I picked/harvested butternuts the last two Saturdays. This is what I got. There are about a million more out in the garden. We are going to turn orange people. ORANGE!
July garden update
July has been brutal and we are only nine days in. The record heat was nasty to say the least. It hasn’t rained since I don’t remember when. I have had to bust out the sprinklers and water the lawn for the first time this year. It pained me to do it too. In spite of the heat and lack of rain the garden is doing really well.
The pumpkins along the back fence are going bonkers. I cut back the vines every other day or so. The Baby Boos that volunteered crossed with the mystery Trader Joe’s. We have some bigger softballish sized striped pumpkins. I have just given up on them. If they live-great. If they die-even better. I am sick of them.
The raised beds are doing awesome. Everything has taken off and is going crazy. I did have to rip out the zucchini. They had succumbed to squash vine borers. I think. That’s what Google tells me anyway. It happens to me every year. They were in the first square bed where that big empty spot is. I’ll think I’ll put beets and peas in there for a fall planting.
I had to add bamboo stakes inside the tomato cages. I usually just use the cheapy wire cages and never have an issue with height. They always fall over because the plants are so prolific, but they never get high. This is my year for amazonian tomatoes. They are 6 feet high now. I also had blight or septoria on my Silvery Fir tomato. I trimmed the affected leaves and branches. It’s mostly gone, but it caused this epic tomato fail. Behold. I’m sure they taste like ambrosia. Snort.
The peppers have been loving the heat as well. I have over 30 jalapenos on the plants. I am just itching for them to be ripe so I can make jelly. I know my family and friends can’t wait for that jelly either! There are a lot of bell peppers in there too. Most have blossoms and some have baby peppers. the problem is, I can’t remember if they are green or yellow. Typical me.
The cucumbers love their trellis. The Hubs still grumbles when he looks at it, but I don’t care. I had enough cucumbers to make something. I didn’t know what to make though. So I made sweet/hot pickle relish this weekend. After tasting it, I think I like sweet dill relish more and I’ll make that next. I went out the garden tonight and took pics. Can you believe I didn’t have a single cucumber to show you?
Basil. Ugh. Why did I plant so much? My mom made me. No really. I only wanted two, but she added the kind she liked. So we have two Genovese, a Lemon basil, and a Thai basil. We are going to be eating pesto all winter long! WOOT! Now if only my family was excited about this as me.
I have Brussels sprouts growing on the back side of the herbs. They are doing well in spite of my total lack of attention. I planted them in May. The most I’ve given them since then is a cursory glance. We’ll see how they taste this fall/winter.
That’s all for now in the garden. I will do my best to be diligent to go out there every day and pay attention to the garden. It’s so hot though! I don’t wanna! You can’t make me!
Hurry up and hold your horses
My father in law is a racehorse trainer. It rocks my world that I get to have my horse fix through him. I miss that life. Le Sigh. Anyways, we spent the weekend at the track. He had one horse entered on Friday night and one on Sunday. I got super car sick on Friday, so I spent the night in the camper with the Meister watching cartoons. The car sickness turned into a migraine. It. was. lovely. But Sunday was great, I wasn’t sick or anything. After a quick lunch at the casino buffet, hellloooo crepes, it was off to the barn.
The thing about horses, that you may or may not know, is that there is a lot of hurry up and wait. I don’t know why it is this way, it just is. It’s right up there with don’t walk behind them, and watch your toes. So we got to the barn and proceeded to sit around. We sat in front of the giant fan and swatted at flies. I was too hot to even want to pet the ponies. Don’t get me wrong, I loved being there. The smell of hay and horse goes straight to my heart. It makes me so friggin’ happy.
So what does one do while they are hurrying up to wait? I took pictures.
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| Kisses for Itsahourseofcourse. |
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| It’s 90 bagillion degrees out, he’s in jeans,and he chooses to lay on straw and sleep. I don’t claim to understand him, just love him.
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| Me, trying to be all artsy with my Snapseed app. I need more practice. |
Then The Meister took pictures.
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| Gramma caught on to the picture taking. Grampa not so much. |
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| Can you feel what I’m feeling in this picture? |
Eventually, it was time to get Turning Silver ready to go to the races. She was brushed and hosed off, covered in a fly sheet and walked up to the paddock. I drove in the air conditioned car. She broke well, and she ran well, and SHE WON! woo hoo! She broke her maiden, no it’s not dirty, it just means she won her first race. No pics, they are still on order.
What did you do this weekend? Did you hurry up and wait?
Mom fail #967
Guess who sucks as a mom? This gal right here! ACK what a morning. I thought today was “pajama day” at daycare. The Meister was dressed in some gym type shorts and an old tball shirt. At a red light on the way to daycare is when I decide to look at my phone which has the daycare calendar on it. I think I threw up in my mouth a little at the realization that I am a momfailure. Today is not pajama day, noooo. Today is go to the splash park and bring a sack lunch. So not only is my kid dressed in pajamas on the wrong day, I now have no sack lunch and 20 minutes to get to daycare, drop off and be to work. Guess who got a gas station lunch in a sack from the back of my car? The Meister. Good thing his jammies consist of gym shorts and a t-shirt. He at least look normal. I apologized to him and said “I guess your old mom is not very organized today.” His response? “That’s ok you’re never organized.” I give up.
Kiva-free $25
Kiva is giving away free trials of their site. What this means is you would get a free 25 dollars to lend out to a small business owner in a third world country. All you have to do is register for an account.
This is a wonderful organization with the motto “Loans that change lives.”
This is your chance to helps the less fortunate for free.
Garden Update
June has been pretty hard on the garden. It was cool and rainy and then it was super hot in the 90’s with no rain for a week. The plants are doing ok though. I have a few concerns, a few surprises, and a few heartaches.
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| Mom’s Big Fat Cherry Tomatoes |
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| Waltham Butternut Squash |
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| First bell pepper |
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| First tomatoes |
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| In a blink of an eye this little guy will be a baseball bat |
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| Look! a peapod! |
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| Good looking beet. |
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| 2 inches away from the good one I have this. I am at a loss. |
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| My potatoes! What’s going on? Any ideas? |
Court Date
Today we find out our court date for the custody trial. I’m nervous. I don’t know why. It’s not like anything is really going to happen today. Just informational stuff. Still, it makes my tummy hurt. Bleh.
My first CSA share!
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| Isn’t it beautiful? |
I may or may not have squee’d with glee last night when I unloaded my very first bag from my very first CSA.
The contents included:
1 bunch of spring onions
3 onions-white, yellow, red
5 garlic scapes
1 kholrabi
1 head of Romaine lettuce
5 tomatoes
1 loaf of honey wheat bread
1 hugemongus head of broccoli
about a dozen radishes
1 block of Havarti cheese
1 jar of raw honey
I have so many plans in my head for all this veggie goodness. The Meister just wanted to eat the cheese. He told me he might eat the broccoli because it’s his favorite, but only if he wasn’t full of cereal. Uh OK weirdo.
I surfed the internets this morning and I think I have found some recipes worthy of my very first CSA veggies.
Garlic Scape Pesto here is the recipe from http://sweetandsavorybysarah.blogspot.com/
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| Image courtesy of sweetandsavorybysarah.blogspot.com |
Kohlrabi with Radish & Spring Onion here is the recipe from http://www.lovefoodeat.com/
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| Image courtesy of lovefoodeat.com |
Parmesan Roasted Broccoli with Pine Nuts here is the recipe from http://www.ezrapoundcake.com
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| Image courtesy of ezrapoundcake.com |
Grilled Romaine here is the recipe from http://www.acouplecooks.com
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| image courtesy of acouplecooks.com |
Day Four.
It’s my birthday! My present was The Meister coming home from South Dakota. I sure did miss him. After he was home for a bit we went to my dear friend, Kris’s house. She made me brownies and wine. They went well with my Sonic burger.
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