Sunday, July 12, 2015

  Isn't this beautiful ?  I could have a spot like this, if it would ever stop raining and I had the energy to work this hard.  

  It actually didn't rain today. It wasn't supposed to rain yesterday either, but it did. We had days of rain and the temps were not getting past 70 degrees. IN MID JULY.  Today it hit 97. And the humidity was suffocating.  It is supposed to rain every day next week I think. We are drowning. The fields are looking weird and yellow, the corn already starting to look bad.  The bugs (mosquitoes and gnats) are horrific, because there is standing water everywhere.  I don't have much hope for my garden. We'll see. I am not giving up yet.

  I harvested a good sized mess of green beans yesterday between downpours. Enough for a big meal and a little leftovers. They are beautiful and there might be a lot of beans this year. If we ever get enough sun.  I sauteed them to a crispy crunch with olive oil, minced garlic and Himalayan sea salt and cracked black pepper. They were too good--first produce of the season always is. The lettuce and kale and chard are a sickly pale green. The carrots are spotty (and they usually do so well). Sigh...

  Today I baked an Italian Creme cake for a 22 year anniversary celebration.   The party was at 6, so we were home by 8, even though we hung around chatting. Always so good to celebrate sobriety. We got home and watched some episodes of Red Dwarf--one of the crazier scififantasy sitcoms I've ever seen. Last night we grilled steaks and had the green beans while we watched Young Frankenstein, Hysterical.  I had a bunch of chanterelles my son found, so I grilled onions and mushrooms to go on the steaks.  I love those mushrooms...this morning he came back in with another bag of beautiful chantrelles as well as quite a few hedgehog mushrooms that he is sure I will love. He says they're pretty rare, so I had to google them  lol   http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hydnum_repandum.html  They are pretty and aromatic with a nutty taste.  I have quite a bit of mushrooms in my fridge and need to figure out something to use them in in the next day or so. Was thinking maybe a garlic, spinach and wild mushroom fritata . Or something. lol


  No eggs yet from the new chickens, but should be any time.  One of the hens turned out to be a rooster and the little bastard is pushing his luck. Crowing from 4 AM til midnight. Chasing me in the run.  I named him Earl, so I can sing "Earl's gotta die"  (Dixie Chicks) lol. He's not long for this world, the mean little sucker.  lol


  Guess I'm headed for bed soon as it's after midnight and I'm pooped.  Have a great week and hope everyone's garden is doing better than mine.  I know we all count on that food.



 Namaste.

8 comments:

DJan said...

We had such an early spring that I harvested everything I planted already, except for the tomatoes and onions. I think I might replant a bunch of broccoli. The weather has been so weird; we are in a severe drought here in the Pacific Northwest while your summer hasn't really started yet.

Mama Pea said...

So why, oh why, is it that just when so many of us are making extra efforts to grow our own food (and an ample supply of it) Mother Nature seems to be working against us? Way, way, way too much rain in some places, extreeeeeme heat in others, and not enough sunshine or warmth in others. As with everything else in life, we have to keep a positive attitude . . . or everything will go down the drain. (And, you m'dear, do a darn good job of that! Keeping the positive attitude, not going down the drain! ;o} )

Akannie said...

Djan, you guys are having a heat wave too, aren't you ? This is some crazy weather indeed !!

Akannie said...

Mama Pea--I had to laugh. I got my new computer finally today and the setting up has been making me want to poke out my own eyes. And trying to set up a new photo storage is driving me to distraction. I was on hold with HP for over 25 minutes, I finally got a man from India and we couldn't understand each other and then as I tried once more to explain, my phone went beep beep beep and dropped the call. And this was AFTER trying to navigate their phone menu...not feeling like Pollyanna right now. lol

yellowdoggranny said...

honey suckle..one of my favorite flowers..or as I call it..sunnyhuckle.

Rita said...

I spent days going around with Cable One to get internet and a land line--the problem-keeping my old number, which they advertise you can do. (The building I'm moving to is so new nobody else has service there but our biggest worst company.) Two solid hours on the phone with three different people yesterday and a promise to give me a call back--which never happened--nor this morning, either. So today I called and in 20 minutes and only two people--I cancelled the phone order and just am getting internet. I'll get a land line again when another company gets into the new area and I can drop Cable One like a hot potato. I do have a cell phone. That was the issue. This one guy put my cell phone number in as the number I wanted to keep instead of my land line number and nobody is apparently smart enough to know how to fix such a complex issue. ROFL!

Anyways, life can be frustrating like that sometimes. I hope your garden will make it and you'll have something for all your hard work. The weather has been so weird this year. We went from drought to flooding and have had unusually hot and cooler weather--back and forth. I've been busy for the past couple months purging and packing. Moving next Tuesday. Karma's been very stressed and is down to about 15 pounds (quite a drop for a cat who was almost 20 pounds). Going to love the new place, though.

Hope things are going well your way? Besides the nasty rooster. Who sexed those chicks? Earl's gotta die! Or is he gone already? Roosters can be outright dangerous. Sending love and hugs!! :)

1st Man said...

Haven't seen you around in awhile and haven't seen any posts from you, hope you are well and surviving this crazy heat, take care! Check in when you can!

Rita said...

You okay? Just wondering how life has been treating you and yours? :)