A Little Glimpse of Heaven...

My family talked a lot about heaven this weekend.  As the end of the world approached Saturday night, I made the family go furniture shopping with the promise of dinner out hanging over their heads. My son only went because he really didn't want to scavage around and find something for himself!  My daughter went because she knew I had a coupon to TGIFridays, boy, was that a disappointment!  We won't be doing that again!

Anyway, we talked about how if the rapture really did happen right then, would we ever laugh at the fact that the last thing we did on earth was shop for furniture for our earthly home!  As I get older, I honestly would like for God to call me home while I'm still walking around here.  I also would like it to be sooner rather than later because my own children are still young enough not to have made dangerous and grave choices that I worry about.  If God called us home, I would not worry about them anymore!  I'm not so sure that's a real good reason to want the rapture to take place but I'm a human mother....what can I say? 

My daughter did not want the rapture to take place friday night!  She has a long list of things to do before God calls her home! Some of those include:  going to Falls Creek, going to high school, going on vacation this summer, etc! I had to laugh because I remember being thirteen and thinking the same exact thing!  Oh, how time changes your perspective.

Earlier that saturday morning, I caught a little glimpse of what heaven may be like. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning. I was wearing shorts and flip flops and working in my gardens.  I always listen to Christian radio because music sticks with me and I tend to sing out loud most of the day so I to imbend in the brain only stuff I won't be embarrassed to sing out loud in front of my kids.  I was pruning roses and I caught myself singing a praise song,...don't remember it now...but it was about singing and worshiping God. 

I came to the realization that I just might already be in heaven because, here I was, doing something I loved to do even though it was work and I was praising God while I was doing it!  As a kid, I sometimes got the idea that heaven would be church all the time.  You know, sitting still in the pews and singing hymns - not the most fun by kid standards.  As I got older, I began to think that in heaven, we will have jobs but it will be an honor to do them and we'd be singing and praising all day long.....just like I was doing out in my roses! 

I do know that I have no idea what heaven will be like.....I do know that if it is even close to last Saturday morning, I'm ready to go today!

Strawberries!!!!!

I'm doing a snoopy dance about now!  My strawberries are getting pink! That means that in a few days I'll be eating home grown strawberries from my garden! Yipee!

Oh yeah, my daughter wanted to plant them last year so I really should let her have the first one.  I will, I promise!  I was worried about the winter being so cold but I don't think we lost a single plant!  And they are sooo big!

Now, I'm ready to fight the squirrels, who have been eyeing them for the past few days.  I went to Atwood's yesterday and bought me a net that you use to keep birds off of fruit.  I have created a tent over the berries so no one but me or anyone with opposable thumbs can get under!

When I first tried a garden the first year we lived here, the deer, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, armadillos, you name it they came and ate my garden.  So the next spring, my wonderful husband made me a fortress garden!  It has twelve feet tall chicken wire around it....I call it my giraffe pen.  He doesn't do anything half way and he does good work, after over ten years and it's still standing!  I've only had to restaple the chicken wire a few times and it keeps out just about everything, except squirrels...and one pesky turtle.  I find him every year and take him back to the creek....then he returns and I take him back to the creek.  We do this on and off all summer long.  One day, I think I'll drive him up to Lake Oologah and see if he returns!  It's about twelve miles....

We used to do that with our ducks when I was growing up.  They'd sit and poop on the front porch so mom and dad would load them up in the truck and drive them to the pond...not twelve miles but a pretty good walk from our house....we'd get home and pretty soon...here they would come, marching in a line right in the path!  So funny!

I'm patiently waiting for the strawberries...or at least I'm waiting, maybe not patiently.  I can't wait!  My mind is just spinning with all the goodies I'll be making in the next few weeks!

Salad Days are here Again!

Oh yeah! I'm picking veggies from the garden! WooHoo!

I picked my first head of romaine lettuce yesterday.  I pulled my first few green onions also.  Guess what we're having for dinner tonight!  Grilled chicken, grilled potato packets and a green salad!  For some reason, fresh picked veggies just taste better....

We finally began to get rain last week.  I was so very thankful because I really didn't want to start watering this early but to get those veggies fresh from the garden I would have dutifully set up the water timer and started dragging hoses around. 

I'm just a garden junky.  I love searching each day for a new treasure to eat at dinner!  It won't be but a few weeks and we'll be eating fresh strawberries and I'm so excited for that! Fresh strawberries on my cheerios and waffles, fresh strawberries on our salads, fresh strawberry pie!  My daughter is wanting to make strawberry jam also.  That way, we'll have strawberries during the winter from our garden. 

Oh, how I've missed you garden and spring!  Welcome back!

Spring in Oklahoma

If you've never been to Oklahoma, I promise the best time to visit is April.  Springtime starts in full bloom in Oklahoma in April.  It's so nice to go outside in a pair of shorts and lay in the sunshine in the hammock!  It might not be a pretty sight to the pair of nesting bluebirds to see me and my pasty white legs stretched out in the hammock but I can guarantee that I'm a happy lady! 

The redbuds are blooming, the lilacs are in full bloom and the late daffodils and tulips are still giving it their best shot!  I have creeping plox blooming up a storm even though I was sure it was dead in February after being buried under snow for so long.  Nice surprises are springing up all over the place!

My spinach and lettuce and beets are making their appearances and in a few weeks, I'll be harvesting my first little leaves for my salads.  I do plan tomorrow to go out and cut some redbud flowers and violets for my spring flower salad.  It's so yummy with a few strawberries, toasted pecans and feta cheese on a bed of greens.  As I was digging dandelions last weekend, the thought occurred to me to save a few leaves for part of that salad but I decided that we had so many dandelions that I could just go out and get them on the day I made the salad. 

I always love spring in Oklahoma.  I can still pick my way to the creek behind my house and not worry about snakes lurking around every tree.  Most people don't worry but you know my snake phobia.  If I had been in that garden, Adam wouldn't have had to worry!  Any place a serpent is,...is not where I will be willingly!  I went down yesterday and looked for frog eggs.  Didn't see any yet but I'm sure I will soon.  As soon as the nights get a little warmer, the boy and girl frogs will be out in full force! 

I haven't seen the poke yet, I do expect to see it start poking..no pun intended,he! he!...it's leaves up out of the ground in a few weeks.  I'm ready for a good old batch of poke salad with hot pepper vinegar.  I don't make it often but it is always a tradition that I look forward to.  I think about what spring meant to the homesteaders back a hundred years ago.  Spring meant poke salad, fresh greens, green onions....spring meant the hens started laying better....the cows gave the best green milk of the year...all new, all fresh.  Spring meant they had lived through another winter. 

I always feel a fresh sense of renewal too.  I feel like I've been in hibernation and now I can go outside in just a shirt and shorts and let the sun warm my skin.  I can dig and plant and work muscles that I haven't used all winter.  You definitely use different muscles shoveling snow and hauling wood than you do digging, hoeing and planting.  I love to walk with my husband around our place every night and look at what new thing is coming up or building a nest or is now in bloom.  It's a peaceful time that we have, our evening walks.  I just love spring!

Green Onions

We've been eating fresh green onions from the garden! It's so exciting to make that little walk down to the garden and cut a fresh onion for my salad.  I also have chives up and have been cutting them as well.  I don't buy green onions during the winter because they are usually so expensive that I can't justify spending money on something I  know we'll have ten months of the year. 

I grow something called 'walking' onions.  I've seen it in garden catalogs as egyptian walking onions.  I don't know if they came from egypt but around here, we call them walking onions.  My mom gave me a start several years ago and she was given a start from someone at church.  That's sometimes the best plant, a pass-along plant.  When she passed these along, the directions were like this....'plant them like a regular onion but don't ever pull the entire onion.  Just cut them down to the ground and they will resprout over and over.'  Just like that, they do!  Mid-summer, they send up a very thick flower stalk and bloom like a chive.  Once the bloom is over, the little flower becomes many little onions that will drop off and replant themselves. 

They were so proficient at my house that last year I dug up a bucket full and sent them with my husband to work.  They were eager to try them.  I really like them because once you put in a place, they stay and you  never have to replant!  The perfect recycling plant! Each spring, very early I might add, you can go out and start cutting.  It seems those onions like to be cut, the more cutting the faster they seem to grow.  I throw out a little vegetable food every spring just to help them out a bit, but they pretty much are plants that don't require anything. 

I love those kind of plants!  I take my grandma's mantra concerning plants.  I asked her one time how all her plants always looked so good,.....she said, 'I only grow the ones that will grow!'  Pretty profound really, she didn't believe in wasting time here in Oklahoma trying to coax plants that didn't do well to grow.  She knew what grew well and she grew a lot of each.  That's why her garden did so well!  My mom and both my grandma's had green thumbs and they all pretty much do that...grow what grows well.  Plus, they take a bit of a hand's off approach.  They didn't hover over....it either lived or died. 

I like that garden mantra, I have too many other things to worry about than green onions.  I need them to grow well on their own.  I like my 'walking' onions!

Seeing Green!

I was wondering around out in my yard yesterday seeing what I could see and seeing all the garden work that needed to be done.  I spent most of the day Sunday crawling around in the new rooms taping down paper so the workmen wouldn't make such a mess on the new floor.  When they did our garage, we had to powerwash the floor and scrape the windows with a razor blade to get all the gunk off.  I tell you, if those men pee like they spray walls, their mama's should be taken out back and horse-whipped! 

Long story short, I can't hardly move now because I squatted for hours and my legs are so sore I can't hardly wear pants! It's too cold for shorts but I'm really glad that I sit a lot for work!  As I was wondering around, I began to see more and more green poking up.  The wild garlic and onion is about four inches tall.  The daffodils and crocus are up and some are even beginning to bloom!  The buds are beginning to show color on my lilacs.

It was a great reminder of all the work that still needs to be done.  I need to clear out all the old dead stuff that didn't get taken away last fall.  I need to rake the leaves that have now covered the front flowerbeds.  I need to get the last of last years veggie garden taken to the compost pile. 

I've got my little tomato plants growing happily in pots.  They actually got to visit the outside today and sit in the sun! I find that they do better with real sunshine and wind than fake sunshine and my hand swiping over them to make them strong. I"ll probably be putting them outside in my wall-o-waters in a few weeks. 

I looked in on my little spinach plants, they are doing pretty well under my old windows in the garden.  Another week or so and I'll harvest my first little batch.  I haven't decided on a spinach salad with hot bacon dressing or sauteed spinach with garlic, onion and a little soy sauce.  Either way, it will be good to have garden greens again!

Spring is coming, it's so close!

Garden catalogs!

My gardening catalogs keep rolling in as a constant reminder that spring is fast on the way!  I know, I know, here in Oklahoma, we'll probably have at least one more ice/snow event but it will be a fast mover...they don't hang out long once we get out of February!  So come on March!

Everyday when I go to the mailbox, I usually get another seed or garden catalog.  I love looking through the pages at all the bright happy plants.  About this time of the year, I get the spring fever so I'm glad that I can get outside and dig around in the dirt cleaning out flower beds or sowing early seeds inside for my spring garden. I've already started my tomatoes and am patiently waiting......maybe not so patiently!  I want to get them planted outside today!  It's hard to wait for spring..

This year, however, I'm a bit hesitant for spring.  Since we broke record lows this winter, I'm wondering if I will lose some plants.  I worried about my new blackberries that I planted last spring.  I am supposed to harvest a crop this year but blackberries sometimes die back to the ground in really cold weather.  I'm worried about my strawberries.  It's a waiting game for some of the flowers too.  Will my azaleas come back, what about my crepe myrtles? 

To put a positive spin on things, my grandma used to say that the hard killing cold killed it's share of snakes, ticks and chiggers too!  I'm going to be really mad if my blackberries, strawberries and crepe myrtles bit the dust but the snakes made it......

Needing Rain and Armadillos!

We really, really, really need rain right now in Oklahoma! Did I mention we really need rain! Oh we do!  I am so tired of dragging around hoses and setting up and taking down watering systems.  The birds are so very happy when I set up the sprinkling system around the yard so they can get a much needed bath.  It hasn't helped that the average temperature for the past fifteen or so days has been over 100 degrees!
Yesterday, we finally got that good soaking that we have so desperately needed and boy I am glad!  Now I won't have to water for a few days at least.

My hummingbirds are not faring well either.  It seems they are in the middle of congregating here in Oklahoma until they leave in October or so.  They are draining my two feeders about every other day.  I usually don't have that many hummingbirds, I have about six normally.  Today, I counted between twelve and fifteen.  Those poor little guys are hot, tired and drinking up a storm!

Last night, as I was making my rounds in the garden, I had quite a start.  My big, black german shephard, Kate, and I heard a snort in the woods behind the garden.  We had apparently spooked a deer and it was giving us a warning not to come any closer!  Suddenly, my dog, who had been poking around in the gourds looking for bugs was standing in front of me guarding me from the snorting!  I started to calmly talk to the unseen deer and it eventually snorted off deeper into the woods.  Kate was really excited that she had scared that mean, old deer away from her mistress!

As I picked tomatoes and okra, I noticed that my garden had been visited by a pesky armadillo! This creature had dug up my eggplant, my baby swiss chard and several peppers!  Luckily, it was cooler today, only  91d egrees, I think the plants survived.  I rewatered them and spoke quite firmly to my dear dog, Kate about guarding the garden all the time, not just when I was in it!  Time will tell if she really heard me or if she was just looking at me with those big, brown eyes!

Garden Update: TOMATOES!

I'll be canning tomatoes today.  Got lots and lots of them.  I planted several different varieties so I'd have a long season.  Last week, while I was gone to church camp, my wonderful husband and daughter took care of picking the garden for me.  They put the tomatoes in the fridge for me so I could can this week.  I don't normally keep my tomatoes in the fridge as it ruins the flavor but when you can them it doesn't seem to effect the flavor and I can store them longer.

I'll be running the tomatoes through my strainer/mixer.  It will take off the skin and seeds so I'll be left with pulp.  To the pulp, I'll add garlic and minced onion.  I'll cook this down a little and pressure can the jars for storage.  This winter, that basic sauce will be great over hamburger steak.  My husband loves this meal with rice.  His grandma and grandpa would make it when he went to visit.  I like it because it's quick, easy, frugal and healthy for my family! 

I'll also be drying my basil this week and making pesto.  I'll post the pesto recipe I use later in the week when I actually pull it out to use.  I will freeze the pesto into individual serving sizes to serve with cooked noodles.  My pantry and freezer are filling up quickly for winter!  I am ready! This heat is killing me!

Picking, picking, picking!

Tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, squash, basil, corn, blackberries.......tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, squash, basil, corn, blackberries.......tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, squash, basil, corn, blackberries.......I seem to be in a bit of a rut!  At least every other day, that's my routine.  I have to do it early in the morning because it's been so humid here with rain almost every afternoon that even at eight o'clock in the morning, I am wet with sweat by the time I finish.

I am not like a lot of southern women who do not seem to sweat but glow or perspire.  I sweat, I sweat alot.  Gallons it seems.  There seems to be a spigot on the top of my head that runs down past my brow and into my eyes and then on down until it collects in my muck boots.  My grandma would sweat alot.  When she worked outside, and she did alot because she had an extensive flower garden, she would wear a rag on her head and carry a rag in her bra.  As a kid, I found this incredibly embarrassing and gross.  As an adult, I can understand the wisdom in her ways.  I usually wear a wound up bandana around my head and have been know to carry a rag in my pocket.  I'm not as endowed as my grandma was so if I tried to stuff one in my bra it would look very lopsided. 

When I'm out there sweating out the impurities from my system, I try to imagine what it would have been like a hundred years ago when a person couldn't get into the air conditioning as soon as they were finished.  I understand why that old creek looked so good.  My own swimming pool gets jumped into a lot in the summer after I've been working.  Sometimes with all my clothes on, they were all wet anyway! 

During this time of year, I always try to thank God each and everyday for air conditioning and the ability to pay for it!

Garden Update

I've been picking my first cherry tomatoes this week! I planted two different varieties of cherries and have been pleased with both.  I should be getting roma and old german before to awful long as hot as it's been! 

My striped zuchini is also coming along nicely, I've been picking and eating them also.  I made my sunday night frittata and used zuchini and onions from the garden.  I made an greek one using sauted zuchini, onion and garlic, some jarred brushetta and feta cheese.  If my spinach had made it one more week, I would have used that also but it got pulled last week to make way for swiss chard and lima beans.  My daughter likes lima beans so I planted some.  I'm not a great fan but I've never grown them before, I might change my mind when they are fresh!

I should be harvesting an eggplant and purple peppers this week and my pole beans are giving me a handful of beans almost every day.  I'm seeing a ratatoiulle in my future by the weekend!

My meal plans get a little on the fluid side in the summer months because of my garden.  I use what I've got so I'm generally only planning a nightly meat or bean to add to the bounty.  I love summer!  Some nights, I just put out what I've got with a little thinly sliced lunchmeat and cheese and we eat what I call 'antipasta', in Okie terms I think it means, 'whatever I've got plus some pickled veggies'!  My kids love that night because we usually eat out on the porch and it's totally finger food.  We tend to linger longer for dinner when we eat outside.

Garden Update

Just a little update on the vegetable garden. Lettuce and spinach is up and doing great! My purple carrots are beginning to peak through the soil. Not seeing my beets yet but I'm thinking it will be a few more days! My husband and son got my first trellis up because my sugar snap peas are about two inches tall so soon I'll be training them up the strings. We're already eating green onions! They just taste so good in the spring!

I have one tomato plant in a wall-o-water which is a plastic tube filled with water. It's supposed to keep the plant warmer at night thus helping the plant grow faster. I've never had much luck but this year, since I'm not working full-time, I'm trying it out again. I've got a few more of them so this week, I'm going to put in three more plants in them. A red cherry, and two different of the Boy tomatoes, Better Boy and Super Boy. I'll let you know how they do compared to the normal plantings.

I took a risk and planted some pole beans and cucumbers this weekend. They can not take cold weather so in Oklahoma, planting these this early is a risk. Last weekend, we had snow!

I'm hoping this week, with weather expected in the seventy and eighties and plenty of sunshine, I'm hoping to get back outside and do some more planting. I can't wait to start eating more of my bounty!

Garden! Oh boy!

I am so ready to be outside in the garden. So far in Oklahoma, we've had several days that are warm enough to be outside in the garden. I am a bit of a fair weather gardener. I don't want to be outside bundled up from head to toe just to dig in the dirt. I will drag brush and rake in the cold but to actually do some dirt gardening, I like it to be at least warm enough for a light jacket.

This year, gardening is taking on a new meaning with Kate, the german shephard. Have I told you that she love, love, loves me? Me. The one who could really live without her. I deal with amazing guilt because I'm really the only one in the family that could see her go tomorrow and not miss her much. The rest of the family is so in love with her. Not me. I just tolerate her and she really love, love, loves me the best. She wants to sit in my lap! She outweighs me and she wants me to hold her. When I finally give in and let her crawl half her body onto my lap, she tries to sneak a lick! Yuck....nothing like a tongue as large as your entire hand slobbering your face.

She follows me around the yard and tries to help me. When I dig, she digs. When I kneel down to pick up something, she thinks it's time for a kiss. When I drag a stick to the burn pile, she retrieves it for me. She tries really hard to help!

This week, I'm planning to transplant my tomato plants into the garden. I will put them under glass for a few weeks to get them ready for outside. I already have lettuce, spinach, peas, carrots, onions and parsley growing. Soon, I'll be planting all the rest of the veggie garden. Luckily, my hubby built a fence to keep giraffes out the first year we lived here. It is actually to keep out the herds of deer that grow wild around here but it looks like a giraffe cage.

Maybe it will keep out Kate also........

Kate the Big Black Dog

Have you ever seen Clifford the Big Red Dog on PBS? My kids watched it every afternoon when they were younger. I always thought it was kind of dumb but it wasn't written for my age, it was written for 3-5 year olds. The basic premise is that a mom and dad get a cute, small red puppy for their daughter and Clifford, that cute, small puppy grows into a dog as large as a house. They move from the big city to a small island where Clifford can have a lot of room to roam.

I'm not real sure but tomorrow morning, when I get up in my second story bedroom, my dog Kate may be looking in the window at me! She may be the second dog in history to grow as big as a house. I ordered some expensive fertilizer for my garden this spring. It was to be delivered today and all day I have watched for the mailperson to deliver it. Well, while I went to pick up my daughter from school, they delivered it all right. Apparently, right in front of my large german shephard who likes to see in boxes! My son was supposed to be watching, oh help us, if someone breaks in when he's on watch. They could carry out everything but the sofa and the television and he'd swear he never heard or saw a thing!

When I returned home, Kate had not only opened the box but taste-tested the bags of fertilizer. Veggies Alive! and Tomatoes Alive! apparently was better than the premium dog food she normally gets. I called the company and she will live, she may get a little sick they said. Serves her right for ingesting all my expensive fertilizer!

Since it's fertilizer, I'm thinking Jack-in-the-beanstalk here. How big will the fertilizer make her grow? Since she's already bigger than me, will I be able to ride her into town like a horse? Will we need a bigger doghouse? Can I train her to stand and shade me when I work in the garden this summer?

As of this moment, my kids are out in the yard playing with her and staying out of my way. I'm still pretty mad that this dog of theirs ate through two bags of precious fertilizer! They are out consoling the dog who isn't the least bit sorry and doesn't even seem sick!

Just another crazy day in my world! Maybe I'll make my son scoop the poop for a few days so I can collect my fertilizer! That would serve him right too!

Dreary Time of Year

If I could get rid of one month of the year, I believe for me it would be February. Sorry to those who celebrate wedding anniversaries or birthdays this month but I just have never liked February. For me, it seems a lot longer than the normal twenty-eight days because the days always seem dark and grey. Even here in Oklahoma, it is usually colder than December with more snow and usually an ice storm thrown in. As a teacher, it is the one month that we usually don't get a break because we're making up snow days lost in December or January. That makes for long school days with cranky teenagers! Not fun for anyone!

I seem to suffer from that seasonal disorder from lack of sun. It used to not bother me as much as it does now but I get down in the dumps in February. Maybe it has to do with the fudge I ate in January! I just wish I could jump from the new beginning of January to the longer and warmer days of March!

Since we're almost half way through February, I guess I'll make it again this year. I started pumping vitamin D and exercising more, outside if it's sunny. I'm also starting seeds for spring, that makes me feel like spring is just around the corner.

Another project I always save for February is bulb forcing. I buy bulbs after they are marked down in the fall and store them in the fridge over the winter. Bulbs need a cool time so they will bloom again each year. That is why extreme southern states do not have daffodils or tulips. In order to get them to bloom down there, you have to dig them each year and store them in the fridge every winter and who has time for that!

I am forcing paper white narcissis this year. I set them in a shallow glass bowl filled with pretty stones. I put little twigs around the edge so they won't fall over. I check it everyday for water and growth. It's so exciting to see those little bulbs come to life and fill my home with blooms!

Maybe March isn't so far off!

Springtime gardening dreams

I'm thinking about spring and gardening. Between the snows, I went outside and my daffodils are already breaking through the soil. It always amazes me to see those little green shoots reaching for the sun! It also jars me into the realization that soon, I'll be digging in the dirt planting my gardens, OH JOY!!!

I love to garden and be outside. I'm not too proud to say that my housekeeping gets pushed to the side when the days begin to get longer and warmer. I am already planning my outside chores. February, for me in Oklahoma, means starting my tomato and pepper plants. I usually plant around Valentine's Day and begin to set them outside during the day starting in March to harden off before puttin them into the garden in April. I am busy gazing at the seed catelogs and buying my favorite seeds. To save money, I do save seeds from year to year. I probably have enough zinnia seeds to seed all of my county! But zinnias bring butterflies and I love butterflies!

I plant a food garden, a butterfly garden and generally have lots and lots of flowers. Green things calm me and pulling weeds actually keeps me sane. I pray, sing and talk to the plants and living creatures in the garden. I have introduced my children to the love of science and the love of God's wonder looking at my garden. I learn that even when I try to control everything perfectly, sometimes things happen and it doesn't work out. I learn that sometimes it doesn't work out for me but something else is benefiting from the failure I feel. I learn that learning from failure will lead to future successes. I learn that the world is not always centered around me and those around me. I learn that prepartion is key. I learn that hard work is sometimes rewarded and sometimes being in the right place at the right time is being rewarded. Most of all, I learn that I am not in control!

If you are still snowed in for the winter, it's not to early to begin planning for spring. It sure makes the day seem less gloomy when you're inside dreaming of those sunny days in the garden!

Spring where are you?

Well, this week in Oklahoma we're having a heat wave! It is has been almost 60 degrees and will not freeze all week. I love Oklahoma weather because the only time it's really unbearable is the month of August. The rest of the year is typically mild.

Nothing is better than a 60 degree day in January!It's like God is giving us a little gift to remind us that He's still in control. Mild weather gets my gardener going and I start pouring over my seed catalogs deciding what I'll be planting this year. Last year's garden was so bad that I'm really looking forward to starting over. My best produce didn't come until September. It was a really weird year in Oklahoma! I'm hoping not to repeat that again.

I'm also getting my soil tested. Our local extension office will test the soil for very little money and that will help my yields quite a bit. If you are thinking about starting a garden this year whether to save a bit of money or to eat healthy organic food, I recommend getting your soil tested and a book called 'square foot gardening'. I used it for years until we moved to a four acre yard and I still use a modified version for my current garden.

I'll post more about big batch cooking tomorrow, today I just couldn't get myself motivated to write about anything but the weather!

Going outside to soak up some vitamin D!