laundry day and food

I love hanging clothes out on the line and I love my Amish clothesline.  We live near the Amish, and this is the type of clothesline most of the Amish women use, and I just had to purchase one myself, I think the clothes actually dry a lot faster so far up in the air.

For hubby's birthday he wanted steak on the grill, so we went to the town butcher shop/deli to get a couple of nice steaks to grill.  We didn't eat all the steak, so hubby got the idea to make a sandwich he saw online.  He kind of made his own recipe from the picture.  It was more of a grilled sandwich you had to eat with a knife and fork.

How we made it...recipes 

Bread...we used homemade wheat bread.  

Sliced steak...enough to put on a sandwich.

Sliced onion

Garlic clove

Ghee...about a tablespoon or you can use butter.

Mozzarella cheese...enough for a sandwich

Jalapeño slices...you don't have to put them on the sandwich if you don't like anything hot.

Sauté the onion and garlic in the Ghee.  Add the sliced meat to heat up but not over cooked since it was already cooked.  Add the slice jalapeño slices to your meat mixture.

Butter your bread and put it together like you would a grilled cheese and cook it the same way.

This was a really tasty sandwich, and we had a little bit of potato salad leftover from the steak meal and it was the perfect side dish to go with the sandwich.

I have to say last weekend was not only a nice one it was a tasty one.

happy birthday

 Hubby had a birthday last Saturday, and I made him a carrot cake for his birthday.

I found the recipe from this website, Tastes Better from Scratch, the link goes to the recipe I used.  It was so tasty, I think it was the best cake I've made in a very long time.  We couldn't eat all of the cake just the two of us, so I cut them in slices and flash froze them, once they were frozen I put them in containers for us to enjoy later one piece at a time ;)

checking out the plants

I repotted all the plants I got from the local nursery, and they are looking really good.  I didn't go overboard with plants as I do have quite a few canned tomatoes and peppers from last year.  I wish you could buy plants individually instead of in a 4-cell pack, oh well sometimes one or two will die for whatever reason.  I put the seedlings in a cold frame since I don't have a greenhouse...yet.

When we moved here back in 2010 these rhubarb plants were here but have never been great producers.  I could occasionally make a pie but that would be about it.  Since adding animals to our homestead here we have an abundance of manure to finally put in our gardens. 

These rhubarb plants I started from seed a couple of springs ago and they are finally taking off, but upon inspecting them we noticed something has been eating the leaves.

The garlic is growing wonderfully, and I can't wait to be able to harvest it this summer.  I have soft neck and hard neck garlic and I prefer the hard neck, so I think I'll not plant any soft neck this fall.

My cousin moved to Arizona from Illinois and before she moved, she came out and gave me some plants from her home.  This forsythia bush was one of the many plants she brought out and for the first time in 6 years the forsythia bushes are blooming, a bit sparse but they are blooming.  We put them on the edge of our woods which she thought was a good spot.  My cousin has a green thumb and I mean green.  Our grandmother had one and I believe she got it from her.  I on the other hand have half a green thumb, and that's okay.

It's a bit cooler as I write this post, but we are supposed to be getting temps into the 60° range and I can't wait.

spring has started to appear

A plant we bought from the nursery was a cherry tomato hanging plant.  We are so excited to try these little bitty tomatoes that grow in a hanging pot.  I'm sure others have seen these before, but we haven't and look forward to having tomatoes earlier than normal.  My chives and thyme are looking really good, and I need to clean out the containers they are in.

I forgot to post this photo in the last post.  We have a lot of rock formations like this here in Southwest Wisconsin and I never tire of seeing them all.

It rained again yesterday but not too long; though we did get about 1/4 inch, we definitely need the moisture in our ground here and will take whatever rain that comes our way.

feeling blessed

I went on a quilt retreat this past weekend and had a wonderful time, I always have a great time at retreats, but this one was by far the best.

On the way to the retreat I spied this eagles nest but didn't have time to stop, but on the way home I did and spied an eagle in the nest.  My phone camera didn't focus that well but you can see the top of the eagles head.

We got rain yesterday and some last night :) YAY!!

It was nice to see a double rainbow, but by the time I came out it was almost gone.

The best news we got about 10 days ago was that we became great grandparents.  We have not seen our great grandson yet but our grandson who lives in another state sent us photos of their new baby.

Life is good here and I feel so blessed.

water level and the eclipse

Did you all enjoy the eclipse if you were able to observe it?  We did, though we were not in the full path of it.

Our river has started to rise again. I'm sure up north had been getting snow and rain which causes our rivers and creeks to rise.  I wish I had taken photos of the river when it was very low and you could see many, many, sandbars.  It's good to see the river level up again.

Spring seems to be coming and I'm so excited for that.  I usually start my own tomato and pepper plants, but this year with company coming from Texas and Michigan for sugaring I just didn't get a chance to find the time to do it.  So, I will be going to the local nursery that a Mennonite family have and will be getting my plants from them, at least all the plants that I like to start on my own.  They have beautiful plants and I always get my hanging plants and potted plants from them.  

It's supposed to be getting warmer in the next week or so and the nursery opens on the 12th for the year and I can't wait to go see what they have this year.

no trespassing

On a walk in early March, I took a photo of this poor fence post that has been so neglected.  There is a house at the end of this road, the family lost their mother quite a few years ago and the children have all grown up and along with their father have moved away.  I always feel so sad when I see this fence post for what it used to be.  A strong tall post that kept whatever livestock they raised from wandering off.  No one lives in the house that still stands at the end of this fence line.  They were private people and even now that no one lives there anymore I still respect the No Trespassing sign.

hello there

 

This is Lazer our family milk cow, we have had her since August of 2022.  She is such a sweetheart and the heart of our farmstead. She loves when you scratch her neck, does not like her head petted.  She can skip better than me :) and loves the one who will give her a few alfalfa pellets.  We hope to have her here on our farmstead for a long, long, time.

I've been trying to get back into blogging on a regular basis, but life here on our farmstead has been busy, busy, busy.  I thought when we became empty nesters that life would slow down but it only seems to be getting busier and that is okay.  I'm not sure what I would be doing if I wasn't so busy, I think it actually is keeping me feeling younger than I should be feeling for my age...(lol).

will spring ever come?

It's April and you would think it was the middle of December or January with the snow we got.

So, since I couldn't go anywhere with the snowstorm happening, I made some sourdough crackers from the sourdough that I have had going since I believe December 2018.  I was quite impressed with the flavor and how they turned out.

Life here on our homestead has been pretty busy, we made maple syrup this year but started later than most folks around here did.  January just seemed too early to be tapping trees.  We only boiled about 6 times, but we did get enough syrup for the year and family came up from Texas for the first time and enjoyed sugaring.  Our pup Suuvi got so much love and attention from the granddaughters that she was very depressed after they were gone.  She has since perked up and back to her old tricks.

Hope you all are doing well and had a wonderful Easter.

new animals on the farm and a snowstorm

Wow, it's been a hot minute since I've posted here.  Early December we had a bull calf born to our milk cow Lazer, we call him Little Man, though that definitely won't fit him when he gets bigger.  We also added a couple of piglets and they joined our farm yesterday.

We would have picked them up a week ago, but we ended up having a snowstorm.  It was so bad that our county plows stopped plowing around 8:00 in the evening and picked it up again the next morning.  We did head out when it was all done, and our drive was all cleared up to see what the world outside our home looked like with all the snow we had received.  

 

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year; I hope you all did too.