Goodbye, Belle

Sadly, Prairie House's number ONE and only dog died this morning. Belle was a terrific dog who was very well behaved and highly intelligent. She was very protective and active until she had a stroke a couple of years ago and had been failing in health since then. Evelyne and Rick had been struggling with whether it was time to have her put to sleep. She didn't appear to be in any pain and although she frequently acted like an old person with Alzheimer's she was still a great companion for Evelyne. We are sad she is gone and will miss her for a long time. She was part of the family for nearly 16 years. We are grateful she chose her time to go and didn't have to make that decision for her. Goodbye, Belle.

Rhubarb Jam

I have a really simple recipe for making Rhubarb Jam. It is time consuming but easy. No pectin required. I just finished my second batch for this year. The first was Rhubarb/Cherry. It was a little to sweet for my preferences. This batch was Rhubarb/Black Cherry. It is interesting. Confusing to the taste buds as it is both sour and sweet at the same time. I haven't tried it on bread yet, but it is too bold tasting to eat very much of it just off the spoon.

I want to be reincarnated as:

A cat whose human treats me as well as the cats who live at Prairie House.

The gray kitty resting in ultimate comfort is Slippers who was Dad's cat that disappeared for 3 months and came to the farm really skinny. My how things change.

King Kong is the other handsome dude.

A bird's life is hard.

Earlier this spring a wind storm removed some of the soffit from the house. We added repairing that to the list of things Tanner would do while he was here working. In the meantime, a grackle (which is pretty much a junk bird, but still one of God's creatures) decided it would be a great place to raise her babies. She built a terrific nest and faithfully brought them bugs after they hatched. Unfortunately, her timing was off. The birds were not ready to fledge by the time Tanner was ready to repair the soffit. He removed her babies (which became cat toys and eventually food), removed her nest, and closed the soffit. Several minutes later Mombird came back with tidbits for her young. I felt sorry for her. She flew to where she thought she should be, but Alas! there was no home there for her? She landed on the lower portion of the roof and looked around. She flew up to the top level of the roof and looked around but still no babies in sight. She dropped her morsel of food and called for her babies to no avail. Silence. It took nearly an hour for her to accept that something had gone terribly wrong and fly away to find a more suitable nesting site for the future. I was sad for her, but sure glad the hole in the soffit was closed up finally.

One prolific rose.

This is just one rose. It has both pink and white blooms on it. Every spring it is covered, just like you see it here.

mmm good

Tanner dispatched our young rabbits last week. I cooked one for dinner tonight and it was scrumptious! I had forgotten how delicious the meat was. A bonus, rabbit is one of the healthiest meats you can eat in terms of cholesterol and fat....it contains little if any of either one. Rabbits sell for $14 each on the food coop (plus 10% fee). Thinking about that made this one taste even that much better! I had previously thought I might refrain from letting them have any little ones. Tonight's dinner changed my mind.

Instant Lawn

A friend of mine in Saint Francis has been redoing her yard and adding raised bed planters and areas for plants to add color to her yard. Today she had the landscaper come and dig up some sod from her yard. He wanted to charge her $100 to haul it away and it most likely would have ended up in the landfill here. She called and asked if I knew anyone who could use some sod. It seemed like such a shame to have it go to the landfill. So Evelyne, Tanner and I took the trailer (which was still attached to the truck from a supply run on Monday and which Tanner maneuvers quite well...unlike my sister and I handle it) to town and loaded it up to bring back here. From her description, I thought it would be a small amount. It ended up being a whole trailer full..an 18 foot car hauler trailer full.

We put lots of it to use on the west side of the house by the new deck.

What was left over Tanner took home and is going to surprise his Mom (who will be gone for a week or so) with a new lawn around their front door. What a good boy he is~!

Turk is very popular

Apparently our Tom Turkey "Turk" is a handsome, popular dude. Here is a picture of a lady who came to visit him recently.

Prairie House is changing again

Here are some pictures of the new deck Earl is building on the west side of the house.

Tanner is working here again for a month or so making more changes. He has taken out the old stair treads which were becoming dangerously unsafe and installed brand new ones. Now we just need to find the paint and stencils for those. He has the new closet upstairs 90% done and can't finish the rest until I make a supply run for him.

After he is finished, Evelyne and I will get the floor arranged and a couple coats of polyurethane on it. Then we will move the furniture from the extra bedroom on the main floor upstairs and have a nice master suite since we got the bathroom and new windows added last year.