Happy Homemaker Monday

I'm joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom today.  Sunday we fried.  It was 92°F with a heat index of 99°F.  We literally didn't go outside much at all.  Hubby and I hit the garden work first, but it was too hot and humid to be outside.  We even said no to a motorcycle ride to get ice cream.  It was that hot. 

Today, rain is once again in the forecast, and we may actually get some this time.  It's to rain all day, so first on the to-do list is work on the green beans in the garden.  If I can resurrect the second row, we plan to mow down the last two and replant.

On the breakfast plate. . .
Eggs, toast with home canned jam, coffee


The weather outside is . . .
It's hot and humid, and we are praying we finally get rain.


On my reading pile . . .
Herbal books from the library.


On the TV . . .
McCleod's Daughters


On the menu . . .
-organic roast, carrots, potatoes and onion
-stuffed shells, steamed broccoli
-chicken with home canned hot pepper mustard sauce, wild rice and beets
-egg salad sandwiches
-leftovers

On the weekly to-do list . . .
-work in the green beans in the garden
-dishes
-floors
-laundry
-shampoo half of the hallway carpet
-hang the last new curtain in the front room
-wash the front door curtain and wash down window and door
-dinner prep
-make a batch of homemade baking mix
-make homemade taco mix
-work on purging more books


What I am crocheting, knitting, sewing or creating. . .
Two lapghans, another set crocheted ice pop holders, and a knitted dishcloth


New recipe I tried . . .

Whiskey Balls.  They are pretty good too.  I adjusted a recipe from my Maker's Mark cookbook.  I used non-gmo organic chocolate crisp rice cereal, and organic ingredients.  You can't find a non-gmo, organic marshmallow whip, but you can make it homemade.  I found a recipe online at Attainable Sustainable.

Whiskey Balls

1 cup organic non-gmo chocolate chips
7 oz. marshmallow fluff (see recipe link above)
2-3 Tbsp. whiskey
3 cups organic crisp rice cereal
1/2 cup organic coconut
3/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Melt chocolate, let cool but not harden.  Mix in the marshmallow and whiskey.  Add remaining ingredients.  Form into 1 inch balls and chill.  I used my large cooking scoop and it worked great.  They were larger, so next time for a larger Christmas crowd, I'll use the smaller and probably get about 5 dozen.

Next on the try it list are some serviceberry recipes.


From the camera . . .

I think my auracanas think it's Christmas in July.  I have gotten one of their eggs since last Christmas.

We had 3 visits in one day from this hummingbird.  It has a red chest.

In one day, a chickadee built a nest in one of my hanging pots.  He paid me a visit this morning too.  


Looking forward to. . .
Rain.

Reality

It's either too hot or too wet, and this is our reality.  This is a small side of the front porch flower bed.  I have trees growing in it, ha ha ha ha!
  

The mailbox flower bed.  Trees are growing there too, ha ha!

If you look close enough, you'll see my roses in that weed field next to the house, and in front of that, across the sidewalk my weed packed herb garden.  I wasn't kidding when I said the weeds were so tall, I could see them out my windows.

Another view of the herb garden.  Even the grass can't be caught up with, nor the trimming.  You should see my vegetable garden.  It looks like we are growing hay out here.

On a good note.  I tried something new this year.  I took 5 geraniums inside over winter, and 3 survived.  Check out this one. . .

The plants I kept out in the living room, near the wood stove over winter, did the best.  Sure saved money on buying annuals.

This my friends is a row of beets.  A very long row, and that is a row of carrots to the left and the horribly looking peas to the right.

Two and a half hours later, I found the beets.  Some are looking really good, while others are a bit small.  I didn't finish the row in that photo either.  

The tomatoes have been resurrected, but are pretty small.  The cut grass has fried up in the sun and sort of made a mulch for them though.

My carrot row.  It's about 40-some feet long.  

After a few feet of weeding, I had to stop and water it.  There was no way the weed were coming out in that dried up dirt.
So yeah, the reality of gardening this year hit our homestead hard.  So hard, there is no way to keep up with it all.  The garlic needs pulled, and everything needs weeded out.  Well, the garlic isn't coming up until we get rain next.

Somewhere in there are 4 rows of green beans that go all the way to the left.  Yeah, I'm about to mow it all down and just buy it this year.  

Just like all the rest of the garden - half didn't make it, some are nice and big with blossoms, and some are dinky.  Some simply fell over after I pulled the weeds.

Here is all that wood from my younger brother.  It was not all unloaded when I took those photos either.  It's stacked 6 feet tall in the first photo too, and I'm starting a second row.  

Pre-Weekend Update ~ Finished

The weeding continues daily.  I have to make decisions on which is more important, and sooooo mucchhhhhh needs weeded.  It's a battle of water one day, weed the next, because it's been getting fried here on a constant basis.   

If you've ever weeded carrots, you feel my pain.  Pictures to come soon.

Dry Days ~ Heat Wave to Return

The rain, that was in the forecast kept getting pushed back and back, until we got about a 5 minute sprinkle.  Unfortunately, that meant a full blown morning of watering everything here.  I had to drag 200 feet of hose from the garden to the flower beds and herb garden, which wasn't fun, nor easy.

The grass went from can't-keep-up-with-mowing, to it dead and crunching under our feet.  Watering everything meant no weeding time either.

Midweek Tidbits

Youngest is finally home, after a 5 day camping, roller coaster riding, swimming and what not summer vacation.  I'm glad she got to go.  Tiger (her cat) has been so happy to have her back home.


I got the third load of wood unloaded and stacked.  One more truck load to pick up.  I think between the battle of the weeds everywhere (especially the  condition of the garden), the heat and working with wood, I've been a bit crabby.  I made a nice nettle tea infusion for both Hubby and I (for exhaustion).

The only thing getting cooked or baked here (besides meals) is a big batch of whole wheat blueberry pancakes.  Now we don't have to make breakfast the rest of the week too.  It's been hot again - heat index of 95°F.

Another Hot Day

I started in the garden about 7am, then moved onto unloading the wood.  I got all the tomatoes staked, with only  a few left to tie up.  It was only 80°F, but working in the direct sun wore me out and I quit at almost 10:45am.  

Having nothing in my stomach but coffee and a slice of toast, I donned my apron and made a large batch of egg and bacon scramble for the week.  I also multi-tasked and got dinner in the crock pot too.

However, a full kitchen of dirty dishes loomed.  Laundry had to be done.  You know how it goes, right?

Exhausted

We worked on the tomato patch all morning Sunday, and it's still not done.  And it was also a load, unload, and reload day.  We have one more load to pick up.

Thanks to my younger brother, we have a good start on wood (or will - one more load to pick up).  He cut some trees down, even borrowed our splitter and had it already for us to pick up.  Woohoo!

Both of us were exhausted last night.  Definitely a good sleep night.

I even got another 1/2 cup of red raspberries in the freezer.

Today it will be another hot one.  It's outside I go, early today.  I have a full truck load of wood to unload, tomatoes to stake and tie up, more weeding, and of course inside work.