Really Almost

It really almost feels like Fall today.  Oh it’s still hot, but I’ve got football on the TV, and I made pepper jelly.  

I was thisclose to going and getting my Fall decorations out, but I didn't.  I still have all those boxes of stuff I need to sort through, so I'm going to do that first.  Besides, once I was done with the jelly, I was already sweaty enough from standing over that hot stove and wanted to go take a shower.  

I decided to do something different with my jelly this time.  The other batches I'd made taste really good, but they're a little too loose for me.  I was reading another recipe and that one said to drain your peppers, especially if you chop them with a food processor.  So last night, I got my peppers out of the freezer and chopped them up.  Then I put them into a cheesecloth and let them both thaw and drain overnight.  I got this much juice out of them.

I'm hoping that makes this jelly more jelly like and less sauce like.  But doing this meant I only got six jars instead of seven.  No matter, it's not like I don't already have 14 jars of it in the pantry...

In garden news, I mentioned yesterday that we had some storms roll though here.  What I didn't mention is that we got 1.85 inches of rain.  That's more than we got for the entire month of August.  Well, apparently we had hail, too, which must have happened either during the ball games or after I went to bed, because I had no idea until I checked my rain gauge app.  I'm thinking it was after I went to bed, because I was hearing a strange rumbling noise, but didn't want to get out of bed to check for fear of setting the cat to yowling.  

Anyway, when I went to check my garden this morning, my poor basil had been beaten half to death. 

I went ahead and cut all the broken and snapped stems off and put them into the compost, but there is still plenty of basil left.  Not that I'm going to do anything with it.  I've got tons of it already dried and stored. 

Even before I did that, I got my little spreader thingy and spread weed and feed in the front and side yards.  I really need to get more consistent with doing that, both in spring and in fall.  I do not spread it in the back yard, because I want my clover and my purple deadnettle to grow.  For the bees and things.  

I had to take Marty Mac out of his protective custody so he wouldn't get the weed killer on him, and figured since I had him out, I might as well tidy him up.  

I pulled up the grass that was growing in his pot and trimmed away all the dead vegetation, and he looks a lot better now.  I've been so focused on my garden that I've kind of neglected him a bit.  I must do better from here on out. 

By the way, I filmed another garden journal, but since the book of faces tends to take my posts down when I embed my vlogs, I'm not posting it on the blog.  If you're interested, you can watch it here:  Garden Journal 9/13/26

And finally, a couple of years ago or so, I saw a meme that I was sure I had saved, but I can't for the life of me find it now.  It said something to the effect that a company's culture is best displayed by how your employees feel on a Sunday night, and boy do I feel that today.  After having a wonderful, glorious week off, turning those alarms back on this morning literally made me physically ill.  

I'm serious.  I've walked around all day today feeling like I want to throw up.  The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that one day, I can walk out of that toxic place and never ever go back.  Unfortunately, today is not that day.  

Neither is tomorrow.  But some day...

in 1934 more days...

Almost Fall

It has almost felt like Fall these last couple of days. Oh, it was still hot, but after the front passed through, the breeze had that crisp feeling that felt like Fall. Almost, but not quite. 

One of the meteorologists I follow said this was a not as hot front.  

 Yesterday morning, I mostly finished cleaning out the shed, and I'm pretty pleased that I finally got it done. 

I still have all of these boxes to sort through, and I've got to nag Cody to come go through his stuff, but for the most part, I'm done. 

All of this junk is ready to be hauled off,  

and guess what!  I actually...yes, I called the clean up man!  Woo hoo!  

He was going to come this afternoon, but when it started storming, we decided to put it off until Monday.  He said he'd come anyway, but there is no need for him to work out in the rain and muck and mud.  Monday will be sunny and drier.  Once that's done, it will be one more thing I can mark off my list.  

I wanted to show you this one thing I found in a box out there. 

Someone -- I can't even remember who-- gave this to me for Christmas years and years ago, long before 2001.  After the attacks, I put it away and never even opened it.  It is now up in the closet with the other puzzles, still unopened.   They're saying we will have a particularly harsh winter due to the Super El Nino, so maybe I'll work it if we get snowed in.  Or more likely, iced in.  I'm OK with that as long as the power doesn't go out.  

Even that won't be so bad, because I have a generator now.  That means I really need to get an electrician out to check that breaker, just in case I need it.  

This morning was our town's annual Downtown Jubilee, and I went as is my custom, but I didn't take a whole lot of photos this time.  I mean, they would look just the same as the photos I took last year, and the year before and the year before.  However, when I saw this old Beetle Bug, though I couldn't resist.  I haven't seen one in ages.  

I can usually pick up a few Christmas gifts from the vendors up there, but this time, nothing appealed.  There was one booth that had a whole bunch of polished rocks and gemstones, which Brennan loves, but those folks were a little too proud of their wares for my wallet.  A tiny little quarter sized stone for $15?  No thanks.  

I also found a man selling homemade apple butter, but he was very proud of that butter, too.  He gave me a sample, and it was delicious, but he wanted $15 for a pint sized jar.  I didn't want to pay that much for something Cody and Bren would likely end up throwing away anyway. 

The only thing I bought was this hot sauce for Cody. 

I thought it would be kind of a unique taste for him to try.  They had plain habanero sauce, too, but I didn't get it.  Now I kind of wish I had.  Cody is so hard to buy for, but I also keep thinking about how many of the gifts I got them ended up in the garbage or the donation box.  Oh my gosh, I don't even want to talk about their refrigerator...

How about the size of that flag?  

And the girl who sang the National Anthem did such a good job.  A little too much styling for my taste, but her voice was so strong and pitch perfect.  All in all, it was a nice little outing, even though I didn't stay long.  I made it home in time to watch all the football games -- and yes, I had the multi screen thing going at one point.  I'm trying to hurry up and get this post finished, because I'm going to need all four screens this evening.  Yes,  Navy, Texas, LSU, and Ole Miss all play at the same time. 

It ought to make for some good knitting time.  Speaking of, I finished this hat yesterday.  

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Day Dreamery

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

In gardening news, I was laying in bed Thursday night and remembered that I had forgotten a very important part to my trash can composter -- the air holes.  I got out of bed and ...no, I didn't go outside and drill air holes at 11:00 PM!  However, I did put my drill by the back door so I'd remember to do it in the morning, and bright and early Friday, that's just what I did. 

I still need to add some more browns to get the balance right, but it ought to turn out some nice compost by spring.  

The next thing I did was to pull up the last of the pepper plants and cover that bed with some landscape fabric to absorb the heat. 

Then I covered that with a sheet of Visqueen to contain that heat so that the fungus or virus or whatever infected that bed will be baked to death in the sun. 

The downside to that is this will also kill or drive out the earthworms and beneficial insects and microbes, leaving me a dead, sterile bed.  Come spring, a good layer of compost will revive it, I hope.  

And finally, I have baby bluebonnets!  

I ought to have a nice stand of them by spring time. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got football to watch and knitting to knit!  

Laters. 

Never Forget

Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.  -- Joel 1 : 3

So that we may never forget.

 

Take It Easy

I'd said I was going to take it easy yesterday, and I did.  In fact, I took it so easy I completely forgot to blog.  I thought about it once, but checked the clock and said, "I still have time."  The next time I even thought about blogging was after I'd gone to bed.  

Nothing so exciting happened that made it worth getting out of bed just to write a post, so you got a break from my drivel.  Indeed, the most exciting thing that happened was that I made nine more half pint jars of pickled peppers.  

I figured pickled peppers would be more useful than pepper jelly, though I do have enough jars to make one more batch of the jelly.  I'll probably do that before this weekend is over, as well. 

It's a good thing I made that last harvest, because I lost one more pepper plant to that fungus or whatever it is.  

I pulled it up and added it to my new hot compost bin.  Eh, it's probably time to pull them all up anyway, since I've decided not to try to overwinter these.  I think I'm going to do that this evening after the sun sets and it cools off a bit. 

This morning I cut down those three oldest tomato plants and only have this one little one left in that bed --and the basil, of course. 

I chopped them up and put them into the hot compost as well because they were in that same bed with that glob of ....whatever it is.  I think it's some kind of mold or fungus, but I'm not really sure.  It doesn't matter.  The heat in that bin ought to kill whatever it is. 

Speaking of heat, I am just about finished cleaning out that shed.  I've got a few more things to get down out of the rafters, then I can call the clean up man.  Meanwhile, I pulled this bin of stuffed animals and Beanie Babies out to sort through them.   

I'm going to donate most of them, but first, I set them out into the sunlight to air out, because they were quite musty after being in that storage building for over a decade. 

But this guy right here, his name is Bennie and he's not going anywhere.  

Bennie is the first teddy bear I ever had, and believe it or not, I didn't get him until the Christmas I was 16.  Bennie has been everywhere with me, even to Italy when I was stationed there.  He's been my friend, my confidant, my supporter throughout it all.  Bennie was there for me when no one else was.  Nope, he's not going anywhere. 

Anyway, I've got one more bin out in that shed that I need to bring inside and sort out.  If it's anything like the others, most of that stuff I will get rid of.  There is a shop here in town called Another Man's Treasure that I'm probably going to take all my trash to.  

Trash...Get it?  One man's trash...OK, whatever.  If it's something I think someone can use, I'll take it up there.  If it's garbage, then it will go into the garbage. 

That brings us to today.  I was already getting a bit stir crazy, so I decided to go do my weekly shopping just to get out of the house a minute.  I know I was making fun of it last week, but I gave in and got me some.  

I was almost out of Dawn anyway, so might as well get the fun stuff.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.   

While I was there, I bought a new mum for my front porch.  I transplanted it into a regular pot as soon as I got it home, taking a clue from Ben at GrowVeg.  He said to use a coffee filter in the bottom of your pot. which will keep the potting soil contained, but will still allow for drainage. 

It'll stay here on the back porch tonight, so it can get over transplant shock.  

Then I'll move it to the front porch and put it into direct sunlight. 

Kindly disregard the state of my porch.  Getting it swept and power washed is on the list, but it's going to have to wait until it's not so hot.  

And finally, the hummingbirds are in full migration mode.  I'm having to re-fill my feeder every single day.  In fact, when they first started migrating, I thought my feeder had cracked and all the nectar was leaking out.  I threw it away and now I'm thinking I shouldn't have done that.  Oh well, it's too late now. 

Thank goodness I had a spare feeder I could put out.  

Relief Is In Sight!

Look what I found!  

Do you know what that is????  It's a spider lily!  The first harbinger of Fall!  Oh, it's still hot outside and will be for several days yet, but spider lilies mean relief is in sight.  I'm so ready for it, too.  

It's hitting differently this year, because I want to be outside working in my garden when I've usually been content to sit inside watching TV and knitting.  It's just frustrating that the heat is keeping me from doing what I want to.  

Speaking of, I cast on a new sailor hat. 

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Day Dreamery

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

I'm thinking about casting something on with some of that fun fur I found in the shed yesterday, but don't know what.  All I've ever made with it has been scarves.  I'm open to ideas. 

I'm going to have to take it easy the next few days, so I'll have plenty of time to knit.  I've spent too much time here lately digging and lifting and doing heavy work.  This morning, the plan was to dig down to my native soil in the spot I'm going to put my hot compost bin. 

I'd tried to do that yesterday, but the ground was too hard, and so it was again today.  I got my hose and soaked it a bit, but it was still too hard to dig by hand, so I got out the old roto-tiller and put it to work.

It was tough even for that thing.  At first, it just bounced off the dirt, but I persisted and finally got the clay dug out.   Mostly down to the native soil and fairly level. 

Once that was done, I drilled holes in the bottom of the garbage can I'd bought so earthworms and microbes can find their way in.  The video I'd watched said to put seven, but my can was a bit flimsy, so I only put five. 

I was afraid if I put too many, the bottom wouldn't hold up.  Eh, it was a cheap can, but it'll do for now.  

Next step was to seed the bin with compost from one of my other piles, which should have enough microbes to get it started.  

What with it being so dry here lately and all, I have to give my compost a good watering when I'm watering the beds so it won't die, so I did that before I put the lid on it.   

Before I put the roto-tiller up, I started trying to level the spot I want to put my three round beds into. 

Again, the poor tiller just bounced off that hard, dry ground.  I got that spot a little bit leveled, but I'm going to have to wait until it's rained a bit before I continue.  This is pretty much where I plan on putting these three beds.  It's almost level but not like I want it. 

I've mentioned before that I want at least a two bay compost system, preferably three.  But two will do for now.  Last night, as I was laying in bed, I said to myself, "Self, you've got those two big green bins out in the shed that you were going to throw away.  You can use those."  

That's exactly what I did.  I'd already cleaned one out last year and used it to store old potting soil in, which I've used all of that up since then.  I got that one first and drilled holes in the bottom of it. 

Then I moved the compost pile that was on the ground into that one, and set the other bin -- after I'd drilled holes in it as well- next to it. 

That will be for fresh stuff, and after about six months to a year, it'll be broken down enough to move into the second bin.  But I expect you don't want to hear all of that.  The last thing I did was to cover the bins to keep the critters, mainly my cat, out of my compost.  

She seems to think my compost pile is her own personal litter box.  But I did drill holes in the lid so oxygen could get into the bins.  

Soon, I'll go out and chop down my old tomato and pepper plants, but I got one last good banana pepper harvest before that happens. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these.  I bought some more canning jars, so I'll probably make pickled peppers out of them.  Those have much more usefulness than pepper jelly, but I do want to make some more of that, too.  I'll use some of my frozen peppers for that.  

At this point, I've got so many banana peppers, I might not even plant any next year.  That will free up at least one bed for something else.  I'm leaning towards yellow squash and sweet potatoes. 

And finally, I'm almost ready to call the clean up man.  Not mentally, mind you.  But the shed is just about where I want it to be.  Another day or two and it will be ready.  

Now I'll just have to get myself ready.  That's the hard part...