Oh, sigh.....

You know how sometimes you really want this:

Prada boots

but instead you get this:

Honda Rancher

That's how it went down around our house in the past few weeks! Not that I'm not thrilled to have this farm helper, it's just that I can't wear it with cute jeans or skirts and feel good about myself. Damn you Honda Rancher, damn you!

Oh, and before you start thinking that we got this thing for "fun" - it's really for work around the property. It will pull the huge field mower attachment:

Field mower attachment - also more expensive than the Prada boots!

And, it will also get up our access road and will haul logs and dirt and make it easier for us to get chores done. Which means that we will get to play more golf in the summer, and someday I will be asked to join the Womens Sr. Tour and get a bunch of money in endorsements and ultimately be able to afford the Prada boots. 

So I guess things will all work out. In the mean time, don't tell anyone we got a 4 wheeler - it's kind of embarrassing. 

Walnut Update

Remember when I won the walnut war against the bluejays? My reward was a wagon full of walnuts that were sitting in the barn yelling at me to do something with them before they were wrecked. So on Sunday, I got after it.

Here is my step-by-step guide to dealing with walnuts - and remember - this is MY guide - other people may have different guidelines and they are probably way easier, but this is my own little thing that works - or has worked for me on a small scale. If I were dealing with over a thousand little buggers I might get some proper equipment, but right now this is fine for a "family-size" pile of nuts.

When you pick the walnuts some of the husks are still sort of greenish and some are already starting to breakdown and turning black. Give them all some time to breakdown more (like a week or two), but don't let them sit in water. If you're squeamish, you might not like to see this part. There are tiny little worms that live and eat in the outer husks and help do the decomposing work. That's why the bluejays like them. They will be all over the place, don't get grossed out, it's the circle of life - deal with it.

1. Get your nuts out of the barn. Find a sunny spot to sit, and prepare yourself to take the husks off. Wear old clothes, maybe some gloves, maybe a bucket of warm water to rinse the walnuts in. This takes way longer than you think. 

 2. Start to take the husks off. Most of them will fall right off, they are pretty rotten and inky so you can almost squeeze the walnut right out.

 See!

3. Rinse most of the gunk off while still outside, then bring the nuts inside to the sink for a little scrubbing. I want them to look pretty so I do this little extra step so that people will think my walnuts are beautiful. Other people don't care - but I grew up watching Martha Stewart, so there are extraordinary measures that I have to take... I just have to.

4. Lay the little suckers out on the counter until they dry. If you don't do this, you can get moldy walnuts that taste like crap. If you make sure they are thoroughly dried - they will last for a year or two. These won't last that long because we will eat them all up. See how pretty they are.