Late again...
Busy weekend with the grandkids - loading mulch, buying flowers to plant, riding bicycles (no training wheels for the older grandson - I told him that if you go fast you wobble less; he thinks I'm a genius lol!), and doing some work in the yard. I was able to get most of one garden tilled one time yesterday, but it was wetter than I like, so I stopped - I'll get the plants put in the soil in plenty of time, no need to push the season and mess with the soil structure.
Hubby was able to get the yard mowed while the boys 'washed' my van with water squirters and I pulled the last of the fence posts out of the garden while keeping an eye on the fire pit where we were burning sticks, etc... from the yard clean up. We managed to get most of the winter detrius picked up from the yard proper; and I was able to get some more weeds out of the flower beds as well, but ran out of time (AND energy!) before I got the load of mulch put down.
The beekeeper came by and was pleased with the large box of no-name pint jars I had for him - I'd ran a couple of loads of pints from the stacks of boxes on the shed porch through the dishwasher as well as sorting out more of the no-name ones from the stash inside. I have canned - even pressure canned - in the no-name jars and have had no problems doing so, but since I have plenty of branded jars I decided I could help meet his need for honey jars by passing the plain ones on to him. And since I need to get the all the jars off the shed porch soon so that we can have the shed painted this summer, I'll have the space the plain ones were taking up in the store room to put the heavier jars.
Hubby and I have committed to trying to eat mostly from the pantry/freezer this week, so ham from the freezer was turned into ham salad sandwiches for lunch, and supper's main dish is an anacana (a can of this and a can of that) cassarole:
*1 box apple pecan stuffing mix made as directed and spooned around the sides of a medium cassarole dish
*1 pint jar of home canned cubed pork roast cut into bite size pieces in the center of the dish, topped with sliced onions and a bit of Old Bay Seasoning
*1 can cream of mushroom soup mixed with the broth from the jar of meat poured over the top.
I also used a bag of frozen apple slices from the freezer to make a batch of apple crisp, and since I had the oven going anyway, four baking potatoes were washed and wrapped in foil and added to the oven; I made mashed potatoes from two of the potatoes to serve with supper/leftovers; and will make twice baked potatoes from the other two. A pan of cornbread went in to the oven about 20 minutes before the rest of the grub came out, a bag of frozen beet greens went into the microwave, and a jar of home canned carrots were heated up, topped with a dab of butter and some maple syrup to finish off the meal. There are even plenty of leftovers to get us through the next two days at work
Looking at the weather, it's supposed to be clear on Wednesday and Thursday - doubt with the rain last night and today that I'll be able to get into the gardens to till, but I have other garden work to keep me occupied. I did lose two of my three gooseberry bushes over the winter, but they needed to be moved out of direct sun anyway - and with all the rain, they will at least be easy to pull out of the ground! I'll take cuttings of those, Mama's Eutin roses, lilacs, forsythia and some other shrubby plants on Thursday and see if I can't get them started (and then try to figure out where I'm going to plant them ) I was lucky that I noticed a bunch of elderberry sprouts coming up around the current thicket and was able to flag them before Hubby mowed the yard - love the scent of elder flowers in the spring time! I'm also going to see if the grandson's babysitter will let me take some cuttings of her double flowered Rose of Sharon - I need something to plant by the east corner of the porch, but the nearby black walnut trees limit my options - I could use the forsythia there but I wanted pink rather than yellow.
Well, I reckon I'd better go check my work bag and get my scrubs ready for work tomorrow; I have a feeling it's going to be an early to bed evening here...
Take care all; wishing you all a safe and productive week!
Busy weekend with the grandkids - loading mulch, buying flowers to plant, riding bicycles (no training wheels for the older grandson - I told him that if you go fast you wobble less; he thinks I'm a genius lol!), and doing some work in the yard. I was able to get most of one garden tilled one time yesterday, but it was wetter than I like, so I stopped - I'll get the plants put in the soil in plenty of time, no need to push the season and mess with the soil structure.
Hubby was able to get the yard mowed while the boys 'washed' my van with water squirters and I pulled the last of the fence posts out of the garden while keeping an eye on the fire pit where we were burning sticks, etc... from the yard clean up. We managed to get most of the winter detrius picked up from the yard proper; and I was able to get some more weeds out of the flower beds as well, but ran out of time (AND energy!) before I got the load of mulch put down.
The beekeeper came by and was pleased with the large box of no-name pint jars I had for him - I'd ran a couple of loads of pints from the stacks of boxes on the shed porch through the dishwasher as well as sorting out more of the no-name ones from the stash inside. I have canned - even pressure canned - in the no-name jars and have had no problems doing so, but since I have plenty of branded jars I decided I could help meet his need for honey jars by passing the plain ones on to him. And since I need to get the all the jars off the shed porch soon so that we can have the shed painted this summer, I'll have the space the plain ones were taking up in the store room to put the heavier jars.
Hubby and I have committed to trying to eat mostly from the pantry/freezer this week, so ham from the freezer was turned into ham salad sandwiches for lunch, and supper's main dish is an anacana (a can of this and a can of that) cassarole:
*1 box apple pecan stuffing mix made as directed and spooned around the sides of a medium cassarole dish
*1 pint jar of home canned cubed pork roast cut into bite size pieces in the center of the dish, topped with sliced onions and a bit of Old Bay Seasoning
*1 can cream of mushroom soup mixed with the broth from the jar of meat poured over the top.
I also used a bag of frozen apple slices from the freezer to make a batch of apple crisp, and since I had the oven going anyway, four baking potatoes were washed and wrapped in foil and added to the oven; I made mashed potatoes from two of the potatoes to serve with supper/leftovers; and will make twice baked potatoes from the other two. A pan of cornbread went in to the oven about 20 minutes before the rest of the grub came out, a bag of frozen beet greens went into the microwave, and a jar of home canned carrots were heated up, topped with a dab of butter and some maple syrup to finish off the meal. There are even plenty of leftovers to get us through the next two days at work
Looking at the weather, it's supposed to be clear on Wednesday and Thursday - doubt with the rain last night and today that I'll be able to get into the gardens to till, but I have other garden work to keep me occupied. I did lose two of my three gooseberry bushes over the winter, but they needed to be moved out of direct sun anyway - and with all the rain, they will at least be easy to pull out of the ground! I'll take cuttings of those, Mama's Eutin roses, lilacs, forsythia and some other shrubby plants on Thursday and see if I can't get them started (and then try to figure out where I'm going to plant them ) I was lucky that I noticed a bunch of elderberry sprouts coming up around the current thicket and was able to flag them before Hubby mowed the yard - love the scent of elder flowers in the spring time! I'm also going to see if the grandson's babysitter will let me take some cuttings of her double flowered Rose of Sharon - I need something to plant by the east corner of the porch, but the nearby black walnut trees limit my options - I could use the forsythia there but I wanted pink rather than yellow.
Well, I reckon I'd better go check my work bag and get my scrubs ready for work tomorrow; I have a feeling it's going to be an early to bed evening here...
Take care all; wishing you all a safe and productive week!