UPDATE ON SHORTY

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who sent emails of well wishes for Shorty and also to those who left comments on my Blog and kept her in your thoughts and prayers. I took this picture this morning, and as you can see she has recovered from her stroke.  I am so grateful. I was worried sick about her and sat up with her at night. She gradually got better over the weekend, and can now stand up and walk around. Last Wednesday night she could not stand or even hold her head up. She was laying there almost dead like. I will tell you about how Shorty became part of our family. First off, she is around 15 years old. A neighbor of ours worked in a Vet clinic and 8 years ago Shorty was brought in to be euthanized by her owner, stating that she did not get along with men. My neighbor took the dog, and the $75.00 fee and then brought her to me. I had told her a few months before that if she found a Jack Russell a little older that needed a home I would like one. She has lived with us for the past 8 years and she is the best dog one could ask for. BTW she gets along with men just fine. The $75.00 was donated to the Humane Society.

Shorty and I hope everyone has a great week.

And again, THANK YOU :)

Janet

Shorty

PRAYERS ARE NEEDED

Prayers are needed for my sweet little Jack Russell Shorty. On Wednesday night she suffered a stroke.

I have sat up with her the last two nights. My veterinarian says she may be able to pull through. Please keep her in your thoughts. Thanks so much.

Janet

My sweet little "Shorty"

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Well we finally got a little rain this morning. It has been so hot and humid here in Ontario. We have temperatures in the high 90's and no rain until this morning. They are calling for showers on and off all day and again on Wednesday. We have two large vegetable gardens this year, one for potatoes, tomatos, lettuce, basil, peas, beans, peanuts, sweet corn, and peppers, and we have another large garden just for squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins. It sure takes a lot of upkeep, but it does keep us in shape and it is well worth having the fresh vegetables. Hopefully after this week it will cool down a little. I judged a huge horse show yesterday, and it was smoldering hot all day long. I was exhaused when I got home last night. Can't wait for fall!

I hope you all have a great week.

Janet

Rows of potatoes in bloom

Our vegetable garden is coming along

Magic

Magic and Dolly enjoying a morning of grazing out in the field

FLOWERS IN FULL BLOOM

I thought I would post some pictures of my flower garden. Everything is pretty much in full bloom now, so it is all downhill from here. They always look so good when everything is blooming. I hope everyone is enjoying this weather. Way too hot for me :)

My favorite time is fall and it can come any time.

Have a great day.

Janet

My little herb garden on my porch.....handy for barbequing

Flower garden in front of the porch. Everything is blooming except for the Tansy, late flox, and the fall mums.

You can see my newly painted chairs. Dan from Yesterday Once More told me that he had used the color "Kiln" to do a lot of painting at his place and I just loved the color. So I went to Home Depot and got some of that paint and I just love the way they turned out. I also painted my screen doors the same color.

My Hollyhocks in full bloom. The hummingbirds are going crazy over these.

My Hydrangeas in full bloom. They look awesome this year.

If you look under my flower cart, you can see my Australian Shepherd "Sydney". He loves to lay under there when it is hot outside.

Here is my screen door painted in the "Kiln" color.

Just a  few of my birdhouses that I have in my garden.

I REALLY DON'T CARE

I really don't care that it is not yet fall. I went ahead and created a fall header for my Blog. I am thinking fall and I am planning a give away for the first of August, so make sure you check back to see what it is.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. The weather is just gorgeous here, I have even noticed a little fall coloring in my maple trees :)
Janet

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

I would like to wish all of my American friends a Happy 4th of July. I hope you all have a safe and fun filled weekend.

Janet

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DH

20 years ago on this date, I married my best friend and soul mate. It has been a wonderful 20 years and I just couldn't imagine life without him. Happy Anniversary Stan. I love you.

Janet

DH's Ten Year Project Finished!

I took this picture this morning when we moved my husband's Corby Starlet aircraft from his shop to the hangar. He has just finished it and he built it all from scratch, (no he did not build from  a kit.) He made every single part by hand except for the engine of course. I am very proud of him and you can tell by the picture that he is also very proud. Congratulations Stan!

DH proudly standing beside his 10 year project

A PRODUCTIVE DAY

Today was a very productive one. It has been raining all day, so gardening is out. I picked up some fresh strawberries yesterday at the Exeter Farmer's Market and cut some rhubarb from my rhubarb patch and made a batch of strawberry rhubarb jam and a fresh home made strawberry rhubarb pie. I also baked two loaves of bread. I have just hulled some more strawberries to make a batch of just strawberry jam. We had a piece of the pie for lunch today and a sandwich made with the bread and it was delicious. I hope I am not making you hungry!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
~Janet

Home baked bread and strawberry rhubarb pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

NEW CUPBOARD TUCK

I thought I would post a picture of my new cupboard tuck from Pam at Primitive Basketcase.

I received it about a week ago before our Postal Strike came to a dead halt. Yes, we have no postal delivery here in Canada right now and we don't know when it will resume :( I saw this cupboard tuck on Pam's site and thought it would make an excellent addition to my new sewing room. I was taught to x-stitch, but it makes me x-eyed...LOL, so I think I will just stick to my quilting. I have been pretty busy. I judged two horse shows on the weekend and last week I painted my screen door on my summer kitchen and on my side porch. I also painted the two cedar chairs on my porch. I will post pictures soon. I have also been working in my gardens most of the day. I want to get them in shape this year. Last summer I was in school and they just got out of hand. Some of them are full of twitch grass and it is hard to get it out.

Beautiful handmade cupboard tuck

WHAT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON

This is what I have been working on this week, one of my gardens. I have it all weeded out and DH brought me some large rocks from around the farm so that I could put them in front of the garden. I was always having problems with little stones getting into the garden because the driveway is right in front of it. This way there is a separation.

DH and I got up early this morning and went to the Farmer's Market at the Western Fair grounds in London and got some great things. We got some fresh eggs, apple cider, fresh vegetables, smoked ham for sandwiches, tomatoes, meat pies, and lots of other fresh goods. We had breakfast there too. They have delicious breakfasts and we always have the bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. Well, back to my gardens. I have many  more to work on. My friend Brenda gave me some great herbs yesterday, some Lovage, which is great in soups and stews, some Garlic Chives, and some Borage. I stopped in at my friend Shirley's Quilt shop on the way home from Brenda's and Shirley gave me some Salad Bernet. So I have all of the new plants replanted also.

Showing the newly added rocks in front of the garden

one of my birdhouses in the garden

Butterfly house in the garden

My little Herb Garden

MY UNCLE'S BIRTHDAY

Today was my Uncle George's birthday and seeing we have a Postal strike going on here in Canada, I hand delivered a birthday card to him from DH and myself. I also baked him one of my home made rhubarb loaves. They are moved into their new home now so I got the grand tour. It is quite nice and perfectly suited for them. 

DH and I just finished bailing hay. What a job! It is so hot outside and really high humidity. We had to get it as they are calling for severe thunderstorms over night. At least it is done for the time being, until second cut.
It has been a busy week around here. On Tuesday, we had a horrific storm and a 200 year old maple tree came down across the road and took down the power lines. We had no power for 13 hours.
We did get our huge vegetable garden planted on Monday, so it got lots of rain during the Tuesday storm.

My Uncle George and Aunt Doreen

TRIP TO NEW YORK STATE

I returned home around 10:30 am this morning. I was judging a horse show in Fonda New York, not far from Albany New York. A great show with some great horses to judge. The fairgrounds were nestled at the bottom of a mountain and they told me they were the Catskill mountains. Just gorgeous! I pulled out of my hotel at 3 am this morning and stopped at Dunkin Donuts and grabbed a large black coffee and got onto the New York thruway. I wanted to get home in good time to avoid traffic, and also I miss DH and all our critters when I'm away. As I was driving down the  NY thruway, I started thinking.......what if I get a flat tire? What if I break down? I was wondering what the heck I was doing out here at this time in the morning. Then I thought.....DEER! I must have had about 20 encounters with the critters as dawn approached. At one time I had to come to a complete stop, as there was one just standing in the road in front of me. I am just thankful that there wasn't very much traffic. I left home on Friday and had a nice drive to Fonda. I stopped at my favorite Quilt Shop in Caledonia, New York called the Chestnut Bay Quilt shop and of course I had to buy some Civil War fat quarters. Just up the road in a little historic hamlet called Mumford, I came across a lovely Primitive shop and of course I had to stop and check it out. It was called Primitive Country Gifts and if you are ever in the area, you should check it out. It is in an old 1840's General Store with two floors filled with wonderful goods from antiques, home furnishings, textiles, lighting, and anything primitive you can ever imagine. They sold all kinds of great prim magazines, Mercantile Gatherings, A Primitive Place, and A Simple Life. There was fresh brewed coffee and samplings of homemade jellies and other wonderful preserves. The store smelled wonderful and you were greeted by friendly staff members. Just walking around looking at the great things they had was a great experience. I will definitely stop in there again when I return to New York state. So the weather here is beautiful today, so we are thinking of cutting hay, then hopefully starting to plant the garden.

New York state.

The Catskill Mountains in New York state.

I came across lots of these critters on my journey home!

TIS THE SEASON

RHUBARB SCONES

Tis the season.............Rhubarb season that is. After a busy weekend judging in Nova Scotia, which by the way is just gorgeous out there, I was glad to get home and do some baking. While out there, I had to have seafood chowder every day. I just love it. This morning I thought I would make some rhubarb scones seeing I have so much rhubarb and we just love the stuff. These scones turned out awesome and they are healthy too. The recipe made 8 scones and DH told me that 5 on a plate would look much more interesting than 8 for the picture to put on my Blog, so need I say any more :) I will post the recipe in case anyone would like to try to make a batch.

  1 - 1/2 cups all purpose flour 

  1 cup whole wheat flour 

  1/3 cup sugar 

  2 - 1/2 tsp. baking powder

  1/2 tsp. baking soda

  1/2 tsp. salt

  1/2 tsp cinnamon
  1/2 cup milk  

  1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used lemon yogurt) 

  1 egg 

  2 stalks rhubarb, cut into cubes 

DIRECTIONS:

(1) Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
(2) Preheat oven to 400°F.
(3) In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, cinnamon.
(4) In small bowl mix milk,yogurt and egg. Drizzle over dry ingredients stirring with fork to make a dough (dough will be wet and sticky).
(5) Knead in the rhubarb. Stir with stiff spoon or use your fingers.
(6) Form a ball with dough, place on baking sheet, pat down into circle about 8 inches wide and cut into 8 triangles or cut individual rounds with your biscuit cutter to 1/2 inch thick.
Bake in center of oven for 15-25 minutes. Test with toothpick before removing from oven. If top is getting brown but inside is still sticky, cover top with foil while cooking a few minutes more until done. Let cool on wire wrack until warm but not hot.

Serve warm with butter or jam.

ENJOY!

RHUBARB MUFFINS

This morning I baked these wonderful rhubarb muffins. They turned out perfect. My rhubarb patch is just full of red stalks of delicious rhubarb, so I thought I would make these muffins. I have included the recipe below. You won't be disappointed!

Rhubarb Muffins

Rhubarb muffins............I did start out with a dozen hmmmmm I wonder where they went :)

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups finely chopped rhubarb
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamon (if you have it)

Procedure:

Combine flour, soda, cinnamon, cardamon, and salt. In a separate bowl blend sugar with oil. Whisk in egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients along with rhubarb just until flour is incorporated. Spoon into greased or paper-lined muffin tins, filling 3/4 full, or spoon into 2 greased 8" x 4" loaf pans. Bake at 350F for 20-25 min for muffins, or 40-45 min for loaves, or until cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 min before removing. Makes 18 muffins or 2 loaves. Per muffin: 215 calories, 3 g protein, 7 g fat, 35 g carbs.

Fresh Cut Lilacs from our farm

They smell absolutely wonderful!

A VERY UNIQUE RESCUE

We have just had a very unique rescue performed at Olde Crow Primitives. Our little cat "Izzy" went up to the top of one of our 60 foot spruce trees and couldn't get down. We had to call a local tree service in with a bucket to get her down. We had tried everything to get her to come down on her own, and nothing worked. We figured she had been chased up there by another cat.

The poor little girl is safe and sound now and she hasn't stopped eating since being rescued.

The tallest spruce tree is the one that Izzy is at the top of.

I zoomed in but you still can't see her. She is inside of the yellow circle. You can see the shape of a cat if you look closely.

Picture of the truck with the braces out getting ready to go up.

On his way up!

Almost there

Picking "Izzy" from the branch

Coming down with "Izzy"

Handing "Izzy" over to my DH

Re Posting of MY NEW SEWING ROOM

This is a re-post from yesterday. I don't know what happened, but I do know that Blogger was unavailable and there was a message that they had to remove all the posts from yesterday temporarily to get things repaired.......whatever that meant. Anyway I am re-posting this. I know a couple of people left some nice comments, and I just want you to know that I didn't delete them or anything like that, it was Blogger. The Olde Salt Box and A Primitive Place Tammy, thank you for your nice comments about my sewing room. Anyway this is it! I still have to do the finishing touches and I am having a cutting table made for me by a friend. I will post more pictures when it is finished.

New sewing room 13 feet by 10 feet. I re-did one of the spare bedrooms. I haven't put the electrical covers on yet or done any finishing touches. Everyone kept asking me for pictures, so here it is so far. I painted the walls a caramel apple color and DH and I put in a new floor.

This is a braided rug that I got for the floor that will go in front of my cutting table.

DH took out the clothes rail and put in three shelves for my fabric, etc.

Hmmmm I am just wondering how long this cupboard will stay this neat and organized??????

My sweet little "Shorty" fast asleep. DH looked after her last week while I went to Cleveland, Ohio last Thursday and Friday to pick up parts for my sewing machine. She is a real Mummy's girl, but when I am gone, she is a Daddy's girl :)