This and That

 I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July.  We had zero plans.  The humidity was so bad, it could choke a person, and then it rained.  However, by dinner time the rain had cooled down the heat and thinned the air, so we grilled out with a few kids and played cards.

Today the air quality is said to be bad.  More rain is on the way.

Whats been happening?  Well, it's been hot.  Very hot.  

Delivery days happened.  There were personal deliveries to those who had "stuff" in our garage, a trip to the thrift store for donations I purged, and more.  We have more planned deliveries for other items.

I'm now contemplating a book purge on another bookshelf.  The photo only shows a portion of one shelf on the bookshelf (gulp).

On the repair front, weather stripping needs replaced in a few doors.  The weed whacker needed a new part (now fixed), and a few windows needed new locks installed.

On the garden front, we have harvested a few more bits.

Three garden salsa hot peppers, and one zucchini.  I made fresh salsa with the hot peppers, and boy are they hot!  They are a much more potent heat than jalapenos.  It will clear your sinuses.

A few days ago, I started saving our coffee grounds.  I am sprinkling them along the green/wax bean rows in my last ditch effort to save them.  One, they add nitrogen to the soil, and two, it deters some rodents and pests.  I'm hoping it works.  I guess we'll find out soon enough.

We have purchased some inexpensive plastic garden fencing on a roll to install around the green beans this weekend.  We joked that our green beans cost us $$$ this year to grow.  It will work for the season, until we recover our previous fence expensive, and buy more fencing for the entire other garden.

We are really hoping for more rain today, because I need to thin out the radishes (soil has been pretty dry due to the heat), and we have 3 trees growing in beds of various locations that need dug out (birds and squirrels are the worst planters).  One tree is a walnut tree, and their roots are like cement.

Speaking of rodents, I finally got my husband to get all the supplies we need to build two tree baffles.  If they do as they should, we'll make one more for the peach tree.  Yes, they will be green, because we could not find white buckets, other than Menards (and they were twice the price).  At least it's better than hot orange, ha ha!  Pictures to come later hopefully.  The supplies were much less expensive to do it this way, vs. sheet metal or baffles.

On the kitchen front, I tried a new recipe.  Only because it sounded delicous.  You mix greek yogurt with peanut butter and place scoops on waxed paper.  You freeze it, then coat it with melted dark chocolate.  I don't have a photo to share, but it was very good, however, the yogurt/peanut butter mixture did not freeze in the 20 minutes the recipe said it would.  I waited an hour, and still not frozen.  It took a very long time, so I have plans to do it differently, and in mini-muffin pan liners next time.  It's a sweet, high protein, cold snack for a hot day.

The kids didn't need eggs, so I once again boiled some, and made egg salad. It's great for a quick meal on a hot day, and you can top it with home grown microgreens.

As for the zucchini, I may use it to make a zucchini-jalapeno frittata.  Possibly with some Canadian bacon on the side, bacon or other breakfast meat.

This and That  © July 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart