Sunday, August 30, 2009

Rainy Saturday here

It just poured for about 2 hours here today. Luckily I went to the market and got some groceries. They were having a really good sale on bananas and meat. What a combination. The checkout girl was probably wondering what the...? Anyway I went early enough to beat the crowds and got back before it started to rain. DH and I ordered some more plants for the garden tonight. So we will have something to do on DH's day off in 9 days. Nine days straight...yuck. He will be such a happy person the whole time as well. ;)

I have been working on a pair of socks and will get them done this week, cross my fingers. I will be able to post a pic of them soon! I have so many UFO's I'll be 100 yrs old before I complete them all...lol.

Well that's all for now kind of short I know but I must go kill Tikki...not really but if I dont do it DH will. Tikki is sooooo quiet during the day snoozing on my chair...then around 10 pm he starts..Singing not good singing just short aggravating high pitched sounds that are not at any regular interval which is real nice when you are trying to sleep. Trying is the key word. I have tried to feed him, make a big fuss over him, play with him but nothing works. I think he thinks because he's up everyone should be up including the other cats. He wakes up Molly who because he's 19 yrs old only thinks about eating and sleeping so you wake him up he thinks it is time to eat. Then Molly gets into the act by jumping up on the bed and licking your arms. Our other two cats are really quiet and dont get into the act at all. Anyway now Tikki has stopped. He will wait about half an hour after I go to bed to start up again. Pets arent they wonderful ;)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Write to ya later!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

new garden pics for your enjoyment...:)



I know I have been remiss (my big word for the day :) about getting some garden pics up so here are some. Since we live in Alabama our garden is just about done at least for the first harvest. We are planning on planting some things for a late fall/early winter harvest soon though.




First up- concord grapes. Not a lot but this is the first year producing for them.









Yes we have morning glories...a lot of them. They are like weeds here. If you want some I will gladly share...lol..


My hibiscus did well this year. lots of blooms.









This is one of my sunflowers. I planted a lot but only two came up. Not to worry though the plants themselves have multiple flowers on them so will save some for planting next year and give the birds a treat this winter.












This is my butterfly bush. Didnt have many butterflies this year though. Anyone else have that problem?








This is what a Jerusalem artichoke flower looks like. They get really tall too. I think they must be related to sunflowers.







Well that's all for now. Next up some knitting pics!
Have fun and write once in a while wouldja?






Monday, August 3, 2009

My Jelly Excursion...

Well I tried to make lime marmelade a couple of days ago and it didnt set so I reprocessed it yesterday. Half of it has jelled in the jar and half is liquid. I guess I will wait for a couple of weeks to see if it does set cause according to the directions it might take up to two weeks to set. I got the recipe out of "The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest". I got all the ingredients to make ginger jam and spiced peach jam waiting in the frig. But first I am making dilly beans. Need to find something to make with the peas too. I only have a hot water canner and not a pressure canner so everything has to be either jam/jellies or pickled.

DH went out and actually picked the cabbage the other day. I told him there were slugs all over them yuck. We had enough to make sauerkraut. This is the first time we have done this so we will see how it turns out. Just mixed the shredded cabbage with sea salt and put it in a big jar I had. To weight it down and keep the air out we used a kitchen garbage bag filled with water. Hope it works...

Don't know whether I mentioned it before but DH got a grinder to flake his own oatmeal. He even grinds his own flaxseed which he puts on his oatmeal in the morning. Next we will have to get the veggie attachment! We even got a big bucket full of organic oats from the same place. The company name is Pleasant Hill Grain and they were very fast with their shipping. The grinder is made in Germany and is very good quality.

I have pics of the garden and will post later. They are mostly of the flowers because our garden is almost done. We are going to plant some more cool weather seeds next week. We will be able to harvest them up til November then.