Fight the Flu

Well, even here in the Ozarks the flu has come down hard. While we have avoided it our friends have gotten it. Old, young, middle age, they are recovering, have it or gonna get it. You know it is bad when the priest gets it and does not even crawl out of bed to call off mass. We avoid town and only go out once a week. We wash our hand, sanitize mail, sanitize anything that comes into our house. We avoided nursing home and hospital visits this month as these are breeding grounds for all kinds of bugs. Church has been hit or miss but the ranks have been thin. It is bad flu this year and so many have had it for over 2 weeks. Most end up going to the hospitals to wait for hours and be turned away. Most get Tamiflu and/or antibiotics and all are miserable. So much blame and finger pointing with the vaccinated and the un-vaccinated. I have to say is an even split on that one here. Everyone is getting exposed to it no matter what shots you got or did not get. I have had the flu understand the tole it takes on the body. I will say that drinking real ginger with real local honey has been my daily drink of choice. Taking vitamins and eating lots of vegetables to keep up immunity. Sanitize dishes and veggies with white vinegar in a spray bottle. It will not harm you like bleach can. Hand washing all the time after everything you do and not just after bathroom time. I have to use moisturizer after washing up so much but that is a small price to pay. I have to be healthy so I can run the farm. Lets all keep healthy out there.

Farm Scenes

Our farm has woods and pastures and we get deer. They are frequent visitors to our place even though we do not feed them. They have a pond for water and plenty of acorns and pastures for food.

My single male knot head drake. We sold off all nine of the drakes last fall saving this one.                         We had too much fighting and not enough egg laying. 

He was one I had hand raised out of three last summer. We kept him to keep the girls happy. I do not think he is fertile and that is fine. We have had our fill of ducklings for a while.

My super broody hen. She hatches but never leaves the nest. I end up bringing her brood inside to hand raise. She gave me 4 clutches last year. Most of the chicks ended up being roosters. Last year was the summer of roosters for my farm. At one point I had 11 young roosters around. I culled all but 3. I kept the largest, the prettiest and one of many colors. Changing roosters gives me a nice variety each year in chicks. Plus I add a few I pick up at auction or sales. Lots of eggs and good health are my goals.

Movie Time

One name Guillermo del Toro is all I need to hear. What is not to love? The Shape of Water has mad scientists, water monster, Russians and some great horror story writing. In English or Spanish his stories take you away into another world inside his brain. He has so many details most movie these days are missing. Worth the wait for this gem.

Mini Tart Me Blue

This is my first made from scratch hand picked blueberry pie filling. The blueberries grow at Eckards Farm,Dora, Missouri .You go and pick and get charged $10 per gallon. It is hot buggy work but you can get there in the early morning to pick. And they supply the buckets and bags. We bring coolers with ice and go with a church group. It is a lot of walking, standing and more walking. We pick, pack and go find a place to grab some lunch after. Sometimes a storm comes up and we have to pick faster to get out of the fields. The farm is only open for about 2 weeks for prime picking in the late spring.

After we get home I wash and de-stem the berries and pack them in vac-u-seal freezer bags and date stamp them. These berries were from 2015 and very fresh. We bought about 10 gallons of berries and filled our freezer door. I made some of them into pie filling from an old 1930's Fannie Farmer cookbook. It is simple and easy to make. 

I made 4 batches of pie crust with Irish butter and our own bacon lard from a locally butchered pig.

The mini pie crust recipe is the one from Alton Brown's recipe. I do add lemon powder and lemon peel and a spritz of bitters to give it a kick. The star tarts are filled with plain sour cherries from Aldi's that were in a jar. I cooked them down into filling. I find that mini tarts are the perfect size to pick up and eat. No plates needed. People can pick and eat and only use a napkin. The tarts are portable so they can walk around and chat and eat their snack. These are not too sweet and are good for portion control.

I learned that 4 batches of pie crust and you still might be short. I only had a palm of dough left and made strips to keep the blueberry filling in the tarts. They did not look as nice but they tasted great. I took them to our church coffee and not a single one was left. I am not a fan of cherry and blueberry pies. My husband thinks I should make what I love. I will have to try lemon custard and apple next. At least I have the pie crust down after years of practicing so many kinds. It is also nice to share these tarts with our church bunch. There is no waste and everyone is happy. Now if I only had a self cleaning kitchen I would be all set.

Woodland Quilt Top

I have finally got this baby woodland quilt top done. But not before adding some bees. I have appliqued bees before so easy peezy, right?

Nope, I go and have to make an all new kind of bee. One with 3D wings, washable and made of tulle.

After a few experiments I got good workable wings.

Now to add the bees to the quilt top.

I made a very tactile baby quilt. I have no idea if the child is autistic. But I know kids love to touch things. So a washable touchable quilt top is made.

Sewed a ton.

More applique

Yes that is real fun fur on a quilt.

The turtle legs are floppy.

I love this batik fern fabric. 

Here is the whole quilt top before squaring up.

This has taken months to do along with life, farming and my other endeavors.

Now the fun continues with the quilting!

Wasted Hay

I pulled this photo of an equine round bale hay net offered for sale. It is a great idea if you have horses and have watched what they do with a round bale. They pick out what they want and pee and poop on the rest of it. So much is wasted and lost by these beasts. So I looked on line for one of these nets. Oh my they want almost $200 for just one of these. That is almost a third of the cost of what I buy hay for. Not a solution I can afford. But after I hunted a bit I did find a better idea. You can buy old fishing heavy duty nets that have been cleaned and sold for decorations. These come in several sizes and various conditions. I needed at least a two inch wide squares with heavy duty un-chewable weight to keep the net bite proof and usable. If you go to ebay you can find several vendors selling these nets. With a bit of paracord or rope I can sew up one of these around our bales. So for under $50 you can get a strong net and wrap the hay. Another option is to buy old nylon webbing and sew up a cargo net to put over the bale. But that will take time to sew and more money to buy the military surplus webbing. But I am still toying with this option if the net does not work out. Either way the days of lost hay are over for my herd.

The return of winter

As with the rest of the nation severe winter and below zero temperatures came this week.

One of the dormant gardens resting under the snow and ice.

Resting sugar maple

Our pond is solid and in motion as it is spring fed.

Poppy walked across our pond as he always does every time it freezes.

Poppy on a rock watching and waiting.

Poppy proof

It has been very dry and not much snow. Even this light dusting was dry like sand.

Osa on patrol for hungry coyote and larger predators. My pack has thick winter coats that protect them. But with this below zero temps they have to come in at night until it gets above freezing again. 

I love this photo of Poppy on the thyme. The textures of his coat, the plants and the ice. Poppy loves to nap on this pungent herb even when it is frozen. He always smells of dog and thyme.

Do I Chennai?

Once in a while I get asked to find something or someone that is missing. It is a bit of armchair detective work I do to keep up my skills. I was contacted via facebook from a former priest who lived in Missouri for a few years them moved back to Chennai,India to continue his mission work. He served our parish and was known to me. He bought a US cell phone that was promptly stolen from him in India. Since he was now out of the country tracking this phone information down would be impossible. He needed the phones original imei number and with that would be able to track his phone. The problem is he no longer had the receipt as it was long disposed of in his move. He told me he had purchased the phone in St. Louis area from a Best Buy (there are about 6). I called two and the second store person in mobile services was able to tell me what I needed to track down this number. I needed the original credit card number, date of purchase, etc, used and they would have a copy of that receipt. Also, I could contact the provider he used and they should have the same info. I have to tell you the cell providers were useless in getting any help.
Luckily, the priest provided me with the now expired credit card information and even the month of the purchase. Since the Best Buy mobile service guy was so helpful I called that number again. The young man I talked to previously was off that day but the young woman was helpful. She not only gave me the imei number she also e-mailed me a copy of the receipt with the imei on it. Something our church secretary was at a loss to locate. With this number I sent the private message quickly. As it was 11pm his time, he was overjoyed with getting what he needed. It took three days to track this information down and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about cell phones. I have yet to hear if he got his phone back or located. But he was happy to have all of his missing required information at his disposal.

Pie in the Sky

I have been practicing baking tasty treats as there are no bakeries near us. I have been making portable treats as we share with friends both hither and yon.

I am making tart-lets with handmade crust and fillings. They bake fast and are more manageable in transport.

Baked just like regular pies, bake the crust for 10 minutes then fill, cap and bake for another 30 minutes.

Egg wash the star caps and add sugar

I made about 26 of them and all were eaten and adored by the lucky recipients. I am not a fan of cherry pies so I will have to make others that I do enjoy. Will have to try lemon custard or apple for my next attempt. These are my 2nd result following pumpkin tart-lets from November. So nice making treats from fruits I have grown on my farm. 

Rockin Rolly Polly

With the ice and cold my cats have been a bit pent up. So we let them run amok on the farm to get their wiggles out. Puff is taking a stroll on the deck.

You called?

Frosty living up to his name playing in the icy grass.

Pretty much runs sideways like this the entire time.

Puff and Frosty 

Poor persimmon tree sapling cannot withstand this much attention.

True photo of just how long Frosty is. Long ears, tail, body and legs and super short coat.

Frosty finally came inside for a name and warm up.

Melon and Frosty holding down the tablecloth and recipes.