Thursday, July 12, 2012

Odds And Ends

Usually when we go on vacation I clean the whole house first.  There are a few reasons for this...besides my OCD.  If we get robbed I don't want the cops to think we have been ransacked when we haven't!   We usually have someone to pet sit and I don't want them to see how we REALLY live...a bit of tongue in cheek. But most importantly I don't want to come home to a dirty house.

With our power being out for so long before we left, I had to settle for sweeping and wiping down surfaces with a spray bottle of cleaner and some paper towels.  So now I have to clean up when all I really want to do it rest up.

Leaving in the summer also means that the weeds take over.  I hadn't weeded for awhile because it has been so hot and I couldn't take a shower with no power to run the well pump.  No point in getting sweaty and dirty when you only have baby wipes to clean yourself.

                           

My favorite method of weeding is to spray with Round Up.  Lots of times when I pull the weeds, they snap off at the ground leaving the root to regrow.  We also have a lot of weeds with thorns, like horse nettle, and they can poke rather painfully through even the thickest leather glove.  Another advantage to spraying is not having to bend over.  So when I can I spray and when I can't I pull and that was a task I had to do this morning, also.

                          

The fire blight that has attacked my apples has a big more blightiness left  and I had to trim a few fruit trees.  I had to remember to dip the blades of the pruners in a 10% bleach solution between each cut.

The cut branches had to be placed on the burn pile which has grown out of control again since the storm that toppled so many trees.



The tomatoes have outgrown their cages and were in danger of toppling.  I found a few tomatoes that I picked while they were not quite ripe.  The last time I waited the birds ate them.

                               

I found a zucchini for dinner.  The first one!  Oh, man.  Do you see the ones that I found after a bit of digging?  I may have to make zucchini bread or cake or something.  Or maybe something savory so I can use the basil.  I'll have to think about that.

                               

There are a bunch of zucchini flowers that I am considering making into fried zucchini flowers with goat cheese. 

                          


We just went to the store yesterday to replace EVERYTHING...you know, mayo, mustard, salad dressings...everything that had to be thrown out.  The inside of the refrigerator door is looking nice and tidy, though, in case I am looking for a silver lining.  And I am.  But it means no more grocery shopping for awhile and so no goat cheese.  If only we had chickens and goats.  Only kidding.  Downsizing the animals is my current philosophy.


I have finished all the things I had to do today and now I will do something I want to do.   Maybe I'll knit.  Or read.  Or maybe I'll try to find something to fix with zucchini.  I just got a new recipe book around here somewhere.....

No comments:

Post a Comment