Tomato Update

Hello Sweet One!

Wanted to give you an update of the tomato farm!

The good news--we have babies!!!  Baby tomatoes, that is!  I had been worried that our pollination efforts weren't enough as I was tying up more plants and tapping the blossom ends.  I prayed that the Lord would let me know that we were on the right track and not even a minute or three later, I saw our first baby tomato!!!!  I was so thankful!  He is so kind to us.

I also, though, found evidence of disease in some plants.   We have sent the photos off to an expert and are waiting for the reply.  I am not going to be worried though--the Lord has all this in control.  If we lose them, He is still there, if we don't He is still there.  In any case, He is still there.

Father's Day Present

Hello dear friend,

I am a little tired today.  I dreamt last night that a sweet friend died tragically, suddenly.  I spent the rest of the night, all my dreams after that one, mourning her in my sleep.  She is very much alive, but my dreams were so real that this morning my head aches and my throat is strained from crying in my sleep.

Dreams.  They are often so interesting, but sometimes so dreadful!

Anyway, I wanted to show you what we did this morning!  TWS wanted a flag pole for Father's Day. There is one that came with the house, but it had been bent by a storm at some point and was weak.  TWS ordered a telescoping, sturdy flag pole with an American Flag and a POW Flag.

Parenthetically, a neighbor told me that she had seen that robbers will often skip houses that have American Flags, presuming the occupants to be armed.  Interesting, don't you think?

TWS cemented the flag pole two days ago, and today the concrete was set enough for him to raise the flag.  He was so excited (as excited as TWS gets--he is pretty low key :) ).  He almost wanted to fly the flag last night, but we couldn't because we do not have the lights installed to shine on the flag yet.

So he had to wait until morning, and went out before breakfast:

Getting the flags ready.

Being very careful not to let the American Flag touch the ground.

Straightening and unfurling.

Attaching the POW/MIA Flag.  We remember you!

Beautiful!

Our "Farm" Kitty

Hello beautiful one!

I had forgotten that I had not finished posting about our kitty and his food issues!

I have a pet cat named Scout.  He is a tuxedo cat and the oddest one I have had.  He literally melts in your arms and sleeps so relaxedly that his lips droop.  He prefers to be upside down (I think his gyro got installed wrong ;) ), and completely trusts you to a)hold him like a baby and b)when you are done, turn him over end in a reverse summersault to the floor. 

If I may...this is his little story:  several years ago we lost both of our cats to kidney disease (more on that below).  I want a cat in the house, one who is loving and people oriented.  Howitzer, my big cat, was a wonderful people cat.  He adopted any little baby who came into the house (including letting our other kitten nurse off of him!  She had a strong suckling urge and he let her actually nurse off his little boy cat nipples.  Poor thing had furless raw patches up and down his tummy, but eventually he weaned her :) ).

 Hummer, my little female, was shy but not aloof.  We got her from a box in front of a grocery store and she was only as long as my hand--I remember riding home and marveling at how tiny she was.  She would pat your back and snuggle if you were crying.  Her purr was loud like a chainsaw and you could hear her purring down the hall, but her meow was so quiet that often you would see her mouth open but no sound came out or you would just hear the tiniest little squeak.  They were wonderful.

And then they both were gone.

It was time for a new kitty and I went to the shelter to find one.  I was thinking of getting a little tortie--I had had them before and liked their color.  The worker was surprised that my torties were well behaved because many, apparently, can be aggressive.  They did have one available, and we took her in the little room to get acquainted. 

The worker was right--she was aggressive and not at all inclined to make friends.  She was not acting shy, she was acting angry.  Not the cat for us.

But there was a mom and two half grown kittens that were tuxedo cats.  The worker assured me that the male was a love bug.  She was right again!  He was so snuggly and so sweet that when they injected the ID and gave him his shots, he just purred louder.

I was still nervous.  I wanted to get the right kitty.  I wanted to know he would be a good fit.  I prayed that the Lord would let me know as I walked to the front desk to finish the paperwork.  Not a few seconds later, the lady at the desk told me his name was Scout.

Why is that remarkable?  Because we were in a phase of naming all our pets after military somethings.  Scout was military enough that I knew that this was the kitty for us :)  The Lord blessed us with the silliest, snuggliest cat I have ever had :).

Ok, back to the present and his present issues....

He has been on friskies wet food for a couple of years now.  He was on dry, but then had bladder blockage issues, and for some reason stopped drinking his water out of a bowl after surgery.  So we went to wet food.  All seemed fine.

Then last week he started getting ill when he would eat.  I was upset (he is one of the niftiest cats I have ever had--very cuddly, plays fetch, etc).  But I was also confused.  Not to get indelicate, but his constitutionals were still fine, the problem seemed to be only upper GI.

This weekend it got very bad, so I made him some chicken and rice and cooked egg.  He kept that down fine.  Then I bought some organic food for him, and he kept down the poultry based foods, but NOT the beef (though the problem was much less severe).  Then I tried him back on poultry--fine.  Tried him on liver--he refused to touch it.

I am seeing a pattern:  poultry is fine, beef and beef related food is not.

So I went to the Pet Depot to see what was available.  Honestly they are just so expensive!  I did buy a few cans of food just to try.  I avoided science diet (per the worker) and a few others.  I have also decided to avoid Natura and related since they are having a lot of recalls.  I asked the worker (who is extremely knowledgeable regarding food) if it would not honestly be better if I just made him chicken and rice since he tolerated it so well.  She said that that would be best.  She said use brown, not white, rice.

So now I will be making my own cat food on the big cook days.  I will freeze it in muffin tins and pop them in a ziplock and microwave for his meals.  I have not finalized the recipe yet, and still have some research to do, but I am pretty confident that this will be a good way to go.  I will see if there are trace minerals that he might need.

DISCLAIMER!!!  I am NOT a vet.  I am NOT a nutritionist.  In fact, it was only about 10 years ago that I stopped arguing that poptarts should be considered a fruit serving because there is a picture of a cherry on the box.  PLEASE.  DO.  NOT.  TRUST.  MY.  METHODS.  I am in no way responsible for anything that might happen to your pet if you choose to try what I am trying.  If a couple years pass and my critters are doing fine, then I might have more confidence, but for now, please feed your pet at your risk and not with my "research" :)

Is it perfectly scientific?  Nope (but I am going to try to make it so!).  But knowing what junk can get into the foods, and knowing that my cooking process will not result in recalls, I feel that he will get the best he can if I make most of his food.  I will keep some organic food (I am liking Newman's at the moment) around for emergencies, camping, and in case I am behind in my cooking :).

After doing some research using http://catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood and http://www.pet-grub.com/part1/how_to_make_your_own_ground_egg_shell_calcium_supplement_for_dogs_and_cats , I have a better idea of what I will need to make sure my little scamp is healthy.  He will definitely need taurine, fish oil, vitamin B complex, vitamin E, and lite salt (which has potassium in it).  I will be using egg shells, as I have no desire nor inclination to have a raw food diet for him (as much as he drags food around the house, no way raw chicken is going to be in his bowl!).

My only question is whether I will include brown rice or not.  On the one hand, I think not as he is a carnivore.  On the other hand, I am not so much sure it will hurt him since he also eats plastic (and obviously is not too choosy in what he swallows).  I do know that meat will be the majority of his diet, with rice as a filler.  I have no problems with a little filler--which is why I end up eating more breadsticks than necessary at the Olive Garden.

I guess my thing is that I am not afraid of FOODS for my critters (though I will never feed meat to an herbivore--that is how mad cow got started).  I am wary of pathogens, melamine (Howie and Hummer that I talked about earlier:  Two completely unrelated cats, one male and one female, three years apart in age, from different towns, and they just happen to get simultaneous kidney disease right when the melamine-in-pet-food stuff came out?  I find that a bit of a stretch.), aflatoxin, and other nasties.  I figure if I get the pet food about right in terms of making sure I have the minerals, etc, then it is as good as I can do. :)

I am sure that TWS won't mind if I don't get to his breakfast biscuits because I have to make food for the cat, right? ;)

This is our silly boy.  It is hard to tell from the pic, but he is really limp.  You can continue to flip him over to his feet and he does not mind at all!

Back To Work

Good Morning dear friend!

It is a wonderful, blessed morning here on the farm.  It has cooled down from the rains of the past few days, the birds are singing, there is a light mist gentle caressing the big pond, and everything feels fresh and new.

I have renewed energy to work, and I think it might be because yesterday TWS and I took the day off to celebrate a special day.  The only work we did yesterday was hand pollinating the greenhouse (basically gently tapping the stems that were flowering so that the pollen would fall into the right place).  That only took about 15 minutes.  Then we went to town for the day to enjoy each other's company and browse.

We gently tapped the stems that the blossoms attached to in order to mimic the wind or a bee.  Tomatoes are self pollinating, needing only jostling to get the pollen from one place in the blossom to another.

It was our anniversary, you see, and we had not planned to do anything for it.  Not that I do not like celebrating our anniversary--I love it!  I love marriages and love and yearly markers of time together, through struggles and through blessings.  Marriage is HARD work, and it is a blessing to mark the time together.

However, our anniversary always seems to fall at a busy time of year and sneaks up on me!  Additionally, with the expense of the move and establishing the farm, there was not as much discretionary time or income. 

Instead TWS had a wonderful day just being together.  We went to my favorite fast food restaurant (with coupons!), went to a local store that has the most amazing show rooms (most of their items were too expensive for us, but we had fun looking at everything and chatting with the sales person about our time in Alaska!).  We went to Pet Depot to find new food for our cat (more on that later) and a dog bed.

We drove up one of the most beautiful highways I have ever seen into Tennessee and back (a short trip).  This highway looks like a drive through arboretum--the trees are magnificent and groomed and stunning.

We stopped by an antique store where TWS got an incredible deal on a hand plane and I found some copper cookie cutters like my mom used to have.  Oh, there is s till a very tender wound in my heart from her passing, and yesterday it was particularly tender for some reason.  There was a lady in one of the stores we went to that had hair like my mom and was about the right height.  Every time I caught a glimpse of her through the aisles, I would quickly get an excited, joyful catch in my heart, then just as quickly, I would remember that it was not my mom.  It was sorrowful, but also beautiful, because, for the merest of split seconds, my mom was back here with me.  It was worth the pain of disappointment to have the joy of that moment.

I also found a new (old!) book series:  Cherry Ames.  It was written long ago about a nurse who solves mysteries.  It reminds me of the Trixie Belden series, which I adore.

Let's see, we of course had to go to Lowe's (they know us well there!) and we went to Tractor Supply.  Since we had not planned any gifts for each other, we almost got an "anniversary auger" for the tractor :).  However, we passed on that and I got Ball Jars to put up dry goods instead :).

We have been married 19 years.  It seems so short!  The present for a 19 year anniversary is "bronze".  TWS and I like to go by the traditional gifts instead of the modern, but the traditional skips from 15 to 20 (those are some mighty good years that the lists carelessly skip! :) ).  In these cases, we look to the modern list.  Though I found some incredible bronze items in the first store, they were entirely too pricey for our budget, so instead we got an "oil rubbed bronze" shower head at Lowe's, which we needed anyway :).

I also bought some gladiolus bulbs for the walking garden, and some seed starter trays to start the flowers I have.  I could direct sow into the ground, but with the walking garden carved out of the grassy meadow, I am afraid we might misplace (and mow!) what we would plant. 

We also tried some goat cheese with honey in it (and fig, and coffee--they were each delicious!) from a local store.  And I got a few little gift bags at an antique store that also sold some paper goods.  I thought it would be wonderful, if I baked some brownies or something, to put a few in one of these pretty little bags for a neighbor :).

When we got home, Precious had completely cleaned the kitchen for us!  What a sweet and wonderful surprise!

TWS talked about taking the day off and how he is just starting to feel like he can.  He apologised in case I had felt he had been a "stick in the mud" about going places, but I understood.  He is under incredible time pressure, at the whims of nature, to get the farm established.  Now that some of the big projects are being completed, he feels more like he can take some time.  (however, he was joking last night about being lazy and taking the day off :) ). 

So it is back to work today after a wonderful day spent celebrating our marriage and thanking the Good Lord for His provision in it. :)

Still a lot of ground to plow.  This was just broken up, not tilled or prepared.  Late, late garden this year, but perhaps we can get it ready for the cool season crops. :)

Grocery Wednesday!

Sweet friend!  So glad you are here!

I am slowly getting into a routine to try to keep everything running smoothly here at Lemonrock Farm.  I truly was never that wonderful of a housekeeper.  However, I am determined to do much better at it, and a routine helps me immensely (when I remember to stick to it).

I am letting the Lord establish my routine for me.  Instead of declaring what day I will do what, He is gently guiding me in wisdom to what days are best for what major chores.  Additionally, I need to seek Him every day for the incidental tasks that need to be done. 

Today is Wednesday and we have established that that is a great time for me to do my coupons and flyers and grocery shopping.  I have read in some places that couponing takes a great deal of time.  Truthfully I do not find it time consuming.  I get a Sunday paper with coupons (and I clip the ones I need), then I go to my store's website.  They make it easy to print coupons, have digital coupons, and make a list all online.  Truly the time I spend making my list and clicking digital coupons is very small (compared, say, to the time I spend on facebook or pinterest ;) ), and therefore worth the effort.  I save my coupons from Sunday, my organizer, and a pair of scissors in a little reading basket in my sunroom and do all clipping and grocery related tasks on Wednesday.

That is my routine chore for Wednesday.  My incidental tasks that I would like to accomplish today is to make a few internet inquiries regarding selling some fiestaware, planting my seeds in my trays to eventually transfer to the Walking Garden, finish a painting I was working on, make sweet tea, and perhaps a few other items I have forgotten at the moment :).

What is your plan for today?  Do you stick to a routine and do you find it suits you?  Do you find it difficult to stick to a routine?  Do you have any tips for smoothing the housekeeping road?  I would love to hear from you!