Blooms Abound

My yard has been alight with blooms. Chrysanthemums are nice and purple and blue after the yellow daffodils finally gave in to the end of their flowering season. The azaleas were gorgeous and the honeysuckle has been very nice, although, I'm missing the sweet smell that has clouded the area now that the blooms have finally given up. The tiger lilies up the street are profusely blooming and I'm going to miss them, too, when they are gone.

My cucmbers are also blooming. While my father, who is much further south than I, has been harvesting squash and cabbage like mad over the past week (all planted on Good Friday, you know), I have been patiently waiting for my garden to really take off. The broccoli is nice and large and I'm going to see something happen with that very soon, I think. And all this rain has really set my garden into motion. I have onions peeking out from their little corner and getting larger all the time. I expect to be harvesting them in a month of so and I'm excited for it. 

I feel so behind with all of these folks that are harvesting out of their gardens right now when I could scarcely get started until mid-April. Our last average frost date is April 15th and while I started my seeds well before that, the cool evenings we experienced around mid to late April and lasting into the first couple of weeks of May, stunted my efforts after I transplanted. I don't dare get anything planted before the 15th. The last few major snow storms this area has seen have been late April storms that blanketed us with feet an feet of snow and ice.

While I had an excellent mortality rate with my plants this year, only losing two and those to the cat, I'm pleased that our modest garden is thriving. But I'm still jealous of those that are getting much more out of theirs right now than I am.  I didn't want the entire bed covered with plants at the beginning. It seemed too overwhelming for the kids to have anything going on that would be that busy. They are perfectly happy with our several plants and are looking forward to when I get pumpkins in the mix later this month.

I did finally get my shamrock bulbs planted. I know I'm late but now that I have some time on my hands, I'm experimenting. I've never grown shamrocks before and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them.

Like everything in the world, life is so uncertain these days. I was hard pressed to spend the money to put a bed in with the lay off hanging over our heads. Disheartening. But I planted anyway in hopes that I could at least get the kids that experience.They have enjoyed helping to take care of the pots of herbs. We snipped some garlic chives and I made a garlic chive butter sauce for smashed new potatoes.  One of their first direct experiences with taking out of the garden, cleaning, and then making immediately into dinner.  Both of them were glowing with pleasure when they told their father that they had, just that day, gone out and harvested some of the chives in the meal.

It has been an exciting time. We have broken through and really started and finished some of the long list of chores around the house. The amount of useless stuff is shrinking. We are in a better position now than we have ever been and neither of us are working. Instead of having a room of boxes of memories that just take up space, we have part of a closet. Instead of an overwhelming amount of junk the kids wanted to keep from school, we have convinced them that it is ok to let some of it go instead of having it piled everywhere and taking up valuable space in chest of drawers.

I have finally sat down and started going through the piles and piles of crafting magazines a girlfriend of mine gave me and have been scanning off what I want out of them and the rest are going to the used book store to see if we can sell them for credit for other books we want. I've been avoiding this for some time because it meant that I would actually have to organize the craft armoire that has been in such disarray since we moved in last October. But I finally decided that I needed that space for things that I couldn't let go of, like the pictures of the kids and the ribbons they have won and their baby books from what seems like yesterday. 

It has been an interesting month. And I am almost happy with the results. We don't *need* to be pack rats. My husband has been carrying around an old server that hasn't worked in years in the hopes that it would magically start working again one day. He realized when going through the box that he had no idea where the power cable to the things was hiding so out it went. We are in a large enough house that it can accommodate all of the things we need with precious room to spare and that is a nice thing. I hated being so cluttered into the last house we lived in. No room to put a desk because the rooms were too small and every inch of space was covered with furniture. And if it wasn't there was a box dutifully standing by never being unpacked because there was no place for it. So sad.

But now we're moving right along and the massive amounts of craps has dwindled to almost no crap at all.

Homemade Alcohol

I got a wild hair to start making my own wine not too long ago and so I researched and read and went down to the not so local home brew store and bought my basic equipment.  I decided to start with apple and then went on to white grape cherry and white grape pomegrante. All turned out very well, I am proud to say.

Then my husband found out about a meadery that was a little out of town but an easy drive so we headed down there.  The man was happy to give us a taste of all types of mead. Dry, semi-sweet and sweet, melomel and metheglin and a few others.  He gave us some tips on making mead and so we bought some honey and some wonderful honey pecan jelly and headed home to start out batch.

We got our single gallon of mead started and it is fermenting nicely.  We've nearly finished the mead we purchased that day and mores the pity because we, and all of our friends that have had it, have thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm very much looking forward to this new batch!

Whew!

Did I mention being unemployed can really give you a lot of time to work on those projects you didn't have time for before? I have been working on my garden, disheartening as it may be that I don't have a job at the moment, but I've been working on it. We put up the gazebo, built a raised bed, I've done a lot of container gardening, too. I've done a lot of herbs and they are doing so well. My main problem has been pest management because, again, it rains for three days and then we have three days of nice skies, then it rains for three days again. I've been really on top of getting the DE on the plants and keeping it on them. But I'm still seeing the signs of my leaves being eaten. Worse, slugs and snails have moved in. I've been battling that.

But we're counter balancing. I put the bird feeders near the garden and I'm seeing a sharp decrease in insects. The ground squirrels are entertaining as they forage through the little existing bed the bird feeder sits in. The bed is very old but the soil in it is actually pretty good.  I've got some things planted but I don't think they are going to do anything. There is a huge tree shading that spot so I'm going to be getting some shade loving flowers instead.

I've been doing a lot of research into aquaculture the past three weeks and this guy:



is amazing.  He has built a system in a greenhouse, wrote software to monitor it and has it almost completely automated.  Wow.

I'd love to build one.  But for now, I'm going to keep on with my cucumbers and onions with broccoli and herbs.  My cat is evil as she destroyed the okra, cauliflower, and tomato.  Ahh well, there is always next year and indoor gardening.

Into the Raised Bed

Velvet, the vicious attack cat, had decided that since she refuses to use a litter box inside the house and wants to go outside the house to do her business that she wants to use my raised bed.  Grr.  It's been an up hill battle to keep her out and I have near anxiety attacks when I go out in the morning to check my bed.  She managed to dig up my cauliflower.  The one thing my husband was very enthusiastic about.  And she nearly killed the okra.  So, garden fence went up around the bed because she is killing our veggie garden.  The little rat.  I'm not entirely sure that I'll be able to get another cauliflower out there before it's too late.  But I'm still going to give it a shot.  The worst thing that can happen is it will fail and we'll have to do it again this fall.

I'm discovering that absolute joys of homemade bread in the bread machine.  The garlic herb bread and the wheat bread I made were great and made really awesome sandwiches.  While I make homemade bread by hand, the bread machine has afforded me more time to do other things and I'm guilty becoming spoiled by it.  Fresh hot loaves of bread for dinner and then for toast for breakfast make all the difference.

I suppose the bread machine opens up time to fight with my youngest over his new contact lenses.  He has a lazy left eye and the doctor wants him to use the contacts to wake his eye up and get his brain to acknowledge the fact that it can function.  Getting them out was hard, to the point where we had to go through several sessions of me pushing and prodding his eye and him wincing when my finger hit eye instead of lens.  And putting them in.. oh my.. what a battle.

I have no need to contacts so this is new territory for me and he is being as brave as he can and is accepting all the poking and prodding to his eyes with as much grace as a hyper six year old can muster.  I'm proud of him for this fact.  He doesn't want the contacts and already had the frames picked out for his glasses before his eye exam even started.  He wants the glasses and not the contacts but I'm just not sure glasses will be as helpful as the contacts.  After we got the contacts in, he was able to actually read two lines further down from the SECOND line where he stopped before we put them in.  He could see the big letter in the line of three and that was it.  Poor kid.  The school caught this and I'm glad they did, too much longer and his brain might not want to register that the left eye is functional.  So now it's a routine of cover the right eye and work the left.  He is taking that pretty good, too.

I will get pictures up.  I will get pictures up.  I will get pictures up.

Vinegar in Various Areas

Use vinegar in the steam cleaner to reduce soap bubbles.




Mix vinegar with lind seed oil and use it to clean your wood.



Clean eyeglasses by wiping each lens with a drop of vinegar.



Soak new wicks for several hours in white vinegar and let them dry before inserting. Propane lanterns will burn longer and brighter on the same amount of fuel.



Deodorize the air. Vinegar is a natural air freshener when sprayed in a room.



Turn a chicken bone into rubber by soaking it in a glass of vinegar for three days. It will bend like rubber.



Deodorize a room filled with cigarette smoke or paint fumes. Place a small bowl of vinegar in

the room.



Remove decals or bumper stickers by soaking a cloth in Vinegar and cover the decal or bumper sticker for several minutes until the vinegar soaks in. The decals and bumper stickers should peel off easily.



Cleaning windows by using undiluted Vinegar in a spray bottle. Dry off with newspaper.



Prevent patching plaster from drying by adding one tablespoon vinegar to the water when mixing to slow the drying time.



Plastic can be cleaned and made anti-static by wiping down with a solution of 1 tablespoon of

distilled vinegar to 1 gallon of water. This will cut down on the plastics' tendency to attract dust.



The colors in carpets and rugs will often look like they have taken a new lease on life if they

are brushed with a mixture of 1 cup of vinegar in a gallon of water.



A mixture of one teaspoon of liquid detergent and 1 teaspoon of distilled vinegar in a pint of

lukewarm water will remove non-oily stains from carpets. Apply it to the stain with a soft brush or towel and rub gently. Rinse with a towel moistened with clean water and blot dry. Repeat this procedure until the stain is gone. Then dry quickly, using a fan or hair dryer. This should be done as soon as the stain is discovered.



Spots caused by cola-based soft drinks can be removed from 100 percent cotton, cotton polyester and permanent press fabrics if done so with in 24 hours. To do it, sponge distilled vinegar directly onto the stain and rub away the spots. Then clean according to the directions on the manufacturer's care tag.



Sponging away grease and dirt with a sponge dipped in distilled vinegar will keep exhaust fan grills, air-conditioner blades and grills dust free.



Leather articles can be cleaned with a mixture of distilled vinegar and linseed oil. Rub the mixture into the leather and then polish with a soft cloth.



To loosen old glue around rungs and joints of tables and chairs under repair, apply distilled

vinegar with a small oil can.



Soak a paint brush in hot vinegar, then wash out with warm, sudsy water to soften it up.



Patent leather will shine better if wiped with a soft cloth which has been moisten with distilled

vinegar.



To add a pleasant scent to a room while at the same time removing an unpleasant odor, add

cardamom or other fragrant spice to a bowl of distilled vinegar and place in the warmest corner of the room.



Varnished wood often takes on a cloudy appearance. If the cloudiness hasn't gone through to the wood, the cloudiness can be removed by rubbing the wood with a soft lintless cloth wrung out from a solution of 1 tablespoon of distilled vinegar in a quart of luke-warm water. Complete the job by wiping the surface with a soft dry cloth.



Dirt and grime can be easily removed from woodwork with a solution of 1 cup of ammonia, 1/2 cup of distilled vinegar, and 1/4 cup of baking soda in a cup of warm water. This solution will not dull the finish or leave streaks.



Stubborn rings resulting from wet glasses being placed on wood furniture may be removed by rubbing with a mixture of equal parts of distilled vinegar and olive oil. Rub with the grain and polish for the best results.



Wood paneling may be cleaned with a mixture of 1 ounce of olive oil and 2 ounces of distilled

vinegar in 1 quart of warm water. Moisten a soft cloth with the solution and wipe the paneling.

The yellowing is then removed by wiping with a soft, dry cloth.