Let It Rain

On Monday we had some wonderful rain. It brought the temperatures down considerably. It's been weeks and weeks since we've had rain, so it was great to hear the pitter-patter against the window panes.

But then we got some hail--that wasn't quite such a nice sound.

The little dandelion managed to survive the hail.

We had storms throughout the day, with lots of lightning and thunder. 

Late in the afternoon, Desert Boy got suited up with his irrigating boots and we went out to splash in puddles.

He particularly wanted to jump in the puddles.

It didn't take him long to get wet. Very wet. Especially when he fell down.

He would have played a lot longer, but it was a bit chilly and he eventually decided he wanted to go in and get warm. 

What? A toddler with a modicum of common sense? What is this world coming to?

Here's a video of Desert Boy in action:

When a Tree Falls

We had some tree trimmers come a week ago. They were planning on trimming the branches near the power lines, but it quickly became apparent that there was more rotten wood than good wood in this old Lombardy poplar, so they ended up taking down the whole tree.

The pieces are still in our driveway, and I keep trying not to run into them.

Here's part of the rotten trunk. It was over eight feet wide. It's likely that the tree was over a hundred years old. 

Lombardy poplars are native to Europe (and named for Lombardy, Italy), but they were popular trees planted by pioneers because they grew so quickly. They grow up rather than out, so they have a distinctive profile.

The wood isn't particularly strong, though, and as the tree age, it often reaches a stage where a large wind storm will blow it over.

A couple other trees near the cookhouse were in need of cutting, too, before they fell in the wrong direction and caused more damage.

I was very glad that the tree trimmers took the trees down. My husband was plotting on howing to do it using backhoes and other ranch equipment. It sounded a little scary to me. Trees weigh a lot!

Here's another view of those two trees. 

You might think I'd be sad about the trees coming down, but I'm not. I didn't want them to fall on me.

And Lombardy poplars tend to regenerate after they've been cut. This is one near our driveway. The tree fell about six or seven years ago and was cut at the stump. Now the regrowth is already over thirty feet high and looks good!

School Photos

It was time for school photos the other day, and we were able to take Desert Boy. 

Doesn't he clean up nicely?

He wasn't too sure what to think about all the photography equipment, but he cooperated well, even with all the hair spraying (with water) and combing.

Here are some of the kids in line, with teachers and parents close by to make sure they didn't get messed up at the last minute.

What Desert Boy liked best was playing with the older kids after his photo was taken.

He was introduced to Battleship. I remember playing this at Grandma's house years and years ago.

He got some lessons from his cousin. It was a good afternoon!

Peach Leather

We've had a plethora of wonderful peaches lately. Some of the ones that fell on the ground bruised a bit, so I decided to try something different with them--make fruit leather. I always called it fruit roll-ups, but I guess it's the same thing, except the homemade version is so much healthier. 

I found various recipes on the Internet and decided to incorporate a few to make my own. My ingredients: peaches, honey, lemon juice (and for one batch, cinnamon). I took the skins off the peaches and cut off the bad sections, putting the good parts into the blender. I added a couple squirts of lemon juice (maybe 2 teaspoons worth), and about 1/4 cup honey. Then I turned the blender onto puree.

I put Saran wrap down on the dehydrator sheets, and then poured the fruit leather mixture onto the plastic, using a spatula to spread it out into a somewhat uniform thickness.

Next it was into the dehydrator at 135 degrees. Some recipes said for 6-8 hours, but with the thickness I had, it was more like 10-12 hours. Other variations are to put the fruit leather into your oven at the lowest setting with the door open for a couple hours, or to put it onto big cookie sheets covered with cheesecloth and let dry outside in the sun for a couple days.

The end result is a firm fruit leather. 

If you're my husband and son, you just eat it straight from the plastic wrap, and suddenly it's all gone because it tastes so good! (They seriously ate one whole sheet in just one sitting.) 

The taste of the peaches is really concentrated, so it's almost like candy. 

You can also roll up the plastic, cut it into pieces, and put into Ziploc bags for storage. If you want to keep the fruit leather for awhile (say, because you're so tired of peaches), then you can put the Ziploc in the freezer and it will keep for a few months. 

Yum!

Freezing Corn

Having grown up in the Midwest in a small town surrounded by corn and soybean fields, I still consider myself a corn child. I love corn, especially corn on the cob. Our garden has been producing great corn, but I wanted some to freeze, so I bought a couple dozen ears.

I put a few ears into the boiling water at a time (not too many, because the water is supposed to return to a boil within a minute), and boiled them for six minutes.

Then they went into cold water for about six minutes.

Then they dried out.

Then it was time to get to work with my handy-dandy carving saw. I really like this part, and for some reason when a bunch of corn kernels are stuck together, they just taste better. 

I didn't want any corn to go to waste, so I made sure to nibble on the ends of each and every ear. (It's a good breakfast, right?)

Then I put 2-3 servings in freezer ziploc bags. It's definitely more work than just buying it at the store, but the corn tastes so good!