Learning New Things

Today, Thursday, we had none of the storms predicted with words like "tornado," "straight line winds." "high winds." However, I have not heard what happened to MS, TN,  and the rest of AL.

J came to help me today and got the counters finished. She was cleaning the stove and took out the electric eyes and drip pans. She called me and with a look of disgust showed me the area under one eye. I raised the top of the stove and she was about to gag by the look on her face. Then, I explained: All the white stuff was baking soda poured onto bean or pasta water that had boiled over and burned underneath. She was relieved to hear what the gunk was. I had her scrape it and vacuum up the loose stuff. Cleaning it right under the stove top will wait for another day. My stove has not been so clean in a long time. She was not aware the stove top lifted, so she learned something new about stoves!

Today, all the junk on the window sill was removed--odd vases, the petrified wood. All was dusty and sitting in dust. I want to clean the wood window parts myself so that the paint is not damaged or the paint scrubbed off with the wrong cleaner. LOC is what I like for this job and cleaning walls, but I have none.

She has seen me put toothpicks in sweet potatoes to get slips. She almost threw away my potatoes set to chit on a paper plate. Today, she was fascinated by the carrot tops in a saucer. I explained I would not get carrots, just a few tops to put in soup, dehydrate, or put in a salad. I think she was underwhelmed by the mention of eating carrot tops.

J is not into gardening and just did not want to grow anything in a bucket. She hates tomatoes. I asked her what was her favorite vegetable to eat.  Cucumbers. She was sincerely happy when I told her I would help her grow cucumbers! So, today, I supervised and instructed her how to use grow pellets to germinate cucumber seeds. She proudly took home a sandwich bag with four pellets that have eight seeds set to germinate and strict instructions about what to do with them. Tonight, I will use another 4 pellets for 8 seeds in case the five cats or the ac at her house disrupts the germination process.

When we went to get cigarettes for her, I mused that I needed pallets. She said we should go behind stores, so we did. She stuffed the one huge one we found into my trunk and she tied it down with the plastic string I keep in the trunk. I drove home about 20mph and avoided the main streets and only had to cross the highway, really busy. She brought it to the back yard and put it approximately in the place it will be for my bucket garden. The pallet was beside the dumpster, so I hope it was abandoned to the trash. I need one more or maybe two more.

Thursday was windy, so clothes on the line dried in record time! I only have one line, but the rest of the wash can be put on the line tomorrow.

The next thing for me to do is locate my drill and for us to drill holes in five-gallon buckets and wash them with Clorox. Of course, the seeds need to be transplanted into larger pots as soon as they get two true leaves. Well, that is what I do.

It is debatable as to whether the aloe is surviving or slowly dying. I cannot tell.

She commented as we left the house and several times before, "I learn so much from you." I will keep her in cucumbers if that is what it takes for her to keep cleaning and lifting things that are not really heavy. And, I cannot pay her!

Did your area have bad weather today, The day here was very pleasant, sort of windy for an hour with no rain!

Your turn
Do you teach anyone simple things about plant propagation?  Well, she is sort of a captive audience. How was the weather at your place--stormy or quiet? Do you have a place you can find pallets?

Another Free Lunch Tuesday

I really enjoyed the company at the lunch Tuesday. However, although the spaghetti smelled wonderful, it is something I should not have. I'm not sure if it was beef or tvp in the sauce. Either way, I don't need either. I did eat a bit and spent a long time in the bathroom that night. TMI? Whatever.

The slaw had way too much mayonnaise for me, so I brought it to Dominique. The chocolate cake and tiny pecan pie were wonderful. I did collect a plateful of scraps from others for her.

J went with me and enjoyed her lunch except she could see onions and bell peppers in the spaghetti. She may have taken two bites. The cabbage was cut too large for her. I don't think she even tried the slaw. I laughed. She brought most of her meal back to Dominique.

Afterward, she helped me in the kitchen with clutter, stuff and grime on counters. J came back Wednesday to finish the counters and move the dehydrator since I side-tracked her with something more important on Tuesday.  Wednesday, the main chore was moving the dehydrator since I cannot and cleaning underneath. I cleaned the outside while she cleaned the counter. The door and shelves need to be washed, still.

All the pretty glass containers were just too much. I gave her the largest, an amphora-shaped jar with a domed lid. It has no seal. The other two have glass lids with the plastic/rubber lid covers that make the lid fit like a stopper. Except the lid covers cover the bottom of the top and make the lid fit more or less airtight. Got that?

A half-gallon Ball jar of oats will stay on the counter. Dominique and I both eat those Maybe a little glass sugar bowl will stay. My terra cotta bunny stays. We will see what else. Right now, I am enjoying the blinding expanse of my lemon yellow counters that I so love.

Monday night, I put a frozen hen in the crock pot. It weighed 6 pounds! Tuesday, I removed it and cooked potatoes in the broth. So, I know what I will eat for a few days. Friday, exbf comes here. I think we will have BBQ chicken, cole slaw, and green beans. I put the broth in the refrigerator to chill so I can remove the fat. Chicken and dumplings sound scrumptious right now. I have everything I need for both those meals. Plus, I can have chicken on a salad or in a sandwich.

Your turn
Does anyone remember my lemon yellow counters from pictures? Maybe they were garish to you or just knocked your eyes out or blinded you? I love them so I don't care if you don't care for them. Do you have lots of things sitting out on your counters? It used to work for me, but not so much anymore.

Aloe Transplant

So, this is the way it went down.  I bought a $5 aloe vera plant and put it on a plastic lid and onto the kitchen window sill. From the bottom of the pot to the bottom of the pot, it was about six-inches high. I was happy, ready for the next burn. For years I have meant to purchase one or get a baby from someone.

In the doctor's office on Thursday, I asked the receptionist if that was an aloe plant beside her. She said, no, it was a succulent. (I know.) Then, she started telling me how they all divided a huge plant a doctor had left behind when he retired. She said her plant was huge now. I asked her if it had babies. She volunteered to bring me some on Friday. I picked it up.

Finally, Saturday, about 24 hours later, I took it out of the foil and wet paper towel. It had lots of roots. I had potting soil and water. However, none of the pretty, ceramic pots have holes in the bottom for drainage. So, I used fat plastic cups and cut holes in those. One of the long leaves was all pinched, so I broke it off and put it in another cup. The plastic cups with holes now sit in the pretty  pots without holes. I put a broken plastic knife in the bottom of the pot so the cup with holes would not be sitting in water if they drain.

After I potted the plant and the leaf, I decided to read about how to grow the leaf. It appears I should not have stuck the leaf in the dirt. But, it's done!

I did water the dirt, but it seemed rather dry when I poked a hole for the plant and the leaf. So, if aloe like dryness, maybe this is okay.

Saturday night, I returned the purchased plant to Walmart and got my $5+tax back.

The juice is supposed to be good to stop itching from mosquito bites, I read. Exbf gets bitten dozens of times just getting into the house because he is so slow on two canes and cannot swat them away and hurry inside. It may take more than one plant to help him stop the itching.

On the internet are many descriptions of the proper way to plant the broken off leaf. I just don't know which way is correct.

Tuesday night and the aloe still looks okay.

Your turn
Has anyone successfully had a broken leaf live by sticking it in dirt? Do you have an aloe plant? How much do you break off to use on a burn? Is it possible to start a new plant from the piece used to treat a burn? What else have you used aloe to cure?

Fresh Eggs and Fear

When I went out Sunday to feed Dominique and collect an egg, hopefully, there was one egg. I brought it into the house and immediately scrambled it along with the egg from Saturday. Now, that is my idea of fresh eggs, not the store bought ones that proclaim "fresh" on the carton. I just wish I had cooked bacon, too.

I have two store eggs and another fresh egg that will go into a pound cake. I don't know why, but I have the urge for pound cake so I can put strawberries or peaches over it. It's box mix, so I don't know how it will turn out. Plus, I bought frozen strawberries last month, and the peaches are canned and from the store.

My mother would need eggs for whatever she was cooking and would send me out to gather eggs. Now, I was a teen when this happened. I would whine and beg and plead and cry trying to get out of the chore. There were other big kids and teens who were not so terrified of chickens. Maybe she meant to "cure" me of my fear. It did not work at all!

Since my pet rooster and only chicken brutally attacked me when I was four, I was still terrified of all chickens.

I just knew the hens would peck me to death and in my eyes as I tried to get an egg from under a setting hen. Their nests were about waist high, but I still had to get close to get an egg. She would be shocked I keep chickens now, really shocked since I kept my distance from chickens and the chicken yard.

Even when I bought day-old chicks and raised them by hand, I was not "cured" of my fear. And, I only keep hens.

Still, I never turn my back on a rooster. I do have a fear of roosters that is unabated even now.

Your turn
Do you ever have the chance to eat or bake with an egg freshly gathered?  What fear or trauma have others tried to "cure" in you? My "cure" further traumatized me! Did the "cure" work for you?

Put A Fork In It

Jelly doesn't last long around here if I put it in the cabinet. Well, it stays there so long it starts to mold. So, I keep it in the refrigerator. It is so firm after refrigeration that it is not spreadable.

Since there is just me around here, and I don't eat jelly every day, jelly must be kept in the refrigerator. Exbf eats his peanut butter plain, but he only has one every month or so. I am not fond of cold jelly since the taste is not the same as jelly kept on the shelf. Only because it molds over time do I refrigerate jelly now.

I got sick and tired of rolling around a ball of jelly on bread and eventually ripping a hole in the bread to spread the jelly. If I wanted lots of jelly, I could just make the whole sandwich full of large lumps of jelly. A thin layer is what I like, not getting a chunk of jelly in my mouth and none with the next bite.

One day, I decided to use a fork to get the jelly out of the jar, thinking a fork might shred it a bit. That worked.  It is not necessarily more spreadable, but the fork is easier to use to spread jelly. The fork breaks up the ball of jelly into little lines of jelly. It is in smaller pieces after using the fork. It works for me!

Your turn
Do you keep jelly in the refrigerator or on the shelf? Do you find it molds on the shelf? Maybe you have more people at your house who are eating jelly? Have you ever used a fork to dip or spread jelly in order to make spreading easier?

Sweet Potato Slips Plans

This Sunday morning, I decided to start sweet potato slips. I cut two sweet potatoes in half and stuck three toothpicks in each half in order to suspend them over a glass or jar of water. They are in the kitchen window so I will not forget to add water each day to keep the cut end under water.

I've never done this before. When the slips form, they will be planted in containers, so I need to round up the five-gallon buckets. I won't wash them until they day before I use them.

Last December, rather late for me, I went to the sweet potato farm and only purchased forty-pounds of sweet potatoes--one box. Remember, one year I bought 160 pounds and did not have too many and had little waste. Well, this past year, they were starting to go bad the day I brought them home. I think only four were ever baked, maybe six. The rest were soon tossed.

The other day, I found a canvas bag with about eight sweet potatoes. Today, I used two and tossed the rest, all rotten in the bag. One was stuck to the bag, so I will have to soak it outdoors before washing it. Gross! That would have been smelly in a bit as the weather warms.

I just wish I knew how to post pictures using paint.net. This week is the week I learn.

My aunt, Nell, had a sweet potato vine in her kitchen that covered most of a wall. It must have been twenty-feet long. We were not allowed near it for fear one of us would break it. I was about eleven the last time I saw it as we moved away. She even managed to move it successfully to another house without breaking the plant vines.

Nell did not want us to call her "Aunt Nell," so she is the only aunt that did not have the title before her name. It seemed normal when I was very small, but then I wondered about it by the time I went to school. She was my mother's only sister.

Dominique is out there, CROWING! She is not very good at it and not very loud or she would have to go.

Your turn
Have you ever grown your own slips to grow sweet potatoes? Or, did you purchase them? Has anyone ever grown a sweet potato vine in the kitchen? Nell grew hers in the dining room. Did you have a relative that did not want a title in front of the first name?

Storms Dissipated and Scary Dog

Today has been a pleasant but cloudy and drizzly day. Since winds of 60 mph were forecast, what's a dreary day? The line of red on the radar headed this way gave way to a green band of showers before it arrived. Red is bad, stormy weather; green is a bit of gentle rain. So, going out to feed Dominique got me a bit wet. Since I was taking a nap, I am not aware of winds happening. There was nothing in the yard to indicate the weather was rough. I had the window ac on, so heard nothing.

There was a dog in the side yard and coming from the backyard, scary looking, when I wanted to feed Dominique. The dog had a huge head and no ears. It refused to move when I yelled and waved my arms. It just stared. I was afraid to go out to Dominique, so called Animal Control. I have already had two different dogs charge me in my own yard, so dogs get a report!

It came from the back yard and was by the side door. So, I know Dominique was frightened. We have leash laws! People have been bitten in this neighborhood by all sorts of dogs. Besides, I step in dog gifts and do not like that.

Dominique grabbed the KFC chicken breast and shook it to get a bite. She was frantically working on it when I left. She loves KFC. Actually, she just loves chicken to eat. Ooops, forgot to give her green stuff. So, another trip in the drizzle. She had safflower, oats, and banana, so she will appreciate greens. And, I forgot to give her fresh water. She has water, but it needs to be changed.

Last night, my back hurt so that I just lay down after one swipe on the counter next to the stove. So, I suppose I should get back at it. Plus, the crock pot is dirty still, and there is a huge chicken that needs to go into it tonight. Maybe I will cook apples, dip out the apples, and cook the chicken in the apple juice like I did last time, then add more food as I take some out. I foresee a five day cooking marathon with the crock pot going the whole time.

I really need a pellet pistol! I would wear it at my waist!

BTW, we had a dog that roamed, but there were no laws. Besides, she never barked at anyone who was not in our yard or walking in front of our yard. I know, I know.

Not much happening here. But, I killed a mosquito that landed on my arm.

YOUR TURN
Some of you may be in the line of storms. How did it go at your place? Bad weather or drizzle? Wind?  Do you have dogs come into your yard and try to bite you? How do you handle that? I cannot shoot anything more than a pellet gun in the city. Who wants chicken cooked in the fresh apple juice that has cinnamon in it?