Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 The past few days have flown right along.  I have been getting fall green beans and have fixed a few fresh, but I haven't canned any.  I just haven't had the time, or maybe I ought to say; I haven't made myself MAKE the time to can. I made cherry jam last week.  I forget if I talked about that here. Yesterday I cooked up 3 of the little pie pumpkins that I spent all spring and summer protecting from bugs. I baked them for about 50 minutes, but they were a bit crispy still.  So I chunked them up and steamed the chunks until they were quite soft.  Then I used an immersion blender to get them really smooth.  I lined my wire strainer with a clean hanky and let the puree drip for a couple of hours, stirring once or twice. Last Friday I went and met Janelle in person.  We've been pen pals for 40 years.  But that deserves its own blog entry. I substituted two days last week.  Once for half day at the grade school and one full day at the high s...

 The gardening season of 2024 has been the best for peppers.  We are pretty much tired of the bell peppers and we obviously haven't even made a dent in these banana peppers.  Some of them are hot, some of them are not.  Gary and Ellen eat them, but they don't even eat a whole pepper at once, so these are just hanging out here, turning red as they ripen.  I think they are so pretty.  They would be lovely strung up to dry and hung in a kitchen.  But I'd never use them, they would just become dusty and probably mildew. Well, I might make a post on Facebook about them and see if anyone wants them.  The trouble with that is I believe everyone else local had a good pepper year too.

 This was Smudge's expression as we set up the new kennel for Hope.  🤣 😂  She was watching through the window, of course.  I didn't notice her up there until we were almost finished. This picture made me laugh because she is so obviously not at all impressed. I am still not one hundred percent sure of Hope in regards to not injuring the cat.  I only let the dogs out to run when I know for certain that Smudge is in the house.  I'm almost positive Smudge would run if she saw Hope outside and that it would trigger Hope to chase her.  The outcome of that might not be pretty.  Hope doesn't respond to her at all the few times they have been in the same room in the house together, but I am not willing to take chances.  We shall see as time goes on. For context though, I've never let Bella and Smudge be alone together outside, or in the house either.  I've always kept the dog on a leash simply because Bella would overwhelm Smudge just by her h...

  Bella and Hope have the most fun prancing around on their walks. Catching them together like this while they are off their leashes is a very rare sight  Hope is gradually learning our routine, especially that we aren't going to follow her a half mile or more down the creek bottoms in pursuit of a deer. They have both been staying in the one field on this side of the creek.   The only trouble being Gary did follow her when she "treed" a possum a few days ago.  I have pics of that but Google is no longer being cooperative in loading my photos.  I've got to do some maintenance somewhere.  I've posted the story on Facebook, so it will have to remain there for some time before I can figure out how to get it over here. At any rate I hope she doesn't expect us to chase after her every time she trees a coon or possum.  She'll just have to come home whenever she gets hungry I guess.  

 This past weekend, Fri and Saturday I participated at the SW MO Celtic Festival.  Since I had to stay with my booth most of the time I wasn't really able to observe the Highland Games and competitions, but we were fairly close to the stage so we got to listen to the music.  Friday night there weren't too many people there, so we were able to leave our booths and watch the Calling of the Clans. Above is a shot of the Clans filing in from Clan Row, further down the hill.  It is a stirring sight to watch them marching in with their torches; the bagpipes wailing as they came. As far as vendoring went, I did pretty well.  The chickens were popular.  So were the dolls and teddies.  The bracelets were made by the The Feral Cat owner's daughter.  I actually sold six of my cards to a lady who said she sends out lots of cards and loves unique things like that.  She bought quite a few of the more retro type cards I'd made. I was glad to find another pe...

 Gary did some haying in the creek bottoms a few weeks ago; last month I believe.  He hasn't had the chance to get down there and get the bales yet due to so many well repair jobs and gravel hauling jobs.  The bales make great photos here in late summer though, with the fog or sun on them. As a general practice I avoid walks this time of year, simply because it is chigger and seed tick season.  I wear tall rubber boots, but still manage to get chiggers, likely from tall weeds that I brush up against.   Since I now have another dog however, I have been taking them down the hill to run a bit in the mornings. They love it. Every morning down there has its own charm; fog, sun, mist. The above two photos were of the same hay bale on the same morning, just very different angles.  I wanted to catch the steam coming from it as the sun burned off the dew.  It was the only hay bale steaming like this, and at first it made me a smidge nervous that it was smoke an...

 Every once in awhile Ellen makes blatant hints for a kitten or a puppy; much like I did when I was her age.  Following my mother's example I had, up to now, vehemently denied our need for another pet.  The idea of something else to care for, the headache of worrying about its health and well-being...all too much for me.  Not to mention the fact that at some point on down the road you've got to say goodbye. I hate goodbyes. But then one morning last week Gary mentioned that there was a strange dog down the road at his sister's.  A friendly thing, followed him around to feed chickens.  I thought nothing of it until I was walking back home from visiting a neighbor later that same morning and as I went past her house here came a dog. I couldn't get it to go away; it...she, that is, followed me home. A friendly dog: This above picture was on the first day she visited. I sat down outside to see what she was up to.  She came straight over to make friends. Af...