Okra - July 8, 2020

Important things first:  Nanny's surgery went fine.  She's probably going to come home this evening.

Now,

I got up early yesterday morning and started slicing cucumbers for pickles.  After seeing how many I had (my big mixing bowl was full), I decided I needed more - if you're going to go through the canning process, you might as well make it worth the effort - and there were more, at least again as many as I'd already sliced. 

The squash needed picking again, and so did the peppers.  While picking the peppers, I noticed that the okra was bearing, but I hadn't brought a knife to cut it, so I left the garden without it, intending to go back in the evening to get it. 

Came home, sliced the newly-picked cucumbers, and put them in lime water to soak.  The directions said to soak them 12 hours or overnight.  According to my (incorrect) way of thinking, the cucumbers would be ready to go in the jars about 8 p.m. last night.

Wrong.

It's been so long since I've made pickles that I'd forgotten what all has to happen.

First, the 12-hour soak in lime.  Then a 3-hour soak in ice water.  After the ice-water bath, the pickles go into the brine for another 5 hours (or overnight), and then, finally, they can be cooked and put into the jars. 

Hoping to get the canning done by bedtime, I "fudged" on the 12-hour lime soak and let them soak only 8 hours before putting them in the ice-water bath.  But I forgot about the 5-hour brine soak.  At 7:30 last night, I re-read the directions and realized that the pickles weren't going to make it into the jars that day unless I wanted to stay up until the wee hours of the morning.  Uh, no.  So, I'll be canning pickles this morning.

The recipe I'm using is on the back of the lime bag.  It's a sweet pickle recipe, but I'm going to make them spicy by adding hot peppers.  Sliced jalapenos and cayenne peppers have been soaking in the brine with the cucumbers.  Before I seal the jars, I'm going to add some hot pepper flakes.  That ought to fire them up nicely.

While the cucumbers were soaking in lime, I made 6 pints of jalapeno pepper jelly.  I did not have any rubber gloves - they're hard to come by these days - so I tried an experiment to keep the peppers from burning my hands.  Remembering that capsaicin sticks to oil, I smeared a few drops of olive oil on my hands.  After slicing the peppers, I washed my hands with soap.  It worked!  No burning!

It's time to get after those pickles.

Canning - July 7, 2020

I canned four pints of green beans yesterday, and saved about another pint to cook for supper.

The first canning of the season is always a bit dis-combobulated at my house.  From the time of the last year's canning, my equipment gets scattered.  Where is my jar-getter (you know, the thing with handles that you use to lift hot jars out of the canner)?  Where are my rings and lids?  Where are the jars?  It was especially disorganized this year, for I have not canned in about two years.

I had meant to make pickles yesterday, too, but forgot to put the cucumbers to soak in lime overnight.  I meant to soak them last night, but forgot that, too.  My intention is to slice and soak them today and can them tonight.  We'll see if that happens.

It appears that in the last few years, soaking the cucumbers in lime is frowned upon by the experts.  I don't know why.  The experts now recommend using some other kind of powder (the kind I have is called "Pickle Fresh," I think) that you add to each jar.  That stuff, while less troublesome to use, does not crisp a pickle like the lime does.

Supper sure was good:  meat loaf, green beans, mashed potatoes, sliced tomatoes, and cucumbers and onions soaked in vinegar overnight.  Mmmmmmm!

Nanny is at the hospital today, finally getting the heart valve replacement that should have happened months ago.  She was scared to have it done and kept putting it off.  Then, when she finally relented to the procedure, she came down with shingles a day or two before surgery day, and had to put it off for more than a month.  I felt so sorry for her yesterday when she came up here to leave a bag of her "treasures" for us to distribute to family members in case she doesn't make it through the surgery.  Poor thing; she was a nervous wreck.  Hopefully, by the time I finish this post, the procedure will be over and she can be on the road to feeling better.

First Ripe Tomato - July 6, 2020

I hope you (all/both) had a pleasant Independence Day.  Ours was rather quiet.  Although a cousin invited us and the whole extended family for a 4th of July barbeque, we opted not to go.  At the time, we still did not know the results of The Husband's co-worker's COVID-19 test, and we didn't want to take the chance on infecting someone in case The Husband had been infected.

That same day, Nanny needed to be driven to her doctor's office to have a COVID-19 test in preparation for surgery that's supposed to happen tomorrow.  The Husband and I thought he probably should not be in a car with her.  The Sister-in-Law is a nurse and had recently been to a Florida beach.  On top of that, the hospital where she works is over-flowing with COVID patients, some of whom have been put in the cardiac ICU where she works because there's nowhere else to put them.  So she didn't need to be in the car with Nanny, either.  We decided that I was probably the safest person to take Nanny to the doctor, so I took her.

After driving Nanny to the doctor, I spent most of the afternoon practicing my mandolin on the porch.  The Husband came out with his ukulele, and we played a bunch of songs with a dude on YouTube.  Later that evening, we went to the garden to pick green beans.  We also found a bunch of cucumbers, and picked three tomatoes that were *almost* ripe enough to be delicious.  We brought the tomatoes home and set them in a windowsill to finish ripening, fearful that if we left them on the vine, a turtle or a squirrel or some other critter would get them before we did.

Yesterday, we worked our butts off in the yard.  I weeded a flower bed then push-mowed the tight spots while The Husband chopped down some sumac bushes growing along Nanny's driveway.  Come lunch time, The Husband said, "I'm going to make a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, and I'm going to slice one of the tomatoes to go on it."  I said, 'OH, NO, YOU ARE NOT!  They're not ripe enough yet!"  He grumbled about it, but he left the tomatoes alone.  I'm not sure I can fight him off of them for another day, though.  Heck, I've been jones-ing for a tomato/mayo sandwich, myself!

About sundown, we heard thunder.  The Husband got out the riding lawnmower to finish the yard.  I went to the garden, intending to run the little tiller down the row where I planted the new tomatoes.  There are purple hull peas in the rows on both sides of the tomatoes, and they've put out runners that reach across the tomato row.  I started the tiller and realized that if I used it, I'd likely snatch some of the pea vines right out of the ground, so I weeded with the hoe, instead.  I'd just finished the weeding and was about to set some tomato cages over the new tomatoes when it started to rain.  Maybe I can finish the job this evening, if it's not too wet to walk in the garden.

Quarantine day - July 2, 2020

I had big plans for today.

First, I was going to the courthouse to drop off some things for a co-worker.  Then I was going to make a quick run to the post office and to my office to open mail and return phone calls.  After that, I was going to the quilt store to rent a quilting machine and finish the quilt I started for my nephew two years ago.

Scratch all of that.

Yesterday, one of The Husband's co-workers received a call informing her that someone with whom she'd been in contact over the weekend has tested positive for COVID-19. 

Shit.

The co-worker immediately left the office and went to be tested.  It'll be a couple of days before we know the results.  Meanwhile, we are running under a caution flag.  Our son and his family have been visiting, and we were going to have dinner together last night, but we cancelled it.  They will have gone home by the time we know the test results. 

The Husband has, wisely, been working half of his crew from home on two-week rotations.  One of the at-home crew stopped by the office to pick up some supplies earlier in the week, and yesterday she discovered that her daughter, who lives with her, has tested positive for COVID-19. 

It's EVERYWHERE.

Wear your masks, folks.  Wash your hands.  Keep your distance from others.

From the back porch - July 1, 2020

I swear to you that in the few minutes I've been out here on the back porch this evening, the temperature has dropped 10 degrees.

First, the sky clouded over, then the wind started blowing - hard!  Hickory nuts started falling onto the shed roof and the metal roof of the porch.  It sounds like I'm in a popcorn popper! 

This cooling is a welcome relief, for I have been sweating like a pig since 11 a.m., when I went to the garden.  I hadn't intended to do any gardening, I just needed a walk.  But I ended up pulling weeds for about an hour, and as I worked around the green beans, I noticed they need to be picked again.  The picking would have to wait until later in the day. 

I may have already told you this, but I took my mini-tiller to a repair shop, and after about 3 weeks they called me and said they couldn't fix it.  It needs a new carburetor, they said, and they couldn't find one.  So I picked up the tiller, came home, and found the part online in about 2 minutes.  It came in the mail today.  Since then, I've watched a couple of videos on how to repair carburetors.  It seemed simple enough, so when I found the new one in the mailbox, I dragged the tiller onto the porch, took the old carburetor off, and installed the new one.  Piece of cake (kinda).  I took it outside, put some gas in it, and yanked the cord (which was hanging about halfway out of the cord hole), and IT CRANKED RIGHT UP!  It even sucked the pull cord back where it belonged.  I hurried to get my phone so I could send The Husband a "look what I did" video, but the tiller quit before I could film it.  And it would not start again.

I left it alone for a little while, and tried again.  It cranked again, but when I pulled the lever that engages the tines, nothing happened.  The lever wouldn't even move.  And the tiller quit again. 

I lugged the tiller back to the porch and watched more videos.  It's hard to find the right video when you don't know the real names for stuff.  Finally figured out it's a "throttle cable."  It goes BEHIND the carburetor, so I had to dump out the gas and remove the new carburetor.  The business end of my throttle cable wasn't connected to anything, and I had to watch another video to figure out where to hook it. 

Knock on wood, I believe it's fixed.  It cranked again, and the tines will turn when the lever is pulled.  I was going to try it out in the garden this evening, but now it's raining hard. 

At least I won't have to water the garden this week.  But I might have to pick beans in the mud.

Cucumber - June 30, 2020

My "get-up-and-go" is AWOL this morning. 

Yesterday was a frustrating day. 

The morning went fairly smoothly.  I took Nanny for some medical tests.  While she was in the doctor's office, I had an hour to visit with my sister, who lives nearby.  Nanny and I were home by noon.  On the way home, I told her about a cabbage casserole recipe I'd tried the night before.  We decided that the recipe would also be good with squash instead of cabbage.  She said she was going to try it for supper that night, if she had enough squash.  I had picked the squash the previous evening and had offered them to her, but she wouldn't take them.  They were in a bowl on my kitchen table.  I told her that I'd stop and get them for her casserole, but she wouldn't hear of it.  In that case, I said, I'd go to the garden and see if any more squash were ready to pick.  There were enough squash.  There was also grass, lots of it.  I made plans to remedy that situation, come evening. 

Nanny and I had also talked about craving cucumbers in vinegar and fried green tomatoes.  I told her I'd I checked the cucumber vines yesterday and didn't find any cucumbers, but we have plenty green tomatoes, and she could have one to fry.  She wouldn't hear of that, either.  (We sort of have a rule that nobody eats a fried green tomato until everybody gets a ripe one.)  Nevertheless, I pulled a green tomato and took it to her with the squash. 

At home, I went straight to the sewing room to test an embroidery design, a cute little pod camper, that I'd started the previous day.  It's not a complicated design, but it takes a L-O-N-G time to sew.  The first time I tested it, it sewed perfectly, but I did not like the way I'd done the tires, so I went back to the computer.  Big mistake.  I ended up tweaking and re-testing the design 4 times, and it still doesn't suit me.  I'd revert to the original design, except I saved the changes and will have to do the tires from scratch. 

At 4:30, I went to the garden to sweat out my frustration.  While pulling grass out of the cucumbers, I found one cucumber big enough to slice.  I didn't even offer to share it with Nanny, but brought it home, soaked it and some sliced onion in vinegar, and we had it for supper (but the cucumber hadn't really soaked long enough, so it didn't quite fix my craving).

After supper, I was tired and came out to the porch to rest and cool off under the fan.  While I was sitting here, I saw a lizard climb out from between the sofa cushions and scamper across the porch.  I spent the rest of the evening reading about how to get rid of lizards.  I don't mind the lizard; what I mind is his POOP.  He POOPS on the sofa.  Makes me so mad. 

I didn't really find a good solution for evicting lizards from sofas without using poisons and other distasteful remedies.  I don't want to kill the lizard, or run him off - he eats bugs, and I could use some help with the spiders that also want to live on the porch - I just want him off my furniture!  There was one curious suggestion that I might try:  egg shells.  Lizards reportedly do not like to encounter egg shells, for it makes them think there's a snake (or some other predator) in the vicinity.  I might slip some egg shells under the pillows.  I'll let you know if it works.

Green beans - June 30, 2020

When The Boss left the office last Friday, she was going home to pack for her vacation.  The last thing she said to me was, "I don't care what you do next week."  I assumed she meant that I wouldn't have to come to work if I don't want to.  ;)

Seriously, The Husband and I had planned to be on vacation this week, too, but . . . you know . . . coronavirus.  We didn't make any reservations.  It's a good thing, too, because Nanny has three doctor appointments this week in preparation for a heart valve replacement next week, and she needs someone to drive her.  As The Boss was leaving the office Friday, I was reminding her of these appointments, which prompted her comment.

So yesterday when I got out of bed, I decided that I didn't want to go to the office.  I had other things I wanted to do.

First up was some digitizing, a little pod camper.  While I tested the design, I began straightening up my sewing room.  What I was actually doing was looking for a bag of embroidery design tests that I had promised to give to a local quilt guild.  Last winter, I gathered up all of these tests, set aside the few that  I wanted to keep, and offered the rest to my crafty Facebook friends.  Lots of people expressed an interest in having them, but nobody came to get them.  I stuck the bag in a closet, or so I thought.  Yesterday, I dug through every closet, drawer, and tub, and that bag of embroidery tests was  was not to be found.  But I still have the stack of designs I'd held out for myself, and I've added more new design tests to the stack since then.  The reality is that I will probably never do anything with them, so I offered them to the quilt guild.  I'm supposed to drop them off today on my way home from Nanny's doctor appointment.  The shopping bag full of design tests is already in my car.  I hope I can remember to drop them off.

During the sewing room cleaning, I found all sorts of things I'd forgotten.  One of them was a blouse that a co-worker had sent home with me more than a year ago; it needed two buttons.  I paused the cleaning to sew on the buttons.  I also found a bundle of burlap mini-baskets that I'd offered her for use at her son's wedding rehearsal dinner.  The blouse and the baskets are now in a shopping bag in my car, ready to be dropped off tomorrow.

The cleaning also un-earthed a quilt that I started as a wedding present for my nephew two years ago.  The top is finished, and I'd even started quilting it on my rickety old quilting machine.  But while quilting it, I sewed all the way through the pinkie finger on my right hand.  http://sfancy.blogspot.com/2018/08/quilting-is-dangerous-work-81818.html
This was not the first time I'd nipped a finger, but it was the first time I nearly fainted from it.  The quilt sat, abandoned, in the frame for months and months.  Finally, during a sewing room reorganization, I took the quilt off the frame, ripped out the quilting, and stuffed the whole business in a garbage bag, planning to either have someone else quilt it or do it myself on a rented long-arm machine at the local quilt store.  I found this quilt bag yesterday and dropped what I was doing to make an appointment to rent the quilting machine.  The bag is already in my car, ready for Thursday.

As suppertime approached, I stirred up a cabbage casserole to go with some left-over sausages we'd grilled on Sunday.  It was a new recipe I saw online (if you are my FB friend, you can find it on my page).  While the casserole baked, I went to the garden with a pickin' bag, and found squash and enough green beans for dinner!  Since we'd eaten squash a couple of times last week, I gave the squash to the neighbors, but brought the green beans home and sauteed them with mushrooms in garlic butter.  There are enough left-overs for tonight's dinner.

The sewing room is in better shape, but needs more work.  Maybe I'll tackle that after Nanny's appointment.  Or maybe not.  The garden needs a little attention.  I pulled up some grass while I picked the beans, but there's more.  Always more.  I need to check the cucumbers.  And I saw some poop on the tomato leaves, but couldn't determine its origin.  (It tasted more like bird poop than tomato worm poop.) ;)