2008 Revisited

2008 ... the summer I moved from Akron, Ohio to the Kansas Oklahoma border.  These are some of my favorite photos from my early days here on the prairie. These photos were taken with my old Fujifilm Finepix camera, before I received my Nikon in December 2008.  :-)

 blue skies with fluffy clouds... famous in Kansas!

lone winter tree by pond

Ringo our chocolate lab and the late Boogie

a cicada sheds its outer skin

barn swallows enjoy front porch livin'

even Ringo prefers the front porch

Ringo and Boogie chillin' together

sunflowers... a welcome sight in Kansas

a slimmer, trimmer Ringo

(mom has him on a diet plan now)

clouds cast shadows over a pasture

old pasture gate, wiped out by 2009 pasture fire

just the first of many beautiful sunsets

Happy Guineas

It took over a week for them to finally go outside... everything new scares these guineas!  They are so skittish!  A guinea trait, I'm finding out. But now they love being outside.

Hubby built this quick run so they could get outside - we can move it between the two coop doors.  If he encloses the end next to the coop, we could eventually use it as a chicken tractor and move it around the property.  We will have a larger fenced coop area but we may not get that done before winter.  Definitely by next spring, when I hope to get my first chickens.

I'm hoping by next spring the guineas can free-range during the day.  By then, they should be big enough to hold their own against the cats* and dogs.  I hope.  Fingers crossed.  The cats haven't even discovered them yet, at least to my knowledge.  The dogs definitely want to "get 'em".  Not good.

*Barack killed a juvenile pheasant a month ago. They are not small. I was quite surprised. But he IS a big cat.

Good Eats - Fresh Spinach and Apple Pie

Ok, I don't mean eating spinach and apple pie together on the same plate.  Ewwww.

But a salad with baby spinach fresh-picked from my experimental spinach garden sure is yummy!  Look at the perfect lil leaves on this spinach - this is the 3rd salad I've made since last week.  I'm so happy with my little experiment, and its been fun too.

'Course I have babied my spinach... kept it watered every other day, covered at night with the plastic row cover,  uncovered during our good sunny days, and lately I've been adding some old flannel sheets and towels on top of the row cover at night, to protect the spinach from the colder temps we've been getting.  Tomorrow night will be a true test, as we're supposed to get our first hard freeze. We'll see how long my spinach can last!!

I made a sour cream apple pie this afternoon from 3 giant Honeycrisp apples I've had for several weeks now.  I ate one apple when I first got them and oh my was it delicious.  But the remaining 3 were getting old... I was going to make applesauce, but then decided since they were so BIG, I could easily make a pie, which would be so much yummier!

And so I did.  Here's a link to the recipe if you're itching to try it - I made my own crust.  I'm eating a warm piece right now as I type this... and it's deelish!!  I don't think I've ever made a sour cream apple pie before... I've only made traditional apple pies.  But I'm lovin' this sour cream version.  Wonderful with a glass of cold milk.  Matter of fact, it's serving as my dinner tonight.

Oh, the salad??  That's for hubby when he gets home from work later tonight.  ;-)