Fun Finds ~ Hot Banana Peppers and other ramblings

 While shopping in Amish country, we walked thru a few antique stores, and I found a butter dish to match my salt and pepper shakers.  By the way, there was one store that had a ton of this Jadeite in their booth.

I also found a few more mini hen and nests for the cubbies in the kitchen.  

I double checked the garden, and had enough for a half batch of hot pepper mustard sauce.  Those have left the kitchen.  Now I need to go check on the jalapenos.  I'm glad I checked the tomatoes.  Some of the tomato stakes had to be straightened again.

I tried a new fresh salsa recipe and it was so good!  We are getting tomatoes from the garden now.  I also made a lemon cheese cake pie that was also a new recipe.  It's a keeper.

Another produce stand has closed their doors.  I counted on them, when I needed just a few more hot banana peppers for my canning recipe.  Sigh.  More and more small town restaurants are now closing their doors at 2-3pm, and not open for dinner anymore (lack of employees, which I just don't understand).

I was just told that the large oil company my husband works for is being bought out.  He's been told the insurance for us will be better, but I hope it doesn't change any of his retirement.  

Happy Homemaker Monday

 

The rain has brought on the garden.  More rain is coming, and the bell peppers look great.

My husband and I took a short weekend getaway to a nearby Amish country.  We checked out their new flea market, but wasn't impressed.  We did however, bring home some items for the newly repaired/remodeling bathroom.  It's now all put together and looking nice.

We stayed one night in a historic hotel we stayed at years ago.  I was so disappointed with the new owners.  They completely took the "nostalgic" away from the hotel.  The parlor was completely remodeled into a quilt room.  It was one of the reasons I loved that hotel.  No more.  Our room we stayed at years ago, now has no refrigerator nor microwave. We brought food with us, and could not keep it cold, nor heat it up, and the other rooms also had no refrigerator.  I was blown away at this....

Literally in front of the toilet. See the toilet paper?  We checked out and got coffee at the flea market.  The bed was comfortable, but the whole "nostalgic" part is the reason we liked to stay there.  The new owners just destroyed the original, "real" historic part of the hotel.

We came home, and unloaded, and searched every bag we brought home.  My husband lost our keys.  Not kidding.  Somewhere walking into or out of the hotel, while reaching into his pocket, lost our keys.  No one turned them in either.  Thank goodness I had the spare truck keys, and luckily, I had the only spare house key in my purse.  We never found the lost keys, and like I said, no one turned them in, and thankfully the truck was still there when we checked out.  You just can't trust anyone anymore.....anyway, as of this morning, still no keys.   

We were on the porch thinking the hotel would call, but we just got a visit from a butterfly.

We invited 3 people to dinner, but not one came over.  We grilled chicken with apple bourbon BBQ sauce, corn and camper potatoes.  It was truly humid, but we did get rain during our grill out dinner.

Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

I will link up when she posts.

The weather . . . 

Hot, humid and rain.  It's been awfully humid and hot, up in the 100's and I think we will finally get a break this week.

As I look outside my window . . .

It's cloudy, and we may get more rain this morning.

Right now I am . . .

Drinking coffee to get my bearings straight this morning.

Thinking and pondering . . .

While on our weekend getaway, I talked to someone who just removed wallpaper from their house.  I will be looking into renting a steamer to remove the wallpaper from the upstairs room.

I only have trash to remove up there as well, and then we start on that room, but now we are discussing building the new coop next.

We have friends/family in the demolition derby tonight, but the heat and humidity will keep us home.  Not to mention it will rain again tonight.

I've been asked to make up and donate a basket for a silent auction for our family members raising money for an adoption.  I have not decided on my theme for it yet.  I have the basket, but have nothing in it just yet.

How I am feeling . . .

Exhausted, ha ha!  I think the heat and humidity just did us in last night.

On the breakfast plate . . .

Have no idea just yet.

What I am wearing . . .

Sweatpants and a tank top.  

On the reading pile . . .

More of Mom's recipes.

On my TV this week . . . 

Whatever looks interesting

On the menu . . .

-leftovers for starters since no one joined us for dinner

-have no idea yet

Looking around the house . . .

Well, my kitchen floor is still piled with donations.  The people that were coming to take it never showed up.  It may be going in the barn after the rain quits.

The to-do list . . .

-can hot pepper mustard sauce

-laundry

-plan meals

-unpack suit case

-make a new recipe

-plant another honeysuckle the birds gifted us

-check garden

-plan a camping trip

-freeze green/wax beans

From the camera . . .

The new small item I am making for the holiday craft show.  Daughter E has been wearing a few for her recent Hippie Fest, and suggested I give her business cards.  I do have them, but they need updated.

Devotional/Prayers . . .

Our small town pets.  Someone found their cat cut "perfectly" cut in half and now we are worried someone is out killing people's pets.  What a cruel world we live in right now.

Gaining Progress ~ New Recipe Tried

My husband got the ceiling piece back up over the kitchen sink.  He had to use screws (old house, old house rolling eye moments), so I'll be painting over that, taking down the curtains, and finally putting in the last window blind.  We are gaining slowly, but love what we've accomplished. 

It rained all morning, so instead of taking the donations, I spent several hours upstairs.  I made several trips to the burn pile, trash, and put stuff in a box for our friend to scrap.  I also added to the donation pile.

I finally got a few minutes to prepare onion dip to try.  I decided to make it earlier in the day, and put it in the fridge until we wanted to bake it.  I'm just a stickler on getting dishes done and put away, and don't like to do them later after dinner.

Anyway....it was delicious.  It's from AllRecipes.  It's made from sweet Vidalia onions (these come from GA), organic mayo, organic swiss cheese, and organic parmesan cheese.  It's called Vidalia sweet onion dip.  So good!  Perfect for a group of people, appetizer, get together dish etc.  Easy, very little ingredients and bakes in a short time.  Great on a toasted baguette bread, cracker or even potato chips.  Honestly, as I type this, I wonder how it would taste topped on a grilled burger now.  Oh, and I can't wait to try this cold.  I heard it was good that way too after baking it.  

Canning Day

 We had a heat advisory yesterday, and they were not kidding.  It was over 100 degrees and humid as heck.  

I finally got bread and butter pickles canned.  Daughter E stayed until about noon and left to go enjoy the county fair with her boyfriend.  She saw I was crocheting a new item for the holiday craft shows, and took two.  I'll get photos soon.  

We had a late evening storm that brought us a good downpour for a few minutes.  It was enough to give the garden a drink.

There is a chance of rain today and tonight.  My kitchen floor is filled with items to donate again.  I'll be loading that all up soon.

Extreme Clean Day

 

Other than preparing a breakfast for a few days, which now will last a day, I cleaned out much of the upstairs.  I have filled the kitchen with items to donate.

The plan is to load up the truck this weekend and donate.  I offered it to a family member, who is seeking funding for an adoption.  I suggested a garage sale, and we'd donate it all, but they say there may not be a date set.   I just don't have anywhere to store the items, and I need to get it out of the kitchen before anyone trips on it.

Daughter E came out and had dinner with us, and stayed the night.  She is loving our newly repaired/remodeled bathroom.  Now we just need to get the upstairs worked on more to make a spare room.

Today there is a heat advisory.  I watered everything yesterday. There is a possibility for rain later this week.  I guess we'll find out.  The rain keeps leaving the radar, which is not good.

If I have enough, canning resumes today.  I will be getting out my scale to see if that happens.

Last Night's Sunset and other Chit Chat

Although we got zero rain, we had a beautiful sunset for a short time.  We can't really see all of it, due to the woods behind our home, but the sky was a pretty pink.

I spent about 2 hours cleaning stuff from the upstairs.  Mostly, I spent time bringing down any larger items to donate.  I may have found a home for a pole lamp she left up there, and I have a kitchen floor full of boxed up stuff to donate somewhere.  I filled the trash, and put a few things in the burn pile.  Today, I need to spray Lysol up there, as I realized she had 4 animals up there, and I am not sure how well she cleaned, as in sanitized.  There is still much to clean out.

I cannot tell you all how happy I am to have an entire summer of wicked, miserable work hours end for my husband.  He was home, and out mowing after work! 

The handyman finished the bathroom, but left without putting the bathroom door back on.  My husband and I put that back up, installed a new toilet paper holder, installed a mini wooden ladder to hold bath towel, washcloths, and installed a hand towel holder.  We just need to add a small bit of decor, and it's completely done finally.  It is hard to take photos in that small bathroom, but once we have whatever decor up we decide on, I'll try and show you all before and after.  We now have peace of mind that the floor, shower, toilet and sink are good for many years to come.

I have to say, it is truly nice to have the house to myself again.  I know it will be crazy again soon when we tear up the living room, but thankfully we have time to do more cleaning and removing of furniture, and packing up bookshelves before that happens.  Speaking of which, the bookshelf holds all of my homesteading info, so I may just temporarily move it to the office or bedroom, so I can access it.

I told my husband I am not ready to rip up the stairway carpet (also ruined by the dogs), because I am literally dragging stuff down the stairs (ha ha!) to save myself.  It makes it super easy to get things down and out.

Unfortunately, our chances of rain continue to blurp right off the radar.  It was 60% yesterday, and we go zero.  I'll be watering everything today.  The garden has slowed down due to the lack of rain, but praying we do get some this week yet.

 

Happy Homemaker Monday

Daughter K came over to do more cleaning upstairs.  She had intentions of bringing me 3 dozen hears of corn from a community garden near her.  Twenty minutes into her drive, she realized she forgot them.  Sigh.

We have horse flies bad this year.  I have no idea why either.  No goats, no horses, nothing but chickens here.  Best we figure, is that there is a dead animal in the woods.  Urgh.  Every time I kill one, another shows up and drives me off the porch.

I was very glad to have Daughter K over, even for a few hours.  I got to thinking, and I think I have felt depressed because Mom's birthday is coming up.  Either way, I am was glad to have company.  My husband had to work Sunday as well.

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• Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

The weather . . .

85/65°F, thunderstorms.

As I look outside my window  . . .

Dark clouds are moving in.

Right now I am . . .

Getting ready to wash dishes and purge some cigar boxes that Daughter K left.  I'll be donating the boxes to a friend who has an antique store in a small town about 30 minutes from out home.

Thinking and pondering . . . 

The prices of yarn have gotten so ridiculously high.  My online resource now has cotton balls at $3.49!!!  I used to get them at Wal-mart for $1.50!  Wal-mart hasn't had anything I need lately either.

I'm considering starting to prime the master bath cupboards, but I think I want to paint the walls first.  Not sure.  I still have to clean up the debris left by mainly one kid upstairs.

How I am feeling . . . 

Good.  Pretty good actually.

On the breakfast plate . . .

Eggs, toast and coffee.

On the dinner plate . . .

I actually made the chicken fajitas last night, so leftovers tonight.

What I am wearing . . .

T-shirt, yoga pants - looking forward to a rainy day inside.

On the reading pile . . .

Mom's recipe books.  She kept a lot of recipes.  I'm looking for notes on the recipes she tried and found delicious.  I may be trying a few, adjusting them with organic/home grown ingredients.

On my TV this week . . . 

We just finished watching Alone.  I had a hard time finding good movies, but now that my husband is done with long, exhausting hours at work, we can spend evening out on the motorcycle hopefully.

On the menu . . .

-Black bean cakes with mango salsa, yellow squash patties
-tacos, homemade salsa
-chicken fajitas
-crockpot bbq pork chops, beets

-something grilled, grilled onion for a side

Looking around the house . . . 

Well, handyman came to finish installing the shower, and the bathroom door is now back on where it belongs.  

To do list . . .

(for the week)

-can pickles

-can grape jelly

-can applesauce

-freeze corn

-purge living room, bedroom and upstairs

-buy paint for master bath

-finish weeding flower beds

-clean out fridge

-crochet new item for holiday craft show

-take a trip to donate more stuff that the kids left

From the camera . . .

Daughter K brought her boyfriend with her Sunday, so I gave them Mom's tea spoons.  They will be a nice addition to their black/white themed kitchen.

We finally got my husband's Father's Day gift (from Daughter K) put up on the porch.

Prayers . . .

Daughter K's dog King has had 4 seizures in one month.  Prayers for him.  He may be going to the vet.  He gets a natural calming oil every morning, but he is getting worse and it makes me sad.  He never had them until they moved to an apartment way back in the day.  Poor Kingsley.

Prayers for those dealing with flooding and lost lives in Jackson, KY.