Wild Grapes

We have wild Muscadines & Scuppernongs growing along our fence line at the Country property. They have been there for a long time. We decided to build a couple of arbors to try & train them to grow where we can pick them instead of putting a ladder in the back of a pick-up truck to pick them.

We built a couple of arbors on what I hoped was 1 of each. Here's the Muscadine arbor (very basic) waiting for the vine to spread across the top.

I had grapes on it soon after.

But they just didn't ripen very fast.

Greg went to the Country House to mow in preparation for our Labor Day long weekend & harvested some that finally ripened for me.

This is the Muscadine vine which he brought some home for me to have for a snack today.

Here is the Scuppernong one that I had only hoped was the white variety & it seems to be. I will find out this weekend.

After only pulling a few vines from each wild plant, they seem to be taking hold. Cross your fingers that we will have enough to make wine in a few years!

If I knew you were coming I'd a baked a cake.

I can't remember the last time I baked a cake just for the heck of it. I saw this on social media recently & realized that I had almost all the ingredients on hand & decided to make it. It is fabulous! I would make it w/just canned milk & sugar the next time as I am not a huge fan of caramel, but the cake itself is delicious! I couldn't find toffee bits & used Heath Bars candies & that just added a new dimension. It is sooo good!

Brown Sugar Caramel Pound Cake

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups butter softened
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 8oz bag toffee chips
1 cup pecans, chopped

Caramel Drizzel:
1 – 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 spray a 12 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray with flour

Beat butter until creamy. Add sugars beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mix to batter alternately with milk, beat until just combined. Stir in toffee bits and pecans. Spoon batter into pan and bake 85 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean. To prevent excess browning, cover cake with foil while baking.

Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack. Spoon Caramel Drizzle over cooled cake.

Directions for Caramel Drizzle
In a medium saucepan, combine condensed milk and brown sugar; bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking frequently. Reduce heat, and SIMMER for 8 minutes, whisking frequently. Remove from heat; whisk in butter and vanilla. Let cool for 5 minutes before using. NOTE: Make sure you drizzle the caramel while it’s still HOT. When cooled the caramel does somewhat harden.

A Quilt Top

I went on an adventure last weekend ... a Quilting Retreat!

I met some wonderful women at the CITR Retreat I went to last year. Like minded individuals who practice what I want to preach. They have their own animals, love to can, dehydrate & generally preserve their own food.  Here's a lovely picture that J took of a quilt top in progress.

Since the CITR Retreat isn't being held as a whole anymore, a few of these women decided to do their own thing & I decided to join them. I have never quilted in my life & didn't get a chance to this time but I did get a quilt top & back built. I was proud of myself considering I haven't even taken my sewing machine out of the box in about 10 years. And, that was for simple curtains for heavens sake. But, one of the ladies posted a beautiful picture of a quilt that I thought I would love to make. My colors weren't the same as what she posted but I had some really cool material I had purchased at an Estate Sale & thought it would work great, and it did!

The retreat was in VA & was associated with a Threads Run Through It Quilt Shop. It is out in the middle of nowhere & was a wonderful place to be for 4 nights & 5 days. They offer a house to rent to do your sewing & is easy access to the shop which has the most amazing fabric choices. The house beds were covered with quilts from the shop & had matching sheets & luxury quality hotel towels to use. Here are a couple of pictures.

I went to my friend's house in SC first & spent the night before heading to VA. She & her husband have a wonderful property located in a rural area & is just beautiful ... the house, grounds & her. In addition to the beautiful & well maintained property, she has several dogs, cats & a couple of horses that she & her husband absolutely adore. It was a pleasure visiting them.

All the women attending were most helpful, patient & kind with the newbie sewer among them. I even learned a few new terms along the way, but messed up a few more. Anybody out there know what a "Fat Quarter" is? I didn't and kept calling it a "Fat Bastard", one of my favorite wines. They got a kick out of it at my expense which was just fine. The lady at the quilt shop (Lori) kept trying to teach me the correct terminology since I was obviously so uninformed.

These women were awesome & very determined in their work. There were 5 of us & three of us all had the same first name (Debbie) which got kind of confusing & humorous as the days went by. Most of them did several projects & all were most beautiful.

Also, there was a very inspiring young lady there who is amazing in her own right. She is the 19 year old daughter of one of the Debbie's & loves all the same things we do. I swear she is a 30 year old in a teenager's body. She made this amazing quilt top which the shop owner quilted for her before we left!

We sewed & sewed but also went on an afternoon trip to a dairy goat farm & then into 'town' to buy T-shirts & then the 19 year old saw a restaurant that she had been for a special birthday celebration recently. It was very very good with Martini's & Cosmopolitan's to boot. The chef/owner had just come back from the coast & had a wonderful grouper dish. Sorry, no pic. Also, had a wonderful coconut cake & key lime pie that was to die for!

Anyway, it was a most enjoyable time away & I am now thinking about what I want to do for next year!

Peanuts & A Stove

I got up this morning & headed to an Estate Sale. Beautiful Craftsman style house that sat on a corner lot across from a neighborhood private park on the river. They had some beautiful furniture but I don't need that right now. Why do I keep coming across things at really good prices that I will need in about a year & have nowhere to store yet?

Decided to stop by and say hello to Stephen since it had been a while since I had seen him. We had a nice chat before I headed home. As I was driving I came upon a guy selling boiled peanuts on the side of the road. Since I hadn't eaten lunch I stopped & got a bag. I know a lot of people find them gross but in my mind it is a right of Southern passage to eat warm, salty, soft peanuts ... while standing up. I have to eat them that way because the juice runs up my arms if I don't.

Anyway, got close to home & saw an Estate Sale sign that wasn't there when I left earlier. When I got to the location, it was obviously NOT an Estate Sale but a Yard Sale. What a tease. I decided to get out anyway. I was glancing around the tables & happened to look underneath & guess what I saw?

It was in the original box & they wanted $15. I offered $10 & they agreed. It's not an old one so not as well made but it has only been used a couple of times. Now I need to get some cannisters. I usually see new ones, still wrapped in cellophane at Estate Sales. What do you want to bet that I'll never see them anymore?

Pesto (updated for Sandy)

Made Pesto yesterday. Very easy. Toasted pine nuts, grated parmesan cheese, garlic, basil, olive oil, salt & pepper Plus a splash of lemon juice. I made two batches & froze one for later.

The one on the left was made first. Already darkening.

Update:

Pesto Measurements

1/3 c. pine nuts (or any kind you have on hand)
1-2 cloves garlic
2 c. washed dried basil (packed very tightly) I used just a bit more because that was what I had picked.
1/3 c. olive oil
1/3 c. parmesan cheese (+ a bit more if you really like parmesan)
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 t. lemon juice

Pulse nuts & garlic until crumbly.
Add next 4 ingredients & process until desired consistency. I added a bit more oil at this point.
Stir in lemon juice.
Can be frozen.

We did go to the country last weekend, but the guys moving the buildings only got 1 moved. They were supposed to arrive around 4:00p but didn't get there until after 6:00p. So, they just left it & came back on Monday to unload & level it. The other building still sits on a broken trailer waiting for them to fix the wheel so they can eventually move it (if we're lucky) .

The Crepe Myrtles are doing great, one even decided to go into full bloom!

I'm taking another vacation day today & will be making eggplant parmesan. Might even head over to a couple of nearby Estate Sales.

30 More in the Ground (Plus Gladiolas!)

Last weekend wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. We arrived at the Country House Wednesday evening, July 3rd. With no plans for picnics or barbeque's the next day, we sat on the back porch a while before retiring a bit late, for us at least (it was around 10:30p).

We got up early the next day & headed to Lowe's to pick up posts, lumber & screws for fencing on either side of the gate. Once back we set about setting the posts on either side. Once we were at the gate to start work, we weren't sure if we could get both posts in because one side was exceptionally wet. We measured & set the first one. Since we were only going six foot out we decided that we could, in fact set the other one.

Once that was done we set out to plant the 30 smaller Crepe Myrtle trees we had brought with us. These are from the same Mother trees that FIL had grafted his from. We had dug the holes two weeks prior & some had caved in a bit & needed to be dug out. Easy compared to digging from scratch. We got them planted in about an hour & making the wells around each since we were on the ground anyway. Next, I got leaves & compost & commenced to put in the wells around each tree. Greg unwound water hose to lay along side. He secured the hose with some stake wires & drilled a tiny hole in the hose at each plant. We hooked it up to a timer to run 15 minutes 3 times a week. We should be able to remove the hose & reuse in the garden area by this fall.

Looking out from the carport.

Looking back down old driveway.

From old gate.

They are about 1/2 the size of the In-laws trees but they were free & things are now starting to look like a homestead with defined spaces. I want to plant some fruit trees in that large field this fall. Thinking about peaches, plums, pears & maybe an apple, if I can find one that grows in the area. Oh, and a table grape vine as well.

The weather was quite nice for July 4th. Not too hot with a steady breeze. After lunch Greg decided to go ahead & mow since rain was predicted for later afternoon. I decided to clean house a bit. It gets very dusty with farmers in the area plowing & cars & tractors riding the dirt road that runs along side the property. I shook rugs, washed rugs, swept, vacuumed & dusted, glad to have that chore behind me.

We got up the next morning & worked on the fencing, trying to decide what to do as we worked. We finished what we set out to do, that weekend, but realized we put the boards too close together. We'll space them out when we put in the next section. The gate is a crooked as we are having a time swinging it open across the drive because the drive is higher in the middle. We'll find a solution for that in the future.

As we were riding to the gate we looked to the side of the drive, about 1/2 way & saw something bright red in the woods along the fence line. Since it was about to rain we decided to high tail it to the house & come back later.

After the rain, the ditch by the gate.

Later, we stopped by the red sighting & realized the red was gladiolas! There were only two blooming but there are hundreds in 2 or 3 different spots.

There is an old well head almost directly in front of these in my Dad's field. There used to be a house there years & years ago so we guessed whoever lived there must have planted them. There were also yellow buttercups in the wooded area but I didn't get a pic of them.

So, in addition to passion flowers, we also have buttercups & gladiolas!

We got a solar driveway light put up as well as a game camera. We've seen bobcat, hog & deer tracks along the driveway so we are hoping to catch a picture of something or another.

As we were leaving on Sunday we noticed these mushrooms growing in the side of a tree. They are about 5 inches across.

We've also been finding rusted junk treasure here & there. I can't wait until we live there!

It is now Sunday, July 14th & I canned peaches (8 pints), made peach jam (12 1/2 pints) & peach butter (7 1/2 pints) yesterday all.day.long. The jam didn't set very well but it's thick enough to use as an ice cream topping. The butter came out perfect. I don't like to peel peaches but I love the end products.

Today, I got tired of jockeying all my bags of frozen vegetable pieces & meat bones & meat pieces so I've got 2 large pots of stock going. I am taking next Friday off so I'll probably spend the day canning the stock.

That's all I've got for now. Have a great week everyone!

Crepe Myrtles - Lots of Crepe Myrtles

Last weekend Greg decided to close his business so we could have a whole weekend to plant those crepe myrtles I mentioned in the last Memorial Day post. We drove to the country on Friday afternoon & got up early on Saturday to get started before the heat set in. Here's what we did (click to biggify any of the pics).

A shot of the driveway with black pots placed where 17 of the trees will go.

Trees laid out.

A dingo to dig with - really a muscle saver!

Placing the first hole.

Digging

Digging

Almost done digging 20 minutes later!

We had all 27 holes dug in less than 40 minutes! The soil there is very hard packed & has a ton of clay. Even when it's sort of soft after a rain, it is still very very hard to dig a hole by hand. If we didn't have the Dingo, we would still be digging a week later & probably wouldn't be able to lift our arms.

17 trees in the ground 1 hour later!

A shot back down the driveway.

We only planted 17 because there are still a couple of buildings that will hopefully be brought in before next weekend. To the 17, we added leaves & mulch & a water line & were done around lunch time.

A few more pics taken while the digging was taking place.

Peanut field next door.

Muscadines!

Pecans

4 foot long snake skin in the garden!

The next two pictures are taken down our side of the old driveway where we will be putting in 30 more (smaller) crepe myrtles, 4th of July weekend. We changed the auger bit to a 10" & went ahead & dug the holes while we had the Dingo. 30 holes dug in 30 minutes!

Looking out from the carport.

Looking down the old driveway.

We are gluttons for punishment!

"Those" Tomatoes & New Welcomes

Yep, the ones that didn't require additional (built in .. horse poo) fertilizer or staking or anything else (the ultimate heirloom, recyclable ones). They are doing great!

I can't wait to see what they are doing next weekend! I'm not going to touch them unless they are ripe & ready to pick.

Also, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to a couple of new friends.

Roslyn Phipps. Roslyn, I don't see where you have a blog, but please correct me if you do & I'll add the link here. Thank you so much for deciding to follow along on my journey.

And, next is ...... drum roll please .... Mama Pea from A Home Grown Journal! I feel so privileged to have her on my side. She is one knowledgeable lady that is willing to share with those that are interested. Thank you so much Mama Pea for joining!

The Remainder of Memorial Day Weekend

After the first full very busy 10 hour day, we woke up early the next morning to go at it again. We got the 2nd post in that the gate will lock to, then decided to tackle the rest of the garden. Here are a couple of before pics:

Click to biggify

Click to biggify

MIL & FIL came out to help as well. MIL & I pulled weeds from inside the beds. Not too bad except the stupid Bermuda grass that was growing any tiny place it could catch 1/2 a ray of sunshine, especially in the block holes which haven't yet been stuffed w/newspaper & filled with hay & mulch. My MIL is 78 but will get outside & work until she can't go anymore. FIL is 82 & the does same except that he has some health issues, mainly his bones. But, he will still get out there & work til dark. While MIL & I were pulling weeds, Greg had brought a push mower & mowed down all the really hateful weeds & grass & then string trimmed up close to the blocks. Once all that was done we topped off each of the 9 beds with most of the leaf mulch they had brought from the city. Here's a pic that I took while up on a ladder in the back of the truck. Not centered but it gives you an idea of the whole garden.

Click to biggify

I plan on putting down newspaper & tree bark in between the beds with a couple of containers throughout. Plus a small square pole shelter in the middle. We'll also have to put in a good fence to keep the critters out.

This bunny is just one of many. They were so tiny when we first started seeing them just a few short months ago. They aren't pleased to not have the grass to hide in but they draw hawks & snakes to the area. They have plenty of fence line to hide in.

That straw covered area is our attempt at controlling the grass until we can put in more beds. We have many weeds that have popped up, most are from the horse poo since it wasn't composted before we used it.

While looking around that area we discovered a couple of tomato plants??? After thinking about it a while I remembered the tomato plants that I gave my cousin last year (the one that gave us the poo). He had them right by the horse pasture. They have one horse, Jay, that loves tomatoes & they would toss him the split ones. The seeds were obviously in the poo we spread. Now that's what I call recycling! And, they are heirloom to boot!

Tomato plant + oats. Both directly from the horse poo.

The rest of the weekend was spent piddling. Here are a few pics from around the property. As you can see from the field pics, there are NO trees around, except the 3 oaks, 3 citrus & 3 (now 2) willows that we planted last year.

View from house looking towards branch.

View of field from pond dam, on Dad's side.

House

View of pond from branch area.

View of house from branch area.

Purple Martins are back.

While Greg was mowing, he noticed a Mama Killdeer bird flapping her wings wildly. This happened last year & he knew there was a nest nearby.

Stock Photo, Mama moved to fast for me to get a pic.

Sure enough, after about 5 min. of searching, here's what he found. They make their nests right.on.the.ground.

I am still loving the driveway & our new 'forested' area. Here are a couple of pics of the scenery:

Doesn't this look like a great place to grow mushrooms?

I think this is a passion flower!

Greg went back this weekend to mow the grass. We have a very large project to accomplish next weekend & didn't want the grass mowing to take up the whole 23 hours that we are there on summer weekends.

That is 27 crepe myrtle trees that FIL brought from their other Country place they are moving from. He grafted all these from their trees in the City a few years ago & didn't want to leave them where they were. We also have around 30 others, in pots that will also have to go in.

Next weekend is going to be brutal!