Making Lemongrass Tea

Each year when I'm ordering seeds, I always like to try something I've never planted.  Sometimes it is a vegetable that we've always eaten, just in another color - purple carrots, for example.  Sometimes it is an herb like lemon balm.  One year I tried to grow lavender and failed miserably.  This past year I wanted to try lemon grass.  It seemed like an easy thing to grow, and I always like things that smell good.  In fact, I find it hard to pass by basil plants in the store and NOT stop to squeeze a leaf and smell chocolate basil, pineapple basil and cinnamon basil.

Anyway, I got my seeds in, planted them and Boom!  They all germinated.  I planted them in the raised bed where I have basil planted and they took the whole place over.  It looks like weeds in a roadside ditch.

The main difference being that weeds in a roadside ditch don't quite smell like this!  If you cut some stalks of lemongrass off and inhale deeply, the soothing fragrance of lemons fills your nostrils.

Making tea is a very easy thing to do.  Just wash up the lemongrass to remove and dust and bugs.  Fill up a pot with water and begin heating the water.  While the water warms, simply cut the lemon grass leaves and stalks into the pot of water and bring to a boil.  It won't take long for the kitchen to fill with a nice lemon scent.

We allow the tea to steep for a while...

Then we pour through a strainer into mugs or tea cups.

Since we used an abundance of lemongrass, the tea we made had a strong lemon flavor and it was green.  It was delicious.  I am a coffee guy, but a hot cup of lemongrass tea in the morning would be nice, especially on weekends. 

After it cooled, we put the leftover in the fridge.  Lemongrass tea is very refreshing served as an iced tea.  Our winter has been relatively mild so far.  From what I read, lemongrass will survive the winter if it doesn't go lower than 20 degrees F.  So far it looks like our lemongrass is gonna make it.  If anyone would like some, I have some stalks that I'll gladly give you.  The remaining stalks and leaves left over after making tea is nice to keep around and smell, but we eventually put it in the compost pile.

In addition to tea, you can make soups, stir fry, or simple syrup with lemongrass.  I'm glad I tried it.  I hope it grows in the summertime, so we can make some lemongrass iced tea.

Shiny Shoes and Cool Hairdos

For the last two Saturdays, we've been on the run - literally.  Benjamin is in his senior year and it is Indoor Track Season.  I don't think this existed back in the early 80's when I was in high school.  At least our high school didn't offer it.  This weekend we attended the Last Chance Qualifying Meet at LSU.   Benjamin is in the lower left hand corner preparing for his race.

Here he is lining up for the start:

And here he is speeding toward the finish line, running so fast it is just a blur...

Benjamin won his heat in the 400 meters and improved his times in both the 400 and 800 meters. After his run, we took a picture of him outside and then went and got a bite to eat.

Benjamin's Rooting Section: Me, Tricia, Benjamin, Mom, Dad, and Benjamin's coach, Chip Guillotte

The previous week, he ran at McNeese State University in Lake Charles.  It was a meet that had athletes from all classifications from Louisiana and Texas.  Benjamin's race is the 800 meters.  He has run the 1600 and 3200 meters, but has settled in on the 800 meters as 'his run.'

Except this time, his coach asked him to run in a new race - the 400 meters.  The coach wanted him to run that race for the speed.  Benjamin had never run the race before in a competitive meet and was a little nervous.  In fact, I was nervous, too!  The guys he was running against looked like grown men.  They had aerodynamic hairdos' and very fancy running shoes.

In the photo above, I know you can't see them real good, but the athlete on the right has some fancy gold shiny track shoes.  They sparkled like Dorothy's ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz.  I took one look at the guys he was competing with and I had a bad feeling.  Their build, their shoes, their hair...  They just looked the part of  very serious track and field athletes and I knew Benjamin had his hands full.  I prayed that he wouldn't get left behind.  I prayed that it would be a competitive race.

On your mark, get set, and the starter's gun went off.  The runners were sprinting around the track.  In indoor track, 400 meters is two laps (whereas in outdoor track, it's only one).  Benjamin was right in the mix on the first lap and on the second lap he closed the distance between him and the only runner that was still left ahead of him and at the finish line, he leaned in and won the race!

So fast, he's just a blur!

Sometimes you don't need to read a devotional.  They just happen to you!  After Benjamin won I immediately began thinking about how I let external appearances affect my judgment.  I allowed the flash and show of shiny shoes and cool hairdo's to equate with success in the race.  It reminded me of the following verse in the Bible:

But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 

1 Samuel 16:7

In that passage Samuel was anointing the next king.  He was looking at Jesse's sons and saw the oldest, Eliab, and thought, surely, this guy is the next king.  He 'looked the part.'  And that is when God told Samuel the verse in the bolded part above.  See, isn't like us.  His ways are better than our ways.  His thoughts much higher than our thoughts.  God doesn't look at the external in determining success or the winner in the race to eternity.  He looks at the heart.  Just as Benjamin's heart drove him to victory despite his non-shiny shoes, we as Christians "win the race of life" not by how we look from the outside, but by who (JESUS) controls our heart. 

Miles of Smiles

A few weeks ago I showed you some tomato seedlings that were growing 'volunteer' on the carrot row in the garden - in January.  I pulled them up and re-potted them.  I am determined to make them survive until it is time to plant in the garden this spring.  If I can pull this off, we'll have EARLY tomatoes.  Why, check them out.  They're really happy.  They have grown like crazy since I re-potted them.  They are 13 inches tall.  I think they are too big for the little containers I have them in.  I need to let them stretch out their roots so they don't get root-bound.

Trouble is, I don't have any bigger containers and I don't want to go buy some.  I'll just make do with something I have.  Several years ago we went to LSU Homecoming.  They were having a parade and Raisin' Cane's was throwing out a ton of Les Miles cups.  We caught a stack of them 3 feet tall.  At the time Les Miles was LSU's head football coach.  He was known for eating grass.  Even a couple of years later, he is on commercials about taking care of grass on football fields.  Les Miles is no longer LSU's football coach, so all the cups or sort of obsolete.  However, I think if ol' Les can grow grass, perhaps he can grow tomatoes.

The love for Miles, unfortunately, faded when he couldn't beat Bama and stubbornly would not modernize the offense.

So I added some good garden soil to the cups and re-potted them.  The plants were very happy to have some elbow room.  They are healthy and happy.  I put them back outside tonight.  It will be milder tomorrow and they will be happy with the sunshine.

They are weeks ahead of my other tomato seedlings I have under grow lights in the foyer that are just putting on their first true leaves.  If we can get these tomatoes to live for a month more, who knows?  We might have blooms in February and tomatoes in March.  That would be unprecedented in our garden and would bring "Miles of Smiles" to Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.

Memories of My First Duck

In 1976 I was 10 years old.  We moved from a house we lived in right smack dab in the middle of town across the street from the elementary school to a house in the country.  It was on five acres of wooded pine land.  We had lots of room to roam, build forts, make trails, explore and hide in the woods.  The five acre plot was bordered by barbed wire fence.  The surrounding property was owned by a timber company and there were no posted signs.  So in actuality we weren't limited to five acres.  It was like "Christopher Robin and the Hundred Acre Wood." Lots of elbow room and a great place to grow up.

Like Lewis and Clark, my brother and I ventured into the unknown with our imagination fueling great adventures.  Tall Longleaf pines towered over us blotting out the sun.  We discovered sassafras trees and made tea.  We found swampy areas that had mayhaw trees.  We had a Honda Z-50 mini bike and must have put 100,000 mile on that thing on trails we made in the woods.  Mom and Dad erected a cast iron bell like the Liberty Bell and they would ring it to call us back home when it was time to eat supper.  Many times we were too far out in the "Amazon" to hear.

We were too young at that time to be trusted with a 'real' shotgun, but Dad had a .410 shotgun that was perfect for knocking fox squirrels out of trees.  One day I was by myself and had traveled maybe a mile or more eastward into the backcountry.  I crossed numerous fences and was wondering if I'd be able to find my way back.  The timber company that owned the land used plows on the back of bulldozers to make fire lanes intended to slow a forest fire and protect their investment.  At worst, I figured I could follow the fire lane back to civilization.

That's when I approached what appeared to be an old abandoned rice irrigation canal that hadn't been actively used in years.  It's banks were overgrown with trees.  I didn't even know if it still held water.  It could be great habitat for ducks, I thought, even though I'd never seen any in my previous reconnaissance missions into the woods.  I dropped to my hands and knees and crept up as quiet as the congregation during the preacher's closing prayer.  The late afternoon sun warmed my back, and I remembered thinking that days don't get better than this.  It was a special time.

As I peeked over the levee, I almost wet my pants.  Six or so beautiful wood ducks dabbled in the water.  My heart beat in my chest uncontrollably.  I silently clicked the button that moved the .410 from safety to fire as I raised the shotgun.  Truthfully, I was too nervous to even aim.  In a mad fluttering of wings, the ducks heard me.  I shot in the general direction of the torrent of wings and watched as all of the ducks maneuvered in and around the tree limbs, whistling as they flew skillfully out of sight.  All but one.

One wood duck drake lay in the shallow water.  In my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful ducks on God's green earth.

The next 10 minutes were a blur.  I remembering picking up the bird, admiring it and then running as fast as I could get back home to show off my first duck.  I darted around brier bushes, around pine trees, and hurdled barbed wire fences (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little) to get back home.  I was so proud of my first duck.  After showing everyone the duck, I wrapped him in newspaper with his head folded under his wing so it wouldn't break off when frozen, and then brought him to a taxidermist in Ville Platte, Louisiana to be mounted.  He is still flying (in my mind, at least) on the wall in my office.  He's been flying for probably 40 years now.

Great memories of childhood and my first duck that I'll cherish forever.  Fly on, wood duck, fly on!

Getting the Onions in the Ground

During the first week of January, a package arrived at our door that I had been expecting.  Late last year I ordered 3 bundles of onion sets from Dixondale Farms in Carizzo Springs, TX.  This is my third year planting onions from them and I highly recommend them.  I ordered the Short Day Sampler which contains Red Creole Onions, White Onions, and Texas 1015 Sweet Onions.  They came in a box with instructions to take them out of the box and put them in a cool, dry place until time to plant.

The cost is reasonable and you can order online.

They send instructions on planting and care in the box, but they also email you a wealth of information to help you grow the best onions possible. 

They advise to plant pretty quickly because the earlier you plant them - the bigger they get, but the wet conditions we've had prohibited that from happening.  This past weekend was the first semi-dry time between storms, so I figured I had better get them in the ground.  A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned how we were using "metal mulch" to crowd out weeds.  In the photo below I pulled aside two rows of tin to expose soil to start planting.  You can see the area to the right has tons of winter grass, proving the tin to be successful in keeping out weeds and providing soil ready for planting.

Planting onions is easy!  You simply separate each individual bulb, poke a hole with your finger, insert the onion set and cover.  You don't want to plant any deeper than 1 inch or the onion won't bulb properly.

You want to plant the onions 4 inches apart to give them room to expand.  As soon as the onions show growth, I'll mulch all around the onions with hay to discourage weed pressure that would crowd out the onions.

I was able to enlist Russ' help to plant.  I simply made a trench about an inch deep and poured some organic garden soil.  This wasn't really necessary, but the garden itself was still very wet.  Planting directly into the garden would have been planting directly in mud and not a good idea.

When all was said and done, we had five rows of onions planted.  They take about 110 days to mature. 

As I mentioned we planted 3 bunches of onions this year.  Last year we planted 2 bunches.  A bunch contains between 50 and 75 plants.  After we harvested last year's crop, we stored them indoors in an old milk crate and were able to keep them for 6 months!  We were very pleased with their production, taste, and storage.  Hopefully we'll have another bumper crop this year!

A Cold Day for a Haircut

Benjamin is a senior in high school, so this is his last year of showing livestock.  We started showing meat goats when Laura was in school before we got the cows.  I'm thinking that was maybe 12 years ago?  We've been involved in livestock shows ever since with all three kids.  Participating at the Parish Fair, the Parish Livestock Show, District Livestock Show and then the State Livestock Show.

Each year at this time we pull out the clippers and say a prayer that they work and then start clipping.  It always seems to coincide with the first big cold snap and we feel sorry for the animals.  Here is Russ fine tuning on clipping Rosie.  It is difficult clipping around the back of the legs.

Just like at the barber shop, the area around your feet begins filling with hair that has been clipped off.  And just like at the barber shop, we sweep it all up.

It is a shame to clip them for the shows, because the animals grow a nice, warm winter coat to protect them from the cold weather - not that it gets exceptionally cold around here, but still.

That nice, warm winter coat gets clipped off to show off the sleek, angular body of the milk cows to the judges.

In the off-season we get the blades sharpened on the Andis clippers to ensure they are sharp and ready to remove the animals' thick winter coat.  We kind of hold our breath, though, because the clippers are old.  Sometimes they overheat and sometimes we have difficulty getting the blades lined up.  When the clippers are working fine, it is something to behold.  Large swaths of hair are cut from the cow with no problem at all.

As we clipped Rosie and Clarabelle, Rosie's little bull calf darted in and out our legs.  Benjamin picked him up and was horsing around with him.  He's really growing.  (Benjamin too!)

Finally, we take the halter off and put the nose pliers in so that we can clip around their head.  The cows absolutely HATE this part.  The nose pliers annoy them and the vibration of the clippers on their jaw bones aggravate them to no end.  But it must be done.

The freshly clipped cows are loaded into the cattle trailer and driven across town to the Jefferson Davis Parish Fair Grounds.  Jennings is the Parish Seat and so the Parish Livestock Show is here in town.  In a couple of weeks the Southwest District Livestock Show and Rodeo will take place in Lake Charles, Louisiana followed by the State Show in Gonzalez.

Nozy Rosie!

Here's Rosie's little bull calf in his stall the night before the show.  This is his first time away from the farm.

What a cute little fart.

Here's Rosie eating some hay out of her hay sock:

And finally, here is Clarabelle doing the same.

Unfortunately, for Benjamin's senior year and last time showing, our cows just aren't competitive.  Rosie is ten years old.  She's an aged cow and just doesn't compete well.  Clarabelle did not get bred in time to calve right before the show.  You really want to time it such that they calve a week or two before the show.  Clarabelle won't calve until the spring.  Benjamin still does very well in showmanship, though, so he looks forward to that and enjoys traveling to the livestock shows and spending time with his friends.  It is his last year to be able to participate in the livestock shows and our last year to help him prepare.  After this year, the cows will never leave Our Maker's Acres Family Farm again.

Two New Arrivals in the Chicken Yard

A friend of ours was looking to downsize their flock and asked Tricia if we'd like a couple.  Although we have too many chickens to begin with, we couldn't argue with the price and we've lost a couple lately to predators and the remainder of our flock is getting on up there in age.  It seemed like a good opportunity to add a couple replacement hens to our flock. 

Our friends put them in the pasture, but they were leery of their new feathered friends and stayed to themselves far away from the others.  In the middle of a driving rainstorm, they huddled next to the water trough, ostracized and alone.  We decided to introduce them slowly to the flock, so we put them in the chicken tractor in the backyard for a few days to let them get acclimated to their new surroundings.

The dark-colored hen, we were told is a French Cuckoo Maran.  We aren't sure of the breed of the white hen, but we were told she lays beautiful green eggs.

After a couple of days we put the newcomers into a pet carrier cage and positioned it near the barn so they could get to know the other chickens.  The other chickens came around and pecked at the new hens.  They weren't very hospitable.  The new hens acted nervous and afraid.

I would assume it would be a little intimidating to be a new arrival amongst a bunch of other hens.  Of course a new pecking order must be established.

Birds of a feather...

We let the new hens out of the cage after two more days.  They are slowly venturing out, but still mainly stay in one area, unlike the other hens that explore a 3 acre pasture.  That will come in due time.  With all the tension, the new birds hadn't laid any eggs until today.  Tricia picked up one laid by the cuckoo maran.  Our other hens are Barred Rocks, Black Stars, and Rhode Island Reds, and they all lay brown eggs.  The Cuckoo Marans lay dark brown eggs.  You can see it below on the left compared with a brown egg laid by one of our other chickens.  I think it is a pretty egg!

Marans, however, don't lay as many eggs as Rhode Island Reds or Barred Rocks, so it's not a breed to get if your goal is to get a lot of eggs.  It is a nice, dark brown egg, though.  Hopefully in a week or two our new hens will be welcomed into the flock by the other hens.