Wednesday Afternoon

Good afternoon! I have not been lost in my closet all this time, LOL~just busy with some projects around the house.

Are any of you planning your garden, yet? We went to the saw mill in town yesterday and bought the cedar boards for our square foot gardening boxes. We've never done square foot gardening before, but I purchased the book last year and we've been reading over it since then.

I'm still working on my lists of what I want to get planted this year. I hope to order some seeds from the Baker Creek Seed Company in MO. I'd love to visit their farm, as well, but don't know if we'll get to or not.

If you are interested in square foot gardening, you might enjoy Mel Bartholomew's website.

Happy Gardening!

R~Mary

Winter Reading

Winter is my favorite time of year to read. There is not much to do outside on most days and the house is usually dark and cosy with a nice fire in the wood stove~a perfect set up for an afternoon of reading!

This book, The Gentle Tamers, by Dee Brown, has been very interesting. I love to read about American women's contribution to settling our country. This book is a little different than the usual ones I read. My favorite are letters or diaries, which I find very insightful to the women's way of life, but this book reads more like a biography of various women. It switches between homesteading, pioneer type women and business women, some respectable, some not.

I have a few others in my 'stack to read', so I may be blogging about a few more.

So, what are you reading this winter?

January Rain

January came in sweet and warm, and now she has turned cold again. We had wonderful seventy degree weather on Saturday! Very unusual for this time of year, but I enjoyed the break from the chilly weather. It is cold and raining outside right now and will be that way all day, so this is definitely an indoor day for me.

This morning, I am organizing my closet, or attempting to, anyway. It's a job that won't be completed today. My hubby is making a new bookcase for our bedroom, so after that is finished, I hope to be able to move a few books out of the closet and make it a little bit neater.

This afternoon, I'm planning on a nice cup of tea while I browse through a few magazines in front of the fire.

Stay warm!

Did you have your black eyed peas today? We ate ham, black eyed peas, cornbread, and sweet potato casserole for dinner (lunch) today.

Originally native to Africa, but widely grown in many countries in Asia, the black-eyed pea was introduced into the West Indies and from there to the Southern United States, where it is still a widely used ingredient in soul food and Southern U.S. Cuisine. The planting of crops of black-eyed peas was promoted by George Washington Carver both because, as a legume, it adds nitrogen to the soil and for its nutritional value. Black-eyed peas are an excellent source of calcium (211mg in a 1 cup serving), folate (209mcg), and vitamin A (1,305 IU) among other nutrients.

This "good luck" traditions date back to the U.S. Civil War. Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, would typically strip the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock and destroy whatever they couldn't carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and corn suitable only for animal fodder, and as a result didn't steal or destroy these humble foods. Many Southerners survived as a result of this mistake. Wikipedia

It has been a beautiful day today. Our temps warmed up to the upper 50s by early afternoon. We split and stacked one load of firewood after lunch, then enjoyed a walk around the property.

I hope you all had a wonderful first day of 2009