Next Chapter in Life - Foster Care

I've fostered in my life. I've always thought that it was something I could offer a dog or horse. A stable environment until they were passed on to a permanent family. I have had countless over the years and most weren't from an organization. The times they spent with me ranged from days to years.

I've never had the mother gene. I don't look at babies and think "Awwww I can't wait to get married and have some of my own"....my thought process has always been "Awwww cute....don't want one"

That being said I do like children but prefer older children. I am at a point in life where I'm happy, stable, have a good job, when I finish school I will have more time, and I have space.

I filled out my application to become a foster parent in my county a few weeks ago. Today I talked to my contact who stated that everything looks good and I will be added to the licensing class in the fall. Its 30 hours and afterwards they will do home checks and I'll be added to the foster parent list.

I have 1 spare bedroom with 2 twin beds so I will be able to have 2 girls or 2 boys. I plan on starting with ONE though. I have support from my family and think that with the horses, cat, dog, chickens, garden, yard, lack of TV, and microwave it will be quite a shock to stay with me.....my goal be to provide a stable environment until they are placed back with their family or adopted.

I'm really looking forward to it!!

Ugh Frost

My garden is growing leaps and bounds even with the 2 nights of frost warnings we had last week. I tried to cover what I had with straw but I had too many plants and not enough straw. The good news is that I planted early enough that the plants were strong enough and were unaffected.

We haven't been getting much rain here lately so I've been watering twice a day if I can. This was the last time it rained:

The lack of rain means I've been doing tons of planting and when I went to Dad's this past weekend he loaded me down with volunteers from his house. I'm going back this coming weekend and hope to snag some more.

He gave me a hydrangea that wasn't happy at his house....I'm not sure why his other one is over 9' tall. The lambs ear beside it came from him too. He is sick of it and says you can't kill it with roundup...I was all over it. It will cover up all the rocks and stumps I'm growing in my yard!

This is an oak leaf hydrangea he gave me. Its having a rough transition but hopefully it will spring back.

I got some volunteer Wax Myrtles from him too. I potted them to baby them some but 2 of the pots aren't doing well. I plan on snagging more of these this weekend. They get huge and are beautiful.

A friend of mine swapped plants with me and brought me this HUGE hydrangea that is doing great! She brought me some astilbe, coneflower, and peonie? I suck at remembering the names but I'll get pics of those too.

I think at least one of my broom bushes will go out front with the hydrangeas.

The grapes in the back yard are REALLY taking off and I'm thinking next year I might need to move my garden to that part of the yard. In the mean time I think I'm going to start planting some other plants in front of that area to create what my dad calls a "natural area". Basically blanket with weed cloth, plant what you want, cover with mulch. LOL

On to the veggies.....

My first maters are growing FAST:

This is on my Abe Lincoln plant:

Corn:

Cukes, I know they are bunched together but I prefer to plant them that way....I train them to climb up a mater cage instead of running on the ground.

Squash:

Taters will be given another tire this weekend:

Finally got all my chicks outside to brood so no more peeping in my house. YAY.

Rascal says he is tired of hearing about gardening!

Frito Pie

This recipe is from my awesome Aunt Kathy. We were comparing pictures of food on their short visit and she shared this recipe with me.

- 1lb of ground beef and 1 chopped onion browned in a pan. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.

Brown and drain. Mix in the Taco seasoning. 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and 1 can of tomatoes with green chilies(do not drain) 14oz can.

Stir well until heated, do not boil.

In a 9x13 dish layer the bottom with a bag of Frito corn chips. I didn't have a 9x13 so I used a pie pan and another pan that was small enough to take to work.

Layer meat mixture on top of the chips and top with 2 cups of shredded cheese.(btw I used the mexican shredded cheese and I NEVER measure cheese)

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes:

My Aunt serves hers with shredded lettuce and sour cream on the table. I decided to use some of my left over flour tortillas to wrap it in. It was delish!!

Cookout and Chicken Day

This past Saturday was a GREAT day. A friend of mine came over and brought her 5 kids. She also brought me TONS of chickens.

The boys of course had tons of energy and I bough hotdogs and marshmallows to roast over a fire....so we needed a fire pit. I gave them a shovel, hoe, and post-hole digger....I had this in about 15 minutes:

Then they gathered TONS of wood and piled it up, twigs, and rocks to line the fire pit.

Sadly I can't post pictures of the kids but we had a BLAST. I can't wait for them to come back for a visit in another 2 weeks or so.

Now its chicken time:

Adorable babies first. These are by Blue Sex-Links and other chicks.

Then she graciously loaned me 2 Barred Rock hens to hang out with Mr. Tank:

Tank was my only rooster with a name so I had the kids help me name the rest of the roosters.

This is Lance and his girls:

I also got some Serama mommas. These 3 girls love to go broody and raise babies, once they get all settled in I'll be giving them eggs to hatch. Their pretty boy's name is Humperdink:

The kids named this young rooster Prince Charming and brought me 2 young girls for him. They will be a STUNNING trio when they are all grown:

Finally we named Wesley...he is the father of all my Blue Sex-Links.

So after all the excitement of new chickens....my friends left promising to come back soon.

When I was out feeding the coops Lance decided to slip out between my legs. Pepper LOVES her chickens and is very sweet with them. She was wagging her tail and giving him a sniff when Lance decided that was NOT ok.....

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Lance was gently put back in his coop with his girls. I was very proud of my girl for not retaliating.

I'm REALLY looking forward to having these friends over again soon.

Chicken Pasta

I first had this recipe last summer when we went on a huge family vacation. My Aunt Sarah made this and I LOVED it. I finally got the recipe from her and tweaked it a little for my preference. I'm all about tweaking recipes.

This recipe is super super simple!!

First pick a marinade. I used the Italian dressing packets(you'll need 2) but left out the water and doubled the vinegar. You'll make this up into 2 batches.

Boneless, skinless, chicken breasts go in 1 bag with 1 batch of marinade:

Then in another bag put artichoke, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms if you like them. I put 2 cans of artichoke (because I LOVE them), and 1 packet of sun-dried tomatoes(not in the can/oil). I don't like mushrooms so I left them out. Add the other batch of marinade:

I let them marinade for a few hours....the longer the better.

Then I cooked the chicken in a pan, I would have put it on the grill but it was raining. You can also throw them in the oven to bake.

While the chicken is cooking put the artichoke mixture in a pot. This will be your sauce and you will want to warm it up:

When your chicken is almost finished start cooking the spaghetti. I cook mine 1 minute less than the package says because I hate mushy pasta. When its cooked and drained then add butter and a pinch of salt.

Chop chicken into bite sized pieces. Put chicken and sauce into pasta and mix well. Depending on how much you make add the sauce slowly so you don't end up with too much.

I served mine topped with feta cheese and some fresh chives:

This freezes and reheats REALLY well.

700 Miles in 4 Days....

I love to travel, I love seeing new places, I love visiting places that I know well and love to see again....I'm convinced the BEST part of traveling....is coming home.

Last Thursday I started my journey very early in the morning. I headed to a friend's house north of Greensboro. This is someone that I've "known" online for about 10 years now but have never met. We have horses, critters, and gardening in common and have been chatting on FB a lot lately. I told her I was going through her area and she generously had me come to her house and get some plants for my garden.

I'm a southern girl and couldn't go without gifts so I brought her a dozen duck eggs....and 8 baby chicks.

We had a BLAST, played with her yearling, played with the chickens, talked a LOT, and I feel like she dug up half her yard for me.

Gizmo:

 Pepper found a Jolly Ball:

After packing up ALL the plants she gave me I headed to my Grandma's house in Salisbury. I got to have a nice visit with her and stayed the night. Once at Grandma's house she informed me that she doesn't want the butterfly bush anymore. Its a volunteer from all the ones that my Grandpa had out there. She wanted me to dig it up and put it in the woods. So I dug it up and put it in my truck. While I was wondering around her property I couldn't help notice all the Wisteria and since I was all gung-ho gardener I decided to dig some up to bring home....1 hour later and LOTS of sweat and cursing I came home with 2 nice sized root systems and some very green pieces that will hopefully root. I'm going to see if I can keep one as a bush....the other is going WAY out in the woods because I'm CONVINCED you'll never dig this stuff up if you decided you don't want it anymore!

Then it was off to Troutman for a 2 day auction, seeing old friends, and having a blast. They sold about 600 horses in one day. Prices were all over the place and I had a blast!

Sadly I had to leave the sale about 3pm to go pick up a kitten for a friend and deliver her on the way back home.

Pepper was definitely beat and ready to be home:

We got home and I got to see all the progress in the garden/yard:

Phlox seem to be happy where they were planted:

My taters are VERY happy in their tires: 

The grapes are making me realize I need to start building a trellis SOON:

Strawberry plants seem to be growing right before my eyes:

 Wildflower packet is coming up strong and will need to be thinned:

 The piles of plants I brought home and now have to plant:

So Sunday morning it was up early to drive to Kinston for class all day, drove home, then worked my normal 24 hr shift on Monday.