Sunday Photo - Antique Spurs

These old spurs are part of our decor, they sit on the end table in the living room. They were made by August Buermann, probably in the late 1800s. Here's an edited version for that old timey feel! :) I used pixlr-o-matic's Vignette and Sand.

Linking up with Jan at Murrieta 365 for Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday, Nancy at A Rural Journal for Your Sunday Best and Madge at The view from right here for Weekly Top Shot.

Make-Do Fencing

Here in our little corner of Arizona, fences are made using whatever material is handy. In this case, barbed wire and yucca stalks with the occasional T-post to keep it sturdy.



I'm linking up with Life According to Jan and Jer and Friday's Fences. 

The Old Catch Pen

There is an old, abandoned catch pen in the cow pasture where we take our walks. It was used when this area was part of the J-Six Ranch. I love all the weathered wood and how massive this old structure is. Nowadays, they all seem to be made out of steel pipe, probably lasts longer but not nearly as picturesque! :)

Linking up with Nancy at A Rural Journal and Lisa at Two Bears Farm for Rural Thursday. Hop on over and see all the rural happenings around the country!

Artisan Bread

I have been seeing recipes all over the place for making quick and easy artisan breads but haven't tried any of them...until now. Mother Earth News had an article awhile back by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François on their method and book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. My blogging friend, Mary Beth from Oklahoma Pastry Cloth, did a post recently about how much she liked this method and how easy it was, so I finally gave it a try. What have I been waiting for?!?

There is no kneading required and once you make up a batch of the dough, it will last in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. There are many variations of the method floating around on different blogs so I would like to refer you back to the article from Mother Earth News for the original recipe, method and some good information and tips, you can find it here: Five Minutes a Day for Fresh Baked Bread. The only change I made was to substitute 2 cups of whole wheat flour for 2 cups of the all-purpose flour called for.

To me, this bread is reminiscent of sourdough without the need to fuss with a starter. The crust is crunchy, the interior is chewy and there is a nice artisan bread texture. The dough is supposed to develop more flavor as it ages and you use it too. I made two small loaves yesterday and we have already completely devoured one, the second one will be eaten with our bean soup for supper tonight. Jerry told me "You get an A+!"

I'm linking up with Heidi at My Simple Country Living for The Country Homemaker Hop, Mira for Crisp PhotoWorks' Food Photography Challenge and the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop.

Barn Charm

You can just barely see this old barn from the main road because of the trees and brush so we took a side road hoping to get a better view. I couldn't get any closer because of fences and closed gates. :)

Here is a wider view showing a big old cottonwood tree next to it. We don't have many wooden barns in this part of the country or two-story ones either. I'm not sure how charming it is but I'm linking up with Tricia at Bluff Area Daily for Barn Charm.

Seeds Sprouting, Blackberry Bushes and Harvesting

Plants have sprouted in all the tomato cells! YAY!! The eggplant are just coming up and some of the peppers are starting to sprout. Some of these seeds are three years old so I wasn't too sure what kind of success I was going to have.

I also put out some onion sets last week and they are doing great!

I have been wanting to plant blackberries for awhile now. I'm not sure this variety is really going to do well here in our growing zone so I only bought two plants.

And, finally, I have been harvesting a few radishes here and there! Radishes are such a gratifying crop to grow, only 30 days to harvest! ;-)

I still have everything in the garden, except the onions, covered with lightweight frost cloth to keep the birds from eating it all. It's pretty cool because the sun shines through, I can water right through the cloth and it will help to keep the bugs out! Linking up to Macro Monday at Lisa's Chaos.

Sunday Photo - Ornamental Plum Tree

We had a few days of pretty cool weather with lots and lots of stinkin' wind but, today, it is just lovely again and the bees were happily buzzing about in the Prunus cerasifera 'Krauter Vesuvius', also called a Cherry Plum tree. What a lovely ornamental tree, it starts with these beautiful pink flowers followed by dark red leaves. Two years ago, when we had so much winter rain, it even produced a bumper crop of little plums! They are mostly pit so I left them for the birds. :) I really like the way the afternoon sun is filtering through.

Linking up with Jan at Murrieta 365 for Straight Out Of the Camera Sunday and Nancy at A Rural Journal for Your Sunday Best.