Clovis & Raquel

Here are some shots of Clovis and Raquel from yesterday, when they were helping me in the office.

Winter Sowing

I finally started this year's winter sowing on March 6th. We won't discuss last year's crop, except to say that it got away from me. I planted most of the vegetables, which germinated pretty well, but then I mulched the patch with dried grass clippings, a HUGE mistake. I blinked twice and the whole patch (in front of the red shed) had weeds about 3 feet tall!!! I never did finish planting the flowers and today I dumped what was left of last year's efforts onto the red shed patch, which I managed to get mostly cleared before the snow came. This year, other than the strawberries and rhubarb, I think I'm going to stick with annuals in that patch.

In an effort to remind myself why I bother, I looked at some pictures from 2008, when I had some success. That's also when a lot of what I winter sowed and planted in 2007 filled in and looked wonderful.

Also a few years ago, I made planting areas on both sides of the paddock fence using the lasagna method. They got completely out of control also last summer, so this year, hopefully, I'm going to abandon the south patch, transplant anything worth saving (not much - some tired lavender and a sedum) and focus my efforts on the north patch. That side is where Little Lady, The Baby, Cammie, and Little Man are buried, marked by bowling balls, so I hope to tidy the whole thing up and make it look good this year.

Hooray for Spring and second (and third) chances!!!

Binky is IN!!!

Last Fall, I was busy talking to Spooky (so I thought) who was out by the pole barn when she brushed my leg. OK - if you're here, who's that??? That was our introduction to Binky. Since then, he has put on a steady campaign to become a house cat, including pawing at the back door and then at the dining room windows, meowing frantically all the while. Friday, February 26, he won!

So, after the requisite trip to the vet and layout of cash, Binky was pronounced healthy and ready to join the family. He is a neutered male, probably around 2 years old, 11 lbs, 4 oz, and has short black fur with a touch of white on his chest. He is a lover! He was also a yappy cat, but has hardly uttered a meow since he came in. (thankfully!)

Clovis wants to be friends but Binky is not too sure about that. Meanwhile, Raquel just does that low growl in her throat whenever he comes near. Today they all went into the Blue Room together and survived, so hopefully they'll bond soon. At least they aren't actually fighting, just walking cautiously around each other.

Typical of black cats, he is very hard to photograph. One of these days maybe I'll follow through on my resolution to learn more about photography so I can do my darlings justice.

Today's Roasting Experiment

Today's attempt to clean up the fridge reinforced my premise that you can't go wrong with roasted vegetables. I cut up plum tomatoes that were starting to look tired, some red peppers, a green pepper and part of a zuchinni (the rest was definitely too tired). I also added an onion. Everything was cut in chunks. Then I sprinkled garlic powder (because I ran out of garlic cloves), basil, oregano, and rosemary and drizzled olive oil over all. It roasted in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes. I reached in a couple of times and gave it a stir. (Also, I lined the pan with foil - easy on the dishwasher [aka-yours truly]).

Meanwhile, I put 2 jars of plain spaghetti sauce that we had received in a gift basket into the slow cooker. When the veggies were done I dumped them in, juices and all, and let it warm up and bubble for a few hours.

The final touch was some low carb meatballs. I adapted this recipe from one I found on line:

2 lbs ground beef
2 beaten eggs
3/4 cups parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

Mix all of the above together and roll into golf ball sized balls. Place on a baking sheet (use foil for easy clean-up) and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

I put 12 meatballs into the sauce and put the rest into the freezer for future use.

Some cooking show I watched recently said to work the ground beef gently and not squash it together, so I stirred it with a fork and used a light touch on rolling the balls. I thought they came out good - not too hard or dense.

I had a box of Dreamfields Rotini in the cupboard, so that's what we enjoyed the sauce on. Little Man's Father liked it and so did I!