Monday, April 18, 2016

Menu Monday April 18th - April 24th

April 18th - April 24th


MONDAY:
Breakfast:  Navel orange, overnight oats
Lunch:  Cottage cheese and peaches
Supper:  Turkey burger and canned yams, salad

TUESDAY:
B:  Pancakes and eggs
L:  Boost (working outside)
S:  Pizza, applesauce

WEDNESDAY:
B:  Navel orange, overnight oats
L:  Scrambled eggs and hash-browns
D:  Homemade chicken soup (from freezer), yams

THURSDAY:
B:  Cold cereal and banana
L:  Tomato soup and toast
D:  Spaghetti with sauce

FRIDAY:
B:  Overnight oats and fruit
L:  Chicken soup
D:  Frozen fish, sweet potato fries and snap peas

SATURDAY:
B:  French toast
L:  Tomato soup
D:  Left over Pizza and applesauce

SUNDAY:
B:  Waffles and eggs
L:  Left-overs
D:  Left-overs  (Clean out the fridge day)

Added note:
My baby chicks are coming next Monday, the 25th!!!
Watch for the posts about them with lots of photos!!

Shirley

Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Hummingbird

This is a re-post from April of last year.  Since April is the time when the hummingbirds return here, I thought it was appropriate to take another look.

The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

These are the amazing tiny birds that migrate up to the eastern part of the US to breed every season.
They weigh well under an ounce.
They can fly as fast as 60 mph and can maneuver forwards, backwards, up and down and can hover in one place by making their wings flutter in a figure eight movement.
They winter in Mexico and Central America!!
Imagine something so tiny traveling that far!!!
And they usually come back to the same exact breeding ground and most of the time the same feeders!
The sound made by their rapidly moving wings gives them their name.
Some people are concerned for this creature because of their small size but hummingbirds are actually quite hardy.  
They are feisty and fearless and will definitely defend their territories.  They are solitary creatures and are not often seen in large groups.  At feeders and around their nests they can be extremely aggressive and will chase other birds.

The adult male has the red throat and slightly forked tail.
The red is actually not a pigmented color but depends on the light and can sometimes appear black.  Both sexes have the iridescent green back.
The hummingbirds usually appear in Ohio from mid to late April.  I always try to have my feeders out by April 15th.
Hummingbird feeders are increasingly popular with Ohio residents and many people believe they have the same birds coming back every year.  Banding experiments prove this can be correct but many new ones also come.
Peak activity periods at feeders are early morning and late evening.  Many see increased activity before and after thunderstorms also.

Reproduction and Nesting

The ruby-throated hummingbirds are polygamous and the male and female only associate during mating.  The females build the nests, incubate the tiny, usually two, eggs till they are hatched and fledge.  (What a gal!!)
The young hatch in 14-16 days and will fledge about 21 days after hatching.
The hummingbirds nest is amazing.
It is so tiny, about the size of a ping-pong ball.
The inside is made of soft cotton and plant down and then plant parts are woven and intertwined with spiderweb silk to hold it all together.  Plant lichen is stuck to the sticky silk on the outside to camouflage it making it almost impossible to find.




I hope you will be so lucky as to attract some hummingbirds to your house.  
Put those feeders out there along with some flowers that they collect nectar from.

Favorite Plants For Attracting Hummingbirds

 
AnnualsPerennialsVinesShrubs
FuchsiaBee BalmCoral HoneysuckleButterfly Bush
ImpatientsCannaCypress VineFlowering Quince
JacobianaCardinal FlowerMorning GloryLantana
JewelweedCoral BellsScarlet RunnerManzanita
PetuniaFour O'ClocksTrumpet CreeperMimosa
SalviaFoxgloveCanary creeperRed Buckey
Shrimp PlantHostaCarolina jasmineTree Tobacco
SnapdragonLupineGlory vineTurks Cap
NicotianaColumbineCypress vineWeigela

Good Luck.
They are the most amazing little birds.

Shirley

Added note:  Here's a YouTube video of a Nature Documentary on the World of the Hummingbird that is just fantastic.
Hope you take the time to watch it.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

My Past Vegetable Gardens

When we first moved out to this house and I got my gardens underway, I had some great big vegetable gardens and worked on establishing perennial gardens all around.
These are some of my vegetable gardens probably in mid-summer.
They were a lot of work and I was really the sole gardener.  
My husband never had that gene!
Of course I was younger then!!
My 4 X 8 raised garden beds now, pale in comparison!

This was June 17th, 2009


Just some of the weekly produce from that garden!!



Here's another spring planting.
The date on this was April 30th, 2000

Same garden June 26th, 2000

Gardening is like a miracle happening before your very eyes.

Shirley

Monday, April 11, 2016

Menu Monday April 11th - April 17th


April 11th - April 17th

MONDAY:  4/11
Breakfast:  Navel orange, overnight oats
Lunch:  Potato pancakes with peaches
Supper:  Roasted chicken, potato and veg.

TUESDAY:  4/12
B:  Potato pancakes and egg
L:  Pizza
S:  Turkey burger and broccoli 

WEDNESDAY:  4/13
B:  Overnight oats and fruit
L:  Chicken soup
D:  Roasted chicken with gravy and veg.

THURSDAY:  4/14
B:  French toast (spelt bread)
L:  Chicken soup
D:  BLT salad

FRIDAY:  4/15
B:  Navel orange and overnight oats
L:  Vegetable omelet
D:  Fish, broccoli and sweet pot. fries

SATURDAY:  4/16
B:  Gluten free pancakes and egg
L:  Eat at barn
D:  Mac & cheese and green salad

SUNDAY:  4/17
B:  Overnight oats with fruit
L:  left overs
D:  left overs, clean out fridge

Monday, April 4, 2016

Menu Monday April 4th - April 10th

April 4th - April 10th


MONDAY:  4/4
Breakfast:  Orange, scrambled eggs with potatoes
Lunch:  Meatloaf sandwich, applesauce
Supper:  Chili, cornbread

TUESDAY:  4/5
B:  Orange, Overnight oats
L:  Chili tortilla and sour cream
S:  Braised chicken breast, butternut squash

WEDNESDAY:  4/6
B:  Waffle and egg, blueberries
L:  Yogurt and applesauce
D:  Chili, cornbread

THURSDAY:  4/7
B:  Overnight oats and fruit
L:  Almond butter and banana 
D:  Leftover chicken with veg.

FRIDAY:  4/8
B:  Orange, gluten free pancakes
L:  Tomato soup and croutons
D:  Fish (from freezer), green beans, sweet potato

SATURDAY:  4/9
B:  Overnight oats with fruit
L:  Grilled cheese
D:  Pizza

SUNDAY:  4/10
B:  Waffles and fruit
L:  Pizza
D:  left overs (Clean out fridge)

Grocery shopping on Wednesday

Shirley

Saturday, April 2, 2016

A Job For Dads


I was going through the thousands of photos I have in my iPhoto and noticed all these pictures of my son, Carl, on different holidays, putting the kids new toys together.
So I collected them up and made this little post.
Hope you enjoy it.
I thought it was cute!











And SOMETIMES he has to put things together for me!!!



Shirley



Friday, April 1, 2016

Gardens Past . . . . Herbs

I walked around my gardens this morning and did some Snapchats about what's left of my big herb garden I used to have.
It's garden season coming up and I'm getting the itch to start.
Too bad it's turning cold for the next week.
Well it will give me some good reading time.
I have a lot of herb gardening books and just garden books in general.


I would like to bring back my big herb garden behind the barn (garage).
This is what it was like about 10 or12 years ago.



It may be too big of a task for me to restart it now but I can begin small and hopefully my handyman will help with the heavy digging parts!

In the meantime, I'll start re-learning about herbs from all these books.

Shirley
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