Thursday, July 19, 2012

ZzzzzziiiiPPP! Thursday

 My little garden Faerie...she's retired from the grounds to the deck. lol

     This was a gift to me by a bunch of friends that came to stay at my house in North Carolina...from England, Scotland, Canada..and all over the US.  We had a big weekend gathering and party and had a great time. She holds a very dear place in my heart and gardens...I'll never forget all the fun and laughs trying to put her wings on...the wings are gone, broken in a fall during a windstorm. But she's still beautiful to me.

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  The hot temperatures have been back, and I am gambling by not watering this morning as we have a 40% chance of rain. We actually got 27 drops yesterday, all on my car windshield as I was driving down the hill to my house. I could smell it. But it never made it to the ground. sigh...

  Today's predicted high is 104 with a heat index of 110. Sweet lord.  Yesterday was 103. And I don't even WANT to know what the heat index was.  It's brutal. The demise of the crops is all over the news and they are predicting very high prices on everything this coming year. SO stock your pantries friends, while you can. I suspect it's gonna get rough...rougher than it already is. They had a news segment yesterday that showed a farmer digging down about 2 feet into the  crumbling dirt on the edge of his field and it was dry as  a bone. This will impact the price of all meat, dairy, you name it...I'm going to invest in a couple of extra boxes of powdered milk, a case or two of  canned evaporated milk (I really don't use a lot of dairy products anyway) but every now and then I need some for a recipe.   I'm thinking a case of canned salmon or tuna wouldn't be a bad thing either, even though we're not eating meat at home. Peanut butter is another good protein source, as long as you make sure to buy the natural stuff without all the shortening and sugar in it.   And dried beans are a mainstay. And rice. And things you can make a hundred meals out of if you have to.

 [ Here--help me down off this soapbox. My joints are a little creaky today...]  LOL

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   So, I'm gong next door in a bit to sit with my neighbors husband and try to keep him from wanting to go out in the heat.  It's gonna be a scorcher. Then when I am finished I will come home and can tomatoes and make jalapeno jelly.  The peaches out front are not as ready as I thought, although this weekend they should be. I'm going out back now and make a quick run through the tomatoes and feed the chickens some of the bolting lettuce, and then I'll be off to the neighbors house.

  Maybe I'll come back to this later this afternoon....so I'm going to leave it in the draft box...C YA!!!!

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  I'm Baaaaaccckkkkk!!!!!!!   lol

  Well, got neither tomatoes nor jelly done. Was at neighbors longer than I expected and by the time I got home it was time to start supper almost.  I ran the vacuum real quick and cleaned up a little and then made big plates of chicken nachos for supper. I used up quite a few tomatoes making fresh salsa to top the nachos.As we ate, and for a while afterwards, we watched The Forbidden Planet, a film made in 1956 that was my favorite movie as a kid. It was a hoot watching it tonight--all the special effects (that won awards back then) were so hokey and the whole thing--well, we laughed all the way through it. It starred Robby the Robot. 

  Himself is going on a Boy Scout camping trip for an overnight with his buddy, who has been asked to come because he is an NRA certified  something or other--I don't even want to know. But they will camp down in southern Missouri somewhere, and I'm sure they will have a ball. This is the guy he hikes with alot. So I'll have some time to myself this weekend...at least 24 hours. lol   I think they are leaving Friday afternoon and coming back sometime Saturday evening.

  I will get lots done this weekend I hope.  I broke down and bought another 2 cases of wide mouth pint jars the other day, and I need to buy some more lids. I had also found pectin (both liquid and powdered) on sale, so I stocked up on that. At some point, I plan to get last years blackberries out of the freezer and make jelly out of them.  I also want to make some more peach pit jelly this year. I am having a hard time finding jelly jars though and most of mine are in use.  I am also going to dehydrate some watermelon slices...that should be interesting. I have some in the fridge that isn't getting used fast enough. 

  Himself says the peaches will be ready to pick this weekend. Yay. 

  I saw a wonderful salad recipe on a cooking show today...it was fresh fava beans and fennel, in a lemon vinaigrette. It looked magnificent. I have to try it.


  Okay--I need to go to bed, I'm babbling.  Wanted to finish this up and get it posted. I'm pooped.  



  Happy Thursday, y'all. 

Namaste.

9 comments:

DJan said...

I woke this morning to the sound of rain on the roof. I wish I could send some of it your way. You are such a good neighbor to sit with him and hopefully help to get him through. And whenever I water my garden I'm thinking of you and sending you at least some virtual moisture. :-)

Akannie said...

Thanks DJan...we'll take whatever kind of rain we can get. It actually sprinkled yesterday for about 6.2 seconds and I could feel it on my arms, but it didn't even mottle the concrete. Sigh...I'm just in form this morning's watering...

:)

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi Akannie, I have been concerned about all the bad wather everywhere also and the prices rising. I only seem to use canned milk when a recipe calls for it. How else might it be used? I guess I need to freeze my blackberries to make jelly as we aren't enjoying just eating them this year. Seem to be too seedy! Hope you get lots done this week-end altho it seems to me you get lots done everyday!!!! Nancy

Beth said...

Hey Annie, I have given up on getting any rain around here. I wish I had one of your tomatoes. I bought a couple of brickbat ones in the store this morning.

What in the world is peach pit jelly???

Mariodacatsmom said...

We had rain about 1 1/2 days ago. It sounded so sweet on the roof. The first beneficial rain in 6 weeks. We need more tho, but that was a good start. All you poor people that are trying to grow crops - it's impossible in this heat. I feel for you - really I do.

Akannie said...

Nancy--you can use canned milk in any way that you use regular milk, it just needs to have water added to it. I'm not crazy about it to drink, but it's passable in coffee, I always use it in my cream of potato soup, and any milk gravies. I also like it on my oatmeal.


Beth--lol. Peach pit jelly is made using the peels and pits when you can peaches...you put them in a big pot, cover with water and simmer a couple of hours. It's turns the most beautiful reddish pink color and then you just use sugar and pectin like any jelly. It has a really nice peach taste, and I feel like I've used up every bit of the peaches. Recycles them, practically. lol

MDCM--sigh....I'd love to hear the sound of rain on the roof....

Rita said...

I'm late reading posts. Had to chuckle--I vaguely remember Robby the Robot carrying some woman off like King Kong or something to that effect--LOL!

I agree with you about stocking up. Even though we've had tons of cloudy days...many of the predicted rain days have been small, brief, scattered showers that we've never even seen here. And there are areas up here that are in drought, too. This summer is going to effect everybody. Beans and rice...glad I love beans and rice. ;)

Hope it cools off for you guys! :)

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Do you dilute it for your coffee or straight from the can? How much water do you add to use like regular milk? I don't have any in my pantry right now but plan to buy some this week. Thanks. Nancy

Akannie said...

I think I would dilute it...although I know some who use it straight--it's a little rich that way...

I stopped drinking milk in my coffee this past year...