Heat Index Returns ~ Keeping Chickens Cool

Friday the heat index was predicted to be up to 100°.  It reached 98°F in our area. Weeding is still at a halt for me.  Just not worth the risk to be out there.  The humidity is sooo thick and my camera lens steamed up.

Chickens were iced again.  Did you know that although they eat the ice to cool off, they also pick some up and put it under their feathers?  Mine do anyway.  Just an FYI for those undergoing the same heat as we are, and raise chickens.  When we had goats, we froze water in small bottles and added them to their water buckets.

Nothing really "homesteady" to share today.  Youngest Daughter ditched me for another sister and is spending a few nights with her, so I'm unsupervised for a few days.

Bought myself this. . .

I sure hope I take the time to read it now, lol!

I have yet to deliver roosters to those taking them, but they are crowing now.

Thanks to being stuck inside with the AC this week, I have new projects on the handiwork to-do list.  They will be fun too.  I'll update as I finish them.

Dinner was once again salad and fresh cold fruit.  Too hot to cook a darn thing, and with the heat this bad, we all have non-zippity do-dah appetities.

Hot, Humid, more Thunderstorms ~ Homemade Pomegranate Vinaigrette

When water starts to flood this field it's not a good sign.  I took this photo yesterday morning.  We got a lot of rain the previous night.

We are getting burned out of this night shift business.  I should go to "nights" when he does so we are on the same schedule.  Ugh.  He's on this shift until middle of next week with no days/nights off.

What did I do on the 4th?  No celebrating for us. Too hot to grill out as well.  Hubby had to sleep then work night shift, the girls went to the movies, and it was just me and the dog and the AC.

I baked some chocolate bourbon spiked banana bread for the us.  Recipe is online, I just adapted organic ingredients (leites culinaria).

Cooked up a breakfast scramble with bacon and dandelion greens.  Tossed in some jalapenos too.

I made us a salad for dinner on a very hot and humid day.

Organic greens, cooked and shredded chicken, dried cranberries, blue cheese crumbles, glazed pecans, apple slices and homemade pomegranate vinaigrette.  Delicious!  Best vinaigrette I've ever made too!  Recipe is a keeper!

Although I fed this little bugger steak at breakfast, he was sure wanting some of the chicken I was cutting up for the salad.

Homemade Pomegranate Vinaigrette
1 1/2 cups organic pomegranate juice - heat to medium heat and reduce until you have 1/4 cup.  Cool completely.

Whisk in:
(all organic ingredients)
1/3 olive oil
5 tsp. honey
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. salt

Yield:  2/3 cup approximately

Random Tidbits

The news is calling the storm that hit my home town a "micro burst" and not a confirmed tornado, but it did a lot of damage.  Power was out in many places, roads blocked, lines down etc.  We are guessing that so many trees came down due to the massive rainfall, and roots very wet at the time.

Early Wednesday morning, I was sipping coffee on the front porch.  County workers cut grass on the highway and it was thrown all over the road.  Before I could call the Sheriff (pretty bad when you have to call on county road workers), someone else did and they came out and walked the highway with a leaf blower.  Pretty dumb way to do this, as it's unsafe, but they had a truck behind them.  At least they blew if off.  One motorcycle had already come up the highway before they arrived.

Our biker friend who mows, came out and helped clean out our barn, taking broken down weed whackers and a mower.  He'll fix them up and possibly sell them, and we are glad to help him out and clean out stuff.  He also took our tiller to do some repairs on it for us.

I took a trip there to do some shopping, and try and locate a salad dressing I wanted  (plan b was to try and make it from scratch).  I picked up our 20 year-old and spent some time with her.  Plan b is now happening today.  Hopefully it will taste even better homemade.

We got more rain last night.  If we get more today, the country highway by us will flood for sure.  Field is already flooded with standing water this morning. It's hot, sticky, no breeze whatsoever, and more rain possible today.

Heat Wave ~ Storm

The heat wave has arrived.  We hit a high of 93°F and yet another day of no garden work done.  Weeds prevail.  It would have been a good year to invest in a solar oven (in my best sarcastic but realistic voice, lol!)

Too hot to enjoy one bit of porch time, but we all knew it was coming with the massive spring rains we got.  

Hubby sleeps all day, so indoor work has to be at a minimum as to where it won't wake him up - no vacuuming, loud anything.  I managed to wash 3 blankets and got them on the clothesline early.  I also made a cold healthy treat for him in case he didn't feel like eating dinner on during this very hot week - homemade hummus and organic celery sticks.

I went outside very early to tend the chickens, pick plantain, picked radishes, water the half dead flowers (veggie garden looked okay), in preparations for possible afternoon/evening thunderstorms.   

We got a downpour about 3pm.  Thankful for that.  Except that I forgot I had blankets drying on the clothesline at the time.  Ugh.  A horrible storm went through my hometown and took down trees and power lines.  Thankful all is okay and thankful it wasn't that bad out here.

A second storm came through and took down trees south of us about 4 hours later.

Was disappointed to find out I cannot harvest my feverfew until the 2nd year of of growth.  Sigh.  As for Arnica?  It's my 3rd attempt at growing it from seed, and it just doesn't like our weather.  Double sigh. 

Although I didn't want to cook, I put chicken in the crock pot, and made radish hashbrowns. 

Although I'm tired of weeding, milkweed randomly growing in the flower bed has killed off my poison ivy.

Keeping Radishes Fresh and other Tidbits

I went out to check on the radishes again.  

To keep them fresh, if I don't use them the same day I pick them, I cut the greens, wash them, and place them in a damp paper towel.  Then I put that inside a container or reusable plastic bag.  Works like a charm.

The ground hog who got away.  I think there are two now.  Sigh.  Gonna have to keep my eyes open now.  Can't lose my garden after all this work.

A beautiful sunrise the other day.  We are entering into a very hot week this week.  AC filters were cleaned and temps turned down for the week.  Monday we reached 93°F.

With the temps soaring, the chickens are getting treated with shaved ice this week.

Woke up to a balmy, sticky 72°F at 5am.  I had plans to wash blankets and rugs.  Hm.  Yeah, that's not happening.

Birthday Trip ~ Weekend Updates

Friday afternoon, I got this wonderful surprise delivered. . .

I was excited and shocked beyond belief.  What a nice surprise.Looks small, but it's HUGE!  Oh my heart!

Just about the same time the flowers showed up, I get a text from Hubby.  He is now going from 14 hour days to 16 hour nights 7 days a week for at least a week, possibly more.

The good news is he was of Sunday and didn't have to return until Monday evening.  Here's an update on our weekend fun!

I took our now 20 year-old on a weekend trip to Amish country.  She was more interested in antique shopping and good food than anything.  Also, the pool at the hotel brought a smile to her face. I also brought along her younger sister.  We were reluctant to go without my husband, but we didn't want to cancel reservations.  However, this meant I was doing all the driving. 

We could not plant popcorn this year due to the amount of rain we have had, so we stocked up on organic popcorn.

We have been reading reports that it'll be hard to find due to the farmers not being able to plant.  We can live without it, but we do like it for a healthy snack too.

I also picked up another brown sugar container for my dark brown sugar.

I took her to all the nice shopping places we normally go to, , grocery store (best place to find other goods such as organic oats, which saves me a trip to another town), flea markets, craft barns and more.  Hubby wanted me to stop and get his growlers filled, but we forget them (again).

We returned home Sunday morning.  Hubby had the day off, so we high-tailed it home.  Hubby had the Harley out and two guys with their bikes awaiting our arrival.  I unloaded the truck, changed clothes and took off on the Harley.  When we returned home I gave, whatever plants that needed it, a drink of water and we retired for the night.

Now the fun begins with juggling Hubby's odd work hours.  He's going to nights tonight.  12-14 hour shifts for at least a week.  He picked nights over days, as our heat index will reach 100°F tomorrow. 

Garden work resumes after a weekend of fun, but I'll have to do it super early this week.

Back to Weeding ~ Window Peeper who was almost dinner ~ From Pile to File Recipe

Wednesday Hubby and I got the air conditioner in downstairs, so the electric bill will start soaring, but we'll be comfortable indoors - humidity will hit us like a ton of bricks early next week.

As for the long work hours, it's felt like eternity.  There is no talk as to when it will end and Hubby is completely worn out.  We are just exhausted from it - lack of work done here, so much to do that can't be done, him being exhausted beyond belief, me trying to do late dinners so we can all eat together, and so much more.  Keeping up with the weeds has been so stressful on me, as I'm doing it myself, and there has been no tilling done either.  

Good news:  Mower guy showed up about 10am
Bad news:  Hubby messaged me - they are now forced to work 12 hour days, 7 days a week. Just not what we needed.

Oh, farmers are out in the fields now.  Thankful to see that, as the deer are increasing in numbers, and they are looking for food (it'll help keep them off our property).

Thursday was another hot day.  I am now spending the mornings dragging 100-some feet of garden hose (early morning workout) from way out to the garden to back to the front of the house, watering everything.  There were possibilities of thunderstorms, but only a slight chance. 

In the midst of weeding, I brought in some cilantro to dry.  I was grabbing the door handle to go back out, and a ground hog was standing up looking in.  It was almost dinner.  I do have a friend who I believe knows how to butcher and cook them, so it's not out of the possibly realm.  In all honesty, I am wondering if he came to the door to enjoy some barn cat food.

Weeds.  Weeds everywhere.  No end to them at this point.

Tasted the rhubarb vodka.  It's more of a cinnamon flavor than rhubarb, but good.

Also strained the strawberry vodka, and tasted it too. It's smelled great, but the flavor was so-so.

Made the Garlic scape-Radish spread.  This time I put it in the food processor so it looks different, but it tastes the same.  Thankfully, our radishes that were planted late, are not hot in flavor, but delicious.

I laughed when I saw Tiger sleeping in a heep of packing paper.  Poor guy must of worn himself out playing in it.

Dinner - bourbon marinated steaks on the grill.  New recipe we tried (Americas Test Kitchen, video online).   An 8:30pm dinner no less, sigh.  His 12 hour shifts started yesterday (which turned into a 14 hour day and never saw him until this morning), and we are now told that it will continue into the July 4th weekend, and possibly beyond.  I'm so beyond this work schedule, I thought I'd retire last evening with a little adult drinky drink. 

By the way, that was only the second time to grill anything.  Hubby is the grill man, but guess who is the grill gal now.  I grilled the steaks to perfection.