Sprouting Here and Yon

For years I've tried off and on to grow my plants from seeds. If I can direct sow in the garden, I've managed fine, but the "start four to six weeks before last frost" has always been plagued by leggy plants and dampening off, in spite of my best efforts.

I knew we hoped to have a bigger garden this year, so I decided to try again. This time I used the Jiffy Pellets in black trays with a clear lid and my plant stand at school, and prayer.
Well, let's just say I should've waited until "two to three weeks before last frost" cuz as you can see, they are ready.
There are eleven different type of tomatoes in this rather large bucket. Most of them are heirloom and none of them I've ever grown before. I am hoping for lots of tomatoes this year.

When I look out over the chicken yard, it's difficult to believe that less than a year ago we considered this area part of the woods. It was quite overgrown with all types of woodsy weeds and vines. Trees were lost during the hurricane winds and ice storm that followed, but the biggest change has been the chickie girls appetite for things green.

It wouldn't help if you could look closer, there's is nothing there-zip, nada, nudie.

If you recall, this is the chickie girl tractor Handy Man made me so I could take the girls out safely when they were just wee pullets.

I hated for it to just around feeling useless until we have more babies, so I drug it back in the chicken yard, scratched up some soil, and planted some wheat grass inside of it. A good rain and a dose of sunshine yielded a dense patch of green wheat grassy goodness in just a couple of weeks. This morning, I scratched up another patch, moved the tractor to where you see it above, replanted, then let the girls out.

Here is the dense patch of green wheat grassy goodness after a couple of hours.

Well, actually you would need your really strong glasses to look close enough to tell there are about two and a half sprouts left. That would be all- gone- hopefully turning into delicious eggs.

I turned over all the rocks that border my flower bed outside the kitchen window, just to see them scurry like crazy, inhaling everything tiny and wriggling. It is quite comical to see one come right up under another girl and snatch her catch right out of her beak. Protein-yummee!!

Ahh, such a glorious weekend-thank you Lord!

What's growing in your garden?

Breathe a Little Easier

Kaye is home with a new port, same place.

I suppose no matter how good she looks, or how things appear to be going, I'm always on edge where Kaye is concerned, because plainly speaking, she's just medically fragile.

When I get a phone call like yesterday's about a failed port, and no dialysis until something was done, I despair, going places in my imagination that I don't want to go.

Lots of tears and feelings of, "Please Lord, don't let this be the start of another long hard road."

When she was in Jewish last year, and they were concerned that the port had a bad bacteria, they did tests to determine the best place for another one, and found no other good spots. So then I have visions of surgeries and respirators, then I can't get my breath.

This problem was with the actual port itself, not the site, so they just took the old one out and put a new one in. Wheww, thank you Jesus!

She is on track for getting the permanent fistula in her arm.

I enjoyed seeing my daugter-in-law's new office and studio-so exciting, before running back home last evening to put the finishing touches on Bunco.

While gathering some bouquets, I did not realize I had so many different kinds of daffodils.

And a sweet surprise. We lost a big old lilac several years back, but a few shoots started growing a few feet from where the old had been, and I just let it.

I turned the corner in my daffodil hunt yesterday and there the tiny bush was, in full bloom.

Ahhh. I love me some lilacs!

More Easter Parade

Buttercup couldn't decide if she should hunt or eat, so just do both.

Kaye seemed to have a good time.

Handy Man and family
Jackie joins the parade and smiles throughout.

The James Gang

I still remember the first time Jordan could hunt eggs on his own. He was just two and would shake them first. If there was no shake, meaning no candy inside, he dropped them like a hot potato.

Jakee graduates this year. How can that be. He's been at my house for every Easter since he was born. Now he's old enough to chauffeur his Granny around.

The Easter Parade

Yesterday was extraordinarly beautiful. The hunters and gatherers are ready

Pretty babies all in a row.

And another row.

This is the sweetest child.

Chivalry is not dead. Bean sharing some eggs with Baby Boy cause he noticed he didn't get many.

My grown up babies all in a row.

Good family, friends, food and fun. Practically perfect in every way.BAA,BAAA- oh yeah, some adorable sheep made by Aunties Kaye and SuZQ

Good Morning, Easter

Thank you Jesus for Easter. I love Easter!!! I love knowing what it means to me.

My head knowledge of Easter takes a beating now and again, when blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

But my heart knowledge knows where to run.

When it's dark, and the scary possiblities of life are all raising a ruckus in my mind, I remember.
Just a mention of the Name and back they go, scurrying to wherever scary thoughts hide.

And in the day, when it seeems too big or too much, I begin it the same, only this time written, yet still living- Word- and find the peace and strength fit for what comes.

So, I tell my head knowledge that it's not so smart and I be still, so hard for me, so necessary, and I trust my heart.

My heart is shaped like Easter.

This morning it remembers that love is the greatest gift of all.

Sending you love.

April Fool's

Such an easy day for me to remember now, as I was surely hoping Pete was fooling when he called me last year on April Fool's and told me he had come into rehab and found Kaye unreponsive. Please say you are kidding. I left school and went to meet him at U of L.

Her previous month's ordeal seemed to be nearly over. After nearly dying of heart attack on February 1 and speedy surgery on the 5 th, then nearly not pulling through, we discovered they'd damaged her leg. After 30 days, yes, count them in ICU, she finally went to rehab. She was making progress, the leg, after unending infections, finally appeared to be healing, now what? What went wrong? She fell- fell, then said she was fine and didn't need to go to the hospital. She was terribly mistaken.

Her days at U of L were some of the very worst of my life and needless to say hers. I did not know such sad suffering existed.
We'll do the surgery today. No, we won't. The clot will turn to an oily substance, but it hasn't. We'll do the surgery tomorrow, no, something else has come up. She has an infection in her port site, no she doesn't. The procedure didn't work, we'll try a new one. That didn't work either.
I could go on and on and on. It was one horror after another that continued right on to Kindred and then to Green Valley and she really did not make steady progress until October of this year.

There are so many days that float up to the surface and instantly bring tears- too many too count. Lots of tears today.

Then, there are heroes like my brother-in-law, who refused to believe anything, except her getting better and coming back to him. He took her home against the advice of the docs. He did what rehab was never able to do. He is controlling the C-diff, the e-coli and klebsillia, though they told him of the impossibility to do so. He believed there was more when they said the progress shown in three months was the most there would be- wrong again. And everyday he is my hero as he works at giving her his very best.
I thank God for him.
There were others, the siblings who have not stopped cooking, cleaning and caring for her while working full time and managing full plates already. The people who never stopped praying.

Having someone that is in such need for so long can be a lonely place. Your world becomes a hospital or rehab room. You have trouble finding your joy. You feel quite alone.
Do you know someone is such a state? If so, drop them a card, respond to their updates, leave a message that says you are just checkin' in, surprise them with a little something fun. Let them know they aren't forgotten.

My hope for everyone is that any bad news today was just foolin'.

Cheese Please

On Saturday, I visited my daughter to show a couple of friends and her how to make mozzarella cheese. I became curious about cheese making after reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral and asked for a kit for Christmas. It was fun to do and quite tasty. I do it now with my fourth graders after our herbs are big enough to snip. We make the cheese, pizza sauce and the dough during our study of matter.

I was particularly excited this time because my brother-in-law brought me some raw milk from the country. I had never used raw milk before. It was awesome and worked so much better than pasteurized milk.

Handy Man said there was an article in today's paper about people getting sick from raw milk. Well, when you make the cheese, for a proper stretch it has to heat to 135 degrees, so it's fine. I've also drank milk from the same place, as has many in my family with no problems. First you heat it ninety degrees.

You stir in the rennet (an enzyme from the fourth stomach of a ruminating animal, yummy) and these lovely curds form.

You heat and squeeze, heat and squeeze until all the whey is out.
Then you stretch it until it's finished. Then you use the whey to make pizza dough. Rae-rae uses the whey to soak grains in to be better digested. I feed the leftovers to my chickie girls who think it's delightful!

Sweet, pretty girls.

Delicious pizza. The left is pepperoni with peppers and right is sundried tomatoes with goat cheese.