Flower Friday: When I am old, I shall plant purple

You've heard about the poem, "When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple." by Jenny Joseph.

I was reminded of the poem's title when I was looking through my flower photos.

It would seem I have an awful lot of purple.

Granted, I'm not WEARING the purple, but I am planting a lot of it. And this is just a small fraction of my flower beds. There is a lot more purple out there, believe me.

But unlike the old woman in "purple" I'm decidedly more interested in puttering and quiet and even a little solitude now and again.

I actually spent a couple of hours digging in one of my flower beds last night. My daughter helped for awhile and I enjoyed it, but I also found the time after she left remarkably calming. I know I've said it before, but there is something about turning the soil and getting rid of weeds that is good for the soul. At least my soul: My old, almost half-a-century soul.

Wow! I think I better start spending my "pension on brandy and summer gloves."

Okay, maybe I'll just keep planting purple flowers instead! :)

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: Lions and Springers and Bears?

Oh my! : )

Dawn

Last year at this time...

We were very happy to NOT have precipitation. And chances were, it would be snow, not rain.

Last night, we were very happy to get a nice shot of rain. In fact, the thunder and lightning that made the dog hide under the bed, brought a smile to my face too!

Amazing what a difference a year can make!

Dawn

Fourth-grade agriculture test

Fourth-grade kids in North Dakota study agriculture. And since my daughter is in fourth grade, I have an opportunity to see first-hand what she is learning.

Here are a few of the questions from her N.D. agriculture unit. 

1. About how many farms and ranches does North Dakota have?

2. What percent of total land area of the state is used for agriculture?

3. What is the most common plant used in North Dakota to produce biofuels?

4. What are biofuels?

5. What does GPS stand for?

6. Adding nutrients to the soil is called what?

7. What is the major crop of North Dakota?

8. Name the tall structure that contains a lifting device and bins for grain storage?

How many did you get correct?

Answers:

1. 31,500

2. 90% 

3. corn

4. liquid fuels made from plant materials

5. Global Positioning System

6. fertilizing

7. wheat

8. grain elevator

Dawn

Flower Friday: Daffodils

Daffodils!

If it's spring there must be daffodils! These are last year's model because we really aren't quite warm enough yet in the north country for cut flowers, but the tulips are sprouting and the grass is growing -- in my flower beds mind you! With Robins singing and weeds growing, we KNOW spring is here!!! Yay!

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: Waiting for the "pool" to open

"What happened to my pool?" Birdbath/septic opening still in "winter mode" on the first
day of spring, much to Robin's chagrin!

That was then...

Yesterday afternoon, I made a very tough decision. I am not particularly happy about the decision, but if you have ever gotten to that point where you say, "I don't know if I have the fortitude to fight this," you will understand my decision.

We completely tilled up my wildflower patch.

Poppies and daisies? Gone.

Purple coneflower? Gone.

Clasping coneflower, Bachelor's buttons and Black-Eyed Susans?

Gone. Gone. And gone!

All because of this:

Achillea millefolium L. 

common yarrow

It looks innocuous enough.

And even though almost every website I visited went on about its medicinal properties, when you need a headache remedy AFTER you've dug up this "wonderous" herb that is supposed to be an excellent headache remedy, well, you start to realize that maybe you just aren't cut out to have this particular "wonder plant" in your wildflower patch.(The second picture is of one little spear's extensive root system!)

And then I ran across USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service common yarrow page that had this warning: Caution: This plant may become invasive.

That's all it took for me to realize that I had made the right decision. I'm all for fun, unexpected things growing in my wildflower garden, but not when I spend hours spading up the extensive root system, only to find more new growth the following week.

So I'm kind of sad today, but kind of giddy too, because I can spend the next month or so planning just what is going to go where in this newly blackened bed.

I'm totally open to suggestions!

Dawn

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.