When handed lemons....

It is just a fact of life that every now and again, things just don't go as planned. There are times when you are handed the "lemons" and as the old saying goes at those times you should just make lemonade. I was not handed lemons..I was handed peas. Last month before the rains started, Son and I planted Crowder Peas in the garden. Since the previous garden had given in to the dryness, we had searched for something a little more drought tolerant..peas were the seed of choice. The peas did grow but are producing in a sporadic way..there are never enough peas ripe at the same time to make a mess much less to freeze or can. This dismal mess of a garden was not to my liking at all! Just what was I supposed to do with a mere handful of peas every day? First thought was to just let them hang on the plant. The quail could go in and have a free meal. There would be plenty to feed two hungry quail but not nearly enough to supply my family! Second thought was to let the peas dry on the plant, keep the quail out of the garden and save the peas as seed for next year. This could work!

Each day, I would go out and pick any peas that had dried hulls. Inside, I put them in a basket on the kitchen table but after about a week, I noticed that my basket was getting full. Although I was only picking maybe a dozen a day, this soon built up to be a goodly amount! The peas were shelled out and stored in a quart jar and the pods were returned to the garden as mulch. After several weeks of this, I realized that I had far too many peas to use as seeds. This many seeds would plant an acre! I have a number of gardens but all are tiny little garden plots..none that would ever hold this number of seeds! Still the pea plants produced...still I picked and shelled..still the jar filled! Then the thought hit me..why not use these as we use dried Red Beans, Blackeyed Peas or Lima Beans? I became more excited about saving my few peas! I would just have to soak these just like any other dried bean. I could cook up a large pot of peas and salt pork..that and a peppered cornbread! What a meal that would make! Sometimes you just have to find your own lemonade even if it is a bunch of dried peas!

It has been a while since I posted a picture of a sunrise or a sunset. As a rule, there are more gorgeous sunrises and sunsets in the Fall, Winter and very early Spring months than in the summer, but the other morning the sunrise was beautiful! That evening, the sunset was equally as impressive! The odd thing about these pictures is that although the upper one is a sunrise and the lower is a sunset, they are both taken facing the east. (If you compare the treeline in both you will see that they are both taken in almost the exact same spot!) The sunset lit the sky in the east to a brilliant orange. There was just enough cloud cover to make both interesting and I suppose that I hit the timing just right. Whatever the reason..it was the perfect morning and evening to be on the pier..but then, any time is the perfect time to be on the pier!