It's Hot!

We've entered a heat wave, and yesterday we had a heat index of 102°F.  No one is enjoying the outdoors right now.  The chickens are being treated with frozen treats, ice water, and I have even frozen water in a tin.  I am also freezing water in bottles that I put inside their watering unit to keep their water nice and cold.   I have more treats in the freezer for today, but the forecast is saying the heat wave will last the entire week.  It is unusual for us to have such hot weather this early in the summer.

Our red raspberries are slim pickings.  I have to water the plants this week, as the rain we were to get, never arrived.  Watering the entire garden and flower beds is a full time job this week.

That's a bell pepper dipped in a new hummus recipe I made.  It's a red lentil hummus, and my gosh is it creamy and good.  I used 1/2 cup tahini (recipe said 1/4th), and used 3 cloves of garlic (recipe said 2).  It is higher in protein and less fat, and does not contain olive oil.

I have made red lentil hummus before, but used a different recipe.  There are many online, but if you want to try this one, it's called "Easy Lentil Hummus" by "It doesn't taste like chicken" online.

It''s Hot! © June 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Hot Weather ~ Chit Chat

 

We have all been shocked at having several days of 80-90 degree weather in May.  Tuesday morning was much more doable for outside work, but only early in the day.  I managed to get the rest of the flowers planted, and dumped 10 bags of mulch, but we will need more.   

We've been eating easy breakfast meals and salads for the last few days.  The hot weather is the reason.  Breakfast is pumpkin oatmeal bake (with our home grown pumpkin), and  scrambled farm fresh eggs.

I treated the chickens to some home grown sprouts ( I use a sprout jar system, but you can do this in any quart canning jar with a screen top), and boy were they excited about it.  I have since then, restocked their meal worms.

Crazy as it sounds for such hot weather, but I finally finished this scrap yarn lap afghan.

Hot Weather ~ Chit Chat © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

This and That ~ Score at the Store

The heat continues.  We had a high of 92°F, so I was out pretty early to water the gardens.  My sprinkler decided to work when it wanted, so it has to be replaced now.  It will not rotate all the time, and handling the hose to water everything is a 2 hour job.

I let the chickens out pretty early now as well, put frozen water bottles in their watering units and then later re-do it again when the heat hits the worst.  Let's just say, there is no porch time going on right now.  We could use a nice breeze.

We had some excitement in our parts.  Two inmates escaped the jail in my hometown.  I was on alert, and yesterday they caught them in a town I go to often.  Anyway......

I'm finally all caught up with dental appointments.  It took them a month to get my permanent crown done.  Glad that is all over with.  I went in for a cleaning, and they found I had chipped a tooth, which ended with 4 total visits.  I went ahead and booked my next cleaning, as they are booking almost a year out.  I'm not kidding either.  

I went into town to get new hand weights, and a few other things, and came home with these beauties.  I bought three for the flower beds (perennials). I may go back for at least one more.  I have always wanted to add "blue" to the flower beds.

I also scored some good deals I was not looking for.   First, 2# organic ground turkey for $3.49.  I cooked them up, and froze them for this next week.  I also got 3# organic baby bella mushrooms - all dehydrated.  I paid $1.34/a pound for the mushrooms.  

I finally got my eggs boiled.  I have a dinner dish to use them with, and I wanted them on hand for snacking.  Now I need to start stashing more fresh eggs in the carton for the next time, but they are not all laying in this heat.  One is slacking out there.

It looks like we will have to replace our main AC.  We are hoping it will last this summer, but the buttons on the front will not work anymore.  Thankfully, I found the remote that went to it, so I can at least change the settings from that.

I found a recipe book with Mom's notes on it.  There are a few strange ones that I will try soon.  By strange, I mean different.

Sweet Cherry Jam ~ Breakfast Hash with Eggs ~ Ramblings

I got a small batch of sweet cherry jam (reduced sugar) done.  I most likely won't make any more considering I had to buy the cherries.  Our cherry tree died for some reason, and I didn't have the time to plant one this spring.  Hopefully next year.

I'm obsessed with these dip bowls by Pioneer Woman.  Love them for cracking eggs before adding them to a recipe.

Breakfast - sweet potato hash (with an extra reg. potato because that is what I had), with eggs on top.  I added jalapeno for a kick and it was so good.

It's been confirmed that we had a Derecho.  The area of Amish country around Berlin, OH had so much damage from the storms that they called a Level 3 and no one was allowed on the roads, to allow for cleaning up the debris.  Hotels, and motels closed, businesses closed due to the damage and power outages.

I went out to the tomatoes, and I literally almost lost my boots in one patch, and could not get into the other at all.  It was under water.  I will go out early this morning, and see if I can get into at least one and tie up plants.  Not sure it will happen.

 

Not the best photo, but dinner was chicken/apple/cranberry/pecan/blue cheese.  Very good on a hot day.

I like to keep bottles of ice water on hand for our mower guy and our hired help for other work around here, and it was already up in price to $5.29 a pack.  Horrible!

Today's heat will be worse than yesterday.  I will be outside soon to trim rose bushes, but will be back inside if the tomatoes are too wet.