To Do List for Today --- Just For Fun

I slept in until 4 AM this morning.....hard to believe.

Just for fun I am listing what I want to get done today.....it will probably be embarrassing how little of it I get accomplished.  We shall see.  I will finish the post this evening.

To Do

1.  Finish cleaning and tilling the 4 foot strip next to the dying tomatoes.  Hoe out under the fence.

2.  Plant some fall things here:  lettuce, spinach (if I have seeds), turnips.

3.  Spray herbicide on some very resistant weeds and maybe the fence row along the road.

4.  Can another tray (10x22) of tomatoes  or make a batch of salsa.

Enough....I have already cleaned the utility room and  master bath and vacuumed the master bedroom.

Breakfast was quick and easy.  I had  two ww toasts spread with honey, peanut butter and butter.  DH had oatmeal.

It is now overcast so that will improve the working in the garden bit.

Well, I knew it would be embarrassing and it is!  First I didn't finish the post yesterday

1.  I did get the tilling done.
2.  No planting....DH came in from checking the cows and we decided to work on the apple tree again.
3.  Got the trailer with the sprayer hooked on to the mower.....didn't get the spraying done yet.
4.  Got a little overheated cutting up the apple tree so no canning either.

I am taking Flower Lady's stance; all in good time......check out her post today.  There is a good lesson there for all of us, actually more than one lesson.

I will do the tomatoes first thing this morning.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Good news!  I did do the tomatoes first thing.  I made a double batch (8 pints of salsa).  I had 2/3 of a pint left that I am now eating....had scrambled eggs and salsa this morning.  I was very happy with how it turned out.
 

Nothing else on the list has been accomplished yet.

 Max's Random Farm Pictures

I had to post this one.   It is a little blurry because it was on full zoom and I trimmed it to get Sugar up close.  I think she looks hilarious in mid-air.






These next two are to show why farmers 'clip/mow' their fields.....He will mow that row of weeds and before long there grass will take  their place like the patch in front of them.

ATV is Home Again!

Our August heat is back.....I am not going to complain............yet.

They called yesterday that the ATV is fixed.  I had worked in the garden and canned l0 pints of tomatoes and was feeling a little tired.  We decided to go early this morning and do our shopping at the Wal Mart in Bolivar.  I was out of some odds and ends....one being ground ginger.  So were  they!  I couldn't believe it.
I did see that they had King Arther flour in 20-lb bags but only the all purpose; no bread flour.  Is still quite a savings but DH didn't want that large a bag in the freezer....I may have to convince him.

We  then picked up the ATV.  They told us it would be an expensive fix, $700.  Well it was a bargain.....$675.  I do hope this is the last repair for some time.  DH looked at a new one while there.  It was $6400.  I told him when I had everything else I wanted, we would get one.....my want list is pretty long.

I bought DH a really simple point and shoot Canon. He likes to take one with him when he checks the cows.
It has no bells and whistles except zoom and he forgot to use that!  I think Canon has better color and clarity than my Panasonic.

Sample Pics with Canon A4000 IS

The red one is semi-retired Willow.



I took these in full sun just point and shoot out the door,  This is the front yard with the River Birch in the center,

and this is taken from the dining room porch looking south.  That is a dahlia in the foreground and the Limelight hydrangea.


I just turned north east on the porch and took this of the Humming  Bird Bed,



Random Cat pictures

and I do mean random; this girl showed  up three days ago.......DH is feeding her.  What can I say?



Sugar does not think she lives here.....so she may chase her off. 

I was up early again, 3:30 AM, so I am trying to get back in my old  routine of up early, enjoy DH's coffee (he brings it to me at the computer, I have to brag a little...these are some of the blessings of retirement!) while I do my thing on the computer.  Maybe I  can begin  posting a little more.

It is still quite cool.  We are loving it and so do the cows.

Speaking of the cows, I have been wracking my brain about when Willow is due and wondering about my new girl, Jewel.  I could vaguely recall thinking I would give Willow a rest from her usual August calving.  She is getting pretty old.  I also didn't want them calving at  the same time either.

Well if I wrote it down, I haven't found it.  DH found in his drawer where he keeps all things he wants to remember written down on various things (even though I have bought him several notebooks for this) that we turned the bull in February 22 and I finally found by using search on the blog where Jewel has her first heat April 3. So if she settled then we should be looking for a January 10 calving.  Willow is so sneaky, I haven't a clue but she will be fine on her own out with the other cows.  Jewel is still up close to the house.

and here she is looking very fit these days,



I  took this the same day, This is the field east of the house, called the East 20,



Note the bull in the background along the fence; he is on the move early because the neighbor's bull is across the road talking to him,



Random Cat Picture

GD took these when she was down, I think she has a very good eye for photography.





This is probably the pond on the old farm, I think we have seven ponds....



I like this because of the color of the old grass and Sugar.  Her tongue is hanging about because she ran along side of the ATV the entire time they were out,

Catch up Time Again

If I don't do this one; I may never  do one again!

I am keeping a daily journal in Open Office, much abbreviated so I can have it to refer to for events.

The weather continues to be perfect; sunny, very cool for us and dry.  We are back in the 90's in a few  days but we shouldn't complain.

I have just been busy with normal,  everyday routine, house work,  baking bread, some outside work, canning a few tomatoes, making peach jam and  reading.

We were finally able to mow again but the wheels cut muddy spots in various places in the yard.  DH still hasn't made it to the orchard.  We have been working on cutting up the old apple  tree but doing it very slowly.

I have just limbed one side and the top.  DH loads  it as we go and has hauled off one very full load.  He took off a couple of days to clip the old farm  pastures after the cows had grazed it down.



The  tree was hollow so cutting up the trunk should be pretty easy and fast.  There is still a half tree remaining that I will take down.



Random Flowers

Dahlias must really like the moisture because this is the largest they have ever been.  I just have one left; I do not dig them up each year.  This is on the south end of the porch and has survived 3-4 years now.




Rudbeckia Prairie Sun is looking good,


I like the green centers,


The clematis on the east side of the smokehouse is re blooming,



Garden

I harvested  a few peppers,

The smaller are a new  one for me, pepperoncini,



I currently am leaving  three (maybe more since some are coming up in the compost pile) seedling peach trees.....don't know why but they are so healthy I didn't have the heart to cut them down.

This one is next  to the smokehouse in the "new bed" (several years old now)

and these two are in the humming bird bed right outside the kitchen.  I don't recall tossing anything here so don't know how they got here.....maybe our resident skunks or possums.

Peach Cream Pie

The pie is the real star of this so I am using it as the title.

We had a total of 2.75 inches of rain in the gauge this morning, Monday, August 5, 2013. More rain predicted. It was very humid all day long.

I spent my time restoring the kitchen back to pre-company order and did very little cooking for the entire day.

Tuesday August 6. 2013.

More light rain this morning; we added another .75 inches. Several areas in southwest Missouri are flooding. We are in a safe zone so never have to worry about that here.

 

Hard to believe but the ATV stalled out again.....fencing crew loaded it for DH and we will be headed back to the shop very soon. We delivered it around 8:30 AM. Not a quick fix. They were here to check out the fencing project.

They are also our “do everything” crew. We are replacing a section of fence on the rear boundary of the farm where the neighbor's Hereford bull keeps walking through. It is ancient fencing and needs replacing. Our share will be $1000 which sounds high but this will entail dozing out the entire section and rebuilding either 5 or 6 strand wire. The rest of that line should be taken care of too but the neighbors who own that land don't have cattle and I am sure will not be willing to share costs.

We will get an estimate on that but it will have to wait until next year or a big calf sale! The crew will be here today (if rain allows) to get this done.  The rains continues off and on so they postponed.

The rain is probably negatively affecting the garden and I can't mow but I refuse to complain. It is better than drought and I know other areas need this rain desperately. I just wish we could spread it around some.

Well is is now late afternoon. The fencing crew called; too much rain; they will try another day.

Cooking

A few days ago my Sis called me about an ingredient in one of my recipes, Grandma's Cream Peach Pie. She was making it for company. I swear I had no recollection of ever having made it. Yet there it was in my files with some personal notations. She called after the dinner and said it was the hit of the meal! Absolutely delicious (her words; not mine). That got me interested. It is now peach season (not my trees yet) so I bought 6 a few days ago and this afternoon made it.

I pulled my frozen crust out this morning and let it thaw while we did our errand with the ATV. Scalded the peaches and sliced 5. I could have just used 4; they were huge and not terribly tasty so I worried it would affect the pie....it did not.

I hope you will try this one. It is incredibly easy and delicious. I don't know what makes it taste better than regular peach pie, but it does!

This is the original recipe with my remarks back in 2010.

Just made this today with the semi-ripe peaches from the half tree.  We think it is a great success.  Even though they call it Grandma's Peach Cream Pie, I think it is like a tart.  It will be rather thin.

The peaches must be of good flavor so I was worried but the green didn't seem to hurt it a bit.

l cup sugar
3 T flour
2 T butter
1/2 cup cream
3-4 peaches, fresh peeled and halved (I used about 4 cups and I sliced them since they were pretty firm.)

Mix first 3 ingredients together.  Pour half into unbaked pie shell.  Fill with fresh peaches.  Cover with rest of mixture.  Pour cream over the top.
Bake 350° for l hour or until set.

I did the full hour in the little oven.  It was perfectly done and set nicely after cooled.  It won't set up until cool.

Note:  I used a 9 inch pie dish and it was almost too full.  Came close to bubbling over....I used a pan under it once it had browned on the bottom.

Yard Work at Last

We are still waiting on more rain, but our hot weather has returned.  Supposed to be 90° today and very humid.

I went out very early yesterday morning to do some much neglected work.  First, I trimmed the onion rows (I had pulled the onions the day or two before) with the trimmer, leaving the wide center area ready for the mower and then tilling.

DH came in from checking the cows so I called him into helping with the chain saw work.  Sugar came back with him with her tongue hanging out and slobbers flying.  Kris, you asked about her behavior.  I am happy to report she will return to her pen area with little prompting and seems to be very happy there.  We only leave her out when we are going to the field or working in the yard.  She wanders off if we don't.  We are considering a radio collar and area for her, but need to do more research on them.

We got lots done before I knew  my chain saw time was done.  I won't use it when I start getting tired....too dangerous and I don't like DH to use it much at all especially in very hot weather.  It is a 'no, no' for him.

I cut down the double trunked kolreuteria (Golden Rain tree) that had self seeded behind the house.  It was resting on the edge of the shingled roof.  Before I could get to it, I had to prune the back side  of a rose of sharon.  You can see the white round stump I left.  The rose of sharon is one I had sprayed with herbicide (in error) last year and part had some dead branches.

Then we cut down a totally dead rose of sharon back by the garden gate,
It was also a victim of this gardener.


and this one right by my garden shed.  Only half of it was distorted so I cut that away.  I do hope the back half survives.  It is one of my named ones, Lady something or the other.  It is a beautiful double pale pink.
It was also too close to the door and had to be pruned regularly.  I hope that chore is eliminated now.


and the poor half peach tree near the propane tank,  it is now just a 24 inch stump, it had to go!


I also braved the thorny tangle of a rose bush that was more dead than alive (yes, it was one of my victims).
We haven't pulled it away from the stumps so I am not yet sure if I got it all.  I didn't get a picture of it yet.

By then, it was 10:30 and the sun was in full force.  We quit for the day.  I hope maybe today we can do some work in the front yard.  That is mostly shady so it will be better,I hope.  I am cutting out some horrible junipers (and will never every plant one again!  they are magnets for bag worms)at the foundation.  Then there is the rampant climber Awakening....it has RRD and must go.  There is another rose near the abelia that I will  try to save.

I have mostly killed all the vinca  major and next  will attack the climbing euonymous that is up through the trim on the brick chimney.  Glyphosphate didn't kill it....I may have to resort to 2-4D or  chain saw it at the base........it is another thorn in my gardening side.  I want all the foundation plantings on that corner gone, gone , gone.  I don't know what to put there but it is on a mound and must be very (I stress very ) low maintenance....maybe a shrub of some sort.  I want nothing that requires much pruning.

 Then there are  a  couple  more Golden Rain trees that have come up here and there that must go.  I shouldn't have let them get so big before removing them,  but I did. 

Random Pictures

A pleasant surprise,


Can you see that small, chartreuse plant hiding beneather the monster nicotiana sylvestris leaf?  That is Jewel of Opar from a few years ago!  I hope it has a chance to set seeds this year.  It makes a wonderful contrasting color in the garden.

Limelight Hydrangea in full bloom in the front shrub border,



Oakleaf Hydrangea getting fall color, standing just to the left of the Limelight in the shrub border,



The rest of the day was spent reading.  I did collect a bag of summer squash, peppers, onions and garlic for a neighbor.  She sent her 15-year old son over.  He is like a surrogate grandson and visits with us now and then.  We enjoy him.  His older brother is the one with the horses (C. met him while down for her visit).

I did very little cooking.