Back from Canada

I'm in the process of getting my pics organized from the trip to Winnipeg with my parents for my Mom's 45th Nursing Reunion. We had a lot of fun and it was really special to meet my Mom's friends. I loved every one of them. What an incredibly diverse group of women, each unique, talented and loaded with individuality. Mom, you're at the top of that list. Reeve and Kyle were in Grandma heaven giving loads of bear hugs and enjoying every minute of it.

How about some Stinging Nettle Pie?

My friend Brenda is always telling me how she loves to cook with Stinging Nettles. She's also a fan of Molly Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook and she told me how she made the Spinach Ricotta Pie using Stinging Nettles in place of spinach. That was one recipe I hadn't tried yet, and I've had the book for over 15 years now!
I took a look at my spinach. Not many of the seeds germinated and then I haven't had a chance to weed it.

Then I took a look at all of the wild nettles we have growing in exhuberant abundance...

and I decided, what the heck! I recruited two gloved kids wearing pants & long-sleeves to help me pick 2lbs of stinging nettles for some pie.

They did a great job and avoiding getting stung. I unfortunately did brush up against the stingers...very reminiscent of a fire ant bite.

I soaked them in some vinegar water for about 10 minutes, rinsed them, then put them into the food processor. After they've been washed they don't seem to sting, so I was acutally able to put them in the food processor with bare hands. They recipe is really easy. I didn't have the needed 16oz of ricotta so I substituted with 16oz of tofu. All I did was saute one yellow onion, then set it aside. Chopped up 1 pound of stinging nettles in the food processor, then set it aside. Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl, added 1/2cup of grated organic cheddar cheese, 16oz of mashed up tofu, a little nutmeg, a little salt, a little pepper, the chopped up nettles, and the sauteed onion, and mixed it alltogether. Oh first you have to make the pie crust...super easy. 1.5cups flour in a food processor with 6 tbls. chopped up butter, turn processor on to blend floor & butter, then while processor is running add about 4-6 tbsp of cold water until you get a dough consistency. Then I just dump the dough into a greased (I use butter) pie pan and form the crust. Then I just put the bowl of mixed nettles & stuff into the crust and bake at 375F for 45minutes.

The stinging nettles are very aromatic and the pies looked and smelled delicious when they came out of the oven.

This is their second piece of pie.

Kyle could have (would have) eaten the whole pie if I had let him, but I cut him off after 2 pieces and told him he could eat some apples if he was still hungry.
The kids and I are traveling to Winnipeg, MB with my parents today for a week. I pushed myself to get my 41 tomato plants planted and I repotted my butternut squash, muskmelons, pie pumpkins, pickling cucumbers, and Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins into larger pots...it's still too cold to transplant them outside.

Tom tilled up the garden for me and I made two 4'x24' raised beds (not framed). I need to put a ton of mulch down the walking rows, so my beds don't crumble, but that will have to wait until I get back. I used scrap wood and sticks for my tomato stakes. I did have a couple of cages.

Tom helped me move this masively heavy railroad-tie looking piece of thick lumber that our neighbor gave us. This sucker was like 10" thick and nearly 12' long. It took us 1/2 the day to move from the upper front yard to the lower back garden using a truck and a dolly (we also cleaned up a lot of junk in between).

You can see it along the left side of the above raised bed. This bed is 4'x12'. I love the railroad tie because it provides a nice place to sit when I weed.
Well I'd better get packing!

La Crosse Children's Museum

Last week the kids had a dental visit in La Crosse, so we decided to make a day of it and went to the La Crosse Children's Museum before the dentist. It's been about 3 years since our last visit to this museum. No new exhibits and there were A LOT of missing items from the old exhibits.

The play gas station/convenience store was missing over 80% of the "fun" stuff that it previously stocked.

The kids still loved it and we stayed two hours. I read my Yoga Journal and relaxed...I never get to read my mags anymore. We arrived right at opening time, so for a long time we were the only ones in the place. Kyle had fun putting on a puppet show with a pig and a cat. (Not sure who the bored kid is & Reeve is in the background)

Kyle loves to put on a show.

The dentist was easy. R&K LOVE to go to the dentist...he has video games and gives out prizes. They can barely wait the 6 months to go again. Reeve had no cavities, but Kyle had "two areas of concern." Ugh! We're going back Tuesday to "fix" those areas.

We had a good weekend. Saturday morning we spent loading up the red truck & "White Hogan" with scrap metal from around the yard & house (tin cans/aluminum cans).

The kids love to go to the metal recyclery...complete with huge magnets & a car crusher. They're not picky about what you bring in, which is a very good thing for us.

They also pay $$...this load was kind of light (despite it's looks) and brought in a cool $70.

The pear tree had beautiful blossoms, but they're already gone & I didn't get a pic...bummer. The apple trees are starting to bloom...they smell soooo gooood!

Here's a pic I took after we recently had the old & dangerous barn bldgs removed...it's going to make for an awesome sled run next winter!

Happy Mother's Day (one day early)

We'd like to wish our MOM'S a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! You gals are the GREATEST!

I've been thawing some frozen strawberries and today (a day early) I'm going to make myself (&Tom & kids) a great big ole Strawberry Cheese Cake! I rarely make deserts, so this will be yummy!

I haven't posted my cross-stitch progress in awhile...that's because I've put it on hold until I finish my current knitting project. Here is the last pic I took before I put it away...you can kinda see why it's not grasping my interest ATM.


Thanks to my MOM I know how to knit! :-)

Thanks to my good friend Dana I've learned how to knit "comfort dolls." They are for a literacy project for the children in Uganda. If you know how to knit and have time to make a couple before the end of this month, please visit the Knitting For Angels website. I love this project because you can use your left over yarn from other projects. Keep in mind this is my third knitting project ever. My first two being dish cloths. Reeve & Kyle love the dolls, so I have to make them a couple next. The first one I made I didn't quite know how to go about embroidering the face...It isn't centered and I used floss instead of yarn. Then you can see how I've experimented with the face...the last one is getting better I think. The first doll was really hard to seam up...I was using a yarn needle and it wasn't sharp enough to go through the stuffing. Oh my fingers hurt pushing it through! I experimented with the second one by making it "thinner" to see if that would help, but he turned out too thin (not very comforting) and the yarn needle still had a hard time going through. The rest I used a sharper needle with thread for the seams, and that seemed (a little pun)to work better. I have a hard time measuring my time, but I think it takes me about 6 hours to make one doll. My knitting is improving and I can purl faster now, before it was a real struggle for me to get the hang of purling.

I also got to test some bamboo needles for this project. I'm still torn on which needles I like better! The bamboo ones are nice and soft, warmer to knit with, a little more grippy. I thought I'd like the more grip factor, but now I'm not sure. The metal needles are cold & noisy, but they are also smooth and a little sharper at the ends which I think is better when you have to "knit 2 together" or "purl 2 together". I have yet to experiment with circular needles. I'm still intimidated by them.
Everyone have a great MOTHER'S DAY!

Mini Bike Trip

It was a beautiful day here yesterday and we were gung-ho to get outside to do some much needed work in the garden & yard. Tom decided to tackle the garden project first and he went to start up the tiller. (We're working on building raised beds, so we don't have to till every year...they're also easier to weed). He couldn't do much until he went to town to get some gas...that's when he decided he was going to try out the flatbed trailer we got for the bike. As soon as the kids heard he was going to ride his bike they started jumping up and down wanting to ride their bikes with him. It's a 5 mile (by bike) trek to Hustler (nearest gas station). We have an alley-cat bike that will attach to a bike for Kyle to ride, BUT he INSISTED on being a "big boy" and riding his own bike. He also INSISTS on having training wheels...but they will be coming off soon.
We have to ride on the road for about 3 miles before we even get to the bike trail. Luckily we live on a very quiet rode and we only saw a couple of cars the whole trip. Both Reeve and Kyle did a super job, and Kyle only complained once. About 1.5 miles into the trip he said he wished he would have agreed to ride on the alley-cat.

Once we got to the bike trail we all had a blast.

The flatbed trailer worked great. Tom said he didn't even notice he was hauling anything. We bought the trailer in hopes of a summer biking camping trip. We plan to leave early on a Saturday and bike on the trail and just see how far we get. There are campgrounds along the way.

We could bike from our house all the way to the Mississippi River and use the bike trail most of the way. We'd only have to ride on the road from our house to the trail. For that trip Kyle will be riding the alley cat. Reeve does excellent on his bike and was biking circles around us.

When we arrived in Hustler. Tom went to get the gas (and some beer) and the kids and I went to the park.

On the way back Reeve was so far ahead he decided to get off his bike and explore the bridge. Kyle raced to catch up with him. He crashed his bike into Reeve's, knocking it over (didn't care) and ran to see what Reeve was doing.

He didn't hesitate and started to climb under the bridge.

He found Reeve and he was thrilled to explore under the bridge.

After a little break and 6 miles into the trip we were ready to hit the trail again...only 4 more miles left and one REALLY HUGE HILL.

Back on the road again...only 2 more miles left.

Kyle was a trooper, and really started to get into a rhythm.

Then we met the hill...the pic below really doesn't capture how steep this beast is. I get to about this point and I have to walk my bike up.

Kyle got a free ride in the flatbed with his bike (we were very careful).

Reeve was anxious to get home and eat some left over pizza.

Up, up, up now we're at the top section of the hill.

After we reach the crest of the hill we get a little ride downhill to our house.

The yard is torn up because our neighbors are going to plant organic feed corn on it this year. They were nice enough to have all the weed trees removed to get the land ready. Hopefully with the fields planted that will cut down the number of ticks we get.

Tom's Face on a Billboard...and 2" of SNOW

The kids love to drive by and say "hello" to Tommy. He'd rather be pushing solar power for the "go green" bit...he's not 100% convinced on the geothermal...it uses a lot of electricity.

Can you believe we had 2 inches of snow here yesterday? I put away all the snow pants! We all had to wear our thermals again yesterday.

I think my Irises (thanks Mom) will survive.

It's a good thing these guys are still indoors...

you can't see it very well, but my parsley did germinate (YAY!) and it's little seedlings are looking strong now. I went and checked on my outdoor spinach last night (it likes a little frost) and they looked teeny, but healthy. The seeds I used were old, so I'm just thrilled some spinach came up. I planted about a 10' row and I saw only 4 little plants pop up...hopefully there will be more. We're so desparate for some dark greens that we've taken to eating dandelion greens with our supper. They're actually pretty good right now, and the kids get a kick out of eating them. Our staple meal this past week has been Quinoa with Kidney Beans and Dandelion Greens...the kids made up a cute little catchy song about them...kinda gets stuck in your head.

Reeve's Solar kit & Lego Creations

Like father, like son... Reeve was super stoked to get a solar experiments kit for his birthday.

It coincided with Tom's recent Solar class beautifully. He ripped the box open, looked at the wiring diagram, and had a little solar operated fan working in no time.

It also runs a small radio and a 7watt light. One of the first things he did with the fan was to carry it outside and blow it on the clothes hanging from the clothes line to help them dry.

He likes to have it handy now in case he gets too hot...that kid is always hot!
Reeve also had some lego creations that he wanted me to post...here is his solar electric car...

and a motor boat...

and a little horse and rider...

They love to play with those legos. Always building, tearing down, and re-building.
We had a productive weekend. The snow has melted, the temps are warming, and it was the perfect time to go and clean the yard...before the weeds and haygrass become too overwhelming. How on earth did we accumulate so much stuff?

Tom's Solar Electric Class

This past week Tom spent in Marshfield, WI taking an Advanced II Photovoltaic Class provided by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association.
Tom was really inspired by the class. He said there were people there as far away as Massachusetts. There were 8 people in his class including the instructor.

It was a great way to celebrate Earth Day.

The class learned how to install two different types of PV panels...a fixed panel (above pic) and a tracking panel.

They installed these panels at the Marshfield Technical College.

This is a pic of a combining box...Tom says it's the PV electrical disconnect.

His teacher liked to call this the battery coffin...

He came home stoked and ready to install a couple of these in our backyard.