Penny and Matilda

Warning...This is probably highly boring for anyone other than myself, but as I'm using the blog as a way to document my personal history, I needed to include it.

It stayed light very light out on Tuesday evening. I remember at around 8:30pm or so thinking that it looked more like 6:00pm.

I was out working in the yard and saw all three ducks in the pond swimming around. I decided to wait a little while before putting them in their pen for the night since it was still light and they seemed to be enjoying the extra play time.

When Brian and Jake got home from their baseball game, I asked Brian to help me get the ducks in--(it was about 8:45pm)--and still light! But when we walked to the back yard, we noticed that only two ducks were standing on the bank.

Little Peep was the one missing and she was no where to be found. We looked for her everywhere and I was in a frantic state. At one point we realized that something must have killed her although we could see no evidence of it at the time.

The next morning, my neighbor called me and asked me if one of my ducks was missing because his son had seen a dead duck in the road in the new development behind us. There was no way she could have walked that far, so it was clear that some animal had dragged her or flown her there. She was around 7 pounds, so that limited a hawk. We are pretty convinced it was a raccoon based on the condition that she was found in.

My neighbor Jeannie drove over to get her body and bring it home to examine. We will bury her in a few days...

I felt literally sick when I found out Little Peep had been taken. She was one of my original females. I only have one original duck left. The saddest part of the whole thing is that her sister was heartbroken and wouldn't leave her pen for almost an entire day. Brian says that animals don't have emotions, but I say he's crazy! This poor little duck just sat there and wouldn't eat even strawberries...

She still continues to be out of sorts, but she's at least leaving her pen and seems to enjoy foraging...

This whole thing presented a dilemma as I feared that if something else happened to one of the other two ducks, the one remaining would be a lonely mess--

It was too late in the season to get more ducklings, so I decided to find an adult female to bring into the mix. Fortunately, I found a place called Last Chance Ranch which is about 45 minutes away that had several ducks that needed homes.

My neighbor, Jeannie, drove up with me and the girls to check it out. When we got there, we found about 6 ducks hanging out in a pen full of pure mud and poop.

The white domestic duck (pekin) that they had was a female and apparently, she had a buddy who was a little brown trout runner. They had been brought to this place as Easter ducklings, and had formed a strong bond with each other, so I decided to adopt them both together...

What was I thinking not wearing my mucking out boots?! It's hard to tell, but this mud was at least 5 inches deep--It was like quicksand!--I'm actually standing on a board in this picture...

Trying to capture this poor thing was a bit of a challenge!...

It was like a circus!--At one point I forgot to close the carrier after I had put the one duck in, so I had to catch her all over again! arrrrrrrgggg

curious bystanders...

After we got the ducks home, I filled up a wash basin to get them cleaned off before putting them in their pen...

The kids helped me come up with the name of "Matilda" for the pekin...(Tilley for short)

This one we named Penny...she's just a little thing...barely 3 pounds...

Runner ducks are often used for herding. They have very long necks and look like bowling pins when they stand up. They are sometimes referred to as

"penguin ducks"...

Look who's head popped up when he heard the unfamiliar quacks...

Here is Jeannie holding Tilley after her bath...

Safely tucked in their cage for the night...

Never in a million years would I have guessed 6 years ago, while living in Manhattan, that I would ever need to purchase something like this!

The drake has been horribly aggressive and territorial, and has been trying to mate with Tilley...(the new pekin)...When ducks mate, the male bites the back of the female's neck sometimes to the point of breaking the skin. He wouldn't let up on her, so I called the feed store where I buy my duck supplies and they suggested this product..."Rooster Booster". It's a tar based solution that you put on the back of the female's neck. The taste of it is supposed to discourage the male from biting her. It hasn't really worked as I would have hoped...so I've had to resort to separating them.

The thing that was most creepy was the label on the bottle that says

"controls cannibalism"--

Good hell! What did I get myself into?!

Anyway, that's what has been on tap over the past week...It's been chaotic and frustrating. I have no idea how I'm ever going to train these two new ones to come into their pen at night. I'm a little nervous about how it's all going to work out...I hope the male duck can get his overactive libido under control!

MEN!

Five for Friday (Tuesday edition)

Just thought I'd share a few miscellaneous musings...

Signs of summer!

(Now that all of the watermelon seem to be seedless, is there any way to grow cherries without the pits?) I still love them anyway!

One last harrah with the peonies! Farewell, until next year--old friends!

This just might be considered the find of all finds!!!

Heather gave me this old glass bookcase. I love that it has a story! This used to be one of Bruce R. McKonkie's old law shelves. His son had a bunch of his law shelves. This one set was in need of repair and was sitting in a horse trailer. Since Heather is good friends with two of his grandsons, they offered them to Rob and Heather when they were first getting married for $100. They've had it in their house for almost 18 years. They've been recently changing their home over to a bit of a more contemporary style and the shelves just didn't work with the new look. They truly hated to part with them but felt that they would have been better suited in a loving OLD home. ...(Lucky me!)

It's so cool to see all of the original tags and hardware and workmanship (old glass)--It will truly be one of our most treasured pieces.

Brian gave me the ultimate gift on Saturday by taking the kids for the day and giving me a break! He drove them up to the Delaware Water Gap (about 2 hours from here) and tuckered them out on a nice long hike. It was nice to just be able to spend time at home and clear my head. I was able to clean (and have it stay clean for a couple of hours) and run some errands without interruptions. Although I've actually enjoyed spending more time with the kids as they are getting a bit older, I need time without them occasionally to recharge my batteries...

I felt refreshed and ready to resume my motherly duties upon their return!

What are neighbors for?!...

My neighbor, Jeannie, keeps fine lager on hand for special guests...(apparently, that includes slugs!) We've had a problem with slugs this year eating the heck out of our peppers, beans, lettuce and broccoli. Rumor has it that beer poured in a shallow dish will attract them and they end up drowning. Die! I say! Slugs--be gone! We'll see how this works out.

Jeannie has a swallow nest in one of her blue bird boxes...

Look what just hatched!

I am so in love!

**What are your signs of summer?

**Does beer really work for slugs?

**Have you had your last harrah with peonies?

**Do you need time alone to recharge your batteries?

**What birds are nesting in your trees?

"Sister, Can You Spare A Dime?"

Last night was our June Enrichment dinner...

(I've been so engrossed with getting all of the details in order that I completely forgot my dear friend, Christine's, birthday and my sister, Joanna's!) I feel literally nausous when I think about it...

June just kind of crept up on me...(So sorry girls!--I'll make it up to you!)

Heather and I decided to go with the Great Depression theme for this month's enrichment dinner...(this was in leiu of the garden party that we usually try to have at this time). Fortunately, we chose a covered location as it was a rainy day...

To say we had a ball planning this would be a total understatement!

These were the invitations...I printed them on the back of grocery bags...

Heather's mom had hosted a depression dinner once in her garage, but with a small amount of people. We decided to go with this same theme only on a larger scale! We were really sweating it even up to the last minute since it was raining out and we couldn't use part of her driveway as the overflow...

I think we ended up with a total of about 37 people...

We loaded up the chairs and tables from the church on Wednesday and got them set up. I went over to Heather's yesterday morning and we taped the unprinted newspaper onto the tables and set up the memorabilia. (old black and white pictures of people in the 1930's, depression glass and other trinkets). We really tried hard to recreate the feel of what it was like in 1930.

A few weeks ago, I went to the library and got books on the 1930's and photocopied some of the old depression time pictures as well as downloaded a few that I found on line...

I just used dollar store frames....

Heather found this awesome 1930's hair tutorial on the internet! It showed how to make a hairstyle using pin curls...It looked a lot easier than it was! We even had to bring the laptop in the bathroom to see step by step instructions on how to do it. We had a great time with this!

Lots of laughs--good times all around!

I didn't have pantyhoes that had seems up the back, so I had Brian use a permanent marker to draw the lines...(It's all in the details, people!)

(notice the tape peeking out)

Apparently, during WWII, there was a shortage of pantyhoes, so the women would sometimes just draw a line down the back of their leg...

This is for all of you sewing gurus out there! Just to prove to you how little sewing skills I posess, here is a picture of how I secured the hem of my dress! ----Packing tape!

Don't judge!--it worked--(although I could hear the sound of the tape rubbing against my leg everytime I walked)

The final look!

The women all wore simple cotton dresses with starched aprons...(I got this dress at Good Will). I really love that even though times were tough for everyone back in those days, people still took pride in themselves and looked as neat as a pin...




Is that apron fabulous, or what?! I have my friend, Suzanne, to thank for that! She had that made for me as a thank you gift for helping her stage her house before she moved. I love the colors, and it looked so perfect! Everyone kept oogling over it--(thanks again, Suzanne!--that was such a great gift!) And to think that I wasn't planning on wearing that as part of my costume at first!?



We used pie tins for the salad and pot pie bowls for the soup...



Nancy Hopkins and I working the soup line...

Menu: Potato soup, bean soup, iceburg lettuce (pre-tossed with an oil and vinegar dressing) and croutons. (As it was rainy and a slight bit chilly, this was a perfect meal on a night like this)



I was disappointed with how the potato soup that I made turned out...



I peeled 20 pounds of potatoes and made everything exactly as the recipe called for. I made it the day before and just heated it up yesterday afternoon. It tasted great when I first made it but after it was reheated, the texture and taste was completely different. grrrrr









Everyone filing through the "soup line"...
We had 1930's music playing during this time...it was really cute....



After dinner, before our presentation started, we served dessert...

Depression Chocolate Cake and Stewed Apple Pudding






( this little Shirley Temple doll belonged to Heather's mother, Sue. It was her doll when she was little).




Both were delicious but we forgot to take pictures of the dessert table! We managed to get an after shot of the cake but never did get a picture of the stewed apple pudding (which was very delicious by the way!)

Recipes:


Depression Chocolate Cake


3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 tsp. baking soda
10 level tsp. of unsweatened cocoa
2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. salad oil
T. vinegar
2 c. cold water


Mix all ingredients until smooth and bake in a greased and floured 9x13 baking dish at 350 for 30 min. or until cooked. Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting.






Stewed Apple Pudding

(Fruit was often cheap in Northern New Jersey in the 1930's because there was still quite a few farms and orchards were plentiful. Their harvest was a boon to all the local housewives and children. This was served as a dessert for the purpose of filling a stomach after a meal that perhaps was not quite so filling.)



**This recipe comes in three parts, cooking the apples, cooking the dumplings and making the hard sauce. All of these are very easy and served warm after the main meal.


Apples

Peeled, cored, and sliced apples

cinnamon and sugar to taste




Place apples, sugar and cinnamon in pan over moderate heat adding water to the bottom of the covered pot (you will need to judge for yourself as this will depend on the amount of apples you are using, but you will need enough to cover the bottom of the pan and see the apples through cooking), occasionally stirring to watch for scorching or burning and adjusting heat accordingly.


When apples ar cooked about half way (not yet fork tender), place dumpling mixture over top of steaming apple mix.


Dumplings

2 1/4 c. Bisquick

2/3 c. milk



Stir ingredients until soft dough forms. Drop by spoonfuls onto steaming mix. Cook uncovered 10 min. then cover and cook for another 10 min. Check to see if dumplings are done by looking in the centre of the largest one; it should be cake-like in appearance with no wet appearance in the center.


Hard Sauce

sugar (to taste)

Butter (softened, not melted)


Cream together and use over warm apple and dumplings










Heather did a great job of highlighting some of the struggles that people went through during those times and how they perservered in spite of their challenges...


She also tied it into how we, in these times, if we are prepared as we have been counciled, than we should have no fear despite what things might come our way.


We can have hope in knowing that we will be taken care of...



After Heather's introduction, I spoke for just a few minutes about depression glass and some of the facts about it. Depression glass was colored glass that was manufactured by machines very cheaply. Many places such as movie theatres or gas stations used it to encourage people's business. Quaker Oats and other food manufacturers used to put a piece of glassware in boxes of food, as an incentive to purchase. It was sold primarily at "five and dime" stores.




After my presentation, we showed a 7 minute video clip that was projected onto the side of the garage wall. We found a woman on you tube that teaches about depression cooking. Her name is Clara, and she's 93 years old. She shows how to make some of the dishes that they made back then and mingles in some stories. Although the sound wasn't very loud, it was still really cute.





If you're interested in seeing her cute clip, just click here!


Nancy Hopkins put together a really nice power point presentation about how the music back in the 30's helped pull people through. She had music playing thoughout...



I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of the vintage snow white and seven dwarfs that Nancy had brought for display. We had those sitting on the dessert table. They were really neat!



Here we are at the end of the night. Not a hair out of place! I kept saying that the reason why I think they called this "the depression era" was because the thought of having to get up every morning and go through all the trouble of putting their hair in pin curls must have been mighty depressing!







(Unless, of course, we could all be promised to have THIS hair afterward!)

I love this girl! We have so much fun together. I almost feel guilty sometimes that we enjoy our calling so much--

All in all, I think everyone had a fun time and left with a better appreciation of the sacrifices people had to make back in those times. I feel pretty certain that up until last night, most of us would never have been able to boast that we had eaten in a garage.

**Doesn't this sound like fun?
**Do you know any depression era recipes?
**Have you ever had dinner in a garage before?
**Would you have gone to the trouble of pin curling your hair?

Five for Friday

1. Jake told me a few weeks ago that he had seen a snapping turtle down by the bus stop. I've been panicked about this ever since because snapping turtles are one thing that you don't want inhabiting a pond! Since the kids spend a lot of time frogging, catching tadpoles and fish, a snapping turtle in the vicinity is bad news! Not to mention, my ducks would make a fine meal for this guy!

Brian spotted it again last Saturday starting to make it's way across the street onto our side (destination: pond!) I immediately gave him the command to shoot it with his pellet gun! I'm very anti-hunting and killing animals for sport, but this was just something that had to be done.

If this were the kind of thing that we could just capture and release it somewhere else then we would have done that. These guys are mean and we would risk getting chunks taken out of us in the relocation attempt. I felt pretty bummed out about the whole thing the whole day. I just hated seeing an innocent thing die like that.

2. Onto a lighter topic...

When the kids were all looking for souvenirs the other day at Hershey Park, I kept trying to convince Reilly to purchase something that had "Hershey" printed on it. Instead, she chose these "Barbie" sunglasses which could be purchased ANYWHERE!

I noticed the "souvenir-ized" sunglasses yesterday with "Hershey Park" written on them in marker.

This just cracked me up to no end!--Most of the time she seems to resent any advice that I offer her and even if deep down, she might agree with what I'm saying, she will do the complete opposite just to be defiant. She usually ends up ultimately taking my advice, but only later and I can't make any mention of it and say things like "I told you so"...

3. My neighbor, Lynda, and I put together this box of goodies for a guy that is serving in the military in Afghanistan. He is someone who is serving with my blogger friend, Jen's, husband Shane. Shane had mentioned to Jen that this man never gets any letters or packages. We had a great time thinking of things that he might enjoy. The kids all drew cute pictures and we wrote him a letter. I don't know why I didn't scan the cards to document! Oh well...just know that they were really sweet.

This was originally intended to be done over Memorial Day weekend, but the time just got away from me. So....better late than never....


4. This is how big of a weakness for candy that I have...
These Mike & Ikes were originally intended for the military goody box. I couldn't even resist having them in my house for one measly afternoon! It was a toss up of these or Hot Tomales!
I am soooo getting diabetes!

I eat them in order...red, pink, orange, yellow and lastly...green! I don't like the green flavor even though it's my favorite color...Go figure!

5. Be still my heart! My first peony opened today! This variety is called 'Gay Paree' and usually opens before the 'Sarah Burnhart' ones do. Can you believe that nature can produce such beauty and perfection?! I mean REALLY!

**Would you have tried to capture the turtle and relocate it?

**Did you think it was funny that Reilly "souvenir-ized" her sunglasses?

**Have you sent any "good mail" to someone serving in the military lately?

**Are you a candy nut?

**Is that peony just crazy beautiful, or what?!

garden tour

Behold!...

The fragrance is intoxicating!

This is a veiw of the beginning of the path as you enter the herb/rose garden.

Although there are many blooms on the rose bushes, some of them have already shown signs of blackspot...Unfortunately, I think all the rain we got a couple of weeks ago spurred that on. However, I think everything is greener now than it's ever been.

Growing roses in Pennsylvania is an uphill battle, (it's very humid and hot here in the summers), but I enjoy them so much, it's worth all the hours I put into this hobby!

In addition to blackspot, we also get Japanese beetles which are beyond destructive. I seem to have planted a Japanese beetle garden...grrrrrrrr

I haven't been able to go the organic route when treating my roses for diseases--(other than a manure tea that I make up for them). I have to use bold chemicals to keep the blackspot at bay.

Collette climbing rose...

Lemon balm, oregano, lavender, daylilies, calamint, English roses, oriental poppies...

Shrub roses, russian sage, foxglove, tea roses, floribunda roses...


verbascum (peach flowers on right) and lime thyme

Brian keeps asking me why I don't have more peony plants since I'm so in love with them...

Just wait until they open up!!! I'll be sure to document that glorious occasion!

I love the irises that grow all along the perimeter of the pond! The yellow ones bloom first and are then followed by the purple.




This is a picture of our shade garden in the side back yard. This was another project that Brian and I did together. This little shade garden wasn't here when we moved in, either.

Look at how the color of the creeping jenny really pops all of the different shades of green...

This plant in the middle is called Lady's Mantel. It's one of my favorites to use in flower arrangments. Unfortunately, it only blooms in late spring / early summer.




I keep forgetting to take weekly pictures of the vegetable garden to see how quickly things are progressing from week to week.

Gardener's Creed

I believe in good brown earth,

sun and seed and soil,

Rest is sweetest when it

comes after happy toil.

I believe in miracles, bud and

leaf and fruit,

Springing into loveliness from

the miracle root.

I believe that God, who made worm and bird and bee,

Wanted us to make His world

beautiful to see.

Meant us to be gardeners,

making green things grow,

I believe we do His work

when we plant and sow.

I believe that He whose hand

fashioned Eden's bowers,

Put into the heart of man,

love of trees and flowers.

That is why a garden gives us

blessing manifold,

Health and healing and

contentment, peace and joys

untold.

By Martha Lowry

**What is your passion?