That was easy!

When we planted the garden in mid March, I took a chance on red potato bulbs. I only had about 8 bulbs and planted them along a two and a half foot space that remained at the edge of the garden. The potatoes sprouted quickly, and the plant tops grew to almost a foot and a half tall, but began to die about 2 months after I planted the bulbs. I decided to cut the dead parts away and realized that the entire 'plant portion' was basically dead.

I googled potatoes online, and of course read about a hundred different methods to grow potatoes. I decided we mine should start digging and see what happened underground over the last 2 months.

Low and behold, A LOT happened! We had about 20 potatoes! It was extra fun because my mother in law and 2 year old niece were over the day we decided to dig. My sweet niece Baylee had a lot of fun and may now think that when she digs in the ground, she will find potatoes (everywhere)! "Diggin for potatoes??..." (phrased as a question) was the quote of the day!

Let me Count thy Ways

...to cook squash. Squash is like a weed. You can pick it on Monday and in just a few short days you have MORE squash! I previously mentioned the many ways I have prepared squash, but included some photos today.

Stuffed Squash:
1. Boil the whole squash for ~ 30 minutes (until you can somewhat easily puncture the skin with a knife)
2. Let squash cool
3. After the squash cools, cut each one in half (I used 4 squash)
4. Use a grapefruit spoon to clean out seeds/middle part

Stuffing:
1. Follow directions to prepare 1 box of Jiffy cornbread. (I used the cornbread mix, skim milk, 1 egg and cooked in an 8x8 pan so it was a bit thin.)
2. Begin a saute with 3/4 stick of butter, diced green onion (fresh from the garden) and celery (which I was out of so I used green banana pepper from the garden) I think bell pepper would be really good, but ours were too small to pick yesterday
3. Add parsley to the simmer with the butter, onion, and pepper (or celery)
4. Break up 1/2 the pan of cornbread with your hands in a mixing bowl
5. Pour in the saute mix and knead together
6. Add Cayenne pepper or red pepper (I added a bit too much red pepper for my taste, but Derek liked it)



Final:
1. Stuff the cornbread stuffing mix into each squash (Note: I added a little bit of the squash seeds, about 2 spoon fulls, to the stuffing mix to make it a bit more moist as well as another quarter of the pan of cornbread)
2. Option: lightly salt the entire squash once they are stuffed
3. Place in the oven for ~ 13 minutes at 300 degrees before you serve

Produce - ability

The garden has indeed grown! We have enjoyed squash, peppers, and green onions so far. We have our first zucchini that I plan to use for dinner tomorrow night, and I picked a coffee can full of green beans on Tuesday! The squash grows like a weed. We've enjoyed boiled, sauteed, and grilled squash in addition to my squash casserole and stuffed squash (Thanks Mom - stuffed is our favorite!)

I am anxious for our tomatoes to turn red! More photos to come soon!

Fog Magic

I woke up early this morning, unable to sleep. I headed to the barn and between the time I fed Scout (the horse) and the barn kitties, a heavy blanket of fog rolled into our pasture. I decided Scout deserved some play time in the pasture this morning and quickly realized I had better run inside and get my camera to capture the following images.

This mornings photo shoot reminded me of a book that was a childhood favorite. It is called Fog Magic and is written by Julia L. Sauer. I think I may try to find a copy at the library, because I remember my imagination soared when I read this book.

Status Report

Over a month ago, we planted our garden and today was the first day I noticed our first product. A green pepper! I don't love peppers, but I was still happy to see Mr. Pepper...and surprised I missed him. We switched from hand watering to a sprinkler a few weeks ago, so, the lesson learned is that I need to manually investigate more often.

I plan to try Mr. Pepper tomorrow night....or make Derek try it. :)



Our row of okra...


and French Fillet green beans...


Zucchini (and lots of squash not pictured)


And, hopefully these are still a sign of good luck... :)

2010: A World Win Year

Deltas Foxy Flyer, my 8 year old American Paint Horse gelding, is the reason why I created my blog. I wanted a way to connect with other horse show enthusiasts. I have failed to become a successful blogger due to time restraints (excuses, I know.) But, I fully intend to try to find and connect to other horse enthusiast bloggers this summer (when I have a break from grad school.)

In the interim, I wanted to highlight "Scout's" accomplishments in 2010.

In the Pinto Horse Association of America:

-World Champion Amateur Jr. Reining

-3rd in the World in Open Reining with Johnny Morton





On top of these accolades, I just received a beautiful crystal trophy from the Pinto Association naming Scout the 2010 PINTO OF THE YEAR in Reining. He was featured on the cover of the Pinto Magazine (small photo in a montage of winners.)

In the American Paint Horse Association:

-Reserve World Champion Amateur Limited Working Cow Horse




-8th in the World in Novice Amateur Reining (I learned a valuable lesson, sadly at the World Championship show). I had money in my back pocket, which I did not realize, and when I did my last sliding stop it went flying out of my pocket. Apparently, there is a hefty penalty for littering in the arena....




-Northeast Texas Paint Horse Club:

State Champion in Sr. Reining and Novice Amateur Reining and Reserve State club champion in Novice Amateur Trail (a new event added to our repertoire)

And lastly, we ended the show year in 2010 at the Thanksgiving Classic were I opted to compete in 21 classes across divisions and we ended up winning A SADDLE as the all around amateur high point! This was incredibly exciting for a horse that has never been shown English and managed to win the Hunt Seat Equitation, and also place well in Horsemanship and Trail.




None of these accomplishments would have been possibly without my patient husband, Derek, who hauled us to multiple shows, unloaded, loaded, groomed, carried, cleaned, and lived and breathed horses with me for these events. And lastly, to Johnny Morton who is the best 'up and coming' trainer. I hope that Scout and Johnny continue to excel in the 'pro' level competition at the 2011 World Shows.

Read the Instructions...

Yesterday, I received a suprise phone call from a dear friend of mine. I mentioned that Derek and I planned to plant our first garden later that afternoon. Her words of advise were "follow the planting instructions." Well, I kind of did, but not all the way. I tried to leave ample space between the tomato plants, and rows of various vegetables, but used more seeds than stated on the seed packages, so we shall see.

My mother and father-in-law helped us plant, so I followed their lead. I made a lovely plan-o-gram of our garden for my own record, but here's the rundown:

*10 tomato plants consisting of varieties including Celebrity, Juliet, Porter, and Improved Porter

*1 large row of onions

*1 large row of okra

*4 pepper plants consisting of sweet yellow and red bell pepper, orange bell pepper, and moderate bell pepper

*1 large row of french fillet green beans

*9 mounds for squash and zucchini consisting 2 different varieties of yellow squash (we both love squash...)

*1 row of new potatoes

In addition, I planed strawberries in large planters 2 weeks ago, but no signs of life thus far. Stay tuned!