Rhonda's Ramblings

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.”
- William Shakespeare

I think it might be spring. There are certainly signs of it everywhere. Of course, snow is predicted this evening, but I’m going to focus on the good things.

We received our first batch of baby chicks in the mail.

My daffodils are blooming!

I made a spring cake

And there are astronauts in my house.

(That’s my husband in his beekeeping suit that came in the mail yesterday. We will soon be the proud caretakers of 2 hives of bees.)

I love when you are driving along the highway in what seems like the middle of nowhere and you suddenly come upon a cute little antique store or gift shop.

Today, I visited on of my favorite middle of nowhere shops. This cute little Christmas gift shop is in an old farmhouse along the highway. Blink and you miss it. They are only open on weekends in December, so shopping days are limited.

I’d been planning on taking a special trip out there this season, and realized that today was my last chance since I will be out of town next weekend. I decided that even though the snow was falling pretty heavily, I would venture out to see what treasures I could find.

And I did find some treasures. Not only is this shop cute and charming, but they are also cheap. Just my style.

Last night, just as I was drifting off to sleep, I suddenly sat up in bed, remembering something that I forgot to do at work.

I think I mentioned that it has been cold here…very cold. So cold that the pipes at work are frozen, which means that there is no working bathroom.

After 8 1/2 hours of no restroom breaks, I had to go pee. And I had to go bad. I didn’t even get a chance to leave for a lunch break, since I was the only employee there. (I work in a retail garden and gift shop.) So, I was in a huge rush to get out of there and find a bathroom quickly.

In my haste, I forgot to blow out the candles and turn off the heater. But of course I didn’t remember until the middle of the night. Well, 12:30 am, which is close to the middle of the night.

So, after a few minutes of deliberations, I got out of bed, bundled up to go out in the freezing cold to drive back to work and blow out the candles. I knew I wouldn’t get good sleep if I didn’t. Worst case scenarios were running through my head. Like the cat getting in and knocking the candle over which would of course lead to a fire and burn all of the Christmas decorations.

But you know what made it all better? When I got in my car, my favorite Christmas album was playing. I found it in my car cassette player yesterday, where I have apparently been storing it since last Christmas.

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,

Last night as my husband and I “settled our brains” for a very short night of sleep, I was wishing we were settling in for a long winter’s nap. I was reminded of this line from The Night Before Christmas
because Jason wore his winter hat to bed last night. Why was this necessary? Because it’s freezing cold!

I’m not used to temperatures in the negative numbers. I’ve lived here for a couple of years, but this is much colder than the last couple of winters. Cold enough that there is ice inside our kitchen windows. Brrr.

Frozen Window

But at least the view outside our windows is beautiful!

View from window

As a side note….Somehow I don’t remember the word “brains” in the poem. I always thought it just said “settled down”.

I’m obsessed with Thompson Peak. It takes my breath away often. I take pictures of it all the time…while I’m driving, while I’m on a walk, while I’m working on the farm. These are just a small sampling of the many pictures that I’ve taken in the past month. I love how it comes alive in different ways depending on how the light hits it. And I love that the house site that we have chosen has a glorious view of this mountain. Which picture jumps out at you?

We are starting a CSA! What is a CSA? Well, Thanks for asking.(It stands for Community Supported Agriculture.) Basically, it is a subscription vegetable program. Our customers pay a fee up front and we provide them with vegetables each week throughout the growing season.

Here is a little slide show that I put together to show what our farm has been up to for the last couple of years.

For a little more information on CSAs and to find a local farm near you, visit localharvest.org.

Yesterday couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a sunny day or a day full of huge downpours. Because of its uncertainty, I thought it would be a great day to see a rainbow.

When I was in elementary school, we memorized the conditions for a rainbow, and I still go over them in my head for some reason.

1. The rain must be falling in front of you.
2. The sun must be shining behind you.
3. It must be morning or afternoon.

Despite the fact that all of these conditions were in place at different times, I still could not find that elusive rainbow.

Until…..I was driving home from grocery shopping and alas….not just one rainbow, but a double rainbow!!

(I don’t think the second rainbow showed up in the pictures.)

So bright! So abundant! So summer!

#51.
Jen

Check out her site. She’s got some beautiful picture frames.

#167

Latharia

Check out her alliterative blog.

Congratulations to the winners!

At first glance, the wild turkeys may impress you. And I will admit, they are quite impressive animals. Gorgeous, really.

We call these turkeys “wild”, but we use the term loosely. A couple of years ago, there were some wild turkeys who made friends with our domestic turkeys. I really think they were just using them for the free food, but whatever the case, they became pals. Well, our domestic turkeys ended up running off with the wild turkeys. Such bad influences.

We have never seen our domestic turkeys again. But this past year, a wild turkey momma showed up with her four little babies. I guess she wanted to give them the same type of childhood that she had.

We love them and are protective of them. We don’t want them to end up on someone’s table for Thanksgiving dinner.

But at the same time, they drive us crazy. They are not as impressive when they are scratching and climbing around on your roof at 6:30 am.

(See the little turkey head sticking up?)

And they are not impressive when they poop all along your front walk.

They are not impressive when they tear apart the bale of straw that is for your chickens.

But they are impressive when they fly high into the trees.

And super impressive when they strut their stuff.

So, I guess we’ll keep them around. We’ll have to raise our own thanksgiving turkey.

I am participating in the One World-One Heart 2009 giveaway.

I am so blessed to live in such a beautiful place. Just tonight, driving home from work, I got excited when I saw the rugged mountains covered with snow. Nevermind that I saw the same mountain last night and the night before. It still creates a feeling of awe.

Here are a few pictures I took while walking around our property. Pictures never capture the true feeling of standing on top of our hill where you have almost a full 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains and valleys. But they are still beautiful.

Have you ever played this game?

If not, I highly recommend it. Especially with a large group. I can guarantee much laughing and hilarity and snorting. At least that’s what happens when my family plays it.

But I recommend the version from Amazon. The one on Target’s shelves has different graphics that I don’t like as much. They make it a tiny bit more difficult to play.

That’s all I’ve got for you today.

Did you celebrate the holiday yesterday? It was National Pie Day. (Thanks to Bex for letting me know.)

When I told my sweet husband (who is a math teacher) that it was National Pie Day, he said, “No, that’s not until March 14th. 3.14 Pi day.” Math nerds have their own holidays apparently.I personally am more of a fan of pie than I am of pi. But that’s just me.

In honor of this day, I will give you a link to a previous post I wrote:

As American as Apple Pie

All this talk of pie reminds me that I still have the $80 Kitchen Store gift card that I won for the pie contest. I should really spend that.

I will leave you with a picture of a pear crumb pie. And I will let you in on a secret. The special ingredient in pear pie is mace.

Animals that we saw on our Sunday drive:

Magpies
Goats
Horses
Wild Horses (in pens)
Deer (they are a dime a dozen.)
Sheep
Hawk
Chickens
Llama
Bald Eagle
Buffalo (not wild)

And probably some others. Sure, most of those were not wild animals. But the Bald Eagle was the 2nd in 2 days. Pretty awesome.

We like to think that it is our habit to take Sunday drives after church, but in reality, it’s been a long time since we’ve taken the time to explore. (And let’s be honest here. We actually skipped church to take this drive. But only because we arrived late at church and our church is SO awkward to walk into late and it usually means that we can’t sit together.)

When we do make the time, we try to take a few essentials:

1. Altimeter

Just because it’s fun to see the elevation changes that we are making.

2. Northern California Atlas & Gazetteer

It has maps of back roads and dirt roads, but unfortunately this weekend it led us astray. It listed roads that do not exist and others that were gated off by the landowners, presumably. We were disappointed, but someday when the roads are not so muddy, we will find the way through.

3. Camera (since mine broke, we were using Jason’s old 2.0 megapixel camera, and I was pleasantly surprised with the pictures.)

4. Food. Always an essential.

Since I am still a newcomer to this county, I love exploring and getting to know where the roads lead. Probably a symptom of my wanderlust.

So, last night, my wonderful husband walked in the door with the mail and asked me if I was expecting a package from Amazon. I looked at him blankly, quickly going through my memory trying to figure out what Christmas present we had ordered that had not arrived yet.

He had a twinkle in his eye, because he thought he knew what it was. He did, and I had no clue.

But when I opened it, I was quite excited. Giddy would probably be a better word. Not quite daffodil giddy, but giddy nonetheless.

Remember the sad story of my camera?

Last week, I decided that I would use some credit card reward points that I had been saving up for years, really.

And last night my reward arrived!

“Why the 770?”, you ask. Well, thanks for asking. Two reasons, really:

1. I wanted a Canon PowerShot that was similar to my old camera.

2. I had enough points for this one.

I’m so thrilled. I was not expecting it to arrive so soon, because the website said 3 to five weeks.

And it was free!

Okay, this post doesn’t have much to do with parsimony, but it was just so alliterative. I will, however, be talking about parsnips.

Perhaps you are unfamiliar with parsnips, as was I. That is, until last week, when a nice lady at our church invited us over to dig some from her garden. Harvesting vegetables in the dead of winter appealed to me, as did trying a new veggie.

According to my Western Garden Book:

(Parsnips) are a carrot relative form Siberia and Europe; grown for its delicately sweet creamy white to yellowish roots, most often used in stews.

Sounded yummy, now to find a recipe. (Not to follow, mind you, but as a jumping off point.) I have recently decided that instead of running to the internet to find recipes, I need to look through my kajillions of recipe books first. So, I did. I have vegetable recipe books galore, but no luck on a parsnip recipe. Finally, I found one in my trusty Taste of Home Cookbook. Pretty basic and simple. Sounded good to me.

1. I peeled the parsnips.
2. I cut up the parsnips into small pieces.
3. I placed the parsnips into a baking dish.
4. I poured about 1/4 cup of water over the parsnips
5. I dabbed a few dots of butter over the top of parsnips.
6. I shook salt, pepper and italian seasoning onto the parsnips.
7. I baked at 400F for about 30-40 minutes.
8. I was partook of the a parsnips and was pleased. Similar to a potato, but a bit sweeter.

If you have not tried these delicious root vegetable, I recommend them.

Image by Dave Walker.

Sorry about the crummy pictures, but you know the story of my camera.

I would like to introduce you to Annie, Penelope and Harriet, though I’m not really sure which one is which.

They are delightful and easy to fall in love with. I love the way they do the “chicken scratch dance”. They scratch…jump back…then investigate. Scratch…jump back…then investigate. I also love watching my friend Vanessa imitate the “chicken scratch dance”.

(If you would like to know which name belongs to which chicken, you will have to ask Vanessa [she named Harriet and Penelope] or my Mom and Sister [who named Annie].)

If you know me at all, or have read this blog once or twice before, you may be aware of my obsession with daffodils. They make me giddy.

And my sweet husband bought me some today. I jumped for joy! It will be months before they will even think about blooming here in the high desert. Isn’t it nice that Safeway brings us spring a bit early? And isn’t it nice that my husband is so awesome?

I would show you pictures of the happy flowers from today, but my camera is broken. But I’m sure I can find 923,000 pictures of daffodils on my hard drive.

My wonderful husband got me Photoshop as a very thoughtful Christmas gift. He’s really good at giving gifts.

My in-laws got me this gorillapod for Christmas.

There is one problem. My beloved camera, that I have had for years and have taken all over the country with me, decided to give up the ghost this week. I may have cried.

I’m not one to name my belongings, but it was like a friend to me. I know that’s cheesy, but I was pretty attached to my camera. It was small and compact and could fit in my pocket or purse. I could and did take it everywhere with me…hiking, sledding, roadtripping, to the river, around the farm, on our honeymoon, when we took the canoe out on the lake….you get the idea.

Let’s have a moment of silence for my camera.

Right now, our budget doesn’t really allow for a new camera. And someday, I really want a digital SLR. But our budget really doesn’t allow for that. (And I couldn’t take an SLR down the sledding hill with me.) So, I’d settle for another great point and shoot, but know that it will be a while before I can get one.

But today, as I was mourning the loss of my camera, and noticing so many picture-worthy moments, a flash went off. I have these “reward points” from a credit card that I need to use. I had thought about getting an i-pod with them, but just never have been sure. And thanks to my procrastination, I can now get a camera, which I would like much more than an i-pod, I’m sure. Now I just have to decide which one in my point range is the best for me. I think I’ll probably stick with a Canon SD. Mine was so good to me, and I don’t love change.