Flying in the wind

Ever since I moved into our house, I wanted a clothesline. What is better than sheets and towels line dried in a gentle breeze? Nothing, right?

A few weeks ago, I finally got my clothesline. And I was so excited! The posts were a little more substantial than I had expected. But I forgot that we don’t get gentle breezes on top of our hill. We get wind. Lake-effect wind.Seriously? Lake-effect wind? There is not a lake anywhere near us! Recently, we have also had some big thunderstorm warnings. And some tornado warnings.Perhaps I should not have put the towels out on this particular day…?But they smelled really great when I brought them in!  

Storm damage

Last night, we had a tornado watch in our area. We were very lucky in that there was no actual tornado and we had no damage to our home or property. But we had a few tense minutes!

I was out of town on Monday night (once I finally got out of the house!). When I talked to Hubby Doc Tuesday morning, he told me that there were strong winds on Monday night and we had a limb down in the backyard.

This is what I expected to find when I got home on Tuesday afternoon.Something small and manageable, no big drama.

I found that. I found this, too.Um, that’s not a limb. That’s a tree.The mommy tree was far enough away from the house that it was not in any serious danger from the falling baby tree. That is one heck of a bird falling out of a nest!

The same tree had some damage in a storm last year, and part of the top was already knocked out. Now it really looks silly.(Psst… See the clothes line in that picture? That’s the topic for the next post…)

Poor tree. Poor yard. I wonder what we will do with this giant “limb” laying in the backyard? Eventually Hubby Doc will need to mow the lawn again…

Morning war

Today I had a meeting with some of The Real Farmwives of America & Friends to build some blogging solidarity. We try to get together every few months to hang out, share some blogging experiences and tips, and spend some quality time on our blogs.

I live three hours away from where these meetings are. In a different time zone. So a meeting that starts at 10:00am in Indianapolis starts at 9:00am in my time zone. And I need to leave my house by 6:00am to get there on time.

(Don’t ask me about the meetings that start at 9:00am Indy time. I get tired just thinking about getting up for those meetings. Two weeks ago, I had to get to one that started at 7:00am Indy time. Ouch!!)

Anyway. Last night, I remembered to set up my coffee pot so it would automatically kick on and be ready to go by 6:00am. I changed my alarm clock, but I realized this morning I didn’t change it to the right time.

I thought I set it for 4:45am. Which makes me gag a little.

I actually had set it for 5:45am. Which makes me gag a little less, but also makes me late for my meeting.

My coffee pot turned on as planned. My alarm clock did not go off, but lucky me, I had a cat alarm clock this morning.

I don’t love it when Martin or Leo wakes me up by yelling for breakfast before my alarm goes off. Today, that would have been welcome.

This morning, right at 5:30am, I woke up to the sound of a cat puking. Many times. In different areas of the house.

The good news? It woke me up.

The bad news? There was a puking cat. It was Martin. And he had puked all over the house.

The other good news? After he puked (7 times), he was fine. He came for breakfast at 6:15am like he had never eaten before in his life.

And I sped a little bit on my drive (fueled by a travel mug of coffee, a triple venti skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks, and a Diet Coke), so I wasn’t too late for my meeting with the girls.

I did have to stop to pee. Twice. But I made it!

Comfort food

One of my favorite comfort foods is homemade macaroni and cheese. Preferably with a giant side of crusty garlic bread. (Can you say carbs?)

This is the homemade macaroni and cheese I grew up with…

First, gather your ingredients, including some minced onion.

(Look closely, do you see what I did? Oops.)Add a healthy dollop of minced onion to 1 cup of milk, and warm in the microwave. (This is a micro-intensive recipe. That might be why it’s one of my favorites.)As the milk/onion was heating, I thought to myself, “Self, that onion sure does smell strong tonight. I must have used more than I thought!”

Cube up 8 ounces of Velveeta cheese.Also in the microwave, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Mix in 2 tablespoons of AP flour, add a good amount of seasoned salt……and a dose of paprika. (That Hungarian in me just loves some paprika!)It was right about here that I noticed that I did not use onion to start this whole project, I used garlic. No, Chronic Sinus Congestion, you were not smelling strong onion. You were smelling lots of garlic.No matter. Garlic goes great with pasta. I added some onion, too.

Back to the recipe!! Add the flour/butter/spices mixture to the milk/garlic/onion mixture. Stir well, and heat in the microwave for 30-second intervals, stirring between. When the sauce is nice and thick, add the cubed Velveeta, a little at a time, and continue the 30 second microwave intervals.Cook one pound of pasta (I usually use elbows, but all I had in the pantry this time was penne), drain, and put it in a casserole dish.

When the sauce is cheesy and melty, pour over the pasta, and stir to coat all the nooks and crannies. (Does penne have crannies?)My favorite part (although this is totally optional), is the crumby topping. I take whatever boring cereal we have in the pantry, and crush a bunch with my big rolling pin.

This is one of the only times this rolling pin comes out. Except when I’m chasing Farmer Doc around with it. (Thanks, Laurinda!)Mix the crumbs with more melted butter, and please use a bigger bowl than I did.Spread the buttery crumbs over the top of the cheesy pasta.And bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-30 minutes.

This is when Farmer Doc walked in and said, “Something smells really garlicky!” Oh, sure, he has clear sinuses. So I chased him around with the rolling pin.

This baked for about 20 minutes. The dish was a little shallow, and I wish I had pulled it out of the oven after only 15. But I was distracted by the chase with the rolling pin. Oh well. It was still yummy.Printable recipe card:Enjoy!!

It’s lawnmower season

Last week, we had a dry day in the middle of the rain. Farmer Doc hadn’t had a chance to mow the lawn yet this year, and things were getting a bit unruly out there. So he took the dry-ish opportunity to get the lawnmower out and get some work done.

Yes, I think it is safe to say we had passed the time to start mowing the lawn this year.He had to take a break to get the blackberry branches back up in the fence. We will use these blackberries to make our world-famous (well, Southwest Indiana-famous, anyway) homemade blackberry ice cream all summer.

Every fall, we say we are going to redo this fence. Every spring, we wish we had redone it. Watch out for the thorns, honey!Cody and Sadie are pretty happy that they don’t have to walk through a forest every day anymore. Good dogs!He was doing such a good job (and my light was fading), that I thought it was safe to go inside and relax.Then I saw a tractor drive by the front of the house.

I know what that means.

Someone got the lawnmower stuck. In the fence. The electric fence.Yep, it’s lawnmower season, all right!

Not all bad

This rain hasn’t been all that bad. But there was no pot of gold in our barn. (I checked.)

Wordless Wednesday

No woman is an island

But sometimes she lives on one.

This morning, I looked out of the bathroom window. The cows had a new swimming pool.
Ah, crap. We had gotten 3 inches of rain overnight. The ditch was full, and the road was flooded.

Some of this water is in the ditch. Some of this water is in our pasture and our hayfield. Some is in the neighbor’s wheat field. Some is completely covering the road.
Our driveway was flooded, too.

Our driveway is the curve coming on the right side of this picture. See the straight line of fence posts at the bottom of the hill?
Those line the edge of the driveway. At 7:00 this morning, the driveway was 1.5 feet underwater.
There was no getting down the driveway.
I have always wanted a lake house, but this is not what I had in mind!

I have never been more glad to live uphill!!
Normally, I would be just thrilled at being stuck home all day. Unfortunately, Farmer Doc had to do some surgeries at the vet clinic this morning, and I had to go check on a pregnant mare.

So we waited a bit. Luckily, it had stopped raining.

At 9:00am, the waters had come down. A little.
There was only 1 foot of water on the driveway. So we left. In pickup trucks. (It was a little dicey.)

When I got home at 2:00pm, we were in the clear.

The driveway was visible.
The road was dry. (Well, not dry. But it was no longer underwater.)
The cows had lost their lake front property.
But it has started raining again. And it’s not planning to stop.
We are expecting another 1-3 (and maybe up to 5!) inches today.

Wish me luck!!!