Corn :(

Last year, we grew popcorn for the first time. It did very well and although we had to constantly fight the raccoons, we got a decent harvest.



I documented it here.




I went out yesterday to take down what I was sure was going to be a pretty pathetic harvest. This year we had a drought and we stopped watering the garden in fear of our well going dry at some point.

Sad looking, hmm?

We had a hailstorm Friday night, too.

Most all of it had these holes in it, something was getting fed.

My helper

That's it, I count 25ish ears, I think I'll save it for seed next time.

The Chamomile has got to Go

It's yucky.




And a pain in the neck to harvest.





And kind of ugly.

Well, it is now...I've not been good to it:(

Honestly, I haven't messed with it at all for several weeks and it is quite overrun with other friends.







So the Mr. thinks it best for me to try to pull as much out by the roots as possible before we plant my new thing in the space.




I was pulling away yesterday morning and realized that my backside was toward the street the whole time, so the passers by probably saw this:

Source-Google images

In other news, look at my mint go! I've been snipping some most every day to make tea, too, so yay!

See the little sprouts?

There they are in the middle.

Have a great weekend:)

The Mint

 Spearmint to be exact


The failed mint row in my tea garden is now filled with 11 small cut-lings that I propagated in this manner.


I got the mint from one of our neighbors and this seems to have worked.

Here it is in sprouting stage. I used a clear plastic egg carton with the top cut off for the tray.

Happy mint :)

These went in 4 days ago...they're growing!

Amazingly all 12 cutlings survived and rooted, but there was only space in the row for 11 of them, but I couldn't bear to throw one out:

Thanks to the Mr. for suggesting the pot.

More Herbs and More Gamer Stuff

I harvested the row of oregano a couple of weeks ago and it had been drying. I think I have enough. The same goes with the thyme. I didn't realize how much there would be. And all this in a drought.

Left to right: On the stem, de-stemmed, stems.

We (by this I mean the Mr.) may have to remove about 2/3 of it and we may be able to put something else there, yay! I dreamed last night that I bought some pineapple weed at a going out of business quilt store, so maybe that could take some current herb space. I just need to go find some.


One of our neighbors has the most delightful spearmint (we did, too, but it was killed with the adding of dirt to our swampland...I don't want to talk about it) and I'm trying to get a cutting to root so we can plant it in my failed mint row.  She gave me an open invitation to get some of hers any time, but I don't want to be skulking around her yard several times a week, so I'd like my own:)

Left to right: Lemon Balm, what was supposed to be mint and is a big mess o' weeds, chamomile

 Switching gears....




My son and I also have been tinkering around with the Super Nintendo again. This time with the games. Did you know there are batteries inside that hold the memory for the saved game files? Well, you do now and after 15-20 years, they die. They can be replaced though.

A collage....fancy

We used the instructions here:

We did not solder the battery back on though, I used electrical tape, as the battery doesn't really need to be attached to the arms, just touching to make a connection. Once the cartridge is put back together, it will make the connection okay.

Have a great weekend!

Harvester of Catnip

...that would be me.

Before

What I brought in

What's left

I can't imagine what it would be if it had rained at all this month.

Garden Chamomile Tea- Take One

 I spied a few chamomile flowers that were ready to be picked, not enough to set aside to dry, but just enough for a cup or so.

They are not completely ready here, but were when I picked them.

I put the few in a glass, boiled the water, poured it in, and let them steep for a while, like I always do.

Pre-steep

Steeping

The tea smelled wonderful, was a golden beautiful chamomile color, I iced it and took it along with me to drink at my in-laws after dinner.





I took a sip....not tasty.


Bitter is the exact word. Very bitter. I have had chamomile tea lots of times and have never had this experience before.


We did plant the Roman and not the German type as it is a perennial and we were hoping to just have it kind of take over, but blek!


Well, researching after the fact, I found that the Roman variety is bitter-er.


See here and here .


I don't mind a bitter-ish tea and I drink all mine without sweetener, but good-night! I am going to try to mix it with some other herbs and see if that makes it better.

Summer in March

 

It has been so beautiful here for the last few days.

I hope it lasts!

My tea garden is starting to show some signs of life...yay!

Chamomile

Catnip right there in the middle

Lemon Balm or Melissa....my personal favorite, I hope to get lots and lots

Don't forget to post your first post (this is the last time I'll plug this, really) if you haven't already. Don't be shy!

Have a great weekend.

Popcorn!

I was wanting some popcorn yesterday and we happened to finally be all out of the store-bought stash.

That meant time to start using our garden produce.

Back in September we harvested.

My handsome fellers

What beautiful colors!

I took a few cobs out of storage yesterday.

Taking it off the cob can be a bit tedious and painful...

But very very yummy!

It was great, and it worked, and I think we shall have delicious popcorn through the winter.

My stove top popcorn method: Cover the bottom of a pan with oil. Put in a few kernels, once those testers are popped add enough to cover the bottom of the pan (I don't measure). Wait until popping resumes and shake pan to make sure none of it burns..burnt popcorn isn't so great. Once popping slows considerably, I take it off the heat and wait another minute or two. Transfer to big ol' container and salt and/or butter as desired.

This post is linked up at This Good Steward!

Don't Sit There I Just Cleaned That!

I'm thankful for removable cushion covers and a nice line-drying day!

Just kidding,



I won't say that;)



I decided not to clean windows yesterday as it was sunny and I remember from last year's window washing that it is best to clean them on a cloudy day. So I'm hoping for some cloudiness this week without rain for just a little bit.



Instead I removed what could be removed from the other two couches and threw 'em in the machine. I will clean the rest the hard way later. 


I also seem to have an awful lot of kitchen work that is keeping me busy, but I guess that just goes with gardening, and /or buying fresh food in bulk. Whew!

Hello wheat spout-lets

So far the week has started on a good note, and I'm taking some advice that it isn't important if everything is super clean! If my whole list gets done and I lose my peace, or neglect to show the love of Christ (i.e. giving my children the impression that clean windows are more important than they are) then it is definitely not worth it.

Our neighbor's fire pit. An inviting area for the kiddos to roast weenies or just sit and talk to him....a great neighbor.

Pesto!

Today I'm linking up with Petra's Wednesday's World of Work at This Good Steward.

Basil from our garden...check!

Walnuts I bought from the Farmer's market that no one wanted to fight with...check!

Fancy food processor....no check.

There's no way I'm going to do all of that...Mr. Blender says.

My lofty goal was to pesto up all that basil, but after finding out my blender wasn't up for the task, and neither was I doing it by hand, I did a little pesto and the rest of my basil is being frozen and dried.

No one but me eats it anyway.

Mmmmm: frozen pesto cubes:)

Corn!

Friday evening the popcorn came down.

Many hands make light work...mine were photographing

Here's some of it, it's almost too pretty to eat.

A glorious, sun drenched evening makes me happy:)

Summer Ramblings and Garden Happenings

Rain...check it out!

We've been downright busy this last couple of weeks.  Being really quite the boring homebody who doesn't much care to shake things up in any way or be too out of the normal routine, I was apprehensive about being nudged out of my comfort zone.




First, we had my nephew stay with us for three nights and then it was a trip to the lake to take him home. VERY FUN..I have the suntan to prove I was away from the computer all day. It was a perfect day for swimming and the much needed rain held off until we were ready to get out of the water.




Then I was asked to babysit for some grand-kids of a dear couple at our church for the first part of this week. They are small and needed a lot of attention, so my normal routine was pretty out of whack, but I prayed that the Lord would give me patience and a servant's heart. It went very well and we had a great time.

I also banished the kitchen drudgery blues with some old tunes yesterday.  It takes me back....

I loved this comment from the youtube video, it sums up my feelings- It used to be about the music, man.:

I can't believe they recorded "Pour Some Sugar On Me" 10 years after they did this work of brilliance. I always feel like I have to defend being a Def Leppard fan ...."No, really, they were really a great heavy metal band."

The garden is going well-ish. The broccoli got started too late, but we did have a little. Our tomatoes are just starting to turn and the potatoes look promising. The Mr. dug a few up just to check.

I'll see you in the skillet;)

There's one

Peppers! We've never had peppers grow for us.

Not sweetcorn, but you can tell it's Indiana just the same.