No, THIS is really lazy.... (and a rhubarb punch recipe)

I cannot believe it has been a year since my last good intention to keep this blog going. Something about July must kick-in my urge to post....

Yes, it's the rainy season AGAIN. We had a great and rainy June, which means the fruit trees have gone nuts. Because it's been so much cooler this year we're experiencing a later bloom time for many of our plants. So far I've harvested lots of rhubarb, herbs, spinach, & radishes. Which has allowed me to make some rhubarb jam, and some excellent eggs Florentine.

We added another 9 chickens to the Cottonwood Inn flock back in August of last year. Lucille passed away in March, and has left a big hole in flock hierarchy. I would have liked to get more girls this spring, but have decided to wait until the projected "coop expansion" finally occurs. When that finally happens we will be getting ducks as well. Yay!

It's the 4th this weekend, so we are packed to the teeth and looking forward to hitting the Craft Fair that is taking place in Kit Carson park. Also a couple of interesting looking art openings, one at The Stables Gallery.

It's heating up finally-- it looks like 79 degrees and it's only 10 after noon! Two of the hens are out in the back courtyard right now, beating the heat by wrecking my mint garden. I don't have the heart to kick them out as they are making wonderful happy clucking noises.

Here is a great recipe I received from a guest who is also a rhubarb lover:

Rhubarb Punch

Mix the following 3 ingredients:

2 lbs roughly chopped rhubarb
4 entire cloves
1 cup water

bring the above to a boil on high and then reduce to med/low and cover.,
simmer for 25 minutes stirring as needed,
remove from heat and sieve out juice
add 1/4 cup sugar and mix until dissolved and refrigerate until cool.

This is your base and should yield about 3 cups of juice.

Mix this in a large bowl with ginger ale to taste. Add about 1 cup of OJ and some sliced strawberries and oranges.

This is great for a hot day and wonderful for the 4th of July.