Tongue Alert!

Couldn't resist "i'm awake Mom really i am" Ms Maggie who sleeps and wakes up with her tongue hanging out....

The heat is on 119 by this weekend! Where oh where are the monsoons!

Water dripping.....

       Fountains - plumbed and running! We found these last year on craiglist for a great bargain then i broke my wrist and well work stopped, they are now rewired and sitting in a barren backyard. Once summer is done plants will be coming in- all the roses that were there were relocated to the cabin in California. Will be doing more "desert oriented" plants fencing does keep Maggie out should have done that when she was a puppy!

Tomatoes....

                                              "my you have grown"
 Second set of leaves coming on, hopefully when we are gone next week for 4 days they make it!

Update 7/1 moved into separate pots third set of leaves almost ready for planting. Will be put in the garden by 7/15.

Beautiful door...where will we put it...

Another project hopefully will be picked up this weekend as well great find on Craiglist for 75.00....not sure where we are going to put it but probably our bedroom door.

Wash sink day...

This mornings project! Took forever but sawed and sawed unit i cut the pipe off another good workout for my wrist and then off to the garage with paint remover. There was cream,blue,gray and minty green all over it. Once done in the tub it went for a scrub and soak down.....2 hours later ready for pickup to be installed into the cabinet this weekend. Did find the same sink on ebay 300, but this one was "free" it was in the upstairs sitting room.

Oddities and reindeers.....

It's been kind of a roller coaster week.....have upset my parents once again and they in turn have upset me. Is it when you get older you get weirder? Sent Dad for Father's Day (late) a book,card and put in one of Robert's beers, thought ok he could taste it as Robert post his beer making on face book. All i was trying to do was "invite" them into our world a little bit next thing i am being compared to a "upstanding Lutheran church goer who killed their parents with antifreeze" as when they drank the beer (didn't read instructions i sent with it) Dad stated it was bitter, Mom called told me what was i thinking and never send that again and hung up. Long story of it all what does one do? Dad stated mom was just protecting her "nest"- what the hell i am her kid from the nest i am not the one in the newspaper and i do love them.  I don't know how to respond and even if i should.......


On the upside went with Kristi to her needlework chapter meeting, ladies were wonderful such positive influence versus how the week started. Needless to say was a good day and then we went looking for thread for reindeer's i am going to attempt to make. Here are some that she made, i can only hope my hand is up to it, cutting them out was a little rough turning and twisting but good excersize for the hand!

The perfect home....

At the garden this morning determined to find and pick as many as i could as the heat is climbing daily, i came upon a bird's nest. Now that is one smart bird! Shade, protection water & food and all within a wings reach! Here is another bucket oh tomatoes! Dug up the rest of the potatoes afraid the gopher & heat would take them. Pulled and cleaned up another section where the yellow cherry tomatoes

were..getting ready for green beans. Got some coffee grounds at Starbucks this morning for lettuce beds.

New baby's...

                      Fall Tomatoes starting to sprout 6/21/2013 already!

Red fig 11/2” pear shape 85 days

Lemon drop 1/2” tart cherry 90 days

Isis Candy Cherry 11/2” clusters 80 days

Ukrainian Purple 4” plum 80 days

Trophy slicing tomatoe 80 days

Cherokee purple slicing tomatoe 90 days

Black Sea Man -small plant 75 days

Came across this searching for tiles...

                                             What a beautiful kitchen!

TMT!

TMT - too many tomatoes! Prince Borgehese- these started on 2 whole filled cooky sheets this morning dusted with "Herbs of the Provence" - next batch and there will be more - will be dusted with Robert's "Pepper dust". Dried tomatoes are as addictive as potatoe chips! What a great way to keep the summer flavor through out the year.

What a morning...

Ok, some days i feel like i don't get anything accomplished and it's already noon! So i stopped and thought of what i have done so far this morning- reality check!

Watered plants

Filled fountains

Trimmed sage plants in front & picked up olives

Off to the garden picked tomatoes  & peppers-need to bring tape to fix drips on the next trip up

Came home Maggie & me took shower

Roasted tomatoes & made salsa

Canned 6 jars of Basil tomatoe sauce

Cleaned up my "briefcase" on my computer

Sent email to Exile about Grandpa selling his boat & truck

Did the dishes

Made labels for canning jars

And it is now 12:10...ok i guess i did do a few things ......slacker...

Early morning....

Another beautiful morning at the garden i guess i do kind of live there but every morning is another surprise. With barely enough charge in my camera he sat and waited for me to try 3x to take his picture before he flew away. See the roadrunner on top of the 8ft sunflower!

Finally sent Dad's father day present out hope it makes it intact will see what he thinks of Robert's beer it probably will be a bit strong. I booked flights to go in October to see them, Dad called like 3x yesterday he has now sold the boat, the truck and continues to sell fishing stuff daily. Won't seem like the same house without them in the garage. Told him i will have to get a loan from him all this money he is raking in to pay for the new ice maker we have to get installed this week in the frig. Another nail in the "GE" brand coffin!

Movie review....

Superman Movie- Thumbs up !

Went to go see it on Sunday surprised it was not packed, stays very true to the original story with of course room to add on another movie-but was worth the price!

PuddleJump2

Yes there is a new "Puddle Jump" in the driveway! Thought i better add these pictures before the car gets too old. The rav is at Exile's 280,000 miles and still going. Here is the 2nd "PuddleJump" i can only hope it goes as long.

Who would have thought a beetle.....if we never rented one probably would have never bought one, fate. I will have to admit it was the first car i have felt comfortable in ( except the payment/price) since the Rav...only had that for 17 years. Just think all those miles and all the places you have been wouldn't that be cool if the car recorded all that info and you could look back at it, but i guess i am the rare breed after all who keeps the same car for 17 years...

Veggie Updates

 Finally eggplants- only 2" long but will be ready for picking by the end of this week. This is the Rosa Bianca.

 Melons are still few but growing-watermelon has tons of flowers with a few fruits possible heat is taking a toll.

 Okra is starting to take off 2 more weeks and we shall be eating some!

 Peppers, peppers and more peppers. Found whitefly damage to the leaves will need to spray with soapy water possible due to sunflowers?

Last but never least my garden guard dog. We left a bit early for the garden this morning than usual around 5am, parked the truck let her out got ready to start watering the citrus and i hear her barking! I go to look and she is heading back to me we had a homeless young kid maybe 20 to 25 sleeping in the garden. Ms Maggie did not care for that at all and let him know full Mohawk and growling all the time keeping her distance and by my side. I felt bad told him it was private property and he couldn't be sleeping out there, i can only imagine if one of the other gardeners found him, drama would occur. It is a nice safe place to sleep with water and veggies made me think we should be all thankful of all we have even though it seems like a burden at times. Glad he was "ok" and not some weirdo....but sad i hope he wanders thru life ok.

Tomatoe Soup...mmm good!

Packed away in the cabinet for a cold winter afternoon homemade roasted tomatoe soup....another busy morning in the kitchen.

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up

by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man

by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage

by taking away people's initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them,

what they could and should do for themselves."

Abraham Lincoln

 

Not a big movie fan but think i would like to go see the new Superman movie this weekend. Of course Kevin Coustner is in it so that must of been what attracted me to it....love the Dance with Wolves movie! Will see if Robert wants to go when he gets up, still sleeping, of course J woke me up 3:00 jumping on the bed. I will have to work on keeping him awake today.

Sadness in the community garden....

One had died and 3 others were stuck in the netting. Not sure who put on the web material on some of the trees but was not only was it ineffective it was deadly. This guys head was stuck in the webbing he let me gently push his head back through and all 3 flew away once i removed the netting, needles to say no peach is worth a bird dying for....or being trapped. Will have to talk to the board this fall and get "proper netting" for next season. Just glad i decided to walk over and check out the trees.

Finally melons..yeah! Though with all the replanting due to birds taking the seeds i have absolutely no idea which kind this one is but it is in the cantaloupe/honeydew section. We will know once we slice it open :)

And who says you can have "green plants" in 110 degrees! Back shot of the garden with our 3 plots. The sweet potatoes in the bin are coming along wonderful before you know it vines will be everywhere.
Ok, sun is up and it's getting hot time to call it quits and head home!

Spent the morning at Manor Gardens in Phoenix. It being the first year the garden has a long way to go. Many plans in the works! Will be nice once we get the trellis in for the roses and the walkway. Will be redoing some of the raised beds this fall and putting in ground planting-never was a fan of raised beds in Phoenix-lot's of work ahead!

One thing that has done extremely well has been the sage. The dirt in the raised beds needs to be tested for mineral deficiencies. I have always been of firm believe plant in the dirt of where you live versus bringing in "soil". The sage though has proven me wrong.

Well guess what arrived today!

This was a find on Craig-list chair was only 65.00 but needed to be recovered, the guy threw in the leather he had. Sit Well Upholstery came and picked it up and for 250.00 recovered it making it work with the leather we had. They did a great job on a cool chair, the leather is an off purple color.

This is the brass plaque on the back of the chair and all of the wood was totally refinished, one less project for me. I hope it last another 100 years.  Also shampooed the carpets today since i had to stay and wait for the delivery. Kristi let me borrow her carpet cleaner. To think i was going to replace those carpets almost 7 years ago, granted no kids they are lasting alot longer! Maggie is the worst ok maybe not we all contribute to the mess, but they look great now!

Peanut Butter Vegan cookies...kitchen officially closed for the day! Going to sit down have a cup of coffee after i jump in the shower after all it's only 3:00 in the afternoon! Maggie has been sleeping all day i must have worn her out at the garden, plus she had the peanut butter container for lunch. Full belly sleepy dog.

Just what i thought 2 jars with 1/2 jar for us in the frig. I had never made plum jam before i will have to make it again it has a nice tartness to it as does rhubarb.

Plum jam on the way ....only 3lbs from Kristi's Santa Rosa Plum tree - first crop
but jam is the best way to savior the taste even if it is small. May get 2 jars...maybe one for her and one for us :)

Liked this one so much, posted it on the garden patch facebook but had to post it here as well. I am so excited to have basil and tomatoes...if only the heat would stop then it would last ....

Another busy morning at the garden and in the kitchen...it never seems to end made a fruit salad, black bean & corn salad , of course more pesto & cilantro spread. In trying to decide what to do with all the tomatoes i found a recipe fro tomatoe soup! It was awesome ok i know it's 112 out there but "cold tomatoe soup? If Robert likes it i see doing a few more jars up~it is sooooo good!

Besides playing in the dirt....i will never have those beautiful nails and hands unless i break my wrist again..not!...here are the tiles for the bathroom redo in California. I can hardly wait to get started i have never tiled before Kristi is going to show me the ropes plus i have been reading up on line tricks of the trade. I can only hope it comes out as nice as i have envisioned in my head. The green glass tile was a great find normally 5.98 a tile found at a closeout place for .83 each! Originally was going with white tile on the floor but do like the look of the black and white plus with it being a 12x12 square that will speed up the process a bit.

Can you see the forest in all the trees.....i always seem to over plant! The garden is packed! I crammed the tomatoes at the rear of the garden so we would have room for melons but decided it wasn't enough room so we got another plot. Needless to say the tomatoes are crammed and overflowing past the fence, we may have to even re-fence the plot due to the weight of them. Here is a few notes regarding the ones planted for my reference for the fall planting & next year.

Taxi- yellow- always good though was not as productive this year due to overcrowding
Cherokee Purple- ok but not as fruitful as others a bit over rated
Ceodsa- still waiting for them to ripen ....
Dwarf Roselle Purple- dark rosy purple- could have a whole field of these! Awesome!
Prince Borgehese- red- very prolific has taken over the whole corner good meaty sauce tomatoe needs LOTS of room- only plant one! continues producing in the heat
Pink Honey- great tomatoe very prolific
Striped German- another great heirloom very prolific
Frankenstein Black- Awesome-WOW!
Pinky Tuscano- awesome flavor heirloom bubble shape-keeps going even in the heat
Early Girl- only because i wanted to add in a non homegrown plant needless to say there was nothing "early" about them
Pink Honey? different shape possible mismarked?- bit of a disappointment large teardrop shape just now ripening have not tasted one as of yet the plant is loaded the heat though may prevent them from ripening
Kortena Dwarf- very good bright red medium size tomato might be one to grow again next year not a large amount but steady producer

Well i also have 3 or 4 no name plants...next year i think i will do tags on the top of the cages as when they get larger it is harder to remember what is what. This is only the tomatoes! Also in the same plot is basil/celery/cukes/sunflowers/green & yellow beans and yellow squash.....

Basil is coming in strong pesto is so yummy! Another early morning trip to the garden. Of course had to bring Maggie for her morning chase with the tennis ball how does she do it and just wants more and more!

We finally have a new sign as well one that matches out logo! The sun was coming up fast.....

Back to the house one worn out dog the sun coming up heat on the way another 110 day- back to reading the Sunday paper...and to see if the other half has risen out of bed yet.