Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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“Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?” “Like an out-of-control jungle, that’s how!” (I’ve resisted working this little jingle into my column for years, and aren’t you sorry I finally succumbed?) In place of silver bells and cockleshells, I have sunflowers, moon flowers, baby’s breath, bachelor buttons, and zinnias planted. They’re supposed to draw in bees, and I have seen bumblebees stumbling along the ground. The flowers are being slow to produce blooms. I hope these hot, sunny days give them a huge boost in growth. All th...
First off, let me apologize for taking a week off from writing about gardening. We had a family gathering to celebrate a 90th birthday. It took a week to properly fete the birthday girl. There wasn't much gardening done during that week. Now I feel like I'm running way behind. I do believe every single seed pod that fell from from the Chinese elm tree that overhangs the garden was viable. They've sprouted with abandon between the rows and also with precision alongside every wanted vegetable I'd...
Editor’s Note: This column was submitted to us on June 7. Due to space in the past few issues of the Courier, this column was held. I’m still enjoying fresh rhubarb and asparagus, but not together of course! I still haven’t made a rhubarb pie, but I did make a sugar-free, wheat flour-free rhubarb crisp, so as to be compliant with the Whole Life Challenge nutritional plan. I used almond flour and coconut palm sugar. That sweetener is dark, like brown sugar, so the dessert wasn’t as pretty as other rhubarb crisps, but it was tasty. I’ll try a dif...
Another busy week has been competed, with a lot accomplished. First off, almost all my houseplants have been moved outside. The hoya vine and the mother spiderplant don’t go out. I’m loathe to disturb them and possibly lose them. Don’t tell my other plants, but they’re rather expendable. My aloe veras (two huge pots) have been busy multiplying and need to be split, as does my snake plant. Those are on the agenda. There are a couple of cacti from Arizona I should split. One of those is an agave, but I won’t ever attempt to make tequila w...
It's very easy to lose track of time now, isn't it? In farming, one day is much like another, so holidays tend to sneak up on us. I let this Memorial Day ambush me, especially since there wasn't a program for which I needed to play piano. Sure, I'd seen all the references to applauding our military members, appreciating the sacrifices of our veterans for the rest of us, but I kept thinking I had another week before the actual day of honor for them arrived. So I'm apologizing to the staff of the...
We’re almost finished seeding the wheat crop. I hope that’s finished by the time we get our mailed copy of the Courier. We’ve been watching the forecast, and so we decided to work on Sunday (a rarity for us). That’s thrown me off schedule, because now Monday (deadline day) doesn’t “feel” like Monday. It’s as though I’m still waiting for the weekend and that day of rest. (It should have felt like a Sunday, though. The winds were fierce, as has become usual for Sundays lately.) Speaking of farming, I’d like to remind everyone to please slow down...
Some planting has been done up north, both in the garden and out in the wheat fields. Dennis finished pre-working the many, many acres that will be seeded (and fertilized) this summer. He's now started up the air seeder. There was a slight delay between those two operations due to the .41" of rain last Friday. He says he'll be "self-isolated" in the tractor for the next two weeks. That leaves me with plenty of time to do my thing. Of course, I get interrupted regularly: he'll need my help to...
We've finally had several nice days up here in the way-beyond middle-of-nowhereland. That has allowed lots of outside work to be completed. The garden space has been worked, despite a slight mishap with the garden tiller. Note to self: when turning the little garden tractor sharply, remember the tiller attachment on the back swings farther out in the opposite direction of your turn. AND having the tines rotating at a rapid clip means they will grab the strip of old truck tarp that's suppressing...
For years I have ignored Dennis' many farming magazines and newsletters. I have separated the pages of the newsprint ones to use the sheets to line the garbage cans and for washing windows. Newsprint is wonderful for cleaning glass, leaving a lint- and streak-free finish. Of course, they leave your hands black, but hands are very washable. Just use lots of soap and a soft-bristle nail brush (and/or soak in bleach or lemon water, depending on which smell you want left behind), then use lots of lo...
While the calendar says it’s spring, there’s still the occasional snowflake swirling down, at least up north. I wish Mother Nature would update her calendar to match ours. The sky is blue and the sun is shining as I write this Monday morning, and the temperature is well above freezing. What few snowdrifts remain are slowly melting away. The howling winds are assisting with that. Most of the seeds I started are sprouting, which is encouraging. However, some of the starter pots are showing no signs of activity, which isn’t. Okra was the first...
My alliteration skills are lacking this week. I have not been able to come up with a catchy headline for my drivel this week. I think my brain wants to remain in pajamas this morning. I suspect there might be just a few of us that way as we enter into the fourth week of "sheltering in place," or "social isolation," or "lockdown," or whatever your preferred term may be. So far, whatever we call it, it seems to be working for our county, so please continue! My seeds have mostly arrived by now....
I’m sad to report we’ve been getting more snow, off and on. It melts a little, a little gets added, then melts a little more. The melting is winning; I can see a bit of lawn next to the garden, as well as mud at the bottom, where my asparagus grows. Instead of April showers bring May flowers, we get April snows means more indoors. Of course, that works out okay while we’re self-isolating, doesn’t it? It also helps me not feel guilty for not getting outside to clean the south flowerbeds. Those are mostly cleared of snow, but are buried in the...
The spring bird migrations are finally occurring. We have had flocks of geese flying overhead. Last week a flock of crows had briefly graced our yard. There are lots of sparrows, juncos, and at least one pair of red polls visiting the feeders. They're singing outside the windows. They've drawn in a hawk that's patrolling the trees. Several flocks of robins have used our yard as a way station on their way farther north. It's so nice to see those sparks of bright red against the snowy-white...
Living well beyond the Middle of Nowhere has some advantages over living in town, especially these days. Keeping your distance socially is much easier when your nearest neighbor is almost a mile away! I can go outside without worrying about accidentally getting within six feet of anyone. We're also used to keeping our larder and pantries well stocked. The threat of a winter storm keeping you housebound longer than you'd care to be is a great incentive. (I know it's officially spring by the...
The time interval between snows and storms up here seems to be getting shorter. Last week our Monday snow arrived on Sunday; this week it arrived on Saturday. Mother Nature has taken this jumping ahead on the time to an insane level. She’s out of control. I don’t think we got that much more snow, but the 40 mph wind certainly made for some very deep and new drifts in our yard. In the space between the propane tanks and the lilac hedge just to the west of the tanks, the snow had shrunk to a depth of 18 to 24 inches. It’s now running 3 to 4 fee...
Can we all agree we hate the biannual time changes? “Losing” that hour each spring seems harder than “gaining” it back in the fall. In reality, all we are accomplishing is messing up everyone’s time schedules. It’s an arbitrary insult to all our systems. Even Mother Nature got thrown off her stride. Her regularly-scheduled Monday snowstorm arrived Sunday morning! My preference, if it counts for anything (and it doesn’t) would be to now and forever remain on daylight savings time year-round. I’m more than willing to have that hour be forever...
Depending upon how you view reading my musings, you’re either in luck, or doomed. There was no major snowstorm on this Monday morning, March 2, just wind. And that wind was more of a breeze than the major gale we experienced Sunday. It had been warm enough that the fresh snow from the week before partially melted and compacted, so very little of it moved in those gusting winds, although it was drifting across the highway closer to Opheim. It’s still whiter up here beyond the Middle of Nowhere than we’d like. Ah, well, spring is coming. The b...
It seems as though on Monday mornings (the time I take to write this column since it is due by noon, after all) Mother Nature decides to frown on us and deliver another helping of unwanted snow. It’s almost enough to make me want to discontinue writing a column, just to see if I’m the cause. Almost. But then I think of those of you who approach me when I’m in town to tell me you enjoy my scribblings. I do so like hearing those comments. Who wouldn’t? So here I am again. The extent of my gardening this week was to water my houseplants. And to...
We had planned to head to the Outpost Cafe in Opheim on Valentine’s Day for their steak and shrimp special. Mother Nature intervened, disrupting our plans with a short but intense snowstorm. Our home is only about 50 yards from the highway, but in the midst of this mini-blizzard that highway disappeared into a wall of white. We’ve been caught out on the roads after dark in blizzards before. It’s not an experience we care to repeat, so we stayed home. I found a package of rib steaks in the freezer. The defrost cycle on the microwave was emplo...
I’d copied a recipe from a magazine quite some time ago. It was held by a magnet on the exhaust fan cover above my stove top, where I saw it daily for months. I’d put it there so I’d be sure to try it. But there were ingredients I knew Dennis would balk at, so it continued to sit there. That visual reminder finally got to me when I had an epiphany. The thought of combining this with the chow mein recipe I’d gotten from his mom 40-some years ago entered my head, and that got me going. I’ll first give you both of the recipes, as originall...
I feel as though I don’t have much to talk about this week, but, being a woman, talk I will. We aren’t still in Florida, so there aren’t comparisons to be made between Montana and Florida flora. It’s a long time until spring returns, no matter what that groundhog (he’s a rodent, for heaven’s sake, not a meteorologist) says. The seed catalogs are showing up in droves in my mailbox, but I haven’t opened a single one. It’s much too early to start dreaming of days spent mucking in the dirt of my garden. I do have one more older amaryllis in bl...
While shopping for fresh fruits and veggies last Thursday, I was greeted by a friend in the grocers. He accused me of being the cause of coming bad weather. (We did get snow flurries, a bit of rain, more heavy snow, and strong winds Saturday, causing icy roads Sunday.) He claimed the weather always turns nasty upon the return of the snowbirds. I protested that title, as we’d only gone south for a short vacation. That encounter prompted me to look up the official definition of snowbird. There are three: 1) birds that winter in cold climates, e...
We are winding down our Florida sojourn. I am not looking forward to returning from this green semi-tropical paradise to our frozen white tundra. The grandsons had a weekend off from hockey, so we took advantage of that and visited a beach. Shark Tooth Beach, near Venice, Fla., has darker sand than other beaches we've been to on previous Florida trips. It's fossiliferous sand, formed from the sea life that was left behind when the waters receded millennia ago. Apparently, a lot of that sea life...
We're still vacationing in Florida, and watching lots of hockey. We did throw in a real circus last weekend. The contrast of the heat under the big top to the chill of ice arenas was similar to walking out of a warm home and into -30 degree temps. We ventured to Daytona on Jan. 12 to watch the middle grandson. He had two games: a tie and a big win. The youngest had games in Orlando. His dad took him. He is the goalie and notched a shut-out. The oldest played in Fort Myers and scored the winning...
We are in sunny Florida, visiting our middle daughter and her family. Don't be jealous. While it's sunny (for the most part - we did see lots of rain Saturday) and green, we're still experiencing some cold. But this cold is man-made. Our grandsons all play ice hockey. Maintaining ice here means lots of cold. The youngest grandson is seven. He is both a player and a goalie. In his jamboree yesterday, he only played goalie. He had four games, 20 minutes each, in Ellenton, spread over the entire...
