Thursday, May 31, 2012

Rain........Just Makes A New Day better!

Good Morning, how are you sweet ladies?!!!!!!!!! 


Our daughter Tay took this right when the storm was coming in.......thought it was a beautiful picture!

 It is so wonderful here on the farm, nice and cool. Last night we had a huge storm that came through. Not a bad one, for which we were very thankful! The sky was so blue, green and black and rolling. We were so excited, when we looked at the image of the storm on the internet, we were actually going to be dumped on. Precious Lord....... to come to our rescue and give us rain. WE WERE ALL SO EXCITED!! Can you tell? 


Here is my little pickle......it is 1" long.......with the rain the garden will pop up big time. Can't wait to see how fast it will grow now. I have a few more on the plant that are just starting. I will be making pickles before I know it! The rain really came down, so the plants are all dirty! I will brush them off when the sun gets them nice and dry


We always make a Garden Pickle recipe.......this squash will be perfect in the batch. This recipe is so so easy and very good. I use Kosher Dill Quick Process Pickle Mix. It has all the ingr. and tastes wonderful!


Yesterday I checked the potato patch and beans before the storm came. A few were blossoming. I took a peek.........can't wait until both are ready to add some bacon to and cook for dinner!!!!! One of our favorite meals.  

Yesterday I was on Pinterest.........I enjoy serving warm homemade breads. I found some really nice easy recipes to try. My rosemary went through the whole winter without dying and so I will use fresh rosemary to make.  She used Rhodes 100% Whole Wheat Texas Rolls. I don't have that so I will use the Whole Wheat bread recipe to make ours. I will have to find my little jelly jars that I have like this. Sweetness!




Aren't these beautiful? I bet they taste good also. 



This is a must!!!!! Doesn't it look so easy? I will let you know how they turn out. 


Alfredo Chicken Basil Pizza

Here is the recipe that we used for our pizza dough the other night. It is wonderful and really fast to make. I just dumped all the ing. in my bread machine. Let it do the mixing.  I took it out after it made a nice ball. Take ball and place it in a bowl with olive oil. Let it rise for 5 minutes. Follow directions to finish process. 
We bought a jar of alfredo sauce and spread it on top of the pizza dough. Cut up cooked chicken, onions, and basil leaves. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. NUMMY! 

My mozzarella cheese I was making the other night......well it didn't turn out, but it did make cream cheese.  That is the first time it hasn't worked for me. I will try again. We had a little cheese on hand and some cheddar.....it tasted wonderful...guess that is all that matters. 

Hope you have a sweet day! 

Hugs,  

Linda

P.S. Another little duck hatched during the storm last night. The electricity went off for a bit.....scared me for the rest that were hatching.......lights came back on soon after!!!!! Thankful!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Hello......I am back HOME!

Good morning sweet ladies!

V and his first time driving a boat. Please keep praying for him....thank you!

It has been some time since I have checked in. Our whole family had some time for fam and fun this last weekend! It was so nice to not have to worry about anything for a few days. I started to post yesterday and everything kind of fell apart ;like a Monday on steroids, so here I am today......saying hello sweet ladies!!!!!!! 


 Yesterday I woke early to get chicken wire all around the inside of the big cage for the Momma Blue. I didn't want our cats to be able to get at them. Momma Blue had a bunch of babies hatch. Talk about a sweet Momma. She is doing well with her little baby ducks, but you can tell the babies aren't quite sure what she is saying. You know the eggs that were suppose to be the "Araucana eggs", that turned out to be duck eggs?  They are all happily hatching one at a time.......like 17 so far. Two hatched last night and are in the incubator still "fluffin out". I got them all taken care of and all the other babies on the farm. Then you add unpacking, washing clothes, watering the garden, picking tomato worms off my tomatoes and then on top of that you add helping our son's plant soybeans..... it was a fun long day and no post! It was so good to be back HOME!!!!


It was nice to be back on internet. Thank you for all the orders for the kits and pattern. Go to our store HERE, if you are interested.


I also have a kit available, which makes it easy to have everything you need to finish this project. Go HERE, if you would like to purchase. 



It got busier at about 10:30 last night we were finishing up feeding the horses.  Kayray (Kansas Rain), was acting real funny to me. I just knew something wasn't right........and it wasn't. She had colic. That meant she had to be walked......and walked.......and walked. Colic we have a friend that knows lots about horses. He helped a lot and then our daughter, had heard that you can take them in a horse trailer and drive them around. For some reason that gets them to start moving their bowels. It did help some. Poor girl, you could tell she wasn't feeling well. Finally she passed some urine. That did it! We were so thankful. By this time it was 1 a.m. I was tired and so was everyone else. A close to another day. It was good to lay my head on my pillow!


Father, I thank You for the vivid picture You paint in Your Word as You promise to cover me with Your feathers and grant me refuge under Your wings; Your faithfulness will be my shield and rampart. I need not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, but You will keep destruction from coming near me (Ps. 91: 4-7). Praying God's Word, Beth Moore

I am thankful for all the lessons that a farm teaches you about God. The scripture opens up for me, as I encourage my children and grandchildren to walk in His ways. 


Wanted you to see this cute pic. I put it up on fb yesterday. The Asian beetles were everywhere at the lake! Biting us all the time. Saw this one morning.....they were eating some of my coffeecake. 

Here is my coffee cake recipe. I got it when I was in La Leche League all those years ago......precious memories,

Coffee Cake Hellivig (Finnish) 
1 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. white sugar
2 1/2 c. unbleached flour
3/4 c. oil
1/4 tea. nutmeg
1/2 tea. cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
1 c. buttermilk
1 tea. soda
1 tea. baking powder

Topping 
1 tea. cinnamon
1 c. pecans

Mix together sugars, flour, oil, salt and spices. 
TAKE OUT 3/4 c., add to it the cinnamon and chopped nuts for the topping; set aside.
Add to the remainder of the first mixture the eggs, buttermilk and soda. Beat well and add baking powder before putting in greased 9" x 12" pan. Sprinkle reserved topping on top and bake at 350 degree for 30 to 35 minutes.

The girls and I took it to the lake. Should have taken two pans! It is a recipe that never fails.

I hope you all enjoy your day.......I have taken you before the Father.....just know that He loves you a lot. Some might need to hear that, I know I do! Smile!

Hugs to your day sweet ladies....from the farm,

Linda


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Winner of the Gooseberry Cookbook and Tea Towel!



Hello Sweet Ladies, 

I hope all are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend. I am sure that some will be having a hard day as you go to the cemetery of your loved ones. Know that I am praying for you today!

Wellllllllll, that was a fun Gooseberry Patch/Prairie Flower Farm Cookbook Party. So many came and I loved everyone of your ideas! I am hoping to do something in the near future when there is a little more time on my plate and maybe do a little e-book. You ladies are so clever, thank you so much for taking the time to leave such sweet comments!!!!!

Okay, the day we have been all waiting for!! 
I will need your mailing addy please.

Thank you for signing up 
and also, all you other precious ladies!!!!!!

Karla won the 


The CHRISTmas Table Cookbook, it is full of wonderful recipes and great crafty ideas!!!!!!

and she will also win


my new 
All Hearts Come Home for CHRISTmas Tea Towel Stitchery 
e-Pattern!

Two ladies had the idea of putting the artwork from the top piece. and a few had the idea of the words
All Hearts Come Home For CHRISTmas! 

They didn't even know that .... that was the name of the fabric collection of the top part of the pattern that I designed. I thought that was really neat?

I so loved all the ideas, scriptures and sayings you all had......... 
I really want to do a e-book!


I  designed a new
All Hearts Come Home for CHRISTmas 
Tea Towel Stitchery e-Pattern!

$3.00
Click here to purchase and download


and a Kit with, tea towel, fabrics for front (with snowman and lady) and facing (matching fabric), batting, red check for strip on bottom of towel, DMC floss, and covered button!  

All Hearts Come Home for CHRISTmas 
Kit (sold separately from pattern)

$9.50/ includes shipping!

If you want the kit, please email me at 


prairie flower farm at gmail dot com

with AHCHFC in the subject line. Thank you so much!

Payment: paypal, money order or check is 
accepted. 

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!!!!!!! I will not be posting until Tuesday......spending time with family!

You may order if you would like though. I will fill orders on Tuesday......if you order anything!

Until another party..........have a good day and know that you are being prayed for!!!!!


Hugs from the farm!
Linda

Friday, May 25, 2012

Our Day Today On Our Farm.....Tired!!!!!!!

Good Morning!!!!!!!! Sweet Ladies,


NOTE....my internet went off just as I was working on this post......and while it was off so much happened.....must tell!



Before I came into the house the sun was just coming up a bit. Shining on my hollyhock. Isn't it so pretty? Another little bud is starting to unfold.......I so enjoy things when they bloom! Thank you Jesus.....such simpleness and yet such an incredible Designer we have, can't help to tell Him.......a lot......all the time.......I bet He smiles...... when He hears all of us! 


Worms, caterpillars whatever they are called, are here and trespassing in my garden!!!!!!!!! With the drought last year and the mild winter we are going to be fighting them I think. I am prepared! At least I hope I am prepared. I have never seen them like this. I had at least 1-3 on most of the tomatoes. Even on my lavender, lemon verbena plant and cantaloupe. The pickle plants, honey dew and watermelon all seemed to be okay. I am not going to let them get them. I sure hope the citrus juice works. 


This morning when I wokethe ground was covered with a thick cover of dew and misty rain was coming down........out the door I went to check on the south garden. It has been so neglected as of late. This was on the first tomato plant. UGH! I started hand picking the worms.....some quite big......I hardly ever do that. Don't like the feel on my hands, but I was a serious farmgirl at this point. I was throwing them in a bucket or squashing them with a stick. I can't believe now that I did that.



Citrus Juice find recipe Here

Yesterday I made up the citrus juice to spray on my rhubarb. I am going to use it on my tomatoes also. I don't think it will hurt them. Maybe I should try only one. I will let you know. 



I poured the citrus mixture into a fine strainer.



I had to use a spoon to push the juice through a little.



After I poured the juice into my sprayer........




we went out to spray and pick off the worms and caterpillars. Ick........was this in the farmgirl notebook? When you pick them up they squirt this green juice on you. 




Then I came into the house to write my post........then the electricity went off.........then the phone rang and it was our farm neighbor saying his dog was loose (the one that killed my chickens). I knew that Missy White Cochin was laying somewhere, because she came to drink and eat yesterday... so out the door I went to go find her. I looked everywhere. Then I came around our little barn and I thought I heard her. I remembered the lid we had from a cat litter carrier where Shelby (another chicken I had who was killed, remember the one that slept in our tree by the kitchen window) had sat on her eggs. Sure enough there she was ....sitting on 8 sweet eggs.....all tucked under her. She was not going to get hurt by that dog......... I was going to have to move her.  




I thought, if I put a division in the pen where Big Red Hen is setting  she would be safe.  Now the key was, would she sit on her eggs again. She scratched the straw, ate some food and drank her water.......all the while I am still standing waiting and she wouldn't sit.  Then she scratched so much straw that she covered her eggs, this wasn't working. Silly girl?


So...........




I thought maybe....if I got the lid that she had been using and placed it over the eggs....just maybe she would go in. 




She got inside!!!!!!!!!




She was getting all comfy.........tucking all those precious eggs with sweet little fluffy babies on the inside........they were going to make it! LIFE....again on the farm! It is hard being a Mom.....I am talking about me, wink! 




She is happy and I am happy! Isn't she the cutest?


Well that was my day and I am tired....back to working on the pattern! Keeping a farm is fun.......but it also hard work! 
Fun Work!


One More DAY for the




This says May 22, but we extended the party......until tomorrow May 25th at noon.......can't wait to see who wins!


Gooseberry Patch/Prairie Flower Farm party!!!!!!


Go HERE and sign up!


 The CHRISTmas Table Cookbook 


is  packed with wonderful recipes. 


I baked this recipes from The CHRISTmas Table Cookbook .....


Chicken and Asparagus Quiche, NUM! 




Strawberry & Raspberry Strata, very good!



and these


The Best Scones Ever, a wonderful recipe!




and I 




have been stitching on the towel......can't wait to show you!!!! 




Please sign up, if you would like to, 
would love to have you!!!!!! 




Hugs from the farm, 
Linda


Linked up with 




Go Here! You will love her!


Thank you Deborah for doing this!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

A Beautiful Day........On The Farm......No Wind!

Hello Sweet Ladies.......

this morning we went out early to try to beat the heat and work a bit in the garden. 


Sweet man asked for me to follow.......I followed. As we were walking to where he was taking me he said that Rooster was feeding Miss Rachel. He would bite a piece of greens and then drop it in front of her.......now is that precious or what?

When I got to them he was cock a doodling! Probably saying some sweet things! 


She was scratching away eating bugs.....with her sweet rooster guy by her side. 


We were out in the garden early as I said, I came back up to the house and off to the side I saw out of my left eye........my WHITE COCHIN GIRLIE....... she was making a beeline to the water........she has been gone for some time and was she ever hungry.......she has a nest somewhere I am sure. I don't know where, but I tried to find it. Nothing so far. I am so so thankful she is not dead like I thought. This really made this farmgirl happy!


Mr. Toad saw that we had water.........he came for a drink. A pretty fat little guy, don't ya think?

It is a busy day today again .........the wind is not blowing like it was yesterday. Very nice. Putting paper and straw down. I will show pic's tomorrow. IT works great to keep the moisture from evaporating. Teachable moments with Vitaliy. 

Hugs to your day from the farm!

Linda

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I Am Taking A Break....I will be in the GARDEN!

  Hello sweet ladies,

I have been working so hard on the pattern, that my garden has been growing without me......oh and those nasty weeds they have been growing with out me too. Makes me think of when sin entered the Garden......and God said......

HOLD THAT THOUGHT PLEASE!

I am interrupting here........as I was writing this post and had just put the picture up of the zucchini up, my sweet man came in the house saying the Momma Guinea was freaking out because a snake was getting her eggs. She doesn't have a husband so they are not fertile, but still. Sweet man, Tress, Tay, V and myself with camera went running out the door.


Here is what we found......he had an egg partially in his mouth. 


Sweet man caught the snake.......perfect lesson for Vitaliy to understand scripture...........is God so in the DETAILS of our daily lives?


V just wanted to hold the tail. This was a Prairie King snake and they are very docile. 


My rhubarb has caterpillars. 
I am using a Citrus Mixture to see if I can get them to quit eating my leaves. I will be making some up today. This summer we will be fighting the bugs.......we didn't have a hard winter and we are seeing what that means!

Right by where the snake was, I have my rhubarb patch. I had noticed the other day that little fuzzy caterpillars  were getting my plants......I looked and they were taking over in just those few days. 
The scripture that I had just put in my post really jumped out at me even more. Not just little weeds were in my garden, but lessons of the Truth of His Word were all around my farm. I am praying that V and our girls will get the object lessons tonight when we meet around the Word. Precious is our Lord......to give us teachable moments!

Now to get back to what I was writing about earlier..... 

I have the whole chapter of Genesis 3 HERE for you to read. Please take time to read with your family.

To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your 
wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I 
commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,

                        “Cursed is the ground because of you;   
 through painful toil you will 
eat food from it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 
By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return. 
Adam named his wife Eve, because she
would become the mother of all the living.
Gen 3: 18-19

I love how Adam named his wife.......precious thing!
My sweet man has named me.........his Pretty Prairie Flower....that is why our farm is named that.....I know silly, but I love it!

Thankful for Jesus.......He came to give us freedom from our sins!!!!!! Amazing LOVE!

Here are some pic's of my garden.



This is a flower from my winter onions. They are looking so pretty! I will let the onions keep growing.....they are getting so big now and by the by the end of the summer they will be bigger. I will be cutting the flowers off. 


This truly makes my heart smile.......see that little baby zucchini?


Little baby squash..........can't wait until we can use it for cooking!


Potatoes are growing really tall. Can't wait to sneak some from underneath!


My green beans.........see those little weeds? Today we will be picking up 20 bales of straw. V and I will lay paper on the ground  and then straw on top of the paper........NO MORE WEEDING FOR ME! It also makes the moisture stay in the ground and not evaporate! 


Here is my lemon verbena, it is so so good in this recipe! 


Click here and print off.
http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu214/prairieflowerfarm/LemonVbreadrecipecardflat.jpg

Do you notice the plant to the left side? I planted daisies everywhere on the farm next to the veggies!!!!!!! Once they get established it will be so nice to walk into my garden each year.

I am sorry that this is so long.......it's my journal and if I don't get it written.....they won't have my story.

Hugs to your day from the farm......and may the Lord bless you real good!

Linda

Gooseberry Patch/Prairie Flower Farm 

Party still going on.......2 1/2 more days! 

The ideas that you ladies have written are so so wonderful!

Go HERE to sign up if you would like!