Archives for 2014

Friday 5 at the Farm: Signs of Spring

February 21, 2014

Wahoo, friends! I know it’s still February and lots can happen between now and our last average frost date, which is Tax Day, but the farm is showing so many signs of springtime. I can barely stand myself. So this week’s Friday 5 at the Farm is just a little springtime celebration. Perhaps a smidgen early, but still.

Temperatures are soaring! Our house heater has been turned off most days, windows open. Fresh air is such a mood lifter.
The rose vines and thornless blackberry vines are slowly trading their winter browns for an easy, mild, slightly naughty shade of green.
The horses are beginning to shed. I mean, it could be from being brushed… but still.
The buds on my saucer magnolia are fattening up and getting fuzzier every day. Several are just threatening to crack apart, too, like little fortune-telling pistachios. This is exciting. And it makes me want to wear bright pink lipstick.
The hens are not only laying eggs again, which is lovely in and of itself; they are also starting to venture out of the warm coop to lay them in weird little places out in the sun. And they are sitting on eggs with fierce devotion, too, suggesting a fresh batch of chicks soon to arrive. If I would only stop eating the eggs.

(via Pinterest) Here's my next craft project. Simply watercolors on dictionary pages. Pretty! — (via Pinterest) Here’s my next craft project. Simply watercolors on dictionary pages. Pretty!

So happy weekend, friends! Happy springtime vigil. Happy everything. Soak it up and show your appreciation for this beautiful, poetic, nourishing life. Every single Diem is worth Carpe-ing.

“You can cut all the flowers but

You cannot keep Spring from coming.”

~Pablo Neruda

XOXOXOXO

Bison Smiles

February 19, 2014

Hello again, and welcome! What a WEEK we have enjoyed at the Lazy W! And there is much more goodness to come. I am feeling very blessed these days and very happily battery-charged in all areas of life. Really loving it.

Today I am answering Mama Kat’s call to share something that made me smile this week. In the midst of so much great stuff, LOTS of big and little things have made me smile, but I’ll just share a string of things that might make you smile too. Ready? It all has to do with our little buff. Our little bachelor bull bison named Chunk-Hi.

Chunk-Hi, about 2 1/2 years old here, luxuriating in his hay.

Chunk always makes me smile. He just does. He is spirited, affectionate, silly, gentle, tough, vulnerable, intelligent, greedy, and innocent. He loves to play peekaboo, allowing me to (just barely) cover each of his enormous blinking eyes with one of my hands. And he loves for Handsome to wrestle his horns. He will dance like a native for loud music or revved up V-8 engines. And he loves cookies, protein pellets, cookies, cookies, and hay, as the photo above shows, and cookies. I mean he LOVES hay. He flips for it, literally. As for the cookies, Chunk-Hi may or may not have bison diabetes. Is that a thing?

This week the weather in Oklahoma has been mercifully warm and easy. The animals all love it, Chunk especially. He wallows in the sand like there’s no tomorrow, and he naps like a champ. So I am frequently mesmerized by him and his pasture mates, watching them snooze or graze or just play around with each other. Below is a snapshot I took today of Chunk with his very best friend in the world, Dusty. Dusty is our girls’ little horse. Also a true-blue sweetie.

Chunk-Hi and Dusty, not an odd couple at all. They are best buds. A farmyard bromance. Bruthas from othha muthas. I'll stop now, you get the idea. — Chunk-Hi and Dusty, not an odd couple at all. They are best buds. A farmyard bromance. BFF’s. Bruthas from othha muthas. I’ll stop now, you get the idea.

Today I was minding my own business, just enjoying the farm, when a friend of ours messaged me a joke you’ve probably seen before, in different incarnations.

hardee har har har... It's funny because it's true! — hardee har har har… It’s funny because it’s true!

Well, of course I laughed. Because these tense conversations have happened here on those sub-zero arctic nights.

“Do you think they’ll be warm enough?”

“Babe. They’re fine. They’re built for this.”

“But they’re so sad.”

But it’s warm now and we are no longer concerned for our pets (or livestock) being so cold they need to cuddle up on our Berber carpet.

This funny message brought back to my memory a story from when Chunk was a wee little guy.

My little baby Chunk! Those sweet, sweet ears! At about a year old he always looked like a Fozzy the Bear to me. With teeny tiny horns. If you don't know who Fozzy the bear is, you're too young to read this blog. — My little baby Chunk! Those sweet, sweet ears! At about a year old he always looked like a Fozzy the Bear to me. With teeny tiny horns. If you don’t know who Fozzy the bear is, you’re too young to read this blog.

Isn’t he one hundred percent precious??

Those narrow little hooves. Those eyes, always searching or blinking slowly or shying away from the sun. That skinny black ridge on his back, so soon to become a full blown bison hump. That wet, square, leathery nose.

I LOVE HIM SO DANG MUCH!!!

It makes me grit my teeth.

Well, one springtime afternoon right around the time this photo was taken, my youngest daughter and I were home alone. I had the doors and windows open as is customary on gorgeous, breezy days in Oklahoma. And several of the large animals were loose, just nibbling the verdant lawn and otherwise pretending to be people. Which is to say, not doing anything I told them to do. Chunk was generally included in the “large animal” category despite his diminutive stature.

I do not remember what triggered it, but all of a sudden Jess and I both realized that Chunk had stepped through the open front door, trip-trapped his way across the roughly tiled entryway, and was coming towards us as we worked on her homework and probably ate cookies.

Okay, now listen.

We were in exactly zero danger. Do you see this little guy? Admittedly, if this happened today with Chunk’s one million pounds of solid muscle and eight foot long pointed horns, I would be telling you a completely different story. But I want you to imagine his adorable little baby face awash in terror because his slick, pointed hooves could find no purchase on the shiny wood floors.

Okay I am pretending right now that my wood floors were shiny. But please just go with it.

And I am his mama! Since day two of his tender little life we have bottle fed him, and I have spent practically every day of his life feeding and playing with him. He trusts me!

Spring 2009/ Before everybody grew up! (We had 2 babies at first but sadly lost one almost immediately.) — Spring 2009. Before everybody grew up, daughters and buffalo alike. (We had 2 calves at first but sadly lost one almost immediately.) Also back when our front field was still lush and green. Bison wallow. They wallow so much.

So he stared at me and made these panicked little mewing, bleating, grunting sounds, convinced I could somehow help him, but the harder he tried to stand upright the more precarious his situation became. Think… ice skating for the first time. In public. On a buttered rink.

And I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s a disease, I realize, this nervous laughter when things are going horribly wrong. Jess and I surrounded Chunk and did our best to guide him in a semi circle back toward the front door, where hopefully the rough tile would be a small help. He couldn’t calm down enough to be lifted, though he was still small enough, so air hugs had to do.

We successfully corralled him with air hugs out through the open front door and he let us cuddle and pet for a few minutes, both of us still laughing. Poor little guy.

At this point in the story, two of Handsome’s colleagues and also our friends, Bob and Trent, pulled a rental car up in the driveway. I think there was a business trip that day? Anyway, Jess and I immediately exploded into full on story telling mode, simultaneously digesting what had just transpired.The men just stared at us, laughing awkwardly. Chunk was standing calmly on the sidewalk by then, so I am not sure either Bob or Trent believed us. For a while it bothered me that we had removed Chunk from the house so quickly, because it seemed like the sort of incident that requires photo documentation. But I was also really glad it happened when Jess was home so she and I could share that silly memory.

So there you have it. A smile while watching my now five year old bull eat his breakfast. Then a smile at a joke because I have indeed considered bringing the animals inside during a cold snap. And still more smiles to remember that time Chunk accidentally slipped into our living room. So many smiles today!

What has made you smile this week?

“You can lead a buffalo anywhere he wants to go.”

Slightly famous buffalo quote

XOXOXO

What Opening Papa Joe’s Journal has Also Opened Up

February 17, 2014

After posting that first little excerpt from my great-grandfather’s apiary journal, a couple of wonderful things have happened. It all makes me even more excited to continue exploring this delicate treasure.

First, I took the old green journal with me to last month’s Frontier Country beekeepers’ meeting and asked one of the old timers, Chuddie, if he recognized my Papa Joe’s name. It may sound like a long shot to you, but Joe Nieberding was a slightly older contemporary of Chuddie’s in the seventies and eighties, and the Oklahoma beekeepers keep a pretty tight circle. Also, Papa Joe was apparently president of the statewide beekeepers’ association for some years and was pretty well known.

Well, Chuddie definitely recognized the name. His face lit up and he nodded slowly then said with firmness, “Oh yeah, yes of course I knew him! Joe was quite a beekeeper. I learned a lot from him.” That was the first time I had ever heard someone refer to our family patriarch without his proper title, “Papa,” and it was strangely endearing. The feeling was akin to realizing your parents have friends and colleagues who love and respect them but have nothing to do with you or your siblings. Weird, but proud. And never mind that I had first just shown Chuddie this yellowed newspaper clipping of my Papa Joe.

This is Papa Joe calming a swarm of wild bees, most likely destined for his personal apiary in Miami, OK. I found the photo between the pages of his beautifully scrawled journal.

“Do you know this man?” I said awkwardly, indicating someone fully dressed and covered to the point of perfect anonymity.

“Are you touched in the head?” Chuddie might have thought. “Someone take her bees away pronto.”

Anyway, Chuddie was as sweet as honey and never actually said that. In fact his kind words about Papa Joe brought tears to my eyes. I resolved at that moment to learn everything I possibly could from this journal. It really is a treasure, both from the family history perspective and that of the beekeeper trying to learn from someone’s firsthand experience.

This journal entry mentions missing bees with no explanation as well as queen economics, two problems that beekeepers still discuss. And January rain.

Whatever your hobby, wouldn’t you love to have an expert with decades of experience coaching you, whispering gently at your elbow of his trials and errors while you feel your way through a new challenge?

That brief exchange with Chuddie was amazing and inspirational. Then this happened…

Last week I received a note from a gentleman named John Foust, a distant cousin who grew up with my Dad and his siblings and who spent lots of time with Papa and Mimi Nieberding during his college years. You can actually read John’s first note as a comment on that first apiary journal entry; I’ve inserted it here.

Joe Nieberding was my grandmother’s little brother. I grew up with the wonder of his veterinary hospital, his bees, his pigeons and his amazing garden. And the mysterious basement. I spent a lot of time with him, refitting the wax bee frames, playing with some of the puppies, and hearing him name some of the pigeons. Aunt Velma and I attended community concerts together at the NEO Fine Arts Center, my first experience with some of the old big band groups such as Fred Waring. Velma’s mother Mrs. Seamster lived across the street from the college. I mowed her lawn as a kid, and parked in her driveway when I attended NEO. She always had a jar of cookies for a hungry college student. Uncle Joe’s notebook must be an amazing peek back into history for you. The story I remember as what must have been most memorable was that “Army Captain” Joe and Velma attended the premier showing of Gone With The Wind in Atlanta. Velma talked about the reception afterward with the actors. Dr. Joe and Velma were amazing people.

Wow. This beautiful couple who were already gentle, loving, and fascinating to my memory have so many stories I have never heard. What a colorful life they built! I had no idea that sharing Papa Joe’s apiary journal piecemeal would yield such a wonderful history lesson, such a kaleidoscope view into my own family.

John I have emailed a bit since and I am hopeful that along with my Dad he will help me share more stories about the Nieberding gardens, home life, and bee yards. It all felt so magical to me as a little girl, and my wish to know more might be granted.

And can I just say how refreshing it is that someone else remembers the fabled cellar and its toothy dangers? I mean, I grew up believing all dark bodies of standing water to contain hungry crocodiles. Even small puddles.

This gorgeous honeycomb, empty, still smells magical. I keep it on my writing desk.

What childhood memories of your own would you like to expand? Which of your elders would you love to sit down with and take notes from their lives? Who do you emulate, either accidentally or by design?

For the record, we only have alligators in Oklahoma.

Definitely no crocodiles.

Probably.

XOXOXOXO

Book Review & Giveaway: The 20-30 Something Guide to Gardening

February 16, 2014

Hello friends! And a double hello for all gardening friends visiting on this gorgeous springlike weekend in Oklahoma. I have a lovely surprise for you, and I hope you’ll help spread the word.

Dee Nash, a sweet, smart garden writer and friend from right here in our beautiful home state has published her first gardening book which is every bit as lovely as she is. And, because my luck knows no end, I have been invited to share it with you.

Congratulations, Dee! xoxo

The 20-30 Something Garden Guide by Dee Nash

Not only do I get to introduce this book to you, but I also get to give one lucky reader a fabulous garden prize, courtesy of Longfield Gardens! I’m not alone, either. The (Not Always) Lazy W, incredibly, is part of a whole group of beautiful blogs gathered to offer Dee our support. Each one is giving away a different amazing prize. (Scroll to the bottom for a complete list. They are all worth visiting and following!)

You will remember Dee from last summer when she visited the farm and let me interview her about all kinds of great things. She shared with me about her life, loves, garden experiences, dreams, and plans. She and her husband Bill have grown a truly beautiful life together, the garden being only a part.

Dee snapped a few photos of me in my own garden, too, and just flat out inspired me in every way. I so enjoyed that day and over the few short years knowing Dee have learned so much.

I was so nervous for an accomplished writer and gardener like Dee to see my space, but she had nothing but encouragement to offer. xoxo — I was super nervous for an accomplished writer and gardener like Dee to see my amateur space, but she had only happy encouragement to offer. xoxo

The geese made a noisy appearance that day as we chatted outside, and Dee captured this moment.

Dee gets it when a person waxes poetic over home-grown vegetables or flushes about which perennials are best suited to Oklahoma. In fact, after our interview hours at the farm that day, she and I visited a local tree plantation and explored for another hour or so. She squealed over citrus trees and crepe myrtles like a new mother picking out ruffled baby clothes. To match her contagious passion, Dee is extremely knowledgeable and eager to share her knowledge. Are you following her blog? You really should. You can also find her on Facebook under that blog’s name as well right here as under the new book’s title. She posts fabulous growing ideas nearly every day, and she is wonderful about answering gardening questions.

Now her first book is being released. The 20-30 Something Guide to Gardening. You can pre-order it on Amazon and I hope you do. I have been gifted a copy and am in love.

Dee’s book is aimed at young adults with an interest in growing their own food and flowers but perhaps also with a knowledge gap. She inspires and informs with page after page of easy but smart text and short, fun lists, all fully illustrated with her own drop-dead-gorgeous photos. I felt ahead of time that her book would be beautiful, but when I first saw the finished product I was floored.

As you thumb through it, you will feel your gardening energies bubble up to the surface just begging to be released onto the nearest expanse of dirt. She explains things so well that your fears dissolve into possibility. I really wish I had read this book when I was digging my first garden, and I intend to stockpile several copies to distribute to young people in my life.

Fall vegetables being transplanted. — Fall vegetables being transplanted into bare spots in Dee’s summer garden.

Check out this proud, colorful sunflower in her vegetable garden. Dee emphasises the use of edibles as ornamentals and the use of flowers in the edible garden, too. She is big on promoting the health of natural pollinators. — Check out this proud, colorful sunflower in her vegetable garden. Dee emphasizes the use of edibles as ornamentals and the use of flowers in the edible garden, too. She is big on promoting the health of natural pollinators.

This bee is collecting valuable pollen from a cucumber bloom. Guess what? Dee is considering the leap into backyard beekeeping with me. xoxo — Speaking of pollinators, this bee is busy collecting valuable pollen from a cucumber bloom. Guess what? Dee is considering the leap into backyard beekeeping with me. xoxo

I really cannot say enough about how much I appreciate my friendship with this woman. A little smidgen of Oklahoma luck brought us together as bloggers, and I look forward to knowing her and learning from her for a long time. Please check out her book and her blog. Please dig a garden and grow your own stuff. It’s just the way to do things.

Now let’s have a giveaway, shall we?

The prizes available right here at the Lazy W are just lovely. I want them myself! Big thank you owed to Longfield Gardens, you can win 25 daffodil bulbs and 25 tulip bulbs, a grand total of 50 high quality, colorful flowering bulbs for your garden! Remember, you can plant these pretty things in a million ways, maybe in a border and maybe in your edible garden. Read Dee’s book for suggestions. ; )

25 daffodil bulbs from Longfield Gardens

(I’m so jealous of whoever wins this!)

Comment here, telling me what you grow or what you want to grow.
Subscribe to new posts from the Lazy W.
Follow me on Twitter (@thelazyw) and tell me howdy.
Tweet about this giveaway and let me know you did.
Share this giveaway on Facebook and let me know you did.
“Like” this blog on Facebook and say howdy.
“Like” Dee’s blog on Facebook and let me know you did.
Visit as many of the other fabulous bloggers also participating and share in their giveaway fun, too. Dee keeps really good company! I am humbled to be included.
The giveaway is open right now and all week, right up until next Sunday, February 23rd.
Check back in anytime and watch for the winner to be announced on Monday, February 24.
This giveaway is limited to the United States, for shipping reasons only.

Enter as often as you please. I am so excited for one of you to get your hands on these flower bulbs and for ALL of you to get your hands on this book! I already love mine.

Now, before you go… Remember to spend a few minutes visiting each of these wonderful ladies. You can glean something different from each of them and WIN something different, too:

Shawna Coronado website — gift certificate to High Country Gardens for a Summer Dreams Garden.
Whitney Curtis at the Curtis Casa — David Austin Rose, ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’ and Authentic Haven Brand Moo Poo Tea.
Colleen Dieter at Red Wheelbarrow Plants — Garden Girl shorts and Fiskars PowerGear 18” loppers.
Robin Haglund at Garden Mentors — Buckaroo Worm Castings, a hula planter and Empire Soil Builder, from Sanctuary Soil.
Rachel Hough at The Domestic Artiste — Fiskars Tools, two sets of loppers, one is the PowerGear Lopper 32” and the other Power-Lever 28”.
Niki Jabbour at Niki Jabbour, The Year Round Veggie Gardener.
Carmen Johnston at Carmen Johnston Gardens — Garden Girl pants with knee pads and a David Austin rose, ‘The Alnwick Rose’ catalog link for ordering bare root roses.
Carol Michel at May Dreams Gardens — DeWit Tool kit and Botanical Interests Organic Heirloom Seed Bank Collection.
Pam Penick at Digging — Three small Bee Preservers, www.glassgardensnw.com.
Jenny Peterson and J. Peterson Garden Design — SeedKeepers Deluxe seedkeeper and Burlap Girdle.
Genevieve Schmidt at North Coast Gardening — Annie’s Annuals gift certificate and Keira Watering Cans.
Marie Wreath at the (Not Always) Lazy W — Longfield Gardens tulips & daffs

Aren’t those all great prizes?

Warmest congratulations, Dee! I am so happy for you. And I am so grateful for the incredible amount of passion and expertise you poured into this work. What will you write for us next?

Happy gardening!

XOXOXOXO

Friday 5 at the Farm (Valentine’s Edition)

February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day!! It’s also Friday, so I thought for Friday 5 at the Farm I’d share five ways that Handsome and I infuse our home with romance. (And I will even keep it above board.)

We do romance here, okay? I mean, it has always been important to both of us. We are always looking for something fun together or something comforting, and I love it. And without meaning to sound to cliche, it is so true that the best ways to drum up and enjoy a romantic mood are often the simplest.

Environment Matters. Our mood thrives with a clean house, work done, lights low, and minimal fragrances except vanilla. Lots of twinkly white lights.

Cuddling with a great movie. Cell phones are turned off. All indoor animals are somehow made to be quiet and peaceful. (Sometimes that part is tricky.) For dinner on these nights, we often make nothing but homemade popcorn with obscene amounts of real butter. There are layers of heavy, fuzzy blankets involved, and there is much “xoxo.” What kinds of movies? Never heavy, serious dramas. We opt for comedies, action, or some other kind of fun. Because stress frowns and tears are not very romantic. Or sometimes we do the whole “binge-watching” thing and take in several episodes at once of a show we both love.

Life is always better when you're laughing. Always. Laughter heals. — Life is always better when you’re laughing. Always. Laughter heals.

Meals We Love. Food is a love language in which we are both fluent. When we have a little something special to celebrate or crave a dose of ooh la la, a beautiful meal is often in order. For Handsome, the menu almost always includes homemade Alfredo sauce. For me, it’s avocados. We don’t imbibe, but we will share an ice cold bottle of sparkling cider for fun. Other faves are chocolate covered strawberries and steak with all the trimmings. Homemade pizza. More popcorn. Sometimes I don’t even do the dishes till the next morning! That’s how crazy we get.

Cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries from Valentine's Day 2013. — Cheesecake and chocolate covered strawberries from Valentine’s Day 2013.

Road trips. Of course we love big, elaborate vacations! But for a dose of simple romance we like to strike out on nearby roads and just explore. We have tons of made-up bingo games we play. We like all kinds of music for singing along. And we talk. Or don’t talk. We could talk or not talk for hours. (Name that movie for bonus points!)

We own a massage table. So there you go.

Romulus and Seraphine within half an hour of first meeting. You might say... They hit it off. — Romulus and Seraphine within half an hour of first meeting. You might say… They hit it off.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope however you celebrate, and whoever is lucky enough to spend it with you, that you feel some simple romance. I hope you know it does’t have to be expensive or fancy to be really special. It just has to be genuinely you.

“Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze.”

~Elinor Glyn

XOXOXO

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