Beet Green and Feta Pasta & Grilled Chicken

I came across this recipe for Beet Greens and Feta Pasta and loved it.  It is especially good with grilled chicken.

I found the recipe here.  I added a couple squirts of lemon juice to brighten up the flavour a bit.

I made up a marinade for the chicken and it was delicious.  It was hard to write out the recipe, because I was sitting on the kitchen floor by my spice cupboard, grabbing spices and shaking them up into the dish on the counter. So, I think this is pretty close. (The chicken in the picture is a different recipe. I prefer my grilled chicken, but we ran out of propane on our BBQ)

1/3 c lemon juice
1/4 c oil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp dried parsley
salt and pepper.

I marinaded 6 chicken breast in this for about 5 hours then grilled them.

County Fair Results

This has been a hectic week! We had decided not to enter anything in our fair this year because they have raised the prices so much that we aren't going to the fair. BUT, the bench show is at a different building and we just decided a week ago to enter our work.  Rebekah entered 26 items, Jacob - 9, Ben - 4 and I entered 27.

So, we have just returned from seeing how we did and our family really did well!

Here are some highlights.

Rebekah received High Point in the Junior Division 2 and Runner Up High Point for the Ag Division.

In the following pictures, everything you see is basically all Rebekah's work and all 1st places.

Everything along the back is  Rebekah's (From the left: Christmas card, button bouquet, clay crab, painted rock, painted ceramics, ruffled scarf, perler bead balloon, bottle necklace and cross stitch picture))

Rebekah's Jam, muffins, cookies, bread and fruit

Rebekah also entered items into the adult divisions. She won 2nd against me for the Fleischmann's Yeast competition. Benjamin won first for his Robin Hood Brownies and I won 1st Robin Hood Ginger cookies and 2nd for my Certo strawberry jam.

Here are just a few more highlights.

I made runner up in the Culinary Arts Division



My Peas at the top won 1st. (It's about the only thing I grew this year)

Ben won 2nd for coloring a picture from VBS and Jacob won 1st

Jacob won 1st for his clay animals and stocking he sewed

The boys made this catapults at VBS and Jacob won 1st and Ben won 2nd

So, there is the short version! Ha Ha. Now, we are going to watch the old Disney "Swiss Family Robinson" movie and eat popcorn.

July Recap

Well, here we are, already in August! Can you believe it? I already want to start decorating for fall next week!  Anyway, here are some of the things that happened around here last month.

Larry had a birthday. We went to his sister's, 2 hours away. His parents were there for a few days as well before they came back to our house.

Larry's parents came back to our house and the boys sure enjoyed playing games with them! Everyday they were here I think.

But, all good things come to an end and Grandpa and Grandma left to go home. Larry and his dad are talking just before they left.

Going to the Stampede this year really brought out the cowboy in Jacob.

Larry and Ben found a great treasure at one of their favorite places, the dump.

It took Larry half an hour to get it running, but it started and Ben had fun driving it. We ended up not keeping it though. It ran so good, Larry took it to the auction to sell. The zero turn would have been good for my pumpkin patch.

Our baby donkey is doing great!  You can see in the picture below that his mouth is looking really good.  The kids ended up calling him Yadkin.  You think to yourself, that's a strange name.  Well, a good guess would be it has something to do with Daniel Boone.  People in or near North Carolina might know about this.  When Daniel Boone was young, his family moved to North Carolina along the Yadkin River.  And we know that from the unit study we did on Daniel Boone. 

Finally, at the end of the month, our church had VBS.  They used Kingdom Chronicles from Answers In Genesis.  I really appreciate their material.  The whole week the kids were learning there is a battle for truth between the Good Kingdom (God) and the Bad Kingdom (Satan).  They learned everyday about the Armor of God from Ephesians 6.  There was a very clear salvation message and many kids went to talk with our pastor about salvation.  Rebekah is showing off the stage with her crazy hat on for crazy hat day. You can't really see it, but there is a castle up there.

Well, There are a few more things I'd like to share, like Rebekah riding a camel. But the pictures are on Larry's phone and I need to get them off.  So, they will come another day.

No Till Pumpkin Patch Update

Well, here we are in about week 8 of our pumpkin patch and I must say I'm a little worried of how this will all turn out.  I realized not that long ago that I won't be able to use round up.  I thought that the grass would grow back next year, like it does every year after it dies. BUT, I have heard that it probably won't grow back, but weeds will.  SO, I have decided NOT to use round up at all.  My only line of defence against weeds and grass overtaking the pumpkin plants, is mowing.  Which I would gladly do, if we didn't just break the belt on our tractor for the 3rd time in just over a month!  It's $70 every time to replace it.  I'm hoping to find a push mower at the town wide garage sale this Saturday so that I can mow a few more times as the plants grow and spread.

All I can see in my mind now is pumpkins growing in an over-grown field. It might just be a great big mess by the time it's done.

On a happier note, it all looks good right now.  And here are some pictures.  The first 2 are from a week and a half ago and the last 3 are from today.  The taller plants are the sunflowers I planted in the middle.

 

 

 

In regards to mowing, I have learned a lesson about the "hills".  If I were to do this again, instead of hilling up the dirt, the way they say to do for planting pumpkin seeds, I would pat the dirt flat in the hole we dug.  I would make sure the dirt was about 2 inches below the grass. That way, it would be very easy to mow right up to the young plants, without disrupting any of the hill.  Also, it would retain water in there.

 

I will keep you updated on how this patch is doing.

New Baby Donkey - Birth Problems and Natural Remedy

We had a wonderful new addition to our barnyard today.  Molly finally gave birth to her baby.  I say finally, because Molly was pregnant for 13 1/2 months!  It seemed like the baby was never going to come.
But our joy soon turned turned to worry.  The baby was born with something terribly wrong with it's bottom lip. We just thought it was some kind of birth defect. You can see it in the pictures below.

What a beautiful donkey, eh?  We didn't know what to do, but we weren't extremely worried because he was nursing with no problems and Molly was being such a good mama. Remember last year when Molly had Jemima, she wouldn't let her nurse.

I took the pictures of him (we think it's a boy, it's hard to see there just yet) and sent them to a friend of ours that has lots of horses to see if she had any suggestions. If not, we were going to show the vet tomorrow to see what he says.

Our friend, Monica, called us tonight and said she and her husband would like to come over and see the donkey in person.  When they came they had an idea that might help the little guy.  Monica thought it might have been a PROLAPSED lip.  Meaning, some kind of trauma during birth caused the lip to swell up.

She had seen this when cows give birth and prolapse.  She had also seen an old farmer treat this condition by rubbing the prolapsed area with sugar to get the swelling down, then putting the body back in the right places.

So, Monica poured warm water on the lip to get it moist again as it was pretty dry. Then she rubbed a fair amount of sugar on his lip which brought down the swelling almost immediately. Next she gently pushed the lip back up into position and held it there for about 10 mins.

When she let go, the swelling was gone and his lip was staying in place!  His lip is kind of stretched out, so it's pretty loose and it seems his bottom jaw is extended a bit, but we will keep an eye on him, it might get better on it's own.

We don't know yet if this was a complete fix for him, but it seems to have really helped.  I am SO grateful to Monica for taking the time to come and for the information she had learned from that old farmer years ago.

And I am thankful to God for helping this little guy, who we have already fallen in love with.

This post is linked up to 1840 Farm, The Prairie Homestead

June Activities Continued

This post brings us up to the end of June.  This is when we get to enjoy our local stampede and all it's extra activities.  And an added bonus, Larry's family came for a visit.

Getting ready for the parade with Larry's parents

Rebekah and I sat on the sunny side of the street

The beginning of the parade

Enjoying free BBQ at a local butcher shop

At the rodeo

At the chuck wagons. We were at the very top of the stands in row 48, but they were great seats! Thanks again to Larry's brother in law and sister.

Rebekah, sporting her new cowgirl hat that she bought at the Stampede.



Jacob giving a tour to his Uncle.  He had given one to his Aunt first, then he said to Uncle, "I guess it can be your turn now".

Everyone enjoying our big deck and each other's company.  That is Larry's sister and brother-in-law with us.

Larry, giving everyone a tour on the wagon.

So, you can see that we have been busy, but it has been such a blessing to enjoy each other and all God has brought our way.

June Activities

We have been so busy lately, but, it's been a good busy. Because, we've been busy doing things as a family and really enjoying our summer.

To start off, we participated in our homeschool field day. This is the first year it wasn't at our place, but we really enjoyed it all the same.

Jacob in the "Sack Race"

Ben in the "Dress Up Relay"

Rebekah in the "Sack Race"

We headed out to family camp next and had a blast!

Ben and Larry in the peddle boat

Jacob having a snack with a new friend

Rebekah playing around on the slide

Ben getting a drink from our room

Right after family camp we did get a little busy. Larry was working, I was at the Stampede Farmers' Market and the kids were at their first job.

The kids were working at the Ag Center putting balloons on the course for the Mounted Shooters event.  They worked 4 days and about 19 hours just running non stop. They did such a great job and I am so proud of them.

The kids putting out the balloons

The Mounted Shooter, shooting the balloons

Here is my table at the Famers' market

There is much, much more, but I will have to do another post.
Have a great day!