Vintage Home and Farm

Like most everyone else, we've been hunkering down at home and doing our best not to catch and spread COVID-19 in our community.  Daily phone calls and texts with family and friends are a lifeline and help us stay connected.  My sister reminded me yesterday that I was overdue in posting a farm update - so here it is!  We've been spending a significant amount of time working in the yard and garden -- an activity that just about everyone I know has been indulging in as well.  Right now across the country, I have a feeling that perhaps a few million people have planted vegetable seeds and have been spending time baking bread and other treats, too.  Something about this time we are in has caused my family to want to listen to jazz and swing music, especially from the 1920s through 1940s.  Take a listen!   I am feeling a strong connection to the past, to my grandmother's and great grandmother's eras.  While listening, I like to imagine how often this music played in our 1940

Aren't ducklings cute?  We couldn't resist.  On Thursday my daughter helped me clean out the giant metal feeding trough that will serve as their new "home".  We washed it out and then set it in the sunroom on the back of the house to dry.  This morning I put several inches of pine shavings inside it, cleaned out a water container and food dish for them, and installed the heat lamp.  Then I went to Airport Garden Nursery as soon as they opened.  There was already a line of people waiting in their cars.   The nursery is considered an essential business here in Washington and so it remains open during the COVID-19 pandemic.  It was quite a challenge to continue social distancing while the mad rush was going on to get these birdies.  I clearly wasn't the only one looking to purchase chicks and ducks.  A bit worried they'd run out before it was my turn, I nonetheless waited patiently in my vehicle until my number was called.  Then, at last, it was my turn to go ins

My mother was known for offering folk remedies whenever anyone in the family was ill.  At times we teased her for it, but the truth is, my mother's lemon and honey concoction worked wonders at soothing my own childhood sore throats and colds.   My mother's recipe involved cutting up a whole lemon and cooking it in a saucepan full of water on the stove for a few hours.  Once it was finished cooking down, she'd use a fork to press out as much of the pulp as she could from the lemon and then discard the rind.  Then, she'd add honey - a LOT of honey, perhaps half a jar - and then this lemon-honey syrup was refrigerated.  To serve, she would put a couple tablespoons of the lemon-honey syrup in a mug and then fill the mug the rest of the way with hot water. While my mom's remedy was great, as an adult who is feeling ill, I usually need a lemon-honey concoction immediately and don't have the energy when I'm sick to cook a lemon into syrup. About a year ago, I began