Shades of Yellow

This is a busy, busy time of year for many of us, what with gardens needing care and produce needing preserved. Isn't it wonderful?!? :)
I wanted to take the time to share some of the beautiful desert wildflowers in our area, all in shades of yellow this time.
Linking up with Tones On Tuesday, Mosaic Monday and Macro Monday.

The Neighbors' Carrots

Our very nice neighbors said we could have all the carrots we wanted from their garden...they had a LOT!! Jerry helped me dig up most of them the other day and this is what I did with them today. :)

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and The Country Homemaker Hop.

Made ME Jump!

I was working away, pulling grass in the garden, when something moved practically under my hand! No, I didn't scream like a girl but I sure jumped and I think the tarantula was just as surprised as I was. :)
He/she wasn't in any big hurry so I ran inside and grabbed my camera. Jerry kept saying, "You know they jump, don't you? It's gonna jump on your head!" He thought he was real funny. :-/
The rains always bring out the tarantulas so I knew to be on the lookout, just not right under my hand. LOL!!
Linking up with Tones On Tuesday, Mosaic Monday and Macro Monday.

Sunday Photo - Mack Truck

Probably not the Mack truck you were expecting, huh? ;-) This beauty was in the Benson, AZ 4th of July parade and dates from the 1950s. Edited with Pixlr-O-Matic.
Linking up with Weekly Top Shot and  Your Sunday Best.

A Bird On A Fence

I was sitting in the truck waiting for Jerry while he was talking with one of his buddies when I spied this pretty Pyrrhuloxia sitting on the fence rail nearby. I was pretty tickled that he sat there long enough for me to change lenses and snap a couple of pictures! :) Linking up with Friday's Fences this week and Wild Bird Wednesday.

P.S. I actually thought the bird was a female Cardinal until I looked it up on Whatbird.com. Thanks to blogging buddies like TexWisGirl, I didn't want to embarrass myself with a misidentification! LOL!! I did learn that they are in the Cardinal and Grosbeak family and are sometimes called a Desert Cardinal.

Ginger Cream Scones

The scones have become very popular at the Farmers' Market! :) I make six or seven different types each week and always sell out. These are my favorites. They are spicy with ground ginger and chunks of crystallized ginger and the turbinado sugar on the top gives them a nice finish. This recipe uses my Baking Mix.

Ginger Cream Scones               **Click here to print this recipe**

2 1/3 cups Baking Mix
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Zest from one lemon
6 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
Turbinado sugar for the tops

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium bowl, stir together Baking Mix, sugar, ground ginger and lemon zest. Cut in butter until it resembles small peas; stir in crystallized ginger. Make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, combine heavy cream and egg; 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 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 and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake at 375 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes until golden brown.

I buy my crystallized ginger (along with a lot of other herbs and spices) at Penzeys Spices. There is a store in Tucson and I just love going in there! Luckily for Jerry, there is a bench for the husbands to sit and wait while the wives are shopping. ;-) If you haven't ever been to one of their stores or looked at one of their catalogs, I recommend you do. Their products are wonderful and their prices seem reasonable too. Sorry for carrying on but I just wanted to share! LOL!!

Linking up with Rural Thursday, Farmgirl Friday and Farm Fresh Friday. Updated to share with Food On Friday at Carole's Chatter.

Who's There?

I love ravens but the ones around here are very camera shy. I was able to get this guy's picture through the front window the other day as he hopped up the steps onto the porch! :)

Linking up with Tones on Tuesday, Black and White Wednesday, Wild Bird Wednesday and Wordless Wednesday.

Garden Update - July 16, 2012

My garden seems to be slow to get going this year. Everything is doing well but I seem to be about a month behind where I was this time last year. I really hope I get a good harvest from my little garden and have enough tomatoes and green beans to freeze and can some for the winter. Now that our summer rains have started, it should really take off! :)
Linking up with The Country Garden Showcase, Mosaic Monday and Macro Monday.

Sunday Photo - Corn Maiden

Corn is to Pueblo people what the buffalo has always been to the Plains Indians, the very symbol of LIFE. In Zuni mythology, the Corn Maidens brought this gift and many of the carvings of women, especially those with a criss-cross pattern on the body, are carved to pay homage to the Corn Maidens.

The Zuni people have a story about eight corn maidens. The young women are invisible but their beautiful dancing movements can be seen when they dance with the growing corn as it waves in the wind. One day, the young god Paiyatemu fell in love with the maidens and they fled from him. While they were gone, a terrible famine spread across the land. Paiyatemu begged the maidens to turn back and they returned to the Zuni and resumed their dance. As a result, the corn started to grow again.

These are my Corn Maidens. The one on the left is coral and she is 2 1/2 inches tall. The one on the right is shell and she is 1 3/4 inches tall. Since it is getting to be corn harvesting time, I thought I would share them and their story with you! :)

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

Information from Myth Encyclopedia and Zuni Art websites.

A Lovely Sunshiny Blog

Recently, Nancy at Little Homestead In Boise nominated me for the "One Lovely Blog Award" and Dolly at Dolly Is Cooking nominated me for the "Sunshine Award" which is an award from bloggers to other bloggers who "positively and creatively inspire other bloggers in the blogosphere." Thank you both, I am truly honored! :) If you haven't visitied Nancy's or Dolly's blogs, I highly recommend that you do and you will see why both of these lovely ladies received these awards!

The requirements for the Lovely Blog Award are to share seven random things about yourself and for the Sunshine Award to answer ten questions, I'm gonna cheat and combine them! ;-)

1. Favorite color: Green, no wait, yellow, no green!

2. Favorite animal: Goats! :)

3. Favorite number: 3

4. Favorite drink: My cup of Earl Grey tea first thing in the morning.

5. Facebook or Twitter: Facebook, I don't do Twitter and really don't do much Facebook either even though I'm on there.

6. Good book or good movie: At this point in my life, movie, it's easier! LOL!!

7. My passion: Baking, it is my creative outlet.

8. Giving or getting gifts: Giving.

9. Favorite day: Halloween! ;-)

10. Favorite flower: I can't pick one favorite, it's usually whatever is blooming at the time!

Now, I'm also supposed to pass these awards on to ten other Bloggers but I feel that all the blogs I follow are special and deserving of an award and there is no way I could pick just ten, so I guess I'm gonna break the chain, sorry.

Thank you again Nancy and Dolly for thinking of me and honoring me with these lovely awards!

In The Pasture

I really enjoy our morning walks through our friend's cow pasture. We usually always see something interesting, even if it's just the cows. :)
I like this girl because she is brown, the majority of them are black & white Angus. "How now, brown cow?"

Most of the cows were "hanging out" by the pond yesterday morning. We got .70 inches of rain on July 4th and there is actually water in the pond! These next pictures are of some of the young heifers that haven't been bred yet.

All of the cows are calving right now. We saw the Corriente cow with the big horns and her new calf the other day but did I have my camera? Noooo. Yesterday, I wanted to get a picture of the dogs swimming in the pond but they had already gotten out. When we go for our walks, any neighbor dog that is around goes with us! LOL!!

Number 12 seemed really concerned that we (and the dogs) were there. When we got back up the bank, we discovered why.

She is the proud mama of a new little calf! :)

Linking up with Rural Thursday and Farmgirl Friday.

2012 or 1952?

The old tractors in the Benson 4th of July parade are always a big hit! :) Because of the way this man is dressed, I think the photo has a rather timeless feel to it.
Linking up with Tones On Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday. Thanks, Emily, for featuring my entry from last week's Tones On Tuesday!

Sunday Photo - July 08, 2012

The water lily in the Cowboy Fish Pond is sending up more flowers, this one bloomed Saturday. So, did you know that the flowers close up at night? I never did! LOL!! Linking up with Weekly Top Shot and Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday.

Nancy, at A Rural Journal, alerted a lot of her blogging buddies to the plight of Feral Woman who recently escaped with her life during the Ash Creek wildfires occurring in Montana. The fire changed direction so quickly that some of her horses and pets were left to fend for themselves, as were those belonging to many of the members of her small community. I had no idea this was even happening, it has not been on the news here.

Nancy has started a campaign to collect donations for the American Red Cross of Montana to help all of the victims of these wildfires. I have added the ChipIn! widget to my sidebar so that any of you who feel that you can will be able to make a donation and if you can't contribute, please visit Go West Feral Woman's blog and give her a hug or a few words of comfort. Her recent posts are absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking. If you feel so inclined, please post the ChipIn! widget to your own sidebar so that we can get the word out.

Cowboy Fish Pond

Hmmm...or maybe I should call it our Redneck Fish Pond. ;-)
A friend gave us this 200-gallon galvanized stock tank and, at first, we had it down by the barn for the animals to drink out of. Well, it's really too tall for the goats and one horse just can't drink enough water to justify something so large. It would get icky and we kept having to drain it and clean it and that's a WHOLE lot of water to just dump out! So, Jerry thought it would be cool to make it into a fish pond in the back yard!

We put in a pump for aeration and added a couple of water plants.

My friend brought us this water lily last Sunday. :)

We got this one from the Koi fish guy at the Farmers' Market last week, I'm not sure what it is called. We have it sitting on some concrete blocks so that the fish have "caves" to play in.

We added a couple of goldfish and my friend who brought us the water lily is going to give us one or two more from her pond. (She has a REAL pond!)

The fish like hiding underneath the water lily. So, there ya' go, instant Cowboy/Redneck Fish Pond! LOL!! Linking up with Nancy and Lisa for Rural Thursday. Thanks ladies for hosting every week!!

These Colors Don't Run

Color guard from this morning's July 4th parade in Benson, Arizona.

Linking up with Tones on Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday and Foto Friday.

First Of The Month - July

I'm joining Jan at Murrieta 365 for her First of the Month meme all this year. Here are the ground rules per her site: "The goal is to capture one thing repeatedly on the first of each month. It can be a landscape, a person, an animal, a project; whatever your focus is, is fine. It can even be a record of where you are each First of the Month."

Little Daphne is sure growing, I had to add a link to her collar the other day. I'm really pleased that the two older girls are accepting her...well...pretty much! LOL!! Goats can be "cliquish" but they are good with her.

It is actually pretty difficult to take pictures of a goat that always wants to be standing next to you so that she can get petted.

We have had to take measures to keep Daphne out of the hay. She will soon be too big to get under the gate, we hope! ;-)

Yes, sweetheart, this is to keep you OUT!!

Yikes! Here she comes again!!

Daphne is just the sweetest, friendliest little goat I have ever had. We had our annual Fourth of July BBQ yesterday and whenever anyone went down to the pasture to see the critters, Daphne would come running to greet them and get petted! :)

That's it for this month. Say goodbye Daphne!