a great new canadian blogger, not going down the driveway, tractor-dura....and of course - FOOD!

i'm not sure how i came across Rain's blog...probably blog-hopping through all of my fave blogs....but i came across her blog and loved it! she's fun, she's canadian, she's a rural homesteader, she loves to garden, loves to eat good food and her and her boyfriend are planning to buy their own land in 2019. all of us here in the blogging world who have "found" their land know what an exciting adventure it is. i would ask my friends here in blogworld to have a look at her blog, and if you like what you see...leave her an encouraging comment. oh, and if you want to learn from a menu-planner-extraordinaire - she just planned out 41 meals for her next shopping trip. she's a girl after my own heart "not wanting to go down the driveway". here is beautiful Rain:

and here is her beautiful blog Rain's Garden.

speaking of not going down the driveway - i went to my nearest neighbour's (and best friend but i have a few of those here so it's hard to call only one my "best" friend - bahahahahah!) son's girlfriend's baby shower on saturday. can you believe it? i actually went down the driveway!!!! i haven't been down the driveway in 3 weeks - woohoo! but i had to go to this baby shower because it was my nearest neighbour E's son's girlfriend's shower. she and her sister (my other best friend) C1 put on such a lovely shower and C1's incredibly personal touches were seen throughout! C1 also made me my "special" egg salad sandwich and kept it separate from the rest - people here like onions in their egg salad but i don't - so C1 always makes a special sandwich for me - teehee! the decorations were beautiful, the food was lovely, the gifts for the attendees were in such abundance that we all took home 4-5 presents each - and some people took home more! our friend I and S and S's 2 daughters really did a good job of running the shower. J, the mom-to-be was soooo cute! i can't believe i am saying that i had a good time at a baby shower - but i really did! for the first hour i sat with my besty C2 (my other best friend) but then she had to leave to go to attend another function. just as she was getting up to leave, and older lady C3 showed up so she sat with me for the rest of the time. she had me in stitches with the stuff she was saying! i also got a chance to see a whole pile of women that i haven't seen in months - it was a lovely time! the most exciting part of the whole affair was that i took home 3 of C1's gorgeous-looking cupcakes for jambaloney - but he really is off the gluten. he hasn't had a drop of wheat in 2 months! and as much as he wanted to eat C1's cupcakes he stuck to his guns. and because he thinks i am dropping body weight really fast...and i am....it's the peri-menopause (sorry guys!) - so he said "babe, eat one of C1's cupcakes. that'll put some weight on you!". now you must understand that i am not a sweet or a dessert person - i never have been. i ate the first strawberry shortcake cupcake in about 30 seconds - all the while trying to tell jambaloney how delicious it was with a full mouth. then i ate the second cupcake. i waited about 20 minutes before i ate the third. oh my gawd - they were soooooo good! my goodness can C1 make a cupcake!!!!

ok - i know you are all dying to see the tractor-dura! here she be:

yep - that's our new little baby! at the shower, after telling one of my friends who i hadn't seen for a while that we got a tractor, she had a confused look on her face and said that she always assumed that we had one. man, wish i had have talked to her a few years ago! we really should have had a tractor years ago with our driveway from hell and all of the gardening that we do. live and learn, i guess.

want a good way to start your day? home-made bone-broth soup with the juice of a whole lime, a ton of garlic, a ton of ginger, tumeric, cayenne, cumin, salt and pepper, a dollop of homemade kick-you-in-the-face hotsauce and throw fresh parsley into the bowl. yummeh!

here's a nice morning snack an hour or so after your parsley soup:

 parsley and red onion salad with the juice of a lemon, a good dollop of EVOO, the usual suspects: turmeric, cayenne and cumin, aq bucketload of garlic and salt and pepper. then kymberz version of pico de gallo: tomatoes, avocado, 3 kinds of peppers, a sploosh of EVOO, a ton of onion, salt and pepper and a ton of cilantro. a couple of organic lime chips and your good until dinner!

here's tractor-dura parked near vandura and the crazy, waterproof shed that jambaloney built.

it's a kubota...and it is way oranger in real life than it looks. it's like really orange. this is the back-hoe.

and here is the loader.

i felt bad that the tractor was getting all the attention so here is another look at caribou-dura - gawd i love the colour of this truck!!!

here's a nice dinner (lunch for some people) - shrimp, vermicelli, a salad of romaine lettuce, fresh pineapple, cucumber, carrot flakes and green onions.

that will definitely keep you going until your afternoon snack. the dipping sauce is the juice of a whole lime, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, home-made hot sauce and some oranges - deelish!

and in case any of you wonder how i do my blogging activities, keep up with your blogs, leave comments, etc - i do it like this:

that's edgar houdini - the rat cat - the rat cats muhbu - sitting right in front of my computer screen while i try to move my mouse and type around him!

it's not as bad as poor jambaloney - he has noodie-noo (another of our cats) always on top of his keypad and work notes when he is trying to work on his contract for Lobsters 'R Us. 

Mobie-Moe and Mankly-Spontoonch (our 2 other cats - all of them are rescues/strays) are usually on plastic covered porch most days and arent't too interested in the computer stations. thank The Lord.

and yes - the pic above is me reading Harry Flashman's blog. i read every single one of his posts because he has much to teach. you all should read his blog too. but i am pretty sure that most of my bestest blogging buddies already do. the rest of you - get over to his blog and learn. the man is a font!!!!