Sundays meditations...

Been a wacky week here.  And I am so glad it's Sunday, and I can have a day of rest.  Sort of.  Rain is supposed to be coming this afternoon late.  I really pray that it does. It is so dry out there..my neighbor is worried about losing some of her trees. I dug down into the sweet potatoes this morning and it was like rock. Not good. I watered massively this morning...maybe that will make it rain.   It's so humid you can barely breathe.  We need a couple of good days of rain to bring these temperatures down and clean things up.

  I harvested about 2 pounds of beautiful carrots this morning. This is without a doubt the best carrot year we have ever had.  I also picked tomatoes, okra and some more jalapenos. The dehydrator is full and running.  Over the past couple of days, I have frozen a load of chives and garlic chive flowers. I have a big pan full of chives drying too. I dried lemon grass for tea.  I froze broccoli, about 2 gallons of florets.   I sorted the box of apples that the Irishman picked, and got them ready for storage...the ones with soft spots are being dried .  I made the beautiful salad at the top of the page for our discussion group at La Vista..we are doing another of the Northwest Earth Institute's books, on food ethics and sustainability.  I also made crostini--french bread in garlic and olive oil, toasted to a sprightly crunch.  I called this an Italian Layered Salad.  It was awesome.  It started out with an overabundance of ripe red tomatoes from the garden. Then I added some chunked cucumber I found  hiding under the pole beans.   I sliced white onion, added edamame, fresh chopped basil, --all from the garden. Some cracked pepper and sea salt.  Red wine vinegar and EVOO to taste. Topped it off with chunks of fresh soft mozzarella and garnished with a sprig or two of basil.  It was to die for...

   This is the limbo-land time of gardening...waiting for the last of the beans to dry or ripen, tomatoes are still there by the tons, but ripening more slowly than they were. We have planted a lot of the fall garden and not all of it, because it is still so hot.  Got the ground ready for the peas and beets. Anyway, it's just a funny time, almost anti-climactic after the rush of July and early August.  Almost feeling let down. lol  I told the Irishman this morning that it sure is a lot easier to be motivated during the rush of garden season. You have to be, if you're gonna survive it. Then things slow down and it's like WHHOOOOSH!  all the air goes out of you. And all you want to do is sit down. For a month. lol

  It's only a high of 85 today. But the humidity  must be a thousand percent--I'm dripping with sweat. Trying to hobble around and at least vacuum the living room...the dog hair is taking on a life of it's own.  And I stripped the loveseat covers off too, because they are filthy and full of cat and dog hair.  I put some carpet fresh down and threw the covers in the machine. Yes, the new-to-me machine. lol  Sonnyboy found it at a yard sale for 75 dollars. I'm a happy woman. Now, if it would only cool way down or I could get the AC fixed, everything would be perfect.  I can always go cool off in the bedroom--we have a window unit in there.

  I managed to get myself tangled up in the watering hose this morning and fell on my keister when I slipped on wet straw. sheesh. Not hurt, just really sore and bruised I suspect. I'm just grateful nobody was around to see it.  I'm sure I looked like an idiot, arms flailing around trying to catch myself as I went down.  Sigh...

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It's now about 3 hours later. Floors vacuumed, slipcovers washed, dried and back on the loveseats.  I got so hot I went into the bedroom and l;ay down on the bed, where it's air conditioned. Slept for almost 45 minutes, lol.  Musta needed it....feel better, after a quick rinse in the shower and a change of clothes.  The Irishman is home from the picnic and it started to rain. A nice soft rain for a while, but now it's stopped. Driving the humidity up even higher. Hopefully it will rain some more soon... Himself took his fishing pole out for a quickie, between raindrops and supper. lol   I need to go out back and check the chickens--only got 3 eggs this morning, so I'm betting there's some more out there by now.  

  Thinking I'll make a quick spaghetti and salad for supper. He isn't too hungry after the AA picnic and I'm not real motivated to do much either. This will be easy, good and satisfying. My favorite kind of meal. (Unless somebody else cooks it for me) lol

  The house is marginally clean, there's mood music playing, and everyone seems calmed by the little rain. The forecast is for rain today and tomorrow....keep your fingers crossed for us.

Happy Sunday!!

Namaste.

Best laid plans...

 So....the first batch of peach pit jelly didn't set up. And do I know why?? Of course I know why.  Because, after almost 3 decades on this planet, I STILL never follow directions about half the time. I put the sugar and pectin into the juice at the same time and brought it to a boil. Instead of following the pectin directions (which naturally, I did NOT read, since I know everything) and putting the pectin in first, bringing to a full boil and then putting the sugar in, I have to redo the whole batch. OR...use it for syrup. The only reason I don't want to redo it is the waste of canning lids, which are up to over 20 cents apiece this year. The thrifty bitch that I am, hates that. lol

  I'm going to think about it some more. Too late to do anything this morning anyway. 

  Yesterday I made 3 batches of pesto from the gardens basil.  It turned out good, even with the plants being a little past their prime.  I went shopping in the morning for olive oil and pine nuts, and nearly had a heart attack when I found that pine nuts are between 27 and 29 dollars a pound.  I knew they would be expensive, but I was thinking like 17 dollars a pound expensive. I opted out of them this time. At the Green Earth grocery cooperative (our local health food store) I browsed their cookbook shelf, because I was pretty sure I had seen a recipe using walnuts. Sure enough, I found several and one using raw sunflower seeds. At 2.99/lb I bought 3 pounds of those, and having walnuts already at the house, went on my merry way. I am sure that pine nuts makes the optimal product. However...since the Irishman and I are NOT Julia Child and Jacques Pepin...it probably doesn't make that big a difference. I was happy with the end results, and that's really all that matters. To me.  LOL

  I bought 4 new plastic ice cube trays that forevermore will be labeled PESTO ONLY, and filled them up and froze lovely little cubes of pesto, which I put into a gallon ziplock freezer bag this morning. They are now resting comfortably.  I still have a container of pesto in the fridge too, to use up within the next week or so. AND...I made a pasta primavera last night with pesto, to go with the filets and corn on the cob we had for supper.  And we ate like kings.

  Watched a very strange movie last night starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz (sp) and Ellen Burstyn. It was called The Fountain. Not sure if I'd recommend iot or not...it was truly hard to follow at times and almost scifi.  That's how we spent our big Friday. lol

  I put a big ole pork roast with onions and bay leaves in the crockpot last night before I went to bed. It simmered slowly all night and this morning I put in some red potatoes and carrots from our garden. I have to go to work at 3, but it will make the Irishman a nice supper. I don't know if the veggies will be done enough for me to take in my lunch or not...we'll see.

  The Irishman is out back, getting ready to plant. We had a terrific storm last night/this morning and it dropped about 2 inches or more of rain on us.  Thank goodness--finally some rain. We'll plant green beans, kale, turnips and pea pods.  That'll be enough.

  Well....I have a few more things to do before I go to work. A couch pillow to mend (Bella fun), one more load of laundry to finish, and a couple of other odds and ends. Hope everyone has a grand Saturday. I only have 3 more days of work until I am off for 4 glorious days in a row.  YIPPEE!!!!!  

   Walk gently, people.

 Namaste