I'm dreaming of blueberry pancakes...

I'm dreaming of blueberry pancakes...and not just any, ordinary pancakes, but the behemoth, blueberry pancakes they serve at The Black Swan in downtown Mansfield! In fact, last night as Charles and I were snuggling down under the blankets with all the critters I said, "I'm having blueberry pancakes tomorrow. Do you know how happy that makes me?" I'll say it again...it doesn't take much to make me a happy girl!!



The lovely owner of The Black Swan always cautions about getting more than 2 pancakes, because, "For most people, two is plenty." She is right. I can't finish two. Ever.

The first time we tried these beauties we were told that not only were the blueberries fresh, but they "came from over on that hill there." How much more "local" can you get than that? And with my drive to keep our intake as local as we can get, this is simply perfect! Another wonderous thing about the pancakes at the Black Swan is that I don't get the weird "after pancake" feeling on the back of my teeth. I really don't know what causes that, maybe baking powder/soda (?), but I tend to avoid pancakes in public because of this. Not here. None of that at The Black Swan!

Make sure you stop by and try these pancakes before all the blueberries are gone until next season!

I am angry at a book!

Just how you may be wondering would I end up angry at a book? Let me tell you!

It all started when I saw an ad on TV for a new show on the Planet Green network called The Fabulous Beekman Boys. If you have not yet seen it, it is a reality show about two guys from Manhattan who take up farming in upstate NY. This show first aired around the same time I was having my own "Homesteading Revolution" and this show was absolutely perfect! I love every minute of this show. Nay. Every second!! I feel quite "stalker-ey" when I tell Charles, "I loved when Brent and Josh went through the process of slaughtering their own pigs." (As a vegetarian that is saying quite a lot!) Or I might comment on the funny paranormal investigation the Boys did at the Beekman on Halloween." When I talk about them, I talk as if they are two people we've met in the neighborhood. Of course, one of the first things I did was look for them on Facebook and hit the "Friend" button as quick as I could. I love getting FB tidbits from them about the Goat Cam, recipes and farming tips. It just adds a layer to the delusional friendship I am developing! When I read that Josh had written a book called, The Bucolic Plague I got on Amazon and ordered mine the same day I ordered The Backyard Homestead and Made from Scratch. The latter two came right away and I have been devouring them learning all kinds of things this city girl never knew...like did you know that you don't need a rooster to have hens lay eggs? Or did you know that you can grow lettuce through the winter in something called a Cold Frame? Or that raised planting beds are easier to tend to? Amazing stuff!!
So here comes Josh's book and I am excited to read it. In fact when I found it in the mailbox, I couldn't wait to take care of the evening chores and head to the front porch rocking chair to start the book. The prologue had me laughing so hard that I was fearful the neighbors would wonder about me. Here is one part of reading this book that I hadn't counted on: having very similar point of views. See Josh lived in NYC and moved to a rural farming community and I had lived in Tampa and moved to a rural farming community. The experiences he is writing about are some of the very same things happening in my new world. Like conversations at Agway. Like discovering the Penny Saver (Josh calls it "The Penny Savior". I just call it "The Paper". Either way, we both love it!) Like both wondering why dandelions are such a bane to some folks when to us they look like wildflowers. And of course, like our amazement at the niceness of folks in these communities.
Now here is the bad part. The part that has me mad. I just spent about 20 minutes reading a bit of this book and when I put it down I realized that I am over halfway done. I could read the whole book in a day if I didn't have anything else to do. So my madness comes from the fact that I have a very limited view into the Beekman life. Only so many more pages to learn about my new friends the only way I can. Oh, yeah. I don't think there are any or many more episodes on TV too! So I will have no Beekman Boys to learn about or to learn from.
At the very beginning of The Bucolic Plague, Josh cautions the reader that, "This book is not about living your dream. It will not inspire you. You will not be emboldened to attempt anything more than making a fresh pot of coffee." I say that I beg to differ. I have two new fruit trees in my yard-an apple and a peach. I have a spot cultivated and ready to plant fall blueberry bushes. We are putting our barn kitty to work on mice in the garage/barn without remorse. I just build a shelving unit in my basement to hold jars of put up food that I've just started to work on. I have steps in place to learn about goat soap and goat cheese making next. My idea of homestead living may not have been born watching an episode of TV, but seeing it and now reading about it from someone with a very similar starting point has just proved to me that I CAN do it! I am living it! Well, maybe not Beekman style, but my style. I am loving every minute of it. Nay. Every second.


Buy it here, buy it now!

Another current bear count!

As of 4:30 this afternoon...

Jen-12!!
Charles 3

Another totally different bear caught my eye as I was coming in from sweeping the front porch. He was poking around the backyard. What a feeling to be doing something totally mundane and catch sight of a bear in the yard, technically, just feet away from you. It seems so normal and abnormal at the same time.

Current bear count

Jen-11 (As of 2pm today)
Charles-3

This was the kind of bear I like...big, cute and best of all, scared of me!

Crash, boom.

A few days ago Charles and I were eating dinner, topside, and we hear a noise, below. It sounded bad and "breaky". Charles just said, "Kitten Jack." I ran to see what it was. "Breaky" isn't a good sound. I see two cats running away from the sound...Kitten Jack and Elphaba. Hummm... I look around and don't see a thing. I walk around my scrapbook desk and that is where I found it. A HUGE mess of my supplies. Aarrggg!! Murder or the woods? Tough choice!!
Just to give you an idea of how bad this was, here is a BEFORE shot of the scene. I have all my buttons, charms, brads, hard themed embellishments, etc. stored in these lovely hardware bins from Lowe's. This photo was taken right after we moved in and they were still shrink wrapped, but this is how they look normally, minus the plastic.
This is AFTER...
It appears that either Kitten Jack or Elphaba who are both notorious climbers were up in the basement window. A very favorite kitty hang-out spot. So favorite that when they kept knocking down my 12x12 paper holders, I created a shelf/ramp for them to walk on without damaging my supplies. So one/both were climbing on the ramp and decided to take a detour through my supply shelf. There someone knocked over one of those hardware bins, an entire vase full of buttons, a wire basket full of my "bling" and a basket of my felt pieces. Now, for you scrapbookers, the nine bins in question were this: Brads, Small Brads, Speciality Brads, Conchos, Charms, Photo Turns & Hinges, Bottle Caps, Snaps & Nails. Yeah. You can cringe 'cause y'all know what my afternoon "pick up" project was. All those bloody conchos had stuck in the carpet and I had to pick the each and every one from them carpet fibers! Oooh! But I wanted to strangle me a cat. But which one?! Elphaba is pretty much the one who spends the most time up in that window, but Kitten Jack is a kitten and is pretty much "all kitten". So I am gonna go with KJ. And if I wasn't 100% sure here he is returning to the scene of the crime looking all innocent and offering to help me clean up. Yeah! I would put buttons or conchos in their bins and Jack would "help me" by flicking them back out. I see right through you buddy!

"Quarantine" is the pits!

OK, this is yet ANOTHER stray kitten story...

On Saturday afternoon, as Charles was off to do an errand and I was standing on the porch watering plants, a kitten walks towards us from across the big part of the front yard. We watch. She is limping or having trouble walking and both of us just stand there quietly, knowing that this isn't going to be good. The kitten, a rust, black & white calico reaches Charles first and he pats her and says to me, "He's in rough shape." Bad words. I walk over and not only is the kitten in bad shape, it is asking for help. I could tell. This is when a cat who would normally take it's time to get to know you, if at all, will walk right up to you and look at you. They are in trouble and are looking for help. Charles called it "buddy" a few times so I assumed that he "saw" something to tell him it was a boy. (Little did we know that almost all calico cats are girls.) I felt the cat and it was very emaciated and the first thing I do while Charles pets it is to get food and water. I don't care what the implication is, I would NEVER, EVER, NEVER, EVER let an animal walk away from me that needed food. I couldn't live with myself. Yes, I know the "they'll never leave" mantra. I've heard it a lot from Charles throughout our years together. And guess what, sometimes they DO leave. Sometimes they are just bumming a free meal and move on. And guess what else, sometimes they stay for a couple of weeks and then move on. And, yes, sometimes they do stay. Walter and Luna are the only ones that we've actually kept from a situation like that. Two! That isn't too shabby of a record for a certified stray-helper like myself. (In case you are wondering we are not keeping Jack or this new arrival! They are both looking for good homes, so if you want a cat, let me know!) But I digress in my story here...sorry.

Back to the kitten at hand.

Here she is. You can see that her eyes look terrible. They were watery, milky and had white, floating spots. Her nose was clogged and drippy. It was hard for her to breath, and sometimes it was very a very loud, congested breathing. Her tongue would just loll out of her head every now and then, she was covered in big, poky burrs, she was also covered in her own runny poop and what I thought was some blood too. You can just imagine how gross and stinky she was. Her meow was so pitiful and when she purred it seemed like a great effort. She didn't want to eat any of the dry food I offered, but when I gave her some canned food, she set to. I think that even Charles knew better than to say his famous words, "If you feed her, she'll never leave." She was just too bad off to ignore. He did say that we couldn't keep her, but that was understood, honey! He has to grumble a bit!
Well, we debated on what to do. He called our local SPCA in Wellsboro. They refused to take him. I don't really have a comment about that other than I thought that is what they are there for. I contacted a sweet friend who volunteers at her local SPCA and got some advice from her. Besides giving me the names of some shelters in NY who WOULD take her, she also said that she would have a better chance at the shelter if she went in as a healthy cat. So after more talking with Charles we decided that we could nurse her back to health, hopeful that whatever she had didn't mean that she'd have to be put down. Of course, there was a bit more grumbling from the Charles camp, but just in case you think I have to really push at this cause, refer to the below photo...
I hear Charles talking to someone on the porch late Sunday afternoon. I peek out there and the kitten is sitting on Charles' lap in the rocking chair. He is petting her and saying things like, "It's gonna be OK buddy (he still thinks it's a boy) we are gonna get you some medical help." or "You'll be safe here. We'll keep you safe." and "Don't worry. It'll all be fine. We love 'ya!" Should I tell him that if you tell a cat that you love it, it'll never leave?" HA! When I asked him what he was doing he said, "He just looked like he needed some love and attention. Jen, he has NO place that is his place to "BE". He just looked sad." (Yeah, I know that I have a wonderful, animal loving husband!)

SO! I had an appointment the next day at the vets to get Jack his booster shot and I think I'm gonna either piggy back new kitty or let her go in Jack's place. Our vet has been super busy lately (I think she needs a partner, but who am I to say?) and I was worried they wouldn't take her. They did and this cat was much sicker than we thought. First and foremost, she tested negative for FIV and FelV which is GREAT. She was covered in fleas-immediate Capstar. Yes, she is very underweight. She and Jack are about the same age-Jack weighed 7.8 lbs, she weighted 4.1 lbs. She had an infection which was causing the eye running, nose dripping and congestion. AND she had parasites which was also in the eye and causing the runny poo. What was the most amazing to all of us, the vet included, was that after a very long eye exam, he determined that she had worms IN HER EYES! He said it was very rare (he had never seen it live in a cat) and that they were there because the worms in her body had migrated to the wrong or "abnormal" spot. He couldn't even remember the word for it. So kitten got put on three meds-one easy liquid 2x a day, eye salve 3x a day and a very weird powder that has to be mixed, suspended and given orally thankfully only 1x a day but for 5 days, then wait three weeks and do 5 more. New one for me. What the doctor really stressed is that she is highly contagious. Both to the critters and to us. He asked if we had diarrhea. Yikes! So she had to be but in quarantine. I had four choices: #1-Keep her outdoors. I didn't like that option one bit because she might leave, might run into Luna out there, Luna might eat out of her food dish, food dish on porch and bears is a no-no, and on and on. #2-Put her in the garage. Not a bad option, but I really didn't want to walk around outside at 1:30am to go for the late-night med run. #3-Set her up in a bathroom. Runny poop? 'Nuf said? #4-Put her in the unfinished basement. I have a wonderful pet playpen (a million thanks to Vickie for that recommendation years ago) that I use for the dogs as a winter potty. It was still set up in the basement, so I just lined it with a tarp, folded up boxes, sheets, old towels, a soft and fuzzy rug, a kitty litter, food bowl and a bed. All that stuff is gonna have to be burned when we are done with this, but that's OK. I laid long shelf boards across the top and at first thought that she wouldn't have enough strength to push through. Wrong. She got out quickly, so now the boards are loaded down with heavy stuff so she can't escape. I feel so bad with her stuck down there. Every time I go down for either a med or a social visit she just wants to be loved or held. Both of which I have to do in my homemade HazMat suit! But she is cozy, doesn't have to worry about anything except resting and getting better. I guess if she was at a vet's office in one of the cages she wouldn't have as much space and she'd have all the stress of barking dogs in other cages. So, the Taj Mahal it isn't, but it at least is somewhere she can call home. Until we find her that "forever home"!

Hello Muddah Crop Location Shots

Notes from Camp...

Hello ladies,

We'll meet here for our next "Notes from Camp" update! Stacey traveled up to High Springs for me so that she could get some photos of our facility. You see, I had lots of questions and I didn't want to make the Rangers up there crazy with questions like, "Is there an ice cream scoop in the kitchen?" "What are the amps on the cabins?" or "What kind of pathway runs around the loop?" So off went Stacey on my recon mission! She took hundreds of photos and I found out all kinds off good stuff like, "Yes. There are two ice cream scoops including the "heat in your hand" kind!" "20." and "Dirt partially covered in leaves." So I have decided to share a few of the photos with y'all so you can get even more excited about our wonderful trip to the woods! Enjoy!

(Oh! And if you want to play along with the "I like a visual" game take out a piece of paper and a pencil and draw a pretty good sized, classic shape of a peanut, longways on the paper. Think Mr. Peanut laying on his side. At the top of the paper, just a little bit away from Mr. Peanut, draw a long wavy line.)

This is the outside of what is called, "The Dining Hall", but what we call, "The Crop Room". It is HUGE. Stacey found out that as well as having 2 giant fireplaces on either end of the room, they also have two big heaters on the walls. There will not be a problem with keeping warm in the crop room! (If you are playing the game, draw a medium sized square on the top outer ring of the peanut where Mr. Peanut's waist would be. This is the location of the Crop Room.)

These are two photos that made my Lunch Lady's heart sing! A mass of HUGE pots and a dinner bell. *sigh* I will be a jolly cook for y'all!

Let's call this Restroom Facility #2. There is a men's side and a woman's side. They have pottys, showers stalls and a bank of sinks inside. One of the veteran camp croppers has suggested that we put off showering in the morning and do it in the afternoon. That suggestion is greatly appreciated! (For the game, draw a medium sized rectangle on the outer loop of the peanut at the bottom part of his waist-directly across from the Crop Room/Dining Hall. That is Restroom Facility #2)

This is one of the Leader Cabins. The actual cabin name is Highland Hammocks. You can see that you can drive right up to the cabin. Some of them are a little more set back, but you can get pretty close to all of them. (OK, head to the inside of Mr. Peanut's head and draw a small rectangle where his brain would be. That is Highland Hammocks Cabin. Draw another rectangle to the right of Highland Hammocks, still inside the loop. This is The Infirmary, another Leader cabin.)

This is Ranger Dave, the lovely gentleman who gave Stacey and Joe the grand tour. He is walking on one of the paths around the loop. In front of Ranger Dave is another Leader Cabin called Paynes Prarie. These cabins were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s'. These are such cute and rustic cabins! (Imagine Mr. Peanut's two legs. The right leg would be towards the top of the page and the left towards the bottom. Now draw a medium rectangle, jutting out like his right leg on the outside of the shape. There you have Paynes Praire Cabin.)

These are two of the Scout cabins. I do not know which two, but you can get an idea of what they look like. Some are close together like these two, some are a bit further apart. In fact, one is at the very far end of the loop, set a bit further off in the woods. I do not have anyone bunking there just yet. That might be the "time out cabin" for naughty campers! I just crack myself up! But you can see here also, that you can drive your car close to the cabin if you want. (Our Mr. Peanut will only have a right leg. Sorry dude. I do want you to draw Restroom Facility #1 where you imagine his hip would be. This will be towards the bottom of the page on the outer loop and to the left of Paynes Prarie Cabin. Now put three X's in between Restroom Facility #1 and Paynes Prarie Cabin. Now continuing on the bottom, outer loop make 10 more X's moving along past Restroom Facility #2 and ending up with the last X where Mr. Peanut's head and top hat would be. Those are all the Scout cabins. They do all have cool camp names, but you'll find those out later!) Moving on!

This is a very cute campfire ring. Can't you just imagine all the ghost stories we could tell around it in the evenings? I'll meet y'all there around 10pm! (Head down to Mr. Peanut's guts. Draw a medium rectangle on the inner loop, kind-of where his right hip would be. This will be across and slightly higher up the body from the Restroom Facility #1. This is called the Handcrafts Pavilion. Now, in front of that, still on the inner loop, draw a small circle. That is the Campfire Ring. Remember 10pm!)

This has got to be my favorite building in our camp's campus. It is called the Rec Hall. It has wooden floors, wooden, swing-out windows, wooden rafters and totem poles all along the inner walls. It is just the cutest building and is where we'll be holding classes and maybe something else that is in the works! Very exciting stuff, make sure to watch for those "Notes from Camp" emails! (Pretend that you are walking away from Mr. Peanut's hip and the Handcrafts Pavilion. Over the loop, away from the Dining Hall and towards that wavy line. That wavy line is The Santa Fe River. Draw a medium square between the river and the Dining Hall. That is the Rec Hall.)

And finally on our camp tour this is the view from the Rec Hall. There is a glorious wrap around porch and this is looking off the back and right at the flowing Santa Fe River. This is where you could walk to the 1930's suspension bridge or just sit and soak up the beauty.

I hope that you have enjoyed our little tour. There are still a few things that we didn't see on our tour like the BBQ Pit, the Concession Stand or the spigot. Why Stacey took a photo of a spigot I'll never understand. But, please, let's give three cheers to Stacey for making this tour possible! Hip-hip-hooray! Hip-hip-hooray! Hip-hip-HOORAY!!!