RISE AND SHINE! (What my camera saw this morning)

The sun was up and the spring day was looking to be better than average, weather-wise.

But the air temperature was still freezing cold and the robins were reluctant to move.

Down on the pond Mr. Mallard was yawning and stretching and shaking off the frost.

The hawk considered duck for breakfast.

But decided to look for something smaller and easier to catch.

Mom and Dad canada goose hustled their brood out of sight before the hawk looked their way.

 A strange shadowy shape slipped through the water along the river.  What was it?  Muskrat? Otter? Loch Ness Monster??

 Nope.  A beaver already going about his day.

 C’mon everybody. Get up!  Time to get busy!

Then with a huge splash from his big flat tail, he quickly swam away.

HOME GROWN TOMATOES

Although we don’t have a need for a big vegetable garden with the kids all grown and gone, I still find myself planting carrots and cucumbers and spinach in my flower beds.  We like garden veggies even though those we get at the grocery store are almost as good.

 EXCEPT for tomatoes.  There is just no comparing a flavorless, hard grocery store tomato to a sun ripened juicy ripe beauty still warm from the summer sun. 

The problem becomes what to do with the extras which accumulate after we’ve eaten our fill and given a bunch away.   I’ve canned them, juiced them, frozen them and sauced them and have always decided—more trouble than it’s worth.  

Then DH decided to try putting them in our food dehydrator.  Although it took quite a while to dry the juice out, they had a concentrated flavor and color very much like the super expensive sun dried tomatoes in gourmet cooking.  Plus they kept for months and months just tossed in a zip-lock bag ready to break up and sprinkle in spaghetti or pizza sauce or just eat like chips.

 Now I needed to grow more tomatoes.  So this spring I ripped out a few yards of lawn and added room for five more tomato plants.

I have to put the baby plants in little wall-o-water greenhouses until the middle of June to keep them safe from frost.

 Barring some kind of weird weather we should have lots and lots of tomatoes in a few months to eat fresh and dry for later.

There are plenty of places on the internet with info on how to dry tomatoes.

 This is one of the better ones.

TOMATO PREPARATION

Cut out the stem and scar and the hard portion of core lying under it.   Slice the tomato into quarter inch horizontal slices. 

 Arrange the pieces on each rack of a food dehydrator so that air can circulate, preferably with the pieces not touching each other. Sprinkle the tomatoes with sea salt, kosher salt and/or some spices like basil if you prefer.

Turn the dehydrator on and let it run for eight to ten hours.  Turn the slices over about half way through the process.   If your food drier has a thermostat, set it for 140 degrees F.

The amount of time it takes depends on the water content of the tomatoes, the thickness of the slices, and how well the air is able to circulate around them. When done, the tomatoes should be flexible, not brittle. The pieces will be leathery with a deep red color, without feeling sticky.

Let the tomatoes cool to room temperature   then put them in zip-lock bags. Don't overfill the bags.  Squeeze out the extra air. Store the bags in a very cool, dry place.

Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes.

  What would life be like without homegrown tomatoes?

Only two things that money can’t buy.

That's true love and home grown tomatoes.

John Denver

THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--A PHOTO A DAY--day thirty--FINALE or finally

April 2014 is over and so is my thirty day challenge.  I managed to take--and post on my blog--a photo every day. There were a couple of exceptions when I knew I’d be away from home and extra busy.  Those days I posted a photo I’d taken during the same time and scheduled the post.

 Day thirty--Sunset over the Lost River Range of Central Idaho.

As Matt Cutts promised in his TED Talk, taking a photo every day did make the time more memorable.  I also became more familiar with my Nikon camera and a little more confident in my photography skills.

I don’t know if I can do ANYTHING for 30 days, but it seems that amount of time is about right for changing a habit or trying something new. As Mr. Cutts said, small, sustainable changes are more likely to stick.

 Sun disappearing behind Diamond Peak

Not only did I take a photo every day, I ended up putting up a post every day about the photo or photos.  The time and effort this took increased my respect for entertaining and skilled bloggers like Val, Pearl and joeh who put up a daily post consistently.

Another thing I noticed was more incentive to go on a daily walk or bike ride, even in the rain.  Which makes me wonder if neighbors have noticed me walking about and have perhaps labeled me the Weird Wandering Woman with the Camera. I could become a noted village character like Kmart Cruiser, Biking Boo Radley, Merle Big Trike, and Granny Nightgown.

 Someone else who paused to appreciate the sunset.

A photo a day became more time consuming and challenging as time passed when I found it more difficult to come up with a new subject.  I didn’t always leave the house with a specific photo idea in mind and often when I did I found a better one.

 For example when I came across the squirrels with the pizza I was prepared.  And when I ran out of easy subjects I pushed myself to learn a little more about creating Gif’s in Photoshop.

The month of May is next and there are plenty of other challenges to try for thirty days such as:  give up TV or some kind of junk food or a bad habit.  Write a gratitude list, learn and use a new word daily, write a poem, keep a journal or work on some kind of fitness or skill.  There are lots of 30 Day Challenge sites on the internet which provide more ideas.  As Matt Cutts said, “The next thirty days will pass whether you like it or not.”