Pearce - Historic Mining Town

The town of Pearce was discovered by and named after Cornishman, James Pearce, miner and cattleman, in 1894. Pearce and his wife had originally been in Tombstone where Pearce was a hard rock miner and Mrs. Pearce managed a boarding house for miners.

The Pearce family started the Commonwealth mine.....said to be one of the richest mines ever found in Arizona, producing over fifteen million dollars in gold.

Seemingly overnight, the town of Pearce sprang up.  The General Store was built in 1896 and the Post office was established on March 6, 1896.  The railroad station opened in 1903. The community that grew up around the mine rapidly became a fair-sized city with some of the families and businesses moving their homes and businesses (literally) from Tombstone to the "new" boom town.

The mine was operated until 1904 when a cave-in caused it to shut down.  In the late 1890's, besides its mining activities, Pearce became a rip-roaring cowboy town.

By 1919, Pearce had a population of 1,500, a school, restaurants, boarding houses, saloons, hotels, a motion picture theater, and other businesses.

People began drifting away in the 1930s as the Great Depression took its toll and the railroad pulled up its tracks. Today only a store or two remains.

Information taken from the Arizona Ghost Town Trails website. Linking up with Nancy and Lisa for Rural Thursday.

Parmesan Herb Bread

This is a lovely bread to serve with pasta! The herbs and cheese really make the kitchen smell good while it's baking too! :) I use the Real Parmesan cheese in the shaker container for the dough and then add freshly grated Parmesan cheese over the top before baking. If you don't have bread flour, this recipe will work using just all-purpose flour. I think the bread flour makes for a lighter bread though. Also, feel free to add more water if necessary to get your dough to the right consistency. I prefer a softer dough; again, I think it makes for a lighter bread.

Parmesan Herb Bread

1 cup water
3 tablespoons olive oil (I use the light tasting)
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons bread machine yeast OR 1 packet active dry yeast (If using active dry yeast, dissolve it in the warm water before combining with the remaining ingredients.)

Mix, knead and let your dough rise until doubled using your favorite method; bread machine, manual or stand mixer. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a long loaf, slash tops with a sharp knife and sprinkle with a little freshly grated Parmesan cheese. You could also shape and bake the bread in a 9 x 5 x 3-inch bread pan. Let rise in a warm place until doubled. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes, 30 minutes if using a standard loaf pan, or until golden brown.

Linking up with Heidi and Dolly for The Country Homemaker Hop.

Mosaic Monday - 5/28/2012

We took a drive over to the Sulpher Springs Valley Saturday in search of ghost towns. :) We found Courtland and Gleeson, there are still people living at Gleeson. We stopped at the cemetery in Gleeson so that I could take some pictures. Some of the graves were really old and some were very recent. This cemetery is very much in the style of the old west. I will be sharing pictures of the ruins at Courtland soon. 

Linking up with Mosaic Monday.

Sunday Photo - 5/27/2012

I hate to admit it, but I don't remember what this bush is called. It is deciduous and comes back nicely every spring. It's looks to me to belong to the mint family. Anyone know what it is?

I like the way the flowers make a whorl and the bees like it very much! :)

Linking up with Madge for Weekly Top Shot, Jan for Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday and Nancy for Your Sunday Best.

Friday's Fences - #34

Another picture taken at the Mescal movie set. This is looking north towards the Rincon Mountains. Linking up with Jan and Jer for Friday's Fences.

GoAt Milk?

One of the things I dearly love about living here on our little "farm" is that I can have my dairy goats! :) I love my goat girls and it is so nice to always have fresh, raw milk available. Since we don't have a big family, a goat is just the right size to meet our needs and then some!

In addition to drinking the milk and using it for cooking and baking, I also use it to make yogurt, buttermilk, ice cream, and cheese. Madeline kidded in March of 2011 and I didn't breed her back in the fall but continued to milk her through the winter. She is still producing well over 3 quarts a day, enough to feed BW the bottle baby, meet all of our needs and supply two of my friends who buy milk from me every week. Here in about a week, when BW goes to his new home, I will have an additional 2-1/2 gallons of milk every week for cheese making.

If you are thinking of adding a dairy animal to your farm, consider a goat. They don't eat as much as a cow, produce less "waste" and don't give as much milk, which is often a good thing. I don't know what I would do with an average of 6 GALLONS of milk a day! Yikes!! Just remember though, you'll have to have at least two goats as they are very social animals.

This week marks my one year Blogiversary! :) One of the first posts I did was Milking Time, check it out if you would like. Linking up with Lisa and Nancy for Rural Thursday, Deb and Heidi for Farmgirl Friday, Lisa for Farm Fresh Friday and Tayet for Forever Farmgirls Friday.

Blueberry Scones

I'm so happy!! :) I love scones and have been working on a recipe that meets with my approval utilizing my Baking Mix. Well, here it is! It seems the secret to scones, as opposed to biscuits, is adding an egg and using heavy cream instead of milk. This gives a lighter, more tender result. Also, make sure to handle the dough gently; otherwise, the scones will be tough.

The basic recipe can be used for plain Cream Scones or you can add fruit and a Streusel Topping like I did here. Next week, I'm going to experiment with Cinnamon Nut Scones using walnuts, pecans, almonds and a little almond extract.

Cream Scones

2 cups Baking Mix
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium bowl, stir together Baking Mix and sugar. Cut in butter until it resembles small peas. Make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, combine heavy cream, egg and vanilla; mix well. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and mix lightly until incorporated. Do not overmix.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently for 4 or 5 turns. Roll or pat dough into a circle 7 inches in diameter. Cut into 6 or 8 wedges and place on a baking sheet. Make sure to leave enough room between the scones as they will rise a bit and spread out. Brush the top of each scone with a little heavy cream.
Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes until golden brown.

    
I pressed some frozen blueberries into each scone after cutting them out and then sprinkled some Streusel Topping over them after brushing with the heavy cream.

Streusel Topping

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons cold butter

Mix all together. Top each scone lightly with a little topping before baking. Store extra streusel in refrigerator and use up in a week.

One of the problems I have with a lot of scones out there is that they are heavy and dry. These are moist, light, not overly sweet and the Streusel Topping adds a nice little crunch. Of course, the addition of the blueberries is heavenly! I knew I had a winner when Jerry said, "Hey, these are really good!" You see, he's not a real big fan of scones. :)
I am going to start going to the St. David Farmer's Market at the beginning of June and I am going to add a couple of types of scones to my table. Linking up with Heidi and Dolly for The Country Homemaker Hop.

Tuesday's Tails - My What Big Ears You Have!

We have a LOT of jackrabbits and cottontails around here, mostly because the dog, Buddy, doesn't chase them! :) The rabbits are usually most active real early in the morning or late in the evening, not very conducive to picture taking. I got pictures of this guy enjoying a little nibble of grass through the kitchen window in the late afternoon recently.

It always amazes me how big these guys are. Here is a little fun info from National Geographic.

"Jackrabbits are actually hares, not rabbits. Hares are larger than rabbits, and they typically have taller hind legs and longer ears. Jackrabbits were named for their ears, which initially caused some people to refer to them as "jackass rabbits." The writer Mark Twain brought this name to fame by using it in his book of western adventure, Roughing It. The name was later shortened to jackrabbit." They can be up to 24 inches tall and weigh up to 9 pounds.

Garden Update - 5/21/2012

The pepper, eggplant and tomato starts got planted over the weekend. I was looking back over my blog from around this time last year and I am LOT further behind this year!

I also got seeds in the ground for bush beans, cantaloupe, chard, zucchini and Kakai pumpkins. I put the tomatoes in my square foot boxes this year to see if that helps hold the moisture in when watering.

Of course, I got all this finished JUST in time for our hottest week of the year with temps near 100 for the next few days and windy conditions predicted towards the end of the week.  :(

I also pulled all the turnips and rutabagas and half of the snow peas so that I would have somewhere to plant the summer produce. The chickens were very happy to see the greens! :) Now, I just need to cook all those rutabagas and turnips! LOL!!

My herbs in the pots are all doing VERY well! The volunteer dill and cilantro are already going to seed! The basil was a little slow to get going but it is doing great now and my thyme I started from seed is starting to grow pretty well too.

I think my favorite herb is the oregano that comes back in it's pot every spring, plus I love cooking with it! :)

Linking up with Heidi this week for The Country Garden Showcase.

Sunday Photo - Little House In The Desert

I love this little house on the edge of the Mescal movie set. I love the style, the color, the porch, the shingled roof, the chimney. Wait a minute, the chimney looks kind of strange up near the top...

Dang movie props anyway!! Seeing as how it's made out of OSB board with styrofoam "rocks" glued on, I guess it wouldn't be a very good idea to use the fireplace, eh?!? Oh well, it's still a cute little dream house, from a distance! ;-)

Linking up with Madge for Weekly Top Shot, Jan for Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday, and Nancy for Your Sunday Best.

Breakfast Parfait

My favorite breakfast...homemade goat milk yogurt, strawberries fresh from the garden and homemade Maple Granola. It looks even prettier when served up in my Redneck Wine Glass that I bought from one of the vendors at the La Fiesta De Los Vaqueros Rodeo a few months ago! :)

Isn't that just about the cutest thing you've ever seen? It's a canning jar affixed to a stem, I'm not sure of the method used. The lid and ring were included to "keep the bugs out of your wine!" She had half pint and pint glasses, I figured I better go for the smaller one if I was going to be drinking wine out of it! LOL!!
Linking up with Heidi and Deb for Farmgirl Friday, Lisa for Farm Fresh Friday and Tayet for Forever Farmgirls Friday.

On Being a Cowgirl

I've never claimed to be a Cowgirl but Jerry says I am one now. My horse bucked me off yesterday. Do you ever do things that you might not really want to do to make others happy? Like my foray into skydiving a few years ago because the fella I was dating was really, really into it.

I had quit riding horses a couple of years ago because I had decided I was getting too old to get hurt. I didn't grow up riding horses and I am certainly not a very skilled or confident rider. We went out with Jerry's friend, Joe, yesterday and every time Dallas lagged behind he would trot to catch up. He even threw a little fit once when Jerry tried to take Paco off a little ways, throwing his head, trying to run over to them, pawing the ground. He is spoiled and he gets mad when he doesn't get his way. We were riding down a wash, almost back to the barn, I was following Joe and when he went around some trees and Dallas couldn't see him anymore, he went to bucking. I'm just glad it was a nice sandy wash! LOL!! Nothing is broken but my back is pretty sore and scraped up where I landed. Thank goodness for leftover pain pills.

At 53, I'm not really interested in taking riding lessons, which Joe strongly suggested so that I would become more confident and to learn how to control my horse. He says that Dallas is a good horse but that he knew he could get away with bad behavior because I haven't learned the proper way to control him to stay safe. Oh, I did get back on and rode him the rest of the way back to the barn. And then, to add insult to injury, I dropped my little Canon point and shoot into the water trough when we stopped to water the horses so I don't even have any pictures to share. The picture above is from last week when we rode out by the movie set.

I know I want to be a Farmgirl...I'm just not so sure about the whole Cowgirl thingy anymore. Linking up with Lisa and Nancy for Rural Thursday.

Black and White Wednesday - 5/16/2012

This windmill and catch pen are located on the Ash Canyon Ranch not too far from us. Jerry sometimes rides out with one of our friends, who is the ranch manager, checking waters and fences and we have helped gather and brand too.
Linking up for Black and White Wednesday at Me As A Mother and like Christmas every day.

Tuesday's Tails - 5/15/2012

How about some pictures of our VERY spoiled cats for today's post?!? :)


1350 square feet and we ALL have to sit on the sofa after supper!




Bob wasn't very happy about getting his picture taken.




Ruby loves her humans and a good belly rub!




The cats have their own bedroom.




This picture was taken from outside and I thought it was cool that you could see
the Whetstone mountains reflected in the window.



Sunday Photo - Wagon

The movie set at Mescal is only about three miles from us as the crow flies and we can see it on the hill out the front door. It is on property belonging to the Double X Ranch and we trailer the horses there to go riding sometimes. I hadn't been up there in awhile so I took my little camera this past week when we went and got some pretty good pictures. This old wagon has definitely seen better days and sits beside the road near the north side of the movie set. They aren't filming anything at present and it doesn't get used a whole lot anymore but some of the movies that have been filmed there are Tombstone with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer, Tom Horn with Steve McQueen, the original Monte Walsh with Lee Marvin and Jack Palance, some of the Young Riders TV series, and the quirky, oddly entertaining South of Heaven, West of Hell with Dwight Yoakam, Vince Vaughn, Bridget Fonda and Billy Bob Thornton.

I will be sharing more pictures from our ride soon but in the meantime, I'm linking up with Madge for Weekly Top Shot and Nancy for Your Sunday Best.

Strawberries

This is the third year for my strawberry plants and I'm finally getting some decent yields! It's funny, I was standing in the grocery store yesterday looking at the strawberries on sale when it dawned on me that I could pick my own from the garden! Duh!! I picked a nice bowl full this morning and there are a lot more to go. The trick is to get them before the lizards do. Anyway, I assume it's the lizards as I have the bed completely covered with bird netting and I haven't had to rescue any of the Thrashers in about a week.
I'm a day late (but not a dollar short!) in linking up with Lisa for Farm Fresh Friday, Tayet for Forever Farmgirls Friday and Heidi and Deb for Farmgirl Friday! :)

My Onions Are Scaping!

We have had some wacky weather of late, warm followed by cold followed by more warm, and my poor onions are confused! I'm just glad all of them aren't trying to bloom so that I will hopefully get some larger onions later in the year. This is my first year planting onion sets so it is all new to me! I read that once they start blooming, they won't make a bulb.

I have been pulling the ones with the flowers and using them for green onions. The ones below are in my herb box. I planted one onion that my friend gave me a couple of years ago and it just keeps multiplying away. I have only been cutting and using the tops. I guess I should dig them up and see what I've got! LOL!!

They almost look like garlic scapes with the twisty thing going on. What do you do when your onions start blooming too early?

Linking up with Nancy and Lisa for Rural Thursday.