August 10, 2010: OK, So I Lied

I'm not going MIA after all. In fact, I'm doing my second blog for today. I just had to tell you that a watched pot never boils....and a watched garden never ripens a tomato. I took one day off from the garden. I didn't even look at it out of the window yesterday, I was too busy inside. Soooo....today I wandered out to check the tomatoes, and................................


I have tomatoes! I have Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Nyagous, Juliet, Clear Pink Early, Persey, Kimberly, Dwarf Champion and Golden Dwarf Champion. The biggest harvest came from a plant that was supposed to be a Cherokee Purple, but turned out to be something entirely different. The tomatoes are smaller, very perfect, round and deep red (the group in the upper left of the photo). They almost have a purplish cast, and are very flavorful. All of the Brandywine and Cherokee Purples came from the plants that fell over from wind/rain. They took quite a beating, and must have loved it, because their counterparts in the main garden, where they get much better care and more sunshine, haven't even begun to ripen. See, it does help to beat the crap out of your tomatoes!


I have cherry tomatoes; Black Cherry, Minigold, Angora Super Sweet, "Spawn" of Angora Super Sweet, Husky Red, Cherry Roma and an unknown that was supposed to be Sungold but isn't.


My kitchen counter is beginning to look like a gardener's counter! I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen this year, but it did.


I've been so busy. Here is what I accomplished the past two days:

I scrubbed the front hall floor and the kitchen area behind it, on my hands and knees, with a scrub brush. Then I used my carpet shampooer to rinse it and suck up the dirty water. I cleaned the throw rug, polished the piano and clock, and cleaned the glass on the clock. Don't laugh at all my fake plants and flowers. When I only live in this house six months of the year, I can't have real house plants!

I removed the blades from the ceiling fan in the kitchen and cleaned them, along with the light cover. My goodness, those blades get really grungy on their topsides! I took down the drape from the sliding glass door and washed it. While it was washing, I swept down cobwebs and then scrubbed the curtain rod, which was almost as grungy as the fan blades. Must be all those greasy breakfasts Mr. Granny fries for himself. Then I washed the sliding glass door and rehung the drape. I also washed the dogs' little rug (it's in front of their food dish), scrubbed their food and water dishes and refilled them.


I shampooed the living room carpet, rearranged and polished all the furniture, washed all the knickknacks, picture glass and fake flowers and plants. Vacuumed the sofa and love seat, wiped down the fireplace brick with a damp cloth and cleaned the fireplace glass. Replaced the grandchildren's photos (on the mantle) with updated ones (except for one of Alicia as a baby, which is my favorite picture). Cleaned the lamps and lampshades.


I washed the living room windows (there are three, only two show in the photo) and cleaned the windowsills. I washed the front door, inside and out, and cleaned the glass on the storm door and the sidelights by the door.


I shampooed the dining room carpet, polished all the furniture, washed the mirror, took the chandelier apart and washed all the doohickeys and rehung them. Too bad I didn't notice the burnt out bulb before I put everything back together.


I scrubbed the kitchen floor (used the mop, as it had just been cleaned the day I canned the salsa), scoured the counter tops and wiped down the cabinets (a good cleaning will come later). Mr. Granny shampooed the hall carpet.


Cleaned the outside of the refrigerator, and wiped off the small appliances.

Last of all, I finished by cleaning my "Granny room". I even washed my chair cushion and cleaned my desk. Now I'm tired, and I'm sitting at my desk and relaxing while watching America's Got Talent. And wondering where that talent is, 'cause they sure aren't showing any tonight!

25 comments:

  1. I love a good cleaning before the Fall and winter. I better get on it!

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  2. Wow Granny, you did so much cleaning! So impressive! I have to clean tomorrow, I am not looking forward to it. Your harvest of tomatoes look so amazing! I am so jealous!

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  3. Meemsnyc, I have to can tomorrow, so I'll just mess it up again ;-)

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  4. Good lord, it's like a showroom! How beautiful and I'm so glad you've finally gotten tomatoes. I know you're giddy about that.

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  5. Yeah....your tomatoes are coming in!! They are Beautiful!

    I had to put my sunglasses on to look at the pictures of your house. Everything is so shining clean :)

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  6. Well you finally got your tomatoes. All you had to do was clean the whole house to do it. And you are right, my house is so easy to clean right now. Nothing has any deep grime on it - yet. Though with all the canning the kitchen is trying. I beat the grime back there every morning. It is amazing where you will find tomato splatters after you are done canning tomatoes.

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  7. Are you kidding me! All those tomatoes decided to surprise you and ripen up when you were not looking?! You must be so excited...

    ...and exhausted. Wow! you accomplished a lot of cleaning. I was getting tired just reading about it. Isn't it wonderful to have everything clean at once? I hope you rested up because it looks like you are going to be busy with your garden harvests.

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  8. First it was the refrigerator, now its the house, what next? And now you have tomatoes, while we all trip over the kids toys, dirty clothes and the dust bunnies that could be placed in the garden to scare the real bunnies away. At least a week ago we could boast the tomato harvest over you.
    I love how Annie follows you around.

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  9. Busy lady you are! What is up with all the 'supposed to be' tomatoes, were they saved seed that crossed?

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  10. That was a spring cleaning in August! I am amazed you tackled practically the whole house to do such a thorough cleaning. In February, I try to do a similar deep clean but I take one room or section of the house a weekend and do a "clean sweep" where I remove absolutely everything out of the room then thoroughly clean and repair (paint if needed) from top to bottom, and then bring back the removed items - throwing away or giving away items no longer needed, putting things back to a proper room that are not where they should have been, and generally cleaning miscelleaneous things as I put them back. It's a lot of work but the house always feels some clean and organized afterwards and it makes me feel more content about dissappearing into the garden from March until September for the large part!

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  11. Your stuff is really coming in now! Are those yellow tomatoes kellogg's breakfast?

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  12. Everything looks so great! Now you gotta muss-it up again... :)

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  13. Your house looks great! What I wouldn't give to have mine that clean. Oh well, raising 5 kids equals a messy house.

    Congrats on the garden harvest!

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  14. Granny! Can you come to my house!!!! I could use all the help I could get! Ha ha! Around here, it is either the house or the garden between kids! And lately, it is mostly the garden! And it still doesn't get enough attention! Most ppl would clean while the baby napped, but not me, I have a super light sleeper and if I do anything, he wakes! Shhhh! Ha, I'll give ya a room to sleep!

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  15. Look at those tomatoes.... here we go! I tried watching America's Got Talent once, and I thought the same thing... maybe we were too late and the talent had already left the building LOL!

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  16. Liisa, I do too. I like to do one in the spring, and one in the fall. I decided to get this one out of the way before the tomatoes and squash had to be processed, 'cause those look to be my biggest crops this year.

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    Ribbit, it's not always that spotless. I just had to show off, because I got so much done.

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    Robin, that's why I took pictures. It might be spring before it looks that good again.

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    Daphne, I'll be splattering today. Tomatoes, bean, cucumbers and strawberries are waiting for me. And today is grocery shopping day, eek!

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    GrafixMuse, no rest for the wicked. Granny has work to do. The tomatoes, except for the cherries and Juliets, were a complete surprise.

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    Johanna, next comes my son to replace the broken window. We ordered it, and picked it up yesterday. The boys fixed the front fence last week, too. I think getting two of my three pressing projects completed kicked me into high gear.

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    Kelly, I need to ask Dan if those were saved tomato seeds. I have a feeling they were. I'm not disappointed about the supposed Cherokee Purple, as I planted three and at least one is growing true, but I'm disappointed I haven't yet tasted a Sungold. When I first tasted it, I thought I wasn't going to like the Roma Grape you sent, but now it has turned sweet and I eat them right off the vine. That's what I was hoping for.

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    Kitsap, I still have two bedrooms, two bathrooms and Mr. G's TV room to tackle. At least the laundry room doesn't need much cleaning! I have some touch up painting in a couple of rooms, and I have to sand down and refinish the top of my dining room table because of an oops I did. Don't ask ;-)

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    EG, no those are Golden Dwarf. Pretty things, worth growing for their color alone, but not the rich flavor or size of KBs.

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    Apple Pie Gal, yup....gonna do that today!

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    Kathy, I know so well. I raised five kids, too.

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    Shawn Ann, I don't get that ambitious often. That's why it was picture worthy, it rarely happens ;-)

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    Erin, it was the same with American Idol this year. I love that type of reality show, but the talent sure seems to be lacking of late. Howie Mandel on the judges panel keeps AGT interestingly funny this year, or I'd probably not even bother watching.

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  17. Your tomatoes thought you had abandoned them and decided they'd better have something good to show you when you came back so you wouldn't leave them for a whole 24 hours by themselves again.

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  18. Boy, your local meth dealer must be really happy when you come back to town.

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  19. If you get that many tomatoes when you look away from the garden for just *one* day, then oh boy, I hope you never go on vacation during the growing season!!

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  20. Cheryl, I left them again today. Will I have another bumper crop tomorrow? I almost hope not, I'm plumb pooped out tonight, after a day of canning!

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    Stefaneener, I could use some of that to keep me going tonight ;-)

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    Thyme2, you've got that right!

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  21. Wonder what happened with the Cherokee Purple plant. They are a regular leaf so they shouldn't have crossed. The ones in the top right look like some very nice CP's. I've been eye the Kellogg's Breakfast that I grew from your seed. They are looking so nice but still green. Been thinking of doing a tomato post for the last four days. This nice summer is consuming to much of my time!

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  22. Dan, I grew three plants from the Cherokee Purple seeds. One grew true, and is giving me ripe fruit. One grew into that really tall plant with the dark red tomatoes. It's pumping them out like mad, I picked over 5 pounds from it again yesterday. I don't know what the third one will do, as it has all green tomatoes still.

    The Sungold only germinated one good plant, and it turned out not to be Sungold. It has oblong fruits, and isn't very sweet.

    I grew two Angora SS, and one grew true with the fuzzy gray-green leaves, the other grew into a regular cherry tomato, but it's quite a good one.

    I still don't have a ripe Kellogg's Breakfast, either. I wonder what kind of tomato I'll get from it, LOL! I grew five, but only kept one.

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  23. Your cleaning and gardening looks very impressive.
    I need to go take a nap just thinking about it. I'm lucky to just keep everything watered at this point. Next year more lasagna style beds with cardboard to keep the moisture in. Cleaning the house will take years.

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  24. That's a lovely house you have, Gran!

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