Category Archives: Homestead and Garden

Homestead and Garden, My Little Victory Garden, Oklahoma culture

My Little Victory Garden: Entry Seven…Miles from Downtown Tryon

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Sunday night I’m standing over the sink washing my “first fruits” of the Black Seeded Simpson heirloom lettuce from my garden.  I’m probably drooling because there is just nothing quite as tender and mild as a first bite of the first cut from garden greens.  I rinse the leaves, put them in a big bowl, cover them with cold water, and began dreaming about my first salad.  I already have my Cordero Farms Sweet Italian sausage browning on the stove and my mission tonight is a beautiful ravioli dinner.

Here’s the story of how I made the dinner, how I visited Cordero Farms and loved on some lambs, and how I enjoyed a few moments with new friends of the RDC:

Two course dinner

When I make something like “first fruits” salad and homemade ravioli, I don’t mess with extras.  Sometimes, food is just too good to get distracted from by having extra vegetables or dessert.  Such was the case tonight.  First up – prepping the simple salad… Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Entry Seven…Miles from Downtown Tryon →

Homestead and Garden

Meanwhile Back at The Ranch: Life is TWO Good

If you asked me if I liked even or odd numbers, I would say “odd.”  There is something about the numbers one, three, and five that intrigue me.  You would never know this fact based on what’s going on out here at the ranch.

Cats: When we moved to the country in 2004 we brought along our two cats.  Of course, back then we were “city” people, and I won’t even begin to tell you the exorbitant amount of money that was spent on each of them.  A third cat eventually joined the group but died of an unknown illness.  Really, I insisted on an autopsy…of a cat…and the findings were indeterminate.  We were left with two.

Horses: Our Mustang, Jet, came to live with us because our neighbors had one too many horses.  We were clueless new horse owners, but our friends are very experienced and have followed through on their promise to guide us in the right direction.  “The right direction” included buying a horse friend for Jet.  Roxy came to live with us just a few months after Jet’s arrival.  It was great fun watching them get to know each other while they lived in the midst of all the goats.

Cats….again: Last summer my husband brought home two three week old kittens who had lost their mother.  He claimed we needed barn cats.  Here’s a little secret….we didn’t have a barn.  We nursed them along and let them stay in the garage with a heat lamp during this cold winter.  They are our outside cats.  They enjoy bird watching and hopping in my car when I am late for work. Continue reading Meanwhile Back at The Ranch: Life is TWO Good →

Homestead and Garden, My Little Victory Garden, Oklahoma culture

My Little Victory Garden: Entry Six o’Clock Dinner Secrets

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My heirloom black seed lettuce will be ready for its first cutting this week.

I play lots of food games, kitchen games or garden games.  Mostly with myself, but they still entertain me for hours.  One of these activities is a game I like to call, “Beat the Restaurant.”  It involves ordering a dish I really love from a restaurant until I have “cracked the recipe code” in my own home kitchen.  Sometimes this takes a couple of years because we don’t really go out to eat that often, and the chances of Mick agreeing to go to the same restaurant just so I can order a dish I’m trying to deconstruct aren’t very high.  So what I’m about to share with you is special, and it has to do with my little Victory Garden.

My Garden Report for this past week?  Things are definitely coming along.  Spinach is now ready for early picking.  And I did, of course.  I cut about 1.5 cups of the most beautiful little perfectly deep green leaves and thought to myself, “I’m going to share my recipe for Cafe 501’s Spinach, Pear and Blue Cheese Salad!”  Other restaurants serve something similar, but I’ve never had it anywhere except Cafe 501 where they use the perfect dressing.  Yes, it’s perfect (in my head)…for a LOT of things.  I’ll tell you about the “lot of things” after I tell you about the salad, deal?  Here are a couple more photos for my garden report section: Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Entry Six o’Clock Dinner Secrets →

Homestead and Garden

Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: You Are Where You Eat

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We have a couple of favorite eateries.  It has little to do with the food; it has everything to do with the people who eat there.  The restaurants are filled with our neighbors from miles around who fill us in on new business, fun events and serious news that affects us as community members.  So we’re driving around in the rain at 8:15AM on a Saturday morning.  We’ve got some time to kill before my hair appointment, so we decide to try a different diner for breakfast.

This sign does not stand for open-minded.

Huge mistake.

We walked in and placed our order at a counter then found an empty booth.  Usually, I enjoy listening to the locals chat about what’s going on around town.  Today was different.

Complaints.  Complaints. Complaints. NOTHING but complaints.

*One husband and wife sat at two completely separate tables.  He pointed at a couple entering the restaurant, and she complained that she didn’t want to talk to them, so she went and sat in the car.

*The gentleman in the back complained about having to go to work…about twenty different times.

*The newest patrons, the couple the one lady didn’t want to talk to, announced that someone in the next town over had died.  The man across from us was sure it had to be an overdose. “You know how those people are,” he said.

*There are too many unwanted dogs getting hit by cars.  “They need to be put down.”

It was at this point that I looked up at my husband and said, “We have GOT to get out of here.”  The complaints continued.

* Gas prices.  Bad gas. “My truck is ruined because of watered-down gas.”

Finally, the biggest nay-sayer got a phone call and announced that he had to leave.

*He complained about his wife (the caller) as he scooted out of the booth. Continue reading Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: You Are Where You Eat →

My Little Victory Garden, Oklahoma culture

My Little Victory Garden: Entry Five-Egg Foraged Omelet

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Locavores breathe a sigh of relief during the Spring. Find out what we foraged this weekend, and how we created meals around our treasures.

Today is Sunday afternoon, March 20th, and my family is going foraging.  I have just a few veggies and herbs we can now eat, but it’s certainly not enough.  I know, however, there are more outside so I thought I would take you along with us.  I’ll also take you to Crestview Farms, just down the road from my house, and talk about home-produced eggs.  So…let’s get going!

Garden report ~ First things first, here’s how my early garden is growing: onions are now at the early green eating stage, Swiss Chard actually looks like it might do something, and a few sprouts are…oh, maybe one-half inch tall now? Lettuce and spinach are at the “micro-green” stage and if I wanted to get fancy, I’d be cutting.  I’m going to wait, however, because I prefer to eat mouthfuls of those luscious crops.  Broccoli and cauliflower look promising and are now about three times their planting-time size, and so far…no sign of potatoes.  My oregano came back and my asparagus is beginning to make so all-in-all things are looking okay.  I’m still contemplating our extra bed.  Mick and I have finally decided on a size and location.  And now, for the fun stuff!… Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Entry Five-Egg Foraged Omelet →

Homestead and Garden

Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: My RDC T & Me

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Last week I was in the dark digging around in my t-shirt drawer, and my hand landed on a shirt that was softer than the rest.  I pulled it out and flipped on the light.  It was my RDC T!  I realized that I had only worn it a handful of times, so I made the commitment to wear it every day of my spring break.  What a week it’s been!

These little egg shakers are fun to play! I'm listening to all of Bryan's CD's so I can be ready to perform next time.

Day One: Saturday night my husband, Greg, and I attended one of Bryan’s (He’s Home) shows at his Farmhouse Studio. It’s always a good time, but this night I discovered egg shakers, and Bryan called me up to the stage to play.  Later I advanced to the tambourine.  Was it the t-shirt that gave me rhythm?  I don’t know for sure, but there is audio of me singing.  The audio will remain locked in a vault, but I am happy to share this picture with my fans.  I mean “fan.”  (me)

Day Two: It’s hard being a rock star.  I woke up with a sore throat and a sore leg (from the tambourine), but a quick glance at the weather report (rain tomorrow) was the signal I needed to get me up and moving.  Armed with a shovel and compost material from my kitchen, I headed to the compost pile to do some turning.  It was cloudy, but the temperature was perfect for my RDC T.  I wondered how I was going to do everything I wanted to do today. Then I got a call.  A parent of one of my 7th grade students called to see if they could come out to see the goats.  The dad chatted with Greg as he worked on the barn, and the mom and three boys were eager to brush and pamper the horses.  The boys left covered in dirt from corn stalk wars and if I was covered in dirt, you’d never know it.  My RDC T is brown.  Perfect.

Three items that are always needed on the ranch: a tool, a bucket, and an RDC T.

Day Three: It was cold and rainy, but I was multi-tasking.  The rain was drenching my compost pile and I was getting my car serviced.  I had chocolate meringue pie  for dinner.  It melted in my mouth.  How did Mrs. Wagner know that my mind and body deserved that melt-in-your-mouth pie and coffee?  My RDC T was hidden under a sweater.  She must have had x-ray eyes.

Day Four: Three girls (okay, four if you count my dog, Mae) and two sets of mattresses made for a nice day and lunch at the local diner.  My RDC T and I were happy to give away a queen mattress to our friend Katherine.  She and her mom brought their full size mattress to exchange and bought us lunch.  I saw even more friends later!  I didn’t let the cold tempt me from not wearing my RDC T.  It looks great with an orange long-sleeved shirt underneath! Continue reading Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: My RDC T & Me →

Foodie Page, My Little Victory Garden, Oklahoma culture

My Little Victory Garden: Entry Four-Ever, I DO

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About Thursday at noon last week I realized that even Queens of Multi-tasking have limits.  Actually, I think it was 11:45 a.m. when I stopped and wrote three e-mails.  All of them canceling appointments I had previously set up because “I was going to be running errands around town for my daughter’s wedding and might as well take care of (X).”  I took off my multi-tasking crown and tossed it somewhere into the back of my SUV; it landed alongside three bags of clothes (dry cleaner, gym bag, sack of clothes I had to buy because I forgot my gym bag last week), four boxes of Mason or Kerr canning jars (drinking glasses for the wedding), six wedding presents for my daughter and her fiancee’ I had collected from church and friends over the last week, school books (both teaching and learning) and five crumpled pieces of paper.  If unwadded, lists of 10-15 things “to be done before the wedding” would be revealed on each of the paper balls.  They rolled to and fro on the floor of my car as I drove madly around town, forward when stopping and backward when I took off again.

Five days later, the crown is still resting haphazardly in the back and I’m not quite ready to don it again.  Rather, I’m still thinking about all the seeds planted in my Life Garden last week: memories, new friendships and relationships, a new marriage in our family and, well, more memories.  I’ll talk about those in just a minute.  First I want to honor this post by reporting on my garden.

“My Little Victory Garden” was neglected most of the week.  I took solace in the fact that our neighbor’s sprinkling system was watering my seedlings nightly.  Evidently last summer during a long hot week, Dennis (my neighbor to the west) told Mick that he was watching after my garden by adjusting two of his sprinkler heads to rotate 360 degrees, thus also covering my garden as well as a portion of his yard.  Nine months later, I thanked him in my head for that little gesture by commenting to myself, “Well, at least the garden is getting a little water at night. You rock, Dennis.” Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Entry Four-Ever, I DO →

Homestead and Garden, Uncategorized

Meanwhile Back at The Ranch: I’m Braking For Spring

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What a day!  It was the barn with the Daffodils that caught my eye first, and after that I just kept noticing glimpses of color and new life all around.  If you haven’t already, stop and notice. (Click photos for a larger view).  Have a great week!

On my way to Wal-Mart, I noticed these beauties in front of an old barn.

 

 

It looks like my strawberries survived the winter. I'm going to clean out the dead leaves and start watching for blooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a welcomed sight coming up the drive. Looks like it's time to get out the rake.

Continue reading Meanwhile Back at The Ranch: I’m Braking For Spring →

Foodie Page, My Little Victory Garden, Oklahoma culture

My Little Victory Garden: Entry Three

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Yukon Gold potatoes ~ the debate remains on whether or not you need more than one "eye" per chunk when you plant.

I was talking to my dad on the phone Saturday, sharing with him that I was getting ready to plant potatoes.  He said, “You’re not waiting until St. Patrick’s Day?”  I didn’t even know that was a THING. (Later, I felt slightly better when Mick told me ‘the sign said sometime between February 20th and March 15th.’  Heck, I wasn’t even being risky if we were using the sign’s standard!)

I wonder how many THINGS I don’t know?  I found out another THING while on the phone with him.  He recalled for me that my grandmother Porter (Julie At The Ranch’s great-grandmother as well) used to peel her potatoes fairly thickly, then simply plant the peelings, saving the core to cook for a meal.  Then he, my mother across the room speaking “through” my dad, and I had a third conversation:  How many eyes do you need per chunk of potato planted?  She said two, he said probably just one.  Knowing me, and my inability to identify exactly what constitutes as a bonafide eye, I’ll probably plant three or more.  It’s one thing for roots to be growing forth from the potato, hence easily identifiable makings of a plant.  However, are the little dents with tiny dots in them ALL eyes?  Who knows.  My potato chunks may have four eyes or more due to my lack of experience.

So, earlier that morning, prior to speaking with my dad: I was feeling a little guilty having only purchased three seed potatoes from the feed store.  I looked around a bit more and found a packet of last year’s cucumber seeds for fifty cents.  A discussion ensues…this time with Mick.

Mick: “Don’t you want to buy THIS year’s seeds?”

Me:  “Why?  Don’t you think LAST year’s will grow?”

Mick: “I don’t know.  It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Me: “Okay, first of all – that’s silly.  Of COURSE they’ll grow.  Secondly, I’m simply trying to find something to add to my potato purchase so the total will be over a dollar.  These are nice people and I’d like to spend more than eighty cents with them!”

Mick (known for always tipping the employees at Sonic more than he should): “Oh, yeah.  Good idea.” Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Entry Three →

Homestead and Garden

Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: Estate of Confusion

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There were TWO of these.

I can’t say that I have always loved garage sales, but in my adult life I have hosted and helped friends with several of them.  I love cleaning out closets, getting up early, and putting similar items together.  However, this weekend our family hosted an estate sale at the home of my father-in-law who passed away last November.  Most of the family showed up to help organize and price the artifacts left behind by their father.

Price.

That’s where I drew the line.

It started a few weekends ago when I went up to help get ready for the sale.  I had cleaned out a few of my own closets and found several things I could do without.  They were donated to the cause without a thought, but then this question kept resurfacing: “Julie, how much do you want to put on this?”  No matter what I said, my suggestion was either too high or too low.  No matter how many times I declined to answer the question, they continued to ask. However, a few of my items were taken home by the family for personal use.  I guess “free” was a good price for those. 🙂

loading
Goodbye washer and dryer. Hello $100.

One week before the sale, I let a friend do some shopping in the trailer.  She spent $67 on two chairs, a quilt rack and a cat food bowl.   Another friend bought the stereo for $50 and a pair of boots and a napkin holder for $10. Then it happened. “How much do you want for that outdoor furniture?” he asked. “It’s not priced?  Are you sure it doesn’t have a price on it somewhere?” I replied. Really, I looked everywhere.  My husband and I looked at each other.  I had already told him that I was NOT going to price one single item because my prices were always rejected by his family, but he wouldn’t say anything so I decided. “$25 for the two chairs and table.” Needless to say, when I revealed that information on the day of the big sale, it was not well-received.  All I could do was shrug my shoulders.  I mean, someone walked out with a free $129 Tempur Pedic pillow, and the other pillow I donated was sold for $1.  I guess I’m still not clear on the pricing procedure.  I’m just glad it’s over.

I'm not surprised this didn't sell. Go POKES!

We still have a trailer full of some over-priced and some under-priced goods. I just hate that I still can’t tell which is which.

[julie]

 

Homestead and Garden, My Little Victory Garden, Oklahoma culture

My Little Victory Garden: Entry Two

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One week before a business down the road from our home opened, torrential rains came and took out their entire retaining wall. In three days, however, the mess was cleaned up and crews worked around the clock to rebuild the wall and the structures it had pulled down. Now restored, the first business is OPEN.

The majority of Oklahoma experienced a sustaining drought throughout last fall and on through Winter 2010-11. No rain.  Zero.  When this kind of thing happens in the winter, it’s not quite as noticeable as it is when green things are growing.  However the situation was pretty bad: until just a few days ago fire warnings had been published, all our snow had only amounted to mere tenths of an inch once melted and the winter wheat was really suffering.

Then last week the rain came.  In torrents.  Although our whole state didn’t get moisture, a good deal did and that “good deal” included My Little Victory Garden.  Two days after Mick had plowed up the beautiful soil into a soft loam for planting, the rain came with a vengeance.  My yard still has “wavy grass” reminders, my garden was flooded and the aftermath is a now uneven, cracked plot with sand in it.  Why sand?  The rain was so hard it found a weak, lower area in our neighbors yard and drilled down behind our retaining wall, oozing out the native sandy loam through the cracks.  But that wasn’t the worst damage.  My garden got off easy.

Did you get a big rain? Did your yard look like this once the water subsided?

Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Entry Two →

Homestead and Garden

Meanwhile Back at The Ranch: It’s Not Always Blue Skies and Butterflies: Part Two

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Continued from Part One~

So Monday morning arrived and I was as ready as I could be to face my 7th graders.  Of course, this morning was going to be tougher than usual considering the news I had to share.  I waited for someone to ask about the baby goats, but no one did.  I  quietly announced that we had some “new kids on the block.”  That’s when the questions started rolling out.  I mentioned that we’d had two sets of twins, and I was going to show them a video.  I heard one little girl whisper under her breath, “I only see two; where are the others?”  I let them read the essay I had written about my experience that weekend.  I think I cried four separate times as I talked to four different classes. It was a quiet day in my room.

We still had one pregnant goat left in the pasture.  I tried not to let the loss of the two babies diminish my enthusiasm for the impending birth of Blackie’s offspring.   Blackie had already had one baby while with us: Baby Brown.  She had been a good mother, and the weather was getting warmer, so that was going to be good for the new babies and for me when I videoed her birth.  Of course, I was “in town” when she gave birth on a Sunday afternoon.  Could the goats had known my documentary plan?

A call from Greg revealed that Blackie had given birth to two healthy little girls.  One of them was white with all the brown markings of a typical Boer goat, white body and brown head.  The other goat was the brown of our Red Dirt Chronicles shirts.  Really, that’s the only way I know to describe it, and she had a black stripe down her back and black feet.  I tried to envision them as Greg described them.    The babies were curled up together in the corner of the shed and already as big as small dogs.  I guess their mom had not had time to warn them that I would be wanting to pick them up and hold them, so they were extremely trusting when I made my way to them to touch them and cuddle them one at a time.

Twins!
This was before they really understood that they should be running away from me.

We enjoyed watching our four new babies grow as the week turned into the weekend, and finally, Greg mentioned something about one of Blackie’s babies having the same “hangy downy things” as her mother.  I had not really noticed the “wattles” on either side of Blackie’s neck or on her baby’s neck.  I also did not know they were called “wattles” until I typed in a search for “what are the hangy downy things on either side of my goats neck.”  One of the most reliable web sites revealed that wattles are common…. in DAIRY GOATS.  Blackie is a dairy goat! Continue reading Meanwhile Back at The Ranch: It’s Not Always Blue Skies and Butterflies: Part Two →

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Foodie Page, My Little Victory Garden, Oklahoma culture

My Little Victory Garden: Entry One

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Daily Harvest - This one was from September 26, 2010.

Gardening means so many positive things to me that I was having a hard time finding just the right phrase to title my new series.  I gave serious consideration to “Kelly Does Dirt,” “Dirty Fingernails Are Nature’s Perfect Manicure,” “Fresh Veggies Are Better Than Making Whoopee,” …well, you get the picture.  In other words, I was having a hard core creativity block.

When I gave up brainstorming and closed my laptop, the title “Victory Garden” popped into my head.  I realized I didn’t even know the history of the term.  So, I “Wikied” it.  *I’m guessing I utilize the resource at least once a day.  Here’s what I learned:

Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany[1] during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil “morale booster” — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens become a part of daily life on the home front.

What a gift! History had at that moment handed me what I needed.  It seems that there has been somewhat of a resurgence the past few years in private residence and public community gardens.  Further, my gardens have been my own personal morale booster; they truly have helped me feel empowered by the contribution to our family and health.  The “reward of labor” comes almost daily at the height of summer’s harvest.

My first garden's carrots, ready the last week in June, 2009.

Continue reading My Little Victory Garden: Entry One →

Homestead and Garden

Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: It’s Not Always Blue Skies And Rainbows-Part One

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I'm no veterinarian, but I think she's expecting.

For weeks I’ve gone to the goat shed to feed, and I’ve had my eye on a couple of goats that were pregnant.  My mind was made up that I was going to make a documentary of them having the babies if I was home when they were delivered.  I even looked up all the pictures that I could find on the Internet to see if I could handle what I was actually going to witness when a goat gave birth.  How was I going to create something that did not have the feel of either Paranormal Activity or The Office? As it turns out, I missed all three deliveries.  Yep, three.  I was not prepared for the aftermath.

I had used my pregnant goats as a lure to teach my kids how great research could be.  One student asked me how I knew a goat was pregnant. My reply was that it looked like a chair was sideways in its stomach.  It was “just a feeling.”  At the end of the lesson I showed them all a picture of the suspect.  They agreed that I was probably right.  For two weeks every day my students asked me if my kids had arrived.  They hadn’t.  The momentum was dying down and I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen.  It was about then that I realized there were three pregnant females on the premises.  My students were so excited. I even got emails from parents inquiring about the event!

One Saturday I took off for an evening with some friends and left Greg at home to feed.  Not thirty-five minutes after I left home, he called me to say that one of the goats had just given birth to twins.  I’d missed it!  This was compounded by the fact that the other one looked like she would give birth within twenty-four hours.  A few hours later I called to make sure Greg had set up the heat lamps at the shed, and he informed me that we already had another set of twins!

The next morning I bundled up to head out into the below freezing weather to check on our new additions. Even though I’d missed the birth, I was armed with my camera.  I was also carrying some compost pile material, so I separated from my husband to head in that direction first.  I was not expecting the sound of distress that came out of his mouth, but when I looked in his direction, I understood.  Maybe three feet from a heat lamp lay one of new baby’s lifeless little bodies.  It was small and deflated as if Life had spent little time there.  I could barely even see it.  He hurried past it to the next pen where he found the same haunting image:  one of the twins from the other doe, just a few feet away from warmth, was also dead.

Continue reading Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: It’s Not Always Blue Skies And Rainbows-Part One →

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Homestead and Garden

Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: Some Days Words Are Enough

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This snowfall in 2011 has really wreaked some havoc on my daily schedule, but in keeping with my Ranch Hand Guide for 2011, I’m just going with the flow.  I took advantage of a snow day last week by cleaning and reorganizing my craft closet.  This of course, affected other closets in my home, but I found some words that made me smile.

By “cleaning” I mean I dumped items out onto the floor and separated them into one of three piles: estate sale, burn pile, and trash.  If I could justify keeping it, I put it in a container and moved on.  Eventually, I made my way upstairs and started going through my folder from all of my years of teaching.  I took a little time to reorganize my work history, and then I opened a file folder that I had named “Love Letters.”

I remember making that folder.

Love Letters File Folder
This folder holds the motivation for getting me through one more day.

This folder holds my motivation for going to work every day.  I am a teacher.  We are up against scrutiny from every direction, but every once in a while we make a difference.  Even less often, someone thanks us for it.  Even less often than that, someone actually writes a note expressing his or her gratitude.  Those notes from parents and students written to me expressing some kind of thanks for something I did for them are in that folder.

I read every one.

The topics of the notes had nothing to do with the subject I taught at the time.  Parents wrote about getting their kids through “a difficult” year; students wrote about getting them through “a difficult” year.  Neither group mentioned a noun, verb, or essay.

I needed to be reminded of that.

Continue reading Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch: Some Days Words Are Enough →

Homestead and Garden

Valentine’s Day Revamped: Old Traditions, New Ideas

by Joey Rodman

With Valentine’s day just around the corner, more than a few of you might be getting a little anxious. There is often big pressure to do something special for the day and a lot of the old ideas seem outmoded or just plain over done. Here are some new ideas with the old traditions:

Flowers
Pro: They’re beautiful.
Cons: They can be expensive, they don’t last long enough and some people are actually allergic!
Solution: Origami flowers are beautiful, as affordable or expensive as you want them to be, and last as long as you want them to. Make your own, or if you’re less crafty buy a bouquet online.

Candy
Pro: Everyone loves a treat!
Cons: It can be seen as impersonal and sometimes too commercialized. Go to any store around and you’ll see hundreds of the same candy boxes over and over.
Solution: Bake a treat of your own, cupcakes perhaps. If you’re not comfortable in the kitchen you can pick up some cupcakes locally, with so many flavors available you’ll be sure to find something special.

Stuffed animals
Pro: They’re cute.
Cons: They take up room, collect dust, and are generally useless. Also, they have the same problem as candy, they’re mass produced.
Solution: If they’re an animal fan take them on a date to the Oklahoma City zoo, there is free admission on Mondays in February. If a zoo trip is not optimal donate to a charity in their name.

Date night
Pro: Quality time is a great way to celebrate your love.
Cons: Sometimes you just get stuck in a rut.
Solution: Try something new like date night at The Plaza district. Events on February 11th (Friday night) include everything from free Salsa lessons (starting at 9pm followed by a Salsa Social) to art shows to live music to open mic night to an 80’s themed prom complete with karaoke, something for everyone – really!

Bottom line, think outside of the box to make this holiday one to remember. Your special sweetheart will thank you for the effort and you’ll feel like a superstar for doing something extra special for them.

Homestead and Garden

2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #5. You Can’t Keep Trouble From Visitin’, But You Don’t Have To Offer It a Chair

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The country life is so different from the life I lived in the city.  The one thing both places have in common is they both have their own kind of trouble. Some of it just shows up and is hard to avoid, yet there is that certain kind of trouble that we bring on ourselves.  I guess I need to rely on one of our former presidents Teddy Roosevelt for some help with this one:  If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

The Seed

One of the worst situations I can recall since I’ve been living out in the country happened the summer my dog, Mae (Pay It Forward), made her appearance on our front porch.  It never occurred to me that a mean dog could show up as well.  One rainy afternoon, a full-grown pit bull appeared in our backyard.

We called the police (it’s a small town…that’s what you do), and the policeman told me that they had recently passed a law banning pit bulls in my county unless the owners complied with the provisions stated in the resolution; I lived on the county line, and the policeman guessed that someone had just traveled there to get rid of the dog to avoid the $100,000 liability insurance required to keep it.

The policeman stated that the dog appeared to have been abused and was a trained fighter.  I was scared and sick to my stomach when I heard the gunshot in the dark.  The policeman guessed how upset I would be.  He came in and told me how sorry he was that he had to put that poor stray down in my yard.  It had attacked his partner. Trouble visited that night, and it was something that I could not control.  (Note:  I have nothing against pit bulls.  This dog just happened to be one of the many unlucky pit bulls that had a heartless owner.)

Germination

My dog, Mae, spent her first summer with me as an outside dog, but because we don’t have a fenced yard, we decided to kennel her when I went back to work.  We still spent lots of time outside, so when she took an interest in the farm road in front of our house, I saw how Trouble was interested in visiting again.  My dog was great, but she was stubborn and would not come when I called her.  She thought it was a game and would run away…sometimes down the middle of the road.  I can’t tell you how many times I would have to stand in the middle of the road hoping the cars saw me just so I could protect her.  I know.  That was stupid.  I realized I was offering Trouble a chair by continuing to overlook this flaw in my dog.  No.  It was a flaw in how I trained my dog.  This was my fault because she was my responsibility.

Continue reading 2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #5. You Can’t Keep Trouble From Visitin’, But You Don’t Have To Offer It a Chair →

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Homestead and Garden

2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #4. Ride The Horse in The Direction It’s Goin’

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It’s true.  Two summers ago I literally did not follow this rule; the horse went left and I went right…and down.  I did a complete flip (well, almost) and landed on the rock hard ground as dust billowed up around me.  My insides gelled together while I checked for feeling in my legs.  This rule is not really about horses, but rather the fact that our world is constantly changing; we need to make sure we are changing with it.

Julie on horseback
Here I am in the saddle where I am supposed to be. These are Judy's horses in Chickasha. It's almost certain that if I go for a visit, we are going to find time for a ride. Riding used to be scary too. But if I am going to keep up Judy, I knew I had to overcome my fear and move on.

The Seed

Change is constant.  Do you remember when you first encountered a new piece of technology for the first time?  A few years younger than I, my graduate school project partner insisted that the way to eject a disk from a Macintosh computer was to drag the disk to the trash.  Really.  Does that make sense?  No.  I know it doesn’t.  I was so very far out of my comfort zone on that day.  I eventually realized that this thing called the Internet might be sticking around for a little while, and I probably better get it figured out.

Germination

Change is constant.  My example of the change in technology over the years is just one tiny little blip on the world radar.  It’s true that just a few years after I watched the virtual disk drop into the virtual trash can and then watched the actual disk pop out of the computer, I was teaching others to create web pages.  But then the world as I know it changed again.  I moved wwaaaayyyy out into the country.  I could barely get an Internet connection.  WiFi?  Not out here!

Continue reading 2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #4. Ride The Horse in The Direction It’s Goin’ →

Homestead and Garden

2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #3. Some People Grin and Bear It. Other People Smile and Change It.

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I love my life out here on the ranch, but it is not without its hardships and disappointments.  Everyone has his or her burdens to bear, but the key to putting them behind you is what Rule #3 is all about: choice and attitude.

The Seed

During college a friend of mine once commented on my “always up” attitude.  He alluded to the fact that because my happiness always seemed so extreme that my sad times that he never saw probably had to be really, well, sad.  I think he must have just come from one of those freshman psychology courses and wanted to be the first to diagnose me.  It gave me reason for pause, and I waited for those “really sad times” to present themselves.  They never did.

Germination

Last summer I attended a luncheon with a group of ladies.  The hostess began our luncheon by reading “Complaining,” an excerpt from Wouldn’t Take Nothing’ For My Journey Now by Maya Angelou.  Every person listened intently as the final part of the passage was read:

“Sister, there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. Sister, those who expected to rise did not, their beds became their cooling boards and their blankets became their winding sheets. And those dead folks would give anything, anything at all for just five minutes of this weather or ten minutes of that plowing that person was grumbling about. So you watch yourself about complaining, Sister. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.”

Complaining.  That’s what this rule is about.  When I got home I quickly created a little tile with our picture and this excerpt written on it.  I put it in my underwear drawer, so when I am getting dressed in the morning, I feel that tile.  It reminds me to be grateful for waking up to another day.

Continue reading 2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #3. Some People Grin and Bear It. Other People Smile and Change It. →

Art, Homestead and Garden

2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #2. If You Can’t Sing – Dance

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"5th Grade Julie." Piano lessons, art, and even home-building was part of her life, or just down the road in the near future (1973-74).

Out here on the ranch there never seems to be enough time.  We are always tending to the animals, building something, or just performing the everyday maintenance that all homeowners have to do.  Somehow, and it’s not always easy, I make time for hobbies that enrich my life.  So rule #2 translates into “find a hobby you are good at and make time for it.”

The Seed

As a kid, I took dance and piano lessons outside of school, but I had an opportunity to explore sewing (the home economics/shop era) and art during school. I actually remember the advertisement for an art school that read “If you can draw this… you may have a future in art.” We had an empty lot across the street from our house, and I watched my mom start a garden there before it sold and a house was built on the land.  I worked summers in the home building industry with my step-dad.  I was exposed to a lot of different activities.  Exposure is important.

Germination

Just because we are exposed to different activities doesn’t mean we will have the opportunity to pursue those activities.  For example, it wasn’t until a co-worker introduced me to quilting and my Aunt Sally gave me a sewing machine that I had the opportunity to pursue sewing.   That happened over twenty years ago, and I am still making time for it.  I have found that I can look at something and figure out how to make it, but I have also found some success in designing my own interesting projects.  Now that I live on a ranch, I have my own space for a garden.  I am still learning the basics, but a friend talked me into enrolling in our local Master Gardener class.  What a learning experience!  I have realized that two of my favorite activities were merged in the creation of the Tag Rag, the gardening bandana I made that I wear every day in the summer.

Continue reading 2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #2. If You Can’t Sing – Dance →