Can you believe August is here already?! Last week we saw a lot of rain which has really helped out garden but unfortunately, also helped the weeds. grrr!
Gardening Report:
- Friday - NO RAIN but lots of heat and humidity. ---
- deer tracks spotted in the garden and you can see where they've been eating tomato leaves and bean leaves... ugh!
- fungus/mold spotted in the garden on the mulch near the tomatoes and a few other spots -- dh will investigate more thoroughly Sat. and try to remedy the situation
- saw an ugly ol' caterpillar (red & black w/spikes) on my okra.. needless to say it didn't survive.
- Saturday - Dh weeded the garden and ran the tiller through the paths
- raked all the cut weeds ect. from in front of the chicken coop
- pruned the leaves on the tomatoes (yields a bigger crop as far as bigger tomatoes and more)
- Sunday - No Rain and a Day of Rest
- Monday - finished weeded the main garden then watered it
- tie up some of the 107 tomato plants... need to get more tomato stakes to finish the job
- Tuesday - watered the raised beds
- watered the herb garden
- picked cucumbers
- Wednesday - pretty much the day off from gardening because some preparations need to be done in a few spots for more gardening spaces... still working on the 2 new spots in the front of the house
- 3 holes prepped for the fruit trees... no still not in ground... only so many hours in a day around here. lol
- Thursday - no gardening work but cleaning up the yard, taking off trash
Harvesting Records for the week:
- 19 tomatoes
- 1 gypsy peppers
- 10 okra pods
- 23 pickling cucumbers
- 3 eggs
- 8 tomatoes
- 1 gallon basket of green beans
- 2 cayenne peppers
Home Preserving Log:
Canning
- 12 quarts of salsa
- 3 quarts of green beans
- 16 quarts of spaghetti sauce (local farmer gave us the Roma tomatoes and my sister had given me some spaghetti sauce canning mixes so I used those) there was 17 jars but lost 1 in the canner due to a jar breaking). grrrr
- 2 quarts and 1 pint of apple pie filling (apples were free)
Freezing
- continuing to fill up the Okra baggie
Dehydrating
Inside Work:
- Saturday -- made yogurt
- made new labels for the spice jars and reorganized the shelf to combine like spices... I had bought a few more containers of things and hadn't had time to transfer them to the regular jars (I used quart, pint, jelly jar and 1/2 jelly jars for spice jars on the built in spice rack that dh built me shortly after we moved here).
- updated and printed out the pantry list.
- Finished the August Menu
- put my scrap stuff away... I have a basket I toss in ribbons, buttons etc. until I can put it away.
- Supervised ds#2 cleaning the bathroom
- 6 loads of household laundry (sheets, towels, bathroom rugs, etc.)
- Sunday - day of rest
- Monday - made salsa
- laundry 9 loads (I worked on laundry while dd#1 weeded the rest of the main garden then hooked the hoses back up to water it)
- dd#1 made ds#2 a birthday cake (construction site complete with construction toys) He turned 8 today
- Tuesday - made yogurt
- 4 loads of laundry
- ironing
- made spaghetti sauce
- canned green beans
- labeled and put up the salsa
- Wednesday - 2 loads of laundry
- ironing
- Started the "No-Poo" challenge that I read about here. I really like how the first results look using this method
- cleaned my tub with white vinegar and baking soda
- Thursday - cleaning tubs with a review product
- used my apple peeler to peel, slice, and core the apples that were given to us (I love this thing!! It makes the chores so much faster and easier!)
- made apple pie filling (used some to make apple pie as stated below and rest was put up)
- made 4 whole wheat pie crusts - 2 of which I used for a double crust apple pie, 1 for the base of the Pepperoni Spinach Quiche (from Taste of Home August/September 2008 issue), and the remaining one along with the remnants from the first 3 was used to make a lattice top apple pie.
- made seasoning mix up for Italian Salad Dressing and then mixed up dressing
Menus:
- Friday Breakfast: breakfast out as we were headed into the big city of Knoxville to meet up with hubby
- Friday late lunch/early supper: ate out at a Mexican restaurant that showed resemblance to a Subway the way it was set up
- Saturday Breakfast - Omelets, Drop Biscuits, Bacon
- Saturday Dinner - sandwiches
- Saturday Supper - monthly meeting at church followed by fellowship meal
- Sunday Breakfast - Oatmeal
- Sunday Dinner - Calico Bean Soup & Cornbread
- Sunday Supper - Sandwiches
- Monday Breakfast: French Toast, Bacon, Fruit
- Monday Dinner: beans, rice and cheese tortillas
- Monday Supper: Fried Chicken (legs/drumsticks), fried okra, coleslaw, vanilla ice cream and birthday cake
- Tuesday Breakfast - Cereal & Fruit
- Tuesday Dinner: leftovers
- Tuesday Supper: Tri-Color Rotini Pasta with sauce, salad, followed by leftover birthday cake and ice cream
- Wednesday Breakfast - granola & fruit
- Wednesday Dinner - leftovers
- Wednesday Supper - grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
- Thursday Breakfast - HM Muffins and fruit
- Thursday Dinner - sandwiches
- Thursday Supper - Pepperoni Spinach Quiche (HM pie crust), Fried Taters and Onions, used the leftover Tri-Color Rotini Pasta from Tuesday meal and mixed with a HG tomato and cucumber along with HM Italian Salad Dressing for Pasta Salad, HM Apple Pie for dessert with vanilla ice cream
Other:
Check out the Friday Freebies and Happenings to see the fruits and veggies we were blessed with.
Blessing abundant!
Don't forget you still have time to submit something for the The Carnival of Home Preserving!
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Thanks for posting this, Laura! I love seeing what you've accomplished and the menus are very helpful. Hopefully next year I can start a garden.
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