Where Does The Time Go???

IT seems the days just fly right on by lately, don't they? Friday came and I couldn't wait to get home after being out of the office Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I was at work Thursday but that was really just a catch up day of sorts. Friday, I really wanted to be back home :)

So now where did I leave off??? Wow, it was still June last time I wrote a posting. Shame, shame, shame!! LOL Well, if that tells you anything, it tells you how busy things have been. So here is what the Farmer's Almanac had to say for July:

"The mower walks with scythe in hand, to yonder field away;
The grass he prostrates over the land;
How sweet the new made hay."

This rings true for me here in TN because everywhere we go there are farmers cutting and baling the new hay in their fields. It smells divine!! The fields show tracks where the farmer has been and the machinery sits idly by awaiting the next day's work. In some fields there are huge rolls of hay ready to be picked up and stored in the hay barns or sold to provide feed to another farmer's animals throughout the winter months. The hay barn itself is quite another thing to see altogether. I'll save that for winter writing :)

Meanwhile, deer are running to and from across the driveway and into the woods. Rabbits aplenty hop quickly through the newly mowed grass on the farm and even the occasional box turtle needs help getting to the other side of the road. Please mention to Rebecca that they don't scuttle here, they must be more relaxed because they just sort of trudge along until they get where they're going. hahahahaha!! There are turkeys eating quietly just far enough away from the dogs so as to not be heard and the darn black crows crowd the yard, making a piercing cawing noise that echos across the hills.

Such is life for us here on the farm in the hot, sweltering days of summer. July has indeed showed us just how hot it can be with the temperature at 99 degrees and a heat index making it feel like 106 degrees. I could be in FL if I wanted that! LOL These temperatures are by no means typical, so they say, rather it is a freakish heat wave that appears to be staying until sometime Thursday evening. Just as the winter was abnormally cold and snowy so too will the summer be abnormally hot and steamy. As always, we simply make our environment as comfortable as possible and take care not to get dehydrated.

Our 4th of July was pretty calm but the 5th of July was a blast - literally!! LOL We went to this guy's house where he and his brother set off all kinds of awesome fireworks and it's completely free. We filled the cooler, loaded it and our chairs into my big red truck and Wally drove us out to the property. We saw deer all along the way and watched for Ruger as we went. We still haven't found him - I wonder if we'll ever stop looking as we travel these little country back roads?

We set up our chairs on the edge of the lawn just as everyone else was doing. We had a great view and the fireworks were astounding as always. Too bad the people next to us talked and carried on the whole time the show was on. They were actually talking louder and louder so they could hear themselves over the banging and rumbling of the fireworks. It was kind of rude of them but what can you do? We made the best of it and enjoyed a breezy summer evening together. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen and as it ended we clapped and cheered and hoped he would do it again next year.

We loaded up the truck and headed back home without ever touching a paved road. I'm learning my way around these parts and could have driven us home without taking a wrong turn but Wally drove instead and that was just as well. I get to watch and take in all the scenery when he's driving :) :) :)

As I said before I had Tuesday and Wednesday off work and they were beautiful days. The weather was a bit cooler and the breeze continued to blow across the top of the hill so sitting on the porch was actually quite comfortable - especially when a summer shower kicked up and really cooled things off! We watched the birds drink every drop from my front porch feeder and have seen two of them go to fighting like you wouldn't believe! Indeed the little birds attack each other with a fierceness equal to lions. At this point we don't know which one prevails but always the fight goes on...if you're on the porch you're going to see them in action!

The whole time I was off work, I wanted to go to the Diner and get a cheeseburger. Well that was not to be as they were closed until Friday (after my return to work) due to the owner having her baby. While it wasn't very fair to me I suppose she did have the right to stay home and take care of the little one...lololol! Come Saturday - you better believe I was there for my cheeseburger!

I picked up a hair coloring kit from the Rite Aid store and finally got around to coloring my hair last Sunday. I've never done it myself so it was a little bit nerve-wracking to say the least. First, the instructions say to add bottle one to bottle two - no problem. Then the instructions say to shake until combined. Well, I did that but when I shook it, all I had was bubbles!! I'm not sure that was right????? I waited a few minutes thinking the bubbles would subside like they do in a glass or can of coke. So about five minutes later, bubbles still in tact, I decided to proceed - with caution :)

I donned the gloves that were included in the kit and pumped some of the color from the bottle into my hand. It was supposed to come out foamy. That didn't happen. It just sort of oozed from the pump instead. But since it was in my hand I went ahead and started rubbing it into my hair like I would if I were shampooing it. That's what the instructions said to do. I put a bunch of it on the grayer places and then asked Wally to tell me when 15 minutes had elapsed.

After 15 minutes, I pumped the rest of the bottle of color into my hands and washed it into my hair until there was nothing left in the bottle. It took quite some time to finish with it. When I was about 1/2 way through the bottle, the thing started pumping foam like it was supposed to do from the start and this made life much easier. However, when it says to use in a well-ventilated area, it certainly means it!! Oh the odor was terrible! But my hair is colored and it looks pretty decent if I do say so myself. Thanks to the advice of my friend Beverly, my gray hair is covered up for another few months :) :)

Let me say one thing before I finish this section...when you have long hair (and mine has grown like the weeds in my garden), you are mostly bent over forward with your hair tumbling towards the floor during the entire coloring process. There is no way to let it fall backwards without also coloring the back of your t-shirt or in my case...my back. I wore only a sport's bra with my stretchy pants for this attempt. It was a little bit smelly having the hair color so close to my face and it was a little bit uncomfortable having to bend over like that for the coloring process and then the rinsing process...for a good 1/2 hour to 45 minutes I was stuck like that!! This kit didn't come with a cap or a bag so I had to just twist my hair and loop it on top of my head until the coloring part was complete.

WHEW!!  How do people do this all the time??? Neccy has different color hair every other month or so...don't worry, you won't catch me doing that! LOL

I got my tomatoes staked up while the heat of the day tried to bake the moisture from the ground. The tomatoes are doing very well despite the sweltering July heat. The one "Red Raspberry" tomato plant that Teri gave me is huge. It is only about 3 inches shorter than I am and has bloomed and dropped its blooms. I expect to see fruit just any day now! I'm hoping the yield is as great as the plant looks because it is a beautiful specimen to see. It is a slender plant but strong and vibrant. You wouldn't know it was 100 degrees out there when you look at that plant.

The German Queen is not faring quite so well. I don't know if it's the heat or the location or if this variety just plain isn't happy here but the plant isn't much bigger than it was when I planted it. It doesn't seem to want to grow taller and the bottom leaves all turned yellow. I clipped them off and I'm still hoping it makes it but it appears to suffer no matter what I do...Claudia advised me to sprinkle bone meal on the ground around it. I guess I'll give it a try in a last ditch effort to save it.

The 8 tomatoes I bought and planted from the co-op are proving to be winners in every respect! They have sturdy stalks, they are loaded with yellow blooms, they branched out before getting too tall and they are the darkest green I've ever seen. I had to use two stakes on each of them in order to support their weight. They aren't but about 2 1/2 feet tall and they have grown to be quite heavy for their size. The heat is of no concern to them and when I look at them I can tell they are going to provide a bounty of big, fat, red tomatoes. I may even have some green ones to fry up before this is all over and done with.

The beans did what they could to make a come-back but I think it was too late for them. I did pick a bean that was about 5 inches long but one bean does not a meal make LOL I guess it was one the rabbits somehow missed and it gave me a good idea of what I WOULD have had if the rabbits had left well enough alone. Not to worry, Darryl has hooked me up with a couple gallons of beans from his farmer lady (Mrs. Hilda) so I'll still have enough to can and put up for the winter. Meanwhile, my CSA basket provides us with enough beans to eat during the week. It's all good!

The turkeys had their babies and now we see the little ones (which I call turklets) wandering around the farm close behind their mommas. One afternoon as I was coming down the driveway I guess they felt a little threatened and they all flew up into the trees! I never saw such a thing before! There were two adults and about 10 turklets and every one of them flew at the same time. It was awesome to see. I hope the turklets survive the hawks and owls - they're just so darn cute!!

As I wrote in a previous posting, it seems much of the deer population had their babies later in the season this year. In May there were still pregnant does in the yard and that was way past time for them. We're seeing the fawns all over the place now and it's July for heaven's sake. They should have been born quite some time ago. While we were out driving around looking for Ruger, Wally saw a momma with two little babies up on the side of the road. Those babies still had their spots! They were simply adorable! To see twins is rare, or so I've heard, but this is the second set I've seen so I guess I've been pretty lucky :) :)

Well now here's story for you...I went grocery shopping Tuesday after work. I got home, got all the stuff unloaded from my car and started putting it all away. I bought pork chops, ham steaks and shrimp and was planning to cook the chops for dinner. I had a handful of stuff that needed to go in the big freezer outside so I grabbed the key from the drawer and out I went.

I unlocked it and opened the door and to my surprise, everything in it was defrosted! Oh boy. Yee Haw. How exciting. This is like the third time that I have had a freezer full of food defrost on me. Once Jarrett left the freezer door open and once Wally did. Now here I was with an entire upright freezer full of food that needed to be cooked or otherwise refrigerated and cooked within a couple of days. It was Tuesday - how nice.

I started cooking. I put frozen biscuits in the oven (they were beginning to thaw), I seasoned and set two big, huge roasts in the roaster at 350 degrees. I got out the flour and seasoned it then started dredging the tenderized pork tenderloin slices in it. I poured oil into two cast iron skillets and heated them up to start frying. These slices were cut pretty thin so it wasn't long before I could see them browning on the bottom and within minutes I was able to flip them over. Each skillet had 3 or 4 pieces in it and I think I refilled them both about 4 times to get all that pork cooked.

I set a cardboard box on the counter next to the stove and then tore a paper bag in half and put half in the box on which to drain the pork. I pulled out a good size piece of foil so I could cover what was already cooked while the rest fried up to crispy, golden goodness. When I was done and the meat had cooled down, I filled two gallon size freezer bags with fried pork tenderloin. Wow - that was a lot of work!

Meanwhile, the roasts were simmering away and I was busy rearranging the refrigerator. I had some leftover chicken that I set aside to take to Darryl and I had some squash (of course) that I needed to make into squash casserole - my third one so far this season. Claudia had given me two huge cucumbers so made cucumber salad with one and sliced up the other one for my lunch salad. That made a little more room! lol

We moved the rest of the meat from the freezer into a couple of coolers and covered it all with ice. Wally put most everything on the smoker this morning and I'll cook up the sausage when I get home. I figure I can cook it and then put it back in the freezer for use later on. We're eating the steaks tonight when Connie & Bobby come for dinner (they're up visiting from FL) and we'll probably have steaks again tomorrow night and Saturday so they don't go bad on us... I know it's way too much red meat to be eating in one week but what are our choices???? Thank goodness I put the hamburger meat in the freezer inside :) whew!!

To make room in the inside freezer, I took out all my little bags of vegetable scraps. I have enough to make two batches of chicken broth so come Saturday, guess what will be simmering on my stove top? I've got plenty to do besides that though because Darryl brought me a box of cucumbers and last night we picked up the 2 gallons of beans. I'll be making refrigerator pickles and canning beans while the chicken broth cooks.

Also on my list for the weekend is painting. Wally put a step on the ground in front of the porch so it's not such a high climb for me. It's not that I'm so short, it's just that he built it to accommodate his size and the porch is nothing for him to reach. It's not so easy for me. Anyway, with this new step I have no problem getting on the porch :) It needs a coat of barn red paint on it though so it will match the front doors.

If I don't wear myself out, I would also like to go down to the creek and see if I can find some flat rocks to use as stepping stones from my new step to the hitching posts. Won't that be pretty? I'll plant flowers along side of the stones and hope to heck they grow... lol!!

So it appears my weekend will be busy and if all goes well I'll get some good exercise and have a nice pretty walkway when I'm finished. I'll post some pictures but it would be better if you could just come see it for yourself???? LOL

"For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work." ~Doug Larson