We have been in the 90 degree temperatures and this is only May. Also it is very dry here which is requiring us to hand water our vegetables.
We finally finished harvesting the cattle trough that held the garlic. I planted them last fall around October. Some of them split so we probably should have pulled them up several weeks earlier but they are still good. The bulbs we grow are smaller than the garlic grown in the north.
But it is still garlic. :)
We finally have bees coming to pollinate. We are so happy about this. It was such a worry to not have bees and it took a bit of thinking to get the bees to come to our garden and I don't know where they came from but I am so happy they have. This is butternut squash.
Our Son and daughter-in-law gave me a Salvia plant for Mother's day. My son saw the bees on it at the nursery and even though he is allergic to bees he figured I would like something else to attract bees. It is the plant in the pot on the chair above.
So the next week we went looking for two more plants after we saw a couple of bees on it. I was looking over the nursery plants and could not find it but then way back in right hand corner of the nursery I saw bees flying around a certain area. There were two plants they were after, one was Salvia and one was Bulbine.
This is Bulbine, a mounding perennial.
Then came all kinds of bees. :)
And the cucumbers and squash.
We have baby sugar pie pumpkins and the vines are 16 feet long now they went over the 8 foot trellis so Charles added clothesline over to another trellis and it took off making a new unexpected trellis. This baby pumpkin is just a bit bigger than a tennis ball and up 7 feet in the air.
Much is going on outside with gardening and hanging out the laundry. We are enjoying the zucchine, beans, cucumbers, bell peppers and yellow squash so far. Something has been eating our tomatoes but there are many more that have not ripened at this time. Something ate every bit of the kale.. Grrrrr.
And there is always something going on inside too. Dusting and mopping, washing dishes, making beds, cleaning the bathrooms.
Then there is cooking.
When I am short on time and someone is coming for a visit I make peach cobbler.
There are quick snacks...
Noodles, beef, baked beans and cooked apples with cinnamon and brown sugar.
This is what I call a fast food meal. Dinner in 20 minutes from shelf stable food. I realize we don't see green vegetables on this plate but this is a fast food meal and our other meals we eat fresh vegetables.
I keep canned Chicken, Turkey and Beef on the shelf because it makes for a good fast food meal and important to have for all kinds of situations. This is what they did in the diaries we have been reading.
I also can apples and other fruit and keep on the shelf and here I opened a can and added cinnamon, brown sugar and had a quick dessert on the plate.
Due to the diaries I have been working on getting my laundry in a better routine, it is taking quite a bit of thinking and doing. Mostly it is years of bad habits and I am hanging clothes back up after worn for a short time, hand washing some things that can be washed out and hung overnight that did not necessarily need to go in the washer.
And another issue I have worked on is my problem making the bed with today's thick mattresses. I wish they would have left the mattress alone or at least continued making the good old plain mattress. I find it difficult to lift the thick mattress and put the fitted sheets on the large mattress. The pillows at the foot of the bed are extra pillows we use for when we read in bed and when I make up the bed I often put them at the foot of the bed.
First let me back up. Several years back when we went to buy a new box spring and mattress we came home with them only to find that I needed a step ladder to get on the bed!! This is no joke, I had to put a step stool to get in bed! So Charles removed the box springs and built a 2x4 and plywood bottom to go on top of the bed frame and under the mattress to lower the mattress. We gave away our new box spring. But the mattress was still so thick, all our sheets had to be changed to deep pocket sheets. I am sure many of you have gone through this.
So now I have a new method of changing the sheets to help me get them on the tall mattress.
The pitcher... I found a mattress lifter online to help to put the sheets on but it was not tall enough. So I found objects to use to put under the mattress to hold it up to put the fitted bottom and top sheet.
I have a bad back so this is necessary for me to do to get this job done.
So it is done like this. By the way we store a egg crate pad under our mattress because it was still good and I didn't want to throw it away. It lays on top of the plywood frame Charles built.
So I lift the corner of the mattress and slip the pitcher under to hold it up. It steps in when Charles is not home to help me. I don't like to ask him to help me put sheets on, he is always ready to help but he has a lot to do too. I like to have this done before he gets home.
This plastic container also works good. It is hard plastic and often I use the pitcher and put this container at the other end to hold two corners up at the same time. This way I can take my time and get the sheet in place and over the corners and then put it down and go to the other side. This has helped me so much get the sheets on and if you are weak or have a bad back I hope this helps you too. My Grandma Tip for the day. :)
This winter I visioned a food forest and that is what is happening in our back yard.
I didn't think about how I am going to reach the vegetables at the top of the trellises. What a nice problem to have. :) I hope our drought does not continue because we cannot collect rain water without rain.
I will add some random pictures...
Our security light has been popping off and on at night for a week and half and we resorted to quilts and towels and whatever else to block off the light going off and on every minute and half all night long. We are waiting for the city to come fix it. This is covering our bedroom double window. I will be so happy when we can take it down.
Every Saturday morning Charles takes his coffee pot outside and makes coffee on the portable stove before he goes out to his small workshop.
Globe basil
I moved some things around (again)
I am still succession planting. Some of these are already sprouting since taking pictures. More beans, kale, beets and zucchini.
Something is still eating our vegetables.
That over crowded herb tank seems to be doing fine..
Grandma Donna
