Is it Friday yet?

No, it's not. It's farmer's market Thursday and I'm skipping it today. I'm sending Tim there with a list and directions to NOT pick up any Amish baking this week. He is supposed to call and report his finds when he's done.

I got out early this morning and did some harvesting. Yes, we have tomatoes. There are still more on the plants but I left them to ripen a little bit more. I also got another zuke and some peppers. I think there is one more zucchini on the bush.

today's harvest

I haven't taken any pics of the gardens lately because I'm embarrassed by all the weeds. I should take a picture and post it and maybe it will shame me into getting out there and weeding. I keep saying "next weekend" and then something else comes up. Tim is on call this weekend so that means we won't be going anywhere this weekend and I'm not planning on any canning...maybe this weekend?

It dawned on me today that I haven't posted any pictures of Martin lately. I know you are all curious as to whether or not he's alive or not. He's very much alive and happy.

Martin!

Purple undersides

I love how on some of his leaves they are purple. He's covered in pretty little delicate flowers. I wish I could say the bonsai was doing as well. I think I'm going to give up on bonsais for a while.

So, everyone knows that I'm the queen of procrastination. I should be out cutting grass and picking up after Patchy. *mental note...don't give Patchy any more stuffed animals that he can gut out and leave stuffing all over the house.* Have I done any of that? No. Not yet at least. I have been finishing up the "classroom". I think we are pretty much ready for the official start of school in a couple of weeks. Aidan and I have done a great job in sneaking some classes in early but it's about to get interesting here with keeping both of the boys focused and doing their work.

our little classroom

Patchy sneaking it to see if there is anything he can chew

Connor's books

Aidan's books

Our desk

Patchy taking a break

I'm so glad that we have a room dedicated to the classroom. I think it makes it so much easier. The boys know that when they are in that room, it's time for school. In the house we used to live in we did school in the dining room and while it worked, it wasn't as easy. We always had school books and projects all over the place and Connor was easily distracted by other things going on in the home. Now, we all sit in this bright cheery room. I have to thank my mom and dad for the desk for the boys too. They got them cubbies and the door to put down on top of the cubbies. I'm glad I got a picture of it now while it's all neat and organized. I can guarantee that it won't look like this a month from now. I know to not even put that on my goal list for school. It's an impossible dream. But, it works for us. Plus, I can close the door when we're not using it.

Well, time to go out and cut some grass. It's gorgeous outside. I'm amazed by the weather we've had so far in August. It's noon and it's 60 degrees out. For August? Are you kidding me?! I am so not complaining though. It's perfection for me. I have windows open and a nice breeze is blowing through.

I hope everyone else is having a nice day!

Off the gardening topic.

No garden posts today. I haven't been out in the gardens for a couple of days because I've been in bed with a stomach flu. Today is the first day that I'm back up and moving around. Thankfully, the kids didn't destroy my house. They actually did really well and took care of themselves with only a minor dispute here and there. So today it was back to the grind.

I skipped a couple of days of school with Aidan because 1. I was sick and 2. it's not officially school yet. We got back to it today. He took his first math test and aced it. He's doing first grade math work even though he's in kindergarten. He did his reading lesson and we had fun doing that. Then came science. The lesson in itself wasn't bad. It was talking about physical characteristics and how to identify them and how to make sure you are moving with caution so as to not hurt yourself or someone else. The end of the lesson he was to color a picture of three kids on a slide. This is where Aidan has his melt down. He had one last week with a lesson too. I fear my son is a perfectionist. Last week he was learning to write the letter B. I showed him how to do it first. I drew it for him and had him trace it with his fingers and then I told him to write one just like mine. He took it too literally and because his B didn't look exactly like my B did, he started crying and it took me five minutes to calm him down. I tried explaining to him that of course my B was going to look different from his B because I have been writing much much much longer than he has. That didn't help him. He finally calmed down, but I could tell that it still bothered him.

Fast forward to the coloring today. Now those of you who know Aidan knows he considers himself the "artisit" in the family. He has always been very crafty and interested in painting and making things. I really thought he would have no problems with coloring and his art this year. I was wrong. After his lesson, when he found out he was to color the picture, his demeanor changed. He kind of slumped over and started to act depressed. I asked him what was wrong. He said it was going to be too hard. I said it's just a picture. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just do your best coloring that you can do. Tears start. He says he can't do it. I color one of the shirts on one of the kids in the picture and I go out of the lines and make it look a little sloppy and show him that I don't always get it right either. Well, what should have been a five minute project turned into 30 minutes of crying. It got to the point where I asked him why he was crying. And it went from the fact that it didn't look perfect to he was worried about the crayons breaking to the point that if all the crayons broke, we wouldn't have room to store them all. Oy vey. I finally got him calmed down and called break time. I'm not really sure what to do. He's so smart and is so eager to learn. I really thought that Aidan would be a cake walk in comparison to Connor for school. I hope that I can break Aidan of his perfectionism. I just want him to do his best job and not freak out if it's not "perfect". I suppose I'm going to have to go do some research and see if I can find anything to help him out. I want this year to be fun for all of us. That is my number one goal for the upcoming school year. Which, btw, I need to get my schooling goals down here pretty soon as the official start date is creeping ever closer. If anyone has any ideas on how to help Aidan, please share!

I'm going to try and get out into the gardens later today and I'm hoping Tim will cut grass for me tonight. Hint, hint! I hope everyone else has a fabulous day!

What do you do with all of these?

Tomatoes harvested last week.

Well, Tim made some more pasta sauce. He blanched all of them and peeled them, this time remembering to cut the stem out first. Then he asked "how can we take the seeds out?" and I remembered this (scroll down to thingamajig). Nancy had dropped this off a while back and I'm glad I remembered it. The kids have been waiting to mash something in it and they went to town. It made it so much easier to remove the seeds and pulp. It got a little messy but they had a blast.

Smashing Tomatoes (not to be confused with Smashing Pumpkins)

I was shocked at how much sauce we got out of those tomatoes. And the compost pot filled up quickly. Which btw, our compost is half full already. And you can see how it's turning into black gold at the bottom. Our gardens will be very happy next year!

Once the tomatoes were all sauced, Tim went to making his magic. He used everything out of the garden except the garlic. Which got me to thinking that I would like to try and grow garlic next year. He used zucchini, green peppers, garlic, basil and oregano. He ran the veggies through the blender so that Aidan wouldn't realize they were in there. Last time he added Parmesan cheese but this time we didn't. I wanted to can them and wasn't sure about the cheese. When we reheat a jar, we can add the cheese at that point, or not. He let the big pot of sauce reduce down until it got all thick and yummy looking and then I canned 6 pints of sauce. I processed it for 35 minutes in the water bath. At least I hope it was 35 minutes. I thought I had set the time, but apparently I didn't. But, I was outside talking to Debbie and Nancy for a good bit and I also got a bunch of lines done of knitting. They all sealed up almost immediately after taking them out of the water.

sgetti sauce!

While Tim was cutting stems and blanching and peeling tomatoes, I tackled a project in my notebook. It was brought on by the fact that I saw mouse poo in our pantry...and after digging around I found a dead mouse. Ugh. I didn't see what the little guy had been eating. Probably the dog food and Patchy's cookies. I moved them up to higher shelves and completely tore everything out of the pantry and reorganized it. I realized when it was done, that we don't have nearly the stuff in there that I thought we did. Time to start restocking the cupboards. Of course, that would explain why our grocery bills went from almost 200 dollars a week to 95 dollars. We were just eating out of the cupboards and the garden. I'll start restocking beans and stuff again this week.

clean cupboard...a little bare, but that will be remedied.

So, after a weekend of a lot of rain and a lot of canning, we are starting the week with more rain and cool weather. I have to go make a loaf of bread and work on some laundry. I'm hoping to get out into the gardens and do some weeding if it dries out a bit and I need to get some grass cut. I suppose I should get off the computer and go get started on one of these projects. Have a great day!

More canning.

I took advantage of our crazy cool weather and did some more canning today. It's 3 o'clock right now and only 63 degrees out. Perfection. I also told Tim to take an allergy pill because I was turning off the AC and opening the windows. He seems to be doing alright so far.

I started off with the pickled beets and eggs. I wasn't originally going can the beets. I wasn't sure if you could do a water bath and preserve something with eggs in it. So what I did was do a half and half batch. I first had to boil all of the beets for about 35 minutes and then I cooled them off and peeled them. What a mess! They smelled awesome though. I love me some beets. After they were peeled, I sliced them and got them ready to put into their pickling mix. Connor was eating the plain sliced beets before I could even finish cutting them all up. They went into the mix and boiled for 5 minutes and then I threw the eggs in. I was warming the jars up while the beets and eggs were brewing. I filled up two large containers and fished out the eggs and a bunch of the beets and put them in the fridge. The rest of the beets I put into the jars and sealed them all up. I was proud of myself because I remembered all of the steps this time...get the air bubbles out, make sure the top is clean and put the seal down. I got four pints of pickled beets into the water bath and they processed for thirty minutes. I cleaned the kitchen up before I started the pickles.

beets cooking for about 35 minutes

Most of the beets were really easy to peel. I kind of just squished them in my hands and the peel rolled right off.

Sliced and ready to go into pickling mixture.

Beets and eggs cooking before I pulled eggs out into a couple of separate containers.

Now, the pickles. I was still trying to figure out whether to do bread and butter or dill. I saw Eric make bread and butter ones on Gardenfork TV the other days so knew that I wanted to try at least some of those. So, I sliced up a little over half of my cucumbers and 2 large onions. I was an idiot and didn't realize that they were going to have to sit in salt for an hour and a half. So, I got them sliced and layered with salt in a big bowl and then I topped them with ice like the recipe said. I had an hour and a half to kill so I baked some chocolate chip cookies. The kids were annoyed that I made some the other day to take to the party and they didn't get many. I also got the pizza dough started and rising while I was waiting for the cukes to finish their salt process. When it was time, I made the vinegar mixture and brought it to a boil. I tossed the cukes and onions in and they boiled for five minutes and then I filled 7 pints up. I had a couple of problems with the recipe but it was my own fault. I was supposed to put 2 tbsp of mustard seed in and I only had one left and it also called for celery seed, which I didn't have any...but they look pretty good. With the other cukes I was going to slice them into spears and make them into dill pickles. Long story short, I didn't have a pickling mix. After googling how to make my own pickling mixture, I realized that I didn't have three of the spices I needed. So the cukes are back in the fridge and I might attempt them tomorrow if I can get to the store. Tim is going to be making his tomato sauce tomorrow and we are going to can that, so the big pot will still be out and I can make those. Although, let me tell you, I am beat right now.

Layers of sliced cucumbers, onions and salt.

The bowl of cukes and onions sits for an hour and a half under ice.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment and can't take an hour and a half to relax I make cookies while waiting.

Cucumbers and onions cooking in the pickling mixture waiting to go into jars.

FINISHED! 7 pints of bread and butter pickles and 4 pints of pickled beets. Plus two large containers of beets and eggs in fridge. I have to figure out how to keep my kids out of them so they can develop their flavor over a couple of days.

I have to go punch down the pizza dough and let it go through it's second rise and I think I'm going to let Tim make the pizzas tonight. At least there is a Buffalo Bills game on tonight. After dinner I can shower and get my pj's on and enjoy some football. Go Bills. Kill the Redskins.

TGIF!

It's Friday. Tim is working a half day today. My house is a mess. I have a billion things I want to do today and this weekend and I'm trying to figure out my priorities. Not fun. I did get all the bills paid this morning so that is out of the way. I also got out into the gardens before the rain starts again. We had another half inch of rain last night that came down in about 5 minutes. It sounded like a flood gate had been opened it rained so hard. It's only 65 degrees out now and I think the highs all weekends are supposed to be in the low 70's. They said on the newscast last night that we had "fall weather" planned for the weekend. That made me smile. While out in the garden, I harvested some more tomatoes, leaving about 5 on the plants to ripen up a tad more. Tim is going to make his pasta sauce again this weekend and I'm going to try and can some of it.


future sauce

The pear tree still has pears on it. I'm surprised because I've heard that the squirrels strip them off all the time. They aren't ripe yet, so that may be why.

Yummy pears!

Not much else going on over here. I wanted to put up a picture of what Tim got me. It came in the mail today. He ordered it from OrangeClouds115 over at Daily Kos. I wish it had shown up yesterday so I could have worn it last night, but I'll wear it today!

Thanks OrangeClouds115 and Tim.

Ok, I'm off to go figure out what I'm going to do before I throw my hands up and do nothing but knit. Have a great weekend!

A day late.

Yesterday was farmer market Thursday and I didn't get a chance t0 post because we had so much going on. It was a very busy day. Aidan and I got school done first thing and then both boys got haircuts. They look so much better. They were so shaggy looking and now they are super cute again. Then we went to the market. It was "kid's day" there and if we had been there earlier we would have been able to partake in face painting and Clifford the Big Red Dog (although both boys said they were "too old" for that) and balloon art and things, but they did get to go into the "fire house". Basically the fire department has this trailer set up like a home and then they had all the kids go in and sit through a 15 minute fire safety lesson. They explained what to do in a fire, the importance of having a safe spot outside to meet up with and things like this. It ended up with them having a smoke machine fill the trailer with smoke and the fire alarm going off and the all the children crept along the floor to the door to escape the "fire". It was funny because Tim sat outside the trailer while I went and got some produce and when I came back I walked up to smoke billowing out of the trailer and the sounds of squeals coming from inside. Aidan slid along the floor like a little military man and hopped down the steps and then Connor came out shortly after close to the floor. They appeared to have a good time and then I had to hear for the next thirty minutes everything they learned. They told me I should have been there for the kitchen safety lesson...as if I needed it. I've only started a couple of fires that I was able to quickly put out. So, they had fun and I was happy because being that they are homeschooled, they don't get to school held fire safety events. While they were in learning I was able to get all of this:

for $14.50. I got a bunch of beets to make pickled beets. We ate all of our beets out of the garden and I really wanted to try and make Nancy's pickled beets and eggs that she always makes. She was kind enough to share the recipe with me and didn't have to eliminate me after telling me. Thanks Nancy. We will be doing those tomorrow. I have to go to the store and get some whole allspice today. I've never heard of it before, I've only seen the powdered version of that. I also got a load of cucumbers for pickles. I don't know if I'm going to do dill or bread and butter. We are getting cukes off our plants, but they are not coming in fast enough to get a bunch all together plus we keep eating them right off the vine. I got Connor a cantaloupe because they are his favorite and some onions because one can never have enough onions.

After the market Aidan and I made some chocolate chip cookies to take to the grand opening of the Obama campaign office in our city. We took cookies and a bunch of soda. I was really surprised at how many people showed up to this opening. The kids had a lot of fun although Aidan was getting tired of it towards the end. It was really hot in the office and that was starting to make them cranky towards the end. Plus they were getting camera shy by the end because everyone was taking pictures of them. Connor was excited though because he got to meet Senator Bob Casey. The senator shook his hand and asked him his name and chatted with him for a minute. Connor was glowing. He said he was never going to wash his hand again. I told him I still have one better because I got to shake Obama's hand.

sign outside of office

Connor and Senator Casey

Nine years ago today...

Tim and I were walking down the aisle. Well, sort of. We were walking down the aisle in the Orlando courthouse. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I giggled through the vows standing under the white arbor with fake flowers. Ahhh, good times. It was perfect. Neither one of us are very traditional and didn't want a big wedding. It's been a good nine years. It's funny because I think of our next nine years together and then realize that Connor will be 17. That is a scary thought!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Tim. I love you and would marry you all over again.

There is a lot going on in the garden. Most of it is good, but some of it has me concerned and will have me doing some reading and research this afternoon. First the good. We had an inch of rain overnight last night so that made for a very happy garden this morning. I was going to have to do some watering this morning if it hadn't rained. It's almost noon here in August and it's only 65 degrees out. It is so nice out right now with a breeze blowing and I wish I could open the windows up but because of Tim's allergies, we have to keep it all closed up. At least it's nice and dry inside. I'm getting off track. Garden news.

I am so happy with my coleus that I planted out front in my shade garden. They have tripled in size and are so pretty. In fact, all of my flowers are doing really well in the shade garden this year.


Our green peppers are really starting to come in. We've picked three or four of them so far and they are amazing. We used one as a pizza topping last Friday. So good. The plants are full of them ready to be picked still. I'm not a real big fan of green peppers so I'm thinking I might let a few stay until they turn red.


We have a head of broccoli ready to be picked too. I was worried about our broccoli because we had to pick a small little head a while back because they were starting to open up. Thanks to our mild weather all four plants have multiple heads growing again.


I don't know how this happened, but somehow we have two cucumbers that trained themselves to come out the back of the trellis and hang making it so much easier to pick. So far we've eaten all the cucumbers that we've picked. I don't think we are going to get any pickles made this year.

Now for the bad. Well, not necessarily bad. I will have to do some research to determine what's going on.

The potatoes. Both patches have completely flopped over. Is this normal? Should we have staked them up somehow? And man, they take forever. My patience is wearing thin. Tim pulled one of the plants last week to see if we had any potatoes yet and there were a couple really super tiny ones that were not even big enough to eat. We planted them back down. I did see one larger one peeking out of the dirt the other day and quickly covered it up. Hopefully it will be ok. I'm just not sure about the whole flopping over thing.

This little critter was on one of the blossoms of the mystery squash in the back gardens. I tried to look it up but couldn't find conclusive results of what it is. I wondered if it was a potato beetle, but there aren't any on the potatoes that I've been able to see.

I'm pretty sure now that this is a pumpkin plant that is taking over the back patio. And when I say taking over, I mean it has taken over half of the patio and has wrapped around the sage plant there in the pot. The leaves appear to have powdery mildew on them now. Not sure if that will affect the pumpkins or not. It's covered with blossoms and I keep looking for little pumpkins growing but nothing yet. Tim and I were dreaming about pumpkin pies and pumpkin muffins the other day while we were out inspecting it.

One of the possibly pumpkin flowers. I didn't even notice the bugs when I took this picture. I saw them after I uploaded it. It appears to be more of the same kind of bug that is on the squash in the other yard. I really need to figure out if these are good bugs or bad bugs. Oh, and speaking of bad bugs. I haven't really seen many more of the Japanese beetles. Whew. I think we missed a major pain in the butt.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic day. Thanks for stopping by my garden.