Barnominium

Barnominium

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Fried Veggies!

Have you heard the saying, "The Garden is coming in." Well, it is....and that means that there are veggies to pick.  In my case the Squash is producing like crazy.  I have also picked one eggplant and a small Chili Bell Pepper. 

So, living in the South, of course we love some fried food.  And, something healthy like a salad with fresh lettuce from the garden as well.

I love frying up some vegetables. Mine is more like Fried Goulash.  I don't know why I started calling it that.  Maybe, because it is never just one vegetable, they all get mixed in one bowl and it all goes in the skillet at the same time.

I am no fancy cook, but I do love to eat.  So, I thought I would show you how I do it.

 Get some good Vegetable oil and put it in your skillet to start heating up.  I heat mine on med/high.


Beat an egg in a large bowl.
Eggplant, skin and cut.
Patty Pan Squash
Quarter and slice

Of course, I HAVE to add Onion
Salt & Pepper.  Stir veggies to coat everything in the egg.
I added a small Yellow squash also, then add flour on top.
Mix it all up
When your grease gets hot, just dump the veggies into skillet   





Start turning veggies as they brown.
When browned, use spatula to take veggies out and put on plate covered with paper towels.
Now, this is some good eating!  When the Okra comes in, that will be added to the mix.

Monday, June 24, 2013

How does your garden grow?

We were out of town for five days and this is what my garden looked like....:(   Full of grass!

 After weeding some of it..but I am not done.... See the wheelbarrow full of grass.
Yes, there are flowers and veggies!
Some of the squash had gotten to big!
Today's bounty, plus the ones I fried up last night!
Basil, I never have cooked with fresh, time to give it try!
Better Boy Tomatoes- I have always had success with these!
They took awhile to kick in growing this year!
Cucumbers
Sweet Corn, I planted a couple of short rows this year
Okra, Love it fried!
Asparagus, This came up wild at the driveway entry. 
 Hibiscus, I have several of these that have come up in the garden.  I suppose.....from the deadheads that I thrown in there off another plant. 
The shade garden looks good!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Hot Springs, AR - A Great Weekend Get Away!

Hot Springs, AR is a great weekend get away! The town offers many things to do, great restaurants, three lakes, Magic Springs Amusement/water park, Concerts at Magic Springs, Oaklawn Race Track and much more.  Many of these I have discussed here on the blog, one under PAGES - Hot Springs, AR -My Picks for a Visit and under LABELS - Hot Springs.

Today's suggestion is pretty short and sweet, go Downtown.  I love Downtown.  This past weekend we went down to the Gallery Walk. The Walk is held Every 1st Friday of Month until 9pm.  Many of the galleries offer refreshments and wine.  The galleries were packed, the great weather and wine brought out a crowd.  The galleries have all kinds of art, modern, contemporary, landscapes, pottery, hand made jewelery, etc.  Some of the artist are always on hand to talk with as well.


I just loved this!  All of her paintings had some little saying on them.  Yep, not in my budget.  And most of them are not, but I enjoyed looking....

While walking around we heard music coming from the Quapaw Bathhouse, so we walked over to check it out.  They will be having music night from 6:30 - 8:30 on the first Friday of the month.  We sat on the front porch, enjoyed the nice weather and music, while, yes we had a glass of wine.  Afterwards we took a short tour of the bath house.  They will be next on my list for a mineral bath.

Hot Springs got it's name from the hot springs coming up out of the earth.  The story goes that Indian tribes use to visit the springs and even enemy tribes would come together in peace at the springs.  Check out some of the history at  http://www.hotsprings.org/pages/history/

Our view on the porch.

Saturday we purchased our Season Pass for Magic Springs Amusement Park and we attended the Easton Corbin that evening.  They have a season packed with concerts, Rock, Christian and Country. www.magicsprings.com/

I am thinking......I should get some advertising dollars out of this......   Let me know if you visit, IF my blog helped you out...and what you did.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Is it a Golf cart?

Sometimes a name is not all that it applies.... this weekend the Golf Cart was a landscape wagon one day and...


A fishing buggy the next..


 Used to go down the hill to the pond.  Walking down isn't bad, but coming up with a handful of stuff....well it was more fun in the golf cart.




Bob, caught the fish Catfish


Then he caught a smaller brim, then he caught this one.  He said if they got any smaller it would be a minnow.




I finally caught a cat.  It was a nice one.  We had a chat and then I released him back to the pond for another day.  It was time to go to work.  I still had plants to plant.

Hello!

Monday, June 10, 2013

Cont...Retaining wall & Gardening....

This Yard is at our home in AR.  We purchased the home in Aug 2011 and have been busy painting and upgrading the inside and out!  The inside and front yard were the most important.  Now, it seems that I have the front beds full and the relocation of some retaining wall blocks sent me to the back yard.  Landscaping is really not in the budget at this time.  Each trip I have carried over plants that I have divided or traded for.  BUT, then I stopped by Lowes....and they were having a major clearance on plants. I hit the Lottery on this one.  I purchased four Azaleas priced at $18.95 for $2.00 each and some perennials for $2.00 as well. My total bill with tax was $27 for over $120 in plants.  That makes a girl that likes to play in the dirt, Happy!


Golf cart gone mad! Today it is a landscape wagon and sometimes it is a fishing buggy....  Some of my plants from home and some purchases.

The back of the house has had nothing done to it and the ground is crappy.  When in investing in plants, they need to have good dirt.  In your case, that means buying some dirt/organic material to add to the bed.  In my case that means loading the truck down with horse manure from my mulch pile.  It is wrapped in a tarp to make the 4 hour trip. I needed one more tractor bucket load...:(



 First, I got them spaced out the way that I wanted them.  These are Herbert's Azalea and the label said that they get something like 4 x 5, but the guy working at Lowes that day said they get more like 7'.  Of course you can prune them.  There are things along the back wall that I did not need to block, a dryer vent, sewage clean out, vent for under the house and water faucet.


Here is the bed and what I had to deal with...Rocks and Roots.  My husband was mowing the grass, but he took a break to come check on progress and made the comment that he was glad that I wasn't getting paid by the hole.


 Normally, I like to dig a hole twice as deep and twice as wide as needed.  Then I fill good soil back in to bring the depth of the hole up to were needed.  This gives the roots easy access.  But I only got these holes just the depth needed.  What a work out!

Not deep enough yet!


A common mistake is putting your plants to close to the house.  I allowed 36" because these plants get big and if we needed to access something on that wall.

Like to open or close this
Finally deep enough

The dark stuff is horse manure and shavings that have been sitting in a mulch pile.  I mixed it with the dirt that came out the hole to fill in back around the bush.  I used the rest of it to mulch around everything.

 NO, the retaining wall is not finished.....This was not a planned project, but a matter of moving these blocks from the front of the house to back.  I was only going to use them around the trees and my project grew. And of course I ran out!  I brought one the blocks home with me to see if I can find some that match or I will go with something with a contrast.(Check back to see what happens!)


See the rocks piled up against the tree....The hostas brought from home, except the center one.  I bought it.  It is a different variety than the ones I have.


It is starting to look like a back yard.  All in due time.  I can only get so much done on a weekend.  It wouldn't be much of a vacation home, if ALL we did was work.  Sometimes, it does fill like that thou.
The blocks stop there, because the ground is still rising.  I would have to go another row higher all the way around and it still wouldn't bring them up to the house.  That is if you wanted them level and I do.

Here is a red block that I am considering using......


I added some of the rocks that I picked up to complete the circle.....
This was the first retaining wall that I did.  Again, it stops on the side....As you can see the grade of the ground just keeps getting higher.  To complete the circle, would require going several more rows higher. I going to guess that I would have add at least 2-3 more layers.  This is an established tree and I don't think it would be wise to start covering the root system up.




A few new plants and a Lilac bush that came from my mom's house.  Now to watch it grow.


This is at the back of the deck.  The Hydrangeas  were planted last fall and came from a Garden Swap group on Facebook.  Check it out, there may be one in your area of the country.

more rock

Another tree.  I don't know what these are....but they love the shade.  I got this last year from the Garden swap.  One poor little vine with no roots.  Lanie, said "Stick it in the dirt and it will root."  Well, it did and it multiplied to the point that I had to thin it out.  I have heard Pope's hat or Potato Plant.  I don't know what it is.  It has cute little white flowers on it too.  If you know what the name is....let me know.

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