Staying Home in Texas in April…wait it’s May?

Lauren

Do days/weeks/months even exist anymore? I can’t be the only one this is starting to all blur together for right?

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The days blurring together may or may not be because I married someone who had a college job as the world’s best bartender. This amazing cocktail is a Last Word Gin Fizz. I always loved having the last word, and now even more so!

Recipe for Last Word Gin Fizz:

  • 3/4 oz each Amaretto, Gin, and Chartreuse.
  • Juice of one lime
  • Juice of one lemon
  • raw egg white
  • 1 Tbsp powdered sugar
  • Tiny splash club soda

Shake all ingredients except club soda with ice until frothy and cold. Splash in the club soda, shake briefly again. Garnish with the leaf of a basil plant you took as a cutting in August from Castroville and grew into a 1.5′ tall and wide plant that is newly planted around a brick patio.

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Said basil plant. Grow my pretty- you gotta keep well ahead of my Gin Fizz needs!

So like, this quarantine DEFINITELY has many a perk is what I’m sayin’.

In other news we did get the chickens out of our house and into their own last weekend.

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The new chicken coop, converted from a playhouse.
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bwok, bwok, BWOK!

Also, turns out the feed store we bought the chicks from will buy back full breed roosters for $5 and then sells them for $10 to breeders once they are all feathered out- so Truffle is gonna find a pretty damn enjoyable 2nd home I bet. It’s reassuring to have a plan for what to do with him once he starts crowing and has to go, the jerk. (he’s on the right in the picture above)

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They have a nice secure run behind their coop that they are in during the day and then come out for an hour or so in the late afternoon/evening when we’re in the backyard with them.

In the garden things are REALLY coming together:

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The blackberry plant is COVERED- here’s hoping all birds, domestic and wild, do not find these before harvest. Momma wants a blackberry gin fizz!
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Banner year on the tomatoes… They have already almost reached the top of the tomato towers (an inverted tomato cage zip tied to the top of another tomato cage.) I have no advice for getting such growth other than to get them in as SOON after the last frost in April as you can… and to show them your unconditional love by going out to smell that intoxicating tomato leave scent a couple times a day.

In non-homesteady garden news:

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My hardy upright cactus bloomed! The blooms only last for one day, but my are they beautiful!
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The Confederate rose: as if an Althea and a hardy hibiscus had a baby and named is something vaguely racist.
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ANOTHER bloom outta this amaryllis from Christmas two years ago. Secret to getting them to rebloom is to forget they exist under the blackberry plant and to leave them in the world’s smallest pot, I guess?

That’s it for now- just remember that as more and more people catch the coronavirus the risk of venturing out goes up, not down. So going out this month is MORE dangerous than last month, and next month will be MORE dangerous than this month. I know we’re all a bit ready to get out of the house, but we’re buying time for really nailing down a treatment plan and ensuring we’re flattening the curve so that if/when some of us do get this thing there are not shortages of supplies or medical staff. So stay safe and stay home. Wear a mask when you do venture out. Wash them hands.

And don’t give me Coronavirus for Mother’s Day. (Also Happy Mother’s day to you mothers out there!)

7 thoughts on “Staying Home in Texas in April…wait it’s May?”

  2. Pretty shots of really pretty flowers and look at those chickens!! Happy Mother’s Day. I think I’m getting migas and biscuits (two of the Hub’s specialties).

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