HOT MOWING AND AN EYE ON THE GULF

It was a hot weekend (see yesterday's post).

2nd Man was experiencing some post vaccine fatigue so I headed out Saturday morning by myself to the farm.

At 2:00pm it was a feels like of 103.  It only got worse.  Yesterday we were close to 110 degree heat index.

The first thing I did was start mowing.  It was a long haul.  There was a lot of starting and stopping for breaks.  The stats below... 

...are not entirely accurate.  It was almost two hours on the mower but was two hours for sure because I forgot to turn on the app for about 10 minutes after I started. The whole process, because of having to stop and get off to unclog something or take a break for some water, was probably closer to about three hours.

This is the driveway...about midway through it.  That area on the side is the low spot and it was dry but slightly muddy.  Probably not enough to get stuck but enough to make me think twice about trying.  I did get a bit closer but not all the way to the fence line.

Here is where we park, last weekend it was underwater, this weekend nice and dry.  But the area of longer grass you can see, I usually mow that but it was also a bit too muddy for comfort, ha.

I did some other things but it just go so hot that I couldn't do much more.  I called it a day about 4:30.

AND NOW...for the not so fun part of living in hurricane country...we have to keep our eye on the Gulf as a tropical depression has formed and the general path is in this direction.  It could come straight this way or it could move more toward Louisiana which of course would put us on the "clean side".

Either way, we need to keep an eye on it because the arrival would be...the weekend.  Sigh.

HOBART SUNDAY

 It's been a good weekend.  

But hot.

They are warning people to stay inside or be very careful outside.  It's very hot with our "feels like" temps approaching 110 degrees.  We're in for a long, hot Summer, that's for sure.

Here's what Hobart has done all weekend.  Sleep in the nice air-conditioned comfort of home.

We'l be honest though, we've done that today.  I was at the farm all day yesterday (more on that tomorrow).  Today, I thought about going back out but I was just worn out.  It was ALL day in the heat on Saturday and it sapped my energy.  2nd Man had what we believe was a bit of a delayed vaccine reaction and was tired and lethargic all day Friday and yesterday.

He is much better today.

Hope you had a great weekend and are staying cool!

FINGERS CROSSED

No rain in 8 days...

Sunny and clear...

Temps in the 90's...

It should be a good day to mow and edge and do a hundred other things I need to do at the farm.  However, mowing is number one on my list.  I have GOT to mow or we'll start to lose some of the trails and it will just get harder and harder to cut.

There could be rain next week so this is the window of opportunity!  

Hope you all have a great start to your weekend!

WE ARE VACCINATED

Well, we did it.

We have been fully vaccinated!

For me, this was a Mt. Everest moment.  You see, I have a terrible fear of needles.  My fear comes from a childhood trauma.  I was bitten by a stray cat when I was about four or five and they couldn't catch the cat so I had to have rabies shots.

20+.

In the stomach.

Over the course of a few weeks.

With 1969 "needle technology".

Ironically, LOVE cats, HATE needles, ha.

(rabies shots are much better now)

Since 2nd Man and I didn't really get out into public situations much, we waited to let more people get their vaccines first but then it became so widely available here, we decided to do it.  Had our first shot back a couple weeks before Memorial Day weekend and then a couple of days ago we got the second dose.

For those afraid of needles, I have to say, I did NOT feel a thing.  Literally the first shot (don't look at it) I was looking away, I felt him rub on the alcohol, I was chatting away talking about my rabies shots experience and whatever else and the guy goes "all done!".  I swear to you if you offered me $100 to tell you the moment he injected me, I would lose that bet.  It was an amazing experience.  I was actually looking forward to the second and same thing this time, though I did consciously try to catch the moment.  I "think" I did know the microsecond moment I might have felt it but again, a wonderful experience. 

I'm happy to report, no reaction with either the first or the second shot, other than a sore muscle in the arm.   I may have had a bit of a low grade fever in the night while I was sleeping, but I didn't take my temperature, woke up feeling fine and went to work just like normal.

We got the Pfizer vaccines.  Other than the sore arms I mentioned, everything was normal for both of us.

We will still wear masks for the foreseeable future when in large gatherings.  Texas has pretty much dropped mandatory masks and most businesses have done that as well.  However, signs saying "masks encouraged" or "masks suggested" (instead of "masks required") are now up and in Houston at least, most people honor that and wear their masks.  But we feel both relieved and empowered now that we "have our shots" (sounds like going to the vet).  It's a weight off our shoulders.

And we know how Hobart feels...ha! 

FLOODED YARD AND GARDEN

This part of Texas started May with a rainfall deficit but during the month, we "officially" received 11.5 inches of rain.  The farm total has been closer to 15 inches.

Thankfully it didn't come all at once but in some ways that might have been better, or at least if it was spread over a few days.  Instead, it rained on and off almost every day for a month which helped prevent major widespread flooding of cars and homes but caused the ground to just become supersaturated.

At the top edge of this photo you can see my car parked and in the middle of the photo is where I usually park the car.  I have already gotten a mower stuck, I was not about to get the car stuck this time, so I parked in the high spot of the yard.

Still, the garden and indeed the whole farm, is just SO wet with water.  It's standing everywhere that there is a low spot, including here in the garden...

The back of the garden is really wet but at least the middle is a little higher (where the veggies are) so there is not as much standing water...

...but at the front, it's really standing.  The weed cloth fabric we have lets water permeate, but we're guessing the ground is too saturated to absorb any more water.  The gate won't even close because the wood is swollen.  I had to use a brick to keep it closed.  Oh and of course weeds are filling a couple of unused beds because I have not been able to get out there to weed them.

The veggies seem to be fine.  We have had the automated watering system off for the entire month of May and it's still producing veggies.  We just used Mother Nature's soaker hose, ha.

Mosquitoes, image courtesy of wikicommons

Of course all of this standing water means MOSQUITOES...clouds of mosquitoes.  I wore my rubber mud boots and shorts, and my knees have bites on them.  I did wear a long sleeve shirt.  They are horrible little things, that's for sure.  

This was the yard last weekend when I tried to mow and it was left a mess...

...but it bounces back nicely.  This was Saturday (notice the sky, rain was coming) but it wasn't too bad.  Of course I couldn't mow so this coming weekend it will be definitely be ready.  BUT THERE IS GOOD NEWS...

Here is the forecast for this week.  WOO HOO!  NO RAIN!  Sure, highs near 90 but they said it would just be hot and sunny all week with no real rain threat.  That means we'll have a week of things drying out.  Hopefully this weekend will be dry and ready for work...I'll have my work cut out for me, that's for sure.

FLOWERS BEES AND BREAD

Our Vitex bushes are in full bloom and the flying critters love them and wee enjoy watching.  Bees and butterflies (tried to get a few in a picture but they didn't come out).

There are regular honey bees of course but we also love the large bees that frequent the flowers.

This is a carpenter bee...

And this is a bumblebee.  Love the fuzzy nature of these bumblebees.  They look like stuffed animals, ha!

Hope you are having a good weekend.  It's rainy on and off again.  More on that tomorrow.

Yesterday, 2nd Man made some white bread...

...and this morning we had some as toast.  It's always so good, crispy and toasty on the outside and still soft inside.  Toast with a little butter is so good.

It's almost a comfort food. 

As we post this, it's starting to rain again.  Sigh.

AND THE MYSTERY FRUIT IS...

Well, this weekend it was time...

....time to harvest a couple of fruits off our "NOT A PEACH" tree. There are still some on there but we pulled off a couple to sacrifice for the common good!

We pulled off two of them...

This one is still perfect and almost soft and ripe.  We wanted to go ahead and get one that we could eat so we'll leave it on the counter to ripen a bit more.

The other one was overripe and had started to split open and so it was on the verge of going bad.  Perfect chance to see what was on the inside.  

Here it is!  That's a "peach like" pit if we ever saw one.  It also smells like a peach.  There was no "fuzz" on the outside.  We tasted the other one and it's super sweet like a peach on steroids.

This pit + color + no fuzz + smell/taste = nectarine!

Apparently a nectarine is not a cross between a peach and something else, it's just a variation of a peach.  Slightly smaller with no fuzz.  The flavor is much sweeter, hence the part of the name 'nectar' meaning sweet.  Since we lost our peach in the freeze and it will take time to replace it with a producing tree, we're glad we at least have this producing a similar fruit.

Is there such a thing as a nectarine cobbler?  Or can we use nectarines and "say" it's peach?

A SMALL GARDEN HARVEST

So here is the weekend harvest...

A garden harvest

Two ripe tomatoes, one green tomato (it fell off in the storm), a few cucumbers and our first three eggplants.  Oh and we cut some bay leaves.  

Not too bad, all things considered.  Sure it's not a lot, but we've always considered the weekend gardening that we are doing as a sort of "proof of concept" for the future.  We're testing what works, what doesn't work, and everything in between.  Which varieties of different vegetables work for us and which don't.

It's also a way to find out things we can do with our harvest, even if only on a small scale.  For example, since we're not overflowing (yet) in cucumbers for canning, we sliced these up and added them to some brine we already had in the fridge.

Anyone have any great uses for the eggplant?  This is the long and slender "Asian" eggplant variety.  We've tried regular eggplants and these (twice each) and these far and away did the best.  One year we were getting six per week.  There are two more on there now, probably ready this coming weekend.

We have used our mayo/parmesan oven fry method but now we're looking for some more ideas on how to use only a few smaller eggplants at a time.

Any suggestions?

A MOWING MESS AND BBQ RIBS AND MORE RAIN

Yesterday it was off to the farm and I was able to mow...kind of anyway until it turned into a mess.

I looked at the stats and thought "not so bad" but then I realized how much less I mowed than usual.

Here is why:

Standing water in ALL the low spots...

I did most of the driveway but not the side, there is a natural depression where water drains away toward the road and it was about 4 inches deep with water.

And the water here was too deep to go further than I did.  See the tire ruts?  I almost got stuck here.  I had to push it out.  I had a minor panic attack, ha.

Not gonna do THAT again!

This is the mess I made before I gave up for the day.  Piles of wet grass, deep ruts, un-mowed spots, tall grass in other spots.  It was not very Zen, ha.

I didn't need to water, but I checked on stuff and harvested some things. More on that in upcoming posts.

Since we had to go back to work today, it was best to get back into town to rest for the remainder of the day. I had mentioned that I made two racks of ribs on Sunday.  They are oven baked but...

Oven baked bbq baby back ribs

...they look like they came off the grill but they didn't.  Low and slow for a couple of hours and then 20 minutes at a high temp and 5 minutes under the broiler.  A local grocery store had a "buy one get one" sale before Memorial Day and we figured we could get two days meals out of these.  And we did!

Sunday...

BBQ ribs with coleslaw

...we had them with homemade coleslaw.

It was delicious!

Then on Monday...

BBQ ribs with mac and cheese

...2nd Man made some mac and cheese and we had the other rack with that.  Delicious again!

Now we're back to rain,

ALL. FREAKIN. WEEK.

The forecast is for 5 to 7 inches of rain through Sunday.  At least I mowed what I could but this just means no time to dry out and probably no mowing this weekend.  It's just delaying the mess another week.  Sigh.

AT THE FARM MEMORIAL DAY 2021

Today is Memorial Day...

...and we are thinking of all the men and women who have passed that have done so much for our country.

Thank you, your sacrifice does not go unnoticed. 

Friday night, we got a line of storms spring up and it brought HEAVY rain.  Above is the radar over the farm at about 10:15pm.  I spoke to "J" and she said we had almost 3 inches of rain added to the total at the farm.  We realized that meant it would be too wet for mowing this weekend and our only hope would be a dry Saturday and Sunday and no rainy Monday.  Well we got that and so today as this posts, we're headed out to check on things.  I'm hoping I can get some mowing in.  Even if I can only mow the driveway and the yard around the house, that'll be fine.

Fingers crossed!

Yesterday I made two racks of bbq ribs and we split one rack with a side of coleslaw and today we're having the other rack with homemade mac and cheese.

IT IS RACEDAY

 Regular blog readers know that we are fans of car racing.  NASCAR is what we most often watch but of course the INDY 500 is fun too and so today are TWO!

The Indianapolis 500 is on first (as this posts), followed this afternoon/evening by...

...the NASCAR Coca Cola 600 race.

We'll be "raced out" by the end of the evening, ha.  There are baby back ribs in the oven right now, I made some coleslaw and 2nd man is going to make mac and cheese.  We might be raced out but we'll be well fed.

We're off tomorrow and since we had a monsoon rain at the farm Friday night, tomorrow will be farm day to check things out and, hopefully, be able to mow.

Hope you are having a good weekend. 

THE LOSS OF ANNE MARIE IN PHILLY

 We are devastated this morning to learn of the sudden loss of a dear blogger friend.  It has taken the wind out of my sails today and we are both shedding a tear.

Many of you will know her from her comments here.  She posted as "Anne Marie in Philly" and was a noticeable presence across many blogs with her wit and comments and love of life.

She also had her own blog here:

From My Brain To My Mouth

She was a self professed Str8 Ally to our community.  She loved life, she was fiercely political and hated injustice and intolerance and bigotry.  She never forgot our birthdays or our anniversary, always sending us well wishes and even creating posts on her own blog to give us a shout out.

She loved it when we posted pictures of Hobart.  This one was going up this weekend and we were looking forward to her comment so we dedicate it to her...

Goodbye dear Anne Marie, to quote the words you often used on your blog posts;

"This is how I am feeling right now...

Dance like no one's watching...

Sing like no one's listening..."

Well sweet Anne Marie, we hope you are dancing because we're all watching and we hope you are singing because we're all listening...

WHAT CANNING JAR SHORTAGE

Was in Kroger grocery store the other day on the way back from the farm and saw this...

...a huge display of Ball Mason canning jars.  I don't think I've ever seen quite so many in one place ever (short of some place dedicated to canning supplies).

I had to take two pictures to get it all in.  Normally, a Kroger grocery store has one small section, in the baking aisle, of canning supplies.  Sometimes there are a few varieties of jars but I've never seen this many all at once.  We were wondering if the pandemic sales were so high over the last year that stores are stocking up?

I think we have enough jars right now, but we'll keep our eyes out.  Once I can go back to thrift store shopping I will see if a lot of jars "appear" as people change their minds from quarantine canning, ha. 

Canning definitely gained in popularity during quarantine.  Regular readers know I've dabbled in it (and enjoyed it).  I keep all of our supplies in a canning jar cabinet at the farm and some things in the apartment.  When we get something done with the house, I have been saving ideas for not only storage of canned goods but places to keep all the supplies including empty jars.

FRUIT TREES AFTER THE STORM

Yesterday was the garden update, POST HERE, and today is the update for the fruit trees.

After the week long storms with high winds and some hail, we had to check the farm.  The house was fine, a couple of shingles lifted, but we've lost a few in the past nothing major and it's all going to be redone in some form later on.  The fruit trees survived the wind but...

...some of the apples did not.  Found about four scattered around.  Here are a couple in the grass.

Anna apples

Fortunately we still have some in the tree.  Here are two of them, hanging tight and still growing.  Fingers crossed they make it to harvest.

Nectarine?

And look!  The "mystery fruit" has survived and is getting huge.  There are a couple more on on the tree so we're still leaving them all on to fully develop.  There is no fuzz on this so we're pretty sure it's not a peach.  This is the one we're eyeballing to be the first one ready as the others are a bit further behind.  The more and more they grow, the more it looks like this is actually a nectarine tree (related to peaches).

The true test will come when we cut it open and check out the pit and of course the taste.  Peak season for nectarine harvest is traditionally July/August.  At the rate this is growing, we can't imagine this making it to August seems more like a July ripening.

The blueberries and newly planted cherry bushes survived as well.  The blueberries are starting to plump up, we think they have truly loved all this rain.

Us, not so much...

"More flooding could be on the way to Houston; Flash Flood Watch in effect until Tuesday evening"

Above is one of the blaring headlines on local news sources.  Rain is good but we're ready for it to stop.  It has rained 18 of the last 24 days.  Yesterday was some flooding around town with more rain coming today.

Not sure if I'll be able to mow this weekend either...