Around The House and Gardens

What a wonderful mess of yarn and color... the pumpkin is from my garden.  I've picked four so far.

I've just bought a really neat book on Granny Squares...I'm rediscovering them and they're so much fun.

It's a great way to use up all the little balls of left over yarn and end up with a really groovy blanket.

The little ones are by Tera.  She's pretty good at it.

Close up.

I went to Red, White and Blue (a local thrift store), and found all kinds of treasures.  I loved this paint by number!  The colors are great, pale greens, pale aquas, and beiges.  I painted the frame a shade of green I created using aqua and camel.  Nice.

Yep, painting the frame gives it a completely different look...instead of hunter or hunting cabin....enchanted forest in a Grimm's fairy tale!

I also found a complete set of pink Boontonware!!!  I'm going to use these!  They were pretty dirty and stained up.  Magic erasers work wonders.  I got the whole set for $7.95.  Hopefully they won't break as easily as glass when they inevitably hit my slate tile floor.

Chickens in the mist...and boots.

Baby chicks are growing!

So is the summer garden...a bit overgrown!  July is always the worst month for my garden.  At least in the weed department, but most plants are growing their hearts out during this time.  Veggies don't produce much.  They just can't take the heat.....except okra of course.

Waiting This Out

Good things have been happening lately around here.  Really good things and bad things.  Like four baby chicks hatching and three surviving.  The third one to hatch had a herniated yolk.  It was such a bad case there was really nothing I could do.  For once I didn't really feel anything.  The baby chick suffered then finally died.  No tears ...no nothing.  Not like me at all.

A baby chick with a herniated yolk just seemed sad.  Sad....flat sad.  No tears sad.  Lately life has seemed flat.  It's not flat.  It's not flat at all....it just seems that way  Sometimes life seems flat.   At the very same time my baby chick struggled for breath my Father-In-Law was doing the same thing.

We got the call on the morning of my 40th birthday.  Paw Paw wasn't responding.  He never did revive to any great degree.  Although his eyes and his mouth tried to move to tell us something.  Maybe that he heard us?  Maybe he wanted to tell us what was wrong.  He died eight days later.  He lived 83 years.  83 years.  Not long, but long.  I knew him 20 years.  Long, but not long.

I have shaken the flat feeling....somewhat....shake, shake, shake.  My brain will over rule the emotions that I feel soon.  I just have to sit, be quiet, and wait this out.

Just a Note on Gardening During Our Hot Louisiana Summers...

...really just a note. If you find your garden being devoured by bugs....well it's just Louisiana. Don't despair..and think that your a gardening failure!  I find that June, July and August are our worst possible gardening months. The pests, the heat, the humidity...well not a very good combination for growing much. I find this year that our very mild winter left plenty bugs alive and kicking to cause havoc this summer....and they are.

...but don't be dismayed....there are some things that seem to love and if not love at least live and keep producing in oppressive rainfalls and heat...Okra, eggplant, peppers, and melons. Although all of these do like their feet dry. So try and put them in a raised bed or spot if possible and give them a little breathing room to let the moisture dissipate.

I make my girls a yummy summer snack they devour....yep and it's okra. Not slimy okra, but crunchy okra.

Crispy fried okra:

okra (what ever ya got in the garden)
1 cup corn flour
1 cup flour

Mix flours together. Cut okra into 1/4 inch rounds. Put in bowl and stir to get it's natural stickiness all over it. Place okra in flour mixture and stir. Then place okra in sieve and shake out excess flour. Deep fry until light brown and crispy. Drain well on paper towels and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.

Eggplant

You can fry eggplant too. Just peel and slice eggplant in rounds. I add a little creole seasoning. Dip in egg and milk (whipped together) then coat with the corn and wheat flour mixture. I call this the Mississippi style of frying eggplant. If you want Italian fried eggplant for eggplant Parmesan...coat with Italian breadcrumbs before frying instead of the corn and wheat flour.

...and peppers....well there are a million things you can do with peppers. I chop them up and use them when cooking all the time. I dry the extras and save them for winter. I roast some...you can stuff them and bake or fill them full of cheese coat with batter and deep fry....

....my favorite are the melons...and bugs, I am keeping a close eye on you...you can't have the melons!  The water melons are growing nicely.   Some are close to 10 lbs already!  I have moon and stars and orange glow varieties.  I also have a few large banana melons getting close to maturity...beautiful.

One of the Two Weddings from This Weekend

Sewing Lately & Zucchini Muffins

My husband spied a 1958 electric Singer sewing machine in the back of a flea market in Columbia Mississippi.   He thought it was amazingly cool....I thought it would just be a hunk of cool junk to take up precious space in my home.
Byron cleaned it up and oiled it....and unbelievably it works charmingly!  No actually wonderfully!  I'm in love with it now.  I broke two machines previously trying to hem Byron's jeans....this machine went straight through three layers of jean material without even hesitating!  I am so impressed....It looks really cool as well.  This machine is 54 years old and has been stored Lord knows where and it still works....I'm working on my third modern machine in the past 10 years!

Here's my most recent plastic machine purchase...and this is the heavy duty one.  It is a little fancier and does some stitches the other doesn't, so for light work I still use this one.  I'm more familiar with it as well.  Lately I've been on an apron sewing kick.  I made one for my friend Christy for her college graduation and five other ones to sell for my daughters to make money to go Peak.  It's a youth meeting for our church affiliation.  I've sold them all.  I'm thinking about making more.  I sold them for $22.00.  I think that's a pretty cool price.  I may post future ones on my site to see if anyone is interested.  You may remember me posting about this 1920's apron pattern from Amy Barickman's book "Vintage Notions".

This is by far my favorite way to store thread.  It is so convenient  to look in and easily see what thread you need.  I use a little tape to secure the thread to the top of the spool if it doesn't have one of those cool tops that pop up a little to wrap and secure the thread under.

Here are five of the aprons I did.  I tried to choose really cool or vintagy fabrics.  The roses seemed to be everyones favorite.

I love these things!

I've also been crocheting edging onto cool flannels for baby blankies.  They're on the large side so I guess they could be used as lap blankies as well.  Thinking of selling these as well.  I crochet or knit in the car when my husband is driving.  That way I don't feel so useless or keep annoying my husband by shrieking and gasping at what I consider dangerous driving!  New Orleans during rush hour can be pretty bad.

Made zucchini date muffins with all the extra zucchini.  They were yum!  I'll post the recipe soon.

Also this is the best red beans and rice I have ever eaten (this is the beginning stages of cooking it...would you like that recipe too?)  Thanks to my neighbors.  They planted plain old Camellia red beans.  This is what came up.  Amazing yummy beans....much much better than the dried ones....So amazingly better.

Recent harvest!  I've had to pick the tomatoes green to keep the bugs from hauling them off!

Saturday

This Saturday was busy busy! First I did flowers for a small wedding. I love this bouquet...peonies, old garden roses (O'Hare), mini roses (porcelina), white roses (polar star), and white peonies with a hint of blue grey dusty miller here and there.  I love dusty miller in bridal bouquets.  It's so feminine and lacy!  The O'Hare roses actually smelled wonderful.  Which is an oddity for the roses I can acquire as a florist....love these roses!

I loved them so much I made a bouquet for our church....and instead of sharing them like I usually do...I brought them home!  They make my heart melt and my eyes all dewy....no really they do!  Just Gaaargous!...as my youngest sez!

...and here is my youngest...inspecting the chair I took out for Maw Maw Vero to sit on when we had a blowout on the trailer on our way to Mississippi.  There's my Byron changing it in five minutes flat....he is the man....well I made the girls get out of the car and move away from the interstate for "safety".  Then I got the bright idea that if any of them needed to "pee" they could take advantage of the tall weeds on the side of the road......

.....thanks for a very observant Tera Bear (my oldest)!  She noticed a BLACK WIDOW!...and then...

...ANOTHER...AND ANOTHER...AND ANOTHER...We counted 10 in all in a small area.  Black widows dutifully protecting their egg sacs!   Oh quiver quiver!  We'd probably have been safer in the car...no one was bit thankfully.  Byron said it was a good thing no one needed to "pee".  It might have been awkward in the emergency room!

So we made it safely to Mississippi to check on our property, water the trees we have planted and do some work.  So far we have planted 2 camillias, 12 blueberries, 4 pecans, 3 peaches, 3 plums, 1 quince and 1 apple...  Next will be pears, figs, and more apples.   I'd like to build a pavilion for an outdoor kitchen soon.  The roof will catch rain water for use, and I would like an attached pergola for growing grapes.

I've finally identified this tree.  It's mayhaws!  and the property has plenty of them.

I can't get around without my handy boots.  Before my Father had his stroke...he asked when was I going to quit wearing those "ugly boots".  When they wear out...that's when!

This is an area of the hill that was cut and damaged somehow.  Maybe when they clear cut it.  Anyway the water rushes this direction down into the creek.  We're trying to stem the erosion by placing small trees we cut down across it, planting shrubs and plants, and seeding grass.

The blueberries are really doing well on the slope.  They seem to love being right on the edge of the larger forest.

The trees are helping as well.  You can see the sand beginning to cover the edges of the tree.  So I'm hoping this soil is no longer making its way into the creek and away!

The trees are doing well also.  Here is one of the pecans.  We mulch the base of the trees with boughs cut from other trees.  This helps to retain moisture.

Wonder what kind of berry this is?

Here's another little tree doing great.  We gave them all a nice drink of water while we were there.  Hope it lasts.  There's no rain forcasted for the next ten days and it will be well into the 80's.

Around The House and Gardens

Yesterday after packing my little nerds off to school....(It was Nerd day!) ...

...they make perfect little nerds....

....I put a deer roast in the solar oven...with sage, rosemary, red pepper, garlic and onions...all from the garden...This was the yummiest deer roast I think I've ever cooked....

Garden update....told you it's grown quite a bit...

....tomatoes dripping...I've harvested a lot already....a few weighed 13 ozs...almost a pound!  This is a picof some of the smaller ones...

cukes, gypsy tomatoes, and Lima's!   Gettin' big!  The Lima bean vines are dripping with clusters of Lima bean pods...

My Italian red flint corn....

Sunflower Row!

Siamese Basil...this basil has a sort of licorice taste...nice but very different than sweet basil...

...a huge happy sun flower face!

Sky and Sunflower...lovely...

Poona Keerah...Indian Cuke

Banana Melon...big melons that taste like cantaloupe!  Yums!  I guess I'll be tying these big babies up on the trellis....

More happy faces.

A little of a recent harvest....The green beans are producing prolifically...so are the squash and cukes.  I'm convinced the earlier you get the seeds in the ground the better.   The pests haven't been that much of a problem yet.  Caterpillars on the tomatoes...pick 'em and squish 'em...yep barehanded.

Artichokes!

Figs!

Persimmons!

My attempt at a Hugel Kulture bed.  Not very accurate yet, but I'm working on it.  I'll tell you more later.

My banana tree is growing!

...and making babies!  OH yes this is a good sign.

Some tomatoes ripening up.  I pick them as soon as they show a light blush of color and let them ripen inside the house.  Just put them on the counter.  They don't need to be in the sun.  I do this to keep them from any lurking pests.

Pie Punkin'!  It already has orange starting to show!

Peaches!  I picked 20 lbs!  None made it into jam.  We gobbled them fresh with juice dripping down the elbows.  It that doesn't make you want to plant a couple of peach trees nothing will!