Enjoy!

Spike and Dorothy (and their reflections)

Ah, what a relief it is for the temps to be in the 60s overnight.  I know soon enough we’ll be chilly at  night and need sweaters, but that heat wave was brutal and I’m glad to have a break from it.

One of the first things I did this morning was feed our new goldfish, Spike and Dorothy.  Dorothy is the orange one and she has a moustache.  I had a fish tank as a child and loved watching them swim about.  I had guppies in college that were leftovers from a pair of pirahnas that didn’t make it.  I’d been fish-free for a couple decades and I have to admit I love having them in the house.  Dorothy cost us $1 to win at the carnival, but the tank and accessories and her new friend Spike all added up to about another $85.  <sigh>  But now we have the setup so any future Dorothy’s won’t be quite so costly.

Put out another jar of sun pickles, this time with garlic.  I forgot to put the vinegar in the batch last week and had to throw them out.  Such a disappointment.  I hate to waste food.

The garden is still giving us strawberries and tomatoes are starten to ripen.  Soon I’ll be planting fall seeds.  So hard to believe the time has gone so fast.

I made pancakes for dinner last night for the kids – always a treat to have breakfast for dinner.  The recipe I used called for buttermilk.  I don’t know about you but I don’t often keep buttermilk in the house so recipes like this used to be either passed by or I substituted sour milk (milk with some vinegar added.)

But I had buttermilk for the recipe last night since I started to put some in my freezer.  It’s easy to have it on hand if you do the following:

1. Buy a quart of buttermilk.
2. Freeze it in 1/2 cup measures in small containers.
3. When frozen, pop them out and put in a large freezer bag.

Voila!  Buttermilk when you need it.  This is so simple to do and gives you a great recipe ingredient when you need it – no more skipped recipes or trips to the store.  I’ve never had any for more than 6 mos so it keeps at least that long.

Give it a try!

It's even too hot for the pool right now

We have had such strange weather this year from the mostly mild winter, to the amazing rains of late winter/spring, to the blistering spring heat, the tornados and now this heat wave which pushes pre-dawn temps into the 80s and humidity above 72 percent.  I am so thankful we have some sort of air conditioning.

We didn’t only two years ago and a week like this would have been crushing to us here next to the stream.  It is always humid here but in times like this it can be very hard to breathe and sleeping is impossible.  We would have been wasting gas to go someplace with AC just to keep cool and then we’d have to return to the sweltering heat here at the house.

I will not soon forgot those days and I know others still live that life.  I only hope everyone can find some water, some shade and some AC today.

One highpoint – perhaps – is that I may finally get to see Elvis!  No, not the real one.  He died when I was young.  We have a local Elvis impersonator - a good one- and he is playing our town carnival tonight.  I’ve been trying to catch his act for over 3 years and something comes up.  We’ll see if I make it.

Last night was fireworks and our youngest daughter won a goldfish – she has been named Dorothy.  This name should be no surprise to anyone with children or grandchildren who watch Sesame Street.  So today we must get Dorothy a home.  She doesn’t look too happy in her pyrex storage dish.  Then again she’s probably just hungry.

My tip for the day:  when you harvest turnips, be sure to shake them a little bit before bringing them in. I didn’t do that on Wednesday and ended up with two very large green grasshoppers in my kitchen.  Boy are they tough to catch!

Lime-Aid

• 3 limes
• 1 C sugar (more or less to taste)
• cold water

Wash the limes well and remove any stickers. Cut the limes in half and juice into a large pitcher or other glass container (don’t use plastic, they are very acidic.)  I used a Pyrex 1 Qt measuring cup.  Add the sugar and mash the limes into the sugar with a wooden spoon or something like that.  Let sit for 5 minutes or so.  Put this mixtures into a 2 quart (1/2 gallon) container – preferably glass – and add water to fill.  Chill.

That’s it!   I’ve been told it is tasty and it is about gone now so I’ll have to make some more.  I want to try substituting honey for the sugar next time since we are trying to cut down on refined sugar.

I had a shock yesterday while strolling the garden.  The plants I though were cucumber plants are not, well, I don’t think they are.  One of the fruits is softball sized, round and looks surprisingly like a cantaloupe.  I have things things all OVER my garden so whatever they are, if they live until the fruits are ripe we’re going to have a lot of them.  I found ten while I was out there.  Still getting strawberries, peas (almost over), peppers and my first Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomatoes.  Not many tomatoes made it past the deer this year.  <sigh>  Still thinking toward fall.  We may build some hoop houses this year.  We’ll see.

Stay cool!!!

Never too early to plan for next year - save those seeds!

Boy was it hard to get motivated this morning.  I didn’t sleep well plus the weather is just oppressive and doesn’t make you want to leave the house.  Ugh!

As I was fixing dinner the other night I found myself doing something that I bet a lot of people don’t think about any more.  When I was cutting up a green pepper I saved the seeds instead of throwing them out.  I wrapped them in a paper towel to dry, taped it shut and labeled them with what they were and the date.  After a few days drying on top of the fridge they’ll go into my seed box for planting next year.

I do the same thing with tomatoes and sometimes stone fruits too – just to try my hand at growing them from seed.

“Way back when” (which in most places was pre-WWIII) people used to do the regularly as it was the best way to get seeds for your garden.  Somewhere along the line we’ve forgotten that the seed sold by Burpee for $2.99 a packet  is the same seed we get free inside our food.

It is true that if you are eating a hybrid crop (and if it came from the supermarket most likely it is a hybrid) the pepper you get next year may not be the same as the one you ate today, but it will be a pepper for sure and the seed will be free.

It is kind of fun to put all your pepper seeds (separating hot and not hot if you like) in the same container and then plant them without knowing exactly what you will get.

Tomatoes work the same way though for those the prep is a little messier.  For them I mix the tomato seeds/pulp in a baby food jar with some water.  I let it sit for a few days, shaking to mix the stuff up when it separates.  Eventually most of the seeds will drop to the bottom and you can get them out to dry on some paper towels and then pack them away.  Sometimes the stuff in the jar ferments and smells unsavory, the seed is still OK but it is best to not soak the seeds in a plastic container since you’ll never get the smell out.

Keep all your seeds in a cool place or in the fridge crisper drawer (I have way too many for that) and next year you’ll be set.

Other seeds you can be collecting for next year are:  columbine, sunflower, marigold, thyme, oregano, chives, catnip, basil, four o’clocks and lots more.

Ronnie is on the left, Hunter on the right

I think kitty litter is the worst part about having cats.  Ours do not go outside so there is no outdoor privy for them, they have boxes in the basement.  I don’t mind changing kitty litter, but I do mind seeing it on the cats’ paws.  Hunter is a Maine Coon and has a lot of hair between his paw pads so he often has clumpy litter stuck to them.

Enter my bright idea to try a more healthy, and environmentally friendly, kind of cat litter.

We tried Yesterdays News which is a nice option since it uses waste materials, but our cats did not like it at all and I didn’t either.  It didn’t keep the cat boxes from smelling like ammonia.  So it was a no-go.

Then I tried Feline Pine which, when compared to clumping litter, seems very expensive.  I loved the way it worked and the cats seemed OK with it.  It keeps the boxes smelling fresh which is great.  Problem was cleaning the boxes was tough since you scoop out the still usable pellets and leave the sawdust behind.  Not an easy task.

So I bought sifting cat pans.  They work wonderful.  With two pans and a sifter to each set you can alternate out bottom pans to make cleaning easier.  They were not cheap – we’re talking $30 or so for both of them and we could really use a third for upstairs.

Then I read online that you could use heating stove pellets instead of Feline Pine.  They are MUCH cheaper and made of wood so are basically the same thing.  Only they aren’t.  A friend has a pellet stove and had a few bags partially damaged by water so she let us have a bag to try.  The pellets are larger than Feline Pine and are made of hardwood not softwood.

They DO work and perhaps could be successfully used by certain people, but they didn’t control odors well and our cats rebelled by using the floor instead of the box.

So I had had enough and switched back to scoopable litter.  I bought an average priced brand and used the sifting boxes thinking they’d work really well and make cleaning easier.  NOT.  The litter clung to both sides of the sifting lid and ended up like cement.  I also found that I was spending way more money on clumping litter than I had been on Feline Pine.  A $13 container of clumping litter was used up in a week and we were back to stuff being stuck on the cats’ paws and dust everywhere.

I finished that container of litter and went back to Feline Pine.  It took an hour to pry the scooping cement off the litter boxes, but I got them clean and the cats and I are now happy to be back to the sweet smelling pine stuff.  I’m trying extra hard to keep their litter area vacuumed and so far they are pretty happy.

So ends the Feline Pine adventure – for now.  I’m sure someone will protest soon and I’ll need to find another solution.

And the garden grows...

It’s one of those weeks here in PA where temps are above 90F and humidity is above 70.  More or less it is like a sauna outside.  This happens usually twice a year and this is the first one so I expect well get another week like this later – but with the climate change that is going on, it probably will be more.

I remember being in college in the late 1980s and having a t-shirt that said, “Stop Global Warming.”  Well, nobody stopped it and nobody is stopping it.  I personally believe the severe an unusual weather we’ve been having is a result of the earth warming.  As a geography and environmental science student in college this is the stuff we studied.  Lot of people I guess just thought it’d feel hotter and the ice caps would melt and that kind of stuff.  But really the warming of the atmosphere leads to more ENERGY in the atmosphere which leads to more aggressive weather patterns.  We’ve certainly seen those.

But, even with global warming, my strawberries are doing well.  We plant everbearing varieties because I’d rather have a few berries over a long period of time rather than a huge bunch of them in June and none the rest of the year.  This season Seascape is doing the best.

Well, was up at 5am, snoozed (without meowing) until 5:45am.  It is now 6:15 and I need to get some work done.  Laundry is calling and I never did get the rice pudding on yesterday so must do that today.

Ronnie... meow

I was up before the alarm today at 4:55am.  You can see the seasons changing now since it takes longer for sunlight to reach our bedroom windows.  Sure it is still 90F and up outside and feels like summer, but fall in sneaking in just around the corner and winter isn’t far behind.  Funny how when you get older these things happen much faster.

I had some cereal and watched the weather forecast (with the TV on mute to keep people from waking up) and then the sofa called me and I answered.  I come from a family of snoozers.  We don’t sleep much or well during the night but oh do we love a good nap on the sofa!  I had time this morning since not much is going on before I have to drive the oldest to school so I set my timer for 50 minutes and got comfy on the couch.

About 15 minutes later someone jumped above my head and looked down, “Meow.”

Ronnie.  It’s always Ronnie.  He roamed the back of the sofa and jumped off and I thought, “Good, now I can finish my nap.”  Nope.

Right next to my head on the floor, “Meow.  Meow.  Meow.  Meow!”  Ugh!!!  I try to reason with him pointing out he’s had his snack and his morning can of icky cat food, the water dish is full and the patio door is open so he can watch the birds.  There isn’t possibly another thing he could want.

But there is.  He wants me off the couch.

So here I am writing much earlier than I expected to because of Ronnie.

Thanks Ronnie!

A rather slow week this week which I’m thankful for after the last few and before marching band camp starts and Scott leaves for Oregon for a week.  Come the middle of August I will be very tired.

Pulled two trays of plums out of the dehydrator last night and need to put them away.  I have to go to the grocery store this AM and then come home and make a phone call this PM.

Have you ever had the chance to meet someone you didn’t know who was kind of a role model to you?  A public figure, an author or someone like that?  Well, that is what is happening to me this afternoon.  One of my writing projects involves amusement parks and I’m going to be working on a newsletter for the National Amusement Park Historical Association. The person I’m calling publishes the newsletter and he wrote a book that I have read cover to cover on amusement parks.  It’s quite an honor (to me) to be working with him, but I’m a little nervous.  I know he’s just a regular person – and very nice from his emails, but I’m still in awe that I’ll get to work with him.

It’s time to start planning fall crops here.  Spring was a mixed bag of horrible weather and not much happened in the garden.  I know I want to get in peas, lettuce and spinach.  I really  have never planted a heavy fall crop so I’m not sure what all I can plant or when I should do it. Time to hit the books!

Off to get dressed and get the rice pudding going in the slow cooker.  I’m trying it with brown rice this time to make it healthier.