Deb's Garden

My friend Debbie lives across the way.  We take care of each other dogs and homes if the other is out of town.  Deb is the recipient of any over abundance of produce that we might have here at 500 Dollar Tomato.

The other day I bagged up some cuc's, squash and onions to take over to her house.  She wasn't there at the time and that allowed me to be snoopy.  I'm a terrible peeping Tami. 

You see Deb started a veggie garden this year.

She'll admit it's not much but the girl grows all sort of ornamental plants that do really well.  It's about time she turned to the veggie side of life!

Perhaps I was an inspiration?  Maybe. 

But her peppers are looking WAY better than mine so I think "girlfriend" has got a thing or two to teach me!!!!!

Par Boil

Seems like most of the US are looking down the barrel of a gun.  A very HOT gun.  105 today?  Geez Louise!!!!!!  And it's not much better after that.  We're forecast to be over 100 for about 5 days in a row!





I've been been watching the forecast for the past few days.  Sometimes a bit of knowledge is a good thing.  But when it gets THIS HOT, there ain't much you can do about it but run from AC to AC, toss some water on the garden and hope for the best. 

I've spent the past few days aggressively picking anything that might get whalloped by the heat.  Any green beans and cuc's that were hanging on the plants are all in. 

A lot of the onions were still pretty perky but I decided to pull them rather than see them turn into french onion soup.  I put them in the garage after they spent Tuesday out on the fence line on a gorgeous Summer day.  82 for a high this past Tuesday.  (sigh)  So long...Farewell!

The SVB's are doing a number on another squash plant.  It's half dead now and the heat will kill it for sure.  That's OK.  I've had my fill for now.   (To bad the heat won't kill the friggin SVB's....)

The tomato plants are so short and stubby this year (only waist high) and while they DO have some fruit on them, I'm thinking we're not going to see much MORE fruit set until fall if this heat keeps up.  I planted all the tomatoes in the newly double-dug area and while I did fertilize them it's obvious to me that the soil just isn't giving what these "heavy feeders" need.  So some tomatoes are better than no tomatoes but I don't think I'll have all that much to put up for the winter.

 

I'll do my best to keep the strawberries hanging in there.  These raised beds are so much warmer than being in ground but the plants seem to be hanging in there so I'll keep my finger crossed that they can survive the heat wave.

How about you?  What plans have you made for the HOT days ahead?

Japanese Long Cucumbers

Last year I planted BC Alpha Beit cucumbers.  I'm not much for cucumbers but SM is.  His verdict was that they were just OK.  Stronger and more bitter than what he cared for, so when it came time to order my seeds this Spring, I decided to try the Japanese Long Cucumber.

Saturday morning during my garden inspection, I noticed that we had a couple of cucs that seemed to be about the right size for picking.  They're very prickly so I used my veggie brush to scrub them and then went back outside to pick beans.

SM was working on his first cup of coffee and must have spotted the cuc, sliced it, and tasted it because the next thing I knew, SM was calling to me while I was bent upside down in the bean patch. 

I straightened up to see SM walking down the path holding out something in his fingers, a great big smile on his face.

"Taste this."  SM commands.  "This is what I've been waiting all year for." 

I taste it and my eyes fly open.

"This is what summer tastes like."  SM says.

"Holey moley is that good."  I said suprised.  "And I don't even like cucumbers all that much."  It was just as BC advertises...crisp and mild.

Have any of Ya'll made cucumber soup?  These plants are going to start putting out here really soon and since we're not big into pickels, I thought maybe a soup would be good to try.  Plus (if we like it) I can freeze the soup.


Regardless...SM has placed his stamp of approval on this one. 

Two thumbs up for the Japanese Longs....This is a winner and WILL be planted in our garden again.

Green Bean Fest

I had seriously thought about buying a pressure canner this year.  But I've got access to lots of freezer space so I thought I'd try freezing the beans this year instead. 

If I'm buying veggies at the store, it's either fresh or frozen, never canned.  And I'm not really inclined to spend the money on a canner this year either.  (Those things ain't cheap).

And I'm lazy. 

Maybe it's just because I'm "newish" to canning, but freezing just seems easier.  (*I'm still planning on water bath canning the tomatoes and applesauce though.)

I've been picking beans for 5 days now.  During the work week I don't have time to "put up" food, so everything goes in those Green Bags and gets tossed into the fridge until the weekend when I have time to process them.

Rinse, chop and prep station.

Two stock pots.  One with boiling water, the other empty.  3 minutes to boil and then I drain everything through a strainer into the empty stock pot.  The stock pot that just got filled goes back on the burner and brought up to a boil for the next batch.  It seems that 3 handfuls of beans is just about the right amount so I don't "break the boil".

The beans are tossed into an ice bath to stop the cooking process.  (Note:  I forgot to freeze up "ice blocks" so I put those Blue Ice packs into a water filled Ziplock bag, sealed it and tossed it into the water.  It did the trick.)

I drained the beans and tossed them onto a clean towel to dry.  Then on to cookie sheets to freeze up, and then into the freezer bags.

Even though I'm freezing these it still takes a few hours to process them, start to finish.  I ended up with 3 gallons of beans for the freezer so far.  That's not counting what we're fresh eating either. 

I'm really pleased with the quality of the beans too.  Hardly a blemish on them and the Royalty Purple really do turn green once you cook them.  SM thought they'd taste different.  Nope.  And tender!  I told SM that these freezer beans just need heating up, they don't need additional cooking.

As a new gardener (3 yrs) I'm always excited to have these successes.  Year after year you try to figure out what works for your garden.  Last year the beans were split into raised beds and the double dig beds.  The raised beds failed, a total loss.  This year I sowed everything in the double dig area.  One bed is better than the other (who knows why) and I planted a TON of beans besides.  Everything clicked this year for the beans.  Yeah me!

Now what the freak is up with the peppers this year?

The Life

We came up onto the back porch from working in the garden this morning and were greeted with this sight.  (SM snapped this shot.)

Excuse us...We didn't mean to disturb you, Princess Ginny.

(Wouldn't you like to be one of my dogs?)

No Elbow Grease Required

When I was a kid we did the dishes by hand and whenever we'd have a pot with heavy residue or burned food we'd use SOS Steel Wool pads to clean the bottom.  You could stand there scrubbing hard and never get that stuff off.  Do they even sell those anymore?



I guess so...

It wasn't until I was in my 40's that I found the secret to cleaning pots and pans and to be honest I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out.  You see I used to waitress when I was a sweet young thing and watched the grill cook clean his grill this way.






They'd always use a clean, wet, cotton hand towel and would scrub that towel across the HOT surface of the grill (using a spatula to keep their hand off the towel) as it boiled and steamed and (because of the high heat) cleaned the grill surface.

Watch any restaurant cooking show and you'll see them clean it that way.  I've always cleaned my pancake griddle with a wet paper towel while it's still hot.  Works like a charm.

Maybe you're nodding your head already cause you've figured this out, but you can pretty much do the same thing with your own pots and pans.  Here's how.

I cooked some onions in butter for a pizza I was making SM. 

After caramelizing the onions, I'm left with a crusty residue.  After rinsing the fat out in the sink, I'll put a bit of water in the pan and turn up the heat to bring it up to a boil.  I'll use my spatula to loosen the debris, (kinda like de-glazing with wine when cooking meat) then I'll walk it back over to the sink and dump the dirty boiling water out.

I then put a bit of cold water in the pan and using a scrubby backed sponge with some DW soap, give it a swipe or two.  Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot pan or sponge.  Believe it or not, the debris comes up easily enough.

No elbow grease required.  No need to soak the pan for hours or use harsh chemicals.

Viola!

Now go burn some food and tell me if it works for you...

(*Do I really need a disclaimer?  I guess so.  Do this at your own risk since you're the one around hot pots and pans and griddles and steaming cloths or paper towels or scrubby sponges....Get the point?  Don't blame me if it works.  I just watched and observed someone else do it.  Blame the grill guy at the Waffle House back in 1983.)

A Change Of Pace

SM and I were sitting at the kitchen table the other day, a glass of wine in our hands.  We'd been talking about our day, about this or that and had fallen silent for a few minutes.

"Do you feel that?"  I asked.

"What?"  SM.

"It's Summer.  Do you feel the change?"  I asked again.

"Yeah, I do."  SM said.  (He knew what I meant.)

For some reason it finally hit us this week.  The change in the season, the change of pace.  Almost a stretching of time, like a yawn, where you take a slow deep breath and stretch all your muscles...then relax.





Summer isn't a time for relaxing really, there's so much to do, both work and play.  But there's a different kind of mellow in the air.  A slight slowing down of pace.

I noticed it myself during the work week.  My drive time (one way) is usually 50-60 minutes into the city.  Tension filled, bumper to bumper traffic.  (A fun way to start your day to be sure.)  But with school out finally, I'm shocked at how light traffic is.  Can there really be that many school related cars out on the road every morning?  I guess there can.  It's stunning really if you think about it.  That's a LOT of people on the road all at one time.  I've shaved off 10-20 minutes on my drive time one way. 

So I've been leaving for work much later, which allows me more time for my morning chores.  And with the sun coming up earlier, it's a treat to be out in the garden first thing.  I'm picking beans and pulling weeds at 6 am, the dogs running and sniffing through the dewy grass.  SM will walk out with a cup of coffee and stands there blerry-eyed, waking up, pointing out a long bean here and there that I missed.

I get back into the house by 7 and I'm out the door by 7:30.  But even at work the pace changed.  People are more relaxed and the volume has dropped off a bit.  This past week it seemed like half the doctors in the building were on vacation.  My email has been quiet.  The phone is ringing less. 

I'm back home by 5:30 now instead of 6-6:30.  I feel like I've got time to do stuff in the evening now if I want.  I was up last night until 11.  I can't remember the last time THAT happened. 

Granted, I did wake up at 3am today so there's a slight trade off.  But I'm feeling pretty perky for only getting 4 hours of sleep.

But if I get tired later on that's OK.

That's what summer naps are for...

Bringing In The Beans

We will go rejoicing...

Bringing in the beans!  (And some squash too...!)

I love me some beans!  This year I planted 4 varieties.  Baker Creeks Golden Wax, Blue Lake (of course) and (new to me) Contender and Royalty Purple.

The Golden Wax always arrives first.  I swear these are the most tender beans on the planet.  If you've boiled them for 5 minutes, you've boiled them too long.  These are great if you like to steam your beans.

The Contenders are starting to size up along with the Purple Royalty.  I should be picking more and more of those over the next few days.  The Blue Lake's are just starting to bloom now.

I've divided my bean patch into 3 sections and I'm rotating my picking that particular patch every three days, so while I'm picking every day, I'm allowing the smaller beans to size up. 

We've hit a hot, dry spell here lately, (the whole East Coast has) so I've been watering the bean patch every few days.  I want those beans tender and plump!

I'm sure I'll be spending part of this weekend putting all these beans up.  I've got 3 bags in the fridge waiting to process now. 

(*Along with all those Sweet Onions.  I'm going to freeze up I want  first, then I'll give the rest to the neighbors and coworkers next week.)

Wordless Wednesday - Carrot Hounds - They Love Em

LEGO's For Adults

Organizing all the crap you have can be a BIG pain.  A lot of SM's office stuff is in those cardboard "banker boxes" that are sturdy and cheap enough but fugley as all get out to look at and flimsy as they get old.

I'm personally depressed when I see stacks of boxes and crap laying everywhere.  So, in an attempt to help SM become better organized, we've invested in some good IKEA shelving.

This stuff is modestly priced and easily put together.  Just a few tools like a flat head screwdriver and a rubber mallet are necessary.

So I dragged SM to the IKEA factory in Charlotte on Saturday mid-day after I'd gotten home from post-ops at work. 




SM really wasn't in the mood to deal with the deCRAPfication of these rooms but he got more invested in the project as we wound our way through the shelving area and started making decisions on color and shelving type.  I would put my two cents in here and there but allowed SM to choose everything what he wanted.  It's his space after all.




Shockingly, we were in and out of there within two hours.  After unloading everything at home, I left SM alone for the rest of the day figuring I was pushing my luck.

Sunday arrives and we're both determined to get these things put together and see if we can't make a dent in the mess.

IKEA instructions are so easy to understand and while you DO need two people to build these things, it comes together pretty fast.






We got started about 10 am and worked up all the shelving in the "blue" room first.  (SM decided to leave his office where it was in the "red - Ohio State" room.)  After a few snippy comments and a few pinched fingers, we found our mojo.  Once one unit was complete the rest of them came together much quicker.

Once all those shelves we done, we shifted the mountain of crap that had been stored in SM's office over to the center of the blue room (to be dealt with later) and started working on the shelving for SM's office.  We put together a total of 7 shelving units.  The day flew by but we were shocked to see that it was already 4:00! 

"You going golfing?"  I asked SM.  It was Fathers Day after all.

"Nope.  Too tired."  SM said.

We stood back admiring our handy work.  It looks really nice and I'm excited to think about all the various crap finding a proper home at last.  We're far from finished but we're getting closer everyday!

The F Word

Times are tough.  Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Rumor in the hood had it that the house right next door to ours was going into foreclosure.  We'd heard about it a few months ago and the lady who lives there (with her two adult kids) told us that "she'd be moving soon due to health reasons."  Poor thing has developed Parkinson's disease.  (She's maybe 10 years older than SM and I.)  We'd also heard something about a second mortgage on the place.  So a bad decision, on top of failing health, created the perfect storm and now she's loosing her entire investment. 

Makes me wonder how deep in the hole she was.

I can't blame her for not wanting to use the F word when talking to others about her situation.  Foreclosure is a dirty word to many.  We all tend to form an opinion, a judgement on how such a thing came about.  This lady was the original owner of her home.  Our home is 25 years old and she was already living here, a single mother with two young children, when we moved in 14 years ago.  We were never close.  We'd maybe see each other once or twice a year and speak cordially to each other.  Nothing too personal although we knew she was divorced.

She'd always kept the house up nicely though.  Things started to slide when the great recession hit, but that was true for SM and I too.  Our house is a bit frayed around the edges.  Her front yard shrubbery is SO overgrown now that the front door is hard to see.  Her back porch and yard is in disrepair.  I have know idea how bad the interior might be.

The past few months we noticed that the lawn stayed overgrown.  She's had a lawn service out every now and then but stopped mowing about two weeks ago.  It's really high right now.  I considered mowing it when I mowed ours Friday night but SM said to wait.

As usual, he was right again.  Saturday morning arrives with a Ryder truck and a bunch of cars out in front of her house.  Last month one of the kids moved out.  Is this the other child moving out or is it the final move.  Everybody out?  The next few days will give us the answers but eventually this house will be empty.

What's left after she leaves is an unloved house.  The bank will technically "own" it, but it will sit and decay for anywhere from several months to several years.  The bank won't cut the grass.  The bank won't protect or repair it if it's vandalized.  The bank has thousands of other house just like this one.  An address on a piece of paper.  It's not real to them.  It's just a number.

I think to myself "There but for the grace of God go I."  But I also know that I'll be out there after she's moved, mowing her yard along with mine.  Hopefully, I can drag a few of the neighbors into a rotation.  I'm sure some weekend I'll drag SM over there and trim back the trees and shrubs and try to make it look less neglected.

They need to write a manual for the homeowners who are left to deal with the mess.  I'd hate to see it vandalized.  I'd hate to see rats and snakes and ticks take over the yard.  I know that there's not much I can do.  But I'll do what I can.

I think to myself "This is why I really want to pay off our house ASAP."  I cross my fingers that SM and I stay healthy long enough to see that happen.  We don't live paycheck to paycheck like a lot of folks.  We could pay off the mortgage today but it would take everything we had and with the world the way that it is right now, it's nice to have a bit of cash to fall back on if we need it.  So we'll keep trudging along and hope for the best.  And hope we don't make a bad decision.

None of us has a crystal ball.  I worked with a surgeon who said that a lot.  He'd say "If I could see the future I'd be filling out Power Ball tickets."  Smart man.

It's a scary world out there kids and no one knows what the future may hold. 

For any of us.

Old School

SM is a talker.  He'll gab about life with just about anyone.  A social butterfly.  This serves him well when he's out on client calls.  If the person he's chatting with has a garden then he gets to gabbing about that.  We've gotten wonderful tips from the locals.  Everyone loves to talk about their gardens.

And if he's talking with an older lady who has a garden, generally speaking, you've got someone who preserves her harvests and then canning becomes a topic of converstion.

I've personally only bought about 4 dozen mason jars.  Everything else has been given to us.  Last year for example, SM came across a fellow whose Mother had died and she had TONS of jars in her basement.  SM said he's take them and "TaDa!"...Free jars for his aspiring canning wife to play with.

Same thing happened last week.  SM ends up talking with an older lady in our hometown who'd stopped gardening and canning and was more than happy to give her jars to SM and I.  Woo Hoo!  Free jars!

So we went over to her house last Saturday morning.  She had boxes piled high in her carport.  SM and I went and loaded them into my Jeep, chatting with the lady the whole time about gardens and canning. 

Most of the boxes had lids on them but the last few didn't and I caught a look at the jars and realized that these weren't mason jars. 

I caught SM's eye and said to him under my breath so she couldn't hear me..."These aren't mason jars.  I can't use these."

SM, his hands full of a box of jars, just widened his eyes at me and said very softly "Don't".

I got the hint loud and clear. 

Sometimes you just have to leave things alone so as not to offend.  This sweet lady felt that she was giving me a gift of jars that she'd been using for years and years.  "Tomatoes" and "Green Beans" were written on the lids of some of the boxes.  They all worked for her.  So of course they'll work for me!

Old school canning. 

Back in the day you could use any jar that a lid, ring and rubber would fit on.  And I'm pretty sure it worked too!  As long as it sealed, it was a keeper.

It's just that these days using any old jar is NOT recommended.  And since I'm fairly new at the canning game, I opt not to bend the rules.  Mason jars only for me.

(Yes, I cross my T's and dot my i's...Hey that's a good slogan!  My name is Tami after all @;)

Anyway, we thanked her for her gift and she told me she had TONS of pint jars in the crawlspace under her house.  I regretfully told her that I wasn't big into jellies and jams and that the quart jars would suit us just fine.  "Thanks again!"

 As it is, the jars ended up rattling around in the back of my Jeep all last week.  We were busy enough with the carpet install early in the week and then the Jeeps battery died and SM had to replace THAT and then the terminals on the battery needed to be replaced so he kept the Jeep home for a few days to work on it.

Friday morning is trash day around here and I made a mental note to pull all the boxes out and place them curbside for the recycling guy to come and pick up.  I assumed everything would be tossed.  Just to be sure though, I pulled the jars out and eyeballed them.  The first 2 boxes were nothing but regular old jars.  Pickel jars I call them.  

On the third box though I hit paydirt.  Mason jars...Ball and Kerr.  Now these I can use.

So after everything was said and done it was about a 50/50 haul.  About 6 dozen Mason jars for me and about 6 dozen pickel jars heading to the trash.

The recycling guy must have took the pickle jars cause when I came home they weren't curbside anymore.  SM brought the Mason jars into the house for me to do a handwash and inspection on the rims this weekend. 

So not a bad ending after all considering we helped this lady clean out her crawlspace.

Do any of you use regular old jars for canning?

Funions

This is my first year growing onions.  We eat some onions around here, but not a lot.  Every time I would need an onion though I was always shocked at the price to be paid at the store.  Seems silly to pay a couple of bucks for a red onion (my favorite) so I decided to try to grow my own.

Starting  onions from seed was a joke (trust me I tried) so I purchased a sampler set from Dixiondale and planted them back in March and honestly...They've been the most fun things to grow.  Everyone always talks about how kids should grow radishes because they're easy.  Got news for ya.  Nobody like radishes but everybody eats onions at one time or another.  And are they ever fun to grow!

I've watched theses suckers size themselves up and take care of themselves.  No babysitting!  Easy, Peasy!

I'm most anxious though to try and get them to cure properly so I can store them without them going to rot.  (I tried to store potato's last year and they rotted within a few weeks!)

So I'd really like some advice on how to successfully cure onions.  Here's a link that I found that seems to explain it best.

Any words of wisdom out there from those of you who've stored onions from your own garden?

The Red Candy were falling over first.  There were about 8 plants that had fallen over so I pulled them the other day and laid them on my south facing back porch to dry a bit more. 

Temps have been in the low 80's and we're in for a week without rain so I thought the porch would be a good place to start the curing process.   Nice and dry, good circulation and warm.  I tossed a paper towel over the bulbs to prevent sun scald. 

Should I move them back into the shady part of the porch to cure for a few weeks more?

The rest of the reds are just starting to brown at the tips but the leaves are still erect. so I'll leave them be for now.  The yellows (Candy) and the whites (Super Star) don't look ready to pull yet.  The leaves look really green and "juicy", far from falling over.  The tips are just starting to brown.

How long can I expect these to store if I've cured them properly?  The reason why I ask is that I've got a LOT of onions.  If I can only expect a few months storage, then I'll be giving some away.  There's probably about 50 onions in my garden and I don't think I'd use more that one a week so to say that I've got an over abundance of onions is an understatement.  I'm also not sure about preserving onions long term?  Is there any other way than other than dehydrating them?  Perhaps freezing them? 

So much to consider!  So fess up...How would you proceed if you were me?

Wordless Wednesday - After The Rain

Keep Your Hands To Yourself

This weekend SM put up the tomato stakes.  He was way overdue and knew it...But as we all know, life gets in the way sometimes.

Anyway, last year SM used those huge, heavy metal T posts and staked 4 tomatoes to one post.  Now when tomato plants get mature they become monsters.  Or at least ours were last year.  I didn't really care how they were supported as long as they were supported enough that we didn't snap the stem.  SM was NOT happy with the setup though.

So this year, SM used individual wooden stakes that he pounded into the ground.  (Hopefully there's no vampires buried under the tomato patch. If there are they're dead!:)  He then used "stretchy ties" to attach his little babies to the posts.

This year I've decided to try a more hands off approach with the tomatoes.  Try to NOT prune the lower leaves off the plants.  Just let them be.

It seems like there's TONS of opinions out there about how to manage growing tomatoes, but I remember Jane over at Hardwork Homestead posting about an experiment she did with one patch of fussed over tomatoes and one patch left to grow on it's own without any intervention.  There are pros and cons to both methods, so pick your poison. 

Me?  I told SM that it would be fine to leave the tomato plant alone and NOT stake them.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  I did throw down some straw to help keep the dirt splash off of the plants.  I also tossed some diluted Epsom Salt water on them yesterday.

It's hard isn't it?  On the one hand I say "Leave it alone" and on the other I'm trying to help things out.

Sometimes it's hard to keep your hands to yourself...(Best summer song EVER.)

Crowded House

I'd love to be writing some witty, stimulating post right now.  But the simple truth is that there isn't much going on.

Except waiting.

The carpet is supposed to be installed tomorrow morning.  I say "supposed to be" because SM made the arrangements last week but told me yesterday in the midst of ripping out the other bedrooms carpeting that we were supposed to get a confirmation phone call Friday that we're good to go.  

"And we didn't get that call?"  I asked, blinking at him.

"No."  He shrugs.  "But you know that doesn't mean anything.  These guys show up when they show up for the most part."

"Great...."  I mutter.

My house is a bomb.  A great big blob of crap laying everywhere.  Mattresses in the hallway.  Dressers in the kitchen.  A huge file cabinet in the living room.

And boxes everywhere.

We spent yesterday morning wrapping things up in preparation for the install.  We pulled the other rooms carpeting, both rooms floor staples and swept and vacuumed and mopped both rooms floors. 

It's amazing how truly filthy a house is. 

Dust was swirling around..."You know we like to think we keep a clean house, but there's no such thing.  It's just a illusion to make us feel better."  I point out.  "We really live just inches off the ground.  It's not so much "clean" as "less dirty" than actually living on the ground."

Neither one of us wanted to stick around the house yesterday.  So we jumped in the car and went to see a movie, (Prometheus-don't bother) and then went out to eat Mexican.  Sat on their outdoor patio and split a margarita and a meal.

Funny how unsettled I feel with everything out of place.  I can only imagine how those of you who've done home renovations have felt.  On the one hand it's a pain but a necessary one.  On the other hand, I'm going to be so excited to get past this and have it DONE.

Until then, my head is like my house.  Crowded. 

Crowded with crap.

Love The One You're With

"Thank You" to all of you who offered up suggestions on battling the SVB's.  When it comes right down to it though, I wondered why I was putting up such a fight.

SM said as much to me.  "Why does it bother you so much to loose a squash plant?  They're cheap enough to buy."

He's right.  This time of the year everybody's got squash.  They're even giving it away for free!

I pulled all the infected plants the other day as you could tell they were about to cash it in.  But I still have 3 healthy plants in another part of the garden.  They will give me plenty of squash still. 

So what's my problem?  I think I'm too much of a control freak and if there's one thing I've got to learn to do with the garden is roll with the punches.  Some years you'll hit, others you'll miss.  (I think it just pisses me off that a worm can do so much damage.)  But I've decided to shrug it off.  If I can't grow squash or pumpkins, I can buy them locally at least.  (I'll still plant the butternut as ya'll suggested.)

So my new motto is...

If you can't be with the one you love...Love the one you're with.


I went ahead and planted the squash patch full of BC Hales Best 45 Musk Melons.  Lets see how these babies do instead.  I tried a few melons last year but they were in the shaded part of the garden and they didn't like that very much.  So we'll see how they like being in the raised beds and in full sun.

My green beans are going banana's this year.  Last year the jap beetles were all over them. I managed fresh eating but none for canning.  This year nothing but healthy green leaves and flowers everywhere.  Should be a bumper year for the beans.  Fingers are crossed

My green peppers did pretty good last year.  This year, they suck.  Still no bigger than when I transplanted them a month ago.

The strawberry starts are settling in, I haven't lost one yet and the onions are gorgeous.

The cuc's and luffa's are vining and even the tomatoes are starting to set fruit but they're still small.  The tallest is only knee high and I noticed a few of the fruit had BLR.  We've been wet enough.  Time to break out the Epsom salt.

Everything is growing slow in this cool, wet cycle we're in.  SM says we're having an Ohio Summer.  Really!  We're still sleeping with the windows open.  It's in the 50's at night and 80's in the daytime.  Unheard of around here.  We're usually fighting off 100 degree temps by now.

I feel like we're about a month behind now, everything's so small. 

Patience Tami...Patience!

Just A Swingin

Home from work. 

SM is out in Fayetteville this evening and after a quick phone call to say "Be safe, see you when you get home"...I'm out on the back porch enjoying the evening, reading a few chapters from my favorite book and drinking some wine.

I've felt quiet these past few days.  Not quite sad.  And melancholy is too strong a word. 

Mellow, I guess. 

I lay back for a time relaxing, cushions behind me to support my head as I look out upon my own private patch of blue.

The swing moves gently back and forth and I notice the breeze moves the leaves on the trees and bushes in a similar pattern. Back and forth...just a swinging.  Just like me.

Casey comes over to investigate and tries to lay on top of me breaking the spell.  Making me laugh with her kisses.  Silly dog. 

Ginny comes over and "hums" at me with jealousy.  I give her a scratch and then push both dogs away from me.

It's as quiet as it can be in the "hood".  I hear my neighbor call for her daughter..."Emma, come in for dinner." 

I remember other blue skies though, other soft breezes, other moments in time that I thought I'd capture forever.

But it's gone, quick as the teardrops that I wipe from the corner of my eyes.

"Freakin hormones."  I say to myself but I know that's not it at all.

It's time.  (Or maybe the wine.)

One day, someone else will be looking up at her own patch of blue sky, feeling the soft fur of an old dog and she'll wonder "How can I capture this moment?  How can I make it stay?"  and know that she can not.

Oh, to be this fragile being.  To know what it is to have that simple peace for a single moment.  And to know that others have felt it too, and watched it pass from their grasp.

You can't hold time.  You can hold the memory though.  Or try to.

For as long as it lasts.

Wordless Wednesday - Dew Drops