Middle of Nowhere Hodgepodge

Lilacs against the silo

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1. Tell us about a time you found yourself 'in the middle of nowhere'. Was this deliberate?

 Slough - England

and I never can remember if it rhymes with Dough, Enough, or Through
Update: Elizabethd just informed me that Slough rhymes with NOW.

Slough, in the middle of nowhere, it seemed (probably because we were on a train). But then in England, even the middle of nowhere is always really close to somewhere.  In Wisconsin, the middle of nowhere is usually only close to nowhere else.  I wake up every morning to find myself in the middle of nowhere - and I like it a lot.

Rainy day in July

In the middle of nowhere
south view from our front porch

2. What's something you're 'in the middle of' today or this week?

I'm in the middle of reclaiming the garden pond and planting vegetables in the other garden. I pumped the water out of the pond, got the icky leaves, sticks, and other vegetation out so I could clean the liner, put in fresh water, and get the little stream with its waterfalls running again for the summer and fall.

Pond Reflections

3. At what age do you think 'middle age' begins? What does it mean to be 'middle aged'?

I just read that life expectancy in the US is 79 years, so I guess middle age begins at 39.5 years. What it means to be middle aged is that in a few short years your kids will start moving out of the house. But don't worry, it won't be long before you'll be able to start taking care of your aging parents. You'll see what I mean when you get there. It's a terrible feeling when you have to take the car keys away from your father.  And by that time, or hopefully before, you'll find a new freedom to not care a smidge what the Joneses are up to. Soon, you'll find yourself in the replacement category: knees, hips, etc. Bleak as that may sound, as a Christian, I know that every phase of life is ordained by God, precious to God, and every single phase is one in which we can live, by his grace, to glorify Him.

Carmen Peppers, my favorite

Fresh or roasted

4. Ravioli, stuffed peppers, samosas, deviled eggs, steamed dumplings, pierogis, or a jelly donut...your favorite food (from this list!) with something yummy in the middle. Your favorite not on the list?

I've never eaten samosas or pierogis. Are they really food? Of that list, stuffed peppers would be my favorite, for sure. I love them! I'm planting many peppers in early June and at harvest, I plan to stuff some of them. Delicious!  My favorite food with something yummy in the middle is the burger from Borgen's Cafe in Westby. I raved about it on Monday's post, but really, it was totally worth promoting. Another delicious food with a yummy middle is a York peppermint patty or a Butterfinger, but I try to avoid them. I like Oreos, but wish they would keep the yummy middle out. I hate throwing it away, but I like the crunchy outside so much better. Mr. C. thinks that a chocolate Digestive would be the same, but it's really not.

5. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying ''In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.' Would you agree? Have you found this to be true in your own life? Feel free to elaborate.

Whether we like it or not, we must look for opportunity in the middle of difficulty. What's the alternative - to simply get depressed? We either give up or move forward. I don't think there are any other choices. I'd prefer to move forward. I hope I still feel that way on June 7 (day after my attempt #2 hip replacement).

Not my Junior High School, but similar

6. What's a song you remember loving from your middle school years? Do you love it still?

Middle school wasn't invented yet when I would have been in middle school. We had elementary school, junior high, and high school. But from junior high, (dredging the recesses of my brain), it would have to be a Beatles song. 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' was released on November 29, 1963, just seven days after the assassination of President Kennedy. The Kennedy assassination was much more of a blast on the timeline than the Beatles releasing a record, so much of my song memory from that time was probably eclipsed by Kennedy, Oswold, Jack Ruby, etc. etc.   (Oh no, I just realized that I was a sophomore in high school then. But the Kennedy connection is so interesting to me that I'm going to stick with it.)  

But I will always remember the hymns we would have been singing even during that time: Great is Thy Faithfulness, Blessed Assurance, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. And yes I love them still.

7. May 18th is National Visit Your Relatives Day. Will you celebrate? Which relative would you visit if time, distance, and expense were not considered.

I would love to visit with my mom and dad, now, before we are joined in eternity. They are with the Lord, and sometimes I wish they could come over for dinner and that Mom could walk around my yard with me, helping me identify the plants popping up in the garden. Also, the same goes for Mr. C.'s parents. They were all great parents and good examples of Christian character: Love, Faithfulness, Perseverance, Reliability, etc, and I'd love to visit with them. 

 More relatives

Moving Closer

A relative who has lived far, far away (Texas) for 10 years is our daughter and her husband. BUT, they are moving back to Wisconsin. It will be wonderful to have them so much closer! 

8. Insert your own random thought here.

 The daffodils have now faded,

but the flowering crab and lilacs are in full bloom.

Such a joy to see new life and color and beauty.

P.S. Speaking of 'middle,' I'm a middle child. How about you?

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Wisconsin Barns and Summer Squash Recipe

 August 15, evening light

Hay field along the Poor Farm Road
Barron County

Our shortcut to Barron is to turn right at the chiropractor's office onto the Poor Farm Road, which is a straight shot to Salem Lutheran Church, to Highway 8, or to the Barron Hospital, depending. The Barron County Poor Farm is, or rather was, located just before you get to Barron.

From Chippepedia.org:

"It was 1884 when the County decides they should look after the poor, they bought land and built buildings on the southeast edge of Barron, it was called the poor farm. In 1885 $2000 was appropriated to build the buildings; The Barron County History of 1922 stated that, “Improvements have since been made from time to time until the County now has a pretty modern alms house, adequate barns and sheds, and a well cultivated farm, excellently stocked and admirably equipped.”  - The rest of the brief article can be found HERE.

Tractor and Rake

Same hay field

Different angle, missing out on that golden light

I took the barn photos on the way home from Eau Claire, when we took a slight detour into the lovely, hilly countryside west of Bloomer. It's full of picturesque old barns, beautiful hillsides, and sand mines.

The collage is of produce from our garden. I picked the lavender and dried it in the dehydrator. I had forgotten what a mistake that was. Next time, and I do have another small 'crop' to pick after it blooms, I will pull out the plants and hang them upside down in the corner of the kitchen. I think that will dry them just as well and better preserve the beauty of the blossoms.

Quick and Easy Summer Produce Dinner

Of course, the summer squash and zucchini that we've been waiting for months to taste, come on incredibly suddenly, and in a matter of a few days there's way too much of both. But they do make a tasty, light summer evening meal when combined with peppers and tomatoes fresh from the garden, onion (not from the garden because I have no success with raising onions), garlic, black olives, and a red potato.

Just in case anyone is interested, this is what I tossed together:

Summer Squash, Zucchini, & Tomato Stirfry Recipe:

Smallish yellow crookneck squash (2), cut into chunks
Smallish zucchini (2), cut into chunks
One large onion, cut into chunks
1 fresh green pepper, seeded, cut into chunks
optional: part of a jalapeno, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small red potato, skin on, julienned
1 or two fresh tomatoes, skin on
1 can black olives, drained
Parmesan cheese
Salt, Pepper
McCormick Mediterranean seasoning 
Dash of cayenne (if the jalapeno isn't used)

Actually, I had some leftover beef roast, so I had cut that into thin strips and sauteed them, along with the onion and garlic and pepper(s), in a couple T. olive oil.  When the vegetables were somewhat translucent, I added the other ingredients, except for the seasonings, and stirfried it all together just until the zucchini and squash were hot, slightly cooked, but certainly still having some serious and crucial crunch to them.

Once everything is hot, I sprinkled it with salt and pepper, some Perfect Pinch by McCormick, a wee bit of heat from cayenne, and Parmesan cheese.  I loved it. I don't think that Mr. C. was a huge fan, however. Oh well. I ate the leftovers for lunch the next day. Even better. 

Hog Panel Fencing

for

Theresa's

GOOD FENCES

(on Thursdays)

Also linking to

Judith's

MOSAIC MONDAY 

Sneeze Art
Ah CHOO! 
I wonder if this is how Jackson Pollock got started.

Jazzie, doing her bit toward kitchen clean-up



This post is also linked to

AMAZE ME MONDAY

and

SATURDAY'S  CRITTERS

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July Fourth Weekend

Sweet little pea pickin' granddaughter

Not getting minimum wage

Hi everybody,

I've missed you guys. I wish I could tell you that while on my blog break I accomplished something major, like decluttering the house, but actually, I never quite got around to doing that. What I did manage, however, was being kind to my back by NOT sitting at the computer, along with visiting the grandkids (and their parents) while they were here, and getting some fruits of our garden labors. I have a ton of photos, but lucky for you, won't post them all at once.

The past weekend our daughter and her family were here. I'm sharing just 'a few' of the photos. Then I've got to try to get back into this blogging groove.

So did you travel over the holiday or stay home? Do you do fireworks at home? We didn't get to the fireworks in Rice Lake last night, but several of the neighbors around us had their own fireworks parties, so we heard lots of booms and pops until late at night, and Jazzie hid behind the recliner until morning.

'Grandma, that truck is dirty.'

'You can wash it off with the hose, if you want.'

'Okay.'

 

Done!

 Enjoying allergen-free 'Enjoy Life' chocolate chips!

Camping in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard

***


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This post might possibly be linked to one of more of the following:

Mosaic Monday and Roses of Inspiration and  Treasure Box Tuesday and Tuesday with a Twist  and  Tweak it Tuesday  and  Good Fences and  Freedom Fridays  and Vintage Inspiration Friday

Missing the Hodgepodge

Look who stopped in to see Grandma and Grandpa!
Look who wants to pull off his socks.

Joyce (From This Side of the Pond) of Hodgepodge fame, is taking a much-deserved break this week. But for those of us who are rigid and inflexible, it's hard to get out of the Hodgepodge Wednesday mode, so I'm answering a few questions that popped into my mind for today.

1. What were your favorite games when you were a child?

Starlight, Moonlight; Pump Pump Pull Away.  Telling ghost stories with the cousins and scaring each other to death; Starlight Moonlight was played outdoors at night. Obviously, we played these outdoor games in the summertime and saved the ghost stories for winter.

From Answers.com:

The person who is "IT" is called the ghost. He/She hides in the dark someplace where he won't easily be seen. All others stay at home base (usually the steps of our house). They chant:

"One O'Clock, Two O' Clock, Three O' Clock Rock, (I don't think we ever said 'rock.')
Four O'Clock, Five O' Clock, Six O' Clock Rock,
Seven O' Clock, Eight O' Clock, Nine O' Clock Rock
Ten O' Clock, Eleven O' Clock, Twelve O' Clock Midnight,
We hope we do, we hope we might, we hope we see a ghost tonight!"

They then break up searching for the ghost. If they see him/her, they can run back to base. The ghost can either chase them or stay hidden to try to get someone else. All must see the ghost. If the ghost catches you, your it for the next game, in other words, the ghost.

Rules for Pump Pump Pull Away, from Yahoo: 

"Pump, pump, pull away" consisted of two teams, each lined up on opposite sides of a field or playground. At the signal, "Pump-pump- pullaway--Come away or I'll pull you away", one side attempted to run through their opponents and reach the opposite end of the field without being tagged by the defending side. Players tagged joined the opponent's team. Each side took turns at running through the opposition until all players were on one side. 

Did you play those games??

2.  Are you a gardener?

My best garden year

A distant memory

I guess I wouldn't call myself a gardener. I'm an enthusiastic planter and a harvester. I dislike the in-between stuff, like the real work of pulling the most robust of all perennials, the weeds. I once heard someone call it 'picking weeds,' which is much more accurate. The carpet worked great for a few years, but this year it's been removed and I'm not planning nearly as ambitious a garden as seen above. Carrots, green beans, snap peas, tomatoes, peppers, and some herbs are about all we're putting in this year. The other stuff just isn't worth the effort. I get tired of dragging sprouted and squishy potatoes out of the basement in the springtime.

3.  With Wisconsin's notorious winters, why do you stay here?

Winters keep Mr. C. in shape. See what I mean? But actually, the reason we stay in Wisconsin is that most of our family is here or nearby and that we love Wisconsin from April through October. Every place has its disadvantages. Ours is the long, long, bitterly-cold winter. (I can say that almost cheerfully, now that spring has arrived). Still, I'd rather sit beside the fire than have to sit beside an air conditioner in long, long, beastly-hot summers.

And this is another reason we stay in Wisconsin. I never tire of this view.

4.  Tell us about your problem with clutter and how you plan to resolve it.

I'm not sure why I'm so publicly admitting to clutter, but...I hate clutter and yet find myself a victim of clutter. Don't you love how I can declare victimhood over a situation I've created for myself? I figure if everyone else is doing it these days, I might as well too. Anyway, I just visited a website that had '34 ingenious ways to declutter' and will follow some of them. This morning I discarded extra, hardly-ever-used bed sheets. And now that I've done that, someone will probably show up at my door with a bloody wound and I won't have the potential bandages I could have used to save his life.

5.  Do you have family reunions? Are you the one to organize them?

August of 2013 is the last family reunion we had where everyone was present. It was wonderful! Other years, we've had the reunion the beginning of August but not all are there. I'm hoping for a full house again this August. Plus, we have two babies, a few additional instant grandkids, and a daughter-in-law who have joined the family since the photo above. Yes, I organize them. I build it around my birthday. Isn't that a clever thing to do. lol

6. What's your most recent book purchase? Fiction or Non-fiction?

Non-fiction is not Tuppence's favorite

One of the disappointments (and there are very few) of my life is that somewhere along the line I became an audio reader. It probably had to do with the year I spent in Bolivia, working with Wycliffe Bible Translators, doing proofreading. I pick up typos in everyone's writing (except for my own, occasionally), and that attention to detail, even to the voices in my head, are what slow me down. Still, every book I read is entertaining, and like a movie, since those voices are in my head. I think there's no hope for me to get over that bad habit at this age (I've read almost every book on speed reading), so I'll just keep reading... and enjoying it.

My most recent purchases are A Case for the Psalms by N.T. Wright and Hilary Mantel's Bring Up The Bodies, part of the Wolf Hall series. Have you been watching that on PBS? Anyway, I purchased it on my Kindle because it's inconvenient to try to read hardcover or paperbacks in the dark. So how many books do you have going at the same time?

Almost always my preference is non-fiction, unless it's really good. Hilary Mantel's books have had rave reviews.

7.  What's happening on the farm these days?

 Getting ready to plant corn

16 row corn planter

Before 

  

We rent out our crop land to a guy with amazing equipment. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it. The equipment is just enormous. I believe the biggest corn planter my dad ever had was a 4-row planter.

 After - April 28 2015 
It took about an hour to plant the corn.

8.  How often do you go shopping?

via

I hate shopping, except maybe for grocery shopping, and I don't actually enjoy that because I don't like standing in lines. Although the Mall of America is about 2 hours away, I think I've been there once. I take no pleasure in trying to find things to buy. I don't understand how any mall, even the small one in our area, can support so many clothing stores. Most of my shopping is done on Amazon. I don't buy many new clothes. I tend to wear the same comfortable and familiar things. So the answer is, I seldom go shopping.

Okay, that's it. I've now got the Hodgepodge bug out of my system for another week. You can be grateful that Joyce will bring it back next week with her much better questions.

Mr. C. and Jazzie
Running away from home

***

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Have a wonderful Wednesday, friends!

 

How and When to Plant Garlic

 Garlic among the gourds

Waiting to be planted

When we were at Seedsavers in Decorah, Iowa with friends a couple weeks ago (future post), besides purchasing packets of seeds for next spring, I picked up an instructional sheet for planting garlic. I've always meant to plant garlic, but it's supposed to be planted in October, and since everything else I plant gets planted in May or June, I never seem to remember the garlic until it's too late.

This year, however, I actually marked it on my calendar in big letters on the October page: PLANT GARLIC. The biggest cloves will produce the best bulbs, so I looked for garlic bulbs that had bulging huge cloves. As you can see in the photo, they were starting to sprout before I got around to planting them.

 The good man, working the soil

Grass clippings nearby and leaves (not so nearby) were mixed to make a nice mulch for the garlic after it was planted. I didn't want to put it on so heavily that it would smother or kill them, but enough so that it would help protect them.

 Potting soil and lime worked into the otherwise quite bland, sandy soil

 Garlic cloves, laid in the trench, root end down, tip side up

6-8 inches apart, with skins still on (do not remove the paper-like skin)

Cover with 2 inches of soil and mulch with a mixture of grass clippings and leaves.  (We did this on a rainy day, which I think was probably good.)

Right about here should be the photo of the planted and mulched garlic. I don't know how I managed to miss that photo op, but I suppose it was because I was busy getting Bridger's pic. He was lying nearby, watching the procedure.

In the spring, when the garlic begins to come up, and before May 15, it's a good idea to fertilize the garlic once or twice.
Do not fertilize after May 15.
Garlic needs 1" water per week during the growing season.
Do not water garlic after June 1.
Keep weeds under control. (The mulch you laid down when you plant the garlic will help with this.)
Harvest after the leaves die back and there are still five green leaves remaining on the plant. This will be in June or July.

Everything in the garlic planting guide indicated that garlic needs to be handled carefully so that it does not bruise and deteriorate. When harvested, tie 6-8 garlic bulbs in a bundle and hang in a shed or garage that is dry and well-ventilated until they're dried for about 6 weeks.

I have a friend who used to raise garlic and braid them to hang on her kitchen wall. It was beautiful!

This photo and a great tutorial on harvesting garlic are found

at Thy Hand Hath Provided

Check it out. Jane has several good tutorials.

In NW Wisconsin in July, it's pretty humid. I'm thinking that our shop/garage will not be a good place to dry the garlic. Maybe upstairs in the house where it's dryer would be better.

After that drying period, you can trim the stalks and roots and store the bulbs in old onion sacks or netting.

Optimum setting for storage: 45-55% humidity and a temp of 50-70 degrees F. Do not refrigerate.

The Supervisor

Now that you're armed with all that great information, be sure to go out and buy some nice big garlic bulbs and plant the cloves for next year's crop. I can hardly wait for the winter to be over* to harvest our garlic crop in June or July of next year!  I can't wait to try my hand at braiding the garlic.

* I know that winter hasn't even begun, but it's always this time of year during the waning hours of daylight that we get this sinking feeling...The Big W. is just around the corner!

***

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 You'll find me at These Linky Parties:
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