Do deer like tomatoes?????

Our straw bale garden has been pretty successful. One thing we will do different next spring is put more dirt in the holes for planting. It sure was nice to have the garden knee high. Made watering and the weeding easy. Wasn’t much weeding needed, tho. Water, yes. It has been pretty dry here and hot. Pleasant temperatures now, but still dry. Anyway, there was one problem we hadn’t planned on and that was critters liking the garden, too. First we battled rabbits and solved that with the white fence that one puts around flower gardens. Just enough to keep the rabbits at bay. But this morning we discovered that another critter had found our garden. Or, we suspect, three. On Sunday, when I was watering, I counted about a dozen or more tomatoes that I figured would need picked today. Hubby went out to pick them this morning and guess what? There were only 5. There were greens tomatoes on the ground and a couple of green bean plants missing. Hmmm also, a cucumber vine, with cukes on, was also nibbled on. On Monday, three deer walked up our drive, coming from the east and heading west. Must have walked clear across town. And they headed right into the cornfield behind my garden.  Coincidence ???????? Or tomato loving deer.

"King of the Mountain" aka "bully in the bird world"

Hubby and I have spent a lot of time the last few days watching the hummingbirds play “king of the mountain”. They sure don’t share with each other very good. Every year there is one that appoints himself the keeper of the food. We have three feeders a distance from each other. But he won’t share any of it. We have seen the bully knock another hummingbird right out of the air. That poor fellow sat there on the ground for about 5 minutes before he took flight again.  I guess there are bullies in nature, too.

 

Zonk group night and Apple Bars

Tomorrow evening is our turn to host the Zonk (card game) group.  My hubby fishes a lot, so zonk night at our house is always Fried Fish, crappie to be exact. Since it is still so hot, I am serving potato salad, a tossed salad and fresh baked bread. I had a sack of apples hubby bought home the other day, compliments of a friend, so I decided to serve Apple bars, topped with soft serve ice cream and caramel sauce. I haven’t made these in a long while so the process was slow. When I use to make them often, they went together faster. I guess I am out of practice.

First off, the apple peeler wasn’t where it usually resides. Found it upstairs in the storage room. At one point I was afraid I had given it to one of the daughters. Since the Apples were tiny ones, I sure didn’t want to peel them by hand. Don’t know what kind of apple they are, but they are sweet and very mild tasting.

As I was mixing the dough up with my antique pastry blender, I wondered how many pastries had it mixed. When we bought our house in 1965, the couple left most of their furnishings and all the kitchen things as they were heading to a nursing home. I know I have used  it many times since then and who knows how many times it was used before I inherited it.

Once I got going the process came back to me and it went pretty smooth.

This is the hardest part for me, rolling out the dough.

Apples on top and ready for top crust. Another part I am not fond of.
 Forgot to take a pic.

Whipped egg white and ready for oven.

Done and ready for the glaze.

Looking pretty good.

And hubby and I sampled them at noon. Didn’t want to serve something that wasn’t good.

Here is the recipe. It, too, is old. I have been making it for years. The cookbook  I found it in  years ago is over 50 years old. It calls for lard, even, but I use, and always have, Crisco.

APPLE BARS

Crust

2 ½ c. sifted flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 c. Crisco

1 egg yolk (save white)

2/3 c crushed cereal ( I like to use  a wheat cereal or cheerios)

Sift  flour, 1 tablespoon sugar and salt; cut Crisco in with pastry blender. Put egg yolk into measuring cup and add enough milk to make 2/3 cup. Add to Crisco mixture, mix just  enough that dough shapes into a ball. Roll out half of dough into a 11 x 15 in rectangle; transfer to baking sheet. Cover with cereal than apple mixture.

Apple Mixture

8 c sliced, peeled apples

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 ½ c sugar.(or to taste)

Mix together.

Roll out remaining crust. Cover apples. Patch holes and crack with crust. Pinch edges together. Beat egg white till stiff. Brush on top crust ( this will smooth out top crust).

Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. While hot, drizzle with glaze .

Glaze

2  ½  powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp. lemon juice or water

Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Rose

God IS Good

Have you ever been just sitting there and all of a sudden you feel like doing something nice for someone you care for? THAT'S GOD talking to you through the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever been down and out and nobody seems to be around for you to talk to?  THAT'S GOD wanting you to talk to Him.

Have you ever been thinking about somebody that you haven't seen in a long time and then next thing you know you see them or receive a phone call from them?  THAT'S GOD. There is no such thing as coincidence.

Have you ever received something wonderful that you didn't even ask for, like money in the mail, a debt that had mysteriously been cleared, or a coupon to a department store where you had just seen something you needed, but couldn't afford? THAT'S GOD knowing the desires of your heart.

Have you ever been in a situation and you had no clue how it was going to get better, how the hurting would stop, how the pain would ease, but now you look back on it....THAT'S GOD passing us through tribulation to see

a brighter day.

This is part of an email I received from a dear friend today. I liked the message. 

Hope you do too.

Rose 

More on my antique patio rocking chairs

Years ago, our house was the second house north of the school. The old house that sat between us and the school was torn down a couple of years ago. Back when my girls were little, they would wander down to the first house south of the school. An elderly couple named Mr. and Mrs. Coker lived there. I never did know their first names. The girls loved to sit and listen to tales of old. But what they loved even more were the rocking chairs that sat on the Cockers’ patio. They were huge chairs or at least they seemed to be to little girls. They would talk about how great those chairs were. After Mrs. Coker passed and Mr. Coker was going to move to be closer to family, he had an auction.  Hubby paid a dollar a piece for those two chairs. They have a wrought iron frame and are very heavy. The chairs have sat on our patio for 40 plus years, through all kinds of weather. Wind doesn’t bother them. All it does is make them rock like some invisible person was taking a break. A couple of years ago, we had to have all the boards replaced. The old blue color was gone and new boards gave them new life. I just stain them now so that there won’t be a buildup of paint. They are the best lawn chairs around. The chairs were made by someone that knew what they were doing. They are heavy but rock easy. And these chairs fit the contour of a body perfectly. I wonder sometimes just how old these two chairs are. And I bet they will go on for a lot more years to come.

Have a great holiday weekend.

Rose

A little of this and A little of that

Today's post is just a little of this and a little of that. Mostly pictures taken the last couple of days.

This first is the sky late yesterday afternoon. The white wisps of clouds make the sky look so blue.

Our experiment with straw bale gardening as gone pretty good. We had enough beans for a couple of meals. Would have had more if I had put up fencing sooner to keep the rabbits at bay. We have had a couple of cucumbers already and more on the way. The tomatoes are finally starting to get ripe. Too much shape, I think, has slowed down the ripening process.  But even the one the rabbit ate down to a stub is doing well. Straw bale gardening takes a lot of watering especially when the temps are almost a 100 degrees.

The one the rabbit ate.


Took this as I was heading back to my nice air conditioned house.

.

 These hot afternoons have been a good time to work on the puzzle. I think my next one will be a 500 piece one. This one is 1000 and is rather hard.  But little by little I am making progress. And, yes, it is beginning to look like there is a piece missing. 

I guess after I get it done and glued, it will need a frame to hide the missing piece.

Rose

Take time to smell the roses OR to drink a Dr. Pepper.

It has been one month since I retired and I am busier than ever. But it is by my choice. Some mornings I work really hard rocking in my chair on the patio. My hubby and I usually stop whatever we are doing around 10 and meet on the patio for our daily D.P., also known as Dr. Pepper. I have gone from one or two sodas a week to a D.P. every day. I am sure that isn’t a good thing but I enjoy our time sitting and visiting. But I find we now sit there till almost time for lunch. We have live entertainment most days. Our patio faces south and all the construction going on with the remodeling the old school building into 34 apartments is fun to watch. And we can see the street out front and all who goes by. These passersby sometimes land up

being a topic of discussion, too. Most afternoons are spent working on TPT products, working my puzzle or reading my book. I have managed, though, to get a lot of projects done that have been on the back burner for a long time. So sitting on the patio and rocking in my antique chair in the morning is a good thing. More on that pair of chairs another day.

Life is good.

Rose