Hello blog world!
I have been on a vacation of sorts to visit with my sister and my mother, and it has been one long hot week or so!
I know all families have issues..... BUT. REALLY?
Let's just say I am ever so glad to be home sweet home!
I found when we arrived yesterday that a storm while we were gone took out some of the things in the yard...like the gazebo thingy, it was all bent and blown over when we got back, and the pool cover was blown into the pool. (thank goodness for neighbors who checked up on things and retrieved the pool cover before it was lodged in the filter system) Some of the toys and such that were put inside the gazebo are tossed around in the yard but it can all be cleaned up and repaired or replaced. Not a big deal.
The garden grew a lot in just a short (okay very long and hot) week, my lucky neighbor (yup the same one who checked after the storm) got to get the first red tomato's off the vine while I was gone but there are plenty of them ripe or ripening as I type this (pics later in the week) and plenty of everything else as well. Even the few stalks of corn that did grow, have a few ears on them.
I went to see my granddaughters this morning (my daughter offered me a big breakfast that I didn't have to cook!) and they covered me with baby kisses! I missed them tremendously while I was away last weekend, and from what I was told they missed me just as much! I have big plans for them this weekend and it is the youngest's birthday, she will turn 3 so I think maybe a hot-dog and hamburger cook-out is in order, followed by some homemade ice cream!
I also picked up some material while I was away and have plans for two more gorgeous sundresses for my ggirls! I just love to spoil them so much, I mean that is a gramma's job is it not?
I sure hope all of you are staying cool in this unrelenting heat and finding ways to enjoy your days!
Until next time, Deb~
Meanderings of my journey into a simple self-sufficient lifestyle as well as any other thought that strays through my mind.
Jul 26, 2011
Jul 13, 2011
A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood
Hello readers! I hope your day is as beautiful as mine. We here in the Ohio Valley have been suffering along with millions of others the past few days with very hot temperatures and really high humidity to go alone with it. UGH!
Although while I am toasty warm in my home on a frigid winters night wishing for summer to come early, I think that is what I want, here we are in the more than toasty summer time and I am hoping for a cool-down.
Not that I want it to snow or anything, that would not be good. I would just like temps like we have today... (80) along with low humidity and a sunny breeze....all. year. long.
How's that for todays rant? haha, really I am enjoying the beautiful day we have today. It's not as hot and the humidity is a lil lower so I am much more comfortable. So on to other news.
In the garden yesterday I picked a huge bowl (the one I make cookie dough in) full of green beans! (when I took the pictures I just took pics of the tops of the plant, silly me, when I looked under the leaves I found gads of beans just waiting to be found and harvested.) I also found 6 nice sized cucumbers to go alone with the beans.
First harvest! YuMmY! I put the beans (after snapping the ends off and breaking them in two) into my crock pot along with about 1/2 lb. bacon, and a little water and set it on low, put the lid on and walked away for about 4 hours. Then when it started to smell really good I cut up some med. red taters into chunks and peeled and cut a good sized turnip and placed them in with the beans, of course I had to taste test them and they were wonderful, not quite done yet but very good! I let the whole mess cook for another couple of hours and wow! I have not had green beans that good in a long time! (truth be told probably not since my last garden).
I know that food is best just after being picked, even meat is best just after it is processed, and I don't mean by a commercial processor either. I love the taste of fresh fruits and veggies. I used to drive a truck pulling a refriderated trailer (reefer) cross country with produce and I loved to buy cases direct from the farmer, because they tasted and looked sooo much better than what I could get at my grocery. I know first hand how long it takes to get foods grown in California to the east coast, and how long they sit at the distribution center, how long they travel to the local grocery and then how long they sit there before being bought! If you figure up all the transit time and sitting time for produce it is no wonder people have forgotten what "real" food tastes like. The grower in California is only worried about growing modified foods that will travel and sit well so they arrive at the grocery where you shop looking like they came from the farm but having not worried at all about the taste, that has been modified right out of it!
I also made my own twisted version of cucumber kimchi by stripping some of the peel off of the cucumbers (they look striped when I am done) cutting off the ends, then dicing them into moderate sized chunks and stuffing them all into an old, washed and dried pickle jar, leaving just a small amount of room at the top to add a few more things.
Then I cut up some green onion and toss them into the jar as well, add some roasted garlic and a dash of sugar and red pepper flakes to taste, then pour in about 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Place the lid tightly on the jar and shake it to stir the contents well. Place it into the fridge and try to leave it alone for a couple of days.
When it is ready the contents will have shrunk and your jar will only be about 2/3 full, but the flavor is out of this world. Crunchy, yet soft and a lil spicy. It is the ONLY spicy food I can eat. I have Crohns and most spicy food is not allowed because of what it does to me. For some reason the kimchi doesn't bother me and for that I am greatful.
I also am making a cucumber, onion and tomato salad for dinner tonight, sadly although I have gads of tomato's growing none of mine are ripe yet so the tomatos will have to come from the farmers market, not my garden.
Other than taking care of the garden, and of course the house, not much is happening around here other than enjoying the day and trying to stay cool. I hope those of you still suffering in the blistering heat will catch a break soon, and everyone else I hope you're enjoying your day wherever you are!
Until next time,
Deb~
Although while I am toasty warm in my home on a frigid winters night wishing for summer to come early, I think that is what I want, here we are in the more than toasty summer time and I am hoping for a cool-down.
Not that I want it to snow or anything, that would not be good. I would just like temps like we have today... (80) along with low humidity and a sunny breeze....all. year. long.
How's that for todays rant? haha, really I am enjoying the beautiful day we have today. It's not as hot and the humidity is a lil lower so I am much more comfortable. So on to other news.
In the garden yesterday I picked a huge bowl (the one I make cookie dough in) full of green beans! (when I took the pictures I just took pics of the tops of the plant, silly me, when I looked under the leaves I found gads of beans just waiting to be found and harvested.) I also found 6 nice sized cucumbers to go alone with the beans.
First harvest! YuMmY! I put the beans (after snapping the ends off and breaking them in two) into my crock pot along with about 1/2 lb. bacon, and a little water and set it on low, put the lid on and walked away for about 4 hours. Then when it started to smell really good I cut up some med. red taters into chunks and peeled and cut a good sized turnip and placed them in with the beans, of course I had to taste test them and they were wonderful, not quite done yet but very good! I let the whole mess cook for another couple of hours and wow! I have not had green beans that good in a long time! (truth be told probably not since my last garden).
I know that food is best just after being picked, even meat is best just after it is processed, and I don't mean by a commercial processor either. I love the taste of fresh fruits and veggies. I used to drive a truck pulling a refriderated trailer (reefer) cross country with produce and I loved to buy cases direct from the farmer, because they tasted and looked sooo much better than what I could get at my grocery. I know first hand how long it takes to get foods grown in California to the east coast, and how long they sit at the distribution center, how long they travel to the local grocery and then how long they sit there before being bought! If you figure up all the transit time and sitting time for produce it is no wonder people have forgotten what "real" food tastes like. The grower in California is only worried about growing modified foods that will travel and sit well so they arrive at the grocery where you shop looking like they came from the farm but having not worried at all about the taste, that has been modified right out of it!
I also made my own twisted version of cucumber kimchi by stripping some of the peel off of the cucumbers (they look striped when I am done) cutting off the ends, then dicing them into moderate sized chunks and stuffing them all into an old, washed and dried pickle jar, leaving just a small amount of room at the top to add a few more things.
Then I cut up some green onion and toss them into the jar as well, add some roasted garlic and a dash of sugar and red pepper flakes to taste, then pour in about 1/4 cup of soy sauce. Place the lid tightly on the jar and shake it to stir the contents well. Place it into the fridge and try to leave it alone for a couple of days.
When it is ready the contents will have shrunk and your jar will only be about 2/3 full, but the flavor is out of this world. Crunchy, yet soft and a lil spicy. It is the ONLY spicy food I can eat. I have Crohns and most spicy food is not allowed because of what it does to me. For some reason the kimchi doesn't bother me and for that I am greatful.
I also am making a cucumber, onion and tomato salad for dinner tonight, sadly although I have gads of tomato's growing none of mine are ripe yet so the tomatos will have to come from the farmers market, not my garden.
Other than taking care of the garden, and of course the house, not much is happening around here other than enjoying the day and trying to stay cool. I hope those of you still suffering in the blistering heat will catch a break soon, and everyone else I hope you're enjoying your day wherever you are!
Until next time,
Deb~
Jul 9, 2011
How My Garden Grows
Hello blog world, it's a fine afternoon here in my little spot on the planet and I thought it would be a great day for a garden update with pictures!
I am having a great gardening year so far, even if the weather has been somewhat unpredictable. The garden is doing well, there are things growing everywhere....
There are tomato's by the dozens:
Until next time,
Deb~
I am having a great gardening year so far, even if the weather has been somewhat unpredictable. The garden is doing well, there are things growing everywhere....
There are tomato's by the dozens:
tomato's growing very well, these will be yellow when ripe
 |
| lots of little maters here |
and here we have the peppers getting off to a great start:
 |
| tiny little Green peppers, yum And the cucumbers are starting to show up, I'm sure there will be more than enough to make some pickles and add to other things as well as slice for our salads.  And the bush beans are bloomed out all over, should be lots and lots of beans soon!  Blue Lake Bush Beans Overall I would say everything is growing great. We are into the hot summer months now and have been having daytime temps in the mid to upper 80's with little to no rain for the last several days, kind of funny when I think back to the late spring and early summer when it felt like it would rain forever! So now every evening after the sun begins to set I go out and water the garden so all those good growing things get what they need to continue developing and become food for our table and pantry!  view towards the neighbors place  view towards our place, complete with my new (used) truck! |
As you can see things are looking pretty good around here! I am happy to have the garden doing so well and have lots and lots of canning jars just waiting to be filled, and of course we will be eating a lot straight from the garden. I have already picked the first two small green tomato's (I just couldn't wait any longer) and fried them up, they were delicious. I am anxious for the first red and yellow tomato's to get ripe, I can just taste them sliced with a dab of salt and pepper, oh goodness, I must stop thinking about them!
Also in the last pic is my new (used) red pick-up truck, it has some rust and needs a lil TLC but it runs great and I have decided it is my new project vehicle, I can spend the coming months Bondo-ing it and getting all the misc. repairs done, and someday I would love to take off the rusty bed that is on it now and install a wooden flat bed, maybe it's just me but I think it would look pretty good.
How is your garden doing? The weather all over has been a little odd this year, so some have more of a challenge than others. I hope all of you are having a great summer and begining to enjoy the fruits of your labors in the garden!
Deb~
Jul 5, 2011
Tree Frogs and Other Things
Good Morning World!
That is how I feel this morning, it is a bright, sunny beautiful morning where I am and the birds are singing and chirping, the crickets are making their noises along with tree frogs and the like, I don't know about where you live but out here in my yard, you can literally watch the grass jump with baby tree frogs. They are everywhere, the kiddies don't usually have to go far or look very hard to catch one for a minute to check it out.
They have been watching them grow for a few weeks now, first they were just teeny little baby frogs, not much bigger than say maybe a fingernail (and not a long one either), now they are about an inch long and 3/4 inch high. They are so cute!! I am sure they will be the source of many noisy nights to come!
It seems the only time it is truly quiet around here is the dead of winter, not many birds then, mostly woodpeckers, nuthatches and a couple of cardinals,... all the bugs and frogs are gone or sleeping thru the cold. .then it is really quiet at night.
Now in the summer it is noisy 24 hours a day, what kinds of noises depends on which bug, bird or frog is awake. We like listening to them, my son and I. We try to figure out which direction and what animal or insect is making the loudest noises.
If you know how to listen, you can tell when rain or storms are coming too, the birds and bugs along with a few other signs from our animal friends will tell you. Most of them get really quiet when a storm is coming, even the birds seem to all find a place to go. And if they don't and they stay at the feeders and such during a rain shower, it usually means the rain will be around a while. I guess they figure if the rain is going to hang around they will just go on with their usual business.
Usual business, that brings me to blogging and writing, I believe I have the blogging regular thing figured out now, I need to post in the morning, before things get going and get busy around here. If I don't then most of the time I don't get back to the computer until late at night and by then I just don't feel like writing.
One of my short term goals is to blog daily. Maybe nothing but a few lines and or a picture, but getting it done daily. I have found that when I blog it really gets me in the mood, so to speak, to write and I need to get better disiplined about writing if I ever want to get my book finished!
I don't really know what the problem is, I have the outline written, I have a good idea how the story will progress but when I think about sitting down to write... well it's like sometimes my brain just refuses to think about it. I sit there staring at the story and I wind up going back over what I have already written and doing a little revising and editing but little additional writing.
I am hoping that by blogging more regular, that I will also write more for the book. I have also joined a writing "club" online at http://www.writing.com/. They have loads of advice for newbie writers (how can I be a newbie, I ask, when I have been writing all my life!), writing prompts to have fun with, as well as other peoples work to read and review. All things designed to help build strength and knowledge in writers. I see how others are just shooting out loads and loads of stuff out and have massive portfolio's and I wonder where they find the time to do it all. I love to write, but I do have to be in the proper mood, I guess to dig the stories out of my brain and get them on paper.....well okay, not paper yet just a computer screen.....but you know what I mean.
And speaking of writing, I think I have done enough for now, I don't want to get long and boring, it seems I have lost one follower :( and I don't want to lose anymore!! I was quite disappointed this morning when I logged on to find that I had lost that follower. I don't know really how I had 11 different people interested in what was happening in my little corner of the world but I did, and now I only have 10, so I hope that I don't run off anyone else! Haha, that includes you!!
I hope everyone is having a fun filled summer!
Until next time,
Deb~
That is how I feel this morning, it is a bright, sunny beautiful morning where I am and the birds are singing and chirping, the crickets are making their noises along with tree frogs and the like, I don't know about where you live but out here in my yard, you can literally watch the grass jump with baby tree frogs. They are everywhere, the kiddies don't usually have to go far or look very hard to catch one for a minute to check it out.
They have been watching them grow for a few weeks now, first they were just teeny little baby frogs, not much bigger than say maybe a fingernail (and not a long one either), now they are about an inch long and 3/4 inch high. They are so cute!! I am sure they will be the source of many noisy nights to come!
It seems the only time it is truly quiet around here is the dead of winter, not many birds then, mostly woodpeckers, nuthatches and a couple of cardinals,... all the bugs and frogs are gone or sleeping thru the cold. .then it is really quiet at night.
Now in the summer it is noisy 24 hours a day, what kinds of noises depends on which bug, bird or frog is awake. We like listening to them, my son and I. We try to figure out which direction and what animal or insect is making the loudest noises.
If you know how to listen, you can tell when rain or storms are coming too, the birds and bugs along with a few other signs from our animal friends will tell you. Most of them get really quiet when a storm is coming, even the birds seem to all find a place to go. And if they don't and they stay at the feeders and such during a rain shower, it usually means the rain will be around a while. I guess they figure if the rain is going to hang around they will just go on with their usual business.
Usual business, that brings me to blogging and writing, I believe I have the blogging regular thing figured out now, I need to post in the morning, before things get going and get busy around here. If I don't then most of the time I don't get back to the computer until late at night and by then I just don't feel like writing.
One of my short term goals is to blog daily. Maybe nothing but a few lines and or a picture, but getting it done daily. I have found that when I blog it really gets me in the mood, so to speak, to write and I need to get better disiplined about writing if I ever want to get my book finished!
I don't really know what the problem is, I have the outline written, I have a good idea how the story will progress but when I think about sitting down to write... well it's like sometimes my brain just refuses to think about it. I sit there staring at the story and I wind up going back over what I have already written and doing a little revising and editing but little additional writing.
I am hoping that by blogging more regular, that I will also write more for the book. I have also joined a writing "club" online at http://www.writing.com/. They have loads of advice for newbie writers (how can I be a newbie, I ask, when I have been writing all my life!), writing prompts to have fun with, as well as other peoples work to read and review. All things designed to help build strength and knowledge in writers. I see how others are just shooting out loads and loads of stuff out and have massive portfolio's and I wonder where they find the time to do it all. I love to write, but I do have to be in the proper mood, I guess to dig the stories out of my brain and get them on paper.....well okay, not paper yet just a computer screen.....but you know what I mean.
And speaking of writing, I think I have done enough for now, I don't want to get long and boring, it seems I have lost one follower :( and I don't want to lose anymore!! I was quite disappointed this morning when I logged on to find that I had lost that follower. I don't know really how I had 11 different people interested in what was happening in my little corner of the world but I did, and now I only have 10, so I hope that I don't run off anyone else! Haha, that includes you!!
I hope everyone is having a fun filled summer!
Until next time,
Deb~
Jul 2, 2011
Whew
Whew, it's been a very busy and exciting week around here! My son turned 12, I bought a new pool for him, a new (used) pickup for me and also a few odd's and end's that make the summer more fun!
The most fun and excitement of the week came when the local volunteer fire department came out to fill my son's pool. I decided to have it filled due to our well water being very hard and quite brownish looking even after chemicals and time (in the neighbors pool) so I called the local fire department and asked if they filled pools and found that indeed they would (for a fee of course) When they came out my son was pretty excited, and rushed out to the tanker and asked if he could help.
One of the firemen who came out said sure and proceeded to show him how to throw the hose to unroll it:
The most fun and excitement of the week came when the local volunteer fire department came out to fill my son's pool. I decided to have it filled due to our well water being very hard and quite brownish looking even after chemicals and time (in the neighbors pool) so I called the local fire department and asked if they filled pools and found that indeed they would (for a fee of course) When they came out my son was pretty excited, and rushed out to the tanker and asked if he could help.
One of the firemen who came out said sure and proceeded to show him how to throw the hose to unroll it:
Unrolling the hose
Then once they got the hose unrolled one of the firemen held the end of the hose, while Bubba held it behind him, then the other fireman operated the pump and turned on the water to fill the pool;
Getting ready for the water...
Every boy's dream, to be a fireman...
Of course it wasn't long before all the excitement spread and the little fella that visits nearby had to come see what was going on, he got to help to!
the boys had a blast
It didn't take long to fill the pool, and the tanker held just enough at 2100 gal. Plus the firemen filled the tanker that morning so the water was already up to about 75 degrees! It was fun for all I think, the excitement of the boys spreading to all around. After the pool was full, the firemen showed Bubba how to roll the hose back up properly to put back on the truck;
this is how you roll it up....
A little more work than unrolling...
but in no time the job is done!
after the hose was back on the truck it was time for the firemen to leave, the boys, especialy my son, had a very exciting hour that will produce memories to last a lifetime, so a I want to mention a huge THANKS to the Albany, Indiana Volunteer Fire Department! They didn't have to do the things they did with the boys, but they did, and in doing so made one very special little fella a very happy kid (with a pretty happy Momma too).
Then later in the week, I found a old pickup in my price range, (not the one in the picture, mine is red) so we aren't transportaionless anymore! I have had lots of help for the last few months in that regard (the one in the picture! lol) and am glad now to be able to accomplish this task. It is an old truck, but it runs good. I don't need a beautiful truck, just a functional one, a work truck. One that can haul what we need hauled.
My project for the weekend is to build a sandbox for my son and my granddaughters to play in. I am going to get some 2x12's and a sheet of OSB board, a couple of hinges and a hook type clasp to hold it open and just build the frame on the ground and use the sheet of wood for the lid, luckily there is a quarry about 2 or 3 miles away where I can go and get a load of sand for them and I think it will wind up costing about as much as one of those tiny green turtles they sell at the big stores as sand boxes, but this one will have tons more room for the kids to play. My son is also requesting tonka type trucks for the sand box so he can build roads and places for his army men to play! I am sure the girls will have other interests!
Well, friends, what started out as a quick post while the kids were napping has turned out to be very long. I hope all of you are having a wonderful weekend, be careful and enjoy the festivities!
Until next time, Deb~
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