Mother Nature...Seriously.

On Grace's birthday, Jan. 27, we had a snow day from school.  She was ecstatic!

TODAY it's Evan's birthday, March 12, and school was closed again for a blizzard.  He was ecstatic too, but REALLY?!!!

To get over my disappointment in Mother Nature, I'm posting some pics of things I would like to use in/change/try in my garden and flower beds this year...I mean, if we ever get to that point in our weather!

(Yesterday was 50 degrees, and the snow we've had all winter was melting.  Today, in the 20's with a blizzard...we must be living in a snow globe!)

Anyway, here are some ideas found on Pinterest.com.  (The links may not directly relate to the image shown, but are linked to the site where they came from.)

My patio needs some help this year...and this one is beautiful.

Every year I move around, split, change the perennials in my flower beds, maybe this year I'll add some pots...

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and some lavender in galvanized buckets...

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and maybe move my chippy white metal gates (or find a metal headboard) to the flower beds.

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For my porch or patio, I would like to add some points of interest.  Like painted chairs...

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or galvanized trash cans (I picked some up at an auction last year)

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I did find some pictures of things I already have myself, but it's good to see how I can use them now...

like the wheelbarrow we have that has seen better days, but would work great as a planter...

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or the vintage tricycle I bought at a garage sale YEARS ago...I just need to get a bike basket...

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I even have an old chandelier to try this with.

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All in all, I'm excited to start planning for these things for summer.  Getting my hands in the dirt of my flower beds always seems to center me.  I'm reshaping the small bits of nature I'm in charge of each year. 

Now, to get all THIS snow to melt!

Hands in the dirt

Today our temps were in the middle 20's.  It literally felt like a heat wave!

We haven't seen double digit numbers for a long while. 

The sun was BRILLIANT today, and warmed our whole house.  We opened all the curtains and let it in.

It felt great!

It made me want to get started on the seeds I always plant in the basement. 

It was such a relief to get my hands in the dirt again.

Every year I use the same trays and the same small pots, I just recycle them.

I planted 3 kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, basil, peppers, and cat grass for Oreo.

Once everything was planted and watered, I took them down to the basement and set them up under the light Brent rigged up several years ago. 

I will lower the trays down under the light as the plants get bigger.

Things like peas, lettuce, corn, and all my perennials, I plant directly in the garden, but the other things I start indoors.

Today made me so eager to get things rolling...then I looked outside and saw all the snow drifts, and how my garden is completely covered with snow.

Oh well, it'll be here soon enough and then I'll be complaining about all the weeding to be done.

What is...

What is yellow, sticky, has hair, and takes forever to put away?

SWEET CORN!

Yep, we're in the midst of it.  The other day when my sister was here from South Carolina, she helped me do 2 1/2 5 gallon buckets worth.

Last night, Brent and the kids went outside to take the remaining ears off what is in the corn patch.

They ended up filling 12+ more 5 gallon buckets!
Ugh.
I was in the house shucking it as fast as I could, and cooking it at the same time to slice off and put in containers.

We started around 6:30 and by 10:30 I was still working on it, with 6 buckets in the basement to go.

That's for today.

This year Brent planted more than ever... because it seemed we never had enough to last all winter.  He planted SO MUCH this year, I don't think we're gonna have that problem.  So far, I have 35 containers made and in the freezer with more to make.

For all the work that goes into freezing sweet corn, it is awfully good to eat throughout the winter.
At least it wasn't ready the week of the fair like it was last year.  That was too much!

Anyone putting anything in their freezer now?

Up next....canned pizza sauce.

Swimming in Sweetness

I use each and every summer to grow a garden that helps me have enough food to eat fresh and preserve for the coming winter.

Since I don't have any fruit trees of my own, however, I have to buy some of it elsewhere.

When I made my yearly call in April to the small orchard where I get my extra produce (Lodi apples for applesauce and peaches) I was told with the crazy spring we had, and all the freezes we had late in the season there would be NO apples, pears, OR peaches for me this year.

It's a matter of fact.

I heard the same thing about the concord grapes I make grape juice with.  I have my own vines, but we're just getting started, and I buy elsewhere to supplement all that I make.

What a blow.  What a shock.  Poor farmers who rely on this income yearly.

I felt slighted, and I had no reason to.

Each and everytime we heard the weatherman say there could be frost, Brent and I religiously went outside with the old sheets I keep for this very reason, and covered the strawberries and grapes.  It was a pain in the butt!

We covered every night but one.  Then we got a frost late in the morning, and it took all the grapes that I had started to get.  Everything was gone, shriveled up, brown.

I was heartbroken.  I was mad.  Just one time we didn't cover...

Fortunately, my grapes came back...but the apples, peaches, and pears are not in abundance for anyone this year.

I did find some the other day at one of the farmer's stands that I have frequented in the past.

They are from South Carolina and they are called Big Smile.  I tried them last year for the first time, and they were pretty much the same quality and taste as the Red Haven peaches I typically get in August.

Since I knew about the bad luck the farmers had this spring, I bought 1 bushel.  I knew I had to put something in my freezer for the winter.

Aren't they beautiful!

The smell when you walk in the kitchen is intoxicating!  And the peaches keep coming up missing.  I think I have peach thieves in my house!

So, for the last couple of days (that's right...peaches can't all be ripe at the same time unfortunately!)  I've been covered up to my elbows in peach juice, slicing and putting them in containers to freeze.

I have a secret recipe (that won't be secret any longer...) from one of my good friends.  She gave it to me a couple years ago, and I swear by it.  It's delicious, and when you pull the peaches out of the freezer in the middle of January, they taste completely fresh!

To get started, you'll need:

6 c water
4 c sugar
1 3oz. box peach jello (can be sugar free)

Warm this all together in a saucepot on the stove.  You don't have to get it boiling, but everything needs to be dissolved.  Then, you must let it cool completely!

Slice up your peaches and put them in whatever container your heart desires as long as it can be used in the freezer.  Leave at least 1/2" headroom at the top.  Pour your "peach juice" (above recipe) over the peaches,  leaving 1/2" headroom.  Put the lid on and pop in your freezer.  They taste amazing.  My son likes to eat them partially frozen, but I like mine thawed all the way.

We've been eating fresh lettuce, peas, zucchini (I also shred and freeze this) and soon cabbage, but the next I have to preserve is probably tomatoes and corn.

What are you enjoying eating right now?

P.P.S.  Somehow I totally screwed up my old format of my blog, and now it looks like this with a wonky header not in the middle.  If anyone knows how to help me fix this....PLEASE let me know!

-----signed,
           Desperate!

Stinkin' weather

I'm not one for HOT weather.

I swell up.
I get crotchety.
I get super sweaty.

I just plain HATE HOT HOT weather.

It's been in the 90's for a long while now.

It hasn't rained for weeks.

Our yard looks like the wheat fields a couple miles away.

It makes me wish I lived in the Pacific Northwest with their somewhat milder temperatures, and their rain.

However...

my garden is in full swing.

I'm getting a bounty this year because my sweet husband has set up the sprinkler and we water the garden(s)
(one large sweet corn patch and one large garden patch for other things) every day or every other day.

For weeks now I've been picking these beauties...

they are GOOD and for some reason, they taste like the sun.

The other day I started picking these guys...

and I made some minty sun tea with my spearmint that seems to multiply year after year, even though every year I rip more out.

(I had the perfect glass jar that I bought at Goodwill a year ago.)

So, even though the temperatures are TERRIBLE...and the kids beg everyday to go swimming at my uncle's house, we are reaping some benefits.

I'm just waiting for the tomatoes, and corn, and potatoes, and onions, and peppers, and cabbage, and zucchini, and cucumbers to produce.  

Have you all jumped on the gardening bandwagon?

It's all I thought it would be...mostly

Like so many times, I set my expectations too high for my time off of school.

I make lists.

I cross things off lists, and write more lists.

I think of everything I've let go by the wayside since Christmas break, and I write it all down to accomplish over Spring Break.

It's foolish.

I feel foolish.

However, SOME of that stuff got done this week.  And isn't the fact that I got to do this

a little rewarding.  You see, I didn't have to travel down to Florida or Texas, or even California to experience weather in the 60's, and 70's.  It was nice and sunny here everyday.

We got our 4-H pigs

and the kids got them out almost everyday to play around with them.

Grace and Ev each had a friend over to spend the night and then we all went to the mall the next day.  (Whose idea was THAT anyway?  :-)  )

My garden got planted

with three rows of peas

17 red potato mounds..and

47 onions and 2 rows of lettuce.

I planted some pansy's on the porch

and just enjoyed all the sunshine and my time outside.

It was a good time to relax, it was a good time to regroup, and it was a good time to get excited about what Summer Break is going to be all about.

It was a great week even though we didn't make it past Elkhart County.

Excited is an understatement!

In two days Spring Break will officially start.

Yes, I realize that I'm not a student, but I do work in a school.

No, I'm not pining for a chance to lay out on a Daytona or Siesta Key beach, but I am pining for some different things.

Like sleeping in.

Yes, totally like sleeping in.  Past 5am that is.

So, without further ado, here are some of my "to do's" for next week.

I've got a good 16 hours a day to get busy getting all those things done I've just been dreaming about finishing.

I've got seedlings to replant since they'll need to be in the ground sooner rather than later (with all this crazy weather we've been having.)

I've got some meals to make and freeze for easy pull-out on softball game nights.

I've got Etsy.com stock to start and maybe finish for my up and coming "store" opening this summer.

Things like fabric flower pins...

 vintage looking bulletin boards...

cabochon flower rings

and maybe some cute aprons if I so desire.

 After all that's done, I might rearrange the living room (since it's been a couple months...), sweep out the registers, and get rid of the clutter in the bedroom.

I need to take some more clothes to the resale shop and Goodwill. 

At the end of the list...more work in the flower beds.  More weeding, and the addition of some duck mulch. 
Ah, the joys of country life.

The end result...the feeling of something accomplished.  A great feeling!  What will you all be doing?

It's time

I feel guilty.  And hypocritical, let's be honest.

I really do.

You see, each time I let a couple days go past without posting, I feel bad.

I'm also, truth be told, a little irritated when those blogs I follow don't post something new for me to look at everyday.

I know this is wrong.

And I know I'm a hypocrite.

I realize we all have busy lives.  Good grief don't I know it.

We are all human, too.

I know that.

So I'm feeling remorseful.  Wicked.  Lazy.  Bummed.

So I'm posting today about what I did yesterday after an all afternoon club volleyball tournament.

I got ready for summer, in a small kinda way.

The sun yesterday put me in the mood.

To plant things that is.

I first had to get all my supplies in order, and then I checked a website that told me exactly what I needed to start indoors when.

I found an old enamel box that I repainted.

I painted it my favorite color of pistachio.

Once it was dry, I lined it with paper towels to catch the water that would come out of the bottom of my pots.

Each year, when I purchase vegetables plants from the nearby greenhouse, I save the little pots for the next year.  6 of them fit perfectly in the enamel box.

I filled each one with seed starter...

wet it down a little and then added some seeds.  Tomatoes and peppers should be started indoors NOW.

These tomatoes are the size of your pinkie nail and can just be thrown into salads, tacos, etc. and not cut up, so they aren't mushy!

Then I put more soil over the top of the seeds, and watered some more.

They fit just right in my kitchen windowsill where the sun was streaming in.

All ready to grow.  I'll have to find another place to get other seeds started.  For now, this is enough.