BURPEE SILICONE SEED STARTERS

We ran some errands the other day, 2nd Man was doing some volunteering with Habitat for Humanity (their retail store) and so I went to a nearby Walmart.  They had a clearance section and a lot of "Summer" stuff that was discounted.  I found these:

Burpee SuperSeed seed starting trays.

I got two of the 8 cell trays...

And two of the 16 cell trays...

These are a bit different than the plastic kinds that are so familiar.  These are made of a harder, thicker plastic (reminded us of something "Rubbermaid" might make) and they are reusable.  That's right, you can run them through the dishwasher (or just wash in the sink, ha) to use season after season.

What makes them more unique is this feature...

The bottom half of each "cell" is made of rubbery silicone instead of that thin black plastic that is normal on the bottom of these type of trays.   

Here is a picture from the website.  Pretty neat.  The transplants just pop out.  The only down side is they don't come with the little greenhouse lid thing but then again, I've found when I used those in the past, it didn't make much difference.  As long as you keep them watered and in light, seeds always seem to sprout.

On AMAZON THEY ARE $12 and up for each.

I paid $3 for the 8-cells and $5 for the 16-cells.

You all know I love a deal!

PUTTING UP JALAPENOS

The other day, a coworker brought a bunch of jalapeño peppers that her mother gave to her.  She kept as many as she wanted and offered the rest to us and of course, I'm not one to pass up a free offer!

I forgot to count, but I scored about three dozen.  Mostly medium to large size.  Side note, peppers are a vegetable that you can freeze raw without precooking.  I washed them and then dried them off well, you don't want any extra moisture during freezing.

I came up with three way plan:

The smaller ones I sliced into rings.  Because the rings still have the seeds and ribs, they will be a bit hotter.

I spread them onto a parchment lined baking sheet and popped them in the freezer.

These will be perfect for nachos or burgers, anywhere that we need some sliced jalapeño rings.

The larger ones I sliced lengthwise and then, using a spoon, I scraped out the ribs and most of the seeds.  This removes the hottest parts making these a little bit milder.

Once they were all cleaned out (a few seeds is fine) I spread them onto another parchment lined baking sheet and put them in the freezer.

These will be used to put into a pot of beans or soup or better yet, stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped with bacon and roasted in the oven!  So good.  

The rest of them I cut up, scraped and then diced into small pieces.  Again, a few seeds is fine.

One more sheet pan with parchment and a trip to the freezer for future use.

Diced jalapeños are great added in all sorts of dishes, we love them in scrambled eggs, a meat sauce, casseroles, etc.

And here they all are, ready for freezing:

The slices in this glass container, easy to take out however many we need...

The halves are in this ziplock bag so they can be flat for storing and we can take out what we need...

And then the diced in another container that fits in the freezer door, easy to spoon out what we need.

Freezing them this way lets you get them out as you need them without freezing into a solid mass.

WEEKEND

Well it's been a beautiful weekend here.  Not too warm and low humidity.  Last night the low was in the 50's.  That's nice weather for us.

Here is the view from the porch Saturday.  You can see the grass is going back the other direction but it is what it is.  No mowing for sure.

The Zen Machine looked lonesome, all fixed up and no place to go, ha!  So part of the new routine now will be that even when I don't need to mow, I'm going to take it out for a spin.  I started it up, backed it out and rode around for a bit, just to keep it charged, the fuel moving around in the engine, etc.

Bill (the farm truck) always gets taken for a spin down the road, about two miles roundtrip, again, just to keep things running smoothly.  We do that every time we are out there if we're not using it for something else.

But still, it seemed a bit lonely and left out so...

 ...we got a little more bling!  It needed either a whole new steering wheel or something to cover the old one.  The old covering that was integrated onto the steering wheel was worn and bare in spots.  Obviously, replacing it would be much more difficult (and $$), so it was easier to just get a cover.  We didn't want one of those that just laces or ties on, so we found this one, a nice, padded one, that just stretches to fit.  It wasn't easy getting it on there, but once in place, it doesn't move at all and feels really comfortable to grip.

Still no rain in the forecast for another week but gorgeous weather so we'll take that.

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

Sunday, time for some good food and some Hobart!

I stopped at a market near the farm and got a couple pounds of marinated beef fajita meat.  This kind is special to Mexican meat markets and has annatto (achiote) in it that gives it the red color (wait until you see the chicken).  2nd Man cooked it up, made some flour tortillas and pico de Gallo and we had a wonderful meal.

We also cracked open a bottle of wine (Apothic Cabernet).  It went really well with the fajita tacos!

It was all a very nice way to end the day.

I got a storage crate for some stuff and it was sitting by the table.  Hobart kept meowing and looking up at it, so we moved his afghan from the chair to there.  He jumped up on it and slept the rest of the day.  Because...

#notspoiled

CD COLLECTION AMAZING TRASH TO TREASURE

  Regular readers know that I have a favorite place to look for bargains...our downstairs trash area!  Our building has trash chutes on every floor and they feed into a separate room, but for boxes and other things that people can't put in the chute, there is an area (indoor) near the loading dock where people can put the things they don't want.  I've found quite a few cool items over the last few years.

Here's another of the latest and I dare say, might just be one of the best finds:

I saw this binder in the trash and thought "Hmm, what's that?"  I figured it might be papers or something from a school or someone's office.  I almost walked on by.

I opened it up...and couldn't get back upstairs with it quick enough!

Someone's entire music collection of CDs...

There's everything From Whitney Houston to Alan Jackson and Taylor Swift...

Bon Jovi....Brooks and Dunn...Alison Krauss...

Eight Alabama albums...

There's also Garth Brooks, Blake Shelton, Belinda Carlisle, Alicia Keyes, Kelly Clarkson, Aaron Neville and dozens and dozens more.  There are even classical artists and some Celtic music!  32 pages, each holding 8 CDs each and only two empty spots...254 total!

What the heck?

We can only guess that perhaps there was a divorce and an ex threw them out?

Or maybe someone died?  With regard to that, 2nd Man said if we woke up and all the cabinet doors were open and the chairs were piled on the table because whoever passed wanted them back, the binder was going back to the trash, LOL!

Of course, CDs aren't as common as they once were (who knows, that might be why someone dumped them) but we still have a CD player with our stereo system here and at the farm (and yes we still have a record player in storage for future use with my parents record collection).  We've been looking online and apparently, there are places where you can send them and they will convert them to digital so they can be accessed by mobile devices.

For now though, we'll put them up and use them when we want some music to listen to.  This person's musical taste aligns very well with ours so hey, it's a win!

This was DEFINITELY a treasure rescued from the trash.

DECORATIVE GOURDS AND ORNAMENTAL PUMPKINS

We went to a farmer's market near the farm and saw all these decorative gourds/pumpkins. So many varieties and all so pretty in their own ways, I had to get some pictures...

"Little Sprites"

These are really cool with the patterns of the deeper orange in the segments.  They almost look painted or even cut to expose orange seams, ha.

"Frankengourds"

Then there are these,  Very Halloween looking for sure. Bumps and ridges and black and dark green, they are creepy as Halloween should be.

"Snowball Pumpkins"

And then these white ones!  Stunning, so white that they look painted.  We read that they are just as edible as a regular pumpkins.  If one was inclined to paint decorations on pumpkins instead of carving, these would be a blank canvas.  How pretty would they be paired with black decorative objects?

"Orange Sparklers"

These are really cute, little flat pumpkins with some lighter spots and of course, really long stems.

"Gizmo"

These are really bizarre.  They look like extras from a sci-fi movie but they are beautiful colors and patterns.

"Apple Gourds"

Very interesting shape and color.  It's definitely shaped like an apple but to us it looked more like a watermelon or something similar.

"Pie Pumpkins"

And of course, the ubiquitous small pumpkins.  Love these and a few times in recent years, we've roasted some to put up for future use. They do make great pies!

The weather may not scream "Fall" yet (here, anyway) but seeing these sure makes it seem like it.

ZEN AGAIN

 It was a great weekend.  The weather was almost perfect (no humidity but could have been just a few degrees cooler, ha) but really it was nice.  What we've been waiting for.  If you are bored with mowing pictures and want to see some good food, scroll to the end and see the lunch I had.

2nd Man is in the middle of a big project at work and had to work at home so I was solo.

If you saw the post Friday, the mower is back and I needed to get some gas.  Several of you as well as the service guy, suggested "Ethanol Free" gasoline.  The guy at the shop said Bucees has it. 

There is one on the way to the farm and so I stopped.  For those not from the South, Bucees is a chain that is very well known and if you are ever traveling and want an adventure, stop at one.  They are amazing.  This one is in Katy, TX and the food and stuff inside is just incredible.  They also have the Guinness Book of World Records certified longest car wash in the world.  

Anyway, I pulled in and saw the signs for the pumps that have the Ethanol Free gas.

It's a little more than regular gasoline (but hey, still cheaper than when regular gas was higher earlier this Summer).  I filled up the 5 gallon can and headed to the farm.

The mower was sitting there where they dropped it off.  They even left some of the fuel stabilizer they used (I had already bought some Sta-Bil brand).  I filled it up with the new gas and started it.  It was much smoother running than it has been the last few times.

Of course they also did a regular tune-up, sharpened the blades, etc.

I was off to mow!

In some places, I had to mow with the mowing deck all the way up first to keep from getting bogged down in thicker grass.  For example, this was along a side fence.

Then I'd go back over it with the mowing deck down to normal level to finish it.  Looks good!

Here's one to show you how tall it was (the trails were the worst).  Again, one pass with the deck up...

...and then a pass again with the deck down.

Neat and tidy.

Bill the Truck isn't "knee deep" in grass.  In fact after mowing this area, you can see that our dry weather is back.  We haven't had rain in a couple of weeks.  Good for less stressful mowing and let me hit all the remote spots without fear of mud and getting stuck.

Here's the front yard.  This looks much prettier, more green (and look at that stunning blue sky).

The mower worked like a new machine!

An hour and half, almost 7 miles and about 4 acres.

2nd Man sent me to the farm with some fried chicken in a bag for a quick lunch.  I warmed it in the microwave and then thought..."I need to make this perfect to go with this perfect weekend".

I went to the pear tree and pulled one of the pears that was still on there that we hadn't harvested.  I sliced it thin and realized the plate needed some color.  I plucked a couple of "Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow" blossoms and put them on the plate.  I pulled up the rocker to a small table on the porch, had my glass of tea and voila!  It was just the most perfect lunch.

The pear, I guess because we had left some on there, even straight off the tree actually tasted fine.  It was still a bit firm but sweet, juicy and warm from the sun.  Flowers were inedible of course, but we eat with our eyes first and this made it beautiful.

I sent a picture to 2nd Man.

He was jealous. 😁

Yes, it was a great day!

GOOD FOOD AND HOBART SUNDAY

It's been a good weekend.  The weather is gorgeous I was at the farm all day, mowing, edging, relaxing...

Came back into town and 2nd Man made some pork medallions that he pan seared and then broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce.

It was simple but so good.

After dinner while watching TV, Hobart got up on one of his several blankets we have scattered around.  He was next to me on the couch and slept for a few hours.  I uncovered him for this picture, but normally he likes to be covered with just his head sticking out.  Because...

#notspoiled