That CAN'T Be Comfortable!

• I had to snap this pic the other day. It was just too funny, the fact that Jenny was actually sleeping in this position.
• Tori, Jenny is a large-ish dog. About 60 pounds. She's long & leggy and looks something like a slender german shephard, except she's white with some "biscuit" colored fur down her spine. She's got lovely big, brown eyes. And when she's happy, she actually smiles. *grin* Anyway, in this picture she's laying in her kennel (one of those kind you'd pack a dog into for transport in a plane or such). It's a large kennel, but just right for Jenny's bed.
• And she's got an old quilt in there. A blue & white, tattered old thing that I try to keep washed. She loves her blankey. *grin* She nearly freaks when I have to take the thing out and wash it, then she gets all weird when it's freshly cleaned and I crawl inside her kennel to put the folded thing back in neatly. She climbs in after I'm done and pulls and pushes and rearranges it to HER liking again. *grin* Then she lays in there and gives me this look like she likes her blankey nice and clean, but for pete's sake would I let HER do the arranging?!?! *wink*
• So, in this picture, she's laying in the kennel on her back, with her head at the inner edge of the door. Her legs are in the air, but leaning against one side-wall of the kennel. Looks very uncomfortable. But she was actually asleep enough that when I took the picture, she didn't even open her eyes. I've never been able to understand how animals can sleep like that.
• (It reminds me of how one of our cats used to love climbing on top of the printer we had when I was growing up. She'd sleep in the indentation on top where the paper would pop out after a printing job. Considering it was almost always turned on, when we were kids, we figured she liked it so much because it was warm. That cat was pretty well anorexic. Didn't have an ounce of body fat on her.)
• Ok. So I just had to share that pic of Jenny with y'all.
• **********
  
  I DID get to watch my movie this weekend, and read my books. I'm actually just now into the 4th book in the series and LOVING this series!!!! The author is AWESOME!!!! The main female character in each book is a very strong, healthy woman. Of course, they've all got their issues that they're working through, but they're WORKING through them and not hiding from them. At the same time as being strong, healthy women though, the women are also not adverse to letting a guy take control once in a while. It's the knowing when it's appropriate to give up a bit of control, and let somebody else take over. And the guys are very strong, very assertive (hell, they're vampires! *grin*) and of course, sexy as hell. But, at the same time, the guys don't have a problem with letting the woman be their own person. The guy characters handle the woman's personality with the understanding that the woman IS her own person and capable of her own thoughts, wants and desires. And even when the guys take control or go into "dominant" mode, the author has written them in such a way that they're not control freaks, or permanantly want to "dominate" the woman in the story. Simply that the woman has momentarily given over control to the man, and he handles the responsibility with respect and care.
• Did I tell you I LOVE this author?!?! *grin* I actually passed the first book off to one of my coworkers, and now she's hooked. She's given me back the first book already, and probably starting on the second by now (she'd already started something else by the time I gave her the second book), and when she's finished that, I've already finished book 3, so she can then borrow THAT one, and by next week I'll have book 4 finished, for her to borrow as well. *grin* I also love being able to share books I enjoy with friends.
• After finishing book 4 in this set, I'll probably go ahead and start on _Dies the Fire_ again. That's the next book in the "Apocolyptic Fiction Book Club" thing that Sharon's doing over at Casaubon's Book. I've read it before, but it's a good book and I think I'll enjoy reading it again.
• As for watching the movie this weekend. It was good. I enjoyed it. The same coworker who's borrowing this set of novels from me, also lent me her copy of "Stargate: Continuum" to watch this coming weekend. She said "Continuum" is even better than "Arc of Truth". I can't wait!
• And, seeing as the hubby's going caribou hunting again this weekend, I should have no problem finding the time to watch my movie. I think I might also borrow "Narnia: Prince Caspian" to watch with Tay. She wanted to see that in the theater, but we never got around to going to see it.
• **********
• As for the gardening efforts, our time here is nearly at an end. The leaves are turning on the trees already, and very quickly. My zucchini plants will give me one more good-sized zuke, and a bunch of teeny-tiny babies. I have yet to get the rest of my turnips picked. And, I'm doubting I'm going to get any beets from my veggie bed this year. I should pick my swiss chard here tonight or tomorrow, because it's possible I'll get even one more picking out of that, if I do one now. The tomato plants are wilting, though I'm trying to protect them by covering them in a clear-plastic drop-cloth. They've each got 2 tomatoes on them. The plants on the side of the house (the plants in the big plastic planter) I've pretty well given up on. Those tomatoes are so tiny as to be smaller than cherry tomatoes. But, the two plants in the back yard in smaller pots, I've still got hopes for. The tomatoes COULD ripen yet. I hope. That's why I've covered both plants with the drop-cloth. I want each of those plants to have a ripe tomato or two for me to gather seed from. I REALLY, REALLY want to be able to save that seed to plant next year. Esp. with the Black from Tula, as we used up all the seed in the origional packet. Also, my Sunset Runner beans are finally producing beautiful flowers, but I don't see any bean production off them yet. At this point, I'm not even worrying about enough beans to eat for the winter, simply enough to provide seed for next year's planting. *sigh*
• I've also given up on my eggplant. Nothing came of it this year. My pepper plant is getting tall and quite leafy in my kitchen window, but hasn't yet shown any sign of flowering. *sigh* Even if it does flower, the best I can hope for is pepper formation through hand-pollination. By the time it flowers, at this rate, all natural pollinators will have died off or gone into hibernation for the year.
• Over at the inlaw's we're completely done with carrots (I may have mentioned that), cucumbers and radishes. We still have more beets to pick. Our cabbages are huge, to the point where some of them are splitting. We're trying to use them, but they're not getting canned, it seems. I've got a jar going with some kimchi in it that I'm hoping to divide into smaller cans yet and process for keeping. We haven't yet pulled the potatoes, as the potato plants are still growing and thriving. The onions all came to nothing. (My onions were all pearl onion size, or smaller. All dozen of them.) The peas need to be picked, but I have yet to get over to the inlaw's with the time to do so. Also, we have some beans growing, but we're not sure that we're going to have enough to preserve for the winter. (And, we were REALLY wanting to try pickling some beans on our own this year. Though, if we don't, I'll be back in at the Ornamentary, buying more pickled green beans from her.)
• **********
  
  I think that's pretty well it for now. Gotta get eatting, so I can head out to work at a decent time. *grin*
  
  Have a Blessed Day!

Whoop! My books came!!!

*GRIN* So, if you don't see me around this weekend, know that I'm not having problems with my computer or anything. Nope, I'm sitting on my @$$, reading trashy vamp novels and watching movies. (I found the "Stargate: Arc of Truth" dvd at work the other day, and since I haven't yet bought my own copy, I borrowed it to watch this coming weekend. I LOVE Stargate, and have greatly missed SG1 since the show finished up. So, I'm greatly anticipating this movie. And a coworker has "Stargate: Continuum" for me to borrow next weekend.)

Anyway, so those are my plans for this weekend. Just don't want anybody to be concerned if you don't "see me around". *grin* When it comes to relaxing, sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! *wink*

Have a Blessed Weekend!

Post Interview....

Well, I'm home from the interview.....

As expected, I didn't sleep much at all last night. It was about 12:30 before I crawled into bed, and probably around 1 am before I actually dozed off. Then I tossed and turned all night, before waking up before 7 am this morning with web-site names and database titles running through my head.

I'd prepared as much as I thought I could, for the questioning about the databases and search engines. Now, I rather wish I'd started doing my research a little earlier. But, procrastinator-extraordinaire that I am.... Well, I need the impending doom of going into something completely unprepared to light a fire under my @$$ about getting research done or speaches practiced or papers written. *wry smile*

The stories went ok. I was a good bit shakier than I would have liked. Not simply shakey on the reading of the stories, but ACTUALLY shakey. Very nervous! *sigh* The first story (the longest story!) was also the story I had the most fumbles over. But, I read it with a good bit of drama and had the story down enough that even when I fumbled a word, I was ok with the word I'd replace it with.

I pulled my cow puppet out only for part of the song "Old McDonald's Farm" where the farmer has a cow on the farm and the cow goes moo, moo, here and there and everywhere. *grin* And I cut it short by 2 verses, seeing as how I could tell that time was getting away from us, and another interviewee would be coming in soon.

They seemed to like my cow craft, though when I got there and took it out of my bag, I found that one of the legs had fallen off. So, a bit of scotch tape and you couldn't tell. *grin*

They said that they probably won't make a decision on desired applicant before Tuesday at the soonest, Wednesday most probably. So it'll be late next week before I hear anything at all, I'm sure.

Anyway.... Sitting here now just sipping on some English Breakfast tea and eatting an english muffin, and wishing we weren't down 4 Pages at work this week so I could call in tired. *wink* I've gotta leave a bit early, as well, to buy some minutes for my cell-phone. I'm down to about 10 minutes left on the thing.

I think that pretty well covers it for now.

Have a Blessed Day!

Raunchy Vamp-Romance....

So, since a couple of y'all have expressed an interest in the title of the book I mentioned last time....

It's Lara Adrian's "Midnight Breed" series. _Kiss of Midnight_ is the first book in the series. _Kiss of Crimson_ is the next.

I've seen the Kresley Cole books, but I got hooked on this one first. *smile* Maybe I'll read some of Cole's books after I've finished this series.

(And, for what it's worth, romance novels -vamp related or not- are NOT all I read. But, I like to have a good brainless romance picked out as a quick read between more intense books. It gives my brain a chance to unwind and "relax" before going on to the next informative book, whether deeper fiction, or something constructively non-fic. And, typically a romance takes me a day or two to read, the other books tend to take me a bit longer these days, because they require more thinking. Not that thinking is a bad thing by any means -OBVIOUSLY!- but, I need that little day-long break between "thinking books" to rest my brain. *grin* I can't figure out why even the "thinking" books take me so much longer lately, though. I used to be able to read ANY book very quickly, but in the last few years it's taking me longer to read them. Maybe I'm processing the information better? *wink* Yeah, maybe I'll go with that excuse!)

**********

So, I did NOT get my turnips done the other night. But we DID get 3 more jars of pickled carrots and 1 jar of sweet (cucumber) pickles. That's the last of our carrots and the last of our cucumbers for the year. Still more beets to go, hopefully. And the beans are finally producing. We also cut 2 heads of cabbage, and I brought them home and started 1 of them (along with 1/2 a head of grocery-store bought) fermenting a bit for kimchi. The other is in my fridge waiting to be used for..... something.

And, no caribou were seen at all. Though plenty of rabbit was. Between the rabbits that have been plaguing our garden all summer, and the rabbits plaguing camp out at the hunt-spot.... FIL and Scott have decided to try some rabbit hunting for meat this winter, even if they do get a moose or caribou.

Ok. That's all for now.

Have a Blessed Day!

My Next Interview....

So, I've got another one coming for that Lib. Assist. 3 position out at NPB Lib. this coming Friday. (Aug. 22, 9 am) Anyway, here's the line up:

I'm doing a farming theme. I bought a cow puppet yesterday to start my collection of appropriate accompanying animals for future story-times.

First book: Stink Soup by Jill Esbaum (Very funny!)
Second book: The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most (cute!)
Third book: Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell (funny AND cute!)

The first "song" will be "If I were a Farmer", sung to the tune of "Did you ever see a lassie?" (Will be "sung" between first and second books.)

Oh, if I were a farmer, a farmer, a farmer,
oh if I were a farmer, what would I do?

I would milk the cows each morning, each morning, each morning
I would milk the cows each morning, yes that's what I'd do!

(Repeat the "If I were a farmer" bit)

I would feed the baby chickens, feed the chickens, feed the chickens,
I would feed the baby chickens, and that's what I'd do!

(Repeat "Farmer" bit)

I would gather eggs for breakfast, eggs for breakfast, eggs for breakfast
I would gather eggs for breakfast, yes that's what I'd do!

(Farmer bit, again)

I would wave from my tractor, from my tractor, from my tractor
I would wave from my tractor and that's what I'd do!

(Song accompanied by appropriate motions to each subject.)

The second song (to be sung between second and third books) is "Old McDonald"

I assume everybody (or, most everybody) knows how "Old McDonald" is sung, so I won't go into detail, except to say that my "animal line-up" is going to be: duck, cow, pig, dog, and finishing up with horse. I wish I knew how to act out something with this song.

(Another cutesy song I came across is "Take me out to the barnyard" sung to the tune of "Take me out to the ballgame". But..... I wanted to do something I already knew a bit (Old McDonald). So I've got the one new song (If I were a farmer) and the one "old" song (old McDonald).

Anyway. Story time will be finished up with a craft project that includes a cow cut-out, colored and pasted around a toilet paper roll.

Other than the story time, I've got a good bit to do in preparation for this interview. (The storytime, this time, will be the easy part.) I have to research answers to a couple of the questions. I have to work up a business letter as a show & tell. I need to also work up a program flier as a show & tell. And I need to practice all of the above. Esp. the answers to the interview questions. I've interviewed for this position TWICE now, this will be the 3rd time. There is NO reason I shouldn't have some solid answers to these questions this time.

The two questions in particular are:

1) A high school student comes in for materials and books to back up a report on Capital Punishment. How would you help him?

2) You're the only Assistant working, it's evening, very busy. Suddenly you have 3 patrons at the desk at the same time needing help: a child looking for a book; a business man needing a business directory; and a high schooler needing help to make a copy of something. How would you handle this?

Lastly, there are 4 other folks interviewing for this position, to the best of my knowledge. I deduced this through the interviewer's words that she'd set up for interviews next Thursday and next Friday. Thursday is booked (3 slots), Friday's 9 am and 11 am were open. (Meaning the 10 am is booked on Friday.) That is at least 4 other people interviewing. My main advantage at this point is that I've got some heads-up on the questions they'll be asking me. Thus, the studying. *wry smile*

Ok, enough of that for now.

**********

Second in the things to mention: Scott's truck WILL be fixed on Company dime. His boss gave him a hard time, tried to tell Scott that the Co's insurance wouldn't cover it because it's a vehical and only things that don't have another insurance policy covering them ARE covered. (Kinda like our neighbour has had to deal with, with the damage done to his truck thanks to the other lady and her lack of insurance.) Anyway, the bosses were ribbing Scott to see what kinda reaction they'd get out of him. They didn't get much of one, because as Scott said, he's used to getting screwed. *chuckle* They about died laughing when he told them that.

Anyway, they sent him over to the most expensive body & paint shop in town for an estimate. It came out at around $1800. The main boss faxed the estimate (when Scott came back to the shop with it) down to HQ in Utah, in hopes that Scott can get the truck in for work within the next week or two.

So, that's being taken care of! And he's even got alternate transportation as he's renewed the insurance on my old buick, so that he can drive it (when it's got fuel in it and he doesn't have any hauling to do) at least part of the time.

**********

Next: the gardening.

I've got a couple of tomatoes on each of my plants here at home, but they're still really, really green. As are the tomatoes over at the inlaws. (There, but still green, that is.) I don't think we're going to get any more cucumbers off our plants. The nights have been dropping down into below freezing territory, killing the cucumber plants a little more each day. So, those 9 pints of cucumber pickles we've done may well be it for this year.

I've gotten 2 small zucchini off my plants here at home, so far. They both had to be picked small because they developed blossom-end rot. One of them gave me a good one-person portion of zucchini sticks to take to work for lunch. The other was literally just one bite that wasn't bad. I've got another that's a really good size, but I keep hoping it'll get bigger. I want to dehyrdate it. I've also got another 4 that have just bloomed and been pollinated. I hope I get something out of them!

I need to get out and pick more turnips today. I don't think I'll pick quite ALL of them, but I noticed yesterday that I've got several more that are getting enormous. More pictures to be taken, hopefully. Also going to dehydrate those turnips and blanch the greens.

I still haven't done anything with my rhubarb plants this year. I've had a lot of rhubarb to pick, but haven't actually done anything about it. *sigh* REALLY must do that! Also thinking of dehydrating the rhubarb, rather than freezing more baggies of it. Dehydrated takes up considerably less room, and since it all kinda cooks down anyway, might as well do that!

I have been getting some strawberries off my plants. Not very big, but yummy!!! They are about the best tasting strawberries I've ever had. But, they've been so water-logged that they're almost mush. *wry smile* Oh well. They still taste fantastic!

My Sunset Runner Beans are finally blooming! But, I don't know that I'll actually get beans off of them at this point. It looks like it may be too late in the season, seeing how quickly our nights are getting so cold.

That's it for gardening, for now.

**********

On another "front" we've had some funky weather this past week. Thunder storms all week since Wednesday. It thundered a good bit yesterday, but didn't actually rain. Today it looks like we may get the thunder and the rain again. This is the kind of weather we should have been getting in July. And July's steady down-pour of rain and accompanying chilly air temps are what we should be getting THIS month. Like the month's weather-patterns flip-flopped. Wierd! Oh well. At least the warm-ish days are giving my plants a last chance to produce something edible for me!

And the thunder & lightning has been kick-butt fun to watch & listen to.

**********

I did something I probably shouldn't have, yesterday. I've gotten hooked on a series of raunchy vamp-romance novels (found the first book in the series in the book exchange bin at work). Well, I've looked all over town at all the different book stores (all 3 of them!) and the grocery stores, and nobody had the next 3 books in the series (only 4 published so far, a 5th due out in Dec.). So, to heck with it. I went ahead and ordered the next 3 from Amazon, yesterday. *smile* What can I say, I need something raunchy and somewhat pointless to take my mind off the stresses in my life.

I just keep thinking that I shouldn't have ordered any books at all, or at least should have ordered something constructive and informative instead of just romance novels.

**********

Anyway..... I think that pretty well covers it today.

Oh, Scott JUST called and said they're home without ANY caribou (as of yesterday, they hadn't seen any sign of caribou, though don't know about this morning). Evidently I've gotta get over there now and get the cabbage pulled, as some of the bigger ones are starting to split, therefore needing picking and processing NOW. Also, the couple of cucumbers left on the plants over there need to be picked and pickled, as the plants are dead there as well. *sigh* I guess I won't get to my turnips today after all. Ok.

Have a Blessed Day!

Wondering What Gods We Pissed Off?!?!?

Ok, first some background. Two days in a row now, we've had these doozy thunder & lightning storms blow through the valley. Yesterday it was hard, quick and done & overwith. Man, the rain was coming down in sheets. Today's is lasting longer, and the wind has been a factor along with the thunder, lightning (both of which have tapered off now) and the rain. (The rain is lasting longer today than it did yesterday, that is.)

So anyway, Scott just called me from work, where he's working Over Time, and said that the wind from this thunderstorm blew part of the roof off one of the sheds there on work-property, right on top of the tailgate of DH's truck, scratched the tail-gate's paint all to shit, and crunched the thing down so that the tailgate now will not open. *shaking head* He's taking pictures (gods know, with what camera?!?!) and calling his boss to let him know the DOUBLE "good news".

Tell you what, that man has some seriously sucky bad luck with vehicals. NOT as bad as our neighbour's luck with vehicals, but still sucky! He said he's going to tell the boss that the Co. has got to pay to have the tailgate fixed (new one?) and repainted (if needs be). I'm thinking..... NO SHIT! They sure as hell BETTER pay to replace the thing, if it's damaged by work property!!!! The Co. insurance should cover that. But, he better get ahold of the boss now. Mom's suggesting even calling the cops and filing a report so it's on the record that it's happened at work tonight.

Anyway.... Incredible.

**********

We DID go to the orientation yesterday morning. I have another meeting with OUR "teacher" on Wednesday at 9 am. I'm trying to talk Tay into going with me. That'll be the point that we put together Tay's curriculum. We know SOME of what we want to do. For example, in History/Social Studies, Tay wants to study about Sacagawea and Lewis & Clark. This can tie into the US Geography that she's due to learn this year, and even give some direction to her reading, writing and spelling. In Science, Tay wants to do a segment on Rocketry (building a model rocket, then launching it at the end of the segment) and one on Volcanics. (She really wants to build a model volcano, as well.) The Volcanic studies can also be tied into Geography (on a US and a World scale).

In Math, I'm kinda leaning toward Saxon math, as that's what Scott and I used in school, and that's the curriculum that he and I think we'd best understand. (Some of the other math curriculums use phrasing and vocabulary that confuses us.) However, I've also heard some good (if general) praise of Singapore math curriculum. So, I'll look into it.

The only subject I'm kinda balking at really is Health. I recognize that this is the year in which most public school students start getting sex ed. in school. I'm not balking because I don't want my daughter to know, I'm balking because I'm not totally sure how to go about discussing it. *wry smile* But then, I'm sure there are curriculums for that as well.

Just to give a head's up, once we start into school time, I probably will only get the chance to post about once a week. I'm giving up my 2 or 3 hours every morning that I USUALLY use to post, to school Tay. And I rarely have the chance in the evenings. (The only reason I have the chance tonight is that Scott's working late.) So, I'll be posting and visiting a lot less often, I'm sorry to say. But, it's gotta be done. I just wanted to let everybody know in advance.

**********

Last but not least, we did NOT go to court this morning. It appears that E's defense attourney is trying to get her to settle out of court. So, for now a court-date has been postponed till Sept. 3rd, tentatively.

**********

Oh, one more thing. So Tuesday night we went to FIL's and did more canning. We successfully canned 2 jars of pickled beets, 3 jars of pickled carrots and 3 more jars of cucumber dill pickles. That brings us up to 8 jars of cucumber pickles (I think!), and the 3 jars of carrots and 2 of beets. *grin* We have yet to see if we'll get any beans to pickle, but the FIL wants to go buy a flat of beans from the big W. to pickle, if we don't get any of our own. *sigh* So much for building local food systems. Anyway. We've got hopefully enough carrots in the ground for another 3 jars, and maybe enough beets in the ground for another 2. *shrug* We'll see.

Ok. THAT'S it. *grin*

Have a Blessed Day!

Some Garden Pics to Share

HI!!!! It's nice to "see" everybody again!!! *grin* Mom called this morning to see if I was still alive. I guess it's been so long since I've posted (ok. I know it has!) that she was worried about us. Really, we're ok!!! Just busy.

We had soccer all 5 week-nights last week. We won the first 3 games, lost the last two. However, the loss-margins on the last two games were tiny compared to how massively we've lost to those two teams in the past. Out of 8 teams in our age-level, we took 3rd place. *grin* Yeah. We're pretty thrilled with that!

A couple of our girls were playing (insisted on it!) injured, as well. Tay has had a problem with one of her ankles twisting, but insisted that it wasn't hurting enough to make her sit out of the games. So we were rubbing her down with IcyHot and then taping her ankle up each night. She also said that now that the tournament is over, it's not hurting at all. Another of the little girls (our team "star") was playing with shin-splints. *shaking head* I worry about these kids doing permanent damage to themselves with their insistance on playing, but Lindsey's Dad said that if Lindsey felt up to playing, he was leaving the decision in her hands. Scott and I DID tell her that we felt the game was all in fun, though, and if she was hurting then she needed to sit out rather than do major damage to herself. She and Tay both had the point made to them quite strongly that NO tournament is worth doing damage to their bodies, at 10 years old. Again, though, they both were adamant that the pain was minor and they didn't want to quit playing. *shrug*


Anyway, these are some pics from the garden over at the FIL's house. The top is a close-up of one green tomato in the greenhouse. I hope these tomatoes ripen!!! At this point, except for the couple of tomatoes here at my house, we don't know what kind most of these tomatoes are. So, they've got to ripen for us to find out. *grin* Anyway, more green tomatoes and tomato blossoms in the next couple of pics.



Here area couple of pics of the masses of plants inside the greenhouse. Mostly tomatoes with a few (non-productive so far) pepper plants, a couple eggplants (also non-productive) and some melon plants (both watermelon and regular melon, AGAIN with the non-productive yet).
A picture of one HUGE pickling cucumber we got!!! Tay was insistent that this one be cut up and eatten. The skin was TERRIBLY bitter. It was about 10 inches long and several inches around.
















Here are two rows of beans. So far they haven't even had flowers on them. I think it's been too overcast and rainy for them to flower. However, mine here at home had flowers this morning. The first flowers I've seen on them this year. Maybe we might get beans yet!







This, I think, is a row of radishes. Not quite sure though. Most of these pics were taken a couple of weeks ago.

That next pic, I think, is a couple tomato plants we decided to set right into the ground to see how they do. They're not producing a darned thing. *sigh*


Some swiss chard, here. And some baby spinach down at the end of the other row, I belive.







Here is a pic of the ONLY head of broccoli we actually got this year. The rabbits helped themselves to the plants so much earlier on in the season, that this is the only plant that actually produced a main head of broccoli. *sigh* The other plants sometimes had smaller side-heads on them. But, nothing bigger than a florette or two.


Here are some of the squash plants. The squash at the inlaws place aren't producing a darned thing. Again, it's been too rainy and overcast I believe. And what blossoms there are, aren't pollenated by the bees, because the bees have been hiding from the rain as well. Even my zukes here at home have had to be hand pollinated in order to produce the couple of zukes I've got growing. (YES, I DID "feel up" the stamens on my zuke blossoms in order to get them to produce SOMETHING!!! *grin*)






Here is a picture of beets and cabbage. Our cabbage could have taken second place in this year's fair, if we'd decided to enter it. I'm not kidding. The LARGEST cabbage entered was only about 34 pounds. The next largest was about 21. My FIL guestimates that OUR largest cabbage probably weighs about 25 to 27 pounds. Anyway, some of these are also ready to be harvested. We just need to find a way to preserve them. I'm voting for sauerkraut or kimchi. (Canned!) My FIL is insistant that this stuff cannot be canned, and yet I argue that we're able to buy it canned at the grocery store, why not make some at home?!?!? (Esp. as Scott, Tay and I eat a LOT of sauerkraut and kimchi.) I'm also wondering how well fried kielbasa and cabbage would can. Pressure canned, of course. Not that I've ever USED the pressure canner Dad gave me. Not by myself anyway. I'm kinda nervous about that, really.



Anyway, pics of our carrots and our beets. The carrots got partially harvested on Sunday. We pulled approximately 2 dozen good sized carrots. About half were almost as big as what you'd get at the grocery store. Some were a little skinnier, and a couple were nice fat stubby little things. *grin* But, we've got about 2 dozen more that we left in the ground for later harvesting. We want to let them get a bit bigger before we pull them. All in all, though, we're happy already with what we got. We've never managed more than 2 or 3 edible sized carrots before, to get 2 dozen in the first go this year?!?!? Incredible!



This is a pic of the peas. Some flowers are visible, and there are pods on some of the plants. But even these aren't producing the way they usually do. I also think that the FIL is planning on letting all the pods develop actually peas inside, where as I was rooting for picking and freezing some pods by themselves for stir-fries this winter.


This looks likea close-up of a flower on a bean plant. Wait!!!! I didn't think I'd seen any flowers on the bean plants?!?!?! Evidently I was wrong. *wry smile* I wonder if it got pollenated???








Here are some pics of our cucumber plants, all spread out upon the pallets in FIL's back yard. We've gotten 6 pints of pickles so far. (FIL had to re-can 3 of them, combining a 4th can that was partially filled among the other 3.) On Sunday we picked about that many more cucumbers for about that many more cans of pickles, but have yet to get them pickled. (We were planning on doing it on Sunday night, along with pickling the carrots and beets we picked that day, but ran out of time.) So, we may have a small supply of pickles for this year's eatting, but not as much as I was hoping.


Here is a close-up of a squash plant. My FIL is very disappointed that it doesn't appear he's going to get any hubbards or acorns this year. That was one thing HE was really wanting from the garden this year. The plants themselves are good sized, but no blossoms have yet opened on them, much less any veggie production taking place.

















Next, a pic of the potato plants at the inlaws. Aren't they huge?!?!? I hope we get a good number of potatoes from them this fall. I haven't yet seen any flowers on them, though the plants are very tall. (Tori, they're over 2 feet tall, each plant, and very bushy!)







Now onto my turnip harvest last week!!! I got 18 good-sized turnips. Here they are, spread across the table on the deck. I wanted y'all to see how lovely they are, with their greens up top. And this is less than HALF the turnips in that bed. I've got another 22 yet to harvest. I left that 22 in to grow a bit larger, and I think they'll be ready to pick this coming weekend.














Here is the largest of my turnips. It was actually larger than my fist by a good bit. I show it here along side one of my gardening gloves to give y'all some idea of how big it truly is.

















Next, a picture of one of my turnips all by itself. The first one out of my planter bed. Look at that lovely purple color!!!! Unfortunately the turnips were also riddled with worm-holes that had to be cut out and around before I could finish processing them. I ended up slicing the turnips into 1/4 inch (or smaller!) slices and dehydrating them. I wound up with 6 full racks in the dehydrator turning into less than 2/3 of a full (reused! spaghetti-sauce jar) of dehydrated turnip slices. That's ok. I'm going to toss them by the tablespoon-ful into soups and stews this winter, and I know that they'll rehydrate in the liquid. This way they take up less space than they would if frozen in baggies.













I really hope y'all can see the colors on this swiss chard. I don't know that I've actually got 5 different colors in it, though the variety is "5 color silver-beet", but what lovely colors we did get.








And THIS particular example is lovely with the "peppermint" striping down the length of the stalk. Kinda reminded me of peppermint salt-water taffy. *grin* Tasted a heck of a lot healthier, though. *wink*











And last but not least, a picture of my planter bed BEFORE I pulled any turnips or cut any swiss chard. *grin* Unfortunately I dont' think I'm going to get any beets out of mine this year. *sigh* The turnips, come to find out, were blocking the beets from getting any sun. Next year, beets go to the left of the turnips so they're not overshadowed by the turnip greens. Although actually I hope to be planting in a different bed just to the left and behind this one. Since this one had worms in it this year, I need to plant them in a different bed next year, so the worms don't have more & more chance to eat turnips every year. *wry smile* Hmmmm... Maybe carrots in this bed next year???







**********

Still no word as to an interview for the North Pole Branch position. I was really expecting to hear something by this point this morning, but I haven't yet gotten a call.

Tomorrow, Scott and I are going to the orientation for Tay's homeschool program. We wound up registering with the Raven program, which is based in Fairbanks and services primarily students from the Yukon/Koyukuk river basin.

Thursday morning (at 8 am!), we have our court appearance as witnesses against the woman who plowed into the neighbour's truck. That ought to be interesting.

Ok. That's it for this morning. I've gotta get a move on so that I can get Dad's mail sent off to him.

Have a Blessed Day!

A "Day" of Sunshine....

It actually cleared up for the most part yesterday. Partly cloudy with an hour here and there of REAL sunshine, but clear and warm enough that I got to hang a few items of laundry out to dry, and I got to do a bit of garden-work. Namely, I pulled turnips. I won't go into detail because I want to share the gardening pics I've got, when I do go into detail. I didn't get to my compost bin, though. *sigh*

Anyway. Mainly I just wanted to let y'all know that I'm still around. *grin* We've been so busy that it's hard to find the time to post, though.

Oh, and on Saturday I made some pretzels (big puffy yummy ones!) from an Auntie Anne's pretzel kit Mom gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I kept forgetting about it in the back of my cabinets. Finally, after having several Auntie Anne's pretzels while in Spokane, I was determined to use it. DANG are they yummy!!! I've been rationing out one a day, though I could easily eat 2 or 3 at a time. I want them to last.

Ok. I've gotta get heading to work. It's going to be a long day today as I only got about 7 hours of sleep last night, after staying up till 2 working on my garden-fresh produce. And I know that I've got the end-of-the-day Pick-up duties at work tonight. I'll probably be dead on my feet by the time I get home. *wry smile*

Oh. Tay's got the first game in her soccer tournament tonight at 8:20. Prayers for safety, if you wouldn't mind. We've got rain again which is going to make for slick grass, and some of the play gets rather rough. (Esp. with one or two teams that have girls twice the size of OUR team's girls.) I don't really care whether they win or lose the game, just prayers that it stays safe and fun.

Have a Blessed Day!