Red Dirt Farm and Studio

Food and dirty dishes.

Cooking, eating, growing my own herbs these passions collide into a beautiful thing.

When there is a dishwasher in the house.

 

We have been without a dishwasher for almost a year.  It was broken beyond repair, and the funds weren’t there to replace it and or there were other financial priorities.  Truly, I tried all kinds of things to make hand washing dishes a more enjoyable experience, but I just wasn’t into it.  A shiny new dishwasher arrived last week, and in the Department of irony – a few days later the faucet at the kitchen sink broke.

 

 

 

During that time we were without a dishwasher, I found that I wasn’t enjoying cooking as much as I normally do.  I’m pretty sure it was because I was dreading the clean up afterward.  I’m one of those cooks that make a huge mess as I go.  Yes, I do.  The arrival of the new appliance and with oh so many wonderful herbs growing in our gardens at this time I’m back on track with a joy of cooking.

 

Look closely.

Do you see my little friend?

 

 I’m anxious to do some canning and preserving.

 

Along with the chickens and the peacocks, I keep eating all the fruit that is ripe, long before I can even think of putting it up.  But really, it is so hard to beat just plucking it straight off the vine, tree or shrub and eating it right then and there.  We have lots of blackberries, blueberries, and mulberries ripe for the picking.

 

Food for Pollinators.

 

 I spread seeds back in early spring, from American Meadows.  The poppies are popping right now and that makes me happy.

 There are also, a lot of ornamental grasses blooming at this time.  Boo likes to hide in the tall grass and play hide and seek with me.  He smiles real big when he thinks I can’t see him

 The germination wasn’t very good this spring.  Poor weather conditions were certainly a contributing factor.

 

 

 

I’m pleased that although not the flower success I had hoped for, there are enough plants of interest that are attracting many pollinators.

 Calling all Monarchs, I finally have Milkweed which is a host plant, getting ready to bloom.

 

 

 

 

Predators.

This has been a busy week for me chasing off predators.  This week the flock has been saved from a very persistent Cooper’s Hawk and a sneaky fox.  Also, one snake met his maker.

 A branch from an oak tree hangs above the peacock house.  There are several robin and blue jay nests on that one branch.  Sadly, right before my eyes, the hawk swooped down and snatched the blue jay baby and flew off above my head.  I don’t know if I or the blue jays screamed louder.  It was awful witnessing that.

 

House Addition.

We passed our inspection this week.  That’s a BIG WOOT WOOT!  We are beyond happy and now can tie up some plumbing issues and then move on to doing the insulation, and then the drywall.

 

Some other thoughts –  finding myself.

I think I had a bit of an epiphany this week.  When my artwork was the center of my world, I wrote an art blog, a couple actually.  I have a photography blog and I have this blog.  None of these blogs have ever had much success if you measure success by the number of readers.  Many times I’ve thought about not blogging anymore.  I’m not a how toer, meaning I don’t ever write posts telling people how to make art, how to take photos or how to live a farm life, raise chickens or how to grow flowers.  I don’t follow instructions, so how could I possibly instruct others?  My epiphany is this – I’m a storyteller,  either through my words or my photos and that is what my blog is about.  I found myself this week. Don’t laugh, I’ve been wandering this on-line world, looking for myself for a long time.  Never really finding my niche, not sure of my direction.  Nothing has changed as far as my blog goes, I just feel like I understand myself and my blog a little better.

And finally,

Mail Art.

Miss Linda of Southern Rural Route, a fellow blogger and garden enthusiast, crafter supreme, mentioned that one of my images in my Faux Instagram post would make great mail art.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  I thought mail art was when you hand decorated an envelope.  A week later, Mr. Cottage handed me a piece of mail.  I looked at it and thought wow that’s a cool photo.  Then duh, it is my photo.  Bwahaha, it totally caught me off guard.  Linda printed my image and attached it to a perfect match of blue cardstock, making a postcard and mailed it to me.  How fun is that?  I framed it and hung it in my kitchen.

It is little things like this, that really make blogging a joy.

 

 

 Welcome new readers, I hope you enjoy your time here and join the conversations.

 

Thank you for being here today.

xo Kim

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Red Dirt Farm