Weeds, Ticks, Mosquitoes! Oh my....

Now that we are getting a load of rain, there has been no time to keep up with the weeds in the gardens.  They are full of ticks now, so repairing the weed whacker is on top of the to-do list.  I went out to check tomatoes and got attacked by ticks.  Literally.  I forgot to put my tick oil on.  

Anyway, the tomatoes are just now starting to turn in color.  Nothing ready to harvest, but turning red anyway.

(Hot peppers are so far doing the best)

Green beans and zucchini are a joke this year.  I don't know if I planted too late or it's just this darn weather.  So frustrating.  The rain could change that, but....

The rabbits tore my greens to shreds, so fencing is the only way if I plant next year.  I have no idea if the potatoes have made it, due to the massive weeds in that bed as well.

Well shoot, I thought the year started great this year, but now I need to find zucchini and green beans to stock up.  Sheesh.

Also, I planted 6 cherry bomb pepper plants ( that I started from seed) and was devastated to see one eaten to the quick.  What eats hot pepper plants?   I have no idea, other than grasshoppers.  So sad and so frustrating.

I planted one single grow bag of carrots this year and the buggers are leaving it alone for some reason.  I guess that is good news, other than I didn't plant enough to freeze.

My husband brought home one lonely yellow squash.  Co-workers often bring in extra veggies.   I sliced it and it's now blanched and in the freezer.

I am writing out another list for the next trip out.  I plan on stopping at some produce stands as well.  Gosh, I am way behind on winter stock up, but gaining.

I totally forgot I had this photo on my camera. I saw this crawling up the side of the house when I was taking laundry out to the clothesline.  According to my research, it's not something you want to touch.  I have never seen this here before.  Crazy.

Kitchen-ness and other ramblings

I ran out of time in the kitchen, so I finally finished up with what I brought home from the grocery store.

Put a head of cauliflower in the freezer, 

...as well as some broccoli (all organic of course).

Froze a bit of diced celery as well, and....

Last year I hosted an online pampered chef party to help out a friend.  I got these for free.  The rubber white tubing is used to shell the garlic clove (works great), and the other slices it.  These made my life so much easier when making garlic powder.  Note:  I didn't know until I had the party, but all of their stuff is made in China, so you may want to check for USA products online.  Anyway, it was so much easier filling a 9 tray dehydrator of sliced garlic.

...filled the dehydrator with garlic to grind into garlic powder.

I boiled more eggs for egg salad.  It's a great meal for our very hot days here.  My husband works outside and next to very hot equipment and doesn't want to eat "hot" food when he gets home.

There are items I am still not able to find in stores, but I'm constantly checking other resources.  

Tidbits

I put more stuff by the road and it was all gone by evening.  I'm so glad that someone can use it or scrap it, and it's out of the garage.

We hit a whopping heat index of 102°F yesterday.  Hot and very very humid.  

Prices are soaring.  Daughter K bought a 2 1/2 oz. bag of cotton candy last week at the fair and it cost her $7.00!!  Outrageous.

I made a trip to the "Big City" and restocked groceries and other items.  We ran out of trash bags while cleaning the garage last weekend.

I froze 2 bunches of organic asparagus, 2 bunches or organic dandelion greens, and a few organic red bell peppers.  These are not items I have from my garden, so I am stocking up when I see them available.  

Thunderstorms continued through out the evening and may continue into today.  They say we'll have higher temperatures tomorrow.  It will either make or break the garden this year.
 

Organizing my Yarn and other ramblings

 The first thing I needed to do was bake a breakfast for us.

I used the teeny tomatoes from the garden, asparagus and fresh basil for this one.  Oh, and sausage on the bottom layer.

Next?  I put up shelves upstairs and started the process of moving totes of yarn and getting that organized.  It may be a week long job (or more due to carpet cleaning, which we do plan to replace when the last kid is out), but so excited to get started.

. . . meanwhile, in the garden.

We finally got some glorious rain, so I sure hope it gives the garden what it needs to give us a bounty this summer.

My husband, Daughter K and myself went to the last day of the fair to watch the demolition derby.  We had 4 family/friends in the derby this year.  The best part is we bought pit passes and drove the truck right into the arena area and sat on the tool box to watch.  We didn't have to sit in the crowded stadium.  It was great.  My husband's Godson won 1st place and $650, our nephew won 2nd and another nephew won 3rd.  Great night.

We woke up to thunderstorms, so I am very thankful for the rain again.  It'll taper off, but it may rain later in the afternoon.  The gardens are happy.

Happy Homemaker Monday

Our morning yesterday started out with watering everything.  However, we may see rain today or later this week thankfully.

We can mark one big job off the "to-do" list now.  The garage is cleaned up, aside from a few totes the kids left (have to wash stuff up and donate).  There are several bags of trash to go out to the curb, but I would say 98% is done.  

Everything we put by the curb for free is gone except our old computer chair.

We are asking family and friends if they need softball, t-ball or baseball items.  If they do not, it will be donated to our school.

Any tote that was emptied was saved, considering store have about zero on their shelves right now.

A photo of our trip to Wal-mart over the weekend.  I needed a few for yarn, and well, I didn't get any the size I needed.  We even went to a bigger city.

My next "big" cleaning job is to clean out the refrigerator.  It's a battle with a daughter living here for sure.  I'm not used to another person shopping and adding items that crowd my space.  It may be a few weeks for that to happen.  We are going to be getting very hot weather again, and I prefer a cooler day to clean out the fridge.  Even with AC on, it's gotta be cooler to leave the door open for long periods of time.

We are making progress though - utility room done, garage done...things are actually happening.

Before we started back up on Sunday, I spent the morning vacuuming the carpet in Daughter E's old bedroom.  Half of the room has been shampooed now.  Once she comes for her desk and the last of her stuff, I'll finish the other half and start putting up shelves for my yarn totes.

Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.  I'll link up after she posts this morning.

The weather . . .

87°F/73°F, scattered rain.  It's the last day of our fair (free day), and the Demolition Derby.  We'll see if the rain arrives or not.

How I am feeling this morning. . . .

Exhausted with a capital "E" (from cleaning and purging the garage).  What didn't go in the Goodwill box, went to the curb for free, or in a trash bag or in the burn pile.

On the breakfast plate . . .

Not sure yet.  Possibly eggs, toast and coffee.  I do need a breakfast casserole for a few days, so my husband has a "to-go" breakfast for work.

Looking around the house . . . .

Daughter K had several boxes of her stuff in the garage.  We had her bring it all inside to look at and purge.  It's all over the living room, but she'll either donate stuff or put it in her room now.

On my reading pile  . . .

Nothing lately.  I've been doing more of our extreme cleaning.

On my TV . . .

All American, Netflix

On the menu . . .

Baked walleye, veggie

Potatoes, bacon and green beans

Meatballs, hot pepper mustard sauce, quinoa and a carrots

Egg salad sandwiches

Leftovers

 

From the camera . . .

Not my photo, but my husband did a thing, which prompted the garage clean up.  We owned a Chevelle back with the kids were very young, and sold it, but he's got another one again now.  He is so happy.  It's not a '69, but he's a happy man.  We've already taken her out a few times.  

I am thankful for . . .

Getting the garage cleaned out.   We started on it last year, and finished it up over the weekend. Three kids left stuff in totes that that they didn't want to take.   This is why I'm making sure Daughter E takes everything.  If she doesn't want it, it's her problem to deal with.  I have a tote of winter wear that will be washed up and donated, and another of hand crocheted blankets I make for another daughter, plus a handmade apron, I bought for her.  It's all going to be donated.

I am hoping to . . .

Get to the craft store one day this week, and set up shelves upstairs to move my yarn and have it stored in a nice fashion for once in my life.

Prayer list . . .

Daughter E, as she sets up her new apartment and begins her adult life with adult independence and adult bills.  She'll be paying her own car insurance this week, so that will be new to her.

Moving Out and other ramblings

 

Daughter E moved out.  She will be back next week to clean up the remainder of what she left (but I'm insisting it all goes with her).  I've already started to clean the carpet on one side of her room, and in the same process, purging the garage.

Our workout equipment may get moved to her old room.  I guess we'll see.  We got rid of a lot of stuff in the garage, put some things out for free by the road, and took a huge truck load of stuff to recycling.  Thankfully, recycling is still open.

I'll be back out to water all the gardens this morning.  Once again, the rain did not arrive.  I may check out some road side produce stands today.  Our zucchini and yellow squash is doing terrible.  If they are bad (because they grow like weeds), you can tell how bad it is this year for us.

I purged a large storage cupboard in my utility room, and sanitized it, washed up everything (dust), and have it all ready for the canning/freezing (if that happens).

The new printer arrived early, and is all set up.  I just need to scan a few recipes for a co-worker of my husband's, and make sure that feature works.

I went to Wal-mart for totes for yarn (to also move upstairs).  They had 2 of the size I needed, but no lids.

The products are just not available.

Oh, and I found out why there is a chip shortage for cars.  Our close friend works for a vehicle manufacturer.  He said they stopped making them when everything was shutdown, anticipating low or zero sales.  When everything opened back up, people starting buying again, and they didn't have the supply ready.

We talked to a local restaurant owner over the weekend.  She said she is "done" with all of this nonsense.  She said they will not put up partitions, nor require masks.  The owner said they are all just tired of it.

Discovery for the Camper ~ More Hot Banana Peppers

 I found these while looking for a portable table for the camper.

They are very cool!  They are compact when not in use (store in the camper easily), and turn into a stool.  We use them in the camper for nightstands next the camper bed, and they have a strap to carry on hiking and fishing.

I dug out my camping journal, because I forgot to take it the last time we went camping.  I have it updated now.  I cannot wait to add more trips to this journal.  We first used to borrow a pop-up camper in our first family camping trips, and made our coffee over the campfire.

I had 4 hot banana peppers, so those were put in the freezer.  They are coming on early this year, so hopefully I will have more for canning and jelly making.

Good news!  Blogger is fixed, so I can view my reading list now.  I'll be back around to read blogs.