July 10, 2009: Garden Shed Update

I worked on the interior of the new garden shed again today. I got all the primer and painting done, with the exception of the corners, three of which I still have to install. The wall shelves got finished, too!

I thought I was going to have to do the shelves all by myself, as Mr. H took a nasty fall onto the patio today. We have a sliding glass door that comes out of the kitchen, with two steps down to the concrete patio. I don't know where his mind was, but instead of going down the steps, he stepped over and off the side, and landed on his elbows and knees on the pavement. He got skinned up a bit, but thankfully no broken bones. At 74 years of age, it's so easy to break a hip in a fall like that. He took something for the pain and, like the old trooper he is, came out and helped me put up the shelves.

One nice thing about spending 8+ hours working on the shed, I was too tired to cook. I did, however, end up with a "garden dinner". We had it delivered from The Chinese Gardens!

My mini-greenhouse will sit on the counter where the paint and tools are now. It will take up 4' of the 8' long counter. There will be open shelves underneath for bags of seed starting mix, vermiculite, potting soil, etc.

The next 4' of counter top will be my work space. Under that will be shelves for my tool box, brad nailer, and containers of nails, screws, etc. The chest of drawers will hold miscellaneous gardening items. The top drawer is in the process of being rebuilt. The shelf over the bench is 8' long and 16" deep, and will hold watering cans, gallon jugs for measuring/mixing liquid fertilizers, potting trays, etc.

The next cabinet will hold my radio, CDs, fertilizers, garden gloves, pegs for the peg board, and the drawers will hold miscellaneous garden supplies such as drip tapes, tubing and connectors. The wall holds my larger garden tools and a broom.

The back wall holds my step stool, the door to the garden, and a hook for my garden sweater. To the right of my sweater there will be a hook and loop of rope for tying the lawn cart up against the wall. The fertilizer spreader might hang from this back wall, too. The riding and push mowers will be parked here.

On around the corner, the fetilizer spreader might have to hang from the wall on the right.

Two more shelves that we finished today. The longer one is 6', the other one just under 5', and they are 8" deep. These should hold gallon sized fertilizer containers and miscellaneous pots. The ladder fits perfectly underneath, and will come in handy once we put up the ceiling, as I'll have a hatch in it so things like irrigation pipe can be stored over the rafters.

The front door is 4' wide to accomodate the riding mower and lawn cart.

I picked the first tomatoes today! One of the Tumbling Toms gave me four sweet little ones.Several more are close to being ripe.

July 8, 2009: No Rest For The Wicked

We're having a few cooler days right now, so I'm trying to get as much outside work done as I possibly can before it gets back up into the 90s again, later this week. I went out at six this morning and prepped the north wall in the new garden shed for painting, painted the back door trim, then painted the wall. It might seem as though this painting is going quite slowly, but the walls are made of recycled OSB, and they are quite rough. They have to be primed, and all the larger gouges and nail holes filled. Even the seams have to be filled, as the pieces don't always fit as tightly together as one might want. Then I paint everything with a brush rather than a roller, so I can work the paint into the rough surface. I'm using a good exterior satin house paint on the inside walls, as I know it will hold up well under moist, unheated conditions. It's hard work, but I think it's worth it.



There is still so much left to do! I have to prep and paint the east wall, install quarter-round in the corners, install shelving, install hooks to hang garden tools, install a threshold under the back door, install weather stripping around all the doors. I doubt we'll even try to put in a ceiling this year, that can wait until next spring. It looks so large when it's empty! Soon this corner will hold a big dump cart, a riding mower, a rototiller, a push mower.....it won't leave a lot of room for me!

With the wall finished, I dragged out my old step stool and gave it a coat of fresh paint. I can't put a beat up old paint splattered step stool in a nice new garden shed!




I started to pick the Contender bush beans today, but only found a handful. I decided they have outlived their usefulness, so I pulled them out and composted them. I'll transplant lettuce into that area once the plants get large enough to move. That's two varieties of bush beans gone, and one to go. I'll probably plant another row somewhere so I can continue to complain about picking those darned beans!

The nasturtiums are overtaking the gardens. I pulled out a few, and trimmed some others back, but they need some serious thinning out.

The dill got a few branches broken in the windstorm the other day, so I clipped them off and hung them to dry.




The parsnips took quite a beating, too. I'll be corralling them, like I did the potatoes, with 3 or 4-foot long 1"x2" stakes and heavy garden twine. They must remain upright for about another 3-1/2 months! They are getting absolutely huge, the tops being at least three feet high. I dug around a couple of them to check the root size, and those are getting big, too.

The peppers are looking terrific, and growing like weeds!

I can freeze the bells,

....but what on earth am I going to do with all the jalapenos?

Of coarse, the pole beans are almost ready to be picked again!

Do you see what I see? This is one of the Tumbling Tom cherry tomatoes I started in Arizona last February, carried all the way back to Washington and continued to let it grow in the laundry room. It had blossoms on it months ago, but they never bore any fruit. Its "big sister", twice its size, still has no ripe tomatoes. Once these ripen, I won't be weighing them, I'll be eating them before they reach the kitchen!

Son Scott came to pick up Grandson Kevin, who had spent two nights with us, so I coerced him into mowing the back yard for me. I wanted the clippings bagged to use as mulch in the garden, so he mowed and I spread the clippings. The pea vines that I removed the other day, and the beans and nasturtiums from today were mowed, bagged and added to the compost heap.

I've never been able to get my entire garden in one picture. well, duh...I have a "panorama" setting on my camera that I'd never even tried! It still doesn't include the small west garden, but here is the main garden in its entirety. Click to enlarge.





The rest of the afternoon was spent grocery shopping. I store-hopped for specials today, so it was rather time consuming and I got back home just in time to cook dinner. We had a nice "garden dinner", but no pictures. I was so tired, I just dished up Mr. H's plate from the stove, and took mine to the computer on a paper plate!

Wednesday's Garden Dinner

Grilled Salmon Fillets with Lemon
Scalloped Potatoes (potatoes, onions)
Carrot/Broccoli/Cauliflower Medley (carrots, cauliflower)
Warm Apple Pie Ala Mode (store bought)

I know some people are grossed out when I tell them our two dogs sleep with us. Well, they are bathed regularly (they probably smell better than I do!), we love them dearly, and they are spoiled as badly as we spoiled our children. Besides, sometimes their sleeping expressions are just priceless.

Sweet dreams, little Otto.
*Click to enlarge the cuteness*

Sweet dreams, dear readers.

July 7, 2009: A Garden Dinner

I had a hard day working on the new garden shed today. Son John still hadn't finished the interior walls, and didn't show up last night, so Mr. H and I decided to tackle that last wall. Now, if you've been reading my blog for very long, you'll know Mr. H and I do not work well together. Building projects = divorce threats in this household. But guess what? We did the job, did it well, and didn't even have an argument all day! Well, maybe one small one when I couldn't reach the top of the board to mark where to cut it. He just doesn't understand I'm five inches shorter than he, and cannot reach to the same heights. Of course, before we even began working on the wall, we had to clear out all the tools, boards, and general mess just to get to that back wall. I think that took longer than the actual building!

After we'd finished, I got a coat of primer on that wall, but it was too close to dinner time to prime the fourth and last wall. I had to go inside and load the breakfast and lunch dishes into the dishwasher and find the kitchen, which was a mess from the day's meals, so I could start dinner. And before I could start dinner, I had to go pick.....beans.

It seems as though all I've done this summer is pick beans. Endless beans. I picked Royal Burgundy bush beans, then on my way to the other side to pick the Contender bush beans, I happened to notice the pole beans were getting quite large. I wandered over to check them out, and sure enough, they did need to be picked. The first picking of the year! I ended up getting a full pound of beans off of those vines, and they were almost a joy to pick. Unlike with the bush beans, I didn't have to bend and stoop and reach, but could stand comfortably and pick them with ease. I never did get to the Contender beans, they'll just have to wait until tomorrow. On the way back to the kitchen, I checked the cucumbers and decided one was large enough for the dinner salad. Our first cucumber of the season.

Tuesday's Garden Dinner

Kevin was visiting, so who has time to take pretty pictures of the dinner. Feeding hungry grandchildren takes priority!

Barbecued Chicken Breast
Baked Yukon Gold Potatoes (potatoes)
Fried Zucchini (zucchini)
Green Beans with Yellow Crookneck Squash (beans, squash)
Tossed Salad with Ranch Dressing (cucumber)
Milk

By the way, the pole beans were delicious! I cooked the entire pound with both of yesterday's crookneck squash, and we (Mr. H., Kevin, myself and the two dogs) ate every bite of it! Otto and Annie loved them. The variety is Kentucky Blue, and they have a good, old fashioned "beany" flavor.

July 6, 2009: A 100-Pound Milestone

With today's harvest of onions, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash, I've brought the total harvest weight for 2009 past the 100 pound mark.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned my zucchini seemed to be infected with some type of fungus, as did those of my neighbor. All of the plants came from a single package of seed, so I'm wondering if the seed itself could have carried the infection.

The infected plant.

Fungicides don't stop it.

I tried several applications of cornmeal tea, and my neighbor tried a commercial fungicide. Neither product alleviated the problem, so yesterday I cut off the really infected leaves, and today I applied double strength fish emulsion to my plant. My neighbor did the same to hers, only with regular strength. It's do or die. I have harvested two nice little zucchinis from the plant, so all is not lost. In the meantime, I planted another hill of zucchini from a different supplier.

The first "Small Sugar N. E. Pie" pumpkin is growing like a weed! The following photos were taken a week apart.

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There won't be photos of my "garden dinners" until we finish eating all of our leftovers. Nachos and leftover corn aren't that pretty ;-)

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July 5, 2009: The Day After

It was supposed to get over 100 degrees again today, and it certainly started out hot enough. I watered the garden yesterday, and I watered again this morning. The heat has made everything look rather droopy. Before I came back in, I pulled out a couple of nasturtiums that were crowding my pepper plants. They are pretty, and I do like flowers in my garden, but I must remember to only allow one plant in a square foot next year, not four. They really got very large, and created too much of a canopy for other plants. I decided I'd better pick the green beans, as I missed two days in a row, and had some that were larger than we like. The dogs enjoy them, so they will get the big beans in their chicken dinners tonight. I pulled a few carrots for Cookie, the house rabbit, and since I was right next to the potato bed, decided to feel around for a few more new potatoes. I had used all of the ones from Thursday in the potato salad we had for dinner last night.

I came in with 1 pound 3 ounces of Royal Burgundy beans, 11 oz. of Contender beans, 2 pounds 7 oz. of Yukon Gold and Norland potatoes and 1-3/4 pounds of Rainbow Blend carrots.

It didn't reach 100F after all. It's clouding up now, so I expect we'll get a real thunder boomer this evening. It might rival the fireworks we watched last night.

There were thirteen of us here for dinner.......well, twelve if we don't count the baby. We had fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, potato chips, olives, cupcakes and ice cream, beer, booze, iced tea and pop. Enough to satisfy everyone!



After dinner, we put baby Alicyn in a plastic tub of water and let her splash and play for a while, then about half the group walked to the river to watch the fireworks. The rest of us sat in our driveway, where we had an excellent view, and access to even more food. We ate pico de gallo and chips, and just about finished off the cupcakes. Nobody can say we weren't well fed!

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Several people commented about yesterday's picture of Otto. Well, it wasn't Otto. It was a picture I found through Google Images, and it was a dead ringer for the Otter Dawg, right down to the tongue! Ribbit said it was Otto's stunt double, and "sooner or later he’ll have stand-ins for all of his difficult work; walks, vet visits, baths. He’ll show up for feedings and belly rubs. Next you’ll be noticing he pauses in odd places in his speech, can’t use contractions, and looks like he bathes every other Wednesday. Then you change his name to Kevin Costner and his transformation into diva superstar will be complete."

"Stunt Double".................................. Otto

Ribbit also commented on my frog collection, saying she preferred cows. Just one question, Ribbit. If you prefer cows over frogs, why don't we call you "Moo" instead of "Ribbit"?

I couldn't find a "stunt double" for Annie, but she hopes everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July, and wants you to know she went off of her diet long enough to have a cupcake last night.

Uh..Annie, are you sure you only had ONE cupcake?

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July 4, 2009: Independence Day

Have a Safe and Happy Independence Day!!

July 3, 2009: Hello, Donna!

I just have to give a big "hello" to my newest follower, "Granny's Kitchen Table". She's my neighbor when I'm in Bouse, AZ during the winter! You can check out her blog, Coffee With Granny. Donna, I'll be down for that coffee in October.

LOL, Bouse, Arizona is just full of grannies!

July 3, 2009: Happy Plates

Yesterday I lamented that my dishes weren't really conducive to food photography. They are a bright, cheerful pattern that brought a smile to my face when I got them, and they still make me smile, over ten years later. They fit my laid back lifestyle. I don't do fancy dinners or entertaining, and my family only cares about what I put on the plate, not how the plate looks.

I think I said I'd "bought" a 12 place setting of them. Actually, I got them with points we'd earned from our visits to Laughlin, Nevada. We happened to be there when the offer was discontinued, and they brought in a truckload of boxes that were practically given away. I ended up with a service for 15 (I gave two of those to a friend, and kept extras for "breakage replacement"). What would have cost around 6000 points, I got for 600 points! They might end up as a collector's item, they are all stamped "Colorado Belle" on the bottoms. Of my 13 place settings, Mr. H broke the handle off of one mug, and just this week I chipped a salad plate. They've held up beautifully through many years of everyday use.

The plates have been photographed a LOT! I remember when, a few years ago (early 2006 to be exact), my friend and I had a competition. I was in Arizona for the winter, Teresa was in Illinois, or Iowa, or one of those "I" states (I don't even know for sure where she lives!). She and I both had a collection of frogs, and we both liked to cook, so we took photos of our meals and each photo had to have a froggy name and a frog from our collection. She won, as she had quite a few more frogs than I, but it was a fun and funny competition. We're still virtual friends, we've never met...but I love you, Teresa!

I must have been bored that winter. I made all of my bread from scratch!

A few of my "froggy" entries......................

A place setting of my "happy plates".

Baked Frog Breast and Stuffing, Green Beans and Toad Slaw

Frogcabbage Casserole (this is the same casserole I blogged about last week!) with Corn/Green Beans, Wadorfroggy Salad and French Bread

Swiss Frog Steak with Baked Potatoes, Froggybeans, Froggygreens and Fruit Cup

Froghetti with Fresh Steamed Asparafrograss and Garlic Bread.

Frog Hash with Broccoli and Corn.

Cottage Wheat Frog Bread and Froggy Burger Buns

Crockpot Roast Frog with Potatoes, Carrots and Gravy, Basic White Frog Bread and Tossed Frog Greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Polynesian Frog Wings on Brown Rice, served with Frog Greens (broccoli and tossed salad)

Froghetti with Frog Balls Marinara and Italian Toad Bread

Frog Stew and Light Wheat Bread

Dakota Frog Bread

FrogMama and Kids Herb Bread, Seared Salmon with Balsamic Frog Sauce, Rainbow Potato Frogcakes with Sour Cream, Mixed Veggies, Cabbage Slaw and Iced Tea.
This was my favorite, but most difficult bread to make. The flavor is delicious, but you try making bread dough look like a bunch of frogs!

OK, I'll stop now *smile*

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