Good Morning, All!!
I woke up early this morning and already have three loads of laundry out on the line, but haven't made it to the garden to see what needs picked as yet - gotta let the dew dry off a bit before I dive in to the zucchini or tomato jungles
It's cool enough here that I actually left the porch door open after I finished hanging up the hummingbird feeders this morning - woo hoo! The humidity is still high, but the temps got down into the high 60's last night, and it's only up to 74*F now, with a predicted high of 86*F - yeah, I can do that!
I've been having to take the feeders in at night as we have a family of raccoons coming up on the porch and emptying them - and making a big mess in the process. We've trapped and relocated but apparently 5 miles isn't far enough; they are all back - and peering in the porch door at us!
Hubby headed out to the nearby range a bit ago to sign up for a 3-gun shoot, but it isn't the kind that you see on TV; this is one where you shoot 3 different fireams - the handgun and rifle each from 3 different distances, then a round of trap. He thinks it sounds sort of boring since there isn't the action like there is in IDPA, but he went over to check it out anyway.
If he decides to stay, I may run over and watch for just a bit before I go pick up the grandkids this afternoon - I promised them a trip to the pool, and will hit the orchard for peaches while I am that close.
In between now and then, I need to clear the kitchen island counter - AGAIN!! How it gets cluttered so fast, I do NOT know, but it surely has. There are 3 canners, zucchini, a big cooking pot, zucchini, full and empty canning jars plus lids and ring bands, a stack of canning towels that need folded, and did I mention zucchini....
One of these years, I'm going to figure out the magic number of zucchini hills to plant....
Wednesday was a busy day - I managed to get another load of pork 'n beans canned, then tossed the soaked beans that were left after I filled the jars into a crock pot with some bacon, a bag of frozen veggies, a pint jar of home canned tomatoes, a quart jar of tomato juice, a bay leaf and some other seasonings before I had to have the boys in town for the library program. After the program, I took daughter and the grands out to lunch before heading back home, where I chunked some frozen smoked sausage and tossed it in the bean pot, just for fun. I decided that I should till the two in-ground gardens and the new gooseberry patch in the early afternoon - which led to me spending the mid-afternoon flopped on the living room floor in front of the air conditioning duct, slurping homemade sports drink and re-reading 'The Stand' - some durned fool decided to work outside while the heat index was 109*F. Guess I'm getting wimpy in my old age
Speaking of homemade sports drink, here is the recipe again:
1/2 gallon of water
1 (or two) pkt of unsweetened Kool-Aid (or flavoring of your choice)
3/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp salt substitute that containes potassium chloride (Morton's Salt Substitute)
8 Tablespoons sugar (you can cut this back if you just use 1 pkt of Kool-Aid) or 10 packets of artificial sweetener.
Mix together; chill and serve. If the grands are going to be here, I make it without flavoring and let them add in their own by putting their favorite flavors of Kool-Aid in small jars so that they can use my 'pinch', 'smidgen' or 'dash' measuring spoons to dip out the amount of flavoring they like.
While I was tilling, I deked around a few very healthy purslane plants that had conveniently planted themselves in a straight line; I'm hoping to harvest some seed from them and plant the in a more convenient location next year (it also roots very easily from cuttings - as anyone who has ever tilled up a garden full of purslane knows
) Between the purslane, pokeweed, and the lambs' quarter that self seed, we won't hurt for greens in an emergency where it's safe to eat out of the yard. I also noted a LOT of plantain sending up seed heads near the bee fodder fields, both wide and narrow leaf - plantain is a useful medicinal - here is a little information about it: http://medicinalherbinfo.org/herbs/Plantain.html
Thursday and Friday were insane days at work; Thursday started with transferring a patient to CCU. Boss did an 'exit, stage left' when he popped in to the unit for a minute later that and perkily asked me how things were going - I replied that wound care was sounding better and better and clarified it by stating that I'd rather be picking maggots from gangrenous flesh - and yes, I've dealt with both maggots and gangrenous flesh, not to mention other really icky stuff during a Home Health rotation. Home Health is not for the weak of heart OR stomach
I'd almost forgotten that Saturday was the cheerleader car wash fund raiser so headed in to town later than I'd originally planned. Got my van buffed and fluffed by a gaggle of giggling girls, then headed out to Dollar General - I'd stopped on my way home Friday evening to buy a broom for the upstairs as the current broom has this irritating habit of being on a different floor every time I need it and I was getting tired of playing hide 'n seek with the darned thing. I got a $5 off $25 purchase coupon good on Saturday; then I took a survey on the receipt (wanted to brag on the young man who was working that night) and got a $3 off $15 purchase coupon. I did two transactions - one for 14 boxes of Golden Harvest (made in USA) canning jar lids @ $1.75/box, plus a bag of those disgusting, squishy, orange circus peanut things (l love 'em), and one for 9 boxes of the lids; for a total of around $35 after tax and coupons were discounted, bringing my per lid cost to about 12.6 cents; not too bad. I also gained 2 more $5 off $25 coupons for next Saturday, so will use them to purchase more lids and/or school supplies.
The other half of the gaggle of girls were stationed at the Pro-Lube business, selling pulled pork sandwiches and hot dogs, so I pulled in and picked up lunch on my way home - 2 pulled pork sandwiches, chips and drinks for $10 which I bumped up a bit - they are raising money for uniforms and I figure I'm going to be helping pay for them one way or the other; this way, I got a BBQ sammich out of the deal My van is due for an oil change in about 800 miles; I will take it to that Pro-Lube as a thank you for letting the girls set up there, and supplying them with one of those shade tents.
Well, the dew ought to be dried up, and that counter hasn't started clearing itself yet, so I reckon I'd better get up and get to work. You folks take care out there; stay safe...
I woke up early this morning and already have three loads of laundry out on the line, but haven't made it to the garden to see what needs picked as yet - gotta let the dew dry off a bit before I dive in to the zucchini or tomato jungles
It's cool enough here that I actually left the porch door open after I finished hanging up the hummingbird feeders this morning - woo hoo! The humidity is still high, but the temps got down into the high 60's last night, and it's only up to 74*F now, with a predicted high of 86*F - yeah, I can do that!
I've been having to take the feeders in at night as we have a family of raccoons coming up on the porch and emptying them - and making a big mess in the process. We've trapped and relocated but apparently 5 miles isn't far enough; they are all back - and peering in the porch door at us!
Hubby headed out to the nearby range a bit ago to sign up for a 3-gun shoot, but it isn't the kind that you see on TV; this is one where you shoot 3 different fireams - the handgun and rifle each from 3 different distances, then a round of trap. He thinks it sounds sort of boring since there isn't the action like there is in IDPA, but he went over to check it out anyway.
If he decides to stay, I may run over and watch for just a bit before I go pick up the grandkids this afternoon - I promised them a trip to the pool, and will hit the orchard for peaches while I am that close.
In between now and then, I need to clear the kitchen island counter - AGAIN!! How it gets cluttered so fast, I do NOT know, but it surely has. There are 3 canners, zucchini, a big cooking pot, zucchini, full and empty canning jars plus lids and ring bands, a stack of canning towels that need folded, and did I mention zucchini....
One of these years, I'm going to figure out the magic number of zucchini hills to plant....Wednesday was a busy day - I managed to get another load of pork 'n beans canned, then tossed the soaked beans that were left after I filled the jars into a crock pot with some bacon, a bag of frozen veggies, a pint jar of home canned tomatoes, a quart jar of tomato juice, a bay leaf and some other seasonings before I had to have the boys in town for the library program. After the program, I took daughter and the grands out to lunch before heading back home, where I chunked some frozen smoked sausage and tossed it in the bean pot, just for fun. I decided that I should till the two in-ground gardens and the new gooseberry patch in the early afternoon - which led to me spending the mid-afternoon flopped on the living room floor in front of the air conditioning duct, slurping homemade sports drink and re-reading 'The Stand' - some durned fool decided to work outside while the heat index was 109*F. Guess I'm getting wimpy in my old age
Speaking of homemade sports drink, here is the recipe again:
1/2 gallon of water
1 (or two) pkt of unsweetened Kool-Aid (or flavoring of your choice)
3/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp salt substitute that containes potassium chloride (Morton's Salt Substitute)
8 Tablespoons sugar (you can cut this back if you just use 1 pkt of Kool-Aid) or 10 packets of artificial sweetener.
Mix together; chill and serve. If the grands are going to be here, I make it without flavoring and let them add in their own by putting their favorite flavors of Kool-Aid in small jars so that they can use my 'pinch', 'smidgen' or 'dash' measuring spoons to dip out the amount of flavoring they like.
While I was tilling, I deked around a few very healthy purslane plants that had conveniently planted themselves in a straight line; I'm hoping to harvest some seed from them and plant the in a more convenient location next year (it also roots very easily from cuttings - as anyone who has ever tilled up a garden full of purslane knows
) Between the purslane, pokeweed, and the lambs' quarter that self seed, we won't hurt for greens in an emergency where it's safe to eat out of the yard. I also noted a LOT of plantain sending up seed heads near the bee fodder fields, both wide and narrow leaf - plantain is a useful medicinal - here is a little information about it: http://medicinalherbinfo.org/herbs/Plantain.htmlThursday and Friday were insane days at work; Thursday started with transferring a patient to CCU. Boss did an 'exit, stage left' when he popped in to the unit for a minute later that and perkily asked me how things were going - I replied that wound care was sounding better and better and clarified it by stating that I'd rather be picking maggots from gangrenous flesh - and yes, I've dealt with both maggots and gangrenous flesh, not to mention other really icky stuff during a Home Health rotation. Home Health is not for the weak of heart OR stomach
I'd almost forgotten that Saturday was the cheerleader car wash fund raiser so headed in to town later than I'd originally planned. Got my van buffed and fluffed by a gaggle of giggling girls, then headed out to Dollar General - I'd stopped on my way home Friday evening to buy a broom for the upstairs as the current broom has this irritating habit of being on a different floor every time I need it and I was getting tired of playing hide 'n seek with the darned thing. I got a $5 off $25 purchase coupon good on Saturday; then I took a survey on the receipt (wanted to brag on the young man who was working that night) and got a $3 off $15 purchase coupon. I did two transactions - one for 14 boxes of Golden Harvest (made in USA) canning jar lids @ $1.75/box, plus a bag of those disgusting, squishy, orange circus peanut things (l love 'em
), and one for 9 boxes of the lids; for a total of around $35 after tax and coupons were discounted, bringing my per lid cost to about 12.6 cents; not too bad. I also gained 2 more $5 off $25 coupons for next Saturday, so will use them to purchase more lids and/or school supplies. The other half of the gaggle of girls were stationed at the Pro-Lube business, selling pulled pork sandwiches and hot dogs, so I pulled in and picked up lunch on my way home - 2 pulled pork sandwiches, chips and drinks for $10 which I bumped up a bit - they are raising money for uniforms and I figure I'm going to be helping pay for them one way or the other; this way, I got a BBQ sammich out of the deal
My van is due for an oil change in about 800 miles; I will take it to that Pro-Lube as a thank you for letting the girls set up there, and supplying them with one of those shade tents.Well, the dew ought to be dried up, and that counter hasn't started clearing itself yet, so I reckon I'd better get up and get to work. You folks take care out there; stay safe...
) After lunch, the boys and I changed into dry clothes and took short naps while Hubby went to town with the idea of trading off a firearm - he came home with the original and another that he'd ordered last week and - ahem - forgotten to mention 