There is Always Something to Do Around Here

 

   I thank those of you who read my blog for being so patient with me.  Things have been super busy around here and it seems like there are not enough hours in the day for us to get everything done that we need to.  So today, I am making time to do an update on things that are going on in our world.

   Above you will see 2 pictures of a salad that I made for dinner one night and then the filet mignon that Jeff grilled and I served with mashed potatoes made from Yukon Gold potatoes harvested from our garden.  In addition to the Yukon Gold potatoes, we also harvested the first batch of Huckleberry Gold potatoes that we grew in our half whisky barrel.  That barrel was a wonderful place to grow the potatoes and we got a good yield from it.  We still have more of the Huckleberry Golds to harvest that were grown in a row on the ground near the whisky barrel.  We will see what kind of yield we get from that also.  I gave some of the Yukon Gold potatoes to our neighbor/hanai sister Shannon this morning and she was super excited about it.

   The raspberry bushes have been going gangbusters on us and I am picking gallons of berries off them.  I have also been getting a handful of blueberries off those bushes every few days.  The strawberries are at the end of their season here and did not do as well as I had hoped.  Jeff and I are going to put down a lot of compost and work it into the soil this Fall.  The rhubarb also struggled and we got nothing off it.

   We are still getting cherries off our tree, but those too are coming to the end of their season and to be honest, I am really glad they are. 😉  We have harvested and given away so many of them.  This year was a bumper crop year for cherries all over our part of the country.

   Oh yes, an update on the doctor's appointments for Jeff and I.  Let's start with Jeff.  He is going to have to do a follow up on the spot they saw on his kidney.  He will be having another more detailed CAT scan sometime soon.  We are still waiting to hear from the hospital on scheduling it since they only do it there once a month.  Now me...so it has now been discovered that I have some arthritis in my right hip as well as in my lower back (which is really a mess according to my doctor) and I have degenerative disc disease as well.  Oh joy...NOT!!!!  I am now taking Aleeve twice a day to help with that pain, in addition to all my other medications, and it seems to be helping.  It's funny how the Pregabalin does not touch that kind of pain, but helps with my Fibromyalgia pain.

   Back to the things we have been doing around here.  Jeff got the chest freezer all cleaned out and reorganized.  It was a big job, but we both are very happy to have it done.  Now he and I both know what is in there.  We still have to upright freezer to do, but that will have to wait until sometime in August since we are getting ready for our town wide yard sale at the end of this month.  Jeff did get the garage all cleaned out too and we have some of the yard sale things in one area ready to be set out in our driveway when the sale happens.

    I taught a class on frugal menu planning at the library last night.  I only had 2 people show up, but they were a lovely couple that are still fairly new to our area and did not know the places to get the best deals on things.  We had a wonderful time and are very like minded.  They both said that my interactive class was really good and that more people should take it.  They want me to do a follow up class the Fall. Since they were the only ones there, they got the door prizes and we so surprised that I would still not only give them a door prize, but give them all three.  I gave then a book by a local author that is loaded with all kinds of recipes, ideas for free places to go to and enjoy (many of them not well known) in our area, gardening and sewing ideas, etc.  It really is a beautiful book.  I also gave them the :More With Less" cookbook and some of my Tuscan Herb Salt that I make.

   Our weather has been either delightful or way too hot for me.  Luckily, up until now, it has cooled off enough at night for us to just run the vent on our swamp cooler to bring in the cooler night air as we sleep.  That is now ending and we have a heat dome coming upon us once more.  I try to do things early in the mornings since it heats up quickly in the afternoon and I have to retreat into the house and turn on the cooling part of the swamp cooler.  If it gets really hot, I will go over and get the extra air conditioner that Shannon has and she saves for me to use when needed.  That time may come by this weekend unfortunately.  Yes, I realize how very blessed I am to have such a wonderful friend who is so gracious with me.

   I'd better get going and try to get a few more things done before the heat gets to me.  I have my laundry on the line drying but still need to get out into the gardens and check and see how things are coming along.  Be blessed my friends, stay cool and stay safe.