Thundering Thursdays

Not really.  I am just dreaming of rain..and yet, none comes.

It has cooled down some though, and at 9:30, it's only 80 degrees. Balmy. Sunny and nice out there.

  I've been busy this morning making the second batch of Peach Pit Jelly, all told, 20 jars of jelly, some for keeping , some for giving...excruciatingly sweet for my taste, but yummy nonetheless. I was going to make Jalapeno Jelly today too, but have remembered that you have to use liquid pectin for that, and of course, all I have is powdered. So--it goes on tomorrow's list. I need to do some housecleaning anyway...

  There's another pint of jelly in the fridge.  Bad planning.  lol

  Whew. I always feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends this time of year. I stay busy all the time anyway, and the canning season just crams more work into what little space is left. lol I'm not complaining--I love doing this and I love eating my own food.  But it can be a lot of work. Trying to get the garden ready for second plantings, and today would be a good day to get out there too...sigh...but it's really too damn dry to plant anyway. And I have got to prioritize....lol.  May have family coming for the weekend from Minnesota. Won't know til the last minute, it looks like. If I don't do anything else, I HAVE got to vacuum up the tumbling balls of dog hair and dust and get the spare room straightened up--just in case. And now that I've had a jelly marathon I need to mop the wood floors too...because no matter how I try, I get jelly everywhere it seems. (That's it--I need a wife!!!!)  

  As I was looking up some different kinds of recipes for the pepper jelly, I found some delightful looking sweet red pepper jelly that I may HAVE to try too.  I'm gonna wind up having to buy more jars this year, I'm afraid. That's probably another thing to put on my hurry-up list : :inventory empty canning jars.  I'm guesstimating that I've already used over a hundred canning jars this season, counting jelly jars.  Maybe more than that.

  Tomorrow I am going to pull my basil and make and  freeze pesto.  I'll swing by the big store where I can get pine nuts today before I meet my girlfriend for lunch.  I still have 4 big grocery bags of dried basil from last year that hasn't been bagged yet, so...there are at least 8 basil plants out there awaiting their fate. Probably more tomatoes and peppers too...I haven't been out to look since Tuesday. But it would be great having pesto in the freezer and thanks to Judy for the idea. I have a great soup recipe  called Potato Basil Beef that uses pesto in it...mmm...haven't made that in a long time...not to mention a million other things to use it in.

  Feels good to just sit for a minute. The hardest part for me, physically is all this standing. 10 years ago last month, I was injured in an industrial accident. My pelvis was crushed and my hip was broken and my gluteal muscles were ripped away from the bones and I have all kinds of peripheral nerve damage and paralysis and  limitations from it. Very hard for me to stand for extended periods of time. I have learned how to adapt as much as I can, have special chairs and stools and do a little, rest a little, do a little, rest a little. I really need to invest in a fatigue mat for in front of my sink...I think that would help too. So you see...I have to work as much as I do to get half as much done as a "normal" person.  lol  It's all this resting between things that messes me up. lol

   Am planning a girls lunch next week with my sister and sister-in-law and several nieces. It's my sisters birthday on Sunday, and we try to get together every month or so...it'll be fun having Skyler here to be part of it too. We'll probably go to Red Robin, about 15 miles from here. It's central to everyone. Sort of. lol  If it works out, it'll be7 adults and 3 kids. Fun,Fun. Next week is going to be like a serious staycation for me.  I can't wait!!

  Alrighty...breaktime is just about over, and I have a lovely little list of things to do. Just finished wiping down all the jars of peaches and putting them away, to make room on the counter for the second batch of jam. That will sit for another 24 hours or so before I can put it away too. Need to figure out what to make my honey for upper tonight and get that going too. Gonna see if I can get ahold of my MN sister in law and pin her down about coming...don't really expect her...it's one of THOSE things. I know she'd like to, but her life tends towards the unexpected drama/crises alot.  We'll see...

   Have a grand day, ya'all.  I'm going to!

Namaste.

Holy hell. How did it get to be Tuesday already???? And where was I ???

  I've been in a canning warp, I think.  Let's see..the last time I posted was Saturday. Sunday I canned more tomatoes and salsa.On Monday I took a trip to Broom Orchard to see about peaches. They were outrageous...due to the price of gas, I'm guessing. 42.00/bushel this year for the freestone peaches. I bit the bullet and got them because they were gorgeous and I wanted to can some peach halves. Aren't they pretty?  I wound up with 10 quarts and 15 pints of peaches canned today. Our trees don't have much on them this year due to the bad storms during blossom time. The next batch that I get will be seconds from Calhoun County (a serious apple and peach growing area here along the Illinois River delta)...those are the ones I will freeze/can for pies and make jam from. They will be a lot cheaper (I hope). That will be sometime next week, I think. Tomorrow I will make Peach Pit Jelly. It's really good and uses up the peach peelings and pits to the very end of their usefulness. I love that.  lol  I've already got the pot of them cooking away..

  I have been freezing bell peppers, and a little okra. Getting ready to plant the second planting of green beans if the ground will ever get wet enough to get the seeds in. The Irishman has been cleaning up the beds of burned and battered dead plants. We are in our third week of record breaking heat. We have had more days over a hundred degrees than we have had since 1988...the heat index today was 116.  You can't do anything outside for more than about 10 minutes, the chooks are heat stressed, the dogs are heat stressed and the cats seem to be loving it. My front porch looks like a pet cemetery...all the cats laying around looking dead (and loving it), under the rockers, hanging off the rails...it's crazy.

I made a tamale pie today for supper in my electric skillet. Still haven't had the oven repaired, but I can manage for a while longer...property taxes are coming due and and had to replace my dryer and blah, blah, blah. It's okay. It makes me  do what I do best...IMPROVISE, BABY!!  lol  I wasn't real sure about the cornbread topping, but it cooked perfectly and all I did was add a little extra buttermilk to make it more easily pourable across the top of the ground beef ingredients. My husband loved it and ate more than half of it. He sheepishly said "It was really good--and I was really hungry!"  I think I'll put the recipe on my other blog...

 My 8 year old niece is coming next week to stay for 4 whole days. I am excited!!  I'm thinking up fun stuff to do...you know, the stuff old ladies need a kid to go do??  lol  I'm looking into The Magic House and the Butterfly House and any number of things going on across the river. I may see if she's interested in going to see the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield...she just might. It's way cool, and I'd love to go there again.They have a part where there's a holographic President Lincoln and some Civil War soldiers and it blew my mind when I saw it the first time.

 I am working an extra day this week to make up for the 2 extra days I am taking off next week. I am tired already, lol  It's been a long day and my feet hurt and my pantries are filling up, so it's all worth it. I worked on my canning workshop booklet today and decided to put in a section of finding the place for a pantry in your house. It's coming along...I need to get more disciplined and make myself work on it for a prescribed amount of time EVERY SINGLE DAY.   sigh...it's hard to learn discipline at my age. lol

  Looks like we are going to put in some more kale and some turnips and green beans and maybe one more thing. Husbandman is talking a big talk and I just sit by and nod.  We'll see what happens....stay tuned.

Namaste.


 

Splatterday

  In my fantasy, I live on a rugged coastline, high above the pounding waves of the wild ocean. I can look out the windows of my lighthouse and see nothing but cool clear water into the horizon. I can venture down and climb around on the rocks and feel the brutal chill of ocean air blow through my jacket and muss my hair. I can see the tidal pools and their inhabitants at the mercy of the furious sea, feel the spray on my face, smell the salty seaweed and fish odors that permeate everything.  I can see the barnacle encrusted rocks, the jellyfish floating along the waves, the small crabs and langostinos that crawl over the rocks in search of food. And I embrace the loneliness of this existence I have chosen...and I embrace the sea, the mother of all life.

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  And then there is my reality. Living in a landlocked portion of the world that I swore to myself I would never come back to, once I'd made my escape. Living in a place that (right now) is so hot and so dry, it puts deserts to shame. In a place where there are too many people wanting too much of my attention and time, where I feel like I never have enough money, like I never  I fit in, and I never thought I'd be.  And I know this is the kind of craziness that affects people during the Los Ninos, and the 24 hour daylight times in Alaska, and during anytime that conditions feel insurmountable, whether it is weather or war or day after day of hundred degree heat. That feeling of being so powerless in a world gone crazy. Where there is nothing to do, absolutely nothing, but hang on to your ass, and wait for it to blow over, or through, or away.

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  It's been extraordinarily hot here, with the heat index in the 110's.  There was rain in some parts of the area today, but not here. Again. Because it didn't go over 95 today, they declared it a "break" in the heat. Tomorrow the heat advisory goes back into effect until at least Tuesday.

  I don't do well in the heat. When I moved to the west coast, way up north, by the Oregon border, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The extremely mild temperatures were such a blessing to me. I didn't care if it rained a lot.  I fell in love with the fog.  When it got hot, it was about 74.  When it got cold, it was about 40. It was wonderful. And now I am old, and I am tired and I am particularly sensitive to the heat...so why am I here?

  I keep asking myself this question.

  And I'm not finding a lot of answers.

  My son is here. That is mostly it. My family is here, most of them. That's a little part too. I spent much of my growing up life here, but I don't feel like I belong here. Except when I'm in my garden, tending my chickens. I love my little house here mostly. And I am trying to practice being content, but some days this is how I feel.

  Lao Tzu said " Be content with what you have. Rejoice in the way things are. When you realize that nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you."

  Good thought for a day like today.
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I have had a couple of whacky days in a row, and things aren't going my way some, and people don't do what I want them to.  And I am hot and cranky and nervous about the future.  But still,  the sun sets in a blaze of glory and the birds sing and the squirrels chatter. The dogs are playing and the gardens are burning up and there is nothing much I can do about any of it.

 Did have a wonderful conversation with my 8 year old niece today when she said she missed me terribly. lol So we hatched a plan, and she is going to come up and stay a week from Tuesday, and will be here for 4 days.  I love being her co-conspiritor. She told me she was bored. She said she got grounded from her bike because she rode off to her friends house without telling her mom and dad. They, of course, were frantic. I said, but you learned an important lesson, right?  She said, oh yes,Auntie--I swear I did!!  lol  I am blessed to be the favorite aunt of such a beautiful child.


  So, I will be content with what I have and be grateful for the love of my family. I will sit here and try to figure out how I am going to get this pup into this crate and just how much crying and barking I will be able to handle when the time comes.  I will try to get enough sleep tonight and be grateful that I could can another 6 quarts of tomatoes today. I will get ready to can peaches next, and plant beans tomorrow and clean up the burned out garden remains. This weather has been brutal...the worst in a long time.  I may be digging potatoes soon too...I'll check them tomorrow. The squash are a loss. The tomaotes are on their way out. The cucumbers are gone completely. The corn is a wash.  Not a great year's harvest this time.

 Time to give it up for this day, knowing I've done the best I could, with what I had, where I was.

  And somedays, that's enough



Namaste

Thursdays ROCK!!!!!

Oh, only because I get to stay home...lol...and drink all the Sumatran coffee I want!

  It's hot as Hades out there, 100 today with a heat index of 116 they said. O.M.G.

  It has been a roller coaster ride of a day.  My son showed up early to finish the job he was doing for me. He didn't really even start it yesterday, because he spent most of the morning chasing around for a car battery for me. Really, I guess, he was doing the job, not finishing it. lol  If you remember, I had to have a new alternator put in this car last month. At the time, they told me that my battery was old (as batteries go) and that it seemed to be charging okay, but keep an eye on it. Well, Tuesday on the way to MissB's, the battery light came on again. So, I figured it was time for a new one.  My son was coming over on Wednesday for lunch, and he did me the favor of running around trying to find a new battery. It was a challenge, and he had to go to 3 places before finding one. But he got it and came back and installed it for me, and we had lunch and I went to town. About halfway up the road, the battery light came on again. I made it to town and back, with no incident, just that evil little red battery light, grinning at me from the dashboard.

  First thing this morning, after my son came to work on the bathroom, and we had some coffee and a bagel,  I left to go to my friends house where we were supposed to blanch and cut and freeze corn. On the way through town, I pulled in to the mechanic that did the alternator and asked them if they could take a look. I explained to them that we had just put the new battery in yesterday and the light was on again...and they brought out a little tester and hooked it up and said "Hell. The alternator isn't charging." 

  Here's the thing I love most about doing business with local businesses: He never once hemmed and hawed, he asked if I remembered what date it was he put it in (I was able to look through my check register and find it), he never asked for a receipt, he called me by my name and he apologized for the problem. He then said they would fix it today, and that he would drive me home. When the work was done, he drove back out to my house (about 4 miles) and picked me up to take me back to get the car. There was no charge for anything, not even labor. The part, of course was under warranty, but they worked on it (pain in the butt to put on in these little cars) for several hours. Again, as I was leaving, he said to me (Like he did the last time, like he does everytime) "If there's any problem, bring it back. Really sorry again for the inconvenience."

  So, my plans for the day got sidetracked, and I was able to spend my day off at home and taking it easy. I have cleaned a little and put slipcovers back on the loveseat, moved some furniture around and dusted. I went to the garden and picked  tomatoes and bell peppers. It has been a delightful day, all in all.

  I have some big beautiful chicken breasts cooking for supper tonight. There'as a bit of leftover mashed potatoes and I have some summer squash that needs using. We'll have a nice quiet supper, and sit back and try to finish off this horribly hot hundred degree day with some sort of dignity. LOL  The AC is struggling to keep up and it's cool enough in here, but not below 80. Just can't quite get there. But it's a LOT hotter outside, so..there you go.  For some reason, my dryer suddenly wouldn't  work today, I had some clothes in there that needed a bit of fluffing before I could put them away. But the power button won't do anything but a long drawn out er,er,er.... Sigh...if it's not one thing, it's another...

  But--I'll not fret about that right now.  Just now, I'm cool enough and the house is clean enough and the animals are all healthy. And they're saying we might get some rain tomorrow,. so we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the very best. They are predicting 2 days of cooler temps (only the mid-to-low nineties!) and then headfirst into another heat wave. This is the worst summer we've had in a longtime around these parts. I've checked on my neighbors, cared for the pets and done what I can.


   Take care in the heat, y'all. It's a barn burner out there!


Namaste.

I am so tired tonight....

Busy, busy morning. Errands to run, beans to can...

 Tomatoes to dice and can...

 Busy time of year.

 My son was at a job today and got himself stung when he grabbed a hornets nest that was behind a fascia board on the house. He said he thought he was going to pass out. The lady he was working for gave him a benadryl and he lay on the cold basement floor for a little while. He said he isn't usually allergic, but maybe he got stung more than once. He's not sure. He seems to be fine now, except for his cartoon sized hand. When he was finished working for the day, he picked around 30 gallons of peaches for me from this same woman's trees. They're small, but look fairly good. Sigh...guess we know what I'll be doing tomorrow... I'm grateful--don't get me wrong.  I'm just tired. The hardest part is finding a way to sit so that I don't have to stand the whole time I'm peeling and slicing and dicing. I have a tall stool that goes to my island and I use that, but it still isn't quite comfortable.

  

  Guess I owe that boy of mine a peach pie....

  

    Wanted to stop in tonight, because I will going full tilt tomorrow and probably not have any time to get on here until after I get back from MissB's house at 9PM.   On Thursday I am going to a friends house to do corn for the freezer. I am off that day (hallelujah!) On Friday morning, I am going to visit another friends new house for the first time. So,. I need to find the perfect housewarming gift to take with me. It might be a gift basket, filled with homemade goodies and Useful Stuff. hmmmm.....

  

    Sweet dreams all.  I'll be back tomorrow.

   

  

  

Namaste.

A Quiet Sunday Morning...

 Yesterday, however...not so much.

 LOL  Yesterday was salsa morning.  I chopped and peeled and seeded my way to over 11 pints of beautiful salsa...2 of them extra hot for my boyo. During the bottling process, I added all the extra jalapeno seeds to his 2 jars.  Bahahahahahaha....every year I make a few jars just for him, and always with the seeds in, but he says (every time) "Good, but not THAT hot."  Well, we'll just see, Mister...  lol 

  I'll be putting my recipe on my other blog, DragonWoman'sKitchen...complete with pictures.

   The Irishman was out back, watering the poor garden when I got up this morning. Yes, boys and girls....he got the outside water hooked up yesterday! Quite ingeniously, I might add, by drilling  a hole through the back wall of the house where my kitchen sink is, putting a special pipe that attaches to the kitchen plumbing through the wall (where almost all of the pipe stays located inside the house--no freezing pipes!) and comes right out the outside wall.  His friend came over to help and then they went fishing...lol

   SO, now I have an outside faucet for doing whatever I need water for out there. Yippee!!  It only took 6 years!!!

   I was reading about a lovely curry dish that Kathleen had posted over at Hill Country Mysteries...and shared about eating goat at a Jamaican place in NC that I loved and in the middle of my salsa endeavors yesterday  the phone rang, and it was someone wanting to give me a bunch of goat meat from her freezer because she had just picked up a half side of beef and needed the room!!! She wondered if I might like it, and I said Hell yes!  So now, I have probably 45 or 50 pounds of ribs and chops in my freezer. Talk about answers from the Universe...after reading and posting on her blog, I sat around thinking about where I might be able to find some goat around these parts....lol  Ask, and it will be given. I like that. 

  I got home from MissB's last night and the puppy had shredded a newspaper all over the living room floor. I would have boxed her ears, but she looked so pleased with herself, and she and one of the other dogs were sitting on it all like a nest. Sigh...this morning I had to clean up pee again in 2 places..puppies.  Puppies and their charm. Puppies and their mischief.  Puppies and their walnut sized bladders.

  Cooling down just a tiny bit today, only 95 as compared to 100./..still high heat index of around 104, but a 40% chance of thunderstorms today. We can only hope.

  MissB had turned off her AC yesterday and when I got there it was 85 degrees in the house. It couldn't have been off very long, but it was so hot that it couldn't catch back up. When I finally left at 8PM, it was only down to 81. I was exhausted and yucky and drove home with my car's air going full blast. 

  For some reason, my left leg is swollen. Noticed it after I got home last night. I had an ace bandage on my knee yesterday and thought maybe it was from that. I sat with my leg up last night, but this morning it's still swollen. Last night I thought it was just my feet had swollen from the heat until I noticed it was only the left. Then this morning I see that it isn't just the foot, it's my whole leg.  Damn. Guess this will be the thing that finally makes me get to a new doctor...I've been stalling because it's always something...car repairs, property taxes coming due...something. But I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and go. I've neglected myself for too long. I desperately need to get to the chiropractor too. And the dentist. Sigh....

  I have been reading a bit, and seeing the bewilderment and pain of people trying to make sense of the tragedy in Norway.  There are things that have no making sense of. I want to believe that somehow all this seeming madness around us must be part of the evolutionary catalyst that is bring a quantum change to our universal psyches. It is obvious that tragedy has a way of uniting people, and maybe it's as simple as that. Maybe these souls have agreed to make themselves the target of these situations so that the greater good of drawing people together (and in the day of the internet, quicker than ever before possible) can be achieved. In Norway, in Haiti, in New Orleans, in Joplin, in Japan...if the Christ consciousness ( loving and giving up one's life for his brother) exists in everyone of us, then why couldn't that be the "sense" of things like this? In a grand cosmic global playground...we are learning compassion, love and generosity of spirit every time we are touched by these disasters. In the age of the internet, we cannot turn a blind eye to things that happen, even if it's on the other side of the world. We are marked by our reactions to things that happen to our fellows, whether we know them or not. We are touched by the pain of another, whether we like it or not. No longer can we choose to be callous and unaffected by the pain of another human being. Surely-this is an evolutionary leap.

  In the meantime, I have beans to pick and berries to gather and a check to be mailed off to St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis. "To do whatever small thing I can...."

  Have a magnificent Sunday, and remember that we are all children of God..so let's ACT like it.

Namaste.

Freaky Friday

 Look at the hair on that dog, wouldja??  And she's the one that never wants to come in when it's so dang hot.

 It has been a weird day since the minute the Irishman woke me up to tell me that the truck wouldn't start and he needed to take my car to work at Zero Dark Thirty this morning. I groggily told him okay and be careful and leave the truck keys.  (Don't ask me why. Not like I'm a freakin' mechanic or anything...). I got up shortly after he left, although I really wasn't ready to be awake.  So you can see...I moved through the rest of the day like it was a Twilight Zone episode. lol  I haven't really accomplished much, though I have done a few things that needed doing. The slipcover is back on the chair. The laundry is almost finished. The filter on the ac/furnace has been vacuumed.  That's about it, I'm afraid.

  Very hot out there again...though maybe not as hot as it has been.  I haven't really stayed out long enough to know.  We are going to the Harry Potter movie this afternoon (matinee) and then going to a restaurant called Salsa's Bar and Grill for supper. It's up in Carlinville, which is the county seat here. It's about 25 miles away, I'd guess. But then...everything is.  lol  Salsa's is right on the historic courthouse square, smack in the middle of town. It's got great food and a great atmosphere and we've not been there in a while. So it will be great.  

  My son called to tell me the jalapenos I sent home with him were incredibly hot.  He said he called to thank me, 'cause he's loving them. He's going to split the rest of them open, stuff with cream cheese, wrap in bacon and cook them on the grill tonight. That's my boy.  I'm sure they're so hot because of this brutal drought we're in. 

  The Irishman says he has all the plumbing stuff he needs to get the water put in for the backyard this weekend.  HURRAY!!!!!!!!  IT could really happen.... we'll see.

  Okay. I have to get showered and dressed for a date with my handsome husband. He's in green shorts and a Key Largo t-shirt...so not THAT dressed. lol  If I wasn't so fat, I'd wear a summer dress. As it is, I'd feel funny all night...so I'll just dress in some casual capris and a flow-y top probably.

  Happy weekending, all y'all....and Mz.Moon...have a wonderful trip to my old stomping grounds!

Namaste.