It was quite a hot week here this past week. We did get an occasional spotty shower which helped. Then yesterday happened! Had a nasty storm come through late afternoon. Torrential rain and HAIL the size of dimes for about 15 minutes. The wind was crazy as well. Stormed over night as well.
The leaves from the trees just shredded and they cover everything. My flowers got the stuffing beat out of them and well the garden looks like crap!!!!!! What a mess. I sure hope my zucchini survive - they have been really messed up.
The tomato plants will be fine (I think) - just really beat up, as are the cucumbers. It is an absolute mess outside.
The neighbor has a really nice patio tent that he sits under (out of sun) all the time and it is full of holes.
It sounded like a war out there - it sounded as if the windows were going crash any minute and the noise was just thunderous. Quite scary for a few minutes.
But thankfully my kitties are fine as is the house (I think) and greenhouse.
Yesterday as well, saw the first groundhog of the year! It is young for sure (pretty small). He is cute, but really don't want it here. I set a live trap early in the day, but sprang it when the storm was brewing. Also saw the racoon family (5) again last night.
Geesh it is a flipping zoo around here!
- Early in the week my neighbor mowed my front yard and outback area with his rider - as it was so hot. That was nice
- I killed weeds growing in the drive cracks with vinegar and salt (didn't take long in the heat)
- Received a small unexpected check in the mail
- Refilled all the pantry/spice jars
- Trimmed the back bushes, deadheaded flowers and staked up several tall flowers
- Picked 11 zucchini this week
- Made Kool-Aid for flavor drink
- I realized that last week when I paid bills - I sent a nice payment to the wrong charge card! I generally pay for most stuff with CC to get points. Well, since I had already sent it and it was out of the checkbook it was spent in my opinion. So instead of requesting a refund - I decided to stock some with that card. I got more food for nature - then I got non-edibles. More TP and pack of paper towels (which will last for over a year), organic flea spray for greenhouse kitties, cat food, parchment paper and plastic wrap, antiseptic wipes, freezer bags, several notebooks (.25 ea.) and trash bags. Just a bunch of general stuff.
- I mowed the entire yard - front to back - on Friday after it cooled a bit
- Doing all the normal stuff
This past weeks menu:
Taco salad
Mex. zucchini hash (leftover taco meat, zucchini and potatoes)
Sausage, zucchini, mushroom and rice mix-up
Fish and mac n cheese and slaw
Fried zucchini and leftover mac n cheese
Ham and cheese stuffed zucchini boats (soooo good)
Hot dogs
Zucchini, mushroom, ground sausage and rice mix-up. Pretty tasty.
How was your week? Did you get any storms or rain this week? Hope your gardens are doing well and that you are staying frugal.
I have tons of blooms on my cucumbers this year - my golly if they all become cucumbers I will be in trouble!! LOL. There are tons of bees of all sorts and butterflies every where this year. I just love seeing that. I saw a goldfinch like no other I have ever seen, this week. I have yellow ones - but this almost seemed to glow! It was sitting on a sunflower eating young seeds and made the flower almost look dull. My goodness that was gorgeous.
It is those little things that make my day!
I hope you are all safe and healthy. Have a wonderful and frugal week.
Blessings from my humble little home to yours.
Oh my gosh, that sounds like a horrible storm yesterday, Cheryl. I hope your garden will survive. We have a raccoon that is coming during the day to eat our cat food, so I'm going to try to figure out a way to make that stop.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty darn nasty. I hope it all survives too. It was looking so pretty.
DeleteThose coons are rascally little critters. I am not leaving anything out at night at all.
I hope your garden recovers. We had a bad storm Wed. night. No hail, thankyou God! But wind and rain. The corn is leaning and we have some that is snapped. The potatoes & onions in my garden were flattened. I think the potatoes will come back ok, but the onions are iffy.
ReplyDeleteLots of green tomatoes set on; I'm going to be busy in August!
We've picked one cucumber. The herbs are looking great, just need to pull and resow the cilantro.
Our oldest son and family were here Tues-Fri. Lots of memories made with all the family, as DS2 & family came out too. Eight grandkids from ages 16-1 years old. (16, twin 14, 12, 9, 3, 2, 1) I cooked almost everything we ate. I have enough leftovers to feed us for 2 weeks! I'll freeze most of it and it will supplement our menu over the next month.
Now I will start checking our pantry. I keep hearing things are going to get bad soon and I want to be sure we are well-supplied.
Stay cool, it's suppose to get hot again.
I hope your garden recovers as well. I know we were all counting on those gardens this year.
Deletewhat fun. It sounds like you had a great visit and enough kids around to keep you ever so young!
How nice to have all that food that will supplement your regular meals. That is great. Each time you eat some of it - you can relive those days spent with the kids!!!
Stay cool as well!
My goodness that sounds like an awful storm, I hope the garden and trees and flowers come back.
ReplyDeleteTake care and stay well!
It was pretty darn scary. The trees will be ok and I think the flowers will survive. My biggest fret is the squash. We'll see!
DeleteHave a nice one.
We had a huge storm on Thursday afternoon - they called it a micro-burst rather than a tornado - lots of trees came down and there were lots of power cuts. I only got in about 10 minutes ahead of it! We had another one off and on yesterday - not quite as bad - and we are expecting another one tonight. Not unusual since it's been nearly 100F each day with high humidity. The river is really swollen and has overflowed at some spots so you have to be careful if walking near the bank and kayakers & canoeists need to stay at the south end of the river - two capsized coming over a weir further north after Thursday's storm and had to be rescued as they clung to the top of the weir - if they'd gone into the water at that spot they could have been sucked under.
ReplyDeleteIt was cool enough to go out walking this morning so a friend and I headed to the local cemetery where there are lots of trees and managed 6,000 steps. We then decided to drive down to the lake and see how busy it was on the patio of one of our favourite restaurants. There was a lovely spot in the back of the patio and the tables around us were empty so we felt quite comfortable. It was a series of firsts today - my first car trip, my first meal out, my first burger & fries since March 17th lockdown! We wore masks and drove with the windows open and the restaurant was very careful about following all protocols and it was so nice to do something normal!
On Monday I had cooked a variety of veg and then on Tuesday I made a pasta salad with chicken so that is what I ate for most of the week - it's just too hot to fuss. With that big meal for brunch I'll probably just have a plate of raw veg and hummus later so that will be nice and easy.
I live in the middle of the city but we have 1500 parks and huge conservation areas so the wildlife is everywhere. I always have to watch out for racoons and skunks whenever I take out the garbage, the chipmunks are everywhere, there is a herd of deer who will check out the flowers in the cemetery for a snack and the dog walkers do have to keep an eye out for coyote as there are quite a few in the city. I've even seen a large red fox once or twice!
Sounds like you had a wonderful day of 'firsts'. Glad to hear it. Wow that is a lot of parks in one city. How cool.
DeleteYes mam, it is too hot to fuss much about food.
I am glad I have no coyote or fox around - that would be scary. Now my brother does, and he lives about 4-5 miles from me. But he has a 3 acre woods and all the neighbors have woods as well.
Stay cool
Oh my gosh what a storm Cheryl! Glad you are ok. I hope it brought a little relief from the heat after all that. I love great neighbors and it sounds like you have a gem.
ReplyDeleteIt did bring a bit of relief. That will end about Thursday! Oh well, we take what we can get.
DeleteI have several good neighbors.
Some areas around here got hail but we didn't have any. Sounds like your poor garden took a beating. Hope it all recovers for you. The last storm kept my little dog and me up most of the night. He almost goes into panic mode so I get up to comfort him. Going out to do some weeding while it is still relatively cool. Can't handle the heat and humidity.
ReplyDeleteIt has been decent for a couple days now - that too will end!
DeleteStorms sure are scary - especially when you are alone.
Glad you can comfort your baby.
Don't over do it!
Sounds like the hail really did a number on your garden. Hope it recovers okay. We finally got some badly needed rain last week after temps in the high 90s. It cooled off over the weekend enough for me to get out and weed and put down fresh cardboard (flattened Amazon boxes) on the paths between my garden beds. The garden is doing well, except the tomatoes have become heat stressed. They are producing well, though. I have two baby cucumbers set on. The next round of spinach is coming along slowly. The carrots have taken over the raised bed and are crowding the grape tomatoes and green peppers. The cosmos, zinnias and marigolds are really starting to bloom, as are the tiger lilies and a dark red day lily that I planted years ago. Didn't have to mow last week, and there are large brown patches in the lawn. Oh well, not my grass (we lease our lot).
ReplyDeleteWent to Aldi today. They were well stocked and even had several kinds of toilet paper and had cleaning wipes. I bought a lot of staples and condiments to add to my deep pantry. I'm going for 9 mos. to a year of stock. Also bought the ingredients for the Pineapple Dump Cake you posted a few weeks ago. I want to try it when it cools down enough to bake again. I did bake brownies (put in the freezer) and tuna noodle casserole (makes three meals) over the weekend and made a large crockpot meatloaf yesterday (put some in the freezer).
I ordered two gallons of our favorite hand soap from Amazon. I hadn't seen it in stores since March. Don't know what made me check, but I'm glad I did. It wasn't a bargain ($17.99/gal), but I dilute it so it will last a long long time. It was sold out at that price as of this morning.
Out of curiosity, I checked out state's unclaimed property website to see if Husband or I were owed any money. We're not, but my son is! I sent him an email telling him to check it out. Every little bit helps.
I'd been having trouble with my 14 year old sewing machine (a mechanical White 2037) for some time, and it had gotten to the point where it was breaking needles all the time, so I knew I needed a new machine. I make hundreds of Project Linus blankets a year, so I need a heavy duty, mechanical machine that can take that much use. I didn't like any of the new machines I'd seen online. They all seemed to have mediocre reviews, and the prices are very high. Then I found a used machine exactly like my current one on Ebay! I ordered it, but when it arrived last Monday, it had been dropped by the USPS. The front and side were cracked, clips were broken, and it wouldn't stay together without duct tape. So disappointing! I contacted the seller and he promptly refunded some of my money. I stripped both machines (his and my old one) down to the chassis and cobbled together one working machine out of two. The cost was about 1/4 the price of a new machine. Yes, it is not as good as a new machine, but it should keep me sewing for a while longer. And I still have a box of spare parts.
We went through our clothes to see what was needed for winter. I ordered underwear for both of us (his was even half price!), but otherwise we're in pretty good shape. I also altered the neckline of a t-shirt for him so it will be more comfortable.
Been drying all of our laundry outside for the past month and received the electric bill last week. We had used almost 25% less electricity than last year, despite running the A/C at least 3 hours a day for the past two weeks. It's a shame we have no place to dry laundry indoors in the winter.
Used Gorilla glue to glue the tread back on the bottom of my oldest pair of tennis shoes. I figure they have one more wearing in them, so I'll use them next spring when I cut down the saplings and clean out the back of our lot in the poison ivy. That way I can throw out the shoes when I'm done. I also used the glue to glue the sole back on a pair of Isotoner summer slippers so I can get another summer out of them.
Hope everyone has a safe a frugal week!
Sounds like all your garden and plants are doing fantastic. That is great.
DeleteGood for you on wanting to keep 9-12 mos. of goods on hand. I do believe that is the prudent thing to do. I haven't been to Aldi in a while - glad to hear they were well stocked.
You sure are industrious. A shame about the sewing machine - but at least you made one whole one with extra parts for less money than getting a new one. Good fix on the shoes. You sound like me - I fix things until I just can't justify fixing any more!
Have a great one.
I can't think what day we had a torrential downpour...probably the same night as you...but only saw a tiny bit of hail. Then last night it came a downpour for a bit...just in time to give everything a drink.
ReplyDeleteThe hail was awful. My brother lives 15 minutes up the road and got none. Go figure!
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