Monday MishMash

My little Easter Bunny had her first Easter yesterday.  She was the center of attention and gave us lots of smiles, although she isn't too sure about me taking her picture.

The kids always put on a great party, and yesterday was no exception.  It was a crazy, beautiful, warm day, and they fired up the barbie, and we ate out on the deck.  Normally we have the big Easter egg hunt in rain, and, or, gale force winds, and sometimes snow, so yesterday was a real treat.  I was able to find only two eggs, which is my personal worst.  The Bradster outdid me with his three eggs, but the kids found most of them.

This year there was some diabolical hiding going on.  I found one of my eggs (green) buried in some tall grass and the other one was hiding deep in a stump that I had to dig for.  The only reason I got that one was because my son pointedly looked at the stump, so I started digging and found it.  I also moved some branches and old machinery only to come up with an orange dog ball.  I complained that I deserved a complimentary egg for that one.  It fell on deaf ears.

On Saturday, before Easter, the world's cutest handyman came over and built my raspberry and strawberry beds.  We got a truckload of dirt from Short's farm for $23, which is a lot cheaper than buying a thousand bags of the stuff.  We used every bit of it.

As you can see, I've already got the hardware out, hoping to slow the dogs down.  They love to see what I've been planting and are good little diggers.  I planted 2 Killamey and 2 Heritage raspberry bushes to extend the season.  The supports will go up as soon as I get the wire.  I probably will not have raspberries this year but should have strawberries, especially if I get them planted.

This is my little 3 by 5 bed and this is lettuce that I started from seed.  I also picked up some starts from Red Dog Farm but they are still in the greenhouse.

This is the chard that over-wintered, with the new starts in front from Red Dog.

You can barely see them, but the little green things are onion starts, also from Red Dog, and they are my second planting, because somebody was curious (Suzy, the schnauzer).

This is the best rhubarb and it is from a start that Miss Jeannie gave me.  She rescued it from under her husband's skidder when he decided to park it on top of her patch.

Expendable Edible Update:

I'm really impressed with the Expendable Edible site.  I like the idea of taking leftovers and making them into something great.  I had a quart of beef stew in the freezer that was languishing because it was boring.  I also had some button mushrooms that were just barely making it.  Now this stew started out its life as roast beef leftovers, so it has already had two previous lives.

I sauteed up the shrooms, added the thawed stew, a tablespoon of green curry paste, several shakes of fish sauce, and a half can of lite coconut milk.  Very tasty!! but that is it.  If there is any leftover, it will live again as dog food.  My doggy girls will eat anything.