Busy Planting

The ground is barely dry enough to get some fields planted, but rain is forecast for several days starting tonight so we have been working as fast as we can.  Today has been very windy and only around 61 degrees.

The day before yesterday while field cultivating, I got into a fence in a corner for the first time and pulled an old wooden post out and the first section of fence.  I was happy I was able to walk to Peggy's house and get a tool to snip what was holding it all on one of the front sweeps and get going again.  Glad Bill or Tim didn't have to stop what they were doing and come help, especially since they didn't have vehicles so I would've had to go get them too.

Today the first field I was in, everything went so smooth and nice.  Then the next one not as well (but not bad).  Bill is still out planting now in the dark (it's 9:30 here).  He's not having fun in the field he's in but hopes to get it done tonight in case we do get all that rain.

This picture was taken from the planter tractor this evening.  Bill's filling up the planter with seed from the seed tender (pulled by the pickup).  The seed tenders are a great invention.  It saves the farmer from having to physically carry and open lots of heavy bags of seed.
 

Tea Party at Cindy's

Since moving here, I miss having women over for stamp classes like I did monthly in Indiana.  I always baked something and got to use some of my fun dishes.  I've recently met someone who is making it her mission to get women together for getting to know each other better and just for them to get out and enjoy some time with other women.  I think that's a good thing and thought of a long list of women I could invite to get together.  

Mom and I have enjoyed going to some nice tea rooms, and I've been to a few here.  Tea room food is good and fun to make:  little sandwiches, scones and sweets.   I decided to have a tea party and narrowed the list to eight ladies for this first one.

I made/stamped invitations and mailed them out and planned the menu.  The menu was pimiento cheese sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, cinnamon chip scones and lemon cream scones with lemon curd and mock Devonshire cream, chocolate mousse tarts, cookies one of the ladies brought, cream cheese mints and candied pecans.  

I've only made scones a couple of times and forgot how much they puff up.  These heart shaped cinnamon chip scones looked perfect before baking.  They were pretty big when done.

Then the lemon cream scones needed more flour so they really spread out, but I "made do" by cutting flower shapes out of the middle. They tasted good.

Here is one of the place settings.  Notice the little purse favor I made with my stamping supplies.  There is a Hershey nugget inside.

 

This is the center of the table. 

And the whole table.  Next post will show the food and the guests!

 

We Have Started - Sort Of

Bill and Tim have the main equipment for working ground, planting and spraying ready to go.  We're trying something they used to do this year and working last year's corn stalks twice hoping to hopefully combat weed resistance.  The past couple of years the weeds have not been dying when sprayed.  

The weather was good last Fri. to start field cultivating.  I got the job and worked three fields.  Nice day!  The dirt looked good enough to plant!  But the ground is too cold.  Needs to be 50 degrees and rising.  (after the snow Sun. it was 26)

Bill did our ground and Tim did two fields.  Then we got a little snow Sun. and cold so now we're waiting for warmer weather.

A Fun Lunch at School

Recently when at a tea at the Pomeroy Covenant Church, I sat next to the Manson Home Ec teacher (do they call it Home Ec now?  I don't think so.) and her mother.  They were saying that her home ec class plans a meal for the public, shops for it, cooks and serves the meal.  I asked how would we know when it was going to be, and they said it's in the Manson paper (which we don't get - Manson is the next town south of us) and/or they would let us know.  

They started last week, and I got to go.  They take the first 24 who make reservations two days in advance.  They did a great job.  The food was presented very nicely, it all tasted very good and they served it professionally.  They charge $8.50 per person and do this every week for six weeks.   Any leftover money they may have goes for a pizza party. 

We got to see their classroom too.  It brought back memories of my Home Ec class with the four or so little kitchens next to each other.  I sure remember my friend Cindy Moffitt and I having to demonstrate making something, and we did the melt-in-your-mouth Cream Wafers (2 flaky cookies with butter cream icing in the middle). 

The menu for last week's meal was Pickle Wrap Dip with Crackers, Chicken Berry Lettuce Salad, Broccoli Cheese Soup in a Bread Bowl, and Layered Brownie Trifle.  I have the menus for each week and sure hope I can go again before they're over.

pickle wrap dip with crackers

chicken berry lettuce salad with honey mustard dressing

broccoli cheese soup - I don't know how they did that carrot curl!

very yummy brownie trifle with strawberry & choc. star garnish

 
  

Fun Deviled Eggs

I thought I'd share this now so you'd have time to make them for your Easter dinner!  Aren't they pretty?!?!?!!!!  I saw this idea on Facebook.

One of our P.E.O. members moved Monday to Colorado so Sat. we took them lunch and this is what Diane's girls and I made for it.  Beth had gotten lots of things done in our town.  She was one of the leaders when RAGBRAI (thousands of bike riders) came through town, she had a park built, and was the manager of our Farmers' Market to name a few things.  Her husband liked to play golf with others guys in town and help Beth with her projects.  They will be missed.

All you do is hard boil your eggs like usual, cut them in half and take out the yolks to make the filling like usual.

Decide how many colors you want.  In a cup, put about 1 cup of cold water, 1 tsp. vinegar and 3 drops of food coloring for each color.  Stir. Then drop in a couple of the egg whites at a time and leave them in there until they're the color you like (it doesn't take very long).  You might use a spoon and move them around a little.  Otherwise, if they're touching each other, a white spot may be left.  

I took them out and let them drain on paper towels.  Then place them on an egg plate or container like this - something that keeps them separated.  I had put some blue ones in a container with white ones.  They were touching so my white ones ended up having some blue spots so that's why they need to be separated and not touching.  Make your filling and fill like usual.

Good luck and have fun!  Almost more fun than coloring Easter eggs and maybe prettier!

Signs of Spring

After many days of near zero or below this winter, but with almost no snow, we're finally starting to see some signs of spring.  Today we had a couple of sprinkles but now at 6:00, it's sunny, windy and 55.

We were on our way to Peggy's house a couple of weeks ago and saw her neighbors riding their horses.  This is still such a fun sight for me to see since we didn't see this in my area of Indiana.

Recently I was in a hardware store and faintly heard some chirping and came upon about 5 containers of baby chicks in various colors/breeds for sale.

I've been watching to see if the new tulips and daffodils I planted were poking through the ground but they're not.  Today I thought to look to see if the older ones next to the house with south sun were coming up and they are!  (about 2" tall)  Daffodils are my favorite flower so I hope to have LOTS of them planted around here eventually.

Some bad news though is that we have two of our two year old new grove trees that look very dead and we're worried about several others that aren't looking too good.  If you've been reading the blog for a while, you might remember we planted 175 new trees two springs ago and watered them during these past two years of drought.  Bad timing for a new grove.  We sure hope most of them take off growing good this spring and summer.

The third Decorah eaglet hatched this morning - yay!  They thought the eggs might not hatch at all this year due to the extreme cold and snow they had in northeastern Iowa after the eggs were layed.  Here's another link to watch the live web cam.  HERE
 

We Need Rain

While my home state of Indiana has gotten 3-5" of rain causing flooding today, we have gotten just some sprinkles off and on.  We keep hearing of more peoples' wells drying up in this area since we've had very little snow or rain for two years.  We're supposed to get a couple of inches of snow tonight. 

Several of you enjoyed watching the Decorah (Iowa) Eagle Cam a couple of years ago.  Here's the LINK again.  The first eaglet hatched just yesterday.