Daryl brought me a box of tomatoes that he got from a farmer friend of his. There is a promise of more to come since everyone's tomatoes are abundant right now. Remember, everyone had to re-plant after the flood because all the initial plantings got washed away. Fortunately for me, mine haven't started to ripen yet so I can feast on the ones from other gardens and still look forward to my own in the near future. Well, anyway, the box was so full I knew we wouldn't be able to eat them all before they perished so we decided to make Bloody Mary mix for those Saturday or Sunday mornings when it seems appropriate to have a breakfast drink.
The cool thing about this recipe is that it only has to process for 20 minutes in the canner and it's done. Pop, pop, pop, pop and viola! Four full jars of Bloody Mary mix for the pantry :) We made up our own recipe by adding some garlic, some vinegar, a little hot sauce and some cayenne pepper. We added a little black pepper, some celery seed and some Worcestershire Sauce. It won't need anything added to it when we go to mix it with some vodka except maybe some olives and celery!
I put a picture up on the blog so you can see just how pretty tomatoes look when they are canned. These were blended up so they just look like juice but whole tomatoes retain their color just as well. I'm hoping to get twice this many in the next few days so I can get to canning them either cut into quarters or left whole. I still have the contest open for anyone who wants to take a guess at how many jars will ultimately be filled.
Trish, from the CSA farm, sent me an email. Her daughter was in a car accident while on her way to the delivery site. She is okay and so are the other people who were involved but they were all quite shook up.
I picked up my basket last night and it was so pretty! It had fresh basil (I already have mozzarella cheese and tomatoes!), cherry and plum tomatoes, cantaloupe, jalapeno peppers, sweet green peppers, yellow squash, cucumbers, green beans and some green tomatoes. I know you know what I plan to do with those green tomatoes!
I ended up with Wally's phone in my purse this morning so I was finally able to send some new pictures for the blog. The one of Jimbo shows how he kind of cocks that left front leg - well, he doesn't do that anymore. He's able to support himself fully and is getting fatter every day. You can still see his bones but he's definitely come a long way. It's so hot outside that the dogs and horses are going through a 50 gallon bucket of water and a 20 gallon bucket of water twice daily. Wally added a big cooler to the mix this morning - it's one that the lid is broken off of so we don't use it anymore. They are all good at letting us know when their water buckets are dry even though we know to check them throughout the day. They stand over there by the buckets and whinny until you do something about the situation.
The two basket pictures are obviously from earlier in the season but they're still pretty pictures and it gives you a good idea of how full they are. I stay busy trying to use up everything! I only bought a half share, imagine how busy I'd be if I had bought a whole share... lol I miss those spring lettuces, that's for sure. It was nice having a little variety for my lunch salads.
The wild flowers are from springtime too but again, they're so pretty I thought you would enjoy seeing them. I had forgotten all about that picture being on Wally's phone so as I was scrolling through deciding what to post, I thought well, that picture will brighten anyone's day! Not much can hold up to this heat we're having now, shoot, even the weeds are faltering... LOL
That blooming shrub is outside the front door and to the right just a bit. It really needed to be trimmed up but I didn't get here in time for that. Once it stops blooming I'll trim it up for next year. The blooms are these tiny, little, white, papery petals and there are a whole bunch of them in one cluster. Of course I don't know what the plant is because Wally's grandma planted it many years ago. He bought one for the other end of the porch and the guy told him it was an oak leaf hydrangea. I'm just not going for that. For starters, the leaves look nothing like an oak leaf. It could be some form of hydrangea but I'll have to search the internet to confirm that. Another thing that throws me off is that it doesn't bloom until August - the hottest month of the year. It'll keep blooming until sometime around the end of September - I thought hydrangeas bloomed in late spring? Don't worry, I'll figure it out. In the meantime, isn't that a beautiful sky in the background? Amazing.
There's a gold and brown colored butterfly in the bush but you can't really see it in the picture. It was almost as big as my hand so I don't know why it looks so little. It was the whole reason for taking the picture in the first place. Oh well - turned out pretty even if you can't see the butterfly.
I'm planting some of the hollyhock seeds that Claudia gave me down by the flag pole and the rest over by this tree stump in the back yard. If you haven't been here in a while, the flag pole isn't in the front yard anymore, it's down where the driveway splits. I have some allium (aka mystery plant) bulbs and an iris that I'm going to plant down at the flag pole too. Teri gave me some delphinium seeds and those are going in around the hitching post. By next spring, there will be plenty of color to enjoy as you come up to the cabin! Hopefully, the horses won't eat any of them... lol.
Turns out we can't get U-verse at the house. When I checked the availability the first time, it led me through up to scheduling an installation. When I went to do the same thing the other day, it said "Sorry, U-Verse is not available in your area." Boooooooooo. I guess I'll have to check into other options - I know AT&T has dsl service out there but I don't know how well it works.
Dizzy Debbie rolled into AZ around midnight her time (3 hours behind FL, 2 hours behind TN) Tuesday. They got some much needed rest and then they were off to unload the truck and get their apartment all set up. I'm sure she'll be on FB as soon as her internet is hooked up. I think that's today but don't quote me :) Knowing her, she probably got everything unloaded, unpacked and set up in one day whilst I still have boxes in the living room ha ha ha! In my own defense, they are too heavy for me to carry and they need to go upstairs so it's really not my fault :)
Ernie is going to NC this weekend for some white-water rafting with her son, Shane, and her daughter, Britney. Brave souls they are! She checked to make sure she wasn't going to be in the rapids...I'd have done the same thing...lol!
Still the heat wave continues... the lowest daytime temperature we can expect is 93 degrees and that's on Sunday. We're looking at only a 30% chance of rain between now and then. Come Monday, it's supposed to be up to 99 degrees again and stay that way all throughout next week. Whew man I seem to have timed my arrival for the year of strange weather in Tennessee. January was the heaviest snowfall in years (I was here for 10 days of it), May had the worst flooding in centuries and now we're at 47 days of 90+ temperatures and counting. Autumn sure is starting to sound nice, isn't it?
I don't know about y'all but I am ready for the weekend to get here! I have so much I want to get done at the cabin and yet here I sit at work. Granted writing the post isn't the same as actually working, ha ha ha, but still...some weeks it just seems to take forever. I have weeds to pull in the garden, fishing line to string across the top so the crows can't get in, seeds to plant, trails to learn on the 4 wheeler and at some point, I'd really like to get my hair colored or highlighted or something to get rid of this gray!! Not to mention the usual chores of laundry, floors, bathrooms and kitchen cleaning. ha ha ha Now really, how much of that do you think I'll really get around to? LOL
The quote doesn't really relate to anything I've written today...did you even know that I try to match it up? I just thought it was kind of funny... As Kathy would say, "Happy Friday Eve!"
"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” Mark Twain
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