Is This What's Known As An Epic Pail - I mean Fail?

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As I finally get back to this, I see that it's been too long - AGAIN.

Google is killing me.

I have to log out of everything I do in life to post here, then start all over again.  I logged into Blogger and watched all my labor that I had open disappear.   You might say, just log back in and open them all up again...

Ha.   I repeat, a  BIG, FAT, HA!!!!

It's not just 'out of sight, out of mind' but if something disappears from view where I can continually keep my mind fresh, it's like a black out in my brain cells.  My neurotransmitters fizzle, then burn up like a fuse that turns to ash right before the whole thing blows up.

Once, I prayed for amnesia...  You know what they say.

.... what do they say, anyhow?

Once, I prayed for amnesia... You know what they say.

.... oops.

We took a vacation we've been saving up for years, and boy, did we need it.

We spent a very quiet week on Hilton Head Island.   This is the sunrise.   This is what I look forward to the most.   Being down on the beach, in the water, watching the sun rise and standing in wonder, awe, and amazement at God's glory.

I say with some guilt that we wanted so much to visit with very dear friends while we were there, as well as having them come over for a day.   But when we got there, we just shut down.   We did not know just how exhausted we were until we laid aside our stress, tensions, to-do lists and just let go.   We spent the entire week pretty much without calling or texting anyone, but just hanging out together and swimming, boarding, biking, tennis, puzzling, reading, eating, sleeping, rocking, and all the other things you are supposed to do on a real vacation.

We did end up doing 15 miles on the beach one day.   My seat is STILL sore!

On another day we biked across island to the big touristy spot, but all we did was buy some cold drinks, sit on some chairs, and watch the yachts come and go in the harbour.   We did not even buy a souvenir.  

HOORAY for being BORING!

And now we are back home and we still often imagine the feeling of that water around us as we just relaxed and let the waves gently roll past.   Many wonderful memories.

I did find this very cute and light summer dress with scads of flowing skirts.  I wear it all the time at home.  I still feel like I'm in the tropics.

 So the skies have been magnificent lately; all blue and puffy.  Just like Spring loves to be.

I could not resist and expanded little garden in addition to the three tomatoes. It's doing very well.   Just some summer squash, bell peppers, and cucumbers.  I keep it small as we could be asked to leave at any moment, but it's just a little bitty one.

Here's to Spring's first tomatoes!

~Faith

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Camera Broken, How Sad

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And such a gorgeous time of year, too!

I have been photographing a little bit with my son's camera, but it really lacks that VROOM of my SLR.

Usually as fall and winter come in, I am glad for the break in work. I tend to let things all go. But this year is different. Vive la différence! We do not want to be buried in work in the spring and summer the way we have been for the last couple of years, so while Michael does his school work, I am planning on and hoping to work outside every day on some sort of major project so that they are all done and ready to go in the spring.

The weather has been so beautiful lately, and he is often able to do his school work outdoors, making it easier for me to help him with tough spots. And late in the day, it is not uncommon for Michael to come and help me with things I've not been able to finish.

We've gotten quite a few things done so far. We are just getting the gardens weeded and mulched thickly. It's been a little odd, as the weather has stayed warm. But the beds are nearly empty of growth, so they are getting blanket anyhow. A few things are still growing, so some leftover bales of straw are standing by.

We really scrimped and saved to invest in 110 bales. It was a lot of green, rectangular papers with presidents for us, but when we compared it to the work we would save next year, we decided it was worth it. See ya' Andrew Jackson!

We've been doing a lot of practice with cuttings and rootings. Many failures mean we are that much closer to figuring it all out. We are learning all the ways NOT to do things. (Fist pump and tap dancing. Odd looking... but cheery.)

The next two huge projects are resetting the pool, which ended up being slightly oval in shape; and building the greenhouse. I truly hope to accomplish these two things in the next few weeks. We have free wood from a friend's scrap pile and trimmings from the neighbor's mill, so we are very excited about getting the greenhouse going.

Michael's hard work has paid off greatly. He finished an entire school year in 5 months, working double hours right through summer. He has graduated his freshmen year and is moving on to his sophomore year this week. No break from Algebra 1 to Algebra 2, but then again, sometimes it's better to not let your mind go mush in between.

Looks like we are going to have peak color, right around the end of the month. It came so late this year.

It's going to be a really nice winter!

~Faith

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Gardening Day - August 13, 2010

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Finally, a day to do some catch up work outside.

Aren't these melons pretty! I wish I could remember what they are.









Picking more eggplant.





Here's a funny one.





Not my favorite kind - a lot of tough skin per inch of tender flesh, but it was all they had at the garden center when I needed to buy them; Japanese variety. They are producing really well, though, and withstanding the ferocious onslaught of flea beetles.





I just had to make sure they were about a foot tall before I planted them.





This was yet another really hot day, just like they've all been since April. I cleaned up around the back of the house, where the tree had fallen, so that looks a bit better.





We used some scrap left over from building this back porch to make more storage shelving underneath. I could not believe I didn't think of doing that for two years.





We wore our swim suits as we worked, so we could jump in whenever we couldn't stand things any more. This feels GREAT!





Time to go pick more peppers.





Bell





Jalepeno





The lettuce still bolted, despite the shade cloth. This summer was just too hot.





YAY, more Swiss chard!





Tomatoes had a really bleak year with all the heat.





The Bright Lights chard never really recovered from the grasshopper invasion, though the plain chard did. I know what I will plant from now on.





I had a terrific start on my beloved Brussel sprouts, but not keeping up on spraying allowed the moths to decimate the entire crop. This smells really bad!









Here are some beds we never got around to planting. The mulch worked well, the paths are weedy, but that can be easily taken care of. Just so long as the plants are isolated from the weeds, I'm very happy.





Here is our pepper patch. Why do these things come in packs of six?





Next year, go in with friends.

~Faith

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Plenty of Melons - August 11, 2010

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Raising the beds did the trick for getting melons. They just don't need all the water you'd think, being desert-type plants.

So when this low spot began getting a lot of rain, only the lowest vines suffered a bit of stress.

We'd been a bit busy lately and not kept up on the weeding. But thanks to the mulch we'd laid down in the spring, getting it under control was not too daunting. We pulled the vines in from the paths, pulled a few scraggly weeds out of the beds, and then we just had to clear the paths.





We got a lot of melons over about a month-long period. We lost quite a few, simply because they all came ripe at once and eating more than two a day IS too daunting!









The squash bugs have begun to be a problem here. Not too much damage this year, but next year we'll have to stay on our toes.

They are all gone as of this posting, but we sure enjoyed them!

~Faith

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Green Tomatoes!

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Here's how the garden is looking lately.









So far, so good, on the the melons. Here's to hoping we'll get some this year.





A few summer squash.





A poor showing of carrots. The ground is just still too inhospitable. Mulch over winter should help a lot.





Eggplants are doing fairly well.





I've harvested a few brussel sprouts. The little heads are a bit loose. I need to look into why that might be so.





Some peppers.





Leeks.





Swiss chard.





The shady lettuce bed. Not too many of my starts survived. They should have been much more mature before I set them out.





I just love how each year is a new learning experience in gardening! This year I am learning how to deal with green tomatoes. I'm not sure why, but my tomato plants have not done well. Rebels, that's what they are.





It may be because I have them in the same spot as last year. I hoped I was going to avoid trouble in that area as last year was the very first year in that section of ground, but now I'm not so sure. Next year I will be moving things around. However, I am not the only one in this area whose tomatoes are struggling.





In any case, I did not want dessert green tomato recipes, nor a fried delectable morsel, no matter HOW much I love greasy fried things. On a search, I found quite a few savory green tomato pie recipes, however nearly every one of them called for a pound of cheese while using only about 4 green tomatoes. Not very economical.





But I did find a recipe that came from a heritage collection. I knew that would have to be economical! It ended up being very much like a baked summer squash recipe I use a lot.

What else did we do? We supported the movement to retain pioneer skills, no matter what the cost! For about 8 hours of combined work for my very dear friend who offered to come by and help us get ready for the Independence Day party and I, we got 5 quarts of tomato vegetable soup, and 3 pints of hot peppers!





Canning season keeps you busier than you remember being the year before...





Tomato art.









Ah that brings me back to the green tomato recipe.

~~~ Savory Green Tomato Pie ~~~

7 Large green tomatoes (or about 4.5 pounds of whatever size you've got)
2 TBL lemon juice
1 tube Ritz crackers (smash 'em up!)
1 cup of bread crumbs (I like Italian)
1 stick of butter (or two)
1 TBL brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Slice the tomatoes and layer in a casserole.
Sprinkle with lemon juice, then sugar, then salt and pepper.
Then you can mix the crumbs with the butter and brown it all in a pan before applying it to the top of the tomatoes, or you can do what I did, put your crumbs over the top, and then drizzle your butter all over it before baking.

325 degree oven. I'd like to say it will be done in 20 minutes like the recipe says, but it took an hour for my tomatoes. So bake 'em til they are as tender as you like.


Meanwhile, Ashlee and Michael did housework and party prep. They hung some wall decor for me.









And they put together the canopy.





This was the 40 dollar canopy I bought for myself for Mother's Day. It did not go together correctly, and we ended up having to take a hacksaw to shorten some of the pieces. But it finally got up. Whew! The heat wave was beginning to build up a fury.





We watered the grass for about a day, hoping for some green around the house where we'd be using fireworks. But it is much browner now. Sort of like wheat toast... without the health benefits. Or the taste.

Quite a change in summers since last year. Cold and wet last year, hot and dry this year. Wonder what next year will bring?





Manna?

~Faith

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