Busted, Bunny!

My newly planted Moonbeam coreopsis. This plant was chosen by me, because it has a "ferny" appearance and really withstands the hot afternoon sun well, which is what I need in the bed in front of the porch.



My Mooonbeam coreopsis today. Apparently, it was chosen by the bunny living under the porch too!

How do I know it was the bunny, you ask? Well, I have noticed some nibblings on other things, and one of our neighbors said she saw the bunny scurry under the porch. So we know it has taken up residence there, and that there is some bunny lunch going on in my flowers.

And then, my daughter and I caught our first glimpse of the "offender" last night as we were going to the store. It was sitting right next to the porch. Very small. Very cute.

Me? Now very mad.

And to think, after we saw the bunny last night, I grabbed some spinach that was past its "safe to eat" date and took it out to the garage, thinking I would give some to that rotten critter.

Actually, I probably still will. (What an old softie, eh?)

I'm thinking maybe I can try making a trail of it out to the trees so it will follow the trail and get lost (yeah, get lost in 60 feet) or forget all about my poor, decimated moonbeams.

All I can say is, "You are busted, bunny! And this aggression will not stand!"

Dawn

The case of the disappearing burger

My son helped sandbag at a home near the Missouri River the other night. He would have stayed longer, but I was tired beyond words and it was 8:30 and I hadn't had supper yet.

So I collected him and went home and ate a piece of cold chicken. Sonny had just finished a sandwich before I picked him up, so I didn't even ask him if he wanted anything to eat.

But, about half an hour later, he came down and asked if he could have some supper because he was hungry.

In addition to some left-over fried chicken, there was a left-over Jucy Lucy in the refrigerator. Sonny hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, then decided the burger was the way to go, so I put it in the microwave and warmed it up for him, along with some beans.

Well, for some reason, he decided to eat all his beans first. He ate a little of the burger, then went into the kitchen to get some ketchup or something. I'm not even sure why he left the dining room table. But when he got back to the table he shouted, "My burger!"

That's because there wasn't a burger anymore. All that remained was an empty plate.

It took us all of half a minute to identify the guilty party. Apparently, in the scant few minutes Sonny was not at the table, and the burger was left unattended, our Springer grabbed the burger and gobbled it up and then went about his business as though he didn't just steal one of the best burgers ever.

How do we know for sure it was the Springer?

Cheese breath.

Okay, not really. But unless someone has transporter technology that they aren't sharing with anyone, no one could have made a burger disappear that quickly EXCEPT for the Springer. We have seen him inhale (swallow whole) food before. He's an eating machine and will steal the food right out of your mouth.

I have mentioned it before, but Springers have actually been labeled notorious food stealers. And this one lives up to the notoriety.

Needless to say, my poor son had to eat cereal, instead. And the Springer got banished to the kennel for awhile, even though he probably didn't much care. After all, he had a full, satisfied belly!

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: My Two Acres sunsets

Hunk of Meat Monday: The Curry Chicken Dump

This is a recipe only your grandmother will understand. 

Mostly, it's just dumping and tasting, sprinkling and tasting and tasting and tasting and tasting until it's just right for your family's palate. After all, that's what is most important. If none of them are gonna eat it, why bother?

I actually have to have my husband tell me what it needs more of toward the end. He usually says more curry. It all depends on how spicy you like your chicken. Suffice it to say, I dump almost half of one small container of curry every time I make Curry Chicken Dump.

Here goes.....

You'll need some curry, garlic powder, peppercorns, sour cream, chicken and couscous.

In a big skillet (I usually buy a 38 oz. package) brown cut-up (into bit size pieces) chicken breast.

Add liberal amounts of ground black pepper...

Cover and let simmer turning the pieces of chicken as they brown.

Simmer until the juice is clear...

Dump in a bunch of curry....And I mean much more than you feel comfortable dumping in there. It will seem like way too much. It's not. You'll want the whole chicken juice thing to be a yucky yellow.

Dump in a bunch of sour cream....

And a little bit of salt. Stir and simmer.

Meanwhile, prepare the couscous according to package instructions (I usually use about 1 1/2 cups of couscous for the 38 oz. chicken package.)

Taste your concoction of chicken, curry and sour cream. If it doesn't taste right, dump in a little more of whatever you think it's gonna make it taste better! (I know, I told you this was a recipe only your grandmother could understand!)

If the sauce gets too thick, thin it with a little milk. If it's too thin, add a little flour, or just cook it until the consistency of the sauce looks about like the picture below....

Serve with broccoli as a side dish. To be honest, it's pretty good if the broccoli gets mixed in there too.

To check out some some really good Hunk of Meat Monday recipes, go here: http://beyerbeware.blogspot.com/.

Dawn

Even the Springer is bummed

It's going to be another rainy weekend. Even the Springer is bummed!

Actually, he has no clue that it's supposed to rain most of the weekend. I just thought he looked cute, lounging on the couch (yes, I let him on the couch!) so I took his picture.

To be honest, he is a pretty good indicator of severe weather. At the first rumble -- even if it is faint and nearly inaudible to humans -- he's under the bed.

But I digress.

Last Sunday turned out to be okay for pulling weeds and stuff, but I sure would like to see two weekend days in a row of good weather. 

I decided last weekend, that THIS weekend, come high water (or the beginning of the end of the world, according a fellow named Harold Camping) I was going to at least get all my potted plants planted. 

If it's a downpour, it might be a little difficult. But nothing should stop me from spending the day at the greenhouse and using up that gift certificate that I got for my birthday, right? Well, unless it truly is the beginning of the end. That would stop me, I guess. Well, actually, it might just accelerate the plan. The earthquakes might  not really be that bad in the middle of the country, and we could probably still buy flowers and I could plant them in the rain. Seems like a pretty excellent way to go out.

Hope you have a wonderful, Armageddon-free weekend.

Dawn

Kraken tentacles

So, I had this growing thing on the edge of my wildflower bed last summer. I didn't think much of it, because, well, it was kinda ferny and pretty and I really don't like to dig up things that look like flowers.

Here is a picture of it, just the other day....

Here is a picture of it as it looks now...

What you are looking at is the incredibly extensive root system that I dug up. (Think Kraken tentacles!) I started to dig one up because I thought I should thin them out a little (they were starting to spread quite a bit) and after I saw the root system, I pulled out the big spade and spent the next few hours eradicating Kraken Tentacles. The piles were so big, I decided to let them dry out in the sun so I could keep some of the dirt that came with the tentacles.

Then, the next day, I did an internet search and determined that what it was, probably, was Common Yarrow. It's not listed as a noxious weed, but it sure turned out to be noxious to my springtime weeding chore.

That's the trouble with wildflowers. Sometimes they're really just weeds. Or Norwegian monsters!

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: Things are growing on My Two Acres

(Not all of it is good! But what would be the fun, then?)

The sun is shining, and I want to plant some...

Flowers!!

Two days in a row of sunshine and I'm itching to get out there. I got a gift certificate to a local greenhouse from my husband for my birthday and it's burning a hole in my pocket. I mean, how long am I expected to NOT "spend" this darn thing? April seems like such a long, long time ago.

But, I know I shouldn't. The danger of frost is still too high. Heck, the danger of SNOW is still too high!!!

Maybe I will settle for some broadcasting some wildflower seeds and digging up more weeds. It's not the same, but it'll have to do for a week or two.

Dawn

What love can do

I never took labels very seriously, until my son was old enough to question why, after he had spent a weekend with extended family, he really just wanted to be alone, up in his room, tinkering and building stuff.

It was then that I  had to take a good look at myself. I never really liked to "label" myself as an introvert because it always seemed to carry a negative connotation, like being an introvert was wrong, somehow.

But here was this beautiful, blonde-headed cherub, looking at me with searching eyes, trying to make sense of himself. In that moment, I saw myself. And suddenly, it became so much more about understanding who I am, so I could help him understand who he is, rather than trying to stuff what I considered a negative label into a drawer so I could ignore it and hope it would go away.

Sometimes, I think we need to embrace the labels of our "tendencies" to make sense of them and better understand who we are and what drives us. That doesn't mean, however, we should label some as right, and some as wrong, unless of course one of the labels is "serial killer."

I have a son who is very much like me (and is more of a "cereal killer"), and a daughter who is my little social butterfly and prefers toaster pastries. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Never do I say or even think to myself, "Why can't you be more like..." because I see the value in each of their "tendencies." Oh, sometimes it's difficult for me to keep my social butterfly engaged and "unbored" but I take just as much joy in that part of the ride as the one I have to cajole to come out of his solitude and hang out!

In fact, each of them amaze me on a daily basis with their charm, thoughtfulness and slightly warped sense of humor (which I blame, of course, on their father!) I think it has made me a much more accepting person, able to see the value in all kinds of personalities.

Even my own.

And that is what love can do.

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: Epitome of a flower addict - Even the new specs have flowers

Safety sessions

I took this morning off to chaperon my daughter and three other kids at a safety day for third graders. It was supposed to be outside, but the weather -- surprise, surprise -- was not cooperative. While it wasn't a full-scale downpour or anything, it was a good mist, and all those stickers and other trinkets that the kids received would not have survived well in the mist.

They did go outside to "shoot" out the "flames" in a "burning house" for their last activity. It was really pretty cute. A big wooden house, with pop-up flames that fall back down when they are hit with the water from the fire hose. They had to wait in line for a good half an hour, but it apparently was worth it: They all had big smiles on their faces after that exercise.

And they went home (or rather back to school) with quite a bit of good information. They learned about everything from helmet safety and self defense to online safety and getting a good fit on a lifejacket.

The kids even learned about healthy bones (and had to put all the "bones" in the right places, which was a lot of fun to watch).

This safety day was an organized school activity, but I know there is one going on in Fargo in June that promises to be just as interesting, and fun.

Here is the info that was sent to me...

I work for a farm organization, North Dakota Farm Bureau, that has a very good safety program. We believe educating kids is one of the best ways to develop good safety habits for a lifetime. Our safety coordinator will be presenting information at this safety day. It all promises to be good information to know, for you and your kids.

So if you happen to be in Fargo on June 9, check it out!

Dawn



Hunk of Meat Mondays: Confirmation Meatballs

I haven't been a very good contributor to the Hunk of Meat Monday posts. Oh we eat a lot of meat around My Two Acres. I'm just not very sure that anyone else is going to think the recipes I post are helpful or good. And besides, I'm NOT good at taking pictures while I'm making stuff. (Or photographing my husband while he's grilling the stuff!)

Like this past Friday, my son was getting confirmed and I needed something I could put in the crock pot while we were at church. I frantically e-mailed my mother, and she sent me a meatball recipe that sounded good but she hadn't tried. She said there was also a recipe in the cookbook that she gave me a while back and that she used to make those meatballs all the time. (Which I don't really remember, oddly enough!) I opted for "all the time" meatballs, because, first of all, I trust my mother's recipes and, second, it didn't require any meatball browning (I tend to burn, rather than brown!) Bonus: they make their own gravy!!!

It was kind of messy and gooey, rolling those balls of meat in flour. I could have experimented with the seasoning a little more, but I didn't want to get too fancy on my first meatball outing. (Our poor confirmation guests were meatball, egg bake and white cake guinea pigs. I made all three from scratch for the first time for my son's confirmation. My mom said I was pretty brave. Mostly I guess I was just desperate!)

My son said the meatballs were delicious. He had a bunch of them, although it could have just been that he was completely famished, since we didn't eat until after 9 p.m. (Confirmation was at 7 p.m. with no snacks prior!) And even though I didn't take a picture of the meatball making process, I took a picture of the remains with a little bit of a spinach salad thrown in for some leafy-green color:

Here's the recipe.

Heat to boiling: (in a stock pot)
1 large can low-salt chicken broth
2 low-salt beef bouillon cubes
2 cups water (one for each of the bouillon cubes)

Mix together
2 lbs. ground beef, lean
chopped onions to taste (I like a lot!)
pepper, to taste
other spices to taste

(I'm thinking some rosemary and maybe some oregano would have been fun to try, but I didn't, just in case it was really bad!)

Roll meatballs in all-purpose flour and drop in boiling broth. Simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Add more broth if the meatballs start getting "dry." (I took it to mean that if the meatballs weren't all covered with the simmering broth, it was getting too dry! I don't know if that's right or not.)

After they simmered for nearly two hours, I threw them in the crock pot and put them on low for another three hours. They held up under the extra heat time pretty well. And it was all really pretty simple, because I could leave them for long periods of time while I cleaned my grubby house!

If you do try this recipe, let me know what special spices you used.

And I have to mention that the egg bake that I tried for the first time is from Beyer Beware. It went over GREAT! (She got it from her mother too, and since it was Mother's Day weekend, it seemed appropriate to try a bunch of "mom" recipes!)

Dawn

Ant experiments

I don't mean to sound like an mad scientist or anything, but we have had a growing ant problem in our yard for the last few years. And because we have a dog that doesn't listen very well and likes to crash through the very places you tell him not to, we have probably been a little "sparse" in our use of insecticides to get rid of them. Besides, the ant plant is right at the base of our back steps, so the possibility of track through by humans and critters is high.

But, ta-dah! Just in time! The Hortiscope guy, Ron Smith, received a question about dealing with ants in other ways, and by golly it sounded like a science experiment to die for! (Well, ant death, anyway!)

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not gleeful about killing ants. But I'd prefer for them to stay back in the wood pile and away from my flowers and back steps!

Via Ron Smith: "Ants are nature's marvelous engineers. As humans, we should be thankful they don't get to be the size of our pet dogs. I'll make a couple of suggestions that I've heard others swear by and leave it up to you if you want to employ these tactics. Boiling water poured on an ant nest will do the job of killing the colony. Then dig it up and try to locate the queen to kill or remove her.

"Cornmeal will serve as a food source that will kill ants. Sprinkle it along their runs and around the nests that you can locate. Orange citrus peels may or may not work. Some swear by it, while others swear at it. All I can say is try it. The peels of two average oranges, soaked in boiling water overnight, may do the trick. I've never tried this, so you are on your own. I've never heard of diatomaceous earth being effective. It is good for slug control, but I think the nimble ants would just move it out of the way to get where they want to go.

"Ant hotels are found in most garden center outlets. The hotels contain boric acid, which is a toxin to ants. It will take quite a while to kill them off because it is slow-acting. The ants attracted to the hotel enter and exit with food to be carried back to the nest. This is done repeatedly until the colony is wiped out."

Cornmeal sounds like a good place to start. If you've tried it and it has or hasn't worked, let me know!

Cucumber breakout

A few weeks ago, I planted a few cucumber seeds that were part of the $13 assortment of seeds, gloves and pots that I purchased at my daughter's ice cream social fund-raiser. (The cucumber mini-greenhouse is directly behind the gloves on the left side of that photo!)

This past weekend, they knocked their little plastic cover right off.

(Disclaimer: This photo is a re-enactment of the cucumber breakout. The above photo was taken this morning on the dining room table, rather than on the plant stand next to the dining room window where the original breakout occurred sometime last Friday or Saturday. At the time of the breakout, the cucumber shoots were leaning to the right. They have grown quite a bit since then.)

I'm the only one who eats cucumbers in my house, so I plan to plant one or two in pots in one of my flower gardens. There they can trail to their heart's content.

My tulips are finally poking out of the ground too!

The days are longer, the sun is higher, the ground is greener. It's a good time for a cucumber breakout!

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: Be safe! No seat? No rider!



Jersey sure!

I didn't read the memo until this morning. It's spirit week at my daughter's school. And yesterday was team pajama shirt day. She didn't have one, so she couldn't participate.

She was NOT a happy camper.

Today was jersey day. JERSEY day. We are not big sports people, so jerseys are something we don't have a lot of (try NONE) around our house. A couple of NDSU Bison shirts and sweatshirt, yes. Jerseys? Not so much.

Then something occurred to me. Way back in my closet, from a time even before my high school days, (the Jurassic?) was a basketball warm-up jacket (no numbers, just a "Maddock" emblazoned on the back) that was the real  deal. I actually think it was from my uncle's years at BCATS (Benson County Agriculture & Training School) because I found it in the attic of my grandma's house many, many years ago and confiscated it because, well, because I thought it was cool.

It may not have, technically, been a jersey, but it was authentic. And when you have authentic, the details don't matter nearly as much.  At least that's what I told my daughter.

Gosh, now that I think of it, I may have pulled out the EXACT same warm-up jacket when my son was her age and needed a jersey for school spirit week. And I probably used the same "authentic" line I used on her. I don't remember how that turned out. I just hope I didn't steer her wrong. I forget how tough grade school can be and how quick judgments are made.

I guess I'll find out tonight.

And tomorrow? Thanks GOODNESS! It's hat day. At least she has plenty of those!!! : )

Dawn

Impatience and expectations

I realized today that I not very patient when my expectation of getting something done quickly doesn't pan out.

Like standing in the 20 items or less checkout line with 2 items and the person in front of me has what appears to be less than 20 items. But as I'm standing there, I realize that nothing is getting rung up. That's because the customer is convinced she didn't buy six pairs of socks. Hmmm, I think to myself. Maybe she has 21 items and she's arguing because she's afraid the 20-items-or-less police will arrest her if she doesn't wrangle the number to 20. In the meantime, I stand behind her and feel my blood pressure rise.

Suddenly, I'm having an incredibly intense conversation with myself.

"Doesn't she realize this is supposed to be the fast line?" says impatient me.

"Calm down!" soothes reasonable me.

"No! She is being unreasonable! Just buy the extra pair of socks, already!" hisses impatient me.

"Take a deep breath," says reasonable me.

Impatient me tries it. No good.

Another deep breath. The frustration isn't going away.

Impatient me looks at the cashier. "This is going to take a while, isn't it?" I hear myself say. I don't even wait for an answer. I just walk to another checkout, in the hope the walk will decrease my blood pressure and I will find a line that isn't bogged down. It didn't happen. So Impatient Me set the two items on a check out counter and walked out.

I don't feel good when I am this impatient, but I also don't like it when things that should be easy (and fast) become difficult (and incredibly slow). And it's the second time I have been to that particular store and ended up laying items on the checkout counter and walking out, because the 20-items-or-less line just isn't moving like I expect it should.

I mean, I was patient when I was at the doctor and at the bank. They even gave me too much cash back at the bank and I was patient while they sorted it all out and gave me back less money! (I even felt good about them giving me less money!) I was patient and cheerful while I waited for the blood lady to take my blood.

But get me in the 20-items-or-less line and make me wait while you argue with the cashier? Fuggidaboudit!

And what were those two items that I didn't purchase? Mother's Day cards, of all things.

My mother wouldn't have let me get away with being so impatient. I don't know why I let myself get away with it. But maybe now that I realize how I am, I can alter my expectation.

Dawn