Five Favorites, May 14th Edition

1. My new irrigation boots. Because if I must tromp around in the mud moving sprinkler lines, I may as well be wearing cute boots.

2. This new "Hepburn" dress at Lady V London. Just lovely!

Image from Cooks Country

3. Key Lime* Icebox Pie. Graham cracker crust, 2 cans sweetened condensed milk, 3 egg yolks, 3/4 cup key lime juice. Mix the three filling ingredients until smooth, pour into prepared crust. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, cool 1 hour on the counter and 3 hours-overnight in fridge. Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

*You can substitute lemon juice.

4. Strawberries. Our local grocery store had 2 POUNDS FOR $1.48!! And they're SWEET! I bought... um... a lot.

Image from L'Osservatore Romano

5. The pope preaching about Christians with "pickled pepper" faces, not being a "part time Christian," and the fact that the devil "always rips us off." This guy is good.

Read more Five Favorites at Moxie Wife.

The Calf Named Sunday

Meet "Sunday."

She's named Sunday because she had the audacity to start dying on a Sunday.

Her mom is a 1st calf heifer and doesn't really know what to do with her, so she mostly abandoned this little calf in the weeds.

Which meant we spent most of our Sunday doing....

... this. Pumping electrolytes and milk replacer into this little one on our ONLY day of rest.

But, after all, who among us would let our ox die if he fell in a ditch on the sabbath?

Definitely necessary labor, and kind of fun labor at that, but these every-few-hour-feedings when she lives a 15 minute drive away make for a very unrestful day of rest.

Who can resist that sweet face?

This morning her mother rediscovered her. She's still far from out of the woods (she might have scours and we still haven't seen her nurse), but we'll be watching her closely.

Good luck, little Sunday.

Miracle of the Pepper Plants

This is my 12 week old pepper.

12 weeks.

As in, 3 months. 

It's supposed to be HUGE.

But due to over babying, over watering, an aphid plague of Biblical proportions, not repotting them from the seed starter soon enough, and my general black thumbhood, they're stunted, sad, and I want to cry every time I look at them.

I refuse to abandon this little project, however, and I faithfully set them out in the sun every day to harden off. Yesterday I deemed them worthy to remain out all night for their first sleepover.

Parting with them was bittersweet. They weren't tucked in under their grow light in the kitchen. I couldn't check on them to pick off the aphids. I slept a little uneasily, wondering how they were faring on the cold dark front step.

This morning when I looked out the window to see if they'd survived their first night in the elements...

"MY BABIES ARE ALL GROWN UP!!! How on EARTH did they spring up like that OVER NIGHT?? Did they just need fresh air?! Did my little boost of fish emulsion cause this Edenic transformation?! It's a miracle!!"

"Actually, darling, Aunt Elena gave us her extra pepper starts yesterday and I set them out next to yours."


And there was much laughing. Maybe we'll get some peppers out the garden this year after all!