Teabag Tidbits

Grab a cup of tea and enjoy the tidbits for today:

We woke up to a chilly 34°F and our first frost of the season.

My Monday to-do list had to be re-adjusted.  Rain continued, and high winds kicked in, so less laundry was done and on drying racks indoors, more cauliflower was blanched and put in the freezer, more condensed homemade soups were made and into the freezer (cream of celery, cream of chicken), and more cleaning was done.  These condensed soups are so easy to make.  The recipes are on Simply Scratch online.

Snow is now in our next weekend forecast.  I'm not concerned.  We've had it in October before and it was light and melted quickly. I am concerned about how cold it got last night, but not cold enough to freeze thankfully.  

Good news!  Our 19 year-old daughter was promoted from Asst. manager to Manager of the video rental store she works at.  So proud of her for turning things around at that store.  

Poor Tiger.  His cat world has been turned upside down.  He went from "king of the house" to invaded by dogs.  He's okay with Jesse, but he's unsure of Mia.  He's often in our room with a wide bug-eyed look.  He'll adjust.

We had to laugh at our youngest daughter.  She kept telling us she didn't want dogs here, but lately she has bonded with Mia and is her new best friend.  We often hear her using baby talk with Mia. So funny.

ACK!  I haven't been on top of homemade Christmas gifts, and haven't even started back at it, on account of the last craft show. 

I recently heard on the news that toxin free nail polish may still contain toxins.  I guess I better do more research before I apply it this fall.  I typically treat myself to a little pampering after all the garden work is done.  My summer "nail polish" is dirt, ha ha!  I'd really like to influence the girls, into providing a toxin free nail polish in their future salons.

Sometimes it's good to have my kids ask me to crochet something.  It took me hours to find the pattern, so it's printed and in it's proper "home."  It gave me the motivation to file some herbal recipes, and pickling recipes too. It however, added one more item to my make it "to-do" list.

Tomatoes ~ Garlic ~ Plantain

Hubby and I were sipping coffee at 5am on the porch Friday morning (won't be many more mornings to do this), and the radio had garden talk and advice going on.  They gave advice on whether to pick your tomatoes and bring them in to ripen or have a tomato fight.   If you pick green tomatoes when it's in the 70's, they will ripen in two weeks.  If you pick them in the 50's, it will take 4 weeks. 

I decided to get out there and pick them all.  We had a frost warning, and after that they won't be any good.  The ladies and Stud Muffin Sparta had a hay day helping clean up too.

As for the garlic, it depended on the weather at 4:30pm when Hubby got home.  Rain was in the forecast.  We managed to toss down some peat moss, and get the garlic bed tilled just before rain arrived.  

Once the parsley left the dehydrator, plantain went in.  I'm hearing more people are getting bitten by spiders this year, and requiring doctor care.  It's also good to have on hand for a medicinal tea as well as a tincture.  It's good for colds, flu, bladder issues, bronchitis, etc.  You can also eat plantain for it's nutrition (calcium, vitamin K, A, C, and B-6, and more), but I have yet to try it.  I'm wondering if I should blanch some for winter?  I guess it depends on time, if we get a frost and so forth.  I'll be adding plantain to soups this winter as well.  It is highly nutritious.

It was perfect weather one day to get back to this job - removing nails, sawing them up, and stacking them for kindling.  We already have some cut and stacked.  

Got two quarts of pickled hot banana peppers made.

Current dishcloth on the knitting needles.

Saturday morning we woke up to a chilly 39° (felt like 34°F).  Due to the rain, no mowing could be done, nor gardening, but we still had a list.  First, work on our daughter's car, second pick more plantain if we didn't get a frost, fold laundry, run to the library, prepare more winter kindling, dog proof the house, clean bathrooms....and on and on.

Sunday the weather was a bit nicer.  We gained two dogs - Mia and Jesse.  Not sure how long we'll have Jesse, but it could be until June of next year.  Sunday morning Hubby helped me plant all the garlic.  Woot woot!  So happy to get it in the ground.  More mowing was done.  

It rained last night, so I was even happier not to have to water the garlic.  So happy that the sweet potatoes are still getting time to grow too.

It's too wet to work out in the garden today, but I have much to do inside as well.  I'm hoping for a good laundry drying day outside as the rain clears up.

Youngest got me with the plastic rat.  She stuck it in the cupboard and I opened it to get a glass.  Ha.  I'll have to find somewhere to hide it and get her now.