Tidbits...

Funny how things happen isn't it?

 In my last post I wrote about having the arborist come out and see if the Corkscrew willow could be saved.  Two days later half of it broke away and fortunately fell away from the house, did not crush the barn and only slightly bent the fence.  We now just had the guys come out and cut it up....and after seeing the base of it we made the appointment to take the rest down as well.

This is part of the wood from the first half, Hubby has worked very hard at wood for the last month!

The second and larger half has now come down.  Can you see how much shade we are going to be missing?

And there is much more wood for Hubby to work on.  We had to order a new chain saw chain already!

We found two nests in the wreckage, this one was the biggest and made of mud and large sticks.

This piece makes a nice place to take a rest in the garden, yes?

Last year I was fairly sure the echinacea was dead and I needed the pot.  Since I wasn't sure, I stuck it in a small pot very roughly and forgot about it over the winter. It is obviously a hearty plant!

We did go fishing, this is on the Snake River looking at a place called Lizard Butte.  When the light is right the rocks look like a lizard sunning himself on the hill.

The geese were friendly - I think they were the ones scaring the fish away!!

And this egret seemed to have the best fishing spot...


We did not catch any fish but we had a lovely day with our friend Anita.

I did process the garlic scapes and this vinegar smells wonderful now.  It is a mild flavor and is very nice on salads.

And just this evening I harvested the garlic.  I am very pleased with the size of the bulbs.  I planted 45 and harvested 45.  I will let them dry and then clean them up.







It finally got hot this last week and we are suffering through a heat wave in the western United States.  It has been 106F here (41C) and of course with no AC except in the bedroom, it is not fun!  The good news for me is that I am working 4 days a week again for awhile in air conditioned offices.  Hopefully these clients need me at least until the heat wave breaks!  I am trying not to complain too much....we used to live closer to Death Valley and it was up to 127.7F (53C)  there so...it could be worse!  We will survive...winter is coming! (for all the Game of Thrones fans)

Bits and pieces

Well, we are at that time of year when we try to get up fairly early and do our outdoor activities before it gets too hot and then come inside and do sedentary things until it cools down again and then maybe go back outside to finish up!  Looking at the forecast it is supposed to get into the triple digits next week - 101-107 degrees are predicted (38 - 43 Celsius) We do not have central air (or heat) so we will be doing the poor mans evaporative cooler - spray yourself with water and sit in front of the fan!!

 Sedentary in the afternoon means sewing some days, and now that the oldest daughter-in-law has received her birthday gift in the mail I can show it here.  I had made wallets for the girls a couple of years ago and hers was wearing out, she had asked for a new one on the next gift giving occasion.  Is there anything that makes us hand crafters happier than the gift we labored over is used so much it wears out - and they want another!

The print on the outside is strawberries (which she loves) black for the lining and a red (her favorite color) subtle print for the card slots and coin purse.
I had made these before, sort of basic, but they started to look good when I found this pattern for the card slots here.  This lady's measurements were spot on and made the slots look so much more professional.

I have made a habit of using some of my Mother-in-laws button collection that I inherited.  Some of the buttons are from back in the 30's and 40's (her moms collection) and some from the 50's and 60's, but all are vintage. When I was looking for a nice big red one I also found these little heart shaped red ones and they reminded me of strawberries, so I used green embroidery floss, tied them on the ends and made them into a zipper pull.  She was very pleased! (and I was thrilled that she was pleased - funny how that happens!)

Oldest son and wife (she of the new wallet) sent us a gift last week as a combined Mothers day/Father's day gift.  A rice cooker/steamer/slow cooker!  This is going to be so much fun this summer!  I made the rice, shrimp and fresh peas all in the cooker at the same time!  One pot to wash and it can sit out on the porch table and cook away and not heat up the house.  Hubby is happy as he likes rice but I don't like to fix it in the summer as it just heats up the kitchen!  What fun!



I am going to go through some more no bake recipes now!  I am drinking lots of water, and thinking about what else I can cook all at one time! 
Have a great week!

Summer Finally Got Here!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned some time back that when it got hot I would be moaning, so here I am-moaning!  I am drinking so much water I can hear my stomach slosh, I have the urge to eat salty foods, and I do not wear makeup as it will just run down the side of my face!  I am one of those people for whom summer is not fun, I am a naturally warm person (body temp and heartwise!!), I have reached the age and weight that although I can put on enough clothes in the winter to stay warm - I cannot decently take off enough in the summer to stay cool.  (people would probably pay me to put them back on!)  We do not have air conditioning in our home, so the constant hum you hear is the multitude of fans.  The good thing about having active sweat glands is that if I stand in front of a fan I become my own evaporative cooler!  :)

almost big enough for sweet pickles

OK - I got that out of the way, I love what the heat is doing in the garden!  June was pleasant for me but too cool for huge growth in the garden.  The past few days of heat have just made things pop!  I have 6 cucumbers and a large turnip in the fridge waiting to be eaten.  The corn is growing at a noticeable rate as are the beans, the peas are like me - happier when it is cool, but the sunflowers are getting tall.  This year more of my herbs came up but I am not sure my dill will get big enough before I need it, may have to buy some for the early pickles.  I cleaned out the pickle supplies when we went to California as the kids were all out so I am hoping to have

Waist high already

plenty of cucumbers for both sweet and dill this year.  I would also like to get enough red beets to pickle a couple of jars so we shall see.

The cherry tree was loaded this year and we ended up with a total of 5 gallons of cherries!  They weighed about 25 lbs and at the going rate in the stores that is between $80 and $100 worth of cherries!  (organic cherries were as high as $6 a pound this tree is definitely organic borderline wild) That from a tree we don't even water!  Thank goodness the cherries are done now so I can do a new manicure!  The pitted cherries filled 9 quart jars and I added medium syrup (2 cups water and 1 cup sugar) I water bathed for 20 minutes and they all sealed!  Two years ago I did some pie filling and some in heavy syrup, this year just did the one thing which is perfect for ingredients for many desserts.  I have learned my lesson, this is much easier and gives me more options when I am ready to use them.

So now I am going to drink another glass of iced tea, focus the fan on me and try not to move enough to sweat!!  Oh and by the way kittens are little heaters!!!  (And they both want to sit on me! It's some kind of conspiracy!)