Now hold on just a minute!

I want spring to come, but I don’t. Can we slow down winter just a little bit?

Wait, what?! Yeah. You read that correctly. I’m not ready for warm weather and I’m in a total panic over it.

I want spring because I want to play in the dirt and get the garden going. I had to break down and buy potatoes last week and it about darn near killed me. And you know what? The majority of the bag was half-rotten. I was uber upset. My stored garden potatoes that I harvested last summer are mushy and are now better suited as seed potatoes. The sweet potatoes are still going strong though, so I’m ok in that department.

I’ve finally decided what I want in the garden too: more potatoes, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, strawberries and peas. I want to plant mint, chives, rosemary, oregano, basil and cilantro in containers and put the strawberries in raised beds (pst – I could use some strawberry growing tips if you’ve got ‘em!). I’d love to plant corn again, but after last summer’s battle with the raccoons, I’ve given up. I’ll just head to the farmer’s market, buy a load, and freeze it for later. I’d also love to try carrots or celery, but I’m not even going to attempt that with all of the freaking rabbits around here.

But I’m not ready. I haven’t ordered a majority of my seeds, nor do I have any started yet for the growing season. I haven’t started the marigolds yet from the seeds I saved last year.

I also haven’t finished any of the winter tasks I set for myself, like doing all of my spring cleaning to free up my warmer days. I haven’t even started that. The mound of socks still needs mended, the walnuts still need cracked and roasted. The cleaning of the basement? Probably ain’t gonna happen. Who was I kidding on that one? Sounds like a good job for Sax Guy, now that I think of it…

But you know what I have accomplished since January? I’ve done more crafting this year than I did last year alone. I’m working on my yeast phobia and trying to find a bread recipe that works for me so I can stop buying it at the store. I’ve learned to coupon. I’ve spent two weekends now with only grocery shopping, laundry and house cleaning on the agenda and spent the rest of my time relaxing (better known as sitting on my butt and catching up on blogs).

Part of me says “relax and chill, what gets done gets done.” The either part of me is freaking out, dreading what life will be like when canning season is in full swing and I’m still trying to accomplish things I set out to do months ago.

Argh.

How’s your winter to-do list coming?

Paper towel ninja

Ever get that feeling like you’re being watched?

Hmmm....why does my paper towel roll have ears?

Cougar’s getting too smart for her own good. She knows she’s not supposed to be up on my counter tops or she gets sprayed with water.

However, this is an improvement from the last time I caught her “hiding.”

Before she worked on her ninja skills.

Things that go bump in the backyard

It was Thursday, 5:45 a.m. I’d downed a half cup of coffee and body systems were at “functioning,” but no where close to “alert and enthusiastic” levels. I’m outside and bundled up in my barn jacket and boots, gloves, and my husband’s flannel pj pants over my own for warmth. I’m armed with a flashlight and am walking across the pitch black yard to go feed The Ladies.

It’s foggy, chilly and the air is so thick it seems to be swallowing all of the morning sounds. It’s silent as a grave yard outside. No dogs, no cars, no rabbits taking off when my flashlight beam hits them, just silence.

I pass under the sweet gum tree. Then I heard a noise that sounded like a laugh. It was coming from just above my head.

The hair stood up on the back of my neck, my heart stopped with a thud and I froze. The bejeezus had officially been scared out of me. My first thought was that there’s a serial killer stuck up in my tree and I was about to die with morning breath, bed head and wearing my husband’s pajamas. (I wish I was joking, but that’s how my overactive imagination works. Sad, I know.)

I heard the sound again, this time from the direction of the nearby pine. Now that my senses were heightened, there was no mistaking the sound now.

“Hoohoohoohoo hoo hoo.”

Duh, Redhead. An owl. Not just any owl, but a Great Horned Owl.

By Brendan Lally (originally posted to Flickr as Great Horned Owl) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

I’ve only had visual confirmation of an owl once at my house and I think it was a barred owl. I don’t recall hearing one before. What’s unusual is that Great Horned Owls are sort of scarce in Ohio, so I’m hoping this guy or gal sticks around. They’re great mousers and will go for rabbits too. Or, I could use a partner in the Chipmunk Wars (read that post here)! It’s a good thing I have a roof over The Ladies’ coop and run, otherwise they could become owl food too!

Want to hear what this owl sounds like? You can hear one and learn more about them from this link from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

History and hickory nuts

The humble hickory nut, slightly out of focus.

Hickory nuts, or hick’ry nuts as I pronounce them, and my dad’s side of the family go way back. My great-grandparents gathered the nuts during the Depression from the trees on their farm, sold them, and that money was used to purchase shoes for my Grandpa and his siblings. When my dad and uncle were growing up, Grandpa would drag them out on their farm to the trees on their land to collect them. Grandpa would crack them open with a bench vice (your standard nutcracker wouldn’t touch these puppies) and then everyone would spend hours picking out the flesh while watching TV. My Grandma would freeze them, they’ll keep almost forever that way, and bake them in cookies and cakes. They’re delicious and have a mild flavor, but the effort needed to get to what’s edible would scare away most people.

A hickory nut in its hull, which has to be ripped off to get to the nut first.

Apparently the patience for and pleasure of the mundane was passed on to me because I was beyond excited when I learned our property has a few Shagbark Hickory trees and a Black Walnut tree when we moved here. Last fall I spent several hours collecting an entire 5-gallon bucket full of hickory nuts. Problem was I didn’t own a bench vice to crack them and I never got around to finding the time to crack them open individually with a hammer, so they rotted away in their smooth shells. I’m still kicking myself for that. Walnut trees produce nuts every other year and last year was the “off” year, so I bided my time until this fall.

What’s different about this year is that I gather prepared. I found a nutcracker specifically for hickory nuts and black walnuts at a hardware store. It was $30, but totally worth it because it will crack the shells without a lot of force and flying bits.

A clean black walnut, sans hull and stained hands!

I gathered up a big bucket full of walnuts about a month ago. I wore gloves to get the outer, fibrous hulls off and my hands still got stained. The trick is to smash the nut with the heel of your boot and then tear off the hull, but the stained hands are still unavoidable. The stain faded away two weeks later. I cracked open a walnut a week ago but they still hadn’t finished curing. Nuts have to spend a few weeks drying, or curing, so they will taste and have the texture of nuts and not skunky-tasting leather. I can only think of one thing fouler tasting than an unripe black walnut and that’s an unripe persimmon. If you’ve never tasted either, you’re doing your tastebuds a favor. It’s like swallowing a shot of paint thinner and kerosene.

As for the hickory nuts, I think I missed the boat this year. I picked up about two dozen late in the summer but I’ve been waiting on a frost to bring the nuts down from the trees. I got my frost, but then it rained so hard it flooded our pasture field where the trees are and drowned the nuts. I could try to collect the few that I could find and attempt to dry them out, but I’m afraid I’ll still end up with a moldy mess. Between that and the squirrels, I don’t have a lot of hickory nuts this year. It may have just been an “off” year for the hickory trees this time. Here’s hoping for next year.

The last time I priced English walnuts in the store they were $8 a pound, and here I have their rugged, North American cousins for free! To me, it’s a no-brainer, but I can sympathize with those of you who’d rather just cough up $8 and be done with it.

Do any of you have nut bearing trees on your property? What’s your favorite way to use them?