Out for the count

I'm alive, but our computer, sadly, is not.  Or at least, it is in a very deep coma.  A virus attacked and totally decimated it.  The ETA of recovery is unknown at this point. 

So that's why you haven't heard a peep out of me.  Otherwise, things are good. 

Here's the short rundown:

• 26 weeks pregnant
• The baby is moving all the time -- lots of be-bopping and head-bonking.
• A first: we butchered, roasted, and ate a hen all in one night.  She had a prolapsed vent that wasn't showing any signs of improvement, so it was "now or never".  Otherwise she would have been a goner with a miserable and lengthy death.  It was normal and strange all at the same time.

The boys are going nuts, so it's over and out.

Later.

In process

1. Apple sauce (pink with skins) - FINISHED
2. Tomato sauce (from a neighbor's excess harvest)
3. Diego's obsession with gourds (he woke up in the middle of the night AND early this morning excited about how he was going to pick more of them)
4. Truen wants to be a baby bunny ("You be a mama bunny, Mama.")

and I laughed

(This happened last month)

We were passing by a McDonalds with an enormous blow-up Ronald McDonald, sitting and waving, perched atop the building, on our way to meet my parents and grandparents for an early lunch.

Diego (sounding a little alarmed): "Are we going to the Clown Store...?"
Mama: "Clown Store?  No, we're not...thank goodness."
Diego (still fixated on the freaky clown): "I don't want to go to the Clown Store!"
Mama: "Well that's good, because we aren't going there..."
Diego: "...I'm scared!"

Of course, aside from being endlessly funny, I was soundly pleased that my 5 year old isn't branded yet.  He will be eventually, I would think; it seems impossible to avoid it.  I give credit to not going there and minimal exposure to network television. 

But meanwhile, I'll enjoy the luxury.

Little Fluffy Clouds

An old B.D.P. favorite, though I couldn't find the 7" edit on YouTube, which was what we actually danced to.  The nostalgia was much more powerful in that version, which, of course, as an ENFP, I loved. 

But, good enough.  Let's dance.

[a.k.a. Basement Dance Party]

Food preservation and garden notes

• I am canning salsa verde (a.k.a. roasted tomatillo salsa) today.
• Our big juicy tomatoes were a total blow-out this year, due to wallowing in weeds -- so while I might have canned salsa verde anyway, that's all she wrote, folks.  For this year at least.  No "regular" salsa.  Or tomato sauce.  (Wah!)
• Note to selves: though this pregnancy wasn't neccessarily planned, and we didn't know I would be wiped out for 2 months, it is better to do a smaller amount very well vs. stretching ourselves to more than we can handle.  Though really, if I had been up to speed, things may have been different.
• Little Truen is obsessed with tomatillos, in the fact that he finds great joy in peeling the husks off of them. 
• He helped me husk the entire vat with pleasure.
• Canning with two little ones around is an all-day process.  I've spent most of the day helping them with their big project (making Daleks out of toilet paper rolls w/ egg carton heads and straw guns) and slowly prepping -- washing cilantro, husking tomatillos, washing jars, choosing the garlic, etc.
• Up next: pepper picking and onion retrieval from the drying station in one of the outbuildings -- old screens out by the chicken coop.
• I've realized that the gains in my maturity and experience levels have helped me greatly in this endeavor.  In the past, I might have quit before I started, because it would have been just too overwhelming.  But now I can look at the task, understand what I need to do, and parse it out into manageable segments.  I like that.
• I also realize that I'm not chasing a baby or a toddler, which definitely assists greatly to the feasibility of the whole project.
• I wonder what next year will be like...?

and one non-tomatillo note:

• Squeeze and I are smitten by this season's buttercup squash -- we can't get enough.  Just add butter and salt and you have the most satisfying scrum-diddly ever.

11:17 PM UPDATE:

• Seven quarts!

Garden Chowder

I've been making the most seriously delicious creamy-thick chowder of late, pretty much straight from the garden.  I used the Zucchini Garden Chowder recipe from Simply in Season for my basic structure, shortened the name to "Garden Chowder" and expanded from there.

So yumilicious.

Garden Chowder

• Butter and/or olive oil
• 2 medium zucchini, chopped
• 1-2 onions, chopped
• 2 small eggplants, chopped
• Basil or marjoram, chopped (or sprinkled in, if dried)
• Flour
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 3-4 cups chicken stock (or water)
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• Handful of kale, ripped and chopped
• Handful of parsley, chopped
• 4-6 okra pods, chopped
• 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups corn
• 1-2 cups milk
• 2-ish cups cheese

Sauté the zucchini, eggplant, and onions in the butter w/ the basil or marjoram (I've been using dried marjoram, since our basil was a blow-out this summer).  Add whatever vegetable you have on hand that suites your fancy. 

Once soft, sprinkle a smattering of flour on the vegetables and stir.  Add salt and pepper.  Add the chicken stock.  Stir.  Let it simmer, then add the kale.  Let it simmer for a bit, then add the milk, okra, tomatoes, corn, and parsley.  Stir.  At the very end, add the cheese and stir.  I suppose the whole process takes . . . 30 minutes?

I like this soup chunky (as did Truen), but the other two didn't, so I used our handy-dandy immersion blender (thanks Mom and Dad!) and mixed it into a nice, thick chowder.

Yo.  Delicious.

If you build it, they might come

Squeeze dug a little "pond" in our front garden this past spring. I say "pond" because it is really just an old plastic salt bucket for our former . . . water softener? Something like that.

It is approximately 3 feet deep and maybe 1.5 feet across. But a pond it is. With his usual finishing touches, my thoughtful Squeeze put in a goldfish, water lily, blue flag (an iris native to MN/WI) and a sprinkling of duck weed.

It is so cute.

While he was digging the hole and putting it in, Truen begged and begged for a frog to come and live in it. All Squeeze could say was the just maybe a frog might come. Just maybe it could.

And sure enough -- it has come. A nice, big leopard frog came and now lives in our mini aquatic ecosystem. He likes to sit in the water or surrounding rocks and ducks under lily pads when startled. Little Truby is so thrilled.

In the first picture, you can see both the frog and the fish; they were very excited about the swarms of flying ants that were falling in the water.

Our little ecosystem

This was the first time we saw the frog --

you should have seen Truen sneaking up to it, so carefully.

And yes, we do parade around in our undies

and mud boots, outside, all summer long.

That must be what Country Boys do?

(: Or maybe just Shawna's boys :)

What we've been up to

Siberian Sweet watermelon

Apricot flesh with lovely brown seeds --

sweet and delightfully chewy.

Best of all: from our garden

and Squeeze's favorite.

Cabbage destined to become sauerkraut

I eat about a quart a week --

for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Obsessed.

Monarch butterfly, Monarch caterpillar

We raised four Monarchs from egg to butterfly this summer.

(see the empty chrysalis in the bottom left corner?)

Again, obsessed.

Diego has really gotten into his play-doh creations of late

And it all started with this intriguing landscape.

He also made a game called the "Coin Cake Game" --

He buries coins under marbles in

a mountain of play-doh,

which are buried under candles atop a layer of play-doh.

Find the silver coin and win!

Our neighbor Walentyne's gorgeous Concord grapes

Isn't that blue mesmerizing?

So tasty --

I ate them until they scorched the tip of my tongue.

"Bountiful Harvest"
Tomatoes: German Pink, Manyel, Cream Paste,
Black Plum, Mexico Midget, Green Sausage
Can you guess which is which?
6 quarts apple sauce
12 cups grape jam

Simple math

What do you get when you add chopped tomatoes and scallions, shredded cheese, a little bit of sea salt, and a nice lump of butter to brown rice that has been soaked over night and cooked up in a jiffy? (With a side of homemade sauerkraut.)

The most excellent lunch ever. One that makes your children roar in delight and satisfies the most rumbly tummy.

A little choppy, but here you go - an actual post

Ugh, I should post something. We've been back for a week now. But where do I start?

Things are good, the weather is cool, sunny and bright, and feels very fall-ish. I felt like airing out the house and washing all the sheets yesterday, which is an interesting trigger from autumn-like weather. Especially since our house has been aired out all summer. The sheets may be another story.

I am 20 weeks on Thursday. This pregnancy is basically half-way over, amazing. I still need to connect with my midwife. How 14 weeks suddenly became 20 weeks is beyond me. No, actually, it isn't. We've had a busy month.

Not to mention being bogged down with some nasty malware since the end of July. I think we have everything under wraps, but it is still a somewhat precarious situation. I am a little fearful every time I turn the computer on. (Thank goodness for Fix-It Utilities, or we would have been sunk.) Where does this crap come from anyway? Jerks.

I've been feeling the baby wiggling recently, which is such an interesting sensation. To know that there is a little person who I will know and love for the rest of my life, growing in there. What a mysterious beauty of life, being pregnant. I am enjoying my pregnant body, wondering if this will be the last time 'round.

We just released a Monarch butterfly that emerged from its chrysalis last night. (We have three more to go, two that will definitely emerge today.) The Monarch's body isn't as beautiful as the furry and spotted Black Swallowtail's body. But the wings! Gorgeous. That orange and black is stunning.

And with that, I am done. I have a whole box of bruised "early" apples to to process (applesauce) and a basket filled with concord grapes to take care of (grape jam).

I'm out.

But first, look at this recipe for salmon croquettes! They look outstanding. Yo.

Our "guesteses", as Diego says

Hooooooola, estoy aquí!

I've gone AWOL because my parents and sister have been staying with us for the past week. Needless to say, the boys are thrilled and have been thoroughly enjoying their grandparents and auntie (aka "Uncle Jayna" just because it sounds better -- we also have an "Uncle Ashley" and "Uncle Brenda").

It has been a good visit. ♥

Here are a few pictures from some of the festivities.

The first night

I finally figured out how to make a killer Asian noodle soup --

KEY INGREDIENTS:

stock, soy sauce, fish sauce, scallions, bean sprouts

and lots of olive oil mixed in with everything.

The boys with their Great-Grands --

Diego's 5th birthday.

Cooling down with Grandpa --

watching the magic show at the County Fair.

Doing a Transformers Puzzle with Grandma

(circa 1985 - a birthday present from his Daddy)

Truen with one of our Black Swallowtail caterpillars.
We are rearing 4 Monarch caterpillars
and have had 4 Black Swallowtail in chrysalis form --
Two have metamorphosed into butterflies in the last two days.

Hiking at the Prairie Preserve --
we were haaaaaaaaaht.

So much prettier

A friend and neighbor is lending me her old camera until we can buy a new one, so I finally have pictures again. What a relief! It has been a sad month-long drought.

The very first thing I did was go around and take pictures of the house and gardens. We like being able to "go back" and see what things looked like and how they've changed. And my, how they've changed.

The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the garden along our front walk (a ramp because the lady who lived here in the 80's was paralyzed in a car accident). Essentially a dirt patch with a couple of overgrown clumps of iris when we moved in, when it rained, the dirt would splash up on the outside of the house, creating an entirely dingy and disgusting look.

Squeeze, who loves landscaping, has really worked it over in these past three years. It even has a little "pond", with a blue flag iris, water lily and a goldfish. He enjoys creating a more natural look, complete with moss-covered logs and well-placed rocks.

July 2007

Yuck!

July 2010

And it will only get better with each passing year
The mini-fence it to keep the chickens OUT --
They love to dig (and thus, destroy)

One of the things I really appreciate about Squeeze is his pleasure in landscaping and gardening. He even fills the planter boxes with gorgeousness. My main job is to admire his work and talk over ideas.

The other week, a lady who is part of our first-year experimental CSA came out to see the garden with a friend. As they left, I chuckled as I wondered if they thought that I was the one responsible for all the beautifully arranged potted plants and the front flower garden.

Because, honestly, I trim the plants now and then and pull a few weeds. But my main is to enjoy the beauty. I love that.

The glorious sky

Southwestern Minnesota doesn't have mountains or beautiful trees, both components of landscapes that I hold dear and esteem highly. Sights that soothe me.

In fact, it doesn't have much in the way of natural landscapes at all, in the present age of commodity crops. This has bothered me a lot since we've moved here.

It did have beautiful grasslands, filled with an ever-changing array of prairie flowers; but those are gone, caged to small preserves that are scattered and obscure. Ultimately, that is what bothers me most about this area of the country -- true, native landscape is minimal. Shoot, even grass in the form of pastureland is minimal.

But what this area does have, and has grandly, is the most exquisite skyscapes. Magnificent summer storms whirl clouds into color, texture, and form that is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

An example from this weekend:

Un-un-un-un.

The land is seemingly flat because the rolling hills melt together: and because of that, one can see great distances. Storms almost always roll in from the west -- so it is entirely possible to see the gale coming a half-hour or more before it arrives, with billowing clouds of various shape and color that often look like enormous ships rolling in.

It is glorious.

I am so glad I am finding beauty I can appreciate here (aside from our small parcel of 15 acres, which I love). It is so refreshing. Call me dramatic, but the endless monoculture crops and scrubby trees have been hard on my soul these past few years.

Recolonizing the gut through fecal transplants

Yep, poop transplants.

This was local news throughout Minnesota a couple of years ago, but I just stumbled upon a New York Times article published on the subject this week.

Ultimately, I think this information can be synthesized to argue that the "progress" we've made over the last couple of generations can, uncontrolled, cause a lot of problems.

Living in a sterile, germ-free environment? Not a good idea. It's better to roll in the dirt than over-use hand sanitizer. The 32% nationwide c-section rate? A big problem. Administering antibiotics with such regularity? Yikes. Pumping our food animals with antibiotics? Triple-diple-doople-yikes. Eating easy, processed, denatured foods? A slow killer.

Scientists are not just finding new links between the microbiome and our health. They’re also finding that many diseases are accompanied by dramatic changes in the makeup of our inner ecosystems. The Imperial College team that discovered microbes in the lungs, for example, also discovered that people with asthma have a different collection of microbes than healthy people. Obese people also have a different set of species in their guts than people of normal weight.

In some cases, new microbes may simply move into our bodies when disease alters the landscape. In other cases, however, the microbes may help give rise to the disease. Some surveys suggest that babies delivered by Caesarian section are more likely to get skin infections from multiply-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It’s possible that they lack the defensive shield of microbes from their mother’s birth canal.

Caesarean sections have also been linked to an increase in asthma and allergies in children. So have the increased use of antibiotics in the United States and other developed countries. Children who live on farms — where they can get a healthy dose of microbes from the soil — are less prone to getting autoimmune disorders than children who grow up in cities.

Some scientists argue that these studies all point to the same conclusion: when children are deprived of their normal supply of microbes, their immune systems get a poor education. In some people, untutored immune cells become too eager to unleash a storm of inflammation. Instead of killing off invaders, they only damage the host’s own body.

Sweltering for the cause

We battled mosquitoes and heat and sweated like hogs this weekend and got a good chunk of the East Garden paper and strawed. What a relief!

Notice I say, "we". Squeeze thankfully didn't have to duke it out alone because I helped paper while Squeeze hauled the straw. It is so much more pleasant to work together vs. suffer alone. And just this week I've been feeling more like myself. My energy levels are stronger -- it feels so good.

Thursday will be (holy smokes!) 15 weeks.

We finished the entrance, a major path, and the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant -- a major feat and definitely the hardest piece of the garden. The rest of the job will be paths, all very straight, and minus the task of working around the garden plants. Cake. Yeah, right. Well, at least easier than what we did today.

We also found two sphinx moth caterpillars on some watermelon vines. Yesssss! We put them in a terrarium and will rear them until metamorphosis. It is going to be so interesting.

How delightful!

I just went out and picked a cucumber for a snack.

Nummmmmm . . . I love that.

Nothing better

Honestly, is there anything tastier than a green bean just picked from the garden? Eating one always reminds me of my grandpa and his garden from my girlhood. Delish.

Feeling optimistic again

We've felt a little down about our garden this year, particularly Squeeze. Not because things aren't coming along nicely, because they are, but that we have been so swamped with everything (gardens, new gardens, orchard disappointments, outside chores, pregnancy, work, lack of sleep, exhaustion, etc.) that we weren't able to paper and straw either garden until last weekend.

Our West Garden, filled with squash, pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, pole beans, potatoes, and new this year, looked like a lawn with small vines sticking out of it. Depressing.

Our East Garden, filled with "everything else", including 40 tomatoes (!!!) and 20-something peppers, (still) looks like a weed patch mixed in with large blocks of glorious garden vegetation. Not as hideous or overwhelming to look at, but an ENORMOUS task nonetheless.

The mosquitoes have been particularly bad this year, too, because of all the rain, which added to the anxiety about wanting/not wanting to finally bite the bullet and commit the 4-5 hours it would take to accomplish the task at hand.

Not to mention that I am basically a non-factor this year. With how much I need to eat just to maintain regular life, we didn't want me out in the garden, sweating and expending massive amounts of energy. I don't have much in the reserves this year.

So, that being said, Squeeze finally got out to the West Garden, our new garden, and paper-and-strawed the entire thing a week ago yesterday. He was woozy from the heat by the end, but what a relief it was.

So instead of looking at a grassy, baby vine patch, we are actually eyeing up a real garden.

It feels so good, particularly for Squeeze, who feels the 100% of the pressure to "get it done" squarely on his shoulders. It was starting to feel like too big of a job to even tackle - so overwhelming.

But it is gorgeous now, ladies, gorgeous. (I wish I had a picture, but our camera is kaput after Diego accidentally dropped it onto a cement floor a couple of weeks ago.) And the best part about it is that it is virtually work-free (aside from harvesting) for the rest of the season. Definitely worth the work.

And today we ate 3 cucumbers and saw several little zucchini that will be ready in a matter of days.

Delicious!

Now . . . the East Garden.

FEED ME

My little belly is starting to look like a lil' belly, mostly. Kind of. I will be glad to start looking a bit pregnant, because I'm sick of looking just "thick in the middle". Doh. I hate that.

It will be 13 weeks on Thursday.

I have been absolutely craving red meat this pregnancy. Funny, because I ate less meat throughout my twenties, in which both previous pregnancies took place, and I never felt cravings for meat with them. Ever.

But this time around, I can tell a difference in my energy levels well into a full day after eating red meat. It is extremely noticeable. I need to eat meat to feel anything even resembling "normal" for longer than a half-hour.

The unfortunate kink this story is that our quarter-cow ran out at the end of April. I don't do store-bought meat, so everything has aligned into inducing a bit of a meat famine during my time of need. It has been terrible.

We recently joined a brand-new online local foods co-op, but didn't order enough meat that first month (May), maybe 6 lbs? I got wise in June and ordered 25 lbs, but that didn't arrive until yesterday. Ugh! I've been starving! I have been eating meat roughly once a week for the past month, which is definitely not enough.

I have been exhausted, always hungry, and feeling like a husk of myself for more than a month now. It has been terrible. I've been staaaaaaaarving. Eggs, which I am also eating in good amounts, don't cut it. Beans-a-plenty aren't doing it. Cheese is a good snack, yes. Yogurt gets me through the night.

I need meat.

I've even made the trip into Big Town, SD three times in the 10 days to eat a locally-sourced grassfed burger at the only good restaurant in the vicinity. A double-cheeseburger, no less. With baked fries and coleslaw. Absolutely dreamy.

(The boys have been enthralled with the animal mummies in the National Geographic at the restaurant. That, and the frozen baby mammoth.)

I just can't wait to feel normal again.

Truen's first hair-cut

The hair-cut was over a month ago, but my parents, let alone any of you, have yet to see it. This pregnancy has put me in a major communication funk. I'm so hungry and tired I hardly have the umph for stuff like that -- it just seems too hard.

Let alone not having much down-time now that Diego isn't napping. I've thought about implementing Quiet Time, but that is really the only time I have to be alone with him. We usually end up snuggling or reading or looking for butterflies together.

And staying up late...? Forget about it.

But anyway, back to the hair-cut. Sometime in mid-May, I had had enough. Truen was hot and sweaty and his bangs were in his eyes. It needed to be taken care of and RIGHT THEN. So I pulled myself together and did it.

I was hardly even sad while cutting it - it was so long over-due. And I've really been enjoying seeing all of his sweet face this past month. He looks like such a big boy!

The "before" shot

The pickle was to keep him chill --

It worked for the most part, kind of.

"After"

Just last week, actually --

On his favorite, the "Big Scawry Sthlide".

And really, it is just half a hair-cut. I was able to complete "most of it" the first time 'round before total meltdown. And I just haven't re-visited it. Too tired.

Thursday is 12 weeks.