Pepper Jelly!

I have made jelly!  

Banana pepper jelly, to be exact.   I don't think I chopped my peppers finely enough because they're all floating at the top.  I think next time, I'll puree them in the food processor instead of chopping them by hand.  I thought about straining them out, but none of the recipes I saw said to do that.  Most of them showed jars filled with chunky jelly, so I left them.  

From what I understand, this isn't the same as...say grape jelly that you spread on toast.  This kind, you can spread over cream cheese, or put it into a bowl and serve it like salsa according to the serving suggestions I saw.  I expect you stir it before serving it.  Oh well, it's all a learning experience. 

The only issue I had with the process is that one of the jars didn't ping.  When I went to check it, I had cross threaded the ring, so the lid was slightly open.  I very carefully unscrewed and replaced the lid, and about 15 minutes later, it finally pinged.  It had only been maybe 30 minutes, and the jelly was still very hot -- so hot I had to use an oven mitt --so it should be OK.  I'll put that one into the fridge and eat it up first anyway, just to be on the safe side. 

I have enough peppers to do at least one more batch, but I'll have to get some more jars.  The recipe said it made six, but I had enough to fill seven, plus a bit more that I put into a container in the refrigerator.  

Other than that, I took it pretty easy today.  I've been battling some sort of minor bug.  I've been just sick enough to feel lousy, but not sick enough to feel sick.  Just dragging and a bit feverish.  I spent most of the day watching The Mentalist and Emergency! reruns.  Since season six of The Chosen is coming out in November, I've been wanting to watch through the first five seasons again, but let me tell you, their app leaves a lot to be desired.  I can watch it on Prime, but if I do that, I'll have to deal with ads.  

While I was doing all of that, I cast on a new sock yarn hat.  

Yarn:  Forbidden Fiber Co. Fortitude

Colorway:  Starfall

Pattern: Sockhead

Needles:  U.S. 2.5 / 3.00 mm

I bought this one at the most recent Fiber Fun In The 'Sip back in February.  It's the only thing I bought this time around.  I love sock yarn, but what with these steel toe boots I have to wear now, they wear out too fast.  Maybe after I retire, I can get back to wearing hand knit socks.  

Right now, it's just not worth it. 

And finally, Marcy has a new garden journal up.  If you listen closely, around 14:20, you might just hear a familiar name.   

Thanks for the shout out Marcy!  I might just have to start video journaling my garden more often, too.  

Later, though.  After it cools off some. Right now, I'll be huddling in the air conditioning for the foreseeable future. 

I Needed That

I must have needed a good nap, because I slept in until 6:00 this morning.  It was glorious, I tell you.  Plumb glorious!    

I know, I know, some of you are out there saying, "6:00 AM???  That's not sleeping in!"  Well, when you're used to getting up at 2:30, it is.  And after this last week, yeah....  It's been such a rough week at work, and it's not just the heat or the early hours.  It's the mental stress more than anything. 

Orders have been coming down the line so slowly -- like a single 4 piece order every 15-ish minutes, so there really isn't that much for us to do.  But that doesn't stop them from standing over us hollering that we aren't getting our numbers.  "Us" being the brazers.  Not tubing.  Never tubing...

I'd fully intended to blog during the week, but in the end, I was just too mentally worn out to form coherent sentences much less put together anything that would be even remotely interesting.  When nothing happens but work, sleep, work, sleep...there isn't much to talk about.  

Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week was that I saw a dust devil in a cotton field on the way to Walmart.  Or The Mart of Wal, as my friend Marcy says.  And the automatic brazer caught on fire, but that happens all the time.  The funniest part about that was that the new brazers were freaking out, while us old school folks were going, "Oooh, pretty!"

Oh Fireworks Lovely Ha GIFfrom Oh Fireworks Lovely Ha GIFs

Even so, life goes on, garden life that is.  I had gotten a little worried about my baby tomatoes.  Their leaves had started yellowing and they'd gotten some brown spots on them.  I did a bit of research and decided they'd picked up some sort of fungus or something.  Add that to the heavy rains we'd gotten...when was it?  Monday?  

They were still in the tray and spent quite a while sitting in water before I could empty it out.  I picked off the spotty leaves and gave them a good spray with Neem oil, then moved them into a shady spot to recover.  By last night, they'd picked up enough that the five biggest ones went into their new homes.  Then I rigged up a bit of shade cloth with some tuille I'd bought at Walmart. 

This morning, I put in their drip irrigation bottles.  

After a break to cool off -- because I was already drenched in sweat -- I cut up some boxes to use as mulch.  While I was out there, I decided I didn't like the way the shade cloth was pulling the stakes over, so I re-did it.  

I like that much better.  It still lets plenty of sunlight through, but takes just a bit of the edge off.  I'm hoping by the time the tomatoes get too tall for this rig, it'll be past the hottest part of the summer. 

The last thing I did before coming in to sit in the air conditioning was to move another marigold into this bed.  It was being smothered where it was.  I'm hoping putting it into direct sunlight will perk it up. 

Of the first two I moved, one died completely, and the other one is struggling, but hanging in there. 

Adding the mulch should help keep the roots cool and the soil consistently moist, so maybe it'll survive.  I also moved a basil plant from the spares in the planter to serve as a companion to the tomatoes. 

Just the one this time.  I learned my lesson with the last bed!  I hope it survives, but if it doesn't, there are plenty more where that came from.   

Before I even started doing all of that, behold today's harvest. 

I went ahead and picked the banana peppers while they were still yellow, just to have a different flavor to them.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of those cayenne peppers.  Some will be strung to dry, then I'll grind them into a powder and give it to the kids.  The rest I guess I'll freeze.  One good thing about growing your own, you don't have to worry about explosive diarrhea.  

You just have to figure out what to do with it all.  The homegrown produce, I mean.  Not the diarrhea.  

Needless to say, I didn't make it up to the Farmer's Market on the square again.  That's the problem.  I want to get out and work in my own garden before it gets too hot, and usually by the time I'm done, the market is over.  It's only from 7:00 -- 11:00.  Maybe next week...

In knitting news, I finally finished the sock yarn hat I've been working on for what seems like forever. 

Yarn:  Euphoria Knits

Colorway:  The label is illegible

Pattern:  Sockhead

Needles:  U.S. 2.5 / 3.00 mm

I've mostly stopped doing that labeling thing in my blog, except for the cast on and the finished object.  It all got a bit tedious, if you must know. 

And finally...well, it needs no caption.  Other than to say my morale needs improving...

That's one thing I miss about living over near the airport.  We got to see the National Guard practicing all their maneuvers, because we're not too far from a training center.  Every so often, they come over the house where I live now -- we had some Chinooks fly over not too long ago-- but usually I can't see them for all of the trees.  

It doesn't stop me from running outside to try, though.  

Rise

I got a Rise!

Remember him?  He was the zero gravity indicator for the Artemis II mission back in April.  He was so cute, and so many people were asking where they could get one that the NASA Exchange started selling them.  

Mine arrived yesterday.  Yes, he was a bit pricy, but hey, what's the point of working all of this overtime if I can't spoil myself a bit every now and again?

What The?

First it was Bonnie Tyler.  Then Randolph Mantooth.  

Now, I wake up this morning and find out Sam Neill has also died. 

It's been a rough week for celebrities, and that's not even counting Senator Lindsey Graham.  

Somehow, it just doesn't seem right to blather on about peppers and tomatoes, so I'll just leave you with this.  My friend Brian posted it on a social media site.  It's the photo that finally broke me. 

The Los Angeles County Fire Museum set up a memorial for Randolph Mantooth.  

I know this is short, but I hope you'll understand.  I just don't have it in me today. 

Pickling Day

At long last, today was the day.  Pickle making day.  

I found the recipe I'd used year before last and got to work.  Quite frankly, I don't know why I was so nervous about it, but I was shaking the whole time.  I guess I have an unreasonable expectation that the jars will explode when I put the hot brine into them.  It's never happened before, but still...And yes, I do warm the jars in hot water before adding the stuff to them.  

The spices vary from recipe to recipe, so there is some wiggle room there, but I use celery seed, mustard seed, peppercorns, and turmeric.  There were three jars that I cut up some cayenne and put those in there, too, just for a little added kick.  There isn't much kick to sweet banana peppers anyway, especially since I let them ripen a little more than normal. 

The only hitch -- well one of the only hitches -- was that I didn't have quite enough brine for the eighth jar, so I put in what I could and just made refrigerator pickles out of that jar.  The other hitch was that like a dummy, I forgot to wipe the rims before I put the lids on.  I didn't remember until they were already out of the water bath and cooling on the counter.  

Only two of them didn't ping, so I'll just put them into the refrigerator and give them to Cody and Brennan when they come through at the end of the month.  They'll eat them up before they go bad.

The second batch went much more smoothly, and after 12 jars of pickled banana peppers,  

I still have this many peppers left. 

I might take some to work and see if anyone there wants some.  Now comes the hard part -- cleaning up the kitchen.  

And finally, Dear USPS, 

This is why you're broke.  My package should have come from Ohio straight to Jackson, but no...

you had to send it on a sightseeing trip all the way to North Carolina, then to Memphis, then finally to Jackson.  

Stamps are nearly a dollar apiece because you want to send packages on vacation.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get that kitchen cleaned up so I can enjoy the rest of my day of rest. 

Oh!  I keep forgetting!  All of my snakes had a birthday this month.  Since Onyx is the only one I have an actual hatch date -- July 24, 2004 -- I've given them all a defacto July 1 birthday.  Onyx, Sunset, and Slider are 22, and Blaze is 21.  

Happy birthday, my slithery friends. 

Harvest Time

This has been such a long week, but it's finally over.  I'd actually started a post last night, but after I heard about losing Randolph Mantooth, I didn't have the heart to finish it.  I just mowed the yard and went to bed.  

What I was going to talk about was that Group Leader Shark went on a tear yesterday morning, yelling at all of us.  She said, "You brazers, when Cuz asks why you didn't get your numbers, do not tell him because there was no work ready.  That's no excuse for not getting your work done!"  

And we're all wondering just what exactly they expect us to do?  If tubing doesn't have any parts ready, are we supposed to pull orders out of our behinds?  Or maybe we can pretend braze pretend header assemblies.  Do those count?  I mean, if there's no work, we can't do any work.

I suspect she only said that because it makes her look bad--not having work ready for us-- but sometimes it's not her fault.  If the front office isn't adding orders to the schedule, tubing can't make the parts we need.  Yet, we're still supposed to somehow braze 2100 headers...go figure. 

I was going to get out last night and plant the baby tomatoes, but after a long day at work, then enduring the madhouse that is Walmart on a Friday afternoon, doing two loads of laundry, and mowing the yard, I just didn't have it in me.  

So I got up this morning and gave all the garden beds a good watering, then set out to harvest my banana peppers.  They sorely needed it, too.  Some of my plants were so loaded down they were falling over, even with being staked.  I even got some of the yellow ones, just to give the plants a break.  

I was thinking when I get around to making pickled peppers, I could mix the colors for variety. I've also heard that the redder they get, the sweeter they get and lose some of that peppery tang.  At least one of them went into the chicken salad I made this afternoon.  

I had a leftover rotisserie chicken that I'd put into the freezer, which I'd gotten out a few days ago.  The day I made the Spam salad.  I'd had a hankering for chicken salad, but it wasn't thawed yet, thus the Spam.  But I think I told you that already.  Anyway, it was thawed by today, so I cut it up and made the chicken salad I'd been wanting for nearly a week.  Then I boiled down the carcass and made chicken broth for the tomato soup I'm going to make.  Some of the recipes I saw called for vegetable stock, others for chicken stock.  All that to say, 2 1/2 quarts of chicken broth are now safely tucked into the freezer.  

After I harvested the banana peppers, I went back and harvested quite a few of the cayenne peppers. 

Most of these will get hung up to dry, but I'm thinking about slicing some and putting them in with a couple of the jars of pickled banana peppers, just to give them a little kick.  

And look, the first three of my Roma tomatoes!  

They're not as red in real life as they are in the photo.  I'll give the a couple of days, then they'll be just right for a sandwich.  

The last thing I did before it got too hot was to really give my basil a good whacking.  

Unfortunately, most of this went into the compost, but I did pick off a few leaves and dry them in the microwave.  I put them into an old mayonnaise jar with one of my silicone packs until I'm ready to use them.  Next year, I'll know to plant two basil plants.  Not six.  Two.  

I hated to waste so much basil, but at least it's opened up that bed a bit so more air can flow around my tomatoes. 

By the way, can anyone tell me what type of plant this is on the bottom shelf?  

It doesn't look the same as the other cacti.

I pretty much spent the rest of the day watching Emergency! reruns, and avoiding slicing up all of those banana peppers.  

I remember when it first came on.  I was...almost 8, and my brother was almost 10.  Our next door neighbor was staying with us while his parents went somewhere and he wanted to watch this new show about firemen who go out and rescue people.  Of course, since he was company, we let him watch what he wanted and that's all it took.  One episode and we were hooked.  

The funny thing to me was that what was considered cutting edge equipment in 1972 looks positively stone age these days. 

Speaking of, I noticed that every time I tried to dry my sheets outside, the slightest wind would tump over the whole clothes horse.  Naturally, I did what any red necked American would do.  I bought some tie downs for it. 

Worked like a charm.  Fresh, line dried sheets are now back on my bed, ready for me to crawl into it.  Which, this being the weekend, I don't have to do that quite yet.  I think I will go fix me some supper and watch more Emergency! on Roku channel. 

Laters...

A Tisket A Tasket

A green and ....green basket.  

I've been wanting a harvesting basket for a while now.  I was even looking on Amazon for one, but the ones I like are pretty expensive.  But then I remembered, Cody's old Easter basket is still out in the shed!  

As soon as I got home, I went out and got it.  It's still in pretty good shape, so I'm going to clean it up and disinfect it.  

I think it'll do for now, and I'm going to need it this weekend because all of these peppers are going to get picked and pickled. 

Well, maybe not all of them, but most of them and certainly all of the bigger ones.  And most of these cayenne peppers will be harvested and hung to dry.  

I'm not sure about these tomatoes, though.  

Some of the channels say that this is when you pick them because this is when the flavor is at its peak.  My only concern is whether they'll last long enough for the rest of the tomatoes to ripen.  I've looked at several recipes, and they all say around two lbs of tomatoes.  I know at least one of them will be put into a tomato sandwich, but I chose Roma tomatoes so I could make something I could freeze-- like soup.  There is no way I could eat that many tomatoes before they all went bad. 

Last year, I only had one plant, and I still ended up putting a bunch of tomatoes into the compost.  It was such a waste. Thus, soup to go into the freezer.  

Now for a bit of bad news, one of the little marigolds didn't make it.  

I'm not really surprised, though.  Between being eaten down to a nub by slugs, smothered by my lemon balm, picking up what I believe to be powdery mildew, and on top of all that, being moved, the poor thing had been through the wringer.  The other one is hanging in there still, so maybe it will make it.  I'm thinking that I might buy some seeds and direct sow some instead of trying to move another plant.  

While I was out there piddling, I managed to catch a shot of a giant bumblebee on my zinnias. 

This morning at work, Demi-god was telling me he has a water leak under his house.  Someone had told him it would take $20,000 to fix it.  I said, "Noooo, it shouldn't cost that much," and advised him to call around and get quotes from different plumbers.  I gave him McCrary's name, which is who I use.  He inherited his grandfather's house, which is old and has lots of problems, but still a plumbing repair shouldn't cost near that much.  

He told me they were also considering tearing the whole thing down and just buying a trailer house and putting that up on their property.  Considering the state of the old house -- Demi-god told me it's burned down twice --that would probably be their best bet.

And finally, I'm watching The Repair Shop right now.  

Well, not right this very second, because I paused to go take a shower, but I'm about to put it on again.    It's good for what ails you. 

No Spam

I'm sure you will all be pleased to know that I did not have Spam salad for supper tonight.  Instead, I had a fake egg omelet with cheese, onions, and banana peppers from my garden.   And I'm sure you are all wondering what fake eggs I used.  It's a product called Just Egg.  It's the one thing I've found that tastes the closest to real eggs, but it is pretty expensive so I don't buy it very often.  But I do enjoy having an omelet without the allergic reaction every now and again.  

In garden news, I got brave last night and left my baby tomatoes outside all night long.  I figured they're going to get planted sooner rather than later, so they might as well get used to it.   Or I might as well get used to it, that is.  They seemed fine when I got home from work, so I'm going to leave them out again tonight.  

I waited a bit until the sun started going down, then I moved the two marigolds that were under my lemon balm into the new bed.   They're pretty bedraggled, and I hope they perk up now that they're able to get full sun.  

Those little pellet looking things are slug and snail killer.  It's supposed to be a type that is safe to use around vegetables and stuff. 

I hope I didn't mess up by moving them, but they were not going to survive where they were anyway.  I've got one more that is looking pretty rough, so I may move it, too.   Not today, though.  I've already had my shower.  Maybe tomorrow.  

Abrupt change of subject, I lied to you a while back, when I said I wasn't going to follow Mr. Let's Play Piano Methods videos for level 3 of my Alfred's course.  I'd kind of gotten a bit frustrated there for a while, because it seemed like all he was doing was saying, "I don't like this fingering, so change it to that fingering" without really explaining anything about the song or techniques or whatever.   But I decided to give him one more chance, and so far, the first video for the level 3 book was OK.  I guess he figures that by the time you get to this level, you ought to be able to figure out your own fingering.  

I'll let you know how it goes. 

And finally, what kind of people do I work with?  Demi-god came out of the men's room and he was pretty hot.  It would seem that someone decided to use the floor instead of the toilet, and I'm talking about a pile, not a puddle.  And it would also seem that Demi-god stepped into the aforementioned pile.  Yeah, he wasn't happy about that.

What I want to know is, which one of my coworkers isn't potty trained?  The world may never know.

Back To The Grindstone

I had Spam salad for supper tonight.  

If you want to know how my day went, there you go.  I had Spam salad for supper, and it was Great Value Spam at that. 

What is Spam salad, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  It's just like chicken salad, except I used Spam instead of chicken.  I cut it up, added some mayonnaise and mustard, sweet relish, and a couple of fresh picked peppers from my garden.  It was pretty good if I do say so myself. 

So, what's been going on since I last blogged?  Not much to be honest.  I finished another sailor hat yesterday afternoon while watching...I don't even remember what I watched.  Don't envy me my exciting life. 

I'd stayed up Saturday night to watch the fireworks in Nashville -- which is what Disney was showing, and the Macy's Firework Extravaganza on NBC.  I wanted to watch the ones in DC, but by the time they came on after the weather delay, I was already in bed.  I found a video on YouTube, which I'll watch eventually. 

Sunday morning, I got up early and spread some fire ant treatment in my yard, and this time, I watered them in.  At least the front and side yards I did.  By the time I got to the back, I was tired and decided to pray for rain instead.  But the extension office says to spread the stuff three times per year, and use the holidays to remember that -- Easter, Independence Day, and Labor Day.  It's a never ending battle, I'm telling you. 

While I was out there, I took apart the little pedestal I had made for my birdbath.  Last year when I put it out, I had discovered that it was leaning, so I got a bit of old landscape edging and filled it with some red clay.   After some months, I realized I just didn't like the way that looked, so yesterday I pulled up the edging and dug out most of the clay.  I smoothed out the little bit that was left, and put the birdbath back. 

It's still not level, but I think it's the bath itself and not the ground.  Anyway, I think it looks nicer without the edging and it'll be easier to weedeat around. 

The last thing I did before settling down in front of the TV for the rest of the day was to get my compost pile started up again. 

I used that thatching rake I bought last year, and it's wonderful.  It pulls up the perfect mix of greens and browns, just right for composting.   Green from the weeds, and brown from last year's fallen leaves.  One day, I want to build a proper compost bin with three bays in it.  I don't know when I can get that done, but I want one. 

And that brings us to today.  My little baby tomatoes are growing like gangbusters, 

so I splurged and bought a new set of tomato cages.  These ones were kind of pricy, but I had some cash back dollars saved up from my Prime Visa, which covered the cost completely.  So far, I'm liking them much better than the cheaper ones I'd bought before.  The connectors are much sturdier, and you can add height as the tomatoes grow. 

It looks like I'll be able to fit five tomato plant in this bed, along with a couple of marigolds and basil plants. 

I might even plant them this weekend.  I'm sure they're big enough.  And of course, I'll bore you with all the details.  

I think I'll also pickle some peppers, too.  

Provided I can find that recipe I used last time...

That's it for now.  I need to go water the zinnias, and it's already past my bedtime.  I'll try to post something more interesting tomorrow.  Provided something interesting happens, that is. 

Goodnight. 

America 250

Happy 250th America!  

I didn't do much of anything special for the holiday, other than my usual stuff.  One of my coworkers had asked if I was going to fire up the grill, but I said no.  It's a lot of work firing up a grill for just me.  Even when I used to grill, I'd grill a bunch of meat all at once -- like and entire 12 pack of chicken thighs-- then freeze it.  I thought about it, but decided I just didn't want to.  Instead, I got some of my pulled pork out of the freezer and ate that. 

Pretty much all I did was to watch A Capitol Fourth on YouTube, because I missed it last night.  I had thought it would be on today, so I watched Project Hail Mary on Prime instead.  Last night, that is.  If you haven't seen that one, I highly recommend it.  It was so good, and seeing Ryan Reynolds as a geek was priceless. 

Today I watched the musical 1776 and The Patriot, as is my custom.  I had tried to find some sort of celebration on TV, but nothing jumped out at me.  I watched the ABC coverage for a bit, then turned it over to C-Span, but gave up on those and put my movie in.   Other than that, it's been a quiet day so far.  

My town has never done anything for Independence Day -- at least not since I've lived here.  They do the big fireworks show in June for Thunder On Water, so they don't have any on the 4th.  I'm sure once it gets dark, there will be some on TV.  Of course, you know me.  What I really want to watch is a nice historical documentary.  I'm sure I can find one somewhere. 

In the meantime, I went out early this morning and got that garden bed finished.   First step was to get the last of the red clay out.  I did my best, but there are still traces of it left in the bed. 

After a break to cool off -- it wasn't that hot, only 77°, but the humidity was 92% so I was drenched in sweat anyway-- I moved the two piles of compost into the bottom of the bed. 

All of the gardening channels say that's how to deal with clay soil, by adding compost.  The benefit of this is that my piles were already chock full of earthworms, most of which I managed to move into the bed with said compost. 

Another break to cool off, and I filled the rest of the bed with garden soil.  It took four bags, but I think it's full enough to start planting.  

I know it will settle some with the next rain and all, so I'll top it up after the growing season is over.  And of course, I'll re-start my compost pile...probably tomorrow.  The last thing I did before settling down in front of the TV was to finally record that garden vlog I've been promising you for so long.  

I won't embed it here, because a certain social media site doesn't seem to like it when I post my own videos.  You can watch it by clicking on the link below.   Fair warning, it's raw video, not edited in any way.  And yes, I know I have an accent.  One day at work this week, I managed to make "hat" into a two syllable word.  Even I heard that...

Garden Vlog 2026

And finally, before you go, let's take a moment of silence to remember those who were lost in the devastating floods in Texas last year. 

And join me in praying that they find the one little girl who is still missing so her family can finally lay their baby to rest.