Tag Archives: country living

Soup and art

Posted on October 22, 2023 | Comments Off

Painting of the soup for lunch from my Food We Eat series. Served with homemade rye bread. Yumm.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/768213998/hot-soup-cold-day-original-painting-food?click_key=da66bb4eb481aab6e58af5f42436aeb49e12fe6c%3A768213998&click_sum=655420f4&ref=shop_home_active_9&pro=1&frs=1

Cold weather seems to bring on an appetite for hot soup. We make a variety of soups here on the farm not only because they are tasty and filling, but it’s also a good way to add those veggies into the diets of some people who claim they don’t like vegetables. We never make small batches of soup around here either so this is as small as it gets (an eight quart pot). Plenty to eat for a couple of days and plenty to share.

The other day I made one of our favorites, Thick Kale Soup. Don’t like kale? You will love this soup. My granddaughter says this is her favorite soup. I actually posted this recipe a few years ago but it bears repeating.

Simple ingredients: smoked sausage, onions, garlic, kale, potatoes, white beans, broth and spices. That’s pretty much it. Got company coming? Add more broth, potatoes and another can of beans.

Cut the smoked sausage into bite-size pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a 6 – 8 quart soup pot. Add the chopped smoked sausage. You can use any kind of smoked sausage – regular, light, turkey, or even Polish kielbasa. Stir and brown.

Add the chopped onion and stir until clear. Add the minced garlic. Keep stirring so they don’t burn.

Strip the kale from the stalks with your fingers. Much faster. Then rough cut.

Meanwhile, wash and strip the veins out of the kale. Rough chop and add to the mixture, stirring until wilted. Add the chicken or vegetable broth and cover. Bring to simmer.

Wash and dice the potatoes. Sometimes I leave the peel on just for added texture. Add to the pot after it comes to a slow boil. Cover and bring back to simmer.

Breaking down the potatoes with my very old, inherited potato masher. This helps thicken the soup, too.

When the potatoes are cooked (about 15-20 minutes), use an old fashioned potato masher and rough mash them in the pot. This just helps the soup to thicken.

Then add the two cans of beans (drained). Frankly, I just use whatever white beans I have available. I’ve even added butter beans and it works fine.

This is the final kale soup should look like.

Add the cracked pepper to taste. You probably won’t need any salt as the sausage is pretty salty, but suit yourself. I often use a couple of bouillon cubes to add salt, plus always some garlic powder.

Serve with crusty bread for a filling lunch or dinner.

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Posted in art, country living, recipes

Tagged country living, food painting, kale soup, kit miracle, recipe, soup, vegetable soup

October update

Posted on October 15, 2023 | Comments Off

Still gathering produce from the garden this autumn.

Autumn is my second favorite season (spring is my favorite). I think it’s due to the brilliant colors, all those reds and oranges and yellows. The garden is winding down but I’m still extending the season. Frost was predicted last week (didn’t happen) but I covered the vegetable patch anyway. Still getting some tomatoes and peppers. They’re small but we’ll miss that fresh and juicy taste when the last one is gone. I started a new crop of lettuce and spinach. The spinach isn’t doing well but the bib lettuce is coming along. We should be eating fresh lettuce in a week or so. I know it doesn’t seem like much to most people when you can just go to the store and buy fresh lettuce, but still there’s the pleasure of picking my own.

Covering the vegetable patch to prevent frost damage.

We lost all the peaches due to a late freeze this year but we’ve had a bounty of pears. My husband has the patience to sit and process them for the freezer. Future pies and cobblers. I get the fun job of picking them with my long handled fruit picker, with the aid of my grandson who thinks it’s pretty special to dodge the fruit as it comes down. The persimmons are also ripening. I don’t particularly like persimmons but a lot of people around here do. As do the deer and other night creatures. If you don’t know, you have to have both female and male trees to pollinate them. Just a fun fact.

The Kieffer pears just do not want to give up. We don’t spray so, no, they are not perfect. But they make great pies.

The potted flowers haven’t given up yet either but they’re getting pretty straggly. I like the roses that still put out an effort and a few late blooms. And I did take a grandchild to the library to paint pumpkins.

I returned from our trip to the Smoky Mountains last month inspired to paint many of the beautiful scenes that we saw. Sunrise in the Smokies, mountain streams, just so many awesome vistas. After a few small paintings, I printed some cards and painted some holiday scenes for a local gift shop and one of my Etsy shops. Tis the season and most artists and craftspeople are busy this time of year.

Smokey Mountain Sunrise, Acrylic, 10 x 20

Mountain stream in the Smokies. Acrylic, 10 x 20.

And, hey, it’s fall break this week, too. Hummm….guess I’ll cajole the grandkids to help me do some chores, like cleaning out the greenhouse and the shop. Both of those tasks have been on the list all year. Maybe pick up some walnuts for replanting. I picked seven gallons of redbud seedpods which we’ll sow in the woods. If you don’t have this beautiful understory tree in your area, I truly feel sorry for you. A good excuse for a walk in the woods with the kids.

Anyway, I hope that you can get outside to enjoy the final warm days of the season wherever you live.

Traditional Arts Today in Ferdinand, Indiana

KitMiracleArt – one of my Etsy shops

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Posted in art, country living, garden

Tagged autumn in the country, contemporary impressionist, country living, fall break, fall gardening, gardening, kit miracle, pears, persimmons

August summary

Posted on September 3, 2023 | Comments Off

Afternoon visitors. They’re eating fallen fruit from the orchard.

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, maybe imagining some exotic vacation, nothing could be further from reality. Mostly just hanging around here tackling one thing after another.

Although we had a week or two of pretty hot weather, last week was marvelously cool with temps in the 70s. We also have managed to have pretty even rain – not too much, not too little. All good.

My little raised bed garden has been producing better than I thought. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant. Note to self: plant less squash next year and more beans. And I just planted a fall crop of spinach and lettuce.

Unfortunately, all this produce came at an unlucky time when our 35 year old freezer elected to die. This involved a lot of hassle with the local big box store (HD) on delivery dates. But mostly the fact that the huge truck they decided to deliver the freezer – the same one that they delivered the washing machine two months ago – suddenly couldn’t make it down our drive. Lots of unhelpful phone calls until we cancelled the order and went with the local appliance store. Spent a little more but the service was great. I like supporting local businesses, too.

The second half of this misadventure is that the freezer resides in the back of my studio. Which meant, of course. hauling out most of the paintings that have been stored back there. Might as well clean it out while I’m at it. None of this was on my schedule. Anyway, it’s all fixed up now. On to other things.

The Golden Marble (detail), acrylic, real gold and silver leaf, 30 x 24. Kit Miracle

I’ve been experimenting with more applications of gold and silver leaf to my paintings as discussed earlier. I really like this but it is so tricky to work with. This is 23K gold and sterling silver on the thinnest of metallic sheets. Even a breath of air will mess it up while applying it to the canvases. Here is a detail shot of one of the largest paintings that I’ve done using this technique. I’ll post more about it later.

And, the deer seem to be out in abundance. Although we rent our fields out, it’s sure a shame to see how much these visitors eat. The beans are high enough now that we mostly only see their heads. And they don’t seem to be skittish at all with the noises coming from the house and yard. Well, another couple of months it will be a different story when hunting season starts. Meanwhile, I love watching the twins playing in the yard just as any youngsters might do.

I hope to post a bit more regularly in the future. And I also hope that you’ve all been managing the weather – heat, drought, hurricanes. Autumn is coming and the leaves are even beginning to change. Can’t wait!

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Posted in contemporary impressionism, country living, garden

Tagged acrylic, contemporary impressionist, country living, deer, gardening, gold leaf, kit miracle

Garden update, June 2023

Posted on June 24, 2023 | Comments Off

It’s been about a month since my last garden post with the raised beds. Most of the garden was planted on May 6^th.

As you can see from the photos, the growth of the plants has exploded. We’ve been eating spinach and lettuce for a few weeks now. The netting has kept the plants very clean and bug free. I think it also supplies a bit of shade, too. When I planted the seeds back in mid-April, I thought that I didn’t have a very large spot for the leafy greens, but the small space has been more than enough to supply our needs. I also discovered that it’s better to cut the greens early in the morning so they’ll stay crisp. If I cut them later in the day, they tend to get wilty.

Also, in the same raised bed I have sixteen pepper plants (hot and sweet), a large basil plant and cilantro, and some sugar pea pods. The peppers are just coming in this week and I’ve been eating the pea pods every time I pass by so I couldn’t exactly tell you how those are producing.

The second raised bed has ten tomato plants and two eggplants. The first set of tomato plants that I planted in mid April were hit heavily by a very hard frost at the end of April. I just cut off the cherry tomatoes and, surprise surprise, the plants grew back. The others I pulled out and planted some new plants. We have Sweet 100 (cherry), Fat Mama (roma-type), Park Whopper, Pink Brandywine (a German tomato which was our favorite a couple of years ago.) They all are heavy with tomatoes so I’m sure we’ll be eating them in a few weeks.

The eggplants were only hit a little by flea beetles. We don’t use any pesticides and, as before, the plants pulled out of the attack.

Beans to the left. Squash and zucchini on the right.

The green beans are blossoming heavily so I expect we’ll have some beans pretty soon. And the two squash mounds are producing. We have yellow squash and grey zucchini which we’ve been eating for a week or so.

I’ve been watering about every other day depending upon the soil moisture. The ground cloth and the cardboard have been doing a great job of keeping the weeds down and the moisture up. No pesticides and a light feeding about once a week.

Today’s harvest. Went into stir-fry tonight.

So far, I’m pretty pleased with the new raised beds. So much less work after initial set up. But I’m going to miss fresh sweet corn and my cut flowers.

Stay tuned for future reports. Meanwhile, I’ll have to check out my zucchini brownies recipe.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged country living, gardening, kit miracle, pea pods, raised beds, southern indiana

May garden update

Posted on May 22, 2023 | 1 comment

We had quite a bit of rain last week but temps are creeping up and I think the rain is over for awhile.

Five varieties of tomatoes and two eggplants.

The raised bed frames that I posted last month in April are doing well for the most part. As I expected, we had a late freeze and lost some tomatoes that we planted too early. I knew that we were taking a chance but, oh, well, it’s fun to experiment.

The first set of tomatoes that we had planted were two cherry tomatoes and four Park Whoppers. They had time to get established so when the freeze hit, they were still viable below the ground cloth. I cut off the dead tops of the cherry tomatoes and pulled out the Park Whoppers although they probably could have made it, too. The cherry tomatoes came back and have made up for lost growth. We’ve added some more tomato varieties – Pink Brandywine, Celebrity, Fat Mama (a roma variety) and a couple more Park Whoppers. And two eggplants in that raised bed.

The second raised bed with peppers, peas, and a variety of vegetables.

The second raised bed has more variety. I planted spinach and two kinds of lettuce. I put some netting over it to keep the cat out of there and that is actually helping keep bugs out and provides some shade. Those greens taste as tender as butter. Then several varieties of peppers, cilantro, basil, and some climbing pea pod vines.

Row of beans and two hills of squash. The cardboard is to keep down weeds and to keep in moisture. And the wood is to keep the cardboard from blowing away until it gets really moist.

Then I had some space between the second raised bed and the asparagus patch. So it’s bush beans and two kinds of squash. I’ve added cardboard between the rows to keep down the weeds.

I’ve filled flowerpots and weeded. But there is always more to be done. Trimming bushes. Trimming back the lane. Trimming trees. It’s a never ending project but it sure racks up the mileage on my FitBit. I guess that’s a good thing.

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Posted in country living, garden

Tagged country living, gardening, kit miracle, raised beds

Sense of smell in photography

Posted on April 30, 2023 | Comments Off

In the photography class that I’m taking, we were asked this week to convey a sense of smell that means something to us. Some people composed photos of favorite lotions or perfumes, others of special cleaning products. (Lemon Pledge still brings back memories of my mother.) It was actually a more difficult assignment than you would guess.

I chose a rather eclectic group of images. Sun-ripened tomatoes on the windowsill. The scent of old books will take me back to every library I’ve ever been in. Irises to every house I’ve ever lived in. Homemade bread and pizza. Dusty old barns and outbuildings.

What smells trigger your memories?

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Posted in country living, painting instruction, Uncategorized

Tagged country living, emotion, kit miracle, photography, sense of smell

Spring garden progress

Posted on April 16, 2023 | 3 comments

We’ve had an absolutely gorgeous week this spring. Clear, sunny days, temps in the mid 70s. All the dogwoods, redbuds, and other spring flowers and bushes have been putting on a display. And the birds are making nests in every nook and cranny. I have been very busy outside preparing the garden.

I finished assembling the second raised bed kit. Then we prepared the ground for the beds. This is in the location of the former spring garden so the ground has been worked before. After tilling it to loosen the soil, we added peat, manure, and some topsoil. Beneath each mound, I added a layer of cardboard as I’ve heard that this keeps down the weeds. Then I shoveled on the dirt, added the raised bed frames, and leveled everything.

I couldn’t resist buying a few plants although it’s really too early here. We can expect to get a late frost as far as May 10^th. And have some years. But I went ahead and added some ground cloth and planted through them.

One raised bed will be dedicated to tomatoes and peppers. The second will have more variety with sugar peas, lettuces, spinach. Later beans, squash and whatever. I only bought a few tomatoes and herbs so far. I won’t fib and say this was easy. It was actually a lot of crawling around but now that it’s done, it looks pretty neat.

Although the tomatoes are a little closer than I would normally plant them, we’ll see if this system works better. It should be easier to maintain. I will buy some more tomatoes later this week. Still too early for peppers. And we set up the solar-powered motion detector lights which we’ve used in the past. This helps to keep some of the critters out of the vegetable patch.

Last year our garden was miserable due to a drought and other issues. But the year before we had produce in abundance. I was trying to remember which were our favorite tomatoes and remembered a posting that I made in August of 2021 where I made comparisons of the variety of tomatoes. If you’re just getting ready to plant, you may wish to check it out at this link.

Anyway, I’ve got a head start on this part of the garden but there’s plenty more to do. I don’t think a farmer’s work is ever done.

For more information about tomato varieties, check out this post. Tomatoes! Tomatoes! Tomatoes!

Tomato samples, bottoms. L-R bottom: Pink Brandywine, Red Beefsteak, San Marzano. Top: Celebrity, Better Boy, Park Whoppers, Goliath, Romas.

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Posted in country living, garden, Uncategorized

Tagged country living, gardening, raised bed, spring planting, tomatoes

New beginnings

Posted on April 9, 2023 | Comments Off

Raised Bed – Electricity – Baby Chainsaw

Our spring weather has been all over the place. Several weeks ago, we had exceedingly warm weather. Then some cold, frost, rain and storms. Finally, the beautiful weather rolled in and I could tackle some tasks that were waiting.

One thing was to assemble a raised bed kit. I received two for Christmas but haven’t had time to put them together. We decided to cut back on our huge garden this year so we’ll see how this goes. I’m usually pretty good at following directions so it wasn’t really difficult to assemble. The hardest part was bending, stooping and squatting to put all the nuts and bolts in. My knees paid for it the next day. And I have one more to assemble. I’ll file progress reports on how it works.

First raised bed assembled. Steel, 8′ x 4′ x 1′. Of course, it will need to be set in place and filled with mulch and dirt.

Then, I had a lamp switch go out a couple of weeks ago. This is my main reading lamp. Frankly, I’m a little skeptical about working on electricity but thought I’d give it a go. After watching four videos online, I thought, How hard can it be? It actually wasn’t. I decided to repair another lamp while I was at it and had both done in about twenty minutes. And they work!

Finally, I took the plunge with another Christmas gift. This is a mini-chainsaw! Yes, really! If you’ve followed this blog for awhile, then you know that we process a good bit of firewood here on the homestead so we’re not strangers to some big, noisy equipment. But I have never operated a chainsaw and didn’t want to learn. (They’re big, noisy, and pretty dangerous.) Anyway, I got tired of asking for someone to cut some brush and small branches for me. So I requested my own mini-chainsaw.

Of course, I read every word of the instruction book. Purchased some safety equipment. And gave it a try yesterday. My husband glanced at it (without laughing) and said, you do this and this and this and you’re good to go. Please repeat that, thank you very much.

But I had my first foray into trimming some brush and fruit trees. It worked great but my muscles were sure sore today. However, this ought to help when I trim the drive later this spring.

So, these were my adventures in new beginnings this week. There is so much to do around here in the spring that I’m sure I’ll have plenty more challenges. Don’t forget those helpful videos online if you want to try something new.

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Posted in country living, garden

Tagged chainsaw, country living, gardening, indiana, lamp repair, minichainsaw, new beginnings, raised bed, trying new things

Fickle Spring

Posted on March 5, 2023 | 4 comments

I don’t know how the weather is where you are but this past week here in Southern Indiana, it’s been all over the place. A week ago the temperature was up to 82 per the weather app on my phone. In February! Yesterday, Saturday, it was a chilly 30 degrees with frost on the car windows. Friday we had four inches of rain resulting in the creek bursting out of its banks and over the driveway, storms, winds up to 60 mph, and a tornado warning sending us to the basement for a bit.

The creek flooding out of its banks and over the drive.

The reason we moved here 35 years ago (after ten years in Michigan) was that the winters here were relatively mild (jacket weather) and the summers were endurable. But the past couple of years have been hotter or wetter or just plain off schedule. I’ve counted the tree rings in old trees and could see the drought of the 30s (thinner rings). Maybe it’s climate change; maybe this is a normal cycle.

The tallest cedar. Son and grandson for scale.

Spring still seems to arrive on her own schedule. Last week we went for a walk in the woods to find the tallest cedar. We did. I also spotted this tiny orange fungi. And some odd-looking bumps on a sycamore tree. I have no idea what that is.

The purple crocuses seem to be the most hardy.

The crocuses are still pushing up, often in odd places where I know I didn’t plant them. Can they travel? The tulips are still emerging but seem to be on the wane, most likely due to deer and rabbits. Several types of daffodils are blooming despite what Mother Nature is throwing at them. The frost doesn’t seem to affect them at all. Even the pulmonaria is pushing up. The buds are swelling on bushes and trees. We seem to be about three weeks ahead of normal…and I’m not ready for spring yet.

Hardy daffodils. Also in a few types of lilies coming up. Limbs down from recent storm.

I was outside early yesterday morning to take photos of the golden frosty sunrise. In my robe and boots again. Thankfully we have no near neighbors as I’m sure I was an eyeful.

But I always look forward to spring’s promise no matter how fickle she is. Just no more tornado warnings, please.

Wisteria vine. Fallen wild cherry in back waiting to be turned into campfire wood. Always some benefit in the storm.

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Posted in country living

Tagged country living, crocuses, daffodils, gardening, golden sunrise, indiana, kit miracle, storms, tulips

Country living

Posted on February 26, 2023 | 6 comments

What do you think of when you hear the word country?

For some, it might refer to a nation but I’m thinking of a place a little closer. For many it means a state of mind, an attitude not a specific place.

For me the term refers to a rural place, a landscape. An escape from or to. Getting back to nature. A walk in the woods. A bench in the park, or even a geranium on the window sill.

Country is a feeling, an attitude, a breath of air. The first daffodil or garden tomato. Watching a tiny spider try to climb a blade of grass. Or the cute tree frog plastered to the window at night, staring back at me with his big eyes.

I live in the country, or what many people think of when they hear that term. With fields and woods, streams and private places. In a very very old house which still echoes with the laughter of children from long ago and more recently.

The walls are a foot thick and not one of them is exactly perpendicular. And that’s OK; neither am I these days.

The best compliment I’ve ever received was from my great Aunt Catherine who was visiting many years ago. She was sitting in an old wingback chair with some music playing softly in the background. The windows were flung open to catch the breeze and she remarked, This house is just so comfortable. And isn’t that what anybody wants their guests to feel? Comfortable?

Logs used in the front half of the house. Notice the adz marks on these hand-cut beauties.

No matter where we live now, most of us are only a generation or two from the country life. Fortunately we can still experience a taste of country with that pot of tomatoes on the deck or the geranium in the window. Take a walk in the park. Feed the birds. Just sit in the shade and tune into nature’s sounds.

Frequent visits to my grandparents as a child planted the seeds of my love for the country life. Collecting still-warm eggs from the chickens. Playing with cousins in the hayloft. Giving that mean old sow a wide berth. Living on that little farm in the county was always a dream of mine.

My husband and I realized this dream thirty-five years ago when we actually bought the farm at auction. That resulted in a lot of work to bring the old place up to date. We were much younger then and had watched way too much of This Old House. Ha ha. Not quite so easy. Add a twenty-five mile commute to work (and the grocery). But it’s been fun through the years with lots of rewards (and some trials).

I love the version of country that I’ve been living for the past couple of decades but I also realize that you may have a different version. Do you decorate with simple hand-made furniture and quilts? Or put your green thumb to work on those patio plants? Maybe you can walk down to the ocean shore or river to check out the wildlife? Or are you a birder, waiting in a swamp for the first rays of dawn in order to photograph those cranes that are passing through?

What does your country look like? Is it comfortable?