Monthly Archives: July 2010

Farmgirl Flower Fairies

This week’s edition of High Plains Prose began as a simple wildflower ‘show & tell’ article. Then, like my real-life landscaping project, it grew and grew…as you shall soon see. If flowers, history and a ride in the country tickle your fancy, hop on the Farmgirl Prairie Fairy Express for a nice, long outing. A lesson about “floriography” also awaits you. Oh, and this too…yes, we do have flower fairies out here…don’t you?
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From Peach Disaster to Peachy Keen

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

It’s summer and I’m welcoming dinner guests who have just moved to my Southern town so – of course! — I decide to make peach-blackberry cobbler. I once had a whole peach tree in the yard to pull the sweet gold from, but now I have to hit the Farmer’s Market and pay for them. Luckily I do own another key ingredient: a magical pink recipe card on which a friend’s mother, a native North Carolinian, once wrote down for me the best fruit cobbler recipe ever.

My problem is that I am a slipshod follower of recipes and a hopeless improviser.

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It's Harvest Time!!!

[Previous Rural Farmgirl, June 2010 – January 2012]

It’s garlic harvest time here in Elsinore! Over the past few weeks, our garlic patch has “ripened” from a patch of healthy deep green garlic plants to a patch of yellowing, drying drooping plants ready for harvest. Aside from hay and some grain, garlic is the largest crop we grow here on the farm (unless you call lambs a “crop!”), and it is always such a suspense-filled time when we dig and pull the first few garlic bulbs from the ground. Are they fully mature? Did they escape damage from pests? Are the bulbs pleasantly big and plump? Are their papery skins intact? This year the answer to all of these is a resounding “YES!”
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Hiking Inn the Woods

For years I’ve wanted to go to a place called the “Hike Inn.” It’s a lodge of sorts, perched high atop a mountain in North Georgia. The reason I’ve wanted to go is the same reason I’ve never been: the only way to get to the Hike Inn is to hike in. Yes, one must hike through the woods for five “moderate” miles to get there.

I’m all show and no go when it comes to being woodsy or outdoorsy. I read about it and dream about it and think about it, but that’s as far as it goes. Hubby is exactly the same way. Except he doesn’t do the reading, dreaming or thinking.   

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This, That & The Other Thing

Is your life a busy mosaic of activities in the summer? I’m betting so. It is always a challenge for our Farmgirl chapter (High Plains Sage Hens) to organize a time when all of us can be present, but we did it and held our monthly get-together this past week. The hostess hen, Jenny, taught us the “how to” and provided most of the materials for creating mosaic goodies. Wanna see?
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Missin' Cousins

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

When the strawberries and sweet corn are ripe, charcoal grill smoke fills the air, and days seem lazier just because they’re longer, I think more often about a particular kind of relationship. It’s less analyzed than the one with your parents or your menfolk, more fragile than the bond with your sibs (who, love ‘em, hate ‘em — or both simultaneously – tend to boomerang back at you your entire life), and yet potentially more enduring than ties with even the best of friends, because with this relationship, there’s blood involved.

Summertime has me thinkin’ ‘bout cousin time.

Have you noticed how a little-discussed byproduct of scattered families is scattered cousins?

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The Good… The Bad… The Ugly – and The Fun!

[Previous Rural Farmgirl, June 2010 – January 2012]

It’s the main summer holiday in our valley – the Fourth of July. Now, we in Utah have Pioneer Day on July 24th, but that’s another story for another day. “The fourth,” as it’s known around here, is full of all things fun and wild, and at our farm it’s no exception. We had a bit of everything – the good, the bad, the ugly, the fun, the hospital, the racetrack… Pour a glass of something cold (green tea with mango is my current fave), have a seat and join my world – who knows? Maybe you’ll find a bit of your world here, too!

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You've Got A Friend

Yes, I know. You want to hear about the roof. My sweet blogging friends came through! Thank you! What excellent taste you all have! And great advice! I loved reading each and every comment and email, hearing what your thoughts are on it. And we’ll talk about the roof in just a minute. But first let’s talk about this, Friends.

Friends.

What about you? What kind of friend do you enjoy having? Do you have a large circle? Or a smaller, more intimate group? Are they all women? Or are guys in your immediate circle? Do you talk to your buds every single day?

I’ve been thinking about this because of the letters, B and F and F.

I don’t text. I don’t know how to text. I don’t care to learn how to text. Really. N4M (not for me).

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