Rhonda’s Ramblings

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.

We pretty much had the perfect Christmas Day. It’s true.

My family came up for a couple of days. (My brother, my sister and her hubby, and my mom)

At 2:00 am on Christmas day, it was pouring rain, so imagine our surprise when we woke up to a winter wonderland.

My mom and sister were enamored with my chickens, which I thought was so cute. So, they collected the eggs while I put the french toast casserole (with homemade bread) in the oven. (Actually, while they collected the eggs, I took pictures, and then put the casserole in the oven.)

Then we opened presents. My sister is a bit of an overachiever when it comes to wrapping gifts. She wrapped them all with pages out of old magazines such as Real Simple. Aren’t they awesome?

After gift opening, I put the prime rib in the oven and we set off to enjoy the amazing sledding hills. Seriously, what could be more fun on a Christmas afternoon?

Isn’t my mom adorable in her hat with her red sled?

We came back to a lovely dinner with my strawberry tablecloth and napkins and my red dishes. (I highly recommend getting married, you get lots of cool stuff. Including an a husband.)

After dinner, we sat around the table and read some verses and reflected on our many blessings, especially Christ. And then we sang Christmas carols around the table and we had so much fun that we decided to go caroling. (To my in-laws house about a minute away.)

And to top it all off, we made snow ice cream with eggnog. Yum! And played Strawberryland. What? You’ve never played Strawberryland? You’re missing out on some berry fun times.

It was such a fantastic day, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it all! I am so blessed.

So, let’s talk about food. And not just about what I’m making for dinner tonight. Though that is always a fun subject.

I was listening to Marketplace on NPR a couple of weeks ago. It was a story about “Redefining poverty in the US. According to the reporter, “…food has gone from a third of a family’s costs in the ’60s to an eighth today.” That struck me. From 30% of our income to 12.5% is a big change. And it made me wonder. With all the talk about food prices going up, are they really just staying pretty level overall? Why are we spending so much less? What does that other 17% go towards? Satellite TV? Car payments? Savings?

As I was listening to this story, I was reminded of a letter that Michael Pollan wrote to the next president. In this letter he states:

What our food system does well is precisely what it was designed to do, which is to produce cheap calories in great abundance. It is no small thing for an American to be able to go into a fast-food restaurant and to buy a double cheeseburger, fries and a large Coke for a price equal to less than an hour of labor at the minimum wage — indeed, in the long sweep of history, this represents a remarkable achievement.

So, perhaps this is why we spend so much less on food. Because we can. And we can still get enough food to quench our hunger…and even to make us obese. And we don’t have to work as hard to get our food as people may have had to in the past.

Is this a good thing? I’m not sure. Would we value food more if we had to pay more for it? Are we willing to pay more for better quality food?

I am, admittedly, a bargain shopper. (And I may be a bit proud of that fact. ) But I’m willing to pay more for locally grown quality produce, which is usually way better than the outdated produce that I can find in our supermarket.

I know that I have more questions than answers, but I do recommend reading that whole Micheal Pollan article, even though it is long. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he does have some good thinking points.

So, what percentage of your income do you spend on food? Do you pay more for better quality (whether it is perceived to be better quality like a brand name, or actually better quality like produce that is fresh and crisp)? Do you feel like it is more expensive to eat healthier?

*I should say, that upon further research (on the internet of course), I was not able to find the statistics that Marketplace quoted. Most of the statistics that I found online quoted much lower food expenditure percentages in the 1960’s than Marketplace reported. I did find couple of articles that may give you a better idea of the actual change in food expenditures.

Food Expenditure Table

Americans spend less than 10% of income on food.

Time for pumpkins.

And I love the way the morning light shines on the hills and accents the fall color on the trees. It makes me gasp from the beauty. Really. Every morning, I point it out to Jason, because it still catches me a bit by surprise.

We got our first eggs from our hens today. Two beautiful eggs. I am practically giddy over them. Are eggs supposed to do that to you? I have always wanted to have my own chickens. And even though only 20% survived the ravenous foxes, we now have fresh eggs!