Dinky on the Farm

Day in the Life # 3 The Shopping Trip

The adventures of the morning have lead me to get out money bag and go shopping. I absolutely hate to go shopping and I hate to spend money on anything but having fun. Well, I will just make the day fun.

I am going to need energy for the day so I am stopping at the local cafe for a Fat Girl lunch. That is a lunch that mays no attention to being healthy. I would go to this diner with my late husband. It makes me a little sad to be sitting at a table alone while others are laughing and carrying on. Oh well, such is life.

The special was a cheeseburger, fries and a drink for $12. That is cheaper than Mc Donalds and taste better.

Wow we have a traffic jam in Small Town, USA. I am headed to a local antique mall to check into renting a booth.

I rented a small booth and will begin putting my treasures up for sale on the first of next month.

This is a small booth. It will be cleared out by the first of the month.

The contract is signed so now I have to gather enough to fill the shelves.

Next i went to am estate sale and found this lovely jewlrey cabinet for $25. That was a score.

I bought myself a new trough and cattle feeder at the TSC.

Loaded up and ready to go home.

When I got back to the farm I found an Amazon delivery of supplies for upcoming projects I will be doing.

I am tired.

Peace out.

Dinky

Day in the Life #2 – Visit to the Pecan Orchard

The second part of my day is to chwck on the cows. I grab my keys and my back pack and hop on the four wheeler.

I check the pond. It is not deep enough for fish. I see turtles in it sometimes. It is a good water supply for the cows.

There is a cow now.

I went down to the pecan orchard to gather some food for a co-worker. Hw is going to BbQ some ribs for me. The horse tried to dominate me so I hopped on the four wheeler and drove the animals out of the pasture. I bullied back.

Tank loves to go to the pasture with me. He rolls over so I can scratch his belly.

Cows are so nosey. They are looking happy and healthy.

You see a mess. I see an opportunity. I need to look up grapevine crafts.

Here is some old hay I can use for a potatoe bed.

What is up with the cow trough? I wonder if the pump is working. Thank goodness the pond is full. Now is a good time to change it out for a new one.

The pump to the well is not working. Time to call out my son in law for help.

I am already out of gas.

Peace out.

Dinky

A Day in the Life – The plan

Good morning world. Today I will take you along with me as I perform my weekend chores. Hang on to your saddle. It might be a bumpy ride.

I start the day by putting on my work jeans and my mud boots.

I like to start the day by checking on my green house and watering my plants.

I save plant seeds that I find in my food. I might try to plant them and see how they grow.

I built this greenhouse last summer from a kit. I am having to learn how to regulate the temperature so things do not freeze or burn up. It is a little tricky.

Green peas are sprouting.

Tomatoes are not sprouting.

Broccoli and cauliflower are sprouting.

The aloe vera got hit pretty hard by the frost.

Radishes are coming up.

My lettuce got the frost but everything is starting to come back.

On to other chores.

Peace out.

Dinky

Pantry Project #4 – Chicken and Dumplings

I am still clearing out my pantry, fridge and freezer. I love to cook and sometimes I go overboard on shopping, I have also gone from feeding a family of 8 to feeding just me.It is time for me to re evaluate my shopping.

I looked in the pantry today and found a bag of restaurant style cream soup base. What am I going to do with that?

I mesured out half of this bag and put the rest in Mason jars back in the pantry. I thought about what I use cream base soups for. Chicken and dumplings was the answer.

I knew that I had chicken stock from something I cooked last week. I checked to see if I had all the ingredients. I was missing carrots and biscuits from a tube. I did have bisquick mix. That will work.

I started by putting three chiken thighs in a quart of stock and a quart of water. I also chopped celery and onions and put them into the stock. I threw in some frozen peas as well.

I added sage, parsley, salt and pepper.

I pulled out the thighs from the stock, skinned and deboned and chopped them into bight size pieces.

I then added everything but the dumplings into the stock pot. When the mixture boiled I added the dumplings.

Cook covered 12 minutes. Do not peak or open the lid. The dumplings will flop.

I put the dumplings in some of the bags and labeled the rest as cream of chicken.

Yum for this cold day. Enjoy.

Peace out.

Dinky

I do not enjoy this as much as my recipe using Campbell cream of chicken, mixed veggies, and refrigerated biscuits but the exercise is to try to use what I have on hand. It has a good flavor and is very filling.

Pantry Project #3 – Fideo Soup

The ingredients for Fideo Soup are hamburger, onion, garlic, butter, Fideo pasta, jalapeño slices, tomatoes sauce, diced tomatoes, chicken broth, cumin, salt and pepper.

Brown the Fideo in 2 tablespoons of butter.

Be careful not to burn the pasta. Light brown is where it should be.

Brown your ground beef and add 1/2 an onion and some garlic. Add chopped jalapeño after the onions are translucent.

Add the toasted Fideo.

Enjoy. This is so very good on a cold winter day. It will go good with my cheesecake.

Peace Out.

Dinky

The Pantry Project #2 including a fridge clean out – Sopapilla Cheesecake

Today I have a sweet tooth. I am still working on cleaning out my pantry as well as cleaning out my fridge. I spotted some crescent rolls and cream cheese in the fridge. I know just what to make.

I preheated my oven to 350. I butter my baking dish.

Next I spread out the crescent rolls to form the bottom layer.

Combine 8 oz cream cheese, one cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. I use Mexican vanilla because I enjoy the strong flavor.

Spread over crescent rolls.

Oh no. I have a problem. I only have one can of crescent rolls. At this step you can add another layer of crescent rolls. I am not going to the store to get a can so I will just carry on. No one really knows if you make a mistake or not. Cooking is like art work. You can create things your own way. I melted two tablespoons of butter and butter on top of my cream cheese mixture.

Combine 1/2 cup of sugar and one teaspoon of cinnamon. Spread evenly on the top. Bake at 350 for about 25 to 30 minutes.

This is fresh from the oven. I am going to let it cool a bit and then dig in. Hope you enjoy as well.

Peace Out.

Dinky

The Night Shift

I worked the night shift at my job last night. I was sleeping very sound at 10:00 am. I woke up to my dog barking and the sound of a horn. I looked out the window and saw the animal control truck. I hopped out of bed barefoot a in my gown. What Now? Is a cow out? Did my old dog bite someone? I really don’t need that kind of drama.

I ran outside and treated the officer in the truck. She told me the neighbor had reported some cows in her yard and the officer asked me if they were mine. She showed me a picture. No, they were not mine. I told her I would sure take them if she could not find the owner. That is not the way it works. She had to take them in if no one claimed them. It was worth a try. That was about $10,000 worth of cows she was asking about.

She complimented me on how good my dog was and told me she had a soft spot for black dogs. Hank is a good old dog. I told her that I guessed she and I were fast friends since she has seen me in my night gown and all. LOL.

Back to bed, so I can get some rest to work the evening shift again.

Peace out,

Dinky

Very Blessed

My co-workers and neighbor were sweet enough to give me sweet Christmas gifts.

The themes were sweets and chocolate.

Somehow cats slipped into my post. I will prepare for the next winter storm over the next two days, for now it is time to relax.

Peace Out.

Dinky

Dairy Queen

This afternoon on my drive home from work I passed by a Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen is a fast food restaurant that sells burgers, fries, onion rings and the like. They also specialize in soft serve icee cream treats. It is cheap and taste pretty good.

It reminded me of my father and step father. Both gentlemen have passed away. It is funny how foodies associate food with precious memories from the past.

My father had one son and three daughters. He adored us all and worked very hard to teach us right from wrong. We girls would always love to watch the Miss America pageant. He would drive us all to the Dairy Queen after the show and buy us banana splits. He would then tell all three of us girls that no Miss America could be as beautiful as the three of us. That was very kind of him and endearing.

My mother married my step father later in life. He was a lay minister at the prisons. We also had a singing ministry at the nursing home. We would go to the Dairy Queen after the service. When he was moved to a nursing home I would bring him strawberry blizzards as a treat.

Yep, Dairy Queen brings fond memories.

Peace Out,

Dinky

The Greenhouse

The other day I bought some discounted plants from the Lowe’s Hardware store. I bought them the day before we had a winter storm. I also bought seed to put in seed starter kits. The next day Texas received a winter storm.

It dropped to the low 20s. I built a green house last summer from a kit I purchased at Harbor Freight store. I burnt up the first set of plants that I put in there. I am learning how to regulate the temperature. I bought a thermometer on Amazon.

The snow has thawed and I got off work a little early. I stopped by the store and picked up quilt batting and potting soil. I went home to play in my greenhouse.

Look at the babies coming up. I am so excited. A few of the plants got some frost but have live root systems.

I also have a lettuce bed that I made using an old water trough. I noticed before the storm that some lettuce came up volunteer. I ate on that all summer. I planted a new package of lettuce. I saw some carrot sprouts as well. I have an old storm door I put on the top to make it a hot bed. It is not pretty but it works.

I still had some daylight left so I started getting the beds ready. I did not get much done. I felt a great sense of accomplishment with my afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine.

We are looking at another storm coming in this weekend. I will have to prepare by putting hay in the barn again. I need to clean the barn. I’ll take the wheel barrow down and collect some homegrown fertilizer for my garden/flower beds.

Basil left over from last year had green leaves before storm

Maybe the basil will come back out. It is left over from last year. It had green leaves before the storm.

I’m gonna sleep now. I have had a full day.

Peace out.

Dinky