Texas Trash

I saw this the other day while I was on my way to buy some raw milk. These are the cutest trash cans I've seen in a long time.

Bluebonnets

I'd heard about Texas bluebonnet flowers, but it wasn't until the other day on the way up to Dallas that I actually saw any of them. All those years visiting my grandmother in the winter and summer I somehow missed the bluebonnet season.

Bluebonnets seem to love to grow along the side of the highway. I kept seeing all these strips of blue flowers along the road and finally stopped to see what they were. The sheer vastness of them is what makes them so pretty. It reminded me of fields of lavender in England, or the poppies in California.

Texans do love their bluebonnets. It is, after all, the state flower. The variety grown in Texas even has it's own Texas name: Lupinus texensis. There's also a website for tracking sightings of them.

As usual, my pictures don't do them justice. So you'll just have to come see them for yourself.

Odd Equipment

I saw this the other day on the way into town. What in the world? It was so strange I had to pull over and take a few photos. Maybe someone will tell me what it is called and what it is used for.

Carrots

I finally pulled up some of my root vegetables yesterday. They have been growing since last October in the ground tubs. Since they're under the ground it's hard to know exactly what's growing under there until you've pulled them up - and then it's too late to put them back. So I've been waiting until I thought they would be ready.

I had only planted a few as an experiment (actually most of my hydroponic plants are an experiment) so whatever did happen to grow would only be a taster. I did learn, though, that I should space them out more because I had crowded them so much they grew intertwined with each other. I need to read the seed packets better. I'm not really growing enough to feed the family yet, but I am learning along the way. They did make a nice addition to the roast chicken meal last night.

I also pulled the little onions and parsnips that were growing in the other ground tubs. And a few little Brussels sprouts. I'm about ready to remove the broccoli plants because they've mostly gone to flowers. I have left them this long for the bees.

My cilantro was taking over (a bit like the parsley) so I've cut it back and am drying it the same way I did the parsley.

My best carrots

My best parsnip

Washed and ready to use

100th Winner

And the winner is...

SN - for all her encouraging comments. It was a hard decision but in the end she won out because of the number of comments she made.

Luckily (because I wasn't sure what I was going to do if it was someone I didn't know) I'm pretty sure who SN is, and actually have her address. So I will be mailing her the bag of pecans today.

Thanks for reading. Keep commenting.

Here are a couple of photos I posted on Instagram the other day - a rainbow colored sunset, followed by a equally colorful sunrise the next morning.

Parsley

I had so much parsley the other day that it was crowding and shading the other plants. So I cut several handfuls off and brought them in the house to dehydrate and store for later use. 

I washed them off and snapped off (with Daughter's help) the tender leaves from the tougher stems. Then I spread them out on a large baking tray to dry a couple of days. I got impatient, so I put it all in the dehydrator for a couple of hours. I've got enough parsley now for several years - and some to share.

The parsley was growing very well and taking over.

Washed and trimmed and spread on a large baking tray.

Dark green and shiny parsley

My dehydrator is a Nesco brand with four trays.

The parsley took up three trays.

The parsley didn't look very different once it was dried, except it was brittle.

I put it all on a paper towel and crunched it up and removed any stems.

This jam jar of parsley will probably last me 5 years.

Random

Well, I hope I still have a few readers after the last post and photos.

We're busy this week working on a few projects which I will tell you about more fully later. Our rear wood deck was very neglected (surprise surprise) by the Priors so we have contracted to have that replaced. Guv'nor, Son, and Tevia, with the help of Neighbor and his post hole digger, have begun the process of putting up the perimeter fence along the county road. Another section of the fence along the creek is being worked on by another neighbor who has the wandering cows.

The hydroponics are mostly surviving the errantic weather and my seedlings are growing. We just about finished off the arugula, used in the lasagna we had for supper last night. The parsley was taking over so I cut off a huge bunch and have decided to dehydrate it for storage and use later.

There is still time to leave a comment for a chance to win a pound of fresh East Texas pecans.

So, I'll for now leave you with a couple more Texas photos.

Traps: 2

WARNING: This post contains pictures of dead mice.

We had good success with our mouse traps the other night. As you might remember, I set out eight traps - two in the garage and six in the attic. All through the night we heard noises as the traps went off. In the morning we were very surprised to find that of the six traps upstairs, five had been successful in catching a mouse. The sixth trap was completely gone and we still haven't found it. Nothing was caught in the garage.

The Guv'nor kindly took care of them for me since I was too afraid to touch them. I had planned to just throw it all away but he thought that would be a waste of a good trap. So he dealt with the dead mice (you don't want to know) and I was able to use the traps again.

The second night I set out six traps in the attic, leaving one in the garage just in case. In the morning, we had caught one more mouse in the attic.

Just when I was going to give up on the traps in the garage, we caught one a few days later. He didn't seem to mind that the cheese was a week old.

I'm going to leave a few traps upstairs and in the garage all the time and hopefully keep any future problem under control . Or until we get a cat.

We caught five field mice the first night. They were almost cute, if they hadn't been living in our attic.

The Guv'nor didn't seem to have any problem picking them up by the tail and tossing them in the woods.

Texas Art

I just love Texas themed artwork. I thought I'd post a few pictures of things I've seen recently.

We went to a high school 'Showcase' evening recently where Daughter has been substitute teaching for the past few months. This is some of the students' artwork that was on display.