an entry up over at OFB. It’s not an exciting entry or anything, but there’s a dorky picture of me in my stylin’ hanging-around-the-house clothes.
* * *
Fred is dying – DYING! – to see that stupid Transformers movie, and it kills him – KILLS HIM! – that I’m all “Eh” about it. I have no desire to see the movie, but I’ll sit through it, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. Last night, he declared that it would be best to wait a bit to go see the movie, so that the crowds will have calmed down a little. Tentatively, we’ll be going to see it the weekend after next.
Two movies in one summer. Can my heart take it?
* * *
Did you know (did you care?) that chickens take dust baths? One of the buffs sat outside the computer room window yesterday and rolled around in a patch of dust for a good ten minutes yesterday. I didn’t take any pictures, but I assure you – it was severely cute.
* * *
From my comments:
By the way, you might consider labeling everything on the lids (the top part that can’t be reused – not the rims). I’ve found it has saved me a ton of time in not having to soak off the old labels the following year. I just use a sharpie on the lid and pitch it in the recycling bin when we’ve eaten up said product.
How sad is it that this never occurred to me? I wondered how much of a pain in the ass getting those labels off was going to be (my prediction: BIG pain in the ass), but I never thought of marking the top, which makes total sense, since you can’t reuse the lids. Thanks!
* * *
Regarding pickling, have you ever considered pickling some green tomatoes? Those are good!
I hadn’t thought about it, but I suspect that when I’m in the throes of “What the HELL are we going to do with all these tomatoes?!”, this comment will pop into my head, and I’ll give a little prayer of thanks for my readers!
* * *
Did Fred find a website on how to plant the garden or did y’all just do it and hope that everything went OK with it? We’re talking about having a garden next year and I’m afraid we’ll plant one and then everything will eat it or it’ll just become a big, brown, crispy pile of compost matter.
Fred did a lot of reading online, a lot of book reading, and then when it came time to plant, he just kind of went at it blind and planted stuff wherever the hell he felt like planting it. If I recall correctly, the only real consideration he gave was to the corn, and how it should be at the end of the garden, which has worked well for us. I think we ended up lucky, considering we did it all half-assed. Not only did we plant half-assed, he went back and planted stuff between rows, which is why the summer squash and zucchini are threatening to overwhelm the cucumbers. Next year the garden’s going to be a lot bigger, and not necessarily because we want to have more stuff, but because things like the squash and black-eyed peas need more room than they have.
If he were going to follow a book, Fred recommends
The Encyclopedia of Country Living, which is filled with all kinds of useful information, not just gardening. Also, last week someone recommended
Joy of Gardening, which I plan to get one of these days.
* * *
Are you going to put all of your canning/pickling/whathaveyou methods, techniques and recipes up on your recipes page?
I hadn’t thought about it, but I might! For the time being, I highly recommend anyone who’s interested in canning and pickling go right out and buy the
Blue Ball Ball Blue Book of Preserving. That is one awesome, helpful, amazing book, and I cannot recommend it enough. Those of you who recommended it to me, I totally owe you one!
* * *
Do I recall Fred mentioning on his site that you had planted watermelon? If so, what about watermelon rind pickles? My Grandma used to make them and they were so unique and tasty too! She colored them red and green. Man, those sure were good. *drooling*
We absolutely planted one or two (or ten thousand) watermelon, and we’ve actually talked about trying out pickled watermelon rind. We’re some pickle-loving fools, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t give it a try. Also, I believe we’re going to give watermelon preserves a try while we’re at it.
* * *
Are you pickling any green beans? A friend of my parents used to make those and they were soooo good!
I haven’t yet, but I plan to. I actually just printed out a recipe for pickled green beans, and maybe the next time a big batch of them comes in from the garden, I’ll pickle ’em.
* * *
Speaking of the garden, here are some garden pictures (click on any small picture to see the larger version, or go on over to
Flickr).
Itty bitty watermelon.
Pattypan squash, in the making.
In the front, cantaloupes. In the back, watermelon. This bit of the garden is horribly weedy, but we’ve been told that if you mess with watermelon and cantaloupe plants too much, they stop growing. Apparently they’re SENSITIVE and don’t like to have their tendrils messed with, so we’re leaving the damn weeds.
On the right, summer squash. In the middle, zucchini. On the left (though you can’t really see them), cucumbers.
On the right (between the wooden stakes), cucumbers. In the middle, green peppers and jalapeños, and possibly some other kind of pepper as well. On the left, the second planting of green beans.
On the right, tomatoes. On the left, black-eyed peas.
On the right, okra. In the middle, pole beans. On the left, corn.
Corn! I believe that Fred’s considering a second planting of corn, once all this is ripe and harvested.
People have said to me in the past, “There’s nothing like (various vegetables) straight from the garden!”, and I’ve always thought
yeah, right. Whatever., but they are absolutely right – the squash, okra, corn, green beans we’ve gotten from the store cannot even dream of holding a candle to the stuff right from the garden. It’s amazing, the difference.
* * *
Last night Fred went upstairs to the kitten room while I puttered around for a few minutes before going up to join him. When I walked through the door, I was stunned to see that he was petting Gilligan, who really and truly seemed to be enjoying the petting. He let him do it for another minute or so before he ran off. He hasn’t let me pet him as much as he’ll let Fred, but I did get to pet him a few times. He not only let Fred pet him, he actually purred, and Spanky’s purred several times, as well.
This bunch seems to like Fred a lot more than me – I suppose it’s my payback for the fact that the
Christmas kitties lurrrrved me, but were afraid of Fred.
“You may NOT touch the belleh!”
The always-annoyed Maryanne.
* * *
Sugarbutt, asleep atop the kitchen cupboards. I call him my kitchen witch.
“Okay, enough of the flashy-flashy, lady. There’s canning to be done!””
* * *
Previously
2006: “I love you, but GODDAMN DO I HATE HIKING.”
2005: No entry.
2004: No entry.
2003: Miz Poo vs. The Intel Man.
2002: Fred tries to poison me.
2001: Letters.
2000: It occurs to me that that’s perhaps far more detailed than y’all need.]]>
Itty bitty watermelon.
Pattypan squash, in the making.
In the front, cantaloupes. In the back, watermelon. This bit of the garden is horribly weedy, but we’ve been told that if you mess with watermelon and cantaloupe plants too much, they stop growing. Apparently they’re SENSITIVE and don’t like to have their tendrils messed with, so we’re leaving the damn weeds.
On the right, summer squash. In the middle, zucchini. On the left (though you can’t really see them), cucumbers.
On the right (between the wooden stakes), cucumbers. In the middle, green peppers and jalapeños, and possibly some other kind of pepper as well. On the left, the second planting of green beans.
On the right, tomatoes. On the left, black-eyed peas.
On the right, okra. In the middle, pole beans. On the left, corn.
Corn! I believe that Fred’s considering a second planting of corn, once all this is ripe and harvested.
People have said to me in the past, “There’s nothing like (various vegetables) straight from the garden!”, and I’ve always thought yeah, right. Whatever., but they are absolutely right – the squash, okra, corn, green beans we’ve gotten from the store cannot even dream of holding a candle to the stuff right from the garden. It’s amazing, the difference.
Man, Spanky looks like Sugarbutt these days.
Also, the corn is at the north end of the garden, so nothing lies in its shade.
Isn’t that SB atop the cabinet?
The photo of Maryann made me laugh because our Maisey looks like that the majority of the time. We call it her disgruntled look. She is always disgruntled.
Damn, Fred beat me to it.
My husband is going to see the Transformers movie tonight….I am not. 🙂 He also collects transformers so that might be why he wants to go opening night. You haven’t lived until you have gone to watch your husband be a total geek at a transformers convention. 🙂
You may have read this book, but if not I highly recommend it. Plenty: One man, one woman, and a raucous year of local eating. http://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Woman-Raucous-Eating-Locally/dp/030734732X
I am pretty sure Fred and yourself could make some good money off that garden and you would only have to sell to your readers 🙂
YUMMY! I would take any extra canned pickles you may have LOL 🙂
You know, Mythbusters did an experiment with peas and whether they will grow better with music (classical and heavy metal), nice, sweet human-talk, or nasty, insulting human-speak. They did better with the heavy metal. I’m totally getting speaker rocks and putting them around our garden and blasting some Kiss and Ozzy…that should tick off the neighbors! But, hey if I get a bumper crop of everything, I won’t care! “Sorry about the Kiss and Ozzy, Farmer Bob, but I have plenty of this here squash and eggplant for you and Mertha…enjoy!”
I actually go out to our two little green pepper plants and scream out “HEAVY METAL PEPPERS!!! ROCK ON!!” They’ve perked up recently, seriously!
Just a thought! 😉
Sarah, thank you. I’ve been trying to convince Robyn to sell pickled shit. Er, you know what I mean.
Preserves, too!
That looks like Sugarbutt on the cupboards!
It’s the alzheimer’s. Or the drinkin’!
My mom makes mustard beans. They’re a big hit. Like mustard pickles only with green beans.
Oooo! Pretty, pretty garden pics! I am turning green with envy every time you mention having something from your garden cuz’ up north we’re still in the growing part of the garden calendar and not the picking and eating part of the garden calendar. Have you thought about mulching the garden to keep down the weeds? My friend mulches her garden with lawn clippings and although I’ve never mulched a food garden I swear by mulching for flower gardens.
I had no idea you two were having that much of a garden- that is awesome, Robyn.
I know what you mean about the fresh from the garden vegetable thing. My neighbors brought me over some cucumbers from their garden and for whatever reason, they were SO delicious!
Alright, alright, DAMN people, yes! That is Sugarbutt atop the cupboards! (This is what happens when I don’t proofread, obviously)
Norma (long time reader, etc): That book’s actually already on my wish list. I’m looking forward to reading it!
Sarah: I’ve thought of that, but the idea of having to ship out glass containers gives me the willies. And what if I canned something poorly and killed someone? Eek!
Turtlemama: I’ll have to get Fred to go out there and sing to the green peppers. If it were me singing, they’d die off in self-defense. 🙂
Boo: I haven’t considered it, but only ’cause I leave it to Fred to do the considering where the garden’s concerned. 🙂
The baby watermelon is adorable and reminded me of the year my smart-but-no-common-sense-whatsoever sister had a garden. She asked me “How do I know when the watermelons are ripe? I can’t see them underground.” Yes. She thought watermelons grew underground like potatoes. 😐
Robyn – sorry if someone’s mentionned this before, but do you think those kittens have a little Siamese in them??
LisaL: That is about the funniest damn thing I’ve heard today. HEE!
Anita: I don’t know if all of them do (kittens from a single litter can have multiple fathers), but Maryanne certainly has some Siamese in her, and Spanky may as well; I don’t know about Gilligan and Tina Louise, though.
Are you sick of the gardening questions yet? 🙂 Do you water your garden by hand, or do you let the rain (lack thereof this year, I hear) take care of it?
I have an absolutely kick-ass green tomato pickle recipe, if you want it. My Nana’s recipe, straight from Newfoundland!
A tip for reusing canning jars and the lids: get a FoodSaver. If you get the Mason jar attachment, you can vacuum seal stuff in canning jars (and reuse the jars and the lids as often as you like). I use this method for spices and pantry staples (like flour). Keeps things fresher (but is not a replacement for canning.)
Also, does Sugarbutt get up on your cabinets without leaving scratches on the sides??? My orange tabby kitten Boudreaux has wrecked a very nice buffet (sideboard) by digging his back claws into the side for leverage when he jumps up on it. Grr.
Hello, I love your pictures!
I wrote a while back about my 15 year old cat who stopped eating and I can’t remember when I did so. I do remember one commenter write that I should take him into a vet and I didn’t comment back then but would like to.
I had a tuxedo cat who lost weight and became lethargic. I took her in for blood work. I was told that she had leukemia and that she was dying. I was giving her drugs to make her comfortable. Two days later I found a streamer from a balloon in the litter box…she had eaten it and it blocked her system until the drugs relaxed her and she passed it out. She did not have leulemia and she did not die until years later.
She stopped eating while I was pregnant. I took her to the vet. The boarded her and we paid hundreds of dollars for them to nurse her. I tried to force feed her and it did not go well. She was to the point where she could not lift her head. We had to put her down and I bawled like a baby.
When Motley stopped eating I did some research. I honestly believed that he became depressed and stopped eating as a result of the depression. I thought he would snap out of it. He didn’t, and I started spoon feeding him baby foods. He would eat after much persistence. I spoke to the Humane Society at the pet store and she gave me great advice. I bought a high calorie food subsititute and
aggressively forced Motley to eat it. He slowly returned to eating on his own and he is slowly recovering. I see spark in his eyes again and he does not look like he is going to die any time soon. I am very happy!
I didn’t take him to the vet because of the other
experiences. I didn’t want to have him suffer though that if he really was at the end of his life. I would have eventually if nothing else worked. I feel much guilt that I did not work harder with my Tux, perhaps she would be around today if I had.
On another note, my daughter would love to live at your house with all of those animals! Do you know anything about taxidermy?