Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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Shortly after I wrote last week's column I was perusing the new and used Glasgow sale site via Facebook. I happened to be the first respondent to an offer of free locally-grown apples. Having received about five gallons of smallish green apples and with a week still to go on the Whole Life Challenge, I went searching for sugar-free apple recipes. I'm sharing the two I tried. Now, lest you think I've completely surrendered all sense to the sugar-free life, I will confess I used the majority of...
Our wheat crop is rapidly ripening, and so harvest is looming. I may still have a week to 10 days before I switch gears from gardener to grain cart operator. The days of being able to plan my days around my own "to do" list will soon become days of cramming my gardening chores into a couple early morning hours. The rest of the day will be spent driving a tractor, hauling the grain cart. Once the combine is full, I'll be driving alongside with the cart properly lined up as we unload "on the go"...
Another week has gone by. We've had a bit of over an inch of rain in that time, and it's still drizzling down as I write this. The garden is rapidly becoming a jungle. Thanks to the grass I've mulched with, I can still walk out there without becoming much taller, but my shoes still get muddy. There isn't much walking space between some of the rows, so I have to tread carefully. There are still some raspberries that could be picked. Today would be the day I should go between the rows. Each row...
The raspberry picking continues. That chore easily consumes two hours of each of my days except Sundays. I have plenty of those delectable fruits in my freezer, and so my local family and several friends are reaping the rewards of my excessive harvest. I have had one person stop by to pick her own, with my permission, but she hardly made a dent. I think (and hope) they're starting to slow down. I've also had a lot of green beans coming on. This week I did manage to get several jars of them...
I posted a photo of the volunteer sunflowers in my garden, stating that perhaps I'd left too many of them. A friend commented, "You can never have too many sunflowers!" But sometimes we do find ourselves with too much of a good thing, don't we? I picked the first of my green beans on Saturday. I'd already snipped, snapped, and washed them, along with getting out my big pressure canner and washing seven pint jars, when I discovered I didn't have any lids! I really don't care for frozen green...
This past week I've spent a fair amount of time tidying up in and around the garden. I have installed a new battery in my solar powered electric fence, so I don't need weeds around the perimeter touching the wires and draining the power from that battery. Even though I've installed weed block cloth on three sides, the weeds beyond that cloth will get tall enough for the wind to blow them into the fence. When that happens I can hear the fence zapping whatever's touching it. Most of the ground on...
This past week a gardening club, led by Mary Christianson, came to visit me, to view my yard and garden. They, like me, love to see what others have done to beautify their outdoor space. We're always looking for new ideas and to possibly find new plants to add to our own collections. I don't think we ever get too old to learn. Now, incorporating those new ideas and doing the actual work to implement them is a different proposition. While they were here, I learned that I had been misidentifying...
Last week my column was entitled "Life Giving Rain" by the Courier, which is a very accurate title. Unfortunately, it's brought life not only to my desired plantings, but also to all the myriad of weeds that try to live here. When it's dry, the weeds mostly only grow in the rows, because the drip system keeps the water going to just the rows. But with the rains hitting everywhere, the weeds are coming on like gangbusters everywhere. All of the garden is turning green. There's supposed to be...
We’ve had some measurable rain lately, and so I’m avoiding (ignoring?) the garden for now. It’s still chilly with a damp wind. I know it’s muddy, and I really don’t feel the need to get taller by packing the gumbo onto the bottoms of my shoes. So, wonder of wonders, I’ve done a bit of housework. There’s still clutter, of course, because we live here. Our home will never be a showroom, and while I can be a perfectionist in other areas, I would never want everything in my house perfect at once. I’d find that stifling to my creative juices...
Those cute little bunnies I like watching have discovered my garden. Apparently the new leaves on green beans are delicious. After I discovered several sections of bare stems sticking up, reseeding with a packet of older seeds happened. I’ve covered that row with frost cloth. I had a bunch of flexible hoops (coated fiberglass rods) and a couple long swaths of thin white cloth that I had used over my strawberry row years ago. I repurposed those items to protect the bean crop. I even extended it to cover the newly sprouting lettuces. I’m hol...
Naturally, as soon as our window air conditioners were installed, Mother Nature decided if I wanted to be cooler, she'd oblige. My husband, the weather geek, being an early riser, told me it had dropped to 33.5° at 5 a.m. last Sunday. He hoped everything in the garden survived. I haven't yet gone outside to check up close, but from my living room windows the tomatoes still looked fine. I'd removed the protective walls of water just in time for this blast of cold. The pepper plants similarly...
First things first: I’d taken a wheatberry salad to the Memorial Day program in Opheim. The American Legion Auxiliary, of which I’m a (not very active) member provides the meal after the program. A couple of the other (more active) members requested the recipe. Of course I didn’t have it with me, so I promised to share it via this column. One remarked she hadn’t had a wheatberry salad since her mother made them when she was young, so good memories were stirred. Sweet Wheatberry Salad 2 C raw wheat 1 C pumpkin seeds (pepitas) 1 C chopped...
Because of Memorial Day weekend, the newspaper deadline was moved up. This is being written last Friday (I’ve become a time-traveler). Seems like I just wrote a column and here it’s time for another. In spite of the cold wind and cool temperatures last week I did get all of my walls of water filled while avoiding frostbite on my fingers. Well water is barely above freezing (okay, it’s really 40°), but combined with the wind, the chill factor on my hands was an icy below freezing. I took several breaks to go inside to warm my hands. So now I...
On this sunny Monday morning, after the cool weather and rain over the weekend, I'm planning to get outside. I have lots to accomplish before the next round of rains commence. Rain is in the forecasts my ray-of-sunshine husband frequently checks and shares with me. I rarely need to check a forecast because he keeps me informed. I'll be filling my walls of water first so my tomato plants will be protected from our still chilly nights. I have already hand-broadcast the granular fertilizer Dennis...
Finally, it is starting to feel like spring is here, and my loving husband sees the possibility of more snow in the forecast, and tells me about it! Talk about being a ray of sunshine. Sometimes he’s just not. I really hope that’s a forecast that changes rapidly. I wouldn’t mind more rain even though we don’t yet have a single kernel of wheat in the ground. Speaking of getting things in the ground, I have managed to get two types of peas planted, both regular podded peas and snow peas. I hope to actually reap some of those this summer. The pas...
I guess apologies are in order. In my column a few weeks back, I talked about the possibility of late snow and frost up here. Did I bring on this snowstorm/blizzard watch that was issued a couple of weeks ago? I don't think I have that kind of power, but just in case, I'm so sorry. I know no one wanted this white mess and the power outages that occurred on Sunday, even if we are happy to have the moisture. It wasn't technically a blizzard since we didn't have sustained winds of 35 mph, but it...
We’ve already enjoyed a day of summer this spring. It usually happens here, where the seasons don’t play by the rules. It was a beautiful day, causing dreams of flip flops and shorts. I used it to start clearing off my flowerbeds. I try to leave the fall and winter accumulation of dead leaves and dead vegetation as an insulating blanket for my perennials as long as I can. It’s not laziness, I swear. I think if I take that stuff off too soon, the new shoots will get damaged by late frosts (and sometimes snow). Then I think, “They’re perennials....
While I have managed to get the downed tree branches and twigs picked up off my lawn, I haven’t yet ordered any garden seeds. I’m sure the constant winds we’re getting will have me gathering more twigs and limbs before I have to think about mowing. But the grass is greening up nicely. At the rate I’m going, it will be next month before I look at those seed catalogs again. I’ll probably end up getting all my seeds locally, as usual. I saw the seed display in one of the local grocery stores last week, so I’m sure the other usual haunts have...
Now that most of my snow reserves are gone, I'm getting more serious about gardening and yard work. I'll admit my powers of procrastination have not lost any strength at all, and so, no seeds for gardening have yet been ordered nor have any of the multitude of downed and broken tree branches been picked up off the lawn. But hope springs in turtles. (YouTube that comedy bit. I shouldn't be the only one wasting time there. But be warned, there's language you wouldn't want youngsters to hear.) I...
While it is starting to seem like spring in North Middle of Nowhere, there’s still plenty of winter hanging about. I’m sure I could get to my garden space now. I’d only have to high step through one to two feet of soft, slowly-melting snow. Most of that garden space is still covered in more of that slowly-melting snow, so what would be the point? However, I am starting to seriously consider breaking out the gardening catalogs to order some seeds. I’ll probably procrastinate more and end up purc...
Another week has gone by without me cracking open a single seed catalog. We have had a few sunny afternoons, but the mornings have mostly been foggy. There's an old saw (adage? old wife's tale? farmer's lore?) that says you'll have moisture 90 days after a fog. If so, it could mean a late, muddy seeding of our wheat crop. Right now most of our fields are still snow-covered, although some hill tops are peeking through. It's been warm enough that the snow is trying to melt away. It makes the...
Since we've "sprung ahead" to save daylight for after-work recreation, can we please spring ahead into actual spring? We had some lovely ice fog last night, along with a dusting of fresh snow (again!). While it's gorgeous outside with the clear, deep blue sky, we are thoroughly, completely, definitely over winter. I'd much rather have green grass sprinkled with fresh dew than the icy cold glitter of the unending expanse of white that is our current situation. I know I'm not alone in this...
The Whole Life Challenge, New Year's edition, has officially ended. I was released from their food restrictions last Saturday March 2, so Friday was my last day. I failed miserably that day. We'd braved the weather and road conditions in order to attend the Artist of the Month event at the Wheatgrass Art Gallery. Jason Myers is the featured artist this month, with his decorated sugar eggs. Jason and I had become friends at my showing of odd-ball pottery there last year. He's also a gardener, and...
We’re all still living in a deep freeze, aren’t we? I’d love to be able to go for long hikes outside rather than getting my exercise on the treadmill. The dangerously low temps as well as the impossibly deep snow are keeping me inside, though. Thank goodness for books to read on my small tablet that’s easy to hold while using the treadmill. I have ventured outside a few times. Snow got swept away from the front door before the wind packed it solid. The snowblower has gotten a couple of workout...
I’m sorry I missed getting a column in the paper last week, but I was away visiting our youngest daughter in Illinois. She’s also a cross fit enthusiast, and friends with a nutritionist. Therefore, she’s very strong on portion sizes, and having the right varieties of food on the plate. She isn’t doing the Whole Life Challenge, but might as well be. I didn’t worry about straying from the nutrition side of things. There was a lot of freezing rain while I was there, so for exercise, I hiked up and down the staircase and around the living ro...
