HOT WEATHER IS HERE

Well it was as I suspected.  The grass was really high.  Still not the highest ever (that was after our almost month of rain a couple of seasons ago), but it was probably a close second or third.  Sigh.

I got the mower out of the shed and started mowing about 10:15am.

Two hours later I was done.  This was another near record length mowing time.  Love this app to keep track of these things from year to year.

It looked good when I was done.  A couple of you mentioned that I we might have it set a bit too low.  I bumped it up a bit.  Still short but with the possibility of having to miss a mow some weekend because of rain, still short enough not to make things so bad.  Someday, when we're out there full time, mowing will become more regular, a couple times a week a little at a time so that it's not so much at once.

This was at 2pm.  I had mowed and watered the trees and moved some stuff around from the barn to the shed.  I also checked the fence line but it was just so hot (feels like 103) I was done.  August is the one month a year when we really just do the least amount we have to outside.  The humidity just drains you.  I was going to edge but again, least amount possible and I just didn't have it in me.

No homeowners association to complain, no neighbors to ask why, no curb appeal yard of the month to worry about and I don't have to post THOSE pictures here, LOL, so I skipped it.  Hoping this weekend I won't have to mow and I can edge and that will be the "least" for this weekend, ha.

I noticed this banana spider (also called golden orb spider) on the porch had a wasp that it had captured for its next meal.  We're OK with that. 

And here's some truth right here.  There were a few times when the sun went behind the clouds and I sighed with relief.

Alas, shade is fleeting. 

Hope you had a good weekend, tomorrow a fruit tree update after the "goat incident".

LAZY SUNDAY

It's a lazy day around here.  Yesterday was the farm.  It was hot.  Update on that tomorrow.  Today it's even hotter.  Our "feels like" (temp + humidity) is 105 degrees.  Good day to stay in where it's cool.

Hobart is sleeping (post catnip high) on his blanket using his toy as a pillow.  Yeah it's a rough life when you are one of our cats, ha.

I brought some fresh rosemary back from the farm and we cut up some lemons (can't wait until they are our own lemons) and stuffed a couple of chickens.

They are roasted now but since we had breakfast while they were cooking, we'll save one for later today and then we'll take the meat off the other, vacuum seal and save for future use.

Stay cool, we're trying...

WATER DISPENSING DEVICE FRIDAY DEBATE

On Friday in the past we have done a "Friday Food Debate" where we tackle some of the burning questions of the culinary world, ha...we haven't done one of those in a while but this week we'll expand to another random fun question that came up.

This week, the burning question is:

After the fun one question last week (fireflies or lightning bugs) we found another fun one this week. The machine that dispenses water in stores and businesses and parks...you know, you're thirsty and you ask "excuse me do you all have a......"?

WATER FOUNTAIN or DRINKING FOUNTAIN?  Or heck in some areas of the country people call them BUBBLERS (2nd Man had heard of that but I've never heard that, at least that I can remember, ha).

As for us here, it is water fountain. 2nd Man and I grew up here and that's all we've ever called it.   

Another fascinating thing that is regional in usage.  You can see the map above shows where they are most prevalent.  Some areas overlap a bit.

So what do YOU call that water dispensing machine? Team water fountain?  Team water machine?  Team bubbler?

SLOPPY JOE TATER TOT CASSEROLE RECIPE

This is a pretty easy casserole but it's SO good.  It's basically like eating a sloppy joe.  Meat and sauce, cheese and instead of hamburger buns, tater tots!  There are a dozen versions floating around, some one layer, others with other add ins, but this is how we do it and keep it simple:

Ingredients:

1 32 oz pkg of tater tots (for some reason there is the exact right amount for a two layer 8x8 dish)

2 cups shredded cheddar

1 can sloppy joe sauce (or equivalent homemade)

1 lb (give or take a bit) ground beef

Brown the ground beef and drain...

Add the sauce and heat up as normal...

Meanwhile, in a greased 8x8 dish, line the bottom with tater tots...

Pour the sloppy joe mix over the top...

Put 1 cup of the shredded cheese over the mixture...

Cover that with another layer of tots...

And finish off by topping it with the remaining cup of shredded cheese...

Place in 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes or until cheese is golden and tots are browned...

And here it is out of the oven.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes to cool down a bit...

Dish it up and serve!  It's so good and makes for really great leftovers the next day.  It's not something you'd eat every day of course but hey, for some nice comfort food or a quick meal, you can't beat it.  Very easy and freezes well too!

Stay safe and eat well!

LOOSE GOATS UPDATE

An update from yesterday's blog post 
(which if you missed, just CLICK HERE).

Here is just one of the pictures of the damage.  This is the plum tree.  Some goats (pics of the guilty party in yesterday's post) got loose from a neighbors property and feasted on some of our fruit trees, being small enough to slip in under the fishing line.  Or maybe they just don't spook as easily as deer do when they touch the line.

I spoke with 2nd Family and it turns out they were struck as well.  They didn't know they had made it down to our end so they hadn't checked our trees (and they are on the backside of the house and not visible from the front).  The goats ate one of their rose bushes to the ground, all of their strawberries, some garden plants and herbs and branches from their apple tree too!

They got the goats rounded up and back through the fence and then temporarily patched it.  They called the neighbor and told him and he said he'd be out the next day to fix it.  He didn't.  They called two more times and he still didn't fix it.  So they called the sheriff and the sheriff called the neighbor.

He came and fixed the fence.

No more goats.

We hope. 

Honestly in the years out there, we've never had any of this neighbor's animals make it through the fence so hopefully this was a one off moment.  This weekend, I'm going to check the fence along our part of the property line just to make sure.

It's always something.

NEAR CATASTROPHE IN THE ORCHARD

 So it was a dark and stormy....oh wait.  Ok, it rained.  After the washout last weekend, most of the week was much better...until Thursday evening and Friday evening and Saturday morning...

...well this was the radar when I decided to go ahead and head to the farm.  The farm is the pinned dot in the radar image above.  But they were moving East and away from the farm so I figured I could beat it before the next round.  Of course I knew I couldn't mow because we had gotten fairly heavy rain Friday night and then again Saturday morning.

When I got there, it was moving out but more coming later in the day.  Sure enough, a lot of standing water.  As you can see the grass is green now and needed mowing, I just have to hope that this coming weekend won't be too bad...

The reason I went was as usual, just to check on things, make sure all was OK.  90% of the time, everything is good.  But this time...

(Please ignore the out of control grass in and around the beds in the following pictures, had it been dry, the pictures would have been taken AFTER mowing and edging, ha)

  

...I rounded the corner of the house and saw this branch from one of the pear trees in the yard.  WHAT???

Then this on one of the apple trees!

\

And this on the OTHER apple tree!

And finally, one of the plum trees...sigh. 

Near as we can tell, something got into the fenced area.  There have been deer but they are larger and wouldn't be able to get into the fenced area without ripping down all the fishing line and probably pulling over a pole or two.  The mystery deepened.

We only have one trail cam right now and it's focused on the front yard.  But I decided to swap out the memory cards anyway and see what's on there that might give us a clue.  

GOATS!

They have to be the culprits.  These belong to the neighbors on the side of us.  I didn't know about this until I got home and checked the photos, it's from the 20th, last time there was the 19th.  I called 2nd Family and "R" is going to go check the fence line and see where they got in.  I was going to have a post coming up about all the leaves being eaten off the lemon tree a couple of weeks back.  We figured a caterpillar.  In retrospect it was probably these mischief makers.  

Notice the apple trees above, there are not many leaves on them.  I didn't even think about that until I examined the pictures again.  There was one section of fishing line on the bottom row that was missing for the last few weeks.  I noticed it the last time I was out there there but the fishing line I had brought back into town and forgot to bring it with me.  I wasn't worried because it was the lowest part and about knee high for a deer.  I didn't foresee goats.

The thinking is one or more got in and ate what they could reach and then probably pulled on higher up branches and broke them since they were pulled downward.  There was one additional fishing line snapped and that probably happened as they left.

Ugh.  We hope the fence gets patched up.  I am going to add a few extra rows of fishing line this weekend when I mow. And edge. And clean out the beds.  A full weekend for sure, weather permitting. 

Now I'm tired thinking about it...and it's only Monday...

GARDEN PRETTY MUCH DONE FOR THE SEASON

Well the tomatoes are done for this year.

Here are the tomatoes that ripened since our last harvest two weekends ago including a couple of green tomatoes so I pulled those too.  The plants are definitely done. Crispy leaves and no new growth.

We think by covering them with the freeze cloth (to keep the birds away) we extended our growing season just a bit longer.  They were protected from the heat of the blazing sun but didn't set any new fruit.  All that ripened were the ones that were already green.  A bit smaller than normal but we'll take it.  The squash has one small fruit on it but it looks done as well.  The peppers never set fruit.  Not sure what happened there.  

The basil has been nice and we've used a lot of it this season.  All in all, it was a nice distraction during the quarantine/pandemic.

Tomorrow an update on the weekend, including a near disaster in the orchard area.

Today NASCAR is back after a couple weeks off but of course, both of us being space fans, we are watching astronauts Bob and Doug and their return to Earth on the SpaceX capsule Endeavor.  Good luck guys!

GLOWING INSECT FRIDAY DEBATE IS BACK

On Friday in the past we have done a "Friday Food Debate" where we tackle some of the burning questions of the culinary world, ha...we haven't done one in a while but this week we'll expand to another random fun question that just came up recently.

This week, the burning question is:

Both 2nd Man and I grew up calling the ubiquitous glowing Summer insects whose rear end lights up "lightning bugs"...but since I grew up in several states from Oklahoma to coast to coast, I've heard the word "firefly" as well.

Apparently it's fairly regional.  There is some thinking, though unproven, that lightning bugs are in the areas with the most Summer thunderstorms, hence "lightning"...and the fireflies are in areas with Summer wildfires, hence "fire".  Interesting indeed.  there are of course areas where things overlap and both words are used interchangeably.

There are some other words for them, some of which we had never even heard of:

Candlefly...firebug...glowworm...will-o'-the-wisp...

So which insect are you?  Team firefly or team lightning bug?  Or something else entirely?

AT YOUR SUGGESTION A BLT

2nd Man is baking again.

Homemade bread

Last week it was brioche, this week standard white bread with a touch of sourdough...one plain and one with Trader Joe's "everything but the bagel" seasoning.  That stuff is so good!  A mixture of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic, salt, onion.

By the way, I'm getting 2nd Man to share his recipes, some are just straight from online, some are adjustments on his own.  We'll post soon. 

Garden fresh tomatoes

We had two tomatoes left from our last garden haul and of course everyone knows how amazing garden fresh tomatoes are no matter how you use them.  In fact, with our last sandwiches, several of you reminded us of the joys of the ubiquitous BLT sandwich...let's see:

Fresh homemade bread...√

Applewood smoked thick slice bacon...√

Mixed garden lettuce...√

Garden fresh tomatoes...√

Mayonnaise...√

BLT sandwich

BLT's for two!!!

They were so good.  There is something so satisfying about the combination of flavors that is so retro and so comforting at the same time.  

Thanks for the suggestions!  Now here's to hoping for the last few tomatoes this weekend.

YOU ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR FIRST

Our first apple.

What did you think this post was about?  LOL.

One of the two apple trees bloomed this year and developed several fruits.  It is the Anna apple.

In Texas, or at least in our part of Texas, we can't grow red apples.  We have to go for green or yellow.  We opted for this variety because it has a low chill hours requirement and that's our climate for sure.

From the online description of this variety it produces large (though these are small since the tree is still small), crisp apples with a yellow greenish skin and a red blush.  The sweet and slightly tart flesh is perfect for fresh eating, cooking and baking.

Here is it sliced up.  2nd Man said it reminded him of a pear.  It was sweet and had a similar taste.  We did both notice it also be slightly tart just like the description and we're pretty sure they would be great for cooking and baking. 

But wait!

There were three in total.  I pulled all three the last time I was at the farm and we've been rationing them for a few days.  Not bad looking fruit for our first ever homegrown apples!  It also means the DEER FENCING has worked because they did not get these tempting morsels...we did!

We do have an issue with this tree, more on that in an upcoming post.  This weekend was, as you probably saw posts about, a stay at home weekend because of the rain bands from Hurricane Hanna.  The ground was starting to crack at the farm so the rain was welcome.  I'm guessing this weekend will most definitely be a weekend for mowing and edging.  

HUNKERED DOWN

For those who saw yesterday's post you know we are staying in town as Hurricane Hanna heads inland.

Hurricane Hanna radar image

Here is a radar shot from about an hour ago.  As you can see it is making landfall much further South of us than originally anticipated.  However you can see the rain bands from the rotation are training across our part of the state.  They say we'll have more rain tomorrow but it might move quick enough that our training bands may move on sooner.  We'll see how the day goes tomorrow.

Stormy downtown Houston

Here is a shot from the balcony in town right now.  Definitely a rainy day.  It's typical tropical activity though, sunny for a bit and then dark and heavy rain, then clearing up again.

So we're just hanging around inside watching TV and 2nd Man is cooking.  As for Hobart...

Hobart is holding on

...well he is "hunkering down" by straddling the arm of the couch and holding on..you know, in case the building blows over or something, LOL!  Hey, he makes it work, I guess that's all that matters.

Hope you are off to a better start of the weekend.