Cooking from the garden week 6 & 7

The bounty from the farm continued week 6 with spring greens, spinach, radishes, green onions and rhubarb. I was able to share some greens and the remainder I used as I have been.

Meal salads that started with chef’s salad several weeks ago, continue:

BLT, hold the bread!

A southwestern take with a dressing made of mayo, greek yogurt and salsa…more salsa on top…Ole!!!

Week 7 added broccoli to the haul. I had plans for a fresh broccoli-bacon-cranberry salad but ended up steaming the broccoli to have with some cream of chicken over rice.

Not from the garden but I’ve been wanting to share Karin of Paper Route Design’s Granola. I make 1/4 of her recipe and mix it with a rice cereal I buy in bulk at the natural food store. I have never been a granola fan, but Karin’s recipe sounded so good. As she states on her post, it makes the house smell like the inside of an oatmeal cookie :)!

I scoop the granola – rice cereal mix, add some chopped apple and have a great start to my day or a nice bedtime treat.

…so… week 6 & 7…and there will be no week 8.

A minor weather disaster occured here this last Tuesday morning.

That is hail. And that hail is already partially melted.

We had a strong thunderstorm with 1 – 1 1/2 inch hail and then a torrential downpour.

It did a number on the vegetation, including the gardens at Swallow Crest Farm :(

I received an email this afternoon that this week’s distribution would not happen and it sounds like next week’s is questionable as well… Mother Nature. I am sad for the farm folk as things were going so well and they are now having to re-plant and repair.

Here at my house…the sun has re-appeared. There is a lot of yard and woods cleanup to be done but…

…one must enjoy the sun and fresh air!

Happy Day.

The morning after

The air felt heavy early this morning but as the sun rose, so did mist and all is rapidly drying out after yesterday’s series of thunderstorms – most accompanied by torrential, although short in duration, downpours. One storm did a lot of damage to parts of the valley as high winds took down trees which took down power lines. Here, there was a little wind and a few loud crashes of thunder as the fronts passed overhead, then a burst of rain with a sprinkling of graupel followed by a sun break before the next squall. When I shut down last night I thought we might be in for a night of storms but not…just the short squalls and I didn’t hear thunder in the night.

This morning after: birds are singing, the air is clear and still and the sky is blue….

…and some of us are having a Sunday nap.

It was a dark and stormy night…

…or to be more exact…it IS a dark and stormy night. I write this post with thunder rumbling and getting closer. The sky is dark at 8:00 p.m. an hour and 45 minutes before sunset. My S.A.M.E./NOAA radio has alerted twice for severe thunderstorms.

I cannot help thinking of and missing Karl…knowing this weather would be so upsetting to him.

…Bear, it does not faze. Bear is lying on my bed. The window is open, lightning is flashing and thunder is rumbling and he is calm.

Bob is under the daybed in his room!

It is a dark and stormy Saturday night.

The grass has been mowed. The yard and house and woods grasses glow green – more so against the backdrop of the stormy skies.

But during a time of light…

Mariposa Lily.

The woods has a bumper crop of Mariposa Lily this year.

Beautiful.

CRASH, BANG, BOOM and a flash of lighting! The storm approaches. It is raining…harder.

Time to unplug. Happy Saturday evening.

TGIF

Friday – YEA! Srlsy…YEA!!!!

Mixed bag of a week but we ended on a high note of work well done, skunked dog slightly less stinky and a beautiful evening.

Yes, says Bob: “TGIF!”

Happy Solstice (yesterday)!

The skunk??? No, just Bear in the tall grass…a bit ironic that his tail looks very skunk-like.

But we stayed clear of Skunk-ville today: work, a run to Whitefish, more work and a beautiful couple of hours outside this evening.

Bear had a much better day today and recovered his smile and his usual sang froid!

It was a glorious first day of Summer in Northwest Montana! Hope it was wherever you are – Happy Solstice (yesterday evening) and may your Summer be beautiful.

Just call me ‘Stinky’ aka stay away from those black and white striped ‘squirrels’!!

Yep…Bear got skunked!

This story starts on Monday morning. I was awake early and Bear and I took a mini-loop walk about 6:00 a.m. …much earlier than usual but with sunrise 5:30 ish it was full light.

Walking along the driveway of the adjacent property, a skunk appeared out of the tall grass, looked at me, turned and walked north on the driveway…tail in the air. Bear was to my south, nose to the ground and did not notice.

I hastened toward Bear and grabbed him by the collar before he noticed the skunk. But he did see it and wanted to go after it and we had an uncomfortable walk/drag by the collar home. I told Bear that he would be very unhappy to get sprayed but mostly Bear was annoyed with me for collaring him.

So Tuesday walks were uneventful and I made sure that we did not go where we’d seen the skunk until 8:30-9:00 a.m. ish. This worked Tuesday.

This morning, Wednesday, Bear and I had a quick outing down the driveway (mine) and back about 7:00 a.m. Then at 9:45 we headed out for a loop walk. The sun had been up for hours.

Nearly completing the loop and 20 yards from our own property line…skunk! I was another 20 yards behind Bear. I didn’t see the skunk until the last moment. Bear took a hit of spray and immediately turned 180 pawing at his face. He ran to me and I could see the yellow of the spray on his head, jaw and chest. I told him ‘Home’! and he turned for home. As we went he tried to use the tall grass to get rid of the spray.

Once home, I retrieved the SkunkOff I keep and went to work. Skunk spray is a kind of petroleum compound. You cannot wash it off. The best you can do is chemically neutralize it and the SkunkOff product does that. Spritzing the product on the sprayed areas, rubbing it in and then letting it dry – it does fairly well for all but up close and personal. Time takes care of that.

Bear was so patient and stood quietly while I worked on him. He wanted inside but I opened the Jeep to him and that was 2nd best. He jumped right in. After he was situated in the Jeep, I moved it into the yard, right outside my window. With the Jeep windows and back open, he could see and hear me while I worked and vice versa. He settled down for the morning.

Meanwhile…Purnell, the plumber arrived to work on the water heater. Good news is that my water heater is back in normal business – yea! (heater drained and cleaned, bottom element and thermostat replaced)

After Purnell left, I went out with Bear and we took a short walk in our own woods. Bear badly wanted inside. He seemed upset. He’d taken some of the spray in one eye and the hit on his jaw…he probably got some in his mouth. He’d been drooling. I fixed the bed with some extra sheets, fed him some yogurt and a charcoal biscuit and let him in. He went straight to bed.

He ate a second helping of yogurt and his kibble and went back to bed but has also barked at deer – mostly normal behavior…but kind of a tough day for the Bear boy!

…this week’s wine abstaining plan has been abandoned. We’ll try that again next week.

***about Skunks: they are typically out at dawn and dusk but the females, if they have kits, will go out daytime to get them food and/or train them. There is a kind of “old wives tale” that a skunk out in daylight is rabid, but that is not true. I’m guessing this is a female…with kits…they have their babies in May. Skunks eat a LOT of things that are bad for us…bugs, some of the poisonous spiders…like bats, they are one of nature’s natural pest “repellents”. They are not aggressive with their spray and typically warn with a whole stomping routine before spraying, but a barking, charging dog…well. Bottom line, I am happy to co-exist. I think Bear may give another skunk a wide berth – I hope so. Karl was sprayed once a year for 3 years running and then he remembered :)!