Monday Madness

  Rose of Sharon flower. Before the Japanese Beetles got them all.

  That's the madness part of this Monday. The JB are invading...they are all over the edamame plants and the Rose of Sharon bushes so far. Any minute they'll be invading the blackberries and then who knows??  I have noticed that they seem to like pole beans more than bush beans, so the green beans might be safe. But will they attack the butterbeans ??  OH NO !!!!!  Stay tuned.

  Here's the only thing I know to do:  take a plastic bag and a long handled spoon,  go out to the heaviest infestation you can find, and spoon those bastards into the bag and then give them to the chickens.  They love them !!  I just put the bag up to the branch or stem and swipe at 'em til they fall in the bag.  I can't spray anything for them. There is some kind of expensive ground treatment you can buy and apply the year before and it apparently kills all the grubs  before they can do that magic thing they do.  I don't know if that would really help out here...our whole road is full of fields sprayed with all kinds of uber-chemicals I'm sure...and I'm betting that's part of the problem.

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 Been a long-ish busy day and I'm pretty beat. Been trying to go to bed for about an hour, lol.  I got up and tended the critters and then ate some granola and got busy out back watering the garden.  That took about an hour and a half, thoroughly watering things so I can only do it every few days.  Then I picked almost a gallon of green beans and another quart of snow peas. I took those in the house and rested up a bit...bagged them and took some over to my neighbor. Came back home and started mowing the front yard. It took me about 2 and a half hours with breaks, but I finally got it done.  Tomorrow I will tackle the back.

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  Still no rain around here.  Yikes.  Dry as a bone. On a bright note, the okra is going gangbusters...it likes hot dry weather. I have about 10-12 plants...I freeze some of it for soups and stuff, but I pickle a lot of it. I love that stuff and so does all my extended family. Everybody asks for a jar of it.  I found a recipe to pickle snow pea pods today too, and I am going to do a couple of small jars of that.  The peppers are starting to flower and grow sturdy.  The quinoa is about 2 ft high. Everything looks really good. I have tomatoes the size of baseballs. The chard and 2 lettuces are going strong. The kale is finally all finished and I pulled the last of the scraggles to feed to the chickens.  They love it.  In fact, the first year that I planted kale, I planted it just for them.  LOL  Now it's for us too and we love it. I'll be starting canning in a week or two, I'm betting...maybe sooner.  Thinking I'd better get a few projects finished up, because once it starts it eats my days up...

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  I'm teaching a tomato canning workshop in early August out at the La Vista Ecological Learning Center. Working on a handout/recipe book to give out. I should have had it finished long ago, but I am such a procrastinator!  Lucky for me, I work well under deadline pressure.  lol  My life just gets so busy sometimes it gets really hard to fit everything in...

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  Well, thinking I need to head for bed. We're having a bit of a cool down around these parts...only got to 85 today, 10 degrees cooler than yesterday. The tomorrow is supposed to be only 82 and back up on Wednesday until it scorches us with 100+ temps on the weekend.  Oy vey... I'll be staying close to home those days, you can be sure...

 But I should be able to get a lot done tomorrow, and I want to get some paint and maybe touch up my tool shed and chicken coop in the next week or so. I have a visitor coming form Florida...and I am so excited!!

  Until then--stay cool, stay dry, and laugh every chance you get!

Namaste.

It's here....autumn has arrived

 Leaves of red and gold are showing up all over the ground, the morning temps are in the low 40's and nobody wants to go out in the chill to potty in the dog world here. You practically have to pick them up and throw them out the door. (Once you get them out from under the blankets and throws and pillows they're snuggled under).

  We slept late this morning and the Irishman went rushing out the door with a scone and an apple to try to make it to his morning meeting. I, on the other hand, have had a leisurely cup of cheerios and am on my first cup of coffee. When I finish here,  I am going to start some artisan bread dough. We are out of bread. I made one loaf on Friday and we ate the whole thing with our dinner of spaghetti carbonara. Actually, we ate  a slice earlier when it came out of the oven with butter. Then we finished it off.  In all fairness (to us)  they are small round loaves. And RIDICULOUSLY  delicious.  This time, I am going to make the Hertzberg 5 minutes a day kind, which  will give me dough in the fridge so I can bake some up on the (relatively) spur of the moment. I think it makes about 5 loaves all in all, but I'm not sure. I'll report back.  lol

  Yesterday was the canning workshop. It went from 1-5 and was a lot of fun. There were 9 registrants and we canned a quart or two of green beans each.  I spent a lot of the time talking about food preservation and why it's so important, what's happening in the world today regarding food supplies and problems, and just what I do, old country girl that I am. We talked alot about food safety. We started with the canning beans because of the time constraints and went on to freezing and dehydrating and even found time to take a 15 minute walk around the community gardens. They were a great bunch and really helped make it go well. AND--all nine said they were registering (and bringing a friend) for the Harvest Soup workshop next month.  I'll be doing that one on Nov. 5th. So it felt like a real success (to me, anyway) and no canners blew up and no one died .  LOL   I took samples of my canned goods with me, pictures that I downloaded off my kitchen blog, a recipe for salsa, both my dehydrators and a stack of my most used (and new favorite) books  on food preserving.  I took both my pressure and water bath canners, and talked a lot about the value of both. I talked about building a pantry in your home, and the importance of rotation and stock-taking inventories, and about the trial and errors of learning what things to grow that your family will actually eat and how to figure out about incorporating all your pantry ingredients into your daily meals.

  I was really tired by the time I got home.

 My big plan this morning is to get the bread dough started, get the laundry started , and clean up the living room a little. I need to strip the bed too and change the sheets. And that is probably all I will get done today before heading off to visit MissB and spend the afternoon chatting about days gone by and how different this world we live in is from when she was a girl, back in the 1930's and '40s...

 Miss Roxie DOES NOT like this seasons changing thing at all. She's all snuggled up in her little felt bed right here at my feet...wanting to know why the house is so cold. I haven't got the heart to tell her I don't want to turn the furnace on yet this year...besides, it's only 63 in here. Much warmer than outside. And once I turn the oven on it will be toasty in no time.

 Tomorrow night my meeting is having a potluck and speaker and I am the speaker. I asked my relief if she'd come in early so I can go and she said she would. So, I will be there for supper and then to share a little of what it was like, what happened, and what it's like now.  And mostly about the miracles of not dying from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. That a wretch like me could have this life, full of doxies and neighbors and canning workshops and family...a miracle indeed.

  Okay. I'd best get a move on if I'm going to accomplish anything today. Some cat threw up on the loveseat in the night, so that means I have to strip it off and wash that cover too. Sigh...the gifts just keep on comin'...lol

  Sauntering off into a beautiful fall Sunday...maybe I'll throw a peach crisp into the oven...doesn't THAT sound good???

Namaste.