Loving Home

It seems early for the garden to be winding down but with the heat we have been having my poor garden could not handle it. We are still getting banana peppers and tomatoes. But the zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers are gone. We have four watermelons that I pray will make it but the cantaloupe is gone to. I will be making pickled banana pepper rings and can more diced tomatoes but not much more with what is left. I hope to get to the farmer's market for peaches and other veggies that we didn't plant. How are your gardens doing? Our yield is substantially less than last year. We did plant a peach tree and will plant more fruit trees next year. We are talking about planting a fall garden and we are hoping the heat breaks long enough to prep the area for it and get it planted. I think we will try cabbage, peas, broccoli and cauliflower. Hope it works out.

I can't believe that it is April already. This year is flying by !! A lot has happened recently... My son and his fiancee have decided to postpone their wedding a year. the stress of school, work and wedding planning was taking a toll on them. My son also has a lot of debt and wants to have time to pay down this debt. This includes student loans, car payment, computer payment and a Kay Jewelers card payment. They had just bought wedding bands so this last bill is a lot larger than normal. she has no debts right now so I think this is really smart on their parts. Her parents are tickled that they have postpone it. My daughter will be transferring to the university here in town this fall so in a little over one month she is moving back home. I am not sure where we are going to put all the extra things we had purchased for her dorm room but we will work it out. She really missed my home cooking and her boyfriend though I am not sure in what order. *smile* The garden...

This past week has been my honey's spring break and the garden was our priority. He had already gotten it tilled but we need it to dry a little to plant. After testing the soil we found it had a ph of 8.0 so we then had to research how to fix it before we planted. It needed sulfur to balance out. Finally we got to plant our spring garden. In went red and green cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce. We also have beets, radishes, snow peas and kohlrabi to plant. That will be done this week. Today we are having rain again. We are to get it tomorrow also. We tore out 2 of 5 bushes up front and ripped out some candy tuffs that had long died. Going to replace some of it with mugo pines. They tend to spread out more than up. I have sunflower seeds and lavender seeds in soil to germinate before planting. Can't wait to make pickled beets again. We are out and the kids are wanted me to buy some but I won't because I don't like them. In the next month or two we ...

It seemed like only yesterday that it was January not it is November already. Wow this year has flown. Well things are still tight here at the home front. Dh and I are still sharing a car. The budget has gotten even tighter as we are trying very hard to pay down debt. I now have $40 a week for food. I get $80 every other week and do my best to stretch it. Last night we had chili and dh took I one container I had left for lunch today. I will most likely have peanut butter sandwich. Tonight I am looking at chicken, maybe soup or just baked. I am trying to figure out what I would send with dh tomorrow if I just bake it. If I fix soup I need to decide soon so I can get it on. ~smile~ I have been very very tired recently and have had a hard time getting going in the morning. Not good when you want to try to keep up with at least a few things. Dd is still struggling at college. This is her second year there and she has already decided that it will be her last one. She wants t...

Boy was June busy.....canning a storm. I love seeing those beautiful jars filled with yummy treats for later. July has started out busy also. Hard to believe that my honey goes back to work in a month. Where has the summer gone? Our garden is still producing alot. The broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and summer squash are gone. The zucchini is reeving up for another round. We have already gotten over 30 pounds of zucchini. The tomatoes are finally starting to turn and the peppers are loving the heat. We are finally having luck with cucumbers this year. I love making pickles with then. Last year I ended up buying the cucumbers for the pickles. I need to find a dehydrator for the peppers. I want to try to make our own chili powder. We'll see what happens. I am excited that next week the animals start going back to school. I want my laundry room back. We have two chameleons, a corn snake, a tarantula, a leopard gecko, a tree frog, an Egyptian toad, and a snider skink. ...