Susan making jam.

By Susan Shanklin

I was just cleaning my reading glasses to remove a red spot and when I did I smeared it all the way across the lens and then some. “What is that?” I say to myself? “Oh jam.”

I was making rhubarb/strawberry jam this morning and some must have splashed on my reading glasses. I figure, “Better on the glasses then in the eye!”

No, I don’t have strawberries yet and my rhubarb is only about 3 inches tall. I took frozen rhubarb and strawberries out of the freezer.

I best use up the ‘old’ before I start with the new!

I’m giddy with joy that I’m pretty sure spring is here…finally. It could still snow I suppose, but it won’t last. It will only give us bragging rights to show milder-weather states that WE are truly the most hardy of all.

New lambs! New life!

We have baby lambs in the pasture with one very awesome first-time momma. Our flock got thinned to nothing with a genetic disorder. Tom and I said, “We are done with this sheep business! It’s too painful,” Then the two healthy lambs! Well, we’ll see how things go with the sheep crop.

Due to having to butcher too many sheep, it has left no room in the freezer for chicken. My spring chick day isn’t going to happen this year. No fuzzy peep peep. No cluck cluck or cock-a-doodle here this year!

I will have to be content with my garden under lights. I started peppers, tomatoes, basil, cauliflower and broccoli, and oh oh celery, in the house! First time on the celery. I’m thinking of chopping it up and freezing it for winter-time stews and soups. Yum!

Grandpa and Eve planting garlic last fall.

Our wintered kale from last year is STILL chugging along and I pick young leaves for a mini-salad with red onions and garlic from the cellar. The ‘new’ garlic planted last September by little Eve and grandpa is about 10 inches tall. Popped right through the nice thick bed of straw.

I have just about a 1/2 sack of Arikara beans in the basement to winnow yet. I’ll bring them up and empty them out on a sheet on the kitchen floor, fold over one side of the sheet and stomp, stomp, stomp them. Shake and stomp again. Uncover and “Voila!”. Beans at the bottom and I shift out the pods and dirt and save for yummy bean soup.

My neighbor asked me once, “Why don’t you just go to the store and buy a pound of beans for a dollar!?” My eyes blinking in disbelief of such utter nonsense, I said, “Because these are beans from the long ago Arikara tribe in North Dakota! These are organic beans! You can’t buy MY beans at the store!” Ha ha, I get feisty about my beans!

The first of early apples trees are starting to bloom with more to follow as the temperature increases. I see the peach tree we planted last year in the backyard is trying to leaf out. I think I saw it shivering too 🙂

I thought Tom was going to coax his Husky riding lawn mower to mow another year…until it died yesterday. Craigslist to the rescue! He now has a vintage 22 horsepower Craftsman mower with a 44-inch deck. Yeehaw!!!

Plowing in the cold for early potatoes and greens.

The flower garden around the old windmill is boosting of only two tulips this year. One yellow and one red. The bountiful day lilies have been thinned and transported to our daughter Heidi’s Minneapolis city garden. I wonder if our Des Moines daughter, Ruth, could use some day lilies, He he.

The Siberian iris are shooting for the sky. Mounds of glorious green like feather leaves! Oh, oh, can’t wait! You see I have a very watchful eye on this flower garden from my kitchen window. I look every morning to see the progress the earth has released to the light of Sun. Hidden beauty covered by dormant dirt.

“I’m coming through!” cry out the iris and the peonies. “Coming through!” says the bee balm and bell flowers. “Coming through to color Susan’s world!”

Yep, color my world beautiful!