Flower Friday, or make that Floral Friday

Here I thought I was bein' all original and stuff, but it turns out that somebody is already doing a Flower Friday thing, or rather a #FloralFriday hashtag on Twitter. So today, I'm hastaggin' my home-grown purple coneflowers that I look forward to seeing in my wildflower patch each summer! And if we keep getting weather in March like it is ALREADY summer, I'll have coneflowers blooming before the official beginning of summer! (It's 79 degrees in Bismarck, N.D. today, and we aren't even spring-official yet!!!)

Happy warm technically winter days!!!!

Dawn

More than meat

My daughter is a fourth-grader, so she  was able to participate in the Living Ag Classroom event held at the Civic Center in Bismarck in February. And to this day, she still LOVES to tell kids who happen to be chewing bubble gum that it comes from the stomach lining of a pig.

Last night, she said she told one of her friends. Her friend made a face, then shrugged and said, "Well, it still tastes good!"

I got to thinking about that and all the wonderful ways that animal by-products enhance our lives. So I started to do some internet research and ran across  a report from the Economic Research Service of USDA from November 2011. It is entitled "Where's the (Not) Meat?"

The Abstract got me excited, and although I didn't read the entire 30-page report, I was particularly intrigued by Appendix A -- Type of Offal by Category (page 28)

There, just below the edible offal category was the list of inedible/edible offal (offal, by the way is a shorter word for animal byproducts).

Jackpot!!!!

I thought it would be nice to have all the info about animal byproducts in one easy place and here it was. The list is pretty extensive. For instance, blood byproducts are used in adhesives, ceramics, cosmetics, fertilizer, foam in fire extinguishers, and plastics to name a few.

Bones are are used in buttons and handles, capsules for medications, gelatins, glues, candies, ointments, paper and more.

Fats are used in candies, chewing gum, industrial oils, soap, medicinal products and tires, to name a few.

And the list goes on.

The bottom line is that animal agriculture is an important part of our daily lives, probably more important than many of us ever stop to think about.

It's more than meat and, just like my daughter reveled in telling her friends that bubble gum is from the stomach lining of a pig, I think that is is truly awesome that the glue I'm using to put my porch furniture back together (the frustration from that particular project gets a post all its own) came from cow or pig bones.It's the only thing that makes me want to give that porch furniture gluing project another go.

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: On no, it's a Combat Carl

What the kids do on warm March afternoons!
"Oh no, it's a Combat Carl" is a line from the movie Toy Story.

Spring cleaning

When the weather is as nice as it is, I get a hankering to get rid of stuff. I don't remember if we were ever big "spring cleaners," growing up on the farm. I don't remember spring cleaning (which is NOT to say that it didn't happen, mind you!). 

But I have noticed that the warm weather this early in March has really got me wanting to get rid of all the piles of paper on my desk that I'm keeping for....actually I don't know why I'm keeping half of it. I figure that maybe there might be some important shred of information that has been buried in the pile for so long, it's not relevant anymore.

For instance, do I really need six -- yes, six -- notepads with scribbles with such cryptic scribbles as "4 booth things" and "grant money for rapidly growing enrollment."?

I actually have NO idea what either one of those scribbles mean. And that's just scratching the surface.

I have so many piles of "important information" that I have already filled my wastebasket once. 

And if I keep going like I am, pretty soon I'm going to have so much desk space, I'll have to start a new pile!

I really should have taken a before shot because it was really quite pathetic.Just this morning, a coworker stood at the door of my office and said, "Wow! You sure have a lot of paper on your desk!" And that was AFTER I had started the ousting process!

What's that old saying? What I don't know, won't hurt me. I'm taking that to heart.

And if I don't know what's in these piles I'm throwing, I'm guessing I'll get by just fine.

Man, I LOVE spring cleaning!!!!

Dawn

Poser

This past weekend the Springer got a shave. I am very, very happy about this because it means that the dog fur that flies around and gets into everything will be minimized until he grows it out again.

I happened to catch him lounging on the stairs and as luck would have it, he turned out to be quite a poser!!!! "Mr. Demille, I'm ready for my closeup!!!!"

This is my regal pose.

This is my come-hither pose.

This is my, Enough Already! pose!

Dawn

Hunk of Meat Monday: Gumbo by Swedes and Germans

We made gumbo last night at My Two Acres. We have never made gumbo before. I don't like shrimp, so I was looking for non-shrimp jambalaya recipes. I mean, I wasn't about to make anything that had shrimp in it, just in case it tasted all nasty and shrimpy and stuff.

Oh my GOSH, I'm glad I didn't let my distaste for shrimp dissuade me from agreeing to give this recipe a try. But I didn't think about taking pictures of any of the process, so this is strictly a "trust me this is awesome" recipe.

My hubby (the mostly German) found the recipe and I (the mostly Swede) agreed to take part in the making. I cooked the chicken and sausage and cut up the celery while he cut up the parsley and made the roux.

Boudreaux's Zydeco Stomp Gumbo

We did cut down on the chicken stock, to about 32 ounces, and we replaced the Roma tomoatoes with a small can of tomoto sauce (because we aren't big "bits of tomato pieces" people).It is also somewhat labor intensive, taking about two hours from start to finish, so make sure you have plenty of time. But I gotta tell ya', this recipe is worth every minute of chopping and stirring!

Yum!

Dawn

Flower Friday: Petunia power

Most of these petunias? Came from seed. I planted a few, but only the deep purple ones.

As you can see, the deep purple (not to be confused with the rock band) ones are not nearly

as prolific as the "seedy" ones.