Playing in the Rexburg Tabernacle

This building was built 100 years ago next year!! It is next to the Library and the Teton Dam Museum in Rexburg Idaho. Last year we found the door to the Tabernacle unlocked so we peeked in and learned that it is now used for community events, plays, meetings, musicals, talent shows etc. We saw that it has two pianos and a beautiful stage and we couldn't resist!

Last year we were waiting for my oldest daughter to have her second baby...so we were entertained like this:

THIS year we HAD to go back because we had so much fun the first time.  We were thrilled to find the door unlocked again!!  (I love small towns!)  Here is the show they put on this year:

I think next year we will be ready for a larger audience!!  Wanna come?

Another birthday in July

When we do birthdays on the Farrm, we do them double.  Two in January, two in April, two in July and two in the fall--okay I tried to have them both in November but one just had to come early!

Anyway- this time it's Little Sister's b-day and just guess what kind of cake she celebrated with!

Happy Birthday!

Yes--Anne with an 'E', HAD to make another SNICKERS CAKE!

It tastes as gooey as it looks!

Suffice it to say, I have NOT lost my 10 lbs yet!

Can we please stop having parties please!!

KinderGARDENS- Still Gardening Without Sun- Week- 16

Oh how frustrating gardening can be without sunshine and warmth to help things grow!  Today the forecast was: 75- partly cloudy.  I kid you not, it was 59 and ALL cloudy until 3:00! At exactly 3:12 the sky was blue and we were pulling off our sweatshirts and donning the sunglasses!  I wonder what the tomatoes and pumpkins think about this weather... 

 Lets ask them, shall we?

"Hey, little pumpkin, how do you like the weather?"
"Excuse me but I am a Giant Pumpkin, thank you, I can't help my size if there isn't sun to warm me!"

So Little Sister and I looked for someone to interview from the tomato family.  We knocked on Mr. Brandywines door, went over to Sugar Lump's house, and even peeked in the window at Mrs. Pineapple's place, but no one was home!  We did see some kids (flowers) playing outside in the neighbor hood, but they are all too young to know the importance of sunshine just yet, so we continued on to the "Vegetable Garden".

"Everything is growing here!"

"I can hide in the potatoes!"

"The sunflower is reaching for the sun!"

The onions reported that there was plenty of warmth for their needs.    These are very mild, we ate them for dinner in salad and on top of homemade chili that Anne with an 'E' made.  
I wonder if more sun would make them sharper though?

"Eeeww--What has been eating our beets?"

Little sister transplanted these Calendula back in the spring and look how they have grown!


 They really are a good plant to use with kids, I don't think she ever remembered to water them more than a couple times and yet they have still grown and she is quite proud of them!

Perri gave her a kiss and Ajax gave her a pat on the back for her good work!

We then headed for the Tyrannosaur Paddock and found Princess and Anne with an 'E' along the way. 

 Laddie is at BYU-Idaho for a summer semester and Bear is on a Pioneer Trek for the week, so they are missing out on the gardening.  We'll make sure we save some weeding for them when they get home, don't worry!

The corn path leading to the teepee is growing pretty well all things considered!  The girls were surprised to see how high it has grown in a week. 

They are hoping for better results in the future from the beans growing up the teepee.

But look close--there are these beautiful purple blossoms that look healthy!  Yea--'purple' green beans are in our future!

In conclusion of this very long post, I will leave you with this photo taken after 9pm from an upstairs window...more proof that we have no summer here in the NorthWest this year.

Mist in the valley-o.

We can always hope for an Indian summer!

KinderGARDENS- Three Generations- Week- 15

Last week I was visiting my oldest Daughter, her husband and my two Grandbabies!  I was without laptop or cell phone and it was great!

Sorry I missed the submissions for the KinderGardens--but I'm making it up now!!

And boy am I making it up!

Let's begin with a quick trip down memory lane to my first garden.  It was probably in about 1999, we bought our first home and it came with a garden and orchard!  I planted tomatoes, (which never ripened) peas, (we got a few) and I don't remember anything else, although I can picture other rows of things that never grew well enough to harvest.  Basically the weeds took over and between the garden and a 12yo, 7yo, 4yo, 2yo and a nursing baby--I learned that I couldn't garden at this stage of my life successfully.

Pan forward to 2005;  New home, new garden, Cedar Grove Organic compost, (quite a few yards of it- thanks to Iron Man) and a neighbor who was a few years ahead of me in organic gardening and who let me spend hours with her in her garden working and learning from her. Oh- and don't forget that the  kids are now all out of diapers and can feed themselves as well as clean up their own messes!  So, I started gardening again, this time with the Salad and Vegetable gardens which you have already seen in this blog.

Somewhere in the months between moving to the Farrm and going off to college and getting married, my oldest daughter must have learned something about gardening, if nothing more than that she liked it!  She and her husband have a garden at his Grandmothers house in Idaho and I have pictures for week 15 of her very first garden --- which is TONS better than my own first attempt was and which is about two weeks ahead of my current garden!

Here we all are checking out the garden. Corn, beets, carrots, lettuce, peas, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, okra, peppers, zucchini, crookneck squash, and I think some cucumbers.  This reminds me of a line from a Robert Frost Poem,  "...a little bit of everything, a great deal of none."  Except this garden has already produced much!  Yeah!!

"Baby Grand" is excited to see all the peas!

She took a bite and then showed me the bite!  She won't eat it though!

Beautiful green in the sun!  Look--there really is sunshine somewhere in the world!

"Baby Zucc" thinks some weeding needs to be done...

...and of course using a cool tool gets the job done right!

Oh how I want squash this summer!  I'm still waiting...

The peas were delicious and we all munched!

Aaww, cute mommy and daddy in the garden!

See! I can prove I was there!

"Baby Grand" negotiates the carrots and beets.

We thinned the lettuce and beets, watered a bit, ate some peas, and oohed and aahed at the good work that has led to a nice garden.  Three generations in the garden!!  I love it!

Gardening is a tradition in our family. 

My Mom and Dad had a garden at my childhood home in Alabama.

 My Granny Verna always kept a garden and had chickens and a lovely large fig tree at the home my mother grew up in, in California.

Her mother, my Great Grandmother, Barbara, gardened in Missouri, and I was told that when she died she had been walking on the path from the house to the garden, that is where she was found.  (Sounds like a pretty fair way to go to me!)

I wonder how many more generations of gardeners there were?

It looks pretty certain that we have a good start to adding three more generations to the list!

KinderGARDENS-Broccoli week- 14

The garden is busy growing and it is time to harvest Broccoli!  This is was one of the first things we planted and is the first from the Tyrannosaur paddock to be ready.  Probably because I'm trying to lose my "winter weight" I've been taking lots of pictures of food this week.  So this is what you get!!

Each broccoli plant has one main flower head.  I just snap it right off.  Then smaller shoots will grow from the plant as the season progresses.  The first harvest is the best.  It is before the caterpillar moth eggs have hatched and so there aren't all the little green worms to fight with.  They blend in and stick to the brocc so well that they don't wash out.  The only way to be 97% sure you have them all out is to blanch the broccoli and they will turn white and float to the top of the water.  Then you can strain them out!! It has taken me a few harvests to get used to the added protein, so if you have finicky eaters -- DON'T have them wash the broccoli and then serve it covered in melted cheese or alfredo sauce so they won't see the 3% you will undoubtedly miss.  Or plant and harvest early.  It's a small price to pay for GREAT broccoli and no poisons in your body.

This time I chopped and steamed the brocc...

Cracked 10 eggs from "The Ladies", added sour cream, Johnny's season salt, and lots of Tillamook...

and baked for 40 minutes.  It's what we call --"Hakuna Fritata"!
(And yes I sing the song when I serve it!!)

And it disappears quickly.

I guess if I made a crust it would be quiche, but I rarely have time to do that.  Besides, if I have time to make crust, I would rather bake a pie!!  And that is probably why I have 10 lbs to lose!

Inequality in my Kitchen

Sometimes life just isn't fair.  Like when you have to lose 10 pounds because you are 40-something and it's starting to stick.  So Ironman and I are on a Raw Food Detox Diet but the timing really stinks because it is Bear's Birthday!
Bear went to Scout camp two weeks ago and was such an outstanding Scout that they asked him to return last week to be a Councilor in Training!!  Which means next year he will be eligible for hire as a Councilor at Camp Hahobas Scout camp and have his first real job!

"A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent." and... HUNGRY!" and after camp they are TIRED!

So since he had been away for a while and was having his birthday while at camp, we decided to drive the hour to camp and take him cake and pizza!  I forgot to bring my camera, but we did get some before pictures.

Anne with an 'E' baked  Bear and the 10 Councilors in training 2 Snickers cakes!

And this is where we come to the inequality in my kitchen.  

For while she was busy on one counter creating homemade sour cream chocolate cake covered with caramel gooey goodness--

I was creating this:

Green Lemonade!

Ironman and I drank juice and the kids ate cake.  We didn't have a single taste and it was very difficult!

After passing that up, there is no other temptation even close.

So after our 2 week Detox, guess what I'm going to bake for celebration!?!

New Farrm Button!

A million Thanks to Jewlynn for designing a Blog Button for me!!

Of course I wasn't sure what that was and she had to tell me what to do with it!  But I'm thrilled that she would add her artistic talent to the Farrm!

Now if any of my 6 followers want a button, they can have it!!

Occasionally I hear of someone who has looked at "The Farrm" who isn't a "follower" and I wonder--"How many people have visited?"  But alas, the answer to that would require a counter, and more instruction on how to get one of those... I'm thinkin' that I've got enough to do without a counter.

But thanks for visiting if even if you are "Anonymous".

Simple Summer - The Lemonade Stand

For weeks, the Princess has wanted to sell Lemonade. She and Anne with an 'E' have practiced hand squeezing lemons and adding just the right amount of sugar to perfect their unique formula for liquid sunshine! So, while Anne with an 'E' was away at Girl's Camp, and it was just so boring without big sister, Princess decided SHE could handle it on her own and she got to work squeezing AND baking chocolate chip cookies!

I was not even in the kitchen while she created sugary goodness.  Look at how cute she has everything arranged; the cookbook propped up and the cooling rack ready!

The kids loaded up the wagon and walked down to the corner to sell their wares.  To maintain the "Cuteness Factor" the Mom's stayed out of their way.

The girls have decided they are going to buy a horse.  They are taking riding lessons, visit dreamhorse.com nearly every day and have been saving their money dollar by dollar.  

Princess was just sure this sign was a good addition to the sale...and what do ya know---a woman drove up and handed each girl a dollar and said,  "This is for the horse!" 

I was surprised at the lump in my throat as the girls thanked the woman and she drove away.  I am still surprised at the emotion I feel as I relate this story now.

The JOY of a Simple Summer.

KinderGARDENS-Flower Camp Week- 13

Most of the Farrm kids are at camp this week, and it's good timing too, because we finally have sun AND heat! 88 degrees today - that is a 20 degree difference from just 3 days ago!

So while the kids are swimming in the lake and camping out under the stars the weeds are having their own fun as well!!

For week 13 then, I'm just giving you a few shots of flowers growing in my garden:

Alyssum that has reseeded for 4 years now!

Calendula, Edible and third year self reseeded!

The kids will be back over the weekend - don't worry, I'll put them back to work in the garden pronto!---Oh, I forgot--we are supposed to have FUN in the garden....anyone have ideas on how to make weeds fun??