of Grace, we are no longer under the law. We don't have to jump through hoops to win our salvation. Jesus Christ did the work on the cross at Calvary, and all we have to do to be saved is believe he died for our sins, was buried and rose again. That's all. We don't have to get baptized, go door to door witnessing, go to church every time the building is open, speak in tongues, pay tithes, ask for forgiveness, say prayers every night, get down on our knees, pray over our food before we eat, go to confession or anything else that most religions tell you must be done in order to be saved or to be a good Christian. In essence, what they all promote is that you must work your way into heaven, or you can't be saved. This twisting of God's Word is nothing more than the enemy's way of confusing the truth.

While it's perfectly okay for a believer to attend popular movies, I appreciate the Plugged In Online site because it gives some insight to the movie from a "Christian" perspective. For example, a secular review would never think to include profanity occurrences in a movie. If you are a person trying to bring every thought under control, attempting to remain pure in a world which thinks nothing of filling even children's movies with sexual innuendo, you might find Plugged In Online to be of help in making a decision to support Hollywood in a current movie.

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

I, myself have found the site to be helpful because the secular synopsis of the movie seemed innocent enough, but whoa, when I read more about it from the opposite mindset on Plugged In Online, what a difference. Do I really want to go to a PG-13 movie with my husband to find that the main female character (who is married) dresses scantily and kisses half the men in the movie? Why fill our minds with these images when all they do is linger there for us to fight against?

While there are two instances when we see Chaucer's naked backside, the context is not sexual. He's a bad gambler who loses. Everything. Including his clothing.

The movie has romance, chivalry, it's funny (Wat: "Pain, lots of pain."), it's triumphant, there are happy reunions, it's an all around great movie.

We're going to watch it again tonight as a family.

Until next time.

10 Day Staycation

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:00:00 +0000

I haven't posted in weeks. I am sorry about that. I have just been worn out, as usual.

For reasons unknown to me, I was gifted with four weeks of vacation this year at my job. Last year I got one week and I never used it. So now I have five weeks coming to me, plus I'm accruing time as each month goes by. Pretty cool.

Kev and I went to church camp this year and as usual it wore me out. We drove ourselves, which was even more stressful since my car now has 294,000 miles on it with the original engine and transmission. It has been driving perfectly fine, but I know those components won't last forever. Thankfully we got to California and back with no problems whatsoever. Well, except for the air conditioning wasn't working on the way home. Cold air would blow through the system when we were driving at a high speed so we weren't totally without air but it was hotter than it would have been with air.

Dh managed to discover the problem and fix it last week for thirty bucks. I am so thankful, and I can even run the air on high now! I haven't been able to do that for the past three years because it was making a noise when I would run it on high. Now we know why, it was the squirrel cage thingy around the motor that had a few fins broken on one end so they were flying out when the squirrel cage was spinning really fast.

Anyway... my point in blogging this evening is that it is amazing how my stress level has decreased in knowing that I don't have to go to work next week. This morning I had to take Matt to his asthma specialist appointment, thankfully this is a positive experience for both of us. The asthma doctor recognizes that Matt has a needle phobia, therefore would never suggest anything to do with needles, doesn't even put him on the scale. Just listens to his lungs, looks into his nose, ears and throat and asks how he's doing otherwise. And he's a really nice guy. I see him for my asthma, too.

Usually on Fridays, if I have to leave the house, once I get home I feel like I'm overcome with anxiety because I have lost so many hours and now it's time to cook dinner, and then I only have Saturday to get everything done that needs to be done, and then I feel stressed and anxious about church on Sunday morning. Do I go and lose pretty much the entire day? Because when I get home at 2pm (earliest) I'm usually exhausted and have to lay down and sleep for a couple hours, then it's time to get ready to go to work the next day. I end up not going to church for weeks on end because I'm so stressed out already and having to get dressed and go just about does me in. Another component is that Matt doesn't like to go, and dh won't insist that he go (he nods off during the service snoring, anyway) so one of us needs to stay home with him so he isn't alone.

Anyway, today Kev wanted to make dinner, he made cheese enchiladas and they were delicious. But that also meant that after Matt and I got home, I could just relax. I took a nap from 3:30 to 5:30 and woke up feeling very rested, and no anxiety and stress that "oh no I just spent two hours I didn't really have napping".

I have been so stressed out lately that I decided before going to camp I'm just going to take Kava Kava every day, no matter if it will cause liver damage after prolonged usage. The stupid asthma medication, a corticosteroid causes liver damage so oh well.

The Kava Kava works nicely to keep my stress level checked so that I'm not having anxiety attacks. I was doing that for a couple of weeks. No fun.

So now that I have the next nine days off, I am all full of plans for what I need to get done. Note the operative word "need". Because what I would LOVE to do is to just kick back and relax every single day and do as little as possible. Just relax and recuperate and try to get to a place where I feel well rested and back to having some energy.

But no. The house is a dreadful disaster and I am really anxious to make some kind of progress. Lots of decluttering and cleaning needs to be done. I haven't mentioned hoof trims in months because they haven't been done. My poor milkers hooves are in dreadful condition. Which makes it worse for me because I don't have the strength in my hands to trim their hooves when they are as tough as nails. Literally. I can't use the normal trimmers, they do nothing. One of my girls was limping so I had to do her feet and dh helped me. He usually can't because his feet hurt if he stands on them too long. I'm not strong enough to hold their back legs steady and one year I had a rotator cuff shoulder injury due to the herd queen kicking and jerking my arm. I couldn't raise my arm for months and months. Kev can hold them for me, he is strong enough, but it is difficult to get his help. If he's not working with his father for the day that I'm available, he's busy with something else. And frankly I haven't had the energy to even consider doing hoof trims. When dh helped me the one time, luckily he did, because he was able to get me a tool that would actually work. I think he said they were called bullnose snips. For sheet metal work. They actually were able to bite into and crack pieces of the hardened hooves away so I could get down to the new hoof which can be cut with normal clippers. So Kev and I will need to use this tool as the hooves are all very long on everyone. Well, not as disastrously long as I've heard some have gotten (seven inches long?!) but a couple inches, which is terribly long. It makes the milkers unsteady on their feet jumping onto the milking stand and then back down.

But in the next nine days, hoof trims will get done. It is one of the things I must do. Kev says he will help me. Not this weekend but one day next week when he's not at work.

I filed an extension in April for our taxes, I thought I was ready but at the last minute as I was going over the return I discovered some problems and ended up filing an extension. I need to find a tax person to help me. The thought of that is overwhelming, but it has to be done.

I have to get that moving as October 15th will be here before I know it.

I want to get my room cleaned and decluttered. I want to get my bathroom cleaned and decluttered.

We had to buy a new air conditioning unit, a heat pump. We previously had a split system. Now the spot where the inside part of the split system is empty. I want that area redone, part of the wall has to be knocked out and refinished. Then the books in the milk crates in the living room (since the book shelf collapsed last week) can be put into the living room shelves, and the canned goods which reside there can go into the pantry area where they should go. I doubt that will happen.

I need to do a thorough cleaning and vacuuming of Matt's room.

The living room needs to be seriously decluttered.

The kitchen needs work - all the counters need to be cleaned and bleached. The floor swept and mopped. I'd like to get under the kitchen sink cleaned out.

The main bathroom needs to be power washed with a sandblaster. Enough said.

I would dearly love to see the living room and dining room carpet scrubbed and cleaned.

And then I need to get caught up on dh's mileage and books.

I told dh I'm getting the house cleaned up, then I'm making a chore list and we're all going to stick to it.

I would also love to get a menu put together and do the shopping. I know we'd spend less on food if we had a good meal plan put together - that we'd follow!!

Need I go on?

Obviously there is more to do than one person could possible complete in the next nine days. Maybe one person who could work hard non-stop for 14 hours a day. At very least, impossible for one person who is constantly running on empty and tired and worn out and needs to take a nap every day.

My mother in law had a good suggestion. Plan to clean for three hours a day and then call it a day. That would be twenty-seven hours worth of cleaning in the next nine days. Surely that would make a dent. Kev says if there is throwing away to be done, he's willing to help me. Maybe he can help me declutter my bedroom. I think I'm really ready to make a big effort to get rid of a bunch of stuff that I'm never going to sell on eBay.

Oh, the other thing I need to get going on is the garden! Right now it is a desolate barren land. Some of the tomato plants survived. The eggplants are thriving. And a couple of watermelon plants are still alive and well. Oh, and the weeds. The purslane (actually an edible weed) is going bonkers. I have pulled up almost a full wheelbarrow of it - which the chickens loved - and it is still coming up all over the garden.

I did have a nice day with Matt. We went to Denny's for "breakfast" and it was very crowded. We got there at 9:15 and the doctor's appointment was at 10am. Our food didn't arrive until 9:46 and so we only got to eat a little bit of it before we had to leave. Matt really wanted an oreo shake but we had to leave before I could even think about ordering him one. I know he doesn't need the extra calories so it was probably good we had to leave. We did take our food with us to go. After the doctor's visit Matt wanted to go see a movie, so we had about an hour and ten minutes to kill. We went to the local outlet mall looking for a big and tall men's store but they didn't have one. Then we went to Savers to see if we could find some shorts for Matt. He needs an extra couple pair. I found a pair of Van's tennis shoes there for him that cost $5.99. Not the prettiest things, but wide enough for his wide foot. Then we ran in to Walmart to get some shoestrings and his doctor said we could try Zyrtec-D to try and cut down on the congestion Matt has when he awakens which causes him to hack and spit for an hour. Poor guy, he just doesn't get how social unacceptable it is to hack and spit like that. I hope the Zyrtec-D helps. The doctor said he didn't see much going on in his throat, like post nasal drip. So maybe it's just he's gotten into the habit of spitting and hacking.

We saw G-Force, which was a pretty cute movie.

Well, I guess I should get to bed now. I'm tired already. Tomorrow I am planning to work on a mailing for our church with hopes to have it ready to mail on Monday. I left work on Thursday with work that still needs to be done for our fiscal year closing so I have to work on that, too.

It's supposed to rain this weekend. I hope so. I love the rain and my garden would sure love a good watering. I remembered with some horror this afternoon just after waking from my nap that I left the little baby watermelon I'd picked, which seemed to be perfectly ripe, out in the garden on my gardening table. So it is probably ruined for human consumption.

Until next time.

Star Trek : The Newest Movie

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Oh my word. Oh my word. I just found out that all the original Star Trek series can be watched online. As I write this post, I'm watching Turnabout Intruder Episode 79.

A couple of weeks ago, dh took me out on a date as thanks for the hard work I've been doing for him and the business. It's kind of stressful going out since we don't really like eating out that much. I'm often disappointed with the meal, especially if I eat too much.

But it seems to be the socially acceptable thing to do, so we decided to go out and try again, and dh asked if I wanted to go see a movie. He doesn't really like to go see movies, he considers them a waste of time. Precious time that could be spent doing other things. Well, anyway, since he was offering I looked in the paper he'd handed me and found that Star Trek was showing.

He never really cared much for Star Trek either. You know, waste of time. ;-)

I remember when I was 15 years old watching Star Trek. My siblings and I loved it. We'd play Star Trek, I'd play Spock and display no emotions. Dee Elle would play Dr. McCoy. I think. Or would she play Captain Kirk. ;-)

I think my most favorite, after the original series was The Next Generation, I watched every episode. Deep Space Nine was good. Voyager was gret. I never got to see all the Enterprise series, although Scott Bakula is one of my favorite actors. I really loved him in Quantum Leap.

I really liked the Star Trek movie. Okay, if you're going to see the movie and don't want it spoiled, turn back now.

Spoiler space...

+

+

+

+

+

+

Okay, so I really liked the movie. I did however, think it was bordering on sacriledge to have Mr. Spock and Lt. Uhura involved romantically. That would NEVER have happened on the starship Enterprise.

It was great to see each cast member arrive in the movie. Dr. McCoy/Bones... Chekov, Scotty... it was fun remembering who was who. I feel that the new movie would mean the most if you had watched the original series. Which by the way, came out in the 60s! I was watching reruns in 1979.

I wasn't impressed with Mr. Spock in the movie, he was too baby faced, and way too emotional. But then again, the movie was operating on the aspect of "alternate reality".

Oh boy, Mr. Spock is under arrest for mutiny in Episode 79. Ah, that sure was great. I wish I had more time to watch all the original shows. Somehow I've got to make more time to have fun.

Until next time.

Making Soured Milk

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:25:00 +0000

I was late getting out to milk on Saturday morning. Kev and I didn't get home until 1:20am and then dh woke with a start at 6am asking, "How did THAT happen?" He always panics a bit when he wakes up so late and the sun is shining so brightly. He's normally out of bed by 2:30am. Most people's eyes widen at the thought of getting up so early.

But you know, it's not that hard to get up at 2:30am when you go to bed at 6 or 7pm. And when you repeatedly get up at 2:30am, it's easy to go to bed at 6 or 7pm. You are ready for bed by that time, trust me.

Even though we "slept in" we were dragging from lack of sleep, I got less than five hours and it's pretty hard for me to cope on so few hours. We lolly-gagged around and finally made our way out to milk. Since it had rained very hard on Friday night, I figured there would be millions upon millions of flies, especially since it is The Time of the Flies.

Amazingly, there were only two or three flies hanging around and they didn't even harrass me or the girls while I milked. The previous day I'd forgotten some milk in a plastic bucket and it smelled delicious. No really. Raw milk doesn't go rotten or putrid like pasteurized or homogenized milk. I remember the first time I soured milk on purpose. I was afraid I was going to get food poisoning and be sick for days. But if you think about it, what's yogurt? Simply soured milk, the only difference is specific bacteria is added to turn the milk into yogurt.

So I decided to try a new experiment. Usually when the urge strikes to make yogurt and/or soured milk, I get out my yogurt maker. A time or two I've put a gallon of milk on the dryer which sits outside on the back porch, to let it sour. After it curdles, I strain it and it makes the most fantastic cream cheese.

My new experiment was to try making yogurt without using the yogurt maker. I strained the milk, mixed in some Fage (the MOST delicious yogurt and given to us free) for starter and set it on the dryer which is outside on the porch.

Twelve hours later, the yogurt was not yet yogurt. I think it wasn't hot enough out. Although my yogurt maker stays at a constant 125°F, yogurt can be made at a lower temperature. In fact, making it at a lower temperature creates a more nutritious product, especially when you start out with raw milk.

In the picture above, the jar on the right holds the yogurt, the jar on the left is plain milk.

Fermented foods are an important component to our diets as they provide friendly bacteria which helps our digestive systems to work effectively.

The big rage seems to be fiber, fiber, fiber. While fiber is important, it can wreak havoc on your digestive system and cause major problems if you get too much of it. Sometimes the problem is not a need for fiber, but for fermented foods, especially if you take antibiotics. Foods which will add friendly bacteria to your digestive system, and help your body get all the nutrients it can from the foods you eat. Of course, that depends on if the food you eat has nutritional content. If you're living off Pop Tarts, McDoubles and slushees, you are probably starving in a nutritional sense. Sometimes I think it's pretty fantastic how our bodies can survive on the foods we ingest.

The next morning, Sunday, I checked my concoctions. The yogurt was indeed yogurt, and the sour milk had separated into curds and whey.

I strained out the whey and gave it to the chickens, and was left with what looked to be sour cream. A little bit lumpy, but it had a delicious and rich salty taste, nonetheless. I used some of it to make homemade ranch dressing along with some of my homemade yogurt and it just made the taste.

I'm glad my experiment worked out!

DISCLAIMER: Now remember, do NOT try this with store bought milk that has been pasteurized and homogenized. It will not sour naturally, because all of the natural bacteria that causes it to sour and taste delicious has been killed. Homogenized and pasteurized store bought milk WILL turn putrid and nasty, and if you could get past the stink and slime to ingest it you would undoubtedly become very sick.

Until next time.

God Bless America

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:48:00 +0000

I was able to get some great fireworks photos last night in Anthem while visiting with some of our church brethren. You can see the best shots here on my Flickr site. I used my tripod and my sweet little Nikon Coolpix S550 and took around 150 photos. I'm getting pretty good at timing taking the shot, I ended up with about 3 dozen black sky photos with tiny flicks of light. But around 60 photos came out quite impressive, even with my little point and shoot camera.

Pray for the future of our country. Some feel that the fireworks should be viewed as a distress signal. There's not really a whole lot we can do but pray and hope for the best.

Until next time.

My Monkey Bowls

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:02:00 +0000

They aren't exactly like the ones that Pioneer Woman has, but they are close enough. And they only cost $0.25 each (on clearance) from a restaurant supplier. I bought four of them and also a few others that are clear glass. But I really like these ones and think I might go back and buy another dollar or two's worth.

They are perfect for a little side serving.

The salad in the bowls is one homegrown cucumber sliced into half moons, one homegrown tomato, 1 slice of onion, diced finely, one small clove of garlic crushed, 1 dollop of plain yogurt, pepper and salt. Very tasty and relatively low calorie.

Until next time.

Pork Stuffed Eggplant

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:17:00 +0000

For dinner last night I made something we've never tried before. Stuffed eggplant. The original recipe is here, but as is normal for me I could not follow the recipe entirely.

Here is the original recipe, I'll follow with my version.

Pork-Stuffed Eggplant

1 medium eggplant
1/2 pound lean ground pork
1 small green pepper, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped

1. Wash eggplant and cut in half lengthwise. Remove pulp, leaving the eggplant shell about 1/4-inch thick. Cut pulp into 1/2-inch cubes. Set shells and pulp aside.
2. In a large skillet cook ground pork, green pepper, onion and garlic till pork is browned; drain excess drippings.
3. Add eggplant pulp, water, oregano and pepper; cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat and stir in tomato. Spoon mixture into eggplant shells. Place in a 12x8x2-inch baking dish.
5. Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until heated through.

Serves 2.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 290 calories
Protein 28 grams
Fat 9 grams
Sodium 55 milligrams
Cholesterol 70 milligrams
Saturated Fat 3 grams
Carbohydrates 26 grams
Fiber 8 grams

Okay, here's my version:

4 small Lavender Touch eggplants
1 Tablespoon butter
1 pound lean ground pork
1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon mild chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1. Wash eggplants and cut in half lengthwise. Remove pulp, leaving the eggplant shell about 1/4-inch thick. Cut pulp into 1/2-inch cubes. Set shells and pulp aside.
2. In a large skillet melt butter, add ground pork, red pepper, onion and garlic and cook till pork is browned.
3. Add eggplant pulp, water, oregano, onion powder, chili powder, garlic powder and pepper; cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat. Spoon mixture into eggplant shells. Place in a 12x8x2-inch baking dish.
5. Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Shells should be cooked and soft.

Serves 4.

I really liked this recipe. Dh had purchased the pork from the discount section and it was only ninety-nine cents and while cooking didn't smell so wonderful. But after seasoning and baking, it didn't have the smell and tasted great.

Kev wasn't home to try them. Ds1 took three of them and put mustard on top of them. They weren't too bad with the mustard on top.

Until next time.

Garden Gleanings II

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:56:00 +0000

My garden has been producing like gangbusters. I have been very pleased with my harvests this summer.

Sunday May 31, 2009

Sunday June 7, 2009

June 7, 2009
This was my first watermelon harvested. Not so sweet, but juicy and crispy, just how I like watermelon. Dh was disappointed when he first saw the insides because he thought it wasn't ripe. But then I told him it is supposed to be yellow, it's Yellow Pony!
Monday June 8, 2009
I picked the huge tomato today. I thought it was Pruden's Purple when I showed it on my blog first, and it was so colorful I thought it to be Big Rainbow, but now that I read the descriptions of the two again, I think it might be Pruden's Purple.

Friday June 12, 2009
My biggest tomato yield this year. Lots of tomatoes! I got ds1 out into the garden with me to help pick them all! The tiny scalloped squash were not pollinated, but can still be eaten as baby squash.

Friday June 12, 2009
One of my tall and beautiful Black Russian sunflowers.
Saturday June 13, 2009
Probably my last harvest of Swiss Chard. I've rigged up a shaded area for the remaining Swiss Chard plants that did not go to seed. I am hoping to keep them alive over the summer. In this bunch you can see one of my Manyel tomatoes. Here is the description from Pinetree Seeds: "HEIRLOOM Indeterminate. Possibly Native American. This is a true, bright yellow tomato, there are no reddish tones at all. The flavor is great, zingy, citrus-like. A very heavy yielder, Manyel produces slightly oblate, blemish free fruit throughout the summer. Fruit grow in clusters of 3 to 5 and run from 10 ounces to a pound. You begin to get fruit in the early-midseason."
Friday June 19, 2009

I'm trying to work up my energy to plant seeds again as it is almost time to plant something, I just can't remember off the top of my head exactly what. My tomato plants are doing really well, and I hope they thrive until fall when they should begin flowering and producing again. Some of the tomato plants haven't produced even one tomato, so I hope to see them produce in the fall.

Until next time.

Saturday Surprises

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:02:00 +0000

I threatened to tell one of Kev's bosses on him if he didn't come out and help me in the garden yesterday morning. Thanks, Mrs. Merry.

While out there, he asked me why I like gardening. I was explaining that one of the reasons I like it is because I like being surprised. At this time of the year there are lots of surprises, like the watermelon I found on Friday. Here are some of the fun surprises I found.

First of all, this HUGE tomato!! I was tucking the stems into the tomato cages when I noticed the little tomatoes that can be seen in the upper left part of the photo. I hadn't noticed them before, and THEN I noticed this really giant one. Probably the largest tomato I've ever grown. I am pretty sure it is a Pruden's Purple. But I'm not sure, since I lost the schematic for where I planted which types of tomatoes in my garden. Anyway, you can see by the photo that the tomato fits into the palm of my hand - it is huge!

Then I was looking around the eggplants and found this one that is about one inch long. I planted some light colored eggplant, this one looks like Ravena, which should be a light green colored eggplant.

I told Kev I was just sure a cucumber should have developed by now. So I was looking and looking and found this:

Kev pulled out all of the corn stalks and took them over to the goats. They loved them.

Here's the corn. We also picked all the carrots that were left in the bed. Kev's making me a carrot cake for my birthday.

Here is some of the corn that was inside the husks.

Unfortunately, the ones pictured above were the "cream of the crop", and they weren't too amazing. You can see in the photo below that many of the ears didn't get pollinated properly so didn't fill out.

After Kev pulled out all the corn, he spied this tiny little guy. That's my fingernail! He was tiny! Kev's camera did great getting some good pictures of the tiny little thing.

While we were out working in the garden... Tiger strolled up. He isn't allowed to go outside, but every once in a while he sneaks out. I love this photo that Kevin took of him.

Poor Tiger. It was a little too hot and humid out there for him. He was begging to come inside after about twenty minutes.

Until next time.

Monkey Dishes

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:17:00 +0000

I have been up since around midnight, unable to sleep. I managed to figure out why I've been even more exhausted than usual this weekend. On Friday I was up around my normal time of 5am, but after milking I just couldn't seem to get myself moving at all and went back to bed for a nap at 8am. I slept right through a conference call I was supposed to attend at work!! I got up around 11am, but still felt exhausted.

Saturday morning was the same. Up at 4:30 but back in bed by 7:30, too tired to stay up. I was in and out of bed all day long.

Around midnight when I woke up, I remembered for some unknown reason, reading ds1's asthma medication paperwork a while back which had some warning about stopping your medication abruptly and something to do with adrenal fatigue. I already have adrenal fatigue, but the exhaustion was even worse on Friday and Saturday. I was thinking it was extra bad due due to the extra stressful week at work. But then I started doing some research online about stopping asthma medication causing exhaustion.

See, every once in a while my breathing gets real good to the point where if I forget to take my medication I can breathe okay, then I just keep forgetting to take my medication. So I guess it's been two or three or four days since I used my Asmanex. What happens is when you have low adrenal function this means you are low in cortisol. Cortisol is what gives your body energy and also is an anti-inflammatory hormone. This is why people with asthma respond so well to corticosteroids. Corticosteroids mimic cortisol. So I think this has been why I've been so exhausted. I stopped taking my medication.

I hate having to be on medication regularly. I would love to be able to stop taking it forever. I guess if I could figure out how to heal my adrenals and get my body to produce its own cortisol I might be able to go off the medication once and for all.

I did a google search for healing adrenals naturally and arizona and found a doctor that I hope I can work up my nerve and energy to call for an appointment. She is a naturopath.

I have now been up for four hours in the middle of the night, and accomplished exactly nothing.

I did catch up on my Pioneer Woman reading and was reading an old post of hers about Jadite.

In the comments people kept referring to this one small bowl as a "monkey dish". The discount place I went to in Mesa had lots of restaurant ware and I found my awesome star bowl there, which is my favorite dish to eat from now. I also saw some of what I now believe to be monkey dishes. I want some. I made some asparagus soup on Saturday from the asparagus stock I made on Friday. I took all the asparagus stems I've been saving for months and boiled them for several hours on Friday. Then on Saturday I put them into the blender and blended them, them put them through a food mill. (And I thought I've done nothing all weekend). Then on Saturday I cooked chopped onions in butter, then added flour to thicken and finally the asparagus stock. Only we don't have any little bowls to put small portions of soup.

Next time I go there I will pick up some monkey dishes.

I also discovered you can make paper from asparagus stems so I saved the fiber. It's frozen right now because I'm not sure what to do with it.

I'm not asleep, and I'm not tired, this is just a very jumbled post. I think I am going to inhale some of my medication, take a shower and see about going back to bed for a few hours. After all I do have to be up at 6am to milk before the flies get too thick.

Until next time.

Oooooh, what I found in my garden yesterday morning!

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:30:00 +0000

Okay, here's picture A. See if you can find what I saw. :-) You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

Picture B. A little bit closer. Click on this one to enlarge. Or just scroll down to the next photo to see what I found.

Isn't that cute?!

Now here are Picture A and Picture B again, with the baby watermelon circled. I've seen many female flowers on these watermelon vines, but they have never started into actual watermelons. I have never pollinated watermelon. Never really thought about it.

Eggplant flowers are all-in-one. I am pretty sure this one is pollinated and one day soon an eggplant will protrude from the green stem.

These are butternut squash babies!! Of course there were two females one morning, and no male flowers to pollinate! I did cheat and use a male flower from a different variety, just to see if it would work. I am not sure if it will, because butternut is a winter squash and everything else in my garden is summer squash. I do know if the butternut continue to grow, the seeds will be considered a hybrid. I could plant the seeds, but they won't grow up to produce butternut squash. This would be an interesting experiment indeed.

Most tomatoes that you get from the store are hybrids, so you shouldn't plant the seeds as the resulting fruit won't come "true" to what you had originally. Sometimes the parent tomatoes are so good, but the resulting hybrids are delicious.

Here is a Benning's Green Tint scallop squash hiding under a leave.

Here is my harvest for the day.

It was raining in Friday morning. I couldn't stay out in the garden long, because it really started to pour.

This morning it was cloudy, and very humid. The temperature was nice. I found at least two dozen male squash flowers and not even one female flower.

It has been a stressful week. My employer finally agreed to have someone come in (Mrs. Wonder) and instruct me in the use of the electronic accounting system which I've been trying to put together for the past three years. I have been so disgusted that it has taken so long, but it has been like pulling teeth trying to get the data that I need. It has been an uphill battle all the way, because my boss really doesn't want to stop doing the books manually.

Mrs. Wonder was here on Tuesday and Wednesday and there was more than the usual amount of drama. Our IT guy quit (thank goodness) and people set up camp on both sides. Most people didn't like him, but a couple of people had been pulled into his "world" and bought into all his hard luck stories. After the first dozen or so I pulled back real far, afraid it would rub off into my life.

Mrs. Wonder had promised we would have everything pulled together, as I had many of the parts completed. I knew better than to believe that, for how could she know everything that had to be done. We were not able to get everything completed, but for the last two hours she was there I grilled her on all the questions I've had but could never get answers for, and she gave instructions for getting all the current numbers into the system. Because I have some but not all, so I have been very stressed about how to get the numbers in there correctly. It is actually not that difficult, but I just didn't know how to go about doing it.

Mrs. Wonder specifically promised we'd complete our first payroll run, but that didn't happen until the next day, after she'd left. I had to enter quarterly year to date numbers, then April payroll numbers and finally the May payroll that had already been done. Finally I was able to actually print out a real payroll. We now have YEAR TO DATE totals on our check stubs!! I am so happy about that.

One day we'll also know how much vacation and sick time we have available at any given time, but my boss couldn't agree to that until our fiscal year is over.

I'm just trying to take it easy this weekend. I feel very tired and drained, and I have no energy. I am sure it is because of the stress of the last week.

This year the entire United States celebrates with me on my birthday. Monday the 25th. I am not yet sure what I want to do for my birthday. Part of me wants to go to Savers for their 50% off sale, but I don't know if I will have enough energy to want to leave the house at all.

Until next time.

Meatballs

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:01:00 +0000

I made meatballs for dinner on Friday night.

No pictures of the meatballs because they actually fell apart while cooking in the sauce. Well, most of them did, and I didn't think it was photo worthy.

I used this recipe found on About.com: Chili Meatballs.

Only I was unable to follow the recipe (as is customary for me - either I'm missing one ingredient or I have too much meat to use, it's always something).

Here is the original recipe. I'll list the recipe again with my modifications.

Ingredients:

* Meatballs:
* 1 pound lean ground beef
* 1/2 pound ground pork, or more ground beef
* 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
* 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
* 1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper, red or green
* 1/4 cup ketchup
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 large egg, slightly beaten
* 1 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 3/4 to 1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
* .
* Sauce:
* 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) zesty chili style diced tomatoes
* 1 teaspoon chili powder
* 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

Preparation:
Line a shallow baking pan with foil. Heat oven to 425°.

Combine the meatball ingredients, adding enough bread crumbs to make a firm mixture. Shape into 1- to 1 1/2-inch meatballs and arrange in one layer in the prepared pan. Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove and turn the meatballs; return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, combine the sauce ingredients in a large saucepan. With a slotted spoon or tongs, add the meatballs to the sauce. Cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with hot cooked rice, with freshly baked cornbread and cooked beans on the side, if desired.
Serves 6.

Modified version:

Ingredients:

* Meatballs:
* 2 pounds 9 ounces lean ground beef
* 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
* 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
* 1 medium sized finely chopped red bell pepper
* 1/4 cup tomato sauce
* 1 tablespoon brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 large egg, slightly beaten
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups fine bread crumbs (week old break, whole wheat 9 grain style, kind of dried out, freshly ground in food processor)
* lemon zest from two lemons (Kev's addition to the recipe)

* Sauce:
* 1 large can 28 ounce petite diced tomatoes
* 1 tablespoon chili powder
* 1 tablespoon brown sugar
* 4 cans (8 ounces) tomato sauce
* 1 teaspoon oregano, basil and thyme
* 1 onion chopped
* 5 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

Preparation:
Combine the meatball ingredients, adding enough bread crumbs to make a firm mixture.

Shape into 1- to 1 1/2-inch meatballs.

Fry meatballs in fat of your choice. I used a couple of tablespoons of butter.

Meanwhile, combine the sauce ingredients in a large saucepan, heat until boiling and simmer for 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon or tongs, add the meatballs to the sauce. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

We decided to serve our meatballs and sauce over whole wheat spaghetti. Dh didn't like the sweet taste to the meatballs, which was obviously brought on by the addition of brown sugar which I added to tomato sauce, since I didn't have any ketchup on hand. I used mild chili powder, which to my tastebuds added no "spicy" taste whatsoever. We are refraining from using our hot chili powder since it causes dh to have heartburn during the night.

I also made some delicious garlic butter, and thanks again to Mrs. Datadyne for the fresh garden addition, Italian parsley. Kev brought it home from church at least two weeks ago, and I had not used it yet. But look how fresh and lovely it still looked! I'm sure much due to Mrs. Datadyne having wrapped the parsley in a moist paper towel and then inside a baggie.

Butter topped by seven cloves of garlic put through the garlic press, topped by one tablespoon of finely chopped garden fresh parsley.

The end result. It was delicious.

Until next time.

Artichokes. I Love Them.

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:17:00 +0000

Last week dh came home with three magnificent artichokes. Ninety-nine cents each, which is a great deal.

I have loved artichokes since I was a young girl and my mom and I used to share them. Sometimes I would come home for lunch, since we lived right next door, and we'd have something special, like artichokes. I don't think any of my other six siblings got to come home for lunch.

A couple of months ago, while at the grocery store, a lady passed by with eight artichokes in her basket. They looked like the one in the photo below.

Kind of fat and rounded looking. She said these were the best kind to get and she doesn't see them often, so that's why she was buying so many.

The other thing you want to look for it a thick stem. When the stem is thicker, you end up with more heart, which is the best part of all.

It's very easy to make artichokes. Rinse them in cool water, I like to open the leaves at the outer edges a little bit and rinse inside, to remove any sand. Trim the end of the stem, leaving one inch.

Place a steamer into a pan and add about one inch of water. Bring to a boil and simmer until done. This takes 30 to 40 minutes. You can tell when the artichokes are done by sticking a fork into the bottom of the artichoke. Right above the stem, but below the leaves. Also, when you push against a leaf with a fork and it separates from the artichoke easily, it is done. If it doesn't pull away easily, it's not done yet.

Allow the artichokes to cool for about 10 minutes before eating. Pull off a leaf and dip it into butter, or dip of your choice (I have heard of other people using mayonnaise). Rake the tender bottom of the leaf across your bottom teeth. Continue pulling off leaves until you get down to the very thin and pointy leaves which cover the heart. Pull those little leaves off and discard. Remove the choke by scraping with a spoon carefully until the heart is revealed. The most delicious part of the artichoke. After the choke is removed, slather with butter and salt.

Mmmmmmm....

Until next time.

Squash Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:44:00 +0000

My first squash harvest. One of our church sistren also gave me a zucchini squash from her garden (not shown). Thanks, Lisa Datadyne!

Here are two of my favorite squash recipes:

Zucchini Custard Casserole
Zucchini Soup

Until next time.

Growing Watermelon Upright Using Hay Twine

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:18:00 +0000

FINALLY, I have FINALLY found a use for hay twine!!! Lo, all these seven years of owning goats and wishing there was a use for the hay twine which builds up in piles around the goat yard... I looked through dh's pile of "stuff" and found some rails which were just the right size to put into the garden, insert up into the chicken wire at the top to keep the rails in position, and then push into the ground just a few inches.

Next I tied the hay twine horizontally from one rail to the next. There were six holes in the rails, so I fed the hay twine into the holes and pulled taut at the rail on the other side and tied a knot.

Then I tied twine just around the rail itself, in between those ones actually within a hole.

After I finished all the horizontal pieces, I started at the bottom and going vertically tied a knot into each horizontal piece of twine. All the way up, I tied a knot onto each horizontal piece. I am so excited about this! My great idea to put the watermelon right next to the garden "wall" so it could grow up the chicken wire wasn't working out too good because the watermelon's growing tips kept insisting on feeding itself right out of the garden. If it hadn't been for the sunflower bed in front that is still protected with chicken wire, the growing tips would surely have been eaten by birds or other critters.

After I finished tying everything, I fed the watermelon vines up through the hay twine.

The tallest one was about 2 feet long!

I am so excited about this idea. It took 22 pieces of hay twine to build this one, and that's 7 bales of hay worth of hay twine. Now if I just put together about 10,000 more of these I'll have used up all the hay twine that's lying all over the yard. ;-)

Until next time.

Zenni Optical - Complete Prescription Glasses for $8.00

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:48:00 +0000

Last summer in August, 2008, I scratched my last pair of glasses really bad when I fell in a pothole at a local mall. I always imagined the blacktop would hurt and be really, really hot if you landed on it in the summer and I was right. I landed hard on my knees and palms of my hands and my right cheek hit the road. My glasses hit too and had a big scratch right in my line of vision on the right lens. Two men were close by and helped me to my feet. I'm really glad they came to help me, for the blacktop was scalding hot and I was having a hard time getting back onto my feet.

I went to security and they took pictures of the soles of my shoes and wrote a report. I called back the next day and asked them if they could help me replace my glasses and was told they could. But I could never get anyone to return my calls. I finally gave up. Then in February I got a call from a risk management company that works for the mall and the woman asked how I was doing. I said I was fine, the deep bruises in my knees had finally healed, but I hadn't been able to replace my glasses. She agreed to replace my glasses if I signed a waiver and eventually I got a check for $215.

I went to Costco and got a new pair which cost $188. Costco's glasses are great and they have a nice guarantee, but the only problem is you have to hand over your glasses to them for two weeks while they are being replaced. That's where Zenni Optical comes in. I decided to give them a try. You can get single vision glasses (frames and lenses!) for as low as $8.00! The pairs I bought were $9.95 and $12.95. $4.95 shipping and handling for no matter how many glasses you get. Kev and I ordered glasses at Costco at the same time, and I ordered him a pair from Zenni as well.

It took me almost four weeks to the day to get the Zenni glasses. It isn't supposed to take longer than two weeks. But they made a mistake and sent me someone else's order! I called them and they were very apologetic and asked me to send the order back. I did, and about a week later the right order arrived.

So other than that little glitch I'm very excited about my new glasses. I have never had more than one pair of glasses in my life, and now if my Costco ones have any problems I can turn them over and use the Zenni glasses.

I am definitely going to order another pair from Zenni, this time with sunglasses tint. $4.95 extra! I am also thinking about trying a pair with progressive lenses, to see how they do. Progressives are just $39.00!! Amazing!

Until next time.

Happy Mother's Day 2009

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:33:00 +0000

It's been a beautiful Mother's Day. I woke up at 4:30 and went back to bed for a little while. I couldn't go back to sleep so I finally got up and headed out into the living room around 5:10. The sun was rising and it was dim in the house. I sat on the couch for a while and then I got the milk bucket to head out to milk. I stopped by my garden first where there were lots of squash blossoms, both male and female. I pollinated three or four female flowers. Usually I peel petal from the stamen and drop the petals into the garden, but today I decided to bring them in and try them cooked. I was so excited when I saw this little girl squash baby. Scallop squash!

Here's what the female blossom looks like on the inside:

Here you can see both the male and female squash blossoms. Notice the male flower is just a thin stem, no baby girl squash behind the blossom.

Here is what the male squash blossom looks like on the inside:

I brought the male flowers in to try them cooked. I left them in a bowl of water while I went back out and milked.

Here's my breakfast: two of our homegrown eggs, scrambled, with squash blossoms sauteed in butter. Oh, and fresh squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice. The squash blossoms were different, but pretty good.

After breakfast I got ready for church. Kev and I went and I got to show-and-tell my new Zenni Optical glasses, seen in the photo below. Look for a post tomorrow about my Zenni glasses.

Kev and I got home from church around 1:30. While we were gone, dh went shopping for the ingredients for Kev to make cheese enchiladas for dinner, at my request. He's also making rice and beans and is going to serve them on a hot plate, just like at authentic Mexican restaurants.

Kev is also going to get a second hard drive and "ghost" my main computer so I'll have a backup and he's also agreed to help me clean out my Pathfinder during the next week. Thanks, Kev!

When I got home I went into the bedroom to change out of my church clothes, I found an envelope and this little box on my pillow.

Here's the beautiful card. There was a little handwritten note inside.

And here's what was in the little box. If you look back up at the picture of me wearing my glasses, you'll see I'm sporting my new ruby red earrings as well.

Here is my gift from ds1, a drawing with balloons and a heart with glitter:

Kev just announced the only things he wants for his birthday this year:

Chef Hat
Sony Double Battery for his new laptop
He wants his Granny to take him out and buy him a new wallet because she bought him his very first wallet and he needs a new one.

I will try to remember to post a picture later of dinner. As promised, here is a photo of one of the plates... oooohhhhh... I knew I should have put half on another plate... delicious... mmmmmmmmmm....

I should create a label for "cheese enchiladas" I've only gone on and on about them on my blog something like five times already.

Until next time.

Sick Tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Quite by accident, I discovered that some of my tomato plants are sick. I was taking a break from cleaning the house today and I don't even remember why but I went onto Flickr and searched for Arizona garden vegetables. I guess I was curious to see how other gardeners are doing.

Read more about what I found on my Flickr account here: Sick Tomatoes 1.

I'll have to take some time tomorrow afternoon and pull the sick ones out. :-(

Until next time.

Will The Real Baby Carrots Please Stand Up?

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:29:00 +0000

I know you've probably heard the story already about how today's baby carrots aren't really baby carrots, but grown up carrots whittled down into baby carrots. No? Just click on the link and read the story if you're interested.

I was curious about what the "Bunny-Luv" bunny looked like, that Grimmway's wife drew. There she is:

There they are. All those "baby" carrots, all exactly the same length and shape.

I decided last Saturday to harvest all the carrots in the one bed, and a few from the corn bed.

I just love picking carrots. You have to be kind of careful because if the soil isn't moist you'll rip the tops right off. So you have to hold on and steadily and slowly pull. I rarely have to hand dig a carrot due to pulling off the tops. As you pull steadily, the earth starts to give and the carrot slides out. The fun part is when the carrot is out of the ground and you get to see the size of it. Below is a picture of the carrots I harvested.

In this second picture, I bring your attention to a larger carrot, with a very slender top. When you grasp onto such a thin little scraggly top, you imagine a skinny little carrot is on the way out. But not always. It's a total surprise. I love being surprised and it's hard to surprise me. I figured out a couple of years ago why I'm so appalled at the thought of finding out the sex of a baby before he or she is born - I would never want to know, and I realized the reason is because that is the ultimate surprise.

I steamed the carrots to go with dinner on Saturday night. I melted a little butter on top of them and Kev said they were delicious and asked me what I'd sweetened them with - nothing. That is how fresh baby carrots taste. Sweet, tender and delicious.

Until next time.

I Cancelled My Dentist Appointment Again

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:39:00 +0000

I was supposed to go in two months ago and get my tooth looked at - the one that has a cavity. Because the cavity is in the molar behind the "pocket" I thought the cavity had been caused by food in the pocket. I was hoping to help my tooth heal but I'm starting to think there is no way because I'm a failure when it comes to doing the things I am supposed to do, to help the tooth heal. I am taking all the supplements haphazardly. The cod liver oil is just fine, but I can't remember to take it. It's deodorized so it doesn't even taste like fish. I hate the minerals. They taste disgusting. I can't figure out what the disgusting taste is. And it doesn't last that long in my mouth but it's nasty. I'm not drinking hardly any raw milk. I am not drinking bone broth on a regular basis. I'm ingesting too much white flour and sugar, not a lot but my understanding is ANY is going to be detrimental to our health. The only thing I am doing with any regularity is I have stopped using toothpaste altogether, using baking soda instead.

So my new appointment is this month... I guess May 21st. I thought for sure I remember it being May 23rd, but that's Saturday and they aren't open on Saturday.

While flossing one night about a week ago... I realized that the tooth behind the pocket has a white filling. That means the cavity is beneath the filling. Crap. Now I have read that people are talking about their fillings popping out because their cavities are healing, but I guess I'm going to succumb to the drill and get the tooth taken care of since I can't seem to do anything right.

I am not feeling any pain whatsoever, not even the "ghost" pain I was feeling when I went in originally. No tooth sensitivity either.

I wonder if I should call the dentist for some type of sedative to take ahead of time. I have never had this kind of paranoia about going to the dentist before, but I just find myself filled with anxiety at the thought of being stuck with the needle and the sound of the drill, and the burning smell.

Do you know they have painless dentistry nowadays? I think they use lasers instead of drills. And you don't even need painkillers to numb the pain of the drill. Did you know the pain of the drill is caused because the drill is going so fast, it's heating up the tooth and causing it to get really hot and that is what hurts the root?

May is going to be a big month for me. A lady is coming from California to finally help us get our electronic accounting going at work. I am excited and yet stressed out. I wouldn't mind if you said a little prayer for me that I can get through this month.

Here's to Kava Kava. I may need to start taking it on a daily basis.

Until next time.

Will There Be Corn or Tomatoes?

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:57:00 +0000

My corn is beginning to sprout tassels but I don't see any sign of ears of corn within the stalks. I'm worried that something is wrong. I just googled and found that corn needs at least one inch of water per week in order to do well. I am concerned because this corn is supposed to grow to five feet in height and is maybe half that height. I told dh last night, if the corn doesn't grow, at least the goats will like the stalks.

My tomatoes are doing great, with plenty of blossoms. But so far no tomatoes. Only blossom drop. :-( If the blossoms drop off, this means they didn't get fertilized. This can happen is the weather is too hot or too cool. Too hot is likely the problem I'm having.

My eight sunflowers are doing great, and marigolds and zinnias have germinated. The zinnias in the photo below are lighter green, with leaves that are rounder. The marigolds are darker green and the leaves have zig-zagged edges.

The watermelon is growing pretty good, and taking well to the upward training of the fence it was transplanted near. The only problem is it wants to grow through to the other side, but if it does, the birds will be able to peck at it more easily. So I have to keep feeding the growing tip back to the inside.

I put another strip of chicken wire around the corn and cucumber bed. The original chicken wire that was installed under the bed was only 4-6 inches high around the perimeter. I like to make sure the chicken wire is high enough that the gophers can crawl into the garden. I also piled up dirt all around this particular bed as I don't think it is getting enough water. That could be why the corn is still so short.

I discovered that one of my pink Swiss Chard had bolted (in a neighboring bed), so I thought I had better hurry up and harvest all the Swiss Chard. Once one bolts, the others aren't far behind. And in my experience, bolted vegetables are bitter tasting. I also harvested the last of the beets. The Swiss Chard bed looked like this before harvesting:

Here is the huge pile of Swiss Chard I harvested. Some of the leaves including the stem are nearly 18 inches in length.

I harvested the rest of the beets for the same reason - I didn't want to lose out on the delicious beet greens if they bolted. They sure do grow a lot faster at this time of year. When it's cold, they take five months to grow into small beets.

I also found that my carrots are big enough to harvest. And I harvested the Brussels sprouts off of one plant. I didn't take all the carrots, there are probably one to two dozen still in the corn bed, nestled among the corn. The carrots look good and healthy, so maybe the corn bed has been getting enough water and will eventually produce ears of corn. Still it bothers me that the corn stalks are barely 2.5-3 feet tall.

Here is the Swiss Chard bed after harvesting the Swiss Chard and beets:

Here's a side by side comparison:

There are still a few heads of leaf lettuce in the garden, I had better harvest those before they go to seed and turn bitter. I cannot stand to eat bitter lettuce.

I bought some mint on the way home from a farmer's market last Sunday. I haven't decided where to put it since mint can be so invasive it really needs a bed all of its own. I'm thinking about dragging the porcelain kitchen sinks I've seen sitting out in the yard to an area of the garden and maybe plant the mint in one side.

Until next time.

It's Amazing How Fast Times Flies - Memories from 2004 - Part III

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:06:00 +0000

While looking for my squash photos on Sunday evening, I ran across this set that I thought was pretty hilarious. I couldn't quite figure out how this cat's head was embedded in this table at first glance.

With this one I started remembering this couch. It had a center part with cup holders that were missing.

Now you can see how she got into the thing in the first place as she plays with the handle of a brush.

Squeezing out of the drawer.

All the way out!

Until next time.

It's Amazing How Fast Times Flies - Memories from 2004 - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:03:00 +0000

More memories from 2004...

On Easter Sunday, in April 2004, our dogs dug up a cottontail bunny nest. Dh brought the little critters with their eyes shut tight in a wheelbarrow and knocked on my bedroom window. He didn't know what they were. We estimated them to be six days old since their eyes were sealed shut.

I did some research and found that it's not true that the momma will abandon them if you touch them, but you have to put them back and leave them alone. The momma only visits them in the morning and in the evening, so the experts said. We put them back in their nest and secured it so the dogs couldn't get into it. We checked the next morning to find that two little bunny tummies were full, and the other's tummy was very empty. By the next morning, only one bunny had a full tummy, so we ended up bringing them in the house. Here they are at 9 days old.

I looked and looked for a "bunny rehabber" because the experts said you can't raise a baby bunny on your own, you have to have someone who knows what they are doing. But the bunny rehabber's phone number had been disconnected. Since I'd raised abandoned kittens in the past, I had an idea what had to be done. With the information I'd found on the 'net as to how much to feed and how often, I started to take care of them. We had to help them potty by gently wiping their bottoms with a warm, wet washcloth.

Between dh and I, we helped them learn to eat from a dropper. We gave them raw goat's milk. I lost the one that hadn't had a meal for the longest, the one with the empty tummy that next morning. Apparently the momma stops in to nurse the babies and if one has crawled away from where she expects it to be, it doesn't get a meal at that feeding. The other two thrived. Here's "Bunny Bunny" at 17 days old. Isn't he tiny? He was so adorable. The other was named Squinty Eyes. Squinty Eyes never liked the humans quite as much as Bunny Bunny did.

The experts say you have to start putting the baby bunnies out in their natural environment by the time they are about 4 weeks old, or they will become too reliant upon the humans caring for them. So we made the two bunnies a safe place to adapt to being outdoors.

Pretty soon they were making their way out of this "safe" area and around to other parts of the yard. Bunny Bunny continued to come back and visit us when we'd call him for several weeks. Here he is at 56 days old. We would call "Here Bunny Bunny" and he'd come running to get what we had for him to eat. We'd bring carrots some days, greens from the garden on others.

Here he is walking toward dh, showing no fear of the human.

Eventually Bunny Bunny moved to the property next door and it was so funny when we'd call him and then throw a carrot over. All the other cottontail bunnies would scramble madly, running and hiding, while Bunny Bunny would come running over to pick up the carrot and then run off with it. He came to visit us for many months, and then he would only show up every other day, then every few days and after a while he never came when we called. We figured our Bunny Bunny was finally too grown up to visit with his human parents.

Stay tuned for more memories from 2004 tomorrow with Part III of III.

Until next time.

It's Amazing How Fast Times Flies - Memories from 2004 Part I

noreply@blogger.com (RawMilkStar) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:53:00 +0000

I was talking with some of our church sistren today at church about gardening. One of our sistren, Lisa Datadyne, has a garden, and we like to compare notes. Today we were talking about pollinating squash. I remember that I've not had a lot of luck with squash being pollinated by the bees and other pollen spreading insects, so I usually end up doing some pollinating on my own.

The important thing to know is that the female flower can be identified by the squash which will be right behind the bloom. The male flower has just a thin stem. Often when the squash plants are just getting started with blossoming, they will produce either male or female blossoms. The male will look like this inside. Excuse this photo, it's quite blurry. It was taken back in 2002 with the first digital camera I ever had access to, the one owned by my employer.

As you might be able to see, nestled inside the flower petals is the stamen, which is covered in pollen. If you have plenty of bees around, they will busily crawl in and around all the flowers, and hopefully they will crawl inside males first, then female flowers. The female flower has pistils, and the pollen from the stamen needs to get onto the pistils in order for the squash to grow.

Here is another photo I found where I have removed a male flower and am wiping the pollen on the female flower's pistils.

While searching for the squash photos, I came across these others. It is hard to believe five years has passed!! I really loved seeing these zinnias, I have some that are just germinating now and hopefully they won't take too long to start producing flowers.

These are photos from May 2004; I planted zinnias along the porch this year. They look so colorful and pretty!! I am going to have to remember to plant more colorful flowers in the garden during the winter at the end of this year.

Here is my squash and green beans. I didn't remember planting squash in this area before! That is the same area the squash is in this year.

Some of my Garden Art. The cats were quite intrigued.

Stay tuned for more memories from 2004 with Part II of III tomorrow.

Until next time.