It's official!!!! Spring is here. Just finished planting tomatoes (4 kinds), peppers (3 kinds), cabbages (red and kraut), brussel sprouts, basil, parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary, lemon grass, leeks, and repotted some herbs I had in the window of the sun room. In 3 weeks I will plant cucs, squashes, and the rest of that family. They will be moved to the green house shortly and the fun begins again. It's totally rejuvenating to plant the seeds, watch them grow and know that we will enjoy the "fruits of our labor." Sounds kind of corny but to this city kid, it will always be a thrill.

Back to that cottage cheese. Somehow not everyone found that to be a great event. One son thought it was rather funny, the other asked if there was a shortage of cottage cheese at the store. One daughter can't wait to try it herself, the other just smiles and knows Mom is having a good time. Seriously, there are so many things in this world that I want to do and try before I die. Later this week we are making butter. I remember doing that at Grandma's when I was a kid. Brother, Mike, always got to churn more than Gerry and I. Come to think of it, Gerry probably got to churn the least. Oh, well. And, I didn't mention that Lisa and I made mozzarella when she was here. It was delicious. Come on over and I'll give you a lesson.

March 24 - four days into spring - about four weeks from our first asparagus cutting. So far we have been unseasonally warm and sunny. March has always been wet snow and awful wind; maybe there is some truth to global warming!
The kitchen cupboards, floor and counter tops are in and beautiful. Tom did a super job finishing the wood-it's like satin. There is still a lot of trim work to finish but that will have to wait until a rainy day. Right now Tom is up to his ears in lambs, maple syrup, and garden prep. The next 4 months will be hectic but we are looking forward to it.
I spent a week in Feb. at the Mooses while Mike and Lisa took a cruise to celebrate his milestone. The boys and I spent every minute we could wrapped up in the Olympics or going to their basketball games. Fortunately, a friend of Lisa's, Kathy, was my guide. Nice week.
Mike and Lisa then came up here for the weekend of the 14th to begin my birthday celebration and leave the boys while they were on spring break. This week we got wrapped up in March Madness (not with very good bracket picks!) although the boys spent a lot of time in the woods with Grampa setting up sap lines or in the barn with the lambs. It was a good week.
Convincing my children that I did not want a big celebration for the big 7 -0 was a trick. They settled for grilling at the Duvicks with tiramisu for dessert - perfect! While Mike and Jenny were in Florida, Jaime and Pat in Portland and Mike Moose at work, the rest of us had a wonderful evening. Be watching for a picture of my birthday present! More on that later!
The 22nd finally arrived and surprisingly it didn't hurt a bit! Neighbor, Joe, and I made cottage cheese for the first time - it was delicious! Tom and I went out for lunch at our favorite German restaurant (wish I had that meatball recipe with caper mustard sauce) and then bought the flag to go on our flagpole in the front yard. So many emails with good wishes arrived during the day that I had to wait until later in the evening to enjoy all of them!
Plan for the day is to start planting tomatoes, etc., and get the green house ready to go. I already have lettuce ready in the sunroom and lots of herbs about 3 inches high. Spring is here. The winter was hard but somehow we forget that when spring finally arrives.
Enough for now. Someone told me blogs were supposed to be short and concise. Ha!
More later.

Some one once told me that wisdom comes with age. That is not guaranteed! Here we are, tearing up the kitchen (again) to add new cupboards and countertop. And, I find it amazing how many suggestions and criticisms one can get without ever asking a question! My favorite comment is "I'd never do that!" Anyhow, it's exciting to know that the kitchen will have a facelift and that it will be done before asparagus time! Now if we can just work on facelifts for the two old folks that live here, we will be in great shape!

Happy New Year! A little late but still well meant! Our holiday season was wonderful - we spent Christmas in Kansas with the Mooses and enjoyed a TranSiberian Orchchestra Concert and delicious baby back ribs from Mike's smoker. New Year's was actually our family Christmas at the Duvicks with all but Patrick and Jaime (that's a tough season for them to travel.) One of the highlights of the whole 2 weeks was a sleigh ride as you can see from the pictures. It was so cold but such a beautiful day and truly an adventure for all of us - one we hope to repeat next year.
We spent the weekend after New Year's at the annual Berry Growers Conference at Chula Vista in the Dells. As usual, we learned at lot, ate way too much, met some really nice people and caught the spring fever virus! Our seed order has arrived, the new strawberry and blueberry plants are on order, the garden plan is determined, and if the snow would go away and the weather would warm up, we would be outside right now! Two months and a week and spring will actually be here; however, spring in Wisconsin is hardly ever predictable. We do know that by the end of April, first of May, we will be enjoying asparagus, and I will be looking for new recipes. After that the fun begins with the strawberries and trying to stay ahead of the vegetable garden.
There's still time left before gardening to finish lots of projects - knitting, kitchen, shelving in the shop, lambing - enough to keep us busy and make us wonder where the time went!
Be watching for the annual newsletter in the mail, email, or here.
Back later!

Grapes are ready to juice or make jam. Picked a 5 gallon bucket last evening in about 10 minutes from the arbor by the house. The garden grapes are just as thick! The juicer will be steaming until there's about 12 quarts ready for juice or jelly. Last year a lot of grapes simply fell off one day and that was the end of the season.
Tomatoes are finally getting ripe but not in the abundance of last year. Seems like we just didn't have enough really hot, sunny days to give them the boost they need. But, there will be salsa and juice and plenty of spaghetti sauce. Carrots are the best in years. Friend, Paulette, and I canned about 40 pints of carrots and 50 pints of potatoes. It was a new venture for us and one we just had to try. The jars of orange and white look gorgeous! Such fun! Beets are just waiting to be pickled and canned. Too bad so much produce comes at one time.
Sauerkraut is on week 3. We did some regular kraut and then some with caraway, mustard seeds, and green apples. We are anxious to see how it turns out. One cabbage weighed 17 lbs. We sliced it in the food processor, and Tom stomped it with his homemade stomper. It's a lot of work but doesn't take long. It's another one of those processes we had to try a few years back and just can't quit!
Apples on the old tree are beginning to fall - nature's way of saying "get out here and pick me!" We have 4 bags of dried apples ready for the grandkids and 6 quarts of apple pie filling. We need to do lots more but that will have to wait until mid-October. There just aren't enough hours in the day!
Neighbor, Joe, is chopping corn so we know it will soon be time to pick the small field we have. Seems like it was just planted. Where did summer go?
Belle is growing - she's into the adolescent stage right now. We had forgotten what a puppy can find to chew. She loves ice cream pails and carries them by the handle in her mouth - looks like she's really on a mission. Learning not to jump on people is a really hard lesson. She knows what we say and will stay down but it is so hard when you are so very happy to see everyone! Casey is still ignoring her as best he can. That still makes Belle stand back and give him a look like, "what is your problem?"
We had a funeral on Saturday - Tom's cousin, Bob. Once again we have to stop and take a good long look around us. We know that things will never be the same again, the lesson we learn each time someone dies. And, once again, we are overwhelmed by how very fortunate we have been over our lives with family and friends. We will miss him.
Take care, all of you.

Let's go

Weekend of the 4th is over and back to business. Strawberries are winding down, this will be the last week we pick. Tom will mow them off in another week. It always looks so awful with the plants mowed but they soon come back with new growth for next year. Berries were so good this year, thanks to Mother Nature's cooperation and lots of hard work. The new patch of trial strawberries is coming along well. We're already anxious to see what they bring next summer.

Mike, Lisa, Kyle and Cody spent the holiday with us; the boys stayed and Lisa will be back to get them this week. She has to get her "berry picking fix!" Yesterday morning she picked 6 quarts of red raspberries to take back to Kansas. As usual, Lisa made jam - she loves to give it to her friends and the teachers as gifts.

The boys and I are planning to get dozens of little chores done that have been ignored the past 3 weeks. We saw "Ice Age 3" last night and enjoyed it immensely. Even they are fascinated by the fact all 4 of us can go to River Falls for a movie, popcorn and a soda for about $15. They love it!

Jane and the girls will be back on Thursday so we'll have a busy house for a few days. Such fun! Hopefully Mikes' family can join us somewhere in there. Kids, bikes, picnics and just being outside - isn't that what summer is all about! (and don't forget the berries!)

For those of you who don't know, that last picture is son-in-law, Mike Moose at the Kansas City Barbeque Contest with Guy Fieri from Food Network. Not sure how he does it but Mike meets some really neat people!