On the Upside of things. . .

We had a very bad night of thunderstorms and hail Saturday night.  The most rain (5 inches) and hail I have ever seen in our area, the rain finally let up on Sunday and as of now, today.  Fields are now lakes, but the rain has stopped.  I will wait a few days to check my smallish garden for damage.

I harvested a bunch of plantain (before the rain) since the yard was so tall.  I dried some, and started an infused oil for salve making.  I found a recipe to make plantain "chips" and may try it this year.  Has anyone eaten plantain and has a good recipe to share?

I started my horse chestnut tincture too.

I baked a peach pie.  Hubby's request, and boy did he deserve it.  

Our mower was finally returned on Saturday about noon.  

Rum and Coke Popsicles

I had a bottle of rum, leftover from our anniversary party.  This is another recipe to give along, when you gift homemade Kahlua too.  I decided to make some boozy popsicles, which put me in a good mood.  They are nice for hot days after working outside or taking a long motorcycle ride.  A sweet adult treat.  

You will need to open the bottle of Coca-cola and let it go flat overnight to make these.

Here's how to make them:

1/4 cup Captain Morgan Rum
2 cups (flat) Coca-cola (I used real, made with sugar)
1/4 cup Kahlua (for homemade recipe click: HERE)
Popsicle molds

Mix, pour into molds and freeze over night.  You may need to run water over the mold for it to release.  Enjoy!

Gardening

Friday of all days, was the best and most beautiful sunny and dry day.  Hubby had to work 10 hours, and I worked in the garden. 

I'm starting to realize that I may need to downsize the garden, so not being able to plant the usual, has now been sort of a blessing and reminder.

Even so, I got 54 jalapeno pepper plants in the garden.  I am delayed, in the planting of the rest (of what we can, including green peppers), due to the burden of the mower never returned in time for our friend to mow.  

Now Hubby has to spend 3 hours mowing after working 10 hour days, which puts a burden on him as well.  Never, ever, shall we loan it out.  Nor the tiller, which has been asked to be borrowed now.  Nope.  Nope.  Double triple NOPE!

The coyote is still around. I heard it from the field across the street making noises.  I'm on patrol.  I may have another out back too.  

I had just gotten all my clotheslines completely full, when I took a porch break to see a plane swoop down and drop his poison.  I ran right back out and used my dryer against my will, on a hot, hot day.

I was lucky to find organic/non-gmo dandelion greens and got some in the freezer. 

Mower still isn't back.  It's a topic that you don't dare bring up with Hubby either.  Rain returns today.

Random Tidbits

Wed. night Hubby, tired as he was tilled a small bit of the garden for me (for potatoes).  I yanked out one section of last year's plastic we had down for peppers, but left the rest in.  It's too wet to work in.

(That's puddle of water, and it's way too wet to till)

It's saturated in most parts yet.  We were to get rain all night, and did not thankfully.  Rain was 80% at 6am Thursday morning, but quickly changed to 50% at 7am.  Then it stopped early. 

Although it was a muddy mess, I planted 17# of red and white potatoes (90 starts).   Took a break, and headed back out to plant 53 sweet potato slips but only had room for 26.  I managed to plant a row of radishes too.  

We are really hurting in our area, farmers included.  Not one farmer has been in their fields this year other than to do soil tests.  Organic farmers may be having the same issue.

Our plan is to take it one day at a time, and then decide what's to be planted.  We will attempt fall planting of radishes, kale etc.  If I can manage it by myself, I plan to pull the pea fence and roll it up until fall.  It'd make tilling a bit easier since we can't plant any pea type at all now.

The weather changes by the hour, so it's hit or miss this year.

Allergies are at their worst ever this year.  I've relied on nettle for years, but I'm now mixing it up with mullien.   I'm also using oregano oil this year.   The diffuser is going at night, but that means turning off my dehumidifier and it's still raining here.

Goldenrod is not in season yet, and I don't have horehound.  If you have a tea remedy that works better, please share.

To relieve sinus pressure I did some essential oil steams the other day too.  I also decided to take my worries away with a long hot soak in the tub with essential oils.

I'll be looking through my herbal recipe books to see if I can find another tea alternative.  If there is nothing new in my own books, I'll be ordering some from the library.

Aurora gifted me an early morning treat on the porch.  Then proceeded to play with it, to the point I had to switch rockers for her to have more room.  Good kitty, but on the porch?  Really?

I was chilling on the front porch with a wine slushy, when I saw something move out in the field across from us.

I then remembered my chickens were out in their run, and ran out there to check.  Whew.  All accounted for, but not the barn cat. Found her later.

Just before that, our biker friend arrived to mow.  No mower.  Grr.  He has plans on Friday, and it's the only dry day for a while.  

Changing Plans ~ Weather Crisis

Horrible thunderstorms woke us up Tuesday morning, and later I found out there were tornadoes that touched down within an hour of us.

Youngest started her internship, and with the rain constant along with Hubby's work schedule, it's been indoor work for the most part.  

I broke down, did some research, and ordered us some reusable potato grow bags.  I just need to get the dirt and give an update on that.  I could not find one person with experience or a resource for bags, so I went with what my out research did.  It can't hurt at this point, as we are as desperate and desperate can be.

I sort of have a plan for the 54 jalapeno plants, but not for the 54 plus green pepper plants.

Rats chewed another hole in the chicken coop.  We patched that and built a rat trap, but noticed a crack in the bottom of my 5 gallon bucket.  We'll buy a new one and reset it.

As for the ants in the herb garden, I sprinkled grits on the hill.  So far, no ants.  You just need a dry day to do it, so they eat it.  Not sure on my weed killer yet.  No good dry days to use it.

Of course we got more rain, and major storms were in the forecast.  Thankfully most went past us giving us less rain.

Wednesday morning it was calm with no rain, but still in the forecast.

I made a sausage and kale millet skillet (recipe is online, but with ham and cheese), considering I couldn't do a thing outside.  The humidity is bad here too.  So bad, I have sinus issues and have been downing tinctures and teas to relieve the pressure.  When that failed to do it's job, I remembered a trick my Dad taught me a long time ago - add one drop of oregano oil (talk to your health store professional) to a teabag and make hot tea.  Worked like a charm.

I'm also having to run our dehumidifier and empty it often.  So this means no painting of anything either.   When I first turned on the dehumidifier it read my bedroom was 85% humidity.  windows in the kitchen and front room have been closed for that reason.

Which leaves me to cleaning.   Cleaning, organizing, and it's driving us all mad.  The rain that is.  We are all literally in bad moods.  The rain has made our "can't do" list so long it's frustrating and downright maddening.  We are all grouches and argue a lot lately.  Hubby's work schedule is also draining him and the rest of us, also adding to the "can't do" list.

The old truck is still broke down, one daughter's car remains in the driveway broke down, the septic not dug, bathroom remodel halted, chimney not swept, garden not tilled nor planted......

On top of that, we kind hearted people let one nephew borrow our mower for his house lot, where we have 6 acres.  He borrowed it Monday morning, and we even had a cookout there the same day, and I don't remember seeing the mower there.   He wasn't answering his phone either.  We only have short windows of opportunities (mostly dry times when Hubby's at work) to mow our own grass.  I have a biker friend we can hire to help me, but we can't do it without our mower.  The mower was to be returned last night, but they never showed up, so mowing didn't happen.  We are pretty upset considering we actually got in touch with them too.

We also went out of our way to locate hay for the nephew's horse.  It's very difficult to find right now, and with the rainfall there is a huge shortage.  The friend was willing to sell a few bales and as of we know, he hasn't gone to pick it up.

If by luck, you may see a "gratitude" post soon, just to try and shift my thinking lately.  It's been pretty depressing.

We didn't get too much rain on Wed. but we will get buckets of it again today (if the weather man is right).  I really, really need to find my "happy" place again.

Rhubarb Vodka

Rhubarb is in season now.  Guess what concoction I made?  Well, the title of this blog sort of gave it away, ha ha!  I created rhubarb vodka.

You can find the recipe online just about anywhere.  I used the recipe from BBC recipes online, adapted with homegrown and organic ingredients.  

Rhubarb Vodka

·         1¾ pints (3 1/2 cups) organic vodka

·         2 stalks of homegrown rhubarb
          3 Tbsp sugar

·         Lemon zest from half of one organic lemon or homegrown

·         3 organic whole cloves

·         1 organic cinnamon stick

·         

(right after adding the sugar - shake it up when you sprinkle it on the rhubarb)

1. I used my food processor to chop up the rhubarb, then placed it in a canning jar with sugar, screwed on a lid left it sit overnight.  I also put it in the refrigerator.  Note:  smaller pieces will macerate faster than larger pieces.

2. I then added the cloves, cinnamon and zest and poured in the vodka.

3 Leave the jar in a cool dark place for 3 weeks, and shake daily.

Strain using a cheesecloth.

Bottle and wait 3 months before drinking.
Shake daily.

What can you make with it?  Well, you can make Rhubarb Mimosa.  

You can also make a rhubarb martini, rhubarb fizz cocktail, rhubarb cosmopolitan, rhubarb vodka sour, and many other mixed drinks with it.  I wanted to give this a try to see if it's gift worthy or not.  Or just plain good.

Note:  Ingredients will not fit in a quart jar.  I used a larger one, but could have tripled it in it too.  We will do a taste test first, and then decide if it's gift worthy.

Note:  Each time I bake/cook with lemons, I take off the zest and put it in the freezer for cooking/baking and now boozy recipes.

It's Bad....just Bad.

We got massive amounts of rain.  Sadly, we will not be planting popcorn, squash of any kind, beets, carrots, cucumbers, greens and more.  We may not even be able to get the sweet potatoes, potatoes or green beans in either.  No way to till, and more rain in the forecast.  It's going to be our biggest loss ever.  Almost makes me want to cry, but there is nothing we can do about it right now.

I could buy buckets for the potatoes, but the cost for them and dirt would out way having to buy them.   The fate of our 100 plus pepper plants has yet to be decided.

It rained all night and it's raining this morning, and rain all day again tomorrow.