Kitchen Experiments

The Bag Lady has been hard at work in her test kitchen.

She was doing some experimenting and made her own home-grown, all-natural, organic garlic powder yesterday! It turned out very well. Well enough, in fact, that she is thinking of doing more. It was fun. She might try making onion powder, too.

She loves experimenting with things like that, and is working on perfecting some dried spice mixes for dips and sauces. Garlic and hot pepper? Chive and dill? Onion, spinach and garlic? It's fun to think up combinations.

She and the Rancher had their first feed of beets from the garden, did she tell you? They were really good. And the Rancher has been pestering her for some time now to cook beet greens for him. She had never eaten beet greens, so was hesitant. (She was afraid they would taste like cooked spinach, which she really does not care for!) She finally broke down and cooked some and was pleasantly surprised that they tasted quite good. But she was also a wee bit dismayed at how those huge leaves shriveled up to such a teensy tiny little amount. It's a good thing she cooked both the beets and the greens!

She has to go to town today, but perhaps later on this afternoon she will get around to making a batch of dilled carrots. They are so-o good! And the carrots are perfect right now - just the right size to fit in the jars.

Here's a picture for you that has absolutely nothing to do with this post! She just thinks it's pretty.



Have a great weekend!

A Mixed Bag

The Rancher and the Bag Lady went for a little walk in the woods the other evening, and saw all kinds of interesting things. As the Bag Lady stumbled along, she spied these in the bushes:
(click on any of the pictures to enlarge)

They are dewberries, and they are delicious! Similar to raspberries in appearance, but sweeter. These were ripe enough to eat, but when they are really ripe, they are more of a purple colour.

A little further down the trail, the Bag Lady's eye was caught by these pretty little flowers. She fumbled around, trying not to drop any of her dewberries, and managed to take this picture:

She has no idea what either of the flowers in this picture are (and is hoping her cousin's husband will be able to identify them!) The pink ones are what caught her eye - the white one just happened to be close enough to be included in the picture.

Later, on their drive home, she finally managed to get a picture of the geese at this dugout along the road. She has not had an opportunity to capture them before now, but she has been watching the babies grow!

And, speaking of babies, she was a little surprised when she went out to check cows yesterday morning and discovered this little guy!


His mother was a little secretive about when she planned to introduce him to the world, but he was worth waiting for.

And lastly, here is a picture for Mizfit's Tornado, since she likes the pictures of the cows. Some of you may remember the calf from last year who liked to undo the gates. Turns out he also has a penchant for chewing on the Bag Lady's flannel shirt (that she wears in the evening to keep the mosquitoes from eating her alive when she's out in the pasture.)


And that's what's been happening on the ranch lately!

Swan-ermelon

Here is the swan that the Bag Lady carved out of a watermelon. It looks a little worse for wear because it's been a few days.....


Here's the newest addition to the ranch:

And the first bunch of new carrots from the garden:

The Bag Lady's garden is doing quite well now that it has received some rain. The peas are starting to produce pods, and the beets are probably big enough to eat. The corn probably won't amount to anything, and the beans are slow, but will probably start flowering soon.

Ranch Pictures

The Bag Lady hasn't got much to share with you today. It was cold and rainy at her house yesterday and she spent most of the day hunkered down.

She did go out and check cows first thing in the morning (like she always does) and took these pictures of part of the herd.

See those trees in the distant background? Her house is behind those trees. They don't look as far away as they actually are because of the slope of the (much greener!) land in between.


And here are a couple of pictures of one of the calves bravely checking out the Bag Lady's finger.

Right after she snapped this picture, he actually made contact with her finger and spooked and ran away!

Silly calf.

Thunderous Birthday

It was another busy weekend on the ranch. The Bag Lady's mother-in-law held a surprise birthday party for the Rancher's sister, and the Bag Lady and her sisters-in-law all helped out. The weather was very co-operative - the huge thunderstorm held off until after the party!

It was a lovely hot day, and it seemed as though everyone had a good time.

The Bag Lady made spinach salad, and spinach dip, and carrot cake. She carved a watermelon into a swan, but forgot to take a picture of it!

Here's the cake, though:


The Bag Lady had a lot of trouble decorating the cake - it's been quite a long time since she actually wrote on a cake!

There was a ton of good food and they roasted hot dogs over an open fire.

The Bag Lady tried to take some pictures of the storm, but she had left her video camera in her truck and wasn't about to run through the torrential downpour to get it! It rained over a half an inch in less than a half an hour, and the thunder and lightning were incredible!

The Bag Lady took this picture before the storm broke:

It's a Mystery!

The Bag Lady doesn't have a lot to share with you today.

She and the Rancher had to go to town yesterday for appointments and a few groceries. The river was quite swollen, so the Bag Lady asked the Rancher to take a picture (she was driving). Here is what was on her camera when she downloaded the pictures last night:



She has no clue what that is - perhaps the inside of the console in her truck??

Actually, here is the picture of the river that the Rancher took.


And this is a picture she took of the rain gushing into her already full rain barrel during a rather violent thunderstorm that tore through the other day. (And apparently, tear it did - tore part of the roof right off the Rancher's uncle's house!) The Bag Lady took this photo through the window screen in her sun porch. It was pouring rain, but the sun was still shining (must be why she calls it a sun porch....)

The Bag Lady and the Rancher have a few things planned for the weekend, so perhaps she'll have something interesting to share with you next week! In the meantime, have a good weekend!

Groundhog Day

Another inch of rain fell throughout yesterday and last night, so the ground is quite soggy now! The rainfall warning has been lifted, and the rain is supposed to subside into showers for the rest of the week.

The Bag Lady and the Rancher watched the news on television last night at 6 pm and were surprised to hear that their area was under a tornado watch. Apparently, a funnel cloud had been spotted in the area. A thunderstorm blew through, but they didn't see any funnel clouds.

The Bag Lady has been trying in vain to take a photograph of the deer who is living in the bush across the driveway from her house. This doe has twin fawns who spend most of their time hiding in the underbrush, but who do come out and play periodically. Unfortunately, they usually come out when the Bag Lady is too far away to get a good picture (or she doesn't have her camera at all!).

She and the Rancher went to the dump... oops, they don't call them that anymore landfill the other day, then decided to take a little drive around the community. As they were taking the long way back to the highway, the Bag Lady spotted something slowly making it's way across the road in front of them. She asked the Rancher what it was, and he replied that it was a groundhog! The Bag Lady had never seen a real live groundhog, so she groped for her camera, only to discover that she had forgotten it! (Gasp!)
She was quite disappointed because the groundhog was on her side of the road when they went past, and she could have quite easily gotten a good picture.

Once they reached the highway, not long after they got up to speed, the Bag Lady spotted something moving on the verge on her side of the road. The Rancher slowed down and, sure enough, there was another groundhog. The Bag Lady watched as they went by, and the poor little guy backed up rapidly, like something in a movie. In her warped memory, he stood up on his hind legs, waving his hands in front of him as if to say "No! Don't hit me!" then covered his eyes as they swished by! (He was far enough off the road that he was in no danger of being hit.)
The Bag Lady hopes he made it safely across the road, or changed his mind and went back the way he came. And how typical that the very first time she sees a groundhog, she missed two good opportunities to take pictures.