Day 5: Black and blue cobbler

 I had a brief stroke of genius a few years ago and decided to mix blackberries and blueberries in a jam recipe! 

I thought the most fitting name for this concoction must be “black and blue” jam. 

Despite the harsh-sounding name, the jam was so tasty! 

The milder blueberries took a little edge off the bitterness of the blackberries and the result was lip-smackin’ good. 

I’ve since applied the same principle to my old fashioned poor man’s cobbler. 

This cobbler is the easiest thing to make, a recipe used for many decades by country cooks.  It’s been called washday pie and lazy Susan cobbler. Whatever you want to call it, call it simple to make. 

You can use just about any fruit filling—berries and peaches being the most commonly used fruits for this pie. 

All you need is a cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar, and a cuppa milk.  A stick of butter, too. And your fruit. 

Here’s the recipe I most often use. Sometimes I beat an egg into the batter for a slightly more cake-y crust. 

Sometimes I don’t. 

This time I didn’t. 

Quick Cobbler

1 stick butter

1 cup flour (I used self rising) 

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

4 cups of fruit (I cooked two cups each of black and blue berries for about ten minutes with about a half cup of sugar and about a half cup water. The fruit needs to have a little liquid in it.) 

The pie will look like this before it goes into the oven. 

Melt butter in a 13 by 9 inch pan. 

Combine flour, sugar and milk, then pour over butter. Pour fruit over the batter and bake at 375 until browned around the edges.  

A scoop of vanilla ice cream sets it off! 

Post-election day stress release

A beautiful day, but a messy looking garden.  

Before,.....then after.  Ta-da!  I feel accomplished! 

What a beautiful day to be home. The sun was bright and warm, and my frostbitten bean plants begged to be pulled up and thrown away. 

So I pulled up the cane poles that we used to make these little green bean tee-pees. I yanked and tugged until I had them all out of the ground, then I stacked the ones worth saving for next year’s garden and piled the rest on the burn pile. 

What a great way to loosen some of that post Election Day tension from my shoulders, right? 

After I had everything cleared, I mowed over the patch with the lawnmower, and now it looks nice and tidy. 

I can already visualize another crop growing there next spring. 

Same, after I pulled up our massive okra plants. Some of the rich black soil came loose, and the look and smell of it had me ready to plant something new. 

Even thought the weather was just perfect, I knew better. 

Gardeners are eternal optimists, but not that optimistic! 

Before the watch party

This election has been as cantankerous a one as I’ve ever experienced. My own emotions have been stoked by inflammatory rhetoric on both sides. 

I mostly just turn away in disgust these days. I constantly have to remind myself to pray and leave the outcome of this election in God’s hands. 

I shudder at the thought of violence over an American election. What have we become? Have we forgotten that there are easier ways than war to deal with one another? 

If we forget, we will do so at a great cost, and what a shame that would be. 

Our kids and grandkids play sports together and attend the same schools. We are more alike than we are different, if we would just take a closer look. 

I see a lot of people who seem to be resigning themselves to the possibility that election results may not go as they wanted.

That’s okay. We can put up with whomever for four years. We can work on becoming peacemakers so the next election won’t be as ugly. 

We can focus on defeating a pandemic and becoming well. We can put up our Christmas trees and think of Jesus, our Emmanuel, which means God with us. 

We can be the one to bite our tongue. to turn our cheek, to love as Jesus loved. 

When mankind did his worst to Jesus, He said, Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing. 

We don’t always know what we are doing. Let’s acknowledge that. Let’s come together. 

Let’s have a watch party, and believe in America and each other. 

Our best days don’t have to be over. 

Present in the Moment

                                                                I spy, with my squinty eye... 

On Sunday, after a chilly start to the morning- and bacon and eggs- we wondered rather aimlessly what to do next. 

Our neighbor came down to work on cutting up the trees, so we jumped in to help. Besides splitting and loading firewood, there was plenty of bark and debris to remove from the yard. 

I took a break and sat down on the porch, sheltered a bit from that raucous wind, and noticed how the trees on the hill beside the house were swaying in the breeze. Clothed in gold, they appeared to be dancing. 

The sunlight felt so good on my legs, stretched out and propped on the porch post. 

What a moment to just be. Be alive, be present, be grateful to experience. 

I need to do this more often, I said to Self. 

Somehow, that sense of contentment comes most often after working up a good sweat. 

Maybe it’s the endorphins. Maybe it’s the release of tension. 

Whatever, it was a good reminder to be present in the moment. To bask in it like ol’ Honey (our dog) has done in the sun much of the afternoon. 

Here I go again...

There used to be this thing called National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo).

 I don't think it even exits any more officially, but a few of us are die hards. 

Nine years ago, I decided to pick up the NaBloPoMo challenge and blog every day for the month of November. Now, it's almost become a habit. A once a year habit.

 So here we go.

 THIS November is obviously quite unlike any other, with the pandemic raging all around. Who could have foreseen the craziness we've been living through in 2020?

 So many of the things I typically cover for the newspaper-not happening. I'm getting to be home more, which is my favorite place to be, so I'm not complaining about that.

 Life on the farm still carries on according to the seasons. Gardens and livestock and farm chores and projects have no regard for COVID-19 or politics. The predictable routines of the seasons are comforting and they always keep us busy.

 One of the projects that was needing done got done yesterday. Our two big storm-damaged trees needed to come down.

 Three and a half years ago they were badly damaged by the 100 mile an hour winds that ripped through here. We gave the trees plenty of time to recover, but for some time now, it's been pretty obvious that they weren't going to.

 So yesterday, a neighbor came down and sawed them down in exchange for the fire wood.

 Those big trees provided such nice shade for many years. So many conversations happened beneath them. One time we had a porch swing on a limb of the largest one. The chain broke when I was hugely pregnant with our firstborn and I came crashing down with a thud! I half-way expected that to start my labor, but it didn't. Our kids and grandkids have enjoyed swinging from that limb too!

 More than once, I spotted snakes stretched out overhead, watching us--or birds--through the leaves.

 I've been told that my Uncle Bill planted one of the trees. :(

 The yard looks so different now. We've been thinking about something to plant back, but I think I could get used to there not being any trees in this area. Hmmmmm... anyone have any suggestions for pretty trees that don't get so big they would threaten the house?

A brand new month, and we are that much closer to spring

It's February already, that shortest month of all that typically feels longest, because cloudy skies seem endless, the fields are still muddy, and there's not much color in the landscape.

But! There are hopeful hints that spring will be here very soon.

Just look at how lush and green the wheat cover crop is!  (I've been putting a leash on Honey when we take walks because she likes to race across the road--without looking both ways.)
And I see hints of green in the pasture, daffodils setting buds by the sidewalk, even a crocus blooming!

We had a calf born last week--another uneventful birth. Thank the Lord for that!
Last year at this time we were really struggling.  It was colder and so much muddier. The mud just about got the best of man and beast alike last winter.

Our tomato seeds came in last week, so we gotta sow, sow, sow...

If you can believe it, I had a tomato from our hoop house with supper tonight.  It had to ripen in the house after I picked it in December, I think, but I can now say I've had a homegrown tomato in February.  A first!

Enjoying the sunshine

I'm not gonna lie, I caught myself longing for spring today...thinking about starting seeds, digging in the dirt, working outside.  And it's only December!!

The bright sunshine triggered some of that, I'm sure.

It felt good to be outdoors for a just a little while though, especially with the good company I had.

This little bit is always on the move, whether she is outdoors or in. 

We took a little ride down to check on the donkeys, Rosie in particular.  No baby for her yet, but she definitely had milk!  Suuuuurely, it won't be long.

Since I've been taking apple and pear treats to the donkeys on occasion, our big-eared furry friends are extra welcoming and affectionate.

They got close enough that I noticed that little Flopsy is not so "flopsy" anymore!  She's holding both ears up!  One has a small fold at the top, but the ear that was so bent is now standing tall. Hmmm...I guess it just takes a while.

We decided to name the jennies after country music singers, because two of their mommas are Dolly and Patsy.  Besides, they like to sing!

Flopsy, Jenny #3, is now Kitty, Jenny #1 is Loretta, and Jenny #2 is Wynette.
Don't you think those country music legends would be proud of their new namesakes?