farm peeps

i'm thinking that this is our 5th weekend living on the farm! one of my favorite things about this new life is sharing everyday life with our new friends who live with us. this is my new pal emily. i don't really understand how she does everything she does and stays sane:)

the running joke is that i'm her new wife (seeing as i help her cook and clean and take care of the kids;P).


this is her husband ken who manages and leads things here at the farm.here are two of their three kids showing of their dance moves.this is my buddy joe. we make lunches together most days. he keeps me laughing with his with wit and "balanced" with his talk radio :)

this is skip- who i can't imagine ever leaving the farm. i'm not sure what we would do without him. i'm sure it would take us a couple months to even discover everything he does around here.

this is robert. robert is very sarcastic and sometimes it's hard to tell if he's serious or joking. i'm starting to figure him out but he keeps me on my toes:)

this is chris. we discovered last night that he's a pretty amazing speller. always learning something new around here:)


this is teig who i feel a special affection for because he reminds me of a real life version of quentin blake's (the illustrator for most roald dahl books) illustrations. not to mention that he's super interesting and funny. he's been traveling most of his life and has a bit of an eclectic past.


rick and phillip have been the most recent guys to move in. i don't have any pictures of them yet but i'm sure i will in the coming weeks.

we've moved!

a lot has changed for us since the last time i wrote. tripp and i moved out of our little house into the Our Community Farm. we're now living with 12 other people, 5 dogs and 1 cat. not counting all the animals on the farm. i was a little nervous that it might be a shock to go from being a bit of a recluse in my own home to living with so many people, but surprisingly enough it's been a really smooth transition.
i've been spending a lot of time this week learning how to cook for such a large group! it's a bit of a challenge, but it's fun to test my creativity. this week my favorite meal we made was a really tasty vegetable soup/stew. i'm not really sure what differentiates a soup from a stew...:) here's the recipe... it's probably a one of a kind, never to be made again kind of soup because we made it from the things we happened to have in the house, but nevertheless.

vegetable soup/stew

2 cans of french onion soup
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
3 quarts of water with right amount of vegetarian beef flavoring (like bouillion)
chopped carrots
mushrooms
onion
potatoes

1. throw all liquids in a pot to warm up
2. saute mushrooms, onions and carrots
3. cut up potatoes and add to soup to cook down
4. after everything is soft combine and serve

ALSO this weekend we carved pumpkins! my mother in law and i went to the pumpkin patch together in the morning and in the afternoon the kids came home and we did a little carving with M. all the pumpkins are out on the front porch all lit up now. i chose a really hard pattern this time but it turned out pretty nice. i'm going to get picture up as soon as i locate my camera battery charger.

well, i'm off to help decorate butterfly wings for the cutest little butterfly ever. hopefully pictures to come:)

Dear September, You Snuck Up On Me.

Highlight of my week: my dear friend from middle/high school visited the area and we had a chance to catch up in between her time with her family. she invited me to story time with her and her little girl (who is the happiest, smiliest little girl in the world). it was so special! the lovely lady who did story time when i was a little girl is there making story time special. she's so kind and gentle. what made it even more cute is that janelle actually worked at the library with this sweet woman and did story time with her. so it was like story time coming full circle. i loved it:) it was also really fun to catch up. i've been so blessed to have made such wonderful friends in my youth, whenever we see each other it's like we just pick up wherever we left off. what a treasure.
Other exciting new for the week: our neighbor just got a new puppy for his birthday! isn't she just the cutest thing ever!?! digby doesn't really share the same affections for her... she's not really a dog lover...:P i think she'll warm up though:)
Final tidbit: speaking of digby, we had her spayed 2 weeks ago tomorrow. the whole situation turned out to be a little more complicated than we had anticipated, but she's doing really well now and is acting more like our digby:) we just started letting her sleep without the lampshade on. as you might imagine she was not a big fan of the elisabethian collar. but she dealt with it. and now it's a distant memory.

i can't believe it's september already! i'm so excited about the thought of fall getting closer! apple cider, carved pumkins and colorful leaves here we come!

The Dark Side

i made a switch from apple to Dell. mostly for financial reasons but i've been pretty ok with it so far:) windows 7 made the transition smooth...also, it's pretty and that helps:)

Salsa Makin', Enchilada Eatin'

the other week i had an overabundance of tomatoes. not from my own garden so much but from the gardens of friends and family who were generous enough to share. i decided to try making some fresh homemade salsa. while none of my salsa really turned out that great, i used a recipe for roasted tomato salsa, accidentally pureed it, so i decided to use it as an enchilada sauce after tripp suggested it. it's was really delicious!

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/roasted-tomato-salsa-i/Detail.aspx

The Cone of Shame

Digby was spayed earlier in the week and so i've been keeping my eyes on her whenever i'm home so she doesn't have to wear the lampshade. i remember when i was little mom would rent a movie and get popsicles for me if i was really sick. it made me feel relaxed and like there was at least something fun to do even though i felt yucky. i was trying to imagine what the dog equivalent would be and all i came up with was a new toy and treats. hopefully they sufficed:)

I Heart Sylvia!

earlier in the summer we were helping some friends try to find homes for their animals. they were living in a not so good situation at the time and in order to get out of the miserable conditions they needed to take this step. the animals had suffered because of the conditions and it was a heart wrenching couple of months searching for homes. craigslist and posting photos on our facebook turned out to be the most successful ways of getting the word out. we found homes for all of the animals (there were 9 altogether) and she has been able to keep one of her dogs at the house they are now renting.

the happiest story is the one about bear. bear is a collie and a gorgeous dog. when we met him he was covered in fleas so much so that he had a bald spot from the irritation. he was full of mats and a little stir crazy from being pinned up inside (this is obviously the not to happy back story:)). after we posted bear on craigslist we got an email from Sylvia (owner of Sylvia's Pets). she's a member of a collie rescue and wanted to take in bear. she lives in a beautiful farm house on a ton of land where she has an agility training area, several fenced in open spaces and... sheep! what environment could be better for a collie who's instincts are for hearding! she took bear in and even gave us flea and worm medicine to treat him with before hand. meeting her was wonderful and she was very kind, gentle and patient with bear and his previous family. sylvia has been emailing me and letting me know about bears progress. i think he knew immediately that he was in a loving situation and quickly warmed up to everyone there on the farm- humans and dogs alike:) he's made a great transition and is on his was to a new home in virginia beach! the resque even does home visits to check and see if the family seems like a good match! here's a picture of bear after Sylvia gave him his makeover...
j

Bug Off!

Tomato Hornworm, you're not welcome in my garden.

this morning as i was watering and inspecting my garden if found this frighteningly disguising caterpillar on one of my burpee beefsteak tomato plants(so the caterpillar has good tastes...). maybe he doesn't look so frightening in the picture, but that's b/c you can't see the fear inducing horn on it's backside! eek! i knew he was trouble as soon as i saw him b/c my friend linz had trouble with these same caterpillars earlier in the season and they tore apart her tomato plants. these things are beasts! they feast in the plant before you even realize they're there. here's the conversation i had with linz about them...


linz: Yes - that's what I had! It's a tomato (formerly, tobacco) hornworm. It has what is called a "red anal horn". Ewww! :) Smash them b/c they can do quite a bit of damage in just a day. That looks like a pretty small one, though. Mine were big and fat like the caterpillar on Alice and Wonderland.

me: ugh, this one was big to me, i can't imagine bigger ones. puke! i totally understand now! they're gross. i had found several of the cocoon type things in my garden while planting and always smooshed them and felt bad b/c i didn't know what they were but someone had recommended smooshing them... now i now why!

our friend renee: I just have to say, I appreciate the delicate way you guys used these interesting words.

check out this site if you want to learn more about these despicable buggers.

Peach Recipes...

we had our parents over for supper the other night and mom brought this beautiful trifle with fresh strawberries! mmm they were just right. she marbled a little bit of homemade strawberry jam on the top. i wish i could share a bit with you through the computer!i bought some peaches and blackberries at the farmers market on saturday. i was thinking about making a jam or butter but i'm to partial to fresh fruit to use it all up on such a project:) i've been searching for different recipes for peaches and here are a few promising ones that i might try out...

peach lavender pie: http://herbsspices.about.com/od/cakes/r/PeachLavender.htm

peach pie smoothie: http://americanfood.about.com/od/desserts/r/peach-pie-smth.htm

peach salsa: http://southernfood.about.com/od/peaches/r/bl50920b.htm

peach butter (like apple butter): http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/fruits/r/peachbutter.htm

LET ME KNOW if you have any peach recipes! i'd love to try them out.

make a wish...

Tripp's Mom's Birthday was around the end of July and she had to work that day. so we took her lunch. i had a bunch of flowers at the time and made my first little bouquet!


the peppermint stick zinnias are my favorite!

Hangin' Out in Bar

Volkor & his wife who are the leaders of the OM team we stayed with. they've been in Bar, Montenegro for 3 years. their team is doing all sorts of outreaches there including programs with Roma kids and families, Islamic children, a handicap home and english and german language cafes. they all meet together on sundays in "the living room" cafe and have a simple church gathering. this is a view of the living room after the church meeting on sunday.

Daniel is a missionary from Serbia who has been in Montenegro for over 10 years. we spent most of our time at his house in Bar. when we arrived he was overwhelmingly friendly, showing us our sleeping space and pulling all sorts of things out of the fridge for us to eat. he definitely has the girt of hospitality!
Shin Gu & Rudolf were the other 2 guys staying in the house. Shin Gu is from Korea and Rudolf is from Germany. it was encouraging to see them all living together and working together with differences of opinion and different cultural backgrounds. they talked a lot about the importance of discussion which was refreshing because lots of times we as christians aren't willing to discuss differences.
this is a view from the porch of the house. beautiful!


here is the Promenade. on the left side of the palm trees is the sea. it was nice a breeze through here and during the hot parts of the day people would lay under the trees for shade. we had a few good naps under one of the flowering trees:)

Montenegro!

we made a trek to Montenegro around mid july and just git back last night. our trip turned out to be very different than we expected- and we evne went over with little expectations! it was a great trip though and it was fun to meet people from different places in the world and make new connections. a majority of out time we stayed with an OM team (they remind me of eauopean ywam) in a place on the coast called Bar. we stayed in the boys house and they were super hospitable and friendly. we stayed up late many nights talking with them on the porch. there is a serbian, a korean and a german living there. it was really neat to see them living communally and working together in ministry. it was refreshing to have conversations about the Lord and the Bible and not have it bee filled with american nationalism or republican agenda. it was so neat to meet believers from all over the world and feel that connection that the Spirit brings. we were also able to stay in Podgorica (which is where we originally were going to stay the whole time) with a missionary from serbia named Vladimir. he was super friendly and hospitable. his brother and his family were visiting at the time which was exciting because they had kids! a boy named marco and a cute little girl named martina. she's very artistic and creative and we had a blast playing together. i'm working on touching up my photos so i should have some up soon!

driving miss digby

these shots were taken on our way back to digby's favorite swimming hole. i love the little poses she's making. way too cute!

How does your garden grow?

my grandmother has a green thumb. literally- haha j/k. anyway she loves planting things and watching them grow. she says that she passed on some of her green thumb genes to me. not nearly enough of them though- look at all those weeds in my garden! blech!

in my little garden strip behind the hosue i have several tomato plants. some yellow german slicers, beefsteak and even a few rainbow tomato heirloom plants that i started from seed.
i also have a little section for herbs and then a cucumber and a jalapeno pepper plant.

i planted marigold plants and seeds all through my garden in hopes that they'll keep pesky bugs away. this cool looking spider decided to lend a hand too and made an intricate web connected to my cilantro plant. i decided to let hm stay and be my resident garden spider and he's been guarding my herbs ever since.

finally!

my little peppermint stick zinnia finally bloomed and it's my favorite flower- for now:) here's a picture of the beauty.

The bun between 2 meats

yesterday the "market master" for the local market called and told me i could be a part of this weekends market! last night a i got all my stuff together and then this morning tripp and i took it all over and set up. i ran into some old friends and made a few new ones. it was especially fun chatting with a few artsy folks. i'm used to talking to kids about art ideas so talking to adults was a bit of a treat. everyone was very encouraging and i sold quite a few pieces. i'm thinking of selling twice a month but no real decisions have been made yet.

i'm a pecatarian (basically a vegetarian that eats seafood) and have been for years. i'm not a fan of the texture or flavor of meat. i also don't think the junk they pump into the animals is healthy or humane. but most of all don't like the idea of an animal having to die so i can have a meal. and worst of all to suffer in harsh conditions until they're put to death. all this to say that i'm not a big fan of meat. so as i was sitting at my little booth at the farmers market realized that to my left was a fresh meat vendor and to my left as a guy grilling ribs. HA! i was the bun between 2 slabs of meaty meat. then that reminded me of that crazy meaty sandwich that KFC recently came out with. and then that thought caused me to set my mind to thinking about something else b/c i was feeling queasy. luckily the smells wafting over from the donut vendor helped me chase my troubling meaty thoughts away. and those donuts were real yummy! mmm. donuts.

(disclaimer: i will say that the meat vendor had organic meat and it sounds like their practices were more humane than most. so if you're going to eat meat i guess that would probably be the best way to go:))

Digby Fever!

summer is finally here and hubby and i have been spending much more time with our labradoodle digby. our new favorite spot is a little creek that has a nice swimming hole. all this extra time with the doggie gives me more opportunities to take pictures of her. she's my favorite subject!