Tuesday This and That

I'll be seeing a lot of my neighbor Terra this week, and so will Lefty. It's 4-H horse show week, and there's plenty to do to get ready. 

For Terra, mornings mean time devoted to horse show preparation, and afternoons for basketball camp.  

She's an all-around young lady----horse, archery, music, basketball and Jitterbug, to name a few.  Jitterbug is her pal and 4-H dog project. 

Knowing she was on a tight daily schedule, we broke up her time yesterday with cleaning tack, sanding hooves and lunging Lefty.  

Today we'll haul Lefty to my sisters' arena where she'll get to practice and learn more about her equitation skills. 

Terra happily takes on each new challenge and it's not long before she catches on too. 

One thing that's always consistent with these 4-H get togethers dates way back to at least when I was a 10-year-old 4-H'er-----refreshments!

Each session ends with something tasty or refreshing, and with this hot week, the new Schwan's supply of ice cream goodies is providing a nice finale to top off the experience. 

In other news, besides watching "Make Russia Great Again" and picking my jaw off the floor in utter astonishment, I robbed the earth!

It turned out to be "Yum, Yum." 

First, in the heat of the day (93 here yesterday), I picked blueberries and raspberries.  

While strolling through the garden where the raspberries were transplanted a couple of years ago, I picked the first cucumber and then noticed that more than just those two early string beans on the bean bushes.

For days those two beans have hung from the front bush, and for days, I've been tempted to pick, always relenting with the thought, "What can you do with two beans?"

Rather than picking, cooking and placing one on Bill's plate and one on mine, I just let them hang there until more beans appeared. 

Well, yesterday, those two beans and several others went into a bowl.  And, since there were fresh green beans, those few potato plants in the planter boxes got robbed, as did several out behind the barn in the manure-pile garden.

It simply takes some gentle fumbling around in the dirt to find a spud, and without disrupting the plant, it's generally very easy to pluck one from its root system beneath the dirt. 

With fresh beans and young potatoes and a few tiny carrots, I immediately had dinner figured out:  boiled veggies with Wood's German sausages. 

It's one of my most favorite dishes ever, and when each veggie is as fresh as fresh can get, the flavor is divine.  I boil the sausages and veggies, then drain them and add seasoning along with margarine and medium cheddar cheese. 

I personally like to dribble some mustard over my veggies, which may not look good but it adds a bit of zip to the overall effect. 

Last night, we enjoyed our first summer dinner consisting of ingredients from the neighborhood---most from my garden, the sausages from Wood's, which is about a mile away. 

It was divine. 

I told Bill last night while taking my last bite of the veggie mixture that I wish it didn't have so many calories cuz a second helping would be good.   

Somebody (whoever gets to the refrigerator first) will most likely heat up the leftovers today are usually even tastier than the first cooking.  

The best part:  lots more of these garden goodies to come as the summer heat continues on.

Finally, speaking of garden produce, I ran across a Facebook video featuring an introduction of the new Bonner County Fair Director Darcey Smith who assumed her new duties in May. 

I first met Darcey back in the days when my daughter-in-law Debbie was still working with Girl Scouts.  Darcey was a volunteer at the time. 

Best wishes to her as she takes on this monumental job.  I don't know if I'll take any spuds to the fair this year, but I'm sure I'll find some way to participate in some fair activities. 

You can put a face to a name by going to the following link:  https://www.facebook.com/Dan4BonnerCounty/videos/632627913785768/UzpfSTExODUyMDcwNTE5NjQ5NDpWSzo2MzI2Mjc5MTM3ODU3Njg/


Happy Tuesday