A Sweet Pup & Green Growing Things

all but the largest house plants, acclimating to the light

Hello, friends.  Last week, all of the house plants were moved onto the porch.  They'll stay there a few days, to acclimate to the increased light, before moving to their plant stand.  I dried laundry on the line between rainy days.  Our tanks have been staying pretty full with all the recent rains.  I used our sweet potato and homemade curry mix in a coconut cauliflower curry dish.  J replanted cucumbers, after only one of the original bunch came up (or more likely were eaten by critters).  Some are coming up, but look like they're being eaten.  Grrrr... dang roly poly's.   I harvested, asparagus, peas, lambs quarter, nettles, and lemon balm.  Jar of glycerites were started with the lemon balm and nettles.  It's about two years since I got a raise from the guys for doing their expenses and bills, so I spoke to J, and got a nice raise, which I greatly appreciate.  

I mended several pairs of J's work pants with iron on patches.  While the iron was on, I ironed three pieces of clothing, and caught that up too.  The next day, I mended one of our clothes hampers, and a pair of my muck boots.  The shoe goo had dried up, so I tried two part epoxy.  We'll see how well that does to keep the sole on.  I pulled our crowder peas from the freezer for a dinner one night.  On a cooler day, I baked several sweet potatoes, and roasted two pans of cubes as well.  Two of our butternut squash were made into soup, and the leftovers frozen.  On another day, a sweet potato pie was made.  I'm thankful for what we still have in storage, but feel the need to use it up before we get into hot weather.  I have some humongous sweet potatoes left, and am considering canning them for the first time.  If you've ever done this, I'd love to know what you think.

This big goof of a pup melts my heart.  How sweet is he sleeping there?  Though our extended fencing seems to be keeping the deer out of the garden, they are decimating our asparagus bed, eating the tops off before they can fern, which does not bode well for next years' crop.  On Friday, I spent the day with my sister.  Our original plan fell through, and the day required a bit more flexibility, but we enjoyed out time together.  We did manage a little thrifting.  I brought home a box of slate tiles for $3, a good sized lidded jar for $3, and Mary Engelbreit notepad for $1.  I'd just been talking about the possibility of using slate, as part of our skoolie build the night before, so had to pick those up.  There's a new post up prior to this one, if you're following the skoolie adventure.

All of the second planting of potatoes is now up.  J & I planted more tomato seedlings I started from seed, which filled out the row.  There are more seedlings than we can likely use this year, but we plan to plant at least another row, once they're large enough.  Chard and beet greens were sauteed with garlic and veggie broth for a dinner.  I multiplied the curry powder recipe by 8, and made a batch.  We've been eating curry about once a week lately, so I go through the powder fairly quickly, and want it to last a bit longer before needing to replenish.  Many of the lettuce seedlings were transplanted to other beds, to give them room to grow.  What germinated the best for me this spring was speckled bibb, which we enjoy.  This week, I hope to seed some more lettuce, so there will be a second round for summer.  Take care, friends, and have a great week.