Monday, June 29, 2015

Glamping Good Time....with my BFF


Daisy Mae Foxhound and I headed out with our camper to our favorite spot at Frank Russell Recreational Area.  It is only 16 miles from home, and it is a federally owned place, so with an America The Beautiful Card for being a senior (cost of $10.00 for lifetime) I can camp for only $9.00 per night, and that is with electricity.  

Now ladies, I glamp, but with my Daisy Mae as my camper is a 23 foot Prowler and is only 20 years old this year.  It is such a nice camper, with bathroom, shower, and kitchen area, couch and then a bedroom.  I enjoy the room and the cozy way I have it fixed up.  This time camping we had to spend more time indoors due to heat and then rain, so I did some English Paper Piecing and other embroidery and some knitting.  Daisy rested and we also had tea and oreos together several times.

Between rain drops and storms, we did get to do lots of walking and take lots of photos.  I usually print my photos and make cards with them.  They make nice gifts for friends and family.  Some people actually write back to me on my notes I gave them.  I find that a compliment.

During this time of four nights, and five days, we also were treated with company.  My camper friend was there for some nice walking together.  During those walks we talked lots about Mary Jane Farm and she actually did look it up on line and said she "joined something".  I am not sure what she joined, but I believe once she gets going, she will get hooked like so many of us country ladies have.  Art and Kathy stopped in and visited for two hours with me.  We sat around the picnic table and had such a great time.  Daisy Mae was so excited to see them.  They had been the gatekeepers for two of the three years I have camped out there.  They would always have treats for Daisy Mae.  As Kathy felt badly that she did not have a treat for Daisy and for Daisy Mae who kept looking for one from her, I was able to slip into the camper and sneak one out to Kathy to give to Daisy Mae Foxhound.  I don't know who enjoyed this more, Kathy or Daisy Dog.  Then with a tornado warning and heading to the large concrete shower rooms, I met up with some old neighbors who had moved away to Florida, but were back for a few weeks camping in a nearby camp grounds with no shelter.  We had a good visit and so did our dogs while waiting out the bad weather.

We say geese, turkey, pilated woodpeckers and deer.  I so enjoy the wildflowers and all the different types of trees.  Each time I see the black-eyed Susan I recall how much my dear Granny loved that flower.  I suppose it is why I have a large bed of it at home because I loved my Granny so much.  

Memories thought about, memories talked about, and memories made, all while "glamping" for 4 nights, 5 days close to home.

While there I also worked on my jacket with MJF patches for the sisterhood projects.  It is fun being an "adult scout".  



Saturday, June 20, 2015

Katie, Katie, How Does Your Garden Grow.....


Summer in Missouri of 2015 has not been a great garden year.  I had lots of plans and lots of planting, but unlike many parts of the country and like many also, we are with those that have had lots of rain, and more rain, and less sunshine this year, at least so far.
I have great hopes that it will get better.

My 110 hills of potatoes, well........we dug some for dinner last week and they were okay, but now they are rotting in the ground.  My husband dug some from the garden and they were rotten, and from the potato patch in the old horse paddock (which always grows our most and best potatoes), well, they actually had mold on some of the skins.  So we will be digging our potatoes in a few days before they are all lost.  The plants in the garden are yellow now so we have lost those, about 40 plants.  

I actually had to put on my mud boots and sink into the garden to pick peas and cut lettuce, but we did enjoy the produce.  I cut all the rhubarb and froze it.  We had eaten plenty already, and I am very pleased with how it did this year.  I do hope that the wet weather will not ruin it.  I have it hilled and on the dry side of the garden.  

Tomatoes, peppers are not doing too well either.  My eggplant looks like it is dying.  Now the cucumbers are in the middle of the garden and seem to be driest and doing okay, with nice blooms which is a promise of some produce.  

Even the trees are affected.  Several newer trees, maybe two years planted, are dying, such as my tulip tree and dogwood tree and flowering crab and two new peach trees.  It is just sad to see all of this.  

However, with all of our troubles, I am even more concerned for the farmer's crops, which we are of that group also.  We do not even have soybeans in yet, and the corn is not looking promising.  Some of the farmers will have to till their corn under and it really is too late to plant so I suppose if they can afford it, they will plant soybeans.  

We have a very nice family as neighbor farmers who moved here three years ago from South Africa, where they had a large farm.  My poor neighbors have had three years of strange farming.  Actually when visiting with them the other day, he said, "first year, drought; second year, good; and third year, ugly", then he laughed and shook his head saying , "well, we have had the good, bad and ugly, so it has to get better".  

Farmers continue to amaze me, as they usually seem to have good hopes and spirits.  I am so thankful for all the work and effort they all do to feed our country and lots of the world.  So as you enjoy your food, and please buy local if you can as it is good for you and also the economy in your area, please thank a farmer.  And with that said and knowing you will, I say for my husband and I and our many farming neighbors....you are all welcome.